Vietnam Veteran Puts Uniform Back on to Protest in Ohio

The story about the decorated veteran standing outside GOP Convention
RNC Profiles
Posted by Cleveland 19 Digital Team
July 19th 2016

CLEVELAND, OH (WOIO)

Vietnam War veteran Lou Pumphrey can’t shake the death of a fallen comrade nearly 50 years ago. (Source: WOIO)

The pins on his uniform, which he wears in full despite the 80-degree heat, catch the eyes of delegates and media as he stands in the crowd with an American flag mounted on his shoulder -- a white peace sign replaces the stars against the blue.

Pumphrey showed up outside of Quicken Loans Arena hoping to attract attention -- and he has.

The Cleveland native is critical of both major party candidates, but bore the weight of the nation’s flag to highlight what he says is Donald Trump’s contradictory perspective on war. The Republican candidate deferred deployment to Vietnam on four occasions before a medical disqualification, a luxury for veterans like Pumphrey who resent the candidate’s eagerness to lead the country into war despite his personal attempts to avoid it.

“The guy is such a fraud,” Pumphrey said. “I’m afraid of Donald Trump becoming president.”
read more here

Trumps VA Fix, More of the Same

Let's take a look back considering Trump must not have, much like members of Congress.

Working with the Veterans Health Administration Guide for Providers Primarily, Veterans seeking VA health care should be seen and treated at VA medical facilities. NonVA medical care, also known as Purchased Care, is only authorized under specific circumstances such as geographic inaccessibility, when VA facilities/services are not feasibly available or cannot be economically provided to the Veteran. VA may purchase care outside of VA for many forms of care a Veteran may need, including inpatient, outpatient, emergent medication prescriptions and long-term care, as long as it is related to a service-connected condition.
Once non-VA medical care is authorized by a VA provider, Veterans may receive treatment from a registered non-VA medical care provider in their community. This guide details what non-VA medical care providers should expect in terms of authorizations and referrals, claims payment, and the return of medical documentation of provided non-VA medical care treatment/services back to the authorizing VA medical facility.

That was from 2010 but since most of us have been dealing with the VA for decades, we are well aware that this has been going on for decades.

Then there is the issue of VA budgets, backlog of claims and long wait times. Been there and done that for decades as well. Each and every time, Congress has assured veterans they would fix it at the same time they were apparently trying to kill it so they could hand it over to for profit folks.

It looks like Trump is ready to rinse and repeat what Congress did since 1946 when they were handed jurisdiction over the way veterans are treated.

Trump's Focuses on Changes in Programs for Military Veterans
ASSOCIATED PRESS
By JILL COLVIN
JERSEY CITY, N.J.
Jul 11, 2016,

Republican Donald Trump will deliver a speech on veterans' issues Monday, his latest in a series of prepared remarks aimed at articulating his policy agenda and convincing still-reticent Republicans that he has the discipline and control to mount a credible general election bid against likely rival Hillary Clinton.

Trump's 10-point plan, aimed at improving veterans' care, will include allowing veterans to seek government-funded private medical care.

"We made a promise to these heroes. You defend America, and America will defend you," Trump is expected to say in the speech, according to excerpts provided by his campaign.

Trump is also expected to hammer the Obama administration for the 2014 Veterans Affairs scandal over long wait times for veterans seeking medical care and falsified records by VA employees to cover up the delays.

"The VA scandals that have occurred on this Administration's watch are widespread and inexcusable," he is expected to say. "Fixing this corruption will be one of my highest priorities - and it will happen. It will be fixed."

The presumptive GOP nominee will be speaking in Virginia Beach, Virginia, not far from the USS Wisconsin in Norfolk, where he first unveiled his plan to reform the Department of Veterans Affairs last October, promising to modernize the system, while minimizing wait times for patients and improving care.

"The current state of the Department of Veterans Affairs is absolutely unacceptable," read the plan that Trump unveiled last fall. "The guiding principle of the Trump plan is ensuring veterans have convenient access to the best quality care."
read more here

The "current state" is unacceptable? 

Seriously?

Combat Wounded Marine Message to Donald Trump

Wounded Marine to Trump: You do not represent veterans
Marine Corps Times
Jeff Schogol
June 13, 2016

“I do not want that kind of person representing me or my nation. As a wounded warrior who has had to deal with very severe physical and mental challenges since being shot in the head in Iraq, your juvenile actions could not offend me more.” Ret. Lt. Col Justin Constantine

A Marine veteran who was severely wounded while serving in Iraq has written a scathing open letter to Donald Trump explaining why he thinks no veteran should vote for him.

“It’s critical that all veterans take a close look at you and what you stand for," retired Lt. Col. Justin Constantine wrote in the letter, which was publicized Thursday on the Huffington Post. “Many of the outrageous statements you’ve made over the last year not only provide us insight into your mindset and desired agenda, but demonstrate what little regard you have for veterans and the national security issues which affect all of us.”
read more here

Iraq Veteran Fired by Trump University for Being "Weekend Warrior"

Iraq war veteran claims Trump University fired her for serving in the Army Reserve 
Corrine Sommers dismissed in October 2007
By CNN 
June 02, 2016

"It's a derogatory term (weekend warrior) when it comes from someone else, especially when I'm an Iraqi veteran," she testified.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) - An Iraq war veteran claims she was fired by Trump University because she needed two days a month off in order to serve in the Army Reserve.

Corrine Sommers, who worked for Trump University for five months, sued Trump University after she was dismissed in October 2007. She reached a confidential settlement in that case. But she later alleged that she was fired because of her military service in a November 2012 deposition she gave in a federal class action suit that accused the school of fraud. That deposition was unsealed this week.

Sommers alleged that a supervisor at the school "complained when I would have to take days off to do my military service." And she said that as part of a poor performance review she received, "they wrote it was an issue that I was in the military." She needed to serve two days a month while she worked at Trump University, she testified. She said she was fired when returning from a vacation that she had refused to cut short to respond to a call asking her to come into work.
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Donald Trump Won't Account for Money He Promised Veterans Charities

Trump said he raised $6 million for veterans. Now his campaign says it was less.
Washington Post
By David A. Fahrenthold
May 21, 2016

One night in January, Donald Trump skipped a GOP debate and instead held his own televised fundraiser for veterans. At the end of the night, Trump proclaimed it a huge success: “We just cracked $6 million, right? Six million.”

Donald Trump speaks to supporters on the Drake University campus at a fundraiser on Jan. 28, 2016, to benefit veterans after skipping the Fox News GOP debate in Des Moines that night. (Larry W. Smith/European Pressphoto Agency)

Now, Trump’s campaign says that number is incorrect.

Campaign manager Corey Lewandowski said the fundraiser actually netted about $4.5 million, or 75 percent of the total that Trump announced.

Lewandowski blamed the shortfall on Trump’s own wealthy acquaintances. He said some of them had promised big donations that Trump was counting on when he said he had raised $6 million. But Lewandowski said those donors backed out and gave nothing.

In recent weeks, Trump and his campaign repeatedly declined to give new details about how much they have given away.

“Why should I give you records?” Trump said in an interview with The Post this month. “I don’t have to give you records.”

Paul Rieckhoff, founder of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, said Trump’s refusal to divulge how much of the money he had distributed raised questions about whether the candidate intended the fundraiser primarily as a public-relations effort for himself.

“That’s just shady. Right? No matter how you cut it, that’s just shady,” Rieckhoff said. “If he was going to make it right, a couple of weeks before Memorial Day would be a good time to do it. It behooves him, not just politically but ethically, to come forward and account for this money.” read more here

Veterans Charities: Where's The Money Trump Promised?

Veterans' charities reportedly receive fraction of money raised by Trump event
FOX News
April 8, 2016

At the time, FBN reported, several groups said they had not received any money. And seven of the 22 told Fox Business Network they had received a total of $650,000. Other groups did not respond to inquiries at the time.

More than two months after Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump claimed to have raised $6 million for veterans' charities at a fundraiser held on the eve of the Iowa caucuses, most of the organizations targeted to receive the money have gotten less than half of that amount.

The Wall Street Journal, citing a survey of the 22 groups listed by Trump's campaign as prospective recipients for the money, reported that 19 organizations had obtained a total of $2.4 million from Trump's foundation or associates.
read more here

Korean War Veterans Not Happy After Member Shoved Woman

Veterans Group Identifies Man Seen Shoving Protester at Trump Rally
Military.com
by Bryant Jordan
Mar 08, 2016

Senior Citizen Veteran Fights Protester at Louisville Trump Rally
(Screengrab: YouTube)

The Korean War Veterans Association has identified the member who was seen shoving and shouting at a young black woman who was protesting a Donald Trump rally in Louisville, Kentucky.

In a statement released Monday morning, KWVA President Larry Kinard said the man, identified as Alvin Bamberger of Cincinnati, Ohio, "was not officially representing the Korean War Veterans Association at the event and the association does not, in any way, condone his actions."

The organization "places a great deal of emphasis on the conduct and decorum of the KWVA members at public meetings," he said in the statement.

"Once the association has learned all of the facts regarding this incident, and there are many yet to be revealed, it will then be in a position to better move forward and determine the applicable actions to be accomplished," Kinard said.
read more here

Anti-Trump Ads Feature Veterans

Conservative group releases brutal anti-Trump ads featuring veterans calling him a 'con man' 
Business Insider 
Pamela Engel 
Mar 7th 2016 

Military veterans are appearing in ads released over the weekend by an outside group, hoping to stop Donald Trump from snagging the GOP presidential nomination.

The ads, from the conservative American Future Fund, feature veterans disavowing Trump's statements about prisoners of war and end with the text: "Trump's a phony. Stop him now."

In one ad, former Special Forces commander Michael Waltz, who served in Afghanistan, said that Trump "hasn't served this country a day in his life" and called him a Vietnam War draft-dodger.

"He essentially called anyone who is captured in combat a loser," Waltz said. "It's something that I just personally can't stomach and am sickened by, as should every veteran and every soldier in the United States military."

Trump, who is the clear frontrunner for the Republican nomination, criticized Arizona Sen. John McCain last year and called into question his status as a "war hero."

"He's not a war hero," Trump said. "He's a war hero because he was captured. I like people that weren't captured."

Trump quickly walked back that statement and agreed that McCain, a Vietnam War POW, was in fact a war hero. Trump also said that he doesn't like "losers," referring to McCain's loss to President Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential election.
read more here

One Story Repeated Different Ways

The headline all over the press is that Bill Clinton told a Marine to shut up and sit down, but when you watch the video you can see and hear that he was trying to answer the charges while the Marine wouldn't stop talking. As for the rest, Clinton asked officers to allow him to stay.

The above link on FOX shows editing to prove a point and not tell the truth.

Veterans Were Not Escorted From Trump Rally

This is the headline but as you'll see, it didn't happen.

WATCH: Veterans Escorted From Trump Rally After Challenging Islamophobia A new group by the name of "Veterans Challenge Islamophobia" called out Donald Trump for his bigoted attacks on Muslims. By Alexandra Rosenmann / AlterNet February 19, 2016

While it could have been a great story on how veterans fought side by side with a lot of the "Muslims" in Iraq and Afghanistan, this was turned into a political post grabbing a headline for attention that simply wasn't true. It worked because when I saw it, I had to read it. Now I wish I hadn't.

"As an Army veteran, I deeply resent being used as a prop for intolerance by Mr. Trump. I enlisted in order to serve everyone in my country, including my Muslim sisters and brothers, and to protect Constitutional freedoms like religious liberty," said Maggie Martin who served three tours in Iraq and Kuwait with the U.S. Army (2001-06). read more here

These are from the video on AlterNet.

Security walks over to the veterans.

They took down the banner and sat down. Security walked away.

Donald Trump’s Trolls Unleash Hell on Veterans

Donald Trump’s Trolls Unleash Hell on Veterans
The Daily Beast
Tim Mak
February 16, 2016

Veterans who have passed on being the GOP frontrunner’s props have found themselves targeted by his legion of trolls.

Veterans groups who stood up to Donald Trump’s pandering to their ranks are now routinely bombarded with nasty messages from the mogul’s supporters, who want to punish them for daring to challenge their leader.

Paul Rieckhoff, the CEO of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, learned this firsthand when he stood up to the Republican presidential frontrunner in late January, saying he would decline any donations from Trump’s charitable foundation if offered.

“We’ve gotten a flood of nasty attacks… many scary and threatening emails, [the] worst social media trolling I’ve ever seen,” Rieckhoff told The Daily Beast. “Showing what happens when you simply say no. This is the climate he’s created with his followers.”

So when Rieckhoff said he didn’t want his organization to be used as a political prop, and pre-emptively declined any proceeds from Trump’s fundraiser, the businessman’s fans directed wave after wave of viciousness against IAVA and its CEO on Twitter and Facebook.

Rieckhoff was called a “fucking scumbag” by one commenter, then told by another to “get off your ass and get the funding or get fired.” “Keep your mouth shut and take the money,” another Trump fan said. Added a tax-conscious individual: “I hope your asses get audited.”
read more here

Linked from Opposing Views

Donald Trump’s Hotline For Veterans No Longer Accepting Calls
By Jordan Smith
February 16, 2016

A hotline set up by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump in July 2015 is reportedly no longer taking calls.

Attempts to reach the number resulted in an automated voice message requesting the caller to send an email, The Blaze reported.

Trump announced the creation of the hotline in the wake of a controversial exchange with Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona, when the business mogul said the military veteran was not a hero.

“Mr. Trump has established a hotline (855-VETS-352) and email address (veterans@donaldtrump.com) for Veterans to share their stories about the need to reform our Veterans Administration,” a statement from the Trump campaign read at the time, according to Mediaite. “If he is elected President he will take care of these and all Veterans complaints very quickly and efficiently like a world-class businessman can do, but a politician has no clue.”

The automated message asked callers to use the email address because they “are working hard for our country’s veterans,” according to The Blaze.
read more here

Sarah Palin Denies PTSD Blame Game

Palin still has no clue how much harm she did to veterans. Not just in her speech but as Governor of Alaska.

Sarah Palin Freaks Out on ‘Today Show’ Over PTSD Question
Daily Beast
Andrew Kirell
February 1, 2016

Donald Trump's highest-profile endorser had a meltdown Monday morning.

Sarah Palin doesn't like being asked questions about questionable things she has said.

That was the lesson Today Show anchor Savannah Guthrie learned Monday morning when she asked the former Alaska governor about her controversial remarks connecting her son's alleged post-traumatic stress disorder to President Obama.

"I want to ask you about something you mentioned on the campaign trail," Guthrie said. 

"You said that President Obama may be to blame for some of the PTSD that's out there."

"I never said that," Palin shot back.

Nevertheless, Palin attempted to explain away the remarks to her stunned hosts. "I never blamed President Obama," she asserted. "What I have blamed President Obama in doing, though, is this level of disrespect for the United States military that has made manifest in cutting budgets, in not trying to beef it up and let our military do the job they're trained to do, and in specific issues we're talking about that are so hot today, specifically, let's get in there and utterly destroy ISIS."
read more here

Trump Raised Millions for Veterans To Do What?

The reporting sure has gone crazy lately! All of us know the problems we're having, especially when dealing with folks donating blindly for things veterans need but never seem to get.  As if all the "awareness" crap wasn't bad enough but now it seems some just don't care where the money is going.

CNN reported this today.

$6 million for 22 veterans' groups

He predicted that the amount of money that he had raised through a website and through personal calls to wealthy friends who contributed to the cause would impress Iowans. "I think this money is going to continue to pour in."

The Trump campaign on Thursday night released a list of 22 veterans' organizations that will share the more than $6 million fundraising haul.

The organizations run the gamut from groups focused on helping veterans with disabilities and mental health problems to those aimed at helping veterans reintegrate into civilian society.

But ABC reported this today as well

Trump's Veteran Site Funnels Money to His Personal Non-Profit 
ABC 13 News
BY EMILY-ERIN ROBINSON
FRIDAY, JANUARY 29TH 2016

Donald Trump began a firestorm when he declined last night's GOP debate in order to host his own event a mere 8 minutes away to benefit veterans. Suspicions began to appear first when his spokeswoman couldn't name a single vet group that they plan to help. Then, suspicions continued when people began to investigate his veteran site, donaldtrumpforvets.com.

The Federalist, one organization who looked into the site's credibility, said that the site is odd as it is merely,"... nothing more than a single page with stock photos and a credit card donation form, claims that '100% of your donations will go directly to Veterans needs.'" The problem? The Federalist reports that Trump is channeling all donations for veterans to his personal Donald J Trump Foundation, which has treated veterans more as an afterthought. read more here

Awe Sweet of Trump Caring About Soviet Veterans!

Looks like intern he blamed will hear "You're fired" after this but he approved the ad.

Trump video mistakes Soviet veterans for Americans
CNN
By Chris Moody, Senior Digital Correspondent
January 22, 2016

"In the Veterans Administration, the incompetence is beyond. We will stop that," Trump says in the video before showing images of Soviet veterans that was taken in Russia in May last year, according to the stock video site that hosts the footage. "We are going to take care of our veterans."

(CNN)In a single morning, Donald Trump promoted a photo that originated from a neo-Nazi Twitter account and posted a campaign video that mistook Soviets for U.S. military veterans.

Trump's campaign on Friday shared a Facebook video vowing to reform the Veterans Administration that included stock footage of Russian -- not American -- former servicemen with medals that bore the communist sickle and hammer symbol.
read more here

Jeb Bush Showed He Doesn't Think Much About Homeless Veterans

Jeb Bush just proved he's a typical politician. He must not think much about veterans if he didn't pay attention all along.

Bush was asked how he'd take care of veterans while campaigning in Florida. This is what he had to say about homeless veterans.

"And in Houston, Texas, today, there are no homeless veterans," Bush said.

This program, Bush said, was an example of the effectiveness of "bottom-up government." "They didn't wait for a federal government to create a program," he said of Houston. "They didn't wait for Washington to do anything. They said, 'This is the definition of who we are.'"

But as veterans know, this change was one of the few things Obama did to undo the neglect veterans faced everyday living on the streets of this nation.

"In 2009, as part of a broader initiative on homelessness, President Barack Obama announced a plan to end veteran homelessness nationwide by 2015 -- a goal that wasn't entirely fulfilled, according to a June 2015 Houston Chronicle news story."

Here's the rest of the article

Bush overstates success of city's efforts to reduce homeless vet numbers
San Antonio Express
By Emma Hinchliffe, PolitiFact Texas
January 16, 2016

At a campaign stop in West Palm Beach on Dec. 28, 2015, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush answered questions about immigration, gun control and his candidacy for president.

Republican presidential candidate, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, speaks during a campaign event at the Coca Cola bottling plant in Atlantic, Iowa, Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2015.
(AP Photo/Nati Harnik)

After his speech to an audience of Florida Republicans at the Forum Club of Palm Beaches, Bush was asked, "If elected president, what would you and your administration do to improve veterans' medical benefits?"

Bush said he would institute career civil service reform at the Veterans Administration, lead the VA to focus on "being world class for a few selected unique challenges veterans face" rather than providing all services, and give veterans more choices on where to go for their health care.

Then, Bush brought up his childhood home, Houston.
read more here

Guess he didn't pay attention to homeless veterans before he decided to run for President.

Homeless Veterans Fact Sheet
June 2008

Approximately 40% of homeless men are veterans, although veterans comprise only 34% of the general adult male population. The National Coalition for Homeless Veterans estimates that on any given night, 200,000 veterans are homeless, and 400,000 veterans will experience homelessness during the course of a year (National Coalition for Homeless Veterans, 2006). 97% of those homeless veterans will be male (Department of Veterans Affairs, 2008). The National Survey of Homeless Assistance Providers and Clients reports that veterans account for 23% of all homeless people in America (U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness and the Urban Institute, 1999).

Homeless veterans walked the streets through many presidents. If he doesn't understand it now, he never will. The problem is, none of them do on either side. They just use veterans for votes then blame someone else for what isn't being done to treat them right.

Soldiers Vow to Protect Muslim Child After Trumps Rant

Soldiers Tell Fearful Muslim Girl, 'I Will Protect You' 
Associated Press
by Nomaan Merchant
Dec 24, 2015

One reader, Kerri Peek, wrote about Sofia and called on soldiers to reassure her. Thousands did. Many posted messages of support with selfies of themselves in combat uniforms. The hashtag was trending in several cities this week. "#Iwillprotectyou with my last breath Sofia!" wrote Brandon Sterne, a 22-year Navy veteran who served in Iraq.

Sofia Yassini, 8, poses outside a mosque in Richardson, Texas, Dec. 11, 2015. After seeing presidential candidate Donald Trump call for barring Muslims from entering the country, the 8-year-old started packing her favorite things. (AP Photo/LM Otero)

DALLAS -- Melissa Yassini and her 8-year-old daughter, Sofia, spend some time every evening reading messages from the thousands of people who have told Sofia not to be afraid just because she's Muslim.

Sofia's story of terror that she would be forced to leave America inspired a social media campaign with a hashtag, "#IWillProtectYou," that has generated posts from soldiers, veterans and others supporting her.

"A lot of them, they call her out by name," Melissa Yassini said on Wednesday. "That's very important to her."

Melissa Yassini originally shared her daughter's response to Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump calling for a ban all Muslim immigration into the United States.

Sofia heard about Trump's proposal while the family was watching the evening news. While Trump has said he isn't targeting American Muslims, her mother said Sofia didn't make that distinction.

She packed a bag with Barbie dolls, a tub of peanut butter and a toothbrush. And she checked the locks of her family's home because she thought soldiers were coming to take her away.
read more here

If Elected Sanders Will Do What He Didn't Do in the Senate?

This just keeps getting more and more ridiculous.

I don't care if they have a D or an R because they are all pretty much the same. None of them ever apologize for what they did that didn't work or what they didn't do because they just didn't listen.

MOUNT VERNON, Ia. — Sen. Bernie Sanders pledged that, if elected president, he would ensure all military veterans receive the mental and physical care they need.

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Democratic candidate for president, spoke to more than 1,100 supporters on Sunday, Dec. 13, 2015, at Cornell College in Mount Vernon, Iowa. (Photo: Bryon Houlgrave/The Register)

“People who could talk the language, who could walk the walk,” Sanders said. “And what we said is you go on out and knock on doors – don’t wait on somebody to walk into the VA – and you sit down and you talk to the veteran and or his wife and get a sense of what is going on."

Oh, so he means like when they did this back in 2008!

570,000 Iraq and Afghanistan vets to get calls from VA
VA to call Iraq, Afghanistan veterans
The Associated Press
Posted : Thursday Apr 24, 2008 14:22:55 EDT

WASHINGTON — Iraq and Afghanistan veterans: Get ready for a phone call.

The Department of Veterans Affairs said Thursday that on May 1 it will start calling 570,000 recent combat veterans to make sure they know what services are available to them.

The first calls will go to about 17,000 veterans who were sick or injured while serving in the wars. If they don’t have a care manager, the VA says they will be given one.

The next round of calls will target 555,000 veterans from the wars who have been discharged from active duty, but have not reached out to the VA for services. For five years after their discharge from the military, Iraq and Afghanistan veterans have access to health care at the VA.

The effort will cost about $2.7 million and will be handled by a government contractor.

The agency has faced complaints that a backlog in claims and bureaucratic hurdles have prevented some recent veterans from getting proper mental and physical care. Earlier this week, two Democratic senators accused the VA’s top mental health official of trying to cover up the number of veteran suicides and said he should resign.

They have been listening to the same problems over and over and over again!

And that is one of the biggest problems of all. They never do take responsibility for what they failed to do last year, the year before and decades before that. Frankly, they've had since 1946 to get it right and have done a hell of a lot of talking that never adds up to them having listened in the first place.

Donald Trump Talks About Veterans Charities, End of Story

When It Comes To Veterans, Donald Trump's Rhetoric Is Much More Generous Than His Giving Record 
Forbes
Emily Canal
December 3, 2015

“Donald Trump is not a leader in veterans’ philanthropy, unless he’s donated a lot of money that nobody knows about,” Paul Rieckhoff, founder and chief executive of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, told The New York Times in July.

Although he’s not going to get it, Donald Trump demanded $5 million from CNN this week to appear in the network’s next debate. The billionaire added that he would donate the money to veterans and the Wounded Warriors Foundation. That would be $4.94 million more than his charitable foundation has given veterans in recent years, Forbes found.

The Donald J. Trump Foundation has donated $5.5 million to 298 charities between 2009 and 2013 (the most recent year available), according to the non-profit’s 990 tax forms from those years. Of that, only $57,000 has been donated to seven organizations that directly benefit military veterans or their families, Forbes found. Wounded Warriors was not among the organizations Trump’s foundation gave to in that time period.
read more here

Marine Reservist in Hot Water For Wearing Uniform at Trump Event

Marine Rebuked for Performing at Donald Trump Rally in Uniform
Military.com
by Hope Hodge Seck
Dec 01, 2015

The Defense Department allows troops to participate in political and campaign activities as private citizens, but does not allow them to represent the military or associate the Pentagon with any specific candidate, issue or cause. Participation in political activities in uniform is prohibited.

A Marine who recently performed the national anthem at a Donald Trump presidential campaign rally has been told to cease further uniformed campaign activities. Cpl. Jason Perkins, a reservist with Combat Logistics Battalion 451 out of Charlotte, North Carolina, awed crowds at a Nov. 21 campaign rally for the Republican candidate in Birmingham, Alabama, with a booming rendition of "The Star-Spangled Banner," which he performed in his dress blue uniform.

But when a video of the performance began circulating online, members of the military quickly pointed out that he was in violation of regulations prohibiting troops from wearing their uniforms to political events.

Marine Forces Reserve spokesman Capt. Andrew Chrestman said the command had reached out to Perkins after his campaign performance.

"Cpl. Perkins is now aware that his conduct violated long-standing DoD policy," Chrestman said in an email. "[He] has been informed of the appropriate ways to participate in the political process as a member of the Marine Corps."
read more here

Sanders "500,000" PTSD Veterans Only Part of Story

Bernie Sanders Forgot A Lot Of Veterans
Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
November 15, 2015

I don't watch the political debates for a reason. They can say whatever they want when they want our votes but when we want answers, they never seem to have any.

There seems to be some controversy over a claim that Senator Bernie Sanders made about PTSD.

Politifact: Sanders claims 500,000 veterans have PTSD, brain injuries

“When you talk about the long-term consequences of war, let's talk about the men and women who came home from war,” Sanders said. “The 500,000 who came home with PTSD and traumatic brain injury. And I would hope that in the midst of all of this discussion, this country makes certain that we do not turn our backs on the men and women who put their lives on the line to defend us.”

Considering he was the Chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, that shouldn't have been questionable to anyone, especially given the fact that none of this is new.  So why didn't Sanders mention the other veterans his committee was supposed to be taking care of? We still have living veterans from WWII, Korea, Vietnam and the all too often forgotten Desert Storm/Gulf War.

As a matter of fact the simple fact that after decades of Congress doing something about Combat PTSD, it has all gotten worse.

Some want to pretend that PTSD is something new, but it isn't. Some want to pretend that what members of Congress have been doing to prevent suicides just needs time to work.

How long is anyones guess.

Most Vietnam veterans will read about the half a million with PTSD and their heads will explode because this is the same number of them found in a study in 1978 called the Forgotten Warrior Project.

None of this is new and won't improve as long as we fail to hold our politicians accountable for what they have failed to do. When the study was released, no one was really doing anything for veterans with PTSD. Vietnam veterans came home and fought for everything available for all veterans.

Congress had excuses back then claiming they just didn't know but the truth is, they should have known. Just like today, when they write more bills, spending more money on what has already failed, they should have known better. 

Frankly our veterans deserved better from all of them.