Petty Officer and Nurse Saved 84 Year Old Ready to Jump From Bridge

Navy aircrewman, nurse, team to stop San Diego bridge suicide
The San Diego Union-Tribune (Tribune News Service)
By Pauline Repard and Lyndsay Winkley
Published: August 9, 2016

It was a life-or-death moment on the San Diego-Coronado Bridge Monday in San Diego, Calif. when a Naval aircrewman pulled over to stop a man from leaping into the bay.

Petty Officer 3rd Class Nick Pisano, shown here in an undated photo, and an unidentified nurse helped stop an elderly man from jumping off the San Diego-Coronado Bridge and were reunited via social media later that day. VIA FACEBOOK

As the two struggled, the 21-year-old Petty Officer 3rd Class Nick Pisano screamed for someone to help him talk the man down. Dozens of motorists whizzed past, until a nurse stopped, and calmed the man down until authorities arrived.

Pisano told the San Diego Union-Tribune Tuesday that there was no way he was going to let the man jump.

“I made sure I had a good grasp on his arm so he couldn't make his way closer to the ledge,” the native San Diegan said. “He was making it very clear that he wanted to end his life, and I did what I could to make sure that didn't happen.”

Pisano didn’t think to grab his phone in his haste to get to the man, so he started waiving down motorists, hoping someone would help. He didn’t even notice the nurse until she was at his side.

“She went right at it,” he said. “She was cool, calm, collected and knew exactly what to say him.”
read more here

Purple Heart Veteran Getting Thousands to Send Trump to Earn One

Purple Heart recipient raises money in Trump’s name, but not to help Trump 
Boston Globe
By Kevin Cullen
GLOBE COLUMNIST
AUGUST 08, 2016

Kerr responded to all this not with anger but satire. He put up a GoFundMe page asking people to donate money to send Donald Trump to a combat zone where he could earn a Purple Heart. “I figured I’d get 150 bucks,” Kerr said.

By Monday, after various news outlets picked up his story and it spread on social media, more than 2,000 people had donated more than $54,000.

There was a high-end fund-raiser for Donald Trump on Nantucket over the weekend, where donors were asked to fork over as much as $50,000.

Cameron Kerr, a prolific but neophyte fund-raiser, couldn’t make the island gig, or another Trump fund-raiser at posh Oyster Harbors on the Cape. Still, the 29-year-old Kerr, a Massachusetts native, has raised more than $50,000 in Trump’s name in just five days.

It’s money Trump will never see.

To understand this, you have to go back to Stow, where Cameron Kerr grew up and decided to join the Army. He joined because of what he saw growing up. His parents mentored the orphans of African civil war, the Lost Boys of Sudan. He became friendly with a lot of the Lost Boys who resettled around Worcester.

Kerr was deeply affected by their stories of loss and survival, the kindness that Americans showed in helping them resettle, the Lost Boys’ resilience. He joined the Army to combat extremism, to protect the innocent, to hold accountable the very sort of people who would murder the families of his friends, the Lost Boys.
read more here

Korean War Veteran And Wife Pass Away After 63 Years Minutes Apart

After 63 years of marriage, Platte couple dies 20 minutes apart
KSFY News
By Courtney Collen
Aug 07, 2016

"The VA was doing as much as they could until about 7-8 weeks ago. Said there isn't more they could do," Lee explained.

After some recent falls, Henry's condition worsened.

"He said, 'I need to go to the nursing home'. They put mom and dad in the same room which was very sweet," Lee said with a smile.

It's one of those stories that rarely comes around once in a lifetime. A story of an elderly man and woman with incredible faith and 63 years of marriage.

As their health got worse, their faith and love for God, their family and each other grew stronger until the very end.

After they married in 1953, the journey of life took Henry and Jeanette De Lange to Platte, South Dakota. He was a Korean War Veteran. She was a musician, worked at the Platte Care Center and took care of their five children.

It wasn't until Sunday, July 31, 2016 when their children got a call from the Platte Care Center.

"They said both your mom and dad aren't doing very well at all. Highly recommended that we get there as soon as we could," son Lee De Lange said.

Lee's mom, at 87 years-old, suffered from Alzheimer's Disease and had been in nursing home care since 2011.

"Dad visited mom once a day, twice, or maybe three times a day. It was very sweet," Lee said. "Wednesday or Thursday, she had stopped eating. She was dehydrated."

The clock on the wall said 5:30 p.m. when Henry went to heaven, twenty minutes after his beloved wife.

"We're calling it a beautiful act of God's providential love and mercy. You don't pray for it because it seems mean but you couldn't ask for anything more beautiful."

It doesn't end there; the clock told another story.
read more here

Wounded Times Challenging PTSD and Suicide Awareness Groups

Marines march in "silkies" to raise awareness about military suicides. Sounds good but the number of members of the military, National Guards and Reservists are not part of the often quoted "22 a day" so not so much truth awareness being raised there. Actually there is not much truth awareness being shared at all and that, that my friends, has left me sick to my stomach.

How about they raise awareness on something like this considering it came from the DOD.

The DSPO has an annual budget of $24 million. The Pentagon also is the largest single supporter of suicide prevention research, funding 61 studies in recent years at a cost of more than $100 million, according to a Rand Corp. report.

Suicide prevention training is mandatory in all five military services, including the Coast Guard, whose suicide statistics are not included in the Defense Department tally.

According to the report, 120 soldiers, 39 Marines, 43 sailors and 64 airmen died by suicide in 2015. The number of Air Force deaths marks the highest for the service in the past decade.

Among the reserves and National Guard, 88 Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine reservists died by suicide in 2015, while 100 Army National Guard members and 21 Air National Guardsmen killed themselves.

Actually it is worse considering that the DOD started that "prevention" training in over a decade ago when there were more serving but less committing suicide. The Joshua Omvig Suicide Prevention Act came about in 2006 because there were 99 suicides that entire year. The bill was signed by President Bush in 2007.

These are the "military" suicides for the first quarter of 2016

In the first quarter of 2016, the military services reported the following:
 58 deaths by suicide in the Active Component
 18 deaths by suicide in the Reserves
 34 deaths by suicide in the National Guard

And here is a better way to see what is going on.

Mission 22 is a collaboration between Elder Heart, a veteran non-profit organization, and a global advertising agency. Elder Heart is comprised of Delta Force and Special Forces operators Tom Spooner, Magnus Johnson, and Mike Kissel. Because of their personal battles with PTSD and TBI they have made it their mission to raise awareness, enlist support, and end veteran suicide in America.

In 2012 48 Marines committed suicide. 2013 it was 45 followed by 34 in 2014, 39 in 2015 and for 2016 first quarter it was 12. Really not good considering how long they have been "preventing" them topped off with there have been less and less serving every year.

No evidence it worked while they were in the military and more than enough evidence it failed them when they got out of the military.

In 1999 the VA put the number of suicides at 20 a day while no one was talking about them.  

There were about 7 million more veterans in the country back then.  Now the latest report from the VA has the number at,,,,ding, ding, ding, hope alarm bells are going off, because it is right back to 20 a day.

So what exactly has all this "awareness" raising been hoping to achieve? Spreading something that is lacking solutions? Spreading rumors that are baseless especially when you read the reports and understand that while everyone has been pushing up, taking walks, running and doing a hell of a lot of talking, too few actually know what is going on and even less know how to stay alive instead of committing suicide.

I challenge every group out there with good intentions to actually stop doing what is easy for them and start doing what if necessary to change the outcome.

Here are just a few of them but they are happening all over the country.

History of #22KILL: Honor Courage Commitment, Inc. started the #22KILL movement in 2013 after learning about the staggering statistic that an average of 22 veterans are killed by suicide every day. HCC has committed to researching and understanding the genesis of this epidemic, and educating the general public on the issue. #22KILL is a platform to raise awareness not just towards veteran suicide, but also to the issues that can lead them to suicide. These mental health issues can stem from Post Traumatic Stress, Traumatic Brain Injury, or the struggles and stresses of transitioning from military to civilian life.

22 Too Many is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization that cares deeply and passionately about our nations veterans and their families. Through athletic events, we seek to serve as a living memorial, reduce the stigma by increasing public knowledge and awareness of PTS, share helpful resources, and provide support and comfort to the grieving families left behind.

Stop Soldier Suicide We’re Veterans who understand the military mindset and training. While we are not a crisis center and don't provide direct clinical services or therapy, we do offer a high-touch service with connection to resources for many of the stresses faced: job loss, relationship issues, mental health needs, financial worries, housing and more.

The challenge is simple. Since I've been doing this for over 3 decades, tracked reports right here for 9 years with over 26,000 posts, stun me.  Take the time to do a video about what you are doing and put it up on YouTube. Send me the link.

It should be simple to answer the following questions,

What is your goal?
How do you plan on achieving it?
What is the money you are raising for?
How many lives have you saved?
How many people are doing more than just talking about the problem?
What are you doing?
How is what you are doing different from everyone else?

Keep in mind, I started doing videos on PTSD back in 2006, so won't be easy to show me something new.

I'll share your video but will add my two cents to it.  That is a chance you'll have to take but if you believe in what you are doing, then that should not be a problem.

If you stun me, I'll post your video along with a full guest post to spread the word about what you are doing. Right now this is the traffic on Wounded Times.

It started on August 10, 2007 because a Marine dared me to stop posting political rants and keep this about the truth.  I kept my word after he asked me if I was doing this for "them" or myself.

The count started May 2010 with 2,812,685 page views, 79,670 page views last month. Plus I do all this for free. I lose a couple of thousand dollars every year. I have a regular job to pay my bills and I give away more than I get from Google ads.



It is read all over the world.

United States
1861484
Germany
145137
France
141682
Russia
96605
Spain
52740
United Kingdom
49471
Canada
33561
Ukraine
29659
Bulgaria
16494
China
16084

Time to step up the real challenge here because the truth is, we're losing this battle after war. They are running out of time for us to change the outcome.


UPDATE

Received the first response from an old friend, Bob Bambury
Veterans Multi-Purpose Center
Founded: 1992

South Carolina PTSD Veteran Died in Standoff with Deputies

Sheriff: Man Who Died in Standoff with Deputies Had PTSD 
WLTX News 
August 09, 2016

Richland County deputies respond to a standoff

with a man in Little Mountain on August 9, 2016.

(Photo: WLTX)

Richland County, SC (WLTX) - Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott says the man who died in a confrontation with his deputies Monday night was a military veteran who suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder.
read more here

Vietnam Veteran Will Not Give Up On Their Brothers

When I took some time off the end of July to spend with family in New England, I was supposed to be unplugged and just relaxing. I was walking around Portsmouth when I came upon a strange thing.  

Naturally I had to stop and talk to him while my daughter gave me the look like, "You're supposed to be off this weekend." It turns out that Peter MacDonald is a Vietnam Veteran.  As you know, that is the generation everyone forgets about and the one that got me started doing this work.  

They came home with the same wounds all the other generations did but they decided to fight to have it treated.  You know, the things everyone seems to think only happens to the OEF-OIF generation. 

They came home and fought to have PTSD diagnosed and treated as well as compensated for this wound.  They came home and ended up homeless walking the streets, living in the woods and depending on anything a kind heart bothered to share with them.

These were the numbers of veterans most walked away from.

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).

They suffered when no one else was looking. 

As the public has once again decided to cross the street instead of offer even a smile, they have proven how magnificent they really are.  They still haven't give up on the rest of the people in this country. They sure as hell are not giving up on each other.

It makes them very sad that with all the talk about helping the younger veterans, no one is talking about helping them, but not for the reason you may think.  They are sad knowing that the younger generation would not have to be going through the same suffering they did had all of us paid attention when they came home.

I was glad I stopped because this veteran was once homeless himself and decided that after he had been helped to get back on his feet, he would do the same for others.

I looked online and found a news report about him. Here it is.

Former Homeless Vet Vows To Help Others By Building Tiny Homes
WBZ-TV
By Chantee Lans
July 12, 2016

LEE, N.H. (CBS) – Peter MacDonald served as a Marine sergeant in Vietnam in the 1970s. He became homeless when he returned to New Hampshire.

“A person who became my friend found me. He was a Vietnam veteran that got back a year before me and realized what I was going through when he found me living under dumpster in Dover,” explained MacDonald.

He and his wife later met through his veteran rehabilitation services. Three years ago, they used their retirement money and life savings and held fundraisers to start a non-profit called Veteran Resort Chapel. The goal is to build 12 tiny homes on 11-acres of land for homeless combat veterans.

“This is something that should’ve been done years ago and I really hope that other people will see the idea of tiny homes for homeless combat veterans to given them a chance to find themselves to come home mentally as well as physically,” said MacDonald.
read more here

Canada: Military Missed Opportunity to Save Suicidal of Soldier

Military had chance to "lessen the likelihood" of soldier suicide, judge says
The Canadian Press
By Chris Purdy
Posted: Aug 06, 2016

PTSD-diagnosed soldier "would have been handled entirely differently" if diagnosis was known

A fatality inquiry into the death of Cpl. Shaun Collins,

a 27-year-old Canadian Forces soldier, suggested the military

could have lessened the likelihood of his death. (Supplied)

A judge says the military had several opportunities to prevent or lower the risk of suicide for an Edmonton soldier who hanged himself in a holding cell five years ago.

Cpl. Shaun Collins, 27, killed himself at Canadian Forces Base Edmonton after he was arrested by military police for drunk driving on March 11, 2011.

Provincial court Judge Jody Moher said in a fatality inquiry report released late Friday afternoon that things could have been done to try to save the soldier.

"It is irrefutable that there were a number of potential opportunities to obviate or lessen the likelihood of Shaun Collins committing suicide that evening," she said.

​Moher said no one did a computer search that night on Collins after his arrest.

A search would have found that Collins, a member of the 1st Battalion, Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, had been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder after he returned from his second tour in Afghanistan in 2010. He had also tried kill himself, or threatened to kill himself, four times and was being transitioned out of the military.

The judge wrote that information on the soldier's mental health was available on a military computer system. But a comssionaire, dispatcher and three military police officers on duty did not do a check and placed him alone in a cell.
read more here

Fort Bragg Soldiers Flipping For Homeless Veterans

3 soldiers team up to provide homes for homeless vets
Fayetteville Observer
By Amanda Dolasinski Staff writer
August 7, 2016

Three specialists with an innate devotion for giving back hope to provide a special Thanksgiving for a homeless veteran - by putting their comrade in a home.

Specialists Tony Brown, Devonta Birden and Carla White - three friends who serve at units at Fort Bragg - created Southern Comfort Care Inc., a company that plans to buy property to build or renovate homes to flip for homeless veterans in Cumberland County. The company needs to raise at least $25,000 to purchase the first home by October so the family can be in for Thanksgiving.

"It's about giving back and making somebody else's life better," said Brown, president and founder of Southern Comfort Care Inc. "I'm trying to look out for people who paved the way for me."
read more here

Veterans Fighting Wars and 114 Sessions of Congress

Veterans were supposed to receive more than "gratefulness" from this nation even before it was a nation.

From the beginning, the English colonies in North America provided pensions for disabled veterans. The first law in the colonies on pensions, enacted in 1636 by Plymouth, provided money to those disabled in the colony’s defense against Indians.

Other colonies followed Plymouth’s example.

Members of Congress have been in charge of how veterans are treated in this country since beginning of it. So why do they forget that as they are responsible for everything they complain about?

History of the VA

Revolutionary War

In 1776 the Continental Congress sought to encourage enlistments and curtail desertions with the nation’s first pension law. It granted half pay for life in cases of loss of limb or other serious disability.

At most, only 3,000 Revolutionary War veterans ever drew any pension. Later, grants of public land were made to those who served to the end of the war.

1812 National effort to provide medical care for disabled veterans. 

Civil War
1862 Congress established National Cemetery System to provide burial for the many Union dead of the Civil War.

When the Civil War broke out in 1861, the nation had about 80,000 war veterans. By the end of the war in 1865, another 1.9 million veterans had been added to the rolls. This included only veterans of Union forces. Confederate soldiers received no federal veterans benefits until 1958, when Congress pardoned Confederate servicemembers and extended benefits to the single remaining survivor.

Immediately after the Civil War, the number of disabled veterans in need was so great that Congress in 1865 authorized the National Asylum for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers. The name was changed to the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers in 1873.

First Veterans Group

After the Civil War, veterans organized to seek increased benefits. The Grand Army of the Republic, consisting of Union veterans of the Civil War, was the largest veterans organization emerging from the war.

As part of the effort between 1865 and 1870 to rebury battlefield casualties, 70 national cemeteries were opened and 300,000 remains gathered and reburied. Of the total buried, 142,000 were unknown. In 1873 Congress authorized national cemetery burial for all honorably discharged Union veterans.

Aid and Attendance

The Consolidation Act in 1873 revised pension legislation, paying on the degree of disability rather than the service rank. The Act also began the aid and attendance program, in which a disabled veteran is paid to hire a nurse or housekeeper.

Until 1890, Civil War pensions were granted only to servicemen discharged because of illness or disability attributable to military service. The Dependent Pension Act of 1890 substantially broadened the scope of eligibility, providing pensions to veterans incapable of manual labor. Within the next three years the number of veterans on the pension roll increased from 489,000 to 996,000 and expenditures doubled. Legislation passed in the 19th century had established a general pension system that could be applied to future pension recipients. As a consequence, new pension laws did not follow the Spanish-American War in 1898 or the Philippine Insurrection, 1899 to 1901.

The first important pension law in the 20th century was the Sherwood Act of 1912, which awarded pensions to all veterans. A similar law in the 19th century had limited recipients to Revolutionary War veterans. Under the Sherwood Act, veterans of the Mexican War and Union veterans of the Civil War could receive pensions automatically at age 62, regardless of whether they were sick or disabled.

As a result, the record shows that of the 429,354 Civil War veterans on pension rolls in 1914, only 52,572 qualified on grounds of disability.

Veterans Protest 1932

As the Depression worsened, veterans began calling for immediate payment of their “bonuses,” as the certificates came to be called. In March 1932, a small group of veterans from Oregon began marching to Washington, D.C., to demand payment. Word of the march spread like wildfire and soon small bands of unemployed veterans from across the country began descending on the nation’s capital.

There is no way of knowing how many veterans joined the “Bonus Expeditionary Forces,” as the marchers were called. By the summer, some estimates put the force at between 15,000 and 40,000. They camped wherever they could. Some slept in abandoned buildings or erected tents. But many lived in makeshift shacks along the mudflats of the Anacostia River. With no sanitation facilities, living conditions quickly deteriorated in the “shanty town.”

Veterans Administration Created 1930

President Hoover, in his 1929 State of the Union message, proposed consolidating agencies administering veterans benefits. The following year Congress created the Veterans Administration by uniting three bureaus — the previously independent Veterans’ Bureau, the Bureau of Pensions and the National Homes for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers. President Hoover signed the executive order establishing the VA on July 21, 1930.

GI Bill of Rights Servicemen's Readjustment Act 1944


Veterans Preference Act 1944

VA Hospitals and Waiting in Line

On Feb. 1, 1946, Bradley reported that the VA was operating 97 hospitals with a total bed capacity of 82,241 patients. Hospital construction then in progress projected another 13,594 beds. Money was available for another 12,706 beds with the construction of 25 more hospitals and additions to 11 others. But because of the demobilization, the total number of veterans would jump to more than 15 million within a few months. The existing VA hospitals were soon filled to capacity, and there were waiting lists for admission at practically all hospitals. In addition, there were 26,057 nonservice-connected cases on the hospital waiting list. Until more VA hospitals could be opened, the Navy and Army both made beds available.

To handle the dramatic increase in veterans claims, VA Central Office staff was increased in two years from 16,966 to 22,008. In the same period, field staff, charged with providing medical care, education benefits, disability payments, home loans and other benefits, rose from 54,689 employees to 96,047.

Every session of Congress, from the 1st to this 114th, have managed to forget that no matter which party controlled what got done and what went wrong, to blame everyone but themselves.  They are still doing it.

Vietnam Veteran Still Trying To Get "Brothers" Home

Veteran anxiously awaits mission to bring soldiers' bodies home from Vietnam
The Times-Leader (Wilkes-Barre, Pa.)
By Bill O'Boyle
Published: August 5, 2016

Pfc. Anthony John (Tony) Pepper, left, and Cpl. James Mitchell Trimble.

VIETNAM VETERANS MEMORIAL FUND

WILKES-BARRE, Pa. (Tribune News Service) — Ed Zimmerman’s long journey may soon be over.

Zimmerman, 67, of Bear Creek, will head to South Vietnam on Aug. 10 to assist the U.S. government’s recovery effort to search and, hopefully, recover the remains of Pfc. Anthony John (Tony) Pepper, 20, of Richmond, Virginia, and Cpl. James Mitchell Trimble, 19, of Eureka, California.

“This has been quite an undertaking for me,” Zimmerman said Thursday. “I’ve gone over it mentally so many times. But I’m very confident we will find the location and bring them back.”

Zimmerman said all the preparations for the trip have been made and he can’t wait to get to Vietnam to direct the recovery team to the exact spot where he last saw Trimble and Pepper.

“I’ve been going over things in my mind and I have clarity,” he said. “A lot of the cobwebs have gone away. I know I can find the spot where they were.”

In a Times Leader story in June, Zimmerman said he has not been able to rest, often having nightmares, since learning the bodies of two dead Marines he saw in a ravine in South Vietnam were never recovered — never returned to their families for burial.
read more here

Jerusalem Post Report: Healing PTSD Lives With Film

Healing Lives With Film on Jerusalem Post covers the use of film to help heal PTSD. In the article they also talk about veterans. Very interesting read since the notion that PTSD, suicide and grieving does not exist in Israel because of strong sense of community. Guess he didn't spend much time in the veterans community where they suffer and heal together.

Junger Thinks Society to Blame When Troops Come Home?

"In his book, Mr. Junger marshals history, psychology, anthropology and statistics to make his case. He suggests that in countries with a strong sense of community, such as Israel, incidence of PTSD is low even though that nation exists in a state of near-constant conflict."

Healing Lives With Film
Jerusalem Post
Judith Siegel-Itzkovich
August 6, 2016

Using video to treat trauma is a “very Israeli project,” said Miri Boker, head of the videotherapy center and an occupational therapist who spoke at the beginning of the five-hour conference. “We did this to embrace our soldiers and bereaved families.” The conference began with a 24-minute film made by Hagai, an IDF medic who participated in Operation Protective Shield in Gaza, and his friend Ariel. Unlike films made by bereaved fathers, they actually wanted their work to be shown, and the movie – Ma Rodef Samal Rishon? (What Pursues a Staff Sergeant?) was presented a few months ago at Docaviv.

They served together in the war, in the Sufa Battalion.

When the battle ended, Ariel bought an old Peugeot, while Hagai purchased a video camera.

One of them is shown living out of his car, even sleeping in it. He moves around the country, returning to scenes near Gaza, cooking vegetables, chicken and ground beef on a camping stove and watching passing sheep. He recalls that “horrible things happened in the war.” He is clearly unable to settle down after the trauma of his buddies’ deaths. In one of the film’s sequences, a soldier is sitting on an armored car. The narrator explains that an IDF physician told the soldiers to wear their bullet-proof vests, but that some ignored his advice. A mortar suddenly lands, killing one of the soldiers. The storyteller was saved because he by chance bent down to reach something. He was saved, but a friend was killed.

“His eyes and mouth were open. I knew he was dead. I felt his last two heartbeats before he died. I tore myself away and put on a vest.”

War, he said, “messes you up. Many guys I know suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder. You can’t survive such an experience without getting shell shock.” They dedicate the movie to the memories of Daniel Marash, Liran Adir and Noam Rosenthal, who were killed in action.

“From World War I, shell shock was recognized. At first,” said Ariel, “it was thought it resulted from some chemical in the gunpowder. In later wars, especially Vietnam, it was realized that the problem was psychological trauma.”
read more here

Death of Air Force Lt. Col. Under Investigation

Washington airman dies from non-combat injury in Asia
KING 5 News and Associated Press
August 06, 2016

LANSING, Mich. - A U.S. airman assigned to Washington's Camp Murray has died in southwest Asia from an injury not related to combat.

Lt. Col. Flando Jackson (Credit: Washington Military Department)

The Defense Department says Saturday that Lt. Col. Flando Jackson's death on Thursday is under investigation.

Officials say the 45-year-old Jackson was supporting Operation Inherent Resolve, the U.S. military campaign against Islamic State forces and terrorists at war against the governments of Iraq and Syria.
read more here

Las Vegas Vietnam Veterans Learned to Heal PTSD Together

Las Vegas psychiatrist helps Vietnam veterans heal ‘invisible wounds’
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
By KEITH ROGERS
August 7, 2016

Until he began therapy sessions with Dr. Steven Kingsbury to cope with post-traumatic stress disorder, Marine veteran Lonnie Coslow was in denial about his invisible wounds from the Vietnam War.

“I told him that if the Marines wanted me to have PTSD they would have issued it to me,” Coslow, 71, said Thursday.

Looking back, Coslow now understands how Kingsbury, a wheelchair-bound psychiatrist at the North Las Vegas Veterans Affairs Medical Center, helped him realize how to live with the nightmares, flashbacks and pent-up emotions that have simmered since 1968.

Kingsbury became a mental health expert after earning degrees, completing residencies and serving on faculties at universities like Harvard, Loyola, Miami, Texas and Southern California. Through his knowledge and experience he gradually won Coslow’s confidence.

After 10 years of private sessions with Coslow, the affable doctor persuaded him to join the Tuesday gatherings of a group of about 20 other Las Vegas area combat veterans.

“One of the great things we had going was we saw these guys in a group and they were able to help each other,” Kingsbury said. “Any trust issues that they had with me, they still had trust among themselves.”

When issues like suicidal thoughts, marriage problems and anger flare-ups surfaced, he said, 


“They were there for each other and they could call each other and just get away for awhile.”
read more here

PTSD EVOLUTION
There wasn't a specific name for post-traumatic stress disorder when Dr. Steven Kingsbury first began working with combat veterans a few years after the Vietnam War ended in 1975.

PTSD didn't become part of the VA's vocabulary until the American Psychiatric Association's manual for mental health disorders was revised in 1980.

Some symptoms had been described as "shell shock" or "war neuroses" for World War I veterans; or "combat stress reaction" from "battle fatigue" for World War II veterans, according the VA's National Center for PTSD.

During the Korean War era, the association's manual from 1952 made reference to "gross stress reaction" as a symptom of traumatic combat events. The diagnosis, however, was struck from the revised 1968 manual and replaced with an "adjustment reaction to adult life." That was later described on the center's website as "clearly insufficient to capture a PTSD-like condition."

In 2013, more than 500,000 veterans were receiving treatment for PTSD at VA facilities.

WWP Still Doesn't Get What Accountability Should Be

There is a report on Stars and Stripes about Wounded Warrior Project employees bracing for some layoffs. In the report there was this.

The difference, he said: Wounded Warrior Project invests heavily in fundraising in part because of the scope of services it provides to wounded veterans and their families.

The problem is that no one has addressed the fact that WWP does not "provide" all the help they claim by themselves. They give out donations (grants) to other charities and colleges leaving donors to wonder why WWP assumed they had the right to use their money without providing them the opportunity to say no.

Here are some of the charities getting their money last year.

This cycle’s grant recipients are Catch a Lift Fund (Baltimore, MD), Shepherd Center Foundation (Atlanta, GA) Rocky Mountain Human Services (Colorado Springs, CO), Northeast Nebraska Community Action Partnership (Pender, NE), Western Dairyland Economic Opportunity Council (Independence, WI), Brain Injury Services of Southwest Virginia (Roanoke, VA), Yellow Ribbon Fund (Bethesda, MD), Colorado State University Foundation (Fort Collins, CO), and David Lynch Foundation (New York, NY).

Stunning, Sexy, Nude Veterans

Amputee Veterans Reveal Why They Showed Off Their Battle Scars in Latest Nude Photo Shoot
Inside Edition
by Johanna
August 2, 2016

These sexy veterans are back, and they're wearing nothing but their battle scars.

Just when our hearts and loins thought they've had enough, photographer Michael Stokes of Los Angeles is back behind the lens shooting amputees in a steamy sequel to his wounded veteran series, and he guarantees: "Yes, they are nude."

Stokes said he reached out to 13 new veterans to be featured in Invictus, and revisited five models he photographed for his first book, Always Loyal.

Of the 18 veterans he photographed for his series on battle scars, 17 are amputees.
read more here 

Read: Go Behind the Scenes as Naked Wounded War Veterans Pose for Steamy Photos

Vietnam Veteran's Son Killed Fighting ISIS Wanted to Be a Marine

Colorado mother struggles to bring her son’s body home from Syria
“Jack” Shirley of Arvada was killed fighting the Islamic State with Kurdish forces in Syria
Denver Post
By CLAIRE CLEVELAND
PUBLISHED: August 6, 2016

Frustrated that his eyesight rendered him unfit for the U.S. Marines, Jack joined the war on terror, against the wishes of his government, by volunteering with the People’s Protection Unit, a Kurdish group clashing with the Islamic State in northern Syria. Amid the tangled geopolitical alliances of the Middle East, the YPG — shorthand for Jack’s unit — falls under a political wing believed to have ties to yet another group the U.S. has classified as a terrorist organization.

Joe Amon, The Denver Post
Susan Shirley with a picture of

her son Levi Jonathan Shirley that
died in Syria as a volunteer with
an armed Kurdish group, the YPG to
fight ISIS.

Day after day, Susan Shirley sits at the round, wooden table in her Arvada kitchen, her blue eyes intensely scanning e-mails or Facebook messages on her laptop and then, eventually, wandering past the window into the yard where her son once played.

She refocuses on the spiral notebook before her and logs another entry in a minute-by-minute to-do list of grief: 10:30: …request info costs embalming etc….

The notes go on for pages, chronicling a mother’s complex quest to bring home her son, 24-year-old Levi Jonathan “Jack” Shirley, who was killed on a Syrian battlefield while fighting the Islamic State.

And so news of his death, the second among an estimated 100 Americans who have volunteered with such militias, arrived not with a hero’s accolades and the thanks of a grateful nation, but with a logistical burden heaped upon sorrow at the loss of a son.

Russell Shirley, who served two tours in Vietnam and has struggled with post-traumatic stress disorder and readjusting to civilian life, felt relief when Jack was disqualified from the Marines. He figured that put an end to the possibility of his son joining a foreign battle.
read more here

Veterans Charities Waiting for No-Show Donations From McGraw Concert

Veterans still waiting for donations from McGraw show
Press of Atlantic City
Michael Miller
August 5, 2016

Vietnam Veterans of America officer Vincent DePrinzio said the groups would understand if the show didn’t generate a profit for donations.

Scenes from the July 4th Tim McGraw concert on the beach in Wildwood.
Monday July 04, 2016. (Dale Gerhard/Press of Atlantic City)

WILDWOOD — Four veterans groups that partnered with the Celebrate America Weekend featuring Tim McGraw on July 4 said they have not received any donations promised from proceeds of the beach concert.

Promoter Boardwalk Entertainment Co. Inc., of Ocean City, promised to donate proceeds from ticket sales to Wildwood’s American Legion Post 184 and Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter 955, and Operation First Response in Virginia and the Michael Strange Foundation in Pennsylvania. Boardwalk Entertainment President Amanda Thomas said she expects to be able to announce the donations next week.

“We’re still going through all our numbers and our books, trying to determine how much the groups will get,” she said.

Thomas said her company offered the groups 10 percent of profits from ticket sales.
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Did You Know Lake Baldwin VA Closed?

Bad reporting right here in my own state!  

First Lake Baldwin VA was not closed. It has been open all along. 

The state of Florida did not take it over. 

The Dom, the place where homeless veterans were taken care of was moved to Lake Nona and that is what reopened.

Ok, so here is the article. Will come as a big shock to the Central Florida veterans among 400,000 who have been going to Lake Baldwin all along. 

VA clinic reopens in Orlando WESH 2 News Robert Lowe August 4, 2016

ORLANDO, Fla. —Two years ago, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs came under heavy scrutiny for poor service across America.

Long lines meant a number of veterans died while they waited for treatment. Since that time, the agency underwent major changes.

On Thursday, the Lake Baldwin facility, now run by the state, reopened its domiciliary.

"Today is a very special day for Central Florida veterans," said U.S. Rep. John Mica.

Mica spent the past two years working to reopen the facility. It closed after the opening of the new Orlando VA Center in Lake Nona. But, with approximately 400,000 veterans throughout Central Florida, Mica said there was a great need to reopen.read more here

Suicide Awareness Not Same As Reason To Live With PTSD

Stop Raising PTSD-Suicide Awareness, Start Sharing Hope
Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
July 6, 2016

This morning my email box was full of news on veterans committing suicide and folks "raising awareness" about what they were doing for them.  Some use "22 a day" others use the latest number from the VA of "20 a day" and some even use "25 a day" as if any of those numbers will change anything.

The simple fact is, none of what has been done since 1999 has been enough to actually help change the outcome for far too many. With a reduction of almost 7 million veterans leaving us since then, the numbers from the VA on suicides are still "20 a day" even after a decade of stunts to "prevent" them from taking their own lives.

Pushups put focus on veteran suicides on the Clarion Ledger covered an event with participants dropping to the floor while believing they will do what exactly?

Senator Roger Wicker, center left, and Jackson Mayor Tony Yarber, center right, do pushups as part of the "22 Pushup Challenge," a social media campaign to raise awareness for veteran suicide prevention, Thursday at the Capitol. (Photo: Elijah Baylis/The Clarion-Ledger)

This happened at the Mississippi State Capitol. In the article there was this,

"There’s no reason for any veteran to feel that he or she needs to take their own life," said Senator Roger Wicker just before he, Jackson Mayor Tony Yarber, Flowood Police Chief Richie McCluskey, and others hit the deck for 22 pushups in the Mississippi state capitol rotunda on Thursday.

I have no doubt they are filled with good intentions but lack good information so they share pain instead of hope.

The problem is, there are plenty of reasons veterans are still taking their own lives after risking them for the sake of others. All the raising awareness about them committing suicide has managed to do is spread the hopelessness. If others did not find the help they needed, then what are the chances a veteran in crisis will be able to change his/her own tomorrow?

The other thing is that older veterans, waiting longer for help and hope, forgotten by all these "new efforts" has left them in the majority of veterans committing suicide. They look at all the attention the younger veterans are getting, doing little good, and that removes hope for them. It devalues all the decades of them suffering in silence for what they fought so hard to change.

I could go on and on, but you have read enough of the bad reports here for a very long time. This month Wounded Times has been up for 9 years. That is a lot of covering the sad news but for now, I think it is vital to talk about the good news. If anything will ever change, we need to start raising awareness on what works. That begins with telling them what they have not heard enough. They are not condemned to suffer as much as they are today and their lives are healable.

Yesterday a veteran called to thank me for what I helped him with. Usually when I hear that, it is followed by heartache and I prepare to do battle with the demon of death to give them back the hope they lost.  This time, the thank you was followed by a series of blessings shared by him.

He proceeded to tell me that his claim had been upgraded and he would not have to worry about how to feed himself and his service dog. He talked about how so many people surrounded him in his darkest times, listening to him pour his heart out. They made sure he had food to eat and rides to get to around. They made sure he knew he mattered to them when he could not find a reason to matter to himself.

He also talked about how God was very busy in his life when He sent all of them to get him through all the hardships he had to face.

The most wondrous thing of all about this veteran is his voice was filled with hope when he talked about helping other veterans heal like he did.

So, for what it is worth, after over 3 decades of doing this work, this is what I feel needs to be shared right now to actually make a difference.

We have to start with what PTSD really is.

Post means "after' because things go from one way in your life to chaos and your life changed in a second. Trauma is something you survived that very well could have taken your life or the life of someone else. In other words, it happened to you. That trauma caused your entire body to go into stress mode. That caused the way you think and feel to be in disorder.  In other words, it was in order before it, got shaken up and you can put things back in order again. Maybe not in the same exact way, but at least an order you can live with.

One more thing to mention on this is  that "trauma" is actually Greek for "wound" and with all wounds, left untreated they get worse but with help, all wounds do in fact heal. YOU CAN HEAL!

If you think that PTSD is something to be ashamed of, think better about yourself since you survived it.  You are not a "victim" of the event but you are a survivor.  It was not able to kill you. So why are you letting it destroy you now?

Like the veteran needed to be reminded of a long time ago, when you were in combat and outnumbered, you called in all the help you could get.  If ground support was not enough, then you called in for air support.  Lives were on the line so you did what you had to do to keep them alive. How is this different?

Every veteran I have helped over the years said the first thing they wanted to do was help other veterans live better lives. Staying here and healing actually means you will save lives now by getting whatever you need to defeat this.

If you do not find what you need, then keep calling in as much help as you can find the same way you did in combat.

Brandon Ketchum tried to stay alive and tried to help raise awareness but when he was in his darkest hour, he was turned away from the VA after requesting emergency care.

Last October, former Marine sergeant and Army National Guard veteran Brandon Ketchum led a team in an awareness walk to honor military friends who had died by suicide.But this year, Ketchum won’t be present at the Out of the Darkness event in Rock Island, Illinois. Instead, he will be among those remembered, having died July 8 of a self-inflicted gunshot wound just hours after expressing his frustration with Veterans Affairs medical care on a closed Facebook page.Ketchum wrote that he had sought emergency inpatient care for his substance abuse issues but was turned away.

Right now no one knows for sure why it happened anymore than they know why he did not keep trying to find help in crisis with all the other groups out there or even something as simple as calling 911 to get into a mental health hospital until he could get a bed at the VA.

Right now if you are like me, you are wondering what good the "Out of darkness" awareness did when he did not think about turning to them for help. Ketchum turned to Facebook to post his exit interview.

I do not have anything to do with that group but I do have something to do with Coming Out of The Dark. This is a video I made 10 years ago.


You are not alone so why be afraid? You may feel like reaching out for help is like hitting a stone wall, but look on your side and find folks standing right there waiting to help you.

They may not be able to give you what you want, but if you let them, they can give you what you need. If you are hungry, let them feed you. If you are without clothes, let them cover you. If you are lonely, let them visit you.

‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ Matthew 25

When you were able to help someone, how did you feel? Did you feel good or did you feel as if they were less since they needed help? Safe bet you were glad to help them and felt blessed being able to.  How is it different being on the receiving end and letting them get that same rush by helping you so you can help someone else along the line?

Do not let the life you lived go without putting up a fight the same way you did in combat.  They talk about the lives lost but it is time to talk about the lives not just spared, but shared. You cared so much you were willing to die for the sake of someone else.  How about you care enough to live for the same reason?