Marine's walk for DAV worth $180,000, so far

He's marching for disabled veterans
Retired Marine Richard Hunsucker is on a 2,650-mile journey across the country
By JENNIFER LATSON
HOUSTON CHRONICLE
Jan. 17, 2010, 10:52PM


As marathon runners began their 26-mile tour of Houston on Sunday morning, Richard Hunsucker set out on a quieter trek of his own, east of the city.

A few miles outside Liberty, Hunsucker pulled on a no-frills pair of white Nikes and hoisted a flagpole over his right shoulder. Then he set out on Highway 90 for a 17-mile leg of his 2,650-mile journey.

Hunsucker, a 52-year-old ironworker and retired Marine from Green Bay, Wis., is walking across the southern United States to raise money for disabled veterans. He started in Jacksonville on Veterans Day and expects to finish in San Diego on Memorial Day.

Lunchtime on day 68 found him crossing the Trinity River in Liberty, 849 miles down and 1,801 to go. The bridge rumbled underfoot as traffic hurtled past at 70 mph. Wearing jeans and a red Marine Corps T-shirt over white long underwear, Hunsucker marched at a determined pace along the shoulder. The blue Disabled American Veterans flag whipped in the wind. A trio of motorcyclists waved as they passed.

Hunsucker came late to Vietnam, serving with the Marines from 1974 to 1976 in Okinawa, which had been a key American staging point in the Vietnam War. His older brother served in the war, as did several of his friends. Helping veterans is a cause close to his heart.

The flag draws curiosity and offers of help. Benefactors have given him regular meals and occasional offers of shelter for the night. Above all, they've given donations to his cause, the nonprofit organization Disabled American Veterans. He's gotten $180,000 in pledges so far, he said.

read more here

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/6820947.html

Florida DCF, Red Cross help 180 Haiti evacuees arriving at Sanford airport

DCF, Red Cross help 180 Haiti evacuees arriving at Sanford airport

By Susan Jacobson and Anika Myers Palm

Orlando Sentinel

2:55 a.m. EST, January 17, 2010


Dr. Manoucheka Vieux doesn't know if she'll ever see her husband again.

A police inspector in Haiti, he never came home after Tuesday's devastating earthquake, and she hasn't been able to reach him since.

Fearful that disease from decomposing bodies in Haiti would harm their 10-month-old son, Chrys Valin, Vieux, a general practitioner, fled to Central Florida on Saturday with her baby. She was one of 180 people who landed at Orlando Sanford International Airport just after 5 p.m. on a U.S. Air Force C-17 transport airplane.

More than six hours later, Vieux was settling into a room at the Renaissance Orlando Airport Hotel and recounting her ordeal. Her immediate plan was to fly to South Florida today to stay with her sister. Beyond that, "I don't know," an exhausted Vieux said. "I just want to see my baby safe. I'm living with hope to see my husband again."

Vieux and the other passengers received free hotel stays courtesy of the state Department of Children and Families, which also helped them connect with family and friends in the U.S. The American Red Cross was among the other agencies that assisted the evacuees, including a handful of people who left the airplane in wheelchairs.
read more here
180 Haiti evacuees arriving at Sanford airport


also
Exclusive Haiti Earthquake Video
Sunday, January 17, 2010 10:50:29 AM
ORLANDO -- Central Florida got a unique view of the deadly earthquake in Haiti from right in the middle of it all.

News 13’s Christine Webb and the Orlando-based New Missions outreach group were stranded in the country after the quake hit Tuesday.

A New Missions videographer caught the quake as it was happening. The video was taken at the New Missions headquarters in Haiti southeast of Port-au-Prince.

The group, which also included several high school students from The First Academy, evacuated Haiti Friday, and flew into Orlando International Airport just after midnight Saturday. Christine and her fellow mission volunteers said they were grateful to be home.
Exclusive Haiti Earthquake Video

Bigger Army necessary

During all other wars up to the Vietnam War, when the nation's leaders said "go to war" everyone had to do their part. So how is it with two long wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, there has not been a massive push to at least get more to enlist if they do not want to start the draft again? If they are waiting for a crisis, they missed it a long time ago. These wars are not the wars of the American people when most have not been paying attention to either one. The risks, the issues, the price being paid, have not been personal to any of us as fewer and fewer news reports come out. The burden is not shared by the rest of us and they have to pay the price for what we ask of them.

Bigger Army necessary

Editorial
Posted : Sunday Jan 17, 2010 8:51:00 EST

The Army on three occasions over the past five years has increased active-duty end-strength to meet ongoing operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Lesson learned: The Army was too small to simultaneously fight on two fronts. That took an incredible toll on troops and their families, who endured multiple war tours of up to 15 months at a stretch. Others paid for it by being forced to serve on “stop-loss” beyond their terms of obligated service. Meanwhile, getting the Army closer to the right size cost billions and took years.

The addition of a total of 65,000 soldiers resulted in today’s authorized end-strength of 547,400 in uniform. In July, Congress has authorized yet another temporary increase, of 22,000 troops.
read more here
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2010/01/army_casey_011710w/

Casualties of war and PTSD

UPDATE
The moderator of Spouse Calls left a comment on this post to clear up any misunderstanding. The following comes from an Army Wife named Sheryl.

It is a powerful statement of what we do not think about when we think of how much is asked of the men and women serving especially when we ignore their families. When I read stories like this, I wonder if the marriage could have been saved if the spouse had the understanding as well as support to live with what the war did her marriage. I know how difficult it was for my family to stay together, even though I knew what PTSD was. I cannot imagine what it would have been like if I did not have the tools to help my husband heal, to forgive him because I knew why he did the things he did or how to help myself heal as well.

None of this has to happen but until the DOD understands what PTSD is, what has to be done, educate the families, it will keep happening just as the suicides keep going up. None of this has to happen.

Spouse calls:
Casualties of war and PTSD
By Terri Barnes, Special to Stars and Stripes
Stars and Stripes Scene, Sunday, January 17, 2010
On the Spouse Calls blog:


As I watched the towers fall, I knew our lives would change. My heart ached for the people in the towers and their families, and then I got a cold shiver and knew my life was about to change, too.

That day I knew we were going to war and my husband was going to go … I just didn’t know that it would mean that I would lose my husband and our family, too.

Forward to mid-tour homecoming from Iraq: The man I picked up at the airport was not my husband. After all of those months, he hugged me and patted me on the back. He didn’t embrace our children. His eyes were cold. In fact you, could see right through them and the sparkle that was once there was gone.

Forward to the Iraq homecoming: Again, he got off of the plane. The excitement to see me wasn’t there. He was trying, I know he was, but they left my husband and what he was in Iraq, never to return.

We were the couple that everyone thought would be together forever — never gave it another thought. Now we are separated and going through divorce.
read more here
http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=140&article=67291

Stolen Valor, Norfolk VA veteran pleds guilty

Va. veteran guilty of false claims
A veterans group alerted authorities to a Norfolk man's false claims about his military honors.
By Mike Gangloff The Roanoke Times

Correction: An earlier version of this article confused which veterans group tipped federal authorities to Barnhart's claims. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jake Jacobsen credited the Web site www.pownetwork.org with alerting investigators.


Even as he pleaded guilty to inflating his military record, Thomas James Barnhart insisted he'd received a Purple Heart.

"I was given a Purple Heart with no paperwork in Vietnam, so it was as if I had made up the award myself," Barnhart, 58, said Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Roanoke.

Barnhart also improperly sought benefits. In 1991 and 2005, Barnhart told Veterans Affairs interviewers tales of combat missions and a pilot dying in his arms. He said he'd been nominated for the Medal of Honor, the highest award for valor.

But investigation showed only that Barnhart earned a medal for offshore duty during the Vietnam War. There was no record of combat or combat awards.

Barnhart pleaded guilty to violating federal Stolen Valor legislation by falsely claiming to have been awarded medals. He also pleaded guilty to a felony embezzlement charge tied to $13,923 in disability payments for supposed post-traumatic stress disorder.

Doug Sterner, a Vietnam veteran from Colorado who was a leading advocate for the 2005 Stolen Valor legislation, said Barnhart's case shows the need for Congress to push the military to keep better records of medals such as Purple Hearts.

"There are literally tens of thousands of people who were given awards that never made it to paperwork," Sterner said.

read more here

http://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/232116

This is a very true problem for a lot of veterans. Paperwork errors have caused awards to end up in someone else's file because of a mistake on a social security number. The reason to save paperwork after discharge escaped many veterans and they simply tossed them out so they wouldn't be reminded. When errors were made, the veteran was left to either have to prove what they were saying was true, showing their own copies of documents, or they ended up with a lax case worker ready to believe anything. In our case, we were not so lucky until the error regarding my husband's award reached the ear of a general.

When we sent his aid the copies of the award along with some other documents we had, the record was corrected, the Bronze Star Award was finally in his file and he received a new award document to hang on the wall. That document is tucked away in a draw because the one with the wrong social security number on it is the one he was given in Vietnam and it is the one that meant the most to my husband. I often wonder what would have happened if my husband had not saved everything he was given. How could he prove what he was saying was true when the other paperwork must have been in someone else's file? How can any veteran prove anything without their own copies? With all he went through trying to have his claim approved, there are many more trying to do the same thing legitimately but we have to read stories like this about frauds trying to get what they didn't earn at the same time veterans are unable to receive what they already paid for in real life. Just doesn't seem fair at all.

Make sure you keep your records because you never know when they might be the only copies there are of what you need to prove yourself yet again.