Conference for families of wounded warriors
by Staff Report
On September 14 and 15, the USO is hosting its 2nd Annual Wounded Warrior and Caregivers Conference in Fayetteville and Ft. Bragg.
At the event, experts, along with military personnel and couples will highlight several newsworthy topics, including major challenges facing our military, their caregivers and the children of deployed and wounded troops. Many of these challenges like suicide and depression are seen most when troops return home to their families. Troops will be withdrawn from Iraq and Afghanistan in the coming months and years, makes the Wounded Warrior and Caregivers Conference even timelier.
Wounded Warrior and Caregiver’s Conference is a two-day event focusing on the issues facing our nation’s wounded warriors and their caregivers (i.e., a spouse, significant other, mom or dad). The event will cover topics such as post-traumatic stress, compassion fatigue, parenting and children’s grief, and suicide prevention. The conference is free and open to caregivers and wounded warriors from Fort Bragg’s Warrior Transition Unit and Camp Lejeune’s Wounded Warrior Regiment.
The Caregiver’s Conference will be held on Sept. 14 at the Doubletree Hotel and Conference Center in Fayetteville, and the Wounded Warriors Conference will be held the next day at the Bragg Club on Fort Bragg.
There will be more than 400 Caregivers in attendance, as well as Wounded Warriors, and featured presenters Sloan Gibson, USO President; John Pray, USO Senior Vice President Entertainment and Programs; Dr. Kim Norman, Health Sciences Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, University of California; Melissa Lofaso, Director of Suicide Prevention & Education, TAPS; Trevor Romain, the Trevor Romain Foundation and Game On Entertainment.
read more here
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Judge sets bail after Palm Beach VA drug raid
Judge sets bail for woman arrested in drug raid at the VA Medical Center
By CYNTHIA ROLDAN AND CYNTHIA ROLDAN
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Monday, Aug. 22, 2011
WEST PALM BEACH — Terri Guerra went before a judge Monday morning hoping to get some leniency.
But even after listening to the Jupiter woman's attorney try to explain why federal agents found hundreds of prescription pills and thousands of dollars in cash in her home, Circuit Judge Joseph Marx ordered Guerra held on $50,000 bail. And if she posts bond, he ordered that she be placed under house arrest.
Guerra, 53, also ordered not to travel and have no contact with controlled substances, is scheduled to return to court for a status hearing on Sept. 9.
Last Thursday, she was among 17 people arrested during a raid at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Riviera Beach. Unlike the rest, however, Guerra's bond hearing was postponed at the request of her attorney, Joseph R. Atterbury.
Waiting to go before Marx at the downtown courthouse on Monday allowed time for Atterbury to bring in a character witness, the pastor of her church. Meanwhile, Assistant state Attorney Phil Wiseberg brought in an agent of the Office of Inspector General at the VA and an agent of the Multi-Agency Diversion Task Force.
Wiseberg argued that Guerra, who faces conspiracy to distribute oxycodone charges, was well aware of her son's illegal activities. Federal authorities arrested Larry J. Dorsey, 32, in July on the same charge as his mother.
read more here
By CYNTHIA ROLDAN AND CYNTHIA ROLDAN
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Monday, Aug. 22, 2011
WEST PALM BEACH — Terri Guerra went before a judge Monday morning hoping to get some leniency.
But even after listening to the Jupiter woman's attorney try to explain why federal agents found hundreds of prescription pills and thousands of dollars in cash in her home, Circuit Judge Joseph Marx ordered Guerra held on $50,000 bail. And if she posts bond, he ordered that she be placed under house arrest.
Guerra, 53, also ordered not to travel and have no contact with controlled substances, is scheduled to return to court for a status hearing on Sept. 9.
Last Thursday, she was among 17 people arrested during a raid at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Riviera Beach. Unlike the rest, however, Guerra's bond hearing was postponed at the request of her attorney, Joseph R. Atterbury.
Waiting to go before Marx at the downtown courthouse on Monday allowed time for Atterbury to bring in a character witness, the pastor of her church. Meanwhile, Assistant state Attorney Phil Wiseberg brought in an agent of the Office of Inspector General at the VA and an agent of the Multi-Agency Diversion Task Force.
Wiseberg argued that Guerra, who faces conspiracy to distribute oxycodone charges, was well aware of her son's illegal activities. Federal authorities arrested Larry J. Dorsey, 32, in July on the same charge as his mother.
read more here
Suicide casts long shadow after decade of war
Suicide casts long shadow after decade of war
Ninemsn
A soldier kills himself and his wife. Another war veteran hangs himself in despair. Yet a third puts a gun to his head and pulls the trigger outside a gas station in a confrontation with Texas lawmen.
Suicides by veterans like these once would have left people reeling in this military community. But troops and their families here these days call it the "new normal" for a US Army that's spent a decade at war.
Melissa Dixon sees the stress in the tattoos she draws on soldiers back from combat.
"Some of them have issues with their wives or their loved ones, where they're fighting, or one will have a friend commit suicide," she said.
There's no place like Fort Hood in the Army. A post that sent soldiers from two divisions to Iraq three times since the invasion, it's logged more suicides since 2003 than any other — 107.
Soldiers at big posts like Fort Hood that have played key roles in deployments are at the greatest risk of killing themselves.
The post here in Killeen, northwest of Texas' state capital, Austin, set an Army record last year with 22 suicides.
read more here
Ninemsn
A soldier kills himself and his wife. Another war veteran hangs himself in despair. Yet a third puts a gun to his head and pulls the trigger outside a gas station in a confrontation with Texas lawmen.
Suicides by veterans like these once would have left people reeling in this military community. But troops and their families here these days call it the "new normal" for a US Army that's spent a decade at war.
Melissa Dixon sees the stress in the tattoos she draws on soldiers back from combat.
"Some of them have issues with their wives or their loved ones, where they're fighting, or one will have a friend commit suicide," she said.
There's no place like Fort Hood in the Army. A post that sent soldiers from two divisions to Iraq three times since the invasion, it's logged more suicides since 2003 than any other — 107.
Soldiers at big posts like Fort Hood that have played key roles in deployments are at the greatest risk of killing themselves.
The post here in Killeen, northwest of Texas' state capital, Austin, set an Army record last year with 22 suicides.
read more here
Monday, August 22, 2011
Houston VA accused of religious discrimination
Houston VA accused of religious discrimination
By Juan A. Lozano - The Associated Press
Posted : Monday Aug 22, 2011 15:27:52 EDT
HOUSTON — A federal judge on Monday asked attorneys for several veterans groups and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to work toward settling a lawsuit accusing Houston VA officials of religious discrimination.
Three local veterans groups have accused VA officials at the Houston National Cemetery of banning such religious words as “God” and censoring their prayers at soldiers’ funerals.
The lawsuit filed by the Veterans of Foreign Wars District 4, the American Legion Post 586 and the National Memorial Ladies says VA officials barred prayer and religious speech in burials at the Houston cemetery unless families submit a specific prayer or message in writing to the cemetery’s director. The lawsuit also accuses VA officials of not allowing them to use religious words such as “God” or “Jesus.”
During a hearing on the lawsuit, U.S. District Judge Lynn Hughes called on both sides to find a solution.
read more here
By Juan A. Lozano - The Associated Press
Posted : Monday Aug 22, 2011 15:27:52 EDT
HOUSTON — A federal judge on Monday asked attorneys for several veterans groups and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to work toward settling a lawsuit accusing Houston VA officials of religious discrimination.
Three local veterans groups have accused VA officials at the Houston National Cemetery of banning such religious words as “God” and censoring their prayers at soldiers’ funerals.
The lawsuit filed by the Veterans of Foreign Wars District 4, the American Legion Post 586 and the National Memorial Ladies says VA officials barred prayer and religious speech in burials at the Houston cemetery unless families submit a specific prayer or message in writing to the cemetery’s director. The lawsuit also accuses VA officials of not allowing them to use religious words such as “God” or “Jesus.”
During a hearing on the lawsuit, U.S. District Judge Lynn Hughes called on both sides to find a solution.
read more here
Defense attorneys blame PTSD for infant's beating death
Defense attorneys blame PTSD for infant's beating death
RALEIGH, N.C. — An Iraq war veteran facing a possible death sentence for the death of his 10-month-old stepdaughter was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder that was being self-medicated with alcohol and prescription painkillers when he beat her to death inside their Raleigh home nearly two years ago, his defense attorney told jurors Monday.
Attorney Thomas Manning said that Cheyenne Emery Yarley's death was a "perfect storm" of substance abuse and PTSD that "blew up" as Joshua Andrew Stepp tried to quiet and comfort the crying child.
"This attack was a singularity in Josh Stepp's existence. That's what the evidence will show," Manning said. "Never before had it happened – had anything happened."
read more here
RALEIGH, N.C. — An Iraq war veteran facing a possible death sentence for the death of his 10-month-old stepdaughter was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder that was being self-medicated with alcohol and prescription painkillers when he beat her to death inside their Raleigh home nearly two years ago, his defense attorney told jurors Monday.
Attorney Thomas Manning said that Cheyenne Emery Yarley's death was a "perfect storm" of substance abuse and PTSD that "blew up" as Joshua Andrew Stepp tried to quiet and comfort the crying child.
"This attack was a singularity in Josh Stepp's existence. That's what the evidence will show," Manning said. "Never before had it happened – had anything happened."
read more here
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