Grieving family pushes for help for Veterans
Tucson News
Jan 23, 2013
By Paige Hansen
TUCSON, AZ
A tragedy for one local family is resulting in a push for more awareness for veterans who have post traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD. Thirty-year-old Dustin Wernli was laid to rest over the weekend after he died last week after calling 911 saying he was a combat veteran with PTSD and was feeling suicidal.
Officers responded to the scene, speaking with Wernli for about 15 minutes before shooting him when Police say he reached for a gun. The veteran died at the hospital.
Hundreds of thousands of veterans are treated each year for PTSD nationwide. The VA in Tucson says last year alone, about 2,600 veterans came in for treatment. Wernli's family says their son was being treated for PTSD at the VA and getting private help. While there are lots of services available for veterans, the VA says they are very under-used.
"'Doc' (Dustin's nickname) and I talked a lot about how we prepared for the military," explained Michael Kase a friend of Dustin's and a fellow veteran. "Everything was physical because we knew all these physical hardships we'd encounter but neither of us did anything mentally or emotionally to prepare for those emotional hardships we were going to encounter."
Dustin's parents didn't want to talk on camera but want people to know their son was a good person, a field medic who during his nine months in Iraq, saw the worst of it and was responsible for trying to save lives.
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Original news report
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Thursday, January 24, 2013
Wednesday, January 23, 2013
No Excuse to vote against Violence Against Women Act
Let me make this perfectly clear as a survivor of domestic violence by two perpetrators. This country needs to stand up against criminals no matter what household title they have.
My Dad was a violent alcoholic until I was 13. He beat up my oldest brother most of the time, threatened my Mom and verbally abused all of us. He should have be arrested many times. By the grace of God all of us survived and my Dad stopped drinking then spent the rest of his life trying to make up for it. Still nothing could reverse the damage done to all of us. I forgave him but the rest of my family never really did.
My ex-husband was another story. We were not even married two years. 18 months after the day we got married, he came home one night and decided I should die. He started punching me and chasing me around the apartment while I fought back. Finally he got be on the floor, got on top of me punched me some more and then his hands were on my throat. Our landlady banged on the door screaming she had already called the police.
The officers took him to jail and he was out the next day. After all, it was just domestic violence. I got a restraining order but that did no good. That was over 30 years ago and things have changed but not by much. He was allowed to stalk me, and ruin my life but what got me was that when the judge order me to pay his healthcare coverage he topped that off with granting my ex-husband a divorce under cruelty because I fought back when he was trying to kill me.
Women are getting more and more equal treatment in this country and that is a wonderful thing but equality is not happening in too many houses. Don't let women go back to the dark days of what I went through. Home is the one place where we are supposed to feel safe.
To the women out there, my second marriage has lasted over 28 years now and I can tell you that just because one person treated you so badly, that person was a criminal and needed to face the punishment for his actions. You are worth of love but while it is hard to believe it, you are. My husband proved that to me and still does now.
My Dad was a violent alcoholic until I was 13. He beat up my oldest brother most of the time, threatened my Mom and verbally abused all of us. He should have be arrested many times. By the grace of God all of us survived and my Dad stopped drinking then spent the rest of his life trying to make up for it. Still nothing could reverse the damage done to all of us. I forgave him but the rest of my family never really did.
My ex-husband was another story. We were not even married two years. 18 months after the day we got married, he came home one night and decided I should die. He started punching me and chasing me around the apartment while I fought back. Finally he got be on the floor, got on top of me punched me some more and then his hands were on my throat. Our landlady banged on the door screaming she had already called the police.
The officers took him to jail and he was out the next day. After all, it was just domestic violence. I got a restraining order but that did no good. That was over 30 years ago and things have changed but not by much. He was allowed to stalk me, and ruin my life but what got me was that when the judge order me to pay his healthcare coverage he topped that off with granting my ex-husband a divorce under cruelty because I fought back when he was trying to kill me.
Senate gives Violence Against Women Act another try
A new version of the bill dropped a provision that helped House Republicans block it last year [UPDATED]
BY JILLIAN RAYFIELD
JAN 23, 2013
Though House Republicans blocked the Violence Against Women Act last year, the Senate is not giving up. A new version of the bill, co-authored by Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, seeks to add pressure to House Republican leadership to reauthorize the law, which stalled and expired in September 2011, for the first time ever.
“This lifesaving legislation should be a top priority of the new 113th Congress,” Leahy said in a statement. “It is our hope that the Senate will act quickly to pass this strong, bipartisan bill to help all victims of domestic and sexual violence.”
“The Violence Against Women Act has helped countless victims of domestic and relationship violence for nearly 20 years,” Crapo said. “The path to reauthorization in the 113th Congress begins with reintroduction, and I look forward to working with Senator Leahy and my colleagues on compromise language that can garner the necessary support in both the Senate and House to pass this critical legislation.”
read more here
Women are getting more and more equal treatment in this country and that is a wonderful thing but equality is not happening in too many houses. Don't let women go back to the dark days of what I went through. Home is the one place where we are supposed to feel safe.
To the women out there, my second marriage has lasted over 28 years now and I can tell you that just because one person treated you so badly, that person was a criminal and needed to face the punishment for his actions. You are worth of love but while it is hard to believe it, you are. My husband proved that to me and still does now.
President Obama reunited with Vietnam veteran who inspired him
President Obama reunited with veteran who inspired him
Washington Post
By Karen Tumulty
Published: January 22
Five years ago, there had been a chance encounter in an Austin elevator between a Vietnam veteran and a future commander in chief. For the rest of the campaign, the candidate would carry the military patch that the stranger gave him that day.
On Tuesday, Earl Smith met Barack Obama again — this time, in the Oval Office.
The 68-year-old former infantryman gave the president a salute, and Obama returned it.
Over the years, the gift of that military patch had taken on an almost mythic significance among the Obama inner circle.
Obama carried it among about a dozen similar tokens that people had pressed upon him during the 2008 campaign, and he told aides that it was a reminder of why he had run for president in the first place.
Fri Jan 18 2013
When Earl Smith first met then Senator Obama in an elevator in February 2008 at the Hyatt Regency in Austin, his time with the future President was short. But Smith gave Obama something that he would carry with him for the rest of the campaign.
The Washington Post
Washington Post
By Karen Tumulty
Published: January 22
Five years ago, there had been a chance encounter in an Austin elevator between a Vietnam veteran and a future commander in chief. For the rest of the campaign, the candidate would carry the military patch that the stranger gave him that day.
On Tuesday, Earl Smith met Barack Obama again — this time, in the Oval Office.
The 68-year-old former infantryman gave the president a salute, and Obama returned it.
Over the years, the gift of that military patch had taken on an almost mythic significance among the Obama inner circle.
Obama carried it among about a dozen similar tokens that people had pressed upon him during the 2008 campaign, and he told aides that it was a reminder of why he had run for president in the first place.
He had served in Vietnam in a unit that suffered 10,041 casualties over the course of the war. From the time he had come home, the patch — which was the only shred he kept of his uniform — had been Smith’s lucky charm. Smith had survived the war, and endured three years in prison in the 1970s on charges for which he was later pardoned. He then built a successful career in the hotel industry, which took him and his patch halfway around the world again.
read more here
Fri Jan 18 2013
When Earl Smith first met then Senator Obama in an elevator in February 2008 at the Hyatt Regency in Austin, his time with the future President was short. But Smith gave Obama something that he would carry with him for the rest of the campaign.
The Washington Post
Military Divorce Rate Down Slightly in 2012
Military Divorce Rate Down Slightly in 2012
Jan 23, 2013
Military.com
by Amy Bushatz
The military divorce rate went down slightly in 2012, settling at 3.5 percent, according to Pentagon statistics released to Military.com on Tuesday.
Military officials and divorce experts are hopeful that the overall rate, which had crept slowly up from 2.6 percent in 2001 to 3.7 percent in 2011, is starting to move downward. Still, researchers are hesitant to call the decrease a real trend until they see it continue for a longer period.
“The sense is that things are possibly drifting down,” said Benjamin Karney, a researcher with the RAND Corp. who has studied military divorce. “Interpreting it is a challenge. As much as it would be terrific to say ‘Oh great, we’ve turned a corner,’ it’s really hard to do that in one year.”
The divorce rate is measured by comparing the number of married military members at the beginning to the end of the fiscal year while taking into account attrition, new recruits, and new marriages.
Between 2011 and 2012, the divorce rate went down slightly in every service among male and female servicemembers of all ranks.
Enlisted female soldiers and Marines, however, continue to experience the highest rate of divorce -- 9.4 percent and 9.3 percent respectively. In the Army, the female enlisted divorce rate is more than triple that of enlisted males. Still, those rates are down from the 2011 rates of 9.6 percent in Army and 9.8 percent in the Marine Corps.
Jan 23, 2013
Military.com
by Amy Bushatz
The military divorce rate went down slightly in 2012, settling at 3.5 percent, according to Pentagon statistics released to Military.com on Tuesday.
Military officials and divorce experts are hopeful that the overall rate, which had crept slowly up from 2.6 percent in 2001 to 3.7 percent in 2011, is starting to move downward. Still, researchers are hesitant to call the decrease a real trend until they see it continue for a longer period.
“The sense is that things are possibly drifting down,” said Benjamin Karney, a researcher with the RAND Corp. who has studied military divorce. “Interpreting it is a challenge. As much as it would be terrific to say ‘Oh great, we’ve turned a corner,’ it’s really hard to do that in one year.”
The divorce rate is measured by comparing the number of married military members at the beginning to the end of the fiscal year while taking into account attrition, new recruits, and new marriages.
Between 2011 and 2012, the divorce rate went down slightly in every service among male and female servicemembers of all ranks.
Enlisted female soldiers and Marines, however, continue to experience the highest rate of divorce -- 9.4 percent and 9.3 percent respectively. In the Army, the female enlisted divorce rate is more than triple that of enlisted males. Still, those rates are down from the 2011 rates of 9.6 percent in Army and 9.8 percent in the Marine Corps.
“The divorce rates are perhaps trickling down because the pace of deployment is getting slower,” he said. “Another possibility is that the economy is kind of bouncing back and military families are absolutely affected by the broader national economy, so maybe their lives are gradually getting easier.”
read more here
"Dirty Dozen" World War II hero James "Jake" McNiece passed away
WWII Hero, Inspiration for 'The Dirty Dozen,' Dies
Jan 23, 2013
UPI
World War II hero James "Jake" McNiece, whose behind-the-lines exploits helped inspire the film "The Dirty Dozen," has died, family members said. He was 93.
McNiece, a retired postal worker who spent most of his adult life in Ponca City, Okla., but lived his last years near family in Springfield, Ill., passed away Monday, The (Oklahoma City) Oklahoman reported.
McNiece led a group of soldiers nicknamed "The Filthy 13" on a paratroop mission behind German lines in the hours before the June 6, 1944, D-Day invasion by Allied forces.
Their mission was to destroy bridges and prevent German reinforcements from moving into Normandy and retreating forces from leaving.
read more here
Jan 23, 2013
UPI
World War II hero James "Jake" McNiece, whose behind-the-lines exploits helped inspire the film "The Dirty Dozen," has died, family members said. He was 93.
McNiece, a retired postal worker who spent most of his adult life in Ponca City, Okla., but lived his last years near family in Springfield, Ill., passed away Monday, The (Oklahoma City) Oklahoman reported.
McNiece led a group of soldiers nicknamed "The Filthy 13" on a paratroop mission behind German lines in the hours before the June 6, 1944, D-Day invasion by Allied forces.
Their mission was to destroy bridges and prevent German reinforcements from moving into Normandy and retreating forces from leaving.
read more here
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