Leo Parent still fighting for veterans, even on vacation

Leo Parent still fighting for veterans
The Recorder
By DIANE BRONCACCIO
Recorder Staff
Monday, December 1, 2014

SHELBURNE FALLS — Ask Leo Parent Jr. when he plans to retire, and he’ll tell you he retired two years ago.

But sitting in the Shelburne town offices, as he has done for years, on an early Tuesday morning, he doesn’t seem to have stopped doing for veterans and widows what he’s been doing for the last 30 years.

Since 1984, Parent, a Vietnam War-era Army veteran, has been helping military veterans in 24 towns by counseling them, steering them through the maze of paperwork required to sign up for Veterans Affairs benefits and sometimes even driving a very distressed veteran to the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Leeds.

When asked how many veterans he’s helped, Parent shrugs. “I was trying to think about that,” he said. “Just say hundreds. It may be thousands.”

They include veterans from every war since World War I. One of those World War I veterans, Homer Gamelin of Turners Falls, called Parent in 1984, to see if he was interested in taking over as the region’s veterans agent, when the agent at that time was retiring.

“There was never a day that I didn’t want to go to work,” he says. “I love helping people.”

Parent has sometimes met with a distraught veteran and his wife on an emergency basis, arranged for the veteran to see a VA doctor, and even driven him there, if need be. Parent said his wife of 37 years, Susan, has been very understanding of the middle-of-the-night and emergency weekend calls.

“She never complains about the house phone calls,” he said. Parent said he could never have done what he has done without her support.

Leo Parent’s father, a World War II veteran, died several years ago, but Parent keeps the “Jr.” in his name to honor his father.

Besides his direct work with veterans, Parent is proud of his role in bringing dramatic tributes to veterans from area towns. The best known is perhaps the profusion of American flags on the slope in front of the Carnegie Library a few years ago — one flag for every American veteran killed or wounded in Iraq.

For the past 15 years, Parent and his wife have been vacationing in Yauco, Puerto Rico. While there, Parent files VA forms for veterans living in that U.S. territory. “There’s no VA guys over there,” he said. “I love doing that.”
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When Those Sirens Are Gone PTSD Song for Firefighters

Brooklyn firefighters support paramedic's effort to record PTSD single
Nova News
Carole Morris-Underhill
Published on November 30, 2014

BROOKLYN – The words to Kevin Davison's latest song have been striking a chord with firefighters, paramedics, police officers and other frontline folks since the Kentville singer published the song via social media Nov. 19.

When Davison rolled into Brooklyn Saturday night to perform When Those Sirens Are Gone, a song about post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), dry eyes were few and far between.

With thousands of video views to date, and positive comments coming in from across North America, Davison is eager to get the song professionally recorded and playing on the airwaves by early 2015. He launched a Kickstarter campaign in order to raise enough funds.

He's now even closer to his goal. Brooklyn firefighters have donated money to the cause.

“Post traumatic stress has touched everybody in the fire service,” said Brooklyn Fire Chief Andy McDade following their annual banquet.

The firefighters presented Davison with a cheque for $1,000 to help him get the single recorded and mass produced. McDade noted the funding was not from the grant money the municipality provides them, nor was it from the community at large.
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Kevin Davison-PTSD-When Those Sirens Are Gone
Nov 19, 2014
A song I wrote along with Doug Folkins honouring all First Responders and the painful reality of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
"We ain't super heroes. We're ordinary men."

Troublesome grey area in service dog law

Misuse, misunderstanding create troublesome grey area in service dog law
Bangor Daily News
By Abigail Curtis, BDN Staff
Posted Nov. 30, 2014

Ashley L. Conti | BDN Judi Bayly tells her service dog, Kira, a 7-year-old Irish setter, to look at her during lunch at the Olive Garden in Bangor on Tuesday. "The dog gives you the independence to go and do," Bayly said. "Kira's ready to go whenever I am. She's there. She watches over me."

BELFAST, Maine — Judi Bayly’s service dog, Kira, goes everywhere her owner goes. She has to — the calm Irish setter is crucial to the well-being and freedom of Bayly, who has multiple sclerosis and diabetes.

Kira has been on Caribbean cruises, shopping trips to Wal-Mart, to lunches out at restaurants, to appointments at medical offices and many other places. She is trained to pay attention to small signs that indicate Bayly’s blood sugar levels are going out of control, and also to nudge open doors and help her owner navigate tricky, small spaces, including public restrooms.

“Without having Kira to get around, I don’t,” said Bayly, who is living in Hampden right now. “I would just have to stay home.”

That’s why Bayly, 62, gets her hackles up when she hears of people abusing the Americans with Disabilities Act, the law that allows trained service dogs to accompany disabled people in all areas where members of the public can go.

“To be in a store or a business where somebody brings a pet dog that has not been trained for public access, it causes a disruption for the working dog,” she said. “I have literally had a dog jump out of a shopping cart, run five aisles over and bite my dog. My dog got bitten by a fake service dog.”

Bayly and other disability rights advocates would like more people to better understand the law, which makes it a federal crime to both use a fake service animal and to discriminate against a disabled person who is using a real one. More information would help smooth relationships between disabled people and business owners, according to Kathy Hecht of Searsport, a University of Maine at Machias instructor who teaches service dog training and uses a service dog herself.

“As somebody using a service dog, you do have rights protected under the law, but you also have huge responsibilities,” Hecht said. “A lot of people say, ‘I have a disability, and therefore, you have to put up with my dog. But nobody has to put up with a dog that is causing problems.”
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Picture of Obama and Hagel Says It All

Some pictures are worth a thousand words. Here's one of them.

For Obama and the Pentagon, an uneasy relationship

President Barack Obama reaches out to Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, following an announcement of Hagel's resignation at the White House on Nov. 24, 2014. The friction between the president and the Pentagon has been particularly pronounced during his six years in office, and seems to be affecting his ability to find a replacement for Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel. SUSAN WALSH/AP

You don't have be inside their heads to hear what they are thinking. Hagel, the Vietnam Veteran Secretary of Defense saying good-bye as President Obama shows he wants to move him along faster. Good luck to the next Secretary,,,,,you're going to need it!

'Nam vets rally Army of volunteers to help disabled comrade

'Nam vets rally to help disabled comrade
WCF Courier
By Pat Kinney
November 28, 2014

WATERLOO
Walter Sanders went into the Navy in 1968 expecting he wouldn't be sent to Vietnam. He was sent there anyway.

Now the veteran and his wife of 43 years, Karen, are encountering new battles they didn't bargain for: Walter's disability and other health issues make simply getting in and out of the shower a challenge.

Sanders is getting help from two fellow Vietnam veterans in a project supported by Wells Fargo Bank.

Building contractor Rick Reuter and Larry Walters of the Cedar Falls Veterans of Foreign Wars, Wells Fargo and an army of contractors and volunteers are expanding the bathroom in the Sanders home in the City View neighborhood on Waterloo's east side to accommodate his disabilities.

It's part of an ongoing Wells Fargo program to help veterans and includes a $10,000 grant.

"You don't know what a blessing this is. It's a blessing. I appreciate all of you. Thank you, thank you, thank you!" said Walter Sanders, who along with Karen could hardly contain their relief.

"God works through people," he said.

Sanders was a Navy storekeeper in Vietnam at Camp Tien Sha near Da Nang. Part of his duties, for which he volunteered, involved moving supplies to frontline troops near Vietnam's demilitarized zone during his tour of duty in 1968. He was exposed to the toxic defoliant Agent Orange.

Over the past 10 years he has suffered prostate cancer, a stroke, diabetes and multiple brain tumors. He is now considered cancer free but is still being seen at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Iowa City. He has mobility and balance issues and uses a cane and a wheelchair. He requires substantial care from Karen.
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