Soldier's struggle with PTSD inspired new song

EXTRAORDINARY PEOPLE: The Song of a Soldier
WWAY TV
Submitted by Daniel Seamans
12/03/2014

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) - Post Traumatic Stress Disorder can affect anyone. In the military, the Department of Veterans Affairs reports upwards of 20% of Veterans suffer from it. A local band wrote a song about a soldier who lives that life.

In part two of a special Extraordinary Person of the Week, the Song of a Soldier and how that music is helping those in need.

"He used to be so confident, now, he's grown weak from the pain," David Fair sings.

The song was born the day musician David Fair met now retired Lieutenant Colonel Cody Roberson while on touring with a former band in Texas.

David and his bandmate, Madonna Nash, singing duet: "As he walks into the local bar, drowned his pain and broken heart, until he can't find his way back home."

"Cody's story inspired me and we wrote it," Fair told Daniel Seamans.

Cody's story is one of a decorated soldier who battles life after many years of service in the military. One who suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD.

Nash and Fair's new song, 'Welcome home', is a tale of a troubled journey so emotional that the song itself had challenges.
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Andrew Eskola, Iraq Veteran or Guardian Angel?

Iraq war veteran’s military skills help save Brainerd man’s life
Brainerd Dispatch
By Forum News Service
Dec 3, 2014

“A lot of times we take these young vets for granted,” said Bingham, “but they truly have a lot of skills to offer. It would have been like trying to plug a hole in a water pump without that tourniquet.”

Frank Bingham, 61, of Brainerd discovered the hard way just how helpful strangers can be.

Bingham was on his way home via medical transport from Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis following treatment for a heart issue a couple of weeks ago. The van driver had to first make a stop to drop off another patient at Black Bear Casino Resort and then headed over to the Junction Oasis to gas up.

Bingham headed to the restroom but found the two stalls were occupied. As he waited, he took off his Harley Davidson jacket and discovered “blood running out of my arm like a waterfall,” he recalled.

“I started feeling faint so I dived for one of the urinals and held on for dear life,” he said.

A young man came out of one of the stalls and immediately came to Bingham’s aid. As it turned out, the young man was Andrew Eskola, the store manager, who told Bingham he’d learned Combat Life Saving (CLS) skills while serving in Iraq and Kuwait.

Eskola joined the Guards after graduating from Esko High School in 2007 and deployed with the Red Bulls to Kuwait and Iraq in 2011-2012. He was honorably discharged in December 2013 after seven years of service.

Thankfully, what he learned there stuck with him.
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Fort Benning Soldier attacked and trigger finger removed?

Update: Sheriff investigating claim soldier's trigger finger cut off
Ledger Enquirer
BY CHUCK WILLIAMS
December 2, 2014

As Russell County authorities investigated an active-duty soldier’s claim that two masked men forced their way into his home Tuesday morning and cut off a portion of his trigger finger, social media reports exaggerated the incident, Sheriff Heath Taylor said.

There were multiple social media posts that there were two incidents of soldiers having a finger amputated. Taylor said those reports were inaccurate.

“We don’t have an attack on our soldiers in this area losing their fingers.” Taylor said during an afternoon media briefing. “We have a soldier who has lost part of a finger, and we don’t know why that has occurred.”

The soldier, who lived on Shadow Ridge Lane near Seale, reported that two men forced their way into his home after he opened the door about 8 a.m., Taylor said. It was after the man’s children left for school and his wife left for work.

The details provided to deputies by the soldier were incomplete, Taylor said.
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VA Approved More Than 15,000 Caregivers

Veterans Health Administration Overwhelmed by Caregiver Applications
Delays in applications due to outdated IT system
Free Beacon
BY: Ellison Barber
December 3, 2014

The Department of Veterans Affairs continues to struggle to meet the demands of applications for a program intended to assist family members caring for wounded veterans, according to testimony at a House Veterans Affairs subcommittee on Wednesday.

“The number of applications we’re getting every month is 500. We had anticipated that the number of applications would eventually reach a plateau, but that hasn’t happened,” said Dr. Maureen McCarthy, the deputy chief of patient care services at the Veterans Health Administration (VHA).

The VHA’s Family Caregiver Program began in May of 2011, a year after the president signed it into law. Officials initially estimated that 4,000 eligible caregivers would enroll in the program within the first three years. By May of 2014, more than 15,000 caregivers were approved for the program—nearly quadruple the original estimate.

The Government Accountability Office released a report in September 2014 evaluating the program and found that in addition to “significantly underestimat[ing]” the demand for services, the program was hamstrung by an outdated information technology (IT) system.
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New Members Appointed to VA Advisory Committee on Minority Veterans

New Members Appointed to VA Advisory Committee on Minority Veterans
12/03/2014 03:18 PM EST

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has announced the appointment of five new members to the Advisory Committee on Minority Veterans. The committee was chartered on November 2, 1994, and advises the Secretary of Veterans Affairs on the needs of the nation’s 4.7 million minority Veterans with respect to compensation, health care, rehabilitation, outreach and other benefits and programs administered by the VA. The Committee assesses the needs of Veterans who are minority group members and recommends program improvements designed to meet their needs. The committee members are appointed to two or three-year terms. Minority Veterans comprise nearly 21 percent of the total Veteran population in the United States and its territories.

The new committee members are:
Patricia Jackson-Kelley: Lt. Col. (US Army-Ret) of Los Angeles, California; Served as one of the first full time Women Veteran Program Coordinators at the Los Angeles VAMC. Currently serves as a member of the LA County Veterans Advisory Council; Board Member of Military Women in Need Organization and LA County Council Commander of the American Legion.

Librado Rivas: Command Sgt. Maj. (USA-Ret) of Manassas, Virginia; State Commander of the DC Chapter, American GI Forum of the United States; National Liaison Officer in Washington, DC, for the National Office of the American GI Forum, and Director of the Army Lean Six Sigma.

Rebecca Stone: Staff Sgt. (USA-Ret) of Columbia, Maryland; served in Operation Iraqi Freedom and was medically retired under the Wounded Warrior Program through Warrior Transition Units. She is a certified suicide negotiator/first responder. She was also the recipient of the National Association of Female Executives (NAFE) Women of Excellence Award.

Cornell Wilson, Jr.: Maj. Gen. (USMC-Ret) of Charlotte, North Carolina; currently serves as Military Advisor to the Governor of North Carolina, where he also advises state agencies and Veteran’s organizations on the needs of Veterans.

Anthony Woods: Army Veteran of University Park, Maryland; currently serves as the Senior Manager at Cisco System’s Consulting Services and consults with the Department of Defense and the Army on IT transformations. Mr. Woods also volunteers with organizations such as Got Your 6 and Hiring Our Heroes.

The new members join current members:

Marvin Trujillo, Jr., Committee Chairman, Marine Corps Veteran

Richard de Moya, Lt. Col. (USA-Ret)

Elisandro (Alex) Diaz, Navy Veteran

Many-Bears Grinder, Col. (USA-Ret)

Harold Hunt, Army Veteran

Sheila Mitchell, Air Force Veteran

Teresita Smith, Sgt. First Class (USA-Ret)

In addition to working closely with the Advisory Committee on Minority Veterans, VA is improving its services for Veterans who are minority group members:

Establishing the Office of Health Equity Research and Promotion, which assesses health equity and health disparities within the health care system to ensure adequate policies are in place to reduce disparities in vulnerable minority Veteran populations.

Funding projects focused on Pacific Rim Veterans, including Spinal Cord Injury outreach and treatment in Hilo, Kona, Maui, Molakai, and Kauai; leveraging telehealth technology to provide clinic based tele-mental health care on the island of Kauai.

Conducting a 3-year project through VA’s Office of Rural Health to establish a collaborative National Native Telehealth Training and Consultative Service which aids in the replication of tele-mental health clinics for use by rural Native American Veterans.