Camp Pendleton Corpsman Memorial Rededicated

Corpsman monument rededicated
OC Register
By ERIKA I. RITCHIE
STAFF WRITER
Published: Dec. 12, 2014

Original memorial was installed at old Naval Hospital in 1983 but was damaged when it was moved.

JOSHUA SUDOCK , STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Raul Avina created a corpsmen monument in 1983. The monument was in front of the Naval Regional Medical Center Camp Pendleton for 31 years. Last year a new Naval Hospital Camp Pendleton opened on the base.

Attempts to move Avina's sculpture didn't go well and a new monument was created from Avina's original.

An unveiling was held Friday at the base. Many of Avina's family members were on hand for the event.

Corpsman are the Marines "docs" in combat and have saved countless lives over the decades.

"They will do this because each and every one of them know that their Marines will protect them with their very lives as well, he added."

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1,200 Fort Carson soldiers volunteered for needy in Colorado

Local Soldiers on a special ruck march Friday morning
KOAA News
By Joanna Wise
December 12, 2014

COLORADO SPRINGS
UPDATE: Fort Carson says more than 1,200 soldiers volunteered for the event, a record-setting number.

Hundreds of Fort Carson soldiers are going the extra mile, marching through downtown Colorado Springs for a good cause Friday morning.

The 5th annual 1st SCBT's Operation Holiday kicked off at Dorchester Park on South Nevada Avenue. More than 500 soldiers from the 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, donated clothing and canned goods to people in need this holiday season.

They stuffed their rucksacks with the items and then marched from the park to the soup kitchen. The departure time was set for 7:00 a.m.

The soldiers trekked across Pikes Peak Greenway Trail to Bijou Street and were expected to arrive at the Marian House around 7:30 a.m.

Rochelle Schlortt, spokesperson for the Marian House, said the event always has a huge impact.
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Utica Contractors Team Up for Disabled Vietnam Veteran

Volunteers band together to help local veteran
By WKTV News
Story Created: Dec 12, 2014

(WKTV) - It was a chilly day to be working outside Friday, but that's what about a dozen local contractors did all day long -- and they're donating their services.

They are teaming up to make a local veteran's life more comfortable. The man who lives in a home on Kirkland Avenue in Clinton is 68-year-old Richard Koury, a Clinton native. Koury served in Vietnam as a Marine in 1965 and 1966.

He suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, as well as health problems related to Agent Orange and napalm, but still worked for years at Kelsey Hayes in Utica, not taking any government help at all.

Recently, he suffered two strokes and is confined to either his hospital bed or his wheelchair in one room of his home, which is not very handicapped accessible.
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Two American soldiers were killed overnight

Two American Soldiers Killed in Afghanistan Attack: Official
NBC News

KABUL, Afghanistan — Two American soldiers were killed overnight when their convoy came under enemy attack near Bagram Airbase near Kabul in Afghanistan, a U.S. official told NBC News on Saturday. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Earlier, NATO coalition spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Justin Hadley said a roadside bomb had killed two foreign soldiers traveling in convoy near the largest U.S. military base in that country late on Friday. "It is coalition policy to defer the identity and nationality of the service members to the national authorities," Hadley said.

The bomb detonated while vehicles passed a road leading up to Bagram Airfield, local police chief Gen. Zaman Mamozai. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack in a Twitter message.
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UPDATE Department of Defense

IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Release No: NR-617-14
December 14, 2014
DoD Identifies Army Casualties

The Department of Defense announced today the deaths of two soldiers who were supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

They died Dec. 12, in Parwan Province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when the enemy attacked their vehicle with an improvised explosive device. These soldiers were assigned to 3rd Engineer Battalion, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas.

Killed were:
Sgt. 1st Class Ramon S. Morris, 37, of New York, New York; and
Spc. Wyatt J. Martin, 22, of Mesa, Arizona.

VA split up PTSD veteran peer support group on purpose?

Veterans are stronger together but the VA in Cape Coral just split up a group of 10 veterans.

Tell Mel: Vets with PTSD say Cape VA clinic kicked them out
News Press By Melanie Payne
December 11, 2014

No doubt the 10 men who were booted out of the Veterans Administration Healthcare Center in Cape Coral were treated shabbily. These guys are combat veterans who fought in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan. They all suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder or PTSD, a mental disorder that can develops following a terrifying events like those that happen in war.

Every Friday for the past 18 months the men have held their support group at the VA Clinic offices. And they wanted to continue those meetings there with their current group leaders.

The VA has a different idea. It wants one of two peer specialists, employees who are certified mental health professionals, to help run the group; something the members of this PTSD support group have refused to allow.

The current group leader is a trained volunteer, Luis Casilla. A 63-year-old Vietnam vet, Casilla is a trained peer specialist with more than a decade of experience.

"They don't want to associate with these guys," Casilla said the PTSD support group members have told him. The VA's specialists haven't had PTSD. "They don't trust them. They want keep our group. But (the VA) wants to do it their way."

The change is being dictated by a national policy, said spokesman Jason Dangel, a public affairs officers with the Bay Pines VA Healthcare System.
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