Eielson Air Force Chaplain Next Catholic Bishop

Air Force Chaplain Chosen to Become Catholic Bishop
Alaska Dispatch News, Anchorage
by Dermot Cole
Dec 17, 2014

U.S. Air Force Maj. Chad Zielinski, 354th Fighter Wing Catholic chaplain,
preaches during Sunday Mass at Fort Wainwright, Alaska,
June 29, 2014. (U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Joseph Swafford)

FAIRBANKS -- When the command post at Eielson Air Force Base summons an Air Force chaplain, it's almost always a crisis that requires immediate attention.

After the phone rang at 6:15 a.m. that Saturday morning in November, the Rev. Chad Zielinski, 50, thought it was not an emergency, but a big mistake.

In this case, the caller, perhaps not fully aware of the time zone, identified himself as Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, the ambassador from the Vatican who represents Pope Francis in Washington, D.C. "Our Holy Father, Pope Francis, has appointed you Bishop of Fairbanks," Vigano told Zielinski.

Zielinski, a chaplain for 12 years and a Catholic priest for 18 years, asked Vigano who he was three or four times, thinking that the Apostolic Nuncio had the wrong Zielinski.

"I was so tired and could not think straight," Zielinski said, reconstructing the Nov. 8 conversation in a letter to those who worship with him at Our Lady of Snows Catholic Community at Eielson.
read more here

Soldier Fed Hungry Woman and Sat with Her a While

Family looking for soldier who bought hungry Petersburg woman a hot meal
NBC 12 Virginia
By Ashley Monfort
Updated: Dec 17, 2014

PETERSBURG, VA (WWBT)
An effort is underway to find a soldier who bought a hungry woman a hot meal in Petersburg. Another customer posted a photo of the soldier sitting down with the stranger at the Hardee's off of Route 460 in Petersburg on Tuesday.

NBC12 tracked down the woman and now her family wants to thank the man who gave her a hot meal.

A motel off of Route 460 in Petersburg is where Roxie Delphine Edwards calls home, and a hot meal isn't always easy to come by. She says she goes hungry some days.

Edwards lives near a Hardee's restaurant where the manager says she usually just asks for a drink. On Tuesday she says she walked in the rain and asked a soldier for help. "I asked him if he could buy me something to eat and he said yeah," Edwards said.
read more here

Abuse of PTSD Civil War Soldiers Repeated in the Army Now

If you think things haven't changed much since then, you're right. Considering what was reported about Warrior Transition Units telling PTSD soldiers to "suck it up" and "man up" the attitude is still the same after all these years.

Did Civil War Soldiers Have PTSD? 
One hundred and fifty years later, historians are discovering some of the earliest known cases of post-traumatic stress disorder
Smithsonian Magazine
By Tony Horwitz
January 2015

The wounded soldiers above were photographed at a hospital in Fredericksburg, Virginia, between 1861 and 1865. (Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs division)

This veil is now lifting, in dramatic fashion, amid growing awareness of conditions like post-traumatic stress disorder. A year ago, the National Museum of Civil War Medicine mounted its first exhibit on mental health, including displays on PTSD and suicide in the 1860s. Historians and clinicians are sifting through diaries, letters, hospital and pension files and putting Billy Yank and Johnny Reb on the couch as never before. Genealogists have joined in, rediscovering forgotten ancestors and visiting their graves in asylum cemeteries.

In the summer of 1862, John Hildt lost a limb. Then he lost his mind.

The 25-year-old corporal from Michigan saw combat for the first time at the Seven Days Battle in Virginia, where he was shot in the right arm. Doctors amputated his shattered limb close to the shoulder, causing a severe hemorrhage. Hildt survived his physical wound but was transferred to the Government Hospital for the Insane in Washington D.C., suffering from “acute mania.”

Hildt, a laborer who’d risen quickly in the ranks, had no prior history of mental illness, and his siblings wrote to the asylum expressing surprise that “his mind could not be restored to its original state.” But months and then years passed, without improvement. Hildt remained withdrawn, apathetic, and at times so “excited and disturbed” that he hit other patients at the asylum. He finally died there in 1911—casualty of a war he’d volunteered to fight a half-century before.

The Civil War killed and injured over a million Americans, roughly a third of all those who served. This grim tally, however, doesn’t include the conflict’s psychic wounds. Military and medical officials in the 1860s had little grasp of how war can scar minds as well as bodies. Mental ills were also a source of shame, especially for soldiers bred on Victorian notions of manliness and courage.

For the most part, the stories of veterans like Hildt have languished in archives and asylum files for over a century, neglected by both historians and descendants.

“We’ve tended to see soldiers in the 1860s as stoic and heroic—monuments to duty, honor and sacrifice,” says Lesley Gordon, editor of Civil War History, a leading academic journal that recently devoted a special issue to wartime trauma. “It’s taken a long time to recognize all the soldiers who came home broken by war, just as men and women do today.”

Counting these casualties and diagnosing their afflictions, however, present considerable challenges. The Civil War occurred in an era when modern psychiatric terms and understanding didn’t yet exist. Men who exhibited what today would be termed war-related anxieties were thought to have character flaws or underlying physical problems. For instance, constricted breath and palpitations—a condition called “soldier’s heart” or “irritable heart”—was blamed on exertion or knapsack straps drawn too tightly across soldiers’ chests. In asylum records, one frequently listed “cause” of mental breakdown is “masturbation.” read more here

Warning: Tissues Required for These Hearttugging Videos

Dec 8, 2010
After receiving an email of the awe inspiring poem A Soldiers Christmas, written by Michael Marks, I felt compelled to create a video montage (using the song "I Believe" by Era) that would complement Mr. Marks words. I hope it touches you as much as it did me.
HAL
Marine Veteran
Semper Fi


And for those who are carried back home, Delta Honor Guard

Kiss Raises Funds for Fisher House Orlando and Veterans Spirits

Join 1059 SUNNY FM for the grand opening celebration on Tuesday, January 6th at the new Rock and Brews Oviedo location! Tickets are available now for a public meet and greet event with Simmons and Stanley from 2-4 p.m.

The meet and greet, hosted by Stanley and Simmons, is open to the public. Tickets to the meet and greet are $200 per person and include two adult beverages per person or unlimited soft drinks, a sampling of Rock and Brews cuisine, and a photo opportunity with Stanley and Simmons.

A percentage of proceeds, not less than $10,000, will benefit the Orlando VA Medical Center’s new Fisher House in Lake Nona located just steps from the Orlando VAMC’s newest hospital. The Fisher House is designed for Veterans and their families to stay at during hospitalization at no cost or restriction on the length of the visit.

Click here to purchase your tickets to hang with Gene, Paul and 1059 SUNNY FM’s Domino!

Still Time To Sign Up For Fisher House News/Talk Holiday Show Morning Mouth

THE MOUTH, DECEMBER 15TH, 2014 –– Fisher House Foundation and news/talk radio partner again this holiday season to bring attention to wounded warriors, veterans and military families. Fisher House is offering a three-hour, highly-produced public affairs show for air between Christmas and New Year's Day. "Zachary's Gift" tells the inspiring story of Fisher House founder Zachary Fisher through heroes served by the foundation's growing network of no-cost comfort homes built on the grounds of VA and military base hospitals. The show is free; no contract, no barter. Stations may air it multiple times. Affiliates include KABC Los Angeles, WLS Chicago, WPHT Philadelphia, KSFO San Francisco, WRKO Boston, WMAL Washington, WSB Atlanta, KTRH and KPRC Houston, KTAR Phoenix, KOA Denver, WTAM Cleveland, KFBK Sacramento, WTIC Hartford, KQTH Tucson, KSL Salt Lake City, KARN Little Rock, KRMG Tulsa and many others. "Many stations are using 'Zachary's Gift' to fill a local three-hour show on Christmas or New Year's Day," said executive producer Marshall Adams. The show's host is Mark Watkins, a radio newsroom vet who recently retired from the anchor booth at WBAP and KLIF Dallas. Jeff Davis is the show's promo voice. Jonathan Shaffer from WSM Nashville is leading production and imaging. Westwod One is handling affiliate relations pro-bono. To sign up, send a note with your planned air times to Stuart Greenblatt at sgreenblatt@westwoodone.com. Marshall Adams can answer questions about content at (412) 856-3400 or radio@fisherhouse.org.