Utah Candlelight Vigil Remembers 22 Veterans Gone Everyday

Vets who've taken their own lives honored at candlelight vigil
Herald Extra
Kurt Hanson
Daily Herald
December 20, 2014

“War is a terrible thing and it’s taken probably the best of every generation since this country’s been born,” said Gary Anderson, Utah County Commissioner.

Julie Hill of Park City looks downward during the moment of silence during the Winter Solstice Celebration of Life event at Elks Lodge Memorial Park in Provo on Saturday, Dec. 20, 2014. During the event, a bell was rang 22 times to honor the 22 veterans who commit suicide every day. SAMMY JO HESTER, Daily Herald

PROVO—Christmas, as joyous of a season as it is, can also be a time of depression or even loneliness for those going through post-traumatic stress disorder.

Unfortunately, veterans who may be suffering from PTSD end their lives all too frequently.

In fact, 22 veterans commit suicide every day within the United States, according to data from the Department of Veteran Affairs.

“This is a tragedy,” said Richard Thayer, vice president Utah County chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness.

A special event was held Saturday night to honor those men and women who take their own lives each day.

A candlelight vigil was held and a bell was rung 22 times, symbolic of each life lost by suicide each day, before the audience bowed their heads in a moment of silence.

“They come back maybe with no visible wound, but [the wounds] are deep,” he said. “We don’t treat those.”

Anderson said he wants to help veterans within Utah County as much as possible, whether or not they are experiencing PTSD. He announced, with the help of Judge Lynn Davis of the Fourth District Court, that there will be a Veteran’s Court in Utah County come next year.

“I’m not a politician,” Davis said. “But frankly, on a national level, I’ve been disturbed at the neglect and oversight of our veterans to say the least.”
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Vietnam MIA Pilot Thomas Duffy Served 13 Years in Air Force Then as a Marine

Side Streets: MIA widow grateful to finally know how pilot husband died in Vietnam
The Gazette
Staff
December 21, 2014

"Duff had served 13 years in the Air Force, then transferred to the Marines for six more years until his death so he could fly the F-4. He served in Vietnam in 1967-68 before going back in 1971 for another tour of combat duty. If that doesn't qualify Duff as a hero, nothing does.

In fact, I think everyone in this story is a hero."

For 42 years, Ann Duffy wondered exactly what happened on April 27, 1972.

That was the day her husband, Thomas Duffy, went missing in action in Vietnam after the F-4 Phantom he was piloting went down over Da Nang bay.

About all Ann knew was that the radar/weapons officer in the backseat had ejected and survived.

But she never knew why "Duff," as she calls her husband, didn't make it out of the fighter jet. She didn't even know the circumstances of the incident. She assumed they were in combat and believed he had collided with a North Vietnamese plane.

"He went down over water, but I don't know what happened," Ann told me recently. "I didn't insist on his backseater getting in touch with us. They never even told me his name. I wish I had asked."

The voice of the 80-year-old widow trailed off.

"I always wanted to ask what happened," she said. "How did he get out alive and not Duff?"
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'Assassinated': Shock After Two NYPD Officers Gunned

'Assassinated': Shock After Two NYPD Officers Gunned Down in Their Car
NBC News
BY PHIL HELSEL AND JONATHAN DIENST
December 21, 2014

Investigators believe the gunman who ambushed and fatally shot two New York City Police Department officers Saturday boasted on social media that "I'm putting wings on pigs today" before the killings. The Instagram post also references Michael Brown and Eric Garner, two unarmed black men who died in confrontations with police.

Police said Ismaaiyl Brinsley, 28, walked up to a police car in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn at 2:47 p.m. and shot officers Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos through the passenger side window, fatally striking both in the head. Brinsley then ran to a nearby subway station where he turned the gun on himself, police said.

"Today two of New York's finest were shot and killed, with no warning, no provocation. They were, quite simply, assassinated," Police Commissioner William Bratton said. "Targeted for their uniform and for the responsibility they embraced to keep the people of this city safe."
Police said Brinsley — who has an extensive rap sheet, with more than 15 arrests in the past 10 years — is suspected of shooting and wounding an ex-girlfriend in a Baltimore suburb earlier Saturday before he traveled to New York and ambushed the officers. While Baltimore County Police sent a fax warning that Brinsley was a suspect in that shooting and might be in New York, that message came in just as Brinsley was carrying out the attack, according to Bratton.
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Veteran Went to the VA for Help, He Died and So Did His Wife

Veteran's family sues the Fayetteville VA Medical Center over his suicide
FayObserver
By Greg Barnes Staff writer
December 19, 2014

The family of Paul Wade Adams Sr. of Lumberton has filed a federal lawsuit alleging that the Fayetteville Veterans Affairs Medical Center failed to provide proper care and follow-up treatment before Adams killed his wife and then himself on July 18, 2012.

The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina, seeks $40 million for the deaths of Adams, an Army veteran, and his wife, Cathy. The lawsuit names the U.S. government as the defendant. The couple had been married 38 years. He was 62. She was 56.

According to the lawsuit, Paul Adams went to the Fayetteville VA on June 15, 2012, complaining of having suicidal thoughts. He was prescribed the anti-depressant Zoloft, the lawsuit says.

On July 4, the lawsuit alleges, Adams tried to shoot himself but was left with only a flash burn on his head.

Two days later, the lawsuit alleges, his daughter, Jennifer Nichole Fairfax, took him to the VA's emergency department. A nursing triage note on that day says Adams admitted having had suicidal thoughts for the previous two months.

According to the lawsuit, Adams was admitted directly into the VA's psychiatric unit, where records indicate that he suffered "suicidal ideation and homicidal ideation," indicating he had thoughts or plans to kill other people.

The lawsuit says Adams spent four days in the psychiatric ward. In that time, it says, VA did not take steps to warn his family or make sure that Adams did not have access to guns after his release.

According to the lawsuit, VA switched Adams' medication from Zoloft to another antidepressant, Wellbutrin. Records show that Adams was to gradually increase the dosage and that maximum benefits would be reached in three to four weeks.

The lawsuit says the VA did not keep Adams in the hospital long enough to test or observe whether the new medication was working and released him while he was still at high risk of committing homicide or suicide.

VA initiated Adams' release - not the family - and left him outside the hospital until his wife picked him up, the lawsuit says.
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Betty's Laughing Horse 25th Annual Toy Run to Central Florida Children's Home

If you live in the Orlando area, you may have seen a huge procession of motorcycles with Orlando Police officers blocking the road. That was us on the 25th Annual Betty's Laughing Horse Toy Run.

Betty's Laughing Horse 25th Annual Toy Run to Central Florida Children's Home - Orlando, FL

Please join us for monumental year. Saturday 12/20/14 for Betty's Laughing Horse's 25th Annual Toy Run to the Central Florida Children's Home.

Since 1973 the CFCH has been taking in abandoned, abused, neglected and underprivileged children whose parents either cannot or will not care for them. The home receives NO STATE or FEDERAL FUNDS but solely relies on the generosity of the people and businesses in the community to keep the doors open and food on the table. Registration is from 9 am - 11 am @ Betty's Laughing Horse 907 N. Goldenrod Rd. Orlando, Florida with a group ride leaving at 11 am with police escort along with Fire and Iron MC to the children's home. 

The children's wish list will be up at Betty's by 11/15/14 and you can also contact TROUBLE @ 407 595-2488 who has a master wish list with her at all times. Please find it in your heart to sponsor one gift or an entire wish list for a needy child. Breakfast will be available the day of the run. We will also have a Color Guard Ceremony and Blessing of the Bikes before we ride out.

Pretty much I think at least a couple of hundred of us answered the call. Video up later on this.

Yes, the owner let me sit on her bike.

The Grinch showed up with a bigger heart

Orlando Police Officers did a fabulous job escorting!

This is Betty.

You saw the pictures now here are the videos
 The ride