WWII Pilot Takes to Sky At 92

World War II bomber pilot flies plane of his dreams 70 years later at Stallion 51 
Around Osceola
By Charlie Reed
Staff Writer
February 18, 2015

“I think helping people was therapeutic. I gained a lot of insight into my own problems,” said Coutu, who also has sought help from the Veterans Administration for his PTSD.

World War II and Korean War veteran Armand Coutu, who celebrated his 92nd birthday Sunday, took to the skies last week in the venerable Mustang at Stallion 51 in Kissimmee.

Seventy years after Armand Coutu flew his last bomber mission, the World War II and Korean War veteran got the chance to fly the aircraft of his dreams – the P-51 fighter plane.

World War II and Korean War veteran Armand Coutu, who celebrated his 92nd birthday Sunday, took to the skies last week in the venerable Mustang at Stallion 51 in Kissimmee.

Coutu, who celebrated his 92nd birthday Sunday, took to the skies last week in the venerable Mustang at Stallion 51 in Kissimmee.

The flight and training center at Kissimmee Gateway Airport provides novice pilots and veterans such as Coutu the chance to fly some of the world’s rarest war-era planes.

Coutu, a native of Massachusetts who now lives in Clermont, joined Aviation Cadet Reserve Corps after graduating from high school in 1940. He was drafted by the Army in 1943 and completion of basic training got a choice: attend medical school at Yale University or learn to fly. Coutu opted for the latter.

The U.S. military needed bombers and he was commissioned as a lieutenant to fly the B-25 Mitchell.

Coutu’s days as a bomber pilot kept him in the U.S. hunting German U-boats off the eastern coast of the country until the Nazis were defeated in the spring of 1945. He spent the rest of the war flying missions off the west coast in pursuit of Japanese submarines until the Japan surrendered in August that year following the nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
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Repeating History Equals Predictable Outcome for Veterans

"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."
Albert Einstein

Repeating history equals predictable outcome and that is what veterans have been dealing with for decades.

If you think any of the reports you read in newspapers today are new issues, then consider the source. The reporters, most of them anyway, were not even born when veterans came home from Vietnam. They have absolutely no idea what happened or when, but the worst thing about them is they don't even want to learn.

There is nothing coming out of Washington that is new. All the bills they write have been done over and over and over again and everyone of them has failed.

Consider the Clay Hunt Suicide Prevention Act that floods your email box about being a good thing. It all sounds good but for those paying attention it is all too familiar.

Somehow, somewhere, someone decided to pull a fast one of the American public all so ready to do whatever it takes to take care of veterans without ever once considering the "doers" are doing it to the veterans instead of for the veterans.

Vietnam Veterans came home and pushed for the research and funding. This shows how long it has been going on. Notice 1980? That came after years of research before they adopted what many psychiatrists were already calling it,

VA PTSD Research

PTSD: National Center for PTSD

Congressional Mandate
The National Center for PTSD was created in 1989 within the Department of Veterans Affairs in response to a Congressional mandate (PL 98-528) to address the needs of Veterans and other trauma survivors with PTSD. The Center was developed with the ultimate purpose to improve the well-being, status, and understanding of Veterans in American society.

The mandate called for a center of excellence that would set the agenda for research and education on PTSD without direct responsibility for patient care. Convinced that no single VA site could adequately serve this unique mission, VA established the Center as a consortium of five division s.

We've been doing so much on PTSD for so long now that there should be no questions, no veterans still trying to figure stuff out on their own, no stigma, no lack of care but it is worse for them now than before when less was being done.

Everytime they pass a bill, it comes with a pricetag on it. Someone is making money. No matter what the outcome is, they still get paid and keep the money. Congress turns around and cuts them another check when things get worse.

Here's some reminders of what your tax dollars paid for.
The Epic of Gilgamesh Cartoon for PTSD by the VA

THIS HAPPENED IN 2007

DoD/VA Post-Deployment Health Clinical Practice Guideline (PDH-CPG) TrainingTable of Contents
PDH-CPG Training Briefs are seven condensed (7-12 minute) training modules produced by the DoD Deployment Health Clinical Center. These modules were designed to provide clinicians with guidance on implementation of the DoD/VA Post-Deployment Health Clinical Practice Guideline (PDH-CPG).(Produced by DoD Deployment Health Clinical Center)
Introduction
Primary Care Screening
Primary Care Evaluation
Clinical Management and Follow-up
Clinical Health Risk Communication
Coding and Documentation
Post-Deployment Health Assessment (PDHA)
The Epic of Gilgamesh is a 15 minute video produced by the Veterans Administration illustrating the implementation of the PDH-CPG through the use of animated characters. It is suitable for all audiences - providers, support staff, service members and their families.(Produced by VA Employee Education System)

President Bush signed the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2008 today, handing over an extra $3.7 billion to the Department of Veterans Affairs.

THIS HAPPENED IN JANUARY OF 2008

Bush had to sign the act by Jan. 18, or VA would have lost the promised extra funding, which will be used to hire and train people to process the backlog of more than 600,000 benefits claims, said Dave Autry, spokesman for Disabled American Veterans. Some of the money also will go toward medical research for conditions such as traumatic brain injuries.

Rural Veterans The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)has provided $21.7 million to its regional health care systems to improve services specifically designed for veterans in rural areas.

THIS HAPPENED IN 2009

"This special allocation is the latest down payment on VA's commitment to meet the needs of veterans living in rural areas," said Secretary of Veterans Affairs Dr. James B. Peake. "VA will take to our rural veterans the health care services they have earned." Within the last year, VA has launched a major rural health initiative.

Last year, 2014, they tried this one, Oscar the Grouch to train VA employees

The beleaguered Department of Veterans Affairs depicted dissatisfied veterans as Oscar the Grouch in a recent internal training guide, and some vets and VA staffers said Tuesday that they feel trashed.

The cranky Sesame Street character who lives in a garbage can was used in reference to veterans who will attend town-hall events Wednesday in Philadelphia.

"There is no time or place to make light of the current crisis that the VA is in," said Joe Davis, a national spokesman for the VFW. "And especially to insult the VA's primary customer."

The 18-page slide show on how to help veterans with their claims, presented to VA employees Friday and obtained by The Inquirer, also says veterans might be demanding and unrealistic and tells VA staffers to apologize for the "perception" of the agency.

The spokeswoman from the Philadelphia VA benefits office - which will host the town halls Wednesday at noon and 6:30 p.m. - said in a statement that the agency regretted any misunderstanding caused by the slide show.

Within some of the funds they spent on suicide prevention aside from the obvious failures of Battlemind and Comprehensive Soldier Fitness, we have these.

"The $677,000 study, which began a few months ago, will last two years. They hope to interview 100 participants."

That was for the University of Kentucky to find out how 100 families felt after a veteran committed suicide in 2012.

So let the press make fun of this one but yet again, they are not even close to what they should have been paying attention to all along. OBTW, this "effort" from the VA isn't new either.

VA Core Values and Characteristics

Orlando Veterans Find Harder to Get Care than Uninsured Citizens?

9 Investigates veteran's battle with VA over breast cancer treatment
WFTV News
February 17, 2015

Maynard, who has helped 4,000 women through her nonprofit, said she has found it more difficult to get help for George than women who don't have any insurance.

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — A woman battling breast cancer is now also battling the Veterans Administration to get the treatment she needs.

As a veteran Dawn George fought for her country, working in military intelligence in Panama.

Now she is in a battle for her life against breast cancer and said she feels like her country is fighting against her.

"Now I am going to be constantly concerned, 'Is that cancer on my other one?'" George said.

In November, George had a biopsy that determined she had breast cancer.

Her VA doctor told her that it was stage zero and all she needed was a lumpectomy.

George was concerned about the diagnosis and found the advocacy group Libby's Legacy.
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9 Investigates woman's battle with VA to get cancer treatment
WFTV News
February 18, 2015

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — A Channel 9 investigation found a second local woman who said the Veterans Association isn’t giving her the cancer treatment she needs.

She contacted Channel 9’s Lori Brown after Brown told another veteran’s story about how she had to go elsewhere to get a similar treatment.

The treatment the VA is refusing was ordered by one of the VA’s own doctors.

When Vietnam War veteran Pamela Paddock saw Brown’s story about retired E4 specialist Dawn George, it sounded all too familiar.

“I think they need to stop playing with people’s lives,” said Paddock.

The VA refused to give George an MRI before giving her a lumpectomy, then the hospital refused to give her a biopsy.

The nonprofit Libby’s Legacy, which usually helps people with no insurance, stepped in to pay for both tests.

The tests revealed that George’s cancer was far more extensive than her doctors thought.

“When women would like to proceed with additional testing, it should not be denied to them,” said Dr. Susan Curry, of the Women’s Center for Radiology.
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More Than Half A Million Veterans on Opioids Face Rule Change

New rules on narcotic painkillers cause grief for veterans and the VA 
Washington Post
Emily Wax-Thibodeaux
February 18, 2015

More than half a million veterans are now on prescription opioids, according to the VA.

Craig Schroeder, shown on Feb. 6, 2015, was injured in 2006 while serving with the Marines in Iraq and suffers from traumatic brain injury and pain, for which he has been on a steady regimen of opioids.
TED RICHARDSON/THE WASHINGTON POST

WASHINGTON — New federal rules that make it harder to get narcotic painkillers are taking an unexpected toll on thousands of veterans who depend on these prescription drugs to treat everything from missing limbs to post-traumatic stress.

The restrictions, adopted last summer by the Drug Enforcement Administration to curb a national epidemic of opioid abuse, are for the first time, in effect, forcing veterans to return to the doctor every month to renew their medication, although many were already struggling to get appointments at overburdened VA health facilities. And even if patients can get appointments, the new rules pose an additional hardship for many who live a good distance from the health centers.

While the tighter regulation applies to everyone on opioid painkillers, it's hitting veterans especially hard because so many are being treated for horrific injuries sustained during the long wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and have become dependent on the VA's beleaguered health-care system for medical care.

The rules come at a time of turmoil for the Department of Veterans Affairs. The agency's widespread problem with patient backlogs burst into view last year with revelations that employees had covered up how long veterans had to wait for care, even for such pressing matters as cancer and suicide prevention.
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Female Iraq Veteran Covers Veterans in Style

Female Veteran Creates Vet Apparel For Women
Veteran turned entrepreneur makes stylish shirts for female vets
AOL
Kristen Felicetti
Feb 18th 2015

When Nadine Noky, an Iraq War veteran, returned to civilian life, she could not find any apparel for women veterans. T-shirts were large, unfitted, and the designs all had giant eagles on the front.

So Noky learned how to screen print and in 2014 launched Lady Brigade, which she believes is the first and only female veterans clothing line. The smart designs are fitted for women and feature slogans specifically targeted to female veterans like "Mother, sister, soldier", "Any girl can wear heels, but it takes a woman to wear combat boots", and "She served her country". In addition to fitted tees, the line includes racerbank tanks and hoodies.

When Noky wears her designs, the 29-year-old said she's often approached by people surprised she's a veteran. With women serving in 95 percent of all Army occupations and making up about 15.7 percent of the Active Army, she hopes to expand the image of a veteran.

Noky served in the military from 2002 to 2007. In 2005, four months after the birth of her son, she was deployed to Iraq. She left the military as a radar technician and then pursued a new career in graphic design and advertising, which led to starting Lady Brigade.

She single-handedly runs the company out of her Florida home where she lives with her son, now ten-years-old. The company is dedicated to sourcing all of its merchandise from American manufacturers and Noky designs and prints all the shirts herself. She also runs the Lady Brigade website and blog, and personally packages and sends each shirt.
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See more from Lady Brigade

If you are a female veteran,,,be proud of the long history you belong to!