Embattled director of Veterans Affairs in Pacific resigns
Honolulu Star Advertiser
By Dan Nakaso
February 17, 2016
Wayne Pfeffer, the embattled head of the Veterans Administration’s Pacific Islands Health Care System, has abruptly resigned, effectively immediately, and will be returning to the mainland.
Pfeffer had been on the job less than three years and oversaw a system that at one point in 2014 had the longest wait times in the entire VA system for an incoming patient to get an initial appointment with a primary care physician. In 2014, U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard had called for Pfeffer’s resignation.
Acting director Tonia Bagby, a clinical psychologist, today referred to Pfeffer’s departure as a “retirement,” rather than a resignation.
Pfeffer was not on the job today after sending an email to the VA staff around noon Tuesday that read, “It has not been an easy decision for me, however due to personal reasons, I am retiring and returning to the mainland.
read more here
Friday, February 19, 2016
WWII Iwo Jima Marine First Lt. John Wells Passed Away
Marine who led WWII charge up Mount Suribachi on Iwo Jima dies
Marine Corps Times
By Matthew L. Schehl
February 17, 2016
First Lt. John Wells, 94, died Feb. 11 at the Arvada Care Rehabilitation Center in Arvada, Colorado.
Wells received the Navy Cross, Bronze Star and Purple Heart after leading his Marines in a frontal assault up the slopes of Mount Suribachi during the Battle of Iwo Jima in World War II.
He didn’t make it to the top after taking multiple enemy rounds, but continued to command, leading his men to victory. His platoon raised the first flag atop the mountain, hours before the iconic photo of the second flag raising was captured.
“He was a very warm, sensitive, spiritual man, all the way to age 94,” Connie Schultz, Well’s daughter, told ABC affiliate Denver 7. “He honored and loved the Marine Corps with all his heart and soul. He loved his family, and his last words were, ‘My family.’ ”
read more here
Marine Corps Times
By Matthew L. Schehl
February 17, 2016
Wells, meanwhile, persuaded a corpsman to donate morphine to him, escaped from the hospital ship and joined his men shortly after the flag raising.
John Keith Wells of Abilene, Texas, left, chats with then-Gov. Rick Perry during a brunch that Perry hosted in Wells' honor in 2006. A first lieutenant in World War II, Wells commanded 3rd Platoon, Easy Company, 2nd Battalion, 28th Marines, 5th Marine Division, during the Battle of Iwo Jima. The unit became the most decorated platoon to fight in a single engagement in the history of the Marine Corps.The Marine who led the charge to place the first American flag above Iwo Jima has died.
(Photo: Harry Cabluck/AP)
First Lt. John Wells, 94, died Feb. 11 at the Arvada Care Rehabilitation Center in Arvada, Colorado.
Wells received the Navy Cross, Bronze Star and Purple Heart after leading his Marines in a frontal assault up the slopes of Mount Suribachi during the Battle of Iwo Jima in World War II.
He didn’t make it to the top after taking multiple enemy rounds, but continued to command, leading his men to victory. His platoon raised the first flag atop the mountain, hours before the iconic photo of the second flag raising was captured.
“He was a very warm, sensitive, spiritual man, all the way to age 94,” Connie Schultz, Well’s daughter, told ABC affiliate Denver 7. “He honored and loved the Marine Corps with all his heart and soul. He loved his family, and his last words were, ‘My family.’ ”
read more here
Over 300,000 Less Than Honorable Discharges Since 2001?
Veterans Seek Greater Emphasis on PTSD in Bids to Upgrade Discharges
New York Times
By DAVE PHILIPPS
FEB. 19, 2016
On the sergeant’s first deployment, his duties often required him to photograph mutilated corpses. After coming home, he was stalked by nightmares and despair. In 2007, he overdosed on pills, and his platoon found him passed out in a grove of trees at Fort Stewart, Ga., that had been planted to honor soldiers killed in combat.
Instead of screening Mr. Goldsmith for post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, records show that the Army wrote him up for missing his flight, then forced him out of the military with a less-than-honorable discharge. When he petitioned the Army to upgrade his discharge, arguing that he missed his flight because of undiagnosed PTSD, it rejected his appeal.
read more here
New York Times
By DAVE PHILIPPS
FEB. 19, 2016
Since 2001, more than 300,000 people, about 13 percent of all troops, have been forced out of the military with less-than-honorable discharges.
Mr. Goldsmith, center, and other veterans met with Senator Jack Reed, Democrat of Rhode Island, right, in January to discuss the military’s discharge process. “I’ve been fighting for eight years, and I can’t get anywhere,” Mr. Goldsmith said. Credit Stephen Crowley/The New York TimesWASHINGTON — Kristofer Goldsmith was discharged from the Army at the height of the Iraq war because he was not on a plane to Baghdad for his second deployment. Instead, he was in a hospital after attempting suicide the night before.
On the sergeant’s first deployment, his duties often required him to photograph mutilated corpses. After coming home, he was stalked by nightmares and despair. In 2007, he overdosed on pills, and his platoon found him passed out in a grove of trees at Fort Stewart, Ga., that had been planted to honor soldiers killed in combat.
Instead of screening Mr. Goldsmith for post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, records show that the Army wrote him up for missing his flight, then forced him out of the military with a less-than-honorable discharge. When he petitioned the Army to upgrade his discharge, arguing that he missed his flight because of undiagnosed PTSD, it rejected his appeal.
read more here
Rocky Bleier, Army Vietnam Veteran 4 Time Super Bowl Champ
Vietnam Veteran overcomes war injuries to win four Super Bowls with the Pittsburgh Steelers
Department of Veterans Affairs
Melissa Heintz
February 19, 2016
Secretary Bob McDonald invited Rocky Bleier, Army Vietnam Veteran, Pittsburgh Steelers star and four-time Super Bowl Champion, to the VA to share his gripping story of courage on the battlefields of Vietnam and his time on America’s football fields.
A year after his 1968 rookie season with the Pittsburgh Steelers, Bleier was drafted for the second time; he entered the U.S. Army in December 1968 during the Vietnam War. Bleier was a squad grenadier and operated a 40mm M79 grenade launcher with the 196th Light Infantry Brigade.
He was in Vietnam for only three months when he was wounded on a patrol when his platoon was ambushed in a rice paddy near Heip Duc. He took a bullet in his left thigh moments before a grenade sent shrapnel through his right leg, removing part of his right foot. Bleier was evacuated to an aid station in Da Nang, Vietnam, to recover from his injuries before being transferred to Tokyo then back to the United States. His doctors told him that he would never play football again.
It was at the field aid station in Da Nang where he met a Veteran that changed his perspective on life. Across from him was a young soldier, a triple amputee who lost his left arm and both legs. Every day before that soldier left for therapy, he’d stop at each bed in the ward, including Bleier’s, to give them words of encouragement.
read more here
PTSD: It's What Happened To You
PTSD: Through the eyes of a door gunner
GARY — Post-traumatic stress disorder “isn’t what’s wrong with you. It’s what happened to you," decorated Vietnam War veteran Jim Chancellor told an assembly Thursday.
"War knows no boundary. We (veterans of all wars) are sewn together with the same fabric, the same thread.”
Chancellor, 66, shared that message Thursday during his presentation “PTSD: Through the Eyes of a Door Gunner” at Indiana University Northwest.
His presentation kicked off the latest exploration of veterans’ issues sponsored by the university as part of yearlong “One Book, One Community” effort. Throughout the 2015-16 academic year, IUN and its surrounding community are exploring the themes of the book Operation Homecoming: Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Home Front, in the Words of U.S. Troops and Their Families.
read more here
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)