Civil War Soldier's Dying Letter Written by Walt Whitman

Rare Walt Whitman letter, written for a dying soldier, found in National Archives
Washington Post 
By Michael E. Ruane
March 9, 2016

The rare Whitman “soldier letter,” one of only three known to exist, was discovered last month by a National Archives volunteer who is part of a team preparing Civil War widows’ pension files to be digitized and placed online.

Pvt. Robert N. Jabo, of the 8th New Hampshire infantry, was dying of tuberculosis in Washington’s Harewood Hospital and needed to write to his family.

The Civil War had been over for months. Most soldiers had gone home. And Jabo’s wife and six children were no doubt wondering where he was.

But he was sick and illiterate. So a cheerful, bearded man who regularly visited hospitalized soldiers offered to write a letter for him.

“My dear wife,” it began, “you must excuse me for not having written. . . . have not been very well.” The letter explained that it was penned by “a friend who is now sitting by my side.”

And in a postscript, the friend identified himself: “Walt Whitman.”
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Kentucky Wounded Marine's Purple Heart Harley Stolen

Veteran robbed of custom Purple Heart motorcycle in Florence
Man heard engine start, saw person take off on bike
WLWT News
By Emily Wood
Mar 12, 2016

This is the ride he survived in Afghanistan

FLORENCE, Ky. —A local Purple Heart recipient is at a loss without his beloved Harley Davidson motorcycle.

Marine Combat Veteran Brandon Bailey's custom-painted Purple Heart Harley was stolen from his mother's driveway in Florence Sunday evening.

Bailey said he was at his mother's house with his wife for dinner and parked his bike parallel to the garage.

"I've been riding motorcycles since I was just a little guy," Bailey said.

Bailey enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1998 and was in Afghanistan in 2009 when his unit was hit by an IED. The Humvee he was in landed on top of him, crushing his pelvis, breaking both hips and his back.

His doctors told him he would never walk again, but Bailey was determined to not only defy their orders but get back on his bike.

Dealing with the pain from his injuries, more than 20 surgeries and PTSD, riding his bike became an escape from it all.

"That's my release. You have guys that go to war and they do things a human shouldn't do and they see things humans shouldn't see, so you need that release or you are going to explode or implode," Bailey said. "I fought cowards all over the world and then I come here and someone comes and takes a possession of mine."
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Air Force Veteran Missing in California

Police, family search for missing Air Force veteran
Air Force Times
Staff Report
March 11, 2016

Police in Hermosa Beach, California, are searching for a missing Air Force veteran, Michael David Vanzandt, who disappeared while out with friends last Saturday night.

A photo of Air Force veteran Michael Vanzandt and his children.

(Photo: Courtesy Tyler Vanzandt)

Vanzandt, 36, is a former security forces airman who now works at Edwards Air Force Base. He was last seen leaving Hermosa Beach's waterfront Pier Plaza area Saturday, March 5, with an unidentified group of people, his brother, Tyler Vanzandt, told Air Force Times.

Vanzandt was last seen on a city security camera heading east, away from the waterfront, around 11:30 pm accompanied by an unidentified group.

"We’re trying to locate those people who might have been with him," Tyler Vanzandt said. "No one's come forward to say something. That’s the biggest help we could get if one of those people would come forward. It would let us get some idea of what he was doing."
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Founder of Wounded Warrior Project John Melia Wants to Return

Wounded Warrior Project's founder says he's open to leading charity again
News4Jax
By Lynnsey Gardner - Investigative reporter
March 11, 2016

John Melia tells AP he's willing to return after CEO, COO were fired

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - One day after the Wounded Warrior Project's Board of Directors fired the nonprofit's top two executives, the man who founded the charity more than 20 years ago told the Associated Press that he's open to returning to run the organization.

Two years after former Marine John Melia, who was injured in a helicopter crash in Somalia, and his wife began stuffing backpacks to give to wounded warriors, his organization became a federally recognized charity in 2005.

Melia later recruited Steven Nardizzi and Al Giordano to the organization. Nardizzi, a lawyer who brought an aggressive entrepreneurial style to the charity, became chief executive officer and turned Wounded Warrior Project into an $800 million fundraising enterprise.

Sources told News4Jax that Nardizzi pushed Melia out of the organization in 2009.

A press release in 2009 said he Melia would stay on board with WWP, but he did not.

That's what made Friday's announcement so significant, people have not heard from him in years when it comes to the charity.

Melia said donors who supported the group since its humble beginning "have every right to be angry about the lack of stewardship shown by the immediate past leadership of WWP," and "the new leadership of the WWP must do everything in its power to restore its relationship and regain the trust of those it serves and its donors."

Melia said the actions of the two fired executives should not reflect poorly on charity employees who are still doing good work.
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• Wounded vet: Charity abandoned me
• Wounded Warrior Project exec calls allegations 'bull'
• Ex-donor demands answers from Wounded Warrior Project
• Wounded Warrior Project board hires PR firm
• Wounded Warrior Project yearbooks raise more spending questions
• Wounded Warrior Project responds to allegations
• Wounded Warrior Project accused of spending too little on injured soldiers
• Wounded Warrior Project suing 2 injured veterans
• Veteran says he felt abandoned

Army Veteran Horrified By Media Account of Dark Day

Army vet seeks to regain what was lost at Waffle House counter
Online Athens
By JOE JOHNSON
Sunday, March 13, 2016

Worthington was stung by the media’s descriptions of his appearance. “That bothers me because I’m not a man in a clown suit or a man dressed as a clown. Damn it, I am a clown,” he said. “I’d like it if people didn’t take that away from me.”

In his 25 years, Jacob Worthington has already seen and done plenty in his life.

He’s a U.S. Army combat veteran who has traveled the world working to help others. He’s a magician, who has an affinity for juggling and card tricks, seeking to entertain the crowd. He’s a classically-trained chef.

But earlier this month Worthington, whose struggle with post-traumatic stress disorder is only being compounded by drug and alcohol abuse, became fodder for the Internet.

“I am a proud man who has lived an amazing life that could fill several books and I’m only 25,” Worthington said. “To be reduced to a meth clown in a single day when I don’t even know what meth looks like is horrific.”

Worthington was arrested the morning of March 1 after a Waffle House waitress claimed she saw him smoking methamphetamine at the restaurant’s counter before locking himself in the bathroom. Earlier that night Worthington was entertaining people in downtown Athens in his clown persona and was still in costume when he walked into the restaurant on West Clayton Street.

During his deployment to Afghanistan, Worthington said he was assigned to a forward operating base as a member of a tactical psychological operations team accompanying special operations and conventional forces on missions.

“After a year of seeing things that no one should ever see I returned home the one needing help,” he said.
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