UK Walter Mitty Hunters Unmask Hundreds of Fakes

Vigilantes Unmask Hundreds Of Fake Veterans
The Walter Mitty Hunters Club tells Sky News that fake soldiers are an insult to those who have lost loves ones in combat.
Sky News
By Sean Dilley, Sky News Reporter
March 19, 2016

The vigilante group wants fake veterans to serve prison time

An online group of vigilantes who investigate army service records say they've unmasked more than 300 people who have exaggerated or entirely fabricated military service and honours.

The Walter Mitty Hunters Club HQ told Sky News: "It's an insult to all those who have worked hard, felt the pain, and in some cases, lost people close to them.

"There is also an abuse of charity resources, for example, PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) charities where people will make up a service career to gain an advantage.

"In turn, the real people in need of help have to wait longer or don't get it at all. It's getting worse and needs to stop."

They argue that a US-style stolen valour law, where those wearing military uniforms for financial gain face prison time, would solve the problem.
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Senator Grassley Wants Data on Wounded Warrior Project Spending

Senator Wants Data on Wounded Warrior Project, a Charity Under Fire
New York Times
By Dave Phillips
March18, 2016

“Significant questions remain as to whether or not WWP is properly performing its side of the bargain for veterans and taxpayers alike,” the letter said.

Senator Charles E. Grassley, an Iowa Republican, on Capitol Hill last week. 

Credit Doug Mills/The New York Times

A week after the top executives of the Wounded Warrior Project were fired amid accusations of lavish spending, an influential senator on a committee that oversees nonprofit organizations is asking for a detailed accounting by the country’s largest veterans’ charity.

In a letter Friday to the Wounded Warrior Project, Senator Charles E. Grassley, an Iowa Republican who sits on the Finance Committee, said that recent news media reports had raised questions about the charity’s treatment of employees and its spending. An article in The New York Times described the charity’s work environment as hostile and detailed lavish spending that included millions on staff retreats, food and drinks. “If true, these allegations are a breach of faith with donors, taxpayers, and, more importantly, veterans,” the letter said.
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"Murderer" Carved by Coward on Iraq Veteran's Truck

'Murderer' etched into Henderson veteran's truck
KVVU FOX 5 News
Written by Craig Huber
and Cyndi Lundeberg
and Jordan Gartner
Mar 18, 2016

“My mind went blank. When you look at it, it’s so hard to actually accept that it’s real."

The word "murderer" was etched into Henderson veteran Livio Waits' truck on March 17, 2016. (Livio Waits)

HENDERSON, NV (FOX5)
A local veteran believes he was the victim of a hate crime after an incident took place Thursday morning.

Livio Waits, an Iraq war veteran, awoke to find the word “murderer” etched into the side of his truck.

"You know, when I first saw it, it was hard to wrap my head around it," Waits said.

Waits was a sniper and his truck has veteran license plates. He believes his truck was defaced by someone who opposed the war.

"I didn't even put it together what the word meant at first, but then it all just hit me like a wave," said Waits.

The Iraq war veteran, who works at Battlefield Las Vegas, said it’s hard to imagine why someone he put his life on the line for would treat him like this.
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Internet Left PTSD Pioneers Behind

PTSD Pioneers Paved The Way We Lost
Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
March 19, 2016

There was a time in this country when what was learned came from a library stocked with hardcover books written by experts in their fields along with a magical key containing meanings of words they used called a dictionary. That's how I learned about Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and what combat did in all the generations of war fighters. 

My Dad was a Korean War veteran and my uncles fought during WWII.  I heard a lot of stories growing up but there was one term I had not heard until the night my Dad met my then boyfriend, a Vietnam veteran.  He said "Well, he seems like a nice guy but he's got shell shock."

I asked my Dad to explain it but he couldn't, so I went to the library and began to understand PTSD so that I could understand this man I had fallen in love with.

That time was almost 34 years ago. 

It was also a time when others had laid the maps of how the human mind worked years ahead of the first time I heard about any of it.

Forgotten Warrior Project: Identity, Ideology and Crisis - The Vietnam Veteran in Transition Paperback – 1977 by John P. Ph.D. Wilson was written when I was in still in highschool.

CSU professor John P. Wilson, 69, was pioneering PTSD expert
The Plain Dealer
By Tom Feran
July 09, 2015

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- John P. Wilson, an internationally recognized expert on post-traumatic stress disorder who was a pioneer in its identification and treatment, died at home on Monday. He was 69 and a resident of East Cleveland.

Retired since 2013 as a psychology professor at Cleveland State University, he was revered within his specialty and held in particular regard by Vietnam War veterans.

His "Forgotten Warrior" project, initiated in 1976 -- years before PTSD was defined as a psychiatric diagnosis -- was one of the first formal studies of returning Vietnam veterans. Presented in testimony before the U.S. Senate, it led to a comprehensive stress inventory of veterans and a Veterans Administration counseling program.

Wilson started the project after coming to CSU in 1973 and finding classrooms teeming with Vietnam veterans who told of problems sleeping, of nightmares and of flashbacks from the war. The work earned him a commendation from President Jimmy Carter. His expertise put him in demand.
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The Forgotten Warrior Project led to Readjustment Problems Among Vietnam Veterans: The Etiology of Combat-related Post-traumatic Stress Disorders by Jim Goodwin Psy.D in 1981. I have a copy of the pamphlet from the DAV hanging on my wall as a reminder of those I learned from, what we knew for decades and how little is remembered today.

We have forgotten how much was being done on PTSD because far too many folks have been getting the attention for doing a lot of talking but very little researching.

Janis Joplin sang about feeling good being good enough,

And, feelin' good was easy, Lord, when he sang the blues. You know, feelin' good was good enough for me.

How did we end up with having the ability to know even more now about PTSD yet knowing so much less? Is it more about feeling good about thinking we're doing some good or actually doing good with good results?

From what I see, there are far too many doing something that makes them feel good as long as they don't have to actually do the work to help veterans understand the problems they face are more due to the lack of efforts from others and not something the veterans are lacking within themselves.

I lost count on how many of the conversations I've had with folks thinking that they are the ones to change what is happening to veterans with their claims of raising awareness, yet failed to even bother to do the research to know anything worthy of making veterans aware of anything beyond the fact they want their money.

Best case out there is what we saw when millions of Americans opened their checkbooks to donate to a famous group with very little being said on what they were planning on doing with the money they were given.  Hey, it felt good to write a check and then get back to their own lives, so nothing else really mattered until CBS did a report about them and then hell fell on the heads of the charity.  They only got away with it because other reporters failed to spend anytime checking them out before they were publicized.

The founder started it with a simply mission and that was supplying backpacks to wounded service members in the hospital.

“They did good work for a long time, but organizations need a conscience. I think in my tenure, while I was there, I was the conscience of the organization.” John Melia

It isn't as if they were the only ones raising awareness for themselves while veterans we left behind. We're seeing that in every state as more and more folks learn about PTSD from a simple internet search without ever doing the real research into what has been done that worked.

So what are they looking for? Some way of deluding themselves into thinking they are the ones to fix it without having to invest the time in understanding any of this? Seriously?

We keep hearing about the VA Suicide Study and what the reporters snagged on as "22 a day" because reading page 14 was just too hard to report on. You'd think that something as serious as veterans surviving combat yet ending their own lives back home would require some serious thought and reporting but hey, it was "just a number" after all, so why bother?

The technology we have today is fabulous but the users fail to understand that none of this is new and it won't improve until they actually get serious about knowing what they are talking about before they start screaming about how much good they can do when they haven't even bothered to learn from the pioneers who mapped all the roads toward healing because they were tired of the road that led to failure.

My generation had to learn the hard way but we learned the best way simply because others were out there doing all the work for the right reasons.  The experts I learned from helped me save my marriage and a lot of lives afterwards.  Everything I know was because I learned from them and by living with PTSD all these years.  We've been married for over 32 years!

Wish I could say the same about all the folks out there wanting publicity over wanting to actually do something they didn't even care enough about to learn the facts because that would just take too much time.

Veterans ran out of time because feeling too was just too easy for those who claimed to be helping instead of doing more harm than good.

Canadian Armed Forces Acknowledges Suicide Tied To Military Service

Hamilton corporal who died by suicide to receive military honours
Hamilton Spectator
By Teviah Moro
March 18, 2016

The military is honouring the legacy of an Argyll reservist who died by suicide in the Hamilton armouries nearly five years ago.

That's vindication for those who pressed Ottawa to recognize that Corp. Justin Stark's death in October 2011 was related to his service in Afghanistan.

"I'm overjoyed. This has been a long battle," Keven Ellis, who has advocated on behalf of Stark's family, said Thursday.

A Canadian Armed Forces spokesperson said Veterans Affairs has determined Stark's death was "related to military services."

The 22-year-old Hamilton man's name will be recorded in the Book of Remembrance, noted Major Holly-Anne Brown.

His family will receive the Memorial Cross while Stark earns the Sacrifice Medal posthumously. It has not yet been determined when Stark's parents will receive the honours.

The reservist with the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders killed himself in the James Street North barracks 10 months after completing his seven-month tour of duty in Afghanistan.

His family believes he suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) but a government board concluded his service wasn't behind his condition.
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