8 INVESTIGATES: Camp Lejeune widow keeps fighting V.A. for her husband and benefits
WFLA 8 News
By Steve Andrews
Published: October 27, 2016
“I’ve lost my husband, I’ve lost my home, I will not lose my dignity.” Tara Craver
AVON PARK, Fla. (WFLA) — Tara Craver of Avon Park is becoming a familiar site at busy intersections outside V.A. facilities. She protests what she believes is unfair V.A. treatment of marines and their families.
“They killed my husband,” said Tara.
Her husband Karle was a marine, stationed at Camp Lejeune in the 70’s. His is one of the many faces of Camp Lejeune, the site of one of the largest mass contaminations in American history. From 1953 to 1987, an estimated 750,000 marines, their families as well as base employees were exposed to cancer causing chemicals in their drinking water.
“They didn’t contaminate themselves, the government did and they kept it hid for two or three decades. They kept it hid,” added Tara.
Doctors diagnosed Karle with esophageal cancer in January 2014. He died 10 weeks later.
Karle passed well before Tara heard that the V.A. rejected his claim that his cancer was connected to Camp Lejeune.
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Trump faces new round of military controversies just days before the election
Military Times
By: Leo Shane III
October 27, 2016
With less than two weeks left before the election, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump finds himself in the middle of a new round of military-themed controversies that opponents say shows he’s unqualified to be commander in chief.
The problems began Monday, during an interview with a Florida television station where Trump stated that his campaign has impressive support among veterans and “I’ve been endorsed largely, at least conceptually, by the military.”
Campaign officials offered no further explanation of the remark, which drew criticism and confusion given the military’s strict rules against politicking in the ranks. The most recent Military Times/Institute for Veterans and Military Families Poll showed about 40 percent of active-duty troops plan to vote for Trump next month.
“Well, I went to a military academy, which was from a different planet. ... We didn’t have women in the academy at that time. Today you have women, which is a whole other story, women in the Army and you see what’s going on. It’s like, it’s like bedlam. It is bedlam."
“... It’s something that people aren’t talking about, but what’s going on is bedlam, bringing women in the Army.”
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He's not alone
Mike Pence said in 1999 that women shouldn’t be in the military.
For the first half of this year there have been 120 Active Duty Service Members and another 101 Reserve/National Guard members committed suicide.
The total for 2015 was 266 Active Duty and 212 Reserve/National Guard members.
DOD 2nd Quarter Suicide Report 2016
In the second quarter of 2016, the military services reported the following:
57 deaths by suicide in the Active Component
23 deaths by suicide in the Reserves
23 deaths by suicide in the National Guard
Just look at this chart from the Department of Defense.
Just a reminder, the reported count of veterans committing suicide is from the Department of Veterans Affairs. They do not track active and the DOD does not track veterans.
Do you think it is time to change what they are doing? So why is it obvious to us and not them?
Orlando Officers Grapple With Trauma and Red Tape After Massacre
New York Times
By FRANCES ROBLES
OCT. 27, 2016
ORLANDO, Fla. — The sound of a ringing iPhone makes Omar Delgado sweat and freeze in place. His heart pounds. He closes his eyes to fight back the ghastly images that no one should ever have to see.
He hears the marimba-like tone and he is back at the Pulse nightclub on June 12 as a police officer pinned down in an hourslong standoff surrounded by dead bodies, their phones ringing again and again with calls that will never be answered.
“I literally felt like I was standing there at the club, my feet hurting, my arm hurting from holding my weapon,” Officer Delgado recalled, thinking of the times just after the slaughter when the phone rang and the panic came back.
It has been more than four months since a security guard named Omar Mateen gunned down 49 people at the gay club in Orlando. Officer Delgado, 44, who works in nearby Eatonville, was on the job briefly over the July 4 weekend but suffered a flashback on duty and has not been on patrol since. He has spent the last few months getting treated for nightmares and depression while managing red tape and cuts in his take-home pay because he no longer earns overtime.
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Do they actually teach what respect is there? The young woman seems to think that the veteran, who risked his life for this country, did not deserve any respect at all. Freedom of speech does not trump the rights of others to do the same. It is about time folks understood the full impact of the 1st Amendment.
Amendment I. Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
My Dad and my Uncles served and so did my Husband and his Dad and his Uncles. What they are doing is showing disrespect to every generation that thought this country, as imperfect as it is, was worth dying for. She couldn't even stop whining long enough to think about that.
Video captures national anthem standoff between #BamaSits protesters and veteran
WBMA
by Andrew Donley
October 27th 2016
A peaceful protest during the national anthem before Alabama's last home game was disrupted by a proud veteran, and the incident was captured on video.
Protesters saying that the way the veteran interrupted them was uncalled for, but the veteran says he was well within his rights.
"#BamaSits is a peaceful protest. We are protesting social injustice. We support underrepresented LGBTQ community and people of color against discrimination and we're also protesting against police brutality," Emerald Vaughn said.
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