Veterans 2017 National Veterans Golden Age Games

Applications to be accepted for 2017 National Veterans Golden Age Games

Event Takes Place in Biloxi, May 7-11

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) will accept applications from Veterans interested in competing in the 2017 National Veterans Golden Age Games beginning Feb. 1. Veterans ages 55 and older and enrolled in VA health care may complete applications online at www.veteransgoldenagegames.va.gov. Applications will be accepted through March 1.

“VA is committed to offer sports and fitness as an integral part of a successful healthcare program, and I encourage every eligible Veteran to take advantage of this opportunity,” said Carla Carmichael, National Veterans Golden Age Games director. “There are significant health benefits to leading an active lifestyle, and in keeping with the Games motto, we want every Veteran to achieve 'Fitness For Life.’”

The 2017 National Veterans Golden Age Games will take place in Biloxi, Mississippi, May 7-11. Nearly 800 athletes are expected to compete in the national multi-sport competition for senior Veterans, embracing the “Fitness for Life” motto. The event encourages participants to make physical activity a central part of their lives, and supports VA’s comprehensive recreation and rehabilitation therapy programs. Competitive events include air rifle, badminton, boccia, bowling, cycling, golf, horseshoes, nine ball, powerwalk, shuffleboard, swimming, table tennis, and track and field. Exhibition events include: air pistol, archery, basketball, blind disc golf and pickleball. 

VA research and clinical experience verify that movement and exercise are important to maintaining good health, speeding recovery and improving overall quality of life. The games encourage participants to continue in local senior events in their home communities and every other year serve as a qualifying event for competition in the National Senior Games. VA Gulf Coast Veterans Health Care System will host this year’s games. The Gulf Coast Veterans Health Care System provides care for more than 50,000 Veterans throughout Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida.

For more information visit www.veteransgoldenagegames.va.gov and follow VA Adaptive Sports on Twitter at @VAAdaptiveSport or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/vaadaptivesports.

Orlando Police Officer Killed and Motorcycle Deputy Killed Responding

Slain officer identified as 17-year-veteran of OPD

WESH 2 News
Updated: 2:50 PM EST Jan 9, 2017

ORLANDO, Fla. — Orlando police have identified the officer who was gunned down while on duty Monday morning.

Chief John Mina identified the slain officer as Master Sgt. Debra Clayton, a 17-year-veteran of the department.

Clayton was shot and killed in the line of duty near a Walmart in Orlando.

Police Chief John Mina said the suspect, Markieth Loyd, 41, also is also wanted in the slaying of a pregnant woman.

Colleagues of Clayton said she was married and a mother of two. She was being remembered Monday as a person who always had a smile on her face and often took time out of her day to interact with the community.
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Slain Orlando police officer Debra Clayton called a hero
Orlando Sentinel
David Harris
January 9, 2017

A sheriff's deputy later was killed in a crash with a 78-year-old driver.

Debra Clayton, the 17-year Orlando police officer killed Monday morning, was hailed as a hero by Chief John Mina.

"She will be deeply missed," Mina said

Clayton, 42, was married and the mother of an adult son who is in college, according to Mina. She was assigned to dayshift patrol and will be "missed beyond words."

"She always had a smile [and] high five for every kid she came across," the department tweeted.

Hours after the killing, friends gathered in front of her home on a tree-lined street in Ocoee, where neighbors say they shared power washers and tools with each other.

Teresa Sokolovic, a teacher at St. Cloud High School, met Clayton in December 2015 at a charity event at Camping World Stadium.
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UPDATE

Click OrlandoORLANDO, Fla. - An Orange County Sheriff's Office deputy was struck and killed Monday morning during a search for a man who is accused of killing an Orlando police officer, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.
The deputy, identified around 5 p.m. Monday as Deputy First Class Norman Lewis, was on a motorcycle when a van hit him. Lewis, 35, was hired at the Orange County Sheriff's Office in 2005. He's a University of Central Florida alumnus and played football for the Knights, deputies said.

Sgt. Maj. William A. Robles Passed Away

Army South soldier dies from illness
Army Times
By: Charlsy Panzino
January 6, 2017

A Texas-based soldier died Thursday after a prolonged illness, according to an Army release.

Sgt. Maj. William A. Robles, who was assigned to the Regional Affairs Directorate at U.S. Army South, died at the San Antonio Military Medical Center at Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston.

Robles served as an instructor at the Brazilian Non-Commissioned Officer Academy, part of the Army South Military Personnel Exchange Program, according to the release.

“We are extremely saddened and will miss Bill tremendously. He was an incredible Soldier who has served his country for decades and inspired everyone he encountered. I extend my heartfelt sympathy to Sgt. Maj. Robles’ family and to everyone who knew him,” Maj. Gen. K.K. Chinn, commander of Army South, said in the release. “He was a credit to the uniform he wore.”

Robles, born in El Salvador but raised in Los Angeles, enlisted in the California National Guard in 1986 and entered active duty in 1988 upon graduating high school.

He became an Army Special Forces communications sergeant and served multiple assignments in the 7th Special Forces Group (Airborne) and the 10th Special Forces Group (Airborne). He deployed to Saudi Arabia, Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan.
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Combat Medic Gets Help From Veterans Community to Heal

Wounded veteran finds healing in community
Daily Sun
Taylor Mahoney
Special to the Daily Sun
January 7, 2017

In Iraq in 2005-06, as an army combat medic assigned to sappers (sappers go first, clear the obstacles, clear the land mines so the infantry can follow), he attended to wounded soldiers, hunted IED’s, survived the focus of an infamous sniper, and helped save more than 2,500 lives.

Blood, pain, earth shaking explosions: William Golliher knows about these. Golliher experienced hell in Iraq and Afghanistan. Now the Flagstaff man, like millions of war veterans across the ages, carries that hell within him. His journey continues as he struggles to find a new normal. Critical to that process, he said, is the company of other veterans.

Marine veteran Ralph Boyer knows Golliher through the Marine League Charities Flagstaff group.

“What you have is a hero here,” Boyer said. “That’s what.”

Golliher immediately protests.

“I don’t consider myself a hero. I did a tour in Iraq and in Afghanistan,” he said.

Golliher proudly traces his family's military history back to a soldier in the Revolutionary War and continuing unbroken through subsequent conflicts involving the United States. His grandfather fought in World War II. His father is a United States Coast Guard veteran.

Despite this, he has found healing through family and community. Although he can’t work, he keeps busy volunteering. Last September he got married. His wife, Philan Tree, just found out she’s pregnant. Golliher has trouble concentrating but has found it helps him to keep to a routine. His wife and a service dog are constant companions.

But his biggest source of support, he said, is other veterans who speak the same language. He has a support network of veterans who understand what he has had to live through and the nightmares he now has to live with.
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Veteran Faces New Battle, Saving Her Baby From Opioid Dependency

U.S. Army veteran Jaclyn Alexander returned from Iraq to face new battle -- saving her baby girl from opioid dependency
MassLive.com
By Dan Glaun
January 08, 2017

This is first in a MassLive special report on the the impact of the opioid crisis on children in Massachusetts.

Jaclyn Alexander and her daughter Ella Donna, who has neonatal abstinence syndrome. Alexander developed an opioid addiction after being prescribed painkillers in the military; she is now clean.

When Jaclyn Alexander returned to the United States from military service in Iraq, her war was just beginning.

From an airbase nicknamed "Mortaritaville," to nerve damage in her back, to oxycodone, to morphine, to addiction. From addiction, to motherhood, to theft, to heroin, to detox and dope sickness, to recovery, to the Baystate Medical Center Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, where she sat holding her second daughter, quiet and calm but born dependent on the suboxone keeping her mother from relapse.

It has been, she said, a long road.

"I could not be in a better place. If you asked me a year ago if I would be right here right now I would absolutely have said no," Alexander said, amid the soft whooshes and mechanical chirps of the medical ward. "It's a phenomenal turnaround."

Alexander's baby, Ella Donna, is one of the growing number of children born dependent on opioids - what doctors call neonatal abstinence syndrome. It is a condition that requires special care, but is treatable, with approaches that have been refined as Massachusetts' addiction crisis has given the state one of the highest rates of NAS in the country.
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