U.S. Marines Sgt. Jake Wood, Co-Founder and CEO of Team Rubicon, to Receive Pat Tillman Award for Service at The 2018 ESPYS on July 18 on ABC
ESPN
By Tara Chozet
Posted on June 11, 2018
Jake Wood was a freshman offensive lineman with the Wisconsin Badgers when the Twin Towers fell on September 11, 2001. Inspired by the first responders who risked their lives while trying to help others, and by former Arizona Cardinal Pat Tillman’s selfless sacrifice, Wood joined the United States Marine Corps. He was eventually promoted to Sergeant and served four years in Iraq and Afghanistan, deployed as a Scout Sniper.
Wood earned the Navy-Marine Commendation Medal during his time of service, and since being honorably discharged from the Marines in 2009, Wood has committed to advocating for veterans in the United States. He has actively lobbied Presidents Clinton, Bush and Obama on veteran transition and disaster response and has testified before a Senate committee on improving mental health services for veterans. For his dedication to serving others, Wood, the co-founder and CEO of Team Rubicon, will receive the Pat Tillman Award for Service sponsored by Bonobos when The 2018 ESPYS presented by Capital One air live Wednesday, July 18, at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.
Upon returning to civilian life, Wood saw the difficulties some veterans struggled with upon leaving active duty. But on January 10, 2010, Wood found a way to help veterans and also assist those in greatest need. On that day, disaster struck Haiti in the form of a 7.8 magnitude earthquake. When he saw the devastation left in the wake of the tremor, Wood and fellow Marine William McNulty galvanized a group of veterans, first responders and medical workers and headed to the island nation with supplies in tow. This marked the beginning of Team Rubicon, a nonprofit organization dedicated to transitioning veterans from military service to disaster response and relief. Team Rubicon leverages veterans’ existing skill sets to rapidly deploy emergency response teams while providing veterans with a sense of purpose, community and identity.
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Col. Bud Day promoted posthumously to brigadier general
Northwest Florida Daily News
By Jim Thompson
June 11, 2018
ARLINGTON, VA. — Col. Bud Day, one of the military’s most decorated war heroes and a longtime veteran’s activist who settled in Northwest Florida after his retirement from the Air Force in 1977, was promoted posthumously Friday to the rank of brigadier general.
Day, who died in 2013 at the age of 88 at his home in Shalimar following a long battle with cancer, was a veteran of World War II and the Korean and Vietnam wars. He was held as a prisoner of war in Vietnam for nearly six years. During his time in captivity, Day met Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, then a lieutenant commander in the Navy, and helped nurse a badly injured McCain back to health. The two remained close throughout Day’s life.
Among the 70 medals Day earned was a Congressional Medal of Honor he received for escaping and evading capture by the Vietnamese, and refusing to provide them with information that would have compromised American missions. He was eventually recaptured and held at the infamous Hanoi Hilton.
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Florida went backwards on Suicide Prevention
Combat PTSD Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
June 11, 2018
Suicide rates up 10 percent in Florida, CDC study shows
Suicide rates rose more 10 percent in Florida over a 17-year period, a new government study showed Thursday.
"Rates were up 10.6 percent from 1999 to 2016 according to the report from the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention."
OK and yet, after being in Florida for 14 years, trained by most of the "experts" offering Crisis Intervention Training, topped off with being in this work for over 36 years, I am left with a gnawing thought. With all we've know for all they years we've known it, how has it gotten worse?
How is it that with so many running around Florida, and the rest of the country, screaming about suicide awareness, have not managed to learn anything before they decided to share their stunning lack of knowledge?
It isn't that we lack real experts. You know, like the ones who taught the classes I took, wrote the manuals I read and yes, gave presentations on what to do and when to do it.
Unfortunately, I have been to too many events where the self-claimed experts did not know much at all. Like the ones running around screaming about veterans committing suicide, using an "easy number to remember" as if that was all they were. Apparently these folks did not think they needed to know anything beyond what a reporter put into a headline.
Well, the above is a great example of what happens when people preach what they did not take the time to learn.
Volusia County suicide rates continue to exceed state levels
Daytona Beach News Journal
Seth Robbins
June 11, 2018
“Take this with you, and take care of each other,” he said. “We have to watch out for each other, and we need to keep our eyes peeled and ears pricked to any signs of PTSD.”
Salvatore Gintoli spoke frankly to law enforcement and other first responders about mental illness and suicide — issues that often go undiscussed but are widespread.
Gintoli, a senior director of crisis services at Stewart-Marchman-Act Behavioral Healthcare, was leading a course that aims to provide the skills to recognize mental health issues and reduce the stigma that surrounds them.
“People need to understand that mental illness and substance abuse are not the result of character flaws or personal weakness,” he said. “These are medical illnesses that are treatable.”
A report released last week by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention was a stark reminder that suicide remains an intractable public health crisis and that there is still much to be done in addressing mental illness within the U.S. According to the report, the suicide rate increased 25.6 percent nationwide from 1996 to 2016, with only one state — Nevada — seeing its rate fall. Florida’s suicide rate increased 10.6 percent, though most states saw larger jumps.
The numbers came out at the same time people were mourning the deaths of celebrity designer Kate Spade and chef Anthony Bourdain, both of whom committed suicide. Their sudden deaths have received widespread attention, with fans of each expressing dismay and fond remembrances across social media.
“What happened is tragic,” said Kim Beck-Frate, licensed mental-health counselor in the traumatic loss program for Halifax Health Hospice of Volusia/Flagler.
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So now were are left with veterans, first responders, families, all ready to accept the fact the jobs they decided to do could cost them their lives but end up facing the job itself was more dangerous off the clock and we wonder why.
Too bad that I trained way back in 2008 to 2010 on how to help First Responders right there on the East Coast. 2008 with the International Fellowship of Chaplains, 2009 with Center for Disaster and Extreme Event Preparedness and a lot more conferences just like the one above.
How is it that we seem to have gone backwards?
Lucky Bottle Of Scotch Goes To The Grave With Vietnam Veteran
CBS 21
DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) – Sometimes guardian angels appear in the most unlikely of forms.
For John Wayne Chapman II, his was on his flight to fight a war in 1968.
“He met a flight attendant who he ordered a scotch from, and she asked him where he was headed,” says Amy Chapman, Lt. Colonel Chapman’s daughter. “When he shared with her that he was headed to Vietnam, she handed him a bottle of scotch, and she said, ‘This one’s for luck.’ ”
Words Chapman took to heart throughout his time in Vietnam, where the bottle was always close by.
“There was a rocket attack where he was staying,” she says. “When he came up after the attack was over, everything in his hooch had been destroyed, but the bottle of scotch was still sitting, unbroken, on top of his footlocker.”
Amy Chapman remembers the bottle on her father’s dresser throughout her childhood – and the legend that accompanied it.
“He did really believe that that bottle was lucky and was the reason he was still with us.”
So when Lt. Colonel Chapman died last week at the age of 79, his family knew where the bottle should go. He was buried with full military honors – and the scotch in his pocket, still unopened.
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Key to preventing suicide is an understanding conversation, experts say
KSNB News
Alexa Reye
Jun 8, 2018
Forty-nine states have seen an increase in the number of suicides from 1999 through 2016, according to a government report. Nebraska seeing an over 16 percent increase.
Editor's note: If you're feeling suicidal or having suicidal thoughts, help is available. Call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255.
OMAHA, Nebraska — The numbers are staggering: A new study from the Centers for Disease Control, shows the number of people taking their own life, is up 16 percent in Nebraska, 36 percent in Iowa and even higher in other states.
The data come during a week where two high-profile suicides are making headlines. But experts say you can help turn the tide — if you know what to look for.
Experts say the key to preventing suicide all starts with a conversation. One that expresses support and can happen anytime, anywhere. Because listening is the key to prevention.
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Some will admit they are thinking about it but is the listener prepared for the answer?
With all the awareness on suicide, isn't it about time all of us became aware that it has not help?
That conversation itself needs to change. Some will never say they are thinking of anything at all. When I wanted to die, no one knew. If anyone asked, I would have denied it. When my husband's nephew decided to die, no one knew how bad it was for him. He would have gotten angry and did it anyway. I needed something worth living for and so does everyone else.
With veterans, we have so many things in place to help them save their own lives, but they have not heard about them simply because social media, being what it is, shares the easy stuff and not what they need to know.
