Fire Captain Lost Battle With PTSD

Missing Orting firefighter who suffered from PTSD found dead
BY Q13 NEWS STAFF
JULY 22, 2018

ORTING, Wash. — A member of the Orting Fire Department who suffered from PTSD was found dead Sunday. Captain Art Vazquez had been missing since Saturday.

“It’s with a heavy heart that Orting Valley Fire and Rescue and the International Association of Firefighters Local 4459 announce the passing of one of our beloved members, Captain Art Vazquez,” Orting Valley Fire and Rescue said on Facebook.

The post went on to say Vazquez “took his own life as a result of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).”
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Vietnam veteran robbed at gunpoint on his own porch

Cameras capture men robbing Vietnam veteran at gunpoint at Detroit home
Click On Detroit
By Larry Spruill - Reporter
July 21, 2018

Kendrick Hardaway's eyes dilated when robbers approach him

DETROIT - A Vietnam veteran claims two men robbed him on the front porch of his Detroit home while he was under medication. The good news is everything was recorded on camera.

Kendrick Hardaway has seen a lot over the years, mostly from his front porch. Hardaway sits in the same chair with his best friend beside him. That daily ritual was delayed Friday because Hardaway had a doctor’s appointment to get his eyes dilated.

When he got home, he got out of his car.

“Out of nowhere, two guys popped up, and said, 'Give it up,'” Hardaway said. “It happened in less than two minutes,” Hardaway said.
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A Tiger Among Us: A Story of Valor in Vietnam's A Shau Valley

MoH Recipient Was Saved by Tiger and Sawed-Off Shotgun
Military.com
By Richard Sisk
22 Jul 2018

"The tiger kinda' helped" in scaring off the enemy in March 1966, Special Forces legend and retired Command Sgt. Maj. Bennie Adkins said of the last hours of a four-day battle in Vietnam in which he earned the Medal of Honor.

Adkins sat down with Military.com on Wednesday to talk about his new book, "A Tiger Among Us: A Story of Valor in Vietnam's A Shau Valley," and his work with the Bennie G. Adkins Foundation a day after he and 28 other recipients of the nation's highest award for valor were honored at baseball's All-Star Game at Nationals Park in Washington, D.C.

The rest of the story: The tiger had an assist from the 12-gauge sawed-off shotgun Adkins carried as a sidearm. He had cut down the barrel and sawed off the stock.

The 84-year-old Adkins said he still isn't quite sure how that weapon squared with the laws of war and the Geneva Conventions, but "I did use it, I did, and a lot of hand grenades."
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Someone sold you a lemon.

PTSD Patrol Sunday Morning Empowerment Zone: What drives you?
PTSD Patrol
Kathie Costos
July 22, 2018

Someone sold you a lemon. 

They told you that you were weak. They told you that you need to just get over it and move on. They told you that you grieved long enough. They told you all kinds of things to get you to stop suffering, or so they thought. What they managed to do was to get you to just stop talking.

What good did that do? What good does it do to constantly hear about someone taking their own life after surviving, and wonder why they did not talk to you? Wonder no more about that one. You just read the answer.

You did not choose that moment when trauma hit you. 

You did not choose how it would take over everything.

So why are you making the choice to suffer as its victim instead of fighting to #TakeBackYourLife as what you are? 

You survived it! It did not beat you that time and does not have to win this time.

Jonnie is on the PTSD Patrol Road crew with a mission of making sure that you get on the right road and choose to fight with the power within you.

Female Navy Corpsman Murdered Friday Night

Man Arrested In Fatal Shooting Of Navy Corpsman In Oceanside
By California News Wire Services
News Partner
Jul 21, 2018

The woman was identified as Devon Rideout, 24, a Navy corpsman stationed at Camp Pendleton.

OCEANSIDE, CA – The woman fatally shot at an Oceanside apartment Friday afternoon was identified as a Navy corpsman, and a suspect is in custody, police said Saturday.

The shooting took place at a building at 550 Los Arbolitos Blvd around 4 p.m. Friday, Oceanside police said.

Responding officers found the woman shot. Paramedics tried to save her but she was pronounced dead at the scene.
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