Love? Yes! Sgt. Ronald J. Shurer II put his life on the line when he joined the military. Why do they do it? Love, pure and simple. Sure, they have to have courage, but the fact they could all do something else with their lives, choosing service requires something beyond courage.
Shurer wanted to save lives and became a combat medic. According to the Citation for the Medal of Honor he will receive, he was ready to sacrifice everything to save someone else. He did it so that others may live even if it meant he could die.
Army Special Forces Medic Will Get Medal of Honor for Afghanistan Heroism
Military.com
Hope Hodge Seck
September 21, 2108
"With disregard for his own safety, Sergeant Shurer took off through a hail of bullets and began scaling the rock face to get to the casualties," his dramatic Silver Star citation states. "During initial movement to the base of the mountain, he treated a teammate wounded by shrapnel to his neck from an RPG blast that blew him off his feet."
Ronald J Shurer II
An Army medic who braved enemy rocket-propelled grenades and sniper fire in Afghanistan to treat wounded soldiers will receive the military's highest honor, the White House announced late Friday.
Ronald J. Shurer II will receive the Medal of Honor, an upgrade to the Silver Star he had been previously awarded for his actions in April 2008. The medal will be presented at an Oct. 1 ceremony, according to the White House announcement.
"Sergeant Shurer rendered life saving aid to four critically wounded casualties for more than five and a half hours," the citation reads. "As the lone medic at the besieged location, and almost overrun and fighting against nearly 200 insurgent fighters, Sergeant Shurer's bravery and poise under fire saved the lives of all wounded casualties under his care."
Before the day was over, Shurer had evacuated three critically wounded soldiers down a "near-vertical" 60-foot cliff, using a rig of nylon webbing he designed himself and shielding the wounded from falling rocks with his own body.
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Denver Veterans Affairs Official Charged With Taking Bribes
PATCH
By Jean Lotus, Patch Staff
Sep 20, 2018
A small business official and two vendors were accused of attempted bid-rigging on federal contracts with the VA.
DENVER, CO – A Denver-based U.S. Veterans Administration official and two business owners were arrested Wednesday as part of an investigation into bribes and bid-rigging at the VA's Colorado Network Contracting Office in Glendale.
VA official Dwane Nevins, 54, of Denver, and business associates Robert Revis, 59, and Anthony Bueno, 43, were indicted by a grand jury for allegedly paying and receiving bribes to manipulate federal contracts between September of 2014 through April of 2016, the U.S. Attorney's Office said. Nevins was also charged with trying to extort $10,000 from an undercover FBI agent posing as the owner of a service-disabled-veteran-owned small business.
The indictment alleges that Revis and Bueno, through a partnership with Nevins, created a company called Auxilious allegedly to help service-disabled veteran business owners navigate the VA's federal procurement set-aside system. Prosecutors allege the three conspired to alter and manipulate federal contracts for two medical procurements: A contract for LC bead particle embolization products for a Salt Lake City VA hospital and a contract for other medical products for VA hospitals throughout the region.
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Veterans charity collects $6.5 million, still MIA
WFLA
By: Steve Andrews
Posted: Sep 20, 2018
According to Campbell's own admission, VetMade Industries hasn't helped any veterans in at least 5 years, yet it's collected millions and kept its doors closed.
TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) - Tax records obtained by 8 On Your Side reveal a local charity collected more than $6.5 million to help veterans, but kept its doors closed, helping no one.
VetMade Industries received the money from generous people donating their cars to help train unemployed and disabled vets.
VetMade paid most of the money from those donations to a professional fundraiser.
Earlier this month, we disclosed that according to its tax records, VetMade Industries took in $5.5 million from 2014-2016.
IRS records from 2010 to 2013 show it took in another $1.07 million and veterans got nothing.
The sign on its door still says, "VetMade Industries is closed."
The charity's mission is to put unemployed, disabled veterans back to work.
"We do partner and have partnered with the Veterans Administration, the Office of Compensated Work Therapy Program. They're out of James Haley," VetMade founder John Campbell said.
Not according to an email from Haley Public Affairs Specialist Karen Collins, who wrote, "We don't have an existing partnership."
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A couple of things to point out here. The first one is that for most veterans, they already have the movie playing in their head while in a "safe place." Not sure how pretending they are back there again would help. There were only 75 in the research. Pretty small to be given this kind of attention, plus, not a "new" effort.
2007 Terror by degree in PTSD. 2008 Virtual Iraq in the New Yorker and then how only 50 patients in 3 years used it. It was also called a "boondoggle." By 2010 it turned out that Sally Satel, yes, the witchy woman, was promoting it. There are more but you get the idea now.
The thing that really jumped out at me was the part where a veteran talks about his buddy committing suicide, before he tried to do it too. He was robbed of hope with the awareness his buddy couldn't make it. He then figured he could not make it either.
Tomah VA therapists use Fort McCoy combat simulator to help veterans with PTSD
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Meg Jones
Sept. 21, 2018
The 65-day program includes nine sessions in the combat simulator as well as other group and individual therapy. Tomah VA therapists work with Fort McCoy to tailor scenarios, which can feature desert, jungle and city landscapes. Veterans are placed in four-person teams and a therapist is always with them in the simulator.
FORT McCOY – Zach Nelson texted his mother and brother goodbye in March and then swallowed what he hoped was a lethal amount of pills.
A friend of Nelson’s had recently committed suicide and the 30-year-old Iraq veteran figured “if he can’t make it, neither can I.” But his family notified police in New Auburn, where Nelson lived, and they found him before it was too late.
Nelson ended up at the Tomah VA Medical Center where, as part of his mental health therapy, he returned to the dangerous sands of Iraq on foot patrols and route clearance missions, just like the ones he experienced overseas.
This time, though, instead of battling real roadside bombs and terrorists, Nelson confronted his memories through the wonders of technology. The same technique is being practiced on other veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder as well.
Tomah VA mental health therapists are treating veterans with PTSD, depression and anxiety in a state-of-the-art combat simulator at nearby Fort McCoy. The multimillion dollar simulator features full size Humvees and weapons surrounded by a 360-degree video and audio system.
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'Nobody fights alone'
Angelus News
R.W. Dellinger
Sept. 20, 2018
At an LAPD event marking Suicide Prevention Month, new police chief Michel Moore opens up about the deadly threat facing officers away from the streets
LAPD Chief Michel Moore hugs Melissa Swailes, whose husband David committed suicide in 2016 after nearly 10 years on the force. (VICTOR ALEMÁN/ANGELUS)
“We pride ourselves at the Los Angeles Police Department in being a family, but sometimes we don’t take care of each other like a family,” Los Angeles Police Department Chief Michel Moore told fellow officers, civilian support staffers, and their families.
It was a little after 9 a.m., the cloudy haze almost burnt off on this September 9 Sunday morning at the department’s police academy in Elysian Park.
The city’s new chief of police and other speakers were on a raised black stage on the track ringing a grassy infield. And they were speaking before the start of “Heart of the LAPD Walk: We Stand Together,” a 5K walk in the name of suicide awareness and prevention.
“And yet we know we don’t. We train, act, and live as a team. No one fights alone. But yet why has it been in the last 20 years we’ve lost 16 officers in the line of duty but 36 to suicide?
“We have such an aversion at times asking for a backup because of what we just saw or something we’re experiencing here in the department or at home. We’ve got to talk about this as uncomfortable as some may feel. But we can do better. And I know we can,” he said.
Being a police officer in the U.S. is indeed a dangerous occupation. Last year, 129 died in the line of duty. Many more were seriously injured and disabled for life.
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Same message being delivered on this site and PTSD Patrol!
Navy: Sailor was struck by propeller on carrier flight deck
KVOA 4 News Tucson
September 19, 2018
NORFOLK, Va. (AP) — The U.S. Navy says a sailor who died aboard an aircraft carrier was struck by the turning propeller of a plane.
The Navy said in a statement on Wednesday that Airman Apprentice Joseph Min Naglak had just secured an E-2C Hawkeye radar plane to the flight deck. Naglak’s death occurred Monday aboard the USS George H. W. Bush while it was in the Atlantic Ocean.
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And this happened in June
NORFOLK, Va. — U.S. Navy officials say a sailor who died on a helicopter flight line at a base in Virginia died by suicide.
