Female veterans #BreakTheSilence and get your service on equal footing

Yesterday I posted on PTSD Patrol about female veterans service being overlooked. Too many times people have assumed that when you mention a female veteran with PTSD, they try to point to military sexual assaults. Not that they do not happen, but no one jumps to that conclusion when a male veteran has PTSD, even though they get attacked too.

As you can see in this recent report, it happens to males as well as females.

The US military is reporting a disturbing spike in the number of active-duty service members who said they’d experienced sexual assault last year, raising questions once again about the military’s handling of misconduct.
The Pentagon estimates that about 20,500 service members across the military branches — about 13,000 women and 7,500 men — were sexually assaulted in the 2018 fiscal year, based on data from an anonymous survey that’s compiled by the Department of Defense every two years.
That’s a four-year high — and an alarming jump from 2016, in which 14,900 service members said they had been sexually assaulted. VOX.com

Yet the public assumes that PTSD caused by combat situations in females, on top of everything else, does not happen.

There are, sadly still, too many things that are getting worse while it seems as if more is being done claiming to change all of it.

Things our politicians do, do not work, then everyone wants more done. Huge problem when it is all more of the same and the worst outcome spreads out! If you are a female veteran, or currently serving, use your voice and make sure that your service is honored, your wounds are tended to and you get the help you need to live a better quality of life. #BreakTheSilence

Why do women wonder when their service will count?

PTSD Patrol
Kathie Costos
December 22, 2019

We read about it all the time. A couple is sitting together, both wearing military hats, yet it is only the male who receives a "thank you" for his service.

Someone forgot to inform the "thanker" that women have served this country since before it was a country.

Today over 210,000 women serve on active duty in the military services of the Department of Defense (Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force), and another 5,955 serve in the Active Coast Guard—part of the Department of Homeland Security in peacetime.

The Reserve Components are federal forces. Guard components play dual state and federal roles. Like most of the active forces, the Reserve and Guard components have an increasing percentage of women in their ranks. As of February 2018, women constituted 158,090 or 19.8 percent—of all personnel serving in the six DoD Reserve and Guard forces. Women number 1,067—or 17.4 percent—of all personnel serving in the Coast Guard Reserve.

Women have been bestowed with every military medal for heroism, including the Medal of Honor. Dr. Walker not only served during the Civil War, she was a POW.

Released from government contract at the end of the war, Dr. Walker lobbied for a brevet promotion to major for her services. Secretary of War Stanton would not grant the request. President Andrew Johnson asked for another way to recognize her service. A Medal of Honor was presented to Dr. Walker in January 1866. She wore it every day for the rest of her life. read it here

Ret. Major Travis Riley lost last battle with PTSD

Months after veteran took his life, his Louisville family searches for answers

WDRB News
Lindsay Allen
Dec 19, 2019

"And at that moment, I looked down as I'm putting it down ... and saw one sentence myself that told me everything in one sentence what we could possibly find.

"That sentence said, 'Please cremate me.'"

Riley's body was found the next morning. He had committed suicide.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Penny Riley found her husband’s car abandoned in a Louisville park on Aug. 15, 2019. He hadn't returned her text messages, so she left home, fearing what she'd find.

Inside his car, alongside a file folder, a McDonald's bag and his phone, she found three letters, one for each of his family members. She took her letter, opened it, and began to read, her eyes stopping at one sentence.

“Please cremate me.”

Travis Riley joined the Army at age 18, later served in the Kentucky National Guard and climbed his way to the rank of major. He served in Afghanistan for a year, and his wife said he often talked about the sounds of battle.

"'You're going to hear the air traffic. You're going to hear the far-off gunfire. You're constantly hearing that sound,'" Penny Riley recalls her husband telling her. "We would Skype a lot, and I could hear that through Skype, the noises, and he would say, 'That's just what we hear all the time Penny. That's normal here. It's OK.'"

The Louisville man devoted his life to his family and his country.
read it here

Soldier home on leave for Christmas killed with 1 year old son by wrong way driver

Soldier home for Christmas, 1-year-old son killed in Unicoi County crash

WCYB 5 News
by Caleb Perhne
December 20th 2019

UNICOI COUNTY, Tenn. — Local communities are mourning after three people died in a head-on crash on Interstate 26.

23-year-old Anthony Owens, a native of Unicoi County, and his 1-year-old son, Richard, were travelling west on the interstate Thursday night. That's when police say 42-year-old Tina Marshall of Jonesborough crashed into him driving the wrong way. All three died.

Owens' family is now grieving the loss of a son and grandson just days before Christmas.
read it here

#LoveInAction Veterans adopting older and hard to adopt dogs from shelters

Blind, Deaf Dog Inspires Man to Pair Dozens of Recovering Veterans With Hard-to-Adopt Shelter Pups

Good News Network
By Dobi Finley
Dec 21, 2019

This veteran-run nonprofit has been pairing ex-service members suffering from isolation and PTSD with senior dogs rescued from overcrowded shelters where they could potentially be euthanized.

Because many veterans live alone without family or friends nearby, they can often become isolated and lonely from the lack of connection. As some veterans also suffer with post traumatic stress disorder, their social interactions can also become difficult.

That’s when the Vet Friends Foundation can step in with a helping hand. The organization delivers companionship to both the vets and the senior shelter dogs who need caring homes to live out the rest of their lives.

Joel Rockey, the Foundation’s founder, says that he came up with the idea for the organization after spending five years in the Navy in Iraq and Afghanistan. When Rockey returned home from his deployment, he wanted to focus on something he felt truly passionate about.
read it here

Stolen Valor: Air Force veteran convicted for PTSD and wounds that did not happen

Air Force veteran sentenced for fake PTSD, Purple Heart claims

Fayetteville Observer
By Rachael Riley
Staff writer
Posted Dec 21, 2019

Officials with the U.S. Attorney’s office said the VA Office of the Inspector General reviewed Winquist’s service records and interviewed fellow service members, which showed that the incident he claimed happened did not occur. Officials said Winquist deployed to Iraq for one month and was assigned as a firefighter to the base.

He received VA compensation for a false claim.

The claim read like countless Veterans Affairs claims and Purple Heart awards.

In 2014, Air Force Veteran Bryan Paul Winquist, now 39, submitted paperwork to the VA seeking compensation related to what he said was post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of a 2003 improvised explosive device attack in Balad, Iraq.

The claim detailed that Winquist was shot in the left shoulder during a small arms firefight, which lasted between 25 to 45 minutes and caused two casualties and four injuries.

Except there was no firefight, and Winquist was not injured or involved in an attack, VA investigators wrote in legal documents three years after the claim and $37,500 in VA disability compensation later.

U.S. Attorney Robert J. Higdon, Jr. announced Winquist’s sentence for the false claims earlier this month.
read it here