He served others in National Guard and Police Officer...but lost his own battle

Former police sergeant dies

CENTRAL OREGONIAN
Jason Chaney
February 20, 2020

Prineville Police Chief Dale Cummins confirmed Tuesday that Mark Monroe, a former sergeant with the agency, took his life on Monday afternoon.

"Yesterday afternoon, the members of our law enforcement community lost a good man and dear friend," Cummins wrote in a statement posted to the police department's Facebook page on Tuesday.

In the post, Cummins stated that Monroe had resigned from the local agency on Jan. 10.

"The Prineville Police Department grieves over the loss of our friend, mentor, and colleague," he wrote.

The post, which can be found on the Prineville Police Department Facebook page, includes a musical video tribute to Monroe featuring music Cummins said he would have preferred.

Cummins said that Monroe was a military veteran, serving in the Army National Guard from 1991 to 1999. He started his law enforcement career as a Prineville police reserve officer in 2004. He was employed by Warm Springs Police from 2004 until 2005, and then returned to Prineville as a police officer, where he remained for the rest of his law enforcement career.
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Veteran not allowed at Heroes Hall...because he is a dog?

Veteran military dog not allowed at Heroes Hall at VA Hospital

KRQE
by: Jeannie Nguyen
Feb 21, 2020

Singh says as part of the contract she signed with the Department of Defense to adopt Puma, she’s not allowed to turn him into a service dog.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – A former bomb-sniffing Army canine belonging to a veteran isn’t allowed at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Albuquerque, even though the dog is a veteran too.

Puma was an explosive detection canine that served two deployments in Afghanistan.

“Puma served seven years in Fort Leavenworth and that’s where he retired from,” says Lani Singh.

Now he’s living the retired life with his handler, Lani Singh, an Army veteran herself, who’s going through chemo-treatments at Heroes Hall for breast cancer.

Originally from Northern New Mexico, Singh rented an Albuquerque apartment to avoid the long commute. Now, Singh is struggling with the rules of the hospital when it comes to bringing her fellow vet to her appointments.

“He is a veteran, but because he’s a dog veteran and not a human veteran, he’s not allowed at Heroes Hall,” she says.

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$8.2 million claim against VA after veteran son’s suicide

Mother files $8.2 million claim against VA after veteran son’s suicide

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
By Jeremy Redmon
February 20, 2020

The mother of a U.S. Navy Reservist who killed himself outside the Carl Vinson VA Medical Center in Dublin last year has filed an $8.2 million wrongful death claim against the Veterans Affairs Department.

Rhonda Wilson said a VA doctor abruptly stopped refilling an opioid painkiller prescription for her 28-year-old son, Gary Pressley, causing him to go into a painful withdrawal.

Pressley shot himself to death in the hospital parking lot on April 5, one of three veterans who, over a five-day span, committed suicide outside of VA facilities. One died outside the main entrance of the Atlanta VA Medical Center in Decatur the next day. Three days later, a veteran killed himself in front of hundreds of people in a waiting room at a VA clinic in Austin, Texas.
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Original Report

Over 500 bikers escorted a three-quarter scale replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial wall

More than 500 bikers escort Vietnam Memorial replica through Florida

Herald Tribune
By Omar Rodríguez Ortiz, Marco Eagle
Posted Feb 19, 2020

Marco Island is the Vietnam Veterans Memorial wall’s first stop of its 25th season, and the only stop it will make in Florida.

Over 500 bikers escorted a three-quarter scale replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial wall from Fort Myers to Marco Island on Tuesday.

The Wall That Heals honors more than 3 million Americans who served in the U.S. Armed forces in the Vietnam War and it bears the names of the 58,276 men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice.

Marco Island is the wall’s first stop of its 25th season and the only stop it will make in Florida.

Roger Spies, a Vietnam War veteran, was one of the first bikers to arrive at the Interstate 75 rest stop by exit 131 to escort the wall on his Harley Davidson Road King.
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AG Report: Pentagon gave $876.8 million in contracts to ineligible contractors meant for disabled veteran owned businesses!

ARE YOU OK WITH THIS? THEN DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT! FORCE THE SENATE TO DO THEIR JOBS OR REMEMBER WHAT THEY REFUSED TO DO WHEN YOU DECIDE TO VOTE!

Pentagon Awarded $876M in Contracts Meant for Disabled Vets to Ineligible Companies: IG

Military.com
By Richard Sisk
20 Feb 2020

The report also cited the case of "Contractor B," who had received three SDVOSB contracts worth $209.6 million. "However, we determined that evidence did not exist to support that a service-disabled veteran was the majority owner and highest ranking officer or in control of the company," the IG's report said.

This March 27, 2008, file photo, shows the Pentagon in Washington. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

Small businesses owned or run by disabled veterans may have been cheated out of hundreds of millions of dollars in Defense Department contracts by unscrupulous firms who were ineligible for the awards, the Pentagon's Inspector General reported Thursday.

The IG's audit found that the DoD "awarded $876.8 million in contracts to ineligible contractors and did not implement procedures to ensure compliance with the Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB) subcontracting requirements after the contracts were awarded."

At least 16 of the 29 contractors reviewed in the report who received business from the DoD on the basis that they met the disabled veteran requirements were found to be ineligible, the IG's office said.

Unless the DoD conducts better oversight, "service-disabled veterans may be in jeopardy of not receiving contract awards intended for them, and the DoD will be at risk of misreporting the amounts for SDVOSB participation," the 29-page report states.
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