3 tour Vietnam Veteran chooses victory over disability

Francisco Lopez-de-Victoria, 63, was forced to use a wheelchair after a 2000 back surgery went awry. The Navy retiree, who, served three tours in Vietnam and in Grenada, recently won two medals at the 28th Wheelchair Veterans Games in Omaha, Neb.

Veteran chooses victory over disability
By Jackie Alexander, Times Staff Writer
In print: Friday, August 29, 2008


Sometimes just getting out the door is hard for Francisco Lopez-de-Victoria. His red wheelchair often gets wedged in the narrow frame of his apartment's front door. • "It's almost like jumping a hurdle every morning," the 63-year-old said.

It's a marked change from his earlier life in which he spent more than 25 years in the Navy and played softball internationally.

A simple back procedure in 2000 left him having to use a wheelchair. Now, grass is treacherous. Curbs are insurmountable.

He spent hours in his native Puerto Rico underneath a mango tree, counting crawling ants and slowly trekking the path toward insanity, said his wife, Nereida.

But then his nephew rescued him by introducing him to the National Veterans Wheelchair Games, Lopez-de-Victoria said.

The first year he took gold in each sport he played: table tennis, bowling, archery, shot put and weightlifting.

"If it wasn't for the games, I don't know," his wife said. "I think the games are what kept him sane."

Lopez-de-Victoria of Clearwater competed in his fifth National Veterans Wheelchair Games in late July, collecting a gold medal in archery and bronze in bowling.
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http://www.tampabay.com/news/humaninterest/article788791.ece

Gators run wild in Sanford FL after Tropical Storm Fay

Invasion! Critters run wild in Central Florida after Fay
Flooding has turned wildlife habitats upside down, sending critters outside their typical territories. In the process, humans are having unpleasant -- and sometimes deadly -- encounters with the natural world.

Nuisance-gator trapper Jerry Flynn has four alligators in his truck in Sanford. (Jacob Langston, Orlando Sentinel)

D.N.C. Veteran Tribute Video

Thursday, August 28, 2008

"D.N.C. Veteran Tribute Video"
Just have to post this video here that played during last night's DNC Convention, and give props to Stephanie Stone. Stephanie had a 20-year career in the U.S. Navy and gave an excellent testimonial (7:03 in the video) in this veteran tribute video, which was produced by Steven Spielberg. Stephanie and I both serve on the Coro National Alumni Board and are alumni of the Coro Fellows Program. She currently is Vice President of Programs and Outreach for Coro Southern California.
click above for video

McCain just gave election to Obama on a silver platter

McCain picks Alaska governor as running mate
John McCain has chosen Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to be his vice-presidential candidate on the Republican ticket for the White House, a senior McCain campaign official has told CNN. The 44-year-old Palin, now in her first term as governor, is a pioneering figure in Alaska, the first woman and the youngest person to hold the state's top political job.

Palin's term has not been without controversy. A legislative investigation is looking into allegations that Palin fired Alaska's public safety commissioner because he refused to fire the governor's former brother-in-law, a state trooper.

Palin acknowledged that a member of her staff made a call to a trooper in which the staffer suggested he was speaking for the governor.


full story



Just think of the vision of something happening to the senior senator and Palin becoming president! This is just too stupid to believe. Does McCain have any respect left at all for the Republicans or the American people? No wonder they can't give away 10,000 seats to their convention.

12 decapitated bodies were found Thursday on Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula

12 decapitated bodies found in Mexico
12 decapitated bodies found in Mexico
Story Highlights
The heads themselves have not been found, a local official said

Report: Headless corpses stacked on top of one another in a field

The tactic has become more frequent in gangland-style killings


(CNN) -- Twelve decapitated bodies were found Thursday on Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, a local official said.


Forensic personnel analyze bodies found in a suburb of Merida, capital of Yucatan state.

Eleven of the bodies were found in Chichi Suarez, and the 12th in Buctzotz, a source with the Yucatan state government told CNN.
click above for more

Obama promises to repeat Montana's National Guard PTSD work nation wide

Obama Pledges Nationwide Use of PTSD Program
Eric Newhouse


Great Falls Tribune

Aug 28, 2008
August 28, 2008 - Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama promised Wednesday to expand Montana's pilot program to assess the mental health of combat vets nationwide, if elected.

The Montana National Guard has developed a program to check its soldiers and airmen for signs of post-traumatic stress disorder every six months for the first two years after returning from combat, then once a year thereafter. The program exceeds national standards set by the U.S. Department of Defense.

The pilot program was created in response to the suicide of former Army Spc. Chris Dana of Helena, who shot himself on March 4, 2007, days after being given a less-than-honorable discharge because he could no longer handle attending drills following a tour in Iraq.

"He (Obama) told me he understood why we need to have additional screenings for PTSD," said Matt Kuntz, Dana's stepbrother, who was among a small group invited to meet with Obama on Wednesday in Billings. "And he told me when he is elected president, he will implement Montana's pilot program nationwide."

Kuntz, who recently gave up his job as a lawyer in Helena to advocate for the mentally ill and their families, said he was invited to brief Obama on how Montana had become a national model for assessing the mental health of its combat vets.

Besides the additional screenings, the Montana National Guard has developed crisis response teams that include a chaplain to investigate behavioral problems among its troops, and TriWest Healthcare pays to have four part-time counselors on hand to talk with soldiers and airmen during weekend drills.

After the briefing, Obama spent about 20 minutes telling several hundred veterans and their families that, if elected as president, he will be committed to meeting their needs.
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http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/ArticleID/11028

SeaWorld gives wounded warriors water ski thrill ride

Wounded veterans hit lake for ski clinic
By Michelle Roberts - The Associated PressPosted : Friday Aug 29, 2008 6:16:38 EDT

SAN ANTONIO — Wheelchairs parked and crutches tossed aside, dozens of soldiers wounded in war hit the lake at a theme park in what’s believed to be the nation’s largest water-skiing clinic for people with physical disabilities.
The All Can Ski program has been teaching people with physical disabilities to water-ski since 1992, but in the past four years, dozens of veterans who suffered severe burns or amputations have joined the annual two-day clinic.

ALL CAN SKI ONLINE (go here to see some great pictures like the two above)
http://www.sanantoniosports.org/allcanski.html

Of the 81 people who attended the program at SeaWorld San Antonio on Wednesday and Thursday, 26 were military veterans; most participated in a special session Thursday for wounded veterans.
The manmade lake is typically used by the park’s professional water-skiers to put on trick shows for tourists, but during the clinic Thursday, amputees rode the wake with water skis on their prosthetic legs or fitted with chairs.
“It was real fun,” said Sgt. Michael Gallardo, a 23-year-old from Los Angeles who lost part of a leg in a blast in Iraq last year.
Water-skiing for the first time, Gallardo rode around the lake on two skis, one leg in a prosthetic. After his first spin around the lake, he tried to hop the wake and wiped out, but he was still grinning.

go here for more

http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/08/waterskiing_woundedvets_ap_082908w/

Sgt. Nazario acquitted of charges

Ex-Marine accused of Iraqi prisoner deaths is acquitted
Jose Nazario, charged in the 2004 killings of four detainees, was found not guilty by a Riverside jury. His case marks the first time civilians decided if an ex-serviceman committed a combat crime.
By Tony Perry, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
August 29, 2008



A civilian jury in Riverside today acquitted a former Marine sergeant in the killing of four unarmed Iraqi prisoners in the battle for Fallouja in 2004.

Despite hearing a tape-recorded phone call in which Jose Nazario appeared to admit to ordering the killings, jurors said prosecutors had not made the case against him. They also said they felt it wasn't right for them to judge a Marine's actions in combat.

They found Nazario, 28, not guilty of manslaughter, assault and use of a firearm in the shooting deaths in the landmark case, the first time in the modern era that American civilian jurors have been asked to decide whether a former member of the military committed a crime during combat.

Cheers erupted in the court when the verdict was read. One of the jurors had tears in her eyes.

Nazario, who had been stoic throughout the trial, was in tears, surrounded by a supportive group of former Marines and former co-workers from the Riverside Police Department. Outside the courtroom, Nazario called his wife, Diette, in New York to tell her of the verdict, and all those around him could hear her screaming with joy and calling out to their 2-year-old son: "Gabriel, Daddy is innocent!"
click post title for the rest and may I add in hallelujah

Adm. Mike Mullen stresses rules on political activity

Mullen stresses rules on political activity

By William H. McMichael - Staff writer
Posted : Thursday Aug 28, 2008 17:26:40 EDT

National security will be a key issue during the intense fall presidential campaign, given the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the unexpected Russia-Georgia conflict.

That makes it all the more important for service members to remain above the political fray, the nation’s senior officer said Thursday.

“It is very tempting in this time because of where we are, and we just shouldn’t do it,” said Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, speaking at the Pentagon Thursday.

“We are an apolitical, neutral organization in this country, and we need to stay out of politics — those of us in uniform,” Mullen said, echoing a theme he has been stressing for months.
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http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/08/military_politicalactivity_mullen_082808w/

How VA Abandons Our Veterans

When I did the latest video, PTSD Final Battle of War, I should have included the other battle they have to fight and that one is against the government. You'd think that they would all be taken care of since all we hear of our elected is how much they deserve the support of the nation but then again you'd have to be one of the people in this country who never had a father, uncle, brother, mother, sister or friend who served and needed the VA. After all, if they are not personally attached to you in some way, why should you care? You should if you've ever read one single history book about this nation and the men and women who were responsible for this nation being what it is. I'm not talking about the abyss this administration is taking it into,but the all of it's history. From the Revolutionary war all the way up to Iraq and Afghanistan today, they were the ones who were willing to risk their lives and they have been the ones who have been neglected simply because they survived but came home with wounds.

Ask John McCain what that's like since he's been reaping the benefits other veterans fought for and then decided that the rest of the veterans didn't need the same kind of care. He did vote against everything being done for veterans after all. He has also been an adversary instead of one of the biggest cheerleaders for expansion of veterans services. After you read this, maybe you should think of emailing him and the rest of the people who voted against our veterans. They had plenty of time to get this right for them but didn't. Talk is cheap but the veterans are finally catching on that while words of support my help their ego, the rest of their lives pay the price for failures of leadership when it comes to their needs.kc

Aug 28, VCS - VUFT Lawsuit Update: How VA Abandons Our Veterans
Joshua Kors


The Nation

Aug 28, 2008
September 15, 2008 edition - Army Sergeant Juan Jimenez had one of the most dangerous jobs in Iraq, ushering top Administration officials through the war-torn streets of Baghdad. He returned home with two Purple Hearts and shrapnel lodged in his right arm. Today he is gravely ill.

What Jimenez didn't realize is that before he could receive benefits for his wounds, he'd have to prove that those wounds came from war. Three and a half years later, the sergeant is still making his case. The Department of Veterans Affairs isn't convinced. And it won't give him his benefits until it is.

The VA requires all veterans to prove their wounds are "service-connected" before it writes them a check. Jimenez thought that hurdle was merely a formality. The Army sergeant had been struck by two roadside bombs. The first sliced into his arms; six months later, a second bomb sprayed scrap metal into his face, knocking him unconscious and leaving him brain damaged. He began having seizures and suffering from memory loss. The blast left a persistent ringing in his right ear. The stress sparked nightmares, flashbacks and acid-reflux disease.

"I'm a different person now," Jimenez says glumly. "I come home; I lock myself in my room. I don't really talk to anyone. I used to be fun." Now, he says, he can't even have a bowl of cereal. It gives him heartburn for days. "That second bomb, it killed me--it just left my body." Sick, suicidal, the sergeant sought help from the VA.

The VA's diagnosis: too much caffeine. "They said I was drinking too much Red Bull. That's what was causing my problems."

Jimenez got mad. At that point, he did something few veterans even consider: he sued the VA.

The sergeant is a member of Veterans for Common Sense (VCS), one of the most prominent veterans' groups in the country. In July 2007, executive director Paul Sullivan filed a class-action lawsuit on behalf of Jimenez and the thousands of veterans in his organization who were wounded in Iraq and, he says, were rebuffed by the VA when they sought disability and medical benefits.
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http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/articleid/11032