Honoring the sacrifices of veterans still needs work

This is from my friend Lily Casura over at Healing Combat Trauma. She went to an event for Memorial Day that was not well attended.


There were many times over the years that I understood military and veterans families are a minority in this nation but even knowing that, when you're surrounded by other veterans and their families, you realize that this is one minority it's a honor to be among.

Rolling Thunder's Ride for The Wall produced, as with every year, hundreds of thousands of veterans and supporters. The Nam Knights ended up with hundreds of their own. They came from all over the country at their own expense and some of them spent the year saving up for this trip to honor the fallen from Vietnam. Financial hardship in a down economy aside, there were also the endless miles of riding motorcycles to get there, facing rain, crazy drivers and traffic jams. All of it was worth it to every single one.

Across the nation there were gatherings to honor the fallen from all wars and most were well attended because people care and wanted in someway to honor the sacrifices made by showing up instead of just offering slogans like "Freedom isn't free" because their hearts are tugged to be there in solidarity.

The event covered by my friend Lily normally would have saddened me but after what I witnessed Memorial Day weekend in Washington DC, I know enough people care enough to go above and beyond to prove it.

I grew up surrounded by veterans and married one. Most of the groups we've belonged to over the years have been veteran related. We don't know any other way of life although we do have other interests, we know our non-veteran friends cannot relate to any of this so we just enjoy their company as Americans and friends. For the most part, we spend the bulk of our days with other veterans and their families and I, well you know what I do because you read it here everyday on this blog. Sure there are more popular blogs with the usual posts touching the masses and what is popular in the news, but to tell the truth given the fact I can post on anything I want, I'd rather spend my time doing something to focus on veterans and the troops. They are the vast majority of my posts because I understand what it's like. My speciality is trauma related but it's the veterans tugging at my heart the most. The way I figure it, this minority should be getting a lot more attention than they do and I'm just doing my part to help that happen. I'm also grateful people like Lily are out there and showing up at ceremonies to honor the fallen as well as being fully invested in telling their stories. She's been a great friend to veterans for a very long time and a very dear friend of mine.

Honoring the sacrifices of veterans still needs work
By Lily G. Casura
Thursday, June 04, 2009
As part of last week’s celebrations around Memorial Day, I went to the presentation at the St. Helena public library on Thursday night, intended to honor those locally who had died in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2000. The presentation honored veterans who had lost their lives from both Napa and Sonoma counties, and there were 10 of them — in addition to over 500 from California, total.

The program, which was held in the library’s wine collection room, represented the work of several volunteers and many hours, and was led by Jennifer Baker, library director.

There could be a number of reasons, but veterans themselves have one. Scrawled in black dry-erase marker on a white board in Iraq, one Marine wrote, “America isn’t at war. The U.S. military is at war. America is at the mall …”

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Honoring the sacrifices of veterans still needs work

Fort Hood Soldiers' spouses help single soldiers

Soldiers' spouses help single soldiers
6/3/2009 5:45 PM
By: Brandi Powell

As more members of the military return to Fort Hood, volunteers work to make sure soldiers without family nearby are provided with the comforts of home.

A group of community members and wives of other soldiers set up 500 rooms on Fort Hood on the first day of Operation Restful Night. The group plans to set up 2,000 more rooms in the next few weeks with care packages, including sheets from JC Penny and toiletries provided by the USO.

"It's a special feeling because you're giving so much to them, and they've given so much to us," Karessa Lang, an employee at Killeen's JCPenny, and volunteer for the day, said.
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http://www.news8austin.com/content/your_news/default.asp?ArID=242269

Prosecutor of Timothy McVeigh now seeks justice for soldier son

Officials seek new trial for soldier

Mark Schlachtenhaufen
The Edmond Sun

EDMOND — An Edmond mother seeking justice for her soldier son said she is hopeful but is not sure efforts to get a new trial will work.

On March 20, 1st Lt. Michael Behenna was sentenced to 25 years in prison for killing an Iraqi detainee he took aside for questioning.

Behenna’s supporters say Ali Mansur was a member of an Al Qaeda cell operating in Behenna’s area of operation, and Mansur was suspected of organizing an attack on Behenna’s platoon in April 2008. Two U.S. soldiers were killed in that attack.

Army officials ordered the release of Mansur, and Behenna was ordered to return him to his home. While Behenna was questioning him, the shooting occurred.

Supporters say during the interrogation Mansur attacked Behenna, who acted in self defense. Prosecutors said the killing was premeditated murder, that Behenna shot Mansur “execution style.”

Behenna’s mother, Vicki Behenna, said her son deserves a new trial because prosecutors withheld evidence allowing them to argue that Lt. Behenna murdered Mansur while seated, when forensic experts agree Mansur was standing, corroborating her son’s testimony.

Vicki Behenna knows law. She is a professor in Oklahoma City University’s School of Law and she was a lead member of the team that prosecuted Timothy McVeigh in the Oklahoma City bombing case.
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http://www.edmondsun.com/local/local_story_155000421.html

Timothy's Law should include PTSD

Bolster coverage for mental health
June 4, 2009


Two years ago, state lawmakers made the sensible decision to correct a grave injustice in mental health-care coverage. They passed "Timothy's Law,'' which has forced insurers to cover more treatment for mental health care.

But the law was passed with a sunset provision, which means it will expire at the end of this year unless the state takes action. Gov. David Paterson is calling for such action - and lawmakers should adhere to his proposal.

Specifically, Paterson recently offered legislation to make the law permanent, timing his announcement with what would have been the 21st birthday of Timothy O'Clair, for whom the law is named. The 12-year-old Schenectady boy hanged himself after his parents were unable to obtain the mental health treatment he needed due to their health insurance coverage limits.

Include post-traumatic stress disorder
Not only should this law be extended and made permanent, but it also should be expanded to include those suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. Many veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan are suffering from the disorder and could ultimately benefit from such coverage. Committees in the Senate and Assembly are reviewing bills introduced this year that define the stress disorder as a biologically based mental illness that would also be covered under Timothy's Law in order to assure "returning veterans, victims of terror and other violent crimes and others suffering from PTSD are afforded the care they need through their insurance coverage to address their disease."
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Bolster coverage for mental health

11 year old Florida boy walking for homeless children

At 11, he's a veteran at helping others
By Lindsay Ruebens
lruebens@charlotteobserver.com
Posted: Wednesday, Jun. 03, 2009

DAVIE HINSHAW – dhinshaw@charlotteobserver.com


Zach Bonner has drawn attention from the White House and Hollywood, started his own charitable foundation, and now is walking across the South to raise awareness about homeless children. And he's only 11.

On Tuesday, Zach walked into Charlotte as part of a 1,225-mile trek he calls “My House to the White House.”

Zach began his journey in 2007, walking from Tampa to Tallahassee. The second leg of the trip went from there to Atlanta last year. And in May, he left Atlanta for his the final stretch, which will end in Washington this summer.

Zach started volunteering at age 6, when he collected water and supplies for Hurricane Charley victims near his Florida home.
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http://www.charlotteobserver.com/local/story/759903.html

PTSD on Trial:Prosecutors didn't know Nicholas Horner was 3 tour Iraq veteran

Just what part - if any - PTSD may have played in the local shootings remains a question. Consiglio said that at this point, prosecutors don't even know if Horner saw combat in Iraq.

Two innocent people are dead and another one wounded. Three families left to grieve over this when they had done nothing wrong except to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Horner's family is left to suffer because of what he did and Horner sits in jail for committing these attacks.

The most stunning part of all of this is that the prosecutors didn't know he was a 3 tour Iraq veteran or that he was being treated for PTSD. How is this possible? Didn't his defense attorney think it was worth mentioning? How can justice be delivered if the jury and the courts have no idea what these veterans take home with them sometimes?

Horner did it. He shot three people. He is responsible for that because he decided to pick up a gun but we need to be asking if Horner is yet another victim in all of this because he arrived in the wrong place at the wrong time with PTSD.

All across the country things are happening to help our veterans heal. Veterans centers open up and the veterans end up having a place to open up, beginning the process of healing, minimizing the anger raging inside of them, removing the isolation they feel, comforting the pain they have trapped behind the walls of their soul and supporting each other. Veterans courts take the special circumstances of combat veterans into account to deliver proper justice. If Horner lived in another part of the country, something like this may have been prevented. At the very least, he would have appeared before a judge with knowledge of PTSD and prosecutors at least aware this man had been deployed into combat three times.

Is Altoona Pennsylvania part of the problem? Are they doing enough to treat their veterans? Do they have any compassion for them? Are they interested in true justice for our veterans? If the VA hospital treating Horner did all they could, then what failed? If they didn't then why didn't they? If Horner was a danger to others, then why was he allowed to walk freely instead of being hospitalized? Did his doctors know?

When veterans come back from combat there are so many questions that need to be addressed but as for Horner and the three people he shot, the truth was absent from this trial if the prosecutors didn't know he had been sent into combat three times and came back with PTSD.

'I feel so guilty'
Horner expresses remorse for double homicide, blames post-traumatic stress disorder

By Phil Ray, pray@altoonamirror.com


Editor's note: On May 15, the Mirror received and then confirmed that the adjacent letter is from Nicholas Horner, who is charged with murdering two people in Altoona April 6. With the exception of deleting a phone number, the letter appears without editing.

Nicholas A. Horner, writing from Blair County Prison, is "sorry to all of Altoona" for the shootings that occurred in early April when he allegedly killed a high school senior and a retiree.

"I shoot 3 people, killing 2 and injuring 1," Horner wrote in a letter sent to the Mirror in mid-May.

Horner, an Iraqi War veteran, is repentant for the killings that took the lives of 19-year-old Scott Garlick, a senior at Hollidaysburg Area High School who was working at the 58th Street Subway, and 64-year-old Raymond Eugene Williams, who was walking to his mailbox two blocks away, and for injuries to Michele Petty, another Subway employee.
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http://www.altoonamirror.com/page/content.detail/id/519641.html?nav=742

Man arranged wife's rape through ads on Craigslist.com with kids at home

There are times when the evil people are capable of leaves me speechless. This is one of those times.

N.C. man accused of arranging wife's rape on Craigslist
Story Highlights
Police: Man arranged wife's rape through ads on Craigslist.com

Male appeared in bedroom and sexually assaulted man's wife Sunday, police say

Attacker was armed; husband was in bedroom at the time, police say

Husband charged with rape, sexual offense


(CNN) -- A North Carolina man is accused of arranging to have his wife raped through personal ads on the Web site Craigslist, police said Wednesday.

The 25-year-old man, of Kannapolis, North Carolina, was arrested in connection with the incident that occurred at his home early Sunday, police said in a statement.

Police responded to the home at about 2:45 a.m. after receiving a 911 call indicating a male armed with a knife appeared in the couple's bedroom and sexually assaulted the man's wife, authorities said.

The man was present at the time of the assault, and two young children were in the home, but were unharmed and unaware of the incident, the police statement said.
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http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/06/03/north.carolina.arranged.rape/index.html

For military For families, toughest times may lie ahead

I used to post on Military Spouses for Change, later changed to Military Spouses of America. It wasn't that I experienced what they are going thru now that I wanted to share what I know, but for the sake of what they will face tomorrow when their husbands and wives turn from "troop" to veteran. I figured it this way. If they can last through deployments and redeployments, their marriages have a fighting chance but unless they understood fully what can come home with them, there was little hope of hanging onto even a strong marriage.

For families, toughest times may lie ahead

By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday Jun 3, 2009 19:55:06 EDT

The wife of the Army chief of staff warned Wednesday that the worst problems for military families may lie ahead.

Sheila Casey, the wife of Army Gen. George Casey Jr., said in testimony before a Senate panel that military families are tough and generally resilient, but the cumulative effects of eight years of war are showing.

“Families are stretched and stressed,” she said. “I often refer to them as the most brittle part of the force. ... We can no longer ask them to make the best of it.”
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For families, toughest times may lie ahead

What ended up happening is that no matter how much I posted and shared what I knew, they would end up responding with they didn't need more things to worry about. Frustrating beyond belief because there I was ready to hand then over 27 years of knowledge gained the hard way and make it easy on them, but they wanted no part of it.

No hard feelings considering I knew exactly why they didn't want to know. Neither did I. I didn't have a military marriage. I had a veteran marriage. In the beginning of learning what PTSD was and what it did, I regretted looking at what could happen when the worst was finally sinking in my brain. Back then my husband's PTSD was mild. Thinking about what the future could hold scared the hell out of me. Then I knew that if I understood it, I'd know what to do and how to deal with it. So I grabbed everything I could from book stores, bought any magazine with Vietnam stories in it and went to the library to read about ancient warfare and this wound of the centuries. I knew whatever I learned, I was preparing for a battle of my own and I was armed and ready.

Now I try to tell the wives and husbands of today's warriors to prepare for their own battle. While some will take away what I have to share too many others walk away. They just don't want to know. If they think it is hard now, they will be shocked for what can come after and my heart breaks for them. Too many of them will see their marriages end needlessly. I'm glad that Casey's wife is trying to wake them up. I really hope she succeeds because I failed miserably doing it.

Extent of Nazi Camps Far Greater Than Realized

Extent of Nazi Camps Far Greater Than Realized
Decade-Long Study by Holocaust Museum Scholars Could Alter Public Understanding

By Monica Hesse
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, June 4, 2009

A little more than a decade ago, researchers at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum decided to create an encyclopedia of concentration camps. They assumed the finished work would be massive, featuring a staggering 5,000 to 7,000 camps and ghettos.

They underestimated by 15,000.

Their ultimate count of more than 20,000 camps -- which they reached after a year of research -- is far more than most scholars had known existed and might reshape public understanding of the scope of the Holocaust itself.

"What's going to happen is that the mental universe of how scholars operate is going to change," said Steven Katz, director of Boston University's Elie Wiesel Center for Judaic Studies. "Instead of thinking of main death camps, people are going to understand that this was a continent-wide phenomenon."

The Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos: 1933-1945 "is the first major reference work for Holocaust studies since . . . the fall of the U.S.S.R." and the opening of many European archives, says Paul Shapiro, director of the museum's Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies. As a result, more information was available to researchers than had ever been before.
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Extent of Nazi Camps Far Greater Than Realized

DAV reaching out to women veterans

DAV reaching out to women veterans
By Don Bowen/Fremont Tribune
Wednesday, Jun 03, 2009 - 11:19:39 am CDT
Renee Barnes just wanted a place to fit in.

She had finished serving 13 years in the U.S. Army veterinary corps.

Like many soldiers who serve that long, her time in service took her to many places around the world and in different U.S. locations. But when her time was over in 1995, she didn’t know where to turn.


“I was hurt physically,” Barnes said, adding she also suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder like many soldiers.

“A lot of things happened that I didn’t feel comfortable in the outside world,” she continued. “I really needed a place to feel like I belonged. In here, I feel like I belong.”

Two months ago, Barnes joined the Disabled American Veterans Chapter 18 in Fremont.

“I didn’t even know this existed,” she said, sitting around a table at the DAV building at the corner of D and Second streets in downtown Fremont with a group of other veterans.

DAV service officer and past chapter commander Al Martinez said Barnes is one of two women who are among the nearly 200 members of the Fremont DAV.

But Martinez pointed out that even though there are only two women members in the military veterans organization, he has helped at least 20 women over the past few years get military disability benefits.

“We give them the option to join,” he said. “We’d like them to join, but we don’t require it. We’re here to help all veterans.”
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DAV reaching out to women veterans

Veterans Reach Out To Help Peers Deal With PTSD

Veterans Reach Out To Help Peers Deal With PTSD
Posted By: Maureen O'Brien, News Director 3 mins ago

AUGUSTA (NEWS CENTER) -- Major General Bill Libby says studies show that 25 to 30 percent of Maine National Guard soldiers coming home from Iraq and Afghanistan suffer from some form of PTSD - Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. That's one reason Libby is supporting a new program called Veterans Helping Veterans.

The project has teamed up a group of about fifteen counselors and therapists from the Midcoast area who are all veterans themselves. They're reaching out to those new, returning vets, to offer help for those who need it.

Rob Pfeiffer, a founder of the group, says the counseling is offered free or very low cost. Pfeiffer, who is a Marine Corps combat veteran who served in Vietnam, is also a family counselor. He says there are still far too many vets from past wars who have not sought help for their own PTSD issues. He's hoping that the old and young vets will feel comfortable talking with others who have been there, and know some of what they've gone through.

General Libby - also a Vietnam combat veteran - thinks the new program is a good idea. He says a lot of Guard soldiers and other vets haven't been willing to ask for help, because they think it shows some kind of weakness. But Libby says that even he sometimes needs to talk to someone about his own war experiences. He's hoping more vets will be able to step forward and ask for the help they need.

To contact Veterans Helping Veterans you can call Rob Pfeiffer at (207) 236- 3777.

Click here for more information. (and to see video)

http://www.wcsh6.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=105487&catid=2

NEWS CENTER

Group of suspects in Walmart shooting included women and a child

Fourth person arrested in connection with Wal-Mart shooting

By KOMO Staff & News Services TACOMA -- A fourth person has been arrested in connection with the fatal shooting of an armored car guard during a robbery at the Lakewood Wal-Mart store on Tuesday.

Police arrested the man from a home near the corner of S. 58th Street and South Houson Streets in Tacoma around 3 p.m. Wednesday, according to Lakewood police spokeswoman Heidi Hoffman.

It's not clear yet what role police suspect that person had in the shooting.

The arrest comes several hours after police arrested another man in connection with the shooting during a traffic stop in Fife. Sources told KOMO 4 News the man was one of the two suspected gunmen. A woman and child were in the car, and Lakewood Police took the woman in for questioning.

Another man and a woman were arrested Tuesday night and booked into the Pierce County Jail, Hoffman said. Those two are suspected accomplices and sources told KOMO News one is a Wal-Mart employee.


The robbers are seen in security video


Hoffman said surveillance video at the store makes it clear that the robbery was planned and that the shooter made no attempt to take the money without violence.

"They just walked up and executed him," Hoffman said. "It was very violent, very cold blooded."
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http://www.komonews.com/news/local/46850547.html

Police continue search for missing Ocoee woman

Police continue search for missing Ocoee woman
Bianca Prieto Sentinel Staff Writer
3:55 PM EDT, June 3, 2009

Ocoee police continue their hunt for a missing 27-year-old woman who was last seen leaving a MetroWest bar May 26.

Tracy Ocasio disappeared after watching an Orlando Magic playoff game with friends at Taproom. Police say James Virgil Hataway, 28, is the only person of interest in the case so far.

"He was the last person to talk to her," Ocoee Detective James Berish said.

Crimeline is now offering a $5,000 reward for information that leads to the arrest and conviction in the case.
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Police continue search for missing Ocoee woman

Woman: I was choked by 'person of interest' in Tracy Ocasio disappearance

Liza Murphy has been missing from her home in Emerson, New Jersey

Liza Murphy has been missing from her home in Emerson, New Jersey, since August 19, 2007.

Mom: 'I fear the worst, that my daughter is gone'
Story Highlights
Woman disappeared after argument with husband

Husband tried to kill himself after disappearance, denies involvement

Cadaver dogs detected Liza Murphy's scent near George Washington Bridge

Know something? Call 201-262-2800

By Rupa Mikkilineni
Nancy Grace Producer

NEW YORK (CNN) -- After arguing with her husband, Liza Murphy walked out of their home in Emerson, New Jersey, leaving behind her purse, her cigarettes, her cell phone and her three children, her husband told police. There has been no sign of her since August 19, 2007.


Liza Murphy has been missing from her home in Emerson, New Jersey, since August 19, 2007.

Murphy's friends and family reported her missing the next day.

"In my heart, I fear the worst, that my daughter is gone," said her mother, Sophia Stellatos.

Police searched extensively for Murphy, especially around a reservoir not far from her home, but they found nothing. Cadaver dogs caught her scent near the George Washington Bridge, but the trail went cold, police told the family.

Deepening the mystery, her husband, Joe Murphy, tried to take his own life a few days after his wife disappeared by walking into oncoming traffic and throwing himself in front of a fire truck, police say.

He was hospitalized and recovered from his injuries, but police say he hired a lawyer and is no longer cooperating with investigators.

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http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/06/03/grace.coldcase.murphy/index.html

Recruiting center shooting suspect had other targets

New info released on recruiting center suspect

By Chuck Bartels - The Associated Press
Posted : Wednesday Jun 3, 2009 14:27:26 EDT

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — A Muslim convert accused of killing a soldier outside a recruiting center may have been considering other targets including Jewish and Christian sites — and had the firepower to carry out more attacks, according to law enforcement officials.

A joint FBI-Homeland Security intelligence assessment obtained by The Associated Press said officers found maps to Jewish organizations, a child-care center, a Baptist church, a post office and military recruiting centers in the southeastern U.S. and New York and Philadelphia.

“Out of an abundance of caution, and in light of newly discovered information, the FBI cannot rule out additional subjects, targets, or the potential for inspired copycats who might act out in support of the original act,” the intelligence assessment said.

Abdulhakim Muhammad, 23, of Little Rock had targeted soldiers “because of what they had done to Muslims in the past,” authorities said, saying he had said he wanted to “kill as many people in the Army as he could.”
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http://www.armytimes.com/news/2009/06/ap_recruiting_center_shooting_060309/