Advanced VA funding approved by House

Bill Seeks to End Delays in Veterans’ Care
By JAMES DAO
Published: June 23, 2009
The House approved legislation on Tuesday that is intended to prevent delays in federal financing for veterans’ health care programs, a problem that has disrupted services provided by the Department of Veterans Affairs for decades, officials say.


The bill, which has been a major lobbying priority of veterans’ organizations in Washington, would allow Congress to appropriate funds for health care programs one year in advance.

Officials say that for 19 of the last 22 years, the department’s budget has been approved late, usually because of fiscal wrangling on Capitol Hill. As a result, veterans’ groups and officials say, the directors of veterans’ health care centers and clinics have often been unable to proceed on time with new services, staff expansions or renovations.

A similar bill sponsored by Senator Daniel K. Akaka, Democrat of Hawaii and the chairman of the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, has bipartisan support and is expected to pass the full Senate.

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Bill Seeks to End Delays in Veterans Care

Search on for pilot in F-16 crash

Search on for pilot in F-16 crash
Story Highlights
Emergency responders from Hill Air Force Base in Utah searching for pilot

Crash site found in remote area of Utah Test and Training Range

No contact has been made with the pilot, who was on a routine training mission
(CNN) -- A search was under way Tuesday for the pilot of an F-16 that crashed over the Utah Test and Training Range west of Salt Lake City, Utah, the Air Force said.


An F-16 from Hill Air Force Base trains in Utah in 2001.

The F-16 crashed about 10:25 p.m. Monday, according to a posting on the Air Force's Web site.
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http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/06/23/utah.f-16.crash/index.html

Iranian women stand up in defiance, flout rules

I've been reading what's been going on in Iran especially since the election. It's stunning. No matter what happens regarding the election many believe was fixed, I doubt Iran will ever be the same again. Regular people standing up and saying they've had enough and want to live differently. Threats against them, gunning them down in the streets, beating them, all their attempts to stop the protests and silence their voices will never work again. They have found the power of numbers.

Iranian women stand up in defiance, flout rules
Story Highlights
Recurring theme of Iranian protests: Women defiantly standing up against authority

19-year-old woman says, "When they want to hit me, I say hit."

A young woman named Neda has become the rallying cry of protesters

"This shows the new face of Iran -- the young women who are the vanguards of Iran"


(CNN) -- A young Iranian woman named Neda is gunned down in one of the most iconic images of the last week. Another walks down the street, defiantly showing off her hair and body in a revealing dress. And still another woman says she's not scared of paramilitary forces -- no matter how many times she gets beaten.



"When they want to hit me, I say hit. I have been hit so many times and this time it doesn't matter. I just want to help my brothers and sisters," says the 19-year-old woman whose identity is being withheld by CNN for her safety.

Amid the clashes and chaos, there has been a recurring scene on the streets of Tehran: Women, in their scarves and traditional clothing, at the heart of the struggle. Some are seen collecting rocks for ammunition against security forces, while video showed one woman trying to protect a fallen pro-government militiaman wounded in the government crackdown. At Shiraz University, riot police clubbed women dressed in black robes. "Don't beat them, you bastards," one man yells.

When security forces come to attack, the 19-year-old woman protester says she looks them in the eye and asks: "Why do you kill your brother? Why do you hit your mother, your sisters?"

"We all tell them, if you're Iranian, you shouldn't do that to your people, to your own country's people," she told CNN by phone.
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http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/06/23/iran.women/index.html

Family and friends grieve at Wood family funeral

Family and friends grieve at Wood family funeral
The family of four was found dead in their Heathrow home.
Anthony Colarossi Sentinel Staff Writer
1:04 PM EDT, June 23, 2009
Family and friends of the Wood family gathered at First Baptist Church of Umatilla this morning to mourn the loss J.D., Cynthia, Dillon and Aubrey.

The four members of the Heathrow family died in a murder-suicide discovered early last week. Today's service at the Umatilla church was followed by a burial at Lakeside Memory Gardens in Eustis.

Rev. Brooks Braswell urged the dozens of people attending today's service to turn to God for strength at a time when many might lose faith following a tragedy that is hard to explain or understand.

Braswell said people often "turn to substance abuse to drown out the pain of a loss." But he told the visitors of another way.
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Family and friends grieve at Wood family funeral

Murder Investigators pay respects to slain veteran at Fla. funeral

Investigators pay respects to slain veteran at Fla. funeral

By Patricia Burkett
WBTW Anchor/ Reporter
Published: June 22, 2009

FLORENCE — Friends, family and even strangers spent Monday remembering one of America’s heroes.

World War II veteran Clair C. Chaffin was shot to death June 8 as he packed his car to leave the Thunderbird Inn in Florence.

Chaffin, of Archer, Fla., was 83. He fought at Iwo Jima and Saipan, and earned the Silver Star in his lifetime.

Although Chaffin’s life was taken during an attempted robbery, it was what happened to him before that day that made a lasting impression on those working on the case. He made an impact on the entire community as well as local law enforcement, all of whom recognized the great service he gave to the country.

Florence County Sheriff’s Office investigators were so moved by Chaffin’s family and the story of his life, they felt it fitting to fly hundreds of miles to pay their final respects Monday.

“A decorated veteran, who served his country and gave his life — a majority of his life — for this country, 83 years old and had been through what he had to go through and then had to come back to this country and die like he did, it’s unacceptable,” Florence County Sheriff Kenney Boone said.

Powers Aviation officials made the flight possible for the investigators, providing the plane and pilot for the trip to Gainesville, Fla., for Chaffin’s funeral.
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Investigators pay respects to slain veteran at Fla. funeral

Suffolk cop killed in crash was Marine veteran

Suffolk cop killed in crash was Marine veteran
BY MARTIN C. EVANS AND ZACHARY R. DOWDY martin.evans@newsday.com zachary.dowdy@newsday.com
10:43 PM EDT, June 22, 2009


Seven-year veteran Suffolk police Officer Robert Bowen was a battle-tested and decorated veteran of the Iraq war, bringing experience in one of the nation's most revered fighting forces -- the Marines -- to his patrols of Suffolk County, where his superiors said he also served with distinction.

"He was just a down-to-earth nice guy who did a good job for us," said Suffolk Deputy Police Chief Patrick Cuff, who was Bowen's commanding officer at the Third Precinct in Bay Shore until last Friday when Cuff was promoted. "And he loved the Marines."

Suffolk County Sheriff's Department Chief of Staff Michael Sharkey said Bowen, 34, of Ronkonkoma, died early Monday when he lost control of his car, which clipped the rear of another vehicle, struck a guardrail and overturned.
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Suffolk cop killed in crash was Marine veteran

Staten Island veteran gets Purple Heart for injury received in Viet Nam

Staten Island veteran gets Purple Heart for injury received in Viet Nam: 'It's like a closure'
BY Stephanie Gaskell
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Tuesday, June 23rd 2009, 4:00 AM



For the past 42 years, Anthony Carraturo buried painful memories of fighting in Vietnam.

He got married, had a daughter and a 25-year career with the city's Sanitation Department.

"I just didn't want to think about that place anymore," said the 63-year-old Staten Island man.

Those battlefield memories came alive again Monday when Carraturo was awarded a Purple Heart for wounds sustained in combat on April 2, 1967.

"It's something that was a long time overdue," said Carraturo after accepting his medal from Rep. Michael McMahon at a ceremony in New Dorp. "It's like a closure."

Carraturo was just 19 when he was injured by enemy fire while serving with the 11th Armored Cavalry's Blackhorse unit, a search-and-destroy reconnaissance team. Heavy gunfire knocked Carraturo unconscious. He was treated for head trauma at a field hospital and went back into battle after just 10 days, spending a total of 13 months in combat.

"Certain things about Vietnam are very private and I don't like to talk about it," he said.

Carraturo's unit was met with protests when they came home - something that hurt him deeply. "I didn't choose to go over there," he said. "I was drafted and I did what I had to do."


go here for moreStaten Island veteran gets Purple Heart

Command Sgt. Maj. Michael Bekaert takes charge of Fort Stewart WTB

New CSM brings experience to WTU
Soldier has served 20 years in National Guard

By Frenchi Jones
Staff writer
Updated: June 22, 2009


After more than a month of being without a command sergeant major, soldiers at Fort Stewart’s Warrior Transition Battalion recently welcomed a new leader to its chain of command.

On Wednesday, Command Sgt. Maj. Michael Bekaert assumed responsibility as the battalion’s commanding non-commissioned officer.

First Sgt. Glenn Swanson, who served as the interim CSM while the battalion courted a new one, exchanged responsibility for the troops with Bekaert in front of three companies of soldiers currently assigned to the WTB.

“We are getting a great NCO to help lead this battalion in the direction it’s headed,” Lt. Col. James Kanicki, commander of the WTU, told the warriors. “Command Sgt. Maj. Bekaert brings with him a wealth of knowledge and experience. He’s a combat veteran … and above all else, he is a leader that understands soldiers and understands taking care of soldiers.”

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Wichita VA Hospital New Home to Homeless Vets

Wichita VA Hospital New Home to Homeless Vets


Reporter: Deb Farris


Robert J Dole Veteran Affairs Medical Center will soon be home to a temporary housing facility to help homeless vets get back on their feet.

The announcement was made official in a public hearing Monday night.

About sixty people showed up showing their support and even some opposed to the new facility. Many citizens said they are honored Wichita can finally do some good to aid those who served our country. But other neighboring residents to the hospital expressed concern over property values and safety concerns.
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http://www.kake.com/news/headlines/48816382.html

I will never understand some people. During the hearing a man stood up and said, "If it's about soldiers coming back from Iraq that's one thing but if it's about them sleeping under the bridge for a long, long time, I really don't want them in my neighborhood." Does this man realize the men sleeping under the bridge for a long, long time, were willing to give up their lives for him and his neighborhood? Does he understand that most of them have un-addressed mental health conditions and they are suffering because the rest of the country forgot all about them? Even with the way they have been discharged from their own communities, they would still give up their life for the sake of someone else. It's just the way they are.

Ask any of your neighbors if they know what PTSD is, and you're bound to get a blank expression or a puzzled one. Most people do not understand that too many veterans come back with PTSD and seek alcohol or drugs to relieve what PTSD is doing to them. They know there is something "wrong" with them but they don't even know what it is or that they can be treated for it. As with most challenges the PTSD veterans face, there is also the abandonment from a family that does not understand and does not support them in getting the help they need to heal. Pushed away from their families, where else do these veterans go? Is sleeping under a bridge more acceptable to this man than helping them get back on their feet?

I don't think this man is evil, nor do I think he is so greedy about his property values it comes before these veterans. I think he is uninformed and judging people he has no clue about.

Philadelphia Veterans Administration Doctor Botched Cancer Treatments

Report: VA errors caused radiation burns

PHILADELPHIA, June 21 (UPI) -- A doctor at the Philadelphia Veterans Administration hospital was off target on most of more than 100 patients he treated for prostate cancer, records showed.

Dr. Gary Kao has left the hospital after botching 92 of the 112 procedures involving the implantation of radioactive metal "seeds" in the prostate glands of patients, The New York Times reported Sunday.
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VA errors caused radiation burns

Camp Lejeune contamination leaves Marines behind

Camp Lejeune was supposed to take care of the Marines and their families. They were supposed to actually care about their well being. It looks like no matter what Marines and their families were exposed to at Lejeune, they military will not accept responsibility for any of it.

If you know someone stationed at Camp Lejeune, pass this onto them and encourage them to file a claim if they are ill, contact their congressman and their local media. This cannot be dropped.

Ill veterans push for answers on Lejeune contamination
By Bruce Henderson - McClatchy Newspapers

Kidney cancer, Mike Edwards says, came so close to killing him five years ago that he saw a stairway to heaven and smelled the brimstone of hell.

Now, Edwards and thousands of other veterans are caught in a kind of purgatory. They believe decades of drinking-water contamination at North Carolina's Camp Lejeune Marine Corps base sickened them or their family members.

But they may never know the truth.

Federal officials acknowledge that, from the 1950s to 1985, up to 500,000 people at Lejeune might have been exposed to high doses of chemicals that probably cause cancer and other illnesses.

A new report offers little hope of answers. No amount of study, it said, is likely to conclusively prove the contamination made anybody sick.

So many people came and went from Lejeune over the years, said a June 13 report from the National Research Council, that it's unlikely many can be located. It's also hard to estimate the amount of chemicals they might have been exposed to so long ago, it said, and to separate that from toxic substances encountered elsewhere.

Those problems, the committee concluded, "cannot be overcome with additional study."

The Navy has received 1,583 claims for compensation, totaling $34 billion. None have been settled. The Veterans Administration says it offers no health benefits from the Lejeune contamination.
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http://www.thesunnews.com/news/local/story/948590.html

A Chance for Clues to Brain Injury in Combat Blasts

A Chance for Clues to Brain Injury in Combat Blasts
By ALAN SCHWARZ
Published: June 22, 2009
No direct impact caused Paul McQuigg’s brain injury in Iraq three years ago. And no wound from the incident visibly explains why Mr. McQuigg, now an office manager at a California Marine base, can get lost in his own neighborhood or arrive at the grocery store having forgotten why he left home.

But his blast injury — concussive brain trauma caused by an explosion’s invisible force waves — is no less real to him than a missing limb is to other veterans. Just how real could become clearer after he dies, when doctors slice up his brain to examine any damage.

Mr. McQuigg, 32, is one of 20 active and retired members of the military who recently agreed to donate their brain tissue upon death so that the effects of blast injuries — which, unlike most concussions, do not involve any direct contact with the head — can be better understood and treated.

The research will be conducted by the Sports Legacy Institute, a nonprofit organization based in Waltham, Mass., and by the Boston University Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy, whose recent examination of the brains of deceased football players has found damage linked to cognitive decline and depression.
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A Chance for Clues to Brain Injury in Combat Blasts

PTSD on Trial:Iraq war veteran in court on homicide charge

Iraq war veteran in court on homicide charge
Posted: Jun 22, 2009 7:40 PM EDT

MADISON (WKOW) -- The attorney for an Iraq war veteran accused of a Fitchburg murder said post traumatic stress syndrome was a factor in Perry Lucas' actions, but to what extent is still unclear.
Lucas, 28, appeared in Dane County court Monday, charged with first degree intentional homicide in connection with the June 16 fatal shooting of 23 year old Detarious Martin. Lucas is also charged with first degree reckless endangerment.
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http://www.wkowtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=10576296

Parents Say Soldier Likely Committed Suicide

Parents Say Soldier Likely Committed Suicide
Family Says 25-Year-Old Was Depressed

POSTED: 3:48 pm EDT June 22, 2009

INDIANAPOLIS -- The family of an Indianapolis soldier who died last week in Iraq said they knew he was depressed, but didn't know how to help.

Army Spc. Chancellor A. Keesling, 25, died Friday in Baghdad, according to a release from the Department of Defense.

His parents, Jannett and Gregg Keesling, said that after talking with military officials and the soldier who found their son, they believe he committed suicide.

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http://www.theindychannel.com/news/19825379/detail.html

UPDATE to this

Soldier, 25, killed self in Iraq, family says

GI troubled by stress from an earlier tour and by quarrel with girlfriend, dad says
By Robert Annis - Indianapolis Star
Posted : Tuesday Jun 23, 2009 18:37:43 EDT

The family of an Indianapolis soldier who died in Baghdad last week confirmed Monday that he took his own life.

Army Spc. Chancellor Keesling, 25, Indianapolis, shot and killed himself Friday, just two weeks after he returned for his second tour of duty in Iraq and days after an argument with a girlfriend.

Keesling’s father, Gregg Keesling, said his son and his son’s wife had separated during his first tour, and he was despondent over the possibility that a second relationship was crumbling.

Chancellor Keesling suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder from his first tour, his father said, but neither his commanding officer nor fellow soldiers with the 961st Engineer Company out of Sharonville, Ohio, had any idea.

Keesling’s firearm, his father said, was taken away from him for one month during his initial deployment for fear he would harm himself.

Gregg Keesling applauded the military’s efforts to assist soldiers with mental health issues, but he said something as simple as the family having the e-mail address of the unit chaplain could have helped save his son’s life.

“We talked to him 15 hours earlier and told him to go see the chaplain, but he didn’t go,” he said. “There was enough time to get to someone to keep this from happening, but we didn’t know who (to talk to).”
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http://www.armytimes.com/news/2009/06/gns_soldier_suicide_062309/

It seems that Gregg Keesling has one of the answers to this. The families. They know the soldiers and veterans better than anyone else does. They know their character, their moods, everything that is a part of their lives. They are also the first ones to see when something isn't right and when they need help. Maybe part of the solution is to give all families the contact information for unit chaplains just in case they are needed.

Ex-Husband charged with killing Sgt. Shaneka Jones

FORT HOOD

Soldier stabbed to death

A Fort Hood soldier was fatally stabbed, and her civilian ex-husband is being charged with murder, an FBI official said Monday.

Fort Hood police found the soldier wounded in her home on the post after receiving a 911 call about 3 a.m. Monday, Army officials said. Emergency responders could not revive her, and she was pronounced dead at a nearby Army hospital.

Sgt. Shaneka Jones, 26, apparently had been arguing with Donovan Lair, 36, before she was stabbed once in the chest, FBI spokesman Erik Vasys said. Lair was detained at the house by military police, Vasys said.

Because Lair is not a soldier, he was taken into custody by FBI agents and taken from Killeen to Waco, where he appeared before a federal magistrate Monday, Vasys said.

Lair was ordered to be detained until a preliminary hearing Thursday, when bail will be discussed, Vasys said.
Soldier stabbed to death