Oprah's Thanksgiving Gift to wounded warriors

If you've been with family today giving thanks for what you have in your life, you may have missed a special Oprah show. Today she gave the wounded warriors one of the greatest gifts possible. She gave them her attention as well as compassion.

Oprah on Location at Walter Reed Army Medical Center
Oprah on Location at Walter Reed Army Medical Center
Oprah visits Walter Reed Army Medical Center to meet the real men, women and families behind the headlines. Then, a day in the life of a soldier and a mom.

When the physically wounded are being treated, it is assumed they have other wounds needing to be treated. Should they require help to heal emotionally, everyone around them has been watching for signs, or at least they should be.

Juanita Wilson talked to Oprah about how her husband couldn't understand why she didn't come home the same way. It happens all too often when the family members are unwilling to look beyond the body they see into the soul of the person they were closest to. Juanita lost her hand but her other wound is trying to take over the rest of her.

Ceremony Reenlists Injured Soldiers Into U.S. Army Reserve
WASHINGTON - APRIL 6: U.S. Army Reservist Sgt. 1st Class Juanita Wilson (C) is congratulated by Lt. Gen. James Helmly (L), Chief of the Army Reserve, after Wilson took the oath to reenlist in the Reserves on the West Steps of the U.S. Capitol April 6, 2006 in Washington, DC. Wilson's daughter, Kenyah Wilson, 7, is at right. Wilson lost her left hand to an improvised explosive device in Iraq in August, 2004. Wilson said she has no second thoughts about reenlisting. 'I was born and bred to be a solider,' she said.
Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Apr 06, 2006

Everything she spoke about pointed to PTSD but that in no way prevents her from serving. PTSD is not the end of a life. It's the end of the way they used to be because trauma always changes people. We all change with what happens in our own lives. For our troops and our veterans, the change came after they did what we asked them to do. That makes it all our responsibly and a continuation of our obligation.

Women on the Front Lines
More women than ever are enlisted. Meet Juanita Wilson, the first American mother to lose a limb in Iraq.

Combat Photography
A retired Air Force staff sergeant goes behind the lens...browse a gallery of Stacy Pearsall's moving photographs.


The Road to Recovery
At Walter Reed, our most critically injured soldiers begin to rebuild their lives. The visit Oprah won't soon forget.

In Their Own Words
In a split second, their lives were changed forever. Meet the soldiers at Walter Reed, and watch them tell their stories.

There is more to say but today is Thanksgiving and while I am thankful for much today, this program is now among the blessings I'm grateful for today. Please watch the clips if you did not see the show. If you did then please write to thank Oprah for this show.

Witnesses say reservist was a hero at Hood

Witnesses say reservist was a hero at Hood

By Gregg Zoroya, USA Today
Posted : Wednesday Nov 25, 2009 13:18:26 EST

Three weeks after 13 people were shot and killed at Fort Hood, Texas, new details are emerging about an Army Reserve captain who died trying to fight off the gunman before police arrived.

Investigators are still sorting out the actions of Capt. John Gaffaney, 56, a psychiatric nurse. But according to varying eyewitness accounts, Gaffaney either picked up a chair and threw it at Army psychiatrist Maj. Nidal Hasan, the accused killer, or physically rushed him from across the room.

Army Maj. Gen. Lie-Ping Chang, commander of the reserve force to which Gaffaney belonged, said that two eyewitnesses recounted how the reservist threw a folding chair and "tried to knock (Hasan) down or knock his gun down." Chang included this account in an essay submitted to USA Today.

Army Reserve Col. Kathy Platoni, a clinical psychologist who served with Gaffaney, said she was told that he rushed Hasan to within inches before being shot several times.

Platoni said she comforted Gaffaney as he lay dying in a building nearby where soldiers brought him after he was mortally wounded, ripping off pieces of their uniform to use as pressure bandages or tourniquets to stem his massive bleeding from multiple wounds.

“I just started talking to him and holding his hand and saying, ‘John, you're going to be OK. You're going to be OK. You've just got to fight,’” Platoni recalls.

He died shortly after that, she says. "I was still yelling, 'John, don't go. John, don't go.’”

Regardless of what actions Gaffaney took, soldiers were able to escape the gunman when Gaffaney confronted him, Chang says. Gaffaney's widow, Christine, said one female soldier told her that he saved her life.

"I have no idea precisely what his actions were," says Army spokesman Jay Adams at Fort Hood. "But … I am sure there is truth in those accounts."

The initial account of Gaffaney's actions came from a USA Today interview with Chang about plans to replace 16 mental-health workers killed or wounded at Fort Hood. Investigators are still trying to determine precise details, including which police officer shot and wounded Hasan.
read more here
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2009/11/gns_hero_112509/

Suspect killed by SWAT team; 4 children OK

Suspect killed by SWAT team; 4 children OK
By Bianca Prieto and Henry Pierson Curtis, Orlando Sentinel

November 25, 2009
An armed man who was fatally shot after Orlando police said he barricaded himself and four children in a downtown-area house was identified as local artist Palin Perez, 36.

Witnesses said Perez released four children from the home in the 1600 block of East Livingston, and the kids were helped out of the house by police. Afterwards, Perez came outside with a gun and was shot, Orlando police spokeswoman Barbara Jones said.

Although police identified the deceased as Palin Perez, friends said his full name was Palin Perez Jackson.

The kids are 2, 3, 8 and 9 years old, Jones said. All of the kids belonged to a woman who alerted police to the standoff about 9:30 this morning. The suspect was the father of two of the children.

"Physically, they're OK. Emotionally, I don't know," Jones said of the children. "At least they're safe now."
read more here
Suspect killed by SWAT team

Mom Befriends Wife of PTSD Vet Charged With Murder

Mom Befriends Wife of PTSD Vet Charged With Murder

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: November 25, 2009
HOLLIDAYSBURG, Pa. (AP) -- When the envelope arrived, Windy Horner was talking with her husband, Nick -- Windy on a cell phone, Nick in the Blair County jail.

Windy did not recognize the return address. She feared hate mail; her husband is charged with killing two men and robbing a sandwich shop, and she blames his actions on post-traumatic stress disorder from his service in Iraq, but others do not agree.

''Just because horner went to iraq,'' read one reader comment on a newspaper Web site, ''doesnt mean he shouldnt get what he deserves!!!!!!!''

Now, she wondered: Should she open the envelope? Go ahead, Nick said.

The note was from a complete stranger, a woman named Laurie Claar. It was written on a card decorated with a rainbow and flowers, bearing the message, ''Caring Thoughts Are With You.''

''I'm not sure what to say to you all except I understand and you all are in my prayers,'' Claar wrote. ''And I don't think bad of Nick as he needs help to deal with PTSD.''

Her words reached a young couple sorely in need of encouragement.

On April 26, Laurie Claar sat in the darkness next to her son's grave, cradling a doll she dressed in the clothes he had worn as a newborn. She was waiting for the clock to strike 11:04 p.m.

Exactly 25 years before, Matthew Claar had been born.

''I just had to be there at that time,'' Claar said tearfully. It comforted her, she said, to remember a time when she could still protect her son.

More than seven months before his mother's vigil, fueled by guilt and PTSD, the Marine Corps veteran had pulled the trigger on the 9mm pistol in his mouth.

read more here

Mom Befriends Wife of PTSD Vet Charged With Murder

Veterans' Chief goes from Hall of Fame to accused of hurting veterans

Arizona indicts former veteran's chiefPublished: Nov. 20, 2009 at 11:09 AM


PHOENIX, Nov. 20 (UPI) -- The former head of Arizona's Department of Veterans' Services has been indicted on felony charges of fraud, misuse of public money and conflict of interest.

The indictment of Patrick Chorpenning Sr., a disabled Vietnam veteran, comes less than three weeks after he was inducted into the state Veterans Hall of Fame, The Arizona Republic reported Friday.

Chorpenning, who led the department from 1999 to 2007, is accused of enriching his friends and family at the same time as he was cutting benefits to the veterans he was hired to serve.
read more here
Arizona indicts former veterans chief

Pastor gives helping hand to homeless veteran

WILLIAM COLGIN/SUN HERALD Vietnam veteran, Early Johnson, is no longer homeless after being given an apartment by Pastor Lee Adams who sought out Johnson after reading about his situation in a Sun Herald story on Sunday.

Pastor gives helping hand to homeless veteran
Reverend provides apartment
By MICHAEL NEWSOM - mmnewsom@sunherald.com
GULFPORT — Navy veteran Early Johnson moved into a clean, spacious apartment Thursday in a quiet neighborhood near downtown.

For many South Mississippians, that wouldn’t be very noteworthy, but until he had unpacked his precious few belongings there, Johnson was one of an estimated 131,000 U.S. veterans who are homeless on any given night, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Thanks to the generosity of the Rev. Lee Adams, pastor of Little Rock Missionary Baptist Church in Gulfport, the veteran of the Vietnam era now has a home. Adams had kept an apartment that he was letting a young couple use until they found a place to live. The couple moved out in August, and at the time, Adams felt he needed to keep the apartment, but he said he really wasn’t sure why.

Adams said it all became clear Sunday night when he read in the Sun Herald about Johnson’s life as a homeless veteran and dialysis patient, who is disabled and on waiting lists for public housing and not able to find a place of his own on the money he makes working part time at the Biloxi VA. It was Johnson’s quote that he was able to survive on the streets by putting his trust in God, whom he said took care of him, which spurred the reverend into action.
read more here
http://www.sunherald.com/278/story/1757425.html?storylink=omni_popular

Finally justice may come:Senators seek review of military's personality-disorder discharges

One of my rants (among many)has been about this. It has broken the spirits of too many when they were kicked out instead of helped up to heal.

Senators seek review of military's personality-disorder discharges

David Goldstein, Mcclatchy Newspapers – Tue Oct 20, 5:22 pm ET
WASHINGTON -- In the Senate , Barack Obama fought for better mental-health care for troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan .

Now that he's president, some of his former colleagues want him to pick up the gauntlet once more and make sure troops are getting the benefits they deserve.

"In 2007, we were partners in the fight against the military's misuse of personality disorder discharges," four senators -- Democrat Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas and Republicans Charles Grassley of Iowa , Kit Bond of Missouri and Sam Brownback of Kansas -- wrote in a letter this week asking Obama for a report to Congress on the current use of the discharges. "Today we urge you to renew your commitment to address this critical issue facing thousands of returning service members."

Because the military views personality disorders as a pre-existing condition, many service members returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan with mental health problems have been unable to receive health benefits. There have been questions, however, about how scrupulous the military has been in making sure that the personality disorder discharges were proper.
read more here
Senators seek review of military's personality-disorder discharges

'Military doesn't care about people with mental issues'

'Military doesn't care about people with mental issues'
By Nisa Islam Muhammad Staff Writer
Last updated: Nov 23, 2009

(FinalCall.com) - Vernelda Taylor-Harris is fighting mad about the tragedies at Ft. Hood, the tragedy that happened in early November with Major Nidal Hassan who is accused of killing 13 people and the tragedy with her daughter, PFC Sophia Taylor, while stationed at Ft. Hood.

“My daughter was diagnosed with PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) while she was deployed in Iraq. She broke down and was medivaced to Ft. Hood for treatment. They did not treat her at all. In fact they just threw her under the bus. The military has no compassion for people with PTSD,” she told The Final Call.
read more here
http://www.finalcall.com/artman/publish/National_News_2/article_6586.shtml