Deadlines, Dismissals and Disabled Veterans

The following is a great example of what is really going on. In the cases of veterans with "mental" problems, the vast majority are harder than hell to get to seek help. Then there is the issue of expecting them to be able to fight the system to have their claims approved at the same time they are expected to make doctors appointments and show up for the testing that has to be done. Should they make a mistake on their claim because they cannot really understand it, then their claim gets turned down. They have to file an appeal within a certain amount of time and should they dare not do it in time, they lose retroactive pay if and when their claim is finally approved.

Some veterans have a family member helping them, standing by them and doing the Lord's work taking care of them. (Most of the time it takes a Saint to do all that comes with this.) That is in a perfect world however, the majority of the veterans have no one to fight for them. Families surely love them but they have no ability to understand what's going on and they trust the system, so they assume the VA is right and their family member is looking for excuses to act the way they do. These rules are abusive to the veterans.

“It is the veteran who incurs the most devastating service-connected injury who will often be the least able to comply with rigidly enforced filing deadlines,” Judge Mayer wrote.

Deadlines, Dismissals and Disabled Veterans
By ADAM LIPTAK
Published: April 5, 2010
Three years ago, the Supreme Court said there are some filing deadlines so rigid that no excuse for missing them counts, even if the tardiness was caused by the erroneous instructions from a federal judge.

The vote was 5 to 4, and Justice David H. Souter wrote a furious dissent. “It is intolerable for the judicial system to treat people this way,” he said, adding that he feared the decision would have pernicious consequences.

He had no idea.

The court’s decision concerned a convicted murderer who had beaten a man to death. But now it is being applied to bar claims from disabled veterans who fumble filing procedures and miss deadlines in seeking help from the government. The upshot, according to a dissent in December from three judges on a federal appeals court in Washington, is “a Kafkaesque adjudicatory process in which those veterans who are most deserving of service-connected benefits will frequently be those least likely to obtain them.”

The Supreme Court will soon consider whether to hear an appeal from David L. Henderson, who was discharged from the military in 1952 after receiving a diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia. He sought additional government help for his condition in 2001, and he was turned down in 2004.

read more here

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/06/us/06bar.html

Body of LAPD SWAT officer and Marine reservist returns home

U.S. Marine Corps Sgt. Major Robert J. Cottle (left) and Lance Cpl. Rick Centanni, both from Yorba Linda, were killed March 24 in Afghanistan. (Courtesy Rick Centanni Memorial Fund)

Second OC Marine’s body returns home
By Staff, City News Service
Monday, April 5, 2010



LOS ALAMITOS — The body of LAPD SWAT officer and Marine reservist Sgt. Maj. Robert J. Cottle, who was killed March 24 in a roadside bombing in Afghanistan’s Helmand Province, arrived at the Los Alamitos Joint Forces Training Base today.

Cottle, 45, who leaves behind a wife and a 9-month-old daughter, died alongside a fellow Southern California Marine, Lance Cpl. Rick J. Centanni, a 19-year-old light armored vehicle driver from Yorba Linda. Centanni, whose body arrived at Los Alamitos Friday, would have turned 20 on Saturday.

A large contingent of Marines and LAPD personnel were on hand at Los Alamitos as Cottle’s flag-draped coffin arrived at the base.



Read more: Second OC Marines body returns home

Dog eats police car and goes to doggie jail

Police-Car-Eating Dog Is Back Home -- But On Probation
by Helena Sung
A dog in Tennessee who chewed up a police car and landed in doggie jail, has been released and is back at home with his family after nearly two weeks in the custody of the local animal control shelter, reports the Chattanooga Times Free Press. The Chattanooga Police Department released astonishing video of Winston, a pit-bull mix, on his vehicle-chomping spree, flattening tires and ripping the fiberglass cover off a police-car fender.

"I try not to watch the video," Winston's chagrined owner, Nancy Emerling, tells Paw Nation. Cited for owning a "potentially dangerous dog," Emerling was ordered to appear in court.

Last month, Winston had initially started chewing the tire of a police car, and, when the officer got out and sprayed the dog with pepper spray, Winston moved on to front bumper. Even a Taser didn't stop him. The tires of a second patrol car, as well as the tires of two cars trying to pass through the area, also succumbed to Winston's powerful jaws.
read more here

Police-Car-Eating Dog Is Back Home

Is it time for VA Home Refinancing

Never a Better Time for VA Home Refinancing, says Mortgage Investors Corporation
With rates at record lows, veterans can enjoy government-guaranteed assistance at home.
(PRNewsChannel) / March 29, 2010 / Washington, D.C. / At a time when home foreclosures dominate the day’s headlines, Mortgage Investors Corporation wants veterans to know they’ve got their backs.
Mortgage Investors Corporation says the U.S. Dept. of Veterans Affairs offers veterans and soldiers on active duty a VA home loan program—one that enables military personnel to refinance a home. Known as a VA Streamline Home Loan Refinance, the program also benefits spouses of those veterans and active soldiers.

While the government does not act as a lender, the Veterans Administration guarantees the money loaned through VA-approved lenders like Mortgage Investors Corporation in St. Petersburg, Fla. Veterans receive the (no hassle) benefit and a lower interest rate.

Mortgage Investors Corporation remains one of the nation’s largest VA loan providers, and has a reputation of helping veterans transition from serving their country to living in it comfortably. Mortgage Investors Corporation assists veterans with refinancing a VA loan and saving hundreds of dollars on monthly payments.

The Dept. of Veterans Affairs’ Loan Guaranty program does not impose a maximum amount an eligible veteran may borrow. Certain county limits, however, are used to calculate VA’s maximum guaranty amount. For example, this year’s VA limit for Pinellas County, Fla. is $425,000, while the District of Columbia is $768,750 and in some locations over $1-million.

“The VA makes sure these brave men and women shouldn’t have to worry about how to pay for their homes once they return to the United States,” says William Edwards, chairman and chief executive officer of Mortgage Investors Corporation. “We guarantee them the best deal when refinancing a VA loan.”

For more information about VA refinancing options available from Mortgage Investors Corporation, please visit: www.mortgageinvestors.com or phone 1–800–891–6678.

Asbestos and toxic exposure risk low for troops in Haiti

Burn pits and contaminants in the water of Iraq were also not supposed to be a problem, just as Agent Orange use in Vietnam. Is this one more problem that will arise years later for the troops?

Toxic exposure risk low for troops in Haiti
Officials say samples show contaminants below hazard levels
By Seth Robson, Stars and Stripes
European edition, Sunday, April 4, 2010

Air, water and soil samples taken from places where U.S. troops have been operating in Haiti do not contain high levels of toxic substances, according to the U.S. Southern Command.

The U.S. Army Center for Health Promotion and Preventive Medicine tested the hundreds of samples for some 200 contaminants, including silica and asbestos.

“Everything we have been able to analyze so far has not presented a risk that is expected to be long-term, short-term or one we can’t mitigate,” said Lt. Col. Eric Milstrey, SOUTHCOM’s public health officer.

Teams from the Army, Air Force and Navy collected the samples from sites where U.S. military personnel have worked in Haiti since January’s deadly earthquake. Soldiers from the 82nd Airborne Division, who provided security for earthquake rubble removal in Port-au-Prince, have reported sore throats and coughing that they blame on dust inhaled on the job.

The Army’s preliminary results suggest that asbestos levels found in dust from the Haiti earthquake are low enough that it would have been safe for soldiers to work without masks. The only place where a significant quantity of asbestos was detected in Haiti was at an AIDS clinic used by the U.S. Public Health Service, where an asbestos ceiling tile was discovered, Milstrey said.

Furthermore, testing of 14 wells used to supply shower water to troops in Haiti turned up quite a few contaminants, including harmful bacteria, that could be a health risk if the water was untreated, Milstrey said.

read more here

http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=69140

Air Force captain dies after damaged tire explodes in her lap

Air Force captain dies after damaged tire explodes in her lap
By Geoff Ziezulewicz, Stars and Stripes
European edition, Saturday, April 3, 2010
RAF MILDENHALL, England — An England-based Air Force officer died Thursday from injuries sustained last week when a damaged car tire exploded in her lap during a trip to Scotland.

Capt. Jenna Wilcox, and her husband, Capt. Scott Wilcox, pulled into a garage at about 6 p.m. March 27 in Dalkeith, just outside of Edinburgh, after changing a tire on their BMW Z3 approximately 100 miles earlier, according to Inspector David Muir, a spokesman for the Lothian and Borders police in Scotland.

Jenna Wilcox was in the passenger seat and had the damaged tire on her lap when it suddenly exploded, blowing out the car’s windows and roof, he said.

She was taken to Western General Hospital in Edinburgh, where she succumbed to her injuries Thursday, Muir said. She was 27.
read more here
http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=69121

Vietnam-era photo hanging in a cafe unearths memories

Vietnam-era photo hanging in a cafe unearths memories, emotions
By Chris Vaughn, McClatchy Newspapers
Stars and Stripes online edition, Sunday, April 4, 2010



FORT WORTH, Texas — War has a way of surfacing at the most improbable times and unlikely places.

The hostess and waitresses at the West Side Cafe can attest.

Not long ago, on an ordinary, crowded Thursday morning, a man visiting from Ohio came in for a plate of bacon and eggs, saw a photo on the wall and dissolved into tears, unable to speak.

The small portrait, just a few steps from the cash register, was of Army Sgt. John E. Miller, a man he had fought to save in a battle in South Vietnam nearly 44 years ago.

Within the span of a few minutes, Galen Taylor's spring break visit to Fort Worth had transformed from seeing the kids and grandkids to reuniting with Miller's family. The process unearthed distant memories and raw emotions — not all of them exactly welcome.
read more here

Vietnam era photo hanging in a cafe unearths memories

Killing somebody in combat more likely produce PTSD symptoms

Of nearly 2,800 soldiers surveyed, 40 percent reported killing or being responsible for somebody’s death in Iraq.

“Those who acknowledged killing somebody in combat were more likely to have PTSD symptoms, anger, relationship problems,” said Maguen, a staff psychologist at the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center.

Study finds troops risk emotional toll for taking enemy life in combat
By Tom Vanden Brook, USA Today
European edition, Sunday, April 4, 2010
WASHINGTON — Army Capt. Grant Speakes had lived through the worst the Iraq war has unleashed: He had heard the screams of a soldier burned to death in a roadside bomb strike, stanched the bleeding of a soldier cut down by a sniper and killed an insurgent himself. He returned home haunted by the memories.

While riding in cars, he jumped when other vehicles pulled next to his. He drank too much. One night at his parents’ home, his father, retired Lt. Gen. Stephen Speakes, found his son sitting awake at 2 a.m., rocking back and forth alone in a chair.
One night he finally crumbled.

“My dad had been calling, leaving messages asking why I didn’t return his phone calls,” Grant Speakes said. “I just broke down and told him all the stuff I was dealing with. I was crying outside Hooters on the phone in Killeen, Texas. That was a low point for me.”

Soldiers such as Grant Speakes, who say they killed enemy troops in combat, are at greater risk of suffering combat stress and having emotional problems, a new study shows.

read more here
http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=69149

New school at Fort Jackson to aid in fighting stress

New school at Jackson to aid in fighting stress

By Susanne M. Schafer - The Associated Press
Posted : Sunday Apr 4, 2010 12:00:54 EDT

FORT JACKSON, S.C. — Army officials are hoping to better arm soldiers to fight the stress that comes from repeated deployment to war zones in an effort to stem record suicide rates.

The military branch on Monday plans to officially open a new school aimed at teaching soldiers how to think positively to help deal with emotional, social and psychological stress. The work being done at Fort Jackson, the Army’s largest training base, has been offered in some trial courses already.

“It helps you deal with the bruises, the bumps, ways to cope with adversity,” said Staff Sgt. Jose Sixtos, a 29-year-old from Tanasket, Wash., who has served for nine years. “It gives you some better models, some ways to cope with the grim stuff in your life.”

The school will train sergeants and young officers who mentor other soldiers during training and deployments. Those superiors will work with soldiers informally, passing on the tips and techniques they learn in the classroom, participants said.
read more here
New school at Jackson to aid in fighting stress

AZ Senate hopeful accused of faking his military past

AZ Senate hopeful accused of faking his military past
Arizona Daily Star

A Vietnam veteran and state Senate hopeful from Tucson is being accused of embellishing his service record by a national group that exposes military fakes.

J.D. "Duke" Schechter, 63, is trying to collect enough signatures to run as the Republican candidate in Legislative District 27. He has been besieged for weeks on his Facebook page by critics who have dubbed him "the Milli Vanilli of the Marine Corps," a nod to the lip-synching 1990 Grammy winners.

Schechter ran for state House of Representatives in the same district in 2008 and captured more than 10,000 votes - about 17 percent of ballots cast by voters on Tucson's West side.

A copy of his military service record, obtained by the Star under the Freedom of Information Act, shows that Schechter, who calls himself a Marine sergeant, was in fact discharged as a lance corporal, two ranks lower.

Schechter, who served from 1966 to 1970, said he feels entitled to use the higher rank because he briefly was a sergeant before being demoted - twice - for misconduct.

They include claims that he posed as a recipient of the Silver Star - the nation's third-highest award for combat valor - and of five Purple Hearts. He didn't earn any of those honors, his service record shows.

A photograph of Schechter, which he posted on several Web sites including Classmates.com, a high school reunion site, shows him wearing a white waistcoat with several rows of medal ribbons on his chest.

read more here

AZ Senate hopeful accused of faking his military past
Arizona Daily Star

Dr. Todd Hatch wants other doctors to step up for OEF and OIF veterans

Local doctor has a plan to help the VA treat America's vets -- for free

by Kevin Reece / 11 News

Posted on April 2, 2010


HOUSTON—The Veterans Administration more than has its hands full when it comes to caring for aging and injured veterans.

Even under the best of circumstances, they have millions of patients to care for each year.

But a Houston-area doctor has a plan – he wants the rest of the medical community to step in and do their part.

John Thompson is one of those veterans. He makes monthly visits to Dr. Todd Hatch for neck, back and foot pain.

That pain started on the other side of the world, when Thompson spent a year with the Army in Iraq.

Thompson’s supply convoys criss-crossed the country, and day-to-day life was mostly uneventful. But even though he was never injured in battle, the wear and tear of being on the road led to back problems.

When he came home, he initially sought help at the Houston VA.

"They, uh, you know, threw some medicine at me and said, ‘Here you go. This will take care of it.’ But over time, it progressively got worse, and I really didn’t know where to go," Thompson said.

That is, until he drove past the readerboard at Sunrise Chiropractic, where Dr. Hatch Works, and saw that Iraq and Afghan war vets could get help there – for free.

"They have a lot of pride, and they don’t want to ask for help. But they’ll take help if it’s offered," Hatch said.

Hatch began offering that help, because soldiers told him the VA often can’t.

"The government cannot take care of all these soldiers. There’s no way they can meet all their needs. So I think it’s time for the citizens to step up, say what we can do for our own people," Hatch said.
read more here
Local doctor has a plan to help the VA

also

Wounded Warriors Volunteer Association Web site
MISSION STATEMENT

The Wounded Warrior Volunteer Association (WWVA) recognizes and appreciates the willingness of our veterans, active duty and reservists to serve and protect. While the United States government attempts to meet the health care needs of those brave men and women there are times that some of those needs are not meet. Additionally we are concerned about those warriors that did not sustain injuries that “qualified” them for health care under such programs, warriors that have been “released” from such programs and those warriors that have given up on seeking care through such programs due to the extenuating bureaucracy involved. The primary mission of the Wounded Warriors Volunteer Association (WWVA) is to connect Iraq and Afghanistan veterans with healthcare providers and services who agree to provide quality care at no cost to the warrior. Some providers may also elect to offer the same benefit to the warrior’s spouse or primary care giver.

"Where Honor Lives" until nursing home veterans are abused

Elder abuse investigations linger in incidents at state veterans home

11:55 PM CDT on Saturday, April 3, 2010
By JAMES DREW / The Dallas Morning News
jdrew@dallasnews.com

BIG SPRING, Texas – The Veterans Land Board promotes its seven state-owned veterans homes with a glossy brochure titled "Where Honor Lives."

But there was nothing honorable about what allegedly happened to World War II Navy veteran John Harris in the final months of his life in 2007 at the Lamun-Lusk-Sanchez State Veterans Home in Big Spring.

A certified nurse aide said she saw a co-worker grab the 97-year-old from his wheelchair and slam him into his bed. Harris, suffering from Alzheimer's disease, was taken to the hospital that night when he complained of hip pain, according to a state inspection report.

That same year, another employee at the home was accused of punching and trying to choke Albert Teague, 84, a Marine who fought at Iwo Jima.
go here for more
Investigations linger in incidents at state veterans home

Service dogs help ease veterans' postwar pain

Service dogs help ease veterans' postwar pain
Government to test how dogs can help troops cope with post-traumatic stress disorder.

By Janie Lorber
THE NEW YORK TIMES

Published: 11:00 p.m. Saturday, April 3, 2010


WASHINGTON — Just weeks after Chris Goehner, 25, an Iraq war veteran, got a dog, he was able to cut in half the dose of anxiety and sleep medications he took for post-traumatic stress disorder. The night terrors and suicidal thoughts that kept him awake for days on end ceased.

Aaron Ellis, 29, another Iraq veteran with the stress disorder, scrapped his medications entirely soon after getting a dog — and set foot in a grocery store for the first time in three years.

The dogs to whom they credit their improved health are psychiatric service dogs specially trained to help traumatized veterans leave the battlefield behind as they reintegrate into society.

Because of stories like these, the federal government is spending several million dollars to study whether scientific research supports anecdotal reports that the dogs might speed recovery from the psychological wounds of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In dozens of interviews, veterans and their therapists reported drastic reductions in post-traumatic stress symptoms and in reliance on medication after receiving a service dog.
read more here
Service dogs help ease veterans postwar pain

Hundreds honor wounded Marine

Hundreds honor wounded Marine
Sunday, April 04, 2010
By MICHAEL McAULIFFE
mmcauliffe@repub.com
HOLYOKE - In big letters, on a queen-sized bed sheet, was spray-painted the message Dennis S. Marini and his 12-year-old daughter, Kylie Kuhn, wanted Joshua J. Bouchard to see Saturday afternoon: "Welcome Home Josh! We Love You."

Hundreds of people who gathered along Beech Street and in the parking lot of the Anne H. McHugh Educational Center appeared to feel the same way.

The throng, which included Lt. Gov. Timothy P. Murray, were there to honor the 27-year-old Bouchard, a Marine Corps sergeant who had lost his left leg, broken his right arm, and had part of his spine crushed in an explosion in Afghanistan in July.
read more here
Hundreds honor wounded Marine

A Marine's father fights on for his son

A Marine's father fights on for his son
He took case to highest court after Kan. church protested at funeral

By Tricia Bishop tricia.bishop@baltsun.com

April 4, 2010


YORK, Pa. — - Albert Snyder is a soft, bear of a man - more teddy than grizzly - with thinning hair, a trim goatee and tired eyes. He has a folksy, polite manner and speaks with the gentle tone and tempo of a storyteller.

But if you mess with his family, he turns fierce. You can see the change whenever the Westboro Baptists of Topeka, Kan., are mentioned. They messed with his son in what he considers an unimaginable way.

"You don't go after one of my kids," Snyder said from his lawyer's office in York, Pa.

Marine Lance Cpl. Matthew A. Snyder, 20, was killed in a Humvee accident in Iraq on March 3, 2006. A week later, church members stood outside his funeral at St. John's Roman Catholic Church in Westminster waving signs that said "Thank God for dead soldiers" and "God hates fags" while mourners grieved inside. Later, they posted a diatribe on their Web site claiming that Matthew's divorced parents raised him "to commit adultery" and to support "satanic Catholicism."

The Westboro church members had never met Matthew, who wasn't gay, nor his family. Yet seven of them - adults and children - traveled 1,100 miles across a half-dozen states to celebrate the young Marine's death as part of their anti-gay gospel aimed at the military. They contended that the protest was directed not at Snyder but at the U.S. government and its tolerance of homosexuality and gays in the military.

Snyder sued Westboro Baptist Church and its leaders in Baltimore federal court a few months after Matthew died, contending that they invaded his privacy and intentionally inflicted emotional distress. He testified that the defendants placed a "bug" in his head so that he could no longer think of his son without thinking of them and their signs.

The trial, too, took its toll, wearing on him physically and emotionally as he relived his son's death each day.

Snyder won a multimillion-dollar jury verdict, with the judge calling Westboro's actions "outrageous" and "highly offensive," but an appeals court reversed it. The Supreme Court has agreed to hear the case during its fall term, vaulting Snyder's personal fight onto a national stage.

He appeared on ABC's "Good Morning America" last week, and taped an episode with MSNBC's Chris Matthews the week before. On Tuesday, shortly after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit ruled that Snyder would have to pay some costs of Westboro's appeals, Bill O'Reilly of Fox News pledged to pay the $16,000 bill.

Snyder's lawyers have become part-time publicity agents and celebrities. And military families across the country consider Snyder - a man who never wanted his son to be a soldier - a champion for basic human decency.

read more here
A Marine's father fights on for his son
A Marine father fights on for his son

Rolling away the stone

Was I worth dying for? Today as Christians around the world take time to honor the day Christ surrendered His life on the cross, many will attend church wondering if they were worth dying for. Good Friday, the day Christ was nailed to the cross is a time for reflection on our own lives. Then there is Easter, Pascha, the day we celebrate our new life, redeemed from sin.

It is mostly forgotten about during the rest of the year that Christ forgave the people calling for His execution with His last few breaths. Imagine what that must have been like for the people who were screaming "Crucify Him!" to hear those words from Him. Did they regret what they did? When the temple curtain was torn, did they understand? Did they understand when the ground beneath their feet shook or when the sky turned dark? What did they do the day after? How did this change them? Did they even understand what happened a few days later when the tomb was empty?

Christ had a choice to lay down His life or walk away. He had the power. When He was on His knees in the garden grieving over destiny, He asked God to find another way and "let this cup pass" from Him. He did not want to die but put His life into the hands of God, leaving it up to Him. This we also forget. Christ knew His time here was nearing the end. It also proves that He knew how His life would end all along.

Abiding in the Light of Pascha
Fr. Christopher Foley

It is the feast of feasts, the holiday of holidays, which surpasses not only human feasts, but even feasts of Christ, as the light of the sun is brighter than that of the stars. It is the day of resurrection and the beginning of true life."

St. Gregory of Nazianzus

We have just celebrated the true Pascha, or passover, of our Lord. This is the passing over from death to life, from bondage to freedom, from darkness to light, from suffering to healing. We are now reveling in the light of His glorious resurrection. The brightness of these days is our participation in this "true life" that St. Gregory speaks of above. We can see it all around us in nature. St. Gregory goes on to list many things in nature that reveal to us this new life springing up in his homily on Pascha. He says that everything is "conspiring together, rejoicing together, for the beauty of this feast." Everything all around us is hymning Christ who has sprung up from the tomb in order to bestow life on the whole world. He begins, "Now the heaven shines more brightly, the sun stands higher and glows more golden; now the moon's orb is more radiant, the chorus of stars gleams more clearly. Now the sea's waves make their peace with the shores, the clouds with the sun, the winds with the air, the earth with the plants, the plants with our eyes. Now the springs gush forth with a new sparkle; now the rivers flow more abundantly, released from the bonds of winter's ice. Now the meadow is fragrant, the shoots burst forth, the grass is ready for mowing, and the lambs skip through the rich green fields... All things sing God's praise, and give Him glory with wordless voices. For God receives my thanks for all these things: so each of their songs becomes our hymn, for I make their hymnody my own!... Now is the world's spring, the spiritual spring, spring for our souls, spring for our bodies, spring visible, spring invisible."
read more here
http://holycrossoca.org/newslet/0805.html

Christ's message of love, forgiveness, mercy and compassion was delivered everyday when He spoke to the huge crowds but it was fulfilled when He clung onto all of these with His life was being sacrificed. As He healed the lame, restored sight to the blind, fed the hungry, forgave the sinner, He knew how His life would end. When He spoke to some people He knew hated Him, He also knew He would forgive them.

Matthew 17
22When they came together in Galilee, he said to them, "The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men. 23They will kill him, and on the third day he will be raised to life." And the disciples were filled with grief.

How can any of us still think there is something we cannot be forgiven for? There is nothing beyond His mercy.

Consider Saul of Tarsus. Saul was determined to see all Christians put to death because he truly believed he was serving God and this mission of death was his duty. He was very good at tracking down the followers of Christ until one day on the road to Damascus, he was blinded, feel to his knees and heard a voice calling down to him asking why he was persecuting Him. It was the voice of Christ. In that moment, Saul understood how wrong he was and he must have remembered all the lives lost because he was wrong. Christ not only forgave Saul but Saul, renamed Paul went on to reach the gentiles and convert them into Christians. He also wrote most of the New Testament. Christianity spread because Christ was able and willing to forgive him for all he had done. Paul was willing to be forgiven and change his ways.

We can all be forgiven by God, Christ and other people. The problem most of us have is forgiving ourselves. Thoughts we've had, things we've done, selfish acts, all come back to haunt us but if you believe, if you walk away from church, especially after Easter services, you are cleansed. You are forgiven. From that moment on, you can be the type of person Christ talked about once you begin to forgive yourself.

The stone you need to roll away, trapping you is what you hold against yourself. Let that stone roll away!

Female Afghan war vet dealing with PTSD

Afghan war vet dealing with PTSD, motherhood and normalcy of life
April 1st, 2010 @ 5:45pm
By Jill Atwood, Veteran Affairs Salt Lake City
The following story was sent to us by the VA Salt Lake City Healthcare System. It is factual and shines the spotlight on women in combat environments and the emotional toll it can take. It also focuses on the broader issue of PTSD for all returning Veterans and their willingness to reach out for help.
SALT LAKE CITY -- Before 2006 There was nothing Marlo Anderson couldn't handle. She was tough, confident, and in charge. It's why she signed on the dotted line and why she was the first one packed for deployment to Afghanistan.

This highly motivated Air Force Sergeant went on mission after mission, patrol after patrol in a high stress combat environment.

"You're on edge 24-7 and you are always waiting for something to happen," Marlo said.
She served proudly for the 419th Security Forces out of Hill Air Force Base and performed at the highest level.

Marlo was stationed at Manas Air Base in Kyrgyzstan which is a small state just north of Afghanistan. She was deployed as part of Operation Enduring Freedom. During her time there in 2006 it was considered "Washington's sole front line state for confronting terrorism in Afghanistan." She was a Sergeant when she was discharged from the Air Force.

Did you know...
The VA Salt Lake City Health Care System has a weekly PTSD intake session. Every Tuesday, (except holidays)
11:00 a.m.
Building 47 (Outpatient Mental Health)
George E. Wahlen VA Medical Center
No appointment necessary
Bring a copy of your DD Form 214

read more here

Afghan war vet dealing with PTSD

Only a fraction of wounded veterans apply for benefits

Report: Some vets miss out on better benefits

By Kevin Maurer - The Associated Press
Posted : Friday Apr 2, 2010 16:53:13 EDT

WILMINGTON, N.C. — Only a fraction of wounded veterans who could get better benefits have applied in the two years since Congress, acting on concerns the military was cutting costs by downplaying injuries, ordered the Pentagon to review disputed claims.

As of mid-March, only 921 vets have applied out of the 77,000 the Pentagon estimates are eligible, according to numbers provided to The Associated Press by the Physical Disability Board of Review. The panel was created in 2008 but started taking cases in January 2009.

More than 230 cases have been decided, about 60 percent in favor of improving the veteran’s benefits, while 119 cases were dismissed as ineligible.

Advocates and even the board members themselves want the review panel to do a better job of getting the word out.

“Quite frankly, I would like to see more opportunities for us to reach out to these people,” said Michael LoGrande, president of the three-member board that has a staff of 10. “But we are doing the best we can with the limited people and resources we have.”
read more here
Some vets miss out on better benefits

Tears, honor greet Marine

The Patriot Guard Riders group welcomes home U.S. Marine Lance Cpl. Rick J. Centanni carried by a color guard upon arrival Friday April 2, 2010 at the Joint Forces Training Base in Los Alamitos, Calif. Centanni who was assigned to the 4th light armored recon, 4th Marine Division, Marine Expeditionary Brigade, Camp Pendleton, Calif., died March 24 from injuries while supporting combat operations in Helmand Province, Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Nick Ut) (Nick Ut)

Tears, honor greet Marine
http://www.presstelegram.com/news/ci_14810148
Photos by Nick Ut
The Associated Press
Posted: 04/02/2010 06:18:17 PM PDT


Tribute to a fallen Marine

Hannity insults "tea party" audience with McVeigh comment

Tim McVeigh wannabe's? Is Hannity implying that McVeigh was someone to be proud of? Is this possible?

Who can forget the despicable actions of McVeigh when he slaughtered people just because he could? The "tea party" people are made up of grandparents, moms and dads, average citizens doing what they believe is right because of what they have been told all these years by people like Hannity. Now Hannity compares them to McVeigh? How many people in that audience were appalled by the reference while others disgustingly cheered what he said?

Did Sean Hannity call his audience Tim McVeigh-wannabes?
By Ron Brynaert
Thursday, April 1st, 2010 -- 1:40 pm

A video posted on YouTube two days before April Fool's Day asks, "Did Sean Hannity call his audience Tim McVeigh-wannabes?"

Well, the answer is... sort of.

At the very end of this video clip taken from a FOX News Channel broadcast on March 30, and uploaded by the website Mox News, conservative radio host and Fox anchor Hannity can be clearly heard telling his audience, "Can I add one thing. I think we won the debate."

"When you think of the vast majorities they have in Congress, and they had the bribe back room deals, corruption," Hannity continued, "that's because of the Tea Party movement, all these Tim McVeigh wannabes."

Fox News Channel viewers, at the time of its broadcast, wondered why a crowd full of conservatives would cheer being compared to the white supremacist sympathizer who was executed for killing 168 people in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing which destroyed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building.

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Did Sean Hannity call his audience Tim McVeigh wannabes

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