PTSD is Real, PTSD Fraud is Not

I got into working with veterans because I fell in love with one of them, was raised by another (my Dad) and surrounded by them (my uncles) all my life including my father-in-law. He was a WWII veteran with a Purple Heart and Bronze Star. Nothing new for my husband's family. All four brothers were fighting in WWII. One, a Marine, was killed in action and another uncle, a merchant Marine never really recovered from being on a ship, hit by a Kamikaze pilot and ended up in the ocean. PTSD was just as real during WWII but no one talked about it. Very little was done for the survivors of combat. As a matter of fact despite the fact PTSD is as old as mankind, there was very little done until Vietnam veterans came home and fought for it.

When WWII veterans came home with "shell shock" they were either sent to the "nut house" or to farms. My husband's uncle ended up on a farm. Out of view and conscience of the public, these veterans were hidden away to live out their days. Korean veterans came home the same way. They were conditioned to be silent in their suffering. Like other generations of veterans, they were expected to just get over it, move on, go back to their lives before combat, while the general public simply assumed all was well and our veterans were taken care of.

The truth is we do a fantastic job sending them off to combat, find all the money needed to fund the combat they risk their lives carrying out, but then, well then we complain about the money needed to care for the wounded, the widow and orphans. Too often there are widows and orphans to care for because we didn't care for the wounded. 18 veterans a day commit suicide. Nothing really new there but most Americans don't have a clue. They don't know about the rise in suicides of active duty personnel either. They just don't want to know.

Maybe it's because we pride ourselves believing we really do support the troops and it's just too damn hard to discover we stop supporting them when they come home needing us after we needed them. I have more faith in us and really believe in my soul that if the general public knew a tenth of what these men and women have to endue when they come home, they would take to the streets and demand changes in every city and town. The passion of so many lining the streets when one of them returns home in a flag draped coffin, weeping for loss, indicates just how attached our hearts are to them. The media needs to inject reality into their minds so they understand sending men and women into combat is just the beginning of our obligation.

I live with PTSD in my home. I've seen the worst when help is not there and I've also seen healing when it is provided. Even with the healing, there are still parts of his life he can never reclaim, but we've learned to live with the unhealed. It's normal to us now. Over the years, I've watched too many suffer without seeking help. Read too many stories of men and women we would call hero one day, abandon the next, and bury the day after that. All of them make me remember my own life and I grieve for what was possible but unknown to the families.

Over the years I've also met people just as dedicated as I've been to our veterans. One of them is a hero to me and his name is Paul Sullivan, of Veterans for Common Sense. He knows what's going on, what is real, what is claimed and he has the passion to do something about it. When the AP report came out about frauds, Paul fought back. Here's what he had to say.

PTSD is Real, PTSD Fraud is Not
Written by VCS
Monday, 03 May 2010 15:46
May 3, 2010, Washington, DC (VCS) - Last weekend, the Associated Press printed an incomplete and inaccurate article about veterans who file disability claims against the Veterans Affairs Department (VA) for post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Without citing a source, AP wrote, “The problem: The [VA claims] system is dysfunctional, an open invitation to fraud. And the VA has proposed changes that could make deception even easier.”

AP is wrong, and VCS asked AP to correct the story.

Here are two very important facts AP overlooked. If AP had included these two facts, then readers would understand more about VA and veterans suffering with PTSD after deploying to the brutal Iraq and Afghanistan wars, sometimes two or three times.

Fact Number One

There is no widespread fraud problem at VA. Out of more than one million claims per year, less than a score are ever investigated for fraud.

Furthermore, in November 2005, VA auditors randomly selected 2,100 PTSD claims. After an exhaustive investigation, VA found zero cases of fraud. VA has extensive methods to prevent fraud, contrary to AP's baseless assertion. AP should have reported that fact.

VA’s investigation began when a reporter at the Chicago Sun Times observed that VA pays different average amounts in disability benefits based on a state-by-state comparison. The true culprit: poor leadership, staff shortages, and a lack of consistent training. VA Secretary Shinseki is taking bold steps to address these challenges, and he has broad support among veterans’ groups.
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PTSD is Real, PTSD Fraud is Not

Over the years scientists have used the latest technology to view what people like me have lived with. The reality of PTSD is no longer just something we say, but something that can be seen with machines. Changes in the brain can be seen with their eyes while we live with the daily struggle of trying to help them heal. It has also been a battle to fight against the uninformed and fearful. The fact is that veterans are very reluctant to seek approval of a claim or treatment because the diagnosis of PTSD is just too painful to hear. They would rather go on suffering waiting for their "get over it alive day" to just come on its own. A diagnosis of PTSD to them has been a sign of being weaker than their buddies. It has been a "career" killer for lifers never wanting to do anything other than serve in the military. It's taken over 30 years to get the message thru to them that as a human, they were wounded because of combat.

Genetic changes show up in people with PTSD
But it's unclear if alterations cause the disorder
By Nathan Seppa Web edition
Monday, May 3rd, 2010

People with post-traumatic stress disorder seem to accumulate an array of genetic changes different from those found in healthy people, researchers report online May 3 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The new findings, while showing differences between people with and without PTSD, don't shed light on whether these differences might play a role in PTSD, says study coauthor Sandro Galea, a physician and epidemiologist at Columbia University in New York City.

Only a fraction of people who witness a traumatic event develop PTSD. In an attempt to identify what makes people who develop PTSD biologically different from those who don’t, Galea and his colleagues obtained blood samples from 100 people in the Detroit area. All had been exposed to at least one potentially traumatic event, and 23 were diagnosed with PTSD. The scientists tested 14,000 genes in these blood samples for chemical changes to DNA that can affect gene activity without altering the genetic information itself.

The team found that the people with PTSD showed less methylation in several immune system genes and more methylation in genes linked to the growth of brain cells. “There is evidence that PTSD is involved in immune dysfunction, and we suggest that that’s part of a larger process,” Galea says. Although previous studies have also suggested a PTSD link to immune gene activation, the connection is unclear.

“This is interesting data, but there are a lot of things still to do,” says Manel Esteller, a molecular geneticist at the Bellvitge Institute for Biomedical Research in Spain and the University of Barcelona who was not part of the study. “What’s missing is an explanation of how the traumatic stress really causes these changes in methylation — what is the mechanistic link?”

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Genetic changes show up in people with PTSD

Even today there are many still holding on to false impressions of what PTSD is and what the missing link is. The missing link is the fact they are compassionate people, able to feel deeply. They confuse this with being weak instead of seeing it is required for them to be able to do what they do, go where they go and see what they see but manage to still get up, stand up and carry on. That compassion is required of all the courage in the world would be of little good. If they didn't care deeply in the first place, they wouldn't be wounded as a survivor. There are different levels of PTSD just as there are different types of PTSD. Some are caused by natural events but others are caused by man. The ones caused by man cut deeper. The ones when the person is also a participant in the traumatic event, cuts even deeper. This is why warriors are cut deeper than police officers and they are cut deeper than firefighters. It is the participation in the event itself as well as the number of times the events involve them.

So now we have to fight all over again because the uninformed, blame the veteran crowd, has something we've tried to eradicate for over 30 years. This article will undo all these years worth of work to convince the veterans Americans want to live up to their obligation to them and care of the wounded. I'm still wondering how many veterans on the verge of seeking help for PTSD will not seek it now. How many will suffer needlessly longer as we have to fight back on an irresponsible article on AP?

"The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive veterans of early wars were treated and appreciated by our nation." - George Washington

At least 19 dead as storms pound Southeast

At least 19 dead as storms pound Southeast
By the CNN Wire Staff
May 3, 2010 2:46 p.m. EDT

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

NEW: Latest fatality discovered Monday morning in Nashville, mayor's office says

Cumberland River is expected to crest at 11 feet above flood stage in Nashville

At least 19 dead after storms in Tennessee, Mississippi and Kentucky

Storms delay flights at Atlanta airport; heavy rain moves through north Georgia

Atlanta, Georgia (CNN) -- A massive system of rain and thunderstorms that spawned tornadoes continued to pound the Southeast on Monday, leaving at least 19 dead in its wake and displacing or stranding thousands of people.

The storm moved through north Georgia on Monday, flooding streets in Atlanta and delaying flights into Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. No deaths or injuries were immediately reported there.

But the rain and flooding left at least 12 dead in Tennessee, state and Nashville officials said. The latest fatality was discovered Monday morning, the Nashville mayor's office said. Six deaths occurred in the Nashville area, officials said.

In Mississippi, two tornadoes killed three people Sunday, and a fourth person died in a rain-related traffic accident.

Three people died in storm-related incidents in southern and south-central Kentucky, emergency services spokesman "Buddy" Rogers said Monday.
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At least 19 dead as storms pound Southeast

PTSD cases, fear of fraud growing when caring should have

While some in the blog world are fixated on this,,,,

In tide of PTSD cases, fear of fraud growing - Army News, news ...
By The Associated Press Moved by a huge tide of troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan with post-traumatic stress, Congress has pressured the Department of Veterans Affairs to settle their disability claims

The stories like this are the ones I think about

Vet who committed suicide fought depression, PTSD
DAYTON — In the three years since his discharge from the Army, Jesse Huff never fully revealed the furies of his demons as storm cloud after storm cloud gathered over his life.
In 2008, his mother, Sharon Nales, died from an accidental drug overdose. His father, Charles Huff Sr., has had several convictions for cocaine possession. He rarely got to see his adored young daughter, Gabriella. He suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and his injuries from a roadside bomb in Iraq left him with chronic, severe pain in his lower back and legs.

But that isn't anything new for this blog. I remember stories going back for over 25 years and over 9,000 other stories on this blog alone.

Sunday, January 20, 2008

PTSD 'If you get shot in the soul ... no one can see it'
'If you get shot in the soul ... no one can see it'
By Steve Youngsyoung@argusleader.comComment Print Email PUBLISHED: January 20, 2008The stress of war is no stranger in South Dakota.It lies in the memory of a self-inflicted gunshot blast that ended Staff Sgt. Cory Brooks' despair on an April day in 2004 in Baghdad.And it troubles a community of military and health care officials back here at home who know that one of every four suicides in this state involves a veteran - but aren't sure why."It is troubling," says Rick Barg, state adjutant/quartermaster for the Veterans of Foreign Wars. "If you get shot in the arm or leg and you lose that arm or leg, people can see that."But if you get shot in the soul, you bring it home and no one can see it."Of 750,000 U.S. veterans who have marched off to Afghanistan and Iraq since 2003, 100,500 have come home with a mental-health condition, said Dr. Ira Katz of the Department of Veterans Affairs' Office of Mental Health.

You can find more stories like these using suicide or military suicide in the search field. You can go to my web site www.namguardianangel.com and take a look at the video Death Because They Served or click on the Power Point to read more of their stories. Collecting reports for this I found over 400 of their stories.

But aside from all of that, there are hundreds of other stories no one will ever hear about. Veterans trying to figure out what was wrong with them, then when they discover it is connected to their service they are told they have to prove it. Ok, fine, but even when they did, the claim was denied and they had to file an appeal. After fighting to have their claims honored, after suffering without help and more stress added onto them financially, their claims were finally approved. What happened then was that the PTSD caused by combat was fed by the delay in honoring their claims as well as the assault on their character.

These men and women didn't want to file claims. They wanted to do their duty, do what was asked of them and then go back to the lives they had before. Most had no intention of becoming a lifer in the military. They just wanted to help. Some were drafted and forced to go but they served the same way the enlisted did. With courage and commitment to their brothers. Yet they came home with PTSD trying to claim them after they survived the physical part of combat.

Marriages fell apart. Jobs were hard to get and harder to keep when they were drained from nightmares or zoned out with flashbacks. Mood swings left co-workers complaining and bosses frustrated. But they carried on, waiting for the day they would just get over it and get back to the lives they had before. How they thought this would happen after they were exposed to hell is something they were never able to explain. It was just a dream they wanted to believe was possible.

Ask any real veteran with PTSD if they would take a pill to wipe all of it away and they would take that deal in a heartbeat. You have to remember these men and women know the harshest conditions there are. They risk their lives daily 24-7, knowing any moment could be their last. They see people die, their enemies as well as their friends and innocents. They hear the pounding of weapons, the helicopter blades, machine guns just as much as they hear orders and screams. To ask them to do a civilian job after would be like a vacation.

It would be if the war was not trapped inside of them eating them alive. They see their buddies getting on with their lives and wonder why they cannot do the same. Instead of them receiving help right away to ease the trauma, they have to carry on fed by adrenaline until they are out of perceived danger, only to discover the danger to their lives is inside of them.

For all the attention the "report" on false claims has created, I regret that the real suffering, the real stories of these men and women never came close to getting the same kind of attention from the same people now blaming the veterans. The truth is, it is a sad case when a veteran tries to get what they can instead of what they need because the vast majority of them still need what they cannot get.

Congress has to deal with the fact that our veterans are dying because they cannot get the help they need to heal. They are dying by their own hands. They are suffering while they wait to have their claims approved. It is all falling apart because some people thought that they could look the other way all these years because it was not in their own interest politically to publicize the suffering. Where was all of this attention when the reports first started coming out about Iraq and Afghanistan veterans dying for their attention?

Vietnam Vet Hero in NY sent police to SUV with bombs

Times Square vendor says he helped alert police to car bomb
By Rohan Mascarenhas/The Star-Ledger
May 02, 2010, 11:50AM
NEW YORK -- Duane Jackson was particularly busy this morning as he occupied a spot selling flags, sunglasses and pocketbooks on West 45th Street and 7th Avenue in Times Square.

But tourists hadn't come to buy the vendor's usual assortment of goods. They went to see Jackson, a 58-year-old Vietnam veteran who said he helped alert police to a suspicious sport utility vehicle parked near his stand Saturday night, which later turned out to have a bomb inside.
read more here
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2010/05/post_162.html

The question is, who did FOX interview?

About that T-Shirt Vendor…
May 2, 2010 - 9:07 AM by: Michael Sorrentino
The T-Shirt vendor that works in Times Square who spotted the potentially deadly car bomb on Saturday is being hailed as a hero by many. As Fox photographer Keith Lane caught him walking towards a taxi cab Sunday morning, he avoided many of the questions reporters were throwing his way.
Vietnam veteran, Lance Orten
http://liveshots.blogs.foxnews.com/2010/05/02/17907/?test=latestnews

COC Helps Veterans With Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

COC Helps Veterans With Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
Sunday, May 02 2010

College of the Canyons will host a panel presentation designed to help the families of military veterans and community members, learn about the various symptoms, causes and therapeutic treatments of war-induced Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder or PTSD.

The panel discussion, "The Silent Wounds of Trauma: Hearing the Hurt, Helping to Heal, Being a Vocal Partner" will be held from 7 to 9:30 p.m., Tuesday, May 11, in Hasley Hall room 101, on the COC Valencia campus.

Being presented by the Santa Clarita veteran organization Vets Back To The War Zone, the panel presentation will address combat stress reactions, how those reactions lead to PTSD, and how the support of loved ones and community partners can help ease the challenge of returning to civilian life.

"The issue of war is about more than countries at conflict, it's about the cost to the human condition," said Dr. Patty Robinson, dean, COC social sciences and business division and panel moderator. "To really understand the nature of human conflict, it's important to examine the subjective side of war and to witness its effect on the human spirit."
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COC Helps Veterans With Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

Police find clues in potential car bomb vehicle

Police find clues in potential car bomb vehicle
From Susan Candiotti and Jeanne Meserve, CNN
May 2, 2010 11:00 a.m. EDT

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
NEW: Vehicle Identification Number found on potential car bomb vehicle

SUV found in Times Square had propane tanks, gas cans, NYC mayor says

Vendor saw smoke coming from box in car, notified police

Police looking at surveillance video to determine who left vehicle

(CNN) -- A T-shirt vendor who noticed smoke coming out of a dark green sport utility vehicle alerted police to what turned out to be a potential bomb placed in the city's iconic Times Square -- teeming with tourists and theater-goers on a balmy spring evening.

"We avoided what could have been a very deadly event," said Mayor Michael Bloomberg early Sunday morning. "It certainly could have exploded and had a pretty big fire and a decent amount of explosive impact."

The atmosphere at Times Square returned to normal Sunday, but questions remained about the contents of the vehicle.

Two federal officials said Sunday it was too early to tell whether the incident involved al Qaeda or another international terror group. The national threat level remained at yellow, or elevated.
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Police find clues in potential car bomb vehicle

Coast Guard defends response to Gulf oil spill

The Department of Defense, the National Guard and the Coast Guard have all been called in to clean this up. The question is, will BP pay for what the government (tax payers) has to do to take care of what they failed to do? Will they cover the risk to our first responders? Will they take care of the families of the missing and take care of the wounded? What about the way this will hurt the natural world?

Coast Guard defends response to Gulf oil spill

By Cain Burdeau - The Associated Press
Posted : Sunday May 2, 2010 10:14:54 EDT

MOUTH OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER — Oil from a massive spill in the Gulf of Mexico oozed into Louisiana’s ecologically rich wetlands Friday as storms threatened to frustrate desperate protection efforts. The White House put a hold on any new offshore oil projects until the rig disaster that caused the spill is explained.

Crews in boats patrolled coastal marshes early Friday looking for areas where the oil has flowed in, the Coast Guard said.

The National Weather Service predicted winds, high tides and waves through Sunday that could push oil deep into the inlets, ponds and lakes that line the boot of southeastern Louisiana. Seas of 6 to 7 feet were pushing tides several feet above normal toward the coast, compounded by thunderstorms expected in the area Friday.

As the sun rose over Venice, dozens of boats, some carrying booms that will help hold back the oil, sat ready at Cypress Cove pier. Fishing guide Mike Dickinson, 56, was taking out some fishermen from Georgia in hopes of making money before more oil washes in.
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http://www.armytimes.com/news/2010/04/ap_gulf_oil_spill_043010/

25 attempted suicide calls and investigated one successful suicide at Camp Pendleton in 2009

21 rapes,176 domestic violence calls and 72 aggravated assaults, added to the suicide attempts should be sounding alarm bells across the nation. Seven of the suicide attempts were tried by "juveniles living on the base."

MILITARY: Crime inside gates of Camp Pendleton
2009 Camp Pendleton crime report shows high number of assaults, sex offenses


Crime doesn't stop at the gates of Camp Pendleton, the home and workplace for about 64,000 people on an average workday.

In an unprecedented release of annual crime statistics, the combined civilian and military police force for the sprawling Marine Corps base just north of Oceanside says it responded to 21 rapes and 176 domestic violence calls in 2009.

Officers also investigated 72 aggravated assaults, answered 25 attempted suicide calls and investigated one successful suicide.

The statistical snapshot of lawbreaking over a 12-month period included only one robbery and one homicide.

Eighteen of the potential suicide calls involved Marines and one member of the Navy. Seven involved juveniles living on the base, and alcohol or drugs figured in a majority of them, according to the report.
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Crime inside gates of Camp Pendleton

Sgt. Robert J. Barrett touched the lives of many

The casket containing the body of Sergeant Robert J. Barrett, who was killed in Afghanistan, was carried by an honor guard into the Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Assumption in Fall River. (Photos By Jonathan Wiggs/Globe Staff)

Guardsman touched the lives of many
Barrett is called devoted to his family, country

By Jeannie Nuss
Globe Correspondent / May 2, 2010

FALL RIVER — Sophia Barrett, yellow ribbon in her hair, black ribbon on her sweater, cried at her father’s funeral yesterday when a priest waved incense over the flag-draped coffin, when a uniformed officer wiped away tears, and when her great-uncle read aloud a letter her father wrote.

The 2-year-old cried until a comforting hand showed her a photo of her father, Sergeant Robert J. Barrett.

“My dad,’’ she whispered and pointed to the casket at the front of the Cathedral of St. Mary of the Assumption in Fall River.

Barrett, a 20-year-old member of the Massachusetts Army National Guard’s 101st Field Artillery Regiment, was killed in a suicide bombing on April 19 in Kabul, Afghanistan, where he was training new recruits for the Afghan National Army.

Sophia was her father’s pride and joy, said friends and fellow service members. Since Barrett deployed to Afghanistan in January, he calmed her restless nights on the phone and online.
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Guardsman touched the lives of many

Valley son, veteran succeeds as Iraq war poet

Valley son, veteran succeeds as Iraq war poet
By Michael Doyle / Bee Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON -- Combat was a good career move for award-winning war poet Brian Turner, though it came at a price.

The San Joaquin Valley native and Fresno State graduate now has a deep, dark pool of memories to draw from. He dips down, if he dares, and there they are.

"I [have been] learning how to write about the ghosts that live among us, whether we recognize them or not," Turner said.

Now, the former Army sergeant is out with his second volume of poems influenced largely by his year in Iraq with the 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team. The collection called "Phantom Noise" follows up on "Here, Bullet," which changed Turner's life irrevocably.

Called the first collection of poems by an Iraq War veteran, "Here, Bullet" helped Turner win the 2009-2010 Amy Lowell Traveling Poetry Fellowship.

Read more: Valley son veteran succeeds as Iraq war poet

Police Sergeant Joseph Bergeron killed in the line of duty

Police Officer Killed Was 26 Year Veteran

By KSFY Staff

A suburban Saint Paul police officer shot and killed Saturday morning was a 26-year veteran of the force.

Maplewood police say Sergeant Joseph Bergeron was responding to a carjacking when he was ambushed by two men while sitting in his patrol car at about 6:45 am.
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http://www.ksfy.com/news/local/92604224.html

Iraq vet was in a tailspin before he died in a hail of police bullets

Depressed, Steve Bours lost interest in everything and turned to methamphetamine. (April 2, 2010)

Iraq vet was in a tailspin before he died in a hail of police bullets at home


A woman’s death in combat was a turning point. Depressed after returning home, he lost interest in everything, his marriage dissolved and he turned to drugs. And then things got worse.


By Sam Quinones, Los Angeles Times

May 2, 2010

Gerry Chicorelli was driving north on Paramount Boulevard in Downey in late March when he spotted a man holding a hatchet and walking into southbound traffic.

The man had a glazed look. Drivers braked and yelled at him, peeling away as they spotted the raised hatchet in his hands.


Chicorelli realized he knew the man.

It was Steve Bours, a handsome kid who'd once worked for him in his roofing business.

Bours, 30, had joined the Army Reserve and was sent to Iraq in 2004 with a supply unit based near Fallouja, site of the war's most brutal battle.

Chicorelli was the third or fourth to call 911. As he slowed his car to a crawl, he watched Bours march, hatchet raised, into traffic for what would be the last hundred yards of his life.

The whole time, Chicorelli recalled, "he never said a word."

Athletic and muscular, he was quiet and sweet-natured — a "gentle giant," people called him.

In Iraq, he spoke little, listened a lot and was intensely loyal. "You always knew he had your back," said Jennifer Kramer, a friend from the 208th.

His fellow soldiers say Bours' manner helped them endure the war.

"You have the quiet people like Steve who didn't say much, but when it came time [for missions] they'd volunteer," Danny Rivas said.

Bours' room became the place to hang out.

"You could tell Steve anything," Rivas said, "but I think Steve felt like he was there to listen and he didn't have an outlet, people he could talk to about his problems."

........On Dec. 13, 2004, a unit sergeant, Tina Time, was killed when the supply truck she was driving collided with an oncoming U.S. military vehicle in a sandstorm.

Time, the first Samoan American woman killed in combat, was beloved in the 208th. Her death was "a turning point," Kramer said. "People just lost it. You'd see all these really tough guys breaking down all the time."

Bours told his family he had had to retrieve Time's severed torso when no one else wanted to. It was the one event from the war that he later spoke of, his family recalled.

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Iraq vet was in a tailspin before he died in a hail of police bullets

A home fit for a Marine

A home fit for a Marine

By Chris Cobb
The Herald-Zeitung
Published May 2, 2010

MARION — Jose Ivan Perez was trying not to get too emotional. He’s a strong man. After all, he’s a Marine.

But the 24-year-old wouldn’t be blamed for letting emotions get the best of him Friday, as dozens of volunteers were pounding nails and cutting lumber, working to build a new house for the wounded veteran.

“It’s hard to believe it’s actually happening,” he said. “I’m a very proud person. I’ve always done things for myself and kept my feelings in check, but this is just amazing.”

Marine Cpl. Perez, along with the Army Sgt. Nathan Hunt and Marine Cpl. Neil Frustaglio, will all have new homes built for them in a Marion subdivision this weekend by volunteers for Homes for Troops.

The nonprofit uses community donations to build houses for troops who have been severely wounded in the line of duty, many of them amputees. They provide special custom homes to tailor to their needs, and they do so at no cost to the veterans.
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A home fit for a Marine

Marine sacrifice gets national level honor

Marine's sacrifice gets national level honor
Sunday, May 02, 2010
By FRED CONTRADA
fcontrada@repub.com
HOLYOKE - When Marine Lance Cpl. Clayton K. Hough Jr. came home from Vietnam without his legs, he could have spent his time feeling sorry for himself.

Instead, Hough put his considerable energy into working with teenagers who aspired to be Marines like him.

Hough, who died in 2004 at the age of 55, earned the Bronze Star, the Purple Heart, and the National Defense Service Medal among other honors for his stint in Vietnam.


This month, the U.S. Department of Defense will bestow upon him one final honor by adding his name to the national Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C.

The 35th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War was Friday.

Hough is among six veterans whose names are being added to the monument, which is dedicated to those who lost their lives in the Vietnam war. Six years after his passing, the government has concluded that Hough died of the wounds he suffered in Vietnam.

"Medical evidence submitted by the Department of the Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery indicates that Lance Cpl. Hough qualifies as having 'died as a result of wounds (combat or hostile related) sustained in the combat zone' due to the amputations that he received as a result of his wounds," reads the defense department's conclusion. His "date of casualty" is listed as Feb. 22, 1969.
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Marine's sacrifice gets national level honor