Vietnam-era soldier retires from Nat. Guard
The Associated Press
Posted : Sunday May 9, 2010 16:33:31 EDT
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. — A soldier with a career spanning the Vietnam War to the current fighting in Iraq has finally hung up his boots.
Sgt. Mike Weathers of the Tennessee Army National Guard’s 1-181st Field Artillery Battalion based in Chattanooga retired on Saturday. The Chattanooga Times Free Press reports that Weathers was the only remaining Vietnam veteran still on active duty with the unit.
Weathers was drafted into the Army in 1970 with and did a tour in Vietnam the 101st Airborne Division now based at Fort Campbell, Ky. He left the full-time military, but joined the reserves in 1975.
Weathers served in Operation Desert Storm in 1991 and in Operation Iraqi Freedom at Camp Bucca, Iraq from 2007-08.
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2010/05/ap_vietnam_retire_050910/
Monday, May 10, 2010
Sunday, May 9, 2010
Standing up for female warriors
Lily over at Healing Combat Trauma, as always watching out for all veterans, sent this to me. As always, she is a true friend to veterans, ALL veterans and she wants them all to be treated for what they need, when they need it with no excuses. No wonder why I think she is just another hidden hero.
Even if you want to try to trivialize the role women have had during combat operations, you would really have to live in some kind of world all your own to not understand just how significant their duties were. This is just an idea of what they did during Vietnam alone.
Keep in mind as important that work is, there is much more they have done and continue to do serving side by side with their brothers, especially when considering there are no safe zones in Iraq any more than there are safe zones in Afghanistan. In other words, their lives are on the line just as much as males risk their's but bullets and road side bombs are not all they have to worry about. Being sexually attacked by their "brothers" is yet one more trauma they face.
As you can see, as important as it is for them to be taking care of the medical needs, they also risk their lives. Had this been the other way around, do you think a male would ever put up with having to have a prostrate exam in the middle of a maternity ward? Believe it or not, some women have gone to the VA and then end up being told they have to have a prostrate exam because it's on the list of tests to do. Never mind having to have a gynecological exam with no privacy at all. We also have homeless female veterans but along with too many of them come children the veterans shelters, even when they do manage to set aside beds for females, can't take in children with them. They have to go to the regular shelters instead of being given what they need to get back on their feet.
So here is what you may have thought was a rant from a female veteran but now maybe you understand how wrong it is for them to come home and receive less.
the rest of my videos are on the side bar
Even if you want to try to trivialize the role women have had during combat operations, you would really have to live in some kind of world all your own to not understand just how significant their duties were. This is just an idea of what they did during Vietnam alone.
Approximately 11,000 American military women were stationed in Vietnam during the war. Close to ninety percent were nurses in the Army, Navy, and Air Force.
Others served as physicians, physical therapists, personnel in the Medical Service Corps, air traffic controllers, communications specialists, intelligence officers, clerks and in other capacities in different branches of the armed services. Nearly all of them volunteered.
By 1967, most all military nurses who volunteered to go to Vietnam did so shortly after graduation. These women were the youngest group of medical personnel ever to serve in war time.
Because of the guerilla tactics of Vietnam, many women were in the midst of the conflict. There was no front, no such thing as "safe behind our lines." Many were wounded; most spent time in bunkers during attacks. The names of the eight military women who died in Vietnam are listed on the "Wall."
Medical personnel dealt with extraordinary injuries inflicted by enemy weapons specifically designed to mutilate and maim. During massive casualty situations, nurses often worked around the clock, conducted triage, assisted with emergency tracheotomies and amputations, debrided wounds and inserted chest tubes so surgeons could get to the next critical patient. Over 58,000 soldiers died in Vietnam; 350,000 were wounded.
read more here
http://www.vietnamwomensmemorial.org/vwmf.php
Lieutenant Colonel Annie Ruth Graham,
Chief Nurse at 91st Evacuation Hospital, Tuy Hoa.
Colonel Graham, from Efland, NC, suffered a stroke in August 1968 and was evacuated to Japan where she died four days later. A veteran of both World War II and Korea, she was 52.
First Lieutenant Sharon Ann Lane
Lieutenant Lane died from shrapnel wounds when the 312th Evacuation Hospital at Chu Lai was hit by rockets on June 8, 1969. From Canton, OH, she was a month short of her 26th birthday. She was posthumously awarded the Vietnamese Gallantry Cross with Palm and the Bronze Star for Heroism. In 1970, the recovery room at Fitzsimmons Army Hospital in Denver, where Lt. Lane had been assigned before going to Vietnam, was dedicated in her honor. In 1973, Aultman Hospital in Canton, OH, where Lane had attended nursing school, erected a bronze statue of Lane. The names of 110 local servicemen killed in Vietnam are on the base of the statue.
Second Lieutenant Carol Ann Elizabeth Drazba
Second Lieutenant Elizabeth Ann Jones
Lieutenant Drazba and Lieutenant Jones were assigned to the 3rd Field Hospital in Saigon. They died in a helicopter crash near Saigon, February 18, 1966. Drazba was from Dunmore, PA., Jones from Allendale, SC. Both were 22 years old.
Captain Eleanor Grace Alexander
Captain Alexander of Westwood, NJ and Lieutenant Orlowski of Detroit, MI died November 30, 1967. Alexander, stationed at the 85th Evacuation Hospital and Orlowski, stationed at the 67th Evacuation Hospital, in Qui Nhon, had been sent to a hospital in Pleiku to help out during a push. With them when their plane crashed on the return trip to Qui Nhon were two other nurses, Jerome E. Olmstead of Clintonville, WI and Kenneth R. Shoemaker, Jr. of Owensboro, KY. Alexander was 27, Orlowski 23. Both were posthumously awarded Bronze Stars.
First Lieutenant Hedwig Diane Orlowski
Captain Alexander of Westwood, NJ and Lieutenant Orlowski of Detroit, MI died November 30, 1967. Alexander, stationed at the 85th Evacuation Hospital and Orlowski, stationed at the 67th Evacuation Hospital, in Qui Nhon, had been sent to a hospital in Pleiku to help out during a push. With them when their plane crashed on the return trip to Qui Nhon were two other nurses, Jerome E. Olmstead of Clintonville, WI and Kenneth R. Shoemaker, Jr. of Owensboro, KY. Alexander was 27, Orlowski 23. Both were posthumously awarded Bronze Stars.
Second Lieutenant Pamela Dorothy Donovan
Lieutenant Donovan, from Allston, MA, became seriously ill and died on July 8, 1968. She was assigned to the 85th Evacuation Hospital in Qui Nhon. She was 26 years old.
U.S. Air Force
Captain Mary Therese Klinker
Captain Klinker, a flight nurse assigned to Clark Air Base in the Philippines, was on the C-5A Galaxy which crashed on April 4 outside Saigon while evacuating Vietnamese orphans. This is known as the Operation Babylift crash. There are also US Air Force and Air Force Association web pages about Operation Babylift. From Lafayette, IN, she was 27. She was posthumously awarded the Airman's Medal for Heroism and the Meritorious Service Medal.
Keep in mind as important that work is, there is much more they have done and continue to do serving side by side with their brothers, especially when considering there are no safe zones in Iraq any more than there are safe zones in Afghanistan. In other words, their lives are on the line just as much as males risk their's but bullets and road side bombs are not all they have to worry about. Being sexually attacked by their "brothers" is yet one more trauma they face.
Army Spc. Alyssa R. Peterson, 27, died Sep 14 from what was described as a "non-combat weapons discharge."
Pfc. Analaura Esparza Gutierrez, 21, of Houston, Texas, was killed on Oct. 1 in Tikrit, Iraq. Pfc.Esparza Gutierrez was in a convoy that was hit by rocket propelled grenades.
Pfc. Rachel Bosveld, 19, was killed Sunday Oct 26th during a mortar attack in Baghdad. Pfc. Bosveld, a member of the 527th Military Police, is from Waupun, Wisconsin.
Pfc. Karina S. Lau, 20, Livingston, California ,was killed in the helicopter crash in Iraq.
Spc. Frances M. Vega,20, of Fort Buchanan, Puerto Rico. Vega assigned to the 151st Adjutant General Postal Detachment 3, Fort Hood, Texas, was killed in the helicopter crash.
Chief Warrant Officer (CW5) Sharon T. Swartworth , 43, of Virginia was killed when the UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter was shot down Nov. 7, 2003, in Tikrit, Iraq. CWO Swartworth was the regimental warrant officer for the Judge Advocate General Office, based at Headquarters Department of the Army, Pentagon.
Capt. Kimberly N. Hampton, 27, of Easley, S.C., was killed on Jan. 2, 2004, in Fallujah, Iraq. Capt. Hampton, was the pilot on a Kiowa, OH-58, Observation Helicopter when it was shot down by enemy ground fire and crashed. She was assigned to 1st Battalion, 82nd Aviation Battalion, 82nd Airborne Division, Fort Bragg, N.C.
Sgt. Keicia M. Hines, 27, of Citrus Heights, Calif., died on Jan. 14 when she was struck by a vehicle on Mosul Airfield in Mosul, Iraq. Hines was assigned to the 108th Military Police, Combat Support Co., Fort Bragg, N.C.
SPC Rachel Lacy, 22, died in 2003 after receiving a series of shots in preparation for deployment to Afghanistan. She became ill right after the inoculations, Two independent panels of medical experts found that the vaccinations may have triggered the illness that killed Spc. Rachel Lacy the Defense Department said.
Helicopter crew chief instructor Staff Sgt. Lori Anne Privette, 27 died when a UH-1N Huey helicopter crashed during a training flight. SSgt. Privette joined the Marine Corps in August 1994 and just returned from serving in Operation Iraqi Freedom.
you can read a lot more of these stories here
http://userpages.aug.com/captbarb/lives.html
As you can see, as important as it is for them to be taking care of the medical needs, they also risk their lives. Had this been the other way around, do you think a male would ever put up with having to have a prostrate exam in the middle of a maternity ward? Believe it or not, some women have gone to the VA and then end up being told they have to have a prostrate exam because it's on the list of tests to do. Never mind having to have a gynecological exam with no privacy at all. We also have homeless female veterans but along with too many of them come children the veterans shelters, even when they do manage to set aside beds for females, can't take in children with them. They have to go to the regular shelters instead of being given what they need to get back on their feet.
So here is what you may have thought was a rant from a female veteran but now maybe you understand how wrong it is for them to come home and receive less.
Standing up for female warriors
By Angela Peacock Posted: Sunday, May 9, 2010
I read your April 11 article, “A path to inner peace,” about the Pathway Home in Yountville with interest.
I am an Iraq veteran from 2003 and served with the Army’s First Armored Division, in Baghdad, Iraq, right after the war began. I was later diagnosed with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder from numerous incidents that occurred in theater. In fact, I served in the same area, during the same time period, as one of the soldiers quoted in the story. If you’ve ever seen the documentary “Lioness,” you can see that many women served in combat areas and were exposed to the same dangers that our male veterans face.
I took an interest in the Pathway Home as a possible residential treatment program that I could attend as an option for my combat-induced PTSD. After sending them an e-mail as to my interest in their program, this was their response:
“We are actually still trying to find funding for a women’s program. We are aware of the great need for this type of program and are working diligently to make it happen. When we do start the program though, it will be advertised at the VA, Vet Centers, military installations, and on our website.”
The response disappointed me greatly. I then looked for another residential program with a combat PTSD focus for women veterans, with no luck. Instead I had to drive 2,100 miles from St. Louis, Mo., to Long Beach, Calif., to attend an Military Sexual Trauma-focused program at the VA to treat my PTSD. (Where, I might add, we were housed with male veterans at a homeless shelter. Almost all the women in the program relapsed into addiction while we were there because of that stressor. I was only able to stay strong because of my years of yoga and meditation before ever going.)
read more here
Standing up for female warriors
Posted to Great Americans by NamGuardianAngel on September 10, 2009
the rest of my videos are on the side bar
Two bad motorcycle accidents in Central Florida
Woman on motorcycle hit in face by wild turkey
The Associated Press
11:53 a.m. EDT, May 9, 2010
SARASOTA, Florida — An Arcadia, Florida, woman was riding her motorcycle in Sarasota County when a wild turkey flew into her path and hit her in the face.
The Florida Highway Patrol reports that Lori Hansen, 42, was taken by helicopter to a St. Petersburg hospital in serious condition after Saturday afternoon's crash.
FHP says Hansen was knocked unconscious by the impact. The motorcycle ran off the road and struck a barbed-wire fence, entangling Hansen.
Woman on motorcycle hit in face by wild turkey
Fatal crash in Lake County kills motorcyclist
Crash on County Road 452 near Leesburg
By Sara K. Clarke, Orlando Sentinel
11:06 a.m. EDT, May 9, 2010
A single-vehicle crash near Leesburg has left a Michigan motorcylist dead, Florida Highway Patrol said Sunday.
Herbert Steven Longaker, 56, was riding his Harley Davidson motorcycle on County Road 452 north of Em En El Grove Road at about 9:30 p.m. Saturday.
He traveled onto the shoulder and lost control of his motorcycle, which overturned twice. Longaker, who was from Clio, Michigan, was fatally injured in the crash, FHP said.
FHP said it has not yet determined what caused the crash.
Fatal crash in Lake County kills motorcyclist
The Associated Press
11:53 a.m. EDT, May 9, 2010
SARASOTA, Florida — An Arcadia, Florida, woman was riding her motorcycle in Sarasota County when a wild turkey flew into her path and hit her in the face.
The Florida Highway Patrol reports that Lori Hansen, 42, was taken by helicopter to a St. Petersburg hospital in serious condition after Saturday afternoon's crash.
FHP says Hansen was knocked unconscious by the impact. The motorcycle ran off the road and struck a barbed-wire fence, entangling Hansen.
Woman on motorcycle hit in face by wild turkey
Fatal crash in Lake County kills motorcyclist
Crash on County Road 452 near Leesburg
By Sara K. Clarke, Orlando Sentinel
11:06 a.m. EDT, May 9, 2010
A single-vehicle crash near Leesburg has left a Michigan motorcylist dead, Florida Highway Patrol said Sunday.
Herbert Steven Longaker, 56, was riding his Harley Davidson motorcycle on County Road 452 north of Em En El Grove Road at about 9:30 p.m. Saturday.
He traveled onto the shoulder and lost control of his motorcycle, which overturned twice. Longaker, who was from Clio, Michigan, was fatally injured in the crash, FHP said.
FHP said it has not yet determined what caused the crash.
Fatal crash in Lake County kills motorcyclist
Western troops join Russia's Victory Day parade
UK soldiers march through Red Square during the Victory Day parade in Moscow, Russia on May 9.
Western troops join Russia's Victory Day parade
By the CNN Wire Staff
May 9, 2010 11:11 a.m. EDT
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
The Soviet Union suffered the most losses of any country during World War II
Millions of Russians watched the parade on TV, attended smaller parades
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev: says the victory won in 1945 was "our common victory"
Moscow, Russia (CNN) -- Troops from the United States, Britain and France marched in the annual Victory Day parade through Red Square for the first time Sunday, a step Russia's president called a nod toward their "common victory" in World War II.
The annual parade celebrates the defeat of Nazi Germany by the former Soviet Union and its Western allies and serves as a demonstration of Russian military might. More than 120 aircraft flew overhead and more than 10,500 troops paraded through the capital this year.
"The victory won in 1945 was our common victory, a victory of good over evil, of justice over lawlessness," Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said at a reception honoring veterans after the parade.
go here for more
Western troops join Russia Victory Day parade
Military Officers Association throws support behind malpractice bill
MOAA throws support behind malpractice bill
By William H. McMichael - Staff writer
Posted : Friday May 7, 2010 16:00:15 EDT
A bill that would reverse a 60-year-old Supreme Court ruling that bans service members from suing the federal government for medical errors has gained the endorsement of an influential advocacy group.
“Your legislation would remove an inequity,” retired Vice Adm. Norb Ryan, president of the 370,000-member Military Officers Association of America, wrote in a Friday letter to Rep. Maurice Hinchey, D-N.Y., the lead sponsor of the bill.
Legal recourse for medical negligence, Ryan noted, “is available to all other citizens, including military dependents, military retirees and survivors and their dependents, and even federal prisoners and wartime detainees. MOAA agrees that it is inconsistent to treat service members differently.”
read more here
MOAA throws support behind malpractice bill
By William H. McMichael - Staff writer
Posted : Friday May 7, 2010 16:00:15 EDT
A bill that would reverse a 60-year-old Supreme Court ruling that bans service members from suing the federal government for medical errors has gained the endorsement of an influential advocacy group.
“Your legislation would remove an inequity,” retired Vice Adm. Norb Ryan, president of the 370,000-member Military Officers Association of America, wrote in a Friday letter to Rep. Maurice Hinchey, D-N.Y., the lead sponsor of the bill.
Legal recourse for medical negligence, Ryan noted, “is available to all other citizens, including military dependents, military retirees and survivors and their dependents, and even federal prisoners and wartime detainees. MOAA agrees that it is inconsistent to treat service members differently.”
read more here
MOAA throws support behind malpractice bill
Lt. Col. Marc Hoffmeister, wounded in Iraq climbs Mount McKinley
Wounded warriors summit McKinley
Soldier wounded in Iraq won’t let injury end his career or limit his goals
By Joe Gould - Staff writers
Posted : Sunday May 9, 2010 15:07:15 EDT
FORT LEAVENWORTH, Kan. — The roadside bomb that destroyed Lt. Col. Marc Hoffmeister’s Humvee in al-Hillah, Iraq, in 2007, blasted a jet of molten metal through the rear driver’s side door to the front passenger seat. It ripped through a sergeant and a gunner’s legs, sprayed shrapnel into the driver’s back and into an interpreter’s face.
When Hoffmeister lifted his left arm to radio for help, he saw a hole had been cut through it. The wound could have ended his career, if not his life, but Hoffmeister would not let it.
The officer from Eagle River, Alaska, fought his way to recovery, and in June is due to assume command of the 6th Engineer Battalion, which may deploy to Iraq in the fall.
“I haven’t stopped since I was wounded, I haven’t had the opportunity to,” said Hoffmeister, who was in the pre-command course here last month.
More impressively, he climbed treacherous Mount McKinley, the highest peak in North America, with three other wounded warriors.
read more here
Wounded warriors summit McKinley
Soldier wounded in Iraq won’t let injury end his career or limit his goals
By Joe Gould - Staff writers
Posted : Sunday May 9, 2010 15:07:15 EDT
FORT LEAVENWORTH, Kan. — The roadside bomb that destroyed Lt. Col. Marc Hoffmeister’s Humvee in al-Hillah, Iraq, in 2007, blasted a jet of molten metal through the rear driver’s side door to the front passenger seat. It ripped through a sergeant and a gunner’s legs, sprayed shrapnel into the driver’s back and into an interpreter’s face.
When Hoffmeister lifted his left arm to radio for help, he saw a hole had been cut through it. The wound could have ended his career, if not his life, but Hoffmeister would not let it.
The officer from Eagle River, Alaska, fought his way to recovery, and in June is due to assume command of the 6th Engineer Battalion, which may deploy to Iraq in the fall.
“I haven’t stopped since I was wounded, I haven’t had the opportunity to,” said Hoffmeister, who was in the pre-command course here last month.
More impressively, he climbed treacherous Mount McKinley, the highest peak in North America, with three other wounded warriors.
read more here
Wounded warriors summit McKinley
Georgia about to make PTSD even worse
“Why would I want to put out there on my license – hey, I’m a nut job,” said Marvin Myers, president of the Georgia Vietnam Veterans Alliance Inc.
Some veterans have pins or patches with "This veteran medicated for your own protection" and it's up to them what they want to let others know. This law, supposedly is intended to do the same however, as with most laws, the law will take on a life of its own.
If they really wanted to help, then for heaven's sake, why didn't they use their brain? Why not have Combat Veteran instead of PTSD? That would have not only made a lot more sense, but would have honored the fact they are among the few to know what it is like to fight for this country.
PTSD diagnosis could appear on driver's licenses
By Nancy Badertscher
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Some Georgians could soon be carrying a unique driver’s license – one that says they have post-traumatic stress disorder.
Lawmakers recently passed legislation that would allow current and former military to request the PTSD designation on their driver’s licenses.
The legislation, which has to be signed by the governor to become law, would likely make Georgia the first state with a driver’s license that denotes a specific health problem, other than poor eyesight.
Some veterans and law enforcement officials say they can’t image that many servicemen and servicewomen will want their PTSD diagnosis put on display when they present their driver’s licenses to cash a check, buy alcohol, board an airplane or face a traffic cop.
Read more here after you are done screaming!http://www.ajc.com/news/ptsd-diagnosis-could-appear-523250.html
60 Florida National Guardsmen back home
60 Guard Members Home From Iraq
Air Operations Battalion Received Honors, Did Not Suffer Single Casualty
POSTED: Sunday, May 9, 2010
UPDATED: 1:12 pm EDT May 9, 2010
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- About 60 members of a Florida National Guard unit were welcomed home Saturday from a year-long deployment in Iraq.
After a year of guiding flights of personnel and equipment overseas, the 111th Air Operations Battalion nicknamed the Overseers landed on a much friendlier runway at Cecil Commerce Center to be greeted by a crowd of family and friends.
A C-130 ferried the soldiers to an open hangar where the returning guardsmen and women were greeted with cheers as they stepped off the plane and were congratulated by Florida National Guard leadership for a job well done.
"We had no injuries and we brought everybody home safely," said Col. William Thurmond. "We're looking forward to our next mission."
While deployed, the battalian operated four facilities in Kuwait and Iraq. Officials said the unit provided air traffic control services for more than 65,000 takeoffs and landings in the Iraq theater.
read more here
http://www.news4jax.com/news/23500155/detail.html
Air Operations Battalion Received Honors, Did Not Suffer Single Casualty
POSTED: Sunday, May 9, 2010
UPDATED: 1:12 pm EDT May 9, 2010
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- About 60 members of a Florida National Guard unit were welcomed home Saturday from a year-long deployment in Iraq.
After a year of guiding flights of personnel and equipment overseas, the 111th Air Operations Battalion nicknamed the Overseers landed on a much friendlier runway at Cecil Commerce Center to be greeted by a crowd of family and friends.
A C-130 ferried the soldiers to an open hangar where the returning guardsmen and women were greeted with cheers as they stepped off the plane and were congratulated by Florida National Guard leadership for a job well done.
"We had no injuries and we brought everybody home safely," said Col. William Thurmond. "We're looking forward to our next mission."
While deployed, the battalian operated four facilities in Kuwait and Iraq. Officials said the unit provided air traffic control services for more than 65,000 takeoffs and landings in the Iraq theater.
read more here
http://www.news4jax.com/news/23500155/detail.html
Vietnam War may add one more Medal Of Honor to list
Lake Fong/Post-GazetteRose Mary Sabo Brown, of Hickory, is reflected in the glass of a medal showcase. Her husband, Leslie Sabo, died in 1970 in Vietnam.
Vietnam War hero may finally get his due
Soldier who died to save his comrades recommended for Medal of Honor
Sunday, May 09, 2010
By Torsten Ove, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Forty years ago Monday, Leslie Sabo of Ellwood City died in Cambodia while trying to save his buddies from a North Vietnamese ambush that killed seven of his 101st Airborne Division comrades.
The 22-year-old was recommended posthumously for the nation's highest award, the Medal of Honor.
He never got it.
Somehow the citation ended up lost in military bureaucracy and then forgotten until 1999, when a writer for the 101st Division association magazine came across Mr. Sabo's records at the National Archives.
Now, through his efforts and those of two members of Congress, the Army has again recommended that Mr. Sabo receive the medal.
"This brave soldier clearly distinguished himself through his courageous actions," wrote Secretary of the Army John McHugh in a March letter to Rep. Jason Altmire, D-McCandless, who pushed for the medal. "The Army and our nation are forever grateful for his heroic service."
Read more: Vietnam War hero may finally get his due
Airman killed in Vietnam War laid to rest
Airman killed in Vietnam War laid to rest
ARCADIA: Sgt. James Alley, a United States Air Force veteran who died in Vietnam, has finally been laid to rest.
Sgt. Alley died on April 6, 1972, when his aircraft was shot down.
His remains were not identified until earlier this year through DNA testing.
"It's a little, small victory here today," Moe Moyer, Florida's director of Rolling Thunder motorcycle club. "We get to say 'welcome home.' "
Following a small gathering at Ponger-Keys Grady Funeral Home, hundreds of veterans on motorcycles escorted Alley's body the two miles to Oakridge Cemetery.
Flyovers from the United States Air Force started the ceremony, performed with full military honors.
"These people have been waiting a long time for their son to come home," Lee Fowler said. "This should be emotional for all of America."
read more here
Airman killed in Vietnam War laid to rest
ARCADIA: Sgt. James Alley, a United States Air Force veteran who died in Vietnam, has finally been laid to rest.
Sgt. Alley died on April 6, 1972, when his aircraft was shot down.
His remains were not identified until earlier this year through DNA testing.
"It's a little, small victory here today," Moe Moyer, Florida's director of Rolling Thunder motorcycle club. "We get to say 'welcome home.' "
Following a small gathering at Ponger-Keys Grady Funeral Home, hundreds of veterans on motorcycles escorted Alley's body the two miles to Oakridge Cemetery.
Flyovers from the United States Air Force started the ceremony, performed with full military honors.
"These people have been waiting a long time for their son to come home," Lee Fowler said. "This should be emotional for all of America."
read more here
Airman killed in Vietnam War laid to rest
Pentagon tries aroma therapy to ease combat stress
Don't dismiss this without thinking about it.
We all know a sound, like an explosion or gunfire can have a veteran jumping just as the sound of helicopter blades can cause flashbacks for Vietnam veterans. Well there is also the reaction brought on by smells. Gun power and diesel fuel can give them a nasty trip back to combat. As humans can have unpleasant experiences brought back because of reminders like these, they can have pleasant ones replace them with better smells.
Chocolate chip cookies right out of the oven, fresh baked apple pie, cinnamon in hot apple cider, work wonders for this New Englander longing for home living in Florida. Warm memories fill my heart and it "feels like home to me" until I go outside on the pool deck in December still in shorts and a T-shirt. Smells can calm people down or they can hurt. This article makes sense to me and I hope it will to you as well now that you are open to reading it.
We all know a sound, like an explosion or gunfire can have a veteran jumping just as the sound of helicopter blades can cause flashbacks for Vietnam veterans. Well there is also the reaction brought on by smells. Gun power and diesel fuel can give them a nasty trip back to combat. As humans can have unpleasant experiences brought back because of reminders like these, they can have pleasant ones replace them with better smells.
Chocolate chip cookies right out of the oven, fresh baked apple pie, cinnamon in hot apple cider, work wonders for this New Englander longing for home living in Florida. Warm memories fill my heart and it "feels like home to me" until I go outside on the pool deck in December still in shorts and a T-shirt. Smells can calm people down or they can hurt. This article makes sense to me and I hope it will to you as well now that you are open to reading it.
Pentagon tries aroma therapy to ease combat stress
FORT RILEY, Kansas
Sat May 8, 2010 8:31pm EDTFORT RILEY, Kansas (Reuters) - The U.S. military is experimenting with aroma therapy, acupuncture and other unorthodox methods to treat soldiers traumatized by combat experiences, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Saturday.
He said the experiments showed promise.
Gates touted possible treatments for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) during a meeting with the wives of servicemen at Fort Riley, Kansas, when one woman asked him to explain why chiropractic and acupuncture therapies were not covered under her military health care plan.
"We have an experimental unit ... treating soldiers with PTS (post-traumatic stress) and using a number of unorthodox approaches, including aroma therapy, acupuncture, things like that, that really are getting some serious results, and so maybe we can throw that into the hopper as well," Gates said.
The Pentagon has seen a sharp increase in the number of soldiers suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder during and after long deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan.
read more here
Pentagon tries aroma therapy to ease combat stress
Vets Helping Vets provides help for those who have served
Veterans outreach Vets Helping Vets services include, but are not limited to, employment referrals, information regarding benefits and transportation for VA medical care. A food pantry and limited financial assistance is available on a case-by-case basis.
To receive aid, learn more or volunteer, call 401-9788.
To make a monetary contribution, send a check to Vets Helping Vets, 1515 E. Silver Springs Blvd., Ocala, FL 34470. Contributions are tax deductible.
Donations of nonperishable food are welcome.
Vets Helping Vets provides help for those who have served
By Ann Sperring
Correspondent
It is tough enough to don a uniform, leave family behind and risk your life for your country.
Now, roadside bombs transform steel into bloodied shreds and leave horrific head injuries, sending many veterans home in comas or with serious cognitive defects. Some soldiers return in caskets, others in wheelchairs or with prosthetic limbs.
And the stress of living on a razor's edge can send the mind and spirit into a lingering dark abyss.
And as tough as it is to deal with the rigors of military service, for many veterans the going gets harder in civilian life.
Hank Whittier, executive director of Vets Helping Vets, a nonprofit outreach program headquartered on East Silver Springs Boulevard, is seeing new problems among the veterans he and his volunteers serve.
"Currently, we are experiencing a significant uptick in the number of young vets needing our help. The economy is making it tougher for them to transition. Sometimes they will start with just a request for job referrals and over time end up asking for food and rent help," Whittier said.
"We are also seeing more mental health issues, with 30 percent of our veterans being affected. Family members will come seeking help for loved ones they are seeing fall apart."
read more here
Boston pauses to recall Vietnam fallen Marine
Boston pauses to recall fallen Marine
By O’Ryan Johnson
Saturday, May 8, 2010
Fellow townies have never forgotten Marine Lt. Michael Quinn of Charlestown - and neither has the Marine Corps.
He was 23, a brawny football standout who, after graduating from Holy Cross, finished at the top of his officer’s class at Quantico in 1968 and was sent to Vietnam where he was killed nine months later.
Yesterday, as part of Marine Week Boston, Marine Col. Robert Durkin, commanding officer of the 4th Battalion 25th Marine Regiment, along with Mayor Thomas M. Menino, rededicated a plaque memorializing the late Marine at the top step of the bridge over the pond at the Public Garden. Below, Quinn had paddled Swan Boats every summer as a teenager.
read more here
Boston pauses to recall fallen Marine
By O’Ryan Johnson
Saturday, May 8, 2010
Fellow townies have never forgotten Marine Lt. Michael Quinn of Charlestown - and neither has the Marine Corps.
He was 23, a brawny football standout who, after graduating from Holy Cross, finished at the top of his officer’s class at Quantico in 1968 and was sent to Vietnam where he was killed nine months later.
Yesterday, as part of Marine Week Boston, Marine Col. Robert Durkin, commanding officer of the 4th Battalion 25th Marine Regiment, along with Mayor Thomas M. Menino, rededicated a plaque memorializing the late Marine at the top step of the bridge over the pond at the Public Garden. Below, Quinn had paddled Swan Boats every summer as a teenager.
read more here
Boston pauses to recall fallen Marine
Fake three-star Marine general was really PFC
Marine investigators say NC man posed as officer
(AP) – 1 day ago
WILMINGTON, N.C. — A man who pleaded guilty last year to altering an identification card after he was spotted in the uniform of a three-star Marine general is under suspicion of posing at an April ceremony as a highly decorated Marine colonel, authorities say.
Michael Hamilton, 67, of Richlands wore a Marine uniform at Jacksonville's Vietnam Memorial during a military recognition day ceremony last month, Marine investigators said this week. Authorities added Hamilton was photographed wearing several rows of medals including the Navy Cross, the second highest award for valor.
Investigators from Camp Lejeune said they searched Hamilton's house on April 26, two days after his picture was published in the Jacksonville, N.C., Daily News. An evidence report said they recovered a blue dress uniform blouse with seven service ribbons and 18 medals. The report didn't specify the medals recovered.
(AP) – 1 day ago
WILMINGTON, N.C. — A man who pleaded guilty last year to altering an identification card after he was spotted in the uniform of a three-star Marine general is under suspicion of posing at an April ceremony as a highly decorated Marine colonel, authorities say.
Michael Hamilton, 67, of Richlands wore a Marine uniform at Jacksonville's Vietnam Memorial during a military recognition day ceremony last month, Marine investigators said this week. Authorities added Hamilton was photographed wearing several rows of medals including the Navy Cross, the second highest award for valor.
Investigators from Camp Lejeune said they searched Hamilton's house on April 26, two days after his picture was published in the Jacksonville, N.C., Daily News. An evidence report said they recovered a blue dress uniform blouse with seven service ribbons and 18 medals. The report didn't specify the medals recovered.
In a biography distributed at the April ceremony, Hamilton claims he was promoted from private first class to colonel between 1961 and 1969 and was awarded 80 medals, including two Navy Crosses. An affidavit filed by investigators with the search warrant said the highest rank Hamilton attained was private first class.
Hamilton only served nine months and was discharged in February 1962, according to the affidavit. It said his only decoration was a rifle qualification badge.read more here
Gulf War ex-POW wants veterans for movies
Tac One Ops recruiting vets for movies
Posted: May 07, 2010 6:28 PM EDT
Tac One Ops recruits vets for movies
2:44
By Jeff Ferrell
SHREVEPORT, LA (KSLA) – Recruiting is underway for veterans right here in the Ark-La-Tex. But, it's not the kind of recruiting you may be thinking about. This is an effort by a local organization to put our veterans on the silver screen. It is all part of something called Tac One Ops.
Movie productions are becoming a near-ubiquitous sight in north Louisiana these days, running the gamut from scary movies like a ‘haunted battle' to a battle against aliens in Los Angeles, actually shot on the Interstate-49 overpass in Shreveport, just a stone's throw away from the KSLA studio.
"We get there in hand-to-hand. That's when a bayonet comes plunging through my right side right here. I still got a scar," described retired Army Sgt. and Vietnam veteran Jimmy Brown during a recent KSLA News 12 report on a movie in production. Brown represents just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to local veterans with a wealth of knowledge and experience.
That's where Tac One Ops comes in. Its two founders, Dave Valle and Paul Murray met while training actors on military weaponry and tactics. Valle recalled one day on a movie set, "we both looked at each other and said, 'you know what? This is a perfect scenario for military and police veterans."
You may recognize Paul Murray. In recent years we have spoken with Murray on gun issues. He's the owner of the indoor range called Shooters USA in Bossier City. He's also a former prisoner of war during the first Gulf War, who consistently plays down his truly harrowing experience saying only, "I got pushed around a little bit but that was about it."
read more here
http://www.ksla.com/Global/story.asp?S=12448493
Posted: May 07, 2010 6:28 PM EDT
Tac One Ops recruits vets for movies
2:44
By Jeff Ferrell
SHREVEPORT, LA (KSLA) – Recruiting is underway for veterans right here in the Ark-La-Tex. But, it's not the kind of recruiting you may be thinking about. This is an effort by a local organization to put our veterans on the silver screen. It is all part of something called Tac One Ops.
Movie productions are becoming a near-ubiquitous sight in north Louisiana these days, running the gamut from scary movies like a ‘haunted battle' to a battle against aliens in Los Angeles, actually shot on the Interstate-49 overpass in Shreveport, just a stone's throw away from the KSLA studio.
"We get there in hand-to-hand. That's when a bayonet comes plunging through my right side right here. I still got a scar," described retired Army Sgt. and Vietnam veteran Jimmy Brown during a recent KSLA News 12 report on a movie in production. Brown represents just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to local veterans with a wealth of knowledge and experience.
That's where Tac One Ops comes in. Its two founders, Dave Valle and Paul Murray met while training actors on military weaponry and tactics. Valle recalled one day on a movie set, "we both looked at each other and said, 'you know what? This is a perfect scenario for military and police veterans."
You may recognize Paul Murray. In recent years we have spoken with Murray on gun issues. He's the owner of the indoor range called Shooters USA in Bossier City. He's also a former prisoner of war during the first Gulf War, who consistently plays down his truly harrowing experience saying only, "I got pushed around a little bit but that was about it."
read more here
http://www.ksla.com/Global/story.asp?S=12448493
Pentagon to Congress:Stop spending so much money on the troops
This is the same Pentagon with no problem at all shelling out billions to defense contractors with absolutely no oversight on where the money went, what they were billed for or what they were getting for the money in return. This is really the same Pentagon now saying that Congress is being too generous to the troops? The same troops we keep sending over and over and over again back to Iraq and Afghanistan no matter what it's doing to them and their families? Amazing! Just amazing now they are worried about spending too much money. Well maybe the saying is true, troops are expendable but contractors are expensive.
But Congress -- including members opposed to the wars -- has made clear that it considers military pay and benefits sacrosanct, especially when service members and their families are struggling to cope with repeated deployments to faraway conflicts.
Pentagon asking Congress to hold back on generous increases in troop pay
By Craig Whitlock
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, May 8, 2010
The Pentagon, not usually known for its frugality, is pleading with Congress to stop spending so much money on the troops.
Through nine years of war, service members have seen a healthy rise in pay and benefits, with most of them now better compensated than workers in the private sector with similar experience and education levels.
Congress has been so determined to take care of troops and their families that for several years running it has overruled the Pentagon and mandated more-generous pay raises than requested by the George W. Bush and Obama administrations. It has also rejected attempts by the Pentagon to slow soaring health-care costs -- which Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates has said are "eating us alive" -- by raising co-pays or premiums.
Now, Pentagon officials see fiscal calamity.
read more here
Fannin County Family Crisis Center in crisis
Fannin County Family Crisis Center in crisis
By media release
May 8, 2010
Our mission is to receive, comfort, counsel and support individuals and their families who find themselves in conflict due to emotional or physical abuse or sexual assault. Our mission is to help clients take control of their lives, know what options are available to them and assist them in making their own choices. After 12 years at their current location, The Fannin County Family Crisis Center must relocate within six (6) months due to required building renovations at the Veteran’s Administration.
During the next few months, the Board of Directors will be conducting a search for a new location. They are viewing the circumstances on a positive note because of the overwhelming support and past generosities of the citizens of Fannin County. Chief of Police Mike Bankston, who is heading up the relocation project, said that he “always has faith in the goodness and generosity of this fellow man and particularly in Fannin County. They have often surprised me and never let us down.”
read more here
http://www.ntxe-news.com/artman/publish/article_62053.shtml
By media release
May 8, 2010
Our mission is to receive, comfort, counsel and support individuals and their families who find themselves in conflict due to emotional or physical abuse or sexual assault. Our mission is to help clients take control of their lives, know what options are available to them and assist them in making their own choices. After 12 years at their current location, The Fannin County Family Crisis Center must relocate within six (6) months due to required building renovations at the Veteran’s Administration.
During the next few months, the Board of Directors will be conducting a search for a new location. They are viewing the circumstances on a positive note because of the overwhelming support and past generosities of the citizens of Fannin County. Chief of Police Mike Bankston, who is heading up the relocation project, said that he “always has faith in the goodness and generosity of this fellow man and particularly in Fannin County. They have often surprised me and never let us down.”
read more here
http://www.ntxe-news.com/artman/publish/article_62053.shtml
'Moral injury' as a wound of war
For years now I've been saying there are different types of PTSD just as there are different causes. Now it looks like "experts" are finally taking this seriously. Combat PTSD and PTSD in law enforcement should not be treated the same way a survivor of a natural disaster is treated. The cuts in veterans and police officers is deeper and different from the others. The simple reason is, others are simply survivors of the traumatic events but combat troops and cops are participants in them. Thank God they are willing to risk their lives for the rest of us and stop treating them as if they are like the rest of us.
MILITARY: 'Moral injury' as a wound of war
Conference to examine consequence of battlefield transgressions, exposure to carnage
Story Discussion By MARK WALKER - mlwalker@nctimes.com
A group of mental health experts is giving a name to the guilt and remorse troops feel when they see or do bad things during war: moral injury.
They say failure to recognize and acknowledge exposure to military or civilian carnage in Iraq and Afghanistan sets up troops for post-traumatic stress, a severe and often debilitating anxiety disorder that affects 1 in 5 combat troops.
The experts' findings on the emerging war wound will be discussed at a combat stress conference May 18-20 in San Diego. A study of the issue was first published in December in Clinical Psychology Review. Moral injury is not now officially recognized as a mental health malady.
The principal author of the moral injury paper, Dr. Brett Litz, said he and his colleagues are calling for wide-scale research into the issue to validate its existence and how it may lead to post-traumatic stress.
"Moral injury can occur from what you witness or what you do," said Litz, a clinical psychologist, professor and counselor for the Department of Veterans Affairs. "I've been seeing veterans for 24 years, and when people who seem well-adjusted and doing fine really talk about their war experiences, what often emerges is sadness about the loss and what they saw. That is moral injury."
Litz and his collaborators specifically define a moral injury experience as "perpetrating, failing to prevent, bearing witness to or learning about acts that transgress deeply held moral beliefs and expectations."They argue that service members who don't talk to loved ones, clergy or some other confidant will become convinced what they did is unforgivable, leading to recognized symptoms of PTSD, such as withdrawal, self-condemnation and avoidance.
go here for more
Moral injury as a wound of war
PTSD Biological Effects Of Traumatic Events
The Biological Effects Of Traumatic Events
May 8, 2010
We often think of PTSD as a psychological disorder — one that causes great suffering to people who have experienced traumatic events. Now, the lead author of a new study argues that those traumatic events may actually cause changes in the victim on a molecular level. Host Guy Raz speaks with Dr. Sandro Galea of Columbia University about the study.
GUY RAZ, host:
We usually think of PTSD as a psychological disorder, one that can tear apart the lives of combat veterans and other people who've experienced traumatic events. But a new study suggests that those traumatic events may actually change people on a molecular level, and it could be those molecular changes that lead to the symptoms of PTSD.
Sandro Galea is the senior author of the study. He's also the chair of the Department of Epidemiology at Columbia University. Welcome to the program.
Dr. SANDRO GALEA (Chairman, Department of Epidemiology, Columbia University): Thank you for having me on.
RAZ: Your study sort of seems to suggest a completely new biological framework for PTSD, something that we've long sort of associated with a psychological condition. Describe how it works now, how you think it works.
Dr. GALEA: What we are thinking is that trauma that somebody experiences results in molecular changes around the DNA that result in changes in what genes are expressed and not expressed. So what our study showed is that people who experience traumatic events are more likely to have these molecular epigenetic changes, which may explain in part why particular genes then are expressed or not expressed and result in symptoms of the psychological disorder.
RAZ: You describe epigenetic changes. Briefly, can you explain what that means?
Dr. GALEA: The term epigenetic changes refers to particular molecules that stick to particular parts of the DNA. So they're not genetic changes, they're not changes in the gene encoding that we all have within us but they are changes around the DNA.
So an example would be that one of the cardinal symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is hypervigilance, being very jumpy, constantly on guard. And we found that some of the genes that we know are responsible for vigilance for jumpiness are among the genes that have these epigenetic changes associated with the traumatic event experience.
read more here
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126637629
May 8, 2010
We often think of PTSD as a psychological disorder — one that causes great suffering to people who have experienced traumatic events. Now, the lead author of a new study argues that those traumatic events may actually cause changes in the victim on a molecular level. Host Guy Raz speaks with Dr. Sandro Galea of Columbia University about the study.
GUY RAZ, host:
We usually think of PTSD as a psychological disorder, one that can tear apart the lives of combat veterans and other people who've experienced traumatic events. But a new study suggests that those traumatic events may actually change people on a molecular level, and it could be those molecular changes that lead to the symptoms of PTSD.
Sandro Galea is the senior author of the study. He's also the chair of the Department of Epidemiology at Columbia University. Welcome to the program.
Dr. SANDRO GALEA (Chairman, Department of Epidemiology, Columbia University): Thank you for having me on.
RAZ: Your study sort of seems to suggest a completely new biological framework for PTSD, something that we've long sort of associated with a psychological condition. Describe how it works now, how you think it works.
Dr. GALEA: What we are thinking is that trauma that somebody experiences results in molecular changes around the DNA that result in changes in what genes are expressed and not expressed. So what our study showed is that people who experience traumatic events are more likely to have these molecular epigenetic changes, which may explain in part why particular genes then are expressed or not expressed and result in symptoms of the psychological disorder.
RAZ: You describe epigenetic changes. Briefly, can you explain what that means?
Dr. GALEA: The term epigenetic changes refers to particular molecules that stick to particular parts of the DNA. So they're not genetic changes, they're not changes in the gene encoding that we all have within us but they are changes around the DNA.
So an example would be that one of the cardinal symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is hypervigilance, being very jumpy, constantly on guard. And we found that some of the genes that we know are responsible for vigilance for jumpiness are among the genes that have these epigenetic changes associated with the traumatic event experience.
read more here
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126637629
A Rutherford Marine's Pacific war and PTSD
One more story of why so many are seeking help for the first time.
A Rutherford Marine's Pacific war
Sunday, May 9, 2010
Last updated: Sunday May 9, 2010, 10:43 AM
BY VIRGINIA ROHAN
The Record
STAFF WRITER
A few months ago, Charlie Garabedian finally got a diagnosis that explained his restless nights and troublesome ruminations on past horrors — post-traumatic stress disorder.
"I don't sleep well. I never slept well. And I relive this too much now," Garabedian says of his combat experiences.
Although we now hear much about PTSD plaguing those who have fought in Iraq and Afghanistan, Garabedian's haunting memories are from a war that ended 65 years ago.
A proud member of K Company, 3rd Battalion, 23rd Regiment, 4th Marine Division, the 86-year-old Rutherford veteran fought in four of the deadliest Pacific battles of World War II — including Iwo Jima, depicted last Sunday in the HBO miniseries "The Pacific," which has shown viewers the same kind of unspeakable atrocities that Garabedian describes.
"My best friend, Stapleton, got killed on Saipan the fourth morning," says Garabedian, whose physique and voice suggest a man 20 years younger. "I was on the ground with the machine gun. I was gonna fire up on this hill against a bunch of snipers. He let out a groan. He fell on top of me, and he's dead. I'll never forget that as long as I live.
Pfc. Garabedian, far left, second row, of K Company, 3rd Battalion, 23rd Regiemtn, 4th Marine Division, in July 1944. "If I was ever gonna crack, I would have cracked then."
Garabedian — a former Rutherford police captain whose awards include the Bronze Star Medal (with Combat "V") for valor, the Combat Action Ribbon and New Jersey's Distinguished Service Medal — has been watching "The Pacific." He was put off by Part 3, which showed the 1st Marine Division's leave in Melbourne after intense fighting on Guadalcanal.
read more here
A Rutherford Marine Pacific war
Name, rank and service but not politics
Name, rank and service but not politics
by
Chaplain Kathie
There are many lessons I've learned over the years. One of them is that the older I got, the smarter my Mom got. Amazing how that usually happens as we enter into our 20's. I miss her especially on Mother's Day. She was humble and wise, caring about others and was deeply loved by everyone she knew. No matter what store we would go to, she would always know someone there like a celebrity. Many times she was told she should to into politics because how many people she knew, above all, cared about. She was also a disabled veteran's wife.
For all the lessons I learned from her, the one in my brain this morning is that when it comes to the men and women serving this country, this one country, there is their name, their rank, what service they served in, but political affiliation is reduced to how they vote. It doesn't matter to them when they are trying to stay alive, trying to keep their buddies alive and stop the people they were sent to fight. It doesn't matter when a Democrat saves the life of a Republican or a Republican saves an Independent. All that matters is they are Americans, serving side by side and serving under the same flag. They fight for each other, for family and do what the leaders of this nation sent them to do. This is carried on when they come home and no matter what party someone belongs to the only thing that matters is they are among the few knowing what it costs to be able to freely choose who leads this nation.
I see this everyday. Men and women putting what really matters ahead of politics because they know how we got to the point where we all have the right to decide on our own.
When you think throughout the years 42 million men and women are responsible for defending this country, there can be little doubt why it is we forget them. We remember Presidents and some of us are able to name all of them in order. President Obama is the 44th President. We know Washington was the first, Lincoln as the 16th. Franklin Delano Roosevelt our 32nd President during the worst times of the Great Depression and war, this handicap President stricken by Polio is regarded as one of our finest. So few men serving as President, some elected more than once and others not surviving their first term. They end up in countless books about their lives but few students know how few men and women are responsible for our ability to vote and determine the future of this nation.
Once a year we manage to remember the fallen, even if it is for just a few moments watching the news on Memorial Day. Some will go to the grave sites and visit relatives resting there. Some will go to parades sitting on sidewalks eating ice cream, waving flags as veterans pass by. Others will enjoy the day off with parties kicking off the start of summer never really thinking about what the day really means.
There are thousands heading to Washington DC and Arlington National Cemetery. They are the kind of people you judge too harshly as they come up behind your car with the revving engines of their motorcycles and leather vests. They come together from every part of this one nation, from big cities and tiny towns no one every heard of making the pilgrimage to honor the dead. Last year thousands of them carried the patch of Nam Knights. The Nam Knights are not just Vietnam veterans or veterans of military service but many are police officers and they know the price of our freedom more than anyone else.
We went to the Vietnam Memorial Wall and then to the Law Enforcement Memorial. Each year these people manage to keep giving more and more of themselves to each other and to their communities. Not many know them, know anything about their lives or the fact they would still lay down their lives for the sake of this one nation.
We are bound together as one nation because of the few who dared risk their lives to provide it, yet when we put politics above all else, insult the patriotism of someone with a different opinion, we dishonor all of them accordingly. Political connections didn't matter to any of them as they fought our battles. They come home and then they have to hear a politician slandering a politician from the other side, hear their voices at political gatherings saying someone else is unpatriotic because they disagree and fueling hatred for the sake of their own power and positions. They never stop to think the 17 million combat veterans hearing their voices were willing to die for each other no matter what political view they held. They paid the price for the right to say whatever is said but no one thinks of them having to hear it, walking away feeling as if they have just been attacked by someone who never knew what it was like to put this nation first.
What does warm their heart is what is being done in cities and towns across this nation for their sake.
These are just a few of the types of stories that matter to them.
Fundraiser held for fallen Marine WAVY-TV
We can listen to both sides on the illegal immigrant issue and try to make the argument as simple as possible but then we read a story like this and understand, when it comes to the few willing to die in service to this nation, the issue is not as simple as we want it to be.
We can try to count the fallen connected to combat, but then we do not always really know, especially when it comes to suicides of our veterans. 18 a day commit suicide but they are not counted in the war's final tally of the ultimate price paid. These deaths are known by the families, just as we do not count the numbers of the men and women passing away everyday from illnesses created to wage war more "successfully" like Agent Orange and Depleted Uranium.
We don't seem to manage to really understand what Memorial Day is for or what they died for.
My Mom never thought much about politics but voted in every election. She said she voted for the person and not the party attached to their name just as her husband, my Dad, served next to men and women without putting party above being an American. The next time you think about putting politics above all else, remember there was someone on the other side willing to lay down their lives for your right to have your own views protected and they defended that right with their lives. I really wish we could all be more like them and willing to put this one nation ahead of anything else.
On this Memorial Day, remember them and what they valued more than anything else.
Military deaths Los Angeles Times
by
Chaplain Kathie
There are many lessons I've learned over the years. One of them is that the older I got, the smarter my Mom got. Amazing how that usually happens as we enter into our 20's. I miss her especially on Mother's Day. She was humble and wise, caring about others and was deeply loved by everyone she knew. No matter what store we would go to, she would always know someone there like a celebrity. Many times she was told she should to into politics because how many people she knew, above all, cared about. She was also a disabled veteran's wife.
For all the lessons I learned from her, the one in my brain this morning is that when it comes to the men and women serving this country, this one country, there is their name, their rank, what service they served in, but political affiliation is reduced to how they vote. It doesn't matter to them when they are trying to stay alive, trying to keep their buddies alive and stop the people they were sent to fight. It doesn't matter when a Democrat saves the life of a Republican or a Republican saves an Independent. All that matters is they are Americans, serving side by side and serving under the same flag. They fight for each other, for family and do what the leaders of this nation sent them to do. This is carried on when they come home and no matter what party someone belongs to the only thing that matters is they are among the few knowing what it costs to be able to freely choose who leads this nation.
I see this everyday. Men and women putting what really matters ahead of politics because they know how we got to the point where we all have the right to decide on our own.
America's Wars Total
Military service during war
41,891,368
Battle deaths
651,030
Other deaths in service (theater)
308,800
Other deaths in service (nontheater)
230,279
Nonmortal woundings
1,431,290
Living war veterans
17,456,0004
Living veterans
23,442,000
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0004615.html
When you think throughout the years 42 million men and women are responsible for defending this country, there can be little doubt why it is we forget them. We remember Presidents and some of us are able to name all of them in order. President Obama is the 44th President. We know Washington was the first, Lincoln as the 16th. Franklin Delano Roosevelt our 32nd President during the worst times of the Great Depression and war, this handicap President stricken by Polio is regarded as one of our finest. So few men serving as President, some elected more than once and others not surviving their first term. They end up in countless books about their lives but few students know how few men and women are responsible for our ability to vote and determine the future of this nation.
Once a year we manage to remember the fallen, even if it is for just a few moments watching the news on Memorial Day. Some will go to the grave sites and visit relatives resting there. Some will go to parades sitting on sidewalks eating ice cream, waving flags as veterans pass by. Others will enjoy the day off with parties kicking off the start of summer never really thinking about what the day really means.
There are thousands heading to Washington DC and Arlington National Cemetery. They are the kind of people you judge too harshly as they come up behind your car with the revving engines of their motorcycles and leather vests. They come together from every part of this one nation, from big cities and tiny towns no one every heard of making the pilgrimage to honor the dead. Last year thousands of them carried the patch of Nam Knights. The Nam Knights are not just Vietnam veterans or veterans of military service but many are police officers and they know the price of our freedom more than anyone else.
We went to the Vietnam Memorial Wall and then to the Law Enforcement Memorial. Each year these people manage to keep giving more and more of themselves to each other and to their communities. Not many know them, know anything about their lives or the fact they would still lay down their lives for the sake of this one nation.
We are bound together as one nation because of the few who dared risk their lives to provide it, yet when we put politics above all else, insult the patriotism of someone with a different opinion, we dishonor all of them accordingly. Political connections didn't matter to any of them as they fought our battles. They come home and then they have to hear a politician slandering a politician from the other side, hear their voices at political gatherings saying someone else is unpatriotic because they disagree and fueling hatred for the sake of their own power and positions. They never stop to think the 17 million combat veterans hearing their voices were willing to die for each other no matter what political view they held. They paid the price for the right to say whatever is said but no one thinks of them having to hear it, walking away feeling as if they have just been attacked by someone who never knew what it was like to put this nation first.
What does warm their heart is what is being done in cities and towns across this nation for their sake.
These are just a few of the types of stories that matter to them.
Fundraiser held for fallen Marine WAVY-TV
Quad Citians come together for wounded Marine WQAD
We can listen to both sides on the illegal immigrant issue and try to make the argument as simple as possible but then we read a story like this and understand, when it comes to the few willing to die in service to this nation, the issue is not as simple as we want it to be.
Army veteran, an illegal immigrant, wants citizenship
Five days before illegal immigrant Ekaterine Bautista, who served six years in the U.S. military, planned to become a U.S. citizen under a decades-old law, her swearing-in ceremony was canceled after it was learned she served in the military under a false identity.
By Anna Gorman
Los Angeles Times
LOS ANGELES — Five days before Ekaterine Bautista planned to become a U.S. citizen, she got a call from the federal government: Her swearing-in ceremony had been canceled pending further investigation.
Bautista was devastated. An illegal immigrant from Mexico, she had served six years in the U.S. military — including a 13-month tour in Iraq — and was eligible to apply for naturalization under a decades-old law.
read more here
Army veteran an illegal immigrant wants citizenship
We can try to count the fallen connected to combat, but then we do not always really know, especially when it comes to suicides of our veterans. 18 a day commit suicide but they are not counted in the war's final tally of the ultimate price paid. These deaths are known by the families, just as we do not count the numbers of the men and women passing away everyday from illnesses created to wage war more "successfully" like Agent Orange and Depleted Uranium.
We don't seem to manage to really understand what Memorial Day is for or what they died for.
My Mom never thought much about politics but voted in every election. She said she voted for the person and not the party attached to their name just as her husband, my Dad, served next to men and women without putting party above being an American. The next time you think about putting politics above all else, remember there was someone on the other side willing to lay down their lives for your right to have your own views protected and they defended that right with their lives. I really wish we could all be more like them and willing to put this one nation ahead of anything else.
On this Memorial Day, remember them and what they valued more than anything else.
Military deaths Los Angeles Times
A Soldier's Story: Cpl. Nick Edinger
A Soldier's Story
Nothing's going to slow Cpl. Nick Edinger down, not even losing his foot in Afghanistan
By Paul Fattig
Mail Tribune
When Army Cpl. Nickolas "Nick" Edinger looks down at where his left foot used to be, the 2005 Crater High School graduate doesn't give it much thought.
"I am not going to let this slow me down at all," stresses Edinger, 22, of Central Point, in a telephone interview from Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C.
"If I let the fact a bomb took away my foot beat me in any way, shape or form, then that is letting the guy who put that bomb there beat me," he adds. "And I'm not going to let that happen. Never. I've got a life to live."
Yet the son of Scott and Liz Edinger of Central Point realizes he is exceedingly lucky. He knows full well the powerful improvised explosive device he stepped on early in the afternoon of March 30 in a remote village in southern Afghanistan easily could have taken the life he intends to live.
"Hey, I'm real fortunate," he says. "There are people here missing a piece of every limb. There is a kid who has half of both thighs, missing one arm at the elbow and the other at the wrist. He is figuring out how to make it.
"You got someone like that, well, who am I to say my problems are big?"
Edinger joined the Army two years ago next month to earn GI Bill benefits for college. He planned to pursue a medical career after completing his hitch. Before donning a military uniform, he worked for two years at Rogue Valley Medical Center, helping move patients in the emergency room as well as the critical care unit, an experience that would help him keep his cool March 30.
A member of Bravo Company of the 2nd Battalion, 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 82nd Airborne Division out of Fort Bragg, N.C., the corporal was deployed to Afghanistan last September as part of an effort to take the fight to the Taliban strongholds in remote areas of that country.
read more here
A Soldiers Story
Nothing's going to slow Cpl. Nick Edinger down, not even losing his foot in Afghanistan
By Paul Fattig
Mail Tribune
When Army Cpl. Nickolas "Nick" Edinger looks down at where his left foot used to be, the 2005 Crater High School graduate doesn't give it much thought.
"I am not going to let this slow me down at all," stresses Edinger, 22, of Central Point, in a telephone interview from Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C.
"If I let the fact a bomb took away my foot beat me in any way, shape or form, then that is letting the guy who put that bomb there beat me," he adds. "And I'm not going to let that happen. Never. I've got a life to live."
Yet the son of Scott and Liz Edinger of Central Point realizes he is exceedingly lucky. He knows full well the powerful improvised explosive device he stepped on early in the afternoon of March 30 in a remote village in southern Afghanistan easily could have taken the life he intends to live.
"Hey, I'm real fortunate," he says. "There are people here missing a piece of every limb. There is a kid who has half of both thighs, missing one arm at the elbow and the other at the wrist. He is figuring out how to make it.
"You got someone like that, well, who am I to say my problems are big?"
Edinger joined the Army two years ago next month to earn GI Bill benefits for college. He planned to pursue a medical career after completing his hitch. Before donning a military uniform, he worked for two years at Rogue Valley Medical Center, helping move patients in the emergency room as well as the critical care unit, an experience that would help him keep his cool March 30.
A member of Bravo Company of the 2nd Battalion, 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 82nd Airborne Division out of Fort Bragg, N.C., the corporal was deployed to Afghanistan last September as part of an effort to take the fight to the Taliban strongholds in remote areas of that country.
read more here
A Soldiers Story
Saturday, May 8, 2010
27 months for phony SEAL, phony PTSD
This is what is supposed to happen when a person decides they will take what others have earned. This is what's supposed to happen but because of the rare occasion when someone pulls something like this, the real combat veterans, the real wounded, end up paying the price.
They pay it with delays in having their claims honored when they have done nothing wrong.
When you think of the millions of men and women doing their duty, serving with honor and most of the time true humbleness and humility, having to come home and then face such delays in honoring their wounds, reading something like this hurts them deeply. A fraud can get what they not only paid the price for but they can't manage to get the same when they are telling the truth.
So few so evil to take what is not their's will never, ever justify what we are seeing with real combat veterans carrying real wounds.
They pay it with delays in having their claims honored when they have done nothing wrong.
When you think of the millions of men and women doing their duty, serving with honor and most of the time true humbleness and humility, having to come home and then face such delays in honoring their wounds, reading something like this hurts them deeply. A fraud can get what they not only paid the price for but they can't manage to get the same when they are telling the truth.
So few so evil to take what is not their's will never, ever justify what we are seeing with real combat veterans carrying real wounds.
27 months for phony SEAL, phony PTSD
By Lance M. Bacon - Staff writer
Posted : Saturday May 8, 2010 8:57:21 EDT
A phony SEAL whose bogus post-traumatic stress disorder defrauded the government of more than $280,000 over seven years was sentenced to 27 months in federal prison followed by three years of supervised release.
Federal Judge Michael McCuskey spent nearly 45 minutes chastising Robert Warren, saying he would have gladly added more time but was constrained by the law’s limits.
Warren was found guilty of six counts of wire fraud, four counts of mail fraud, one count of making false statements and one count of Social Security fraud. He admitted to fraudulently receiving $166,116 in veterans’ benefits and $114,045 in Social Security benefits.
For years, Warren had purported to be a combat-decorated SEAL. Navy records show otherwise. Warren was a sailor from Feb. 21, 1984, to March 23, 1988. He never was a SEAL. He never saw combat.Warren told VA officials in 2002 he hadn’t worked in four years and couldn’t work around people or in public. He submitted forged statements in support of his claim, court records show. Warren was awarded a 100 percent service-connected disability and granted the same through Social Security two years later. But Warren has owned and operated a local tavern and recorded more than 400 hours as a volunteer firefighter since being awarded the disability rating in 2002.
go here for more
Friday, May 7, 2010
ROGERS: Are meds covering up PTSD crisis
ROGERS: Are meds covering up PTSD crisis?
By RICK ROGERS - For the North County Times Posted: May 7, 2010 12:00 am
It's been a dance of convenience between the military and post-traumatic stress disorder over the years. I remember a particularly nifty two-step by U.S. Marine Brig. Gen. Joseph Dunford five years ago while he was assistant commander of the 1st Marine Division. Dunford is now the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force commander and a three-star general.
It was March 2005, and the Department of Veterans Affairs had just released an analysis of nearly 50,000 troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. Published in The New England Journal of Medicine, the report found that up to 17 percent had been diagnosed with major depression, anxiety or PTSD. It concluded that Marines and soldiers were nearly four times more likely to report PTSD than sailors and airmen. The findings paralleled findings in Vietnam War veterans.
Yet Dunford held a press conference to declare that none of these numbers even remotely resembled Camp Pendleton's situation. A scant 3 percent of his Marines needed mental health care, he said, attributing the tiny number to the superior counseling his Marines received before going to fight in places like Ramadi, Najaf and Fallujah.
Why was Dunford so sure of this? Because his troops had told him so: Three percent had self-identified in their post-deployment questionnaire.
I don't recall the general appreciating a question suggesting that, just maybe, 1st Marine Division troops weren't self-diagnosing because they wanted to go home on leave and didn't want to appear weak.
About a year later, official tenor on the subject changed. Maj. Gen. Mike Lehnert, who retired last year as the Marine Corps Installations West commander, told me then that constant combat deployments were indeed eroding Marines and their families, though he didn't spell out how.
Combat stress, Lehnert said, was endemic to combat, and only a psychopath could return from war unchanged by the experience.
Amen, brother.
So the Marine Corps culturally embraced "combat stress," but not PTSD. The former was a normal reaction of an honorable warrior to the horrors of war.
go here for more
Are meds covering up PTSD crisis
By RICK ROGERS - For the North County Times Posted: May 7, 2010 12:00 am
It's been a dance of convenience between the military and post-traumatic stress disorder over the years. I remember a particularly nifty two-step by U.S. Marine Brig. Gen. Joseph Dunford five years ago while he was assistant commander of the 1st Marine Division. Dunford is now the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force commander and a three-star general.
It was March 2005, and the Department of Veterans Affairs had just released an analysis of nearly 50,000 troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. Published in The New England Journal of Medicine, the report found that up to 17 percent had been diagnosed with major depression, anxiety or PTSD. It concluded that Marines and soldiers were nearly four times more likely to report PTSD than sailors and airmen. The findings paralleled findings in Vietnam War veterans.
Yet Dunford held a press conference to declare that none of these numbers even remotely resembled Camp Pendleton's situation. A scant 3 percent of his Marines needed mental health care, he said, attributing the tiny number to the superior counseling his Marines received before going to fight in places like Ramadi, Najaf and Fallujah.
Why was Dunford so sure of this? Because his troops had told him so: Three percent had self-identified in their post-deployment questionnaire.
I don't recall the general appreciating a question suggesting that, just maybe, 1st Marine Division troops weren't self-diagnosing because they wanted to go home on leave and didn't want to appear weak.
About a year later, official tenor on the subject changed. Maj. Gen. Mike Lehnert, who retired last year as the Marine Corps Installations West commander, told me then that constant combat deployments were indeed eroding Marines and their families, though he didn't spell out how.
Combat stress, Lehnert said, was endemic to combat, and only a psychopath could return from war unchanged by the experience.
Amen, brother.
So the Marine Corps culturally embraced "combat stress," but not PTSD. The former was a normal reaction of an honorable warrior to the horrors of war.
go here for more
Are meds covering up PTSD crisis
Westboro hate church plans protest of U. S. Marine funeral
It doesn't seem to matter to Westboro if a serviceman or woman was gay or not. It doesn't seem to matter if they were married or not, had children or not, had people grieving for them or anything else other than proving they enjoy the ability to publicly hate the troops. A right they would not have had it not been for generations of other Americans paying the price for that right.
While it is true there is free speech in this country and even this kind of hate speech is protected, it is also coming with forcing the families to listen to them. When someone prints something hateful, we do not have to read it. When someone stands in the middle of the street screaming how much they hate someone, no one is forced to be there and can walk away. Yet when a family is in the process of burying a family member, especially in a publicized military funeral, they are forced to have to hear this hatred. They cannot decide to go some place else. They cannot decide it isn't worth burying their family member if they have to hear or read signs of hatred. They have to be there. Westboro people do not have to be there at all. They can thank God all they want for IED's and for the troops being killed but the rest of us wonder which God they are thanking.
There is a lot of talk about the free speech rights of this group but there is too little talk about what the rights of the families of the fallen are. What about their right to grieve without being attacked by a group trespassing on their own rights?
While it is true there is free speech in this country and even this kind of hate speech is protected, it is also coming with forcing the families to listen to them. When someone prints something hateful, we do not have to read it. When someone stands in the middle of the street screaming how much they hate someone, no one is forced to be there and can walk away. Yet when a family is in the process of burying a family member, especially in a publicized military funeral, they are forced to have to hear this hatred. They cannot decide to go some place else. They cannot decide it isn't worth burying their family member if they have to hear or read signs of hatred. They have to be there. Westboro people do not have to be there at all. They can thank God all they want for IED's and for the troops being killed but the rest of us wonder which God they are thanking.
There is a lot of talk about the free speech rights of this group but there is too little talk about what the rights of the families of the fallen are. What about their right to grieve without being attacked by a group trespassing on their own rights?
Hate church plans protest of U. S. Marine funeral
May 6, 2:49 PM
Birmingham Gay Community Examiner
Joe Openshaw
Lance Corporal Thomas E. Rivers, Jr., was killed due to enemy action while serving as a U. S. Marine in Afghanistan on April 28, 2010. His funeral is planned for Friday, May 7, 2010 near Birmingham, AL.
Westboro Baptist Church has announced a protest at the funeral of Lance Corporal Thomas E. Rivers.
Westboro Baptist Church, led by Fred Phelps, is best known as a hate group and uses anti-gay rhetoric in an attempt to gain publicity for themselves.
Equality Alabama has issued a statement in response to Westboro Baptist's planned protest.
go here for more
Hate church plans protest of U. S. Marine funeral
2 dead after Redstone Arsenal explosion
2 dead after explosion at Ala. Army post
The Associated Press
Posted : Thursday May 6, 2010 20:36:37 EDT
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — Two contract workers died after being injured in an explosion while removing a propellant from rockets at an arsenal where the Army conducts missile and weapons research.
The public affairs office at the Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville said the two died Wednesday night after being flown to the burn unit at a hospital in Birmingham.
read more here
2 dead after explosion at Ala. Army post
The Associated Press
Posted : Thursday May 6, 2010 20:36:37 EDT
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — Two contract workers died after being injured in an explosion while removing a propellant from rockets at an arsenal where the Army conducts missile and weapons research.
The public affairs office at the Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville said the two died Wednesday night after being flown to the burn unit at a hospital in Birmingham.
read more here
2 dead after explosion at Ala. Army post
Thursday, May 6, 2010
Vets can lead fight on mental health stigma
Vets can lead fight on mental health stigma
By Kelly Kennedy - Staff writer
Posted : Thursday May 6, 2010 14:19:52 EDT
As Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I., introduced former first lady Rosalynn Carter and her new book about mental health care, he predicted the people who will do the most to improve mental health care and reduce the stigma of getting that care across the nation: veterans.
At the Library of Congress Wednesday, Kennedy spoke of the “signature injuries” of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan — post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury — and how veterans talking about and combating stigma for those injuries could normalize mental health issues throughout the country.
As combat veterans grow increasingly comfortable with seeking care, civilians may, too, he said.
“It’s not about an issue,” he said. “It’s about personally wanting to help the people we love.”
Carter was in Washington, D.C., to promote her book, “Within Our Reach,” about the basics of mental health care and how communities could better serve the 25 percent of U.S. adults who deal with anxiety, depression, substance abuse disorders and other such issues every year.
read more here
Vets can lead fight on mental health stigma
By Kelly Kennedy - Staff writer
Posted : Thursday May 6, 2010 14:19:52 EDT
As Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I., introduced former first lady Rosalynn Carter and her new book about mental health care, he predicted the people who will do the most to improve mental health care and reduce the stigma of getting that care across the nation: veterans.
At the Library of Congress Wednesday, Kennedy spoke of the “signature injuries” of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan — post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury — and how veterans talking about and combating stigma for those injuries could normalize mental health issues throughout the country.
As combat veterans grow increasingly comfortable with seeking care, civilians may, too, he said.
“It’s not about an issue,” he said. “It’s about personally wanting to help the people we love.”
Carter was in Washington, D.C., to promote her book, “Within Our Reach,” about the basics of mental health care and how communities could better serve the 25 percent of U.S. adults who deal with anxiety, depression, substance abuse disorders and other such issues every year.
read more here
Vets can lead fight on mental health stigma
VA to limit surgeries at some hospitals
Maybe it would have been great had the National Day of Prayer at the Pentagon been for the troops we sent but aren't able to take care of when they come home! This is like bad news day for Veterans but most of the nation doesn't even have a clue what's happening to them. And no, you can't blame President Obama for all of it. This has been going on for years but no one seemed to care and now that it's still getting worse, most still don't even know.
VA to limit surgeries at some hospitals
By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Thursday May 6, 2010 16:15:33 EDT
In a move that could force some veterans to travel farther for surgery or have their operations at nonveterans hospitals, VA officials are imposing a new grading system on its 112 in-patient treatment facilities that will rank their abilities to do complex, intermediate or standard procedures.
Beginning May 11, no elective surgery will be done at a VA medical center that exceeds the rating, said Dr. William Gunner, the VA’s director of surgery.
Emergency surgery still could be done if required, he said.
The facilities immediately affected will be the medical centers in Alexandria, La.; Beckley, W.Va.; Fayetteville, N.C.; Illiana, Ill.; and Spokane, Wash., all of which received the lowest ranking and have been performing surgeries now judged to be beyond their capabilities.
read more here
VA to limit surgeries at some hospitals
TBI vets face delays, poor access to care
TBI vets face delays, poor access to care
By Kelly Kennedy - Staff writer
Posted : Thursday May 6, 2010 15:35:37 EDT
Last month, a 24-year-old veteran received his first treatment for trauamtic brain injury from the Veterans Affairs Department — more than a year after he was discharged from the Marine Corps.
“The hand-off from [the Defense Department] to VA was very slow,” Jonathan Barrs told the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs on Wednesday. “So far, the VA care has been good, but this whole time of waiting was very hard, and I had to keep asking my primary care doctor for a consult, which took a very long time.”
His TBI was diagnosed in November 2008. He medically retired in May 2009. He began receiving care in April 2010.
“The injuries get worse with time,” said Michelle LaPlaca, associate professor of biomedical engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. “The longer you wait, the less beneficial it will be for veterans.”
read more here
TBI vets face delays, poor access to care
By Kelly Kennedy - Staff writer
Posted : Thursday May 6, 2010 15:35:37 EDT
Last month, a 24-year-old veteran received his first treatment for trauamtic brain injury from the Veterans Affairs Department — more than a year after he was discharged from the Marine Corps.
“The hand-off from [the Defense Department] to VA was very slow,” Jonathan Barrs told the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs on Wednesday. “So far, the VA care has been good, but this whole time of waiting was very hard, and I had to keep asking my primary care doctor for a consult, which took a very long time.”
His TBI was diagnosed in November 2008. He medically retired in May 2009. He began receiving care in April 2010.
“The injuries get worse with time,” said Michelle LaPlaca, associate professor of biomedical engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. “The longer you wait, the less beneficial it will be for veterans.”
read more here
TBI vets face delays, poor access to care
Humanitarian Service Medal approved for Haiti
Humanitarian Service Medal approved for Haiti
The Humanitarian Service Medal has been approved for soldiers who participated in the initial phase of Operation Unified Response, the ongoing disaster relief effort in Haiti.
Read More
The Humanitarian Service Medal has been approved for soldiers who participated in the initial phase of Operation Unified Response, the ongoing disaster relief effort in Haiti.
Read More
Saddleback College commemorates veterans memorial
College commemorates veterans memorial
By Joseph Espiritu
Behind every monument are its thinkers, builders and admirers. When the plans to build a Veterans Memorial at Saddleback College first came to light over 8 years ago, few saw the potential of the once-bare lot nestled in the corner of the campus’ quad.
But for former college president Richard McCullough and the hundreds of veterans who call the campus home, there was no better way to honor the brave men and women who fight for our freedoms than to erect the biggest veterans memorial found in any college campus in the nation.
With every shuffle of paperwork and each drop of sweat the foundation grew and took form. As time progressed, each brick laid, slowly modeled the final product, until an evident silhouette of earth tones from the bricks reflected back during the golden hours of the afternoon sun.
“I can fondly remember talks with [former Saddleback College president] Rich [Mcullough] – I was so impressed with how every time I visited the campus they had built a little more on the memorial, brick by brick,” said Irvine Valley College President Glenn Roquemore.
As the crowd sang to our nation’s anthem, eyes fixed on the flags held up by the Joint-Services Color Guard; it became apparent that the memorial was missing a flag of its own. It wasn’t until later in the ceremony will a flag that carried so much history be raised filling the gap that made the structure a true symbol of freedom.
go here for more
College commemorates veterans memorial
By Joseph Espiritu
Behind every monument are its thinkers, builders and admirers. When the plans to build a Veterans Memorial at Saddleback College first came to light over 8 years ago, few saw the potential of the once-bare lot nestled in the corner of the campus’ quad.
But for former college president Richard McCullough and the hundreds of veterans who call the campus home, there was no better way to honor the brave men and women who fight for our freedoms than to erect the biggest veterans memorial found in any college campus in the nation.
With every shuffle of paperwork and each drop of sweat the foundation grew and took form. As time progressed, each brick laid, slowly modeled the final product, until an evident silhouette of earth tones from the bricks reflected back during the golden hours of the afternoon sun.
“I can fondly remember talks with [former Saddleback College president] Rich [Mcullough] – I was so impressed with how every time I visited the campus they had built a little more on the memorial, brick by brick,” said Irvine Valley College President Glenn Roquemore.
As the crowd sang to our nation’s anthem, eyes fixed on the flags held up by the Joint-Services Color Guard; it became apparent that the memorial was missing a flag of its own. It wasn’t until later in the ceremony will a flag that carried so much history be raised filling the gap that made the structure a true symbol of freedom.
go here for more
College commemorates veterans memorial
A belated welcome: FWB thanks Vietnam veterans
A belated welcome: FWB thanks Vietnam veterans
(PHOTO GALLERY)
May 05, 2010 5:35 PM
Mona Moore
Daily News
FORT WALTON BEACH — More than 200 people attended the city’s first official “thank you and welcome home” for Vietnam veterans at a luncheon on Wednesday.
Organized by the Greater Fort Walton Beach Chamber of Commerce, the event included welcomes from the military, local officials and community members.
View a photo gallery from the luncheon »
Former POW and current Okaloosa County School Board member Howard Hill thanked veterans for their service, crediting their efforts with the release and survival of prisoners of war. He recalled the warm welcome he received when he was released.
read more here
FWB thanks Vietnam veterans
(PHOTO GALLERY)
May 05, 2010 5:35 PM
Mona Moore
Daily News
FORT WALTON BEACH — More than 200 people attended the city’s first official “thank you and welcome home” for Vietnam veterans at a luncheon on Wednesday.
Organized by the Greater Fort Walton Beach Chamber of Commerce, the event included welcomes from the military, local officials and community members.
View a photo gallery from the luncheon »
Former POW and current Okaloosa County School Board member Howard Hill thanked veterans for their service, crediting their efforts with the release and survival of prisoners of war. He recalled the warm welcome he received when he was released.
read more here
FWB thanks Vietnam veterans
THE POWER OF SMALL THINGS
Who do you really want to help?
by
Chaplain Kathie
An email exchange with a dear friend got me thinking about how some people doing this work on PTSD do it very quietly, never thinking about themselves. Unlike me, they don't have a blog or website and they don't do videos. They are missing a soap box simply because they are too busy helping the men and women God sends to them. In a way, I know what that is like because I don't post about any of the veterans coming to me or their families. When I think about that type of work being done across the country on a daily basis, I feel blessed to know them. All they want back is to be able to help others because their hearts are in the right place.
I do what I do because of my husband/best friend/love of my life. I have a personal interest in this. My friends however come from all different backgrounds. Some have PTSD, knowing what it feels like and what it felt like to feel alone, they are moving mountains changing lives and saving them without ever once thinking about anything more than helping. Some have or had a family member with PTSD and they know what it's like on the other side. Some just do it because they really care. Their work is done in "small ways" but those small ways end up changing countless lives.
Papa Roy is another one of "them" in my life. He sends out a daily email of support for the Chaplains in our group. (Yes, even Chaplains need spiritual support.) He is humble and truly loving. He seeks nothing more than to do what he does in small ways, but when you think about what he does for us, how many people he ends up reaching thru us, you can see what a big deal it really becomes.
I believe that if you reach one heart to offer help, you end up touching a thousand hands. Every good deed we do affects the lives of the person we help and they in turn pass on the "good deed" to others.
If you do things for other people for their sake, take heart and know that whatever help you are able to give is help they may not have known otherwise. If you do things for yourself and hide behind helping someone else, then look into what has really been motivating you and then justify yourself to God. If you have been rewarded with the fame you sought, then you have more responsibility on your shoulders to help others. I really pray you live up to the reputation you wanted. As for me, I'm in the middle. Neither "saint" or "sinner" because there are times when I wish I was as popular as some, just as there are other times when I wish I was as good and selfless as others. I am happier when my ego is out of the way and "they" are my focus. I think we'd all be happier if we remembered why we got into this type of work in the first place.
by
Chaplain Kathie
An email exchange with a dear friend got me thinking about how some people doing this work on PTSD do it very quietly, never thinking about themselves. Unlike me, they don't have a blog or website and they don't do videos. They are missing a soap box simply because they are too busy helping the men and women God sends to them. In a way, I know what that is like because I don't post about any of the veterans coming to me or their families. When I think about that type of work being done across the country on a daily basis, I feel blessed to know them. All they want back is to be able to help others because their hearts are in the right place.
I do what I do because of my husband/best friend/love of my life. I have a personal interest in this. My friends however come from all different backgrounds. Some have PTSD, knowing what it feels like and what it felt like to feel alone, they are moving mountains changing lives and saving them without ever once thinking about anything more than helping. Some have or had a family member with PTSD and they know what it's like on the other side. Some just do it because they really care. Their work is done in "small ways" but those small ways end up changing countless lives.
THE POWER OF SMALL THINGS
What is it that enables this tiny seed to make such a prodigious increase? It lies in its receptive power, as it receives into its nature the mighty forces which slumber in the soil, the effect of sunbeams, moisture, and air. So long as a little aperture is kept open, there is no limit to the fertility and usefulness of the plant. You may be but a child, and your life seem weak and ineffective, but if you will open your heart to God by faith, He will pour in His mighty fullness, and the tiny seed become a great tree of strength and usefulness, grace and beauty. (F. B. Meyer)
So Jesus said to them, “Because of your unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you. (Matthew 17:20)
Faith by its very nature must be tried, and the real trial of faith is not that we find it difficult to trust God, but that God's character has to be cleared in our own minds. Faith in its actual working out has to go through spells of unsyllabled isolation. Never confound the trial of faith with the ordinary discipline of life, much that we call the trial of faith is the inevitable result of being alive. Faith in the Bible is faith in God against everything that contradicts Him - I will remain true to God's character whatever He may do. "Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him" - this is the most sublime utterance of faith in the whole of the Bible. (Oswald Chambers.)
So often we say “I can’t” when we should be saying what Paul said – “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me!” (Philippians 4:13) Anything that God asks you to do, you can do, if you walk by faith and not by sight.
In God we trust
May 6, 2010
Papa Roy
Papa Roy is another one of "them" in my life. He sends out a daily email of support for the Chaplains in our group. (Yes, even Chaplains need spiritual support.) He is humble and truly loving. He seeks nothing more than to do what he does in small ways, but when you think about what he does for us, how many people he ends up reaching thru us, you can see what a big deal it really becomes.
I believe that if you reach one heart to offer help, you end up touching a thousand hands. Every good deed we do affects the lives of the person we help and they in turn pass on the "good deed" to others.
If you do things for other people for their sake, take heart and know that whatever help you are able to give is help they may not have known otherwise. If you do things for yourself and hide behind helping someone else, then look into what has really been motivating you and then justify yourself to God. If you have been rewarded with the fame you sought, then you have more responsibility on your shoulders to help others. I really pray you live up to the reputation you wanted. As for me, I'm in the middle. Neither "saint" or "sinner" because there are times when I wish I was as popular as some, just as there are other times when I wish I was as good and selfless as others. I am happier when my ego is out of the way and "they" are my focus. I think we'd all be happier if we remembered why we got into this type of work in the first place.
Halvorson helps 'silent heroes' of current wars
Halvorson helps 'silent heroes' of current wars
05/05/2010, 11:37 pm
Charles Stanley, charless@mywebtimes.com, 815-431-4063
U.S. Rep. Debbie Halvorson, D-Crete, calls them the "silent heroes" of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars: The family members-turned-caregivers for the veterans wounded and injured while serving their country.
Wednesday afternoon President Obama signed The Wounded Warrior Caregiver Assistance Act authored by Halvorson to provide support services for the family caregivers that dedicate themselves to providing home care for their wounded veteran.
"People don't realize that when the wounded warrior returns home, they are are not through with battle, they are on to their next battle — the battle of rehabilitation," Halvorson told The Times.
"It's a battle that they fight with the help of their family members, the silent heroes, who are taking care of them."
Key features of the new law are that it offers family members training to help care for their veteran and support such as temporary nursing assistance to provide the family members with a break. It also provides health care and a stipend for caregivers living with severely wounded veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan.
read more here
http://mywebtimes.com/archives/ottawa/display.php?id=403552
05/05/2010, 11:37 pm
Charles Stanley, charless@mywebtimes.com, 815-431-4063
U.S. Rep. Debbie Halvorson, D-Crete, calls them the "silent heroes" of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars: The family members-turned-caregivers for the veterans wounded and injured while serving their country.
Wednesday afternoon President Obama signed The Wounded Warrior Caregiver Assistance Act authored by Halvorson to provide support services for the family caregivers that dedicate themselves to providing home care for their wounded veteran.
"People don't realize that when the wounded warrior returns home, they are are not through with battle, they are on to their next battle — the battle of rehabilitation," Halvorson told The Times.
"It's a battle that they fight with the help of their family members, the silent heroes, who are taking care of them."
Key features of the new law are that it offers family members training to help care for their veteran and support such as temporary nursing assistance to provide the family members with a break. It also provides health care and a stipend for caregivers living with severely wounded veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan.
read more here
http://mywebtimes.com/archives/ottawa/display.php?id=403552
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Fall from grace showcases need for PTSD care
The military always knew what they were doing getting high school kids to sign up. The part of their brain controlling emotions is not fully matured. This is why they feel they are so invincible. The nature created by their youth allows them to be able to be trained to follow orders just as it allows them to rush into combat because someone told them to. For now, set aside the aspect of patriotism, loyalty, honor, courage and the connection they feel to the men they serve with. This is about what comes with the whole package.
The training I've taken over they years points to this as reason number one why so many veterans develop PTSD at such a young age. The very part of them that allows them to do what they do in combat, is also what is mostly responsible for what happens to them after it.
Read reports of most of the veterans with PTSD and you'll find the same description of what they were like in their youth, before combat, and what they changed into after. The Frontal Lobe does not fully mature until the age of 25 yet it is always 18, 19 and 20 year olds the military wants to recruit the most. This is the outcome of it.
This is why we see so much PTSD among the under 25 year olds deployed for the first time and then time after time after that. This is why they change so much. This is also why they are flocking to seek treatment considering this is also the generation of the instant answers using the web to find what they are looking for. You would have seen a lot more Vietnam veterans seeking help a long time ago if they had the same resource available to them instead of suffering all these years.
They are wounded because of their age, the kind of trauma they are exposed to and the number of times they are exposed, they are wounded because of their character as compassionate people, but it is also the way they are treated after this exposure that will predict the rest of their lives. The longer help is delayed, the deeper PTSD will cut into their character and we will have many more stories of crimes, suicides, divorce and homelessness.
Frontal Lobe
It has long been known that some patients with frontal lobe damage have significantly changed personalities. What is important about the study is that it helps families, friends and caregivers of the patient to appreciate and understand a very important reason why this occurs. This deficit in mentalizing can affect social cognition which is important in everyday human interactions. For example, patients with damage in the specific frontal area are often less empathetic and sympathetic, and they miss social cues which lead to inappropriate judgements.
http://www.neuroskills.com/tbi/pr-frontal.shtml
The frontal lobes are considered our emotional control center and home to our personality. There is no other part of the brain where lesions can cause such a wide variety of symptoms (Kolb & Wishaw, 1990). The frontal lobes are involved in motor function, problem solving, spontaneity, memory, language, initiation, judgement, impulse control, and social and sexual behavior. The frontal lobes are extremely vulnerable to injury due to their location at the front of the cranium, proximity to the sphenoid wing and their large size. MRI studies have shown that the frontal area is the most common region of injury following mild to moderate traumatic brain injury (Levin et al., 1987).
http://www.neuroskills.com/tbi/bfrontal.shtml
One of the most common characteristics of frontal lobe damage is difficulty in interpreting feedback from the environment. Perseverating on a response (Milner, 1964), risk taking, and non-compliance with rules (Miller, 1985), and impaired associated learning (using external cues to help guide behavior) (Drewe, 1975) are a few examples of this type of deficit.
The training I've taken over they years points to this as reason number one why so many veterans develop PTSD at such a young age. The very part of them that allows them to do what they do in combat, is also what is mostly responsible for what happens to them after it.
Read reports of most of the veterans with PTSD and you'll find the same description of what they were like in their youth, before combat, and what they changed into after. The Frontal Lobe does not fully mature until the age of 25 yet it is always 18, 19 and 20 year olds the military wants to recruit the most. This is the outcome of it.
This is why we see so much PTSD among the under 25 year olds deployed for the first time and then time after time after that. This is why they change so much. This is also why they are flocking to seek treatment considering this is also the generation of the instant answers using the web to find what they are looking for. You would have seen a lot more Vietnam veterans seeking help a long time ago if they had the same resource available to them instead of suffering all these years.
They are wounded because of their age, the kind of trauma they are exposed to and the number of times they are exposed, they are wounded because of their character as compassionate people, but it is also the way they are treated after this exposure that will predict the rest of their lives. The longer help is delayed, the deeper PTSD will cut into their character and we will have many more stories of crimes, suicides, divorce and homelessness.
First Coast veteran’s fall from grace showcases need for PTSD care
The First Coast man is featured in a documentary about life after service.
Posted: May 4, 2010 - 7:21pm
By Timothy J. Gibbons
Jamie Keyes remembers how different her son was when he returned from a second tour in Iraq.
“He just wasn’t the same person,” she said from her home in Statham, Ga. “He had had this awesome sense of humor. That was gone. He was very stoic. The fun Nathan was gone.”
Former Army Spc. Nathan Keyes was drinking more, avoiding social contact, struggling with nightmares. He left his wife and attempted suicide.
Those changes came to a head in St. Augustine one night in August 2008. While driving to the movies with his girlfriend, Keyes displayed a gun to another driver and later fired several shots.
A police chase followed and Keyes was arrested.
Now about halfway into the resulting prison term , Keyes has become the focus of a documentary made as part of “In Their Boots,” a series about the impact the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have on people back home.
go here for more
Fall from grace showcases need for PTSD care
Health Effects of the Vietnam War The Aftermath
I really adore my friends. This one came in from Shelia over at Agent Orange Quilt of Tears
Opening Statement of Hon. Bob Filner, Chairman, Full Committee on Veterans' Affairs
I would like to thank everyone for attending today’s hearing entitled, “Health Effects of the Vietnam War—the Aftermath. The stated purpose of today’s hearing is to examine the health effects that our veterans sustained during the War in Vietnam as a result of being exposed to the toxic dioxin-based concoctions that we now generally refer to as Agent Orange.
As such, we will follow-up on VA’s outstanding promise to finally conduct the National Vietnam Veterans Longitudinal Study (NVVLS). In this vein, we will try to stop the stovepiping in VA by also looking at how all of these issues relate to providing benefits for all Agent Orange combat veterans for presumptive conditions under current law.
I want to ensure that we do not leave any of our veterans exposed to Agent Orange while fighting overseas uncompensated for their injuries and left behind due to VA technicalities. It has been 10 long years since Congress mandated that the VA study the long-term lifetime psychological and physical health impact of the Vietnam war on the veteran of that era. In 2000, Congress required that the VA conduct a longitudinal study by building on the findings of the National Vietnam Veterans Readjustment Study of 1984.
The 1984 study was a landmark study, which provided a snapshot of the psychological and physical health of Vietnam veterans. A follow-up longitudinal study is needed to understand the life course of health outcomes and co-morbid events that have resulted from the traumas our men and women endured during the Vietnam war.
Initially the VA adhered to the letter of the law, but halted the NVVLS study in 2003 by not renewing a three-year non-competitive sole source contract that they awarded back in 2001. The VA cited cost reasons, noting that the original estimate for completing the NVVLS had ballooned from $5 million to $17 million.
The VA took no further steps and ignored the law until this Committee received a proposal from former Secretary Peake in January of 2009. Former Secretary Peake recommended substituting the NVVLS with a study of twins who served in the Vietnam War and a study of women Vietnam war veterans, which would cost about $10 million.
Given the cost of the alternative option, it seems to me that the VA could have completed the NVVLS on time had the Department chosen to allocate the $10 million to the original contract award back in 2003.
This Committee did not see the merit of the alternative proposal and has continued to advocate for the completion of the NVVLS. In September 2009, Secretary Shinseki committed to carrying out the NVVLS study and while I applaud the Secretary for his commitment, I remain cautious and vigilant about this issue.
Through today’s hearing, I would like to better understand the progress that the VA has made in conducting the NVVLS study. I also hope to learn about the potential barriers that we can proactively address so that VA remains on track to complete the study. Also, Congress passed several measures to address disability compensation issues of Vietnam veterans.
The Veterans’ Dioxin and Radiation Exposure Compensation Standards Act of 1984 (P.L. 98-542) required the VA to develop regulations for disability compensation to Vietnam veterans exposed to Agent Orange.
In 1991, the Agent Orange Act (P.L. 102-4) established for the first time a presumption of service-connection for diseases associated with herbicide exposure. The Agent Orange Act authorized the VA to contract with the IOM to conduct a scientific review of the evidence linking certain medical conditions to herbicide exposure.
Under this law, the VA is required to review the biennial reports of the IOM and to issue regulations to establish a presumption of service-connection for any disease for which there is scientific evidence of a positive association with herbicide exposure. However, VA illogically back-tracked on the Agent Orange Act regulations by reversing its own policy to move to require a “foot on land occurrence” by Vietnam veterans in order to prove service-connection. This means that the Vietnam Service Medals, etc. would no longer be accepted as proof of combat.
This change excluded nearly 1 million Vietnam veterans who had served in our Navy, Air Force, and in nearby border combat areas. This is an unfair and unjust result that has been litigated endlessly-- and ultimately against these veterans. I am trying to undo this injustice in my bill, the Agent Orange Equity Act of 2009, H.R. 2254. I thank all of my fellow colleagues for their support of my bill and urge all Committee Members to become a co-sponsor.
Today, I hope to hear from VA why it reversed its policy that now excludes our Blue Water service members from presumptive consideration for service-connection and treatment. I also want to know why it is ignoring the latest 2009 IOM recommendation that members of the Blue Water Navy should not be excluded from the set of Vietnam-era veterans with presumed herbicide exposure. I know that VA has asked the IOM to issue a report on Blue Water veterans in 18 months, but that’s 18 months too long.
The “foot on land” requirement is especially unreasonable when you consider that these servicemembers were previously treated equally to other Vietnam Veterans for benefits purposes. Moreover, several Australian Agent Orange studies long ago concluded that their Blue water veterans who served side-by-side with our Blue Water veterans were exposed to Agent Orange and because of the water distillation process on the ships ingested it more directly.
While I applaud VA for recently adding the three new presumptions for Parkinson’s Disease, ischemic heart disease and B-cell leukemias for Agent Orange exposed veterans, those are three new presumptions for which Blue Water veterans may suffer and will not be treated for or compensated. I urge VA to start compensating these veterans now. Just like it reversed itself in 2002, I strongly urge VA to reverse itself now and compensate these deserving veterans.
Finally, I want to know for sure that VA plans to make sure Blue Water veterans are also included in the NVVLS so that they and their families and survivors have a chance to get the benefits they deserve on equal footing with other Vietnam veterans. I look forward to hearing from all of our witnesses today and thank you for being here to examine these long-standing issues.
Health Effects of the Vietnam War – The Aftermath
Room 334 Cannon House Office Building Multimedia Link
Opening Statements
Hon. Bob Filner, Chairman, Full Committee on Veterans' Affairs
Hon. Harry E. Mitchell, a Representative in Congress from the State of Arizona
Witness Testimonies
Panel 1
Richard A. Fenske, Ph.D., M.P.H., Professor and Acting Chair, Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, School of Public Health and Community Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, and Chair, Committee on Review of the Health Effects in Vietnam Veterans of Exposure to Herbices, (Seventh Bienniel Update) Board on the Health of Select Populations, Institute of Medicine, The National Academies
Charles R. Marmar, M.D., Chair, Department of Psychiatry, New York University Langone School of Medicine, New York, NY
Randall B. Williamson, Director, Health Care, U.S. Government Accountability Office
Panel 2
Richard F. Weidman, Executive Director for Policy and Government Affairs, Vietnam Veterans of America
Joseph L. Wilson, Deputy Director, Veterans Affairs and Rehabilitation Commission, American Legion
Commander John B. Wells, USN (Ret.), Cofounder and Trustee, Veterans Association of Sailors of the Vietnam War
John Paul Rossie, Executive Director, Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans Association
Vivianne Cisneros Wersel, Au.D., Chair, Government Relations Committee, Gold Star Wives of America, Inc.
Panel 3
Joel Kupersmith, M.D., Chief Research and Development Officer, Veterans Health Administration, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
Victoria Anne Cassano, M.D., MPH, Director, Radiation and Physical Exposures and Acting Director, Environmental Agents Service, Veterans Health Administration, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
Panel 4
Submissions for the Record
Reserve Officers Association of the United States, and Reserve Enlisted Association
VA Updates Online Application for Health Benefits
VA Updates Online Application for Health Benefits
WASHINGTON (May 5, 2010) - Veterans will find it easier and faster to
apply for their health care benefits now that the Department of Veterans
Affairs has updated its online Form 10-10EZ, "Application for Health
Benefits."
"VA is committed to tapping into the best that technology has to offer
to ensure Veterans receive the benefits they have earned," said
Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki. "We continue to look for
new ways to improve access to care and benefits."
This revised online application provides enhanced navigation features
that make it easier and faster for Veterans to apply for their health
care benefits. This new version also allows Veterans to save a copy of
the completed form for their personal records.
The most significant enhancement allows Veterans to save their
application to their local desktop and return to the application at any
time without having to start over. Previously, Veterans had to complete
the form in a single session.
This updated online form, along with the revised VA Form 10-10EZ,
reduces the collection of information from Veterans by eliminating some
questions.
In addition, there are minor changes to simplify the wording of
questions and provide clarity in the instructions. Further enhancements
to the online application are expected to be delivered in increments
throughout 2010.
Veterans may complete or download the 10-10EZ form at the VA health
eligibility website at https://www.1010ez.med.va.gov/sec/vha/1010ez
. Veterans may also
contact VA at 1 (877) 222-8387 (VETS) or visit the VA health eligibility
website at www.va.gov/healtheligibility
WASHINGTON (May 5, 2010) - Veterans will find it easier and faster to
apply for their health care benefits now that the Department of Veterans
Affairs has updated its online Form 10-10EZ, "Application for Health
Benefits."
"VA is committed to tapping into the best that technology has to offer
to ensure Veterans receive the benefits they have earned," said
Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki. "We continue to look for
new ways to improve access to care and benefits."
This revised online application provides enhanced navigation features
that make it easier and faster for Veterans to apply for their health
care benefits. This new version also allows Veterans to save a copy of
the completed form for their personal records.
The most significant enhancement allows Veterans to save their
application to their local desktop and return to the application at any
time without having to start over. Previously, Veterans had to complete
the form in a single session.
This updated online form, along with the revised VA Form 10-10EZ,
reduces the collection of information from Veterans by eliminating some
questions.
In addition, there are minor changes to simplify the wording of
questions and provide clarity in the instructions. Further enhancements
to the online application are expected to be delivered in increments
throughout 2010.
Veterans may complete or download the 10-10EZ form at the VA health
eligibility website at https://www.1010ez.med.va.gov/sec/vha/1010ez
contact VA at 1 (877) 222-8387 (VETS) or visit the VA health eligibility
website at www.va.gov/healtheligibility
Three more states call up Guard for oil spill
Three more states call up Guard for oil spill
Defense Secretary Robert Gates approved the requests of three more southern governors — whose shorelines are threatened by the growing Gulf of Mexico oil spill — to call up thousands of National Guard troops for full-time duty, a Pentagon spokesman said Tuesday.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates approved the requests of three more southern governors — whose shorelines are threatened by the growing Gulf of Mexico oil spill — to call up thousands of National Guard troops for full-time duty, a Pentagon spokesman said Tuesday.
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