Navy warship honoring a New York Marine's 2004 sacrifice is headed for South Florida

Memory of Marine reborn in Navy ship


A newly minted Navy warship honoring a New York Marine's 2004 sacrifice is headed for South Florida and 10 days of celebrations capped by a Nov. 13 commissioning ceremony.
BY CAROL ROSENBERG

CROSENBERG@MIAMIHERALD.COM

It was a year into the U.S. invasion of Iraq, and a young Marine manning a checkpoint threw his body on a hand grenade.

Cpl. Jason Dunham saved the lives of two buddies but would die of his wounds days later.
Now, the 22-year-old Marine's sacrifice is being immortalized.

A warship bearing his name sailed from the General Dynamics Bath Iron Works in Maine on Wednesday morning, the start of a nearly monthlong training cruise down the East Coast ahead of a 10-day visit to South Florida.

It's expected to arrive on Nov. 5. And eight days later, the U.S. Navy will commission its newest $1.1 billion destroyer, DDG 109, at Port Everglades. Name: the USS Jason Dunham.


Read more: Memory of Marine reborn in Navy ship

VA already treated 565,000 first-time Iraq and Afghanistan War veteran patients

Do you want to know why you are needed to help our veterans? Do you want to know why you should pay attention to what is happening to them? If you already know these answers, then read what Veterans for Common Sense has been up to. If you don't know the answer, then you haven't been paying attention all along and wouldn't know that had it not been for the President and what this congress has been doing, it would have been a lot worse. Too many people just want to slam President Obama and they attack Democrats in congress, especially down here in Florida but the truth is there for anyone who wants to know the facts. Start with their voting records and know who has voted against veterans especially when most of them want your votes again. If they can't support veterans or the troops then what chance do you as an average citizen have?

VCS Advocacy in Action - VCS Government Relations Advocacy On September 30, after nine years of endless war in Afghanistan and Iraq, Congress held a hearing on "The True Cost of War."  VCS thanks Chairman Bob Filner for holding this vital oversight of VA's long-term needs and obligations. VCS testified with Nobel Prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz and Harvard Professor Linda Bilmes. Because of our VCS research, for the first time, the Associated Press reported the facts. What is the tragic human cost?  VA already treated 565,000 first-time Iraq and Afghanistan War veteran patients, and VCS estimates the total will hit one million by the end of 2014. What is the enormous financial cost?  Pushing toward one trillion dollars for healthcare and benefits for our disabled veterans for the next 40 years.  The total financial cost of the wars to Americans?  Up to $6 trillion, and escalating.  Please read our testimony and watch the official Congressional video clip (click on "Multimedia Link') where VCS speaks at 1 hour, 45 minutes. VCS Public Relations Advocacy VCS was quoted in three major news stories this week: Boston Globe - The Prudential Scandal Grows Austin American-Statesman - Improper Military Discharges Often Block VA Benefits Houston Chronicle - Escalating Military Suicide Epidemic

Love Scammers Use Dead Soldiers to Snare Victims

Love Scammers Use Dead Soldiers to Snare Victims
Michael Brick

(Oct. 6) -- Tired of masquerading as the obscure nephew of some deposed banana republic dictator? What if I told you that you could make a good income, starting today, all from the comfort of your own neighborhood cafe in Lagos, Nigeria -- or wherever? Using the quick, easy, not-patented method of impersonating fallen American soldiers, you too can exploit the trust of lonely women. All you need is an Internet connection!

Yes, it has come to this: Twenty-one years after Elwood Edwards recorded the announcement "You've got mail" and nearly nine years into one of the country's most prolonged overseas military engagements, purveyors of fraud have built a ghoulish trade on the combination of those two seemingly permanent aspects of modern life.

"They look for patriotic women, and they play on their heartstrings," Christopher Grey, a spokesman for the United States Army Criminal Investigation Command, told AOL News.

Using photographs and biographical details culled from Facebook pages, memorial sites and news accounts, the perpetrators pose as living soldiers looking for love online.

In response, the U.S. government has issued warnings, with its embassy in London going so far as to post online examples of fraudulent military papers used in scams.

read more here
Love Scammers Use Dead Soldiers to Snare Victims

Fallen hero receives Medal of Honor from Ovideo FL

Last Memorial Day I heard the story of Staff Sgt. Miller and saw his parents sitting in the front row of the honored guest. Pride and a grief blended together with dignity. I will never forget how they were that day. Many other places want to claim Staff Sgt. Miller as their own but Oviedo was his home after high school and his parents still live there. I just wish that as states want to claim the right to say one of their own "won" the Medal of Honor as if it is some kind of sport, they would also fight over the right to take care of all the wounded and the homeless with as much passion and turn having the highest success rate as their goal so they can honor all the heroes who served from their state. That would really be honoring them!

Fallen hero receives Medal of Honor
By Mark K. Matthews, Orlando Sentinel Washington Bureau
4:55 p.m. EDT, October 6, 2010
WASHINGTON -- Calling his sacrifice the "true meaning of heroism," President Barack Obama on Wednesday presented the Medal of Honor to the Oviedo family of Army Staff Sgt. Robert J. Miller, who died in January 2008 protecting a patrol of American and Afghan soldiers.

"It has been said that courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point," said Obama, addressing a solemn crowd in the East Room of the White House. "For Rob Miller, the testing point came nearly three years ago, deep in a snowy Afghan valley. The courage he displayed that day reflects every virtue that defined his life."

Their son is buried in Central Florida; his family moved to Oviedo soon after Robert Miller graduated from high school in Illinois, where he grew up.

Miller, who died at 24 on his second tour in Afghanistan, is only the third service member from that conflict to receive the Medal of Honor. The Green Beret earned the distinction when his team of eight U.S. Special Forces and about 15 Afghan troops, with Miller on point, was caught in a ferocious ambush by insurgents in northwest Afghanistan.

read more here
Fallen hero receives Medal of Honor

New Program Eases Veterans' Transition to College Life

VA Announces Expansion of VetSuccess on Campus Pilots
New Program Eases Veterans' Transition to College Life

WASHINGTON (Oct. 5, 2010) -- "Two community colleges and three other
four-year colleges and universities are being added to the Department of
Veterans Affairs (VA) VetSuccess on Campus pilot program. VA counselors
are being assigned to assist Veterans attending school under the
Post-9/11 GI Bill make the most of their educational opportunities at
Salt Lake City Community College, the Community College of Rhode Island,
Rhode Island College, Arizona State University and Texas A&M University.

"A growing number of the eight million students in America's community
colleges are Veterans," said Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K.
Shinseki. "VA will do all it can to make Veterans' experiences in our
community colleges and universities fulfilling and productive for them,
their schools and the Nation."

The pilot program is designed to ensure Veterans' health, educational,
and benefits needs are met as they make the transition from active-duty
military service to college life.

The announcement comes as the White House holds the first-ever community
college summit chaired by Dr. Jill Biden, wife of Vice President Joe
Biden and adjunct English professor at Northern Virginia Community
College. The meeting of top school and federal education officials will
focus on ways that community colleges can help meet education and
workforce demands.

"I am thrilled to see the expansion of the VetSuccess program" said Dr.
Biden. "I know the transition from military to student life can be
challenging and we owe it to those who have served our country to make
their transitions as easy and successful as possible."

Under the pilot program already underway at the University of South
Florida, Cleveland State University, and San Diego State University,
experienced VA vocational rehabilitation counselors and outreach
coordinators from VA's Vet Centers are assigned to campuses to provide
vocational testing, career and academic counseling, and readjustment
counseling services to ensure Veterans receive the support and
assistance needed to successfully pursue their educational and
employment goals.

VA counselors work directly with school officials to establish effective
communications channels with Veteran students and coordinate the
delivery of VA benefits and services.

Peer-to-peer counseling and referral services are also available to help
resolve any problems that could potentially interfere with a Veteran's
educational program, including referrals for more intensive health
services through VA Medical Centers, Community-Based Outpatient Clinics,
or Vet Centers, as needed.

For more information on VA benefit programs and VetSuccess, go to
http://www.vba.va.gov or www.vetsuccess.gov
or call 1-800-827-1000.

Thank you Scott Mendelson, M.D.

THIS MAN IS RIGHT ON. Here is just part of what he wrote.

Soldier Suicides And The Dumbing Down Of Military Mental Health Care

Scott Mendelson, M.D.
Author of Beyond Alzheimer's
Posted: October 6, 2010

Unfortunately, the evidence for this type of program being effective is some of the weakest data I have ever seen in my professional life. The evidence is derived almost entirely from a 2006 paper by psychologist Simon Gilbody and associates titled, "Collaborative Care for Depression" (Archives of Internal Medicine 166:2314-2312, 2006). This paper reviewed a series of studies of what is referred to in the "civilian" literature as the Collaborative Care for Depression Model. In this model, nurses are trained in roughly eight weekend training sessions to become "Depression Care Managers" or, in the military's more Pollyannaish term, "Champions." These Champions call regularly, report back to the primary care doctor, and if necessary, inform the primary care doctor that things are not going well and more help is needed. Admittedly, these are all good things. I was, however, astonished to hear at a Veterans Administration conference for the related TIDES program, that these Champions are also expected to advise the doctors as to when and if medication should be adjusted.

Finally, the addition of the new, highly touted, "Resiliency Training" as a method to avert depression, PTSD and suicide completes the recipe for inadequacy, incompetence, and disaster in the treatment of mentally ill soldiers and veterans. The 10 hour course on resiliency is taught by "Master Trainers" who themselves are soldiers who have had 10 days of training to become skilled enough to encourage resiliency and strength, and to prevent suicide in their charges. What are these people thinking?

click the link above and then email this wonderful man for this great piece! We may have been thinking it but he is saying it.  Battlemind and all the other programs they've come up with have produced more suicides, attempted suicides, veterans going to jail and a whole lot of pain that does not need to happen.

Westboro Baptist Church video you have to see

What part of what Christ taught do these people follow? Free speech does not demand that ears are forced to hear or eyes forced to see. The families have to be there to bury their family member, the Phelps do not have to be there to use their free speech rights. What about protecting the free expression of religious practices the families are supposed to be able to do that the Phelps are trying to stop? It is bad enough they are attacking the unselfish men and women who gave up their lives serving this country and the families right along with them but enough is enough. This video shows what they really are or are play acting for the publicity.
Westboro Baptist Church video you have to see

10/5/10: Pastor Fred Phelps and several members of the Westboro Baptist Church discuss their upcoming case before the Supreme Court, in which they'll be arguing for their right to picket at military funerals with the message that soldier deaths are divine punishment for America's tolerance of homosexuality.
Read a Q&A about the case with First Amendment expert Floyd Abrams.
K. Ryan Jones is the director of 'Fall From Grace,' the only feature-length documentary about the Westboro Baptist Church, which is available on DVD.

http://www.newsweek.com/video/2010/10/05/free-speech-fight.html

Mental exam set for Hood shooting suspect

Mental exam set for Hood shooting suspect

By Angela K. Brown - The Associated Press
Posted : Tuesday Oct 5, 2010 16:15:09 EDT

FORT WORTH, Texas — The Army psychiatrist accused in last year's shooting rampage at Fort Hood is to have a mental evaluation before a key hearing to determine whether he will stand trial, a military commander ordered Monday.

Earlier this year Army officials appointed a three-member board of military mental health professionals to determine whether Maj. Nidal Hasan is competent to stand trial. At issue is his mental status during the Nov. 5 shootings, which left 13 dead and dozens wounded on the Texas Army post.

Mental exam set for Hood shooting suspect

When you’re the 'battle buddy' unexpectedly in trouble

Letter from Iraq:
When you’re the 'battle buddy' unexpectedly in trouble
Posted By Thomas E. Ricks Friday, October 1, 2010


Here's a sad comment from Capt. Tim Mills, who is now serving in Iraq.

By Capt. Tim Mills
Best Defense guest columnist

On April 23, I submitted an opinion editorial to the local paper. It ran with a picture of my kids and expressed sincere appreciation to my family for supporting my military service. In that editorial I said, "I don't know the total 'cost' this deployment will have on my family." Unfortunately, the editorial was outdated before it ever went to print.

I arrived at the airport on R&R leave April 29 and struggled to understand the awkwardness and inability to reconnect with my wife. On May 11 I discovered the security of a fourteen-year marriage had been compromised and the life my family had enjoyed seemed headed for destruction.

Boarding an airplane at 5:15 a.m. on May 15 was one of the hardest things I've done. Struggling to breathe and unable to sleep I weathered the endless hours of travel from the U.S. to Iraq. How does a Soldier board an airplane for another six months of deployment fearing his family being torn apart? The same way soldiers going through similar adversity boarded the plane at the beginning of the deployment.

"Take a walk in someone else's shoes. Step out of your own and try to view situations from a different set of shoes," these were my words of challenge to the unit before we deployed. I viewed this as an "elective" not a "core" requirement and didn't know I would involuntarily experience the pain some of them had already endured.

I have joined them. I've struggled to survive the injuries from a different battlefield -- the mind. The wounds my unit has sustained have largely been fought on this hidden battlefield. The fear of losing someone they love or someone who loves them can be consuming. Relationship struggles, newborn complications, back-to-back mobilizations, fearing the loss or losing a family member and fears resulting from deployment experiences have threatened the stability of my unit.
read more here

When you’re the 'battle buddy' unexpectedly in trouble

Visitor to SeaWorld water park in
Florida found dead

From John Couwels, CNN

October 4, 2010

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Unresponsive man was pulled from a pool, pronounced dead at a hospital
Sheriff's Office is investigating the death by interviewing witnesses, victim's family
Autopsy to be performed on 68-year-old man, sheriff says


(CNN) -- A guest at SeaWorld's water park Aquatica in Orlando, Florida, was pulled from a pool and later pronounced dead over the weekend, park officials said.
A lifeguard found a 68-year-old international visitor unresponsive Saturday morning in the park's Roa's Rapids, a SeaWorld spokesman said.
Visitor to SeaWorld water park in Florida found dead

Tucson news focus on military family and veterans in need

Instead of spending time on nonsense, this news station is doing something really important. Once a week on Mondays, they will be reporting on a family in need connected to the military. The fact is, once you are in the military, you are part of the military family for the rest of your life. They are unique among the rest of the population because they were willing to risk their lives for the rest.

A veteran with post traumatic stress disorder can use your help

Posted: Oct 4, 2010 4:51 PM 

TUCSON - Every Monday, through the holidays, we'll be showing you a local military family in need.

This week, a retired U.S Marine is back from Afghanistan.

Tony Garcia joined the military when he was 17-years-old.

Almost 4 years ago, Tony came home, but with complications. Then, his Mon and Dad passed away within the same year.

Tony felt guilty, suffered from chronic migraines, and he was losing sleep.

Garcia said, "I was over medicating myself, it felt like I was a stranger in my own home."

http://www.kvoa.com/news/a-veteran-with-post-traumatic-stress-disorder-can-use-your-help/

Hundreds show support for wounded Marine

Hundreds show support for wounded Marine

By Matt Stephens
Updated: 10.03.10
When asked if they support their troops, more than a hundred bikers outside T’s Bar in Conroe responded with a deafening positive response.

As many as 300 bikers showed up at the bar Sunday to participate in a benefit for an injured Marine, 21-year-old Lance Cpl. Jordan McBryde. McBryde, from the Spring Branch area, was serving his first tour in Afghanistan when he was hit by an improvised explosive device on Aug. 10.

His mother, Sheri McBryde, said her son suffered lacerations on both legs and fractured his forearm. Despite the injuries, she said he son is in high spirits as he undergoes therapy.

“He’s come a long way in six weeks,” she said. “I just found out he can actually walk with a cane now.”

Lisa Hamlet, McBryde’s aunt, said the event was a surprise to Sheri McBryde, who works with the bar’s owner at a Harley Davidson dealership.

Paul Lance, Jr. Vice Commandant for the Eastex Detachment No. 779 of the Marine Corps League in Conroe, said the benefit was a partnership between the bar and the Marine Corps League.

Lance said they hold about six or seven similar benefits a year for wounded Marines to provide them support and monetary help.
read more here
Hundreds show support for wounded Marine

The country he fought for failed him

This happens all the time. Justice should never depend upon where a veteran lives. Some cities and towns are well ahead of this, setting up Veterans Courts, and that's a good thing but it does not happen everywhere. Who is doing anything for the veterans in jail because they were arrested before courts started to address this? Who is making sure that if a veteran lives in an area without a veterans court receives the same kind of justice? You may want to write them off as criminals but keep in mind, they were not committing crimes before they deployed into combat, risking their lives for the sake of other people, and it is very unlikely they would have committed any crime had they not gone. Sometimes combat does things to a human just as any traumatic event will change the way people think and feel about everything.

'THE COUNTRY HE FOUGHT FOR HAS FAILED HIM'
Iraq war veteran in jail two years after Pahrump shootout

Wife waits for answers

By KEITH ROGERS

LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL

Two years after her husband, an Iraq war veteran, snapped and engaged Nye County sheriff's deputies in a pre-dawn shootout on the outskirts of Pahrump, Sue Lamoureux wants some answers.

She wonders why he's still in jail and why it took 18 months to remove a bullet from his leg after the gunbattle at Terrible's Lakeside RV Park and Casino on Sept. 19, 2008.

She also wants authorities to explain why Joseph Patrick "Pat" Lamoureux, a former Army Reserve sergeant with no previous criminal history, would do such a thing.

"There is not an answer for that except he went to war and he came home broken," Sue Lamoureux said Friday. "The country he fought for has failed him, and most certainly, Nye County, Nevada is trying to crucify him."
read more here
The country he fought for failed him

Hazelden and Navy team up to help sailors online

Navy offers online addiction help

By STEVE SZKOTAK
Associated Press Writer

The Navy is teaming up with a highly regarded addiction treatment center to provide Web-based support for thousands of sailors, their families and retired personnel struggling with alcohol and drug abuse. The $3.25 million program is intended to keep sailors with addiction problems on the road to recovery and links them to support programs anywhere in the world, at anytime, even when they're deployed. It is tailored primarily to younger sailors, who are at greater risk and are comfortable navigating the Internet and social programs.

click link for more
linked from Stars and Stripes