Marine and Deputy Sheriff Brandon Coates killed in the line of duty

Slain Deputy Brandon Coates laid to rest
By Kelli Cook and Jacqueline Fell, Team Coverage
ORLANDO
Thousands from all over the country gathered to say goodbye to fallen Orange County Deputy Brandon Coates Tuesday.

Coates, 27, was killed Dec. 8 during a traffic stop near Orange Blossom Trail.

Friends, family, and a huge law enforcement turnout packed the First Baptist Church of Orlando.

Hundreds of people in the Orange County community and beyond showed up Tuesday to pay tribute to Coates at a public viewing, also at First Baptist Orlando.

Coates was also a war veteran, and those in the community said his death is a loss for all of Central Florida.

"I myself have three young boys at home,” said Cpl. Scott Jenny from the Orange County Sheriff's Office. “I hope and pray they grow to be just like Brandon one day."

"Brandon was a warrior," said Deputy Robert Ricks.
Those who gathered to say goodbye said Coates was among the best law enforcement has to offer.

Having survived two tours in Iraq as a Marine, it was a local criminal who took his life in a traffic stop.

Friends and family celebrated his life, and his love for his wife Virginia.

"There never before seen such unfaltering love and there's no doubt in my mind they belonged to each other," said Deputy Brian Hummel, Coates’ best friend.
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Slain Deputy Brandon Coates laid to rest

Orange County Deputy Sheriff Susan Soto holds a picture of Deputy Brandon Coates, who was shot and killed Wednesday. (Red Huber, Orlando Sentinel)

Orange County Deputy Shot and Killed
By Bianca Prieto and Walter Pacheco, Orlando Sentinel
1:23 p.m. EST, December 9, 2010
Deputy Brandon Coates, who served as a U.S. Marine, was shot and killed while patrolling one of Orange County's most dangerous areas — a neighborhood near South Orange Blossom Trail known for violent crimes, drugs, prostitution and murder.

"Deputy Sheriff Brandon Coates was indeed a hero and one of the best deputies we have here in this agency," Orange County Sheriff Jerry Demings said today.

Officials said accused gunman Brandon Lyals shot the 27-year-old deputy in the head twice after Coates pulled over Lyals' white truck near Nashville Avenue and 45th Street at about 8:30 p.m. Wednesday.

"What we now know is that there was some kind of struggle, or circumstance that caused Deputy Coates to fire his Taser," Demings said. "At some point, Deputy Sheriff Coates was shot in the head twice and succumbed to his injuries after being transported to Orlando Regional Medical Center, where the trauma team worked on him diligently."
Orange County Deputy Shot and Killed

Stay Strong Nation's plea to you for PTSD veterans

Five years ago, understanding this generation of veterans has no desire to read, I started making videos to help them understand. Blending pictures, music and a message is a powerful way to do this. I made over 30 videos now and there is only one reason for all the hours I spent making them. They work! Videos have a way of getting thru to a veteran any hour of the day and talking directly to them, offering understanding but above that, hope. You can find links to my videos on the sidebar and see what I mean. Also check out what a Vietnam veteran started with this type of work.

Musicians put creative 'spin' on PTSD awareness for vets

Nicole Brochu
Sun Sentinel Columnist
8:38 a.m. EST, December 9, 2010



They were two musicians, inspired to act on President Obama's call for the nation to do whatever it can to support U.S. soldiers returning home from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. One of them, L.A. Keith Crosby, a Vietnam vet, knew all too well the horrors of that return trip.

"I don't want them to come back home and be treated the way we were," Crosby said to his friend, Gresford Lewishall.

From there, Stay Strong Nation was born, dedicating itself to helping current and former U.S. military personnel cope with the all-too-prevalent struggle with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Traumatic Brain Injury, known respectively by their acronyms, PTSD and TBI.

And they do it with a creative twist that calls on their collective talents as musical promoters in Maui: with stirring CD recordings of an "anthem" to service members, with both a rap and a country version. I'm no fan of either musical genre, but it's tough to listen to both recordings and not be moved by the message of respect, honor and encouragement they broadcast, and even the prayer that accompanies the country version. "Stay strong, the nation will never forget you," the songs urge soldiers.

Stay Strong Nation's plea to you comes in the form of a holiday drive: Order the CD at http://www.staystrongnation.org and fill out and return the accompanying holiday-greeting postcard to them. Their hope is to be able to send mail bags full of the cards to Iraq and Afghanistan by the end of December so they can be posted in mess halls, call centers — wherever troops congregate — to boost morale and remind soldiers they are remembered and supported back home.
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Musicians put creative spin on PTSD awareness for vets

Diet pills, laxatives and liposuction extreme ways for soldiers to stay in

Soldiers use extreme methods to meet regs
Diet pills, laxatives, liposuction: Everyone is trying to meet the Army’s weight, tape standards
By Lance M. Bacon - Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday Dec 8, 2010 14:04:30 EST
Soldiers are dangerously starving themselves, gobbling diet pills and laxatives — even going under the knife in costly liposuction surgery — all to meet the Army’s weight standards and avoid losing their careers.

“Liposuction saved my career — laxatives and starvation before an [Army Physical Fitness Test] sustains my career,” a soldier told Army Times in an e-mail. “I for one can attest that soldiers are using liposuction, laxatives and starvation to meet height and weight standards. I did, do and still do,” wrote the soldier, a medium helicopter repairer.

“Six years ago, I spent $4,500 on liposuction while on [permanent change of station] leave. As a crewmember, our mission is to keep those aircraft in the air, and time for PT is not available,” he wrote. “I was blessed with a very slow metabolism and an insatiable appetite.”

His attitude is not uncommon. Health experts say the number of soldiers using extreme weight-loss methods may closely resemble results of a recent study by two officers attending the Naval Post Graduate School. The study found that nearly one in three Marines have gone to such measures to lose weight. The Army doesn’t keep data on the likely numbers of soldiers taking these risks, but dozens of soldiers responded to a question from Army Times, many saying they use starvation, dehydration, pills or laxatives, and some have used — or are considering using — liposuction.

‘DISGUSTING AND DANGEROUS’
With 35 percent of male soldiers failing the weight standards, and 6 percent of men and women exceeding body fat standards, according to the 2009 report, how many of them will turn to extreme solutions is hard to say, as empirical data on this practice does not exist — a fact bemoaned by the medical experts with whom Army Times spoke.

“I don’t think we have a clear understanding how widespread this problem is,” said Col. George Dilly, Medical Command’s chief dietician and a consultant to the Army surgeon general. “Soldiers are hiding the fact they are doing this because they don’t want the problem exposed.”

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http://www.armytimes.com/news/2010/12/army-extreme-weight-loss-120510w/

Nearly 3.8 million prescriptions for pain medications given by military doctors

They come home addicted to prescribed drugs the military doctors give them to keep them going and then we dare wonder why they end up in so much trouble back here? They get a drug to calm them down and then wind them up, another to fall asleep and then another to wake them up. They are give pain medications with most of them leading to addiction to them. It is not longer just bullets and bombs they have to worry about but the threat of their own military getting them hooked on drugs.

MILITARY: Abuse of pain meds by vets skyrockets

By RICK ROGERS - For The North County Times

Post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury remain the most common combat maladies arising from service in Afghanistan and Iraq. But abuse of prescribed drugs, particularly pain medications, is on the rise, and its effects are being felt in San Diego County.

Phil Landis, chief executive officer of Veterans Village of San Diego, has witnessed a six-fold increase in young, homeless veterans in the last two years, and many of them are struggling with addiction to prescription medications.

"Almost 10 percent of our vets here are post-9/11. By the time they get to us, they have fallen through about every other support net," Land is said. "The younger veterans we're seeing have really fallen hard and they've fallen fast. Many of them are addicted to prescribed drugs. We don't see that much among our other veterans here.

Landis said the connection between drug abuse and homelessness is well known from the experience of Vietnam vets. But what is critically different now is the speed with which today's veterans are plunging into homelessness. A downward cycle that used to take eight to 10 years to land a veteran on the streets is now down, in some cases, to less than a year.

Finding a cause for the surge in over-the-counter drug abuse might be as easy as reviewing government records.

Military doctors wrote service members nearly 3.8 million prescriptions for pain medications in 2009, up from 866,773 such prescriptions in 2001, according to data from the Defense Department.

Pentagon records also show that abuse of prescription drugs by the military is more than twice that seen in the civilian population ---- 5 percent compared to 11 percent, according to a 2008 military survey measured against a 2007 civilian survey.

The drugs most abused were painkillers, such as Vicodin and OxyContin, although alcohol abuse continues to be a concern.

A military survey released a year ago found that, out of nearly 30,000 troops, 1 in 4 admitted abusing prescription drugs, most of them pain relievers, in a one-year period.
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Abuse of pain meds by vets skyrockets

Veterans helping others after war

They served each other during combat and then they serve after. They are heroes after war.

Benton City man connects generations of vets
BY JOHN TRUMBO, HERALD STAFF WRITER
Published: 12/07/1012:50 am

BENTON CITY — Iwo Jima, Pearl Harbor, Vietnam and Afghanistan are thousands of miles apart, but Spencer Oland of Benton City sees important connections between all of them.

The 63-year-old ex-Marine, who is disabled with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder because of his Vietnam War experiences, understands that war can be hell long after combat ends.

That's why he connects to veterans much younger, and to those a lot older, who have continued the fight to live normal lives long after leaving the military.

He discovered that connection 1 1/2 years ago after he attended a weekly group therapy session in Richland with other veterans.

"I was sitting next to a guy who landed at Omaha Beach (on D-Day during World War II), and on one side of me was a Vietnam veteran, while across from me were veterans from Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan," Oland recalls. It was a room filled with several generations of PTSD veterans -- with older guys helping younger guys.

"I thought how helpful it was to help the younger veterans, showing them what happens when you don't do something about (PTSD," he said. Oland thought about it on his way home that night, then wrote it down and consulted with some military buddies.

Generations of Warriors Project, an educational nonprofit organization, is the result.



Read more: Benton City man connects generations of vets

Death of soldier's wife under investigation at Fort Campbell

Soldier's wife dies on Ky. military post

Associated Press - December 6, 2010 5:15 PM ET

FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. (AP) - Military officials are investigating the death of the wife of a U.S. Army soldier on the Fort Campbell post this weekend.

According to a news release on Monday, Fort Campbell police and emergency workers responded to a 911 call on Sunday afternoon and pronounced 21-year-old Linzi R. Jenks dead in her home on the post on the Tennessee-Kentucky state line.

Soldier's wife dies on Ky. military post

Justices Hear Case on Denial of Help to Veteran

Justices Hear Case on Denial of Help to Veteran
By ADAM LIPTAK
Published: December 6, 2010
WASHINGTON — Justice Stephen G. Breyer wanted to know whether it was possible that Congress intended to deny help to veterans who missed filing deadlines because of the very disabilities for which they sought help.

“You have someone who served his country and was wounded and has post-traumatic stress syndrome or schizophrenia,” Justice Breyer said at a Supreme Court argument Monday. “Who in Congress would have likely thought such a thing?”

But the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit last year ruled that Congress had indeed meant to bar the courthouse door to David L. Henderson, who served on the front lines in the Korean War and was discharged after receiving a diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia. That disability, his lawyers said, caused him to bungle a deadline.

The appeals court said its ruling was required by a 2007 decision of the Supreme Court that said deadlines for filing appeals must be applied strictly.

The appeals court’s ruling in the Henderson case, according to a dissent from three of its judges, created “a Kafkaesque adjudicatory process in which those veterans who are most deserving of service-connected benefits will frequently be those least likely to obtain them.”

Mr. Henderson, who died while his Supreme Court case was pending, had sought additional government help for his condition in 2001. He was turned down in 2004. A federal law gave him 120 days to appeal that determination to the United States Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims, but it took him 135 days.
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Justices Hear Case on Denial of Help to Veteran

"A Guy Burned Alive in Front of Me"

"A Guy Burned Alive in Front of Me": Treating Traumatized Vets
The way we understand and use PTSD tempts all of us -- providers, society, and veterans -- to view the veteran as a victim, which may hurt them more than help.
November 29, 2010
By Roy Clymer


At eight o'clock on Tuesday morning, I walk into a nondescript room at Walter Reed Army Medical Center to greet seven soldiers and marines who've been back from Iraq or Afghanistan for a year. Sprawled around a large, coffee-stained table, looking wary, the vets are here because they, or someone else, said they have post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

This is the first meeting of an exposure therapy group I'll be facilitating, and I'm anxious because if the treatment goes well, it'll be painful for them, and everyone prefers to avoid pain. These men and women have been treated with medications or intermittent counseling to help them deal with the emotions and conflicts they fear, but they remain symptomatic. Now they've landed at Walter Reed's Deployment Health Clinical Center to participate in a three-week, multidisciplinary program that helps vets adjust to life after combat. They're guarded, skeptical, but not without hope.
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A Guy Burned Alive in Front of Me

Community groups hope to shield soldier’s family from protest

Community groups hope to shield soldier’s family from protest

By Christopher Magan 
and Dave Larsen, Staff Writers
Updated 8:18 PM Sunday, November 28, 2010
FAIRBORN — Local gay rights advocates are planning to attend the funeral of Army Spc. Jesse Snow to support the family and counter a protest by members of a controversial Kansas church that opposes homosexuality.
“We are going to be out there to support the family, the military and Jesse as a hero,” said Christopher Perkins, president of the Brite Signal Alliance, a Sinclair Community College group that supports equality for gay and transgender students. “I live in Fairborn and for them to come to my community and disrespect (Snow) is uncalled for.”
Perkins created an online social networking group to counter the protest hours after it was reported that members of the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kan., would be in the Miami Valley to picket Snow’s funeral. About 40 people had committed to attend by Sunday afternoon, and Perkins was awaiting the reply of a thousand others.
Snow’s father, John W. Snow Sr., said he appreciates what the gay rights group is doing.
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Community groups hope to shield soldier’s family from protest

Nearly blind 3 tour Vietnam Vet makes sure troops get welcome home

Vietnam Veteran Gives Soldiers a Hero's Welcome
Scarred by Scornful Homecomings After Fighting in Vietnam, Walt Peters Gives Soldiers the Thanks They Deserve
By Mark Strassmann
(CBS) Night or day, Walt Peters waits in welcome and greets returning soldiers on the tarmac at Hunter Army Air Field, reports CBS News correspondent Mark Strassmann.

His face is the first they see setting foot again at the military installation near Savannah.

Peters greets soldiers and was often the last face they saw leaving a year or so earlier.

"Everyone has a gift for something," says Peters. "I'm hoping my gift is giving back something to my country, and that honoring our soldiers as they come and go."

Since 2004, Peters estimates he has greeted nearly 90,000 soldiers.

Nearly blind, he can't see them. But, in them he can see himself, 40 years younger.

Sgt. Walt Peters served three tours in Vietnam. And in that divisive war, came home to scorn.

"I had rotten tomatoes thrown at me, paint, you name it." Peters recalls. "It was my hell. By giving a soldier a flag and shaking his hand, that's my heaven. Simple as that."

This time 297 soldiers came home, members of the Third Combat Aviation Brigade, part of the 3rd Infantry Division back from Afghanistan.
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Vietnam Veteran Gives Soldiers a Hero's Welcome