Army Spc. Keisha Marie Morgan looked angry in her coffin

Mother of One Dead Soldier Suspects Sex Assault

By John Lasker
Someone killed Keisha Morgan but the military says it was because of mediations they gave her. According to what came out after her Mom refused the findings of the investigation, it looks like someone killed her. Finding out who was with her will be nearly impossible unless there is pressure to do it. Maybe that is why she looked angry in her coffin because she thought no one would care who did this to her.

WeNews correspondent
Monday, December 20, 2010

At least 20 female soldiers have died in Iraq and Afghanistan in "noncombat" circumstances that their families find mysterious. The mother of one talks here about why she thinks sexual violence--not suicide--was her daughter's real killer.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WOMENSENEWS)--When Diana Morgan saw her daughter's body for the first time after her death in Iraq in February of 2008, she thought U.S. Army Spc. Keisha Marie Morgan looked angry in her coffin.

"She looked like she was not at peace. She didn't look like the child I had known," said Morgan, who lives in Washington, D.C.

At the time, Keisha's death in Baghdad was a mystery and designated "non-combat related."

Nearly six months later Army investigators ruled it a suicide brought on by an overdose of her military-dispensed prescription antidepressants.

The military has consistently said all non-combat related deaths undergo a very complete and thorough investigation. Indeed, some reports stretch for 800 pages, which include graphic photos.

Morgan wasn't aware the military had diagnosed Keisha as having depression, let alone taking medication for it. "She was outgoing and very happy," she says, "I can't see her not telling me."

But Keisha had confided in her mother about a night when she was certain a fellow soldier had slipped something in her drink at a local bar. When she awoke the following morning--failing to remember how she left the bar and returned to barracks--the soldier was in her room. This same man was on base at the time of Keisha's death, says her mother, recalling her daughter's concern about this.

A week later, a roommate found Keisha lying on the floor and couldn't tell if she was sleeping. Keisha erupted in seizures and the roommate ran for help. Medics could not stabilize her and she passed away.
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Mother of One Dead Soldier Suspects Sex Assault

Christmas is hard when you have nothing to give

Christmas used to be a time when my large family got together, weeks spent decorating, shopping and writing out the Christmas cards. When my daughter was younger it was a joy to go out and find the one special gift she wanted because I wanted her to be happy. I still want that but now she lives far away. This is the first Christmas in almost 23 years I won't see her Christmas morning. This year my family is gone and we don't have extra money to even send out the Christmas cards. I don't have decorations up this year. This year, like many other families, times are really hard.

The beginning of December made my heart sink as news reports were showing people shopping at the malls and I knew I couldn't afford to go shopping. It was really hard on me and I got really depressed. Then I started to think about what Christmas was supposed to mean.

We celebrate the day Christ came into the world but we forget how He lived His life. His life was about giving love. He gave the blind back their ability to see. He gave the lame back their ability to walk. He gave the hopeless hope and warmed the hardened hearts of the suffering giving them the ability to care again about others. He also gave the hungry the ability to be fed when He preached to others about taking care of the poor and needy. He gave the guilty the ability to be forgiven when He preached about how we are not to judge someone else and forgive them 70 x 7.

Somehow we twisted this day into being about shopping and spending money. All of this is fine when you have money but when you don't you end up feeling guilty and depressed because you believe you don't have anything to give. You forget what you do give the rest of the year.

You see commercials on TV with couples sitting together as jewelry is given and you know that gift comes with a huge charge card bill. You see cars being given to someone living in a large home, decorated with lights and then you think that is what you want too. Then you look at your own simple home, your old car and you wish you had it all too. Some of you have it even harder because you lost your job, your home and the ability to support yourself. This economy has hit millions of Americans trying to survive day to day yet this one day brings so much pressure to deliver gifts to others that we all stop thinking straight.

We forget the simple people showing up in Bethlehem did not bring gifts with them and there is not one account of gifts being given to Christ during the 32 years of other birthdays He had. As for Santa, well we know he didn't show up either but that is what we think about instead of Christ.

Last December started with having to put my beloved dog Brandon down. He almost made it to 14 and that was one of the hardest things I've ever done. We spent a lot of money before that trying to keep him alive. Money we couldn't afford to spend. Yet instead of just grieving for my dog, I had to feel guilty about not being able to buy gifts. Our electricity was shut off topping off feeling guilty about not putting lights up outside the house.

This year I'm over feeling guilty about not doing what everyone else seems to be doing and you should stop feeling guilty too.

All the cards I wrote out were because I cared about the people I was sending them to. I still care and wish them well, hope for their health and happiness and I pray God sends His angels to watch over them. That is my gift to them instead of a card this year. I will call most of them on the phone or email instead.

My parents and brothers have passed away but I hold them in my heart and carry all the years of spending Christmas with them.

As for gifts, I will not feel guilty about giving gifts the way Christ did. While I cannot give the blind the ability to see, I can pray the day comes when they can. While I cannot help the lame find the ability to stand, I can help to keep some of them in the minds of many when I post on the soldiers coming home without limbs. I can help bring attention to the suffering of the men and women coming home with PTSD and TBI, telling their stories and maybe opening the hearts of others who would rather judge them instead of help them.

If we spend the rest of the New Year doing things out of love, that is a better gift than can be bought at the mall or shipped out on UPS. If we donate clothes we no longer wear, it is better than buying a sweater for someone with a full closet of clothes. If we fill up a bag at the grocery store for the needy, it is better than buying food to stuff everyone in our group beyond what they should be eating. Instead of making one morning in December so all important we forget about the rest of the year, let's make the rest of the year reflect what this one day out of the year was actually supposed to mean. 

This year, I'm sending angels to everyone reading this blog so that you know the kind of gifts you give to others have no price tags and do not wear out or run out of batteries. It cannot be stolen from you. It is a gift that keeps giving because when you do something for someone else, it carries over to others. You will be surprised how much you really do have to give even when you cannot buy.

Illness Forces Vietnam Veteran to Turn to Charity

THE NEEDIEST CASES
Illness Forces Vietnam Veteran to Turn to Charity
By C. J. HUGHES
Published: December 19, 2010

Angled between the houseplants in Luis Perez’s high-rise apartment in Rockaway Beach, Queens, is a telescope aimed at surfers.

The views of them in the waves, along with the plants, help Mr. Perez, 59, feel somewhat connected to nature. He can no longer journey outside much — his immune system is too weakened by his illness, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, which was found in his neck in December 2008 and has since spread to his stomach.

“The plants bring out beauty, you know what I mean?” Mr. Perez said on a recent afternoon, as waves crashed in the distance.

Yet to someone who used to go fishing often, and who would excitedly count the days until an annual camping trip to Hammonasset Beach State Park in Connecticut, ersatz wilderness might seem an offensive substitute for the real thing.

Another cruel twist is that Mr. Perez, a Vietnam War veteran who spent years working with suicidal teenagers, gang members and the developmentally disabled, is now in a position to need help himself.

Last spring, a doctor told Mr. Perez that he had to quit his job at Garfield Manor, a group home run by Catholic Charities in Park Slope, Brooklyn. Mr. Perez was a counselor there, helping residents with basic daily hygiene, as well as a floor-hockey coach for players vying for the Special Olympics.

Being in such close quarters with the 10 people living at Garfield put Mr. Perez at risk of infection, his doctor said. As it was, he wore a surgical mask to keep germs away on the A train, which he took to his hospital visits three times a week.
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Illness Forces Vietnam Veteran to Turn to Charity

Pentagon Health Plan Won't Cover Brain-Damage Therapy for Troops

Maybe this would have been ok in the 60's when they knew very little about brain damage. I wasn't even five when I was pushed off a slide and my scull was cracked plus damaged, but no one knew it at the time. Soon after this, I had to see a speech therapist, had trouble remembering and had a lot of headaches. Now we know a lot better because technology allows humans to see into the brain, see the damage done and then treat it to heal it. They need help to get back to their "normal" lives or as close as possible. They can get better!

Pentagon Health Plan Won't Cover Brain-Damage Therapy for Troops
T. CHRISTIAN MILLER and DANIEL ZWERDLING

December 20, 2010
During the past few decades, scientists have become increasingly persuaded that people who suffer brain injuries benefit from what is called cognitive rehabilitation therapy — a lengthy, painstaking process in which patients relearn basic life tasks such as counting, cooking or remembering directions to get home.

Many neurologists, several major insurance companies and even some medical facilities run by the Pentagon agree that the therapy can help people whose functioning has been diminished by blows to the head.

But despite pressure from Congress and the recommendations of military and civilian experts, the Pentagon’s health plan for troops and many veterans refuses to cover the treatment — a decision that could affect the tens of thousands of service members who have suffered brain damage while fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Tricare, an insurance-style program covering nearly 4 million active-duty military and retirees, says the scientific evidence does not justify providing comprehensive cognitive rehabilitation. Tricare officials say an assessment of the available research that they commissioned last year shows that the therapy is not well proven.

But an investigation by NPR and ProPublica found that internal and external reviewers of the Tricare-funded assessment criticized it as fundamentally misguided. Confidential documents obtained by NPR and ProPublica show that reviewers called the Tricare study "deeply flawed," "unacceptable" and"dismaying." One top scientist called the assessment a "misuse" of science designed to deny treatment for service members.

The Battle For Care Of The Wars' Signature Injuries

Tricare’s stance is also at odds with some medical groups, years of research and even other branches of the Pentagon. Last year, a panel of 50 civilian and military brain specialists convened by the Pentagon unanimously concluded that cognitive therapy was an effective treatment that would help many brain-damaged troops. More than a decade ago, a similar panel convened by the National Institutes of Health reached a similar consensus. Several peer-reviewed studies in the past few years have also endorsed cognitive therapy as a treatment for brain injury.

Tricare officials said their decisions are based on regulations requiring scientific proof of the efficacy and quality of treatment. But our investigation found that Tricare officials have worried in private meetings about the high cost of cognitive rehabilitation, which can cost $15,000 to $50,000 per soldier.
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Pentagon Health Plan Won't Cover Brain-Damage Therapy for Troops

66,342 female veterans report assaults from 2002 to 2008

Women vets' secret war: Sexual trauma

66,342 female veterans report assaults from 2002 to 2008 -- by their band of brothers.

By KIM ODE, Star Tribune
Last update: December 17, 2010 - 11:32 PM

Judy VanVoorhis knew that some men thought she had no business serving in the National Guard. How? She smiled fleetingly. "They told me." The military world often lacks the nuance of civilian life.

She had enlisted in 1985 and moved steadily through the ranks, becoming an instructor at an officer training school. In 1999, while at a conference, a group of instructors went out for supper.

"One guy seemed like he was trying to get everyone drunk, without drinking too much himself," she recalled. "I left, but he cornered me and tried to kiss me and I said I wasn't interested."

She went up to her room, only to discover that he'd followed her. She doesn't remember much about the assault that followed. "I was so shaken after it happened, I wanted to forget about it. You don't expect this from the people you're supposed to trust. I said no and that's all I had to say."

She might never have told anyone, had a male colleague not seen her flinch during a meeting when her attacker's name was mentioned. When he later pulled her aside to ask if she was OK, she told him everything. Turns out he had suspected as much.

"He told me, 'You're the fifth woman who's told me this same story.'"
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Women vets secret war

End of Military Gay Ban Is Pivotal Moment in History

End of Military Gay Ban Is Pivotal Moment in History
Dec 18, 2010

Andrea Stone
Senior Washington Correspondent

WASHINGTON (Dec. 18) -- The Senate's 65-31 vote to end the ban on gays and lesbians serving openly in the military was more than historic. It was a long time coming. But for the men and women whose lives and careers were touched for so many years by the ban, it was mostly personal.

For Grethe Cammermeyer, the Vietnam combat nurse who came out as a lesbian in 1989 and whose struggle to stay in the military made her famous, the Senate vote brought tears. It's "the relief of finally seeing that we can serve with dignity and with integrity and that people no longer have to lie," she said.

For Wally Kutteles, whose stepson, Army Pfc. Barry Winchell, was bludgeoned to death in 1999 by a fellow soldier after months of harassment and whose death shined a light on gay-bashing in the ranks, the repeal meant the 21-year-old did not die in vain. "It's about time," he said.
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End of Military Gay Ban Is Pivotal Moment in History

For Susan Luz, being a nurse has meant a life during wartime

WOMAN OF WAR: For Susan Luz, being a nurse has meant a life during wartime
By Linda Murphy
Special to The Herald News
Posted Dec 18, 2010 @ 03:09 PM


TIVERTON —
The guiding force that drove Susan (Corry) Luz through the University of Rhode Island’s rigorous five-year nursing program was her desire to become an Army nurse in Vietnam. Inspired by her father, a decorated World War II combat veteran, Luz avoided the college party scene, and the anti-war sentiment on campus, and focused intently on her plan to serve in the war.

But her father, Patrick Corry, who saw a military nurse killed in World War II, and silently lived with the resonating images of the horrors of war, wouldn’t hear of his young daughter joining up. Instead, she joined the Peace Corps, but her chance to serve came decades later: At age 56, Army Reservist Luz left behind her husband and family in Rhode Island to serve as a nurse in war-ravaged Mosul, Iraq.

Colonel Susan Luz, who was the highest-ranking female soldier in the Army Reserve’s 399th Combat Support Hospital when she was called to active duty, will be discussing her experiences and signing copies of her book, “The Nightingale of Mosul, a Nurse’s Journey of Service, Struggle and War,” at an upcoming event sponsored by the Friends of Tiverton Library.

Luz, who was awarded the Bronze Star in 2007, followed in the footsteps of a storied family history of military service. Her father fought in the Battle of the Bulge and was awarded the Silver Star and the Purple Heart, and her husband George’s father, George Luz senior, was a Fall River native whose experiences in World War II were featured in the book and HBO mini-series “Band of Brothers.”

It didn’t take very long for Luz to experience the danger of being a nurse serving “behind the front line” in war zone firsthand. On her forth day at the hospital in Mosul, a nurse who was scheduled to leave within a couple days of Luz’s unit taking over was hit by mortar fire and seriously injured.
It was the first MASCAL (code for mass casualty) of 14 MASCALS that her unit would handle during their year in the Middle East. In all, they treated more than 30,000 wounded soldiers and endured 300 mortar attacks in Mosul and Al Asad, where they relocated to open a Level I hospital when the United States Military ramped up forces in 2007.
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For Susan Luz, being a nurse has meant a life during wartime

Melvin Biddle, Medal of Honor recipient, dead at 87

December 17, 2010
Melvin Biddle, Medal of Honor recipient, dead at 87
The Herald Bulletin

ANDERSON, Ind. — Melvin Biddle, the soft-spoken Central Indiana native who went on to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor for his role in World War II’s infamous Battle of the Bulge, died Friday at Saint John’s Medical Center. He was 87.
Melvin Biddle, MOH, dead at 87
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Fearless woman helps treat post-traumatic stress disorder

Researchers have been trying to block experiences from this part of the brain for a very long time but in the process they need to know what else they will be preventing as a part of the human mind is supposed to function in harmony with other parts of the brain. Fear is not the enemy to defeat but overcoming it is the key they should be looking for.

Fearless woman helps treat post-traumatic stress disorder

By William Atkins
Sunday, 19 December 2010 00:41

Science - Health

Page 1 of 3
American researchers are studying a woman nicknamed "SM" who is without fear, with the hope they can learn how to better treat post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) patients.

The research is written in the journal Current Biology. It is entitled “The Human Amygdala and the Induction and Experience of Fear” (December 16, 2010)

The authors are Justin S. Feinstein, Ralph Adolphs, Antonio Damasio, and Daniel Tranel, either from the University of Iowa (Iowa City) or the University of Southern California (Los Angeles).

The woman, who has been nicknamed “SM,” has amygdale damage caused by Urbach-Wiethy disease.

Amygdala (nucleus amygdae) is an almond-shaped structure within the medial temporal lobes of the brain. It is used to process memories of emotional reactions, such as fear in animals including humans.
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Fearless woman helps treat post-traumatic stress disorder

Bringing homeless veterans indoors

Bringing veterans indoors

By Mark Emmons
memmons@mercurynews.com
Posted: 12/18/2010 12:02:00 AM PST
Updated: 12/18/2010 03:51:24 AM PST

Larry Morrison pulls a key chain from his pocket. Attached is one of his Army dog tags, so shiny that it appears almost brand new. There's also a pair of worn St. Christopher medals.
They honor two close friends who didn't come home with him from the Vietnam War.
"You never forget," said Morrison, 60. "But just in case, I have these."
Like many of his generation, Morrison returned from Southeast Asia a changed man after a 22-month tour of duty. Plagued by post-traumatic stress disorder, he would self-medicate with drugs and alcohol, trying to ease the episodes of apprehension and fear that would flare up unexpectedly. His downward spiral hit bottom with a year spent homeless on South Bay streets.
But in July, at the suggestion of a San Jose police officer, an ill and exhausted Morrison arrived at the EHC LifeBuilders' Veterans Service Center in San Jose. Morrison received shelter, food, medical treatment and something else:
A renewed sense of hope.
"This is a good place," he said. "They've showed me the path here. They've put me on the onramp, and I'm trying to get back to life's highway. They really care."
Homelessness is a persistent problem that hasn't been made any easier by the terrible economy. But it's a particularly vexing issue for veterans.
An estimated 107,000 vets experienced homelessness in 2009, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Although those numbers are a sharp decline from earlier in the decade, veterans still represent 13 percent of the country's homeless population.
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Bringing veterans indoors

VA says PTSD claims up 125%

VA says PTSD claims up 125%
December 18, 2010 posted by Chaplain Kathie
This is just the beginning. You may think that nine years after troops were sent into Afghanistan that this would be close to the end but then you’d have to think that all other veterans had been taken care of. The fact is, they haven’t been. There were many Vietnam veterans unaware of what was “wrong” with them along with many more wanting nothing to do with the VA. They had heard horror stories about claims being denied leading them to believe they would be subjecting themselves to even more suffering turning to the government they no longer trusted. All of this topped off with the stigma hanging over their heads of being labeled as a “mental cases” or “crazy Nam vet” not worth much at all. It has taken over 40 years to make up for one year of their lives in hell yet there are many more who have not gotten the message yet that help and hope is waiting for them.
The other issue is that they know they will have to wait in a very long, ever growing, line. They will stand behind a quarter of a million men and women waiting over 125 days just to be told if their claim is approved or not. Most of the time when it is finally approved, they do not receive the 100% for a service connected disability like PTSD preventing them from working. They have to fight for the rest of the percentage they should be entitled to. Others will wait until their claim works to the top of the pile only to be informed their claim has been denied or more paperwork is needed to be done.
PTSD claims alone have increased 125% and there have been 200,000 new Agent Orange-related claims, only 30,000 of which have been decided, the department said.
New claims flow into the sea of other claims from other groups of veterans because when men and women were sent into combat, no one thought to make sure the VA was ready for the increase in need war would create.

Veterans Affairs faces daunting job of reducing medical claims backlog
From Jennifer Rizzo, CNN National Security Producer
December 17, 2010 11:20 p.m. EST
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
A quarter-million medical claims have been in the system for 125-plus days, official says
Secretary Shinsheki had vowed to eliminate that delay time by year’s end
Changes in guidelines contributed to a higher number of claims
Washington (CNN) — Veteran claims for medical benefits are still piled high at the Veterans Affairs Department, despite a major push from the secretary of the department for quicker claims processing.
There are a quarter of a million claims in the system that have not been assessed within 125 days of being filed, according to Mike Walcoff, acting under secretary for benefits. Backlogged claims amount to more than one-third of the cases in the system, a similar ratio to last year.
Veterans Affairs faces daunting job of reducing medical claims backlog

While they wait, bills are not paid if they are unable to work. This adds to the long list of symptoms PTSD comes with. Depression is part of PTSD. Waiting month after month to hear if their service will be honored or not feeds depression along with paranoia because they know what the truth is and justice would not allow them to suffer instead of being taken care of. They see their families suffer because they can no longer provide for them. This builds all of the other symptoms of PTSD as they feel their lives are being threatened while watching it all fall apart.
In combat, the only safe emotion is anger. When PTSD takes over, that is the strongest emotion allowed to come out. The extra battle of fighting the VA feeds anger at the same time it robs them of hope. Advocates tell them the sooner they get treated the better but what we don’t tell them is they will go through hell to get treated. We don’t tell them that while they are suffering, seeing it all turn to crap, they will have to face months, if not years, of fighting the VA to get it. We won’t tell them that getting the help they need may take longer than the reason they need help in the first place.
For Vietnam veterans, most of them served 12 months overseas. One year in hell caused a lifetime of suffering in far too many. According to a 1978 publication from the Disabled American Veterans’ study, Readjustment Problems Among Vietnam Veterans by Jim Goodwin Psy.D, there were well known issues that have since been forgotten as if none of these studies had ever been published. While veterans wait, millions are wasted on repeating what was already known. By 1978 there were 500,000 Vietnam veterans suffering Post Traumatic Stress Disorder even though the VA had no yet accepted the term. These men and many female veterans ended up fighting to heal at the same time they spent years trying to get the VA to help them heal, which made it all worse.
Trauma is Greek meaning “wound” and it was used because PTSD comes from an outside force after exposure to life threatening events. It really means a wound to a person’s emotional part of their brain caused by the stressful situations creating disorder. In other words, had they lived without the traumas of combat, or in the case of civilians without exposure to other causes, they would not be suffering. But the process of filing claims with the VA and then waiting for their claims to be approved adds more trauma into their lives instead of easing their already wounded minds. If help was waiting for them there would have been less chronically ill lacking the ability to support themselves. It all gets worse as time goes by because what happens in their lives adds to it. The last thing they need is a prolonged battle with the VA.

read more here
http://www.veteranstoday.com/2010/12/18/va-says-ptsd-claims-up-125/

When the news breaks the journalist: PTSD

When the news breaks the journalist: PTSD
By Frederik Joelving
NEW YORK | Fri Dec 17, 2010 4:08pm EST
(Reuters Health) - Chris Cramer, 62, was a fledgling war correspondent when one spring day 30 years ago he got much closer to the battle than he'd ever intended.

Just back from Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, his boss at the BBC had asked him to fly to Tehran, where militants were holding dozens of Americans hostage at the U.S. embassy.

But as he went to pick up his visa in London on April 30, 1980, he jumped out of the frying pan and into the fire: Six gunmen stormed the Iranian embassy, taking Cramer and 25 other people hostage.

"I lasted two days before I became sick -- well, I actually feigned a heart attack to get out," said Cramer, now global editor of multimedia at Reuters in New York.

While the experience left his body unscathed, his mental health was in tatters.

"I went through real anguish for a couple of years," he said. "I had flashbacks, I had extraordinary claustrophobia, which I'd never had before. For several years, I did not go to a cinema, I did not go into an elevator. If I ever went into a restaurant, I positioned myself near the door for a fast exit. For many, many months after the incident I checked under my car every morning before driving it. I was a basket case, I was a mess."

It is becoming increasingly clear that there is nothing unique about Cramer's case. In fact, a 2003 survey found, more than a quarter of war correspondents struggle with post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD.

That's just shy of the 30 percent of Vietnam veterans who have suffered the mental breakdown, and nearly four times higher than in the general population, according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. And there are signs that journalists may be facing more dangers now than ever, putting both their physical and mental health at risk.

"There are a lot of undetected emotional problems in the profession," said Dr. Anthony Feinstein, a psychiatrist at the University of Toronto, Canada, and one of the first to explore the psychological toll of war reporting. "Some of the big organizations are very aware of it, but many are not."
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When the news breaks the journalist: PTSD

VA Processes First Claims for New Agent Orange Presumptives

VA Processes First Claims for New Agent Orange Presumptives
New Program Speeds Approval for Vietnam Veterans

WASHINGTON (Dec. 17, 2010) - The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has
decided more than 28,000 claims in the first six weeks of processing
disability compensation applications from Vietnam Veterans with diseases
related to exposure to the herbicide Agent Orange.

"With new technology and ongoing improvements, we are quickly removing
roadblocks to processing benefits," said Secretary of Veterans Affairs
Eric K. Shinseki. "We are also conducting significant outreach to
Vietnam Veterans to encourage them to submit their completed application
for this long-awaited benefit."

VA published a final regulation on Aug. 31 that makes Veterans who
served in the Republic of Vietnam and who have been diagnosed with
Parkinson's disease, ischemic heart disease, or a B-cell (or hairy-cell)
leukemia eligible for health care and disability compensation benefits.
With the expiration of the required 60-day congressional review on Oct.
30, VA is now able to process these claims.

Vietnam Veterans covered under the new policy are encouraged to file
their claims through a new VA Web portal at www.fasttrack.va.gov
. Vietnam Veterans are the first users
of this convenient automated claims processing system.

If treated for these diseases outside of VA's health system, it is
important for Veterans to gather medical evidence from their non-VA
physicians. VA has made it easy for physicians to supply the clinical
findings needed to approve the claim through the new Web portal. These
medical forms are also available at www.vba.va.gov/disabilityexams.

The portal guides Veterans through Web-based menus to capture
information and medical evidence required for faster claims decisions.
While the new system currently is limited to these three disabilities,
usage will expand soon to include claims for other conditions.

VA has begun collecting data that recaps its progress in processing
claims for new Agent Orange benefits at
Agent Orange Report Card

Do you deserve a miracle in your life?

Do you deserve a miracle in your life? You may be like me knowing you need a miracle but not feeling as if you deserve one. How many times have you put your head in your hands and thought "only a miracle can save me now" because you felt so helpless? All of us do it at one time or another in our lifetime. With the economy the way it is right now, there are more and more worried about things they never thought they'd have to worry about.

How do you pay the bills instead of what gifts you will buy at the mall? Did you find yourself staying away from malls because you know you don't have a dime to your name to spare? Did you wonder why you couldn't shop like your friends or have a party like the one you were invited to? Did you wonder what you did wrong that this year there is no reason to celebrate at all?

This is supposed to be the joyous time of the year when TV commercials tell us that giving the perfect gift to someone we love will make us happy. It is supposed to be the time of being unselfishly thinking about the happiness of someone else instead of ourselves. Yet when you saw interviews of people waiting all night for a black friday sale, they were talking about buying something for themselves. The people who have money, are able to pay their bills, pay to heat their homes and pay their mortgages/rent, tend to not feel lucky as much as they feel they deserve all they have. After all, they worked hard for all of it but the truth is, most of us worked hard but were left with nothing to show for it.

We may remember years when our families seemed to have all we could ever ask for with a tree decorated tenderly, stuffed with perfectly wrapped gifts we spent weeks shopping for and enough food to feed the neighborhood. We may think about years when our families were all gathered around to celebrate this day we are supposed to honor the birth of Christ. Then we wonder why it all fell apart. How did we end up this year with nothing? How did our family members pass away so there is no need to set the table for more than two? How did we end up not even putting up a tree this year while our neighbors have their homes covered in lights? There was a time when seeing these homes gave me a warm feeling inside but now they just make me feel more empty.

Maxed out credit cards and bills you can't pay because your bank account is empty leaves you wondering when the ghosts of Christmas will show up and haunt your rich relatives so their eyes are opened to your need. You scrape up as much change as you can so that you can buy a lottery ticket right after you hear about some other needy person hitting it for millions and you wonder why it wasn't you. You may think back to all the years you donated to charity to help others have a reason to celebrate, knowing they were cared about by someone while this year you are the one in need but no one is coming to help you feel cared about.

Over two thousand years ago a child was born. He came into this world to live among the poor instead of among the rich and powerful. No one deserved Him coming into this world to teach them what love really was and no one deserved Him being willing to sacrifice His life. He could have had left us all to live and die according to our own thoughts and stand before God on our day of judgment all by ourselves to answer for our deeds, but He came anyway. He preached about taking care of the poor and needy, helping each other with caring hearts, charity, compassion, mercy and forgiveness. He also told the people who heard His voice that God loved them.

They went back to their simple homes with little comforts but they knew they were no longer invisible to God because a loving miracle came into their lives and gave them love.

Those times were not taken up by shopping at the mall or untangling lights from the year before. They did not spend hours addressing Christmas cards to send to people they never hear from during the rest of the year. They didn't avoid paying a bill so they could go out and buy what they couldn't afford any more than they felt guilty because they couldn't buy anything for a gift someone else didn't really want or need just so they wouldn't be embarrassed by their poverty. They had a different value system that did not leave room for feeding the coffers of mega store chains. To them it was not what they could buy for someone else but what they could give to someone.

We seem to live in a time and place where greed is now something to not be ashamed of. Politicians proudly fight for the wealthy to the point where no one else's needs can be met until they take care of the rich. The rich want more and more no matter who has to suffer or pay for something they don't really need but feel they deserve. Yet when you look them in the eyes, you see how empty their lives really are. There are others, rich beyond belief, yet they have taken a vow to give away a great portion of their wealth to charity. They do not feel as if they deserve their money but have been blessed to have it. While some will spend their days shopping for stuff, others will go through their closets because this time of year is also cold in most parts of the country and there are homeless people with even less needing warm clothes and blankets. They will give what they don't need to someone with even less than they have. The homeless getting the help may not feel as if they deserve any help at all, but will feel blessed that someone cares they are in need.

None of us really deserve a miracle to happen in our lives, but we pray for one anyway. We hope that soon our help will come and our tears will stop flowing out of our eyes. We wait. Somewhere in the country, there is a person being called to help us but they do not willingly deliver what God is asking them to do, so we wait longer. We end up blaming God for not answering our prayers and then we turn from God. The same God who loved us so much He sent Christ. The same God we praised when we felt He helped us all the other times in our lives when we were in need.

The day we fell in love, we felt God sent the person into our lives. The day we marry, we invite God to be there with us and watch over us,yet when we argue, we feel God has stepped out of our lives. We thank him when our kids are born yet as soon as they get sick, turn into brats or don't live up to our expectations, we wonder where God is. We thank Him when we get a job and run to Him when we lose a job wondering why He didn't protect us from the budget cut or the bad boss we had. In good times, it is easy to praise God until we have it so good for so long that we end up believing we deserve it all and then want to keep it all for ourselves. In times of need, we turn to God for help, believing we deserve His help, until prayers have been unanswered for so long that we end up not feeling as if we deserve any help at all and God has judged us unworthy. We forget about all the times before when He helped us despite ourselves.

It is what we do in times of our own need that is a miracle. If we have seen everything taken away yet want to pray for someone else, there is a miracle. If we are ill yet pray for someone else, there is a miracle. If we have lost most of our faith yet manage to say a prayer for someone else, that is a miracle. When we can rise above our own troubles, our own heartaches, our own misery for the sake of someone else, there are miracles happening all around us everyday.

There was a woman who came to me last year to help her son. She said I saved his life after countless hours on the phone and spent emailing. Yet when her son was better and the crisis was over, I asked her for financial help, she turned me down. It was not something to make me regret helping her or her son and that was a miracle because honestly, had it been all on my ideas, I would have regretted every minute of it but God changed the way I thought about it and I ended up feeling sorry for her because she could take no pity on me or my need. The miracle lives on because no matter what I face, I still want to help other people when no one wants to help me.

This is the way we all need to live out our days to really honor the day Christ came into this world. The miracle in your life may not be fixing the problems in your life as much as it will be about fixing the way you face the problems with love, charity and compassion still there for others. If you feel love for someone else, be not ashamed you cannot buy them a gift. If you cannot afford to send a card this year, then send a prayer. If you cannot afford to travel to see family and friends, take the time to call them. We can give so much to others even when we have very little ourselves.

Slain Ft. Stewart soldier never violent

Mother: Slain Ft. Stewart soldier never violent

By RUSS BYNUM
Associated Press
5:36 p.m. CST, December 16, 2010



SAVANNAH, Ga. — A slain Fort Stewart soldier was never violent, his mother said Thursday, disputing an assertion by the military that her son may have been the aggressor in a domestic fight that led to his death.

Army Spc. Alante L. Whiting, 22, of Westland, Mich., was fatally stabbed on the Georgia Army post Dec. 8 just hours after he returned from a tour in Iraq. He died at Fort Stewart's hospital.

His mother, Alesia Whiting, told The Associated Press that she spoke with her son, an Army intelligence analyst, by phone after his unit's flight landed in Georgia. She said he sounded like he couldn't be happier to be back.

"He was ecstatic -- laughing, joking, being silly," Alesia Whiting said. "He was telling me about the gift basket in his room that the soldiers all get. He was just talking about stuff in the future, saying, `I can't wait to get home, mommy."'


Within 18 hours after he arrived at Fort Stewart, Alante Whiting was dead. A delivery driver found him bleeding outside his barracks on Fort Stewart and called 911.
read more here
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-ap-ga-soldierslaying,0,4878572.story

Mall shooting suspect served multiple times in Afghanistan

Mall shooting suspect is Army veteran; served in Afghanistan
Friends say the man lived with his wife in Springfield and served multiple tours overseas

BY JACK MORAN
The Register-Guard
Published: Friday, Dec 17, 2010 06:00AM

A former Army soldier shot by police after he allegedly fired several gunshots in a crowded Valley River Center parking lot on Wednesday clung to life Thursday at a Springfield hospital, officials said.

The man, identified by police as Michael Thomas Mason, 27, was listed in critical condition Thursday afternoon and was receiving treatment in the intensive care unit at Sacred Heart Medical Center at RiverBend in Springfield, hospital spokesman Jim Godbold said. However, when reached late Thursday night, Godbold said the hospital had no information on a person by that name at its facility.

Under federal medical privacy law, hospital officials are not allowed to disclose whether a patient has been admitted to their facility if and when so requested by a patient’s family.

Eugene police Capt. Chuck Tilby said investigators could not confirm Mason’s hometown. However, residents of an east Springfield neighborhood say Mason has lived at two addresses south of Main Street during the past few years.

Neighbors said Mason is married, and served multiple military tours in Afghanistan since U.S. combat operations began there in 2001.

“My son looks up to him, calls him his ‘life-sized soldier,’ ” said Camellia Street resident Kendra Lufkin, referring to Mason’s relationship with her 9-year-old son, Creed.

Lufkin and several other neighbors said Mason and his wife moved into a home earlier this year after residing in a nearby apartment complex. Lane County property records list him as the home’s owner.

A family spokesman who provided The Register-Guard with Mason’s photo said Mason served in the Army from 2002 to 2006.

Lufkin called Mason “a big teddy bear” with a tough exterior who once confided to her that his final tour in Afghanistan kept him awake some nights because the experience was “very extreme.”
read more here
Mall shooting suspect is Army veteran served in Afghanistan

9/11 First Responders React to the Senate Filibuster

Can there be any doubt left that the people who used September 11 really didn't care? They didn't care about the heroes that day we watched rush to ground zero, stand silently in line as another body had been found any more than they cared about them spending countless hours searching, hoping, praying, covered in toxic dust. They didn't even care that this happened 9 years ago and still these men and women who took no thought of their own lives when they were needed now face no thought over their lives as a result of their actions from the government because some in the GOP only cared when they could use these heroes.


Thursday December 16, 2010
9/11 First Responders React to the Senate Filibuster
9/11 first responders watch as Mitch McConnell cries over a friend's retirement, and Jon Kyl explains why the Senate can't work the week after Christmas. (08:55)

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
9/11 First Responders React to the Senate Filibuster
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog</a> The Daily Show on Facebook

go here http://www.thedailyshow.com/

They should have never been asked to die like this, to suffer without the help they thought would be there but to have members of congress tell them they just don't deserve the same attention the rich have gotten from them, is too disgraceful to believe.

They were willing to die if a building fell on them. Willing to die trying to save the lives of someone else. To face death because they cared enough to go where others ran away from should have every American in this country screaming at the top of their own lungs that this is clearly wrong!

Pentagon has wrongfully discharged nearly 26,000 service members

Let's say that all of these servicemen and women did in fact have a "personality disorder" before they enlisted. If the military allowed them to enlist, then they accepted responsibility for them from that point on. Considering that a mental health condition like personality disorder would have put them in greater danger during combat and would have endangered the others they served with, the DOD would have known what they were doing, apparently fine with doing it. But that would also be assuming they just didn't care. There were mental health waivers given out but nowhere near the numbers of discharges. Even if they received a waiver, this should in no way take the burden of care off their shoulders. But it did.

But the DOD did not live up to their duty to take care of them.

"DoD's compliance with counseling requirement was as low as 40% between 2001 and 2007, as was compliance with diagnosis requirement. In 2008, the Government Accountability Office ('GAO') found that 'DoD does not have reasonable assurance that its key personality disorder separation requirements have been followed' after reviewing PD discharges occurring between 2001 and 2007."

They were willing to let them join. They trained them to go into combat. Then they sent them to fight the enemy. Then when their minds paid the price, they were kicked out with nothing to count on. No benefits. No help to heal. No justice after being willing to lay down their lives for this country. Was this honorable? Was this what Washington said was the way to treat them?

"The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, is directly proportional to how they perceive the veterans of earlier wars were treated and appreciated"
-- George Washington

They returned home changed just as many before them. They saw the others having to fight for the care they were promised with a honorable discharge in their hands. They saw them wait in long lines, wait for months, even years, to have their claim honored and they wondered what chance they would have of getting any help at all after what was done to them. They lost it all. They lost faith in this country they were willing to die for. They lost the sense of pride they had when they suddenly could no longer support their families and pay their bills. They lost the faith their families had in them when they were beaten down so far there was no reason to try any longer.

Service organizations wouldn't help them because they were discharged with less than honorable conditions. Senators and Representatives wouldn't talk to them or listen to their stories. There were very few reporters able to acknowledge this injustice leaving them with nowhere to turn. Some said these wrongfully discharged veterans should just go on welfare or collect social security since they were unable to work but no one thought about the fact many of these veterans entered into the military right out of high school. No one cared.

Then came the Vietnam Veterans of America remembering what it felt like to be kicked to the streets after risking their lives in another country because that was what the government said had to be done. They knew what it was like to have this same government deny them care but they also had some faith in the people of this country to do the right thing. Had they not believed in the rest of us, they wouldn't have found any reason to fight for what they accomplished. They made all the programs for PTSD possible and now they want to make sure these wrongfully discharged veterans get the help they were denied for far too long.

Pentagon Uses 'Personality Disorder' to Deny Veterans Health Care
By CHRIS COUGHLIN
ShareThis
NEW HAVEN, Conn. (CN) - The Pentagon has wrongfully discharged nearly 26,000 service members since 2001 "on the basis of so-called 'personality disorder'" - rather than for post-traumatic stress or other service-connected disabilities - to save itself $12.5 billion in health-care costs, the Vietnam Veterans of America claims in a federal FOIA complaint. The Vietnam Veterans say discharges for faultily diagnosed "personality disorder" increased drastically after the Pentagon began calling up veterans after the 9/11 attacks.
"Over the past nine years, Defendant Department of Defense ('DoD') and its components and subcomponent services have systematically and wrongfully discharged nearly 26,000 service members who have service-related disabilities on the basis of so called 'personality disorder,'" the complaint states. "Veterans who responded courageously to the government's call to action after September 11, 2001 by serving in the Armed Forced have returned home only to find that DoD's personality disorder designation prevents them from accessing service-connected disability benefits and veterans health care. By carelessly disregarding the personality disorder regulations which were promulgated for the benefit of service members, DoD has broken the United States' longstanding promise to provide for its veterans."
"The military classifies PD as a condition pre-existing military service," the complaint states. "Veterans discharged from the military on the basis of a PD diagnosis are not entitled to service-connected disability benefits or VA care.
"By its own admission, DoD dismissed 25,656 service members on the basis of PD between fiscal years 2001 and 2007; 3,372 of these discharged service members had served in combat or imminent danger zones in support of OCO [Overseas Contingency Operation]. Approximately 2,800 of the service members whom DoD had dismissed on the basis of PD had deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom or Operation Enduring Freedom.
"By discharging 22,656 service members on the basis of PD, the DoD has saved the military approximately $4.5 billion in medical care and $8 billion in disability compensation that these service members would have received had they been discharged on the basis of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder ('PTSD') or another service-connected disability."
The complaint adds: "DoD has admitted that its doctors failed to interview anyone but the service members before making most of the 22,656 PD diagnoses that led to discharge." This despite the fact that "Prior to 2008, DoD regulations in PD discharges required that service members get formal counseling regarding the reason for their impending discharge and receive a PD diagnosis from a psychiatrist or psychologist stating that the PD interfered with their ability to function in the military.
"DoD's compliance with counseling requirement was as low as 40% between 2001 and 2007, as was compliance with diagnosis requirement. In 2008, the Government Accountability Office ('GAO') found that 'DoD does not have reasonable assurance that its key personality disorder separation requirements have been followed' after reviewing PD discharges occurring between 2001 and 2007."
read more here
Personality Disorder to Deny Veterans Health Care

VA Announces Use of Standard Payment Rates for Some Non-VA Care

VA Announces Use of Standard Payment Rates for Some Non-VA Care

WASHINGTON (Dec. 16, 2010) - The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)
announced today it will begin using Medicare's standard payment rates
for certain medical procedures performed by non-VA providers on Feb. 16,
2011.

"This regulation will have no impact on the Veterans we care for," said
VA Under Secretary for Health Dr. Robert A. Petzel. "VA will now have
the ability to better plan budgets and place more money into access to
health care for the Veterans that VA is honored to serve."

The new adjustment was made in federal regulations and will affect the
following treatments VA provides to Veterans through contracted care:
ambulatory surgical center care, anesthesia, clinical laboratory,
hospital outpatient perspective payment systems, and end stage renal
disease (ESRD).

Veterans who are eligible for care will continue to receive the
uninterrupted care they need and have earned. Non-VA doctors and
facilities will still get paid for services they provide to eligible
Veterans but at rates set by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid
Services (CMS) Prospective Payment Systems (PPS) and Fee Schedules.
Existing contracts will not be affected and the rule allows for new
contracts using the new rates.

Savings of approximately $1.8 billion over five years will allow VA to
continue to invest in such innovative programs as a wearable artificial
kidney, home dialysis and expanding access through stand-alone clinics.

"Adopting CMS pricing methodology for these schedules and services will
allow VA medical centers to use their resources more efficiently to meet
Veterans' needs," said Gary Baker, VA's health administration chief
business officer. "The adoption of Medicare rates will help ensure
consistent, predictable medical costs, while also helping to control
costs and expenditures."

The pricing methodology changes are a result of a rule change to 38 CFR
17.56, the federal regulation that governs VA when paying medical claims
for Veterans treated in community facilities. The proposed rule was
published on Feb. 18, 2010 and was opened for public comment April 19,
2010. The congressional review period for the final rule begins Dec. 17
and lasts 60 days.

VA is providing written notifications to Veterans and non-VA providers.
As additional information becomes available, it will be posted to the
VA's "Non-VA Purchased Care" Web site, www.nonvacare.va.gov.

Bah humbug when politics takes over caring

Bah humbug when politics takes over caring

This is supposed to be the time of year when we honor the birth of Christ, yet we fail miserably at honoring his life. There is talk on some cable station (you know which one) claiming there is a war on Christmas and right now I really wish that were true. There should be a war on the way we “celebrate” Christmas.

I just came back from dropping off a comforter, blanket and some warm clothes because I drove by a local store with a sign asking for donations for the needy. It is a store we shop at but I never once asked them about their political views. I’ve asked about a lot of things but never really cared about who they voted for. Why? Because it really doesn’t matter since if they voted for the person I didn’t’ vote for, we’d both think the other one was wrong, yet we’d both still be in the neighborhood, trying to get by as humans. If they are asking for donations for the needy, they have to have good hearts to go along with great business practices. Isn’t that what is supposed to matter?

It also occurred to me that I don’t care who ends up with what I donated or if they hold a different political belief than I have. There is absolutely no assurance on this earth that I am right or they are. There is however great evidence that they are in need of help, have less than I do and according to Christ, we’re supposed to take care of them. I don’t want anything back from them and they will never know what I gave, have a clue who I am or be able to do any more for me than thank God a stranger cared about them.

We have seen everything reduced to politics. There was a time when people needing to see a doctor would either be able to pay for it or the doctor would work with them but those days long ago passed replaced by an insurance industry dictating who gets saved and who gets shown the door. It would have been a time when people would be ashamed to admit they didn’t want other people to be able to have insurance coverage, but now they wear their “I got mine screw you” attitude with pride much like Scrooge thought being a greedy wretch was a good thing. Some of these people are entering into the House in January and got angry when they were told they would have to wait for their own health insurance coverage to being and yes, funded by the tax payers they thought denial of their coverage was a good thing. I guess they think they are more deserving than the people they are taking an oath to serve.

We have seniors and veterans in this country who have not received a raise in two years. The $250 check to make up the difference last year and this year were voted down by Republicans yet they fought hard to make sure the rich received tax breaks. This also goes to show that being against every bill the people wanted was blocked until they got their own way for the sake of the rich.

There used to be a time when again, they would be ashamed of defending the rich to the point where the rest of us could just vanish off the face of the earth, but now they are proud of their dirty deeds. We can expect this from politicians since most of them do tend to bend the truth but when the regular people in this country take on their bad habits, we’re all in trouble.

Does a family stop being a family if they do not all vote alike? Do neighbors even know how someone thinks politically? Do kids care if their parents and their friend’s parents vote the same way? When you donate to the Salvation Army Santa do you care who gets the money and what political party they belong to? When you donate to a kid off the Angel Tree in your church, do you care anything above and beyond giving a kid without anything a gift at Christmas? When you donate blood do you think about if you will be saving the life of a Republican or Democrat, a gay man or woman, or does it matter more you will be saving a life?

When the body of a soldier returns home, do you only show up for the funeral or take off your hat as the hearse passes by only if you know how they voted and approved? Do you pray less for the family if you discover they are not in the same political party as you are?

I have great friends because we care about each other. We talk about our lives, our families but never talk about political views. None of that really matters above caring about each other as humans. When all is fair game in politics, we are all targets and nothing else matters.

So fight over if it is Happy Holidays or Merry Christmas because Santa was not in Bethlehem. Since most have forgotten what His life was supposed to mean in the first place, I doubt they really care at all anymore.

Vietnam veteran committed suicide in a VA medical parking lot

UPDATE

Police Digest: Identity of man who killed himself near Providence hospital revealed
01:00 AM EST on Saturday, December 18, 2010
PROVIDENCE

Police identify man who killed himself near VA hospital

The police have identified the man who committed suicide outside the Providence VA Medical Center Wednesday afternoon as David Petrucci, 63, of Cumberland.

Petrucci, a Vietnam veteran, was being treated at the medical center but did not have an appointment on Wednesday, according to a medical center spokesman. The spokesman would not say what he was being treated for.

Witnesses told the police they heard a gunshot and found a man lying near a car in the parking lot, bleeding from his head. A handgun was lying nearby.

Vietnam veterans’ groups contacted by The Journal said they were looking into the suicide but could not immediately identify Petrucci as a member of a veterans’ group.
Identity of man who killed himself near Providence hospital revealed


Veteran commits suicide outside VA hospital in Providence
5:25 PM Wed, Dec 15, 2010
Amanda Milkovits
PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- A Vietnam veteran committed suicide in a parking lot outside the Providence VA Medical Center early Wednesday afternoon.

People inside the medical building at 830 Chalkstone Ave. heard a gunshot just before 12:30 p.m. and called the police, said VA spokesman Tom Antonaccio.

The police found the 63-year-old Cumberland man lying outside his vehicle in the parking lot, dead from a self-inflicted gunshot, Antonaccio said.
read more here
Veteran commits suicide outside VA hospital in Providence

Veterans in Chicago take lead on helping other veterans

Special Segment: Hope and Help for Veterans

Stacey Baca

December 14, 2010 (CHICAGO) (WLS) -- Service members returning home this holiday season, especially from Iraq and Afghanistan - may notice messages on billboards and bus stops. The Department of Veteran Affairs is reaching out to try to prevent suicide and help those with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

Throughout Chicagoland, there is a push to help all veterans and men and women in uniform, especially those with PTSD. ABC 7 took a hopeful look at ways veterans and others are helping military members who need it most.

Brent Lewis is a Naperville restaurant manager and a Marine who served in Iraq seven years ago.

"I lost Marines ... it's hard to move on from that be positive with that," said Lewis.

He returned home with PTSD. In Naperville, loud noises made him duck behind corners and some odors triggered thoughts of the war. And then he met Dr. Laura Bokar.

"Brent was ready," said Dr. Bokar.

Dr. Bokar, who practices rapid resolution therapy, says rather than just listen, the therapist guides the process.

"It's a whole different focus, and again, the therapist is responsible. It's effect driven. That is what we're going to do, this is how we're going to do it, and this is where I'm going to get you. You don't have to think about how we're going to get there - that's my job," said Dr. Bokar.

For others, there is the spiritual approach. Sister Linda McClenahan, a decorated Vietnam vet and PTSD survivor, lived the pain of war.

"I lost God in Vietnam, completely. I didn't believe in God anymore. I was angry," said Sister McClenahan.

Now, Sister McClenahan, also known as Sister Sarge, leads free spiritual retreats for all vets living with PTSD. It's part of Mayslake Ministries in Lombard.
read more here
Hope and Help for Veterans

Homeless Navy Veteran still does right thing with found wallet

UPDATE

Job offers pour in for homeless veteran that returned wallet




A homeless veteran found a wallet and brought it to the police station because he knew it belonged to someone else. This is a story that may get you to think about our homeless veterans in a different way. His own kids won't get gifts from him because he has no money. He lives on the streets asking for help but never taking what is not given to him.

Homeless veteran finds, returns wallet filled with cash
Posted by Andrew Ryan, Globe Metro Desk December 14, 2010 10:00 PM
By David Filipov, Globe Staff and L. Finch, Globe Correspondent

Maybe it was the holiday spirit. Maybe it was because it was the right thing to do.

Or maybe it was a little bit of both that inspired Brian Christopher to perform a simple act of kindness.

The 49-year-old Navy veteran was walking near City Hall yesterday when something on the ground caught his eye. It looked like a comic book. Christopher, an amateur artist, picked it up.

It was a wallet with $172 in it. But no credit cards, license or any other identification.

What would you do? While you are thinking about that, consider this: Christopher is homeless. He has no income. He has three children, ages 14, 12, and 10, in Maryland. He really, really could have used the cash.

Instead, he brought the wallet to the closest police station, where an officer found a receipt inside with a name and telephone number. The police officer used that to track down the owner, who picked up the wallet. All the money was there.
read more here
Homeless veteran finds, returns wallet filled with cash

Dedicated to helping other veterans, thieves stole his equipment

Disabled vet ripped off by thieves

By Meaghan Smith

LEE COUNTY: A North Fort Myers man says a man he hired to do yard work stole the parts he uses to repair old cars and motorcycles to help disabled veterans get around. And we spoke to that man accused of stealing those items.

It's a sad day for disabled veteran Lenny Apichel.

"It makes it rough," he said.

The 67-year-old Vietnam vet builds three-wheeled bikes so the handicapped can ride. The do-gooder says he lives to help other disabled veterans.

"We help a lot of veterans out. We help the disabled out," he said. "A lot of fellows out there want to have fun like we can, so this is their way of getting around."

But thanks to the thieves, now he can't do that.
read more here
http://www.nbc-2.com/Global/story.asp?S=13672859

Vietnam Veterans of America fight for justice for wrongfully discharged veterans

Vets sue Pentagon on discharges

By Joseph Picard | December 15, 2010 1:51 AM GMT
The Vietnam Veterans of America is going to sue the Department of Defense for, the group says, wrongfully discharging nearly 26,000 service members for "Personality Disorder."

The veterans organization will hold a press conference call Friday to discuss the legal action.

"The Department of Defense has violated the law by failing to release records showing that it has wrongfully discharged nearly 26,000 service members on the basis of so-called "Personality Disorder," the VVA said in a release. "This Personality Disorder designation has prevented disabled veterans from receiving the disability compensation and other benefits they have earned."
read more here
http://uk.ibtimes.com/articles/92138/20101215/military-veterans.htm

"Police say maggots ate her alive" but husband finds mercy

Don't judge until you read this.

Man Gets Probation, Treatment For Wife's Death

A local man learns his sentence today for his role in the very disturbing death of his wife. Some may find the details of this story very graphic. Darrel White's wife Jorene was bedridden at the time of her death. Police say maggots ate her alive.

This is a rare case where everyone involved seemed to agree on the appropriate punishment - and it doesn't include any prison time. Darrel White will spend five years on probation and he'll start receiving mental health treatment at an inpatient facility immediately.
read more here
Man Gets Probation, Treatment For Wife's Death

120 disabled Veterans and their families are traveling to Walt Disney World in Orlando

Military Members and Veterans with Disabilities

Learn Life-Changing Skills

VA to Offer Educational Breakouts

WASHINGTON - This week more than 120 wounded military personnel,
disabled Veterans and their families are traveling to Walt Disney World
in Orlando for the 6th Annual Road to Recovery Conference. The
Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is providing on-site counseling and
information about VA programs.

"VA is honored to work with our partners in the private sector and
Veterans service organizations to help America's heroes and their
families, particularly Veterans who are facing unique challenges," said
Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki.

The week-long event is presented by The Coalition to Salute America's
Heroes and the American Legion.

VA will have counselors on site to provide one-on-one counseling. Other
VA employees will be available to provide participants with information
about health care and financial benefits available to injured military
personnel, Veterans and family members.

Participants will attend more than 40 hours of seminars, workshops, and
panel discussion devoted to enhancing personal relationships and
providing information on benefits, services, insurance, health care,
financial support and employment opportunities. Experts from
government, the private sector and other non-profits groups will also be
on hand to offer advice and guidance on resume rewriting, career
counseling and many more topics.

Representatives from the U.S. Olympic Committee's paralympic program
will be on site to discuss the new joint VA-Paralympic program for
disabled service men and women who may be interested in representing
their country as a U.S. Paralympian.

For more information about the Road to Recovery Conference, visit
www.saluteheroes.org , or contact Jose
Llamas, VA public affairs coordinator, at (202) 461-7549

Man lied about being a SEAL topped off with claim of having PTSD

There was a time when no one wanted to admit they had PTSD, now it seems as if this fraud thought it was a badge of honor like the claim about being a SEAL. He took advantage of a lot of people's good hearts and from this day on, they will question every veteran they meet because they trusted this impostor looking to "be more" than he was.

Man's military story turns out to be untrue
BY SCHUYLER KROPF
skropf@postandcourier.com
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Last week, Les Agro of Summerville told a story about being a Navy SEAL who'd taken part in the 1991 liberation of Kuwait. It was a tale he's convincingly spun for at least eight years.

On Tuesday, Agro admitted he's an impostor.

"I wanted to be more than I am," he said of the lie he's told to his family, the American Legion, a therapy provider and the newspaper. He did serve five years in the Navy, discharged as a petty officer second class, records show.

Agro, 43, was featured in a front-page Post and Courier story Monday about post- traumatic stress disorder and an effort to provide vets peace through horse-riding therapy. The interview took place on the Ridgeville farm where Leslie and Sidney Clark operate Horses In Service Ministries, a faith-based nonprofit that hopes to strengthen ties between PTSD victims and their families. Agro has a wife and three children.

During the interview, Agro, a barrel-chested man who wears his hair military-style short, spoke of the bond forged with comrades in combat, even becoming emotional about his experiences. He also claimed to have been wounded during the liberation of Kuwait.
read more here

Man's military story turns out to be untrue/

Florida school board meeting ends with gunman's self-inflicted death

Staring at Death: 'God Blocked the Bullet,' Fla. School Official Says
Dec 15, 2010 – 12:30 PM
by Lisa Flam

(Dec. 15) -- With a heavily armed ex-convict shooting directly at him, a Florida schools superintendent was prepared to die but said today he was saved when "God blocked the bullet."

"I was very confident that I was going to get shot. I wasn't pulling for it, but I was ready if that was going to happen," Bay City Schools Superintendent Bill Husfelt said today on ABC's "Good Morning America." "I knew where I would go if I were to pass away. I was very prepared for that."

The gunman, Clay A. Duke, opened fire on Husfelt at a school board meeting Tuesday night in Panama City, but nobody was hit. A security officer, Mike Jones, exchanged fire with Duke, wounding him. Duke, 56, then fatally shot himself with a 9 mm handgun, the only casualty of the violence caught on videotape.

"He was pointing right at me," Husfelt recalled on CBS' "The Early Show." "God blocked the bullet. I really believe that."

read more here
God Blocked the Bullet

School chief who tried to calm Fla. school board shooter in 'surreal' ordeal says faith helped



PANAMA CITY, Fla. (AP) — A 56-year-old ex-convict calmly held a school board at gunpoint and said he was seeking redress for his wife's firing before shooting at the superintendent at short range and then killing himself.

No bullets struck the superintendent, Bill Husfelt, who credited God for his escape late Tuesday. The gunman, Clay A. Duke, apparantly created a Facebook page last week that refers to class warfare and is laced with images from the movie "V for Vendetta," in which a mysterious figure battles a totalitarian government.

"We could tell by the look in his eyes that this wasn't going to end well," Husfelt later told The Associated Press.

As the Bay City school board was in the midst of a discussion Tuesday, Duke walked to the front of the room, spray painted a red "V'' with a circle around it on the white wall, then turned and waved a handgun. He calmly ordered everyone to "hit the road" except the men on the board sitting behind a long beige desk.
read more here
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/state/sns-ap-us-school-board-shooting,0,1838964.story

Patrick D. Deans: Orlando soldier killed in Afghanistan

Patrick D. Deans of Orlando was killed Sunday in Afghanistan. (U.S. Army / December 14, 2010)

Patrick D. Deans: Orlando soldier killed in Afghanistan
Spc. Patrick D. Deans, whose father is a corporal with the Orange County Sheriff's Office, was killed Sunday in the Kandahar province of Afghanistan.

By Gary Taylor and Susan Jacobson, Orlando Sentinel
7:59 p.m. EST, December 14, 2010

It's clear from Spc. Patrick D. Deans' Facebook page that he understood the danger inherent in becoming a soldier.

"A Veteran is someone, who at one point in their life, wrote a blank check payable to the United States of America for an amount up to, and including their life," Deans posted on his wall Nov. 10. "That is beyond honor, and there are way too many people in this country who no longer remember that fact."

A little more than a month later, Deans was one of six soldiers killed in Kandahar province, Afghanistan by a suicide bomber. He died Sunday, two days before his 23rd birthday.

Deans served in Iraq during his first tour of duty and was sent to Afghanistan after he reenlisted, said Butch Herdegen, 23, one of Deans' closest friends.

The only child of Patrick M. Deans, a corporal with the Orange County Sheriff's Office, and his ex-wife, Robyn Deans, of Seminole County, Deans grew up in east Orange County.

The family moved to Narcoossee in east Osceola County, where Deans attended Harmony High and played on the school football team. He moved back to east Orange with his dad and graduated in 2006 from Timber Creek High, Herdegen said.

read more here
Patrick D. Deans: Orlando soldier killed in Afghanistan

also another solider from Florida, Specialist Jorge E. Villacis, 24, of Sunrise, killed in same attack



Soldier from Sunrise killed in Afghanistan

Senate OKs GI Bill improvements

Senate OKs GI Bill improvements
By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday Dec 14, 2010 21:11:28 EST
In an unexpected drive toward the goal line, the Senate approved a long-delayed package of improvements in the Post-9/11 GI Bill, raising the possibility this legislation, once thought dead, would become law by the end of the year.

Friday is the target adjournment date for Congress, leaving little time for action. At the moment, GI Bill legislation is not on the schedule of measures to be taken up by the House this week, but the schedule is in constant flux.

Passage of the bill this year has been a high priority for veterans’ groups, especially Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, which has been complaining about congressional inaction on veteran-related bills.

Passed by voice vote, the bill, S 3447, makes some major changes in the year-old education benefits program — including added vocational and technical education to the covered classes — allows active-duty service members and their spouses to receive a $1,000 per year good allowance, and provides a living stipend to students who are enrolled in distance learning.

It also expands the types of duty by Guard and reserve members that qualify for benefits.

Most of the changes would not take effect until one year after the bill becomes law.

One of the major changes in the bill is the creation of less complex formula for deciding tuition and fee reimbursement for private institutions and for people taking graduate courses at public and private schools. Instead of setting a reimbursement cap for each state, based on the highest in-state rates for tuition and fees charged by a four-year public college or university, the bill would create a flat-rate cap for the entire U.S. of $20,000 a year for tuition and fees. In cases where tuition exceeds the $17,500, the existing Yellow Ribbon program, where a school and the VA make matching contributions to cover higher fees, would continue.
read more here
Senate OKs GI Bill improvements

Republicans Block $250 COLA Check Veterans, Seniors

We all know how hard they fought for the tax breaks for the rich. They fought so hard that unemployment, tax cuts for regular people and everything else could end because they wanted to make sure the rich got their tax cuts. If that was not enough to let people know they are don't care about us, then this should finally clear things up once and for all. They couldn't even let Veterans and seniors get a lousy $250 check to replace the cost of living we're not getting.

Republicans Block $250 COLA Check Veterans, Seniors

Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives voted down a bill to provide another $250 payment to Social Security recipients and disabled veterans. The payment is meant to replace a lost cost-of-living increase for 2011.

“I find it unconscionable that Republicans are blocking a little bit of help – $250 – for seniors and for men and women who risked their lives for our country, and at the same time Republicans are demanding a $700 billion tax break for the wealthy, millionaires and billionaires,” said Congressman Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan after the vote.

141 Republicans voted against H.R. 5987, the Seniors Protection Act, which would have given seniors, veterans, and people with disabilities who receive Social Security a one-time $250 payment in 2011.
read more here
Republicans Block $250 COLA Check Veterans, Seniors

Veteran ordered to pay back government over false claim

Surfside Beach man ordered to pay around $500,000 back to federal government

A Surfside Beach man was sentenced in federal court on Thursday for theft of government funds.

Frank C. Vass, Jr., 56, of Surfside Beach, was sentenced to 27 months imprisonment and 5 years supervised release. He was also ordered to pay $483,532.25 in restitution to the Veterans Affairs Administration and to the Social Security Administration, according to the U.S attorney's office in Columbia.

Evidence presented at the hearing established that Frank filed false claims and lied to the United States Department of Veterans Affairs about his physical condition by claiming that he was only able to walk a few steps at a time and required to remain in a wheelchair all other times.


Read more: Surfside Beach man ordered to pay

Vietnam Vet, Jacksonville Native Killed In Line Of Duty

Jacksonville Native Killed In Line Of Duty
62-Year-Old Deputy Shot During Domestic Violence Call In Mississippi
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- A Jacksonville native working as a deputy in Mississippi is now a fallen hero.

Deputy DeWayne Crenshaw was killed in the line of duty Friday on a domestic violence call near Ripley, Miss.

Franklin Fitzpatrick, 26, who was arrested in the shooting of the Vietnam veteran, faces capital murder charges.

"He spent his life protecting his country and the public," said Denzell Sapp, Crenshaw's brother-in-law. "That's what he wanted to do. That's what he did."

Crenshaw's family said he did nothing but serve in his 62 years of life. He was awarded two purple hearts as a U.S. Army paratrooper in Vietnam. He worked as the corrections officer at a prison.

And most recently, he worked as a sheriff's deputy in northern Mississippi.
read more here
Jacksonville Native Killed In Line Of Duty

Iraq veteran shot by police suffered PTSD

Wife: Iraq veteran shot by police suffered PTSD

Dec 11, 2010 3:29pm

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) — The wife of a Fort Carson soldier who was wounded during a confrontation with Army police says he had been sent home early from Iraq this summer after becoming suicidal.


On Sept. 22, Army police went to the home of Spc. Anthony Nicolas Jumangit, 23, at Fort Carson after his wife said he was threatening to cut himself with a knife. Officials said police shot him in the hand in self-defense after he allegedly advanced toward them.

Jumangit, of the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, had repeatedly warned his supervisors that he didn't believe he was mentally fit to deploy last March after a close friend died during a combat tour that ended in 2008, his wife, Rebecca Jumangit, told The Gazette.

After he came home early in July, Jumangit complained that his antidepressant medication wasn't working, and he struggled with post-traumatic stress disorder so severe that he avoided driving and visiting crowded stores, she said.

"They just ignored him," she said.

read more here
Iraq veteran shot by police suffered PTSD

Suicidal vet's standoff with police ends peacefully

Standoff in New Cumberland ends peacefully

NEW CUMBERLAND, Pa. (WHTM ) - A police standoff with a man who barricaded himself inside his home ended peacefully Saturday evening after several hours of negotiations.

Officers said the unidentified man in the home, near Wayne and 2nd streets, is a a member of the military and had threatened to commit suicide.
read more here
http://www.abc27.com/Global/story.asp?S=13657838

Failure of 9/11 health bill could hurt NY clinics

(AP) -- The network of health centers providing free medical tests and treatment to 58,000 people exposed to World Trade Center dust faces a less certain future if Congress doesn't pass legislation aimed at helping victims of 9/11's toxic legacy.

Senate Republicans last week blocked action on a bill appropriating up to $3.2 billion for medical programs caring for people who fell ill after breathing in ash and pulverized building materials at ground zero.

The act would have guaranteed at least eight years of strong, even lavish, funding for existing health programs for 9/11 responders and other New York City residents exposed to the dust.

Thousands of people who have lingering respiratory problems, post-traumatic stress disorder and other ailments have been getting checkups, counseling, medication and other treatments at federally funded centers around New York City and its suburbs.

The centers, though, have perpetually seemed to be living on borrowed time. No law mandates that the programs must continue. Congress has chosen to fund them one fiscal year at a time, meaning there is no guarantee the money will be there a year from now.

"We don't know what the future holds," said Jeffrey Hon, World Trade Center health coordinator for the New York City Health Department.

Hon said there is no immediate danger that the services will end, but because there is no sustained budget, it is difficult to keep researchers and staff in the program or hire top medical talent.

Patients getting care never know for sure whether they will be able to turn to the same clinics for help a year down the road.
read more here
Failure of 9/11 health bill could hurt NY clinics
http://www.cnycentral.com/news/story.aspx?id=553502

Monday December 13, 2010
Lame-as-F@#k Congress
Here's a tribute to a few Republican senators who find comfort and advantage in invoking the heroes of 9/11 but refuse to give them health care. (08:16)

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Lame-as-F@#k Congress
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