'Stop loss' bonuses go unpaid to 35,000 soldiers

'Stop loss' bonuses go unpaid to 35,000 soldiers
Christopher Collette
WASHINGTON (USA TODAY) -- The Army is struggling to find about 35,000 soldiers, most of them veterans now, who are owed bonuses because they were forced to remain in the military beyond their normal enlistment.

The government authorized the "special pay" in 2009 following criticism from some troops and Congress who said the "stop loss" policy that extended enlistments amounted to a "back door draft." Most of the troops fought in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Veterans groups have faulted the Pentagon for not being able to locate the troops.

"In this economy, I haven't met a single stop-loss veteran who can't use this money for their family or school," said Paul Rieckhoff, executive director of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America.

The Army has paid $245 million in bonuses for 84,000 soldiers since the law passed, said Army Maj. Roy Whitley, who is managing Army efforts to provide the special pay.
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'Stop loss' bonuses go unpaid to 35,000 soldiers

National Guard study shows TBI symptoms more likely to be PTSD instead

For a long time you've been reminded that bomb blasts are a traumatic event. Well it looks like the "experts" finally agree and when they have been trying to put all the symptoms onto the TBI title, they were dealing with two different outcomes afterwards. About time!

Some TBI Symptoms More Likely to be PTSD
Week of January 17, 2011
A recent study which tracked National Guard Soldiers during the final month of their 16-month deployment to Iraq and then again a year after they returned home, found that servicemembers who suffer mild traumatic brain injuries in combat and then struggle with depression, irritability, alcohol abuse and similar problems are more likely to be experiencing post-traumatic stress than brain injury symptoms. An abstract of the study is available in the January 2011 edition of the Archives of General Psychiatry.

Fort Stewart Soldier on leave stabbed on plane trying to break up fight

Man accused of stabbing soldier on jet
Sonia Azad
More: Bio, E-mail, News Team
HOUSTON (KTRK) -- A soldier was attacked, stabbed in the neck after he tried to break up a fight on a plane. And now, we're learning new details about what happened.

Investigators say the plane was on the tarmac at Bush Airport last month, ready to fly to Savannah, Georgia, when the fight started.

The soldier, Nicholas Shipley, 20, is back on post in Fort Stewart, Georgia. The guy accused of threatening him is free after posting bail.

Robert Paterson, 38, works as a contractor in Afghanistan. During a vacation from the war zone, he was arrested at Bush Intercontinental Airport for threatening Shipley and allegedly stabbing him with a type of knife on an airplane.

The men were on an Express Jet flight to Savannah. Police reports indicate the whole thing started with a fight on board. When a stewardess tried to calm the guys down, police say Paterson stabbed Shipley.
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Man accused of stabbing soldier on jet

Mental Health In Focus After Shooting In Arizona for Responders Too

One of the reasons I trained as a Chaplain with the International Fellowship of Chaplains was to be able to help the "helpers" the rest of us depend upon. They are the last people to ask for help, which makes it more difficult for them to get any. We never think they need help after the crisis is over for us. Think about it. They put out fires, save lives but they also have to recover bodies, often bodies of children. They have to respond to accidents, save lives but they also have to recover bodies and body parts. We never think of them after they've done their jobs.

After Katrina, responders had to recover the bodies of people they were too late to save. No one thought of them. After September 11th, few people in this country thought of the survivors among the personnel responding to give aid and again, recover bodies and body parts. The countless hours of hoping, praying for survivors ended with just praying they could find all the bodies for the sake of the families.

Here again, another crisis with more responders needing help to recover. The next time you see a firefighter, police officer or other emergency responders, remember this story and then think of all they go through after the crisis is over for us. It was one time out of our lives but it is endless days of one crisis after another for them.

Mental Health In Focus After Shooting In Arizona
by JEFF BRADY

January 16, 2011
The two have relied mostly on each other for support because patient privacy laws make it difficult to talk about specifics with anyone else. In fact, Southwest Ambulance says it can't even confirm that Rogers and Magnotta transported Giffords, but the Pima County Sheriff’s office released the information in a time line of events from that day.

Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) is still listed in critical condition at a Tucson, Ariz., hospital. Doctors say her recovery has been "exceptional" so far. She's opening her eyes, responding to commands and Saturday she was taken off a ventilator.

Outside the hospital, in the community she represents, mental health has been a recurring discussion topic since the shooting that left six people dead. There are questions about the alleged gunman and concern for the victims who survived. The police and firemen who responded also require special care.

Paramedic Aaron Rogers and EMT Wes Magnotta treated Giffords right after shooting and transported her to the hospital in the back of their ambulance.

Rogers and Magnotta had four days off after the shooting and are back at work now. The gruesome details of what they experienced will be with them for a long time.

"One thing that stood out for me was smell," Rogers says. "There was so much blood on-scene and it being warm, from the sun, that that's what I smelled. It was that iron-y smell."
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Mental Health In Focus After Shooting In Arizona

Chase over charged 4,000 troops and foreclosed on 14 military families

We know what happened with Chase because of the lawsuit Capt. Jonathan Rowles filed so Chase has to do the right thing now but what about the damage done to all of these families? What do they get for the needless suffering they had to go through? What about your mortgage company? Are they causing harm to other military families?

No. 2 bank overcharged troops on mortgages
NBC News exclusive: JPMorgan Chase also improperly foreclosed on homes
By Lisa Myers and Sarah Heidarpour
NBC News
updated 23 minutes ago

One of the nation's biggest banks — JP Morgan Chase — admits it has overcharged several thousand military families for their mortgages, including families of troops fighting in Afghanistan. The bank also tells NBC News that it improperly foreclosed on more than a dozen military families.

The admissions are an outgrowth of a lawsuit filed by Marine Capt. Jonathan Rowles. Rowles is the backseat pilot of an F/A 18 Delta fighter jet and has served the nation as a Marine for five years. He and his wife, Julia, say they’ve been battling Chase almost that long.

The dispute apparently caused the bank to review its handling of all mortgages involving active-duty military personnel. Under a law known as the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA), active-duty troops generally get their mortgage interest rates lowered to 6 percent and are protected from foreclosure. Chase now appears to have repeatedly violated that law, which is designed to protect troops and their families from financial stress while they’re in harm's way.

A Chase official told NBC News that some 4,000 troops may have been overcharged. What’s more, the bank discovered it improperly foreclosed on the homes of 14 military families.
read more here
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/41043127/ns/business-real_estate/

Wounded soldier left stranded finds people do still care

January 16, 2011
Wounded Army soldier finds help in McAlester
By James Beaty
Senior Editor

McALESTER — It’s a need McAlester couldn’t let go by unanswered — a man identified as a wounded veteran of the war in Iraq, stranded in the city, broke and hundreds of miles from home.

On Thursday, Kristophier Barta wound up on foot in McAlester. He said his bus ticket between Veterans Administration hospitals had been extended several times and would no longer get him home to Lexington, Ken.

Barta, who said he had been wounded as a member of the U.S. Army in Iraq, still had a port tube in his chest to help drain the wound.

In McAlester, Barta didn’t know what to do. A helpful employee at the service station where he had been stranded noticed his plight.

She offered him some coffee —and something that proved to be much more.

Barta, who said he’s of Cherokee Indian ancestry, said he’d been hoping to visit a foster sister who lived in Tahlequah.

He said he asked how far it was to the Cherokee reservation, actually meaning the Cherokee Capitol grounds in Tahlequah.
read more of this great story here
Wounded Army soldier finds help in McAlester

Arizona shooting survivor taken to hospital after arrest

Ariz. shooting victim goes to hospital after arrest

Eric Fuller, 63, is accused of yelling 'you're dead' at a Tea Party spokesman
By AMANDA LEE MYERS, BOB CHRISTIE

TUCSON, Ariz. — Grief-stricken after the Tucson supermarket massacre, shooting victim James Eric Fuller found comfort writing down the Declaration of Independence from memory while still recovering in the hospital.
The self-described liberal and military veteran became distraught Saturday, authorities said, when he began ranting at the end of a televised town hall meeting about the tragedy. He took a picture of a local tea party leader and yelled "you're dead" before calling others in the church a bunch of "whores," authorities said.

Deputies arrested him and called a doctor. They decided he should be taken to a hospital for a mental evaluation, said Pima County sheriff's spokesman Jason Ogan said.

"I didn't know how to calm myself down," he said on the TV show, "so I wrote down the Declaration of Independence, which I memorized some time ago. And that did help to organize my thoughts."
He also lashed out at conservative Republicans for "Second Amendment activism," arguing it set the stage for the shooting.
Fuller returned to the Safeway supermarket Friday, telling KPHO-TV he had always considered trauma a figment of imagination until the events of Jan. 8.
"Today I'm back on my feet, more or less, and I'm in a combative mood," Fuller said as he limped across the store parking lot. "It's helping me. I've never had any trauma like this in my life."
read more here
Ariz. shooting victim goes to hospital after arrest

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Treating trauma - Risks of debriefing after disaster

I am alive and pretty well balanced because without knowing it, my family did debriefing every time there was a crisis. They were there to listen. That's the point of crisis teams showing up after a crisis. They are there to listen and let people talk to someone without having to worry about hearing a judgment, having their feelings dismissed or hearing someone tell them they have all the answers. Crisis teams are there to take care of immediate needs including the need to talk, cry and let it out. The crisis teams are not there to force anyone to talk but there for the people who feel the need to be comforted this way. There is also a residual effect when they see others being comforted. It allows them to seek it for themselves.

This article seems to miss this point as it goes far to show that there are risks of debriefing but the risks come when people are not trained properly and they can do more harm than good. There is also the risk to the responder. Deploying into one crisis after another can leave them being drained and often they need to talk to someone too but good trainers and team leaders already have someone in place for them to connect with.

Treating trauma - Risks of debriefing after disaster
By Natasha Mitchell

The church in Carisbrook shows how high the water rose in town (ABC Ballarat: Brad Barber)

Last week's floods have brought devastation to thousands of Queenslanders, and now Victorian homes are going under.

The stories of loss and survival emerging from close-knit communities in the Lockyer valley, in towns like Grantham and Ipswich are confronting and sobering, as people describe hanging on for dear life to trees, rooftops and each other as floodwaters pushed past them with the force of an "inland tsunami". People are still missing, some ripped from the arms of loved ones, and search and rescue teams are steeling themselves for grizzly discoveries amidst the rubble and receding waters.

"Mum and dad are beautiful people, and we're still in shock we've lost them", Sarah Norman told ABC News, after both of her parents perished, their bodies swept to their final resting place two kilometres from their Spring Bluff home, near Murphy's Creek. "It was heartbreaking, but we just believe they were together and God has his hands on all of this".

Sarah shared her story on camera with quiet clarity and without the raw emotion you might expect, but her muted stare gave it away - this was a woman in shock. Surreal, numbing, stunned shock.

After the deluge, our natural inclination is to want to help people deal with this shock, and fast.

Help comes in many forms, both material and emotional. Donating to the Queensland Premier's Flood Relief Fund is one way, or registering with Volunteering Queensland to lend a hand is another, offering people temporary shelter, helping families sort through the stinking mud and debris for precious hints of life as it was, and reaching out with open arms and hearts to those who have lost everything.

Next we want to send in the psychologists and counsellors, and understandably so. Talking through the hell that's happened will help, won't it? It makes sense and sounds right for professionals to get in early and help us bear witness to our own trauma, doesn't it?
read more here
Treating trauma - Risks of debriefing after disaster

Surviving Families of Suicide in the Military

"Military suicides show some families work through their grief, while others are left feeling angry and confused."


Surviving Families of Suicide in the Military Speak to DoD Task Force on Suicide Prevention


This video from CNN talks about a life lost with a family left behind praising TAPS but does little to prevent more families from having to go to a military funeral after the soldier has come home.


Military Suicide: CNN's Interview with the Ruocco Family


It has not been a secret that the military has had a problem for a very long time. All the years of claiming to be doing something about it is better than their silence but the problem we all seem to overlook is that for all the years they've been at it, the numbers don't show they know what they're doing is working.

Supporting Those Left Behind By Military Suicides
by SARAH GONZALEZ
October 21, 2010
A spike in military suicides has led to a renewed focus on prevention efforts by the Defense Department. But the surviving family members often have an uneven network of support that allows some to work through their grief, while others are left feeling angry and confused.

The Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors — TAPS — is trying to fill the gaps by bringing together families from across the country to share their grief and learn.

About 250 adults and children recently gathered at a hotel in Arlington, Va., to share their stories at the TAPS seminar for surviving family members of suicide by service members. Some traveled from as far as Alaska and Hawaii.

Adding Guilt To The Grief

For many, like Denise Coutlakis, the grief is still raw. Her husband, Col. Todd Hixson, committed suicide in October 2009. The 27-year Marine veteran of several wars had been home just three weeks from his only deployment to Iraq.

In 2007, Army Spc. Jeremy LaClaire returned from his first deployment to Afghanistan distant and unable to relate to his family. His widow, Megan LaClaire, says the Army diagnosed him as bipolar. Less than a year later, he was scheduled to be deployed to Iraq.

read more here
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130723915

Congress has held countless hearings on PTSD and suicide but while they listen to the problems from those left behind, they have done nothing to discover what has worked and replicate it. Wives like me have been there and done that. We watched our Vietnam veteran husbands lose the will to live, battled their fights with the VA for help and compensation and try to give them everything we had to keep them going. Our stories are not all hopeless but some of us have lost our husbands or other relatives to suicide because of their military duty. My marriage has lasted over 26 years. Friends of mine have been married 30-40 years showing that there are things that do work to keep them alive.

PTSD is as old as man going into combat. Yet with this, with the rate of divorce in this country, with 18 veterans a day committing suicide, ending up homeless or incarcerated, we have managed to survive it all. We have done it for reasons to complicated to get into right now, but we did it because we understood them and they were worth fighting for. If Congress and the DOD ever really want to stop all of this from happening they need to listen to the families that made it through the fire so that it won't be too late for other families to be able to do the same.

Women in combat? They already are.

Some say they are not brave enough. This says they are.

CAMP SALERNO, Afghanistan — A 19-year-old medic from Texas will become the first woman in Afghanistan and only the second woman since World War II to receive the Silver Star, the nation's third-highest medal for valor.
Army Spc. Monica Lin Brown saved the lives of fellow soldiers after a roadside bomb tore through a convoy of Humvees in the eastern Paktia province in April 2007, the military said.
After the explosion, which wounded five soldiers in her unit, Brown ran through insurgent gunfire and used her body to shield wounded comrades as mortars fell less than 100 yards away, the military said.
"I did not really think about anything except for getting the guys to a safer location and getting them taken care of and getting them out of there," Brown said Saturday at a U.S. base in the eastern province of Khost.
Brown, of Lake Jackson, Texas, is scheduled to receive the Silver Star later this month. She was part of a four-vehicle convoy patrolling near Jani Kheil in the eastern province of Paktia on April 25, 2007, when a bomb struck one of the Humvees.
Spc. Monica Lin Brown

And so does this

By Ann Scott Tyson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, June 17, 2005
Sgt. Leigh Ann Hester fought her way through an enemy ambush south of Baghdad, killing three insurgents with her M-4 rifle to save fellow soldiers' lives -- and yesterday became the first woman since World War II to win the Silver Star medal for valor in combat.

The 23-year-old retail store manager from Bowling Green, Ky., won the award for skillfully leading her team of military police soldiers in a counterattack after about 50 insurgents ambushed a supply convoy they were guarding near Salman Pak on March 20.
Sgt. Leigh Ann Hester

When they end up in positions where they have to use weapons anyway, when they are trained to use them, brave enough to serve in a combat zone as it is, then why not treat them equally?

Report: Women should be allowed to serve in combat
From Alison Harding, CNN
January 15, 2011
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
A Pentagon commission says the ban should be lifted to create a "level playing field"
More than 200,000 women have served in the U.S. military in Iraq and Afghanistan
The commission will send its findings to Congress and President Barack Obama
Washington (CNN) -- A Pentagon commission on diversity is recommending the U.S. military end its ban on women serving in direct combat roles -- a restriction the group says is discriminatory and out of touch with the demands of modern warfare.
In its draft report, the Military Leadership Diversity Commission said the military should gradually eliminate the ban in order to create a "level playing field for all qualified service members."
The commission, comprised of senior military officers, businessmen and academics, must now release a final report. Its findings would then need to be sent to Congress and President Obama before any changes to policy would be implemented.
The draft report said the military's "combat exclusion policies" do not reflect the realities of the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and create institutional barriers to women, who are prevented from getting key assignments that could lead to career advancement.
"Service policies that bar women from gaining entry to certain combat-related career fields, specialties, units, and assignments are based on standards of conventional warfare, with well-defined, linear battlefields," the report said. "However, the current conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan have been anything but conventional."
More than 200,000 women have served in the U.S. military in Iraq and Afghanistan. Since those wars began, 132 female service members have been killed, and 721 have been wounded.
Proponents of the commission's recommendations agree that technology and circumstance have drastically altered modern warfare. They say it is difficult to distinguish between combat and non-combat roles on the front lines of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
read more here
Women should be allowed to serve in combat

watch The Voice, Women at War and see how brave they always have been.
The Voice, Women at War

Military widows asked to repay benefits after remarriage

Military widows asked to repay benefits after remarriage
Daniel Trotter

Brooksville, Florida (CNN) -- Freda Green thought the battle was over when her husband returned from the Vietnam War.

But more than seven years after his death in 2003, she says the U.S. Defense Department is demanding she repay more than $41,000 in benefits the government shelled out as part of an insurance policy he paid into.

"They gave me 45 days to pay it back," said Green, 74, who claims the federal government began garnishing her benefit payments when she couldn't pay it all back at once.

"They said 45 days, and two weeks later they started taking it out of my check," she said.

Green says $577 is now being deducted from her military benefit check each month. The reason: She got remarried last year.

It is a confusing section of a federal law that affects some 57,000 military spouses and their children who receive military benefits and are now being forced to pay Uncle Sam back after walking down the aisle again, according to Norb Ryan, a retired Navy vice admiral and president of the Military Officers Association of America.
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Military widows asked to repay benefits after remarriage

If FOX, MSNBC and CNN stopped turning every program into a political war

This year is only 15 days old and there have been 11 US deaths in Afghanistan for a total of 1,457 according to iCasualties.org , with 5 more killed in Iraq and a total of 4,435. As sad as this is, there have been few reporters coving any of this. Some reporters are working on pieces covering criminal charges against the veterans of these wars as if it will help to know about the fraction coming back and doing illegal things. While there are serious crimes committed by them supporting the need for Veterans' Courts, the reason behind most of them is linked to the combat operations they survived. Most can be tied to PTSD just as drug use can be tied to legal drugs they are given to keep them functioning in theater no matter what they are doing to them. In all of this my biggest concern is the lack of reporting lately on PTSD and suicides.


Considering there are always distractions taking up airtime on the cable news stations, serious ones like the shootings in Tucson, stupid ones like Sarah Palin's feelings being hurt, no one seems to be able to find any time to cover the troops and our veterans.

There were heroes last week in Tucson and average people put their lives on the line to save others placed against a madman with a gun. There was a healing moment at the Memorial gathering when the unity of this country and what was good was raised up above the evil act that caused the need to heal. These were worthy of the attention given by the media. The political gossip and finger pointing were distractions just as covering Sarah Palin for days was a distraction from what people really needed to learn.

This should have been a wake up call to the media to stop the nonsense of covering the political divide making it seem worse than what it is and start to make a difference.

The truth is, while on TV we see people hating other people on the other side of the political divide, we all live next to each other, help each other, work with each other and yes, pray for each other. This was made clear last week in Tucson. When the prayers of the nation were with all the survivors and their families, no one was thinking about how they voted. They just cared about fellow Americans. When those killed were being mourned, they were not Democrat or Republican, they were Americans just as after the attacks on September 11th, they were all our neighbors and they mattered to us. No one cared how they voted or anything other than that simple fact.

This is something the men and women in the military learned to do a long time ago. They risk their lives for their "family" and nothing means more than that to them. Even after combat when they are supposed to be safe back home, they still watch over their "family" and when one of them cannot carry the pain any longer, they all wonder what could have been done to save their lives and make it better to live than to die. They also wonder if they will end up the same way.

There are tragedies all over this country showing how we have failed the men and women serving as heroes everyday putting the lives of someone else above their own but we are not reminded about them.

No Airman left behind: Life after suicide

Posted 1/12/2011

by Staff Sgt. Erica Picariello
50th Space Wing Public Affairs

1/12/2011 - SCHRIEVER AIR FORCE BASE, Colo. -- As a "rainbow flight" member on day zero in basic military training, Airmen are taught the wingman concept. From a brand new lieutenant or an airman basic to a four-star general or chief master sergeant, the Air Force indoctrinates this concept, which symbolizes a person who becomes a rock during uncertain times, a caring heart or maybe an extra set of hands to help get the job done. For most, this means there will always be someone there during a hardship.

But what happens if that person, the only person who has helped or cared, takes their life?

This was one Schriever Airman's reality after waking up July 20, 2010, the day after 1st Lt. Mark Moret, 4th Space Operations Squadron satellite vehicle operator, committed suicide.

"I woke up doubting myself," the Schriever member said. "You wonder why they didn't come to you, you wonder why you're here, why you're still breathing, living - when there was a fine example of a person who ended it all. He would always come to me about anything. So I wondered why he didn't about this."

"I went to Iraq, and when I came back, I noticed both he and I were different," the Schriever Airman lamented. "I was trying to give him some space to get through his issues, because I was trying to help myself get back into the swing of things. I was having bad dreams, and difficulty dealing with being back. It was a very confusing time.

The Operation-Iraqi-Freedom veteran leaned on his wingman, pressing through initial Post Traumatic Stress Disorder signs knowing that he always had his friend.

On July 18, 2010, the Schriever Airman, Lieutenant Moret and Lieutenant Moret's wife sat down for dinner. This was the last time the return deployer saw his best friend alive.

"I raised my glass and said, "Hey, man - thanks for having my back for the past three years and thanks for being my support system. Thanks for proving me wrong when I thought the Air Force was the worst place in the world, that you helped get my head on straight, through rough times after my deployment and you helped me meet cool people, that you helped me stop worrying about people so much and teaching me to enjoy my job. Thank you," he said.

The next day Mark was gone.
read more here
http://www.schriever.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123238128

If FOX, MSNBC and CNN stopped turning every program into a political war, covered how average people live and work together, there would be great healing in this country and then maybe they would be able to find the time to help the troops heal. Maybe they would find the time to report on the heroes we have saving lives in Iraq and Afghanistan because we sent them there. Maybe they would have time to report on the suffering of them and their families when they come home. Then maybe, just maybe they could do some good instead of just increasing the reasons some feel the need to turn everything into a political war. There are two real wars going on and then there is another one when they come home.

Increased suicide rate prevalent in US military
By Tyler Silvy

Contributing Reporter

Published: Monday, December 6, 2010
Cookie Wright never thought about killing himself. But then again, he's a Marine Corps veteran, he's supposed to be tough.
He may not have thought about killing himself, but Wright, a secondary education sophomore at Oklahoma State University, has been depressed.
"There was a time when I was pretty f***** up in the head," Wright said.
That time came between deployments. Wright was deployed twice to the same region, Al Anbar Province, Iraq. It was August 2006 to May 2007, and January 2008 to September 2008. After the first deployment, Wright was stationed at 29 Palms in California.
For nearly a year, he had flashbacks.
The worst were the nightmares, Wright said. He had nightmares that would wake him out of sound sleep.
Wright never sought and was never forced to attend individual counseling sessions. He says he's much better now than he was then, but he wouldn't say he has recovered.
"Things don't bother me like they used to," Wright said. "I'd say the biggest factor is time, I guess just maturing."
Some of his friends weren't so lucky.
"I have friends who aren't as well adjusted," Wright said. "I have friends that haven't moved on."
And, there's the rub: He may be right. Since troops were deployed to the Middle East in 2001, military suicide rates have risen exponentially each year. Suicides have accounted for more than 2,100 deaths since 2001, almost triple the number of troops who have died in Afghanistan and almost half of all deaths in Iraq. In 2009, for the first time, more military personnel took their lives than died at the hands of enemy combatants, according to a 2009 Congressional Quarterly compilation.

Lt. Col. William Beck of the OSU Army ROTC, said the Army didn't see this coming.
"We as an organization admitted we did not see this problem coming, and we weren't ready to deal with it," Beck said.

read more here
Increased suicide rate prevalent in US military

I don't know about you but I stopped watching cable news as soon as politics comes up. I watch it for real news reports and then shut it off. I think better of the American people and believe in them a lot more than the minority on TV acting as if their political view is worthy of hating anyone. I have too many friends on both sides and there is not one of them who does not love this country as much as I do and I know for sure they do not live and breathe their party line above taking care of their neighbors and being a friend.

We come together in times of crisis. We see average people pulling together when someone is in need. We see it when they get on their motorcycles for a charity ride. When they show up at events to help the homeless, feed the hungry at soup kitchens, buy extra food to donate to the hungry families, pitch in to build a home and when they take the time to offer hope to someone with none. Heroes among us show up after a disaster and ask nothing more than "how can I help" while they forget about their own problems and comforts. We saw it leading up to Christmas when donations of toys for poor kids were given by total strangers so they could have something on Christmas morning. We see it when a neighbor offers to shovel out another neighbor unable to shovel the snow. We also see it when a family near us is in mourning for the loss of one of their own. We see it when church members come to the aid of someone in need no matter what church they themselves go to or even if they don't go to church at all.

These acts of kindness we live with everyday and they surround us with care and compassion but when we turn on the TV we hear anger and hatred. When we hear political people attack each other we think that is all there is and it feeds the divide. When we see political rallies with hateful signs and shouts about violence, we think that is all over the country but the truth is far from it. All this week there has been a lot of talk about "toning" down the rhetoric but they should be toning down the coverage as well so that it is not all over the news all the time.

When will the day come we can stop saying we didn't see something coming because we were distracted by a lot of nonsense?

Marine Corps' camp may have cancer link for Bay area vets

Marine Corps' camp may have cancer link for Bay area vets

By HOWARD ALTMAN | The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 14, 2011
In the beginning of 2007, Andrew Przenkop woke up with "a bit of pain" in his back.

A Polk County detention deputy, he shrugged it off as a byproduct of his job.

"I thought it was fatigue," Przenkop said. "In jail, you get a lot of hands-on with the inmates. They are always acting up."

Przenkop lived with the pain, but one morning in 2009, he began urinating blood. A short while later, he learned the pain had nothing to do with inmates.

"In March 2009, I found out I had kidney cancer," he says.

For the former Marine, who spent 11 months at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, finding out about the cancer was only the opening salvo in a battle for his life. In July, a friend told him about studies that show drinking water at two of the eight wells at Lejeune were contaminated with chemicals like perchloroethylene and trichloroethylene and that some people think those chemicals are linked to his cancer.

Saturday, Przenkop will be joined by scores of other Marines, their spouses and children at a meeting in Tampa of those searching for answers to what caused their health problems and what, if any, compensation is available from the Corps or the Veterans Administration.
read more here
Marine Corps' camp may have cancer link for Bay area vets/

Watertown cab driver accused of extorting fares from Fort Drum soldiers

Watertown cab driver accused of extorting extra fares from Fort Drum soldiers
By Robert A. Baker / The Post-Standard
Published: Friday, January 14, 2011

Syracuse, NY -- A Watertown taxi driver is facing a felony after he was accused by Syracuse police of scamming soldiers trying to get from Syracuse Hancock International Airport to Fort Drum.
Michael B. Lavery, 37, of 8417 Willow St., Evans Mills, a driver for Phenix Cab Co. of Watertown, was charged with grand larceny.
Sgt. Tom Connellan gave the following details:
On Jan. 3, several soldiers stationed at Fort Drum were waiting for a shuttle back to the base after flying into the airport. Because of the long wait, a soldier contacted Phenix Cab Co. to find out the fare to the base and was quoted a price of $90. The soldier informed the cab company that there were three going to the base for the $90 fare.
When Lavery arrived, he solicited another two soldiers to join the cab ride with the agreement that $90 would cover all five.
When the cab arrived at the Northern New York base, Lavery told the five that the price was $90 per person and that they owed him $450, not $90.
During the discussion on the rate for the ride, Lavery threatened to have the five arrested and called the military police. When the MPs arrived, Lavery told them he increased the amount for the trip because he had to drive through bad weather. When MPs said the rate sounded excessive, Lavery said he didn’t care and threatened the soldiers with criminal charges. Knowing that criminal charges could hurt their military careers, the soldiers paid the $450.
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Watertown cab driver accused of extorting

Vietnam Memorial Desecrated Repeatedly In Philadelphia

Love, respect, gratefulness and compassion built the this memorial to the fallen in Vietnam. Hate, stupidity and evil hearts refuse to understand any of it. They must think it is fun to destroy. What does it gain them to walk around this world with absolutely no regard for the selfless few mourned at this memorial? Empty wretches passing themselves off as a mourner only to destroy what was left by real ones. God sees them and will remember what they have done on this earth.

Philadelphia’s Vietnam Memorial Desecrated Repeatedly In New Year
January 13, 2011 6:00 PM

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – The Vietnam War is a memory for Jim Moran, and every time someone disrespects that memory, the pain, for him, is real.
“They started to bust the wreaths up here and steal all the flowers out of there,” said Moran, pointing to the most recent desecration at the Philadelphia Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
“I wish it would stop, because it is heartbreaking.”
In his regular visits to the memorial that bears his brother’s name, Moran has noticed the desecration happening more often.
In the last three weeks, he said, he has found wreaths torn up and flags on the ground.
“It hurts all the families of the 646 men’s names that are on this wall.”
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Vietnam Memorial Desecrated Repeatedly In New Year/