Rick Scott's Tea-Party-backed proposed budget raises questions

First Bachmann comes out and says the veterans shouldn't be getting what they are getting and now Scott wants to take more away from more people. Do these people ever think about how they will hurt others? Do they care?

They claim they are about managing money but history proves that to not be true. Had they been right about the economy when the wealthy were getting subsidized tax breaks, we'd all be working and wealthy by now. The fact is we're all hurting and waiting for the jobs to trickle down so that we can see the fruits of their promises.

They complain about paying taxes but don't seem to mind paying them when wealthy people benefit from the tax breaks.

People of Florida get ready for more pain.

Rick Scott's Tea-Party-backed proposed budget raises questions as it slashes Florida funding


BY MARC CAPUTO

HERALD/TIMES TALLAHASSEE BUREAU

Calling for billions in tax and spending cuts, Gov. Rick Scott will unveil a budget Monday that's as much a policy roadmap as it is a sweeping political statement.
Even Scott's venue for rolling out the budget drips with political symbolism -- a tea party rally he helped establish in the small rural town of Eustis where activists will also celebrate a Florida court ruling against President Obama's health plan.
Scott's first proposed budget is his best chance to make good on his campaign promise to run government like an efficient business. It also sets the tone of his relationship with the Legislature, which has to turn his plans into a balanced budget.
The $5 billion question:
Is Scott's budget realistic?
Legislative leaders aren't sure, noting that next year's budget faces a shortfall of at least $3 billion and Scott proposes to make the hole even bigger by insisting on $2 billion more in tax cuts. They want Scott to explain how much more they'll cut from schools, prisons, roads, courts, environmental programs, libraries, parks and health care.
``This is a political bombshell,'' said Glenn Robertson, former budget director for governors Bob Graham and Bob Martinez, respectively a Democrat and Republican. ``The key thing is how seriously he's taken.''
``He'll probably get a lot of applause in Eustis. But the Legislature wants details, specifics. What has to be considered is how much the governor respects the process and the political implications of what he's asking,'' Robertson said.
Never before has the Republican-led Legislature cut $5 billion in one session. Over the past five years, though, lawmakers have trimmed a total of about $5 billion from one part of the budget, the general-revenue section, which accounts for most major government services.


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Rick Scott's Tea-Party-backed proposed budget

20,000 service members, vets lost homes in 2010

20,000 service members, vets lost homes in 2010
Foreclosure rate in zip codes near military bases increased 32 percent
By Gregg Zoroya - USA Today
Posted : Thursday Feb 3, 2011 22:24:48 EST
More than 20,000 veterans, active-duty troops and reservists who took out special government-backed mortgages lost their homes last year — the highest number since 2003.

The rate of foreclosure filings in 2010 among 163 zip codes located near military bases rose 32 percent over 2008, according to RealtyTrac, a foreclosure research firm. This compares with a 2010 increase in foreclosure filings nationally of 23 percent over 2008.

The housing crisis has hit military families particularly hard in part because of transfers and the loss of civilian jobs left behind by reservists.

About 12,000 military families applied to the Pentagon’s expanded Homeowners Assistance Program. It makes up most of the difference in price for service members who must transfer and sell their homes for less than they owe, or buys their houses outright.

“Our demand, in terms of (military) families coming to us for assistance, went up 19 percent in 2010 over the previous year,” says Bill Nelson, executive director of USA Cares, a charity that provides financial assistance to Iraq and Afghanistan war-era troops.
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20,000 service members, vets lost homes in 2010

But that isn't the only bad news for veterans

Unemployment for young vets jumps to 15 percent
By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Friday Feb 4, 2011 10:25:57 EST
The unemployment rate for veterans took an unexpected jump in January — even as the overall unemployment rate fell.

The Labor Department reported Friday that the national unemployment rate dropped 0.4 percentage point, to a new level of 9.0, but the rate for veterans climbed to 9.9 percent, up from 8.3 percent the previous month.

For Iraq and Afghanistan-era veterans, the unemployment rate for January was 15.2 percent. This is a sharp increase from 9.4 percent in November and 11.7 percent in December, a clear trend of a worsening job market for younger veterans, many of them combat veterans.

“This should be a wakeup call for America,” said Paul Rieckoff, executive director of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans of America. “We have a definite employment problem and it is getting worse.”

Labor Department statistics for January show that 15.5 percent of male veterans and 13.5 percent of female veterans from the Iraq and Afghanistan era are looking for work and cannot find it. But Rieckoff said IAVA polling shows the true unemployment rate for young veterans is 20 percent or higher.
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Unemployment for young vets jumps to 15 percent

Bachmann backs off pay cuts for disabled vets

Bachmann backs off pay cuts for disabled vets
By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Friday Feb 4, 2011 15:29:44 EST
Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., sought Friday to quell a controversy over her budget-cutting plans, dropping a proposal that would have cut compensation for some disabled veterans by $12,000 a year or more.

Bachmann, who heads the tea party caucus in the House of Representatives, said she remains dedicated to cutting federal spending, and has not backed off the idea of freezing veterans health care funding.


But her list of ways to cut $400 billion from the federal budget no longer includes a proposal that would have reduced disability compensation by the amount received in Social Security Disability Income for the 153,000 severely disabled and unemployed veterans eligible for both benefits.

Bachmann came up with the list of possible cuts as part of her opposition to raising the $14.3 trillion cap on government borrowing, an issue Congress will face later this year.
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Bachmann backs off pay cuts for disabled vets

Homeless Veteran will have to go

Homeless Veteran will have to go


By Karen Cohilas

ALBANY, GA (WALB) - A homeless veteran, living under a bridge, has now been evicted from his make-shift home. We brought you a story with Army Veteran Colin Bailey last week. He lives underneath the bridge at the bypass and Slappey Boulevard in Albany.

Thursday, law enforcement hauled away his trash and also told him they'll be back for the rest of his belongings if he doesn't leave soon.

When people saw Bailey's belongings being hauled away, they contacted us at the station. I sat down with Bailey under the bridge this morning. We talked about his life on the streets and the news he got today wasn't all bad. @

"I don't care what corner of this town I come in, try to stay in, I get runoff."

Where else have you been that you got runoff? "Everywhere. Abandoned houses, old cars, abandoned buildings. I'm trying to survive. Trying to survive. Stay away from people."
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Homeless Veteran will have to go

Vets4Warriors offers help to Fort Hood soldiers

Published: Wednesday, February 02, 2011
By Seth Augenstein/The Star-Ledger
After returning home from Iraq in 1992, John Lurker struggled to restart a normal life.

The Desert Storm Army veteran changed jobs frequently. He had marriage troubles and eventually divorced. He especially had problems dealing with conflict, he said, refusing to yield to other people even when he knew he was on the wrong side of an argument.

"There was no empathy. No sympathy. It was only ‘preservation mode,’" he said.

At his lowest point last year, feeling distressed and out of sorts, he called the "Vet2Vet" helpline, run by UMDNJ, where he was directed to seek to professional help and was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress syndrome.

With the benefit of professional help, the Hackettstown man’s life started to improve, he said.
But it all began with the helpline.

Soldiers on active duty will now have the the chance to get the same type of help.
The University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, which runs the 5-year-old Vet2Vet program with the New Jersey Department of Military and Veterans Affairs, is offering a new "Vets4Warriors" helpline to the soldiers of Fort Hood in Texas, the most populous Army base in the nation.

As of Tuesday, the Vets4Warriors program is now providing 24-hour help to the roughly 50,000 soldiers who are stationed at Fort Hood. Whether it’s depression, thoughts of suicide, alcohol problems or just advice about how to navigate the military echelons, the veterans staffing the phone lines are listening and offering advice.

The helpline becomes available after a spate of suicides at Fort Hood. The number of soldiers who committed suicide doubled to 22 in 2010, according to the Army. It was the most suicides on an Army base since at least 2003, despite the fact that there are about 150 behavioral health workers on staff at the base, according to Army officials. On one September weekend alone last year, there were four suicides, according to Christopher Kosseff, the president and CEO of UMDNJ’s University Behavioral HealthCare, which administers the call center.
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UMDNJ offers help to Fort Hood Soldiers

Army producing another new suicide-prevention video

Army producing new suicide-prevention video
Jan 27, 2011

By Laura M. Levering (Northwest Guardian)

JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, Wash. (Jan. 27, 2011) -- A steady rise in the number of Soldiers who contemplate or commit suicide each year keeps the Army Suicide Prevention Program and behavioral health personnel striving for new ways to save lives.

The program's latest initiative, "Shoulder to Shoulder: Resiliency of the Army Family," is the third in a series of videos created for suicide awareness and prevention training at installations Armywide.

Joint Base Lewis-McChord was one of two installations selected for filming the 20-minute video.

A series of focus groups and interviews were conducted prior to filming "Shoulder to Shoulder," none of which was scripted. The video uses real people with real stories, in hopes of giving suicide a "face" viewers will identify with.

One focus group of leaders met in the "studio," a converted World War II barracks on Lewis North where the video was taped, to target ongoing Army initiatives and future direction of JBLM suicide prevention efforts.

The group included Walter Morales, program manager of DA Suicide Prevention and vice chief of staff, Health Promotion and Risk Reduction Task Force, Dr. Michelle Freedman, chief of Family and Child Services, Mark Brown, JBLM director of Human Resources, Sandi Vest of Child, Adolescent and Family Behavioral Health Proponency, Sam Smith, director of the Airman and Family Readiness Center, Patsy George, chief of Casualty Assistance and Robert Antry, chief of Military Personnel Division.

Morales said that coming to JBLM gave him a large pool of Soldiers to meet with from the thousands who have deployed and returned. He also said that while the majority of the video features Soldiers, his intent is to take feedback from the general population - to include family members and Department of the Army civilians - to produce training tools for suicide prevention.
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Army producing new suicide-prevention video

Numbers on PTSD and TBI expected to increase

It isn't a secret because it has happened after every war. The difference is this time, there are some people talking about it before it happens.

"Jan. 1, some 63 percent of the more than 9,000 Army Wounded Warrior Program Soldiers were diagnosed with behavioral health injuries -- 47 percent had PTSD, 16 percent Traumatic Brain Injury."

Gen. Peter W. Chiarelli also addressed the increase in the Guards and Reserves.


Chiarelli expects increase in behavioral health needs
Feb 2, 2011

By J.D. Leipold
WASHINGTON (Army News Service, Feb. 1, 2011) -- The Army's vice chief of staff said with the drawdown in Iraq and eventually in Afghanistan, the country could expect to see an increase in the number of Soldiers suffering from depression, anxiety, Traumatic Brain Injury and post-traumatic stress.

Speaking at the opening of the Reserve Officer Association's National Security Symposium Jan. 30, Gen. Peter W. Chiarelli praised the reserve component for being "truly remarkable" in what he called a nearly decade-long era of "persistent engagement," and added that the health and well-being of U.S. forces was absolutely critical to the security of the nation.

"Soldiers and their families are under tremendous stress and strain, physically and emotionally," he said. "Unfortunately, and I've said this often over the last couple of years, I do think it's going to continue to get harder, at least for a little while longer before it gets easy."

Of particular concern to Chiarelli were the physically hidden or unseen wounds -- Traumatic Brain Injury and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD. Citing the Army Wounded Warrior Program population, he said as of Jan. 1, some 63 percent of the more than 9,000 Army Wounded Warrior Program Soldiers were diagnosed with behavioral health injuries -- 47 percent had PTSD, 16 percent Traumatic Brain Injury.
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Chiarelli expects increase in behavioral health needs

Soldier stationed at Fort Campbell took his own life at 23

Suicides up in area
February 3, 2011 - By BRAD BAUER Special to The News and Sentinel

MARIETTA - The last time Marietta resident Andrew Russell spoke to his younger brother, Travis A. Thomas, was to tell him he'd become an uncle.

On Jan. 10, Thomas, a 23-year-old soldier stationed at Fort Campbell, Ky., took his own life.

"He sounded happy and really proud," said Russell, 25, of the conversation telling Thomas about the birth of Russell's son. "That's why I think this was more of an accident. I think he went a little too far with the alcohol. He was too excited about my son to want to do this."

Although Thomas' suicide did not take place in Marietta, local law enforcement has responded to at least four suicide attempts in January.

There were 13 suicide attempts reported to the Washington County Sheriff's Office in all of 2010. Police say there are probably more attempts that are not reported, or deaths that are never determined.
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Suicides up in area

Homeless Veteran turns his life around

Homeless Veteran turns his life around
By: Sherrie Johnson
BALTIMORE - Air Force Veteran Oliver Avery, III has struggled for 30 years with alcohol. He was divorced twice, homeless, desperate and ready for a change.

With the help of the VA Medical Center, Avery turned his life around. He was selected to attend the Veterans Affairs year long Leadership Development Institute. It's a program designed to enhance the leadership skills of people for higher level positions.
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Homeless Veteran turns his life around

Veteran's Wall Vandalized With "Kill Them All"

This happened last week but I have not been able to find any follow up stories on this.

Veteran's Wall Vandalized With "Kill Them All"

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- A tribute to fallen American heroes from the First Coast was vandalized sometime over the past few days, and was discovered on Friday evening.

A Jacksonville Sheriff's Office police report said an EverBank Field Security guard noticed the graffiti Friday on the Veteran's Memorial Wall in downtown Jacksonville.
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Veteran's Wall Vandalized

Florida Grandfather Reclaims His Identity After 17 Years

Fla. Grandfather Reclaims His Identity After 17 Years
Larry Smith Served Time in Jail for a Crime Committed by Alleged Identity Thief
BY JESSICA HOPPER
Feb. 3, 2011
A homeless man who allegedly stole the identity of a Florida grandfather who spent time in jail for a crime he did not commit will be arraigned today on multiple counts that include identity theft and welfare fraud, police said.

Joseph Kidd is accused of stealing Larry Smith's identity for 17 years, also costing Smith access to his medical benefits. The other charges against Kidd are giving false information to a police officer and grand theft of services.

In 1993, Kidd was arrested and fingerprinted in California for an unspecified, nonviolent crime as "Lawrence E. Smith," beginning a nightmare for the real Lawrence E. Smith, who lives in Lehigh Acres, Fla.

Investigators say they have discovered that Kidd had a birth certificate, a marriage license and even a driver's license with Larry Smith's name on it. He married a woman in 2007 allegedly using the alias.

Amid the confusion, the real Larry Smith has been wrongly ticketed for driving a purple Camaro too fast in 2001, billed $300,000 by Medicare and almost had his driver's license revoked for offenses he didn't commit.


"I spent eight days in jail in 2006 and my wife was on the phone 24-7 saying that it's not me," Smith said. "She sent paycheck stubs from where I was working when these crimes occurred to prove it wasn't me."
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Fla. Grandfather Reclaims His Identity After 17 Years

VA Awards include Orlando VA's Tim Liezert

VA Announces Awards for

Clinical Simulation Training, Education and Research

Innovations Result in Better Clinical and Customer Service Training

WASHINGTON (Feb. 3, 2011)- Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)
employees Dr. David M. Gaba and Timothy W. Liezert were recently named
the first-ever recipients of the Under Secretary for Health's Awards for
Excellence in Clinical Simulation Training, Education and Research.

"This award honors individuals who have made a national impact through
the direct provision of innovative clinical simulation training,
education and research in VA," said VA Under Secretary for Health Dr.
Robert A. Petzel. "Dr. Gaba's influence on the skills of clinical staff
throughout VA has benefited the millions of Veterans cared for in our
health care system."

Petzel presented each with the award at the International Meeting of
Simulation in Healthcare in New Orleans on Jan. 24.

Gaba describes simulation as a technique - not a technology - to replace
or amplify real experiences with guided experiences that evoke or
replicate substantial aspects of the real world in a fully interactive
manner.

Simulated learning enhances patient safety by ensuring clinicians
receive experience on virtual "patients" to improve procedural
performance. It also improves team functioning through training
scenarios in emergency rooms, operating rooms and intensive care units
where entire medical teams need to act seamlessly under tremendous
pressure. Recordings of simulated scenarios allow teams to review how
they work together and assess how they might improve their performance.

Dr. Gaba was recognized with the 2011 Excellence in Clinical Simulation
Training, Education and Research Practice Award for his numerous
contributions to the field of clinical simulation over the past two
decades. He created the first modern mannequin-based fully interactive
simulator, which has since been commercialized and, along with his
curricula, is in use in thousands of simulation training and education
programs around the world. He has also conducted ground-breaking
research in Crisis Resource Management (CRM) in clinical care settings
and has designed CRM-oriented simulation instructor training designed to
improve patient safety outcomes.

Gaba is staff anesthesiologist at the VA Palo Alto Health Care System,
Calif., and Associate Dean for Immersive and Simulation-based Learning
and Director of the Center for Immersive and Simulation Based Learning
(CISL) at Stanford University School of Medicine in California. He is
also editor-in-chief of "Simulation in Healthcare," the official journal
of the Society for Simulation in Healthcare.

In receiving the 2011 Clinical Simulation Training, Education and
Research Executive Leadership Award, Liezert was recognized for his role
in championing clinical simulation practice at the Orlando VA Medical
Center (VAMC), and in support of VA efforts to establish its Simulation
Learning Education and Research Network (SimLEARN) as a program of
peerless excellence. An active contributor to the vibrant and
nationally renowned Orlando simulation community, he has established
strong relationships with simulation leaders in industry, government and
academia that are greatly benefiting VA clinical simulation programs.

Committed to simulation excellence in clinical and non-clinical
settings, Liezert has applied simulation methodologies to customer
service training. "Tim Liezert is truly a model leader for VA in the
arena of clinical simulation," said Petzel. "His tireless efforts to
lead the way in establishing simulation as a learning modality for
health care education and training is significant, and is duly
recognized by this award." Liezert is director of the Orlando VA Medical
Center, Fla.

The strategy of VA's SimLEARN program is to improve clinical outcomes
for America's Veterans by providing a safe and supportive environment in
which practitioners master skills, practice protocols, learn
system-based practices, apply critical decision making and promote
communication and interpersonal skills. To learn more about the
SimLEARN program, visit www.simlearn.va.gov.

Pearl Harbor Vet held picture of his ship while caregiver was arrested

Crime & Courts
Family of 93-Year-Old Pearl Harbor Veteran Shocked by Caregiver Abuse Charges
Published February 02, 2011
FoxNews.com

Relatives of a Pearl Harbor veteran say they are shocked at the alleged abuse suffered by their 93-year-old father, who was found disheveled and dehydrated and living in a rat-infested home at the hands of his trusted caregiver.
Deputies with the San Diego County Sheriff's Department said they found Arnold Bauer living in squalor last week at his home near El Cajon, Calif., and charged his caregiver, 63-year-old Milagros Angeles, with elder abuse.
Authorities said they found Bauer -- who has prostate cancer and dementia -- sitting next to rotting garbage and rat feces while clutching a framed photo of the ship he was serving on the day of Pearl Harbor, Fox5SanDiego.com reports.
Angeles has been charged with four felony counts of elder abuse, forgery, theft and false imprisonment. Prosecutors allege that Angeles wrote checks to herself from Bauer's account and sent the money to her native Philippines.


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Family of 93-Year-Old Pearl Harbor Veteran

Westboro Group ready to protest funeral for murdered children

Kansas church to protest at service for slain Florida siblings
By the CNN Wire Staff
February 2, 2011 4:19 p.m. EST

Westboro Baptist Church, based in Topeka, Kansas, has stirred controversy through its demonstrations at funerals.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Westboro Baptist Church says it will picket service because mother is a military wife
Tampa schools sponsoring service for brother and sister, who were slain last Friday
Julie K. Schenecker, 50, is charged with murder in the deaths of her children
Her husband is with the U.S. Central Command

(CNN) -- A controversial Kansas church says members will picket before the memorial service Wednesday evening for two Florida teenagers allegedly killed by their mother.

In a press release, Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kansas, said it will demonstrate outside the service in Tampa because the mother is a military wife and "the doomed American military declared war on God & His church."

The controversial church and its pastor, Fred Phelps, have made their name picketing near funerals of people who died of AIDS, gay people and soldiers. The church plans to picket beginning at 5:15 p.m.and ending at 6 p.m., when the service is scheduled to start, according to CNN affiliate WFTS-TV in Tampa.

Julie K. Schenecker, 50, is charged with two counts of first-degree murder in the shooting deaths Friday of her 16-year-old daughter, Calyx, and her 13-year-old son, Beau. She was denied bail at a court appearance Monday, a court spokesman said.

Her husband, Army Col. Parker Schenecker, is with the U.S. Central Command, which is headquartered in Tampa. Police told WFTS that he was in the Persian Gulf emirate of Qatar when his children were killed.

King High School, which Calyx attended, and Liberty Middle School, where Beau was a student, are sponsoring the service at First Baptist Church of Temple Terrace in Tampa, the church said.
Josh Saliba, director of creative ministries, told CNN he would not comment on Westboro Baptist's plans to protest.

On Monday -- their first day back since the shootings became public -- students at Liberty Middle School wore blue and black in memory of Beau, who was an eighth-grader there.

CNN affiliate Bay News 9 posted a statement Monday from the Schenecker family:
"Colonel Parker Schenecker has returned from his deployment and is grieving with family and friends. He is devoted first and foremost to honoring the lives and memory of his beautiful children, Calyx and Beau," the statement said. "Parker and his family have been touched by the overwhelming support from the community both near and abroad. Arrangements and details are still being finalized with regard to the services to be held for Calyx and Beau."
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Kansas church to protest at service for slain Florida siblings

Florida Gov. Scott gives $200,000 to Wounded Warriors Project

Florida governor gives $200k for wounded vets
The Associated Press
Posted : Wednesday Feb 2, 2011 12:39:27 EST
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Gov. Rick Scott is donating $200,000 raised during his inauguration events to the Wounded Warriors Project.

Scott said during a ceremony Wednesday at the governor's mansion that he visited the group's Jacksonville headquarters while campaigning and was impressed with the work it does to help wounded veterans.

Scott said, "You could just see that lives were changed through Wounded Warriors."

Scott, a Navy veteran, also said that his administration will put a strong focus on military issues.
Florida governor gives $200k for wounded vets

Ft. Leonard Wood Battles Sexual Assaults

Ft. Leonard Wood Battles Sexual Assaults
January 31, 2011
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
FORT LEONARD WOOD, Mo. -- Two days after she joined her military police unit, the 19-year-old private found herself drunk, sick and locked in a barracks bathroom where, she said, a soldier in her unit sexually assaulted her.
Less than three months before, on Christmas Day 2009, the same soldier used similar tactics to assault a 20-year-old woman new to the 988th Military Police Company, prosecutors alleged in a court-martial earlier this month.
Six years after the Pentagon committed to addressing sexual assault within the ranks, such cases remain a fixture in military courtrooms. Of 19 pending courts-martial at Fort Leonard Wood, eight involve sexual assaults by soldiers, most of them on other service members. In many cases, the circumstances are sadly familiar and often difficult to prosecute.
The victim and accused often know each other, and, in some cases, may have had a previous sexual relationship. Alcohol is usually involved.
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Ft. Leonard Wood Battles Sexual Assaults

One Soldier’s Road to God

"I sought the LORD, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears.”

If you think that an average person cannot be just as important in sharing faith with others, you haven't read the Bible lately.

The truth is, few in the Bible had a formal education, most were common, only a few knew how to write but what they all had in common was a connection to God. Perfect faith? Hardly. Read the struggles they all went through and how they questioned their own faith. Read how they made mistake after mistake and were forgiven over and over again. Read how they started out with no faith at all but had a hunger to make it grow than an even stronger hunger to share what they had gained.

Christ took common fishermen and turned them into being leaders. A need to know she was not alone, Spc. Kelly Lee prayed out of desperation for a sign that she should not take her own life and it came with Psalm 34.

Photo by Sgt. David Bryant
The chaplain's assistant for the 36th Infantry deputy division chaplain, Spc. Kelly L. Lee, grew up in a household of drugs, alcoholism and crime. She was on the brink of suicide when an answered prayer turned her life around. Always an individual, Lee tells teh story of her life before and after being saved through body arwork, with a full "sleeve" on her left arm and plans to complete another "sleeve" on her right. The tattoos on her lower arm were completed by Clint Cummings of Sparrows Tattoo, Mansfield, Texas, and those on her upper arm by John Chancy of Fineline Tattoo in Mesquite, Texas.

A Life Worth Saving: One Soldier’s Road to God
36th Infantry Division Public Affairs Office
Story by Sgt. David Bryant

BASRAH, Iraq – It was a clear, sunny February day. A breeze was blowing through the open window of her apartment; the closet had finally been cleaned earlier in the week and the small study Bible her best friend had given her when she was 12 was laying on the nightstand.

That was when Spc. Kelly L. Lee sat down on the floor next to her bed, placed the razor against her wrist and said, “God, if you’re there, you better let me know because I’m going to come meet you.”

“I was at such a point of self-loathing; that’s why I got out the razor blade,” the 27-year-old Dallas native said. “I had my own place, a good job and a wonderful fiancé at the time. All the pieces of the puzzle were there, but something was missing. That missing piece was the life I didn’t have.”

And life had not always been great for Lee, she said. A self-proclaimed Army brat, the fiery redhead grew up in an unstable home filled with drug and alcohol abuse. Her parents were divorced by the time she was 12 and her mother had been in and out of jail since Lee was 9 years old.

As she sat with the blade against her wrist, a breeze blew the small Bible onto the floor and opened to Psalm 34. As she began to read, a verse leapt out at her: “I sought the LORD, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears.”

“I didn’t get saved the ‘traditional’ way by being preached to or talking to a minister or anything like that,” Lee said. “You can’t deny a face-to-face meeting with God like that, though. I cried out and he heard me.”

Like most youth, Lee had been searching for an “identity” before she was saved. It was during her search that she first began to express herself through body art by getting her astrological sign, Leo, tattooed on each of her hands.

“I loved being able to express who I am through body artwork,” she said. “When I came to know Christ and his love for me, that translated into the tattoos I have now.”

The artwork now covers her entire left arm in what is known as a “sleeve,” and Lee uses them as part of her “personal ministry.”

“When people ask what they mean, it gives me a chance to express myself and tell my story,” she said.

From the depths of despair, she looked to a razor blade for salvation and instead found a calling, Lee added. “It was all he said; to be prepared. About a year and a half later, he laid on my heart: ‘Army.’ I prayed about it for about eight months, asking, ‘Is this really what you want me to do?’”
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One Soldier’s Road to God

Psalm 34

Of David. When he pretended to be insane before Abimelek, who drove him away, and he left.

1 I will extol the LORD at all times;

his praise will always be on my lips.

2 I will glory in the LORD;

let the afflicted hear and rejoice.

3 Glorify the LORD with me;

let us exalt his name together.

4 I sought the LORD, and he answered me;

he delivered me from all my fears.

5 Those who look to him are radiant;

their faces are never covered with shame.

6 This poor man called, and the LORD heard him;

he saved him out of all his troubles.

7 The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear him,

and he delivers them.

8 Taste and see that the LORD is good;

blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.

9 Fear the LORD, you his holy people,

for those who fear him lack nothing.

10 The lions may grow weak and hungry,

but those who seek the LORD lack no good thing.

11 Come, my children, listen to me;

I will teach you the fear of the LORD.

12 Whoever of you loves life

and desires to see many good days,

13 keep your tongue from evil

and your lips from telling lies.

14 Turn from evil and do good;

seek peace and pursue it.

15 The eyes of the LORD are on the righteous,

and his ears are attentive to their cry;

16 but the face of the LORD is against those who do evil,

to blot out their name from the earth.

17 The righteous cry out, and the LORD hears them;

he delivers them from all their troubles.

18 The LORD is close to the brokenhearted

and saves those who are crushed in spirit.

19 The righteous person may have many troubles,

but the LORD delivers him from them all;

20 he protects all his bones,

not one of them will be broken.

21 Evil will slay the wicked;

the foes of the righteous will be condemned.

22 The LORD will rescue his servants;

no one who takes refuge in him will be condemned.

PTSD Not God's Judgment

Posted to Great Americans by NamGuardianAngel on September 10, 2009

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Soldier's Wife Fights For Daughter's Meds

Soldier's Wife Fights For Daughter's Meds
Girl Has Dravet's Syndrome
Reported By Forrest Sanders

A Fort Campbell soldier's wife said her long fight was worth it. The mother wrote congressmen, senators and mayors to get help for her daughter's rare medical condition.

"If you have a child with special needs, don't give up," said Felicia Harris.

She and her husband were married after being high school sweethearts. Three years ago, they welcomed their daughter Lexy -- a happy baby suffering a rare syndrome.

"They did the blood test, and it came back, and she did have the gene," Harris said. "It's genetic. Hers is a mutation."

It's called Dravet's syndrome.

"It's just a severe type of epilepsy," said Harris. "Their seizures can last from five minutes to hours. My daughter's longest seizure was two hours and 45 minutes."

Harris said the only answer is a medication called stiripentol, but it isn't approved by the FDA and not covered by TriCare, the military's health care plan.
read more here
Soldier's Wife Fights For Daughter's Meds

Man claims PTSD after allegedly killing 100 sled dogs

Man claims PTSD after allegedly killing 100 sled dogs
By Nina Golgowski, CNN
February 1, 2011 10:04 p.m. EST
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
A man files for workers comp, claiming stress
He says he was carrying out company orders to kill 100 dogs
The man cited "a slow winter season" as the reason to decrease the dog pack

(CNN) -- An employee of Canada's Outdoor Adventures company admitted to slaughtering 100 sled dogs, according to a workers compensation report he later filed.

The employee -- whose name authorities have not yet released -- worked as a general manager of Howling Dogs tour company in Whistler, British Columbia. He claimed he was suffering from post-traumatic stress after carrying out company orders to kill the dogs, the report said.

A company with a similar name, Howling Dogs Tours, in Canmore, Alberta, has no connection with this case.

The man cited "a slow winter season" that compelled him to decrease the size of the company's dog pack by 30 percent, the report said.
read more here
Man claims PTSD after allegedly killing 100 sled dogs

Holt brings Sergeant Coleman Bean bill back amid rise in vets’ suicide rate

Holt brings Bean bill back amid rise in vets’ suicide rate

Army report says 145 Guard, Reserve members took own lives in 2010
BY LAUREN CIRAULO
Staff Writer


EAST BRUNSWICK — Rep. Rush Holt (D-12th District) is renewing efforts to pass a bill intended to strengthen treatment resources for returning soldiers.

His reintroduction of the measure, which was suddenly removed from the federal Defense Authorization Act of 2011 in December, was bolstered by a Jan. 19 announcement from the U.S. Army that suicide rates among National Guard and Reserve veterans had increased significantly.

“In the coming weeks, I will be reintroducing the Sergeant Coleman Bean Reserve Component Suicide Prevention Act, which has passed the House unanimously twice but was blocked by members of the Senate minority,” Holt said. “My legislation, named in memory of a constituent who tragically took his own life after serving two combat tours in Iraq, would directly address the lack of follow-up with at-risk Guard and Reserve members …”

Army Chief of Staff Peter Chiarelli issued a report in January indicating that in 2010, the Army’s active-duty force saw a slight drop in the number of suicides, from 162 in 2009 to 156. However, there was a significant rise in the number of suicides among National Guard and Reserve units, nearly doubling from 80 deaths in 2009 to 145 in 2010.

“I am thankful that the efforts of Army Chief of Staff Peter Chiarelli and the Army as a whole has led to a slight reduction in the number of suicides among our active duty soldiers,” Holt said. “However, as Gen. Chiarelli acknowledged today, the doubling in suicides among Guard and Reserve members is both alarming and a call to action.”

For East Brunswick resident Greg Bean, whose son Coleman was 25 when he took his life Sept. 6, 2008, a few months after returning from his second tour in Iraq, the numbers demonstrate the need for action.
read more here
Holt brings Bean bill back amid rise in vets’ suicide rate

NJ center to run counseling program at Fort Hood

NJ center to run counseling program at Fort Hood
By BETH DeFALCO Associated Press © 2011 The Associated Press
Feb. 1, 2011, 2:24PM

TRENTON, N.J. — In response to a record number of suicides in 2010, one of the nation's largest Army posts is turning to a successful veteran-to-veteran counseling program in New Jersey for help.

Beginning Tuesday, the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey will provide a toll-free, 24-hour helpline for soldiers and families at Fort Hood in Texas.

Based in Piscataway, N.J., the Vets4Warriors helpline for will be staffed by five veterans, including some who served in Vietnam and Iraq. The counselors, who are trained and employed by UMDNJ, will be available for around-the-clock confidential support both over the phone and through an instant messaging system. Soldiers who call can remain anonymous.

"Unfortunately, the suicide rate among the military has risen dramatically in the past eight years," said Christopher Kosseff, CEO of UMDNJ's University Behavioral HealthCare. "Today, a veteran is twice as likely to commit suicide as someone who has never served."

The Army reported 22 suicides of Fort Hood soldiers last year — double the number in 2009 and even higher than the previous record of 14 in 2008 — prompting officials to look for new ways to help struggling soldiers.

Overall in 2010, the Army reported 343 suicides of soldiers, Army civilians and family members — 69 more than in 2009, according to the Defense Department.

Kosseff, who runs the New Jersey program, had the idea of starting the program at Fort Hood after four suicides were reported in one week at the Army post.

"A veteran can really understand the rigors of military life better than someone who has not lived it," Kosseff said.

Kosseff said that having veterans staff the lines and allowing callers to remain anonymous has been a key reason to its success in New Jersey.

"There's an issue that mental health professionals are not highly regarded by some. They are seen as people who can limit someone's activity, rather than someone who is supporting them," he said.

Known as the Vet2Vet program in New Jersey, the helpline was the first of its kind in the nation when it began operating in New Jersey in 2005. It was modeled after a Cop2Cop counseling program for police.

Master Sgt. Chuck Arnold, a counselor and Vietnam veteran who has worked with the New Jersey hotline since it started said that the peer element is crucial.

"Most are very relieved that they don't have to explain the language of the military," Arnold said. "We follow up and do what we say we are going to do. We are 24-7. You'll always get a live voice."
read more here
NJ center to run counseling program at Fort Hood

Valencia Veterans Association stood out the most

East Campus is my campus and I have to say that I am very proud it is. The association is already doing great things. We had a meeting yesterday and this is a dedicated group of people trying to make a difference at Valencia and in the community.


Tuesday, February 1, 2011

East campus students go clubbing
By Shannon Metherell
smetherell@valenciavoice.com

The Student Government Association had set up tables with individual clubs to promote the club fair. They hosted this event on East campus Thursday, Jan. 27.

With their military uniforms and the training techniques using the pull up bar, the Valencia Veterans Association stood out the most. Many of the club’s activities in creating a brotherhood include recruiting them around campus, helping homeless veterans, and even taking a trip to the gun range with UCF. “We like to help come together and try to help veterans transition into school life” stated president Donald Gibson.
read more here
http://valenciavoice.com/valencia-news/east-campus-students-go-clubbing

Iraq veteran killed by police lived trying to help other veterans

Another veteran dies in confrontation with police
Published: Tuesday, February 01, 2011
By Mike Francis, The Oregonian
Right on the heels of the burial of Thomas Higginbotham, the homeless veteran who was shot to death by Portland police, another veteran was shot to death after a showdown with police at his house in Gresham. Witnesses say he was suicidal and armed with a rifle.

McDowell's death shocked friends and associates, who say he was a jovial, outgoing man bursting with energy and eager to help vets.
read more here
Another veteran dies in confrontation with police

Man shot by Gresham police was an Iraq veteran who tried to help other vets
Published: Tuesday, February 01, 2011
By Lynne Terry, The Oregonian
A 50-year-old Gresham man who was killed in a confrontation with police was a career serviceman who spent the last two years trying to raise money and respect for veterans.

Anthony L. McDowell, an active member of the U.S. Army Reserves and the founder of a nonprofit supporting veterans, was killed outside his home in the 24000 block of Southeast Oak Street in Gresham on Monday evening.

Officer John Rasmussen, spokesman for Gresham police, said McDowell's wife, Teresa, called police right before 7 p.m., saying her husband was suicidal.

"Prior to our arrival, a family member had already taken a weapon away from him," Rasmussen said. "He did rearm himself with a rifle."

Gratton said her son's 13-year-old daughter and his wife witnessed the shooting.
read more here
Man shot by Gresham police was an Iraq veteran

Funeral of Homeless Vietnam Veteran Thomas Higginbotham who Died in Police Shooting

Funeral of Homeless Vietnam Veteran who Died in Police Shooting
Military Funeral of Thomas Higginbotham, 67, a homeless veteran who died in a police shooting after allegedly attacking them with a knife. Portland, Oregon. 01/02/2011
Thomas Higginbotham, 67, was buried at Willamette National Cemetery in Portland, Oregon, with military honors. He had been homeless for an unknown period of time, and had been living in an abandoned carwash in Portland's southeast side.
He had been in the United States Army for approximately 2 1/2 years, and served at least one tour in Vietnam. His life after the service was troubled, and he had been arrested and imprisoned many times in California. At least one arrest was for assault. At the time of his death, he had neither relatives, money, nor address. The police, the Veteran's Hospital database, and even the FBI were unable to locate next of kin or connections. The Dignity Memorial Homeless Veterans Burial Program, founded in St. Louis in 2000, became involved.
read more here
Funeral of Homeless Vietnam Veteran who Died in Police Shooting

Grand jury reports: Portland police shot homeless veteran 10 times after he advanced holding a knife
Published: Friday, January 28, 2011, 7:58 PM

By Maxine Bernstein, The Oregonian

Two Portland police officers fired 12 gunshots at Thomas Higginbotham on Jan. 2 when they say the homeless man inside an abandoned Southeast Portland car wash walked toward them holding a knife with an 8-inch blade.

Higginbotham, 67, was struck 10 times and died from wounds to the chest and abdomen, according to grand jury records released Friday. He had two other knives in his coat pocket, and a blood-alcohol content of .26.
read more here
http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2011/01/portland_police_shoot_homeless.html

Ft. Riley charged with stalking soldier she was supposed to be helping

Ft. Riley therapist charged with stalking, sexually harassing soldier who was her patient

By Associated Press

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A therapist who was treating a Fort Riley soldier for traumatic stress has been accused of sexually harassing the patient.

Rachelle Santiago was charged Monday in a federal criminal complaint with stalking the sergeant she was counseling for post-traumatic stress disorder and marital issues. An affidavit also alleges she sent him sexually explicit messages and pictures, and that she stalked the soldier and his wife.
read more here
Ft. Riley therapist charged with stalking

Man charged with wanting to blow up Islamic Center

The man is a Vietnam Vet with PTSD according to this report. It is not the first time he has been charged with something like this. Why? What kind of help did he get after the threat against President Bush? What kind of help has he ever gotten?

Man who threatend veteran's facilities faces new federal charges

Burlington, Vermont - January 31, 2011

A man who was charged with threatening the VA hospital in White River Junction, the Veterans Center in Colchester and President Bush back in 2002, has picked up new federal charges, this time in Michigan.

Police picked up 63-year-old Roger Stockham last week for allegedly planning to attack the Islamic Center of America. A psychiatric exam in 2004 found Stockham suffered from several issues, including personality disorder and post-traumatic stress.
read more here
Man who threatend veteran's facilities

Fall River soldier dies at Fort Bragg

Fall River soldier dies at Fort Bragg

By Dan McDonald
Sunday, January 30, 201

FALL RIVER — Another city soldier has died, the fifth active serviceman hailing from Fall River to die in the last year.

Army National Guard Staff Sgt. Jason T. Pool, 51, died while undergoing a medical evaluation at Fort Bragg, N.C., his family was told early Saturday.

Pool was serving in the 101st Field Artillery unit. The Fall River native leaves behind his wife, Linda, his daughter, Elizabeth, and two grandchildren.

Manuel DaPonte, director of veterans services in Fall River, said the exact cause of death had yet to be determined. DaPonte said he did not know the specific date of Pool’s death. He said Pool was at Fort Bragg for a medical evaluation, but did not indicate what exactly Pool was being evaluated for.

DaPonte alluded to an ongoing military investigation into the death.

Pool served in the National Guard for more than 20 years, said DaPonte and most recently was deployed to Afghanistan from January 2010 to July 2010.
read more here
Fall River soldier dies at Fort Bragg

Thousands of soldiers return to long search for 'normal'

When I wrote my book For the Love of Jack self published in 2002, I wrote how our lives took on a "new normal" because living with PTSD is not part of the "normal" world most live in. Then again, most people are not combat veterans. What is "normal" for most people is not normal for veterans. How could it ever be? These men and women lived in a world few of others will ever know. Civilians do not know what it is like to have bombs blowing up, bullets being fired at them or what it is like to see a friend killed. We don't know what it is like even when we are married to a veteran but we know what all they went through does to them.
The fact PTSD is a normal reaction to the abnormal world of combat makes living with the aftermath normal for us. No matter if they return with full blown PTSD, mild PTSD or not, they come home changed. Every event in a person's life will change them to some degree. No one returns from combat unchanged.
Read the book and then see that while Iraq and Afghanistan are different from Vietnam, what the veterans and their families go through is not different. What is available is new and wonderful. The media reports open up a window to what was once a deep secret. As more and more veterans talk about the aftermath of combat, more and more will seek help to heal as well. As families like mine talk about successful marriages and what can be done to help, more will stay together and stop feeling hopeless. We celebrated our 26th anniversary last September. I can assure you that none of this is hopeless.

Thousands of soldiers return to long search for 'normal'
BACH upgrades staff, services for 101st Airborne
BY JAKE LOWARY • THE LEAF-CHRONICLE • JANUARY 30, 2011


For the last year, more than 15,000 soldiers of the 101st Airborne Division have been fighting hard on the front lines in Afghanistan.

Many have been involved in heavy combat, witnessing death and injury firsthand.

Soon they will come home, where life is relatively normal by the standards of American masses. They will be thrust back into the lives they left behind as fast as they were thrust into combat.

Kym Owens, a Fort Campbell spouse of more than eight years who now lives at Fort Hood, is well attuned to the reintegration process. Especially after the first time.

"I didn't honestly know what reintegration looked like," she said, and equated the distance she felt from her husband to the quality of their relationship.

"He wasn't ready to snuggle yet. ... I also took (his attitude and behavior) personal," she said.

Knowing that many soldiers and their families face similar struggles, Blanchfield Army Community Hospital has ramped up its services to prepare, and has given its new reintegration program a dry run with some 600 soldiers already back from Afghanistan. But it will be truly tested in the next few weeks as thousands more come home.

More services have been added, along with more people and a more comprehensive way to identify and track the soldiers who might be experiencing problems.
read more here
Thousands of soldiers return to long search for normal

Police search for gunman after Fort Bragg soldier shot on post

Fort Bragg soldier shot on post

FORT BRAGG (WTVD) -- A Fort Bragg solider was shot on post Sunday morning.

The shooting happened near Yadkin Road and Stabo Loop in Fayetteville around 3:00 am.

Authorities say a 23-year-old soldier, was traveling on Yadkin Rd, when someone in a silver Impala fired numerous rounds into his vehicle. The solider was struck in the arm and taken to Womack Army Medical Center for treatment.
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Fort Bragg soldier shot on post

Slain Tampa Palms children remembered fondly

Slain Tampa Palms children remembered fondly by neighbors, in schools

By Jessica Vander Velde, Robbyn Mitchell and Ileana Morales, Times Staff Writers
In Print: Saturday, January 29, 2011


TAMPA — Julie Schenecker was sick of her teenage children talking back to her, police say, so last week she bought a .38-caliber pistol and planned their murder and her suicide.

She shot her 13-year-old son Thursday evening after driving him home from soccer practice. Then she walked upstairs and shot her 16-year-old daughter in the back of the head as she did homework, an arrest affidavit states.

With their blood on her clothing, the 50-year-old mother remained at the Tampa Palms house all night. Police didn't arrive until the next morning, after Schenecker's mother called them from Texas, worried because she couldn't reach her daughter, whom she believed was depressed.

Schenecker admitted to killing her children, Calyx Schenecker, 16, and Powers Beau Schenecker, 13, police said. She showed no remorse.

Though Schenecker cooperated Friday, police spokeswoman Laura McElroy said no explanation could help people truly understand why it happened.

"She did tell us that they talked back and they were mouthy," she said.

The children's father, Army Col. Parker Schenecker, 48, was informed Friday that his wife killed their children, McElroy said. He is stationed at Central Command at MacDill Air Force Base and was in the Middle East.
read more here
Slain Tampa Palms children remembered fondly

Wanted: vintage war photographs circa Vietnam era

If you are like my husband you have a couple of albums somewhere. Would be great to contribute some to this effort.

Vietnam War: A picture's worth a thousand words

By Michael Futch
Staff writer

Wanted: vintage war photographs from home and abroad, circa Vietnam era.

Cape Fear Studios has put out a call to Vietnam veterans and their families for wartime photography. As envisioned, select pictures from those submitted will be presented as a series of exhibits in conjunction with the Heroes Homecoming celebration in November.

Fayetteville leaders are planning the Heroes Homecoming over the 10 days leading up to Veterans Day. The celebration, which will include an agenda of community observances, will honor the Vietnam War veterans.
read more here
A picture's worth a thousand words

Father and son Iraq veterans help each other after brain injuries

Father, son help each other after brain injuries

By JULIE WATSON
The Associated Press


Sunday, January 30, 2011; 1:00 PM
MOORPARK, Calif. -- The crisply ironed uniforms of the father and son hang side by side in what they have dubbed the "Marine Corps closet," a dark space filled with vestiges of their tours of duty.

Two Purple Hearts. A backpack full of medical records.

The father is David R. Franco; the son is David W. Aside from the name, they share so much: proud service in Iraq, and a haunting, painful aftermath.

Both survived blasts by improvised explosive devices, and both have been diagnosed with traumatic brain injuries and post-traumatic stress disorder. They fight pain daily. They are jittery in crowds at the mall. They have memory lapses. The father has struggled to spell "the" or "to," while his son searches for words in a conversation.

Their injuries came three years apart. The elder Franco was still struggling to come to grips with his own suffering when he learned that his son had been injured in the same way.

"My heart dropped," said the father. "As a parent you want your kids to be safe. You don't want them to go through the same things you've been through."
read more here
Father and son help each other after brain injuries

Bachmann discovers targeting veterans not a good idea

In a lame attempt to defend Bachmann, Doug Sachtleben, (Bachmann's spokesman) said "Congresswoman Bachmann is not advocating for veterans' benefits to be abolished. She has always said that our nation must properly care for its heroes," but she was not saying she wanted to abolish the VA. She may say it but never proves it.  She was saying the veterans are not worth what they are getting. The same thing the rest of us have. Get hurt on the job and you get Workman's Comp plus Social Security Disability. Instead of Workman's Comp veterans get VA Comp. This statement was not defending what she wanted to do. What does she think proper care of our heroes is? Is it telling them their benefits are open to be slashed because she doesn't feel like paying them? Is it telling them that tax cuts for the rich should be funded off their backs? Maybe now people will finally see that when a politician says one thing but does another, it's what they do that really matters. Talk of supporting the troops and veterans is cheap and when they pull something like this, they show how little they really do value the "heroes" they say they care about. Her own spokesman couldn't even defend her properly. If she really thought this was the right thing to do, her spokesman should have defended her reasons to do it instead of twisting it around. Not that it would have made this right but it would have at least shown she believes in what she says.

House of Representatives
Bachmann Takes Heat From Veterans' Group for Proposing Benefits Cuts
Published January 29, 2011
FoxNews.com
Conservative Rep. Michele Bachmann is taking heat from the nation's largest combat veterans' organization for proposing, as part of a broad list of spending cuts, a combination of reductions and caps in veterans' benefits.

"No way, no how, will we let this proposal get any traction in Congress," Richard Eubank, head of Veterans of Foreign Wars, said in a written statement released Friday.

The Minnesota Republican congresswoman, who is positioning herself as a leading critic of the Obama administration in the wake of the midterm elections, earlier this week outlined $400 billion worth of possible spending cuts. The plan projected huge savings from drastic measures like abolishing the Department of Education, overhauling farm subsidies and eliminating a host of Justice Department grants and programs.

Tucked into the outline was $4.5 billion in cuts targeting veterans. She proposed capping increases for health care spending at the Department of Veterans Affairs and cutting disability payments "to account for (Social Security) disability payments."

Reached for comment, Bachmann spokesman Doug Sachtleben told FoxNews.com in an e-mail that Bachmann is not pushing a "budget plan" and "has not introduced legislation to cut veterans benefits."

"Congresswoman Bachmann is not advocating for veterans' benefits to be abolished. She has always said that our nation must properly care for its heroes," he said.

Rather, Sachtleben described the proposal as a "list of suggested cuts to open things up for discussion" on how to reduce the nation's $14 trillion debt.

Mission accomplished.

Eubank called the pitch for veterans' payment cuts "totally out of step with America's commitment to our veterans."

"There are certain things you do not do when our nation is at war, and at the top of that list is not caring for our wounded and disabled servicemen and women when they return home," he said in a statement, urging Bachmann to tour a Minneapolis VA medical center and trauma center.


"The day this nation can't afford to take care of her veterans is the day this nation should quit creating them," he said.



Read more: Bachmann Takes Heat From Veterans' Group

For more on this


Bachmann tells veterans you aren't worth it

Disabled veterans decry wrongheaded, heartless cuts

5 Student Chaplains make the news on PTSD?

While this sounds like it could be a good idea, there is a problem with this. Why is a program that graduated ONE student last year and only has four more making so much news? Is this a PR move by the Air Force or by Iliff School? This has already been covered on this blog but has been picked up by many more as if it is a huge story but when we're talking about a total of 5 students, it shouldn't be getting nearly as much attention as it is. Even the Huffington Post picked this up from AP

Air Force chaplains enlist theology school in effort to help service members with PTSD
DAN ELLIOTT
Associated Press
January 29, 2011, 4:06 p.m.

"If they were leading worship where people have come to a Christian service of worship, of course they would lead out of their own tradition," she said of the chaplains. "Or if they're leading a prayer before troops go on a mission and the troops have volunteered to come to that prayer, they would use their own traditions."

But when people go to a chaplain for help with post-traumatic stress or other issues, they want someone who respects their views and won't try to impose other beliefs on them, she said. (Chaplain Matt Boarts)

DENVER (AP) — A Colorado theology school is teaching Air Force chaplains to consider the religious beliefs of servicemen and women to better help them cope with post-traumatic stress.

The goal is to build trust so a chaplain can encourage service members to draw on their individual concepts of God and spirituality, said Carrie Doehring, an associate professor of pastoral care at the Iliff School of Theology in Denver.

Doehring helped develop the one-year program for the Air Force, which wanted another way for its chaplains to respond to the stress of deployments amid two protracted wars.

Doehring said she believes it's the only program of its kind in the country.

One student graduated last year and four are enrolled this year.
read more here
Air Force chaplains enlist theology school

FBI Arrests Alleged Phony SF Colonel

FBI Arrests Alleged Phony SF Colonel

January 25, 2011
Military.com|by Bryant Jordan
A man who claimed to be a retired Green Beret colonel and an expert in the international sex-slave trade has been arrested in Maryland by the FBI.
An FBI spokeswoman said William G. "Bill" Hillar was charged with mail fraud in connection with a scheme to use bogus military and academic credentials toward teaching and training employment.
For years Hillar allegedly scammed universities, non-profit groups and law enforcement organizations by claiming his daughter was kidnapped by human traffickers in Asia and that he spent months in a failed effort to rescue her. He parlayed his “expertise” and faux Army Special Forces career into thousands of dollars in teaching and lecture fees.
read more here
FBI Arrests Alleged Phony SF Colonel

Deployed Colonel’s wife killed son and daughter in Tampa FL hospitalized

O-6’s wife hospitalized after arrest for deaths
By Tamara Lush - The Associated Press
Posted : Saturday Jan 29, 2011 11:59:44 EST
TAMPA, Fla. — The woman who authorities say killed her teenage daughter and son because she was fed up with them talking back and being mouthy will not appear in court Saturday because she’s being treated at a hospital for an unknown condition.

Authorities say Julie Powers Schenecker was taken to Tampa General Hospital shortly after midnight Saturday to be treated for a medical condition that existed before she was taken to jail. Hillsborough Sheriff’s deputies — who oversee jail inmates — said they could not reveal Schenecker’s medical condition, citing health care privacy laws.

An arrest affidavit said Schenecker shot her son twice in the head in the family car “for talking back” as she drove him to soccer practice. The report said Schenecker then drove to their upscale home and shot her daughter in the face inside the home.
click link for more

Illegal Immigrant Sentenced For Using Deployed Marine's ID

Illegal Immigrant Sentenced For Using Deployed Marine's ID
By Metro Source News
Fri 07:53 AM 01/28/2011
A Mexican national who was in the country illegally has been sentenced to one year in prison for using the stolen identity of a U.S. Marine deployed to the Middle East.
read more here
Illegal Immigrant Sentenced For Using Deployed Marine's ID

Gay Marine’s husband surprised at respect shown by Naval Academy

Gay Marine’s husband surprised at respect shown by Naval Academy
Neil steinberg nsteinberg@suntimes.com Jan 29, 2011

John Fliszar had a heart attack in 2006 and was rushed to Illinois Masonic Medical Center.

“When I was in the emergency room with him, he asked me to promise him, if he died, to make sure his ashes were interred in the Naval Academy,” said Mark Ketterson. “He loved that place. He very much wanted to be there.”

Fliszar, a Marine aviator who served two tours in Vietnam, survived that heart attack. But last July the Albany Park resident suffered another one that killed him at age 61.

Hoping to fulfill Fliszar’s wishes, Ketterson contacted the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis and told them that Fliszar, Class of ’71, had wanted to have his ashes interred at the USNA’s Columbarium, a serene white marble waterside crypt next to the school’s cemetery.

The memorial coordinator asked about his relationship to the deceased. Ketterson said that John Fliszar was his husband.

“They were always polite, but there was this moment of hesitation,” Ketterson recalled. “They said they’re going to need something in writing from a blood relative. They asked, ‘Are you listed on the death certificate?’ ‘Do you have a marriage license?’ ”

He was and they did, the couple having been married in Des Moines when gay marriage became legal in Iowa two years ago.

Ketterson sent a copy of the marriage license. That changed everything.

“I was respected,” he said. “From that moment on, I was next of kin. They were amazing.”
read more here
Gay Marine’s husband surprised at respect shown by Naval Academy

Michelle Obama honors military families on Oprah

Michelle Obama honors military families on Oprah

CARYN ROUSSEAU
Associated Press
January 27, 2011

CHICAGO (AP) — First lady Michelle Obama urged Americans during an episode of the "The Oprah Winfrey Show" that aired on Thursday to offer more support for the country's military families.

"There are things as a nation we can do big and small," Obama said during the episode, which was taped on Jan. 21. "And it's not a difficult thing to do."

The first lady has become an advocate for military families has traveled to military installations to talk with service members about their needs and concerns and has urged Americans to volunteer time to help them. On Thursday, she visited the Army's largest training post at Fort Jackson outside Columbia, S.C., and said the military's new exercise regimen and healthier foods could be a model for others across the U.S.

Her appearance on Winfrey's show comes after President Barack Obama announced new government-wide initiatives to support military families, including programs aimed at preventing suicide and homelessness.
read more here
Michelle Obama honors military families on Oprah

For other stories from this program and more on Oprah go here
The Bravest Families in America

Vietnam Vet John Wheeler died from "blunt force trauma

Official: Pentagon official died from blunt force trauma after assault
January 28th, 2011
From CNN's Allan Chernoff


Former Pentagon official John Wheeler died from "blunt force trauma after being assaulted," according to the Delaware medical examiner.
Pentagon official died from blunt force trauma after assault

Deployed Colonel’s wife killed son and daughter in Tampa FL

Police: Colonel’s wife killed son and daughter
The Associated Press
Posted : Friday Jan 28, 2011 17:04:13 EST
TAMPA, Fla. — The wife of an Army colonel was charged Friday with fatally shooting her teenage son and daughter after police found the mother covered in blood on the back porch of her home in an upscale Tampa suburb, police said.

Julie Powers Schenecker admitted to the slayings after police came to the home Friday morning, police spokeswoman Laura McElroy said. Schenecker's mother had called police from Texas because she was unable to reach the 50-year-old woman, whom she said was depressed.

Schenecker's husband, Parker Schenecker, is an Army colonel serving in Qatar and was notified of his children's deaths Friday, McElroy said.

read more here
Colonel’s wife killed son and daughter

Operation Safety 91 Tribute Event

Operation Safety 91 Tribute Event from Avalon Productions on Vimeo.

Unmarked graves found at veteran cemetery in Miss

Unmarked graves found at veteran cemetery in Miss.
(AP)
VICKSBURG, Miss. (AP) — Authorities said Thursday they fear dozens of veterans could lie in unmarked graves at a Mississippi military cemetery after they found two unidentified coffins and used radar to detect other possible plots.
The two coffins and other potential graves were found in sections of Vicksburg National Military Cemetery that were opened in the 1940s for World War I, World War II and Korean War veterans, National Park Service officials said at a news conference. The sprawling cemetery is the final resting place for more than 18,000 veterans, mostly Union soldiers from the Civil War.
The problems were discovered after workers preparing a burial site for a World War II veteran found a coffin in August. Another coffin was found nearby. The veteran was buried elsewhere in the cemetery and the graves were left alone, authorities said.
The cemetery stopped offering burials in 1961, except for veterans who had prior arrangements. There have been 109 burials since then.
The park service asked for help from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which used ground-penetrating radar devices to search for graves. Those sites were then checked by pushing metal rods into the ground, which in several cases hit solid objects that could be coffins.
The National Park Service's Southeast Archaeological Center has also been helping. Officials said a preliminary analysis of their research identified "eight probable and 48 possible unmarked graves."
read more here
Unmarked graves found at veteran cemetery in Miss

Disabled Veterans Decry Wrongheaded, 'Heartless' Budget Cuts

News Release - Disabled Veterans Decry Wrongheaded, 'Heartless' Budget Cuts

If Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) wanted to make a name for herself by proposing to cut funding for veterans health care and disability compensation, she has succeeded. "Such an ill-advised proposal is nothing short of heartless," according to Disabled American Veterans Washington Headquarters Executive Director David W. Gorman.

"It is unconscionable that while our nation is at war someone would even think of forcing our wounded warriors to sacrifice even more than they already have," Gorman said. "Their injuries and disabilities were the result of their service to the nation, and our nation must not shirk its responsibilities toward them. How do you tell a veteran who has lost a limb that he or she has not sacrificed enough? Yet Rep. Bachmann wants to do just that."

The third-term member of Congress has called on Congress to freeze Department of Veterans Affairs health care spending and reduce disability compensation. Her proposal would cut $4.5 billion from veterans health care and disability benefits.

"Freezing VA health care funding will not only freeze out sick and disabled veterans seeking care, it will also end up costing the federal government even more money," said Gorman. "With the number of veterans seeking health care rising, the effect of a freeze would be to either block enrollment of veterans, many of them just returning from battlefields in Iraq and Afghanistan, or to ration care to currently enrolled veterans, including disabled veterans who have relied on VA dating back to World War II," Gorman said.

Independent studies have shown the VA system provides safe, high quality health care at an average cost that is less than Medicare, Medicaid or the private sector. "This ill-conceived and misguided proposal by Rep. Bachmann would actually increase the budget deficit while lowering the quality of health care to our nation's veterans," he said.

"America's sick and disabled veterans will not sit idly by while their earned health care and disability benefits are threatened," Gorman warned. "We will raise our voices above the din and call on every member of Congress to reject Rep. Bachmann's heartless proposal."

Rep. Michele Bachmann tells veterans you are not worth the money

UPDATE 7:03 est
The more I think about this the more angry I get.
Let Bachmann tell him that he doesn't deserve the funds from Social Security he paid into while he recovers along with losing both his legs in service to this country.

Or tell Carmelo Rodriquez who died of cancer after exposures in combat that he didn't earn the funds.

Or to Joshua Cope

Tell that to the men and women in this video that while the rest of us pay into the system with our money and expect to get help when we need it, they don't have the same right. Tell them that while we do a lot of talking about how much we love this country, these men and women loved it so much they were willing to die for it.

Wounded and Waiting

Posted to Great Americans by NamGuardianAngel on September 14, 2009

Click to Play | View Details

This is from Social Security

How Workers’ Compensation And Other Disability Payments May Affect Your Benefits
http://www.ssa.gov/pubs/10018.html
SSA Publication No. 05-10018, March 2010, ICN 454500 (En Español) [View .pdf] [Audio.mp3]
Disability payments from private sources, such as private pension or insurance benefits, do not affect your Social Security disability benefits.
However, workers’ compensation and other public disability benefits may reduce your Social Security benefits. Workers’ compensation benefits are paid to a worker because of a job-related injury or illness. They may be paid by federal or state workers’ compensation agencies, employers or by insurance companies on behalf of employers.
Other public disability payments that may affect your Social Security benefit are those paid by a federal, state or local government and are for disabling medical conditions that are not job-related. Examples are civil service disability benefits, state temporary disability benefits and state or local government retirement benefits that are based on disability.
If you receive workers’ compensation or other public disability benefits and Social Security disability benefits, the total amount of these benefits cannot exceed 80 percent of your average current earnings before you became disabled.

Some public benefits do not affect your Social Security disability benefits
If you receive Social Security disability benefits and one of the following types of public benefits,
your Social Security benefit will not be reduced:
Veterans Administration benefits;
State and local government benefits, if Social Security taxes were deducted from your earnings; or
Supplemental Security Income (SSI).


Thank you Veterans For Common Sense!
An email from them came with news from Michele Bachmann's site saying the plan is to cut off veterans and turn them over to Social Security. This at the same time the Republican folks are talking about wanting to make Social Security cuts and privatize it.

Bachmann

Cap increases in Department of Veterans Affairs health care spending, and reduce disability compensation to account for SS disability payments. Reduce Veterans’ Disability Compensation to account for Social Security Disability Insurance payments. $4.5 Billion

What Bachmann doesn't seem to understand is that troops are sent to war by politicians and act on behalf of the nation. THEY ARE THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THIS NATION no matter if she likes it or not. If she doesn't think they are worth taking care of, then this woman shouldn't be where she is. How do the people of Minnesota feel about having her in congress when they have had so many serving in Iraq and Afghanistan while she wants to deny them care?

From the Disabled American Veterans
News Release - Disabled Veterans Decry Wrongheaded, 'Heartless' Budget Cuts

From Army Times

Bachmann plan would cut veterans benefits
By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Friday Jan 28, 2011 5:30:31 EST
Tea party favorite Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., has unveiled a plan for cutting $400 billion in federal spending that includes freezing Veterans Affairs Department health care spending and cutting veterans’ disability benefits.

Her proposed VA budget cuts would account for $4.5 billion of the savings included in the plan, posted on her official House of Representatives website.

Paul Sullivan, executive director of Veterans for Common Sense, said cutting veterans’ health care spending is an ill-advised move at a time when the number of veterans continues to grow as troops return from Iraq and Afghanistan. Sullivan said he finds it difficult to see how VA could freeze health care costs without hurting veterans.

“It is really astonishing to see this,” he said.

In a statement, Bachmann said her plan is intended for discussion purposes as an example of ways to cut federal spending to make it unnecessary to increase the current $14.3 trillion limit on the amount the U.S. government can borrow.


The debt ceiling will be reached sometime in March, according to economic forecasts, but many lawmakers — especially members of the tea party movement — have been talking about cutting federal spending either instead of, or as part of, a move to increase the debt limit.

Her list of cuts doesn’t explain the impact of freezing veterans’ health care funding, but the Congressional Budget Office said in a report issued in October that health care costs have been quickly increasing. VA’s health care budget was $44 billion in 2009, $48 billion in 2010 and is at $52 billion this year. The report forecasts a health care budget of $69 billion or higher by 2020 if trends continue, the report estimates.

Bachmann’s idea of cutting costs by reducing veterans’ disability compensation by the amount received in Social Security Disability Income is not new. The proposal, which would affect more than 150,000 veterans, has long been on a list of possible budget options prepared by the Congressional Budget Office, which describes the option as a way to “eliminate duplicate payment of public compensation for a single disability.”

10th Mountain Division 1st Lt. David Provencher Earns Silver Star

Ellenville High School grad earns Silver Star for heroism in Afghanistan
Published: Thursday, January 27, 2011

By PATRICIA DOXSEY
Freeman staff

An Ellenville man fighting in the war in Afghanistan has been awarded the Silver Star, the nation’s third-highest award for valor in combat.

U.S. Army 1st Lt. David Provencher of the 10th Mountain Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team received the medal Wednesday during a ceremony at Forward Operating Base Kunduz in northern Afghanistan. He is an infantry platoon leader with 1st Battalion, 87th Infantry Regiment.

Provencher, a 1999 graduate of Ellenville High School, has been credited with saving the lives of three wounded soldiers and refusing to leave two others who were mortally wounded during heavy combat on June 16, 2010.
read more here
Ellenville High School grad earns Silver Star for heroism in Afghanistan

Vietnam Veteran Loses Insurance Over Two Cents

Vietnam Veteran Loses Insurance Over Two Cents

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Photo Courtesy - KMGH-TV
(THORNTON, Colo.) -- What can make the difference between receiving a potentially lifesaving surgery or not? For Vietnam veteran Ronald Flanagan, Ceridian Cobra Services determined it's two cents.

Flanagan has multiple myeloma, cancer of the bone marrow, which he has been fighting since September 2008. He now needs a third stem cell transplant surgery but had lost his health coverage over a two-cent error.

Ceridian Cobra Services, an insurance benefits administrator, dropped Ron Flanagan after his wife, Frances Flanagan, said she mistakenly substituted a seven for a nine when she paid their monthly health insurance premium of $328.69 online.

"If I only had just hit the 9 instead of the 7," Frances Flanagan told ABC News' Denver affiliate, KMGH-TV. "Everybody we talk to is very surprised that 2 cents is enough to do this."

What two cents was able to undo, ABC News was able to help redo. When ABC News called Ceridian to comment on the story the company delivered unexpected news.
read more here
Vietnam Veteran Loses Insurance Over Two Cents

UK:10 a day are now being treated for psychological problems

Ten troops a day suffer mental health problems in fight against Taliban


by Chris Hughes, Daily Mirror 24/01/2011

THE war on terror is taking its toll on the mental state of British troops with a dramatic rise in the number seeking psychiatric help.
Worrying new figures have revealed 10 a day are now being treated for psychological problems as a result of the bitter fight with the Taliban.
The daily threat of roadside bombs, fierce gun battles and seeing comrades killed or horrifically maimed in the blood and dust of Afghanistan has led to a steep increase in the number of personnel suffering post-traumatic stress disorder.
But experts claim many troops hit by mental illness do not present with any symptoms until many years after the incidents that triggered the problems.
A report for the Government by former navy doctor and Tory MP Andrew Murrison calls for serving personnel to be screened for signs of psychiatric disorders in a bid to prevent chronic illness later.
MoD figures show the number of troops with mental health issues was last year up 28% on the year before while those with PTSD had risen by a shocking 72%. Military charity SSAFA Forces Help said: “It is not surprising the intense nature of current and recent operations is resulting in an increase in mental health issues amongst those who have deployed.


Read more:
Ten troops a day suffer mental health problems