Mother remembers night tornado struck, injured son at Camp Lejeune

Mother remembers night tornado struck, injured son
April 24, 2011 11:38 AM
HOPE HODGE
One moment, Kelsey Salerno had reached into the crib of her 23-month old son Evan to comfort him against a coming storm. The next, she had been hurled away from the crib and buried under sheetrock, and the baby had disappeared.

That is how Salerno, 21, remembers experiencing the April 16 tornado that tore through sections of Camp Lejeune housing, leaving the Salernos’ house a pile of rubble in its wake.

“I was just barely touching (Evan) when it sounded like a freight train,” she said. “I look over and the window is busted. I see the curtain is blowing and there’s glass everywhere, and all of a sudden I get thrown to a corner of the bedroom. I’m tumbling, all of a sudden I’m rolling and rolling and all I see is gray; that’s all that I can see.”

Salerno’s husband, Seaman Jesse Salerno, a corpsman with 1st Battalion, 9th Marines, had returned from his first deployment in August and was now training for a May deployment in California. High school sweethearts from Charleston, S.C., the Salernos had known that life as a military family would not be easy, but they had never realized one of their greatest trials would come in the form of a Carolina tornado.

“You know, I’ve lived on the coast my whole life,” Kelsey Salerno said. “I know more about hurricanes than anything else. But I never thought I’d have to deal with a tornado.”

But when she was ripped away from her son, instinct was more powerful than experience.
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Mother remembers night tornado struck, injured son

War, Wives and a Near Suicide

Reading this, all I could think about was some friends. The same thing happened to them but we don't want to talk about any of this. We don't want to talk about the fact some of these "Army Wives" spent years in college, got degrees and then discovered none of it does any good when you are tied to military because the person you fell in love with belongs to the government. They go where they are sent for as long as they are told to stay. This means the families go with them. Kids end up in different schools but they are surrounded by other kids with the same stories. For a spouse, jobs are hard to get no matter how much they have to pay back in student loans.

A friend of mine became a lawyer. She was married to a helicopter pilot. She had a couple of kids to take care of but part of her wanted to practice law. Unable to join a firm because they could end up moving with a transfer, she had a lot more to worry about than just his deployments. She had to worry about all of it including her own future.

One of the other things we don't talk about is the other sword hanging over their heads. Like with all marriages, there is always the chance of a spouse falling out of love with them and in love with someone else. When they get divorced they lose all of it. They have to find another place to live and pick up the pieces of their past civilian lives.

My friend ended up divorced and alone to raise her kids. She didn't have many friends outside of military and her family was not close leaving her basically alone wondering what all the years of sacrificing for the military was for.

When you read this story, understand that it happens all the time. It is a serious issue they face all the time.

April 25, 2011, 8:26 AM
War, Wives and a Near Suicide
By ALISON BUCKHOLTZ

“If you are reading this, you should know that I am dead,” began the blog of a 27-year-old Army wife named Jessica Harp. “At least I hope I’m dead,” she added. “It would be awful to fail at your own suicide.”

The entry, posted to the blog “(Mis)Adventures of an Army Wife” on April 11, was titled “A Final Goodbye.” Its broad outlines, though not dramatic conclusion, are recognizable to many in the post-9/11 generation of military spouses. In 4,100 words, Ms. Harp chronicled her husband’s severe depression after his unit’s deployment to Afghanistan in 2009, and her own subsequent depression, for which she sought counseling and medication.

After her husband’s return and their cross-country move to Fort Jackson, S.C., so he could attend an eight-month officers’ course, she was told she could not join the base’s family support group because her husband was only a student there. She tried to put to use her master’s degree in financial counseling, but was told she was unemployable because she would be leaving the area before the year’s end. Her husband’s erratic behavior, coupled with his drinking, convinced her that he was an alcoholic, and she encouraged him to get help.

“The doctor immediately put him on antidepressants and sleeping pills,” she recounts. “And that was it. No counseling. No getting to the root cause of the issue. Just drugs.” She writes that he mixed his prescriptions with alcohol and at times became violent.


As their marriage deteriorated, Ms. Harp realized her husband was involved with another woman. Ms. Harp checked herself into the hospital because of suicidal thoughts, and her husband left her. She felt that the military community, for which she had given up her career and her independence, had abandoned her as well. “I wish he had just died in combat,” she writes. “If he had died, I would have been surrounded with so much support that I wouldn’t have known what to do with it. Instead, he has discarded me on the side of the road like a piece of rubbish, and the Army ‘family’ has shrugged its shoulders and said, ‘Well, he doesn’t want you anymore. There’s nothing we can do about it.’ ”
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War, Wives and a Near Suicide

Alligator invites himself into Palmetto home

Off topic but part of life in Florida

Alligator invites himself into Palmetto home

(Photo/Jimmy Pollack) Seeing the gator was quite a shock for homeowner Alexis Dunbar, who had just walked in her front door.
PALMETTO --
A Manatee County woman got quite a surprise Saturday when she found a 6-foot alligator in her house.

Seeing the gator was quite a shock for homeowner Alexis Dunbar, who had just walked in her front door.

"I look to the right," she said. "And there's an alligator in my guest bedroom."

Dunbar immediately got out of the house, and became concerned for her pets.

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Alligator invites himself into Palmetto home

Why Are We Throwing Traumatized Vets in Jail for Calling 911

Why Are We Throwing Traumatized Vets in Jail for Calling 911?
Joe Bangert is being jailed for doing exactly what he was trained to do: calling for backup when he feels threatened.
April 21, 2011


On March 4, 2011, the Honorable J. Thomas Kirkman, addressed the defendant in Barnstable Massachusetts' Second District Court: "Mr. Bangert, I see that you served your country honorably. It's time to do that again. I'm asking you to serve your country honorably again by (spending) nine months in the house of correction." And the gavel came down.

Joe's crime? Calling 911.

Joe Bangert is being punished for doing exactly what he was trained to do: calling for backup when he feels threatened. The problem is that, since September 11, it's not always clear to him whether the threat is coming from outside or inside. His PTSD keeps him constantly on full alert, trying to keep everything and everyone out beyond what vets call the "kiss me/kill me" range.

No question about it: Joe can be a civic nightmare. When he's upset, things get messy, rules get broken. But that should come as no surprise. We have studies going back 100 years connecting wartime experiences with traumatic injuries that lead to criminal behaviors.
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Why Are We Throwing Traumatized Vets in Jail for Calling 911

Don't be fooled by some collecting for veterans

There is the
Disabled Veterans Foundation

Then there is Disabled Veterans National Foundation

This all has people very confused because when they hear Disabled Veterans, they think DAV.org
The DAV does not dress up in a costume. I call it that because there are people collecting money in uniform but when asked, they say they are not a veteran but paid to collect on streets.

Disabled American Veterans, the DAV known nationally for what they've been doing for disabled veterans since,

"Incorporated in 1931, the Disabled American Veterans National Service Foundation was set up to assist in raising funds for the service initiatives of the Disabled American Veterans (DAV) National Organization. The Foundation initially served to ensure that the DAV’s National Service Program and other service initiatives would always be available should the DAV National Organization suffer a downturn in its financial health. Over the years, the Foundation’s role has grown and changed as the times and the needs of veterans and DAV service programs at all levels have changed.

From the outset, the Foundation has continued its identity as a separate nonprofit organization, maintaining its primary focus on direct services for veterans who come home from military service sick or injured. In this way, it has become a strong partner of the DAV in our mission to build better lives for America’s disabled veterans and their families."

It is totally up to you if you want to give to these other groups or not but don't think your giving money to the DAV when it is going to one of the other groups.

Near my home they have been collecting all weekend. One told me he was a disabled vet, then when I asked him "who are you with" he said Disabled American Veterans Foundation but he wasn't. I told him I was with the Auxiliary, then he said, "Oh no, not that one" but this isn't new. If they can give you a fast answer so you'll drop a buck into the bucket, you'll drive away thinking you just donated to the DAV. He was with the Disabled Veterans Foundation. The names are so close that people can't tell them apart but the veterans can. They know how much work the DAV does for them and how long they've been doing it.