Soldier leaves legacy much larger than 'he was gay'

Soldier leaves legacy much larger than 'he was gay'
By Wayne Drash, CNN
July 3, 2011 6:25 a.m. EDT


STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Andrew Wilfahrt is first known gay soldier killed in war since repeal of "don't ask, don't tell"
Wilfahrt had perfect score on Army aptitude test; Army named combat outpost for him
His parents, Jeff and Lori, have become crusaders for same-sex marriage in Minnesota
Jeff Wilfahrt asks Lady Gaga to come to Minnesota to dance a gay-marriage polka
Rosemount, Minnesota (CNN) -- Andrew Wilfahrt changed his gait in the weeks before going off to basic training. He walked more upright. He bulked up with weights. He spoke with a deep Robocop voice. He acted "manly."

Through the eyes of his parents, Jeff and Lori, it was all a bit strange.

This was the boy who told them he was gay at 16 after being confronted with exorbitant bills from Internet chat rooms. Who lobbied for gay rights in his high school and escaped the fists of football players when hockey players came to his rescue. Who had the courage to wear pink and green even after his car was spray-painted with "Go Home Fag!"

All his parents ever wanted was for Andrew to be Andrew.

At 29, he sat his mom and dad down at the kitchen table and told them his life was missing camaraderie, brotherhood. "I'm joining the Army," he said.

The news surprised them. Why would Andrew enter the military, where he'd be forced to deny a part of who he is?

He was a lover of classical music, a composer, a peace activist, a math genius. He studied palindromes, maps, patterns, the U.S. Constitution, quantum physics.
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Soldier leaves legacy much larger than he was gay

U.S. Marine from Mobile who lost legs in Afghanistan determined to walk

U.S. Marine from Mobile who lost legs in Afghanistan determined to walk
Published: Sunday, July 03, 2011
By Roy Hoffman, Press-Register

Cpl. Christopher Montgomery, a U.S. Marine from Mobile, at the Center for the Intrepid, a rehabilitation facility at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio. On Dec. 7th Montgomery was on patrol with the 3rd Battalion 5th Marines in Helmand Province, Afghanistan, when he stepped on an improvised explosive device. "I knew my legs were gone," he says. Montgomery, 23, is determined to walk, and move on with his life. "I have to reinvent myself," he says. (Photo courtesy of Montgomery family)

At Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas, Christopher Montgomery, a U.S. Marine corporal from Mobile, is learning to walk on artificial limbs.

Having lost his legs after stepping on an IED in Afghanistan, Montgomery spends arduous days in the hospital’s Center for the Intrepid, a rehabilitation unit.

“Everyone here has the same goals,” he says, “all the Marines, the Army guys, the Air Force. They want to walk again and go on with their lives.

“This place,” he says, “is pretty awesome.”

Since the explosion last December, Montgomery, 23, has received medical attention at several locales, from Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany to Walter Reed Medical Center in Bethesda, Md.
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U.S. Marine from Mobile

Homeless raid in Titusville questioned

Homeless raid in Titusville questioned
Titusville officials discussing conflicting reports in the operation
11:58 PM, Jul. 1, 2011
Written by
DAVE BERMAN

TITUSVILLE — Mayor Jim Tulley assured advocates for homeless veterans that he will try to get to the bottom of the circumstances surrounding the recent clearing out of 11 homeless camps on private property throughout the city.

Tulley said he met this week with City Manager Mark Ryan and Assistant Police Chief John Lau to discuss the issue and plans to resume those discussions next week.

He said he has heard conflicting reports from the homeless advocates and police about the removal and disposal of personal items the homeless people had in the camps.

Police say they gave residents of the camps warning that they were trespassing on private property and needed to leave. They also gave the homeless fliers with information about community resources, including the Salvation Army and the National Veterans Homeless Support organization.

Police also said they did not clear out homeless camps at sites where property owners did not mind if homeless people were there.
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Homeless raid in Titusville questioned

Knoxville couple’s battle with effects of war isn't over

Soldiering on: Knoxville couple’s battle with effects of war isn't over, but they're winning
By Amy McRary
Posted July 3, 2011 at midnight

PHOTO BY SUBMITTED

Army Staff Sgt. Bryan Gansner, here in his dress uniform, was six weeks away from coming home when he was severely injured by a roadside bomb in Iraq.

Three a.m. on a rainy July morning. Her phone rings. Iraq is calling. Cheryl Gansner's heart pounds.

The voice on the phone 6,000 miles away isn't her husband, Army Staff Sgt. Bryan Gansner with the 101st Airborne Division. It's a lieutenant colonel.

A roadside bomb exploded. Bryan is seriously injured.

"All I could do was listen. I just said 'OK, OK, OK,' to everything he said," remembers Cheryl. "I was in shock. I didn't even think to ask if anyone else was injured or was he going to die."

Bryan was on a July 28, 2006, night mission six weeks before he was to come home from his second Iraqi tour of duty. It was a year and two months since he and Cheryl moved their wedding date to marry before he deployed.
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Knoxville couple’s battle with effects of war isn't over

Deltona soldier's pull-tab U.S. flag from Afghanistan wows veterans

Deltona soldier's pull-tab U.S. flag from Afghanistan wows veterans
Don Smith hopes flag can be used to raise money for Give Kids the World

By Gary Taylor, Orlando Sentinel
10:48 p.m. EDT, July 2, 2011

Don Smith considers himself a tough guy.

But as he sat in a hospital in Afghanistan in 2005 guarding military prisoners, he couldn't help but be touched by the children he saw.

"I saw a lot of little kids blown up or sick," he said.

He knows a little bit about kids who are going through a rough time.
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Deltona soldier's pull-tab U.S. flag from Afghanistan

More than 100,000 veterans lost their gun privileges

Many will read the following and think about the increased suicides in the military. While we know they have weapons, it is an easy jump to conclude if we take their weapons away, they won't kill themselves when they are veterans. The truth is, it didn't do any good at all.

We read the reports of standoffs with police and SWAT teams. There is usually a gun involved and usually the standoff doesn't end well for law enforcement or the veteran.

We read about a troubled veteran ending his/her pain when their body is found and a gun laying on the floor.

The truth is a firearm is just a weapon of choice. Take their guns away and some people think that will be the answer but they just find another weapon to use. Threaten to take their guns away and you'll find veterans staying out of therapy. Would you rather have a veteran with a gun in treatment or one with a gun and no treatment? They don't want to give up their guns for a reason. In combat, a weapon was as much a part of them as their right arm and they knew it would save their lives. They come home feeling the same way in case someone wants to hurt them or their family. That is foremost in their minds, so the thought of them being the one to endanger their own lives or their families is quickly dismissed. There is very little evidence that veterans kill their families compared to the general population and rare considering there are 22.7 million veterans in America as of September 2010.

In Florida alone we have over 1.6 million of them.

FLORIDA
Projected Veteran Population by Year

9/30/2010
Total Veteran Population
1,650,900

Female
140,300

Male
1,510,600

Vietnam Veterans
511,100

What's the answer to all of this? The laws did little to help veterans. Do you think that maybe, just maybe, the answer is to make sure there is no veteran left behind and come up with programs that work instead?

"At least a few hundred people with histories of mental health issues already get their gun rights back each year. The number promises to grow, since most of the new state laws are just beginning to take effect. And in November, the Department of Veterans Affairs responded to the federal legislation by establishing a rights restoration process for more than 100,000 veterans who have lost their gun privileges after being designated mentally incompetent by the agency."

"Larry Lamb, a Vietnam veteran from San Diego who has suffered from depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, lost his gun rights and his cache of weapons in 2006 when he was involuntarily hospitalized after his dog’s death left him suicidal. A psychiatrist who examined Mr. Lamb wrote that he “is extremely paranoid with a full-blown P.T.S.D., believing that he is still at war in the active military and he is a personal bodyguard of the president and many senators.”"


"In early 2008, a Superior Court judge in San Diego granted Mr. Lamb’s petition to have his firearms rights restored, after his psychologist testified that he was not dangerous. But the judge, without access to Mr. Lamb’s full medical history, was unaware of a crucial fact: the local Veterans Affairs hospital had placed a “red flag” on Mr. Lamb, barring him from the hospital grounds because he was perceived to be a threat to personnel there."

Some With Histories of Mental Illness Petition to Get Their Gun Rights Back

MICHAEL LUO
Published: Sunday, July 3, 2011 at 6:30 a.m.
Last Modified: Sunday, July 3, 2011 at 5:17 a.m.
PULASKI, Va. — In May 2009, Sam French hit bottom, once again. A relative found him face down in his carport “talking gibberish,” according to court records. He later told medical personnel that he had been conversing with a bear in his backyard and hearing voices. His family figured he had gone off his medication for bipolar disorder, and a judge ordered him involuntarily committed — the fourth time in five years he had been hospitalized by court order.

When Mr. French’s daughter discovered that her father’s commitment meant it was illegal for him to have firearms, she and her husband removed his cache of 15 long guns and three handguns, and kept them after Mr. French was released in January 2010 on a new regime of mood-stabilizing drugs.

Ten months later, he appeared in General District Court — the body that handles small claims and traffic infractions — to ask a judge to restore his gun rights. After a brief hearing, in which Mr. French’s lengthy history of relapses never came up, he walked out with an order reinstating his right to possess firearms.

The next day, Mr. French retrieved his guns.
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Get Their Gun Rights Back

These Vietnam vets still fight together

John Jimenez, left, and Kenneth "Ollie" Olson embrace after being reunited for the first time in 40 years. Both men served in the 101st Airborne during Vietnam and have stayed in touch over the years but have never met face to face. When Olson learned that his old friend had liver cancer, he traveled from Minnesota and surprised Jimenez by showing up at the front door of his Whittier home.
LEONARD ORTIZ, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

These Vietnam vets still fight together
By TOM BERG
THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

WHITTIER – Next year.
It was always "next year" they'd meet.


Every Memorial Day for 41 years, the two Vietnam veterans promised to see each other. But never did. Until a secret slipped out.

Now Ken Olson, 61, of Nelson, Minnesota, has showed up at the door of John Jimenez, 66, of Whittier, pretending to call from half-way across the country.

If you want to see me, Olson ends the call, open the front door!

Soon, the men are joking about how skinny they once were. How young. How handsome.

"We had some bad times but they turned into good times," say Jimenez, a retired forklift driver who grew up in La Habra. "We saw a lot of action. A lot of our friends died in our arms."

Olson, a Midwest farmer who doesn't cry at funerals, cries.

"I'd still follow you anywhere," he says.

Back in 1968, helicopters dropped them together into enemy territory 77 times. They lived in the jungle with leeches, monsoons, malaria. And most days, bloodshed.

As the oldest guy there, Jimenez volunteered to walk point, assuring his company: I'm going to get you out of here.

"I used to tell the guys, 'Don't get scared because when you get scared you lose your head. You're here to take care of me and I'm here to take care of you."

Olson never forgot. That's why he's here.
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These Vietnam vets still fight together

UCF Veterans History Project

UCF is doing the Veterans' History Project. Featured in the video below is one of the best kept secrets in Orange County. The Vietnam Veterans War Museum. Named after Orange County's only Medal of Honor hero, Corporal Larry Eugene Smedley, the museum is there to honor Vietnam veterans along with the expanding areas for Iraq and Afghanistan veterans.

THE MUSEUM

The photo above is Corporal Larry Eugene Smedley (March 4, 1949–December 21, 1967) was a United States Marine who was awarded the highest military decoration the "Medal of Honor" for his heroic actions in December 1967 in Vietnam. Our museum honors Corporal Smedley by adding his name to museum.

Welcome to the Larry E. Smedley National Vietnam War Museum, a place full of knowledge, experiences, and memories. Here you will discover many unique and historical artifacts of the Vietnam Era. As you tour our facility, you will encounter exhibits that are on loan from government, as well as those that were both donated and built by members of the Vietnam and all Veterans of Central Florida.



The UCF Veterans History Project
About the Project
The UCF Community Veterans History Project is collecting, preserving, and making accessible to the public the experiences of Central Florida's veterans so that future generations will better understand the realities of conflict. It is a collaborative endeavor supported by multiple departments and offices at UCF. The histories, which students began recording during the fall 2010 semester, will are archived and made digitally available through the UCF library.

The UCF CVHP is a RICHES of Central Florida Project.

Veterans who would like to be interviewed may register to be interviewed.
use link above to their site.

Fireworks trigger stress in war vets

Fireworks trigger stress in war vets
For those with PTSD, festivities are the sounds and smells of combat
By Andy Grimm, Tribune reporter
July 2, 2011

The random pop-pop-pop of firecrackers will reach its seasonal peak with Monday's Fourth of July celebrations, but this most patriotic — and pyrotechnic — holiday can drive many combat veterans away from parade routes and picnics.

Rather than hang around the house for barbecues with friends, some veterans who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder seek out quiet places away from fireworks, which can set off flashbacks, anxiety and hyperawareness.

"If you are lighting off a firecracker in your neighborhood, there's a very good chance that there is a veteran within earshot," said Dr. John Mundt, a psychologist at Jesse Brown VA Medical Center in Chicago, whose PTSD support groups have devoted several sessions in the last few weeks to coping with the July Fourth fireworks barrage.

"To someone with PSTD, it can sound like small arms fire."
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Fireworks trigger stress in war vets

Here's one of my videos that may help you understand this.

VWF Raises Money for Iraq War Vet’s Sick Son

VWF Raises Money for Iraq War Vet’s Sick Son (Video)
July 1, 2011
By Beth Ford Roth

Iraq War veteran Erik Packard racked up piles of medical bills after his infant son Ronan underwent lifesaving emergency surgery seven months ago, according to television station MyFox9. Ronan was born with a hole in his diaphragm, and while the little guy is on the road to recovery, the Packard family is struggle under the weight of their financial burden.
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VWF Raises Money for Iraq War Vet’s Sick Son

Fundraisers to Help Military Family Struggling with Medical Bills: MyFoxTWINCITIES.com