Homeless veteran says 'I'm Jesus Fine'

Homeless man: 'I'm Jesus Fine' (SOUNDSLIDE)

September 04, 2011 5:38 PM
FORT WALTON BEACH — Bill Parker remembers standing in front of the Waterfront Rescue Mission with nothing but his clothes in hand and his daughter by his side.

He pointed to the ground and told her that that was their home. Parker said she looked into his eyes with a warm smile and said, “I don’t care, Dad, as long as I’m with you,”

Little did Parker and his 11-year-old daughter LeighAnn Carper know that only hours later they would be setting up home at Opportunity Place across town.

Opportunity Place, which opened in July 2009, houses homeless women and families who are seeking future housing and stability. They get help through outreach programs such as personal finance and parenting classes and support groups. They also are referred to other agencies for various needs.

“Whatever it takes to help them reach their stability, I should be able to find that resource that can help make it happen,” said C.C. Fearson, director of Opportunity Place.

One of those resources is a newer program that has been in place in Okaloosa County for the past year. The Homeless Veterans Reintegration Program, or HVRP, provides veterans with job training and helps them find employment.

“The goal of the HVRP program is to get our people back into employment,” said Stephanie Duenas, the HVRP program director at Opportunity Place. “They are not disqualified by their barriers.”

From jail to ministry
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Reducing Suicide Among Veterans Requires Shared Vigilance

Reducing Suicide Among Veterans Requires Shared Vigilance
Published Sunday, September 4, 2011 2:15 am
by Dennis Maley
Today marks the start of National Suicide Prevention Week. For anyone who has ever had to confront the complex emotional web of sorrow that accompanies losing a loved one by that person's own hand, I need not speak of the pain and difficulty involved. Increasingly, a large portion of Americans lost to this unfortunate act are coming from one place – the ranks of those who have served in our nation's military.

For the past two years, more U.S. soldiers have been lost to suicide than to the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Even on a superficial level, this is incomprehensible. Machine gun fire, improvised explosive devices, mortar rockets, surface to air missiles, grenades, etc., yet statistically, the most likely way one of our soldiers will meet their end is by taking their own life, giving up their very existence rather than endure the torturous reality that is their every waking hour and goes on to haunt their sporadic sleep.

This epidemic has finally been acknowledged, however slowly. Studies have not been able to clearly determine precisely what factors lead to increased likelihood . Numbers have not proven whether more deployments heighten risk or diminish it. But they do shed light on the stark volume in a way that calls attention to the entire warfare culture and indicts it on still another level.


20 percent of U.S. suicides are said to be committed by veterans, though they make up just over 8 percent of the population. Over the past five years of intense military deployment in multiple theaters, the Pentagon says that hospitalization of soldiers for suicidal thoughts has skyrocketed 7,000 percent. This is at least somewhat owed to an improving atmosphere, in which it is more accepted to express such problems, and the onus to direct soldiers toward treatment has thankfully grown.
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Why Is the Military Spending Millions on Christian Contractors

I was sent a link to this story Gov't Spending Millions in Tax Money to Covert Soldiers to Christianity taking me to the original story, leaving me deeply troubled, but not for the reasons listed here.

Why Is the Military Spending Millions on Christian Contractors Bent on Evangelizing US Soldiers?
Why do Christian contractors play such a prominent role in our military?
August 21, 2011
By Chris Rodda

When the average American thinks of military spending on religion, they probably think only of the money spent on chaplains and chapels. And, yes, the Department of Defense (DoD) does spend a hell of a lot of money on these basic religious accommodations to provide our troops with the opportunity to exercise their religion while serving our country. But that's just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the DoD's funding of religion. Also paid for with taxpayer dollars are a plethora of events, programs, and schemes that violate not only the Constitution, but, in many cases, the regulations on federal government contractors, specifically the regulation prohibiting federal government contractors receiving over $10,000 in contracts a year from discriminating based on religion in their hiring practices.

About a year ago, the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) began an investigation into just how much money the DoD spends on promoting religion to military personnel and their families.

What prompted this interest in DoD spending on religion was finding out what the DoD was spending on certain individual events and programs, such as the $125 million spent on the Army's Comprehensive Soldier Fitness program and its controversial "Spiritual Fitness" test, a mandatory test that must be taken by all soldiers. The Army insists that this test is not religious, but the countless complaints from soldiers who have failed this "fitness" test tell a different story. The experience of one group of soldiers who weren't "spiritual" enough for the Army can be read here. But the term "Spiritual Fitness is not limited to this one test. The military began using this term to describe a variety of initiatives and events towards the end of 2006, and this `code phrase' for promoting religion was heavily in use by all branches of the military by 2007.
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I am deeply trouble because it doesn't work. If it did we would see the number of suicides and attempted suicides go down. Troubled marriages? You'd see the divorce rate go down especially when you acknowledge that when it is a military divorce, the civilian spouse has to go and usually that means taking the kids off to who knows where. Yep, they lose their base housing. There is a lot more to lose but still the rates are higher than the civilian world. Drug and alcohol abuse is up as well. What they are doing is not working but they keep putting money into something that failed.

It is not that spiritual programs are bad or there is anything wrong with having Christian groups working to help soldiers as long as they include other faiths but when the results are what they are, they need to rethink what they are funding.

"Spiritual Fitness" is code for if a soldier belongs to the right group or not. If not, then they are told they're going to hell. This is about conversion. Does the brass know what they are funding or are they part of it? Blaming the Tea Party? Not sure that makes sense since I haven't seen anything Christian about the Tea Party at all so I doubt they'd be giving a green light to this funding. What has been done has not worked but it is not the fault of God or Christ. It's the fault of the people running these programs with a different agenda in mind than healing the souls of the warriors.

Marine saves man from mobile home fire

Marine saves man from mobile home fire



Uploaded by WOODTV8 on Sep 4, 2011
OLIVE TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WOOD) - Three Ottawa County fire departments were sent to put out a fire in a mobile home in Ottawa County Saturday night.

Ottawa County Sheriff's dispatchers said the mobile home was fully involved and that Port Sheldon, Olive, and Grand Haven township firefighters responded to the scene.

The fire started just before 9 p.m. in the 9000 block of 4 Winds Lane West in Olive Township.

A woman who lives across the street from the mobile home that was on fire said she smelled and saw smoke, and called 911. She had friends from out of town coming to visit, and when they got to her house, saw the mobile home on fire.

The woman's friend, a Marine veteran, ran into the house, where he found a 43-year-old man breathing hard. He was able to pull the man about three quarters of the way out of the burning home, but the smoke was so heavy, he had to run to get himself to safety.

Healing is about moving ahead in spite of the pain

Sept. 11, 2001, anniversary key to healing
Published: Sept. 5, 2011 at 4:37 AM
By ALEX CUKAN, United Press International

"Healing is about moving ahead in spite of the pain that might always be there to some degree," Wolford said. "People learn to reach out to others, to reconnect with those who might have gone through the same or similar traumatic events."

Even if people avoid the televised 10th anniversary remembrances from New York, Washington and Shanksville, Pa., the date alone will be enough to trigger memories.

Sept. 11, 2001.

"Sept. 11 marks such a deep and tragic loss for our country, there is no doubt that this year's anniversary in particular will be significant for many people not just because it is the 10th anniversary but for other reasons as well," Karen Wolford, a licensed psychologist, board certified expert in traumatic stress and professor at the State University of New York at Oswego, told UPI in an interview.

This year's anniversary of the terror attacks may also be more difficult due to recent events -- the recent earthquake and hurricane impacting the Northeast and New York, people may already be under increased stress, Wolford said.
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Fort Drum 10th Mountain Soldier dies of rabies

Fort Drum soldier dies of rabies
The Associated Press
Posted : Sunday Sep 4, 2011 15:14:18 EDT
FORT DRUM, N.Y. — A Fort Drum soldier has died of rabies believed to have been contracted during service overseas.

Officials at the northern New York Army base say Spc. Kevin R. Shumaker died on Wednesday.

According to a statement, the decorated 24-year-old soldier from Livermore, Calif., was from the 10th Mountain Division.
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How dumb are we?

No jobs created last month? Seems odd doesn't it? Not when you really think about the rest of the news that came out last month and the month before that. The fact no jobs were "lost" should have us doing a happy dance. Why? Because when you take all the jobs cut from state budgets and at the federal level, it only makes sense that we lost jobs. So why aren't the politicians running on their "budget cuts" talking about this result? Could it be they are ashamed they did it to working people from coast to coast?
The hook line was "job creators" but they were so called "creators" when these tax discounts went into place when Bush was in office but we lost jobs anyway. The sinker was the stinker of the fact that while politicians whine about needing to keep the "tax cuts" in place for their wealthy friends, we ended up at the bottom seeing our jobs sent to other countries they were creating jobs in even though we were the ones who elected these folks. So the question is, how dumb are we?

Veterans law suit over "Drug Experimentation" moves closer to trail

Veterans’ Lawsuit against CIA and Army Drug Experimentation Moves Closer to Trial
Sunday, September 04, 2011
1972 Army drug experiment

The CIA failed this week to convince a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit claiming the agency used American soldiers during the Cold War as guinea pigs for drug experiments.

Led by the Vietnam Veterans of America, the plaintiffs are suing the CIA and the U.S. Army for exposing at least 7,800 soldiers to a variety of chemicals and drugs, between 1950 and 1975, as part of Project Paperclip. Military personnel were allegedly given everything from Sarin, a nerve agent used in chemical weapons, to the hallucinogenic LSD.
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Target is among top 10 donors to nonprofit groups

Fact Check: Target is among top 10 donors to nonprofit groups

Veteran who was source of misfired email has tried to clarify message
Posted: September 4, 2011

By Carole Fader
Times-Union readers want to know:
An email I received says that when asked to be a sponsor for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall, Target refused, saying that "veterans do not meet our area of giving." The email goes on to say that Target will not allow Marines to collect for Toys for Tots at its stores and would not continue insurance coverage for employees who were called for active duty. Could this be true?

Target has unfairly been a target of some miscommunication.

The genesis of the claim is Dick Forrey, a member of Indiana's Howard County Vietnam Veterans group, according to several fact-finding groups.

It is true that Forrey's local Target store would not grant him a $100 sponsorship for a traveling Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in March 2002. Forrey wrote of his displeasure under the headline "Target Stores do not support veterans." Around the world his message went.
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Number of military child deaths from abuse and neglect double since 2003

Deployments and child deaths
Exclusive investigation shows military failed some victims
By Andrew Tilghman - Staff writer
Posted : Friday Sep 2, 2011 11:29:25 EDT
The number of children in military families who have been killed through abuse and neglect has more than doubled since 2003, and has begun to exceed child abuse fatality rates in the civilian world, military records show.

In many cases, local military Family Advocacy Program officials had previous reports about those children and their troubled homes, but outreach efforts failed to save them.

Deaths of military dependent children related to abuse and neglect have risen steadily from 14 in 2003 to 29 in 2010, according to data from the Defense Department’s Family Advocacy Program office.

The trend peaked in 2008, when 36 child deaths were linked to abuse or neglect, a level that exceeds rates found in the civilian world. Those data are based on a Military Times review of more than 400,000 electronic records and FAP reports released under the Freedom of Information Act.
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Judge dismisses Ky. family's lawsuit over shooting at Fort Bliss

Judge dismisses Ky. family's lawsuit over shooting
BRETT BARROUQUERE, Associated Press
September 2, 2011

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit on Friday that had been brought by the family of a teenager killed during a shooting at a military post in Texas, saying federal laws prevent the teen's mother from pursuing damages from the government.

U.S. District Judge Charles R. Simpson III in Louisville ruled that the law is designed to prevent judicial "second guessing of policy considerations" by the military.

Renee Richardson, the mother of 18-year-old Ezra Gerald Smith, sued the U.S. Army in October seeking $8.75 million. She accused the Army of negligence in diagnosing and treating the alleged shooter, Spc. Gerald Polanco.

"However, plaintiffs do not point to any specific applicable regulations which removed discretion from Spc. Polanco's chain of command," Simpson wrote.

Polanco was charged with murder but ruled incompetent to stand trial by a military judge a few months later.

Smith was at Fort Bliss, along the Texas-New Mexico line, where his stepfather was based. He was shot in the back of the head April 24, 2009.

Because the lawsuit has been dismissed and Polanco has been found incompetent and may never stand trial, there's little chance the family will ever get justice, said Richardson's attorney, Sheila Hiestand.

"It's certainly a tragedy," Hiestand said. "It should never have been allowed to occur."
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Arnold the English Mastiff, Reporting for Duty at Fort Drum

Arnold the English Mastiff, Reporting for Duty

Arnold, a 200-pound English Mastiff, works as a therapy dog with Fort Drum's Army Substance Abuse Program.

FORT DRUM, N.Y. – As they adjust his collar, he fidgets, slightly uncomfortable with the attention he’s receiving. They tell him to sit up straight and look at the camera. He deliberately turns his head away, as if to say, “We’re doing this on my terms.”

Finally, with a little coaxing, he looks deep into the lens and gives a toothy, lopsided grin. Those standing around him clap at the sight of his cooperation, and a few bystanders even wrap their arms around his neck, telling him what a great job he did.

Arnold gives another infectious smile, rolls over on his back, and prepares for his reward of belly rubs and behind-the-ear scratches.

He’s made paw prints in four branches of the armed forces, has a canine and human following on Facebook, and logs entries in his own blog.

As a 200-pound English Mastiff, Arnold has spent the past five years populating his resume with therapy hours and hospital visits. His resume now lists him as the newest member of Fort Drum’s Army Substance Abuse Program, where on Aug. 5 he received his government ID card.
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Trauma: Ancient phenomenon which predates our modern societies

After reading reports on PTSD for almost 30 years, it is about time this connection was taken seriously. If you are a reader of the Bible, look back into the Old Testament with a fresh set of eyes aware of what PTSD is and you'll find it in passage after passage especially in the Psalms. You'll find it in Kings and Judges with accounts of warfare. This is a struggle between heaven and hell for the soul of a warrior. It is about what is good within them to be able to risk their lives for the sake of others against what they have to do to achieve what they were sent to do. If you limit their mission to "destroy" the enemy you'll never understand this. If you look beyond into why they do it, you'll see it was for a great purpose than that. Ask any combat veteran why they did it and they'll answer, "we fought for each other."

Call for Papers: Trauma and Traumatization: In and Beyond Biblical Literature
Maybe, one day, when I have all the money I want, and all the time needed:

International Conference, June 6th – 9th, 2012

Department of Biblical Studies, Faculty of Theology, Aarhus University (Aarhus, Denmark)

Announcement: Call for Papers is now open (see details below) Deadline: September 30th, 2011

Since the effect of the Vietnam War on the individual psyche of American soldiers was first defined in the 1980’s as “PTSD” (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder), trauma has become a central term of psychiatric diagnosis and therapy. In consequence, terms like ‘traumatic memory’, ‘trauma narrative’, and ‘trauma and testimony’ have been used to describe various individual and collective incidents in both present (e.g. September 11, 2001; the war in Iraq and Afghanistan up to 2010) and past tense (e.g. the Holocaust).

Trauma, however, is not only a modern concept which derives from 20th century psychiatry: It is an ancient phenomenon which predates our modern societies. Thus, the question of how the psychological impact and social characteristics of trauma can be defined for each period in history is central to the current trauma‐discourse: Here, psychiatry meets the Humanities (e.g. history, art history, sociology, politics, religion).

Since traumata affect nearly all areas of social and cultural life, reflection upon them as well as developing the ability to overcome them goes beyond pure medical science. In this frame, biblical and para‐biblical literature plays an important role: It reflects more than 1500 years of coping with traumatic incidents (e.g. temple destruction, exile, exodus, wars, passion narratives, martyrdoms, persecutions), and thus provides a substantial contribution to our understanding of trauma in both historic and modern contexts.
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Sergeant major and son join forces in Afghanistan for second time

Sergeant major and son join forces in Afghanistan for second time

Regimental Combat Team-5, 1st Marine Division Public Affairs
Story by Staff Sgt. Andrew Miller

CAMP DWYER, Helmand province, Afghanistan – Some fathers teach their sons how to throw a ball and others show their sons how to fish. Sgt. Maj. Ernest Hoopii, Regimental Combat Team 5 sergeant major, taught his son how to be a Marine.

Lance Cpl. Sean Hoopii, a fire team leader with 1st Battalion, 9th Marine Regiment, is currently serving alongside his father for the second time in southern Helmand province.

“Sean is like my mini-me,” said the elder Hoopii, a native of Maui, Hawaii. “As a kid he would get dressed up in utilities and go out in the woods. I would have a vest for him and a vest for myself; and we would have canteens, a map, compasses and a GPS, and we would go patrolling in the woods.”

The sergeant major explained that his son is a third generation Marine on both sides of the family.

“I’m a Marine, my father was a Marine, his mom’s dad was a Marine, her brother was a Marine,” he said. “So he was just destined to be a Marine.”
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Landstuhl Hospital at forefront at saving soldiers

'Not heartbreak hotel': Hospital at forefront at saving soldiers
Staff has unique experience in battlefield medicine for treating US trauma victims
By DAVID RISING
9/2/2011

Michael Probst / AP
A US soldier who was wounded in Afghanistan is lifted from a bus at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Landstuhl, Germany, on Monday.

LANDSTUHL, Germany — Volunteer staff from the U.S. military's Landstuhl Regional Medical Center huddle outside the emergency room doors, waiting under heat lamps on a crisp morning for what has become a daily routine in a decade of war — the arrival on a blue bus of the latest casualties from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Some are in surgical scrubs, others in uniform or white hospital gowns. They crowd around the back of the modified school bus as the door opens, forming lines on either side, yelling "got it!" as they pass along the stretcher loaded with both patient and portable life support system and lower it to a wheeled gurney.

A chaplain leans over and tells the Marine who has lost both his legs to a roadside bomb in Afghanistan that he's now safe and in good hands. "When they come over here we want to make sure that it's not heartbreak hotel," said Navy chaplain Commander Manuel Mak after talking with the incoming wounded.

There's a saying in the U.S. military that once you've made it to Landstuhl, you've made it. After 10 years of war in Afghanistan and eight in Iraq, that's never been more true. The medical center boasts a unique combination of cutting-edge advances in battlefield medicine and hard-won experience in treating serious trauma.
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