Wounded Soldier Gets Hero’s Welcome In Hammond
April 10, 2012
Reporting Dana Kozlov
HAMMOND, Ind.
(CBS) – Indiana National Guard Spc. Doug Rachowicz barely survived a roadside bomb in Afghanistan in January. Four of his fellow soldiers died in the attack.
Rachowicz came home to Hammond, Ind., on Tuesday, after months of rehab and coping with the loss of his friends.
CBS 2′s Dana Kozlov has the story of a man who does not want to be called hero.
Family, friends and neighbors cheered as Rachowicz got out of a limousine on Tuesday at his home, giving the soldier a patriot’s homecoming.
Rachowicz almost didn’t come home at all.
“I don’t remember anything from that day at all,” he said after arriving home.
read more here
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Fort Hood: Judge Rejects Hasan Defense Motions
Fort Hood: Judge Rejects Hasan Defense Motions
FORT HOOD
April 10, 2012
Military judge Col. Gregory Gross Tuesday rejected motions filed by attorneys for accused Fort Hood gunman Maj. Nidal Hasan seeking funds to pay for a liaison to families of victims of the rampage and compelling the disclosure of communication between the president and other officials about the case.
Gross said he would rule later on a motion to postpone the start of Hasan’s court-martial, which is now scheduled to begin next month.
read more here
FORT HOOD
April 10, 2012
Military judge Col. Gregory Gross Tuesday rejected motions filed by attorneys for accused Fort Hood gunman Maj. Nidal Hasan seeking funds to pay for a liaison to families of victims of the rampage and compelling the disclosure of communication between the president and other officials about the case.
Gross said he would rule later on a motion to postpone the start of Hasan’s court-martial, which is now scheduled to begin next month.
read more here
Daughter of unclaimed Ohio veteran steps forward
Daughter of unclaimed Ohio veteran steps forward
By Barbara Rodriguez
The Associated Press
Posted Apr 10, 2012
COLUMBUS The daughter of an Air Force veteran whose cremated remains lay unclaimed for years alongside those of about a dozen other servicemen at a funeral home said she finds closure in knowing several groups want a burial including full military honors for him.
Julie Dickerson, the daughter of Staff Sgt. Russell Andrews Jr., said her family recognized his name during a news telecast about a military burial being prepared for the unclaimed remains of 10 Ohio veterans.
“I was surprised and kind of shocked,” she said. “But in a good way.”
Dickerson said she plans to attend the May 22 burial at Dayton National Cemetery. The burial is being coordinated by the Missing in America Project, a national group that seeks unclaimed veterans’ remains so they can be laid to rest with full military honors.
The remains of 12 veterans were discovered, but the families of two veterans declined the burial.
read more here
By Barbara Rodriguez
The Associated Press
Posted Apr 10, 2012
COLUMBUS The daughter of an Air Force veteran whose cremated remains lay unclaimed for years alongside those of about a dozen other servicemen at a funeral home said she finds closure in knowing several groups want a burial including full military honors for him.
Julie Dickerson, the daughter of Staff Sgt. Russell Andrews Jr., said her family recognized his name during a news telecast about a military burial being prepared for the unclaimed remains of 10 Ohio veterans.
“I was surprised and kind of shocked,” she said. “But in a good way.”
Dickerson said she plans to attend the May 22 burial at Dayton National Cemetery. The burial is being coordinated by the Missing in America Project, a national group that seeks unclaimed veterans’ remains so they can be laid to rest with full military honors.
The remains of 12 veterans were discovered, but the families of two veterans declined the burial.
read more here
Schofield 4 tour AWOL soldier promised PTSD help finally
PTSD help for Schofield soldier vowed
Frustration over Army bureaucracy had led the man to go AWOL
By William Cole
Apr 10, 2012
A Schofield Barracks soldier and four-time Iraq War veteran who refused to report for duty because he said he wasn't receiving help for post-traumatic stress has been promised by the Army that he'll get medical treatment and other assistance.
"I feel good about what they said so far," said Sgt. Daniel McCarley, 28. "But until something actually happens, then I'll be good, because I've heard talk the whole time I've been trying to get treatment."
read more here
Frustration over Army bureaucracy had led the man to go AWOL
By William Cole
Apr 10, 2012
A Schofield Barracks soldier and four-time Iraq War veteran who refused to report for duty because he said he wasn't receiving help for post-traumatic stress has been promised by the Army that he'll get medical treatment and other assistance.
"I feel good about what they said so far," said Sgt. Daniel McCarley, 28. "But until something actually happens, then I'll be good, because I've heard talk the whole time I've been trying to get treatment."
read more here
Nursing groups promise PTSD, TBI training
Nursing groups promise PTSD, TBI training
By LEO SHANE III
Published: April 10, 2012
WASHINGTON — A coalition of nursing schools and medical organizations will train more than 3 million nurses in coming years on how to recognize and respond to post-traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injury and other unseen war wounds in veterans, White House officials announced Tuesday.
The news comes three months after officials from the nation’s leading medical colleges announced they’d work similar lessons on war wounds into their curricula.
But Amy Garcia, chief nursing officer of the American Nurses Association, said the new initiative should have a more immediate impact on veterans care, because officials can introduce the lessons into professional development courses, medical journals and other nursing resources in a matter of weeks, not years.
read more here
By LEO SHANE III
Published: April 10, 2012
WASHINGTON — A coalition of nursing schools and medical organizations will train more than 3 million nurses in coming years on how to recognize and respond to post-traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injury and other unseen war wounds in veterans, White House officials announced Tuesday.
The news comes three months after officials from the nation’s leading medical colleges announced they’d work similar lessons on war wounds into their curricula.
But Amy Garcia, chief nursing officer of the American Nurses Association, said the new initiative should have a more immediate impact on veterans care, because officials can introduce the lessons into professional development courses, medical journals and other nursing resources in a matter of weeks, not years.
read more here
Seabee found dead at Djibouti base
By Sam Fellman - Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday Apr 10, 2012
A 22-year-old Seabee died in a non-combat related incident at Camp Lemonnier, Djibouti, the Defense Department said.
The body of Equipment Operator Constructionman Trevor Stanley was found in the equipment yard on Camp Lemonnier on Saturday morning by his shipmates with Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 3, said Lt. Cmdr. Dave Benham, spokesman for Navy Region Europe Africa Southwest Asia.
“They were sent to look for him when he did not report to muster,” Benham said Tuesday.
read more here
Attorney arming veterans with benefits knowledge
Working on the First Coast: Attorney arming veterans with benefits knowledge
Many don't realize they can receive pay for health needs.
Posted: April 10, 2012
By Roger Bull
R. Kellen Bryant is a local attorney who has recently published a pamphlet about how to qualify for Veterans Administration Improved Pension and mistakes to avoid in the process.
You’re talking about VA Improved Pension. What’s that?
It’s a cash benefit paid to veterans who qualify to help offset the cost of high medical expenses that normally come with long-term care. It doesn’t have to be service-connected injuries, just long-term care. It’s as much as $1,703 for veterans and $1,094 for spouses [monthly].
And what’s long-term care? Is it just nursing homes, or does in-home care count?
Nursing homes, assisted living, but it can be in-home, too. Just as long as they need medical help. If the senior is living in her own apartment, but the daughter has to come in and help with the cooking or whatever.
Who qualifies for it? Do you have to have a minimum amount of service?
You have to have at least 90 days of consecutive service and one day of it during a war period: World War I, World War II, Korea, Vietnam and Persian Gulf. There are specific dates.
read more here
Many don't realize they can receive pay for health needs.
Posted: April 10, 2012
By Roger Bull
R. Kellen Bryant is a local attorney who has recently published a pamphlet about how to qualify for Veterans Administration Improved Pension and mistakes to avoid in the process.
You’re talking about VA Improved Pension. What’s that?
It’s a cash benefit paid to veterans who qualify to help offset the cost of high medical expenses that normally come with long-term care. It doesn’t have to be service-connected injuries, just long-term care. It’s as much as $1,703 for veterans and $1,094 for spouses [monthly].
And what’s long-term care? Is it just nursing homes, or does in-home care count?
Nursing homes, assisted living, but it can be in-home, too. Just as long as they need medical help. If the senior is living in her own apartment, but the daughter has to come in and help with the cooking or whatever.
Who qualifies for it? Do you have to have a minimum amount of service?
You have to have at least 90 days of consecutive service and one day of it during a war period: World War I, World War II, Korea, Vietnam and Persian Gulf. There are specific dates.
read more here
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Melbourne FL welcome home veterans parade
Melbourne FL welcome home veterans parade
‘Welcome Home Veterans’
Veterans Parade and Concert!
Wounded Marine story inspires readers, bikers
Marine story inspires readers, bikers
By Peter Gelzinis
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
When Jeanne Donaghey of Medford read in Sunday’s Herald about Evan Reichenthal, a 21-year-old Marine trying to cope with the horrible wounds he suffered in Afghanistan, she thought of her own nephew.
When she visualized Lance Cpl. Reichenthal trying to climb two flights of stairs in his mother’s Princeton home with a prosthetic leg so he could use the bathroom, Donaghey thought of how her sister’s family has struggled to accommodate a child with special needs.
“The story touched me, because I know just how hard it can be to get up and down a flight of stairs,” Donaghey said yesterday. “I’ve seen what my family has had to go through just to make sure that my nephew can deal with stairs in a two-family house. So I can imagine what it must be like for such a brave young man.”
read more here
By Peter Gelzinis
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
When Jeanne Donaghey of Medford read in Sunday’s Herald about Evan Reichenthal, a 21-year-old Marine trying to cope with the horrible wounds he suffered in Afghanistan, she thought of her own nephew.
When she visualized Lance Cpl. Reichenthal trying to climb two flights of stairs in his mother’s Princeton home with a prosthetic leg so he could use the bathroom, Donaghey thought of how her sister’s family has struggled to accommodate a child with special needs.
“The story touched me, because I know just how hard it can be to get up and down a flight of stairs,” Donaghey said yesterday. “I’ve seen what my family has had to go through just to make sure that my nephew can deal with stairs in a two-family house. So I can imagine what it must be like for such a brave young man.”
read more here
Reward offered for info on who killed Marine Zach Gamble
Former Marine found hurt in Cobb after party dies
By David Ibata
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Zach Gamble was found unconscious and lying in the parking lot of the Concord Crossing apartments near Smyrna the early morning of March 25.
The 34-year-old Acworth man was taken to Wellstar Kennestone Hospital, Marietta, where he underwent brain surgery. He never regained consciousness. An official cause of death will be determined by the Cobb County Medical Examiner’s Office.
“We can confirm he was taken off life support yesterday,” Cobb County police Sgt. Dana Pierce told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Monday.
Gamble’s mother, Tina Robbins of Gainesville, told the AJC that her son died at Wellstar Kennestone at 3:52 p.m. Sunday.
By David Ibata
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Channel 2 Action News, Channel 2 Action News Zach Gamble, 34, saw two tours of duty in Iraq only to be gravely hurt after he returned home to the United States.A former Marine who served two tours of duty in Iraq died Sunday of severe head injuries he sustained after a party in a Cobb County apartment complex.
Zach Gamble was found unconscious and lying in the parking lot of the Concord Crossing apartments near Smyrna the early morning of March 25.
The 34-year-old Acworth man was taken to Wellstar Kennestone Hospital, Marietta, where he underwent brain surgery. He never regained consciousness. An official cause of death will be determined by the Cobb County Medical Examiner’s Office.
“We can confirm he was taken off life support yesterday,” Cobb County police Sgt. Dana Pierce told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Monday.
Gamble’s mother, Tina Robbins of Gainesville, told the AJC that her son died at Wellstar Kennestone at 3:52 p.m. Sunday.
A reward of up to $2,500 is available to anyone who calls Crime Stoppers Atlanta, 404-577-8477, with information leading to an arrest in the case, police said. Tips can be made anonymously at this number.read more here
UCF taking on PTSD veterans in study
Trauma Management Therapy Program
Troop deployment to Iraq and Afghanistan has been extensive and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is common among our returning veterans.
PTSD is associated with poor quality of life, guilt, anger, and unemployment, among other life challenges.
The Trauma Management Therapy program, a division of the UCF Anxiety Disorders Clinic, is offering a treatment program that uses the most effective treatments for combat-related PTSD.
This is a clinical research program, funded by a grant to UCF from the Department of Defense Military Operations Medical Operations Program.
Individuals who have served in Iraq or Afghanistan, who believe that they might be suffering from PTSD, and who are interested in getting more information about our Trauma Management Therapy program are encouraged to call the TMT Project Manager, Dr. Sandra Neer, at 407-823-1668.
Troop deployment to Iraq and Afghanistan has been extensive and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is common among our returning veterans.
PTSD is associated with poor quality of life, guilt, anger, and unemployment, among other life challenges.
The Trauma Management Therapy program, a division of the UCF Anxiety Disorders Clinic, is offering a treatment program that uses the most effective treatments for combat-related PTSD.
This is a clinical research program, funded by a grant to UCF from the Department of Defense Military Operations Medical Operations Program.
Individuals who have served in Iraq or Afghanistan, who believe that they might be suffering from PTSD, and who are interested in getting more information about our Trauma Management Therapy program are encouraged to call the TMT Project Manager, Dr. Sandra Neer, at 407-823-1668.
Soldiers voice concerns about Bragg's Warrior Transition Battalion
Soldiers voice concerns about Bragg's Warrior Transition Battalion at meeting
Apr 10, 2012
By Greg Barnes
Staff writer
Leaders of Fort Bragg's Warrior Transition Battalion are wrongly accusing soldiers of faking illness or injury in an effort to keep them from getting full military benefits, some soldiers in the battalion said during a meeting Monday night.
One of those soldiers, Sgt. Daryl Shaw, said he will become homeless April 19 - when he is separated from the Army - because he is being accused of feigning his illnesses. That, he said, means he will receive only 60 percent of his medical retirement benefits - or between $900 and $1,200 a month to feed his family of six.
As it stands now, Shaw said, two of his children will have to live with friends from his church; the other two will stay with him and his wife in an old RV that has no electricity.
Shaw was among about two dozen soldiers or their family members who spoke during the meeting, which was called in an effort to strengthen the voice of battalion soldiers who feel wronged and betrayed.
read more here
Apr 10, 2012
By Greg Barnes
Staff writer
Staff photo by Amanda Berg Sgt. Daryl Shaw listens during a meeting Monday in an effort to strengthen the voice of soldiers in the Warrior Transition Battalion.
Leaders of Fort Bragg's Warrior Transition Battalion are wrongly accusing soldiers of faking illness or injury in an effort to keep them from getting full military benefits, some soldiers in the battalion said during a meeting Monday night.
One of those soldiers, Sgt. Daryl Shaw, said he will become homeless April 19 - when he is separated from the Army - because he is being accused of feigning his illnesses. That, he said, means he will receive only 60 percent of his medical retirement benefits - or between $900 and $1,200 a month to feed his family of six.
As it stands now, Shaw said, two of his children will have to live with friends from his church; the other two will stay with him and his wife in an old RV that has no electricity.
Shaw was among about two dozen soldiers or their family members who spoke during the meeting, which was called in an effort to strengthen the voice of battalion soldiers who feel wronged and betrayed.
read more here
Many soldiers find rude awakening when returning home
Many soldiers find rude awakening when returning home
Posted: Apr 09, 2012
By Breann Bierman
By Nicole Crites
PHOENIX (CBS5)
Our military hometown heroes sacrifice a lot fighting for our freedom, and when they come home, the battle isn't over.
Many of our veterans are finding a rude awakening when they return home.
"I love my military career... we ate, slept, fought together, we cried together, then coming out of the military, I didn't know anything about, you know, being a civilian," said "Ace" Carter, an army veteran.
Carter gave more than 22 years of his life to the military, being deployed to Vietnam, Iraq and Panama.
He struggled to find the same camaraderie and purpose when he came home.
Carter said, "You see the violence, you see the drugs, you see the alcohol, 'What did I fight for?'"
Retired military police Officer Brittany Hodge is only 26 years old.
"One major event happened when I got back to Fort Campbell," said Hodge.
A soldier's wife intentionally set fire to the family home, trapping and killing her two kids. Hodge was a first responder.
read more here
Posted: Apr 09, 2012
By Breann Bierman
By Nicole Crites
PHOENIX (CBS5)
Our military hometown heroes sacrifice a lot fighting for our freedom, and when they come home, the battle isn't over.
Many of our veterans are finding a rude awakening when they return home.
"I love my military career... we ate, slept, fought together, we cried together, then coming out of the military, I didn't know anything about, you know, being a civilian," said "Ace" Carter, an army veteran.
Carter gave more than 22 years of his life to the military, being deployed to Vietnam, Iraq and Panama.
He struggled to find the same camaraderie and purpose when he came home.
Carter said, "You see the violence, you see the drugs, you see the alcohol, 'What did I fight for?'"
Retired military police Officer Brittany Hodge is only 26 years old.
"One major event happened when I got back to Fort Campbell," said Hodge.
A soldier's wife intentionally set fire to the family home, trapping and killing her two kids. Hodge was a first responder.
read more here
Army 'sanity board' to evaluate if Bales is mentally fit for trial
Army 'sanity board' to evaluate if Bales is mentally fit for trial
Staff Sgt. Robert Bales will be examined within the next four to six weeks by an Army panel of doctors to determine whether he is mentally fit to stand trial on charges of murdering 17 Afghan villagers, according to an Army official briefed on the case.
By Hal Bernton and Mike Carter
Seattle Times staff reporters
April 9, 2012
Staff Sgt. Robert Bales will be examined in spring by an Army panel of doctors to determine whether he is mentally fit to stand trial on charges of murdering 17 Afghan villagers, according to an Army official briefed on the case.
A "sanity board" of Army doctors from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center will meet with Bales and review his files to understand more about his personal life and military experience.
The board will likely examine any prescription medications he may have taken before the March 11 killings in two villages in Kandahar province in southern Afghanistan.
The doctors will determine whether Bales had a severe mental disease or defect at the time of the killings. They also will decide if he is able to appreciate the wrongfulness of his alleged conduct and whether he is able to understand the court-martial proceedings and to cooperate in his defense.
read more here
Staff Sgt. Robert Bales will be examined within the next four to six weeks by an Army panel of doctors to determine whether he is mentally fit to stand trial on charges of murdering 17 Afghan villagers, according to an Army official briefed on the case.
By Hal Bernton and Mike Carter
Seattle Times staff reporters
April 9, 2012
Staff Sgt. Robert Bales will be examined in spring by an Army panel of doctors to determine whether he is mentally fit to stand trial on charges of murdering 17 Afghan villagers, according to an Army official briefed on the case.
A "sanity board" of Army doctors from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center will meet with Bales and review his files to understand more about his personal life and military experience.
The board will likely examine any prescription medications he may have taken before the March 11 killings in two villages in Kandahar province in southern Afghanistan.
The doctors will determine whether Bales had a severe mental disease or defect at the time of the killings. They also will decide if he is able to appreciate the wrongfulness of his alleged conduct and whether he is able to understand the court-martial proceedings and to cooperate in his defense.
read more here
Iraq Vet left for dead still doesn't know who did it
Iraq vet making remarkable recovery, say doctors
Apr 9, 2012
Written by Jay Olstad
MINNEAPOLIS - Inside the Veterans Affairs Health Care building, sits 29-year old John Byro.
With every ordinary task he completes, he travels down a road that is becoming more extraordinary by the minute.
On this day it was remembering his computer password with little effort.
Six weeks ago, it was walking.
"I can't believe I was that far behind or that I've gotten as far as I have," said Byro.
It was last year in late October when Byro, an Iraq War veteran, was riding his motorcycle near Gaylord. Investigators say a vehicle slammed into him at the intersection of Highways 5 and 19. He laid there dying while the vehicle sped off.
The driver has not been heard from since.
"It is frustrating," he said. "There has to be people out there who knows who he is, he needs to get caught."
But authorities do not even know if the driver is a man. Investigators have little to go on and are asking for the public's help. read more here
Apr 9, 2012
Written by Jay Olstad
MINNEAPOLIS - Inside the Veterans Affairs Health Care building, sits 29-year old John Byro.
With every ordinary task he completes, he travels down a road that is becoming more extraordinary by the minute.
On this day it was remembering his computer password with little effort.
Six weeks ago, it was walking.
"I can't believe I was that far behind or that I've gotten as far as I have," said Byro.
It was last year in late October when Byro, an Iraq War veteran, was riding his motorcycle near Gaylord. Investigators say a vehicle slammed into him at the intersection of Highways 5 and 19. He laid there dying while the vehicle sped off.
The driver has not been heard from since.
"It is frustrating," he said. "There has to be people out there who knows who he is, he needs to get caught."
But authorities do not even know if the driver is a man. Investigators have little to go on and are asking for the public's help. read more here
Veterans Win Further Discovery in CIA 'Guinea Pig' Case
Veterans Win Further Discovery in CIA 'Guinea Pig' Case
By NICK MCCANN
OAKLAND, Calif.
(CN) - The Department of Veterans Affairs must disclose certain documents that a class of veterans hopes will prove they were used as guinea pigs by the CIA in Cold War-era drug experiments, a federal judge ruled.
Vietnam Veterans of America filed a class action against the U.S. government in 2009, claiming that at least 7,800 soldiers had been used as guinea pigs in Project Paperclip. The experiments were allegedly conducted at the Baltimore-area Edgewood Arsenal.
Soldiers were allegedly administered at least 250 and as many as 400 types of drugs, among them Sarin, one of the most deadly drugs known, amphetamines, barbiturates, mustard gas, phosgene gas and LSD.
Using tactics it often attributed to the Soviet enemy, the U.S. government sought drugs to control human behavior, cause confusion, promote weakness or temporary loss of hearing and vision, induce hypnosis and enhance a person's ability to withstand torture, according to the complaint.
The veterans say that some soldiers died, and others suffered seizures and paranoia.
They say the CIA knew it had to conceal the tests from "enemy forces" and the "American public in general" because the knowledge "would have serious repercussions in political and diplomatic circles and would be detrimental to the accomplishment of its mission."
read more here
By NICK MCCANN
OAKLAND, Calif.
(CN) - The Department of Veterans Affairs must disclose certain documents that a class of veterans hopes will prove they were used as guinea pigs by the CIA in Cold War-era drug experiments, a federal judge ruled.
Vietnam Veterans of America filed a class action against the U.S. government in 2009, claiming that at least 7,800 soldiers had been used as guinea pigs in Project Paperclip. The experiments were allegedly conducted at the Baltimore-area Edgewood Arsenal.
Soldiers were allegedly administered at least 250 and as many as 400 types of drugs, among them Sarin, one of the most deadly drugs known, amphetamines, barbiturates, mustard gas, phosgene gas and LSD.
Using tactics it often attributed to the Soviet enemy, the U.S. government sought drugs to control human behavior, cause confusion, promote weakness or temporary loss of hearing and vision, induce hypnosis and enhance a person's ability to withstand torture, according to the complaint.
The veterans say that some soldiers died, and others suffered seizures and paranoia.
They say the CIA knew it had to conceal the tests from "enemy forces" and the "American public in general" because the knowledge "would have serious repercussions in political and diplomatic circles and would be detrimental to the accomplishment of its mission."
read more here
U.S. Rep Adams to VA Hospital officials: Progress 'unacceptable'
I went to the ground breaking for the Lake Nona VA hospital in 2008. Great food. A crowd of "important" people surrounded by an even larger crowd of veterans waiting for local care. The Orlando area has a VA clinic the size of a hospital but they can't take care of all the medical needs veterans have. It is not a nice ride to Tampa VA from Orlando especially when you are going for an operation and even harder for elderly veterans to make the trip. In 2008, we heard that this would be ready in 2012.
For two years we drove down 417 seeing the tent left behind from the groundbreaking. We kept wondering why this hospital was not even started. Isn't that why we all got together for the big deal ceremony? During those two years, veterans waiting and wondered why they still had to go to Tampa or struggle with the clinic parking lot being full.
For the next two years we saw progress and thought, "wow" this is going to be wonderful. Then we got news veterans would have to wait even longer. 400,000 veterans have waited for this, which sounds like a lot but they never seem to want to include the families these veterans have also waiting!
For two years we drove down 417 seeing the tent left behind from the groundbreaking. We kept wondering why this hospital was not even started. Isn't that why we all got together for the big deal ceremony? During those two years, veterans waiting and wondered why they still had to go to Tampa or struggle with the clinic parking lot being full.
For the next two years we saw progress and thought, "wow" this is going to be wonderful. Then we got news veterans would have to wait even longer. 400,000 veterans have waited for this, which sounds like a lot but they never seem to want to include the families these veterans have also waiting!
U.S. Rep Adams to VA Hospital officials: Progress 'unacceptable'This report is from FOX Orlando
April 9, 2012
By Marni Jameson
Orlando Sentinel
Calling the slow progress on the much-delayed Orlando VA Medical Center "unacceptable," U.S. Rep. Sandy Adams, R-Orlando, chastised VA officials as she toured the construction site Monday.
Criticizing their "lack of oversight" and "lack of communication," the freshman Congresswoman, who is up for re-election this year, said, "We need to get this completed for our veterans. We made a commitment. Is that clear?" "Crystal clear, ma'am," said Bart Bruchok, senior resident engineer for the VA Office of Construction and Facilities. "They deserve better."
This is not the first time in recent weeks that the VA officials have been in the hot seat. Since the project contractor, Brasfield and Gorrie, brought the overdue status of the Orlando VA hospital to the attention of elected officials, politicians have put the pressure on.
Originally set to open in October, the medical center is now not likely to serve the region's 400,000 veterans before December 2013 — 13 months later than promised.
Among the major hold-ups were design drawings the contractor had been waiting for and couldn't proceed without. The VA has turned in "most" of them as of last month, said George Paulson, on-site project executive for B and G, the main contractor for the 1.2 million-square-foot facility.
The VA is "stepping it up," said Paulson. "They have made great strides."
Not only is the $665 million project way behind schedule, it's also way over budget. According to representatives from B and G, changes to the project have added at least $120 million to the price tag.
read more here
Monday, April 9, 2012
DoD career program for spouses under scrutiny
DoD career program for spouses under scrutiny
By Fredreka Schouten
USA Today
Posted : Monday Apr 9, 2012
Dana Kendall adored her dog, Toni, but struggled to manage the brindle-coated pit bull terrier she rescued from dog-fighting. The dog was unruly, had not been housebroken and did not respond to simple commands.
“She didn’t even know she was a dog,” says Kendall, 29. “I needed something that could help me help her.”
So the young Navy wife enrolled in dog-training lessons in 2009 through a California-based obedience school, Animal Behavior College. And the U.S. military picked up the entire tab as part of a Defense Department program to give military spouses career skills they can use no matter how often their families move.
The program, known as the My Career Advancement Account, has proved wildly popular: More than 147,000 spouses have participated since it began in 2009, and demand was so high the military briefly suspended the program, retooled it to apply only to the spouses of junior servicemembers and reduced the maximum benefit from $6,000 to $4,000.
The program now is facing scrutiny from Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, and other lawmakers, who are examining the growing share of military education benefits going to for-profit schools. In fiscal year 2011, for instance, for-profit colleges got $280 million — half the money the military gave to active-duty personnel for tuition assistance, according to Harkin’s committee.
read more here
By Fredreka Schouten
USA Today
Posted : Monday Apr 9, 2012
Dana Kendall adored her dog, Toni, but struggled to manage the brindle-coated pit bull terrier she rescued from dog-fighting. The dog was unruly, had not been housebroken and did not respond to simple commands.
“She didn’t even know she was a dog,” says Kendall, 29. “I needed something that could help me help her.”
So the young Navy wife enrolled in dog-training lessons in 2009 through a California-based obedience school, Animal Behavior College. And the U.S. military picked up the entire tab as part of a Defense Department program to give military spouses career skills they can use no matter how often their families move.
The program, known as the My Career Advancement Account, has proved wildly popular: More than 147,000 spouses have participated since it began in 2009, and demand was so high the military briefly suspended the program, retooled it to apply only to the spouses of junior servicemembers and reduced the maximum benefit from $6,000 to $4,000.
The program now is facing scrutiny from Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, and other lawmakers, who are examining the growing share of military education benefits going to for-profit schools. In fiscal year 2011, for instance, for-profit colleges got $280 million — half the money the military gave to active-duty personnel for tuition assistance, according to Harkin’s committee.
read more here
Rick Warren says "God Loves Every Soldier"
Rick Warren: ‘God Hates War, but God Loves Every Soldier’
By Jake Tapper
Apr 8, 2012
During an interview I conducted with Rick Warren for “This Week,” the evangelical pastor defended the use of military force, arguing that certain things are “worth dying for” and that the “Bible said God has authorized government to protect the citizenship.”
TAPPER: Saddleback opened an outpost at Camp Leatherneck in Helmand Province in Afghanistan. Camp Pendleton is not far from us here in Orange County. When troops come to you, having seen, maybe even done horrifying things, how do you counsel them? How do you say this is how you reconcile war and Christ?
WARREN: Well, in the first place, military service, they don’t call it service for nothing. You are actually serving your country. And it is a worthy and valid vocation.
In fact, the greatest compliment that Jesus ever gave, he gave to a soldier in scripture. He said, “I’ve never seen such faith in all of Israel.” And the Bible said God has authorized government to protect the citizenship.
WARREN: The Bible tells us that there are some things worth fighting for. In fact, the Bible says there’s some things worth dying for. You’re not really ready to live unless you know what you’re willing to die for. I would die to protect my wife and children. And so this is a valid calling. And the Bible says they are actually agents of peace. They are peacemakers. So I would say God hates war, but God loves every soldier.
read more here
By Jake Tapper
Apr 8, 2012
During an interview I conducted with Rick Warren for “This Week,” the evangelical pastor defended the use of military force, arguing that certain things are “worth dying for” and that the “Bible said God has authorized government to protect the citizenship.”
TAPPER: Saddleback opened an outpost at Camp Leatherneck in Helmand Province in Afghanistan. Camp Pendleton is not far from us here in Orange County. When troops come to you, having seen, maybe even done horrifying things, how do you counsel them? How do you say this is how you reconcile war and Christ?
WARREN: Well, in the first place, military service, they don’t call it service for nothing. You are actually serving your country. And it is a worthy and valid vocation.
In fact, the greatest compliment that Jesus ever gave, he gave to a soldier in scripture. He said, “I’ve never seen such faith in all of Israel.” And the Bible said God has authorized government to protect the citizenship.
WARREN: The Bible tells us that there are some things worth fighting for. In fact, the Bible says there’s some things worth dying for. You’re not really ready to live unless you know what you’re willing to die for. I would die to protect my wife and children. And so this is a valid calling. And the Bible says they are actually agents of peace. They are peacemakers. So I would say God hates war, but God loves every soldier.
read more here
Running a war on drugs no win for those we send
A fog of drugs and war
By KIM MURPHY
Los Angeles Times
Published: April 8, 2012
SEATTLE
U.S. Air Force pilot Patrick Burke's day started in the cockpit of a B-1 bomber near the Persian Gulf and proceeded across nine time zones as he ferried the aircraft home to South Dakota.
Every four hours during the 19-hour flight, Burke swallowed a tablet of Dexedrine, the prescribed amphetamine known as "go pills."
After landing, he went out for dinner and drinks with a fellow crewman. They were driving back to Ellsworth Air Force Base when Burke began striking his friend in the head. "Jack Bauer told me this was going to happen — you guys are trying to kidnap me!" he yelled, as if he were a character in the TV show "24."
When the woman giving them a lift pulled the car over, Burke leaped on her and wrestled her to the ground. "Me and my platoon are looking for terrorists," he told her before grabbing her keys, driving away and crashing into a guardrail.
Burke was charged with auto theft, drunk driving and two counts of assault. But in October, a court-martial judge found the young lieutenant not guilty "by reason of lack of mental responsibility" — the almost unprecedented equivalent, at least in modern-day military courts, of an insanity acquittal.
Four military psychiatrists concluded that Burke suffered from "polysubstance-induced delirium" brought on by alcohol, lack of sleep and the 40 milligrams of Dexedrine he was issued by the Air Force.
In a small but growing number of cases across the nation, lawyers are blaming the U.S. military's heavy use of psychotropic drugs for their clients' aberrant behavior and related health problems. Such defenses have rarely gained traction in military or civilian courtrooms, but Burke's case provides the first important indication that military psychiatrists and court-martial judges are not blind to what can happen when troops go to work medicated.
read more here
By KIM MURPHY
Los Angeles Times
Published: April 8, 2012
SEATTLE
U.S. Air Force pilot Patrick Burke's day started in the cockpit of a B-1 bomber near the Persian Gulf and proceeded across nine time zones as he ferried the aircraft home to South Dakota.
Every four hours during the 19-hour flight, Burke swallowed a tablet of Dexedrine, the prescribed amphetamine known as "go pills."
After landing, he went out for dinner and drinks with a fellow crewman. They were driving back to Ellsworth Air Force Base when Burke began striking his friend in the head. "Jack Bauer told me this was going to happen — you guys are trying to kidnap me!" he yelled, as if he were a character in the TV show "24."
When the woman giving them a lift pulled the car over, Burke leaped on her and wrestled her to the ground. "Me and my platoon are looking for terrorists," he told her before grabbing her keys, driving away and crashing into a guardrail.
Burke was charged with auto theft, drunk driving and two counts of assault. But in October, a court-martial judge found the young lieutenant not guilty "by reason of lack of mental responsibility" — the almost unprecedented equivalent, at least in modern-day military courts, of an insanity acquittal.
Four military psychiatrists concluded that Burke suffered from "polysubstance-induced delirium" brought on by alcohol, lack of sleep and the 40 milligrams of Dexedrine he was issued by the Air Force.
In a small but growing number of cases across the nation, lawyers are blaming the U.S. military's heavy use of psychotropic drugs for their clients' aberrant behavior and related health problems. Such defenses have rarely gained traction in military or civilian courtrooms, but Burke's case provides the first important indication that military psychiatrists and court-martial judges are not blind to what can happen when troops go to work medicated.
read more here
KCBS In Depth: PTSD and Stress
KCBS In Depth: PTSD and Stress
April 8, 2012
SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS)
Post-traumatic stress disorder has been a hot button topic recently, with the case of Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales in the headlines.
Bales, accused of killing 17 Afghan villagers in March, is being held at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, pending a full military investigation. He has since described PTSD-like symptoms to his legal team.
Dr. David Spiegel, a Stanford Medical Center psychiatrist and expert on post-traumatic stress disorder, has a unique perspective on the case.
“These people suffer, they have nightmares and flashbacks, numbing, avoidance and irritability. But they’re not psychotic. They’re not unable to comprehend the meaning and nature of their acts or unable to understand that killing someone is wrong,” said Spiegel. “So typically, PTSD is not a classical insanity defense. It may go to whether somebody pre-meditated or not, it may be a different situation in a court if somebody heard a loud noise and turned around and thought they were fighting the enemy and shot someone versus a situation where they stalked and planned for weeks ahead. So it may go to the type of crime, but usually, it does not constitute an insanity defense.”
Spiegel said the situation involving Sgt. Bales is tragic but also warns that the vast majority of people suffering from PTSD don’t actually inflict harm on others.
read more here
April 8, 2012
SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS)
Post-traumatic stress disorder has been a hot button topic recently, with the case of Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales in the headlines.
Bales, accused of killing 17 Afghan villagers in March, is being held at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, pending a full military investigation. He has since described PTSD-like symptoms to his legal team.
Dr. David Spiegel, a Stanford Medical Center psychiatrist and expert on post-traumatic stress disorder, has a unique perspective on the case.
“These people suffer, they have nightmares and flashbacks, numbing, avoidance and irritability. But they’re not psychotic. They’re not unable to comprehend the meaning and nature of their acts or unable to understand that killing someone is wrong,” said Spiegel. “So typically, PTSD is not a classical insanity defense. It may go to whether somebody pre-meditated or not, it may be a different situation in a court if somebody heard a loud noise and turned around and thought they were fighting the enemy and shot someone versus a situation where they stalked and planned for weeks ahead. So it may go to the type of crime, but usually, it does not constitute an insanity defense.”
Spiegel said the situation involving Sgt. Bales is tragic but also warns that the vast majority of people suffering from PTSD don’t actually inflict harm on others.
read more here
KFBB news gives report on combat PTSD
Indepth Report: Living with PTSD
By KFBB News Team
Apr 8, 2012 As we remember those who give the ultimate sacrifice - we also honor the struggles going on on our home front.
Many combat veterans find themselves dealing with a condition known as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and our own Devin Hamilton, a disabled combat veteran who served two tours in Iraq, filed this report to help us gain a better understanding of what it's like to live with PTSD.
read more here
By KFBB News Team
Apr 8, 2012 As we remember those who give the ultimate sacrifice - we also honor the struggles going on on our home front.
Many combat veterans find themselves dealing with a condition known as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and our own Devin Hamilton, a disabled combat veteran who served two tours in Iraq, filed this report to help us gain a better understanding of what it's like to live with PTSD.
read more here
Resource For Troops With PTSD Could Run Out Of Money
Resource For Troops With PTSD Could Run Out Of Money
April 8, 2012
SUMMIT COUNTY, Colo.
(CBS4) – A vital resource for veterans returning from the Middle East could soon be gone. A man in Summit County has single-handedly been helping veterans cope with post traumatic stress disorder, but the financial burden may be too much. “A lot of it is from personal experience; knowing the trials and tribulations we go through with the VA system,” Tom Torres said.
Torres says it was about six years ago when he got a call from a high-ranking official at Fort Carson asking for help.
“I’m just a veteran, I’m no one special, it came out of my heart and gut and that’s why I’m doing this,” Torres said.
read more here
April 8, 2012
SUMMIT COUNTY, Colo.
(CBS4) – A vital resource for veterans returning from the Middle East could soon be gone. A man in Summit County has single-handedly been helping veterans cope with post traumatic stress disorder, but the financial burden may be too much. “A lot of it is from personal experience; knowing the trials and tribulations we go through with the VA system,” Tom Torres said.
Torres says it was about six years ago when he got a call from a high-ranking official at Fort Carson asking for help.
“I’m just a veteran, I’m no one special, it came out of my heart and gut and that’s why I’m doing this,” Torres said.
read more here
Sunday, April 8, 2012
Minnesota National Guard families part of research project
Deployment’s toll on families goes under university's microscope
By MARK BRUNSWICK
Stars and Stripes
Published: April 5, 2012
MINNEAPOLIS — For the next four years, hundreds of military families in Minnesota will submit to wearing heart sensors to monitor the stresses they exert on each other and allow video cameras to record their interactions as part of an extraordinary first-in-the-nation look at the toll exacted by deployments to war zones.
The research, which is being conducted by the University of Minnesota, is aimed especially at gauging the impact on families of Guard and Reserve members, who have made up nearly half of the U.S. forces sent to Iraq and Afghanistan over the past decade. That number is unprecedented in modern American warfare and is likely to have a ripple effect on family life for years as soldiers return home and resume their civilian lives.
“This is an important window. Minnesota has an opportunity to really share incredible knowledge that will help the next generation of reserve component families,” said Abigail Gewirtz, an associate professor of family social science at the University of Minnesota and the project’s principal investigator.
Minnesota’s demographics work well for the research. Its mostly citizen-soldiers are generally older and more likely to have families than those on active duty. And those families often blend back in to small towns and cities after a deployment without the support system that a military base offers.
read more here
By MARK BRUNSWICK
Stars and Stripes
Published: April 5, 2012
MINNEAPOLIS — For the next four years, hundreds of military families in Minnesota will submit to wearing heart sensors to monitor the stresses they exert on each other and allow video cameras to record their interactions as part of an extraordinary first-in-the-nation look at the toll exacted by deployments to war zones.
The research, which is being conducted by the University of Minnesota, is aimed especially at gauging the impact on families of Guard and Reserve members, who have made up nearly half of the U.S. forces sent to Iraq and Afghanistan over the past decade. That number is unprecedented in modern American warfare and is likely to have a ripple effect on family life for years as soldiers return home and resume their civilian lives.
“This is an important window. Minnesota has an opportunity to really share incredible knowledge that will help the next generation of reserve component families,” said Abigail Gewirtz, an associate professor of family social science at the University of Minnesota and the project’s principal investigator.
Minnesota’s demographics work well for the research. Its mostly citizen-soldiers are generally older and more likely to have families than those on active duty. And those families often blend back in to small towns and cities after a deployment without the support system that a military base offers.
read more here
More women vets are homeless, but housing scarce
More women vets are homeless, but housing scarce
By ERIC TUCKER,
Sunday, April 08, 2012
WASHINGTON
(AP) — Misha McLamb helped keep fighter jets flying during a military career that took her halfway around the world to the Persian Gulf. But back home, the Navy aircraft specialist is barely getting by after a series of blows that undid her settled life.
She was laid off from work last year and lost custody of her daughter. She's grappled with alcohol abuse, a carry-over from heavy-drinking Navy days. She spent nights in her car before a friend's boyfriend wrecked it, moving later to a homeless shelter where the insulin needles she needs for her diabetes were stolen.
She now lives in transitional housing for homeless veterans — except the government recently advised occupants to leave because of unsafe building conditions.
"I wasn't a loser," McLamb, 32, says. "Everybody who's homeless doesn't necessarily have to have something very mentally wrong with them. Some people just have bad circumstances with no resources."
Once primarily male veteran problems, homelessness and economic struggles are escalating among female veterans, whose numbers have grown during the past decade of U.S. wars while resources for them haven't kept up. The population of female veterans without permanent shelter has more than doubled in the last half-dozen years and may continue climbing now that the Iraq war has ended, sending women home with the same stresses as their male counterparts — plus some gender-specific ones that make them more susceptible to homelessness.
The problem, a hurdle to the Obama administration's stated goal of ending veterans' homelessness by 2015, is exacerbated by a shortage of temporary housing specifically designed to be safe and welcoming to women or mothers with children. The spike comes even as the overall homeless veteran population has gone down, dropping by nearly 12 percent to about 67,500 between January 2010 and January 2011, officials say.
"It can't get any worse," McLamb says matter-of-factly, "'cause I've already been through hell."
Veterans' homelessness, the subject of a March congressional hearing, has received fresh attention amid government reports documenting the numbers and identifying widespread flaws in buildings that shelter veterans.
"I think it's very clear that women veterans in particular lack the services they need," Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., chairwoman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, said in an interview.
read more here
By ERIC TUCKER,
Sunday, April 08, 2012
WASHINGTON
(AP) — Misha McLamb helped keep fighter jets flying during a military career that took her halfway around the world to the Persian Gulf. But back home, the Navy aircraft specialist is barely getting by after a series of blows that undid her settled life.
She was laid off from work last year and lost custody of her daughter. She's grappled with alcohol abuse, a carry-over from heavy-drinking Navy days. She spent nights in her car before a friend's boyfriend wrecked it, moving later to a homeless shelter where the insulin needles she needs for her diabetes were stolen.
She now lives in transitional housing for homeless veterans — except the government recently advised occupants to leave because of unsafe building conditions.
"I wasn't a loser," McLamb, 32, says. "Everybody who's homeless doesn't necessarily have to have something very mentally wrong with them. Some people just have bad circumstances with no resources."
Once primarily male veteran problems, homelessness and economic struggles are escalating among female veterans, whose numbers have grown during the past decade of U.S. wars while resources for them haven't kept up. The population of female veterans without permanent shelter has more than doubled in the last half-dozen years and may continue climbing now that the Iraq war has ended, sending women home with the same stresses as their male counterparts — plus some gender-specific ones that make them more susceptible to homelessness.
The problem, a hurdle to the Obama administration's stated goal of ending veterans' homelessness by 2015, is exacerbated by a shortage of temporary housing specifically designed to be safe and welcoming to women or mothers with children. The spike comes even as the overall homeless veteran population has gone down, dropping by nearly 12 percent to about 67,500 between January 2010 and January 2011, officials say.
"It can't get any worse," McLamb says matter-of-factly, "'cause I've already been through hell."
Veterans' homelessness, the subject of a March congressional hearing, has received fresh attention amid government reports documenting the numbers and identifying widespread flaws in buildings that shelter veterans.
"I think it's very clear that women veterans in particular lack the services they need," Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., chairwoman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, said in an interview.
read more here
Medal of Honor, Sammy Davis on hand to honor Military Children of the Year
Top brass honors Military Children of the Year
By Karen Jowers
Staff writer
Posted : Friday Apr 6, 2012
As the color guard marched in, 9-year-old Nathan Richards stood as still and ramrod-straight as the Navy officer at his side. That respect is part of the fiber of each of the five children honored at a gala Thursday in Arlington, Va., as their services’ Operation Homefront Military Child of the Year.
They were praised by military brass from their respective services, by Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, by Medal of Honor recipient retired Army Sgt. 1st Class Sammy Lee Davis, and by actor and veterans advocate Gary Sinise.
Nathan was honored as the Navy Child of the Year; Chelsea Rutherford, 17, Air Force Child of the Year; Amelia McConnell, 17, Army Child of the Year; Erika Booth, 17, Marine Corps Child of the Year; and Alena Deveau, 17, Coast Guard Child of the Year.
“If I had to be identified as the best of the best of the best among any group in America, I’d actually like to be known as the best among military kids,” Dempsey said, “because of what we ask them to do, and what they do.” read more here
By Karen Jowers
Staff writer
Posted : Friday Apr 6, 2012
As the color guard marched in, 9-year-old Nathan Richards stood as still and ramrod-straight as the Navy officer at his side. That respect is part of the fiber of each of the five children honored at a gala Thursday in Arlington, Va., as their services’ Operation Homefront Military Child of the Year.
They were praised by military brass from their respective services, by Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, by Medal of Honor recipient retired Army Sgt. 1st Class Sammy Lee Davis, and by actor and veterans advocate Gary Sinise.
Nathan was honored as the Navy Child of the Year; Chelsea Rutherford, 17, Air Force Child of the Year; Amelia McConnell, 17, Army Child of the Year; Erika Booth, 17, Marine Corps Child of the Year; and Alena Deveau, 17, Coast Guard Child of the Year.
“If I had to be identified as the best of the best of the best among any group in America, I’d actually like to be known as the best among military kids,” Dempsey said, “because of what we ask them to do, and what they do.” read more here
Mississippi Air National Guardsman died Friday at Camp Shelby
Apr. 7, 2012
JACKSON — A Mississippi Air National Guardsman died Friday while performing duties at the Air-Ground Range at Camp Shelby.
Master Sgt. Kevin L. Johnson, 51, of McHenry was pronounced dead Friday afternoon at Forrest General Hospital after collapsing at the range.
An autopsy was scheduled for Monday to determine the cause of death. read more here
An Army medic in Vietnam, he's haunted by cries for help
An Army medic in Vietnam, he's haunted by cries for help
Ruben Greer was an Army medic in Vietnam, the non-commissioned officer in charge of a “dust-off” medical evacuation unit in the Mekong Delta in 1966 and 1967.
ROB CARSON;
STAFF WRITER
Published: 04/08/12
Ruben Greer was an Army medic in Vietnam, the non-commissioned officer in charge of a “dust-off” medical evacuation unit in the Mekong Delta in 1966 and 1967.
The U.S. military suffered some of its highest casualties in Vietnam during those two years, with a total of 17,297 dead.
Unlike many veterans, whose post-war stress was a result of having killed people, Greer’s stress came from being unable to save them.
He’s haunted by memories of being the only medic on scenes strewn with wounded soldiers and having no hope of getting to them all. He still hears the cries for help and anguishes over medical mistakes he may have made in the chaos.
Greer refers to his insistent memories and flashbacks of Vietnam as “little boys in tennis shoes” who run around inside his brain, out of control.
“You see a lot of stuff you’re not supposed to see in combat,” he said. “The brain encapsulates some thoughts that you can’t get rid of.”
read more here
Ruben Greer was an Army medic in Vietnam, the non-commissioned officer in charge of a “dust-off” medical evacuation unit in the Mekong Delta in 1966 and 1967.
ROB CARSON;
STAFF WRITER
Published: 04/08/12
Ruben Greer, a Vietnam War medic who suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, says a veterans therapy group and his faith in God have helped ease his anger. (DEAN J. KOEPFLER/Staff photographer)
Ruben Greer was an Army medic in Vietnam, the non-commissioned officer in charge of a “dust-off” medical evacuation unit in the Mekong Delta in 1966 and 1967.
The U.S. military suffered some of its highest casualties in Vietnam during those two years, with a total of 17,297 dead.
Unlike many veterans, whose post-war stress was a result of having killed people, Greer’s stress came from being unable to save them.
He’s haunted by memories of being the only medic on scenes strewn with wounded soldiers and having no hope of getting to them all. He still hears the cries for help and anguishes over medical mistakes he may have made in the chaos.
Greer refers to his insistent memories and flashbacks of Vietnam as “little boys in tennis shoes” who run around inside his brain, out of control.
“You see a lot of stuff you’re not supposed to see in combat,” he said. “The brain encapsulates some thoughts that you can’t get rid of.”
read more here
Marine Cpl. Andrew DelRossi Biggio on mission of the heart
Fellow Marine on duty for wounded warrior
By Peter Gelzinis
Sunday, April 8, 2012
A year ago, shortly before he was deployed to Afghanistan, Marine Cpl. Andrew DelRossi Biggio completed a different kind of mission: a mission of the heart.
All of 23, this Winthrop native organized and led some 400 motorcyclists on a charity ride to benefit Vincent Mannion-Brodeur, also 23, a paratrooper who’d suffered a horrific brain injury in Iraq.
The funds raised that April day allowed Jeff Brodeur, a retired postal worker, to pay for the handicapped modifications that enabled him to care for his son at home.
As for Andrew Biggio, going to war didn’t distract him from searching for another wounded warrior he could assist. In between patrols, Biggio scoured Google and Facebook until he came upon the story of Evan Reichenthal, a 21-year-old Marine from Princeton.
read more here
By Peter Gelzinis
Sunday, April 8, 2012
Photo by John Wilcox UPHILL BATTLE: Injured veteran Evan Reichenthal he is joined by Marine Cpl. Andrew DelRossi Biggio, who is helping him raise funds for renovations that will ease his plight.
A year ago, shortly before he was deployed to Afghanistan, Marine Cpl. Andrew DelRossi Biggio completed a different kind of mission: a mission of the heart.
All of 23, this Winthrop native organized and led some 400 motorcyclists on a charity ride to benefit Vincent Mannion-Brodeur, also 23, a paratrooper who’d suffered a horrific brain injury in Iraq.
The funds raised that April day allowed Jeff Brodeur, a retired postal worker, to pay for the handicapped modifications that enabled him to care for his son at home.
As for Andrew Biggio, going to war didn’t distract him from searching for another wounded warrior he could assist. In between patrols, Biggio scoured Google and Facebook until he came upon the story of Evan Reichenthal, a 21-year-old Marine from Princeton.
read more here
Crowds come out to welcome home Iraq war vets
Crowds come out to welcome home Iraq war vets
By Louis Casiano
Saturday, April 7, 2012
Thousands of supporters lined the streets of downtown Saturday afternoon, cheering and waving American flags to show their appreciation for Iraq veterans at a welcome home parade.
The parade, one of the few held since St. Louis hosted the nation's first in January, kicked off on San Jacinto at 4 p.m., making its way down Texas before turning on Crawford and ending at Minute Maid Park.
Mayor Annise Parker and other local leaders opened the parade and marched alongside the hundreds of veterans.
"This is incredible," said Tony Solomon, Iraq veteran and vice president of operations for the Lone Star Veterans Association.
"It all comes back to you about being an American and everything you fought for and seeing all these civilians here and the color guard and the city behind you, it's a great feeling."
The nonprofit association helps veterans transition into civilian life after deployment.
The parade started with a marching band playing the official songs of each military branch.
Although the festivities were to welcome these service members home, some were there to remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice.
"It feels good to see all these people. Texas and Houston are really good supporters of the troops," said Greg, 34, who asked that his last name not be used. His cousin, Army Sgt. Omar Mora, died in Iraq in 2007.
read more here
By Louis Casiano
Saturday, April 7, 2012
Thousands of supporters lined the streets of downtown Saturday afternoon, cheering and waving American flags to show their appreciation for Iraq veterans at a welcome home parade.
The parade, one of the few held since St. Louis hosted the nation's first in January, kicked off on San Jacinto at 4 p.m., making its way down Texas before turning on Crawford and ending at Minute Maid Park.
Mayor Annise Parker and other local leaders opened the parade and marched alongside the hundreds of veterans.
"This is incredible," said Tony Solomon, Iraq veteran and vice president of operations for the Lone Star Veterans Association.
"It all comes back to you about being an American and everything you fought for and seeing all these civilians here and the color guard and the city behind you, it's a great feeling."
The nonprofit association helps veterans transition into civilian life after deployment.
The parade started with a marching band playing the official songs of each military branch.
Although the festivities were to welcome these service members home, some were there to remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice.
"It feels good to see all these people. Texas and Houston are really good supporters of the troops," said Greg, 34, who asked that his last name not be used. His cousin, Army Sgt. Omar Mora, died in Iraq in 2007.
read more here
Gulf War Veteran walks from Ariz. to D.C. to address V.A. funding issues
Veteran walks from Ariz. to D.C. to address V.A. funding issues
04/07/2012
By: KOB.com Staff
Steven Jacoby is walking from Prescott, Ariz. to Washington D.C. where he plans to speak with the head of the V.A. about his concerns.
04/07/2012
By: KOB.com Staff
Steven Jacoby is walking from Prescott, Ariz. to Washington D.C. where he plans to speak with the head of the V.A. about his concerns.
Veterans left stranded amid squalor and crimes
Watchdog Report:
Veterans left stranded amid squalor, crime at Somers Point apartment complex
By WALLACE McKELVEY
Staff Writer
The Veterans Point project at The Gates at Somers Point, billed as the first permanent housing complex for veterans in the state, has collapsed in the past year, leaving a handful of veterans living in squalor.
Vehicles driven through the complex trundle over a parking lot cratered with potholes and past young men loitering in front of apartment buildings. Many of the entrances to those buildings are unlocked, allowing residents and nonresidents to come and go freely. The surveillance cameras over the doorways feed video to nowhere.
Each apartment comes with its own set of problems: cabinets are not secured to the walls, caterpillars and other insects crawl across surfaces, doors damaged by previous tenants go unrepaired, floors are warped by leaking pipes, structural cracks and water stains mar the ceilings.
Local officials were optimistic the crime-ridden complex could be rehabilitated when its Great Neck, N.Y., owners — WWW Associates LLC, the principal of which is Kenneth Weinstein — partnered in 2009 with Community Quest, the Egg Harbor Township-based nonprofit that spearheaded the project. But nearly three years later, the initial group of veterans is gone, only a few dozen of the 202 units were ever renovated and Community Quest has disavowed any further involvement, leaving behind residents who had signed leases with the complex owners.
Despite those leases, no signed contracts exist that would bind The Gates owners to the promises they made to turn the complex into a safe, veterans-only complex. Community Quest was unable to say how many veterans are still living at the complex; Weinstein did not respond to the question.
read more here
Veterans left stranded amid squalor, crime at Somers Point apartment complex
Findings No signed contracts exist that would bind The Gates at Somers Point owners to the promises they made to turn the complex into a safe, veterans-only complex.7:01 am, Sun Apr 8, 2012.
The complex owners say they were counting on housing vouchers from the Department of Veterans Affairs to assist their tenants in paying rent. However, only 60 of those vouchers are available for Atlantic, Cape May and Cumberland counties combined.
The complex has a history of failed inspections with both the state and the city of Somers Point. Problems, such as damaged sidewalks and inadequate storm drainage, that have persisted through multiple inspections.
The Gates at Somers Point is the highest crime area of the city, with 515 calls for service recorded last year.
Community Quest, the nonprofit that spearheaded the Veterans Point project, pulled out last year, leaving residents who had signed leases with the complex owners behind.
By WALLACE McKELVEY
Staff Writer
The Veterans Point project at The Gates at Somers Point, billed as the first permanent housing complex for veterans in the state, has collapsed in the past year, leaving a handful of veterans living in squalor.
Vehicles driven through the complex trundle over a parking lot cratered with potholes and past young men loitering in front of apartment buildings. Many of the entrances to those buildings are unlocked, allowing residents and nonresidents to come and go freely. The surveillance cameras over the doorways feed video to nowhere.
Each apartment comes with its own set of problems: cabinets are not secured to the walls, caterpillars and other insects crawl across surfaces, doors damaged by previous tenants go unrepaired, floors are warped by leaking pipes, structural cracks and water stains mar the ceilings.
Local officials were optimistic the crime-ridden complex could be rehabilitated when its Great Neck, N.Y., owners — WWW Associates LLC, the principal of which is Kenneth Weinstein — partnered in 2009 with Community Quest, the Egg Harbor Township-based nonprofit that spearheaded the project. But nearly three years later, the initial group of veterans is gone, only a few dozen of the 202 units were ever renovated and Community Quest has disavowed any further involvement, leaving behind residents who had signed leases with the complex owners.
Despite those leases, no signed contracts exist that would bind The Gates owners to the promises they made to turn the complex into a safe, veterans-only complex. Community Quest was unable to say how many veterans are still living at the complex; Weinstein did not respond to the question.
read more here
Saturday, April 7, 2012
Military, church struggle to address Catholic chaplains shortage
Military, church struggle to address Catholic chaplains shortage
By Dan Springer
Published April 06, 2012
FoxNews.com
As Catholics around the world observe Good Friday and prepare for their most holy day Easter Sunday, the U.S. military is facing a crisis in faith. The number of Catholic chaplains has plummeted nearly by half the last decade, leaving thousands of soldiers going months without seeing a priest.
“If you’re out in a location defending our nation,” the Rev. Kerry Abbott said, “you may not have ready access to a Catholic priest chaplain, if you’re out in a combat zone, for example.”
Abbott is the director of the Military Archdiocese, charged with serving all the armed services. He’s down to 216 Catholic chaplains. Catholics make up the largest single religious denomination in the military, with 275,00 among the active-duty troops. It means there is one chaplain for every 1,300 Catholic servicemen and servicewomen.
Catholic soldiers are largely on their own when it comes to practicing their faith, with little chance to celebrate the sacraments, such as Holy Communion, Reconciliation and Anointing the Sick.
“These are staples of Catholic life,” says Army Chaplain Col. Gary Studniewski who’s stationed at Joint Base Lewis McChord in Washington state. “To be denied that when you’re in the service of your country is a travesty.”
read more here
By Dan Springer
Published April 06, 2012
FoxNews.com
As Catholics around the world observe Good Friday and prepare for their most holy day Easter Sunday, the U.S. military is facing a crisis in faith. The number of Catholic chaplains has plummeted nearly by half the last decade, leaving thousands of soldiers going months without seeing a priest.
“If you’re out in a location defending our nation,” the Rev. Kerry Abbott said, “you may not have ready access to a Catholic priest chaplain, if you’re out in a combat zone, for example.”
Abbott is the director of the Military Archdiocese, charged with serving all the armed services. He’s down to 216 Catholic chaplains. Catholics make up the largest single religious denomination in the military, with 275,00 among the active-duty troops. It means there is one chaplain for every 1,300 Catholic servicemen and servicewomen.
Catholic soldiers are largely on their own when it comes to practicing their faith, with little chance to celebrate the sacraments, such as Holy Communion, Reconciliation and Anointing the Sick.
“These are staples of Catholic life,” says Army Chaplain Col. Gary Studniewski who’s stationed at Joint Base Lewis McChord in Washington state. “To be denied that when you’re in the service of your country is a travesty.”
read more here
Police Searching For Missing Veteran
Police Searching For Missing Veteran
April 6, 2012
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — Police are asking for the public’s help in finding a veteran who went missing from the veteran’s hospital in Pittsburgh’s Oakland section.
According to police with the VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System, 59-year-old Edward Lanigan was last seen on Thursday at 2:50 p.m. in Oakland.
He used to live in the Pittsburgh area, including McKeesport, Millvale and New Castle. He and his family now live in Crystal Springs, Miss.
read more here
'Miracle' nobody died in Virginia jet crash
Navy: 'Miracle' nobody died in Virginia jet crash
By the CNN Wire Staff
Sat April 7, 2012
STORY HIGHLIGHTS NEW: All are accounted for after the fighter jet crashes into apartments
NEW: A special victims fund is available, the Navy says
NEW: At least seven people, including the two pilots, were injured
NEW: All have been released from the hospital and the crash is under investigation
CNN affiliates WTKR, WAVY and WVEC have more on the story.
Virginia Beach, Virginia
(CNN) -- A U.S. Navy admiral said Saturday that the fiery crash of a fighter jet into apartment buildings in the military community of Virginia Beach matches his definition of a miracle.
No one was killed and everyone was accounted for one day after the accident.
"I don't speak for anybody's religious beliefs, but the mayor and I both agreed that if you want to define a miracle, what happened here yesterday meets that definition for me," Adm. John Harvey, the four-star head of the U.S. Fleet Forces Command, told reporters.
He said the Navy is investigating the crash, but noted it will take weeks to determine exactly what happened.
"We will not rush to judgment. We will get everything down. We will examine it carefully," he said. "We'll fix whatever went wrong."
A special victims fund is available to assist those whose homes or possessions were damaged or destroyed. More than two dozen people spent the night at a temporary shelter.
At least seven people, including two pilots who ejected safely, were injured in the crash. All were released from the hospital as of Saturday, said Harvey, and are in "good shape."
read more here
By the CNN Wire Staff
Sat April 7, 2012
STORY HIGHLIGHTS NEW: All are accounted for after the fighter jet crashes into apartments
NEW: A special victims fund is available, the Navy says
NEW: At least seven people, including the two pilots, were injured
NEW: All have been released from the hospital and the crash is under investigation
CNN affiliates WTKR, WAVY and WVEC have more on the story.
Virginia Beach, Virginia
(CNN) -- A U.S. Navy admiral said Saturday that the fiery crash of a fighter jet into apartment buildings in the military community of Virginia Beach matches his definition of a miracle.
No one was killed and everyone was accounted for one day after the accident.
"I don't speak for anybody's religious beliefs, but the mayor and I both agreed that if you want to define a miracle, what happened here yesterday meets that definition for me," Adm. John Harvey, the four-star head of the U.S. Fleet Forces Command, told reporters.
He said the Navy is investigating the crash, but noted it will take weeks to determine exactly what happened.
"We will not rush to judgment. We will get everything down. We will examine it carefully," he said. "We'll fix whatever went wrong."
A special victims fund is available to assist those whose homes or possessions were damaged or destroyed. More than two dozen people spent the night at a temporary shelter.
At least seven people, including two pilots who ejected safely, were injured in the crash. All were released from the hospital as of Saturday, said Harvey, and are in "good shape."
read more here
Ohio Army National Guard grieves for killed and wounded
Three Ohio Soldiers Killed In Afghanistan, Four Others Wounded
By Leslie Barrett, Co-anchor/Reporter
COLUMBUS, Ohio-
Military officials are releasing more details about the three soldiers who were killed in a suicide attack in Afghanistan Wednesday. The Ohio Army National Guard said the soldiers who died were from Franklin County and four others from the state were wounded, some critically.
The Department of Defense said Capt. Nicholas Rozanski of Dublin, Sgt. 1st Class Jeffrey Rieck of Columbus and Sgt. 1st Class Shawn Hannon of Grove City, Ohio died.
The Ohio National Guard said the soldiers wounded are Private 1st Class Jacob Williams of Summersville, Cpl. Everett Haworth of Olmsted, Spc. Austin Weigle of Bryan, and First Lt. Christopher Rosebrock of Hicksville.
read more here
also
Mother of Ohio soldier: He was a natural leader
Brother of Ohio soldier killed in Afghan suicide bombing urges Americans not to forget troops
War's violence hits home in Guard unit
Combat PTSD, hard fall of the survivor
By Leslie Barrett, Co-anchor/Reporter
COLUMBUS, Ohio-
Military officials are releasing more details about the three soldiers who were killed in a suicide attack in Afghanistan Wednesday. The Ohio Army National Guard said the soldiers who died were from Franklin County and four others from the state were wounded, some critically.
The Department of Defense said Capt. Nicholas Rozanski of Dublin, Sgt. 1st Class Jeffrey Rieck of Columbus and Sgt. 1st Class Shawn Hannon of Grove City, Ohio died.
The Ohio National Guard said the soldiers wounded are Private 1st Class Jacob Williams of Summersville, Cpl. Everett Haworth of Olmsted, Spc. Austin Weigle of Bryan, and First Lt. Christopher Rosebrock of Hicksville.
read more here
also
Mother of Ohio soldier: He was a natural leader
Brother of Ohio soldier killed in Afghan suicide bombing urges Americans not to forget troops
War's violence hits home in Guard unit
Combat PTSD, hard fall of the survivor
He could no longer deal with the darkness, the heaviness of PTSD
Airman's Suicide Spurs Oversight Call
April 07, 2012
Times Union,
Albany, N.Y.
by Dennis Yusko
Framed portraits make up the family's Wall of Honor. Pictures of men in uniform dating back to World War I watch over Guiseppe and Melody DiGregorio's log home in the Catskill Mountains. One photo is of a handsome munitions journeyman in a military cap. He's Edward Andrew Snyder.
The young man's grandparents recalled recently how proud they were of "Drew," how he grew up healthy and happy and followed in the footsteps of Guiseppe DiGregorio and his uncle by joining the Air Force. But pride turned to pain when the DiGregorios recounted Snyder's return.
Weeks after coming home to Long Island, he withdrew into anxious isolation. After being was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and depression, the senior airman was discharged from the military and became a disabled veteran.
Over the next few years, he slid into despair even as he worked to fulfill dream of becoming a New York City photojournalist.
On Dec. 9, Snyder killed himself with a shotgun in his apartment on Long Island. He was 24.
"He could no longer deal with the darkness, the heaviness of PTSD," Melody DiGregorio said. "He did not feel he could get out of it." The tragedy of Drew Snyder's death sends a stark message about the difficulties modern members of the military face as an unprecedented number of service members return from Iraq and Afghanistan with combat-related stress.
His grandparents say his story provides lessons about the unpredictable nature of PTSD and of the need for better monitoring of emotionally injured vets. The safety net for traumatized veterans didn't work for their grandson, and they said they wanted others to avoid the same fate. read more here
April 07, 2012
Times Union,
Albany, N.Y.
by Dennis Yusko
Framed portraits make up the family's Wall of Honor. Pictures of men in uniform dating back to World War I watch over Guiseppe and Melody DiGregorio's log home in the Catskill Mountains. One photo is of a handsome munitions journeyman in a military cap. He's Edward Andrew Snyder.
The young man's grandparents recalled recently how proud they were of "Drew," how he grew up healthy and happy and followed in the footsteps of Guiseppe DiGregorio and his uncle by joining the Air Force. But pride turned to pain when the DiGregorios recounted Snyder's return.
Weeks after coming home to Long Island, he withdrew into anxious isolation. After being was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and depression, the senior airman was discharged from the military and became a disabled veteran.
Over the next few years, he slid into despair even as he worked to fulfill dream of becoming a New York City photojournalist.
On Dec. 9, Snyder killed himself with a shotgun in his apartment on Long Island. He was 24.
"He could no longer deal with the darkness, the heaviness of PTSD," Melody DiGregorio said. "He did not feel he could get out of it." The tragedy of Drew Snyder's death sends a stark message about the difficulties modern members of the military face as an unprecedented number of service members return from Iraq and Afghanistan with combat-related stress.
His grandparents say his story provides lessons about the unpredictable nature of PTSD and of the need for better monitoring of emotionally injured vets. The safety net for traumatized veterans didn't work for their grandson, and they said they wanted others to avoid the same fate. read more here
Wounded Iraq vet uses pro wrestling to regain his life after losing leg
Wounded Iraq vet uses pro wrestling to regain his life
Pro wrestling has become the avenue for an Iraq war amputee trying to live out a dream
Apr. 7, 2012
Written by Peter Smith
The Courier-Journal
Hundreds in the crowd chanted his name, pounding the risers with their feet. The stocky, 209-pound Michael Hayes stood in the ring, his trunks and prosthetic left leg sporting a matched set of green and brown camouflage.
Hayes’ rival, Mohamad Ali Vaez, with the chiseled physique of a personal trainer and a dramatic cascade of wavy hair, got the best of Hayes in the early going of their March 3 bout at the Davis Arena in Newburg — a warehouse-turned-staging area for Ohio Valley Wrestling, Louisville’s main venue for professional wrestling, with all its bombast and theatrics.
Vaez launched a rapid set of jabs, trapped Hayes against the ropes, staggered him to the mat with a deafening clang and put him in a headlock. read more here
Pro wrestling has become the avenue for an Iraq war amputee trying to live out a dream
Apr. 7, 2012
Written by Peter Smith
The Courier-Journal
Hundreds in the crowd chanted his name, pounding the risers with their feet. The stocky, 209-pound Michael Hayes stood in the ring, his trunks and prosthetic left leg sporting a matched set of green and brown camouflage.
Hayes’ rival, Mohamad Ali Vaez, with the chiseled physique of a personal trainer and a dramatic cascade of wavy hair, got the best of Hayes in the early going of their March 3 bout at the Davis Arena in Newburg — a warehouse-turned-staging area for Ohio Valley Wrestling, Louisville’s main venue for professional wrestling, with all its bombast and theatrics.
Vaez launched a rapid set of jabs, trapped Hayes against the ropes, staggered him to the mat with a deafening clang and put him in a headlock. read more here
Facebook tea party Marine defended by ACLU, Hunter and Issa?
RESTRAINING ORDER SOUGHT FOR MARINE
Panel has backed discharge for sergeant; his attorneys want to stop proceedings
Written by Nathan Max
April 7, 2012
A Camp Pendleton Marine who is fighting expulsion from the Corps for his criticism of President Barack Obama on Facebook returned to federal court Friday, hours after a military panel unanimously found him guilty of misconduct and recommended he be given an other-than-honorable discharge.
Attorneys for Sgt. Gary Stein, 26, of Temecula, are seeking a temporary restraining order for the second time in a week in an attempt to stop the discharge proceedings.
Stein’s social media activities have become the focus of national debate about what is and what isn’t acceptable speech for a service member. He has even gained the support of two local congressmen.
A three-member administrative panel recommended that Stein be kicked out of the Marine Corps late Thursday night after a 13-hour hearing, meaning he would be demoted to lance corporal and forfeit his military benefits. His fate now rests with Brig. Gen. Daniel Yoo, the commanding general for the San Diego Marine Corps Recruit Depot and Western Recruiting Region.
Panel has backed discharge for sergeant; his attorneys want to stop proceedings
Written by Nathan Max
April 7, 2012
A Camp Pendleton Marine who is fighting expulsion from the Corps for his criticism of President Barack Obama on Facebook returned to federal court Friday, hours after a military panel unanimously found him guilty of misconduct and recommended he be given an other-than-honorable discharge.
Attorneys for Sgt. Gary Stein, 26, of Temecula, are seeking a temporary restraining order for the second time in a week in an attempt to stop the discharge proceedings.
Stein’s social media activities have become the focus of national debate about what is and what isn’t acceptable speech for a service member. He has even gained the support of two local congressmen.
A three-member administrative panel recommended that Stein be kicked out of the Marine Corps late Thursday night after a 13-hour hearing, meaning he would be demoted to lance corporal and forfeit his military benefits. His fate now rests with Brig. Gen. Daniel Yoo, the commanding general for the San Diego Marine Corps Recruit Depot and Western Recruiting Region.
Stein is a nine-year veteran of the Marine Corps, and he has been backed by a team of civilian and military attorneys, including those from the United States Justice Foundation and American Civil Liberties Union. Two Republican congressmen, Duncan Hunter of Alpine and Darrell Issa of Vista, have voiced support for Stein, who is fighting to stay in the military and testing its longtime policy of limiting the free speech of its members.read more here
Two Twentynine Palms Marines are in custody after bomb scare
Two Marines in Custody After Bomb Scare
Friday, April 6, 2012
By Beth Ford Roth
Two Twentynine Palms Marines are in custody this morning after police found explosives in the back of their truck at a Redondo Beach shopping center. read more here
Friday, April 6, 2012
By Beth Ford Roth
Two Twentynine Palms Marines are in custody this morning after police found explosives in the back of their truck at a Redondo Beach shopping center. read more here
PTSD:You hear it before you see it
PTSD:You hear it before you see it
by
Chaplain Kathie
You hear it before you see it. All of us know the sound and what it means.
When you hear the sound of a fire truck's siren, you know someone's life is about to change. It may be a house on fire, a car accident or a medical emergency, but whatever the reason firefighters are rushing to help, there is danger for someone else.
As the sound gets louder, you know whatever the emergency is, it is close to where you are. If the sound gets softer, you know it is further away. The emergency is still the same for someone but it all depends on how close you are to it if you pay attention or not.
Whenever I hear the sound of a fire truck, police car or ambulance, I say a prayer for God to watch over them. There is no question in my mind that the people in those vehicles are putting their lives on the line, heading into danger and risking their lives to help someone.
There is another siren that has been heard loud and clear for millions of families in this country. Untrained ears have no idea what the sound means or the fact it also means someone's life is in danger.
The lives on the line have already risked their lives for someone else but not on our own soil. They were sent to face danger in a foreign country. Obviously the men and women in the military face risks everyday they are deployed. They face risks when they come home as well because of the risks they survived in combat but their uniforms have been traded for civilian clothes, boots traded for sneakers and sandals. The trucks and Humvees traded for motorcycles and cars. Machine guns traded for college text books. The title of their rank replaced with husband, Dad, wife, Mom, but they still carry the burden of their rank on their shoulders.
Yesterday the siren was heard in my neighborhood 18 times.
Yesterday 18 veterans took their own lives because the foreboding wail of their suffering was not understood. Our ears were not trained to know what the sound meant. If we are ever going to be able to save the lives of our veterans, it is time to understand what we hear by first understanding what they feel.
by
Chaplain Kathie
You hear it before you see it. All of us know the sound and what it means.
When you hear the sound of a fire truck's siren, you know someone's life is about to change. It may be a house on fire, a car accident or a medical emergency, but whatever the reason firefighters are rushing to help, there is danger for someone else.
As the sound gets louder, you know whatever the emergency is, it is close to where you are. If the sound gets softer, you know it is further away. The emergency is still the same for someone but it all depends on how close you are to it if you pay attention or not.
Whenever I hear the sound of a fire truck, police car or ambulance, I say a prayer for God to watch over them. There is no question in my mind that the people in those vehicles are putting their lives on the line, heading into danger and risking their lives to help someone.
There is another siren that has been heard loud and clear for millions of families in this country. Untrained ears have no idea what the sound means or the fact it also means someone's life is in danger.
The lives on the line have already risked their lives for someone else but not on our own soil. They were sent to face danger in a foreign country. Obviously the men and women in the military face risks everyday they are deployed. They face risks when they come home as well because of the risks they survived in combat but their uniforms have been traded for civilian clothes, boots traded for sneakers and sandals. The trucks and Humvees traded for motorcycles and cars. Machine guns traded for college text books. The title of their rank replaced with husband, Dad, wife, Mom, but they still carry the burden of their rank on their shoulders.
A neighbourhood or neighborhood (see spelling differences) is a geographically localised community within a larger city, town or suburb. Neighbourhoods are often social communities with considerable face-to-face interaction among members. "Researchers have not agreed on an exact definition. Neighbourhood is generally defined spatially as a specific geographic area and functionally as a set of social networks. Neighbourhoods, then, are the spatial units in which face-to-face social interactions occur – the personal settings and situations where residents seek to realise common values, socialise youth, and maintain effective social control."
Yesterday the siren was heard in my neighborhood 18 times.
Yesterday 18 veterans took their own lives because the foreboding wail of their suffering was not understood. Our ears were not trained to know what the sound meant. If we are ever going to be able to save the lives of our veterans, it is time to understand what we hear by first understanding what they feel.
Combat wounded Iraq veteran dies before new home is ready
Sgt. hurt in Iraq dies before new home finished
By Lynnette Hintze -
The Daily Inter Lake via AP
Posted : Friday Apr 6, 2012 11:24:33 EDT
KALISPELL, Mont. — An injured soldier who struggled daily to overcome the physical challenges left by an explosion in Iraq died early Sunday morning in his sleep, just two weeks before a home being built for him and his family was due to be finished.
Sgt. Kevin White, 29, leaves behind his wife, Juliane, and a 15-month-old son, Liam, who now will move into their new home without him.
White, a paratrooper in Delta Company, 2nd Battalion, 325th Airborne Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division, was the most severely injured of the soldiers involved in an April 2007 ambush of their convoy in Iraq.
He was in his second tour when a piece of a rocket warhead went through his shoulder and into his lung. He also sustained a brain injury. He was released from duty with a medical retirement, and the extent of his injuries made it impossible to work.
With medical bills mounting and his wife pregnant at the time, White’s in-laws, Ann and O.T. Green, decided to build them a house next door to their home near Lakeside. The Greens took out a second mortgage on their own home, emptied Ann’s retirement account and started building in 2010.
By Lynnette Hintze -
The Daily Inter Lake via AP
Posted : Friday Apr 6, 2012 11:24:33 EDT
KALISPELL, Mont. — An injured soldier who struggled daily to overcome the physical challenges left by an explosion in Iraq died early Sunday morning in his sleep, just two weeks before a home being built for him and his family was due to be finished.
Sgt. Kevin White, 29, leaves behind his wife, Juliane, and a 15-month-old son, Liam, who now will move into their new home without him.
White, a paratrooper in Delta Company, 2nd Battalion, 325th Airborne Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division, was the most severely injured of the soldiers involved in an April 2007 ambush of their convoy in Iraq.
He was in his second tour when a piece of a rocket warhead went through his shoulder and into his lung. He also sustained a brain injury. He was released from duty with a medical retirement, and the extent of his injuries made it impossible to work.
With medical bills mounting and his wife pregnant at the time, White’s in-laws, Ann and O.T. Green, decided to build them a house next door to their home near Lakeside. The Greens took out a second mortgage on their own home, emptied Ann’s retirement account and started building in 2010.
In a January interview with the Daily Inter Lake, White detailed his injuries, explaining how a hematoma in his head had calcified and turned to bone, “so I have a random bone in my brain that’s pressing on my optic nerve.”read more here
White also told how he struggled with post-traumatic stress disorder.
Despite the severity of his injuries, the federal government declared him as having a low-ranking disability — so low that he didn’t receive enough in disability payments to live on.
Veterans in 4th year of protesting for homeless veterans on Wilshire Blvd
Group of retired vets stands fast in fight for homeless
For 4 years straight they have held protests at West L.A. VA
By Kevin Herrera
April 07, 2012
WILSHIRE BLVD — Every Sunday for the last four years, 70-year-old Bob Rosebrock has faithfully manned his post at the corner of Wilshire and San Vicente boulevards, just feet from a sprawling park at the West Los Angeles Veterans Affairs campus. While others may see a shaded lawn fit for picnics and pick-up games, Rosebrock, who served in the U.S. Army during the 1960s, sees a future home for homeless veterans who are physically disabled or suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and the alcoholism and drug addiction that so often comes from self medicating.
Currently there is no permanent supportive housing for veterans on the 387 acres of the VA campus in Westwood, something Rosebrock considers a travesty given that the land was donated to the federal government in 1888 for the purpose of establishing and permanently maintaining a home for disabled veterans. What's more egregious, he said, is that the VA is renting out that land to private companies and pocketing the money instead of building housing.
"To see how homeless, disabled veterans are treated, it's hard to grasp that when you see how prosperous this country is," Rosebrock, a tall, broad-shouldered man with a mustache, bushy eyebrows and white hair, said last Sunday as he stood at his post and waved at cars passing by, a sign reading "Save Our Veterans Land" resting against his legs.
read more here
For 4 years straight they have held protests at West L.A. VA
By Kevin Herrera
April 07, 2012
WILSHIRE BLVD — Every Sunday for the last four years, 70-year-old Bob Rosebrock has faithfully manned his post at the corner of Wilshire and San Vicente boulevards, just feet from a sprawling park at the West Los Angeles Veterans Affairs campus. While others may see a shaded lawn fit for picnics and pick-up games, Rosebrock, who served in the U.S. Army during the 1960s, sees a future home for homeless veterans who are physically disabled or suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and the alcoholism and drug addiction that so often comes from self medicating.
Currently there is no permanent supportive housing for veterans on the 387 acres of the VA campus in Westwood, something Rosebrock considers a travesty given that the land was donated to the federal government in 1888 for the purpose of establishing and permanently maintaining a home for disabled veterans. What's more egregious, he said, is that the VA is renting out that land to private companies and pocketing the money instead of building housing.
"To see how homeless, disabled veterans are treated, it's hard to grasp that when you see how prosperous this country is," Rosebrock, a tall, broad-shouldered man with a mustache, bushy eyebrows and white hair, said last Sunday as he stood at his post and waved at cars passing by, a sign reading "Save Our Veterans Land" resting against his legs.
read more here
Iraq veteran Michael Allen Cole "death defines tragedy"
Iraq veteran survived bomb, but he died a crime victim at home in Citrus Heights
By Kim Minugh
Saturday, Apr. 07, 2012
On May 23, 2006, Michael Allen Cole was driving a Humvee through war-torn Iraq when the rig hit a roadside bomb and vaporized into a smoky cloud of flying debris.
The explosion killed three Marines. Cole's physical trauma would require a year for recovery; his psychological and emotional wounds would be slower to mend. But it was not war that would ultimately claim his life.
In quiet suburbia Cole's life story would end – in a robbery at his Citrus Heights home, allegedly at the hands of a friend, about a mile from where his father and stepmother were getting ready for work.
That Feb. 10 morning, a neighbor found Cole lying on the floor, stabbed in the back. He was 26. "It was very difficult on our entire family when Michael was injured," said his father, Greg Cole, 52. "His murderer stabbed us all in the back and left us with gaping wounds that may never heal.
"His death defines tragedy. After all he had gone through, he deserved a chance."
read more here
By Kim Minugh
Saturday, Apr. 07, 2012
lsterling@sacbee.com - Greg Cole looks at photos of his son Michael and some of the honors and medals he earned during his years in the Marine Corps.
On May 23, 2006, Michael Allen Cole was driving a Humvee through war-torn Iraq when the rig hit a roadside bomb and vaporized into a smoky cloud of flying debris.
The explosion killed three Marines. Cole's physical trauma would require a year for recovery; his psychological and emotional wounds would be slower to mend. But it was not war that would ultimately claim his life.
In quiet suburbia Cole's life story would end – in a robbery at his Citrus Heights home, allegedly at the hands of a friend, about a mile from where his father and stepmother were getting ready for work.
That Feb. 10 morning, a neighbor found Cole lying on the floor, stabbed in the back. He was 26. "It was very difficult on our entire family when Michael was injured," said his father, Greg Cole, 52. "His murderer stabbed us all in the back and left us with gaping wounds that may never heal.
"His death defines tragedy. After all he had gone through, he deserved a chance."
read more here
Friday, April 6, 2012
Warrior Transition Battalion Soldier receives Bronze Star
Warrior Transition Battalion Soldier receives Bronze Star
Award recognizes meritorious service as a medic in Afghanistan
Apr. 5, 2012
Written by
Stacy Rzepka
Blanchfield Army Community Hospital Public Affairs
Staff Sgt. Danny Beard of the Fort Campbell Warrior Transition Battalion was awarded the Bronze Star Medal on Wednesday, receiving the award from Brig. Gen. Jeffrey Colt, the 101st Airborne Division Deputy Commanding General for Support.
Beard earned the medal for his outstanding service as a senior medic while deployed to Afghanistan with the 4th Brigade Combat Team of the 101st Airborne Division from Aug. 2010 to Aug. 2011.
Colt said that it was a profound privilege to present a Bronze Star to a member of the non commissioned officer corps. Colt explained that non commissioned officers make up a "pillar of leadership in our Army which sets us apart from all others."
read more here
Apr. 5, 2012
Staff Sgt. Danny Beard of Fort Campbell's Warrior Transition Battalion received the Bronze Star on Wednesday from Brig. Gen. Jeffrey Colt for actions as a senior medic with 4th Brigade Combat Team of the 101st Airborne Division in Afghanistan. / U.S. ARMY PHOTO
Written by
Stacy Rzepka
Blanchfield Army Community Hospital Public Affairs
Staff Sgt. Danny Beard of the Fort Campbell Warrior Transition Battalion was awarded the Bronze Star Medal on Wednesday, receiving the award from Brig. Gen. Jeffrey Colt, the 101st Airborne Division Deputy Commanding General for Support.
Beard earned the medal for his outstanding service as a senior medic while deployed to Afghanistan with the 4th Brigade Combat Team of the 101st Airborne Division from Aug. 2010 to Aug. 2011.
Colt said that it was a profound privilege to present a Bronze Star to a member of the non commissioned officer corps. Colt explained that non commissioned officers make up a "pillar of leadership in our Army which sets us apart from all others."
read more here
Combat wounded in Iraq to Papa John's in Kentucky
Iraq Combat Veteran Delivers Pizza During Two-Year Job Search
(Fort Mitchell, Ky.)
April 6, 2012
The Washington Post News Service with Bloomberg News (c) 2012, Bloomberg News.
FORT MITCHELL, Ky. — Army Pvt. Brandon Click was driving a 68-ton Abrams tank in Iraq on March 25, 2008, when a roadside bomb melted his eyelashes and peppered the left side of his body with shrapnel.
Now back home in the Cincinnati suburbs, the 26-year-old Army veteran says he's been delivering Papa John's pizza at night in his 2002 Pontiac Sunfire for a little more than $31,000 a year to help support his infant son while he searches for a job.
"It gets the bills paid, but barely," said Click, who crossed the Ohio River to Kentucky last week for a job fair intended to help returning Iraq and Afghanistan veterans.
As tens of thousands of young veterans come home from the wars, many are struggling to find work with civilian employers who don't recognize their skills, haven't shared their experiences and aren't sure what to make of them. The result is that unemployment for veterans, particularly those ages 18 to 24, has been rising even as the national jobless rate declines.
"Unemployment is our No. 1 issue," said Paul Rieckhoff, founder and executive director of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, a New York-based advocacy group, in an interview. "Unemployment is not down, it's up. And it's a serious problem."
While the military offers all departing service members transition assistance to help them prepare for civilian jobs, the unemployment rate for veterans who've served since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks was 12.1 percent last year, up from 11.5 percent in 2010, according to a report by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Among non-veterans, 8.7 percent were jobless last year, down from 9.4 percent in 2010.
The gap may widen as the economy recovers. Tens of thousands more troops will be coming home over the next two years from Afghanistan, where the U.S. plans to withdraw most combat forces by the end of 2014. At the same time, the Pentagon intends to reduce the U.S. military by 123,900 troops, or 5.5 percent, by fiscal 2017 to meet budget-cutting goals. read more here
(Fort Mitchell, Ky.)
April 6, 2012
The Washington Post News Service with Bloomberg News (c) 2012, Bloomberg News.
FORT MITCHELL, Ky. — Army Pvt. Brandon Click was driving a 68-ton Abrams tank in Iraq on March 25, 2008, when a roadside bomb melted his eyelashes and peppered the left side of his body with shrapnel.
Now back home in the Cincinnati suburbs, the 26-year-old Army veteran says he's been delivering Papa John's pizza at night in his 2002 Pontiac Sunfire for a little more than $31,000 a year to help support his infant son while he searches for a job.
"It gets the bills paid, but barely," said Click, who crossed the Ohio River to Kentucky last week for a job fair intended to help returning Iraq and Afghanistan veterans.
As tens of thousands of young veterans come home from the wars, many are struggling to find work with civilian employers who don't recognize their skills, haven't shared their experiences and aren't sure what to make of them. The result is that unemployment for veterans, particularly those ages 18 to 24, has been rising even as the national jobless rate declines.
"Unemployment is our No. 1 issue," said Paul Rieckhoff, founder and executive director of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, a New York-based advocacy group, in an interview. "Unemployment is not down, it's up. And it's a serious problem."
While the military offers all departing service members transition assistance to help them prepare for civilian jobs, the unemployment rate for veterans who've served since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks was 12.1 percent last year, up from 11.5 percent in 2010, according to a report by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Among non-veterans, 8.7 percent were jobless last year, down from 9.4 percent in 2010.
The gap may widen as the economy recovers. Tens of thousands more troops will be coming home over the next two years from Afghanistan, where the U.S. plans to withdraw most combat forces by the end of 2014. At the same time, the Pentagon intends to reduce the U.S. military by 123,900 troops, or 5.5 percent, by fiscal 2017 to meet budget-cutting goals. read more here
Veterans wait because of lack of mental health specialists?
VA sees shortfall of mental health specialists
By Gregg Zoroya,
USA TODAY
As thousands of additional veterans seek mental health care every month, the Department of Veterans Affairs is short of psychiatrists, with 20% vacancy rates in much of the country served by VA hospitals, according to department data.
In Montana, where veterans wait an average of five weeks to begin counseling, an eight-bed wing of a mental health facility at Fort Harrison has been vacant for nine months because of a lack of psychiatrists, the VA says. The Rocky Mountain VA region needs to fill nearly one of four psychiatrist positions.
The vacancies occur at a time when the number of veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder is increasing by about 10,000 every three months, what experts say is the cumulative effect of a decade of war, VA data show.
More than 230,000 servicemembers have suffered traumatic brain injuries ranging from mild to severe since 2000, according to Pentagon data.
"Last year, VA testified that it has the resources to handle the influx of veterans suffering from the invisible wounds of war," says Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., chairman of the House Veterans' Affairs Committee. "Now we learn from them there is a shortage. …VA needs to quickly figure out what the problem is." read more here
By Gregg Zoroya,
USA TODAY
As thousands of additional veterans seek mental health care every month, the Department of Veterans Affairs is short of psychiatrists, with 20% vacancy rates in much of the country served by VA hospitals, according to department data.
In Montana, where veterans wait an average of five weeks to begin counseling, an eight-bed wing of a mental health facility at Fort Harrison has been vacant for nine months because of a lack of psychiatrists, the VA says. The Rocky Mountain VA region needs to fill nearly one of four psychiatrist positions.
The vacancies occur at a time when the number of veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder is increasing by about 10,000 every three months, what experts say is the cumulative effect of a decade of war, VA data show.
More than 230,000 servicemembers have suffered traumatic brain injuries ranging from mild to severe since 2000, according to Pentagon data.
"Last year, VA testified that it has the resources to handle the influx of veterans suffering from the invisible wounds of war," says Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., chairman of the House Veterans' Affairs Committee. "Now we learn from them there is a shortage. …VA needs to quickly figure out what the problem is." read more here
Navy jet crashes into apartments in Virginia
Navy jet crashes into apartments in Virginia
From Michael Martinez and Barbara Starr,
CNN
updated 1:34 PM EDT, Fri April 6, 2012
STORY HIGHLIGHTS NEW: A pilot and a person on the ground were injured, a hospital spokeswoman says NEW: The plane crashes into a building where senior citizens live, a witness says Two crew members in plane safely ejected Plane engine was straining and the jet was emptying fuel, witness says
(CNN) -- A Navy jet crashed Friday into some apartments near Virginia Beach, Virginia, sending flames and thick black smoke into the air, a military spokesman and a witness said. At least two people were hurt Friday, a hospital spokeswoman said. The pilot and a person who was on the ground were being treated for injuries, but the nature and extent of those injuries were not immediately clear, the spokeswoman said. Two apartment buildings were on fire, CNN affiliate WTKR reported, citing witnesses. The jet was from Naval Air Station Oceana in Virginia Beach, the Federal Aviation Administration said. The crew of the two-seater F/A-18 safely ejected, but their condition wasn't known, a Navy spokesman said. The plane is from a training squadron, the Navy said. read more here
From Michael Martinez and Barbara Starr,
CNN
updated 1:34 PM EDT, Fri April 6, 2012
STORY HIGHLIGHTS NEW: A pilot and a person on the ground were injured, a hospital spokeswoman says NEW: The plane crashes into a building where senior citizens live, a witness says Two crew members in plane safely ejected Plane engine was straining and the jet was emptying fuel, witness says
(CNN) -- A Navy jet crashed Friday into some apartments near Virginia Beach, Virginia, sending flames and thick black smoke into the air, a military spokesman and a witness said. At least two people were hurt Friday, a hospital spokeswoman said. The pilot and a person who was on the ground were being treated for injuries, but the nature and extent of those injuries were not immediately clear, the spokeswoman said. Two apartment buildings were on fire, CNN affiliate WTKR reported, citing witnesses. The jet was from Naval Air Station Oceana in Virginia Beach, the Federal Aviation Administration said. The crew of the two-seater F/A-18 safely ejected, but their condition wasn't known, a Navy spokesman said. The plane is from a training squadron, the Navy said. read more here
Screaming Eagle Soldier to be presented Distinguished Service Cross
Screaming Eagle Soldier to be presented Distinguished Service Cross
April 4, 2012
By Fort Campbell Public Affairs
FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. (April 4, 2012) -- Sgt. Felipe Pereira will be presented with the Distinguished Service Cross by Gen. Ray Odierno, chief of staff of the Army, during a ceremony scheduled for April 12, 2012 at the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) Headquarters located on Fort Campbell, Ky. Pereira is assigned to Company A, 1st Battalion, 502d Infantry Regiment (Strike).
The Distinguished Service Cross is awarded to a person who, while serving in any capacity with the Army, distinguished himself or herself by extraordinary heroism not justifying the award of a Medal of Honor; while engaged in an action against an enemy of the United States; while engaged in military operations involving conflict with an opposing or foreign force; or while serving with friendly foreign forces engaged in an armed conflict against an opposing Armed Force in which the United States is not a belligerent party.
The act or acts of heroism must have been so notable and have involved risk of life so extraordinary as to set the individual apart from their comrades.
The Distinguished Service Cross is second only to the Medal of Honor and this will be the first award to a 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) Soldier since the Division's service in Vietnam.
April 4, 2012
By Fort Campbell Public Affairs
FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. (April 4, 2012) -- Sgt. Felipe Pereira will be presented with the Distinguished Service Cross by Gen. Ray Odierno, chief of staff of the Army, during a ceremony scheduled for April 12, 2012 at the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) Headquarters located on Fort Campbell, Ky. Pereira is assigned to Company A, 1st Battalion, 502d Infantry Regiment (Strike).
The Distinguished Service Cross is awarded to a person who, while serving in any capacity with the Army, distinguished himself or herself by extraordinary heroism not justifying the award of a Medal of Honor; while engaged in an action against an enemy of the United States; while engaged in military operations involving conflict with an opposing or foreign force; or while serving with friendly foreign forces engaged in an armed conflict against an opposing Armed Force in which the United States is not a belligerent party.
The act or acts of heroism must have been so notable and have involved risk of life so extraordinary as to set the individual apart from their comrades.
The Distinguished Service Cross is second only to the Medal of Honor and this will be the first award to a 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) Soldier since the Division's service in Vietnam.
Law suit filed after Soldier's daughter killed herself at school
Mother sues Leander ISD over suicide
Meagan Allen, 15, shot herself in school bathroom
Published : Thursday, 05 Apr 2012
Erin Cargile
CEDAR PARK, Texas (KXAN) - This week marks one year since Meagan Allen, 15, killed herself at Leander High School. Her mother, Angela Kandis, filed a lawsuit against the Leander school district on April 3 claiming they did not do enough to help the struggling teenager.
There were warning signs on the outside to suggest she was hurting inside.
"She stopped wearing her contact lenses and started wearing her glasses -- that was kind of unusual for her. She stopped wearing her makeup, she stopped really dressing up," said Kandis.
The obvious change came in the classroom when the freshman's typically high grades plummeted.
"There were 24 zeros in a three week period," said Kandis. "She had a 12 average in math. She was in all advanced placement classes."
Meagan's mother, whose military husband was deployed at the time, said she met with teachers and fired off numerous emails to counselors and the assistant principal to try and figure out a plan to turn things around.
read more here
Meagan Allen, 15, shot herself in school bathroom
Published : Thursday, 05 Apr 2012
Erin Cargile
CEDAR PARK, Texas (KXAN) - This week marks one year since Meagan Allen, 15, killed herself at Leander High School. Her mother, Angela Kandis, filed a lawsuit against the Leander school district on April 3 claiming they did not do enough to help the struggling teenager.
There were warning signs on the outside to suggest she was hurting inside.
"She stopped wearing her contact lenses and started wearing her glasses -- that was kind of unusual for her. She stopped wearing her makeup, she stopped really dressing up," said Kandis.
The obvious change came in the classroom when the freshman's typically high grades plummeted.
"There were 24 zeros in a three week period," said Kandis. "She had a 12 average in math. She was in all advanced placement classes."
Meagan's mother, whose military husband was deployed at the time, said she met with teachers and fired off numerous emails to counselors and the assistant principal to try and figure out a plan to turn things around.
read more here
New York Marine dies of wounds from January attack in Afghanistan
U.S. Marine dies months after being injured in Afghanistan
5 APRIL 2012 SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS (BNO NEWS)
A U.S. Marine from New York who was critically injured in January when a suicide bomber attacked his patrol in southern Afghanistan has died at a military hospital in Texas, the U.S. Department of Defense confirmed on Thursday.
Corporal Christopher D. Bordoni, 21, of Ithaca, New York, was critically injured on January 18 when a suicide bomber attacked his patrol in Helmand province, located in southern Afghanistan. Bordoni was sent to a hospital in Germany before being transported to San Antonio Military Medical Center at Fort Sam Houston in Texas, where he died on Tuesday night.
Few details about the attack in January have been released by officials, but the U.S. Department of Defense earlier confirmed that 25-year-old Marine Corporal Phillip D. McGeath, of Glendale, Arizona, was killed in the same attack. They were both assigned to 1st Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina.
read more here
5 APRIL 2012 SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS (BNO NEWS)
A U.S. Marine from New York who was critically injured in January when a suicide bomber attacked his patrol in southern Afghanistan has died at a military hospital in Texas, the U.S. Department of Defense confirmed on Thursday.
Corporal Christopher D. Bordoni, 21, of Ithaca, New York, was critically injured on January 18 when a suicide bomber attacked his patrol in Helmand province, located in southern Afghanistan. Bordoni was sent to a hospital in Germany before being transported to San Antonio Military Medical Center at Fort Sam Houston in Texas, where he died on Tuesday night.
Few details about the attack in January have been released by officials, but the U.S. Department of Defense earlier confirmed that 25-year-old Marine Corporal Phillip D. McGeath, of Glendale, Arizona, was killed in the same attack. They were both assigned to 1st Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina.
read more here
Military suicides 40% higher than last year
Yesterday I wrote Combat PTSD, the hard fall of the survivor for this very reason. When you have programs that have been "provided" by the military but do more harm than good, the proof is in the reality of numbers. Numbers do not lie. They do not spin. If the "resiliency" approach worked, the numbers would have gone down year after year and not up. As bad as the successful number of suicides is, the number of attempted suicides has gone up as well. Suicide prevention programs have been up and running for years but still these numbers go up. Group after group has shown up online "offering support" for combat veterans that have apparently not worked enough to drive down the number of veterans committing suicide.
This video is from November 2011 and shows that no matter how long they've been talking about military suicides, what they are doing is not working.
450,000 calls into suicide prevention hotline yet the number of veterans committing suicide has not gone down!
Chief Roy: Suicide rate in 2012 is worrisome
By Markeshia Ricks - Staff writer
Posted : Thursday Apr 5, 2012
The number of Air Force military and civilian personnel who have committed suicide this year is up 40 percent from the same time last year, according to the service’s top noncommissioned officer.
Chief Master Sgt. James Roy, who was guest speaker for an Air Force Association lecture series, said among all Air Force military and civilian personnel there have been 35 suicides in the first quarter of the year, compared with 25 during the same time last year.
More Air Force personnel have died by suicide this year than the combined total of personnel who have died by accident or through combat, according to Roy.
read more here
This video is from November 2011 and shows that no matter how long they've been talking about military suicides, what they are doing is not working.
450,000 calls into suicide prevention hotline yet the number of veterans committing suicide has not gone down!
LOSING THE BATTLE: THE CHALLENGE OF MILITARY SUICIDE CNASdc on Nov 2, 2011
According to the report, Losing the Battle: The Challenge of Military Suicide, "Suicide among service members and veterans challenges the health of America's all-volunteer force." From 2005 to 2010, service members took their own lives at a rate of approximately one every 36 hours. This tragic phenomenon reached new extremes when the Army reported a record-high number of suicides in July 2011 with the deaths of 33 active and reserve component service members reported as suicides. Additionally, the Department of Veterans Affairs estimates 18 veterans die by suicide each day. Yet the true number of veterans who die by suicide, as Harrell and Berglass point out, is unknown. As more American troops return home from war, this issue will require increasingly urgent attention.
The Center for a New American Security (CNAS) cordially invites you to the event, Losing the Battle, on November 1, 2011, from 4:30 to 6:00 p.m., to discuss the issue of suicide in the U.S. military with leading experts in the field. At the event, CNAS will release the policy brief, Losing the Battle: The Challenge of Military Suicide, by Dr. Margaret Harrell and Nancy Berglass, which identifies and addresses the challenges associated with service member and veteran suicide.
The event will feature a discussion on suicide in the military with a distinguished panel of experts, including the report's author Dr. Margaret Harrell, CNAS Senior Fellow and Director of the Joining Forces Initiative; General Peter Chiarelli, Vice Chief of Staff of the Army; Juliette Kayyem, national security columnist for The Boston Globe and a lecturer in public policy at Harvard University; and Dr. Jan Kemp, National Mental Health Program Director for the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Veterans group suspends chapters at for-profit colleges
Veterans group suspends chapters at for-profit colleges
By Justin Pope
The Associated Press
Apr 05, 2012
A leading student veterans group is suspending chapters at 40 for-profit colleges, saying it's concerned they've been set up by the colleges as shell organizations to help them appeal to veteran students who carry lucrative government tuition benefits.
The schools may be creating what are essentially fake SVA chapters to help them qualify for lists of "military friendly" or "veterans friendly" colleges that are proliferating in guidebooks and online, Student Veterans of America executive director Michael Dakduk said Thursday. On some lists, the existence of an SVA chapter at a school figures into the formula.
The organization, which has 417 campus chapters, said it would not name the for-profit schools while it investigated further. But Dakduk said that during recent membership renewals, SVA discovered numerous chapters listing as contacts people SVA later identified as school employees, not student veterans, and that chapter websites simply redirected anyone interested to the colleges' pages.
He said SVA has occasionally encountered the issue before, including at not-for-profit universities, but he said the recent discovery amounted to a much more widespread pattern. read more here
By Justin Pope
The Associated Press
Apr 05, 2012
A leading student veterans group is suspending chapters at 40 for-profit colleges, saying it's concerned they've been set up by the colleges as shell organizations to help them appeal to veteran students who carry lucrative government tuition benefits.
The schools may be creating what are essentially fake SVA chapters to help them qualify for lists of "military friendly" or "veterans friendly" colleges that are proliferating in guidebooks and online, Student Veterans of America executive director Michael Dakduk said Thursday. On some lists, the existence of an SVA chapter at a school figures into the formula.
The organization, which has 417 campus chapters, said it would not name the for-profit schools while it investigated further. But Dakduk said that during recent membership renewals, SVA discovered numerous chapters listing as contacts people SVA later identified as school employees, not student veterans, and that chapter websites simply redirected anyone interested to the colleges' pages.
He said SVA has occasionally encountered the issue before, including at not-for-profit universities, but he said the recent discovery amounted to a much more widespread pattern. read more here
Orlando veterans use yoga to calm PTSD
Vets learn to breathe
By Brittni Johnson
April 5, 2012
For many military personnel, adjusting to life after combat is a struggle. For Sean McGrath, a Marine, retiring and returning to normal life was made worse by a divorce at the same time. Life was difficult for him, and readjusting to everyday life with his family back home wasn’t going smoothly. They were worried.
“They didn’t know how to help me,” McGrath said.
But that next Christmas his sisters had an idea – yoga. McGrath, a Massachusetts resident, got a gift certificate to attend a Yoga Warriors class. He wasn’t so sure at first, but with one session he was hooked. McGrath felt comfortable in a class surrounded by people just like him. It was made for veterans.
Teacher Lucy Cimini, director for the Yoga Warriors, developed the program specifically for veterans dealing with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and the daily and specific stresses military members are exposed to. Through yoga, soldiers are able to cope with situations that trigger memories that cause fear or aggression by using the tools taught in the program, like deep breathing to calm down.
After getting an interest in how yoga helps military members, Cimini partnered with representatives from the U.S. Air Force, Tufts University and Worcester University to conduct a study on its effects.
The study, published in the January/February 2012 issue of the American Journal of Occupational Therapy found that hatha yoga is effective in treating PTSD and the stresses experienced by military personnel, even better than other more common treatments, like talk therapy.
“A lot of veterans say, ‘This not only helped me but it saved my life,’” Cimini said.
Now Cimini is bringing her skills as the founder of the first and largest yoga for veterans program in the U.S. to Yoga East in Avalon Park. Cimini will be teaching yoga teachers how to conduct their own yoga for veterans program. She’ll teach Yoga East owners Michelle and Greg Owens while she’s there this April. And then, most likely in May, Yoga East will offer its own free yoga for veterans class once per week.
read more here
By Brittni Johnson
April 5, 2012
Yoga can help war veterans cope with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder through breathing and other relaxation techniques in yoga. A group in Massachusetts is bringing that training to East Orlando.
For many military personnel, adjusting to life after combat is a struggle. For Sean McGrath, a Marine, retiring and returning to normal life was made worse by a divorce at the same time. Life was difficult for him, and readjusting to everyday life with his family back home wasn’t going smoothly. They were worried.
“They didn’t know how to help me,” McGrath said.
But that next Christmas his sisters had an idea – yoga. McGrath, a Massachusetts resident, got a gift certificate to attend a Yoga Warriors class. He wasn’t so sure at first, but with one session he was hooked. McGrath felt comfortable in a class surrounded by people just like him. It was made for veterans.
Teacher Lucy Cimini, director for the Yoga Warriors, developed the program specifically for veterans dealing with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and the daily and specific stresses military members are exposed to. Through yoga, soldiers are able to cope with situations that trigger memories that cause fear or aggression by using the tools taught in the program, like deep breathing to calm down.
After getting an interest in how yoga helps military members, Cimini partnered with representatives from the U.S. Air Force, Tufts University and Worcester University to conduct a study on its effects.
The study, published in the January/February 2012 issue of the American Journal of Occupational Therapy found that hatha yoga is effective in treating PTSD and the stresses experienced by military personnel, even better than other more common treatments, like talk therapy.
“A lot of veterans say, ‘This not only helped me but it saved my life,’” Cimini said.
Now Cimini is bringing her skills as the founder of the first and largest yoga for veterans program in the U.S. to Yoga East in Avalon Park. Cimini will be teaching yoga teachers how to conduct their own yoga for veterans program. She’ll teach Yoga East owners Michelle and Greg Owens while she’s there this April. And then, most likely in May, Yoga East will offer its own free yoga for veterans class once per week.
read more here
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