Fort Hood families displaced by a fire last month get help

Killeen: Chick-Fil-A Helps 2 Families Displaced By Fire
KILLEEN (June 5, 2012)
Chick-Fil-A is hosting two nights of food and fun to help two Fort Hood families who were displaced by a fire last month.

At around midnight on May 25, a fire that broke out in a duplex displaced the families of two soldiers.

Friends say the Allen and Hattix families lost everything including their vehicles.

"While they have received all of the clothing and household good they can use right now, the Allen family only had liability on their car so they are not able to replace it," Comanche III Village Mayor Dana Welch said.

The loss of the vehicle cost one of the soldier’s wife’s her job because she couldn’t get to work, Welch said.
read more here

Marine got redeployment orders while already deployed

California Marine deploys back to back
Regimental Combat Team 6
Story by Cpl. Ed Galo

Sergeant Izmael Loria, squad leader, Echo Battery, 2nd Battalion, 10th Marines, Regimental Combat Team 6, shouts commands to the rest of his squad while on a patrol through the Delaram District Center, Afghanistan, June 3, 2012. Loria is currently on his second deployment to Afghanistan in two years. DELARAM DISTRICT CENTER, Afghanistan — Deployments can be challenging for service members and their families.

Sgt. Izmael Loria, squad leader, Echo Battery, 2nd Battalion, 10th Marines, Regimental Combat Team 6, has faced this challenge twice in two years with back-to-back combat deployments.

“I got orders to a deploying unit while I was on my last deployment,” said Loria, of Rialto, Calif. “I love this deployment though. It’s different experience from my last (one).”

Loria, a field wireman, deployed to Afghanistan with 8th Communications Battalion, based out of Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, N.C., in June 2011. He came home in January 2012 and then deployed again to Afghanistan in April 2012 with Echo Battery.
read more here

Fort Carson Soldier Saves Local Family from Foreclosure

Fort Carson Soldier Saves Local Family from Foreclosure
Monument, CO
(SBWIRE)
06/04/2012

The national economic downturn has hit one local family hard recently; so hard that they were facing foreclosure. The Stowell family had been able to faithfully make their mortgage payments for nearly two decades, when health and employment issues came knocking. But, someone else came knocking, too… Wells-Fargo, their mortgage holder, who filed a demand to take their home away. The Stowells could not catch up the payments, let alone the thousands of dollars in fees. The American Dream of home ownership was turning into a nightmare. Then one clear day this past January, just ten days before their home was to go to the Trustee’s Sale, a letter arrived.

Luke Humphreys, a Fort Carson soldier facing retirement was looking for a way to replace his Army income.
read more here

Marine who lost his legs in Afghanistan talks to 17 News

Local Marine who lost his legs in Afghanistan talks to 17 News

A Bakersfield High School graduate who lost both of his legs defending our country in Afghanistan, did his first television interview with 17 News. Jeremiah Thein stepped on an improvised explosive device (IED) while trying to save the life of another marine. That marine was not hurt, and now Jeremiah is recovering at Walter Reed Hospital.

Jeremiah's accident happened just over a month ago. He's in good spirits, even cracking jokes. He also goes into great detail, remembering everything, when talking about the day he lost his legs.

"You know I was born and raised in Bakersfield," Thein tells us.

Proud to be from Bakersfield and proud to serve his country, 21-year-old Jeremiah Thein was strong and focused before his accident in Afghanistan.

Today, the Lance Corporal is still strong and focused at his room at Walter Reed Hospital.
read more here

Did Afghanistan Vet Tim Poe "play wounded" on America's Got Talent?

UPDATE June 28, 2012
The web is filled with news that Tim Poe was sent home from America's Got Talent when he didn't make it in the selection round. This happened before news broke that his claims were not true because it was taped. I won't glorify this man further by putting up a new post with his name in the title. His moment of fame is over.

America's Got Talent Tim Poe still thinks he blocked grenade June 9, 2012

'AGT' FRAUD Family is Getting Death Threats

Update 6/8/12
Soldier: 'America's Got Talent' contestant Timothy Poe stole photo of me, passed off as himself
Published June 07, 2012
TMZ

Stuttering "America's Got Talent" contestant Timothy Poe is not the soldier in the photo displayed during his tearjerker audition this week, it's someone else. And the real soldier is angry.

Staff Sgt. Norman Bone tells TMZ he first heard about the photo from his ex-wife who was watching "AGT" -- Bone thought it was part of a tribute to the troops and didn't think twice about it.
read more here

UPDATE
5:49 est
It just got worse. Now he's been wearing medals he admits he did not earn!

'America's Got Talent' singer admits to claiming military medals he didn't earn

Poe told Grisham that he attended a golf tournament put on by the Defenders of Freedom. At the event, a poster, using information provided by Poe himself, claimed that Poe was awarded a Purple Heart, which is given for those wounded while serving, and a Bronze Star, which is awarded for bravery or acts of merit. The blog This Ain't Hell displays a blown-up photograph of that poster, which also shows other medals, including the Combat Infantryman’s Badge.

This part blew me away! The man has no clue how many people were hurt.

When asked by Grisham if he said anything inaccurate on "America's Got Talent," he answered, "Sure," and compared it to exaggerating to one's children to make their dad seem cool. "It was a show," he said. "It wasn't out there to make anyone feel bad."

Then again, I doubt he cares at all.

If he was trying to be famous, looks like he made it but I doubt he thought he'd get caught.

There were several comments on the post I did for Tim Poe the Afghanistan veteran claiming to have TBI on America's Got Talent. At first I didn't believe them considering the people leaving the comments did it anonymously.

Well today there were a couple more that got me thinking I may have been a sucker for a sweet story about one of our combat wounded.

Looks like I was taken in just like most people watching the show. So to the anonymous people leaving comments, looks like you were right and I was wrong.

MN Nat'l Guard: No Record of TV Singer's Claimed Combat Injury
KSTP.com
By: Scott Theisen
Created: 06/05/2012

A singer who appeared on the NBC show "America's Got Talent" and claimed he was injured during a grenade blast in Afghanistan has no military record of his purported combat injuries, the Minnesota National Guard said Tuesday.

Timothy Michael Poe appeared on the nationally televised show Monday. He told the judges he spent 14 years in the military, and suffered a broken back and brain injury when he was hit by a grenade in Afghanistan in 2009.

"I had volunteered for a team to go out and clear buildings and help out with the wounded," Poe said during a taped interview on the show. "There was a guy who come up with a rocket-propelled grenade. I saw it coming down, and by the time I turned and went to jump on top of my guys, I yelled 'grenade' and the blast had hit me."

According to military records, Poe served with the Minnesota Army National Guard from December 2002 through May 2011, working as a supply specialist. Records show he was deployed in Kosovo from Oct. 10, 2007 to July 15, 2008, and then served in Afghanistan for about a month in 2009. read more here

Here's the clip from the show.



I went from feeling like a fool to getting ticked off about this. I have too many friends with TBI and one of them lost part of his head.

If it turns out that Poe not only lied about having TBI but also "shielding" his men, he needs to make an equal public apology to all of the men and women serving!

Orlando wants to hire heroes!

Hiring Our Heroes Convention Career Fair

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Date Event: June 07, 2012 | CLICK HERE for Event Flyer

Join us June 7, 2012 from 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM, for a job fair catered to veteran job seekers, active duty military members, Guard and Reserve members, as well as military spouses, in the Atrium of the Renaissance SeaWorld Orlando, 6677 Sea Harbor Drive. This event will be held in conjunction with the 94th Annual American Legion Department of Florida Convention and will be a one-of-a-kind FREE hiring fair for both employers and job seekers.

This Hero2Hired (H2H), GE, and Fedex-sponsored hiring event is being conducted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and The American Legion Department of Florida in partnership with the Department of Labor Veterans Employment and Training Services (DOL VETS), the Florida Committee of the Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve (ESGR), WorkSource Florida, Florida Department Economic Opportunity, NBC News, and other local partners.

June 7, 2012
9 am to 1 pm
Renaissance SeaWorld Orlando
6677 Sea Harbor Drive
Orlando, FL 32821

Registration
Job seekers CLICK HERE.
Employers CLICK HERE.

If you need assistance registering, please contact us at hiringourheroes@uschamber.com.

Please Be Advised the Renaissance Orlando property features a gated parking lot. To avoid parking charges,
individuals attending this event are encouraged to exit the lot by Westwood Blvd, which will remain open during
the hours of the job fair.

www.uschamber.com/hiringourheroes

CLICK HERE for Event Flyer

Col. charged with fraud, adultery, forgery, but not charged for blown up ego

UPDATE 6-11-12

Col. pleads guilty to bigamy; some charges dropped

Col. charged with fraud, adultery, forgery, but not charged for blown up ego.

When you read this you'll feel the same way too. How could any man in his position actually think he'd get away with all of this?

O-6 faces bigamy, fraud, adultery charges
By Joe Gould - Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday Jun 5, 2012

The brigade commander seemed born to one day wear stars on his shoulder boards. The son of a distinguished Army general, his own career — including war-zone command of the esteemed 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team — had soared impressively toward flag rank.

Now it’s all in tatters. Fired from command, his next battle will come at court-martial June 11, when he will fight charges that he defrauded the Army out of tens of thousands of dollars to “frolic” with an Iraqi mistress, whom he allegedly made his wife even though he already was married.

If charges prove true, Col. James H. Johnson III is a cheat and a bigamist.

In all he is charged with six counts of violations of the Uniform Code of Military Justice and 27 specifications. Among them: forgery, fraud, lying and bigamy.

The woman who was his sweetheart while he was a cadet at West Point — and then his wife and mother to his two children — said she was sure her husband was unfaithful but had no clue he had wed his alleged mistress.

Kristina Johnson, 47, said she was shocked to learn about the second marriage, finding out only after being denied Tricare health coverage. She said it was then that she discovered a divorce certificate she suspects was doctored in the process of transferring benefits to the Iraqi woman. She said Army investigators informed her that her husband had married again.
read more here

Montgomery Veterans Affairs Medical Center list of problems

VA plagued by probes of deaths, improper records access, personnel shortages
Jun. 2, 2012

The G.V. "Sonny" Montgomery Veterans Affairs Medical Center over the last year has been under scrutiny for patient deaths, improper review of medical records and personnel shortages.

An unidentified patient died in December 2010 after suffering what officials called an "adverse event" in the intensive care unit.

Officials with the South Central VA Health Care Network, the oversight group for Jackson's center, visited Jan. 4, 2011, to look into whether nurse staffing in the ICU was adequate.

The then-VA medical director, Linda Watson, retired about three weeks later.
read more here

Suicidal Cops Often Reluctant to Seek Help

Suicidal Cops Often Reluctant to Seek Help
State suicide prevention report puts police in a high-risk category for suicide. More officers commit suicide every year than are killed in the line of duty.
By Daryl Nerl

The Pennsylvania suicde prevention report says police officers are three to four times more likely to commit suicide than everyone else and that more cops – an estimated 300 every year – die by their own hand than by homicide, though they acknowledge that “data is often hard to obtain.”

The apparent suicide of Bethlehem Police Officer Frank A. Rossnagle over the weekend is a reminder that the stress cops live with daily can too often lead to similar tragedies.

At the same time, police officers are too often reluctant to get help because of the stigma attached to needing it, according to a 2006 official state report on suicide prevention, which identified law enforcement officers as having a higher than normal risk of suicide.

Rossnagle’s is the second high-profile suicide in the Lehigh Valley in the past three months.

Political activist and businessman Charles Snelling killed himself in March after killing his wife, Adrienne, who had been suffering with Alzheimer’s disease. Family members said he could no longer bear to watch his wife suffer.
read more here

Afghanistan wounded veteran Tim Poe on America's Got Talent

Update thanks to some readers.

Did Afghanistan Vet Tim Poe "play wounded" on America's Got Talent?

Last night Tim Poe's story made me cry.

He was wounded in Afghanistan and left with traumatic brain injury that causes him to stutter. As I listened to his story, I thought about the great courage he showed knowing that some small minded people would laugh at him. I thought about his attitude and how his smile was so warm no matter what he faced. Then he opened his mouth to sing. I cried harder but this time with joy!

If Resiliency Training worked, then why are they still committing suicide?

UPDATE June 11, 2012
I ran across something that was written about what I said way back in 2009. I am no longer with the IFOC but you'll get the point. I am with Point Man Ministries now so while my "hat" has changed, what's under it is still the same.

The Burden of PTSD: An Ongoing Conversation
April 6, 2009
MATTHEW NEWTON
Writer + Reporter

Perhaps you've heard: PTSD among veterans returning from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq is a huge problem and we might not have the resources to deal with its ramifications. GOOD recently ran my feature on the subject, "The Memory War," and since then, I've had many conversations on the topic-ranging from readers' personal experiences, to sprawling discussions on the multifacted challenges facing service members suffering from PTSD. One such discussion, however, really forced me to take a step back.

In an email exchange with Kathie Costos DiCesare, a Senior IFOC Chaplain, she expresses a view of the Army's Battlemind training program that I'd never heard, or even considered. For the unfamiliar, Battlemind is a training program used to try to counter the effects of war on armed forces. It's been heavily criticized as inadequate. DiCesare takes that criticism one step further.

"Battlemind and Warrior Mind both have the same problem and-it's my belief-have the most to do with the rise in suicides as well as attempted suicides," she writes. Both programs, she says, tell troops they can prepare their minds for war, implying that if they are somehow wounded by PTSD, it's their fault.
read more here

When I posted how psychiatrists are coming out against Resiliency Training it seemed too little too late but I was relieved to finally read it from a source other than my blog.

Every time I talk to someone, trying to get them to understand how much damage is done with this program, they look at me as if I'm insane. After all, most of the press on this has been positive because reporters are too lazy to look up the facts. None of them stopped to ask anyone from the DOD or Congress one simple question. If Resiliency Training, also know as Battlemind, was working, then why have the suicides and attempted suicides gone up instead of down?

It is not as if this failure was not known for a very long time. I took a look back at this blog and my older one to remind me of how long I've been talking about this.

Here's an example from 2007

DOD spreading mental illness one GI at a time
June 6, 2007
When you take a look at the "BattleMind" training the troops go through, it is not a far fetch to see how manipulating their thinking process can cause great harm. The first time I read about this program, I winced. Looks like I was right in finding this type of training very troubling.

Here's an example from 2009

Study finds ‘Battlemind’ is beneficial?

Sorry but I just choked on my coffee.

February 16, 2009
Col. Carl Castro should have known better when he developed this program. From what is said about this program and the evidence, this program does more harm than good. Not that any of these people would ever listen to me or the veterans or the BBC investigation that showed the troops arriving in Afghanistan with 11 1/2 minutes of BattleMind training crammed into two straight days of briefings. There are parts of this program that are good and should be used but they begin with telling the troops that they can "toughen" their minds, which translates to them that if they end up with PTSD, it's their fault because they didn't get their brain tough enough. Try telling that to a Marine.

They can say whatever they want, but when you see the suicide rate go up every year, see them still not wanting to seek help, still not being treated for this as if they have nothing to be ashamed of, then there is a problem. You cannot begin by telling them they can train their brain and then tell them it's ok if they failed to do it. While they may be able to prepare for combat what they cannot do is change the fact they are human, exposed to abnormal events in combat situations and have normal reactions of stress after as a normal human! No matter what the cause, people get wounded by PTSD. The difference between civilians and the troops is that the troops are exposed to it over and over and over again when they deploy into combat. Telling them they just didn't do a good enough job to toughen their minds is the wrong way to begin what could have been a really great program. Again it's just my opinion and based on 26 years of all of this. Plus add in the fact that the Montana National Guard had to come up with their own program along with a lot of other units. That should have been an alarm bell right there, but no one heard it that is in charge.

It would be wonderful if reporters on cable news would finally take a look at this instead of only doing political reports!

Anti-war apartment owner won't rent to veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan

What makes this story worse is that Morgan is training to be a firefighter!

Mass. Veteran Sues Anti-War Apartment Owner, Alleges Discrimination
June 4, 2012

BOSTON (CBS) – A Massachusetts veteran of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan has filed a civil rights lawsuit against an anti-war activist who declined to rent him an apartment.

Sgt. Joel Morgan, 29, tried to rent a two-bedroom Dorchester apartment from 63-year-old Janice Roberts.

Morgan didn’t get the apartment. According to the lawsuit, Roberts told him his war service and her peace activism presented a “conflict of interests.”
read more here

Civil War hero may yet get Medal of Honor for Gettysburg

Civil War hero may yet get Medal of Honor for Gettysburg
By RICHARD SIMON
Los Angeles Times
Published: June 4, 2012

WASHINGTON — Alonzo H. Cushing is close to receiving the Medal of Honor, nearly 150 years after his heroic actions at Gettysburg.

A little-noticed provision of a House-approved defense bill would waive the time limit for posthumously bestowing the nation’s highest military honor, allowing the medal to be bestowed on the 22-year-old Union artillery lieutenant who died during Pickett’s Charge on July 3, 1863.

If passed by the Senate and signed by President Barack Obama, the measure would end a decades-long struggle by a 92-year-old resident of Cushing’s native Wisconsin.

“I’m glad that it’s finally happening,” Margaret Zerwekh said by phone from Delafield, where she lives on land once owned by the Cushing family.

Her efforts date back to the mid-1980s, when she wrote then-Sen. William Proxmire, D-Wis. The campaign to award the medal to Cushing has been championed by other Wisconsin lawmakers.
read more here

Number of homeless veterans rising in Onslow County

Number of homeless veterans rising in Onslow County
June 04, 2012
AMANDA WILCOX - DAILY NEWS STAFF

The number of veterans checking into Onslow County homeless shelters is steadily rising.

The Department of Veterans Affairs released a recent draft report that said homelessness among veterans decreased by 12 percent over the past year. Onslow County hasn’t seen those changes.

In fact, the Onslow Homeless Shelter has seen the exact opposite.

“We’ve seen a noticeable increase in veterans,” said Theo McClammy, Executive Director of the Onslow Community Outreach Program.

The Onslow Homeless Shelter served 12 veterans in 2006. That number tripled and then almost doubled again when the shelter served 36 veterans in 2010 and 52 veterans in 2011, according to a press release.

That’s a 333-percent increase in the number of veterans served over the past five years.
read more here

Health task force to survey soldiers’ records

Health task force to survey soldiers’ records
By Joe Gould - Staff writer
Posted : Monday Jun 4, 2012

NOTE: A VERSION OF THIS ARTICLE RAN IN THE JUNE 4, 2012, EDITION OF THE NEWSPAPER. THE ARTICLE BELOW CLARIFIES THAT THE ARMY WILL SURVEY SOLDIERS’ RECORDS AND NOT THE SOLDIERS THEMSELVES.

The Army will survey current and former soldiers’ records to learn about their treatment as part of its sweeping, multipronged review of behavioral health cases from the last decade of war, according to a top Army official.

The case files of current and former soldiers who were screened for medically separation by a Medical Evaluation Board will be part of the survey. The idea is “to take care of those individuals who weren’t treated well,” said Army Undersecretary Joseph Westphal, one of the officials leading the review.

The servicewide review of mental health cases dating back to 2001 is meant to ensure that soldiers suffering from a behavioral health illness were not denied appropriate medical retirement benefits.

While the time frame of the study is set, Army officials are working on determining how many soldiers’ records will be surveyed and what the selection criteria will be, Westphal said.
read more here

400,000 veterans in Central Florida deserve better

I still have the shovel with 10-24-08 on it. That's the date they had a huge ground breaking event at where the Lake Nona VA was promised to be built. News came later it wouldn't be ready until 2012. Now it looks like 2014. Now it seems very appropriate to have been given a shovel at the event filled with promises.

VA hospital delays hurt veterans
Beth Kassab, Local News Columnist
June 4, 2012

The real loss from the delayed opening of the new VA Medical Center in Lake Nona isn't in the multimillion dollar disputes over construction contracts.

It's in the disappointment of men such as Earle Denton, Joe Kittinger and Jerry Pierce. The veterans fought for their country and then fought government bureaucracy and obstinacy to finally win a VA hospital in Orlando — the largest city in the nation without one.

Now the delays could mean some of them won't be around to see it open.

"I'm probably one of them," said Denton, 82, a retired Army lieutenant colonel who served in Korea and Vietnam.

The construction disputes on the $656 million hospital could delay the opening by 18 months from October of this year to spring of 2014, according to the project's main contractor, Brasfield & Gorrie.

The VA says it will be done sooner, about a year from now.

Either way, the delay is the latest broken promise for local veterans.

"It's an absolute disgrace," said hall-of-fame aviator Kittinger, who was held captive during the Vietnam War. "It's because our politicians were not keeping the VA in gear. The people who suffer are the veterans."

Pierce, who served as an Army first lieutenant in Korea during Vietnam, said there are 400,000 veterans in Central Florida. And 90,000 are enrolled in the VA system for medical care.
read more here

Wounded Times told you resiliency training was a failure, now some psychologists agree

Maybe some reporters and politicians will listen to me now but I doubt it.


DOES COMPREHENSIVE SOLDIER FITNESS WORK?

JUNE 04, 2012
A Call for Retraction
The Army’s Flawed Resilience-Training Study
by STEPHEN SOLDZ and ROY EIDELSON

Ten years of continuous war — characterized by multiple deployments, elusive guerilla adversaries, and occupied populations seemingly more tilted toward resentment than gratitude — have taken a significant toll on US troops. In addition to those who have been killed, physically maimed, or neurologically impaired by combat, many soldiers have experienced debilitating psychological disorders including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, and anxiety. Large numbers are on antidepressants and other psychotropic medications, while the suicide rate among troops has risen to alarming levels.

The sobering realities of the psychological effects of war pose a serious challenge for the US military tasked with simultaneously fighting multiple wars and anticipating years of “persistent conflict” ahead. The good news is that key sectors within the military have now identified the mental health of our troops as a major issue that must be addressed. Indeed, in addition to treatment for those suffering psychological impairment, the military leadership is pursuing intervention efforts aimed at preventing such adverse outcomes by increasing soldiers’ psychological resilience to combat exposure. The largest of these new initiatives is the Army’s Comprehensive Soldier Fitness (CSF) program, launched in 2009 and based upon the “positive psychology” framework of psychologist Martin Seligman. And that brings us to the bad news: despite the over-hyped claims of CSF’s leading proponents, at this point there is little evidence to suggest that CSF works.
read more here

Since 2008 I've been coming out against this program because it does not work, has reduced the survival rate of the men and women after they survived combat and has left servicemen/women thinking they are mentally weak, thus leaving them with the notion PTSD is their fault! Now it looks like there have been brilliant minds looking at this even longer.

This pretty much sums up what veterans have been telling me since 2008.

Program participants may subsequently take greater risks if they think they have received some form of preventative protection. Participants may suffer from even greater stigma and shame perhaps interfering with help-seeking if after training they fail to effectively handle an adverse event. And the strategies taught may disrupt the participants prior effective coping strategies.

Most people "naturally" respond in a resilient manner when exposed to potentially traumatic events. It cannot be assumed that resilience training will be more helpful than harmful to these individuals.

Scoops picked up on the story too.
Army’s Flawed Resilience-Training Study

Here are some more links to what I posted about this
DOD message has been PTSD is your fault



The $125-million Comprehensive Soldier Fitness Failure

Pentagon has not evaluated PTSD and TBI programs, just repeated them

Repeat Iraq Tours Raise Risk of PTSD, Army Finds
By Ann Scott Tyson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, December 20, 2006; Page A19
U.S. soldiers serving repeated Iraq deployments are 50 percent more likely than those with one tour to suffer from acute combat stress, raising their risk of post-traumatic stress disorder, according to the Army's first survey exploring how today's multiple war-zone rotations affect soldiers' mental health........

Vietnam veterans names being added to museum's Wall

Veteran's names added to county wall
Chris Agee
CNHI
June 4, 2012

PARKER COUNTY — Saturday’s third annual update of the only permanent Vietnam Veterans Memorial wall outside of Washington D.C., located in far west Parker County, included the addition of five names.

The five names of Vietnam veterans whose deaths were attributed, at least in part, to injuries sustained while on active duty, were added to the official memorial last year. Ten more names added to the Washington D.C. Memorial this year will be added to the half-size local replica next year, in accordance with law.

Following the arrival of the Patriot Guard Riders to the National Vietnam War Museum grounds, accompanied by the American Legion Riders of Anderson Post 75 in Mineral Wells, attendees witnessed an authentic representation of U.S. horse-drawn artillery units during World War I performed by the Fort Sill Artillery Half Section.

Friends of the National Vietnam War Museum Treasurer Jim Messinger introduced the ceremony’s special guests, including the widow of one soldier whose name was added to the wall Saturday. Judy Woodall traveled to Mineral Wells from Alabama to attend Saturday’s ceremony.
read more here

Vietnam veteran kept up the fight

Vietnam veteran kept up the fight
By Lou Michel
NEWS STAFF REPORTER
Updated: June 4, 2012

At 19 years old and recently graduated with a degree in aviation mechanics from Burgard Vocational High School, Al Brusetti attempted to enlist in the Air Force and the Army.

“There was no work in the area, and I wanted to continue in aviation,” Brusetti said.

He received disappointing news from both branches.

“They said I was overweight. I weighed about 220 pounds, but it was from weightlifting and sports.”

Though the economy was hurting, Brusetti secured a maintenance position with the county at E.J. Meyer Memorial Hospital starting in 1961.

But by 1965, when Brusetti was almost 26, Uncle Sam sent him a draft notice. This time Brusetti was looking pretty good, though he was still the same weight.

“The doctor who gave me the physical said I wasn’t overweight. I was ‘heavily muscled.’ Those words are actually in the report from the physical,” said Brusetti, who still gets a chuckle from them.

The muscular soldier arrived in Vietnam in August 1966 as a member of the 196th Light Infantry Brigade.
read more here

Male Iraq Veteran wants to return to service as female

John Ackley, an Iraq vet, is looking to return to the military as Ashley Ackley
10:38 AM, Jun 4, 2012
Written by
CBS NEWS


PINE CITY, Minn. (WCCO) - A Minnesota soldier is trying to pave the way for change in the military.

Specialist Ackley is a war veteran who served in Iraq with the 34th Red Bull infantry division in 2009. But a lot has changed since her return two years ago.

Specialist John Ackley is now Ashley.

She would be the first to tell you she tries to avoid gender ideals.

"I've tried to stay away from gender roles," said Ashley.

As she works on her Chevy Corvair, she's a contradiction of stereotypes.
read more here