Rain and fire department didn't stop Orlando from honoring heroes

Yesterday I went to the Orlando VFW Post on Edgewater Drive. After finally finding a place to park in the pouring rain, when I got out of the car, I heard the fire alarm. People were getting back into their cars. The VFW Band was waiting outside and no one knew what was going on. It didn't take the heads of the heads of the VFW long to figure out a plan of action. They began directing people to the pavilion so everyone could stay dry while they waited for the fire department to come. Sure enough, they came fast and figured out what the problem was. There was a problem with the air conditioner from what I was told. The planned ceremony had to be canceled but they gave the awards out and honored these veterans.

Local vets to be awarded medals, ribbons at Orlando VFW Post
June 23, 2012
By Orlando Sentinel

A group of local war veterans will receive medals and ribbons that they are entitled to in a ceremony at an Orlando VFW Post on Sunday.

Veterans from the first Gulf War, Vietnam, Korea and World War II who never received the awards they were entitled to will get them in a 4 p.m. ceremony at VFW Post #2093 located at 4444 Edgewater Dr.

One Vietnam vet will receive 32 ribbons from his three tours of duty; another will receive his Bronze Star. Korean War veterans will receive their Korean Defense Service Medals and several Purple Heart medals will be awarded.
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I'll have the video up on this later. As usual several news stations showed up but I haven't been able to find any reports. If you find them please leave the link in the comment section of this post.

Montford Marines WWII groundbreakers

Montford Marines, the first black Marines, to get highest civilian honor
By MICHAEL FUTCH
The Fayetteville Observer, N.C.
Published: June 24, 2012

Few people know their story.

Unlike the Army's Triple Nickels and the Army Air Corps' Tuskegee Airmen, the history of the groundbreakers who went through Montford Point has been largely overlooked.

Fayetteville's James Robert Simpson was among the roughly 20,000 Marines who lived it, training on a small, swampy peninsula jutting into the New River on the North Carolina coast. The World War II veteran, the eldest son of a farming couple from rural Cumberland County, was a "Point man" - one of the first blacks to serve in the Marine Corps.

"I'm proud of that," Simpson said. "To be a part of history, for sure."

At 88 and in poor health, he plans to fly to Washington this week to attend two ceremonies paying tribute to the fighting men known as the Montford Point Marines. These veterans will receive the nation's highest civilian honor, the Congressional Gold Medal.

About 400 of the estimated 420 living Montford Point veterans are expected to attend. In addition to Simpson, five men from Fayetteville are expected to make the trip: Robert Burns Sr., Cosmas Eaglin Sr., Linwood Haith, David Montgomery and Joseph Stinchcomb, said Capt. Kendra Motz, a spokeswoman for the Marine Corps.

"It's most of them, which is awesome," Motz said.

Simpson said he will go to Washington, where he and his fellow Marines will receive a bronze replica of the medal, with mixed feelings.
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I had the pleasure of interviewing Charles Foreman in February.

Last night at the Orlando Nam Knights there was a surprise guest. Charles O. Foreman, a WWII veteran, member of the Montford Point Marines came. He is part of the group of Marines receiving the Congressional Gold Medal. At 87 he is just amazing. No matter what he had to go through because of the color of his skin, he'd do it all over again. He credits the Marines with making him the man he is today.

Homes For Our Troops Home Award Program

Russ and Carol Gambill don't think they have better things to do than to spend so much time working to make coming home better for our combat wounded men and women. They love what they do because they love them. If you ever wanted to get involved with an organization doing great works, this is it. Homes For Our Troops is making sure more veterans have a place to come home to!

Homes for Our Troops has partnered up with a couple of the largest banking corporations in the country.

These banks are taking their bank owned homes and want to give them to qualifying Veterans and the surviving families of our servicemen and women who have perished during the OIF/OEF and Iraqi War.

Please read the email inserted below for instruction on applying and more information. If you are or know of someone who may qualify please pass this on.

Russ and Carol Gambill
Homes for Our Troops Volunteers
Homes For Our Troops.org
Florida Veterans Network

Are you a wounded or injured, post-9/11/01 Veteran or a Gold Star spouse? Please read this email to see if you meet the basic qualification critera then apply for a mortgage-free home!

Do you know a qualifying Veteran/Gold Star family that needs a mortgage-free home? Please forward this email to them!

Homes for Our Troops - "Home Award Program"

Dear HFOT Families, Friends, and Supporters,

We are excited to tell you about an expansion to Homes for Our Troops mission. We have recently added a “Home Award Program” that will allow us to provide the "American Dream" of home ownership to a broader population of deserving Americans; our nation's wounded and injured Veterans and to the spouses of our fallen service members, completely mortgage-free.

As an organization, we feel as though our nation's Veterans, especially the wounded and injured and Gold Star families have paid enough through their service and sacrifice and it's time for us to give back. We give back by providing mortgage-free homes to our deserving military families that would not normally qualify for our original “Specially Adapted Home Program.”

Homes for Our Troops will soon begin receiving donations of homes that are currently owned by national banks. These top-quality homes are in move-in condition and located throughout the country. The banks want to donate these homes to HFOT for Veterans and their families, mortgage-free! We would like to help as many applicants as possible and need your help in disseminating this word. Please share this email with anyone you know that could potentially qualify for the Home Award Program.

Basic Qualification Criteria
You are a Veteran that sustained injuries during combat or while deployed in support of combat operations after September 11, 2001.

You are Widow/Widower or dependent of a service member due to injuries sustained in combat or while deployed in support of combat operations after September 11, 2001. You plan to make your new "HFOT Home Award" home your primary residence for a minimum of three years.

You accept the responsibility of home ownership and have the resources to maintain a home. (ongoing maintenance and upkeep, taxes, utilities etc.)

HOME AWARD PROGRAM CONTACT INFO

Carlo Gaita
Home Award Program Manager
Cheryl Wick
Program Support Representative
Email: HAP@homesforourtroops.org.

Potential Home Award Candidates: Please fill out the open application using the link above and provide the required documentation to start the application process. The open application gives you the opportunity to become pre-qualified for a "Home Award Program" home by the selection committee. When we receive notification from our banking partners that a home becomes available that fits the criteria you specify, we will send you an email notification with all the information on the home(s). You will then have seven (7) calendar days to notify Homes for Our Troops if you want one of the homes on the list.

I am sure you may have some questions about this program; please feel free to visit our web site, Homes For Our Troops Home Award or to contact us at HAP@homesforourtroops.org.

Thank you for your continued support of the Homes for Our Troops mission, we look forward to being able to provide more Veterans and their families the “American Dream” of home ownership through our “Home Award Program.”

Army Releases May 2012 Suicide Data, DOD head in the sand

Army Releases May 2012 Suicide Data, DOD head in the sand
by Chaplain Kathie
Wounded Times
June 24, 2012

The DOD still has their head in the sand, pushing what does not work and listening to the people they should be blaming.

A friend sent me a link and wanted to know what I thought so reluctantly I just read The “Myth” of our Returning Veterans and Violent Crime by Lt.Col. Dave Grossman, USA, Ret. Author of On Killing, and On Combat "An Obscene Bid to Smear our Veterans" (the granddaddy of Battlemind) and his latest rant trying to blame the media, the left wing and NPR for reporting on what is happening to a lot of men and women when they come home from combat. (You know, the place we sent them and then forgot all about them.) If there really was a "liberal" media, don't you think they'd be daily coverage from all these years and two wars?

As it is, I have to spend hours finding their stories. The most read ones are about healing, heroes and what we can do to help. I thank God that I have read less and less the kind of thing coming out from Grossman because it doesn't help anyone.

What keeps getting missed, and there is a boatload, is a question I haven't heard anyone ask. Did they really want to die? The latest suicide number are below. For all the numbers reported between active military and veterans we are seeing 19 a day taking their own lives. These men and women are only accounted for when they are either in the DOD or VA system. No longer on active duty or listed as disabled by the VA, no one counts them but their families. Answering the question with what we do know for sure is easy.

Men and women do not manage to survive hell in combat, protect the comrades they are with, risk their lives to save someone else, make it all the way back home again and suddenly say "I want to die today" for no reason at all. They did not want to die but because of the loss of hope that the next day would be better, they decided to not take any more breaths waiting for someone to let them in on the secret of healing.

They wanted to stay alive during combat but were not afraid to do what they had to do in order to protect the lives of their buddies, so no, they are not cowards and they sure as hell are not selfish as a few hacks suggested because it was just too tough for then to have to go to another funeral after another life ended by suicide. They wanted to come home to their families and friends so that last thing on their minds was not leaving them with their fingers on triggers or putting a ropes around their necks or crashing their cars into trees.

The truth is they are dying because no one is being held accountable. Failures like Battlemind replaced by "Resiliency Training" has been killing them off and forcing them to blame themselves for "not training right" and being "weak minded" but no one has paid any price for pushing this failure. Worse is the fact they now have "master trainers" and the program is being pushed harder. Talk to any veteran after they had this training and you'll see what I mean. Does the media have a clue? Do they know about it? Do they care? Any of them ask for answers on this? Anyone asking congress why they still fund it? Anyone asking the DOD to account for this when the numbers kept going up? Calls to the suicide prevention hotline kept going up and so did the number of veterans filing VA claims for PTSD? Any clue anyone? All these years and we have the following results to show for it but no reporter has done a damn thing about any of this other than to either ignore it or report on the face value of it and whatever the talking heads have to say about it.

Few commit suicide while deployed and if they do, it is usually not their first time in combat.

If Grossman really wanted to make a difference then he should have pointed out the real numbers about how few do in fact commit crimes and then address why the suicide numbers have all gone up while he wants to blame the media for reporting on what little they do spend time on.

Army Releases May 2012 Suicide Data
FRIDAY, 22 JUNE 2012
PRESS RELEASE
MILITARY

Washington, DC—(ENEWSPF)—June 22, 2012. The Army released suicide data today for the month of May. During May, among active-duty soldiers, there were 16 potential suicides: four have been confirmed as suicides and 12 remain under investigation.

For April, the Army reported 14 potential suicides among active-duty soldiers. Since the release of that report, one case has been added for a total of 15 potential suicides: four have been confirmed as suicides and 11 remain under investigation.

For 2012, there have been 78 potential active-duty suicides: 42 have been confirmed as suicides and 36 remain under investigation. Updated active-duty suicide numbers for 2011: 165 (confirmed as suicides and no cases remain under investigation).

During May, among reserve component soldiers who were not on active duty, there were nine potential suicides (two Army National Guard and seven Army Reserve): two have been confirmed as suicides and seven remain under investigation.

For April, among that same group, the Army reported 13 potential suicides. Since the release of that report, three cases have been added for a total of 16 potential suicides (seven Army National Guard and nine Army Reserve): 11 have been confirmed as suicides and five remain under investigation. For 2012, there have been 46 potential not on active-duty suicides (26 Army National Guard and 20 Army Reserve): 33 have been confirmed as suicides and 13 remain under investigation. Not on active-duty suicide numbers for 2011: 118 (82 Army National Guard and 36 Army Reserve) confirmed as suicides and no cases remain under investigation.

In a May 10, 2012, memorandum titled “Suicide Prevention for Department of Defense Personnel,” Secretary of Defense Leon E. Panetta stated, “Suicide prevention is first and foremost a leadership responsibility. To that end, leaders throughout the chain of command must actively promote a constructive climate that fosters cohesion and encourages individuals to reach out for help when needed. We must continue to fight to eliminate the stigma from those with post-traumatic stress and other mental-health issues. Seeking help is a sign of strength, and department personnel, both military and civilian, must show this strength or assist those in need of help.”
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Twist and turns in WWII veteran's story

National outcry erupts over bankruptcy of 89-year-old Plains veteran
By VINCE DEVLIN
of the Missoulian

PLAINS – An 89-year-old widower and World War II hero, facing too many bills from his late wife’s 10-year battle with cancer, files for bankruptcy – but fails to list what is reported to be $66,000 worth of gold and silver buried in his yard as assets.

A national organization called Oath Keepers reports on its website that the bankruptcy court ordered the veteran to vacate his home outside Plains, but erroneously claims that he is also being forced to exhume his wife’s body from her grave on the property and move it.

Oath Keepers’ founder calls the attitude of the trustee in the case “brutal and callous” in a 29-minute video posted on the website.

The resulting uproar includes death threats against the trustee, a Bigfork attorney who has since filed a motion to vacate the sale of the veteran’s home, and requested a protective order from the court.

The case of Renn Bodeker has a lot of twists, turns and fallout.
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