Bravo Company 1978 and Hep C Germany veterans seek justice

UPDATE
Artie is starting a support group for all veterans with hepatitis c so we can help one another deal with the virus and over time prove it was transmitted by air gun and needle while in service.

This support group is for all veterans and any that wish to get it started with me please have them contact me at my email arthurfryer2beking@yahoo.com or my home (3520503-2569). If they leave a message I can call them back at the end of the day.

Earlier today I received a phone call from a veteran about what happened to him in Germany because of the some of the Hepatitis C posts I have up.
Vietnam veterans and Hepatitis C jet gun delivered
Bush shafts Hepatitis C veterans
Hepatitis C Cases Appearing More In Vietnam Veterans and this one about a Florida veteran winning his lawsuit after a colonoscopy

I told him a couple of things he could try and one of them was getting his story more out in public so that maybe, just maybe he could get some justice for himself but he wanted to do it for other veterans more. That's right! As soon as I said it could help other veterans, he agreed right away. So here is his story along with a couple of responses he received from other veterans.

Kathy, in Dec 1978 I was stationed with the 1st bn 39th mechanized infantry 8th infantry division Baumholder Germany with Bravo company from sept 19 1977 to sept 26 1980.

In dec we received a flu shot in the basement of Charlie company from the medics and it was alive vaccine. When we got there for the shot they switched to a needle since the air gun stoped working just before we got there.

They took the needle and inserted into the vial vaccine and one after the other gave us the shot. In line in front of me was a guy named cagola,red and roy and not long ago I talked with roy who informed me he had hepatitis at the time of the shot.

I was later that evening taken to the infirmary since I eneded up with the flu and had a temp of 104.6 and was labled patient #52 with many still coming in after me.

The medical staff were short of people and when they could not get my temp down they started a IV which was already used on another patient.

A guy in Charlie company who I believe was a medic was supposevely murdered in jan 1979 but when I checked on it the soldier they said was killed by the bieder meinhoff gang also known as the red faction army killed the guy with a ice pick and took his id. I checked and found that soldier was killed in 1985 long after I was there but the guy in Charlie company was a medic and thios was the story they spred about his death.

I have found out besides myself that six others in my unit endedup with hep c and 2 alone were in my platoon ,one was from csc company and at the time I was told we were quarantined due to tb breakout and after talking with others found out it was hepatitis.

I have the proof to prove it happened and hope some is willing to listen on the facts that it can be spred my air gun innoculations and my fondest hope is to help all veterans past and present. My home number is 352-503-2569. Im sending a pic of me and my girlfriend so you know what I look like. god bless artie

He received this reply

I for sure do NOT have it, but remember that 1/39 was deemed Non Combat Ready for a period of time over this. That's why we were warned in formation. I have about 6 friends on facebook that were in my company back then that may remember it. If you would like to try to contact them I could see if any remember this incident.

and this one from another veteran

I am doing well thanks. Hope all is well considering your medical condition. I do remember the outbreak of hepititis in the 1/39 Infantry. I don't remember exact year, but I was in Baumholder from 1978-1982. What I remember was my medical platoon sergeant was totally again the air gun for innoculations. But also in that same time frame, I don't know if it were 1/39th Infantry or the 1/87th Inf there was a medic(s) that got into the safe that store narcotics that were to be used in war time. The medic(s) used needles and syringes to break through cellophane and draw the narcotics out. Those narcotics were inventoried monthly by a disinterested person and inspected annually by the division surgeons office. Why I mention this to you as there was discussion that possibly some folks contracted the hepititis virus as some folks shared needles when using the narcotics. In fact, the virus was found in a medic who died of overdose.

If there is something I can help you with I will. Of course, it's been 35 yrs ago or so, so my memory isn't the greatest....but I do remember that out break.

If it happened to you too, get your story out there and give lawyers a chance to fight for you. You shouldn't have to fight for what you have been dealing with, but you are not fighting alone.

Learning From Marines About Military Suicides

Learning From Marines About Military Suicides
Posted: 03/28/2013
Joseph Bobrow
Founder and president, Coming Home Project

Veteran military writer Tom Ricks posted an important blog on his Best Defense column in Foreign Policy. Researchers Dr. Frank Tortorello and Dr. William Marcellino, sponsored by the Marine Corps' Training and Education Command and Center for Advanced Operational Culture Learning, did something novel. They listened to Marines, who described in great detail their experiences of stress and distress. What did the researchers learn? They found that crises of meaning were central. Some Marines were able to bounce back, say by forgiving themselves for perceived errors on the battlefield. Others judged themselves harshly for perceived failures. Yet others remain plagued by doubts. The researchers saw real people describing their struggles to make sense of things done, not done, or witnessed.

This follows on an earlier study that revealed a critical factor in military suicides: overwhelming emotional pain. Meaning and emotional pain; quintessentially human elements. Another "no duh" moment. When will we wake up and learn to see what's right in front of us?
read more here

People have lost their minds! Military funerals for "heroes" only?

OMG! Are people really this clueless? If you know the history of military service in this country, even a little of it, then you know that the draft was making some go to war and some of them died, some were wounded and some earned medals for heroism. Now some yahoo comes out and says that only those who died in combat deserve a military funeral because of money? What about those who died of their wounds and were not killed during deployment?

Columnist: Ditch Funeral Honors for Non-Hero Vets
March 29, 2013
Spouse and Family News
by Amy Bushatz

“Bear in mind that most veterans did nothing heroic. They served, and that’s laudable, but it hardly seems necessary to provide them all with military honors after they have died.”

This is the argument offered by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s Bill McClellan in his recent column on why the federal government should no longer provide military funeral honors to veterans.

Give honors only to those who have died in combat, he writes. If others want honors they should look to their veterans organizations such as the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VWF) to provide them.

“Everybody knows government needs to cut costs,” he writes. “This is exactly how you do it. You identify things you don’t need, and you cut them.”

McClellan bases his knowledge of the lack of heroism in veterans off his own experience in Vietnam.

“I did nothing heroic. Nor did any of my close friends. But I knew people who did, and it devalues the real heroes to say that everybody was one,” he writes. “If everybody is a hero, nobody is.”

I can see how he arrived at this conclusion. He’s saying that in a drafted military you are there because you have no other choice.
read more here

Bushatz can see how he concluded that? Really? People have lost their minds!

WWI, WWII, Korea and Vietnam wars all had men drafted serving right along the side of those who enlisted. The day they take off their civilian clothes and put on a uniform is the day they become part of the mighty minority of members of the military. To give them anything less than a proper military funeral after spending the rest of their lives as veterans would be the ultimate disgrace.

TSA changes the way they treat wounded war fighters

TSA Allows Wounded Warriors Expedited Screening
Mar 28, 2013
Military.com
by Stephen Bajza

Current TSA procedures can be time-consuming at best and invasive at worst. Scrambling to take off your shoes and shove all your carry-on belongings into a few plastic bins is not a process commonly considered enjoyable. For those with disabilities or serious injuries, the process can be much more grueling and uncomfortable.

Fortunately for Wounded Warriors, starting today the TSA is initiating a new policy change to expedite airport screening. While veterans and servicemembers currently do not need to remove their shoes or boots at TSA checkpoints, this reform offers a new level of comfort and trust to those who have been severely injured in service to the United States.

The new TSA benefits include:
Expedited screening
Curb-to-gate service
Wounded Warriors will not have to remove shoes, light outerwear, jackets, or hats.
read more here

Five Things the Bible Got Wrong?

I admit that I did not watch all of The Bible because of how much they got wrong in the beginning. That is why when I saw this headline I was hopeful someone else noticed the mistakes too. I was wrong.

Heresy! Five things 'The Bible' got wrong
Joe Alblas / AP
"The Bible" didn't always stick to its inspiration.
By Randee Dawn, TODAY contributor

“The Bible” miniseries has truly brought in divine ratings for The History Channel these past few weeks. Despite at least one major road bump (Satan appeared in a black hooded robe and was promptly compared to President Barack Obama), the episodes -- which selectively feature certain stories in both the Old and New Testaments -- have been well received by millions of viewers every week. But as the series comes to a close Sunday, it’s worth asking – just how accurate was the series, in the end? Telling the story of The Bible is a tricky business, said biblical scholar Dr. Peter E. Enns, who teaches Bible Studies at Pennsylvania’s Eastern University. But it was clear, he notes, that series creators Mark Burnett and Roma Downey had an agenda – and that every episode they told had one goal: To get to the climax of Jesus’s life and death. (click link for the rest)

I wish that these were among the list of mistakes.

They got the names wrong of Abraham and Sarah

Genesis 17 5 No longer will you be called Abram[b]; your name will be Abraham,[c] for I have made you a father of many nations
15 God also said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you are no longer to call her Sarai; her name will be Sarah.

Lot's daughters in the movie were young yet when you read that they seduced their father, it is clear they were not little girls.

Genesis 19:35 So they got their father to drink wine that night also, and the younger daughter went in and slept with him. Again he was not aware of it when she lay down or when she got up.

Genesis 19:37 The older daughter had a son, and she named him Moab; he is the father of the Moabites of today.

They got the age Jesus began His ministry wrong.

Jesus himself was about thirty years old when he began his ministry. Luke 3

There is more they got wrong but you'll have to read the Bible to discover how much. If you can think of the others leave a comment and share your thoughts.

Jury awards Orlando Iraq veteran $26 million

Florida jury awards $26 million to war veteran injured in car wreck
Reuters
ORLANDO, Florida (Reuters) - An Iraqi war veteran who suffered permanent brain damage in a 2008 motor vehicle accident in Florida has won a $26 million jury verdict, his lawyer said on Thursday.

"He's got a huge hole in his right frontal and temporal lobes," said Alexander Clem of the law firm Morgan and Morgan in Orlando.

Dustin Brink, 31, hit his head on the asphalt pavement in Kissimmee, Florida, after his motorcycle was clipped by a car driven by Juan Pereles, said Clem. Pereles and his father, Juan de Los Santos, who owned the car, were named in a lawsuit filed in 2010.
read more here

Florida town tells Marine Iraq veteran "take down the flag"

Marine veteran ordered to remove American flag from his yard
Published March 29, 2013
FoxNews.com

A U.S. Marine has been ordered by local officials to remove an American flag and flagpole that he installed outside his Florida home after returning home from serving in Iraq.

Gregory Schaffer told WPTV.com that he received a citation from the town of Hypoluxo, Fla., listing the flagpole as a violation of the town's permitting code.

"It's sad. It's sad that we have to go through that just to fly a flag," Schaffer told the station. The 24-year-old Marine said a neighbor filed a complaint with the town within days after he installed the flagpole in his yard.
read more here

If Resilience Training worked, they wouldn't need an app for that

Aside from military suicides breaking records, more veterans committing suicide, arrests up and veterans flooding the VA seeking help, these are the stories that should prove once and for all the bullshit we were fed about Battlemind preventing all of this did not work. But what did the DOD do? They pushed the same lame approach so there are now 900 suicides prevention programs. Technology is a wonderful thing but from where I sit with thousands of reports to go through to finish my book on military suicides, THE WARRIOR SAW, SUICIDES AFTER WAR, if what they were doing worked, veterans wouldn't need an app for help with PTSD.

Help for PTSD, brain injuries may be only an app away
By Bob Glissmann
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER
March 29, 2013

Darryl Summers merges onto Interstate 80, but in his mind, he's back in Iraq, leading a convoy of Army trucks, tanks and heavy equipment in an armored Humvee.

When you're responsible for escorting 50, 60, 70 vehicles behind you, Summers says, you keep constant watch for roadside bombs. It's dangerous. You're on edge. You don't let other drivers impede your progress.

In the heavy Omaha traffic, with other motorists cutting him off, the U.S. Army veteran becomes anxious and starts speeding and driving aggressively, just as he had on those Iraqi roads. As soon as he can, he pulls over and pulls up an app on his phone called PTSD Coach.

Summers, 49, runs through the app's stress-assessment tools and its breathing and relaxation techniques. The exercises, he recalled in an interview, helped him to compose himself.

“It spirals you from where you're at to a more calm, relaxed state,” he said, “so you're ready to hit the road again or ready to re-engage.”
read more here

Support the troops? Then pay attention all the time!

Last night I put up an old post I found on the fact the Army Medical Corps had downsized to a lower rate than they had after the Gulf war when the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq were creating more wounded. Medical technology had caught up enough so that even some quadruple amputees survived. But was you can see there were still problems most people didn't know about.

As more wounded soldiers return from war, critics say staff shortages and turnover have affected the quality of health care at Army posts across the nation.

Overall, the Army’s Medical Corps has downsized significantly since the Persian Gulf War in the 1990s, dropping from 5,400 to 4,300 physicians and from 4,600 to 3,400 nurses.

According to the Department of Defense, more than 29,000 service members have been wounded in action in Iraq or Afghanistan in the last six years, compared with fewer than 500 in Operation Desert Storm.

I got upset with the Daily Show's Jon Stewart because while he was rightly paying attention to what is happening to our veterans today, it had been going on for a very long time.

Apr 24, 2008 “Since 2006, the number of claims has grown 15 percent. The amount of time it takes to make decisions on disability claims is two to three year. On an average, it takes four years to get an appeals decision.”

That is the biggest problem this nation has when they keep chanting "USA Support the Troops" when they want to but when they need to, they are just too busy doing something else.

According to the American Federation of Government Employees, the VA employed 1,392 Veterans Service Representatives in June 2007 compared to 1,516 in January 2003. But what would have happened if after the troops were being sent into a second war, the VA was prepared to take care of them with their claims as well as their wounds? Would older veterans have suffered even longer than they already had? Would it have helped to know all their years of fighting to make sure PTSD was treated for all veterans was worthy of their efforts?

“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.” (Repeat Iraq Tours Raise Risk of PTSD Army Finds, Washington Post, Ann Scott Tyson, December 20, 2006)

The VA's mental-health experts started pushing for specialized PTSD programs in all medical centers in the 1980s. Top VA officials agreed "in concept" that it would be a good idea. But in 2005 and 2006, despite telling Congress that it was setting aside an additional $300 million for expanding mental-health services, such as PTSD programs, the VA didn't get around to spending $54 million of that, according to the Government Accountability Office.”
• Despite a decade-long effort to treat veterans at all VA locations, nearly 100 local VA clinics provided virtually no mental-health care in 2005.
• Mental-health care is wildly inconsistent from state to state. In some places, veterans receive individual psychotherapy sessions. In others, they meet mostly for group therapy. Some veterans are cared for by psychiatrists; others see social workers.
• The lack of adequate psychiatric care strikes hard in the western and rural states that have supplied a disproportionate share of the soldiers in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan — often because of their large contingents of National Guard and Army Reserves.
Moreover, the return of so many veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan is squeezing the VA's ability to treat yesterday's soldiers from Vietnam, Korea and World War II.
"We can't do both jobs at once within current resources," a committee of VA experts wrote in a 2006 report, saying it was concerned about the absence of specialized PTSD care in many areas and the decline in the number of PTSD visits veterans receive. (McClatchy 2007)

Department of Veteran Affairs promising to beef up its mental health services in response. Veterans of previous conflicts continue to have problems as well, and the VA has estimated that a total of 5000 suicides among veterans can be expected this year.
However, CBS News has now completed a five-month study of death records for 2004-05 which shows that the actual figures are "much higher" than those reported by the VA. Across the total US veteran population of 25 million, CBS found that suicide rates were more than twice as high as for non-veterans according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, suicide accounted for 32,439 deaths in 2004. (Stunning Veterans Suicide Rate, David Edwards, Muriel Kane, CBS, November 13, 2007)

But that same year officials in the Department of Veterans Affairs spent $2.6 billion on their credit cards as reported by the Associated Press Hope Yen. What did they spend the money on? $3.1 million purchases including casinos, high price hotels, movie tickets, and high end stores.

By 2008 another $2.7 million was handed over to a contractor to make phone calls. Yep~phone calls! 570,000 veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan were supposed to be called to find out why they hadn’t gone to the VA.

“The first calls will go to about 17,000 veterans who were sick or injured while serving in the wars. If they don’t have a care manager, the VA says they will be given one.

The next round of calls will target 555,000 veterans from the wars who have been discharged from active duty, but have not reached out to the VA for services. For five years after their discharge from the military, Iraq and Afghanistan veterans have access to health care at the VA. The effort will cost about $2.7 million and will be handled by a government contractor.

The agency has faced complaints that a backlog in claims and bureaucratic hurdles have prevented some recent veterans from getting proper mental and physical care. Earlier this week, two Democratic senators accused the VA’s top mental health official of trying to cover up the number of veteran suicides and said he should resign.” (VA to call Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, Associated Press, April 24, 2008)

As for the reports on military and veterans committing suicide, hope of actually doing something eroded when the media refused to correct their published numbers. If they can't even get that right, and the public doesn't spend their time tracking news reports, nothing will change and when the next round of Congress takes their chairs, when the next Administration takes the Oval Office, the men and women risking their lives will face more and more suffering and some other TV personality will be complaining about what hasn't happened. The ugly truth is, they are paying the price for their service no matter who is in the chair.

Senator Evan Bayh complained about inadequate staffing in 2008

Did you know in January of 2008 there were less doctors and nurses working for the wounded?

Shortages could be hurting Army health care
By Laura Ungar
Gannett News Service
Posted : Saturday Jan 12, 2008

Injured in a roadside blast in Iraq, Sgt. Gerald Cassidy was assigned to a new medical unit at Fort Knox, Ky., devoted to healing the wounds of war.

But instead of getting better, the brain-injured soldier from Westfield, Ind., was found dead in his barracks on Sept. 21. Preliminary reports show he may have been unconscious for days and dead for hours before someone checked on him.

Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., linked his death in part to inadequate staffing.

The Army is investigating the death and its cause, and three people have lost their jobs.

“By all indications, the enemy could not kill him, but our own government did,” Bayh told the Senate Armed Services Committee. “Not intentionally, to be sure, but the end result apparently was the same.”

As more wounded soldiers return from war, critics say staff shortages and turnover have affected the quality of health care at Army posts across the nation.

Overall, the Army’s Medical Corps has downsized significantly since the Persian Gulf War in the 1990s, dropping from 5,400 to 4,300 physicians and from 4,600 to 3,400 nurses.

According to the Department of Defense, more than 29,000 service members have been wounded in action in Iraq or Afghanistan in the last six years, compared with fewer than 500 in Operation Desert Storm.

I am seriously considering adding a post of the day for DID YOU KNOW? I keep finding more and more reports on my blog that reporters have forgotten about. All the reports they have done lately have been complaining about now but ignored yesterday.