Off topic
Some media outlets drive me crazy!
There is a "big story" on a bird that sounds like a baby crying. Afghanistan bird sounds like a real baby
While it does sound like one, I wanted to compare it to another video.
This one tops the one they are making a big deal out of.
Sunday, August 4, 2013
Canadian soldier faces murder charge after wife's body found
Cops: Soldier faces murder charge
The Windsor Star
Chris Cobb and Andrew Seymour
Postmedia News Aug 03, 2013
A Canadian soldier and the wife he is now accused of murdering were facing serious financial pressures when she went missing, the Ottawa Citizen has learned.
Melissa Richmond, 28, went missing on July 24. Around that time, her husband Howard, 50, posted numerous messages on an online forum created to help mentally injured soldiers, sometimes referring to his battle with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The couple were briefly being sued by their bank over the nonpayment of a loan. The Bank of Nova Scotia filed a statement of claim against the Richmonds after they allegedly defaulted on a $139,700 line of credit, according to court documents obtained by the Citizen.
The lawsuit was discontinued shortly after it was filed on July 15 and before anything happened to Melissa Richmond, the Bank of Nova Scotia's lawyer, John Hamilton, said Friday. Hamilton wouldn't comment further on why the lawsuit was discontinued.
Melissa Richmond was reported missing on July 24 by her husband, who is a warrant officer with the Canadian military. Her car was found two days later in a parking lot at the South Keys Shopping Centre. Richmond's body, partially clothed and stabbed several times, was discovered on July 27 in a ravine next to the parking lot.
On Friday, Ottawa police arrested Howard Richmond. Police say he is to be charged with murder and is expected to appear in court by video Saturday.
read more here
The Windsor Star
Chris Cobb and Andrew Seymour
Postmedia News Aug 03, 2013
A Canadian soldier and the wife he is now accused of murdering were facing serious financial pressures when she went missing, the Ottawa Citizen has learned.
Melissa Richmond, 28, went missing on July 24. Around that time, her husband Howard, 50, posted numerous messages on an online forum created to help mentally injured soldiers, sometimes referring to his battle with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The couple were briefly being sued by their bank over the nonpayment of a loan. The Bank of Nova Scotia filed a statement of claim against the Richmonds after they allegedly defaulted on a $139,700 line of credit, according to court documents obtained by the Citizen.
The lawsuit was discontinued shortly after it was filed on July 15 and before anything happened to Melissa Richmond, the Bank of Nova Scotia's lawyer, John Hamilton, said Friday. Hamilton wouldn't comment further on why the lawsuit was discontinued.
Melissa Richmond was reported missing on July 24 by her husband, who is a warrant officer with the Canadian military. Her car was found two days later in a parking lot at the South Keys Shopping Centre. Richmond's body, partially clothed and stabbed several times, was discovered on July 27 in a ravine next to the parking lot.
On Friday, Ottawa police arrested Howard Richmond. Police say he is to be charged with murder and is expected to appear in court by video Saturday.
read more here
Saturday, August 3, 2013
Spouses of Veterans with PTSD at High Risk for Heart Problems
No big surprise to the mates of veterans. I've been on blood pressure medicine for ten years. It is stressful even when they are healing and doing better. Read the book I wrote about living with it and you'll understand why this is not news to thousands of families all over the country in different generations. If it hit me this hard knowing what I know, think about how hard it is on family members when they don't understand it.
Spouses of Veterans with PTSD at High Risk for Heart Problems
American Psychological Association
by Tori DeAngelis
Posted on August 3, 2013
As if returning service members with PTSD didn’t have enough to deal with, they may be more prone than those without PTSD to the kinds of stress reactions that create heart disease and stroke, researchers reported at a convention session Friday.
But their spouses may be at the highest risk of all, according to the team, led by University of Utah graduate student Catherine Caska.
Caska shared results at a panel called “Deployment Stress and Military Families’ Health—A Focus on Health-Risk Behaviors and Physiology,” noting that the study was among the first to examine the relationship among PTSD, marital conflict and physiological reactivity to that conflict.
The research team had 32 male service members with PTSD and their female spouses, and 33 military-couple controls with no PTSD or Axis I diagnoses, fill out questionnaires gauging PTSD symptoms and marital functioning. Then, couples underwent a 10-minute lab session where they were instructed to argue about a mutually hot topic. The researchers took pre- and post-measures of participants’ blood pressure, heart-rate reactivity and emotional states such as anxiety and anger, linked in research to heart and other physical problems.
read more here
Thanks to congress wounded do without at military hospitals
House GOP voted to repeal Obamacare for 40th time this week. Now they are threatening to shut down the government if they do not get their own way. Didn't matter to them the people of this country voted for what the majority wanted since the majority of the whole nation votes for President and districts vote for their Senators and Representatives in the House. While they are wasting time on ending health insurance reform they are avoiding doing the right thing for the sake of the wounded they created by sending troops into Iraq and Afghanistan. Nothing matters to these people anymore if it does not hit them where they live.
Case in point is when the air traffic controllers and the TSA were holding up flights they had to take. It was a matter of a couple of days before they ended that trouble. When it comes to the troops wounded in our name, they stick two fingers in their ears and hold the middle on straight up in the air.
PS or BS, Congress gets tax payer funded health insurance!
Case in point is when the air traffic controllers and the TSA were holding up flights they had to take. It was a matter of a couple of days before they ended that trouble. When it comes to the troops wounded in our name, they stick two fingers in their ears and hold the middle on straight up in the air.
Military hospitals shrinking services to meet spending cuts
USA TODAY
Gregg Zoroya
August 3, 2013
Because of staff furloughs, patients are asked to practice more patience in getting health care needs met.
Patients at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and other premier military hospitals are being sent to private doctors and having surgery and other treatment delayed because of furloughs to medical personnel, according to interviews and internal documents.
"Please show (patients) the utmost understanding and care while we are asking them to accept longer wait times and in some cases, curtailed or limited services," Rear Adm. Alton Stocks, hospital commander, told staff in a July 12 message.
A "colleagues" memo issued in recent days says inpatient beds are in "critically short supply" because of furloughs of civilian staff triggered by federal spending cuts known as sequestration.
The memo encourages "dispositions/discharges as soon as possible." Hospital spokesperson Sandy Dean explained this direction, saying, "We are are encouraging health care providers to be more efficient when handling their paperwork instead of writing discharge orders later in the day ... no patient has been or will be discharged before it is medically appropriate."
With cases of post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental health problems at an all-time high, Dean says civilian caregivers in the hospital's in-patient mental health section are furloughed, reducing beds there from 28 to 22.
read more here
PS or BS, Congress gets tax payer funded health insurance!
Marine Recruit Survives Medical Mystery
Marine Recruit Survives Medical Mystery
DVIDS
by Lance Cpl. David Bessey
Aug 02, 2013
PARRIS ISLAND, S.C. – After overcoming a medical mystery that prevented him from accomplishing his dream, one Marine achieved his goal and finally graduated recruit training Aug. 2, 2013, on Parris Island, S.C.
Pvt. Aaron Sitka, a 20-year-old from Houston, Pa., has wanted to serve his country ever since he was a child. At first, Sitka didn’t know what branch he wanted to join until a friend of his told him about the Marine Corps.
When Sitka spoke to a Marine Corps recruiter, Sitka knew by the end of the conversation that the Marine Corps was exactly what he wanted for his future, even though he was barely halfway through high school.
“[The recruiter] was just so much more put together and more professional,” said Sitka.
Sitka first enlisted in the Marine Corps three years ago and was shipped to Parris Island for recruit training two days after graduating from Chartiers-Houston High School in 2011.
He reported for training with India Company, 3rd Recruit Training Battalion, and was assigned to Platoon 3065.
Training was going well for him until the company began basic water survival training, said Sitka.
Several recruits were already sick, and Sitka soon became ill. Over several days, his condition progressively worsened. He developed a cough that became so severe it made him cough blood. Sitka was unable to keep food down due to the cough.
Sitka said he refused to get himself checked by a doctor, because he feared the idea of being held back in training.
read more here
DVIDS
by Lance Cpl. David Bessey
Aug 02, 2013
PARRIS ISLAND, S.C. – After overcoming a medical mystery that prevented him from accomplishing his dream, one Marine achieved his goal and finally graduated recruit training Aug. 2, 2013, on Parris Island, S.C.
Pvt. Aaron Sitka, a 20-year-old from Houston, Pa., has wanted to serve his country ever since he was a child. At first, Sitka didn’t know what branch he wanted to join until a friend of his told him about the Marine Corps.
When Sitka spoke to a Marine Corps recruiter, Sitka knew by the end of the conversation that the Marine Corps was exactly what he wanted for his future, even though he was barely halfway through high school.
“[The recruiter] was just so much more put together and more professional,” said Sitka.
Sitka first enlisted in the Marine Corps three years ago and was shipped to Parris Island for recruit training two days after graduating from Chartiers-Houston High School in 2011.
He reported for training with India Company, 3rd Recruit Training Battalion, and was assigned to Platoon 3065.
Training was going well for him until the company began basic water survival training, said Sitka.
Several recruits were already sick, and Sitka soon became ill. Over several days, his condition progressively worsened. He developed a cough that became so severe it made him cough blood. Sitka was unable to keep food down due to the cough.
Sitka said he refused to get himself checked by a doctor, because he feared the idea of being held back in training.
read more here
Suicide Haunts New Generation Of Veterans
Suicide Haunts New Generation Of Veterans
WUNC Public Radio
August 1, 2013
It’s estimated that more than 20 veterans kill themselves every day. A new survey of men and women who served in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan shows that mental health is the most important issue they face.
According to the poll conducted by the organization Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA), 30 percent of these vets have considered suicide and nearly 40 percent know an Iraq or Afghanistan vet who has committed suicide.
“It’s epidemic, and I think it’s something we’re not talking enough about in this country,” IAVA chief of staff Derek Bennett told Here & Now. “The number of veterans and the number of active duty individuals who have committed suicide is actually higher than the number of folks we’ve lost lost to the enemy in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
read more here
WUNC Public Radio
August 1, 2013
It’s estimated that more than 20 veterans kill themselves every day. A new survey of men and women who served in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan shows that mental health is the most important issue they face.
According to the poll conducted by the organization Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA), 30 percent of these vets have considered suicide and nearly 40 percent know an Iraq or Afghanistan vet who has committed suicide.
“It’s epidemic, and I think it’s something we’re not talking enough about in this country,” IAVA chief of staff Derek Bennett told Here & Now. “The number of veterans and the number of active duty individuals who have committed suicide is actually higher than the number of folks we’ve lost lost to the enemy in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
read more here
"Help me, please!" the former Army medic begged, "I'm dying"
"Help me, please!" the former Army medic begged, "I'm dying"
Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
August 3, 2013
The PFC Joseph Dwyer Peer-to-Peer Veterans Counseling Program in the name of the Iraq veteran made famous by a photograph taken of him holding a child.
After this picture was taken, Pfc. Joseph Dwyer life ended and because of his fame, it made national news.
After that yet another program was funded and pushed to help veterans with PTSD.
While some seem to think that combat related PTSD is something new, in the above article there was this.
Vietnam veterans are the majority of the claims in the VA system waiting to be approved or reevaluated. They reflect the real issue with treating PTSD. First is that researchers have been funded and studied PTSD for over 40 years yet what was learned because of Vietnam veterans pushing for it has been forgotten. What didn't work then is suddenly something some researcher is pushing and getting money to do it. What did work but didn't cost much money has been forgotten.
Peer support works and is not expensive. If it is done right, it can help them heal. That is one more thing learned by Vietnam veterans.
Point Man International Ministries began in 1984 when a Vietnam veteran was tired of arresting other veterans clearly troubled by where they had been. Since then it has saved countless lives and supported families in emotional crisis while trying to live with their veterans.
Headed by Dana Morgan, a Vietnam veteran Marine, along with other veterans heading Out Posts and families heading Home Fronts, Point Man is peer support that heals generations. We do it with Christian based spiritual ministry. As researchers are beginning to discover the need to address PTSD and the moral issues they are trying to sort out, it was known all along.
So why are they still begging for help? Why are they still dying? Didn't we spend billions of dollars funding "prevention" so that veterans like Dwyer would not suffer more back home than they did during combat? Didn't we read about this claim and that claim made every time the number of military suicides went up? Didn't we read that every time another family went to the press to talk about their veteran suffering without help?
How much will it take for them to stop begging for help or worse, avoiding it, before this country gets the point. What has failed has been repeated so we end up with the DOD trying to spin the deadliest year on record for military suicides topped off with the fact that as veterans, suicides they don't have to count any more have gone up as well. One more thing they keep ignoring is that attempted suicides have gone up but just because they survived it, they get ignored in most of the published numbers. Families can still remember the times they begged for help but didn't find it. Will you remember them?
Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
August 3, 2013
The PFC Joseph Dwyer Peer-to-Peer Veterans Counseling Program in the name of the Iraq veteran made famous by a photograph taken of him holding a child.
After this picture was taken, Pfc. Joseph Dwyer life ended and because of his fame, it made national news.
The Iraq war veteran had called a taxi service to take him to the emergency room. But when the driver arrived, Dwyer shouted that he was too weak to get up and open the door.
The officers asked Dwyer for permission to kick it in.
"Go ahead!" he yelled.
They found Dwyer lying on his back, his clothes soiled with urine and feces. Scattered on the floor around him were dozens of spent cans of Dust-Off, a refrigerant-based aerosol normally used to clean electrical equipment. Dwyer told police Lt. Mike Wilson he'd been "huffing" the aerosol.
"Help me, please!" the former Army medic begged Wilson. "I'm dying. Help me. I can't breathe."
Unable to stand or even sit up, Dwyer was hoisted onto a stretcher. As paramedics prepared to load him into an ambulance, an officer noticed Dwyer's eyes had glassed over and were fixed.
A half hour later, he was dead.
After that yet another program was funded and pushed to help veterans with PTSD.
"Both state Sens. Greg Ball and David Carlucci announced recently that funding for the program has been secured in seven additional counties across the state. Funding was secured through the state Office of Mental Health with $2.3 million allocated to the program in the 2013-2014 state budget, according to Carlucci’s office.
Putnam, Rockland and Westchester counties will each receive $185,000 to fund the program named after the Iraq war veteran who died in 2008 of a drug overdose following struggles with PTSD.
While some seem to think that combat related PTSD is something new, in the above article there was this.
“I know for myself I waited 30 years after Vietnam before going to the VA because I thought I could take of it myself,” said Karl Rohde, director of the Putnam County Veterans Service Agency. “If we can get veterans in sooner and anticipate problems before it becomes a last resort and they try to harm themselves it would help.”
Vietnam veterans are the majority of the claims in the VA system waiting to be approved or reevaluated. They reflect the real issue with treating PTSD. First is that researchers have been funded and studied PTSD for over 40 years yet what was learned because of Vietnam veterans pushing for it has been forgotten. What didn't work then is suddenly something some researcher is pushing and getting money to do it. What did work but didn't cost much money has been forgotten.
Peer support works and is not expensive. If it is done right, it can help them heal. That is one more thing learned by Vietnam veterans.
Point Man International Ministries began in 1984 when a Vietnam veteran was tired of arresting other veterans clearly troubled by where they had been. Since then it has saved countless lives and supported families in emotional crisis while trying to live with their veterans.
Headed by Dana Morgan, a Vietnam veteran Marine, along with other veterans heading Out Posts and families heading Home Fronts, Point Man is peer support that heals generations. We do it with Christian based spiritual ministry. As researchers are beginning to discover the need to address PTSD and the moral issues they are trying to sort out, it was known all along.
So why are they still begging for help? Why are they still dying? Didn't we spend billions of dollars funding "prevention" so that veterans like Dwyer would not suffer more back home than they did during combat? Didn't we read about this claim and that claim made every time the number of military suicides went up? Didn't we read that every time another family went to the press to talk about their veteran suffering without help?
How much will it take for them to stop begging for help or worse, avoiding it, before this country gets the point. What has failed has been repeated so we end up with the DOD trying to spin the deadliest year on record for military suicides topped off with the fact that as veterans, suicides they don't have to count any more have gone up as well. One more thing they keep ignoring is that attempted suicides have gone up but just because they survived it, they get ignored in most of the published numbers. Families can still remember the times they begged for help but didn't find it. Will you remember them?
Before they made NFL cheerleader famous reporters missed arrest
The country learned of a beautiful Iraq veteran. Megan Welter went to Iraq, came back home and became a cheerleader for the Arizona Cardinals. The press was all over her story. The problem is she had been arrested on domestic violence the same month the press made her famous.
So which person is Welter? She is all the above. She is complicated and trying to do the right thing for the right reasons but she is not perfect. That is the point. None of us are perfect and that includes reporters pushing a story they think will get a lot of attention but not bothering to check out everything that can be learned about the person they write about.
So we are left with going from this Iraq veteran goes from combat to cheerleading to the headline of her arrest. Would have been better if the reporters bothered to figure out what happened before the interview and someone we celebrated was taken down in a matter of a day.
Celebrated Cardinals cheerleader arrested after alleged assault caught on video
by 3TV
Video report by Javier Soto
Posted on August 1, 2013
War veteran NFL cheerleader arrested on domestic violence charges
Megan Welter was arrested on July 20 on charges of alleged assault, disorderly conduct and criminal damage
USA Today
By NATE SCOTT
August 2, 2013
Arizona Cardinal cheerleader and Iraq War veteran Megan Welter, who we profiled earlier this week, was arrested in July on assault charges.
On July 20, Welter made a 911 call saying that she and her boyfriend had been in a physical fight. Both of them had been drinking heavily, and Welter claimed the argument had turned physical.
According to the Scottsdale police report, when officers arrived on the scene, they saw no signs physical contact on Welter’s body. Her boyfriend was also able to show the officers video he had shot on his cell phone of the couple’s altercation.
“People make mistakes, no one is perfect. I honestly want the best for her and I hope that this doesn’t take away from the good things that she has done for both the NFL, as well as the service to our country. People seem to only remember the bad and it is easy to point fingers while standing on the outside. Now with that said, violence is never the answer and I honestly hope that this can be a learning experience for her and everyone else.”
read more here
This morning news sites and the blog world are pushing this story. Why? Is it because she attacked her boyfriend or is it because she has been made famous for something else?
While USA Today was publishing the story of the arrest on Friday, the Christian Post had this story.
Megan Welter, NFL Cheerleader and Iraq War Veteran
'It Was the Right Thing to Do'
"The war was going on at the time when I graduated college," she explained. "I wanted to take a job that was going to meaningful, so I decided the Army."
After completing basic training, Welter decided on Officer Training School, which would give her a "100 percent chance" of going to Iraq, she said in a 2012 video profile for the Cardinals.
"I thought it was the right thing to do. I was deployed to Joint Base Belad which is about an hour north of Baghdad. At first, it was, it was scary you know, but … it's what I signed up to do. It was definitely a sink-or-swim type of experience," she said. Welter was responsible for maintaining communications for one of the largest Army bases in the country.
So which person is Welter? She is all the above. She is complicated and trying to do the right thing for the right reasons but she is not perfect. That is the point. None of us are perfect and that includes reporters pushing a story they think will get a lot of attention but not bothering to check out everything that can be learned about the person they write about.
So we are left with going from this Iraq veteran goes from combat to cheerleading to the headline of her arrest. Would have been better if the reporters bothered to figure out what happened before the interview and someone we celebrated was taken down in a matter of a day.
Celebrated Cardinals cheerleader arrested after alleged assault caught on video
by 3TV
Video report by Javier Soto
Posted on August 1, 2013
Friday, August 2, 2013
60 servicemembers removed for sexual assaults and military harassment
60 servicemembers removed thus far in Hagel-ordered review
Stars and Stripes
By Jennifer Hlad
Published: August 2, 2013
4 minutes ago
SAN DIEGO — Sixty servicemembers have been suspended from their jobs as recruiters, instructors or victim advocates, military officials said, as the services continue to review thousands of records in light of a string of high-profile sexual assault and harassment cases.
Hagel in May called for a sexual assault prevention and response “stand-down,” which included a review of the credentials and qualifications for recruiters, instructors, sexual assault response coordinators and victim advocates. The move came after it was revealed that an Army sergeant working as a sexual assault prevention coordinator at Fort Hood, Texas, was under investigation for abusive sexual contact and acting as a pimp, and after the head of the Air Force’s sexual assault prevention program was arrested near the Pentagon and charged with sexual battery.
The Army has suspended 55 soldiers from their jobs as part of its review of 20,000 people who hold “positions of authority and trust,” but the investigation will not be complete until Oct. 1, according to an Army personnel spokesman.
read more here
Stars and Stripes
By Jennifer Hlad
Published: August 2, 2013
4 minutes ago
SAN DIEGO — Sixty servicemembers have been suspended from their jobs as recruiters, instructors or victim advocates, military officials said, as the services continue to review thousands of records in light of a string of high-profile sexual assault and harassment cases.
Hagel in May called for a sexual assault prevention and response “stand-down,” which included a review of the credentials and qualifications for recruiters, instructors, sexual assault response coordinators and victim advocates. The move came after it was revealed that an Army sergeant working as a sexual assault prevention coordinator at Fort Hood, Texas, was under investigation for abusive sexual contact and acting as a pimp, and after the head of the Air Force’s sexual assault prevention program was arrested near the Pentagon and charged with sexual battery.
The Army has suspended 55 soldiers from their jobs as part of its review of 20,000 people who hold “positions of authority and trust,” but the investigation will not be complete until Oct. 1, according to an Army personnel spokesman.
read more here
Army vice chief talks resiliency in return to Campbell
Army vice chief talks resiliency in return to Campbell
Kentucky New Era
By Carla Jimenez, New Era Staff Writer
Aug 2, 2013
Former 101st commander touring posts in effort to promote health, save money
A former Eagle 6 stopped by Fort Campbell on Thursday as part of a tour of U.S. Army installations to promote a holistic approach to soldier and family health.
Gen. John F. Campbell, vice chief of staff of the Army and former commander of the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), met with current Fort Campbell commanders and soldiers to discuss Army-wide efforts and promote total-health programs.
The programs include physical, mental and spiritual aspects. Many of these programs are already in place, such at as soldier resiliency training and embedded mental health staffs.
Fort Campbell has already been promoting resiliency, and Campbell spoke highly of the effort.
“I’ve seen a lot of great initiatives here at Fort Campbell. They’re leading the way in many things in the ready resilient campaign,” he said. “If you go around and ask, ‘Hey, do you understand ready and resilient?’ They may not know it in that term, but they understand bits and pieces of it.”
Campbell said now the Army is trying to determine how different installations approach resiliency and which programs are working. He said the Army is trying to eliminate redundancies in an effort to save money and streamline the effectiveness of such programs.
“I’m really focusing on health of the force and the ready and resilient campaign,” he said. “As we move forward and as our budget decreases, we can only afford certain programs, and I want to make sure we get the right programs for our Army.”
read more here
Kentucky New Era
By Carla Jimenez, New Era Staff Writer
Aug 2, 2013
Former 101st commander touring posts in effort to promote health, save money
A former Eagle 6 stopped by Fort Campbell on Thursday as part of a tour of U.S. Army installations to promote a holistic approach to soldier and family health.
Gen. John F. Campbell, vice chief of staff of the Army and former commander of the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), met with current Fort Campbell commanders and soldiers to discuss Army-wide efforts and promote total-health programs.
The programs include physical, mental and spiritual aspects. Many of these programs are already in place, such at as soldier resiliency training and embedded mental health staffs.
Fort Campbell has already been promoting resiliency, and Campbell spoke highly of the effort.
“I’ve seen a lot of great initiatives here at Fort Campbell. They’re leading the way in many things in the ready resilient campaign,” he said. “If you go around and ask, ‘Hey, do you understand ready and resilient?’ They may not know it in that term, but they understand bits and pieces of it.”
Campbell said now the Army is trying to determine how different installations approach resiliency and which programs are working. He said the Army is trying to eliminate redundancies in an effort to save money and streamline the effectiveness of such programs.
“I’m really focusing on health of the force and the ready and resilient campaign,” he said. “As we move forward and as our budget decreases, we can only afford certain programs, and I want to make sure we get the right programs for our Army.”
read more here
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