Amputees aim for archery wins in Bangkok

Iraq War veteran aims high despite loss of arm
Stotts City archer heading to world championships
News Leader
Written by
Wes Johnson
October 28, 2013

When Lance Thornton was 7, he used all of his birthday money to buy his first bow and arrow.

“I grew up bowhunting, being out in the woods,” said Thornton, now 28. “To me there’s just nothing cooler than being able to shoot a bow and arrow accurately.”

This week, the rural Stotts City hunter is on his way to Bangkok to put his archery skills to an ultimate test. Thornton is one of 15 U.S. archers who will be competing against dozens of top archers from 29 countries.

It’s a huge step up for Thornton, who began shooting competitively less than two years ago. He has risen fast through the competitive ranks, drawing on his deeply ingrained hunting skills to put carbon fiber arrows precisely into a bull’s-eye at 50 yards.

And he does it without a right hand.
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Local Paralympic Star Set To Compete On The World Stage Again
Local Double Paralympic gold medallist and reigning three-time Paralympic World Champion
Danielle Brown is going after her fourth World Title in Bangkok.

Double Paralympic gold medallist and reigning three-time Paralympic World Champion Danielle Brown

Archery GB has announce the archers who will be representing Great Britain at the Paralympic Archery World Championships in Bangkok between 1st and 7th November.

Following two selection shoots in April and June this year, seven male and three female archers have been selected to compete in Bangkok. Double Paralympic gold medallist and reigning three-time Paralympic World Champion Danielle Brown is amongst the archers and she is hoping to make it her fourth World title in a row. Mel Clarke, Paralympic silver medallist at London 2012, and Sharon Vennard complete the female archers.

The male archers taking aim in Bangkok are John Stubbs (2008 Paralympic World Champion) Richard Hennahane (Team World Champion in 2011), Paralympic record holder Kenny Allen, Frank Maguire, John Cavanagh, Phillip Bottomley, and Paul Browne.
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Will San Antonio community prove how they value veterans?

Veterans seek voter support for Props. 1, 4
My San Antonio
BY SCOTT HUDDLESTON
OCTOBER 28, 2013

A wounded Iraq veteran and a war widow who grieves the loss of a husband and father put a human face last week on a low-key statewide election on Nov. 5.

Veterans and politicians gathered Thursday to support Propositions 1 and 4, two of nine proposed state constitutional amendments. Both would provide property-tax relief to two groups of Texans who have borne a heavy burden from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Donna Engeman, whose husband, Chief Warrant Officer John Engeman, was killed at age 45 by a 2006 explosion in Iraq, said she's more fortunate that most Gold Star spouses. They typically are young wives, often with small children, with little experience in money management, she said after a news conference at Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 76.

Proposition 1 would give spouses of troops killed in action a full tax exemption based on the value of the first home they own once losing a husband or wife, unless they remarry. Engeman said some widows who lost husbands in Vietnam and more recent wars later lost their homes, unable to pay taxes and living costs.

“This is truly a lifesaver, to allow them to keep their homes. To imagine a spouse having to lose their family home, it's such a tragedy,” said Engeman, who served as an Army mechanic and now works locally as an advocate for surviving military family members.

Taxes and living costs also have forced at least two wounded veterans who received donated homes from charities into foreclosure, said J.R. Garza, a local Vietnam veteran and veterans advocate.

Wounded veterans who move from an apartment to one of the dozens of new houses, typically spacious and equipped with accessibility features, can expect to pay at least $7,000 more annually in taxes and utility costs, he said.

Proposition 4 would provide a tax break commensurate to a veteran's disability rating, for veterans or surviving spouses, on homes donated by charities. A veteran who is 70 percent disabled would have a 70 percent tax reduction. Texas has provided a full property tax exemption since 2009 for veterans with a 100 percent rating, but no discount for partially disabled vets.
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Omaha Veterans energize area and community to do more

Renovated St. Joseph Hospital wing provides more than apartments for veterans
Omaha.com
By Cindy Gonzalez
World-Herald staff writer
October 28, 2013

A 110,000-square-foot building — that for a decade stood essentially empty and deteriorating on a storied site south of downtown Omaha — is now bustling around-the-clock with veteran apartment dwellers, federal employees and college life.

The $16 million transformation of a former wing of the old St. Joseph Hospital is uncommon in the collection of private and public partners that came together to revive the brick structure anchored by the Victory Apartments.

Other parts of the six-story structure at Eighth and Dorcas Streets are leased to the Department of Veterans Affairs for clinical and support services, and to Grace University for classrooms and staff.

While officials view the project as a jewel for area vets, they said it also helps revitalize the aging residential neighborhood around it — and continues a southward buildup of the corridor that connects the Old Market and world-class Henry Doorly Zoo.

“It's just energized this area,” said Tom McLeay of America First Real Estate Group, which is the project's developer and owner.

Since the Victory building's formal opening last month, service and neighborhood groups have delivered welcome wreaths and gift baskets for new veteran tenants who range from age 22 to 82.

One community group has promised to deliver smoked turkeys for Thanksgiving.

Others continue to call, said property manager Tom York, with requests about what they can do for the residents who he said have become a symbol of American pride and loyalty to country.
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VA prosthetics chief is Iraq Veteran and amputee

VA prosthetics chief is Iraq amputee
2003 attack made soldier one of 1st modern war amputees
By Jeanette Steele
OCT. 28, 2013

When Iraq and Afghanistan veterans with missing limbs come to the San Diego VA hospital in La Jolla, one of their own is sitting behind the desk.

And when he walks the halls, his step has a similar broken cadence.

Tristan Wyatt, now 31, lost most of his right leg in August 2003 when an enemy anti-tank rocket pierced his armored personnel carrier.

Back at Walter Reed Medical Center, the young soldier’s first prosthetic was like an early iPhone — good, but rudimentary. And he dreaded entering the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs medical system, where he imagined he’d get the equivalent of a peg leg.

When he took his first steps as a civilian again, “That was the most lost I’ve ever been.”

Today, Wyatt has found his place. He is chief of the La Jolla VA’s prosthetics and sensory aids department, where he gets to interact with some of the hospital’s more than 70 young amputee patients a year.
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Review history if you think VA claims are bad now

Review history if you think VA claims are bad now
Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
October 28, 2013

There are so many really stupid emails going around right now that my head is about to explode. Veterans are getting very upset about things they shouldn't be upset about and not worrying about the things they need to know.

Start with Affordable Care Act and Veterans and read the rest on this link but here is the part you really need to know.

The answer is the Affordable Care Act will not directly impact VA health care system nor will it affect TRICARE or TRICARE for Life beneficiaries (military active duty personnel, retirees and their dependents). Veterans eligible for VA health care will remain eligible under health reform; nothing in the proposed legislation will affect veterans’ access to the care that they currently are receiving. The legislation makes clear that the Department of Veterans Affairs will retain full authority over the VA health care system.

However, the devil is always in the details. A report authored by Jennifer M. Haley and Genevieve M. Kenney for the Urban Institute says that some 1.3 million veterans under the age of 65 are uninsured. It is this population that needs to be better informed about their health care options: which ones to chose and how to exercise them. “It is important that the VA is prepared and communicates with veterans," says Congressman Mike Michaud of Maine, the ranking Democrat on the House of Representatives Committee on Veterans Affairs.

The claim backlog is another thing these emails keep getting wrong. For starters, Vietnam veterans are the majority of the new claims as well as the supplemental claims.

According to the VA Claim report they put out on Monday's these are the latest numbers.

711,775 Pending Claims. Vietnam veterans are 36%, followed by Gulf War Veterans at 25%, Iraq and Afghanistan veterans at 20%, Peacetime at 11% and Other at 8%.

For the backlog of 405,656, again, Vietnam veterans are the largest group at 37%, Gulf War at 24%, Iraq and Afghanistan veterans 21%, Peacetime 11% and Other at 7%.

Then there is the part about how this congress loves to complain about the backlog even though they were complaining about it for decades over and over again because they never really fixed it when they had a chance to really do something that would matter in the long run.

This is what it looked like in February of 2008

VBA's pending compensation and claims backlog stood at 816,211 as of January 2008, up 188,781 since 2004, said Kerry Baker, associate legislative director of the Disabled Veterans of America, during a Wednesday hearing of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense.

This is what it looked like in April of 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.”

By July there was this report

The report by the majority staff of the House Oversight and Government Reform domestic policy panel, released Tuesday, concluded that at least 28,283 disabled retirees were denied retroactive pay awards because rushed efforts to clear a huge backlog of claims led program administrators to stop doing quality assurance checks on the claims decisions.

And of the original 133,057 potentially eligible veterans, 8,763 died before their cases could be reviewed for retroactive payments, according to the report.

This is the newest piece of news on the backlog.

U.S. Sen. Mark S. Kirk (R-Ill.) says help is on the way for veterans waiting for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to process their disability claims. Kirk says the backlog has grown, saying veterans are waiting up to 534 days for their claims to be processed. “That’s the bad news,” Kirk said. “The good news is buried in the VA appropriations bill, of which I’m the lead Senate Republican, we have all of Chairman Tim Johnson’s 10 points to eliminate this backlog.”

This is just a start of the growing list of emails being pushed by veterans not fact checking what their friends send them. If your friends or politicians want to pretend any of this is new, then tell them the truth so that maybe, just maybe they may fix it the right way for a change and we don't see repeated suffering that didn't need to happen.

Veterans Court in Georgia starting in January

New court in central Ga. aims to help veterans
The Telegraph
By AMY LEIGH WOMACK
October 27, 2013

MACON, Ga. (AP) — A young veteran had just returned from Afghanistan.

Injured in a car wreck, he became addicted to pain pills.

After being charged with theft, he recently found his way to Judge Tripp Self's courtroom.

Instead of handling the case like others in Bibb County Superior Court, Self, District Attorney David Cooke and public defender Lee Robinson are working out a way to get the young veteran the help he needs and not just send him off to prison.

He is an example of the kind of person Self, Cooke and Robinson hope to help in a new Veterans Court set to start operating in January.

"In today's age with the global war on terror, the war in Iraq, the war in Afghanistan, there's no question that these people who are coming back do have some special needs that the criminal justice system is not meeting in the right way," Self said. "These guys coming back have (post-traumatic stress disorder) and (traumatic brain injuries), and they're not really aware of some of the services that they're entitled to."

The Veterans Court would provide an opportunity for veterans to admit their crimes but be sentenced to complete treatment offered by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs instead of punishment. If they successfully complete the program, they won't have a conviction on their record.
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University of Montana Fallen Soldier Memorial for OEF and OIF

UM's Fallen Soldier monument dedicated as state’s official Iraq, Afghanistan war memorial
Missoulian News
By Alice Miller
October 26, 2013

Michelle Torres makes a special stop when she comes to Missoula to visit her children and grandchildren.

“When I do come to town, I usually do come and sit and visit with this,” she said, gesturing to the plaque where Travis Arndt’s name is chiseled in stone at the Fallen Soldier Memorial on the University of Montana campus.

“I really miss him,” she said of her son Saturday after a ceremony dedicating the memorial as the official state Iraq and Afghanistan veterans monument.

Torres especially misses her son’s sense of humor. “It can bring down the room.”

Arndt, 23, died in 2005 when an armored vehicle the U.S. Army sergeant was in rolled over in Iraq. The memorial helps her heal after the loss, Torres said.

Forty-two other Montana soldiers’ families and loved ones also lost a service member in Iraq or Afghanistan, and those 43 heroes are immortalized at the memorial, which was unveiled in November 2011.
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Military suicides in UK cause for alarm

Soldier suicides: Two deaths and eight self-harm incidents at Ballykinler Army barracks probed
Belfast Telegraph
BY CLAIRE WILLIAMSON
28 OCTOBER 2013

There are fears for the welfare of isolated soldiers in a Northern Ireland Army barracks after two suspected suicides.

Two veterans of Afghanistan, Lance-Corporal James Ross (30) and Rifleman Darren Mitchell (20) died at Ballykinler, Co Down.

Eight incidents of self-harm were recorded at the base over a seven-month period, where many of the 565 troops are housed in single rooms.

Reports of heavy drinking and restricted movements due to dissident republican threats, have exacerbated feelings of loneliness.

A sister of one soldier who died the day before he was to report to Ballykinler in 2011 has branded the base "ridiculously isolated".

Abigail Smith's brother, Afghanistan veteran Allan Arnold (20) was found hanged in his native Cirencester, Gloucestershire two years ago – the day before he was due back at Ballykinler.

Ms Smith (24), called the base "a ridiculously isolated barracks. The signal is rubbish for mobile phones, so you can't talk to family much. What concerns me is the lack of care the lads receive."
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PTSD report finds veterans from disadvantaged backgrounds most at risk
Wales Online
David Williamson
28 Oct 2013

Forces Watch report calls for the minimum age of recruitment to be raised to 18 to avoid exposing the youngest soldiers to the most trauma

Plaid Cymru parliamentary leader Elfyn Llwyd has called everyone leaving the armed forces to be vetted for mental problems following the disturbing findings of a major report published today.

The Dwyfor Meirionnydd MP wants mental health issues identified as soon as possible so “catastrophic consequences” can be avoided.

Today’s report from Forces Watch claims that young soldiers from disadvantaged backgrounds are more likely to suffer from mental health problems.

It found that younger recruits were significantly more likely than older personnel to suffer post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD); to drink at levels harmful to health; and to behave violently on their return from war.

The report calls for the minimum age of recruitment to be raised to 18 to avoid exposing the youngest soldiers to the most trauma.

The Fellowship of Reconciliation has previously petitioned the National Assembly to urge the Welsh Government to “recommend that the armed forces should not go into schools to recruit.”

The Forces Watch report claims 8% of Iraq war veterans who enlisted without GCSEs suffered with PTSD after their deployment, compared with 4% in the armed forces as a whole and 3% in the general population.
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Comedian Kathy Griffin receives award for work with veterans

Kathy Griffin Receives Distinguished Service Partner Award for Work with Veterans
Harvard Crimson
By KRUTI B. VORA
CONTRIBUTING WRITER
2 hours ago

Comedian and bestselling author Kathy M. Griffin received the inaugural Distinguished Service Partner Award to commemorate her work with veterans during a charity benefit hosted by the Harvard Undergraduates Honoring Veterans this Saturday.

After a performance by the improvisational comedy group Immediate Gratification Players, Griffin participated in a conversation with Undergraduate Council Finance Committee Chair Matthew R. Marotta ’14 on topics ranging from her work with veterans groups to life as a female comedian. “My involvement is built around laughter truly being the best medicine,” Griffin said in an interview with The Crimson after the event. “What I learned was that these men and women need to laugh at these moments, more than ever.”

Griffin, who has toured Iraq and Afghanistan with the United Service Organizations, also gives tickets to her comedy shows to the Veteran Tickets Foundation, allowing veterans to come free of charge and meet her after the show.

“It’s really one of my favorite things about touring, meeting these people every show,” Griffin said. “I love to hear their stories, and everybody’s story is so different.”
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Sparks Middle School hero teacher to receive full military funeral

Former Marine killed in Nevada school shooting to receive full military honors at memorial
Stars and Stripes
14 minutes ago
By MARTIN GRIFFITH and SCOTT SONNER
Associated Press
Published: October 27, 2013

SPARKS, Nev. — A public celebration of life for the teacher killed in the Monday shooting at Sparks Middle School has been set for Nov. 3.

Nevada law enforcement officials have hailed the actions of Michael Landsberry, a 45-year-old former Marine who tried to get a student to put down the gun. Twelve-year-old Jose Reyes also shot and injured two classmates before turning the gun on himself.

Air Guard Major Dennis Fournier says Landsberry had been with the Guard since 2001 and will receive full military honors, including an honor guard 21-gun salute.

He says the memorial at Sparks Christian Fellowship in Sparks will include remarks from family members and Gov. Brian Sandoval.

A public viewing is scheduled to be held from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 2, at Walton's Funeral Home in Sparks.

Meanwhile, students returning to classes at Sparks on Monday for the first time since the shooting will be greeted by extra police officers but few other changes, with one big exception: their beloved math teacher and athletic coach they say combined the toughness of a former Marine with the compassion of a caring educator, won't be there.
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Sparks Middle School Heroic Teacher