Camp Pendleton Marines set up Christmas Tree Lot for Homeless Charity

Marines set up tree lot to raise money for homeless
UT San Diego
By Linda McIntosh
NOV. 25, 2013

Staff Sgt. Chae, CWO3 Huntington, Staff Sgt. Smith, Gunnery Sgt. Gamez, Sgt. Davis, Capt. Arriaga, Sgt. Richardson, Capt. Rogers, Gunnery Sgt. Pritchard, Gunnery Sgt. Rubenacker and Sgt. Ward. Photo by Michelle Hoppe

CAMP PENDLETON — Marines from Camp Pendleton volunteered their time Friday morning to set up a Christmas tree lot with artificial trees at Brother Benno’s thrift Store on Mission Avenue.

Staff Sgt. Chae and Gunnery Sgt. Gamez put together a tree at Brother Bennos Thrift shop. A group of 10 Marines from Marine Air Command and Control Squadron-X put together 15 artificial Christmas trees that the community donated to raise money for the nonprofit which serves the homeless and working poor.

“It would have taken our volunteers days to assemble what they did in a few hours,” said Michelle Hoppe, the store’s manager.
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PTSD and depression hitting fifth of soldiers in Germany

A fifth of serving soldiers 'have mental problems'
The Local Germany's News
Published: 26 Nov 2013

One in five of German soldiers being sent on operations abroad have mental health problems before they go - and are far more likely to develop serious difficulties when they return according to a study published on Tuesday.

Researchers at Dresden's University of Technology described “manifest but largely unrecognized” illnesses including depression and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) affecting a fifth of troops before they went into duty.

And on their return, the soldiers had a four to six times greater risk of developing further mental health problems, Hans-Ulrich Wittchen from the university’s Institute of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy told the Süddeutsche newspaper.

The German parliament commissioned the study in 2008 to see how many cases of PTSD were undiagnosed in the military. It showed the problem remained hidden as soldiers feared being stigmatized if they admit to having difficulties.

Troops also thought it would hurt their career if they told colleagues or superiors they were suffering from mental strain, the Süddeutsche said.

Researchers tested 2,500 soldiers, some of whom had served abroad and some of whom had not. They also interviewed 621 soldiers before they went to Afghanistan and then again a year after their return.
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Wounded Warrior Project Sues Veterans Charity

Charities for Wounded Veterans Wage Bitter War in Court
Courthouse News
By JACK BOUBOUSHIAN
Tuesday, November 26, 2013

INDIANAPOLIS (CN) - The Wounded Warrior Project claims an Indiana veterans charity defamed it and criminally deceived donors by calling it a "fraud" and a "cash cow," and telling people to send their money elsewhere if they want it to reach veterans.

The Wounded Warrior Project sued Help Indiana Vets Inc., and its founder Dean Graham, both of Acton, Ind., in Federal Court.

The Wounded Warrior Project, founded in 2003, describes itself as a nonprofit that offers tens of thousands of injured veterans free services, including counseling, physical rehabilitation, vocational training, and camaraderie through discounted events and an online community.

"WWP does not charge any membership dues for its programs and services because WWP believes the alumni paid their dues on the battlefield. In fiscal year 2013 alone, WWP served more than 30,000 injured service members and their family members through its various programs and services," the complaint states.

The Wounded Warrior Project has received extensive media coverage and corporate support, leading the 8th Circuit to write in an unrelated opinion that Wounded Warrior Project has "become synonymous with veteran service to this generation of wounded veterans and their families," according to the 31-page complaint.

Defendant Dean Graham, founder of Help Indiana Vets, who says he is a disabled veteran of the Iraq War, told Courthouse News the Wounded Warrior Project turned him away when he sought assistance after his discharge.

"I called them in the middle of my discharge from the Army," Graham said in an interview. "During that time that financially destroyed me and our family we ended up filing bankruptcy and lost everything. I contacted the project for help and was told by six different civilian employees, no, we don't give financial assistance."

Graham continued: "Once we started helping vets in Indiana, I got a call from WWP and they wanted to add us to their list of people veterans can call. So what they would do is ask people to contact local charities for help, even though they were taking donations for the WWP, and then put the burden of providing services on the local organizations."

Graham posted statements on Help Indiana Vets' website saying that Wounded Warrior Project is a "fraud," and the "best paid nonprofit ever."
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UPDATE

Sorry, I had to pick up the pizza right after I posted this. First, I didn't read anything that was not already out there for a very long time so why would this huge charity pick on a little one like Help Indiana Vets? Seems to me that this lawsuit is doing more to damage their reputation than anything else. I wouldn't have heard of Help Indiana Veterans otherwise and a lot of people wouldn't know that WWP has had a lot of issues going on like the ones in this lawsuit.

This came out a while ago.

Charity Investigator: Wounded Warrior Project posted by Kris Hundley Jul 16, 2013

Wounded Warrior Project, created in 2003, has become one of the fastest-growing veterans’ charities in the country.

When the Tampa Bay Times and The Center for Investigative Reporting asked readers in June to suggest charities to investigate, it was one of the most requested.

Unlike the 50 charities the Times and CIR named on its list of America’s worst in June, Wounded Warrior Project does not rely heavily on for-profit solicitation companies to raise money. And it does not pay telemarketers to drum up donations.

Instead, it uses a combination of fundraising events, corporate sponsorships, advertising and direct mail appeals.

Last year, the charity raised nearly $150 million.

About $81 million was raised through professional solicitors. Wounded Warrior paid 11 percent of that money to cover its solicitors’ fees and the expense of the solicitor-run campaigns. In comparison, veterans charities on the Times/CIR list of worst charities paid an average of 82 percent to their solicitors.

Like any charities you plan on giving to, know what exactly it is they do with your money and don't just guess.

I have a feeling Help Indiana Veterans group will be seeing a lot more donations after this. What was WWP thinking with this lawsuit?

Indiana Veteran Nonprofit Being Sued For Defamation
Indiana Public Media
By EMILY WRIGHT
Posted November 26, 2013

Wounded Warrior Project Complaint

read more here

This is from Help Indiana Veterans Post with the comments left.

Wounded Warrior Project is a Fraud

Among the comments left, this one broke my heart

Vietnam Marine Staff Sargent Paul Sr
(Saturday, March 16 13 02:12 am EDT)
I never relized this was a fraud, I should have known better when I called them for help last July. My son was blown up June 2011 and my wife and I were out of work to be with our son in Germany, Bathetia, Tampa, then to Lajuene, I needed financial help to have new stairs put in because my son lost his vision and needed wider steps to get to the front entrance, we ended up bowering 18,000 to do our front steps.

Bottom line, Wounded Warriors did dog shit to help us. I got lip service.

However, I have received a total of 7 letters from wounded worriers stating John Doe(s) has made a generous donation to wounded warriors in honor of my son.

Real nice, wounded warrior collects from donors, I have a son that is blind and deaf with a plate in is head, a scar that goes from ear to ear PTSD -bills up the ass, and thus group has the balls to say they help the wounded, Maybe if he lost his legs or became a vegetable we might have at least got a post card, we git the big O, so thank you wounded warrior for being such fraud organization.
it must be the Vietnam Marine in me, just grin and bare with it, we are survivors.

I don't think this Vietnam veteran knows what help is out there for his son. First, the DAV will help make sure he gets what he should with his claim from the VA. He can also contact the Wounded Warrior Regiment (Marines)

The United States Marine Corps Wounded Warrior Regiment provides and enables assistance to wounded, ill and injured Marines, sailors attached to or in support of Marine units, and their family members in order to assist them as they return to duty or transition to civilian life. The Regimental headquarters element, located in Quantico, Va., commands the operations of two Wounded Warrior Battalions located at Camp Pendleton, Calif., and Camp Lejeune, N.C., and multiple detachments in locations around the globe.

For more information about the Wounded Warrior Regiment contact the Sergeant Merlin German Wounded Warrior Call Center 24/7 at 1-877-487-6299.

Home Depot Foundation offers help as well

Homes For Our Troops is a good place too if they need a home adapted for their son.

Combat wounded Iraq veteran and family see new home

Veteran, family get first look at donated home
Bank and foundation team up to provide houses
Ocala.com
By Carlos E. Medina
Correspondent
Published: Monday, November 25, 2013

The last 12 years have tested Jamie and Della Whitaker.

Jamie Whitaker survived three tours in Iraq and just as many IED attacks. Badly wounded in one, Whitaker struggles with post-traumatic stress disorder. He also suffered a series of heart attacks starting in 2011, which required bypass surgery and a defibrillator.

All the while, Della Whitaker has worked hard to keep their three children, including the youngest, Jonathan “Zeke,” who has autism, safe and healthy. She also has cared for her husband as he deals with his health issues. The family of five have done it while living in a 900-square-foot apartment in Georgia. Jamie Whitaker grew up in Lake City.

On Monday, the family arrived in Ocala to see, for the first time, their new 1,700-square-foot house, donated to them by Bank of America through the Military Warriors Support Foundation.

“We’re home,” said Della, as she hugged Jaime upon entering the house.
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Vietnam Veteran recovering after saving woman at Oakland Raiders' Game

Vietnam Veteran Who Injured Himself Rescuing A Falling Woman At NFL Game
Credits Military Instincts
Fox News Latino
Published November 26, 2013

OAKLAND, CALIF. – When he saw a woman jumping from the upper deck at the Oakland Raiders' stadium on Sunday, Donnie Navidad said his military instincts immediately kicked in as he lunged forward trying to catch her.

But though he was injured in the process and authorities say he saved the woman's life, he maintains that he's no hero and that he would do it again.

"I just wished I would've grabbed her and held on to her," Navidad said. "I couldn't live with myself if I didn't do anything."

Both Navidad and the woman hit the concrete hard from the impact about 15 minutes after the Raiders' 23-19 loss to the Tennessee Titans.

Navidad said he was among several people pleading with the woman not to jump as he positioned himself to try catching her. When she plunged about 45 feet from the upper deck at the O.co Coliseum, Navidad, with his arms open, ended up breaking her fall.

The 61-year-old Marine Corps veteran was hospitalized overnight and was recuperating from a severely bruised arm at his home in Stockton.
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Redskins honor members of the Navajo Code Talkers Association

Redskins honor members of the Navajo Code Talkers Association
Washington Post
BY MIKE JONES
November 25, 2013
As a joint celebration of the NFL’s Salute to Service month and Native American Heritage month, the Washington Redskins recognized four members of the Navajo Code Talkers Association.

The code talkers were a group of Native American service members who transmitted secret communications beginning in World War II.

Four representatives — Navajo Code Talkers Association President Peter MacDonald Sr., Vice President Roy Hawthorne and members George James Sr. and George Boyd Willie Sr. — were recognized during a commercial break during the first quarter of the Redskins’ game vs. the San Francisco 49ers.
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Great Video tribute to Code Talkers on Washington Redskin site and Twitter is fired up over this.

Stocking drive for veterans connects students

New Haven stocking drive benefits veterans in West Haven
The New Haven Register
By Charlotte Adinolfi
POSTED: 11/24/13

NEW HAVEN
After sending more than 144 stockings to wounded veterans in San Antonio, Texas, last year, Lisa Siedlarz thought it was time to turn the attention to wounded warriors in her home state.

Siedlarz, block captain for the SOHU, or South of Humphrey Street Association in the East Rock neighborhood, started sending stockings to those in the military six years ago. She then decided it was time to donate to veterans at the West Haven Veterans Affairs medical center, a branch of the Veteran Affairs Connecticut Healthcare System.

“I have a long history in my family of people serving in the military and I think people have forgotten about the veterans and the wars, what sacrifice they have made,” Siedlarz said. “We should take the time this time of the year to remember them and let them know others are thinking of them.”

When Siedlarz, who works at Southern Connecticut State University, started the collection she was sending care packages to her brother, who was stationed in Afghanistan.
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Marine gets Lion's share of attention at Ford Field

Marine's surprise return from Afghanistan hits home
The Detroit News
Terry Foster and Francis X. Donnelly
November 25, 2013

Detroit — Michelle Munsee thought her husband was half a world away.

During the Lions game Sunday at Ford Field, the scoreboard showed a video message from Marine Capt. Joshua Munsee in Afghanistan, telling Michelle how much he missed her and how he couldn’t wait to return from the war-torn country.

And so Michelle and the couple’s three young children weren’t ready for what happened next.

At the end of the video, the family, standing on the football field, turned to see Joshua — live and in person — jogging toward them.

Michelle held her hand to her mouth in shock.

“Where did you come from?” she asked her husband. “I don’t even know how you pull something off like this.”

Moments later, she was still trying to get her mind around what had happened. It was a happy struggle.

“Stunned is a good word,” she said. “I was completely shocked.”
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A Pacifist's Take on Veterans' Rights

Have you ever been involved in a really important conversation on your cell phone and suddenly realize you are just talking to the phone? When the call dropped the only one listening to what you said was you. There is a huge disconnect in this country going on everyday but it can't be blamed on cell phones. It happens because when veterans finally talk, few are listening, even less want to do something about it and even less try to.

This is a great article from a student at Princeton talking about what is happening when veterans are just not part of the conversation.

A Pacifist's Take on Veterans' Rights
Huffington Post
Nick Sexton Student, Princeton University
Posted: 11/24/2013

I spent my fall break in our nation's capital, sponsored by Princeton's Pace Center for Civic Engagement, visiting congressional lobbies, vocational employment centers, and the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, where I saw, firsthand, those who had experienced the casualties of war. Eating in the hospital cafeteria, I sat among masses of amputees, the people who actually comprise the looming, abstract statistics we hear always on the news.

These are the people we half-acknowledge. We hear about soldiers who get maimed, who are sidelined by our legal system, who fall through the cracks and end up living on the street. But we sigh, mutter "what a shame," and then generally move on with our lives. This is largely due to the manner in which the wars of the 21st century have been waged. The Iraq and Afghanistan Wars are extremely different from the Vietnam War and World War II, in the crucial fact that they have not depended on a draft to fill the ranks; as such, they have directly engaged a much smaller percentage of the population. Throughout the week in Washington D.C., the thing that we heard over and over is that the American public does not pay attention to veterans, that there is a dearth of dialogue, because the issues that plague veterans are often deemed irrelevant by the average American.

I believe that this stance is wholly inconsistent with a humanitarian mindset. The moral principle that should compel us to care about veterans, even if no one in our families has ever been affiliated with the military, is the same one that underscores how white people need to care about racism, men need to care about sexism, and straight people need to care about LGBT rights.

I am writing this on November 12, the day after Veterans Day. Yesterday, Princeton's campus was quiet. A small slam poetry gathering and a service in the university chapel -- attended almost exclusively by ROTC members -- were all that set it apart from any other day. I heard no conversations about veterans. I asked a good deal of friends and acquaintances if they knew what holiday it was, and a considerable portion of them had no clue. This lack of on-campus attention to veterans reflects our nation's greater apathy about the rights of members of our armed forces.
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Veterans warned of wrong number dialed for VA

Marketers Using Bogus VA Numbers to Target Vets
Military.com
by Bryant Jordan
Nov 25, 2013

The chief policy officer with the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America called a marketing company's use of phone numbers closely matching Department of Veterans Affairs' national call centers a "disgusting" example of people looking to prey on the country's veterans.

"These people should be in jail," Tom Tarantino said.

Veterans reaching the bogus numbers by accident are "trying to get help or trying to manage their benefits and services. It's frustrating enough to deal with VA's actual call centers, but then to be preyed on by unscrupulous marking firms -- It's disgusting," Tarantino said.

The VA issued warnings through emails and social media late last week that veterans trying to reach the VA's National Call Center or the GI Bill Call Center risked connecting to two fraudulent numbers differing from the legitimate numbers by a single digit.

"If the fraudulent number is dialed by mistake, the answering party will offer a gift card and try to obtain personal and financial information, including credit card information, from the caller," the VA said in its Facebook posting. "The answering party may even transfer the caller to the VA after the caller's information is obtained."
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