Medal of Honor Earned by Radio Operator for Saving Lives in Afghanistan

Former Army Sgt. Kyle J. White to receive Medal of Honor
Stars and Stripes
By Jon Harper
Published: April 15, 2014

Staff Sgt. Conrad Begaye awards Spc. Kyle White the Combat Infantryman Badge during a ceremony in Nuristan Province, Afghanistan, Nov. 6, 2007.
PHOTO COURTESY OF KYLE WHITE

WASHINGTON — Former Army Sgt. Kyle J. White will be awarded the Medal of Honor at a White House ceremony on May 13, 2014, the White House announced late Tuesday afternoon.

White, 27, will receive the nation's highest military award for his actions during a dismounted movement in mountainous terrain in Aranas, Afghanistan, on Nov. 9, 2007.

White was serving as a Platoon Radio Telephone Operator assigned to C Company, 2nd Battalion (Airborne), 503rd Infantry Regiment, 173rd Airborne Brigade, when his team of U.S. and Afghan National Army soldiers were set up and ambushed by a much larger and more heavily armed Taliban force after a meeting with Afghan villagers.

"There was one shot, you know, down into the valley, and then it was two shots, and then it was full-automatic fire and RPGs ... it was coming from multiple directions," White later recalled, according to an Army news release.

White, a native of Seattle, separated from the Army on July 8, 2011, and used his G.I. Bill to attend the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. He now works as an investment analyst in Charlotte.

White, whose father was a Special Forces Soldier during the Vietnam era, will be the seventh living recipient to be awarded the Medal of Honor for actions in Iraq or Afghanistan. He and his family will join President Barack Obama at the White House for the presentation ceremony.
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Warrior Soul Mates Learn Healing at Tampa VA

Emotions are not the problem and this point was stressed over and over again. Holding it in and not releasing it is bad and that is the truth. How can you find room to be happy if bad feelings fill you up? Feeling is good but when it is brought on by something bad, it takes hold and until you overcome it. Think it is impossible? It isn't.

Too often veterans feel as if they are trapped in the pain but that is just because they don't see PTSD truthfully. The truth is, PTSD was caused by something bad that happened. It changes the way they think, the way they feel and the way they react. The truth is also that they can change again. Yep, change again. Not a secret. No trick.

If they stop wanting to fit back in again with people who never experienced what they did, then they are in for a huge disappointment. They can't understand that their experiences put them into a different reality. The clincher is, no one has the same experiences and it isn't a contest. One member of a unit may need more help than others and one may be able to give more care than anyone else. One may be a total jerk on the surface but his history could have been a lifetime of rotten events and he just needs someone to show they care. Who knows? Who can be the judge?

The problem is they do judge. They judge themselves harder than anyone else. They want to go back to the way they were before and when they can't they think it is their fault. They believe the BS that their suffering has to be about what is wrong with them. They may think everyone else they were with was just stronger than they were but PTSD has nothing to do with how mentally strong someone is. It has more to do with how strong their ability to feel is. Yes, you read that right. The stronger they can feel good things, the stronger they feel bad things.

As for loving them, well, what you may love the most about them is also what can cause them the most pain.

If you love a veteran then think of it this way.

1 Corinthians 13:4-8
New International Version (NIV)
4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.

If you make it more about helping them through the dark days and less about how they make you feel. When you understand that none of it is coming from a mean place but is coming from a hurting place inside of them, the more you are able to not take it personally and help them heal.

Veterans, Caregivers Learn to Be Healing to Each Other in Innovative Warrior to Soul Mate Programs
Fatherhood Channel
by ROB HENTHORN
APRIL 15, 2014

“There is significantly greater understanding, an enhanced ability to resolve conflict in a positive way, really talk to and hear one another, and have new ways of nurturing a close intimate, and respectful relationship with each other, which then affects the entire household in a positive way.”

Chaplain Barbara Nollie
James A. Haley Veterans’ Hospital
Tampa, Florida

by ROBERT HENTHORN
FATHERHOODCHANNEL.COM

The Department of Veterans Affairs is continuing to expand innovative efforts to help Veterans strengthen relationships with spouses, significant others and caregivers through relationship skills training many have found helpful to reducing symptoms of stress, boosting relationship happiness and resiliency

First lady Michelle Obama last week called on Americans to match the sacrifice of the military families with support for them. “We have to keep asking ourselves, what more can we do,” she said at a joint meeting with Jill Biden, former Senator Elizabeth Dole and former first lady Rosalyn Carter.

Nearly 5.5 million Americans are caring for service members and Veterans, including 1.1 million who are caring for someone who served after Sept. 11, 2001. Many of those Veterans and service members are impacted by traumatic stress, which can take a heavy toll on relationships.

A study from the National Center for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder found, “People diagnosed with PTSD are three to six times more likely to divorce than those without PTSD.” Drs. Candice Monson and Casey Taft reported that a PTSD diagnosis was associated with a 400 percent increase in the likelihood of marital distress. Earlier this year, Jennifer Price, PhD, and Susan Stevens, PsyD reported on research that found ”Veterans’ PTSD symptoms can negatively impact family relationships and that family relationships may exacerbate or ameliorate a veteran’s PTSD.”
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How to Go from Anger, Fear and Sadness to Relief and Love

Job seekers interview for toughest job in the world

First I have not lost my mind posting this video. There is a reason for it. Watch the video first then go to the bottom for the answer.

World's Toughest Job - #worldstoughestjob

Here's a pretty cool project from Mullen for a client we won't immediately reveal, lest we spoil the surprise.
The Boston agency posted this job listing online for a "director of operations" position at a company called Rehtom Inc. The requirements sounded nothing short of brutal:

• Standing up almost all the time
• Constantly exerting yourself
• Working from 135 to unlimited hours per week
• Degrees in medicine, finance and culinary arts necessary
• No vacations
• The work load goes up on Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's and other holidays
• No time to sleep
• Salary = $0 go here for more

What is even harder, a Mom in the Military! God Bless All Of You!!

Boston Iraq Veteran-Fallen Firefighter Was Ready To Run Marathon

Fallen firefighter was set to run Boston Marathon
Michael Kennedy's dad taking loss 'one second at a time'
WCVB News
By Jack Harper
Apr 14, 2014

BOSTON —The father of a Boston firefighter killed in a fire in March is remembering his son, who ran to help the victims of last year's Boston Marathon and was training to run this year's race.

A funeral was held for Firefighter Mike Kennedy, who was one of two firefighters killed while battling a fire in Boston.

Wearing a fundraising shirt carrying his son's nickname, Dork, Paul Kennedy said he remembers wonderful times with his only son, including Mike's first Boston Marathon.

"I was close to the finish, and I saw him chugging along and waved. He saw me and stopped. I was in front of the Lenox Hotel. He turned and gave me a hug," he said.
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Brad Pitt to Star as General Stanley McChrystal

Brad Pitt to Star as General Stanley McChrystal in Afghanistan War Film The Operators
E News
by BRUNA NESSIF
Apr. 14, 2014

Dmac/FAMEFLYNET PICTURES

Brad Pitt is locking in yet another war flick on his list of films.

Angelina Jolie's handsome significant other is going to star as Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the former commanding general of international and U.S. forces in Afghanistan, in the upcoming movie The Operators, according to The Los Angeles Times.

The military drama will be written and directed by Australian director David Michod, who was behind the indie film Animal Kingdom a few ago, and will be based off of journalist Michael Hastings‘ 2012 book The Operators: The Wild and Terrifying Inside Story of America's War in Afghanistan.

McChrystal made headlines when he was fired in 2010 after making some controversial remarks in a Rolling Stone profile by the late Michael Hastings, in which General McChrystal and his staff criticized administration officials, the president and his advisers.
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Veteran says he picked up paper and a pen, not his gun

With suicides way up, Treasure Valley group works to aid veterans
Figures show that more than 20 former military members take their lives each day, a number that Warrior Pointe hopes to drastically reduce.
Idaho Statesman
BY ANNA WEBB
April 13, 2014

In the summer of 2012, U.S. Army veteran Reed Pacheco had his suicide all planned out.

He has four children. He didn't want to kill himself in the same house where they live. Finding an alternate place wouldn't be hard, he figured.

"We're in the land of open space and wilderness," Pacheco said.

Something else happened instead.

"I truly believe it was God," he said.

He picked up paper and a pen, not his gun. He wrote down a list of problems veterans face when they come home from military service.

"We call them our demons," he said. "Insomnia, drinking, broken relationships, remorse, guilt, unemployment, navigating the VA, suicide."

He picked up the phone and called his friends - fellow veterans.
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Apr 11, 2014
Reed Pacheco and Joshua Petersen, two members of Warrior Pointe, talk about the Treasure Valley group's efforts to curb veterans' feelings of isolation.

Amputee Afghanistan Veteran Running Boston-Strong

Army veteran who lost entire left leg in Afghanistan combat plans to run in Boston Marathon
By LARRY LARUE
The News Tribune
April 14, 2014

TACOMA, Washington — The first six times Edward Lychik told his physical therapist he wanted to run again, she was noncommittal, and with good reason.

The combat veteran's left leg had been amputated at the hip socket, and doctors had told him if he walked again, it would be on crutches.

Lychik ignored that diagnosis and kept talking to his physical therapist, Alicia White.

"The seventh time he said he wanted to run, I went in to see our prosthetist and said, 'We've got a problem," White said. "No one with this kind of amputation had ever run before, not like Edward wanted to run.

"We were still coming up with a walking leg, and he wanted to run mountain trails. He was talking about a marathon!"

An Army combat engineer at the age of 20, Lychik turned 21 in Afghanistan on a day that changed his life.

"I was riding in the back of our group and I was shot by a recoilless rifle," Lychik said. "The medic in the same vehicle, 'Doc' Padgett, saved my life, got tourniquets on both my legs so I didn't bleed to death. He did it with one hand wounded by shrapnel.

"I'd been through two explosions there already, had my one-man vehicle blown up. So I thought I knew what had happened. At one point I touched my left leg and thought I felt bone, and someone pulled my hand away and said 'Don't do that.'
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Florida Reps Want Lake Baldwin VA Clinic to Stay Open

We needed a new hospital considering Lake Baldwin, while huge, is just a clinic. We're getting a new one, (Lord only knows when it will open) but it should be used with the clinic considering how many veterans are in Central Florida. Lawmakers are pushing to keep it open and so are veterans.

Mica: Keep VA clinic open
Orlando Sentinel
April 14, 2014

U.S. Rep. John Mica, with support from other Central Florida congressmen, is pushing to keep open the Veterans Affairs clinic and two veterans housing centers on Lake Baldwin, even though those services are being moved to the new Veterans Affairs hospital in Lake Nona.

On Monday, Mica sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs urging the department to keep the Lake Baldwin facilities open to serve the increasing number of veterans needing health care. The letter also was signed by U.S. Reps. Daniel Webster, R-Winter Garden; Alan Grayson, D-Orlando; and Corrine Brown, D-Jacksonville.

Besides the Lake Baldwin Outpatient Clinic, which has served an average of 96,000 veterans a year with virtually all medical services except in-patient hospitalization, the Lake Baldwin campus includes a 120-bed nursing center and a 60-bed domiciliary, which provided residential services to homeless veterans.

"We want action," Mica said. "We will get it."

Mica is a Winter Park Republican whose district includes the Lake Baldwin area.

The new 134-bed Orlando VA Hospital, part of a $665 million, million-square-foot Veterans Affairs complex at Lake Nona, is set to be completed late this year and likely will open next spring. Portions of the complex already have opened, and services are being transferred from Lake Baldwin.

The Lake Baldwin VA complex has about 400,000 square feet and costs about $8 million a year to operate, said Mike Strickler, spokesman for the Orlando VA Medical Center.
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Wondering how to help Fort Hood Families?

Donations accepted for Fort Hood victims, families
Army Times
Apr. 14, 2014

A fund has opened to gather donations for wounded victims of the Fort Hood shooting and for the families of those killed in the tragedy.

Anyone may donate by going to the National Compassion Fund Website at www.NationalCompassionFund.org.

Fort Hood, Texas, and the National Center for Victims of Crime are partnering to collect donations, Fort Hood officials announced on Monday, saying 100 percent of the donations to the National Compassion Fund will go to the wounded victims and families of those who died in the mass shooting.

Four people died, including the shooter, and 16 were wounded on April 2 when a soldier opened fire at Fort Hood.

“We know of no other fund set up especially for mass crime victims where the public knows that every dollar they donate is going directly to those victims,” said Mai Fernandez, executive director of the National Center for Victims of Crime, quoted in Fort Hood’s news release.
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Sgt. Maj. of the Marine Corps Micheal Barrett doesn't get it

Top enlisted Marine pens open letter after testimony angers troops
Stars and Stripes
21 minutes ago

What started as a hard-charging Marine comment to Congress has turned into a public relations emergency for Sgt. Maj. of the Marine Corps Micheal Barrett.

Speaking to the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Personnel on Wednesday, Barrett was making the case that personnel costs needed to be reined in to maintain readiness — as all the services have in recent testimony — but went a step further by saying that lower pay would actually improve discipline within the Corps.

“I truly believe it will raise discipline,” Barrett said. “You’ll have better spending habits. You won’t be so wasteful.”

He told lawmakers that if the service didn’t check growth on personnel costs, “we will become an entitlement-based, a health care provider-based Corps, and not a warfighting organization.”

His comments lit up Facebook and other social media sites. Marines and their supporters derided foreign aid, spoke of themselves or comrades getting state or federal financial aid — “read that as welfare” — and chided Marine Corps leadership as being out of touch.

“Says the SMMC who is knocking down $8K+ a month, living in gov’t quarters, etc. You have forgotten your roots and have no clue how some of your Marines are living,” said one commenter on Facebook.
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April 11, 2014

Marine Sgt. Major wants less pay for troops?

Sgt. Maj. Of The Marine Corps Says Lower Pay For Marines “Will Raise Discipline”, Make Them Less Wasteful 

The highest enlisted member of the United States Marine Corps said that lowering salary of Marines will “raise discipline” and make Marines less wasteful. The comments come as a debate in Washington talks about cutting active duty member pay in order to make sharp budget cuts at the Department of Defense. The comments came as he testified in front of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

The base salary for the Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps is $7,816.20 per month.

When you are done screaming, read more here Maybe they should start with his pay?

He doesn't seem to know that a lot of his Marines and Soldiers are living on food stamps.

VA CHAMPVA plan we can sink our teeth into, dental coverage

All veterans eligible for VA dental coverage
JC Journal
Columnists
Randy Fairchild
Health
April 13, 2014

For the first time in history, the U.S. government has authorized a national dental insurance program for veterans enrolled in Veterans Affairs health care and individuals enrolled in VA’s CHAMPVA program.

Premium rates will vary depending on your geographic region and the plan option you select. There are three options that are available: basic, enhanced and comprehensive. These plans range from about $8 for the basic up to about $27 for comprehensive.

In the Tippecanoe County area there are many dentists who have signed up for this program. Veterans will not be getting dental care done by the VA but veterans must be signed up with the VA for health care to be eligible for the dental insurance plan.

As stated above, this is the first time that the VA has actually assisted veterans with dental care except for those veterans rated at 100 percent service-connected, have a service-connected disability for a dental injury, or on the VA Voc-Rehab program.
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Vietnam Veteran Sued VA for Malpractice and Won $12 Million

Vietnam veteran wins twelve million dollars in medical malpractice settlement
Posted by: briadm

A Vietnam veteran and Chicago-area resident will receive a $12 million settlement from the federal government in a medical malpractice case.

John Johnson is a Vietnam combat veteran who served in the Army from 1970 to 1971. In 2007, Johnson was admitted to Edward Hines Jr. Veterans Administration Hospital in Hines, Illinois for oral surgery. After he was put under anesthesia, Johnson went into cardiac arrest, which resulted in brain damage. Johnson filed a medical malpractice lawsuit against the hospital.

According to the lawsuit, doctors did not prepare adequately for the surgery and failed to properly monitor Johnson’s heart condition after he received anesthesia.
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VA honors almost 80,000 volunteers

Veteran Affairs honors 79,000 volunteers
Montgomery Advertiser
Written by
Rebecca Burylo
April 14, 2014

More than 79,000 citizen volunteers were honored recently for their service to Department of Veterans Affairs medical facilities in recognition of National Volunteer Week.

Locally, 600 volunteers were recognized Sunday for their daily support to the Central Alabama Veterans Health Care System during an award appreciation ceremony at Tuskegee VA.

Together, local volunteers were able to contribute more than 51,000 hours in 2013 to the CAVHCS through regular care and meeting driving, directing, sitting, serving, comforting and counseling need.

Volunteers provide a direct impact to a veteran's quality of life and contribute essential operational support, William Petty explained, Chief of Voluntary Service.
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Canadian Soldier sues government after financial loss from move

Veteran soldier sues federal government after costly move
HALIFAX — The Canadian Press
ALISON AULD
Published Sunday, Apr. 13 2014

A 24-year veteran of the Canadian military is taking the federal government to court Tuesday to recover thousands of dollars he lost on his home when he was posted to another base and got little compensation through a program that he says has caused financial hardship for dozens of members.

Maj. Marcus Brauer will be in federal court to seek a judicial review of a decision by the Treasury Board that concluded he should receive only $15,000 for an $88,000 loss he took on the sale of his house in Alberta upon moving to Halifax in 2007.

Maj. Brauer said the unique case is being watched closely by other members who have suffered losses on home sales when they get posted to new bases, but usually only collect a portion of those losses through a federal home-equity assistance program.
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