Homeless Veterans on LA’s Skid Row Not Forgotten

Searching for Homeless Veterans on LA’s Skid Row 
VAntage Point
Dispatches from the US Department of Veterans Affairs
by Reynaldo Leal
February 4, 2015

VA Deputy Secretary Sloan Gibson participated in this year’s PIT count in Baltimore, Maryland. VA photo by Robert Turtil.

Secretary Bob McDonald walked the streets of LA’s Skid Row with local volunteers and VA employees last week, and tallied the homeless during the city’s annual point-in-time, or PIT count. 

As they made their way through alleyways and backstreets lined with tents and makeshift shelters, they stopped to talk and ask, “Are you a Veteran?”

PIT counts are conducted across the country during the last 10 days of January. The data gathered from the interactions with the homeless is used to verify the effectiveness of outreach programs and to see where resources and services are needed.

For a city like LA, where there are more homeless Veterans than anywhere else in the country, the numbers are vital.

“One of the things you learn in the Army is you never leave a buddy behind,” McDonald said to more than 100 volunteers at the LA Mission. “Unfortunately, we’ve left some people behind, and they’re our homeless Veterans. But I’m here to tell you that we at VA … are totally committed to achieve the goal of ending Veteran homelessness by the end of the year.”

The information collected is part of the overall effort to end homelessness among Veterans. Earlier in the week, McDonald signed a historic agreement dedicating the West Los Angeles VA Medical center to helping Veterans in need.
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Feb 4, 2015 Secretary Bob McDonald walked the streets of LA’s Skid Row with local volunteers and VA employees last week, and tallied the homeless during the city’s annual point-in-time, or PIT count.

As they made their way through alleyways and backstreets lined with tents and makeshift shelters, they stopped to talk and ask, “Are you a Veteran?”

Another Suicide Prevention Bill Preventing Prevention?

Clay Hunt Suicide Prevention Act still has the bubble wrap on it and the Jacob Sexton Act was signed in with the Defense Budget but already, here comes antoher prevention bill. This time it is Joe Waltz.

CNN Headline on this one is "22 veterans kill themselves every day" but they just don't seem all too interested in the fact that when congress started to prevent suicides, they were actually preventing prevention.

"One of the things that we do know is that veterans who seek care often get better." Tarantino told CNN. The problem, he says, is "the care they receive often doesn't give them what they need."

The Suicide Prevention for America's Veterans Act is a joint effort between Walsh and the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America group. Founded in 2004, the 270,000 member organization is the first and largest organization for new veterans and their families.

"These men and women... are willing to sacrifice their lives for our country," Walsh said.

One group that appears to be the most vulnerable to suicides are veterans 50 years and older. According to the VA, 69 percent of veteran suicides come from that age group.

With 2012 having hit the historical rate of military suicides I tried to take what Wounded Times had put together since 2007. Hell, at the time there were over 20,000 posts to pull from. I figured "how hard could it be" since I had almost everything. At least that was how it started out and I ended up discovering just how far congress had spun out of control with all the hearings, speeches and bills. By the time The Warrior Saw, Suicides After War was finished, I felt pretty hopeless. I wondered why reporters hadn't told anyone about this massive abuse spread out. After all, when congress writes a bill, someone makes money and there were billions a year being paid out for the result of more suicides.

If you didn't read the book don't feel bad, not many did. It got into how Vietnam veterans pushed for all the research and funding going back 40 years on PTSD and suicides among veterans. There has never been a time in our history when more has been done on all of this and never a time in our history when results didn't matter.

Even I didn't figure it all out before I finally decided to end the research. Right now as I read about yet one more bill being pushed by more politicians I'm envisioning putting in a call to Criminal Minds.

This would take the computer skills of Penelope Garcia to figure out who did what when and Spencer Reid to be able to get through all the bills congress has written just since 2007. David Rossi would be up to his goatee in veterans' cases. Derek Morgan would have to be held back by Aaron Hotchner from punching out congressmen and as for JJ, she'd have to get back on the emergency broadcast system to let the whole county know exactly what's been going on so that people will get off their asses and start doing some demanding of their own about doing the right things instead of just "something" that is supposed to be "better than nothing" because veterans are dying in bulk.

The whole team goes after a serial killer after 3 bodies have been found and their "wheels are up in 30" so more than 22 a day wouldn't take them 30 to get started since they are already in the neighborhood.

More than 22 a day? Yes. States are reporting the rate of veterans committing suicide are double the civilian population and older veterans are the majority of them. However, the key here is the other percentage no one seems to want to talk about either. Younger veterans, the ones who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, the ones who had all the "prevention" training since 2007, are triple their peer rates. But hey, another member of congress will get his name on yet another bill and another group of veterans gets some press time for supporting the prevention of suicide prevention that actually should be working.

Army revokes Silver Star award for Green Beret

Army revokes Silver Star award for Green Beret officer, citing investigation
Washington Post
By Dan Lamothe
February 4, 2015

"The investigation closed last year without Golsteyn’s being charged with a crime, but Army Secretary John M. McHugh decided not only to deny Golsteyn the Distinguished Service Cross, but also to revoke his Silver Star."

Capt. Mathew L. Golsteyn was leading a Special Forces team in Afghanistan in 2010 when an 80-man mission he assembled to hunt insurgent snipers went awry. One of the unit’s five vehicles sank in mud, a gunshot incapacitated an Afghan soldier fighting alongside the Americans, and insurgents maneuvered on them to rake the soggy fields with machine-gun fire.

Golsteyn, already a decorated Green Beret officer, responded with calm resolve and braved enemy fire repeatedly that day, according to an Army summary of his actions. He received the Silver Star for valor for his actions during a 2011 ceremony at Fort Bragg, N.C. Top Army officials later approved him for an upgrade to the prestigious Distinguished Service Cross, second only to the Medal of Honor in recognizing combat heroism by U.S. soldiers.

In a rare reversal, however, Golsteyn, now a major, no longer has either award. The Special Forces officer and graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., was later investigated for an undisclosed violation of the military’s rules of engagement in combat for killing a known enemy fighter and bomb maker, according to officials familiar with the case. The investigation closed last year without Golsteyn’s being charged with a crime, but Army Secretary John M. McHugh decided not only to deny Golsteyn the Distinguished Service Cross, but also to revoke his Silver Star.
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Brian Williams apologises for 'bungled' Iraq story

UPDATE
Brian Williams' apology leaves out key details of Iraq incident
Apologies by NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams Wednesday for his false claim of being on a helicopter forced down by Iraqi rocket fire in 2003 left out key details and made misleading claims about his proximity to the incident, according to soldiers who were there at the time.
NBC’s Brian Williams recants Iraq story after soldiers protest
read about it here

NBC's Brian Williams apologises for 'bungled' Iraq story - video

NBC News anchor Brian Williams apologises for a bungled tribute to an Iraq war veteran.

Williams retracts a story he told on air about coming under fire while traveling in a US army helicopter in Iraq in 2003.

Williams says he was not in the helicopter that took fire, but was travelling behind it. 'This was a bungled attempt to thank one special veteran and by extension our brave military,' he says

Oregon Veteran Died While Waiting

Advocates for local veteran say plea for VA help not answered
KATU News
By Bob Heye
Published: Feb 3, 2015

“Makes me feel - it's almost ashamed - that I have a congress that's representing me that doesn't care for veterans,” says McJunkin, “Veterans are sent into combat without much concern for when they come home and need physical and mental assistance.”

PORTLAND, Ore. - In a video made for his memorial on Sunday, Navy veteran Kevin Walters spoke to his family - his wife, their little boy.

“You know that I strongly love you through all this,” Walters said in the video, “I really love you, I miss you and want you to know that I always will.”

At 39 years old, Walters was having unexplained dizzy spells and other symptoms when he was diagnosed this past summer with a rare, aggressive kind of brain cancer. Doctors believe it was caused by radioactive equipment Kevin used in construction projects during the Iran-Iraq war.

Knowing he didn't have long to live, Kevin's family wanted the Veterans Affairs to speed up clearing his service-related condition so they could get help caring for him.

They even got help pleading their case through the McMinnville American Legion Post.

“From middle of October,” says Richard McJunkin, Commander, United Veterans Honor Guard in McMinnville, “initiated claims, until his death in the end of January, really no response from VA."

The VA did send one letter in mid-December saying, "we apologize for the delay."
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Congress Passed Another Bill Along With Gas

The solution in this case didn't amount to a hill of beans.

"something of trifling value; virtually nothing at all"

Why? Because Congress just kept repeating the same steps to appear to be doing "something" to address military suicides but much like beans being good for you, they come with a nasty thing that proves hard to digest as the odor just lingers in the air.

It is almost as if they just figured "hey we got a problem so we'll just renuzit" and call it something else and then no one will notice what we left behind.

Not the first time they did this.

Congress heard about "Wounded Warriors Treated as 'Slackers' at Hood, Bliss and Brooke"

"Col. Chris Toner, head of the Army Transition Command, acknowledged that there had been a pattern of "disrespect, harassment and belittlement of soldiers" at Warrior Transition Units (WTUs) at Fort Bliss, Fort Hood and the Brooke Army Medical Center in Texas from 2009-2013."

But why remember all that? Why bother to think about how long it had been going on when we all had the nice little feel good diversion like the non-existent battle to get the Clay Hunt Suicide Prevention Bill passed by Congress? It all starts somewhere before it comes home.

Original diversion, take your eye off the fact that they had pre-deployment psychological screenings. In other words, they were not suicidal before they were sent into combat. After that it is anyone's guess considering the Vice Joint Chiefs of Staff admitted they were not doing post-deployment screenings like they were supposed to.

Not so afraid to go into combat but afraid to admit they had problems because of it, yet hey, why not let Congress pass yet another bill on removing the stigma only to be followed up by reports like what was happening in Warrior Transition Units.

“Injured Heroes, Broken Promises,” a joint investigative project between The Dallas Morning News and NBC5 (KXAS-TV), examines allegations of harassment and mistreatment in the U.S.’ Warrior Transition Units, which were created to serve soldiers with physical and psychological wounds. Reporters David Tarrant, Scott Friedman and Eva Parks based their findings on dozens of interviews with soldiers, Army officials and medical experts, and hundreds of pages of military documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act.

Why bother to actually listen to Generals saying stupid things proving all the talk we heard about doing all they could to remove the stigma and then jamming down their throats statements like this.

"Some of it is just personal make-up. Intestinal fortitude. Mental toughness that ensures that people are able to deal with stressful situations."

That quote came from General Raymond Odierno in 2013.

Here's another one.

"Wednesday, we lost a Fort Bliss Soldier to an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. I heard the tragic news as I walked out of a memorial service for another one of our Soldiers who decided to kill himself at home on Christmas Day so that his family would find him. Christmas will never be the same for his two young daughters he left behind," Pittard wrote at the time.

He continued, "I have now come to the conclusion that suicide is an absolutely selfish act. Soldiers who commit suicide leave their families, their buddies and their units to literally clean up their mess. There is nothing noble about suicide."

Later in the post Pittard wrote "I am personally fed up with Soldiers who are choosing to take their own lives so that others can clean up their mess. Be an adult, act like an adult, and deal with your real-life problems like the rest of us."

That quote came from Major General Dana Pittard of Fort Bliss

Maybe President Obama liked that message since later that same year in August, this happened.

"Major General Dana Pittard expects the President will discuss the health of the military and Fort Bliss' low suicide rate, as well as government budget cuts, also known as sequestration."

2012 was the highest suicide rate for members of the military but looks like no one is counting or remembering other than families and friends.

But hey, why not just do another bill and call it something else? After all, no one will notice what they already did and then blamed on someone else pretending they didn't just feed the hill of beans.

Vietnam Veteran Lt. Gen. Hugh Smith Shares Story His PTSD Battle

General goes to war against PTSD
The Leaf-Chronicle
Philip Grey
February 1, 2015

Together with fellow veterans and PTSD sufferers of Vietnam, and with the help of the Vietnam Veterans of America Tennessee State Council, Smith is taking part in a statewide effort to get the word out and get help to the veterans of his era, and especially to the veterans and family members of the last 14 years of seemingly unending war.

Jan 31, 1968. Captain Hubert G. Smith with 57th Assault Helicopter pilots gathering 122mm Katyusha rocket motor casings the first morning after the Tet Offensive began in Kontum.
(Photo: SUBMITTED BY HUGH SMITH)

CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. – A pivotal moment in the battle against the stigma of post-traumatic stress afflicting veterans and active-duty service members came in November 2011 when retired Lt. Gen. Hugh Smith came out with the story of his own PTSD issues.

When Smith opened up to The Leaf-Chronicle, he was the highest-ranking veteran ever nationwide to admit suffering from the debilitating illness.

Talking to Smith, it is easy to see how he rose to his position as one of the architects of the massive logistical enterprise that was Desert Shield/Desert Storm in 1990-91. With 35 years of Army experience, he can recite dates, names, timetables and equipment involved in major operations down to the minutiae of the load in an infantryman's rucksack.

He brought the same talent for organization to Nashville's airport when he was senior vice president and chief operating officer there during the major renovations in the late 1990s until his second retirement in 2004.

But the ability to memorize details is a double-edged sword. On Tuesday over coffee at Silke's on College Street, while discussing his ongoing efforts to raise awareness about PTSD, Smith's hard blue eyes became unfocused, and he was in a place far away and long ago.
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Minnesota State University Student Suicide Was Iraq Veteran

Horror as MSU philosophy student and Iraq War veteran, 27, shoots himself dead in campus library 
Timothy Lee Anderson, a junior philosophy major at MSU, died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound Police in Mankato, Minnesota, were called to MSU's Memorial Library Monday afternoon after getting a report about a suicidal man
Anderson served as a gunner in Iraq in 2007
Daily Mail
By SNEJANA FARBEROV FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 12:27 EST, 3 February 2015

A 27-year-old Minnesota State University student and war veteran shot and killed himself in the campus library Monday afternoon.

Mankato police responded to the Memorial Library at around 4.10pm after getting a report about a suicidal man.

After searching the premises of the library, they found Timothy Lee Anderson on the second floor. He was armed with a gun.

Police say at that point, the 27-year-old junior philosophy major turned the firearm on himself and committed suicide.

A portion of the campus was evacuated and a text message went out at 5.15pm via MSU's emergency alert system informing the community of the deadly incident.
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Colorado VA Employee Quit Job to Save Homeless Veteran

Feds investigate veteran's death 
KUSA Melissa Blasius
February 2, 2015

GRAND JUNCTION - Federal investigators will visit a Colorado VA hospital this week to determine whether a patient died due to inadequate care. Whistleblower Chris Blumenstein worked at the Grand Junction Veterans Affairs Hospital as a social worker, and he says he investigators from the Office of Inspector General will interview him Tuesday.

Last year, Blumenstein quit his job in protest as he advocated for a Vietnam-era veteran named Rodger Holmes. Holmes was a formerly homeless veteran who was suffering from Hepatitis C. Blumenstein said Holmes should have been treated by a liver specialist, but the Grand Junction VA did not have one on-staff and did not make a referral for outside care.

Holmes died just before Christmas, and Blumenstein believe Holmes would still be alive if he had received better care from the VA. read more here

Marine Amputee Iraq-Afghanistan Veteran Now Georgia State Trooper

Macon Marine overcomes amputation, becomes state trooper
13WMAZ
Lorra Lynch jones
February 2, 2015

Last summer, Smith passed every physical agility test required of all troopers in the Georgia State Patrol.

Mark Smith, a Marine from Macon, stepped on a bomb trudging through his second deployment to Iraq.

It knocked him off his feet and off the battlefield, but not for good.

He explained why, despite losing his leg, he fought back. Smith was determined to live his life on his own terms.

Years after his injury, sitting in his Warner Robins home, Mark Smith said he doesn't go a day without remembering October 13, 2006.

Looking at his prosthetic leg, he said he feels "phantom pain," in the foot that's no longer there.

He said, "It'll feel like I'm getting blown up again."

In 2006, Smith and a band of Marines, 1st Battallion 6th Marines, sludged through Ramadi, Iraq's flooded streets. Smith said, "Just a lot of stagnant sewage type water."

They were on a mission to stop enemy sniper fire. Smith had been there before, but this time it would become a place he cannot forget.

Anger and blind determination propelled him through a year of rehab and to a decision his wife, Tabitha, questioned.

Smith wanted to stay in the Marine Corps.

Tabitha said, "It was like, 'You've sacrificed for your country. You've sacrificed. We can move on from this'."

Mark said no, even a desk job for the Marines wouldn't suffice. He wanted to rejoin the fight.

He said, "I couldn't see myself being happy doing anything else."

He got his way in 2011, deploying to Afghanistan with the 2nd Battallion, 8th Marines.
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