Veteran Vision Project Photo Collection is a Revelation

Sharing vets' unabashed joy, and unrelenting pain
CBS News
February 23, 2015

Minutes before Mitchell took the image of McLaren, he asked him how he was feeling and what he wanted to say in the image. Soon, McLaren unleashed pure anguish at how hard it is to not be that number.

"I just want to kill myself every day, and the only reason I don't do it is because of my kids," McLaren said.

For anyone curious about the lives of veterans once they return home, the Veteran Vision Project photo collection is a revelation.

Behind the uniform
No one is speaking in a still photo, but they're still sending signals, reports CBS News correspondent Wyatt Andrews. In this collection, one photographer has asked dozens of veterans to send messages or tell stories about themselves while posing in front of a mirror.

There are more than 130 photos so far of veterans and active duty service members, and they are projecting who they are. or what's hiding behind the uniform, with all of it revealed through the looking glass.

What viewers get to see is unabashed joy and unrelenting pain. There is pride, diversity, and there are Americans free to be whatever. And while the photos are very different, the format is the same. On one side of the mirror the veteran is in uniform, on the other is an image the veterans choose themselves.

The photographer is Devin Mitchell, an amateur photographer and a sociology student at Arizona State University. He started the project to bolster his application to go to grad school.
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Baldwin Sat on Report Others Pretended They Didn't Know Years Ago

"Sen. Baldwin had Tomah VA report for months" was the headline on the use of opiates as if it was anything new. None of this is new but it seems as if some bloggers have just discovered this issue. The story was linked on a report Town Hall.com had up Sunday but as you can see, it is far from new and it appears that there have been many politicians just sitting on what they knew, since nothing was done about any of it.

"In September, the Center for Investigative Reporting revealed that VA prescriptions for four opiates - hydrocodone, oxycodone, methadone and morphine - surged 270 percent from 2001 to 2012. That far outpaced the increase in the number of VA patients and contributed to a fatal overdose rate that the agency's researchers put at nearly double the national average."

That was reported in 2013 by Aaron Glantz, Center for Investigative Reporting. The kicker was that also in the same report was the stunning admission of doctors writing prescriptions for these drugs without seeing the patient. Glantz followed that report up with another testimony told this part of what was going on.

"There are multiple instances when I have been coerced or even ordered to write for Schedule II narcotics when it was against my medical judgment," said Dr. Pamela Gray, a physician who formerly worked at the VA hospital in Hampton, Va. Primary care doctors who don't want to prescribe large amounts of opiates may resign, do as they are told or be terminated, Gray said. Gray was fired.

Dr. Robert Jesse gave testimony to the House Veterans Affairs Committee

Hearing on 10/10/2013: Between Peril and Promise: Facing the Dangers of VA’s Skyrocketing Use of Prescription Painkillers to Treat Veterans

"We also know that the long-term use of opioids is associated with significant risks, particularly in vulnerable individuals, such as Veterans with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), depression, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) and family stress – all common in Veterans returning from the battlefield, and in Veterans with addiction disorders. Chronic pain in Veterans is often accompanied by co-morbid mental health conditions (up to 50 percent in some cohorts) caused by the psychological trauma of war, as well as neurological disorders, such as TBI caused by blast and concussion injuries. In fact, one study documented that more that 40 percent of Veterans admitted to a polytrauma unit in VHA suffered all three conditions together – chronic pain, PTSD, and post-concussive syndrome."

But as bad as all this is, the reports of troops being medicated while still in the military have been going on longer.

Investigation needed Ambien and military use

Links to medications suspected with non-combat deaths

Reservist's Suicide Hits Tampa Hard

Tampa reservist’s suicide brings home tragedy
Tampa Bay Online
By Howard Altman
Published: February 22, 2015

TAMPA — Why?

The story of Brunette’s life speaks volumes about the difficulty of dealing with veteran suicides, say her family and friends.

That’s the question the family and friends of Air Force Reserve Capt. Jamie Brunette are struggling to answer.

At 30, Brunette seemingly had it all. A vivacious and attractive athlete and scholar, she had been lauded by the Air Force for her work in Afghanistan, was a partner in a fitness center about to open in Largo and was known by her family and friends as being the strong one always ready to help others.

But for some reason, Brunette, who left active duty after 11 years last June and joined the Air Force Reserve, couldn’t help herself.

On Feb. 9, Tampa police found her slumped over in the back of her locked Chrysler 200 sedan outside a Harbour Island cafe near her apartment. Police say it appears she killed herself with her Smith and Wesson .380 handgun, which she purchased about six months earlier.

Now family and friends are trying to come to grips with the pain behind Brunette’s effervescent smile that caused her to become one of the 22 veterans a day who take their own lives, according to a 2012 Department of Veterans Affairs study. It’s a problem that’s vexing both the military and the VA, which are struggling to find ways to prevent suicides.

According to a study published this month in the medical journal Annals of Epidemiology, the nearly 1.3 million veterans of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq between 2001 and 2007 had a 41 percent to 61 percent higher risk of suicide than the general population, with 1,868 committing suicide during that time period. And while female veterans were far less likely than men to commit suicide, when compared to those who never served, female veterans were more likely to commit suicide than male veterans.
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Air Force Reserve Captain Found Dead in Tampa

Air Force Reserve captain whose family believe she was sexually assaulted in Afghanistan 'killed herself with her handgun' 
Air Force Reserve Capt. Jamie Brunette was found dead on February 9 by Tampa police in the back of her locked car near her apartment in Florida
Police say it appears she killed herself with her handgun
Sister believes something traumatic happened to her in Afghanistan
Her family do not have any evidence of a sexual assault
Daily Mail
By JILL REILLY FOR MAILONLINE
22 February 2015

Air Force Reserve Capt. Jamie Brunette was found dead on February 9 by Tampa police in the back of her locked Chrysler 200 sedan near her apartment

An Air Force Reserve captain whose family believe she was sexually assaulted in Afghanistan killed herself using her handgun. Jamie Brunette, from Tampa, Florida, was found dead on February 9 by Tampa police in the back of her locked sedan near her apartment. It appears the 30-year-old killed herself with her Smith and Wesson .380 handgun, which she purchased about six months earlier according to police, reports the Tampa Tribune. read more here

Oscar Goes To HBO Veterans Crisis Line Documentary

Oscars 2015: Who Dana Perry Is and Why She Want Us to Pay Attention to Suicide 
ABC News
By JOI-MARIE MCKENZIE and EMILY SHAPIRO
Feb 23, 2015

Producer Dana Perry and director Ellen Goosenberg Kent accept the Best Documentary Short Award for "Crisis Hotline; Veterans Press 1" onstage during the 87th Annual Academy Awards on Feb. 22, 2015 in Hollywood, California. Kevin Winter/Getty Images

While accepting the Oscar for best documentary short subject, director Dana Perry said suicide should be talked about "out loud," dedicating the award to her son.

During her acceptance speech on behalf of "Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1," the music abruptly cut off when Perry mentioned her son, Evan Scott Perry, who committed suicide at age 15 in 2005. "I lost my son," Perry told reporters after the speech.

"We need to talk about suicide out loud to try to work against the stigma and silence around suicide because the best prevention for suicide is awareness and discussion and not trying sweep it under the rug."

Perry also mentioned veteran suicide in her Oscar speech, which she called "a crisis." Tonight's Oscar-winning HBO documentary, directed by Perry and Ellen Goosenberg Kent, is about the Department of Veterans Affairs' 24-hour call center for veterans.
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DIfferent View From Eyes of Another American Sniper

I was an American sniper, and Chris Kyle’s war was not my war
VoteVets.org
Garett Reppenhagen
Feb 21, 2015

As a sniper I was not usually the victim of a traumatic event, but the perpetrator of violence and death. My actions in combat would have been more acceptable to me if I could cloak myself in the belief that the whole mission was for a greater good. Instead, I watched as the purpose of the mission slowly unraveled.

I spent nights in Iraq lying prone and looking through a 12-power sniper scope. You only see a limited view between the reticles. That’s why it’s necessary to keep both eyes open. This way you have some ability to track targets and establish 360 degrees of awareness. I rotated with my spotter and an additional security team member to maintain vigilance and see the whole battlefield. I scrutinized every target in my scope to determine if they were a threat.

In a way, it’s an analogy for keeping the whole Iraq mission in perspective and fully understanding the experiences of the U.S. war fighters during Operation Iraqi Freedom. No single service member has the monopoly on the war narrative. It will change depending on where you serve, when you were there, what your role was, and a few thousand other random elements.

For the past 10 days, “American Sniper” has rallied crowds and broken box office records, but if you want to understand the war, the film is like peering into a sniper scope — it offers a very limited view.

The movie tells the story of Navy SEAL sniper Chris Kyle, said to have 160 confirmed kills, which would make him the most lethal American military member in history. He first shared his story in a memoir, which became the basis for Clint Eastwood’s film adaptation. Kyle views the occupation of Iraq as necessary to stop terrorists from coming to the mainland and attacking the U.S.; he sees the Iraqis as “savages” and attacks any critical thought about the overall mission and the military’s ability to accomplish it.

Unlike Chris Kyle, who claimed his PTSD came from the inability to save more service members, most of the damage to my mental health was what I call “moral injury,” which is becoming a popular term in many veteran circles. read more here

Veterans Crisis Line Turned Into Veteran In Line Hanging Up

Vets describe crisis line runaround 
Texas man records 36 minutes on hold
Standard Times Amanda Kost and Isaac Wolf
Feb 21, 2015

Matt Anzur/Scripps News When veterans in crisis pick up the phone for help, their calls are directed to the Veterans Crisis Line call center on the VA campus in Canandaigua, N.Y.

On an evening last March, 42-year-old Dedra Hughes’ thoughts turned to suicide. The Army veteran, who had been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder five years earlier, had split with her boyfriend days before. She was unemployed and had stopped taking classes. And she was convinced her two daughters would be better off without her.

Sitting on the floor of her suburban Chicago living room, Hughes attempted to slash her wrist but didn’t draw blood, and says she passed out from anxiety. Her 12-year-old discovered her there on the floor with the knife beside her.

Hughes decided that night to turn to the national Veterans Crisis Line, a 24/7 service that promises an immediate, open line to professional help. But when Hughes phoned, she said, her call went straight to hold. After several minutes, she became frustrated and hung up.

“I would never call the hotline again,” said Hughes. She said she needed to quickly get to someone that night who could give her help and reassurance.

“That’s what I wanted,” she said. “Someone to make me feel that I mattered.” After reaching out to a local veterans group, someone arrived at her home that night.
read more here

HBO Veterans Crisis Line Documentary Up For Oscar

Amputee Marine Veteran Taking on Everest

Marine vet to conquer Everest despite leg amputation 
Marine Corps Times
By Derrick Perkins, Staff writer
February 21, 2015

Charlie Linville, a wounded Marine veteran, has been training in preparation for climbing Mount Everest in the spring. (Photo: Courtesy of The Heroes Project)

Marine veteran Staff Sgt. Charlie Linville isn't letting the partial amputation of his right leg stop him from reaching the summit of Mount Everest this spring — and when he gets there, he will plant a flag bearing the names of those who died in Iraq and Afghanistan and bow his head.

After all, that's the closest he will be to heaven so "I'll just say a prayer and thank them for making ultimate sacrifice," said Linville, 29, of Boise, Idaho.

After serving in Iraq with 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines — a tour that saw him pass through Fallujah in 2007 — Linville swapped his military occupational specialty of assaultman for explosive ordinance technician.

Two months following the birth of his second daughter in 2010, Linville headed back overseas, this time for Afghanistan as a member of the 3rd Explosive Ordinance Disposal Company. Eventually, he was reunited with 3/5 attaching to the unit in Sangin.

It's there in 2011 that Linville suffered the injuries, including mild traumatic brain injury and lower spine trauma, which would later lead to the amputation of the lower portion of his right leg.

It was during his recovery that Linville found out about The Heroes Project, a foundation dedicated to training and then sending wounded warriors up the world's highest peaks. They initially slated Linville for Carstensz Pyramid in Indonesia.

Linville wanted more of a challenge, though, and Everest remained unconquered by the group.
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VoteVets Want O'Reilly Off the Air

Progressive Veterans Group Wants O'Reilly Off The Air
Media Matters
February 20, 2015

VoteVets, a leading progressive veterans advocacy group, is calling on Fox News to take Bill O'Reilly off the air following revelations from Mother Jones that the Fox News host may have repeatedly misrepresented his experiences reporting on the 1982 Falklands War.

"NBC acted completely appropriately in taking Brian Williams off the air and looking into claims he's made over the years. Fox News has to do the same thing," Jon Soltz, chairman of VoteVets.org, a 400,000-member organization that advocates for vets and military families, said in a statement. "The issue, for me, isn't that Fox has been caught off guard, and didn't realize O'Reilly was telling possibly false tales. That I can accept. It's what do they do about it now? That will tell us a lot about how seriously they take their news organization."

So far, the response from O'Reilly and Fox does not suggest that they take the apparent infraction seriously. Fox News media reporter Howard Kurtz published a piece featuring O'Reilly saying Mother Jones Washington bureau chief David Corn is "a liar, a smear merchant, and will do anything he can to injure me and the network. Everybody knows that. Everything I've reported about my journalistic career is true."
read more here

The same can't be said about when Bill O'Reilly denied there were homeless veterans in this country.

Jan 17, 2008
Bill-o's Assault on the Truth: On the website of the Federal Department of Veterans Affairs... In black and white... It states the sad truth about many of the men and women who served this country in uniform.

"Current population estimates suggest that about 195,000 veterans (male and female) are homeless on any given night and perhaps twice as many experience homelessness at some point during the course of a year." A grotesque statistic that Senator John Edwards has repeatedly cited during his bid for the presidency. Most recently, last night.

Ok, there you have John Edwards, Keith Olbermann and Paul Rieckhoff talking about something very real and the rest of the country finally found out about this. They could have found out sooner had O'Reilly and his team forgot about politics for the sake of these veterans.

Military Suicide Prevention Begins with End of What Failed Them

We need to be honest for a change if things will ever change for our veterans. This bill does not do anything that has not already been done before and suicides went up. They went up after the Senator Obama went to the Montana National Guard in 2008 and promised to do everything possible to save lives. Suicides within the military and among veterans went up but it was more of the repeated bills like the Joshua Omvig Suicide Prevention bill of 2007.

When people write editorials like this it would be more helpful to report the actual history of subjects as serious as this.

Veterans are double the population for suicides while for younger veterans, after all the military "prevention efforts" started, they are now triple the rate of their peers. Vietnam veterans pushed for all the research and programs and that makes these outcomes all the more troubling considering they started pushing in the 70's.

Anti-suicide effort needed for all vets
EXPRESS-NEWS EDITORIAL BOARD
FEBRUARY 22, 2015

The suicide epidemic among veterans is a national tragedy, one that should be commanding our full attention. It is an epidemic that affects veterans of all ages and wars, and it is not simply bound to those who deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan.

As the Los Angeles Times recently reported, a new study on this tragedy found an annual suicide rate for veterans that was 50 percent higher than the civilian population. The study tracked every veteran who served in active-duty units between 2001 and 2007 and also left the military in that time period. It followed these veterans through 2009, determining there were 1,868 suicides.

That meant a suicide rate of 29.5 per 100,000 veterans, which is significantly higher than the civilian population. But that is hardly surprising, unfortunately. Perhaps more compelling, the study’s findings highlighted the complexities of this tragic issue. Despite popular perception, the suicide rate was slightly higher for veterans who never deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan.
read more here

Lets start with that claim.

The military does physical and psychological testing for every recruit. If they were suffering from any mental health issues before enlisting, then the tests failed if this is true. In other words, the military has been incompetent.

Staying they were not deployed also showed that the suicide prevention efforts were also incompetent if they were so inadequate even non-deployed service members found living impossible and committed suicide.

How any reasonable leader would expect Comprehensive Soldier Fitness to work on the deployed as well as multiply deployed, when it didn't even work on non-deployed, shows more incompetence.

And exactly what price did any of these leaders have to pay for their failures? They paid no price at all while suicides within the military went up and the numbers of deployed into two war zones went down.

What is the most delusional of all is the suicide rate of the younger soldiers the military no longer have to count has gone up as well.

Delusional
Psychiatry. maintaining fixed false beliefs even when confronted with facts, usually as a result of mental illness:

Taking a look at the fact that discovering a recruit had made a mistake in enlisting, it isn't as if they can just quit and move onto something else. The discharge stays with them the rest of their lives.

College students change their majors all the time, but they just do some paperwork.

Some students go to college knowing exactly what they want to do. But most don’t. At Penn State, 80 percent of freshmen — even those who have declared a major — say they are uncertain about their major, and half will change their minds after they declare, sometimes more than once.

Quitting the military

Joining the military is not like getting a job a McDonalds™. You can't simply quit because you don't like it. You signed a contract, and you took an oath, and you are legally (and morally) obligated to complete the terms of the contract, even if you don't like it.

And then there is the discharge that will be part of them the rest of their lives.

Under Other Than Honorable Conditions (UOTHC). This is the worst service characterization that can be given for an administrative discharge. It means that the servicemember did not meet the expected levels of conduct and/or performance required of military members. Usually, a person with an UOTHC discharge is not eligible for veteran benefits, but the actual decision is made on a case-by-case basis by the Department of Veteran Affairs (VA).

There you have part of the problem when the military talks about "non-deployed" committing suicide. Top that off again with their "resilience training" causing more of a trainwreck, you get the idea.

Then full swing back to what is happening to our veterans. We've heard it all before. They passed the Joshua Omvig Suicide Prevention Bill and then a huge stack of others just like it so some senator from a district can act like he/she cares so they can turn around and gain some votes from veterans. Nice trick but veterans notice when they've been lied to and let down.

Reporters, well, hell, if they can jump on something that is popular then great gain for them and a lot easier than exposing the massive failures that created more and more veterans with their names on bills as well as the tombstone.

Clay Hunt committed suicide long after all the other bills were passed and paid for by taxpayers as well as the other veterans who committed suicide because they didn't have the help they were promised to train well enough to survive stateside.

We have to waste time on fixing what they got wrong all these years or what they've gotten right won't work for as many veterans needing help to heal.

The VA has some really great programs going for them from outreach efforts online to Yoga, meditation, nutrition, support groups, one on one therapy and telehealth. What do we talk about? We have to talk about what they got wrong so that part gets fixed too.

When it comes to PTSD, they've been working on that for generations. No one seems to be able to explain how so many veterans have fallen into the abyss at the same time.

Peer Support works best, yet if the peer only knows as much as the veteran in pain, it sucks hope out of the room. Peer support is yet one more effort the politicians have patted themselves on the back for, but in the case of New York, they actually got it right under the PFC Joseph Dwyer PTSD Peer-to-Peer Veterans Counseling Program.

`Veterans' Mental Health Outreach and Access Act of 2007 pretty much sums up how long that has been talked about. Peer support was also in the Joshua Omvig Suicide Prevention Act.

The lesson here is a simple one. Fix what is broken so that what works is able to work. Unless we do this, we'll see more veterans suffering instead of healing and more politicians putting names of the dead on bills they've already done.

VA Exposes Patients to Unlicensed Prosthetists Suppliers

Veterans Affairs reviews prosthetics lab after complaints 
Columbus Dispatch
By Nathan Baca and Jodi Andes
WBNS-10TV

Sunday February 22, 2015 After a blood clot forced the amputation of his left leg in 2012, retired Navy Cmdr. Robert Haas was counting on the prosthetics lab at Columbus’ Chalmers P. Wylie VA Ambulatory Center to help him regain his mobility.

Sadly, he says, his trust was misplaced.

Despite multiple attempts, the prosthetist assigned to care for Haas at the East Side facility proved unable to fit the 30-year veteran with an artificial leg that would enable him to walk — or even stand — without excruciating pain.

Haas’ months-long ordeal — coupled with similar accounts from more than a dozen other central Ohio amputees — triggered a review by the Department of Veterans Affairs’ inspector general. The findings have yet to be released.

It also brought to light a VA hiring practice that potentially exposes patients to unlicensed prosthetists who would be barred from working in civilian health care — at least in Ohio, which imposed minimum training requirements more than a decade ago. 

Among those alarmed by the situation is U.S. Rep. Steve Stivers, R-Upper Arlington, a colonel in the Ohio Army National Guard.

“It is troubling to me to know that federal law doesn’t protect our veterans at the same level that the civilian population is protected,” Stivers said.

read more here

Double amputee Bradley Walker goes through physical therapy to get used to a computerized prosthetic leg CNN VA Troubled History

Some Say Iraq Veteran Senator is Not Combat Veteran?

Criticism of senator's war record rankles veterans 
Military Times
By Leo Shane III, Staff writer
February 19, 2015

Mark Seavey, new media manager at the American Legion and an an expert in stolen valor cases, said he worries that criticisms like those leveled at Ernst confuse actual cases in which troops or imposters claim military honors they never earned. Ernst has not claimed any medals or campaign awards beyond her record.

Sen. Joni Ernst, on Capitol Hill with other members of the Senate Armed Services Committee, has been criticized by some veterans for saying she is a combat veteran.
(Photo: BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/Getty Images)

No one disputes that Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, served with the National Guard in a combat zone.

So the recent round of questions about whether she counts as a "combat veteran" has made more than a few former service members uncomfortable and upset.

But they aren't necessarily surprised.

"This kind of stuff has been going on for generations," said Phil Carter, director of veterans programs at the Center for a New American Security. "We've seen conversations about peacetime service as opposed to wartime service. We've seen veterans from different wars trade stories about who had it tougher.

"But so few people have an appreciation for what military service is that these arguments start to take on a controversial quality about what 'counts' as service."

Earlier this month, the Huffington Post questioned Ernst's characterization of herself as a "combat veteran," noting she had not been involved in a firefight during her 14-month Middle East deployment.

The Iowa Guard lieutenant colonel commanded the 1168th Transportation Company during the 2003-04 deployment, overseeing transportation runs in Kuwait and southern Iraq and running a protection detail in Kuwait.
read more here

November 7, 2014 2:43 PM Iowa’s new senator-elect has other duties before she heads to Washington. Des Moines — A day after winning one of the most contested Senate seats in the country, Joni Ernst reported for duty at her National Guard base. Ernst, a lieutenant colonel, started two days of training with the 185th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion on Thursday.

War College Of "Dishonesty and Deception"

Study: Soldiers of All Ranks Engage in 'Dishonesty and Deception' 
UPI
Feb 20, 2015

A recent U.S. Army War College study states "dishonesty and deception" among Army personnel is common, often encouraged to maintain a false sense of integrity.

In the study called "Lying to Ourselves," the War College's Strategic Studies Institute interviewed Army personnel from all ranks and found that lies permeate throughout the military institution, whether by civilians or those in uniform.

Officers sometimes face a "suffocating amount" of tasks.

Often, they use phrases to make it seem as if they complied to all requirements demanded. Personnel do this to "sugarcoat the hard reality that in the routine performance of their duties as leaders and commanders, U.S. Army officers often resort to evasion and deception," the study said.

The most highlighted rationalization to partake in dishonesty is that it is often necessary to lie because the task asked of personnel or the reporting required of them is unreasonable, irritating or "dumb." "I think some expectation of equivocation is accepted on dumb things," one officer said. 

Staff officers in the Department of the Army revealed that sometimes reports they receive aren't fully trusted. This means that personnel who request information and those who supply it know that the information is questionable, the study said. "We don't trust our compliance data," one officer said. read more here

Lawsuit After Navy Yard Shooting Shows Failures

Navy Yard Shooting Lawsuit Moved out of Florida 
Broward Palm Beach Times
By Chris Joseph
Feb. 19 2015

The original lawsuit pointed out several multi-million dollar contracts The Experts, Inc. has had with the U.S. Special Operations Command and U.S. Central Command at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa. The suit also names the U.S. Navy, the Department of Veterans Affairs and two defense contractors as defendants. The family has been seeking $37.5 million in damages.

photo: United States Department of the Navy (CCTV), FBI via Wikimedia Commons CCTV footage of Aaron Alexis on September 16, 2013

The lawsuit filed by the family of Florida resident Mary DeLorenzo Knight, one of the victims slain by Aaron Alexis during the Washington Navy Yard massacre in 2013, has been ordered out of Florida by a federal judge. The suit, filed in December 2013, alleges negligence by the government. 

Alexis, who had been contracted by Fort Lauderdale-based The Experts Inc., had access to the building in the Naval Yard in Washington D.C.

On September 16, Alexis shot and killed DeLorenzo and twelve others before he was killed during a standoff with police.

DeLorenzo Knight's sister, Patricia DeLorenzo, filed the lawsuit against the government in Tampa, but U.S. District Judge Steven Merryday ordered it transferred out of the state to Washington, D.C. since the shooting took place there.

DeLorenzo's suit argues that, prior to the shootings, Alexis had been behaving erratically, but that The Experts Inc. failed to report his behavior to the U.S. Navy.

DeLorenzo's family is the first of the victims' families to come forth with a lawsuit of this kind since the tragedy, saying that the government also failed to give Alexis -- who suffered from mental problems -- the proper security clearance.

The suit claims the VA never treated Alexis's mental illness when he was admitted to a VA E.R. for insomnia a month before the shootings. He had also been arrested multiple times for post-traumatic stress disorder, anger management and alcohol abuse.
read more here

Missing Veteran Richard Miles Found Frozen in Park

UPDATE
Discovery of veteran's frozen body leads Ernst to call for review

Friends Question If Veteran’s Death Could Have Been Prevented 
13 News WHO TV
BY JODI WHITWORTH
FEBRUARY 21, 2015

DES MOINES, Iowa –Family, friends and colleagues are mourning the death Richard Miles but they also question whether his death would have been prevented.

On Friday, police discovered the 41 – year – old’s body partially frozen in Water Works Park.

Authorities say his death is not considered suspicious but according to his friends, Miles was suffering from issues that likely lead to him taking his own life.

Miles was in the Army and deployed to the Middle East three times. Friends say he was proud to serve in the military and claimed it only had positive effects on him. However, Aller realizes his friend may have been quietly dealing with severe depression for years.

“According to a text from him a week and a half ago, Richard was looking to spend sometime in the hospital to work things out. That was the last time I spoke to him,” says Allers.

Miles visited the V.A. Hospital numerous times and was treated with medication but he wanted long term hospitalization and evaluation. Allers says, “He [ Miles] did seek out that help and went through the appropriate channels he knew to follow, unfortunately it’s our belief he was let down with the assistance he was given which potentially lead us to where we are today.”

In the midst of his struggle, Miles, was a familiar face the Science Center of Iowa. He developed and presented astronomy exhibits.
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