Standoff on 1-35 With Texas Veteran Ends With Help

I-35 closed during 2-hour standoff with veteran on freeway 
WacoTrib.com
By OLIVIA MESSER
April 4, 2015

It was then that the man told officers he was trying to get to the Veterans Administration hospital in Temple when he ran out of gasoline.

Police confirmed he was a veteran and took him to the hospital. Investigators were waiting Saturday afternoon to talk to doctors and decide whether to file charges, Dickson said.

Lorena police and supporting agencies safely ended a two-hour standoff with a veteran threatening to harm himself on Interstate 35 near the Rosenthal Road exit Saturday morning.

Both north- and southbound lanes of the highway as well as the access roads were closed by the Texas Department of Transportation until the man surrendered about 10:45 a.m.

Traffic was detoured around the area for approximately two hours.
read more here

Army Heads Afraid of Reporters After Wounded Transitioned Into Hell

Wounded soldiers’ treatment not just a Texas problem
Dallas News
By David Tarrant, Scott Friedman (NBC 5) and Eva Parks (NBC 5)
Published on April 3, 2015

Complaints of Army harassment afflict transition units across U.S. and persist despite promised remedies

The Army surgeon general’s office is in charge of the Army Medical Command, which oversees the WTUs. Lt. Gen. Patricia Horoho, the Army’s surgeon general, declined multiple requests for an interview. Army Secretary John McHugh also declined to be interviewed, citing an ongoing investigation of the Fort Hood WTU that began after the initial reports last fall by The News and KXAS-TV.

Lt. Gen. Patricia Horoho, the Army’s surgeon general, ordered an investigation at Fort Carson after a soldier on the Colorado base complained of mistreatment by behavioral health professionals. She told Pentagon reporters in February that the case did not indicate a “systemic” problem with Army care.
(AP Photo/Cliff Owen)

The complaints roll in from soldiers across the country.

Fort Knox, Ky., Nov. 4, 2013: “The leadership in his company does not care about soldiers, treats them like garbage and talks down to them.”

Fort Irwin, Calif., May 23, 2014: “The unit is dysfunctional and is causing more stress to the … soldiers than they are helping.”

And Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany, Sept. 4, 2014: Soldier “felt threatened by the platoon SGT.”

These are not examples of a tough dressing-down of regular infantry by an old-school sergeant.

These complaints come from wounded, injured or ill soldiers who are supposed to find caring and healing at the U.S. Army’s Warrior Transition Units, or WTUs, but instead are experiencing mistreatment and harassment by superiors.

Many of the soldiers are getting treatment for physical or psychological wounds suffered in combat.

Since 2010, across the country, WTU soldiers have lodged more than 1,100 complaints about the way their chain of command treated them at more than two dozen WTUs, according to an ongoing investigation by The Dallas Morning News and its broadcast partner, KXAS-TV (NBC5).

Fort Bragg, in North Carolina, had the most complaints, with 163 reports in the five-year time frame; Fort Hood, in Killeen, was second with 142.

In November, The News/KXAS-TV investigation first revealed problems at three Texas WTUs. Reporters examined complaints filed to the Army’s ombudsman program from soldiers at Fort Hood; Fort Bliss, in El Paso; and Brooke Army Medical Center at Fort Sam Houston, in San Antonio.

On Feb. 3, a top Army official appeared before a congressional hearing to address the problems at the Texas WTUs. Col. Chris Toner heads the Warrior Transition Command in Alexandria, Va., which provides oversight and policy guidance for the WTU system.

Toner confirmed that there had been incidents of “disrespect, harassment and belittlement of soldiers” at Texas WTUs from 2009 to 2013. At Fort Bliss, he said, there were problems “beyond a shadow of a doubt.”
read more here
Reducing Military Suicides Impossible Dream With These Folks In Charge

WWII Veteran Improved According to VA, Actually Clinically Deaf

You know the commercial with "Can you hear me now?" Well that is all I can think about because apparently the VA didn't hear this WWII veteran when they cut his disability until a reporter got involved in the story and then suddenly, they seem to have heard him loud and clear.

WWII vet, 91, struggles with VA lag
Ocala.com
By April Warren Staff writer
Published: Saturday, April 4, 2015

"Sullivan said she was first contacted by the VA on Friday, the day after the Star-Banner contacted the VA to inquire about Desario’s case. She said a VA official told her it will now order more tests for Desario."

Joseph DeSario, 90, who was a top turret gunner on a B-24 Liberator during World War II points to the spot just below where he was positioned in the bomber in a painting at his home in Marion Woods Senior Living in Ocala, Fla. on Monday, Oct. 27, 2014.
Bruce Ackerman/Ocala Star-Banner

The 2½ years Joseph Desario spent in the military during World War II have remained with him forever.

Desario, 91, can still recall with detail his work as a top turret gunner on 30 missions aboard the B-24 Liberator, a four-engine bomber. He was stationed behind the pilot, but between the roaring engines, operating twin .50 caliber machine guns over Europe.

Desario survived two plane crashes, which later led to the replacement of both his knees.

Upon his honorable discharge in 1945, Desario was given a certification of disability. In recent years, he received an overall combined disability evaluation rating of 80 percent, which took into account two service connected disabilities: post-traumatic stress disorder and bilateral hearing loss.

“The noise was tremendous all the time,” Desario’s daughter, Mary Lynn Miraglia, said of the gun noise, blasts around the planes and lack of protective earwear.

In October 2013, Desario applied for an increase in compensation in the individual unemployability category. Instead, his benefits were cut by about $600 a month when test results indicated an improvement in his hearing.

The result later was refuted by a clinical audiologist who said her evaluation found Desario to be legally deaf.
read more here

Gulf War Veteran Lost Everything Waiting 20 Years For VA Claim Approval

A veteran's long battle for benefits 
MYFOXAtlanta
By Aungelique Proctor, FOX 5 Reporter
Updated: Apr 03, 2015

FOX 5's Aungelique Proctor asked Muckle, “You are telling me the VA made you feel like you were nothing?” He lamented, “All the time. Like a piece of trash. I been taking paperwork to the VA for 20 years trying to get it straight."

Gulf War veteran Ronald Muckle says losing his East Point house is just one of the many calamities that happened to him while waiting for years to get the VA to approve his disability.

He says he went into the Navy at 17 years old and served for decades as a recruiter and even a flight engineer. But the 63-year-old says the problems started when he returned from Abu Dhabi in 1995.

He describes his body as "broken down" at that point. "I have the vertigo, tinnitus, hearing loss -- see where I have the hearing aids now. I have adjustment disorder, PTSD, MDD, manic depression. I have problems with my back; I have problems with my foot. I have digestive problems,” said Muckle.

Muckle says he served our country for 24 years, but he says he has gotten nothing but the run around from the VA following his service. He says the lack of his disability benefits led him to hit rock bottom. He ended up with a house in foreclosure, lost his family through a divorce and even became homeless. He blames the Veterans Administration for is problems.
read more here

Woman Killed in South Carolina Random Shooting

South Carolina woman killed in random shooting by former Soldier who claims PTSD
Examiner.com
Susy Raybon
April 4, 2-15

At 1:30 p.m. Thursday afternoon, Lynn Michelle Harrison was randomly gunned down on her way to have lunch with her son. In what appears to be a random act of violence, Harrison, 57, was shot in the neck while at a traffic light in Summerville, South Carolina. She died at the scene.

Adding to the tragedy, yesterday the shooter, Jimi Redman, Jr.,32, a felon from Fort Worth, Texas, said he is a former Army Soldier who is suffering from PTSD, post-traumatic stress disorder. When he appeared in bond court, his body language, on video released yesterday, (broadcast locally) seemed unapologetic for the senseless killing.
read more here

Congress No Longer Ashamed of What They Did to Veterans

Congress Pushing VA to Disaster
Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
April 5, 2015

When I had more time and wasn't working a full time job plus doing this work, I wrote on Veterans Today. I was looking up a quote from John Boehner on privatizing the VA when I rediscovered a post I did way back in 2011. "Fix The VA Don't Break It"

It started with this.

"One of the biggest problems tracking reports across the country is that there are days when I get hit with more news than I can stand. It makes my head hurt to think of how far we’ve come, then get whacked with one bad news report after another."

Privatizing VA still appeals to Boehner reported by the Columbus Dispatch May 24, 2014. He said the idea seems to still be a good one. So how is it that the reporters didn't ask him what that really meant?

Decades? He has been pushing to privatize the VA for decades? Did it ever dawn on him that in the process of his goals it would mean that millions of disabled veterans would suffer? They have been pushing the VA to disaster all this time and hoped no one would notice.

The post I wrote ended with this.

"These problems are easy to ignore if they remain local issues but when you look at what is going on across the country, it is clear there is a huge problem. The VA has an obligation to provide care to our veterans no matter where they live. Fixing the VA is about taking care of all veterans now or tomorrow people wanting to privatize the VA will win and veterans will lose."

Here we are and the evidence is in that the Congress has been screwing veterans for decades and are no longer ashamed to admit it.

After all, the Congress is responsible for what happens. They pass all the bills and fund them. They also have an obligation to be the watchdogs over all the departments including the VA.

Legislation Within the Jurisdiction of the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs


Veterans' measures generally.

Pensions of all the wars of the U.S., general and special.

Life insurance issued by the government on account of service in the Armed Forces.

Compensation, vocational rehabilitation, and education of veterans.

Veterans' hospitals, medical care, and treatment of veterans.

Soldiers' and Sailors' Civil Relief.

Readjustment of servicemen to civilian life.

National Cemeteries.

How long have they had to get this right? Since 1946!

If they wanted to really take care of our veterans, they would have done it decades ago!

Denver VA Hospital Sign Historical Reminder

Like most states, no one thought about veterans ahead of time. When this hospital was built, troops were in fighting in Korea for about a year. "Almost 40,000 Americans died in action in Korea, and more than 100,000 were wounded."

Unlike World War II and Vietnam, the Korean War did not get much media attention in the United States. The most famous representation of the war in popular culture is the television series “M*A*S*H,” which was set in a field hospital in South Korea. The series ran from 1972 until 1983, and its final episode was the most-watched in television history.

No one was talking about what was happening to them when they came home either. Understandable to assume that what were read in the newspapers today is all new since no one knew what was going on other than the veterans and their families.

"The main building of the Denver hospital, built in 1951 and renovated in 1986, is showing incurable signs of age. As many as three patients are crowded into single rooms."

The 80th Congressional session would have planned and funded the hospital before troops were sent into Korea. Construction began during the 81st. It is easy to assume they did not change the plans as more wounded were coming home from Korea since the renovations did not start until over ten years after troops were out of Vietnam.

When no one plans for what wars do, veterans suffer. This has been repeated throughout our history and shows no sign of changing.

When Congress approved of sending troops into Afghanistan, there were already veterans waiting for care in long lines and for claims to be approved. When they approved of sending troops into Iraq, the lines were longer, waits were longer. What did not grow proportionately preparing for the newly wounded and disabled was the VA.

No political party has taken responsibility for any of this. No politician has been held accountable. The only people found responsible by the public were the heads of the VA during the time when reporters actually cared to report on what was happening to our veterans at the time. God forbid they actually looked back to see how it got this bad or how long it had been going on.

So when you read the rest of this, understand that Congress doomed veterans to history being repeated generations after generations.


Baffled, angry: Veterans share views on current VA hospital conditions
The Denver Post
By David Olinger
POSTED:04/05/2015

Some ask how many more veterans will die
before the new hospital opens.

Darrell Myers, 69, served in the Army but has had problems with his care at the VA Hospital in Denver after a colonoscopy in March. Myers has no complaints about the treatment he gets as a VA patient. "I get very good care from my doctors," he said. But he cannot say the same about the hospital conditions that veterans endure while the VA struggles to finish its new state-of-the-art facility.
(Cyrus McCrimmon, The Denver Post)

Darrell Myers praises his Department of Veterans Affairs doctors and relies exclusively on the VA for medical care. But last month, a routine colonoscopy at the VA's aging Denver medical center morphed into a massive bleeding episode, a four-day hospital admission and a blood test mix-up. While he was there, an electrical fire erupted on his floor, and his bathroom door was taped shut.

Ralph Bozella arrived early at the Denver hospital last month for a cancer test. He and other patients ended up sitting in hospital gowns in a hallway because the biopsy room had been commandeered for something more urgent.

"If anybody thinks we don't need a new hospital," he said, "come on down and check yourself in."

Last month, a new price estimate for a medical campus being built in Aurora sent shock waves through Congress.

The VA originally estimated the Aurora hospital could be built for $328 million. Construction began three years ago with a $600 million budget, and Congress has authorized spending up to $800 million. But after the Army Corps of Engineers stepped in to investigate its status and end a stalemate with the construction contractor, the VA issued a stunning new estimate: $1.73 billion.
read more here

Jacksonville VA Canceled Nearly 60,000 Veterans' Health Appointments

Aside from the powerful head of the House Veterans Affairs Committee is from Florida, Jeff Miller has been just one in a very long line of politicians blaming the VA at the same time making promises to fix it.

How can they fix it when so many of their buddies want to kill the VA and send veterans to private, for profit doctors and hospitals? After all, it aside from being the right thing to do, fixing the VA would actually save money however veterans are not as powerful as wealthy donors to their reelection campaigns.

Don't they know veterans have been suffering for decades while politicians make speeches?


Jacksonville VA canceled nearly 60,000 veterans' health appointments in 14-month span
Jacksonville.com
By Clifford Davis
Apr 3, 2015

Out of 117,117 canceled appointments from Jan 1, 2014, to March 1, 2015, the clinic canceled 59,661 of them, according to data provided by the VA through a Freedom of Information Act request made by the Times-Union.

In February, the assistant director of the North Florida/South Georgia VA Health System pointed to canceled appointments as a contributing factor in the Jacksonville clinic’s wait times, which are the worst for any major VA facility in the country.

What Nick Ross failed to mention was that the clinic — not patients — was responsible for canceling more than half of those appointments.

“We have a fairly high number of folks who either cancel their appointment or no-show, this accounting system really doesn’t take that into effect because it’s cumulative,” Ross said when presented with Jacksonville’s wait times.

Then, as now, roughly a quarter of veterans at the Jacksonville clinic don’t get seen within the VA’s 30-day target, more than seven percent higher any other major facility in the nation. “If you take that into account, technically speaking, we can’t do anything about that.”

The numbers tell another story.
read more here

Long After War The Ink Remains and the Link

The long fight over military tattoos just hit a new phase
Washington Post
By Dan Lamothe
April 3, 2015

"Long after war, the ink remains"

WarInk

For Veterans Day last year, a new project was launched to get those who have served to open up about their military experience. The vehicle for doing so was unusual, but common among veterans: tattoos.

War Ink made a splash, with coverage by Buzzfeed, PBS, USA Today and other news organizations.

It showed veterans discussing tattoos and the circumstances under which they got them, which can range from the celebration of a coveted assignment to the mourning of a fallen friend.

It is for all those reasons that ongoing discussions in both the Army and Marine Corps have grabbed attention among service members and veterans alike. Army Gen. Raymond T. Odierno said Wednesday that strict rules on tattoos in his service put in place last year will be rolled back. Marine Gen. Joseph F. Dunford, meanwhile, also said recently that his service is reviewing existing tattoo policies. They were last updated in 2010.
read more here

War Ink is a virtual exhibit that combines video, photography and audio to present the stories of veterans with tattoos. (YouTube: War Ink)

Veterans Connect to Other Veterans

Breakfast, camaraderie helping to heal local vets 
Sentinel and Enterprise
By Cliff Clark
04/03/2015

"For me, I like getting to hang out with other vets. It feels good to be around these guys, and I've made a lot of new friends,"

FITCHBURG -- As the group of veterans were sitting down for breakfast Friday morning at the Airport Diner, they exchanged handshakes, pleasant greetings and the warm, knowing smiles of men who shared the common bond of fighting for our country's freedom.

They were there to spend a few minutes having a hot meal and to quietly discuss the daily challenges they face coping with life after the military.

"They're here to talk about the serious issues they can all relate to," said John Churcher, a U.S. Army veteran and founder of Vet Together, a support group he created to provide an outlet for vets to get together and talk out their challenges.

The breakfast, sponsored by IC Federal Credit Union, was one of many events Churcher provides to veterans to give them a chance to blow off a little steam and have some fun while reconnecting with their comrades in arms.

For one veteran of the Iraqi War, Vet Together is a place for him re-experience the strong bonds created when a unit of soldiers work together to accomplish a mission.

"After I got out of the military one of the big things I missed was the camaraderie and the brotherhood. Putting these guys together gives them a piece of what they might be missing from their active duty," said Gabe Nutter, a U.S. Army veteran who saw combat in Iraq in 2005-06, and struggled with post traumatic stress disorder when he returned home.

Leominster Firefighter Ryan Young, a U.S. Army veteran, attends the Vet Together events to spend time with other veterans.

"For me, I like getting to hang out with other vets. It feels good to be around these guys, and I've made a lot of new friends," said Young.

Young, like all the veterans at Friday's event, thanked Churcher and Mike Cooley, who hosts the local cable talk show Cool Talk, for putting together the monthly breakfast at the Airport Diner, which is owned by Gene Collette and Steve Shank.
read more here