Son's suicide sparks man's crusade to bring PTSD awareness
Standard Examiner
Mitch Shaw
SUNDAY , MAY 03, 2015
“For him to take his own life — I just couldn’t fathom it,” Vigil said. “I really couldn’t believe it.”
Image by: BENJAMIN ZACK/STANDARD-EXAMINER
Mark Vigil, left, and Beaver Prince lean over the frame of the military jeep that they are restoring at Prince's Hooper home on Thursday, April 30, 2015. Vigil plans to use the jeep in parades and local events to raise awareness about PTSD through his non-profit, Miles of Hope.
HOOPER — Mark Vigil wants the memories of how his son lived his life to outweigh the thoughts of how it ended.
Vigil’s son Miles died by suicide in late 2010 after struggling with severe post-traumatic stress disorder that followed a tour of duty with the Army in Afghanistan. Since his son’s death, Vigil has been on a crusade to raise both money and awareness for military-induced PTSD, suicide and veterans in general.
According to a Department of Veterans Affairs 2012 report on suicide in the military, veterans comprised more than 22 percent of all suicides in the United States between fiscal years 2009 and 2012.
The report used data from only 21 states and noted that the “prevalence estimate is assumed to be constant across all U.S. states.” Based on these numbers, the reports says, an estimated 22 veterans died from suicide each day during the time the research was conducted.
Vigil says the late November morning his 28-year-old son became a part of those horrible statistics will haunt him forever, but after many dark hours, he’s found a way to honor the kid whom he simply describes as “one of a kind.” read more here
Local vet just wants to go to the grocery store
First Coast News
Jeannie Blaylock
May 1, 2015
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Let's say you're craving ribs or chocolate chip cookies. What do you do?
Head to the grocery store of course. And so a trip to the grocery store is no big deal to most of us, but it is to many of our veterans dealing with PTSD. In fact, to them it can be a nightmare.
James Rutland is a 12-year veteran who lives in Jacksonville. Obviously a sharp guy, Rutland is frustrated with the 41 pills he got from the VA.
He says they just throw him into a zombie state.
His medical diagnosis of PTSD, however, enabled him to apply for K9s for Warriors, a local non-profit which matches trained and certified service dogs to veterans.
Rutland visited with the K9s staff and put in his application. He recently found out he's been accepted into the program.
The problem? He has to be on the waiting list until January 2016.
Former Green Beret and Texas long snapper Nate Boyer hopes to hook on in NFL
USA TODAY
Nate Davis
Sports
May 2, 2015
(UPDATE: Boyer was offered a contract by the Seattle Seahawks after the NFL draft concluded Saturday evening.)
Boyer served multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. (Photo: Courtesy Nate Boyer)
Nate Boyer is a special teams ace, which seems highly appropriate once you're familiar with his background.
A man who willingly tackles challenges, Boyer is currently trying to surmount a huge one — latching on with an NFL team as a long snapper.
At 5-11, 220 pounds and 34 years of age, he is the longest of long shots. But unfavorable odds typically don't deter men who have served with the Green Berets, and Boyer's beaten them before.
After serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, he decided at age 29 that he better attend college, fearing he never would otherwise. In the process of matriculating at the University of Texas, Boyer also walked onto the football team even though he'd never played a competitive down in his life. read more here
VA Crisis Line under investigation
Military Times
By Patricia Kime, Staff writer
May 2, 2015
Amid concerns that the Veterans Affairs Department's suicide hotline has left veterans stranded during high-volume call periods, a senator has asked VA to investigate the service to ensure it is meeting veterans' needs.
Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., recently sent a letter to VA Secretary Bob McDonald asking for data on the Crisis Line's call volume, hold times, and average wait times between when a call is made and the caller can see a VA therapist or counselor, or a community provider, in person.
Nelson's request was made in response to a news report by Tampa television station WFTS that Air Force veteran Ted Koran was placed on hold repeatedly for up to 10 minutes at a time as he fought off suicidal thoughts.
According to the report, Koran's wife died of cancer last year and he was despondent the day he made the call.
But when he dialed, he was placed on hold numerous times. After he reached a counselor, he said he did not feel comforted, according to the report.
"They had me on the [verge] of saying to hell with it," he said, according to WFTS.
Since its creation in 2007, the Veterans Crisis Line has fielded more than 1.6 million calls and is credited with 48,000 rescues, according to VA. read more here
Here is the story of what happened that time.
Veteran says he was repeatedly put on hold by veterans' suicide hotline
Hotline has problems with handling number of calls
ABC News
Adam Walser
Apr 13, 2015
He put himself in danger to protect our country, but when he needed help to save his own life all he got was a recorded message. Ted Koran was thinking about committing suicide Saturday night.
He reached out to the VA and the Veterans Suicide Hotline for help, but said he couldn't get any until after he was repeatedly put on hold for up to 10 minutes at time.
Veterans in Crisis: Vets put on hold for 36 minutes His case is just the latest the I-Team has been exposing for months now.
When the Veterans Crisis Hotline was first set up by the VA in 2007, it averaged 60 calls a day on four manned phone lines.
Now, 52 operators at a time field about a thousand calls a day, and that's not always even enough to keep some veterans on the verge of suicide from being placed on hold. read more here
And before that
Veterans describe runaround when calling crisis line; Texas man records 36 minutes on hold
KJRH News
Amanda Kost, Scripps News
Isaac Wolf, Scripps News
Feb 23, 2015
WASHINGTON D.C. - 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-hour, seven-day-a week 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. read more here
His story came out the same day this did.
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
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. read more here
Wonder if they thought to include what else was going on?
This was part of the Joshua Omvig Suicide Prevention Act in 2007. Ever since then veterans have been complaining to members of Congress about what was happening to them when they did call. Not much changed. So now we get yet another investigation to be followed by even more hearings. No one seems to know when we get something that actually works.
I was watching WESH 2 News this morning and they were reporting on the protest in Orlando over the death of Freddie Gray in Baltimore. They called it a "high profile" story.
'We're human beings. We all need to care about each other and that's not what I'm seeing," demonstrator Krystal Pherai said.
She is right. We should care about each other. What she isn't seeing is what is happening to veterans all over the country everyday in America. They come home from wherever they are sent and simply don't get the help they need to be pulled from the brink of total despair. No matter how many times we've heard the American people care about them, the result is always the same. They are forgotten about. People move on until the next scandal and they become a story that is supposed to matter.
What doesn't matter is people forget all about everything they just learned. Their suffering doesn't end, nothing substantial happens and then the next time a reporter covers another scandal, folks get to pretend it is something new. The cycle goes on and on as history is repeated.
They have no clue how bad it has been for veterans. This report out of Boise sums up what the average citizen isn't aware of.
Boise Police Department
On average, Boise police officers encounter approximately one veteran per week facing a crisis and in need of assistance, and officers are provided the opportunity to aid in referring the veteran to one of the network partners. These interactions demonstrate the value of the program, and that its objective is being met.
At least they are talking about what veterans are going through. Too bad it hasn't become a "high profile" news story. The population of Boise is 214,237 yet every week they have to respond to a veteran in crisis. There are only 16,725 in Boise.
The VA has the Veterans Center where veterans are supposed to be able to get help they need before they end up in crisis.
The Vet Center
Ten Minutes Away
As fate would have it, there was a Vet Center just 10 minutes down the road from where Beatty worked at Fort Belvoir.
“When I walked in there, everything changed for me,” she said. “I had individual sessions with a female therapist, and 12 weeks of Cognitive Processing Therapy to specifically address my PTSD. I also completed a 12-week trauma group that was designed for women Veterans. I had always felt alone in my trauma, but being surrounded by supportive women who understood what I was going through was comforting. It helped me a lot.”
On April 4th a freeway was shut down because there was a police standoff with a suicidal veteran.
WacoTrib.com
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.
But here is another one that was resolved and the veteran is finally getting help.
AUSTIN (KXAN) — Less than one week after being found not guilty by a Travis County jury on charges of assaulting a police officer, Marine veteran Gene Vela says he will check himself into a Veteran Affairs clinic in Temple on Tuesday.
In an exclusive interview with KXAN’s Sally Hernandez, Vela, 31, says he’ll be getting treatment for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Treatment was something he was trying to do for months before he was shot three times by Austin police during a stand-off in November 2013, the day before Veteran’s Day.
Why didn't he get help before that? Why did it all this happen?
Brian Babb, Oregon National Guard, had PTSD and TBI. He called for help because he was suicidal. He ended up being shot by police instead.
Veteran’s family pledges to push for changes
Brian Babb’s relatives are proposing a new protocol for police responding to similar incidents in the future
The Register-Guard
By Christian Hill
MAY 3, 2015
(Edited for summary)
The therapist called police to Babb’s home in west Eugene after Babb reported to her that he was contemplating suicide and had fired a handgun in his home.
The therapist, Becky Higgins, remained on the phone with Babb for about 45 minutes. She said her client was beginning to calm down and had unloaded the handgun.
But Higgins said Babb walked away from the call after police directed Babb over a loudspeaker mounted on an armored vehicle to exit his home unarmed, and when a 911 dispatcher directed Higgins over her objections to hang up her line so a crisis negotiator on scene could get in touch with Babb.
Higgins said she had repeated to the 911 dispatcher that Babb had unloaded the handgun, but it’s unclear what information got to the officers on scene.
“We have said that we believe there were multiple points in time that if where a single action had been changed, he would be alive,” said Ronda McGowan, Babb’s other sister. “It would have been a better outcome.” read more here
May 1, 2015
Officials layout a moment by moment timeline of events leading to the fatal shooting of Brian Babb by a Eugene Police Officer during a standoff in Eugene March 30th, 2015. (Chris Pietsch/The Register-Guard)
My first thought was why didn't the negotiator talk to his therapist? After all, she was on the phone with 9-11.
“Nothing I’ve said here is intended to suggest there was no possible alternative or no possible better outcome or nothing could have fallen differently,” Gardner said. “We have the benefit of lots of information now that we didn’t have then.”
It is also puzzling as to why they didn't use tear gas or a flash grenade?
A stun grenade, also known as a flash grenade or flashbang, is a non-lethal explosive device used to temporarily disorient an enemy's senses. It is designed to produce a blinding flash of light and intensely loud noise "bang" of greater than 170 decibels (dB) without causing permanent injury.
After the roommate walked out of the house, there was no one else in the home other than Babb.
So yes, veterans should be a high profile story. The question is, when will the national media notice a national crisis for our veterans?
Victim Of Deadly Interstate 35 Motorcycle Crash Was Vietnam Veteran
KWTX News Texas
By: Ben Griffin
May 1, 2015
A 67-year-old man who died Friday morning in a motorcycle accident on Interstate 35 was a Vietnam veteran and a member of the Central Texas chapter of the Patriot Guard Riders.
SALADO (May 1, 2015) The motorcyclist killed Friday morning when his three-wheeled bike overturned and landed on top of him following a crash with another vehicle on Interstate 35 in Salado was identified Friday evening as Robert D. Binkely 67, of Round Rock.
Binkely was a Vietnam Veteran and member of the Patriot Guard Riders, Ron “Joker” Smith of the Patriot Guard Riders Central Texas Region said.
Binkley participated in more than 850 honor missions over the past five years, Smith said, and was dedicated to veterans and the veterans’ community.
read more here
Hundreds Gather For Funeral Of Homeless Oklahoma Veteran
6 News Oklahoma
Posted: May 01, 2015
OKLAHOMA CITY - Hundreds packed into the chapel to say goodbye to Jerry Bryan Billings. Even more stood outside.
Billings was born in 1945 in Sulphur. He died on Christmas Eve at the age of 69.
For two months, Christine Hoffman with Oklahoma County Social services tried to track down his family. But after having no success, she contacted Dignity Memorial Homeless Veterans Burial program. And after word got out on social media about the memorial service, it went viral.
"This was just amazing, absolutely amazing, my heart is swollen," said Hoffman.
“The more people that will show up to celebrate the life of these veterans, the more meaningful it is,” said Chapel Hill Funeral General Manager, Todd Tramel.
“Sometimes it brings tears to you just because these men and women gave so much for our country and just to celebrate their lives, and to give back in a manner like this is beautiful.” read more here
Former Marine Travels Country Offering Free Hugs to Veterans
ABC WSIL News
By Matthew Searcy
Apr 30, 2015
MARION -- A former Marine is traveling across the country, offering a different type of healing to veterans who suffer from PTSD.
Hugs have become a part of the daily routine for former Marine Ian Michael.
"Once the initial hug is made it's like the pebble in the water," said Michael. "Everything ripples out."
Michael travels the country, hitting veteran's hospitals like the Marion VA, all with one goal in mind.
He wants to share a heartfelt moment with veterans who may suffer from the same illness he does.
"At the end of the day love is a powerful emotion," explained Michael. "And when you are suffering from PTSD it's a very distant emotion."
Michael has suffered from PTSD for years.
"I had to overcome a lot of physical, mental, emotional and spiritual barriers," said Michael.
He says hugging people has become a source of healing, allowing him to step outside his comfort zone and raise awareness about PTSD. read more here
Iraq War vet off the sideline, on the links after leg amputation
KSL Golf
By Rod Zundel
May 1, 2015
HERRIMAN — Bryant Jacobs of Herriman is an Iraq War veteran who was hit by a roadside bomb in 2004. He eventually lost his leg, but that hasn’t stopped him from enjoying the game of golf he loves.
Jacobs almost enlisted right out of high school, but went to college briefly and “absolutely hated it,” he said.
After the events of Sept. 11, he and a friend quickly joined the Army. “I think that patriotism came out of everybody,”
Jacobs said.
“Whether it was joining the military or gaining a new respect for our country, we really focused on what our country was about and what we do.”
Jacobs was stationed in Hawaii, but the day he got to his unit, they left for Iraq.
He was a combat engineer, or in other words, a fancy way of playing with C-4 every day, he said.
“Our main objective was taking care of IEDs and caches that we would find,” Jacobs said. “We would dispose of it and blow it up. We got to blow stuff up every day. It was a great job.”
Nearly 11 months into his tour, Jacobs’ unit was clearing the roads before a mission when he got hit by a roadside bomb in December 2004.
They were traveling 50 miles per hour, and then chaos ensued. read more here
Army soldiers portray themselves in theater production
KSAT News
May 1, 2015
'We Serve' goes on 8-month nationwide tour
SAN ANTONIO - In an effort to boost morale, the U.S. Army is putting together a live Broadway-style theater production that features the talents of active duty soldiers.
The production, "We Serve," looks at what it means to serve as a soldier.
"It's for the soldier, by the soldier, giving the message of hope and strength," said Sgt. Quentin Dorn of the Army National Guard.
Pvt. 1st Class Eric Pendleton never thought the military would allow him to be a medic and a performer.
He said being part of the show has helped him cope with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
"Music helps me immensely, and if I can do what I do best and help people through my music, help them forget about the problems they're having, then that's what I want to do," Pendleton said. read more here
