Navy SEAL's Widow Fights in Court

Navy Seal's Death No Suicide, Widow Says
Courthouse News
By JOCELYN RARDIN
May 5, 2015

NORFOLK, Va (CN) - The widow of a traumatized Navy Seal sued Unum Life Insurance Company of America in Federal Court after they denied life-insurance benefits on one of two policies based on a suicide clause.

Jennifer Mullen Collins sued Unum in the Eastern District of Virginia for violating the Employee Retirement Income Security Act after the company refused to honor her husband's supplemental life-insurance policy, believing he had committed suicide.

Special Operations Chief David M. Collins served a 20-year career as a Navy Seal, deployed on multiple grueling back-to-back tours of duty in Afghanistan, Kuwait, and Iraq. As a result of the traumatic experiences he endured in service to his country, he developed chronic traumatic encephalopathy, post-traumatic stress disorder and major-depressive disorder, the complaint states.

During his 20-year career as a Navy Seal, Collins was exposed to multiple blasts and experienced multiple injuries due to combat and combat training. He also suffered multiple concussions.

Upon returning home from his tours of duty, SOC Collins became employed with Blackbird Technologies and in September 2012 he was provided with Unum basic group life insurance for $104,000 and a supplemental policy for $500,000, according to the complaint.

In February 2014 Collins sought treatment at the Naval Medical Center in Portsmouth for his diminished mental abilities. He exhibited symptoms of anxiety, depression, insomnia and memory and concentration problems.

Doctors diagnosed Collins with depressive and anxiety disorders. After two therapy sessions at a counseling center, doctors also diagnosed him with PTSD and major-depressive disorder.

Less than a week later, Collins died "due to the diseases he developed during his service to his country," the complaint states.

Five different doctors evaluated Collins' mental state and each concluded that he was suffering from CTE, PTSD and/or MDD before and at the time of his death. According to the Boston University Center, CTE can only be diagnosed postmortem based on an examination of the fontal lobes of the brain.
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Older Veterans Worried They're Taking UP Space?

Gee wonder where they got that idea? After all, since most charities claiming to be helping veterans seem to have forgotten about them. They are not interested in the fact that older veterans came home with the same exact wounds but waiting longer for help or that all the trouble with the VA today has been going on for decades yet Congress just forgets it was their responsibility to make it work,,,,oh don't get me started!

Expert warns about combat trauma and older veterans at Wyckoff event
North Jersey.com
BY TODD SOUTH
STAFF WRITER
THE RECORD
MAY 5, 2015

Keane said many older veterans, especially of the World War II and Korean War generation, brush off treatment, worried they’re “taking up space” for veterans who need it more.

WYCKOFF – When Joseph Mariniello returned from a year of infantry combat in Vietnam a tight-knit group of neighborhood friends and family surrounded him and encouraged him to talk about the experience over and again.

Looking back, nearly 50 years later, the 74-year-old who lives now in Mahwah, credits that amateur talk therapy as a “cathartic” experience that helped him re-enter the civilian world and avoid the isolation and post-traumatic stress disorder that many fellow combat veterans faced.

What the people close to him could not have known at the time was that their welcoming, engaged care for their friend was a prescription researchers would spend decades studying to help treat PTSD. 

That kind of close attention is exactly what’s needed now, said Terence M. Keane, head of post-traumatic stress disorder behavior research for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

He spoke before a crowd of nearly 400 local veterans at Tuesday’s annual veteran’s breakfast at the Wyckoff YMCA.

Despite increased funding and programs to treat combat trauma among veterans over the past 30 years, connecting a veteran with help often comes down to the people they know. 

“It’s people, the men and women of the community who need to take up the cause of reintegrating veterans into the community,” Keane said. “Everybody is affected by exposure to war.”
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Tiny Captain Makes 12 Mile Hike With Help From Friends

I checked for the earliest video of this since it is just so wonderful!

EFMB - Giving it your all Wednesday, April 29, 2015
Found this on Facebook today. Some folks are saying...well, she barely made it and needed encouragement

Posted by Lloyd A Mason on Tuesday, April 28, 2015 CPT Sarah Cudd from Public Health Command, Fort Knox is only 1 of the 46 candidates who earned the EFMB yesterday at Fort Dix, NJ..27 April 2015. This is her last few seconds of the 12 Mile Foot March. The Foot March is the last event of the Expert Field Medical Badge (EFMB), and must be completed within 3 hours. If you want it, you have to go get it. Watch this video. This EFMB candidate wanted it, and she got it. It took heart, guts, determination, falling down and getting up, and a little motivation from the crowd to get across the finish line. Check this out.

Chairman Joint Chiefs Marine General Is Boston Strong

Obama chooses Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford Jr. as Joint Chiefs chairman 
89.3 KPCC
Lolita C Baldor
AP
May 5, 2015

Obama referred to Dunford's native Boston, saying he's the "very definition of Boston strong." But Obama added, "the only downside in my book is as a White Sox fan, there is yet another Red Sox fan who I'm going to have to be dealing with."

President Barack Obama tapped a highly respected combat commander as his next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Tuesday, signaling that the battles against al-Qaida and Islamic State militants threatening the Middle East and the West remain top priorities for the nation's military despite years of trying to change the focus to Asia.

Announcing his selection of Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford Jr. during a Rose Garden ceremony, Obama said America's armed forces must be ready to meet a broad range of challenges, and that Dunford has proven to be one of the military's most highly regarded strategic thinkers.

"We have to keep training Afghan forces and remain relentless against Al Qaida. We have to push back against ISIL and strengthen forces in Syria and build moderate opposition in Syria," said Obama, using an alternate name for the Islamic State group. "We have to stand united with our allies in Europe and keep rebalancing our posture as a Pacific power. We have to keep investing in new capabilities to meet growing threats, including cyber attacks."

As the U.S. started to look beyond the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Pentagon had begun to increase its focus on the Asia Pacific region, where the North Korea threat was escalating and China was flexing its military muscles. But that has been eclipsed by the march of Islamic State militants across Syria and Iraq, and the group's effort to expand to other regions and import the fight to the West.
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Silver Star for Extraordinary Bravery in Afghanistan

North Hills native to receive Silver Star for heroics in Afghanistan
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
By Sean D. Hamill
May 6, 2015

For his role in the mission, Sgt. Greiner will be awarded the Silver Star in North Carolina today for displaying “extraordinary bravery and complete disregard for his own safety as he and his teammates assaulted an insurgent safe haven,” according to his citation.

The mission Air Force Tech Sgt. Matthew Greiner and his 81 fellow coalition forces faced on Sept. 27 in Helmand Province, Afghanistan, was fairly straightforward: Head to a small-town bazaar to destroy weapons and equipment and neutralize insurgents who had been spotted by intelligence there.

But what Sgt. Greiner, 29, a North Hills native, and his colleagues faced was anything but straightforward.

Instead of an enemy that fled the moment Sgt. Greiner and two Air Force colleagues directed an attack helicopter or fighter plane into the area — as they had experienced regularly before — they faced nearly 100 insurgents who did not want to quit.

“It was strange to see them fight so hard,” Sgt. Greiner, a combat controller with the 21st Special Tactics Squadron, said in an interview Tuesday.

What followed were two days of fierce attacks by insurgents that pinned down all 21 Americans — 18 of them Army Special Forces — and 60 Afghan forces for two days. That is, until the heroic efforts of Sgt. Greiner, along with two fellow combat controllers who were all under heavy fire during the mission, managed to coordinate enough air support to kill or drive the enemy away.

They managed to save the lives of all but one of the Americans and Afghans, Army Sgt. 1st Class Andrew Weathers, while nearly half the insurgents were killed during the battle. In addition, more than 50 pounds of heroin that was found — and would have been used to fund the insurgents — was destroyed.
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UPDATE
These U.S. airmen refused to be taken hostage in Afghanistan. Now they’ll get valor awards
Washington Post
By Dan Lamothe
May 5, 2015

On Sept. 27, 2014, a team of U.S. Special Operations troops were dropped into a volatile village in Afghanistan’s Helmand province. The U.S. military had withdrawn thousands of troops from the country in the previous year, and the mission called for 14 Americans and about 24 Afghan commando counterparts to clear a bazaar of weapons and insurgents, and then get out.

It turned into a fight for their lives, three U.S. Special Operations airmen involved in the battle recalled Tuesday. The insurgents, numbering close to 100, sprung a fierce attack in which they not only launched a barrage of fire on the Americans, but made plans on the radio to overrun their position and take them hostage, the airmen said.
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Charities Battle in Court But Forget All Wounded Need Help

UPDATE
May 6, 2015
I thought about this all night and what is infuriating to me is the fact that caring for combat wounded veterans is regarded as "project" instead of a debt we owe. The logo is not just a drawing. These are real wounded Marines forgotten about as these groups fight over the use of their images. Both groups admit they are not interested in all our wounded from all generations.

How can they look a veteran from different wars in the eyes and tell them they are just not the right kind of veteran? That they are worth the same "honor and empower them to aid and assist each other" as the commercial claims or what they have on their website "To honor and empower Wounded Warriors" and then dismiss the service, suffering and sacrifice of all of them?

In the veterans community we have this conversation all the time. If everyone of the new groups getting attention raising huge bank accounts are doing all they claim they are, then why has it all gotten worse for all our veterans?

May 5, 2015
My day started off with a bang in my head as soon a a friend, Gayle posted a link to the story about Wounded Warriors battle in court but the truth is far from easy and simple.

This story got to me this morning so when I got back from work I tried to find the actual images both logos apparently came from. I still can't find the one that Keystone Wounded Warriors is using but from the graphics it appears to be one from Vietnam. A few friends point out how the wounded soldier is being dragged and the weapon. I am still searching for the image but after 3 hours, I give up for now.

Keystone Wounded Warrior sued by Wounded Warrior Project but in the process, veterans appear to be last on their to do list, at least some veterans. Neither group seems to care that there are many other generations of veterans waiting long for the same type of help they collect donations to provide for just some.

First is WWP does not help Vietnam veterans, or Gulf War veterans or Korean War veterans or WWII veterans or any of their families. It seems that Keystone has followed that rule as well.

Nardizzi told NewsChannel 3 most charities change their logos or names when asked. He said he vigorously guards the trademark because it is among the charity’s most valuable assets.

“Our logo is pretty sacred to us. It represents everything we believe in as an organization,” he said.

There is a story behind the famous logo.

The Marines Sgt. Matt LeVart carries injured Cpl. Barry Lange off the battlefield as members of India Company 3rd Battalion 7th Marine Division engage Iraqi soldiers in battle.

(AP Photo/Laura Rauch)

From WTKR News

The issue is the similarity of the charities’ logos. The famous Wounded Warrior Project logo shows a silhouette of one soldier carrying another on his back.

The Keystone Wounded Warriors logo is also a silhouette of soldiers, but shows one dragging another across the ground. In a federal lawsuit, the Wounded Warrior Project declared it “has suffered irreparable damage to its business, goodwill, reputation and profits” because of the Pennsylvania charity’s logo.

Spurgin said his charity once partnered with the Wounded Warrior Project and raised money for it. Later, he and others decided to start a charity for Pennsylvania veterans. He said a high-school student designed the logo, and the Keystone Wounded Warriors were granted a trademark.

It also appears there is a lot of confusion even among supporters.

Manheim PA Donates $70K to Keystone Wounded Warriors
By Auto Remarketing Staff
Friday, Mar. 28, 2014, 11:32 AM UPDATED 4:50 PM

During the past two years, Manheim Pennsylvania raised $110,000 for Wounded Warrior Project.
MANHEIM, Pa.
To support the Keystone Wounded Warriors organization, Manheim Pennsylvania recently raised $70,000 as a donation to Keystone Wounded Warriors, which is a portion of proceeds from the third-annual Xtreme Spring Event.

Auction officials highlighted a spring charity gala to benefit veterans also was held as part of two-day event.

Manheim Pennsylvania hosted what it called the world’s largest highline vehicle auction — a “100 Grander” sale — featuring a 2008 Bugatti Veyron, many Rolls Royce, Ferrari, Maserati, Lamborghini models and other high-dollar vehicles on March 20.

Additionally, Ultra Highline, Corvette, Motorcycle and Classic Car auctions were held on March 21.

A portion of the proceeds from the Xtreme Spring Event benefitted the Pennsylvania-based Keystone Wounded Warriors. This year’s donation marks a $20,000 increase over the donation made to the Wounded Warrior Project in 2013.
read more here

The question has been asked over and over again. What exactly is WWP doing? This question has never really been answered.

Now I am wondering what Keystone Wounded Warrior does. It seems they have forgotten about all the other veterans as well.

Keystone Wounded Warriors is a Eastern Pennsylvania based 501 (c)(3) nonprofit corporation that seeks to honor the daily sacrifices made by the brave men and women in all branches of the United States Military, but specifically those wounded on or after September 11, 2001. Keystone Wounded Warriors aids Wounded Warriors by raising public awareness and seeking the public’s support for programs and services that assist Wounded Warriors. Funds donated to Keystone Wounded Warriors are used to support local post-9/11 veterans and their families located in or with ties to Pennsylvania. The remaining funds are donated to national post-9/11 wounded veterans organizations.

Our warriors do an inspiring job in the face of their disabilities and difficulties transitioning into civilian life through dedication and commitment. Keystone Wounded Warriors strives to ease the burden on these heroes through focus in three major areas:

Financially
Physically
Mentally

Providing direct resources for daily needs such as groceries, toiletries and items for the wounded warrior and their family. We have partnered with a local organization, Keystone Soldiers, to provide these immediate needs. Additionally, we provide financial counseling to our Wounded Warriors to help in their transition from the military to civilian life.

As with everything else, if you only want to help the new generation of veterans, then this should all be fine with you. If you think that all veterans deserve our help and support, then make sure you know where your money is going before you give your support.

I am still going to look for the picture but I have thousands of them in my files to go through.

WWP Thinks They Own Wounded Warriors?

Small veterans’ charity sued for “unfair competition” by Wounded Warrior Project
WTKR.com
BY MIKE MATHER
APRIL 30, 2015

The founder of a small Pennsylvania charity helping wounded warriors in that state says the group has spent more than $72,000 defending a lawsuit from the Wounded Warrior Project over their similar logos.

“We’re out of pocket a lot of money and I am sure they are out of pocket a lot of money,” said Paul Spurgin, the director of Keystone Wounded Warriors and a Marine who served two combat tours in Vietnam.

The issue is the similarity of the charities’ logos. The famous Wounded Warrior Project logo shows a silhouette of one soldier carrying another on his back.

The Keystone Wounded Warriors logo is also a silhouette of soldiers, but shows one dragging another across the ground. In a federal lawsuit, the Wounded Warrior Project declared it “has suffered irreparable damage to its business, goodwill, reputation and profits” because of the Pennsylvania charity’s logo.

The Wounded Warrior Project said the Pennsylvania charity’s trademark would likely “confuse” donors. In the most recent tax records available, the Wounded Warrior Project listed an income of $234,682,943. The Keystone Wounded Warriors income was $211,141, which is less than the salary of Wounded Warrior Project CEO Steve Nardizzi.

Nardizzi told NewsChannel 3 most charities change their logos or names when asked. He said he vigorously guards the trademark because it is among the charity’s most valuable assets.
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‘Wounded Warrior’ Charity Unleashes Hell—On Other Veteran Groups
Daily Beast
Tim Mack
May 4, 2015

Keystone Wounded Warriors Executive Director Paul Spurgin is dumbfounded as to why massive Wounded Warrior Project would spend the resources to sue them. Spurgin is a Marine Corps veteran who served two tours in Southeast Asia in the 1960s. (Wounded Warriors Project head Steve Nardizzi, on the other hand, has never served.)

What happens when a non-profit that was started to help veterans becomes the neighborhood bully? For a charity supposedly devoted to helping veterans, the Wounded Warrior Project spends an enormous amount of time suing or threatening to sue small non-profits—spending resources on litigation that could otherwise be spent on the vets they profess to serve.

At issue is the Wounded Warrior Project’s brand: the charity has become particularly litigious over the use of the phrase ‘wounded warrior’ or logos that involve silhouetted soldiers. At least seven such charities have discussed their legal problems with The Daily Beast.

The Wounded Warrior Project has become, in the words of those they’ve targeted for legal action, a “bully,” more concerned about their image and increasing the size of the organization than actually providing services to wounded warriors.

“They do try to bully smaller organizations like ourselves... They get really territorial about fundraising,” said the president of one charity with the name “wounded warrior” in their title.

“The lawsuit was just the coup de grâce,” he added. “They want us gone.” At issue is their similar logo and names—Wounded Warrior Project complained that they will “suffer irreparable damage to its business, goodwill, reputation and profits.”
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They don't own the word so if they're going after anyone using it they must be ready to not just sue the federal government with their Wounded Warrior Programs, Wounded Warrior Battalion, Wounded Warrior Regiment, but also the Native American Indians using it going back to the first time they used English and translated it. Oh, by the way, then they'd also have to go back to the ancient Greeks as well.

They sued Help Indiana Veterans too back in 2013

Charities for Wounded Veterans Wage Bitter War in Court
Courthouse News
By JACK BOUBOUSHIAN
Tuesday, November 26, 2013

"The Wounded Warrior Project has received extensive media coverage and corporate support, leading the 8th Circuit to write in an unrelated opinion that Wounded Warrior Project has "become synonymous with veteran service to this generation of wounded veterans and their families," according to the 31-page complaint.

Defendant Dean Graham, founder of Help Indiana Vets, who says he is a disabled veteran of the Iraq War, told Courthouse News the Wounded Warrior Project turned him away when he sought assistance after his discharge.

"I called them in the middle of my discharge from the Army," Graham said in an interview. "During that time that financially destroyed me and our family we ended up filing bankruptcy and lost everything. I contacted the project for help and was told by six different civilian employees, no, we don't give financial assistance."

Graham continued: "Once we started helping vets in Indiana, I got a call from WWP and they wanted to add us to their list of people veterans can call. So what they would do is ask people to contact local charities for help, even though they were taking donations for the WWP, and then put the burden of providing services on the local organizations.""
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Roanoke Sheriff Fired Afghanistan Veteran Back From Combat

Afghanistan veteran sues after Roanoke County sheriff's office fires her
Roanoke Times
By Carmen Forman
May 3, 2015

Pamela Huff guarded the Roanoke County courthouse for years, and now her wrongful termination lawsuit against the county sheriff’s office may have her as a plaintiff in one of the same courtrooms she protected.

The former bailiff is suing the Roanoke County Sheriff’s Office under its former head Mike Winston for her termination after she came back from serving in Afghanistan with the U.S. Army Reserve.

Her lawyer, Tommy Strelka, filed motions for sanctions and partial summary judgment April 22 that argue he can prove his client’s case without a trial.

Her case argues that she was terminated during a time when she was protected by the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act, which is similar to the Americans with Disabilities Act, but for members of the armed services. Huff argues the sheriff’s office terminated her without a reasonable effort to accommodate her post-traumatic stress and major depressive disorders, according to court documents.

“She was just a changed person when she came back and she’ll admit to that,” Strelka said. “She was very bubbly and cheerful, and when she came back she had lost a lot of that.”

The case was originally heard in federal court, but U.S. District Judge Glen Conrad sent it back to Roanoke County Circuit Court, ruling that according to the 11th Amendment, a state entity like the sheriff’s office could not be sued in federal court.

Strelka said he thinks this is the first USERRA case to be heard in a Virginia state court. Cases regarding the federal law are normally heard in federal court, he said.

Huff was hired as a sheriff’s deputy in 2001 and was promoted to bailiff about five years later.
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HBO Documentary Poster Girl Iraq Veteran Female Gunner PTSD

Film Based on WNY Vet's PTSD Story Featured In Reel Mind Series
WXXI News
By BETH ADAMS
4 HOURS AGO

 The story of a Western New York veteran suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder is the subject of a film showing in Rochester this week as part of the Reel Mind Theater and Film Series.

CREDIT HBO.COM

The event focuses on the social stigma of mental illness. Organizers want to provide a message of hope that recovery is possible.

The film “Poster Girl” is showing at the Memorial Art Gallery Tuesday evening. The army veteran mentioned in the title is Robynn Murray, a native of Niagara County.

The title of the movie is based on a poster made from a picture of Murray on the cover of the Army's official magazine. She was depicted in the image as the ideal female soldier.

But Murray's military experience was not picture-perfect. She believes her experience with PTSD began during her first deployment to Iraq in 2003 where she worked as a machine gunner.

"I started to have panic attacks and I had no idea what they were. I thought I had a heart problem because I'd never had anything like that before, so I was sent to clinic on my FOB (forwarding operating base)."
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From HBO

Poster Girl
Robynn Murray is an Iraq war veteran struggling with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). At age 19, shortly after 9/11, Robin decided to enlist in the Army, and recalls the recruiter telling her she would be assigned to the Civil Affairs division – “good guys” who provided humanitarian assistance and helped rebuild infrastructure. At the time, Robynn said, “I’m sold. I want to go and help people.”

Within a few days of arriving in Iraq, however, she was assigned to be the machine gunner for a 20-vehicle convoy, which sometimes meant being ordered to point her rifle at civilians. Today, at an anti-war conference, she holds up a copy of Army magazine, with a photo of herself and two other female soldiers on the cover. “This is what they made me,” she says. Robynn became a “poster woman” for females in combat, insisting that this was a role she never wanted.

Having grown up in a military family, Robynn knew from a young age she wanted to join the military. At her mother’s home in Buffalo, NY, she shows pictures of herself from high school, where she was a member of ROTC, a National Merit Scholar and a cheerleader. A photo of a smiling Robynn on prom night is a stark contrast to the Robynn of today, who has tattoos of rifles on her chest and the letters “V-E-T” on her knuckles. Of the rifle tattoos, she says they represent her disillusionment with the Army, and her “wish to never have my hands on any trigger or gun that would claim a life of another human being.”
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Nightshift PR on PTSD or Something Else?

First Lady Michelle Obama and Dr. Jill Biden Visit ‘The Night Shift’
Military.com
JAMES BARBER
MAY 1, 2015

On Monday May 4th, NBC’s medical drama The Night Shift welcomes special guests Trace Adkins, Dr. Jill Biden and First Lady Michelle Obama for a special episode to promote the White House’s Joining Forces initiative. Cast members Robert Bailey Jr, Eoin Macken and Jill Flint joined Dr. Biden and the First Lady to make a PSA promoting the program.

We’ve got video of the PSA below, along with an interview with Trace Adkins (who plays Colonel Elwood “Smalls” Green, TC’s MMA group therapy leader) and Eoin Macken (who plays series lead character TC, a veteran doctor who’s coping with PTSD). Adkins and Macken talk about the episode and their efforts to aid the men and women who serve.
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If it is for PTSD, then great. If it is for this group, then I think I'll pass

"I’ve been associated with the Wounded Warrior Project now for as long as they’ve been around, almost seven or eight years now. That’s one of the most gratifying things I’ve done in my career. It’s just amazing to get to know some of these heroes and to see them progress through their journey as they make the transition back into civilian life. It’s very gratifying to be part of an organization that helps them do that."
Trace Adkins

What good has "raising awareness" done when there are more veterans committing suicide than before? What good does it do to "raise awareness" when the military/veterans community has been aware of the problems veterans face for decades? Oh, by the way, while the misinformation on the number of suicides continues to be repeated, what keeps getting missed is most of them are over the age of 50 and not included in on any of the "awareness" this group does. I lost count on how many groups have just followed their lead instead of doing what has been needed all along.


The Night Shift - Michelle Obama and Jill Biden Guest Star (Sneak Peek)
Apr 29, 2015
The hardworking staff of San Antonio Memorial gets a special thank you from First Lady Michelle Obama and Dr. Jill Biden! All-new The Night Shift, Monday at 10/9c.