Sgt. Maj. Michael Jarnevic Still On Duty Since Vietnam

Is this Green Beret the last Vietnam vet on active duty? 
Marine Corps Times
By James K. Sanborn, Staff writer
June 28, 2015

Sgt. Maj. Michael Jarnevic, seen here in 1995, will retire from the Army on July 8. He is believed to be the last Vietnam War veteran serving on active duty.
(Photo: Courtesy Michael Jarnevic)

In the 1970s, he was among the last Marines sent to Vietnam.

In the '80s, as an Army Green Beret, he deployed into Honduras during the Contra Wars.

In 1991, he was gassed in Iraq.

And after 9/11, he fought terrorists in Afghanistan.

He's an environmental conservationist and holds a master's degree in creative writing.

He is not the Most Interesting Man in the World.

But with 42 years in uniform, 59-year-old Michael Jarnevic is likely the saltiest sergeant major serving in the U.S. military. And when he retires July 8, he'll likely be the last person in uniform whose service record includes a tour during the Vietnam War.

"I don't know how you could actually prove it," Jarnevic told Marine Corps Times, "but the onus would be to disprove it."

He knows of a few warrant officers serving until recently who also had Vietnam deployments. And the last Vietnam War draftee, Chief Warrant Officer 5 Ralph E. Rigby, retired in November.

Jarnevic is now on terminal leave, having fulfilled a 16-month assignment as the senior enlisted adviser for the U.S. Joint Reserve Intelligence Support Element, part of U.S. Special Operations Command, at MacDill Air Force Base in Florida. There, he was involved in one last war effort — coordinating analyst work against the Islamic State group.
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Veterans Angry After Contractor Claimed To Be One Of Them

Veterans want apology from Sheriff's candidate 
The Advertiser
Claire Taylor
June 28, 2015

Mark Garber appears in military garb on campaign material used in his race for Lafayette Parish Sheriff.
(Photo: Claire Taylor, Daily Advertiser)

Mark Garber, a candidate for Lafayette Parish Sheriff who was awarded the Bronze Star for his work as a civilian interrogator with the Air Force in Iraq, has angered a couple of local military veterans who say he is pretending to be one of them.

The Southwest Louisiana Veterans Coalition board wants an apology, while one Lafayette veteran said Garber should withdraw from the Sheriff's race.

Garber is pictured in campaign material dressed in military gear with a gun; his Bronze Star medal also is shown. To make it worse, local veterans said, Garber stood up at a banquet recently when military veterans were recognized.

"He slapped the face of every veteran in Lafayette by portraying himself as a veteran," said Daniel J. Bentley, commander of American Legion Post 69 of Lafayette. "He is not a veteran."

Garber told The Daily Advertiser , "I have never, ever claimed to be a military veteran."

But the website for his private legal practice with attorney C. Ray Murry recently stated: "Mr. Garber and Mr. Murry are military veterans."

The statement was changed Thursday after The Daily Advertiser brought it to Garber's attention. He said the statement was written long ago and was worded improperly because his law partner is a veteran of the military.

While in Iraq, Garber wore a uniform and carried weapons like military personnel, and was deployed on missions with soldiers. He considers himself a veteran of Iraq, but not a military veteran, he said.
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Life Changed For Alabama Doctor After Boston Marathon

Boston Marathon bombing survivor, Alabama physician shares how invisible scars still impact his life
AL.com
By John Talty
June 27, 2015

Dr. Scott Weisberg is a survivor of the Boston Marathon bombing. He suffers from significant hearing loss, and deals with both post-traumatic stress disorder and memory problems. Weisberg, a family physician in Birmingham has become an advocate for those survivors with invisible injuries. (Joe Songer AL.com)

When Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, one of the two Boston Marathon bombers, broke his silence this week for the first time since the 2013 bombing, it didn't provide much relief for Birmingham physician Scott Weisberg.

Dr. Weisberg, who had just crossed the finish line when the first bomb went off, didn't believe Tsarnaev was sincere in his apology in court on Wednesday. Tsarnaev, who has been sentenced to death, killed three and injured 264 others when he and his brother Tamerlan planted pressure-cooker bombs near the marathon finish line on April 15, 2013. He said he was sorry for the "irreparable damage" he had caused, but refused to face his victims in attendance.

Even if Tsarnaev were sincere, it wouldn't ameliorate all the suffering Weisberg has endured the last two years.

"The overall sentence is irrelevant because what he took away from me I'm never getting back, nor is any other survivor," Weisberg said. "This is the closing of this initial chapter in the recovery."

Weisberg looks like your average family physician. He's smart, sincere and his patients at Homewood Family Medicine like him. But beneath the surface Weisberg is suffering.

Every day he must grapple with that fateful April day.

He now wears hearing aids because of significant hearing loss from the blast.

He has to deal with both post-traumatic stress disorder and memory problems.

His marriage crumbled and is currently in the process of a divorce.

He's had to fight to keep his business afloat and adjust as a physician who can no longer use a stethoscope.
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Army Veteran Runs 100 Meters as Double Amputee

Wounded but still fighting, only this time on a different field of battle 
Cronkite News Arizona
PBS By Nick Wicksman
POSTED: Jun 26, 2015

WASHINGTON – Less than two years after doctors said he might never run again, Safford native Terry Cartwright is proving them wrong.

The Army specialist is competing in multiple events this week in the 2015 Department of Defense Warrior Games, weeklong games that pit 250 athletes representing all branches of the military against one another.

Cartwright is one of 11 athletes in the games that are being held at the Marine Corps Base in Quantico, Virginia, who listed an Arizona hometown, said Victoria Long, a Marine Corps spokeswoman who is dealing with the games.

Athletes from the U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps and Special Operations Command, as well as the British armed forces, compete for medals in everything from track events to wheelchair basketball, archery to rugby.

As of Friday afternoon, Army had the overall medals lead, 41 to 33 over the second-place Marine Corps, in the games that run through Sunday.

The Warrior Games started in 2010 as “a competition for wounded, ill and injured service members and veterans held annually,” according to the U.S. Paralympics website. The games had been hosted at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado, until moving to Quantico this year. read more here

Homeless Veteran Found Shelter at Lake Nona VA, Shocker to VA

Homeless veteran found living in VA Medical Center in Lake Nona
Vet was living in unoccupied part of center
Click Orlando
Author: Amaka Ubaka, Reporter
Published On: Jun 26 2015

ORLANDO, Fla. - Veteran Affairs officials found an apparently unexpected guest at the new VA Medical Center in Lake Nona -- a homeless veteran staying in an unoccupied part of the center. A VA spokesperson said they are now investigating.

The multimillion-dollar facility is opening in phases, with most inpatient services not opening until October. But Local 6 has learned a homeless veteran was found Thursday living in an unoccupied inpatient room.

VA spokesperson Heather Frebe isn't saying how long the homeless veteran had been living there, but a source told Local 6 it may have been up to two weeks. read more here




There is a homeless veterans center at Lake Nona that is supposed to be really great. Hope he got to stay there.

Veteran-inspired Domiciliary opens at Lake Nona
Department Veterans Affairs
By Mike Strickler
Wednesday, March 5, 2014

From the outside the multi-angular building stands resplendent with its oversize windows reflecting blue skies back upon a warm Florida morning. The carefully landscaped facility is tranquil and inviting, and seems apportioned to serve the most distinguished of clientele.

Inside Daniel Cool is hard at work on his resume, typing among a series of computer terminals set within a nouveau coffee shop atmosphere. As he sips and thinks the picture windows behind him open on a sparkling Floridian lake that stretches its wet fingers into wooded thickets beyond. Black bass feed on top water offerings as Cool’s resume takes form, all among a scene best described in James Michener novels.

Yet this place is neither a country club nor beach resort. The new domiciliary, located on the grounds of the Lake Nona-based VA Medical Center, houses Cool and nearly 60 other men and women just like him. They are homeless Veterans who suffer from the effects of their military service, and thanks to the new facility and its dedicated staff, all of that is changing for the better.

“Everything is state of the art here, very modern with great rooms and classrooms,” Cool said, gesturing about the newly built first floor atrium. “It is much more secluded than the Lake Baldwin facility, and has great lakes and wildlife that provide a much more therapeutic environment.”
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Camp Lejeune Marine Killed In North Carolina Accident

Police: Camp Lejeune Marine killed in wreck, two charged
WCTI News
Jun 27 2015

RALEIGH, Wake County - A US Marine stationed at Camp Lejeune was killed Friday night in a car accident according to Raleigh Police.

Police said 20-year-old Nathan Scott Bizzell of Camp Lejeune was driving on Glenwood Avenue Friday around 10 p.m. when he rear ended another car. 

Investigators say Bizzell got out of his car to check on the damage and the other driver.

He was then hit by another car. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
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Fort Hood Soldier Killed In Killeen Accident

Man Struck, Killed After Running Light On Bike At Local Intersection
KWTX News
By: Brandon Marshall

KILLEEN (June 27, 2015)

Michael David Carrasco, 26, who was identified as a Fort Hood soldier, died at a local hospital Saturday after a car struck him as he rode his bicycle through a red light at a Killeen intersection.

The accident happened at around 12:50 a.m. Saturday at the intersection of Veteran’s Memorial Boulevard and W.S. Young Drive.
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Veterans Fueling Bernie Sanders Surge

Bernie Sanders’ surge is partly fueled by veterans
GLOBE STAFF
By Annie Linskey
JUNE 28, 2015

Veterans are a group long courted by politicians. In the early primary states, New Hampshire is home to 113,000 veterans, Iowa has 226,000, Nevada has 227,000 and South Carolina has 392,000 — according to US Census figures.

DES MOINES — Vermont’s Bernie Sanders railed against the Vietnam War. He voted against invading Iraq — both times. He wants to cut the defense budget.

He might not be a friend to the military, but many veterans believe he’s gone to war for them. And that’s why they’re out there cheering for a socialist as he launches a bid for the Democratic presidential nomination.

There’s the former Marine who drove about six hours to hear Sanders speak in Des Moines. There’s another former Marine, this one a registered Republican, going door-to-door to collect signatures so Sanders’ name will appear on the ballot in Indiana. Entire Reddit threads are dedicated to how veterans can best pitch Sanders to other veterans.

“He is revered,” said Paul Loebe, a 31-year-old who served in both Iraq and Afghanistan during eight years of active duty and spends three hours a day updating a Facebook page promoting Sanders to veterans. “He’s very consistent with where he stands. He’s the first politician that I’ve believed in my life.”

Sanders battled over veterans issues as chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee from 2013 until early this year, giving him an easy pitch to a crucial voting bloc of veterans, particularly in South Carolina where veterans make up more than 11 percent of the voting-aged population. There’s stiff competition for these voters, with front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton wooing them this month during a round table in Nevada.
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Scallywag PTSD Awareness Day

Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
June 28, 2015

Yesterday was PTSD Awareness Day. I didn't post on it simply because there was nothing new learned about PTSD from last year of the year before or even back to the generations coming before this one.

The only thing we learned is there are a bunch of scallywags popping up all over the country raising funds to raise awareness about something they don't even understand.

http://www.roadkilltshirts.com/

scallywag - a deceitful and unreliable scoundrel

Some of them are actually doing more harm than good. Some of them have huge social media followings because they spend most of their days gaining an audience instead of gaining real knowledge of what they are supposed to be an expert on.

Others repeat what they read online as fact because they don't bother to actually learn the history of this scourge plaguing humanity.

scourge- a cause of affliction or calamity:

The "22 a day" claim is false but has been repeated over and over again. A Google search for that topic yields "About 6,440,000 results" but when you Google search the truth of veteran suicides double civilian population you get only "About 372,000 results."

Veteran Suicides Twice as High as Civilian Rates - News21 backhome.news21.com/article/suicide/ Aug 24, 2013 - Veterans are killing themselves at more than double the rate of the civilian population with about 49,000 taking their own lives between 2005 ...

Suicide rate for veterans far exceeds that of civilian population www.publicintegrity.org/.../suicide-rate-vetera... Center for Public Integrity Aug 30, 2013 - Veterans are killing themselves at more than double the rate of the civilian population with about 49,000 taking their own lives between 2005 ... You've visited this page many times. Last visit: 3/9/15

Male Veterans Have Double the Suicide Rate of Civilians www.nimh.nih.gov/.../male-veterans-h... National Institute of Mental Health Jun 12, 2007 - Male veterans in the general U.S. population are twice as likely as their civilian peers to die by suicide, a large study shows. Results of the ...

Veteran Suicides Apocalypse Now - Wounded Times woundedtimes.blogspot.com/2015/.../veteran-suicides-apocalypse-now.h... Jan 14, 2015 - The rate of veterans committing suicide is double the civilian population with the majority of them being over 50. Then there is the other figure of ... You've visited this page many times. Last visit: 6/13/15

Detailed study confirms high suicide rate among recent ... www.latimes.com/.../la-na-veteran-suicide-20150115-... Los Angeles Times Jan 18, 2015 - Recent veterans have committed suicide at a much higher rate than ... the rate among other civilians with similar demographic characteristics. You visited this page on 6/13/15.

News21: Veteran suicides twice as high as civilian rates ... cronkitenewsonline.com/.../news21-veteran-suicides-twice-as-high-as-civ... Sep 20, 2013 - Veterans are killing themselves at more than double the rate of the civilian population with about 49,000 taking their own lives between 2005 ...

Is the 22-Veterans-Per-Day Suicide Rate Reliable? | Dustin ... www.huffingtonpost.com/.../veteran-suicide-rate_b_... The Huffington Post Jan 5, 2015 - There's no doubt that the rising veteran suicide rate is one of the most serious ... status as a veteran, it is likely their death will be reported as a civilian one. ... "Suicide rates within the veteran population often were double and ...

Did you see how far back that result went? It was 2007 long before the VA report showed limited data from 21 states and offered a disclaimer about the data they collected. Reporters jumped on that number. They failed to provide the truth about how many veterans they were talking about as well as failure to mention the fact even if they discovered all the death certificates tied to military service and suicide, they would still not know all of them.

There are too many variables. Drug overdoses-accident or on purpose? Car accidents-accident, or on purpose or driven by a flashback? Veterans facing off with police and SWAT teams-tragic outcome to a veteran in crisis or planned suicide by cop?

With all the nonsense flooding the internet and social media sites, there is also great work being done. Folks telling the truth about realities of PTSD as well as the facts needing the most attention.

PTSD is not a mental illness. You were not born with it even though the moment of your birth was traumatic. The only way you ended up with PTSD was by surviving traumatic events. In other words, the trauma did it to you.

PTSD is not even an anxiety disorder

Post-traumatic stress disorder -- or PTSD -- was considered to be a type of anxiety disorder in earlier versions of the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.

But in 2013, PTSD was reclassified as its own condition.

It describes a range of emotional reactions caused by exposure to either death or near-death circumstances (such as fires, floods, earthquakes, shootings, assault, automobile accidents, or wars) or to events that threaten one's own or another person's physical well-being. The traumatic event is re-experienced with fear of feelings of helplessness or horror and may appear in thoughts and dreams. Common behaviors include the following:

Avoiding activities, places, or people associated with the triggering event
Difficulty concentrating
Difficulty sleeping
Being hypervigilant (you closely watch your surroundings)
Feeling a general sense of doom and gloom with diminished emotions (such as loving feelings or aspirations for the future)

Symptoms such as chest pain, shortness of breath, palpitations, dizziness, fainting, and weakness should not be automatically attributed to anxiety and require evaluation by a doctor.

Aside from the event itself, too many researchers waste valuable time and funds studying stupidity.

They research animals and rodents by causing trauma and then see what works. What they never seem to factor in is what makes humans different. They forget about survivor's guilt and the process we go through between rational and emotional thought.

The DOD and VA instest billions on PTSD "prevention" but have failed to use the most common practice of Crisis Intervention right after the event.

practical-mindful of the results, usefulness, advantages or disadvantages, etc., of action or procedure.

It is not practical to send in crisis teams right after an IED explodes. Yet during the Korean War, that is exactly what happened, or damn near close to it. The problem is, what they were doing did not prevent PTSD but just got them to stuff it instead of treat it.

Treatment After the Vietnam War

Before the Vietnam War, psychiatric consensus held that soldiers who recovered from an episode of mental breakdown during combat would suffer no adverse long-term consequences. Psychiatric disability commencing after the war was believed to be related to preexisting conditions. As a consequence, military psychiatrists devoted relatively little attention to postwar psychiatric syndromes. A major shift in psychiatric interest in war-related psychiatric disability took place after the Vietnam War. Fifteen years after the United States withdrew from Vietnam, an epidemiological survey concluded that 480 000 (15%) of the 3.15 million Americans who had served in Vietnam were suffering from service-related PTSD. In addition, between one quarter and one third (nearly 1 million ex-service personnel) displayed symptoms of PTSD at one time or another.

As we've read over the last few years some have reverted back to blaming the veteran instead of the combat. After all it has to be them since the DOD had done everything they could for them,,,at least that was their excuse. They seem oblivious to the fact each recruit goes through physical and mental health evaluations right from the start. Either their testing is flawed or their prevention programs are. All 900 of them!

There are over 16 million combat veterans in this country. We don't talk about the others because social media is dominated by the OEF and OIF generation. What was learned over decades of research has been buried and what failed has been repeated. We've seen the deadly outcome as more and more is being done but less and less of what works has been provided.

Medications used were designed to level the chemicals of brains but they have been used as the answer-all take a pill and call it a day treatment. Too many professionals taking care of troops and veterans did not take specialized training on trauma, so they don't have a clue what to do. Far too many mistreat it as if it was some type of defect instead of looking at the survivors changed by traumatic events.

PTSD treatment has to be provided by trauma experts.  It has to include mind-body and spirit or they will continue to mistreat veterans like animals.

The other thing is that there has been fabulous work done on brain scans showing what trauma does and how far it spreads.

Following a trauma, we see the world through different eyes.

While many people intuitively agree with this statement, a new MRI study offers some hard evidence in support of this belief.

Remembering a near-plane crash they had experienced, a group of participants showed greater responses in brain regions involved in emotional memory — the amygdala, hippocampus, and midline frontal and posterior regions.
Trauma Changes Your Brain’s Response To New Events, Increasing Activity In Emotional Memory Regions, Medical Daily Jun 23, 2015

We need to question who is doing what and if what they are doing is working or not. How many bills do members of congress need with their names on it before they take a look back at what has already failed? How many times do they get to repeat mistakes of the past before they are held accountable for the rise in tragedies families are left with? How many more graves have to have a name carved in stone before someone says "enough" of doing something and it is time to get that something right?

We've been flooded with far too many gaining awareness for themselves after looking up terms on the internet and too many politicians getting more terms in office for achieving notoriety then avoiding accountability.

It is time to give our veterans the ammunition they need to fight this battle after war and that has to start with facts, not popular headlines.

WWII and Korea Kept Veteran From Prom, He Finally Got One 66 Year Late

Riverview couple goes to prom for first time at age 89 
ABC Action News
Christie Post
Jun 24, 2015

Now 66 years later, the couple finally got their chance at the Hillsborough County Aging Services Senior Prom.

A lot of us probably remember going to our high school prom, finding the perfect dress or corsage and maybe renting a limo to impress classmates.

If you never got a chance to go, you’re not alone.

For a Riverview couple it ended up on their bucket list.

At age 89, Ralph Wozniak still asks his wife, LaVerne, to go on romantic walks at their favorite park.

“Married to the same girl, and I'm happy for it,” Ralph said.

But he never got to ask her to the prom.

“We didn't have a prom because it was war time,” LaVerne said.

In 1944 Ralph enlisted in the Marine Corps then was deployed overseas during World War II.

“I couldn't make the prom, and I couldn't finish high school,” Ralph said.

When he got back he missed it again after getting a call this time to fight the Korean War.
read more here