Volunteer Team of Retired Marines Performs Up to 9 Ceremonies A Day

RIVERSIDE: Always faithful, Marine vets serve at national cemetery funerals 
A volunteer team of retired Marines performs as many as nine ceremonies a day.
Press Enterprise
BY JEBB HARRIS / CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Published: July 27, 2015c

Staff Sgt. Robert "Bob" Dugan, 90, escorts Alyssa Fitzpatrick of Hemet to the memorial for her Marine father and wife at Riverside National Cemetery.
JEBB HARRIS, CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

Memorial Day comes a few times a month for Staff Sgt. Robert “Bob” Dugan. He rises early, puts on his Marine Corps dress blues and drives his pickup from his Costa Mesa home to Riverside National Cemetery.

At 90, Dugan is the oldest and most highly decorated of the volunteers of the honor detail team Semper Fi No. 1. He’s one of a crew of Marine veterans, from all over Southern California, who gather at the cemetery to provide a proper military service for their brothers and sisters.

With the passing of so many World War II and Korean War veterans, and the increase in casualties from Iraq and Afghanistan, there was a time when memorial services for some veterans amounted to a presenting of a folded flag and a recording of taps. Funding was short, and not enough troops were available to properly honor the dead.
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Amputee Iraq Veteran Tries for WWE

Disabled local veteran now WWE hopeful 
The Courier Journal
Connor Casey
July 26, 2015

Iraqi War veteran, Michael Hayes, 29, completes a set of lateral rises during an afternoon workout at the Louisville Athletic Club. In 2006, during a deployment in Iraq, Hayes' Humvee was caught in an IED blast. He was the only survivor in the accident, suffered burns to his body and lost the bottom of his left leg. Hayes spent a year confined to crutches or a wheel chair and said he was more than excited to receive a prosthetic. “When they put me in that leg it was awesome,” said Haynes, “It was liberating.”
(Photo: Alyssa Pointer/The Courier-Journal)

Michael Hayes is tough; tough enough to join the military straight out of high school, tough enough to drag himself out of a destroyed Humvee in Iraq carrying his detached left leg and tough enough to become a professional wrestler.

Born at Fort Knox and raised in Louisville, Hayes decided at an early age that he wanted to be a professional wrestler. He graduated from Seneca High School in 2004, joined the U.S. Army, and was eventually deployed to Iraq.

In August 2006 in Ramadi, Iraq, Hayes was riding in a Humvee hit by an IED (improvised explosive device). Hayes was the only survivor, and he had to drag himself away from the wreckage carrying his own left leg, which had been blown off from the knee down. Along with losing the leg, he sustained a broken hip, a crushed right heel, shrapnel damage in his hands and burns on 35 percent of his body.

Hayes believes now that his injury is what opened the door for him to pursue his childhood dream.

"I think what was necessary was for me to experience some sort of catastrophic pain and suffering, which would allow me to grow enough to where I could accept and actually appreciate doing what I've wanted to do my entire life," Hayes said.

He spent the next 18 months undergoing rehabilitation and physical therapy at the Brooke Army Medical Center at Fort Sam Houston in Texas, using the prosthetic leg he'd have for the rest of his life.
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UK: Disabled PTSD Veteran Feels Alone and Forgotten

"I feel alone and forgotten" - York army veteran and blast victim tells of PTSD struggle 
York Press
Kate Liptrot
July 27, 2015

"This country seems to want to ignore people, there has got to be a better way to treat PTSD."

A DISABLED war veteran who was injured in an explosion says he has been unable to access help for post traumatic stress disorder.

Christopher Hornblower, 36, from York, served in the 1st Battalion of the Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment until he was medically discharged in 2004.

He was left with extensive injuries including twisted knee caps, severed tendons and a dislocated right knee as a result of an explosion while serving abroad.

More than a decade later, Mr Hornblower still suffers traumatic flashbacks, difficulties with sleep and problems related to his time in the Army.

But he said despite repeatedly trying to access psychological help from the NHS in York, he has been unable to get the specialist help he needs for post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Last week he was referred from York Hospital for an urgent appointment at Bootham Park Hospital but the appointment was cancelled at the last minute and he was not been notified of another, Mr Hornblower said.

He said: "I feel alone and forgotten. It's not just in York, this is happening all over the country.
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River Community Wellness Gets Huge Donations From Philanthropist

Philanthropist, 97, gives River Hospital $1m
Watertown Daily
By KENNETH J. EYSAMAN
MAGAZINE EDITOR
PUBLISHED: MONDAY, JULY 27, 2015

Launched in February 2013, the River Community Wellness Program is the nation’s only civilian outpatient treatment program serving soldiers with post-traumatic stress disorder. The Army announced May 13 the program would end in July. But on May 30, Army officials agreed to a reprieve.

ALEXANDRIA BAY — A $1 million donation by a longtime north country philanthropist will kick-start a capital campaign aimed at helping River Hospital expand its River Community Wellness Program, hospital Chief Executive Officer Ben Moore III announced Sunday.

Retired businessman and philanthropist Richard R. Macsherry, 97, shared news of his latest gift with nearly 250 hospital supporters gathered for River Hospital Foundation’s 13th annual Festive Evening at Bonnie Castle Resort and Marina.

“This is my 98th year on the river,” Mr. Macsherry said, adding that the hospital is an “important institution worth our support.”

Three years ago, Mr. Macsherry, then 94, suffered a serious injury after a fall that required him to be airlifted to a hospital in Utica, said his son, Richard H., a retired hospital administrator and member of River Hospital’s Board of Trustees.
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Iraq Veteran Missing in Ohio

Happy Update: 
Missing Upper Arlington Veteran Returns Home

Police search for missing Upper Arlington veteran 
NBC 4 News Ohio
By Nick Bechtel
Published: July 25, 2015

UPPER ARLINGTON (WCMH) — Police are searching for an endangered missing person Saturday evening.

Upper Arlington officials said Christopher Bock-Bacalao was reported missing on Saturday.

A police sergeant said he made threats against his well-being before he went missing.

Family members told NBC4 he is a rowing coach at Upper Arlington High School.

They also said he was an Army veteran who served one tour in Iraq. read more here