After Afghanistan, A Father Came Home — Then Disappeared
NPR
SEPTEMBER 05, 2015
When he came back from Afghanistan, Army Pfc. Brian Orolin was eager to return to his life as a father and husband. But he had trouble holding on to a sense of purpose, his wife says.
StoryCorps
After Army Pfc. Brian Orolin returned from Afghanistan in 2011, his wife Donna could tell something wasn't right.
He became paranoid and suffered constant headaches, and he would isolate himself in his bedroom with the lights dimmed.
Then, on November 19, Brian left his home, wife and two children in Spring, Texas.
He's been missing ever since.
StoryCorps' Military Voices Initiative records stories from members of the U.S. military who served in Iraq and Afghanistan.
read more here
Stevensville man and Marine Corps' first black pilot remembered at Naval Academy
Capital Gazette
Tim Prudente
September 3, 2015
"There were still separate drinking fountains on the Navy base in Pensacola (Fla.)," he said two years ago. "We could sit anywhere on the bus while it was on base, but as soon as we got to the main gate, we had to sit in the back. The barracks were segregated."
There were shouts and tears in the Naval Academy Chapel.
Frank Petersen Jr., the Marine Corps' first black pilot, died last week at his Stevensville home — and his life was being celebrated.
This undated photo provided by the Marine Corps shows Lt. Gen. Frank E. Petersen Jr., the first black aviator and brigadier general in Marine Corps. Frank E. Petersen III said his father died Tuesday, Aug. 25 at his home in Stevensville from complications from lung cancer. He was 83. (Associated Press)
His friend, Carlos Campbell, spoke Thursday during a memorial service, his voice rising in the chapel. Petersen finished flight training in 1952.
"From that day forward," Campbell said, and the people began to stand. "Nobody else in the entire Marine Corps," he was shouting, "ever had to deal with the indignation and humiliation that was subjected to Frank E. Petersen."
Cheers. Applause. More shouts.
"If you look around this room," he continued, "you will see the legacy of Frank Petersen."
The chapel was filled with other black Marine Corps officers, those who heard, during the memorial service, about a "ramrod-straight, chiseled-faced Marine." He was a retired lieutenant general and died at 83.
They heard how he was shot down over Vietnam, his hip mangled when he ejected.
He flew more than 300 combat missions in Vietnam.
"The military went through a hell of a catharsis in the '60s and '70s during Vietnam," he told The Capital. "There were two wars going on. One against the Viet Cong, and the second, the race riots among the military."
In 1986, he also became the first black Marine promoted to lieutenant general.
read more here
MARSOC MARINE TO BE HONORED IN DEDICATION CEREMONY
WWAY TV 3 News
By: Elizabeth Bynum
09/04/2015
Cpl. David M. Sonka alongside his canine partner, Flex (Source: MARSOC)
CAMP LEJEUNE, NC (WWAY) — A MARSOC Marine will be honored in a ceremony Monday in memory of both him and his canine partner overseas.
A MARSOC spokesperson said a Multi-Purpose Canine kennel will be named in honor of Cpl. David M. Sonka. They said Cpl. Sonka, along with his Multi-Purpose Canine Flex and SSgt. Eric D. Christian, were killed in May of 2013 in Afghanistan.
The spokesperson said Cpl. Sonka, an Aurora, Colo., native, was on his second combat deployment. He was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart medal. read more here
The trend is reporters blame the VA. Hey it is a lot easier than actually reporting on the history behind what they are reporting on today as if any of it is new. Veterans don't blame the VA since it is about their lives, they paid attention enough to know that Congress is responsible for what the VA does and does not do. Simple as that is, reporters just don't seem to get it.
Chronological History of the Department of Veterans Affairs
The Committee on Veterans' Affairs of the House of Representatives was authorized by enactment of Public Law 601, 79th Congress, which was entitled "Legislative Reorganization Act of 1946."
1930
The Veterans Administration was created by Executive Order S.398, signed by President Herbert Hoover on July 21, 1930. At that time, there were 54 hospitals, 4.7 million living veterans, and 31,600 employees.
1933
The Board of Veterans Appeals was established.
1944
On June 22, President Roosevelt signed the Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944. (Public Law 346, was passed unanimously by the 78th Congress). This law offered home loan and education benefits to veterans.
1946
The Department of Medicine and Surgery was established, succeeded in 1989 by the Veterans Health Services and Research Administration, renamed the Veterans Health Administration in 1991.
1953
The Department of Veterans Benefits was established, succeeded in 1989 by the Veterans Benefit Administration.
1973
The National Cemetery System (except for Arlington National Cemetery) was transferred to the VA.
1988
Legislation to elevate VA to Cabinet status was signed by President Reagan.
1989
March 15. VA became the 14th Department in the President's Cabinet.
In other words, it has been up to them to make sure veterans received the care they were promised.
Covering reports has been like living on a rollercoaster ride. Members of Congress wanting to come off as fighting for veterans scream the loudest about absolutely nothing. None of them have the courage to admit that they have continually failed leaving veterans to suffer from neglect.
Why fix the VA if they get so much attention for the problems? Imagine what it would be like if there were few homeless veterans, few suicides, few veterans waiting for claims to be approved and everything was working fine. What would they have to talk about to get the attention of the press?
None of them have admitted this keeps going on and on because they benefit from failing veterans.
It used to be politicians were ashamed to admit their intentions were to kill the VA but now it seems as if they are proud of it. After all, it makes sense to them to turn veterans over to profiteers.
Think about life as a civilian. Ever call a doctor's office for the first time and hear "We're not taking new patients" which happens all the time? We understand that because it is simple common sense that time is limited and if they go over the number of patients they have the time and staff for, they wouldn't be able to serve the patients they already had.
Oh but when the VA says a veteran has to wait for a first appointment everyone is outraged. Did it ever once dawn on them that the VA can't wave a magic wand, make doctors and staff popup at will when more veterans show up and the make them vanish when less veterans need the VA?
It happened when Afghanistan and Iraq veterans were making headlines for their long waits at the VA. Older veterans were sent to the back of the line as a quick answer to the neglect of what Congress failed to do at the same time they were making more veterans with 2 wars.
Vice Adm. Daniel L. Cooper, undersecretary for benefits in the Department of Veterans Affairs -- in a memo obtained by the El Paso Times -- instructs the department's employees to put Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom veterans at the head of the line when processing claims for medical treatment, vocational rehabilitation, employment and education benefits...
That happened because at the same time more OEF and OIF veterans were heading to the VA, Congress had not planned on Vietnam veterans finally seeking help for PTSD and that was back in 2007.
Did Congress act? Nope. They complained a lot but that was just about it.
VBA's pending compensation and claims backlog stood at 816,211 as of January 2008, up 188,781 since 2004, said Kerry Baker, associate legislative director of the Disabled Veterans of America, during a Wednesday hearing of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense.
Oh, sorry forgot that they ended up increasing the VA budget because there was a billion dollar shortfall.
Guess planning wasn't on their agenda that year either.
The Senate version also includes an amendment that offers $50 million to speed up the processing of disability claims. It would pay for pilot programs to reduce the average waiting time -- which currently is six months -- for rulings on claims.
Cullinan says, “This is just the first step in the VA funding process. It gives broad outlines of spending for the Department which the Appropriations Subcommittees will use to find specific amounts and tasks within the VA. The process is not complete until the president signs the Appropriations Bill.” The Federal government’s 2009 fiscal year begins Oct. 1, 2008.
Now, with all that said there is a huge difference between a civilian doctor and the VA. The difference is Congress has the numbers for all the wounded service members along with the number of discharges. They know how many veterans will be entering into the title of "veteran" with how many are able to seek free care for 5 years after service. They know how many veterans they have within the older population and they know where they live. Or, they should know all that but year after year no one has fixed anything to make sure no veteran is left behind.
It happened during decades of neglect committed by Democrats and Republicans but while the press has managed to retain amnesia,
Impaired ability to learn new information following the onset of amnesia (anterograde amnesia)
Impaired ability to recall past events and previously familiar information (retrograde amnesia)
veterans have been victimized over and over again.
In 1989 there was a movie, the Legend of Billy Jean and Pat Benatar sang Invincible. It is about an "Average Texas teen, Billie Jean Davy, is caught up in an odd fight for justice. She is usually followed and harrased around by local boys, who, one day, decide to trash her brother's scooter for fun. The boys' father refuses to pay them back the price of the scooter. The fight for "fair is fair" takes the teens around the state and produces an unlikely hero."
"Fair is fair" and the fight for justice is all over this country and more and more veterans refuse to surrender to politicians.
Pat Benatar - Invincible
This bloody road remains a mystery. This sudden darkness fills the air. What are we waiting for? Won't anybody help us? What are we waiting for? We can't afford to be innocent
stand up and face the enemy. It's a do or die situation - we will be invincible. This shattered dream you cannot justify. We're gonna scream until we're satisfied. What are we running for? We've got the right to be angry. What are we running for when there's nowhere we can run to anymore? We can't afford to be innocent stand up and face the enemy. It's a do or die situation - we will be invincible. And with the power of conviction there is no sacrifice. It's a do or die situation - we will be invincible.
Navy veteran foils attempted robbery at Westside Walgreens
First Coast News
Keitha Nelson
September 4, 2015
"We're all in this world together, so we all have to look out for each other," said Cooper.
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- All it took was a few words for one local Navy veteran's training to kick in during a routine stop at his neighborhood Walgreens.
Navy veteran foils attempted robbery at Westside Walgreens (Photo: Doug Lockwood)
Those words were, "Open the register, I got a gun." Byron Cooper's quick actions foiled a robbery and possibly saved lives.
He says he stops at the Walgreens in his neighborhood, located at 7221 Normandy Boulevard, just about every night after work. Cooper normally rides his bike but Wednesday night he got a ride from a co-worker, putting him on-site much earlier than he normally would be.
Cooper believes he was simply in the right place at the right time.
"I came to the counter and this gentleman walked in and he came up behind me at first," said Cooper.
"He got a little too close for comfort, so I looked back at him and he looked at me and walked back to the front door and looked around. I had this creepy feeling that something wasn't right."
The father of four says he heard a few words that put him into military mode. read more here
Army works to prevent suicide through education, intervention
US Army Homepage
By Kate J. Ray, RN, Behavioral Health, Kenner Army Health Clinic
September 3, 2015
FORT LEE, Va. (Sept. 3, 2015) -- The International Association for Suicide Prevention and the World Health Organization will observe World Suicide Prevention Day, Sept. 10, with the theme "Preventing Suicide: Reaching Out and Saving Lives."
This observance acts as a call to action to both individuals and organizations that suicide can be prevented through education and intervention.
The Army has been concerned about suicide since the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported in 2008 that the rate of suicide among Army service members was nearly double the civilian rate. This led to the largest military-based mental health study ever undertaken, which involved the Army partnering with the National Institute of Mental Health to study the factors leading to Soldiers ending their own lives.
This year, some of the data from the "Army Study to Assess Risk and Resiliency in Service members," or STARRS, was released, and it is helping to drive changes in the way the Army views suicide.
Several risk factors for suicide occur among civilian and military populations including: an existing diagnosis of depression or severe anxiety; recent behavioral health hospitalization; alcohol or substance abuse; chronic pain or a serious medical condition; experiencing a highly stressful life event; relationship conflicts; and bullying at work or among peers.
In addition, Army STARRS showed some military-specific risk factors - i.e. being an enlisted Soldier, having a recent demotion or having deployed - put troops at a higher risk for suicidal acts. The Virginia Department of Health reports veterans account for 22 percent of all suicide victims in Virginia older than 18. read more here
How the hell does anyone expect to change anything as long as they trivialize suicides down to a soundbite? Putting the numbers of veterans suffering is far more complicated than just using a headline. The truth is we will never really know the true number.
These are some of the numbers they do know about and it has been more of an apocalypse even with thousands of calls to suicide prevention hotlines, charities all over the country claiming to be taking care of them and Congress spending billions every year.
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 young veterans committing suicide at triple the rate of their civilian peers.
For female veterans the number is even worse. But why talk about any of them? After all, after all the claims of doing everything humanly possible to save their lives, it seems hardly no one is telling the truth. The worst part of all of this is veterans have been committing suicide double the civilian population rate since before 2007 and that percentage has remained unchanged.
Further, this report contains information from the first 21 states to contribute data for this project and does not include some states, such as California and Texas, with larger Veteran populations.
Information from these states has been received and will be included in future reports.
Suicide among Veterans – As Reported on Death Certificates
Of the 147,763 suicides reported in 21 states, 27,062 (18.3%) were identified as having history of U.S. military service on death certificates. However, Veteran status was unknown or not reported for more than 23% (n=34,027) of all suicides during the project period. Without linking to VA or DoD resources to validate history of U.S. military service, it is necessary to remove those without information on history of military service from estimates of Veteran status among suicide decedents. Among cases where history of U.S. military service was reported, Veterans comprised approximately 22.2% of all suicides reported during the project period. If this prevalence estimate is assumed to be constant across all U.S. states, an estimated 22 Veterans will have died from suicide each day in the calendar year 2010.
"Dr. Steve Rathbun is the acting head of the Epidemiology and Biostatistics Department at the University of Georgia. CBS News asked him to run a detailed analysis of the raw numbers that we obtained from state authorities for 2004 and 2005.
It found that veterans were more than twice as likely to commit suicide in 2005 than non-vets. (Veterans committed suicide at the rate of between 18.7 to 20.8 per 100,000, compared to other Americans, who did so at the rate of 8.9 per 100,000.)"
So we have, as the following report shows, thousands of calls into the hotline but the numbers are showing one more thing no one talks about, the flip side of hell. Read the reports then go to the bottom for more.
Tampa Bay hotline aims at reducing veterans’ suicides
News Channel 8
By Steve Andrews Investigative Reporter
Published: September 4, 2015
TAMPA, FL (WFLA) – Every 65 minutes, a U.S. veteran takes his or her life. When army specialist Robert Bradford returned home from deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, his mother Monte Reinhardt, noticed a change. “He just wasn’t his usual playful self,” Monte recalls. She could see the depression in Robert’s eyes.
“At that point, I really didn’t know who to talk to about it,” she said.In July 2011, Robert tried to commit suicide. Nearly four months ago, in May, he died at the James A. Haley veterans hospital, from complications associated with his wound.
“The suicide rate alone for veterans right now is currently 22 veterans a day, that’s almost one veteran an hour,” said Jamie McPherson, an intervention specialist working at the Crisis Center of Tampa Bay. More than 300,000 veterans call Tampa Bay home. The Crisis Center hears from troubled veterans everyday.
“Upwards of about 2,500 to 3,000 calls on any given year were from veterans needing assistance,” Debra Harris, a director of 2-1-1 and suicide prevention services said. Debra points out the Crisis Center of Tampa Bay, the Florida Department of Veterans Affairs as well as other state agencies and funding sources are trying a revolutionary project in the bay area. read more here
You really want to reduce these veterans to a soundbite? Here's one. "2 Veterans Commit Suicide For Every 1 Civilian." How's that? Is that easy enough? Then consider one more fact.
How Many Veterans Are There?
There are 21.8 million veterans of the U.S. armed forces as of 2014, according the Census Bureau, approximately 10 percent of whom are women. To put that in context there are 319.2 million Americans, according to the bureau. The states with the highest number of veteran residents are California with 2 million, Texas with 1.6 million and Florida also with 1. 6 million, the bureau estimates. Each of these states have major military bases including Fort Hood in Texas, Fort Irwin in California and Naval Air Station Pensacola.
While it is true we will never know the real number of veterans committing suicide, the "22 a Day" claim is not even close.
So why isn't anyone asking why there are so many when the Suicide Prevention Hotlines get thousands of calls? Because if they did, then they would finally understand as bad as the numbers are, they would be even higher without the hotline.
Stunning when you think about these men and women were ready to sacrifice their lives for someone else, survived combat but couldn't survive back home.
Indiana veterans returning home face dearth of services
Associated Press
September 4, 2015
"They wipe their hands of it and say 'Well, it's for the federal government to do' instead of being progressive and forward thinking." Retired Brig. Gen. James Bauerle
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Indiana has a large number of veterans who are returning home as the Army thins its ranks and winds down overseas engagements, placing more demand on a network of veterans' services that is already stretched thin.
Unfortunately for Hoosiers coming home, local veterans advocates says Indiana lags far behind other states when it comes to getting services to those in need.
The problem may be particularly acute in Indiana. But Army Brig. Gen. Malcolm Frost says it's happening across the entire nation.
"It is a problem and there is a high demand," Frost said Friday in an interview with the Associated Press.
"That population is going to continue to depart the military for the next decade."
In addition to reducing its presence in Iraq and Afghanistan, the military is required to scale back as a result of cuts to the federal budget, drawing the number of soldiers down from 570,000 to perhaps as low as 420,000, Frost said.
That reduction will essentially give pink slips to many soldiers who have made a career out of repeat deployments. And as the number of veterans grows, so too will the need for services that help them transition back to civilian life, in areas from job training to medical care and counseling.
A 2014 report by the Indiana Department of Veterans Affairs found the state was deficient in 21 ways — both large and small — that hamper the delivery of services.
The report found that in 2013 the state spent $3.67 per veteran. Meanwhile, Texas spent $18.69, Missouri spent $15.97 and Alabama spent $29.40.
"Where is the governor's priority on taking care of veterans?" Bauerle said. "They wipe their hands of it and say 'Well, it's for the federal government to do' instead of being progressive and forward thinking."
read more here
Hayward veteran celebrates his survival, along with his gay bar
San Jose Mercury News
By Rebecca Parr
September 4, 2014
"It's never too late, but they have to be willing to walk through this. It's very painful. PTSD is like a cancer. It doesn't go away; it continues to grow and fester if not treated," Rev. Phil Salois
HAYWARD -- Larry Gray is throwing a party to celebrate not only his gay bar being in business for 30 years, but his own survival as well, as the gay Vietnam veteran has come to terms with his past after trying to forget it for years.
"It's still hard for me to talk about Vietnam. But I'm honest now with myself and others. I'm living my life as who I am," he said as he sat on the patio of his World Famous Turf Club on Main Street in downtown Hayward. "Maybe my sharing my story will help others."
Gray already had suffered trauma when he was drafted in 1967 at the age of 19. Three years earlier, his father died of a heart attack at age 44.
"He dropped dead in the living room in front of us. I was 16," he said.
At the same time, the adolescent was becoming aware of his sexuality.
"Having my father die in front of us, I had the emotion of dealing with that. At the same time, I was realizing I had different feelings about my sexuality. For a 16-year-old, that's too many emotions," he said.
In the 1960s, there was no information about homosexuality or help available to Gray.
"I had nobody to talk to. Homosexuality was still treated as a mental illness," he said.
Gray's story is a common one for Vietnam veterans, said the Rev. Phil Salois, recently retired chief of chaplain service at the Veteran Affairs Boston Healthcare System. Salois, who also served in Vietnam, has been helping veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder for more than 30 years. He also suffers from the condition.
"It took me 13 years before I started talking about it," Salois said.
He encouraged veterans suffering with PTSD to seek help at a VA center.
"It's never too late, but they have to be willing to walk through this. It's very painful. PTSD is like a cancer. It doesn't go away; it continues to grow and fester if not treated," Salois said.
"It takes time. When you've been traumatized, when you've seen death face-to-face, it's hard to process," he said.
Gray stopped telling people he was a veteran after being criticized. read more here
Soldier Describes Improvement at Fort Hood's WTU After NBC 5 Investigation Exposes Complaints of Mistreatment
Internal Army memo still shows increase in “dignity and respect” complaints Army-wide in 2014, not just at WTUs
NBC 5 News Dallas
By Scott Friedman
September 4, 2015
There are signs of change at Fort Hood where an NBC 5 investigation uncovered serious concerns about the mistreatment of injured soldiers.
James Moffatt hoped for a lifelong career in the Army, but his plans changed on the battlefield in Afghanistan and Iraq when he suffered head and spinal injuries and developed post-traumatic stress.
But NBC 5 Investigates obtained an internal Army memo written last summer by outgoing Army Inspector General Peter Vangjel. The memo said, “In the first half of (Fiscal Year) FY14, the Army recorded 23,975 complaints and requests for assistance. Command and leadership issues comprise a third of those complaints. Within the command/leadership complaint spectrum, there has been an increase this FY in the number of dignity and respect complaints …”
According to the memo, those complaints are Army-wide, not just issues at WTUs.
The memo goes on to say that soldiers have more “ … confidence that their complaints will be heard and acted upon. What was tolerable language by most soldiers before — shouting, cursing and name calling — is simply no longer acceptable. Junior and senior leaders must demand excellence without verbally or personally attacking the soldier.”
Message to the Black Lives Matter Movement
In this video I'm addressing the black lives matter movement and their agendas to have blacks kill whites and be racist towards them.
ALL LIVES MATTER AND THATS MY AGENDA THAT IM PUSHING. I LOVE YOU ALL NO MATER WHAT COLOR YOU ARE SUPPORT ALL LIVES MATTER
Michael Whaley
I am a Marine Veteran and I started this fundraiser because a recent video I made went viral and now I have support from thousands and thousands of people to help spread my agenda. My agenda is to promote the All Lives Matter movement and I need funds to be able to fly to the U.S. Cities to spread the truth to people so we can finally end racism and become a unified nation that sees no color, only human beings. Please donate all that you can. Even if you donate a penny, you helped made a difference
Pentagon Stats Show Rising Rates of US Military Child Abuse, Neglect
Military.com
by Amy Bushatz
Sep 03, 2015
"The alarm bell should be going off at DoD and we need to be looking at how are we working with our families"
The issue should raise a red flag at the Pentagon, according to Karen Golden, a military family lobbyist at the Military Officers Association of America.
Child abuse and neglect cases confirmed by the U.S. military rose almost 10 percent in 2014, according to the Defense Department.
The number of incidents of child abuse and neglect increased 687 to 7,676 last year, according to Pentagon data released on Thursday. Because some cases involve more than one abuser, the actual number of victims totaled 5,838, or about a half-percent of the military's 1 million children.
Of the victims, 63 percent were neglected and 25 percent were physically abused, the figures show.
About half of the adults accused in the cases were civilian parents, family members or friends while the other half were military personnel, they show.
Experts in child abuse intervention said they believe the increase represents only a fraction of the abuse occurring within the military community. Abuse and neglect often go unreported because military families don't seek mental health help or family support out of fear of harming the service member's career, they said.
"It's really the strangest thing you've ever seen," said Ambra Roberts, a crises intervention specialist who works with child protective services near Fort Benning, Georgia. "When I'm dealing with these things first hand, I'm like, 'So you didn't call the police when your husband did this?' And every time not hurting his career is their reasoning for not doing the right thing for these kids."
She said she expects both the number of reported abuse and neglect cases and the actual amount of abuse and neglect will continue to climb as service members and their families attempt to protect their chances of staying in the military.
read more here
Tomah VA Director Fired After Over-Prescription Reports
Associated Press
Sep 03, 2015
TOMAH, Wis. -- The director of the Tomah Veterans Affairs Medical Center has been fired, becoming the second top official ousted amid reports of over-medication practices at the facility.
Acting director John Rohrer sent an email to employees Wednesday stating only that Mario DeSanctis is no longer employed by the VA, the La Crosse Tribune reported Thursday.
The VA did not immediately say whether say whether DeSanctis was fired or quit, but U.S. Rep. Ron Kind's office told the newspaper that Kind was informed he had been "let go." DeSanctis was reassigned last March to another position outside the medical center, at the Great Lakes Health Care System network office.
Tomah VA spokesman Matthew Gowan said the search for a new director would begin immediately.
DeSanctis, an Air Force veteran who took over leadership of the west-central Wisconsin center in 2012, is the second Tomah VA official to depart amid reports of excessive opioid prescriptions being written there.
Last month, the VA's inspector general said deficiencies in care led to the mixed drug toxicity death last year of Jason Simcakoski, a 35-year-old Marine Corps veteran from Stevens Point. The investigation found that psychiatrists did not discuss with him or his family the hazards of a synthetic opiate he was prescribed, acted too slowly when he was found unresponsive, and did not have anti-overdose medicine on hand. One physician who attended to him was fired.
A soldier's war lie unravels 8 years later, opening old wounds
LOSS AND LIES
Stars and Stripes
By Travis J. Tritten
Published: September 3, 2015
Sgt. Christopher Wilson’s mother had no reason to distrust the soldier and his vivid story of her son’s death in Afghanistan.
Spc. Brandon Garrison found her in the dark days afterward and provided the details — the details a mother fears but needs — of Wilson’s last moments after a Taliban attack in Korengal Valley in March 2007.
The futile attempt to save Wilson, the blood, the coldness of imminent death. It was all there in Garrison’s account, and he provided the memories she clung to for years.
“I just needed to know. It is a knife wound so deep you just have to know every aspect or you can’t breathe,” Wilson’s mother, Ilka Halliday said.
Except none of it was true.
Garrison’s war lies are unraveling, eight years later, after soldiers who were with Wilson when he died came forward.
Garrison was not by Wilson’s side when he died, and had instead spent his Afghanistan deployment inside the wire as a vehicle parts clerk.
The false story of the infantry soldier’s death has exposed the pain such deceit can cause for survivors. For Wilson’s mother and his family, the sting of lies and loss has not been diminished by the passing of years.
For the past eight years, Halliday believed Garrison’s story about her son’s death. She wants him to tell her he lied.
“I would like him to look me in the eyes the same way he looked me in the eyes when he told me my son died in his arms,” she said.
Sometimes there is anger. The sunglasses — he could not even take off his sunglasses for the television apology, she said. Or say Christopher’s name. Once a simple phone call would have been enough, though not now.
Halliday said she is trying to find reasons not to hate Garrison, and she cannot believe he lied to her out of malice. She remembers the “sweet boy” she knew during 2007, the worst year of her life. She remembers the Garrison whom she said named his baby son after Christopher.
“I realize he is sick,” she said. “I knew that he had mental issues due to what he had gone through. … I took him into my heart because I had no reason not to trust him.”
As a mother who lost a soldier son, it is hard to stop caring for others wounded in the war.
“I don’t want his life to go straight down the toilet,” Halliday said. “I don’t want another life to be destroyed.”
But the ordeal has reopened a painful, barely closed wound for Wilson’s family.
“She said to me, ‘It’s been eight years that I’ve been in hell,’ ” said Katrina Evans, Wilson’s sister and Halliday’s stepdaughter.
Evans, who lives in Florida and is married to a disabled veteran, said she sent Garrison a message on Facebook calling him out. He blocked her, too.
Wilson’s grave marker at Arlington National Cemetery.
COURTESY OF SHANE WILKINSON
NEW HOUSE, NEW DOG
The TV news camera panned up the length of Garrison as he stood leaning on a cane in February 2015 near his home in the Kansas City area. A local nonprofit had rushed an Austrian Shepherd service dog named Taz to the disabled veteran’s side for emergency support to help him cope with his war injuries and the recent death of his father, who was also his caretaker.
The donation was part of the local outpouring for the young veteran. In 2014, Garrison stood in front of a crowd of 50,000 gathered for a Memorial Day celebration at Kansas City’s Union Station to accept the keys to a donated home. It was given through a program to house veterans called Roofs for Troops run by the nonprofit Nehemiah Community Reinvestment Fund, which did not return requests for comment.
He was handed a big paper key as a symbol of the community’s support for his military service.
“Remembering all the people who have lost their lives,” Garrison said at the time when asked by a local news crew what the day meant to him.
The dog, house and attention came as Garrison began speaking publicly about his PTSD and the raft of ailments he suffered following his return from Afghanistan, including TBI that caused bouts of vertigo.
read more here
VA May Lease Space to Non-Profits to Create New Housing for Homeless Veterans
NBC Los Angeles
By Patrick Healy
Friday, Sep 4, 2015
Expediting construction of housing for homeless veterans by leasing more VA property to nonprofits and government entities has been endorsed by Senator Dianne Feinstein.
Sen. Feinstein, D-CA, is working with Rep. Ted Lieu, D-LA, on legislation she said will enable a new round of "enhanced use" leases.
"What I really hope is that this facility can be a unique public-private partnership," Feinstein said during a visit Thursday to the West LA VA campus.
In recent years, the Salvation Army and the state of California have operated housing facilities there.
Some critics object that the new legislation could also enable other lessees — such as UCLA's Jackie Robinson Stadium for baseball — to remain on the campus, despite a 2013 court ruling they constituted improper uses because they did not directly benefit veterans health care.
Earlier this year the ruling was vacated when the parties agreed to a settlement calling for a new master plan due to be unveiled next month.
A year ago, the White House had called for a nationwide commitment to ending homelessness among veterans by the end of this year.
The most recent count in January found 4,343 of the homeless in metropolitan Los Angeles were veterans, an unexpected increase. read more here
