Fort Drum Soldier From Georgia Died in Afghanistan

Soldier who died of noncombat injuries in Afghanistan identified
Stars and Stripes
Published: September 22, 2015

The Pentagon has identified the U.S. Army soldier who died from noncombat-related injuries Monday in eastern Afghanistan.

Spc. Kyle E. Gilbert, 24, of Buford, Ga., died in Bagram, Afghanistan, while supporting Operation Freedom Sentinel, the Defense Department said in a news release Tuesday. He was assigned to 2nd Battalion, 14th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, Fort Drum, N.Y.

The incident is under investigation
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When Will the DOD Do the Right Thing on PTSD?

Delinquent Debt for Dignified Duty
Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
September 22, 2015

Nothing that happened to service members and veterans should have been a shock to anyone in the Department of Defense but over a decade of trying to "prevent suicides" they are scratching their heads wondering what they are missing.

The problem is, they've been missing all of it since WWI. That's how long they've been studying what war does to those who fight in them but instead of working off what was learned back then, they must have thought the basic design of the human mind must have changed. Now they are funding rat studies as if rats have emotions or grieve for one of their own.

If you look up the definition of dignified “having or showing a composed or serious manner that is worthy of respect” they should have added in “up to and including their lives” because that is exactly how high of a price service members are willing to pay.

When asked about the reason politicians start wars, they say “it’s above my pay grade” because they risk their lives for those they are with, not the ones sending them.

When the DOD talks about military suicides, they use double speak as deadly as forked tongue snakes.

According to one 1859 account, the native proverb that the "white man spoke with a forked tongue" originated as a result of the French tactic of the 1690s, in their war with the Iroquois, of inviting their enemies to attend a Peace Conference, only to be slaughtered or captured.

They tell the American people they understand PTSD while spending billions on "prevention" and we don't complain. After all, no amount of money is too much to spend on them. While telling us that, they turn around and kick out thousands, mistreat even more and force even more to just "suck it up" so they can pretend they've done something. Truth proves none of it is true since the suicide rate went up within the military and among veterans. But by the time we are made aware that most of the betrayed will have suffered for what the military failed to do, it will be far too late to make up for any of their suffering.

Then as the brass signed bad paper discharges, The LA Times Reported Ex-troops with highest suicide risk often don't qualify for mental care appropriately enough, on April 1, 2015. Yes, April Fools Day and considering it was a dirty trick to play on those few among us willing to die for someone else, it made perfect sense.

More than 140,000 troops have left the military since 2000 with less-than-honorable discharges, according to the Pentagon.

Veterans groups have recently taken up the cause. They point to a 2010 study showing that among Marines deployed to war, those diagnosed with PTSD were 11 times more likely to be kicked out for misconduct.

Of those suicides, 403 were among ex-service members whose discharges were "not honorable" — for a wide range of misconduct, from repeatedly disrespecting officers to felony convictions. An additional 380 occurred among veterans with "uncharacterized" discharges, the designation used for troops who leave in fewer than 180 days for a variety of nondisciplinary reasons.

All this reminds this New Englander of the Salem Witchcraft Trials

In January of 1692, the daughter and niece of Reverend Samuel Parris of Salem Village became ill. When they failed to improve, the village doctor, William Griggs, was called in. His diagnosis of bewitchment put into motion the forces that would ultimately result in the death by hanging of nineteen men and women. In addition, one man was crushed to death; seven others died in prison, and the lives of many were irrevocably changed.

Back then the accused were given two choices, confess or be tested. If they tried to drown an accused "witch" and she died, then she had to be innocent but she was still dead. Giles Cory had an answer after being accused.

“It is said that Corey urged the executioners to increase the weight which was crushing him, that he told them it was of no use to expect him to yield, that there could be but one way of ending the matter, and that they might as well pile on the rocks. Calef says, that, as his body yielded to the pressure, his tongue protruded from his mouth, and an official forced it back with his cane. Some persons now living remember a popular superstition, lingering in the minds of some of the more ignorant class, that Corey’s ghost haunted the grounds where his barbarous deed was done; and that boys, as they sported in the vicinity, were in the habit of singing a ditty beginning thus: ‘More weight! More weight! Giles Corey cried!’”

It is easy to complain about the problems veterans face at the VA but only easy if you didn't know what was going on for decades as more and more sessions of Congress promised to fix all of it, as they spent more and more money only to be followed by more reports leading to them being able to spend more and more money on stuff they already paid for long ago.

Veterans don't blame the VA.  They blame congress just as service members blame the DOD.  So when exactly do they stop adding more weight to crush the accused and start taking responsibility? Maybe in around another 40 years the same way they were finally forced to retreat on what they did to 200,000 Vietnam veterans. 80,000 Vietnam Veterans Wrongly Discharged May Get Benefits for PTSD finally but no telling when it will be made right for the OEF and OIF veterans.

Disabled American Veteran Stranded By American Airlines Over Service Dog?

Service Dog of the Year and retired Marine stranded in Los Angeles by American Airlines 
Free Beacon
Stephen Gutowski
September 22, 2015

The decision to deny the Haags and Axel service on the flight left them stranded in Los Angeles for the night.

A retired Marine and his service dog were denied a seat on an American Airlines flight the same day they had been honored with the Service Dog of the Year award.

Jason Haag, his wife, and his dog Axel were returning from the American Humane Association Hero Dog Awards where Axel had been honored as the Service Dog of the Year on Sunday when American Airlines employees at Los Angeles International Airport refused to allow them to board a plane to Reagan National Airport.

The airline employees did not believe that Axel was a service dog though Haag provided an animal identification card. Axel was also wearing a harness identifying him as a service dog.

The denial appears to be in violation of American Airlines policy, which requires only one of those forms of identification to allow a service dog on one of their flights.

The denial came as a complete surprise to Haag. “We got to LAX and everything was fine,” he told the Washington Free Beacon. “I checked into the ticket counter with Axel with no problems at all. They knew he was a service dog. Didn’t have any problems. We were issued our ticket. We got through security and checked our bags. We ate lunch and then went and sat down right at our gate.”

“We were there probably an hour and a half before we were supposed to board.”

Haag said he and Axel, who was wearing his service harness, were within full view of the employees at the ticket counter while they waited for their flight to arrive.

“Then about five minutes before we were supposed to board I got pulled out of line,” he said. “[The agent] called me up to the ticket counter and the first thing out of his mouth was, ‘Is that a real service dog?'”

Haag said the airline did not remove their luggage from the flight, so they were left with just the clothes on their back, which would constitute a significant security violation, as checked bags are typically matched with passengers as a preventative measure against terrorist attacks.

American Airlines did not offer to put them in a hotel for the night or provide any other support.

Haag said he hoped his ordeal might lead to action in forming a national registry for service dogs so no other veterans have to go through the same thing. “Service dogs are not going to go away,” he said.
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Army Widow Forgives Soldiers After Fort Bliss Training Death

Soldier negligence cited in death of Army captain
Army Times
By Kevin Lilley, Staff writer
September 21, 2015

Less than a day after rejoining his unit in the middle of a training exercise, a 27-year-old officer lay dying in the dark, the victim of what an Army investigator called “the intersection of multiple deficiencies.”

Capt. Jonathan Wynkoop, back with Headquarters and Headquarters Battery, 2nd Battalion, 3rd Field Artillery Regiment, after attending a wedding, had led an advance party from a training area to an assembly area about 30 kilometers away as part of Operation Iron Focus, a 10-day exercise involving more than 6,000 1st Armored Division soldiers at Fort Bliss, Texas.

The field artillery officer from Maumee, Ohio, helped set up camp and, around 12:30 the morning of March 31, went to sleep on a cot next to his vehicle.

Four hours and 15 minutes later came disaster. Operating in near-pitch black conditions, with a ground guide using the wrong type of illumination and a driver with the wrong type of license — both soldiers working on about two hours’ sleep — an MATV entered the unit’s unmarked sleeping area. It rolled over Wynkoop as he slept, crushing his chest.
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This is the last photo taken of Capt. Jonathan Wynkoop. It was March 28, a few days before the training accident at Fort Bliss, Texas.
(Photo: Courtesy of Rachel Wynkoop)

Army widow forgives soldiers cited in her husband's death
Army Times
By Kevin Lilley, Staff writer
September 21, 2015

Days after learning Capt. Jonathan Wynkoop had died in a training accident, his family members had a request — they wanted to meet the soldiers involved.

So, on an April Monday at Fort Bliss, Texas, Rachel Wynkoop found herself in a room at her husband’s brigade headquarters, speaking with the driver of the MATV that rolled over the father of three while he slept on a cot next to his vehicle in the early morning hours of March 31.

Rachel Wynkoop wasn’t there to press for answers, to express rage, to impart or release any of the suffering she’d undergone in the six days since her husband’s death.

Instead, the officer’s widow had a simple goal.

“My mission was to help him,” Wynkoop said of the driver, in one of a series of emails to Army Times. “He offered apologies, and I offered forgiveness, and told him that the kids and I would be OK. I also ensured that even though he faces a difficult road ahead, that he would take care of himself in the best manner possible.”
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Veterans Choice Would Be To Get Help They Were Promised

Denial is not a state veterans can afford to live in but that is exactly what is happening all over the country. Congress denies they are actually responsible for all this. Charities deny they have not made enough of a difference considering "new veterans charities has increased relatively rapidly over the past five years or so, growing by 41% since 2008." The DOD has denied they have ended up doing the same thing when we still using failed programs actually feeding the stigma while blocking real awareness of what PTSD is, why they have it and how they can heal. Once all that gets out of the way and the veterans actually try to go for help, this is what they face. So veterans cannot afford to go on waiting while the lose their lives after war.

In rural areas, vets still go without mental health care
One well-intentioned effort has failed
San Antonio Express News
By Martin Kuz, Staff Writer
September 19, 2015

Sabastian Vasquez survived three combat tours to Iraq in as many years. Then he entered another fight, unseen and unrelenting, to subdue the predatory memories of war.

A decade after his honorable discharge from the Marines, Vasquez remains plagued by post-traumatic stress disorder and the residual effects of a traumatic brain injury. In dark moments, he feels as if his mind has turned against him, holding him captive from his true self.

Earlier this year, he drove from his house in Tivoli to the nearest Veterans Affairs outpatient clinic, 35 miles away in Victoria. He inquired about counseling and discovered that one-on-one sessions were not offered. For individual therapy, he would need to travel to a VA facility in San Antonio, 150 miles from home and a five-hour round trip.

“It’s no wonder we have so many veterans offing themselves,” said Vasquez, 32, who grew up in Tivoli, an unincorporated town of fewer than 500 residents not far from Hynes Bay on the Gulf Coast. “You get kind of hopeless when you hit all these obstacles.”

Vasquez occupies a state of limbo with thousands of Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans in rural areas of Texas and across the country who struggle to receive behavioral health treatment. Their plight persists almost a year after the VA launched the so-called Choice Card initiative to improve access to medical services for veterans living outside urban centers.

Veterans and behavioral health advocates in South Texas, blaming factors within and beyond the VA’s control, regard the Choice Card program as a well-intentioned illusion. Less abstract is the deepening demand for treatment among those sent to fight in two faraway lands who came back to America trapped inside a war of their own.

“The card isn’t having any effect for vets with mental health problems,” said Gabriel Lopez, president of the South Texas Afghanistan and Iraq Veterans Association, based in Laredo. “It’s not filling the need, and the need is huge.”

The VA hired 3,600 clinicians after federal lawmakers pilloried the agency three years ago over prolonged wait times for mental health care. Similarly, officials announced plans last summer to add 2,700 providers in response to Congress passing the Veterans Access, Choice and Accountability Act, which established the Choice Card.

Yet a report in August from the VA Inspector General shows the system continues to suffer from a shortage of clinicians compounded by chronic inefficiency.

The report examined access to psychiatrists throughout the VA network. During a two-year period starting in 2012, the VA added 226 psychiatrists to provide outpatient care, boosting its total to almost 1,800 psychiatrists in that role. (Another 1,000 psychiatrists focus on inpatient care and related duties.)

In contrast to that 15 percent increase, the number of veterans who received outpatient psychiatric care over the same span grew by less than 9 percent, from 799,000 to 869,000.
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Charities for Veterans or for Profits?

More Veterans Charities Raising Funds But What Are the Results?
Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
September 21, 2015

It is gotten so bad for our veterans that it is a wonder why so many claiming to be doing so much have actually achieved so little. Think about all the news reports lately in case you need a reminder of what they are going through.

Tracking all the reports has my head spinning and I wanted to find out how many charities popped up since troops were coming home from Afghanistan and Iraq. My spinning head turned into spitting out coffee to avoid gagging. From Charity Watch January 26, 2015

A Donor's Guide to Serving the Needs of Veterans and the Military "Donors who want to make contributions towards charitable programs that serve the military and veterans face an almost overwhelming volume of choices with, by some accounts, the existence of over 40,000 nonprofit organizations dedicated to serving the military and veterans and an estimated 400,000 service organizations that in some way touch veterans or service members. 

Even the 2013/2014 Directory of Veterans and Military Service Organizations published by the U.S. Office of the Secretary of Veterans Affairs as an informational service for veterans seeking support lists over 140 national nonprofit organizations. Additionally, the number of new veterans charities has increased relatively rapidly over the past five years or so, growing by 41% since 2008 compared with 19% for charities in general, according to The Urban Institute as reported in a December 2013 The NonProfit Times article. 

With so many veterans and military organizations competing for charitable dollars, it may take a little extra effort on the part of donors to be well-informed, but that effort is essential given the great need for donations to be used as efficiently and effectively as possible."

In 5 years 41%? Seriously? Then why are the results so appalling?

No one is held accountable for any of it.  Congress isn't accountable, that's for sure and they never have to explain what the result was from all the money they spent to fund all the bills they wrote. Companies and colleges making money from what Congress spent didn't have to explain anything. No one had has to face the music for sining the same old tired tune of veterans are suffering so send the check to them.

It isn't as if we didn't already have great organizations long before these two wars.

The VFW traces its roots back to 1899, DAV Congressional Charter 1932, American Legion was chartered by Congress in 1919 Vietnam Veterans of America Charter 1980 and you can find even more here Congressionally-Chartered Veterans Service Organizations

If all the new groups were really doing what they said they were, then don't you think things would have been a lot better for our veterans?

Researchers get funds to research rats, yep still after all these years of not understanding that Combat PTSD is an emotional wound on top of regular PTSD, so rats really won't tell them much about veterans at all.  Hey, but they still get the funds.

The DOD keeps spending money on what clearly hasn't worked in the last decades, but again, don't ask them any questions on why they are still taking on the fight of military suicides with empty words and loaded slogans like "train your brain" to be mentally tough.

As for charities, there are a lot of good ones but for the others, it is almost as if they want things as bad as possible so they can point to the problems and then ask for more money.

Neat trick all the way around but veterans are the ones suffering for what you pay for without ever asking for the results you expected.

Iraq Navy Veteran Pulls Woman from Burning RV

RV Catches Fire, Closes Road in Poconos
WNEP 16 News
BY AMANDA KELLEY AND SARAH BUYNOVSKY
SEPTEMBER 18, 2015

MOUNT POCONO -- Part of Route 611 was closed in Mount Pocono after an RV on fire literally rolled down the road late Friday morning.

This RV fire happened right in the heart of Mount Pocono in the middle of the day and a local assistant fire chief actually watched as it all unfolded.

Owner Joseph Salce says he lived in that RV with his girlfriend.

"We were just driving along and all of a sudden smoke started rolling out of the back of the motor home," Salce recalled. "I pulled over, thank God we were able to get everything out."

It happened on a busy stretch of road and Pocono Mountain Volunteer Fire Company's assistant chief just happened to be driving by. He watched it unfold, too, not able to do much without his fellow volunteers.

Christopher Chmielnicki of Mount Pocono said he saw the flames and jumped into action when he heard there was a woman inside that RV.

"I climbed inside the RV on my hands and knees and I felt around and I found her, I'd say more than three-quarters of the way toward the back, where the bedroom is. I found her unconscious so I picked her up and I carried her all the way to the stairs," Chmielnicki said.

Chmielnicki was taken to the hospital and treated for smoke inhalation.

While there, the veteran of the Navy who served in Iraq said he got time to meet with the woman he rescued.
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UK: Veteran Homeless After 11 Years of Service

Homeless ex-soldier says he has been urinated on and spat at while living on streets of Manchester
Manchester Evening News
BY KATIE BUTLER
21 SEPTEMBER 2015

Billy Gage, who spent 11 years in the army but is now living on the streets, also had his sleeping bag set on fire

Ex British soldier Billy Gage talks about the abuse he has suffered while on the streets

A former British soldier has told how he has been urinated on and had his sleeping bag set on fire while living on the streets of Manchester.

Billy Gage went into the Armed Forces as soon as he left school at the age of 16 and spent 11 years serving his country as an All Arms Commando and went on several tours including Northern Ireland, Kosovo, Bosnia and Sierra Leone.

After leaving in 2004 he started his own plastering business, got married and had a son, Daniel.

But when his son was just six-years-old, Daniel tragically died.

The 39-year-old said he is shocked there is not more help for soldiers and he is disgusted at how people treat those living on the streets.

He said: “Sometimes I just go to a quiet street and cry to myself. I just can’t believe I’m in this situation.

“I have put my life on the line for the good of this country and this is the way I’m treated? It’s disgusting.”

He said he has been urinated on, spat on and even had his sleeping bag set on fire while being homeless.
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Trespass and Peril For Your Religious Freedom

Religious freedom is only threatened when one person or group thinks they have the right to force anyone else to surrender their own choice to them. It is as simple as that. Christianity is not being threatened. It may appear that way because few seem able to actually think about what it means to believe what you want while respecting the rights of others to believe what they choose to believe or not.

Trespass Law. an unlawful act causing injury to the person, property, or rights of another, committed with force or violence, actual or implied. a wrongful entry upon the lands of another. the action to recover damages for such an injury. 2. an encroachment or intrusion. 3. an offense, sin, or wrong.

There law is clear and gay rights should not be surrendered due to some religious groups. There are some Christian churches that have no problem with gay parishioners or even performing gay weddings.

The Episcopal Church approves religious weddings for gay couples after controversial debate and so do these. The Presbyterian Church (USA) formally recognized same-sex marriages and Evangelical Lutheran Church of America and United Church of Christ has allowed same-sex couples to get married since 2005.

Most churches will not allow them and that is fine considering Christians have not agreed on much over the last few thousand years, still, had there been any law establishing the right for all gay people to be married wherever they wanted, there would have been a scream heard around the world because then there would be no freedom of religion.

So why would anyone be ok when one Christian believes she has the right as an employee of the government to prevent someone else from having the same right to believe as they want? It is not her right to hinder the rights of others because she does not agree with them.

I am naturally referring to Kim Davis and what she is pulling in Kentucky. It isn't just about the folks seeking equal rights in that county it is about setting a standard for all rights to be reduced in the eyes of the law.

What on earth would she say to a servicemember seeking a license to marry his/her partner? "Sorry but your rights are not as good as mine?"

Any level headed person should be appalled by this because if you are not, then ask yourself who you'd give the power to over your own right to believe as you will. Let them trespass someone else's freedom and you put your own in peril.

Texas Veterans Struggle To Get Help to Heal PTSD

Congress had a choice to make many years ago. Fix the VA problems for the sake of all veterans or feed the wolves at the door by privatizing it. Bit by bit, chunk by chunk, that is exactly what they have been doing. Imagine what could have been done for veterans if they actually put veterans first? This has been going on for decades but no session of congress took any of this seriously.

Texas veterans find mental health care difficult to access
Finding mental health care after war proves difficult, 'not working' in Texas
SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS
By Martin Kuz
September 20, 2015

The number of men and women receiving mental health treatment from the VA surged from 927,000 in 2006 to 1.5 million last year. Veterans living in rural areas accounted for almost a third of the total in 2014, including more than 33,000 in Texas.

Photo: JERRY LARA, Staff Iraq War veteran Sabastian Vasquez, pays his respect at a memorial for family friend and parish priest, Tim Kinast, on Aug. 6 by the Austwell Pier near Tivoli. Vasquez made three tours and was diagnosed with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Sabastian Vasquez survived three combat tours to Iraq in as many years. Then he entered another fight to subdue the predatory memories of war.

A decade after his honorable discharge from the Marines, Vasquez remains plagued by post-traumatic stress disorder and the residual effects of a traumatic brain injury. In dark moments, he feels as if his mind has turned against him and is holding him captive.

Earlier this year, he drove from his house in Tivoli to the nearest Veterans Affairs outpatient clinic, 35 miles away in Victoria. He inquired about counseling and discovered that one-on-one sessions were not offered. For individual therapy, he would need to travel to a VA facility in San Antonio, 150 miles from home and a five-hour round trip.

"It's no wonder we have so many veterans offing themselves," said Vasquez, 32, who grew up in Tivoli, an unincorporated town of fewer than 500 residents not far from Hynes Bay on the Gulf Coast. "You get kind of hopeless when you hit all these obstacles."
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UPDATE read more here