Army Veteran Shot in the Back after Baseball Game May Never Walk Again
Fox News
Sep 29, 2015
An Army vet may never walk again after he was shot in the back while leaving a St. Louis Cardinals home game on Friday.
Candis Sanna, left, and Christopher Sanna in a picture from the family's
GoFundMe page to help pay for Christopher's medical bills. (GoFundMe)
Christopher Sanna, 43, was struck in his liver, spine and lungs, according to KMOV. His mother, Candis Sanna, posted on a GoFundMe page on Sunday that "surgeons have confirmed that his spinal injury cannot be repaired."
"They said he could eventually get a little feeling back, but there was no hope for him to walk," Candis Sanna told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. "It’s horrible."
Christopher Sanna was attending the game against the Brewers with his three brothers to celebrate his mom’s 60th birthday. But he had to work Saturday morning at his job as the manager of an automotive store, and so he left the game early, with his girlfriend, while the rest of his family stayed to watch the final inning. As Sanna walked back to his car around 10:30 p.m., two armed male suspects in a black sedan confronted him and his girlfriend.
"After she gave him her purse, [one perpetrator] pulled a gun," Candis Sanna told KMOV. "That’s when they turned to run, and he shot at them twice."
Sanna served six years in the Army, stationed in Germany, according to the Post-Dispatch. read more here
Chris Sanna, second from right, poses for a family photo with his mother and brothers at a Cardinals game on Friday, Sept. 25, 2015. He was shot during a robbery after leaving the game. Family photo.
UPDATE: Army captain assaulted on Plaza out of hospital, back at Ft. Leavenworth
He is at Leavenworth for 12-week course
KSHB 41 News Kansas City
Shain Bergan, Nick Sloan
Sep 26, 2015
The man punched the soldier, according to police. The other five individuals then piled on and began punching and kicking the soldier while he was on the ground.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. - UPDATE, 9/28: The Army captain who suffered serious injuries after being assaulted on the Country Club Plaza on Sept. 19 was released from the hospital Monday. He is back at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., being examined by on-base medical crews, according to officials there.
The 37-year-old man was admitted at St. Luke's hospital in Kansas City after being jumped by six assailants outside of the Zocalo Mexican restaurant on the Plaza in Kansas City, Mo. Another Army captain he was with was also assaulted, but was treated at the scene and released, according to Fort Leavenworth officials.
Both captains serve in the Army Reserve with the 151st Theater Information Operations Group at Fort Totten, New York. They are at Fort Leavenworth for a 12-week qualification course
Officials said the severely injured captain met with family at the base and was released from on-base medical care Monday. read more here
Former Navy SEAL Greitens running for Missouri governor
The Associated Press
By Alan Scher Zagier and Summer Ballentine
September 28, 2015
MARYLAND HEIGHTS, Mo. — Former Navy SEAL Eric Greitens, a political newcomer who was once courted to run for Congress as a Democrat, on Saturday launched a Republican campaign for Missouri governor in 2016.
Eric Greitens
Former Navy SEAL Eric Greitens smiles at a rally where he announced his candidacy into the
2016 race for Missouri governor onSept. 26, 2015, at Westport Plaza in Maryland Heights, Mo.
(Photo: uy Mach/St. Louis Post-Dispatch via AP)
Greitens, 41, is already the top fundraiser in a crowded GOP field thanks to an exploratory campaign committee that's raised more than $1 million in recent months, boosting his total haul to more than $2 million.
He touted both his military background and lack of political pedigree before a crowd of several hundred supporters at an announcement in suburban St. Louis near his childhood home.
"I'm running for governor because we need a political outsider to move Missouri forward," Greitens said. "We have a political class of corrupt consultants, well-paid lobbyists, and career politicians who have been in Jefferson City for decades. They have produced nothing for us but embarrassment and failure."
Greitens grew up in St. Louis County, was a Rhodes Scholar after graduation from Duke University, served in the Afghanistan and Iraq wars and as White House fellow. He's written three books that combine stories of his military service and humanitarian work with lessons on leadership. He founded the nonprofit group The Mission Continues, which connects veterans with volunteer work to ease the post-military transition.
He drew the loudest cheers with a call to extend term limits to all statewide offices and ban lobbyist gifts to state lawmakers.
"I will defeat you, I will expose your lies, I will root out your corruption, and I will see you out of the people's Capitol," said Greitens, adding his own lifetime pledge to never lobby government. read more here
After 7 overseas deployments, Air Force medic looks forward to going home
Herald-Times (Tribune News Service)
By Laura Lane
Published: September 27, 2015
He also served on humanitarian missions twice, to help fight wildfires in California in 2007 and to help victims of the 2010 earthquake in Haiti.
Matt Scott's world is defined by 15-foot-high cement walls, steel doors, guards with assault rifles, armored Humvees, suicide bombers and vehicle-borne explosives.
It's a short distance to work every day, but he gets transported in a helicopter. It's safer than driving on sabotaged roads in the deserts of Afghanistan, where a thin layer of gray, silt-like dust covers everything in sight and danger lurks always.
When winter cold sets in, air quality deteriorates. "It gets wet and humid and dreary and snowy," the U.S. Air Force master sergeant from Ellettsville, Ind., said. "The people here burn literally everything to stay warm, and the pollution gets very bad."
Six thousand feet above sea level and 7,673 miles from home, the 38-year-old Monroe County native and flight medic is serving out the end of a two-decade military career during which he has been deployed overseas seven times. read more here
Report: Senior VA executives abused positions for financial gain
Stars and Stripes
By Heath Druzin
Published: September 28, 2015
WASHINGTON — A senior Department of Veterans Affairs manager hired to clean up a beleaguered regional office in Philadelphia misused her position to create the very vacancy she volunteered for as part of a wider scheme by VA officials to give stealth raises to executives, according to a VA Office of Inspector General report.
Diana Rubens, director of the
Department of Veterans Affairs'
Philadelphia regional office,
is sworn in at a House hearing
in April, 2015.
JOE GROMELSKI/STARS AND STRIPES
The Office of Inspector General had been investigating Philadelphia VA Regional Office Director Diana Rubens since March, after it became known that she had received nearly $300,000 in compensation to move about 140 miles from Washington to Philadelphia. While the Inspector General’s office concluded that her moving expenses were allowable, it found she and one other executive had manipulated the VA hiring system to both create vacancies they sought for financial gain in an era of government pay freezes.
The Inspector General has made a criminal referral to the District of Columbia U.S. Attorney’s Office for actions by Rubens and St. Paul (Minn.) Director Kimberly Graves, who is accused of a similar scheme to become director of the St. Paul Veterans Affairs Regional Office. No charges have been filed.
Rubens and Graves retained their salaries, $181,497 and $173,949, respectively, despite taking new positions with fewer responsibilities at lower rungs on the federal pay scale. Together they received about $400,000 in moving expenses. read more here
Congress Sold Out Veterans Care Years Ago
Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
September 28, 2015
Just because you may think the VA is behind all the problems, doesn't make it true. The truth is, contractors have been paid a boatload of money to do what you assume VA employees are doing.
There are a lot more cases listed but I wanted to make sure you knew about this part.
Brandon Coleman, a therapist and decorated veteran at the VA hospital in Phoenix, the epicenter of last year's scandal. He urgently warned that there was a broader problem with how suicidal patients were being handled.
Five suicidal veterans had walked out of the emergency room without getting help during a single week in January, he told his supervisor. Six days after he spoke with his boss, Coleman recalled, he was suspended from his job. He believes it was in retaliation.
Washington, DC – The Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General (OIG) received a request from the Chairman of the U.S House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs to determine the merits of allegations made by a whistleblower about the Veterans Health Administration’s (VHA) Health Eligibility Center (HEC).
The OIG found the Chief Business Office has not effectively managed its business processes to ensure the consistent creation and maintenance of essential data and recommended a multiyear project management plan to address the accuracy of pending Enrollment System records to improve the usefulness of such data.
The OIG published a report http://www.va.gov/oig/pubs/VAOIG-14-01792-510.pdf on September 2, 2015, addressing the following four questions:
Did the HEC have a backlog of 889,000 health care applications in a pending status?
Did 47,000 veterans die while their health care applications were in a pending status?
Were over 10,000 veteran health records purged or deleted at the HEC?
Were 40,000 unprocessed applications, spanning a 3-year time period, discovered in January 2013?
We substantiated the first allegation that VHA’s enrollment system had about 867,000 pending records as of September 30, 2014. However, due to serious enrollment data limitations, such as an estimated 477,000 pending records not having application dates, we could not reliably determine how many records were associated with actual applications for enrollment.
OIG also substantiated that pending records included entries for over 307,000 individuals reported as deceased by the Social Security Administration. Again because of data limitations, we could not determine how many pending records represent veterans who applied for health care benefits.
We also substantiated that employees incorrectly marked unprocessed applications as completed and possibly deleted 10,000 or more transactions over the past 5 years. Information security deficiencies, such as the lack of audit trails and system backups, limited our ability to review some issues fully and rule out data manipulation.
Finally, we substantiated that the HEC identified over 11,000 unprocessed health care applications and about 28,000 other transactions in January 2013. This backlog developed because the HEC did not adequately manage its workload and lacked controls to ensure entry of its workload into the enrollment system.
Then there is another link to FedBizOpps.gov that list the contracts for some things like building and equipment but then there are also others like this one.
Q--NEW IDIQ CONTRACT: FUNDING REQUIRED | Medical Disability Exams (MDE) under P.L. 104-275 | VBA Compensation Service | RFQ # VA119A-15-Q-0130
So if you think these are VA employees doing everything that is wrong, keep in mind that a lot of the times what you think is not always true. Next time you hear a politician talk about turning veterans care over to companies operating for profit instead of for veterans, remember this. They already turned too much over to corporations including processing claims.
Under a four-year, $37-million contract, Harris will provide the VBA’s Office of Performance Analysis and Integrity with technical services for the data warehouse including design, development, enhancement, integration, implementation, maintenance and infrastructure support.
Here's a contractor talking about what he supplies for the DOD and the VA
Just a taste of how much money is involved, this is about the Air Force but then there are other contracts with other branches as well as the VA and even Warrior Transition Units which we heard a lot about from the Dallas Morning News.
Luke and Associates has been awarded a contract to provide Clinical Support Services for Air Force Medical Treatment Facilities nationwide. This contract has a potential value of $1.9 billion over 10 years. Luke will recruit, qualify and retain clinical personnel of all levels, including physicians, dentists, nurses and pharmacists to provide care at a total of 63 Military Treatment Facilities in 58 geographic locations.
Crash kills motorcyclist escorting veteran's body, hurt 3
Des Moines Register
Charly Haley
September 27, 2015
One motorcyclist died and three others were injured Saturday in Iowa when a car crashed into motorcyclists escorting the body of a veteran killed in a similar accident earlier this month.
The crash happened about 1 p.m. on Interstate Highway 80, near Atlantic, when nearly 125 motorcyclists and other vehicles were escorting veteran Bill Henry's cremated remains home to Omaha from the Freedom Rock landmark in western Iowa.
The Iowa State Patrol said Donald Kerby, 81, of Des Moines struck a motorcycle when he changed lanes to avoid a trailer parked on the road's shoulder. Ryan Lossing, 38, of Omaha died, and three other riders were hurt.
Henry was killed after a similar crash near Manassas, Va., earlier this month. The 69-year-old Army veteran died Sept. 14, two weeks after suffering head injuries from a crash that happened as he helped escort six West Coast veterans' remains to Arlington National Cemetery for burial.
Henry co-founded and helped lead the Nebraska chapter of the Missing in America Project, which works with funeral homes to return unclaimed remains of veterans to family members and arrange for military burials.
"It's a tragedy. They (Henry and Lossing) both went before their time," said Larry Schaber, a friend of Henry's who co-founded Nebraska's Missing in America Project chapter with him. read more here
Carson’s ideas to reform VA concern local veterans
Midland Reporter Telegram
By Erin Stone
Sep 27, 2015
The DAV and other national organizations -- American Legion, AMVETS, Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans, Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States, Paralyzed Veterans of American, Military Order of the Purple Heart and Military Officers Association of America -- signed and sent an open letter to Carson in response to his ideas for reforming the VA.
The Department of Veterans Affairs has encountered much criticism given the sometimes fatal consequences of its long waiting lists. However, Republican presidential candidate Dr. Ben Carson’s recent comments about moving veterans’ health care partially into the privatized realm has veterans -- including those who are well aware of the flaws of the current VA -- up in arms.
In an op-ed published last week in USA Today, Carson described improving the VA with what he called “offer choice,” which would give veterans a health savings account (HSA) “to allow veterans to access the best possible medical care at a nearby DOD, VA or civilian medical facility.”
Leaders of veterans’ organizations worry that this will lead to the complete privatization of veterans’ health care and the eventual elimination of the department altogether, especially given Carson’s comments in an August radio interview stating the VA doesn’t need to exist, said Paul Reed, commander and Service Officer for the Permian Basin Chapter of Disabled American Veterans.
Reed believes the new Veterans Choice Program is a concrete example of this incremental movement toward fully privatizing the VA. Through the Choice Program, eligible veterans are sent a Choice Card with which they are allowed to seek covered care outside of the VA if their wait time is more than 30 days or the closest VA is more than 40 miles away from their home. read more here
Hospital told RAF sergeant to leave waiting room in case his uniform upset other patients
THE DAILY MAIL
By JOSH WHITE
PUBLISHED:25 September 2015
Aircraft engineer Mark Prendeville at The Queen Mother Hospital in Margate Staff moved him to sit in a corner before asking him to sit behind a wall
Family claim they were told it was as they 'didn't want to upset' anyone
Say explanation added that A and E had 'lots of cultures coming in' and staff were worried about his uniform
Mark Prendeville’s (pictured on his wedding day) treatment was condemned as ‘horrifying’ by military figures and Air Force veterans – but follows a string of incidents in recent years where service personnel were snubbed because of their uniform
An RAF sergeant who has served in Iraq and Afghanistan was moved out of a hospital waiting room because staff feared his uniform would upset people from different cultures, it was reported.
Aircraft engineer Mark Prendeville’s treatment was condemned as ‘horrifying’ by military figures and Air Force veterans – but follows a string of incidents in recent years where service personnel were snubbed because of their uniform.
Sergeant Prendeville, 38, was taken to the A and E department at Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother Hospital in Margate, Kent, after chemicals from a fire extinguisher got in to his eyes during a training exercise.
He was then taken to an empty corner of the waiting room before being moved behind a corner by hospital staff, The Sun reported.
In an explanation to his family, hospital workers were said to have claimed ‘they didn’t want to upset people’ because they ‘have lots of different cultures coming in’.
Sergeant Prendeville’s father, Jim, said: ‘Mark was moved because of his uniform – he was told that twice.
The words they used were: “We’ve lots of cultures coming in”.
‘Mark was quite annoyed, but he’s a quiet lad and didn’t want to cause a fuss.’
Mr Prendeville added: ‘He didn’t care about the burns, he felt worse about how he was treated. I was absolutely disgusted when I heard. I don’t know what is so offensive about a uniform.’
Veterans and military figures condemned Sergeant Prendeville’s treatment. Former Chief of the Air Staff Sir Michael Graydon described the incident as ‘disappointing’. read more here
If you forgot about 9-11-2001, there were a lot of folks rushing to do whatever they could to help the survivors and find whatever remains they could. One of them was an Army National Guardsman from right here in Florida. Reading his story and what happened to him, it only seemed right to put into context what he did back then. This is from Tampa Tribune great report by Howard Altman.
Garrett Goodwin was a medic, working in the emergency room at Bayfront Medical Center in St. Petersburg, in September 2001.
On Tuesday morning, Sept. 11, he was in bed, watching TV before an afternoon shift, when he saw what turned out to be United Flight 175 hit the South Tower of the World Trade Center.
Goodwin, a combat medic with the Army National Guard who had experience in disaster recover efforts, says he packed his bag, hopped in his truck and drove down to MacDill Air Force Base, hoping to catch a flight north to help during the unfolding catastrophe.
But nothing was flying anywhere. So he and a friend drove north, toward the Pentagon.
“We did rescue work for three or four hours, but there was no one to save, so we went to New York,” Goodwin says.
They arrived about 6:30 a.m., Sept. 12. Goodwin says he checked in with the military authorities on scene, they told him what he could do, and he was given a “red card” allowing him access.
For the next 24 days, he worked between 18 and 20 hours in what used to be the tallest building in America. It had become a mass grave.
So how did he end up this way?
Tampa man ill just now from help he gave at Ground Zero
Tampa Tribune
By Howard Altman
Tribune Staff
Published: September 27, 2015
Garrett Goodwin is a casualty of al-Qaida’s war against the U.S.
Shortly after the jihadi organization turned aircraft into weapons, obliterating the World Trade Center in New York, hitting the Pentagon and crashing into a Pennsylvania field, Goodwin made the trip from Florida to Manhattan to help recovery efforts. He spent more than three weeks in the smouldering pile of twisted beams that was once the World Trade Center — the place where Pope Francis on Friday summoned the world to “unity over hatred.”
Now, Goodwin is paying the price.
It includes a stay, since last Tuesday, at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, where he is desperately seeking help for the maladies he believes are a result of his time at Ground Zero.
Finally, after a health scare that started on the 14th anniversary of the attacks, Goodwin realized he needed greater medical attention.
There are many others like him — first responders who have became casualties of war by dint of their time searching the wreckage, first for survivors, then for remains.
Every day, there are more Garrett Goodwins, coming forward seeking help. read more here
Orem veteran promises that Vietnam vets 'will not be forgotten'
Herald Extra
Cathy Allred Daily Herald
September 27, 2015
Gunnery Sgt. Gary Campbell doesn't hesitate to talk about the Vietnam War, because of a promise he made to the dead and dying in the 1960s – they will not be forgotten.
Gary Campbell a Vietnam Veteran who served in the Marines, photographed in Orem on Thursday, September 3, 2015. India Company, the 180-man unit that Campbell was in, sustained 34 dead and 80 wounded when they were ambushed by the enemy during Operation Hastings in 1966. Campbell and many others in his company received the Purple Heart and numerous other awards of valor. JIM MCAULEY, Special to the Daily Herald
His words paint a vivid and stark story against the background of the politics at the time and the humid hot jungles of the country.
“The four stories I tell are the ones that are the most important to me, because they are about my buddies, my men that didn’t come home,” Campbell said.
His voice trembled as he showed an old photo of India Company. The soldiers in the photo are standing on bleachers to get every uniformed Marine in the frame.
“This is my company,” he said. “This picture was taken on Okinawa before we went to Vietnam. Of these people, and there are 180 of them here, troops, Marines; 34 died while I was in Vietnam and over 80 of us was wounded.”
By the time he was 23, the North Vietnamese Army, B Division, was sent to infiltrate the south. Campbell’s battalion was ordered to stop the action. The campaign was called Operation Hastings.
Called India Company, his Marines were sent to take a “rockpile” named Hill 362. The Marines won the battle for Hill 362 on July 24, 1966, but at a price. read more here
As you'll read in this report going back to 2008, he hasn't forgotten them.
Vietnam veterans traveling back to battlefield to honor comrades
KSL News
Jed Boal reporting
Posted Apr 23rd, 2008
In a few days, a Vietnam War veteran from Utah will head off on a mission of honor four decades delayed. Gary Campbell and nine fellow Marines will travel back to the battlefield where they lost nearly three dozen comrades.
July 24, 1966 was a holiday at home in Utah, but a terrifying battle for Gary Campbell and his fellow Marines on Hill 362 in Vietnam. India Company, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines was on an extended search-and-destroy mission.
The Marines planned to take control of Hill 362 for a radio relay tower, but it turned into a fierce fight with the North Vietnamese. "Absolutely a defining point in your life. For the last 40 years I think about it. It's always there," Campbell said.
Campbell says, "You go through something like this with people, I was with them less than a year, but they're like my brothers."
Department of Veterans Affairs Fast Facts
CNN Library
September 25, 2015
is floating all over the net today. The trouble is, while it is good it isn't good enough to give folks an idea how long all of this has been going on.
They kind-of-sort-of skipped over some of the most important years of all.
More Than 260,000 Can't Get VA Health Care
Associated Press | January 25, 2006
WASHINGTON - More than a quarter-million veterans considered to have higher incomes could not sign up for health care with the Veterans Affairs Department during the last fiscal year because of a cost-cutting move.
Those locked out - totaling 263,257 in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30 - have no illnesses or injuries attributable to their service in the military and earn more than the average wage in their community.
The VA suspended enrollment of such veterans beginning in January 2003 after then-VA Secretary Anthony Principi said the agency was struggling to provide adequate health care to the rapidly rising number of veterans seeking it.
That year the VA population was about 6.8 million. About 7.5 million are enrolled today, with more than 5 million treated.
"There is no reason for the VA to give the cold shoulder to veterans who have served our country honorably," said Rep. Lane Evans of Illinois, ranking Democrat on the House Veterans Affairs Committee.
VA spokesman Matt Burns said VA provides world-class health care to veterans, "particularly our newly returning veterans, those with low incomes and those who have sustained service-related injuries or illnesses."
Iraq veterans are guaranteed health care if they enroll within two years of leaving the military.
Peake wants to reduce wait times from roughly 180 days to 145 days by the start of next year. He cited aggressive efforts to hire staff, noting the VA will have 3,100 new staff by 2009. VA also is working to get greater online access to Pentagon medical information that he said will allow staff to process claims faster and move toward a system of electronic filing of claims.
Peake promised to “virtually eliminate” the current list of 69,000 veterans who have waited more than 30 days for an appointment to get VA medical care. Such long waits runs counter to department policy, and a group of Iraq war veterans have filed a lawsuit alleging undue delays. He said VA plans to open 64 new community-based outpatient clinics this year and 51 next year to improve access to health care in rural areas.
“We will take all measures necessary to provide them with timely benefits and services, to give them complete information about the benefits they have earned through their courageous service, and to implement streamlined processes free of bureaucratic red tape,” Peake said in testimony prepared for a House Veterans Affairs Committee hearing Thursday.
He also promised to provide “compassionate care” for veterans suffering from mental health issues such as traumatic brain injury (TBI), and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). He said that VA expects to treat about 5,771,000 patients in 2009. Kussman also said that in April 2006, over 250,000 “unique” patients were waiting more than 30 days to receive their treatment but that as of January 2001, that figure has been reduced to just over 69,000.
VA to call Iraq, Afghanistan veterans reported by Associated Press April 24, 2008
The Department of Veterans Affairs said Thursday that on May 1 it will start calling 570,000 recent combat veterans to make sure they know what services are available to them.
The first calls will go to about 17,000 veterans who were sick or injured while serving in the wars. If they don’t have a care manager, the VA says they will be given one.
The next round of calls will target 555,000 veterans from the wars who have been discharged from active duty, but have not reached out to the VA for services. For five years after their discharge from the military, Iraq and Afghanistan veterans have access to health care at the VA.
The effort will cost about $2.7 million and will be handled by a government contractor.
Expenditures hit $82 billion in 2007 because of the rising cost of health care, the expense of caring for an aging population of mostly Vietnam veterans and a new crop of severely wounded troops from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
That exceeds the $80 billion in inflation-adjusted dollars spent in 1947 after most of the 16.1 million Americans serving in World War II left the service, according to a Congressional Research Service report submitted to Congress last month.
An 11 percent hike in spending is slated for this fiscal year to $91 billion and the Veterans Affairs Department has proposed $94 billion for 2009. And still more is needed, said Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., who is seeking another $3.3 billion for the 2009 budget proposal.
“While we are spending more than in previous years, we are still not meeting many of the health care and benefits needs of our veterans,” Murray said.
Last month’s passage of a new GI Bill will add $100 billion in education benefits for veterans over the next 10 years, the Congressional Budget Office said.
Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain and his Democratic opponent Sen. Barack Obama clashed over the bill last month.
McCain opposed it, saying its increased education benefits might encourage troops to leave the military.
It’s estimated there are 600,000 to 800,000 unresolved claims and appeals with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, according to veterans’ advocates.
“We have claims that have been pending for a decade, two decades and some that date back more than 50 years. We have appeals from World War II,” said David E. Autry, a spokesman for the Disabled American Veterans in Washington D.C., which represents veterans and advocates and helps them obtain their benefits.
Would have been more helpful to actually do basic research on what has been really behind all this pain and suffering for all these decades. CONGRESS!!!!!!!
If you have some time there are over 25,000 more reports just like those right here on Wounded Times.
If you hate it when I rant then you'll really hate this one. All the talk about raising awareness raises my blood pressure because for all the talk, there is far too little mentioned about how long ago all of this started. Really infuriating when I was part of the beginning of it.
'Out of the Darkness' walkers raise awareness for suicide prevention
Herald Mail Media
CJ Lovelace
September 26, 2015
"Through its growth, we've been able to spread awareness," she said. "We've been able to help the grieving and their process of grieving. We've been able to help our community."
A parade of walkers 800 strong made its way through Hagerstown on Saturday morning, spreading a message of support and awareness for suicide prevention.
Organizers of Hagerstown's Out of the Darkness Walk, now in its third year, said they hoped to raise $80,000 through this year's event.
By Saturday, more than $50,000 had been donated to the cause, helping to fund educational opportunities for the community, research, and assist those in need of mental-health or substance-abuse-related services.
"It's a walk for mental health and suicide awareness, … to break the stigma for mental illness, just bring the recognition to the cause in our community," said Julie Matheny, co-chairwoman of the walk and chairwoman of Maryland's branch of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.
Led by a police escort in several sections of the city, walkers marched out of City Park about 10 a.m. and went south along Virginia Avenue, before cutting across Howard Street and onto Summit Avenue heading north.
read more here
Why not use coming out of the dark since it is what worked back in 2006 when I created this video? "Coming Out of the Dark." It went up on YouTube when they were not blocking music. The counts were well over thousands back then because no one else was doing them. This year I started to put them back up on YouTube.
Coming Out of The Dark of PTSD
4 min - Aug 31, 2006
of PTSD...PTSD is caused by an outside force. You did not cause it but only you can heal it. You did not fight alone then
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7061437177250215004
Wounded Minds PTSD and Veterans
27 min - Mar 14, 2006
and Veterans...Veterans and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. The effects on veterans as well as their families. From Vietnam, to the Gulf War, to
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3279156366519397686
Hero After War Combat Vets and PTSD
8 min - Nov 27, 2006
and PTSD...PTSD is coming out in Vietnam veterans although they thought they recovered. The events in the two occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan have brought old
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2199741453313873966
Death Because They Served PTSD Suicides
21 min - Apr 25, 2007
. Here are over one hundred of them. How many more will it take before we take care of the troops we sent into combat?...Kathie
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4064359324485965426
When War Comes Home PTSD
5 min - Sep 5, 2006
Did they? Their battle may be over but your's has begun. Learn the signs of PTSD and know when you need to help them....Kathie
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6897079942240223839
PTSD After Trauma
5 min - Sep 1, 2006
After Trauma...PTSD is caused by trauma. From war, acts of nature or acts of man. It is time to end the silence.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-85078005610207216
PTSD Soldiers Wounded And Waiting
12 min - Aug 24, 2007
And Waiting...The men and women we send into combat are wounded and waiting. Why? Why do they have to wait to have their wounds treated
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6001704134622986751
When War Comes Home Part Two
7 min - Nov 21, 2007
Part Two...Afghanistan and Iraq produce more wounded and more with PTSD from the USA and all Coalition forces. No nation is taking care of any of
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7329173913049044718
Nam Nights Of PTSD Still
9 min - Nov 17, 2007
PTSD Still...Vietnam Vets are being pushed to the back of the line with the new veterans needing so much help. We need to help all of
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3981582536481542706
Homeless_Veterans_Day.wmv
4 min - Oct 10, 2007
.wmv...We give veterans one day a year of "honor" but they are veterans everyday of the year. We forget that for too many
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6584586264840240021
The old links won't work but you can find most of them from my YouTube Channel. There are more but you get the idea. All this has been going on for far too long to end up leaving more committing suicide instead of actually coming out of the dark of PTSD.
A year after the video came out, it was used in an article from the Virginia Pilot.
They're young - an average of just 19 - and far from home. They train for a deadly task in a gut-it-out culture. And then, they go to war.
No wonder suicide has long plagued the military.
From 2001 to 2006, according to the Department of Defense, 1,110 active duty and reserve servicemen and women took their own lives. The largest number were Army (454), followed by Air Force (249), Navy (244) and Marines (163). One hundred and twenty have committed suicide while serving in the Iraq war.
As bad as that sounds, it 's a lot better than it used to be. A decade ago, the military wide rate hovered around 17.3 per 100,000 people. Today, it's down to 11.2 - not much higher than the civilian rate of 10.9.
The turning point came in 1996 when Adm. Jeremy Boorda, the nation's top Navy officer, shot himself after questions arose over one of his Vietnam combat medals.
"That really got everyone's attention," said Cmdr. Anthony Doran, who heads the Navy's effort to curb suicide.
The thing is, for all this awareness raising and all these news reports, and all these groups taking walks to raise awareness,,,,,,too much has not been learned in the process and it has all gotten worse!
July 7, 2010
Twilight of Glory
The things I’ve seen and done would boggle your mind.
I’ve seen the death and destruction created by mankind
in the living hell that I walked away from but could not leave behind.
It all comes back to haunt me now and makes peace impossible to find.
The ghosts of the past that find me in the night
make me wonder if my life will ever be right.
I have tried to forget what I have done,
and now there is no place left to run.
All this in the name of glory!
There is no end to this horror story.
It still does not make sense even now that I am older,
why, when I was so young they made me a soldier
and why I had to be a part of that war
when I didn’t even know what we were there for.
At eighteen I should have been with my friends having fun
not patrolling through a jungle with a machine gun.
I did my part just the same, just for my country
and stood helplessly watching my friends die all around me.
I felt a surge of hate engulf my soul for people that I did not know
and saw children lose their chance to grow.
All this in the name of glory!
There is still no end to this horror story.
There was no glory for guys like me
only bitter memories that will not set me free.
I can never forget the ones who never made it home
some of them dead and others whose fate is still unknown
and the stigma that we lost what was not meant to win
most of us carry that extra burden buried deep within.
All this in the name of glory!
Will there ever be an end to this horror story?
In the twilight of glory
there is an unwritten story
each warrior keeps within.
Going back from the wars we are sent to fight
like going from sunshine to the darkness of night
we fade away from the public's mind
and wonder when glory was left behind
as we struggle to find reason to go on
back in a world where we no longer belong.
revised from IN THE NAME OF GLORY
@1984 Kathie Costos
I signed the poem W.T. Manteiv for We Trusted and Vietnam backwards.
It has always been their words reflecting the pain they carry inside of them. All I do is arrange the words to give that pain a voice and then help them connect what is already inside of them so they can heal. Now maybe you know why I get so upset when I read how it is almost as if no one had done anything before new folks decided to do "something" along with getting donations. I haven't had a single donation in over a year but that hasn't stopped me from doing the work.
Yesterday I was talking to a good friend and I told him this may be the last year for Wounded Times since I just can't compete with all the new groups popping up all over the place and not doing much at all. He reminded me, as usual, why I do what I do. It is for them and for families just like mine. I've been doing this for over 30 years, so I've seen what is possible but have also seen what is probable if we keep going in the direction we've been in for the last decade. It is not a happy ending.
That was reported by the LA Times April 1, 2015. With that number fresh in your mind, this needs to be added to that fact,
"Many vets with 'bad' discharges are cast off to local mental health services, charities despite suicide risk
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."
That is why this story should matter to every veteran around the country. We know there were 200,000 Vietnam veterans discharged instead of being diagnosed and treated for what war did to them. We know what happened even before they were sent. The question is, "How long will this go on before these veterans get justice?"
They have been shoved out then abandoned but this story will show you how far a human act of kindness can go.
Two deputies change veteran's life after 911 call
KUSA NBC 9 News Colorado
Anastasiya Bolton
September 25, 2015
"I saw someone real," Barnett said. "He was trying to connect with me on just a human level. Nobody's ever tried to do that with me before."
A veteran with PTSD says two deputies helped change his life
(Photo: KUSA)
ARAPAHOE COUNTY – Larry Barnett's girlfriend had to call 911 last week because Barnett, an Iraq vet, had a PTSD episode and she was afraid for his well-being.
"I was done. I was at the point where do or die," Barnett said.
Barnett reached out to 9NEWS to share his story and said he was in a better place to talk. He was adamant about talking because he wanted to share what the deputies who responded to his call did for him.
"In my head I didn't feel like I could live anymore," Barnett said about Wednesday September 16.
Two tours in Iraq in 2003 and 2005 still haunt the Army vet.
He received an other than honorable discharge in 2006, has been suffering from PTSD and fighting with the VA to get an upgrade and then be eligible for services.
September 16, Barnett said he lost it, again. read more here
The Gazette out of Colorado reported that Congress was going to do something about all of this back in 2013 when Iraq veteran, Representative Mike Coffman on the House Armed Services Committee read about what was going on with these discharges.
Rep. Mike Coffman, a Denver-area Republican who is on the House Armed Services Committee, introduced an amendment to the 2014 Defense Authorization Act that would create a 10-member Commission on Military Behavioral Health and Disciplinary Issues.
The commission would study whether the military discipline system needs to change in light of emerging research on the connection between PTSD and TBI and behavioral problems that can get troops in trouble.
Soldiers who have been discharged include wounded combat veterans who are denied medical care and other benefits because of the character of their discharge.
Thousands of U.S. soldiers in Iraq - as many as 10 a day - are being discharged by the military for mental health reasons. But the Pentagon isn't blaming the war. It says the soldiers had "pre-existing" conditions that disqualify them for treatment by the government.
Driver hits disabled veteran and dog, dog pulls owner off street
KRQE News
By Emily Younger
Published: September 25, 2015
ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) – A disabled veteran said he owes his life to his pet dog.
“One of the ladies that called paramedics and police said that Maverick stood guard over me while I was on the street,” said Russell.
Russell said neighbors also told him Maverick pulled him from the street and continued to stand over his owner until help arrived.
The two were crossing the street near their southeast Albuquerque home when a driver crashed into them and took off.
“Yeah, he saved my life without a doubt,” said Vietnam Veteran Michael Russell.
It’s a story of a hero protecting another hero.
“I came from a family of veterans and it was not a question whether I was going to volunteer. It was a question of which branch of the service I was going to go in,” said Russell.
Russell is a Marine. He served in Vietnam. read more here
