Too Much Forgotten in Wounded Warrior Project Reporting

"The greatest casualty is being forgotten"
Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
March 4, 2016


This story has been bugging me all day. A buddy told me there was another story on CBS News about Wounded Warrior Project. This time it is about a major donor calling for action.

"Outraged, the Kanes cancelled this year's benefit tournament and started a petition on Change.org calling for a public audit. Fred also called senior management, and said he thought CEO Steven Nardizzi should be fired."

From Charity Navigator

Wounded Warrior Project "The greatest casualty is being forgotten"

EIN 20-2370934
Name in IRS Master File WOUNDED WARRIOR PROJECT INC
NTEE Code P60
NTEE Classification Emergency Assistance (Food, Clothing, Cash)
NTEE Type Human Services - Multipurpose and Other
Classification Charitable Organization

Did you catch that? Being forgotten? Seriously? Seems that there is a group of Marines that were totally forgotten about in all this. Nadrizzi keeps talking about being "Our logo is pretty sacred to us. It represents everything we believe in as an organization," that is laughable as well since we know the names of the Marines in the photograph taken by Laura Rauch in Iraq while working for AP. Staff Sgt. Matthew LeVart is carrying Cpl. Barry Lange on March 21, 2003 of India Company 3rd Marines. (Click the link and see the picture for yourself in case you missed it plus all the other fabulous images she captured.)

Not the first time they sued a charity but the last time it made the news was when they sued Keystone Wounded Warriors May 12, 2015.

"We need to be protective when folks design logos, use names, and act in a way that might confuse the public, that might lead them to believe (another charity) is the Wounded Warrior Project when they are not," Nardizzi said.

By the way, this is where Nardizzi said he treats it like a business.

Seems that is exactly what all these folks did but while we noticed, it seems the rest of the seniors donating to them were oblivious to all the other generations of veterans they won't even talk to. (From the CBS report below.)

"I feel like I am representing all these people who have donated over the years, all these seniors over 65 sending $19 month, all these people on fixed incomes. If no one is going to talk about this right now and it has to be me, then it has to be me," Fred Kane said.

Bet you caught that too. I have such smart readers. Yep, the very folks donating the bulk of the funding for this group are not even on the to-do-list. Safe bet you're wishing all the other corporations funding them, especially around Veterans Day, had even bothered to notice that fact.

Ok, so WWP says they are donating money for "emergency assistance" but we've all heard from OEF and OIF veterans being told they do not give money. So what's up with that?

In all the other reports, it seems reporters have skipped the biggest thing we're all talking about at our events. All the money, in the millions, they have been giving to colleges for "research" when donors intended the money to go to the veterans needing the help they always talk about on TV with those commercials. 

So what happens now is anyone's guess. Do they replace the CEO and then the Board of Directors, yet do it only to shut everyone up or do they do a complete overhaul of the whole thing?

The other thing is, if we figured all this out back in 2012 then why did it take 4 years for anything to happen while veterans were waiting for the help, to be "honored and empowered to aid and assist each other" when that is the funniest bit of all? WWP wants money so they can help each other?

We're with these groups of veterans all the time and they do fine aiding and assisting each other without a dime from anyone. They do it since they risked their lives for each other in the first place. Guess that's what happens when you do it for the right reasons instead treating veterans like a project or a business.

Top Wounded Warrior donor calls for CEO's resignation
CBS NEWS
By CHIP REID, JENNIFER JANISCH
March 3, 2016

Earlier this year, a CBS News investigation found the Wounded Warrior Project spends far less of its donations on veterans compared to others. And if we were surprised, so were some major donors.

Wounded Warrior Project now on Charity Navigator's watch list

With two sons serving in Iraq, raising money for Wounded Warrior Project was more than a cause for Fred and Dianne Kane. It was a calling.

Since 2009, the Kane's charity Tee-off for a Cause raised $325,000 for WWP through golf tournaments in the Carolinas. WWP even honored Fred Kane with an award for being a VIP donor.

But allegations that only a little over half of donations went to help wounded vets came as a blow.

"Hearing that there was this waste of money, donor dollars that should have been going to servicemen and women that were injured, and that it was spent on their having a good time -- it's a real disappointment," Dianne Kane told CBS News.
read more here

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‘I’m alive:’ Homeless Vietnam Vet Saved

‘I’m alive:’ Homeless Vietnam vet, 70, saved in Rock Hill 
The Herald 
by Andrew Dys
March 3, 2016

Danny Henry was homeless and living under a tarp in a wooded area in Rock Hill until veterans affairs workers helped him Thursday. 

Former President Bill Clinton spoke a week earlier about 200 yards from where Henry shivered.

ROCK HILL
Danny Henry did not die Thursday.

That made it a good day.

“I’m alive,” Henry said, his left cheek a purple spiderweb of bruises from a late night stroll to relieve himself in the woods, where branches raked his 70-year-old face.

His bathroom is in the woods because Henry lives in the woods.

The morning sun slanted in but could not brush back the cold of 31 degrees. “Livin’, one more day.”

He woke up from his bed of old blankets and a tarp underneath bushes and trees a block from downtown Rock Hill where presidential candidates had come in hordes for months before the February primaries talking about fixing America and taking care of veterans. The candidates and their limousines and buses and security guards and Secret Service rolled right down the block from Interstate 77 past where Henry lay.
read more here

Navy Veterans Want Navy to Fight For Them After Agent Orange Struck

Sick Navy vets hunt for decades-old records to prove they should get Agent Orange benefits 
The Virginian-Pilot
By Mike Hixenbaugh
Charles Ornstein
Terry Parris Jr.
ProPublica
1 hr ago

“It's hell,” said Ed Marciniak, of Pensacola, Fla., who served aboard the Norfolk-based USS Jamestown during the war. “The Navy should be going to the VA and telling them, ‘This is how people got aboard the ship, this is where they got off, this is how they operated.’ Instead, they put that burden on old, sick, dying veterans, or worse – their widows.”

During the Vietnam War, hundreds of U.S. Navy ships crossed into Vietnam's rivers or sent crew members ashore, possibly exposing their sailors to the toxic herbicide Agent Orange. But more than 40 years after the war’s end, the U.S. government doesn't have a full accounting of which ships traveled where, adding hurdles and delays for sick Navy veterans seeking compensation.

The Navy could find out where each of its ships operated during the war, but it hasn’t. The U.S. Department of Veteran’s Affairs says it won’t either, instead choosing to research ship locations on a case-by-case basis, an extra step that veterans say can add months – even years – to an already cumbersome claims process. Bills that would have forced the Navy to create a comprehensive list have failed in Congress.

Some 2.6 million Vietnam veterans are thought to have been exposed to – and possibly harmed by – Agent Orange, which the U.S. military used to defoliate dense forests, making it easier to spot enemy troops. But vets are only eligible for VA compensation if they went on land – earning a status called “boots on the ground” – or if their ships entered Vietnam’s rivers, however briefly.
read more here

Tom Young Committed Suicide After Waiting for Help

"There is no voice mail today, I can assure you of that. That's unacceptable. That was done by a contractor," said Dr. David J. Shulkin, Undersecretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Pretty much sums up why veterans like Tom Young turned to the VA for help to live only to be left waiting.

It happened to Tom Young when he called and when they called him back the next day, it was too late to listen to him.

SUBURBAN VETERAN FELL THROUGH VA CRACKS FOUR TIMES BEFORE SUICIDE
ABC 7 News Chicago
By Chuck Goudie and Christine Tressel
Thursday, March 03, 2016

CHICAGO (WLS) -- A staple of the American military is to "leave no man behind" on a foreign battlefield.

Army veteran Tom Young was left behind by the VA, according to his family. They say Young asked the Veterans Administration for help on four occasions, but only received phone calls back after he was dead.

This is a story that we begin at the end. July 23rd, 2015. Tom Young is struck and killed by a Metra train headed to the northwest suburbs.

"He took his life," says Will Young, Tom's brother. "And, uh, the day after, we got a call from the VA that, um, a bed was available and then about 20 minutes later, we got a call from the suicide hotline returning his call."

The 30-year old had apparently called the VA'S suicide hotline, leaving a message that he needed help. Someone from the hotline called him back a day later, after he had put himself in the path of the Metra train.
read more here

Michigan Lawmakers Start Own Charity Instead of Doing Their Jobs?

As you can tell, my head exploded when I read that elected officials would rather start their own charity than actually do something to help all veterans, but why would they do something like remember the others?

Lawmakers start nonprofit to help struggling veterans
WLNS Web Staff
Published: March 2, 2016

LANSING, Mich. (AP) – Two lawmakers have announced a new nonprofit to help struggling veterans after the state’s Auditor General released a scathing audit unearthing problems at a state-run veterans’ nursing home in Grand Rapids.

Republican Rep. Tom Barrett and Democratic Sen. David Knezek announced the nonprofit Wednesday at a press conference.
read more here

Seriously? This may sound like a good thing to do until you consider this.

"We have thousands of veterans who have gone and fought in Iraq and Afghanistan and are now coming home," said Barrett, an Army veteran and National Guard reservist who served two tours in Iraq. "I've heard numbers as high as one in three combat veterans could be suffering from PTSD." Rep. Tom Barrett,
Detroit Free Press

Pretty much shows how little he knows about PTSD, all generations and the total lack of oversight on all the other PTSD Service Dog charities already out there.

Aside from National charities, here are just a few from Michigan.

Stiggy's Dogs
Service Dog in Training
Dogs in Honor
Pets for Vets

The truth is, service dogs are great, for some veterans, but not all of them and none of them are the answer to everything our veterans are going through.

Recently there was an Afghanistan veteran with a PTSD service dog, but he didn't get what he needed and took his own life. There have been many more like him. Far too many.

Service dogs are great for some veterans but not all veterans like dogs. Some are allergic to them. Some live with people who do not like dogs.

The worst thing in all of this is these two elected officials should actually be working on doing something for all of Michigan's veterans. That means the veterans they just don't want to remember suffered the same wounds and waited a hell of a lot longer for help. Top that off with the fact they are also the majority of the veterans committing suicide in this country everyday while legislators repeat the lie of "22 a day" forgetting about the other 50 or so that are not even mentioned.

VA Suicide Report has a lot of information in it however most,including legislators, missed the part about limited data from only 21 states leaving us with a clue as to what they actually do know is a lot less than what they guess at.

According to the Department of Veterans Affairs Population Map Michigan has 658,469 veterans. WWII veterans 34,769 forgotten about. Korean War veterans, 59,711 veterans forgotten about. Vietnam Veterans, 237,675 forgotten about. Gulf War veterans, 155,754 forgotten about.

Maybe they should actually focus on this problem before they start their own charity.

As a result, Michigan ranks among the bottom five states for federal spending per veteran. Veterans' benefits can include health care, monthly disability checks, life insurance, home loans and education through the GI bill. Benefits at the state and local levels include vocational training and the Michigan Veterans Trust Fund.

Only 22 percent of Michigan's estimated 660,800 veterans used their health benefits from the U.S. Veterans Administration in 2013 — the most recent year for which data is available. Roughly 13 percent of Michigan veterans received disability checks, according to federal data.
Detroit Free Press

US Census Michigan Veterans

Now top all that off with the fact the uproar started over the report on nursing homes and you get the idea.

Camp Pendleton Marines Pass Leash of Sirius

FAMILY OF MARINE KILLED IN AFGHANISTAN GETS HIS WAR DOG
ACK.org
By: Liz Donovan
March 2, 2016

On February 26, the Marines Corps held a “passing of the leash” ceremony at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, and in a formal procession on February 27, the Rancho Cucamonga Police Department escorted the Ashley family and Sirius from the airport to their home.

On July 19, 2012, at only 23 years old, Marine Joshua Ashley was killed by an IED blast while serving in Afghanistan. His beloved war dog, a German Shepherd named Sirius, was with him. Sirius survived the explosion.

This year, Sirius was retired, and Ashley’s family was given the chance to offer him a permanent home in Rancho Cucamonga, California.

Ashley’s mother, Tammie Ashley, recalls the last conversation she had with her son, during which he asked her to keep Sirius until he was finished serving.
read more here

Vietnam Veteran Shocked to Hear He's Dead

Veteran Declared Dead, but Alive 
MyArklamiss.com 
By Caitlin O'Neal 
Published 03/02 2016

"February the fourth, the VA sent out a letter stating that I had died, which came as a great shock to me. After that, it's been a struggle to try to get the VA to recognize I'm not quite dead yet. And that my VA benefits need to be reinstated," explains Willingham.

FARMERVILLE, La.-- John Willingham, a Vietnam Veteran has been receiving benefits from Veterans' Affair's, including supplemental pay for his wife. Early last month, Willingham contacted the disabled American Veterans, his legal representative to the VA to inform them that his wife had passed away.

"She was an invalid the last two, two and a half years of her life. That I needed to stop the pay, the supplemental pay," says John Willingham, Veteran. read more here

Palm Bay Standoff Leaves Veteran-Ex-Police Officer Dead

Armed man, 39, shot and killed by Palm Bay officer 
WFTV News 
Updated: Mar 1, 2016

His girlfriend, who asked not to be identified, told Channel 9 the man is a former law enforcement officer and used to be in the military.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is investigating after a Palm Bay police officer shot and killed a man.

Police say a man inside the home was threatening to shoot three people doing construction at a nearby home on Mariposa Drive. 

When police arrived, they say the 39-year-old man refused to come out of the home and a standoff began.

A neighbor told Eyewitness News the man was upset that the construction crew was working and making noise.
read more here

Arizona Lawmakers Vote to Approve PTSD Treatment for Police Officers

Arizona lawmakers unanimously approve bill to treat officers with PTSD
BY ASSOCIATED PRESS
March 1, 2016

Police officers shed tears during a committee hearing while discussing their personal experiences and the stigma that ordinarily prevents law enforcement from talking about the psychological impact of traumatic events.

PHOENIX — The House has unanimously approved a measure that would allow police officers to receive worker’s compensation for post-traumatic stress disorder.

Rep. Mark Finchem sponsored the bill to modify state law that only allows compensation for personal injuries or accidents.
read more here

CVS Fired Afghanistan Veteran For Stopping Armed Robbery?

Afghanistan Vet Fired after Confronting Robbers
WTRF News
Posted: Mar 01, 2016

BELTSVILLE, Md. (WUSA9) -- A 26-year-old CVS store manager who was fired Friday for violating a company policy against confronting robbers says he’s applied to the Prince George’s County Police Department to become an officer.

“It was fight or flight, and I choose fight,” said Afghanistan veteran Joe Morici as he described the Friday morning confrontation inside the Calverton CVS store he was managing.

Morici said two men leapt over the pharmacy counter, stole prescription drugs and headed for the door. Morici told his staff to call 911 and went to see if any employees had been hurt. That’s when he confronted the two robbers and ended up grappling with them near the store’s front door.
read more here