Command sergeant major: No troops died searching for Bergdahl Stars and Stripes By Nancy Montgomery Published: March 31, 2016
Although the podcast concluded that no one was killed in the search, it did discuss two men seriously harmed on missions in the first couple of weeks after Bergdahl disappeared. Navy SEAL Jimmy Hatch lost a leg in a gunfight on a mission to find Bergdahl. Army Sgt. 1st Class Mark Allen was shot in the head on a different mission; he lost part of his brain, was paralyzed and rendered mute.
Command Sgt. Maj. Ken Wolf had a message for the families of troops killed in Afghanistan after Bowe Bergdahl walked off his post.
“Their sons did not die looking for Pfc. Bergdahl,” Wolf said on Thursday’s “Serial” podcast, the 11th and final episode of the season.
The podcast investigating the Bergdahl case from seemingly all conceivable angles over the past few months, debunked the persistent rumor that six soldiers from his battalion had been killed during the 45-day, all-out search for Bergdahl. They were all killed in August and September, after the exhausting search effectively had been called off and the mission had changed to secure upcoming Afghanistan elections, according to court testimony. read more here
Now maybe you'll understand why Congress has not fixed the problems with the VA. The only way to get what they wanted was to destroy the VA first by letting veterans suffer! VETERANS DESERVED BETTER FROM CONGRESS and the people who put these folks in office should be ashamed of themselves for letting it get this far!
MILITARY UPDATE COLUMN
Care commission shocker: The push to privatize VA health care
By Tom Philpott
Published: March 31, 2016
Backlash from veteran service organizations was swift. The American Legion noted that many commissioners are medical industry executives who stand to gain financially if VA care is privatized. Paralyzed Veterans of America said placing vets with special needs into private-sector care “is a death sentence” because community providers are minimally experienced to provide complex care over the lifetime of severely injured veterans.
Seven of 15 outside health advisers appointed to recommend ways to improve veterans’ health services over the next two decades have proposed shutting down all Department of Veterans Affairs medical centers and outpatient services, and having its nine million enrollees get their medical care in the private sector.
The 34-page “straw man” document released by the congressionally created Commission on Care calls for an immediate halt to construction of new VA hospitals and clinics, and launch of a “BRAC-like process” to begin closing existing facilities. Shuttering the largest medical system in the country would leave the VA to be “primarily a payor” for the care veterans would receive from civilian community doctors and health facilities.
To entice these physicians and facilities to accept more veterans as patients, the straw man document proposes that VA reimbursement rates be set 5 or 10 percent higher than Medicare pays. read more here
Homeless veteran to receive military burial
Area groups honor a man whose life remains a mystery The Journal Gazette Rosa Salter Rodriguez March 30, 2016
A U.S. Army veteran who died homeless in Fort Wayne earlier this month will be given a military funeral today with the aid of several area veterans’ groups.
John Pawlowski, 69, died March 5 at Parkview Hospital of natural causes stemming from septic shock, according to Michael Burris, chief investigator for the Allen County coroner’s office. Septic shock is a full-body infection that causes organ shutdown.
Pawlowski’s birthdate, May 17, 1947, and his military service were verified through the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Burris said. But much of his life remains a mystery, and no family members willing to step forward to claim the body could be found, he said.
Nonetheless, contacts made through the Dignity Memorial Homeless Veterans Burial Program by staff members at Fort Wayne’s Klaehn, Fahl and Melton funeral home have yielded a chaplain to conduct the services, as well as members of about a half-dozen area veterans groups who make a practice of participating in military funerals.
They include the Indiana Patriot Guard Riders and American Freedom Riders motorcycle groups; members of American Legion Post 241 in Waynedale; a group of Army members in active service; and representatives of Fort Wayne’s Safe Haven home for veterans struggling with addiction.
David Wilson, Safe Haven’s regional program director, said the agency will receive the American flag typically given to members of a veteran’s family – even though Safe Haven never had contact with Pawlowski.
“To me, it’s tragic when you have someone who served his country and dies and has nothing and no one. It’s tragic, but it happens,” Wilson said, adding that it has happened two or three times in the Fort Wayne area in the past two years. read more here
Over 125,000 veterans denied benefits by the VA – report Reuters
Published time: 31 Mar, 2016
“The VA’s board and vague regulations are contrary to law and create a system that does not work for the VA or for veterans… and stops the agency from effectively addressing the national priorities of ending veteran suicide and homelessness,” said the report.
Tens of thousands of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans with less-than-honorable discharges, many with physical and mental injuries, were being denied care by the Department of Veterans Affairs, claims a new report by a veterans’ advocacy group.
“The VA created much broader exclusion criteria than Congress provided, failing to give veterans due credit for their service to our country,” said the report by advocacy group Swords to Plowshares, published on Wednesday.
Under the 1944 GI Bill, Congress expanded eligibility for veteran benefits to almost all veterans, even those with less-than-honorable discharges, provided the misconduct was not so severe that it should have led to a trial by court-martial and a dishonorable discharge. Congress left open the door to benefits for spectrum of discharges between honorable and dishonorable, including “undesirable” and “other than honorable.”
The report found the VA labeled 90 percent of veterans with bad paper discharges as “dishonorable,” even though the military classified them differently.
“The VA’s board and vague regulations are contrary to law and create a system that does not work for the VA or for veterans… and stops the agency from effectively addressing the national priorities of ending veteran suicide and homelessness,” said the report.
Veterans with bad paper discharges were more likely to have mental health conditions and were twice as likely to commit suicide, the report found. They are also more likely to be homeless and involved with the criminal justice system.
“Yet, in most cases, the VA refuses to provide them any treatment or aid,” said the group.
The New York Times cited the example of Joshua Bunn, a US Marine Corps veteran who was deployed to Afghanistan in 2009. His unit served in “one of the bloodiest valleys in Afghanistan,” killing hundreds of enemy fighters and losing more Marines than any other battalion that year. read more here
With Los Angeles-based lawyer in town, Raymond Schwab ends 17-day hunger strike Suit seeks injunction against Kansas Department for Children and Families
Topeka Capital Journal By Phil Anderson Posted: March 30, 2016
In what has become a public battle against DCF, Schwab, a military veteran, contends his children were removed by authorities and placed in foster care because of his use of medical marijuana to treat chronic pain and post-traumatic stress disorder. He and his wife, Amelia, live in Colorado, where his marijuana use is legal.
With a lawsuit written by a Los Angeles-based lawyer ready to be filed at U.S. District Court in Topeka, Raymond Schwab was finally ready Wednesday afternoon to end a 17-day hunger strike.
As he stood at 12:15 p.m. on the steps of the Statehouse, a beaming Schwab proclaimed, “Now I can eat! Maybe we can figure out how to get a barbecue up here.”
A few minutes earlier, Schwab spoke at a news conference attended by about 35 supporters to provide an update on his appeal to regain custody of five of his six children, who in 2015 were removed from his custody by the Kansas Department for Children and Families. read more here
CLERMONT— Sarah Pawelski was already having a bad day.
The 45-year-old's vehicle had broken down along Citrus Tower Boulevard about noon March 22 and she was forced to use her wheelchair to get to the nearest business. That's when things got worse —a man in a car that stopped ostensibly to help attempted to snatch her purse.
Discussing the experience today, Pawelski said she was recently diagnosed with reflex sympathetic dystrophy syndrome, a painful and rare disorder that affected her ability to walk. She said she is also an Army veteran who suffers from severe post-traumatic stress syndrome.
"I don't want to think about it at all. This whole thing has really brought my PTSD to a max and I keep having nightmares and can't sleep because of what this punk decided to do," she said. read more here
VALLEY VET STUNNED TO HEAR FROM US MARINE HE THOUGHT WAS DEAD ABC 30 News Dale Yurong March 29, 2016
Grantham told Action News, "When we got back to triage they actually put me in a body bag."
FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- A retired US Marine from the Valley has been on one final mission - to find a comrade who he thought died by his side.
In an iconic Vietnam War photo taken in February of 1968 Lance Corporal Rick Hill of Coalinga could found at the top right. Laying on his side was a fellow US Marine named Alvin Grantham. Up until a few weeks ago Rick thought Alvin died shortly after the picture was taken but that was not the case.
Hill recalled the most intense firefight of his two tours. He was shot in one leg and took shrapnel in the other. "I was wounded in the battle of Hue during Tet February 68. We were pinned down. We were in trouble."
Rick noticed a tank rolling by.
"They asked me, got room for one more and they always got room for one more and they threw me up on the tank."
The famous picture of wounded US Marines being medevaced on a tank appeared in Life and Time magazine. Rick's mom told him, "That's the only way I knew you were still alive."
Rick tearfully told us, "For 48 years I look at this picture and look at these guys looking back at me and I always figured it's an honor."
Since 1991 Rick and his wife Hayley have lived the quiet life in Coalinga but that all changed a few weeks ago when someone answered a facebook post about the photo.
"He says, hey I'm the guy laying on the tank without a shirt. I look at my wife and go no way. That guy died."
That's what Rick was told but Alvin Grantham of Mobile, Alabama messaged him and wrote, "Lots of people think I didn't make it." read more here
"We are losing 22 veterans a day to suicide - and that's only with six states that are reporting," says Jolanthe Bassett.
But there's a bright light at the end of the tunnel -- man's best friend. That's where Jolanthe comes in with Guardian Angels Medical Service Dogs.
"We've paired over 150 dogs since 2010, and in that time we haven't had one suicide attempt," she says. She volunteers with Guardian Angels Medical Service Dogs and worked to find Eric his current partner, Sun, after his first dog died tragically.
It isn't 22 a day and the suicide report from the VA was from 21 states, not 6. If folks actually read the report they would know this was limited data and they missed a lot. The thing about "no attempted suicides" could very well be true however it is important to point out that while PTSD service dogs are very helpful, there have been many veterans with them and they not only attempted suicide, they succeeded.
Also keep in mind that some folks want to imagine these dogs as the "cure" instead of part of the help that is needed. Plus some veterans don't like dogs or can't have them. For most veterans, even a regular dog is very helpful. We lost our's last week and we have huge holes in our hearts. Harry was just a mutt but he gave us a lot of comfort knowing he was always on guard among so many other things. He wasn't just a dog to us, he was part of our family. Throughout most of our 30+ year marriage we've had dogs, so yesterday we went to meet out new "dogson." Haven't agreed on a name yet but he sure will have big paws to fill after Harry.
But as you can see, I don't think that will be a problem for this little guy. He isn't even 7 weeks old yet.
They are running to fund help for PTSD and TBI, which is a good thing. But yet again, they are using "22" as if that is a real number. Will these folks raising awareness ever get the point that it is much more than 'just a number' to use?
PHOTOS: Shepherd's Men run through Lynchburg The News and Advance
The Shepherd's Men group came through Lynchburg Tuesday, March 28, 2016 as part of a 1,500-mile journey between Boston and Atlanta to raise money for the SHARE Military Initiative, a donor-funded 12-week-program that treats the physical and psychological effects of traumatic brain injury and post traumatic stress disorder. read more here
'She's Family': Sailor Saves Mom, Daughter From Stabbing Jennifer Barela and her daughter were attacked viciously by Barela's husband in November San Diego Miiltary Times
By Brie Stimson and Candice Nguyen March 28, 2016
Jaclyn Place, 30, was doing homework in her Oceanside home late one night last November when she heard screams coming from her neighbor’s house.
“The volume was escalating,” Place said. “That’s when I decided to go outside and noticed [my neighbor] was calling for me. As soon as I opened the door I saw her -- then a flash-- it was him running. She was screaming ‘he stabbed me,’ and as she turned I saw blood all the way down her back. I had a fight or flight second, and then went to work.”
Her neighbor, Jennifer Barela, was referring to her husband who had just viciously attacked her with a knife.
Place, a lead chief petty officer at Camp Pendleton and hospital corpsman, began assessing Barela’s condition. She also called another neighbor, Staff Sgt. Thomas McDonald with the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit, instructing him to bring his first aid medical bag. read more here
