After Suicide South Jersey VA Clinics to be Overseen by VA?

Veteran's suicide prompts South Jersey VA changes
Press of Atlantic
NICHOLAS HUBA, Staff Writer
May 6, 2016

NORTHFIELD — South Jersey’s veterans clinics will no longer be overseen by the Wilmington Veterans Affairs Medical Center, as part of reforms designed to address long waiting times and staffing issues at area facilities.

Craig Matthews/Staff Photographer U.S. Senator Robert Menendez addressing recent concerns surrounding the level of care and compassion awarded to South Jersey veterans at a Friday press conference with VA officials May 6, 2016 (Craig Matthews/Staff Photographer

All South Jersey community-based outpatient clinics will now be overseen by the Department of Veterans Affairs under the direct supervision of the Veterans Integrated Service Network 4. There are three VA clinics in South Jersey: Cape May, Northfield and Vineland.

U.S. Rep. Frank LoBiondo, U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez and representatives of U.S. Sen. Cory Booker, along with Janet Murphy, Veterans Affairs deputy undersecretary for health for operations and management, announced the reforms Friday morning at the Stillwater Building on South Shore Road.
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Camp Pendleton's Rancho Santa Margarita Chapel St. John Stained Glass Window Restored

Stained glass window restored at 200-year-old chapel
San Diego Union Tribune
By Linda McIntosh
May 6, 2016

The chapel is part of the Santa Margarita Ranch House National Historic Site, also a California State Historical Landmark. The building is believed to have been used as a winery in the early 1800s, serving Mission San Luis Rey A 75-year-old stained glass window was restored at Camp Pendleton’s 2-century-old Ranch House Chapel, one of the oldest buildings on base and a national landmark.

St. John stained glass window at Camp Pendleton's Rancho Santa Margarita Chapel

The restoration effort was spearheaded by the Rancho Santa Margarita y Las Flores Docent group as the base approaches its 75th anniversary next year.

The 3-by-4-foot stained glass depicting St Joan of Arc, was originally installed in the chapel’s sacristy in the 1940s during the term of the base’s first commanding general, Maj. Gen. Joseph Fegan, said Faye Jonason, the base’s museum branch officer who coordinated the project with the docent group.

The historic piece was created in the style of Old World glass found in European cathedrals and was originally donated by the Flood family. It is one of eight such stained glass windows in the chapel, donated in memory of pioneer families, including the Forsters, O’Neills and Baumgartners,who lived in the nearby ranch house until it was acquired by the Marine Corps base in 1942.
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Marine Pilot in Stable Condition After Harrier Jet Crash

Marine Corps Harrier jet crashes off Wrightsville Beach
StarNews Staff
Published: Friday, May 6, 2016

WRIGHTSVILLE BEACH -- A Marine Corps Harrier jet crashed into the Atlantic Ocean late Friday afternoon, prompting an ocean rescue of its pilot.

Town Manager Tim Owens confirmed the crash, saying the plane ended up in the water about a mile-and-a-half offshore.

A spokesman from Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point said the pilot was from Marine Attack Squadron 542.

"We can confirm that a pilot with Marine Attack Squadron 542, Marine Aircraft Group 14, 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing ejected from an AV-8B Harrier at approximately 5:05 p.m. off the coast of Wilmington, N.C.," said Marine Lt. Maida Zheng.

According to Zheng, the pilot was rescued by an H-60 Seahawk helicopter at about 5:28 p.m. The pilot, who has not been identified, is in stable condition at Naval Hospital Camp Lejeune.
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First Time Ever PTSD Study Happened A Long Time Ago

This morning my email box is full of claims that "For first time, medical marijuana to be studied as treatment for vets' PTSD" and it seems like everyone is talking about this but no one is even bothering to figure out if that claim is true or not.

"For the first time, the Drug Enforcement Agency has given the green light to a controlled, clinical trial of medical marijuana for veterans suffering from PTSD."

"The proposal from the University of Arizona was long ago cleared by the Food and Drug Administration, but researchers had been unable to purchase marijuana from the National Institute on Drug Abuse. The agency's Mississippi research farm is the only federally-sanctioned source of the drug."

As with everything else, too many people think PTSD was just invented and all the research is brand spanking new.  While it all may seem like news to them, it is far from new to veterans.  Ask any Vietnam veteran and you'll get a clue how long it has been used.

In a letter last week, HHS cleared the purchase of medical marijuana by the studies' chief financial backer, the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, which supports medical research and legalization of marijuana and other drugs.

When did that happen? 2014, so no, all the claims of "first time ever" are wrong because the research had already started long before now and even before 2014. By 2013 Washington and Colorado got the green light from the Department of Justice to use marijuana because research had already shown benefits of it. But it went back even further.

State Passed the Law, but Never Used It
New York Times
By RICHARD PÉREZ-PEÑA
Published: April 20, 2001

ALBANY, April 19— It seemed so revolutionary.

In 1996, California and Arizona legalized the medical use of marijuana. Six states and the District of Columbia followed. A new movement, it appeared, was sweeping the country.

Not so new, actually. New York beat them all by a mile.

In 1980, the Legislature and Gov. Hugh L. Carey, to little fanfare, enacted a medical marijuana law in New York, the first of its kind. But the mechanism needed to make the law effective was never put in place, and it was largely forgotten.

In fact, many of the people involved two decades ago had to have their memories jogged. ''I had forgotten all about this,'' said James R. Tallon, now the president of the United Hospital Fund, who was an assemblyman and chairman of the Health Committee when the panel approved the bill.
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Green Beret Sgt. 1st Class Matthew McClintock Posthumously Received the Silver Star.

Green Berets honored with Silver Star and eight other valor awards
Army Times
Michelle Tan
May 6, 2016

“These men are heroes, plain and simple,” said Maj. Gen. Bret Daugherty, adjutant general of the Washington National Guard, during the ceremony, according to information released by the Army. “They don’t boast. They don’t draw undue attention to themselves. They just get the job done.”

Sgt. 1st Class Matthew McClintock posthumously received the Silver Star.

(Photo: Courtesy Alexandra McClintock)

As the bullets rained down around him, Staff Sgt. Michael Sargent dragged a fallen Afghan soldier to safety.

Then, without hesitation or concern about his own safety, the Green Beret entered the courtyard in southern Afghanistan again to recover the body of a second fallen Afghan soldier and help a wounded teammate get to cover.

For his actions on that day in December, Sargent was awarded the Silver Star, the nation’s third-highest award for valor.

Sargent and several other members of A Company, 1st Battalion, 19th Special Forces Group were honored last Friday for their actions during their recent deployment to Afghanistan.

In all, the soldiers earned the Silver Star, two Bronze Stars with V device, six Army Commendation Medals with V device, and one Purple Heart.In all, the soldiers earned the Silver Star, two Bronze Stars with V device, six Army Commendation Medals with V device, and one Purple Heart. read more here

Researchers Forget Emotions Tied To Memories

When will researchers understand there is a lot more going on in the human mind than just remembering? I keep hoping they will do a study involving everything that makes us, us. Our minds hold emotions tied to the memories they want us to just forget.

Memory study shows how people can intentionally forget past experiences
News Medical Life Sciences and Medicine
Published on May 6, 2016

Context plays a big role in our memories, both good and bad. Bruce Springsteen's "Born to Run" on the car radio, for example, may remind you of your first love -- or your first speeding ticket. But a Dartmouth- and Princeton-led brain scanning study shows that people can intentionally forget past experiences by changing how they think about the context of those memories.

The findings have a range of potential applications centered on enhancing desired memories, such as developing new educational tools, or diminishing harmful memories, including treatments for post-traumatic stress disorder.

The study appears in the journal Psychonomic Bulletin and Review. A PDF is available on request.

Since Ancient Greece, memory theorists have known that we use context -- or the situation we're in, including sights, sounds, smells, where we are, who we are with -- to organize and retrieve our memories. But the Dartmouth- and Princeton-led team wanted to know whether and how people can intentionally forget past experiences. They designed a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experiment to specifically track thoughts related to memories' contexts, and put a new twist on a centuries-old psychological research technique of having subjects memorize and recall a list of unrelated words. In the new study, researchers showed participants images of outdoor scenes, such as forests, mountains and beaches, as they studied two lists of random words, manipulating whether they were told to forget or remember the first list prior to studying the second list.
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There is a long list of times when I almost died and a few others when it was not a matter of I could have died, but I should have died according to doctors treating me. The first time I heard those words I was only five after a series of things going wrong. Long story short, another kid pushed me off a slide. Not down it, but over the side of it at a drive-in movie. When my older brother found me, he thought I was dead but I was just knocked out. At the hospital, the doctor read the X-ray wrong and missed the crack in my scull and she also missed the signs of a concussion. She told my parents to take me home and let me get a good night sleep. Worst thing to do with a concussion and head trauma. The next day I was rushed to another hospital because my eyelid was swollen and I had a hard time talking. Turned out the doctor couldn't figure out why I was still alive.

The next time it was eight months after my daughter was born. I walked around with an infection that was not treated properly and my system turned septic. My doctor said he had never seen a bacteria count that high on a live patient and he was not sure why I was still alive.

Other times when stuff tried to end me included a violent alcoholic Dad up until I was thirteen and an ex-husband who tried to kill me, car accident and other health problems and then the usual bad memories of losing people I loved.

Every memory is tied to my soul/spirit but none of them have control over my life simply because I made peace with all of them while they are still a part of who I am today. The only way to make peace with the things that I survived was to forgive when someone did it to me and view the rest of the things as surviving them.

Making peace with each time was not easy but it was harder to go through them than to deal with them.

Even after all these years, going to a hospital will bring back memories of being a patient in them. Seeing a movie with a drive-in movie as a location brings back the memory of the night going from being a family night out to one of the worst nights of my life. It set off a chain of events including my Dad going from drinking some beers into a full-blown rage filled alcoholic blaming everyone including himself for my close call with death. He especially blamed my older brother for letting me get away from him. A very heavy burden to place on a twelve year old.

My Mom and my brothers never forgave him for the way he was during all those years even when he went to AA and got sober. They hung onto all the negative memories and it ate at their souls robbing them from all the good feelings that could have replaced the bad ones.

Until researchers stop thinking about our brains as if they are simply a super computer with files they can delete, they will never figure out a way to properly treat us with all that comes with that is tied to our memories.

Invictus Games Competitor Lauren Montoya Still Fit For Duty

Invictus Games competitor Lauren Montoya says adaptive sports 're-lit that fire in me to find myself again'
ESPN
Tom Friend
Senior Writer
May 7, 2016

"The injury wasn't the hardest part; it was being taken away from Afghanistan before she was supposed to. There wasn't the transition time of, 'OK, I'm going home now, I'm ready, I've finished my job.' Now her job was just to lay in a bed. She's a go-getter. She can't just lay there. That's just not how she lives."

THE EARTH MOVED under her feet. That is Lauren Montoya's memory of war -- a constant rumble from the ground on up. Every sound, human or otherwise, was guttural, and she always had this sixth and seventh sense that someone was watching her, trying to kill her. For most of her stay in Afghanistan, she was a gunner stationed in an armored truck, her finger on the trigger of a 50-caliber machine gun, her job to have four eyes in the back of her head. There was no mental break allowed. The stress of it all was supposed to be trained out of her at boot camp, but that's only in theory. The reality was that Montoya's insides were always rumbling along with the earth. Until nighttime came.

Gunners get to shut their eyes, too. Montoya would slip into her sleeping bag each night at 3 a.m., in the middle of a Kandahar desert, and stare up at the stars. The sky seemed wider, brighter and more 3D in Afghanistan, almost mystical. The air felt fresher. She says maybe it was the juxtaposition between beauty and hate. But for whatever reason, the ground stopped moving for her at night. "We were in a war zone,'' she says. "There are enemy dudes watching us, and we can hear them over the radio. But it was probably one of the most peaceful and tranquil moments that I've ever had.''

All these months later, in San Antonio, Texas, that is the vision that keeps coming back to Lauren Montoya. Safe in her apartment, along with her wife, her daughter and her prosthetic, she lives for those Afghanistan nights. They are in her dreams and daydreams. They fuel her.

It is why she runs.

Soon enough, she received the news: The Army deemed her fit for duty. In other words, she was as qualified as any other able-bodied person to defend her country.
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Yarnell Hotshot Firefighter Remembers 19 Brothers Lost That Day

The Yarnell Hill Fire killed 19 firefighters — The lone survivor shares his story KPCC Staff
May 06, 2016

He said that he'll be battling survivor's guilt for the rest of his life and continues to struggle with PTSD.

"The things that I saw and the things that I've been through have just been branded into my mind," McDonough said.

A photo from Brendan McDonough's book, "My Lost Brothers." MCCARTIN/DANIELS PR

On June 30, 2013, the Granite Mountain Hotshots responded to a wildfire in Yarnell, Arizona. The specially-trained wildland firefighters were met by a 3,000-degree firestorm that eventually took the lives of 19 firefighters from Prescott, Arizona within minutes, leaving a sole survivor: Brendan McDonough.

Four of those firefighters had Southern California roots. McDonough reflects on his life and the fire which burned 8,000 acres in his new book, "My Lost Brothers: The Untold Story by the Yarnell Hill Fire's Lone Survivor," and he spoke with KPCC.

McDonough said that he wanted to be a firefighter since he was 13 or 14. He was advised to become a "hotshot" — the firefighters who are sent to fight wildfires in remote spots — because it meant the opportunity to travel and see the country.

McDonough said that he was going down a bad path and that joining the Granite Mountain Hotshots when he was 19 saved his life.

"The journey I was headed down before I got hired was not a good one. I was a drug addict. Six months before I got hired, I was just released out of jail," McDonough said. He'd been using heroin.

McDonough credits the Granite Mountain hotshots with turning him from who he was into who he is today.

"The guys that I worked with were just humble, caring, passionate, just amazing men that weren't only training me to be a firefighter, but to be a good dad," McDonough said. He has a young daughter.
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Stolen Valor Airborne, Navy Seal, Pilot Colonel with the CIA?

STOLEN VALOR ALERT ! WALMART IN MARGATE FLORIDA

The Militaria Collecting Channel
Newest stolen valor in Margate, Florida! 

In a Walmart! Guy says he is a Colonel, CIA, Airborne, and a Navy SEAL! He has over 20 ribbons and random pins. This video was first posted by Jonathan Borrero on Facebook, this is a republication and is not being stolen. 

Thank you for viewing and let's find this man!!!

The guys also has a CIA Badge! Proves you can buy just about anything you want without having to actually pay for it!

UK Veteran Competing in Invictus Games Swimming After Bomb Blast

Ex-soldier who shattered his arm in Afghanistan set to take on Invictus Games this weekend
Coventry Obserer UK
Shaun Reynolds
May 5, 2016

A FORMER soldier whose arm was left shattered when an explosive device was activated by the Taliban will represent his country this weekend at the Invictus Games in Orlando.

James McGill will compete in the 100 metres, discus and swimming events at this year’s games which start on Sunday (May 8) and run until Thursday (May 12).

The 26-year-old, who works for Jaguar Land Rover, will take part in his first Invictus Games – seven years after joining the army in 2009.

James, from Coventry, received multiple shrapnel and exit wounds to his arms and legs – resulting in nerve reconstruction in his left forearm with the addition of a titanium plate and pins to support bone structure.

Following the success of the inaugural event in London two years ago, this year’s games will see 500 competitors compete from 15 nations across ten sports including wheelchair rugby, wheelchair basketball and wheelchair tennis.

Mr McGill told The Observer he feels more confident in his ability on track than in the pool.

The inspirational athlete has always made sport a key aspect of his life and took part in multiple events before joining the army as a teenager.
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