Waynesboro firefighter searches for dog to help battle PTSD WSHV 3 News
By Matthew Fultz
May 19, 2016
WAYNESBORO, Va. (WHSV) -- One Waynesboro firefighter is looking to get a service dog to help him cope with post-traumatic stress disorder. He's hoping he can still serve his community with a new companion.
Paul Whitmer is battling PTSD, and now he's in search of a service dog to help not only him, but the entire Valley.
Whitmer is a retired veteran who served 20 years in the U.S. Army. He now works with the Waynesboro Fire Department serving his community.
read more here
Donors pledge $20,000 to support veteran who was denied disability retirement
Bangor Daily News By Beth Brogan, BDN Staff
May 18, 2016
Scott served in the Army Reserves with the 94th Military Police Company in Al Anbar Province, Iraq, for what would become the second-longest deployment of any U.S. military unit since World War II, including 15 months in combat zones such as the notoriously violent “Sunni Triangle.”
Courtesy of Sandra Mason. Scott and Darcie Couture with their two sons at Togus Pond, July 2005, the first summer after Scott returned from Iraq.
BRUNSWICK, Maine — Family, friends and soldiers who served with Iraq war veteran Scott Couture offered more than words of consolation when they learned in April that the Maine Public Employees Retirement System again denied disability retirement benefits he sought after post-traumatic stress disorder prompted him to leave his job as a Maine Marine Patrol warden.
But even as Scott and his wife, Darcie Couture, prepared to tell their two teenage sons that with mounting medical and legal bills, they couldn’t afford the mortgage on the old farmhouse they called home, Darcie’s brother launched a GoFundMe fundraiser that, as of Wednesday morning, has brought in nearly $21,000.
Last week, as the fund neared the $10,000 mark that triggered an anonymous matching donation, Darcie said they were overwhelmed though equally uncomfortable accepting the money.
“But to be perfectly honest, it will make the difference between us keeping the house [and not],” she said.
The Veterans Administration determined Scott is 80 percent disabled and provides him benefits. But in December 2014, the Maine Public Employees Retirement System, or MePERS, which Scott paid into as a marine patrol employee instead of Social Security, denied Scott’s application for retirement because of disability, despite acknowledging he suffers from PTSD. read more here
CBS 8 Special Report: The War Within Video Report By Gene Kang, Reporter
Posted: May 17, 2016
"Thank God I'm still standing because I have a lot of stuff ahead of me. I can see a future," Tran said.
SAN DIEGO (CBS 8) - San Diego is a military town and many men and women who have served our country become our neighbors and friends - but there's a growing problem as they make their transition back to civilian life.
Experts say 30 percent of combat veterans suffer from posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), often becoming addicted to drugs and sometimes causing violence in our communities.
CBS News 8's Gene Kang interviewed Pemperton Tran for this report. Tran is an Army combat veteran who served in Iraq in 2003 and 2004. At first glance Tran is a funny, kind and passionate man. There are no outward signs of the struggles he keeps to overcome a dark past.
"When I went to war and came back everything has been shattered. My life was forever altered," said Tran.
The 32-year-old suffers from posttraumatic stress disorder. It's something most people have heard about but may not really understand.
Tran lived on the streets of San Diego after serving in the military.
read more here
When you watch this video, remember the dates mentioned and know that none of this is new. It was the same percentage for Vietnam veterans coming home from where we sent them.
Local veteran hailed a hero after fiery pileup in south Lee County NBC 2 News
By Graham Hunter, Reporter
May 17, 2016
FORT MYERS
A local veteran says his military training kicked in during a fiery seven-vehicle pileup Monday in south Lee County.
Troopers said northbound traffic was slowing down on Summerlin Road near the intersection of Winkler Road when a semi-truck rear-ended a town car in front of it -- causing it to catch on fire.
Patric Hewitt, who served four tours in Iraq, watched the pileup unfold and quickly ran to the burning vehicle and began to pull people out.
"Me and another gentleman got the car window busted and dragged the first person out," said Hewitt.
The driver, James Cwanek, 70, of Fort Myers, and the front-passenger, Austin Perkins, 34, of Minnesota, were transported to Tampa Regional Hospital in critical condition.
Krisitn R. Lee, 39, of Iowa, who was riding in the back seat died at the scene.
A total of seven vehicles were involved in the chain-reaction crash.
Witnesses said what Hewitt did was nothing short of heroic.
"I'm not a hero. I'm just trained to save lives," he said. "As soon as the tractor trailer hit the silver car, it burst into flames, at that point, I pulled off the road and ran to the car."
Hewitt said his military training kicked in during the situation.
"A life is a life, and my job is to help people, so my life comes after everybody else's." read more here
I've been married to my Vietnam veteran husband going on 32 years, so please know I know exactly where you're coming from. We are proof that it can work out no matter what you face as long as you do it together. If you are a spouse, learn as much as you can about what PTSD is and then you can stand by his/her side while they seem like they are trying to push you away.
Couples look for ways to heal relationships, psychological wounds of war at Virginia retreat Stars and Stripes
By Dianna Cahn
Published: May 17, 2016
“When a man seats before his eyes the bronze face of his helmet and steps off from the line of departure, he divides himself, as he divides his ticket in two parts. … He banishes from his heart all feeling of tenderness and mercy, all compassion and kindness, all thought or concept of the enemy as a man, a human being like himself. ... He could not fight at all if he did not do this.”
— Steven Pressfield, “Gates of Fire,” read during the Bridging the Gap retreat
Social worker Victoria Bruner interacts with mentoring couple Adrian and Diana Veseth-Nelson during a Bridging the Gap retreat in Middleburg, Virginia on Dec. 10, 2015. Bruner created the retreat model to help not only veterans suffering from war trauma or injury, but also their spouses.
DIANNA CAHN/STARS AND STRIPES
MIDDLEBURG, Va. — They drove or flew here. Some fought along the way, as they do.
Then, the awkward first meeting. Smiles, shifting uncomfortably.
Six couples if you include Adrian and Diana Veseth-Nelson, mentors here to show the others that there is hope. Lucas Lewis is busy, brusque. David Inglish is chatty, finding smoking buddies on the stoop. The two men know each other — and Adrian — intimately. They were at war together.
The rest are mostly strangers. The women attempt to hide their nervousness and keep their secrets — we sleep in separate bedrooms; he no longer lives at home. They wonder whether anyone else is waiting for their partner’s mercury to rise.
They are all here, at this Virginia retreat, to heal. Or to try. Or to do something. Because anything is better than what they have now — one partner traumatized by war, the other overwhelmed by how much falls on them and how little they understand.
“It’s your experience here, nobody else’s,” social worker David Shoots tells the couples in the first session. “The only thing I ask from you: If you are not yet on the road, get on it now. The road is called recovery.” read more here
'Worst' charity for veterans run by VA employee CNN
By David Fitzpatrick and Drew Griffin, CNN Investigations
Tue May 17, 2016
The CEO and founder of the National Vietnam Veterans Foundation, himself a veteran, is J. Thomas Burch, who is also a federal employee working as an attorney for the Department of Veterans Affairs. Burch is deputy director in the VA's Office of General Counsel, where he pulled down $127,000 in salary in 2014.
Washington (CNN)At first glance, the National Vietnam Veterans Foundation is a roaring success. According to its tax filings, the charity has received more than $29 million in donations from generous Americans from 2010 to 2014 for what it calls on its website "aiding, supporting and benefiting America's veterans and their families."
But look a little closer on those same filings and you can see that nearly all of those donations have been cycled back to telemarketers, leaving less than 2 percent for actual veterans and veterans' charitable causes.
That's why Charity Navigator, one of the nation's largest and most influential charity watchdog organizations, has given the charity a "zero" out of four stars for those same four years.
"It's a zero-star organization and you can't go lower than that," says Michael Thatcher, Charity Navigator's CEO. "They don't have an independent board of directors, they actually don't even have a comprehensive board of directors -- only three members on the board at this point in time and some of them are family. So one can say, is this representative of an independent board? It's not."
The charity's most recently filed tax return, for 2014, lists a catalogue of expenses paid for by donations: including $133,000 for travel, $21,000 for unnamed "awards", $70,000 for a category described as "other expenses" and even a little more than $8,000 for parking. read more here
Iraq War Veteran James ‘Bo’ Greenwood deserved a lot more than just this poorly written account of the way his life ended. First it would have been helpful to have at least put in the effort to link to the report where he was interviewed. Secondly, it appears the reported decided that he was "just another statistic" considering he used "18-22" veterans committing suicide a day, then adding to that erroneous claim, he added it could be less. Frankly most experts actually read the report on number of veterans committing suicide because they are more important than just a headline grabbed off a report with 59 pages of information along with the fact those numbers were released in 2012 from limited data collected from just 21 states. It also lists the limits to the data they obtained but he'd have to bother to actually read up to 15 pages into it to know that.
Bill Riales wrote that "we wanted to put his face on the issue" yet failed miserably because this veteran's face, along with the over 26,000 a year committing suicide have faded away, replaced by worthless "awareness" of something that is not true. Oh, by the way another thing he didn't mention is that over 70% of the veterans committing suicide are over the age of 50. But hey, why tell their story since no one else is telling the truth?
Veteran Suicide Issue Hits Home For Mobile Family WKRG News By Bill Riales Published: May 16, 2016
Davis and Greenwood interviewed with News 5 just last year, shortly after Greenwood laid out his problems for V.A. officials.
Just last year Iraq War Veteran James ‘Bo’ Greenwood was sounding off to Veterans Administration officials about the problems veterans face. Late last week, Greenwood died by his own hand. So that he wouldn’t become just another statistic we wanted to put his face on the issue of Veteran Suicide. According to a 2012 VA report on veteran suicide, 18 to 22 veterans take their own lives each day. Those numbers may or may not be taken out of context. Various media reports have argued the number is exactly that, or perhaps much less.
What is not disputed is that the risk of veterans, particularly those who have deployed and served in a combat zone is as much as 3 times higher than the civilian population. Statistics don’t really mean much to those left behind however. In Greenwood’s case that would be his parents, his wife and son, and friend Matthew Davis. read more here
Despite $10B 'Fix,' Veterans Are Waiting Even Longer To See Doctors NPR Morning Edition
May 16, 2016
Although the idea sounds simple enough, the fix hasn't worked out as planned. Wait times have gotten worse — not better. Compared to this time last year, there are 70,000 more appointments where it took vets at least a month to be seen.
Tony Lapinski, a veteran with severe back pain, kisses his wife, Michelle, at their home in Superior, Mont.
Michael Albans for NPR
Many veterans are still waiting to see a doctor.
Two years ago, vets were waiting a long time for care at Veterans Affairs clinics across the country. At one facility in Phoenix, for example, veterans waited an average of 115 days for an appointment. Adding insult to injury, some VA schedulers were told to falsify data to make it look like the waits weren't that bad.
The whole scandal ended up forcing the resignation of Eric Shinseki, secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs at the time.
Congress and the VA came up with a fix: Veterans Choice, a $10 billion program that was supposed to give veterans a card that would let them see a non-VA doctor if they were more than 40 miles away from a VA facility or they were going to have to wait longer than 30 days for a VA provider to see them.
There was a problem, though. Congress gave the VA only 90 days to set up the system. Facing that extremely tight time frame, the VA turned to two private companies to administer the program and help veterans get an appointment with a doctor and then work with the VA to pay that doctor.
Although the idea sounds simple enough, the fix hasn't worked out as planned. Wait times have gotten worse — not better. Compared to this time last year, there are 70,000 more appointments where it took vets at least a month to be seen. read more here
"I am the master of my fate. I am the captain of my soul" but what does that mean to you? It means that you cannot change what happened yesterday but you can change your future. You are in charge. You are the one in control of your soul and while most talk about the "moral injury" part of PTSD, few tell you that you are not destined to suffer but created with the intention of healing.
Do you surrender to what some people think of you or do you know enough about yourself to know that it isn't true? It really shouldn't matter to you what others think but what you think should matter more.
Learning what PTSD really is is the first step toward defeating it.
Under the Rules of Engagement the Marines learn, to "act as a control mechanism for the transition from peacetime to combat operations" but on the flip side, it is also important to transition from combat operations into peacetime as a veteran. Forget about fitting back in with the people you knew in your hometown unless they are part of the veteran community.
"We must review all aspects of the fight, from weaponeering to the understanding of proportionate force. Training needs to be discussion and scenario based, thus forcing Marines to articulate their perceptions of and responses to the situations.
You may have tried the wrong "weapons" to fight PTSD like self-medicating or just stuffing it until you get over it. That does not work. Sure, you can get busy getting your mind off of all of it, but you are not fighting it. You are giving it time to get stronger instead of making it weaker so you can defeat it. Going from a lower level of PTSD, when it is most reversible pretty much guaranties that you'll be hit by a secondary stressor (another traumatic event) that pushes that mild PTSD into PTSD with massive teeth latching onto any part of your life it can attack.
In combat, there are many weapons used, not just one. It is the same when battling the war going on inside of you.
Healing has to involve every part of what makes you, you. That means it has to be taking care of your mind, your body as well as your soul.
If you think that PTSD is a sign of any kind of weakness, then you don't understand anymore than they do. If you know that it comes from surviving where you were sent, doing what you had to do, seeing what you saw, enduring all kinds of hardships and came from a strong soul. That very soul that made you choose a military life no matter the risk to your life.
The truth is that everything you need to heal is already inside of you but you won't be able to find that power until you face what PTSD is. While it sucks to have it, it isn't really as bad as you think because it comes for a place that is still good inside of you. Your perception of it as "bad" causes thousands of veterans a year to give up on themselves but you are reading this so there is still hope inside of you.
Start with the basic facts. Post (after) Traumatic (trauma is Greek for wound) Stress (mind body and spirit ) (cause) Disorder (in survivors) because you survived "it" and it shouldn't be worse living as a survivor. It doesn't have to be if you learn more about yourself.
You may think "I'm weak" but actually you have a very strong emotional core and that strength allowed you to do what you had to do in order to save lives. As an all volunteer force, remember, weak people do not even think of putting their lives on the line for someone else. As for older veterans, some of them were drafted, forced to go, yet managed to risk their lives while they were deployed.
They knew the risks and they suffered the same as those who decided to join. No wound created by war is new.
You may think "I'm evil" but tell me how an evil person can grieve? Would an evil person actually think that much about someone else or feel the pain of loss or suffer in the depth of their soul? No, they'd be off on their merry way to live out the rest of their days perfectly happy focusing on themselves.
So you are not weak and you are not evil. You are also not meant to suffer but meant to heal so the next part of your life you can use that same soul tugging connection to help others living life as a veteran.
PTSD cannot be cured but the scar inside of you can heal. Find what works for you but remember, it has to be all about every part of you. Mind, body and spirit can heal when they work together.
Change the way you think about what you survived. You can be your worst enemy. Honestly look at what your snap judgment may have you thinking you could have done differently and then honestly put it together. You'll see what you may think you could have done would be for a movie super hero and not a human in real life.
Apprehension gets in the way of healing. Think of it this way. In combat you had no problem asking for help as expecting it. You trusted those you were with and when you needed more help, you were happy to see reinforcements show up. Same thing when dealing with what came after combat. Call in as much help as you can get. Lives mattered then and you life matters just as much now.
For the body, you were trained to be prepared for all the physical hardships you subjected your body to. You need to retrain to prepare your body to calm down and stop your nervous system from overreacting to daily life.
For the soul, you are in fact captain of, start with these and then explore the territory you have not noticed before. The thing that makes you what and who you are.
Remember you are not alone and all other generations have had the same wounds within you. Take comfort in knowing that it all comes from a very wonderful part of you. The same place where pain comes from is also where love still lives on waiting for the next part of your life when you find peace with yesterday and understand that tomorrow is in your control. You took the steps to serve, no take the steps to heal.
Veterans say advocate left trail of broken promises WDBJ 7 News May 13, 2016
"To just wake up one day, and find out it's all been a lie, I just want to get that out there," Castillo said. "I want people to know what she's done. And I want it to stop. Nobody else needs to go through this."
BUCHANAN, Va. Norman Dooley was a cook in the U.S. Army, a Korean War veteran who believes Agent Orange is responsible for the serious medical problems he is still dealing with today.
He hoped Charlotte Krantz would help him qualify for disability benefits.
"And she just seemed to be so promising, and gave us a lot of dreams that you know didn't come true."
Dooley says she agreed to take on his case, and told him his claim was moving forward, but in the last few weeks he learned that wasn't true.
"She told me twice that I had been approved at 100 percent," Dooley said in an interview. "And that I was going to get a lot of money. And of course that made me and my wife happy, you know because we'd be able to get us a home, and stuff like that, but it just didn't come true."
Krantz worked from a storefront on Main Street in downtown Buchanan.
Her name is still on the door, and a flyer in the window explains the services she was offering, but no one was there when we visited Thursday afternoon.
Krantz is currently a resident of the Botetourt County jail.
Investigators believe there might be more veterans who worked with Krantz and face similar circumstances. They're asked to call Detective Tolley at the Botetourt County Sheriff's Office. read more here
Restaurant Patron Picks Up Tab For A Marine’s Family Of 9 CBS Philly
by Ray Boyd
May 14, 2016
RIDLEY, Pa. (CBS) — A local marine and his family were the recipients of a very special thank you at a local restaurant recently.
On May 9, Gina Taylor and her family went out for dinner at an Applebee’s in Ridley. With Gina and the family was her nephew Josh.
The Taylor family party was not a small one on that evening as nine of them were in attendance. Josh wore his Marine uniform to dinner that evening.
When their meal was wrapping up, a generous person in the restaurant decided to show his thanks.
The entire check had been paid for; a check that included appetizers, meals and desserts for a party of nine. The gesture was simply to thank Josh for his service. read more here
Walk for the Wounded offers salute to those who served Daily Times News
Kathleen E. Carey
May 14, 2016
“I had a call from one guy one time. He was at the end of his rope over them shutting off his water and electric. It amounted to $290 between both bills. Now, could you imagine that man taking his life because of $290?
ANNE NEBORAK-DIGITAL FIRST MEDIA
"Team It's Always Faithful" walk for Marine Jimmy Kalitz who died from P.T.S.D.
UPPER PROVIDENCE
Thousands came out to Rose Tree Park Saturday as they enjoyed the radiant sunshine – yet for all of its glow, that’s not why they were there.
Saturday was the ninth annual Walk for the Wounded, an event that’s a morning 5K run, a walk around the park, a festival with informational and vending booths and a ceremony to honor veterans, particularly those who served in active warfare.
The walk is a signature event for Operation First Response, a national organization that dedicates 97 percent of its proceeds to providing for the financial needs of veterans from rent and utilities to clothing and travel expenses.
Nick Constantino, senior advisor for Operation First Response, was gratified to see the 3,000 to 4,000 attendants throughout the day.
“It’s very gratifying to see the event grow after nine years and to see the same faces that we started with day one still attending and new faces coming in,” he said. “It’s very encouraging. It means a lot for the support and for what we do.”
During the veterans’ ceremony, Delaware County native and Philadelphia police officer Jesse Hartnett was honored and presented with a $5,000 check for enduring being ambushed while on patrol and shot several times.
Among those in the audience were his parents, both of Delaware County. His mom, Terry, said she’s thankful he’s alive and said she only watched the video of his ambush twice because it was so difficult.
She said Saturday was unique because it spoke to his service in the Coast Guard, which he joined after graduating Monsignor Bonner High School in 2001 after the Sept. 11 attacks.
Hartnett served on active duty with the Coast Guard from 2009 to 2015 and then in the reserves from 2009 to 2015. read more here
Hard work pays off for radio station dedicated to veterans Windsor and Eton Express
Written by Tara O'Connor
14 May 2016
A veteran’s hard work has propelled a specialist radio station to listeners around the world.
Tom Mcgreevy, 66, is the radio station manager of Veterans Families Radio.
The station was initially set up by Lawrence Ibbotson, 63, from Scunthorpe in 2014.
It was a small operation gathering about 20 listeners a day and Tom, who lives off Tinkers Lane, was involved from the start.
In September, Tom, who served in the Royal Corps of Signals from 1972 to 1984, teamed up with Lawrence on a full time basis and decided to set up a website for the radio show.
His input paid off with the station reaching 20,000 listeners in April - its most ever.
Lawrence, who was in the Sherwood Foresters Regiment from 1969 until 1984, said Tom’s work has been ‘absolutely fantastic’.
“Things have just taken off like I can’t believe, I’d say 90 per cent of it is because of the things Tom has done,” he said.
“I think it is one of the biggest military sites for veterans there is.” read more here
The U.S. needs to revisit our PTSD treatment guidelines Military Times
By Bret Moore, Special to Military Times
May 15, 2016
What did they find? Trauma-focused psychotherapies outperformed psychotherapies that do not specifically discuss the trauma. They also beat out medications.
Kevlar for the Mind
(Photo: Thinkstock/Staff)
Post-traumatic stress disorder is arguably the most challenging problem combat veterans face. Estimates vary, but experts believe that between 10 and 20 percent of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans suffer from the disorder. This puts the actual number of men and women affected in the hundreds of thousands.
Considering that PTSD wreaks havoc on the veteran and their loved ones, and costs billions of dollars each year, finding and using the most effective treatments are critical.
Historically, medications and talk therapy have been considered "first-line treatments." This basically means they should be used first, and if they fail, then you try something else. In fact, the joint treatment guidelines published by the Department of Defense and Veterans Affairs Department puts medications and psychotherapy on equaling footing. The same is true for the American Psychiatric Association. read more here
On more thing to mention here is that about a third of Vietnam veterans have PTSD and there are a lot more veterans from WWII, Korea and the Gulf War left out of most of the reports on PTSD. None of this is new and that is frankly the biggest thing missing in this. What worked decades ago, still does and what failed is still failing.
Vietnam: Staff Sgt. Ronald Wahl, of Wing Bismarck Tribune Jenny Schlecht May 15, 2016
Wahl had what is now known as post traumatic stress disorder. There was little help for dealing with the trauma of war back then.
Ronald Wahl served in the infantry for some of the most famed operations of the Vietnam War: Nine Days in May, Operation Francis Marion and others.
“It got pretty dicey at times,” he said.
Now, 50 years later, he still deals with what happened over there.
“It will never leave. It’s always there in some degree,” he said.
Wahl was 19 when he was drafted. He completed nine months of training at Fort Lewis in Washington, then went to Vietnam in September 1966 as part of the Third Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment of the Fourth Infantry Division.
“It was my time to go, so I went and did the best I could,” said Wahl, who was a squad leader and sometimes would fill in as necessary as a platoon sergeant and lead the 40 or so men.
Was he prepared for that kind of an assignment at 19, 20?
“No choice,” he laughs. “I wanted to do the best I could for the guys.”
“I had trouble adjusting and self medicating,” he said.
Wahl had what is now known as post traumatic stress disorder. There was little help for dealing with the trauma of war back then, he said.
“It was more or less just passed over, because no one wanted to look at it,” he said, referring to it as a “suck-it-up situation.” read more here
Cadets make over home of mother whose soldier son died in Iraq Las Vegas Review Journal Keith Rogers
May 14, 2016
“We probably have 25 kids here working to help the family realize we’re going to stay connected with them as long as they want us to."
Marina Vance arrives to see the new landscaping by volunteers done as part of a Blue Star Mothers of Henderson and Boulder City project on Saturday, May 14, 2016. Vance lost her son in Ramadi, Iraq, in 2006. (Daniel Clark/Las Vegas Review-Journal)
With shovels, hoes and wheelbarrows, a platoon of teenage cadets launched their assault Saturday as the sun rose over Marina Vance’s Henderson home.
“I wanted to beat the heat,” Sgt. Maj. Robert Brown said as the team of two dozen Army Junior ROTC cadets from Mojave and Valley high schools set out to sweat and “spit cotton,” as one soldier put it.
Stormmie Banegas, 16, of Mojave high, said the sight of the unkept landscape “was really gloomy.”
Fellow cadet Adrian Castellanos, 17, described the scene “as a blackish-gray mess of dried grass.”
Their job: remove tons of that dead grass and dirt from the front yard, and replace it with rock and desert landscaping. Then give the stucco-and-rail fence a makeover with fresh paint. Then focus on the house’s exterior, said Chief Warrant Officer-4 Loyd Crathers, the senior Army instructor at Mojave High School.
The reason: It’s been almost 10 years since Vance’s son, “Nacho” — Spc. Ignacio Ramirez — was killed when a roadside bomb exploded in Ramadi, Iraq.
With Memorial Day approaching, Chere’ Pedersen of Blue Star Mothers of Henderson and Boulder City thought a makeover of the Gold Star mother’s home was long overdue.
Brown, an Iraq War veteran, was on tour when Ramirez was killed. He and Crathers are members of the Nevada Veterans Council where they found out about the Blue Star Mothers’ plan to spruce up Vance’s home. read more here
Kansas veteran on cemetery rule: ‘I said this is bull-crap’ KSN News By Emily Younger Published: May 13, 2016
“We have got to stick up for these guys. They fought for this country, so I am going to fight for them as much as possible.” Jim Hall
AUGUSTA, Kan. (KSNW) – A group of Kansas veterans are fighting to get a city ordinance passed after they say Augusta city officials told them to get rid of their veteran markers at the local cemetery. However, the city said it was all a big misunderstanding.
John Cox is a Vietnam veteran. To this day, he continues to serve.
“I honor the veterans by putting a flag on their grave every year,” said John Cox.
Along with a flag, Cox and fellow veteran Jim Hall, place a memorial marker on the graves.
“It means they served their country with honor,” said Vietnam veteran Jim Hall.
The two said they got a letter in the mail from the City of Augusta saying loose items like flowers, stuffed animals and angels surrounding grave sites were no longer going to be allowed at the cemetery. read more here
This Week in Taco Bell: Army vet miraculously wakes from 48-day coma and demands Taco Bell USA Today For The Win
By: Ted Berg
May 12, 2016
He struggled to speak — and still struggles to speak — due to the lingering effects of intubation and a tracheotomy, but as soon as he could form sounds into words, he made a request. “I want Taco Bell,”
This Week in Taco Bell is For the Win’s weekly roundup of Taco Bell news and the internet’s foremost source of aggregated Taco Bell content.
In February, Jake Booth, a 35-year-old Army vet and former Sheriff’s deputy in Collier County, Fla., came down with a case of bronchitis. Antibiotics helped, but after Booth quit taking his pills a few days early, the bronchitis turned into double pnemonia. While hospitalized for treatment, Booth suffered a heart attack and fell into a coma. He had to be airlifted to Tampa General Hospital for more extensive treatment. His family did not know if he would ever wake up, or how much damage his brain endured from a loss of oxygen.
It would be 22 more days before Booth could eat solid food, a total of 70 days between real meals. But just last week, one day after doctors cleared him to eat, Jake got his wish in the form of 8 1/2 Crunchy Tacos. The photo, shared by Tyler Chronister — the same friend at Booth’s bedside when he made the Taco Bell request — is one of the most beautiful, redeeming, joyful images that will ever grace these pages: read more here
Wounded veteran receives new minivan from nonprofit, Tampa company Bay News 9
By Cait McVey, Reporter
May 13, 2016
It took a year and a half of recovery in the hospital before he could go home. Still, Joel said he never gave up. “One mountain at a time,” Ret.
Army Staff Sgt. Joel Tavera
Tampa-based MobilityWorks and national nonprofit Help Our Military Heroes (HOMH) donated a customized minivan to Iraq veteran Staff Sgt. Joel Tavera, U.S. Army (ret.) and his family.
TAMPA
A Tampa-area Army veteran and survivor of a rocket attack in Iraq in 2008 can enjoy a little more mobility and freedom, thanks to the efforts of national non-profit Help our Military Heroes.
Army Staff Sgt. Joel Tavera, U.S. Army (ret.) was critically wounded on what was to be his final mission in Iraq in 2008
Tavera and his family presented with a new minivan adapted to his needs by Help our Military Heroes (HOMH) and MobilityWorks
When Joel Tavera walks into a room, you take notice. He is a man who has overcome a great deal in 28 short years.
“There’s been a lot of barriers given to me,” Tavera said. “I was told I was not going to walk, not going to talk.”
In 2008, the Army veteran was on his final mission in Iraq when a rocket hit the SUV he and his unit were riding in. The attack left Tavera blind and severely burned over more than half his body. He also lost a leg, part of his skull and several fingers.
It took a year and a half of recovery in the hospital before he could go home. Still, Joel said he never gave up.
“One mountain at a time,” Tavera said.
Now, more than 100 surgeries later, Tavera is more active than ever. He enjoys golfing, hunting and even sky diving. read more here
Vets Group Criticizes Senate Panel Vote to Curb GI Bill Housing Aid Military.com
by Brendan McGarry
May 13, 2016
"In a normal process, they would have published a schedule and in two or three weeks time, we're having a hearing to mark up this particular bill,'" Jonathan Schleifer, the organization's chief policy officer, said on Friday during a telephone interview with Military.com.
"This was done certainly without any notice or warning."
A veterans group is criticizing a key Senate veterans committee for voting to curb the GI Bill housing allowance.
The Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America on Thursday issued a statement blasting the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee after members approved omnibus legislation that would reduce by 5 percent the Post-9/11 GI Bill housing allowance to pay for other veterans programs.
"As Congress quietly passed another bill cutting veterans education benefits, veterans are stuck having to beg for the benefits we earned," IAVA Chief of Staff Allison Jaslow said in a statement. "We fought hard eight years ago to get the Post-9/11 GI Bill passed and we will not quit fighting until Congress protects the benefits being earned on the battlefield as we speak."
The Senate committee, headed by Sen. Johnny Isakson, a Republican from Georgia, during a hastily convened session on Thursday afternoon unanimously voted in favor of the legislation, known as the Veterans First Act.
The circumstances surrounding the vote also drew criticism from IAVA officials. read more here
