Veteran Marine, MMA Champion Saved By Christ

Former MMA Champion Shares How Christ Saved Him From PTSD, Suicide, Infidelity
Christian Post
BY ANUGRAH KUMAR
CHRISTIAN POST CONTRIBUTOR
May 25, 2016

In a new "I Am Second" video, a former U.S. Marine and Pro MMA champion Chad Robichaux speaks honestly about his struggle with anger, hatred, brokenness, adultery and being suicidal as a result of a post-traumatic stress disorder, and how his wife's prayers in church led him to Christ and founding Mighty Oaks Warrior Program.

The video begins with Robichaux narrating an incident when he was working as a New Orleans police officer. After a domestic violence call, he had to deal with a gun-wielding offender, who was reported to be homicidal and suicidal. Robichaux and his associate ended up shooting him to death. Though cleared by a grand jury later, he struggled with his conscience.

"I had just blood everywhere on me and felt like I couldn't get it off me. I just wanted someone to tell me, you know, that it was okay, because I had just killed this guy in front of his family," he recalls. "And it was something I never thought I would have a hard time with, but it did."

Robichaux began his military career as a Force Recon Marine before spending time as a police officer in New Orleans, where he earned a medal of valor. After the 9/11 terror attacks, he was selected to join a Joint Special Operations Command task force where he was deployed to Afghanistan in the global war on terror.
read more here

Fort Carson Capt. Elyse Ping Medvigy Climbs Everest For PTSD Awareness

You saw this picture in the previous post and now you know why she did it!

Female Fort Carson soldier summited Mount Everest Tuesday in bid to raise PTSD awareness 
The Gazette 
By: Seth Boster
May 25, 2016

"I think about the fallen soldiers I'm climbing for every day, especially when things got difficult on the mountain."
Capt. Elyse Ping Medvigy,

Fort Carson Capt. Elyse Ping Medvigy, was atop the world Tuesday.

Medvigy, 32, summited Mount Everest in the morning hours with a fellow active-duty soldier and a veteran in a climb for U.S. Expeditions and Explorations, a nonprofit seeking to raise awareness of veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder. According to a news release, the nonprofit believes Medvigy to be the first active-duty female soldier to scale Earth's highest mountain.

The Ridgway native was joined on the 29,029-foot summit with 2nd Lt. Harold Earls and retired Staff Sgt. Chad Jukes, who lost his right leg in Iraq. She was the first to reach the top among the group, at 7:40 a.m. Everest time, according to an online chronicle of the climb by the nonprofit. She and her team began the ascent on the mountain's north side April 25.

In a photo provided by the group, Medvigy is shown on Everest's peak holding pictures of Army Pfc. Keith Williams and Staff Sgt. Benjamin Prange. The two died during combat in Afghanistan.
read more here

Amputee Chad Jukes Reaches Top of Everest

Ex-soldier who lost a leg in Iraq reaches the top of Everest
USA TODAY
Gregg Zoroya
May 24, 2016

Capt. Elyse Ping Medvigy, an active-duty field artillery officer currently assigned to the 4th Infantry Division at Fort Carson, Colo., was the first to reach the summit at Mount Everest from Team USX. Ping Medvigy is holding a picture of PFC Keith Williams and Staff Sgt. Benjamin Prange. Medvigy said via text message: "I think about the fallen soldiers I'm climbing for every day, especially when things got difficult on the mountain." (Photo: www.USX.vet)

An Army veteran who lost his leg to a roadside bomb in Iraq reached the summit of Mount Everest on Tuesday, becoming the second combat amputee to climb the mountain in six days, according to a veterans group that sponsored the expedition.

Chad Jukes, 32, made the climb with a prosthesis. A Marine veteran who also lost his right leg to a roadside bomb in Iraq, Thomas Charles "Charlie" Linville, 30, reached the summit of Everest on Thursday, becoming what is believed to the first combat amputee to conquer the mountain.

The current climbing season for the 29,029-foot mountain has been marred by the deaths of three climbers during the past weekend; two others are missing.
read more here
Linked from TIME

Army Ranger Afghanistan Veteran Faces Charges Instead of Help He Needed

The DOD claims they are training troops in "prevention" and treating them properly when they do finally admit they need help. They claim to be helping them transition from Army life to the civilian world again. They make a lot of claims but this story pretty much sums up the fruits of their deeds when compared to their words.

You Will Know Them by Their Fruits 15 “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. 16 You will know them by their fruits.

Mother of Maine vet who allegedly fired AK-47 around home, created police standoff says man suffers from PTSD
Bangor Daily News
By Tammy Wells, Journal Tribune
Posted May 25, 2016

ALFRED, Maine —Sometime soon — perhaps as early as Wednesday — a Shapleigh man charged with reckless conduct after allegedly shooting his AK-47 at his home Sunday will be transferred from York County Jail to a unit at Kennebec County Jail designed for veterans.

Former U.S. Army Ranger Robert Ferrera, 26, who served two tours of duty in Afghanistan with the 75th Ranger Regiment, has suffered from post traumatic stress disorder since he was discharged in 2012, said his mother, Donna Ferrera, in a telephone interview Tuesday.

Ferrera surrendered peacefully Sunday afternoon about 90 minutes after sheriff’s deputies were called to the family compound on Oak Hill Road, off Route 11.

Ferrera lives in a home on family property on the private road, while other family members live close by in a separate residence. A family member fled the property when Ferrera, upset about a living situation, went “out of control” and started shooting the gun inside and outside his home, according to the York County Sheriff ’s Department. The family member then summoned the sheriff ’s office. No one was injured.

Charged with reckless conduct with a dangerous weapon and violating conditions of a prior release, Ferrera is being held without bail on the latter charge.

His mother said Ferrera was injured in 2012, and was discharged shortly before his four-year hitch was up. He had joined the Army as a teenager.

“He went into the Army right out of school, when he was 18,” his mother said. “He wanted to be a Ranger.”

Looking back, Donna Ferrera says her son should have been medically discharged from his Army service, which would have, she said, made him automatically eligible for health care outside the Veterans Administration system. But, she said, that didn’t happen.

She said her son has been diagnosed by the VA with PTSD, along with other medical issues that stem from his service – including back problems and an injured arm that was operated on while he was still in the military and now requires surgery again.

Donna Ferrera believes there should be a transition program for veterans as they approach discharge back into civilian life.
read more here

Green Beret Sgt. 1st Class Earl Plumlee May Get Medal Of Honor

New Army secretary asked to intervene in Medal of Honor case
The Washington Post
By Dan Lamothe
Published: May 24, 2016

WASHINGTON — A year after a Special Forces soldier was denied the Medal of Honor, the nation’s top award for valor in combat, a congressman has appealed to the new Army secretary to review the case.

Green Beret Sgt. 1st Class Earl Plumlee, right, salutes during an awards ceremony at at Joint Base Lewis-McChord on May 1, 2015, after he received the Silver Star for his actions in Afghanistan. A Calif. congressman is requesting that newly-sworn-in Army Secretary Eric Fanning consider whether Plumlee should be awarded the Medal of Honor, a recommendation that was denied in 2015 under then-Army Secretary John McHugh. CODIE MENDENHALL/U.S. ARMY

Army Secretary Eric Fanning was sworn in as the service’s top civilian leader last week, and almost immediately received a letter from Rep. Duncan Hunter, R.-Calif., asking if he would review the case of Sgt. 1st Class Earl D. Plumlee. The Green Beret soldier was nominated for the Medal of Honor for his role in repelling a brutal ambush in Afghanistan in 2013 and received recommendations for the prestigious award from several of the military’s most powerful officers, but was ultimately denied last year by then-Army Secretary John McHugh. Plumlee instead received the Silver Star, which is two levels below the Medal of Honor in recognizing combat heroism.
read more here

The Army denied a Medal of Honor to this Green Beret war hero. What happened?

WWII Veteran's Family Wins Settlement After Being Shot By Police Beanbag

Family Agrees to $1.1M Settlement in WWII Veteran's Death
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
MARKHAM, Ill.
May 24, 2016

Court documents show relatives of a 95-year-old World War II veteran who died after being shot with a beanbag gun by a police officer, who was trying to disarm him, have agreed to a $1.1 million wrongful death settlement.

Park Forest Police Officer Craig Taylor responded in July 2013 after an assisted-living facility staff member reported John Wrana Jr. had become combative. Wrana was shot five times with the beanbag gun before he dropped the knife he was wielding. He died hours later of internal bleeding.

Sharon Mangerson, Wrana's stepdaughter and executor of his estate, had filed a $5 million wrongful death lawsuit in 2014 alleging, among other things, that Wrana's civil rights were violated.

Park Forest recently agreed to a $1.1 million settlement, with $800,000 covering legal fees and costs and the rest going to family members.
read more here

WWII Veteran's Headstone Found in Trash Pile Under Overpass

World War II veteran headstone found in trash and moved to cemetery
ABC 10 News KXTV
Frances Wang
May 24, 2016

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - A Facebook post sparked outrage when it showed a World War II veteran's tombstone laying underneath a Stockton overpass, among trash left behind by transients. 

Khris Cook, a war veteran himself, heard about the tombstone from his wife who saw the post. Like many of the others who commented, he was upset seeing it left behind like trash. "I couldn't see something like that, laying here, getting disgraced, broken up, graffitied," said Cook. 

"It's very disrespectful." Cook came down to pick it up himself. He dropped it off at the American Legion Ed Stewart Post 803, a place he felt it would be safe. read more here

McDonald Was Close Since Veteran Have Been On Ride For Decades

There is no excuse for the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to make such a reprehensible comparison between waiting in line for a ride at Disney to veterans waiting to be taken care of by the VA. Standing in line for a ride is a choice and hey, Disney even offers fast passes but veterans did not have a choice in what parts of their bodies or minds they would sacrifice serving this country.

The truth is, veterans have been on a ride for decades and it has not been fun~

VA Secretary Disneyland-wait time comparison draws ire
CNN
By Drew Griffin
CNN Investigations
May 23, 2016

(CNN)Veterans Affairs Secretary Bob McDonald downplayed Monday the time it takes for veterans to receive medical treatment by comparing the "experience" of waiting for health care to Disneyland guests waiting for a ride.

"When you go to Disney, do they measure the number of hours you wait in line? Or what's important?" McDonald told reporters at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast in Washington. "What's important is what's your satisfaction with the experience?"

American Legion National Commander Dale Barnett excoriated McDonald: "The American Legion agrees that the VA secretary's analogy between Disneyland and VA wait times was an unfortunate comparison because people don't die while waiting to go on Space Mountain."

"We also disagree with the substance of his comment because wait times are very important to not just the satisfaction quotient, but in some cases the veterans health," he said in a statement.
read more here

Satisfied with the experience? Hardly!

I spent my entire life with the VA and what it does, as well as does not do, for veterans.  My Dad was 100% and so is my husband. None of this is new to veterans and families.  We've seen it all before as the VA, often rightly, blames Congress and Congress fails to do their own jobs of writing rules, bills and paying for services they have control over.

That said, there needs to be a line that is never crossed.  McDonald just crossed that one. He is the head of the VA.  Even if he passes it off as a poor choice of words, the thought must have been in his head or it would have never jumped out of his mind and out of his mouth. Maybe now folks will understand why the vast majority of veterans do not go to the VA.  Imagine if they did when there are about 22 million of them and the VA has trouble taking care of the ones who do turn to them.

This is just an example of that.

Updated Roster of OEF/OIF/OND Veterans through February 28, 2015 1,939,959 OEF/OIF/OND Veterans have become eligible for VA health care since FY 2002 1,185,160 (~61%)2 Former Active Duty 754,799 (~39%)2 Reserve and National Guard

Statement from VA Secretary Robert A. McDonald
05/24/2016 05:34 PM EDT
STATEMENT FROM VA SECRETARY ROBERT A. MCDONALD

On Monday, I made some remarks on how we’re working to improve Veterans' satisfaction with the care they receive from VA. It was never my intention to suggest that I don't take our mission of serving Veterans very seriously.

In fact, improving access to care is my number one priority and the priority I have set for the entire department. For the last two years, the huge majority of VA employees have worked tirelessly to improve the timeliness of the care and benefits we provides to Veterans.

As I've told Veterans Service Organizations, Members of Congress, and myriad other groups of Veterans stakeholders, our goal is to ensure VA becomes the Number 1 customer-service organization in government.

To do that, we are following many of the best practices of private sector health care providers and exceptional customer-service organizations.

At VA we take our mission of caring for those who "shall have borne the battle" very seriously; we have the best and most noble mission in government.

If my comments Monday led any Veterans to believe that I, or the dedicated workforce I am privileged to lead, don't take that noble mission seriously, I deeply regret that. Nothing could be further from the truth.

As we approach the Memorial Day holiday and pay tribute to the sacrifices of courageous men and women who placed the interests of others above their own, we at the VA remain focused on our mission to care for those who bravely served our Nation.

Junger Thinks Society to Blame When Troops Come Home?

UPDATE
Jerusalem Post Report on PTSD


There are times when I read a headline and get really hopeful that something new will come out of it, but all too quickly, those hopes are crushed. It just happened when Sebastian Junger was interviewed about a new book and he seemed to want to blame society for the disconnect. Nothing new on that one but then again, no one can really understand what they did not live through. 

"In his book, Mr. Junger marshals history, psychology, anthropology and statistics to make his case. He suggests that in countries with a strong sense of community, such as Israel, incidence of PTSD is low even though that nation exists in a state of near-constant conflict."

Civilians cannot understand veterans but they understand emotional turmoil after surviving something something that could have killed them. Junger had a theory that pretty much summed up what type of research he did for this book.

Hundreds of Israeli soldiers have been diagnosed with PTSD after three infantrymen committed suicide after fighting in Gaza this summer. Baz Ratner/Reuters

Israel Defense Forces' (IDF) Col. Dr. Keren Ginat, who is head of the army's mental health services, told a ministerial oversight committee on Monday that the IDF had invited 1,000 soldiers known to have been wounded in combat or involved in intense firefights in Gaza to come in and talk to bosses about their experiences. Some 70% of the soldiers scored highly on the PTSD checklist and have been referred for additional treatment, Ginat said.

But it isn't just one article on how Israeli Veterans have suffered from PTSD. There are more like this one about cannabis being used to treat PTSD.

According to the study by Dr. Irit Akirav from the Department of Psychology at Haifa University, cannabinoids may relieve the symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), a debilitating disorder that strikes 10 to 30 percent of people who suffer from a traumatic event such as war, a car accident, rape or a terrorist attack.

And this one

Trauma is also very common in women; five out of 10 women will experience a traumatic event at some point during their lifetime. Over the years, hundreds of thousands of Israeli civilians and soldiers, including Holocaust survivors, have developed PTSD.

There are many more articles on this and keep in mind it only took me about 15 minutes to find these since I knew what I was looking for.  After all, none of this is new. 

Here is some more of the interview.

Sebastian Junger’s Take on PTSD
The society troops return to, he says, is more to blame than combat
Wall Street Journal
By RALPH GARDNER JR.
May 22, 2016

One of the tools of journalism, and perhaps life in general, is the ability to create a bond by discovering what you and the person standing in front of you have in common.

However, that wasn’t my modus operandi when I got together with Sebastian Junger, the best-selling author of “The Perfect Storm” who also, along with the late Tim Hetherington, created the Oscar-nominated documentary “Restrepo,” on the Afghanistan War.

We met at The Half King, a pub on far West 23rd Street where Mr. Junger is a co-owner.

Actually, I was more than happy reveling in our differences. Mr. Junger has earned an excellent living chasing risk. I do my best to avoid it.

His new book, “Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging,” which comes out of decades of reporting from war zones, argues counterintuitively that the society American soldiers return to does more to cause post-traumatic stress disorder than combat does.

“PTSD is a disorder of transition,” he said.
read more here

"PTSD is a disorder of transition" Seriously? There is a reason there are support groups for all the different groups of people needing them. They are understood among their peers. It is the same with veterans.  They are understood by other veterans more than anyone else can begin to understand. Military families are understood among other military families.  That is why you see veterans groups with spouses sharing experiences with each other they do not even attempt to share with civilian spouses.  They just don't understand what it is like when they think a huge problem is hubby didn't take out the trash or notice his wife did something differently.  

I don't know what is in the rest of Junger's book and now I don't want to find out.

Body Found In River Was Missing Veteran Somebody Loved

Body found on west bank of Animas River identified
Durango Herald
By Jonathan Romeo Herald staff writer
May 22, 2016

“We don’t want him to be another nameless face found in Colorado that nobody knew,” Jack Shaw said. “He was somebody.”

Courtesy of the Shaw family

The family of Randy Shaw, whose body was identified Sunday after it was discovered Saturday along the Animas River in Durango, is desperately trying to track down his dog, Johlene. The dog is a brown and white pit bull mix.

The body of a 40-year old man discovered Saturday afternoon along the west bank of the Animas River near West Park Avenue has been identified as Kansas native Randy Shaw.

“We all knew this phone call was coming,” said Shaw’s brother, Jack. “We were just glad he was found and not off the mountain somewhere and never heard from again.

“We’re all torn up about it. But at the same time he’s not suffering anymore.”

Around 2:30 p.m. Saturday, a worker spotted Shaw’s body behind a West Park Avenue home, downstream from the Main Avenue bridge. The body was in a sleeping bag, covered in brush near the river’s edge.
read more here