Fallen Soldier's Dad Charged With Taking Donations Meant to Honor Son

Father charged with theft of donations for soldier's grave stone
Pickaway News Journal
Trish Bennett, Editor
Published: June 30, 2016

CIRCLEVILLE - The father of a local soldier killed in Afghanistan is facing charges in the theft of money intended to repair his son's grave stone at Forest Cemetery.

Roger D. Jenkins, 51, is pictured here in this file photo

from a ceremony held at his son's grave site in May of 2015.

Roger D. Jenkins, 51, of Stoutsville, pleaded not guilty to theft, a fourth-degree felony, on Wednesday in Pickaway County Common Pleas Court. He was indicted on the charge June 3 by the Pickaway County Grand Jury.

A pretrial hearing in the case is set for July 8.

According to the indictment, Jenkins is accused of using deception to take money in excess of $7,500 from 11 individuals and organizations between May 1 and June 9, 2015.

Prosecutors contend the money was donated to help repair the grave stone of Army Spc. Gerald R. "Bub" Jenkins that was damaged by vandalism in April of 2015. No charges have ever been filed in the vandalism case.

Gerald Jenkins, 19, was a combat engineer assigned to the 1st Brigade Special Troop Battalion, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division based in Fort Campbell, Kentucky. He was killed Oct. 20, 2010, by an improvised explosive device while on foot patrol in the Maquan, Zhari district of Afghanistan.
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Montana Veterans Walk As Team Toward Healing PTSD

Montana veterans find healing through nature, camaraderie
Great Falls Tribune
Jenn Rowell
July 1, 2016

"It’s the weight that they feel. Not one person can hike that the entire way, we have to do it as a team.”
Luke Urick

Pills and counseling don’t work for all veterans coping with post-traumatic stress disorder.

That’s why Luke Urick and Scott Moss wanted to create a third leg to what they call the tripod of healing.

Veterans with the Montana Vet Program, part of Eagle Mount Great Falls, hiked from Livingston to Yellowstone National Park in May to raise awareness of the program.

(Photo: Photo courtesy of Amber Fern)

The two combat veterans, who were Marine Corps snipers, have created the Montana Vet Program at Eagle Mount Great Falls. MVP for short, the program involves veteran-led therapeutic hikes through Montana’s iconic locations, including Yellowstone and Glacier national parks and the Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument.

MVP is a culmination of ideas that Moss and Urick had been kicking around and started coming together when Deb Sivumaki, director at Eagle Mount Great Falls, talked to Urick about creating a program for veterans.

Moss hiked in Yosemite National Park with a good friend and a fellow service member, who was killed about a year and a half later in 2009. Moss left the Marine Corps in 2011 and was living and working but wanted to do something.
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Double Amputee Marine Gets Triple Wheels

Amputee veteran receives custom motorcycle
KAKE News
Posted: Jun 30, 2016


WICHITA, Kan. (KAKE) - A Marine who was injured five years ago in Iraq received a three-wheeled wish Thursday, thanks to some big-hearted people in Wichita.

A special motorcycle was the work of Allan "Big Al" Gaihter of Riverside H-D Customs. He's considered one of the best custom bike builders around, but his latest menacing-looking three-wheeler was one of a kind.

"We dropped this frame four inches, and built the entire back by hand," Gaihter explained. "This is actually the first trike that I got to do, a pretty radical custom. It was a fun build."

But just as unique as the bike is its brand new owner. Matt Amos is a Marine veteran who did two tours in Iraq and one in Afghanistan. But it was that visit to Afghanistan that was life-changing.

"In 2011, I ended up stepping on an improvised explosive device and became a double amputee," Amos explained.
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Afghanistan Veteran Shot Down Eagle and Set It Free

Army veteran rescues an eagle in incredible way 
KARE 
July 02, 2016

Jason Galvin said the eagle's rescue was an emotional experience.  "There was a lot of tears," he said. "When it finally came down, it was breathtaking. It was a beautiful moment."

RUSH CITY, Minn. - A army veteran of two tours in Afghanistan has again picked up a weapon on behalf of freedom.

On Thursday Jason Galvin took shots from a .22 caliber rifle to free an eagle that had become tangled in a rope, hanging upside down from a tree 75 feet off the ground.

“It was very windy and I was just waiting for the right shot,” said Galvin who spent 90 minutes firing roughly 150 shots while mowing down three branches, and finally the rope, holding up the eagle.

Other branches on the white pine and the underbrush below helped break the eagle’s fall. The bird is now recovering at the University of Minnesota Raptor Center.

“It was a good weekend for it to happen,” Galvin said. “Fourth of July, you know, that’s our bird. I can’t let it sit there.”

Galvin was on a bait run in his pickup, when he spotted the bird above a gravel road about a mile from his family's cabin, upside down and struggling. By then the eagle had already been hanging more than two days, as neighbors called the Minnesota DNR and the Rush City police and fire departments, only to be told there was nothing the agencies could do.

Galvin's wife Jackie began making calls too, with similar results. "They just couldn’t get up there high enough and they just unfortunately deemed this was going to be a loss."
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PTSD Veteran of 17 Years in National Guard Sues After Oregon Arrest

Fall Creek man files $3 million lawsuit, alleges mistreatment after arrest at Oregon Country Fair
The Register-Guard
By Jack Moran
JULY 4, 2016

The suit links his behavioral change to an adverse reaction to medication that a doctor at a Veterans Administration clinic in Eugene had prescribed to him less than three weeks before the fair began.

Fricano served 17 years in the National Guard and has been an artisan jeweler, according to the lawsuit.

A Fall Creek man alleges in a civil rights lawsuit that he was wrongly denied necessary psychiatric care for 15 days after being arrested at the Oregon Country Fair and lodged in the Lane County Jail.

Angelo James Fricano is seeking $3 million in the federal suit. It was filed last week in U.S. District Court in Eugene by attorneys with the Civil Liberties Defense Center, a Eugene nonprofit organization.

The defendants include Lane County and Corizon Health, a private firm that contracted with the county to provide health care to inmates.

Representatives for Corizon and the county declined comment on the suit, which also lists several county and Corizon employees as defendants.

According to the lawsuit, Fricano had no prior criminal record or history of mental health problems when he was arrested on June 29, 2014.

Authorities took him into custody after he allegedly used a baseball bat to menace a fellow vendor at the Oregon Country Fair, an annual gathering held outside Veneta.

Prosecutors dismissed the criminal case in September 2014, court records show.

The lawsuit says Fricano attended the fair as a vendor despite having displayed unusual behavior in the days leading up to the event.

“There is a basic human standard which is desperately lacking in this community, one we aim to influence and correct,” Fricano said in a statement. “The people deserve better.”
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There's a feud within the veterans community

Every member of the House is up for re-election. If they support privatizing the VA that means they did not care about the job they were elected to do. The House has had jurisdiction over the VA and how veterans are taken care of since 1946. 

If it is a mess, it is their fault and all the others before them. If veterans suffer, it is their fault because it looks like all they wanted to do was hand over our veterans to the same for profit groups the rest of us have to deal with. Oh, by the way, the same ones operating under the Affordable Healthcare Act they all say does not work. Yet one more thing they'd rather kill than fix.

Make them do their jobs or elect others to do it and earn their paychecks instead of passing on the suffering to our veterans!

There's a feud within the veterans community, and it's starting to get ugly
Military Times
Leo Shane III
July 3, 2016

Officials from Concerned Veterans for America, the American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars pose with then-House Speaker John Boehner during an April 2014 meeting with lawmakers on VA reform proposals. (Photo: Courtesy of the office of the Speaker of the House)

A controversial veterans advocacy group is gaining clout in Congress but appears to be losing credibility with fellow veterans lobbyists.

The group is called Concerned Veterans for America, and its ties to conservative causes and funders have drawn criticism since its founding five years ago. For the most part, CVA's leaders have managed to balance those attacks by establishing public working relationships with several major veterans organizations.

But in recent weeks, even those arrangements have deteriorated.

The most recent divorce came in June, when the American Legion, whose leaders just a few months ago were working closely with CVA on efforts to reform the Veterans Affairs Department, sent a letter to lawmakers in which they characterized CVA's leaders as politically motivated “mouthpieces whose focus is to leverage the military veterans community to achieve selfish gains.”
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Bank of America Gave Foreclosed Home to Veteran

Bank of America gives New Mexico veteran new, free home
KRQE News 13
By Kim Vallez and Kayla Root
July 1, 2016

“You are so use to being told what to do, where to be at all times, then thrown into civilian world where you have to compete again with everyone, not given answers everything a gray area, very difficult for me.” Trevor Hileman

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – A New Mexico veteran is getting some big help getting back on his feet.

On Thursday, Army veteran Trevor Hileman was handed the keys to a new home, thanks to Bank of America and the Military Warriors Support Foundation.

The program from Bank of America and the Military Warriors Foundation fixes up foreclosed homes and gives them to veterans.

A path of flags lead the way for Hileman to his new mortgage free home on Thursday. Inside the home, there were pictures on the wall of Sergeant Hileman during his time in the Army. He served one tour of duty in Afghanistan.

But transitioning to civilian life has been tough.
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Why is July 4th Weekend Worse For Some Veterans?

Neighborhood Fun For Some Agony For Others
Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
July 3, 2016

I live in the Orlando area and many nearby events have huge fireworks displays.

In Altamonte Springs there is Red Hot and Boom

The City of Altamonte Springs and XL 106.7 FM are hosting yet another spectacular Independence Day celebration to honor the birthday of America! Come rain or shine, Red Hot and Boom will deliver an unforgettable night of great performances, mouthwatering eats and beautifully synchronized fireworks. Join one of Central Florida’s most patriotic traditions and come on out for a night filled with good old-fashioned fun!

Veterans have a choice to go and watch them burst in the air or stay home. What they do not have a choice on is if their neighborhood fills up with booms and gunpowder smoke.

It started Friday night and will go on until Monday, if not longer. Normally I address what veterans should do to prepare their minds for this weekend but with all the shortcomings of "PTSD Awareness" it is time to address this to civilians.

Your fun celebrating our Independence came with a price veterans paid.  To you, watching the twinkle in the sky is pretty, but to them, when they saw the twinkle it meant tracers rounds and bombs bursting in the air.  It meant lives could be lost, many could be wounded and yes, it also meant that they may not be going home.  They remember all that.

They do not want you to give up having fun even if it comes at their expense, but at least be considerate.  

Stop shooting them off for hours at a time! 

Stop shooting them off as if you intend to fill your whole street with think smoke. 

Most veterans are prepared for this "celebration" of freedom they paid for but they should not be subjected to endless memories of what they had to do so that you could celebrate your freedom.

PTSD Hero After War 2006

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is nothing to be ashamed of. It is because you put your life on the line and felt it more than others that you suffer today. The good news is, you can change again and heal to live a better life. I am uploading some of my older videos and pray they help you too!

Return to Vietnam Healing Vietnam Veterans Souls

A healing journey
Salina Journal
By Tim Unruh
July 3, 2016

“For 48 years at night in my dreams, I see the eyes of my enemy,” said Sammy Davis, who received a Medal of Honor for his heroism in Vietnam. “Now I still see eyes, but they’re the eyes of the gentlemen I broke bread with. They’re not mean eyes, but they’re friendly eyes, and they’re helping to sooth my soul.”

Emotions peaked leading up to the day two old soldiers returned to the scene of a horrific battle, this time with their wives.

But a calm settled over Salinans Jim and Rita Deister and Sammy and Dixie Davis, of Freedom, Ind., once they found the spot at Fire Base Cudgel in the Mekong Delta, South Vietnam, where Sammy had pulled a near-dead Jim to safety. Healing occurred where their blood had spilled nearly 49 years ago.

“I looked out to the east, over the rice paddies, and I could almost visualize the North Vietnamese army and Viet Cong charging across them,” Jim Deister recalled. Because he is severely hearing impaired from his injuries, the interview was conducted by email. “That night in November (1967), they looked like an ant pile that had been disturbed. It almost sent shivers up my back.”

The U.S. Army veterans met face to face with some of their former North Vietnamese enemy and eventually bonded.

Old wounds did open, Sammy Davis said, “but I think they’ll heal instead of just scab over.” As a busy speaker who is on the road more than 200 days a year, who also counsels young war veterans, the experience with former foes was priceless.
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If you want to know about what Sammy went through, I interviewed him back in 2012.

At the Orlando Nam Knights fundraiser for Homes For Our Troops, Vietnam Veteran and Medal of Honor hero Sammy Davis talked to me about what it was like coming home after all he'd been through. It is a story few have heard before. As Sammy put it, it is one of the reasons no other veteran will ever come home treated like that again.

Sammy and Dixie also had a message for families living with PTSD.

Vietnam Medal of Honor Sammy Davis has a message to all the troops coming home. Talk about it! Don't try to forget it but you can make peace with it. Dixie Davis has a message for the spouses too. Help them to talk about it with you or with someone else.

Orphan of Vietnam War Meets Widow of Veteran

Man who was orphaned during Vietnam War meets widow of Vietnam veteran
North West Florida Daily News
By KELLY HUMPHREY
Jul 2, 2016

“I try to express my gratitude to Vietnam vets whenever I have an opportunity. But a lot of people forget about the spouses and everything you went through. I wanted to thank you, too.”
Jason Robertson

Michael Snyder Daily News

Jason Robertson, who was orphaned during the Vietnam War and later adopted by an American family, is seen with veterans rights advocate Karen Biddle in Niceville. At the rear is Robertson's family; wife Debbie, daughter Melanie, son Nathan and daughters Meredith and Naomi.

NICEVILLE — In a fast food restaurant in a town nearly 10,000 miles from where he was born, Jason Robertson sat across the table from a woman he’d never met before.

The Georgia resident was in the area to celebrate the Fourth of July with his in-laws. A few weeks earlier, he and his wife and four children had been in town for Father’s Day. During that visit, Robertson saw something in the Daily News that touched him deeply.

“As I was getting ready to go home, I happened to see the Sunday paper,” Robertson said. “There was a story that had a word that always catches my attention: Vietnam.

The article told the story of Karen Biddle, a Crestview woman whose husband was a Vietnam veteran. After years of struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder, William “Grunt” Biddle committed suicide.

“When I picked up the paper and read the whole article, I was just like, ‘Wow.’ ” Robertson said.

“It really touched me because I’m an orphan from the war. I wanted to contact Karen and thank her for her husband’s service. It was men like him who fought for my freedom. I owe them so much.”
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