Fake Vietnam POW Veteran Arrested After Elderly Veteran Ripped Off

POW impersonator exploits elderly veteran
News Herald Reporter
By ZACK McDONALD
July 27, 2016

PANAMA CITY — A man who thought he was lending a helping hand to a fellow veteran and former prisoner of war instead was swindled out of thousands from his savings that he likely will not see again, according to arrest records.

Robert “Bob” Leroy Rogers, 61, was arrested Monday in connection with the scheme. According to police, Rogers claimed to be a veteran and former Vietnam POW with financial troubles in order to borrow more than $18,000 from an elderly neighbor.

Rogers allegedly told 74-year-old William Lipovsky, a former air force master sergeant, he would repay him with up to $1 million after he received a large settlement from the government for his service. However, after several delays and conflicting stories about whether he would be reimbursed, Lipovsky contacted the authorities.
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Two Soldiers Shot To Death Trying To Help Stranger

Two South Carolina Soldiers Killed Defending Woman at Bar, Suspect Charged 
NBC News 
by CORKY SIEMASZKO 
JUL 26 2016 

The military was mourning two soldiers Tuesday who were fatally shot while trying to protect a woman from a gun-toting man in a South Carolina bar. 

Staff Sgt. Charles Allen Judge Jr., 40, and Sgt. First Class Jonathan Michael Prins, 29, "were acting as good Samaritans when they were shot," said Capt. Adam Myrick of the Lexington County Sheriff's Department. 
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Veterans Court Judge Lou Olivera Receives Award For Caring Above and Beyond

Judge who served sentence with veteran in North Carolina given award
The Fayetteville Observer, N.C.
By Paul Woolverton
Published: July 26, 2016

When a veteran with PTSD and serving probation failed a drug test in April, Olivera sentenced the man to a night in jail and stayed with him, too, to help him cope.

FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. (Tribune News Service) — Cumberland County District Court Judge Lou Olivera has been cited by the North Carolina Chief Justice's Commission on Professionalism for his work with a veteran in his court.

Olivera was presented with the Award for Meritorious and Extraordinary Service during a ceremony Friday at the Chetola Resort in Blowing Rock, says a news release from the N.C. Administrative Office of the Courts.

"The Chief Justice's Commission on Professionalism presents the CJCP Award for Meritorious and Extraordinary Service to the Honorable Lou Olivera for his steadfast commitment to the principles of professionalism as evidenced by his efforts to go above and beyond the call of duty by his tremendous act of humility and compassion toward a troubled veteran in his court," said Chief Justice Mark Martin. "Because of his selfless efforts, the practice of law will continue to remain a high calling in North Carolina."

Olivera presides over Cumberland County veterans court, a venue that takes into account the experiences and troubles veterans who get in trouble with the law may have from their military service.
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PTSD Afghanistan Missing Veteran Found Safe

ARMY VETERAN FOUND AFTER ESCAPING FROM HOSPITAL
ABC 13 News
By Kaitlin McCulley
July 26, 2016

HUMBLE, TX (KTRK) -- A 26-year-old Army veteran was found in Cypress after escaping from a hospital in Humble.

Shane Zhan was being treated at Memorial Hermann Northeast after attempting suicide. According to the Humble Police Department, Zhan escaped Sunday.

His father, Mark Zahn, tells abc13 that Shane walked from Humble to Cypress and started talking to an elderly pastor. The pastor convinced him to contact his family, according to Mark.

Danielle Ursell is his twin sister. She and the rest of her family were concerned Zhan was a danger to himself. She said he suffers from post traumatic stress disorder and has been reluctant to get help.

Mark Zahn agreed.

"Keeps the problems inside, doesn't want to talk with anybody," Zahn said. "Doesn't want to share his problems with anybody."

Zahn wants to know how his son was able to escape.
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Veteran of 3 Wars, Abandoned By Family, Buried By Bonds of Love

Military "Family" Buries Veteran Local Family Won't Claim
KCEN
Rissa Shaw
July 27, 2016

Bundy served in the Army from 1942-1963, seeing combat in both World War II and the Korean War, and was active duty during Vietnam before retiring from Fort Hood as a Sergeant. Officials said he served honorably and would receive full military honors.

KILLEEN - His family wouldn't claim him, but the military did.

On Monday, a local veteran who fought for our freedom through three wars, was laid to rest in Killeen.

While Walter Scott Bundy Junior's living family members didn't show up to his burial service at the Central Texas State Veterans Cemetery, many did to show support for the man they said was their 'brother' in every sense of the word.

"They have a home, they have a family," said Eric Brown, Deputy Director of the Texas State Veterans Cemeteries.

Many who attended the ceremony saluted Bundy, laid their hands on his urn, even gave money to the man they'd never met.

"No one is ever forgotten, they're lost but never forgotten," said Army Staff Sgt. Christopher DeRouen.

Dozens of soldiers, past and present, came to Killeen to honor one of their own who died without a family of his own.
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Marine Survived 4 Tours, Killed by Hit and Run Driver

Marine drill instructor killed in hit and run near Camp Lejeune
Marine Corps Times
Jeff Schogol
July 26, 2016

During his 11 years in the Marine Corps, Tooley deployed four times: twice to Iraq and twice to Afghanistan.

Police are looking for the driver of a car that hit and killed Marine Sgt. Michael Andrew Tooley earlier this month in North Carolina.

Marine Sgt. Michael Andrew Tooley was killed on July 16.

(Photo: Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego.)

Tooley, 28, was a combat engineer whose duty at the time of his death was as a drill instructor with the support battalion at Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego, said Marine Corps spokesman Capt. Matthew Finnerty.

Tooley's commander, Lt. Col. Tracy Perry, said "the loss of any Marine under any circumstance is a tragedy, especially in this situation."

"We offer our deepest condolences to the family of Sgt. Tooley,” Perry said. “He was a stellar Marine and will be remembered for his dedication to the Corps and the men and women he served with, as well as those he transformed into the future generation of Marines."
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Marine Needs Miracle To Make Dying Son Honorary Marine

PETITION SEEKS TO MAKE HONORARY MARINE OF OC BOY WITH ONLY DAYS TO LIVE
ABC News
By Eileen Frere
Tuesday, July 26, 2016

"That would mean the world to me," Jeremiah said. "I've had two goals in my lifetime - to be a Marine and to be a drill instructor. If he was a normal child, he's just got that spirit that I think he would have joined the Marine Corps as well."

ORANGE, Calif. (KABC) -- Wyatt Gillette's smile lights up his parents' spirits.

"He knows when people are feeling down and he changes their attitude with a smile," said Wyatt's father, Jeremiah, 29, a U.S. Marine drill instructor.

He first set eyes on his son when he returned from serving in Iraq nearly 8 years ago.

"When I arrived back, I had maybe two weeks of normalcy, if you can call it that, and he became real irritable," recalled Jeremiah.

Doctors tried to figure out what was wrong, as Wyatt regressed. Despite all the hospital visits, Wyatt kept a positive attitude - doing what he loved to do.

"He loves his bike, he loves the sounds of kisses, he loves doing crafts," said his mother Felishia, 27.
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Why Isn't The Press On Suicide Watch?

Military Lives Lost, Congress Doesn't Care About Cost?
Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
July 26, 2016

What the hell is going on in Washington? Is anyone really paying attention to what the already elected have done while covering those wanting to be elected? 

There were 110 military suicides in the first three months of this year.  Top that off with the latest suicide report from the VA with "20 a day" as the number they report along with the simple fact there were about 7 million more veterans in 1999 and the same number reported as taking their own lives back then everyday. The press does not seem all that interested. They were not interested in 2007 either.  So why isn't the press on suicide watch if they care at all about any of this?

You can just picture what goes on in Washington when a grief stricken family goes to talk to their elected official begging them to do something about suicides so that no other family has to go through it.  Then the politician promises them they will take action.  They call up a buddy and promise a boat load of cash to come up with some funky program, then they write a bill to get their name on it.  Doesn't matter if it has been done before and failed as long as this new one has their name on it, that is really all they care about.

Sounds absurd to some but to others, it has been a nightmare.

The Associated Press reported on August 17, 2007 the 2006 Suicide Rate for Soldiers Sets a Record for the Army and it turned out that was the highest number in 26 years.

Nearly a third of the soldiers committed suicide while in Iraq or Afghanistan, according to a report released Thursday, which said 27 deaths were in Iraq and 3 in Afghanistan.

The report said that the 99 confirmed suicides by active-duty soldiers compared with 87 in 2005 and that it was the highest raw number since 102 suicides were reported in 1991, the year of the Persian Gulf War.

Investigations are pending on two other deaths.

Officials reported 948 suicide attempts, but there were no comparisons for previous years.

In the 500,000-member Army, the suicide toll translates to a rate of 17.3 per 100,000, the highest since the Army started counting in 1980, officials said. The rate hit a low of 9.1 per 100,000 in 2001.

Yes you read all that right so no need to check your glasses. One of the family members going to Washington was the family of Joshua Omvig. 

Well they wrote a bill with Omvig's name on it, voted on it and it was signed by President Bush in 2007. 

It was supported by Rep. Bob Filner who had this to say. "Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and concur in the Senate amendment to the bill (H.R. 327) to amend title 38, United States Code, to direct the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to develop and implement a comprehensive program designed to reduce the incidence of suicide among veterans."

Sounds like they all cared.  Especially this part.

Mr. Speaker, before I introduce the author of the legislation, I just want to say in introduction, unfortunately, suicide prevention has become a major part of our responsibilities to both active duty and our veterans.

It is a terrible statistic, Mr. Speaker, but as many Vietnam veterans have now committed suicide as died in the original war. That is over 58,000. We have to do as a Nation a better job. The Army just announced recently that the suicide rate among active duty and recently discharged has now reached Vietnam proportions. So we have to do a far better job and we intend to do that.

The author of the original legislation, Mr. Boswell from Iowa, saw this very clearly and introduced this bill.

Looks like no one has been seeing much after that considering the number of enlisted went down and suicides went up. More families hoped that their story, their suffering would make enough of an impact on the politicians but they just repeated what they promised the Omvigs, over and over and over again.

So that press repeats what the DOD says and does not seem all too willing to ask many questions at all.  Why? Do you think any of this would matter to do some basic research?

The latest from the Department of Defense is for the first quarter of 2016 Suicide Report. 58 Active Military, 18 Reservists and 34 members of the National Guard.

You'd think that 110 lives lost to suicide in three months would be important enough to mention but then you'd also have to think that they would find it worthy of mentioning that all this comes after almost a decade of "prevention" being paid to produce higher rates of suicide. 

Oh, no, not just from current members but among the younger veterans committing suicide at triple their peer rate. Nice little secret they don't seem to want to talk about. If they are no longer in the military, they don't matter and the DOD does not have to mention a word about them, even though they trained them to "prevent" this and be "resilient" enough.

Ok, just to go a bit more into proving this, take a look at the chart on the link above. Notice how they also have in other years going back to 2012. If you read Wounded Times all the time, then forgive me but this is worth repeating, since no one else is talking about this. 

What we are going to do here is compare what the press told us about how many service members committed suicide against what the DOD has in the latest report.

2012

Active 321

Reserve 204

National Guard 132

CNN reported on 1/15/13 

Pentagon reports record number of suicides - CNN Security Clearance 

Despite extensive support and counseling programs, as many as 349 U.S. service members committed suicide last year, which would be the highest number since the Department of Defense began keeping detailed statistics in 2001.
According to the Pentagon, 239 military deaths in 2012 have been confirmed as suicides and another 110 are being investigated as probable suicides. The number of suicides in 2011 reached 301; there were 298 the year before.

They missed a few. Then on 2/2/2013 they had "325 Army suicides in 2012 a record" so either the DOD is wrong or CNN is wrong but the bottom line is that all of this is all wrong! How can they go up after all the "efforts" to keep more alive than are killed in combat?

2013

Active 255

Reserve 220

National Guard 134

Military Times reported 1/15/2016

According to the report, 259 troops on active-duty status died by suicide in 2013, down from a record 319 in 2012, including 115 soldiers, 42 sailors, 43 airmen and 45 Marines.

During the same time, 220 members of the Selected Reserve and Guard (87 and 133, respectively), died by suicide, up from 203 in 2012.

Reported by the DOD on 1/16/2015 

There were 229 deaths by suicide among active component service members and 220 deaths by suicide among selected reserve component service members (87in the reserve and 133 in the National Guard).

2014

Active 273

Reserve 170

National Guard 91

2015

Active 266

Reserve 212

National Guard 124

But taking a look at the reports from the Department of Defense Suicide Event Reports we find this.

2012 319 suicides among Active component Service members and 203 among Reserve component Services members (Reserve [n = 73]; National Guard [n = 130].

A total of 841 Service members had one or more attempted suicides reported in DoDSER for CY 2012 

2013 259 suicides among Active Component SMs and 220 among Reserve and National Guard SMs of the Selected Reserve

A total of 1,034 SMs had one or more attempted suicides reported in the DoDSER for CY 2013. 

2014 269 Active Component deaths and 169 Reserve Component deaths were attributable to suicide. 

A total of 1,126 suicide attempts were reported from the four Services

And now the worst thing of all in all of this. The other numbers reported on Army Times 2/15/2015

Personnel strength of the Regular Army has dropped below 500,000 for the first time in 10 years, with 498,642 soldiers being listed on active duty in the most recent official headcount of the force.

Statistics compiled by the Defense Manpower Data Center show that as the Army entered 2015 its reserve components had a combined strength of 547,007 soldiers — 349,881 in the National Guard, and 197,126 in the Army Reserve.

The Army drawdown is on track to reduce the active component to 490,000 soldiers by Oct. 1, as required in the fiscal 2015 budget authorization from Congress.

So what the hell is really going on and who is benefiting from it? The troops are not. Veterans are not. Who is getting all the money Congress has been spending over the last decade and WHEN THE HELL WILL ANY OF THEM BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE FOR ANY OF THIS?

Veteran Marine Survived Deployments, Cancer And Still Thinks of Others

Former Marine Saves Up to Make Big Gift to Food Bank
Associated Press
by Ben Muir
Jul 25, 2016

Skorna left the Marines in 2011 after four years of active duty, but he said the time he spent in stricken areas fueled his desire to donate.

OLYMPIA, Wash. — The Thurston County Food Bank receives emails from people who want to help every day. Some offer an egg carton or loaf of bread. Others help wash cars or give cash donations, usually $10 to $50. Wealthier local residents sometimes make donations in the range of $1,000 or $2,000, reported The Olympian.

So when Fran Potasnik, a full-time volunteer at the food bank, checked her inbox and found an email from another prospective donor in April, she didn't think much of it.

Until she opened it and read, "Hi my name is John, and I plan on giving $10,000."

John Skorna, 27, vowed to donate the $10,000 to the food bank's summer lunch program. Potasnik told him a gift like that would provide 2,762 lunches — 20 percent of the 10,777 meals distributed to kids every summer.

"I thought, 'OK, what is this guy?'" Potasnik said. "I then forwarded it to the director and said, 'I don't know if this is for real or not.'"

"My first thought was a little bit of skepticism, but not in a negative way," Food Bank Director Robert Coit said. "John's email had a sense of sincerity and passion. Both Fran and I felt there was something about it that seemed real."

Skorna wrote to Coit that he had most of the $10,000, but would need more time to collect the rest. Coit said he understood and reminded him that no matter the amount, any donation is noble and they would be grateful.

"He's the epitome of what a service person looks like," Ravancho said. "He'll do selfless things with integrity, and he doesn't need someone to say thank you. He could have come in here, given the check and left without saying a word to anyone. That would have been enough for him."
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How Coffee Became Salvation for Soldiers and Veterans

If you read Wounded Times then you know about Point Man International Ministries being started by a Vietnam veteran, Seattle Police Officer meeting other veterans for coffee to help them heal. Just thinking about that simple act of kindness and time saving so many lives makes me proud to be among them.

If War Is Hell, Then Coffee Has Offered U.S. Soldiers Some Salvation
KAZU NPR
By THE KITCHEN SISTERS
July 25, 2016

"The UFO became a place where soldiers could gather and talk openly about their worries and frustrations, without the military brass around," Gardner recalls. And in Columbia, says Gardner, UFO was a rarity ­­-- a place that "not just black and white but students and soldiers" could share.

During the Vietnam War, GI coffeehouses located near military posts became a place for soldiers to gather and organize against the war. Since 2007, veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan

In April 1865, at the bloody, bitter end of the Civil War, Ebenezer Nelson Gilpin, a Union cavalryman, wrote in his diary, "Everything is chaos here. The suspense is almost unbearable."

"We are reduced to quarter rations and no coffee," he continued. "And nobody can soldier without coffee."

If war is hell, then for many soldiers throughout American history, it is coffee that has offered some small salvation. Hidden Kitchens looks at three American wars through the lens of coffee: the Civil War, Vietnam and Afghanistan.
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