Las Vegas Vietnam Veterans Learned to Heal PTSD Together

Las Vegas psychiatrist helps Vietnam veterans heal ‘invisible wounds’
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
By KEITH ROGERS
August 7, 2016

Until he began therapy sessions with Dr. Steven Kingsbury to cope with post-traumatic stress disorder, Marine veteran Lonnie Coslow was in denial about his invisible wounds from the Vietnam War.

“I told him that if the Marines wanted me to have PTSD they would have issued it to me,” Coslow, 71, said Thursday.

Looking back, Coslow now understands how Kingsbury, a wheelchair-bound psychiatrist at the North Las Vegas Veterans Affairs Medical Center, helped him realize how to live with the nightmares, flashbacks and pent-up emotions that have simmered since 1968.

Kingsbury became a mental health expert after earning degrees, completing residencies and serving on faculties at universities like Harvard, Loyola, Miami, Texas and Southern California. Through his knowledge and experience he gradually won Coslow’s confidence.

After 10 years of private sessions with Coslow, the affable doctor persuaded him to join the Tuesday gatherings of a group of about 20 other Las Vegas area combat veterans.

“One of the great things we had going was we saw these guys in a group and they were able to help each other,” Kingsbury said. “Any trust issues that they had with me, they still had trust among themselves.”

When issues like suicidal thoughts, marriage problems and anger flare-ups surfaced, he said, 


“They were there for each other and they could call each other and just get away for awhile.”
read more here

PTSD EVOLUTION
There wasn't a specific name for post-traumatic stress disorder when Dr. Steven Kingsbury first began working with combat veterans a few years after the Vietnam War ended in 1975.

PTSD didn't become part of the VA's vocabulary until the American Psychiatric Association's manual for mental health disorders was revised in 1980.

Some symptoms had been described as "shell shock" or "war neuroses" for World War I veterans; or "combat stress reaction" from "battle fatigue" for World War II veterans, according the VA's National Center for PTSD.

During the Korean War era, the association's manual from 1952 made reference to "gross stress reaction" as a symptom of traumatic combat events. The diagnosis, however, was struck from the revised 1968 manual and replaced with an "adjustment reaction to adult life." That was later described on the center's website as "clearly insufficient to capture a PTSD-like condition."

In 2013, more than 500,000 veterans were receiving treatment for PTSD at VA facilities.

WWP Still Doesn't Get What Accountability Should Be

There is a report on Stars and Stripes about Wounded Warrior Project employees bracing for some layoffs. In the report there was this.

The difference, he said: Wounded Warrior Project invests heavily in fundraising in part because of the scope of services it provides to wounded veterans and their families.

The problem is that no one has addressed the fact that WWP does not "provide" all the help they claim by themselves. They give out donations (grants) to other charities and colleges leaving donors to wonder why WWP assumed they had the right to use their money without providing them the opportunity to say no.

Here are some of the charities getting their money last year.

This cycle’s grant recipients are Catch a Lift Fund (Baltimore, MD), Shepherd Center Foundation (Atlanta, GA) Rocky Mountain Human Services (Colorado Springs, CO), Northeast Nebraska Community Action Partnership (Pender, NE), Western Dairyland Economic Opportunity Council (Independence, WI), Brain Injury Services of Southwest Virginia (Roanoke, VA), Yellow Ribbon Fund (Bethesda, MD), Colorado State University Foundation (Fort Collins, CO), and David Lynch Foundation (New York, NY).

Stunning, Sexy, Nude Veterans

Amputee Veterans Reveal Why They Showed Off Their Battle Scars in Latest Nude Photo Shoot
Inside Edition
by Johanna
August 2, 2016

These sexy veterans are back, and they're wearing nothing but their battle scars.

Just when our hearts and loins thought they've had enough, photographer Michael Stokes of Los Angeles is back behind the lens shooting amputees in a steamy sequel to his wounded veteran series, and he guarantees: "Yes, they are nude."

Stokes said he reached out to 13 new veterans to be featured in Invictus, and revisited five models he photographed for his first book, Always Loyal.

Of the 18 veterans he photographed for his series on battle scars, 17 are amputees.
read more here 

Read: Go Behind the Scenes as Naked Wounded War Veterans Pose for Steamy Photos

Vietnam Veteran's Son Killed Fighting ISIS Wanted to Be a Marine

Colorado mother struggles to bring her son’s body home from Syria
“Jack” Shirley of Arvada was killed fighting the Islamic State with Kurdish forces in Syria
Denver Post
By CLAIRE CLEVELAND
PUBLISHED: August 6, 2016

Frustrated that his eyesight rendered him unfit for the U.S. Marines, Jack joined the war on terror, against the wishes of his government, by volunteering with the People’s Protection Unit, a Kurdish group clashing with the Islamic State in northern Syria. Amid the tangled geopolitical alliances of the Middle East, the YPG — shorthand for Jack’s unit — falls under a political wing believed to have ties to yet another group the U.S. has classified as a terrorist organization.

Joe Amon, The Denver Post
Susan Shirley with a picture of

her son Levi Jonathan Shirley that
died in Syria as a volunteer with
an armed Kurdish group, the YPG to
fight ISIS.

Day after day, Susan Shirley sits at the round, wooden table in her Arvada kitchen, her blue eyes intensely scanning e-mails or Facebook messages on her laptop and then, eventually, wandering past the window into the yard where her son once played.

She refocuses on the spiral notebook before her and logs another entry in a minute-by-minute to-do list of grief: 10:30: …request info costs embalming etc….

The notes go on for pages, chronicling a mother’s complex quest to bring home her son, 24-year-old Levi Jonathan “Jack” Shirley, who was killed on a Syrian battlefield while fighting the Islamic State.

And so news of his death, the second among an estimated 100 Americans who have volunteered with such militias, arrived not with a hero’s accolades and the thanks of a grateful nation, but with a logistical burden heaped upon sorrow at the loss of a son.

Russell Shirley, who served two tours in Vietnam and has struggled with post-traumatic stress disorder and readjusting to civilian life, felt relief when Jack was disqualified from the Marines. He figured that put an end to the possibility of his son joining a foreign battle.
read more here

Veterans Charities Waiting for No-Show Donations From McGraw Concert

Veterans still waiting for donations from McGraw show
Press of Atlantic City
Michael Miller
August 5, 2016

Vietnam Veterans of America officer Vincent DePrinzio said the groups would understand if the show didn’t generate a profit for donations.

Scenes from the July 4th Tim McGraw concert on the beach in Wildwood.
Monday July 04, 2016. (Dale Gerhard/Press of Atlantic City)

WILDWOOD — Four veterans groups that partnered with the Celebrate America Weekend featuring Tim McGraw on July 4 said they have not received any donations promised from proceeds of the beach concert.

Promoter Boardwalk Entertainment Co. Inc., of Ocean City, promised to donate proceeds from ticket sales to Wildwood’s American Legion Post 184 and Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter 955, and Operation First Response in Virginia and the Michael Strange Foundation in Pennsylvania. Boardwalk Entertainment President Amanda Thomas said she expects to be able to announce the donations next week.

“We’re still going through all our numbers and our books, trying to determine how much the groups will get,” she said.

Thomas said her company offered the groups 10 percent of profits from ticket sales.
read more here

Did You Know Lake Baldwin VA Closed?

Bad reporting right here in my own state!  

First Lake Baldwin VA was not closed. It has been open all along. 

The state of Florida did not take it over. 

The Dom, the place where homeless veterans were taken care of was moved to Lake Nona and that is what reopened.

Ok, so here is the article. Will come as a big shock to the Central Florida veterans among 400,000 who have been going to Lake Baldwin all along. 

VA clinic reopens in Orlando WESH 2 News Robert Lowe August 4, 2016

ORLANDO, Fla. —Two years ago, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs came under heavy scrutiny for poor service across America.

Long lines meant a number of veterans died while they waited for treatment. Since that time, the agency underwent major changes.

On Thursday, the Lake Baldwin facility, now run by the state, reopened its domiciliary.

"Today is a very special day for Central Florida veterans," said U.S. Rep. John Mica.

Mica spent the past two years working to reopen the facility. It closed after the opening of the new Orlando VA Center in Lake Nona. But, with approximately 400,000 veterans throughout Central Florida, Mica said there was a great need to reopen.read more here

Suicide Awareness Not Same As Reason To Live With PTSD

Stop Raising PTSD-Suicide Awareness, Start Sharing Hope
Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
July 6, 2016

This morning my email box was full of news on veterans committing suicide and folks "raising awareness" about what they were doing for them.  Some use "22 a day" others use the latest number from the VA of "20 a day" and some even use "25 a day" as if any of those numbers will change anything.

The simple fact is, none of what has been done since 1999 has been enough to actually help change the outcome for far too many. With a reduction of almost 7 million veterans leaving us since then, the numbers from the VA on suicides are still "20 a day" even after a decade of stunts to "prevent" them from taking their own lives.

Pushups put focus on veteran suicides on the Clarion Ledger covered an event with participants dropping to the floor while believing they will do what exactly?

Senator Roger Wicker, center left, and Jackson Mayor Tony Yarber, center right, do pushups as part of the "22 Pushup Challenge," a social media campaign to raise awareness for veteran suicide prevention, Thursday at the Capitol. (Photo: Elijah Baylis/The Clarion-Ledger)

This happened at the Mississippi State Capitol. In the article there was this,

"There’s no reason for any veteran to feel that he or she needs to take their own life," said Senator Roger Wicker just before he, Jackson Mayor Tony Yarber, Flowood Police Chief Richie McCluskey, and others hit the deck for 22 pushups in the Mississippi state capitol rotunda on Thursday.

I have no doubt they are filled with good intentions but lack good information so they share pain instead of hope.

The problem is, there are plenty of reasons veterans are still taking their own lives after risking them for the sake of others. All the raising awareness about them committing suicide has managed to do is spread the hopelessness. If others did not find the help they needed, then what are the chances a veteran in crisis will be able to change his/her own tomorrow?

The other thing is that older veterans, waiting longer for help and hope, forgotten by all these "new efforts" has left them in the majority of veterans committing suicide. They look at all the attention the younger veterans are getting, doing little good, and that removes hope for them. It devalues all the decades of them suffering in silence for what they fought so hard to change.

I could go on and on, but you have read enough of the bad reports here for a very long time. This month Wounded Times has been up for 9 years. That is a lot of covering the sad news but for now, I think it is vital to talk about the good news. If anything will ever change, we need to start raising awareness on what works. That begins with telling them what they have not heard enough. They are not condemned to suffer as much as they are today and their lives are healable.

Yesterday a veteran called to thank me for what I helped him with. Usually when I hear that, it is followed by heartache and I prepare to do battle with the demon of death to give them back the hope they lost.  This time, the thank you was followed by a series of blessings shared by him.

He proceeded to tell me that his claim had been upgraded and he would not have to worry about how to feed himself and his service dog. He talked about how so many people surrounded him in his darkest times, listening to him pour his heart out. They made sure he had food to eat and rides to get to around. They made sure he knew he mattered to them when he could not find a reason to matter to himself.

He also talked about how God was very busy in his life when He sent all of them to get him through all the hardships he had to face.

The most wondrous thing of all about this veteran is his voice was filled with hope when he talked about helping other veterans heal like he did.

So, for what it is worth, after over 3 decades of doing this work, this is what I feel needs to be shared right now to actually make a difference.

We have to start with what PTSD really is.

Post means "after' because things go from one way in your life to chaos and your life changed in a second. Trauma is something you survived that very well could have taken your life or the life of someone else. In other words, it happened to you. That trauma caused your entire body to go into stress mode. That caused the way you think and feel to be in disorder.  In other words, it was in order before it, got shaken up and you can put things back in order again. Maybe not in the same exact way, but at least an order you can live with.

One more thing to mention on this is  that "trauma" is actually Greek for "wound" and with all wounds, left untreated they get worse but with help, all wounds do in fact heal. YOU CAN HEAL!

If you think that PTSD is something to be ashamed of, think better about yourself since you survived it.  You are not a "victim" of the event but you are a survivor.  It was not able to kill you. So why are you letting it destroy you now?

Like the veteran needed to be reminded of a long time ago, when you were in combat and outnumbered, you called in all the help you could get.  If ground support was not enough, then you called in for air support.  Lives were on the line so you did what you had to do to keep them alive. How is this different?

Every veteran I have helped over the years said the first thing they wanted to do was help other veterans live better lives. Staying here and healing actually means you will save lives now by getting whatever you need to defeat this.

If you do not find what you need, then keep calling in as much help as you can find the same way you did in combat.

Brandon Ketchum tried to stay alive and tried to help raise awareness but when he was in his darkest hour, he was turned away from the VA after requesting emergency care.

Last October, former Marine sergeant and Army National Guard veteran Brandon Ketchum led a team in an awareness walk to honor military friends who had died by suicide.But this year, Ketchum won’t be present at the Out of the Darkness event in Rock Island, Illinois. Instead, he will be among those remembered, having died July 8 of a self-inflicted gunshot wound just hours after expressing his frustration with Veterans Affairs medical care on a closed Facebook page.Ketchum wrote that he had sought emergency inpatient care for his substance abuse issues but was turned away.

Right now no one knows for sure why it happened anymore than they know why he did not keep trying to find help in crisis with all the other groups out there or even something as simple as calling 911 to get into a mental health hospital until he could get a bed at the VA.

Right now if you are like me, you are wondering what good the "Out of darkness" awareness did when he did not think about turning to them for help. Ketchum turned to Facebook to post his exit interview.

I do not have anything to do with that group but I do have something to do with Coming Out of The Dark. This is a video I made 10 years ago.


You are not alone so why be afraid? You may feel like reaching out for help is like hitting a stone wall, but look on your side and find folks standing right there waiting to help you.

They may not be able to give you what you want, but if you let them, they can give you what you need. If you are hungry, let them feed you. If you are without clothes, let them cover you. If you are lonely, let them visit you.

‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ Matthew 25

When you were able to help someone, how did you feel? Did you feel good or did you feel as if they were less since they needed help? Safe bet you were glad to help them and felt blessed being able to.  How is it different being on the receiving end and letting them get that same rush by helping you so you can help someone else along the line?

Do not let the life you lived go without putting up a fight the same way you did in combat.  They talk about the lives lost but it is time to talk about the lives not just spared, but shared. You cared so much you were willing to die for the sake of someone else.  How about you care enough to live for the same reason?

Gulf War Veteran-Des Moines Police Officer Remembered For Service

Fallen West Des Moines officer found ways to serve others
The Des Moines Register
MacKenzie Elmer and Charly Haley
August 4, 2016

Miller graduated in 1987 and joined the Iowa National Guard, serving in the 186th Military Police Company. His company deployed to northern Saudi Arabia and Iraq during Desert Storm from January 1991 through May 1991.

Shawn Miller was remembered Thursday as a leader who found ways big and small to touch the community he served as a police officer for 26 years.

(Photo: West Des Moines Police Department)

The 47-year-old was killed in the line of duty Wednesday after colliding with a car while riding his personal motorcycle on U.S. Highway 169 in Dallas County. He was returning to West Des Moines after testifying in a hit-and-run case at the Dallas County Courthouse in Adel.

"It's always the good ones that go," said Joe Carter, of West Des Moines.

Carter knew Miller from the officer's off-duty job as a security guard at the Sheraton hotel in West Des Moines. Miller was always there to bring order during hectic weekends when Carter worked the hotel's front desk.
read more here

SWAT Standoff Man Killed In Coltart Was Former Marine

Cove police ID man shot in SWAT standoff; Coltart was former Marine
Killeen Daily Herald
Clay Thorp
August 4, 2016

COPPERAS COVE — Cove police identified the 41-year-old man who pointed a rifle at police in Copperas Cove Wednesday, and was subsequently shot by police officers.

The man was identified by police as Alexander Scott Coltart, a former Marine.

Donald Byers, who lives in the North 17th Street neighborhood where Coltart was shot following a standoff with Cove police, said the neighborhood is usually “nice and quiet.” It’s a middle-class neighborhood of brick homes and hilly streets.

But the peace and quiet Byers has come to enjoy over some 30 years was broken Wednesday when a man was shot on the sidewalk across the street from Byers’ home after Copperas Cove police said they tried to arrest the man on a felony warrant.
read more here

PTSD On Trial: Iraq Veteran Faces Murder Charges in Alabama

Keep in mind that we have millions of veterans with PTSD yet the majority are more of a danger to themselves than anyone else. These cases are in fact rare.

Attorney: Dothan murder suspect an Army veteran diagnosed with PTSD
Dothan Eagle
Matt Elofson
August 2, 2016

Steensland said his client is a disabled veteran of the U.S. military.

“It’s my understanding he’s 100 percent disabled, and diagnosed with PTSD,” Steensland said. “I believe he served a 15-month tour in Iraq, and served approximately eight years in the Army.”

A Dothan man who surrendered to police Monday night after being charged with murder hopes to be released from jail after a bail hearing next week.

Attorney John Steensland III said he formally requested a bail hearing for his 29-year-old client, Brandon Allen Ransom, during his first appearance of court on Tuesday.

Dothan police filed a felony warrant charging Ransom with murder in the shooting death of 26-year-old Christopher “Chris” Bailey.
read more here

Too Late For Trump To Be Sorry?

Donald Trump said a lot of things that most of the veterans community find disturbing. From saying "I like people who weren't captured" going after John McCain, but insulted all POW's in the process.
Trump said "the military will do what I tell them to"

Trump said he was donating $6 million to veterans but,

More than a month later, about half of the money, roughly $3 million, has been donated to veterans’ charities, according to a summary released Thursday by the Trump campaign in response to inquiries from The Washington Post.

We also had the Purple Heart issue

Trump added that it was “such an honor” and invited Dorfman to join him on the stage. But Trump saying that he “always wanted” to get the Purple Heart has generated a backlash among some veterans, who said that no one seeks a Purple Heart, which is given to those who are wounded or killed in combat.

The fact is, there have too many times when Trump showed disrespect for far too many and that is the most troubling thing of all. The job he wants includes being Commander-in-Chief but he does not seem all that interested in learning a damn thing about service members or veterans. It very well may be a case of too late to say he's sorry but it is not too late for him to learn just enough to understand why he hurt so many.

Military families to Trump: Apologize for comments to Khans (+video)
Associated Press
By Jennifer McDermott and Seanna Adcox
AUGUST 2, 2016

Trump has been engaged in an emotionally charged feud with Khizr and Ghazala Khan, whose son was killed in Iraq by a suicide bomber in 2004. Their sons were killed in Iraq about a week apart.

So when Karen Meredith heard the grieving parents of a decorated Muslim Army officer being belittled by Donald Trump, she cried.

Meredith said she hadn't wept over her son's death for a long time, but the Republican presidential nominee "ripped the wounds right open again."

"You don't attack one Gold Star family, because if you do, you're attacking a lot of us," Meredith, 62, of Mountain View, California, said Monday.

Trump has been engaged in an emotionally charged feud with Khizr and Ghazala Khan, whose son, Capt. Humayun Khan, was killed in Iraq by a suicide bomber on June 8, 2004. Trump stoked outrage by implying that Ghazala Khan did not speak while standing alongside her husband at last week's Democratic convention because of their Muslim faith. And he disputed their right to question his grasp of the Constitution.

Some of America's Gold Star families, or those who lost loved ones in war, have demanded that Trump apologize.
read more here

Nadia McCaffrey Gold Star Mom On Trump Attacking Another Mom

Nadia McCaffrey is a friend of mine and has been a champion for military, veterans and families ever since her son Patrick was killed in action. Very, very proud of her. 

One of the Gold Star mothers who signed an open letter to Donald Trump says the GOP presidential candidate's criticism of Humayun Khan's mother was "out of place."

Not Enough Senators Aware of History of Suicides

Update:
Glad some report is paying attention to all of this.

Veteran suicide rate rose by nearly 30 percent since 2001: VA report

REUTERS
03 AUG 2016

It is about time someone brought out the worst part of all of this proving what we already knew.


Suicide Mission
Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
August 3, 2016

Brandon Ketchum served three tours of duty overseas. He deployed twice to Iraq and once to Afghanistan. He’d been struggling with PTSD and substance abuse so he made an emergency appointment at the Iowa City VA Medical Center on July 7th. Afterward, he posted on social media about not being admitted even though he requested it and explained to a doctor that he felt his safety and health were in jeopardy. His family thinks he might still be here today had he gotten the help he was looking for.

Three Senators want answers. Joni Ernst, Chuck Grassley and Ron Johnson are acting as if nothing like this happened before, even though they should all know better. Everyone should know better after all these years, but it has all gotten worse.

There were plenty of excuses when troops came home after all wars needing help to heal but after surviving combat, they could not survive being back home. We talked about all of it in whispers, that is when we were not suffering in silence.  No one understood and the media did not care, so the American public didn't either.

It is still happening now when 65% of the suicides within the veterans community end the lives of those over the age of 50. The press has younger veterans thinking it is all about their generation and all these problems never happened before. The truth is, as more and more is being done, there are more and more ending their own lives.  I know, big shocker there since the VA reported suicides at 22 a day and now they report it is 20 a day.

In the report from the VA there is a chart showing that in 1999 they had the numbers the same but once digging was done, it turned out we also had about 7 million more veterans in the country at the time according to the US Census reports.

Why aren't those Senators demanding answers from everyone? 

How about they start with the military paying billions in awareness and prevention when the younger generation of veterans commit suicide triple their civilian peer rate after all that "training" was provided to them? After all, you'd think the Senators would find it important enough considering the military also had to admit that training was not even good enough to keep non-deployed from committing suicide, so the chances of keeping those with multiple deployments alive back home were slim to none.

How about they question the fact that the Army released a study on re-deployments showing that each one increased the risk of PTSD by 50% all the way back in 2006, yet kept doing them anyway?

How about they pay attention to the fact that after all the training started, suicide increased and kept increasing even after the number of enlisted went down? Seems that would be a good thing to have answers for if they really think that "one is too many suicides."

How about they get answers from all the charities popping up all over the country raising money so they can raise awareness that veterans are still killing themselves instead of healing? How the hell can telling them something they already know do any of them any good? While we're on the subject, why should they make their living off the suicides in the first place?

Veterans are not being told what they need to know, where they can go for help and their families are still left clueless yet folks are making a lot of money for nothing getting any better.

Brandon Ketchum tried to get help from the VA and did not get it.  He turned to Facebook to say goodbye.  Why couldn't he turn to any of the charities and groups out there doing pushups, taking walks and doing interviews with the press? Why couldn't he turn to all the folks that were supposed to be made aware of what those charities claimed they were doing?

What is it going to take for this country to wake up and understand that veterans had better chances of staying alive with bullets and bombs than they do now and that is the most deplorable thing of all.

When they heal the first thing they want to do is share it with other veterans and be there for them so they can heal too.  That is after they get over being pissed off they tried to commit suicide because no one told them what they actually needed to hear so they could live and go on a stop suicide mission of their own.

Veterans Try To School Trump On Purple Heart

Big difference between courage and ego, between sacrifice and swallowing pride. Trump's lack of respect for the wounded must leave him wondering why everyone is so upset.

Double Amputee Veteran Tammy Duckworth Blasts Trump for Joking About How Easy it Was to Get Purple Heart
People
Char Adams
August 3, 2016

Donald Trump is facing rebukes from military veterans again – this time for making a joke about how easy it is to get a Purple Heart after a veteran handed him one as a gift at a rally on Tuesday.

Illinois Rep. Tammy Duckworth, an Iraq War veteran who lost both of her legs when her helicopter was shot down in 2004, led the way, posting a photo of herself in a hospital bed wearing the medal on her gown.

"This is how one usually looks when you are awarded a Purple Heart. Nothing easy about it," Tammy Duckworth

She was joined by other veterans who posted pictures with their Purple Hearts, medals awarded only to servicemen and women who are wounded or killed in uniform.
read more here

What if Capt. Khan's Mom Was Your Mom?

Massachusetts Congressman, Veteran Lashes Out at Donald Trump
Beacon Hill Patch
By Alison Bauter (Patch Staff)
August 2, 2016

"As a veteran, I can't imagine what it would be like if Donald Trump treated my mom that way." Rep. Seth Moulton

U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton had harsh words for Trump in light of the GOP nominee's attacks on Gold Star Khan family.

Massachusetts Congressman Seth Moulton had those and other withering words for Donald Trump Tuesday, joining a bipartisan barrage of condemnation in the wake of the Republican presidential nominee's comments toward a family whose son died serving in Iraq.

Trump has been taking heavy fire since critiquing Khizr and Ghazala Khan, Gold Star parents of Army Capt. Humayun Khan, who was killed while serving in Iraq by a car bomber. Khizr Khan spoke against the GOP nominee at this year's Democratic National Convention, prompting harsh words in return from Trump.

Khan and his wife have both condemned Trump, saying he "knows nothing of sacrifice."
read more here

Fort Sill Commander Found Dead Days Between Posts

Former Fort Sill commander found dead Sunday in Alabama
NewsOK
Silas Allen by Silas Allen
Published: August 2, 2016

Maj. Gen. John Rossi, the former commanding general at Fort Sill, died Sunday at a U.S. Army installation in Alabama, officials said.

Rossi, 55, was found dead Sunday at Redstone Arsenal, an Army installation near Huntsville, Ala., officials at the post said.

Rossi left Fort Sill last month to head up the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command at Redstone Arsenal. John Cummings, a Redstone Arsenal spokesman, said Rossi arrived on post about a week before his death, but hadn't taken command of the missile defense command.

Rossi's cause of death remains under investigation, officials said.

A native of Long Island, N.Y., Rossi graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., in 1983 and was commissioned as an air defense artillery officer.

He served in South Korea, Germany, Iraq and southwest Asia, as well as several assignments in the United States, before coming to Fort Sill in 2014. He remained at the southwest Oklahoma post until he relinquished command at a ceremony last month.
read more here

Mom of Marine Who Committed Suicide Comforted by Stranger

Man Gives Car To Woman Who Lost All Hope After Marine Son Killed Himself: 'I Know What It's Like'
Inside Edition
by Deborah Hastings
August 1, 2016

Her son, a Marine who served overseas, committed suicide one year ago, Nunez told Newberry. He had PTSD and shot himself, leaving behind two young children. The woman, who is in her 60s, “was talking about killing herself,” Newberry said. “She said, ‘I don’t have any friends.”

Now you have a friend, Newberry told her. “I’m going to come out here every day and talk to you.”

He had been noticing her every day for the past few weeks — a tiny woman walking past his auto shop, burdened by bags of groceries or totes bulging with belongings.

She works as a janitor at a high school just one street over from Richard Newberry’s tire and auto store in St. Petersburg, Florida.

On Friday, as Newberry was inside doing paperwork, the woman “stopped and looked in at me and I could tell she was upset,” Newberry told InsideEdition.com Monday.

So he walked outside and began to speak to Ernestina Nunez, asking why she seemed so distraught. read more here

PTSD On Trial: Three Tours of Duty Facing Trial After Shooting Neighbor

Marine Veteran Accused in Shooting Death Struggled after Military Tour
The Leader-Telegram
by Julian Emerson
Aug 02, 2016

Fiore, Blechinger and Knetter said their friend was adversely impacted by the explosion of a military vehicle during his last tour of duty that killed his best friend and others her served with. The blast resulted in hearing loss and a concussion for Helmbrecht. But the emotional damage went deeper, they said.

Family and friends of the suspect in the fatal shooting of his 36-year-old neighbor Saturday morning said the tragedy likely could have been prevented had he received help with mental health problems that had worsened significantly in recent months.

Police arrested Shane M. Helmbrecht, 44, after they say he shot and killed Jenny Ward at her home at 105 Simon Court on Eau Claire's north side near Mount Simon Park. On Monday Eau Claire County Judge Jon Theisen set a $1 million bond for Helmbrecht, who told police he ingested methamphetamine the day before shooting Ward and has no mental health issues.

"This wasn't Shane," an emotional Tammy Fiore, a friend of Helmbrecht's, said of the shooting. "It was his mental illness ... People tried to get (Helmbrecht) help. They tried lots of times. But none of those efforts worked, and this is the result."

Friends said Helmbrecht, 44, a decorated military veteran, served tours of duty in Operation Desert Storm and later in Iraq and Afghanistan, where he cleared roadside bombs with the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force. He was once a fun-loving, humorous, caring friend who was a talented musician and carpenter, his friends said. He went out of his way to help others in need, they said, and had a big personality and a zest for life.
read more here

Trump Loves War?

Back from being unplugged on mini vacation.  I spent the weekend in New England with family and it was wonderful.  

Back in the real world of politics more unusual than the pitiful garbage being slung on both sides, the only things I cannot hold back on are politicians claiming the trouble with the VA is someone else's fault and a candidate going after a grieving Gold Star Mom.

Donald Trump has a habit of using veterans. We're all used to that since most politicians do it. The thing that got me was when he said that he loves war yet got deferments to stay out of Vietnam. He didn't love it so much back then when his own life would be put in danger.  
It also seems that he cannot even let his pride go for a family who lost their son in combat while saving the lives of others.

Showing a characteristic refusal to back down from a fight, Trump took the almost unthinkable step of publicly escalating a feud with the parents of fallen US solider, Capt. Humayun Khan, who blasted Trump at last week's Democratic convention as unfit for the presidency.

Trump doesn't back down from a fight when it is about him but what kind of a message did this send to those putting their lives on the line everyday for the sake of others if he cannot even put his pride on the line? Yet he wants to be Commander-in-Chief or does he want to be dictator? 

The thing that keeps getting missed is that there we had a hero leader, loving his men so much he was prepared to do whatever he had to do so that they could survive. It didn't matter to him what faith they practiced because they had faith in him and each other.  It did not matter to him how they voted because they were putting each other first.

Too bad it didn't matter to Trump enough to let this Dad say what he wanted to say and let it go simply out of respect for the son who gave his life.  He could not even let this Mom's silence go without saying something about her.

How much do you want to bet that the story would have dropped off the news cycle in a day or so had he simply shown true leadership instead of hot headed ego?

The other thing is there seems to still be a line of politicians hoping folks forget they have been in charge of the way veterans have been treated all along and the mess is actually their fault because they didn't bother to fix any of it.

Read the history of the VA and see what I mean. 

(And on a side note, anyone screaming when this hero was talking is an idiot. We heard enough of that when Vietnam veterans came home. If you cannot at least respect someone like Groberg, who can you respect besides yourself?)





UPDATE

Churchill: Another Muslim soldier's father speaks out against Donald Trump

"Donald Trump consistently smears the character of Muslims," said Khan, whose Army captain son, Humayun Khan, died when he ran to halt a vehicle carrying a suicide bomber, likely saving the lives of troops on guard duty he had told to take cover and those at a mess hall nearby.

Hand Bike Stolen from Vietnam Veteran

UPDATE
Two Portland Police officers came knocking Monday afternoon, along with the stolen bike they found only 3 blocks away.


Vietnam Veteran, double-amputee's custom hand bike stolen from driveway
KATU
by Cory Marshall
August 1st 2016

PORTLAND, Ore. (KATU) - The search is on for a Vietnam Veteran's custom hand bike that was stolen late Saturday afternoon from his driveway in Southeast Portland.

The theft happened sometime in a 1.5-hour window as Brian Willson went inside to get lunch.

"(I) came out before 4 p.m. to do another errand and it was gone. I just had to sit down for a second and think, okay, what am I going to do now?" Willson, told KATU News.

Willson is a double-amputee and relies on the hand bike (pictured above in a photo by Jonathan Maus of bikeportland.org) to get around. To really understand the importance of the cycle, you have to go back about 30-years to a peaceful protest gone awry.
read more here