Fort Hood Police Officer Inspires After Amputation

Fort Hood Police Officer Dedicates Life to Serving Others Despite Disability
KCEN
September 15, 2016

FORT HOOD- Retired Sergeant William Fisher is new to the Fort Hood Police Department, and he is already turning heads. In fact, as far as Fisher knows, he is the only officer of his kind in the entire Department of Defense.

“To be honest with you, yes I was surprised. He wants to be treated like one of the guys, and so far there has been nothing put in front of him that he cannot do,” said Fort Hood Police Captain Rex Spicer.

It is not Fisher’s 16 years of military service or his dedication to serving others that sets him apart. It’s something entirely different that makes him special.

“Wearing pants all the time you really can’t tell that I’m an amputee,” said Fisher. “It is what it is. You can’t change it. You learn to live with it and adapt to it.”

In August of 2009, Fisher was deployed in Iraq when he fell 40-feet from an overlook. As he landed standing up, he crushed his right ankle and broke his back.

“After four years and six surgeries on my ankle of trying to revive it, fix it, and fuse it together, my life vs. the pain wasn’t worth it,” he said. “Amputation was probably the best decision I ever had to make concerning my injury.”

After amputating his right leg in 2013 and medically retiring from the Army, Fisher began his journey of public service as a civilian. After a recommendation to join law enforcement, he started a nine-week course to become a military police officer.
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Ghost Riders Reunite In Pensacola

Famed Navy fighter squadron reunites in Pensacola
Pensacola News Journal
Melissa Nelson Gabriel
September 14, 2016

The squadron honored Perry and Beck by painting "Lady Jessie" on the side of its commander's jet.

An aircraft painted by VA-164 to honor Navy Lt. Cmdr. Dick Perry.

(Photo: National Naval Aviation Museum)

A famed Vietnam-era Navy fighter squadron will reunite in Pensacola on Saturday to share a unique story about their tribute to a fallen colleague and the woman who helped boost their morale during their long combat deployments.

The pilots of VA-164 flew A-4 Skyhawks off the USS Oriskany in 1966 and 1967, during an intense period of combat that included the deaths of 44 sailors in a hangar bay fire.

The men from the squadron, known as the Ghost Riders, will share their story on Saturday at the National Naval Aviation Museum.

"It is a unique story in the history of naval aviation," said Hill Goodspeed, historian for museum.

Squadron pilot Dick Perry worked at a Reno, Nevada, casino with Jessie Beck before he joined the Navy. Beck owned a keno concession at a casino. Beck and Perry became close friends and continued their friendship after Perry joined the Navy.
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PTSD On Trial: Matthew Desha and Road Rage

Investigator | Solon gunman shouted: "They killed my father"
WKYC
Phil Trexler and Tom Meyer
September 14, 2016

Matthew Ryan Desha (Photo: SPD)

SOLON: - After Matthew Ryan Desha emptied his AR-15 rifle on random motorists in Solon, police say he offered a curious defense.

“They killed my father,” he shouted.

Desha, 29, then recounted his mental health history to officers. Post-traumatic stress, drug abuse.

Friends say he often stopped taking his medication. He also often stopped seeking counseling.

No one had killed his father.

Desha, however, is accused of killing Deborah Pearl, whose car he crashed into on Solon Road after speeding through a red light Aug. 27.

Immediately after the crash, reports show Desha began firing his AR-15 semi-automatic rifle. He fired at Pearl’s car before she was able to get out, reports show.

He also shot toward four different drivers, all of whom had stopped at the crash.

Reports show two men managed to subdue Desha until officers arrived. Desha, dressed in a USMC T-shirt, had used every bullet he had.

Another man recorded the images on his cell phone. The video, which shows Desha firing his weapon, was turned over to police.

Desha, a Marine veteran, served two tours in Iraq.
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Canada: Mom Received Penny After Soldier Son Committed Suicide, Now Vindicated

Mom who was sent 1 cent after soldier son’s suicide getting Memorial Cross
The Star
Colin Perkel
The Canadian Press
September 14, 2016

The government had already sparked outrage after it sent Stark a cheque for 1 cent in “release pay” for her dead son in February 2014 — prompting then-defence minister Rob Nicholson to apologize for what he called “insensitive bureaucratic screw-up.”

Soldier Justin Stark, 22, killed himself after serving a 7-month deployment in Afghanistan. The Memorial Cross shows the military finally recognizes his death as service-related.

Justin Stark's mother, Denise Stark, says she is stunned and overjoyed to know the family's fight over whether her son's death was service-related is over.
(COLIN PERKEL / THE CANADIAN PRESS)

The mother of a Canadian soldier who killed himself after serving in Afghanistan will finally be honoured with a Memorial Cross this weekend, ending a long battle to have the military recognize his death as service-related.
In an interview ahead of the ceremony, Denise Stark said she was both stunned and overjoyed when told the family’s fight over the death of her son, Cpl. Justin Stark, was over.

“I just sat there and cried — tears of joy and what not, a whole mix of emotions,” Stark said of the call that came earlier this year. “The next day, I went down to the cemetery, so I could tell Justin the good news.”

Stark, 22, a reservist with the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders of Canada, served a seven-month deployment in Afghanistan. In October 2011, 10 months after his return to Canada, he killed himself at the John Weir Foote Armouries in Hamilton.

A board of inquiry concluded more than two years ago that his tour in Afghanistan did not cause post-traumatic stress disorder — PTSD — which contributed to his suicide and his mother and family would not be honoured with the Memorial Cross — frequently called the Silver Cross.
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Veteran Drafted For WWII, Almost Lost Home to Foreclosure at 91

Heslam: Vets step in to save house of fellow soldier
Boston Herald
Jessica Heslam
September 14, 2016

“We were outraged,” said Dennis Moschella, a Vietnam veteran and president of VAV. “Guys like Mr. Bazin should be living free. He shouldn’t have a bill in the world. And all these young military people coming up should have health care forever.”

Credit: Patrick Whittemore ‘THERE’S NO PLACE LIKE HOME’: Army veteran Herman Bazin, who served in World War II, had his house in foreclosure before a veterans’ organization stepped in to help.

Herman Bazin served his country above and beyond the call of duty. The Army drafted the Lawrence teen during World War II right after he graduated from high school. He rode a tank in the Battle of the Bulge and saw the atrocities of the Dachau concentration camp after it was liberated.

A few months ago, Bazin, now 91, nearly lost his beloved house after he got behind on mortgage payments and went into foreclosure. Numerous veterans’ organizations couldn’t help because he didn’t meet their “criteria” and the VA offered to move him into a housing complex, but Bazin wanted to stay put.

“It’s my little nest. It’s home. It’s my security,” Bazin told me during a recent visit to his Lawrence house. “Everybody likes their independence. I go to bed when I feel like it.”

Veterans Assisting Veterans stepped in and gave Bazin the $5,000 he needed to get his house temporarily out of 
foreclosure.
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Vietnam Helicopter Survived Being Shot Down 4 Times, Vandalized in Kansas City

Helicopter shot down 4 times in Vietnam vandalized in Kansas City
BY FOX 4 NEWSROOM
SEPTEMBER 13, 2016

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A 50-year-old helicopter that flew 3,500 hours of combat in Vietnam and was shot down four times, will need to be repaired before it can be used again at special events.

According to Arnold Swift, a Vietnam veteran who helps take the helicopter to various events, they were preparing to take the helicopter to the atrium in Overland Park for an event.

“The tow truck got here and realized that they had busted out the chin bubble, the side window and the back window and vandalized stuff inside the helicopter,” said Swift.

“It didn’t make any sense because all they got away with was a flight uniform, a Vietnam era flight uniform and a pair of combat boots and one other boot,” he said. “It doesn’t make sense because we’ve got mock-up weapons and everything in there that weren’t even touched.”
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Dying Wish of Vietnam Veteran, Fix the VA

Vietnam veteran's dying wish: Improve VA healthcare
Hawaii News Now
By Mileka Lincoln, Reporter
September 14th 2016

Hall was one of more than 4,300 veterans receiving VA care on the Big Island, where there are only four VA doctors.

KALAPANA, BIG ISLAND (HawaiiNewsNow) - Sixty-eight-year-old Roy Hall was holding his wife Edy's hand when he passed away on Saturday.

The combat-wounded Vietnam veteran and forever Marine died exactly one month after he was diagnosed with lung cancer at a Hilo emergency room.

Hall was a long-time U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs patient who claims his VA doctor missed the diagnosis -- and by the time someone else caught it, it was terminal.

Hall was one of more than 4,300 veterans receiving VA care on the Big Island, where there are only four VA doctors.

"I wish I would've gotten killed in Vietnam," Hall said, from his death bed. "Then I wouldn't have to go through this. I f***ing hate it."

In Hall's final days, it was his dying wish to share his story with others in hopes it could lead to improved health care for all service members.

His wife Edy, a veteran herself who served in the Air Force and beat both breast and colon cancer, calls it her husband's final mission.

In August 2014, Roy says he went to the Hilo VA primary care clinic seeking treatment for debilitating back pain.

Over the next two and a half years, Roy and Edy Hall say his physician repeatedly prescribed him pain pills and referred him to his VA psychiatrist for management of his PTSD.

"Eight months ago he started slowing down," Edy Hall said. "The pain was getting worse and worse. He didn't want to go back to the doctor because he kept telling him it was his PTSD or he was surfing too much, instead of even doing just an x-ray. Then he started losing weight like crazy. And then he even said, 'I think I have cancer.'"
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Hawaii News Now - KGMB and KHNL

Not So Special Forces Veteran Charged With VA Fraud

Burke man accused of cheating VA gets bond
The News Herald
BY SHARON MCBRAYER Staff Writer
September 12, 2016

A Morganton man facing federal charges for defrauding the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs was released on bond Monday.

Roy Lee Ross Jr., a.k.a. Daniel Alfred Sullivan Jr., 64, of Morganton, received a $25,000 unsecured bond during his initial appearance and arraignment in federal court in Asheville. He pleaded not guilty to the charges against him and he asked for and was granted a court-appointed attorney, Fredilyn Sison.

Magistrate Judge Dennis Howell set conditions on Ross’ release but those conditions have been sealed by the court, according to federal documents.

The court also has sealed a pretrial report on Ross.

Ross was indicted in August on one count of executing a scheme to defraud a health benefit organization (the VA), which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine; and two counts of making false statements in connection with the delivery of health care benefits by the VA, which carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. He also is charged with two counts of stealing from the VA, a charge has a potential maximum prison term of five years and a $250,000 fine, and one count of a making false claim for travel benefits from the VA, which carries a potential maximum prison term of five years and a $250,000 fine,

The initial indictment on him said Ross, who was discharged from the U.S. Army “Under Conditions Other Than Honorable,” started falsely representing himself to the VA Medical Center in Asheville as a U.S. Army veteran named “Daniel Alfred Sullivan Jr.” around June 2007. The indictment alleges Ross, as Sullivan, claimed that he had served in the Special Forces, that he had been wounded in combat and that he had been honorably discharged from the Army. The indictment goes on to say Ross claimed he was suffering from nightmares caused by his wartime service and his combat-related injuries.

Then in 2015, still claiming to be Daniel Sullivan, Ross filed a third claim for “increased evaluation,” claiming that he was suffering from cervical (neck) impairment and pain due to his injuries while on active duty.
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PTSD and TBI Veterans May Get New Deal on Discharges

Lawmakers urge defense bill to help less-than-honorable discharges
THE HILL
Rebecca Kheel
9-13-2016

Kristofer Goldsmith, an Army veteran who served in Iraq, said he was discharged after attempting suicide by overdosing on Percocet and vodka.

A bipartisan group of nine lawmakers joined with leading veterans groups Tuesday to call for the final version of a defense policy bill to include language aimed at making it easier for veterans who were discharged for behavior related to mental health issues to upgrade their discharges.

“We are very close to making sure that these service men and women get the help that they need, and we’re going to make it a reality in the next weeks,” said Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.), whose Fairness for Veterans Act was included in the Senate-passed version of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).

The provision in the Senate version would require discharge review boards to provide “liberal consideration” to the diagnosis of a veteran with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), traumatic brain injury (TBI) or military sexual assault when considering whether to upgrade a less-than-honorable discharge.

The House-passed version does not include that provision. Conferees are in the process of reconciling the two versions of the bill.

Advocates say thousands of veterans have received “bad discharge papers” as a result of behavior associated with PTSD, TBI or sexual trauma. Such discharges haunt veterans for the rest of their lives, advocates say, denying them veterans benefits and casting a stigma that can affect aspects of civilian life, such as finding employment.

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Air Force Veteran Joined Because of 9-11, Almost Lost Life Saving Woman and Baby on 9-11

Good Samaritan shot in attempt to rescue woman at Shawnee Wal-Mart was Iraq War veteran
FOX 4 KY
BY ROBERT TOWNSEND
SEPTEMBER 12, 2016

They said the man joined the Air Force shortly after 9/11. They said he made his mom proud in his six years in the service in which he was deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan.

SHAWNEE, Kan. -- New details reveal more information on the deadly shooting outside a Shawnee Wal-Mart Sunday. One suspect was killed in the incident, but another is reportedly still on the run after police released a man they thought was involved.

FOX 4's Robert Townsend has more on the investigation.

When a woman with a baby was attacked in the parking lot by two men, two bystanders came to her rescue. When it was all over, the woman was left with head injuries, one bystander -- an Iraq War veteran -- was shot and critically wounded, and one suspect was shot dead.

Family members of that heroic veteran did not want to appear on camera, but told FOX 4 they're not surprised he stepped in to help.

"My son is just a wonderful guy. He'd help anybody because that's just his nature. I"m not surprised at all," said the man's mom, who lives in Oregon.

FOX 4 has learned the Good Samaritan is 33 years old, now working as a landscaper, and has a 15-year-old step-daughter.
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