American Legion Service Officer Goes Above and Beyond

‘No Man Left Behind’: Marine Corps veteran opens home to help fellow vets
FOX 17 News Michigan
Janice Allen
January 27, 2017

"I bought a house and I didn't need all the rooms, so I started bringing in veterans that needed help," Clemens explained. "If they need food, I buy them food... If they need clothes, I give them clothes."

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. -- Joe Clemens has been back to civilian life for awhile now, but he's still fighting to help his fellow man.

"No man left behind. That's the way I've lived my life," he told FOX 17 News. "When I got out, nobody helped me, so because of that, I wasn't going to let that happen to anyone else."

Despite battling a rare and terminal blood disorder as a result of his service, Clemens has made it his mission to help veterans who are struggling.

"They're not gonna fall through the cracks," he said. "To come back, and not be able to feed your family, it takes a toll on you."

Clemens is a Service Officer at American Legion Post 459. His job is to help veterans navigate different resources to secure their benefits and get back on their feet.
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Spc. Patrick James Rodgers' Body Recovered After Motorcycle Crash

Identity of soldier killed in H-1 motorcycle crash released by Army
KHON News
By Brigette Namata and Web Staff
Published: January 27, 2017,

The name of the Schofield Barracks soldier who died from a motorcycle crash early Friday morning on the H-1 Freeway was released by the Army Saturday.

He was Spc. Patrick James Rodgers, 26, of Willis, Texas, assigned to 2nd Battalion, 35th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division.

A wheeled vehicle mechanic, Rodgers enlisted in the Army in March 2010. He previously served in Oklahoma and South Carolina, and moved to Schofield Barracks in July 2014. Rodgers deployed once to Kuwait for 12 months in 2012. He was a recipient of two Army Achievement Medals, the Army Good Conduct Medal, and the National Defense Service Medal, among others.
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Air Force Major Helping Healing of Combat PTSD

Before you cringe reading Wounded Warrior, keep reading because this is about Wounded Warrior Program and to them healing is not a project. It is a mission.

If you think that women are only hit by PTSD from experiencing sexual assaults, this should be an eyeopener. Too many forget they are still in the same combat zones and trying to get through it the best they can. After all, the lives of others depend on them too.

There are heroes in combat and then there are heroes because of it. Maj. Lisa McCranie is one of them.

Wracked by PTSD for years after combat, an Air Force pilot finally got help
San Antonio Express-News
By Sig Christenson
January 28, 2017

That’s how it is in the pilot community, she said, explaining that no pilot she’s known has ever admitted to suffering from PTSD and the Air Force had no formal support program to help them.

Photo: Bob Owen, STAFF / SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS
Members of one of the basketball teams playing an exhibition game huddle before the start of a game at the Air Force Wounded Warrior Program Warrior Care Event at Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph on Friday, Jan. 13, 2017. The CARE event provides seriously wounded, ill and injured military members, veterans and their caregivers focused and personalized service through caregiver support, training, adaptive and rehabilitative sports events.

A veteran of Afghanistan, Maj. Lisa McCranie is a pilot to the core, so steeped in the culture of never showing weakness that she hid every symptom of post traumatic stress disorder even as the weight of war began to crush her spirit.

Years in uniform and the bulk of 2,800 hours in the cockpit went by — 1,100 of them in combat — before she even realized she had PTSD.

McCranie found herself in yet another war, to get help.

“I told my commanders, ‘I’m not OK right now,’ and then part of my story is how I’ve been treated in the military, which hasn’t been good. I had an ops group commander who basically threatened to take my wings from me if I didn’t go through a re-qualification and fly,” she recalled.

McCranie recently earned a medical retirement from the Air Force and will soon leave the service and head to a culinary school in Denver. A feeling of isolation followed her through much of her military career, but after spending time at a recent Air Force Wounded Warrior program Warrior CARE event in San Antonio, which drew more than 120 wounded, ill and injured airmen, she was relieved to find that she wasn’t alone.

McCranie flew four different aircraft after entering the Air Force in 2004 — the C-17 Globemaster III, T-6A Texan II, MC-12W, a reconnaissance plane, and the UV-18A Twin Otter.
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PsychArmor's Invisible Wounds of War Worthy Of Sharing

When I saw the cartoon on this video, I got ready to have my head explode. I thought about just passing on this article since lately there has been far too much bullshit stories and not enough helpful facts. 

In this case, I am very proud to admit I was totally wrong and very, very glad I spent the time to watch this video. Heidi Kraft is spot on and talks about most of the things we talk about all the time. If you are trying to explain PTSD to someone, this is the video to share with them.

Help for Caretakers: Understanding PTSD in Veterans
Military.com
by Amy Bushatz

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder is one of the invisible wounds of war often discussed in popular culture. But it's also a very real diagnosis.

How can a caregiver go about understanding PTSD in veterans? What are the symptoms, and what can families do about PTSD?

PsychArmor, a non-profit dedicated to bridging the military-civilian divide by providing resources to help community members and others engage veterans, has free video courses on a variety of military-related issues. This section of PsychArmor's Invisible Wounds of War at Home caretaker and family video series focuses on PTSD. In the first video, Heidi Kraft, a clinical psychologist, Navy veteran and PsychArmor's clinical director, helps caregivers and families answer the question "what is PTSD" while also discussing the stigma that still surrounds the problem.
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Man Donated 10 Acres For Montana Veterans Home

Emotional testimony: Supporters push for money to pay for veterans home in Butte
The Missoulian
Renata Birkenbuel
January 27, 2017

The facility would be built on a 10-acre parcel of land near Continental Drive and the Interstate 90 interchange in Butte. Don Harrington donated the land. The other veterans homes in the state are in Columbia Falls, nearly a four-hour drive away, and Glendive, which is six hours away.

The Butte delegation and others on Friday pushed for the Legislature to approve a loan to build a long-awaited veterans home in southwest Montana that would serve the state’s many veterans.

Proponents overwhelmingly urged a subcommittee to help fund the projected $16.8-million project in bonds. The state has $5 million to commit to the nonpartisan project, but the federal government has not provided additional money as hoped because Montana is not on a high-priority list compared to other states.

“We have $5 million in the bank, but we need $10 million (of bonded money),” said Sen. Jon Sesso, D-Butte. “But we are losing more in construction inflation waiting to build the home. This is a simple formula.”

Sesso, Senate Minority Leader and one of the long-range planning committee members hearing testimony on House Bill 14, said Montana has been on the federal list since 2012.
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Double Amputee Army Veteran Now Serves in Washington DC

Army Veteran, Double-Amputee Finds New Battlefield in DC
ABC News
By LIZ ALESSE
Jan 27, 2017

Florida Congressman Brian Mast says he decided to run for office on a day seven years ago when he woke up in the Walter Reed Army Medical Center. The Army bomb technician had been serving in Kandahar, Afghanistan, as part of the Joint Special Operations Command. “We came to a place on the battlefield that I told my guys I was pretty sure that there was a bomb buried somewhere there,” Mast said. “I found it in a way I didn’t intend to.”

Mast stepped on an improvised explosive device and lost both of his legs and his left index finger in the blast. His injuries ended his 12-year military career, but not his commitment to service. “The most important lesson my father ever gave me was very shortly after I was injured,” Mast recalled.

“He said, 'Brian, you can't let this keep you down ... You cannot let your kids see you sitting on your butt regardless of what happened to you, because your kids will think it’s an OK way for them to go through their life. That's when I decided the most important fight of my life could be here in Washington, D.C. in another capacity.”
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Master Sergeant's Parents Get Double Act of Kindness

Act of kindness helps Arlington military family, twice
WFAA
Sean Giggy
January 27, 2017

Officials, who already agreed to move the ceremony to Fort Worth, moved it again. This time to the hospital, so these Air Force parents could give their Air Force daughter that Master Sergeant pin.

Noelle Scala's parents, Joe and Better, were able to be there to put a Master Sergeant pin on their daughter. Photo: Courtesy

FORT WORTH - Air Force veteran Joe Scala is in the hospital battling cancer, but he prefers to talk about how the staff helped him with his heart.

“What they’ve done, they gave us our life back,” he said.

Joe’s agony began when he and his wife, Betty, were both admitted to Texas Health Arlington Memorial as patients last month.

“It was an emotional drain on us. Both of us," she said.

But, soon after, one act of kindness changed everything.

“It gave me my life back,” Joe said with a little grin. “My little girl.”

Air Force Deputy Airfield Manager Noelle Scala is Joe and Betty’s only child. After five miscarriages, they call her their “miracle baby.”

Now, Noelle, after 14 years of dedicated service, was selected to receive one of the highest promotions the Air Force can give: Master Sergeant.
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Marine's Wife Paralyzed in Robbery is Pregnant

Family raising funds for former Marine's pregnant wife paralyzed in alleged armed robbery
FoxNews.com
Published January 27, 2017

“This baby is a miracle. It shouldn’t have survived it. I can’t wait to find out what we’re having and give birth,” Webb told KPRC2. “It’s seriously what is keeping me going.”

The Houston woman who was left paralyzed in an armed robbery and later discovered she was pregnant at the hospital is speaking out in an effort to help authorities nab the alleged suspects. Paxton Webb, 23, is still recovering at Texas Medical Center.

“I am here ad I’m fighting every day,” she told KPRC2.

Webb was working at Katz Boutique, an adult shop, on Christmas Eve when a pair of armed suspects whose faces were covered allegedly demanded money from her before firing a shot into her back. The assault left her paralyzed from the chest down.

“The bullet completely severed my spine, hit my lungs, missed my heart by less than a centimeter, fractured a couple of ribs and fractured my left shoulder,” Webb told KPRC2.
read more here

ABC 13 News Video from robbery

Montford Point Marines Honored at MacDill Air Force Base

Medal honors black Marines who served despite discrimination in WWII
Tampa Bay Times
Howard Altman, Times Staff Writer
Friday, January 27, 2017

"When they would go out on furlough, the black Marines couldn't go certain places," she said. "There was an incident on a train to New York. They were trying to put out my father, but the white Marines all stood up and said, 'No, we are all Marines, stay right here.'"

TAMPA — In 1943, as the Marines were slogging through a bloody Pacific island-hopping campaign, two good friends from Nyack, New York, showed up at a recruiting station to join the fight.

David Knight was given orders to report to boot camp within a week. His friend, Charles Robert Fountain, passed the physical too, but then had to undergo questioning about his personal life, education and marital status. It would be seven months before the corps would accept him.

The difference?

Knight was white, Fountain black.

Friday at noon, Fountain's service as one of the first black Marines was honored during a ceremony at MacDill Air Force Base presided over by the commander of Marine Corps Forces Central Command, Lt. Gen. William Beydler. Fountain's daughter, Kim Fountaine of Ruskin, received a Congressional Gold Medal, awarded to those black Marines stationed at the Camp Montford Point — a rundown barracks outside of Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, where some 20,000 were housed in substandard, segregated quarters between 1942 and 1949.
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Feb 12, 2012
Last night at the Orlando Nam Knights there was a surprise guest. Charles O. Foreman, a WWII veteran, member of the Montford Point Marines came. He is part of the group of Marines receiving the Congressional Gold Medal. At 87 he is just amazing. No matter what he had to go through because of the color of his skin, he'd do it all over again. He credits the Marines with making him the man he is today.

VA Un-Freeze Job List Did Not Include Claims Processors?

It seems that POTUS had a busy week issuing Executive Orders, then discovering they are not Royal Decrees, had to undo them.

Among the things President Trump had to undo, was placing a hiring freeze on the Department of Veterans Affairs. The VA released a list of jobs that are now excluded from the freeze. They seem to have thought of everything but Claims Processors.

It was a week filled with proof that the power, and will, of the American people will stand against what politicians do.

VA specifies jobs exempt from Trump's hiring freeze
The Hill
BY REBECCA KHEEL
01/27/17

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has released a full list of jobs exempt from President Trump’s federal hiring freezing that includes a slew of medical specialties.

“The Department of Veterans Affairs intends to exempt anyone it deems necessary for public health and safety, including frontline caregivers,” acting Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert Snyder said in a statement. “The president and VA remain committed to seeing that our veterans receive the quality care and benefits they’ve earned. This is the right thing to do for our veterans.”

Trump signed an executive order Monday that freezes all federal hiring except for the military. It also allows for exemptions for public safety.

The hiring freeze has come under fire from dozens of Democrats, including every Democrat in the Senate, who say it disproportionately affects veterans, as the VA won’t be able to hire support staff and veterans won’t be able to apply for federal jobs. The Democrats wanted Trump to exempt the entire VA from the order.
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VA Still Needs Doctors and Nurses, And Will A Lot Longer Now

Trump’s hiring freeze comes as VA in Spokane seeks doctors, nurses
The Spokesman Review
Mike Prager
FRIDAY, JAN. 27, 2017

The Mann-Grandstaff Veterans Administration Medical Center in Spokane has job openings for doctors, nurses and other care specialists that may or may not be filled because of President Donald Trump’s hiring freeze of federal workers.

The president’s press secretary initially said the freeze would extend to the VA, which has been harshly criticized for the long wait times veterans face getting care.

White House press secretary Sean Spicer said of the VA Tuesday, “Right now, the system’s broken,” and that the hiring freeze is meant as a “pause” while a new VA secretary takes stock of the situation.

“And I think the VA in particular, if you look at the problems that have plagued people, hiring more people isn’t the answer,” Spicer said, according to the Washington Post. “It’s hiring the right people, putting the procedures in place that ensure that our veterans – whether health care or mortgages or the other services that VA provides to those who have served our nation – get the services that they’ve earned.”
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Veterans With Bad Discharges Get Fighting Chance

Tampa, Florida Veterans Lawyer Comments Need for Veterans to be Honorably Discharged
Tampa, FL (Law Firm Newswire)
January 26, 2017

Many veterans who were diagnosed with mental problems or traumatic brain injury have received less-than-honorable discharges. But such a discharge can result in the denial of veterans’ benefits, thereby causing these veterans to become homeless, imprisoned, develop substance abuse or commit suicide.

In an effort to assist these veterans, the Vietnam Veterans Association of America wrote President Obama asking him to pardon all post-9/11 veterans who received less-than-honorable discharges without the due process of a court-martial. They are making the same request of President-elect Donald Trump.

Prominent Tampa, Florida veterans lawyer David Magann says, “Veterans who have received less-than-honorable discharges because they suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or other mental illnesses are entitled to receive an honorable discharge.” “They should not lose their Veterans Affairs health benefits or GI bill education benefits.”

As reported in Shelbyville Daily Union, one such victim of this policy is Kristofer Goldsmith, who enlisted in the army a short time after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. In a little over two years, he was promoted to sergeant, and spent a full year in Baghdad. However, upon his return home, he had to drink in order to sleep, and he spent time in isolation so he would not hurt his family and friends in the event he had an abrupt fit of anger. Then, when he attempted to commit suicide, the Army gave him a less-than-honorable discharge for severe misconduct. He was not found guilty by a court marshal.
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Man arrested in cousin's slaying in Tampa

Man arrested in cousin's slaying is Army vet, may have PTSD, family reported
Tampa Bay Times
Anastasia Dawson Times Staff Writer
Wednesday, January 25, 2017

TAMPA — Darrell Leon Gadson's mother was concerned about her grown son's "erratic" behavior Monday morning, a detective reported.

The 38-year-old had recently moved back to her country ranch home in Thonotosassa and was going through a divorce. Family members feared the Army veteran could be suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

So Marilyn Gadson, a registered nurse, asked her son's brother and cousin to visit the house at 9862 Timmons Road and talk to him.

They had just arrived and were sitting in the living room when Darrell Gadson came out of his bedroom with a gun, approached his 23-year-old cousin sitting on the couch and fired a fatal shot through his head, according to a report from the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office.
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Remains Identified of Missing Fort Campbell Soldier

TBI: Remains identified as missing Fort Campbell soldier 
Beaver 1003 FM by Nick Fox
Posted on January 25, 2017 

ROBERTSON COUNTY, Tenn. (WKRN) – The skeletal remains found Monday in Robertson County have been positively identified as Pfc. Shadow McClaine.

The Fort Campbell soldier went missing on Sept. 2, 2016 and was never seen or heard from again. read more here

Michigan Missing Veteran Alert

UPDATE
He has been found safe.


Police: Vet missing has not been seen since Monday
FOX 2 News
January 26, 2016

The Wixom Police Department needs your help locating a missing person.

The family of Arthur Tillman Jr. has not seen or heard from him since the evening of Monday, January 23.

According to debit card records, Arthur’s card was used on Tuesday, January 24 in Waterford and in Troy.

Arthur is a military veteran and may suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Tillman Jr. is described as a 24-year-old African American man who is approximately 5’09” and 170 lbs.
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Missing Veteran Alert Texas: Amon Gift, Afghanistan Veteran

Sheriff's Office: U.S. Army vet found dead in Sam Rayburn had been suffering from PTSD
KTRE ABC 9 News
By Gary Bass, Digital Content Producer
Friday, January 27th 2017

SABINE COUNTY, TX (KTRE)
A 23-year-old Army veteran whose body was found in the Sam Rayburn Reservoir Thursday night had been suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder that resulted from being involved in two separate bomb attacks, according to a press release.

Fishermen found Amon Gift’s body in a cove just south of Mill Creek Park on the southeast side of the Sam Rayburn Reservoir at about 2 p.m. Thursday.

“Gift was a U.S. Army veteran who had recently returned from a tour in Afghanistan,” the press release stated.

“Gift suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder which originated when he was involved in two separate bombings while serving overseas. Gift’s family said he has recently been struggling with depression due to his PTSD, and it appeared to be worsening.”

Gift, a Houston resident had been missing since Jan. 20. His family members told authorities that he left Houston in his 2008 Dodge Dakota, the press release stated.
read more here 

UPDATE
Body found in Lake Sam Rayburn is that of veteran reported missing, according to JP

Sabine County Precinct 2 Justice of the Peace Jamie Brasher has identified the remains as that of Amon Gift, 23, who had been reported missing by family members after he reportedly left his home in his 2008 Dodge Dakota.

Even though an official ruling on the cause of Gift’s death has not been made, pending a formal autopsy, it is believed that the man died of a gunshot wound. However, officers are not saying at this point whether the gunshot was self-inflicted or not.
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EQUUSEARCH LOOKING FOR MISSING HOUSTON MAN WHOSE WIFE SAYS HE HAS PTSD 
ABC News 13

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- Texas EquuSearch volunteers are looking for a Houston man who vanished before the weekend. Amon Gift, 23, was last seen by anyone on Friday in Houston. 

His wife Savannah told ABC13 she received a text from him saying he was at Mill Creek Park in Brookeland, Texas. But she wasn't able to find him there, his phone is turned off and no one has heard from Amon since Friday. 

She added that Amon, who serves in the military and returned from Afghanistan in May, has been diagnosed with PTSD. Savannah said she filed a missing person's report on Saturday. 
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Man Shot in Alabama Possible Suicide By Cop?

Knox man killed in Alabama officer-involved shooting
USA TODAY NETWORK – Tennessee
Hayes Hickman
Jan. 26, 2017

Partridge added that Oxford police were notified by the Heflin, Ala., Police Department, which initiated the pursuit, that the suspect was armed, suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and had made suicidal threats in the past. He could not confirm whether Lambert was a military veteran.

Micah R. Lambert

(Photo: Knox County Detention Facility)

A Knoxville man who fled the state after an alleged assault on a Knox County sheriff's deputy was fatally shot by police in Alabama following a pursuit Wednesday, authorities said.

Micah R. Lambert, 37, was killed when he attempted to charge officers with his SUV, according to Oxford, Ala. Police Chief Bill Partridge.

The chief said Lambert was wanted on a charge of aggravated assault on police officers in connection with an incident earlier this week in Knox County.

"Lambert had been reported missing and had left a friend's house with a loaded handgun after making threats to harm himself, according to the report.

"Mr. Lambert had left his dog with his friend and signed over the title to his vehicle before leaving," the report states.
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"Blind Veteran" Drove Car, Had Job and VA Comp Check?

Officials: Veteran faked blindness for 15 years, took home $400K in disability benefits
WFTV
Jan. 24, 2017

A 60-year-old Florida woman has pleaded guilty to pretending to be blind for more than a decade to receive veterans disability benefits of nearly $400,000, investigators said.

Veronica Dale Hahn, of Bonifay, entered the guilty plea Friday in Panama City federal court.

Hahn is accused of convincing Veterans Health Administration staff and private doctors that her service-related injury caused nearly complete blindness in both eyes from 2001 to 2016, court documents say.
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PTSD On Trial: Aaron Wanless in Florida

Troubled vet sentenced to 48 years for shooting at lawmen
Northwest Florida Daily News
By Kelly Humphrey
January 25, 2017

Wanless was under treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental illnesses at the local Department of Veterans Affairs clinic when he fired a gun in the direction of Okaloosa County deputies during a 2015 altercation. In December, he was found guilty of five felonies in connection with the incident.

Assistant State Attorney Jonathan Schlechter and Public Defender Ricky Dayaram walked into Circuit Court Judge William Stone's courtroom on Wednesday with two very different goals.

Dayaram attempted to convince the judge to depart from mandatory minimum sentencing guidelines that could send his client, 35-year-old Aaron Wanless, to prison for nearly 50 years. He asked the judge to consider sentencing Wanless to 48 months in prison, followed by probation and in-patient treatment for mental illness.

Schlechter, on the other hand, argued that Wanless should be punished to the full extent of the law as prescribed by Florida's 10-20-Life statute, which at the time Wanless was arrested applied to felonies that involve the use of a firearm. The law was repealed last year and replaced with a statute that gives judges more flexibility in sentencing.
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Canada Veterans Need to Look At US Reports on Mefloquine

In 2008 the VA issued a warning about Mefloquine, and there are other stories on this report going back to 2002.

Senator Dianne Feinstein wanted answers from Donald Rumsfeld in 2003

Veterans, families want answers over Forces' use of Mefloquine
Toronto Sun crime reporter Chris Doucette. (Sun files)
By Chris Doucette, Toronto Sun
Monday, January 23, 2017

The call for accountability over the Canadian Forces’ use of a controversial anti-malaria drug is growing louder and veterans and family members hope Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will hear their cries for help.

A former medic who served in Somalia, the wife of a soldier disgraced in the Somalia Affair, the mother of a soldier who killed himself in Rwanda and a doctor with expertise in the neuropsychiatric effects of Mefloquine toxicity recently submitted written statements to the Standing Committee on Veterans Affairs outlining the drugs’ devastation.

Marj Matchee writes her husband, Clayton, suffered paranoia and hallucinations prior to his 1993 arrest for the deadly beating of a Somali teen.

“You see things when you sleep. You see it in the daytime too,” she recalls him saying.

Many veterans who were forced to take the drug before it was licensed still suffer from side effects that Health Canada and AA Pharma, the Canadian supplier of the drug, quietly added to Mefloquine’s warning label last year.

“We must do more to reach out to these veterans, to acknowledge the harms that Mefloquine has caused them, and commit to funding research to study and ultimately try to reverse these effects,” Matchee writes.

Dr. Remington Nevin, of Johns Hopkins University, says Mefloquine toxicity can cause brain damage that mimics PTSD, so sufferers may receive the wrong treatment and symptoms such as suicidal thoughts persist.
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These may help their case

Lariam Psychiatric and Suicidal Side Effects Research shows the anti-malaria drug mefloquine hydrochloride—formerly sold under the brand name Lariam—might cause psychiatric abnormalities, suicidal ideations and behaviors, and potentially permanent nerve damage. Because of these psychiatric side effects, the drug’s manufacturer, Hoffmann-La Roche, pulled it from the market in 2008. The U.S. Army continued to administer it to soldiers, however, until 2011, when the army ceased prescribing Lariam even for soldiers deployed in malaria-prone regions such as Afghanistan. In July 2013, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) notified the public that mefloquine products’ drug labels would be updated with a black box warning—the agency’s most serious kind—concerning the aforementioned side effects.