Vietnam Veteran's Wish to Fly P-Model Cessna Granted

Vietnam War Veteran Gets Flight Of His Dreams
OPB FM
by Molly Solomon
June 17, 2017

Rowland was diagnosed with lymphocytic cancer in January. Doctors told him he only had a pint of blood left in his body. After trips to four different hospitals and two stints in rehab, Rowland was finally healthy enough to get on the plane.

It was a special day for a Vietnam War veteran in Vancouver, Washington. Simon Rowland, 66, has always wanted to fly in an old P-Model Cessna plane. And this weekend, he got his wish.

Veteran Simon Rowland peering out
the window of the Cessna plane as 
it flies across parts of southwest 
Washington. Molly Solomon/OPB

A crowd of friends who helped organize the flight met him at the runway Saturday morning. One of them is Meredith McMackin, an art therapist who met Simon while teaching a class at the VA Portland Community Living Center on the Vancouver campus.

“We were outside because it was a beautiful day and I had art supplies out there,” remembers McMackin. “And this fellow, Simon, looks up and sees a small plane and says, ‘I want to fly in one of those before I die.’”

That planted a seed for McMackin and she started making calls to the nearby Pearson Field. She got in contact with a local pilot, Bill Rollin, who was happy to help. When McMackin told Rowland she had secured a plane, he broke down in tears.
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Vietnam Veterans Deal With Memories of Those They Lost 50 Years Ago

Hard-Hit Marine Unit from Vietnam War Celebrates 50th Reunion
Military.com
by Richard Sisk
17 Jun 2017

They grappled again, mostly in silence, with the question that has no answer -- why am I here when so many aren't? Libraries can be filled with books on the subject, going back to Homer.

The 6/67 Memorial at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia commemorates The Basic School's sixth graduating class, which suffered more than 250 casualties, including 43 officers killed in Vietnam. (US Marine Corps photo)

In the fall of 1967, The Basic School in Quantico, Virginia, finished training 498 twenty-something Marine second lieutenants. By the end of the year, nearly all were in Vietnam.

Before Christmas, the first of them was killed in action: 2nd Lt. Michael Ruane, of Mike Company, 3rd Battalion, 7th Marines, on Dec. 18, 1967. The TBS class that began in June 1967 (TBS 6/67) would have a casualty rate of more than 50 percent -- the highest of any Marine officer class during the Vietnam War.

For those second lieutenants and their platoons, the pace was unrelenting. They would go past the wire -- when there was wire -- on daily patrols through terrain that ranged from paddies and dikes along the coast, through the scrub brush and elephant grass of the interior, and into the triple-canopy jungles of the high ground reaching into Laos.

The New York Times declared that "the era of big battles" had come to Vietnam in 1967. Le Duan, the real power in Hanoi, ordered North Vietnamese Army regulars into South Vietnam to support the Vietcong. The battles became bigger in 1968.
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Marine Married for Just 10 Days, Died in Motorcycle Crash

Family Mourns Newlywed US Marine Killed in Motorcycle Crash
NBC Los Angeles
By David Summers and Monica Garske

Lance Corporal Brandon Laughman and his wife had only been married 10 days before he died

An active duty United States Marine who was killed in a motorcycle crash in Mission Valley this week had gotten married to his high school sweetheart just 10 days before the accident.

"He has a big heart and [is] very independent. Love for his family, if he had his mind set on something, he had his mind on it,” said Kaytlin Laughman, wife of Lance Corporal Brandon Laughman, 20, in a phone interview with NBC 7 Friday.

The couple had wed in Urbana, Ohio, where Laughman was born and raised. Days after marrying his bride, Laughman returned to active duty in San Diego.
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Seven Soldiers Wounded By Afghan Soldier

Seven GIs among eight wounded in Afghanistan shooting
Boston Herald
Brian Dowling
Sunday, June 18, 2017

An Afghan soldier turned his weapon on coalition forces at a base in northern Afghanistan, wounding eight people, including seven U.S. soldiers — the second such insider attack in the turbulent Middle Eastern country this month.

The group of 39 nations advising and assisting the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces said seven U.S. soldiers and one Afghan soldier were wounded when the rogue Afghan trooper opened fire.

“We have an enemy who is actively trying to drive a wedge between us,” Operation Resolute Support said in a statement. “We will not be deterred.”
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USS Fitzgerald: Seven sailors remain missing

The stricken destroyer Fitzgerald has returned home, but 7 sailors are still missing 
Navy Times 
By: David B. Larter 
June 17, 2017

Three sailors, including the ship’s commanding officer, Cmdr. Bryce Benson, were medically evacuated from the Fitzgerald by Japanese military aircraft and rushed back to mainland during the ship's long transit home.

Kazuhiro Nogi/ AFP via Getty images

UPDATE: The destroyer Fitzgerald, mangled from a rare, harrowing collision while at sea, returned to its home port of Yokosuka, Japan, at about 6:15 p.m. local time Saturday, capping a 16-hour effort by the crew to prevent an even greater crisis. 

Seven sailors remain missing, and divers were standing by to assess the ship's damage and try to access the spaces that were flooded when Fitzgerald collided with a merchant ship nearly four-times its size in the middle of the night. 

The incident occurred in the Philippine Sea, about 50 nautical miles southwest of Yokosuka. Images show clearly the ship had taken on massive amounts of water during the ordeal. A news release from U.S. 7th Fleet confirmed that two berthing spaces, an auxiliary machine room and the ship’s radio room all flooded. read more here

A stigma for veterans with PTSD

A stigma for veterans with PTSD
AM NEW YORK
By Sol Wachtler
June 16, 2017

Trump has repeated his support of veterans. He should consider the pardon and restoration of the honor of those veterans whose “misbehavior” and “bad paper” were caused by service-related mental disabilities.

Sixty-two percent of the 91,764 service members dismissed by the U.S. military for misconduct between 2011 and 2015 had been diagnosed two years before separation with post-traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injury or other conditions that could be associated with misconduct. And more than 13,200 of them received an “other than honorable” characterization of service, referred to as “bad paper,” making them ineligible for health benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs.

The discharges, imposed with little or no due process, carried the stigma of a criminal conviction and the stain of dishonor. They contributed to homelessness, substance abuse and suicide.

Fifty years ago, 550,000 U.S. troops fought in Vietnam. At war’s end, more than half of all veterans diagnosed with PTSD had been arrested — more than one, multiple times, mostly for drug-related crimes. Many suffered from undiagnosed and untreated combat-related PTSD and, tragically, many were issued less-than-honorable discharges from the service. For years, the military underdiagnosed and did not treat the problems and then cursed the sufferers with discharges for misconduct.
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On the Other Side of Broken: One Cop's Battle with the Demons of PTSD

Police officer talks about dealing with PTSD
Brantford Expositor
Friday, June 16, 2017

Gain a new understanding of those who live with either PTSD or deafblindness at upcoming Brantford Public Library programs.

Police officer Brian Knowler will visit the Brantford Public Library on 

June 21 to talk about how PTSD affected his health, career and marriage.

(Postmedia Network)

On June 21, at 6:30 p.m, author and police officer Brian Knowler will visit the main branch to talk about how post-traumatic stress disorder affected his health, career and marriage.

In 2004, Brian Knowler was the first police officer at the scene of a fatal collision involving a close friend. For years he hid the physical and psychological effects, while his personal and professional life started to fall apart. He eventually sought help and was diagnosed with PTSD.

His book, On the Other Side of Broken: One Cop's Battle with the Demons of PTSD, tells the story about his life since being diagnosed and his recovery. It also talks about his wife's experiences; standing by him to help them rebuild their lives even though she watched her husband turn into someone she didn't recognize. Come to this free event to hear first-hand about Knowler's experiences.
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BOHICA Presidents Inherit Obligation to Veterans

Presidents Inherit Obligation to Veterans
Combat PTSD Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
June 17, 2017

Remember the expression "everything old is new again" because we've been down this road for so long now it is almost as if members of Congress forgot they were responsible for what the VA does and does not do. After all, they got jurisdiction over caring for our veterans back in 1946.

“Prepare for the unknown by studying how others in the past have coped with the unforeseeable and the unpredictable.” ― George S. Patton Jr.

None of this BS was either one of those. If anyone tells you that all the problems our veterans and families face is new, it is all old news to us. After all, we've been living with it for decades, listening to promises when politicians on both sides want our votes, yet fail us once they get into office.

Or, did we fail ourselves and all the other generations to come? 

When I started to really pay attention 35 years ago, President Reagan had been in charge for a year. Maybe what he said summed up exactly what had been happening to veterans with these words.

"The most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the government and I'm here to help."

Part of the jobs politicians take is actually making the best use of taxpayers funds but the other part is actually delivering on the promises made to the men and women risking their lives for this country no matter who is Commander-in-Chief.

So far I've paid attention to what President Reagan, President Bush, President Clinton, President Bush and President Obama left behind as much as I'm paying attention to what President Trump is doing to veterans after making speeches of what all of them would do for veterans. While we never heard them say BOHICA, that is exactly what veterans and families have ended up with.

Stars and Stripes reported "VA Secretary: Money for Choice program will 'dry up' by mid-August"

Money is quickly and unexpectedly running out for a program that allows veterans to seek health care outside of the Department of Veterans Affairs, and VA Secretary David Shulkin is urging Congress to fix it.

In March, approximately $2 billion remained in the Veterans Choice Program, which was created following the 2014 wait-time scandal in order to allow veterans to seek outside health care. The funds dropped to $1.5 billion about a month later, and the account now holds $821 million, Shulkin told the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee on June 14.

Shulkin had originally estimated $626 million would be left in the account by the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30. Now, he’s expecting all of the funds to run out before money for fiscal 2018 is appropriated.

To continue the Choice program through the end of the fiscal year, Shulkin is seeking the authority from Congress to transfer money from a separate community care account that holds approximately $2 billion. The VA secretary does not have the power to move the money between accounts.

Gee that sound bad. What is actually worse is that veterans do not want to have to make a choice between being by the VA or being seen by private providers. Rural veterans do need this option because their VA hospital is just too far away. In those cases, clinics or "community care" would be great, if they were run by the VA and not contractors. Having to see a contractor, frankly pisses them off.

Still, what makes all this worse is Congress let it get to the point where they are even talking about billions going to private providers instead of the care they were promised.

Here is a brief history of what veterans have had to deal with.

Richard and Vicki Wild of Hillsborough, N.C., said they were mystified when their son Mark’s disability claim was rejected. “We had 10 years’ worth of hospital records,” Mr. Wild said. Credit Jeremy M. Lange for The New York Times

Disability Cases Last Longer as Backlog Rises

By ERIK ECKHOLMDEC. 10, 2007

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"The agency's new plan to hire 150 new appeals judges to whittle down the backlog, which soared to 755,000 from 311,000 in 2000, will require $100 million more than the president requested this year and still more in the future.

Yes, you read the dates right. There were 311,000 in the backlog before President Bush took office. By 2007 it was 755,000. By June of 2008 it was 879,291. It was taking 185 days to process a veteran's disability claim.

And then it was President Obama's turn. by June of his first year in office, the backlog was over 915,000.

Now, while we actually got a brief sense of relief this week with news that senior veterans were not going to be forced to pay for the "care" with massive cuts to their disability checks, we cannot go back to sleep. What they get away with today will be something all other generations will have to be face with if we do no nothing about any of this.

Aren't you tired of reading how veterans keep getting failed? Then start fighting back! Don't wait for all the service organizations to do the job for us. After all, the OEF and OIF generation are controlling the news through social media because everything we had to deal with was still hanging over our heads and no one cared but us. 

UPDATE on something else in the news lately...
Everything old is still broken?

"House appropriators have provided $65 million in Fiscal Year 2018 funding for the Department of Veterans Affairs’ recently announced plans to switch its legacy electronic health record system to a commercial product from Cerner. However, the funds come with strings attached."
"VA announced June 5 that it plans to replace its decades-old legacy Veterans Health Information Systems and Technology Architecture (VistA) records system with Cerner’s Millennium EHR, the same platform that the Department of Defense is currently implementing as part of Military Health System (MHS) Genesis."

So what did they get for the $6 Million and the other millions?

Congressional Record, House October 6, 2000 "The demonstration project may be conducted at several multi-specialty tertiary-care military medical treatment facilities affiliated with a university medical school. One of such facilities shall be supported by at least 5 geographically dispersed remote clinics of the Departments of Army, Navy and Air Force, and clinics of the Department of Veterans Affairs, and a local university.

Col. Kirk R. Slaughter Killed in Boating Accident in Honolulu

Army Reserve colonel identified as victim in Hawaii fishing boat accident
STARS AND STRIPES
By WYATT OLSON
Published: June 16, 2017

FORT SHAFTER, Hawaii — The Army has identified Col. Kirk R. Slaughter, 49, as the soldier who died in a fishing boat accident in Hawaii Thursday morning.

Kirk Slaughter was a man loved and adored by all who knew him, according to a gofundme page. Slaughter passed unexpectedly in a tragic boating accident on June 15, 2017, off the coast of Hawaii. GOFUNDME

The Honolulu Police Department, which is investigating the incident, has released few details about the death, which happened in Waianae Small Boat Harbor in northwest Oahu. Slaughter was pronounced dead at the scene by the medical examiner, the Army said.

“This appears to be a boating accident with no indications of foul play,” the police said in a statement.

Slaughter was the deputy commanding officer of operations at the 9th Mission Support Command and was based at Fort Shafter, Hawaii. He was originally from Lyons, Neb.
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San Antonio Man Found Guilty of Defrauding Department of Veterans Affairs

Man guilty of defrauding Dept. of Veteran Affairs Disability Compensation Program

Mack Cole Jr., 54, faces 50 years in federal prison

KSAT News

By Dawn Jorgenson - Web - News Editor

Posted: 6:30 PM, June 14, 2017

SAN ANTONIO - A San Antonio man is facing federal prison time after a jury found him guilty Wednesday afternoon of scheming to defraud the Department of Veterans Affairs Disability Compensation Program.

The Department of Justice said Mack Cole Jr., 54, injured his lower back in a stateside training accident in 2004 prior to being deployed with the Kansas Army National Guard to Kosovo.

Cole was granted military retirement and later deemed eligible for monthly benefits as a retired disabled veteran, the DOJ said, but misrepresented the severity of his injuries in order to collect a higher level of benefits, adaptations to his residence and extensive durable medical equipment.

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