Double Amputee Knows No Limits For Life Ahead

‘I was the one screaming’ 
Northwest Florida Daily News 
By Heather Osbourne 
Posted Jul 4, 2017

“I’ve had veterans come up to me and say, ‘Because of you, I didn’t go home and eat a bullet,’ ” Dague said. “It doesn’t matter who you are, that resonates with you.”

Mary Dague talk about the blast which took both her arms when she was serving as an Navy EOD technician in Iraq in 2007. At right is Dague's husband James Cribbett. Devon Ravine/Daily News

Purple Heart recipient and double-arm amputee Mary Dague said a person’s life can drastically change in the time it takes for a bomb to detonate.

Purple Heart recipient Mary Dague said a person’s life can drastically change in the time it takes for a bomb to detonate. The 32-year-old with rainbow hair and a spunky personality spoke from experience as she recently sat in her Niceville home — and played video games with her toes.

Dague, a former Navy Explosive Ordinance technician, is a double-arm amputee. For the past 10 years, she has dedicated her life to helping combat wounded veterans’ suicidal thoughts and depression by using a combined method of dark humor and her own personal testament.
read more here and great video interview too!

Marine Veteran Left in Road After Hit and Run

Waco: Car involved in hit-and-run that injured Marine veteran found
KWTX News
By John Carroll
Posted: Jul 03, 2017

WACO, Texas (KWTX) A Marine veteran who was seriously injured when a car whose driver did not stop hit his Harley Davidson motorcycle says he’s been told the vehicle involved in the hit-and-run has been found.

“The police believe that they have the vehicle in custody, so I think we're headed down the right road for an arrest,” Boone Barott, 45, of Riesel, said Monday.

“I’m still disappointed that nobody has come forward.”

Barott, the vice president of the Elm Mott American Legion 121 riding group, is recovering at home after suffering a broken pelvis and severe cuts and bruises in the June 25 hit-and-run on the Interstate 35 access road near the Texas Department of Transportation Office in Waco.
read more here

Vietnam Veteran Saluted Lonely Hearse Carrying Veteran

Fairfield man salutes solitary veteran on way to cemetery
Daily Republic
By Todd R. Hansen
July 04, 2017


“And I don’t know what made me do what I did next. But I was thinking he was a veteran and alone, and that’s just wrong,” Cobb said.

Vietnam veteran Mike Cobb.

(Aaron Rosenblatt/Daily Republic)

DIXON — For U.S. military veterans, especially for those who served in combat, patriotic markers are not just dates on the calendar.

In fact, Vietnam veteran Mike Cobb, who served in the U.S. Army infantry, much of his time as a tunnel rat, is not likely to be seen at any of the special holiday services.

“I’m not ready to go to those things. There are a couple of friends from Fairfield who died (in Vietnam). I’m not ready,” said Cobb, who was in country in 1969-70.

So a week after Memorial Day, and less than a month before the Fourth of July, Cobb found himself honoring someone who had served his country on a day that had no commemorative significance.

Cobb was returning from Sacramento on June 7 and came upon a solitary hearse on Interstate 80.

“As I passed it, I noticed a coffin with a flag on it, so I knew it was a veteran,” said Cobb, 67, a Texas native who has lived most of his life in Fairfield. “But there was no procession behind it . . . and (the hearse) was going about 65 mph, and that’s just not a funeral.”

So Cobb sped up ahead of the hearse and pulled off at Midway Road, and waited. And when the hearse pulled off, too, stopping at the stop sign, Cobb drew to attention and saluted the veteran en route to his final resting place.

Cobb said the hearse driver sat there for 10 minutes or so before driving on.
read more here

Helping DAV Gives Veteran Reason to Get Up--All Summer Long

Vietnam Veteran spending summer raising $100,000 for disabled Nevada veterans
NBC 4 News
by Ryan Kern
July 4th 2017

"I have a reason to get up," says Greenwood. "I know, somewhere out there, there's a veteran who needs my assistance, that needs my help and I want to be there when the time comes."

RENO, Nev. (News 4 Fox 11) — A local Vietnam veteran spends his summers sitting outside in the hot sun, raising tens of thousands of dollars for disabled Nevada veterans and various veteran organizations across the region.

"Almost 20 years ago, somebody helped me out," says Veteran Frank Greenwood. "Ever since I have been paying it forward."

Frank Greenwood spends eight hours a day, seven days a week for three months out of the year selling raffle tickets in front of the Sportsman's Warehouse in Reno.

Several weapons and a Polaris UTV are available to the winning ticket holders come the end of August.

Greenwood, working with the Disabled American Veterans Reno Chapter #1, has a goal of selling $1,000 worth of raffle tickets a day, leading to a $100,000 total this summer.

read more here

Veteran Says "I think for years I didn’t really want to come back"

Some combat veterans are drawn to risk. Here's how to keep them alive and free.
USA Today
Patrick Mondaca, Opinion contributor
July 3, 2017

I was discharged from the Army in 2004 following my deployment to Iraq, and the way back has been long. I think for years I didn’t really want to come back. The military gave me a sense of belonging and purpose and normalcy that I lacked in civilian life. And I didn’t find those things again until I went to Darfur with a humanitarian group in 2007.

There need not be more senseless veteran deaths or captivities in war-torn countries. The time has come to think outside the traditional.

Austin Tice was a former Marine Corps captain and veteran of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan who left for Syria prior to completing his final year of Georgetown Law School. Tice was captured by unknown armed actors in Syria while working as a freelance journalist in August 2012. He remains in captivity to this day.

Peter Kassig, a former Army Ranger and veteran of the Iraq War, was captured in Syria in 2013 and executed a year later by ISIS militants. Kassig had founded the nongovernmental organization Special Emergency Response and Assistance to help aid refugees in Syria and Lebanon in 2012.

I’ve often wondered what compels veterans like Tice and Kassig to take such risks in their post-war lives. T.E. Lawrence (of Arabia) spoke of his own fondness for risk-taking in a letter to a friend just 15 days before dying in a motorcycle wreck. “In speed we hurl ourselves beyond the body,” he wrote. “Our bodies cannot scale the heavens except in a fume of petrol. Bones, blood, flesh, all pressed inward together.”

read more here

Dad Fears For Son Because He Came Back From War?

This is Independence Day but Christian Hidalgo is not free. Not free from the memories of battles he was sent to fight. Not free of the demons that followed him home. Not free of anything really, because today he woke up in jail instead of a VA hospital.

He knew he needed help and went to the VA but he left before was seen by a specialist.

So what happened? What happened that Gary Hidalgo didn't know what his son took home from war? Why wasn't he trained to understand what he was seeing? Why wasn't Christian helped as soon as he got back? Isn't that what all the Facebook "charities" are saying they do? After all, they are all over the country. As a matter of fact, there are now over 400,000 of charities claiming to be helping veterans. So where were they?

That's the biggest thing that keeps getting missed. Veterans come home after risking their lives in war, then find they are still left alone to fight this. So why aren't they finding the help they need a decades after "awareness" was spread across social media sites?

‘I’m Scared Every Day:’ Father Of High-Speed Pursuit Suspect, Army Vet Says Son Suffers From PTSD 
CBS News 
July 3, 2017 

WEST COVINA (CBSLA.com) — Rarely do we find out what was going on with the driver in a pursuit.

But Gary Hidalgo is speaking out after his son, who he says suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), was arrested following a high-speed chase Saturday.

“I’m scared every day,” he said. “It’s hard. I don’t know what to do.”

Gary says his son, Christian, was injured a few years ago serving oversees in the Army.

“He looks at you like he’s OK … He looks normal. But there’s something that’s a trigger that I have no idea how to handle or manage,” he said. 

Gary says his 26 year old son called him from the VA in Los Angeles describing suicidal symptoms and left before seeing a specialist. read more here

Man Taken to Hospital After Standoff With Police

Maryville Police: Man detained after lockdown at Maryville Commons' Target parking lot
WBIR News
July 2, 2017

MARYVILLE - 9:00 P.M. UPDATE: Around 4:30 p.m. Sunday afternoon, Maryville Police Chief Tony Crisp told 10News a family member called 9-1-1, worried about a man who wandered off and appeared to be suicidal.

Officers found the man inside a truck in the Maryville Commons shopping center off Watkins Road.

When they approached the truck, they did not see him right away. They attempted knocking on the window's truck. The 67-year-old man did not respond.

An officer noticed a holster for a .45 pistol in the truck.

Police say the man was in the truck for at least two hours before authorities used an armed, protective vehicle to break the truck's window and pull him out.

He was taken to the hospital shortly after for further treatment.

Family members told Maryville police that the individual is an out-of-state relative who suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder.

Police have yet to release the man's identity.

The lockdown at the shopping center was lifted around 7 p.m. Sunday evening.
read more here

You Could Be in the Hands of Contractors and Not Know It

Reminder, if you still want to blame the VA employees for all that is wrong, but the press usually won't tell you, here is something from Peter Biello a reporter in New Hampshire "VA Hospitals Step in as Federal Program Hits Growing Pains"

The federal government hires a third-party contractor to do some of that appointing now. Health Net is who that company is now, though I think that could change. Is it fair to the Manchester VA have employees do some of this work, especially since Health Net is in theory supposed to be doing it already?

Manchester VA Assistant Director Kevin Forest answered,

"We already do a lot of that work. Choice isn’t the only program we use to provide care to veterans in the community. We coordinate care for veterans who receive care at other VAs, we coordinate care for veterans who receive care out in the local area hospitals, and we work closely with Health Net now to make sure veterans receive appointments through their provider network."

Then again, if you think any of this is new, would be good for reporters to also remind you that veterans have had to fight the government since they started fighting for the government. 

On June 17, 1783, Congress received a message from soldiers of the Continental Army stationed in Philadelphia, which demanded payment for their service during the American Revolutionary War. The soldiers threatened to take action that day if their complaints were not addressed. Congress ignored their message, but the soldiers did not act on their threat. Two days later, however, the Congress received word that a group of about 80 soldiers had left their post at Lancaster, Pennsylvania, approximately 60 miles (97 km) west of Philadelphia, and had joined with the soldiers stationed at the city barracks. The group of approximately 500 men had effective control over the weapons stores and munition depot.^[2]

Innovation Provides Independence for Vietnam Veteran Amputee

For Two Veterans, a Freedom Restored for Independence Day
New York Times
Side Street
By DAVID GONZALEZ
JULY 2, 2017

“This is the first device that intuitively moves multiple joints at one time. With other technology, you had to use the hand, then stop. Use the wrist, then stop. It wasn’t fluid.” Dr. Leif Nelson

Fred Downs, who received a state-of-the-art prosthetic arm on Friday. “With a prosthetic limb, your independence and dignity are returned to you,” he said. “This is freedom, let me tell you.” Credit David Gonzalez/The New York Times

This Fourth of July weekend, Fred Downs and Artie McAuley will treasure independence in ways most of us take for granted, like grabbing a soda from a table or reaching into a pocket to answer a cellphone. And though football season has yet to start, for the first time in nearly a half-century Mr. McAuley will be able to raise both arms to celebrate a touchdown.

These simple, daily movements represent to them freedom in an intensely personal way: Both are Army veterans who lost part or all of an arm while in the service. Mr. Downs, a platoon leader in Vietnam, lost his left arm just above the elbow when he stepped on a land mine during a firefight in 1968. Mr. McAuley was assigned to an ordnance unit in upstate New York when a car accident cost him his left arm and part of the shoulder in 1969.

The men celebrated the start of the Independence Day weekend by becoming the first two recipients, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs, of astate-of-the-art robotic arm that uses computers, sensors and motors to give back to them the simple, but essential, functions they had lost in their youth. The arm — known as Life Under Kinetic Evolution or LUKE — is the result of an eight-year research project by the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (known as Darpa) and private companies. Unlike current prosthetics available for upper limb amputees, the LUKE arm allows for smooth and simultaneous movement using motors at the shoulder, elbow, wrist and hand to flex and turn or lift and grip.

Dr. Leif Nelson, who worked on the development of the LUKE arm, said that the number of people who had lost arms relative to those who had lost legs was too small to spur private research and development. That’s when Darpa, along with the Department of Veterans Affairs, funded studies to develop the latest prosthesis. They in turn were able to enlist private companies, working with Dean Kamen, who invented the Segway.
read more here

Newer Veterans Still Battle Decades Later for PTSD Comp

Richmond-area veteran with PTSD struggles against VA system to receive benefits
Richmond Times-Dispatch
BY KATIE O'CONNOR
3 hrs ago

According to the VBA, in 2016, more than 4.3 million veterans were receiving compensation benefits, and more than 887,000 received compensation for PTSD, making it the third most prevalent disability for which veterans receive compensation.

Dylan Crosby warned his girlfriend long ago.

If she wakes up in the middle of the night to find him sleepwalking, he told her, just leave him alone and go sleep in the guest bedroom.

One night, she opened her eyes and he was sitting up in bed, fast asleep, loading his AR-15 rifle.

He still has nightmares about his time in the U.S. Navy. Sometimes he's being chased in the woods, or fighting an unknown, shadowy enemy.

“There was another time when he shook me awake because he thought he had stabbed me in the night,” recalled Megan Prillaman, a Chesterfield County teacher and Crosby’s girlfriend of three years.

Prillaman has seen what haunts Crosby from his days serving his country - what prevents him from sleeping more than an average of five hours a night and what keeps them in their home most weekends because crowds trigger him.

But the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is not convinced.

Crosby has been applying for benefits with the VA for his post-traumatic stress disorder since 2015, and has been denied twice - not because the VA does not think he has PTSD, but because, as the Veterans Benefits Administration - or VBA - claims, it was not clearly caused by his service.

"Then where did it come from?" Crosby asked, flabbergasted, during a recent interview in his Chesterfield County Home.

And according to experts, Crosby is just one of thousands of veterans dealing with very similar issues nationwide.
read more here

From this study

Hmm, do you think that this examiner was a Contractor instead of a VA Psychologist? Do you think any of this is new? While this all may be news to you, it isn't to Vietnam Veterans and families. This is just a repeat of the 70's and 80's and 90's! The difference was back then, most of the newer veterans were not even born yet. It took six years for my husband and that was in the 90's. Pretty disgraceful when you think about it!