Brookfield honors Vietnam War Donut Dollie who never came home
State Route 7 in Brookfield was named after Ginny Kirsch, who died in Vietnam in 1970 while serving as a Donut Dollie WKBN News Ohio By Tyler Trill Published: July 30, 2017
BROOKFIELD, Ohio (WKBN) – State Route 7 in Brookfield was named after a local Donut Dollie on Sunday who never made it home from the Vietnam War.
During the war, the American Red Cross sent groups of women overseas called Donut Dollies. They would serve coffee and doughnuts, as well as participate in other programs, to boost the morale of the soldiers.
Brookfield High School graduate Ginny Kirsch was a Dollie in 1970 — and she was honored Sunday.
“It means the world to the Kirsch family to have all of you here today,” Ginny’s sister Ann Kirsch-Keag said.
The Kirsch family and dozens of people recited what they call Ginny’s Prayer on Brookfield’s center green.
Four of Ginny sisters shared stories of the Vietnam veteran.
Close-knit military community feels pain of deaths in wars the nation has forgotten
STARS AND STRIPES By DIANNA CAHN Published: July 30, 2017
The procession crossed the base that straddles the Kentucky-Tennessee border, past training grounds where members of the 101st Airborne Division prepare for war, past buildings where they reunite with loved ones when they return and past the headquarters where a long corridor bears the names of the thousands of “Screaming Eagle” soldiers who didn’t make it home. In wars that most have forgotten about, troops are still dying from hostile fire.
FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. — Rain came in a deluge on the Friday of Sgt. William Bays’ funeral.
A 101st Airborne Division soldier prays at the memorial service for Sgt. William Bays, who was killed in action in Nangarhar Province, Afghanistan on June 10, 2017. MICHAEL S. DARNELL/STARS AND STRIPES
“He was a friend, a peer, a husband,” Sgt. Lucas Schultze, a fellow soldier of the 1st Battalion, 187th Infantry Regiment, cried as he spoke of the more senior comrade who taught him to lead. “A father, a son and a brother.” read more here
No one seems willing to say why he had to wait all this time after it was approved by Congress
In 2016, Defense Secretary Ash Carter recommended McCloughan for the Medal of Honor. But since the medal must be awarded within five years of the recipient’s actions, Congress needed to pass a bill waiving the time limit. President Barack Obama signed the measure in late 2016, but he didn’t get the opportunity to recognize McCloughan with the medal before his term ended this year.
A soldier survived 48 hours of terror in Vietnam. Today, he received the Medal of Honor. Washington Post By Andrew deGrandpre July 31, 2017
It is difficult to assess which of James McCloughan’s near-death encounters in Vietnam was the most harrowing. There were so many. From the moment his infantry unit hit the field March 9, 1969, they encountered a ferocious enemy determined to repulse the Americans at all costs.
“I got initiated the very first day,” McCloughan, 71, recalled in a recent interview with Army biographers. “We hit our first ambush. We had a man die. Had a few people to patch up. And I shot a man. That’s a lot to digest in your first day.
“But I didn’t know I was going to face anything like Tam Ky,” he added, alluding to the location of a vicious 48-hour battle, three months after he arrived in Vietnam, during which the 23-year-old combat medic risked his life at least nine times to save wounded or stranded comrades — 10 men in all — and prevented a much larger North Vietnamese force from overrunning them entirely. read more here
Simple and Easy for You, Not Helping Them Combat PTSD Wounded Times Kathie Costos July 30, 2017 If working with veterans does not hurt you, then you are doing it wrong and for the wrong reasons. Simple as that. It is one thing that I have dealt with for 35 years. My heart breaks when they are suffering. It shatters when they will not believe that they can heal. My blood pressure rises when they hit their emotional lows, but what consumes my days is knowing what they are like on the other side of their darkest days and trying to get others out of their way. If you have been a reader of Combat PTSD Wounded Times, you know I have no patience for all these stunts raising awareness that veterans are committing suicide. That "effort" does no good for anyone other than the ones seeking attention for what they know nothing about. Helping them heal, changing the outcome, requires dedication to those in need of a reason to stay here.
I had to learn the hard way and for selfish reasons because when I fell in love with my veteran, I had to go to the library to learn why he was so different from the veterans in my family. That was back in 1982. Yep, I'm old but I was in my early 20's back then.
Without the internet, we knew that healing PTSD had to come with an approach of the trinity-mind-body-spirit and we were right. It also requires a great deal of compassion for those working with these veterans but, to tell you the truth, it is all too often coming with a tremendous price we pay. There is no way to do this without getting "air support" through prayer and asking for guidance. To find the right words to use comes with being quiet and listening. To find the will to stop grieving for losses comes with being able to forgive ourselves.
That is something I had to do after my husband's nephew committed suicide after I tried to get him to listen. It still haunts me after all these years, running the attempts through my head and the "would have, could have, should have" questions there will never be any answers to.
Oh, but I can assure you that there is not a day that goes by when I think this is not worth every moment of heartache or floods of tears that flow reading about one more that never seems to be the "one too many" folks keep talking about.
That one too many is the member of a family. He/she is a brother, sister, friend, and they lost their battle while others judge them and those who loved them judge themselves far too harshly.
So, take about half an hour and listen to an Iraq veteran talking about putting the gun to his head one day and the other day when he discovered he was not just forgiven, he had a new mission to save more lives after war.
The VA is paying attention to this aspect of healing.
Treating veterans’ ‘inner wounds’: The role of spirituality Center of Excellence at the Canandaigua VA making strides in mission to prevent suicideDaily Messanger By Julie Sherwood Posted Jul 29, 2017
It’s no surprise that helping veterans find meaning in their lives after military service is crucial. Wounds of war, mental and physical, take their toll — not to mention separation from community and loved ones.
Last month, Gulf war veteran Ken Bardo of Phelps talked about the struggle. So did Vietnam veteran Gene Simes of Walworth. Both men have been in counseling for years, among other treatments, and expect they will need help for the rest of their lives.
“Sometimes we cry because it hurts,” said Simes.
What is surprising to some is how powerful a new treatment — based on an age-old philosophy that spirituality is good for you — could be in helping vets find meaning in their lives and thus help prevent veteran suicide.
For many veterans “self-image has just plummeted,” said Canandaigua VA Chaplain Robert Searle, who is behind a research study at the Center of Excellence for Suicide Prevention at the Canandaigua VA Medical Center. The study is about the effect of spiritual care on preventing suicide. Veterans feel guilt, they have “inner wounds,” Searle said. When a person is broken and bruised inside as many veterans are, they need to feel forgiveness and that their life has meaning, he said. read more here
In other words, you fought for those you loved and were willing to die for them. Fight again for those you love and be willing to live for them.
If you are working with a group that is not working for the right reasons, then consider what Jesus told his disciples as He sent them on their way to do God's work,
Matthew 10:14 New International Version (NIV)
14 If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, leave that home or town and shake the dust off your feet.
Confession, when I wrote Women Don't Fake it I was actually out to show it was a male thing, but shockingly I discovered a lot more females claiming service than I thought I would. Well, looks like there is yet one more to add to the list.
This Ain't Hell was on a link in this following story. If you want a reminder of how it is so much easier to claim valor, than actually do it, you need to go to this page and read some more stories just like the following. Was Banning school trustee a nurse in Vietnam? She will resign as some question her claim The Press-Enterprise By CRAIG SHULTZ PUBLISHED: July 24, 2017
Banning school board member Jan Spann said she will be resigning her seat amid questions over her claims she served as a nurse in Vietnam.
In a May 24, 2015 Facebook post, and later in a newspaper interview, Spann talked about serving two tours in Vietnam as a medevac nurse between 1968 and 1971.
But a website run by combat veterans printed records showing that Spann was attending classes at Long Beach State at the time and a letter from the National Personnel Records Center states that the organization could not find records of her service. read more here
Raw Emotion, Gripping Visuals in New 'We, the Marines' Film
Military.com by Hope Hodge Seck 28 Jul 2017
These scenes are narrated with warmth, and often wry humor, by Gene Hackman, a Marine veteran who came out of retirement at age 87 to participate in the project.
The biggest challenge in filming a documentary about Marines for the giant screen wasn't getting the breathless aerial shots of troops jumping from the back of aircraft or rappelling from mountainsides.
It was learning to work with leathernecks and their capricious and unpredictable training schedules, said Brad Ohlund, director of photography for the film.
Last week, the National Museum of the Marine Corps in Quantico, Virginia, christened its new giant-screen Medal of Honor Theater with the debut of "We, the Marines," a 40-minute journey from boot camp to the Corps' most rigorous and dynamic training locations across the country.
Shot almost entirely digitally, the film is visually sumptuous and constantly entertaining, with wide vistas and up-close views of the dirt, sweat, tears and snot that go into the making of a Marine.
The film was the result of years of work and proved a daunting task, Ohlund told Military.com at its premiere Saturday.
read more here We, The Marines - Official IMAX Trailer - UHD
For disabled vet, battle rages on as feds deny disability payments
Rapid City Journal Tom Griffith Journal staff 7 min ago
“Somehow I was deemed no longer disabled by Social Security, and it’s been an absolute hellish nightmare. I wish I wasn’t disabled and that my leg grew back, and that my arm functioned, and that my gonads hadn’t been blown off and I no longer needed testosterone shots, and I could hear, and I didn’t have PTSD, and that I didn’t have a traumatic brain injury." Wayne Swier
Hannah Hunsinger Journal Staff
For 31-year-old Wayne Swier, a U.S. Army combat veteran who suffered devastating injuries from an improvised explosive device seven years ago in Afghanistan, this summer should have been a season of solace and celebration.
But fate and a federal agency seemed to have conspired to turn it into a nightmare.
Swier is set to marry his sweetheart in a week, and the couple plans to move into a new home near Johnson Siding built by the nonprofit Homes for Our Troops later in August.
By any account, it should be a summer of love for the Stephens High School graduate who spent the better part of two tours with the 101st Airborne’s “Band of Brothers” unit fighting the Taliban in the remote mountainous regions of Afghanistan.
Instead, in May the Social Security Administration deemed him no longer disabled and cut off his monthly disability checks, in a manner as harsh as the way that IED blew off his leg in a small Afghan village in November 2010. read more here
Local charity donates $92K towards treatment for veterans suffering from PTSD
By Click2Houston.com Staff
Posted: 7:50 PM, July 29, 2017 HOUSTON - At Stubbs Harley Davidson, on Telephone Road, a motorcycle ride for charity roared to life.
The local charity, called the Bigass Crawfish Bash Foundation wanted to boost their donation to a camp that serves veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder or PTSD.
The charity was headed to Camp Hope in Northwest Houston with a donation of nearly $100,000.
For a camp that runs on donations, these kinds of checks are a special delivery. “It basically allows us to not charge anybody a dime for our services,” said David Maulsby, the executive director of Camp Hope.
Camp Hope allows veterans who suffer from PTSD to come with their families for six months and get treatment at no cost to the veterans. “There are a few places we wind up, in jail, in a coffin or in the streets,” said Zack Alexander, a veteran who came back from Iraq with PTSD and substance-abuse problems. “They helped me to get sober. They helped to deal with the issues I had, that I didn't know I had. If it wasn't for Camp Hope, I wouldn't be here today.”
read more here
Korean War not forgotten by veterans Winona Daily News Kilat Fitzgerald 3 hours ago
With the Korean War overshadowed by World War II beforehand, and the Vietnam War coming shortly after, many failed to see the Korean War's impact. People were sick of war, and the conflict on the small Asian peninsula faded from public memory.
WINONA -- Veterans of the Korean War recognized the 64th anniversary of the armistice that brought about the ceasefire on Thursday.
Often cited as the Forgotten War, the conflict still casts a long shadow over current international politics.
Winona native Neil Hinkley was among the first to be deployed when war broke out in late June 1950.
“We got right in the thick of it right from the start,” Hinkley said. He was among the first three divisions to be deployed at the outbreak of war.
Hinkley’s unit, the 10th Infantry Division, was en route to Japan from Alaska, halfway across the Pacific, when North Korea “started that ruckus” in late June of 1950.
The North Korean blitz across the border was supported by the Soviet Union with weaponry and equipment, pushing back United Nations forces into the Busan (pronounced Pusan) Perimeter. read more here How Korean War Started
Organization provides comforts of home to those who serve the country
Eagle Tribune Breanna Edelstein July 30, 2017
"We meet the vet wherever they are in life. Whatever we can do, we do. And if we can't, we find someone who can."Julie Weymouth
Ryan Hutton/Staff photo Homeland Heroes Foundation Executive Director Julie Weymouth sits at her desk in Hudson warehouse.
"Weymouth in 2012 started her effort with a trip to the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, where she sat down with a chaplain and asked for some direction."
SALEM, N.H. — The Royer family watched the black faux-leather couch in their Rochester living room slowly dip and sag for a decade without being able to afford a new one.
Several weeks ago, they finally lugged it out of their home when they were given a new one, along with other free housewares, thanks to widespread community support for a local organization dedicated to helping active-duty military personnel, veterans and their loved ones.
Julie Weymouth, executive director of the Homeland Heroes Foundation of Salem, has seen the scenario play out hundreds of times since she helped start the nonprofit back in 2012. For a variety of reasons including financial hardship, emotional struggles and other circumstances, many who have served their country find themselves in need after returning home. So, too, do families while a loved one is deployed.
Several tours to Afghanistan had taken a toll on Jeremy Royer, 37, a U.S. Army Veteran. The father and husband spent significant time on the aging living-room sofa, struggling with the residual effects of post-traumatic stress disorder, night terrors and unshakably aching joints.
Finances already were tight when his 37-year-old wife, Miranda, was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma last fall. Doctors said the football-sized mass in her chest was encroaching quickly on her heart, and she'd need to fight for her life. read more here
