Eagle Paid Respects At Fallen Kissimmee Police Officers Funeral

Red Huber / Orlando Sentinel 
As police officers arrive to the First Baptist Church of Orlando for funeral services for Kissimmee Police officer Matthew Baxter, left, and Sgt. Sam Howard an adult bald eagle takes flight from a cross towering over the church. The nations symbol perched atop the cross for several minutes before taking flight.
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Names Released After USS John S. McCain Goes Into a Recovery Operation

Navy names 10 sailors missing since McCain collision, begins recovery operation
Washington Post
Anna Fifield
August 24, 2017

TOKYO — The U.S. Navy on Thursday turned its search and rescue mission to find 10 missing sailors from the USS John S. McCain into a recovery operation, an acknowledgment that it does not expect to find any of them alive.

It also named the 10 who have been missing since the guided-missile destroyer and an oil tanker collided near Singapore before dawn on Monday.

“After more than 80 hours of multinational search efforts, the U.S. Navy suspended search and rescue efforts for missing USS John S. McCain (DDG 56) Sailors in an approximately 2,100-square mile area east of the Straits of Malacca and Singapore,” the 7th Fleet, to which the McCain belongs, said in a statement Thursday.

The Navy said it has recovered the remains of one sailor, Electronics Technician 3rd Class Kenneth Aaron Smith, 22, from New Jersey. The Navy said it will continue search operations inside flooded compartments in the ship.

Still missing are:

Electronics Technician 1st Class Charles Nathan Findley, 31, from Missouri

Interior Communications Electrician 1st Class Abraham Lopez, 39, from Texas

Electronics Technician 2nd Class Kevin Sayer Bushell, 26, from Maryland

Electronics Technician 2nd Class Jacob Daniel Drake, 21, from Ohio

Information Systems Technician 2nd Class Timothy Thomas Eckels Jr., 23, from Maryland

Information Systems Technician 2nd Class Corey George Ingram, 28, from New York

Electronics Technician 3rd Class Dustin Louis Doyon, 26, from Connecticut

Electronics Technician 3rd Class John Henry Hoagland III, 20, from Texas

Interior Communications Electrician 3rd Class Logan Stephen Palmer, 23, from Illinois.

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Navy Veteran Survived Two Tours, Killed Outside Texas Pub

Navy veteran killed in shooting outside Katy-area pub
KHOU
Michelle Choi and KHOU.com Staff
August 23, 2017

“Tough, hands-on type of a guy. He never wanted to sit behind a desk,” said his mother, Robin Raab. Instead, 30-year-old Corey Raab wanted to travel the world, and just like his older brothers, he did it by joining the U.S. Navy. He heroically served two tours.

HARRIS COUNTY, Texas -- A Navy veteran was killed and another man was injured after a reported argument outside of a Katy-area pub overnight.

It happened in the parking lot of EinStein's Pub on Mason near Cimarron. Investigators believe the incident started with four men involved in a verbal altercation that led to a fight. Someone pulled out a gun and opened fire.

Harris County Sheriff’s Deputies say a 30-year-old Navy veteran was killed, and a 23-year-old man was pistol-whipped He was taken to the hospital with head injuries.
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Merritt Island ceremony marks Vietnam service

Merritt Island ceremony marks Vietnam service, sacrifice decades later
Florida Today
Britt Kennerly
August 22, 2017

The "Vietnam Veterans Service Day and Welcome Home Ceremony" at Brevard Veterans Memorial Center in Merritt Island drew more than 100 cadets from eight Brevard schools, dozens of friends and family members and more than 120 Vietnam veterans for a morning of respect and gratitude.

Many Vietnam veterans still feel the aching sting of not receiving a welcome home from the public when they returned from a long and bitterly divisive war.

Tuesday, local veterans got that overdue honor from young and old, down to Air Force Junior ROTC cadets not much younger than some of the veterans were when they served in Vietnam.

And the vets, now in their late 60s and older, were grateful.
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Why Ask Why and Not Why Not?

Why Not Take Tomorrow Back in Your Hands?
Combat PTSD Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
August 23, 2017

What is worse to you, needing help from someone else, or worrying that they won't help? Oh, it is all so easy to see so many getting help online but, so hard wondering why you are not one of them. Gets pretty lonely, at best, and at worst, robs you of whatever hope you try to hang onto.

We can keep asking "why" something happened, but sooner or later, we've run out of questions before we found a single answer. I know that feeling all too well and right now, I'm in one of those times when the back of my neck hurts from my head being down so low, instead of held up high. 

The weight of the world or something much deeper? I can sit here and feel sorry for myself, asking "why" or I can add in that one extra word that opens the door to possibilities.

Instead of asking "why" add in "not" and see what happens.

I am not a veteran. I am just a human dealing with life and other people as best as I can. You have all the same problems the rest of us do but you also have the extra weight on your shoulders from serving and putting your life on the line.

When you need help, first figure out why you are not asking for it. Is it because of your pride? Nope, since you had no trouble asking for help when your life was on the line along with those you served with. Is it because you've asked before and ended up feeling worse because you were turned down, turned away or put down? So why not ask someone else?

Nothing will ever change until you try to make it happen. If you know your life sucks, then wonder why and then why not do something to make it better?

Life mattered so much to you that you were willing to risk it for others. So why not risk your pride to save your own this time?

Look at your family and the people you think you are making miserable. You must care about them or you wouldn't be thinking of what you're doing to them. Why not think of what you can do for them? Why not think of ways to make your lives better together instead of thinking about something that will cause them to blame themselves for the rest of their lives. Why not give them a chance to help you stay instead of leaving them with that?

Why let what you survived defeat you now? Why not take back control over your life instead? If your pride is stopping you from asking for help, why not think of what it can be like to stand on the other side of this darkness and help someone else get through their own?

"Why be afraid if I'm not alone"

I made Alive Day years ago, and at the end, it says that "18 veterans committed suicide today" but that was what we knew a long time ago. We know better now and now you know better too. The song on the video is "I Will Live For Love" and why not think of your life that way? You were willing to die for those you served with and loved like family. Why not be willing to live for them too?

Fort Hood Soldier's Toughest Battle is Not Born Yet

Fort Hood soldier's baby faces rare health condition
KCEN TV 6 News
Jillian Angeline

CAPT. WILLIAM LEASURE'S WIFE, ELISA LEASURE, WAS AT A ROUTINE SONOGRAM AT 20 WEEKS PREGNANT WHEN SHE HEARD THE NEWS NO PARENT WANTS TO HEAR. "THEY GOT ANOTHER SONOGRAPHER TO COME IN AND THAT’S WHEN I KNEW SOMETHING REALLY WASN’T RIGHT,” LEASURE SAID.

HOUSTON - A Fort Hood soldier returned home early from a deployment in Europe to care for his family. His soon-to-be newborn son is facing an uphill battle.

The soldier's wife, Elisa Leasure, was at a routine sonogram at 20 weeks pregnant when she heard the news no parent wants to hear.

"They got another sonographer to come in and that’s when I knew something really wasn’t right,” Leasure said.

Leasure's son, Billy Jr., was diagnosed with Heterotaxy Syndrome -- a condition which affects 1 in 10,000 births where internal organs are misplaced or duplicated. Heterotaxy means "on the different side".

“My first thought is we have to temper our excitement because I know nothing about this disease and of course one of the first things you’re presented with is hey, you should strongly consider abortion,” Captain William Leasure said.

“Rather than being upset like I was, because I was in tears, I just couldn’t think clearly," Elisa Leasure said. "His first thought was well we’ll research it and you know? Worse case scenario, instead of a football player, I’ll have a fishing buddy.”

Billy’s heart developed on the right side of his body, known as right atrial isomerism.
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Combat Medic Served with Welsh Regiment in Iraq, Faces Judge Over Jelly?

Before you think I've totally lost my mind, read the story and then understand this veteran served as a medic in combat, but couldn't get over jelly even though he was getting help. Just goes to show that not all help is good help if this happened.

Iraq veteran threatened girlfriend with knife in row over jelly

Devon Live
Ted Davenport
August 23, 2017

Former army medic had PTSD when he attacked partner

A judge has showed mercy on a former army medic who attacked his partner while suffering from post-traumatic stress caused by his service in Iraq.

Christopher Minards threatened his girlfriend with a knife and pushed her and her twin sister during a petty argument over spilled jelly.

He had just come home from working a night shift as a hotel porter when he lost his temper and threw a mug at a mirror, breaking both.

His behaviour was so violent that his partner and her twin sister both fled the home in Newton Abbot and waited for police to arrive.

Minards, aged 32, is a former army medic who has been receiving support and treatment from veteran's charities for post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) dating back to his service with 4th Rifles and the Welsh Regiment in Iraq.
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Vietnam Veteran's Searched The Wall, For More Than Names to Him

Veteran, family look for names of dozens of friends on Moving Wall

By Lydia Goerner
Aug 21, 2017

“I guess my dad is one of the lucky ones because he had a very successful life,” Funfar said. But her father has struggled with PTSD ever since he left Vietnam at age 23. 

“I heard him tell another Vietnam veteran when we were at the wall, ‘Maybe we’re not supposed to forget,’” Funfar said.

Courtesy of: Kristi Funfar Barry Funfar finds the names of the men in his unit on the Moving Wall.

Kristi Funfar gained a better understanding of her dad, Barry Funfar, a Vietnam veteran, when they went to the Moving Wall together, where she learned that 111 people her dad trained with were killed in action in Vietnam.

Barry, a door gunner from 1968 to 1969, went looking for 39 names of the men in his unit who did not come back, but after he visited the wall he recognized a lot of other names. Barry didn’t find all the names of those in his unit because he became “overwhelmed,” Funfar said, but he made rubbings of the men who were his closest friends to send to their families.

“I got choked up just watching how it was for him,” Funfar said. “I don’t really have words to describe how sad.”

Funfar, who lives in Falmouth, said her dad explained that, “he’ll find a name that he remembers and then picture a face and picture moments. They never got to come home and fill their dreams and have a family.”

Barry completed 127 missions as a door gunner, firing weapons while aboard a helicopter. This job was so dangerous that door gunners were read their last rites before they went on a mission.

“He’s never said this, but I think it’s almost a guilty, ‘Why did I get to come home?’ type of thing,” Funfar said.
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Search Suspended for Black Hawk Missing Soldiers

Missing soldiers identified as Coast Guard ends search for Black Hawk crew

By Star-Advertiser staff

August 21, 2017

Coast Guard officials announced today that they are suspending the nearly week-long active search for five Army aviators who went missing Tuesday night when their Black Hawk helicopter crashed into the ocean about 2 miles west off of Kaena Point.

The Army also formally identified the crew members today as:

1st Lt. Kathryn M. Bailey, 26, of Hope Mills, N.C.;

 Chief Warrant Officer 3 Brian M. Woeber, 41, Decatur, Ala.

 Chief Warrant Officer 2 Stephen T. Cantrell, 32, Wichita Falls, Texas

Staff Sgt. Abigail R. Milam, 33, Jenkins, Ky.

 Sgt. Michael L. Nelson, 30, Antioch, Tenn.

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Australia Commander Opens Up About PTSD

Going public: How PTSD broke AFP commander and Australia’s strongest man

News.com
Debbie Schipp
August 21, 2017

AS Australia’s strongest man, former Australian Federal Police Commander Grant Edwards’ physical strength was pure, brutish, inarguable, indisputable power.

So he was as astounded as anyone when he splintered apart mentally.

The unravelling, when it came, left him sobbing uncontrollably. And once the tears started, the flood would not stop. The stone man broke.

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) was the toll on a man who had been at the forefront of child exploitation and trafficking investigations.

It was 2003, the early days of the spread of internet, and it was grim, sickening, gut-wrenching work.

You didn’t talk about it, he told ABC’s Australian Story in a report on Monday night.

You hardened up. Maybe had a few drinks. And then a lot more. The hangover would mask it.

As AFP Commissioner Andrew Colvin concedes: “You didn’t talk about your weaknesses, you didn’t talk about your vulnerabilities, because that was a sign you weren’t doing your job, you weren’t strong enough or cut out to be a police officer,” Commissioner Colvin said.

Earlier this year, the suicide of an officer at the AFP’s Melbourne headquarters led to a flood of complaints from former and existing AFP officers, chronicled by news.com.au’s Megan Palin.
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