Was Dillan Tabares One of the Wrongly Discharged with PTSD

When reporters go to cover more of this story, finding out if Tabares was one of the thousands with "bad paper" discharges instead of being treated for PTSD. 

If he was, then being shot by police on Friday night should be part of the historical account about how we treat those who serve.

Man Killed By Huntington Beach Officer Was Navy Veteran, Says Mother Looking For Answers

CBS Los Angeles
September 24, 2017

HUNTINGTON BEACH (CBSLA.com) — The mother of a 27-year-old man fatally shot by a Huntington Beach police officer Friday says her son was a Navy veteran who suffered from mental health issues.

Cell phone video shows the moments leading up to Dillan Tabares’ death, reported around 9:40 a.m. in the parking lot of a 7-Eleven at 6012 Edinger Avenue.

In one of two videos, Tabares appears to swing at the Huntington Beach police officer and the two wrestle and fall to the ground. Another angle shows Tabares appear to grab something from the officer’s waistband. Seconds later, the officer opens fire seven times, killing Tabares.

The victim’s mother, Tiffany Tabares, was at the scene grieving with loved ones Sunday evening. 

She said her son received a less-than-honorable discharge from the Navy and she’s looking for answers.read more here

Combat PTSD Wounded Times Made Top Ten PTSD Blog Award

WOW after 10 years my site has won an award and made it into the top ten!

Feedspot PTSD Blogs List

The Best PTSD blogs from thousands of top PTSD blogs in our index using search and social metrics. Data will be refreshed once a week.

These blogs are ranked based on following criteria

• Google reputation and Google search ranking
• Influence and popularity on Facebook, twitter and other social media sites
• Quality and consistency of posts.
• Feedspot’s editorial team and expert review

Top 75 PTSD Blogs Winners

CONGRATULATIONS to every blogger that has made this Top PTSD Blogs list! This is the most comprehensive list of best PTSD blogs on the internet and I’m honoured to have you as part of this! I personally give you a high-five and want to thank you for your contribution to this world.

If your blog is one of the Top 75 PTSD blogs, you have the honour of displaying the following badge on your site. Use the below code to display this badge proudly on your blog. You deserve it!:

ADL Service Dog Missing in Shelton Connecticut

Reward offered for missing service dog in Shelton 
WTNH.com 
Staff
Published: September 24, 2017

SHELTON, Conn. (WTNH) — A $500 reward is being offered for a missing service dog in Shelton. ADL Service Dogs says a poodle named Raven disappeared last night from Wellington Restaurant in Shelton. 

The company thinks the dog was stolen, so they do not know if he will be wearing a collar. Raven is described as a brown male standard poodle with a few white hairs on his back. He has been training to help and live with a disabled Southern Connecticut State University student. 
go here for more information

NFL Afghanistan Veteran Army Ranger Stood Alone For Anthem

Alejandro Villanueva, a U.S. Army veteran, was the lone Steeler on the field during national anthem

SB Nation

by James Dator  

Sep 24, 2017

Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin explained on Sunday morning why his team would remain in the locker room during the national anthem in Chicago. He didn’t want his team to be part of a political discussion, or there to be division in the locker room as a result of players protesting or not protesting. But in the end there was one player who took the field, offensive tackle Alejandro Villanueva.

Villanueva’s career in the NFL didn’t begin until 2014. Prior to that, he served three tours of duty in Afghanistan, where he served as a Captain in the army, as well as being an army ranger.

Villanueva was critical of Colin Kaepernick’s anthem protest in August of 2016, when he said:

"I don't know if the most effective way is to sit down during the national anthem with a country that's providing you freedom, providing you $16 million a year ... when there are black minorities that are dying in Iraq and Afghanistan for less than $20,000 a year."

However, he was also quick to acknowledge the problems in this country.

"I will be the first one to hold hands with Colin Kaepernick and do something about the way minorities are being treated in the United States, the injustice that is happening with police brutality, the justice system, inequalities in pay," Villanueva said. "You can't do it by looking away from the people that are trying to protect our freedom and our country." 
read more here

Double Amputee Vietnam Veteran Helps Others in War Zones

Vietnam veteran builds prosthetics in war zones
Charleston Gazette Mail
Douglas Imbrogno
September 22, 2017

“The majority of my patients — 90 percent of them — are war-related,” Evans said. “Land-mine victims or gunshot victims. Victims of conflict.” But at clinics and rehabilitation centers from El Salvador to Iraq, he and his technicians are not ones to turn anyone away.

Courtesy photo - Dave Evans often sees the youngest victims of the Syrian conflict in need of prosthetic limbs, like this young girl from a refugee camp who came to the clinic where the Cabin Creek native was working last year in Amman, Jordan.

Dave Evans’ life didn’t end the day he lost both his legs below the knees in Vietnam.

But the explosive booby trap the Cabin Creek native stepped on along a rice paddy dike on Dec. 4, 1970, would determine the course of his life to come.

Evans looks back at his experience as a soldier in the new Suzanne Higgins documentary, “Vietnam: West Virginians Remember,” which screens at 7 p.m. Sunday on West Virginia Public Broadcasting, in advance of an episode of the Ken Burns and Lynn Novick documentary, “Vietnam.”

Evans is quoted quite piercingly in the documentary about what Vietnam meant to small-town West Virginia teens like him, shipped off to a place they could not have found on a map.

“When you send an 18-year-old kid to war, and they cross that bridge from peacetime into wartime, there’s no way they ever come back,” Evans said. “That bridge is burnt. You’ve changed forever.”

He looks back in the documentary to his life as a combat Marine, but the notable life that came after Vietnam for him is worth consideration, too.
read more here

Believe 208 For First Responders Fighting PTSD

Believe 208 5K helps first responders fight depression, PTSD

WFSB 3 News
By Sujata Jain
By Joseph Wenzel IV, News Editor
September 24, 2017

EAST HARTFORD, CT (WFSB) -

"We do peer-support training and anything that our officers need to support them and let them know they're appreciated," Trish Buchanan said. "This is also about suicide awareness, officer wellness."

More than 500 people will lace up their running shoes for the annual Believe 208 5K run on Sunday morning.

The fourth annual run supports Believe 208, which is an organization that connects first responders with resources to fight depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.

"Taking the tragedy and turning it into something positive for all our first responders," Trish Buchanan, who is the founder of Believe 208, said. 

The event was established in memory of East Hartford Police Officer Paul Buchanan, who took his own life in 2013. Paul's wife Trish Buchanan said he suffered depression and post-traumatic stress disorder from 24 years on the job.

"He asked us to do this in his memory to help others like him," Trish Buchanan said. 
read more here

Central Florida Leathernecks Poker Run for ADL Service Dogs

Saturday I was out at Seminole Harley Davidson for a poker fun sponsored by Central Florida Leathernecks for ADL Service Dogs. Donna Neff is paring a PTSD veteran with his own service dog to help him heal. As you know, service dogs are absolutely wonderful!

Donna Neff of ADL Service Dogs

Loved the ladies room!

Two of my buddy babies...since I'm old enough to be their Mom...and act like it too!

Why Do Some PTSD Veteran Caregivers Matter More?

Why Do Some PTSD Veteran Caregivers Matter More?
Combat PTSD Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
September 24, 2017

None of us should matter more than the rest of us. So why is it that only Post 9-11 veterans seem to matter more than all other generations? Do people simply assume the others have all they need? Do they think our generation has nothing to teach them?

There are no new wounds, no new heartaches, no new struggles for the veterans or the families they come home to. When we read about the younger spouses struggling to help their veterans, we are shocked that they still know very little. Shocked? Yes, because when our veterans came home, we had to learn on our own and lean on each other.

There is a story out of Ohio, "Veterans' spouses get pampered" but only OEF and OIF spouses seem to matter.

Read the article because it tells the story of what it is like when they come home to all of us. None of this is new but as social media seems to have inflicted oblivious reporters seeking an easy way of doing their jobs, they flock to what they see, instead of searching for the truth. Our generation and the ones before us feel as if we didn't matter then and we don't matter now.

“I didn’t know any of this,” Megan Cain said. “We had a young son. We were so grateful for my husband to come back. When he wasn’t the same, and he had all these issues, I was lost. It would be the middle of the night, and he’d walk the perimeter of our house with a baseball bat. He knew it wasn’t rational, but he felt they would come back to retaliate for what he’d done.”

We could have told her. After all, it is exactly the same thing all of us went through when no one noticed.

They still don't! We don't want them to have any less. Actually, we want them to have a lot more than we had, but we never planned on being left behind. 

Two New Haven Police Officers Shot During Standoff

2 police officers shot: Suspect still barricaded in Connecticut home

FOX 5 News
Erin Vogel
September 23, 2017

WASHINGTON (Sinclair Broadcast Group)- Two police officers were shot Saturday and the suspect is still barricaded within the home in New Haven, Connecticut.

The New Haven Police told Sinclair, the incident occurred around 10:30 a.m. Saturday. The New Haven Police were alerted to the gunshots by a report from their "Shot Spotter" system.

The incident occurred on the 600 block of Elm Street. When officers arrived on the scene they learned a 51-year-old woman was shot and ran from the home to a neighbor’s house. She was then transported to a nearby hospital and is in critical condition. Police are not releasing her name at this time.

read more here

LZ Michigan Vietnam Veterans Honored at the Wall

West Michigan veterans celebrated at LZ Michigan event

FOX 17 Michigan
Rebecca Russell
September 24, 2017

COMSTOCK PARK, Mich.– A big community event at Fifth Third Ballpark on Saturday honoring West Michigan veterans. It was put on by LZ Michigan, a group whose goal is to remember, honor and celebrate community veterans and their families.

“There are a lot of activities from the Wall That Heals, to kids areas, to the ceremony with the most recent Medal of Honor recipient James McCloughan as well as music and lots of presentations for and from community veterans,” said Tim Eernisse, WGVU Director of Development and Marketing. 

It was an emotional day for some checking out the Wall That Heals, a replica of the Vietnam Wall.

“It does bring up emotions,” said Ted Roper, a Vietnam veteran. “It makes you think back to how all these guys could’ve been lost and it makes you sad when you think about it.”

There are more than 2,600 names on the wall from Michigan.

“You see your high school friends on here,” said Bob Woodfor, a Vietnam veteran. “People you associated with during your life, this is where you find them.”

Also in attendance, Marine Corps veteran Jeff DeYoung, whose bomb sniffing dog Cena was laid to rest last month after being diagnosed with bone cancer. DeYoung now uses his custom Jeep as a traveling memorial for Cena, sharing their story to those who come to see it.

“I get to tell them about me and Cena and I have photos of our story and articles and things like that,” said DeYoung. “I don’t want Cena’s passing to be in vain or forgotten, so our lifestyle and work is continuing, but more than most it’s another way for us to reach out.”

read more here