Orlando POW MIA Recognition Ceremony

This morning at Orlando City Hall, the annual POW MIA Recognition Ceremony was held with full honors to those who served this nation. For right now, here are the pictures. But tomorrow, you won't want to miss the videos. I am still editing them.

UCF AFROTC Practicing to make the Remembrance perfect 

John Murphy, President Semper Fidelis America and member of VFW Post 4287

John Mina, Orlando Chief of Police and Veteran

VFW Post 2093 Band

John Murphy with Daila "Dee" Espeut-Jones, Veteran and Mayor' s Veterans Advisory Council and member of Semper Fidelis America

Daughters of the American Revolution

Center, Andrew Ewasko Vice Chairman

Commissioner Regina I. Hill

Chief Roderick Williams

Behind Chief Mina, Michael Waldrop, Chairman Mayor's Veterans Council

The Highland Singers Lake Highland Preparatory 

Second from right, Vietnam Veteran Ex-POW Joseph William Kittinger II

Congratulations! You survived yesterday with PTSD

You Survived Yesterday, Do It Again
Combat PTSD Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
September 27, 2017


Since you are reading this today, safe to assume you survived yesterday with PTSD. You survived all the other days, years and decades since you got home from serving in combat zones or on missions around the world. You put your life on the line and won.

Bet you never thought of it that way. If you are still here, then "it" lost! If you served, then the life of others mattered so much to you, you were willing to die for their sake. So why are so many thinking of taking their own lives now?

The bigger question is why are senior veterans the majority of veterans committing suicide? Yes, your generation. 65% of the suicides reported by the VA study are over the age of 50!

THE REPORT CONCLUDES:

• Approximately 65 percent of all Veterans who died from suicide in 2014 were 50 years of age or older.

• Veterans accounted for 18 percent of all deaths from suicide among U.S. adults. This is a decrease from 22 percent in 2010.

• Since 2001, U.S. adult civilian suicides increased 23 percent, while Veteran suicides increased 32 percent in the same time period. After controlling for age and gender, this makes the risk of suicide 21 percent greater for Veterans.

• Since 2001, the rate of suicide among U.S. Veterans who use VA services increased by 8.8 percent, while the rate of suicide among Veterans who do not use VA services increased by 38.6 percent.

• In the same time period, the rate of suicide among male Veterans who use VA services increased 11 percent, while the rate of suicide increased 35 percent among male Veterans who do not use VA services.

• In the same time period, the rate of suicide among female Veterans who use VA services increased 4.6 percent while the rate of suicide increased 98 percent among female Veterans who do not use VA services.

Most of those years between war and now, were taken up with being busy. Work, raising families and other things didn't leave you with much time to think about yourself. Now with retirement, too much time to think of what you brought back home with you.

What you may be missing is the other things you brought home with you, like courage, compassion and dedication.

Why live all those years and give up now? You don't have leave us now as long as you understand what PTSD is, why you have it and the most important message of all is, you still have time to heal and see tomorrow living a much better life! 

TBI-PTSD Army Veteran Needs Help Going Back Home

Wounded Veteran’s Home Still Unlivable Since 2015 Floods

ABC News Columbia
Angela Rogers
September 26, 2017

According to Richland County, the property management firm hired non-licensed contractors, so the $91,000 Santana spent on fixing flooring, walls, electrical, and heating and cooling all goes to waste, since the work was done without permits, not up to FEMA code, and violated regulations.

Columbia, SC (WOLO)– Since the historic flooding of 2015, a now-retired wounded Army veteran is having to fight a different type of battle, one he never expected.

“Being a wounded warrior, with TBI, essential tremor, and PTSD, it’s very emotionally draining because I can’t, no matter what my wife and I do, we just cannot find resolution, and it’s been two years. And we want to move on but we can’t.” Maj. Miguel Santana 

Santana served his country for 26 years. He did a tour in Afghanistan, and two tours in Iraq. When he was deployed his family lived in Germany and he entrusted a property manager to take care of his home in the Midlands, especially when the devastating floods of 2015 hit.

“I could not physically be here. I trusted this property manager, that we had a signed contract, and I trusted the contractors to do what they said they were going to do. And everything was being supervised and managed by the property management company and they failed us,” Santana said.
read more here

Meditating PTSD Veterans Use Chance to Change

Meditating through the stress
Tribune Chronicle
Emily Earnhart
September 27, 2017

“We follow up at 3 months, 6 months and a year. I have seen participants look 10 years younger by the end. I have had veterans come in with suicidal ideations that at the end of the course have hope for their futures.” Leslye Moore

WARREN — A dozen local veterans spent Tuesday afternoon breathing and meditating their way through their Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and service-related injuries.

Tribune Chronicle / R. Michael Semple Local veterans, from left, Matt Vadas, Herm Breuer and Michael O’Brien, all of Warren, talk together in a group setting Tuesday while participating in a Power Breath Meditation workshop at the Trumbull County Veterans Services Commission in Warren. The workshop was part of the Project Welcome Home Troops and taught veterans the Sudarshan kriya yoga (SKY) breathing and meditation practice.

Through the Sudarshan kriya yoga (SKY) breathing practice, military members and their families are getting the chance to change their minds and bodies and to heal through Power Breath Meditation workshops brought to Ohio by Project Welcome Home Troops. About 20 veterans involved in the free program are meeting this week at the Trumbull County Veterans Services Commission in Warren for workshops focused on stress reduction and coping skills.
read more here

Refinancing Schemes Target Veterans Security

Government cracks down on home refinancing scheme targeting veterans 
Chicago Tribune
Kenneth R. Harney
September 26, 2017

In an interview, Michael R. Bright, acting Ginnie Mae president, said some of the abuses he is seeing hark back to 2005 and 2006 — heyday years of the boom before the bust. 

Iraq war veteran Vernon Poling, 44, walks through a courtyard past a giant American flag at Potter's Lane, an apartment complex made out of shipping containers in Midway City, Calif. 

Federal officials plan to crack down on what they view as predatory lending schemes — reminiscent of the toxic practices seen during the housing boom — targeted at thousands of veterans nationwide who have U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs home loans.

The alleged abuses involve serial refinancings that generate hefty fees for lenders and loan brokers but leave borrowers in worse financial shape than they were before the transaction. Lenders are accused of dangling teaser interest rates, “cash out” windfalls and lower monthly payments, sometimes purportedly using shady marketing materials that resemble official information from the Department of Defense. Not infrequently, say officials, borrowers end up in negative equity positions, owing more on their loan balance than their house is worth.

Officials at the Government National Mortgage Association, better known as Ginnie Mae, say some veterans are being flooded with misleading refi offers and are signing up without assessing the costs and benefits. Some properties are being refinanced multiple times a year, thanks to “poaching” by lenders who aggressively solicit competitors’ recent borrowers to refi them again and roll the fees into a new loan balance, officials say. 

“We’re seeing borrowers refinance three times in less than six months and (their) loan balances going up.” Homeowners also are dumping fixed-rate loans for riskier adjustables" Michael Brightread more here

Apologies Lacking On Suicide Awareness

All of US Needs to Apologize to Veterans
Combat PTSD Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
September 26, 2017

It seems that everyone in this country is offended by something and they demand their feelings be respected. Well, I'm jumping on that platform too! I won't take a knee in protest but I will, as I have, in prayer. I will not bow low but will hop on top of the highest soapbox I can find. (And I hate heights) I will not sit down in indifference while others take walks--do pushups--pull stunts to get attention for themselves while pretending to care about the fact that more veterans are committing suicide while they do absolutely nothing to change the outcome.

While some think that "suicide awareness" is new, it isn't and it hasn't improved the outcomes.

A 2009 U.S. Army report indicates military veterans have double the suicide rate of non-veterans, and more active-duty soldiers are dying from suicide than in combat in the Iraq War (2003–2011) and War in Afghanistan (2001–present).^[3] Colonel Carl Castro, director of military operational medical research for the Army, noted "there needs to be a cultural shift in the military to get people to focus more on mental health and fitness.

And yet again, most cases of suicides tied to military service are tied to PTSD after they survived combat!

The truth is this country has been trying to "prevent" suicides longer than I've been alive.

In 1958, the first suicide prevention center in the United States opened in Los Angeles, California, with funding from the U.S. Public Health Service. Other crisis intervention centers followed. In 1966, the Center for Studies of Suicide Prevention (later the Suicide Research Unit) was established at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). This was followed by the creation of national nonprofit organizations dedicated to the cause of suicide prevention.

But just like then, people got paid to try to do something but too many thought that anything was better than nothing. They were wrong.  You can get some basic facts to get you started on this here or search this site with military suicides in the search field. For now, this will be long enough on its own.

The line of people needing to apologize to veterans is a long one.

Top of the list: Awareness Raisers

If you are running around the country asking for money to raise awareness, I think you should be included as the biggest part of the problematic outcome. What did you think you'd accomplish? Fame and fortune for yourself or getting a veteran to take the gun away from his/her head when you couldn't even be bothered to read the fucking report you stole the headline from?

The reports are out there and if you gave a shit, the way you pretend you do, then you'd actually read the reports and where the data came from, as well as what was left out! 

Then if the cause was worth any real effort, you'd actually invest some time in finding out what the hell you were up against, like managing to grasp the fact that the DOD has their numbers and the number of veterans reported does not include them. You'd also be aware of the fact that the majority of the veterans committing suicide are OVER THE AGE OF 50 AND THEY ARE THE ONES YOU IGNORE! If you didn't do anything to honestly earn the money, then give it to the families that had to bury their family member.

Congress

Oh, Congress! You need to apologize for not even bothering to figure out if the Bills you want your names on will actually do any good or not before you hold a news conference to act as veterans really matter. We've read all of them going over the last deadly decade to know that none of you really have a clue. Hell, especially when you're repeating numbers that are not real and the biggest culprits are ignoring the fact that their own state DOES NOT HAVE MILITARY SERVICE ON THE DEATH CERTIFICATES TO EVEN BE INCLUDED IN ANY OF THE NUMBERS BEING REPORTED AS "FACT."

And last on the list to save some time, since this could go on forever, is me!
For 35 years I have been unable to figure out how to make sure that we stop burying more after war than we do during it. I've been watching it all, reading more than most would even know had been printed. I have invested more hours in this work than I get paid to do on my job and this site is just one of many I've had over the years. It has been up for 10 years!

No matter how much I know, how hard I try, I cannot unshed a single tear a family member has wiped at a grave that did not need to be dug.

No matter how much I love veterans I dedicated more than half my life to, I can never give you back the lost days of anguished cries for help when no one was there to hear you.

No matter how much I know personally what it is like to see one of them decide to leave as questions become poison to hope, I cannot even pretend to know what it is like when some are truly dedicated and have far too many they tried to help, still kill themselves. I have a hard time dealing with one I lost.

No matter how hard I pray or how many times my soul cries out for a way to help you heal, to let you know that tomorrow can be so much better than today, I have not found a way to make you believe it.

No matter how hard, how much work, knowledge and facts I have, I cannot compete with social media isolating you from what you need to know. 

So yes, dear heart, I apologize for not being good enough to give you what you need and take your pain away so you can feel your soul's worth again! I do promise, I will not stop trying!

PTSD Veterans Change Again With Service Dogs

Veteran: 'Just because we made it home…this fight's not over.'
WUSA
Andrea McCarren
September 26, 2017

WASHINGTON (WUSA9) - A major development played out on Capitol Hill for proponents of a bill helping veterans with PTSD get free service dogs starting next year.

"When I got Axel in 2012, I was on 32 different medications," said Capt. Haag. "Twelve of them were narcotics. I was severely addicted. I was abusing them. I was also drinking heavily."

Today, he has only needed two medications and neither is a narcotic. 

Capt. Jason Haag, U.S. Marine Corps veteran said his service dog changed his life. Photo: Elizabeth Jia, WUSA9

The Subcommittee on Health of the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs held its first legislative hearing to discuss the PAWS Act. PAWS stands for Puppies Assisting Wounded Servicemembers. 

To date, the bill, H.R. 2327, has 199 bipartisan co-sponsors in the House. The Senate has also drafted a corresponding bill, S.1014.

If the bill becomes law, then a five-year, $10-million pilot program would begin in 2018. It would grant $25,000 to eligible organizations to raise and train service dogs for veterans in need.

“We’re doing it to save lives,” testified Rep. Ron DeSantis, an original co-sponsor of the PAWS Act. The Republican from Florida added, “If you end up having a veteran where that works well and they stop using some of the prescription drugs, that’s actually going to save a lot of money.”
read more here

REMINDER: Who you are is not changed by how you are. It is all still inside of you. These dogs can remind you of that by giving you love and hope once you see, your life can change again!