80% Veterans Complete Veterans Court Succeed

A few things to notice when you watch the video on the link. They start the session with the Pledge of Allegiance. The other is that the entire courtroom is there supporting the veteran who just graduated from the program...including his family!

Top that off with the veteran wants to turn around and help other veterans succeed as well!


Veterans court gives second chance to some struggling vets
WESH 2 News
Greg Fox
December 29, 2017

Judge Bryan Feigenbaum said more than 80 percent of those who graduate do not repeat their crimes.

VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla.
WESH 2 News has details on a court program that helps veterans, instead of sending them to jail.

WESH 2's Greg Fox met a combat veteran who got a second chance after an armed standoff with police.

The man has been rehabilitated and is hoping to help others.

Kevin Hamilton, like others eligible for the pretrial diversion program, is a veteran with an honorable discharge. He was an Army sergeant and served in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Hamilton suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder and held his family hostage and threatened his own life in an armed standoff in Ormond Beach in 2015 that ended peacefully.

Veterans court gave Hamilton a second chance: counseling, probation and mentoring, or face prison time.
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Mayor/Afghanistan Veteran Said "Yes" to Boyfriend

'He said yes!' South Bend mayor says he and his boyfriend are getting married
Associated Press
December 29, 2017

Buttigieg is a Rhodes scholar who served a seven-month deployment in Afghanistan in 2014 as a Naval Reserve officer.

South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg announced on Facebook Thursday that he and his boyfriend Chasten Glezman are engaged.(Robert Franklin / AP) 

South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg says he and his boyfriend are getting married.

The 35-year-old Democrat announced on Facebook Thursday that he and Chasten Glezman are engaged, writing that "He said yes!" The mayor's spokesman confirmed the announcement.

Buttigieg says he's looking forward to spending the rest of his life with Glezman, who is a middle school teacher.

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Vietnam Veterans Fighting Forgotten Battle

This is exactly why I do what I do and why I have done it for over 3 decades.

This is my Vietnam veteran!

By the time September 11th hit, we, as a country had been working on PTSD for decades.

In the 70's, the DAV commissioned a study on PTSD and called it The Forgotten Warrior Project." Guess they figured having done this research, Vietnam veterans would never be forgotten again. After all, it was because of them that the far reaching effects of trauma became more understood. 

Surviving was only part of the residual damage done.

Anyway, having been totally involved in all of this, by 9-11, we were ready for what was to come in Vietnam veterans long before talk of more wars ever made the news. We knew we were already fighting one in our homes and trying to keep our veterans alive!

Strange thing is, I went to New York a month before 9-11 and had already finished my manuscript, For the Love of Jack, His War/My Battle.

Jonathan Shay was kind enough to review it for me and then tried to help me get it published. No one wanted it.

August 10, 2001

Hi Jonathan,
Well I said I would send it by the end of the week and here it is.  I will be in New York/New Jersey until August 16^th.  Maria and I are finally going away to spend some time with my favorite cousin and her family.  We are excited because we are going to Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty, as well as a few other places.  We want to look up our relatives that came from Greece and Italy.
I hope that I didn’t sound too down with the last email I sent you.  It has just been very hard to keep feeling the pain I was writing about.  I worked so hard to heal with my psychologist, that I kept getting pulled back into the bad memories writing the book.  I often wished I never wrote it but I know it helped me to get over the anger and frustration of living with John.  I hope it will help someone else.
I don’t know what I would have done without all the help, advice and encouragement you gave me.  I admire your work so much that it was an honor that you took the time to help me.  There were so many times that I couldn’t believe that you were actually concerned with someone like me.  I don’t know how writers do it.  
Well it is done and I can get back to just living my life and doing the best I can for us.  I have been so busy at work that I am totally exhausted when I get home, and still have to take care of the house, supper and the dog ect.  It will feel good to have a few moments of free time.  I am sure you will put to good use the time you won’t have to spend on me.
Thank your wife for me.  I know it is a lot to ask.  Let me know what she thinks and what to do with it next.

Warmest regards to you both,

Kathie

A few days after 9-11 we were on the phone talking about what that day was doing to Vietnam veterans. Reporters didn't seem to care much about any of it.

We tried to warn them. Most of us have been trying to raise the alarm bells ever since, but veterans over the age of 50 are 65% of the suicides. The rate of PTSD in them is 1 out of 3. 

Vietnam veterans were forgotten about in all of this but most Americans pretended that all they needed was a pin and parades to make up for the lost decades when they suffered in silence.

By the way, my husband was at the VA the planes hit the towers. Doesn't take much imagination to figure out what that was like for them there.

Vietnam Veterans Suffer from PTSD Many Years Later
NBC Bay Area
By Tom Sinkovitz
Published Dec 28, 2017

"What happened after 9/11? I didn't know. I fell apart," Aldrich said. "I, overnight -- became jittery, angry." Billy Aldrich

It had been the longest year of his life. Billy Aldrich was a door gunner on a huey gunship in Vietnam attached to the Army's 101st Airborne Division, the legendary "Screaming Eagles."

When Aldrich left Vietnam in June 1970, relief was not what he felt.

"Feeling really bad that I survived when guys in my company didn't," Aldrich said. "My helicopter got shot down and everyone got killed while I was on R&R."

The medals he came home with tell the story of a brave soldier. But there was no hero's welcome.

"I came back and left the Oakland Army Depot and took a bus over to the 7th Street bus station in Marin and there was like, protesters, like kids that we grew up (with), same age," Aldrich said. "And right away I realized, 'We're not gonna fit in. We're not cool.'"

So Aldrich did not talk about his experiences, felt ashamed of his role in the Vietnam disaster, and immersed himself in drugs and a career as a barber. Thousands of his colleagues shared his struggles.

"A lot of Vietnam veterans came home, had a terrible reception, were not sure how to feel about their service or felt strongly about their service or weren't around people that reflected their views," said Dr. Jesse Wade, a veteran's therapist. "And it became easier to just clam up and push through."
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Firefighters Helping Others Help Themselves Heal PTSD

Firefighters who’ve developed PTSD helping others learn to help themselves
Washington Post
Lynh Bui
December 28, 2017

“We’re showing up at everybody’s worst day, in a lot of cases. It’s not just part of our job — we want to do it. But how can we get to retirement and have a life after the fire service that’s not traumatized by what we did?”
Patrick Morrison

“You don’t come out perfect,” Eric Fessenden said, but you learn how to cope. A former Montgomery County firefighter, Fessenden attended the nation’s only in-patient facility designed to treat firefighters with PTSD. (Doug Kapustin/For The Washington Post)

After a 24-year career in the fire service, Eric Fessenden has a memory bank of the grisly calls he answered. He’s pulled bloated bodies out of rivers, treated victims of the D.C.-area Beltway Sniper attacks, and extracted the dead and the mangled from car wrecks.

Staying busy at work allowed the Montgomery County firefighter to put aside the emotional burdens of his job, but after an injury forced him to retire, he often found himself inexplicably anxious and angry. He woke up shaking in the middle of the night soaked in sweat. And the hikes he looked forward to each week with family members would end miserably when he inevitably snapped at them during the outings.

Fessenden, 48, thought that he suffered from post-traumatic stress. It wasn’t until recently he learned it was that — and more.

First responders witness trauma not only from everyday events such as car crashes and house fires, said Patrick Morrison, assistant general president for health, safety and medicine of the International Association of Fire ­Fighters. They’re also answering extraordinarily difficult mass-casualty calls, such as the Mandalay Bay shooting that killed 58 in Las Vegas, the Ghost Ship warehouse fire that killed 36 in Oakland, Calif., and devastating natural disasters such as Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria.
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Oklahoma City Vietnam Veterans Memorial Founded Passed Away

Founder of Oklahoma’s Vietnam Veterans Memorial dies two days before Christmas
KOCO 5 News
Paul Folger
December 29, 2017

“He realized there was no place for Vietnam veterans to feel welcome,” Mullings’ son, Jamey McCLaine Mullings, said.

OKLAHOMA CITY — It was a sad day for Vietnam veterans in Oklahoma. The founder and creator of the Vietnam Veteran's Wall has died.

Family and friends said goodbye Thursday to James Michael Mullings, remembering him for the honor he gave to our heroes who served.

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial sits just beyond our state capitol. It was created by Mullings, who served in Vietnam himself. The 71-year-old died just two days before Christmas, which was also his birthday. But the legacy of this wall is one everyone can visit.

“He felt very, very called to provide a memorial here because most Oklahomans might not have the opportunity to go to Washington D.C.” Teese Mullings, James Mullings’ wife, said.

Mullings worked with leaders from Washington and our state and came up with the memorial because he knew Vietnam veterans needed the place.
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Air Force Medic Saved Life on Commercial Plane?

Air Force Medical Technician Saves Airborne Heart Attack Victim
Department of Defense
By Air Force Staff Sgt. Franklin R. Ramos, 51st Fighter Wing
Dec. 29, 2017

OSAN AIR BASE, South Korea
After visiting family in Santa Ana, California, Air Force Staff Sgt. Cassidy McCurdy, an independent duty medical technician with the 51st Medical Group here, was heading back to his base on a connecting flight from San Francisco to Seattle, when things took an unexpected turn.

Independent Medical Duty Technician Air Force Staff Sgt. Cassidy McCurdy, an independent medical duty technician with the 51st Medical Group, poses for a photo at Osan Air Base, South Korea, Dec. 21, 2017. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Franklin R. Ramos

“I was taking a nap and there was some commotion going on in the back [of the aircraft],” McCurdy recalled. “Then the [flight attendants] asked if there was a doctor or emergency medical technician onboard.”

McCurdy sprung to action to assess the situation.

“I got up and there was a woman in cardiac arrest,” McCurdy said. “There were no other medics around [at the moment] and she didn’t have a pulse, so I started to do chest compressions. I just completely reacted and did everything I’ve been trained to do through the emergency medicine protocols that we do. It was the first time I had to 100-percent rely on myself to know what to do [in a cardiac arrest situation].”

It took around two minutes of cardiopulmonary resuscitation for the victim to gain consciousness.
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Iraq Veteran Chaplain Betrayed by Catholic Church Because of PTSD?

Iraq Veteran Betrayed by Church Over PTSD?
Combat PTSD Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
December 29, 2017

Most of my life has been dedicated to veterans and PTSD. For over 3 decades, every true expert on PTSD has said that spiritual healing is vital, especially when the person afflicted by it, came with their job.

It takes a very special person with a strong emotional core to not just do their jobs, but even think they should do them in the first place.

They are pulled to do them. Knowing all the hardships, as well as the risks, did not stop them from putting their lives on the line for someone else.

That is how much life mattered to them. Rev. Robert Repenning knows what that is like. He also served as an Army Chaplain in Iraq. He spoke about God's love and he showed the compassion of Christ as well as what courage is like on behalf of the Church. Too bad the Catholic Church did not notice faith was spread by people just like him when Jesus sent out the 12 others.

"As you go, proclaim this message: ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’ Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received; freely give." Matthew 10:7-8

At least that is the way I thought it was supposed to be. How can the church, or any house of worship claim they care when they refuse to send someone who not only understands what our veterans are going through, but lives with it, walks the walk and still has the same connection to God?

Why is it they were so ready to turn their backs on this veteran when so many others should be welcomed into the healing power of God's love?

I am with Point Man International Ministries because they believe as I do. They go out and minister to those in need of healing, just as Christ said it should be done.

To think that this message has been sent out to all those who put their lives on the line for the sake of others, proving the greatest level of love their is, a betrayal of the mission they took an oath to fulfill.

The topper in all of this is, he is fighting to stay in the church and continue to minister to Catholics instead of walking away to go to another denomination that will not just welcome him, but value the help and hope he can offer so many veterans. 

Unassigned priest with PTSD finds 'peace amidst the storms'
Poughkeepsie Journal
Nina Schultzman
December 29, 2017

"The faith talks about mercy. The faith talks about compassion. The faith talks abut the sanctity of every human person. What is the Archdiocese saying by treating someone with a disability this way? They are not living up to the gospels." Rev. Robert Repenning

Meanwhile, "if I defend myself, they say I'm attacking the archdiocese," Repenning added.

For the past 18 months, the Rev. Robert Repenning has had no church to call home, no parish to serve.

"In a spiritual sense, it's devastating not to have an assignment," said Repenning, a longtime local Roman Catholic priest and former Army chaplain, who served in the Iraq War. "I want to be in a parish."

Repenning, 45, says the archdiocese has discriminated against him as a disabled veteran because of the alleged severity of his Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

His contract at Holy Trinity in Poughkeepsie, which he led for a six-year term that ended on July 1, 2016, was not renewed.

Cardinal Timothy Dolan has told Repenning that he has a "grave lack of any self-awareness... that you may have deep problems," according to correspondence Repenning shared with the Journal.

It's a “moral obligation, and a fraternal desire” of Dolan's to ensure Repenning is healthy, and “to do this, we need a professional assessment best done in a residential setting," the cardinal wrote in a 2016 letter to Repenning.

Repenning has said he did not agree to seek treatment at an archdiocese-approved facility and that he's already been receiving medical care at the Castle Point branch of the Veterans Affairs Hudson Valley Health Care System.

Since his leave began, Repenning said he's had psychological and physical tests completed, and his doctors have no concerns.
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"...some deal alone with pain of military suicide"

Some survivors are offered help, some deal alone with pain of military suicide
Tampa Bay Times
Howard Altman
Times staff writer
December 28, 2017

A retired deputy with the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office, she spent 15 years on the crisis negotiation team, talking people out of taking their own lives. But there was nothing she could do for her son. 

Compounding the tragedy, she said, is that she was left to deal with it on her own. There was no help from the Marines. No casualty assistance officer. No honor guard. Nothing.

Nearly 500 troops killed themselves last year and the numbers are on pace to far exceed that in 2017. Thousands of former service members, about 20 a day in 2014, also take their own lives.

Suicide has hit home this year for some two dozen military families across Tampa Bay, including those left behind by a soldier from Tampa and by a Marine veteran — still carrying the scars of battle — from Indian Rocks.

The two men had their service in common, but the military stepped in to help ease the grief for only one of the families, pushing the other to join a cause: that no survivors of a military suicide should walk alone.

A Facebook post from Army Pfc. Matthew Forstrom left his parents horrified and helpless.

"... this isn’t anyone’s fault but my own," Forstrom wrote in a 341-word suicide note that appeared at 5:05 p.m. Dec. 4. "I only wish I had done it sooner."

Relatives of Army Pfc. Matthew Forstrom console each other near his flag draped coffin as it arrives at Tampa International Airport on Dec. 5. An Army Honor Guard received Forstrom's body during a plane-side service. [LUIS SANTANA | Times]

The words set in motion ripples of action, from the 24-year-old soldier’s base in Fort Bliss, Texas, to his home town of Tampa. The Army and local law enforcement launched a massive search effort. His mother, Pamela Andrews, who was alerted to the post by a relative, sent her son an urgent text message.

You better call me back right now.

He did, Andrews said, and the two spoke briefly.

"He just wanted to ask for my forgiveness. He was going to take one more thing from me."

For 12 agonizing hours, Andrews and Forstrom’s father, Ronald Forstrom, who was on a business trip to Indiana, waited for news.

But the Army and first responders couldn’t find their son in time.

And so on a Friday night earlier this month, relatives and friends of Forstrom’s gathered in the cellphone lot at Tampa International Airport to wait for an escort onto the tarmac so they could watch a flag-drapped coffin come off American Airlines Flight 2623.
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Man died at bus stop...he was homeless

​Homeless advocates worry about cold after man's death at bus stop
WLWT 5 News
Richard Chiles
December 27, 2017

CINCINNATI
As police confirmed the death of a homeless man at the Government Square transit center, advocates for the area's homeless population mobilized in anger and determination.

Maslow's Army, a nonprofit who worked closely with the man, identified him at Ken Martin. Although the cause of death hasn't been officially confirmed, the cold seems to have likely been a factor.

"It is heartbreaking. That's one of the reasons we are here is to prevent that from happening. 

So it is always heartbreaking when someone doesn't take advantage of the space that we have to offer here and chooses to be out on the street and in the cold."

Homeless Marine veteran Tim Stockton looks at the Government Square death as a harsh reality of the bitter cold.

"This could have been me," Stockton said. "You don't leave nobody out on the streets."

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News Crew Took On VA for Homeless Veteran and Won

Veteran gets home through VA program after WBTV investigation
WBTV 3 News
Nick Ochsner
December 28, 2017

ASHEVILLE, NC (WBTV) -

A once-homeless veteran has a home of his own, months after a WBTV investigation questioned why the US Department of Veterans Affairs refused to offer the veteran further assistance.

In September, WBTV first talked with Greg Armento. 

At the time, Armento was being made to leave a long-term living facility for homeless veterans operated by an Asheville charity. The facility was paid to provide Armento food and shelter through a VA-funded program known as grant Per Diem, which pays a facility daily to shelter homeless veterans.

Armento filed a federal lawsuit against the organization that runs the Asheville shelter earlier in 2017, claiming supervisors at the facility violated federal labor laws by forcing Armento to perform unpaid labor.

The facility has denied those claims.

In September, when Armento was being forced from the long-term shelter, social workers at the Asheville VA Medical Center had told Armento they would not be able to help him find additional housing and, instead, suggested he plan to say at an emergency shelter overnight.

But that changed after WBTV’s investigation.

Instead of being forced onto the streets, the VA paid for Armento to stay in a hotel while he searched for a new place to live.

Now, Armento is living in a one bedroom apartment paid for through a program known as HUD-VASH. The program is a partnership between the VA and the US Department of Housing and Urban Development.
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