Why did reporters ignore such a massive failure?

The Ugly Truth About Memorial Day

Combat PTSD Wounded Times

Kathie Costos

May 31, 2018

Why did reporters ignore such a massive failure?

It seems as if the American public is only paying attention to what they are told by members of the media pretending that suicides tied to military service is important. We missed the ugly truth about how many should have survived what our government did and what reporters ignored. 

The truth is, none of them have paid attention. We read about the "number" of veterans they want us to believe are committing suicide every day, but they do not want us to look at the facts.

We hear about members of the military committing suicide, in our local papers or among social media sites. What we do not get, is a true idea of exactly how many are being ignored...unless you actually know where to look.

This is six years of the Department of Defense Suicide Report that shows after all of the "training" in prevention, publicity on "efforts" by members of Congress to "prevent" suicides within the military and in the veterans community, all the money spent, all of the "awareness" raised, this is the result of all of it.

Department of Defense Quarterly Suicide Report

Now compare that to how many were killed in Afghanistan 

and in Iraq

This is the one topic that should cross over political lines but we failed to see this massive failure was happening and no one did anything about it!

Too many are gone and we cannot bring them back. All we can do is hold all of our politicians accountable so that next Memorial Day we will not have more graves filled because of service than combat itself!

When your member of Congress talks about the Bills they wrote to "address" suicides, remember the deadly results after they "did" something without ever figuring out what the hell they needed to do!

By the way, I tried to do something about making people aware of what was going on back in 2007!

Kevin Williams adapted from citizen to solider, but not the other way around

Basildon army veteran sent to Iraq on 18th birthday killed himself after battling with PTSD
Essex Live
James Gregory
31 MAY 2018

He struggled to adapt to civilian life and was homeless for a period
A former soldier deployed to Iraq on his 18th birthday killed himself after a long battle with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), an inquest heard.

Kevin Williams, 29, was found hanging by police in his home at Waterville Drive, Basildon, on March 18.

He was the youngest rifleman to ever to serve in Iraq and was deployed on his 18th birthday in November 2006 as part of the now defunct Royal Green Jackets, going on to fight in Basra as part of the 2nd Battalion, The Rifles.

But after leaving the army, he found it difficult to adapt to civilian life and took his own life.
read more here

Newborn daughter embraced by love from "brothers"

Newborn daughter of soldier killed in Afghanistan photographed with fellow soldiers
KENS 5 News
Author: Meilin Tompkins
May 31, 2018

"No matter where the army takes them all, I will be able to show Christian how they all came together for her."

FAYETTEVILLE, NC -- A photo of a newborn baby photographed with soldiers in North Carolina is quickly going viral on Facebook.

Britt Harris was ecstatic when she learned she was pregnant back in October. Her husband, SPC Christopher Harris, was just deployed to Afghanistan.

Unfortunately, Harris would never get to meet his daughter. He was killed in a suicide bombing just a week after he learned of the pregnancy.
read more here

If these pictures do not bring a tear to your eye....

Time to put suicide awareness groups out of business

Help veterans stay alive awareness 
Combat PTSD Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
May 30, 2018

I read an article early this morning that stuck with me especially when I saw this adorable face!

Deana Martorella Orellana, joined the Marines.

"Then, in 2010, she deployed to a particularly combat-torn part of Helmand Province in Afghanistan." 

She survived the deployment and hardships, risking her life for the sake of those she served with, but part of it came back with her according to Battling Depression And Suicide Among Female Veterans on NPR May 29, 2018

"After she returned to North Carolina in 2013, her rental home burned down, and a man she knew was charged with arson. She wasn't home, but the incident shook her."

A few months after being discharged, came this "transition" after being trained to serve, tested by Afghanistan, and above all, trained to be "resilient" according to the Department of Defense.

"But just hours after the VA appointment, Deana asked a friend to drop her at the house where she had lived with her boyfriend, who wasn't home. She went in the bedroom and retrieved a .45-caliber handgun." 

Since 2009, every member of the military had received "resilience" training to make them "mentally tough."

With all the groups out there raising awareness about veterans taking their own lives, why have they not changed the outcome? They use only the number that will get them the most attention from a report they failed to read, or even take seriously enough to want to make a difference.

Actually, it seems as if they have done more harm than good.

"The suicide rate for female veterans has soared 85 percent in recent years, leading the military, VA and advocacy groups to try new ways to improve women's mental health care during and after service."

The military trained them, then refused to change when the result was higher suicides while the number of enlisted went down.

And no one was put out of business for failing to come up with something that would actually help them survive surviving.

No one was put out of business raising awareness for something they do not understand, lying about "making a difference" and not even bothering to address the highest percentage of veterans committing suicide, at least the ones they know about, and that is veterans over the age of 50!

No news source has been put out of business for covering these people, spreading the lie of how many veterans decided to die or even attempt to ask questions. Questions like why these groups need the money, what they are doing with the money or even why they deserve any of it considering they have not proven anything to anyone.

The really puzzling thing is, if they are making their living off talking about veterans killing themselves, then if they lived, these groups would be out of business and their income would vanish.

Isn't it time we actually paid attention to these facts?

If veterans live, heal and help each other, I may actually get to retire after 36 years and have time to watch TV after working for a paycheck on my day job!

You can start by actually reading the reports they didn't bother with.

VA SUICIDE REPORT 2012 Limited data from just 21 states
VA SUICIDE REPORT 2016 Limited data because states like California and Illinois did not track military service on the death certificates until they passed legislation in 2017 to add it. 

Also all limited data because, anything less than honorable discharges, did not get counted. Veterans living in other countries were not counted.

In some states, if they were not deployed into combat, they were not counted.

In some states if they were in the National Guards and Reserves, deployed for humanitarian missions, they were not counted.

The factors go on and on, but as long as people are selling suicides, we're never, ever going to make enough of a difference to help veterans survive surviving service.

Now, if all that did not bother you enough, consider one more thing.

How is it that life mattered so much to every one of them, they were willing to die to save others, but their own life was not worth living?

Maj. Gen. Jeffrey Bannister passed away

UPDATE

Coroner releases cause of death for Army general who died while on leave
Major General Jeffrey Bannister, 57, who was on transition leave in Lake Murray, died Sunday due to natural causes, coroner Margaret Fisher said.

Retiring Army general dies while on leave in South Carolina
STARS AND STRIPES
By DENISSE RAUDA
Published: May 30, 2018

The Rome, Ga., native served in Iraq and led divisions at Ft. Carson, Colo. He commanded the 10th Mountain Division at Fort Drum, N.Y., from 2015 until May of last year. His time there included an 11-month deployment to Afghanistan.

An Army general died Sunday while on leave in South Carolina and his death is being investigated, according to a statement from Shaw Air Force Base.

Maj. Gen. Jeffrey Bannister, 57, was on the verge of retirement and on transition leave when he died at Lake Murray near Columbia, S.C., base officials told WIS-TV.

Bannister, who served in the Army for 34 years, was assigned to Shaw as a special project officer for the Chief of Staff of the Army, the report said.
read more here

Retired Military Working Dogs received Medal of Courage

These four military dogs just received the nation’s highest honor
Military Times
By: Charlsy Panzino
9 minutes ago

Four veterans were honored with Medal of Courage awards on Capitol Hill on May 22.

Army veteran Dennis Dow with Jag, from left, Marine veteran Kevin Zuniga with Taker, Air Force veteran Micah Jones with Summer and Taba, who was adopted by a former K-9 police dog handler and his family. (American Humane)

They didn’t give any speeches, but not just because they were humble — the four vets are retired military working dogs.

The American Humane Lois Pope K-9 Medal of Courage is the highest honor for military dogs that displayed extraordinary valor and service to their country.

“These remarkable dogs have given us their best,” veterans advocate Lois Pope said at the ceremony. “They have put their own lives on the line to protect us, to defend us, and to save us.”
read more here

Man arrested for murder of missing veteran Stan Norman

UPDATE

Friendship, torture and murder - military veteran accused of killing another vet ABC 13 News
Those in the American Legion Riders motorcycle group are stunned by the details of Norman's murder and that a fellow veteran and rider may have done it.
The two were seen drinking together at a bar the night the murder took place.

Suspect arrested for murder of missing Vietnam veteran Stan Norman
The Union
Liz Kellar
May 27, 2018

On Sunday night, law enforcement arrested Sean Bryant — the man last seen with missing veteran Stan Norman — for his murder.

Bryant has been in custody in county jail since mid-May, when he was arrested at a residence on Sadie D Drive in Cascade Shores. At the time, Bryant, 51, was charged with manufacturing a controlled substance, threatening a crime with the intent to terrorize and inflicting corporal injury, all felonies.

After human bones were discovered in a burn pile on the property, and after interviews with witnesses, Bryant was re-booked on charges of murder and torture, and likely will be arraigned Tuesday in Nevada County Superior Court.

Norman was last seen after he went with friends to McGee's in Nevada City April 14 and was positively identified at Bonanza Market in Nevada City that night. He then reportedly went to Bryant's home in Grass Valley. No one reported seeing him since the early hours of April 15.
read more here

Sending disabled veterans away from the VA is not good for them

If you still think sending disabled veterans away from the VA is good for them, think again. After all, they should never, ever be treated like the rest of us. Especially when the same politicians tell us how lousy our healthcare system is!

(Gee, wonder why they forget about that part?)

Viewpoints: In Commitment To Veterans’ Special Needs, Be Wary Of Using Private Doctors

Editorial pages focus on these and other health care issues.

San Francisco Chronicle: Protect The Services Needed By Those Who ServedVeterans like me need managed, culturally competent medical care, in a safe community that respects them. Private doctors do not understand the complexity of service-related health problems. (Howard L. Hibbard and Marcela Davison Avilés, 5/25)

Boston Globe: For Many Vets, The War Goes OnIn the course of my active military career, I had troops under my command on three deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. I have lost more of my soldiers to suicide than I lost in combat. That may sound shocking to you — it is shocking to me. But I have yet to meet a veteran of Iraq or Afghanistan who doesn’t know someone who took their own life. That is staggering. I can recite the numbers. An estimated 20 veterans commit suicide every day, losses that are piled upon the nearly 7,000 US troops that have been killed in our ongoing conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. (Jack Hammond, 5/28)

Eddison Hermond National Guardsman and Air Force Veteran found

National Guard member, Air Force veteran found dead in Patapsco River, police say
WJLA News
Stephen Pimpo Jr
May 29, 2018

Eddison Hermond. (Photo, Howard County Police)

BALTIMORE COUNTY, Md. (ABC7) — The body of the Air Force veteran and National Guard member who went missing during Sunday's floods, was found in the Patapsco River Tuesday, according to authorities.

Howard County Police say searchers found the body of 39-year-old Eddison Hermond in the river just across the Baltimore County line.
read more here

Memorial Day, we must commit to honoring those who died BY PAYING ATTENTION

Memorial Day Omission Mission
Combat PTSD Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
May 28, 2018


Well, here is something you do not see everyday...just almost all of them. Someone decided that attacking the VA on Memorial Day, passing it off as factual, just got attention for omission mission.

Here is a lesson on how history does not begin when someone decides to pay attention to it.

The title of the opinion piece I just read is,

Memorial Day 2018 — let's remember those who died as a result of VA's lack of accountability

but you cannot have accountability unless you actually know what that is and how long veterans have been waiting for it!

The HillBY RORY E. RILEY-TOPPING, OPINION CONTRIBUTOR05/28/18

Every Memorial Day, our news and social media channels are filled with images of heroic veterans, reminding us that “all gave some, but some gave all.” Typically, when we are honoring those who died in service to our country, we conjure up images of soldiers who died nobly on the battlefield, taking their last breath while shots blaze and bombs go off all-around them.

However, this Memorial Day, we must commit to honoring those who died for their country, albeit in a much less glamorous and unnecessary way — those who died as a result of the Department of Veterans Affairs’ lack of accountability.

By now, the VA’s woes since the patient wait-time scandal of 2014 first broke have been well-documented, including the fact that as many as hundreds of thousands of veterans have died as a result of inability to access VA care. From the current drama over the appointment of a new Secretary to Congress’s cold feet on choice and caregiver expansion legislation (the latter of which looks like it will soon be remedied), veterans issues have enjoyed, albeit somewhat reluctantly, a top spot in the Trump administration’s list of priorities.read more here

"...patient wait-time scandal of 2014" seriously may have been the only time this person paid any attention to what has been going on since men and, yes, even women returned to their homes after the Revolutionary War! 

I did not plan on spending Memorial Day actually getting people to remember the facts. Looks like I have to yet again. This article is a joke! And so is every other one trying to make it seem like any of this is new to prove a political point.

This is one of the biggest reasons why I think that all politicians should apologize!

January 2008
600,000 in the backlog

This is from February of 2008 reported by Hope Yen for the Associated Press. It not only shows how members of Congress were asking for accountability, they were also acting as if they cared.

Peake wants to reduce wait times from roughly 180 days to 145 days by the start of next year. He cited aggressive efforts to hire staff, noting the VA will have 3,100 new staff by 2009. VA also is working to get greater online access to Pentagon medical information that he said will allow staff to process claims faster and move toward a system of electronic filing of claims.

Electronic filing of claims...but veterans are still waiting for that to happen efficiently. 

Ten years later we have this piece of news.

VA inks $10 billion contract with Cerner for new electronic health record

Peake promised to “virtually eliminate” the current list of 69,000 veterans who have waited more than 30 days for an appointment to get VA medical care. Such long waits runs counter to department policy, and a group of Iraq war veterans have filed a lawsuit alleging undue delays. He said VA plans to open 64 new community-based outpatient clinics this year and 51 next year to improve access to health care in rural areas.

 Ten years later, we have this,

The $51 billion bill provides for a newly combined “community care” program that includes Choice and other VA programs of outside care. It could face escalating costs due to growing demand from veterans seeking the convenience of seeing private physicians. Some House Democrats warn the VA won’t be able to handle a growing price tag, putting the VA at risk of unexpected budget shortfalls next year. 

A veteran had waited for four years. And then there is this from GovExec in 2008

VBA's pending compensation and claims backlog stood at 816,211 as of January 2008, up 188,781 since 2004, said Kerry Baker, associate legislative director of the Disabled Veterans of America, during a Wednesday hearing of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense.
Baker said VBA must have the funds necessary to upgrade its IT infrastructure to handle the backlog and a growing caseload. Anything short of an increase is "a recipe for failure," he added.
Carl Blake, national legislative director for the Paralyzed Veterans of America, said VBA needed $121 million in its fiscal 2009 budget for its information technology. According to VA budget documents, VBA requested an IT budget of $109.6 million for its compensation and benefits programs, down $23.8 million from $133.4 million in 2008. VA requested an overall 2009 IT budget of $2.53 billion in 2009, up from $2.15 billion in fiscal 2008, with the largest portion earmarked for the Veterans Health Administration.

In June of 2009 it was proven that all that really did not mean much at all.

The VA's claims backlog, which includes all benefits claims and all appeals at the Veterans Benefits Administration and the Board of Veterans Appeals at VA, was 803,000 on Jan. 5, 2009. The backlog hit 915,000 on May 4, 2009, a staggering 14 percent increase in four months.
The issue has become so dire that veterans now wait an average of six months to receive disability benefits and as long as four years for their appeals to be heard in cases where their benefits were denied.
Rep. Tim Walz, D-Minn., a member of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, said during a hearing in March that the VA is “almost criminally behind in processing claims.”

I could keep going on this with over 29,000 posts on this site, but I think you get the point now.

Politicians create veterans when they send them to fight our battles...then make them fight Congress to repay the debt. 

If anyone ever tells you that sending veterans into the private healthcare system the rest of us deal with is good for them, ask them why. Why would anyone ever think disabled veterans should be treated like the rest of us?

If anyone wants to blame one political party over another, ask them when they started to pay attention to what they do. Veterans have never had a VA that is able to take care of all the veterans Congress created because Congress failed them first!

They have had jurisdiction over how our veterans are treated since 1946! If it still sucks to be a veteran in this country, ask politicians why they never apologized to them!

As for veterans dying waiting for care, that is not as simple as some want to think it is. Most veterans do not use the VA until they get a diagnosis from a private doctor that ties the illness to service. Then, they go to the VA, expect to have their claim approved and treated, but never look at the long line already ahead of them.

But again, nothing new considering ten years ago there were 8,763 veterans died waiting for their claims to be approved.

Why do they wait? Most think the VA is for veterans who cannot work, some think the VA is terrible because of stories they have heard and others, well, they did not think they would ever need them. Some are still getting trapped in the system with years of waiting.



Watch this video I did a couple of years ago to get even more ticked off!