Homeless veteran James Clyde Hutchens Jr., 56 died in shelter

UPDATE

LEXINGTON, SC (FOX Carolina) - Officials in the Midlands have found family members of an Army veteran who died in a Lexington County homeless shelter earlier this month.

This SC veteran died at a homeless shelter. Can you help find his family?
The State
Teddy Kulmala
September 28, 2018

The Lexington County Coroner’s Office needs help locating family for James Clyde Hutchens Jr., an Army veteran who died earlier this month at a shelter for homeless veterans. The Lexington County Coroner’s Office needs help locating family for James Clyde Hutchens Jr., an Army veteran who died earlier this month at a shelter for homeless veterans. Lexington County Coroner's Office

LEXINGTON COUNTY, SC
Coroner’s officials need help locating the family of an Army veteran who died this month at a homeless shelter in Lexington County.

James Clyde Hutchens Jr., 56, died Sept. 13 of natural causes at a shelter for homeless veterans, according to Lexington County Coroner Margaret Fisher, whose office has been unable to locate any family for the veteran.

Fisher’s office has limited information. She said they believe Hutchens, whose date of birth is Aug. 1, 1962, has some possible ties to family in Spartanburg, but they still have been unable to locate any next of kin.
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Panama City Florida Homeless Veterans Treated Like Part of Community

Community reaches out to help local homeless veterans
WJHG ABC 7 News
September 27, 2018

PANAMA CITY, Fla. (WJHG/WECP) - Dozens of community groups, including CareerSource Gulf Coast, held a Stand Down Thursday in downtown Panama City.

"This is our 11th one that we've done and we've brought together maybe 50 or so organizations, state agencies, private businesses in the community," Director of Workforce Services for CareerSource Gulf Coast Lee Ellzey said.

It helps our local homeless veterans get back on their feet.

"They're giving out toiletries," Ellzey explained. "They're giving out clothes. They're giving out housing vouchers."

The Florida Department of Veterans' Affairs reported 2,789 homeless vets in Florida last year, and it hits close to home for Andrea Kennedy, a local homeless veteran.

"It's overwhelming in a good way and I'm blessed," she said.
read more here
From Panama City news Herald

New home for disabled veteran vandalized by teenagers!

2 juveniles arrested for allegedly vandalizing home under construction for disabled veteran in Hanson
WHDH News
SEPTEMBER 26, 2018

HANSON, MASS. (WHDH) - Two juveniles were arrested in Hanson, accused of vandalizing a home under construction for a disabled veteran.

The teenage boys, whose names were not released, smashed every single window on a house being built by Jared Allen’s Homes for Wounded Warriors — the first one this charity has built here in Massachusetts.

“This house is for a veteran. He’s a single-leg amputee, and his home right now doesn’t work for him on several levels,” said Karalexis, the lead project manager. “So what our organization does, we come in here, we build a fully functional handicapped home.”

Karalexis says the damage is so extensive, it’ll set them back weeks.

The home is free for the wounded veteran, but it costs construction crews time and money.

“They’re all mortgage-free,” Karalexis said. “We purchase the house, and the only way to do that is with the generosity of corporations. Every penny counts and the pennies go toward the projects.”

They estimate the damage at $50,000.
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Vietnam veteran with terminal cancer had yard sale to pay his for funeral?

UPDATE November 22, 2018

Navy veteran who held yard sales to pay for own funeral dies

His story gained national attention after his yard sale was visited by a pair of men who went on to start a GoFundMe campaign for the veteran. Nearly 2,000 people donated to the campaign for a total of $65,000, far above the amount needed for Davis’ funeral.

Navy veteran, 66, with terminal cancer holds yard sales to raise money for funeral
Fox News
By Stephen Sorace
September 27, 3018

"It broke your heart, hearing the story, and we just decided we had to do something to try and help him, try to make his life a little bit easier," Sheets told Johnstown, Pa.-based WJAC-TV. Davis served in the Navy from 1970-76 during the Vietnam War, the station reported.

A 66-year-old U.S. Navy veteran dying from cancer has been selling his possessions at weekend yard sales to raise money for his own funeral, reports said Wednesday.

Willie Davis, of Cambria County, Pa., was diagnosed with stage 4 squamous cell carcinoma. He plans to raise enough cash to be buried next to his parents in Culpepper, Va., according to his GoFundMe page.

The page was created by two men, David Dunkleberger and his friend, Ed Sheets, after visiting Davis’ yard sale in Brownstown, Pa., in August. When they asked whose funeral Davis was financing, he replied: "Mine."
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In Florida we lost 530 veterans to suicide in 2016

UPDATE SHOCKER 

Florida had more veterans committing suicide than California and the same as Texas!

California
Total 490
18-34 71
35-54 128
55-74 162
75+ 129

Texas
Total 530
18-34 109
35-54 161
55-74 169
75+ 90

Yesterday it was clear that the benefits of suicide awareness went poof with the release of yet another suicide report from the Department of Veterans Affairs.

The suicide rate for Veterans ages 18–34 substantially increased from 2005 to 2016. 

• When comparing Veteran suicide rates by age group, Veterans ages 18–34 had the highest suicide rate in 2016, at 45 per 100,000. 

• In 2016, 58.1 percent of Veteran suicides were among Veterans age 55 and older.

For all the stunts and slogans leading people to believe that the number means anything, you now have proof that all of their stunts and ear worm slogans managed to increase the bank accounts for thousands of groups all over the country at the same time left veterans with one message. They have plenty of company if they want to commit suicide.

Suicides among military bomb techs at crisis level
Pensacola (Fla.) News Journal via AP
By: Melissa Nelson Gabriel
September 18, 2018

The foundation does not have an exact number of EOD techs who have taken their own lives, in part because it is often difficult to tell if someone died accidentally or intentionally and also because there is not a good national tracking system. 

Danelle Hackett wanted her Marine husband to focus on the lives he saved disarming IEDs as a military bomb technician during two tours in Iraq.

Maj. Jeff Hackett could only focus on his 16 colleagues who died during the dangerous bomb disposal missions he led from early 2005 through late 2007.

"My husband looked at those guys as his own family, his own sons. Repeatedly losing techs just wore on him and wore him. He blamed himself for every death," Danelle Hackett said.

In June 2010, after a day of drinking at an American Legion Post in Wyoming near the family's home, Jeff Hackett downed a couple more swigs of alcohol, said "cheers" and shot and killed himself.

Among the highly skilled and elite ranks of military explosive ordnance disposal technicians — the men and women who have been on the front line of the war on terror since Sept. 11, 2001 — suicide is a growing concern.

"It is literally an epidemic," said Ken Falke, a former EOD technician and founder of the Niceville-based EOD Warrior Foundation, which supports current and former military EOD techs and their families.

Air Force Sgt. Chris Ferrell, a 32-year-old EOD tech who has had many combat deployments to both Iraq and Afghanistan over the last 13 years, has attempted suicide four times.

He has a sleeve of tattoos on his arm with 26 shaded-in stars, each one represents a friend he has lost on the battlefield.
read more here

Think about what their jobs were in combat. Constantly putting their lives between bombs an others they served with. That is how much the lives of others mattered to them.

Yet, no matter what price they paid doing their jobs, they are left paying a much higher price out of service because no one told them how to consider their own lives as worthy as those they would have died for.

Now maybe you understand how repulsive it is to constantly hear a number that even they VA said they will no longer use.

Does not highlight the average number of suicides per day, a measure that is commonly misinterpreted, but rather focuses on suicide counts and rates among various populations. 

In Florida we lost 530 veterans to suicide. Of the known suicides, 506 were males and 24 were females. 

Age 18-34 52 suicides

Age 35-54 124 suicides

Age 55-74 204 suicides

Age 75+ 150 suicides.

Since the largest group of veterans in our state are over the age of 50, we need to focus more on these forgotten generations.

Then again, we need to focus more on what we should have learned before it got this bad for those who managed to survive this many years after risking their lives in the military.

How can any of this be taken so lightly that we are allowing people to use a slogan, that has not only been proven to be a false number, but doing more harm than good?

It isn't as if no one knew what was going on all along. Families knew their names but others wanted to reduce them down to a number, then demanded the right to use it as part of their "charity" work. Work? 

Yes, it must be very hard to get groups to pull stunts and get reporters their to cover them, while managing to get the uninformed to donate. Anything, as long as they could not pay attention to the detail...the higher suicide and lower survival rate for our veterans.

The only way to change this is to change what we are doing beginning with the "resilience" training the military has been doing since 2009. 

I am just a regular person and I figured out the harm it would do back in 2009. That should freak out anyone with half a brain because the people in charge had no problem at all spending billions on it every year no matter what the results proved.

Kathie Costos DiCesare
Published on Oct 21, 2012
There are many things that keep getting missed when we talk about Combat and PTSD. This is to clear up the biggest one of all.

What is courage and how does it link to being "mentally tough" so that you can push past what you were told about "resiliency" training. Chaplain Kathie "Costos" DiCesare of Wounded Times Blog tries to explain this in interview done by Union Squared Studios. 

That will spare the new generation going into the military. As for those who are already in and those who left, we need to change the conversation from reminding them of how many others gave up and start letting them know they can heal!

They do not have to surrender to what they already survived!

Benefits of "suicide awareness" just went poof

Want proof suicide awareness went poof?
Combat PTSD Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
September 26, 3018

The VA released another suicide report. Wonder how many of the "awareness folks" making a living off veterans killing themselves will actually read the report?

They may want to try to make sure their supporters doing pushups and other stunts never find out about it, because it shows all this "awareness" has not worked!

The number of Veteran suicides per year decreased from 6,281 deaths in 2015 to 6,079 deaths in 2016.
The number of Veteran suicides in 2016 remains greater than the 5,797 Veteran suicides that occurred in 2005. From 2005 to 2016, the Veteran population decreased by about 4 million people. Given that the Veteran population decreased in size, the number of Veteran suicides per year can also decrease even while the rate of Veteran suicide increases.

And yet, this is the number the VA had back in 1999.

So yes, we are down 4 million veterans since 2005, and the number of known suicides remains the same. Want more proof that this "suicide awareness" thing isn't working? Read more.

Suicide deaths among never federally activated former National Guard and Reserve members increased from 2005 to 2016.
In 2016, there were 902 suicides among never federally activated former Guard and Reserve members.

From 2005 to 2016, the number of suicides among women Veterans increased.
• From 2005 to 2016, the woman Veteran population increased.
• After adjusting for age, the rate of suicide among women Veterans was higher than the rate among non-Veteran women.

The suicide rate for Veterans ages 18–34 substantially increased from 2005 to 2016.
• When comparing Veteran suicide rates by age group, Veterans ages 18–34 had the highest suicide rate in 2016, at 45 per 100,000.
• In 2016, 58.1 percent of Veteran suicides were among Veterans age 55 and older.

From 2015 to 2016, the Veteran suicide rate decreased from 30.5 per 100,000 to 30.1 per 100,000.
Suicide rates for Veteran and non-Veteran adults increased from 2005 to 2016.
In 2016, the suicide rate was 1.5 times greater for Veterans than for non-Veteran adults, after adjusting for age and gender.

How could talking about suicides give a veteran who has lost hope any reason to get up another day?

Oh, it is so much easier to just drown out the voices trying to let them know they can heal and live better lives. After all, saving veterans is a lot of hard work, but oh, so worth it!

Stop telling them they are killing themselves! They already know that. They need to hear they can #TakeBackYourLife and kick the crap out of PTSD! And yes, I meant it the way it sounded.

Iraq veteran's song dedicated to buddy who committed suicide

Fought Over Him
Mikele Buck’s decision might surprise you.
Country Living
BY MEGAN FRIEDMAN
SEP 25, 2018

Mikele Buck, a country singer who is a veteran of the Iraq war, gave an incredibly moving performance on The Voice, dedicated to his friend from the military who committed suicide. His blind audition was so strong, in fact, that it had coaches Kelly Clarkson and Blake Shelton fighting for him to join their teams.
read more here

Blake Shelton Is AMAZED by Mikele Buck's Brooks and Dunn Cover - The Voice 2018 Blind Auditions

Day after discharge, veteran's body found in VA parking lot

UPDATE

Marine veteran loved to fix things — but the VA offered no plan for him to help himself

He sought help from the VA while struggling with suicidal thoughts – feelings of helplessness, frustration and anxiety. After spending four days at an inpatient mental health unit, he left the hospital, went to his car and shot himself. Police found his body the following day, his phone full of voicemails and texts from his father, Greg Miller, with one message sent over and over again: “I love you. We love you. Come home.”

Watchdog finds deficiencies in care for vet who committed suicide in Minneapolis VA parking lot
STARS AND STRIPES
By NIKKI WENTLING
Published: September 25, 2018

The next day, police found the veteran dead in the parking lot of the Minneapolis VA hospital, with a gunshot wound to the head. The local medical examiner determined the death a suicide.

WASHINGTON — A government watchdog determined a Department of Veterans Affairs mental health unit in Minneapolis didn’t follow VA policies before discharging an Iraq War veteran who committed suicide in the facility’s parking lot less than 24 hours later.

The Office of Inspector General reported Tuesday that VA staff didn’t collaborate on a discharge plan for the veteran, didn’t ensure the veteran had a follow-up appointment about newly prescribed antidepressants, and didn’t adequately document whether they had access to firearms. 

Though the VA failed in several areas, inspectors said they couldn’t determine whether the mistakes directly led to the veteran’s suicide.

The Minneapolis VA made similar errors in 2011, when a Vietnam War veteran committed suicide while under the facility’s care. A VA Inspector General report in 2012 found the hospital was “deficient” in how it handled the situation. Four of the recommendations the IG made after that suicide apply now, the IG wrote in its report.
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Triple amputee part of dynamic duo

Power couple: Wife of airman who survived most catastrophic wounds in history vying for cover of Maxim magazine
Military Times
By: J.D. Simkins
September 24, 2018

Brian and Ashley often make trips to Walter Reed to visit other wounded veterans to provide hope and inspiration. In 2014, Brian was presented the George C. Lang Award for Courage for his many efforts to take care of and mentor wounded vets.

Ashley Kolfage met her husband-to-be, Brian, when she was working as a hostess at a Chili’s in the small west Texas city of San Angelo.

Ashley and Brian Kolfage practice surfing. The couple married in 2011. (Photo courtesy of Ashley Kolfage)

The two quickly became friends, but before any romance could take hold, Brian deployed to Iraq, where, on Sept. 11, 2004, he became the most severely wounded airman to survive any war in U.S. history after a 107mm enemy rocket landed just three feet away as he walked to get a drink of water.

Both of Brian’s legs were instantly shredded, he lost his dominant right hand and his lung collapsed.

Miraculously conscious after the explosion, the senior airman screamed for help. A close friend tried to keep him calm as medics rushed to help. All the while, Kolfage repeated that he just wanted to make it home to see his family.

Medics would go on to perform hours of life-saving surgery before placing Kolfage on a flight to Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington, where he arrived only 36 hours after being wounded, the fastest medevac to the U.S. from a war zone in history.
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Marine veteran lives on streets at 73

He plays guitar downtown for money. What he really wants is a shower and a home
SAN LUIS OBISPO TRIBUNE
BY MONICA VAUGHAN
September 24, 2018

If you’ve recently strolled through downtown San Luis Obispo in the afternoon or Pismo Beach in the evening, you’ve probably seen or heard Jon Akeman. He’s the guy with long white hair, a patriotic bandana, guitar strapped over his shoulder and harmonica braced around his neck.

Known to locals as Dr. Jon the Citizen, Akeman, 73, serenades pedestrians with classic songs by Bob Dylan, Neil Young or the Eagles.

“I get a thrill of people going by, smiling at me when I play. Plus, I get a little money on the side,” he said, sitting on a bench in front of Ross Dress for Less on Higuera Street on a recent Thursday afternoon. “That’s my job, to make people happy.”
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