Battle of Ben Cui "...my father doesn’t need an occasion to remember."

'They Are My Men': A 50-Year Veterans Reunion Helped My Dad Process A Brutal Battle

NPR
by Kara Frame
Nov. 11, 2018

At that exact time 50 years ago, the guys were half a world away, about to enter battle. It was a muggy morning and my dad’s unit, part of the 5th Infantry Regiment,was headed on a reconnaissance mission into enemy territory. There were 88 men from his unit there that day. Some were on foot, wading through thick brush into the dark canopy of the Ben Cui rubber tree plantation. Others were in armored personnel carriers behind .50-caliber machine guns.

Not a day goes by that my dad, former Army Staff Sgt. Tom Frame, doesn’t think about the men who fought and died alongside him in Vietnam.

Staff Sgt. Tom Frame, the author's father, stands at right in this 1968 snapshot from Vietnam. Frame family photo

In recent years for Veterans Day, he and some other guys from his unit have paid tribute by traveling to Texas, which was home for Staff Sgt. Marvin Rex Young. Young was one of 18 men who lost their lives in the Battle of Ben Cui, an intense firefight between my dad’s unit and the North Vietnamese army.

The pilgrimages have been a way for my dad to reconnect with his fellow soldiers. And it was another trip to Texas, back in the summer, that really helped him honor Young and the others who died in the Battle of Ben Cui.

It has been 50 years since Ben Cui, and to mark the anniversary, my dad organized a reunion for soldiers from his unit and for family – the first time since 1968 that the men would be together on the day of the battle, Aug. 21.

I asked him why he wanted to get the guys together. “It’s my duty,” he said.

But really, my father doesn’t need an occasion to remember. “I wake up in the morning and I look outside at a beautiful morning — and I think about them,” he told me. He wonders why he survived and they didn’t. It weighs on him. And it has weighed on our whole family — in the form of post-traumatic stress disorder.
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I wanted to see the darkness turn to the light of day

Dawn of Veterans Day

PTSD Patrol
Kathie Costos
November 11, 2108

Before dawn yesterday, I went out to Apopka to walk along the path of the Vietnam Memorial Traveling Wall. I wanted to see the darkness turn to the light of day.

Much like when you drive surrounded by darkness, you can light your way by turning on your headlights, you can do that with your life as well.

The darkness can feel overwhelming at times and it can be hard to see what is around you.
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509 U.S. military personnel died by suicide in 2017

Army Wants Sergeants in the Barracks on Weekends to Prevent Suicides

Military.com
By Matthew Cox
November 8, 2018

The U.S. Army's top official said Thursday that he wants to see sergeants making regular visits to the barracks on weekends to help reduce the number of soldiers who die by suicide.

Suicide is a problem that every service struggles to prevent. In calendar year 2017, 509 U.S. military personnel died by suicide, according to Defense Department numbers. Of that number, the Army suffered 298 deaths by suicide across the active duty, National Guard and Reserve.

"It's a tragedy that we have suicide in our ranks, but it's coming into our ranks from society writ large," Army Secretary Mark Esper told an audience at the American Enterprise Institute. "Every week, I am signing letters to families offering my condolences for soldiers who have taken their lives."

The problem typically affects younger soldiers and is usually "related to personal financial problems, relationship problems and career concerns," Esper said, adding that alcohol consumption can be a factor as well.

It's also "typically a Friday night though Sunday morning problem," he said.
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Veteran Army Pilot Helps Homeless Vets Get Back on Their Feet

Former Army Pilot Helps Homeless Vets Get Back on Their Feet: ‘What She’s Done for Me Saved My Life’

PEOPLE
Susan Keating
November 9, 2018

One former Marine, Christopher S.W. Quincer, had lost everything — his job, housing and family — before Snyder found him five years ago in a shelter. “She got me into housing, and paid my first six months rent,” says Quincer, 43. She helped him get a job, reunited him with his family and Quincer now runs a successful company.

Former Army helicopter pilot Deborah Snyder has gone from the cockpit to the boardroom to take on an important mission: finding homes for veterans who don’t have a place to live.

“I don’t think we should have homeless vets,” Snyder, a retired lieutenant colonel, tells PEOPLE. “It’s a fixable problem.”

Since 2011, Snyder, 53, and her organization, the Operation Renewed Hope Foundation, have fixed the problem for more than 800 homeless veterans in the Washington, D.C., area.

“We find housing for them, and help in other ways too,” Snyder says, noting that the organization’s services include help with transportation, jobs and medical services.
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Marine Vet Would Have Tried to Help Shooter Heal PTSD

Slain Marine Vet Would Have Tried to Help Shooter if He Could, Friend Says

Military.com
By Hope Hodge Seck
November 10, 2018

"I know that if the shooter -- it's hard to even say he's a Marine, it hurts -- If Dan and I knew this guy needed help, we would be like, 'hey, dude, what can we do for you,'" Andrade said. "We clicked with veterans fast, quick. Dan would have helped this guy."

An hour and change before Dan Manrique's life was brutally cut short in a mass shooting at the Borderline Bar and Grill in Thousand Oaks, California Wednesday night, he had been in a meeting with fellow members of veterans organization Team Red White and Blue, brainstorming about how to improve community within the group and connect better with veterans in need.

Rudy Andrade, far left, stands next to fellow Marine Corps veteran Dan Manrique, who was killed in a mass shooting Nov. 7 at a bar in Thousand Oaks, California. 

(Photo courtesy of Genevieve Urquidi)

So when Rudolph Andrade, a Team RWB chapter captain for Los Angeles, got a text message the following day asking if Manrique had been in the vicinity of the shooting, Andrade's first response was reassurance.

"Dan was with me last night when all this happened," Andrade said he replied.

Days later, the shock of processing the loss of Manrique, a close friend as well as a teammate, is still setting in for him.

In fact, there were at least three members of Team RWB at the scene horrific shooting that claimed 12 lives, according to Andrade and postings on the Team RWB Ventura County Facebook page: Manrique, on full-time staff for the group as the Pacific Regional Manager; Justin Meek, a promoter at the bar killed in the shooting, who'd reportedly planned on joining the Coast Guard after college; and Fernan Diamse, another chapter member who made it out alive, but sustained a cut on his arm from broken window glass in his effort to escape.
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Fort Carson 300 Welcomed Home

300 soldiers return from Afghanistan in an emotional family reunion

KRDO News
By: Dani Fried
Posted: Nov 09, 2018

A homecoming for about 300 Fort Carson soldiers from the 2nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division was held Friday morning at 12:45 at William "Bill" Reed Special Events Center.

Families filled the center earlier in the evening, preparing to greet their loved ones.

"I can't wait for him to meet his son," said Ursula Lopez, whose son, Damien, was born only three days after her husband was deployed.

The 2nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team deployed in February. They were gone for a total of nine months.

Teddy Anderson, the young son of Maj. John Anderson, immediately began crying after Major Anderson ran in front of the other soldiers to greet him and his brother.
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Apopka at the Vietnam Memorial Traveling Wall

Dawn at the Wall

Combat PTSD Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
November 10, 2018

This morning I went out to Apopka at the Vietnam Memorial Traveling Wall. It was an overpowering experience just before dawn.

While I have been to many of these exhibits, it was the first time I walked around looking at the names, without crowds of people.

Most of the time I had to take a deep breath, unable to talk, no matter how many times I turned the video camera on.

No one can read the names and then forget how much that Wall means to all veterans. Sure, those are just the names of servicemembers who sacrificed their lives in Vietnam, but the Wall itself offers a message to all generations that they mattered too.

Veteran Day is the one day of the year when we are supposed to let them know they do matter. We just need to make sure that they matter the other 364 days a year, just as much.

Make sure to check PTSD Patrol tomorrow for the other video.

UPDATE
This is a video of the Wall going up from News 13

Reporter gave FUBAR veteran suicide report!

UPDATE
And what happened after this report? More carried the story without correction!

17 veterans per day commit suicide

PostBulletin.com-Nov 12, 2018

A frequently quoted 2012 VA report found that 22 veterans committed suicide per day, but that figure included active-duty troops,

Each day 17 veterans commit suicide. New campaign featuring ...

Herald & Review-Nov 10, 2018

A frequently quoted 2012 VA report found that 22 veterans committed suicide per day, but that figure included active-duty troops,

If you read the "story" by Nara Schoenberg of the Chicago Tribune, about "17 veterans committing suicide per day" demand accountability from her! 
This is what she reported.

"In 2016, the age- and gender-adjusted suicide rate for veterans was 26 per 100,000 — 1.5 times higher than the rate for nonveterans, according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). A frequently quoted 2012 VA report found that 22 veterans committed suicide per day, but that figure included active-duty troops, Stars and Stripes reported in June. Stars and Stripes broke down more recent VA numbers, reporting there are 21 military suicides a day, including 17 by veterans and four by active-duty service members, Guardsmen and reservists."

Either she is misinformed or the VA and the DOD are! 

This is from the DOD, and if you add them up, it is an average of 500 a year, which is not even 2 per day.

Where did she get 4? Where did she get the numbers from at all?

Easy, from an article that was not only corrected, it was explained, and oh, BTW, it was on Military Times.

"Franklin said to VA researchers, the data shows that the rate of suicides among former service members has remained steady at around 20 a day, and the rate among currently serving troops sits just above one person a day."

This is the link to the last DOD Suicide report for up to June of 2018. They put it out for every quarter, as they have done going back to 2012. Do you think she should have at least did a basic search to find it?

These are the links to the VA reports and the chart from the latest one they did.

We will never change the deadly outcome as long as reporters DO NOT DO THEIR JOBS AND TAKE THIS SERIOUSLY~ instead of being FUBAR!

Newlywed Marine Bride Dead, Husband Charged

A WOMAN FOUND DEAD IN VIRGINIA AND THE MAN CHARGED WITH HER MURDER ARE BOTH U.S. MARINES

News week

BY JAMES LAPORTA

11/7/18

U.S. Marine Lance Corporal Natasha Rivera, 20, poses for a photograph in August 2017. Her husband, U.S. Marine Corporal Rodolfo Rivera, 24, has been charged with murder in connection with her death on November 3. FACEBOOK

A woman found dead in a Virginia hotel room on Saturday and the man arrested in connection with her murder are both U.S. Marines, Newsweek has learned.

Marine Corporal Rodolfo Rivera, 24, is being held without bond at the Arlington County Jail in Virginia, following a domestic-related homicide investigation at the Crystal Gateway Marriott in Washington, D.C.

At roughly 9:40 a.m. on November 3, police responded to the hotel after a report of a possible death, according to a press release from Arlington County Police. Officers found the body of Marine Lance Corporal Natasha Rivera, 20, whose maiden name was Natasha Soto.

Local news outlets in Virginia and The Washington Post reported on the murder but did not say that the alleged suspect and victim were U.S. Marines. Both Task and Purpose and Newsweek confirmed their active-duty status on Wednesday.

Two U.S. Marines familiar with the incident, who asked for anonymity due to Pentagon restrictions told Newsweek that the two Marines were married and that on November 2, Rodolfo, who was alleged to be heavily intoxicated at the time, strangled his wife after the couple had returned to their hotel room.
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Vietnam veteran died before stolen service dog was foung

Vet died hours before he was set to be reunited with stolen service dog

By: WESH
Posted: Nov 08, 2018

Vet died hours before he was set to be reunited with stolen service dog Kira the Pomeranian, left, suspect, right. (Photo: Osceola County Sheriff's Office)

Joseph was sadly never reunited with his beloved service dog, passing away hours prior to her recovery.

OSCEOLA COUNTY, Fla. (WESH) - A veteran's stolen service dog has been recovered, hours after he passed away. Two women have been placed under arrest in Osceola County.

Authorities said detectives from Osceola County, Lake County and the Winter Garden Police Department identified Jennifer Gotschall and Monique Cosser on Wednesday.

Authorities said one of the woman got into an altercation with 67-year-old veteran Joseph Hanson last week in Kissimmee, while the other came up behind him and unleashed his dog, named Kira.
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Original story