Clearing the way to #TakeBackYourLife 2019

Tomorrow is a new beginning

After spending time back home with family and friends for Christmas, you'd think I would be in a good mood. 

The truth is, I miss them. I miss our daughter and the family I still have left.

It is hard to think about all the members of my family who passed away. While it was great to remember all the family gatherings, it was also a sad time for me.

Now, I can sit here and focus on what I have lost, which in a way is healing. But I will only let it last just so long, then with the New Year, I will focus on what I have to be thankful for.

There will be a special post tomorrow sharing all the great stories that happened this year. Stories of veterans, police officers and firefighters, proving once and for all, that there is no shame in needing help because of their jobs. After all, it is their job to help others, and that should include them.

Anyway, I am getting off line to spend time with my husband, who has been my guardian in all that I do everyday. So, lets start 2019 on a happy note and share some good news for A CHANGE since all of us really need to be reminded of what is working!

Handling a Military Working Dog

Special Breed: Handling a Military Working Dog

Department of Defense 
DEC. 31, 2018

Over a five-year period, Navy Chief Petty Officer Lucky Jackson, a military working dog, and his handler, Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Jaime Perez, a master at arms, have forged a bond that ensures the Navy is getting the maximum capability out of its military working dog force.

read more here

Why are suicidal veterans still avoiding the VA?

Remember this news?

On Monday, a Government Accountability Office report blasted department officials for failing to spend millions in outreach and public awareness funds related to veterans suicide prevention last fiscal year. Only about only $57,000 — less than 1 percent — was actually spent. read more here

And now we have this.

VA focused on suicide prevention

NWI
Department of Veterans Affairs Robert Wilkie
December 30, 2018

Holidays can be especially tough for troops deployed abroad, but they can also be challenging for veterans in need. And this holiday season, we have an important message for those who have worn the uniform: the Department of Veterans Affairs is here to help.

Suicide prevention is VA’s No. 1 clinical priority, but getting more veterans into care is one of our greatest challenges. An average of 20 veterans die by suicide each day. Of those 20, 14 have not received recent VA care.

That’s why we’re working closely with the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security to implement President Trump’s Jan. 9, 2018, executive order to ensure that all new veterans receive mental health care for at least one year following their separation from service.
read more here

VA’s available resources are extensive. To get the word out, VA spent $12.2 million on suicide prevention outreach in fiscal year 2018, including $1.5 million on paid media. We’ve also made great use of unpaid media through our partnership with Johnson and  Johnson to produce a public service announcement featuring Tom Hanks — at no cost to VA. That partnership helped put VA in the top 10 of the Nielson ratings for PSAs. Its YouTube version drew tens of thousands of views.

And then there is this part

The Veterans Crisis Line helps about 2,000 callers every day. In the past 10 years, it has answered over 3.5 million calls, engaged in over 413,000 online chats, and responded to over 98,000 text messages. Most of the callers to the Veterans Crisis Line are veterans, but many are also concerned family members and friends calling on behalf of a veteran close to them. VA is there to help them, too. Our suicide prevention coordinators conducted over 22,000 outreach events last year, reaching 2.2 million people.

I can attest to the fact that when a veteran goes to to the VA, he/she is more likely to heal and live a better quality of life. I have seen it all my life with my 100% disabled Dad and my 100% disabled husband. Plus they helped with a lot of veterans I sent to them over the last 3 decades, in different parts of the country.

But he did not explain why this has been the outcome of all of that.

Army veteran died days after winning re-election as Mayor

Local mayor dies 17 days after winning runoff election

KWTX 10 News
By Brandon Hamilton
Dec 28, 2018

COPPERAS COVE, Texas (KWTX) Copperas Cove Mayor Frank Seffrood died unexpectedly Friday morning at his home following a brief illness, just more than two weeks after winning a second term in a runoff election on Dec. 11.

He was 79.

The Wisconsin native was a U.S. Army veteran who retired in 1979 after 23 years of service.

Lt. Gen. Paul E. Funk II, III Corps and Fort Hood commander, issued a statement Friday expressing condolences to Seffrood’s family.

“Frank served our nation for 23 years in the Army and was always a good friend to Fort Hood with a passion for helping our soldiers and their families. He will be missed,” he said

Seffrood worked for Central Texas College from 1980 to 1986 and the U.S. Postal Service from 1986 to 2010.

He served on the Copperas Cove City Council for 6 ½ years before he was elected mayor in 2015.

He’s survived by his wife of 55 years, Rita, three children and three grandchildren.
read more here

Pinellas County Sheriff's Deputy Committed Suicide

243 first responders commit suicide last year; more than died in the line of duty

FOX 13 News

Elizabeth Fry

December 29, 2018

CLEARWATER, Fla. (FOX 13) - Early Saturday morning, a deputy with the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office took his own life in the backyard of his Clearwater home.

Deputy Carlos Felipez, 46, had served on the force since February of 2014. He died as a result of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. 

His death is now the fourth first responder suicide in the Tampa Bay Area since September. The tragedy has brought to light the challenges first responders take home with them each and every day, and the last effect those challenges have.

"They see things that none of us really ever want to see or have to experience. So to know that they're going from call to call to call that can really add up and take such a huge toll on them," said Clara Reynolds, CEO of the Crisis Center of Tampa Bay.

It was reported that in 2017, 243 police officers, deputies, and firefighters committed suicide.
read more here

Combat Stress says that the service desperately needs funds to keep it afloat

If you are donating to the "awareness" groups, you are part of the problem this group is facing. They are doing the work to change lives.

Vital 24-hour helpline for military veterans suffering with PTSD faces the axe

The Mirror UK
By Nicola Small
DEC 29, 2018

Chris, 48, said: “I had to build up the courage to pick up the phone because it takes a lot to admit you need help.

Northern Ireland veteran Chris Batty, 48, from Sunderland (Image: Mirrorpix)

A life-saving helpline for veterans battling with PTSD may have to axe its 24-hour operation because of a cash crisis.

Combat Stress says its round-the-clock service desperately needs funds.

Last year it handled more than 12,500 calls – up 24 per cent in a year.

But in March the NHS cut ­£3.2million of Combat Stress’s overall funding – a fifth of its income.

The charity has already reduced its vital residential care programmes.

And now bosses have appealed through the Sunday People for public donations to keep its helpline available at all times.

They chose us because of our Save Our Soldiers campaign, which calls for a radical overhaul of how the Government and military top brass handle post-traumatic stress.

Carol Smith, Combat Stress director of client services, said: “We absolutely do not want to reduce the hours.

“Our helpline is the first port of call for veterans seeking help and it is really important they are able to contact us at any time of the day or night.

“A lot of calls are made at night because often people with mental health conditions find it difficult to sleep. Many have told us that if they hadn’t made that call they wouldn’t be here today.

“We have enough funding to see us through to April because we have been fortunate enough to receive a couple of legacies.

“But after that everything depends on how much money we are able to raise.”
read more here

PTSD Patrol: It came on a pink scooter

Pink scooter fuel by love

PTSD Patrol
Kathie Costos
December 30, 2018

Every once in a while, I am inspired beyond what words I can add to a topic. In one of those moods, where words just did not come, I searched some of my older videos. It came on a pink scooter. 

I was thinking about a lot of miracles that still happen and remembered the story of a homeless veteran. It is one of those stories that you think cannot be true. But it is. I know because I was at his funeral.

Thursday, March 25, 2010


Vietnam Vet Andrew Elmer Wright found a home as a homeless vet
A simple casket with an American flag for Vietnam Veteran Andrew Elmer Wright.

A simple bouquet of flowers was placed with a simple photo a church member snapped.

By all accounts, Andrew was a simple man with simple needs but what was evident today is that Andrew was anything but a "simple" man.

A few days ago I received an email from Chaplain Lyle Schmeiser, DAV Chapter 16, asking for people to attend a funeral for a homeless Vietnam veteran. After posting about funerals for the forgotten for many years across the country, I felt compelled to attend.

As I drove to the Carey Hand Colonial Funeral Home, I imagined an empty room knowing how few people would show up for a funeral like this. All the other homeless veteran stories flooded my thoughts and this, I thought, would be just one more of them.

When I arrived, I discovered the funeral home was paying for the funeral. Pastor Joel Reif, of First United Church of Christ asked them if they could help out to bury this veteran and they did. They put together a beautiful service with Honor Guard and a 21 gun salute by the VFW post.

I asked a man there what he knew about Andrew and his eyes filled. He smiled and then told me how Andrew wouldn't drink the water from the tap. He'd send this man for bottled water, always insisting on paying for it. When the water was on sale, he'd buy Andrew an extra case of water but Andrew was upset because the man didn't use the extra money for gas.

Then Pastor Joel filled in more of Andrew's life. Andrew got back from Vietnam, got married and had children. His wife passed away and Andrew remarried. For some reason the marriage didn't work out. Soon the state came to take his children away. Andrew did all he could to get his children back, but after years of trying, he gave up and lost hope.

read more here 

West L.A. PTSD therapy groups gutted by VA...seriously?

Veterans protest the gutting of West L.A. PTSD therapy groups

LA Times
Gale Holland
December 29, 2018

“I’m 69 years old and I lost a whole lot of life. When they announced we were disbanding I thought, why in the world is the government who vowed to take care of us cutting us off at the knees?” Arnold Hudson

Dov Simens said he was “playing Rambo” in a homeless camp on Wilshire Boulevard 34 years ago when he stumbled on a therapy group for combat veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder.

Veterans Steven Goldstein, from left, Peter Erdos and Dov Simens sit outside building 256 at the West Los Angeles Healthcare Center. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

Through weekly sessions on the West Los Angeles veterans campus, Simens, 75, a member of the military’s secretive Phoenix interrogation and assassination program in Vietnam, was able to marry, have children and buy a house in Sherman Oaks, he said.

Buoyed by his success, he took a break. But anger and depression drove him back to the “group of my peers.”

“I have PTSD and I know that there is no cure,” Simens said. “There is no pill or opioid that will make what I did disappear.”

Now he and other veterans say the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has soured on long-term therapy and started dismantling the West L.A. PTSD program, which has helped thousands of former service members heal the invisible wounds of war.

Before August, about 20 groups, each with five to 30 members, had been meeting on the medical campus for a total of 40 hours a week of therapy, said Leslie Martin, the former PTSD therapy program director. The combat veterans group shut down this fall after refusing the VA’s order to move to cramped quarters with no privacy, she added.
read more here

Suicide awareness message you need to hear to heal!

Local Purple Heart recipient shares important message about suicide

KKTV 11 News
By Dianne Derby
Dec 28, 2018

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KKTV) - A local veteran's message about suicide is now spreading around the world.

11 News viewers have shared Kenny Bower's story over and over again on social media. The three-time Purple Heart recipient and former Army Ranger has been through more than 600 combat missions overseas. On one mission he was blown up and left paralyzed. He even flatlined for 97 seconds. More than 150 surgeries later he's proving no obstacle is too big to overcome.

One of the first things you notice about Kenny Bower is his unstoppable smile and positivity.

"If you can accept that life isn't easy and it's hard, you can overcome anything. You can make it easy with a good mindset," Bower explained.

Behind Bower's bright smile is a man who once considered ending it all. Fourteen years ago his vehicle was blown up during a deployment to Iraq. Nine soldiers died, two survived. Kenny was left burned and paralyzed.

"I was told I would never walk again. I would be lucky to even get feeling back," Bower recalled.

Kenny credits a firefighter who stayed by his bedside, helping him to push forward.
read more here

Stupid thoughts to betray veterans....again

Happened at the VA while I was away

Stupid thought 

After 30 years, it’s time to rethink VA’s Cabinet department status

The Hill
BY RORY E. RILEY-TOPPING, OPINION CONTRIBUTOR
12/25/18

By all accounts, 2018 has been an eventful year and it has been especially so for veterans. As noted by the departing chairman and soon to be ranking member of the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee, Phil Roe (R-Tenn.), the House passed more than 80 veterans bills, 30 of which were signed into law.

Many of these laws centered around creating a culture of transparency and accountability for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).

To this end, the year 2018 is also significant for veterans because it is the 30th anniversary of VA being elevated to a Cabinet department. In 1988, when the Department of Veterans Affairs Act was being considered before Congress, John Glenn (D-Ohio), the chairman of the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, stated that he wanted VA’s elevation to Cabinet status to be more about substance than symbolism.

At the time, the stated goal of those in favor of elevating VA to a Cabinet department was to bring more accountability to VA, at a time when a House Government Operations Subcommittee investigation found that “[i]nternal VA reports indicate that the VA has covered up serious deficiencies” in its processes.
read more here

History lesson

1930
The Veterans Administration was created by Executive Order S.398, signed by President Herbert Hoover on July 21, 1930. At that time, there were 54 hospitals, 4.7 million living veterans, and 31,600 employees.

1933
The Board of Veterans Appeals was established.

1944 
On June 22, President Roosevelt signed the Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944. (Public Law 346, was passed unanimously by the 78th Congress). This law offered home loan and education benefits to veterans.

1946
The Department of Medicine and Surgery was established, succeeded in 1989 by the Veterans Health Services and Research Administration, renamed the Veterans Health Administration in 1991.

1953 
The Department of Veterans Benefits was established, succeeded in 1989 by the Veterans Benefit Administration.

1973 
The National Cemetery System (except for Arlington National Cemetery) was transferred to the VA.

1988
Legislation to elevate VA to Cabinet status was signed by President Reagan.

1989
March 15. VA became the 14th Department in the President's Cabinet.

Stunning to think that after all these years, the VA has not gotten it right. Not so stunning when you consider how many years members of congress have been trying to kill it so they can sell out the care of disabled veterans.

Yes, too many keep forgetting that part. They became disabled serving the country that promised them they would be cared for if they needed it.

As for the selling out of our veterans, they used to be ashamed to admit that was what they wanted to do. Imaging the gall of philistines being proud to break that promise. Oh, but alas, too many of them feel it is more worthy to pay back rich backers for their support instead of keeping the one promise that should never be negotiable or sellable.

The only way to achieve their dirty desires was to make sure the VA did not work right and then veterans would demand change. This was not the change they wanted.

Stupid thought two

Congress questions progress on veterans choice, suicide prevention amid ‘constant churn’ of VA leadership

Federal News Network
By Nicole Ogrysko
December 27, 2018

Engagement lacking with veterans service organizations? Meanwhile, some veterans services organizations have told the VA congressional committees they’re in the dark about the department’s plans for access standards.

Both the House and Senate Veterans Affairs Committees are concerned perpetual turnover among the top and middle leadership ranks at the Department of Veterans Affairs is putting the agency’s key priorities, including upcoming changes to VA community care and suicide prevention programs, in jeopardy.

VA has nearly six months to set the parameters for how and where veterans can receive community care in lieu of treatment from the agency. The VA MISSION Act, which President Donald Trump signed into law over the summer, gave the department until June to implement the new veterans choice program.

Members of Congress have their eyes on the criteria, because it’ll ultimately dictate just how freely veterans will be able to tap into community care — and how much the program will cost the department to administer.

The previous legislation, the Veterans Choice, Accountability and Transparency Act of 2014, allowed veterans to visit a community provider if they lived 40 miles away from the closest VA medical facility or if they had been waiting 30 days or longer for VA care.
read more here