2019 Happy New You

A new you can begin today

Combat PTSD Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
January 1, 2019

Last year did not start out so great. Pasco County Deputies were dealing with the death of an Air Force veteran, John Sellinger. His family was trying to comprehend what happened. Others who served with him, and knew him were shocked.A foundation was dealing with the loss as well.

Sellinger's wife, Laura, had reported him missing that day. He lived in a Seminole Heights house recently donated to his wife by the Gramatica Family Foundation. Both Sellingers had served in the Air Force. An improvised explosive device had detonated near Laura Sellinger in Iraq in 2006, causing a severe brain injury.

Over in Texas, it was a positive ending because  Judge John Roach Jr. decided that he should treat veterans like more than just a number.

"When I was accepted into the veterans' court, it was the first time I was treated like I wasn't just a number in the system." Richard Ress 

It seems like every year I wonder what it will be like at the end of the year for veterans, much like I did last year.

"I have witnessed veterans doing as Artaban did, giving all they had intended for God to be used in God's name because someone needed them. They are by "brothers" in Point Man International Ministries running around the country offering hope, showing veterans how to heal and then standing by their side when everyone else has walked away from them."

Today I think it is time for something new. Something that will prove what is possible when people decide to take control over their own lives, especially when those lives were willing to die for the sake of others. Imagine that? So, here are some of the best stories from last couple of years!

Rafael Semmier used his training as a combat medic to save a life at Walmart after someone decided to shoot others.

Disabled Vietnam veteran Mike Elliot discovered how much he mattered to his neighbors after his house caught on fire in Pennsylvania.

In Kentucky, Veterans chose to dance to heal PTSD and spend time with others rejoicing instead of regretting.

Another disabled Vietnam veteran, survived Hamburger Hill, losing his home, but found help and then, helped others.

Fort Carson soldiers risked their lives to save a woman trapped by her SUV after a rollover accident.

A homeless veteran living on the streets of Sacramento used his military training to save his own foot instead of letting it be amputated.

Marine Master Sgt. Clifford Farmer decided that he wanted to live and battle the enemy inside of himself as much as he fought the enemy in Iraq. PTSD was not something he was willing to surrender his life for.

Veteran William Goliher depended on those he served with in Afghanistan and Iraq, and then his community to help survive his battle with PTSD.

A disabled veteran in New Hampshire asked for help to fix his home, and the community responded big time!

Another veteran trying to heal PTSD discovered the power to fight for her own life from a cat who was an amputee!

A disabled veteran with a PTSD Service Dog won for the sake of all people with service dogs when he fought American Airlines.

IraqVeteran Jame Trumble decided to fight to take back his life and with the help of the VA. He did exactly that.


Bill Wedekind lost both his hands and eyes at age 18 from an IED in Vietnam, but his drive to live and inspire others helped heal other wounds.

Minnesota National Guard and a St. Paul police officer Eric Reetz found a homeless veteran and gave him a challenge coin so that he could stay in touch with the veteran.

Double amputee, Brian Mast is an example of determination and inspires as a Congressman from Florida.

A veteran of Afghanistan, Maj. Lisa McCranie is a pilot to the core, so steeped in the culture of never showing weakness that she hid every symptom of post traumatic stress disorder even as the weight of war began to crush her spirit. Years in uniform and the bulk of 2,800 hours in the cockpit went by — 1,100 of them in combat — before she even realized she had PTSD. McCranie found herself in yet another war, to get help.

Veteran Joe Clemens decided that he didn't need such a big house, so he started offering veterans in need of help a place to stay...and heal.

And Vietnam veteran Dave Roever was inspiring soldiers at Camp Casey with the story of how he recovered from being burned.

And those stories just happened in January of 2017.

And then there are police officers; Chris Sutherland and Jeremy Wood, school resource officers of Marysville Pilchuch High School. 

Orlando Police Officers fought to have PTSD covered for first responders, unafraid to come out, talk about what what came after Pulse, and the won.

Firefighters did it too. Kern County Fire Department Captain Derek Robinson talked about his battle with PTSD, so others would break their own suffering in silence.

Phil Hall talked about his battle with demons.

UPDATE: I used 2017 because last year was not such a great year on good reports. 

The Crew of the North Dakota did whatever it took to save a sailor after he tried to kill himself. Imagine that? He shot himself instead of turning to those he served with, but they proved how much they cared about him.

A Marine veteran, Wendell Blassingame, known as the Saint of Skid Row, made sure that other veterans were not left alone, and proved they mattered.

I think my favorite stories from January was of veterans reaching out to the Sheriff's Office to help them with PTSD. Budd Huffman and Jim Muhr decided that reading stories was not going to cut it, so they decided to do something about it. Share what they were going through and #BreakThe Silence.

There are so many more of them because more and more are discovering the power they have to help others, just as they did in the services they dedicated their lives to.

That is the thing that gets missed way too often. Your jobs are all about doing for others, so how about you take that seriously now? Heal for others and then show them the way toward something to hope for~

Note to readers...updated to add in more since, as I said, I was struggling with trying to just do a positive post today.

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