Irony of national security shut down?

Shutdown, shut down our National Security providers

Under Homeland Security

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS)

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) administers the nation’s lawful immigration system, safeguarding its integrity and promise by efficiently and fairly adjudicating requests for immigration benefits while protecting Americans, securing the homeland, and honoring our values.

United States Coast Guard (USCG)

The United States Coast Guard is one of the five armed forces of the United States and the only military organization within the Department of Homeland Security. The Coast Guard protects the maritime economy and the environment, defends our maritime borders, and saves those in peril.

United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP)

United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is one of the Department of Homeland Security’s largest and most complex components, with a priority mission of keeping terrorists and their weapons out of the U.S. It also has a responsibility for securing and facilitating trade and travel while enforcing hundreds of U.S. regulations, including immigration and drug laws.

Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) leads the national effort to defend critical infrastructure against the threats of today, while working with partners across all levels of government and in the private sector to secure against the evolving risks of tomorrow.

Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) supports our citizens and first responders to ensure that as a nation we work together to build, sustain, and improve our capability to prepare for, protect against, respond to, recover from, and mitigate all hazards.

Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC)

The Federal Law Enforcement Training Center provides career-long training to law enforcement professionals to help them fulfill their responsibilities safely and proficiently.

United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)

United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) promotes homeland security and public safety through the criminal and civil enforcement of federal laws governing border control, customs, trade, and immigration.

United States Secret Service (USSS)

The United States Secret Service (USSS) safeguards the nation's financial infrastructure and payment systems to preserve the integrity of the economy, and protects national leaders, visiting heads of state and government, designated sites, and National Special Security Events.

Transportation Security Administration (TSA)

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) protects the nation's transportation systems to ensure freedom of movement for people and commerce.

Management Directorate

The Management Directorate is responsible for budget, appropriations, expenditure of funds, accounting and finance; procurement; human resources and personnel; information technology systems; facilities, property, equipment, and other material resources; and identification and tracking of performance measurements relating to the responsibilities of the Department.

Science and Technology Directorate

The Science and Technology Directorate is the primary research and development arm of the Department. It provides federal, state and local officials with the technology and capabilities to protect the homeland.

Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction Office

The mission of the Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction (CWMD) Office is to counter attempts by terrorists or other threat actors to carry out an attack against the United States or its interests using a weapon of mass destruction.

Office of Intelligence and Analysis

The Office of Intelligence and Analysis equips the Homeland Security Enterprise with the timely intelligence and information it needs to keep the homeland safe, secure, and resilient.

Office of Operations Coordination

The Office of Operations Coordination provides information daily to the Secretary of Homeland Security, senior leaders, and the homeland security enterprise to enable decision-making; oversees the National Operations Center; and leads the Department’s Continuity of Operations and Government Programs to enable continuation of primary mission essential functions in the event of a degraded or crisis operating environment.

And then there are the other departments where workers have to go to work, without getting paid, and having to figure out how to get there with no gas. Top that off with having to worry about having a home to go back to and the suffering spreads.

Unclaimed Tennessee veterans laid to rest with honor

Unclaimed veterans buried with dignity, thanks to strangers

The Associated Press
By: Adrian Sainz, Karen Pulfer Focht
January 20, 2019

Soldiers Arnold M. Klechka, 71, Wesley Russell, 76, and Marine Charles B. Fox, 60, were laid to rest in a service attended by about 700 people at West Tennessee Veterans Cemetery in Memphis on Thursday. There was a gun salute, and a bagpiper played “Amazing Grace.”

In this Jan. 17, 2019, photo, a retired U.S. Marine master gunnery sergeant salutes three Memphis veterans, Wesley Russell, 76, Arnold Klechka, 71, Charles Fox, 60, who died this past fall and whose remains were unclaimed, in Memphis, Tenn. (Karen Pulfer Focht/AP)

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — When the flags were removed from the caskets and folded with military precision, there were no family members there to receive them.

So, the banners were passed, hand-to-hand, through the crowd.

Some mourners wept as they clutched the flags briefly. Others kissed them. But the three veterans laid to rest on a rainy Memphis morning were strangers to most of those who gathered to honor their memory.

The service was part of a national effort by funeral homes, medical examiners, state and federal veterans' affairs departments, and local veterans' groups to pay final respects to members of the military whose bodies were not claimed by any relatives. Since 2000, Dignity Memorial and other funeral homes in more than 30 cities have organized about 3,000 funerals for soldiers, sailors and Marines who died alone, but still deserved a dignified funeral and burial, said Jeff Berry, Dignity's general manager in Knoxville.
read more here

Lakeland Fire Department PTSD Peer Support

Lakeland Fire Department rolls out Peer Support training

The Ledger
By Kathy Leigh Berkowitz
Posted Jan 20, 2019

The program was created to combat depression, suicidal thoughts and post-traumatic stress disorder faced by first responders.

LAKELAND — Deaths of first responders to suicide, increased depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and other symptoms of mental health trauma have led some fire department leaders to change the way they want to see their peers cope with the often stressful and heartbreaking job.

“Tradition is you just suck it up and go about your day, and just let it go,” Lakeland Fire Department Lt. Phil Green said Tuesday as the agency rolled out training for peer support last week. Firefighters fight the macho mentality, the pressure of presenting as invincible, Green said. 

“There is a fear of saying, ‘I am not OK’,” he said, but “we are human just like everybody else.” 

Green, 36, was one of those peers chosen to take the training in an effort to be a sounding board for fellow firefighters. At 14 years in fire services, he said now that the awareness is there, he hopes people speak up when they need to talk.

First responders face all kinds of trauma on a daily basis.

“Vehicle accidents, all different ages. People hang themselves, shoot themselves. Some are burned to death. I have seen children die. ... I have actually stepped in brain matter on scene. I have placed bodies in body bags,” he said.

One day Green said he answered a very bad call involving a child. As a father of a 4-year-old girl, Green said the call had “gotten to” him.

He met with a few other firefighters. “We said, let’s go get some coffee.”

An anonymous survey was distributed throughout the department, asking firefighters to write down the name or names of people they would turn to if they needed help coping with something. Those whose names popped up numerous times were gathered and brought to the training as the first peers to be certified under the program.

read more here

Get the stigma of PTSD out of your way

Putting the PTSD stigma behind you

Combat PTSD Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
January 21, 2019

Apparently you got the wrong message about PTSD.

Is there something wrong with being a survivor? 

Isn't that supposed to mean that you lived through something? 

That is supposed to mean that you were stronger than whatever it was that tried to kill you. Right?

Someone gave you the twisted thought that having PTSD meant you were weak instead of strong.

Did you know that PTSD has more to do with strength than weakness?

PTSD hits you after you survived something. It hits the emotional part of your brain, and that is where your soul lives.

The stronger you feel good stuff in life, the stronger you feel pain. That is why other people can walk away from the same thing changed in other ways.

No one survives something and remains unchanged by it. Some react differently, including becoming real jerks about anyone who felt it more than they did.

Maybe they are jealous because you could feel love more deeply, happiness more joyfully or marvel at something as simple as a sunrise? 

OK, now for the getting rid of the stigma part of PTSD.

It is OK to grieve. It is OK to feel sad. It is OK to have a million thoughts run through your head. 

It is NOT OK to give up on the life that survived the thing that started PTSD.

It is NOT OK to allow someone else to put roadblocks in your way when you are trying to heal.

It is NOT OK to spend your days regretting something simply because you do not understand it.

It is NOT OK to settle for fools defining you by PTSD when they refuse to learn what has been available online for decades.

It is NOT OK to let them talk about something they do not understand while you remain silent instead of educating them.

It is NOT OK to only look at what is "wrong" in your life, when you could be seeing what IS STRONG within you.

Stop giving power back to the thing that already lost. YOU WON and it is time to #TakeBackYourLife from PTSD.

One more sales job on suicide prevention~

Wrong answer of can suicide be prevented

I was really hoping that the article on The Wall Street Journal would actually be helpful, but it turns out it is yet one more sales job on something that does not address the actual prevention step that has to be taken before anything else should be tried. 

Get the stigma out of the way of them finding hope again!

There are many different things that work, but none of them will work unless the person facing such hopelessness sees there is a better life ahead for them. They will not see it unless they understand what they have and why they have it. 

Especially with PTSD, but with all mental illnesses, people are afraid to open up. Imagine that! Being more afraid to open up and seek help than they are to plan the way to end it all. 

Had the "experts" been more effective at defeating the one thing that blocks them from even thinking about a better day ahead, then the number of suicides would not have gone up every year in this country instead of down.

How many more times do you need to read about one more sickening stunt in your area where people get together to have some fun while the subject is veterans committing suicide. Not hard to guess how little they do know when they cannot even get the "number" right or even bother to know much more than what they read in a headline.

Anyway, here is the link to The Wall Street article that misses way too much to bother posting it here. If you have been on Facebook lately, then you know how many are talking about this as well as how few are actually doing anything to help anyone. Besides preventing suicides requires communication skills on behalf of the one suffering as much as it does to the one asking the questions.

Can Suicide Be Prevented?
Dialectical Behavior Therapy, which helps patients communicate and handle their emotions, can be effective at reducing suicidal thoughts and attempts

PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES/ISTOCK

It is time to take another road!

Stay out of the wrong lane

PTSD Patrol
Kathie Costos
January 20, 2019

This morning I was thinking about how people in the wrong lane of traffic can mess up everyones ride.

I go into work at 5 am, which is great most mornings. With only a few cars on the road, it is really a nice commute. That is, until I get behind someone without a clue where they are going, and blocking the passing lane.

That happened Friday. The driver in the right lane was obeying the speed limit. The driver traveling in the passing lane was doing a little under the speed limit. There was no safe way to pass either of them.

Soon there was a group of us trapped behind them.

That is the way it is in life too. You are having a nice trip until someone gets in your way and blocks the road ahead of you, making it take longer to get to where you need to go.

If you are hearing about how many veterans someone thinks committed suicide today, you need to wonder what their point is. Who does it help when they just guess? How serious is the subject them when they cannot answer any questions? 

The most obvious question they should have been finding the answer to, is, "What will change the outcome?"

read more here

Ex-POW Ron Young speaker at Boy Scout dinner

Former POW to speak at Boy Scout dinner; AmeriServ CEO to be honored

The Tribune Democrat
Mark Pesto
January 20, 2019

The keynote speaker at the 49th annual Harry E. Mangle Memorial Dinner in Johnstown will be a military veteran who flew Apache helicopters in Iraq, survived a stint as a prisoner of war and once appeared on the reality TV show “The Amazing Race.”

That veteran, Ron Young, has a story that will resonate with those who attend the dinner, which is hosted by the Laurel Highland Council of the Boy Scouts of America, Erik Tomalis, chief development officer for the Laurel Highlands Council, said Friday.

“He’s a lifelong Boy Scout,” Tomalis said. “He loves the mission, he loves the military and he loves giving back, so we’re very honored that he’ll be coming in to share his story. I think (Young’s story) connects well with Johnstown … and connects to our Scouting story.”

Young, a Georgia native and Eagle Scout, was deployed with the Army National Guard twice, conducted search-and-rescue flights in the Gulf of Mexico and is currently flying a helicopter for the air medical service provider Air Methods, according to a biography provided by Tomalis.

In March 2003, during the American invasion of Iraq, Young and another pilot were taken prisoner after their helicopter was shot down, according to contemporary news reports. They were held captive with five other American prisoners until they were rescued about three weeks later.

As a speaker, Young “credits the leadership and training he received in the military for his survival,” according to his biography.
read more here 

Also a story about Ron Young from 2013 
Iraqi war POWs still cope with aftereffects 10 years later

PTSD on Trial: Louisiana Walmart

Attorney: Veteran who threatened to ‘shoot up’ a Walmart suffers from PTSD

Houma Today Louisiana
Dan Copp
January 19, 2019

An attorney representing man who was accused of threatening to “shoot up” a Thibodaux store last month said his client suffers from PTSD and is a decorated Army war veteran.

Louis Albarado, 68, Thibodaux, was charged with terrorizing following an incident at the Walmart at 410 North Canal Blvd., the Thibodaux Police Department said.

Shortly after 2:09 p.m. Dec. 23, the suspect entered the store and became irate after someone took his grocery cart while he wasn’t looking, police said.

Albarado then accused several customers of taking the cart and made threats about “shooting up the store,” police said.

The post-traumatic stress disorder his attorney says he is suffering from is a mental health condition that’s triggered by a terrifying event — either experiencing it or witnessing it, according to the mayoclinic.org website.

After management escorted Albarado out of the store, police were called to the scene and arrested him.

During questioning Albarado admitted he had planned to retrieve a gun from his vehicle and shoot the person who took his cart, police said. A search of the suspect’s vehicle led police to a loaded .44 magnum handgun.

Albarado’s attorney, Eric Santana, said there is a lot more to the story.

Santana said his client’s experiences in Vietnam have left him suffering from multiple mental health and physical issues and the VA hospital classifies him as “100 percent disabled.” Albarado is a decorated war veteran whose life has been thrust into chaos since his arrest, Santana said.

According to military records submitted by Santana, Albarado received a National Defense Service medal, a Vietnam Service medal, two Bronze Stars and other medals and commendations in the 1970s.
read more here

Vietnam Veteran Peter Turnpu Laid to Rest With Honor

Mourners pay respects at funeral of veteran with no family

ABC 13 News
Gary Hall
January 18, 2019

"He was a veteran and we are all brothers at heart. He didn't have no family, he didn't have no relatives and that's why we are here for him," said Jack McGrath.

WRIGHTSTOWN, N.J. -- On Friday, strangers became family to a veteran who died all alone with no known family.

Most had never heard his name and didn't know his life story but they showed up by the dozens to pay respect and say goodbye to 77-year-old Peter Turnpu. Leroy Wooster of Wooster Funeral Home and Cremation Service said, "We have to give honor to those who have served and Peter would have had no one here if we didn't reach out." Wooster said when he heard about Turnpu's death, he couldn't just let the Vietnam veteran be buried alone. He paid for the funeral and invited the community to attend the service.
read more here

Thank you WSCR-AM 670’s Dan McNeil

When a radio show host had the chance to remain silent about mental illness, he chose to #BreakTheSilence and confront the bully of his healing.

After over half my life has been consumed by PTSD and the efforts to help veterans to heal, getting them to overcome the stigma, has been the hardest thing to do. Someone decided that mental illness was something to be ashamed of, and that is the message they got.

This is for anyone with a mental illness, no matter what it is. No matter what it is caused by or what label it has been given. 

The truth is, there is no shame for you unless you put it there. Do you really care what other people think about you, more than what you think about yourself?

Mental illness is real and so is taking steps to live the best life possible by doing what is possible to living happier ever after!

Well this radio show guy just won one for all of you last night!

After 'dead pool' pick, radio host Dan McNeil shares mental health struggle: 'I must confess, this guy got to me'

Chicago Tribune
Phil Rosenthal
January 18, 2019

Sharing a vulnerability uncommon among sports radio hosts, WSCR-AM 670’s Dan McNeil laid himself bare in a post-midnight Facebook post Friday.

McNeil, 57, apparently was triggered by a text from a listener who informed him he had been selected in the listener’s so-called dead pool in which the deaths of those chosen score points weighted toward the decedent’s relative youth.

Despite initially seeming to laugh off the note as he might on the air — “Give the dude credit for a sound investment strategy; I’m a good ‘value pick’ in a pool like that” — McNeil responded with soulful ruminations on living with vices, mental health issues and suicide.

Then he shared the impact he imagined his death would have on his three grown sons.

“I must confess, this guy got to me,” McNeil wrote. “I even cried a few times. Daydreaming about my sons’ sadness over the void in their lives is an optic I’d just as soon avoid.

“What kind of human has so much contempt for a radio show, he wishes for — at the minimum, bets on — a guy’s death? So, hoping that guy is reading this — as I did on the air, hoping he was listening — I want him to quickly meet my sons, now bereaved by the loss of their dad.”
read more here