Veteran with PTSD shot by police, refused to get help

Madera police identify man shot and killed: Had PTSD, left officers no options, chief says

The Fresno Bee
By Jim Guy
February 08, 2019

The chief said Novak refused to get treatment from the Veterans Administration hospital. Neighbors and friends urged Novak to get help, to no avail.

A Madera man shot and killed by police Thursday night was a U.S. Navy veteran suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder who left an officer no option when he advanced with a knife, Chief Dino Lawson said Friday afternoon.

He was identified as Michael Robert Novak, 59.

“It’s very sad, on so many levels,” Lawson said.

The incident took place about 10:15 p.m. on the Cleveland Avenue exit from northbound Highway 99. 

A police spokesman described the chain of events: The driver of another vehicle was involved in a possible DUI collision with Novak. 

When a police officer arrived and tried to contact Novak, he refused to get out of his car. 

Then, Novak pulled out a large knife, became aggressive and refused orders to drop the weapon before getting out and charging the officer. 

The officer retreated, again commanded Novak to drop the knife and fired several rounds when Novak continued to advance. 

Novak died from gunshot wounds at the scene.
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Reminder, not all VA hospitals are the same

Dealing with my own health problems with civilian doctors and waiting for appointments, most of the time, in pain, like now. Understand me when I say that sending veterans into this system is wrong! They deserve better than what members of Congress have told us for years is bad for us. Remember the votes on killing the Affordable Care Act? Yep, that system!

Death rates, bedsores, ER wait times: Where every VA hospital lags or leads other medical care

USA Today 
Donovan Slack and John Kelly and James Sergent
February 7, 2019

The analysis produced some positive findings for the VA. As of June 30, a majority of VA hospitals reported lower death rates than other facilities. Many VA medical centers stacked up better on prevention of post-surgical complications such as blood clots.

When Navy veteran Phyllis Seleska, 66, arrived at the emergency room at the Department of Veterans Affairs hospital in Loma Linda, California, in August 2017, the waiting room was crowded with dozens of veterans, some in wheelchairs lined up to the entrance.

Seleska suffered throbbing pain after shattering her wrist but received no medication and had to wait more than seven hours to see a doctor, records show. By then, the orthopedics staff had gone home. A nurse strapped a Velcro splint on her wrist and told her to come back in the morning.

“I don’t know why it took so long to get back there to be told, 'We can’t do anything to help you,' ” said Seleska, who worked on the flight deck of aircraft carriers in both Iraq wars.

Her experience wasn’t unusual. At roughly 70 percent of VA hospitals, the median time between arrival in the emergency room and admission was longer than at other hospitals, in some cases by hours, according to a USA TODAY analysis of the department’s data. That included Loma Linda, where the median wait is more than 7½ hours.

The USA TODAY analysis provides the most comprehensive picture of how 146 VA medical centers compare with other health care facilities on an array of factors. The analysis is based on scores of spreadsheets the VA posted online in recent years containing comparisons of its medical centers with non-VA averages on everything from the ER wait times to infection rates and patient-survey results.
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PTSD On Trial, Disabled Combat Veteran

Knox combat vet avoids jail time after PTSD-related shooting

Knoxville News Sentinel
Hayes Hickman
Feb. 8, 2019

"In my mind, I was trying to get rid of those rounds before one ended up in my head," Jones said. "But I never wanted to hurt anyone."

A disabled Army combat veteran will serve no jail time on charges stemming from a PTSD-related shooting incident at his North Knox County home as part of a plea agreement with prosecutors.

Casey Jones, 31, pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor counts of reckless endangerment in Knox County Felony Court on Thursday, assuring Judge Tony Stansberry he is seeking treatment for his struggles with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Jones initially was charged with four felony counts of reckless endangerment with a deadly weapon after firing two handguns into the bedroom ceiling and walls of his home Nov. 7.

One of those bullets went through a window and lodged behind the shutter of his neighbors' home across the street. No one was hurt.

The Purple Heart recipient previously told the News Sentinel he emptied the clips of both weapons in a desperate attempt to save himself during a suicidal episode.
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Murder-suicide investigation at Wurtsmith Air Force Base

Police investigate suspected murder-suicide in northern Michigan

MLIVE

By Cole Waterman
February 8, 2019

OSCODA TWP, MI – Police in northern Michigan are investigating what they believe is an attempted murder-suicide incident on a former U.S. Air Force base.

At 11:27 a.m. on Thursday, Feb. 7, Oscoda Township police responded to a gun complaint — later upgraded to a shots-fired report — in the residential area of the former Wurtsmith Air Force Base. While officers were en route, the initial caller advised dispatchers that two people had been shot inside a house.

Officers entered the house and found 37-year-old Rickie L. Cheatum Jr. dead on the floor from a gunshot wound to his head. Cheatum’s 31-year-old male roommate was unconscious on the floor, suffering from an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, police said.

Witnesses told police the two men had a verbal altercation. During it, the younger man grabbed two handguns and shot Cheatum before turning one of the guns on himself, police reported.

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Why do disabled veterans commit suicide at the VA?

The parking lot suicides

The Washington Post
By Emily Wax-Thibodeaux
February 7, 2019

His death is among 19 suicides that occurred on VA campuses from October 2017 to November 2018, seven of them in parking lots, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs.

ST. PAUL, Minn.

A framed photo shows Justin Miller, a 33-year-old Marine who took his life in the parking lot of a Veterans Affairs hospital in Minneapolis last year. (Jenn Ackerman for The Washington Post)

Alissa Harrington took an audible breath as she slid open a closet door deep in her home office. This is where she displays what’s too painful, too raw to keep out in the open.

Framed photos of her younger brother, Justin Miller, a 33-year-old Marine Corps trumpet player and Iraq veteran. Blood-spattered safety glasses recovered from the snow-covered Nissan Frontier truck where his body was found. A phone filled with the last text messages from his father: “We love you. We miss you. Come home.”

Miller was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and suicidal thoughts when he checked into the Minneapolis Department of Veterans Affairs hospital in February 2018. After spending four days in the mental-health unit, Miller walked to his truck in VA’s parking lot and shot himself in the very place he went to find help.

“The fact that my brother, Justin, never left the VA parking lot — it’s infuriating,” said Harrington, 37. “He did the right thing; he went in for help. I just can’t get my head around it.”

A federal investigation into Miller’s death found that the Minneapolis VA made multiple errors: not scheduling a follow-up appointment, failing to communicate with his family about the treatment plan and inadequately assessing his access to firearms. Several days after his death, Miller’s parents received a package from the Department of Veterans Affairs — bottles of antidepressants and sleep aids prescribed to Miller.
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The Washington Post is close on the number of veterans committing suicide at the VA. Actually in 2018 alone, there were at least 27 public suicides.

When veterans commit suicide publicly, no one can cover it up. They do it because while they give up on themselves, they have not given up on the people of this nation finally doing the right thing for the sake of all the others. The question is, when exactly do we do it?

Ret. Major General Marcelite Harris buried at Arlington

Marcelite J. Harris, first black female major general, is buried in Arlington

NBC News
Gewn Aviles
February 7, 2019

She retired from the Air Force in 1997 as the nation’s highest-ranking black woman in the Department of Defense.

Marcelite J. Harris. in 1990AP file

Marcelite J. Harris, the first black woman to serve as a major general in the U.S. military, was buried with full military honors Thursday morning in Arlington National Cemetery.

Harris, who died on Sept. 7, at 75, didn’t always envision herself breaking records in the military.

Born Jan. 16, 1943, in Houston, she wanted to move to New York City to become an actress, but there was one obstacle.

“Her father told her she could only move to New York if she had a job after graduating college,” her daughter, Tenecia Harris, 37, told NBCBLK. “But that’s not really how acting works.”

Upon graduating from Spelman College in 1964 with a bachelor’s degree in speech and drama, Harris couldn’t find a job performing, so she signed up for the Air Force instead. She quickly moved up the ranks, becoming the first female aircraft maintenance officer and one of the first two female officers commanding at the Air Force Academy.
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Church, beer and patriotism?

Castle Church Brewing Flag Dedicated

Combat PTSD Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
February 7, 2019

On Monday, Castle Church Brewing had a ceremony to dedicate the flag that will hang on the wall everyday as a reminder of the price paid by those who provided the freedoms we have.

(Sorry for the delay in getting this up, but I have been dealing with my back since Monday night and spent most of the time in bed. Cannot edit from bed no matter how hard I would try.)

Georgia Air National Guard, first black female pilot

Georgia Air National Guard prepares to deploy its first black female pilot

Air Force Times
By: Kyle Rempfer
54 minutes ago

The Georgia Air National Guard is about to deploy its first black female pilot, Guard officials announced this week.

1st Lt. Andrea Lewis, an E-8C Joint STARS copilot with the 116th Air Control Wing, is already the first black female pilot in the history of the Georgia ANG.

1st Lt. Andrea Lewis, an E-8C Joint STARS pilot, already serves as the first black female pilot in the history of the Georgia Air National Guard. (Georgia ANG)

Soon, she’ll also be the first to deploy, said 2nd. Lt. Dustin Cole, a Guard spokesman, in a statement provided to Air Force Times.

Joint STARS use side-looking radar to locate and track moving objects behind enemy lines.

It is the Air Force’s only operational airborne platform that can maintain real-time surveillance over a corps-sized area of the battlefield, according to the service. And the 116th Air Control Wing, Lewis’ unit, is the only one that operates the E-8C and the Joint STARS mission.

Cole said he wasn’t able to release where Lewis’ deployment is taking her, due to operational security concerns.
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The War Within, batteling PTSD

If the title sounds familiar, it should. PBS had it! Also reminder, as more and more publicity comes out for our Afghanistan and Iraq veterans, Vietnam veterans are not only responsible for all the research, openness to #BreakTheSilence they are also still suffering but no one is paying attention to the fact that the majority of known veterans committing suicide, are in fact, over the age of 50!

War Within was filmed in 1990
Special | 29m 1s
Documentary consisting of powerful interviews with veterans who returned from Vietnam physically intact but emotionally scarred. Veterans pay tribute to their friends who died in war and fellow soldiers who helped them in wartime battles and continue to help them in battles with PTSD.
Aired: 11/11/10
Rating: NR

Local Marine veteran takes part in documentary series about PTSD

King 5 News
Author: Su Ring, Helen Smith
February 7, 2019

Former Marine Scott Whistler was featured in a Facebook Watch series about veterans dealing with the aftermath of their military service.

SEATTLE — According to the VA, between eleven to twenty percent of veterans who served in Iraq or Afghanistan live with post-traumatic stress and other mental health issues, whether they've seen active combat or not. A new Facebook Watch series "The War Within" profiles three veterans living with PTSD in the aftermath of their Military service. One of those veterans is Scott Whisler, a former US Marine living in Tacoma, Washington. Whisler was diagnosed with PTSD after his deployment to Afghanistan.

However, Whisler was able to find an opportunity for leadership and connection through a running and fitness club Team Red, White and Blue. Whisler joins New Day Northwest to talk about his participation in the documentary and his life after coming home.
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Fallen Milwaukee Officer was also Iraq Veteran

Slain Milwaukee Police Officer was Iraq veteran

WSAU News
by Michael Leischner
Thursday, February 07, 2019

Matthew Rittner is the 3rd Officer killed while on duty in less than 12 months.

MILWAUKEE, WI (WSAU) -- The Milwaukee Police Officer killed while executing a search warrant on Wednesday was also a combat Veteran.

Matthew Rittner, 35, served two tours in Iraq before joining the Milwaukee Police force as a tactical officer where he would serve for 17 years.

Rittner enlisted in the Marines shortly after graduating high school and reportedly survived multiple IED (Improvised Explosive Device) attacks and a four-hour firefight.

Rittner leaves behind a wife, whom he married in a ceremony at Miller Park, and a child. A suspect, 26-year-old Jordan Fricke, is in custody. Formal charges against him are pending.
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