Disabled veteran VA check taken by hackers

Action News Jax Investigates: Jacksonville-area Marine targeted at home

By: Action News Jax
Feb 12, 2019

Robert Daniels isn’t alone, according to the VA out of NEARLY 7 million Ebenefit accounts, 2,293 have been compromised since 2015.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - A new scam targets the VA disability benefits of local veterans.

An Action News Jax Investigation exposed thieves diverting money from one account to another.

It happened to local veteran Robert Daniels who relies on his monthly disability checks to make ends meet.

Daniels says he served in the Marine Corp for 4 years and is now 80 percent disabled, his discharge papers detail numerous injuries including arthritis, ligament tears in his knees, and two compressed discs in his back.

The local father first noticed the problem when he checked his bank account for the VA deposit, he said “I was looking for my check and there was no check.”

Daniels received a letter from the Department of Veterans Affairs saying "We processed your October 2nd request to change your direct deposit information."
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Disabled veteran has chance to talk again...but VA won't pay for it

CLINICAL TRIAL OFFERS HOPE FOR VETERAN AND LONGTIME FIREFIGHTER TO SPEAK AGAIN

AP
By RILEY BUNCH
February 12, 2019

GARDEN VALLEY — When William “Bud” Paine descended to the lower levels of the Naval Destroyer Escort to stand by on fire watch as welders took to maintenance of the ship, he was handed a canteen and a bandanna.

“'Just keep the bandanna wet,' they said. 'This stuff won’t hurt you,'” Paine, now 63, recalled.

"This stuff" was the 96,000 pounds of asbestos sharing living quarters on board with the Navy sailors.

His exposure to insulation material during his service led to a throat cancer diagnosis in 2001, a year of failed radiation treatment and the final option of removing his voice box in 2002.

Paine has communicated for over 15 years by forcing air through a prosthesis that acts as his vocal chords and must be changed every three months. Relearning how to talk took him six months after the procedure.

Hope to regain his voice again came by an ad for a new clinical trial on his Facebook feed last spring. The Mayo Clinic campus in Arizona is attempting to give individuals who have had their larynx removed — about 60,000 Americans — the chance to get it back by organ transplant or rebuilding their own with stem cells.

Though Paine's disability resulted from his military service, the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs' strict policy against funding clinical trials has left him in a desperate search for the funds.

Clash for funds

Paine loved being at sea. Now, he can’t even step foot in a boat.

“If something happened,” he said, “I’d drown immediately.”

He doesn’t know if any other members of his Navy crew from 1972 to 1974 suffered cancer or other radiation-related illnesses, but he can’t imagine they didn’t.
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Veteran just restored hope to my heart

The wounds you can feel, just as real as the ones you can see

I see so many using heart-wrenching stories for their own benefit, that I tend to get to the point where I just open the emails I have to post and ignore all the others.

 Every once in a while, I'll see an email that reassures me, most of the people actually trying to make a difference for our veterans, do it for the right reasons. 

Today, I just opened one of those and I have to tell you that it came at the right time.

You know, the same type of message I've been preaching for over 3 decades! Are you hearing it now?


The reports of recent suicides started to put my heart through a meat grinder. Well, this veteran just pulled it out before it turned into dinner for the "awareness divas" running around screaming for attention for themselves, while the rest of us are losing hope because we're losing a lot more than those folks will ever mention.

Roland Van Deusen MSW

Veteran, retired counselor

Clayton NY 

And look how long he's been delivering his message!

To Veterans with Invisible Wounds
Ronald Van Deusen
November 19, 2012

31 law enforcement officers have taken their own lives since 1-1-19

Local deputy's death sparks conversation about police suicides

KWTX 10 News
By Rissa Shaw
Feb 12, 2019

So far in 2019, at least 31 law enforcement officers have taken their own lives, including a young McLennan County jail deputy who graduated from the police academy less than a year ago.

WACO, Texas (KWTX) The recent death of a McLennan County deputy is creating awareness about police suicide.

"We deal with quite a few suicides in the county, but it's very different when one of your own people takes their own life," said Sheriff Parnell McNamara. "It's always a very sad thing when you lose one of your own."

For the third year in a row, police suicides have outnumbered line of duty deaths, according Blue H.E.L.P., a non-profit run by active and retired officers advocating for greater mental health resources for law enforcement.

"The heart of an officer is to do what is right by everyone and to do the best job that we can, and sometimes, we need help," said Lydia Alvarado, Chief of Police for the City of Bellmead.

Alvarado, who's been teaching mental health peace officer certification courses since 2003 and critical incident training (CIT) since 2005, is considered a local expert in mental health as it relates to law enforcement.
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11 airmen and Air Force civilians died by suicide first 4 weeks in 2019

Air Force calls for culture change in bid to reduce suicides

STARS AND STRIPES
By Brian Ferguson
Published: February 12, 2019

Air Force senior leaders issued a memo calling for a culture change after a total of 11 airmen and Air Force civilians died by suicide in the first four weeks of 2019.

The number of suicides within the ranks has remained relatively flat in recent years; however, the service wants to do more to bring the suicide rate down, stated a Feb. 5 memo signed by Secretary of the Air Force Heather Wilson, Chief of Staff of the Air Force Gen. David Goldfein and Chief Master Sgt. of the Air Force Kaleth Wright.

In January, five active duty airmen, four civilian employees, one Air National Guard member and one reservist died by suicide, according to data provided to Stars and Stripes by the Air Force.

In the first quarter of 2018, the Air Force had 11 servicemember suicide deaths, a Pentagon report found last year. The report did not include civilian deaths.
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Wow that is a bad report. It is also a exceptionally incomplete.

The DOD seems all too ready to blame everything...and everyone, as long as they do not have to take responsibility for any of it.

So who will be the "one too many" we keep hearing them say "One is too many" before they change? This is far beyond a SNAFU. It passed that point about a decade ago. Ever since then we've heard all kinds of excuses and slogans that have changed nothing for the better.

How many more will it take before that "one" proves to them once and for all, it is time to take a serious look at clusterfuckish "programs" they have been pushing? Is this really all proving the rumors true, that this is all about money going into the contractors' bank accounts? If this is the result of billions of bucks being spent every year, then someone needs to get damn refunds PDQ so they can help pay for the funerals that did not need to happen.

Considering that the troops still have not clue what PTSD is, wouldn't that be a good place to start?

After all, since the stigma keeps them from talking about what surviving is doing to them, should they begin to understand why PTSD is not a sign of any kind of weakness, then they have a chance at healing ASAP. This point needs to be made clear right from the start so that PTSD does not have a chance to dig-in and infiltrate to the point where they end up facing being kicked out or flipped out.

Gee it may even allow them to feel encouraged to get it out and find reinforcements to help them work through it. That won't happen until everyone gets it straight. That it hits them after they survived whatever it was that was the one too many times it happened for them. It hit the strongest part of them. 

The strongest part of them, in case you didn't know, was their emotional core that made them want to serve in the first place. Yes! PTSD comes into survivors because of the strength of their emotional core. Oh, sure some egotistic-self-serving jerk will challenge that one, but the evidence makes that point very clear.

PTSD strikes the emotional part of the brain after surviving the "event" that set it off. Therefore, the more they feel everything else, including the good stuff, the more they will be invaded by PTSD.

It is also why there are not only different levels of PTSD, but different types of it. Face it~ If we can understand a civilian with PTSD after one event, then it should be easy to understand what someones job demands they face them as part of their job requirements.

Within all of this BS, we're wondering why we knew so much back in the 70's and 80's than they do now. 

Want to keep reading headlines like this one? Then just relax and forget about all of this. Want to change the outcome? Then get busy, get educated and then, get pissed off enough to make sure that the media cannot simply do a hit job and then walk away until the next report makes us sick to our stomachs.

Widow says "It’s OK to not be OK"

Widow of fallen CHP officer launches suicide prevention project

RANCHO CORDOVA, Calif. (KCRA)
It’s been nearly four months since California Highway Patrol Officer Sean Poore died while on duty. The 9-year veteran committed suicide inside his patrol car on Oct. 23.

Poore leaves behind his wife, Samantha Poore, and their three young children.

“I just feel guilty because I wish I would have paid attention to those little things that I just didn’t -- I just didn’t see,” Poore said. “I thought he was getting the help that he needed and he wasn’t sharing that he wasn’t.”

Now, Poore is partnering with a Sacramento County sheriff’s deputy to launch The Not OK Project, a suicide prevention organization focused on helping first responders. They want police officers, firefighters, paramedics and dispatchers to know that "it’s OK to not be OK."

“We had an amazing life together, and I never thought that this would be my life," Poore said. "So I’m just going to do this for him."

Poore didn’t realize her husband’s depression ran so deep. She said they lived “a Cinderella story,” falling in love at first sight on the first day of college and having three beautiful children.
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70 Year Old Corrections Officer Committed Suicide at Huntsville Prison

Texas corrections officer dies by suicide at Huntsville prison

Houston Chronicle
By Keri Blakinger
February 11, 2019

The death comes less than two years after another officer at a Huntsville-area unit fatally shot himself at work. In that case, fellow workers found the 40-year-old in the guard picket at the Ferguson Unit, with a gunshot wound to the head, The Huntsville Item reported at the time.

A 70-year-old corrections officer died by suicide Monday after shooting himself with his service weapon at a Huntsville prison, officials said.

Authorities did not release the man's name, but said that fellow officers found him around 1 a.m. sitting outside the guard picket at the Wynne Unit.

He was not under investigation and did not have a disciplinary history, according to prison spokesman.
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Veteran with PTSD arrested at Walmart...died in jail a day later

Combat veteran arrested at Walmart, taken to jail, dies a day later. Widow seeks answers

Florida Today
J.D. Gallop
Feb. 10, 2019

The widow of a combat-disabled veteran who died after being booked into the Brevard County Jail in December is calling for an independent investigation into her husband's death.

Kathleen Edwards says the sheriff's office has not responded fully to requests for information about her husband's death.

Gregory Lloyd Edwards, a 38-year-old army medic who served in Iraq and Kosovo, was arrested in West Melbourne about 11:30 a.m. Dec. 9. Officers had been called to Walmart Supercenter on Palm Bay Road to investigate reports of a man acting erratically and jumping into a truck packed with Christmas toys.

By 2:45 p.m. the same day, Brevard County Fire Rescue paramedics were called to the county jail. They found Edwards unconscious and without a pulse. He initially had been moved from booking to the jail’s medical building.

The Grant-Valkaria resident was then taken to Rockledge Regional Medical Center, where he was handcuffed to a bed, according to his widow, who stayed with him in the hospital. A photograph also shows him unconscious in a hospital bed, hooked to medical tubing.

Edwards and her attorney say Gregory Edwards' medical records show he had swelling of the brain and what appeared to be marks on his body, which the attorney believes may have been from a Taser.
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Alabama Disabled Veteran's Body Found in Trash Bags

update ‘He was thrown on the side of the road like garbage’: Clues sought in murder of veteran

Disabled Alabama veteran's body found in trash bags

by WPMI Web Staff
February 12th 2019

LIPSCOMB, Ala. (WPMI) — Authorities now saying the body found wrapped in trash bags in Lipscomb, Alabama last week was a disabled veteran.

According to our sister station in Birmingham the body of Fredrick O'Neal Harris was found 30 miles away from his home in Centerpoint.

A Fed-ex driver found his body wrapped in garbage bags taped together near train tracks in Lipscomb.
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VFW Post Donated $350,000...and may have to close

VFW Post in Bedford fighting to save historic hall: ‘This is what we call home’

FOX 8 Cleveland
By Suzanne Stratford
FEBRUARY 11, 2019

Over the years, Post 1082 has donated nearly $350,000 to a number of groups, charities, and scholarship funds.

BEDFORD, Ohio -- They served their country in the military and their community as veterans.

Now, members of VFW Post 1082 in Bedford are fighting to save their historic hall.

“This building's been here since 1932, so we’ve been here a long time,” said Vietnam veteran Willie Adams. ”It’s almost like you’re losing your house; I mean, this is what we call home.”

Much more than brick and mortar, the building on Northfield Road has been a rock for these veterans, and a place where they could feel comfortable and camaraderie.

“This hall is my solace; this is where I need to be and come to relax,” said Vietnam veteran John Freeman. “Nobody in the world other than veterans can empathize with what we feel and how we feel.”

The Post fell on hard times this past year with a number of members passing away or moving out of town and consequently they fell behind in their taxes. They lost the building to foreclosure, but have been trying ever since to buy it back or make a deal to lease it.

However, Adams says, the price has doubled and now without help they will have to leave by February 17.

“It’s heartbreaking,” said Adams.

The loss would be devastating for many others in the community as well.
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