Triple amputee Vietnam War veteran from Rochester shares testimony; inspires thousands
FOX 47 News
“I think if you have a passion and a drive and a courage and a willingness to live and move forward. I think that’s my message to everybody out there is don’t let anything stand in your way of a burning desire that you’ve got to accomplish something. Mine was just to live life.” Jim Sursely
ROCHESTER, Minn. (FOX47) – Triple amputee Vietnam veteran Jim Sursely is shared his story of perseverance, courage and hope Thursday.
Sursely, a native of Rochester, is a former National Commander for the 1.3 million members of the Disabled American Veterans (DAV).
After graduating from Lourdes High School, Sursely joined the army in 1966. Two years later, he was sent to Vietnam assigned to the Americal Division’s 17th Armored Cavalry.
During a combat mission in January of 1969, Sursely’s life changed forever when he stepped on an enemy landmine during a perimeter check.
“At like 6:15 in the evening, bang. And you know blew me about 20-25 feet in the air, tramatically amputated all three of my limbs just because of the force of the explosion. ” Said Sursely.
“The thing that actually saved my life was it went up in a gigantic ball of flame. It was not shrapnel. It was not a metallic landmine. And that gigantic ball of flame helped cauterize my arteries, keep me from bleeding to death.”
Sursely says 3-4 weeks after the explosion, in a Japanese hospital, is when he fully comprehended the trauma he experienced. He credits sharing experiences and physically training with other amputees as a major help to his recovery.
After returning to the country and recovering from his injuries, Sursely met and married his wife. They have 4 children and 12 grandchildren.
Now Jim spends much of his time sharing his story in hopes of helping others overcome their challenges.
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Indianapolis man denied entry to concert because of service dog
East Texas Matters
By: Staff Reports
Posted: Mar 27, 2019
INDIANAPOLIS, IN - An Indianapolis man is calling for change after he was turned away from attending a concert because of his service animal.
The bar doesn't allow animals; however, the law says the man and his dog should have been let in. According to the Americans with Disabilities Act, anywhere the general public is allowed, so are service animals.
That is what Thomas Jordan was trying to explain before him, his dog, and his fiancé were asked to leave 8 Seconds Saloon, a nightclub at 111 N. Lynhurst Drive.
Thomas Jordan is an Army veteran who suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder and a traumatic brain injury. That is why anywhere Jordan goes, his service dog, Luka, follows.
"So, if I am having a panic attack, he will apply pressure on me try to ground me, bring me back to where I need to be. He also does medication reminders and reminds me of my heart rate and my blood pressure. If they get elevated, he will alert me to that to take my meds as well," Jordan said.
Jordan trained Luka himself, which, according to ADA Indiana, isn't too unusual.
"I take Luka in because he is medical equipment. Essentially, he is a wheelchair, he is an oxygen tank, he is a pacemaker. I mean, if you can think of a piece of medical equipment, that is what Luka is. So if I want to go somewhere, Luka has to go with me," Jordan said.
He had bought tickets to a concert at 8 Seconds Saloon, but the operators do not allow animals inside the building.
"They turned us away because we had a service dog. We explained to them, 'Hey this is a service dog, by law it is allowed to be in here. Here is the ADA law on in.'"
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News campaign sees results as MPs agree to discuss military veteran suicides
Portsmouth News UK
Danny Johnston TOM COTTERILL
28 March 2019
THE true scale of the UK’s suicide epidemic among its veteran community will be exposed to MPs after campaigners secured a parliamentary debate on the crisis. For months The News has been lobbying the government to do more to address the escalating number of armed forces heroes taking their lives. Viv Johnston, mother of special forces hero Danny Johnston
Daniel Arnold and Stephen James, founders of armed forces support network All Call Signs. Photo: Ian Hargreaves
Now, following our campaign and efforts by military groups from Portsmouth, city MP Stephen Morgan has finally secured an official Westminster debate on the issue. Set to take place on Wednesday afternoon, it will see politicians discussing the crisis and working out how to address it.
Portsmouth South MP Mr Morgan was ‘pleased’ to have achieved the Westminster hearing, and said: ‘This will be an excellent opportunity to show the government that more needs to be done to protect our serving men and women, and veterans. ‘It is clear ministers are letting down our armed forces personnel by not properly recording veteran suicide and I believe much of the support offered needs drastic improvement.
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Officer’s Quick Thinking, Presence Of Big Rig Helps Prevent Teen Suicide In Arlington
March 27, 2019
“I’ve had it happen in my family – loss due to suicide and it’s not a good thing,” Crawford said. “(I) always ask what could I have done. Well, today, I did something. Maybe he can get some help. Maybe he can’t. But today it didn’t happen.”
ARLINGTON, Texas (CBSDFW.COM) – The Arlington Police Department is heaping praise on one of its own for quick-thinking that helped prevent a suicide Wednesday morning.
Police said around 8:30 a.m., a teenage boy looked like he was getting ready to jump off the Kelly Elliott Bridge over I-20.
Cpl. Deric Sheriff, a 15-year veteran motorcycle officer, flagged down an 18-wheeler and directed the driver to pull up and stop underneath the bridge.
The big rig was 13 feet tall, a perfect height for this unusual situation.
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VA to Drop Fight Against Blue Water Navy Veterans
Military.com
By Patricia Kime
26 Mar 2019
The Department of Veterans Affairs will not appeal a January court ruling that ordered it to provide health care and disability benefits for 90,000 veterans who served on Navy ships during the Vietnam War, likely paving the way for "Blue Water Navy" sailors and Marines to receive Agent Orange-related compensation and VA-paid health care benefits.
VA Secretary Robert Wilkie told members of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee on Tuesday that he will recommend the Justice Department not fight the decision, handing a victory to ill former service members who fought for years to have their diseases recognized as related to exposure to the herbicide Agent Orange.
Last year, the House unanimously passed a bill, the Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans Act, to provide benefits to affected service members. But Wilkie objected, saying the science does not prove that they were exposed to Agent Orange. Veterans and their advocates had argued that the ships' distilling systems used Agent Orange-tainted seawater, exposing sailors on board to concentrated levels of dioxin.
However, the bill failed in the Senate when two Republicans, Sen. Michael Enzi of Wyoming and Mike Lee of Utah, said they wanted to wait for a vote pending the outcome of a current study on Agent Orange exposure.
Committee chairman Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Georgia, also promised a hearing later this year on burn pits and other environmental exposures some troops say left them with lifelong illnesses, including cancers -- some fatal -- and respiratory diseases.
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Trump presents Medal of Honor to family of Iraq war hero
By Associated Press
March 27, 2019
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump can recognize individuals for contributions to the arts and humanities, to science and technology and for other gifts to American society, but the Medal of Honor is one of the only awards he gives out regularly, recognizing military members living or dead for acts of bravery against an enemy.
President Donald Trump presents a posthumous Medal of Honor for U.S. Army Staff Sergeant Travis Atkins, to his surviving son Trevor Oliver, during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House on March 27, 2019. On June 1, 2007 while serving in Iraq, Atkins tackled a suicide bomber, shielding three of his fellow soldiers from the explosion, but resulting in his own death.Saul Loeb / AFP - Getty Images
Trump on Wednesday presented his eighth Medal of Honor, this time to the family of Army Staff Sgt. Travis Atkins, who gave his life in 2007 to save fellow soldiers from an Iraqi suicide bomber.
The president, who received a series of deferments to avoid military service during the Vietnam War, speaks highly of medal recipients. He recounts for White House guests the details of the heroic acts for which the recipients are being recognized and, at times speaks of them using language that suggests he could not have matched their bravery.
"America is the greatest force for peace, justice and freedom the world has ever known because of you and people like you," Trump said at the October ceremony for retired Marine Sgt. Maj. John Canley , the most recent medal recipient. "There are very few. There are very few. Brave people, but very, very few like you, John."
The 80-year-old Canley's heroism during the Vietnam War included twice scaling a hospital wall in view of the enemy to help extract wounded Marines.
At an earlier ceremony, Trump said Medal of Honor recipients are a godsend.
"Our nation is rich with blessings, but our greatest blessings of all are the patriots like John and all of you that just stood, and, frankly, many of the people in this room — I exclude myself, and a few of the politicians, who, like John, carry our freedom on their shoulders, march into the face of evil, and fight to their very last breath so that we can live in freedom, and safety, and peace," he said before presenting the medal to the widow of John A. Chapman. The Air Force sergeant was critically wounded and died in 2002 while trying to rescue a Navy SEAL in Afghanistan.
Trump asked past Medal of Honor recipients attending the August 2018 event to stand and be recognized.
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We all know that our disabled veterans have to fight for the benefits they were promised...after fighting for the country and in the process becoming disabled for the country. (As if that should be OK with anyone) It takes a long time to get their compensation claim approved. During that time, they do not have income coming in, especially if they are so disabled, they cannot work.
Bad enough? Nope! The VA determines their compensation and then sends them a check. Over time, the mistake can add up after months, even years. Once the VA discovers their mistake, they turn around and want all the money back all at once. If this seems acceptable to anyone...this country has some serious issues!
VA mistake forces veterans to seek help to pay bills
The Dayton Daily News
By MAX FILBY
Published: March 27, 2019
FAIRBORN, Ohio (Tribune News Service) — Veteran Rodger Zink went three months without receiving benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs in order to correct a nearly $15,000 overpayment mistake he alerted the agency to and which the government caused in the first place.
Zink, 36, of Fairborn, is one of around 200,000 U.S. veterans who are at risk of falling into debt due to mistakes by the VA, the agency designated to help them once they leave the armed forces.
Zink, who retired from the National Guard for medical reasons, said he had his benefit payments withheld from around Nov. 28 to Feb. 28 so he could pay the VA for the $15,000 overpayment.
“They don’t care about the vet,” Zink said. “They just care about the debt even though it’s their screw up.”
A new law proposed by U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown-D, Ohio would only allow the VA to collect debts accrued within the last five years and would prohibit the department from withholding more than 25 percent of benefit payments.
Zink served in Iraq and Afghanistan and was discharged from the Air National Guard in 2011 for a brain injury and was later placed back on active duty to get treatment for a brain tumor. Despite Zink’s concerned phone calls to the VA, the agency kept paying him around $3,300 a month in disability.
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Man shot by University City police officer last week in possible 'suicide by cop' dies
St. Louis Post Dispatch
March 27, 2019
UNIVERSITY CITY • A man shot last week in a confrontation with police has died.
James Hunn, 61, died Monday, six days after authorities say he was shot by a University City officer as he pointed a shotgun at police.
Hunn’s wife, Cathy, told the Post-Dispatch last week that he was an Army veteran who recently had suffered a stroke and was distraught over his health. Police described the March 19 shooting as a case of “suicide by cop.”
“He was just hurting so bad,” Cathy Hunn said then.
But on Tuesday, she disputed the police description of the shooting.
“That’s not true,” she said. She declined to comment further, and referred a reporter to an attorney, who could not be reached.
The confrontation was about 6 a.m. March 19 at Hunn’s home, in the 1500 block of North Hanley Road. Officers had been on the porch, yelling into the home for him to surrender, when he came from his bedroom and pointed the shotgun at police, said Capt. Fredrick Lemons of the University City Police Department.
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"We just wear our scars on the outside": Band of wounded warriors healing through music
CBS NEWS
By DAVID MARTIN
March 25, 2019
"There's something about it, that just, the motivation, the drive, the just the soul of it. It doesn't feel it can go anywhere but up," Donley said.
Bethel, Pa. — In a house in the woods in the middle of Pennsylvania, some of the most important music in America is being played by a band called The Resilient. But you don't need to be a music critic to say that. All you have to do is look.
Nate Kalwicki on guitar lost his right leg in Afghanistan. Marcus D'Andrea on bass lost both legs. So did lead vocalist Tim Donley. Juan Dominguez lost both legs and an arm, yet somehow plays the drums with a special pedal and drum stick. He's not some novelty act.
"I am a drummer. I am the drummer for The Resilient and we're gonna do big things," Dominquez said.
The only member of The Resilient with all his body parts is Greg Loman, a professional musician who met the others in their darkest hour, searching for a purpose in life while recovering from their wounds.
"Through the recovery we all discovered this really intense passion for honest musicianship and they've all gotten so good," Loman said.
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UPDATE:Report finds local VA leaders 'lacked awareness' ahead of veteran's suicide
In a statement to CBS 12 News, the West Palm Beach VA said that “since the time of the review, the West Palm Beach VA Medical Center has taken action on all of the OIG’s recommendations.”
U.S. Army Sergeant Brieux Dash took his own life inside the West Palm Beach VA Hospital on March 14, 2019. After his death, Sgt. Dash’s family told CBS 12 News they believe he was suffering from PTSD. Sgt. Dash served two tours in Iraq.
An investigation into the hospital by the VA’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) began five days later, naming an undisclosed patient’s suicide as the purpose of the inquiry. The report was released August 22, 2019.
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update
Brieux Dash hanged himself March 14 at the VA Medical Center in Riviera Beach.
The Palm Beach Post
By Eliot Kleinberg
Posted Mar 25, 2019
The local VA confirmed Dash’s suicide on Tuesday after The Post inquired. The agency said it was the first at the center in at least five years, and that two other attempts were thwarted in the same span. But, it said, “One life lost to suicide is one too many.”
RIVIERA BEACH — Brieux Dash was in trouble.
The U.S. Army veteran had a military family by blood and another by marriage. He joined after high school and went twice into combat. And came home with post-traumatic stress syndrome.
The Palm Springs man raised a family of three and was able to graduate college. But his demons were gaining on him.
After weeks in which he couldn’t sleep and acted erratically, and after he several times admitted to suicidal thoughts, his wife made the tough call to have him confined on March 11 for a mental health evaluation, under the state’s Baker Act.
At the place where she worked as a pharmacy technician: The VA Medical Center in Riviera Beach.
“She felt he would be safe, monitored and get help he needed there,” the family said on a money-raising page it posted this week. The posting said Dash had spoken to his family on Wednesday, March 13, and they believed he was improving and would be home by that Friday.
Instead, on March 14, the 33-year-old hanged himself, according to the VA and the Palm Beach County Medical Examiner.
He left behind his wife of 13 years and three children.
The Palm Beach Post, in most cases, does not name suicide victims. Dash’s family gave permission, and also was up front on its money-raising page about Brieux (pronounced “Bruce”) Dash and his life and his suicide.
As a mother, I knew he was not the same person that went over there the first time,” Shenita Nelson-Simmons said Thursday from her home in Rochester, New York, where Dash was born. She said he had been diagnosed with PTSD while in the service.
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