Veterans Memorial Park taken over by homeless

Port Angeles considers fencing off Veterans Memorial Park from the homeless

King 5 News
Author: Eric Wilkinson
April 19, 2019

PORT ANGELES, Wash. 

Police calls to Veterans Memorial Park in Port Angeles have skyrocketed and residents say they no longer feel safe.

At Veterans Memorial Park in Port Angeles, a replica of the Liberty Bell is defaced with graffiti. The park is teeming with garbage. Nearby residents say they no longer feel safe.

"This can be a horrific mess of trash and human waste," said Karen Rogers. "We have needles, illicit sex acts. This is a school bus route, for crying out loud!"

Rogers is a former mayor of Port Angeles. Her son is an Iraq War veteran. To her, seeing the memorial this way just isn't right.

"This place, to me, is the heart of service," she said. "We honor those who have served our country. We honor those who have given the ultimate sacrifice."

The situation has grown much worse over the past three years with the opioid epidemic. Police calls to the park have skyrocketed.
read more here

Florida veteran moved back to California...and into "Faith Defines Us"

Affordable housing helps veteran start clothing company

The Signal
Emily Alvarenga
April 18, 2019

Now, Martin owns his own business. “Faith Defines Us” is an online Christian apparel brand that, according to Martin, is “more than just selling clothes, it’s like a ministry.”

Tommy Martin served in the U.S. Army for six years before moving to California from Florida.

“I just wanted something different from where I grew up,” Martin said.

He then “played catch up by going back to school” and went on to get three bachelor’s degrees in marketing, business law and design.

Martin and his wife were living in San Francisco and looking for Veteran Affairs housing benefits a couple of years ago, when they stumbled upon the Santa Clarita Veteran Enriched Neighborhood.

A total of 78 single-family homes were being built by Homes 4 Families, a nonprofit dedicated to helping create affordable housing for veterans.

“(My wife) grew up in Santa Clarita, and didn’t want to move back, but God works in mysterious ways,” Martin said.
read more here

Unclaimed veterans laid to rest in Washington

Unclaimed veterans' remains put to rest with dignity and honor

KAVL News
by Julia Espinoza
April 18th 2019

PASCO, Wash. -- Remains of 21 veterans left unclaimed by loved ones are being honored with a proper burial at the Washington State Veterans cemetery in Medical Lake.

On Thursday, a service took place before the ride, honoring fallen heroes with a poem, folding of flag and the pledge of allegiance.

“It’s part of the veteran brotherhood no brother or sister left behind they deserve full military honors and they should not be forgotten,” said John Fish, Ride Coordinator.

The Missing in America Project is a program that helps locate, identify and provide a proper burial for fallen heroes.
read more here

Missouri firefighters caught pushing around disabled veteran in wheelchair

Now that I have your attention...it was in a very good way~

Missouri firefighters push disabled veteran home after electric wheelchair battery dies

ABC 13 News
Thursday, April 18th, 2019

RAYTOWN, Mo. -- A group of Missouri firefighters lent a helping hand to a fellow citizen after his motorized wheelchair battery died, leaving him stranded far from his home.

Video shared to Facebook by the Raytown Fire Protection District showed three firefighters as they pushed the man's wheelchair down the side of the street as their fire engine followed behind them.

In an interview with Yahoo, deputy chief Mike Hunley said the man was an elderly veteran whose chair became trapped in muddy grass. By the time he was freed, the battery had begun to run low, so firefighters pushed him seven blocks home and set him up to recharge the battery.
read more here

Vietnam Vet Charles "Billy" Johnson laid to rest by "brothers"

Veteran with no family honored by Tennessee vets

WSMV 4 News
Posted on Apr 17, 2019

A funeral was scheduled Wednesday for a Vietnam Veteran in Nashville, knowing he had no living family or close friends that would attend.

So, the VA Hospital in Murfreesboro sent out an open invitation for anyone to come.

Family doesn't have to be blood relatives, the family here today was veterans.

No one deserves an unattended funeral.

Certainly not Vietnam Vet Charles "Billy" Johnson.

When local veterans heard about this April 17th service, Veterans Cemetery in West Nashville invited anyone who cared about those who served.

"Kind of warmed my heart a little bit to see all these people here to pay final respects."
read more here

Arizona now has way to track veterans committing suicide...because they did not before

Governor Ducey Signs Bill To Better Track Veteran Suicides

News Release
April 17, 2019

New Data Will Help Inform Arizona’s Efforts To Prevent Veteran Suicide

PHOENIX — Governor Doug Ducey today signed HB 2488, legislation sponsored by Representative Jay Lawrence, directing the Arizona Department of Health Services (DHS) to submit an annual report improving the tracking of veteran suicides in Arizona.

Veterans face a risk of suicide four times greater than non-veterans in Arizona. Until now, Arizona did not have a formal way to track or report veteran suicides in the state. The new annual report will provide critical data to help Arizona understand and prevent veteran suicide. The report will begin in January 2020 and will track a variety of data points that will provide historical and regional trends and compare Arizona's resident veteran suicide rate to the national rate and other regions across the country.

“Our veterans have sacrificed so much to protect our freedom, and this country and Arizona are going to continue doing everything we can to support our veterans and prevent veteran suicide,” said Governor Ducey. “This legislation will provide Arizona with a necessary tool to understand the issues that cause veteran suicide, and implement data-driven policy to address this devastating issue.”

“There are no easy answers when it comes to veteran suicides. With this new report, Arizona will now be able to define the scope of the devastating problem of veteran suicide and find a way to prevent them and bolster our veterans’ services,” said Representative Lawrence. “I thank my colleagues for the bipartisan support and Governor Ducey for signing this legislation to help Arizona’s veterans.”

The FY2020 budget includes increased funding for Arizona’s “Be Connected” suicide prevention program. The Be Connected program connects service members, veterans and their families to support and resources. In 2018, the program assisted over 2,000 individuals. This investment will also support community outreach efforts to find additional public, private and non-profit partnership opportunities and increase awareness of the critical resources available to Arizona’s military and veteran communities.

#BreakTheSilence and #TakeBackYourLife

Side by side the same way you fought every other battle!

Vietnam Veteran Col. Philip Conran may get MOH

Should this airman receive the Medal of Honor for Laos battle? A congressman thinks so

Air Force Times
By: Stephen Losey
April 19, 2019

A California congressman is pushing to upgrade a retired Air Force colonel’s Air Force Cross to a Medal of Honor for “extraordinary heroism” during a fierce 1969 battle in Laos.

Col. Philip J. Conran receives an Air Force Cross for his heroic actions in Laos on Oct. 6, 1969. (Courtesy of the Robert F. Dorr Collection)

Rep. Salud Carbajal, D-California, on Monday introduced a bill, HR 2330, that would authorize the president to upgrade Col. Philip Conran’s Air Force Cross to the nation’s highest award for valor.

On Oct. 6, 1969, as the United States’ war in Vietnam spilled over into Laos, then-Maj. Philip Conran was part of a mission that went south when a helicopter was shot down, according to a narrative provided by Carbajal’s staff. Conran took charge during the rescue attempt, and repeatedly put himself at risk to save 44 of his fellow troops, according to the legislation.
read more here

"The Code" doesn't think female officers can manage a wedding too?

‘The Code’ for tone deafness? CBS show on Marines grilled for tweet about female officer

Marine Corps Times
By: J.D. Simkins
April 18, 2019

Network television shows on military subjects seldom lead the charge when it comes to accurately portraying the subject matter on which said shows are based.

A tweet from the official account of CBS' "The Code" sparked some harsh criticisms of the new show. ("The Code")

And that’s fine. Audience members should never expect to attain a firm, gospel-like grasp of military culture based on shows scheduled adjacent to series like “God Friended Me” or “Hawaii Five-0.”

Such tempered expectations should likewise be extended to CBS’ “The Code,” a show about “the professional and personal lives of some of the military’s brightest legal minds in the courtroom, where each attorney is trained as a prosecutor, a defense lawyer, an investigator — and a Marine,” according to the show’s IMDB page.

Since its debut, veterans have been quick to point out minor inaccuracies, such as ribbon placement or the apparent scarcity of qualified barbers in the region — harmless slip-ups.

But on Tuesday, a tweet from the show’s official Twitter account riled the masses for coming off as questioning basic capabilities of women in the Corps.

“Can Lt. Harper Li balance her duties to the Corps with planning her wedding?” the tweet read. “Find out in the latest episode of #TheCode.”
go here to read the rest if you want to, but do not miss the Tweet responses!

#SprayedAndBetrayed Blue Water Veterans still waiting for justtice

Will the benefits for ‘blue water’ Vietnam veterans be settled soon?

Military Times
By: Leo Shane III
April 17, 2019

“Even though the court has ruled that the VA must provide these benefits, there is no guarantee it will happen,” Gillibrand said in a statement. “Congress must create a permanent legislative fix.”

Troops from the First Cavalry Air Mobile Division watch the carrier USS Boxer after arrival at Qui Nhon, Vietnam, on Sept. 12, 1965. (AP file photo)

The fate of disability benefits for “blue water” Vietnam veterans will be among the key topics lawmakers tackle when they return from their district break at the end of the month.

In January, a federal court ruled that the Department of Veterans Affairs for years has used faulty reasoning to deny disability benefits to veterans who served in ships off the waters of Vietnam. VA officials had argued that extending the benefits to an additional 90,000 veterans would cost as much as $5 billion over 10 years, a figure that advocates have disputed.

This week, Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., and Steve Daines, R-Mont., announced plans to reinforce that ruling and establish a permanent fix for those veterans, who claim exposure to cancer-causing chemical defoliants has caused a host of rare cancers and respirator illnesses.

Already the chairman and ranking member of the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee have introduced similar plans, and that House panel is preparing for an expansive hearing on the topic early next month.
read more here

Book not pulled on account of zombies

When a copyright goes wrong

Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
April 17, 2019

Update on the book thing...It seems that the book went into the dead file somewhere, at some time, and must have been bitten by Zombies because its alive!

Members of Washington National Guard's 194th Wing pose as zombies with their simulated injury makeup before participating in the Cascadia Rising exercise, a test of Washington state’s earthquake response plan. Air Force photo by Tech Sgt. Paul Rider

I have been trying to figure out what I was seeing, since it did not make sense. If you have read Wounded Times lately, then you know the trouble I've been having with my first book. If not, then you may not need to go back and see what it is all about because of what I am about to show you.

For the sake of my loyal readers, I do not want to rehash all of it, so please forgive me and you can catch up here.

Today I went to ISBN to understand how it works. After all, two numbers on a book did not make much sense. Here is the deal on them.

About the ISBN Standard "ISBN" stands for "International Standard Book Number".

An ISBN is a number, not a bar code.

One agency per country is designated to assign ISBNs for the publishers and self-publishers located in that country. The U.S. ISBN Agency cannot assign ISBNs to publishers and self-publishers located outside the United States and its territories.

*******

Still not sure what is going on with overseas operations but we'll focus on the US for now. 

The ISBN identifies the title or other book-like product (such as an audiobook) to which it is assigned, but also the publisher to be contacted for ordering purposes. If an ISBN is obtained from a company other than the official ISBN Agency, that ISBN will not identify the publisher of the title accurately. This can have implications for doing business in the publishing industry supply chain.

When participating in the ISBN standard, publishers and self-publishers are required to report all information about titles to which they have assigned ISBNs.

For more than thirty years, ISBNs were 10 digits long. On January 1, 2007 the ISBN system switched to a 13-digit format. Now all ISBNs are 13-digits long. If you were assigned 10-digit ISBNs, you can convert them to the 13-digit format at the converter found at this website. A 10-digit ISBN cannot be converted to 13-digits merely by placing three digits in front of the 10-digit number. There is an algorithm that frequently results in a change of the last digit of the ISBN.

On Amazon, FOR THE LOVE OF JACK has the "978" number with the original one.

Paperback: 148 pages Publisher: Xlibris Corp (April 1, 2003) Language: English ISBN-10: 1401086918 

ISBN-13: 978-1401086916

Yet, the book that came in last week, (which according to Xlibris) is not new, it did not have the old ISBN number on the inside. It just had the one that was issued after 2007. Yes, this is like a very bad movie that you cannot shut off!

So, exactly why would a publisher do this after they "stopped printing it" and pulled it from distribution years before?

Even that is in doubt because apparently Xlibris cannot make up their mind when they stopped it.

 First it was 2005,

And then it was 2004~Which came in an email last week after they wrote how they stopped in 2005.

Again, we know it was not a used book! (Yes, that is my name and after I started writing back in 1984)

Love that part at the end. I bet she hoped it did so that I would go away and stop wanting them to be accountable!

The worst part of this is, they have been doing this to me for 16 years! Why not remove a book if they had in fact stopped distribution of it? Why put on a new ISBN number on a book that was "out of print" a couple of years before this special number was even issued?

Wonder how many others they did it to? 

If they did it to you, leave a comment and then maybe someone with the power to do something about it will!

I am trying to raise funds to take control of this book back! I want to print it and give it away. Please go here to support that effort.