Paralyzed veteran gets free home in Murfreesboro
WKRN News
by: Stassy Olmos
Posted: Sep 22, 2019
“Five years ago, get a call two in the morning that he was in an accident all the way up in St. Louis,” Camacho’s friend Liam Cronin said in the ceremony Saturday, “Drive up the next day and spend the next day, and spend the next week sleeping on a hospital cot beside him.”
MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (WKRN) – It’s the simple things many of us take for granted, like getting in and out of bed or taking a shower all by ourselves, that paralyzed Army Sergeant Bryan Camacho hasn’t been able to do in years.
‘But, thanks to the nonprofit Homes for Our Troops, the solider now has a brand new home in Murfreesboro, with special amenities to help.
The Murfreesboro community welcomed their new neighbor on Saturday morning.
This homecoming much more encouraging than the last one 12 years ago when Sgt. Camacho returned from Iraq.
Camacho was first injured in 2007 as an Infantryman deployed with the 10th Mountain Division in Iraq. He was paralyzed from the waist down when his vehicle ran over an IED.
Slowly recovering in the U.S., Camacho was in another accident in 2014. His adapted truck spun out on ice and rolled, paralyzing him from the neck down.
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What reporters need to focus on regarding veterans killing themselves
Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
September 21, 2019
The VA has this within the latest report about veterans committing suicide.
Average Number of Veteran Suicides per Day: 2005–2017
The average number of Veteran suicides per day increased from 2005 to 2017.
• In 2005, an average of 86.6 American adults, who included Veterans, died by suicide each day. In 2017, an average of 124.4 Americans died by suicide each day.
• In 2005, an average of 15.9 Veterans died by suicide each day. In 2017, an average of 16.8 Veterans died by suicide each day.
• The average number of Veteran suicide deaths per day has equaled or exceeded 16.0 since 2007.
• The average of 16.8 Veteran suicide deaths per day in 2017 was higher than the 16.4 average suicide deaths per day in 2016 and equal to or lower than in 2008–2011 and 2013–2015.
• 16.8 Veteran average deaths per day in 2017 is lower than the annual averages in 7 of the last 13 years.
Table 1. Total and Daily Average Numbers of Suicide Deaths, Title 38 Veterans, 2005–2017
And this is what they point to.
While this may seem as if no real changes, either way, have happened since 2005, the truth is just below that number.
As you can see, the number of veterans counting on us to actually pay attention, has dropped by almost 5 million, but the numbers remain far too high.
This is after over a decade of "raising awareness" that veterans are committing suicide and all the stunts, all the publicity, all the charities popping up all over the country, IT IS WORSE NOW FOR VETERANS NEEDING THE HELP TO HEAL!
And if you really want to know how little all those people know...consider this part.
Veteran Suicide Rates by Age Group
• Veterans ages 18–34 had the highest suicide rate in 2017 (44.5 per 100,000).
• The suicide rate for Veterans ages 18–34 increased by 76% from 2005 to 2017.
• Veterans ages 55–74 had the lowest suicide rate per 100,000 in 2017.
• The absolute number of suicides was highest among Veterans 55–74 years old. This group accounted for 38% of all
Veteran deaths by suicide in 2017.
For female veterans, another group none of the new charities seem to care about, it has also gotten worse for them.
To all the charities out there doing your stunts and collecting millions a year, I have one question.
Are you ready to start fighting for them or want to continue to pretend you are?
You got publicity for talking about them killing themselves and they joined in that group because they were never made aware of how to live longer!
UPDATE
Article on Military Times "Veteran suicides increase despite host of prevention, mental health efforts" is wrong on this.
Department officials in recent years have quoted the rate of veterans suicides across the country as “20 per day,” reflecting past figures which included active-duty military, guardsmen and reservists who served on active-duty, and National Guard and reserve members who were never federally activated.
Why? Aside from the fact the VA had to retract that, it would mean that there are a lot more suicides within the military than the DOD had been reporting.
The figure is higher than the sum of deaths reported by the individual services in January -- the result of continued death investigations -- and tragically exceeds the previous record of 321 in 2012.
For three of the services, the numbers represent an increase over the previous year. The Army in 2017 saw 114 deaths by suicide, the Navy, 65, and the Marine Corps, 43. Only the Air Force saw a decline in suicide from the previous year. In 2017, it had 63.
Earlier this year, Defense Department officials said the rates of suicide, which provide a more accurate understanding of the occurrence among the military population, are "devastating and unacceptable and not going in the desired direction."
Astonishing thing is, the retraction from the VA was by the same reporter for Military Times.
VA backs off suicide study that indicated thousands of unreported military deaths
WASHINGTON — Veterans Affairs officials are walking back a new suicide study which appeared to show thousands of unreported military deaths in recent years, saying differences among classifications of service members led to confusion in the statistics.
The other hidden truths in all of this are;
- Discharged servicemembers without an "honorable" discharge, are not counted in any report.
- National Guard and Reservists, who were not deployed into combat zones, are not counted as veterans.
- Veterans facing off with law enforcement are not counted.
UPDATE
The University of Maine had to "postpone" a showing of movie attached to the infamous number. Question; How did they have "sparse attendance" for something that was "postponed?"
Sparse attendance?
A showing of the independent film “Project 22” in the Memorial Union’s Coe Room was postponed from Wednesday, Sept. 18 until the University of Maine’s Veteran’s Week in November, because of sparse attendance. Wednesday’s planned screening was set to coincide with National Suicide Prevention and Awareness Month, which is being observed this September across Maine and throughout America.
UPDATE
Alarming VA Report Totals Decade of Veteran Suicides
Military.com
By Richard Sisk
23 Sep 2019
The Department of Veterans Affairs released an alarming report Friday showing that at least 60,000 veterans died by suicide between 2008 and 2017, with little sign that the crisis is abating despite suicide prevention being the VA's top priority.
Although the total population of veterans declined by 18% during that span of years, more than 6,000 veterans died by suicide annually, according to the VA's 2019 National Veteran Suicide Prevention Annual Report.
The report did not take into account the possible effects of VA's programs aimed at outreach and removing the stigma of seeking help for mental health. Overall, though, the data show the suicide rate is increasing.
In 2017, more than 6,100 veterans died by suicide, an increase of 2% over 2016 and a total increase of 6% since 2008, the report found.
Firearms were the method of suicide in 70.7% of male veteran suicide deaths and 43.2% of female veteran suicide deaths in 2017, the report found.
Of particular concern was the suicide rate among former National Guard and Reserve members who were never federally activated and therefore, did not receive VA services. Within that population, there were 919 suicides in 2017, an average of 2.5 per day, the report said. Some 12.4% of all military suicides in 2017 were among this population, the report found.
Overall in 2017, the suicide rate for veterans was 1.5 times the rate for non-veteran adults, after adjusting for population differences in age and sex, the report said.
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VA concedes its debt collection systems leave veterans confused, frustrated
Military Times
By: Leo Shane III
September 18, 2019
“The resultant debts owed by veterans often cause severe financial hardships for veterans and their families,” said Shane Liermann, deputy national legislative director for benefits at Disabled American Veterans.
The Department of Veterans Affairs sent out more than 600,000 debt collection notices to veterans and their families in fiscal 2018. (Sgt. Alicia R. Leaders/Marine Corps)
Veterans Affairs officials acknowledged to lawmakers that the department’s debt collection practices remain “too clunky and too confusing” to ensure families aren’t left in financial jeopardy. And they promised additional reforms within the next year.
“We are too often fragmented, uncoordinated and highly variable in our processes,” said Jon Rychalski, chief financial officer for the Department of Veterans Affairs, told members of the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee on Thursday. “Frankly, we have a way to go before we can declare success.”
Last fiscal year, VA overpayments to veterans totaled roughly $1.6 billion, on par with mistakes in previous years.
The cases include mistakes in disability payouts after beneficiary information is updated, payments that conflict with other federal benefits like drill pay, changes in college enrollment that lower GI Bill eligibility, and simple math errors by department employees.
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VA "round table" left veterans falling off
Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
September 21, 2019
"Veterans who have survived the battlefield and return home continue to die by suicide at nearly twice the rate of people who have never served."
That is according to a report on Rocket City. The problem with that, much like the rest of the "report" is that claim is false. The truth is, what is known about veterans killing themselves, depends on which state they live in.
According to the most recent VA National Suicide Data Report, the veteran suicide rate in the U.S. increased nearly 26% between 2005 and 2016. Pennsylvania’s veteran suicide rate is 31.1 per 100,000, marginally above the national rate of 30.1. The national total suicide rate is 17.5 per 100,000. (Post Gazette)
The report was about yet another "round table" to discuss veterans killing themselves. It is doubtful the conversation involved the history of efforts made, list of things that failed, anymore than it involved what works.
Department of Veterans Affairs Suicide Prevention Program Acting Director Dr. Matt Miller said a lot to the reporter, including this.
“We are uniquely collaborating with the community to develop local community-based suicide prevention plans.” Miller also said the VA’s “Be There Campaign” which raises awareness about veteran suicides and encourages everyday people to support veterans. “We are doing a lot with veteran suicide.”
Seriously? What did he think was being done before this? When the results were actually better and BTW lower in the civilian rate of suicide as well, that proved help works but hype hurts.
We found more benefits standing side by side with someone, than we did pulling a stunt. We found lives changed when we did not allow ourselves to seek our own fame, but earned the trust of those who turned to us for help.
We offered a glimpse of hope and the path to get there by what we proved in our own lives. Happier days are possible and, yes, even miracles happen.
Instead of publicizing what will return hope to those who need it the most, too many are hoping that no one notices talk is cheap for them, but rakes in millions in donations every year. For what? Repeating a number as if it was a fact? Reminding veterans they are killing themselves?
Ask them who they are trying to raise awareness to and you will hear them claim their targets are veterans. Problem with that is, they already know how to die but do not know how to stay alive. We have First Responders committing suicide at higher rates, and most of them were also veterans.
People learn when they are made aware of something. Some thought the world was flat until they were made aware that no one fell off the side. People thought that all illnesses were by the judgement of God for some sin committed instead of what biology does, until they learned otherwise.
It is time for people to become wise enough to learn what is needed and that is to change the conversation from veterans taking their own lives into how they can take back their lives!
Time to become aware of possibilities or we are doomed to extend the probability of more choosing death because they are not aware of the power they do still have.
It is astonishingly stupid to see people drop down to do 22 pushups when their own peers are deciding to die. The same peers they trust with their lives on the job, cannot be trusted with what those jobs are doing to them? Seriously? But this is what we get when no one is talking about what is needed and proven to work.
Next they say the targets are civilians, but again, they are also committing suicide in higher numbers. Given the fact that only an oblivious idiot would ignore the fact the people who risk their lives to save lives, taking their own lives, takes self-worth away.
What they are doing "a lot of" is not working, so basically, they are doing a lot of repeating what failed instead of obtaining some basic knowledge of what was learned over the last 40 years.
Meet 'Donut Dolly' Judy Squire, one of Vietnam's forgotten veterans
WCPO News
By: Craig McKee
Sep 17, 2019
She didn't fight. She wasn't a nurse. But she was in the thick of it.
Judy Squire didn’t live to see herself recognized as an honorary Vietnam veteran. The certificate welcoming her to Vietnam Veterans of America arrived in August, two months after her death of congestive heart failure.
But getting it all was a victory, her family said. Women like Squire spent decades unsure if they even had the right to ask for their service with the Red Cross Supplemental Recreational Activities Overseas program to be counted alongside that of soldiers, nurses and other members of the armed forces.
“She probably would never have told us she got it,” Squire’s sister, Mary Catherine Schneider, said.
They weren’t military. They were “Donut Dollies,” young women who volunteered to fly to combat zones as part of a morale-boosting effort during the war. There, in the heat and mud, they wore sky-blue dresses, served snacks and attempted to provide “a touch of home” that would distract soldiers from their daily losses. Smiling was required. So were perfect hair and makeup.
None of it protected them. In a 2017 interview with PBS, former Dolly Rachel Torrance recalled crouching behind barricades as artillery fired around her. Squire would later tell her family about a day she returned from serving lemonade in the field to discover her house had been bombed.
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Veteran left homeless after contractor allegedly takes insurance money, leaves home gutted
KLTV
By Bob Hallmark
September 18, 2019
KILGORE, Texas (KLTV) - An East Texas veteran says he’s in a no-win situation in trying to repair his home after a contractor left him high and dry.
Back in March, the south side of Kilgore was hit by a massive storm damaging hundreds of homes.
The victim in this case, a Vietnam veteran, says he relied on his insurance to rebuild his shattered home. But instead, what happened in the months that followed left him homeless.
Most of the homes in south Kilgore along Layton Street that were damaged in the March storms have been repaired, except one, belonging to Vietnam veteran Don Greathouse home for 42 years.
Going through his insurance company, Greathouse hired a contractor, Preston McGinnis, to rebuild. But then things began to go wrong.
“He had promised me that he’d have it back up in two months. I have emailed him and called him since the middle of April. Got no response and he vanished,” Greathouse says.
"The house has been totally taken down to studs by the contractor we had," says daughter Renee Stevens.
Preston McGinnis was arrested and taken to Gregg County Jail. (Source: Gregg County Jail)
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