Senate to vote on ending border emergency that diverted DoD funds
Military Times
By: Joe Gould
1 hour ago
“Now we have a whole number of Republicans who voted with the president who see their military bases being ransacked, pillaged,” Schumer said Tuesday. “I don’t think anyone, no matter what state they are from, will want to see money being taken away from their military installations, [which is] very much needed.”
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks as he visits a new section of the border wall with Mexico in Calexico, Calif., on April 5, 2019. (Jacquelyn Martin/AP)
WASHINGTON ― Republicans will be “forced” to vote as soon as Wednesday whether to end the president’s emergency diversion of military funding to his border wall, according to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.
Schumer and other Democrats turned up the pressure on their GOP colleagues months after 12 Senate Republicans voted to end the emergency declaration and the House failed to override President Donald Trump’s veto.
The decision to force a second vote comes after the Pentagon released the list of 127 projects in 23 states and 19 allied countries that were deferred by the administration to devote $3.6 billion to the border wall.
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Veteran's dying wish to ride in a convertible with 'three pretty nurses' granted
NBC 10 News
by SAM READ
September 23rd 2019
COVENTRY, R.I. (WJAR) -- A veteran who is spending the remainder of his days in Rhode Island hospice care had a wish granted on Monday.
Vietnam War Veteran Patrick Lonergan's wish to ride in a convertible with "three pretty nurses" comes true Monday, Sept. 23, 2019. (WJAR)
He's battling end-stage COPD, uses an oxygen machine and has been a resident at Coventry Health Care since March.
Patrick Lonergan said he joined the military during the height of the Vietnam War in 1968.
During his last "monthly" meeting, Lonergan said he made a comment to his caretakers that prompted action from them.
"You know they were asking me questions what else can they do for me this month; 'How can we help you?' What can we do for you?'" said Lonergan. "The third time they asked, 'What can we do for you?' I kind of threw my hands up and said, 'How about a ride in a convertible with three pretty nurses?' And they took me seriously."read it here
After three USS George H.W. Bush sailor suicides in one week, commander calls for prevention ideas
STARS AND STRIPES
By CAITLIN DOORNBOS
Published: September 23, 2019
The aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush arrives at Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Portsmouth, Va., Feb. 21, 2019.
WILLIAM HENSLEY/U.S. NAVY
Three sailors aboard the aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush took their own lives last week, commanding officer Capt. Sean Bailey said in a post on the ship’s official Facebook page Tuesday morning.
The deaths follow a rising number of suicides in the Navy since 2015. Bailey said the deaths “mark the third, fourth and fifth crew-member suicides in the last two years” on the Norfolk, Va.-based ship alone.
The three deaths occurred separately and were unrelated to each other, he said. They bring to at least 49 the number of active-duty sailors who have killed themselves this year.
In the post, Bailey said his “heart is broken” and called for ideas on suicide prevention, adding that “there is never any stigma or repercussion from seeking help.”
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UPDATE
Navy confirms string of recent suicides by USS George H.W. Bush sailors
CBS News
Brian Pascus
September 24, 2019
Four service members of the United States Navy have died by suicide between July and September of this year, officials have confirmed. The suicides involved four sailors assigned to the USS George H.W. Bush aircraft carrier. Although two of the sailors killed themselves on the same day, the suicides did not occur on board the ship and authorities have said there is nothing to indicate the deaths are linked.
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*******
Here's an idea for you. Stop doing what you are doing and try something OLD~ instead of repeating what was "new" and worse.
It is not just the Navy suffering. It is all branches losing more to suicide than are lost in combat.
In the Air Force, they are trying to get the spouses of servicemembers to take action.
In a video running on the American Forces Network this month, Chief Master Sgt. of the Air Force Kaleth O. Wright tells viewers that 78 airmen have died by suicide so far this year - 28 more than had taken their own lives at the same point in 2018.
But we've heard all that before. We've pretty much heard it all and are fed up with repeated failures.
The "major malfunction" is no one in charge is paying enough attention to notice IT IS TIME TO CHANGE THE F##KING CONVERSATION! They have no clue what PTSD or what they can do to fight it.
Stop pandering to the "stigma" and reduce it down to the point reached when ancient people had to finally accept the fact the earth was not flat. The truth was still the truth even though they refused to see it.
The "stigma" is fake news! What is wrong with surviving something that could have killed you and being changed by the event? Anything? Hell no!
Life changes everyone and it is up to us if we change again into something better.
I am a ten time survivor of something that either could have killed me or, as I heard a few times, should have killed me. I ended up changed by the events, but fought take my life back into my control.
I have been working on PTSD for 37 years and I have never seen so many people being so misinformed while still in charge.
It's Official: AMVETS Will Hold Memorial Day Rally in D.C. to Replace 'Rolling Thunder'
Military.com
By Richard Sisk
21 Sep 2019
The 2020 events will be held to "to make the nation, especially our voters, aware of what is happening, what isn't happening and what needs to happen to address our POWs, our MIAs, and our veterans and active-duty service members who are dying by suicide," Chenelly said in a statement.
Ray Weaver, of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, supports Rolling Thunder 2017. (Joshua L. DeMotts/U.S. Air Force)
AMVETS made it official Friday: A "Rolling Thunder"-style motorcycle rally will take place next Memorial Day weekend in Washington, D.C., to honor the nation's veterans, POWs and missing-in-action.
In a release and at a news conference, leaders of the veterans service organization American Veterans, better known as AMVETS, said they would continue the tradition of the annual three-day rally of thousands of motorcyclists in the nation's capital for the 2020 Memorial Day.
Last year, Artie Muller, long-time leader of the Rolling Thunder rallies that rumbled through Washington for 32 years, cited escalating costs, stating that the 2019 rally would be the last, although local chapters around the country might sponsor their own events.
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‘You’re not forgotten’: Michigan residents respond to disabled Navy veteran’s Craigslist ad
Lansing State Journal
Kristan Obeng, Published
Sept. 18, 2019
OLIVET – The brain surgery Jeffrey Hempel underwent in August left the Navy veteran a physically changed man in need of assistance.
Jeff Hempel, 69, recovers at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota after brain surgery in this undated photo. (Photo: Nora Hempel)
His tongue swelled, muffling his words.
The double vision that resulted post-surgery has prevented him from driving.
He no longer has the mobility needed to haul water and feed the 50 chickens, two goats and various rabbits on his 15-acre property in Olivet.
“My poor wife has to do everything,” Hempel said.
He decided he needed to sell his farm animals, a decision he struggled with.
“It’s hard on him because he loves ‘his girls’ as he calls (the animals),” Hempel’s wife, Nora, said.
The 69-year-old also found he could no longer chop and stack his own firewood, something he had been doing for 30 years.
Not wanting to be a burden, Hempel did something he rarely did: He asked for help.
Hempel posted an ad on Craigslist asking for help gathering and chopping firewood. The response was more than he expected. He received help from people across Michigan within 48 hours.
Two non-profits catering to military veterans united to help Hempel after discovering his Craigslist ad.
“(Jeff) said he called different organizations to get help, and they kept passing him around like a dollar bill,” stated Ed Henley of Fishing It Forward, a group that takes veterans fishing.
Morgan’s Hugs also wanted to ensure Hempel got the help he needed.
The organization was started by Morgan Scarbo, a 15-year-old whose father is a disabled veteran, according to the teenager’s mother, Deborah Scarbo.
“We just try to help veterans as best as we could,” said Deborah Scarbo. “Another friend, Trish Barker and her granddaughter, Lexi, are going to be delivering groceries we got for him. It’s a big team of people trying to help.”
The goal for both non-profits is to provide Hempel with enough firewood for two years, according to Henley.
Firefighters from the Springport Fire Department also assisted by transporting some of the firewood using their personal vehicles.
Another organization, New Horizon, provided meals to volunteers helping Hempel.
“It was unbelievably generous,” Hempel said. “I’m just shocked. I’m humbled.”
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Disabled veteran loses his possessions in a curbside fire after his eviction
WWMT Newschannel 3
by CALLIE RAINEY
September 17th 2019
Summey said the community was also quick to offer help, after he posted a picture of the burned belongings on social media. "Pretty amazing, within minutes hundreds of messages people wanting to know what they could do to help," Summey said.
STURGIS, Mich. (WWMT) — The contents of his apartment were stacked on the curbside, but before a disabled veteran who once called Quail Run II his home could move the belongings, someone doused the pile with gasoline and lit a match.
"I seen him, he was sitting in his chair. He didn't want to leave his stuff. I can understand, that's all your possessions," said Clint Parsons, who lives near the apartment complex.
Parsons said the gentleman, a U.S. Air Force veteran, told him his rent hadn't been paid in almost a year, even though he had a caregiver who was supposed to be handling his affairs.
According to Disability Attorneys of Michigan in 2015 there were 82,952 homeless people in Michigan, and 5,291 of those were veterans.
St. Joseph County Veterans' Affairs Director Stoney Summey said the county's transitional housing program provided secure, safe housing to 28 veterans throughout the first nine months of 2019.
Summey said the veteran who was evicted from Quail Run II on Friday, is paralyzed, and now brings to six the number of homeless veterans in St. Joseph County.
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