Archbishop Elpidophoros addresses the faithful regarding #COVID19

While some seem to think that going to church is OK, this is what our Archbishop thinks about our obligation to our communities and especially the healthcare workers.

"And with this prayer I'm hoping that we, can be unbroken" by PTSD

Bon Jovi thanks Prince Harry for 'bringing a light' to PTSD sufferers as they release video for charity single recorded with the Invictus Games Choir

Daily Mail
By CHLOE MORGAN FOR MAILONLINE
30 March 2020

Prince Harry released video for charity single 'Unbroken' recorded in February
Recorded with Bon Jovi and Invictus Games Choir to raise awareness of PTSD
Jon and 12 choir members seen rehearsing and singing as one glorious group

Prince Harry has released the video for charity single 'Unbroken' he recorded with US rocker Bon Jovi and the Invictus Games Choir to raise awareness of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

The special version of the Bon Jovi track, re-recorded last month at Abbey Road Studios, is available to buy and stream now.

All proceeds will go to the Invictus Games Foundation, of which The Duke of Sussex is Patron, in support of the recovery and rehabilitation of international wounded, injured or sick military personnel.

The Choir and Jon recorded the single together in just two days, and in the video, Jon and the 12 choir members are seen rehearsing and singing together as a glorious group.
read it here

Unbroken

Bon Jovi

I was born to be of service

Camp Lejeune just felt like home

I had honor, I found purpose

Sir, yes, sir

That's what I know

They sent us to a place I never heard of weeks before

When you're nineteen, it ain't hard to sleep

In the desert on God's floor

Close your eyes, stop counting sheep

You hear them bootcamp anymore

We were taught to shoot our rifles

Then in one, then side by side

Thought we'd be made as liberators

In a thousand year old fight

I got this painful ringing in my ear

From an IED last night

But no lead light humvee war machine, could save my sergeants life

Three more soldiers, six civilians

Need these words to come out right

God of mercy, God of light

Seek your children from this life

Here these words, this humble plea

For I have seen the suffering

And with this prayer I'm hoping

That we, can be unbroken

It's 18 months now, I've been stateside

With this medal on my chest

But there are things I can't remember

And there are things I won't forget

I lie awake at night with dreams of devils shouldn't see

I wanna scream, but I can't breathe

And Christ, I am sweating through these sheets

Where's my brothers? Where's my country?

Where's my how things used to be?

God of mercy, God of light

Seek your children from this life

Here these words, this humble plea

For I have seen the suffering

And with this prayer I'm hoping

That we, can be unbroken

My service dogs done more for me

Then the medication would

There ain't no angel that is coming to save me

But even if they could

Today, 22, would die from suicide

Just like yesterday, they're gone

I live my life for each tomorrow

So their memories will live on

Once we were boys, and we were strangers

Now we're brothers and we're men

Someday you'll ask me, was it worth it to be of service in the end?

Well, the blessing, and the curses, yeah, I'd do it all again

Whoa-oh

Whoa-oh

Whoa-oh

Whoa-oh

Whoa-oh

Whoa-oh (Whoa)

Source: Musixmatch

Songwriters: Jon Bon Jovi

Unbroken lyrics © Bon Jovi Publishing, Universal Music Publishing Int. Ltd.

Vietnam Veterans Day with the voice of first talking GI Joe

The voice of the first talking G.I. Joe action figure is a true American hero

The New York Post
By Melanie Gray
March 28, 2020

For the Corsairs, today is an opportunity for all Americans to recognize Vietnam veterans for their service, particularly because so many were shunned when they returned home from fighting America’s most unpopular war.

Bill Corsair, voice of the first talking G.I. Joe action figure.

Bill Corsair is the voice of the first talking G.I. Joe doll, a SAG award winner and a Guinness World Record holder.

But the title that the Manhattanite is proudest of: Army veteran.

Corsair, 79, went to Vietnam in January 1969 as part of the fabled First Cavalry Division. He came back 10 months later a changed man.

“To me, it was the bravest and most patriotic and unselfish thing I’ve ever done, and I can’t imagine my life if I hadn’t,” Corsair said from his Upper West Side home.

Today, as the country wages a health war on the home front, Corsair wants to honor those 2.7 million men and women who served alongside him by calling attention to Sunday’s National Vietnam War Veterans Day. Roughly 60,000 made the ultimate sacrifice.
read it here

COVID-19 canceled Vietnam Veterans Day Celebrations...so here is mine!

Vietnam Veterans Day Tribute

Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
March 29, 2020

Today is Vietnam Veterans Day and a lot of you are feeling down because you are used to going to events organized to thank you for your service and a way to be with other veterans. Because of CORVID-19 those events have been postponed.

This is my small way of taking time to let you know, you have not been forgotten and are not alone!

What this nation owes Vietnam Veterans is far more than just a day to honor your service. It goes beyond wanting to let you know we, as a nation, are sorry for the way you were treated after you served this nation.

Giving you the truth about how Vietnam Veterans Day began, is a start.

The White House
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release March 29, 2012
Presidential Proclamation -- Vietnam Veterans Day
VIETNAM VETERANS DAY
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
A PROCLAMATION

On January 12, 1962, United States Army pilots lifted more than 1,000 South Vietnamese service members over jungle and underbrush to capture a National Liberation Front stronghold near Saigon. Operation Chopper marked America's first combat mission against the Viet Cong, and the beginning of one of our longest and most challenging wars. Through more than a decade of conflict that tested the fabric of our Nation, the service of our men and women in uniform stood true. Fifty years after that fateful mission, we honor the more than 3 million Americans who served, we pay tribute to those we have laid to rest, and we reaffirm our dedication to showing a generation of veterans the respect and support of a grateful Nation.

The Vietnam War is a story of service members of different backgrounds, colors, and creeds who came together to complete a daunting mission. It is a story of Americans from every corner of our Nation who left the warmth of family to serve the country they loved. It is a story of patriots who braved the line of fire, who cast themselves into harm's way to save a friend, who fought hour after hour, day after day to preserve the liberties we hold dear. From Ia Drang to Hue, they won every major battle of the war and upheld the highest traditions of our Armed Forces.

Eleven years of combat left their imprint on a generation. Thousands returned home bearing shrapnel and scars; still more were burdened by the invisible wounds of post-traumatic stress, of Agent Orange, of memories that would never fade. More than 58,000 laid down their lives in service to our Nation. Now and forever, their names are etched into two faces of black granite, a lasting memorial to those who bore conflict's greatest cost.

Our veterans answered our country's call and served with honor, and on March 29, 1973, the last of our troops left Vietnam. Yet, in one of the war's most profound tragedies, many of these men and women came home to be shunned or neglected -- to face treatment unbefitting their courage and a welcome unworthy of their example. We must never let this happen again. Today, we reaffirm one of our most fundamental obligations: to show all who have worn the uniform of the United States the respect and dignity they deserve, and to honor their sacrifice by serving them as well as they served us. Half a century after those helicopters swept off the ground and into the annals of history, we pay tribute to the fallen, the missing, the wounded, the millions who served, and the millions more who awaited their return. Our Nation stands stronger for their service, and on Vietnam Veterans Day, we honor their proud legacy with our deepest gratitude.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim March 29, 2012, as Vietnam Veterans Day. I call upon all Americans to observe this day with appropriate programs, ceremonies, and activities that commemorate the 50 year anniversary of the Vietnam War.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-ninth day of March, in the year of our Lord two thousand twelve, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-sixth.

BARACK OBAMA

Now you know that this day to offer as tribute to Vietnam Veterans began back in 2012, but as you also know, the years are not the truth. The years are just those recognized as such.

You know the first recognized service member killed in Vietnam was Air Force T-Sgt. Richard B. Fitzgibbon Jr. The following facts are from The Wall

The first American soldier killed in the Vietnam War was Air Force T-Sgt. Richard B. Fitzgibbon Jr. He is listed by the U.S. Department of Defense as having a casualty date of June 8, 1956. His name was added to the Wall on Memorial Day 1999.

First battlefield fatality was Specialist 4 James T. Davis who was killed on December 22, 1961.

And the last came in 1975.

The last American soldier killed in the Vietnam War was Kelton Rena Turner, an 18-year old Marine. He was killed in action on May 15, 1975, two weeks after the evacuation of Saigon, in what became known as the Mayaguez incident.

Others list Gary L. Hall, Joseph N. Hargrove and Danny G. Marshall as the last to die in Vietnam. These three US Marines Corps veterans were mistakenly left behind on Koh Tang Island during the Mayaguez incident. They were last seen together but unfortunately to date, their fate is unknown. They are located on panel 1W, lines 130 - 131.

This is from the President Ford Library

Your battles lasted almost 20 years by some accounts. Yet, in all honesty, your battles never ended.

When you came home, treated as if you should not have returned, you accomplished so much for the sake of the same people who did worse than turn their backs on you.

At the Orlando Nam Knights fundraiser for Homes For Our Troops, Vietnam Veteran and Medal of Honor hero Sammy Davis talked to me about what it was like coming home after all he'd been through. It is a story few have heard before. As Sammy put it, it is one of the reasons no other veteran will ever come home treated like that again.

Vietnam Medal of Honor Sammy Davis has a message to all the troops coming home. Talk about it! Don't try to forget it but you can make peace with it. Dixie Davis has a message for the spouses too. Help them to talk about it with you or with someone else.

All over the country, men and women like Sammy returned with a new mission. Taking care of other veterans and making sure that no generation ever had to go through what they went through.

Vietnam Veterans of America, Inc. (VVA) is a national non-profit corporation founded in 1978 in the United States that is committed to serving the needs of all veterans. It is funded without any contribution from any branch of government. VVA is the only such organization chartered by the United States Congress and dedicated to Vietnam veterans and their families. The group holds a congressional charter under Title 36 of the United States Code. Its founding principle is "Never again will one generation of veterans abandon another."

Vietnam Veterans of America (VVA) is the only national Vietnam veterans organization congressionally chartered and exclusively dedicated to Vietnam-era veterans and their families.

By the late 1970s, it was clear the established veterans groups had failed to make a priority of the issues of concern to Vietnam veterans. As a result, a vacuum existed within the nation’s legislative and public agenda. In January 1978, a small group of Vietnam veteran activists came to Washington, D.C., searching for allies to support the creation of an advocacy organization devoted exclusively to the needs of Vietnam veterans. VVA, initially known as the Council of Vietnam Veterans, began its work. At the end of its first year of operation in 1979, the total assets were $46,506.

I met my Vietnam veteran husband in 1982. Everything I have learned about PTSD came because of him and the wonderful man I saw beneath the pain he carried home with him. The following are videos I started to make in 2006 because I ended up falling in love with all Vietnam veterans because of what you did for all of us!

This was the first one and it was shown by a member of the US Navy bringing troops back from Iraq.

UPDATE

Why are you still looking for proof of God's Love?

God's Love Surrounds Us

Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
March 28, 2020

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16

In troubled times, people seem to find it hard to believe that God is real. They say prove it, yet, if they open their eyes, they see proof of God everyday.

Right now while most of the country is isolating because of the Coronavirus, we are lonely and afraid that someone we love will be stricken by it.

We see hoarders taking whatever they can, while some are left leaving stores with nothing they need.

We see people act as if it is horrible they cannot go out and enjoy their lives in groups of friends and total strangers, only to pass on the virus to others who did not have a choice in their actions.

None of those selfish acts came from God or what Jesus came to teach His Brothers and Sisters. It came because they allowed their own will, their own lust, their own self worth rise above every one else.

We are all capable of being like that. It is easier to take than to give. Easier to anger than forgive. So why is it that so many others are putting everyone else ahead of themselves? God's Love!

God Is Love
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.

Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.

In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.

In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.

By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.

And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.

Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. 16 So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.

By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. 19 We love because he first loved us.

If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot[a] love God whom he has not seen.

And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother. 1 John 4:7-21

We see it when Doctors and nurses work long hours under extreme stress to do whatever they can to save as many lives as possible even though it puts their own lives in danger.

We see it when members of law enforcement show up every shift to protect the citizens in their communities while many of members of those communities hate them.

We see it in other first responders when they leave their own families and homes, put their lives in jeopardy to save strangers.

When people line up to take food to shut ins it is there.

We see it when people all over the country take the time to sew masks for hospital staff it is there.

Whenever you are looking for proof of God's Love, it only means you are not really looking at what is already there!

Office of the Inspector General VA review shows only some unprepared for COVID-19

The Inspector General checked on VA's coronavirus response. Here's what it found.

Connecting Vets
ABBIE BENNETT
MARCH 26, 2020

A watchdog agency checked in on the Department of Veterans Affairs' response to COVID-19, including screening processes and pandemic readiness, and they found some areas lacking.

Within two days of the World Health Organization declaring the coronavirus spread a pandemic, the Veterans Health Administration, which cares for about 9 million veterans, began screening processes to protect against infection.

VA also began preparing for its fourth mission -- to serve as a last line of defense for Americans, not just veterans, during health crises.

About a week after VA began screening for the virus, Office of the Inspector General (OIG) investigators launched an inquiry to evaluate how VA was performing, including unannounced visits to hospitals, clinics and nursing homes -- while working to ensure those visits wouldn't put veterans or staff at risk.

Screening
At the 58 medical centers OIG investigators visited, they found:

About 71 percent had adequate screening processes in place, while about 28 percent had room for improvement and one -- the Southern Arizona VA Healthcare System -- had inadequate screening for potential infection because staff was not asking all of the required screening questions.

At the 121 community outpatient clinics OIG investigators visited, they found:

121 (97 percent) had screening in place, though four did not have any screening and visitors were asked no COVID-19 questions. At the 54 VA nursing homes investigators visited after VA announced a no-visitors policy, they found:

Nine nursing homes were still allowing visitors.

Testing
Almost all of the 237 medical facilities investigators visited were collecting COVID-19 specimens for testing, but none of those facilities could process them on site. Some referred those who needed testing to county or state health departments.
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