Saturday, May 30, 2020

VA Employees say VA "not offering widespread testing" for COVID-19

VA Says It's Providing a COVID-19 Test to Any Employee Who Asks. Employees Say That's Not True.


Government Executive
ERIC KATZ
Senior Correspondent
May 29, 2020

Veterans Affairs Department employees across the country are disputing a claim VA leadership made to Congress on Thursday that any employee who wants a COVID-19 test—for any reason—could get one.
Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie speaks during a House Appropriations subcommittee hearing on Thursday. ANDREW HARNIK/AP

Government Executive heard from employees at a dozen VA facilities in as many states who said the department was not offering widespread testing for the disease related to the novel coronavirus. In most cases, they said, only symptomatic workers could receive a test. That reality falls in sharp contrast to the situation described by VA’s top leaders.

“We also have testing available for our employees,” Jennifer MacDonald, VA’s chief consultant to the deputy undersecretary for health, said at a House Appropriations subcommittee hearing on Thursday. “Any employee who is symptomatic, who is concerned they have been exposed or requests a test is able to receive that.”

VA Secretary Robert Wilkie added VA was no longer experiencing any shortage of testing. “We do have an adequate testing at this point,” he said.

Employees, however, said their experience runs counter to those claims.

“That is absolutely not a true statement at my facility,” said one Ohio-based VA nurse. “If you’re symptomatic, that’s the only way [to get a test].”
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Not "tragically bound to the starless midnight"

Judge by the "content of their character"


Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
May 30, 2020

Our nation is facing an epidemic of historical proportions. We have a pandemic claiming over 100,000 lives in a span of about 3 months. We have over 40 million unemployed. Healthcare workers are dying while trying to save lives while many other providers are losing their jobs. Protests to reopen the states have included individuals showing up with guns. Many people are regarding the pandemic as someone else's problem. We have racists, no longer ashamed of how they view fellow citizens. Native Americans are dealing with the virus killing them in higher number, poverty, lack of services, at the same time they are under threat of losing their lands. This is a nation in crisis.
“THESE are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated”Thomas Paine, The Crisis
"What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly." as Thomas Paine said so eloquently, applies to what this nation faces today. More and more people are forgetting how we got where we are and the price paid by generations who came before them. They forget that entire generations risked their lives in service to this country in times of war, as well as times of peace. They paid for the freedom so many others want to claim as their "right to enjoy" at the same time they want to remove the rights of others.

While those who entered the military were from all political sides, color, states and religious beliefs, they managed to set aside their differences and were willing to die for one another. We should take that to heart, especially now, but we have faced the crushing burdens before. The difference is, we learned from them.

In 1968, someone filled with hate assassinated Rev. King after he was willing to pay the price to achieve social justice for Black Americans, peacefully protesting and speaking out against using violence to respond to violence. I was alive then and remember it. Just as I was alive when President Kennedy was assassinated, and his brother Bobby was killed. Yet all of these men moved the majority of my generation to stop seeing people based on color of their skin. It was about the "content of their character" that mattered.

Looking at what is happening in this country right now, we have witnessed a reversal of that. Are there bad police officers? Yes, but not all police officers are bad, but while the majority are good, they are all being attacked for what the few bad ones do.

We see protestors flooding the streets, rioters and looters destroying property and burning down businesses in their communities during a pandemic. We see some others showing up to protest orders by the governors of their states with arms, attempting to intimidate their fellow citizens and politicians to yield the better judgement for the greater good to do their will. Are all protestors committing crimes? No, but again, they are all being blamed for what a few do.

“I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character." Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.


While anger and fear have gripped this nation, we are forced to expand our view aways from what is on the news and see what else is happening to find signs of hope.
“I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality." Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
The majority of people in this country are trying their best to do the right thing. Mankind is not "so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war" because there is "peace and brotherhood" still alive in the shadows of one of the worst times in this country.

People of all political sides, color, states and religious beliefs are stepping up for their fellow citizens and the greater good. People are regarding the "content of character" that requires a heart that will not judge anyone by anything else. Thoughts are motivating action to fight against hopelessness. Prayers are motivating action to help others suffering by finding way to do whatever they can for total strangers.

Yes, these are bleak times in this country, but we have been in darkness before. We survived those days because others stepped up refusing to accept what "was" because they dreamed of what could be.

Friday, May 29, 2020

Father and Son Marines Beat Enemy Together...Both Had COVID-19

SC veterans, father and son, battle COVID-19 together


WBTV News
By Jason Raven
May 29, 2020

COLUMBIA, S.C. (WIS) - Thomas Bowman Jr. said in early April he began feeling under the weather.
Thankfully, both men have been released from the hospital and have made full recoveries. (Source: Family photo)
He originally thought it was his chronic sinusitis acting up. But on April 5, he began feeling worse and his symptoms were getting severe.

“The symptoms of COVID-19 had begun forming in my lungs. Headaches. Shortness of breath,” he said.

Bowman Jr. -- a Marine Corps veteran -- was admitted to the VA Hospital in Columbia. Bowman had pneumonia in his lungs and a high fever. He tested positive for COVID-19.

When he was talking with doctors, he remembered he had visited his mother and father a few days before he started to feel ill.

“Bowman Jr. had recently cut his own grass and his mother and father’s grass. He was very concerned they could possibly contract this illness,” Dr. Amy Lucas at the VA Hospital in Columbia said.

Bowman Jr. followed his father’s footsteps when he joined the United States Marine Corps. Now Thomas Bowman Sr., a Vietnam War veteran, followed his son’s footsteps when he also tested positive for COVID-19 and found himself hospitalized.
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"What am I going to do now with my life?" Rory Hamill

Decorated combat vet who died highlights pandemic's effect on mental health


CBS News
By JAN CRAWFORD
May 28, 2020
"So when the lockdown did happen, it stripped him from everything he knew," Franciose told CBS News. "He couldn't do his public speaking. He couldn't go to school, to his outlet away from his own mind."
Washington — Rory Hamill was a father of three and a decorated combat veteran in the Marines. Hamill lost his life not at war — but in a growing mental health crisis that's being made worse by the deadliest public health crisis in a century. Hamill was one of many veterans who've been suffering.
"He was a hero to many people," Kristal Franciose said of her ex-husband, Marine Corporal Rory Hamill. A blast from an IED in Afghanistan in 2011 robbed him of his right leg. Hamill had a hard road home.
"A lot of the thoughts going through my head were, 'Why didn't I die?' What am I going to do now with my life?'" He told "60 Minutes" in 2015.
read it here

I wrote about Rory's suicide with a broken heart. Isolation sucks for people like him who have devoted their lives to help others. Knowing what pain is and what hope offers is not something easily walked away from.

I know because I have been doing it since 1982 and could not walk away no matter how many times I wanted to. Not doing what I believe I was put on this earth to do, rips me apart everyday. I keep wondering what else I can do to replace what I can no longer do, and at the end of the day, I do not go to sleep with the peace of knowing I did the best I could. Sure I know that these are unusual times and groups endanger the lives of others, but the human contact is vital, especially now.

If you are a veteran or family member, reach out to those willing and ready to help you. Find help that is out there! Use your phone or email. Find us, because if you are hurting, so are we because you are!

Email me at woundedtimes@aol.com or call me 407-754-7526.

Thursday, May 28, 2020

letter from a soldier in Vietnam to his sister finally came after 52 years

Soldier's lost letter from Vietnam War finds its way home 52 years later


WHAS 11 News
Heather Fountaine
May 28, 2020

NORTH VERNON, Ind. — A five page letter from a soldier to his sister landed in the mailbox of North Vernon, Indiana’s Janice Tucker last week. The envelope was postmarked May 10, 2020, but the words written inside were from Vietnam in 1968.
“It begins with 'Hi sis. I just read your letter, wow.' And I'm thinking, I have a sister that lives in Jeffersonville and I didn't send her a letter,” laughed Tucker, confused by what she had received.

As she started reading, she realized it was a note from her brother, William Lone, talking about his time serving in the Vietnam War.

“So, I called my brother. He lives in South Carolina. I read the letter to him and he said, ‘I remember writing that letter to you.’”

“I was in the field where you’re out there sleeping in tents,” Lone described.

He said he had sealed the envelope and put a .05 cent stamp in the corner before handing it to another soldier to deliver the letter to his sister who was 17-years-old at the time.

“Janice was still at home then, so it was going to go to Floyds Knobs, Indiana.” Or at least, it was supposed to.

The delivery was delayed for decades, more than half a century in fact.
read it here

"Meatball" wanted to become a Marine...lost 186 pounds to do it!

Marine infantry recruit drops 186 pounds to make it to boot camp


STARS AND STRIPES
By IMMANUEL JOHNSON
Published: May 28, 2020

Gabriel Ramirez spent his childhood dreaming of being a Marine, but that dream seemed unattainable as a 365-pound teen nicknamed “Meatball.”
Gabriel Mendez Ramirez lost 186 pounds on his way to becoming a Marine recruit. Ramirez, from Oceanside, Calif., graduated from Rancho Buena Vista High School last year and recently headed to boot camp.
BERNADETTE PLOUFFE/U.S. MARINE CORPS

This week, Ramirez, 18, was on his way to boot camp, 186 pounds lighter.

At the end of Ramirez’s sophomore year at Rancho Buena Vista High School in California, Marine recruiter Staff Sgt. Anna Rodrigues spoke to his class and later asked him about his interests.

“The kids I talk to, one thing I look for is heart,” Rodrigues said in a phone interview Wednesday. “I am looking for someone that won’t quit and will accept the challenge.”
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What will you do when life is good again?

Life will be good again


Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
May 28, 2020

There is no way of sugar coating it. Life sucks right now! Over 100,000 Americans died because of a pandemic and over a million have been infected. Over 40 million are unemployed now, businesses are closing for good and states struggle to figure out how to reopen things the best way possible. Too many people have dismissed the guidelines of how to stop the spread and only seem to care about enjoying themselves without regarding the other people in their lives they deliver the infection to.

Yes, things suck right now if you only look at what is wrong. Yet if you look at the flip side of all of this, there are many good things going on because people wondered what they could do to make life better for others.

People are stepping up and showing up, in whatever way they can. One of them is Dolly Parton.

Dolly Parton Donates a Million Dollars to Coronavirus Research at Vanderbilt but that is not all she has done. She is reading books to kids online. And last night, she put up a song she wrote to offer everyone hope that not only will life be good again...but they can be better people too!
Dolly Parton
When life is good again
I'll be a better friend
A bigger person when
Life is good again
More thoughtful than I've been
I'll be so different then
More in the moment when
Life is good again

I'll open up my heart
And let the whole world in
I'll try to make amends
When life is good again

We've been brought to our knees
We've been so ill at ease
There are no guarantees
But you know life goes on
This too shall pass away
Bring new and different days
We need to change our ways
And right our wrongs

Let's open up our hearts
And let the whole world in
Let's try to make amends
When life is good again
I'll open up my doors again
And hear the message in the wind
Repent of all my sins (Hallelujah)
When life is good again

I'll try to be someone
On which you can depend
A helping hand to lend
Let's open up our eyes
And see what's goin' on
If we're to move along
From where we've been

Let's open up our hearts
And let the love shine in (Shine in)
We've all got knees to bend
And we'll just pray 'til then
Ask God's forgiveness when
Life is good again

And it's gonna be good again
(It's gonna be, it's gonna be)
It's gonna be good again
It'll be alright (It'll be alright)

God's the reason for all things
You want rainbows, you get rain
We'll all be forever changed (Forever changed)
I'll sell my boat and fly my kite
Walk in the park, go out at night
And hold my loved ones extra tight
When everything is on the mend
I'll even drink with my old friends
Sing and play my mandolin
We'll make it through this long dark night
Darkness fades when faced with light
And everything's gonna be alright
When life is good again


Wednesday, May 27, 2020

Black Rifle Coffee Company CEO refused to give up

Veteran founder of multimillion-dollar company: 'This is the hardest thing I've ever done in my life'


FOX
By Matt London
May 26, 2020

The founder and CEO of Black Rifle Coffee Company, Evan Hafer, said he would rather return to combat than face rebuilding his business again from scratch.

"This is the hardest thing I've ever done in my life and I'm a former Green Beret [who] spent seven years in combat zones," Hafer told veteran correspondent Lara Logan on her Fox Nation show "No Agenda with Lara Logan."

In Season 3 of "No Agenda," Logan investigates the current state of affairs of America's veterans through the eyes of those who served — from veteran entrepreneurs to those carrying out humanitarian missions, to wounded warriors on the front lines of the veteran suicide crisis.

Hafer started Black Rifle Coffee in his Salt Lake City garage five years ago. Prior to that, he spent about 300 days a year, for a decade, deployed to some of the most remote and hostile regions of the world, with both the U.S. special forces and the CIA.

Today, Black Rifle Coffee is one of the most successful veteran-owned businesses in America, though Hafer said the company nearly never made it.

"I remember I was in my garage sitting on a box and, you know, I'm like looking around and I have nothing else. And I was like starting to cry," said Hafer, recalling how he sold nearly everything he owned to keep his business afloat.

"For years, I told myself all these things, you know, like you're a special forces guy, you're CIA, you know, 1 percent of 1 percent. Why can't I make this work?" he told Logan, explaining that he reached a turning point.
read it here