Vietnam Vet blowing off steam may end up in jail

I often wonder when people dealing with these veterans ever understand how frustrating it is when claims are not approved or tied up? Can they understand that bills are not being paid? Families fall apart with the extra stress? Or that veterans end up so frustrated they just give up and vanish from the face of the earth one way or another? Some end up lost on the streets of our cities and towns living among the other homeless veterans. Others, their sadness and hopelessness leads them to suicide. Some snap, taking out their anger/rage on others. Some lash out at the people trying to help them because for all the "help" offered, the solution and relief never seem to come.

According to this report, it happened to one of them and he may end up in jail over it. Ronald Barnes, Vietnam vet, was in the Army, but when he wanted to intimidate he said he was a Marine and trained killer. He admits what he did was wrong but says that he was off his medication. He called in a bomb threat to the VA hospital and made threats to Senator Nelson's office.

I'm sure it could have been frightening for the other people at the other end of the phone line, but the rest of us have to ask why any veteran should ever have to feel so helpless they have to resort to anything like this?

Man says he regrets bomb threat to VA Hospital

By ELAINE SILVESTRINI The Tampa Tribune

Published: August 11, 2009

Ronald F. Barnes says he was just "blowing off steam" when he called the Veterans Administration and threatened to bomb the Bay Pines VA Hospital.

The disabled Vietnam veteran says he didn't mean it when he called Sen. Bill Nelson's office and the V.A. repeatedly and threatened to "whack" the person the government had appointed to help him handle his finances. "I was venting at the time," Barnes, 58, told a federal judge today.

Barnes, 58, is facing a possible prison term after pleading guilty to using a telephone to threaten to blow up a building, a charge which carries a maximum of 10 years behind bars.

At the V.A., he gave his name and his claim number, according to his plea agreement. He called Nelson's office so often, the people there recognized his voice.
read more here
http://www2.tbo.com/content/2009/aug/11/man-says-he-regrets-bomb-threat-va-hospital/news-breaking/

I didn't get too much posting done today because the emails were coming in fast and furious. Usually that's the case when you see sporadic posts during the day, or I have meetings to go to. Each one of them were heartbreaking stories about veterans falling apart from them and others searching for ways to help someone they love. It never seems to end.

We have the media picking up on the newer veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan, along with so many new groups trying to help it makes my head spin trying to keep up with all of them. We also have this new generation reaching out across the state lines to connect with other veterans.

What we don't see enough of is reporting on the older veterans and what their lives are still like. While they are not all heartbreaking, some are while they search for help to heal when they should have received in many years ago.

We also don't see the reports about how older veterans were being pushed back to make room for the newer veterans as the staff at VA hospitals across the country were being pushed to get them in the door.

We have a very long, long way to go before we have taken care of all the veterans waiting their turn for what they earned. The problem is, too many will be gone before this happens.