This is my turning point

Wounded Times is changing 

Wounded Times 

Kathie Costos 

June 6, 2020 

It is with a heavy heart that I have given up on what I have dedicated the last 38 years to. My focus has been on veterans fighting PTSD all these years. But lately, I have gone from waking up in the morning, wondering what I could do to help, to waking up wondering why I even bother to try. 

While individual veterans have supported the work I do, the truth is, the Veterans Community never really did. They just wanted what I could do for them with my camera and giving them publicity. Understandable since I am not one of them.

I did not plan on making this announcement on D-Day but it just worked out that way. I gave up my tax exempt and constraints of belonging to groups. From this day forward, I will write and speak for myself...as myself. This is my turning point, just as D-Day was the turning point of WWII, when soldiers like my Father-in-law hit the beach of Normandy.

On Sad Anniversary, Few to Mourn the D-Day Dead in Normandy 

All too many have been, for 76 years since that fateful June 6 on France’s Normandy beaches, when allied troops in 1944 turned the course of World War II and went on to defeat fascism in Europe in one of the most remarkable feats in military history.

My heart is forever with veterans and I will not abandon you. My phone still works and my email has not changed. With that said, from this point on, Wounded Times will be about anyone dealing with PTSD and so will PTSD Patrol

I trained for decades to do this work because I understood what it was like to suffer after surviving. I did it ten times. Personal knowledge of what it does gave me a greater understanding of what others endure. So, yes, this was all very personal to me. On the flip side, I also understand what it is like to heal and how to do it.

My faith has sustained me, guided me and healed me. It has allowed me to see the glory of God's work through me as more and more veterans found the way to heal and my life has been blessed by many sharing what they have done with what they learned from me. Now I want to share that with everyone else. 

I have been beaten down many time before but as the sun set on one attempt, it lifted on another. I hope, I pray, that this turning point will help others be aware that tomorrow can be a lot better than this day was.

I Will Rise 

There's a peace I've come to know

Though my heart and flesh may fail

There's an anchor for my soul

I can say "It is well"

Jesus has overcome

And the grave is overwhelmed

The victory is won

He is risen from the dead

And I will rise when He calls my name

No more sorrow, no more pain

I will rise on eagles' wings

Before my God fall on my knees

And rise

I will rise

There's a day that's drawing near

When this darkness breaks to light

And the shadows disappear

And my faith shall be my eyes

Jesus has overcome

And the grave is overwhelmed

The victory is won

He is risen from the dead

And I will rise when He calls my name

No more sorrow, no more pain

I will rise on eagles' wings

Before my God fall on my knees

And rise

I will rise

And I hear the voice of many angels sing,

"Worthy is the Lamb"

And I hear the cry of every longing heart,

"Worthy is the Lamb"

And I hear the voice of many angels sing,

"Worthy is the Lamb"

And I hear the cry of every longing heart,

"Worthy is the Lamb"

And I will rise when He calls my name

No more sorrow, no more pain

I will rise on eagles' wings

Before my God fall on my knees

And rise

I will rise

Source: LyricFind

Songwriters: Chris Tomlin / Jesse Reeves / Louie Giglio / Matt Maher

I Will Rise lyrics © EMI Music Publishing

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!

Young veteran helped homeless 83 year old Korean War veteran

Local veteran helps find home for fellow 83-year-old Korean War vet

KNOE 8 News
By Reggie Wells
Jan 31, 2020

MONROE, La. (KNOE) - A local army veteran helped another vet who had been homeless for years. Drew Baker and Arthur Calhoun first met when Calhoun was looking for a warm place to rest in a local restaurant.

“It was quite a shivering cold day that evening," Baker says. "He had came in trying to seek some shelter. It was warm. There were a couple individuals offering to give him a ride home, but Mr. Calhoun explained he didn't have a home. He was living on the street."

After meeting the 83-year-old Korean War veteran a second time on the Louisville Bridge, Baker knew he had to find a way to help him.

Baker gave Calhoun food, opened up his home for a few nights in his home and even helped get Calhoun admitted into the hospital to check on some injuries.

"I put Mr. Calhoun in a hotel for a couple of nights until the Northeast Louisiana Veteran's Home could take him in and get everything processed."

"This guy has saved my neck a time or two,” Calhoun says. “He don't look much like a hero, but he's a pretty good friend."
read it here

Converted cargo trailer, called Veterans Emergency Temporary Shelter giving shelter to homeless veterans

Boothbay veterans create mobile shelter for homeless vets

NBC News Center Maine
Author: Don Carrigan
January 1, 2020

BOOTHBAY, Maine — As more than 100 people gathered for a New Year’s Day breakfast at the American Legion Hall, two veterans and Legion members used the event to introduce a new project to help find shelter for homeless veterans.

It’s a converted cargo trailer, called Veterans Emergency Temporary Shelter -- VETS for short. It’s the design of Vietnam combat veteran Ed Harmon, built by him and fellow Legion member Arthur Richardson, an Air Force vet. Harmon says the trailer is insulated, has heat, lights, microwave, refrigerator, and even a commode. In short, he says, a comfortable and safe temporary place for homeless veterans to live until more permanent housing can be found.

“It’s a temporary solution, and that’s what we need is that temporary time, so people can work on finding a space for veterans to be housed. Harmon says he got the idea after being part of a statewide committee meeting on the problem of homeless vets. Legion Member John Hargraves was also part of that meeting and said there is no question of the need for temporary housing help.

“Basically, at any point in time in Maine there’s a least ten homeless vets in the system who have applied through agencies who don’t have a bed,” Hargraves says.
read it here

#LoveInAction Veterans adopting older and hard to adopt dogs from shelters

Blind, Deaf Dog Inspires Man to Pair Dozens of Recovering Veterans With Hard-to-Adopt Shelter Pups

Good News Network
By Dobi Finley
Dec 21, 2019

This veteran-run nonprofit has been pairing ex-service members suffering from isolation and PTSD with senior dogs rescued from overcrowded shelters where they could potentially be euthanized.

Because many veterans live alone without family or friends nearby, they can often become isolated and lonely from the lack of connection. As some veterans also suffer with post traumatic stress disorder, their social interactions can also become difficult.

That’s when the Vet Friends Foundation can step in with a helping hand. The organization delivers companionship to both the vets and the senior shelter dogs who need caring homes to live out the rest of their lives.

Joel Rockey, the Foundation’s founder, says that he came up with the idea for the organization after spending five years in the Navy in Iraq and Afghanistan. When Rockey returned home from his deployment, he wanted to focus on something he felt truly passionate about.
read it here

Army veteran spent last 50 years making wooden toys for kids

Lee County veteran who crafts wooden toys for children in need surprised by viewer donations

ABC 11 News
By Akilah Davis
December 20, 2019

The 80-year-old Army veteran has helped Santa out every holiday season for the past 50 years by creating wooden toys.

"You've got people from California to Texas... way out there. I never dreamed of this many people hearing my story," said Annis. "A lady and a man came in here last week and said it's not much wood, but you can make a few toys."

SANFORD, N.C. (WTVD) -- Jim Annis is just as close to being a real-life Santa as it gets. He spends several hours a day in his wooden workshop making toys out of wood for kids in need every Christmas. It's a small price for a big reward.

"It's amazing what you can do with a block of wood," said Annis. "A lot of times the kids just look in amazement. Like, I'm going to get that?"
read it here

"Who is Kathie Costos and what qualifies her to come off as an expert?"

Who is Kathie Costos?

Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
December 18, 2019

After moving to New Hampshire, I was asked for an updated BIO. You would think after all these years, it should be easy, but it was not. I sat staring at a blank page for a long time. Then it dawned on me that there are a lot of people reading this site and wondering "Who is Kathie Costos and what qualifies her to come off as an expert?"

So, this is who I am.

I survived life threatening events 10 times, so I understand what it is like to have my life in jeopardy. I know what it is like to have nightmares and flashbacks, mood swings and feel as if the world is out to get me, as much as I know what it is like to take back my life from the "thing" that could have ended it.

In 1982, I met a Vietnam veteran and because of him, I do what I do everyday. I understand what it is like for him as well as what it is like for me and our family. We went through the worst and got into a better peace, so that we celebrated our 35th anniversary this year.

I researched PTSD as if my life depended on it at a local library with stacks of clinical books and a dictionary in whatever free time few had computers back then. The more I discovered about what it was, the more I loved my Vet! Oh, it isn't as if being around veterans was new to me. My uncles served in WWII and my Dad was a Korean War veteran.

Unknown to me, across the country, another Vietnam veteran working as a Seattle Police Officer was doing this work too. He started meeting veterans in 1984 at coffee shops and then created Point Man International Ministries to care for their spiritual needs, and supporting them to get the mental health help they needed from the VA. He also knew how important it was for families to have support too, so he started Home Fronts for them.

I started a lot of websites over the years but it was not until I wrote my first book FOR THE LOVE OF JACK HIS WAR MY BATTLE back in 2002, that I was contacted by an Out Post leader, learned what they did and why they did it, and have stayed with them ever since. That link goes to the three books I wrote and are available on Amazon. For The Love of Jack was republished in 2013.

In 2006 I created the first PTSD video Wounded Minds and was reaching veterans around the world.

That video was followed by about 300 more.

I started Wounded Times in 2007 after many other sites, because I thought that there should be a place to put all the research and reports I was reading, so they could be shared freely. It now has 30,855 posts with over 4 million views.

In 2008 I became a Certified Chaplain with the International Fellowship of Chaplains, specializing in veterans and first responders, crisis intervention, grief and loss, among other things. A video I did earned a Special Achievement award because while it was developed to help National Guards and Reservists, the IFOC was using it to help police officers and firefighters.

I also took every free class being offered to help me help them. I was certified in Critical Incidence and Stress Management and Peer Support in 2008. Disaster and Extreme Preparedness in 2009. The list goes on.

In 2012 after attending Valencia College, I received 5 certifications in digital media. Kind of funny considering that with all of that, I worked regular full time jobs, aside from when I was in college.

During my years, I began in Massachusetts, moved to Florida and currently live in New Hampshire. Now begins the new part of my work. Beginning soon, I will be focusing on female veterans and their families so they are no longer forgotten and going without the vital support they need.

I am a wife, Mother of a brilliant daughter and, if you ever watched the videos on PTSD Patrol, you also know I am a dogmom. This is Murray.

So that is who I am and why I do what I do. Oh, as a Chaplain, you also have to know that since I usually hang around with veterans/bikers, I am far from what you may think a chaplain is like. I drink, smoke and swear, plus I have a wicked sense of humor and bad temper that constantly has to be defused...but the older I get, the easier it is to do it. You may have noticed many of the times I freak out over an article in the press, but glad I do not have the video on as I hit the delete keys to take out a bunch of things that are not fit for public reading.

Did you return veteran's wallet in Tampa Florida?

A stranger's good deed lands Florida veteran his wallet

By: WFTS Digital Staff
Dec 07, 2019

"I see so much negativity out there about people," said McCormick. "I wanted to make public that here’s a guy that for no reason at all, except that he was a good guy, just stopped and brought home something that he didn’t have to do."

TAMPA, Fla. — A Tampa man's mistake could have cost him big, but a stranger's kind gesture saved the day.

Joe McCormick says a routine trip to the grocery store nearly put his entire identity at risk. He dropped his wallet while shopping at Winn-Dixie on Swann Avenue.

“Driver’s license, military ID, veterans ID, medicare card, car insurance," said McCormick. "Everything that you need to have to get through life was in that, I had no idea I had even lost it."

Not long after returning to his home on Davis Islands, an unexpected knock came at the front door.

A man McCormick describes as in his 20s, driving a blue four-door sedan returned his wallet.
read it here

Uber driver got community to pick up elderly veteran

After seeing an elderly veteran living in squalor, an Uber driver stepped in to help

CNN
By Sophie Sherry and Christina Zdanowicz
June 14, 2019

"He is so thankful, he cracks me up. He keeps saying, 'I don't know what I did to deserve all of this from all you guys,'" said Mulvihill. "It's giving him hope that he will be taken care of."

(CNN)Lauren Mulvihill did not know what to expect when she was called to the hospital for an Uber pick up.

89-year-old Ronald Dembner had just been discharged from the hospital with no one to take him home. Last week, Mulvihill drove Dembner from the hospital in Henry County, Georgia, to his home and helped him inside. When she saw the terrible condition of his home, she knew she needed to help.

Dembner, who Mulvihill calls Mr. Ronald, is a widower and veteran who now lives alone with his dog King. He has no living family. Mulvihill said that Dembner had not called someone to help clean his house out of fear they would take it away from him.

The veteran has been living in squalor. Dembner has his wits about him, but he has a hard time getting around, cleaning the house and picking up after his dog.
read more here

Storm did not stop soldiers from honoring fallen with flags

Soldier Seen Placing Flag at Tomb of Unknown Soldier During Torrential Rain

FOX News
By Robert Gearty
26 May 2019

Soldiers from the 3d U.S. Infantry Regiment (The Old Guard) place U.S. flags at headstones as part of Flags-In at Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Virginia, May 23, 2019. For more than 55 years, soldiers from the Old Guard have honored our nation’s fallen heroes by placing U.S. flags at gravesites for service members buried at both Arlington National Cemetery and the U.S. Soldiers’ and Airmen’s Home National Cemetery just prior to the Memorial Day weekend. Within four hours, more than 1,000 soldiers place 245,000 flags in front of every headstone and Columbarium and niche wall column. (Elizabeth Fraser/U.S. Army)

An “Old Guard” soldier who was photographed placing a small American flag at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier during a severe thunderstorm is drawing notice ahead of Memorial Day.

Flags In is an annual military operation carried out by The Old Guard before Memorial Day weekend in which soldiers plant over 245,000 U.S. flags at the graves of Arlington National Cemetery. (Maryam Treece/U.S. Army) The storm hit Thursday in D.C. as members of the 3d U.S. Infantry Regiment, better known as “The Old Guard,” were planting flags at each grave at the cemetery as they do each year at this time.

“During the storm, one of the most extraordinary displays of discipline and dedication to duty ever to be witnessed at Arlington National Cemetery was taking place at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier,” the Old Guard’s Facebook page said in a post.

“With only a few watching from cover, a Tomb Sentinel approached the Unknowns with U.S. flags in hand. As thunder shook the ground and rains washed down without abandon, the Tomb Sentinel pierced through the elements with breath-taking precision.

“He knelt and placed the flags in honor of the Unknowns. For the select few who saw this moment, it was jaw-dropping. Humans have their limits, but The Old Guard has yet to meet theirs.”
read more here

Hate denied by love defined at Christchurch

Time a time again, someone decides to act out of hate against people who have nothing to do with what is a boiling rage against them. 

Yet, time and time again, we see that one act followed by hundreds of acts based on love.

All too often, when something like this shatters the "normal" life experience, we ask "Where was God" but if you look, you can see Him everywhere.

You see him when someone else puts their own life on the line, sacrificing themselves to save another. You see it when, with every reason to fear another attack, people show up in case they can help someone else.

You see it when a Father saves his son from bullets, so he may live on. When police officers rush to help, not knowing if they will ever return to their own homes. Other first responders run toward the wounded, not knowing if they will be next to need rescuing.

When you go to the link, there is a video and a young woman, crying, says "This is not who we are. This will not define us." And it won't because in return for the one action of a person filled with hate, love responded.

New Zealand Attacks: Quick Action, Near Miss and Courage in Christchurch

The New York Times
By Damien Cave
March 17, 2019

CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand — Abdul Aziz was praying with his four sons in the Linwood Mosque when he heard the gunshots. Rather than run from the noise, he ran toward it, grabbed the first thing he could find — a credit card machine — and flung it at the attacker.

The man dropped a shotgun, and Mr. Aziz picked it up. “I pulled the trigger, and there was nothing,” he recalled. The gunman ran to his car, where he had other weapons, and Mr. Aziz followed, throwing the shotgun at the vehicle and shattering a window.

Mr. Aziz’s actions, which he and others described in interviews, may have prompted the gunman to speed away rather than return to kill more people. Minutes later, two police officers from another town who were in the area rammed the suspect’s car into a curb and took him into custody, ending the worst mass murder in New Zealand’s modern history.

But interviews with dozens of survivors, and an analysis of a video recorded by the attacker as well as one made of his arrest by a bystander, suggest that the violence ended after a near miss by the police at the first mosque — and acts of courage during and after the attack on the second.

If not for the two police officers, who have not been publicly identified, and Mr. Aziz, 48, a ponytailed furniture shop owner who fled Afghanistan a quarter-century ago, the slaughter might have continued. The suspect had two other guns in his car, the police said, as well as two homemade explosives
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Feel Good Story of Ret. Marine General who lost his wallet

Honest man rewarded for returning lost wallet to Marine

WBRC 6 News
By Fred Hunter
February 8, 2019

Watching a movie on television the other night about the military and one serviceman said to another, “You don’t have to have a patch on your arm to have honor.” Although men like Gen. Krulak do have a pach, there are men like Harold Tubbs. He’s a man of honor who met another. Meetings like that change lives for the better.

BIRMINGHAM, AL (WBRC) - Harold Tubbs used to want to be in the Marines. And though he never became a Marine, he sure got the meet one.

“Yeah, I was in The Marine Corps for almost 37 years, ended up as Commandant Of The Marine Corps because of great people," said General Charles Krulak. “And then I ended up coming to Birmingham and becoming the President of Birmingham-Southern College.”

The circumstances which brought the two together are unlikely at best.

“I go to a basketball game on a Saturday at Cornerstone High School. I got in the car, drove home and I realized - jeez, there’s something missing. It was my wallet was missing,” Gen. Krulak said.

Added Tubbs: “I pulled up at a gas pump and saw a wallet by the trash and for some reason something made me pick it up. I looked inside and I saw a whole bunch of what I would call important things.”

Included in the wallet was Gen. Krulak’s military I.D. and a couple of other documents that he need if he goes to Washington.

“Me and him ended up talking on the phone and he was excited to get his wallet back. I was excited for him. He made me get excited to give it to him,” Tubbs said.

read more here and watch awesome video

Homeless Vietnam veteran reunited with family

Couple reunites homeless veteran with family

FOX Carolina
Nicole Valdes
January 5, 2019

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. (KNXV ) -- What started as a regular day at a Valley grocery store, has led to a life-long friendship.

“We saw him just holding this five dollar bill and just kind of wondering around," said Stephanie Blackbird. "He didn’t look well... He looked lost and I couldn’t walk away, I couldn’t in good conscience walk away without at least checking on this man.”

Stephanie, and her husband Al, met Alan Vandevander at a Whole Foods in North Scottsdale. They helped him get some food, started up a conversation, then parted ways, but the Blackbirds couldn't get the frail homeless man off their minds.

The next morning, they reconnected with him and helped him get to a hospital. Alan was severely malnourished.

“He said I’m glad they found me cause I was in trouble.” said Blackbird.

After getting to know him, the Blackbirds did some digging and found out Alan has quite the story. He served in Vietnam, and was awarded a purple heart, but he had also been missing for 40 years. His family in Indiana had no idea Alan was still alive.

“I started looking for him in 1990 and I kept coming across dead ends," said Alan's sister, Julie Vandevander. She says she last spoke to her brother in the 80's. “I never ever thought I would hear from my brother again.”
read more here