Troops welcomed home to Daytona with hugs, tears

National Guard members return after 1-year deployment
Troops welcomed home to Daytona with hugs, tears
Daytona Beach News Journal
By Jim Abbott
Published: Thursday, March 10, 2016

Michelle Rivera kisses her husband SPC Osvaldo Rivera Jr. as he arrives from Afghanistan along with 200 other soldiers at Daytona Beach International Airport on Thursday.

News-Journal/LOLA GOMEZ

DAYTONA BEACH – Nearly 200 local troops deployed to Afghanistan were welcomed home to Volusia County on Thursday with banners, lingering hugs and tears of joy and gratitude.

“My world is complete,” said Misty Creech, wiping away tears after a long hug with her husband, Sgt. Josh Creech, on the tarmac at Sheltair Daytona at Daytona Beach International Airport.

Adorned in homemade “Team Creech” T-shirts, the Creech family — including the couple’s three children and Josh’s parents — were among hundreds of family members and area residents on hand to salute soldiers in the 1st Battalion of the 265th Air Defense Artillery Unit of the Florida Army National Guard.
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Man jumps from Daytona Beach hospital's roof

Man jumps from Daytona Beach hospital's roof
The Associated Press
September 15, 2008
A 37-year-old man being taken to the hospital for psychiatric evaluation was in stable condition Sunday after jumping off a second-story roof of the Halifax Health Medical Center in Daytona Beach. Hospital spokeswoman Salina Wang said the man was being brought to the hospital by his brother about 10:30 a.m. Saturday. As they were going through the front entrance, the man broke away and ran up a staircase to the roof of an administrative wing. Daytona Beach police were dispatched and tried to talk the man off the roof, but he jumped.
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/volusia/orl-b3court15_208sep15,0,7258638.story

Daytona Beach Act closes mental health unit

Act closes mental health unit

By DEBORAH CIRCELLI
Staff Writer
DAYTONA BEACH -- The main local mental health facility has closed one of its crisis units, causing worry among advocates about where people will go if they are suicidal or a danger to others.

Act Corp. closed a unit with 20 beds last week, leaving the agency with 30 beds for adults in Volusia and Flagler counties who are dealing with a crisis.

Janet Miller, CEO of Act, said she attributes the closure to lack of funding and that beds in the unit aren't always full. The 50 beds are often full, however, in busy months starting in spring and peaking in May and June.

Act sent letters to law enforcement suggesting police may have to take people to St. Augustine if Act's Pinegrove facility and Halifax Health Medical Center, which has 50 crisis beds, are full. Police may also have to take people with pending criminal charges to the Volusia County Branch Jail, Act officials said.

But mental health advocates and some police say jail is not the answer and neither is driving to another county.


"Our concern is where would the patient go for treatment," said Deanna Schaeffer, chair of the Flagler/Volusia Behavioral Health Consortium.

Between both Act and Halifax, officials said, there is room for people in crisis now. Act has been averaging about 35 people a month so far this calendar year and Halifax's monthly average is 40.

"It is a cause for concern, but I don't see it as a crisis at this time," said Chuck Flavio, manager of adult psychiatric services at Halifax Health Medical Center.

Daytona Beach Police Chief Mike Chitwood said his officers will not turn their backs on people if they have to drive a longer distance. But he said he'll have to weigh what else is going on in the city and decide whether an officer can be off the street. There's also the issue of high gas prices.

"They keep cutting social programs and you are left from the police officer's perspective with, what do I do with this person?" Chitwood said. "Sending them to the county jail is not going to fix the problem."
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Vets returning from Iraq turn to war protesters for help

Vets returning from Iraq turn to war protesters for help
By AUDREY PARENTE
Staff writer

DAYTONA BEACH -- Three months after his advanced infantry training in the Army Reserves, Mike Gianfriddo was deployed to Iraq.

His military occupational specialty: administrative assistant. His job in Iraq: tower guard.

He served in Iraq from September 2005 for a year, then returned to his Minnesota home. He won't talk about what he saw, except to say that once home, he felt out of place and found ordinary life hard to handle emotionally.

Recently he found help in an unexpected place: the corner of International Speedway Boulevard and Nova Road during a peace demonstration where he met members of Central Florida Veterans for Peace and Military Families Speak Out. Those groups join CodePink of Central Florida, a women's peace movement that organizes daily demonstrations in Volusia and Flagler counties.

While these Iraq war protesters may be very visible to passing motorists, their whole mission may not be apparent. Seeking peace and an end to the war, they also help returning servicemen and women readjust.

Not all who pass by honk in support of the demonstrators or agree with their protest, including Carmine Fragione of New Smyrna Beach, a former Connecticut probation officer. His opinion opposes the protesters' philosophies.

"I see them on the street corners with signs. I trust that the anti-war group is from a wide background, but I think they are misguided," he said. "But I think in the time of war, we support our president and fight to win."

But Gianfriddo saw the protesters in a different light, and that led him to folks who understand his troubling issues.

"I don't like to talk about the war," Gianfriddo said in an interview at a Daytona Beach restaurant. He declined to be photographed. "When I came home, I didn't initially know what to do. I had basically been in the VA (Veterans Administration) in Minnesota since the problems started."

He tried to go to school but didn't do well in that setting. He was hospitalized for a time.

"I ended up coming to Florida, still having service-related health issues," said the 25-year-old. He now is in the reserves based in Daytona Beach. He lives in Port Orange, works at a laundry and struggles to fit in.

"I came down here and started treatment at the VA and have tried to put my life back together," he said.

Among the organizations demonstrating on the busy street corner, some are branches of national groups made up of former military people, relatives of active military personnel and civil activists who oppose the war in Iraq.

They do more than protest, Gianfriddo said. They offered him help.
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