Operation Combat Bikesaver mending veterans of all generations

Hot rod therapy: Vets tout positive influence of motorcycle building workshop; ‘It’s really amazing what getting your knuckles dirty and bloody can do’

Chicago Tribune
By CARRIE NAPOLEON
POST-TRIBUNE
DEC 08, 2019

Participants are from different branches of the service and different wars and conflicts including Vietnam and Operation Desert Storm, Iraq and Afghanistan. What they find on those Sundays is the camaraderie they had while serving and a place to work through their feelings physically by working on projects or their own bike.

U.S. Senator Todd Young (R-Indiana), right, visits the headquarters of Operation Combat Bikesaver in Center Township near Crown Point on Friday, December 6, 2019. At left is organization CEO, president and founder, Jason Zaideman. (Michael Gard/Post-Tribune) (Michael Gard / Post-Tribune)

Marine veteran Dan Riordan explained to U.S. Sen. Todd Young, R-Ind., how the motorcycle he is building at Operation Combat Bikesaver Inc. will look when the project is done.

The bike will be Marine Corps dress blue with the red stripe. There will be a Gold Star in front with the names of the members of his battalion “Mad Ghosts 224” killed in action listed, Riordan said. The battalion logo will be on the sides.

“It’s gonna be looking good and sounding even better,” Riordan, of Griffith, said.

Young was in Crown Point to tour the Operation Combat Bikesaver facility and learn more about the work done there to help veterans struggling with issues including depression and PTSD find their footing.
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Marine Old Breed Rugby offering support for PTSD the old fashion way

How a St. Charles veteran uses rugby to help fellow Marines

Daily Herald
Bob Susnjara
August 1, 2019

Okicich is among five Old Breed Rugby members who are available 24 hours a day for veterans suffering from depression or who just need to talk. Contact information is on the home page of Old Breed Rugby's website.

Retired Marine Marc Okicich of St. Charles, running with ball, helps other veterans through endeavors such as the Old Breed Rugby Club. The nonprofit honors the memories of fallen Marines while offering a support network to veterans in need. Courtesy of Old Breed Rugby Club

When St. Charles resident Marc Okicich gathers with other retired Marines to play rugby, it's more than just a fun day on the field.

Okicich is a member of the nationwide Old Breed Rugby Club, which since 2005 has honored the memories of fallen Marines while offering a support network to veterans in need.

Part of Old Breed Rugby's mission is to raise money for the permanent endowment of a memorial fund named for Marine Lt. Col. Kevin Shea, who was killed in Iraq in September 2004. The fund is administered by the Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation.

Okicich is among five Old Breed Rugby members who are available 24 hours a day for veterans suffering from depression or who just need to talk. Contact information is on the home page of Old Breed Rugby's website, www.oldbreedrugby.org.

"We've found we've become a support network for some of the guys that came back that were struggling with some post-traumatic stress issues," said Okicich, who played rugby with Shea at Camp Pendleton in California in the early 1990s.

Okicich, 49, remembers one instance when he woke from a nightmare at 2:30 a.m. and noticed a missed call from a few minutes earlier. He returned the call and reached a veteran who "was struggling with some demons."
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Chainsaws, shovels and muscle brought to bear by an Ohio militia

Ohio's militias are armed and ready, with good intent they say

The Plain Dealer
By Brian Albrecht
July 28, 2019

But there are militias that say they support the government and exist to serve as a citizen’s defense force in the historical sense of these groups. Armed, yes, but also prepared and trained to respond to disasters or local community needs.

Members of the Irregulars of Ohio Reserve Militia take a break for a photo with personnel of the Life’s Little Adventures Farm in Wooster, where militia members cleared fallen trees and foliage in May to help the facility that uses rescued animals in therapeutic programs for children, and veterans recovering from PTSD. (Brian Albrecht/The Plain Dealer)

CLEVELAND, Ohio — This is the militia: Men and women clad in camos, carrying semi-automatic rifles, stalking the woodlands, shredding targets, prepping for worst-case scenarios.

And this is the militia: Two militia members arrested and charged in Cincinnati earlier this year for allegedly making bombs; a militia leader arrested and charged with firearms possession by a felon in April after a video showed his group detaining migrants in New Mexico at gunpoint; two members of a Illinois militia pleading guilty in January to bombing a Minnesota mosque; three Kansas militia men convicted last year of plotting to blow up an apartment complex where Somali refugees lived.

And this: Chainsaws, shovels and muscle brought to bear by an Ohio militia to help clean up tornado-ravaged areas of Dayton, and an overgrown farm in Wooster that offers therapeutic programs to treat traumatized families and veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder.

The recent history of private militias in Ohio and the United States has been fraught with confrontation and violence.
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Fallen "brother" remembered by those he served with

Vietnam veterans honor a fallen soldier 50 years later

CBS News
By STEVE HARTMAN
July 19, 2019

But like a lot of Vietnam vets, especially, they find it hard to mourn the loss of a fellow soldier, without also mourning their own survival.

Chester, Illinois — At a cemetery in Illinois, Perry Dotson is 50 years late for the funeral of Army Pfc. Leonard Nitzsche. Lt. Dotson was Leonard's platoon leader in Vietnam, when, in April 1970, their group was attacked and Leonard was killed. They loaded his body on a helicopter and immediately, the platoon went back to the war.

"That was the extent of our grieving. And it just hit me one day, I woke up and I thought, 'I never had a chance to say thank you.' Maybe I just needed some finality," Perry said.

When Perry mentioned this pilgrimage to some of the other guys in his platoon, he found out something he hadn't considered before: That he wasn't alone and there were others who felt the exact same way.

So, they came, too. Tim Roland flew in from McAllen, Texas. Ernie Levesque drove out from Springfield, Massachusetts, and Glenn Fox came from Newport, Nebraska. On arrival, they met Leonard's sister, Linda, at the cemetery. Everyone gathered to pay their respects to Leonard.

"That's why this is so important to us today, because we never got to do this when it happened," Glenn said.
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Unsolved Mysteries "Gabby's Bones" given proper military funeral in Wyoming

Murdered WWII vet's body found in Wyoming, given military funeral

KGWN News
April 3, 2019

The story also got national attention on the former NBC-TV true crime series "Unsolved Mysteries" during a February 1993 episode, featuring "Gabby's Bones."

Wyoming Army National Guard Military Funeral Honors team members conduct a flag ceremony for Technician 5 Joseph Mulvaney, who received long-overdue honors March 29, 2019 at a memorial service in Cody, Wyoming.

Mulvaney, an Illinois Army National Guard member when he deployed to the Pacific Theater for World War II, was murdered in Iowa in 1963. His remains were discovered in Thermopolis, Wyoming in 1992. It was not until 2017 that he was identified, through DNA testing, as the grandfather of Waukee, Iowa resident Shelley Statler. (U.S. Army National Guard photo by Sgt. 1st Class Jimmy McGuire)

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (WYANG) - The Wyoming Army National Guard Military Funeral Honors team conducted full military rites, which included a 21-gun salute, during a long-overdue memorial service in Cody, Wyoming, for Joseph Junior Mulvaney.

Mulvaney was an Illinois Army National Guard Technician 5 when he deployed to the Pacific Theater during World War II. His story has been an interesting one, and some key players in discovering it were in attendance at the March 29 service including a granddaughter and her family, homicide investigators and a DNA analyst.

The rest of the story, gleaned from various sources, follows.

In 1987 a man named John David Morris, also known as Gabby, left an old military padlocked footlocker in a shed at Newell Sessions' Thermopolis, Wyoming property. Morris said he would return for it when he settled down.

About five years later and still no sign of Morris, curiosity got to Sessions. He cut through the padlock with a torch and opened the trunk. In it, he found a human skeleton, wrapped in a piece of plastic, a belt and a rotting grocery bag.
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CA Services was not owned by disabled veteran...but they got the jobs anyway?

Bloomfield Hills man accused of stealing $12 million meant for veterans disabled in service

WXYZ ABC 7 News Detroit
Kimberly Craig
April 1, 2019

BLOOMFIELD HILLS (WXYZ) — The Bloomfield Hills man accused of scamming millions of dollars in federal contract money is William Kozerski.

Federal investigators said the 62-year-old, now charged with wire fraud, claimed a construction company, CA Services, was owned by a veteran who had been disabled in service to the United States of America.

But, according to investigators, that was a lie.

"This special advantage that they get is in recognition of their service to the country, which to have someone take advantage of that, for financial gain, is reprehensible," said Gavin McClaren of the Department of Veterans Affairs, Office of Inspector General - Criminal Investigations Division.

According to court documents, Kozerski "fraudulently claimed CA Services met the requirements of the Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business Program in order to obtain approximately $11.8 million in contracts for work at VA Medical Centers in Cleveland, Detroit and Ann Arbor."
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Joliet Police Officer's body found in Cook County Forest

Joliet police officer dies in apparent suicide
By The Herald-News
September 6, 2018

A Joliet police officer apparently committed suicide Tuesday in a Cook County Forest Preserve.

Daniel Rupp, 33, was pronounced dead about 3 p.m. Tuesday in the Sag Valley Equestrian parking lot in Lemont, according to the forest preserve police and medical examiner’s office.

Rupp’s body was found outside his personal vehicle, and a handgun was located nearby, said Sophia Ansari, a spokeswoman for the Cook County Sheriff’s Office.
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Vietnam veteran shares help for PTSD at VA

Vietnam Veteran: 'The VA has helped me through it and saved my sanity'
Fox Illinois
by Rachel Droze
Thursday, June 14th 2018

DECATUR, Ill. (WRSP) — About 200 people came out for a ribbon cutting ceremony Thursday to celebrate the Decatur Community Based Outpatient Clinic, which moved from the east side of the city to the west side.

Decorated war hero James Hurd, who risked his life serving in the jungles of Vietnam, made the ceremonial cut.

"I went through several bad times over there,” Hurd said.

Hurd's introduction triggered his PTSD.

"Any reminder of [Vietnam] brings tears to my eyes 50 years later,” Hurd said.

In addition to helping with Hurd’s physical ailments, the VA clinics in Decatur and Danville also help with his mental health.

“I suffer from Post Traumatic Syndrome as a lot of Vietnam infantry veterans do,” Hurd said. "After 50 years I can deal with it, but the VA has helped me through it and saved my sanity.”
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What CDC does not know about veteran suicides

Veterans overrepresented in report, underrepresented in reporting
Combat PTSD
Kathie Costos
June 8, 2018

CNN had the report from the CDC on suicides in America and within the report, there was this,

Veterans are also "overrepresented" in the report, she said.

"Veterans made up about 18% of adult suicides but represent about 8.5% of the US adult population," Schuchat said, noting that not all veterans who died by suicide were recent veterans. Still, the researchers found a 10% higher risk of suicide among people who had served in the military.

Middle-age adults had the highest increase.

"This is a very important population right now in terms of national statistics," Schuchat said, noting the high rates of drug overdose in this group as well as "deaths of despair" described in social science literature. 

What they do not know is, large groups of veterans were not considered "veteran" on their Death Certificates. 

California did not have it on Death Certificates until they passed legislation last year. Illinois was not tracking them.

If they did not have an "honorable" discharge, they would have been counted as a suicide, but not as a veteran.

If they live outside of the US, they do not appear to have even been considered as worthy of mentioning.

Last but not least is the simple fact that the "22" everyone keeps talking about was from limited data from just 21 states! But they got away with reducing the lives of veterans down to an easy number to remember.

Gee, and they make it seem like they really care. If they did not even care enough to read the reports, how much could they have cared about the veterans they love to talk about? After all, the largest group are over the age of 50 but they ignored them too! (Yes, that was in the report too.) Oh, almost forgot that military suicides are forgotten about too and they are a reported average of 500 a year.

More to the story of police chase stolen armored personnel carrier

This is the headline

CRAZY CHASE: Soldier steals armored vehicle from National Guard base, police say

But this should have been,

Yabut is a first lieutenant assigned as the company commander of the 276th Engineer Battalion and has more than 11 years of service. He deployed to Afghanistan from 2008 to 2009 with the Illinois National Guard, according to the Guard.

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Iraq veteran survived war, police work but not son's gun

Police arrest Plainfield teen suspected of killing his parents at Central Michigan University
Chicago Tribune
Matthew Walberg, Angie Leventis Lourgos and John Keilman
March 3, 2018

The victims were identified by authorities as Davis’ parents, James Eric Davis Sr. and Diva Jeneen Davis. Davis Sr. was a police officer in west suburban Bellwood and an Illinois National Guard veteran who served in Operation Iraqi Freedom. Diva Davis’s Facebook page identified her as a real estate broker; friends said she was also a breast cancer survivor and had worked as a flight attendant.

After a nearly daylong manhunt, authorities took into custody a college student from the Chicago suburbs who police said fatally shot his parents on the campus of Central Michigan University.

Part-time Bellwood police Officer James Eric Davis Sr. He and wife Diva Davis were shot and killed, allegedly by their son, James Eric Davis Jr., at Central Michigan University. (Bellwood Police Department)

The university and local police said 19-year-old James Eric Davis Jr., of Plainfield, was taken into custody after being seen passing through the campus after midnight Saturday.
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Navy Dentist Murder-Suicide Investigation

Navy dentist, thought to have been killed by ex, known for compassion and charity work
Chicago Tribune 
Ted Gregory, Karen Berkowitz and Vikki Ortiz Healy 
January 5, 2018

Linette Lowe remembers that first impressions of Claire VanLandingham could be misleading.

Claire VanLandingham, 27, died of multiple gunshot wounds in Lake Forest on Jan. 3, 2018. (University of Louisville)

“She may have come off as a little bit shy or quiet,” said Lowe, a staff member at the church VanLandingham attended while earning her degree in dentistry at University of Louisville from 2013 through 2017. “But her compassion for people overwhelmed that in pretty short order. She was able to reach out.”

Lowe and others made heartbreaking recollections of the example VanLandingham set Friday, two days after authorities said she died in Lake Forest from multiple gunshots wounds. Police confirmed Friday that they are investigating her death as a suspected murder-suicide at the hands of a former boyfriend.

“That’s the best working theory we have right now. But we are still interviewing people and trying to put all the facts together,” Lake Forest Deputy Chief Robert Copeland said.

“So we cannot say conclusively that is what happened,” the deputy chief added, but said authorities “have no reason to believe there is another gunman somewhere.”

Police say VanLandingham, 27, was found with gunshot wounds outside a Dunkin’ Donuts on Western Avenue in Lake Forest early Wednesday and was pronounced dead at Lake Forest Hospital. A man later identified as Ryan Zike, of Louisville, Ky., was found dead at the scene with a gunshot wound to the head, officials said.
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Vietnam Veterans Going to Super Bowl For Winning

Vietnam forged their friendship — their story is taking them to the Super Bowl
Chicago Tribune
Mary Schmich
January 6, 2018

Randy Kusiak can’t recall winning anything, ever, except a few accordion lessons when he was a kid, so when he received Jim Zwit’s email on Christmas morning, he wasn’t convinced that his luck was about to change.

Zwit was writing to say that he’d entered a Chicago Bears contest to win two tickets to the Super Bowl. As a season ticket holder, all he’d had to do was submit a 2,000-character essay on who he’d bring and why.

The contest letter went on to describe the months that followed, the men’s shared jungle patrols, their disputes over baseball and shared love of the Bears, and how on an April evening Zwit was severely injured in a firefight. Kusiak was one of the comrades who carried him to safety. 

Eight men in their Army unit died that night. Odds were that Zwit would too. He didn’t.He spent 18 months in hospitals, in Vietnam, Japan and back in Illinois, and wherever he was, Kusiak sent him letters and pictures. When both men made it home, Kusiak came to visit. 

“Randy NEVER forgot about me,” Zwit wrote, concluding his contest entry by noting that Kusiak and his wife had retired in Florida a few years ago. read more here

Firefighters Saving Lives, Except Their Own

SAVING THOSE WHO SAVE OTHERS: A RETIRED CHIEF AIMS TO STOP FIREFIGHTER SUICIDES 
East County Magazine
By Miriam Raftery

November 22, 2017 

Most are young or in the prime of life; 228 were between age 17 and 30, 265 were  age 31 to 40, 269 were age 41 to 50, and 190 were age 51 to 60.  Firefighters in their  60s and 70s accounted for 48 and 30 suicides respectively, and 49 were of unknown age. 

(San Diego’s East County) – Last year, 69 firefighters in the U.S. died in the line of duty, the National Fire Protection Association reports. But far more  -- 139 – took their own lives.

So far this year, 86 firefighters have been lost through suicide—including Cal Fire Captain Ryan Mitchell, who killed himself at the Pine Valley Bridge in San Diego’s East County earlier this month.

Jeff Dill, CEO and founder of the Firefighter Behavioral Health Alliance (www.ffbha.org) , is determined to save firefighters’ lives  through special workshops designed by a firefighter, for a firefighter.

The workshops are offered to fire departments across the nation. They focus on behavioral health awareness, suicide prevention, and making resources available to help firefighters and their families.  

“Five years ago, no one was taking down these names and numbers,” says Dill,  a retired battalion chief who got his masters degree in counseling in Illinois and has since done research to compile data on firefighter suicides, then went on to create programs to help prevent such tragedies.

Since 1880, when the earliest known suicide occurred (a fire chief in Auburn, New York), at least 1,078 firefighters have killed themselves.  Sixty of those deaths were in California, the fifth highest rate in the nation after Illinois, Texas, Pennsylvania and New York, the FFBHA reports.
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In 2008, I received and award from the IFO for my work as a Chaplain. That was topped off only by hearing this video, intended for National Guard and Reservists, was helping police officers and firefighters.

When we can understand regular folks surviving trauma, it shouldn't be hard to understand when someone risks their lives on a daily basis to end up suffering for what they are willing to do for the rest of us.

They wouldn't be wounded if they didn't care enough to endure all of it for our sake!

Veteran From Green Beret to Inspirational Bodybuilder

This Veteran Lost 2 Limbs in Afghanistan. Now He's an Award-Winning Bodybuilder
Men's Health
Stacey Leasca
November 11, 2017

“I had a couple of bad days being in the hospital because I'd worked so hard to get into Special Forces, and that’s what I wanted to do, and that was ripped away from me.” Jared Bullock

Photograph courtesy of ​Jared Bullock

While Bullock’s fitness has always been a key part of his life, he now has a new, more focused approach. That’s thanks in part to the help of Home Depot and the Gary Sinise Foundation, which built a home gym for Bullock and packed it with equipment he can use and adapt for his new body.

Jared Bullock isn’t the kind of guy you’d want to compete against in, well, anything. The rugged-looking redhead from Illinois will beat you without question at every event, every time, because he simply doesn’t understand the concept of failure.

Bullock, who joined the military after 9/11, served two tours in Iraq before beginning training for Special Forces. On Oct. 13, 2013, he received a Green Beret and was deployed to Afghanistan on an A-team.

Now, Bullock’s sharing what he’s learned. Each year he works with amputee children at a summer camp, showing them techniques they can use to stay healthy and to ensure they don’t gain asymmetrical strength, which can hurt them in the long run.
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Civil War Veteran No Longer Missing in America

Civil War veteran finally laid to rest more than 100 years after his death
Kitsap Sun
Julianne Stanford 
Sept. 28, 2017

"When I picked that guy up, I had tears in my eyes. I was able to hold the cremains of a veteran of the Civil War, but I felt a great sense of sadness for all of the other unclaimed remains of people whose families hadn't come to get them." Jim Diamond

RETSIL -- More than 100 years after his death, a Civil War soldier was finally laid to rest with full military honors at the Washington Veterans Home at Retsil on Thursday.

Zachariah M. Stucker served as a musician and later as a private in the Union's 48th Illinois Infantry Regiment from 1861 to 1865. He was a resident at the veterans home from 1910 until his death in 1914 at the age of 69.

Stucker's remains were sent to Seattle for cremation after his death, but for unknown reasons they were never returned to Retsil. His remains sat in storage for decades until his name was discovered on a list of unclaimed remains at the Lake View Cemetery in Seattle by a volunteer with the Missing in America Project, which seeks to locate the unclaimed remains of veterans and provide burial services for them.

“What is really sad is that he has been missing for 103 years,” said Lourdes "Alfie” Alvarado-Ramos, director of the Washington Department of Veterans Affairs, during the ceremony. “That is 103 Memorial Days where nobody put a flag by his headstone. That is countless holidays, Christmases, where he didn’t get a wreath on his grave. But now, that’s over.”

Civil War historian Jim Dimond went to the Seattle cemetery last weekend to recover Stucker's remains and bring them back to Retsil.

"When I picked that guy up, I had tears in my eyes," Dimond said. "I was able to hold the cremains of a veteran of the Civil War, but I felt a great sense of sadness for all of the other unclaimed remains of people whose families hadn't come to get them."
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Carnegie Hero Fund Honors Heroes Among Us

Veteran who fought library attacker among 18 Carnegie Heroes

Associtated Press

Joe Mandak

September 19, 2017

An Army veteran who fended off a mentally ill man who tried to attack a chess class the veteran was teaching at an Illinois public library is one of 18 people being honored with Carnegie medals for heroism.

The Carnegie Hero Fund Commission, based in Pittsburgh, announced the winners on Tuesday.

FILE - In this Oct. 15, 2015, file photo, James O. Vernon, an Army veteran who fended off a mentally ill man's attempt to attack a chess class that Vernon was teaching at an Illinois public library, recovers from injuries he suffered fighting off the knife-wielding man, as he sits in his home in Morton, Ill. Vernon is among 18 recipients of the Carnegie Medal for heroism announced Tuesday, Sept. 19, 2017, by the Pittsburgh-based Carnegie Hero Fund Commission, which awards the medals several times a year. (Robert Downen/Pekin Daily Times via AP, File)

James O. Vernon , 75, was in a conference room at the Morton Public Library with 17 children and four women when 19-year-old Dustin Brown burst in with two large knives on Oct. 13, 2015.

"He actually ran into the room yelling, 'I'm going to kill some people,'" Vernon told the Pekin Daily News days after the attack.

The knives were hunting-type weapons with fixed blades about 5 inches long, Vernon said.

"I can't let this happen," Vernon told The Associated Press at the time.

Letting the children and women escape, Vernon then positioned himself between Brown and the door and fended off Brown until police arrived. He suffered two slashed arteries in his left hand and damaged a tendon in a finger.

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Five Finger Death Punch Taking Care of PTSD Veterans

Five Finger Death Punch frontman vows to perform at Illinois State Fair

The State Journal Register
Steven Spearle
August 18, 2017

Members of FFDP have long-supported U.S. military and veterans issues. In addition to doing USO tours, the band set up a website (www.5fdp4vets.com) that sells merchandise to raise money and awareness for veterans suffering from post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). 

Zoltan is also a founding board member of the Las Vegas-based veterans non-profit organization Home Deployment Project, which also assists combat veterans with PTSD.

What version of Five Finger Death Punch shows up at the Illinois State Fair is anyone’s guess.

Mercurial frontman Ivan Moody didn’t make it past the band’s first show during a June tour of Europe. After threatening to leave the group during a brief and chaotic onstage performance in Tilburg, Netherlands, Moody announced afterwards that he had “fallen off the wagon again” and was headed for another rehab stint with the support of band members.

Spokespersons from 10th Street Entertainment, who handle Five Finger Death Punch’s (FFDP) publicity, wouldn’t say whether Moody would be back for the Springfield show, the band’s first since the European tour ended June 24.

FFDP management told Illinois State Fair that there is “no reason to believe the concert will be canceled.”

Then in July, Moody released a statement thanking his fans and his bandmates for standing by him during his rehab stint.

“At this point, I am on track to return to the band with a vengeance in Springfield, Illinois, when we begin the next leg of our North American tour dates,” he said in the statement. “It’s my intention to sing at each and every future show we are committed to, in North America and in Europe. I can’t wait to put all of this behind me and move forward."

Dwight “Maddog” Maness Veteran Assistance Motorcycle Ride

Residents prepare for Dwight 'Maddog' Maness Veteran Assistance Motorcycle Ride 
Northwest Herald 
Jordyn Reiland 
July 29, 2017

Before his nearly eight-year stint with the sheriff’s office, Dwight Maness spent 20 years with the U.S. Army and saw combat in Iraq from 1990 to 1991. He retired with the rank of sergeant first class.

WONDER LAKE – McHenry County motorcyclists are ready to put up their kickstands and ride in honor of McHenry County Sheriff’s Deputy Dwight Maness at a charity event this weekend. 

The second Dwight “Maddog” Maness Veteran Assistance Motorcycle Ride will kick off at 11 a.m. Sunday at Horizontals Saloon, 7620 Hancock Drive, Wonder Lake, with registration beginning at 9 a.m. Once riders leave the saloon, they will head to The Bunker in Waterford, Wisconsin, for drinks. 

Participants then will ride back to Horizontals between 2 and 2:30 p.m. for food, live music and the chance to win several raffle prizes. read more here

Veteran and Service Dog Not Welcomed to Shop

Veteran’s service dog turned away at Illinois store
WCMH NBC 4 Columbus
By NBC4 Staff
Published: May 26, 2017

ROCKFORD, IL (WCMH) — A military veteran was kicked out of an Illinois store all because of his service dog, and part of incident was caught on camera.

Wherever Cesar Ordonez goes, an angel is not far behind. Ordonez is an Iraq War veteran, and Angel is his service dog.

“He’s actually literally brought me back to life,” Ordonez told NBC affiliate WREX. “We don’t leave each other’s side much.”

So when Ordonez stopped for a snack and drink at a store in Rockford, Angel came with him. A store employee confronted him and told him not to bring the dog in the store any more.

Ordonez recorded part of the incident on his cell phone.

“Yeah don’t bring that dog in here no more,” the employee says in the video. “If you have to have the dog go somewhere else.”
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