Long Island Veterans Fight For Joseph P. Dwyer Veterans Peer Support Project

Long Island veterans groups demand Gov. Cuomo provide state aid for peer-to-peer programA fight for funding is underway in Albany for a program that helps veterans deal with the unseen wounds of war.

News 12
February 6, 2020

A cry of protest has arisen from Long Island veterans who are furious Gov. Andrew Cuomo has not included funding to a peer-to-peer program that helps veterans facing the challenges of post-traumatic stress disorder.

Assemblyman Mike LiPetri, along with several Long Island groups, are demanding the $4 million in state aid needed for the Joseph P. Dwyer Veterans Peer Support Project be included in Cuomo's budget.

Morris Miller, a Vietnam veteran who volunteers as a peer counselor, understands the importance of the peer-to-peer program.

"PTSD is not just for Vietnam veterans, it's Iraq, Afghanistan, Desert Storm, Desert Shield. There are our younger veterans, and we have to, as older veterans, stand up for these guys," says Morris.
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Missing Veteran Alert: Navy Veteran

Family, friends to search for missing Patchogue veteran
Newsday
By Martin C. Evans
Updated June 30, 2017

Rebecca Barra poses with a photo of her mom Janet Barra, 58, a Navy veteran living in Patchogue Tuesday, June, 28, 2017. Rebecca Barra has been missing for the past twenty-two days and is struggling with depression but always stayed in touch with her daughter. (Credit: John Roca)

Janet Barra, 58, of Patchogue, had struggled with depression since her days in the Navy but had always stayed in touch with her daughter, Rebecca.

That was until the morning of June 5, when she parked her car at a strip mall in Medford, left her purse, identification and bank card behind, and was seen on video headed north on Route 112.

She has not been seen or heard from since.
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Double Amputee Veteran Becomes Titanium NY Police Officer

Marine veteran who lost both legs in Afghanistan sworn in as NY police officer
FOX News
March 25, 2017

A Long Island man who served in the Marines and lost both legs below the knees after stepping on a bomb in Afghanistan was sworn in Friday as possibly the first fully active duty double amputee police officer in the country.

Matias Ferreira, 28, graduated from the Suffolk County Police Academy in Brentwood, L.I. His first assignment as a precinct patrol officer begins next week. He told Fox 5 New York he isn’t worried if he breaks a leg on the job.

“If I break my leg I go the trunk of my car and put on a new one and I’m back on duty,” he told the station.

The 2011 blast in Afghanistan shattered his legs, forcing doctors to amputate. The machine-gunner spent nearly a year recovering in a hospital outside Washington.

Ferreira stands on titanium prosthetics, Newsday reported. He dreamed of being a cop as a kid.
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Long Island VA Director "There weren't suicides here"

Vets Slam Northport VA During Congressional Hearing On Long Island
CBS New York
September 20, 2016

“There weren’t suicides here,” Moschitta said. “There weren’t two veterans. One was a staff employee, the other one by a car exam, indicated that he died of other issues. So you’re gonna see a continuous array of falsehoods because people have other issues here.”

NORTHPORT, N.Y. (CBSNewYork/AP) — Accusations of patient neglect and suicide consumed much of a congressional hearing on veteran’s affairs at a VA hospital on Long Island on Tuesday.

Northport VA Medical Center Director Phil Moschitta says the hospital did not turn away a patient that later committed suicide in the hospital’s parking lot, WCBS 880’s Mike Xirinachs reported.

Earlier this year, Peter Kaisen, 76, a retired police officer from Islip, was found in a parking lot at the medical center suffering from a gunshot wound to the head.
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No Evidence Navy Veteran Entered VA Before Suicide?

No Evidence Help Denied to Vet before Suicide: VA Director
NBC 4 News New York
August 27, 2016

Surveillance video shows that the 76-year-old veteran never entered the medical center before committing suicide in the parking lot, the facility's director says

"While at this time, it appears that the individual did not seek any medical attention we will continue to review additional surveillance cameras near the entrance of our emergency room, and all of our telephone records to see if the individual contacted our facility within the last week," he wrote.

There is no evidence that a former Navy gunner who killed himself earlier this week outside a veterans medical center on Long Island was denied treatment that day, says the facility's director.

Philip Moschitta, director of the Northport Veterans Affairs Medical Center, states in an Aug. 26 letter to Congressman Lee Zeldin that the facility's preliminary review of the incident uncovered no indication that Peter Kaisen had entered the center before his body was found last Sunday in the parking lot.

"It appears the details of the tragic incident may have been misrepresented in the media coverage," he wrote.
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76 Year Old Veteran Killed Himself At VA After Being Turned Away

Veteran Kills Himself in Parking Lot of V.A. Hospital on Long Island
New York Times
By KRISTINA REBELO
AUG. 24, 2016

“He went to the E.R. and was denied service,” one of the people, who currently works at the hospital, said. “And then he went to his car and shot himself.”

A 76-year-old veteran committed suicide on Sunday in the parking lot of the Northport Veterans Affairs Medical Center on Long Island, where he had been a patient, according to the Suffolk County Police Department.

Peter A. Kaisen, of Islip, was pronounced dead after he shot himself outside Building 92, the nursing home at the medical center.

The hospital is part of the Veterans Affairs medical system, the nation’s largest integrated health care organization, which has been under scrutiny since 2014, when the department confirmed that numerous patients had died awaiting treatment at a V.A. hospital in Phoenix. Officials there had tried to cover up long waiting times for 1,700 veterans seeking medical care. A study released by the Government Accountability Office in April indicated that the system had yet to fix its scheduling problems.

Why Mr. Kaisen decided to end his life was not immediately known, but two people connected to the hospital who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss his death said that he had been frustrated that he was unable to see an emergency-room physician for reasons related to his mental health. “He went to the E.R. and was denied service,” one of the people, who currently works at the hospital, said. “And then he went to his car and shot himself.”
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Long Island Remembers Staff Sgt. Louis Bonacasa

WAKE BEING HELD FOR STAFF SGT. LOUIS BONACASA, WHO DIED IN AFGHANISTAN ATTACK
ABC News
Kristin Thorne
December 31, 2015

"He didn't think twice about what he had to do," "You can see by the outpouring of love here that's evident." friend Billy MacDowall

CORAM, Long Island (WABC) -- A wake was held Thursday for Staff Sergeant Louis Bonacasa, one of the six Americans killed last week in a suicide bombing in Afghanistan.

Friends and family gathered to mourn the death of the 31-year-old Coram resident, who was killed last Monday with five other airmen when his patrol was attacked by a suicide bomber outside Bagram Air Base.

Bonacasa's remains were returned to the United States in a ceremony at the F.S. Gabreski Air National Guard base in Westhampton Beach, followed by a wake at the Branch Funeral Home in Miller Place. A second visitation will follow on Friday from 2 p.m. to 9 p.m., before funeral services Saturday at 11 a.m. at the New Beginnings Christian Center in Coram. He will be buried at Calverton National Cemetery.

"He was really a great man, a great provider and has a beautiful family," friend Jennifer Nyx said. "And it's just a great loss for everyone."
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PFC Joseph P. Dwyer Project Peer Support Groups for PTSD

BELLONE INITIATES VETERANS SERVICES OUTREACH EFFORT IN RESPONSE TO RISE IN PTSD RELATED SUICIDE
Long Island Press Releases

County Executive Steve Bellone, center, announces a veteran support outreach effort to veteran families in response to rise of PTSD related suicides. Photo Credit: Suffolk County.

(Long Island, NY) County Executive Steve Bellone was joined by Congressman-elect Lee Zeldin, Legislator Bill Lindsay III, Legislator Tom Muratore, the Suffolk County Veteran Services Agency and family members of veterans lost to post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) at the Farmingville VFW Post 400 today to announce a veteran support outreach effort in response to the rise in PTSD related suicides around the region. County officials encouraged veterans affected by PTSD to enroll in their local PFC Joseph P. Dwyer Project support groups.

“There is no greater obligation we have than to make sure the men and women of our armed forces have the support and services they require when they come back home,” said County Executive Steve Bellone. “PTSD related suicide is an American tragedy and we need to do more to help our veterans work through the challenges they face.”

 The Joseph P. Dwyer Peer to Peer program is overseen by the Suffolk County Veteran’s Service Agency and is designed to serve veterans, active duty, reserve and National Guard troops suffering from PTSD and allows veterans the opportunity to share and discuss their issues and problems with trained veteran personnel in a secure and anonymous setting.

The unique nature of the program is that veterans are serving as the facilitators of the groups which provides a comfort and familiarity level to those veterans seeking assistance.

Since its inception in 2012, over 2,000 veterans have participated in the Joseph P. Dwyer Project where they share their experiences with fellow veterans and allow the healing process to begin. As part of the outreach effort, the Suffolk County Veterans Service Agency issued an informational pamphlet on the Joseph P. Dwyer Project to veteran households throughout the County.
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Who was PFC. Joseph Dwyer?

Warren Zinn / Army Times file
Joseph Dwyer carries a young Iraqi boy who was injured during a battle between the U.S. Army's 7th Cavalry Regiment and Iraqi forces near the village of Al Faysaliyah, Iraq, on March 25, 2003.

A photograph taken in the first days of the war had made the medic from New York's Long Island a symbol of the United States' good intentions in the Middle East. When he returned home, he was hailed as a hero. But for most of the past five years, the 31-year-old soldier had writhed in a private hell, shooting at imaginary enemies and dodging nonexistent roadside bombs, sleeping in a closet bunker and trying desperately to huff away the "demons" in his head. When his personal problems became public, efforts were made to help him, but nothing seemed to work.

This broken, frightened man had once been the embodiment of American might and compassion.

If the military couldn't save him, Knapp thought, what hope was there for the thousands suffering in anonymity? read more here

Long Island Steps Up For National Guardsman After Fire

LONG ISLAND TOWN RALLIES TO HELP AFGHANISTAN WAR VETERAN AFTER HOME CATCHES ON FIRE
ABC News WABC New York
Kristin Thorne
July 5, 2014

CENTRAL ISLIP (WABC) -- When Army National Guard Staff Sergeant Brian Fox returned from Afghanistan in 2009, he gave himself a mission - to buy a house.

Unfortunately a fire swept through the second floor of his prized Central Islip home, taking all of the furniture and clothes with it.

"You work hard to get a house, and in a blink of an eye, everything is gone," said Sgt. Fox.

Most importantly, Fox's two daughters, wife and granddaughter made it all out.

"I ran down as fast as I could screaming 'fire!' and I went to the phone and dialed 911," said Sgt. Fox's daughter, Victoria.

There is no word yet on what started the fire, but for now, the family is staying at a hotel through the Red Cross. On Monday, Sgt. Fox is going to pick out a new trailer.
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