Habitat for Humanity Teams Up For Generations of Veterans

Habitat For Humanity Of South Palm Beach Holds Veterans Build

Delray News

Staff Report

December 4, 2017

Delray Beach family members, veterans and neighbors now have spruced up homes thanks to Habitat for Humanity of South Palm Beach, Vertical Bridge and the Home Depot Foundation.

The homeowners, who are cousins living on the same Delray Beach street, are also members of the military. They have seen many wars including serving in WWII, Iraq and the youngest currently stationed in Germany, spanning three generations of service.

They are 92-year-old WWII Veteran Albert Green who served 41 years in the U.S. Navy and U.S. Merchant Marines stationed in the Pacific Rim during WWII in the Steward Department and Sedric Doughty, who 17 served years in the U.S. Navy, U.S. Navy Reserve and U.S. Air Force Reserve stationed in Japan as military police officer (final rank E-5) and saw active duty in the Iraq and Afghanistan War. Sedric’s son, 18-year-old Sedric Jr. who lives with him in the home passed down from Sedric’s mom, currently serves in the U.S. Army stationed in Germany.

Made possible by a $35,000 gift from presenting sponsor Boca-based Vertical Bridge with $32,000 in grant funding from Home Depot Foundation, more than 100 volunteers from both companies transformed their homes in honor of Veterans Day.

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Wife fills political shoes for senator serving in Afghanistan boots

Wife fills in for Indiana state senator serving in Afghanistan
Fox News.com
Published December 10, 2014

Talk about a power couple.

Indiana state Sen. Jim Banks has found the perfect match to fill in for him in the state legislature while he serves in Afghanistan as part of his Navy Reserves unit – his wife.

In what is reportedly an Indiana first, Banks’ wife Amanda will serve as an interim senator in his place while he completes his Afghanistan tour.

Banks, speaking with Fox News in a joint interview with his wife on Wednesday, said he’s “very proud.”

“I know she will represent the district well,” Banks said, speaking from Afghanistan.

The Republican senator found out he wouldn’t be around for election day during the campaign. But he won reelection, unopposed, and was sworn in via Skype, from Afghanistan.
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Delta Airline Pilot-Navy Reserve Officer Death Under Investigation in Qatar

Navy officer dies in Qatar
Cmdr. Christopher Kalafut, 49 of Oceanside, dies in non-combat incident
UT San Diego
By Jeanette Steele
OCT. 26, 2014

A 49-year-old Navy officer from Oceanside died Friday in Qatar in a non-combat incident, the Pentagon said Sunday.

Cmdr. Christopher E. Kalafut was in Doha at Al Udeid Air Base. He was part of U.S. Central Command's Naval Amphibious Liaison Element.

He was serving in Qatar as part of the war effort in Afghanistan.

The Pentagon said the incident is under investigation.

Kalafut was a Navy Reservist who had worked as an airline pilot for Delta since 2001, based out of Atlanta. He and his spouse, Mary, bore five children ranging from age 12 to 21.

A Delta release said the family resides in Acworth, Ga., and noted that he was the subject of an article in Georgia's Marietta Daily Journal on Father's Day this year.
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Forward Operating Base Lagman treats soldiers and Afghans

Hospital in Afghanistan key to trauma victims’ survival
By SETH ROBSON
Stars and Stripes
Published: September 16, 2012

ZABUL PROVINCE, Afghanistan — The noise of a helicopter landing in the darkness Sept. 7 signaled the arrival of three small, bloody and bandaged patients at Forward Operating Base Lagman.

The young Afghans, who looked about 8 years old, were rushed to a dusty, white plywood building that serves as the hospital at a base shared mostly by U.S. and Romanian forces.

They had been near Afghan security forces when the Taliban attacked, using a crude, handmade bomb. Now they were collateral damage in fighting that’s raged here all their young lives.

They were swarmed by medical staff giving them the same quality of care they’ve provided to some 250 patients, about half of whom were Afghan soldiers or other security personnel targeted by the Taliban since March.

One of the surgeons at the hospital is Navy Reserve Cmdr. Timothy Weiner, a professor of pediatric surgery at the University of North Carolina. He has taken care of two dozen children in the past seven months, mostly victims of the Taliban’s bombs.

The boys were strangely silent as they lay on stretchers, waiting for surgery.

“The kids here are unbelievable stoic,” Weiner said later. “[They] hardly ever cry, which … can be confusing since this can mask how significant their injuries are.”

One of the boys had damage to the main artery in his right arm, while another showed no distress despite penetrating shrapnel injuries. During surgery, holes were found in his liver and stomach.
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Lockheed Martin recognized for support of veterans and reservists

Lockheed Martin Receives U.S. Navy Reserve and Department of Veterans Affairs Recognition for Workplace Support

BETHESDA, Md., Aug. 9 /PRNewswire/ -- The U.S. Navy Reserve and the Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA) recently recognized Lockheed Martin Corporation (NYSE: LMT) for outstanding support of U.S. Navy Reservists on active duty and veterans with disabilities.

On July 6, U.S. Chief of Navy Reserve and Commander, Navy Reserve Force, Vice Adm. Dirk Debbink, met with Lockheed Martin Chairman and CEO Bob Stevens to thank the Corporation for supporting Navy Reservists in its workforce. Debbink presented Stevens a certificate of appreciation for outstanding employer support and expressed gratitude to the Corporation's employees for helping Reservists carry out their service's mission.

"This certificate of appreciation is more than words," Debbink said. "We do not take your support for granted. It's really important for us thank the 136,000 Lockheed Martin employees for their support."

"It's gratifying for our company and employees to receive this accolade," said Stevens. "We have a great desire and capacity to support deployed Reservists and their families, and we do our very best to ensure that veterans and Reservists benefit from a supportive and inclusive environment. Our employees have the highest regard for Reservists and their contributions to our company and to the community," he said.

According to the U.S. Navy Reserve, Lockheed Martin is one of the nation's top employers of Navy Reservists. Almost 250 Lockheed Martin employees serve in the Navy Reserve. Currently, the Corporation has more than 1,200 Reservists from all the service branches, about 400 of whom are on current military leave.

The DVA honored the Corporation with a 2010 Private Sector Employer of the Year Award for the company's exemplary dedication to hiring veterans with service-connected disabilities. The award was presented during the DVA's annual conference in Chicago on July 14. Ruth Fanning, director of Vocational Rehabilitation & Employment Service with the Veterans Benefits Administration, presented the award to Lockheed Martin Worldwide Media Relations Vice President Nettie Johnson.

In accepting the award Johnson said, "It's an honor to receive this award on behalf of Lockheed Martin. Approximately 30,000 veterans who are part of our Corporation bring experience and knowledge from their military service that is extremely beneficial in helping us to best serve our armed forces."

Headquartered in Bethesda, Md., Lockheed Martin is a global security company that employs about 136,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration and sustainment of advanced technology systems, products and services. The Corporation's 2009 sales from continuing operations were $44.5 billion.
PR Newswire

Deployed to Iraq, firefighter laid off from job back home

Iraq Vet Gets Pink Slip

New Bedford Firefighter Laid Off

POSTED: 12:27 pm EST March 4, 2009

NEW BEDFORD, Mass. -- The budget battle being waged in cities and towns across Massachusetts reached the front lines last week, when a soldier serving his third tour of duty in Iraq received his pink slip.

Video: Iraq Vet Gets Pink Slip

NewsCenter 5’s Kelley Tuthill reported that Leo Pike, who was deployed to Iraq again in September with the Navy Reserves, opened his mail Thursday and learned that he will be losing his job as a New Bedford firefighter.
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linked from
http://icasualties.org/Iraq/index.aspx

Project SHAD Vets testify today on 1960s chemical tests

Action from Congress would be a relief to Alderson, who lives modestly in Ferndale, Calif. His home is decorated with stacks of documents about his days in charge of a fleet of five light tugboats that were sprayed with biological agents and cleaned afterward with solvents, some of which now are considered carcinogenic.

Vets testify today on 1960s chemical tests

By Erica Werner - The Associated Press
Posted : Thursday Jun 12, 2008 8:46:02 EDT

WASHINGTON — Jack Alderson was ordered never to talk about the secret weapons tests he helped conduct in the Pacific during the 1960s. He kept quiet for decades.

Sparse attendance at a 1993 reunion prompted Alderson, a retired Navy Reserve lieutenant commander, to speak out. He learned that more than half of the 500 or so crew members who took part in the tests were either dead or suffering from cancer, respiratory problems or other ailments. Alderson wondered whether his own skin cancers, allergies and chronic fatigue were linked to those tests or were simply the result of aging.

“I was told by my bosses and the docs and so forth that if you follow these routines ... you’re going to be OK,” Alderson, 74, said in an interview. “We did exactly as told. And we’re finding out now that we’re sick.”

Alderson and other witnesses were set to testify Thursday before a House Veterans Affairs panel considering legislation that would require more Pentagon disclosure about the Cold War-era germ and chemical weapons testing and extend benefits to veterans who participated in them. A similar bill is scheduled for a vote in the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee later this month.

Lawmakers say the legislation is needed because the Pentagon has not acknowledged a link between the tests and health problems, which has made it difficult for veterans to get health coverage. Pentagon officials don’t rule out a health link but say it’s tough to prove.

“We cannot say that this exposure 40 years ago had absolutely no health effect,” said Dr. Michael Kilpatrick, the Pentagon’s deputy director for force health protection and readiness. “I don’t think any physician would risk saying that. Because how do you prove that that’s the case?”

A similar debate took place around Agent Orange, the chemical defoliant used by U.S. forces in Vietnam that was linked to cancer and other ailments in those exposed to it. At Congress’ insistence in the late 1980s, the government extended benefits to veterans and their children suffering from Agent Orange-related diseases.

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http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/06/ap_chemicaltests_061208/