New Port Richey Martial Arts Class Free For Veterans

Lightning-fast martial art draws in students in NPR
The Suncoast News
BY KELLY S. KELLY
Special to The Suncoast News
Published: August 26, 2015

NEW PORT RICHEY — In a blur of motion, combatants at Gulfcoast FCS Kali clash with sticks and knives in a weapons-based tribal martial arts system called Filipino Combat Systems — or FCS Kali.

The system, used by military teams around the world, was developed by Tuhon Ray Dionaldo, one of the most sought-after weapons experts in 96 countries.

Owner Ray Norton has worked in FCS Kali for five years, two years in his current location. He’s been in martial arts most of his life and also currently is employed as a fireman.

“We have professional men and women — doctors, lawyers, military and ex-military — participating,” Norton said. “It makes no difference if you have a background in martial arts or none at all. At Gulfcoast FCS Kali, everyone starts over. If you come off the street you will be struggling right alongside someone with 20 years of martial arts. It takes time.”

Norton says that the combat system is recognizable from the popular Jason Bourne movies. It’s a style that uses sticks, knives, broomstick, lamps or anything in your hand.

“Classes are free to combat veterans and those who have served in support of combat operations,” said Norton. “The system helps tremendously with post traumatic stress disorder. Some veterans are older, have been out of combat for a while, are injured or cannot do it anymore. FCS Kali becomes a connection back to what they’re used to doing.”
read more here

Empty chair reserved for Capt. Erik Anthes' fallen friend

Soldier keeps alive the memory of old friend killed in Baghdad
Tampa Bay Times
By Bill Stevens
Times Columnist
Sunday, September 23, 2012

Two-hundred soldiers stood in formation, ready to meet their new commanding officer. Friends and family filled the chairs for the ceremony.

All but one.

Army Capt. Erik Anthes mourns his former classmate, Spc. Patrick Miller, at the Florida National Cemetery near Bushnell.

Capt. Erik Anthes reserved it for a fellow soldier, a man he hadn't seen since high school back in New Port Richey, but promised he would never forget.

As Anthes snapped salutes and accepted the responsibility for Company E, 1st Battalion of the storied 16th Infantry Regiment which dates back to the Civil War, he felt awash with emotion. How coincidental — no, how fitting — he thought as he glanced toward the empty chair and the sign taped on it: Spc. Patrick "P.J.'' Miller, March 29, 2008.

That was the day a roadside bomb exploded next to the young soldier's vehicle in Baghdad, one week before he was scheduled to return home. His outfit: the 16th Infantry Regiment.

Anthes, 26, assumed his new role on Aug. 30 at the regiment's headquarters in Fort Riley, Kan. At night, when he went home to be with his wife, Kelli, and their 5-month-old daughter, Reagan, he changed from his uniform. He didn't remove the bracelet that bears P.J. Miller's name.

"I never take it off,'' Anthes said. "I never forget.''
read more here

Festival to benefit wounded Marine

Festival to benefit wounded Marine

NEW PORT RICHEY --
Seven bands will help Rock the Park during a concert Saturday to benefit a badly wounded Marine, Justin Gaertner of Trinity.

The free event in Sims Park, in downtown New Port Richey, also will benefit the Center for Independence, a nonprofit organization that for 46 years has served Pasco County residents with developmental disabilities. The cash-strapped agency is grappling with state budget cuts.

From 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., some home-grown performers will take to the amphitheater stage, organizer Sean Kline said. He is the outreach coordinator for the Center for Independence and New Freedom Transportation.

The "free for all ages show" will feature a silent auction, food and fun, Kline said.

Among the bands will be Cyrenia, a group of Mitchell High School graduates determined to help Gaertner, who graduated from Mitchell in 2007.

Lance Cpl. Gaertner, 21, lost both legs in an explosion in Afghanistan on Nov. 26. His left arm was seriously injured.
read more here
Festival to benefit wounded Marine

Former Army chaplain helps homeless veterans

KAINAZ AMARIA Times
The Rev. Morson Livingston, center, founder of St. Jude’s Homeless Veterans Resource Center, stops Thursday at the Salvation Army Center of Hope in Port Richey. Livingston, a former U.S. Army chaplain, left the military in 2001.

Former Army chaplain helps homeless veterans in Pasco
By Mindy Rubenstein, Times Correspondent
In Print: Saturday, September 19, 2009
NEW PORT RICHEY — The Rev. Morson Livingston was stopped at a red light at State Road 54 and Little Road last year when he saw a couple of homeless men standing on the side of the road, wearing parts of their military uniforms. Livingston, who served as a U.S. Army chaplain in Bosnia before leaving the priesthood a few years ago, stopped and asked where they had served.

Vietnam, the men responded.

"I just imagined them in their uniforms, how strong and macho they were, and how desperate they are now in contrast," Livingston recalled.

He felt the need to help.

read more here

Former Army chaplain helps homeless veterans

Veterans go to war against budget cuts

Veterans go to war against budget cuts

By Carl Orth The Suncoast News

Published: July 17, 2009

Updated:

NEW PORT RICHEY - Pasco County veterans are going into battle against a proposal to cut the budget of the county veterans services office by about 60 percent and lay off four of its six staff members.

Some 54,000 veterans call Pasco home. So the Pasco Veterans Council launched a petition drive to protest drastic cuts at the Division of Veterans Affairs before county officials finalize the fiscal 2010 budget, in September.

"We need to stand up and speak up for what we think is fair," said James Bradley, president of the veterans council.

But property tax revenue has been plunging along with home values, Pasco officials say.

"Something has got to give," said Dan Johnson, assistant county administrator for public services. The preliminary budget numbers represent a "worst-case scenario," he emphasized.
read more here
Veterans go to war against budget cuts


"Something has got to give" did he really say that when he's talking about veterans? Did he really say that when there are two military campaigns going on? Did he really say that when we have veterans from WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Gulf War, Afghanistan and Iraq needing as much help as they can get? Something has got to give? Well he must have forgotten they already gave and that's why we call them veterans!

Boy, 9, commits suicide

My heart just sunk deeply in my chest. We hear about people committing suicide at all different ages and it never really makes sense. What causes people to be faced without any hope of a better day the next day? Yet when it is such a young child, it leaves a hole in all of us. A family is left to grieve the loss and wonder why it happened, what they could have done or said. It will not comfort them that all too often, there is really nothing they could have done differently. Please pray for this family after this tragedy.

Boy, 9, commits suicide

By Camille C. Spencer and Molly Moorhead, Times staff writers
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
NEW PORT RICHEY — Saturday was a typical evening in the Tyree household.

Jacqueline Tyree fixed cabbage, sausage and rice for dinner. Her 9-year-old son, Efrem, took his bath after dinner, then went to put on lotion while Jacqueline fixed her 7-year-old daughter's hair.

After a few moments of silence in her son's room, Jacqueline went to check on him and made a horrifying discovery:

Efrem was hanging from his closet shelf by two leather belts.

Jacqueline screamed, unlaced the belts and began CPR. A neighbor and paramedics tried to revive him, too, but it was too late.

Efrem, a fourth-grade honor roll student who earned his gold belt in karate this summer, was pronounced dead at Morton Plant North Bay Hospital.

The Pasco County Sheriff's Office has called the case a suicide. An autopsy is pending, but "preliminary results point to death by hanging," said sheriff's spokesman Kevin Doll.
click link for more

VA leaves Pasco Vietnam veterans group feeling abandoned

Marine Charlie Kelley, 64, says it is a slap in the face the way the VA treats Vietnam War vets like him needing care for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

VA leaves Pasco Vietnam veterans group feeling abandoned
Eleven Vietnam vets in group therapy feel abandoned when the VA breaks them up.
By William R. Levesque, Time Staff Writer
Published March 11, 2008
They returned from an unpopular war without band or bunting. Ugly jungle memories followed them home from Vietnam.

In New Port Richey, 11 Vietnam veterans met weekly for three years to help each other cope. They bonded, helping each other live with the war's aftereffects and struggles of everyday life. But in a scene that some veteran advocates say is being played out across the nation, a U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs counselor abruptly broke up the group in November, leaving the men stunned.

Members - called Group 11 by the VA - say they were told by the counselor that the VA was simply overwhelmed with the ever-increasing numbers of veterans needing care for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

"I feel absolutely betrayed," said Charlie Kelley, a 64-year-old Tampa Bay-area resident, former combat Marine and group member. "When we came back from Vietnam, we were ostracized. We did our duty but instead of gaining respect, we lost it. The same thing is happening again. It's a slap in the face."

VA regional spokesman John Pickens denied the agency was overwhelmed. Instead, he said what happened to Group 11 eventually happens to all therapeutic groups.

"At some point, you move on to other types of therapy," Pickens said. "It's got nothing to do with resources. It's a clinical decision."

Pickens said the 11 veterans were offered options, including different therapy sessions. Some were offered one-on-one therapy, he said.

But Kelley said one of the two groups meets only twice a month, and the other starts at 8 a.m., a bad time for men suffering from sleep disorders. In both cases, he said, other members would have a hard time opening up to strangers, their group bond lost.

Group 11 now meets privately at a Pasco restaurant without a counselor. But some of the men say they feel lost and PTSD symptoms - sleeplessness, depression, anxiety, anger, coping skills, among others - are worse.

"What the VA did is immoral," said Kelley, who hopes publicity will lead a counselor to volunteer services for Group 11.
go here for the rest
http://www.sptimes.com/2008/03/11/Pasco/VA_leaves_Pasco_Vietn.shtml

The VA has to stop pitting veterans against veterans. While they try to find room for the new generation, they are pushing older ones out of the way. Why is this happening? When did one become of more value than the other? I'm not saying they shouldn't be moving heaven and earth to take care of the new veterans but they cannot do it at the cost to the older ones. They need to find room for all of them and the funding to do it.

This group of veterans found what worked for them because they are still alive and still supporting each other. It works for them. Why mess with what is working for them? The goal of treating veterans who are chronic is to keep them stabilized. They will never be cured of it. The Vietnam veterans are the example of why treatment as early as possible is a life and death matter. The sooner they are treated the sooner PTSD stops getting worse. For Vietnam Vets, too much time went by without them getting any help. If we can keep them stabilized, that is a miracle. The fact this group has come to depend on each other needs to be taken seriously.