Director of Oregon VA "morale building exercise" flashmob ignored COVID-19 recommendations

How serious is the VA taking this pandemic that anyone thought this would "build morale" instead of spreading death?

Roseburg VA director leads coronavirus dance party without social distancing, face masks

KGW8 News
The Oregonian/OregonLive
Author: Ted Sickinger
April 25, 2020

Just a week ago, the Roseburg VA confirmed four members of its medical center staff and one patient had tested positive for COVID-19.

ROSEBURG, Oregon — An internal video obtained by The Oregonian/OregonLive shows the director of the U.S. Department of Veterans Administration Medical Center in Roseburg holding a flash mob dance party in hospital offices with at least 16 staff, none of them consistently wearing protective equipment or maintaining social distance.

The event appears to be a morale building exercise and was posted Friday on the hospital’s internal intranet, one of the regular updates that Director Keith M. Allen has been posting on COVID-19 and other topics. The updates are viewable by all 1,000 employees in the Roseburg VA district, which covers four southern Oregon counties and a slice of Northern California.

The district serves some 56,000 veterans, many of them elderly and with preexisting conditions. Just a week ago, a Roseburg VA administrator confirmed that four members of the medical center’s staff – including a nurse who ended up on a ventilator in a Portland hospital -- and one patient had tested positive for COVID-19.
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He served others in National Guard and Police Officer...but lost his own battle

Former police sergeant dies

CENTRAL OREGONIAN
Jason Chaney
February 20, 2020

Prineville Police Chief Dale Cummins confirmed Tuesday that Mark Monroe, a former sergeant with the agency, took his life on Monday afternoon.

"Yesterday afternoon, the members of our law enforcement community lost a good man and dear friend," Cummins wrote in a statement posted to the police department's Facebook page on Tuesday.

In the post, Cummins stated that Monroe had resigned from the local agency on Jan. 10.

"The Prineville Police Department grieves over the loss of our friend, mentor, and colleague," he wrote.

The post, which can be found on the Prineville Police Department Facebook page, includes a musical video tribute to Monroe featuring music Cummins said he would have preferred.

Cummins said that Monroe was a military veteran, serving in the Army National Guard from 1991 to 1999. He started his law enforcement career as a Prineville police reserve officer in 2004. He was employed by Warm Springs Police from 2004 until 2005, and then returned to Prineville as a police officer, where he remained for the rest of his law enforcement career.
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94 year old Oregon Air Force veteran won lottery...and almost tossed it out

94-Year-Old Veteran Almost Threw Away $6.5M Winning Lottery Ticket

New York Daily News
By Blake Alsup
5 Aug 2019

"I have what I need, and I'm 94," Bowker said. "This is a wonderful way to help my family."

An Oregon Megabucks sample lottery ticket. Via Oregon Lottery

A 94-year-old Air Force veteran from Oregon almost threw away his chance to be a millionaire.

"I have what I need, and I'm 94," Bowker said. "This is a wonderful way to help my family."

William Bowker plays the lottery often, but when his granddaughter checked his latest lottery ticket, she thought it was for the Mega Millions jackpot instead of Megabucks.++He decided to double check the ticket, and it paid off -- literally.

"She got done, and later, I thought I should double-check it before throwing it away," Bowker said in a news release from the Oregon Lottery. "I am glad I did. I immediately thought -- BOOM! I won!"
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Anonymous angel delivered life changing gift to disabled veteran

Disabled Veteran Gets Incredibly Thoughtful, Anonymous Gift

The Epoch Times
BY JACK PHILLIPS
July 8, 2019

An Oregon woman shared about a touching act of kindness that has gone viral.

Brittany Lynn Garrett wrote on the Love What Matters Facebook page detailing the act of kindness.

“As I was getting ready for my day, my husband appeared at the door with tears in his eyes holding our son,” Garrett said on Facebook. “My heart sank and I thought someone we love took a trip to Heaven… He quickly assured me that no one had died, but someone had just given him a very expensive riding lawn mower!”

She said she had no clue who sent him the generous gift.

“I don’t know who they are, but they have been watching my 100% combat disabled husband push mow our entire yard once or twice a week, and thought this would help make more time for the important things in life!!” she wrote.
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After veteran was shot by police, family takes police to court

Family of veteran shot and killed by Eugene Police seeks to take civil case to jury trial

KVAL 13 News
by Alex Hasenstab and KVAL.com Staff December 3, 2018

EUGENE, Ore. - Eugene Police responded to the home of Brian Babb on March 30, 2015, after his counselor called dispatchers and said she was afraid the veteran - suffering from PTSD - was going to harm himself with a firearm.

Forty minutes after police arrived, an officer said Babb pointed a rifle at him.

Eugene Police responded to the home of Brian Babb on March 30, 2015, after his counselor called dispatchers and said she was afraid the veteran - suffering from PTSD - was going to harm himself with a firearm. An officer shot and killed Babb less than an hour later. (SBG/File)

EUGENE, Ore. - Eugene Police responded to the home of Brian Babb on March 30, 2015, after his counselor called dispatchers and said she was afraid the veteran - suffering from PTSD - was going to harm himself with a firearm.

Forty minutes after police arrived, an officer said Babb pointed a rifle at him.

After demanding Babb drop his weapon, the officer fired a fatal shot.

The district attorney determined officers were justified in using deadly force.

Babb's family had a different reaction.

"We knew right away that something was seriously amiss," said Stephanie Babb, Brian's sister.

The family filed a civil suit, seeking monetary damages against the officers involved and the city.
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Combat to chainsaws, veterans fighting fires

Veterans find community, hard work in rare firefighting crew

Associated Press
November 24, 2018

Of the 25 positions on the crew, 17 are filled by veterans, McGirr said. There are three additional openings, and McGirr said he wants to recruit female veterans, too.

SALEM, Ore. - After being in firefights in Afghanistan and Iraq, members of one of America's newest elite wildfire crews are tasked with fighting fires in rugged country back home.

On the U.S. Bureau of Land Management's only hotshot crew focused on recruiting veterans, members have traded assault rifles and other weapons of war for chainsaws and shovels. But, like in the military, they have camaraderie, structure, and chain of command. And the occasional adrenaline rush.

Crew superintendent Michael McGirr said he and other managers took then-President Barack Obama's initiative to hire veterans to heart."We felt it was important for them to transition back home," McGirr said.

"Being in a firefight is way different than being in a wildland fire, but both are mentally taxing," said Chris Schott, who served two tours in Afghanistan with the Army's 7th Special Forces Group. "In a wildland fire, no one's shooting at you, but conditions can go favorable to unfavorable very quickly."

The Lakeview Veterans Interagency Hotshot Crew, based in Klamath Falls, Oregon, received its hotshot certification after rigorous training and testing, the Bureau of Land Management announced last week. It's now among 112 elite U.S. wildland firefighting teams and the only targeting veterans for recruitment, the agency said.
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Oregon Firefighters targeted by armed arsonist

Oregon arsonist sets own home on fire to ambush

NBC News 
David R. Li 
October 18, 2018

Jacobs shot at firefighters as they approached, but first responders had no idea they were being targeted because crackling noises are common in house fires, McKee said.

An arsonist ambushed Oregon firefighters by torching his own house then shooting a rifle at the first responders, authorities said Thursday.

A man is dead after a structure fire turned into an active shooter situation early on Oct. 17, 2018 in Springfield, Oregon.NBC16

Lance Taylor Jacobs, 60, eventually turned the gun on himself and ended the brief standoff early Wednesday morning in Springfield, Oregon, police said.

After Jacobs sent firefighters fleeing for their lives, flames spread to three other homes in the 500 block of Oakdale Avenue, which is about four miles northeast of the University of Oregon in neighboring Eugene.

All four houses burned down but no neighbors, firefighters or police were injured, officials said. One round tore through a firefighter's pants cuff.
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Wounded Iraq Veteran Death Video Shot By Laughing Deputies

Sheriff’s deputies laughed at and filmed Army veteran as he died in a jail cell
Military Times
By: Kyle Rempfer
1 hour ago

The veteran, 31-year-old Bryan Perry, served in the Iraq War, was honorably discharged and received a Purple Heart, his lawyer told local media outlets. Perry’s family has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Clackamas County.

An Oregon county sheriff’s office has condemned the actions of three of its deputies who filmed and laughed at an Army veteran as he died of a drug overdose in a padded jail cell.

The veteran, 31-year-old Bryan Perry, served in the Iraq War, was honorably discharged and received a Purple Heart, his lawyer told local media outlets. Perry’s family has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Clackamas County.

Two videos were filmed on the deputies’ cell phones in November 2016. In them, viewers can hear the jailers laughing at a man as he flails around in agony.

“We should go show this to his girlfriend and be like, ‘You love this?’ ” one of the deputies said on the recording.

Perry and his girlfriend were arrested together. Prior to the girlfriend being escorted to a separate holding tank for women, she yelled, “I love you, Bryan.”
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The Oregonian
Published on Oct 4, 2018
Clackamas County Sheriff Craig Roberts released video that shows employees making callous comments, now the subject of a federal lawsuit, about an inmate suffering symptoms of drug use. The sheriff condemned the laughter and comments as "inappropriate" and said they "do not conform to our professional standards."

PTSD on Trial: Case dropped against veteran who bit nurse

DA drops case against patient who bit nurse
The Oregonian/OregonLive
By Aimee Green
July 2, 2018

A Northwest Portland man was injected with a sedative, then hours later bit a nurse. He faced criminal charges, until recently.(The Associated Press)

Prosecutors have dropped charges against a 35-year-old Portland man charged with assault for biting a nurse while he was heavily sedated and taken to a hospital against his will.

Advocates from the Criminal Justice Reform Clinic at Lewis and Clark Law School took up the case of Brandon Michael Gabaldon when they heard the circumstances of what happened to him.

Ambulance medics injected Gabaldon with as much as 15 times the normal dose of the sedative Versed and then took him to Legacy Good Samaritan Hospital in Northwest Portland in November 2016, said Lewis and Clark law professor Aliza Kaplan, in a friend-of-the-court brief in Gabaldon's case.

Hours later, Gabaldon woke from a deep, medicated sleep -- and after an argument broke out, Gabaldon ended up biting the nurse's elbow, according to the brief.
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Veteran sits in jail, instead of getting help he sought from VA?

First, weapons are not allowed on VA property. Do not try to take them with you. The veteran in the following report pulled out a knife and a security guard shot him.

The biggest thing to take away from this report is for all the "help" out there, it is mostly too little, too late, because no one cared enough to make sure veterans did not find coming home, harder than combat.

None of this is new and that is the most depressing part of all. Anyone in Congress have an answer for what they failed to do, or are they still too busy talking about sending our veterans into the same mess everyone else has to settle for?

This is what mental health is like for civilians in crisis.

A viral video from Baltimore is drawing attention to a crisis that's unfolding in emergency rooms across the country: Surging numbers of patients with psychiatric conditions aren't receiving the care they need.
On a cold night in January, a man walking by a downtown Baltimore hospital saw something that shocked him. He started recording the incident on his phone.
Imamu Baraka's video, which has been viewed more than 3 million times, shows security guards walking away from a bus stop next to the emergency room of University of Maryland Medical Center Midtown Campus.

And now what happened to the veteran who sits in jail.

Father of Army vet shot at Oregon VA clinic feels betrayed
ASSOCIATED PRESS SALEM, Ore.
By ANDREW SELSKY
Apr 30, 2018

Brent Brooks, who served with Negrete in the 10th Mountain Division, said he was a "really driven, goal-oriented" soldier. Their unit maintained Kiowa helicopters and sometimes came under mortar fire. In Afghanistan, their second deployment, a mortar round tore apart a wooden shack 20 yards (meters) from their own, wounding all the soldiers inside, Brooks said.

In this undated photo provided by Alyss Negrete, she poses with her with husband, Gilbert "Matt" Negrete and their children, from left, Aubree, Mya and Camren. Negrete, an Army veteran who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, is in jail awaiting trial for attempted assault and other crimes after he allegedly pulled a knife during an altercation with veteran clinic staffers in January 2018, in White City, Ore. (Courtesy of Alyss Negrete via AP)

The father of a veteran with post-traumatic stress disorder who was shot at a government clinic in Oregon blames Veterans Affairs for letting down his son.

Gilbert "Matt" Negrete, who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, is in jail in the former timber town of Medford, charged with attempted assault and other crimes after he allegedly displayed a knife during a confrontation at the VA clinic in nearby White City on Jan. 25. A VA guard shot him in the chest.

"First they shoot him, now they're gonna try to put him away," his father, Gilbert Negrete, told The Associated Press in a Facebook message. "You would think they would have some concern about us. My son needs help not prison."
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SWAT standoff with veteran in crisis

Friends say man shot in Beaverton officer-involved shooting is a veteran
KPTV News
By Bonnie Silkman
Updated: Apr 26, 2018

BEAVERTON, OR (KPTV)
Beaverton police said they received multiple 911 calls at 11:00 Wednesday morning about a disturbance involving a gun. After they arrived, they found a man in crisis inside a truck near 148th and Farmington Road.

Officers said they communicated with the man, who was making suicidal statements through text message. After two and a half hours of negotiating, police said the man fired at officers.

Officers said police returned shots back resulting in the man being rushed to the hospital by ambulance. They did not have an update on his condition.

“They moved the SWAT trucks in, and that’s when all of a sudden it was quick fire,” said Erica, who watched the standoff unfold.

She captured the standoff on her cell phone and the video shows her ducking for cover when gunfire erupts. A baby’s cries and panic can be heard from her video.

Officers told FOX 12, before gunfire erupted, the man in crisis sat in a silver truck for hours.

“Boom, boom, boom. That’s what happened, pretty sad,” another witness said.

The standoff took place steps away from a Salvation Army Veterans and Family Center on Farmington Road, which offers veterans transitional housing.

Friends of the man who was shot said he’s a veteran who needs help.
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Marty Nance Oregon Air National Guardsman's body found

Family searches for answers after missing Oregon Natl. Guardsman found dead
KATU 2 News
Keaton Thomas
April 1, 2018

Veber says her brother's body was found in the river near Waverly Country Club on Wednesday night by fisherman. Deputies do not suspect foul play was involved.

PORTLAND, Ore. -- The body of Marty Nance, an Oregon Air National Guardsman reported missing back in January, was found Wednesday in the Willamette River, but family members are still hoping for answers in his disappearance and death.

Lisa Veber, Nance's sister, says a chaplain with the Clackamas County Sheriff's office told her about the discovery Thursday night.

If he had problems, Veber said, "Marty was a fixer, Marty was a doer."

That being said, Veber understands it's possible her brother may have committed suicide.
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Veteran Shot At Oregon VA Clinic by Security Guards

UPDATE
Army veteran shot by police at VA clinic faces charges

UPDATE
Man shot at VA clinic arrested days before
The Associated Press
By Andrew Selsky
JAN. 27, 2018

SALEM — A man made paranoid and incoherent statements at a Veterans Affairs clinic and confronted an employee with a knife before he was shot by a security officer, law enforcement officials said Friday.

Gilbert Matthew Negrete, 34, of Medford remained in a hospital in Medford on Friday after being shot once in the chest by a Veterans Affairs police officer Thursday in nearby White City, the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office said.

The sheriff’s office said in a statement that Negrete had a run-in with the law earlier in the week.

Police had arrested Negrete on Tuesday on charges of driving under the influence of a controlled substance and attempting to elude police. He was released from jail Wednesday due to jail overcrowding. The sheriff’s office said a man believed to be Negrete then tried to get his car from an impound lot and allegedly threatened an employee with a knife.

Negrete had an appointment at the VA clinic on Thursday, the sheriff’s office statement said.
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Man shot at Oregon veterans clinic during altercation
Associated Press
Andrew Selsky
January 25, 2018

Veterans at the clinic receiving treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder and other issues expressed shock about the shooting.

SALEM, Ore. – A man said to be a military veteran seeking mental health care was shot by a security officer at a Veterans Affairs clinic in southern Oregon on Thursday after an admissions area altercation in which authorities said the man became combative.

The man was flown to a hospital after the shooting in the southwestern community of White City with injuries that did not appear to be life-threatening, the Jackson County sheriff's office said in a statement.

Shawn Quall, an Army veteran of the first Gulf War who is from Bend, Oregon, said he heard the man shouting before the situation escalated.

"I was walking down the main hallway when I overheard a veteran yelling at intake people that he was here for the fifth time trying to get health care, and was upset at what he thought was a runaround," Quall told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.

Quall kept walking down the hall, but when the yelling got louder, he started running back and heard someone yell: "He's got a knife!"
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Community pulls together to send off TLC

A Gorge ‘Holiday for Heroes’
Dalles Chronicle
RaeLynn Ricarte
December 28, 2017

Dan Brophy, a Marine veteran and chaplain for Point Man, said the statement made by Miguel (last name withheld for security reasons) reflects how he felt when receiving care packages from home during a 1968-69 deployment to Vietnam.

Christmas boxes sent to Afghanistan by residents of Wasco and Hood River counties are shown with the team of defense contractors who received them. Other shipments arrived at the base of an Oregon National Guard unit and Marine Raiders in the Middle East. A total of 85 boxes were sent to the field and the Holiday for Heroes Committee, which organized the outreach effort, credits the generosity of community members for the success of the mission.

The Holiday for Heroes Committee received a photo Dec. 27 from a team of defense contractors in Afghanistan posing with 31 Christmas boxes they received from Gorge residents.

The photo was accompanied by these words from Miguel, one of the team members: “This isn't everyone but it's everyone I could muster right now. Had some guys working and others just dispersed around the camp.

“The guys descended on the gifts like locusts, laughing and giving thanks to the group that sent the packages. This was a gigantic morale builder, more so than I would have imagined. Thank you doesn't quite cut it but thank you so very much. Merry Christmas and God bless all of our supporters. Your efforts were greatly noticed and appreciated by the men here.”

He added, “believe it or not, the most popular items are the handmade letters and drawings from children.”

Area schools participated in the troop support effort by allowing students to write messages and send works of art to the defense team and 29 members of an Oregon National Guard military police unit who train in Hood River.

Capt. Rich Smith of that unit said Tuesday the tempo of operations has been too high for a Christmas party, so pictures of his soldiers opening their care packages were not yet available.
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Oregon VA Hospital Turns Veterans Away Because of "Risk"

At Veterans Hospital in Oregon, a Push for Better Ratings Puts Patients at Risk, Doctors Say
New York Times
By DAVE PHILIPPS
JAN. 1, 2018

“The doctors were mad; the nurses were mad,” said Mr. Savage’s son-in-law, Mark Ridimann. “And my dad, he was mad, too. He kept saying, ‘I’ve laid my life on the line, two years in Vietnam, and this is what I get?’”

ROSEBURG, Ore. — An 81-year-old veteran hobbled into the emergency room at the rural Veterans Affairs hospital here in December, malnourished and dehydrated, his skin flecked with ulcers and his ribs broken from a fall at home.

A doctor examining the veteran — a 20-year Air Force mechanic named Walter Savage who had been living alone — decided he was in no shape to care for himself and should be admitted to the hospital. A second doctor running the inpatient ward agreed.

But the hospital administration said no.

Though there were plenty of empty beds, records show that a nurse in charge of enforcing administration restrictions said Mr. Savage was not sick enough to qualify for admission to the hospital. He waited nine hours in the emergency room until, finally, he was sent home.

Fewer patients meant fewer chances of bad outcomes and better scores for a ranking system that grades all veterans hospitals on a scale of one to five stars. In 2016, administrators began cherry-picking cases against the advice of doctors — turning away complicated patients and admitting only the lowest-risk ones in order to improve metrics, according to multiple interviews with doctors and nurses at the hospital and a review of documents.

Those metrics helped determine both the Roseburg hospital’s rating and the leadership’s bonus checks. By denying veterans care, the ratings climbed rapidly from one star to two in 2016 and the director earned a bonus of $8,120.
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UPDATE

Roseburg VA official calls New York Times story about patient care 'false'

"At its core, the Roseburg VAHCS is primarily an outpatient center, and that’s why the hospital’s clinical leadership has made clear to its physicians that the facility has limited capabilities to care for patients with certain clinical conditions that are far better treated in nearby community hospitals.

This is precisely why we’re being transparent with our doctors about the conditions that the facility is unable to treat, because it’s in Veterans’ best interests for them to be seen at other hospitals in the community with greater capabilities to deliver them the best care for those conditions." You can read the rest here

PTSD on Trial: Man Went For Help First, Before Shooting

Man on trial in deputy shooting says he intended to only harm himself

Oregon Live

Everton Bailey Jr.

August 25, 2017

Everton Bailey Jr. | The Oregonian/OregonLive Steven Wilson testifies in his own defense during his trial in Clackamas County Circuit Court on August 25, 2017. Wilson, 40, is accused of grabbing a county deputy's gun and shooting them both in November 2016. Wilson said he meant to grab the gun, kill himself and didn't intend to injure the deputy. (Everton Bailey Jr./The Oregonian)

Steven Wilson felt suicidal last fall and had gone to Legacy Good Samaritan Medical Center for help, but was released hours later. He returned to his Portland apartment, later grabbed his psychiatric medication and went to a nearby MAX stop. Then he threw the pills on the ground.

A voice inside his head told him: If you're serious about killing yourself, you don't need your medicine, Wilson told the jury Friday during his attempted murder trial. The voice also said he needed to die to keep his mother alive.

From there, Wilson testified, he remembers only snippets. He's accused of shooting a Clackamas County deputy with the deputy's own gun in a Nov. 15, 2016 encounter that left them both injured.

Wilson, 40, said he somehow got to a home in Clackamas where his mother no longer lived and took a blanket off a neighbor's porch.

He doesn't remember later walking into traffic along Southeast Sunnyside Road during the early morning traffic commute, he said. Nor being hit by at least one car or the two women who stopped to try to help him afterward.

He said he doesn't remember the deputy who responded to the scene, but said he did recall at some point seeing a gun in front of him and a voice in his head repeatedly telling him, "Grab the gun and kill yourself."

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Inspirational Vietnam Veteran Plans On Surviving Again After Being Set on Fire At Denny's

Vietnam Veteran Is Determined To Survive After Being Set On Fire

WLTZ News

Christe Lattimore-Staple 
August 14, 2017

Nearly four months after he was doused with gasoline and lit on fire at a Happy Valley, Oregon Denny’s, walking remains a goal for Scott Ranstrom.

“I’m trying to take steps,” he said.

The 69-year-old Vietnam veteran didn’t know his attacker.

He doesn’t like to think about him.

“Every morning I get up with expectations of tomorrow, not what happened,” said Ranstrom, his hands covered by protective gloves.

Sitting in a private room in Vibra Specialty Hospital, a recovery center for those who need long-term, in-patient care, Ranstrom is unwavering.

He remembers everything.
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Homeless Air Force veteran, Casey Kathleen Finnegan to be buried with honor

First Female Veteran Honored in Portland through the Dignity Memorial® Homeless Veteran Burial Program 
Salem-News.com 
February 21, 2017

This service will be unique with all lady veteran pallbearers at the conclusion of the graveside. Also, theater students from Clackamas High School, who are preparing to release a rendition of “A Piece of My Heart,” a true story of women who served in Vietnam, will be in attendance to pay tribute.

The public is invited, and encouraged, to attend. A reception will follow. (PORTLAND, Ore.) - A graveside service will be held at 1 p.m., Monday, Feb. 27, 2017 in Willamette National Cemetery to honor the life of Air Force veteran, Casey Kathleen Finnegan, a.k.a. Anne Kathleen Finnegan. 

Ms. Finnegan passed away Jan. 26, 2017 in Portland, Ore. with no family to claim her. The Multnomah County Medical Examiner’s office, Portland Veterans Administration and the State of Oregon Department of State Lands performed background checks to locate next of kin. 

The searches yielded no results. The medical examiner contacted Lincoln Memorial Park and Funeral Home, which they knew to be a Dignity Memorial® Provider and provider of funeral services through the Dignity Memorial® Homeless Veteran Burial Program. read more here

Remains of Combat Medic Will Naugle Found by Hikers

Family: Body of missing U.S. Army reservist found
KOIN 6 News Staff
Published: February 20, 2017

Will Naugle was last seen on January 26

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — The body of a missing U.S. Army reservist has been found, according to family members.

Will Naugle was last seen on January 26. He was scheduled to report for annual training and vanished.

Naugle was a combat medic and connected to the U.S. Army Reserves at Camp Whithycombe in Clackamas.

The reservist’s family said he was found dead at Powell Butte in Crook County. The family also said they believe Naugle committed suicide.

Naugle’s body was found by hikers, and it is being turned over to a funeral home.
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WWII Veteran No Longer Feels Forgotten with Thousands of Birthday Cards

WWII veteran gets birthday surprise thanks to viral post
by KATU News
December 24th 2016

"Oh, God there's thousands of cards here," said Hardey. "I would never get them all read."

HILLSBORO, Ore. — A WWII veteran, feeling forgotten all these years, got the birthday surprise of a lifetime thanks to the help of an Instagram post that went viral.

Jack Hardy, 99, receives thousands of letters for his birthday.

Birthdays mean another year, and another couple of cards just from family and friends, but this year, when Jack Hardey turned 99, people around the world celebrated with him.

This soldier became and internet sensation thanks to a family friend who posted a message online encouraging people to send Hardy a card for his birthday this year. More and more posts were shared on social media and soon thousands of people responded.
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