J. R. Martinez all smiles with donation to Operation Finally Home

Dancing with the Stars Champ, Iraq War Vet J.R. Martinez and Operation Finally Home Moved by Wall Street Rocks' Donation to Help Wounded and Disabled Vets
Latin Post
By Melissa Castellanos
April 16, 2014

Dancing with the Stars Season 13 champion, U.S. Army veteran, actor, motivational speaker and best-selling author J.R. Martinez receives a $50,000 check from Wall Street Walks on behalf of Operation Finally Home.
(Photo : Sunny Norton)

Former Iraq War veteran-turned actor and Dancing with the Stars Season 13 champion, J.R. Martinez has wowed audiences with his slick dance moves alongside Karina Smirnoff, acting roles on ABC's All My Children, Lifetime's Army Wives to the nationally syndicated drama series, SAF3.

He's even nabbed the cover of People Magazine, been featured in their Sexiest Man Alive issue and one of the magazine's 25 Most Intriguing People of 2011.

But there's so much more to him than the spotlight he's received in Hollywood.

Like the Dancing with the Star's mirror ball trophy, there are flickers of light that have reflected off his onscreen success, transcending into incredible opportunities that help fellow wounded and disabled vets and burn victims like himself, who are in desperate need of financial and emotional support.
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Vietnam Veteran Hires Disabled Veterans for Wall Street Firm

Veteran-Owned Wall Street Firm Employs Disabled Vets
ABC News
By Angel Canales
Mar 26, 2014

When Lawrence Doll returned to the U.S. from Vietnam in 1969 he never forgot the help he received during his transition into civilian life.

“There was a silent majority that wanted to work with veterans and most of them were former veterans and it was something I’ll never forget,” said Doll, who was drafted into the Marines and served as a Scout Sniper.

Doll was wounded during his second tour in combat and spent four months in the U.S. Naval Hospital in Guam before coming to the United States.

Doll’s duty in Vietnam earned him two Purple Hearts, the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry and a prestigious appointment to the United States Marine Corps Honor Guard in Washington, D.C. He is now returning the favor to other veterans by hiring them at the Wall Street firm he founded named Drexel Hamilton.

One of his company’s goals is to employ as many veterans possible and offer meaningful employment opportunities to disabled vets who want a career in financial services.
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93% of financial advisers had PTSD after 2008?

This is a very odd day for Wounded Times. Two stories on PTSD and Wall Street but I have to admit when I read the headline on this one, I thought it was a joke.

93% of financial advisers had PTSD after 2008
Study finds emotional fallout had lasting impact on decision making
Wall Street Journal
May 09, 2013
Quentin Fottrell

Financial advisers were shellshocked in the months and perhaps years following the 2008 financial crisis. Many couldn’t sleep, they suffered bouts of anxiety and depression and self-doubt. In fact, according to just-published academic research: some 93% of advisers and planners surveyed wrestled with post-traumatic stress disorder. And many are still reeling from the effects.

Nearly every single financial professional interviewed as part of the research reported medium to high levels of post-traumatic stress, according to the study published in the Journal of Financial Therapy. The survey — “Financial Trauma: Why the Abandonment of Buy-and-Hold in Favor of Tactical Asset Management May be a Symptom of Post-Traumatic Stress” — found that another 40% of planners reported severe symptoms. The respondents managed assets with an average value of between $20 million and $40 million.
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Maybe that is why they do actually seem to understand what the troops are going through.

Wall Street party to "stop soldier suicides"

Wall Street party to "stop soldier suicides"

Wall Street party to "stop soldier suicides"
by Kathie Costos
Wounded Times Blog
May 10, 2013

Wall Street executives have enough money to change the world and last night it appears they got together to change what is happening to past and current members of our military. It all sounds good. That is the biggest problem of all. It "sounds" good.

I watched the following video from Stop Soldier Suicides but while it does tug your heart, it is like most of the videos I have done since 2006.

Don't get me wrong. It is important and needed however when you think of what has been done without as much attention and financial support, I am scratching my head wondering what is different about Stop Soldier Suicides. Is there anything different about it?

Inside The Big Charity Party On The Intrepid Last Night Hosted By Wall Streeters
Julia La Roche
Business Insider
May 9, 2013

Hundreds of people from the Wall Street community gathered with military veterans and active duty service members last night on board the Intrepid on the Hudson River for a fundraiser to help stop soldier suicide.

The "A Night For Life" fundraiser benefitted Stop Soldier Suicides—a civilian not-for-profit organization dedicated to preventing soldier suicide by bringing free mental health care to U.S. service members and veterans and raising awareness about soldier suicide.
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I left this comment

I can't get all excited about this and I really wish I could. Maybe I've been doing this for too long, seeing the pain in their eyes as they struggle to find the words to express the heartache they are going through. I watched the video on this charity and it seems really nice, but it provided no answers. The fact that we spend billions a year on prevention while numbers have gone up should provide proof that no amount of money can fix what the same path has led to. I just hope the rest of what this charity has planned will be different than what has already been done.

This is one of the videos I did that used to be up on YouTube.
Free mental healthcare sounds good but we've heard that year after year by an ever growing number of charities popping up all over the country. What are they getting for the "mental healthcare" from this group? Is it more of the same that has already been done that has proven to be a failure or do they really know what they are doing? Will veterans walk away still feeling as bad about themselves as they did before going? When you consider that the VA already does free mental healthcare for years after discharge and Give and Hour has done that as well as many other groups, how is this different? Is the only difference the support they are getting from Wall Street?

Raising awareness on suicides has been done to the tune of billions by other groups with the mission of "raising awareness" but what they have not done is raise the awareness of what these men and women really need to know. How do they see themselves differently? How do they make peace with what they went through? How do they stop feeling so bad about themselves? Above all how do they forgive themselves?

Wednesday night was a typical example of what they have been facing. I meet with veterans one on one if they are local. Otherwise I do it online or by phone. The Iraq veteran I met with was dealing with a huge pile of things going on including physical wounds and TBI plus PTSD. His biggest issues were why he feels so angry and so sad at the same time.

He didn't understand what PTSD really was, why he had it but others didn't, why his friends committed suicide or why he was pushing people away.

The Iraq veteran had all the "resilience" training but it had prevented him from being able to open up to his buddies when he needed to.

We talked about what Chaplains in the civilian world do. How we go out right after traumatic events and do emotional debriefing to take them out of that horrible moment and bring them into the safety of "normal" existence. That removes the power the event has over them and then we are able to help them work through what they just survived. Help them make peace with it by seeing they were not responsible for it and if they were, how to forgive themselves because they did the best they could in that moment.

We talked about how when traumatic events happen, we tend to see what was bad about it. Much like when two men decided to do something so evil in Boston blowing people up, but hundreds rushed to help. If we focus only on the bad that was happening, that is all we see. If we open our eyes to see the "whole movie" then we are able to see that there are more good people in this world than bad ones.

He wanted to know why the military doesn't do what law enforcement Chaplains do. I told him that was part of the problem. Men like him were trained to suck it up because they had been trained to be "resilient" so if they had any problem, it was because they didn't train right.

I've been undoing the damage this approach has done since 2008. It hasn't been fun because too many times I am contacted by families when it is too late to save the life of someone they love but didn't know how to help. No one told them anything. They ended up blaming themselves.

So far I have seen more of the same going on leading to more of the same suffering and misery. I really hope this group will know what they are doing and not just repeating the same things that have already failed.

We neglect our veterans to our shame

We neglect our veterans to our shame
Stamford Advocate - Stamford,CT,USA


Staff Reports
Article Launched: 11/12/2008 03:00:24 AM EST


Somehow, somewhere the plight of some veterans became lost in the excitement and hubbub of the national election. In a preview to Veterans Day on Tuesday, it was disclosed that 1,200 veterans of the armed forces are homeless in Southwestern Connecticut. That should not be. Consider that those same veterans served us and protected us from harm. Most of them served overseas in faraway lands, fighting desert sands and other discomforts. They risked their lives every day fighting for our freedom. Why there are not places for them to live is beyond me, and is in a word, shameful.

As a veteran myself, I find that some of our comrades, even those separated from us by a generation, are basically forgotten.

It wasn't always this way. There was a time when we did a much better job of living up to our obligations toward our veterans. Following World War II, veterans came home to temporary housing. Quonset huts were erected on public land. Here in Stamford, that kind of housing was established in Shippan adjacent to Cummings Park. Other, more conventional housing was constructed on city-owned land on High Ridge Road where Rippowam School now stands. They were attractive Cape Cod-style cottages. Many World War II veterans received their re-start and return to family life as they knew it in the temporary housing.

There are some shelters for homeless veterans in Connecticut. In Bridgeport, for example, where they are provided with housing, instruction in the use of a computer,
and programs to help them gain employment. But they are shelters, pure and simple. Not enough.

The questions posed here is: If the government can pour billions of dollars into the banking community, something, by the way, that should be rescued, why hasn't adequate money been set aside to care for our veterans? Not only as far as housing and jobs are concerned - but what about health care and rehabilitation?

Remember the conditions that were discovered at Walter Reed Hospital in Washington - literally under the noses of the administration and our legislators in the Congress? It is almost as though the thinking was, "Send them off to battle with a parade and hugs from their families, and we will think about health care, jobs and their general well being when we get around to it."

We didn't know about the terrible conditions at Walter Reed until reporters from the Washington Post newspaper exposed them. What would conditions be like today if those reports had never come out? The disclosure spirited some good citizens to become active in helping veterans, including a group that established a state-of-the-art hospital for veterans in Texas. But more is needed as the wars go on and service people return with arms and legs missing and need help.
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Military Spouses for Change (MSC) Opposes Bailing Out Wall Street While Military and Veteran Families Lose their Homes

Military Spouses for Change (MSC) Opposes Bailing Out Wall Street While Military and Veteran Families Lose their Homes PLEASE CONTACT YOUR REPRESENTATIVE THIS MORNING (http://www.votesmart.org/search.php?search=76544, then click "current elected officials") and tell them that unsuspecting home buyers, workers, and investors, like yourself and your spouse (who serve this country) deserve as much protection as the financially savvy, multi-billionaire corporations that preyed upon you for short-term financial gain. Today Congress is going to vote on the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 which IMMEDIATELY use $250 BILLION to buy banks' and other financial institutions' LEAST VALUABLE financial investments (i.e. what no one else would buy). The President will be given an additional $100 BILLION dollars to use at his discretion to bail these companies out. Finally, $250 BILLION is going to be set aside for future bailing out.

WHAT IS MISSING FROM THIS PACKAGE? Assistance for homeowners who were lured into home loans that they would ultimately not be able to afford. In May, Bloomberg.com published an exclusive report stating that "[i]n the midst of the worst surge in mortgage defaults in seven decades, foreclosures in U.S. towns where soldiers live are increasing at a pace almost four times the national average." Moreover, Paul Sullivan, from the non-profit Veterans for Common Sense told Bloomberg, "`We've never faced a situation like this, not in the Vietnam War, World War II, or the Korean War, where so many military are in danger of losing their homes.'' We don't know about you, but how many of us really know what "subprime" means? Or "adjustable" rate? Did you know that while veterans comprise eleven percent of Americans, they simultaneously represent TWENTY-FIVE PERCENT of our homeless population? MSC does not opposed helping Wall Street.

We appreciate the need for the government to intervene. But we also believe that the individual tax-payer needs help too and this current plan rewards the predators and punishes the prey. When Congress tells us they do not have the funds to increase mental health services or family support services, how can we allow this bail out plan to move forward? We urge you to take a few minutes out of your morning to call just one of your representatives. Tell them who you are, where your spouse serves, and that you have had it with the rhetoric of supporting the troops (and veterans). Please spread the word. You have a voice. Don't be afraid to use it!

Your ally in change,

Carissa Picard--
Carissa Picard, Esq.President
Military Spouses for Change
P.O. Box 216
Copperas Cove, TX 76522
ww.militaryspousesforchange.com
"Patriotism is proud of a country's virtues and eager to correct its deficiencies; it also acknowledges the legitimate patriotism of other countries, with their own specific virtues. The pride of nationalism, however, trumpets its country's virtues and denies its deficiencies, while it is contemptuous toward the virtues of other countries. It wants to be, and proclaims itself to be, 'the greatest,' but greatness is not required of a country; only goodness is."Sydney J. Harris

Bush finally acts after the wolf eats Wall Street

What took all of them so long to figure this one out?

Bush finally acts after the wolf eats Wall StreetThe wolf is no longer at the door of Wall Street. The wolf has eaten Wall Street. Read More

Obama, McCain agree it's a recession
WASHINGTON, Sept. 21 (UPI) -- Democrat Barack Obama and his presidential rival, Republican John McCain, both say the United States is in a recession.

Both candidates expressed their assessment of the U.S. economy in a segment of CBS's "60 Minutes" broadcast Sunday. For the special 40th edition of the program, Obama was interviewed Wednesday in Nevada and McCain was interviewed Thursday in Wisconsin.
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