US Navy Jet Turned Pink?

Pretty in pink: Navy fighter jet painted for Breast Cancer Awareness month
CNN
By Doug Criss and Thom Patterson
October 18, 2016

(CNN)The fight against breast cancer picked up a powerful new ally -- a retired US Navy fighter jet. And of course, it's pink.

A Grumman F9F-8 Cougar, painted a vivid shade of pink called "Heliconia," has been unveiled on the flight deck of the World War II aircraft carrier USS Lexington, anchored at Corpus Christi, Texas.

In support of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, the Cougar will be on the deck through October 31.
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Orlando Veterans Find Harder to Get Care than Uninsured Citizens?

9 Investigates veteran's battle with VA over breast cancer treatment
WFTV News
February 17, 2015

Maynard, who has helped 4,000 women through her nonprofit, said she has found it more difficult to get help for George than women who don't have any insurance.

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — A woman battling breast cancer is now also battling the Veterans Administration to get the treatment she needs.

As a veteran Dawn George fought for her country, working in military intelligence in Panama.

Now she is in a battle for her life against breast cancer and said she feels like her country is fighting against her.

"Now I am going to be constantly concerned, 'Is that cancer on my other one?'" George said.

In November, George had a biopsy that determined she had breast cancer.

Her VA doctor told her that it was stage zero and all she needed was a lumpectomy.

George was concerned about the diagnosis and found the advocacy group Libby's Legacy.
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9 Investigates woman's battle with VA to get cancer treatment
WFTV News
February 18, 2015

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — A Channel 9 investigation found a second local woman who said the Veterans Association isn’t giving her the cancer treatment she needs.

She contacted Channel 9’s Lori Brown after Brown told another veteran’s story about how she had to go elsewhere to get a similar treatment.

The treatment the VA is refusing was ordered by one of the VA’s own doctors.

When Vietnam War veteran Pamela Paddock saw Brown’s story about retired E4 specialist Dawn George, it sounded all too familiar.

“I think they need to stop playing with people’s lives,” said Paddock.

The VA refused to give George an MRI before giving her a lumpectomy, then the hospital refused to give her a biopsy.

The nonprofit Libby’s Legacy, which usually helps people with no insurance, stepped in to pay for both tests.

The tests revealed that George’s cancer was far more extensive than her doctors thought.

“When women would like to proceed with additional testing, it should not be denied to them,” said Dr. Susan Curry, of the Women’s Center for Radiology.
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Orlando VFW invaded by men in pink bras

Orlando VFW invaded by men in pink bras
Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
December 21, 2013

Semper Fidelis of America had their annual fundraiser Brothers In Bras at the VFW Post 4287 in Orlando last night. As usual it was a lot of fun. This fundraiser is for breast cancer and it is amazing what these veterans are willing to do for the women they love!


And then the weekly bingo game was invaded by men in pink bras.

Orlando veterans time to get out your pink bras

This is from last year
Dec 22, 2012

Semper Fidelis had their second fundraiser for breast cancer and men dressed up in their best pink bras to put on "support" for the effort. Great night and lots of laughs. Even Santa strapped one on.

UK Major in Afghanistan treated for breast cancer has dream wedding day

'My doctor says I am proof he can still be proved wrong':
Soldier, 39, is diagnosed with aggressive breast cancer after finding a lump while serving in Afghanistan
Jane Grant noticed a throbbing pain in her breast in December 2011
She then examined her breast and found a 'significant' lump
She spoke to her base's doctor and was flown to Camp Bastion
Had an agonising three day wait before she could be flown home
Was diagnosed with aggressive triple negative breast cancer
Had surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy at Birmingham's Queen Elizabeth Hospital and has now been cancer-free for a year
In June this year she married her fiancé, Tony, who is also in the army
By EMMA INNES
PUBLISHED:19 October 2013

A soldier has spoken of her relief at still being alive after developing breast cancer while serving in Afghanistan. Major Jane Grant, 39, had to be flown back to the UK after she found a painful lump in her left breast.

Jane was serving in Afghanistan when she noticed the lump in her breast.
She visited the doctor on her base in Lashkar Gah and
was immediately flown to hospital at Camp Bastion

When she arrived in Birmingham, she was diagnosed with grade three triple negative breast cancer which resulted in her having to have surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy.

Jane, from Camberley in Surrey, told MailOnline: ‘I am so lucky to be here that I am just determined to keep living.

‘Life is very precious to me now and I just take every day as it comes.’

Jane, who got engaged just months before her diagnosis, says that when she was in hospital she sat and looked at her engagement ring and realised that she had to survive because the thought of leaving her fiancé, Tony, was unbearable.

Jane, who has been in the army since 1997, first realised something was wrong when she developed a throbbing pain in her left breast in December 2011.

Jane Grant (pictured with her husband, Tony, on their wedding day in June), 39,
was diagnosed with triple negative breast cancer after finding a painful lump in her left breast

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Soldier dies of breast cancer, but her widow won’t get benefits

Soldier dies of breast cancer, but her widow won’t get benefits
Washington Post
Posted by Andrea Stone
February 10, 2013

Charlie Morgan didn’t get her last wish.

On Sunday morning, the New Hampshire National Guard soldier succumbed to Stage IV breast cancer after a long battle against the disease and a federal law that now leaves her widow with none of the benefits a grateful nation bestows on its straight warriors.

As I wrote here on Thanksgiving, Morgan, who came out as a lesbian on MSNBC in September 2011, the day the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy became history, hoped she would outlive the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). The Clinton-era law forbids Karen, her legally married wife, from receiving the survivor benefits other military widows get.

That money would have gone a long way toward helping raise their young daughter Casey. Just like the death benefits Charlie’s mother got when her soldier husband died in an accident during the Vietnam War went to pay for food and a roof for young Charlie.

“I’m praying that they take it up soon,” Morgan told me in a phone interview from her home in New Durham, N.H. a few days before Thanksgiving. “It’s my motivation for staying alive. I really need to be alive when they actually do overturn DOMA, otherwise Karen is not guaranteed anything.”
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Fort Hood Spouse of Year candidate battles cancer

Hood’s Spouse of the Year candidate battles cancer
By Erin Rogers
Sentinel Staff
FEBRUARY 7, 2013

Marily Considine has been named Fort Hood’s candidate for Military Spouse of the Year, a competition through Military Spouse Magazine, on Jan. 22, and she moved on to the all-Army competition against the winning candidates from Army installations worldwide, which took place on Feb. 5.

Marily will find out if she won the all-Army voting on Feb. 21, and if she wins there, she will go on to represent the Army against all other branches of the U.S. Armed Forces.

Considine was nominated for Military Spouse of the Year by her sister, who found out about the competition through Military Spouse Magazine, without warning or knowledge of the nomination.

Considine began volunteering with Susan G. Komen after the news of her own breast cancer diagnosis came in September of 2010, in the midst of being an Army wife, a mother and a teacher.
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Brothers in pink bras

Last night I went to meet up with friends and show support for some of Orlando's guys dressed up in their finest pink bras to raise funds for breast cancer sponsored by Semper Fidelis at the VFW Post 4287 along with members of the Orlando Nam Knights. Great cause and lots of fun.

Marines in Afghanistan raised more than $18,000 to fight breast cancer

Marines in Afghanistan take part in breast cancer 5K
SAN DIEGO

It isn’t much of a stretch to think that most of the pink-clad revelers at a Mira Mesa pub Saturday had little in common with the Marines in Afghanistan, but on Sunday they’ll share both a mission and a message.

Hours before an estimated 15,000 runners and walkers lace up their shoes for the 16th annual Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure in Balboa Park, more than 550 Marines at Camp Leatherneck in Helmand Province will do the same to raise money and awareness for breast cancer treatment and research.

Technically, the two races will happen on the same day — just with a 15-hour time difference.

Gunnery Sgt. Allan Anderson, a 28-year-old Camp Pendleton Marine now serving in Afghanistan, said he got the idea to organize a run at Camp Leatherneck in April when he took part in another Komen-related event at the base.

He decided he wanted to do something similar to benefit San Diego County residents.

Initially, he had hoped to recruit 50 runners and raise about $1,250. But by Thursday, more than 550 men and women had signed up for the race, making Camp Leatherneck’s team the largest linked to the San Diego event.

The Marines raised more than $18,000.
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Alarming breast cancer rates among troops

Alarming breast cancer rates among troops
Army Times
By Jon R. Anderson
Staff writer
Posted : Monday Oct 1, 2012

If you think breast cancer is just something for your grandmother, mom and aunts to worry about, think again. Not only is breast cancer striking relatively young military women at alarming rates, but male service members, veterans and their dependents are at risk, as well.

With their younger and generally healthier population, those in the military tend to have a lower risk for most cancers than civilians, including significantly lower colorectal, lung and cervical cancer rates in certain groups.

GET INVOLVED
As local installations roll out events in conjunction with National Breast Cancer Awareness Month — like the fun runs and walks this week at Fort Polk, La., and Shaw Air Force Base, S.C., and coming up Oct. 19 at Camp Lejeune, N.C. — we want to try an experiment. We’ve set up the MilTimes Boot Breast Cancer Facebook page in hopes of establishing a forum where military people affected by breast cancer can network, tell stories and get the word out about events — like the PCB Navy Diver Wives team raising money for Making Strides Against Breast Cancer on Oct. 27 in Panama City, Fla.

But breast cancer is a different story.

“Military people in general, and in some cases very specifically, are at a significantly greater risk for contracting breast cancer,” says Dr. Richard Clapp, a top cancer expert at Boston University. Clapp, who works for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on military breast cancer issues, says life in the military can mean exposure to a witch’s brew of risk factors directly linked to greater chances of getting breast cancer.

Indeed, in a 2009 study, doctors at Walter Reed Army Medical Center found that breast cancer rates among military women are “significantly higher” — that military women are 20 percent to 40 percent more likely to get the disease than other women in the same age groups.

Researchers point to a higher use of oral contraception — also linked to breast cancer — among military women as a possible culprit.
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Army doctor develops breast cancer vaccine

Army doctor develops breast cancer vaccine
By Michelle Tan - Staff writer
Posted : Monday Feb 13, 2012 13:05:59 EST
Kellie Trombitas fought through surgery and two rounds of chemotherapy for 10 long, difficult months before she was declared cancer-free Dec. 21.

But one thought always lingers in her mind.

“I hope it never comes back,” said Trombitas, the wife of Maj. Gen. Simeon Trombitas, commanding general of Army South at Fort Sam Houston, Texas. “That’s always on our minds. Thinking about doing all of this again is sometimes too much.”

Trombitas volunteered to join a worldwide clinical trial — being conducted by her doctor among others — for a breast cancer vaccine that could erase her fears for good. On Jan. 19, she became the first patient in the study, which is still looking for other volunteers.

Developed by Col. (Dr.) George Peoples, chief of surgical oncology at the San Antonio Military Medical Center, NeuVax is a vaccine that targets breast cancer patients who have been treated and are in remission. Its goal is to reduce or eliminate the risk of the cancer recurring.
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Breast and Prostate Cancers higher in military

Some cancer rates higher in military

By Kelly Kennedy - Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday Jul 22, 2009 14:14:01 EDT

A new study shows that while active-duty service members have lower rates of cancer overall than civilians, they have higher rates of breast cancer and double the rates of prostate cancer.

And though that could be attributed in part to early screening efforts, the authors suggested prostate cancer rates have gone up as a result of troop exposure to depleted uranium, while breast cancer rates may have risen because military women are more inclined to use birth control pills and be exposed to industrial chemicals at levels most civilian women avoid.

In the June edition of Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers & Prevention, lead writer Kangmin Zhu, of the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, and colleagues stated that they wanted to find out if regular exercise and good health care, combined with a population that had been screened for major health issues, would yield lower rates of cancer.
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Some cancer rates higher in military

Young soldier hit by breast cancer diagnosis

Young soldier hit by breast cancer diagnosis

By Susanne M. Schafer - The Associated Press
Posted : Saturday Aug 2, 2008 16:38:11 EDT

FORT JACKSON, S.C. — As a mother of three with no health insurance and a low-wage job, 32-year-old Brandielee Marendo was thrilled to get into the Army.

Last year, she entered basic training full of hopes for a career in computers and high-tech air defense. Then she found a small lump in her breast during the third week of basic training.

A diagnosis of Stage II breast cancer meant a bilateral mastectomy, chemotherapy and what could be years of follow-up medication. But it didn’t mean an immediate discharge.

Marendo is now assigned to Fort Jackson’s “Wounded Warrior Transition Unit,” one of 35 outfits for injured soldiers recuperating from combat, training injuries or any illness that keeps them from serving in their normal units.

“Just because I have this illness doesn’t mean in any way, shape or form that life stops along the way,” Marendo said recently as she sat in a military hospital with her weekly dose of medication flowing into a stent in her chest.
go here for more
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/08/ap_basictrainingcancer_080208/

Is your life insurance as good as you think it is?

Man questions law after wife's death payout denied
Seeks change in burden of proof

Associated Press / May 12, 2008
ASHLAND - When Jenny and John Crowley learned they were having a baby, they did the responsible thing: They bought life insurance.


Barely in their 30s, they passed the insurance company's physicals, applied for a $500,000 policy for Jenny and a $1 million policy for John, and thought they would not have to worry about it for decades.

The Savings Bank Life Insurance Co. of Massachusetts was so taken with the Crowleys, the company used a photograph of their newborn daughter swaddled in a yellow blanket on the cover of one of its brochures.

Just one year later, Jenny was dead of an aggressive form of breast cancer, and when John tried to start his life anew as a single father, the company rejected his claim for it to pay his wife's policy.

The company said that even though doctors said Jenny was healthy, she must have been sick before they agreed to insure her.

"I took solace in the fact that I had this life insurance policy that was designed to protect me financially. Without that, it put a lot of stress on me," John Crowley said. "Financially, I was thinking about how am I going to care for my daughter, how am I going to be a mom and a dad? It's a very rough and kind of scary situation."

Now Crowley is pushing for a change in Massachusetts law that would force an insurer to prove a person misrepresented his well-being or should have known he was not in good health based on "active symptoms of a serious change in health" in order to deny a claim. Under current standards, the responsibility rests with the insured person to prove he didn't know he was ill.

The company, which has since settled with Crowley, acknowledges that it changed its own policy several months ago and is now supporting Crowley in his fight for the legislation, dubbed "Jenny's Law."
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