SC veterans, father and son, battle COVID-19 together
WBTV News
By Jason Raven
May 29, 2020
COLUMBIA, S.C. (WIS) - Thomas Bowman Jr. said in early April he began feeling under the weather.
Thankfully, both men have been released from the hospital and have made full recoveries. (Source: Family photo)
He originally thought it was his chronic sinusitis acting up. But on April 5, he began feeling worse and his symptoms were getting severe.
“The symptoms of COVID-19 had begun forming in my lungs. Headaches. Shortness of breath,” he said.
Bowman Jr. -- a Marine Corps veteran -- was admitted to the VA Hospital in Columbia. Bowman had pneumonia in his lungs and a high fever. He tested positive for COVID-19.
When he was talking with doctors, he remembered he had visited his mother and father a few days before he started to feel ill.
“Bowman Jr. had recently cut his own grass and his mother and father’s grass. He was very concerned they could possibly contract this illness,” Dr. Amy Lucas at the VA Hospital in Columbia said.
Bowman Jr. followed his father’s footsteps when he joined the United States Marine Corps. Now Thomas Bowman Sr., a Vietnam War veteran, followed his son’s footsteps when he also tested positive for COVID-19 and found himself hospitalized. read it here
Decorated combat vet who died highlights pandemic's effect on mental health
CBS News
By JAN CRAWFORD
May 28, 2020
"So when the lockdown did happen, it stripped him from everything he knew," Franciose told CBS News. "He couldn't do his public speaking. He couldn't go to school, to his outlet away from his own mind."
Washington — Rory Hamill was a father of three and a decorated combat veteran in the Marines. Hamill lost his life not at war — but in a growing mental health crisis that's being made worse by the deadliest public health crisis in a century. Hamill was one of many veterans who've been suffering.
"He was a hero to many people," Kristal Franciose said of her ex-husband, Marine Corporal Rory Hamill. A blast from an IED in Afghanistan in 2011 robbed him of his right leg. Hamill had a hard road home.
"A lot of the thoughts going through my head were, 'Why didn't I die?' What am I going to do now with my life?'" He told "60 Minutes" in 2015. read it here
I wrote about Rory's suicide with a broken heart. Isolation sucks for people like him who have devoted their lives to help others. Knowing what pain is and what hope offers is not something easily walked away from.
I know because I have been doing it since 1982 and could not walk away no matter how many times I wanted to. Not doing what I believe I was put on this earth to do, rips me apart everyday. I keep wondering what else I can do to replace what I can no longer do, and at the end of the day, I do not go to sleep with the peace of knowing I did the best I could. Sure I know that these are unusual times and groups endanger the lives of others, but the human contact is vital, especially now.
If you are a veteran or family member, reach out to those willing and ready to help you. Find help that is out there! Use your phone or email. Find us, because if you are hurting, so are we because you are!
Email me at woundedtimes@aol.com or call me 407-754-7526.
Soldier's lost letter from Vietnam War finds its way home 52 years later
WHAS 11 News
Heather Fountaine
May 28, 2020
NORTH VERNON, Ind. — A five page letter from a soldier to his sister landed in the mailbox of North Vernon, Indiana’s Janice Tucker last week. The envelope was postmarked May 10, 2020, but the words written inside were from Vietnam in 1968.
“It begins with 'Hi sis. I just read your letter, wow.' And I'm thinking, I have a sister that lives in Jeffersonville and I didn't send her a letter,” laughed Tucker, confused by what she had received.
As she started reading, she realized it was a note from her brother, William Lone, talking about his time serving in the Vietnam War.
“So, I called my brother. He lives in South Carolina. I read the letter to him and he said, ‘I remember writing that letter to you.’”
“I was in the field where you’re out there sleeping in tents,” Lone described.
He said he had sealed the envelope and put a .05 cent stamp in the corner before handing it to another soldier to deliver the letter to his sister who was 17-years-old at the time.
“Janice was still at home then, so it was going to go to Floyds Knobs, Indiana.” Or at least, it was supposed to.
The delivery was delayed for decades, more than half a century in fact. read it here
Marine infantry recruit drops 186 pounds to make it to boot camp
STARS AND STRIPES
By IMMANUEL JOHNSON
Published: May 28, 2020
Gabriel Ramirez spent his childhood dreaming of being a Marine, but that dream seemed unattainable as a 365-pound teen nicknamed “Meatball.”
Gabriel Mendez Ramirez lost 186 pounds on his way to becoming a Marine recruit. Ramirez, from Oceanside, Calif., graduated from Rancho Buena Vista High School last year and recently headed to boot camp.
BERNADETTE PLOUFFE/U.S. MARINE CORPS
This week, Ramirez, 18, was on his way to boot camp, 186 pounds lighter.
At the end of Ramirez’s sophomore year at Rancho Buena Vista High School in California, Marine recruiter Staff Sgt. Anna Rodrigues spoke to his class and later asked him about his interests.
“The kids I talk to, one thing I look for is heart,” Rodrigues said in a phone interview Wednesday. “I am looking for someone that won’t quit and will accept the challenge.” read it here
There is no way of sugar coating it. Life sucks right now! Over 100,000 Americans died because of a pandemic and over a million have been infected. Over 40 million are unemployed now, businesses are closing for good and states struggle to figure out how to reopen things the best way possible. Too many people have dismissed the guidelines of how to stop the spread and only seem to care about enjoying themselves without regarding the other people in their lives they deliver the infection to.
Yes, things suck right now if you only look at what is wrong. Yet if you look at the flip side of all of this, there are many good things going on because people wondered what they could do to make life better for others.
People are stepping up and showing up, in whatever way they can. One of them is Dolly Parton.