Missing In America Group finds, buries remains of forgotten veterans

The remains of four war veterans are saluted by a military guard during a ceremony with full military honors at the Vermont Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Randolph , Vt., Friday, Nov. 7, 2008. The remains were located by the Missing in America Project , a national nonprofit organization dedicated to identifying and honoring the unclaimed remains of American veterans. (AP Photo/Toby Talbot)

Group finds, buries remains of forgotten veterans
The Associated Press
By WILSON RING

RANDOLPH, Vt. (AP) — In World War II, Samuel Mazur was a tail gunner on a B-17 bomber that flew over Europe.

Three decades later, he died of cancer — with no family at his side — at a Veterans Administration hospital in Vermont. His cremated remains were sent to a funeral home, where they were placed on a shelf and forgotten.

"He had an interesting life," said Euclid Farnham, who knew him. "He really did not have anyone."

Until last week.

On Friday, Mazur got full military honors and was laid to rest along with three other forgotten veterans as part of the Missing in America Project, a volunteer organization that seeks to identify and honor the unclaimed remains of American veterans.

There was no family, but there were dozens of leather-clad, motorcycle-riding veterans at the Vermont Veterans' Memorial Cemetery, and a military honor guard.

"The recognition of their service transcends their death, and in places like this cemetery, we will continue to devote ourselves to their cause," retired U.S. Army Col. Joseph Krawczyk said during the ceremony.

In two years, the group's volunteers have visited 592 funeral homes, found 6,327 sets of unclaimed remains, identified 491 of them as belonging to veterans and interred 325, said Bruce Turner, the Vermont coordinator.

The Department of Veterans Affairs supports the effort.

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One of the Chaplains in my group out of Broward County Florida is a memeber of Missing in America as well. When I first heard about this, I was shocked that the remains of so many veterans have just been left on the shelf, unclaimed. We are deeply grateful this group is there working to insure that all veterans are provided with a proper military burial.

Honoring our veterans takes more than words

JOHN MURTHA Honoring our veterans takes more than words

BY JOHN MURTHA
The Tribune-Democrat

Veterans Day is a time to honor those Americans who answered the call to service and who proudly fought to defend our freedoms.

America owes an immeasurable debt to each of the 23.4 million veterans alive today, including the tens-of-thousands living right here in southwestern Pennsylvania.

Honoring our veterans means more than just words and speeches.

For Congress, it means putting our money where our mouth is and fully funding the Veterans Administration. It means ensuring that our veterans have first-class health care and providing them with access to jobs and higher education.

For too long, the Veterans Administration was under-funded and unable to adequately meet the needs of our veterans. We’ve changed that over the past few years.

The Democratic Congress has made an unprecedented commitment to our nation’s veterans by passing the largest spending increase in the 77-year history of the Veterans Administration – a record $16 billion increase in just two years.

For the 5.8 million veterans in the VA health-care system, this increase provides for the hiring of an additional 15,000 VA health-care workers, including 1,700 new doctors and 6,450 nurses.

This means better care, more services, and shorter wait times.

The Veterans Administration will also hire more than 5,200 new caseworkers to reduce the significant backlog in the claims processing system, which will help our veterans get their earned benefits faster.

For the first time since 1979, when gasoline cost less than $1 per gallon, Congress increased the veterans’ mileage reimbursement rate from 11 cents to 41.5 cents per mile.

Veterans in our area who are forced to travel to Pittsburgh or Altoona for care will now be more fairly reimbursed for their travel.

Congress also provided significant research, treatment, and counseling funds for Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

It is estimated that more than 300,000 of our returning troops will suffer from these mental-health problems, and we provided over $1.2 billion in just the past two years to take care of these injuries.

We have seen a dramatic increase in suicides in the wake of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Congress passed legislation directing the Veterans Administration to develop a comprehensive suicide prevention program which includes access to mental-health staff and a 24-hour toll-free suicide prevention hotline.

Already some 30,000 veterans, family members and friends have used the hotline, and it has helped to prevent more than 1,200 suicides.

Also this year, Congress passed a new 21st Century GI Education Bill to benefit our service members who have served since Sept. 11, 2001.

The new GI Bill funds a full, four-year public university tuition, provides a monthly living expense, and allows service members to transfer unused educational benefits to their spouse and children.

I was given the opportunity to attend college under the G.I. Bill, and I believe it is our responsibility to ensure that America’s next generation of veterans receives the same higher educational benefits.

Over the past two years, the Democratic Congress has put its money where its mouth is.

The new Congress and President Obama will continue to provide our veterans with the services and benefits worthy of their courage and sacrifice.

On this Veterans Day, let us remember the sacrifices of millions of Americans who answered our nation’s call to service.

While we can never fully repay the debt of gratitude we owe to the men and women who put on the uniform, we can and will work to fulfill our promise of taking care of each and every veteran.

We owe them no less.



U.S. Rep. John Murtha,

D-Johnstown, is chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense.
http://www.tribune-democrat.com/local/local_story_315221830.html

PTSD linked to increased heart death risk

PTSD linked to increased heart death risk
Published: Nov. 10, 2008 at 9:29 PM

MUNICH, Germany, Nov. 10 (UPI) -- Patients with cardiac defibrillators may have a higher death risk if they have post-traumatic stress disorder, German researchers said.

Dr. Karl-Heinz Ladwig of Technische Universitaet Muenchen in Germany and Helmholtz Zentrum National Research Center for Environmental Health in Neuherberg, Germany, and colleagues studied 211 patients who had received implantable cardiac defibrillators -- devices that administer shocks to help restore normal heartbeat -- following a heart event in 1998. Participants were surveyed an average of 27 months after implantation and 38 reported severe PTSD symptoms.

During the average follow-up period of five years, 45 of the patients, or 30.6 percent, died.
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DHL devastates Wilmington Ohio with huge layoffs

DHL job cuts devastate Ohio community
Residents in Wilmington, Ohio, knew DHL was going to cut jobs, but Monday's confirmation that the company's hub there is going to close has delivered a devastating blow to the community.
"They're taking away everything from me -- my family, my friends, this whole town," says a weeping Sherry Barrett, one of more than 8,000 DHL employees facing layoffs. full story

Homeless PTSD Vietnam Vet Helped To Heal Because A Stranger Cared

Richard Miley came back from Vietnam, ended up homeless and waiting to die until a stranger saw him, made the effort to stop instead of just driving by him. Because someone cared, Miley is not only alive and healing, the mystery of his time in Vietnam is finally being told and he's a decorated Vietnam Veteran Purple Heart, Bronze Star and Meritorious Unit Commendation. Back then he was Capt. Richard Miley. Today, he's a veteran who was saved because a stranger cared.

Vietnam vet struggles to reclaim his identity - and his life
Grand Junction Sentinel - Grand Junction,CO,USA
Monday, November 10, 2008

Story by MIKE SACCONE

When doctors told Richard Miley in the spring of 1981 the bone cancer in his left leg was going to kill him, he made up his mind.

He was ready to die but not in a hospital.

With death looming, Miley, a Vietnam War veteran stricken with post-traumatic stress disorder and amnesia, hitchhiked and walked as he had for years from his cave outside Estes Park to Mount Wilson, a stunning 14,000-foot peak in the San Juan mountain range southwest of Telluride.

“Basically, I had gone there to die,” Miley said. “I had the cancer of the bone, in my left leg, and I went up there, found me a fine pine tree and just laid there.”

Though Miley had never set out to die before, he had undertaken similar treks since the mid-1970s, living in caves and surviving off the land and what little money he could make working odd jobs every summer in the state’s resort or orchard communities.

He had lived in the wilderness since 1974 when he left behind a house in Loveland and a job, helping turn around failing Village Inn restaurants around the region.

Since returning from Vietnam in 1970, the stress of his two years at war had slowly whittled away his memory and desire to live around other people. Within the span of less than half a decade, Miley had transformed from a proud veteran into an ambling husk that could hardly recall much of the man he was.

However, Miley’s final trek — or what should have been his last — ended early when mine owner Bob Milner drove by the destitute veteran, who had propped himself up on an old wooden fence along a jeep road.

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Missouri guardsman wrestles with post-traumatic stress disorder

Donnie Hoffman works in the main kitchen of Harry S. Truman Memorial Veterans' Hospital on Nov. 6, 2008. Hoffman is a veteran of the current Iraq war. ¦ ANGIE CIPPONERI/Missourian

Missouri guardsman wrestles with post-traumatic stress disorder
Columbia Missourian - Columbia,MO,USA

BY Jordan Novet

Monday, November 10, 2008 2:11 p.m. CST

COLUMBIA — One Thursday afternoon last month, Donnie Hoffmann was washing dishes in the basement of Harry S. Truman Memorial Veterans' Hospital.

It had already been a long day. But it was nothing like his days in Iraq.

He wasn't stuck in long-sleeve camouflage on a journey aboard a Humvee driving through 145-degree air. Or on a disturbing search-and-recovery mission amid the remains of the bombing of Baghdad's U.N. headquarters. Or coming home to a flooded tent.

No, he was only doing dishes.

The task is one of a number of duties Hoffmann, 26, performs in the local Veteran Affairs' main kitchen eight hours a day, 40 hours a week. His work is part of a VA program called Compensation Work Therapy, which offers veterans a place to sleep, the opportunity to work and the help they need.

And Hoffmann, who enlisted in the Missouri National Guard in 2001 just before graduating from Crocker High School near Iberia, appreciates the help.

Since 2004, when he came back from Iraq — where he volunteered with the 203rd Engineer Battalion (Combat Heavy), building, cleaning and traveling in convoys in Baghdad and Najaf — he has been tormented by post-traumatic stress disorder.
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Physically whole but mentally torn: Veteran with PTSD

Memories of this come back.

A car bomb in Iraq

A car fire here

When they drive down a road here, they can remember there. When they hear a loud noise, they can remember them back there. It all comes back when they least expect it. This is what a flashback does. It takes them back to where their lives were in danger.

Physically whole but mentally torn: Veteran with post traumatic ...
KTKA.com - Topeka,KS,USA

Story by Mike Belt

12 a.m. Tuesday, November 11, 2008

There are certain roads Ted Lawyer won’t drive on when he’s alone. They remind him of roads in Iraq.

Driving under bridges also makes him nervous.

So do crowds. If Lawyer can’t avoid a crowd he tries to stay on its fringe.

And Lawyer has an anger problem. There have been times he’s gotten upset with other drivers so he followed them for several blocks, honking his horn and yelling at them. And he went home from work a few times because of his anger.

“I do anything I can to avoid a conflict with someone,” Lawyer said. “At the same time, if you do something to show disrespect or make me feel like I’ve got to fight, then it’s full game on. I go from flight to fight instantly.”

Lawyer, a Lawrence resident, hasn’t been the same mentally or physically since he returned from serving a year in Iraq with the Kansas Army National Guard. At age 57, Lawyer, then a 1st sergeant, arrived in Iraq in September 2005 with Headquarters and Headquarters Battery of the 1st Battalion, 127th Field Artillery. His company included 150 soldiers. Among their duties was providing security for top U.S. commanders and diplomats.

During the two years since he returned stateside, Lawyer has been diagnosed as having post traumatic stress disorder and various physical problems, including daily headaches and back, leg and neck pain. He’s had flashbacks and blackouts. A few weeks ago, a diagnosis of traumatic brain injury was added to the already-long list.

Lawyer is undergoing outpatient treatment for PTSD and taking part in physical therapy at Colmery-O’Neil Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Topeka. It all helps, he said. And he thinks he is making progress.

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Watch Hero After War on the side bar of this blog under my videos. You'll understand it more.

President Elect Obama sits in Oval Office for first time

Wouldn't you love to be a fly on that wall?

President Bush and President-elect Obama spoke in the Oval Office Monday. White House photo by Eric Draper

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http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/

Obama to take office amid deep public pessimism
On the day that President-elect Barack Obama visited the White House, a new national poll illustrates the daunting challenges he faces when it becomes his home next year. Only 16 percent of those questioned in a new CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released today say things are going well in the country today. That's an all-time low. full story

Vietnam Veterans of America and Veterans of Modern Warfare sue over VA claim problems

Vets file suit over slow VA claims processing

By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Monday Nov 10, 2008 13:20:43 EST

Two veterans’ groups have filed a suit in an effort to get a federal court to order interim benefits for veterans if a claim for disability compensation takes longer than 90 days to be processed.

Vietnam Veterans of America and Veterans of Modern Warfare want an interim payment equal to what is paid for a 30 percent disability rating — between $356 and $497 a month, depending on the number of dependents — if an initial claim takes more than 90 days or an appeal of a denied claim takes longer than 180 days.

The suit, filed Monday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, is an attempt to use the federal court system to tackle the Department of Veterans Affairs claims processing bureaucracy, said Robert Cattanach, one of the attorneys handling the case.

VA officials had no immediate comment. Spokesman Phil Budahn said VA officials learned about the suit only after it was filed, and are working on a response.

“Veterans need prompt action and they need it now,” Cattanach said. “The Department of Veterans Affairs is failing miserably.”
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Church burnt down in Springfield MA possible hate crime

Congregation of Destroyed Church Moves Forward
By Justine Judge
Story Published: Nov 9, 2008 at 6:31 PM EST

Story Updated: Nov 9, 2008 at 9:05 PM EST

Mass was on as usual on Sunday at Macedonia Church of God in Christ, but the prayers and tone was much different.

Many of the parishioners, still trying to understand why their new church was burned to the ground.

Parishioner Aliesha Patterson says, "All of the church is coming together and we are basically holding up the people who are really have a hard time with it."

But many are taking the que from Bishop Bryant Robinson.

Parishioner Sharon Patterson says, "It is devastating what happened but like I said we must go on and we can't let things get us down."

Like many of the church's youth, Aliesha Patterson has worked hard to fulfill the dream of a new church.

Patterson says everyone worked together to raise money through donations, functions and dinners held at their current church on King Street.

Officials are not saying whether or not the fire is the outcome of a hate crime but the timing has left many suspicious.

Aliesha Patterson says, "It's the thought of somebody being so cruel and burning down somebody's church and if it was because of Obama then it's a hate crime and all but it's just the thought period that hurts and it doesn't matter who did it as far as race or the person you are it's just the fact of burning down somebody's church because your upset."

Bishop Bryant Robinson says, "Our faith is our evidence it's our faith and we're going to rebuild it

Authorities are asking anyone with information on this fire to call the arson hotline at 1-800-682-9229.

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http://www.cbs3springfield.com/news/local/34176689.html

linked from RawStory