Fallen Marine given hero’s homecoming

Fallen Marine given hero’s homecoming

The plane containing the body of Marine Cpl. Jeffrey Johnson arrives at the Tomball Jet Center Tuesday. Johnson died in the line of duty in Afghanistan May 11, killed by an IED in a province where some of the worst fighting with the Taliban rages. He was 21 years old.

Motorcycles from the Patriot Guard Riders accompany the motorcade from the Tomball Jet Center to the Klein funeral home as onlookers pay their respects to Corporal Jeffrey Johnson in Tomball on Tuesday May 18, 2010

By Anna Schumann
Updated: 05.18.10
One week after losing his life in Afghanistan, Marine Cpl. Jeffrey Johnson was welcomed home to Tomball for the last time.

Johnson was killed May 11 by an improvised explosive device while serving foot patrol in Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan. He was on his second tour of duty.

The 2007 graduate of Waller High School enlisted in July 2007. He was described by the Waller ISD superintendent as outstanding and courageous.

More than 100 Patriot Guard Riders held flags and saluted as the plane carrying Johnson’s casket arrived.

The plane landed near David Wayne Hooks Memorial Airport at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday.
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Fallen Marine given hero homecoming

Veterans in politics need to prove what they say after election

When it's time for elections, being a veteran seems to really matter. As with the case of Joe Sestak winning the Democratic Primary from Arlen Speckter, the used to be Republican Senator from Pennsylvania.

Joe Sestak: From Navy Admiral to Dragon Slayer
Patricia Murphy
Columnist
When Rep. Joe Sestak (D-Pa.), the Navy admiral-turned-congressman, defeated 30-year incumbent Arlen Specter in Pennsylvania's Democratic Senate primary Tuesday night, it was the second time in his short political career that he had knocked out a better-known incumbent. Four years earlier, Sestak bested Rep. Curt Weldon, beating the Republican incumbent by nearly 13 points to take the seat representing Pennsylvania's 7th Congressional district in Congress.

Two men who know what it is like to serve this country. One from the Navy and the other from the Air Force.

Specter studied first at the University of Oklahoma. He transferred to the University of Pennsylvania, majored in International Relations, and graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1951. During the Korean War, he served stateside in the United States Air Force as an officer within the Air Force Office of Special Investigations from 1951 to 1953
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arlen_Specter

We can also see that it is important when they claim to be something they were not, even by mistake in the heat of the moment.

Campaign in Damage Control Over ‘a Few Misplaced Words’

By DAVID M. HALBFINGER and JAMES BARRON
Published: May 18, 2010

HARTFORD — Attorney General Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, a Democrat running for the United States Senate, said on Tuesday that he took “full responsibility” for saying he had served in Vietnam when he actually had received five military deferments before enlisting in the Marine Reserve, enabling him to avoid combat overseas.


His mea culpa, broadcast live on national television, was hastily arranged by Mr. Blumenthal’s campaign and national Democratic aides in an effort to put out a political fire that some party officials had worried could imperil his candidacy.

“On a few occasions I have misspoken about my service, and I regret that and I take full responsibility,” Mr. Blumenthal said at a packed news conference at a Veterans of Foreign Wars post in West Hartford. “But I will not allow anyone to take a few misplaced words and impugn my record of service to our country.”

Mr. Blumenthal, 64, said he had been unaware of what he called “those misplaced words” when he delivered them. He said that the errors were “totally unintentional” and that he had made them only a few times in hundreds of public appearances.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/19/nyregion/19reax.html?src=me

What I totally fail to understand is, why aren't they all important to us all year around? We all seem to have fallen into the habit of assumption when it comes to veterans. We simply assume they will take care of other veterans, but as we look up the voting records of a lot of veterans in Congress, we see when their votes are with veterans or against them. No matter who wins in these elections, we have to measure them by what they actually do against what they claim to want to do.

Carson GI cited for preventing suicide in Iraq

Carson GI cited for preventing suicide in Iraq

The Associated Press
Posted : Tuesday May 18, 2010 14:00:51 EDT

FORT CARSON, Colo. — A Fort Carson soldier has been awarded the Meritorious Service Medal for preventing a buddy’s suicide in Iraq.

The Army says Spc. Albert Godding removed the firing pin from his buddy’s rifle after noting he was feeling down because his wife was leaving him and he had several months left in his deployment.

The Army says the other soldier tried to kill himself with his rifle later that day, but it wouldn’t fire without the pin.

Godding was presented the award at Fort Polk, La., where he was training with Fort Carson’s 4th Brigade Combat Team to deploy to Afghanistan.

The Army says the buddy got counseling, and has been promoted to corporal and now is engaged.

Godding and the other soldier were based at Fort Drum, N.Y., at the time.
Carson GI cited for preventing suicide in Iraq

Two Sentenced in $2 Million Scheme to Defraud Department of Veterans Affairs

I have a feeling that every other claims service officer with the DAV is cheering this. They are dedicated to making sure disabled veterans are taken care of and when someone decides the system is fair game, it is repulsive to them. They see the worst kind of suffering our veterans go through and they work very hard to help them with their claims as well as provide emotional support.

Department of Justice Press Release

For Immediate Release
May 17, 2010 United States Attorney's Office
Western District of Kentucky
Contact: (502) 582-5911
Two Sentenced in $2 Million Scheme to Defraud Department of Veterans Affairs

LOUISVILLE—Thomas Darrell Bryant, age 39, of LeRoy, West Virginia, and Joe Davis Snooks, Jr., age 62, of Roundhill, Kentucky, were each sentenced to one year and one day in prison, in United States District Court, Louisville, Kentucky, for participating in a scheme to defraud the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) through the filing of fraudulent military disability claims, United States Attorney David J. Hale of the Western District of Kentucky announced today.

Jennifer B. Coffman, Judge, United States District Court, also sentenced Bryant and Snooks to three years’ supervised release following incarceration. There is no parole in the federal judicial system. In addition, restitution in the amount of $191,853.67 was imposed against Bryant, and restitution in the amount of $141,732 was imposed against Snooks.

Co-defendant Daniel Ryan Parker, who was sentenced to 68 months’ imprisonment in April, was the National Service Office Supervisor for the Disabled American Veterans Service Organization (DAV) in Louisville, Kentucky, and one of Parker’s responsibilities was to assist veterans in their pursuit of military related disability benefits. Co-defendant Jeffrey Allen McGill, who was also sentenced to 68 months’ imprisonment in April, was a Veteran Service Representative with the VA regional office in Louisville, Kentucky, and among other things McGill was responsible for reviewing and rating VA disability claims.

Parker and McGill admitted that between November 2003 and November 2008, they recruited friends, relatives, and acquaintances who were military veterans, including Bryant and Snooks, to file false and fraudulent disability claims with the VA. Parker and McGill either altered the veterans' medical records, or created counterfeit medical records, to give the appearance that the veterans had service related disabilities, resulting in the veterans receiving fraudulent disability benefits for alleged problems such as hearing loss, depression or cancer.

When the VA approves a disability claim, it pays benefits dating back to the original date the claim was received. In addition to falsifying medical records, Parker and McGill also admitted that they fraudulently backdated claims, resulting in large fraudulent lump sum retroactive disability payments, which in several instances were over $60,000. The veterans who participated in the scheme paid kickbacks to Parker and McGill, usually two-thirds of their lump sum payments. In return, the participating veterans kept the monthly tax free disability payments they would have received for the remainder of their lives. The scheme resulted in losses of nearly $2 million before it was discovered.

Co-defendants Dean Anthony Toth and Daniel Joseph Milliner have also pleaded guilty and are scheduled to be sentenced by Judge Coffman in Louisville on July 17, 2010.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys David R. Weiser and Robert Kilmartin, and it was investigated by the Department of Veterans Affairs, Office of the Inspector General, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

I am a life member of the DAV Auxiliary because I believe in the work they do. My husband is also a life member of the DAV. We have close friends who are also members. One more point to make is that I was also elected the DAV Chapter 16 Auxiliary Chaplain for 2010-11. Yes, I'm bias because I know the majority of the people with the DAV are dedicated to disabled veterans and not to fakes and frauds manipulating the system. (I do not speak for the DAV or the Auxiliary, I speak only for myself. It would be great if a reporter would contact the DAV National Headquarters and find out what they think about all of this.)

In concussion's wake, sadness and anxiety thrive

It is always amazing to me to see how far science has come since the first time I faced death, it was at the age of 4 and it was with what they call traumatic brain injury now. I was on a slide at a drive-in movie. I slipped away from my older brothers and headed right for the "big kids" slide I was not supposed to be on without one of them with me. When I got to the top, I was frightened and as I looked down, trying to find the nerve to push, a kid behind me decided to do it for me. Too much strength on one side, he ended up pushing me over the side. Head first onto concrete did not have a pleasant outcome. I passed out, my scull was cracked and I had a concussion. Back then the tech reading the X-Ray read it wrong and I was sent home. It was not until the next day when my eyelid swelled shut that my parents had their first clue how lucky I was to still be alive. We took a trip to the children's hospital where another X-Ray showed the damage and I was admitted for a week for observation.

Needless to say my parents always used that injury to explain some of the odd things I did and how I had a hard time with certain things but ended up excelling at things girls just were not supposed to be good at. I could take apart anything and put it back together but I couldn't learn how to spell right. I had a speech problem I had to see a therapist for and I had a lot of headaches. After it happened most of what followed was later forgotten about because I healed and was able to function. To this day I wonder how much of what became a part of me was due to this one horrible night in my life when I was so young.

Now there are so many advances and scientist understand a lot more than even they thought they would learn about the brain.

In concussion's wake, sadness and anxiety thrive

May 18, 2010 | 11:09 am
In the year following a traumatic brain injury, roughly half of survivors likely experience a bout of clinical depression -- a rate almost eight times higher than that found in the general population, says a study published Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Assn. And those whose head trauma was followed by depression reported significantly more pain, greater mobility problems and more difficulty carrying out their usual responsibilities than those who were not plagued by post-injury depression.

Traumatic brain injury, or TBI, is sometimes called concussion. Often called the "silent epidemic," it affects some 1.5 million Americans yearly. Its symptoms are often subtle -- including personality changes, problems of memory and concentration, headaches and mood disturbances. While for most, the effects of a head trauma will clear within a year, many have more lasting effects. For at least 80,000 people a year, major disability will follow.

The 559 participants in this study had all come to a trauma center in the Seattle area with a head injury, signs of brain trauma that could be detected by a CT scan, and at least a few complications -- including loss of consciousness, disorientation or other factors that qualified them as scoring at most a 13 on the 15-point Glasgow Coma scale. Over the next six months, and then again at eight, 10 and 12 months after the participant's injury, researchers conducted a detailed telephone interview to gauge his or her mood state and ability to function. The result, said the researchers, was likely to yield a conservative picture of how many suffered from depression.
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Seminole Behavioral Healthcare teaching Mental Health First Aid

Seminole Behavioral Healthcare is offering this again. I took the class a couple of months ago and it was wonderful. (Even I learned something there considering I spend so much time tracking it all day.) This is a unique opportunity to go places few will ever have to go so they understand what life is like for a survivor of trauma. It's a whole new world for them. It will also help you understand the types of trauma dictate how you need to approach the people you are trying to help heal.

Combat veterans have the toughest job of healing because of the severity of their traumas and duration. Then, cops. These people are not just survivors of the traumatic events, they are participants in them because of their jobs. Different traumas, different needs, different ways to help them. This is a great course to take.

Mental Health First Aid was created by Professor Anthony Jorm, a respected mental health literacy professor, and Betty Kitchener, a nurse specializing in health education. The program is auspiced at the ORYGEN Research Center at the University of Melbourne, Australia. Four detailed studies have been completed in Australia and nearly a dozen journal articles published on Mental Health First Aid’s impact on mental health literacy. One trial of 301 randomized participants found that those who trained in Mental Health First Aid have greater confidence in providing help to others, greater likelihood of advising people to seek professional help, improved concordance with health professionals about treatments, and decreased stigmatizing attitudes.

To date, Mental Health First Aid has been replicated in England, Scotland, Finland, Canada, Hong Kong, Ireland, Wales and Singapore. In the US, we truly value the supporting evidence and strive to achieve fidelity to the original Mental Health First Aid program developed in Australia. In the next ten years, we hope that Mental Health First Aid in the US will become as common as CPR and First Aid training. It has the potential to reduce stigma, improve mental health literacy, and empower individuals — the benefits are limitless!

In order to become certified in Mental Health First Aid, you must attend a 12 hour course endorsed by the National Council for Behavioral Healthcare. In order to find out more about upcoming classes, simply click the "Help/Contact" button to the left of this page, or call (407) 831-2411 X1206. There is still room available in our June class!
go here for more
http://seminoleceu.org/mental-health-first-i-9.html

Police tranquilize animals but shoot veterans?

Nothing against the police officers in this country because they can only use what they have and respond with the only training they have, but there is something really wrong in this country when they have the ability to call in back up if needed to tranquilize an animal instead of killing it or call in someone to trap an alligator, but they have to shoot a traumatized veteran. They have shot tranquilizers into bears for heaven's sake why not veterans?

A sign outside the home of Kenneth Yeager in rural Weld County warns visitors. Yeager lived in the underground house in the background. He was shot and killed by police early Sunday morning in Evans.

Rural Weld man killed in standoff with police was a Vietnam vet, loner
Mike Peters
WEST OF GROVER — From all indications, Kenneth Yeager wanted to be left alone.

The 60-year-old Vietnam veteran, apparently suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, was shot to death early Sunday morning after he had a confrontation at a truck stop, then pointed a gun at police who were trying to convince him to give up.

An investigation is under way, and four SWAT team members — from the Weld County Sheriff's Office, Greeley police and Firestone police — are on paid leave pending the results.

Although Yeager's hometown was listed as Grover, he lived about 15 miles west of town, on the plains, in an underground home with a sign out front that warned anyone who ventured near:
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Man killed in standoff with police was a Vietnam vet

Operation Stolen Valor or slam the veterans by ABC?

ABC has nine stories up on the site. Nine. Taken into account all the reports that have come out over the last few years, there are so few it makes my head spin when I see what kind of attention these reports are getting instead of reporting on real veterans, real heroes with real need for the VA to honor their claims and get them into treatment. Where are those stories?

Operation Stolen Valor
The VA says it's in the midst of a crackdown on phony military heroes.

Michael David Heit: For four months, Heit deceived the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Spokane, Wash., claiming he suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. He claimed he was a Vietnam veteran who had been a prisoner of war for more than three years and had received mutiple medals, including a Purple Heart, Silver Star and Bronze Star. He actually never served in Vietnam, was never a POW and had never been awarded those medals of valor. He pleaded guilty on Thursday and is scheduled for sentencing in December. (U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Office of Inspector General)

Reggie Lee Buddle: A real Army vet, Buddle claimed he had served and earned the rank of captain in the United States Marine Corps. He also boasted a chestful of medals, including the Defense Distinguished Service Medal, the Combat Action Ribbon, the Presidential Unit Citation, the Vietnam Service Medal and the United States Marine Corps Gold Jump Wings. Buddle also claimed to be a Marine Corps chaplain, officiating over weddings, baptisms and funerals. In fact, Buddle was never in the Marine Corps, never earned those medals and wasn't a chaplain. He pleaded guilty in April and was sentenced to 500 hours of community service. (U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Office of Inspector General)

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/slideshow?id=3631778

There also these

Army alerts feds of possible Stolen Valor case
By Brendan McGarry - Staff writer
Posted : Monday Dec 15, 2008 10:08:19 ESTDiscrepancies in the service record of a Vietnam veteran seeking a Medal of Honor have prompted the Army to alert the FBI of a potential violation of the Stolen Valor Act, sources close to the investigation said.The case involves Terry Richard Calandra, 59, of Forks Township, Pa., who is commander of the Military Order of the Purple Heart Chapter 700 in Glen Gardner, N.J.

Thursday, March 19, 2009


Man charged in Stolen Valor case
Man indicted on charges of faking serviceThe Associated PressPosted : Thursday Mar 19, 2009 6:48:35 EDTANCHORAGE, Alaska — A Ketchikan man has been indicted on charges of lying about his military record.U.S. Attorney Karen Loeffler says 53-year-old Thomas A. Dye is charged with two counts of violating the Stolen Valor Act, which criminalizes false claims to military medals.

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Colorado Veterans Alliance begun by impostor
Local veterans advocate exposed as impostorStory By: Susan DaviesSource: KOAAPublished Wed May 13, 2009, 09:47 PM MDTUpdated Thu May 14, 2009, 05:41 AM MDTHe was a local activist for veterans issues who claimed to be a 9-1-1 survivor. He said he was a marine captain serving three tours of duty in Iraq and wounded in the line of duty. But federal investigators say he lied about all of it - even his name.The man we knew as Rick Duncan was an advocate for homeless veterans.

Life already ruined, lying First Coast vet gets light sentence

Florida Times-Union - Jacksonville,FL,USA By Timothy J. Gibbons Story updated at 6:24 PM on Wednesday, May. 27, 2009In the past five months, Charles T. White has lost most of his friends.After pleading guilty to lying about being a prisoner of war in Vietnam and earning a Purple Heart, the veteran was kicked out of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, an organization he’d been part of for 40 years, holding offices and serving on the honor guard.

There are 29 on this blog alone and more under fake and phony but you get the drift. When you think of the hundreds of thousands of veterans, real ones, real combat veterans waiting and then think about this "thugs" taking what they can get by lying, it makes people sick. It would be really wonderful if the real ones had half as much attention as reporting on these criminals gets. ABC has nine pictures and stories to go along with the title of their page but it would have been nice to add a few words to it like, hundreds of thousands of veterans are really wounded and really paying the price for their service but we want to focus on the few frauds that make the rest of them look bad. The frauds are criminals and should be brought to justice but it is not justice to the rest of the veterans to have this much attention on the fakes while they suffer in silence.

Sally Satel Promoted Virtual Reality War Games

Dr. Sally Satel Promoted Virtual Reality War Games as a Treatment for PTSD
May 18, 2010 posted by Robert L. Hanafin
Recently we at Veterans Today have been getting a lot of feedback both positive and negative on the Pentagon’s experimentation with Virtual Reality War Games as a treatment for PTSD.

First let me say that I personally want to approach this with an open mind, heck I’m a strong, passionate supporter of Assistance, Service, and Companion Dogs for Vets and Troops as a treatment for PTSD but not as a exclusive approach. That said, not even the Pentagon is advocating the use of virtual reality combat simulations (war games) as the answer for PTSD, combat stress, or combat trauma but as a weapon in their arsenal for dealing with and helping troops cope with PTSD. After all the MISSION of military medicine is Force Readiness.

What I do caution are (1) Sally Satel has advocated this approach from the early stages of its development and that alone turns my radar of suspicion on, and (2) virtual reality is based on a commercial war game that is sold in Wal-Mart, K-Mart, even on Base and Post Exchanges, so why spend millions of tax payer bucks on a defense contract when military psychologist can just pay a few bucks to pick up a similar war game at the Bx or Px and tailor it to the patient’s PTSD symptoms?

Anyway, we at Veterans Today have decided to do a series of articles focusing on this latest development in state of the art technology to treat PTSD. I am going to do best I can to paint a balanced picture of the pros and cons leaving out my own personal bias and cautions, because as I said we should approach this open minded, fiscally prudent (is is cost effective per patient treated), exactly how does it differ from the War Games psychologist can buy or prescribe for their patients at the BX/PX, but most important how many active duty troops can they get to step forward and admit they have a problem using this attention getter?

Lastly, what are the implications, if any, for expansion of this treatment into the Department of Veterans Affairs? If PTSD is caught, treated, and troops even taught to cope with PTSD and stay on active duty, then eventually PTSD could become a thing of the past within the VA system. Are we talking cure here? Maybe, maybe not.

Robert L. Hanafin, Major, U.S. Air Force-Retired, Veterans Today News Network
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Dr Sally Satel Promoted Virtual Reality War Games

Wanted: Extraordinary Military Spouses

Wanted: Extraordinary Military Spouses
Week of May 17, 2010
The Military.com and CinCHouse.com 2010 Spouse of the Year Award, sponsored by ASMBA and TriWest HealthCare Alliance, will give away $5,000 to a spouse who has gone above and beyond to serve his/her family, country and the military community. Nominations are open through June 30. Get contest details and enter today.