"All the 'support the troops' stuff is bumper sticker deep."

Americans tune out as Afghan war rages on
By Deb Riechmann
The Associated Press
Posted : Tuesday Aug 21, 2012

KABUL, Afghanistan — It was once President Barack Obama's "war of necessity." Now, it's America's forgotten war.

The Afghan conflict generates barely a whisper on the U.S. presidential campaign trail. It's not a hot topic at the office water cooler or in the halls of Congress — even though more than 80,000 American troops are still fighting here and dying at a rate of one a day.

Americans show more interest in the economy and taxes than the latest suicide bombings in a different, distant land. They're more tuned in to the political ad war playing out on television than the deadly fight still raging against the Taliban. Earlier this month, protesters at the Iowa State Fair chanted "Stop the war!" They were referring to one purportedly being waged against the middle class.

By the time voters go to the polls Nov. 6 to choose between Obama and presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney, the war will be in its 12th year. For most Americans, that's long enough.

Public opinion remains largely negative toward the war, with 66 percent opposed to it and just 27 percent in favor in a May AP-GfK poll. More recently, a Quinnipiac University poll found that 60 percent of registered voters felt the U.S. should no longer be involved in Afghanistan. Just 31 percent said the U.S. is doing the right thing by fighting there now.

Not since the Korean War of the early 1950s — a much shorter but more intense fight — has an armed conflict involving America's sons and daughters captured so little public attention.

"We're bored with it," said Matthew Farwell, who served in the U.S. Army for five years including 16 months in eastern Afghanistan, where he sometimes received letters from grade school students addressed to the brave Marines in Iraq — the wrong war.

"We all laugh about how no one really cares," he said. "All the 'support the troops' stuff is bumper sticker deep."
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Every month I am amazed at how many hits this blog gets considering how little reporting is done by the major news stations. Cable news long ago abandoned reporting on what is happening in Afghanistan but it didn't happen when you may think it did. It happened as soon as troops were sent into Iraq. Then they dropped reports on both.

What made all of this worse is they don't seem interested in any of them when they come home either. The only time they are a topic of a report seems to be when one of them gets into trouble and then everyone reports on it as if that is what they all end up doing. Considering there is nothing to compare bad reports to, that is all the general public gets reminded of. The real information is there or this blog wouldn't be here. I'd have nothing to post about.

There are really good reporters doing a fantastic job because they care but they are in small markets so what happens in one state isn't know by another. There are really great stories out there but again, the major markets want to focus on politics and tell us what they want us to pay attention to. Well, readers of this blog have a different set of values and we focus on the troops and our veterans.

It is just really sad that they feel as if they have been forgotten about while they are risking their lives and then come home to even less attention.

Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund building clinics on military bases

Fund helps Pentagon add clinics for veteran care
By KRISTIN M. HALL
Associated Press
August 21, 2012

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Faced with tighter budgets after the Iraq War but still in charge of treating tens of thousands of injured troops, the military is getting a hand from a private foundation that is building medical centers specializing in the signature physical and psychological injuries of Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Pentagon has a partnership with the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund, which is raising $100 million to build clinics on military bases. The clinics will form a network aimed at treating and researching traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder, two areas the military has focused on since roadside bombs became a common weapon in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Army officials say the foundation, which grew out of the philanthropic efforts of the late New York real estate businessman Zachary Fisher, has been highly effective because it can sidestep government bureaucracy on construction projects and provide a financial boost for medical advances that are desperately needed for injured soldiers, Marines, airmen and sailors.
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Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund
Charity Navigator for Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund

The Semper Fi Fund needs your help

Ask yourself a question. If the charities that get all the PR were doing what they claim, then why would there need to have been a fund like Semper Fi? One of the reasons why Wounded Times tries to give as much publicity as it can to charities, is, they don't spend their money on advertising. They spend it where it can really help the wounded and families in need. Semper Fi is one of the groups in need and doing great work.

The Semper Fi Fund needs your help
August 20, 2012
By GAIL CHATFIELD
North County Times

No doubt the first thing Billy Osterman did when he got to the Santa Monica Pier on Aug. 3 was jump in the cool Pacific Ocean. Over the previous 45 days, the 16 year-old Fallbrook High School student rode his bicycle 2,500 miles through seven states from Tybee Island, Ga.

As part of the "American Challenge" bike tour, Billy raised $3,000 for the Injured Marine Semper Fi Fund.

One week later, four recumbent-tricycle riders arrived at Camp Pendleton after a similar coast-to-coast ride from St. Augustine, Fla.

The "Ride for Heroes" tricycle team included three Marines, one a double-amputee Afghanistan veteran. Lance Cpl. Ben Maenza, a combat engineer with 3rd Battalion 5th Marines, lost his legs to an IED two years ago.

Like Billy, the men rode cross-country to raise awareness and money for the Injured Marine Semper Fi Fund. The team received donations both large and small, including a jar of 307 pennies from a little girl in Texas. By the time they reached Camp Pendleton, the team had raised $93,000.
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Camp Pendleton to Close its Three Community Centers

Camp Pendleton to Close its Three Community Centers
Financial cuts mean the San Onofre, Abby Reinke and Stuart Mesa centers will close in September.
By Daniel Woolfolk

Camp Pendleton will close its three Marine Corps Community Services community centers because of 2013 funding cuts, the San Onofre Community Center posted for its Facebook followers Monday.

The Abby Reinke facility is set to close Sept. 7. The San Onofre and Stuart Mesa Centers are scheuduled to close Sept. 30.

The three centers offered “physical, social and self-development programs and services for active duty personnel and their families,” according to MCCS online.
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Romney has a "specific" problem

Romney has a "specific" problem
by Chaplain Kathie
Wounded Times Blog
August 21, 2012


I don't like political emails from either side. I usually hit delete unless it involves veterans.

At first I thought this was some kind of yet another political attack against Romney coming from the opposition but I followed where the article came from and found it on USA Today.

Linked from Daily Kos is this.

Romney, Ryan fault Obama on Afghanistan
By Jackie Kucinich
USA TODAY
Aug 20, 2012

MANCHESTER, N.H. -- Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney and his running mate, Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan, criticized President Obama Monday for his handling of the war in Afghanistan during a town hall-style event here that offered a rare opportunity during this campaign season to talk about the ongoing conflict.

"I have a very pressing question to ask you," the man said. "If you guys take over Washington, what are you going to do about this damn mess in Afghanistan?"

Romney, who has been critical of the president for not defining the mission of the war in Afghanistan, pledged to "communicate to the American people" about the cause and goals of any conflict while troops are in harm's way.

"I can tell you this, when I become commander in chief if I'm so lucky, I will address the American people about these issues," which Obama has not done, Romney said. "With regards to Afghanistan, I will do everything in my power to transition from our military to their military as soon as possible, bring our men and women home and do so in a way consistent with our mission, which is to keep Afghanistan from being overrun by a new entity that would allow Afghanistan to be a launching point for terror again like it was on 9/11."
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Let's get honest here. No one running for office of any kind knows everything about everything. Romney isn't even aware that Obama does have plans for Afghanistan and even has a date to get the troops back home. While it would be wonderful if he also had a plan to stop Afghans from pretending to be on the troops side then blowing them away would be a great thing to do, Romney either lied or didn't know. That is why they hire experts on every subject to advise them. Case in point is when President Obama was running for office, he was well aware of military suicides because he had an advisor telling him what was going on. He traveled very quietly to the Montana National Guard because of what they were doing to address suicides.

Spc. Chris Dana's story told to Obama by step brother
August 28, 2008

Stepbrother tells guardsman's story to Obama
Helena soldier took his own life after tour of duty in Iraq
By LAURA TODE
Of The Gazette Staff

Montana National Guard Spc. Chris Dana will never know the impact his life and ultimately his death may someday have on the lives of veterans nationwide.

Dana took his life in March 2007, less than two years after returning from a tour in Iraq. His family believes he was a victim of post-traumatic stress disorder, brought on by his combat experience.

Since Dana's death, his stepbrother Matt Kuntz has campaigned for more awareness of the costs of untreated post-traumatic stress syndrome in Iraq war veterans.

Wednesday, he was invited to meet with Sen. Barack Obama to share the message he's been spreading statewide for more than a year. At a quiet picnic table at Riverfront Park, Obama sat across from Kuntz, his wife, Sandy, and their infant daughter, Fiona.

I was very impressed he knew that at the time, the Montana National Guard had the best program going on. It was my job to know since I track all of this across the country focusing on Combat PTSD and military suicides. I couldn't figure out how Obama knew. Then it dawned on me that he had found the right experts to find out what was going on. He was also on the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee proving he did care. After all his Grandfather was a veteran.

There is no way anyone could know without getting the right advice. That seems to be Romney's biggest problem. He isn't specific about anything. He is smart of he wouldn't have made so much money. So how can this smart guy with a lot of money fail when it comes to getting advice on what he should do to straighten out all the problems this country has. It is not that Romney is new to how things get done since he's been running for President over and over again. Does he even know Ryan's budget calls for the VA budget to be cut by $11 billion? Or that it also calls for privatizing it?

If he does have a plan then the voters need to know what it is specifically! If he doesn't have plans for all of this mess, then voters need to know especially this close to the day they have to decide who should run this country next. If Romney hasn't hired the right people to advise him after all this time, who will he hire if he gets the job he's going after? Will it be more of the same of either bad advice or no advice at all?

Disabled workers in VA losing jobs

If it is a choice between veterans working for the VA or civilians, I'll side with the veterans everyday. After all, this is the Veterans Administration. It should hire veterans first. I also think the VA and Goodwill should do everything possible to find other jobs for these disabled individuals. Why weren't these jobs Federal jobs in the first place?

Disabled workers on way out at Veterans Administration Medical Center
By PAT GROSSMITH
New Hampshire Union Leader
August 19. 2012

MANCHESTER — Sixteen disabled workers employed in the mail room and on the switchboard at the Veterans Administration Medical Center soon will be out of work, their jobs filled by eight full-time federal employees.

“What we are doing is converting to federal positions,” said VAMC spokesman Stella Lareau. The conversion will be completed after a contract with Goodwill Northern New England Employment Services, which employs the disabled workers, expires on Sept. 30.

Michelle Smith, communications manager for Goodwill based in Portland, Maine, said the VA has not told her agency who will fill the jobs.

“I imagine it may be veterans,” she said.

Peter Gerrard, one of the disabled employees who works the switchboard, said employees only learned they would be laid off when someone saw their jobs posted on the U.S. government jobs website.
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Issa demands answers from VA on 'Patton' parody

Watchdog: Issa demands answers from VA on 'Patton' parody
August 20, 2012
Mark Flatten
Reporter
The Washington Examiner

Gen. George Patton probably would not be pleased with a parody video paid for with tax dollars by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). But there is no doubt about where U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa stands on it.

Issa, the California Republican who chairs the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, wants detailed documents from the VA on its spending on two conferences in Orlando last year that cost a combined $5 million.

Particularly irksome to Issa is the $52,000 allegedly spent by the VA to pay a professional actor and production company for an 18-minute video satirizing the opening scene of the 1970 film for which George C. Scott won an Academy Award. (See the original scene from the film in the embedded video player below.)

Issa wants a copy of the satire and an explanation. In a letter to Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki, Issa called allegations about the Orlando conferences "eerily similar" to those involving the scandalous 2010 General Services Administration (GSA) conference in Las Vegas.

That gathering became infamous after the GSA Inspector General (IG) revealed in April that top administrators wasted taxpayer money on private parties, unnecessary pre-conference travel and gimmicks like a $75,000 bicycle building exercise.

In the letter sent last week to Shinseki, Issa noted that even before the GSA scandal, President Obama warned federal officials that "you cannot take a trip to Las Vegas or go to the Super Bowl on the taxpayers' dime."
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VA Overturns Decision on Navy SEAL Denied Contracts

Veterans Agency Overturns Decision on Navy SEAL Denied Contracts
Bloomberg News
By Kathleen Miller
August 20, 2012

The Department of Veterans Affairs has overturned its decision rejecting a retired Navy SEAL from a contracting program designed to help veteran-owned businesses.

The agency told 23-year veteran Mark Lilly that Syncon LLC, his Chesapeake, Virginia-based construction company, is now allowed to compete for the contracts, according to a VA letter sent to him today. Lilly, 47, was shot in Afghanistan and has a Purple Heart, Silver Star and five Bronze Stars.

The VA has rejected the firm’s veteran-owned status three times this year. In June, it questioned whether Lilly, who has a Virginia contractor’s license, was in charge of the company’s daily operations as required by the department’s rules.

The VA concluded in the letter that Lilly “has adequate experience to manage and operate the business.” In its decision, the agency took note of his general contractor’s license and the updated resumes provided by Lilly and his non- veteran minority partner.
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Retired, wounded Navy SEAL's 5 Bronze Stars and Silver Star not good enough for VA?

Melbourne soldier dies in Afghanistan Black Hawk crash

Melbourne soldier dies in Afghanistan Black Hawk crash
August 20, 2012
The Associated Press


HONOLULU— U.S. Army officials say four soldiers based at Schofield Barracks in Hawaii were killed last week when a Black Hawk helicopter crashed in Afghanistan.

The Taliban claimed they gunned down the Black Hawk, leading to the crash on Thursday.

Army officials said Monday that among the seven Americans and four Afghans killed were: Chief Warrant Officer Brian Hornsby, 37, of Melbourne, Florida; Chief Warrant Officer Suresh Krause, 29 of Cathedral City, California; Sgt. Luis Galbreath, 41, of San Juan, Puerto Rico; and Sgt. Richard Essex, 23, of Kelseyville, California.
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Convicted soldier urges Supreme Court to hear military appeals

Convicted soldier urges Supreme Court to hear military appeals
By MICHAEL DOYLE
McClatchy Newspapers
Published: August 20, 2012

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GI convicted of murder in Iraqis’ deaths

WASHINGTON - A military court convicted Army Master Sgt. John E. Hatley of murder in wartime. Unfortunately for the defrocked combat infantryman, military law keeps him from appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court.

However, against all odds, the native of Decatur, Texas, is going where others have failed and Congress has hesitated. Representing himself from his Fort Leavenworth prison cell, Hatley has asked the high court to grant soldiers the same appeal rights as civilians.

"I've been in the military for 20 years and endured many hardships," Hatley said, responding to a reporter's emailed questions conveyed through a friend. "I accepted that as part of the career I had chosen. What you don't know and are never told is that your rights are less than every other citizen in this country has."
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