Young Girl's Santa Letter Changed Soldier's Life

Santa letter 50 years ago changed lives
The Republic
By Staff Reports
12/23/16

Written by Kim Stover

Our shared wish for an end to armed conflict still resonates, and my Vietnamese doll still stands on my desk, a testament to a young soldier’s big heart and a young girl’s belief in Santa Claus and in goodness itself.

Fifty years ago, the Akron (Ohio) Beacon Journal published my letter to Santa Claus, shaping my adult life.

When my second-grade teacher, Judy Williamson Mervine, assigned a letter to Santa Claus, I wrote, “Dear Santa Claus, Please stop the war in Vietnam and give all of my toys to the people there so they will have a good Christmas and if I don’t get any toys I won’t care because Christmas is when the baby Jesus was born in the manger and we have gifts to celebrate Christmas. Kimberly Ann Stover.”

Surprised that my letter asked for something beyond toys, Mrs. Mervine decided to contact the Journal.

The Journal reporter asked me what war was, and I said it was fighting with guns. She asked me if I really believed in Santa Claus, and I said yes, but admitted, “Santa might not get there because his reindeer would get tired.” She also asked if Santa had any toys left over, what present would I want. I said a doll.

The front page of the Dec. 22, 1966, Journal featured the story.

Close to where my family lived, Mrs. Anita Ripley read the article and sent it to her son, Private First Class Jim Ripley, who was stationed near Saigon working as a heavy vehicle driver in Company B of the 69th Engineering Battalion of the U.S. Army.

Then Jim decided to make sure that I got that doll.
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Soldier Looks Back on Nine Deployments

Face of Defense: Soldier Reflects on His 9 Deployments
Department of Defense
By Army 1st Lt. Daniel Johnson 2nd Brigade Combat Team
101st Airborne Division
December 22, 2016

This is Bailey’s ninth deployment. He has spent half of the past 15 years in the Middle East, with the vast majority of those years on the front line. On this tour, he is the first sergeant of Company A, 1st Battalion, 26th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team. Some of the soldiers he now leads were 4 years old when he was first in the Hindu Kush Mountains of Afghanistan.

NORTHERN IRAQ, Dec. 22, 2016 — Following the 9/11 attacks, Brian Bailey, then a private first class, arrived at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, home of the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault).

Army Sgt. 1st Class Brian Bailey, the first sergeant of Company A, 1st Battalion 26th Infantry Regiment, Task Force Strike, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), waits for soldiers to arrive to a security patrol briefing in northern Iraq, Dec. 7, 2016. Army photo by 1st Lt. Daniel Johnson

Army Sgt. 1st Class Brian Bailey, the first sergeant of Company A, 1st Battalion 26th Infantry Regiment, Task Force Strike, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), waits for soldiers to arrive to a security patrol briefing in northern Iraq, Dec. 7, 2016. Army photo by 1st Lt. Daniel Johnson At the replacement company, incoming troops were asked if they wanted to deploy overseas.

Bailey recalled that he and another soldier raised their hands and were separated from the group. A few weeks later, they were both in Afghanistan, he said.

"Making that decision put me at the beginning of all of this," Bailey said. "I was allowed the opportunity to be part of the first big push in the global war on terror."
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Agent Orange: Florida veteran claims 40-year cover-up by Air Force

Florida veteran claims 40-year cover-up by Air Force
WFLA Staff Reports
Published: December 22, 2016

PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. (WFLA) — A former U.S. Air Force pilot called it the great betrayal.

Scott Nelms claims a 40-year cover-up by the Air Force may have cost veterans and their families dearly. Nelms said the USAF sprayed significant amounts of the toxic defoliant Agent Orange at bases in Thailand.

The Pinellas County veteran has accused the Department of Veterans Affairs of stonewalling veterans who served in Thailand and ignoring facts about what and when they suffered exposure.

Nelms points to a now-declassified 1973 report that said significant use of defoliants occurred on U.S. bases in Thailand. The Project CHECO Southeast Asia report “Base Defense in Thailand” also stated the defoliants were used inside the perimeter of bases.

Nelms flew about 100 missions out of Thailand, refueling fighter jets and bombers during the Vietnam War. His new mission is getting out the word that U.S. veterans who served in Thailand were exposed to significant amounts of Agent Orange.

Nelms was stationed at U-Tapeo Air Force Base. “I had no idea they were spraying Agent Orange in Thailand,” he said.
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Looking For God In The Wrong Places

Are you looking for God in the wrong place? 
If we search for Him in the dirt and debris we are looking for Him in the wrong place.

This is a repost from 2012.

Looking for God in the wrong places
by Chaplain Kathie
Wounded Times Blog
September 12, 2012

Last night I was watching The Four Crosses at Ground Zero.

"As rescue and recovery began, fireman, police, and rescue workers would be forced to endure the nightmare of working and living inside Ground Zero. Minutes turned into hours, hours turned into hopelessness as the reality of what had happened sunk in. While working in Building 6 in the World Trade Center complex, workers discovered a cavernous type hole in the debris."

As I listened to some of the people there, while I thought it was a beautiful story, I kept thinking of what was missing from the program.

It is easy to wonder where God was on that horrible day as other people decided such evil acts were justified when they used everything in their power to kill. Where was He? Why didn't He stop it? How could a loving God allow it to happen?

We ask those questions all the time. We suffer in our lives, then try to figure out why God thought we deserved it. What did we do to make Him turn away from us?

If we search for Him in the dirt and debris we are looking for Him in the wrong place.

God was on those planes that hit the Twin Towers and the Pentagon as much as he was on the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania. He was not the pilot but He was the comforter. When one hand reached out to comfort someone else, He was right there. Whenever people push past thoughts for themselves to think of someone else, He is there.

Many wonder why He didn't just cause the hijackers to suffer a heart attack an spare so many innocent lives. Others wonder why He just didn't stop them from doing it. The truth is in the Bible that God does not interfere with freewill so He would not have just snatched the hijackers out of their seats. Still how do we know He didn't try to get them to change their hearts?

It is natural for us to ask what caused other humans to do such horrible things but we miss the other question about what causes so many to do compassionate things afterwards.

What caused the police and firefighters to rush into the buildings after pure evil struck them? What caused them to climb the stairs over and over again trying to save as many lives as possible after others tried to kill as many as possible?

While the evil that man does is apparent, the good they do is inherent. It was not just public employees risking their lives that day, there were average citizens in the Towers thinking of others instead of their own lives. Some of them could have survived had they used the time they had to think of their own lives, but they had the lives of others in their thoughts and actions. It was God driving them to do for others and they had the freewill choice to allow His voice to guide them or not.

But then there were smaller miracles. Survivors reached out to help others. Strangers took the hands of other strangers, put their arms around people they would have normally just walked past under normal circumstances. Then people rushed to the area to give whatever help they could.

Days passed while more and more people showed up to help find survivors and recover bodies. God was still there hearing the prayers of the nation and comforting the weary as they refused to leave.

Families of the missing were comforted by others while the time of hope faded into thinking of funerals for when the remains were found.

Every street across the country became decorated with flags and so did our cars. We were all thinking of others glued to our TV sets and reminded to be kinder to other people.

Even members of Congress joined together on the steps side by side. And we know it took a miracle to do that.

Whenever we look for God in what has been lost, we miss where He was all along.

All I Want For Christmas Is Veterans Getting What They Paid For

Veterans Paid The Price For Care Not Abandonment
Combat PTSD Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
December 23, 2016

Civilians enjoy freedoms provided by what Veterans paid for. Yet some want to treat veterans like civilians and dump them into the same healthcare system civilians and politicians complain about?

Did you know only about 20% of our veterans go to the VA for all their healthcare needs? Why? For starters they either have to have a service connected disability rating or they cannot afford private healthcare.

Eligibility Service in the Uniformed Services on active duty, OR Active duty for training, OR Inactive duty training, AND You were discharged under other than dishonorable conditions, AND You are at least 10% disabled by an injury or disease that was incurred in or aggravated during active duty or active duty for training, or inactive duty training Note: If you were on inactive duty for training, the disability must have resulted from injury, heart attack, or stroke.

In other words, honorable service caused the disability or injury. So no, not all veterans get VA care. The only other option is if a veteran proves they cannot afford healthcare. That part is always subject to what Congress decides to do.

That is the most disgusting thing in all of this. We cannot even take care of the smallest group of veterans in this entire country and Congress has gotten a free pass to neglect their duty since 1946! Congress is responsible for all of this and they have been since the First House Veterans Affairs Committee took their seats and have been sitting down on the job ever since, blaming Presidents and VA heads for what they failed to do. 

It happened during Republican and Democrat administrations. It is a less than honorable way to treat them. Politicians just hoped we wouldn't notice. People pushing to privatize veterans care hoped we wouldn't notice and would just settle for them washing their hands after they sold out our veterans. Pushing to send veterans into private healthcare providers is not only disgraceful, it is downright FUBAR.

I was reading about what is going on in Topeka with the loss of the loss of their psychiatrist. In the article I read this and it summed up why I do not play well with others.

Melissa Jarboe, founder of the Military Veteran Project, is a strong supporter of the choice program. She believes PTSD sufferers will be able to find quality psychiatric care outside the VA in Topeka.

There is a reason veterans do not want to go into private mental healthcare. Combat trauma is a lot different from any other type of PTSD and any "expert" being interviewed should know that. Private psychiatric providers to not understand combat but VA doctors do since they have the proper training, in other words, they are specialists.

Veterans are rightfully upset over this.

The change sent shockwaves of anxiety through area veterans communities, as PTSD sufferers feared the worst. One veteran of the Vietnam War said he and others reacted with stress and anger at the news.

In the 90's we were told that the VA was the best place for my husband after he had tried private mental healthcare. They were right back then and they are still right. 

Topeka VA will temporarily drop outpatient PTSD care
Topeka Capital Journal
Justin Wingerter
December 21, 2016

Life is better now, he says. But for how long? His Topeka VA psychiatrists have provided stability, a lifeline, since the 1990s. Wednesday morning, he was told to begin looking elsewhere, beyond the VA’s walls, for treatment.

Anxious and afraid, Bob Portenier doesn’t know what to do next. His post-traumatic stress disorder will flare up on Jan. 30, the anniversary of the Tet Offensive, as it always does.

But this time his psychiatrist — the one who has helped him and other veterans through many bad days and nights — won’t be around.

“It’s a bad situation,” Portenier said. “We’re getting kicked to the curb.”

After Monday, the Colmery-O’Neil VA Medical Center’s post-traumatic stress disorder team will temporarily be without a mental health care provider, said Joseph Burks, spokesman for the VA Eastern Kansas Health Care System, because the provider at the PTSD clinic has taken another position.

“In the meantime, our nursing staff in the clinic are working hard to determine if some of our veteran patients can be seen in primary care,” Burks said.

Those who cannot be treated in the primary care section of the hospital will be referred to the VA’s choice program.

Under the program, veterans can receive care from private providers rather than wait for VA care.

Portenier is a combat veteran, a Marine who served in Vietnam between 1967 and 1969. After that came the PTSD. Then came the alcohol, the drugs, the crime and the homelessness.
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Anyone pushing for veterans to get private care has given up on even trying to make sure they receive proper care. The same care they paid for by putting their lives in danger. They should not be treated like civilians by civilians! 

To Lay Down His Life For The Sake of His Friends

There are some things that just need repeating. Between now and Christmas, I'm digging out some older posts. The dates have changed but the message has not. You can heal.

This is a repost from September 2007

Do you think God abandoned you still? Come on and admit that while you were in the center of the trauma, you either felt the hand of God on your shoulder, or more often, never felt further from Him. In natural disasters, we pray to God to protect us. Yet when it's over we wonder why He didn't make the hurricane hit someplace else or why the tornadoes came and destroyed what we had while leaving the neighbors house untouched. We wonder why He heals some people while the people we love suffer. It is human nature to wonder, search for answers and try to understand.
In times of combat, it is very hard to feel anything Godly. Humans are trying to kill other humans and the horrors of wars become an evil act. The absence of God becomes overwhelming. We wonder how a loving God who blessed us with Jesus, would allow the carnage of war. We wonder how He could possibly forgive us for being a part of it. For soldiers, this is often the hardest personal crisis they face.
They are raised to love God and to be told how much God loves them. For Christians, they are reminded of the gift of Jesus, yet in moments of crisis they forget most of what Jesus went through.
Here are a few lessons and you don't even have to go to church to hear them.


( Matthew 8:5-13)

As he entered Caper'na-um, a centurion came forward to him, beseeching him and saying, "Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, in terrible distress." And he said to him, "I will come and heal him." But the centurion answered him, "Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof; but only say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I am a man under authority, with soldiers under me; and I say to one, 'Go,' and he goes, and to another, 'Come,' and he comes, and to my slave, 'Do this,' and he does it." When Jesus heard him, he marveled, and said to those who followed him, "Truly, I say to you, not even in Israel have I found such faith. I tell you, many will come from east and west and sit at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness; there men will weep and gnash their teeth." And to the centurion Jesus said, "Go; be it done for you as you have believed." And the servant was healed at that very moment.

This sounds like a great act Jesus did. You think about the Roman Centurion, powerful, commanding, able to lead men into combat, perhaps Jesus even knew of the other men this Centurion has killed. Yet this same man, capable of killing, was also capable of great compassion for what some regarded as a piece of property, his slave. He showed he didn't trust the pagan gods the Romans prayed to but was willing to trust Jesus.
Yet when you look deeper into this act, it proves that Jesus has compassion for the warriors. The life and death of Jesus were not surprises to Him. He knew from the very beginning how it would end. This is apparent throughout the Old Testament and the New Testament. He knew He would be betrayed, beaten, mocked, humiliated and nailed to the cross by the hands of Romans. Yet even knowing this would come, He had compassion for this Roman soldier. The Romans had tortured and killed the Jews since the beginning of their empire as well as other conquered people. The Roman soldiers believed in what they were doing, yet even with that, there was still documentation of them suffering for what they did.
Ancient historians documented the illness striking the Greeks, which is what we now call Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. There is evidence this illness hit every generation of warriors. Jesus would be aware that saving the Centurion's slave, because of the faith and trust He placed in Jesus, would be reported from soldier to soldier. Jesus showed compassion even to the Romans.
How can we think that He would not show compassion to today's soldiers? How can we think that He would look any differently on them than He did toward the soldiers who would nail Him to the Cross?
God didn't send you into combat. Another human did. God however created who you are inside. The ability to be willing to lay down your life for the sake of others was in you the day you were born. While God allows freewill, for good and for evil, He also has a place in His heart for all of His children. We humans however let go of His hand at the time we need to hold onto it the most.
When tragedy and trauma strike, we wonder where God was that He allowed it to happen. Then we blame ourselves. We do the "if" and " but" over and over again in our own minds thinking it was our fault and the trauma was a judgment from God. Yet we do not consider that God could very well be the reason we survived it all.
PTSD is a double edge cut to the person. The trauma strikes the emotions and the sense that God has abandoned us strikes at the soul. There is no greater sense of loss than to feel as if God has left you alone especially after surviving trauma and war. If you read the passage of Jesus and the Roman, you know that this would be impossible for God to do to you. Search your soul and you will find Him still there.
For the last story on this we have none other than the Arch Angel Michael. The warrior angel. If God did not value the warrior for the sake of good, then why would He create a warrior angel and make him as mighty as he was?Michael has a sword in one hand and a scale in the other. God places things in balance for the warriors.

And in John 15:

12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.13 Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.

When it comes to waging war, issuing orders, God will judge the hearts and minds of those who sent you and He will also know yours. If you feel you need to be forgiven, then ask for it and you will be forgiven. Yet if you know in your heart the basis of your service was that of the willingness to lay down your life for your friends, then ask to be healed. Know this. That if Jesus had the compassion for a Roman how could He have any less compassion for you?Because the military is in enough trouble already trying to evangelize soldiers for a certain branch of Christianity, understand this is not part of that. It's one of the benefits of having I don't care what faith you have or which place of worship you attended. If you were a religious person at any level before combat, your soul is in need of healing as well. There is a tremendous gift when the psychological healing is combined with the spiritual healing. If you have a religious leader you can talk to, please seek them out.


Kathie Costos

Family Speaks Out After Marine's Suicide Investigation

Marine Corps withheld suicide investigation results that suggested drug use among Marines
The Washington Post
Author: Dan Lamothe
Published 1 day ago

"Have some respect, you know? We just lost a family member," Riggs said in an interview. "Don't spell his name wrong. It was just so frustrating."

Marine Cpl. Jonathan Gee committed suicide in 2015 while stationed near the Pentagon. (Photo courtesy of Janele Riggs)

WASHINGTON – The results of an investigation into the suicide of a Marine that suggested his unit might have a "drug problem" and highlighted a hostile work environment were withheld from the Marine's family for an "unacceptably long time" spanning months, according to documents and letters obtained by The Washington Post.

Cpl. Jonathan M. Gee, 22, hanged himself early Aug. 29, 2015, at the Marine Corps' Henderson Hall, near the Pentagon, after a night of partying, the investigation found. He and another Marine had been thrown out of the EchoStage concert hall in Washington hours before, when they were discovered in a restroom stall with cocaine, the investigation's report said. Gee was found the next afternoon.
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Marine Killed Trying to Save Strangers

Marine killed while trying to help driver in a crash
AJC.Com
Kelcie Willis
Cox Media Group National Content Desk
Dec. 20, 2016

LOS ANGELES
Police said a Marine was killed after getting out of his car in an attempt to help a drunk driver involved in a crash in Los Angeles.

KCAL reported that the victim, Enrico Rojo, was driving to LAX with his fiance, Michelle Medina, and Medina's sister and father when he stopped at a crash on the interstate at 1:30 a.m. Monday.

“He said, 'Pull over to the right,’ so we pulled over to the right shoulder," Medina's sister, Mary Jane Medina, told KTLA. "And then he said, 'There’s people in that vehicle, I gotta help them out.'"

KTLA reported that, according to California Highway Patrol, Crystal Adrianna Martinez, 22, was driving a Toyota Matrix down the interstate and made a lane change, crashing into a big rig.
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New Jersey Veteran Marine Still Missing

NJ Marine has been missing for weeks after ‘altercation’ at bar
NJ 1015
By Patrick Lavery
December 21, 2016

James, who served a year each in Iraq and Afghanistan before leaving the Marines in 2012, suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, his sister said on the page, which so far has raised $3,840 of a $5,000 goal.

CLEMENTON — New Jersey State Police have joined Camden County authorities in investigating the disappearance of a veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps, missing since Dec. 2.

That night, a Friday, Lance James’ family said, the 29-year-old went to the Hide-A-Way Tavern but was escorted out after some sort of altercation with a fellow patron, according to a GoFundMe page posted by his sister, seeking to raise money for reward money that could be used to help find him.

Clementon police told James to go home, though his jacket and cell phone were still in the bar, according to the page.

James does not own a car, so he left on foot and was later seen on surveillance video about a block from his apartment, it says.

” Lance never made it home that night. It’s almost like he completely vanished. He did not show up for work, call out or pick up his pay check. Lance did not reach out to anyone by any means, neither friends or family have heard from him since. Lance does not own a car,” his sister wrote.
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Florida Woman Arrested for Stealing From Toys for Tots!

Polk deputies arrest 'Grinch' for stealing from 'Toys for Tots'
Eagle Lake woman filed fake apps for charity
WFTS Webteam
Dec 20, 2016

Detectives learned that Strickland attempted to use 140 fake children's names, and 28 fake adult names on fake applications to receive toys from Toys for Tots.

EAGLE LAKE, Fla. - Polk County deputies have arrested a woman who they call a "Grinch" for allegedly stealing from "Toys for Tots."

Detectives say Tammy Strickland, 38, of Eagle Lake, filed 28 fake applications to get free toys from the charity.

Sheriff Grady Judd held a news conference on Tuesday morning to release details in the case.

Strickland was arrested by undercover detectives on Monday, December 19 when she showed up to the Toys for Tots warehouse to collect the toys she applied for. Strickland has been charged with Grand Theft, 28 counts of Providing False Statement to Obtain Credit/Property, Obtain Property by Fraud, and 164 counts of Create/Use/Possess Counterfeit/Fictitious Identification.
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