Fort Campbell Command Sgt. Maj. Noel Foster died at home

Fort Campbell garrison command sergeant major has died

Army Times

September 3, 2017

The senior enlisted soldier for U.S. Army Garrison Fort Campbell has died, officials announced Sunday. Command Sgt. Maj. Noel Foster died at home Friday, officials said. 

Command Sgt. Maj. Noel Foster, the garrison command sergeant major for Fort Campbell, Ky., died Sept. 1, 2017, at home.

Foster had been the garrison command sergeant major for the Kentucky post since February 2016. In that role, he served as the senior enlisted adviser to the Fort Campbell garrison commander for all matters involving enlisted personnel. Officials did not release any additional information about the cause or manner of Foster’s death.
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VA Declared Veterans Dead, Social Security Kept Paying Them?

Social Security pays millions to people VA says are dead

The Washington Times
By Stephen Dinan
September 3, 2017

It was based on a sample of 100 veterans the VA said were dead but whose names never were shared with Social Security. Of those, the audit was able to determine the status of only 30 people: 19 of them were deemed dead while 11 others were still alive, despite the VA’s records.

The Department of Veterans Affairs knew they were dead, but the Social Security Administration kept paying benefits to hundreds of people anyway, according to a new agency audit released Friday that says at least $37 million in bogus payments were made.

Photo by: George Walker IV The Department of Veterans Affairs hospital stands Wednesday, June 11, 2014, in Nashville, Tenn. The director of the Tennessee Valley Healthcare System said Wednesday that it will soon receive as much as $15 million to address an audit showing long wait times for veterans. Juan Morales told reporters that the money will help pay for additional physician-support staff and fees that may be incurred if a veteran has to be sent to an outside provider. (AP Photo/The Tennessean, George Walker IV)

Investigators compared the VA’s record to Social Security rolls and found nearly 4,000 people who were listed as dead by the VA, but were still getting checks. Some of those people listed as dead were in fact still alive, but others were deceased — and their checks never should have been paid, the Social Security inspector general said.

Among the dead veterans was one who died in August 2008 but continued to get checks until March of this year, when the inspector general got a report from the State Department showing he had died abroad, in Thailand. Social Security paid out $160,000 in bogus payments in that case.
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Disabled Veteran Marine Killed While Protecting Wife From Armed Robbers

Disabled Marine veteran ambushed, killed by masked men in his Georgia garage

FOX News
September 3, 2017

A disabled Marine veteran was shot and killed in his garage by would-be home invaders, police said. (Fox 5)

A disabled Marine veteran was shot and killed during a confrontation in his garage with would-be home invaders on Friday, police said.

Authorities said that Phillip Lamar Davis, 47, was getting ready to take his wife to work early Friday morning when he opened the garage door and three masked men ambushed them.

Police believe the men intended to rob the victims after entering their home.

When they confronted the couple, Davis tried to protect his wife and push them away, sparking a struggle, during which Davis was shot, police said. His wife took off and ran to a neighbor’s house to call for help.
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PTSD in Mind, Body, Spirit and Blood?

Alterations in blood-based miRNA in veterans affected with combat-related PTSD

Eurekalert.org

September 3, 2017

Individuals affected with PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder) demonstrate changes in microRNA (miRNA) molecules associated with gene regulation. A controlled study, involving military personnel on deployment to a combat zone in Afghanistan, provided evidence for the role of blood-based miRNAs as candidate biomarkers for symptoms of PTSD. This may offer an approach towards screening for symptoms of PTSD, and holds promise for understanding other trauma-related psychiatric disorders. Limitations of the study are that this was a small pilot study, and the findings need to be validated, extended and confirmed. First results will be presented at the ECNP conference in Paris.

PTSD is a psychiatric disorder which can manifest following exposure to a traumatic event, such as combat, assault or natural disaster. Among individuals exposed to traumatic events, only a minority of individuals will develop PTSD, while others will show resiliency. Little is known of the mechanisms behind these different responses. The last few years have seen much attention given to whether the modification and expression of genes - epigenetic modifications - might be involved. But there are several practical and ethical challenges in designing a research study on humans undergoing such experiences, meaning that designing relevant study approaches is difficult.

The research group from the Netherlands, worked with just over 1,000 Dutch soldiers and the Dutch Ministry of Defense to study changes in biology in relation to changes in presentations of symptoms of PTSD in soldiers who were deployed to combat zone in Afghanistan. In a longitudinal study they collected blood samples before deployment, as well as 6 months after deployment. Most of the soldiers had been exposed to trauma, and some of the soldiers had developed symptoms of PTSD.

For this pilot study, from the initial group, subgroups were selected of in total of 24 subjects; 8 of the soldiers had developed symptoms of PTSD; 8 had endorsed traumatic experiences but had not developed symptoms of PTSD; and another 8 had not been in serious traumatic circumstances and served as a control group. Using modern sequencing techniques, several types of miRNAs of which the blood levels differed between the groups were identified.

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Iraq Veteran With PTSD Got Keys to New Home

Iraq War veteran receives keys to new home

KWQC News
Gabriella Rusk
September 3, 2017

DAVENPORT, Iowa (KWQC) - Sunday at the QC Festival of Praise featured the Christian rock singer Crowder as the headlining act.

But before he took the stage, Sgt. Angel Camacho received a special gift.

"It means a lot to us," Camacho says.

After serving for 13 months in Iraq, Camacho returned home suffering from PTSD and needing the aid of a service dog. His wife quit her job in order to help her husband adjust.

At the concert, the Military Warriors Support Foundation gifted the Camacho family with keys to a new, mortgage free home.

"I can't even describe how wonderful it makes you feel because you see their lives change right in front of your eyes," says Retired Lt. General Leroy Sisco, who works with the Military Warriors Support Foundation.
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Canada Motorcycle Rat Rally Honors Those Who Serve

Rat Rally motorcyclists take part in annual memorial ride

Chronicle Herald News Canada
Tina Comeau
September 3, 2017

One speaker was Bob Grundy, the founder of Rally Point Retreat in Sable River, Shelburne County. The retreat offers veterans and first responders suffering through the collateral damage of traumatic events a quiet, safe and relaxing environment. PTSD, Grundy said, should never be fought alone.

For another year, motorcyclists taking in the Wharf Rat Rally in Digby made the trek to Hebron, Yarmouth County, in a memorial ride that included a ceremony at the Afghanistan monument at Maple Grove Education Centre

As the hymn Amazing Grace was played on the bagpipes, a motorcycle engine rumbled to life.

Both were a soothing sound.

For another year, motorcyclists taking in the Wharf Rat Rally in Digby made the trek to Hebron, Yarmouth County, in a memorial ride that included a ceremony at the Afghanistan monument at Maple Grove Education Centre.

Flags flapped in the wind as members of the Maple Grove and Yarmouth High Memorial Club formed an honour guard along the sides of the school driveway.

Then — and you could hear them before you saw them — a steady stream of motorcycles arrived.

“Sweet in pride, bitter in the knowledge that sometimes it means they’re not going to come back the same, whether they’re soldiers, sailor, aircrew, police, firefighter or EMS. People who put on a uniform to serve others put themselves in harm’s way and often carry a weight that stays with them forever.” Bob Grundy
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Car Accident Reconnects Korean War Buddies

Car accident leads to reunion with Korean War buddy
Military Times
Adele Uphaus-Conner
The Free Lance Star
September 2, 2017

WARRENTON, Va. — If it weren’t for the car accident earlier this summer, Korean War veterans Jim Cunningham and Don McIntyre would never have found each other again.

“God was in it from the get-go,” said Cunningham, 86, a Spotsylvania County resident.

Marine Corps veterans Jim Cunningham, left, and Don McIntyre, talk on Aug. 19, 2017, in Warrenton, Va. Both served together in the Korean War and reunited for the first time in 63 years. (Adele Uphaus-Conner/The Free Lance-Star via AP)

The two met up for coffee last weekend at the Warrenton home of McIntyre’s daughter. It was the first time they’d seen each other in 63 years.

In 1953, Cunningham and McIntyre, who were 23 and 20 at the time, served together with Marine Aircraft Group 12 at airfield K-6 in Pyeongtaek, South Korea. They were in the motor transport pool — Cunningham was a dispatcher and McIntyre was a driver. Their job was to collect downed aircraft from all over the country and take the wreckage to Inchon, where it would be shipped to Japan to be rebuilt.

Virginia State Trooper Greg Finch responded to the accident. It was a hot day and he invited Cunningham to come and sit in his car while he wrote up the citation.

“We got to talking. It took him an hour and 15 minutes to write up the ticket,” Cunningham said.

During the conversation, Cunningham mentioned that he’d served in Korea.

“I told him I had a real good friend in Korea and I was still looking for him,” Cunningham said. “I told him his name was Don McIntyre. He said, ‘I know Don McIntyre!’ ”

Finch told Cunningham that his father lived one mile down the road from a Don McIntyre in Bath, N.Y.

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Vietnam Veterans "A more visible subset of aging warriors" too often overlooked

Vietnam Veterans Do Not Debate Why They Risked Their Lives
Combat PTSD Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
September 3, 2017 

"Many who served came home and got on with their lives, whatever the wounds and scars of war. A more visible subset of aging warriors sits astride motorcycles in Veterans Day parades or stands in the median strips of our streets holding cardboard placards. They live their lives as war survivors. They ponder what might have been." James Reston Jr. LA Times September 3, 2017

At least he got close on the years Vietnam claimed the lives and bodies of those sent to Vietnam.

"There are two Vietnam wars, and the second is still going 40 years after the first ended. The United States fought the first one from 1959 to 1975 in the jungles, villages and airspace of Indochina." 

The First and the Last

The first American soldier killed in the Vietnam War was Air Force T-Sgt. Richard B. Fitzgibbon Jr. He is listed by the U.S. Department of Defense as having a casualty date of June 8, 1956. His name was added to the Wall on Memorial Day 1999.

It went on claiming lives a lot longer than most think. Oh, no, not just the almost 20 years they were there, but for all these years they've been home.

The obvious deaths tied to Agent Orange are only part of their story. The truth is, they are the largest group of veterans still alive in this country and 65% of veterans over the age of 50 are also the highest for suicides and homelessness. 

Here are the numbers from Florida.

Fast FactsFiscal 2016 data from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. The VA reports there are 21.3 million veterans living in the United States.

• There are 1,533,306 veterans in the State of Florida.  There are 1,378,486 male veterans and 154,820 female veterans.

• Note: Florida has the third largest veteran population in the nation, behind California with 1,755,680 veterans and Texas with 1,670,186 veterans.

• There are 1,139,764 wartime veterans in the State of Florida.

• There are 393,541 peacetime veterans in the State of Florida.

• There are 65,941 World War II veterans in the State of Florida.

• There are 144,445 Korean War veterans in the State of Florida.

• There are 496,526 Vietnam-era veterans in the State of Florida.

• There are 190,446 Gulf War veterans in the State of Florida.  (1990 to 9/11/01)

• There are 173,469 Post-9/11 veterans in the State of Florida  (9/12/01 to present)

• There are 773,284 veterans in Florida 65 years of age and over.  (There are 737,698 male veterans 65 years of age and older and 35,586 female veterans 65 years of age and older.)

With Ken Burns documentary on The Vietnam War , the debate over "why" has reheated. The one thing no one should debate is what they risked or what they achieved when they came home to a nation that did not care they came home.

This is why they did it. This is why they risked their lives over there. They did it for each other. This is why they took their own pain, swallowed their pride, or what was left of it, and caused such a commotion in Washington over PTSD, that they had to respond. They funded all the research the civilian world has been benefiting from ever since.

Ever wonder where psychologists came from? Mental Health therapists? Trauma Centers? Crisis Intervention Teams? It all goes back to them and the fact they were not about to stop fighting for those who shared the same suffering surrounded by ambivalence, ignorance and judgement. 

Vietnam Veterans of America clearly stated their purpose despite the way these veterans were treated.  

“NEVER AGAIN WILL ONE GENERATION OF VETERANS ABANDON ANOTHER.”

– VIETNAM VETERANS OF AMERICA MOTTO

We elected three Presidents who made sure they did not have to go when it was their time to serve along side of them. 

President Clinton

The questioning centers on the fall of 1969 when Bill Clinton was headed back to England to complete a Rhodes Scholarship. It seemed unlikely that his draft board would defer him again. He tried and failed to win Navy or Air Force commissions that might have sent him to Vietnam, though not as a grunt soldier. Then he signed up for a Reserve Officer program that kept him out of the draft.A few weeks later, on Oct. 31, his draft board, having learned he had changed his mind about R.O.T.C., reclassified him 1-A, theoretically exposing him to call-up. Only on Dec. 1, when his birth date came up 311 in the brand new draft lottery, was he safe against worry.He may have felt safe even during that exposed November. Draft calls had been reduced and graduate-student deferments were about to be restored. Taken in isolation, the Clinton record could thus be read to show manipulation and delay. But in fairness, his behavior needs to be compared with that of his peers.

President Bush 

Vietnam was clearly a crucible for Bush, as it was for Bill Clinton, Al Gore and most other men who left college in the late 1960s. Bush maintains that he joined the National Guard not to avoid service in Vietnam but because he wanted to be a fighter pilot. Rather than be drafted and serve in the infantry – an assignment Bush has acknowledged he did not want – he agreed to spend almost two years in flight training and another four years in part-time service.

President Trump

But after he graduated from college in the spring of 1968, making him eligible to be drafted and sent to Vietnam, he received a diagnosis that would change his path: bone spurs in his heels.The diagnosis resulted in a coveted 1-Y medical deferment that fall, exempting him from military service as the United States was undertaking huge troop deployments to Southeast Asia, inducting about 300,000 men into the military that year.The deferment was one of five Mr. Trump received during Vietnam. The others were for education.

We built walls to honor their sacrifices and carved their names in stone. We also built a wall separating them awareness of the American people regarding suicides they seem all to ready to give to charities for while those same charities have cut them off from the help they have been waiting longer for.

We built another wall taking their families and disregarding the fact they have been their caregivers for decades yet are not worthy of the Caregivers support Congress seemed so proud of giving to the OEF and OIF generations.
So let the reporters continue to focus on what separates those who were sent to Vietnam to fight a war no one was sure of why they had to go for. We can tell them why they risked everything and still do to this day. THEY DO IT FOR THEIR BROTHERS AND SISTERS!

Arlington National Cemetery honors service members lost by suicide

In a first, Arlington National Cemetery honors service members lost by suicide

WUSA 9 News

Peggy Fox

September 1, 2017

ARLINGTON, VA (WUSA9) - For the first time, service members who have died by suicide were officially honored at Arlington National Cemetery on Friday. The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention requested the wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier to honor all victims of suicide.

The gesture was enormously fulfilling to several family members of suicide victims watching and taking part in the ceremony.

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Note: Yet again, the wrong number is quoted in a report this important!

“The ceremony not only represented our veterans, which, on average, 22 veterans die a day from suicide, but it’s people coming together. People watching the changing of the guard and realizing this is a daily event,” said Gail Romansky, whose son Shaun, 30, died of suicide in 2010.

Unafraid to Condemn the Unaware Raising Suicide Awareness

Experts Are Necessary to Do More Than Talk
Combat PTSD Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
September 3, 2017

"Don't be intimidated by people who seem to be experts. Hear their points of view and get their judgements. But at the end of day, you've got to make a judgement because it's not their life that's going to be affected so much as your future." Robert Dallek

It seems like everyday someone left behind by suicide goes to the press for publicity on what they are doing, then show how little they really know about how to change the outcome for others.

As soon as I read them being quoted with "22 a day" or "20 a day" the hairs on the back of my neck send electrical shocks into my brain! How does talking about a number that is factually untrue do any good for anyone other than the one seeking publicity?

No one can help veterans find their way out of darkness if they do not know how they got lost in the first place. It is all so easy to talk about stuff that did not merit their time to research. While those left behind are experts on the pain they feel, they are nowhere near being able to change the outcome.

The purpose of "Watchfires" is severalfold -- not only to salute our dead of the War but also to acknowledge the living power they still have to touch us in so many ways. Their examples of courage, honor, and sacrifice set a standard for those who survived them; and our memories of them add strength and depth to our lives.

I'll read about their heartbreaking story, know they still feel the pain. Apparently, they really want to make sure that others do not have to go through it like they did. The problem is, apparently they decided it was not worth investing the time and energy to actually be able to make a difference.

While they could make a difference for others in a support group, they decided they knew enough to talk about a report they failed to read. If it was so important to them, wouldn't it be important enough to learn how to help or at least spend time to learn what the truth is?

Here are the facts they did not bother to learn yet decided they would be the ones to change the outcome, without bothering to discover how to do it.

Veteran Suicide "22 a day"
Was taken from a report from the VA in 2012
The report was from 21 states with suicide as cause of death and stating military service. We have 50 states. The report also stated that even from those 21 states, it was limited data.

It did not help that the press was jumping over the slogan instead of reading the report, or actually understanding that current military numbers on suicides are not part of the VA suicide report. Two different categories.

Suicide Rate Among Vets and Active Duty Military Jumps - Now 22 A Day, Forbes

Veteran Suicides "20 a day"
While the CDC does know the number of known suicides (accidental or questionable ones are not included) they do not know military service connection from far too many states. California does not have it on their certificates of death. They have over 2 million veterans. Illinois does not have military service on their certificates of death. They have over 700,000 veterans.

As the "awareness raisers" are counting numbers they do not understand, they are showing the veterans in need of healing cannot count on them to do more than talk about their heartache!

After over a decade of "suicide prevention" and  seven years of "PTSD awareness" the evidence shows that this has done nothing to change the outcome. Considering there is the Crisis Line for veterans and family members to call and over 400,000 new veterans charities across the country claiming to be working to change the outcome, it is actually worse than it was in 1999.

Worse but seems to be the same? Yes, because at the time there were 5 million more veterans in the country.

I spent 2 years researching what experts started to understand a decade before I even heard the term PTSD. As I learned, I shared it with other veterans and families. Then I knew enough to write about it. After 35 years, I've heard it all and read way too much to be able to accept the fact that any of this should be acceptable to anyone!