Carnegie Hero Fund Honors Heroes Among Us

Veteran who fought library attacker among 18 Carnegie Heroes

Associtated Press

Joe Mandak

September 19, 2017

An Army veteran who fended off a mentally ill man who tried to attack a chess class the veteran was teaching at an Illinois public library is one of 18 people being honored with Carnegie medals for heroism.

The Carnegie Hero Fund Commission, based in Pittsburgh, announced the winners on Tuesday.

FILE - In this Oct. 15, 2015, file photo, James O. Vernon, an Army veteran who fended off a mentally ill man's attempt to attack a chess class that Vernon was teaching at an Illinois public library, recovers from injuries he suffered fighting off the knife-wielding man, as he sits in his home in Morton, Ill. Vernon is among 18 recipients of the Carnegie Medal for heroism announced Tuesday, Sept. 19, 2017, by the Pittsburgh-based Carnegie Hero Fund Commission, which awards the medals several times a year. (Robert Downen/Pekin Daily Times via AP, File)

James O. Vernon , 75, was in a conference room at the Morton Public Library with 17 children and four women when 19-year-old Dustin Brown burst in with two large knives on Oct. 13, 2015.

"He actually ran into the room yelling, 'I'm going to kill some people,'" Vernon told the Pekin Daily News days after the attack.

The knives were hunting-type weapons with fixed blades about 5 inches long, Vernon said.

"I can't let this happen," Vernon told The Associated Press at the time.

Letting the children and women escape, Vernon then positioned himself between Brown and the door and fended off Brown until police arrived. He suffered two slashed arteries in his left hand and damaged a tendon in a finger.

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Iraq Veteran James Womack Shot and Killed in Omaha

Iraq War veteran shot, killed near 60th, L streets; no arrests made

KETV ABC 7 News

Josh Planos

September 19, 2017

OMAHA, Neb.
James Womack, a father of three who served three tours in Iraq, was shot and killed on Monday -- his daughter's birthday -- during rush hour.

Omaha police haven't made any arrests in Monday's fatal shooting of the 32-year-old.

The shooting was reported around 4:30 p.m. near the intersection of 60th and L streets. Womack was driving a Hills Bros. semi-truck when he was shot. A nurse successfully attempted to keep him alive until paramedics arrived, a witness said.

"When I got to the stoplight, I saw someone resuscitating the guy on the ground at the median," Gabriel Bernal, a witness, told KETV NewsWatch 7.

Paramedics rushed Womack to Bergan Mercy Hospital while performing CPR. He was pronounced dead at the hospital.
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Twist As Navy Veteran Sues Because VA Diagnosed Him?

$35 million lawsuit: VA mental health misdiagnosis cost KC airline pilot his job

Kansas City Star

Tony Rizzo

September 19, 2017

A Kansas City man has filed suit alleging that he lost his job as an airline pilot after Veterans Affairs doctors misdiagnosed him with bipolar disorder.

William Royster is seeking $35 million in the suit filed in U.S. District Court in Kansas City.

It is a refiling of a previous suit that Royster voluntarily dismissed last September.

Royster is a former U.S. Navy pilot who was injured in 1996 when his plane was shot down by a Japanese navy ship during a training exercise.

But in 2013, after a new psychiatrist took over his case and undertook a thorough review and conducted additional testing, the doctor determined that Royster should never have been diagnosed with the disorder.
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Vietnam Veteran: electricity is not just a luxury, it’s a lifeline.

Pinellas Co. Vietnam veteran on oxygen thankful to have lights back on

WFLA 8 News

Chip Osowski

September 17, 2017

SEMINOLE, Fla. (WFLA) – Peter Wenners was one of many Pinellas County residents that were still without power on Sunday morning, despite Duke Energy’s promise to have electricity restored countywide by midnight.

Wenners is a Vietnam Veteran who is confined to a wheelchair and on oxygen. For him, electricity is not just a luxury, it’s a lifeline. “That’s all the oxygen I have left , which is about four,” said Weller as he pointed at the empty bottles of oxygen next to his front door. “And I’m done for. If it doesn’t come on tonight, I don’t know what I’m going to do.”

Peter and his wife, Dee, have been making do. Dee has been cooking meals on the grill, and the couple’s daughter brought a generator so they could run a room air conditioner and Peter’s electric easy chair.

So when the midnight deadline came and went, Dee became anxious. She went outside the couple’s Seminole home and finally was able to flag down a Duke Energy crew. Workers were already in the area working in that neighborhood. But no sooner did the power come on, but it turned back off. A line feeding the house had been damaged in the storm. Dee now jokes about the ordeal.

“I felt like I was in a Chevy Chase movie. Summer Vacation,” said Dee. “The power goes on…the power snaps …we have a fire in the back. Everything is black again! I’m like, this is not happening.”

Crews returned Sunday afternoon to repair the damaged line and re-restore power to the Wenners’ home. Peter couldn’t be happier. He’s breathing a sigh of relief.
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Air Force celebrates its 70th birthday..."making it look easy"

On the Air Force’s 70th birthday, its chief uses the past to guide the future

Air Force Times

Stephen Losey

September 18, 2017

As the Air Force celebrates its 70th birthday, Goldfein is thinking not only about how far the service has come, but where it’s going next. After all, he said, when the old Army Air Corps emerged from World War II and became the modern Air Force, it was primarily a bomber and escort force.

Gen. Dave Goldfein, chief of staff of the Air Force, during an interview in his office at the Pentagon on August 23, 2017. (Alan Lessig/Staff)

Nearly the entire history of flight can be traced while circling Chief of Staff Gen. Dave Goldfein’s Pentagon office.

There’s a framed scrap of fabric from the original Wright Brothers flyer, not much bigger than a postage stamp, that was given to the first chief of staff, Carl Spaatz. Goldfein points out the bulky camera used to photograph another Wright plane during a 1908 demonstration for the War Department at Fort Myer, Virginia.

Then there’s the globe Hap Arnold used during World War II — with a gash above Alaska’s Aleutian Island chain that prompts Goldfein to wonder what frustrated Arnold that particular day — plus photographs of legendary aviators such as the Tuskegee Airmen, and photographs, a parachute and a Hershey bar from the Berlin Airlift.

“One of my favorite quotes from Hap Arnold is when he said, ‘The challenge with air power is we make it look too easy,’ ” Goldfein said.
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Candlelight Vigil For Missing Veteran Julia Jacobson

UPDATE

"Won't Give up": Vigil Held for Missing Army Veteran Julia Jacobson

The 37-year-old retired Army captain was last spotted on surveillance by police in Ontario, California a little more than a week ago. Surveillance at a Kearny Mesa 7/11 caught her on camera earlier that same day.

Candlelight vigil held for missing Army veteran

KUSI News

September 17, 2017

SAN DIEGO (KUSI) — A candlelight vigil will be held Sunday night as the search for a missing U.S. Veteran continues. 

37-year-old Julia Jacobson was last seen Labor Day weekend at a Serra Mesa 7-Eleven, according to a social media page dedicated to finding her. 

Concerned friends, neighbors and community volunteers canvass neighborhoods around Jacobson's Idaho Street home last weekend in hopes of jogging a crucial memory from someone who may have seen her over the last week. That canvass has yet to bring up any addition information. . 

Jacobson's company car, a white Chevrolet Equinox, was found abandoned two weeks ago on the 2600 block of Monroe Avenue, a few blocks from her home, with the keys in the ignition and the windows all partially rolled down.

Police subsequently determined that Jacobson -- a corporate real estate broker for 7-Eleven who deployed to Iraq twice during her military career -- had been in Ontario on Saturday night, SDPD Lt. Mike Holden said. Why she was there and whether she indeed had been in the Riverside County desert, as well, that evening remained under investigation, he said.

Detectives have spoken with Jacobson's ex-husband, who lives in Arizona, and found him cooperative, according to Holden.

The missing woman's older sister, Casey Jacobson of North Dakota, described the circumstances of her sibling's disappearance as puzzling, saying the former servicewoman would never willingly leave her work vehicle unsecured with the ignition key and a company gas card inside.

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Can Love Live Again After Combat PTSD?

Are The Battles We Fight At Home Worth It?
Combat PTSD Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
September 17, 2017

The song "I Can't Make You Love Me" by Bonnie Raitt hit me hard every time it was on the radio in the early 90's. Honestly, it still does. I remember the darkest of times when I thought the song was about the life I was living. Now, looking back on those years, I understand what other wives are going through but as much as I understand that, it is more important that they understand what is is like coming out on the other side.

This was the part that I refused to surrender to,

"I'll close my eyes, then I won't see

The love you don't feel when you're holding me

Morning will come and I'll do what's right

Just give me till then to give up this fight

And I will give up this fight"

I was not about to give up the fight. Did I think about it? Sure, too many times. Did I walk away? Partly. I left him a few times but we never stopped talking. Even with everything I knew about PTSD back then, I couldn't get him to go to the VA, so, I couldn't find hope that he would get the help he needed to heal.

Finally, he agreed to go. Even back then we had the same problems as this generation does. I can assure you that the VA is not the enemy. They have helped generations of veterans and their families. Just don't give up and do not take "no" for an answer.

I already knew that love alone couldn't make him happy. It just didn't matter how much I loved him, how many times I prayed for him or how many times he broke my heart.

Instead of just walking away, I got pissed off! The Vietnam war wanted to take him away from me. It was almost as if I was fighting another woman for his soul.

I won and it lost. This month is our 33rd anniversary but it has been 35 years of a fight I never planned on. So yes, I get it. I get the pain, the endless questions in your mind and the fact you're probably getting advice to get divorced and give up. That is up to you but base your decisions your intelligence, not your emotions.

What made you love him/her? It is all still inside of him, but it is trapped behind a wall his mind created to protect it from feeling more pain. Trapping out the bad, it also prevents good from getting back in.

First, understand that he/she loved so much they were willing to die for other people. That kind of love is very rare. Maybe you're wondering why they can't show that same type of love for you? They would if your life was on the line, but when your love is on the line, they can't believe they are worthy of being loved anymore.

They forget the fact the men and women they served with were willing to die for them, but during a time when they need them the most, they don't want to bother them with a phone call for help. It is almost as if they have forgotten in combat, they called for all the help they could get, and didn't see anything wrong with that.

You have a fight on your hands if you decide to stay. The only question you need to know right now is, are you ready to give up this fight or are you ready to give up fighting this battle after combat with the wrong weapons?

Everything you loved about them is still in there. They just forgot how to find "who they are" because of how they feel about themselves.

Learn all you can so that you'll be able to understand why they act the way they do. Why are they making a big deal out of nothing? Why are they freaking out over such little things? Why are they acting like everyone is their enemy?

All the answers are there along with what you can do to make the decision to calm things down or make a stand. Pick your battles wisely. Too often if you set aside your pride, you'll be able to see it isn't worth fighting over. Save that energy for when you do need to take a stand.

Define their lives and your future together by what they were as much as what they can become again. Nothing in this is impossible. Remind them of what you saw within them when you fell in love and then tell them you know it is all still there.

The most important thing I can tell you right now is that PTSD is because they feel so deeply. Their emotional core is that strong! What is good within them hurts them the most. They are worth fighting for and things can be so much better on the other side of the choices you make today.

You can't make them love you... because they already do!

Vietnam Veterans Film "The Lost Homecoming"

‘They were fighting in something the public didn’t support.’ Filmmakers hope documentary gives them a voice

Sun Herald

Tammy Smith

September 17, 2017

In “The Lost Homecoming,” about 45 Vietnam War veterans, many of them from the Mississippi Gulf Coast, talk about their experiences both in country and when they returned to the States. Dawley, who lives in Diamondhead, produced and codirected the one-hour program, and Lenny Delbert of New Orleans is co-director and the filmmaker.

‘The Lost Homecoming: When Our Vietnam Veterans Came Home’ will air on WYES on Sunday night at 10 p.m. Courtesy WYES/Pan Am Communications

As a Veterans Administration psychologist, Harold Dawley heard many stories of war experiences and the aftermath of service.

But one story haunted him for four decades. He finally has been able to use one young man’s painful struggle to tell the story of a generation that felt torn apart.

“The Lost Homecoming: When Our Vietnam Veterans Came Home,” will be aired on New Orleans PBS station WYES at 10 p.m. Sunday, Sept, 17, about a half hour after the first episode of Ken Burns’s documentary series “The Vietnam War” airs. 

“They were fighting in something the public didn’t support, and so they really felt defeated,” Dawley said. 

The story that stayed with him was that of a young African American man from a small Mississippi town. 

“His best friend in Vietnam was a young white man, and he was killed right beside him,” Dawley said. “The thing that carried him through his time in service was the thought of his homecoming. He made sergeant. When he was headed home, he was looking outside the window of the bus and thinking about what people would say.” 

When the bus stopped in his hometown, the white man who owned the service station there looked at him, finally recognized him and said, “Well, boy, I see you made it back OK.” 

“He didn’t know that was going to be all the homecoming he was going to get,” Dawley said. The rejection the young man felt affected several aspects of his life. He became a drug addict, and his marriage fell apart.

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Thank You Florida National Guard!

When you read this report and watch the videos, remember, they left their own families to take care of the rest of us! "Thank you" is just not enough to say! 

National Guard provides support across Florida

News 4 Jax

Kent Justice
September 15, 2017

CLAY COUNTY, Fla. - The men and women serving at Florida National Guard headquarters are thousands of the state’s neighbors, co-workers and fellow citizens.

In the wake of Hurricane Irma, this group is providing support across Florida. The Guard’s emergency operations headquarters is at Camp Blanding in Clay County.

“Our main job here is to help the citizens of (the) state,” Sgt. 1st Class Rodney Watson said. “I mean, I'm a citizen of the state of Florida. So all we're doing is helping our brothers and sisters inside the state.”

Watson lives in St. Augustine. One of his commanding officers is from St. Johns County. His colleagues hail from across the Sunshine State.
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Florida National Guard distributing food and water in Fort Myers

Florida National Guard distributing food and water in Fort Myers after Hurricane Irma. Food and water distribution centers are scattered across Southwest Florida to help those in need after Hurricane Irma left the majority of the population without power and displaced.

UCF Hosts Florida National Guard After Hurricane Irma

UCF has answered the call of Gov. Rick Scott to host the National Guard on campus as it uses the football facilities, including Spectrum Stadium, to stage its recovery operations efforts in the wake of Hurricane Irma.

Ex-POW Vietnam Veteran Joe Crecca Keynote Speaker for POW MIA Service

Veterans honor those who came home — and those still missing — during POW/MIA ceremony

My Edmonds News

September 16, 2017

It was a heartfelt homecoming in so many ways, for so many, at the Edmonds Veterans Plaza Friday night.

For an hour, local veterans  —  many of them Vietnam vets — remembered those who became prisoners of war or were declared missing in action during our nation’s conflicts. The occasion was national POW/MIA Day, and nearly 100 people gathered for the remembrance held in the new Veterans Plaza space, which officially opened at 5th and Bell on Memorial Day.

The crowd heard first from keynote speaker Joe Crecca, a former Air Force Major and Vietnam veteran who spent more than six years as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam after being shot down by a surface-to-air missile on Nov. 22, 1966.

A North Bend resident, Crecca described being captured, beaten and interrogated, followed by eight months in solitary confinement. “During that time I tried to keep my mind busy,” he said. “The first thing I did was remember all the presidents of the United States in chronological order, then the states of the union in alphabetical order and all the capitols.” After that, he said, he “started working on math and physics problems and remembering classical music themes.”

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