Why didn't suicide awareness groups care sooner...or more?

UPDATE Billions of dollars a year go into "raising awareness" and all these years later, this is the outcome! Yet people still write checks to support that instead of people actually doing the work to change the outcome.

This is what they paid for!

Suicide rate up 33% in less than 20 years, yet funding lags behind other top killers

Suicide rates are up 33% in the U.S., yet funding lags behind that of all other top causes of death — leaving suicide research in its "infancy."

read more on USA Today 

Shocking suicide awareness happened 22 times this year

Combat PTSD Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
December 2, 2018

When you need to know how to get to somewhere, you plug in the addresses from where you are to where you want to be. 

Let's say you needed to go from Lake Nona VA Hospital to Tampa VA.

What would happen if this is all you got for directions?

It tells you how long it will take, how many miles, and even how much it will cost in fuel, but the rest is up to you to figure out. Not very helpful is it? You are still lost without a clue how to get to where you want to go.

Yet, as with directions, details should matter regarding anything important to know.

All across the country there are people doing everything possible to "raise awareness" that veterans are committing suicide. Much like the missing directions, they are missing important details.

The first thing is, they are missing an explanation on what their goal is. What is the point of raising awareness something is happening, if they do not understand the extent of how many times it happens? If they do not offer anything of value to change the outcome? If they did not take the subject seriously enough to learn how much they did not bother to learn in the first place?

In 2006, Doug Barber of the Ohio National Guard committed suicide. Montana National Guard soldier Chris Dana was doing suicide awareness. He committed suicide in 2007. He was due to be discharged under "other than honorable" kick to the curb. He would have been one of the over 2 million without honorable discharges that were not even worth mentioning in the numbers left out.

In 2008 the National Guard was doing "suicide prevention" followed by more years, but while some have been "prevented" far too many had succeeded.

That gives you an idea that it is happening all over the country. But when you do a Google Search on "veteran suicide awareness" you get 10,700,000 results.

Why weren't all of these "awareness" groups paying attention all along? Wasn't it important enough when the VA said it was 18 a day? Wasn't it important enough when the VA said it was 20 a day at the same time they said the number of veterans living in the country dropped by millions?

More than a number

Wasn't it important enough during all these years before they became "aware" of what they decided to make it their mission?

Most of the "awareness" groups left out the fact that the majority of veterans committing suicide, the known number anyway, had been over the age of 50 and yes, committing suicide before the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.


Most of the groups still leave out the fact that while they failed to change the outcome, veterans keep committing suicide in very public ways to make sure the public knows what the truth is.

So far this year, veterans made sure their names were known and their deaths could not be covered up or forgotten about. Each one of them had a name. It happened 22 times this year...so far.

PTSD Patrol Ending Friction

Avoiding Engine Friction

PTSD Patrol
Kathie Costos
December 2, 2018

When you neglect all the things that go into making your vehicle run properly, you get engine friction.

techflourish.com

Heat and Friction: Primary Enemies of Car Engines
Engines, Heat, and Friction
“Friction, according to its encyclopedia description, is the force that opposes the relative motion or tendency of such motion of two surfaces in contact. When it comes to engines and automobiles, the term holds a deeper relevance to car performance.“

Heat and friction results from the rubbing of the many parts of an internal combustion engine. (your mind)

A modern internal combustion engine is comprised of dozens of moving parts. Without proper oiling, these parts run against each other with tremendous speed, creating friction which then leads to heat. (anger) This heat can wear the mechanical parts of an engine and lead to bad performance under the hood.

Worn parts due to friction cause havoc with gas mileage and emissions since the engine is pushed to work harder. Wear on the engine’s vehicle is a primary known cause of less efficient burning of fuel.

When the engine that drives everything in you is neglected, you get more friction in your life too.

If you understand the basic fact of PTSD, it takes some friction away. That is the fact that PTSD hit you and happened because you survived what the event tried to do to you. So why let it win now?

Friction happens when you think it is your fault, or you were too weak to "get over it" but PTSD hits harder when you have a strong emotional core.  Just like when you feel good stuff really strongly, you feel bad stuff more. So why think there is anything wrong with you now that sadness hit if you do not feel wrong when love lives strongly?

Friction happens when you surround yourself with people who reenforce the negative actions you take, like drinking, doing drugs or taking risks. It happens when they add to the terrible thoughts you are already thinking.

Stay away from anything or anyone telling you about veterans committing suicide with their pushups, walks, stunts and events you are invited you to because they tell you what a good time you'll have.
read more here

Canadian Veteran's dying wish, to step it with wife of 70 years!

Wife of ailing WWII veteran denied bed at Camp Hill

The Chronicle Herald Canada
Andrew Rankin
December 1, 2018
“I’m 97 years old and I’m only getting a few days here and there to see my wife,” said Vaughan. “This could go on until I die. Not a very nice thing to think about.”

The pair have been married for 70 years

Second World War veteran David Vaughan says he’s disappointed that his wife of 70 years is not allowed to live with him at Camp Hill Veterans Memorial Hospital in Halifax. - Andrew Rankin

David Vaughan is nearing 100 years of age and the Second World War veteran wishes he could spend whatever time he has left with his wife Cecilia.

“I miss her a lot,” said Vaughan as he lay in bed at Camp Hill Veterans Memorial Hospital in Halifax Monday evening. “She’s from Cape Breton, a wonderful girl. My best friend.”

The 97 year old, who served as a tank operator during the Italian campaign, found out from hospital staff this week that his 92-year-old wife Cecilia isn’t allowed to move in to the 175-bed long-term care facility.

Veterans Affairs confirmed this on Friday, saying all but 22 of the beds there are currently occupied by Canadian veterans. The Nova Scotia Health Authority pays a fee to the department for those beds. They’re occupied by regular civilians discharged from hospital and awaiting long-term care outside of Camp Hill.

Still, the facility currently boasts 28 vacant rooms.
read more here

Vice Admiral Scott Stearney passed away

update

Vice Adm. Scott Stearney, who oversaw U.S. naval forces in the Middle East, was found dead Saturday in his residence in Bahrain, officials said. Defense officials told CBS News they are calling it an "apparent suicide." CBS News

Navy admiral Scott Stearney found dead in Bahrain, no foul play suspected

NBC News
By Courtney Kube and Phil Helsel
Dec. 1, 2018

Vice Adm. Scott Stearney, commander of U.S. Naval Forces Central Command, U.S. 5th Fleet and Combined Maritime Forces, speaks on the 1MC shipboard intercom to welcome the crew of the guided-missile destroyer USS Jason Dunham to Manama, Bahrain, on Oct. 24, 2018.Petty Officer 3rd Class Jonathan / USS Jason Dunham (DDG109)

The Navy admiral in charge of the military branch’s operations in the Middle East was found dead in Bahrain on Saturday, the Navy said.

Vice Admiral Scott Stearney was found dead in his residence in Bahrain Saturday and no foul play is suspected, Chief of Naval Operations Admiral John Richardson said in a statement. The Naval Criminal Investigative Service and the Bahraini Ministry of Interior are cooperating on the investigation.

Stearney took over as commander of U.S. Naval Forces Central Command and the Combined Maritime Forces in May, where he commanded more than 20,000 U.S. and coalition sailors, Marines, Coastguardsmen, and civilians. Stearney served 36 years in the Navy.
read more here

Fatal crash killed Iraq veteran, son and father

10-year-old boy, teacher, Iraq vet killed in 'very tragic' crash

LMT Online
HTV National Desk
November 30, 2018

Three members of the same family were killed in a single-vehicle crash on a rural Ohio road Wednesday night.

Investigators said an SUV careened off a road in Brown County and slammed into a tree, without leaving a skid mark. Everyone inside the vehicle was killed.

“It was the last thing on my mind that anything like that would ever happen,” said Rob Moler, who is related to all of the victims.

His father, Robert Moler, 83, was killed in the crash. He was a teacher and basketball coach at Bethel Tate High School. He retired after nearly a half-century at the school.

“Anywhere he went, they always knew dad,” Rob Moler said.

Also killed was Robert’s great-grandson, 10-year-old Cameron Moler. He was a student at Kilgore School in Mt. Lookout.

Cameron’s father, Nick Moler, was driving. He had been in the National Guard and served a tour in Iraq.

“Even one is terrible, but when you have three members of the same family, it’s very tragic,” said Ohio State Police Patrol Sgt. Shannon Utter.
read more here

Marine got apology from publisher for choosing wrong adventure

A Marine's Reaction to a Children's Book Prompts an Apology From the Publisher

New York Times
C. J. Chivers
November 30, 2018

In an article for the Times, a former Marine criticized a “choose your own adventure” children’s book set in Afghanistan. A week later, the book’s publisher wrote to him with an apology.

“The choose-your-adventure format,” he wrote, “felt breezy and cavalier, recklessly presenting a bloody contest between the Taliban and the Marines in a manner largely devoid of consequences. I know what the book did not say. My friends and I killed in Marjah, and Marines in my rifle company lost limbs and lives. No notional exercise in choice will erase the fact that both my battalion and the battalion to our north killed many civilians in the opening days of Operation Moshtarak, when American high-explosive rockets struck occupied Afghan homes. Then, in the end, American plans for the area failed. Today Marjah is again under of the control of the Taliban and warlords.”

At War is a newsletter about the experiences and costs of war with stories from Times reporters and outside voices.

Earlier this month, Zachary Bell, a former Marine rifleman and infantry squad leader, received an unsolicited email from the head of Capstone, a publisher of children’s books in Minnesota.

The New York Times Magazine had just published Bell’s first article for the At War channel, in which he had detailed his reaction this summer to observing his two daughters, ages 8 and 10, reading “War in Afghanistan: An Interactive Modern History Adventure,” a book in Capstone’s You Choose series. The book included a chapter on an operation in 2010 in Marjah, a Taliban stronghold in Helmand Province, in which Bell participated. He watched and listened as they confronted the text’s notional choices, including how to navigate the perilous landscape and whether to fire upon Afghan men who might be snipers — at risk of committing a war crime.
read more here

VA Help Desk Closing in Washington

Veterans Benefits Administration to close office’s help desk

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
NOVEMBER 30, 2018

The administration estimates the help desk assisted an average of 180 veterans each month with benefit-related queries.

BREMERTON, WASH.
The Veterans Benefits Administration is shutting down a help desk inside its Bremerton office that's staffed with employees who assist veterans with benefit-related queries.

The Kitsap Sun reports the office, as of Friday, will no longer be a place where veterans can receive in-person assistance with navigating through the Department of Veterans Affairs' pension and compensation system.

A statement from the Veterans Benefits Administration says its decision to downsize operations at the office "was made in line with the Agency's goal to be strong fiscal stewards of the taxpayer funds entrusted to us."
read more here

Alabama VA clinics "merging" with only one doctor?

Dothan VA clinic closing, merging

Montgomery Advertiser
Andrew J. Yawn and Melissa Brown
November 30, 2018

A staff member at the newly merged mental health clinic — now named the Dothan VA Clinic — said Thursday the two clinics were consolidated earlier in the week and that there is only one doctor on staff.

Health care for veterans in southeast Alabama is in transition after the Dothan Veterans Affairs Clinic closure was made official Friday.

The primary care services previously provided by the clinic will now be offered at the Dothan VA Mental Health Clinic, although it appears the Wiregrass VA Clinic in Ft. Rucker — more than a 30-minute drive away — will also be heavily relied on to handle the influx of patients from the now-closed clinic.

Despite the more than 4,300 VA patients who are assigned to the Dothan division, according to data provided by the Central Alabama Veterans Healthcare System (CAVHCS), the merged Dothan VA location is currently capable of accommodating 2,000 patients. There are plans to expand for at least 1,000 additional patients, CAVHCS spokesperson Kim Betton said via email.

"Capacity at Ft. Rucker has also increased to care for other of the (sic) Veterans," Betton said. "Additionally, care in the local community will be used to ensure care for the Veteran population currently using the clinic."

More than 3,100 VA patients are currently assigned to the Ft. Rucker Wiregrass clinic.

A request by the Montgomery Advertiser for the number of doctors at each facility went unanswered, and a request for an interview regarding the closure was not fulfilled.

Reid, who lives alone and whose close family lives in Alaska, receives four hours of in-home health aid five days a week to help with quality of life tasks. But within the past two years, paperwork and red tape at the Montgomery VA has caused her home health care to lapse, leaving her without in-home care for several weeks. Reid said her monthly pain medication is frequently delayed as well, a disruptive and painful occurrence. read more here

President George H.W. Bush Passed Away

Presidents, politicians mourn passing of former President George H.W. Bush

By ABC NEWS
Dec 1, 2018

The death of former President George H.W. Bush drew an immediate outpouring of condolences from around the country and the world. From former presidents to representatives and business leaders, the praise was overwhelming for the 41st president.

His son, the 43rd president, sent an immediate statement on behalf of George H.W. Bush's children.

"Jeb, Neil, Marvin, Doro, and I are saddened to announce that after 94 remarkable years, our dear dad has died. George H.W. Bush was a man of the highest character and the best dad a son or daughter could ask for. The entire Bush family is deeply grateful for 41’s life and love, for the compassion of those who have cared and prayed for dad and for the condolences of our friends and fellow citizens."
read more here

URGENT Bay Pines Cemetery won't have enough wreaths unless you help

Bay Pines Cemetery struggles to put wreath on every veteran's grave

FOX 13 News
Catherine Hawley
November 29, 2018

Right now, Bay Pines is at 5 percent of its goal, meaning more than 32,000 graves won't get a wreath.

ST. PETERSBURG (FOX 13) - Each December, volunteers place hundreds of thousands of evergreen, live wreaths on the graves of veterans.

The program started at Arlington National Cemetery in 1992 and now takes place in more than 1,400 cemeteries across the country, including in the Bay Area.

For Ronalee Klase, her brother, Billy's grave couldn't be more perfect.

"I always kid, I say it’s right on the edge just where he lived life," Klase said.

Billy Klase was a Vietnam vet, a martial arts expert, and an avid skydiver. He was laid to rest at Bay Pines National Cemetery in St. Petersburg 14 years ago.

"We try to come out on the anniversary of his death and put some flowers down for him," said Klase.

She also makes sure he gets a wreath during the holiday season.

The cemetery is one of hundreds across the country taking part in Wreaths Across America. Every December, volunteers lay evergreens on the graves of our fallen soldiers, saying every name out loud.
read more here