Praying for Osama?

UPDATES

The church ended up changing plans to pray for Osama and looks like the folks over at Family Radio are thinking things over as well considering they're all still here.
We're all still here and it looks like the folks expecting rapture are too.

In the end, rapture believers weren't going anywhere
To many who put stock in Harold Camping's prophecy about the end of the world, disillusionment was profound. It ended up being apocalypse … not.

In Central Florida, life goes on for believers

When Charles Roberts decided to kill little Amish school girls, leaving five of them dead, this story shocked the world. Not just because of the murders but because of the reaction of the parents and the entire community to forgive him. No one could understand being able to do that, but they did. They knew it was for their own sake they let go of the hatred and anger they felt.

This is what hatred does.

6 killed in Kabul hospital attack, official says; Taliban claims 51

This was done by suicide bombers. Could you imagine that kind of hatred? A person walking around the planet decides killing patients in a hospital while blowing himself up is a good thing to do and will send a message? What kind of message do you think the rest of the world received? Most will have no compassion or understanding of this kind of action. If he thought it would help his cause, he was a fool. When innocent people are killed, they are noting more than a foolish murderer ready to die for the sake of someone telling them they needed to do it. Fools believe another human telling them to martyr themselves while they remain alive and not willing to do the same thing. If the cause is so worthy, then why don't the leaders ever do it? Osama didn't. He wasn't even willing to face his "enemy" and put his own life on the line all these years. He hid in a mansion with his wives and kids.

While most of the country has been rejoicing since President Obama announced Osama had been killed, a church in West Palm Beach Florida is praying for his soul. Some find this wrong but Christ said it was followers needed to do.

Matthew 5
Love for Enemies

43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor[i] and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 46 If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? 47 And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? 48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Matthew 6
14 For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.

There is another kind of leader living to make people afraid.

Doomsday church Still open for business
By Annalyn Censky @CNNMoney May 19, 2011
Harold Camping and his devoted followers claim a massive earthquake will mark the second coming of Jesus, or so-called Judgment Day on Saturday, May 21, ushering in a five month period of catastrophes before the world comes to a complete end in October.

At the center of it all, Camping's organization, Family Radio, is perfectly happy to take your money -- and in fact, received $80 million in contributions between 2005 and 2009. Camping founded Family Radio, a nonprofit Christian radio network based in Oakland, Calif. with about 65 stations across the country, in 1958.

What did Camping do with all the money the church had if the judgment day was going to start today? Did he keep it? Does he plan on taking it with him when he is raptured up to heaven? Did he give it all away to the poor? Did he even pray for those he will leave behind if he really believed the end was near?

Matthew 7
True and False Prophets

15 “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. 16 By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? 17 Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.

There are three churches and two very different examples of what they feel is the right way to follow Christ. Two pray for people when everyone would understand if they hated instead and then there is the other church praying for the end of days.

How do you want to live the rest of your life? Do you want to carry around hatred or do you want to be able to forgive?

Honestly I wish I could be as good as the Amish and the church able to pray for Osama's soul but I have been unable to come close to doing it. As for the end of days, I paid my bills this month and just signed up for fall classes.

4 Iowa Guard soldiers hurt in bombing in Afghanistan

4 Iowa Guard soldiers hurt in bombing in Afghanistan
12:30 AM, May. 21, 2011

Written by
TONY LEYS
Four Iowa National Guard soldiers were wounded when a bomb struck their truck in Afghanistan on Wednesday.

Guard officials identified them as Sgt. Chisum Frisch, 23, of Cedar Falls; Spc. Jacob Hutchinson, 21, of Cedar Rapids; Spc. Benjamin Ward, 26, of Rowley; and Pfc. Tanner Williams, 18, of Tama.
read more here
4 Iowa Guard soldiers hurt in bombing in Afghanistan

First lady at West Point: Keep families in mind

First lady at West Point: Keep families in mind
By Michael Hill - The Associated Press
Posted : Friday May 20, 2011 20:48:20 EDT
WEST POINT, N.Y. — First lady Michelle Obama urged more than 1,000 cadets Friday night on the brink of graduating to keep in mind the families of the soldiers they will lead.

Obama addressed the white-clad cadets and their families gathered in the U.S. Military Academy’s castle-like mess hall for a graduation-eve banquet. It marked her first trip to the storied academy and dovetails with her recent work on behalf of military families.

“You’ll be helping your troops deal with the joy of a new birth and the disappointment of not being in the delivery room,” she said. “You’ll be helping a soldier cope with a family emergency halfway around the world.”

She noted that more than half of service members are married and 40 percent have two or more kids.

Obama is the only first lady to address cadets at their graduation banquet — a rare occasion for them to wear their dress whites and dine with their relatives. The mess hall was filled with thousands more family members in suits and dresses dining on filet mignon and garlic mashed potatoes.

Obama reminded cadets that they not only must support their soldiers’ families, but that their families helped them to this point in their careers.
read more here
First lady at West Point: Keep families in mind

Is Agent Orange buried at Camp Carroll Korea?

USFK investigating vets' claims they buried Agent Orange on base in '70s
By ASHLEY ROWLAND
Stars and Stripes
Published: May 20, 2011

SEOUL – U.S. Forces Korea is investigating whether Agent Orange is buried at Camp Carroll, following claims from veterans who say they buried the toxic herbicide while stationed there in the late 1970s, a military spokesman said Friday.

The matter has “the full attention” of top U.S. military commanders in South Korea, including the USFK commander, Gen. Walter Sharp, and the 8th Army commander, Lt. Gen. John Johnson, said Lt. Col. Jeff Buczkowski, 8th Army spokesman.

“Our intention is to be completely transparent and cooperative with the [South Koreans] and probably do some kind of joint investigation,” he said. “We’re going to do as much as possible.”

Three former soldiers recently told a Phoenix television station that they helped bury the chemical at Camp Carroll. According to a transcript of the report, Phoenix-area resident Steve House said he was ordered in 1978 to dig a ditch nearly a city block long that was used for burying 55-gallon drums, some with the words “Province of Vietnam, Compound Orange” written on them.
read more here
USFK investigating vets' claims they buried Agent Orange

Troop morale In Afghanistan plummets. Would it help if we cared?

Would it help if we cared about them? Ever wonder what it would be like for you to be doing what they have to do and then end up ignored? They come back home, turn on TV and they don't see any news about Afghanistan or Iraq other than a local soldier's body may be coming home in a few days. The only recent news on them came out when Osama was killed and President Obama was thanking the 101st Airborne along with the Seals.

We see local stories about them coming home and getting into trouble or as with the report from the Orlando Sentinel today, they are having a hard time finding work but no one really seems to care about them.

Report: Troop Morale In Afghanistan Plummets
by THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
May 19, 2011
As fighting and casualties in Afghanistan's war reached an all-time high, U.S. soldiers and Marines there reported plunging morale and the highest rates of mental health problems in five years.

The grim statistics in a new Army report released Thursday dramatize the psychological cost of a military campaign that U.S. commanders and officials say has reversed the momentum of the Taliban insurgency.

Military doctors said the findings from a battlefield survey taken last summer were no surprise given the dramatic increase in combat, which troops reported was at its most intense level since officials began doing mental health analyses in 2003.

"There are few stresses on the human psyche as extreme as the exposure to combat and seeing what war can do," Lt. Gen. Eric B. Schoomaker, the Army surgeon general, said at a Pentagon news conference.

Some 70 percent to 80 percent of troops surveyed for the report said they had seen a buddy killed, roughly half of soldiers and 56 percent of Marines said they'd killed an enemy fighter, and about two-thirds of troops said that a roadside bomb — the No. 1 weapon of insurgents — had gone off within 55 yards of them.

Most of those statistics were significantly higher than what troops said they experienced in the previous year in Afghanistan as well as during the 2007 surge of extra troops into the Iraq war, the report said.
read more here
Troop Morale In Afghanistan Plummets

Well it looks like I just got my answer. It must help when they know we care about what they are doing.

Commander: Morale not flagging for 101st
By Kristin M. Hall - The Associated Press
Posted : Friday May 20, 2011 12:39:24 EDT
FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. — The commander of the 101st Airborne Division says he doesn’t see morale flagging among his troops.

Maj. Gen. John F. Campbell said upon his return to Fort Campbell on Friday from leading his troops in eastern Afghanistan that re-enlistment rates show the soldiers remain committed to the Army.

read more here
Morale not flagging for 101st

Veterans return to high unemployment, tight job market

Veterans return to high unemployment, tight job market
By Richard Burnett, Orlando Sentinel
8:58 p.m. EDT, May 19, 2011
 
Kyle Evans just missed certain death when a bomb exploded under his military-convoy vehicle in Iraq. The Army logistics expert survived and returned home to Orlando nearly two years ago, though for the longest time he could not find work.

"I applied for so many jobs, I lost count," said the 28-year-old husband and father of two, who finally landed a job earlier this year at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs clinic in Orlando. "It was getting pretty frustrating. This job market can be tough on anyone, but it can be twice as hard on veterans."

Amid the violence of combat, many veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan never imagined the added stress they would face in trying to find work back home, experts say.

Unemployment among these recent veterans is higher than among the rest of the population and among military veterans overall, according to the latest U.S. Labor Department data. In April, as the country continued its slow recovery from the worst recession since the 1930s, the jobless rate among Iraq and Afghanistan vets was nearly 11 percent, compared with 8.5 percent for nonveterans and 7.7 percent for veterans overall.
read more here
Veterans return to high unemployment, tight job market

Four buses crash in LA, three of them with military personnel

Multiple bus crash shuts down 5 Freeway in L.A.; one bus transporting inmates
May 19, 2011 | 12:53 pm
Four buses -- including at least one carrying inmates for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department -- collided with one another other in a chain-reaction crash that has shut down the northbound 5 Freeway in Commerce, Channel 9 news is reporting.

[Updated at 1:05 p.m.: Authorities said that three of the buses were carrying military personnel.

Eight people suffered injuries and were taken to hospitals. One of the crash victims sustained potentially more serious injuries.

Two of those injured were inmates; the other six were military personnel.

At about 12:45 p.m., authorities shut down the entire freeway -- all northbound and southbound lanes. A new Sheriff's Department bus also arrived to collect the inmates, said Los Angeles County Fire Inspector Matt Levesque.

The accident occurred just south of Washington Boulevard at 11:50 a.m. Officials believe that a car slowed suddenly in front of the Sheriff's Department bus. The bus driver slammed on his brakes, leading to a chain-reaction crash with the three buses following closely behind him in the fast lane, Levesque said.]

Video from the scene shows the damaged buses and the northbound highway entirely shut down. Southbound traffic is backed up and moving slowly.

At least one inmate was transported from the scene by ambulance and other inmates suffered at least minor injuries, the station reported.

-- Howard Blume
check here for updates on this
Multiple bus crash shuts down 5 Freeway

Home Base run to help veterans with PTSD

UPDATE on this story 5/23/11

Fenway run raises $2.6m to aid veterans
By Stewart Bishop
Globe Correspondent / May 23, 2011

On a cool, overcast morning at Fenway Park yesterday, 33-year-old Meredith Griffin paid tribute to seven members of her family who have fought in the Iraq war — especially to the one who never made it home.

She joined more than 2,000 runners, including almost 300 active duty military service members, to raise money to support veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan with combat stress or brain injuries.

Griffin’s cousin, Army Captain Anthony Palermo Jr. of Brockton, was killed in the line of duty in Baghdad in April 2007. Yesterday she ran the race wearing a shirt bearing Palermo’s photo, along with the dates of his birth and death.

“It’s really kind of a labor of love to run today and to really be involved in this cause,’’ said Griffin, of Raynham, as she stood in front of the Red Sox dugout after the race. “This is in honor of Tony and in honor of my other relatives that are still with us and that are still struggling.’’

Griffin said many of her family members who have served have been diagnosed with posttraumatic stress disorder, a debilitating anxiety condition that often affects soldiers exposed to severe trauma.

“A lot of them, the ones that came home, have been diagnosed with PTSD. There’s a lot of emotion they don’t share with you, a lot of mood swings, fear, and mixed emotions. It’s hard to deal with all of that,’’ Griffin said. “We have a pretty amazing family and a great support group, but not everybody’s that lucky. “

Organizers said the 5.6-mile run — which began on Yawkey Way, stretched over the river to Memorial Drive and ended with runners crossing home plate inside the park — raised an estimated $2.6 million for the Red Sox Foundation and Massachusetts General Hospital Home Base Program. It was the second annual Run to Home Base, and participants were required to raise $1,000.
read more here
Fenway run raises $2.6m to aid veterans

Charity Run At Fenway To Raise Money For Local Veterans

Charity Run At Fenway To Raise Money For Local Veterans


9K Run To Home Base Supports Those Affected By Stress Disorders, Traumatic Brain Injury

BOSTON -- One in five soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan struggles with a stress disorder, like PTSD, or traumatic brain injury, according to the Massachusetts General and The Red Sox Foundation's Home Base Program, which provides care to veterans with deployment and combat-related stress disorders and traumatic brain injury.

"Because we've had so many improvised explosive devices and RPGs go off near our nation's heroes, we have a number of people coming back with cognitive problems, memory issues, behavioral issues (and) problems with sleep," said Dr. Ross Zafonte, the traumatic brain injury director at the Home Base Program. "If we don't remember the same way, if we don't evaluate situations the same way, if we can't interact with our family in the same way, the consequences can be devastating."

Air Force veteran Dee Lane saw that firsthand with her brother Billy, who served in Iraq.

"It's all kind of kept within you," said Lane. "It was a very lonely, a very lonely five years, and he kept so much to himself."
read more here
Charity Run At Fenway To Raise Money For Local Veterans

Tennessee National Guard soldiers turn to drugs for a reason

If they use drugs, it is the military's fault. Plain and simple. These men and women were not using drugs before they enlisted in the National Guard. They were not using during deployment. They used them afterwards but this doesn't seem to make a difference when so many are being kicked out instead of being helped.

Some want to pass this off as "get rid of them" but they are not thinking about the big picture and why someone willing to risk their lives for others, paying the price with their bodies in training, would suddenly care so little they would risk getting caught using drugs. Anyone paying attention to this part? Is congress? Why are they used up and then tossed out when they do not get what they need to heal from where we sent them?


Tennessee Soldiers Turn To Drugs After Combat

Some Kicked Out Of National Guard
Reported by Caroline Moses
POSTED: 5:23 pm CDT May 19, 2011

NASHVILLE, Tenn. --
There's a big problem with some soldiers returning to Middle Tennessee after serving their country, and it seems to be a growing trend. So far this year, twice as many of National Guards members have failed drug tests compared to the last two years.

These are soldiers who fought for their country then returned home from war and failed drug tests. Why are they turning to drugs after combat? Experts said it has to do with what's inside their head.

Soldiers who join the National Guard know that means they will be drug tested. The tests are random and come before and after soldiers are deployed.

"You are a different person when you get back, and if you don't understand how to deal with that, you can turn to these other mechanisms that seem to medicate it," said Mike Jones, executive director of Not Alone, a nonprofit group that aims to help soldiers who suffer post-war mental health issues.

Jones served in Iraq and Afghanistan and suffered Post Traumatic Stress Disorder afterward. He said he understands what returning from war feels like. That's why he is concerned when any soldier turns to drugs.
read more here
Tennessee Soldiers Turn To Drugs After Combat

Family Demands Answers in SWAT Team Killing of Arizona Ex-Marine

Family Demands Answers in SWAT Team Killing of Arizona Ex-Marine
by ELLEN TUMPOSKY
May 19, 2011

The family of an ex-Marine who was gunned down in his home by a Pima County, Ariz., SWAT team firing 71 shots is demanding some answers.

Jose Guerena, 26, died the morning of May 5. He was asleep in his Tuscon home after working a night shift at the Asarco copper mine when his wife, Vanessa, saw the armed SWAT team outside her youngest son's bedroom window.

"She saw a man pointing at her with a gun," said Reyna Ortiz, 29, a relative who is caring for Vanessa and her children. Ortiz said Vanessa Guerena yelled, "Don't shoot! I have a baby!"

Vanessa thought the gunman might be part of a home invasion -- a frequent occurrence in Tucson -- Ortiz said. She shouted for her husband in the next room, and he woke up and told his wife to hide in the closet with the child, Joel, 4.

Guerena grabbed his assault rifle and was pointing it at the SWAT team, which was trying to serve a narcotics search warrant as part of a multihouse drug crackdown, when the team broke down the door. At first the Pima County Sheriff's Office said that Guerena fired first, but Wednesday officials backtracked and said he had not. "The safety was on and he could not fire," according to the sheriff's statement.


SWAT team members fired 71 times and hit Guerena -- an Iraq War veteran -- 60 times, police said.
read more here
Family Demands Answers in SWAT Team Killing

Was Marine killed for living in wrong neighborhood

Festival to benefit wounded Marine

Festival to benefit wounded Marine

NEW PORT RICHEY --
Seven bands will help Rock the Park during a concert Saturday to benefit a badly wounded Marine, Justin Gaertner of Trinity.

The free event in Sims Park, in downtown New Port Richey, also will benefit the Center for Independence, a nonprofit organization that for 46 years has served Pasco County residents with developmental disabilities. The cash-strapped agency is grappling with state budget cuts.

From 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., some home-grown performers will take to the amphitheater stage, organizer Sean Kline said. He is the outreach coordinator for the Center for Independence and New Freedom Transportation.

The "free for all ages show" will feature a silent auction, food and fun, Kline said.

Among the bands will be Cyrenia, a group of Mitchell High School graduates determined to help Gaertner, who graduated from Mitchell in 2007.

Lance Cpl. Gaertner, 21, lost both legs in an explosion in Afghanistan on Nov. 26. His left arm was seriously injured.
read more here
Festival to benefit wounded Marine

Bikers gearing up to aid wounded Marine

Bikers gearing up to aid wounded Marine
by Staff Report

ARARAT, Va. — The hollows of this southwestern Patrick County community are expected to echo the sounds of motorcycles Saturday when members of various groups ride in support of a wounded local Marine.

The event to benefit Cpl. Joshua B. Kerns of Ararat will be held as part of the second-annual Ararat Heritage and Music Jamboree. It will feature a 10 a.m. parade through Ararat and a daylong slate of music and other activities at Dan River Park.

Roger Hayden, a member of the Patrick County Board of Supervisors representing that community and an avid motorcyclist, has organized the benefit ride.

Kerns, a 2008 graduate of Patrick County High School, was injured by the IED on April 7 during his third deployment to Afghanistan. He has lost both legs below the knees and his right arm below the elbow. The Marine is now hospitalized in Bethesda, Md.

His parents have faced travel, lost work and other expenses as a result of the situation, and once Kerns returns home alterations will be needed to make the family’s house handicapped-accessible. At last report, more than $40,000 had been generated, with additional fund-raising activities to come.

Read more: Mount Airy News -
Bikers gearing up to aid wounded Marine

Marine Corps foundation honors heroic Vietnam War priest

Marine Corps foundation honors heroic Vietnam War priest
By Marianne Medlin

Triangle, Va., May 20, 2011 / 02:35 am (CNA).-

Servant of God Fr. Vincent Capodanno, a chaplain who was killed in action while protecting U.S. soldiers during the Vietnam War, was honored with a permanent tribute at the National Museum of the Marine Corps.

“The Marines who served with Chaplain Capodanno remember him as the Chaplain who went wherever his Marines needed his comfort and guidance, no matter the personal danger,” said Lt. Gen. Ron Christmas, president of the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation.

“From the foxholes to the front lines, Chaplain Capodanno was there.”

The Marine Corps Heritage Foundation dedicated the “Sacrifice Window” in the Semper Fidelis Memorial Chapel at the National Museum of the Marine Corps on May 11 to honor the late priest. Each window in the chapel is titled with a word that describes the ethos of the Marine Corps.
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Marine Corps foundation honors heroic Vietnam War priest

Fort Drum soldier in custody after shooting his wife

Drum soldier in custody after shooting
The Associated Press
Posted : Thursday May 19, 2011 7:04:45 EDT
FORT DRUM, N.Y. — A Fort Drum soldier was in custody Thursday after shooting his wife on the Army post, authorities said.

The shooting happened at post housing Wednesday night, base officials said, adding that Sgt. Jason Seeds, 31, of Toms River, N.J., was taken into custody.
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Drum soldier in custody after shooting

Congress moves to protect military sex assault victims

Congress moves to protect sex assault victims
By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Thursday May 19, 2011 14:32:03 EDT
Efforts to strengthen protections for military victims of sexual assault are gaining ground in Congress.

The House Armed Services Committee adopted a series of new protections when it passed the 2012 defense authorization bill last week, and similar legislation was introduced Wednesday in the Senate by Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass., and Susan Collins, R-Maine.

Rep. Niki Tsongas, D-Mass., one of the cosponsors of the House sexual assault provisions, said introduction of a Senate bill “will help move this legislation closer to becoming law.”

The House and Senate initiatives are similar, drawn from recommendations of the 2009 final report of the Defense Task Force on Sexual Assault in the Military Services to fix flaws in the rights and legal protections for assault victims.

Supporters said one in three women leaving the military report experiencing sexual trauma while in the service, but less than 14 percent of sexual assaults in the military are reported to authorities, and only about 8 percent of reported sexual assaults in the military are prosecuted.
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Congress moves to protect sex assault victims

Veterans find "soldier-to-soldier, peer-to-peer support"

'They have a connection with each other that's beyond words’

By Denise Whitaker

SEATTLE -- The battle never ends for wounded veterans. They fight trauma every day they're home.

But now in Washington, there's a new approach to help them find healing.

It starts as most first encounters do, with introductions. The men, standing in a circle in the woods in Snohomish County, take turns.

They're all wounded veterans who fought terrorism and now fight to repair their wounded souls.

About half are American. The rest are Israeli.

"When people come back from overseas, they bring that baggage of combat, whatever traumatic experiences they go through. And that can isolate people," said former Army Ranger Sam Barrett.

The isolation is gone here; it's soldier-to-soldier, peer-to-peer support on the path to what Barrett calls "traumatic growth."

"They have a connection with each other that's beyond words. They share with their eyes," said Rabbi Chaim Levine.

One of the Israeli soldiers said a soldier's friends and family just want everything back to normal, get back to life as you lived it before war, before your wounds. That, he said, is unfair to even ask. You cannot be normal again, he said, but you can find a place, a way to cope.
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'They have a connection with each other that's beyond words’

Two tour Iraq veteran in coma after hit and run driver left him

Hudson Iraq War Vet in Coma Following Accident

Ritchey is an Army veteran who was awarded a Purple Heart after suffering an injury from an IED while serving his second tour of duty in Iraq.

By Dan Jovic | dan.jovic@fox8.com
Fox8.com Reporter
7:15 p.m. EDT, May 18, 2011

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- An Iraq war veteran from Hudson remains in critical condition at the Ohio State Medical Center following a possible hit-and-run early Sunday morning.

According to a police report filed on the incident by Ohio State Campus Police, Chris Ritchey, 28, of Hudson, was riding a bike at 2:40 a.m. Sunday morning when he was possibly struck by a vehicle that fled the scene of the accident.

Police say Ritchey was might have been struck at the intersection of West Lane Avenue and North High Street, according to the report.
read more here
Hudson Iraq War Vet in Coma Following Accident

10th Mountain Soldier in custody after shooting at Fort Drum

Soldier in custody after shooting at Fort Drum
Fort Drum (WSYR-TV) - A Fort Drum soldier is in custody after a domestic dispute in which shots were fired and a woman was injured.

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Soldier in custody after shooting at Fort Drum

Lack of DOD-VA coordination hurts treatment of combat wounded

Senators blast DoD, VA for bad coordination

"Army reporting 14 percent of soldiers have been prescribed an opiate, with a third of them being prescribed more than once." Senator Patty Murray


By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday May 18, 2011 13:47:48 EDT
Combat veterans are being poorly served as a result of weak coordination between the Defense and Veteran Affairs departments, a key senator said Wednesday.

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee chairwoman, said drug abuse and suicides among recently separated combat veterans can be partly blamed on inadequate coordination as service members leave the military and become the responsibility of VA.

A lack of coordination also hurts treatment of combat-related wounds. Amputees are an example, Murray said.

“Where DoD has outstanding prosthetics, VA needs to do much better,” she said. “I was shocked to hear of a veteran who, after receiving advanced prosthetics from the military, went to VA to have them adjusted and maintained. When the veteran got to the prosthetic clinic, the VA employees were fascinated by the device, having never seen that model before, and were more interested in examining it than the veteran.”

The services have used narcotics heavily to treat service members, with the Army reporting 14 percent of soldiers have been prescribed an opiate, with a third of them being prescribed more than once, Murray said.

“It is imperative that these individuals receive a truly seamless handoff to VA medical care so a provider there can manage those medications after the individual has left the service,” Murray said. “If that link is not made, those new veterans become far more likely to abuse drugs, become homeless or commit suicide.”
read more here
Senators blast DoD, VA for bad coordination

Navy Cross for Gunnery Sgt. Brian M. Blonder actions in Afghanistan

Recon Marine Awarded Navy Cross

May 17, 2011
Marine Corps News|by Sgt. Michael S. Cifuentes

ARLINGTON, Va. -- Gunnery Sgt. Brian M. Blonder shot and killed an insurgent who was aiming a rocket-propelled grenade at his Marines. After that, Blonder and his Marines averaged killing one insurgent about every 10 minutes.

At the end of an all-day fight, more than 50 Taliban were dead, scores were retreating, and the Marines took control of a key supply route through the village of Shewan, Afghanistan.

Blonder said it was what he came to do, and it’s what Marines do best – kill the enemy. And his unit did that exceptionally well that even though the Taliban outnumbered the Marines roughly eight to one.
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Recon Marine Awarded Navy Cross

Yuma Marine charged with assaulting police officer

Reportedly this Marine was in the road and yelling at cars. Could he have been having some kind of PTSD flashback? If that was what was going on then seeing a police officer coming toward him would have been like seeing the enemy for him. Check back as more news on this comes out.

Marine charged with assaulting police officer
The Associated Press
Posted : Wednesday May 18, 2011 7:40:50 EDT
YUMA, Ariz. — A Marine arrested after scuffling with a Yuma police officer is facing two felony counts of aggravated assault.

Christopher Tucker was arraigned Tuesday in Yuma Justice Court and then returned to jail.

The Yuma Sun says a judge increased Tucker’s bond from $15,000 to $25,825 and also assigned a county public defender to represent him.

The 25-year-old Tucker is assigned to the Marine Corps Air Station Yuma.

Police say he was in a roadway yelling at cars last Thursday and allegedly attacked an officer who tried to speak with him.

After a struggle, police say Tucker tried fleeing from officers and was shot with a stun gun. He then was taken into custody and treated at Yuma Regional Medical Center.

The unidentified police officer was treated for a broken thumb.
Marine charged with assaulting police officer

Link to Yuma Sun report

Man charged in attack on YPD officer
May 17, 2011 3:19 PM
BY JAMES GILBERT - SUN STAFF WRITER
A Yuma Marine who was arrested last week for allegedly assaulting a Yuma police officer has been charged with two felony offenses.

Man charged in attack on YPD officer

2 Marines killed in Afghanistan by Afghan policeman

2 Marines killed in Afghanistan
By Dan Lamothe - Staff writer
Posted : Monday May 16, 2011 18:33:12 EDT
A Marine lieutenant colonel and sergeant have died in Afghanistan in what appears to be a shooting by an Afghan policeman.

Lt. Col. Benjamin Palmer, 43, and Sgt. Kevin Balduf, 27, died Thursday in Helmand province, Pentagon officials said Monday. No additional details about their deaths were initially available, but U.S. military officials in Kabul announced Friday that two service members were killed that day in southwestern Helmand after a member of the Afghan National Civil Order Police, or ANCOP, shot them in a police compound.
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2 Marines killed in Afghanistan

Brian D. Riley Jr.: Longwood soldier killed in Afghanistan

Brian D. Riley Jr.: Longwood soldier killed in Afghanistan


Compiled by Orlando Sentinel
9:12 p.m. EDT, May 17, 2011

A 24-year-old soldier from Longwood was killed this week Afghanistan, Department of Defense announced today.

Spc. Brian D. Riley Jr., died Sunday, in Kunar province.

The Department of Defense said he was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 35th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, Schofield Barracks, Hawaii.

"I have the most amazing daughter in the world," Riley wrote on his Facebook page, which feature a photo of him holding the unnamed child. He also wrote that he "loves anything to do with cars."

Information he posted indicated he is originally from Binghamton, N.Y. No other details were immediately available.
Longwood soldier killed in Afghanistan

CNN Robin Meade offers way to Salute to Troops

As simple as creating an online greeting card. Create a "Salute to Troops" you can e-mail to your military loved one.
http://salute.blogs.cnn.com/

Every weekday morning on HLN's "Morning Express," anchor Robin Meade and her team do a shout-out to U.S. troops by showing off photos and videos sent in by their loved ones. Tune in every hour between 6 and 10 a.m. to see the salutes on air, or click through the archives on this page.

A mortar attack in Iraq in 2006 shattered Marine Sergeant Kenny Lyons' jaw, and cost him his leg. He says his mother never left his side while he recovered. So, he surprised her, by asking HER to cut the ribbon when he got the keys to his new house. Which was built in less than FOUR DAYS and comes mortgage-free, thanks to "Homes for our Troops." They build specially equipped homes for injured vets.

Wounded troops wait up to 400 days to have claim processed

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., chairwoman of the committee, said in a statement that under the new system, it takes on average nearly 400 days to process a claim.

Claim processing keeps injured troops waiting
By Kimberly Hefling - The Associated Press
Posted : Wednesday May 18, 2011 5:48:54 EDT
WASHINGTON — A system designed to get wounded troops out of the military and on disability compensation more quickly has failed recently to meet its efficiency goals, delaying service members’ release sometimes more than a year, documents show.

The lag has caused some of the troops to turn down job offers or postpone college because they don’t know when they will be discharged from the military.

The system is called the Integrated Disability Evaluation System. It started as a pilot in 2007, but has since been rolled out to nearly 80 military installations. By this fall, about 140 installations are expected to participate. It works by consolidating the required medical exams and ratings, so that a service member doesn’t have to go through the disability claims process first in the military and then in the VA.

Congress pushed the system following the 2007 scandal over poor living conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, which highlighted the complexities of the disabilities claims system. Some wounded veterans were left in dire financial conditions as they waited for compensation from the VA.
read more here
Claim processing keeps injured troops waiting

These are some of the men and women we expect to deliver everyday no matter what they have going on in their lives. Then when they get wounded, we settle for just assuming they get whatever they need. The truth is a lot different for them. They should not have to fight one more battle back home because they got hurt fighting battles in combat!

Father joins search for soldier missing in Utah

Father joins search for soldier missing in Utah
By Lynn DeBruin - The Associated Press
Posted : Tuesday May 17, 2011 18:29:29 EDT

SALT LAKE CITY — Army Spc. Joseph Michael Bushling had a tough year following his recent divorce and the 2010 suicide of his younger brother, but was looking forward to a new post in Texas and a career as a nurse. He’s now missing somewhere in Utah’s western desert.

His father, Kevin Bushling, had planned a trip this week to see his son, who was stationed at the U.S. Army’s remote Dugway Proving Ground. The site was established by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1942 to study chemical and biological warfare and covers 798,214 acres in the desert along the Nevada border.

Instead, Bushling will fly out from his home in Arkansas to collect his son’s things. A weeklong search has now been suspended indefinitely.

“I’m very worried. I really am,” Kevin Bushling said Tuesday. “Yesterday was my wife’s birthday. He went missing on Mother’s Day. It’s really been a difficult time.”

Bushling disappeared May 8 after calling a friend to report he had run out of gas. His vehicle was found Saturday about 60 miles southwest of the facility’s main gate. His Arkansas Razorbacks hat was found Monday about six miles from his abandoned car, but searchers have since turned up nothing else.
read more here
Father joins search for soldier missing in Utah

Police arrest biker strapped with guns, 20-inch sword

Blotter: Police arrest biker strapped with guns, 20-inch sword
07:17 AM CDT on Wednesday, May 18, 2011
By Donna Fielder / Staff Writer
Police arrested a man on charges of unlawfully carrying a weapon and family violence assault early Tuesday after finding him riding a motorcycle with a sword strapped on his back and two pistols at his waist.

The man’s wife came to the police department about 12:30 a.m., saying she was afraid of him. He had been abusing his medication for post-traumatic stress disorder, drinking alcohol heavily and huffing butane, she said.

She said he head-butted her and choked her, and she fled their home in the 3000 block of Penniman Road. She said he was heavily armed and carried extra ammunition, according to the police report.
read more here
Police arrest biker strapped with guns, 20-inch sword

Fallen Army Staff Sgt. James P. Hunter journalist among those honored

Fallen Army journalist among those honored
By JEFF SCHOGOL
Published: May 16, 2011

Army Staff Sgt. James P. Hunter
COURTESY SGT. JOE PADULA
UPDATED MAY 17, 2:26 P.M.

WASHINGTON – A solemn ceremony at the Newseum on Monday commemorated the 59 journalists killed in the line of duty in 2010, including Army Staff Sgt. James P. Hunter of the Fort Campbell Courier.

Hunter, 25, was serving with the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division on June 18 when he was killed by a roadside bomb attack in Kandahar.
read more  here
Fallen Army journalist among those honored

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand Pro-Vets Act

Coalition Seeks to Raise Awareness and Help Returning Veterans

by Molly Line | May 16, 2011

Sen Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen)

In the coming weeks, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., will introduce new legislation that calls on the Veterans Affairs Department to be more proactive in informing and providing veterans with the services they're entitled to receive.

The legislation is called the Pro-Vets Act and would require the VA to offer each service member a thorough assessment of benefits and the materials they need to apply. Service members leaving the military would be automatically enrolled in VA health care. Gillibrand's office says that even though they are eligible for up to five years of free care, many never claim the benefit.

The senator is also calling for the Work Opportunity Tax Credit, which offers incentives to companies that hire veterans, to become permanent. Gillibrand is pushing for businesses to be permitted to write off 40 percent of the first $6,000 paid to returning troops.

Severe storms in New York prevented Sen. Gillibrand from leaving Washington to reveal the details of her plan at a roundtable discussion, but veterans' advocacy organizations, the U.S Department of Veterans Affairs, New York City leaders and corporate interests joined together to talk about ways to better coordinate care and services for veterans. They're working to create a community of support for soldiers returning from the battlefields, many of whom are struggling with depression, unemployment, homelessness and post traumatic stress.

Nearly 76,000 American veterans were homeless on a given night in 2009. According to the Department of Veterans Affairs, experts believe up to 20 percent of soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan will suffer from symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. On average, 18 veterans commit suicide every day. The Bureau of Labor Statistics says unemployment for vets returning from Iraq and Afghanistan now stands at nearly 11 percent, roughly two points above the national average.



Read more: Coalition Seeks to Raise Awareness and Help Returning Veterans

Death of Marine in Arizona ruled a suicide

Death of Marine in Arizona ruled a suicide

Posted : Tuesday May 17, 2011 21:51:30 EDT
The Associated Press

YUMA, Ariz. — Authorities say a U.S. Marine from Maine found dead in a southwest Arizona irrigation canal two months ago committed suicide.

Yuma police say 22-year-old Cpl. Joshua Barron had a gunshot wound to the head and their investigation determined it was self-inflicted.
read more here
Death of Marine in Arizona ruled a suicide

Female Iraq Veteran committed suicide after traffic stop

Woman shoots herself during traffic stop on I-90
By Celeste Gracey, ISSAQUAH REPORTER
Published 01:16 p.m., Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Seattle Post Intelligencer

Police believe a woman committed suicide after a Washington State Patrol officer initiated a standard traffic stop on I-90 Tuesday morning.

Kara Hinrichs, 23, of Bothell reportedly shot herself in the head after a domestic dispute with a boyfriend, said Trooper Cliff Pratt.

Hinrich had a clean police record. She did however serve in the U.S. military in Iraq, and had knowledge of how to handle a firearm, he said.

read more here
Woman shoots herself during traffic stop

David Christian, Green Beret, Vietnam War hero becomes a lawyer

Green Beret, Vietnam War hero earns law degree
By Lucas K. Murray - Courier-Post of Cherry Hill
Posted : Tuesday May 17, 2011 12:39:55 EDT
CAMDEN, N.J. — It would have been easy for David Christian to give up, to live off an Army captain’s pension and Social Security.

But it wasn’t in his nature.

Considered the youngest, most-decorated officer of the Vietnam War, with a chest full of medals, it nonetheless took Christian decades to graduate from law school.

Four times in 1976, the former Green Beret was dismissed from Rutgers-Camden for not keeping up his grades.

But it is with mixed feelings he will finally earn that diploma Thursday.

“I left here with all my friends graduating and that left me brokenhearted,” the 63-year-old said. “I was training to be an attorney and was just four credits away from achieving that.”

Today, underneath a black suit and vest, a crisp white shirt with monogrammed cuffs and a yellow tie bearing images of military medals, it’s tough to picture Christian as a skinny Army officer in agony on a hospital bed.

The signs of pain are concealed by his impeccable attire. On sunny days, he wears a Panama hat to cover his red hair and glasses to protect his eyes. Both guard his face from the sun, whose rays easily cause bouts with skin cancer — among the after-effects of napalm burns that affected 40 percent of his body.
read more here
Green Beret, Vietnam War hero earns law degree

PTSD Coach app helped 5,000 veterans connect

Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) App Helps Thousands

WASHINGTON (May 17, 2011) - The PTSD Coach smartphone application (app),
launched in April by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and the
Department of Defense (DoD), has already helped more than 5,000 users
connect with important mental health information and resources.

"This new tool is about helping Veterans and Servicemembers when and
where they need it," said Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K.
Shinseki. "We are encouraged so many have already downloaded this
resource and hope many more will utilize this convenient tool to access
VA services."

Since its launch, the PTSD Coach app has been downloaded by thousands of
individuals. While 96 percent of the users so far are located in the
United States, the app has also been downloaded in 25 other countries.
The app lets users track their PTSD symptoms, links them with public and
personalized sources of support, provides accurate information about
PTSD, and teaches helpful strategies for managing PTSD symptoms on the
go.

Currently, the PTSD Coach app has received perfect customer review
scores on the iTunes App Store. Comments from Veterans and family
members are overwhelmingly positive and one user describes the app as "a
must for every spouse who has a family member with PTSD." Professionals
have sent positive reviews, suggestions and offers to collaborate on
research evaluating the PTSD Coach app.

The app has also already proven to be a useful tool for the staff at the
Veterans Crisis Line. Within the first two hours of the app's official
launch, the Crisis Line staff were contacted by a distressed Veteran who
reported being instructed by the app to call the crisis line and was
subsequently given an appointment at the local VA medical center.
Crisis Line staff have begun to regularly recommend this resource to
callers.

The app is one of the first in a series of jointly-designed resources by
the VA National Center for PTSD and DoD's National Center for Telehealth
and Technology to help Servicemembers and Veterans manage their
readjustment challenges and get anonymous assistance. Given the
popularity of mobile devices, VA and DoD hope to reach tens of thousands
of Veterans, Servicemembers, and their family members with the new suite
of apps.

Information on the PTSD Coach app is on the VA's National Center for
PTSD Website: PTSD Coach app. More
apps can be found from DoD's

National Center for Telehealth and Technology

Help for VA Home Loan Borrowers in Financial Distress Encouraged

VA Announces Disaster Assistance After Tornado Outbreaks


Help for VA Home Loan Borrowers in Financial Distress Encouraged




WASHINGTON (May 17, 2011)- The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)
announced today that special disaster assistance may be available to
Veterans with VA-guaranteed home loans who have been affected by recent
tornados in the South. Veterans living in the designated disaster areas
in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Mississippi and Tennessee may receive
mortgage assistance through their loan servicers.

"VA wants to do everything we can to help Veterans and their families
during this difficult time," said Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K.
Shinseki. "It is important for Veterans to be aware of their rights and
understand there are many resources available to help them recover from
this disaster."

VA strongly encourages mortgage companies not to initiate any new
foreclosures in the disaster areas for a period of 90 days. The agency
also encourages mortgage companies that service VA-guaranteed home loans
to extend every possible forbearance to borrowers who are in distress
through no fault of their own. This includes suspension of reporting to
credit bureaus and waiving late charges for affected borrowers.

There are almost 26,000 Veterans with VA-guaranteed home loans in
counties in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Mississippi, and Tennessee that
have been declared eligible for individual assistance by the Federal
Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

Veterans should contact their insurance company as soon as possible to
file claims for losses. At the same time, they need to contact their
mortgage companies to let them know their circumstances.

Veterans should also start the FEMA disaster application process as soon
as possible by calling 1-800-621-3362. Low interest loans, cash grants,
and housing assistance may be available from agencies associated with
the disaster recovery effort.

VA has information available on its web site
(www.benefits.va.gov/homeloans) that provides basic guidance on options
veterans should consider following a major disaster. Veterans may also
contact their nearest VA Regional Loan Center at 1-877-827-3702.

Counties in Alabama affected by the tornado outbreak and that are
eligible for individual assistance through FEMA include: Autauga,
Calhoun, Cullman, DeKalb, Elmore, Etowah, Franklin, Jefferson, Lawrence,
Marengo, Marion, Marshall, St. Clair, Sumter, Tallapoosa, Tuscaloosa and
Walker.

Counties in Arkansas affected by the tornado outbreak include: Benton,
Clay, Faulkner, Garland, Lincoln, Pulaski, Randolph and Saline.

Counties in Georgia affected by the tornado outbreak include: Bartow,
Catoosa, Coweta, Dade, Floyd, Greene, Lamar, Pickens, Polk, Spalding,
Troup and Walker.

Counties in Mississippi affected by the tornado outbreak include:
Clarke, Greene, Hinds, Jasper, Kemper, Lafayette and Monroe.

Counties in Tennessee declared eligible for individual assistance
include: Bradley, Greene, Hamilton and Washington.

Combat Movie Real

When we shoot videos, we see only part of what is going on around us. The lens records only what we focus on. The mind works pretty much the same way. While troops see what is going on around them, they will focus on only part of it.

This looks like a great shot of two soldiers walking with another soldier out of the shot. We know he's there because of the extra arm.

Yet when you zoom out you see what else is happening.

When they are out of danger, they end up seeing only part of the real movie playing in their minds. They "see" only what they focus on. Most of the time these images are not pretty. They focus on the worst man can do to someone else forgetting about what they do for each other.

The most powerful images they have trapped are bad ones. Much like the newspaper business has a saying "if it bleeds it leads" the worst story holds the most power over us as it does with veterans after living through it.

They need to be able to find peace and the way to achieve it is to watch the whole movie and take another look at what was going on at the time. If they only see the bad they think they have become "bad" but if they open the lens, zoom out and take into account what else was going on at the time, what they were feeling, what they were thinking, then they will see that while they were in the midst of hell, they did not become evil as well.

The above soldier in the middle may end up focusing on his friends coming to help him get out of there but he can focus more on the fact there was a bomb that exploded.  They need help to focus on the positive more so they can overcome the bad they had to live through.  It isn't a movie reel they are watching in the middle of the night back home.  It is a movie real. Get them to watch the whole movie and then you help them heal.

Dealing with the Demons, a Marine's PTSD Story

This is the best way to reach others and help them seek help. All these years later, the DOD has this right!

Written on MAY 16, 2011 AT 8:00 AM by JTOZER
Dealing with the Demons, a PTSD Story


“I think the reason why I waited so long to get help with my PTSD, it wasn’t that I was afraid that my command was going to look down on me, or because they weren’t there to support me, or I’d be black labeled – nothing like that. I basically had to swallow that lump that they call pride.”

U.S. Marine Staff Sgt. Hopper saw combat from the front lines during two tours in Iraq. While there, he experienced wounds and traumatic brain injury from IED blasts. Returning home, he faced new challenges as a result of PTSD. Hear his story about how he learns to deal with the emotional demons of deployment.
read more here
Dealing with the Demons, a PTSD Story

PTSD has a way of getting things twisted around. A brave Marine will end up thinking they are suddenly a coward. A proud one will start to think they have something to be ashamed of. Once they start talking, they end up understanding that while they have PTSD, it does not have them. They can heal it. Much like and infection, it attacked them. As with an infection, it gets worse without treatment but with treatment, it cannot claim more of the person and begins to be defeated. What is left is like a scar on the soul depending on how much time has gone by without help. A scar is something you can deal with and learn how to adapt to. With the right kind of help, they end up even stronger on the other side.

The best news is, even with PTSD in a marriage, once you've been through the worst, they can have a stronger marriage because they fought PTSD together. We've been married since 1984. We'll never be done fighting PTSD but that is mostly because as with most Vietnam Veterans, there was nothing when they came home and even less for the families to turn to. Even with all the years between deployment and healing, his life is better and my marriage is strong if not perfect in the sense most people think one is.

For all the complaining I've done about the DOD, I am very happy they did this video! Ooh Rah!

Educating cops about veterans with PTSD

Educating cops about PTSD

KALWNews.org

By Erica Mu


Veterans with untreated PTSD are more likely to wind up in the criminal justice system.

JOHN GALVAN: You get rage you can't understand and you can't control it. When I got arrested I was telling the police, "You need to get me away from this situation. There's a high potential that I'm gonna do something that's gonna be really bad." Better to get arrested and get some psych help than be free.

But getting veterans like John Galvan the help they need shouldn't come only after a jail sentence. So a pilot program is helping train law enforcement officers to identify distressed veterans and help them diffuse as ituation before it escalates to crisis and arrest. In the second part of KALW News' series on returning veterans, reporter Lilah Crews-Pless takes us to a Combat to Community training near Sacramento.


LILAH CREWS-PLESS: About 50 police officers are having morning coffee and donuts in a conference room near Sacramento. Light shines into the cool room, which is covered in linoleum and wood paneling.

MIKE VANDERWOOD: Anybody else here a veteran? Prior service? Currently serving? Got about 30 of you all in the room. Great. Anybody work with veterans? Like your peers? A lot of you all? And how many of you encounter vets in the street or in your jobs? A lot of you, right?

About a third of today's class identify themselves as vets, and Mike Vanderwood says that proportion tends to be the norm. Former soldiers are six times more likely to work in law enforcement than civilians.

VANDERWOOD: And if your hand wasn't raised you are freakin' wrong. I'm telling you because you are going be working with veterans at some point.

Vanderwood, a captain in the Marine Corps Reserve, is teaching these law enforcement officers how to deal with troubled vets, especially those who have just come home from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Vanderwood illustrates just how psychologically damaging combat can be on soldiers using a film clip.



Read more: Educating cops about PTSD

Canadian PTSD dog named Stinky in Purina's Hall of Fame

Dog named Stinky helps troops with post-traumatic stress
Rottweiler among five pooches inducted into Animal Hall of Fame
By PAT HEWITT The Canadian Press
Mon, May 16 - 8:42 PM

TORONTO — A group of Canadian soldiers struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder could barely face leaving their homes and even contemplated suicide before they met Stinky.
But the 10-year-old Rottweiler from Winnipeg was the perfect medicine for the traumatized combat veterans and helped them regain their lives after returning home.

Stinky, who is part of unique therapy dog program aimed at helping soldiers deal with life after war, was honoured with the service dog of the year award on Monday. She was one of five dogs inducted into Purina's Animal Hall of Fame.
read more here

Dog named Stinky helps troops with post-traumatic stress

Marine from Arizona suddenly a millionaire

Arizona Marine becomes instant millionaire

By Leasa Conze, producer - email

(KOLD) - An Arizona marine had $10 in his pocket when he stopped at a story in Yuma.

He bought one lottery ticket, a $100 Million Cash Spectacular Scratchers ticket and it turned out to be a $1 million winner!
Arizona Marine becomes instant millionaire

Woman defended by 5 year old son, US Marine, his wife

This is what happens when people care enough to do something. A 5 year old boy attacked the man hurting his mom. A friend and neighbor Marine couple rushed to help.


Marine, 5-y-o son save OC woman from attack
Rob Hayes

SANTA ANA, Calif. (KABC) -- A man barged into a woman's bedroom in San Clemente and assaulted her in front of her two young children. The woman was sleeping with her two children when the attack happened. First, her 5-year-old tried to help, and then the woman's neighbor, a Camp Pendleton Marine, stepped in. It happened Sunday morning on the 300 block of Cazador Lane in San Clemente.

The man accused of attacking the woman is said to have been delirious, talking about demons. It took two Orange County sheriff's deputies and a Taser to subdue him. But this is also the story of two heroes, one a U.S. Marine and the other a 5-year-old boy.

It's a peaceful San Clemente neighborhood, just blocks from the ocean, but around 9:30 a.m. Sunday that solitude was shattered.

"I was in shock; I've never heard anyone scream like that," said Jenna Jerou, a friend of the victim's.

Jerou quickly realized the screaming was coming from the apartment below. It was her best friend, a single mother with two young kids.

"This crazy guy on drugs came into my house and attacked me," said "Jane Doe," the attack victim. "I tried calling the cops and he knocked the phone out of my hand. He was on top of me with his hands around my neck. The more I struggled, the harder he squeezed. I screamed, that's all I could do was just scream and scream."

That is when the woman's 5-year-old son sprang into action, jumping on Aiken's back. The boy took two hits to his face, and has the bruises to prove it.

"He was so brave," said the victim. "He jumped on top of the guy and started hitting him on the back of the head, screaming as loud as he could to 'get off his mommy.' He's definitely my hero."

Fortunately, Jenna Jerou's husband Justin is a U.S. Marine corporal. He bolted down the stairs in just his boxer shorts and jumped on Aiken, eventually pulling the attacker off of the woman.

read more here
Marine, 5-y-o son save OC woman from attack

4 service members killed in Afghanistan were American

4 service members killed in Afghanistan
By Robert Burns - The Associated Press
Posted : Monday May 16, 2011 15:39:17 EDT
WASHINGTON — A Pentagon official says all four of the service members killed in a bomb attack in southern Afghanistan were Americans.
read more here
4 service members killed in Afghanistan

Agent Orange Linked To Renal Cancer

Agent Orange Linked To Renal Cancer

Main Category: Urology / Nephrology
Also Included In: Cancer / Oncology; Veterans / Ex-Servicemen
Article Date: 16 May 2011 - 2:00 PDT



In recent years, the prevalence of renal cancer has increased, in part due to the detection of tumors during imaging studies for non-related health concerns. While Agent Orange, a herbicide used during the Vietnam war, has been previously linked to a variety of types of cancers in Vietnam veterans, new data from researchers at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Shreveport, LA, indicates that there may be a connection between veterans' in-country exposure and subsequent development of renal cancer. The findings were presented to reporters during a special press conference at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, DC on Sunday, May 15 at 11:30 a.m. during the 106th Annual Scientific Meeting of the American Urological Association (AUA). The session will be moderated by Anthony Y. Smith, MD.
read more here
Agent Orange Linked To Renal Cancer

Endeavour payload is a VA-NASA partnership

Space shuttle Endeavour lifts off from Kennedy Space Center at 8:56 a.m. on STS-134. (Red Huber, Orlando Sentinel)

Endeavour Launch with Research Payload is Milestone in VA-NASA Partnership

WASHINGTON (May 16, 2011) - Today's launch of the Endeavour, with its research payload for two new vaccines aboard, marked yet another milestone in VA's longstanding collaboration with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The payload, which carries National Pathfinder Vaccine 10, is the last in a series working toward vaccines for two common infections: salmonella, which commonly contaminates the U.S. food chain, leading to food recalls and
gastrointestinal illnesses, and an antibiotic resistant form of Staphylococcus aureus, also known as "golden staph," the most common bacterial agent found in combat infections.



By using the unique environment of microgravity to determine the cellular changes that determine bacterial virulence, especially changes in gene functioning, scientists have sought to use these space flights to help speed vaccine development.



"The NASA space program has been invaluable to advancing VA research," says VA Chief Research and Development Officer, Joel Kupersmith, MD. "The knowledge gained from this outstanding collaboration has improved health care for our Nation's Veterans and has demonstrated the vital
role research partnerships play in VA's mission to provide Veterans with the care and benefits they have earned."



VA research has flown payloads related to a variety of vaccine targets on the last 10 space shuttles and is scheduled to fly another payload on the final journey of the Atlantis in June 2011. This ongoing work has been in collaboration with the University of Colorado - Boulder,
Banting, Best Lab at the University of Toronto, and Astrogenetix LLC. Additionally, the Durham, North Carolina VA Medical Center (VAMC) houses a lead laboratory for the International Space Station Pathfinder program.



Several VA investigators, such as Millie Hughes-Fulford, Ph.D., director of Laboratory of Cell Growth at the San Francisco VAMC, have accompanied the numerous VA research studies that have been sent into space. A payload specialist astronaut aboard space shuttle flight STS-40, Dr.
Hughes-Fulford has studied a variety of key questions in immunology, including why T-cells - key to the immune system - stop working in mi-crogravity.



For more information on VA research, please see www.research.va.gov/.

When I get hurt

Yesterday the DAV was collecting donations for the Forget Me Not campaign at the Bass Pro Shop in Orlando. Some people tossed in a dollar or two, some tossed in pocket change but a couple of people put in $20.00. You meet a lot of different people when you show up at the businesses that do in fact really support veterans and the troops. You also meet some of the active duty soldiers normally along with the veterans.

 Yesterday a young man came over to the table, picked up a Why Join pamphlet as a sad look came over him. He looked up at me and asked, "Is this the place I contact when I get hurt and need help?" He is heading to training with the Air Force next week. His Mom came up behind him, said how proud of him she was, then said how worried she was for him. We talked for a while but his question wouldn't leave my mind.

The Forget Me Not is the perfect name for what the DAV does all year. We remember them. It is also what the rest of the country does not do. They are forgotten soon after they are sent. How many people in this country know how many tours of duty have these men and women shown up for? How many know how many were wounded? When they come home, especially if they come home hurt, they stand little chance of being noticed at all.

There are a lot of people in this country that really do care about them but the majority of Americans got on with their lives soon after 9-11. Astonishing that over 300 million people are not able to take care of less than one percent of the men and women coming home from risking their lives.

There will be more coming home hurt and needing help because they were willing to serve in the military. Will the rest of this nation remember them?

Military crime lab under scrutiny

More errors surface at military crime lab as Senate seeks inquiry
By MARISA TAYLOR AND MICHAEL DOYLE
McClatchy Newspapers
Published: May 16, 2011

WASHINGTON — The military's premier crime lab has botched more of its evidence testing than has been previously known, raising broader questions about the quality of the forensic work relied on to convict soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines.

Now, the Supreme Court could weigh in, while two senators want the Pentagon to open a full-blown investigation. If they start looking, Pentagon officials will find that the crime lab's problems extend beyond one discredited analyst.

The scrutiny comes after McClatchy published a series of stories detailing how a former long-time forensics analyst at the Army Criminal Investigation Laboratory made false statements and mishandled dozens of tests.
read more here
More errors surface at military crime lab as Senate seeks inquiry

Hundreds turn out for fallen soldier's funeral

Hundreds line streets of Harrison for return of fallen soldier
Published: Thursday, May 12, 2011
By LaNia Coleman
The Bay City Times

HARRISON -- The distant bells at St. Athanasius Catholic Church pealed before noon today, signaling the return of fallen soldier Pfc. Robert M. Friese to his home town.

Friese, 21, died April 29 in Al Qadisiyah province after enemy forces attacked his unit with rocket-propelled grenades, according to the U.S. Department of Defense.

Hundreds of people lined the streets of Clare and Harrison today as the Patriot Guard Riders and Forgotten Eagles escorted Friese's remains to Stocking Funeral Home.

By Jeff Schrier | The Saginaw News

People wait along S. 1st in Harrison to pay their respects to Army Pfc. Robert M. Friese before a precession carrying his remains made its way slowly through Harrison. Friese, of Harrison died while fighting in Iraq on April 29. His body was brought to MBS International Airport in Freeland Thursday morning and then transported to his hometown of Harrison escorted by police and the Patriot Guard. People lined the streets of Clare and Harrison to honor Friese as the precession went through each community. His remains were brought to Stocking Funeral Home in Harrison.

read more here
Hundreds line streets of Harrison

Army identifies soldier found dead in his garage

Army identifies soldier found dead in his garage
The soldier whose body was found in his garage in Anchorage this week was identified Thursday by the Army as Spc. Arturo Martinez of Escondido, Calif.

Martinez, 32, entered the Army in 2008 and was a combat engineer assigned to Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, where he served with the 23rd Engineer Co., 6th Engineer Battalion of the 3rd Maneuver Enhancement Brigade. He returned from a one-year deployment to Afghanistan with the 23rd Engineer Company, "Sapper," in January, the Army said.

Earlier this week, the Army identified another soldier, whose body was found in his family quarters on base, as Spc. Michael Carrier of White Cloud, Mich. A spokesman said his death, discovered May 6, remains under investigation by the Army's Criminal Investigation Detachment.

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Army identifies soldier found dead in his garage

Hundreds Ride in Honor of Fallen Soldiers in Lancaster County PA

Hundreds Ride in Honor of Fallen Soldiers in Lancaster County
Eric Gemmell
5:26 p.m. EDT, May 15, 2011

Lancaster, (Lancaster County)

Sunday started off solemn at AM-VETS Post 19 in Lancaster.
 
Service men and women from every branch of the United States Military participated in the first ever Fallen Soldier Memorial Ride.

Bill Brinkman, an organizer of the ride said "We don't want to forget the people that have fallen."

Brinkman worked in corroboration with Randy Axe who together worked on the project for five months to remember fallen soldiers who died in the line of duty since September 11, 2001.

"it's nothing for Randy and I to do this. What they've [soldiers] given us is multiple times what we're giving back," said Brinkman.

Axe added, "We are here for a reason." He added, "If it wasn't for the soldiers here fighting overseas we wouldn't be here today."

While the day started off on a patriotic note, including a 21 gun salute, the afternoon set a different tone.

Hundreds of motorcycle riders got on their bikes to ride 33 miles throughout Lancaster County to pay tribute to those men and women who paid the ultimate sacrifice.
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Hundreds Ride in Honor of Fallen Soldiers in Lancaster County

Military dogs get top treatment at Lackland hospital

From MRIs to surgery, military dogs get top treatment at Lackland hospital

by Angela Hill / WWL
Posted on May 15, 2011 at 10:05 PM


LACKLAND AIR FORCE BASE, Texas – It is an intense training program for both dogs and handlers. Not all dogs will make it, but those who do will be as important on the battlefield as any piece of machinery.

These military working dogs and their incredible sense of smell can find an explosive device in the ground, in a building, or in a car, saving whole platoons of soldiers.
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From MRIs to surgery

WW II vet holds his ground, fights eviction at 89

WW II vet holds his ground, fights eviction
Pushing 90, Chicago veteran fights to stay in apartment

By Ron Grossman, Tribune reporter
May 14, 2011

Five shooting wars later, Lt. Col. Curtis Welborn Jr., U.S. Army, ret., remains doggedly determined to hold the high ground.

In this instance, it's a tiny apartment in a Near North high-rise, where the 89-year-old and his wife have lived for a decade. Management wants them out by May 31.

Wellborn says he's been told it's because of bedbugs. But he sees the affair as a matter of honor — a sense shaped by military service that began in a World War II bomber. Small in stature but martial in bearing, he answers the phone with a crisp flourish: "Col. Welborn here."

He doesn't deny the bedbugs, but says they came from next door — retreating to regroup, as it were, when that apartment was fumigated. Besides, he says, he was the one who brought the matter to light by calling the city's help line, about a year ago. He thought it a top-secret communication. Evidently the building inspector didn't.

"311 betrayed me," Welborn said. "We were threatened with eviction."

The management company says it was the other way around: The bedbugs originated in the Welborns' apartment and, because the couple didn't cooperate with an exterminator called in by the company, spread to surrounding premises.

Either way, that initial skirmish ended in a truce: Welborn got a lawyer, and the eviction issue wasn't pressed. But a few months ago, he was informed their lease would not be renewed.

He fears a move would be psychologically devastating to his wife, Elizabeth. She has multiple health problems and suffers from "cognitive impairment," as he terms it, the diminished mental capacity of old age.

"She's a woman of good character," he quickly added. "We love each other. We want to stay together."
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WW II vet holds his ground, fights eviction

James Louis Raymond Hayes, homeless veteran, honored veteran

Funeral home, groups give final salute to homeless veteran

By GEORGE H. NEWMAN
The Tampa Tribune
Published: May 12, 2011
PLANT CITY James Louis Raymond Hayes died alone of lung cancer in an abandoned Tampa apartment.

No friends or family claimed the body of the 55-year-old Army veteran.

But a local funeral home and veterans groups made sure he was buried with dignity.

He was laid to rest after a May 12 funeral with military honors that included an honor guard. Members of the Riverview Detachment 1226 Marine Corps League provided a rifle volley salute.

The Rev. Jim Brady, pastor of East Thonotosassa Baptist Church, led the 30-minute service at Wells Memorial Funeral Home.

Wells manager Verna McKelvin said she couldn't bear the thought that a veteran would go to his grave unnoticed.

"It is sad that Mr. Hayes had no family or friends to care for his needs while he was living," she said. "But it's only right that a military veteran be shown a sense of dignity, even in poverty, when they die."
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James Louis Raymond Hayes

Marine Darkhorse battalion gets additional mental health support

Darkhorse battalion gets additional support
By Gidget Fuentes - Staff writer
Posted : Sunday May 15, 2011 8:17:09 EDT
SAN DIEGO — The men of 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines, returned home in mid-April to joyous reunions with families and friends — and under the close watch of medical and mental health experts.

That extra attention is by design, part of an ongoing effort by 1st Marine Division to cushion the transition home for a hard-hit battalion that spent seven months locked in bloody battles against Taliban forces.

Along with extra mental health support, 3/5 Marines will stay together at Camp Pendleton, Calif., for the first 90 days. That means no moves to other duty stations. The plan, top commanders said, is meant to keep squads and platoons together to decompress through the critical transition.

The infantry battalion suffered two dozen deaths by the time it returned home, with scores of men wounded, many still recovering from severe combat injuries.

The men of the battalion, nicknamed “Darkhorse,” arrived in Afghanistan by October 2010 and soon were mired in combat in Sangin district, at one point losing nine men over a four-day period from improvised explosive devices and small arms fire.

The pace of combat remained high in those first few months at war, which prompted Commandant Gen. Jim Amos to direct more support for the battalion, as well as their families, through the rest of the deployment and particularly the return home. The initial weeks and months after combat troops return home is when medical experts say they begin to see cases of post-traumatic stress, alcohol and substance abuse, suicidal thoughts, misconduct and risky behaviors.

“I’ve got to get across that it’s OK to look for help. That’s very hard to do for a 20-year-old,” said Maj. Gen. Mike Regner, 1st MARDIV’s commander, speaking during a break at the Navy-Marine Corps Combat and Operational Stress Conference meeting in San Diego.
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Darkhorse battalion gets additional support

Mystery surrounds soldier’s disappearance

Photo courtesy of Bushling family Army Spc. Joseph Bushling, 26, seen here in a recent photograph, has not been heard from since May 8 when he called a friend to say his car ran out of gas 40 miles from Dugway Proving Ground where he was assigned.

Mystery surrounds soldier’s disappearance
BY NATE CARLISLE
The Salt Lake Tribune

First published May 14 2011 01:52PM
Updated 7 hours ago
Army Spc. Joseph Bushling was days away from starting training to be a nurse.

“He had a career path in mind,” said his father, Kevin Bushling.

That path veered May 8 when Joseph Bushling vanished near Dugway Proving Ground in Tooele County. The elder Bushling wonders if his son is the victim of foul play.

“This is just totally out of character for him,” Kevin Bushling said. “This is nothing he would have done.”

Kevin Bushling said he has no evidence of something nefarious and there were no threats against or concerns for his son before his disappearance. But Kevin Bushling does not know how else to explain his son’s absence.
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Mystery surrounds soldier’s disappearance