DOD Investigating Death of Soldier in Afghanistan

UPDATE

Army officials said Staff Sgt. Christopher Wilbur died August 12 in a non-combat related incident in Kandahar, Afghanistan. Wilbur was 36. He leaves behind a wife and two young children, among others.

Dept. of Defense investigating death of Granite City soldier
KMOV 4 News
By Timothy Godfrey
Updated: Aug 14, 2016

(KMOV.com) -- A Granite City solider has died while serving in Afghanistan, the Department of Defense announced.

Staff Sgt. Christopher A. Wilbur died Aug. 12 in Kandahar, Afghanistan. The department said his death was from a non-combat related injury.

The incident in which Sgt. Wilbur died is currently under investigation.
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Family Shocked "Little Greek" Vietnam Veteran Actually Hero

Family discovers father, a Vietnam veteran, was more than their hero
Gaston Gazette, Gastonia, N.C.
By Kevin Ellis
Published: August 13, 2016

At first glance, Lekopites may not have quite looked like a hero. He told people he was 5 foot 6, but was actually closer to 5 foot 4. He was always extremely fit but never tipped the scales past 150 pounds. He carried the nickname "little Greek man."

GASTONIA, N.C. (Tribune News Service) — Asked what he did during his 20-year military career, Michael Lekopites had a ready, unassuming answer.

"He would say, 'I worked in communications. I climbed telephone poles,'" said Holly Pickert of Belmont, the oldest of his three daughters.

And while his girls always knew their father had done more, it was enough that he was their protector, their guardian and, if needed, their shoulder to cry on.

"He had a tough exterior with a soft heart," Pickert said.

But last year, the three girls came to realize that Alzheimer's disease was about to steal their family history. No longer could their father tell them stories of his past, or sometimes even their own names. They could pick out pieces of his story but needed help in filling the gaps.

"As kids, you don't pay attention to that stuff," Pickert said.

They turned to U.S. Rep. Patrick McHenry's office for help in getting the service medals their father had earned during an Army career that started in 1962 and would include two years in Vietnam.

"I've never awarded so many medals to one individual in my 12 years of Congress," McHenry said last week.

Medals, military service commendations awarded to Michael Lekopites
Air Medal
Expert Badge with Rifle Bar
Sharpshooter Badge with Rifle Bar
Army Service Ribbon
Soldiers Medal
Meritorious Service Medal
Valorous Unit Award
National Defense Service Medal
Legion of Merit
Bronze Star
Good Conduct Medal
Driver and Mechanic Badge
NCO Professional Development Ribbon
Vietnam Service Medal
Army Commendation Medal
Republic of Vietnam Campaign Ribbon
Overseas Service Ribbon
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Shelter 140 Veterans Call Home Getting Help

Private donation helps city's only shelter just for homeless veterans
KENS
Justin Bourke
August 11, 2016

SAN ANTONIO -- The city’s only shelter specifically for homeless veterans is getting a special gift, helping the city keep its goal of leaving no homeless veteran behind.

On Thursday, Briggs Equipment handed a $29,000 check to the American GI Forum’s Residential Center for Homeless Veterans. The money will go toward the renovation of their kitchen and outdoor common areas.

Richard Rosemondeamoundu, a Vietnam veteran, said the money will help improve a place nearly 140 veterans call home.

“Out there it’s pitiful,” Richard said. “That’s why I thank god every day that I found this place.”

Richard, a former marine, has lived at the American GI Forum’s Residential Center for Homeless Veterans for two years.
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You Wouldn't Have Combat PTSD if You Stayed Home

I'll be damned if I sit back and let you settle for the load of crap you've been fed over all these years! I am going to keep this short and simple.

Too many have died because they had PTSD but never understood what it was. 

Many have suggested that dropping the D from PTSD will get the stigma out of the way. As if you are afraid of a letter after surviving war. The D is for "Disorder" meaning things in your mind were once in a certain order but after the traumas you survived, things got bumped out of place. You can put it all back in order again, just not in the same way they were before you left home. 

No one is ever the same after combat.

Far too many do not understand that "trauma" is actually Greek for "wound" and if you look at it that way, you understand that it hit you. Any shame in getting wounded for your country? Any shame in risking your life for the sake of those you were with?

As for asking for help, consider combat itself. You had no problem at all asking for help fighting the enemy forces. So why have a problem asking for help because you did all that then? This time you're battling for yourself so that when you are stronger you can battle for your buddy and all the other veterans out there going through the same hell.


If you are veteran over the age of 50, you are among the majority of veterans committing suicide. 

If you do not get the help you are looking for, keep looking until you find it. 

Air Force Raptor Defeated By Bees?

Swarm of 20,000 Bees Grounds U.S. Air Force’s F-22 Raptor in Virginia
BY CNN WIRE
AUGUST 12, 2016

According to Westrich, the queen likely landed on the F-22 to rest, and since honey bees do not leave the queen, they swarmed around the jet and eventually collected there.

The US Air Force’s F-22 Raptor may be the most advanced fighter jet in the world but even with $143 million-worth of stealth and supersonic capabilities, it proved to be no match for one unlikely adversary — a huge swarm of honey bees.

A huge swarm of bees grounded an F-22 Raptor in Virginia. 

(Credit: Master Sgt. Carlos Claudio/USAF)

An F-22 aircraft from the 192nd Air Wing was temporarily grounded on June 11 after crew members at Joint Base Langley-Eustis in Virginia discovered nearly 20,000 bees hanging from the jet’s exhaust nozzle following flight operations.

“I was shocked like everyone else because it looked like a cloud of thousands of bees,” said Tech. Sgt. Jeffrey Baskin, 192nd Maintenance Squadron crew chief, in an Air Force press release.
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PTSD: Wisconsin Veterans Community Souls of Honor Motorcycle Ride

Souls of Honor motorcycle ride raises nearly $4200 for local veterans
WSAW 7 News
By Holly Chilsen
August 13, 2016

WAUSAU, Wis. (WSAW) -- The loud rumble of motorcycles filled Central Wisconsin Saturday for the annual Souls of Honor motorcycle ride.

The event took off at 11:00 a.m. from the Harley Davidson in Wausau and went to Hatley. The entire trip there and back is close to 100 miles.

Ron Worthey, the organization's president, said Souls of Honor was established about three years ago to meet the needs in the community when it comes to veterans' care.
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Australian Iraq Veteran Winning The PTSD War

Veteran’s battle against PTSD a life-changing fight
NT News
COURTNEY TODD
August 13, 2016

Alex reached out for help through the Army but treatment wasn’t forthcoming. “I thought I was going mentally insane,” he said. “I didn’t believe I had PTSD because the Army told me I didn’t have PTSD.”

Iraq veteran Alex Kaczmarek has suffered from post traumatic stress disorder. PICTURE: Elise Derwin

IRAQ veteran Alex Kaczmarek knows all too well the dark places post traumatic stress disorder can lead people.

For him it was homelessness, alcohol abuse and suicidal thoughts.

“Every day for about eight years I wanted to shoot myself in the head,” he said. “The only thing that stopped me was knowing that someone would have to come retrieve the body.”

There were times when Alex felt he was losing his battle against PTSD but now he is winning the war and he is also helping others to rehabilitate.

When Alex came back to Australia his close friends and family noticed something wasn’t right but it took a year for him to realise, too.

“It began with sleep — lack of sleeping, insomnia and nightmares began to affect my day,” he said.

“I’d go a few days without sleep, which turned into weeks, which turned into months. Before I knew it, I got to a point where I couldn’t remember if I was asleep or awake.

“I had uncontrollable adrenaline from my inner brain reacting to situations that weren’t actually occurring, telling my body to release massive amounts of adrenaline and then I wasn’t sure what to do with it so I’d have a panic attack.

“Probably for about a year I had to stop and vomit every day on the way to work through anxiety.”

Alex reached out for help through the Army but treatment wasn’t forthcoming. “I thought I was going mentally insane,” he said. “I didn’t believe I had PTSD because the Army told me I didn’t have PTSD.”

Alex was eventually sent to an independent civilian psychiatrist who said he had the warning signs of conflict-related PTSD.

Alex discharged from the Army in November 2009 due to the lack of support. By that stage he was drinking heavily every day to numb his feelings and soon found himself on the streets of Sydney and Darwin.

That was Alex’s rock bottom.

“You think back and only a few years previously you were doing protection parties for the Prime Minister of Australia in a foreign country in a war zone and now you’re walking the streets with a bag of clothes,” he said.

“I slept at train stations, car parks, in the bush. I had a ute luckily when I was up here so, when I could afford it, I went and stayed in a caravan park so I could use the shower facilities. I pretty much long-grassed it for a bit.”

All the while Alex was battling PTSD, anxiety, depression, physical injuries and suicidal thoughts.
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Con Man Tricked Everyone Posing As Vietnam Veteran

Deputies: Man charged after falsely claiming he was a veteran
BY WHAM
August 11, 2016

After a two month investigation, Orleans County Sheriff's deputies said Skellen tricked the VFW Post in the Village of Holley into believing he was a vet, even rising to the position of post commander at one point.

Holley, N.Y. – An Orleans County man accused of posing as a Vietnam War veteran and reaping some financial benefits is facing felony charges.

Earl Skellen, 69, is charged with first degree scheme to defraud and fourth degree grand larceny.

The executive director of the Veterans Outreach Center is outraged by Skellen’s alleged actions.

"It’s an insult to the guys and gals who are currently serving overseas and everybody's who's given a little time of their life to our country," Executive Director Todd Baxter said.

Investigators found Skellen never served in Vietnam or any branch of the armed forces.
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Australia Veteran Suicides This Year Equal 13 Years of War Deaths?

Families speak about military loved ones lost and how we failed them
Herald Sun
Ruth Lamperd
August 13, 2016

“The number of suicides and the incidence of despair, depression and broken lives among our veteran community is a national shame,” Retired Lieutenant General Leahy 

Jarrad Brown was in the army and deployed to Iraq in 2007-08 and Afghanistan in 2010. He took his own life in 2015, aged 27.

A SHAMEFUL number of Aussie soldiers return from war zones depressed, anxious, in despair but unable to find help.

Grieving families of war veterans who have taken their own lives say their loved ones might still be alive today if they’d received adequate support from authorities.

Thirteen families of service men and veterans have bravely spoken out to highlight the plight of military men and women at risk.

Their call for more support comes as a Sunday Herald Sun investigation reveals 41 military personnel and veterans died this year from suicide, the same as the number of Australians who were killed in Afghanistan during 13 years of war.

Each family which agreed to be part of this special report lost their sons, husbands or fathers in the past two years.

They ranged in age from 21 to 57. Most of them were in their 20s and 30s when they died.

Almost all had been deployed to overseas operations, including Iraq, East Timor, Afghanistan or served on navy ships involved in border patrol.

The concerns were backed by former Chief of Army and Soldier On chairman Peter Leahy, who said the government needed to “step up and own the problem”.
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PTSD Awareness, Go To Hell

Go Into Their Hell To Get Them Out
Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
August 13, 2106

How can you think you will change anything for our veterans if you have not spent time in hell with them? That should be the first question that gets answered if we will ever save more veterans after combat instead of losing survivors of it.

There is no doubt in my mind that most folks have good intentions with all the "awareness" they are trying to raise.  Those good intentions have had deadly results because far too many of them did not understand what they were getting into.

The trouble with veterans trying to raise awareness is, while they do understand the trip to hell, they do not necessarily understand what to do or what to say to help their "brother" find hope to heal.  

Peer support is vital and works if the veteran is armed with more knowledge than the veteran in crisis. After all, think about support groups for all different issues.  These groups are divided up so that everyone in them has been in the same type of situation.

If you have a drug problem, you would not go into a sexual addiction group and expect it would help you with your problems.  If you have PTSD from one cause, going into another support group does not work as well as if members of the group survived the same type of event.

Imagine a person with PTSD from abuse in a group where the majority are suffering from PTSD after car accidents.  Do the others understand the symptoms? Sure but they do not understand what it is like to have been abused and what that did to the survivor of it.

It is the same thing with PTSD caused by being willing to risk your life for someone else. Firefighters support other firefighters because they understand all of it. Police Officers support other Police Officers for the same reason. Veterans support other veterans because they also understand what it is like no matter what war title is on their hat.  What is under their hat are a lot of memories they wish they never had known.

In the line of this work, I have been pulled into their hell but have only stood in the doorway of it watching from a safe distance. I am a family member, so while I can offer other families a deeper level of support than to a veteran, because of the years behind me, I've helped veterans as well as families.

While I have experienced my life on the line for 50 years with very different types of trauma, I have never been in combat and have never been in the service.  I just spent my life with veterans.  I understand them, but only to a point. I can help them because while I do not understand combat, I can understand what it did to them as much as they can understand what my life did to me.  What I cannot do is offer them the same level of support as another veteran can.

I can help them understand what PTSD is and why they have it and I can help them begin to heal but then I have to get them to the point where they go for professional help and into more support than I can give.

That is what has been lacking all along.  Good intentions without enough knowledge to what to do and when to do it has produced deadly outcomes for far too many.

If you are a veteran, then you are the best source of support for other veterans. Time to live up to it.  

It is great to be willing to call a buddy and be there to listen to them.  Most of the time a veteran in crisis just needs to know they matter. That gets them from one minute but what about the next if they are left lacking any more knowledge on how to heal so that tomorrow will be better than "this day" was?

Spend time learning what PTSD is and then go one step further to learn how to help them heal. That is the only way to get them out of the hell they are in right now. If you really want to change what has been happening, then understand what had happened over the last 40 years when researchers discovered what works best along with what failed.  So far the failures have been repeated and the successes have been obliterated.

We Will Never Know The Total Suicide Price Paid

Leading Cause of Death for Veterans is Us
Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
August 13, 2016

Experts spent enough years knowing no one will ever really know how many veterans commit suicide.  As bad as the reported numbers of "22 a day" or the most recent "20 a day" according to the VA, there are far more no one ever puts into their spreadsheets.

CDC 10 Leading Causes of Death covers suicide by age group as well as other causes. The total in 2014 was 42,773 suicides in America.  While most Americans face crisis situations, they were not "trained" to survive them. Young veterans were trained. Older veterans were not.

They have been trained in "prevention" for a decade yet these young male veterans are triple their peer rate on suicides. Young female veterans are twelve times their civilian peer rate. Every state has been reporting their suicide rate for veterans is double the civilian population and the vast majority of them are over the age of 50. 

So look at the CDC numbers, use the math and you arrive at over 26,000 a year, but you are still not near the true number.

The word "veteran" is debatable and some do not consider themselves "veteran" if they were in the National Guard or Reserves or the Coast Guard. 

Some were given less than honorable discharges and they are not counted. 

Some "cause of deaths" are not so obvious like overdoes, single vehicle crashes and the ones who simply vanish.

Then there are the times when a veteran faces off with law enforcement.  They are not counted as a price of providing retention of our freedoms.



Ron Smith turned to the crisis line.  He ended up dead after a confrontation with police officers. They had to be called because he was suicidal. One of those nasty rules that have to be followed when someone is a danger to themselves or someone else.  It is one of those things that we know we have to do because we cannot just say the words "we are raising awareness" and then go watch TV. 

Folks working at the Crisis Line face far more every time they pick up the phone. They know the call could be something as simple as listening to a veteran in the middle of the night trying to make sense of a nightmare. Or a veteran needing to talk just because he needs someone to let him know he still matters.

It the right thing to do when there is a life on the line. It is also one of the hardest things to decide needs to be done or not.  Guess wrong and either a veteran is pissed off because they were not "serious" or do not call and they pull the trigger.

Calling police means the veteran is facing a life or death moment but you also know you are subjecting police officers to it as well.  Sometimes it ends up good, the veteran puts down the weapon, no shots are fired and he/she gets the emergency care they need to stay alive and be pissed off at you. Other times it does not end so great.

Ron Smith ended up dead and Kevin Higgins ended up dead too in Wisconsin. 

In the last eight days before Kevin died, he tried calling six different crisis hotlines to simply vent his thoughts. Nicole’s phone shows multiple calls to the lines, though Kevin's phone is still in possession of the police and the crisis lines are anonymous.
“There was one, a combat crisis hotline that we found,” Nicole said. “And a veteran on there did speak with him from a little before midnight until like four in the morning… All he wanted to do was talk. He just needed an outlet.”

On July 17, Kevin robbed the Union Avenue Tap and raised an assault rifle at officers who responded, prompting them to fire six bullets into him.
She doesn't blame the officers who shot her husband to death that night. She said the officers were just defending themselves from a crime, but that the incident could have been stopped long before July 17. 

But it isn't just about calls to the Crisis Line. It happened in South Carolina when James Jennings Jr. ended up dead.

Kirk Shahan, Marine Iraq veteran faced off with police officers in Detroit. He ended up living and was taken to the hospital. 

In California it was another suicidal veteran facing off with police

"deputies confronted another 26-year-old man — who they later identified as a veteran suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder — after he was spotted waving a machete at passers-by in Shingletown, they said.

Dispatchers just before 1 a.m. received reports of the man waving the machete near Reed's Market on Highway 44.

Deputies found the man walking along the highway and spotted him holding a machete.

He put down the machete and knelt to the ground on deputies' orders, before putting a knife to his neck and telling deputies he wrote a letter, which they took to mean a suicide note, Ruiz said.

Deputies talked to the man in an attempt to get him to drop the knife, which he did after several minutes, according to the Sheriff's Office.

They detained the man, eventually learning he was a veteran from another California county who had been unable to find work since his release from the military, Ruiz said."

Month after month reports from all over the country come in and it all adds up to there are more dead after war than during them. What was learned after Vietnam has turned into a shorter life as "veteran" survivor because what experts spent years understanding so they could actually change the outcome has been tossed aside, much like our veterans have been.

If you want to know who is to blame for this suicide, this sums it up.

Davenport vet's suicide at center of VA talks

Woody's counterpart in Cedar County, Iowa, Patty Hamann, talked about the frustration of referring veterans to VA programs that no longer exist. Word didn't reach the trenches. She also talked about a VA doctor who died suddenly. Some vets had built an enormous bond with this psychiatrist and had been seeing him for years.

"We eventually were notified by mail," she said.

In Brandon's case, Hamann said, someone should have reached out to him when he went home.

The 33-year-old was a Marine and Army sergeant and served three deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. We know for sure that he asked for an emergency appointment. We know he was suicidal. He died alone.

Even though Brandon had been diagnosed with PTSD, was taking anti-depressants and had been battling alcohol and drug addiction, the Army sent him to Afghanistan for his third deployment.

Ask the Vietnam vets. They'll tell you that was crazy. They'll tell you it's no wonder so many of our young veterans are coming apart at the seams. The country has asked too much of them, and when they ask back, the country isn't there.

Barb Ickes wrote that on Quad City Times today. She has been doing a good job of telling a story that did not have to happen. Brandon Ketchum became dead because too little attention has been paid to what has been happening all along.

They are also to blame for many, more more. These veterans, along with current military, were trained in "prevention" yet it turns out they have been prevented from healing. But, hey, just keep talking about them as if they are just numbers.  Anything that lets you sleep at night because facing the truth has been a nightmare for our veterans.

PTSD Veteran Dead After Confronting Police

Family remembers veteran killed in confrontation with Pickaway County deputies
WCMH News
By Olivia Fecteau
Published: August 10, 2016

That crisis line communication was what brought Pickaway County Sheriff’s deputies to Ron Smith’s house in Mount Sterling. Deputies said when they arrived, they found Smith with a long rifle. Smith died after a confrontation with the deputies, both of whom were military veterans themselves. Sheriff Robert Radcliff said it was not clear who fired the fatal shot.

CHILLICOTHE, OH (WCMH) — Military service ran in the family for Ron Smith. He survived a war, serving in the United States Army during Desert Storm. His father and other relatives were also in the service.

Now, his family is grieving after the 45-year-old was killed Tuesday in a confrontation with Pickaway County Sheriff’s deputies.

Diane Smith, Ron Smith’s mother, said her son was receiving care at the Columbus Veterans Affairs medical center as recently as last week, as well as the VA center in Chillicothe and Grant Medical Center in Columbus. She said the family was not happy with his care through the VA.

“It seemed like they could just never figure out what was going on,” Diane Smith said.

Her husband, Ron’s father Larry Smith, said they received a call from their daughter-in-law early Tuesday morning telling them Ron had been in a confrontation with deputies and did not survive.
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Kevin Higgins Survived Deployments But Not Being Back Home

Widow of shooting subject: The VA let us down
USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin
Miller Jozwiak
August 11, 2016

In the last eight days before Kevin died, he tried calling six different crisis hotlines to simply vent his thoughts. Nicole’s phone shows multiple calls to the lines, though Kevin's phone is still in possession of the police and the crisis lines are anonymous.

“There was one, a combat crisis hotline that we found,” Nicole said. “And a veteran on there did speak with him from a little before midnight until like four in the morning… All he wanted to do was talk. He just needed an outlet.”

Nicole Higgins has not tried to justify what her husband, Kevin Higgins, did.

(Photo: Submitted by Nicole Higgins)

Unanswered calls for help

“When he did get his medications in the mail, they’d always come late. His refills were never refilled,” Nicole said. “Say the doctor would write the prescription, and then it’s supposed to come every month, and it wouldn’t. We were having trouble because the meds come from Green Bay… And his meds came late.”

On July 17, Kevin robbed the Union Avenue Tap and raised an assault rifle at officers who responded, prompting them to fire six bullets into him.

She doesn't blame the officers who shot her husband to death that night. She said the officers were just defending themselves from a crime, but that the incident could have been stopped long before July 17.

“They did what they had to do,” Nicole said.

But as she received part of Kevin's medication mere days after his death -- medication designed in part to treat Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder he developed following parts of his military service -- she found herself questioning why Kevin couldn't get proper treatment for the mental illness that precipitated his death.

“It really upset him that he was telling these veterans [at the VFW] that this is where you can get help and he’d reach out to those places and they wouldn’t help him,” Nicole said.
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Tall Ships Invade Portsmouth

Tall ships arrive in Portsmouth
Sea Coast Online
By Austin McGuigan
August 10, 2016

Parade leads tall ships into the Port City

The Oliver Hazard Perry tall ship docks in Portsmouth on Wednesday early evening after being in the boat parade on Piscataqua. Photo by Deb Cram/Seacoastonline

PORTSMOUTH—Not since 2007 has Ethan Bensley set foot on the Harvey Gamage. Spending four months onboard, Bensley who lives in Kittery, Maine, sailed the Gamage from the U.S. Virgin Islands to Boston as part of a “semester at sea.”

“It was awesome back in high school, it was a long time ago now,” said Bensley. “It’s a fun sail, it really is an old school sailing boat… certainly sailing on it is fun, but living on it is an whole other thing.”

On Wednesday, Bensley and his fiancée Lia Hoffmann, sailed aboard the Harvey Gamage for the annual Parade of Sail in the Piscataqua River. The parade kicked off the Piscataqua Maritime Commission Sail Portsmouth 2016 festival — held Thursday through Sunday.

A replica of a 19th century schooner, the Gamage carried 47 people up river. The Oliver Hazard Perry, Sail Portsmouth’s second featured tall ship, led the parade past the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard and towards the Memorial Bridge.
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Community Came Together To Help PTSD Service Dog

Maggie dies in the arms of a friend
Salisbury Post
Mark Wineka
August 11, 2016

SALISBURY — In about two days, Anna Jenkins will receive Maggie’s cremated remains. Back at her Salisbury apartment Wednesday afternoon, Jenkins began gathering all of Maggie’s stuff — the toys, beds, bowls, food, collars, leashes and the devices that helped her to walk.

Photo courtesy of Family Endeavors Law enforcement officers in Charlotte collected money toward a wagon for Anna Jenkins' service dog, Maggie. Maggie was put to sleep peacefully on Wednesday morning.

Jenkins plans on finding a place to donate these things. Otherwise, she was trying to get through the rest of the day without the service dog that had been — through some pretty tough times — her best friend since 2005.

“It’s strange,” Jenkins says. “I keep looking and expecting to see her and she’s not there.”

Maggie’s death came peacefully Wednesday morning.

“Her dying in my arms was a gift I could not imagine,” Anna Jenkins said.

In a column Tuesday, I had relayed Anna’s desperation in trying to pay for the euthanasia of Maggie, her 14 1/2-year-old chocolate Labrador and service dog. The prices she had been quoted from three different veterinary clinics for the euthanasia and cremation were too much for Anna to afford.
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Fort Hood Soldier's Death Under Investigation

Fort Hood officials ID soldier found dead in Copperas Cove
Army Times
Staff report
August 10, 2016

Officials on Tuesday released the name of a soldier from Fort Hood, Texas, who was found unresponsive last week.

Sgt. Calvin Wenceslao Aguilar. (Photo: Army)

Sgt. Calvin Wenceslao Aguilar, 32, was found Thursday in Copperas Cove, Texas. The circumstances surrounding his death are under investigation.

Aguilar, who was from Hayward, California, joined the Army in October 2006 as a working dog handler. He had been assigned to the Fort Hood-based 720th Military Police Battalion, 89th Military Police Brigade since July 2013.
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Detroit VA Bought 300 New TVs, Forgot About Hooking Them Up?

Report: Detroit's VA hospital misspent money on TVs
Detroit Free Press
Todd Spangler
August 10, 2016

WASHINGTON – Officials at Detroit’s Veterans Affairs hospital were coming under close scrutiny Wednesday after federal inspectors reported this week that the facility misspent more than $300,000 on TVs for patient rooms, which couldn’t be installed without spending more on a design change.

More than that, the report from the Veterans Affairs (VA) Office of Inspector General found that despite having purchased the 300 TVs and related accessories 2½ years ago, the vast majority of them remain in their boxes, even though their warranties expired more than a year ago.

“By purchasing these items well before a construction contract to install them was awarded, the facility exposed itself to unnecessary financial risk,” said the report, which was released Tuesday. “As of June 21, 2016, the facility had not yet awarded a contract to install these TVs.”

Officials at the hospital, formally known as the John D. Dingell VA Medical Center, issued a statement saying they concurred with the inspector general’s findings and recommendations to improve purchase contracts and to consult with legal counsel to determine if rules were broken.

In recent years, the VA nationwide has come under fire for a series of problems, including reports of long waiting lists at some hospitals for veterans to receive treatment and officials trying to make scheduling deficiencies look better than they were. Last year, questions were also raised as VA officials acknowledged they had spent billions on private medical care without signing contracts with providers.
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Iraq Veteran Murdered in Phoenix Remembered

Family, friends release balloons for Marine veteran murdered in Phoenix park
AZ Family
Derek Staahl
August 10, 2016

PHOENIX (KPHO/KTVK)
Family and friends returned to the west Phoenix park where a Marine veteran who was murdered to share memories and release balloons Tuesday in his honor.

Dozens came out to remember the life of Dustin Shirk. (Source: KPHO/KTVK)

The ceremony was held on what would have been Dustin Shirk’s 31st birthday. The Iraq war veteran was killed July 26 in Cielito Park while jogging after his late-night shift at UPS, according to his mother. Police have not identified a suspect.

Many of the people who gathered Tuesday were Shirk's co-workers at UPS, where he worked before and after his military service.

"He was kind of, I guess my inspiration," said Mitchell MacKenzie, a UPS employee who worked in the finance department with Shirk. "He kind of helped me move along to join the Navy."
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PTSD: Sheriff Says South Carolina Veteran Committed Suicide By Cop

Sheriff: Veteran With PTSD Committed “Suicide by Cop”
ABC Columbia Staff
August 9, 2016

Little Mountain, S.C. (WOLO) — Richland County Coroner Gary Watts has identified than man involved in Monday’s officer involved shooting as James W. Jennings Jr.

According to Watts, autopsy results show Jennings died of multiple gunshot wounds to the upper body including one that was self inflicted. Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott tells ABC Columbia, Monday evening deputies responded to a domestic dispute on Wash Lever Road to find Jennings barricaded inside his home. Lott explains that after hours of negotiation the man shot himself twice before pointing the gun at officer, who returned fire.

“We tried to use non lethal means to subdue him, that didn’t work and when he actually threatened the officer and pointed the gun we didn’t have a choice at that point. You know, he was trying to get us to kill him.” says Lott.

The Sheriff says Jennings was a military veteran suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
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PTSD Awareness Up And So Are Suicides

Things Changed For The Worst
Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
August 10, 2016

In 1982 when I started trying to do something about PTSD, I thought if people knew, things would change. I just never expected they would make it worse.

Back then there was a lot of work already being done for about a decade before I even heard the term Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. It wasn't as if it was on the nightly news.  When I started to read about it at the library, it was obvious a lot of people were trying to change what had happened to veterans going all the way back to the invention of war itself.

In 1978 the Disabled American Veterans did a study on PTSD called The Forgotten Warrior Project which is a perfect title considering what they learned back then has been forgotten about.  Everyone seems to think all they have to do is make folks aware of PTSD and suicides without ever considering how much work is necessary to change the outcome.  The easy part is talking about a problem.  The hard part is investing the time to research it, understand it and then, try to make a difference in a good way.

So far most of what I've seen are a bunch of people running around the country, collecting cash talking about suicides when they do not even bother to read the reports they quote.  They act like they are the ones who will do something about it as if no one else had done the same exact thing before and produced the same abysmal results.

Wounded Times is 9 years old today. 

You can see a lot of what I do on this site but there is more you will never know about. I learned from the best over these decades, that we can accomplish a lot more by working with the veterans for their sake and not our own publicity.

There are a group of veterans and their families doing exactly that and I am very proud to be a part of them.  Point Man International Ministries started in 1984 quietly by a Vietnam veteran/Seattle Police Officer because he understood that most of the veterans he was arresting were more lost than anything else.

It worked.  It worked because it was understood that the families needed help in order to help the veterans.  That is, if they were lucky enough to still have a family by their side. 

It worked because peer support was provided. Yes, they knew how vital that was way back then.  That the wound hit the emotional part of the brain, so it had to healed first especially when the center held the soul paying the price for surviving the hell of combat.

Guess what? It still works. The thing is, you don't see them doing interviews with the press or jumping up and down about how many lose hope to the point where they no longer believe the next day could be any better than their last day on earth. They are there to give them back hope and walk right by their side until they can turn around and do the same for another veteran.

It is Christian based, so the press would not take an interest no matter how good it is or how man miracles happen every day. They are much like the 72 Jesus sent out but no one knows their names.

The seventy-two returned with joy and said, “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.”

The demons we battle are all that comes with PTSD beginning with the false notion that they are mentally weak instead of emotionally strong paying the price for risking their lives for the sake of someone else. The demon telling them they are evil because of all the saw and did, when in fact there was nothing evil about doing all of it to save lives, which is at the core of what caused them to act. The demon that tells them their suffering is some kind of punishment and they are suffering because they were judged instead of hurting because they cared.

When the world walks away from them, turns their backs so they cannot see the pain in their eyes, settling for the moniker of "it is invisible" so they dismiss them, God sees all that very clearly and He remembers those who are suffering for His sake.  He also sees those who use their pain for their own purpose, be it for fame or fortune.

On a final note I will leave you with this important fact.  With no one making this suffering headline news back in 1999, the VA reported 20 veterans a day took their own lives. There are almost 7 million less veterans, everyone talking about PTSD and suicides, the VA is reporting 20 veterans a day taking their own lives. It got worse because too many put themselves first instead of those they claim to be raising awareness about.