Daughter of Vietnam vet designs patriotic clothing
White Book Agency • May 29, 2009
TAMPA, Fla. – Tampa Bay-based fashion designer, Bebe Ziegler, has launched her Patriotic line in time for the holidays that pay homage to those who served in the U.S. Armed Forces.
Ziegler is the lead designer for Ice It by Bebe Z, a lifestyle apparel company and brand that specializes in creating intricate, crystal-embellished designs on high-quality fabrics.
Symbolic images of the U.S. flag, the bald eagle and the peace emblem, in the loyal colors of red, white and blue, will highlight the Patriotic collection. As the daughter of a U.S. Air Force Vietnam Veteran, Ziegler is especially proud that all of her garments are designed and embellished in the U.S. and help to support and stimulate our economy.
“I am honored to be called a military brat! My father is a Disabled American Vet and I am so proud of being an American and his daughter. I love my dad and our wonderful country,” said Ziegler.
A portion of sales from Ziegler’s Patriotic line will benefit the non-profit organization, Wounded Warriors Project, whose mission is to honor U.S. service members who have been wounded or injured.
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Daughter of Vietnam vet designs patriotic clothing
Friday, May 29, 2009
Veterans share thoughts with opening of Memorial Park
Veterans share thoughts with opening of Memorial Park
By Ann Kagarise
The Suburbanite
Fri May 29, 2009, 10:43 AM EDT
Clinton, Ohio -
Three-thousand-ninety-four men, and one woman from Ohio, died in the Vietnam War. A wall was erected.
Veterans from that war, WWII, Korea, Desert Storm and Operation Iraqi Freedom, paid tribute.
In their words…
Vietnam infantry veteran, John Carroll, of the Portage Lakes.
“This wall is to pay homage to our fallen comrades. It is for all people who served. They all did their part whether they were infantry or cooks. Everybody served hard.”
“It is hard for me to talk about,” Carroll said as he looked down. “There are times I don’t want to remember. Sometimes it feels good.”
He, along with 7,000 other veterans, traveled great distances, by motorcycle, through Canal Fulton for the unveiling of a wall that was long overdue. “This is for my fallen friends. Members of my team are on that wall.”
“Many of us had a hard time coming back and adjusting, drugs and different things,” Carroll explained. “Life itself. Not being sure of what really happened. It was real. It happened. I know that. Well, a lot more of these men suffered much more than I ever had,” he said as he looked over the crowd of bikers.”
Carroll used to do military escorts, before he was in the war. “We buried a lot of people from infantry. I escorted a lot of military funerals, but after I got out, all I wanted to do was forget. This is not about me. This is about all of these people.”
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Veterans share thoughts with opening of Memorial Park
By Ann Kagarise
The Suburbanite
Fri May 29, 2009, 10:43 AM EDT
Clinton, Ohio -
Three-thousand-ninety-four men, and one woman from Ohio, died in the Vietnam War. A wall was erected.
Veterans from that war, WWII, Korea, Desert Storm and Operation Iraqi Freedom, paid tribute.
In their words…
Vietnam infantry veteran, John Carroll, of the Portage Lakes.
“This wall is to pay homage to our fallen comrades. It is for all people who served. They all did their part whether they were infantry or cooks. Everybody served hard.”
“It is hard for me to talk about,” Carroll said as he looked down. “There are times I don’t want to remember. Sometimes it feels good.”
He, along with 7,000 other veterans, traveled great distances, by motorcycle, through Canal Fulton for the unveiling of a wall that was long overdue. “This is for my fallen friends. Members of my team are on that wall.”
“Many of us had a hard time coming back and adjusting, drugs and different things,” Carroll explained. “Life itself. Not being sure of what really happened. It was real. It happened. I know that. Well, a lot more of these men suffered much more than I ever had,” he said as he looked over the crowd of bikers.”
Carroll used to do military escorts, before he was in the war. “We buried a lot of people from infantry. I escorted a lot of military funerals, but after I got out, all I wanted to do was forget. This is not about me. This is about all of these people.”
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Veterans share thoughts with opening of Memorial Park
Comprehensive Soldier Fitness will make it worse
General Casey, now hear this, you cannot, repeat, cannot train your brain to prevent PTSD and until you understand this "Because it is scientifically proven, you can build resilience." does not equal the cause of PTSD, you will keep making it worse! Did the rise in suicides and attempted suicides offer you no clue that Battlemind didn't work? Apparently something told you it didn't or you'd still be pushing this. When you have a program in place to "train them to be resilient" beginning with telling them if they do not, it's their fault, what the hell did you and the other brass expect? Did you think they would listen to the rest of what the Battlemind program had to say to them? Are you out of your mind?
With all due respect, because I do believe you care about the men and women you command, this is just one more in a series of mistakes because it seems no one in the Pentagon or the upper rows of the food chain have a clue what causes PTSD.
While adversity does make some stronger, you cannot train them to do it. Life and character does that quite effectively on their own. Some will walk away stronger after traumatic events but one out of three humans will not. Some experts put the rate at one out of five walk away wounded but the best experts I've listened to since 1982 have put it at one out of three.
Do you think that this man could have "trained his brain" as well?
Back then there were plenty of excuses to use for what happened to veterans but after Vietnam veterans came home and forced the wound to be treated, we ran out of excuses. How can you continue to dismiss what is so obvious? It is the nature of man, what is in their core, their empathy for others that is at the root of PTSD. I've talked to them long enough and enough of them to have understood this over 20 years ago. I also live with one.
I'm sick and tired of reading about what does not work being repeated. In all these years, people like me have already learned from the mistakes we made trying to help our husbands and others. To us, it wasn't a numbers game or a research project. This has meant our lives and the lives of the men we wanted to spend the rest of our lives with. Aside from that General Casey, I've spent countless hours attempting to undo the damage done because the troops are not being told what they need to hear in the first place.
I've held Marines in my arms crying because the military told them they were not strong enough and National Guardsmen told they were not cut out for combat. All of this because the military has been telling them it's their fault they didn't work hard enough to toughen their brains.
How many more suicides are you willing to live with? Has it not gotten thru to you yet that you are losing more men and women after combat than you do during it? This is only part of it because I doubt you have considered how many have committed suicide and tried it after they were discharged. You cannot order them to stop caring! You cannot order them to become callous or oblivious to the suffering of others. Between the members of their own unit to the innocent civilians that do end up in the wrong place at the wrong time, you cannot seriously expect them to just "get over it" and "toughen" their brains. These men and women walk away with their own pain compounded by the pain of others. This is what opens the door to PTSD and until you understand this is what the difference is, you will never get close enough to finding the best treatment for it and they will continue to pay for it.
Ever notice the vast majority of the men and women you command end up carrying out the mission they are given, fighting fiercely and showing great courage even though they are already carrying the wound inside of them? They fulfill their duty despite flashbacks and nightmares draining them because their duty comes first to them. Do you understand how much that takes for them to do that? Yet you think telling them their minds are not tough enough will solve the problem? What kind of a tough mind do you think they needed to have to fight on despite this killing pain inside of them?
I fully understand to you, I'm no one. I have been ignored by senators and congressmen, doctors and other brass for as long as I've been trying to help, so you are not the first. I've also been listened to by others trying to think outside the box, but more importantly to me, by the men and women seeking my help to understand this and their families. I tell them what you should have been telling them all along so that they know it's not their fault, they did not lack courage and they are not responsible for being wounded any more than they would have been to have been found by a bullet with their name on it.
If you promote this program the way Battlemind was promoted, count on the numbers of suicides and attempted suicides to go up instead of down. It's just one more deadly mistake after another and just as dangerous as sending them into Iraq without the armor needed to protect them.
With all due respect, because I do believe you care about the men and women you command, this is just one more in a series of mistakes because it seems no one in the Pentagon or the upper rows of the food chain have a clue what causes PTSD.
While adversity does make some stronger, you cannot train them to do it. Life and character does that quite effectively on their own. Some will walk away stronger after traumatic events but one out of three humans will not. Some experts put the rate at one out of five walk away wounded but the best experts I've listened to since 1982 have put it at one out of three.
Do you think that this man could have "trained his brain" as well?
UK:WWII veteran finally diagnosed with PTSD
A D-DAY hero has been told he is suffering a stress related illness picked up in battle — 65 years AFTER he was the first Brit to storm an enemy beach.
WWII vet George McMahon, who was the first soldier on Sword Beach in Normandy, France, had revealed he is still suffering terrifying flashbacks from June 6, 1944.
And Army docs have told the 89-year-old war hero he is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) picked up during WWII.
Mr McMahon's family first sought help from docs when the ex-soldier talked vividly about the war in the lead-up to the 65th anniversary of D-Day.
Mr McMahon of Kirk Ella, Hull, was then visited by the Service Personnel and Veterans' Agency — part of the Ministry of Defence — who said he was displaying PTSD symptoms.
The Scotland-born Army vet who served with The King's Regiment Army was awarded the Military Cross for storming two machine-guns.
Back then there were plenty of excuses to use for what happened to veterans but after Vietnam veterans came home and forced the wound to be treated, we ran out of excuses. How can you continue to dismiss what is so obvious? It is the nature of man, what is in their core, their empathy for others that is at the root of PTSD. I've talked to them long enough and enough of them to have understood this over 20 years ago. I also live with one.
I'm sick and tired of reading about what does not work being repeated. In all these years, people like me have already learned from the mistakes we made trying to help our husbands and others. To us, it wasn't a numbers game or a research project. This has meant our lives and the lives of the men we wanted to spend the rest of our lives with. Aside from that General Casey, I've spent countless hours attempting to undo the damage done because the troops are not being told what they need to hear in the first place.
I've held Marines in my arms crying because the military told them they were not strong enough and National Guardsmen told they were not cut out for combat. All of this because the military has been telling them it's their fault they didn't work hard enough to toughen their brains.
How many more suicides are you willing to live with? Has it not gotten thru to you yet that you are losing more men and women after combat than you do during it? This is only part of it because I doubt you have considered how many have committed suicide and tried it after they were discharged. You cannot order them to stop caring! You cannot order them to become callous or oblivious to the suffering of others. Between the members of their own unit to the innocent civilians that do end up in the wrong place at the wrong time, you cannot seriously expect them to just "get over it" and "toughen" their brains. These men and women walk away with their own pain compounded by the pain of others. This is what opens the door to PTSD and until you understand this is what the difference is, you will never get close enough to finding the best treatment for it and they will continue to pay for it.
Ever notice the vast majority of the men and women you command end up carrying out the mission they are given, fighting fiercely and showing great courage even though they are already carrying the wound inside of them? They fulfill their duty despite flashbacks and nightmares draining them because their duty comes first to them. Do you understand how much that takes for them to do that? Yet you think telling them their minds are not tough enough will solve the problem? What kind of a tough mind do you think they needed to have to fight on despite this killing pain inside of them?
I fully understand to you, I'm no one. I have been ignored by senators and congressmen, doctors and other brass for as long as I've been trying to help, so you are not the first. I've also been listened to by others trying to think outside the box, but more importantly to me, by the men and women seeking my help to understand this and their families. I tell them what you should have been telling them all along so that they know it's not their fault, they did not lack courage and they are not responsible for being wounded any more than they would have been to have been found by a bullet with their name on it.
If you promote this program the way Battlemind was promoted, count on the numbers of suicides and attempted suicides to go up instead of down. It's just one more deadly mistake after another and just as dangerous as sending them into Iraq without the armor needed to protect them.
Army Launching Program To Train Soldiers To Combat Post-Traumatic Stress
Sam Stein stein@huffingtonpost.com HuffPost Reporting
Faced with a growing number of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder cases in the armed forces, the U.S. Army will begin a program this summer to proactively address the problem by focusing on building the mental resilience of its personnel.
In a speech before the international affairs organization the Atlantic Council on Thursday, U.S. Army Chief of Staff Gen. George Casey laid out the virtues of the newly formed initiative, which he called Comprehensive Soldier Fitness.
"We have been looking very hard at ways to develop coping skills and resilience in soldiers, and we will be coming out in July with a new program called Comprehensive Soldier Fitness," said Casey. "And what we will attempt to do is raise mental fitness to the same level that we now give to physical fitness. Because it is scientifically proven, you can build resilience."
"The whole idea here is to give soldiers the skills they need to increase their resilience and enhance their performance," he went on. "A lot of people think that everybody who goes to combat gets post-traumatic stress. That's not true. Everybody that goes to combat gets stressed. There is no doubt about it. But the vast majority of people who go to combat have a growth experience because they are exposed to something very, very difficult and they prevail. So the issue for us is how do we give more people the skills so that more people have a growth experience... We thought it was important to get started on this because everything else involves you treating the problem. We need to be more proactive."
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Army Launching Program To Train Soldiers To Combat Post-Traumatic Stress
NYPD police officer killed by cop
NYPD police officer killed by cop
Story Highlights
Authorities: Omar Edwards, chasing a suspect, was fatally shot by another officer
Edwards witnessed suspect trying to break into his car
Another saw his pursuit, jumped out of unmarked vehicle and fired six shots
Both officers wearing street clothes; Edwards didn't fire weapon
By Cheryl Robinson
CNN
NEW YORK (CNN) -- A police officer was shot to death by another officer as he was chasing a man he saw breaking into his car in New York's East Harlem neighborhood, authorities said.
New York Police Department Officer Omar Edwards, 25, was shot twice about 10:30 p.m. Thursday just blocks from the precinct where he had finished his shift. He was pronounced dead less than an hour later at Harlem Hospital.
Edwards, in plainclothes, had just left the Housing Bureau Station House on East 124th St., said Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly. As Edwards approached his car, he saw a man rummaging through it.
"We believe that at this point, Officer Edwards, with his gun drawn, chased the individual north to 125th Street and east toward First Avenue," Kelly said at a news conference in New York early Friday at Harlem Hospital.
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http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/05/29/ny.officer.killed/index.html
Story Highlights
Authorities: Omar Edwards, chasing a suspect, was fatally shot by another officer
Edwards witnessed suspect trying to break into his car
Another saw his pursuit, jumped out of unmarked vehicle and fired six shots
Both officers wearing street clothes; Edwards didn't fire weapon
By Cheryl Robinson
CNN
NEW YORK (CNN) -- A police officer was shot to death by another officer as he was chasing a man he saw breaking into his car in New York's East Harlem neighborhood, authorities said.
New York Police Department Officer Omar Edwards, 25, was shot twice about 10:30 p.m. Thursday just blocks from the precinct where he had finished his shift. He was pronounced dead less than an hour later at Harlem Hospital.
Edwards, in plainclothes, had just left the Housing Bureau Station House on East 124th St., said Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly. As Edwards approached his car, he saw a man rummaging through it.
"We believe that at this point, Officer Edwards, with his gun drawn, chased the individual north to 125th Street and east toward First Avenue," Kelly said at a news conference in New York early Friday at Harlem Hospital.
go here for more
http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/05/29/ny.officer.killed/index.html
National D-Day Memorial may close because of bad economy
Official: National D-Day Memorial may close
The Associated Press
Posted : Friday May 29, 2009 6:30:15 EDT
BEDFORD, Va. — The president of the National D-Day Memorial foundation says it may be forced to close the memorial.
William McIntosh said Thursday the memorial needs an infusion of cash or a new owner.
He says the memorial’s big problem is a lack of donations, due to the economy. The memorial gets about $600,000 a year from visitors, but counts on donations for another $1.6 million annually.
The memorial honors the Allied invasion of Nazi-occupied France during World War II. The invasion was the largest land, air and sea operation in military history.
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2009/05/ap_d_day_memorial_052909/
The Associated Press
Posted : Friday May 29, 2009 6:30:15 EDT
BEDFORD, Va. — The president of the National D-Day Memorial foundation says it may be forced to close the memorial.
William McIntosh said Thursday the memorial needs an infusion of cash or a new owner.
He says the memorial’s big problem is a lack of donations, due to the economy. The memorial gets about $600,000 a year from visitors, but counts on donations for another $1.6 million annually.
The memorial honors the Allied invasion of Nazi-occupied France during World War II. The invasion was the largest land, air and sea operation in military history.
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2009/05/ap_d_day_memorial_052909/
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