Flags stolen from Vietnam War Memorial in Plymouth

Flags stolen from Plymouth's Vietnam site
Times Leader
July 3, 2012
Bill O'Boyle

PLYMOUTH – The theft of American flags from the Vietnam War Memorial on Main Street in this West Side community is especially upsetting to Clyde Peters.

The Vietnam veteran led the campaign to raise funds to erect the memorial that bears the names of seven Plymouth residents who were killed in Vietnam. More than a dozen flags were apparently stolen overnight Sunday.

“We put them up for Memorial Day and a lot of people would stop and take pictures,” Peters said. “And now somebody who has no respect for the flag or the sacrifices all veterans have made decided to ruin the display.

“We found a couple of the flags thrown in yards just down the street,” Peters said. “We think some kids decided to have some ‘fun.’ Whoever is responsible should pay for what they did.”

The memorial and the site that was developed to house it cost around $10,000, he said. The Plymouth American Legion Post 463 planted flowers to spruce up the display.

Peters said that when the granite memorial was set in place, he installed red, white and blue lights to illuminate it at night.

“They stole the lights, too,” Peters said.

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Cleveland Browns' Seneca Wallace USO Tour

Pretty good shooting from a football player and not a cameraman!

Greetings again from The NOC!

I want to pass along a new feature on the recent USO tour of The Cleveland Browns' Seneca Wallace. Wallace video documented his four-day stint in Kuwait, after which he sat down with The NOC to talk about the experience and narrative his footage.

The piece that emerged is unique in its perspective and fascinating in its access; it's a meditation on opportunity and responsibility that speaks to the tremendous sacrifice made by our troops abroad. We'd love you to consider sharing it with your readers.

Might make for a nice 4th of July feature.

Beloved actor Andy Griffith died this morning

Andy Griffith dies at age 86
By Ann Oldenburg
USA TODAY
Jul 03, 2012

Beloved actor Andy Griffith died this morning.

Former UNC President Bill Friday says The Andy Griffith Show and Matlock actor died at his home in Dare County, North Carolina around 7 a.m.

Friday, who is a close friend of the actor, confirmed the news to WITN News.

Emergency medical crews responded to Griffith's home this morning, Dare County Sheriff J.D. Doughtie told WAVY.com.

Griffith, who was born in Mt. Airy, N.C., was launched to fame as Sheriff Andy Taylor in The Andy Griffith Show for the CBS from 1960-1968. On the show, Ron Howard played his son, Opie. He starred on other shows and in films, but found his greatest success again with legal drama Matlock, from 1986 to 1995. He played the title character, Ben Matlock.
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Combat PTSD In-fil-trator

Combat PTSD In-fil-trator
by Chaplain Kathie
Wounded Times Blog
July 3, 2012

An infiltrator according to Free Dictionary is "To penetrate with hostile intent" and "To gain entrance gradually or surreptitiously." along with "One that infiltrates, especially an abnormal substance that accumulates gradually in cells or body tissues." This sounds a lot like Combat PTSD. Doesn't it?

After all, it comes in, fills the thoughts, fuels the actions and betrays the character of the veteran.

We know that PTSD is much like an infection. When you get wounded, it opens you up to infection if the wound is not treated. The infection gets worse, eats away more tissue and invades the blood stream taking more and more of the body until it is either treated or the infected dies.

Did you know that the word "trauma" is Greek for "wound" and one of the reasons trauma was put into the term used to explain what happens to humans? Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is actually "after wound" but veterans were programmed to blame themselves for not being mentally tough enough to take the attack and fight it off.

Psychologists question Army resilience program many years after they should have been questioning it. I am not a psychologist but even I came out against it in 2008 simply because I paid attention and have enough knowledge of what combat PTSD was to know this was not a good thing to do.

Soon I was proven right when I held a Marine with full blown PTSD while he was crying in my arms, for the first time and heard him say that he was sorry for not training right. I said the word "Battlemind" and he cried harder.

Veterans say they drink so they can sleep at night and they talk themselves into believing that is true until someone points out that they are not falling asleep but are passing out instead. Then they admit that while they are passed out, their nightmares are even stronger. They wake up more drained, take their medications and then wonder why they are still feeling lousy. They talk themselves into blaming the medications instead of alcohol.

Then they blame their doctors for not listening to them when they won't tell them exactly what is going on including the fact they can't sleep unless they get drunk and pass out.

They say their doctors don't know what they are talking about, so they won't talk to them at all. While this is the case with far too many psychologists, most of the time the veteran won't tell the truth so they can understand them. No, this is not the case of them exaggerating but more of a case of them holding back.

Families are another issue. They push their families away at the same time they want their support. They give up on trying to explain why they act the way they do and then blame their families for not "understanding" and supporting them. They still want to drink or feel as if they have to no matter what else alcohol and drugs are doing to their own bodies or to their already fracturing relationship with their families.

A lot of psychologist are just as guilty in all of this because they are too lazy to learn what they have wrong. When the DOD came out with the "resiliency" approach to "preventing" Combat PTSD, they said it sounded good so they just did it. When the VA heard that so much money and time was invested in this, they did the same thing even though the numbers were proving it made things worse.

Over 4 years later, the number of suicides and attempted suicides committed by veterans depending on these departments increased but they had the nerve to wonder why the numbers were so bad at the same time they increased the push to depend on what was already failing.

Combat PTSD veterans need to know the truth beginning with why they have it and others don't but so far the DOD has not been able to tell them simply because after all this time and money, they don't know why. (I do, but the won't listen to me.)

Families need to know why their family member came back from their 5th tour but changed when all the other times they just got over it. The DOD won't tell them when they cannot even acknowledge their own research proving that repeated deployments increase the risk of PTSD by 50% or the fact their research also proved the need for dwell time. They ignore their own findings but what makes it even worse is they ignore the research they did 40 years ago when Vietnam Veterans fought for it.
Combat PTSD is an enemy invasion supported by what sounds good at the moment and funded into the pockets of "experts" without knowledge but a great PR campaign and politicians needing to "prove" they are doing something so they are willing to do anything that gets them a headline!

Do you blame any of these veterans for feeling as if digging a grave is less expensive than healing a life?

This is one of my videos from 2007 that you may want to watch if you want to know what we already knew back then. You'll be more disgusted with how we've treated veterans than ever before!

Army Staff Sgt. Corey M. Calkins awarded Distinguished Service Cross

Soldier gets Distinguished Service Cross for heroism with Marines
POSTED BY DAN LAMOTHE
JULY 2ND, 2012

Staff Sgt. Corey M. Calkins shakes hands with Adm. William H. McRaven, commander of U.S. Special Operations Command, after receiving the Distinguished Service Cross for his actions alongside Marines in Marjah, Afghanistan, in 2010.
(Photo by Staff Sgt. Marcus Butler/Army)

Combat operations are rarely as simple as Marines serving exclusively with Marines, or soldiers serving exclusively with soldiers. There’s no better recent example of this than Army Staff Sgt. Corey Calkins, who was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for heroism serving alongside Marines.

On Feb. 18, 2010, Calkins was serving in Marjah, Afghanistan, a Taliban stronghold that had been assaulted by Marine forces only days before. As part of a dismounted reconnaissance patrol consisting of U.S. soldiers, Marines and Afghan National Security Forces, Calkins led an attack on a platoon-sized group of insurgents in fortified positions in the bazaar near Marjah, according to his award citation.

“In the face of intense small arms, rocket-propelled grenade and mortar fire, Staff Sergeant Calkins’ undaunted charge inspired the Afghan National Army Company to overrun the enemy positions, pursue the insurgents and prevent them from reorganizing,” the citation says.
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