Traumatized UK veteran 'let down' by Army

Traumatised Chelmsford veteran 'let down' by Army
Monday, August 13, 2012
Essex Chronicle


AN EX-SOLDIER plagued by flashbacks of war claims the Army has left him high and dry since he left the Force.

Mark Griffiths served a total of 12 years in First Battalion Royal Anglian, including time in Northern Ireland, Afghanistan and Iraq.

But when he was discharged from the Army with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in July, he said he was alienated by his squadron for being "weak" and told he was not going to get a medical pension.

"The Army was my entire life and all I ever wanted to do since I was five-years-old," said Mark, 30, of Pickwick Avenue, Chelmsford.

"After all the years I have given them this is not what you expect to happen. I just get so many flashbacks, violent mood swings, depression – you just cannot sleep. It pretty much takes over your entire life.

"All I hear when I close my eyes is the sound, the loud noises, the screaming. I cannot even explain to you how it sounds."

Mark worked alongside fallen Chelmsford soldier Scott Hardy in Afghanistan. He was just one of his many friends who died in battle.

"Scott was a top bloke, he could talk to anyone and could always make me laugh," he said.

"It was so sad because on our rest and recuperation from Afghanistan he was telling me how he wanted to leave the Army and settle down with his girlfriend and have a family in Chelmsford.

"I found out through an officer casualty report, and it hit me really hard, it was beyond words.

"I have seen so many of my friends die and had to bury them all. There are people in their 80s that will not have been to as many funerals as me."
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8 Marines committed suicide in July

MILITARY: Eight Marine suicides raise year's total to 32
By MARK WALKER

Eight active-duty Marines took their own lives in July, raising the number of troop suicides so far this year to 32 ---- the same number recorded in the Corps in all of 2011.

An additional 12 Marines attempted suicide last month, raising that figure for the year to 113 compared with 163 for all of 2011, according to the latest report from the service's suicide prevention program.

The report doesn't say where the Marine suicides in July took place.

Officials with the suicide prevention program were not available for comment Friday.

The pace of self-inflicted deaths this year is an indication that a variety of outreach and monitoring efforts are not meeting with success.

Bill Rider, a former Marine who counsels current and former Marines through the American Combat Veterans of War organization he founded, said the latest figures are beyond troubling.

"It's horrible," Rider said.
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Collecting donations in Military wear is misleading, vets say

Military wear is misleading, vets say
Aug 11, 2012
Written by
R. Norman Moody
FLORIDA TODAY

Beyond wondering where the donation money goes, by far the biggest complaint lodged against out-of-town organizations’ collecting cash for veterans at local stores is the solicitors’ appearance.

In complaints to FLORIDA TODAY and multiple state agencies, veterans and their advocates say solicitors are dressed to resemble military men and women, when some have never served.

Carolyn Mosely, of Melbourne, filed a formal complaint with the state agency that oversees charities’ fundraising, about the encounter she and her husband had with a collector for Veterans Support Organization outside a local Winn-Dixie. In her letter, Mosely said the young man admitted he was not a veteran, although his dress hinted otherwise.

“He was just dressed like a soldier, and was collecting funds for the organization,” she wrote, adding that she felt it’s “totally misleading, dishonest, and possibly illegal to masquerade as a military person in order to scam the public into donating.”

She went to add, “My husband served 30 years in the USAF, had combat tours in three wars, and I resent anyone impersonating a military man.”
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My husband is with the DAV and I am with the Auxiliary. We go to stores arranged way a head of time for Forget Me Not drives twice a year. It happens all the time. People will come up to the table and tell us they love the DAV and just donated. When we ask them where they were, they said on "such and such street" and gave the money to a man in uniform. When we tell them the DAV does not collect money on the street and we do not put on costumes, they are horrified. They don't like being duped. What they like even less is the fact their money did not go to where they knew it would be put to good use.

The other group keeps changing their name but usually has a sign saying Disabled Veterans Foundation or something like that. People see the words Disabled Veteran and then just assume they are with the DAV.

I strongly suggest that if you are seeing anyone collecting money for veterans on the street or at a store, check to see who they are really with. If you don't know anything about them, get information from them and then look them up to see if they are worthy of your money and trust. If they won't provide you with the information, then go into the store and complain to the manager. Let them know what is going on. Most of the time the store managers just trust them because they have a tax exempt assuming they are on the level.

The above group is yet another problem if they are dressing up like veterans instead of actually being veterans.

Seniors take action and stop shooter at grocery store

Gunfire wounds 3 at grocery in Pierce County
A 20-year-old woman armed with a revolver opened fire in a grocery store on Pierce County's Key Peninsula on Saturday afternoon, wounding three men. In the shooting's aftermath, a husband and wife provided crucial help — the wife sitting on the shooter while the husband tended to a man who had been shot.
By Ken Armstrong and Sandi Doughton
Seattle Times staff reporters

A 20-year-old woman armed with a revolver opened fire in a grocery store on Pierce County's Key Peninsula on Saturday afternoon, wounding three men. In the aftermath, a husband and wife provided crucial help — the wife sitting on the shooter while the husband tended to a man who had been shot.

The shooter was still inside the store when Pierce County sheriff's deputies arrived and took her into custody.

The woman has a history of mental illness and apparently didn't know any of the victims, Pierce County sheriff's spokesman Ed Troyer said. "All she told us was that she didn't like the people she shot," he said. "But we have no way of tying her to any of them."
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$1.7 Million Grant Will Allow Hartford To Retain 12 Police Officers

$1.7 Million Grant Will Allow Hartford To Retain 12 Police Officers
By JESSE RIFKIN
The Hartford Courant
August 10, 2012

HARTFORD
Thanks to a $1.7 million grant from the U.S. Department of Justice, Hartford will be able to retain 12 police officers about to complete training at the state police academy.

Celebrating the grant at a press conference Thursday were U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, U.S. Rep. John Larson, Mayor Pedro E. Segarra, Acting Police Chief James Rovella, and city council President Shawn Wooden.

Blumenthal highlighted the employment value in addition to the policing value.

Connecticut statewide received $4.7 million. The other police departments were Waterbury with $1.75 million for 14 new military veteran hires, New Haven with $750,000 for six new military veteran hires, and Norwich with $500,000 for four military veteran hires.

(Hartford's money was targeted for rehires scheduled for layoffs, not new hires.)
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