More female servicemembers reporting sexual abuse
By Gregg Zoroya
USA Today
Published: April 23, 2013
Roughly one out of five military women say they were victims of unwanted sexual contact by another servicemember since joining the military, according to a Pentagon health survey conducted in 2011 and released Monday.
The highest rate of sexual abuse was in the Marine Corps: Nearly 30% of women said they suffered unwanted sexual contact by another military member. Close behind were the Army and Navy, each with about 24% of women raising the issue.
The sexual abuse rates appear to be significantly higher than similar survey findings from the 2008, although the Pentagon changed the way it conducted the 2011 survey of 34,000 troops, so comparisons are difficult.
Still, questions about unwanted sexual conduct were virtually identical in both surveys and in 2008, 11% to 12% of female soldiers and sailors said they were victims of unwanted touching, along with 17% of women who were Marines. About 29,000 troops were surveyed in 2008.
read more here
Tuesday, April 23, 2013
Sergeant starts own unit with Quadruplets
Army Prepares Soldier for Quadruplets
Apr 22, 2013
Army.mil/News
by Sgt. Luisito Brooks
JOINT BASE MYER-HENDERSON HALL, Va. -- "We were very shocked when we heard we were having quadruplets," said Sgt. Lee Schiefelbein. "It really isn't something we exactly prepared for, but we are so happy for each and every one of them."
Aiden, Brea, Curtis and Dominic Schiefelbein were born on Nov. 19, 2012, at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Md. Five months after the Schiefelbein family welcomed their bundles of joy into the world, the busy family has found having routines, with some help, is the only way to balance military life and taking care of multiple babies.
"We are still getting used to having a larger family now," said Lee, food service sergeant, 529th Regimental Support Company, 4th Battalion, 3d U.S. Infantry Regiment (The Old Guard). "It has been a challenge that I am happy to have taken on."
Lee works at the Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall, Va. dining facility [DFAC] serving the Soldiers, Marines, Airmen, Sailors and Coast Guardsmen that eat there every day.
"I wake up at 3 a.m. every morning to get to work by 4 a.m.," he said. "My day at the dining facility isn't over until about 2 p.m., and then I head home to help my wife with the babies."
read more here
Apr 22, 2013
Army.mil/News
by Sgt. Luisito Brooks
JOINT BASE MYER-HENDERSON HALL, Va. -- "We were very shocked when we heard we were having quadruplets," said Sgt. Lee Schiefelbein. "It really isn't something we exactly prepared for, but we are so happy for each and every one of them."
Aiden, Brea, Curtis and Dominic Schiefelbein were born on Nov. 19, 2012, at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Md. Five months after the Schiefelbein family welcomed their bundles of joy into the world, the busy family has found having routines, with some help, is the only way to balance military life and taking care of multiple babies.
"We are still getting used to having a larger family now," said Lee, food service sergeant, 529th Regimental Support Company, 4th Battalion, 3d U.S. Infantry Regiment (The Old Guard). "It has been a challenge that I am happy to have taken on."
Lee works at the Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall, Va. dining facility [DFAC] serving the Soldiers, Marines, Airmen, Sailors and Coast Guardsmen that eat there every day.
"I wake up at 3 a.m. every morning to get to work by 4 a.m.," he said. "My day at the dining facility isn't over until about 2 p.m., and then I head home to help my wife with the babies."
read more here
Why are officials avoiding those who manipulated VA data?
VA Silent on Exec Bonuses for Manipulated Data
Apr 23, 2013
Military.com
by Bryant Jordan
A year after testifying that some executives received bonuses by manipulating appointment data for veterans needing mental health care, a former Department of Veterans Affairs hospital administrator said officials have avoided the issue “like the plague.”
“They avoid it with a 10-foot pole,” Nicholas Tolentino told Military.com in a telephone interview Monday.
Last April, Tolentino, a former mental health administrator at the Manchester VA Medical Center in New Hampshire, told lawmakers that VA hospital officials across the country talked to each other to find workarounds to meet VA appointment goals. The overriding objective, “from top management on down, was to meet our numbers” and make it appear as if the VA was seeing as many veterans as possible, he said.
Meeting those goals was linked to bonuses for executive career employees, he said. This created “a perverse administrative incentive” for officials to exploit loopholes to meet manufactured goals without providing the services.
“The upshot of these all too widespread practices is that meeting a performance target, rather than meeting the needs of the veteran, becomes the overriding priority in providing care,” he testified.
Tolentino told the Senate that VA officials from across the country discussed ways to get around the system.
“That’s one of the reasons I left,” he said. “Not only because of the fraud. They were gaming the entire system and profiting off it. I left before I got a bonus. I didn’t feel right taking [one].”
read more here
Apr 23, 2013
Military.com
by Bryant Jordan
A year after testifying that some executives received bonuses by manipulating appointment data for veterans needing mental health care, a former Department of Veterans Affairs hospital administrator said officials have avoided the issue “like the plague.”
“They avoid it with a 10-foot pole,” Nicholas Tolentino told Military.com in a telephone interview Monday.
Last April, Tolentino, a former mental health administrator at the Manchester VA Medical Center in New Hampshire, told lawmakers that VA hospital officials across the country talked to each other to find workarounds to meet VA appointment goals. The overriding objective, “from top management on down, was to meet our numbers” and make it appear as if the VA was seeing as many veterans as possible, he said.
Meeting those goals was linked to bonuses for executive career employees, he said. This created “a perverse administrative incentive” for officials to exploit loopholes to meet manufactured goals without providing the services.
“The upshot of these all too widespread practices is that meeting a performance target, rather than meeting the needs of the veteran, becomes the overriding priority in providing care,” he testified.
Tolentino told the Senate that VA officials from across the country discussed ways to get around the system.
“That’s one of the reasons I left,” he said. “Not only because of the fraud. They were gaming the entire system and profiting off it. I left before I got a bonus. I didn’t feel right taking [one].”
read more here
Brothers die in Texas explosion as volunteer firefighters
A town copes with lives lost in Texas blast
By Todd Sperry and Ashley Fantz
CNN
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
A business that distributed fertilizer exploded in West, Texas, on Wednesday, killing 14
Volunteer firefighters were brothers who did everything together, family says
Some West students whose schools were damaged are taking classes in Waco
West, Texas (CNN) -- Since they were little boys growing up West, Texas, brothers Doug and Robert Snokhous did everything together. They fixed cars, went hunting, golfed and barbecued together. It just made sense that they would both become volunteer firefighters, and that they were side by side last Wednesday when they rushed to a fire at the West Fertilizer Co.
The brothers were among 14 people who died after the fire led to a massive explosion at the distributor. The blast decimated not only the company's building but ravaged practically the entire north side of the small farming community.
The nine first-responders from West who died battling the blaze represented nearly one-third of the town's volunteer firefighting and EMT force. The fire destroyed three fire trucks and an ambulance. Firefighters and trucks from neighboring communities now fill the void at the West firehouse.
Among the others who rushed to the fire and lost their lives: Kenneth "Luckey" Harris Jr., a 52-year-old Dallas firefighter who lives in West, and two friends of first responders whose identities have not been confirmed by authorities.
read more here
By Todd Sperry and Ashley Fantz
CNN
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
A business that distributed fertilizer exploded in West, Texas, on Wednesday, killing 14
Volunteer firefighters were brothers who did everything together, family says
Some West students whose schools were damaged are taking classes in Waco
West, Texas (CNN) -- Since they were little boys growing up West, Texas, brothers Doug and Robert Snokhous did everything together. They fixed cars, went hunting, golfed and barbecued together. It just made sense that they would both become volunteer firefighters, and that they were side by side last Wednesday when they rushed to a fire at the West Fertilizer Co.
The brothers were among 14 people who died after the fire led to a massive explosion at the distributor. The blast decimated not only the company's building but ravaged practically the entire north side of the small farming community.
The nine first-responders from West who died battling the blaze represented nearly one-third of the town's volunteer firefighting and EMT force. The fire destroyed three fire trucks and an ambulance. Firefighters and trucks from neighboring communities now fill the void at the West firehouse.
Among the others who rushed to the fire and lost their lives: Kenneth "Luckey" Harris Jr., a 52-year-old Dallas firefighter who lives in West, and two friends of first responders whose identities have not been confirmed by authorities.
read more here
Hope stands up for the harmed
Hope stands up for the harmed
by Kathie Costos
Wounded Times Blog
April 23, 2013
One of my least favorite jobs was working for a newspaper as Circulation Manager. (To tell the truth, I was lousy at it. Just not cut out to be a manager hiring and firing.) Newspapers have a slogan when it comes to deciding what story gets the top of the fold "if it bleeds, it leads." In other words when the paper is folded to fill stands, the stories showing up there will get the most attention. The worst story grabs people, or so they think but if this blog is any example, the good stories matter more.
The top post on Wounded Times is the story of Pfc. Kyle Hockenberry with a tattoo "For those I love I will sacrifice." Stars and Stripes had a great article on combat medics and his story was in it. Later on TIME picked up the story reporting that "Kyle Hockenberry, 19, lost both legs and his left arm in the blast." This post has been read over 35,000 times.
The second biggest story was about Marine Lance Cpl. William Kyle Carpenter, "his face missing an eye and crisscrossed with deep scars, stood on the floor of the S.C. Senate on Wednesday to receive the thanks of his state." That post has been read over 14,000 times.
I have a feeling that the first three stories from this morning will be at the top of the hit list of this blog soon.
Daniel “Doc” Jacobs an amputee getting his own baseball card. Combat veterans visit double amputee Boston survivor and then Cpl. Jake Hill. All of them offering hope to others.
They do not hide their wounds. They walk around with shorts. They tell their stories, not for sympathy but to show empathy and stand as an example of hope that brighter days are ahead of them. That their body is not who they are and the missing parts are not parts missing from their character.
I don't know if the people rushing to help the wounded last week really thought about what they were doing. I suspect all they were thinking about was that someone needed help and nothing more beyond that. Some people ran away and no one can fault them for that. Others rushed to help even though they didn't know if another bomb would blow up or not. They proved hope stood up for the harmed. They mattered. Someone, as we now know their names, decided to do harm to total strangers. It was not personal to them because they just didn't care. The ones rushing to help did care about them. There should be an award for these folks risking their lives to help someone else. It turned out there was another bomb. They rushed to help again.
I used to be a young wife, lost and confused after discovering combat had come into my life. That was way back in 1984. No one was talking about what I was going thru anymore than they were talking about what my husband was going thru with PTSD. Now I am amazed by how many are talking about it knowing there is no shame in any of this. The only shame in this is the fact we've been working on Combat PTSD for over 40 years yet lessons learned, the right lessons and studies, have been forgotten. As for the veterans and their families, most of them want help to heal but that is not their ultimate goal. They want to help others feeling as lost and alone as they felt.
They want to offer hope that it does get better. No one is alone in this fight back home. Most of the veterans and family members I talk to want to do something to offer that hope and it doesn't matter to them they will end up refocusing on their own pain to do it. To them all that matters is standing up and telling others it is not hopeless.
They lead the way out of the horrible and to Wounded Times, now that I get to decide what leads, these heroes do.
by Kathie Costos
Wounded Times Blog
April 23, 2013
One of my least favorite jobs was working for a newspaper as Circulation Manager. (To tell the truth, I was lousy at it. Just not cut out to be a manager hiring and firing.) Newspapers have a slogan when it comes to deciding what story gets the top of the fold "if it bleeds, it leads." In other words when the paper is folded to fill stands, the stories showing up there will get the most attention. The worst story grabs people, or so they think but if this blog is any example, the good stories matter more.
The top post on Wounded Times is the story of Pfc. Kyle Hockenberry with a tattoo "For those I love I will sacrifice." Stars and Stripes had a great article on combat medics and his story was in it. Later on TIME picked up the story reporting that "Kyle Hockenberry, 19, lost both legs and his left arm in the blast." This post has been read over 35,000 times.
The second biggest story was about Marine Lance Cpl. William Kyle Carpenter, "his face missing an eye and crisscrossed with deep scars, stood on the floor of the S.C. Senate on Wednesday to receive the thanks of his state." That post has been read over 14,000 times.
I have a feeling that the first three stories from this morning will be at the top of the hit list of this blog soon.
Daniel “Doc” Jacobs an amputee getting his own baseball card. Combat veterans visit double amputee Boston survivor and then Cpl. Jake Hill. All of them offering hope to others.
They do not hide their wounds. They walk around with shorts. They tell their stories, not for sympathy but to show empathy and stand as an example of hope that brighter days are ahead of them. That their body is not who they are and the missing parts are not parts missing from their character.
I don't know if the people rushing to help the wounded last week really thought about what they were doing. I suspect all they were thinking about was that someone needed help and nothing more beyond that. Some people ran away and no one can fault them for that. Others rushed to help even though they didn't know if another bomb would blow up or not. They proved hope stood up for the harmed. They mattered. Someone, as we now know their names, decided to do harm to total strangers. It was not personal to them because they just didn't care. The ones rushing to help did care about them. There should be an award for these folks risking their lives to help someone else. It turned out there was another bomb. They rushed to help again.
I used to be a young wife, lost and confused after discovering combat had come into my life. That was way back in 1984. No one was talking about what I was going thru anymore than they were talking about what my husband was going thru with PTSD. Now I am amazed by how many are talking about it knowing there is no shame in any of this. The only shame in this is the fact we've been working on Combat PTSD for over 40 years yet lessons learned, the right lessons and studies, have been forgotten. As for the veterans and their families, most of them want help to heal but that is not their ultimate goal. They want to help others feeling as lost and alone as they felt.
They want to offer hope that it does get better. No one is alone in this fight back home. Most of the veterans and family members I talk to want to do something to offer that hope and it doesn't matter to them they will end up refocusing on their own pain to do it. To them all that matters is standing up and telling others it is not hopeless.
They lead the way out of the horrible and to Wounded Times, now that I get to decide what leads, these heroes do.
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