Vietnam Veteran Jim Blacketer, a Hometown Hero

Jim Blacketer, a Hometown Hero
KCBD News
By Taylor Langston
Posted: Feb 26, 2014

LUBBOCK, TX (KCBD)
The year was 1967 and Jim Blacketer was just 18-years-old.

He started training as a Marine at 17, then was shipped out to Vietnam and for the next two years, he served in the jungle of Danang.

His time in Vietnam has left Jim battling multiple ailments he feels are connected to Agent Orange poisoning.

"It has given me quite a few diseases, unfortunately. Parkinson's is one, heart disease is another and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder," Blacketer said.

The herbicide was used to kill plants, eliminating hiding places for the enemy, but was later found to cause health problems and even death.

"The biggest problem that I have to overcome is the mental problem," Jim said. "Because every day when I wake up, it's easy to say well I've been shaking today and it's easy to say well I'll stay in bed."

But Jim is pushing forward with a new mission in mind, a 26.2 mile mission.

He's training for a marathon on March 23, then in just 30 days to venture on a bike ride up Mount Lemon in Arizona.
read more here

Marine rape victim attempted suicide, rapists walked away

Retired Marine Reveals Secret Suffering of Male Military Rape Victims
Daily Beast
Caitlin Dickson
February 27, 2014

Former Marine Lance Corporal Jeremiah Arbogast tried to kill himself after he watched his rapist walk free. He shared his story, Wednesday, in hopes of helping spark change within the ranks. Twenty-two veterans commit suicide everyday. Jeremiah Arbogast was almost one of them.

“Choosing death was my way of taking responsibility for my circumstances,” the former Marine Lance Corporal told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee’s subcommittee on personnel Wednesday. “I felt my death would spare my wife, daughter and myself the dishonor the rape brought upon us.”

From the wheelchair to which he has been confined ever since his self-inflicted gunshot wound left him paraplegic, the 32-year-old started the committee’s hearing on the relationship between military sexual assault, PTSD and suicide, with a heartbreaking testimony.
read more here

SWAT standoff with veteran ends peacefully

Oakmont standoff ends with suspect in custody
Man barricaded in home on California Avenue after domestic dispute
WTAE News
by Kelly Brennan
Feb 27, 2014

OAKMONT, Pa. —Authorities took a man into custody Wednesday after a standoff that involved Oakmont police and the Allegheny County SWAT team.

The incident began around 10:30 p.m. after a domestic dispute at a duplex on California Avenue, police said. When Oakmont police arrived, a woman ran from the home and said she was in danger. As she ran back inside a man could be heard shouting profanities, telling officers not to enter, according to Oakmont Police Chief Dave DiSanti.

DiSanti said the woman was the man's cousin. He was staying with her as a guest.

"He said, 'If you enter the premises, the war will be on,'" DiSanti said.

Police immediately set up a perimeter around the home, evacuated four nearby homes and called in the Allegheny County SWAT team.
read more here

One tough Iwo Jima Marine retires after 65 years

World War II vet retires after 65 years with Marines
UT San Diego
By Linda McIntosh
FEB. 26, 2014

World War II veteran Sgt. Maj. Walter Valentine served 30 years active duty in the Marine Corps and another 35 years as a civilian employee at Camp Pendleton.

CAMP PENDLETON — A Camp Pendleton Marine who joined the Corps in 1942, retired earlier this month from his civilian job at Camp Pendleton.

Sgt. Maj. Walter Valentine, 89, served in World War II, Korea and Vietnam over three decades with the Marines and then spent another three decades helping comrades make a smooth transition into civilian life when they retire.

After Valentine finished boot camp at Camp Lejeune, NC in 1942, he joined the 3rd Marine Division and headed for combat in the Pacific as a scout sniper.

He was in the assault landing of Bougainville, now Papua New Guinea, in November 1943, then headed to Guadalcanal for more combat training. Later he participated in the assault landing that recaptured the island of Guam and fought in the battle of Iwo Jima, where he earned a Purple Heart.

“I will never forget the flag rising at Iwo Jima,” Valentine said.
read more here

Top VA health official denies dumping patient records

Top VA health official denies dumping patient records
Navy Times
Leo Shane III
Staff Writer
Feb. 26, 2014

The Veterans Affairs Department’s top health official dismissed a report this week that VA health care system employees dumped thousands of medical appointment records in an effort to cover up overdue work.

Robert Petzel, VA’s undersecretary for health, called the report by the Daily Caller “scurrilous” and confused. He said the moves in question were part of planned administrative work to finalize out-of-date cases, not a cover-up effort.

“No one who needed care was denied care,” he told lawmakers at a House Veterans’ Affairs Committee hearing Wednesday. “This was a carefully thought out review. There was no attempt to eliminate records.”

A former VA employee told the Daily Caller that VA officials in Los Angeles intentionally erased thousands of patient exam requests during a 2009 review in an effort to disguise the staff’s inability to keep up with the increasing workload.

Petzel said more than 3,000 workers systemwide were removed from their jobs last year for substandard performance, and six senior executives were forced to resign for serious errors.
read more here