Kevin Higgins Survived Deployments But Not Being Back Home

Widow of shooting subject: The VA let us down
USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin
Miller Jozwiak
August 11, 2016

In the last eight days before Kevin died, he tried calling six different crisis hotlines to simply vent his thoughts. Nicole’s phone shows multiple calls to the lines, though Kevin's phone is still in possession of the police and the crisis lines are anonymous.

“There was one, a combat crisis hotline that we found,” Nicole said. “And a veteran on there did speak with him from a little before midnight until like four in the morning… All he wanted to do was talk. He just needed an outlet.”

Nicole Higgins has not tried to justify what her husband, Kevin Higgins, did.

(Photo: Submitted by Nicole Higgins)

Unanswered calls for help

“When he did get his medications in the mail, they’d always come late. His refills were never refilled,” Nicole said. “Say the doctor would write the prescription, and then it’s supposed to come every month, and it wouldn’t. We were having trouble because the meds come from Green Bay… And his meds came late.”

On July 17, Kevin robbed the Union Avenue Tap and raised an assault rifle at officers who responded, prompting them to fire six bullets into him.

She doesn't blame the officers who shot her husband to death that night. She said the officers were just defending themselves from a crime, but that the incident could have been stopped long before July 17.

“They did what they had to do,” Nicole said.

But as she received part of Kevin's medication mere days after his death -- medication designed in part to treat Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder he developed following parts of his military service -- she found herself questioning why Kevin couldn't get proper treatment for the mental illness that precipitated his death.

“It really upset him that he was telling these veterans [at the VFW] that this is where you can get help and he’d reach out to those places and they wouldn’t help him,” Nicole said.
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Tall Ships Invade Portsmouth

Tall ships arrive in Portsmouth
Sea Coast Online
By Austin McGuigan
August 10, 2016

Parade leads tall ships into the Port City

The Oliver Hazard Perry tall ship docks in Portsmouth on Wednesday early evening after being in the boat parade on Piscataqua. Photo by Deb Cram/Seacoastonline

PORTSMOUTH—Not since 2007 has Ethan Bensley set foot on the Harvey Gamage. Spending four months onboard, Bensley who lives in Kittery, Maine, sailed the Gamage from the U.S. Virgin Islands to Boston as part of a “semester at sea.”

“It was awesome back in high school, it was a long time ago now,” said Bensley. “It’s a fun sail, it really is an old school sailing boat… certainly sailing on it is fun, but living on it is an whole other thing.”

On Wednesday, Bensley and his fiancée Lia Hoffmann, sailed aboard the Harvey Gamage for the annual Parade of Sail in the Piscataqua River. The parade kicked off the Piscataqua Maritime Commission Sail Portsmouth 2016 festival — held Thursday through Sunday.

A replica of a 19th century schooner, the Gamage carried 47 people up river. The Oliver Hazard Perry, Sail Portsmouth’s second featured tall ship, led the parade past the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard and towards the Memorial Bridge.
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Community Came Together To Help PTSD Service Dog

Maggie dies in the arms of a friend
Salisbury Post
Mark Wineka
August 11, 2016

SALISBURY — In about two days, Anna Jenkins will receive Maggie’s cremated remains. Back at her Salisbury apartment Wednesday afternoon, Jenkins began gathering all of Maggie’s stuff — the toys, beds, bowls, food, collars, leashes and the devices that helped her to walk.

Photo courtesy of Family Endeavors Law enforcement officers in Charlotte collected money toward a wagon for Anna Jenkins' service dog, Maggie. Maggie was put to sleep peacefully on Wednesday morning.

Jenkins plans on finding a place to donate these things. Otherwise, she was trying to get through the rest of the day without the service dog that had been — through some pretty tough times — her best friend since 2005.

“It’s strange,” Jenkins says. “I keep looking and expecting to see her and she’s not there.”

Maggie’s death came peacefully Wednesday morning.

“Her dying in my arms was a gift I could not imagine,” Anna Jenkins said.

In a column Tuesday, I had relayed Anna’s desperation in trying to pay for the euthanasia of Maggie, her 14 1/2-year-old chocolate Labrador and service dog. The prices she had been quoted from three different veterinary clinics for the euthanasia and cremation were too much for Anna to afford.
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Fort Hood Soldier's Death Under Investigation

Fort Hood officials ID soldier found dead in Copperas Cove
Army Times
Staff report
August 10, 2016

Officials on Tuesday released the name of a soldier from Fort Hood, Texas, who was found unresponsive last week.

Sgt. Calvin Wenceslao Aguilar. (Photo: Army)

Sgt. Calvin Wenceslao Aguilar, 32, was found Thursday in Copperas Cove, Texas. The circumstances surrounding his death are under investigation.

Aguilar, who was from Hayward, California, joined the Army in October 2006 as a working dog handler. He had been assigned to the Fort Hood-based 720th Military Police Battalion, 89th Military Police Brigade since July 2013.
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Detroit VA Bought 300 New TVs, Forgot About Hooking Them Up?

Report: Detroit's VA hospital misspent money on TVs
Detroit Free Press
Todd Spangler
August 10, 2016

WASHINGTON – Officials at Detroit’s Veterans Affairs hospital were coming under close scrutiny Wednesday after federal inspectors reported this week that the facility misspent more than $300,000 on TVs for patient rooms, which couldn’t be installed without spending more on a design change.

More than that, the report from the Veterans Affairs (VA) Office of Inspector General found that despite having purchased the 300 TVs and related accessories 2½ years ago, the vast majority of them remain in their boxes, even though their warranties expired more than a year ago.

“By purchasing these items well before a construction contract to install them was awarded, the facility exposed itself to unnecessary financial risk,” said the report, which was released Tuesday. “As of June 21, 2016, the facility had not yet awarded a contract to install these TVs.”

Officials at the hospital, formally known as the John D. Dingell VA Medical Center, issued a statement saying they concurred with the inspector general’s findings and recommendations to improve purchase contracts and to consult with legal counsel to determine if rules were broken.

In recent years, the VA nationwide has come under fire for a series of problems, including reports of long waiting lists at some hospitals for veterans to receive treatment and officials trying to make scheduling deficiencies look better than they were. Last year, questions were also raised as VA officials acknowledged they had spent billions on private medical care without signing contracts with providers.
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