Shelter 140 Veterans Call Home Getting Help

Private donation helps city's only shelter just for homeless veterans
KENS
Justin Bourke
August 11, 2016

SAN ANTONIO -- The city’s only shelter specifically for homeless veterans is getting a special gift, helping the city keep its goal of leaving no homeless veteran behind.

On Thursday, Briggs Equipment handed a $29,000 check to the American GI Forum’s Residential Center for Homeless Veterans. The money will go toward the renovation of their kitchen and outdoor common areas.

Richard Rosemondeamoundu, a Vietnam veteran, said the money will help improve a place nearly 140 veterans call home.

“Out there it’s pitiful,” Richard said. “That’s why I thank god every day that I found this place.”

Richard, a former marine, has lived at the American GI Forum’s Residential Center for Homeless Veterans for two years.
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You Wouldn't Have Combat PTSD if You Stayed Home

I'll be damned if I sit back and let you settle for the load of crap you've been fed over all these years! I am going to keep this short and simple.

Too many have died because they had PTSD but never understood what it was. 

Many have suggested that dropping the D from PTSD will get the stigma out of the way. As if you are afraid of a letter after surviving war. The D is for "Disorder" meaning things in your mind were once in a certain order but after the traumas you survived, things got bumped out of place. You can put it all back in order again, just not in the same way they were before you left home. 

No one is ever the same after combat.

Far too many do not understand that "trauma" is actually Greek for "wound" and if you look at it that way, you understand that it hit you. Any shame in getting wounded for your country? Any shame in risking your life for the sake of those you were with?

As for asking for help, consider combat itself. You had no problem at all asking for help fighting the enemy forces. So why have a problem asking for help because you did all that then? This time you're battling for yourself so that when you are stronger you can battle for your buddy and all the other veterans out there going through the same hell.


If you are veteran over the age of 50, you are among the majority of veterans committing suicide. 

If you do not get the help you are looking for, keep looking until you find it. 

Air Force Raptor Defeated By Bees?

Swarm of 20,000 Bees Grounds U.S. Air Force’s F-22 Raptor in Virginia
BY CNN WIRE
AUGUST 12, 2016

According to Westrich, the queen likely landed on the F-22 to rest, and since honey bees do not leave the queen, they swarmed around the jet and eventually collected there.

The US Air Force’s F-22 Raptor may be the most advanced fighter jet in the world but even with $143 million-worth of stealth and supersonic capabilities, it proved to be no match for one unlikely adversary — a huge swarm of honey bees.

A huge swarm of bees grounded an F-22 Raptor in Virginia. 

(Credit: Master Sgt. Carlos Claudio/USAF)

An F-22 aircraft from the 192nd Air Wing was temporarily grounded on June 11 after crew members at Joint Base Langley-Eustis in Virginia discovered nearly 20,000 bees hanging from the jet’s exhaust nozzle following flight operations.

“I was shocked like everyone else because it looked like a cloud of thousands of bees,” said Tech. Sgt. Jeffrey Baskin, 192nd Maintenance Squadron crew chief, in an Air Force press release.
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PTSD: Wisconsin Veterans Community Souls of Honor Motorcycle Ride

Souls of Honor motorcycle ride raises nearly $4200 for local veterans
WSAW 7 News
By Holly Chilsen
August 13, 2016

WAUSAU, Wis. (WSAW) -- The loud rumble of motorcycles filled Central Wisconsin Saturday for the annual Souls of Honor motorcycle ride.

The event took off at 11:00 a.m. from the Harley Davidson in Wausau and went to Hatley. The entire trip there and back is close to 100 miles.

Ron Worthey, the organization's president, said Souls of Honor was established about three years ago to meet the needs in the community when it comes to veterans' care.
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Australian Iraq Veteran Winning The PTSD War

Veteran’s battle against PTSD a life-changing fight
NT News
COURTNEY TODD
August 13, 2016

Alex reached out for help through the Army but treatment wasn’t forthcoming. “I thought I was going mentally insane,” he said. “I didn’t believe I had PTSD because the Army told me I didn’t have PTSD.”

Iraq veteran Alex Kaczmarek has suffered from post traumatic stress disorder. PICTURE: Elise Derwin

IRAQ veteran Alex Kaczmarek knows all too well the dark places post traumatic stress disorder can lead people.

For him it was homelessness, alcohol abuse and suicidal thoughts.

“Every day for about eight years I wanted to shoot myself in the head,” he said. “The only thing that stopped me was knowing that someone would have to come retrieve the body.”

There were times when Alex felt he was losing his battle against PTSD but now he is winning the war and he is also helping others to rehabilitate.

When Alex came back to Australia his close friends and family noticed something wasn’t right but it took a year for him to realise, too.

“It began with sleep — lack of sleeping, insomnia and nightmares began to affect my day,” he said.

“I’d go a few days without sleep, which turned into weeks, which turned into months. Before I knew it, I got to a point where I couldn’t remember if I was asleep or awake.

“I had uncontrollable adrenaline from my inner brain reacting to situations that weren’t actually occurring, telling my body to release massive amounts of adrenaline and then I wasn’t sure what to do with it so I’d have a panic attack.

“Probably for about a year I had to stop and vomit every day on the way to work through anxiety.”

Alex reached out for help through the Army but treatment wasn’t forthcoming. “I thought I was going mentally insane,” he said. “I didn’t believe I had PTSD because the Army told me I didn’t have PTSD.”

Alex was eventually sent to an independent civilian psychiatrist who said he had the warning signs of conflict-related PTSD.

Alex discharged from the Army in November 2009 due to the lack of support. By that stage he was drinking heavily every day to numb his feelings and soon found himself on the streets of Sydney and Darwin.

That was Alex’s rock bottom.

“You think back and only a few years previously you were doing protection parties for the Prime Minister of Australia in a foreign country in a war zone and now you’re walking the streets with a bag of clothes,” he said.

“I slept at train stations, car parks, in the bush. I had a ute luckily when I was up here so, when I could afford it, I went and stayed in a caravan park so I could use the shower facilities. I pretty much long-grassed it for a bit.”

All the while Alex was battling PTSD, anxiety, depression, physical injuries and suicidal thoughts.
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