Pearl Jam Raising Veterans Voices

Pearl Jam to help fund ‘Veterans’ Voices’ project
The Recorder
Diane Broncaccio
Recorder Staff
August 26, 2016

“The Veterans’ Voices program takes participants out of the broken places, the darkness, the hopelessness.” Robin Lane

SHELBURNE FALLS — For 15 years, rock musician/singer-songwriter Robin Lane of Shelburne Falls has been using music to help people recover emotionally from sexual assault, child abuse or domestic violence. Through her nonprofit, Songbird Sings, Lane has also worked with military veterans, using music to help soldiers reconnect to feelings that have been numbed by war trauma, post-traumatic stress disorder, addiction and mental health problems.

This summer, “Veterans’ Voices” will get extra help from the proceeds of two Pearl Jam concerts held this summer in Boston’s Fenway Park.

Veterans’ Voices is one of four local programs picked by Pearl Jam’s Vitalogy Foundation to receive $1 for every ticket sold for the Fenway Park concerts held on Aug. 5 and 7. The Pearl Jam donation is to be followed by another contribution to be made by “The Foundation to be Named Later,” (FTBNL), which provides ongoing support to Songbird programs.

According to Vitalogy, the Fenway baseball park concerts broke attendance records with 72,722 tickets sold over two nights. That means Songbird Sings will receive $18,180.

“The funding provided … will be used to create songwriting workshops for veterans with PTSD and will allow Songbird Sings to expand programming and reach more survivors, in order to ease suffering caused by PTSD,” Lane said, in a news release. “A huge thanks to Pearl Jam and FTBNL for their support. We couldn’t be more grateful.”
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Man Charged After Attack on PTSD Veteran and Dog!

Wilton man accused of assaulting family member, veteran with PTSD
Central Maine
Lauren Abbate
Staff Writer
August 26, 2016

WILTON — A Wilton man was arrested twice this week for allegedly assaulting two elderly men who lived with him, including a family member and a veteran with post-traumatic stress disorder.

Wilton Police Chief Heidi Wilcox said in published reports Thursday that both victims are dependent on care and have limited resources. She told the Lewiston Sun-Journal the veteran was been taken to a shelter.

She said that police were told the veteran’s dog was kicked across a room. She said the dog has been removed from the home until housing can be found for the owner.
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317 Florida Veterans Get Medals in Bradenton

Governor presents awards to 317 veterans in Bradenton
Bradenton Herald
James A Jones Jr.
August 25, 2016

William Thompson, 91, and Ned Teves, 82, came through the award line together. Thompson served in the South Pacific during World War II, while Teves served as an Army doctor in a military hospital in Japan during the Vietnam War.

Teves said he had been a recent immigrant from the Philippines and not yet a citizen when he was drafted into the Army.

He called his draft notice a “love letter” from the U.S. government.

Teves, like other vets from the Vietnam War era, welcomed the appreciation expressed for their service in recent years.

BRADENTON
Rick Scott had already presented Governor’s Veterans Service Awards to more than 300 veterans on Thursday when he spotted Jackson Carson, 86, sitting at the back of the room.

The Bradenton National Guard Armory had just about emptied out, and Carson seemed unable to come forward to be recognized.

The governor walked back to Carson with Major Gen. Michael Calhoun, Florida’s adjutant general, at his side. Scott placed the award around Carson’s neck, thanked him for his service and asked him when he served.
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Community Refuses To Give Up On Blind, Homeless Vet

Grace In Action: Community Refuses To Give Up On Blind, Homeless Vet
CBS News
By Robbie Owens
August 25, 2016

DALLAS (CBS11) – With hugs and smiles all around, Willie Curtis King, Jr. is enjoying a homecoming of sorts.

“I had thought there weren’t no more really good people in the world,” said King. “I was so down on my luck. But, every day, I woke up. Every day I woke up, these people helped me.”

His visit to the MLK Community Center Thursday was made even more special when you consider that this time last year, King had no home. He was a card-carrying member of the angry, hard-to-help homeless, existing on the kindness of those at the center.

“I didn’t have to be outside that dumpster,” said King. “I was just belligerent… out of control.”

Those at the MLK Center would be inclined to agree.

“I reached out to his brother,” said Officer Terry Brookins. “He cursed his brother out. Everybody tried to help him; but, he refused.”

But, Officer Brookins was patient… and he was persistent, telling CBS11 that it was “heartbreaking” to see the veteran “digging in the trash cans, trying to find food to eat.”
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WWII Navy Photographer Shares Images From USS Astoria

Navy photographer wanted his work to be shared
USA TODAY NETWORK
Jay Levin, The (Bergen County, N.J.) Record
August 25, 2016

Fewer than 700,000 of the nearly 16 million Americans who served in World War II are alive today, according to the National World War II Museum in New Orleans. More than 400 veterans of that era die every day, almost 160,000 this year.

HACKENSACK, N.J. — Herman Schnipper, a mild-mannered Navy photographer who chronicled the danger and drudgery of war while on board the light cruiser USS Astoria, died Wednesday at his home here, where his vast trove of World War II images is stored.

He was 92.

Herman Schnipper of Hackensack, N.J., was a Navy photographer aboard the USS Astoria during World War II, shown Dec. 9, 2014. He made copies of every picture he took and categorized them.

(Photo: Mitsu Yasukawa, The (Bergen County, N.J.) Record)

“I don’t want them to be put in a box and forgotten. I want to show people the war,” Schnipper told The Record in 2014, referring to the black-and-white prints he has held on to since his military discharge a few months after the war’s end.

At the time of the interview, Schnipper was in declining health and his family felt an urgency to decide what to do with the photographs, which they want to be accessible to the public.
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