Solider's Mom Wants to Make Sure Other Families Don't Have to Wait

Mother tries to change military protocol after son's death at Fort Hood
Indy Star
Kara Berg
April 15, 2017

Right now, when a soldier goes missing, the army conducts an inquiry to see where they may be, notifies the provost marshal within 24 hours, reports the soldier absent within 48 hours and notifies the next of kin if the soldier is still missing after 10 days.

When Patrice Wise's son was found dead, she didn’t know how to move on.

The Arlington, Indiana, woman remembers the sleepless nights her and her fiancé spent searching for her son, Dakota Stump, who was a soldier on an Army base in Fort Hood when he disappeared. When his body was found in a wooded area, around 100 yards from the road at the base, the days and nights dragged on.

“I’ve tried so many things to keep myself busy and not constantly be reminded of what happened,” Wise said. “It helps, but I don’t think a mother ever gets over losing a child.

“I feel like every day that goes by, it almost gets worse."

Stump's body was discovered next to his flipped-over vehicle by soldiers conducting land-navigation training. He was only 32 pounds when he was found after a month, Wise said. Investigators believe the vehicle left the road, entered the wooded area and rolled over multiple times. The terrain hid the vehicle from the road.
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Search Continues for Missing Marine Tyler Wechsler

UPDATE

Body of missing Marine recovered from Kaau Crater Trail

Missing Person: Tyler Wechsler
KHON News
By Web Staff
Published: April 14, 2017

CrimeStoppers and the Honolulu Police Department are seeking the public’s assistance in locating Tyler Wechsler who was last seen on Friday, April 7, 2017.

Wechsler is a U.S. Marine who was last seen in the Waikiki area at around 3:00 p.m.

Authorities say Wechsler may be emotionally distraught and driving a white colored 2003 Jeep Liberty bearing Hawaii State license number JYY-547.

His family and friends are concerned for his safety and well-being.

Wechsler’s father is now on island joining the search, and said the search is following several leads.
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Redemption and Resurrection Day

Today is Pascha if you are Greek Orthodox. If not, then it is Easter.

The Resurrection of Jesus Christ is the fundamental truth and absolute fact of the Christian faith. It is the central experience and essential kerygma of the Church. It confirms the authenticity of Christ's remarkable earthly life and vindicates the truth of His teaching. It seals all His redemptive work: His life, the model of a holy life; His compelling and unique teaching; His extraordinary works; and His awesome, life-creating death. Christ's Resurrection is the guarantee of our salvation. Together with His Ascension it brings to perfection God's union with us for all eternity.

If your are Christian, then you believe He came to sacrifice His life for us, because no matter how hard we may try, none of us are ever worthy of what He did for our sake. 

I am a Chaplain, but nothing like what I ever thought a Chaplain was. I drink alcohol, smoke, swear and consistently argue with God before I do what He wants me to do. I also spend my time with veterans and bikers. I am far from obedient and come close to crossing the line of the Orthodox Church rules of women in ministry. 

Things done in fulfillment of the laws are dead; those done in spirit are enlivening and vivifying. We must not build an Orthodoxy of prescriptions and proscriptions, but an Orthodoxy in which God expresses through us the Kingdom of Heaven and in which that which is worldly reaches up to its more heavenly image.

I could walk away from the faith I was born into, but it is as much as part of me as the air I breathe. And that is the point of this post. There are many things we do for the right reasons, that come with a price to pay. If we know it is the right thing, what God wants of us, then it is a price worth paying.

After a couple of decades working with veterans and PTSD and my own traumas, it finally dawned on me why I didn't have it. That led me to Crisis Intervention Training and I spent two years training to care for the other heroes I encountered in my life. Police Officers and Firefighters, the First Responders to others in need. They care for everyone else but somehow ended up on the bottom of the "to do list."

Last year I reached one of those times when I was being destroyed by what I do. It has been a battle to try to undo the wrong that has been done disguised as "raising awareness" when no one seems interested in doing the work to actually change lives. Anyway, I was ready to give up after over three decades of work. Was I supposed to stop? Had I done all He wanted me to do? I asked for prayers so that I would know what God wanted me to do. The answer came talking to a friend at work. When I talked about my own pain, I was crying with that soul crushing anguish taking over my whole body. When I started to talk about the veterans needing help, I stopped crying. Then when I started to talk about how much they have within them, that soul crushing feeling lifted.

Yep, that's how fast the answer came.

But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint. Isaiah 40:31

I am also sarcastic. One day my Mom asked me what I did that day. I told her I saved a life then cleaned the bathroom. She got a laugh out of it and then changed the subject grounding my feet back into the "normal" world of working for a living like everyone else and dealing with what everyone else deals with on a regular basis, reminding me I am just as human as everyone else.

As a human, no matter how much I know I am doing the right thing and helping those who come to me, there are times when I need help to continue to be able to do it. It is stressful and lonely because no one knows what I do or say unless the person talks about it. That is the way it has to be and the way Jesus said it should be done, in secret.

There are men and women all over the country doing exactly that. They put their lives on the line for the sake of others and never talk about it. They take care of those who come to them for help and never ask for anything in return.

They struggle with the price they pay as those who do for others, believing they should not need help from someone else. Where they got that idea from is based on a false notion they are supposed to be above asking for help. Even Jesus asked for help.

“My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.” Matthew 26:38

If you are one of them, then it is time to take a good look at yourself and think of those you help. Do you think any less of them because they need your help? Do you think anything less of those you risk your life with if they tell you they need help? Would you lay down your life for them? Would they do it for you? Then why would you not ask them for help to help you heal?

Don't ask someone who does not know what you're going through for an answer. Ask someone who knows what it is, what caused it and knows why you do what you do. Ask God for direction as much as you ask Him for protection.

The Lord is my fort where I can enter and be safe; no one can follow me in and slay me. He is a rugged mountain where I hide; he is my Savior, a rock where none can reach me, and a tower of safety. He is my shield. He is like the strong horn of a mighty fighting bull. Psalm 18:2

He will answer you and guide you as much as He has done for me so that extra burden caused by doubt was vanquished from within me.

God put it within your spirit to serve others with your life and equipped you with everything you need to do it. Dedication and courage are obvious within you along with an abundance of love but so is the power to heal.

If you say, “The Lord is my refuge,” and you make the Most High your dwelling, no harm will overtake you, no disaster will come near your tent. For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways; they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone. You will tread on the lion and the cobra; you will trample the great lion and the serpent. Psalm 91:9-13

Ask Him who sent you for what you need and let Him guide you toward redemption and start this day with a renewed spirit of hope for a better tomorrow.

Walking off the War Within Down Under

Walking off the War Within challenge to shine spotlight on post traumatic stress disorder
NT News
ELLIE TURNER
April 16, 2017

Mr Shanahan reached the War Memorial on North Tce, in Adelaide, on Anzac Day, 2015.

But four months ago he lost his battle with the darkness and took his own life, leaving behind Kosha and their two children Lila, 8 and Ari, 4.

Dani Eveleigh and Paula Potts are taking part in the Walk Off the War Within challenge. PICTURE: Patrina Malone

FIREFIGHTER Nathan ‘Mule’ Shanahan marched 400km to battle his invisible demons and get people talking about the “black dog” to raise a message — not money.

His wife Kosha was teasing him when she suggested it as they were driving home to Mildura, Victoria.

“He wanted to do something big,” she said.

“When I said he should walk to Adelaide, he was like ‘yep, that’s what I’m going to do’.”

But donations came pouring in when mates, former colleagues and strangers found out about his plan because they wanted to join the colossal journey in their own way, helping the former Australian Army soldier actively combat post traumatic stress disorder, depression and anxiety in 2015.

Walking Off the War Within — Mr Shanahan’s solo march in army fatigues and boots carrying a 20kg pack from Mildura to Adelaide — raised more than $30,000 for Soldier On, a charity that supports Australian servicemen and women and emergency service workers with physical and psychological wounds.
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Vietnam Veterans Formed Tight Bonds to Heal Combat PTSD Together

Albany area vets get less VA therapy, but support each other
LMT Online
By Claire Hughes
April 15, 2017

The vets' former therapist, now retired, had handpicked them to be together, and they have formed tight bonds, said group member Peter Risatti, 72, of Tyringham, Mass. 

East Greenbush
They don't get as much professional help with their PTSD as they used to, but a dozen or so Vietnam veterans are doing what they can to keep each other strong.

The Stratton VA Medical Center in Albany last year ended the type of group therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder that the vets had received for about 15 years. The VA offered the vets different therapists and approaches, but not all together and not in a way they were accustomed to, as the group tells it. The big difference, from the vets' perspective, was that the new therapy would require them to confront their combat experience, 40-50 years after they'd been at war. The rules of their old therapy were to never exhume those memories — "you didn't go back into Country" is how they put it — unless everyone in the room agreed to it.

The vets, in their late 60s and older, think the time has passed for them to face down the blood and gore they witnessed.

"They're not tailoring it to us," said Tom Gage, 72, from South Egremont, Mass. "They're tailoring us to them."

The vets' former therapist, now retired, had handpicked them to be together, and they have formed tight bonds, said group member Peter Risatti, 72, of Tyringham, Mass. The group focused on issues in their current lives ignited by their PTSD — anger, anxiety, alcohol abuse. In an interview last year, some of the men said there were no other people in the world they talked to about anything, ever.

After a story appeared in the Times Union in January 2016, fellow veterans offered the guys support to get their therapy reinstated, and a protest was planned for the end of March, Risatti said.

Then a psychologist at the VA, a veteran herself, offered to facilitate the group, he said. The guys like her. But instead of a 90-minute session every week, the vets now get 60 minutes every other week. And that hour-long session can be shortened if an earlier scheduled meeting in their room runs long.
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