Scammers create fake veterans charity to get donations
FOX 13 News
By: Crystal Clark
POSTED:APR 28 2017
WESLEY CHAPEL (FOX 13) - Two men are accused of collecting donations for veterans from Pasco County residents and businesses and pocketing the proceeds.
A quick-thinking business owner is the reason they're behind bars, but their scheme - and others like it - could have a long-lasting impact.
Veterans in the area, meanwhile, are disgusted knowing scammers are targeting people who support them. The scammers’ lies are hurting real veterans charities.
Jason Parzy, 37, thought he'd walk away with $300 cash as he entered the Cash For Gold store in Wesley Chapel, according to investigators.
But instead, he left in handcuffs.
Parzy and 42-year-old Billy Joe Fielder are accused of soliciting donations for a bogus charity they called the Florida Veterans Relief Fund.
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Florida woman admits faking blindness to get veterans benefits
By WMBB Staff
Published: April 28, 2017
PANAMA CITY, Fla. (WMBB) – A 60-year-old Florida woman was sentenced to nine months in prison and ordered to pay nearly $400,000 dollars in restitution after she pleaded guilty to faking blindness in order to receive veterans benefits.
Federal prosecutors wrote in a news release that Veronica Dale Hahn lied for years about blindness that she said was connected to her service in the military.
However, while she was supposedly suffering she managed to get driver’s licenses with no vision restrictions in three states and work as a case manager and transition counselor at several state correctional facilities, the news release states. read more here
Green Beret, Hockey Star, Activist and Dad: Michael Mantenuto Was So Much More Than the Actor from Miracle
PEOPLE
BY MICHAEL MILLER
April 27, 2017
Mantenuto enlisted in 2010, two years after making his final film, Surfer Dude. He attended special forces training in 2013, and went on to become a communications sergeant. He was assigned to 1st Special Forces Group, where he was stationed as a communications sergeant until his death.
Many fans recognize Michael Mantenuto from his role in Disney’s Miracle, but those who knew him best will remember him more for his work offscreen as a father, soldier, hockey star and community activists.
“He was so much more than just a Miracle actor,” Teena, a friend of the actor who asked that her last name remain anonymous, tells PEOPLE. After a short career in show business, Mantenuto joined the Army. He was a Special Forces sergeant stationed at Fort Lewis, Washington at the time of his death. He was 35.
The actor was found on Monday afternoon after sustaining a self-inflicted gunshot wound, the King County medical examiner’s office in Seattle, Washington, tells PEOPLE. His death has officially been ruled a suicide. He’s survived by his wife, Kati, and two children: daughter Ava and son Leo.
He deployed in Operation Inherent Resolve, the military’s operational name for the fight against ISIS, according to Bockholt. “He was a decorated service member,” Buckholt says. His awards and decorations include the following: Army Commendation Medal, Army Achievement Medal with two Oak Leaf Clusters, National Defense Service Member, Global War on Terror Service Medal, Army Service Ribbon, and Good Conduct Medal with two knots.
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Combat PTSD Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
April 29, 2017
"On average, 22 American veterans commit suicide every day. In 2014, more than 7,400 veterans took their own life. That’s about 18 percent of all suicides in America, however, veterans make up less than nine percent of the country’s population."
Yep that crap again, only this time it came from a reporter pushing another charity that claims to have the answers. "We give them their greatest weapon back-themselves on BayNet by Joy Shrum. So who messed up? The charity or the reporter? Should it matter? After all, when you read the rest of the article, it sounds like the reporter really cared about such a lengthy word count. The problem is, the reason for the story didn't seem to count enough to get it right.
Warfighter Advance is a local non-profit organization that is trying to steer away from the belief that post- traumatic stress (PTS) can only be treated through medical intervention. The program was developed by Mary Vieten, PhD, ABPP, CDR Medical Service Corps, USN (Ret) back in 2003. Dr. Vieten is a nationally recognized expert of post-traumatic stress and has worked with a range of military organizations. The idea behind Warfighter Advance is to address the needs of veterans or active duty service members who have been formally diagnosed, or are self-reporting, with PTS, anxiety, depression or substance abuse resulting from deployment-related trauma.
Maybe this is working for some veterans, but the truth is, anything that makes them feel as if someone gives a damn works to help them a little. Even the stupid push-ups helps for a a few seconds when they do it and then walk away feeling as if they just contributed to something great than themselves. Yet at the end of the day, when they are alone with their thoughts, that warm and fuzzy feeling cannot overcome the sense of dread when they know they have to close their eyes and the nightly trip back into combat begins.
The reports from the VA make it clear that those being treated by the VA, in other words, medically, are less likely to commit suicide. Experts have been saying for the last 40 years that the mind-body and spiritual wounds need to be treated equally. So why eliminate anything from what has been proven to work?
The article mentions that, "It could be combat-related stress but a large number of veteran suicides are among those who spent little or no time fighting in recent wars." but fails to mention the fact that these "non deployed" received the exact same training as those who have gone into combat, not just once but many times.
If Resilience training didn't even work for the ones who did not go, how the hell did they expect it to work on the others? Any clue? Do reporters have any clue? Doubtful since they also fail to mention that the number has remained a steady average of a little over one a day even though the number of enlisted members has gone down by the thousands.
That really should have been an important thing to mention but why take the time to learn about any of that to actually change anything when they can get away with a number that isn't real or even close to it?
The "22 a day" came from the VA Suicide Report of 2012 that held data from just 21 states.
Further, this report contains information from the first 21 states to contribute data for this
project and does not include some states, such as California and Texas, with larger Veteran
populations. Information from these states has been received and will be included in future
reports.
The report also had this on page 18.
Estimates that the number of suicides among Veterans each day has increased, are based on
information provided by 21 states and may not be generalizable to the larger Veteran
population.
And that was followed by this graph.
These are the key findings of that report.
Key findings from this year’s report include:
In 2014, an average of 20 Veterans died by suicide each day. Six of the 20 were users of VHA services.
In 2014, Veterans accounted for 18 percent of all deaths by suicide among U.S. adults and constituted 8.5 percent of the U.S. adult population (ages 18+). In 2010, Veterans accounted for 20.2 percent of all deaths by suicide and represented 9.7 percent of the U.S. adult population.
The burden of suicide resulting from firearm injuries remains high. In 2014, about 67 percent of all Veteran deaths by suicide were the result of firearm injuries.
There is continued evidence of a high burden of suicide among middle-aged and older Veterans.
In 2014, about 65 percent of all Veterans who died by suicide were age 50 or older.
After adjusting for differences in age and gender, risk for suicide was 21 percent higher among Veterans when compared with U.S. civilian adults. (2014)
After adjusting for differences in age, risk for suicide was 18 percent higher among male Veterans when compared with U.S. civilian adult males. (2014)
After adjusting for differences in age, risk for suicide was 2.4 times higher among female Veterans when compared with U.S. civilian adult females. (2014)
In 2014, rates of suicide were highest among younger Veterans (ages 18–29) and lowest among older Veterans (ages 60+). Furthermore, rates of suicide among Veterans age 70 and older were lower than rates of suicide among civilians in the same age group.
Do these veterans really matter or not? Do we keep just accepting this miserable outcome of all these groups and "efforts" gaining the attention of inept reporting and stunts or do we demand accountability?
Not caring about how it got this bad with hundreds of thousands of groups "doing something" is the biggest part of the problem. The thing about the chart proves nothing really changed but the worst thing is that there are now over 5 million less veterans in the country depending on us to get this right. Check the numbers for 1999 from the US Census and then check the numbers from 2015 and then ask yourself if you think veterans deserve better than what they've been getting from the rest of us.
Military Chaplains Turn 100 Years Old as 'Attacks' on Service Rise
CBN News
04-27-2017
"Chaplains serve as a constant reminder to our troops that God is present with them, especially in a combat environment." Douglas Carver
This month marks the 100th anniversary of the United States' entry into World War I. It's also the 100th anniversary of when U.S. military chaplains made their mark in the U.S. Armed Services, according to Douglas Carver, former U.S. Army chief of chaplains.
Less than 150 chaplains served in the Army and National Guard when America entered the war against Germany.
That number grew to more than 2,300 by the end of WWI in 1918, and Carver says that rise secured the role of chaplains in today's Armed Services.
He calls chaplaincy the "ministry of presence."
"Chaplains serve as a constant reminder to our troops that God is present with them, especially in a combat environment," Carver, the executive director of chaplaincy for the North American Mission Board, wrote to Baptist Press.
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