1,000 Motorcycles Escorted Wall into Wickham Park and Officer Hurt by Hit and Run Driver!

Cocoa Police officer injured in hit-and-run speaks out
Traffic homicide officer said he thought he was going to die
Click Orlando
By Nadeen Yanes - Reporter
May 03, 2017

COCOA, Fla. - A Cocoa police officer injured in a hit-and-run crash this week told News 6 he saw the Jeep coming and had three options: he could go left into oncoming traffic, go right into the procession, but he went straight and sacrificed himself.

"I had about, I would say, about three seconds to respond," Cocoa police Officer Rickford Leitch said.
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UPDATE
Arrest made in hit-and-run that injured Cocoa Officer

Cocoa officer injured in hit-and-run during Traveling Wall procession
FLORIDA TODAY
J.D. Gallop
April 30, 2017

A Cocoa police traffic officer is recovering Sunday afternoon after authorities said he collided with another vehicle during the annual procession escorting the Traveling Vietnam Wall to Melbourne.

A countywide alert was also issued for the driver of a blue Jeep Cherokee who was not a part of the escort but fled the scene moments after the collision left the officer briefly unconscious, officials reported.

The officer is currently in the hospital being evaluated after sustaining several injuries, according to Yvonne Martinez, spokeswoman for the Cocoa Police Department.

Police said Cocoa Police Officer Rickford Lietch was assisting with the escort along with several other police agencies when the incident happened. The procession of over 1,000 motorcycles and other vehicles had just cleared State Road 520 when Lietch headed toward the next intersection at Rosa Jones Boulevard.

The officer was traveling at 50 mph hour when a blue Jeep suddenly pulled in front of him. “He hit the driver’s side of the Jeep and flipped several times before landing on the pavement. He was briefly knocked out,” Martinez said.
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Please keep Officer Lietch in your prayers as he recovers. Just stunning a thing like this would happen with a 1,000 motorcycles escorting The Wall!

This turtle showed up crossing the road just before the bikes pulled in.

Murray was trying to figure out what it was.

Stickers from inside a golf cart we borrowed from a friend and yes, Murray got a ride on it.

The video will be up by tomorrow, so check back. Until then, go to the above link at Florida Today for the video they did.

UPDATE...Video finally done!

Civilians Guide to Understanding Veterans

Combat PTSD Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
April 30, 2017

There is now, and always has been, a huge disconnect between the civilian world and the military. All too often a civilian friend will complain about how I focus on Combat PTSD but hardly ever mention what civilians are going through.

The thing is, they miss the fact that had it not been for Vietnam veterans coming home and fighting for the research, there would be nothing available for civilians. Everything civilians benefit from, with mental health professionals, crisis intervention, medication and therapy, is there because of them.

Now we know that civilians can get hit once by a traumatic event, changing their lives but they do no seem too interested in the fact that service members face them willingly for a living.

Groups hit by PTSD because of their professions are misunderstood by the public, but they understand one another better. Police officers, firefighters, emergency responders, and even those who take care of them, are more understood than ever before because of what Vietnam veterans did. 

We turned our backs on them when they came home. They turned around and fought for each other, then changed the world. Every other generation came home with the same wounds of war but little was done to treat them.

My husband's uncle was on a ship during WWII. It sunk and when the survivors were pulled from the ocean, he was given a choice of spending the rest of his life in a mental hospital or living on a farm, he picked the farm. That was all they had when the term to describe this wound was called "shell shock."

There were a lot of movies about this going back to the end of WWII. Most of the time the scripts were written by those with a personal connection to this world or based on accounts from those who fought the battles. Hollywood has tried and tried again to show that war does not leave those who survive it.

The movie about Chris Kyle did more to educate the American public about combat PTSD than any other flick.

American Sniper 

Civilian friends were coming over to me and saying they finally understood what I dedicated my life's work to. Actually, they didn't know it came with me since I was an Army daughter and then an Army wife. I am part of the huge military family because of what others did for this country. I am still a civilian because I paid no price personally.

The fact is, with all the talk in the civilian world about how some folks are "raising awareness" on veterans killing themselves after the enemy didn't manage to, the civilian world knows hardly nothing about any of this. How can you? How can you when all you hear is a number instead of knowing their names? How can you know anything if all you read is an arbitrary obituary count?

Veteran families are connected to each other but you are our neighbors. We live and work right next to you everyday yet few bother to ask a single question. Most of the people I work with know what I do and some know why I do it, yet instead of asking me before they donate or share the posts of these stunt pullers using the number "22" or "20" they feel as if they are offering support because they care. When they do ask what I think, they change their minds on what they will support charity wise because they do in fact appreciate those who paid the price for the freedoms they enjoy.

If you know a veteran, talk to them. Show an interest and learn from them what they need. It isn't enough to show up at parades or shoot off fireworks on the 4th of July.

If you read about problems with the VA, know that your politician has more to do with the problems because they have jurisdiction over it. They have failed to deliver the best care possible since the Revolutionary War. Educate yourself and then demand accountability from them and then demand an apology for failing these men and woman putting their lives on the line for your sake.

Our families are a small percentage of the population with less than 10% having served and less than 1% serving today. We are proud of our veterans and gain strength from each other but we need the support of the public based on facts and not some feel good story they read in the newspaper that leaves us feeling like we just don't matter enough.

Our veterans are dying and the truth is, most of the ones taking their own lives survived combat decades ago. They just couldn't survive being left to carry the burden of everyone else's freedom while they were left trapped behind the wall of pain.

Today is the escort for the Traveling Vietnam War Memorial into Wickham Park. It is the 30th Anniversary of the reunion. If you go or line the streets, know that these are the men and women who didn't just pay the price during a war you heard about on the news. They pay the price everyday.

PTSD scandal blighting Britain’s Armed Forces

"Cpl Shane Sweeney, who once guarded the Queen, has detailed the shocking death toll to expose the full horror of the PTSD scandal blighting Britain’s Armed Forces."

He attempted suicide five times after surviving combat.


Soldier exposes PTSD scandal wrecking thousands of lives amid fears stress killed SIX comrades in same regiment
The Mirror
BY PATRICK HILL
29 APR 2017

War veteran Shane Sweeney attempted suicide five times due to his own PTSD

(Photo: Collect)

A war veteran today tells how he fears post-traumatic stress disorder claimed the lives of up to SIX men in his regiment.

Cpl Shane Sweeney detailed the shocking death toll to expose the full horror of the PTSD scandal blighting Britain’s Armed Forces.

Shane, 41, who has himself nearly committed suicide five times, bravely spoke out in support of the Sunday People’s Save Our Soldiers campaign.

The soldier - who once guarded the Queen - said: “It’s a huge problem.

“It was a really close regiment and we all looked out for and after each other, but sometimes people slip through the net.

“I believe our experience is just the tip of the iceberg. There are a lot of people suffering.”

Shane’s friends who have tragically lost their lives since suffering from PTSD all served with him on the front line as part of the Royal Regiment of Wales.

They served in conflicts including Iraq and Afghanistan.

The death toll include Platoon Sgt Spencer Beynon, who died aged 43 in June last year, Sgt Major Glenn Ormiston, who died aged 41 in May 2011, and Damien Brown, who died aged 33 in June 2008.
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Combat Wounded Marine Couldn't Fight for Himself, Now Fighting for Others

Decorated Broomfield veteran says ‘medicinal psychosis’ sparked ordeal
FOX 31 Denver
BY DAVE YOUNG
APRIL 27, 2017

BROOMFIELD, Colo. -- For the first time, Cory Hixson, a decorated Marine who disappeared from Broomfield, is speaking out about his ordeal.

"I just hope the VA starts listening to their vets,” he said in an interview Thursday with his wife Shala by his side.

"It weighs on veterans and the VA. ... That's our last resort where we need help."

Hixson's case sparked focus on the treatment of veterans coming home from wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"They're just giving you medications that just ain't right because they're not listening," Hixson said.

He said at the time of the incident in March, Veterans Affairs staff had changed some of the many prescriptions he was taking for post-traumatic stress disorder.

“I went into a medicinal psychosis I wasn't even thinking straight,” he said of the night he disappeared with no shoes or coat in 20-degree weather, landing in jail 60 miles away after allegedly stealing a sweater and some food near Erie.
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