Iraq Veteran Third Suicide in Palm Coast Within 5 Days

A 26-Year-Old Iraq War Veteran In 3rd Suicide in 5 Days in Palm Coast
FLAGLERLIVE
JUNE 13, 2017

Justus Albert Leach, A 26-year-old Army veteran of the Iraq war, was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound in his backyard at 71 Ft. Caroline Lane Sunday. It was the third suicide by gunshot in five days in Palm Coast.

Justus Leach in one of the images he frequently reposted on his Facebook page.

A roommate of Leach’s found him Sunday morning in a corner of the backyard, on a bench. “A tactical shotgun was also observed” near Leach, according to a Flagler County Sheriff’s Office report. The gun had been moved by another roommate after he had been advised by a 911 dispatcher to attempt CPR.

But a deputy reported that by then Leach appeared to have been dead “for some time,” according to the report. Leach was pronounced dead by a paramedic at 8:57 a.m. Sunday (June 11). It isn’t clear how long he had lived on Ft. Caroline, where four other residents also live.

Neighbors did not report hearing any gunshots, according to the deputy.

On June 8, a 92-year-old Palm Coast resident took his life after driving to the old Players Club tennis court, and leaving a note and instructions behind for his family. He had been depressed and battling cancer. Two days earlier, a 49-year-old resident of Plantation Bay took his own life at his home. Both men died of gunshot wounds.
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Combat Medic Vietnam Veteran Finally Receiving Medal of Honor

Vietnam veteran to receive Medal of Honor five decades later, after an act of Congress
Army Times
By: Meghann Myers
June 13, 2017

He will receive the award on July 31, according to a White House press release.

This 1969 photo provided by James McCloughan shows him with the former Army medic, right, with a platoon interpreter in Nui Yon Hill in Vietnam. An Army spokeswoman said Tuesday, June 13, 2017, that McCloughan, who saved the lives of 10 soldiers during the Battle of Nui Yon Hill in May 1969 in Vietnam, will become the first person to be awarded the nation's highest military honor by President Donald Trump.Photo Credit: Courtesy of James McCloughan via AP

Late last year, former Spc. Jim McCloughan was close enough to taste it. After then-President Obama signed a provision included in the annual defense authorization bill, McCloughan was cleared to receive the Medal of Honor.

But the White House was in the midst of a transition to the Trump administration, and so McCloughan's award fell by the wayside for several months, until it could be signed by the acting Army secretary and the new president.

McCloughan, 71, had been waiting for the call for six months, but the event was a decade in the making, since family started reaching out to his local Michigan lawmakers about putting McCloughan in for the Distinguished Service Cross, to recognize him for his bravery as a combat medic in Vietnam back in 1969.
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VoteVets Blocked by POTUS?

Since Inauguration Day, no organization has more forcefully or effectively taken on President Trump. Whether it's the ads on his favorite morning shows or the voices of veterans we've helped to resist his dangerous agenda... this morning, the President of the United States had enough of VoteVets, and he acted on the impulse.

This morning, President Trump, the Commander in Chief, blocked VoteVets on Twitter.

Here's the truth, Trump can block VoteVets on Twitter, the voice of 500,000 progressive veterans, military family members, and their civilian supporters, but we will NOT be silenced. Stand with us today:

Make a $3 donation to VoteVets today as a way of saying that you will not let President Trump silence progressive veterans and military family members who are fighting to resist his dangerous agenda.

Like General Wesley Clark says, there is no organization more decisive in a fight than VoteVets. We are one of the few out there who have actually scored political victories against this administration. But we can't do it alone. That's why your $3 donation towards our work elevating the voices of veterans against Trump is so important.

Thank you for your continued support.

All my best,

Jon Soltz
Iraq War Veteran & Chairman
VoteVets

Texas Police Officers Caught Cooling Off WWII Veteran

Texas police's cool surprise for 95-year-old WW2 veteran
BBC
June 13, 2017

Mr Hatley explained to the officers that he had been trying to keep cool on his outdoor porch.

That's when Officers Margolis and Weir decided to use their own money to buy a replacement window unit. Employees at the hardware store were so impressed when they heard the reason for their shopping trip that they contributed another $150 (£120).

A 95-year-old Texas man received some unexpected help from police officers after calling emergency services during a heat wave.

Julius Hatley called Forth Worth police on Thursday after both his window and central air conditioning units broke and his home became unbearably hot.

"This wasn't a regular 911 call," Fort Worth Officer William Margolis told CBS 11, noting "we're not AC techs".

Together with his partner, Christopher Weir, they chose to buy him a new unit.

"When we got there around 8:30am his house was 85 to 90 (29-35C) degrees already," Fort Worth Officer William Margolis said. "In Texas, it gets hot," the five-year police veteran added.
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Pulse Responders Needing Help But Still Not Finding It

A Pulse Nightclub Responder Confronts A New Crisis: PTSD
NPR
Abe Aborya
June 12, 2017

Sheehan has heard from first responders and mental health workers that there are more officers, possibly with PTSD, who don't want to come forward because they don't want to be seen as weak or unfit for duty. She says she wishes they would, though.

Gerry Realin says he wishes he had never become a police officer.

Realin, 37, was part of the hazmat team that responded to the Pulse Nightclub shooting in Orlando on June 12, 2016. He spent four hours taking care of the dead inside the club. Now, triggers like a Sharpie marker or a white sheet yank him out of the moment and back to the nightclub, where they used Sharpies to list the victims that night and white sheets to cover them.

He says small things make him disproportionately upset. He gets lost in memories of the shooting, he says — his young son will call him over and over again. Then, he gets angry that he let himself get trapped in thought, and that spirals into depression.

"Then there's the moments you can't control," Realin says. "The images or flashbacks or nightmares you don't even know about, and your wife tells you the next day you were screaming or twitching all night."

Realin was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and hasn't worked since just after the shooting. He worries about his family, he says, "hiding from your kids so that they're not traumatized by your rage or depression," which "gives them a sense of insecurity, which isn't good."

"I've talked to some of the officers and they're pretty traumatized by what they saw," Sheehan says. "It was horrible, the sights and the smells, and the thing that really haunts them is the cell phones that were in [the victims'] pockets ringing."
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