Staff Sergeant Travis Mills Opens Retreat for Other Wounded Veterans

Quadruple amputee soldier transforms an old Maine country estate into a vacation destination which will give 56 veterans and their families FREE holidays this summer
Daily Mail
By Darren Boyle for MailOnline
PUBLISHED: 12:16 EDT, 20 June 2017

Staff Sergeant Travis Mills was blown up on April 10, 2012 in Afghanistan While on patrol, Mills placed his backpack on the IED which exploded He is one of only five solders in Iraq or Afghanistan to survive losing four limbs. His retreat for wounded veterans in Maine will open on Sunday afternoon

According to Mills, the property will open this Sunday following its extensive makeover

Quadruple amputee soldier Travis Mills will open his transformed Maine estate this weekend which will allow 56 veteran families to have free holidays this summer.

Mills, who was a Staff Sergeant in the 82nd Airborne was critically wounded by an improvised explosive device while on patrol on his third tour of Afghanistan on April 10, 2012.

The 16-bedroom mansion in Readfield, Maine will be officially opened by the retired veteran this Sunday.

In 2014, he created the Travis Mills foundation to help fellow veterans and the project was made possible by an incredible fundraising drive. He told People magazine he managed to raise the $2.75 million to restore the historic 11,000 square-foot house.
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Air Force Major Died After Physical Training at Buckley

Air Force Major dies after physical training test at Buckley AFB
KUSA
Amanda Kesting
June 19, 2017

BUCKLEY AIR FORCE BASE, COLO. - An Air Force Major has died following after becoming unresponsive during a physical training test at Buckley Air Force Base on Friday.

Major Elgin "Rick" Ross was pronounced dead at 9:22 a.m. on Saturday at the University of Colorado Hospital.

He had been completing a physical training test the day before on base when be became unresponsive and was transported to the hospital.

The cause of his death is still under investigation.
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Another Phony With Veteran's Charity Busted by Good Guys

Earlier today my buddy Gunny (not the guy in the following article) told me about a guy claiming to be a "highly decorated Marine." As usual, I went to This Ain't Hell, and found the link to MilitaryPhony.com

You really need to read the rest for yourself, so check out the link.

"For some reason he rocketed from E-2 all the way to E-1 and was sent to discover his land legs again." Military Phony wrote after a lengthy wait for this guys records.

This is what really got me,,,,

During the time we have been waiting on his records we have had multiple reports of him claiming to suffer from the PTSD.

We have no idea what causes him to suffer from such a thing, but we know strange things can happen in Fan Rooms aboard ships. Maybe something went bump in the night…we may never know. 

In summary, his FOIA response has no Navy Cross, Silver Star, NMCM(equivalent to a Silver Star for heroism while not directly engaged with the enemy), Purple Heart, Prisoner of War Medal or any other award with the exception of the National Defense Service Medal.   

According to his records he was on the opposite side of the planet during Vietnam. No RECON assignments or training of any kind. His records show he was most certainly not a United States Marine of any rank. 

Stigma of PTSD Lives On, and So Does Education

This is a really good article to read. "An unfair stigma for vets with PTSD" By Sol Wachtler on Newsday.

Fifty years ago, 550,000 U.S. troops fought in Vietnam. At war’s end, more than half of all veterans diagnosed with PTSD had been arrested — more than one multiple times mostly for drug-related crimes. Many suffered from undiagnosed and untreated combat-related PTSD and, tragically, many were issued less-than-honorable discharges from the service. For years, the military underdiagnosed and did not treat the problems and then cursed the sufferers with discharges for misconduct.

There were no Veterans Courts for Vietnam Veterans. Reporters only covered them when they were arrested, so no one really gave a damn. Really sad considering they ended up changing the way people surviving trauma were treated!

Great reminder right there that this is not new. It happened to Vietnam veterans when no one care, yet they were the ones who did not give up on themselves or any other generation. They fought for all the funding, research and yes, even understanding. 

This is the part that got me,

“There is a coming tsunami of . . . veterans who have been wrongly discharged for conduct that was, in fact, PTSD-related at a time when PTSD was not well understood,” Ken Rosenblum, a Vietnam vet and former Army officer who ran the Touro Law Center Vets Clinic, told Newsday.

Nice to be quoted but would be nicer to actually have someone mention it.

Still, as I wrote above a great article to read but putting up almost 28,000 posts on this site alone, plus the other decades of writing about it, most of the time, folks use quotes and don't even remember where they came from. Hmm, I wonder if someone used it before me? Then again, the research has been going on for over 40 years, so I wouldn't doubt it. Besides, there were a lot of people out there before I came along. I learned from them!

Hundreds Ride to Escort Vietnam Memorial Wall in Michigan

Motorcyclists escort Vietnam Memorial Wall replica to honor veterans
Up North Live
by NEWSROOM
June 19th 2017

"We have a lot of things to overcome, but to me, this is one sign of brotherhood camaraderie coming together to support."
Richard Quinlan

MANISTEE COUNTY, Mich. (WPBN/WGTU)-- Hundreds of motorcyclists rode in honor of our Vietnam veterans on Friday. It was the eighth annual Vietnam War Memorial Escort.

Richard Quinlan is a Vietnam war veteran. He says when he served, he was just doing what needed to be done. "Somebody has to stand up for what America believes in, and at that time, we were the ones that had to stand up," said Quinlan. 

Fred Nelson, also a Vietnam war veteran, now works with the group Rolling Thunder, an organization dedicated to helping veterans with events such as the wall escort.
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