Dad Fears For Son Because He Came Back From War?

This is Independence Day but Christian Hidalgo is not free. Not free from the memories of battles he was sent to fight. Not free of the demons that followed him home. Not free of anything really, because today he woke up in jail instead of a VA hospital.

He knew he needed help and went to the VA but he left before was seen by a specialist.

So what happened? What happened that Gary Hidalgo didn't know what his son took home from war? Why wasn't he trained to understand what he was seeing? Why wasn't Christian helped as soon as he got back? Isn't that what all the Facebook "charities" are saying they do? After all, they are all over the country. As a matter of fact, there are now over 400,000 of charities claiming to be helping veterans. So where were they?

That's the biggest thing that keeps getting missed. Veterans come home after risking their lives in war, then find they are still left alone to fight this. So why aren't they finding the help they need a decades after "awareness" was spread across social media sites?

‘I’m Scared Every Day:’ Father Of High-Speed Pursuit Suspect, Army Vet Says Son Suffers From PTSD 
CBS News 
July 3, 2017 

WEST COVINA (CBSLA.com) — Rarely do we find out what was going on with the driver in a pursuit.

But Gary Hidalgo is speaking out after his son, who he says suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), was arrested following a high-speed chase Saturday.

“I’m scared every day,” he said. “It’s hard. I don’t know what to do.”

Gary says his son, Christian, was injured a few years ago serving oversees in the Army.

“He looks at you like he’s OK … He looks normal. But there’s something that’s a trigger that I have no idea how to handle or manage,” he said. 

Gary says his 26 year old son called him from the VA in Los Angeles describing suicidal symptoms and left before seeing a specialist. read more here

Man Taken to Hospital After Standoff With Police

Maryville Police: Man detained after lockdown at Maryville Commons' Target parking lot
WBIR News
July 2, 2017

MARYVILLE - 9:00 P.M. UPDATE: Around 4:30 p.m. Sunday afternoon, Maryville Police Chief Tony Crisp told 10News a family member called 9-1-1, worried about a man who wandered off and appeared to be suicidal.

Officers found the man inside a truck in the Maryville Commons shopping center off Watkins Road.

When they approached the truck, they did not see him right away. They attempted knocking on the window's truck. The 67-year-old man did not respond.

An officer noticed a holster for a .45 pistol in the truck.

Police say the man was in the truck for at least two hours before authorities used an armed, protective vehicle to break the truck's window and pull him out.

He was taken to the hospital shortly after for further treatment.

Family members told Maryville police that the individual is an out-of-state relative who suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder.

Police have yet to release the man's identity.

The lockdown at the shopping center was lifted around 7 p.m. Sunday evening.
read more here

You Could Be in the Hands of Contractors and Not Know It

Reminder, if you still want to blame the VA employees for all that is wrong, but the press usually won't tell you, here is something from Peter Biello a reporter in New Hampshire "VA Hospitals Step in as Federal Program Hits Growing Pains"

The federal government hires a third-party contractor to do some of that appointing now. Health Net is who that company is now, though I think that could change. Is it fair to the Manchester VA have employees do some of this work, especially since Health Net is in theory supposed to be doing it already?

Manchester VA Assistant Director Kevin Forest answered,

"We already do a lot of that work. Choice isn’t the only program we use to provide care to veterans in the community. We coordinate care for veterans who receive care at other VAs, we coordinate care for veterans who receive care out in the local area hospitals, and we work closely with Health Net now to make sure veterans receive appointments through their provider network."

Then again, if you think any of this is new, would be good for reporters to also remind you that veterans have had to fight the government since they started fighting for the government. 

On June 17, 1783, Congress received a message from soldiers of the Continental Army stationed in Philadelphia, which demanded payment for their service during the American Revolutionary War. The soldiers threatened to take action that day if their complaints were not addressed. Congress ignored their message, but the soldiers did not act on their threat. Two days later, however, the Congress received word that a group of about 80 soldiers had left their post at Lancaster, Pennsylvania, approximately 60 miles (97 km) west of Philadelphia, and had joined with the soldiers stationed at the city barracks. The group of approximately 500 men had effective control over the weapons stores and munition depot.^[2]

Innovation Provides Independence for Vietnam Veteran Amputee

For Two Veterans, a Freedom Restored for Independence Day
New York Times
Side Street
By DAVID GONZALEZ
JULY 2, 2017

“This is the first device that intuitively moves multiple joints at one time. With other technology, you had to use the hand, then stop. Use the wrist, then stop. It wasn’t fluid.” Dr. Leif Nelson

Fred Downs, who received a state-of-the-art prosthetic arm on Friday. “With a prosthetic limb, your independence and dignity are returned to you,” he said. “This is freedom, let me tell you.” Credit David Gonzalez/The New York Times

This Fourth of July weekend, Fred Downs and Artie McAuley will treasure independence in ways most of us take for granted, like grabbing a soda from a table or reaching into a pocket to answer a cellphone. And though football season has yet to start, for the first time in nearly a half-century Mr. McAuley will be able to raise both arms to celebrate a touchdown.

These simple, daily movements represent to them freedom in an intensely personal way: Both are Army veterans who lost part or all of an arm while in the service. Mr. Downs, a platoon leader in Vietnam, lost his left arm just above the elbow when he stepped on a land mine during a firefight in 1968. Mr. McAuley was assigned to an ordnance unit in upstate New York when a car accident cost him his left arm and part of the shoulder in 1969.

The men celebrated the start of the Independence Day weekend by becoming the first two recipients, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs, of astate-of-the-art robotic arm that uses computers, sensors and motors to give back to them the simple, but essential, functions they had lost in their youth. The arm — known as Life Under Kinetic Evolution or LUKE — is the result of an eight-year research project by the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (known as Darpa) and private companies. Unlike current prosthetics available for upper limb amputees, the LUKE arm allows for smooth and simultaneous movement using motors at the shoulder, elbow, wrist and hand to flex and turn or lift and grip.

Dr. Leif Nelson, who worked on the development of the LUKE arm, said that the number of people who had lost arms relative to those who had lost legs was too small to spur private research and development. That’s when Darpa, along with the Department of Veterans Affairs, funded studies to develop the latest prosthesis. They in turn were able to enlist private companies, working with Dean Kamen, who invented the Segway.
read more here

Newer Veterans Still Battle Decades Later for PTSD Comp

Richmond-area veteran with PTSD struggles against VA system to receive benefits
Richmond Times-Dispatch
BY KATIE O'CONNOR
3 hrs ago

According to the VBA, in 2016, more than 4.3 million veterans were receiving compensation benefits, and more than 887,000 received compensation for PTSD, making it the third most prevalent disability for which veterans receive compensation.

Dylan Crosby warned his girlfriend long ago.

If she wakes up in the middle of the night to find him sleepwalking, he told her, just leave him alone and go sleep in the guest bedroom.

One night, she opened her eyes and he was sitting up in bed, fast asleep, loading his AR-15 rifle.

He still has nightmares about his time in the U.S. Navy. Sometimes he's being chased in the woods, or fighting an unknown, shadowy enemy.

“There was another time when he shook me awake because he thought he had stabbed me in the night,” recalled Megan Prillaman, a Chesterfield County teacher and Crosby’s girlfriend of three years.

Prillaman has seen what haunts Crosby from his days serving his country - what prevents him from sleeping more than an average of five hours a night and what keeps them in their home most weekends because crowds trigger him.

But the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is not convinced.

Crosby has been applying for benefits with the VA for his post-traumatic stress disorder since 2015, and has been denied twice - not because the VA does not think he has PTSD, but because, as the Veterans Benefits Administration - or VBA - claims, it was not clearly caused by his service.

"Then where did it come from?" Crosby asked, flabbergasted, during a recent interview in his Chesterfield County Home.

And according to experts, Crosby is just one of thousands of veterans dealing with very similar issues nationwide.
read more here

From this study

Hmm, do you think that this examiner was a Contractor instead of a VA Psychologist? Do you think any of this is new? While this all may be news to you, it isn't to Vietnam Veterans and families. This is just a repeat of the 70's and 80's and 90's! The difference was back then, most of the newer veterans were not even born yet. It took six years for my husband and that was in the 90's. Pretty disgraceful when you think about it!