Homeless veteran speaks out after being hit with baseball bats
ABC 7 NEWS
Deborah Kendrick
July 31, 2017
COLUMBIA, Mo. - One man is in police custody and another is at large after police say the men beat a homeless veteran over the weekend.
Hankel Jones was charged over the weekend with armed criminal action and robbery in reference to this assault.
Charles "Chuck" Harris told ABC 17 News he was beaten with baseball bats, which caused his right arm to break, bruised his face and left him unconscious for an hour.
Harris told ABC 17 News he refused to buy Jones more alcohol. That's when Harris said Jones and another man beat him.
"I wouldn't buy him more alcohol anymore, so they (men) doubled-teamed me against that wall," Harris said.
He told ABC 17 News he's lucky to be alive. Harris lives in a campsite on North 8th Street, right next to Jones' residence. Harris said he and Jones always had a good relationship but stated Jones has mental issues that cause him to act irrationally.
Brookfield honors Vietnam War Donut Dollie who never came home
State Route 7 in Brookfield was named after Ginny Kirsch, who died in Vietnam in 1970 while serving as a Donut Dollie WKBN News Ohio By Tyler Trill Published: July 30, 2017
BROOKFIELD, Ohio (WKBN) – State Route 7 in Brookfield was named after a local Donut Dollie on Sunday who never made it home from the Vietnam War.
During the war, the American Red Cross sent groups of women overseas called Donut Dollies. They would serve coffee and doughnuts, as well as participate in other programs, to boost the morale of the soldiers.
Brookfield High School graduate Ginny Kirsch was a Dollie in 1970 — and she was honored Sunday.
“It means the world to the Kirsch family to have all of you here today,” Ginny’s sister Ann Kirsch-Keag said.
The Kirsch family and dozens of people recited what they call Ginny’s Prayer on Brookfield’s center green.
Four of Ginny sisters shared stories of the Vietnam veteran.
Close-knit military community feels pain of deaths in wars the nation has forgotten
STARS AND STRIPES By DIANNA CAHN Published: July 30, 2017
The procession crossed the base that straddles the Kentucky-Tennessee border, past training grounds where members of the 101st Airborne Division prepare for war, past buildings where they reunite with loved ones when they return and past the headquarters where a long corridor bears the names of the thousands of “Screaming Eagle” soldiers who didn’t make it home. In wars that most have forgotten about, troops are still dying from hostile fire.
FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. — Rain came in a deluge on the Friday of Sgt. William Bays’ funeral.
A 101st Airborne Division soldier prays at the memorial service for Sgt. William Bays, who was killed in action in Nangarhar Province, Afghanistan on June 10, 2017. MICHAEL S. DARNELL/STARS AND STRIPES
“He was a friend, a peer, a husband,” Sgt. Lucas Schultze, a fellow soldier of the 1st Battalion, 187th Infantry Regiment, cried as he spoke of the more senior comrade who taught him to lead. “A father, a son and a brother.” read more here
No one seems willing to say why he had to wait all this time after it was approved by Congress
In 2016, Defense Secretary Ash Carter recommended McCloughan for the Medal of Honor. But since the medal must be awarded within five years of the recipient’s actions, Congress needed to pass a bill waiving the time limit. President Barack Obama signed the measure in late 2016, but he didn’t get the opportunity to recognize McCloughan with the medal before his term ended this year.
A soldier survived 48 hours of terror in Vietnam. Today, he received the Medal of Honor. Washington Post By Andrew deGrandpre July 31, 2017
It is difficult to assess which of James McCloughan’s near-death encounters in Vietnam was the most harrowing. There were so many. From the moment his infantry unit hit the field March 9, 1969, they encountered a ferocious enemy determined to repulse the Americans at all costs.
“I got initiated the very first day,” McCloughan, 71, recalled in a recent interview with Army biographers. “We hit our first ambush. We had a man die. Had a few people to patch up. And I shot a man. That’s a lot to digest in your first day.
“But I didn’t know I was going to face anything like Tam Ky,” he added, alluding to the location of a vicious 48-hour battle, three months after he arrived in Vietnam, during which the 23-year-old combat medic risked his life at least nine times to save wounded or stranded comrades — 10 men in all — and prevented a much larger North Vietnamese force from overrunning them entirely. read more here
Simple and Easy for You, Not Helping Them Combat PTSD Wounded Times Kathie Costos July 30, 2017 If working with veterans does not hurt you, then you are doing it wrong and for the wrong reasons. Simple as that. It is one thing that I have dealt with for 35 years. My heart breaks when they are suffering. It shatters when they will not believe that they can heal. My blood pressure rises when they hit their emotional lows, but what consumes my days is knowing what they are like on the other side of their darkest days and trying to get others out of their way. If you have been a reader of Combat PTSD Wounded Times, you know I have no patience for all these stunts raising awareness that veterans are committing suicide. That "effort" does no good for anyone other than the ones seeking attention for what they know nothing about. Helping them heal, changing the outcome, requires dedication to those in need of a reason to stay here.
I had to learn the hard way and for selfish reasons because when I fell in love with my veteran, I had to go to the library to learn why he was so different from the veterans in my family. That was back in 1982. Yep, I'm old but I was in my early 20's back then.
Without the internet, we knew that healing PTSD had to come with an approach of the trinity-mind-body-spirit and we were right. It also requires a great deal of compassion for those working with these veterans but, to tell you the truth, it is all too often coming with a tremendous price we pay. There is no way to do this without getting "air support" through prayer and asking for guidance. To find the right words to use comes with being quiet and listening. To find the will to stop grieving for losses comes with being able to forgive ourselves.
That is something I had to do after my husband's nephew committed suicide after I tried to get him to listen. It still haunts me after all these years, running the attempts through my head and the "would have, could have, should have" questions there will never be any answers to.
Oh, but I can assure you that there is not a day that goes by when I think this is not worth every moment of heartache or floods of tears that flow reading about one more that never seems to be the "one too many" folks keep talking about.
That one too many is the member of a family. He/she is a brother, sister, friend, and they lost their battle while others judge them and those who loved them judge themselves far too harshly.
So, take about half an hour and listen to an Iraq veteran talking about putting the gun to his head one day and the other day when he discovered he was not just forgiven, he had a new mission to save more lives after war.
The VA is paying attention to this aspect of healing.
Treating veterans’ ‘inner wounds’: The role of spirituality Center of Excellence at the Canandaigua VA making strides in mission to prevent suicideDaily Messanger By Julie Sherwood Posted Jul 29, 2017
It’s no surprise that helping veterans find meaning in their lives after military service is crucial. Wounds of war, mental and physical, take their toll — not to mention separation from community and loved ones.
Last month, Gulf war veteran Ken Bardo of Phelps talked about the struggle. So did Vietnam veteran Gene Simes of Walworth. Both men have been in counseling for years, among other treatments, and expect they will need help for the rest of their lives.
“Sometimes we cry because it hurts,” said Simes.
What is surprising to some is how powerful a new treatment — based on an age-old philosophy that spirituality is good for you — could be in helping vets find meaning in their lives and thus help prevent veteran suicide.
For many veterans “self-image has just plummeted,” said Canandaigua VA Chaplain Robert Searle, who is behind a research study at the Center of Excellence for Suicide Prevention at the Canandaigua VA Medical Center. The study is about the effect of spiritual care on preventing suicide. Veterans feel guilt, they have “inner wounds,” Searle said. When a person is broken and bruised inside as many veterans are, they need to feel forgiveness and that their life has meaning, he said. read more here
In other words, you fought for those you loved and were willing to die for them. Fight again for those you love and be willing to live for them.
If you are working with a group that is not working for the right reasons, then consider what Jesus told his disciples as He sent them on their way to do God's work,
Matthew 10:14 New International Version (NIV)
14 If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, leave that home or town and shake the dust off your feet.
