Inspirational Vietnam Veteran Plans On Surviving Again After Being Set on Fire At Denny's

Vietnam Veteran Is Determined To Survive After Being Set On Fire

WLTZ News

Christe Lattimore-Staple 
August 14, 2017

Nearly four months after he was doused with gasoline and lit on fire at a Happy Valley, Oregon Denny’s, walking remains a goal for Scott Ranstrom.

“I’m trying to take steps,” he said.

The 69-year-old Vietnam veteran didn’t know his attacker.

He doesn’t like to think about him.

“Every morning I get up with expectations of tomorrow, not what happened,” said Ranstrom, his hands covered by protective gloves.

Sitting in a private room in Vibra Specialty Hospital, a recovery center for those who need long-term, in-patient care, Ranstrom is unwavering.

He remembers everything.
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Camp Pendleton National Navajo Code Talkers Day

On National Navajo Code Talkers Day, a look back at what started at Camp Pendleton
San Diego Union Tribune
Jeanette Steele
August 14, 2017

Navajo Code Talkers took part in every U.S. Marine Corps assault in the Pacific from 1942 to 1945. They transmitted messages by telephone and radio in their native language — a code the Japanese never broke. 

The idea came from Los Angeles resident Philip Johnston, a World War I veteran raised on a Navajo reservation as a missionary’s son. He took his concept to the Marines at Camp Elliot in San Diego, now Miramar Marine Corps Air Station. 

In May 1942, the first 29 Navajo recruits attended boot camp. Afterward, at Camp Pendleton, this group created the Navajo code for military terms. 
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Hole in Spokane VA Hospital Roof--Leaked for 5 Years!

Investigation discovers staff ignored hole in roof for years at VA hospital in Spokane

Spokesman

Thomas Clouse

August 11, 2017

"The hole is scheduled to be fixed sometime by the end of the year."

U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers’ frustrated attempts to secure changes for veterans’ care in Spokane just fell through the roof.

Based on complaints funneled through a group of veterans who have protested for a year about the lack of cooperation from the staff at Mann-Grandstaff VA Medical Center, McMorris Rodgers asked for staff from the House Veterans Affairs Committee to come to Spokane in June and investigate conditions at the hospital. Among the problems they discovered: a hole in the roof.

The hole apparently has been leaking water for about five years. McMorris Rodgers said VA staff has known about the problem, evidenced by the fact that someone had built a rectangular funnel to catch water dripping through the roof. The funnel channels water through a hose into a metal bucket.

But the make-shift-leak-management system is located only feet from hospital’s large electrical panel that fuels power to the entire facility, she said.

“Just how unbelievable it was to learn we had a leaking roof,” McMorris Rodgers said. “And it’s been going on for years and hasn’t been addressed.”

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Just no other way to put it!

After News Reporters Showed Up, Restaurant Owner Checked Law on Service Dogs?

Restaurant owner refuses entry for PTSD vet’s service dog
Panama City News Herald
Wendy Victora
August 12, 2017

“I don’t know how to verify that they are in fact a service dog, or how that plays out in a restaurant that serves food. What are my rights?” Papa Joe’s Hideaway owner pat Dougherty 

FORT WALTON BEACH — A disabled veteran who took her service dog to an Okaloosa County restaurant last week left after the owner confronted her about bringing the dog inside.

Brittney Healy and her service dog Grunt, visit the grave of a friend who was killed in Iraq. Healy worked in a morgue in Iraq for a year when she was in her late teens. She has been medically retired with PTSD

Brittney Healy received her dog, Grunt, in 2012, shortly before she was medically discharged from the Army with post-traumatic stress disorder. Over the past five years, she has become very familiar with federal laws governing her service dog.

“For a service dog, they can only ask you two questions legally: Is your dog a service dog? What is he trained to do?” she said. “That’s how it should be. You don’t know what that person is going through.”

But Pat Dougherty, the owner of Papa Joe’s Hideaway, isn’t as familiar with that portion of the Americans with Disabilities Act. What the longtime business owner does know is that in the past two weeks, one service dog bit a customer in the face and another threw up in the restaurant.

After talking to the Daily News, Dougherty planned to call an 800 number to learn more about the laws governing service dogs. She said she isn’t “anti-military” and that her son-in-law is active duty. But she remained frustrated with the encounter and with the laws.read more here

UK Hero With PTSD Dumped by Ministry of Defense

NO HELP FOR HERO 

Brave Army officer who defused nearly 100 bombs in Afghanistan says he was dumped by MoD after suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder

The SUN UK 
By Sam Webb 
13th August 2017 

Major Wayne Owers was honoured three times by the Queen during his 27-year career.

AN ARMY bomb disposal expert who saved countless lives in war-torn Afghanistan says he has been betrayed by the military after he was discharged while suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

Captain Wayne Owers was decorated with The Queen’s Gallantry Medal

But when the 46-year-old, originally from Whitnash, near Leamington in Warwickshire, asked for help tackling his nightmares and extreme anxiety from Army doctors, he was given a medical discharge.

He underwent two years of treatment and was showing signs of improvement – but he was given a medical discharge and just £6,000 compensation rather than a non-operational posting.

He told the Mirror: “The Army was my life but in my darkest hour when I most needed help I was told, ‘You are no longer fit to serve’.

“I was mortified. It was a devastating blow. I could have continued serving.”

In 2013 the Sun reported how Owers crawled forward in the middle of the battle to defuse a bomb in a school in Afghanistan.

When asked if they may be booby trapped and go off in his face when he touched them, the brave soldier grinned as he said: “Probably not.” 

He says the Ministry of Defence’s claim that it is serious about tackling PTSD is nonsense and says he knows soldiers who have lied about their recovery because they don’t want to lose their jobs.

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