Airman Found Dead at Joint Base Lewis-McChord

Air Force investigating death of airman found in dorm

Associated Press

December 14, 2017

TACOMA, Wash. (AP) — Authorities are investigating the death of an airman found in his dorm at Joint Base Lewis-McChord near Tacoma.

The Air Force announced that Airman Cody Watt was found dead Tuesday just after noon.

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Press Continues False Advertising of "22 a day" Veteran Suicides

It is harder to not be angry when you see this number showing up all the time.  

"It's hard not to be angry, it's hard not to be angry because it happens 22 times a day, 22 times a day," said Cochran.

If reporters do not know enough to even correct something that important, it is doubtful they will even consider what else they got wrong...and try to change the outcome.

Here is the headline that should be called false advertising.

News 13 Investigates: Fighting Veteran Suicide

It's a staggering statistic: more veterans are dying from suicide than on the battlefield. (Photo credit: Patty Best)

Here is something else,

Rep. McHenry says just last month, they passed the National Defense Authorization Act which requires mental health exams for active service members once a year. 

"We created a yearly mental health screen for those in active duty. That will give the VA a better baseline to work with for those out of the military now," said Rep. McHenry. 

More BS because they passed bills and more bills going back to 2007 that were supposed to save lives and encourage service members and veterans to seek help.

This is from the Joshua Omvig Suicide Prevention Act signed by President Bush in 2007

Family education and outreachThe program shall include programs of outreach to, and education for, veterans and families of veterans (including, in particular, veterans of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom and the families of such veterans) in order to assist the family members of veterans in—

(A)

eliminating or overcoming stigmas associated with mental illness;

(B)

understanding issues that arise in the readjustment of veterans to civilian life;

(C)

identifying signs and symptoms of mental health problems; and

(D)

encouraging veterans to seek assistance for such problems.

But going back even more years is this,

Postdeployment ScreeningThe Department of Defense (DoD) elected to use postdeployment screening to identify military members who may need mental health services.  Postdeployment screening became mandatory in 1997, with the creation of the Postdeployment Health Assessment (PDHA) occurring soon after. The PDHA is a two part process consisting of mental and physical health screening questions completed proximal to return from a deployment and a face-to-face encounter with a medical provider (e.g., not a mental health provider) who reviews the results and makes referrals

So how about we end the farce that any of this is new or the press cares enough to even look up the facts! 

USS Kirk to evacuate 30,000 refugees and one met veteran

Vietnam veteran, refugee connect 42 years after famed rescue mission

Monroe Journal

John Ward

December 13, 2017

Amory surgeon Dr. Hoat Hoang shakes hands with Vietnam War veteran David Burlison Sr. of Quincy after the two meet for the first time. Burlison was a sailor who served on a mission to rescue 30,000 refugees after the fall of Saigon, and Hoang was one of the ones saved.

AMORY – As small of a world as it is, two Monroe Countians reconnected recently more than 40 years after they ironically had the same memorable life experience half a world away. Vietnam veteran David Burlison, Sr. of Quincy was on a U.S. Navy mission on the USS Kirk to evacuate 30,000 refugees after the fall of Saigon. One of those refugees was a 6-year-old boy who grew up to be a practicing surgeon in Amory – Dr. Hoat Hoang.

“There had been stories of South Vietnam losing ground to its neighboring communist country for years,” Hoang said. “It wasn’t until the South Vietnamese capital of Saigon had fallen into the hands of the North Vietnamese that all hope was lost. Upon hearing the news, my father quickly gathered my mother and three siblings, along with our immediate family members and fled our homeland that very day. My father was in his 30s at the time, and I was the second of four children ranging from 8 years old to a young infant. My father knew that he could not live under the new communist regime, and though fleeing his home country was heart wrenching, there weren’t any other options.”
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Veterans Charity Raises Millions to Help Who?

Ok! If you want to know how much BS is floating around as "acceptable" in other words, the guy isn't even ashamed to say this;

“There is no group that I know of that does what we do, educate and advocate for 21 million American Veterans,” he wrote. His small staff accomplishes this, he said, through a “massive bipartisan program” of phone, fax, email and snail-mail contact with more than 500 candidates for Congress; an “earned media machine” that generates attention through news releases; and the publication of the Veterans Vision newsletter once every two years."

Safe bet you learned a hell of a lot more reading this site every day...and I do it alone for free! Plus do you think he can top over 28,000 posts almost everyday for the last ten years on this site alone? Hmm, does over 3.5 million hits count?

Gee do you think he should have actually checked to see what was being done before he made such a stupid statement while defending what he thought he deserved?

(WOW, I need a drink and signing off for now.)

Veterans Charity Raises Millions to Help Those Who’ve Served. But Telemarketers Are Pocketing Most of It.

Politico

By SARAH KLEINER

December 13, 2017

Meanwhile, Hampton’s reported compensation quadrupled — to $340,126 between his two nonprofits in 2015 — in less than a decade.

The warning was prophetic. 

Maurice Levite sat in a modest office in Falls Church, Virginia, about a decade ago, and cautioned his longtime friend, Brian Arthur Hampton, against continuing to use telemarketers to fund his small veterans charity. 

With the help of his fundraisers-for-hire, Hampton had increased Circle of Friends for American Veterans’ income by an astounding amount — tenfold within three years. 

But there was a catch — a costly one. The fundraisers were keeping most of the contributions donors were giving to the charity. Almost all of the money left over paid for overhead costs, such as Hampton’s salary. Veterans themselves received scraps. 

Hampton’s veterans operation is hardly alone. Telemarketer Outreach Calling has contracted with at least a dozen other charities — two of which have been shut down by New York regulators — and keeps an average of 90 percent of the money it raises for them, according to state government records. And other veterans groups, such as the Wounded Warrior Project, have recently endured scandals surrounding their spending.

read more here 

A lot of charities have to use fundraisers or they close their doors. This is an example of what can go wrong when folks have the best intentions and write checks before looking twice.

Homeless Veteran Escaped Fire But Has Nothing Left

Homeless vet in hospital after barely making it out of burning building
WTOL 11 News
December 13, 2017

“I got nowhere to go for emergency purposes. Nowhere. I just lost everything. All my clothes, everything. I got nothing more, nothing.”

TOLEDO, OH (WTOL) 

A veteran is now homeless and in the hospital after barely making it out of a burning building in central Toledo Wednesday morning.

The fire occurred on Palmwood Avenue near Collingwood Avenue around 2:30 a.m.

Crews say they arrived to find the building totally engulfed, with flames shooting out of the windows and roof of the building.

Homeless veteran Rex Davis says he and about seven other people were squatting inside the building when the fire started.

Davis said the blaze started when an ember from the fireplace caught a mattress on fire.

“I opened up the fireplace and something popped out and landed on the mattress and burned it up. I crawled out from the basement. I couldn’t see,” he said.

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