Vietnam Veterans Forgotten Again? Combat PTSD Wounded Times Kathie Costos April 13, 2018
When I read that there will be a display to remember veterans lost to suicides at the Veterans Reunion, I thought they would get it right. Considering this reunion began for Vietnam Veterans, their lives should matter here at least. After reading the article on Florida Today, it is sickening to discover yet again, they just do not matter enough. When will reporters ever correct something as serious as veterans committing suicide? What made this one even worse was that apparently, now they can use "troops" and "veterans" lumping them together in a mashed up number like 660? That number is supposed to be how many veterans commit suicide every month. Too bad no one thought to actually do the work to figure out that there are far too many more not being remembered at all. OK, harsh reality check here. These are the numbers of the "troops" we lost in 2016 and 2017.
No, they are not even mentioned in the numbers people pass around like a treat. Too bad it is a wicked trick since even the numbers of veterans committing suicide are wrong too. That 660 is supposed to be from "22 a day" but they did not mention that report involved just 21 states. So, no, nowhere close to what is real. That report also said that among the known suicides, 65% of those veterans are over the age of 50, but since they are escorting the Vietnam Memorial Wall into Wickham Park to honor Vietnam veterans, guess they thought that these older veterans do not deserve even honorable mention! Then within the report from the VA is this reminder that the known suicides have not gone down since 1999 however the number of living veterans has gone down by over 5 million.
Am I pissed off ? Yes. When I film the riders coming in this year, I think I'll shed more tears knowing how they have been forgotten all over again! They are killing themselves in higher numbers and none of these new groups pulling stunts will lift a finger to help them or even remember they started everything available for all the other generations! I feel terrible for Robin Thomas, who lost her husband to suicide, because she had no way of knowing, what she had been told, was not the truth. She wants to honor her husband at the same time, save another family from going through the same thing. Lord I hope to give her a hug and tell her how sorry I am that after all these years, veterans like her husband are still taking their own lives.
This is from last year.
Melbourne Vietnam-veterans reunion to feature 660-flag display for troops lost to suicide
Florida Today
Rick Neale
April 12, 2018 MELBOURNE — An array of 660 American flags will silently flutter along the north shore of Back Lake in Wickham Park during next week's Florida Vietnam and All Veterans Reunion, standing somber testimony to the estimated 660 U.S. troops and veterans lost to suicide every month. The "flags for forgotten soldiers" display is a new addition to the 31st annual reunion lineup, which is billed as the largest of its kind in the nation. Flag installation begins at 1 p.m. Sunday. "We just thought we had an issue with one person. Well, after Terry died, his suicide was tragic to our family — it's inconceivable. But he acted the same as many PTSD veterans," said Merritt Island resident Robin Thomas, who is spearheading the 660-flag display. Thomas is a former Air Force staff sergeant who served from 1979-88. She gave birth to her son, Terrance O'Hearn, while stationed at Patrick Air Force Base. He later served combat tours as an Army specialist from 2006-10 in Iraq and Afghanistan, and he committed suicide at age 30 in 2016 in his California apartment. It was his fourth suicide attempt.read more here
Imagine if he had been told that he could heal and actually knew where to go to get it? Too many were too busy yelling about something veterans already knew...how to kill themselves.
This video is from 2015 before I got my hands on the report itself and saw where the data came from. At least we knew that Vietnam veterans were the majority of the veterans committing suicide. Would have been better if the rest of the country bothered to actually care.
Brazos County neighbors react to deadly shooting KBTX News By Clay Falls Apr 12, 2018
“It’s too premature for me to be able to give details of our investigation. I can confirm that he was a veteran," said Kirk.
BRAZOS COUNTY, Tex. (KBTX) - A Brazos County man is dead after the sheriff's office said his wife shot him following a fight.
Investigators were at the home in the northeast part of the county morning Thursday. The victim has been identified as 36-year-old, Jason Lee Gamez. Flashing lights and crime scene tape covered the house in rural Brazos County early Thursday along Vaquero Drive.
"I'm surprised because we walk almost every morning around the neighborhood and we have real nice people out here. There's no trouble or anything like that, so it comes as a definite surprise," said
Jim Killingsworth, who lives nearby in the North Country Estates neighborhood. read more here
The Fake Facebook Pages Targeting Vietnam Veterans The Atlantic NATASHA BERTRAND April 12, 2018
The pages are operated out of Eastern Europe and the social network took almost two months to shut one of them down.
Visitors' shadows are seen cast on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial wall
Yuri Gripas / Reuters
Earlier this week, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg promised lawmakers that his platform would crack down on fake accounts and foreign influence. But at least two Facebook pages linked to websites operating out of Bulgaria are still targeting U.S. veterans of the Vietnam War, according to a letter obtained by The Atlantic that was sent to lawmakers by a nonprofit veteran’s organization.
The U.S. military community is not a new or unusual target for foreign influence operations. A study published in October by the University of Oxford found that three websites linked to Russia—Veteranstoday.com, Veteransnewsnow.com and Southfront.org—engaged in “significant and persistent interactions” with veterans during the election, concluding in part that veterans are targeted because they tend to be “community leaders” trusted by the public. read more here
3 homeless veterans buried in East Tennessee Veterans Cemetery WBIR 10 News Author: Anslee Daniel April 11, 2018
Military veterans and community members gathered at the cemetery to honor Sp4 Kenneth Ray Sharp, Pvt. John Louis Sherer and Pvt. Robert Andrew Wilson.
Three Army veterans were laid to rest at the East Tennessee Veterans Cemetery on Wednesday with the help of the Dignity Memorial Homeless Veteran Burial Program.
The program partners with local funeral homes and medical examiners, as well as veterans organizations to provide a burial service for homeless and indigent veterans. read more here
FBI investigating beating of Iraq War veteran in Pearl River Author: Katie Moore April 11, 2018
The Pearl River officer said the deputies shot Cambre with a Taser, then proceeded to beat him with a retractable police baton.
The federal probe into the beating of a Pearl River veteran has entered a new phase with FBI agents interviewing members of the Pearl River Police Department this week.
Pearl River Police Chief JJ Jennings confirmed federal agents interviewed him, his Deputy Chief and the officer who initially conducted a welfare check on U.S. Army veteran Chris Cambre, 48.
Cambre suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, from his year of service in the Iraq War.
As WWL-TV and partner newspaper the New Orleans Advocate first reported, in January, a Pearl River Police Officer went to check on Cambre at the request of his friends after he posted that he was "struggling" having a bad night on Facebook. But the night got much worse for Cambre after five St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Deputies arrived.
The Pearl River officer said the deputies shot Cambre with a Taser, then proceeded to beat him with a retractable police baton. read more here
