Ret. Air Force Col Saw Disability Check Fly Away?

Local veterans report that their disability payments have been hijacked
FLORIDA TODAY
John McCarthy
April 27, 2018

Bill Grooten was surprised to receive a letter from the Department of Veterans Affairs last month confirming the change he made to banking information where his monthly VA disability check would be deposited.

The reason he was surprised was that he had made no such change.

Grooten, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel, immediately contacted the VA. But by then, his $3,500 monthly disability check had already been deposited in Bank of Internet USA, an online bank headquartered in San Diego.

The VA told Grooten that his bank might have been the site of the breach. But the Bank of America said it found no evidence of unauthorized activity with Grooten's account.

Chip Hanson, who is active in the local chapter of Disabled American Veterans, said that he has heard of as many as 75 veterans in Central Florida having had similar problems.
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WFLA News Got Vietnam Veteran Justice

Target 8 helps misdiagnosed veteran get his benefits
WFLA 8 News
Steven Andrews
April 26, 2018

Stationed on Guam in 1971 during the Vietnam War, Lonnie claims his work near airfields exposed him to the herbicide Agent Orange.

TARPON SPRINGS, Fla. (WFLA) - An enormous weight has been lifted off the shoulders of a Pasco County veteran and his family.

Following a series of Target 8 reports, the Department of Veterans Affairs reversed its previous denial and approved Agent Orange benefits for Navy veteran Lonnie Kilpatrick.

"Words can't even say how much we appreciate what you have done," said Lonnie's daughter Keri Ackerson.

After eight years of delays and denial, the VA reversed course.

It approved Lonnie's claim that exposure to the toxic defoliant Agent Orange left him 100 percent disabled.
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Save a firefighter in your own house

Superior mayor announces cause of fire battalion chief's death
Duluth News Tribune
By Lisa Kaczke
Apr 24, 2018

A Superior Fire Department battalion chief who retired just a few weeks ago died on April 18 after "a long and brave struggle" with mental illness, Mayor Jim Paine said on Tuesday.

Erik Sutton, 46, who had served on the Superior Fire Department for 20 years, took his own life, Paine said. Sutton had sought and received care prior to his death. Paine said he has offered his condolences and support to the fire department leadership and Sutton's mother.

"We have all agreed that while the price of his service was too high, none of us will allow his death to pass in vain," Paine said in a statement. "We will put his memory to work for our bravest civil servants as diligently as he put his own life to work for all of us and commit ourselves to ensuring that every firefighter and police officer in our service not only has full access to the care that they need, but that they feel the support to seek care when necessary."
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But he is not the first.

Local firefighter’s widow mission to save lives, numbers show firefighter suicide rising

On October 15, 2016, fallen Indian River County Fire Chief David Dangerfield said goodbye to his wife on the phone first, and then on Facebook.

After a 27-year career, Chief Dangerfield wrote in his suicide post that it was due to PTSD on the job. He posted on Facebook:

"PTSD for Firefights is real. If your loved one is experiencing signs get them help quickly. 27 years of death and babies dying in your hands is a memory that you will never get rid off. It haunted me daily until now. My love to my crews. Be safe, take care. I love you all."

This was released last month.
81 Percent of firefighters fear they will be seen as weak

The survey also found that 81 percent of firefighters fear they will be seen as weak or unfit for duty if they talk about the emotional toll of their job, and 87 percent said it keeps them from getting the help they need.

When it comes to saving lives, you need to begin in your own house to see who is in danger at the fire station.

Truckers lined up to save a life!

Truck drivers help stop a man from committing suicide
ABC News 9
By Matthew Witkos, WJRT
Apr 25, 2018

Genesee County (WJRT) -- The powerful images have been making the rounds on social media Tuesday.

Michigan state troopers out of metro Detroit say they've done this before. Several truck drivers say they've never seen or heard of this before. But without a moment of hesitation, they would do this if called up for action.

13 semi-trucks lined up underneath a metro Detroit overpass above I-696.

State troopers put them there to shorten a fall of one man attempting suicide early Tuesday morning.

These truck drivers are always on a tight schedule and are often pulling long hours to make their stops.
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Old timers need to go old school and fight back!

We didn't shut up then, why do it now?
Combat PTSD Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
April 25, 2018

Just got done reading and ranting about what was written for the generation of veterans and families forgotten about, yet again, and was so pumped up, I forgot to do this part, so that is the update. Now for the old news.....us!
Caregiving for veterans who have PTSD, at any age

Jeanette Steele at San Diego News Tribune is at least trying to get people to open their eyes that the majority of veterans and families in this country have been forgotten about. Yes, that means us!

Oh, sure, we were not the ones who invented PTSD, but we did invent the awareness of what it is and what it does. I've been in this for 36 years now, but others were ahead of me. This generation wants to take away a letter because they don't like it? We don't like what it has been doing to OUR FAMILIES and if they freak out with the word "disorder" then how the hell are they going to be tough enough to fight the actual fact that anything can get out of order until people know what they are doing to PUT IT BACK INTO PLACE!

We did it the old school way, of writing to newspapers, and mostly by word of mouth. You know, that thing we did on the phone with the cord we now call a landline and used for a lifeline and used out mouths to communicate instead of fingers. Hell, the only time I use my fingers other than on my computer, is still to use the middle one. (Care to guess what I'm doing right now?)

Cut through the part where we get the stupid pins, and displays of appreciation. Sure, that's all nice, but when we hear anyone talk about taking benefits away because we're old, talk about sending our veterans into the private healthcare system the rest of us have to deal with, then manage to eliminate the majority of the majority of our families from benefits they give to newer generations, that is more salt into our very old wounds. 

When will this country wake up to the fact that our veterans and families, like mine, ask for nothing more than we were promised? When did it become OK with anyone to have different classes of veterans who merited more than those who came before them, with the same wounds, and waited longer but not getting the same benefits?

They want to talk about things they have no clue about and most reporters just say, I'll print that, without ever asking a single question. That is how the rumor of "22 a day" took over social media, while the rest of us were running into stupid claims that it was only the OEF and OIF generation they were concerned with. Well, look what happened after that! Groups popped up all over the place, collecting money for talking about something they had no clue was a big-fat-lie!

Yep, the report they failed to read was chocked full of facts, like the majority of the veterans committing suicide (at least the ones they knew about from the measly 21 states in the report) WERE OVER THE AGE OF 50~

Are you willing to settle for any of this? Then get old school on them and WRITE TO THE NEWSPAPERS SO MORE REPORTERS ACTUALLY DO SOMETHING LIKE THIS ONE DID!!!!