Sunday, June 10, 2018

Ex-POW Vietnam veteran gets teams of angels

He has 2 Purple Hearts but couldn't afford home repairs. Then help arrived - for free.
Idaho Statesman
Michael Katz
June 9, 2018

Sitting in a chair in his family room, cane in one hand and his other arm crossed over his midsection, Charlie Moore is an unassuming hero. He can share a war story or two, but he can just as easily talk about growing up on a farm in Wisconsin.

On a humid June evening, Moore, 75, is wearing an Army hat and American flag-clad T-shirt. For more than 40 years, he has been a disabled veteran, after an accident in Vietnam left him unable to work. He wears his Army garb proudly.
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Veteran invented Mongo wheelchair out of love

Better or Worse: Veteran invents wheelchair for paralyzed wife, wants to gift to all disabled Veterans
KMBC 9 ABC News
Rob Hughes
June 8, 2018

What started as a way to help a Veteran's wife has turned into a mission to help all disabled Veterans.

KANSAS CITY, Mo.
A local woman was paralyzed after a car wreck. She lost her job, even her dignity. Her husband invented a wheelchair that not only gave her freedom, but her life back.

"It will open so many doors for them," said Liz Soden, describing life in her "Mongo" wheelchair. Before her husband Brad invented the Mongo state of the art wheelchair for her, she constantly felt judged. "When I'm in my Medicare chair, people don't talk to me, they will turn away; I've had people walk across the street, so they wouldn't have to be next to me," said Liz, who missed participating in fun outdoor activities with her family.

Brad, an Army Veteran who served overseas with the 3rd Infantry Division, invented the Mongo wheelchair to be all-terrain, with speeds up to 25 miles per hour. It includes features that allow the user to stand up or lie down. "When I'm in this, people actually come up and they want to talk to me, I'm a person again, and I have a conversation, and I can say stuff; normally they don't even look at me," said Liz, who mentioned the Mongo chair allowed her to smile again.

"A lot of these guys are eating bullets, and want to, they think it's better for their families if they're not around anymore," said Brad, referring to the helpless feeling disabled Veterans have when they lose their independence. One of the goals of the Mongo chair is to stop Veteran suicide because it's designed to give Veterans purpose and direction; making them employable and able to participate in activities with their families they otherwise couldn't.

Brad hopes to raise one million dollars to gift a Mongo chair to all 60,000 American Veterans who currently use a wheelchair in their day to day life. "Somebody being hurt, it's just not their issue, it's a family issue, so that's what we're about, is coming up with solutions," said Brad.
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Conman lived large off deployed Combat Medic

Veteran claims his stolen Facebook photos were used to catfish 30 women during deployment
FOX News
By Shanti Das, SWNS
June 9, 2018
Lovato, who is married to 42-year-old landlord Jane Hamilton, was oblivious to the havoc being wreaked in his name until strangers began messaging him online early last year.


A combat medic claims he returned from Afghanistan to discover a conman had used his photos to catfish around 30 women and dupe them out of thousands of dollars.

US Army veteran Albert Lovato, 39, says pictures he posted on Facebook were stolen and used to create fake profiles on social media and dating sites. Posing as the uniformed dad-of-three, the scammer approached women around the world, including in the US, Canada, India, Costa Rica and the Philippines.
The veteran said the news, which came shortly after he returned from deployment and following a battle with alcoholism and the death of a close friend, hit him hard.

Meanwhile, the accused conman flashed his newfound wealth around online, posting photos of watches and bundles of cash.
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Young widow struggles to have husband buried?

Young Iraq War veteran ineligible for burial in North Carolina state cemetery
KMBZ 98.1 FM
JUNE 09, 2018
"At this point, [Amanda] would like her husband to rest in peace, so she is moving forward with Arlington, because she can't handle the process," Lacey said. "She doesn't have the strength to fight it, or keep living."

(NEW YORK) -- The mother-in-law of an Iraq war veteran is pleading for change in North Carolina after her daughter’s late husband was denied burial in a state cemetery.

Capt. James Christian Gallagher, a third-generation member of the United States armed forces, described by his family as having love for his country that "never wavered," is being held in a morgue, waiting to be interred.

"How can the state of North Carolina turn their back on this. The rejection of allowing CPT Gallagher to be buried in North Carolina State Veterans cemetery," Gallagher’s mother-in-law Wendy Lacey wrote on Facebook.

The post, shared more than 100 times on Facebook, condemns North Carolina for its “unconscionable” decision.

Gallagher, a 2008 West Point graduate, was stationed in Fort Lee, Virginia, with his wife and three daughters, when two weeks ago he suddenly passed away at the age of 31.

Amanda, Gallagher’s wife, decided to move to North Carolina, to be near her family in a time of need.

"When my daughter decided that she needed help, it was the right fit to have her husband buried here," Lacey told ABC News.

Initially, Amanda was told her husband could be buried at the North Carolina state veterans, Sandhill Cemetery, but the funeral home denied the family a plot, citing ineligibility.

A free burial plot is provided at a North Carolina State Veterans Cemetery for state veterans; however, they must meet certain residency requirements. Among those requirements is that the veteran has at the time of death been a legal resident of North Carolina for at least 10 years, according to the North Carolina State Veterans Cemetery Program.
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What feeds your power?

Is Your Power Source Changed or Charged
PTSD Patrol 
Kathie Costos 
June 10, 2018
Last week I had to bring my car into KIA for maintenance. Since the only way I could get shots of under my car for PTSD Patrol, I bought my camera.

Standing under it, seeing everything that is hidden, but always there, I started to think about how the same thing goes on with all of us. 

We can see a lot on the surface. There are things we see but there is so much more going on than what we can see within us.

We have histories in our lives. Bad times when it all turned to crap and times when things were so good, we ended up thinking we did not deserve it. Funny how that works. Bad shit happens and we tend to think we didn't deserve it, then good stuff happens and we don't think we deserve that either.

We are charged by both. Negative things happen, as well as positive just like our car batteries. The battery feeds the rest of the vehicle through cables. Sometimes those cables get corroded and the energy cannot feed the power.

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