Friends drink final toast to slain Vietnam veteran
ABC 10 News
Anthony Pura
Aug 16, 2018
Roth’s wife came home and found him dead Tuesday. Police say he suffered trauma to his upper body. His wife told police the garage door was open.
OCEANSIDE, Calif. (KGTV) - Dozens of people packed a room at Surfside Tap Room Thursday night for a well-known patron believed to have been killed in his home.
John Roth, 77, was a regular at the bar. More than 50 people came to celebrate his life and drink a final toast.
“He served in Vietnam, he was a topographer,” one of his friends, Tom Andrews said. “He crawled through rice paddies to make sure the maps had the right elevations.”
“We had some intense conversations, but we would always end up laughing,” he added.
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‘Never too Late’: Bill Vogt at Age 105 Finally Claims SDSU Diploma
Times of San Diego
Chris Stone
AUGUST 16, 2018
“It was pretty spectacular,” said Sandra Cook, associate vice president for academic affairs. “We get requests for replacement diplomas for students all of the time. … We’ve never had one back that far. Everyone was excited about it.”
Reminiscing about his years at San Diego State University, Bill Vogt wishes he had back all the hours he’d wasted — trying to find booze.
SDSU President Adela de la Torre presents 105-year-old Bill Vogt his 1935 diploma. Photo by Chris Stone
That was more than 80 years ago. Some things never change.
But Vogt was honored for academic achievement Thursday, finally receiving his university diploma at the age of 105½.
The cause for the delay? He failed to pass his last needed class because of an “obstinate” professor and had to take another class in the fall. Consequently, he finished midyear, during the Great Depression, when no graduation ceremony was held.
After finishing his education, he entered the Navy and served during World War II and the Korean and Vietnam wars.
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Army veteran and St. Louis police officer needs back surgery; denied by health insurance
KSDK NBC 5 News
Author: Rachel Menitoff
August 16, 2018
"I can't play with them. I can't wrestle with them. I can't throw the ball with them. I just can't do those things. This gives me a chance to do that. At least, it gives me a solution going forward."
ST. LOUIS — He was a patriot, fighting in Iraq, then became a police officer. He has numerous awards and medals, but he’s also a dad.
He can't even play with his sons because his pain is so severe, pain he got serving his country and community.
Timothy Nolan has had back problems throughout his life. He has a degenerative condition. And he was used to a lot of physical work as an infantry team leader in Iraq, and most recently as a St. Louis police officer.
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UPDATE from Louisiana, another veteran is fighting after he served in the Navy and then as a Sheriff's Deputy!
Vietnam veteran files federal lawsuit against Louisiana VA office director
Lafayette Daily Advertiser
Leigh Guidry
August 17, 2018
A veteran in Lake Charles filed a federal lawsuit against the Louisiana Veterans Affairs regional office director.
George Jackson, 76, lives in Lake Charles with his wife, Helene. On Thursday, she and a veterans advocate went to the U.S. District Court Western District of Louisiana to file the lawsuit against Mark Bologna.
Jackson, the plaintiff, stayed at their home.
"I'm here because my husband, George Jackson, can't be here," she told media Friday.
Jackson is considered tetraplegic, having lost the use of his limbs. He can still move them slightly but he has no strength. He splits his time between a hospital bed in his home and his electric wheelchair.
The Lake Charles native served 30 years in the U.S. Navy, climbing ladders, crouching, lifting heavy things and performing other jobs on ships. He was aboard wooden ships used to sweep rivers for mines during two tours in Vietnam.
"Most of my job was on ships ... 30 years of going up and down ladders," he said.
But he doesn't regret joining the Navy, he said. It was always his dream.
"That's the only thing I really wanted to do," Jackson said. "I watched Navy movies on TV. In first grade, I looked out the window, and I always wanted to be a sailor."
So he joined once he was old enough "and I put 31 years in the military."
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Freedom, war and the flag
Combat PTSD Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
August 18, 2018
Bad way to wake up this morning, was reading this headline.
ESPN won't air anthem before Monday Night Football games, returning to prior practice
"New ESPN president Jimmy Pitaro said on Friday that the network will not show the national anthem during Monday Night Football broadcasts, which is a return to standard operating procedure and a recognition of fans’ desires."
Oh, no, not that the decision to not cover it was bad, but it was what else was in the article.
“ESPN is not a political organization,” he said. “It’s not our job to cover politics, purely, but we’ll cover the intersection of sports and politics. When something happens, when the Eagles are disinvited from the White House, when someone takes a knee, when we think it’s newsworthy we’re going to cover it.”
Reporters still fail to understand that patriotism has nothing to do with politics because no matter who is in charge, the National Anthem means more than just words. I guess it is just not news to us how we feel about this stunt, so ESPN must avoid mentioning how offended we are with all of this.
The basis of the anthem was the War of 1812. The words are about the flag still flying after Americans fought back.
In the War of 1812, the United States took on the greatest naval power in the world, Great Britain, in a conflict that would have an immense impact on the young country’s future. Causes of the war included British attempts to restrict U.S. trade, the Royal Navy’s impressment of American seamen and America’s desire to expand its territory.
The United States suffered many costly defeats at the hands of British, Canadian and Native American troops over the course of the War of 1812, including the capture and burning of the nation’s capital, Washington, D.C., in August 1814. Nonetheless, American troops were able to repulse British invasions in New York, Baltimore and New Orleans, boosting national confidence and fostering a new spirit of patriotism.
The ratification of the Treaty of Ghent on February 17, 1815, ended the war but left many of the most contentious questions unresolved. Nonetheless, many in the United States celebrated the War of 1812 as a “second war of independence,” beginning an era of partisan agreement and national pride.
For anyone suggesting the National Anthem protest is not insulting the troops or the flag, that is exactly what it is.
“The Star-Spangled Banner” is the national anthem of the United States. By the time the song officially became the country’s anthem in 1931, it had been one of America’s most popular patriotic tunes for more than a century. The anthem’s history began the morning of September 14, 1814, when an attorney and amateur poet named Francis Scott Key watched U.S. soldiers—who were under bombardment from British naval forces during the War of 1812—raise a large American flag over Fort McHenry in Baltimore, Maryland.
In the almost 6 decades I have lived, there has been a lot of changes in this country because people stood up and refused to kneel to anything other than prayer.
I was raised by veterans willing to fight to keep this country free, but also, by 1st generations Americans. Yes, immigrants who came here from Greece, Italy and Canada. Members of my family and my husband's fought in three wars. WWII, Korea and Vietnam.
This country achieved the changes on rights because people also stood up, on their own time, and forced the politicians to do the right thing.
The football players are not doing either one. They are not taking a stand for civil rights and they are not doing it on their own time.
They use their fans paying money to enjoy the game, and stations like ESPN making money off covering this game. Using? Yes. They put on a uniform and then expect to be able to use the uniform to pull a stunt, as if that uniform entitles them to their personal views being displayed for the world to see.
Fans dropping support of these teams has nothing to do with Trump's tweets but has everything do to with disrespecting what we hold sacred.
If ESPN is really interested in what is "newsworthy" then they should give fans the same worth and attention they are giving the players. Let them cover how these stunts are pushing them away from the game they loved because they love the country, this imperfect country, and those who stood up to fight for it risking their lives, oh so much more!
13 Investigates: The death of 70-year-old veteran raises disturbing questions
WTHR
Bob Segall
August 16, 2018
That day came last summer on July 17. Bowers died three and a half months after what appears to be a terrible mix-up. The Marine’s family wants to know how that mix-up happened so other veterans and their families do not have to suffer like they did.
FRANKLIN, Ind. (WTHR) — Traci Dearth was enjoying a family vacation in Florida when she heard a severe weather warning on her cellphone.
“My Channel 13 app continued to go off because of all the storms back home, but I didn’t think much about it at the time. I just had no idea,” she said.
What Dearth didn’t realize was her 70-year-old father was outdoors, helplessly seeking shelter from the severe thunderstorms that brought hail, lightning, high winds and flooding to central Indiana.
The wheelchair-bound veteran with dementia was supposed to be safe inside a nursing home. Instead, he was fighting for his life, abandoned by the people who Dearth trusted to care for him.
“They had one job and that was to take care of him for seven days, and they didn’t do that,” Dearth told WTHR. “He suffered so much. It’s been a year and I still don’t understand it.”
She is now demanding answers from the Roudebush VA Medical Center, a nursing home and a local cab company. All three are accused of negligence that eventually contributed to the death of Gerald Bowers.
“This is a horrible tragedy that should have never happened,” said attorney Mark Ladendorf, whose law firm has filed two lawsuits related to Bowers’ care. “This is a story the community should hear about. Somebody needs to be held responsible, so this never happens again.”
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