Wednesday, August 22, 2018

Duncan Hunter in Indictment: ‘Tell the Navy to Go F*** Themselves’

Duncan Hunter in Indictment: ‘Tell the Navy to Go F*** Themselves’
Roll Call
Katherine Tully-McManus
Posted Aug 21, 2018
Hunter’s wife also concealed a number of improper campaign expenditures by saying they were for wounded veterans. In March 2015, Hunter spent campaign funds buying shorts for himself. According to the indictment, Margaret counseled him to buy the shorts at a golf pro shop so that they could falsely describe the purchase later as “some [golf] balls for the wounded warriors.”

Prosecutors allege California Republican also falsely claimed expenditures for ‘wounded warriors’
The federal indictment of Rep. Duncan Hunter. R-Calif., center, includes details of his cursing the Navy and misrepresenting funds for wounded warriors. He is shown here in a 2012 photo with former Rep. Tim Murphy, R-Pa., left, who resigned in October 2017 after admitting to an extramarital affair, and Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call file photo)

A federal indictment alleges that House Armed Services member Duncan Hunter was not happy when he didn’t get a tour of a military base in Italy and had this to say: “Tell the Navy to go f--- themselves.”

Prosecutors also accused the California Republican of falsely claiming that personal expenditures were for “wounded warriors.”

Hunter and his wife, Margaret, were indicted Tuesday for allegedly using $250,000 in campaign funds for personal expenses, including dental work and trips to Italy and Hawaii.
read more here

VA Employees saved suicidal man on I 10 overpass

VA employee helps save man's life on Interstate 10 overpass
FOX Phoenix 10 News
August 21, 2018
"He has just that absolute frustrated look on his face. That look on someone's face. You can tell deep inside, he was really hurting," said Odis Bailey. "You could tell the mixed emotions of rage, sadness."


PHOENIX (KSAZ) -- A man shut down part of the I-10 freeway in Downtown Phoenix during the morning rush hour, threatening to jump from an overpass into oncoming traffic.

Four people pulled over to help, and one man even climbed to the top of the overpass, in an effort to try and save a stranger's life.

The man was on top of the 3rd Avenue pedestrian bridge. Before law enforcement got involved, a group of Phoenix VA employees stopped their morning commute to help. The man was a stranger to them, but his distress was all too familiar.
Bailey climbed up the fence too, and they spent about 15 minutes talking. 
"The first part was basically trying to comfort him, that I do care, I was up here because I cared about him," said Bailey. "He had some family issues. Father who had passed away, battling drugs, dealing with not having contact with his son, and the straw that broke the camels back was he was sleeping behind a bush, and someone kicked him out."
read more here

Tuesday, August 21, 2018

Letting heroes die sunk us to a new low

When will we care enough to save those who save us?
Combat PTSD Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
August 21, 2018

If you think dropping the D from PTSD is a good idea, then it proves you really do not understand much. The "thing" that gave them PTSD in the first place, was a lot harder than dealing with a lousy letter.

If they have a problem with it, then we have a much bigger problem than anyone is aware of, because if the stigma ends up killing them, instead of the event itself, our shame has just sunk to a new low.

This may finally get you to understand that men and women, valued human life so much, they were willing to die to save others. They rushed into burning homes, to accidents, to disaster after disaster, yet the following lost their lives because of what all their efforts did to them.

Firefighters

81% of the firefighters feared they would be seen as weak according to an NBC survey.

December 2017
Crystal Murphy Navy veteran and Lacey firefighter

January 2018
Retired firefighter Thomas Schilling

March 2018

Tampa firefighter Steve LaDue

Firefighter Jesse Reed

April 2018
Dallas retired firefighter Michael Chambers 

Battalion Chief Erik Sutton

June 2018
Volunteer firefighter and police officer Mark Gehron

Ryne Kinsella 

July 2018
Captain Art Vazquez

Firefighter Peter D. Varnum

James Grundon, 55, was a firefighter and paramedic (murder-suicide)

August 2018
Captain Wayne Habell


LAW ENFORCEMENT

June
Lancaster City Police Officer Marc Gehron

July
Chicago Police Officer, shot himself in the parkinglot

August 2018
Officer Stewart Beasley


PARAMEDIC
May 2018
Tony Jenkins


Veterans committed public suicides

March 9, 2018
Yountville California
Veteran and hostages dead at PTSD program

March 12, 2018
Vietnam veteran committed suicide in Sheridan Police Department Parking lot after calling dispatch to let them know where he was.

March 23, 2018
Soldier dead after standoff at Aberdeen Proving Ground

March 23, 2018
Oklahoma
Air Force Veteran dead after police were called to help him.

March 26, 2018
St. Louis
62 year old veteran committed suicide in John Cochran VA Medical Center waiting room

April 3, 2018
Boynton Beach
Florida
76 year old Vietnam veteran committed suicide in Boynton City Hal parking lot. Not first time this happened. 

It happened last year in Amarillo Texas when a veteran shot himself in front of the VA hospital.

June 13, 2018
Fort Knox 
21 year old Private committed public suicide at Clarksville High School after he stole a gun.

June 19, 2018
Kansas
Vietnam veteran committed suicide at in the VA emergency room.

June 26 2018
Georgia
Navy Veteran set himself on fire in front of Georgia Capitol protesting the VA system. 

Not first time this happened. It also happened in New Jersey last year.

June 27, 2018
Norfolk Navy Yard
Sailor walked into helicopter blade, death ruled suicide.

July 10, 2018
Alabama
Air Force veteran shot family, and himself after setting house on fire.

July 14, 2018
Phoenix AZ
Veteran shot himself inside the VA Hospital Chapel 

Not the first times since it happened last year when a 33 year old veteran shot himself at the VA.

There are a lot more but, most of them do not have their names released. What you see in obituaries around the country are usually along the lines of "died suddenly" and it is the families right to keep it private.

What will never, ever, make any of this right, is for it keep happening without the national news paying attention to any of this.

At least now, the pubic has a chance to learn what we've been reading so far this year.

Blind horse ranch and PTSD veterans bond

Blind Horses, Combat Veterans Get Second Chance At Life At This Rescue
WFMY News 2
Author: Laura Brache
August 20, 2018
Flurry's Hope Blind Horse Rescue rescues horses that were going to be euthanized because of their blindness and provides therapeutic experiences for combat veterans with PTSD.
MADISON, N.C. (WFMY) – A couple of right turns off US 220 N in Madison and you’ll come across a farm with a little over a dozen horses.

While you may see them trotting and running through the fields, there’s something you won’t notice.

All of the horses are blind.

The farm is called Flurry’s Hope Blind Horse Rescue.

“Flurry’s Hope is a blind horse rescue that demonstrates to the world that disability is not inability,” said founder and director Emilie Storch.

According to Storch, all of the horses on the farm were going to be euthanized because of their blindness.

“We have horses that are like $55,000, $11,000 and just because they were blind, nothing else, they were going to be killed,” Storch explained.

But Storch isn’t only giving the horses a second chance at life, it’s also a second chance for the veterans that volunteer to care for them.
read more here

Man tried to sell 300 stolen veteran grave markers

Attempted sale of stolen Pa. veteran grave markers ends in arrest: police
PennLive
By Steve Marroni
August 21, 2018

Roughly 300 grave markers for veterans went missing from some Pennsylvania cemeteries.
Ronald Cichenelli Jr., of Johnstown, is facing charges after police say he tried to sell 300 stolen veteran grave markers at a scrap-metal yard in Waterloo, New York. (Screenshot/WJAC)
But when police say a Johnstown man tried to sell the 1,000 pounds of brass at a scrap-metal yard, employees called the police.

State police started the investigation when they were alerted about a man trying to get cash for the grave markers in Waterloo, New York, the Johnstown Tribune-Democrat is reporting.

Employees at the recycling center noticed some of the grave marker were stamped with "Cambria County Ebensburg, PA," prompting them to alert the authorities, according to reports.
read more here