PTSD on Trial: Emmanuel Hernandez

Vet with PTSD not guilty of trying to murder police officers
The Jersey Journal
By Michaelangelo Conte
October 6, 2018

A West New York veteran with post-traumatic stress disorder was found not guilty of attempting to murder two police officers but convicted of lesser charges yesterday.

Michaelangelo Conte | The Jersey Journal

Emmanuel Hernandez, 28, showed no reaction to the verdict in which he was convicted of aggravated assault for firing a handgun at an officer and aggravated assault for running over a police officer's foot during the Feb. 5, 2017, incident.

He was also found guilty of eluding police in his vehicle, causing a risk of death or serious bodily injury and resisting arrest using force or the threat of force. He was additionally found guilty of unlawful possession of a weapon in the incident, which began at a QuickChek in North Bergen and ended after a 12-hour standoff with police at his 57th Street home.
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In Tampa Veterans Were More Than A Number, They Were Family

Veterans lost to suicide memorialized during Military Suicide Survivor Seminar
FOX 13 News
Jennifer Holton
October 6, 2018

TAMPA (FOX 13) - Air Force Veteran Drew Winkler is just one face of many memorialized on a wall of servicemen and women lost to suicide.

Drew took his own life on Memorial Day 2016.

“He was a natural leader, he really had his stuff together,” Rick Winkler said of his son. “After Drew had come back from his deployment, he had changed,” Rick said.

For the family members Drew left behind, the Annual Military Suicide Survivor Seminar helps them move forward in healing. The event is in its tenth year.

“It taught me how to grieve, how to heal through grieving, and how to move through it,” Rick said.

The Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors, or TAPS, hosted its annual event in Tampa Saturday, drawing hundreds of family members who have lost a loved one to suicide.

“It’s really critical for those who have lost a loved one to suicide to be around other people who understand that journey,” said Kim Ruocco, the TAPS Vice President of Suicide Prevention. “We try to move people from that brokenness and trauma that often results from suicide, towards post-traumatic growth.”
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VA sending veterans into debt with GI Bill

VA owes veterans housing allowances under the GI Bill, forcing some into debt
NBC News
by Phil McCausland
Oct.07.2018

“You can count on us to serve, but we can’t count on the VA to make a deadline,” one veteran said.

If Jane Wiley and her husband Ryan Wiley, both retired Marines, don’t receive the housing allowance they get through the GI Bill by November 1, she expects that they will run out of money for food and rent. The two former Marines would also have to stop attending school if they can't afford childcare for their two kids.

The Wiley family is not alone. Because of a software issue, the Department of Veteran Affairs is struggling to pay student veterans the housing allowance and other benefits provided to them via the GI Bill.

"The VA said the problem currently stems from an IT problem caused by changes to the law when President Donald Trump signed the Forever GI Act last year. New standards for calculating housing stipends were to be implemented on August 1, but it caused “severe critical errors” during testing that “resulted in incorrect payments,” VA spokesman Terrence Hayes said."

The federal agency has paid some veterans too much, too little, or nothing at all. It is up to two months late on payments in some cases, forcing potentially thousands of former service members to spiral financially.

“It’s just another example of how the VA, in this capacity, does not have their s--- together, and that comes from the very top.” Jarid Watson

Wiley’s family was depending on those checks and included them in their monthly budget. Without them, they instead have a handful of maxed out credit cards and no expectations of when they might be paid.

NBC News spoke to 10 veterans who had to borrow money from family, take out loans, or open new credit cards — and watch their bank accounts trend steadily toward zero — because their payments were delayed.

“People are homeless and starving because they can’t rely on getting their benefits,” said Wiley, who left the Marines in June 2016 and now serves as a reservist in the Air Force. “If it means making [VA] employees stay all night, then get it done because it’s better than putting families in crisis.”

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Turn on your hazard lights

Flash for a healing chance
PTSD Patrol
Kathie Costos
October 7, 2018

When your vehicle is having trouble, there is a simple button you push to let others know you need help. It turns on your hazard lights.

Everyone behind you sees those lights. They will either pass you by with caution, or they may try to help you.

This is from WheelZine
When to Use Hazard Lights
Though most people use hazard lights for mundane and unimportant things like speaking on the cell-phone while in traffic (which is illegal, mind you) or lighting a cigarette or adjusting the music system, the actual purpose behind the installation of these lights is to communicate a possible danger to the oncoming or passing traffic. Given below are some of the occasions when you can and should use hazard lights.

• When you are experiencing a sudden car problem in the middle of traffic, switch on the lights and slowly pull over. Keep the lights flashing till the problem is solved.
• In case of dense fog, you can switch on the hazard lights to warn traffic on both the sides of the road.
• When traffic on a usually traffic-free road is slow or stalled for some reason, you can turn on the hazard lights to indicate to the traffic behind you that traffic ahead of you is stalled.
• Another situation in which you can turn on hazard lights is when you are moving up a steep slope, which has caused your vehicle to slow down considerably. The blinkers will tell the vehicles behind you to proceed with caution.

In the 70's we had Mood Rings that were supposed to let other people know how we were feeling.
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Green Beret was shot twice but kept fighting

Green Beret killed 6 insurgents and saved his men despite being shot twice and hit with a grenade
Military Times
By: J.D. Simkins
1 day ago

A 12-man team from the Colorado-based 10th Special Forces Group was advising Iraqi National Police on Sept. 10, 2007, during a mission to capture a high value target from the Islamic State of Iraq in the area of Samarra, Iraq.

(Left to right) Halbisengibbs, Lindsay, Chaney. (Army)

Two helicopters were originally scheduled to deliver the men at 2 a.m. to a field on the outskirts of the village, but when the pilots saw the planned landing zone covered in water, they had to set the assault teams down closer to the target.

The noisy arrival alerted the bodyguards of Abu Obaeideah, the area’s kingpin who had been wanted for a year for killing Iraqis — and their families — who considered joining the police force.

Over the course of a hellish 10 minutes, the three-man assault team killed Abu Obaeideah and 11 of his crew and helped free a hostage.

“Pretty much the three of them single-handedly secured that objective,” Maj. Will Beaurpere, the men’s commander, told Stars and Stripes.

All three would recover from their injuries.

For his actions, Jarion Halbisengibbs received the Distinguished Service Cross, the Army’s second highest award for valor.

Capt. Matthew Chaney and Sgt. 1st Class Michael Lindsay were presented with Silver Stars.
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