CNN Hero PTSD Veteran Chris Stout Helping All Generations

CNN HERO CHRIS STOUT

WTVA
CNN
Posted: Oct. 19, 2018

Chris Stout's nonprofit provides tiny houses and support to homeless veterans and assists any local vet with jobs, transportation and other issues.
"It provides everything these guys need to live with dignity, safely, and then fix what got them there in the first place." 

Leo Morris served in the Air Force. Karen Carter patrolled with the Coast Guard. Henry Owens enlisted in the Navy.

These veterans all served their country. They've also shared another experience: homelessness.

"You feel a sense of desperation, loneliness," said Owens, who was homeless for eight years. "I had no hope."

Today, they have another common bond: They are neighbors. Each one lives in a tiny home in the Veterans' Village in Kansas City, Missouri -- run by the Veterans Community Project.

The nonprofit is the vision of a group of young veterans led by former US Army Corporal Chris Stout.

After being wounded in Afghanistan in 2005 and returning home, Stout struggled with his injury and PTSD. He enjoyed being around veterans and got a job connecting vets to services they needed. But he was frustrated by the gaps and inefficiencies he saw. At times, Stout used his own money to put homeless veterans up in hotel rooms.

In 2015, he and a few buddies quit their jobs and started their organization.

"We are the place that says 'yes' first and figures everything else out later," Stout said. "We serve anybody who's ever raised their hand to defend our Constitution."

Stout found that many homeless veterans didn't like traditional shelters because they were unsafe or lacked privacy. When he learned about tiny homes, he quickly realized that a cluster of them made a lot of sense.
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Innocent Georgia man released after murder conviction

Man charged with killing girlfriend released from jail when police find new suspect by chance

WSBTV.com
By: Rikki Klaus
Oct 18, 2018

CLARKSON, Ga. - A Georgia man accused of murdering his girlfriend two years ago is now out of jail after a shell casing led police to a very different suspect.

Kendra Roberts was found shot to death on the side of the road in Macon, Georgia, in 2016. Authorities thought her boyfriend did it but discovered that shell casings found near the crime scene matched a gun belonging to the suspect in another crime.

Daniel Hall, then 22, was arrested in the 2016 shooting death of Kendra Roberts, 27, in Bibb County. Police say Roberts was found shot to death on the side of the road near Macon.

Hall spent two years in jail accused of Roberts’ murder.

A man arrested in Clarkson days after the killing has now been charged with her murder.

According to federal documents, Bell has been treated by Veteran's Affairs and has a history of PTSD and homicidal and suicidal thoughts. He was charged with firing a gun in Pine Lake in 2015 and for shoplifting this year.
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Vin Diesel "Bloodshot" film based on reality of PTSD

'Bloodshot': Vin Diesel's new movie deals with PTSD

International Business Times
Sachin Trivedi
October 19, 2018

“The script was one of the most interesting scripts I've ever read. It plays with your mind in a way you can't...that you don't normally see in movies. It's so complex. It's so well written and so well developed,” Diesel said.

Actor Vin Diesel poses backstage at the 2015 Teen Choice Awards in Los Angeles, California, United States August 16, 2015. Reuters/Danny Moloshok

With superhero movies ruling the box office these past few years, Vin Diesel too is getting into the game. His new movie “Bloodshot” is based on a character by Valiant Comics. However, in a recent interview, the actor explained how this character and the story of the upcoming movie is very different from what the fans are used to.

In an interview with ComicBook.com, Diesel explained that choice of the character Bloodshot was a no-brainer because it was a New York Times bestseller. What the actor found particularly interesting about the character is that the superhero doesn’t abandon his humanity.

What further sets the upcoming movie apart from the other superhero flicks is the subject matter it deals with. The film deals with subjects like PTSD, and the tone is not “heightened reality, it's based in reality,” Diesel explained.

Diesel also loved the script of the movie. “The script was one of the most interesting scripts I've ever read. It plays with your mind in a way you can't...that you don't normally see in movies. It's so complex. It's so well written and so well developed,” Diesel said.
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Some meds became the ties that bind veterans to suffering

What have we done to our veterans?

Combat PTSD Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
October 20, 2018


In 2004, the US Department of Veterans Affairs issued a warning on Lariam following a warning from the FDA the year before. VA Dr. Jonathan Perlin wrote it "may rarely be associated with certain long-term chronic health problems that persist for weeks, months, and even years after the drug is stopped."

There were suspected links to suicides, including Spec. Adam Kuligowski, Afghanistan veteran from Fort Campbell 101st Airborne Division. His father said that the drug was found in his system.

It was suspected in the case of Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, convicted of killing 16 Afghans. He had PTSD and TBI. He was on his third tour when it happened. His case caused the military to stop using it in 2009.

Dr. Remington Nevin, epidemiologist and Army Major said "Melfoquine is a zombie drug. It's dangerous, and should have been killed off years ago. He added it was "toxic to the brain."

It is possible that this drug had something to do with crimes committed in Canada as well. The thing is, the veteran should have to pay for what he did, but should not be further punished with incarceration without psychological treatment.

This drug was given to many NATO forces. We should all be asking, "What have we done to our veterans?"

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Controversial anti-malaria drug an element in Mark Donlevy's actions, says defence lawyer

CBC
Dan Zakreski
October 19, 2018

Donlevy is also scheduled to stand trial later this fall on 11 other sexual assault charges related to when he worked as a massage therapist in the city.

The lawyer for a former Saskatoon massage therapist guilty of sexual assault said Friday that his client was given a controversial anti-malaria drug in 1992, and the effects haunt him still.

Mark Donlevy at Court of Queen's Bench. (CBC)

Alan McIntyre raised the point during sentencing arguments for Mark Donlevy, at the Court of Queen's Bench in Saskatoon.

Donlevy was found guilty in September of sexually assaulting a woman he met through an online dating site. McIntyre argued for a three-year sentence, while prosecutor Cory Bliss said three-and-a-half years is more appropriate.

McIntyre raised the issue of the impact of the anti-malaria drug, while providing Justice Heather MacMillan-Brown with personal details about Donlevy's life.

McIntyre said that Donlevy took the anti-malarial drug while he was in Somalia serving with the Canadian military, and that it has affected him since then.
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Consider this the Veterans in Other News for today.

Florida and Texas tied for first place...in a very bad way
Combat PTSD Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
October 19, 2018

Consider this the Veterans in Other News for today.

Last week I got into a conversation about one of the "22" a day charities that I constantly complain about. I had to apologize about one group called Mission 22. The person I was talking to is heavily involved with them. He informed me that they are doing more than using the number. They are taking a personal interest in the veterans all by themselves.

One veteran was suicidal and they formed a chain to get someone to him. His life was saved. So yes, I was wrong and I am happy to admit that. I thought they were all the same, but they are not. Just goes to show how important it is to actually believe something is important enough to invest the time to discover what you need to know.

That got me thinking about how all of us need to do a better job when it comes to assuming anything. While trying to digest the crow I had to eat, I looked up Mission 22. I did not notice anything about this being only for post-9 11 veterans. That was a huge plus, as you will discover further down.

For the most part, too many hacks just saw the number, did no research other than how to set up their 501 c 3, and they ran with that. And that was the biggest reason of all contributing to the results you will now read.
The worst thing is, that for all the groups here in Florida, doing the "awareness" stunts, we have the highest total of known suicides, right along side of Texas. 

Actually both states have more known suicides than California. Florida and Texas had 530 while California had 490. Click the link and then see how your state did.

Florida has 1.5 million veterans, with about 76,000 OEF and OIF. Meaning the largest group of veterans are over the age of 50, which happen to be the majority of the known veterans dying by suicide.

And as for Florida and Texas, when the VA said they used the CDC numbers for veterans, the CDC said they have incomplete data for both states in the civilian population. Meaning they do not have a complete idea of how many veterans committed suicide.

7.1 million veterans used some services from the VA, so we know they are in their system. We do not know how many have not been included in any research. 


We also know that as of 2016, the year the data stops, there were 300,000 with other than honorable discharges, as reported by The New York Times and later by several other sources.

Since 2001, more than 300,000 people, about 13 percent of all troops, have been forced out of the military with less-than-honorable discharges. Congress has recognized in recent years that some of these discharges were the fault of dysfunctional screening for PTSD and other combat injuries, and it has put safeguards in place to prevent more — including requirements for mental health professionals to review all discharges

From Military Times

VVA officials estimate as many as 300,000 veterans nationwide may have been improperly dismissed from the service, leaving them more vulnerable to depression and suicide because of a lack of veterans health services.

Yet again, that is from OEF and OIF veterans, but not Vietnam veterans. This is what Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, a Vietnam Veteran, was trying to correct back in 2014, as reported on Army Times.

The suit estimated that about one-third of the 250,000 other-than-honorable discharges issued to Vietnam era veterans may have been PTSD-related. 

So, there you have the facts and the results with the virtual elimination of over half a million veterans from all the "facts" that the press has avoided mentioning within the big story of "22" or "20" veterans taking their own lives.

Still with all of that, this is the most telling thing of all. When you look at the data from the VA, it clearly shows the most alarming thing of all. The daily "reported" total of suicides in the veterans population has remained unchanged, yet the number of living veterans has dropped by over 4 million.
  
Known veteran suicides from 2005 to 2016

And as for current military members, it is as bad as it was back in 2012 with an average of 500 per year. This is as of the second quarter of 2018 from the Department of Defense.