Homeless Veterans Buried With Dignity

Homeless Veterans Buried With Dignity
CBS 4 - Miami,FL,USA
A Miami Organization Buries Homeless Veterans Whose Bodies Have Gone Unclaimed In The Morgue

All four veterans were homeless, two were killed and the others died from natural causes, all unclaimed bodies deserving of a proper funeral and burial, which they received on Saturday from a Miami organization called Make A Wish Veterans, Inc.

The veterans were Ernest Holmon, who was found killed behind a bus bench, and John Joseph Sweet, Henry Winger and Pedro DeAguero.
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Agent Orange Veterans Pay Attention and Do Something!

When my husband went to the VA and was tested for Agent Orange,they knew where the spraying was, when they did it and what units were there. They told my husband he was exposed to it, which he already knew. Then they said the words we were not prepared for. "There are no adverse health affects YET!" Which meant someday there will be. That was over ten years ago. Ever since then, any health problems he has, we see our stress level go up until we find out what it is.

Make sure you get tested and make sure you get on the Agent Orange registry. You will get updates from them so that you can stay on top of what's going on. They are still linking illnesses to Agent Orange. Even if you don't think that you are one of the many, get tested and find out for sure if they sprayed in your area.

This was sent by email.

We need you help getting to word about an Agent Orange related illness also related to Spina Bifida to all Vietnam Veteran and their children..


My Fellow Vietnam Veterans.. I have information for you that you all of you should know about your children even in their 40’s may be at risk for illnesses from your exposure to Agent Orange... This is very serious and is for real.. And you need to forward this on to every Vietnam Veteran you come in contact with…I ask you to forward this on to all Vietnam Veterans on your buddy list and post this in your local VFW’s American Legion and pass the word on to everyone you know that is a Vietnam Veteran..

1.) If you served in Vietnam or offshore during the Vietnam War you were exposed to Agent Orange.. This is a fact..

2.) Your children may be flirting with danger they may have an illnesses that is related to your Agent Orange exposure that now just be showing up in your children.. Because in many, many cases this illness does not show up in our children until they are in their 30’s and even into their 40’s and beyond..

This illness is a Spina Bifida Related Illness that you may have never been aware of… Now I can just hear some of you there is nothing wrong with my kids.. well maybe and maybe not.... Do you want to chance it ??? this illness is called Arnold Chiari Malformation (ACM) And there are various forms of this illness .. And they can not be detected without an MRI and a trained neurologist or neurosurgeon reading your MRI films.. Many,many doctors have no clue as to what the hell Arnold Malformation(ACM) even is... so don't go to your General Practitioner and expect to get answers..… there are many, many symptoms to this illness like dizziness, head rushes, numbness in the arms legs and back , blindness, and a ton of other symptoms like migraines and even paraplegia .. A good place to check out symptoms is on the Mayo Clinics web site.. Or on any of the ACM web groups on Yahoo.com or just type in Spina Bifida.com. Or you can go to this VA's web site and read the fact sheet on this here is the address..http://www.va.gov/hac/factsheets/spina/FactSheet01-13.PDF..


Veterans if your child has this illness the VA does provide medical benefits and monetary compensation for this illness for your child.... You can also learn about this at http//:www.va.gov. then type in Spina Bifida … the VA has posted lots of information about this illness.. I have two of my children with this illness so I have already done much investigating of this.. And have already filed claims for each of my kids.. So I would suggest that you talk with your kids no matter what ages they are.. And if they have ever had any symptoms that were not found to be something other then this illness I would suggest they seek out medical help and get an MRI done as soon as possible. Again this is a very serious illness that can leave you paralyzed from the neck down as my daughter almost was.. also once they reach that point this this can not be reversed .. But if caught before this is to bad they can do decompression surgery and make life worth living again..

Vietnam Veterans this is one time Vietnam Veterans need to take a stand on something .. These are our children.. And they deserve better.. The Gov. poisoned us with Agent Orange which was worng as hell… Now we are just finding out they have also poisoned our children and this to me is unacceptable

This kind of uncaring for our Veterans and our Veterans Children will not be tolerated by Veterans any longer or by the American People..

Please Take Action Now.. Forward this to everyone on your mailing list.

To contact me Email: Tom at toby549_99 @yahoo.com …..or I can be contacted me at http://mail.lycos.com/lycos/mail/MailComposeFrame.lycos?TO=Veterans4VAReform@yahoogroups.com where I will be posting more information about this ..
Thank God Bless and good luck to you all .....

Tom…. 5th Inf. Div. I Corp. Quang Tri Vietnam 68-69
Dave..... MCB-40 Chu-Lia, Quang Tri,Phu-Bia,Dung-Ha, Viet Nam 66&68

Medal Of Honor: James E. Swett, passes away at 88

James E. Swett dies at 88; Marine Corps pilot in WWII
Los Angeles Times - CA,USA

James Elms Swett was awarded the Medal of Honor after shooting down seven Japanese bombers within 15 minutes over the Solomon Islands in World War II.

Swett was awarded the Medal of Honor after shooting down seven Japanese bombers in 15 minutes over the Solomon Islands.
By Claire Noland
January 24, 2009
James E. Swett, a former U.S. Marine Corps pilot who was awarded the Medal of Honor after shooting down seven Japanese bombers in 15 minutes over the Solomon Islands during World War II, died Sunday of congestive heart failure at Mercy Medical Center in Redding, Calif. He was 88.

On the morning of April 7, 1943, Swett, then a 22-year-old first lieutenant on his first combat mission, led his division of F4F-4 Wildcats to the skies over Guadalcanal in the western Pacific Ocean, where a wave of 150 Japanese bombers and fighter escorts was headed.
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Nam Guardian Angel's PTSD Shield up and running

If you've been looking for my videos about PTSD on Google or YouTube, they've all been moved to my site. You can still watch them, copy them onto your site. If you want to have a DVD of these videos, just email me. I do ask for a donation to cover the cost but if you can't afford to donate, let me know. As always, you can share them and play them for your groups, copy them and do whatever you feel will help the most people.

NamGuardianAngel.com

Coming out of the Dark
Hero After War
Homeless Veterans Day
IFOC Chaplain Army of Love
I Grieve
Nam Nights of PTSD Still
PTSD After Trauma
PTSD Final Battle of War
PTSD It's about Soul
PTSD Not God's Judgment
The Voice Women at War
Vet Outreach
Veterans Day Memories of Vietnam
When War Comes Home Part One
When War Comes Home Part Two
Women at War
Wounded and Waiting
Wounded Minds of PTSD

First responders may get benefit for PTSD

First responders may get benefit
The Casper Star Tribune - Casper,WY,USA
By DUSTIN BLEIZEFFER
Star-Tribune energy reporter
Saturday, January 24, 2009 2:05 AM MST


After several months of hand-wringing about the possibility of misuse, several state lawmakers have warmed to an amendment that would limit an expansion of state workers' compensation coverage of mental "injuries" to emergency first responders.

Sen. John Hastert, D-Green River, is sponsor of Senate File 18, the "mental-injury, workers' compensation" bill. Hastert said to alleviate concerns of misuse, he is proposing an amendment narrowing the extended coverage to only first responders who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder.

It would not change existing law, which covers mental injuries that are direct results of work-related physical injuries.

"There were a lot of concerns about opening the 'mental-mental' (coverage) too broadly, so we're going to focus it," Hastert said. "It's a first step, a small step in expanding coverage. And post-traumatic stress disorder is absolutely diagnosable."

Hastert said Gov. Dave Freudenthal's office and leaders of the Labor, Health and Social Services Committee seem to be on board with the amendment. Currently, coverage of a workplace mental injury under the Wyoming Worker Safety and Compensation Division is only compensable if it is the direct result of a physical injury.

That leaves Wyoming's law enforcement, firefighters and other first responders uncovered should they suffer from PTSD. Hastert and others have said that during the past year and a half, the division has turned away at least six first responders suffering from PTSD.
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Hamlet Church steps up when National Guard ships out

This has to be the best story I've read this year. This is what all churches need to do and all of us.
Church tends to family needs as Guard unit deploys
By MITCH WEISS and KEVIN MAURER – 3 hours ago

HAMLET, N.C. (AP) — With spaghetti boiling and meat sauce simmering in the church's kitchen, the Rev. Chris Hawks welcomed members of his congregation to their regular Wednesday night meal and kept an eye on the door.

He'd issued a standing invitation to the families of the 76 soldiers in E Company, the town's National Guard unit, which is training for a yearlong tour of Iraq that starts this spring.

"We invited them to eat supper with us, and I want to make them feel welcome," said the 36-year-old leader of Second Baptist Church.

The church making more than pasta in its effort to care for E Company's families: Hawks is setting up a domestic 911 force to spring to action when a soldier's wife's car breaks down, a brother's water heater goes or a daughter's faucet starts to leak. The church members, along with neighbors and others, are doing their best to tend to the everyday duties on the home front while the troops are away, just like so many communities have done.

"Guys usually take care of things when they go amok," said Jimmy Stricklin, 62, a retired CSX locomotive electrician and the church's Mr. Fix-it. "This is our way to show a sense of caring and support for those people fighting for our freedom."

The work is almost as important for the soldiers training to fight half a world away. Worries about what's happening at home can creep into their minds, taking their focus off the dangers they'll face in Iraq. Knowing someone is watching over their family eases the concern.

"They want to know everything is being taken care of," said Ronda Jones, whose husband Jason is a member of E Company and served with the unit during its last deployment to Iraq. "The last thing they need to do is worry about little things back home. ... They know if something goes wrong, there are people in the community willing to help."

Hawks grew up in Hamlet, friends with several men who went on to join E Company, the engineer company of the 120th Combined Arms Battalion, 30th Heavy Brigade Combat Team, North Carolina National Guard. The Associated Press is chronicling the experiences of the company, their families and their town as they train for and serve in Iraq.

click link for more

Broken Military Marriages: Another Casualty of War

Broken Military Marriages: Another Casualty of War
By Stacy Bannerman, AlterNet. Posted January 23, 2009.



If politicians want to protect marriage, they should work to support veterans and military families.

More than 13,000 military marriages ended last year, and mine came dangerously close to becoming one of them, but it wasn’t because of some gays getting hitched. Military marriages are at increasingly high risk of failure, and combat is the cause.

Most of the boots on the ground in Iraq are worn by Marines, active duty Army, or Army National Guard. They have served the most and longest deployments, seen the most combat, and suffered the most injuries, both physical and psychological. In 2008, the active-duty Army and Marines also had a higher percentage of failed marriages than the Navy or Air Force, whose rates held steady or decreased slightly.

Divorce rates for women in the Army or Marines were nearly three times that of their male counterparts, which speaks volumes about the effect of war on women, as well as the gender roles, societal expectations, and resiliency of their husbands. The fact that the Veterans Administration has just a handful of gender-specific treatment programs for women, and there’s been scant attention, research, and support for women veterans speaks for itself.

A study published in Armed Forces & Society revealed that male combat veterans were 62 percent more likely than civilian males to have at least one failed marriage. In 2006, Kansas State University professor Walter Schumm surveyed 337 soldiers at Fort Riley who had recently returned from Iraq. 6.1 percent said they would probably divorce, and 12.2 percent indicated that they would be divorcing. By comparison, two to four percent of civilian marriages end in divorce each year.

Due to the unprecedented deployments of citizen soldiers and the unique challenges faced by the families they leave behind, divorce rates among Guard and Reservists may be even higher than active duty. The military doesn’t monitor the divorce rates of citizen soldiers, who are more likely than active duty troops to be married, and nearly twice as likely to have combat-related stress. According to SOFAR (Strategic Outreach to Families of All Reservists), "20 percent of returned married troops are planning a divorce, [and] problems in relationships in families are four times higher after … deployment."
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A soldier's story: Hope at the presidential inauguration

When President Obama took the oath of office, it was not just a bunch of words to him. Since his college days, he knows what the Constitution is and what it means. He understands the legal meaning of the words the founding fathers struggled with, as well as he knows how important it is that the rule of law is upheld.

When it comes to the men and women serving this nation, willing to lay down their lives for the sake of protecting and defending the Constitution and the people of this nation, to have someone as Commander-in-Chief taking it seriously honors them.

The Bush administration did not care what it said or what it meant. No matter how you feel personally about Bush, the fact remains he did not honor the Constitution. He abused it. He did not honor the men and women serving this nation now or the veterans that came before them. Again, he abused them. These are very dark days for this country, but as President Obama pointed out, we've been this way before. He has asked us to do what we can for the sake of the nation in serving our countrymen. What better way to serve than to serve those who were willing to lay down their lives in the military, in the National Guards and the Reserves? I'm not saying that everyone should only be thinking of them but include them in serving.

We have hundreds of thousands of veterans with PTSD and TBI unable to work. Can you think of better people to volunteer for your group than veterans? They may not be able to work a job any longer but they are fully able to help out when they know what the need is. Volunteering they can help on good days and within their own limits and take it easy on bad days when PTSD won't let them. They say they would still serve if they could. A lot of them feel as if they have nothing left to contribute until they are reminded how much they do have to give and how needed they are to help others.

Whenever I remind them of how much they can help their fellow veterans, their eyes fill up because they thought their days of contributing were over. They have the heart, they have the passion and the have the ability to work for the "greater good" if only they are asked to do it.

If you have a non-profit group that needs help, ask them. Put out the information on veteran's sites and let them know what you need. Even when their own needs are so great, they still want to help and in turn by helping others, they help themselves heal.

These are darks days but because the spirit of the America people is so strong, there have been some spectacular dawns following even the darkest of times.

I keep asking you to write letters and make phone calls to the elected for their sake, but this is one more thing you can do for them.

Saturday, January 24, 2009

A soldier's story: Hope at the presidential inauguration
Updated: 01/24/2009 04:33 PM
By: Neil St. Clair

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- After Sgt. Jose Sanchez returned from a tour in Afghanistan, he says he had very little and felt even less. But cheering with millions of others as the 44th president was sworn in Tuesday, despair changed to hope.



"I feel more positive, I don't feel as lost. In the past I felt that there was an uncertainty about my future, being a veteran and coming back and even continuing with the military. And now I'm starting to see there's hope and positive changes," said Sanchez, a hulking figure with a hearty laugh.



The 54-year-old Sanchez, a 20-year Army veteran, traveled hundreds of miles from his home in Binghamton for a glimpse of the new commander-in-chief. He suffers from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and this was the first time he'd been in a large crowd since returning from the war. But he says it was worth every minute.



"The speech was incredible, it gave me hope, inspiration, it was everything I was looking for from this up and coming president. He just rallied a people and he motivated them," Sanchez said.

And as President Obama's speech neared its crescendo, he made special reference to the sacrifices of America's veterans.



"We honor them not only because they are the guardians of our liberty, but because they embody the spirit of service," the president said during his inaugural address.

That was a moment where Sanchez's emotions took hold. click link for more

Sgt. Charles Clayton Mitts laid to rest

Spring soldier who died in A and M crash laid to rest

— Kristi Mitts is overcome with emotion at the funeral of her husband, Charles Mitts, a crew chief, who was participating in a winter field training exercise at Texas A and M University when the Black Hawk helicopter in which he was riding crashed.Michael Paulsen : Chronicle

'True public servant' to be buried today in Houston
Former police officer, air marshal died in Black Hawk crash at Texas A&M
By RENEE C. LEE Copyright 2009 Houston Chronicle
Jan. 22, 2009, 10:13AM
Sgt. Charles Clayton Mitts, a 17-year Texas Army National Guard veteran and Federal Air Marshal Service agent, was “a true public servant” who died doing what he loved the most — helping others, say his family and friends.

Services for the 42-year-old Spring resident are being held this morning, followed by burial in Houston National Cemetery.

Mitts, a crew chief, was participating in a winter field training exercise conducted by the Army ROTC unit at Texas A and M University when the UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter in which he was riding crashed on campus on Jan. 12. He died two days later at Memorial Hermann Hospital.

“He was always wanting to help and teach people,” said his friend, Kirk Burns, a chief warrant officer in the Texas Army National Guard. “He loved teaching and passing on his experience and knowledge.”

FBI Special Agent Pat Villafranca, who worked with Mitts on a special counterterrorism task force for three years, described the decorated soldier as a delightful, energetic man who was dedicated to his job.

“He was a true public servant and took joy in public service,”
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Tom Carew, author, fake British Special Air Service, found dead

The SAS veteran who never was
After selling 50,000 copies of his book Jihad!,Tom Carew was exposed as a fantasist fixated with the SAS
The fantasy life and lonely death of the SAS veteran who never was Ex-soldier who wrote of derring-do in Afghanistan is found dead in a garage
Audrey Gillan
The Guardian, Saturday 24 January 2009
He professed to have been a member of Britain's secretive and elite Special Air Service, writing an account of his time in the Hindu Kush and other places in Afghanistan, training the mujahideen to fight the Soviets during the invasion in the late 1970s. But after selling 50,000 copies of his book Jihad!, Tom Carew was exposed as a fantasist fixated with the SAS whose real name was Philip Sessarego.

This week, the tale of the man whose Walter Mitty-style fictions caused him to be despised by real members of the SAS - who rarely speak of their time in "the Regiment" - took a strange, and final, twist when it emerged that a decomposed body discovered in a rented garage in Antwerp is believed to have been his.

The corpse had lain in the wooden lock-up in the Ekeren area of the Belgian town since last summer, and was not discovered until Sessarego's landlord came banging at the door last November to ask why his rent had not been paid. In the garage, he found Sessarego, 55, lying with his few belongings, a small cooker and a bed. It appeared that the reclusive man had taken to living in the garage and had succumbed to accidental carbon monoxide poisoning.

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Suspect is held in homeless man's fiery death in Los Angeles

Suspect is held in homeless man's fiery death in Los Angeles


Witness identifications and DNA evidence lead to arrest of man with an alleged grudge against the homeless.

By Hector Becerra and Richard Winton
January 23, 2009

The detectives assured his family over and over that they would catch the man who splashed gasoline on their homeless brother, John Robert McGraham, and set him ablaze on a Mid-Wilshire street corner last fall. But the man's brother, David McGraham, wasn't so sure.

"They said unequivocally, 'We'll get him,' " he said. "As time passed, I thought it wasn't going to happen. I just figured the killer got away with it."


Then, on Thursday afternoon, his sister Susanne McGraham-Paisley called him at his home in Washington state. She was sobbing as she told her brother that she had just heard from one of the Los Angeles Police Department detectives.

"They got him," she told her older brother.

Detectives arrested Benjamin Mathew Martin, 30, on suspicion of murder just before noon Thursday in Rancho Mirage. Witness identifications and DNA evidence left behind tied Martin to the killing, said Lt. Mark Tappan. But officials did not provide details on what led them to Martin.
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Burn Pits problem known and addressed in 2004

Balad
Burn pit at Balad raises health concerns
Troops say chemicals and medical waste burned at base are making them sick, but officials deny risk
By Kelly Kennedy - Staff writerPosted : Wednesday Oct 29, 2008 16:31:18 EDT

An open-air “burn pit” at the largest U.S. base in Iraq may have exposed tens of thousands of troops, contractors and Iraqis to cancer-causing dioxins, poisons such as arsenic and carbon monoxide, and hazardous medical waste, documentation gathered by Military Times shows.
The billowing black plume from the burn pit at 15-square-mile Joint Base Balad, the central logistics hub for U.S. forces in Iraq, wafts continually over living quarters and the base combat support hospital, sources say.
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/10/military_burnpit_102708w/

Djibouti
I was deployed to Camp Lemonier, Djibouti, for six months. During that time, our living units were about 50 yards from a burn pit. On the days after the nights when it was really bad, I couldn’t even taste the food I was eating, and I could still smell it —it was on my clothes and eventually saturated the walls and bed in my living quarters.
The report I was given when I left says there are no ill effects of exposure. It does outline what was burned, which was anything with the exception of ammunition and batteries.
A lot of us were waving the red flag while we were there, and nobody really seemed to care, nor do they now when I bring it up. I simply get the question, “Do you feel sick now?” Last I checked, long-term effects don’t appear a month after you get back.
Senior Airman Thomas McCaulla
Randolph Air Force Base, Texas
http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2008/11/army_burnpit_letters_111708w/

This is a problem not only at Balad but also at Camp Al Taqaddum. During my tour there last year, I was a maintenance chief, and my Marines worked outside 24 hours a day. Most nights there would be soot or ash falling, and we would breathe this stuff in all night. I also recall many nights waking up in my little 6-by-8 plywood hooch thinking it was filled with smoke because the taste and the smell was so thick.
During the day, you could see usually two separate burns going at the same time with plumes of smoke so black we thought that an oil line was set ablaze. Many of us had the “crud” (hacking coughs, a lot of mucus) for most of the deployment, and like most, we had to suck it up and chalk it up to the environment we were in.
Marine Corps staff sergeant, name withheld
http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2008/11/army_burnpit_letters_111708w/

While I was deployed to Camp Bucca, Iraq, in 2006 and 2007, I recall sitting in a tower or doing simple roving patrols around my compound and having to wear a mask to help with breathing. There would be a nasty haze floating over the camp; sometimes there were even reduced visibility warnings.
Senior Airman Veronica Nieto
Minot Air Force Base
http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2008/11/army_burnpit_letters_111708w/

As you can see, the problems with burn pits is not just in Balad but other parts of Iraq and this practice is also being used in Afghanistan.
There are also reports that the jail Saddam was held in was built on a trash dumb. Every time something was done there, the smell was sickening.
This leads me to this warning. Make sure you keep track of everyone you were with and how to get a hold of them years from now. Don't let it turn into what Vietnam veterans faced after Agent Orange came into their lives years after they were in Vietnam.

The most perplexing part of all of this is what was done in Afghanistan in 2004. The following report was written in 2004 when the military was addressing the problems there. The question is, why is it still a problem in Iraq and why aren't the troops taken care of exposed to these dangers?

"One-stop" waste disposal—enhancing force protection in Afghanistan

Engineer: The Professional Bulletin for Army Engineers, Oct-Dec, 2004
By Lieutenant Colonel Garth Anderson and Lieutenant Colonel Whitney Wolf
Sound environmental practices in the theater of operations, principally hazardous and solid waste management, are truly an area of force protection. How much waste can a contingency base camp generate? Seemingly more than it can handle. By Spring 2002, units at Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan, were faced with a growing human health and environmental threat caused by huge amounts of waste that required collection, management, and disposal. This waste, not just from US forces, included vast amounts of destroyed equipment, trash, and hazardous waste left behind by Taliban forces that were routed away from the airfield.

Uncontrolled Waste Disposal


During the initial stages of base camp development, there were no easy disposal solutions. Most of the land in and around the airfield was potentially laden with mines and unexploded ordnance (UXO), which meant waste collection, consolidation, and disposal activities were limited to cleared locations close to soldier living and work areas within the camp. Off-site disposal was not an option since the local population was still unfriendly, and local disposal facilities did not exist. The first disposal area at the airfield consisted of a shallow trash burn pit surrounded by a large junkyard of old Soviet equipment, barrels of hazardous waste, discarded US materiel, trash, and small-caliber ammunition. This disposal site was uncontrolled, and many items--regardless of their potential hazard or reuse value--were thrown into or around the burn pit. The uncontrolled nature of the disposal area created a number of unacceptable conditions:
click link for more about what they did to address the problem.
COPYRIGHT 2004 U.S. Army Maneuver Support Center

While the Indiana National Guard has been reporting problems with their health, it appears this is a much larger problem that will have to be faced. Does the military plan on just waiting for the problems to be problems or will they finally address what they expose the troops to?

A military police company returns to Tampa

Coming home to a new world
A military police company returns to Tampa to find many changes on the home front during their 11-month tour.
Drew Harwell, Times Staff Writer
In Print: Friday, January 23, 2009
TAMPA — For the last 11 months, Luis Calderon's life back home has gone on without him.

His wife made a new circle of friends. The bedroom curtains changed. And his two daughters?

"They've grown 4 inches in a year. Both of them," said Calderon, who returned Thursday morning from Iraq. He and 161 other members of the 320th Military Police Company were welcomed home at Tampa International Airport by teary-eyed wives, anxious family members and flag-waving supporters.

But the world Calderon left nearly a year ago is not exactly the one he returned to Thursday. We have a black president. Fewer banks. Colder weather. Cheaper gas.

Calderon saw some of these changes from a computer screen in Tikrit, a world of roadside bombs, gunshots and military salutes. But some things can't be transmitted via Webcam.

"When I left, the little one didn't talk that much. Now, on the way home, she started singing the ABCs," he said. "I was just amazed how much she knows."
click link for more

Caylee Antony's Grandfather saved by law enforcement quick action

When you read the following I want you to think about something. Caylee is gone and her mother is accused. As news comes out about the way Caylee died, it is more and more weight on her grandparents. The same grand parents that loved this little girl and the same parents that loved their daughter now accused of this evil act. Would you be able to wake up every morning knowing the person you raised, wanted to believe in at the same time your granddaughter was missing, turned out to be the person charged with this child's death? Could any parent deal with any of this easily?

Lawyer: Law-enforcement saved George Anthony's life
Watch video from OrlandoSentinel.com about George Anthony's medical evaluation
Amy L. Edwards, Bianca Prieto and Henry Pierson Curtis Sentinel Staff Writers
5:06 PM EST, January 23, 2009

Law-enforcement's rapid response and search for a despondent George Anthony early this morning saved his life, his lawyer told the Orlando Sentinel.

Anthony, who reportedly sent several text messages to relatives suggesting that he wanted to end his life, was found alive in a Daytona Beach motel with what appeared to be a suicide note after his family reported him missing late Thursday.

"Had it not been for (law-enforcement), this might have been a different outcome," lawyer Brad Conway said. "They deserve a huge thank you."

Conway said he wanted to acknowledge the "outstanding" actions of Orange County Sheriff's Sgt. John Allen, the lead detective on the murder case involving Anthony's granddaughter Caylee Marie; Daytona Beach Police Chief Mike Chitwood; and the deputies and officers who helped track Anthony down.

"They went above and beyond, and they saved this guy's life," Conway said.

This afternoon Conway held a press conference outside of the Orange County courthouse on Orange Avenue just after 3 p.m. to publicly thank Sgt. John Allen and law enforcement for their rapid response.

"If they had waited, there would have been a different outcome," Conway said. "George had been pushed to the brink of what may have been another tragedy in this case."

Conway also commented on other subjects regarding the Anthonys. He told reporters that George and Cindy Anthony have not profited off of the case and did not ask for immunity. click link for more

Can we bind up the wounds of those who served the nation?

by
Chaplain Kathie

Gettysburg_Address
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation, so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.


But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate—we can not consecrate—we can not hallow—this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Yet after this, Lincoln was not done addressing the people who were willing to die for the sake of the nation and what they believed in. This is from the second inagural address he gave. The rest of his speech was wonderful but this came at the end.

Lincoln Second Inagural Address

With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.

Since the day brother raised arms against brother, men and women from every state in the union have been serving together. North, south, east and west, people of every race, religion, social class, political affiliation and education have joined together to serve this one nation. They come from the Army, Marines, Air Force and Navy, from the Coast Guard to the National Guards and Reservists, they are ready to defend this nation and ready to come to the aid of its citizens. Men and women leaving the military once again put on the uniform of service as police officers and firefighters, of emergency responders and entering into service organizations.

What are the rest of us doing for them? We know where they are when we need them but why do they have to wonder where the nation's heart is when they need us?

We hear about the backlog of claims in the VA but do we raise our voices about this? It is our money that sends them into battle and our money the government uses to take care of the wounded warriors. We have a vital interest in how they use it. Why do we allow this to continue? Does it ever occur to us that a claim tied up or denied erroneously is a veteran waiting for the care he or she was assured would be there if they needed it? It is a veteran, usually along with a family, forced to fight to have their wounds bound as their bills pile up and the notion of a grateful nation slips into the abyss.

When the wound can be seen with our eyes, this cannot be allow to stand, but when it is wounds we cannot see with our eyes but within their own eyes, it has far more ramifications on the families and the communities they return to. We have no excuse for allowing any of this to go un- addressed.

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder was a wound in the time of George Washington leading the charge against the British forces, but while the name was different, the wound was still the same. It wounded again when Lincoln addressed those standing at Gettysburg and again at his second inauguration. Each and every president that followed lead a wounded nation unable to uphold the claim of leading a grateful nation. Truman was the last friend of veterans. His budget reflected this.

Stunning statement of devaluing
Truman (1946-52)Veterans Benefits 9.6%
Eisenhower (1953-60)Veterans Benefits 4.7%
Kennedy (1961-63)Veterans Benefits 3.6%
Johnson (1964-68)Veterans Benefits 2.9%
Nixon (1969-74)Veterans Benefits 2.9%
Ford (1975-76)Veterans Benefits 2.9%
Carter (1977-80)Veterans Benefits 2.4%
Reagan (1981-88)Veterans Benefits 1.9%
G.H. Bush (1989-92)Veterans Benefits 1.6%
Clinton (1993-2000)Veterans Benefits 1.6%
George W. Bush (2001-08)Veterans Benefits 1.6%

1.6% with two active occupations, veterans of WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Gulf War, Bosnia, Somalia, all needing help to bind their wounds yet not enough money to begin to do it.

PTSD and TBI wounds are real. Just as real as a limb gone from a bomb blast or skin healing from a bullet or burn wound, but PTSD can keep killing long after the uniforms have been packed away. It can kill many months and many years later along with health problems from chemical exposures.

Agent Orange was followed by depleted uranium and white phosphorous. Burn pits across Iraq and Afghanistan bring lung cancer and other illnesses. Contaminated water brings disease. All of this will cause the ranks of the wounded needing the VA to swell far beyond what the doors can hold.

Over and over again men and women return to their communities as members of the National Guards and Reserves only to find time has passed them by and they return to a home town they do not feel they still belong in. They find they cannot get the help they need to bind their wounds or find an understanding ear. Even when they do manage to get to the VA, usually too far away to travel to on a regular basis, they are forced to fight for the benefits their wounds caused by service inflicted upon them.

Our voices do not speak eloquently as Washington or Lincoln did regarding the need to care for them. Our voices are too busy squeaking about our own needs. We are an ungrateful bunch. They suffer in this bad economy the same as we do but there is a huge difference. While we were seeking our own support and our own desires being met, they were thinking of us. While we were complaining about the price of food and gas, so were their families but they couldn't do anything about it from Iraq and Afghanistan. While we lost our jobs, they were busy doing their's and then came home to see their own civilian job vanished while they were away.

What would it cost you to do something to take care of them and begin to live up to what we all claim? Would it cost you the time it takes to make a phone call? Send an email? That's all it really would cost you to change their lives. It's not as if you can solve their problems on your own but you can be an answer to their prayers and the wishes of all the generations that came before them. Our elected have a responsibility to do what it takes to take care of all of them. We need to make them live up to their end of the responsibility chain for a change. We have a much better chance of this now than we did over the last eight years.

GAO says VA still underestimating costs
By Hope Yen - The Associated Press
Posted : Friday Jan 23, 2009 13:10:41 EST

WASHINGTON — Two years after a politically embarrassing $1 billion shortfall that imperiled veterans health care, the Veterans Affairs Department is still lowballing budget estimates to Congress to keep its spending down, government investigators say.

The report by the Government Accountability Office, set to be released later Friday, highlights the Bush administration’s problems in planning for the treatment of veterans that President Barack Obama has pledged to fix. It found the VA’s long-term budget plan for the rehabilitation of veterans in nursing homes, hospices and community centers to be flawed, failing to account for tens of thousands of patients and understating costs by millions of dollars.

In its strategic plan covering 2007 to 2013, the VA inflated the number of veterans it would treat at hospices and community centers based on a questionably low budget, the investigators concluded. At the same time, they said, the VA didn’t account for roughly 25,000 — or nearly three-quarters — of its patients who receive treatment at nursing homes operated by the VA and state governments each year.

“VA’s use, without explanation, of cost assumptions and a workload projection that appear unrealistic raises questions about both the reliability of VA’s spending estimates and the extent to which VA is closing previously identified gaps in noninstitutional long-term care services,” according to the 34-page draft report obtained by The Associated Press.

Lawmakers expressed anger, saying they will be watching for new VA Secretary Eric Shinseki to provide a more honest accounting.

“The problems at the VA have been caused by years of mismanagement and putting the bottom line above the needs of our veterans,” said Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash. “While we won’t fix everything overnight, Secretary Shinseki has pledged honesty and accurate accounting which are key to realistic budgets and providing the services our veterans have earned.”

According to latest GAO report, the VA is believed to have:

• Undercut its 2009 budget estimate for nursing home care by roughly $112 million. It noted the VA planned for $4 billion in spending, up $108 million from the previous year, based largely on a projected 2.5 percent increase in costs. But previously, the VA had seen an annual cost increase of 5.5 percent.

• Underestimated costs of care in noninstitutional settings such as hospices by up to $144 million. The VA assumed costs would not increase in 2009, even though in recent years the cost of providing a day of noninstitutional care increased by 19 percent.

• Overstated the amount of noninstitutional care. The VA projected a 38 percent increase in patient workload in 2009, partly in response to previous GAO and inspector general reports that found widespread gaps in services and urged greater use of the facilities. But for unknown reasons, veterans served in recent years actually decreased slightly, and the VA offered no explanation as to how it planned to get higher enrollment. click link for the rest of this.

With President Obama saying his heart is with the veterans and the Democratic Party leading the committees they used to complain about how they were failing the veterans, it's time to get all of them to prove it. Contact your elected and tell them Lincoln sent you!