Saturday, September 3, 2011

Orlando soldier who just became citizen dies in Afghanistan

Orlando soldier who just became citizen dies in Afghanistan
Pfc. Alberto L. Obod Jr., 26, died Sunday after rollover crash in Kandahar, officials say
By Jeff Weiner, Orlando Sentinel
11:13 p.m. EDT, September 1, 2011



New American citizen Private Alberto Obod smiles as he looks over his certificate at the Joint Sustainment Command - Afghanistan Naturalization Ceremony at Kandahar Air Field, Kandahar, Afghanistan on Friday, April 22, 2011. (S.K. Vemmer/Department of State)
In April, U.S. Army Pfc. Alberto L. Obod Jr. beamed as he officially became an American citizen. On Sunday, officials said, he lost his life while serving his nation in the Middle East.

The 26-year-old soldier and Orlando resident died Sunday in Afghanistan's Kandahar province after he was fatally injured in a vehicle rollover, the U.S. Department of Defense said.

Obod was assigned to the 391st Combat Sustainment Support Battalion of the 21st Theater Sustainment Command's 16th Sustainment Brigade, based in Bamberg, Germany.

A native of the Philippines, Obod had a natural talent for tumbling, family said, and worked as a traveling acrobat before suffering an injury at age 17.
read more here

Thousands of Miles in 100 Days for Wounded Warrior Project

Thousands of Miles in 100 Days: Local Man's Journey Across the Country
Posted Thursday, September 1, 2011 ; 06:58 PM
Updated Friday, September 2, 2011; 05:17 PM

A Morgantown man will run from Oregon to Maryland to raise money and awareness for the Wounded Warrior Project.
By Kelly Rippin


MORGANTOWN -- Running a marathon is no easy task and running an ultra marathon is an even more difficult challenge.
A local man is using those races as training for the run of a lifetime.

Just a few years ago, Jamie Summerlin made the decision to run a marathon.

During the former marine's long runs an idea came to mind: A run across the country to raise awareness for the Wounded Warrior Project.

In 206 days, Jamie's journey across the country will begin.

“I'm going to stick my foot in the bay in Coos Bay, Oregon and 100 days later end up in Baltimore, Md. at the Inner Harbor. I’m running across the country for 100 days, 3,500 miles, rain sleet, snow or hail. Whatever we have to do to get across the country," said Jamie Summerlin.

Jamie and his wife, Tiffany, are both former Marines and the idea to run for the Wounded Warrior Project seemed fitting.
read more here

Armed soldier surprises men attempting to rob stranded women

Armed soldier surprises men attempting to rob stranded women
From staff reports
Published Friday, September 2, 2011

Two men convicted Thursday of trying to rob women stranded on Interstate 95 near Walterboro last year got more than they bargained for when one of the women's passengers turned out to be a trained -- and armed -- soldier recently returned from Iraq.

Jurors found Antwan McMillan, 22, and David Jakes, 20, of Smoaks guilty Thursday at the Colleton County Courthouse of three counts of attempted armed robbery, possession of a weapon during commission of a violent crime, and three counts of first-degree assault and battery.

Judge Perry M. Buckner sentenced Jakes to 35 years in prison and McMillan to 30 years, according to the 14th Circuit Solicitor's Office.
read more here

Central Florida soldier killed in Afghanistan

Central Florida soldier killed in Afghanistan
BY MIAMI HERALD STAFF WRITER

A soldier from Central Florida who served in the Army’s 10th Mountain Division has been killed in an explosion in Afghanistan, the Pentagon said Friday.

Army Spc. Dennis James Jr., 21 of Deltona, died Wednesday “from wounds suffered when insurgents attacked his unit with an improvised explosive device in Wardak province, Afghanistan,” the Defense Department said in a statement.

James had been a soldier for more than three years and had served in Afghanistan for more than 10 months, according to the Army’s Public Affairs office at Fort Drum, NY.
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Friday, September 2, 2011

St. Petersburg ordinance would make it illegal for panhandlers to lie about being a Veteran

St. Petersburg ordinance would make it illegal for panhandlers to lie on their cardboard signs

By Jamal Thalji, Times Staff Writer
In Print: Friday, September 2, 2011

ST. PETERSBURG — The city is proposing a new ordinance aimed at truth in advertising — on those cardboard signs people hold up on the side of the road.

The new ordinance would ban "fraudulent panhandling," making it illegal for panhandlers to claim that they're homeless or disabled or a veteran or stranded if they're not.

"Most of the people who fly the cards say they're homeless or veterans, but most aren't veterans or homeless," said Robert Marbut, the city's consultant on homelessness. "But they are making a lot of tax-free money."

But the proposal raises many questions: How would the police check the accuracy of those claims? Can the city really regulate what people write on signs? And after the city's successful crackdown on the homeless and panhandling population, who's left to break the new law?
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Family of veteran with PTSD files suit against police


Family of man who died in police custody files suit

By TONY RIZZO

The Kansas City Star

The family of a man who died after he was restrained by Kansas City police in 2009 has filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against the department. The suit filed in U.S. District Court in Kansas City alleges that officers used “excessive and unreasonable force” when they encountered Gilbert Dixon after he was found without clothes and screaming in the street on Oct. 8, 2009. Dixon, 60, of Lexington, Mo., was experiencing a flashback related to post-traumatic stress disorder from his military service, the suit contends. After handcuffing Dixon and applying leg shackles while he was facedown on the ground, officers sat Dixon up but allowed his head to slump forward with his chin on his chest, according to the suit.
read more here

Blue Water Ship list for Agent Orange

VA Posts Online List of Ships Associated with Presumptive Agent Orange
Exposure



WASHINGTON (Sept. 2, 2011)- Veterans who served aboard U.S. Navy and Coast Guard ships operating on the waters of Vietnam between January 9, 1962, and May 7, 1975, may be eligible to receive Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) disability compensation for 14 medical conditions associated with presumptive exposure to Agent Orange.

An updated list of U.S. Navy and Coast Guard ships confirmed to have operated on Vietnam's inland waterways, docked on shore, or had crewmembers sent ashore, has been posted at
Exposures Agent Orange to assist Vietnam Veterans in determining potential eligibility for compensation benefits.


"Posting of the ships list is an important recognition of the sacrifices U.S. Navy and Coast Guard Veterans made for this Nation," said Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki. "It provides an easier path for Veterans who served in Vietnam to get the benefits and services they are entitled to under the law."

VA presumes herbicide exposure for any Veteran with duty or visitation within the country of Vietnam or on its inland waterways during the Vietnam era. Comprehensive information about the 14 recognized illnesses under VA's "presumption" rule for Agent Orange is also located on the webpage.

In practical terms, Veterans with qualifying Vietnam service who develop a disease associated with Agent Orange exposure need not prove a medical link between their illnesses and their military service. This presumption simplifies and speeds up the application process for benefits.

For questions about Agent Orange and the online list of ships, Veterans may call VA's Special Issues Helpline at 1-800-749-8387 and press 3.

When a claim is filed by a Veteran, surviving spouse or child, VA will determine whether the Veteran qualifies for the presumption of exposure based on official records of the ship's operations. Ships will be regularly added to the list based on information confirmed in these
official records.

Even if a Veteran is not filing a claim, a Veteran may conduct his or her own research and submit scanned documentary evidence such as deck logs, ship histories, and cruise book entries via email to 211_AOSHIPS.VBACO@va.gov.

Service on board ships anchored in an open water harbor, such as Da Nang Harbor, or on ships on other open waters around Vietnam during the war, is not considered sufficient for the presumption of Agent Orange exposure. For Veterans interested in obtaining deck logs, contact the National Archives at College Park, Md.

The Agent Orange Claims Processing System website located at https://www.fasttrack.va.gov/AOFastTrack/
may be used to submit claims related to the three conditions added to the list of Agent Orange
presumptives last year (Parkinson's disease, hairy cell and other chronic B-cell leukemias, and ischemic heart disease).

This website makes it easy to electronically file a claim and allows Veterans and their physicians to upload evidence supporting the claim. It also permits online viewing of claim status.

Veterans claiming other conditions may file online at VA's My-eBenefits web site at:
My-eBenefits.
They can check the status of their claim with a premium account (confirming their identity), and use a growing number of online services.

Servicemembers may enroll in My-eBenefits using their Common Access Card at any time during their military service, or before they leave during their Transition Assistance Program briefings.

Veterans may also enroll through their myPay or MyHealtheVet accounts, by visiting their local VA regional office or Veteran Service Organization, or by calling 1-800-827-1000.

Survivors of 9/11 Remember God's Grace on 10th Anniversary

When you see so much horror and suffering it is hard to see God's love. If you look only at the suffering you just can't see how a loving God would ever allow it to happen in the first place. Yet if you look at the people around you, you can see love coming and then surround you. It all depends on what you're looking for.

How do people manage to rise above their own pain to put others first? How does someone battered and wounded care more for a stranger than they do for themselves? When you are suffering and someone comes to help you, who do you think sent them? When you pray for help from God and a stranger shows up, that is from God's love.

Reporters cover the anger of a riot but they don't cover the hope as people hang onto their dreams and rebuild their businesses and homes. They cover a tragic accident but never cover the funeral when hundreds of people take the time to offer comfort to the families. When they bother to cover war, they report on the deaths but never seem interested in the fact the men and women they served with set their own pain aside to support each other.

After 9-11 this is the picture that took my breath away.
Like most in the world, I was glued to the TV and reading whatever was on the Net but this is the picture that was proof of God's love when these men gently carried this man of God out of the rubble. The compassion they had was not damaged by what happened by the evil acts of others. The compassion the responders had for days piled onto days searching for remains was not weakened by the worst others had to offer. God was there every time someone reached out a hand. He was there every time a stranger showed mercy and He was there to hear the prayers of this nation for the sake of so many suffering and He sent so many to help in His place.

Buried, Burned Survivors of 9/11 Remember God's Grace on 10th Anniversary
By Eryn Sun
Christian Post Reporter

As Americans everywhere prepare for the 10th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, two survivors live to testify not to the brutality but the grace extended to them on that frightful day.

Sujo John and Brian Birdwell, though personally unconnected in their lives, share one similarity – September 11.

While John worked in the North Tower of the Twin Towers, Birdwell was employed at the Pentagon when the multiple suicide attacks occurred ten years ago, leaving one critically injured.

Both men, who are reminded daily of their life-changing experience, share another similarity: their remarkable faith in Christ, which to this day continues to grow.

In videos released on I am Second, a website featuring authentic stories meant to inspire people to live for God and for others, John and Birdwell tell their own story of personal struggle, transformation, and hope in honor of the 9/11 anniversary.
read more here

Westboro hate group stalking another family funeral

After all, stalking is what this is. They do not show up at every military funeral so they decide who to go after. They find out where the funeral will be and gear up to tell them how much God hated their family member.

Westboro Baptist Church members to picket funerals in Chester

By: TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF From staff reports
Published: September 02, 2011

Members of the Kansas-based Westboro Baptist Church plan to picket the funerals today of a man and his young son who were found slain in a triple homicide Sunday in Chesterfield County.

The anti-gay, anti-Semitic group — known for heckling at military funerals claiming God kills soldiers as punishment for national tolerance of homosexuality — faxed a statement announcing it will picket the funerals of Thomas Scott Allred, 40, and Allred's 7-year-old son, Morgan, outside the Chester Chapel of J.T. Morriss & Son Funeral Home on West Hundred Road.
read more here

Thursday, September 1, 2011

The Story of Vietnam Veteran Andrew Elmer Wright, Proof of Love

The following is a post I did over a year ago about a homeless veteran and the church that loved him. Last month the story ended up proving what love can do.


Thursday, March 25, 2010


Vietnam Vet Andrew Elmer Wright found a home as a homeless vet
A simple casket with an American flag for Vietnam Veteran Andrew Elmer Wright.



A simple bouquet of flowers was placed with a simple photo a church member snapped.
By all accounts, Andrew was a simple man with simple needs but what was evident today is that Andrew was anything but a "simple" man.

A few days ago I received an email from Chaplain Lyle Schmeiser, DAV Chapter 16, asking for people to attend a funeral for a homeless Vietnam veteran. After posting about funerals for the forgotten for many years across the country, I felt compelled to attend.

As I drove to the Carey Hand Colonial Funeral Home, I imagined an empty room knowing how few people would show up for a funeral like this. All the other homeless veteran stories flooded my thoughts and this, I thought, would be just one more of them.

When I arrived, I discovered the funeral home was paying for the funeral. Pastor Joel Reif, of First United Church of Christ asked them if they could help out to bury this veteran and they did. They put together a beautiful service with Honor Guard and a 21 gun salute by the VFW post.

I asked a man there what he knew about Andrew and his eyes filled. He smiled and then told me how Andrew wouldn't drink the water from the tap. He'd send this man for bottled water, always insisting on paying for it. When the water was on sale, he'd buy Andrew an extra case of water but Andrew was upset because the man didn't use the extra money for gas.

Then Pastor Joel filled in more of Andrew's life. Andrew got back from Vietnam, got married and had children. His wife passed away and Andrew remarried. For some reason the marriage didn't work out. Soon the state came to take his children away. Andrew did all he could to get his children back, but after years of trying, he gave up and lost hope.

A few years ago, after going to the church for help from the food pantry, for himself and his cats, Andrew lost what little he had left. The tent he was living in was bulldozed down in an attempt to clear out homeless people from Orlando. Nothing was left and he couldn't find his cats.

Andrew ended up talking to Pastor Joel after his bike was stolen again, he'd been beaten up and ended up sleeping on church grounds in the doorway. Pastor Joel offered him the shed in the back of the church to sleep in so that he wouldn't have to face more attacks.

The shed had electricity and they put in a TV set, a frying pan and a coffee maker. They wanted to give Andrew more but he said they had already given him enough.

Pastor Joel told of how Andrew gave him a Christmas card with some money in it one year. Pastor Joel didn't want to take money from someone with so little, but Andrew begged him to take it saying "Please, don't take this away from me" because it was all he had to give and it meant a lot to give it to the Pastor. Much like the widow with two cents gave all she had in the Bible, Andrew was truly grateful for what little he had been given from the church.

What was soon made clear is that Pastor Joel gave him even more than he imagined. Andrew took it on himself to be the church watchman. While services were going on after Andrew greeted the parishioners, he would travel around the parking lot to make sure the cars were safe. At night he made sure any guests of the church were equally watched over. Pastor Joel not only gave him a roof over his head and food, he gave him something to make him feel needed.

More and more people came to the service and there was a lot of weeping as Pastor Joel spoke. What was very clear this day is that Andrew was called a homeless veteran but he was not homeless. He found one at the church. He lost his family and his children, but he found a family at the church.

From what was said about Andrew, he was a Vietnam veteran with PTSD and he wanted no help from the VA. Too many of them feel the same way and they live on the streets, depending on the kindness of strangers to help them out. Andrew wasn't one of the panhandlers we see in Orlando. He refused to beg for money and he wanted to work for whatever he was given. His health got worse but he still did what he could. Right up until March 16, 2010 when Andrew passed away, no matter what happened to him during his life, Andrew proved that this veteran was not hopeless, not helpless because he found the fulfillment of hope in the arms of strangers who took him in and he found help as he asked as well as gave.

The legacy of this homeless veteran is that he touched the lives of so many hearts and will never be forgotten.

Behind this church, in a tiny shed, Andew spent his last hours on this earth. Born in Riverside Park NJ on November 5, 1938 he returned to God on March 16, 2010.





John 14:2-3
In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.



Matthew 25

35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in,

36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.'

While deployed to Iraq with the Marines a young Staff Sgt. was searching the Internet for information on his Dad. He found what he was looking for but it came with a heavy heart. He had to read about his Dad from my blog discovering his Dad passed away.

This video tells the rest of the story. If you want to believe again people can make a huge difference in the lives of others, watch it. If you want to believe that God is still interested in all of us, watch the video. This is a time in this country when people have decided the rich can scream for more money while the poor do with less and politicians support this. It is a time when the sick are told to suffer without health insurance to afford a doctor and folks are no longer ashamed to admit that is the way they feel. It is a time when some churches are telling folks God wants them to be rich when Christ had a different story to tell. In this day and age most of us find it impossible to believe that God is still active. I can tell you He is very busy in our lives if we listen.

Rev. Joel and this church touched me so much I had to do the post on what they did for Andrew. Because God tugged at them to help and tugged at me to get the story out, a Dad's love for his children was finally known.

Prescription medications that Army doctors doled out failed him

Former platoon sergeant says marijuana was 'the only thing' that controlled his PTSD
By BILL MURPHY JR.
Stars and Stripes
Published: September 1, 2011
Former Army Sgt. Jamey Raines came home from Iraq and fought another battle with post-traumatic stress disorder, stemming largely from memories of losing friends in combat. He says he overcame the debilitating effects of PTSD with the help of marijuana. Courtesy of Jamey Raines
Jamey Raines tried marijuana once or twice in high school, but he said he had no interest in it after he joined the Army in 2000. He served in heavy combat in Iraq from 2003 to 2004 and rose through the ranks from private to platoon sergeant. Along the way he drank and smoked cigarettes like many infantrymen do, but he said he was “100 percent against” using any drug in any form.

Five years out of the military as of next month, however, Raines has changed his mind.

Using marijuana, he said, was the only way he could control his intense anger and anxiety as a result of post-traumatic stress disorder. The drug was a crutch, but a necessary one, he said, and it enabled him to go to college, earn his degree and land a decent job.

It succeeded, he said, where the fistfuls of prescription medications that Army doctors doled out failed him.
read more here

VFW battles to attract members

VFW battles to attract members
As older veterans fade from the scene, the group is seeking to recruit younger vets.
By Jessica Kwong

Months in advance, Pedro Santiago already knew what he wanted to wear to his first Veterans of Foreign Wars national convention. What he ordered from a catalogue wasn't a uniform like the kind hundreds of others donned in San Antonio this week, but a baseball cap with special embroidery.

“Vietnam veteran,” he beamed. “You can wear this hat now, but if you wore it in the late '60s and '70s, (people) would throw rocks at you.”

Vietnam veterans make up 36 percent of total VFW membership, more than World War II vets, and are destined to eventually become the organization's newest older generation. But the VFW's long-term future now depends on how well it attracts much younger veterans.
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Widow Calls for Recognition of Husband’s Service After He Commits Suicide

Army Widow Calls for Recognition of Husband’s Service After He Commits Suicide Ahead of Redeployment

On Tuesday, Democracy Now! spoke with Ashley Joppa-Hagemann, the widow of a U.S. Army Ranger who confronted former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld about her husband’s suicide on Saturday ahead of his eighth deployment overseas.

In part two of our interview, Joppa-Hagemann calls for a military memorial for her husband, and notes she has not received a condolence letter from President Obama. We also speak with Jorge Gonzalez, executive director of Coffee Strong, a veteran-owned, veteran-operated GI coffeehouse just outside of Ft. Lewis, Washington. He’s a member of Iraq Veterans Against the War who joined Joppa-Hagemann in confronting Rumsfeld. "Our campaign right now is called Operation Recovery, which is calling for to end the redeployment of all traumatized troops from Iraq, Afghanistan, whether they’re suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Traumatic Brain Injury, [or] military sexual trauma," says Gonzalez.
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Family found for Army veteran who died alone

Family found for Army veteran who died alone
David Charles Becker, 61, died in July without a trace of family to speak of
11:30 PM, Aug. 31, 2011
Written by
ANDREW WALKER

MUNCIE -- For about a month and a half, Delaware County officials wondered whether they would ever find the family of Army veteran David Charles Becker.

Becker, 61, was found by Muncie police officers July 13 lying dead on his couch after a neighbor trimming weeds around Becker's apartment building noticed an odor coming from the downstairs area.

Delaware County Coroner Scott Hahn and Jerry Griffis, Delaware County veterans service officer, could only uncover basic details of Becker's life: They believed Becker was from Evansville, Griffis determined Becker was a U.S. veteran, they knew Becker had moved around the country several times and that Becker, who died of natural causes, typically kept to himself.

And that's about it.

But just when the trail had seemingly ran cold, a close family member was discovered who was more than willing to offer a lending hand.

'Now he's at peace'
Barbara Garnett, Becker's aunt, said she was shocked last week when she received a copy of an Aug. 8 Star Press article noting Delaware County officials' efforts to find Becker's family.

She said it had been at least six or seven years since she had last heard from her nephew.
read more here

If you like this story then check back later today for another one that will restore your faith in miracles still happening today.

Beyond PTSD: Soldiers Have Injured Souls

Healing the soul of the veteran is what Point Man International Ministries has been doing this work since 1984.

Beyond PTSD: Soldiers Have Injured Souls
Now that modern militaries accept that war creates psychological trauma, therapists wonder about its toll on the spirit.
By Diane Silver

“They have lost their sense that virtue is even possible,” Shay says. “It corrodes the soul.”
John Fisher got his soul back when he visited a cemetery in Greece.

Shelley Corteville felt “rocketed” into healing when she told her story at a veterans’ retreat after 28 years of silence.

Bob Cagle lost his decades-long urge to commit suicide after an encounter at a Buddhist temple.
These veterans and thousands like them grapple with what some call “the war after the war” — the psychological scars of conflict. Working with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and private organizations, these men and women are employing treatments both radically new and centuries old. At the center of their journey is a new way of thinking that redefines some traumas as moral injuries.

The psychological toll taken by war is obvious. For the second year in a row, more active-duty troops committed suicide in 2010 (468) than were killed in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan (462). A 2008 RAND Corporation study reported that nearly 1 in 5 troops who had returned from Iraq and Afghanistan reported symptoms of post-traumatic stress or major depression.

Since the American Psychiatric Association added post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, to its diagnostic manual in 1980, the diagnosis has most often focused on trauma associated with threats to a soldier’s life. Today, however, therapists such as Jonathan Shay, a retired VA psychiatrist and recipient of a MacArthur Foundation “genius” grant; Edward Tick, director of the private group Soldier’s Heart; and Brett Litz, a VA psychologist, argue that this concept is too limited.
What sometimes happens in war may more accurately be called a moral injury — a deep soul wound that pierces a person’s identity, sense of morality and relationship to society. In short, a threat in a solder’s life.

Neither the military, VA nor the American Psychiatric Association have sanctioned this as a diagnosis, but the concept is gaining traction. In April, psychologists, officers and chaplains led a plenary session on the topic at the Navy and Marine Corps Combat and Operational Stress Control Conference in San Diego.
read more here