National Guard Thanksgiving

Gen. Grass issues Thanksgiving message to civilians and uniformed personnel
By Gen. Frank J. Grass
Chief, National Guard Bureau
November 24, 2015

U.S. Army Gen. Frank Grass, the chief of the National Guard Bureau, addresses the Air Force Association's 2013 Air and Space Conference and Technology Exposition at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland., Sept. 18, 2013. Grass just released his Thanksgiving message
(Photo by U.S. Army National Guard Sgt. 1st Class Jim Greenhill/Released)

ARLINGTON, Va. - They had almost no food. They faced a harsh winter in poorly constructed shelters. And nearly half of them died from sickness. Yet the pilgrims who came to America wanted a day to give thanks.

In the midst of the Civil War, one of the darkest periods in American history, President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a national day of Thanksgiving, a day for Americans to express gratitude for their blessings. Every year since, Americans have come together to reflect and to give thanks the fourth Thursday in November.

I, too, am thankful for the nearly 450,000 National Guard members for the work and sacrifice they make to keep our nation and communities strong and secure. I have met with Guardsmen and women serving overseas and in our 50 states, three territories and the District of Columbia. I have talked with Guard members who have lost friends in battle or have come home with permanent injuries. Despite their tremendous losses, they were thankful for the opportunity to serve.

I am thankful to the families and employers of Guardsmen who sacrifice each day to ensure our Soldiers and Airmen can focus on fighting our nation’s wars and protecting our homeland. Each has experienced loss, but they are thankful.

I am also thankful for the partnerships we have established with state and interagency domestic responders, and with 76 nations through our State Partnership Program. Our partners have seen firsthand the devastation wrought by natural disasters and by combat, but each has also saved lives and brought relief to the suffering. They are thankful.

Whether you are in uniform or a civilian, deployed or home, it is your service and commitment that allows us to enjoy the spirit of Thanksgiving. For that, we all are thankful!

Local National Guard members prepare for one-year deployment
News 3 KSNV Las Vegas
Reported by: Denise Rosch
November 24, 2015

LAS VEGAS (KSNV News3LV) – From Paris to Mali, terrorism is top of mind for many Americans. This weekend, 38 proud Nevadans are heading right into the thick of things. Soldiers with the Army National Guard are deploying to Afghanistan.

No deployment is ever easy, but with Thanksgiving in two days and terrorism all over the world making headlines, these soldiers are sacrificing plenty. They’re training right here in Southern Nevada to protect our state and our country, and as you would expect, they're proud to do it.

“The Governor's paid a lot of money to train me, so I'm going to do what I can to stay safe,” says Sgt. Chris Hendrickson with the 137th Military Police.

The Henderson police officer is trading one uniform for another to serve his country in Afghanistan. Before the Nevada Army Guard 137th heads out, Hendrickson had one final loose end to tie up…

He put an engagement ring on his girlfriend’s finger at the happiest place on earth.

“Last Wednesday at Disneyland,” he said. “That's the one thing that's going to hurt a lot. The biggest thing for me is make sure we have constant contact.”

Hendrickson joins 37 other military police officers set to begin a one-year deployment. They’ll protect fellow Americans from criminal threats in one of the most dangerous regions of the world.
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California Air National Guard Thanksgiving meal thankful thoughts

Air Force Base Thanksgiving

Hill Air Force Base Thanksgiving: Feeding a thousand
Standard Examiner
Mitch Shaw
NOVEMBER 24, 2015

Image by: (MITCH SHAW/Standard-Examiner) Airmen from Hill Air Force Base are served a Thanksgiving meal inside an airplane hangar, Tuesday, November 24, 2015.

HILL AIR FORCE BASE — How many dinner guests would have to huddle around your table this Thanksgiving to constitute “a large gathering?”

Twenty? Fifty? One Hundred?

To Cesar Vargas, a master sergeant at Hill Air Force Base, all of those numbers are small potatoes.

A jet engine mechanic by trade, Vargas led a group of 100 volunteers who worked to feed about 1,000 Hill airmen and their families on Tuesday, Nov. 24, part of the 388th and 419th Fighter Wings’ annual Thanksgiving feast.
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Commentary: Think safety for Thanksgiving
Hilltop Times Air Force
By LT. COL. G. HALL SEBREN, JR.
75th ABW Chief of Safety
November 26, 2015

I wanted to pass a little information to you as you prep for the Thanksgiving weekend. As many of you know, a big danger during Thanksgiving has recently become frying up that delicious turkey.

Among some of the safety tips:

• Turkey fryers should always be used outdoors and at a safe distance from buildings and any other material that can burn.
• Never use turkey fryers on wooden decks or in garages.
• Make sure the fryers are used on a flat surface to reduce accidental tipping.
• Never leave the fryer unattended. Most units do not have thermostat controls. If you don’t control the temperature, the oil will continue to heat until it catches fire.
• Never let children or pets near the fryer during or after use. The oil inside the cooking pot can remain dangerously hot long after it has been turned off.
• To avoid oil spillover, do not overfill the fryer.

Also, during this time of year, slips, trips and falls are a big concern. Most folks, graciously, wait until after Thanksgiving to put up their Christmas lights. This means ladders and cold weather, which can lead to a visit to the local emergency room after falling off the ladder because someone over-reached and fell.

The common theme with these kinds of injuries is laziness. People failed to descend the ladder, move it and ascend again. Don’t become a statistic. How about this: It’s another opportunity to burn a few extra calories by making a few extra descents and ascents!

Finally, I’d like to encourage a mindset change.

Many of us have “grown up” hearing the term “Safety First.” I’d like to propose we move away from that and get to a “Mission First” mindset. We should accomplish the mission within a culture of safety and compliance.

If we create this culture, we’ll decrease injuries and rework, which will increase productivity. How about that, mission accomplished and Airmen safe! Have a wonderful day and be careful out there.

Navy Thanksgiving Message

CNO Thanksgiving Message 2015
BY U.S. NAVY
NOVEMBER 24, 2015

SOUDA BAY, Greece (Nov. 27, 2014) Culinary Specialist 2nd Class David Tiberio, from Red Hook, N.Y., prepares food for a Thanksgiving meal aboard the guided-missile destroyer USS Cole (DDG 67). Cole is conducting naval operations in the U.S. 6th Fleet area of responsibility in support of U.S. national security interests in Europe.
(U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communications Specialist 2nd Class John Herman/Released)

Team, Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. This weekend, many of us will gather with family, friends, and loved ones to celebrate each others’ company over a nice meal in our homes. Dana and I wish you a peaceful and safe weekend, and we thank YOU for all that you do to keep our Navy and nation prosperous and secure.

As we take this time to pause and reflect, let us remember those who are quietly celebrating while underway or forward deployed around the world. While we talk with family, they have the watch. We’ve all been there and know those mixed feelings of pride at accomplishing the mission, but also missing our loved ones while deployed during this time. For those at home, please keep these shipmates in your thoughts and prayers. If you’re forward, reach out, be good company for each other, and wish your shipmate a Happy Thanksgiving.

Finally, I must add that in addition to turkey, pumpkin pie, and football, wherever you are, please add safety to your list of things to keep track of this weekend. Remain alert and cognizant of your surroundings. Ensure you keep yourselves and those around you safe and sound. You and your families are all far too valuable to the Navy and the nation to experience a needless accident – I need you all to come back rested and ready to go.

Happy Thanksgiving.
-Adm. John Richardson, Chief of Naval Operations

Navy ship docks in Detroit, brings crew member home for Thanksgiving
MLIVE.com USS Milwaukee

Crew Suspended After Hospital Attacked

U.S. suspends military personnel over airstrike in Afghanistan
Tampa Bay Times
Wednesday, November 25, 2015

"The investigation found that some of the U.S. individuals involved did not follow the rules of engagement," said Gen. Wilson Shoffner, the top U.S. military spokesman in Afghanistan.

KABUL — The crew of an American gunship that attacked a hospital in Kunduz last month, killing 30, misidentified the target, had suffered a loss of electronic communications, had not been carrying a "no-strike" list though one existed and was beset by "fatigue and a high operational tempo," a U.S. military investigation has concluded.

Gen. John Campbell, the top U.S. commander for Afghanistan, describes the errors that led to the errant airstrike on a hospital. New York Times

"This was a tragic and avoidable accident caused primarily by human error," Gen. John Campbell, the top U.S. commander for Afghanistan, said at a news conference in Kabul on Wednesday. But that human error, he said, was "compounded by systems and procedural failures."

Several American personnel, most likely pilots and special operations forces who made the decision that led to one of the deadliest incidents of civilian casualties of the war, have been suspended and could face further disciplinary action.
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PTSD Gulf War Veteran Gets New Wheels

Valley vet wins vehicle for heartwarming life story
KPHO News
By Jason Volentine
Nov 26, 2015

PHOENIX (KPHO/KTVK) - A Valley veteran got an early holiday surprise after a string of bad luck and a battle with addiction.

He's turned his life around and won a car for his efforts.

“Oh my goodness.Yeah! Alrighty!” said Douglas Jackson, starting his new car for the first time.

The sound of the engine turning over was the sound of a page turning in Jackson’s life. “My children are just going to be so happy. They've been having to go around on buses and riding bikes and everything. It's going to give me a whole new life with my children,” he said.

The U.S. Marine veteran served in the first Gulf War. He helped sweep mine fields so troops with heavy equipment could make it safely from the bases in Kuwait to the battlefields in Iraq.

But years after the battles faded from the headlines, the things Jackson experienced remained unforgettable. Post-traumatic stress disorder and alcoholism sent him into a spiral that cost him many things, including a place to live and a car to drive.
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Time to Stuff the Jerky

If you are planning on spending Thanksgiving with your cell phone taking selfies and sharing on Facebook, your own self importance is nauseating!

Instead of enjoying this day off to actually spend time with the people in your life, you'd rather spend it with folks you don't even know?

You wouldn't be so offended by others if you actually took time to understand exactly what is going on in the real world.

You wouldn't think that you are all that matters if you actually took a look at who should matter to you.

Stop being so jerky and enjoy the turkey while giving thanks for what you do really have in your life!

One more thing, if you think having pictures of yourself all over the internet makes you famous, then why are you taking your own picture?

Boys and Girls Scouts help feed 800 people at Camp Pendleton

Thanksgiving Feats: Volunteers, Boys and Girls Scouts help feed 800 people at Camp Pendleton
San Clemente Times
Eric Heinz
November 25, 2015

Food for Thanksgiving piled up on Monday at the commissary at Camp Pendleton in order to provide the holiday feast for U.S. Marines and their families.

People make their way to the donations from the Thanksgiving Turkey Giveaway organized by the San Clemente Military Family Outreach on Monday at Camp Pendleton.

For the past eight years the nonprofit San Clemente Military Family Outreach has hosted a Thanksgiving drive to help out the families in the north Camp Pendleton to people living in San Onofre Housing. Many of the families have a relative or loved one who has been deployed. Recently about 2,000 troops were sent to South Pacific Asia.

“It got started by the predecessor by the Friends of San Onofre Marines,” Robert Crittendon, a volunteer with SCMFO, said. “They had started the distribution for units that were being sent overseas. On one occasion, the St. Margaret’s Church had invited them, and there were 250 people who had signed up. The church I think was overwhelmed and they really had to scramble to provide that meal.”
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Thanksgiving meal together at Fort Carson

Fort Carson

"This is my first Thanksgiving away from home, I mean, it sucks, but they do their best to make up for it," Wolf said. "This is the coolest thing ever or at least since I've been in the army."

Soldiers serve families and compete in Thanksgiving culinary competition
FOX 21 News
By Christina Dawidowicz
Published: November 25, 2015

FORT CARSON, Colo. — A full meal compete with dessert and music.

More than 800 people shared a Thanksgiving meal together at Fort Carson’s annual Thanksgiving meal and culinary competition.

“Trying to brighten their spirit since they’re not there with their families,” said Sfc. Francis J Orcutt with the U.S. Army.

“There’s the ham, there’s the turkey, there’s,” said Spc. Francisco Silva, who’s been at Fort Carson for two years now.

Each soldier worked on a project with a team for one of the six dining facilities on post.

“They work on shift, they put out the meal for the day, and then they would come over and help the team after their meal,” Orcutt said.
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PTSD Soldiers Abandoned: Discharged With Adjustment Disorder

When The Army Pushes A Soldier Out, His Mental Health Struggles Are Left To Others
Colorado Public Radio
Michael de Yoanna
NOV 25, 2015

Costabile was discharged from the Army on March 27, 2012, and soon he was homeless. His wife was living with her parents, and he wasn’t welcome there. So he went to a shelter and filed for unemployment.

Frank Costabile, a former Fort Carson Army private first class, was discharged with an "adjustment disorder" after serving in the war in Afghanistan. (Michael de Yoanna/CPR News)

Frank Costabile was broke and paranoid after the Army forced him out in 2012. The former private first class was so jittery from his time in a war zone he says he couldn’t walk down the street without looking over his shoulder.

Finally one day, after his wife left to drop their daughter off at school, Costabile went into the bathroom and swallowed 57 pills from the bottles of anti-depressants and sedatives that military doctors had given him.

Then, he settled down in the bathtub to die.

“I didn't want to fall and hit my head on anything severe, and cause blood all over the place,” Costabile said. “I figured I ought to sit down and take these things and everything would be alright.”

“My depression is under control,” he said. “I mean it's still a constant struggle. I'm never going to be off medication for it. Also my PTSD, it's never going to be cured, but I have tools now that I know how to cope with certain things and I still have nightmares but not as intense as they used to be.”
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Former Fort Carson Commander: 'We Need To Help, Not Judge'
Army Kicked Out Thousands With Mental Health Issues
Senators Demand Probe Into Army's Discharge Practices

Fort Hood Hug Lady Makes News in Australia

Fort Hood's 'Hug Lady' promises she will be back from breast cancer treatment 
ABC Australia
Posted yesterday at 7:13am

"Sometimes the line is so long that we have to turn people away."

A woman who estimates she has hugged 500,000 soldiers at Fort Hood, Texas, has promised she will be back from treatment for breast cancer.

Elizabeth Laird, 83, is known as the "Hug Lady" at Fort Hood, where she has given hugs to almost every soldier entering and leaving the base since 2003, when soldiers stationed there began deploying to Iraq. "I don't know when I started hugging, but one soldier hugged me and there was another soldier there, so I had to hug him and it kind of just snowballed," she told the Killeen Daily Herald in 2009. "I hugged all the soldiers. I promised them that. I told them as they left, I'd be here to hug them again when they came back."

Ms Laird has a military background herself, having enlisted in the US Air Force in 1950, the US Department of Veterans Affairs reported in a Facebook post earlier this month. 
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For one WWII veteran, a day to give thanks for 'one more sunrise'

For one WWII veteran, a day to give thanks for 'one more sunrise' 
The Washington Post
By T. Rees Shapiro
Published: November 25, 2015

"I was not sure I was going to live until morning," Graff said in an interview this week at his home. "I prayed to God for one more sunrise." He saw another dawn on that distant November day. Just as he has for almost 26,000 mornings since.

Richard Graff is a 91 year-old veteran from Ashburn, Va., who has been visiting classrooms to talk with students about his experiences in battle. KATE PATTERSON/FOR THE WASHINGTON POST

ASHBURN, Va. — On Thanksgiving Day in 1944, Dick Graff opened his Army-issue mess kit and took comfort in his turkey and mashed potatoes, a welcome respite from the brutal battlefront near Weisweiler, Germany.

As a soldier with the 104th Infantry Division, the 20-year-old who grew up on a hog and cattle farm in Iowa was grateful for the hot meal a world away. Things had changed in the few weeks since he had narrowly survived his first combat experience. The night mission had called for Graff and the other U.S. troops in his unit to maneuver through a forest, and as they moved, German artillery shells began to quake the earth around him.

The bombardment seemed endless. The Army had trained him how to fight and how to shoot machine guns, but the terror of facing enemy fire was like nothing he could have imagined.
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Marine Fought Cancer and Won

Marine Vet Hopes His Victory Over an Aggressive ‘Terminal’ Cancer Inspires Others to Reject Assisted Suicide 
The Blaze
Mike Opelka
Nov. 24, 2015

“People who wanted to fight and live were now being told, ‘Well, you have no options, why don’t you choose assisted suicide?’” This was “a huge danger,” Hanson said.

J.J. Hanson, a Marine Corps veteran who beat one of the most aggressive forms of cancer known to man, is now working to defeat the push to normalize doctor-assisted suicide in America.

Hanson faced the same diagnosis as the late Brittany Maynard, who elected to end her own life rather than continue her battle against an aggressive tumor, and decided surrendering to cancer was not an option. Instead of giving up and choosing the assisted suicide option available to him and others, Hanson chose to fight.

In May 2014, Hanson was in a business meeting when he suddenly felt something in his body going horribly wrong. Hanson told his clients he needed them to call 911. They initially thought he was joking, until Hanson pleaded with them, “Seriously, call 911.”

That was the last thing Hanson remembered of the meeting as a grand mal seizure overtook his body, rendering him unable to communicate.

An ambulance rushed Hanson to the hospital. After he was stabilized, Hanson’s wife Kris insisted doctors perform an MRI to find out what was going on with her husband. The scan revealed lesions on Hanson’s brain with two possible causes — an infection or cancer. A biopsy of his brain revealed the worst possible news. Growing in the vet’s temporal lobe was a stage 4 glioblastoma (GBM), an aggressive form of cancer capable of doubling in size in just two weeks.
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Community Finishes Dream Veteran Started

After Iraq veteran's death, a Thanksgiving gift
Lansing State Journal
Ken Palmer
November 25, 2015

Melanie Newcombe and daughter Teegan, 9, talk with members of Faith Works and Operation: Come H.O.M.E. in their house in Ionia on Tuesday. Newcombe's husband Brandon, a Marine, bought the house for the family to fix up and live in. Brandon died on May 16, 2014, but the two Michigan non profits teamed up to finish the work on the house. (Photo: Dave Wasinger/LSJ)

IONIA - Iraq war veteran Brandon Newcombe spent much of the last year of his life remodeling an old house in Ionia for himself and his family.

Before he finished, he lost his battle with the demons unleashed by post-traumatic stress disorder. Newcombe took his own life in May of 2014.

"There is so much blood, sweat and tears in this house," his widow, Melanie Newcombe, said on Tuesday in the newly refinished second level of the house, where she and her daughter, Teegan, 9, finally have their own bedrooms. "He worked from sunup to sundown on this house for us. He wanted Teegan and I and him to be in this house together."

Volunteers came together after Brandon Newcombe's death to finish the house. On Tuesday, they presented Melanie and Teegan with a gift card for furniture and a unique four-sided wooden plaque designed to preserve his memory. The plaque, made of Michigan maple and purple heart wood from Brazil, is designed to be taken apart to make two memorials.

"Tonight was part of the healing process, not just for me but for Melanie, Teegan and everyone involved," said Eric Calley, an Iraq veteran who had known Newcombe since high school and mentored him in Ionia County's veterans court. "(We) designed that plaque especially for Teegan and Melanie. When Teegan gets older and moves out of the house, she can take that with her in memory of her dad. When she comes back home, she can bring it back and make it whole again."
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Vietnam Veteran With PTSD At Bay Pines for 36 Years

Florida VA Clinic Provides Care for Vets With PTSD 
Department of Defense
By Shannon Collins
DoD News Features
November 24, 2015

Taylor, a Marine Corps and Vietnam War veteran who’s worked with the VA for more than 36 years and has PTSD himself, said he’s seen many positive changes in the VA for the treatment of PTSD.

Army veteran Manuel “Al” Alcantara, right, and Vietnam veteran Jim Alderman share stories beside a duck pond after a day’s therapy at the inpatient post-traumatic stress disorder clinic at Bay Pines Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Bay Pines, Fla., Oct. 29, 2015. DoD photo by EJ Hersom

BAY PINES, Fla., November 24, 2015 — For veterans who may have Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder due to wartime trauma or military sexual trauma, their first step is to contact their local U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Vet Center or outpatient center.

But if veterans require more care, they can voluntarily check in at inpatient centers such as the Bay Pines VA Medical Center here.

Bay Pines has a 14-bed residential program for veterans with war-caused PTSD and a separate wing for veterans with PTSD caused by military sexual trauma.

According to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ PTSD website, military sexual trauma, or MST, is the term used by the VA to refer to experiences of sexual assault or repeated, threatening sexual harassment that a veteran experienced during his or her military service.

The definition for military sexual trauma used by the VA comes from federal law -- Title 38 U.S. Code 1720D. Under that law, MST is defined as: "Psychological trauma, which in the judgment of a VA mental health professional, resulted from a physical assault of a sexual nature, battery of a sexual nature, or sexual harassment which occurred while the veteran was serving on active duty, active duty for training, or inactive duty training."

Sexual harassment is further defined by the law as "repeated, unsolicited verbal or physical contact of a sexual nature which is threatening in character."

Bay Pines is the only VA inpatient facility that treats PTSD caused by MST, said Tony Taylor, program manager for the warzone PTSD program at Bay Pines.
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Vietnam Veterans Life Turned Around After Court

Vietnam veteran recalls 'super drunk' arrest that turned his life around 
MLIVE Michigan
By John Counts
November 24, 2015

He was sentenced to 18 months of probation, but was put in touch with the Battle Creek VA for substance abuse treatment, as well as treatment for his post-traumatic stress disorder. "They were more interested in helping me than punishing me," he said. "It was hard work. But it was stuff I could do. They didn't require anything."

Earl "Gunny" Christensen at his home in Holt Monday, November 9, 2015.
(Danielle Duval MLive.com)

Earl "Gunny" Christensen couldn't tell the Fourth of July firecrackers from incoming enemy fire.

So the Vietnam veteran drank. A lot.

On July 3, 2012, Christensen estimates he had about 20 whiskey drinks between noon and 10 p.m. while he was bar hopping in his hometown of Holt, near Lansing.

Christensen says he suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder. "During the Fourth of July I got to get drunk to pass out. So I don't have to deal with all the fireworks and explosions."

Christensen went to four different bars. At the last bar, the bartenders wouldn't serve him. As he was leaving, he crashed into a parked car in the parking lot.

"I backed into somebody at a bar and I drove home," he said.

He recalls police showing up at his house and conducting the sobriety tests there, long after he was out of his vehicle. He blew a .218 percent and was arrested for "super drunk" driving.
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