Life already ruined, lying First Coast vet gets light sentence

In all honesty, I want to feel sorry for this man because I'm sure he helped a lot of people, but I can't. I really want to understand why he did this and ended up hurting the very people he was claiming he cared about. How can any of them do this?

I've met award recipients and most downplay the medals they earned. I've met heroes that never received a medal but the service they give to others is outstanding. One is not a prerequisite for the other. So why fabricate a story they know is false and sooner or later will be proven false? Did they think about the people that trusted them? Did they think about what something like this would do to them? No one wants to be made a fool out of but to be made to feel foolish for believing in someone you trusted for years leaves a bitterness beyond belief behind.

Life already ruined, lying First Coast vet gets light sentence
Florida Times-Union - Jacksonville,FL,USA
By Timothy J. Gibbons Story updated at 6:24 PM on Wednesday, May. 27, 2009

In the past five months, Charles T. White has lost most of his friends.

After pleading guilty to lying about being a prisoner of war in Vietnam and earning a Purple Heart, the veteran was kicked out of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, an organization he’d been part of for 40 years, holding offices and serving on the honor guard.

U.S. Magistrate Monte Richardson decided Wednesday that punishing the St. Augustine man more would be egregious. Instead he sentenced White to one year of probation, waiving mandatory drug tests and fines.

He faced up to two years in prison and a $200,000 fine for violating the Stolen Valor Act, which makes it a crime to claim unearned medals.

Last year White served as a VFW honor guard and was keynote speaker at a prisoner of war recognition event at Jacksonville Naval Air Station. During both he claimed to have been a POW and earned the Purple Heart.

White also falsely claimed to have served on the USS Miller, to have been head corpsman on the USS Dealey and to have worked at Cuba Naval Hospital during the Cuban missile crisis.

The sentence he received Wednesday was just, White said during a brief conversation after the hearing.
“I made a mistake in life,” he said. “I paid for my mistake.” click link for the rest

Brig. Gen. Stephen J. Townsend issues orders to stay alive

You may think this sounds dumb right now, but therapists have been having patients sign contracts stating they will not commit suicide for years.

May 27th, 2009
Commander ‘orders’ soldiers against suicide
Posted: 08:36 PM ET
FORT CAMPBELL, Kentucky (CNN) — The 101st Airborne’s senior commander in-effect ordered his soldiers Wednesday not to commit suicide, a plea that came after 11 suicides since Jan. 1, two of them in the past week.

“If you don’t remember anything else I say in the next five or 10 minutes, remember this — suicidal behavior in the 101st on Fort Campbell is bad,” Brig. Gen. Stephen J. Townsend told his forces. “It’s bad for soldiers, it’s bad for families, bad for your units, bad for this division and our army and our country and it’s got to stop now. Suicides on Fort Campbell have to stop now!”

Fort Campbell’s suicide rate, the highest in the Army, “is not a good statistic,” he said in remarks to one of four divisions he addressed during the day.

After nearly one soldier per week committed suicide at the base between January and mid-March, the Army instituted a suicide prevention program that “seemed to be having good effects” until last week, when two more suicides occurred, he said.

“Suicide is a permanent solution to what is only a temporary problem,” Townsend said. “Screaming Eagles don’t quit. No matter how bad your problem seems today, trust me, it’s not the end of the world. It will be better tomorrow. Don’t take away your tomorrow.”
http://cnnwire.blogs.cnn.com/

For Memorial Day, Buffalo police honor Vietnam vets

For Memorial Day, Buffalo police honor Vietnam vets
By Gene Warner
News Staff Reporter

Those who served both their country and their community — first in Vietnam, later on the streets of Buffalo — finally received some recognition today with the unveiling of a plaque listing 66 Buffalo police officers who also served in Vietnam.

"It's much too little and much too late, but please accept this as a [token] of our gratitude," Buffalo Police Commissioner H. McCarthy Gipson told more than 100 people at a Memorial Day ceremony in police headquarters.

Two high-ranking Buffalo police officers who never stepped foot in Vietnam, Lt. Kenneth Bienko and Detective James A. Lema, spearheaded the four-year effort to remember other police officers who served.

"It's long overdue for these guys," Lema said after the 10-minute ceremony. "They put their lives on the line twice, once for our country and once for our city. This is just a small way of saying thank you."

Bienko, a Gulf War veteran, served 22 years in the Navy, Coast Guard and Army. Both the military and the Buffalo Police Department have been a huge part of his life.
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http://www.buffalonews.com/home/story/682357.html

National Guardsman Struggles to Find a Job

The Penalty for Serving: After Iraq, a National Guardsman Struggles to Find a Job

This article is adapted from Christian Davenport's book, "As You Were: To War and Back With the Black Hawk Battalion of the Virginia National Guard," which is being published June 1 by John Wiley & Sons Inc. (Courtesy John Wiley & Sons Inc.)

Craig Lewis, now a captain in the Army National Guard, found job prospects grim when he returned from Iraq. (Hector Emanuel)

Craig Lewis and Christian Davenport
Captain, Army National Guard; Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, May 26, 2009; 12:00 PM

Craig Lewis is a helicopter pilot with combat experience and a college degree. So why didn't anyone seem interested in hiring him after he returned from Iraq?


Craig Lewis, a captain in the Army National Guard, was online Tuesday, May 26 to discuss his efforts to find a job and return to life at home after serving in Iraq. Joining him was Christian Davenport, a Washington Post staff writer who covers military affairs and chronicles Lewis's story in his new book, "As You Were: To War and Back With the Black Hawk Battalion of the Virginia National Guard."
Christian Davenport: Greetings,

Welcome to the chat. Craig and I are eager to get to your questions about the piece. But I wanted to first give a little background about how I came to write about Craig and some of his fellow soldiers returning to civilian life after Iraq. I embedded with their unit, the Virginia Army National Guard's 2nd Battalion, 224th Aviation Regiment, for a couple of weeks at the beginning of 2007, then flew home with them and spent the next year following their reintegration. I wanted to tell this story because the National Guard has played such an important role in this war, and yet has been, I think, overlooked.

Unlike the active duty, which returns home to big bases and are surrounded by fellow service members, the citizen-soldiers of the Guard come almost immediately back to civilian life, where they're expected to pick up where they left off. And as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan continue, they face multiple tours and repeat the jarring process of leaving families and civilian jobs again and again. Then there are the domestic emergencies they respond to, such as Hurricane Katrina.

Craig's story obviously focuses on what can happen to reservists' civilian careers, and let's be clear: soldiers aren't the only ones who sacrifice. The deployments create quite a hardship on employers as well, who often have to scramble to fill vacancies on short notice. But there are often other issues that come up, some of which I explored in the book. For example, one of the soldiers I followed was asked, eight days after he got home, if he would return to Iraq with another unit in a few months -- a decision that weighed heavily on him. Another was a Vietnam veteran, who deployed to Iraq at age 58, a time when his wife thought they should be thinking about retirement, not war. Another was a medic who struggled to get treatment for her post traumatic stress disorder.
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The Penalty for Serving

Quilt of Tears recalls Agent Orange victims

Quilt of Tears recalls Agent Orange victims

By Audrey Stanton
Register-Herald Features Editor

By Audrey Stanton

REGISTER-HERALD features editor

RAINELLE — Living veterans aren’t the only ones honored in Rainelle this weekend.

Under a large white tent in the town’s industrial park, “The Quilt of Tears” exhibit features a collection of 26 quilts honoring victims of a deadly herbicide used primarily during the Vietnam War.

“It’s an emotional sight for many of the veterans who see it,” said Henry Snyder, a veteran who is suffering for the ill effects of Agent Orange. He and his wife Shelia travel with the exhibit, sharing its message anywhere they can. The Florida couple took over the cause after the widow who started it could no longer do so.

They say hundreds of thousands of Vietnam veterans have suffered and died from the effects of Agent Orange. Yet an accurate figure is anyone’s guess because most cases aren’t traced. They place it around 500,000. Most death certificates list the cause of death as cancer unless a widow states otherwise, the Snyders say.
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Quilt of Tears recalls Agent Orange victims

Email from Sheila and Henry


Dear Friends,

Henry & I just got home yesterday from our trip to Rainelle, W. Va. where we displayed The Quilt Of Tears during the L.Z. Rainelle Veterans Reunion 2009 (http://www.lzrainelle.com/). It was a very nice town & event which began with a biker group Task Force Omega from Kentucky (http://www.greasyonline.com/events/tfo_rainelle.pdf) traveling & stopping in Rainelle on their way to The Wall in DC. Part of "Run For The Wall".

The color scheme used for the L.Z. Rainelle Veterans Reunion this year was orange & black. I've included a beautiful wreath that was given to us & was displayed with The Quilt of Tears during the event.

Rainelle is a pretty small West Virginia town but during the five day Quilt display we had the special opportunity to meet many Veterans & families that are affected by illnesses that AO has caused.

The school children from Rainelle Elementary also visited us during that time which is always a pretty special experience & one that we enjoy.

I believe that we helped many of those people with information along with education about AO & the Quilt Of Tears project. We were honored to have been in Rainelle.

Rev. John Steer (***see note below) joined everyone in Rainelle & performed Sunday morning services, which is an honor but one that Henry & I missed.

I do think he would have understood & forgiven us though... A local elderly WW2 Veteran come to see what The Quilts were all about & led to quite a long, very enjoyable visit. He talked of Rainelle, where he spent all of his life with the exception of his service in WW2. (I just love talking & listening to folks like that :o) He had such a proud, knowledgeable soft spoken way about him that blended sense of humor as most of the older Vets do. He left us for a little bit then returned with an old painting of the local area years before, explaining how it used to be. It was indeed a joy to listen to him & tears came to his eyes as he said " You know there is people today that say the Holocaust never happened" I hugged him wiping my own tears & knew that I was exactly where I should have been for Sunday services.

Unfortunately, Henry & I were unable to take extra time off from our jobs this year to travel on to DC to display The Quilts near The Wall on Memorial Day but perhaps next year we will have the time to display both places.

Memorial grows at spot of soldier's suicide

Memorial grows at spot of soldier's suicide
By CATHY KELLY
Posted: 05/27/2009 01:30:57 AM PDT

SANTA CRUZ -- Red, white and blue flowers now mark the oceanfront spot where a soldier shot himself Friday, as people paid tribute to the accomplished infantryman.

Cards and notes at the scenic spot along West Cliff Drive thank Army Pfc. Roy Brooks Mason Jr. for his service to the country and convey condolences to his family.

Mason, 28, of Fairfield, was a decorated soldier who had been deployed to Iraq twice.

He was stationed at Fort Carson, Colo., and was reported missing from there Tuesday.

About 1:15 p.m. Friday, Mason called emergency dispatchers from a call box near West Cliff Drive and Stockton Avenue and told a dispatcher a dead body would be in a red Chevrolet Cobalt there, a car he had recently rented in Colorado. He asked that someone "clean up the area" before children saw anything.

Tuesday, those who had heard about Mason's death struggled to make sense of it.

One man parked near the overlook said he wasn't surprised to hear of the loss, as he had served in the Marine Corps and knew that "soldiers go through a lot."

Ingrid Smith of Santa Cruz stopped and took a moment to straighten a story about Mason that had partially fallen off a bench.

Smith said hearing about Mason's death angered her, as she believes the military needs to change the way it deals with those who need help.
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http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/rss/ci_12456410?source=rss

11 suicides at Fort Campbell prompts stand-down

11 suicides at Campbell prompts stand-down
FORT CAMPBELL, Ky.
By Kristin M. Hall - The Associated Press
Posted : Wednesday May 27, 2009 15:26:04 EDT

FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. — Regular duties are suspended for three days at Fort Campbell, which leads the Army in suicides this year, so commanders can identify and help soldiers who are struggling with the stress of war and most at risk for killing themselves.

The post began a stand-down Wednesday so soldiers can focus on suicide prevention training in the wake of 11 confirmed suicides by Campbell soldiers this year. More deaths are being investigated as possible suicides.

“This is not a place where Fort Campbell and the 101st Airborne Division want to be,” said Brig. Gen. Stephen Townsend. “We don’t want to lead the Army in this statistic.”

From January to March, the installation on averaged one suicide per week, Townsend said. After an Army-wide suicide prevention campaign in started in March, there were no suicides for six weeks, he said.

“But last week we had two. Two in a week,” Townsend said.

“You wouldn’t hesitate to seek medical attention for a physical wound or injury,” Townsend said. “Don’t hesitate to seek medical attention for a psychological injury.”

For female soldiers, last battle is within

For female soldiers, last battle is within

By Mark Curnutte - Cincinnati Enquirer
Posted : Monday May 25, 2009 11:20:29 EDT

They are just a fistful of the 200,000 female troops thrust into battle — intentionally or not — in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Spc. Angela Strittholt, Army Reserve Spc. Jennifer Wells, Lt. Col. Iva Griggs and Spc. Laura Seaman are among those female troops who have came home with problems once reserved for fighting men.

They arrive with physical injuries such as paralysis, lost limbs and bad backs. They develop mental health issues, as seemingly benign as sleeplessness and as potentially debilitating as post-traumatic stress disorder, which the Veterans Affairs Department reports that up to 40 percent of veterans — regardless of gender — have or develop during their lives.
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For female soldiers, last battle is within

VA Web Site Helps College Counselors Aid Veterans

To view and download VA news release, please visit the following
Internet address:

http://www.va.gov/opa/pressrel

VA Web Site Helps College Counselors Aid Veterans



WASHINGTON (May 27, 2009) - The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has
launched a new Web site to strengthen the connection between college and
university mental health professionals and the Veterans of the Iraq and
Afghanistan conflicts now studying on their campuses.



"Many of our newest Veterans are beginning their post-service lives by
furthering their educations," said Dr. Gerald M. Cross, VA's acting
under secretary for health. "This initiative is designed to ensure that
colleges and universities are able to assist with any special mental
health needs they may have."



The Web site, www.mentalhealth.va.gov/College, features recommended
training for college and university counselors, with online modules
including "Operation SAVE" for suicide prevention, "PTSD 101" and
"Helping Students Who Drink Too Much." It also will feature a resource
list that will be updated regularly.



Although the Web site is designed primarily for counselors, it also
serves as a resource for Veteran-students who wish to learn more about
the challenges they may face in adjusting to their lives after leaving
the military.



"We hope counselors and our returning Veterans find this site helpful
and easy to use," Cross said. "As the site grows, we expect it will
become an increasingly valuable resource."



The new site is one of several Web-based tools VA has developed to
assist Veterans in dealing with mental health issues. Others include a
guide for families of military members returning from deployment and
information about a suicide prevention hotline for Veterans.

Defense launches campaign and Web site to destigmatize traumatic stress

Defense launches campaign and Web site to destigmatize traumatic stress
By Bob Brewin 05/26/2009

The Defense Department launched a multimedia campaign that includes a new Web site designed to reduce the stigma that combat veterans and their families say they feel when seeking mental health care.

The effort includes the new Real Warriors Web site, which is hosted deliberately outside a military Internet domain because troops have reported that seeking help for mental health problems could harm their military careers.

The site went live on May 21 on a dot-net domain, an address where developers hope troops and their families feel it is safe to look for mental health information as opposed to looking for the same information hosted on a dot-mil domain, , said Army Brig. Gen. Loree Sutton, a psychiatrist who serves as director of the Defense Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury.

Lisa Jaycox, a behavioral scientist with the RAND Corp. and one of the co-editors of the 2008 report " Invisible Wounds of War," said Defense faces a tough task when it comes to destigmatizing treatment for mental and psychological problems.

A survey RAND conducted in conjunction with its study showed that troops did not seek mental health care due to concern over "negative career repercussions," Jaycox said. "It's extremely hard to disentangle fitness for duty from seeking mental health care."

To lessen the stigma, Defense could show positive examples of people who sought help for post-traumatic stress disorder while their military careers thrived, Jaycox said.

Sutton said Real Warriors offers concrete examples of three combat veterans who candidly relate their battles with PTSD.

Army Maj. Gen. David Blackledge is one of the three profiles. Blackledge, the Army's assistant deputy chief of staff for mobilization and reserve issues, said in February he decided to talk publicly about his struggle with PTSD because he believed it was critical for senior Army leaders to discuss their experiences with combat stress.

The Defense centers designed Real Warriors to help troops and their families in a variety of ways, including anonymous, online chat sessions with mental health professionals, Sutton said.

Because many of the 1.9 million servicemen and women who have served one or more tours in Iraq or Afghanistan are young, officials decided to incorporate social media and Internet tools to reach that audience. The site's developers included buttons at the bottom of the page that users can click to access pages on Facebook, Digg, Delicious and Twitter that focus on mental health issues.
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http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20090526_4907.php