Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Senate passes bill ensuring military pay during shutdown

UPDATE
Confusion reigns over troops' danger pay in shutdown
Army Times
By Andrew Tilghman
Staff writer
Oct. 1, 2013

Will troops in Afghanistan receive imminent danger pay during the government shutdown?

That’s a question being debated internally Tuesday by top officials at the Pentagon and on Capitol Hill — just one example of the genuine confusion created by the political impasse in Washington.

Late Monday night, lawmakers passed and President Obama signed into law a bill to ensure that active-duty troops get paychecks, including at least basic pay and housing allowance, on Oct. 15 regardless of whether the government shutdown continues for weeks.

Yet on Tuesday morning, the Navy Personnel Command published a memo that said incentive pays, including imminent danger and hazardous duty pay, will not be paid during the government shutdown and that troops will receive retroactive payments after the government resumes routine operations.
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Senate passes bill ensuring military pay during shutdown
The Hill
By Ramsey Cox
09/30/13

The Senate cleared the "Pay Our Military Act," which the House passed over the weekend.

H.R. 3210 would appropriate funds to pay the military at any time in 2014 when appropriations are not in effect, such as during a government shutdown. It also allows the government to keep paying civilian personnel and contractors that the Defense Department deems to be helping the military. The measure now heads to President Obama's desk for his signature.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) passed the bill through a unanimous consent agreement.
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Veterans break past World War II Memorial barricade

Veterans break past World War II Memorial barricade
CNN
Posted by
Laura Koran and Ashley Killough
2 hours ago

Update 1:45 p.m. ET: House GOP leadership sources tell CNN they plan to vote on a series of bills to fund the government, beginning Tuesday with three measures–spending for veterans, the District of Columbia and the Park Service.

Washington (CNN) – Busloads of World War II veterans, many in wheelchairs, broke past a barricade Tuesday morning to cross into the World War II Memorial, as onlookers applauded and a man playing the bagpipes led the way.

Moments earlier, a few Republican members of Congress had removed a section of the black gates that surrounded the site, allowing a line of veterans to roll past security officers, who willingly stood aside.
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Alan Alda, Joe Mantegna to host telethon for veterans with TBI and PTSD

Alan Alda, Joe Mantegna to host telethon for veterans
UPI
Oct. 1, 2013

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 1 (UPI) -- Actors Alan Alda and Joe Mantegna are to serve as co-hosts of "Homeward Bound," a 4-hour telethon supporting U.S. veterans, organizers announced.

Presented by Haven from the Storm and broadcast by the Military Channel, the Nov. 10 show is intended to raise money for service members with post traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain Injury.
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PTSD and Combat Doctors "I think his soul left on the tarmac in Afghanistan"

This is happening with doctors right here in America. Think about how these doctors face trying to save lives everyday yet seeing so many die on the operating table. Think of what they put themselves through and then think about the fact they are suffering from PTSD as well as taking their own lives.
Returning combat doctors suffering from PTSD
Australia
ABC News
Sally Sara
1 Oct 2013

As thousands of foreign troops withdraw from Afghanistan, many soldiers are returning home with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or PTSD. Much of the attention has been focused on infantry troops. But PTSD has also taken a heavy toll on those who were sent to Afghanistan to save lives.
MARK COLVIN: As thousands of foreign troops withdraw from Afghanistan, many soldiers are returning home with post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD.

Much of the attention has been focused on infantry troops, but PTSD has also taken a heavy toll on those who were sent to Afghanistan to save lives.

Sally Sara went to Canada for the Foreign Correspondent program on ABC TV to spend time with a trauma doctor haunted by war.

SALLY SARA: The ABC doesn't usually send me to peaceful places like this. I'm driving to a little town called Coaticook in Quebec. I'm here to meet up with a trauma doctor I first met in Afghanistan.
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President Obama Video Message to Troops and DoD Personnel on shutdown

President Obama Message to Troops and DoD Personnel on shutdown
Published on Sep 30, 2013
President Obama delivers a message to U.S. troops and Department of Defense personnel on the partial shutdown of the government.

Senate Clears Bill To Pay Military In Shutdown
AP

By ANDREW TAYLOR
Posted: 09/30/2013

WASHINGTON -- The Senate has adopted a bill to pay members of the military in case the government shuts down.

The unanimous voice vote Monday sends the legislation to the White House for President Barack Obama's signature.

The development came with just hours before a shutdown deadline at midnight.
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Family remembers Iraq War Veteran killed in car crash

Family remembers Iraq War Veteran killed in Floyd Co. crash
WKYT News
By: Hillary Thornton
September 30, 2013

PRESTONSBURG, Ky. (WYMT) - Battling a war of emotions, a Floyd County family mourns the loss of their loved one. Iraq War Veteran, 29-year-old Brenan McKinney, died this weekend following a crash. McKinney's mother says her son will now live on through his daughter.

A proud army mom, Pamela Couch, lights up when she looks at pictures of her son.

"When he told me he wanted to go into the Army, I tried every way in the world to talk him out of it but he just kept saying, 'I could get killed on the road or how drugs are here I could get shot in a drive by.' When he talked me into letting him go...I worried the whole time he was gone," says Couch.

Couch worried because she knew the dangers he would face....the images and scars he would return with.
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Lieutenant Colonel Surprises Daughter at School

Lieutenant Colonel Surprises Daughter at School
WJHG News
By: Sanika Dange
September 30, 2013

SPRINGFIELD - One Everitt Middle School studentreceived the surprise of a lifetime Monday.

After his second deployment to Afghanistan, Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Terry came to surprise his daughter in front of the whole school.

It was a surprise McKenzie Terry never saw coming.

When 8th grader McKenzie Terry sat down for lunch Monday afternoon, she had no idea what was about to happen.

Just one room away, her father was preparing for a surprise homecoming.

Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Terry spent the past seven months in Afghanistan.

When he found out his return date, he arranged to surprise his daughter at Everitt Middle School.
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Veteran's epic bike journey cut short after bike stolen in San Diego

Veteran's epic bike journey cut short after bike stolen in San Diego
ABC News
Ashlee DeMartino
October 1, 2013

SAN DIEGO - A veteran in the middle of an epic cross-country journey on his bicycle is now in a holding pattern in San Diego after his bicycle was stolen.

Matthew Jarrett's custom-made road bike has taken him more than 6,500 miles across the country this year.

Jarrett is an Army veteran who served in Iraq and his ride across the United States and back is to raise awareness of veterans' suicide.

"Vet Ride for Life, TransAmerica Ride for Life … and I thought, why don't I put the suicide awareness message in there and through the ride, it can generate awareness of it?" he said.

He started in Virginia and has traveled through Canada, Colorado, Oregon, Montana and made his latest stop in San Diego on Friday. He never thought this stop would be his last.
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Veteran says 'You feel isolated and alone'

'You feel isolated and alone'
Veteran connects service dogs to injured soldiers
Newburyport News
BY JENNIFER SOLIS
CORRESPONDENT
October 1, 2013

Nearly every hour a U.S. military veteran takes his or her own life. More often than not, the debilitating effects of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and traumatic brain injury (TBI) are factors in pushing them over the edge.

With an estimated 400,000 veterans in Massachusetts alone, this statistic suggests a staggering epidemic of suicide among men and women who have bravely worn the country’s uniform.

It is also a woeful fact that nearly half the 50,000 dogs residing in animal shelters across the state will wind up being euthanized because no one has volunteered to adopt them.

But, it’s here, at the nexus of these two sad statistics, that Newbury resident Donald Jarvis has discovered that a flicker of hope survives. And with help from his new pal, Mocha — a black Lab mix trained to be his service dog — Jarvis is beginning to see a light at the end of a very dark tunnel for him, and, he hopes, for others like him.
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Good for nothing Congress

It's 6:00 am. Do you know where your childish congressman is? The brats decided to break curfew after pushing the country over the cliff. It isn't as if they were not given enough warnings. It isn't as if no one tried to reason with them. They just decided to do whatever they wanted to do. Defunding a bill they wrote and passed and the Supreme Court said was Constitutional, didn't mean anything. It also didn't matter that over 80% was already paid for because of the bill they passed. If it was so bad then why didn't they fix it in all these years? Why didn't they make it as good as the health insurance we give them? Each year they hold their breath and stomp their feet while screaming about the government not working and they have been out to prove that by making sure it stopped working.