Wednesday, January 28, 2015

Soldier's Wife Does Unthinkable Quieting Children

Woman slashes her children's throats to quiet them, police say 
CNN
By Emma Lacey-Bordeaux
January 28, 2015
Thomas Booth has not been charged, and KOMO reports that police do not suspect he played any kind of role in the violence. KOMO reports he's an active-duty soldier who was recently deployed overseas.
(CNN)A young mother in Washington state has been charged with attempted murder after authorities say she cut her children's throats in an attempt to keep them quiet.

Over the weekend, Christina Booth called 911 to report that her three children were crying nonstop and "needed medical attention," according to a recent probable cause filing. The 28-year-old and her husband, Thomas Booth, have three children, a 2-year-old and 6-month-old twins. When officers arrived at the Olympia, Washington, home Saturday night, they found a troubling scene.

As spelled out by a local prosecutor, police saw the twins on the couch crying "uncontrollably" and "bleeding from their necks."

 One officer then went upstairs and found the couple's 2-year-old in bed, under the covers with "dry blood all over her."

 All three were taken to a local hospital, where, CNN affiliate KOMO reports, they underwent surgery. They are now in stable condition and will be placed in protective custody. In their probable cause filing, authorities paint a picture of a mother overwhelmed and suffering from postpartum depression. A judge set bail for Booth at $3 million, KCPQ, another CNN affiliate, reported.
read more here

VA Nurse Gave Disabled Vietnam Veteran Shoes Off Own Feet

Nurse at Salisbury VA hospital gives veteran the shoes off his feet
News and Observer
BY MARTHA QUILLIN
January 27, 2015
Most of his family had given up on him, he told Maulden, but his nephew still cared enough to bring him to the hospital that night for treatment.
Homelessness remains a major issue for veterans, and the Salisbury VA hospital serves its share – 4,227 last year, said Jennifer Herb, director of health care for homeless veterans at the Salisbury VA. Often, Herb said, those veterans have multiple issues, including medical problems, mental health conditions and substance addictions.

One quality that makes Chuck Maulden a caring emergency department nurse is his ability to put himself in someone else’s shoes.

Recently, he’s been lauded for putting someone else in his.

Maulden, 33, had been working in the emergency department at the Salisbury Veterans Affairs Medical Center for a just a couple of months when a patient came in near the end of his shift one night in November.

The man appeared to be in his mid-60s, Maulden said, and he was there because his feet were causing him such pain he could hardly walk.

“He kept talking about being in bad water in Vietnam,” Maulden said, though Maulden doesn’t know if the man served there during the war. Many soldiers who did suffered from trench foot, caused by long exposure to cold, damp conditions.

The man took off his tattered tennis shoes, and Maulden could see the soles were worn through and coming unglued. The balls of his feet were covered in huge blisters, and his compression stockings had matted to the skin where the blisters had drained. A doctor instructed Maulden to bandage his feet and give him fresh stockings.
read more here

Marine Makes Hard Choice, Amputate Leg

Barely able to walk, injured Marine decides to have leg amputated 
The Wilson Daily Times, N.C. (Tribune News Service)
By Lisa Boykin Batts
Published: January 26, 2015
The consensus among Duncan’s medical team now is the infection did more damage than the body can heal.

In this Sept. 14, 2013 file photo, U.S. Marine Corps Pfc. Duncan Mathis, right, is greeted by his mother, Theresa Mathis, as he finishes the Run for the Fallen 5K/Half-Marathon at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, N.C. Mathis was wounded in action during a deployment to Afghanistan, falling 75 feet and breaking his legs, ankles and right arm. BRITTAIN CROLLEY/U.S. AIR FORCE PHOTO
(Tribune News Service) — Lance Cpl. Duncan Mathis said it was an easy decision to amputate the lower portion of his left leg.

"I don’t have a doubt in my mind,” the Beddingfield High School graduate said. "I want to live my life as a 21-year-old.”

In recent months, it was getting harder and harder for Duncan to do the things he wanted to do and to live an active lifestyle. He was in tremendous pain and had decreasing mobility. In June, he was able to run in a brace, said his mother, Theresa. 

By November, he was barely walking. Duncan’s problems stem from a May 2013 incident in Afghanistan.

He fell 75 feet down an unmarked well while on a nighttime mission with his unit. He fractured both legs and ankles as well as his shoulder and arm. He also suffered a traumatic brain injury.
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VA: biggest organizational change in VA history?

New simplified map for Veterans Affairs 
Military Times
By Leo Shane III, Staff Writer
January 26, 2015
The Veterans Affairs Department says that by midsummer all offices should be coordinating efforts along a newly drawn five-region map. (Photo: Veterans Affairs Department)
Veterans Affairs Department officials who promised to simplify the agency are touting major progress after settling on a single map of the United States. If that seems overly bureaucratic, keep in mind the department currently uses at least nine maps of America, subdividing the country into dozens of regional networks and administrative responsibilities for hundreds of programs.

By midsummer, all VA agencies should be sharing the same latitude and longitude, coordinating efforts along a newly drawn five-region map to allow veterans a single point of entry for a host of office offerings.

Officials offered few specifics on what they called "the biggest organizational change in VA history" but said the work will not immediately mean cuts to the 340,000-plus workforce. 

 "This is not about losing jobs," said Bob Snyder, executive director of the MyVA program office.

"There is more than enough work to do at VA. ... This is about improving the veterans' experience."
read more here

Tuesday, January 27, 2015

Bowe Bergdahl WIll Face Charges for Desertion

UPDATE
No big shocker here the press got the story wrong.
Army: Bergdahl reports are untrue, no decision made
KENS5 News
January 27, 2015

The Army says there is no truth to media reports claiming a decision has been made to charge Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl with desertion.

The Army continues to review the case against Bergdahl, said Paul Boyce, a spokesman for Forces Command, on Tuesday morning.

"Sgt. Bergdahl has not been charged with any crime," said Pentagon Press Secretary Rear Adm. John Kirby during a press briefing Tuesday afternoon.

"No decision has been made with respect to the case of Sgt. Bergdahl," Kirby said.

"None. There is no timeline to make that decision, and Gen. [Mark] Milley is being put under no pressure to make a decision."
In a report Monday citing two anonymous military sources, retired Lt. Col. Tony Schaffer told Fox News' "The O'Reilly Factor" that the Army plans to charge Bergdahl with desertion. Schaffer also told the outlet his sources confirmed to him that Bergdahl's lawyer has been given a charge sheet. read more here

Bowe Bergdahl to Be Charged With Desertion, Officials Say
NBC News
January 27, 2015


Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who was held captive by enemy forces in Afghanistan for five years, will be charged with desertion, senior defense officials tell NBC News. The officials say the charges could be referred within a week.

According to the officials, the desertion charges would be based on allegations that Bergdahl abandoned his remote outpost in June 2009 to avoid hazardous duty or important service, which are grounds for charges of desertion under the Uniform Military Code of Justice, or UCMJ. According to one senior official, Bergdahl's actions in Afghanistan go well beyond the lesser offense of AWOL, absent without leave, because he allegedly abandoned his post "in the middle of a combat zone, potentially putting the lives of his fellows soldiers at risk."
read more here

The 6 U.S. Soldiers Who Died Searching for Bowe Bergdahl
TIME
Mark Thompson
June 2, 2014

Troops suggest that Bergdahl's desertion makes him more traitor than hero

Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl was freed by the Taliban over the weekend after they held him for nearly five years, in exchange for five Taliban leaders, who will spend a year cooling their heels in Qatar. Chances are you haven’t heard of the six soldiers who died hunting for him after he went missing, according to military officials. Now that Bergdahl has been sprung—in exchange for five senior Taliban officials, who had been imprisoned at Guantanamo—soldiers who served with Bergdahl are grumbling that he deserted and shouldn’t be hailed as a hero, especially given the resulting cost in American lives.
Staff Sergeant Clayton Bowen, 29, of San Antonio, Texas, and Private 1st Class Morris Walker, 23, of Chapel Hill, N.C., were killed by a roadside bomb in Paktika province on Aug. 18, 2009, while trying to find Bergdahl. Like Bergdahl, they were part of the 4th BCT from Fort Richardson, Alaska.

Staff Sergeant Kurt Curtiss, 27, of Murray, Utah, died Aug. 26 in Paktika Province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when he was shot while his unit was supporting Afghan security forces during an enemy attack.

2nd Lieutenant Darryn Andrews, 34, of Dallas, Texas, died Sept. 4 in Paktika Province when enemy forces attacked his vehicle with an improvised explosive device and a rocket-propelled grenade.

Staff Sergeant Michael Murphrey, 25, of Snyder, Texas, died Sept. 6 in Paktika province after being wounded by an IED. Like Bergdahl, Bowen, Walker, Curtiss and Andrews, Murphrey was part of the 4th BCT.

On Sept. 4, 2009, Private 1st Class Matthew Martinek, 20, of DeKalb, Ill., was seriously wounded in Paktika province when Taliban forces attacked his vehicle with an improvised explosive device, a rocket-propelled grenade and small-arms fire.

Second Veteran Received Wrong Records From Tampa VA

Second Tampa Bay veteran received someone else's medical records
WFLA News
By Shannon Behnken
Updated: Jan 26, 2015

A second Tampa Bay area veteran received someone else's confidential medical records in the mail.

8 On Your Side reported about a case last week when a woman found another veteran's records in her mail, and now another veteran has stepped forward.

Randy Blackford, of Port Richey, received a letter denying his disability compensation from the Veteran's Administration. That was bad enough, but, tucked inside, Blackford found the name, social security number and medical information belonging to another veteran.

"I'm worried somebody's information," Blackford said. "I've got this guys'. Hey, they probably got mine somewhere floating around."

The same thing happened to Carol McBride, who served in the Navy, when she got copies of her medical file from the Veteran's Administration.

When her 1,500 pages of medical records arrived, she found someone else's records sandwiched between hers. There are three EKG reports and doctor's notes for a man who was in the Army in the 1980's. His name, social security number and date of birth are right there: Everything someone would need for identity theft.

"I know more about him than I should know about him, and had it been someone who's not honest, they could have taken quite a bit of advantage of him," McBride said. "I shouldn't have to deal with this ... "I don't want to be responsible for someone else's medical records."

McBride also worries that if she has someone's records by mistake, someone else could have hers. After all, she ordered her file to make sure all of her records are there. She's battling with the VA over her compensation amount for a disability. She questions whether all of her records are there and wonders if this man needs the documents she now has.
read more here
WFLA News Channel 8

American Sniper Heavy Silence Because No One Listens

Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
January 27, 2015

There has been a lot of debate about American Sniper. Maybe it is a good thing since there is a lot that isn't getting talked about, or at least it could have been. The trouble is when you have people taking political sides the troops and veterans are slammed right in the middle and the movie is more important than the one playing in their dreams every night.


"The View" Co-hosts Agree "American Sniper" is a Seminal War Film


"There was heavy silence at Walter Reed."
"Bravery has consequences."



This is from what Mike Barnicle wrote about American Sniper
At a screening in L.A. and New York, the crowd cheered. In Dallas there was no cheering. And when the film was screened at one site in Washington there was only a heavy silence.

Where was that location? Walter Reed National Medical Center, where the wounded, the limbless, the brain damaged are treated for injuries that linger forever and are largely forgotten by a country and a culture where more attention is paid to deflated footballs than the needs and cost of caring for men and women who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan.


Paul Rieckhoff said that veterans have been trying to get attention for a decade. Really? Seriously?

What about the decades other veterans not only tried to get attention but fought to put everything in place that was available for their generation? Oh, I'm sorry it isn't popular to remind anyone how long all of this has been going on. All you have to do is sit and talk a while with a Vietnam veteran who had to wait years for a claim in the 80's and 90's, months for an appointment with a VA doctor or even longer for a fee base outsourced appointment.  Ya, that's right they were doing all of this way back then.

Hey why not add in the fact that there were caregivers way back then too? We had to figure out how to raise our family, work, take care of our husbands and usually our elderly parents (mostly veterans as well) and then figure out how make sure it was all held together while we fell apart without any money or help to do it. I lost count how many jobs I had in the over 30 years I've been with my husband.

As stupid as the reporting has been saying Afghanistan has been the longest war, and everything else they seem all too easily to forget, none of this is new and that is what pisses off other veterans the most.

For all the bills, all the money, all the news, all the claims made about addressing it, the numbers of lives lost to suicide increased. The number of veterans trying to kill themselves increased. These numbers went up even though there is a growing list of organizations begging for money and attention. Even though there is the Suicide Prevention Hotline with thousands of calls a year. Even though there are reporters all over the country telling heartbreaking stories of them facing off with police officers and SWAT Teams every week.

Watch: 'The Nightly Show' Aims at 'American Sniper' Debate with War Veteran, Critic and Comedy Guests

We're not talking about the fact that PTSD hits all generations and older veterans have been waiting longer, suffering longer and begged for something to be done before others followed them into the abyss.

What the hell is going on here?

We're not talking about how veterans are not able to go and watch the movie if they have PTSD because they won't sit in a huge, dark room with strangers behind them especially when they know their past is going to kick up its heels and smack them in the head.

I talked to a friend of mine and he said he's waiting for it to come on cable so that he can watch it and walk out of the room if it gets to be too much for him. Other veterans said they don't need to see a Hollywood movie, no matter how good it is supposed to be, since they just watched their own movie last night.

Wives like me won't go to see it either. While I totally appreciate it, I just don't want to watch it. I haven't watched any of them in years. Living with it on a daily basis and covering their stories for Wounded Times has zapped my emotional core to the point where sitting in a movie theater to watch more suffering is the last thing I want to do.

I do think you should see it if you want to get some kind of idea what it is like. Friends have seen it and said they understood more and they cried.

This is one of the first videos I made on PTSD. It is from 2006.

Our generation has been trying to help the younger generation catch up to what it took us decades to learn. They didn't want to listen. Our generation tried like hell to get Congress to change what they were doing. They didn't want to listen. We tried to get reporters to pay attention long before Afghanistan and Iraq but they didn't want to listen.

It seems as if everyone is talking about their opinion of this movie without listening to what is still happening because no one listened before.

American Sniper isn't about Democrats or Republicans

When will people stop pushing the myth that American Sniper isn't about Democrats or Republicans? Do they have to turn everything into a political game? Supporting this movie, much like supporting the troops and veterans isn't political, this is more about people who get it and those who never will.

We could be spending time on the missing issues about this movie, like how a lot of PTSD won't go to see it. Most of the time, they can't go to movies because sitting in a huge, dark room with a bunch of strangers behind their backs is not pleasant or entertaining to them. The other thing is, some of them don't need to see a movie about war since they just watched their own last night.

They know what PTSD is and what it does. They are also grateful that what they have been living with has finally been exposed to the masses.

I haven't seen it and I probably won't. I stopped watching these movies a long time ago. I am glad they made it and think it will help people understand but when you live with it everyday, spending time to be emotionally pulled apart isn't a pleasant thought for me either.

If you are a veteran and want to understand PTSD, this could help. If you are a family member, it could help you understand it as well.

Oh, by the way, I adore Gary Sinise but not seeing it isn't about politics for everyone.!

Gary Sinise Criticizes Howard Dean Over 'Stupid Blanket Statements' On 'American Sniper'
The Huffington Post
By Christopher Rosen
Posted: 01/26/2015

On Friday's "Real Time With Bill Maher," Howard Dean said there was maybe "a lot of intersection" between people seeing Clint Eastwood's "American Sniper" and members of the Tea Party.

"There's a lot of anger in this country. And the people who go see this movie are people who are very angry," Dean said about the film, which focuses on the life of Chris Kyle, a deceased Navy SEAL who has been called the deadliest sniper in U.S. military history. "This guy basically says, 'I'm going to fight on your side.' They bite for it."

Dean's comments didn't sit well with many conservatives, including Gary Sinise. On Monday, the actor posted a rebuttal to Dean that called out the former governor for making "stupid blanket statements."

"I saw 'American Sniper' and would not consider myself to be an angry person. You certainly have a right to make stupid blanket statements, suggesting that all people who see this film are angry, but how is that helpful sir?" Sinise wrote on his WhoSay page.

"Do you also suggest that everyone at Warner Brothers is angry because they released the film? That Clint Eastwood, Jason Hall, Bradley Cooper, Sienna Miller and the rest of the cast and crew are angry because they made the film? Chris Kyle's story deserved to be told. It tells a story of the stress that multiple deployments have on one military family, a family representative of thousands of military families.

It helps to communicate the toll that the war on terror has taken on our defenders.

Defenders and families who need our support. I will admit that perhaps somewhere among the masses of people who are going to see the film there may be a few that might have some anger or have been angry at some point in their lives, but, with all due respect, what the hell are you talking about?"
read more here

Monster Jam and Heroes Stop Gunmen

Father and son take down gunmen after Monster Jam
Orlando Sentinel
By Tiffany Walden
Staff Writer
January 28, 2015
"If I didn't do something, something bad could've happened," Richie said. "It might not have been the smartest thing, charging a man with a shotgun. But there were a lot of people around. There were kids in that van"


2015 Monster Jam
Grave Digger performs during Monster Jam at the
Orlando Citrus Bowl on Saturday, January 24, 2015.
(Stephen M. Dowell/Orlando Sentinel)


Adrenaline spurred Gary Richie into action when he saw the barrel of a shotgun swing past him and his family while walking to their car after Saturday's Monster Jam in Orlando.

The alleged gun-toter, Cory Gathings, was walking toward a minivan that he and his friend Stephen Page had just sideswiped while driving down West South Street near South Norton Avenue just before 10 p.m.

Unsure of what would happen after Gathings made it to the minivan, Richie and his 35-year-old son Jacob sprang into action.

"I basically bear-hugged [Gathings] and pushed him into the open door of his pickup truck," Richie, 54, said Monday. "We pushed him into the seat of the truck and grabbed the gun."

Gathings and Page, both 21, were later arrested and charged with aggravated assault with a firearm.
Richie, a former U.S. airman and police officer, said he yelled for his family to get back before he and his son tackled Gathings.
read more here

Monday, January 26, 2015

Brockton VA Employee Found Body on Grounds

Body found on grounds of Brockton VA hospital
The Enterprise
By Maria Papadopoulos
Posted Jan. 26, 2015

BROCKTON – No foul play is suspected after a man was found dead on Brockton veterans hospital property on Sunday morning, authorities said.

The man was not a patient of the veterans hospital, and his identity was not released Sunday pending notification of his family, Assistant District Attorney Bridget Norton Middleton said Sunday night.

“It does not appear to be suspicious,” Middleton said of his death.

A VA Boston Healthcare System employee discovered the body about 9:10 a.m. Sunday outdoors on the VA property, in the area of Lot 14, said Middleton.

VA spokeswoman Pallas Wahl said the body was found on VA property in “an outside shelter,” or a covered area, similar to a bus stop, that protects people from the weather.

Brockton police responded to the scene but said that VA police were handling the investigation because it is on federal property.

A VA statement released Sunday said, “A collaborative investigation with state and local agencies is currently underway.”
read more here