Corporal John M. Dawson Medical Clinic Remembers "Doc"

Fort Campbell’s 3rd Brigade Combat Team holds ceremony naming Medical Clinic after fallen medic
Clarksville Online
Written by Capt. Charles Emmons
3rd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (AA) Public Affairs
September 25, 2015

“I could always see the love his fellow Soldiers felt for him here on the OB and out on patrols,” said Curl. “After we lost Doc, you could see it in all of their faces. He will forever be in all of our hearts, and we will be better people because we knew him.”

Gen. John F. Campbell, commander of Resolute Support and U.S. Forces Afghanistan, shakes hands with 3rd BCT, 101st Airborne Division Soldiers present for the dedication of a medical clinic named for their fallen platoon medic, Sept. 17th, 2015, in eastern Afghanistan.
(Capt. Charles Emmons, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (AA) Public Affairs)

Jalalabad, Afghanistan – Service members gathered in eastern Afghanistan September 17th, to celebrate the life of Cpl. John Dawson and honor his memory by dedicating a medical facility in his name.

The 1st Squadron, 33rd Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) hosted the ceremony, which was attended by leadership from 3rd BCT; Train, Advise, Assist, Command-East; and Resolute Support. The short event included a speech from Lt. Col. Jason Curl, commander of 1st Squadron, 33rd Cavalry Regiment “Men of War,” and an official unveiling of the plaque and sign for the Corporal John M. Dawson Medical Clinic.
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Did Fort Bragg Soldier With PTSD Get Justice?

NEW MOTIONS, HEARING IN FORT BRAGG SOLDIER'S SHOOTING CASE
ABC News
By Nicole Carr
September 24, 2015

FAYETTEVILLE (WTVD) -- Attorneys for a Fort Bragg soldier convicted for opening fire on local first responders are asking military and civilian courts to lighten their punishments.

Staff Sergeant Joshua Eisenhauer, 34, is serving an 18 year sentence for shooting at Fayetteville police and firefighters during a 2012 standoff in his apartment complex. Eisenhauer's defense team has argued the soldier was going through an episode tied to PTSD. Military health officials have disagreed with civilian doctors, citing substance abuse as the issue ailing the young soldier.

Eisenhauer, who was sentenced in Cumberland County last month, will face a military separation board on October 8. His military defense attorney Todd Conormon plans to request the Fort Bragg board to allow him to finish his service agreement instead of discharging him.
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Help For Formerly Incarcerated Vets

DOL-VETS Announces $1.6 Million to Help Formerly Incarcerated Vets Return to Work, Avoid Homelessness

Sept. 23, 2015

WASHINGTON — Supporting the president's goal to eliminate homelessness among U.S. military veterans, the U.S. Department of Labor's Veterans' Employment and Training Service today announced the award of $1.5 million in grants to help once-incarcerated veterans considered "at-risk" of becoming homeless. In all, seven grants will serve more than 650 formerly incarcerated veterans in six states.

"Everyone deserves a second chance, especially the men and women who have sacrificed for our country," said U.S. Secretary of Labor Thomas E. Perez. "The Incarcerated Veterans Transition Program (IVTP) opens doors for veterans who may have struggled but who want to return to America's workforce. Today's grants will help these veterans become valuable contributors to the nation's economic recovery and our society."

The Incarcerated Veterans Transition Program grants will provide referral and counseling services to assist in reintegrating and/or transitioning formerly incarcerated veterans considered "at-risk" of becoming homeless to meaningful employment. The funds will also support the development of methods to address the complex problems facing these veterans. The program's design is flexible, to enable it to address national, regional and/or local issues that prevent once-incarcerated veterans from returning to the workforce.

The grant recipients and award amounts are as follows:

• Veterans Multi-Service Center | Philadelphia, Pa. | $223,937
• Goodwill Industries of Houston | Houston, Texas | $300,000
• Volunteers of America of Los Angeles | Los Angeles, Calif. | $300,000
• Impact Services Corporation | Philadelphia, Pa. | $300,000
• United States Veterans Initiative | Las Vegas, Nev. | $110,000
• The Workplace Inc. | Bridgeport, Conn. | $129,565
• Aletheia House, Inc. | Birmingham, Ala. | $160,704

For more information on these grants, visit http://www.dol.gov/vets/.

Comcast Military and Veteran Affairs?

Carol Eggert Joins Comcast as Vice President, Military and Veteran Affairs
9/24/2015

PHILADELPHIA) -- Comcast Corporation today announced that Carol Eggert has joined the company as Vice President, Military and Veteran Affairs. In this newly created role that was announced earlier this year, Ms. Eggert reports jointly to Dave Watson, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer for Comcast Cable and Ian Trombley, President Operations and Technical Services, NBCUniversal.

Ms. Eggert will work collaboratively across Comcast NBCUniversal to provide strategic leadership to all aspects of programs and outreach engaging the military and veteran community, including recruiting, hiring and building talent at all levels of the organization.

“Carol is a highly respected role model and leader in both the military and civilian community, and we are thrilled she has joined our company,” said Mr. Watson. “Our commitment to supporting veterans and those who continue to serve in the military, and their families, is represented through our focus on recruiting and hiring.

From January 2012 through March 2015, the company hired approximately 4,200 veterans, and in May 2015 committed to hire an additional 10,000 reservists, veterans and their spouses or domestic partners over the next three years. Carol is a tremendous addition to our team, and I look forward to working with her as we create opportunities for those who have served our country.”
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Recovery Fellowship Raises Awareness of Healing PTSD

Over the past couple of weeks there have been several broadcasts on what veterans really need to made aware of with PTSD. The fact they can heal is often left out of the conversations you read about online.

The other omission has more to do with healing the spirit/soul and that has to come from a place of faith. I'm not talking about a physical place where people go to sit. I am talking about what sits inside of them.

John Broderick President and Co-Founder of Anew Ministries Co-Founder Recovery Fellowship
interviewed Jay Magee and me about what Point Man International Ministries does and why it works.

It isn't about the problem as much as it is about finding the path to healing.

Ret Lt. Col. Jay Magee Part 1 PMIM Colorado
Ret Lt. Col. Jay Magee Part 2
Kathie Costos Part 1 PTSD and Healing PMIM Florida
Kathie Costos Part 2 PTSD and Healing

I hope that you find what you need to understand what PTSD is and know that you can heal.

Chiropractic Clinic Kept Veterans Spinning Over PTSD

Oversight for vet research project raises questions
Chiropractors defend work but critics say it fell short
The Dallas Morning News
By Sue Ambrose | Staff Writer and Scott Gordon | NBC5
Published September 23, 2015

“Poor studies are funded when you subvert the peer review process,” said Carl Castro, a retired Army colonel and psychologist at the University of Southern California.

Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry urged Dr. Kyle Janek, the man he picked to head the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, to look into the Carrick Brain Centers' PTSD treatment for veterans.
(AP Photo/Eric Gay)

Government agencies typically fund a research proposal only after experts have concluded it has merit — and that the researchers have the training to carry it out. But Dr. Kyle Janek turned that process upside down when he headed the Texas Health and Human Services Commission.

Janek decided to fund an Irving chiropractic clinic that wanted to treat veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder with a spinning chair.

The contract, signed in December 2013, called for “research and analysis.” Ultimately, Carrick Brain Centers’ Irving clinic treated 140 veterans, and the state paid out more than $2 million. But experts say the results fell far short of what a medical research project is expected to produce.

Janek, presented with those criticisms, recently described the clinic’s work as a “pilot project” — something that is typically less ambitious in scope, involves fewer patients and costs significantly less than a full-blown research project.

If the clinic’s work was just a pilot project, one expert said, the state spent too much money and got precious little for it.

The clinic won an $800,000 contract in December 2013 to test its PTSD treatment. That included time in the chair, a procedure the clinic said could activate the brain’s balance system and relieve veterans’ PTSD symptoms.
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Here's part one

Iraq Veteran MP Died During Standoff

Man involved in Sunday shooting was military policeman, Fort Gordon officials say
Augusta Chronicle
By Travis Highfield Staff Writer
Sept. 23, 2015

A man shot by a state ranger before turning a gun on himself Sunday was a military policeman assigned to Fort Gordon, officials confirmed.

In a statement from the installation’s Public Affairs Office, officials said that Sgt. David Sean Owens, 28, of Montgomery, Ala., had belonged to the 35th Military Police Detachment, a criminal investigations unit. He entered service in July 2007 and served as a military policeman in Hawaii from July 2008 to August 2011, according to the release. He served a tour of duty in Iraq from July 2009 to July 2010 before arriving at Fort Gordon in October 2011.

Five witnesses, including at least one deputy, said they saw Owens walking along Baker Place Road and past Chaffin. When Chaffin tried to get Owens to get out of the road, Owens pulled out a pistol, chambered a round and pointed the gun at Chaffin, according to the report.

Chaffin shot Owens, who then used his own gun to shoot himself in the head, according to witnesses at the scene. Owens was taken to Doctors Hospital, where he later died.
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Texas PTSD Veterans Spinning in Their Chairs,,,,For Real

Texas taxpayers pay to spin vets in chair
Experts say $2.2 million paid for shoddy PTSD research
By Sue Ambrose | Staff Writer and Scott Gordon | NBC5
Published September 23, 2015

But the clinic still won a no-bid contract. There were virtually no checks and balances on the study. The number of patients grew from about 50 to about 140. The original cost was $800,000 but grew to $2.2 million.

The clinic claimed “remarkable results.”

Scientists say the research was a waste.

The gyrating chair, cocooned inside a gleaming oval capsule, looks like an astronaut’s training device.

Patients spin upside down and sideways after they buckle in. White-coated healers sitting at a computer control the angle and speed.

Aging Dallas Cowboys like Tony Dorsett and Randy White, their brains and bodies battered, said it made them feel better. A retired general said it improved his vision. And a Texas governor with presidential aspirations wanted to use it to treat post-traumatic stress disorder and brain injuries in war heroes.

So the state of Texas said yes, sure, and poured 2 million taxpayer dollars into a study to see whether a spinning chair — described as an “Off Vertical Axis Rotational Device” — could help.

Experts say there was no medical reason to think that spinning traumatized combat veterans upside down could help them — and every reason to think it wouldn’t. Most of the researchers in the study were chiropractors, not medical doctors. They didn’t work at an established research lab, but at the Carrick Brain Centers, a chiropractic clinic in Irving that opened its doors about six months before the state funding began.
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Illinois Veteran Homes May Not Be Able to Feed Elderly Veterans?

Just another reminder, sometimes it is the fault of your local government.

Illinois Department of Veterans' Affairs says some food vendors suspending service at veterans homes
State Journal Register
By Doug Finke, State Capitol Bureau
Posted Sep. 23, 2015

The state's Department of Veterans' Affairs confirmed Wednesday that some food vendors for the agency's veterans homes have said they may have to suspend deliveries because of the state's ongoing budget problems.

The agency said it is working to find alternative suppliers to ensure that food service is not interrupted to the four homes the state operates.

"There are vendors who either have, or may have to suspend deliveries in the future," Veterans' Affairs spokesman Ryan Yantis said in a prepared statement. "For those vendors, alternate solutions have been identified to ensure the homes receive needed supplies and services to continue to provide care to residents."

Yantis said that includes finding other companies willing to supply the homes with food products. However, Sen. John Sullivan, D-Rushville, whose district includes the veterans home in Quincy, said that could prove to be difficult.

"I would think that would be a pretty difficult job of finding somebody if one company's not going to do it because they're not going to get paid," Sullivan said. "It's going to be difficult to find somebody else to come in and do the same job and still not get paid."
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DoD Prepares for Possible Shutdown

DoD Prepares for Possible Shutdown as Congress Wrestles with Budget
Stars and Stripes
Travis J. Tritten
September 24, 2015

WASHINGTON -- The Defense Department was preparing this week for a possible shutdown with just days left for Congress to solve an entrenched federal budget impasse.

Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said Tuesday that hope remains that lawmakers will strike a deal to fund the government when the fiscal year ends Sept. 30 and insisted the situation was not yet dire enough to warn defense employees of the potential fallout.

On Capitol Hill, Republicans in the Senate were set to float a short-term budget Thursday that could fund the government until December, but its future remained uncertain as the GOP battles Democrats over Planned Parenthood.

The government will be left in the lurch without a new budget at the end of the month and some services may be suspended. The last shutdown in 2013 was caused by congressional fights over defunding Obamacare and temporarily sent home more than 800,000 federal workers without pay -- half of those DoD civilians.

“We’re not at that stage right now that we need to be alarming or concerning employees with it," Cook said. "We still believe that there’s time to reach a resolution, but we have to do prudent planning, and the comptroller has been doing that.”
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