Vietnam Veteran Saved By EMS and Good Samaritan

Vietnam veteran survives stroke thanks to quick EMS response, mysterious Good Samaritan
FOX 5 DC
By: Anjali Hemphill
July 1, 2016

Frankino said this was his third time in his life he has come close to death. A few years ago, he survived cancer. And back in 1967 during the Vietnam War, he was aboard the USS Forrestal. He was part of the crew that helped put out a huge fire on that ship that killed 143 men.

WASHINGTON - A Vietnam veteran visiting Washington D.C. for the Fourth of July came face-to-face with death after having a stroke. His family said if it wasn't for some amazing doctors, the EMS team and a complete stranger, he may not have survived.

Joe Frankino is recovering at George Washington University Hospital surrounded by several family members.
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Homeless Vietnam Veteran Not Forgotten or Nameless

Donor Buys Headstone for Homeless Vietnam Veteran
KRGV 5 ABC News
Posted: Jul 01, 2016

“Gregory” was found dead behind a convenience store. It wasn’t until after his death that the Raymondville community found out who “Gregory” really was. His name was Kent Karl Kauten. He was from Wisconsin and a veteran of the U.S. Navy.

RAYMONDVILLE — A Vietnam veteran will now be forever remembered in Raymondville. An anonymous donor bought a headstone for a homeless man buried in the city cemetery.

Until Friday, the grave was marked with a small, simple, not-so-permanent marker.

“We’d see him every day for five years panhandling at our streets, and we didn't know him. He was like an unknown soldier,” said VFW Commander George Solis.

Solis said the man would’ve been buried as a John Doe if it hadn’t been for a group of five Raymondville teens.

In 2013, CHANNEL 5 NEWS reported about a duo that was part of a church group that was doing a project on poverty. They interviewed the man with a shopping cart, who seemed to live under the highway over pass. The man called himself “Gregory.”

“We knew ‘Gregory’ as the man under the bridge, the homeless man who pushed around a cart,” said Ralia Cortinas, a member of the church group.
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Army Chaplain--Priest With PTSD Tossed by Church?

Priest with PTSD serves last day — for now — at Holy Trinity
Poughkeepsie Journal
Nina Schutzman
July 1, 2016

Repenning has acknowledged that he has PTSD from his time serving overseas, but said it does not interfere with his work in the church.

              Father Robert Repenning, a pastor at Church of the Holy Trinity in Poughkeepsie, gives                                    ashes to Jacob Morrison of LaGrange at a 12:30 p.m. mass on Ash Wednesday.                                         (Photo: Alex H. Wagner/Poughkeepsie Journal)

A Dutchess County priest, who said his job was threatened because of his Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, served his last day — for now — at the Holy Trinity Church in Poughkeepsie. 

The Rev. Robert Repenning, who served as an Army chaplain in the Iraq War, has said his five-year position at the Catholic parish was threatened by the Archdiocese of New York over the alleged severity of his PTSD, according to Journal archives.

On Wednesday, the archdiocese sent a letter to Repenning's parishioners, many of whom have been fighting for him to stay.
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Contractors Evaluate VA Claims?

Notice the word "contractor" and not employee? Notice that this involves "Congress" since they have had jurisdiction over how our veterans are taken care of since 1946?

Lawmakers Push Veterans Affairs to Reevaluate Contracts for Medical Disability Examinations

Veterans Evaluation Services July 1, 2016

WASHINGTON, July 1, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Veterans Evaluation Services (VES), a national and international provider of medical disability examination (MDE) services for veterans, announced that U.S. lawmakers have called on the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to reevaluate contracts that lack proper competition, which could slow down the delivery of disability benefits for veterans.

Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX), Rep. Ted Poe (R-TX) and Rep. Bill Flores (R-TX) individually wrote to the VA to highlight that several recently awarded contracts, which were to be made to two separate companies to ensure competition, were actually awarded to QTC and VetFed, which are "essentially one entity," Flores wrote.

VA awarded 12 contracts in March, totaling $6.8 billion for the enterprise-wide Medical Disability Examination Program under its Public Law 104-275, aiming for a major step forward in improving the disability examinations experience for veterans. Two firms in each district would be awarded these contracts and each would receive a guaranteed 35 percent of the MDEs in that district. QTC and VetFed received the majority of the awards, though VetFed refers its evaluations to QTC, negating competition, Poe wrote in his letter. QTC is a unit of Lockheed Martin.

"Our veterans deserve nothing less than the best MDE services that the VA can arrange, and robust and transparent competition in all Districts will ensure that the VA is able to deliver the best in MDE service to our Veterans," Poe wrote.

VES has filed a protest with the General Accounting Office (GAO) regarding the contract awards in the districts involving QTC and VetFed, and expects a decision in July.

In their letters, Poe and Flores also note that VES was the only bidder that received a rating of "Excellent" in every criteria considered by the VA. VES' timeliness is currently around 15-days, while QTC and VetFed have been around 40 days, Poe and Flores note.read more here

Sixteen Veterans Charged For VA Fraud

Charges filed against 16 veterans for hospital fraud
Citizen Times
Abigail Margulis
July 1, 2016

“Unfortunately, these 16 individuals allegedly decided to lie and make some extra cash by padding their travel vouchers. We simply cannot allow this type of fraud, waste and abuse to go on and we will prosecute anyone who steals money from a program put in place to provide much-needed assistance to our country’s veterans.”

ASHEVILLE – The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Asheville filed federal charges against 16 individuals that defrauded the U.S. Department of Veteran’s Affairs by submitting fraudulent travel vouchers for reimbursements, U.S. Attorney Jill Westmoreland Rose announced Thursday.

According to allegations stated in filed court documents, several veterans submitted false reimbursements for travel expenses on mileage they incurred when traveling from their home to the Charles George Veterans Affairs Medical Center (VAMC) on Tunnel Road.

Under certain circumstances, veterans with service-connected disabilities can be reimbursed for travel expenses. In order to claim mileage reimbursement, eligible veterans must go to the Travel Benefits Office at the VAMC and provide information about the distance traveled. Then, the veteran obtains a voucher that they can submit to receive for their reimbursement.

This program exists to help ease the financial burden that military veterans can often face to access good medical care, Rose said.
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Day After PTSD Awareness Month Rip Van Winkle Still Sleeping

PTSD Awareness Six Years Later Little Changed
Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
July 2, 2016

We can keep talking about raising awareness all we want but after six years of PTSD Awareness Months being dedicated by the Congress, veterans are still not aware their last worst day did not have to end their lives.

After all the talk about raising awareness the public knows just about as much as Rip Van Winkle did about current events in his time.  

“If he couldn’t make it, what chance do I have?” Manny Bojorquez

Of about 1,200 Marines who deployed with the 2/7 in 2008, at least 13 have killed themselves, two while on active duty, the rest after they left the military. The resulting suicide rate for the group is nearly four times the rate for young male veterans as a whole and 14 times that for all Americans.
In Unit Stalked by Suicide, Veterans Try to Save One Another New York Times Dave Philipps September 2015

VA Suicide Report 2012 While that report was from just 21 states, the follow up was from 23 states. Even with that reporters jumped on the "22 a day" leaving the American public to think they learned anything. What they learned was wrong. Too much was missed because it was far too easy to just grab a headline than to think much about any of this.  

And now you can see that very little has changed other than more veterans are now in their graves because a lie was allowed to live, folks gained financially claiming to be doing something and these veterans did not hear what they needed to know. The fact they can heal and do not have to suffer was something they never knew.

As you can see, the majority of veterans committing suicide are over the age of 50 in the VA system and among veterans who do not go to the VA. But we do not talk about them. Why not? 

Why have all the newer charities popping up all over the country go on unchallenged? Why do members of Congress get a pat on the back for repeating what has already failed our veterans?

Why do they get to keep saying "22 a day" and use "veterans" even though they do not do anything for the older veterans suffering long with the same wounds the newer veterans have? Why are they cast aside?

This is Independence weekend.  Monday we are supposed to be celebrating freedom but if folks bother to reflect on how that happened, they would not feel much like celebrating.  The price paid by those who put their lives on the line is far too great of a price to pay for fireworks and BBQ.

Winn Dixie, a grocery chain, is promoting a charity, Hope for the Warriors.  Not bad until you actually hear the commercial about our independence and then discover this group is about post-9-11 veterans and not all the others who put their lives on the line for generations.

The Independence Day donation program is a venture of Southeastern Grocers, Winn Dixie's parent company. More than 700 Winn Dixie grocery stores across the Southeastern states will participate. Last year's profit donation drive raised more than $3 million for veterans.

The charity they picked last year was Wounded Warrior Project, when they ran the same type of commercial making folks think it was all about all our veterans instead of a few.

There is nothing wrong with supporting a charity that has a particular focus. It is wrong when it is publicized as being all about veterans in general.

The worst thing in all of this is that Vietnam veterans had to come home and start their own group because no one else wanted them. The established charities turned them away. Now they head the DAV, VFW and American Legion.

Forgotten warrior veterans were responsible for all the research done on PTSD but are the last to matter in the reports focused on PTSD.  They are the last to matter when they are the majority of the claims in the VA system. They are the last to matter to raising awareness to the communities they live in.

So when you think about donating to a charity for the sake of our veterans on Independence Day, how about you do it with open eyes and learn how many have been forgotten?

 Department of Veterans Affairs War Statistics

Add those deaths together and you arrive at 90,320 but all you know is that there are over 58,000 names on the Vietnam Memorial Wall. While the dates are the "acknowledged" years of the Vietnam War, the first name on that wall was, 

Richard B. Fitzgibbon, of North Weymouth, Mass. is listed by the U.S. Department of Defense as having a casualty date of June 8, 1956. His name is listed on the Wall with that of his son, Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Richard B. Fitzgibbon III, who has a casualty date of Sept. 7, 1965.

Boise VA Helping PTSD Veterans Change Their Tune

Local nonprofit fights veteran suicides with music
KIVI ABC 6 News
Lacey Darrow
Jul 1, 2016

Thousands of our veterans suffer from post traumatic stress disorder. More troops have committed suicide since the Vietnam War than have died in war. 

But for some, hope is being found behind the wood and strings of a guitar.

Every Monday night, a group of veterans gathers at the VA in Boise to play guitar and talk about life.

With this group of heroes, it is not about how good you are, it is about changing your tune.

They are all different veterans, from different wars, who suffer from PTSD, physical injuries or other emotional distress. They use music as a form of healing.
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 ***REMINDER: It is not "22 a day" and is much higher. Veterans are committing suicide double the civilian population and the majority are over 50 years old.

Stolen Valor: Fake Arrested For Third Time

Man poses as Army veteran to get jobs Used forge document and Purple Heart license plate
ABC Action News
Erik Waxler
Jun 30, 2016

Records show Lang has been arrested twice before for the same thing.

Norm Giunta served in the Navy and, when he has the chance, he hires veterans to work for Bella Pool Service.

“If I can teach them a trade depending on their aptitude. We’ll move them up in pay as well as knowledge and give them more responsibility,” he said.

That’s why Guinta was glad to hire Stephen Lang, seen in his latest mug shot wearing a t-shirt that reads "veteran."

“He was in dire need of employment. And me being a veteran myself, I felt compelled to give him a shot,” Guinta said.

Guinta said Lang claimed to be an Army veteran who not only served in Afghanistan and Iraq but was injured in combat.

“He did show me his toe. It looked like it was quite deformed. He said that he also had two bullets logged in his spine,” he said.
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Vietnam Veteran Handcycles Back Hope

After Bitter Decades, a Wounded Vietnam Veteran Handcycles Back to Hope
New York Times
By NOAH REMNICK
JULY 1, 2016

“When I’m riding, it’s like I’m finally free,” he said. “I can forget about all of my problems and just feel the breeze on my face. Nothing else matters.”

You would be forgiven if, one of these afternoons in Central Park, you failed to notice a cyclist named William Alvarez. He’s easily lost amid the whirl of riders and runners, and of course there is the matter of his considerable velocity, 12.5 miles per hour on average.

When he stops, though, for a drink of water or a red light, a few of his trademarks come into focus. First is the fact that Mr. Alvarez is not riding a bike, but a three-wheeled recumbent handcycle. Next you might notice the trio of flags flapping behind him in the wind: one for the United States, one for the United States Army and one for prisoners of war. And then there is the oversize sack strapped to the rear of his cycle, where he stashes a pair of beige-colored carbon fiber legs.

Though Mr. Alvarez rides with the commitment of a lifelong devotee, this routine once seemed unimaginable. As a soldier during the war in Vietnam, Mr. Alvarez, now 71, lost both his legs in a land mine explosion, an episode that set off decades of severe depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Last year, however, Mr. Alvarez resolved to break the cycle of solitude and torment that had consumed him for half a century. Handcycling, he says, has provided him with a newfound resilience and autonomy. These days he rides at least five times a week, typically 20 to 30 miles a trip, as he trains to compete in the New York City Marathon this fall.
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Neighbors Choice on 4th of July PTSD Veterans Do Not Get One?

'Sounds of war' make celebrating freedom tough for local vets
The Leaf Chronicle
Ayrika L. Whitney
July 1, 2016

In his neighborhood close to home — where he is not always expecting it — is another story.

Retired 1st Sgt. John Brown served in the Army for 23 years and has served in four combat tours in Desert Storm, Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom. He has been in therapy for his PTSD for 10 years.
(Photo: Ayrika Whitney / The Leaf-Chronicle)

CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. — Independence Day makes most think of fireworks, cookouts and long weekends spent with friends and family.

The loud booms and cracks the fireworks make usually bring "oohs" and "ahhs" from the crowd as expressions of delight light up their faces.

But for others in Clarksville, the fireworks can bring back flashbacks of war-torn countries and memories of gunfire and combat. Most of those people are the same ones who fought to preserve the freedoms the holiday celebrates – veterans who are affected by post-traumatic stress disorder.

Some spend days or weeks preparing mentally to withstand the typical holiday barrage of fireworks.

According to U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Vietnam veterans are the most likely to suffer from PTSD with an estimated 30% experiencing the disorder at some point in their lifetimes.

Army retired 1st Sgt. John Brown still enjoys the 4th of July fireworks — on his own terms.

Brown saw combat in Desert Storm, Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom and served for 23 years before retiring in 2011. He served four tours in combat.

He will go to fireworks shows with his family this time of year, and for him the awareness that he is in an environment with loud noises makes a difference.
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