Inspirational Double Amputee Marine Has Dream Wedding Day

Double-Amputee U.S. Marine Veteran Weds in Oceanside
NBC Los Angeles
By Todd Strain and Monica Garske
April 1, 2017

Veteran United States Marine Cpl. Chris Van Etten married Samantha Yovandich Saturday in the wedding of their dreams, thanks to a program called "Vows for Vets"

A United States Marine veteran who lost both of his legs while serving in Afghanistan walked down the aisle Saturday to the love of his life during a beautiful wedding ceremony in Oceanside.

Vibrant spring flowers, lace table cloths and, of course, a gorgeous white gown, filled the Paradise Falls event venue in Oceanside, all for the wedding of veteran U.S. Marine Cpl. Chris Van Etten and his bride, Samantha Yovandich.

Their wedding story is one that involves tragedy, love and generosity.

The ceremony was a gift from Paradise Falls owners Al and Cathie Ransom. Once a year, the couple helps veterans by gifting weddings to wounded warriors through a program called "Vows for Vets."
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Iraq Veteran Paid Tribute to WWI Veterans

Iraq War vet pays tribute to his World War I brothers in arms
The Morning Call
Will Scheihing
April 1, 2017

The brittle, yellowed postcard shows a crowd gathered in their Sunday best for a welcome home parade honoring the husbands, sons and brothers who served in World War I. A banner strung across Pennsylvania Avenue in Pen Argyl proclaims "History will honor you always."

For Bill Casamassima, an Iraq War veteran and former high school history teacher, that sentiment became a mission.

"It was a major war," Casamassima said, postcard in hand. "I didn't want the guys to be forgotten."

That mission led him on dozens of forays into Slate Belt cemeteries to unlock the lives of the men who served in the war America entered 100 years ago this week.

In his Pen Argyl home recently, Casamassima opened a thick ring binder in which he has listed the names, gleaned from gravestones, of local men who served. Casamassima thought he would discover 70 to 80 gravestones, what he found stunned him — 703.
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WWII Veteran Hero Carl Clark Passed Away

East Palo Alto: Veteran whose heroic deeds went unrecognized for six decades dead at 100
Mercury News
Jason Green
April 1, 2017

The captain “could not recognize me in the battle report because we had that vicious bigotry,” Clark said in an interview with this newspaper in 2012. He added that he was thrown in the brig, the ship’s holding cell, on two occasions for “acting like a white man.”

Carl Clark, 95, speaks after being awarded The Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal with the Combat Distinguishing Device at Moffett Field in Mountain View on Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2012. Clark, a World War II veteran, was honored Tuesday for his heroism on May, 3, 1945, when he helped save his destroyer, the USS Aaron Ward, during a kamikaze attack.

(Kirstina Sangsahachart/ Daily News)

EAST PALO ALTO — Friends, family and military personnel gathered Friday to pay tribute to the late Carl E. Clark, a U.S. Navy veteran from Menlo Park who had to wait more than 65 years for formal recognition of his heroism on the front lines of World War II.

Clark died March 16 at the Menlo Park division of the VA Palo Alto Health Care System. He was 100 years old.

Clark, an African-American, received the Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal at a ceremony in January 2012, six decades after he shrugged off a broken collarbone to douse fires and drag his fellow sailors to safety amidst a harrowing kamikaze attack on the USS Aaron Ward.

Although the captain personally thanked Clark, his actions were excluded from the official record.
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Man Plead Guilty Burying Wife Under WWII Veteran's Grave

Colorado woman's remains found under grave of WWII veteran
Associated Press
Thomas Peipert
April 1, 2017

"For 7,826 days, 3 hours and 22 minutes, the location of Tina's remains has been a mystery," Weld County District Attorney Michael Rourke said in a news release Friday.

DENVER — A Colorado man who pleaded guilty Friday to killing his estranged wife more than two decades ago recently led authorities to her body, which was buried under the grave of a World War II veteran.

John Sandoval, 52, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to 25 years in prison for the 1995 death of Kristina Tournai-Sandoval.

As part of a plea deal, he told investigators March 22 the remains were buried at a Greeley cemetery.
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Disabled Marine Veteran Family Gets New Home After Losing Daughter to Bullies

Marine family to receive keys to new home with a heavy heart
KXAN News
By Lauren Lanmon
Published: March 31, 2017

NEW BRAUNFELS, Texas (KXAN) – A New Braunfels Marine and his family will be handed the keys to a new home on Monday all thanks to the Helping a Hero organization.

Master Sergeant Blaine Scott joined the Marine Corps in 1992. In 2006, during his second deployment to Iraq, Scott was severely injured in an IED blast.

“Forty percent of my body burned. I had a severe left ankle break,” said Scott.

His injures make it difficult to get around his current home, so three years ago he applied for a new one through Helping a Hero.

“We are so excited, my wife and I, we feel very fortunate for this to happen to us,” said Scott.

For years, Scott and his family have opened their home to other wounded veterans. Scott says his new home has an extra room specifically built to house veterans who are going through a tough situation. “You still find those one or two guys that have nothing wrong with them and it’s deep inside and you say ‘hey man, I’ve had these issues too, let’s talk about it,’” he said.

However, the deepest wound for Scott didn’t happen in 2006, it happened just last year. “She was being bullied in school and we didn’t realize how bad it was,” said Scott.

In August, Scott’s daughter committed suicide.
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Gulf War Disabled Army Veteran Helped by army from Caring Community

Community rallies to save property of Army veteran
WY Daily.com
By Andrew Harris
March 31, 2017

“It’s such a weight off,” Winn said through tears after hearing the news Friday. “When my father left me the land, I knew it was important to keep it.”

Thanks to donations from the Williamsburg community, Army veteran Kimberly Winn will be able to keep land that has been in her family for five generations.

Kimberly Winn will be able to keep her land as the result of a community effort to raise her funds. (Andrew Harris/WYDaily)

WYDaily reported Thursday that Winn was delinquent more than $2,400 in fees associated with her two-acre Toano property. The veteran of the first Gulf War had until Friday to pay off her delinquency.

She would see the property head to auction if she failed to pay off her debt to the James City County’s Treasurer’s Office.

In one day, from Thursday morning into Friday, community citizens raised more than the amount needed to pay off Winn’s debt.
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Professor Blames Media for Tweet He Sent About Soldier?

The jerk decided to send a Tweet about how he felt. Not bad enough he actually feels that way, but when he was confronted for his actions, he turned around and blamed the media?

Professor tweets ‘trying not to vomit’ when person gives seat to soldier
FOX 8 News
BY CNNWIRE
MARCH 31, 2017

PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania — A Drexel University professor tweeted that he was “trying not to vomit or yell about Mosul” after he watched a first-class passenger give up his seat for a uniformed soldier on an airplane.

Many on Twitter responded to the professor’s comments with anger and outrage.

George Ciccariello, associate professor of politics and global studies, posted the tweet Sunday on his private Twitter account. CNN obtained his tweet from a retweet someone else posted publicly on the social media platform.

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Murder-Suicide Claims Life of 7 Year Old and Veteran Dad

Father, son dead in Longview murder-suicide
The boy was a 1st grader at Northlake Elementary School
KOIN 6 News Staff
Published: March 30, 2017

A statement from the Lower Columbia Community Action Program said Pittore-Montiel had overcome many obstacles in his life. Staff said he grew up in foster care and was homeless after being discharged from the military

LONGVIEW, Wash. (KOIN) — A man and his son were found dead in what investigators determined was a murder-suicide in Longview Thursday morning.

David Pittore-Montiel and his son were found dead in an apparent murder-suicide in Longview on March 30, 2017. (LinkedIn photo) David Michael Pittore-Montiel was 34 and his son, Michael, was 7 years old. Neighbors told KOIN Pittore-Montiel was a single father. The boy’s mother lives in California.

Longview police received a call about a suicidal man around 5:30 a.m. Thursday and responded to the apartment in the 900 block of 8th Avenue. Officers heard shots when they got to the door and found the man and child dead inside.
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Was Pot Study for PTSD Designed to Fail?

Hopkins was ready to test pot as a treatment for PTSD. Then it quit the study
Washington Post
By Aaron Gregg
March 31 at 3:43 PM

One of the lead researchers from MAPS recently did just that, in a PBS report that said the government-grown marijuana provided for the study was of poor quality and contaminated with mold. Hopkins quit the study two days later.

Marijuana provided by the federal government to a team of researchers studying whether the drug should be used to treat veterans with PTSD. (Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies)

Eighteen months after joining a study on using marijuana to treat post-traumatic stress disorder, Johns Hopkins University has pulled out without enrolling any veterans, the latest setback for the long-awaited research.

A Johns Hopkins spokeswoman said the university’s goals were no longer aligned with those of the administrator of the study, the Santa Cruz, Calif.-based Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS). A spokesman for MAPS said the dispute was over federal drug policy and whether to openly challenge federal rules that say medical cannabis research must rely on marijuana grown by the federal National Institute on Drug Abuse.
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Houston VA Puts Focus on Female Veterans PTSD Through Art

Houston VA Hospital Hosts Art Exhibit Showcasing Paintings By Female Veterans
Houston Public Media
AL ORTIZ
POSTED ON MARCH 31, 2017

Lopez is in the process of being discharged due to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and says painting has been therapeutic in her journey to cope with the horrors of war.

Texas has the highest population of women veterans in the country and doing artistic work is one of the strategies some of them use to ease the transition to civilian life.

The Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center has hosted an exhibit this month showing some of their paintings.

Natalie Lopez, a San Antonio native, is the author of one of the pieces.

Actually her painting, which is titled “Forever unfit puzzle” and depicts a soldier in distress, was one of 10 that won a nationwide contest organized by the Veteran Artist Program and the VA’s Center for Women Veterans.

“Painting helps me release stress, just like the gym for most people,” Lopez, who was deployed in Afghanistan in 2007 and Iraq in 2008 and is now stationed in Abilene, told Houston Public Media.
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