Suicide Awareness Must Have Past by Jacob Brown

Pushing "Awareness" Proved You Didn't Really Care About Them!
Combat PTSD Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
January 16, 2018

If you have a problem with the truth, then please don't bother to read this site anymore. If you really want to do what is popular, then you're in the wrong place. You are part of the reason it is as bad for our veterans as it is. 

Instead of sharing all the "22 a day" or "20" number, go back to sharing cat videos and puppies going down stairs. Hey, you can also share your fabulous life and what you want people to know about you. I'm sure they'll be overjoyed with you sharing your lunch pictures again.

Get a clue! If you think fun stunts and repeating slogans stolen from the headline of a reporter, who did not even bother to read the whole report, would change a damn thing, well you're right. You managed to let veterans know, not only did a lot of other veterans give up, but added in the additional fact that all these groups didn't even care they were doing it!

You proved a lot to them.

However, if you want to do the right thing and actually fight to make a difference in the lives of our veterans, please learn what is shared here and then, take action!

What you are about to read is yet one more example of veterans not getting the help they need and families having to face what no one has prepared them for...war coming home.

For all the bullshit about "resilience training" and making sure the families are prepared, you'd need a pay loader to pick it all up for the incinerator instead of  a pooper scooper.

They are coming home without a clue what PTSD is or even the tiniest hope of healing. 

Officer involved shooting report released

Payson Roundup

Alexis Bechman

January 16, 2018

Just minutes after two Gila County Sheriff’s Office deputies arrived at the Beaver Valley home of Jacob Brown, the tormented military veteran suffering from the delusions, paranoia and flares of rage from post traumatic stress disorder lay dead on the ground.

Jacob Brown walking around his Beaver Valley rental before a deadly encounter with GCSO deputies, taken from surveillance cameras.

The tragic confrontation in June between Brown, 35, and Deputy Cole LaBonte, 33, and Sgt. John France, 60, lay rooted in the demons that had stalked Brown for years. He emerged from a home full of his own surveillance cameras with a drawn shotgun to confront the deputies who shouted at him repeatedly to put down the weapons before firing a total of 10 shots, killing Brown on his front porch. Brown did not fire, with the safety still engaged on the shotgun.

The Roundup obtained the Department of Public Safety’s investigation of the shooting, which cleared the two officers of any wrongdoing.

Brown’s wife says her husband had been out of his mind days leading up to the shooting and she had fled the area after he got a strange look in his eyes. 

She knew he was back there. Back in the war. Fighting a battle she could not see or help him overcome.
While he had left the war, it had not left him. 

His struggle to overcome post-traumatic stress disorder ended tragically. It left a family without a father, stamped the start of a young deputy’s career with a tragic shooting and apparently ended the law-enforcement career of a 36-year veteran.

read more here 

Yes, that is a picture of the last moment of Jacob Brown's life in Arizona. He survived combat but did not survive being home. 

Guess all that suicide awareness stuff got past him. Guess it got past his wife. Gee, must have gotten past all the officers left grieving for what they should have never had to do.

Maybe they all missed the "awareness" stunts there?

Here is the mind blowing headline from September 11, 2017

“It’s an epidemic:” Motorcyclists ride to raise awareness about veteran suicides

But they couldn't even get where the number came from. They have it as "Department of Defense instead of Department of Veterans Affairs.  

“They came up with a number in 2012, the Department of Defense," said Bill Byrne, a member of a New York chapter of Rolling Thunder. "22 veterans a day take their lives.”

As for Department of Defense, they never seem to know there are about another 500 a year committing suicide while still in the military or the simple fact that the two departments do not combine numbers! Here is the last suicide report from the DOD up to the first half of last year.

When awareness didn't work, veteran advocate took actionAZFamily-Jun 13, 2017 "We got tired of fighting veteran suicide just through awareness. We can throw all the big banners up. I can carry 22 ribbons every day. We aren't saving any lives. We were just making people aware," said Arthur. "We moved from awareness to actual action." Since that 2015 display, 

Why would he want to stop raising awareness?

Arizona veterans' suicide rate 4 times higher than civilians'

Want to start to make a difference, then go onto the sites of all these groups asking you for money using suicidal veterans to tug at your heart and ask them what are they trying to do. If they didn't take veterans seriously enough to read the damn report, learn any facts, show any kind of research on a subject this serious, then they are not serious about doing anything more than getting publicity for themselves!

People like me have done the research because saving lives, especially these lives required all the effort we could put into it.

Want to know the facts they won't tell you because they did not even bother to check? They need to stop raising awareness without learning first, but guess it wasn't important enough to them. Start learning for them and then ask them why they didn't bother to.

Here is a state by state list of veteran suicides, by ages and if they were able to list Military Service on their death certificates or not. Veterans Day Reminder of the Forgotten Find your state, how many veterans live there and how many the VA knows committed suicide. One more way to discover why the headline number is not even close to the number of hearts that stopped beating.

Here is the link to the report that has how many were kicked out of the military instead of helped. Guess what? They are not counted either! Kicked Out Instead of Helped

Florida First Responders example of wrong way PTSD crash!

Will Florida do the right thing for our First Responders...finally? If we do not acknowledge that this is a wound that comes with the job, then our veterans will think Florida feels the same way about them.

It is a simple question. Do we value those who risk their lives for us or not?

With emotion, legislators and relatives of late firefighters push PTSD bill

Florida Politics

Danny Mculiffe

January 16, 2018

“The numbers don’t lie,” Jimmy Patronis, Florida’s chief financial officer and state marshal said. He cited research from 2015 that showed 15 percent of firefighters had made at least one attempt at suicide during their career, while 46 percent of firefighters had thought about taking their lives.

“Recovering a toddler’s body from the river, pulling bodies from a car that ended up in a canal and carrying a decapitated teen’s body across the sand who was the victim of a shark attack would certainly take a toll on anyone,” Leslie Dangerfield said behind teary eyes.

She was describing the atrocities her husband, Indian River Battalion Chief David Dangerfield, had witnessed before he ultimately took his life. Leading up to her husband’s suicide, Leslie Dangerfield said his behavior had changed. He had succumbed to the “beast of PTSD,” or post-traumatic stress disorder.

Leslie Dangerfield told her story during a press conference Wednesday aiming to alert the public on bills in the Legislature this year that would provide workers’ compensation for first responders suffering from PTSD.

Currently, workers’ compensation laws do not provide for benefits in cases of first responders suffering from mental health-related injuries, unless they are accompanied by physical injury.

The issue has permeated the judiciary branch. 

Compensation Judge Neal Pitts denied workers’ compensation for former Orlando Police officer Gerry Realin last week. Realin responded to the Pulse nightclub shooting, which left 49 massacred and 58 others injured in June 2016.
read more here 

Aurora cop and ex-Marine owes the VA $16K due to a clerical error

He almost died in Iraq. Now, an Aurora cop and ex-Marine owes the VA $16K due to a clerical error.

Chicago Tribune
Denise Crosby
January 14, 2018

Michael Bond knew he'd have a tough time convincing his Marine buddy to accept any form of charity.

So the former Naperville man chose not to tell Aurora Police Officer Joshua Horton about the GoFundMe account he'd set up for him.

Joshua Horton, who was seriously wounded in 2004 in Iraq right before becoming the father of quintuplets, poses for a family photo with the four surviving quints, now 14, his two older children and second wife Aria. (Joshua Horton)

The "Wounded Marine Family Relief" fundraiser was created to help offset a clerical error that was taking away almost $16,000 in disability payments Horton received from the Veterans Administration after being seriously wounded in Iraq. Those VA benefits had been going to Horton's six children — including four surviving quintuplets who had been born in October 2004 at Edward Hospital, even as their father was being flown out of Iraq with life-threatening injuries sustained in a mortar attack.

Bond, who like Horton, had re-enlisted for active duty after 9/11, describes his close friend — they met while serving with Fox Company, 2nd Battalion, 24th Marines — as a "warrior servant" who has "answered the call every time, without hesitation, even when he could have stood down."

Horton could certainly have claimed a hardship leave after finding out his wife Taunacy was pregnant with quintuplets. And still, the Marine sergeant from Oswego remained in Iraq with his platoon, a decision that nearly cost him his life in the small town of Yusufiyah, just southwest of Fallujah.

Horton certainly has paid a high price for his service to country and community. Despite his many wounds that included traumatic brain injury, the Aurora cop made it his goal to return to the police force he loves. A fall he took two years ago, however, while responding to a domestic dispute, injured his back and forced him onto light duty.
read more here

Horror of war and the battles we should be winning

These homefront battles should be won and done
Combat PTSD Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
January 15, 2018

A little while ago I came across this headline.

Horror of war heroes 'tearing families apart' as impact on loved ones goes unrecognised

While an understanding of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has grown in recent years, the secondary trauma is ripping families apart.

Their loved ones came back from the horrors of war as heroes in need of support.But it’s not just service personnel who can suffer in the aftermath of conflicts – it can devastate the lives of their partners and families, too. 

It is from Scottish News on The Daily Record. It looks like they, as well as the rest of the NATO nations have a lot of catching up to do, including the USA.

How is it that when Vietnam veterans came home over 40 years ago and forced this nation to pay attention to what combat did to them, most of what was known has been forgotten?

"Every generation

Blames the one before

And all of their frustrations

Come beating on your door"

In The Living Years

How have we allowed anyone to believe any of this is new? How have we managed to screw it up so badly that OEF and OIF families are believed to be the only ones having to face any of this?

"So we open up a quarrel

Between the present and the past

We only sacrifice the future

It's the bitterness that lasts"

In The Living Years

Stunning for anyone involved in this work all this time because, to tell the truth, I find it all unacceptable and inexcusable.

I got into all of this in 1982, but there is a group, who has my heart and I belong to, doing this work for veterans and their families going back to 1984.

We figured out that healing happens with the triple play of mind, body and spirit, as well as the fact that families were on the front line of this battle they brought home to us.

It is our fight and a lot of us won many battles but have still not won the war only because too many are oblivious to the simple fact they could learn how to defeat PTSD.

Point Man International Ministries knew this way back then. 

Outposts are lead by Christian Vets who care deeply about veterans and their struggles. They fully understand the difficulties associated with returning home after a long and difficult deployment as well as the non-combat experiences. Outposts are places for veterans to talk, share and listen to others who have walked in their shoes. All Vets are welcome regardless of what country they served with and gender is irrelevant as both men and women have served and sacrificed for their respective countries.

And the original Homefront

Homefront groups are lead by Christian mothers, wives and friends of both active duty military and veterans. They provide an understanding ear and caring heart that only those left behind at home can understand. They have experienced the stress of dealing with deployments and the effects of a loved one returning home from war. If you have someone you love deployed or having issues readjusting since coming home get connected with a local group or contact HQ for assistance.

So why hasn't everyone else? Is it because they do not have the ability to discover this or is it because they have more than we ever did to find what they are looking for, but settle for what is easy to find?

"So don't yield to the fortunes

You sometimes see as fate

It may have a new perspective

On a different day

And if you don't give up, and don't give in

You may just be okay"

In The Living Years

People keep saying they are looking for answers. Too many claim they want to reduce suicides. Many more claim to care. When it has all gotten worse, the answer to make it better has been there all along but when I talk to people about becoming leaders, they walk away.

They are not happy with the fact that this is usually supported financially by the leader of the group, simply because we're more about doing the work instead of getting money.

These groups are small groups, and often, one on one, with privacy instead of publicity. One of the reasons I find it impossible to support any of the "awareness raisers" out there, publicizing the heartache and obliterating any chance of someone finding hope again and giving them the power to change the ending.

I keep wondering where all the good Christians are in the Veterans Community and what they are doing when they could be doing this work for the sake of their brothers and families.

I have seen what is unimaginable suffering but also limitless healing to the point where it is actually proof of miracles still happening everyday. To see all these families needlessly suffering, is like a dagger to my soul. I always wonder how an average person like me managed to learn at the library when these families have not even searched for online in the palm of their hand and the cell phone they are never without.

So what exactly do you think you can add to their living years? Want to change the outcome? Then you better start by changing what you put into it!

Kathie Costos DiCesare
Published on Mar 29, 2015

Vietnam veterans said they would never leave one generation behind. They fought for each other and for all generations but have been forgotten. Reporters just don't have time for them or reminding anyone that they waited longer, suffered longer, are the majority of the suicides, attempted suicides and those waiting for claims to be honored by the VA.

Had it not been for them, nothing would have been done on PTSD.

When you watch this video, you'll see that they deserve just as much attention as the newer veterans. The problem is, none of our veterans get enough of anything!

Wounded Female Veteran Saved 500!

‘Molded and crafted by heroes’

Fayetteville Observer
Michael Futch
January 14, 2018 

Sellers, who previously served with the 1st Cavalry Division Sustainment Brigade at Fort Hood, Texas, said she helped save over 500 lives down range in Afghanistan by standing between the suicide bomber and the participants in a Veterans Day run.

India Sellers-Walker received the keys to her newly refurbished 2004 Chevrolet TrailBlazer from a skydiving former Army Golden Knight.

The 70 or so on hand, who witnessed Mike Elliott’s long descent from a darkening cloudy sky, loved it.

On Saturday afternoon, Sellers-Walker, a 26-year-old member of the Fort Bragg Warrior Transition Battalion, received the sports utility vehicle as a gift from Caliber Collision’s Changing Lanes Academy and the U.S. Veterans Corps. The car donation, part of the National Auto Body Council’s Recycled Rides program, was presented to her during a program held under cloudy skies on the parade field outside the Airborne & Special Operations Museum.

“This is a very special gift,” said Larry Keen, who is president of Fayetteville Technical Community College. “It has been molded and crafted by heroes.”

Changing Lanes was developed in partnership with FTCC and Fort Bragg’s Career Skills Program. It is one of the first programs in the nation to provide transitioning service members with training and employment opportunities in the collision repair industry.

The Warrior Transition Battalion nominated Sellers-Walker for the vehicle, which was donated by Jennifer and Mike Burch of Holly Springs.

She said she can use the extra room in it.

Since a Veterans Day suicide bomb attack inside Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan on Nov. 11, 2016, Sellers-Walker has undergone 26 surgeries for the extensive injuries that riddled her body. 
read more here

Learn to survive in the ordinary world

The power to heal PTSD is within you!
Combat PTSD Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
January 15, 2018

There are a lot of songs written about love gone wrong that can apply to what suffering is like for other reasons. When someone writes something to express emotions, it comes from their soul. The deeper the love is, the deeper the pain is.

People who join the military are said to have a lot of qualities. Recruitment slogans grab hold of those inner gifts. The Navy has Forged by Sea and the Air Force has "We do the impossible everyday."

For the Army it is "WE TRAIN. WE ADAPT. WE WIN." Another statement is "We're doctors, scientists, engineers, cyber warriors and combat Soldiers with one mission-protect and preserve our nation. We're highly trained, adaptable and ready for anything. We are U.S. Army Soldiers."

This is from the Marine Corps

"Honor, courage and commitment are the core values that drive the actions of every Marine, but it is the fighting spirit within that ensures victory."

Latch onto that fighting spirit to win your own battle back home! 

EACH STEP FORWARD, A BATTLE WON.

Inside every Marine is a relentless fighting spirit. It stands up for others. It overcomes obstacles both physical and mental, and it does not quit until the battle is won.

Yet none of these recruitment words mention love. Why is it that people find that word is only suppose to mean an ordinary love, that everyone seeks and the lucky find?

When you decide to serve, there is the obvious gift of courage within you. You know you'll have to endure all kinds of hardships. In combat, you fear for your own life, but beyond that, you fear for the lives of those you are with. Your military family means as much to you as your own family in the ordinary world, sometimes...even more than they do. That is love too.

When veterans come home, they gave just about everything they had. They are drained physically and mentally. Trapped between relief of setting foot in the homes they left, and loneliness being separated from the others they fought side by side with.

Back in their small world of home and friends, far from bullets, bombs and blood shed, sooner than later, they face the fact that while they survived combat, it seems harder to survive in the world they thought was ordinary.

If you think about the words from the Marine Corps, it should be obvious that some battles go on long after service. "Inside every Marine is a relentless fighting spirit. It stands up for others. It overcomes obstacles both physical and mental, and it does not quit until the battle is won."

The battles fought in combat, are not fought alone, but with others watching your back, as much as you watch theirs. At home, the battles are not won alone and must be fought with someone at your side.

Most of the time, your family wants to be there for you, but they cannot understand what you need if you do not tell them. Holding your suffering in, makes them search for reasons for the changes they see. All too often, that search leads them to blame themselves for your actions. 

If you know nothing about PTSD, then you may be blaming yourself because you do not understand it. If you do not understand it, then how do you expect people in your life to be able to?  If you think you've become evil, how do you expect those who care about you to not agree with you if that is all they see from you?

Learn what PTSD is from the experts and not from social media. Invest the time to train to be a better veteran as much as you trained to be a better service member.

Keep in mind, they were not trained to fight what came home within you. They have no way of knowing unless you share it with them. You don't have to tell them about your deployments or any of the horrible details. All they need to know is that you are hurting. They do not need to know what did it to you, but they need to know what it is doing to you.

The same applies to your friends. Some of your friends, you will sadly discover, were not really your friends. Some will want to help but since they do not understand, they will change the subject or get uncomfortable. All too often, they'll say something stupid. Know that it comes from ignorance and in no way applies to your worth.

Other friends will listen and support you. Most of the time those friends are also veterans. While you may think they came home unchanged, every veteran came home changed in one way or another. No one comes home the way they left just as no human survives any traumatic event unchanged.

Sometimes they are stronger, if they managed to make sense out of what they went through, then make peace with it. Other times, they value life even more than they did before. 

The thing no one has been telling you is that you too can make sense of it and make peace with it no matter how long it has been since you left that world and you can learn to survive! 

Ordinary World

Duran Duran

Came in from a rainy Thursday on the avenue

Thought I heard you talking softly

I turned on the lights, the TV, and the radio

Still I can't escape the ghost of you

What has happened to it all?

Crazy someone say

Where is the life that I recognize?

Gone away

But I won't cry for yesterday

There's an ordinary world

Somehow I have to find

And as I try to make my way

To the ordinary world

I will learn to survive

Passion or coincidence once prompted you to say

"Pride will tear us both apart"

Well now prides gone out the window

Cross the rooftops, run away

Left me in the vacuum of my heart

What is happening to me?

Crazy someone say

Where is my friend when I need you most?

Gone away

But I won't cry for yesterday

There's an ordinary world

Somehow I have to find

And as I try to make my way

To the ordinary world

I will learn to survive

Papers in the roadside tell of suffering and greed

Fear today, forgot tomorrow

Besides the news of holy war and holy need

Ours is just a little sorrowed talk

And I don't cry for yesterday

There's an ordinary world

Somehow I have to find

And as I try to make my way

To the ordinary world

I will learn to survive

Every world is my world

(I will learn to survive)

Any world is my world

(I will learn to survive)

Any world is my world

Songwriters: John Taylor / Nick Rhodes / Simon Le Bon / Warren Cuccurullo

Ordinary World lyrics © EMI Music Publishing, Songs Music Publishing

This is an ordinary world your extra-ordinary love is much needed in!

For these veterans, giving to others is what they live for!

Disabled Omaha veteran restores TVs for vets in need
OMAHA, Neb. (KMTV) - A disabled Air Force veteran from Omaha is using his hobby of fixing electronics to help other veterans in need. 

Todd Hering served in the Air Force for nine years and then spent the rest of his career working for an airline. Three years ago, he injured his toe so badly it later infected his leg, resulting in several surgeries and ultimately, had to have his right leg amputated.

read his story here 

Local Vietnam vets giving back to those in need with free wheelchairs, walkers, and more

LAS VEGAS (KSNV) — Members of the Vietnam Veterans of America, Chapter 17 have been collecting donated wheelchairs, walkers, and scooters for years. Now, the group has a surplus of the assistance items and they’re hoping to give them to local vets in need. 

"We don't give to just Vietnam veterans. We give to any veteran in need,” said Vietnam War veteran J.W., who oversees the chapter’s wheelchair program. "I thought, 'Wow. These guys worked all their lives and they don't even have a car to get to the grocery store? The wheelchair provides that mobility.’”

read their story here 

13,000 Brit PTSD homeless veterans sleep in doorways and beg for help?

At least 13,000 hero soldiers left HOMELESS after leaving the military - and almost all have PTSD
The Mirror UK
Patrick Hill, Sean Rayment and Amy Sharpe
Januray 13, 2018

A Sunday People probe reveals how hundreds of Brit veterans are reduced to sleeping in doorways and begging from passers-by

The 56-year-old says during his time on the streets and since, he has met hundreds of veterans, from the Falklands campaign through to more recent conflicts, including those in Iraq and Afghanistan. Many are reduced to sleeping in doorways, bus stops and parks, ­begging from passers-by.

 

Hero Craig Mealing was left homeless for two months after turning to alcohol to cope with his PTSD

At least 13,000 of our war heroes are homeless after leaving the military, a Sunday People probe reveals.

Military charities said the shameful figure is a record high and the Government is failing those who risk their lives for Queen and country.

They also issued a stark warning that the crisis deepens every month.

Les Standish, who won the Military Medal in the Falklands War, said: “The Government has let these people down. These men and women were willing to fight and lay down their lives for this country and the only help available to them is from charities.

“The Government needs to do more for them. It’s a disgrace.”
read more here

Coast Guard Veteran Lost Wife After Irma, Gained Community Wide Family Afterwards

Community helps Naples veteran repair home
WXVN ABC 7 News
January 13, 2017

NAPLES, Fla. -

More than four months after Hurricane Irma, neighbors in Naples are banding together to help a veteran at risk of losing his home.

US Coast Guard vet Walter Landrum, who served for 28 years, was already down on his luck when the hurricane ravaged his property, and he wasn't able to clean it up.

"It's been a nightmare," he said. "But not as bad as some of the nightmares I've seen in the Coast Guard."

He knows things could always be worse, but it got pretty bad after Irma.

"A coconut hit the window, sounded like an explosion."

He wasn't able to clean up because he was caring for his wife, who suffered from congestive heart failure.

"I was with her every day for the last three years. So I'd start cleaning the lanai, and she'd be wracked with pain and terror, and I'd come back to her," he said.

She passed away right before Christmas, by which time his neighbors realized he needed help. 

read more here

Invictus Games and Dog Named Jester

Pooch SAVED war veteran and helped him compete in Invictus Games
The Daily Star UK
Ed Gleave
January 14, 2018

Jon, who took home a bronze medal last year, said: "I'm trying to push myself and see what I can achieve and that all seems a little bit easier when I've got Jester with me.

Ex-Royal Marine Jon Flint fell 30ft while abseiling during a training exercise in 1996.

It left him with a fracture in his lower spine, but because he was so fit it went undiagnosed until he left the services.

After quitting the Marines his condition got worse until he was unable to walk unaided.

That's when threeyear-old labrador Jester stepped into offer him a lifeline. Jon, a former lance corporal who served in Afghanistan and Iraq, said: "It's difficult to put into words how much difference he's made to my life and the life of my family.

"When I was in the Royal Marines I knew the guys with me always had my back. And now I know Jester has always got my back."

For three years, assistance dog Jester - featured on ITV's Britain's Favourite Dogs on Tuesday - has helped with taking out laundry, opening doors, answering the phone and picking up Jon's stick.

Jon added: "He's always with me wherever I go and he enjoys what he does for a living because he's a working dog.

"He's trained to enjoy it. He makes the things that I struggle with a lot easier."

Thanks to vital help from Jester, Jon was able to join Britain's archery squad for the Invictus Games. And while competing he became pals with its founder Prince Harry.
read more here