GoFundMe case: Homeless vet Johnny Bobbitt appears in court
ABC 6 News
December 7, 2018
MT. HOLLY, N.J. (WPVI) -- Johnny Bobbitt, the homeless veteran accused of trying to scam GoFundMe donors, appeared before a judge on Friday.
Wearing an orange jumpsuit, the 35-year-old appeared via closed-circuit video.
The prosecution asked he be held for trial without the option for bail.
Bobbitt has yet to formally hear the charges against him, although the Burlington County prosecutor publicly announced Bobbitt will be facing charges of fraud by deception and conspiracy.
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Aidan Knight, hanged himself after trying to get help from professionals
Daily Mail
Joe Middleton
December 9, 2018
Family of Iraq War veteran, 29, who took his own life after telling his mother he'd seen 'too much death' win six-figure payout from NHS over a catalogue of failings in his care
The family of Aidan Knight (names not given) outside the High Court in London. The family of the former soldier who committed suicide have won a six-figure payout from NHS bosses after they admitted a catalogue of failings in his care
Aidan Knight, hanged himself after trying to get help from professionals
The 29-year-old's three children have been awarded a financial settlement
Lawyers brought a civil action against Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust
He told his mother, Angie Aleksejuk, 55, that he had seen 'too much death'
The family of an Iraq War veteran who took his own life have won a six-figure payout from NHS bosses who admitted a catalogue of failings in his care.
Father-of-three Aidan Knight, who served in Iraq with the elite 2 Para, hanged himself after trying to get help from mental health professionals for months, lawyers representing his family said.
He left the army after five years, telling his mother he had seen 'too much death' and also struggled to cope with the loss of his brother George in 2012.
Between 2014 and 2015, Mr Knight took an overdose in the first of four suicide bids.
Mr Knight's mother Angie Aleksejuk, 55, from Stafford, said: 'I wish that just one person had thought differently in the period leading up to Aidan's death, as if they had he may still be here.
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National Guard hears ‘heartbreaking’ cancer stories
Sea Coastline Daily
By Jeff McMenemy
Posted Dec 7, 2018
PORTSMOUTH -- More than 200 people who turned out for a meeting at the 157th Air Refueling Wing heard story after story about guardsmen who died from cancer or suffered with other health ailments after serving at the Pease Air National Guard base.
Col. John W. Pogorek, wing commander of Pease Air National Guard base. (Photo Rich Beauchesne Seacoastonlin)
The guard hosted a “listening session” Friday afternoon to hear the health concerns of retirees, their widows and families, along with active duty guardsmen.
Led by Doris Brock, who lost her husband Kendall Brock, a 35-year member of the guard who died in June 2017 from bladder and prostate cancer, a group of widows and retirees have pushed the Air Force to conduct a health study because of what they believe is an unusually high number of cancers at the base.
Brock reminded the people in attendance that it took 35 years before the Veterans Administration sought presumptive disability status for veterans who served at Camp Lejeune, a Marine Corps base in North Carolina with acknowledged water contamination.
“I don’t want to wait that long for us. It has to be faster,” Brock said. “We’ve lost a lot of good people.”
She believes her husband’s exposure to 12 different chemicals on the base known to be carcinogens - along with drinking contaminated water at the former air base - caused his cancer.
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Finding hope to take the trip
PTSD Patrol
Kathie Costos
December 9, 2018
No matter how many different ways you can discover how to get to where you want to be, you will not look for them, unless you have hope that place exists. The road to heal is real! #CombatPTSD and #TakeBackYourLife
When I was going on a road trip, first I had to have the will to go, then get directions on how to get there from where I was.
Back then, we went to the gas stations to get a road map. Not easy to read and really too large to hold it while sitting in a vehicle. Trying to refold it was nearly impossible!
AAA came out with TripTik planners. We'd go, tell them where we wanted get to, and they would plan out the entire trip. We'd flip the pages until we arrived. To get back home, we'd just flip the pages backwards.
Now we have GPS directions in our cars and on our cell phones. Makes getting where we want to go easier to find.
Where do you want to go? Sometimes find out how to get someplace is not your biggest problem. Sometimes, having the desire even think about changing where you are is the hardest thing to find.
When I was new on the road, it did not make much sense to look both ways before taking a right turn, because I assumed no one would be coming the other way.
That is, until I almost hit someone trying to cross in front of me. Then I understood there could always be something I am not seeing, because I did not look for it.
It is the same way with answers. First you need hope there is an answer to find for whatever you want to know, or change. If there is no hope, you will not look.
Hope is what gets us moving each morning. It causes us to open our eyes, but it is the desire to seek something better, that begins the search for what we hope for.
If you know there is a better road to take, then you will look for it. If you know that other people have been there, and can show you the way, you are not traveling alone.
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Navy Vietnam veterans feeling betrayed march on VA
WFLA 8 News
Steven Andrews
December 8, 2018
"We took water and distilled it, and actually bathed in it, ate food cooked in it and drank it," Mike explained. Mike served on the U.S.S. Buchanan, a destroyer that according to deck logs, anchored in Da Nang Harbor when the military sprayed Agent Orange.
WASHINGTON (WFLA) - Navy Vietnam Veterans marched from a Washington, D.C. federal courthouse to the steps of VA headquarters with a message: They were poisoned at sea.
New Port Richey veteran Mike Kvintus was among them.
"All of us veterans have taken an oath to defend the Constitution of the United States and with that oath, we expect the country to take care of us," the Navy veteran said.
Instead, with a stroke of a pen, the VA abandoned 90,000 Navy Vietnam veterans who did not step foot on Vietnam soil.
The VA contends unlike troops that served on the ground, these Blue Water Navy veterans were not exposed to Agent Orange.
"It's a national disgrace as far as I'm concerned," Mike added.
The military sprayed 20 million gallons of the toxic herbicide Agent Orange on Vietnam.
It ran into rivers and streams. It contaminated harbors and bays.
Ships like the American Victory, which served in Vietnam, turned contaminated sea water into fresh water. The distillation process only enhanced the chemicals, unknowingly poisoning crew members.
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'Invisible Veteran' Multiple organizations claim female veterans are under-served in Jacksonville
That is the headline on First Coast News, and this is what the news was.
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- A group of veterans and local organizations say female veterans have gone under-served and unfunded for too long. First Coast News met with four local veterans from different branches of the military and different organizations who all came to the same consensus, insisting there is a problem in Jacksonville for women who served, despite Duval County having the highest number of female veterans in the state.
But is sure as hell is not news to us!
This was in the report.
Nicole Gray is a U.S. Army and Navy veteran and founder of Got Your Six Female Veteran Support Service. She says she knows how it feels first hand. "Roughly four-and-a-half years ago, I was homeless and sleeping in a car here in Jacksonville. I went to various organizations for assistance, but because I didn’t have children and didn’t deploy to war I was ineligible for assistance," said Gray.
In 2007, they opened a PTSD clinic just for female veterans in Cincinnati.
By 2008 there was this report about the need to address female veterans as veterans.
Though VA officials say they are conducting a survey on women’s experiences at their facilities, as well as offering programs specifically for women, proponents of the proposed bill say it would target areas VA has not addressed. It follows a similar House bill proposed by Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, D-S.D., and Ginny Brown-Waite, R-Fla.
Murray’s bill will ask for:
• Assessment and treatment of women who have suffered sexual trauma in the military.
• More use of evidence-based treatment for women — particularly in areas such as post-traumatic stress disorder, where responses may be different or involve different issues than it does for men.
• A long-term study on gender-specific health issues of female veterans.
“One of the things we started to see early on is that there’s a lot we don’t know,” said Joy Ilem, assistant national legislative director for Disabled American Veterans.
SO WHY THE HELL ARE THEY STILL SAYING THEY NEED TO ADDRESS THE NEEDS OF FEMALE VETERANS?
Hero Grenfell Tower firefighter 'I have been cast out of a job I love'
THE DAILY MAIL
By KATHRYN KNIGHT
7 December 2018
Charlie Kaye was one of hundreds of firemen at Grenfell Tower blaze aftermath
Nine months later he ran into a burning building in a desperate bid to save a man
Mr Kaye, 32, contravened Fire Brigade rules as he entered without his partner
His heroism led to a dismissal for contravening health and safety regulations
Like many dedicated firefighters, Charlie Kaye has spent his professional life propelled by two instincts — to save lives and help others.
Charlie Kaye (centre left) was one of four firefighters to receive a prestigious Borough Commander’s Award for bravery for helping to save a woman who had collapsed from a blood clot
In ten years of distinguished service he’s battled blazes all over London and attended harrowing road and rail accidents — each one leaving its mark.
‘I have lost count of the number of fatal incidents I’ve attended. Each one eats away at you a little,’ he recalls. ‘But that’s the job.’
It’s a job which, in June last year, led him to one of the most distressing points of his career, when the 32-year-old was one of the hundreds of fireman to attend the aftermath of the Grenfell Tower fire, helping to clear bodies from the wreckage of the West London tower block. The sights of that day are permanently seared on his mind — along with the guilt that this time, there was no chance of saving anyone.
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So, you need to check on your health and then since you're already there, do some shopping? That is what the VA has come up with for rural veterans, because, as they said,
“Ninety percent of Americans live within 10 miles of a Walmart,” Scher said.
“Virtual care is the future of medicine,” he told the conference crowd. “It is our most powerful emerging tool. Ultimately it will improve and ease access for millions of Americans.”
The partnership with Walmart will be a pilot program to put telemedicine stations specifically for veteran customers at stores in rural areas (exact locations have yet to be announced.)
Patients will be able to check in to a private room and video conference with VA medical specials across the country, covering both basic checkups and specialty appointments like dermatology consults or mental health care support.
Las Vegas mental health Crisis Response Team sees success with new strategy
KTNV
By: Joe Bartels
Dec 08, 2018
"We are outperforming expectations by some distance, and I think we are showing a good cost-savings to the state and we're going great care for patients," said Asst. Fire Chief Jon Stevenson with Las Vegas Fire and Rescue.
LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — There is a small crisis response team that is making a big impact when it comes to the emerging mental health crisis across Las Vegas.
"It can be tense," said Amanda Jurden, a licensed clinical social worker.
"Usually, we just try and talk to the person, kind of gauge where they're at, find out, number 1, are they open to talking to you, are they going to be voluntary patient?" explained Jurden.
Jurden is now on the front lines of the Crisis Response Team and rides aboard an ambulance to make an on-scene patient assessment during a mental health crisis incident.
"They can be angry, they can be agitated, they can be under the influence, all of those things," said Jurden.
"But at the end of the day we just want to see if they are willing to engage with us, and cooperate in some form or fashion," said Jurden.
The Crisis Response Team was organized in April 2018 with the goal of connecting those in mental distress with available resources while reducing the burden on local emergency rooms.
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Indiana veterans affairs leader resigns after awarding grants for needy vets to employees
Indianapolis Star
Tony Cook
December 7, 2018
Most veterans also were strictly held to a $2,500 lifetime cap on aid, but at least four of Brown's employees who are veterans received more than that, including the manager of the program, who dipped into the fund multiple times.
Indiana Department of Veterans' Affairs Director James Brown
(Photo: Indiana Department of Veterans' Affairs)
The leader of Indiana's veterans affairs agency is resigning after awarding grant money intended for struggling veterans to his own employees.
Gov. Eric Holcomb accepted the resignation of Indiana Department of Veterans' Affairs Director James Brown on Friday morning, according to a media release. Brown, a decorated Vietnam veteran, has led the agency since 2013.
"Sgt. Maj. Brown is a good man with a distinguished service record,” Holcomb said. “I am grateful for his longstanding service to our state and country.”
The shakeup comes one week after an ongoing IndyStar investigation found Brown gave middle-income state employees who were veterans an inside track on emergency assistance grants intended for needy vets.
IndyStar reported last week that at least 11 of the agency's employees — many making $40,000 to $50,000 a year — received a total of roughly $40,000 or more through the Military Family Relief Fund.
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