Saturday, January 5, 2019

USAA to pay for auto payment errors

USAA to pay $12M to members after failing to stop unauthorized electronic payments


STARS AND STRIPES
By WILLIAM HOWARD
Published: January 4, 2019

More than 66,000 USAA members affected by the financial services and insurance company’s failure to stop electronic payment transfers may receive a $181.59 check, following a settlement with federal regulators.

USAA, who membership is open exclusively to the military community and eligible family members, agreed to pay $12 million in restitution and a $3.5 million civil fine by mid-January, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced Thursday.

USAA violated the Electronic Fund Transfer Act and an associated regulation by failing to properly honor consumers’ stop payment requests on pre-authorized electronic fund transfers, as well as failing to start or complete error resolution investigations, according to a consent order signed by the bureau Wednesday.
read more here

Fort Wainwright soldier found dead after welfare check

Army dog handler found dead in Alaska home during welfare check


STARS AND STRIPES
By WYATT OLSON
Published: January 4, 2019

A 25-year-old Army dog handler was found dead Wednesday at his home in North Pole, Alaska, the Army said.
A Fort Wainwright sign is shown in this undated photo. COURTESY OF THE U.S. ARMY

Alaska law enforcement officers discovered the body of Sgt. Jorden Thomas Williams during a welfare check that had been requested by family members living outside the state, the Army said Friday in a statement.

North Pole is located between Eielson Air Force Base and Fort Wainwright, where Williams was stationed. The town is about 13 miles southeast of the central city of Fairbanks.
read more here

Fort Carson Soldiers Changing Lanes

Fort Carson Soldiers Graduate from New Caliber Collision Changing Lanes Program

Collision Week
January 4, 2019

Changing Lanes is free training program for Fort Carson 
Transitioning from a regimented military environment to the unpredictability of civilian life is one of the most stressful times for many soldiers.

The first Fort Carson graduates from the Changing lanes Falcon Academy are (L-R) Specialist Patrick Horn of Oakland, CA, Specialist Adrian Jimenez Cruz of Salinas, CA, Master Sergeant Robert Apfelbaum and Specialist McKinley Kerns, both of Colorado Springs.

Four soldiers from Fort Carson graduated stress-free from Caliber Collision’s Changing Lanes Falcon Academy, armed with a $12,000 toolbox, a secure employment offer and new career in the collision repair industry. 

Friday, January 4, 2019

WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?

When your job is to save others...save yourself too!


Combat PTSD Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
January 4, 2019

This year started off with a Chicago Police Officer taking his own life on New Year's Day. Suicide claims more lives of responders than being killed doing their jobs. 

I have a question for members of the military, law enforcement, firefighters (professionals or volunteers) EMT, and veterans of all of these services. WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?

Seriously! You took a job to protect others even though you knew could kill you. Safe bet you did it even though you were afraid at times. Even though you were willing to do all that, you still cannot answer how it is that you are so afraid to talk about what the job did to you, that you cannot talk to save your own lives?

Do you depend on those you serve with or not?

Does life matter to you or doesn't it?

The over 7 million people in this country with PTSD are waiting for an answer. Because if you cannot understand you ended up with PTSD saving them and caring about their lives, are they supposed to be too afraid to talk too? Are they supposed to feel as if surviving is something to be ashamed of too?

When more service members take their own lives than are killed doing their jobs, it robs them of hope to heal. If you give up on yourself, then what was all you did for?




Thursday, January 3, 2019

Chicago police officer committed suicide for New Year's Day?

OK! So, people decide to risk their lives to save other people...but do not include themselves on the "to do list" when they need help to live? Seriously something still so totally wrong with this especially when you consider that if they had a clue what PTSD, they'd discover there is no shame in the damn thing!

If you are still confused about what PTSD is then blame the people you've been listening too. 


Chicago officer 1st police suicide of 2019 as numbers continue steady rise


Altlanta Journal Constitution
By Crystal Bonvillian, Cox Media Group National Content Desk
Jan 02, 2019

CHICAGO
A Chicago police officer fatally shot himself at his home on New Year’s Day, becoming at least the fourth officer the department has lost to suicide in the past six months.

Officer Dane Anthony Smith, 36, was off-duty when he died, according to CBS Chicago. Smith, who worked at police headquarters, died just two weeks after two of his colleagues, Officer Eduardo Marmolejo, 36, and Officer Conrad Gary, 31, were killed by a train as they chased a man they suspected of firing gunshots in the area a few minutes earlier.
read more here

72 Year old homeless veteran doused with water by firefighter?

Officials investigating accusation that KC firefighter doused homeless camp with water on frigid night

FOX 4 Kentucky
Sean McCowell
January 2, 2019

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- It's being called an act of needless cruelty.

A homeless man said Kansas City firefighters doused him with water from their hoses, and he said it happened on one of the coldest nights of the winter. Kansas City officials confirm an investigation into the matter is underway.
The underpass at 20th and Oak streets is cold, but it's home to several people who have nowhere else to go.
One of them, 72-year-old Phil Bucalo, said workers from Kansas City Fire Department came to put out his campfire early Tuesday morning. When they did, he said they intentionally flooded him and his belongings on the cold night.
Bucalo, a native of New York City, said it was only a small fire, and since he now lives on the streets of KC, it was his means of keeping warm.
"I said, 'Look, if this little fire here presents a problem, I'd be more than happy to put it out,'" Bucalo said.
But Bucalo, who said he once served in the U.S. Army, said the firefighter with the hose in his hand didn't care, and water from that hose doused the fire, as well as Bucalo and all of his belongings, in weather that went below 20 degrees.



Wednesday, January 2, 2019

PETCO partners to Paws of War

Petco Foundation Invests in Paws of War’s Life-Changing Work Supporting Service Animals


Press Release

Paws of War of Nesconset, NY, announces it has been awarded a $15,000 grant investment from the Petco Foundation to support its new Vets to Vets Mobile Veterinary Clinic serving disabled veterans’ pets and service dogs.

Paws of War is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to train and place shelter dogs to serve and provide independence to our U.S. military veterans that suffer from the emotional effects of war serving the United States. Since 2014, Paws of War has supported over 120 Veterans with service dogs rescued from kill shelters.

This grant was made possible through the Petco Foundation’s annual Helping Heroes fundraising campaign, in partnership with Merrick Pet Care. Each October during the campaign, Petco customers are invited to donate online and in Petco stores across the country to support the life-changing work of service, therapy and working animals.

To date, the Petco Foundation has invested more than $12 million to support the transformative effect that therapy, service and working animals that have on people across the globe. The Petco Foundation investment will help Paws of War to continue their mission and will directly impact the lives of veterans suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and/or Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), and helping rescued dogs get a second chance at life while providing services on their new “Vets to Vets” Moblie Veterinary Clinic.

“On behalf of Paws of War, I would like to personally thank The Petco Foundation for making our mission of ‘helping both ends of the leash’ possible. We could not offer this amazing free veterinary care to our disabled heroes without their support. We thank The Petco Foundation for being our first large provider of these important services” said Dori Scofield, co-founder of Paws of War.

For more information about Paws of War or the Petco Foundation, visit http://www.pawsofwar.org or http://www.petcofoundation.org. Join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram or by using the hashtag #HelpingHeroes.

About Paws of War
At Paws of War our mission is to suitably match rescued dogs from shelters and pairing them with military veterans suffering from the emotional effects of war such as PTSD who seek the therapeutic and unconditional love only a companion animal, emotional support or service animal can bring.Your support helps to save, train, feed, house, provide veterinary care and transport a dog to his/her veteran in waiting. We hope you will become part of our Paws of War family! For more information please visit the website, http://www.pawsofwar.org.

About the Petco Foundation
At the Petco Foundation, we believe that every animal deserves to live its best life. Since 1999, we’ve invested more than $230 million in lifesaving animal welfare work to make that happen. With our more than 4,000 animal welfare partners, we inspire and empower communities to make a difference by investing in adoption and medical care programs, spay and neuter services, pet cancer research, service and therapy animals, and numerous other lifesaving initiatives. Through our Think Adoption First program, we partner with Petco stores and animal welfare organizations across the country to increase pet adoptions. So far, we’ve helped more than 5.5 million pets find their new loving families, and we’re just getting started. Visit petcofoundation.org to learn more about how you can get involved.

Dunstan the Blacksmith vs the Devil

Never Forgotten: A small token of gratitude for America's heroes


US Army
By Sgt. Jessica Villwok
January 2, 2019
To this day, it is still a blacksmith tradition to ring one's anvil three times at the end of the day to drive the Devil out until the next morning, or, if the Devil sees a horseshoe, he turns and runs away from it, remembering all the pain and torture they had caused him. That is the reason a horseshoe is supposed to bring you good luck, Randy said.

Since the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, Randy Dack, a blacksmith at Grand Island Stuhr Museum in Nebraska, has made more than 4,000 "lucky" horseshoes for military service members worldwide. Dack made his first "Soldier's shoe" for his son prior to his first deployment in 2002 with the Nebraska Army National Guard's 1-134th Cavalry. (Photo Credit: Sgt. Jessica Villwok)
GRAND ISLAND, Neb. - Randy Dack still remembers every detail from that fateful day. What he was doing. Where he was standing. Where the messenger stood when he came to tell him the news.

For Randy, the blacksmith at Grand Island Stuhr Museum in Nebraska, the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 are forever burned into memory.

"Ralph Gill came down to the shop and he said, 'They just hit the World Trade Center,'" Randy said. As terrible as the attacks were, Randy admits that his most immediate thoughts went to his son who had recently joined the Nebraska Army National Guard.

"Adam had been in boot camp about two weeks on that day," Randy said. "I just knew they were gonna take him out of the National Guard and put him in the regular Army and he wouldn't be coming home." Adam did make it back home to Nebraska from basic training, but he didn't stay there for long.

Shortly after his return in 2002, Adam, who now serves as a sergeant first class in Hastings' Troop A, 1-134th Cavalry - began preparing for a peacekeeping mission to Bosnia-Herzegovina, a country still recovering from years of bloody civil war and ethnic cleansing.

After hearing the news that his son was heading overseas as part of a major mobilization of National Guard Soldiers, Randy, who began his career as a farrier, remembered the story of Dunstan the Blacksmith, the Devil and how a horseshoe came to be lucky.

In that story, a blacksmith named Dunstan was working in his shop one day when the Devil walked by and became intrigued by the sound of the pounding of the anvil. When the Devil realized the blacksmith was making horseshoes to protect the horse's hooves, he thought that as a cloven hoofed animal, he too, should have horseshoes to protect his feet.
read more here

VA caused empty beds at homeless veterans shelter?

SLC Housing Authority sends demand letter to VA, saying building to house homeless veterans had vacant beds for years

FOX 13 News
Taylor Hartman
January 1, 2019
SALT LAKE CITY — The Housing Authority of Salt Lake City issued a demand letter to the local Veteran Affairs office Monday, stating that the department needed to change policies that left beds at a property built for homeless veterans vacant for years.
The housing authority said in their letter that the VA should replace their staff with the non-profit First Step House, an organization based in Salt Lake City that specializes in addiction recovery.
In the letter, the housing authority said the high vacancy at Valor House caused extreme cuts in funding for the facility:
“The mix of regulatory barriers to tenancy put in place by the local VA caused this property to average over 30% vacancy for the past several years—a total of approximately 11,000 empty bed nights at a time when many veterans are struggling on the street or in substandard living conditions. This high vacancy rate led to extreme cuts in HASLC’s federal grant funding for the facility, causing a deficit of over $100,000 per year and almost $1 million to date.  Until now, this loss has been covered by HASLC using funds taken from other housing programs in order to prevent the veterans who did manage to get placed at Valor House from becoming homeless again.”
The housing authority said local VA staff controlled all tenant screenings and selection decisions, and routinely screened out applicants.
“For the applicants that did get housed, the local VA staff were rewarded with bonuses in pay for each veteran quickly relocated out from the property to other types of housing, a policy that incentivized rejection of veteran applicants stigmatized from past drug or alcohol addiction, and other conditions that could make rapid placement in other housing more difficult,” the letter said.


Tuesday, January 1, 2019

2019 Happy New You

A new you can begin today


Combat PTSD Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
January 1, 2019

Last year did not start out so great. Pasco County Deputies were dealing with the death of an Air Force veteran, John Sellinger. His family was trying to comprehend what happened. Others who served with him, and knew him were shocked.A foundation was dealing with the loss as well.
Sellinger's wife, Laura, had reported him missing that day. He lived in a Seminole Heights house recently donated to his wife by the Gramatica Family Foundation. Both Sellingers had served in the Air Force. An improvised explosive device had detonated near Laura Sellinger in Iraq in 2006, causing a severe brain injury.
Over in Texas, it was a positive ending because  Judge John Roach Jr. decided that he should treat veterans like more than just a number.

"When I was accepted into the veterans' court, it was the first time I was treated like I wasn't just a number in the system." Richard Ress 

It seems like every year I wonder what it will be like at the end of the year for veterans, much like I did last year.
"I have witnessed veterans doing as Artaban did, giving all they had intended for God to be used in God's name because someone needed them. They are by "brothers" in Point Man International Ministries running around the country offering hope, showing veterans how to heal and then standing by their side when everyone else has walked away from them."
Today I think it is time for something new. Something that will prove what is possible when people decide to take control over their own lives, especially when those lives were willing to die for the sake of others. Imagine that? So, here are some of the best stories from last couple of years!



Rafael Semmier used his training as a combat medic to save a life at Walmart after someone decided to shoot others.

Disabled Vietnam veteran Mike Elliot discovered how much he mattered to his neighbors after his house caught on fire in Pennsylvania.

In Kentucky, Veterans chose to dance to heal PTSD and spend time with others rejoicing instead of regretting.

Another disabled Vietnam veteran, survived Hamburger Hill, losing his home, but found help and then, helped others.

Fort Carson soldiers risked their lives to save a woman trapped by her SUV after a rollover accident.

A homeless veteran living on the streets of Sacramento used his military training to save his own foot instead of letting it be amputated.

Marine Master Sgt. Clifford Farmer decided that he wanted to live and battle the enemy inside of himself as much as he fought the enemy in Iraq. PTSD was not something he was willing to surrender his life for.

Veteran William Goliher depended on those he served with in Afghanistan and Iraq, and then his community to help survive his battle with PTSD.

A disabled veteran in New Hampshire asked for help to fix his home, and the community responded big time!

Another veteran trying to heal PTSD discovered the power to fight for her own life from a cat who was an amputee!

A disabled veteran with a PTSD Service Dog won for the sake of all people with service dogs when he fought American Airlines.

IraqVeteran Jame Trumble decided to fight to take back his life and with the help of the VA. He did exactly that.


Bill Wedekind lost both his hands and eyes at age 18 from an IED in Vietnam, but his drive to live and inspire others helped heal other wounds.

Minnesota National Guard and a St. Paul police officer Eric Reetz found a homeless veteran and gave him a challenge coin so that he could stay in touch with the veteran.

Double amputee, Brian Mast is an example of determination and inspires as a Congressman from Florida.

A veteran of Afghanistan, Maj. Lisa McCranie is a pilot to the core, so steeped in the culture of never showing weakness that she hid every symptom of post traumatic stress disorder even as the weight of war began to crush her spirit. Years in uniform and the bulk of 2,800 hours in the cockpit went by — 1,100 of them in combat — before she even realized she had PTSD. McCranie found herself in yet another war, to get help.

Veteran Joe Clemens decided that he didn't need such a big house, so he started offering veterans in need of help a place to stay...and heal.

And Vietnam veteran Dave Roever was inspiring soldiers at Camp Casey with the story of how he recovered from being burned.

And those stories just happened in January of 2017.

And then there are police officers; Chris Sutherland and Jeremy Wood, school resource officers of Marysville Pilchuch High School

Orlando Police Officers fought to have PTSD covered for first responders, unafraid to come out, talk about what what came after Pulse, and the won.

Firefighters did it too. Kern County Fire Department Captain Derek Robinson talked about his battle with PTSD, so others would break their own suffering in silence.

Phil Hall talked about his battle with demons.

UPDATE: I used 2017 because last year was not such a great year on good reports. 

The Crew of the North Dakota did whatever it took to save a sailor after he tried to kill himself. Imagine that? He shot himself instead of turning to those he served with, but they proved how much they cared about him.

A Marine veteran, Wendell Blassingame, known as the Saint of Skid Row, made sure that other veterans were not left alone, and proved they mattered.

I think my favorite stories from January was of veterans reaching out to the Sheriff's Office to help them with PTSD. Budd Huffman and Jim Muhr decided that reading stories was not going to cut it, so they decided to do something about it. Share what they were going through and #BreakThe Silence.

There are so many more of them because more and more are discovering the power they have to help others, just as they did in the services they dedicated their lives to.

That is the thing that gets missed way too often. Your jobs are all about doing for others, so how about you take that seriously now? Heal for others and then show them the way toward something to hope for~


Note to readers...updated to add in more since, as I said, I was struggling with trying to just do a positive post today.