We OWE Our Service Members!!!

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Afghanistan, Iraq, Memorial Day, Military morale, military suicide, million vet backlog, veteran suicide helpline, veterans, Veterans Administration, veterans crisis line

VETERANS, You served your country.
Now let VA serve you.

“Tragically, our brave U.S. soldiers aren’t just dying on the battlefield. Roughly 22 veterans commit suicide every day, a rate even higher than previous estimates, according to a report released by the Department of Veterans Affairs recently.

The Huffington Post provides this devastating infographic that brings the military suicide epidemic into focus:

Memorial Day commemorates the U.S. solders who lost their lives in service. It’s also a time to recognize a growing but less visible group of fallen solders who chose to end their own lives while serving or after returning from war.

There are about 22 veteran suicides each day, a rate higher than previous estimates, based on a report released by the Department of Veterans Affairs earlier this year. Many veterans who take their own lives are over 50, but the hundreds of thousands of veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan also struggle to adjust to civilian life while dealing with the mental and physical effects of war on top of a weak job market.

Adam Legg, a 30-year-old Naval veteran, found that he couldn’t even get a job at McDonald’s after returning from tours in Iraq and Afghanistan in 2009, according to ABC News.

“When you feel like you can’t take care of your family, feed them, shelter them, it’s a very, very dark place. A feeling of uselessness that maybe they would be better off if you’re not around,” Legg told ABC.

Some troops don’t make it home before taking their own lives. Military suicides reached a record high of 349 in 2012, and former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has described the situation as an epidemic.”

WHY? You may ask?

Let me count just a few of the ways this administration has disrespected the military and crippled them at the same time.

A US Marine holds an umbrella for US President Barack Obama during a brief rain shower as he hold a joint press conference with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Erdogan in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, DC, May 16, 2013. (Photo: SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images)

While male Marines are generally considered “out of uniform” if they carry an umbrella, at the request of the CIC, it is not an infringement of the Marine code. Yet, to my mind, it is an infringement on their honor to be asked to do something so demeaning and silly.

There’s the mess at the VA:

Lawmakers make pre-Memorial Day calls to fix vet claims backlog

“In a pre-Memorial Day push to show their concern about the backlog of veterans’ disability claims, House Republicans are calling for an independent task force to recommend a solution while House Democrats pushed the idea of providing temporary benefits to anyone whose claim has been pending before the Veterans Affairs Department for more than 125 days.

Neither idea will become law by Memorial Day, but both are signs that lawmakers share many veterans’ concerns that the mountain of compensation claims is not going away any time soon.

Reps. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee chairman, and Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., introduced a bill Thursday creating a 15-member commission or task force to evaluate the claims process.” READ MORE

Obama refocuses terror threat to pre-9/11 level

“Some call it wishful thinking, but President Barack Obama has all but declared an end to the global war on terror.

Obama is not claiming final victory over extremists who still seek to kill Americans and other Westerners. Instead, he is refocusing the long struggle against terrorism that lies ahead, steering the United States away from what he calls an equally frightening threat – a country in a state of perpetual war. In doing so, Obama recasts the image of the terrorists themselves, from enemy warriors to cowardly thugs and resets the relationship between the U.S. and Islam.

His speech Thursday was designed to move America’s mindset away from a war footing and refine and recalibrate his own counterterrorism strategy. Obama asserted that al-Qaida is “on the path to defeat,” reducing the scale of terrorism to pre-Sept. 11 levels. That means that with the Afghanistan war winding down, Obama is unlikely to commit troops in large numbers to any conflict – in Syria or other countries struggling with instability in the uncertain aftermath of the Arab Spring – unless, as his critics fear, he tragically has underestimated al-Qaida’s staying power.”

Obama forgot to salute: Barack Obama shakes Marine’s hand, makes jokes instead?

“President Barack Obama forgot protocol while boarding Marine One en route to Annapolis, Maryland, CNN reported on Friday.

“Obama did not salute the Marine standing at the bottom of the helicopter while boarding. Upon realizing the faux pas, the president jogged back down to shake hands with the Marine and spoke privately with him before entering the helicopter again.”

The Profound Moral Failure of Benghazi

These men follow a creed – I will never leave a fallen comrade to fall into the hands of the enemy. Sadly, we now know from the hearings and whistleblower Deputy Ambassador Gregory Hicks, that is exactly what happened to Ambassador Stevens’ body as it was carried away by Libyan militants to a hospital controlled by those who carried out the attacks. Do you know how infuriated and hot that gets the Special Forces community? Men who have sworn to never leave a fallen comrade behind were forced to do just that by the military leaders they trust their lives to. To them it is the ultimate dishonoring of all they stand for. And it came from their own Commander in Chief.

Clearly, this President is generally unfamiliar and unconcerned with the lifestyle and care of our Military members. From cutting their benefits to cutting numbers, this administration proves its disrespect for the military. They spin it as a “Military slimdown“, but what it means is – those willing to put their lives on the line so that the rest of us can continue to “not be bothered” with the evils of Islam and other misc unrest, continue to pay for the GOVERNMENT’s unwillingness to cut senseless over-spending – like sending huge sums of money to our enemies!) Meanwhile, Benghazi’s HUGE change in the “No Man Left Behind” policy, pulls the rug out from under those willing to serve. While DADT served to keep sexuality under the radar in the Military, that, too, is now gone, and leaders have their hands full trying to maintain discipline while also walking to political correctness tightrope. Is it any wonder, these honorable men and women suffer far beyond those who came before them. The Foundation of our Nation is crumbling out from under them.

President Obama will say and do anything … ANYTHING to maintain his uniquely detached stance while America burns, including destroy the military, if he can, from within. There was a day that discipline meant everything in the military, but in today’s military, politics & political correctness rule, and, as always, it’s the SOLDIERS that pay.

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The Cost of Freedom Doesn’t Go Away …

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"life lessons", Afghanistan, American, American Conservative, American Heroes, American history, American Interests, American Moral Character, American Morality, Building Character, character training, Committment, Conservative opinion, DO SOMETHING!, GET INVOLVED, Helping others, Hope * Change, Iraq, Military appreciation, Service to Others, spiritual, The BEST of America, US Military Veterans, Women's Issues

I can only hope and pray that those in positions of leadership in this country, that our inadequate Commander-in-chief, and the 90% of Americans who do not know what service costs, can somehow remember that Freedom costs … the – the bravery exhibited on a daily basis, the selflessness in service as politicians argue over Trillions of dollars and shake hands with desired votes.

I do not support Ron Paul’s foreign policy of “isolationism,” but I would very much like to see the mission clarified and simplified so we know when the battle is over!

Calm in the midst of chaos is lifesaving protocol for medevac crew in southern Afghanistan

FORWARD OPERATING BASE PASAB, Afghanistan — It was the worst of places, but the soldiers on the ground had few options when they marked the landing zone for the medevac helicopter. One of their buddy’s legs had been blown off by an IED near Pashmul South, and another had suffered a traumatic brain injury from the blast.

Grape rows, tree lines and mud walls surrounded the field. It was the perfect setting for an ambush.

Medics tend injured soldier alongside the road

Purple smoke billowed from the landing zone as the crew of Dustoff 59 sped toward a small band of 1st Infantry Division soldiers, waiting with their wounded. As pilot and Chief Warrant Officer 2 Marcus Chambers slowed for the landing, gunfire broke out and the all-too-familiar tat-tat-tat-tat, tat-tat-tat-tat pinged around them.

Chambers set the aircraft down and flight medic Staff Sgt. Garrick Morgenweck flung the door open to retrieve the wounded. As he stepped out, insurgents fired a rocket-propelled grenade from close range, striking a mud wall and narrowly missing the helicopter as it blasted through. PLEASE READ MORE

The day to day devastation …
the unimaginable sights, sounds, smells …
the uncertainty from one day to the next …
waiting, waiting, waiting …
all take a toll on the soldiers on the ground.

War is hell!!!

A phrase thrown around lightly
by many who have never given much thought to the subject.

‘A little more closer to hell’

Capt. Maureen Pennington, director of nursing services at the NATO Role 3 Multinational Hospital at Kandahar Air Field, believes that medevac crews carry a quiet burden, one they aren’t often willing to share with outsiders, and she worries about what they see.

She senses the relief they feel when they hand over a patient and notices a slight drop in their head once the trauma team takes over. She knows they’re retracing their actions and wondering whether they did everything they could.

“You can’t even imagine what they go through. I think they have the weight of the world on their shoulders with all of the soldiers that they take care of,” Pennington said, adding after a brief pause, “That responsibility must weigh very heavy on them.”

While most of the medevac soldiers attempt to disengage their personal feelings from their work, some, like Lowther, let the swell of emotions wash over them. He can’t help but cry at times, especially when his patients are Afghan children. An endless stream of them, robbed of their childhood by poverty and war, make their way onto their helicopters.
Some have been caught in crossfire; others are simply victims of the brutal Afghan rural life.

Sometimes he calls the hospital to check on someone he’s treated. He’s one of the few who wants to know if they made it. Most can’t bear to know.

But even Lowther has a threshold. Recently, while other crewmembers were watching mission footage shot by an embedded film crew, he was overcome with a sickening pain and left the room. He can live it every day, but he can’t stand to watch it replayed.

Even those who try to disengage eventually think about what they see. Catastrophic blast injuries from IEDs that shred a body like nothing else. Gunshot wounds that cause a man to writhe as he pleads with a medic to help him breath or give him water.

Sometimes, the pain in the eyes of the soldiers gets to Morisoli.

He thinks about the journey they’ll have trying to put their life back together. He thinks about the families that will welcome them home. He can’t linger in his thoughts too long, though, because he knows that in the end, it just hurts too much.

He has to let go because he knows that tomorrow, or the next day, he and his crew will pick up another soldier who has lost his legs.

“This is a rough game, and I don’t care who you are, it’s going to affect you,” Role 3 hospital commander Capt. Mike McCarten said.

“They’re seeing things a little more closer to hell.”

Take Your Pick — A Variety of Ways to Help Put a Smile on Every Service Member’s Face! (via Operation Gratitude Blog)

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Afghanistan, Army, cards, care-packages, charity, combat, community-service, crafts, crochet, deployed, donate, donations, facebook, gifts, hats, heroes, Iraq, knit, letters, Libya, marines, middle-east, military, military-care-packages, military-support, morale, navy, patriotic, sailors, scarves, service members, troops, twitter, uncategorized, usaf, usmc, veterans, volunteer, war

Lots of ways to help … PICK ONE or two! 🙂

We hear from people all across the country who want to join in to support deployed service members and our patriotic cause — but because they live far from our Los Angeles-area location, they think they can't. Not true! There are many, many ways to take part! For starters, check out these flyers for great ideas: Ten Easy Ways to Support the Troops Letter Writing and Letter Writing for Teachers Handmade With Love: Scarves, Hats and Cool-Ties Girl … Read More

via Operation Gratitude Blog

Taking Time to Salute the Heroic 1 Percent

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"life lessons", Afghanistan, America, character training, Germany, gratitude, honor, Human nature, Iraq, Military appreciation, patriotism, patriots, respect, spiritual, WE THE PEOPLE

I talked to my daughter yesterday. She is active duty Army. She asked if I had heard about the 3 MPs killed in the line of duty in Afghanistan. They were from her current unit. The names had not been released yet.

Three US MPs based in Hohenfels, Germany killed in Afghanistan

Three U.S. soldiers died July 5, 2011, in Paktia province, Afghanistan of injuries suffered when enemy forces attacked their unit with an improvised explosive device.

They were supporting Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan fighting the Global War on Terror.

The soldiers were assigned to the 709th Military Police Battalion, 18th Military Police Brigade, 21st Theater Sustainment Command, Hohenfels, Germany.

Killed were:

Staff Sgt. Joshua A. Throckmorton, 28, of Battle Creek Michigan;

Spc. Jordan C. Schumann, 24, Port Saint Lucie, Florida; and

Spc. Preston J. Suter, 22, Sandy, Utah.

Politics, in general, is about ideas and ideals. It’s PEOPLE that make up our great nation. Those who dare to serve in uniform, from our local First Responders (police, fire, EMT, etc) to the Border Patrol to the US Military, are our unsung heroes. Their stories are untold and easily forgotten among the really important stories, like the “Casey Anthony” trial that command our attention.

Taking time to salute the 1 percent

“After nearly a decade of war, it’s easy to become numb to it.

“You read the newspaper, you watch the television and it just keeps coming, one day after another until it all runs together. You mourn the dead and you celebrate the victories, but you can’t allow yourself to feel too deeply or it becomes too much. If you’re one of the 99 percent of Americans not actively fighting this country’s battles, war is difficult to understand.

“But we must try. We owe it to the 1 percent.

“For them, it’s not complicated. It’s not about surges and drawdowns and Capitol Hill bickering. For the men and women who will lace up their boots in Afghanistan or Iraq today, their only goal is to complete the mission and lie down to sleep at night one day closer to coming home.” Each of these young men are REAL people, REAL Americans. They have families and loved ones, they have flaws, but they are heroes.

WOUNDED WARRIOR Softball Team

Watch the video!

The quiet heroism of America’s secret warriors

Were they heroes? Or were they fulfilling their job descriptions?

“We know the bare outline of the May raid: Some of the United States’ best sailors and soldiers entered Pakistan undetected, slipping through the darkness in secret stealth helicopters across 100 miles of potentially hostile territory. They continued the mission despite losing a helicopter and dispatched the target — elusive al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden. Then they scooped up a wealth of intelligence materials and disappeared.

“Although there’s plenty the public may never know about the operation, the details that have leaked out have been breathtaking, providing a rare glimpse into the ultra-secretive world of the U.S. military’s most elite troops.” CONTINUE READING

A Stranger’s “Thank You”

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"life lessons", Afghanistan, America, character training, Ft Jackson SC, Ft Stewart GA, grateful nation, Iraq, Kuwait, Military appreciation, sacrifice, service, spiritual, unemployment, US Air Force, US Army, US Coast Guards, US Marines, US Navy, Warriors Walk

Warrior's Walk, Ft Stewart, GA

On September 12, 2007, my youngest daughter enlisted in the U.S. Army. I allowed her to quit an unsuccessful high school career, obtain her GED, and ship out to her destiny at age 17.

She left the house amidst extreme emotion, but I knew I had to let her go and she knew she was ‘called.’ Staying would have killed her spirit. She completed her basic training at Ft Jackson, SC – same place I did mine in 1976! Ft Stewart became her home for 9 months. Her orders changed frequently, but she eventually deployed to Kuwait in March of ’08. Many of her friends went on to Iraq or Afghanistan, but she was assigned to the base camp in Kuwait. She was gone for a year. I heard from her about once a week, either by email or occasionally by phone. It was a VERY long year for all of us!

She returned after a year in the desert, and her brother and I went down to welcome her HOME, to the USA. The two of us, along with a good friend, drove from Charleston, SC to Ft Stewart, GA and awaited the bus returning from the Atlanta airport. It took an eternity, but finally the warriors rolled down the main street in the bus, to a cheering, yelling, crying crowd of family and friends. It was a wonderful day for our family.

The following day, we visited the Warriors’ Walk, a memorial garden for those who paid the highest price in Iraq or Afghanistan – the latest conflicts. As I started out, I decided to read aloud each and every remembrance plaque which contained the soldier’s name, rank, hometown, unit and theater in which they served. On most of these memorials, however, there were also handwritten notes from friends or family, mementos that held some special meaning, a flag, a snapshot, a can of beer, or a helmet. It didn’t take long before my heart was broken for the families and friends of these brave heroes. I was so deeply grateful that my daughter was not among them, yet I grieved for their loss, for the nation’s loss.

VISIT the WARRIORS WALK, FT STEWART, GA

A stranger to each of these honored lost soldiers, my daughter and I expressed our profound gratitude in silent tears. A stranger’s “Thank You” in behalf of … a grateful nation? … In behalf of my family.

A Stranger's Thank You - We are Grateful!

INSPIRATION MONDAY XIX – THANKS, BEKINDREWRITE

~ B