Unemployed Veteran: 'No Thanksgiving' For Me This Year
11-22-10 - Judy Sullivan, a former Air Force nurse living in Boston, says she has always gone above and beyond the call of duty to serve her country--but she feels like Congress may not be doing all it can to help her in return.
Sullivan told HuffPost she was nominated for a medal in 1979 after running up seven flights stairs in her maternity uniform, six months pregnant, to help evacuate a Texas hospital during a violent tornado. After Hurricane Katrina in 2005, she took three weeks off with no pay and eventually lost her job in order to fly down to New Orleans and volunteer with the Red Cross. But now, at 58 years old, Sullivan says she is applying for 25 jobs per week, scraping by on $72 unemployment checks, and has a total of $100 in her bank account--not enough to cover a Thanksgiving turkey, much less housing expenses or medical prescriptions. {read rest}
The Country 'supporting the troops', just like those disappeared magnetic ribbons, lack of mention in the campaigns {especially by the Tepublicans} and those real fun times with the 'purple heart bandages', bring on the beckster so he can spit on IAVA, oh wait he already did that!
Your city or local communities may be seeing same related to the Veterans Support offices, if you're paying attention, that has happened here. A drastic rollback in funding, state and local, for Veterans Issues help offices, cutting back on veterans counselors and some shutting down, all looking at possible further cuts coming.
Donor's millions for military causes drying up
Children at Operation Purple Camp dance on the beach during an outing to Del Mar Beach at Camp Pendleton. The children of servicemembers wounded in war gather together in a camp designed and established by the National Military Family Association. By Robert Hanashiro, USA TODAY
22 November 2010 - The four Else children of Waukesha, Wis., saw their Marine Corps father off to war in Afghanistan again this year. But this was the first year they learned they were not the only kids to lose a parent to combat duty.
The children — Julie, 16, Christopher, 12, Waren, 12, and Nica, 8 — spent seven days in July at a northern Wisconsin camp immersed in outdoor activities with scores of other military kids with deployed parents. They learned, says their mom, Kim, "to have fun and smile and not worry all the time."
About 10,000 military children have flocked yearly to these camps run by the National Military Family Association.
Now, much of their good times could come to an end.
The largest individual donation ever made to charities supporting Iraq and Afghanistan troops, veterans and their families has run out: $275 million given from 2005 through 2009 by Californian David Gelbaum. Dozens of non-profits now face drastic reductions in services ranging from mental health treatment to care packages mailed to far-flung combat outposts.
About 100 requests by convalescing troops for airline tickets to travel home over the upcoming holidays have been turned down in recent weeks because of a funding crisis for Air Compassion for Veterans, says Ed Boyer, president of the organization.
Needs continue ... or get worse {read rest}
See the children and families of the Soldiers are as non existent as the Veteran and especially the homeless Vets, just ask o'really, unless of course you need to wave that patriotic{?} flag and use empty words of 'support!!
Shelter's work shows homeless veterans' plight
November 21, 2010 - Ken Miller of Riverside and Michael King of Browns Mills found themselves homeless as a result of marital problems.
Eventually they arrived at the doorstep of Extended Hand Ministries, a homeless shelter in Mount Holly where they have lived for weeks now.
A pregnant Elaine Heyl Taylor of Burlington City became homeless after discharge from the Air Force. She was camping out in woods along the railroad tracks in Mount Holly until two months ago when the same shelter, which already had been feeding her, finally had a bed for her.
These three are among a growing number of military veterans arriving almost daily at the shelter, whose leaders are now seeking to establish another shelter solely for veterans.
Rev. Barbara Davis, the shelter founder and director, and her volunteers publicly have asked Burlington County officials to assist the nonprofit operation in that undertaking by leasing it space at the county hospital complex in Pemberton Township. A meeting with several ranking county staffers is pending.
"Before this year we would have maybe a few veterans in a month, but we have had so many more the past year and the shelter is not large enough," Davis said last week at the shelter. {read rest}
11/02/10 - The Veterans Affairs Department has released a request for information for an "Eliminate Veteran Homelessness (EVH) Analytical Tool" to help identify factors that lead to living on the street.
Factors VA wants to crank into the tool include: {read rest
A visit to the analytical tool page, link above, will show that this is being quickly updated, links to each update on left side of synopsis.
A message from the DAV:
Celebrate and Remember
24 November 2010 - The holiday season is a time of joy, for celebration of family, a time to give thanks for all with which we are blessed. I wish you and your family the very best through this special time and into the new year.
As we know, there are many who will not have the opportunity to partake in the merriment of these holidays. Hundreds of thousands of America’s finest are serving in some of the most dangerous places around the globe, sacrificing their time with family and friends to protect our freedom and way of life.
It is never easy to serve in desolate outposts throughout the world, but it is especially difficult during the holidays. Emails, letters and phone calls are no substitute for the joy of being with family in the warmth and love of a home.
There are others still who no longer serve in uniform but sacrifice daily due to injuries or illnesses sustained in our nation’s defense. Many will spend this holiday season in a hospital, a nursing facility or at home but bedridden.
I ask that you set aside time to remember and honor those who are forsaking their holidays so others do not have to. The United States owes them all a debt of a gratitude that cannot be fully repaid.
Enjoy the holidays and our freedom to worship as we choose. {read rest}
And of course there are other issues most aren't paying attention to:
DCoE Collaborates with ‘The USAA Educational Foundation’ on New Suicide Prevention Publication
{click on graphic for the 16 page pdf of the publication}
November 22, 2010 - Suicide is the leading cause of violent death in the United States, and servicemembers are taking their own lives at an unprecedented rate. As such, suicide has become a major concern for our nation and our military. In an effort to provide useful suicide prevention information and resources to servicemembers and their families, Defense Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury (DCoE), in collaboration with the Suicide Prevention and Risk Reduction Committee (SPaRRC) and The USAA Educational Foundation, is releasing the educational publication “Suicide Prevention”.
This publication outlines what steps servicemembers can take to help themselves or others who may be at risk, including: {read rest}
The USAA Educational Foundation
DCoE: Defense Center of Excellence
Young adults, spouses play role in recovery from 'wounds of war'
11/22/2010 - After returning from Vietnam, people said Juju Sands' father was a changed man.
For the little girl who was born after her father returned from heavy combat in the steamy jungles, he was nothing short of a monster.
"I thank my father for showing me hell on Earth," said Sands, who now lives in Rancho Cucamonga with her husband and two children. "It catapulted me to strive to be better. It's given me a positive view of life."
Sands' experience is one of many shared by the families of veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. It was a relatively foreign concept to those coming home from Vietnam and earlier conflicts, but is now something being examined in servicemen and women coming home from battle in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Such awareness has caused the Veterans Affairs Department support network to evolve.
It now offers classes for family members so that they can better understand the journey of their returning sailor, soldier, airman or Marine.
"Veterans are part of a system, meaning the family, and they need to be educated not only to help them, but to increase treatment benefits of the veterans," said Nancy Farrell, staff psychologist with the Jerry L. Pettis Memorial Veterans Medical Center in Loma Linda.
The world of PTSD {read rest}
So "Happy Thanksgiving" and please feel free to whine about those loss of freedoms, believe me the wars profiteers and criminals who ordered all this aren't, their counting their booty and fly on private planes.
No Accountability will just be bringing more 'junk' searching!!
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