This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Category: Veterans Issues

  • A Unique Purple Hearts Reunited Success Story

    PVT John Bateman, US Army, was an infantryman. During World War II, he was assigned to the 21st Infantry Regiment, 24th Infantry Division.

    Bateman was assigned to the unit as a replacement. He joined the unit in Mindanao in the Philippines.

    One of the first people he met on arriving was John Trinca.  Both were from Chicago.  So they chatted a bit, then went on patrol.

    Unfortunately, not long after meeting Trinca – on June 3, 1945 – PVT John Bateman was KIA. Trinca was with him when he died.

    Bateman was awarded a posthumous Purple Heart.

    In the 1950s, Bateman’s Purple Heart was found by Tom McAvoy in the basement of a Chicago apartment building. It was on the floor in the basement of his apartment building – where the janitor was sorting igarbage.

    McAvoy, who was only a child at the time, removed the medal from the garbage and gave it to his mother. Being a child, he then forgot about it.

    A few years ago, one of McAvoy’s brothers mentioned to him that he’d found the medal in some of their late mother’s effects. McAvoy then realized that was the medal he’d found as a child – and decided to try and find the medal’s rightful owner.

    To make a long story short: eventually, McAvoy ended up in contact with Purple Hearts Reunited. Purple Hearts Reunited found Bateman’s son.  And this weekend, the medal is being returned to it’s rightful owner – the late PVT John Bateman’s surviving son, his NOK.

    That in and of itself is great – but isn’t what makes this case unique.

    In the process of finding Bateman’s son, Purple Hearts Reunited also located the man who was with Bateman when he died – John Trinca.

    Trinca will also be at the ceremony returning Bateman’s Purple Heart to his son. After 69 years, Bateman’s son will have the chance to meet and speak with the man who was with his father when he died.

    The Army Times has an article with more details. It’s longish, but well worth reading.  And the story is truly amazing – and inspiring.

    Kudos, Purple Hearts Reunited. Keep up the good work.

  • A Sea Story…Kinda

    From time to time I go back and read things I have written.   Most of what I write, including the things you guys never see is based in truth.  I shoved a mean ass cat in a mailbox when I was about 8 years old.  The mailman opened the mailbox and the cat launched into the jeep with him.  Now I am a huge advocate for animal warfare, but of all the cats I have ever met, that one deserved to be shoved in a mailbox.  I wrote a long story about that some years ago.  I can see the humor in it. I wrote about church pot luck dinners. I used to attend those as a child.  I still find it amusing on what a child hears while trying to get at the desert table. Kids pick up on allot of things adults think they don’t hear or wont understand.

    I write because I like it.  It allows me to organize my thoughts. I hope those that read what I write get something from it, even if its just a laugh. Tonight I found something I started years ago, I never finished it because the topic was to difficult for me to continue at that time.  reading others comments on this blog has given me what I needed to re-tell a story I have only shared in parts with one other person.

    I was in the Navy Stationed on the USS Coral Sea CV-43. We were on Med Cruise 87-88.  On January 31 1988 we were in a real bad storm.  The ship was rocking and rolling. Green water was breaking over the bow and I was scared shitless. I had been in storms but never anything that bad. We were getting the crap beat out of us. I can only imagine what it was like on the small boys.  I remember a hatch leaking on the main deck and it was like a water fall. It seemed like every few minutes the flying squad was being called away for something.

    I was TAD from E Division to the MAA force.  My partner and I along with 4 other teams patrolled the ship while at sea or in port. We dealt with security issues, long lines and general bullshit that goes along with having 0ver 5000 people shoved together. Most of the stuff we did dealt with minor theft and crowd control, but we did respond with the Flying Squad to everything from broken pipes to personnel casualties and main space fires. Very often we got there first.  I spent more time in an OBA (Oxygen Breathing Apparatus) Than I care to think about.   On a side note the Navy used that system for years, they now use Air Paks like the Fire Dept uses. I never understood what a chemical oxygen generator, that was worn on the chest and got hot as hell when it was working plus had the added habit of blowing up if it came in contact with salt water was ever a good idea on a ship.

    Back to the Storm. Word had been passed that no work was to be done on the weather decks.  It was one of the few times I remember the deck edge elevator doors being shut.   There had been a constant banging on the port side of the ship from late morning on.  It was loud and annoying. I guess it annoyed one of the Junior Officers so bad that he ordered a 2 man crew out to secure the piece of equipment. A personnel casuistry was called away very close to where my partner and I were at the time and we got to it first. It was the guys that had been sent onto the sponson to secure the equipment.   The equipment was a big  thing  that was used for underway replenishment.  It is what the cables the held the fuel hoses attached to.  As the guys were trying to secure it the ship took a roll and crushed one of them.

    I put on a Kapok and headed out, My partner stayed at the door, it could not have been more than a minute before the Flying Squad got there but it seemed like a lifetime. in many ways it was.  When I got to the guy he was alive, when I left he was dead.  The medical guys did everything possible to save him. had we been in the best hospital in the world with the best surgeons they could not have done more than the HM on the flying squad did, and the doctors that soon arrived.

    It took a couple of days to fly his body off. The milk locker was cleaned out and he was kept in there until a plane could get him home.  One of the odd things about a carrier is the amount of space. The hanger bays are huge,  large odd shaped items from every dept are stored there. Transport coffins qualify as large odd shaped items.  I dont know how many of you have ever seen one. they are about 7 feet long 2 feet wide and about 2 feet deep. they look like something a band would use to move large electronics. They are made of aluminum and have handles like a foot locker down each side.  They will not fit into a milk locker.

    The door of the locker was sealed after his body was placed in it.  A guard was placed outside the door.   This milk locker was right next to the mess deck. The entire time his body was there no one made a sound. Silence and Respect.  When his body was flown off the ship the entire crew watched the coffin being loaded onto the plane.  When the weather cleared we has what was the first of what turned out to be two memorial services for lost shipmates that cruise. I later learned that it took ten days for his body to get home.

    We made a port call soon after. I saw the HM that was on the Flying Squad on liberty. He was as drunk as I have ever seen any man. He saw me and said it should not have happened. I have not ever been a heavy drinker. I can count the number of times I have been drunk on my fingers. I got plastered that night.

    In the years that have passed I have relived those minutes in my dreams, at first it was all the time, as time has passed it has become less frequent.  Now it is only once or twice a year. I rarely drink milk. I used to all the time. I cannot stand loud repetitive noises.  I have been close to his grave many times. I cannot bring myself to visit it.

    I tell this for a reason. I do not suffer from PTSD.  I have other dreams that involve some aspect of my service that I look forward to.  My life, other than a some lost sleep and an aversion to milk has not been affected.  What I have from this is a small understanding of what it must be like to really have PTSD.  I know fine men who have closed off their lives  to almost everything because of PTSD.  When i read that a politician is using PTSD as an excuse for cheating it really pisses me off.  When the media talks about it like its something you catch like one would a cold it drives me up a wall. When a see a 100 percent combat disabled veteran brag about his visit to the VA and  use it as an excuse for extreme and irrational behavior it takes every fiber of my being not to respond in kind.

    PTSD has been something I have thought allot about lately. It seems that in the last few months it has become more and more of a topic and justification for every possible action.   The only solution I can see is to educate the public on what PTSD really is. Maybe then the media will call bullshit on it as an excuse.  When Brigadier Generals/Congressmen  are allowed to get away with this kind of bullshit it makes me loose faith in the oath I took a long time ago.

    A lie no matter who tells it is still a lie. We as Veterans have an obligation to hold our own to a higher standard. Some may see that as harsh. I see it as keeping the Faith.

  • Another Dem War Hero

    My reaction to the revelation that Democrat senator John Walsh, a retired brigadier general and one-time adjutant general (head) of Montana’s National Guard, had plagiarized much of his master’s thesis at the Army’s Command and General Staff War College was similar to that of most veterans. I felt a queasy disgust, not so much at the offense but at his attempt to blame it on PTSD. For an officer of his seniority and long military experience to try to weasel out of an embarrassing exposure of his lack of professional and academic ethics by falsely claiming the stress of battle made him do it, is a huge disservice to all those warriors who, due to their combat experiences, truly are dealing with the very real debilities of post-traumatic stress disorder. My assessment as an old former infantry NCO is that this guy isn’t much of a leader. Reading comments around the internet from soldiers who served under him reinforces that belief.

    Those of us who try to stay attuned to developments in the veteran community are keenly aware that PTSD is all too often the first defense thrown up by those phony veterans claiming military service and valorous awards for service and deeds never rendered, once they are exposed, or it is part of their original scam to milk public sympathy. These frauds, most who have never served and the rest actual veterans foolishly trying to add some macho glamour to their military record, are such a prevalent phenomenonin America today that they’ve earned their very own federal criminal statute, the Stolen Valor Act of 2013.

    That a United States Senator throws in with that legion of losers as soon as his own Stolen Valor is exposed says a lot about his lack of devotion to the troops he actually led in combat, some of whom no doubt are suffering the real effects of PTSD. Why don’t you just steal their wheelchairs and prosthetic limbs while you’re usurping their emotional wounds for your phony defense, Senator? And yes, I know, you’re trying to backtrack now but your first defensive instinct is what is so telling.

    Now, while Democrats are rallying ‘round another of their tarnished war heroes, we hear that the Army Command and General Staff College is opening an investigation of your possible cheating. That became much more interesting to me when I read an excerpt from a Google Book edited by Douglas Higgins, titled Military Culture and Education: Current Intersections of Academic and Military Cultures which contains this very interesting observation regarding the very real seriousness of the offense of plagiarism in a military academic setting.

    Academic misconduct is also covered by the UCMJ. Plagiarism is significantly less prevalent among CGSC students. When plagiarism is suspected, however, the procedures involved are significantly more serious than in a civilian setting. If a written assignment aroused my curiosity at the university — or even the seminary, I would call a student in for an informal discussion. At CGSC faculty are required to have an active-duty officer of greater rank than the student involved present to read the student their legal rights under article 15-6 of the UCMJ prior to that conversation. Depending on the circumstances and severity, an investigative board may be formed and — theoretically at least — a student could face the “long course”: confinement in the Disciplinary Barracks, or military prison, at Fort Leavenworth. Here plagiarism is literally a crime. (Emphasis mine.)

    Perhaps the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, which has jumped to the senator’s defense, should pause for a moment and consider that last sentence from the above quote:

    Here plagiarism is literally a crime.

    That might also give some pause to his former running mate and now Montana governor, Steve Bullock, who has been staunchly supportive of a man he perhaps doesn’t know quite as well as he thought. The Dems attempts to whitewash a possible military crime by one of their own is typical.

    And this is for you, John Walsh: you are now numbered among those who have Stolen Valor. You knowingly allowed the Army to confer upon you a master’s degree that you had not honestly earned. If the successful completion of that course contributed to your promotion to brigadier general then that rank was falsely attainedand your promotion should be rescinded. And because you benefitted financially by the higher pay grade of your fraudulently achieved rank, you have brought yourself under the jurisdiction of the Stolen Valor Act of 2013, which makes it a crime for a person to fraudulently claim having received any of a series of particular military decorations with the intention of obtaining money, property, or other tangible benefit from convincing someone that he or she rightfully did receive that award. If a court should deem your master’s degree from the War College to be an award or decoration, enhancing promotion, you could be prosecuted.

    Or, because you’re a Democrat and now have demonstrably phony military credentials, your party might now be looking at you as future presidential material like Jean Fraud Kerry.

    Crossposted at American Thinker

  • More Walsh BS

    Montana Senator John Walsh continues to lean on public sympathy for soldiers as an excuse for his plagiarizing his thesis at the Army War college. In an interview with Yahoo News, he says that he tripped one night during an exchange of gunfire in his FOB and hit his face on something, so there, see. He’s a war hero who tripped over a cable or something and he was wounded in combat. Doubters.

    And he went to the VA for PTS;

    “I met with VA doctors, came back, went to the VA hospital here for a process period,” Walsh said when pressed on whether he had been formally diagnosed with PTSD. “When I came back, I had private insurance, I went to my personal physician in Helena, Montana and talked about what I was dealing with. He prescribed medication for me. …He said there were symptoms of PTSD.”

    A Walsh aide told Yahoo News that the doctor prescribed Paxil, an antidepressant commonly used to treat PTSD.

    That’s a bit convoluted. If you take that statement literally and chronologically, he’s saying that he saw VA doctors in Iraq – there are no VA doctors in Iraq, not now or ever. I still want to see his medical records since he made his PTS an issue, he has a responsibility to prove to veterans that he was actually diagnosed with PTS. I doubt that he was – I also doubt that he went to the VA for PTS.

    Fox News reports that Montana veterans have a mixed opinion on Walsh’s initial response in regards to his theft of intellectual property;

    But his initial statement riled some Montana veterans and elicited strong opinions, even if they didn’t have a full grasp on the circumstances.

    “That’s the reason he cheated on a test? Give me a break. That’s the limpest damn excuse I ever heard in my life. I don’t buy that at all,” Navy veteran Don Malsam said in a telephone interview from American Legion Post 4 in Billings.

    Malsam acknowledged he was not a Walsh supporter even before the plagiarism allegations, but was adamant that they will seal Walsh’s fate.

    “I think he’s done,” he said.

    […]

    Roy Savage, the adjutant at the Ole Beck Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 209 in Missoula, said it shouldn’t. Savage, who also advocates for veterans and coordinates the Heroes Therapeutic Outreach Program, said the issue shouldn’t overshadow what each candidate stands and fights for.

    And even if Walsh did plagiarize his paper, Savage asked, so what?

    “If he did it, you know, slap on the wrist,” he said. “Who hasn’t done it? I did it myself when I was in college and I was dealing with PTSD. Anybody who says they haven’t done it is a liar.”

    Yeah, well, you’re a thief, too Roy Savage. I never stole someone else’s words and called it my own. Wanna call me a liar to my face?

    Meanwhile, our buddy, Alex Horton, discusses in the Washington Post why it’s a big deal for veterans;

    There are already erroneous cultural assumptions about what PTSD is and is not. The media sold the condition as the catalyst of the recent Ft. Hood shootings. It’s also at the center of a case of an Iraq veteran who engaged in a shootout with police. PTSD is a purported explanation of violence when military training and wartime trauma begin to intersect.

    Walsh’s claim carries a more abstract association. He told the AP he was on medication and struggling to cope. Those factors, he explains, led to unscrupulous behavior.

    That reasoning may help a senator but hurt other veterans. Folks going from the battlefield to the office must already contend with hiring managers who worry war veterans damaged by PTSD can be a physical threat in the workplace. Piling on to this problem will only negatively affect the reintegration of thousands of veterans who are coming home after Walsh.

    While Walsh sees the PTS excuse as a convenient way to extricate himself from the controversy during a particularly tough election campaign, the long term damage to the veterans that Walsh led in combat is more difficult for the country, as a while to deal with. The media simply excuses all bad behavior from some veterans with PTS explanation because the malady is so misunderstood – and Walsh does nothing to unmuddy the waters. That’s why he needs to prove to all of us, veterans, media, employers, that he was ever treated for PTS. he’s the only person who can prove it and he should be doing that sooner rather than later.

  • The PTSD Made Me Do It

    Every day on this site and others  frauds, fakes and phonys are exposed for what they are.   We see them come here and try to explain away the lies and deceit as a misunderstanding or someone carrying out a vendetta and worst of all is when they stick by the lie.  I can honestly say that I take no joy in exposing these people but I know that it must be done.

    My reasons are varied.  But the thing I keep thinking about are the families of those that died for the idea of our Nation. I say “Idea” because that all it really is.  When enough of us stop believing in the idea of the Constitution,  The Bill of Rights, Blind Justice and so many of the other things that make the United States different from all other Nations then we as a Nations will cease to exist.  We will fade away into antiquity to be studied by future generations.

    For every lie that we read about, every Fake DD-214 we see there are 10,000 silent truths. Those truths that belong to the men and women who have served our nation faithfully and with dignity and who see no need to embellish or lie about what they did.  For every lie there are graves on almost every continent and in ever sea, the final resting places of real Valor.

    To so many of these fakes just being a part of something great is not enough. They lie to try to advance in politics, or to impress a girlfriend or employer. What really pisses me off now are all the claims of PTSD.  I am just waiting for the one who claims PTSD from the stress of keeping up the lie.  Its going to happen and whoever does it will get  a disability rating from the VA.  PTSD is a very real issue, every time one of these fakes hides behind it as an excuse for wrong actions it hurts the Veteran community and Serving military as a whole.

    We all have stress in our lives, Every person who ever served can recall instances of traumatic stress. Hell, in boot camp I forget one of those damned General Orders and had to go to marching party. (Work out ran by sadistic SEALs at RTC in San Diego) To this day it remains the hardest physical thing I have ever done. I didn’t make it the first time either, I had to do it again the next night. Stressful and Traumatic? Hell yes.  I lived in fear of ever having to do that again. Guess what?  I know my General Orders.

    So one of these fakes gets caught in a lie and blames it on PTSD,  Now if he or she is questioned or other wise ridiculed ,we are picking on someone with PTSD and are the bad guys. It pisses me off.  I am a Vet, I am also dealing with a minor disability. I have a bad knee. It limits what I can and can’t do and there are days that it hurts so bad that I don’t do much.  I often use a cane and brace.  This knee problem has Jack-shit to do with my time in the Navy. But I guess I could call myself a disabled vet like so many others.  Nope, I don’t think so. It’s not how people are supposed to act.

    News Flash Fakers, PTSD and disability are not magic shields you can hide behind.  Real men and women suffer from PTSD, to some it gets to a point that it completely controls their lives.  They live in a maze where that walls are made of debilitating fear.  Other’s relive an event over and over for years with no relief. It affects careers, relationships and every aspect of living, but the frauds and fakes play the PTSD card like its an excuse for all things done wrong. Sorry it won’t work like that. If you use PTSD as an excuse for bad actions then you will get called out.

    I’m pissed about this growing issue.

  • Delaware Veterans turn their backs on Obama

    So this happened;

    We feel he’s turned his back on us veterans, so we’re going to turn our backs on him as he drives by on his motorcade to show our appreciation that he does not care about us veterans,” Nicholson told BuzzPo.com.

    Obama was in Delaware to discuss a recently damaged bridge, a topic the protesters call a waste of Obama’s time when much bigger issues demand his attention, including the Veterans Affairs scandal and the invasion of illegal immigrants.

    “Take care of your own first,” protester John Stroud told BuzzPo. “There are Americans that need help first. I think there are more important things you could be doing than coming to Delaware to look at a bridge.”

  • Purple Hearts Reunited Comes Through Again

    T/Sgt. Emilio Ricci was a medic in the Pacific during World War II. He was assigned to the 43rd Infantry Division.

    71 years ago today, he was KIA. His NOK at the time received his Purple Heart.

    Over the years, T/Sgt Emilio’s Purple Heart. . . wandered. The medal was rediscovered in a VFW attic in 2011.

    A recent vet – also a Purple Heart recipient – notified Purple Hearts Reunited. Today, the medal was returned to T/Sgt Ricci’s family.

    Well done, all. And especially well done, Purple Hearts Reunited.

  • Berghdal Completes “Reintegration Process”

    The Army Times reports that Bowe Bergdahl has completed his “reintegration process.” He will be returned to duty with US Army North, duty station Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston. He will reportedly be assigned administrative duties.

    That same Army Times article also notes the following:

    An Army fact-finding investigation conducted in the months after Bergdahl’s disappearance concluded he walked away from his post of his own free will, CNN reported, citing an official who was shown the report.

    But the report said there was no definitive conclusion Bergdahl was a deserter because that would require knowing his intent — something officials couldn’t learn without talking to him, a U.S. military official has said.

    Well, duh – of course the conclusion that Bergdahl was a deserter involves a determination that he intended to remain away permanently.  That’s the essential distinction between AWOL/UA and desertion:  the intent to remain away permanently.

    But there are ways to infer intent that don’t involve interviewing the individual in question and accepting their words at face value. Like maybe interviewing those he actually served with immediately before he went “over the hill”, maybe.

    You can also examine other related reports.  It also seems that the US Intelligence Community (IC) was not exactly sitting on their hands during Bergdahl’s absence from military control.  Specifically, the IC apparently conducted a substantial investigation regarding Berghdal and his activities while “out and about”. The file resulting from that IC investigation is reportedly quite extensive.

    As of early June, no relevant Congressional committee had asked to see the IC’s Berghdal files. It’s unclear whether or not that’s happened since early June or not.

    Hmm. Perhaps MG Dahl can quicken the pace of his investigation. Maybe he will get around to re-interviewing the folks who served in Afghanistan “real soon now”. They might be able to shed some light on the guy’s intent through statements he made to or around them.

    And maybe he’ll take a look at what the IC has regarding the matter, too. That just might shed a bit of light on the subject as well.