Category: Veterans Issues

81-year-old Korea War veteran, Barney Trusewicz stopped for gas. When he went to tell the attendant to turn on his pump, Barney saw 39-year-old Christopher Bowens climb in the driver’s seat and order his 79-year-old wife, Constance, out of the car. Barney hurried to the driver’s side, reached in and turned off the engine while Bowens, a recent parolee from jail and several previous arrests, threatened Barney with a knife.

“With the left hand I shut the car off twice, and then I spotted the knife and I held onto it,” Barney Trusewicz said.

“I was just waiting for him to thrust it into his stomach, but didn’t happen,” Constance Trusewicz remarked.

Barney grabbed the man by the wrist and wrestled him until he just gave up and ran away.

“He [said], ‘I’m going, I’m getting out of here.’ I said, Okay.’ I just didn’t want him to come and give me a parting shot,” Barney Trusewicz said.

According to the article, police captured Bowens and now he’s facing a life sentence.

“It was mine, and what is mine is mine. What is yours is yours, and let’s keep it that way,” Barney Trusewicz stated.

Constance Trusewicz said she feels bad for Bowens’ parents. His dad is the public safety commission chairman in Lincoln Park. His brother was Matt Bowens, the Detroit police officer who was killed in the line of duty.

Who knows how many other lives Barney saved that day besides his beloved wife. Another superhero veteran saving the world from itself.

Thanks to DefendUSA for the link.

Some of you may not have noticed, but the media is telling us that the unemployment rate for veterans is coming down. The folks at CNN/Time sent us a link to their article on the difficulties some veterans are facing in the world of civvies;

27-year-old Marcel Rowley, who went from being a combat infantryman in Afghanistan to a minimum-wage busboy in California. Rowley, who had been in firefights with insurgents in the Afghan mountains, had to compete against high school kids to get a restaurant job.

“It took a lot of self control,” Rowley said, recalling the times when he dealt with difficult customers. “I definitely had times when I wanted to rip people’s faces off.”

He realized his military experience meant nothing at home. He had gone to boot camp right after high school, and he said that in the eyes of employers it was almost as if he’d been frozen in time.

Rowley — who is now a full-time student on the GI Bill at South Lake Tahoe Community College in California — and many young vets like him never had a chance to build resumes in the civilian work force.

When I got out and went to college as a full-time student, I had three teenagers and a wife who depended on me, so I took a job as security guard for Pinkerton. The job allowed me to study on the job, a construction site that was generally closed during my night time hours. I also got a work/study job in the school’s VA office where I worked between my classes.

It was a long fall from being an infantry platoon sergeant, but you have to eat a lot of shit in order to get ahead. Yeah, there were people I wanted to choke everyday, they should be sending me thank you cards on their birthdays. But, I took a full load of classes through the summer just to graduate sooner and get away from that life.

I know there are some of you out there are looking for work, so I’ll post this link to the US Chamber of Commerce which is sponsoring more than 400 job fairs across the country just to get veterans matched up with jobs with their “Hiring Our Heroes” program.

This is hard to write because it’s about a video that I can’t get embedded, so you have to go the website to see how this ditz screwed up a perfectly good interview. And oh, you have to sit through an interminably long ad to get to the interview. Trang Do of this local TV station will probably forever remain at the local TV station because she’s about as competent as a reporter as me.

The interview is with American Legion’s National Commander Fang Wong and it’s about the American Legion’s efforts to help veterans deal with the stresses of returning home from the recent conflicts. I don’t usually have to post an entire article, but I do this time to illustrate my point because the dolts won’t let me embed their player;

MIDDLETOWN, DAUPHIN COUNTY—

American Legion National Commander Fang Wong is touring posts across the country and at each one, he makes sure to emphasize the need to reach out to veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“They will actually have over a thousand days in combat,” Wong said. “Whereas in World War II or back in the Vietnam time, the total number of combat days is much lower.”

The toll of war and multiple deployments can lead to post traumatic stress disorder. The attorney for Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, the man accused of a shooting rampage that killed 16 Afghan civilians, says his client may have PTSD.

Wong says there aren’t enough facts out about the case for him to comment, but that PTSD is a real problem for combat veterans.

“We need to be proactive,” he said. We need to reach out to them, just check on their well-being. And see if there’s anything we can do to help them.”

Thomas Heffelfinger served in the Marine Corps from 1994 till 1998, before the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. But he says transitioning back to civilian life can be difficult for any service member. For him, the local American Legion post helped ease the process.

“They open up their arms to you. They’ve been there, done that before you,” Heffelfinger said. “So they know what you’re going through, anything you want to talk about, they’re there.”

Now, overall the interview went well, but Do inserted this shit in there for no good reason;

The attorney for Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, the man accused of a shooting rampage that killed 16 Afghan civilians, says his client may have PTSD.

If you watch the video, they also insert pictures of Bales, the same pictures we used here as if it’s a foregone conclusion that Bales’ actions were the result of PTSD, when you and I know that’s NOT reason no matter what his fucking idiot lawyer says. Commander Wong was making the point that it’s too soon to tell if Bales’ murderous shooting spree had anything to do with his mental problems, but that idiot ditz had to insert pictures of Bales and his lawyer’s wild ass conjecture.

I was so blind with rage, I almost missed the end of the video in which Thomas Heffelfinger tells the crew how the American Legion helped him adjust to civilian life – probably the most important part of the whole video.

I’m a big proponent of veterans helping veterans, because I’m convinced that dealing with most civilians is what brings on episodes of Post Traumatic Stress. I know when I have to deal with non-veterans in the non-internet world, my stress meter pegs. And it’s precisely this kind of bullshit reporting I think causes more PTS than any amount of combat could. I’m no medical professional, but I know what pisses me off to the point of outward rage. But this blog is my therapy – interacting with you dickweeds all day.

But I guess my point is that the media needs to find something else to punctuate their reportage with other than pictures of SSG Bales.

Thanks to TSO for the link.

The power is out here at the TAH corporate HQs and I’m on batteries, so let me be brief; here’s our buddies at Ranger Up and their answers for the questions you always get from non-veterans. Our buddy, Eve Chase gets the Oscar for best supporting actress for her role, too. She deserves some kudos for working with those guys without a net. Oh, I forgot a language warning, but these are the Ranger Up guys and this is TAH, so you already knew that;

ROS sends us a link to a story of two Vietnam Veterans who found each other after 42 years. The last time they had seen each other was when one was medivaced from a fire fight.

“Have you tried Facebook?” Melissa asked. “Give me a name.”

[Michael] Sanzaro remembered Ron Colby, a Saukville resident who left his tour by helicopter when his lung was punctured by shrapnel from a booby trap. Having no knowledge of what became of Colby, they plugged in his name and Melissa composed a brief message.

“My father would like to know if you served in golf co 2/5 in vietnam in 1970?” Melissa wrote on Jan. 12.

Twenty-two days later, Colby found the message and responded right away.

“Yes, I did,” Colby wrote. “Who is your father? I’m sorry I didn’t answer this much earlier. I didn’t even see your message until now. I’m still trying to understand this medium. Obviously, I’m not from the computer age.”

Facebook has reconnected me with many of my troops from decades ago, I’m thankful that it connected me with one just before his untimely death. I’d thought that I’d never hear from any of them ever again. So although Facebook is a huge pain in the ass sometimes, it has it’s uses.

I’m glad these two friends have reconnected and their questions about each other have been answered. It’s also instructive in the relationships between soldiers. Some names never die in your memory – there are days you can’t find your car keys, but you never forget the name of that guy who chewed dirt with you decades ago.