Army Staff Sgt. Victor Medina sustained a moderate Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) during his third deployment in Iraq in 2009. Several months later, Medina started a blog titled, “TBI Warrior” to help educate other survivors and caregivers affected by a brain injury through his own experiences–before and after TBI. He shares his story with the DCoE Blog.

Let me take you back to the first day of my new life. The day was June 29, 2009. The mission was a mounted patrol to escort supplies and route reconnaissance from a main contingency operating base (COB) to a joint security station (JSS). The route would take about three hours. We maneuvered through one of the largest cities in Iraq during the three-hour mission. As we exited the city limits – the event occurred that changed my life forever. An explosively formed projectile impacted our vehicle.

The next 48-plus hours are a blur in my mind, still. Most of what I can remember about the event is because of the stories others have told to me. I do remember the smoke and the confusion that followed the accident, but I don’t remember fainting. I remember waking up in an aid station feeling very confused and overwhelmed. I learned I had sustained a moderate TBI.

Today after 16 months of rehabilitation, I look back and think: “It has been a long recovery.” Life is not the same; I have changed. The people who knew me pre-injury can clearly see the difference. I still cope with lingering side effects. Problems with my vision, hearing, balance, headaches, speech disfluency, including the obvious cognitive impairments, are all there. I am not the same as I was before the injury. The truth is that I’ve tried to be the old me but just haven’t been able to succeed at it.

My new philosophy in life and with the injury is: “If this is the hand life dealt me, I will play the best game possible.” Is it frustrating? Yes. I encourage others not to focus on the negative things of the past or present, but rather set eyes on a bright future. I believe survivors of mild or moderate TBI have the power to be as independent as they want to be, regardless of the symptoms. I always ask survivors to stop and ask themselves: “Are you a victim?” or “Are you a warrior?”

With or without injury we are responsible for our actions and our future. Life is about decisions, and you can choose to stand up and make the best out of your life. I decided to stand up and help others. I decided to be an example; and that’s how TBI Warrior started.

It humbles me when others feel empowered and motivated by my experiences. The Army taught me the value in “selfless service.” That is the value I choose to carry with me to help others. I always say that my mission is not about me but about all those who come behind me. TBI is not the end; it can be a new beginning. The effects may not go away, but “it will get better.”

March is Brain Injury Awareness Month – click here for brain injury resources.

Torrey Shannon, National Spokesperson & Co-Executive Director of “Cleaning For Heroes” will be joining the lineup for our 2010 Veteran’s Day Telethon. Torrey came on board with Cleaning for Heroes in April 2010.  She has a unique perspective on the benefits of this one-of-a-kind program.  She is the wife of a combat wounded veteran who was featured in the Pulitzer-Prize winning stories in The Washington Post in 2007 and later testified before Congress about veteran care issues. Torrey, a former maid service owner, has been a peer mentor and moderator on many online residential cleaning forums over the years and remains actively involved in the cleaning industry. She is most recognized as an advocate and expert on quality-of-life topics that affect veterans and their families.

“Cleaning for Heroes” gives honor and assistance to our veterans and service members EVERY day of the year and is setting the example for others to follow! Within four months of the launch of this ground-breaking program, the Cleaning for Heroes network of maid services were spanning the nation and reaching into Canada. The response from the public was overwhelmingly positive.

Anne Aldridge, Founder of “Cleaning For Heroes”, is no stranger to the the sacrifices of veterans. She is the daughter of a Vietnam-era Navy veteran, the granddaughter of a World War II veteran, and the great-granddaughter of a World War I veteran.

“Cleaning for Heroes” is the only non-profit dedicated to to providing free house cleaning, home and repair services to disabled veterans in need.  If you would like to help support this worthy organization, please visit their website or click on the donate widget below!!!

Army Veteran, Marty Horn, President of “Any Soldier

Knowing their son was living under very rough conditions, Marty and his wife sent care packages as often as they could.  What they learned along the way, was what a difference it made to not only their son but to the other members of his unit to receive contact from back home. Sending care packages is about SUPPORT, not just STUFF! A LETTER, from you, your children, the kids at church or school, is THE BEST THING to send.

“Any Soldier ^®” supports all branches of the service. They know that getting a letter or a care package is tangible evidence of support from back home, whether it is from a family member or a stranger, it does wonders to improve morale for that military member.

Not everyone gets a heap of mail or care package from home. In addition to educating on what, where and how to send things, “Any Soldier ^®” also connects supporters with those who don’t have a huge support network back home and helps supporters like YOU make a difference in the lives of many deployed soldiers. If you want to directly support your troops and improve their moral or would like to contribute to “Any Soldier^®”, please visit their website!!

Original Article:  Fox 8 News

AUSTIN, May 26/PR Newswire/ – More than 500,000 Texans served in the Vietnam War and 3,416 sacrificed their lives there. While the war is history for some, the healing continues for others. The Texas Capitol Vietnam War Monument is about the Honor these veterans deserve, and about the Welcome Home, they never received.

In 2005, the Texas Legislature approved the placement of a monument honoring Texas Vietnam Veterans on the Capitol grounds. Now these veterans need your help to build it. They are asking for $1,300,000 in private funds to build this special monument. No tax money will be used for this monument.

This granite and bronze monument will forever acknowledge the noble sacrifices of the U.S. military men and women, as well as the South Vietnamese military, during the Vietnam War.

Crowning the 14-foot tall monument will be five figures that represent the Dawn Patrol, a military defensive circle. They represent the ethnic and racial diversity of the more than one half million Texans that served during the Vietnam War, both in-country or stationed throughout the world.

The seated figure is a wounded Vietnamese Ranger representing the wounds and punishment that the people of South Vietnam suffered during America’s longest war. He is receiving blood, an American’s blood, from an African-American medic. The aid being given to the wounded Ranger symbolizes the aid given and US blood shed, to help the South Vietnamese forces and its people.

The radioman is a Native American. He is concentrating on the sky, looking up for help from our helicopters, our lifeline in Vietnam.

The kneeling figure with the scoped rifle is a Hispanic scout/sniper, watching for the enemy and protecting his fellow grunts.

The standing figure is a Caucasian soldier, a ground pounder with the 1,000-yard stare.

Five ethnic groups; the racial diversity of Texas and of the Vietnam War; one team: grunts looking out for each other.

Designed by nationally acclaimed western sculptor Duke Sundt, the monument not only reflects the ethnic diversity of Texas, but also the proud military tradition of Texas war veterans.

So far, $300,000 has been raised, the bulk of that amount coming from the corporate sector. Leading this effort is the Texas Capitol Vietnam War Monument Committee, composed exclusively of Vietnam Veterans, all personally committed to seeing the Monument brought from concept to reality.

Veteran Outreach Committee Chair John Miterko said, “Given that 572,000 Vietnam veterans now reside in Texas, the needed funds amount to only about $2 per veteran. If Texas veterans would show their willingness to support our Monument, others will most assuredly respond in kind. It’s now up to each of us to show our interest in the construction of this historic and lasting tribute to the proud military service of Texans in Vietnam.”

The Texas Capitol Vietnam War Monument is a non-profit 501(c) 3 project, the federal tax ID number is:  20-3113705. All donations are tax deductible, payable by cash, check, money order or credit card to the Texas Capitol Vietnam War Monument.

To learn more, or to donate by credit card visit our website:

http://www.buildthemonument.org

To donate by check or money order, mail to:

TCVM

c/o JHL Company

P.O. Box 12275

Austin, TX 78711

You can also e-mail the monument committee at:  rfloyd@hslawmail.com

The Department of Veterans Affairs is struggling to cope with tens of thousands of veterans filing for disability benefits. Because there are applicants from two current wars — plus a new wave from the first Gulf War and Vietnam — thousands are now stuck in the clogged pipeline.

Although the department and its critics differ on exact numbers, everyone agrees that way too many vets are waiting way too long to get benefits.

Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki is experimenting with ways to get the old, crippled bureaucracy to do better.

A Tidal Wave Of Applicants

The number of outstanding claims at the VA for service-related disabilities — amputations, injured limbs, PTSD, brain trauma — hovers around 500,000. Nearly 40 percent of those have been waiting on a decision for more than four months.

And to make matters worse, another 100,000 claims are waiting for a decision at the Board of Veterans Appeals. The department has responded by hiring thousands of new claims adjudicators, a kind of brute force approach.

But Paul Sullivan of Veterans for Common Sense says that won’t solve the problem.

“The Department of Veterans Affairs is so complicated, it would drive a normal person insane in 3 minutes,” Sullivan says.

Sullivan has been battling the VA for years over the backlog issue. For six years, he worked inside the VA. Complexity, he says, is the department’s backbreaking burden, beginning with a veteran’s first perplexing hurdle: a 23-page application form.

“The Department of Veterans Affairs takes three years to train a new employee on how to read that 23-page claim form,” he says.

Because of the intense training, those new hires won’t be online for some time. And Sullivan says the department’s problems are only beginning — he says 440,000 Iraq and Afghanistan veterans have filed disability claims.

“We expect that number to go up to about a million in the next four or five years,” he says. “And more tidal waves are right behind it.”

Those tidal waves will be rolled in by Secretary Shinseki’s new rules allowing claims from Agent Orange exposure in Vietnam and chemical exposure in the first Gulf War. The VA acknowledges that at least 200,000 new applicants will slow down claims processing even more in the future.

A Faceless Bureaucracy

Vietnam veteran John Wood knows something about how long it can take to get benefits. He served in the Army from 1969 to 1972. In Vietnam, he was a cavalry reconnaissance scout near the border with North Vietnam, where he saw several of his fellow soldiers cut down in combat.

“It took me from 1972 to 2006 for the VA to admit that I had post-traumatic stress disorder,” he says. “They were saying that I couldn’t prove that I had any combat status in Vietnam, and so it couldn’t possibly be post-traumatic stress disorder because I wasn’t in combat, which I was.”

The VA insisted that because he had been trained as a clerk, he would not have been sent into combat. But Wood was reassigned when he got to Vietnam. The burden was on Wood to prove that he had been in combat. He solicited testimonial letters from fellow soldiers and dug up after-action reports from Army records to make his case. Thirty-four years later, the VA Board of Appeals acknowledged that he had been in the shooting war and granted his claim.

Another veteran who faced a hard process was Tia Christopher, who was raped in her barracks while she was attending language school to learn Arabic. When she got out of the Navy, she went to a VA hospital for psychological help. Staff at the hospital advised her against filing for disability benefits.

“Even though we got really good health care, they told us it would be really traumatic, a re-traumatizing process to file a claim, and that you basically have to kind of defend yourself. You would basically be put on trial to do this claim. That idea scared the hell out of me,” Christopher says.

But it didn’t scare her enough to keep her from filing a claim, which was denied. Then, with the help of the veterans service organization Swords to Plowshares, she filed an appeal. Eight years later, she won.

For both of these vets, the VA remained a faceless bureaucracy throughout their ordeal.

Critics say it’s not surprising that the VA’s medical branch advised Christopher against filing a claim with the benefits branch because it would be too traumatic. There is a widespread perception that the VA stands against vets rather than for them, they say. And that’s something Secretary Shinseki has set out to change.

“When the new secretary came in, one of the first things that he said to us was a recognition of the fact that many veterans do perceive us that way,” says Michael Walcoff, the VA’s undersecretary for benefits, “and that we need to do whatever we can do to make sure that our people understand that their role is to be an advocate for the veteran, not an adversary.”

It’s a tall order to turn around a huge bureaucracy encumbered by a culture and rules developed over the decades since World War II. But the VA has launched a number of pilot programs to streamline and simplify the application process.

A Possible Solution: Team Delta

One program is in the VA regional office in downtown Pittsburgh. Downstairs in the service center, row after row of white file cabinets stretch across the room, and piled on top are thick bundles of files so big they can’t be put away. Paper rules at the VA; electronic files are years away as the VA builds a new system. All of this paper now lumbers back and forth between the veteran and the VA via snail mail, while veterans almost never have any face-to-face — or even telephone — contact with people handling their claims.

Beth McCoy, the regional office director, says the staff of the pilot program, known as Team Delta, aims to change that by actually making personal calls to veterans.

“We’re surprising them,” McCoy says. ” ‘Is this really the VA calling? No one from VA has ever called me before.’ It’s a positive experience for the veterans, and it’s really a positive experience for our employees. Rather than working with paper files, they’re working more directly with veterans.”

And there are almost unheard-of face to face contacts with veterans — contacts which, the team has discovered, can be wrenchingly emotional.

Vietnam veteran Arthur Rhone says his experience with Team Delta is the best he’s had with the VA.

“They all introduced themselves to me, they’re all nice people and they seem like they’re concerned for me,” he says. “They not here for a paycheck; they here for me.”

Rhone starts his session about a PTSD claim with a tense recitation of the horrors he witnessed in Vietnam, and he ends with a story about the time a mother and daughter were stopped at an American checkpoint. The mother was a Viet Cong suspect carrying a large sum of money. Rhone’s squad leader told him to use the daughter to pressure the mother to confess that she had more money hidden away.

“So they told me … it was during the rainy season … get the girl, jump down in the rice paddy. I’m up to here, I grabbed the girl, she’s about 8 years old, and I ducked her down in the rice paddy till the mama-san told where the money was. I almost drowned her. I live with that every day of my life, OK? It’s with me all the time. I wish you could take your hands and scrub it out my damn brain. You think you can do that for me? Y’all think you can help me do that?”

Rhone jams his chest with his thumb for emphasis. People in the office calm him, but when he sits to sign a document, his hand is shaking so badly he has to steady it with his other hand.

“I appreciate that, you guys. Thank you,” he says.

But Team Delta has only eight people in a bureaucracy of nearly 20,000. The jury is still out on whether its personalized approach is feasible for the entire Veterans Benefits Administration.

Article Source: Disabled Veterans

When a soldier comes home, he finds it hard….
..to listen to his son whine about being bored.


…..to keep a straight face when people complain about potholes.


to be tolerant of people who complain about the hassle of getting ready for work.


…to be understanding when a co-worker complains about a bad night’s sleep.

..to be silent when people pray to God for a new car.


…to control his panic when his wife tells him he needs to drive slower.


…to be compassionate when a businessman expresses a fear of flying.

….to keep from laughing when anxious parents say they’re afraid to
send their kids off to summer camp.

….to keep from ridiculing someone who complains about hot weather.



…..to control his frustration when a colleague gripes about his coffee being cold.

….to remain calm when his daughter complains about having to walk the dog.



…..to be civil to people who complain about their jobs.



….to just walk away when someone says they only get two weeks of vacation a year.



….to be forgiving when someone says how hard it is to have a new baby in the house.

The only thing harder than being a Soldier…


Is loving one.

Nearly 2 million veterans or their widows are missing out on as much as $22 billion a year in pensions, but the Department of Veterans Affairs has had only limited success in finding them. Widows are hardest hit. According to a VA estimate, only one in seven people who probably could qualify for the pension actually receive the monthly checks. A VA study said, that veterans generally “are completely unaware that the program exists.”

If you served during World War II, Korea, Vietnam or the Gulf War or are the surviving spouse of a veteran of one of those conflicts:

• You may qualify for a VA Pension without having a service connected disability.
• You could receive a pension that could be as high as $1950 per month for a married couple or $1100 per month for a surviving spouse, all TAX FREE.
• You may receive help to pay health insurance premiums, including Medicare Part B, or money to have friends or relatives provide home care services.

A third of all senior citizens in this country may qualify for this little known veterans disability income benefit called Pension. Pension is also called the Veterans Aid and Attendance Benefit. This benefit can pay up to $1,950 a month to qualifying veteran households to cover the cost of home care, assisted living or nursing home care. The income is paid in addition to all other household income to reimburse the family for their long term care medical costs. If younger than 65, the veteran must be totally disabled. If age 65 or older, there is no requirement for disability. There is no disability requirement for a single surviving spouse.

There are estimated to be about 7.1 million living veterans over the age of 65 who served during World War II, Korea, Vietnam or the Gulf War. In addition there are approximately 4.4 million surviving spouses of these war veterans over 65. The veterans could be eligible for Pension and their surviving dependents may be eligible for Death Pension as well. To receive a Veterans Pension Benefit, a veteran must have served on active duty, at least 90 days, with at least one day during a period of war. There must be an honorable discharge.

There are about 11.5 million potential beneficiaries for VA pension benefits in this country. The Census Bureau estimates there are approximately 35 million seniors over the age of 65. Comparing those who could receive pension over the total number of seniors means that about 33% of all seniors could be eligible for this veterans benefit income. Yet, according to government census statistics, only about 4.7% of the 11.5 million or so seniors who could qualify are actually receiving Pension or Death Pension.

For more detailed information on the VA Pension benefit, including detailed charts and downloadable forms, please visit the Smart Consumer Group VA Pension Page

Rod Taverna has been involved in financial planning for 20 years and has an MBA in Finance. Company web site http://www.FreedomFinancialSolutionsInc.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Rod_Taverna
http://EzineArticles.com/?Veterans-and-Surviving-Spouses—The-VA-May-Owe-You-Money&id=1728087

Instead the Expeditionary Sustainment Command (ESC), where Mann served as Deputy Commander, was sent into Afghanistan into an “intensely challenging theater of combat operations,” Mann’s award citation narrative states.

Mann earned a Bronze Star for his service during the 12 month deployment.

As the first ESC to deploy to the this area of operation in Afghanistan, Mann and his fellow soldiers were responsible for the Command and Control of more than 3,000 Soldiers, Sailors, Marines, Airmen, and Civilians. And they planned and executed full spectrum logistics support throughout the area of operations.

Upon his arrival in Afghanistan, there were no operational logistics practices in place, his award citation narrative states. But working to implement their principles of “anticipation, responsiveness, simplicity, economy, survivability, and improvisation,” according to the narrative, they were able to make “huge strides” in establishing and maintaining operations.

The command inherited the daunting task of conducting logistics support of ongoing combat operations while planning and organizing rapid theater expansion in support of more than 20,000 arriving US service members representing an increase to fifteen combat and combat support brigades in 2009. And their work environment upon arrival was truly expeditionary. There were virtually no work stations, communication equipment, or computers, which are the critical tools that the 300-man unit uses to function. Over the first few weeks the personnel worked to establish this infrastructure. The temperature in their tents at times exceeded 100 degrees. But the command also played a leading role in constructing eight new Forward Operating Bases and planning for the 2010 surge of an additional 30,000 US forces across Afghanistan.

“Unit personnel proceeded to construct the headquarters while at the same time the unit was operating full speed to sustain US forces,” the narrative states.

Deputy Commander General, Mann was “fully engaged in supporting virtually every aspect of the Commanding General’s successful efforts to command and control the 4,300 Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, [and] Civilians in the command, as well as ensuring the health, welfare, safety of these personnel.

” But it was Mann’s leadership that contributed so much to these successes, the narrative states.

Mann was known for mentoring and guiding the staff, which was key to the unit’s success.

Mann led the senior leadership team, he routinely promoted personnel changes to improve unit operations. He played a large role in leading the pre-deployment training, as well.

“COL Mann’s leadership and performance in executing full-spectrum sustainment operations greatly assisted in the unmitigated success of the US mission in Afghanistan,” the narrative states.

Article Source:  Hero of the Week