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South Florida Vets - Sponsors
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Report
from a Chaplain in Iraq
I recently attended a showing of "Superman 3"
here at LSA Anaconda. We have a large auditorium
we use for movies as well as memorial services
and other large gatherings. As is the custom
back in the States, we stood and snapped to
attention when the National Anthem began before
the main feature.
All was going as planned until about
three-quarters of the way through the National
Anthem the music stopped. Now, what would happen
if this occurred with 1,000 18-22 year-olds back
in the States? I imagine... |
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Who
Are America’s Veterans?
There are 25.6 million living veterans:
»
24.1 million
men and 1.5 million women
»
48 million
Americans have served since 1776
»
Nearly 1
million people have died in combat... |
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Veterans Multi-Purpose Center's Horse Assisted Therapy
Program for Veterans Catching Hold Nation Wide
North American Riding for the Handicapped
Association, Inc.
Establishes Horses for Heroes
Executive Director Robert Bambury of the Veterans Multi-Purpose Center has
conferred with Mary Jo Beckman retired Navy
Commander and a NARHA Advanced Instructor, who
ran the Caisson Platoon pilot, and NARHA Region
Representative, Ross Braun, who, with Beckman,
imagined and helped create the program. The
North American Riding for the Handicapped
Association, Inc. (NARHA) today announced that
it plans to develop a nationwide program for
America’s wounded service personnel and
veterans. More than 700 NARHA centers... |
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Shelters Take Many Vets
of Iraq, Afghan Wars
Also housing those from earlier eras
By Anna Badkhen, Globe Correspondent | August 7,
2007
NORTHAMPTON -- After Kevin returned from Iraq,
he spent most nights lying awake in his Army
barracks in Hawaii, clutching a 9mm handgun
under his pillow, bracing for an attack that
never came. His fits of sleep brought nightmares
of the wounded and dying troops whom Kevin, a
combat medic, had treated over 16 months of
suicide attacks and roadside bombings. He kept
thinking about an attack that killed 13 of his
comrades. He hated himself for having survived.
Soon he was drinking so heavily that the Army
discharged him. He moved back... |
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Albuquerque Plays Major
Role in Testing, Finding Vaccine for Shingles
Life-changing research - By Peter Rice
Somewhere in Albuquerque, a sprawling building,
built in the uniquely bland federal government
style, stands behind a well-maintained perimeter
fence. It's the sort of place where you have to
drive up to the entrance, push a button and then
talk to people inside before the robotic arm
swings up to allow access. For security reasons,
officials at the U.S. Department of Veterans
Affairs, which operates the facility, asked that
it be described only as "near the airport."
You may have driven past it without knowing.
Despite its low profile, the building has, in
the past few years, served as a kind of national
vortex for a major - and successful - study
testing the effectiveness of a new vaccine for
shingles that is hitting the open market... |
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Rodeo Soldier
By George Bryson
 Wounded by a roadside bomb, Iraq veteran picks
up his rope to ride for victory at the Alaska
State Fair. What's a seriously wounded soldier
like Army Spc. Jake Lowery doing in a rodeo
arena in Palmer? For one thing, he's trying to
win all the roping events at the Alaska State
Fair, in a competition that resumes this
afternoon. But Lowery, 25, is also trying to
piece back together a life that someone in Iraq
tried very hard to blow up.
That was six months ago -- when the Humvee he
was driving near Fallujah got hit by a roadside
bomb. The explosion blew out the right front
door and killed the soldier sitting next to
Lowery, 22-year-old Sgt. Russell Kurtz of Fort
Richardson. In the same instant, it drove a
piece of shrapnel through Lowery's skull that
destroyed his right eye and rattled his brain... |
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VA Secretary Praises
Tampa Pain Center
August 22, 2007
Nicholson: Local Facility Model for VA and Rest
of Nation
WASHINGTON – Secretary of Veterans Affairs Jim
Nicholson today praised the Department of
Veterans Affairs’ (VA) acclaimed Chronic Pain
Rehabilitation Program at the James A. Haley
Veterans' Hospital as a shining example of VA's
world-class health care.
"The program at the Tampa VA Medical Center is
the largest and most comprehensive pain center
in the VA system,” Nicholson said. “We’re
meeting the challenges of treating wounded
service members returning from combat in Iraq
and Afghanistan, while providing top-notch
care... |
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Nine Veterans Find
Healing Through One-Week Course
by Conrad Mulcahy, The New York Times
 The nine men who climbed to the summit of the
Colorado mountain were combat veterans who had
fought in Iraq, Afghanistan and Vietnam. Several
knew the pain of bullets tearing through flesh.
Others couldn't gather memories blown away by an
explosion. Some had seen combat so close they
killed with their knives.
They were a wary group of strangers, guarded and
slow to trust, who had arrived at the Outward
Bound Wilderness school in Leadville, Colo., a
few days before, wondering how a one-week course
in the wilderness could help them heal.
But on the fourth day of their five-day journey
in mid-July, after more than three hours of
tough climbing up steep, moss-covered scree
fields and beyond the tree line, these hard
military men, ranging in age from 23 to 52,
mourned in silence, 13,000 feet above sea level
on the summit of Virginia Peak. Stripped of
life's routines, they stood under an iron-gray
early morning sky and finally allowed the tears
to fall for friends who would never see this
place... "Look around this countryside: You guys
deserve this," said Bob O'Rourke, a 62-year-old
retired Marine... |
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Obituary
- Thomas C. Doherty
The Miami Veterans
Administration Medical Center...
Posted on Wed, Aug. 22, 2007 - BY ELINOR J.
BRECHER
Thomas C. Doherty, the Miami Veterans
Administration Medical Center director who
managed the hospital's move from Coral Gables to
Miami's hospital district -- a decorated Marine
veteran of three wars and CIA operative -- died
Tuesday at his Miami Beach home after a short
illness. He was 85. His initial VA contact was
as an undercover agent posing as an injured
patient at the Washington, D.C., hospital after
World War II, to investigate conditions there.
He later worked clandestinely for the Department
of Justice and for the CIA, including in the Bay
of Pigs operation.
He joined the VA as an administrator in 1966
and, having earned a Harvard MBA, became
director of the Miami facility in 1974. He
retired in 2003. During his tenure in Miami, the
VA ''established several outpatient clinics and
partnered with the University of Miami School of
Medicine to establish a jointly funded HIV/AIDS
Research Initiative,'' according to Susan Ward,
Doherty's longtime VA spokesperson. "He was very
proud of what he did for his country. He was a
Marine to the end. He really cared about the
vets and employees.''
Doherty's military bearing and crisp formality
belied his modest nature. Striding the
hospital's hallways at more than six feet tall,
he was quick with a smile and friendly greeting,
colleagues said. With wit, charm and jokes
starring a character named Moriarty told... |
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