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Controversial Former Milwaukee Sheriff May Forfeit Naval Degree

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clarke

By Debbie Gregory.

Former Milwaukee Sheriff David Clarke has found himself in the middle of more than one controversy. One of the most divisive political figures in Wisconsin politics, Clarke recently resigned.

In addition to the fact that he may lose his master’s degree from the Naval Postgraduate School, the 61-year-old Clarke reportedly sent a famous F-bomb laden sentence to Milwaukee Journal Sentinel columnist Daniel Bice.

Bice emailed Mr. Clarke a series of questions asking how he felt about losing his round-the-clock, taxpayer-funded security detail, which reportedly cost more than $220,000 since January.

Clark’s emailed response to Bice was “F— you and the horse you rode in on. I’m David Clarke and I approve this message.”

CNN reported that Clarke’s master’s thesis, entitled “Making U.S. Security and Privacy Rights Compatible,” was found to have substantial portions of the submission that were plagiarized. In response to the report, Clarke called journalist Andrew Kaczynski, who broke the story, a “sleaze bag” and denied that he had plagiarized.

But on 47 occasions throughout the paper, Clarke credited sources with a footnote, but did not indicate with quotation marks that he is taking the words verbatim.

Per Naval Postgraduate School guidelines, “If a passage is quoted verbatim, it must be set off with quotation marks (or, if it is a longer passage, presented as indented text), and followed by a properly formulated citation.”

In Clarke’s book, Cop Under Fire: Moving Beyond Hashtags of Race, Crime and Politics for a Better America, he advocates for rounding up Americans who are perceived as threats, suspending their rights, holding them indefinitely, and trying their cases with military tribunals rather than in the court system.

Clarke issued a “retirement statement” to local media hours after his resignation was announced. “After almost forty years serving the great people of Milwaukee County, I have chosen to retire to pursue other opportunities,” Clarke wrote.

Military Connection salutes and proudly serves veterans and service members in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard, Guard and Reserve,  and their families.

Protecting Veterans from High-Pressure Mortgage Refinances

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refi

By Debbie Gregory.

After volunteering to protect their country, servicemembers and veterans are often targeted by disreputable forces at home: predatory lenders.

Government-owned Ginnie Mae, whose purpose is to make mortgages more affordable, is conducting an investigation into unscrupulous mortgage lenders who allegedly pressured servicemembers and veterans into unneeded mortgage refinances.

Ginnie Mae backs loans made through the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Under investigation are lenders who push consumers to refinance loans over and over again in a short period of time, a practice known as churning.

Senator Elizabeth Warren, an outspoken critic of the finance industry sent a letter to Ginnie Mae’s Acting President, Michael Bright, asking whether some lenders were abusing Ginnie Mae’s program by engaging in aggressive marketing tactics.

Bright replied that Ginnie Mae and the Department of Veterans Affairs have created a task force to address abusive practices by lenders approved to issue Ginnie Mae-backed bonds.

VA loans do not require a down payment and closing costs are added to loan balances, so borrowers don’t have to pay them at the time of the sale. But this also makes these loans prime targets for churning.

Some lenders are persuading servicemembers to refinance loans at rates that barely reduce their mortgage payment.

Ginnie Mae has been trying to slow down the refinancing rush by putting a six-month moratorium between new mortgages and a refinance.

However, once the six-month mark passed, Bright said Ginnie Mae saw a blitz of lenders once again preying on servicemembers. Bright said that some lenders apparently targeted veterans for a refinance at “six months and one day.”

Military Connection salutes and proudly serves veterans and service members in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard, Guard and Reserve,  and their families.

Majority of Female Marines Opt for Pull Ups in New Fitness Test

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pullups

By Debbie Gregory.

Female Marines want to show that their physical abilities have improved over the last few years. Some 65 percent of them voluntarily performed pull ups during their annual physical fitness test (PFT) this year. This is a vast improvement from three years ago when fewer than half of female recruits in boot camp couldn’t complete three pull ups.

Last year saw a massive overhaul to the Marine Corps’ PFT, with major changes to upper-body strength requirements designed to make equal demands on female and male troops.

All Marines have the option to perform push ups or pull ups. Pull ups, which are more difficult to perform, are the only option to anyone who seeks to get a perfect score.

For women, depending on which of eight age groups they fall into, they can max their score with between three and 10 pull ups; male Marines can max out with between 18 and 23.

The vast improvement this year “is a marker for how this change has incentivized female Marines on the PFT,” said Brian McGuire, deputy force fitness branch head for the standards division of Marine Corps Training and Education Command.

Four years ago, only around 1,000 of all female Marines chose pull ups; three years ago, the number increased to more than 1,700; two years ago, more than 1,900 opted for pull ups; and last year it was just under 2,000, or roughly 14 percent of all female Marines, according to McGuire.

Marines, both male and female, must declare in advance which event they want to execute. If they opt for pull ups and fail, they are not allowed to then switch to push ups.

The updated upper body strength standards come on the heels of combat jobs being opened to women.

The Corps is promoting a pull up training plan designed by a female officer to increase success, as well as developing a program to make professional fitness instructors available to the force.

Military Connection salutes and proudly serves veterans and service members in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard, Guard and Reserve,  and their families.

VA to Pay Iowa Veteran $550,000 Settlement Over Treatment

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porter

By Debbie Gregory.

The Department of Veterans Affairs has paid a Vietnam veteran $550,000 to settle his allegation that because of a three-year delay in treatment, he suffered life-shortening heart damage.

Air Force veteran John Porter, 68, of Greenfield, Iowa sued the VA in federal court in after he says VA staff overlooked a test result showing his heart was failing.

“After I’m done paying my lawyers and expenses, I’m not going to be rich,” said Porter. “It’s more of a moral victory than the money.”

According to the lawsuit, Porter presented at the emergency room of the Des Moines VA hospital in October 2011 after feeling tightness in his chest. Tests revealed that he might have heart problems. Follow-up test three weeks later showed his heart was functioning at less than half of normal levels, indicating heart failure, but Porter was not advised of the findings, according to the lawsuit.

Porter only discovered the results three years later after seeing doctors at an Arizona VA hospital, where Porter had gone in 2014 after again experiencing severe chest pain. It was only then that the 2011 test results were given to Porter.

Porter’s lawsuit cited a cardiologist at the Des Moines VA who later wrote that the oversight kept Porter from seeing a cardiologist promptly and that because of the three-year delay, “I doubt there will be much progress made” in treating Porter.

Porter said that he didn’t place the blame on the facility, instead pointing to communication breakdowns at the facility.

“The Des Moines VA is full of knowledgeable, caring and competent people,” Porter said.

While the Department of Justice attorneys representing the VA acknowledged the 2011 test and that the test was not acted on, they denied negligence by VA staff.

Military Connection salutes and proudly serves veterans and service members in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard, Guard and Reserve,  and their families.

CA Photographer Helping Local Veterans Get to D.C.

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calendar

By Debbie Gregory.

Twenty veterans have been featured on an 18-month calendar created by Bakersfield, CA photographer Petrina Harris. But it’s not a “beefcake” calendar; these veterans served during World War II and Korea.

“My father is a Vietnam Veteran and I wanted to do something to benefit the local brave men and women in Bakersfield,” said Harris.

Proceeds from the sale of the calendar will benefit Honor Flight Kern County.

Honor Flight Network is a non-profit organization created solely to honor America’s Veterans for all their sacrifices.

The organization was founded in 2004 by U.S. Air Force (Ret.) Captain Earl Morse. While working for the VA at a clinic in Springfield, Ohio, he noticed that many of his older patients at the clinic were interested in visiting the World War II Memorial. Unfortunately, they were very often physically or financially unable to make it to the memorial in their honor.

On the first Honor Flight, Morse, a licensed civilian pilot, flew a single World War II Veteran at his own cost. A week later, he took a second WWII Veteran. Both Veterans were moved to tears by the generous gift. Morse began recruiting the help of his pilot friends, and the Honor Flight Network was born.

The non-profit relies on donations to fund the trips so that veterans can go to see the memorials in Washington, DC, built in their honor, at no cost.

Honor Flight Kern County is one of 136 hubs from around the country that is part of the Honor Flight Network. The next Honor Flight Kern County will take place on October 25th.

The calendars are $25 each and can be purchased at crazybusybee.com. You can also contact Petrina directly at 661-865-7727 or email info@crazybusybee.com

Military Connection is a proud supporter of Honor Flight Network.

We salute and serve veterans and service members in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard, Guard and Reserve,  and their families.

The Monetary Cost of War In Afghanistan

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war in afghanistan

By Debbie Gregory.

By some estimates, the war in Afghanistan has cost the U.S. somewhere between $841 billion and $1 trillion. And that doesn’t take in to consideration the human toll on those who have served and their loved ones.

The number is sure to rise, given than although President Trump has said the U.S. commitment to Afghanistan was “not a blank check,” his decision to send more troops will add billions of dollars a year to the already-towering war costs.

Linda J. Bilmes, a faculty member at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government and Anthony Cordesman, a military strategy expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies agree that the costs of the wars are 20 times or more greater than initial estimates by members of the Bush administration.

But has it been money well spent?

The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) was created by congress to provide independent and objective oversight of Afghanistan reconstruction projects and activities. SIGAR conducts audits and investigations to promote efficiency and effectiveness of reconstruction programs and to detect/prevent waste, fraud, and abuse.

Recent audits revealed that: the Department of Defense spent $457.7 Million on intelligence capacity-building programs, but the impact could not be fully assessed due to a lack of performance metrics; $27.2 million was spent on “questioned costs” across all U.S.-funded Afghan reconstruction contracts, a classification that encompasses “incorrect employee payments and miscalculations of travel costs, exceeding maximum budgets without prior approval, and insufficient documentation to support project expenses”; of the $8 million obligated to bring Sesame Street to Afghan TV networks, more than half a million simply disappeared; although $16.1 million was budgeted to renovate Afghanistan’s largest prison, the job was only half finished, and ended up costing $20.2 million; and last, but not least, $94 million was spent on woodland camouflage uniforms for local forces in a country that’s only 2.1% forests. It turns out that the decision was made by then-Afghanistan Minister of Defense Abdul Rahim Wardak, who picked the uniform he liked off of a website.

Military Connection salutes and proudly serves veterans and service members in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard, Guard and Reserve,  and their families.

Navy Getting Upgrade for Tomahawk Land Attack Missiles

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tomahawk

By Debbie Gregory.

The U.S. Navy is about to a close a $119 million deal with Raytheon to integrate a new sensor into the Tomahawk Land Attack Missile (TLAM) that would increase the missile’s capability to attack moving targets at sea.

The order provides for analysis, architecture, modeling, simulation, evaluation, and prototyping for the anti-ship missile version of the Tomahawk, which will be called the Maritime Strike Tomahawk variant.

The Raytheon Missile Systems segment in Tucson, AZ will integrate seeker suite technology and processing capabilities into the Tactical Tomahawk Block IV missile in support of the Maritime Strike Tomahawk Program. Additional locations for the project include Dallas, TX and Boulder, CO.

“We’re upgrading the radio, the harnessing and the antenna for the communication. So every re-certified missile will get an upgraded navigation and communication,” said Capt. Mark Johnson, Naval Air Systems Command PMA-280 program manager.

TLAM program manager Dave Adams indicated that the final product could be a multi-mode seeker with a mix of passive and active sensors.

The Tomahawk carries a 1,000-pound high-explosive warhead or submunitions dispenser. The subsonic missile can fly more than 1,000 miles at 550 miles per hour at 98 to 160 feet above the ground or water.

Introduced by General Dynamics and in service since1983, the Tomahawk Missile was initially designed as a medium to long-range, low-altitude missile that could be launched from a surface platform. Over the years, it has been upgraded several times with guidance systems for precision navigation. From 1992-1994, McDonnell Douglas Corporation was the sole supplier of the missiles. In 1994, Hughes outbid McDonnell Douglas Aerospace to become the sole supplier of the missiles. Raytheon began manufacturing the missile in 2016.

Military Connection salutes and proudly serves veterans and service members in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard, Guard and Reserve,  and their families.

Limb Regeneration Could be the Future of Wounded Warrior Care

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By Debbie Gregory.

Military medical scientists are looking at research in humans regrowing limbs to becoming a reality. Researchers are working on how salamanders regrow their limbs and reverse engineer that in wounded soldiers whom have suffered limb loss in the battle field.

Although it may sound like science fiction, the U.S. Army is studying the science of bone, skin and muscle regeneration so an amputation is no longer permanent for future service members injured in combat.

While advance in prosthetics have helped alleviate some of the struggles of limb loss, many military and veteran amputees experience a decreased quality of life compared to injured troops without amputations, this according to recent Department of Defense research.

There are more than 1,650 service members who have lost limbs during the War on Terror.

The military’s leading researchers and academics have been exploring “extremity regeneration,” particularly the use of synthetic grafts, which can kickstart the healing process for soldiers by regenerating tissue.

“We would like it to be as restorative as possible, resist infection … and be durable,” said Army Lt. Col. David Saunders, extremity repair product manager for the U.S. Army Medical Materiel Development Activity. “This is going to be implanted in young people who may go on to live another 60 to 70 years.”

Though limb regeneration is the ultimate goal, the Army is also focused on skin regeneration.

Jason Brant, a researcher with the University of Florida, is studying the African spiny mouse, which can regenerate scar-free skin, even after losing mass amounts in an attack.

“Warfighters and civilians alike suffer large surface [cuts] and burns, and these result in medically and cosmetically problematic scars,” said Brant. “The impacts of these scars … are really staggering. The ability to develop effective therapies will have an enormous impact not only on the health care system but on the individuals as well.”

Brant believes discovering how the mouse regenerates skin could be the key to applying the ability to human bodies.

Military Connection salutes and proudly serves veterans and service members in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard, Guard and Reserve,  and their families.

 

Service-related PTSD Disability Claims have Tripled in the Last Decade

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ptsd

By Debbie Gregory.

More than 20 percent of veterans receiving federal disability are suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, a figure that has tripled in the last decade, from approximately 345,000 cases in fiscal 2008 to more than 940,000 cases today.

This includes all age groups, not just veterans from the recent wars.

PTSD symptoms usually start soon after the traumatic event, but they may not occur until months or years later. They also may come and go over many years. If the symptoms last longer than 4 weeks, cause great distress, or interfere with work or home life, the individual probably has PTSD.

Some of the common symptoms of PTSD include:

  • persistent memories of the event, nightmares, re-living the event over and over
  • not talking to anyone about the event, avoiding any situation that may trigger your bad memories
  • feeling numb and detached, depressed, disinterested in normal life activities, and
  • feeling on high alert all the time, always watching for danger.

PTSD can happen to anyone. It is not a sign of weakness. A number of factors can increase the chance that someone will develop PTSD, many of which are not under that person’s control. Both the VA and Defense Department have worked in recent years to combat the stigma of seeking help for mental health issues.

PTSD is treatable. Many places within VA provide PTSD treatment. General programs that provide mental health services include VA medical centers, community-based outpatient clinics (CBOCs), and Vet Centers.

Vet Centers also offer services to families of Veterans for military-related issues. There are no fees or charges for Vet Center services, and services are confidential.

Military Connection salutes and proudly serves veterans and service members in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard, Guard and Reserve,  and their families.

Documents Reveal U. of Phoenix Paid for Special Access to a Military Base

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u of p

By Debbie Gregory.

Newly released documents have revealed the unsavory military recruiting practices used by the University of Phoenix that led to a recruiting ban in 2015.

Military regulations adopted as a result of President Obama’s executive order were supposed to “ban inducements, including any gratuity, favor, discount, (or) entertainment” for the “purpose of securing enrollments of Service members.” Recruiting activities are supposed to be limited to education fairs and other narrowly approved activities where every school would have equal access.

But the regulations say nothing about sponsoring events.

The University of Phoenix paid the military $25,000 to sponsor a concert by country rapper Big Smo on the parade ground at Fort Campbell.

The for-profit college, which had become the largest recipient of taxpayer subsidies under the post-9/11 GI Bill, was also allowed to erect advertising banners and place promotional materials in high-traffic areas and in welcome packets for newly arrived soldiers at Fort Campbell, in exchange for financial payments.

For-profit colleges have been criticized for preying on veterans and low-income students. Two of them, Corinthian and ITT Tech, filed for bankruptcy and closed their doors.

Pentagon spokeswoman Laura Ochoa said the University of Phoenix is now in compliance with federal regulations and may resume sponsoring events on bases, as long as the sponsorship payments follow the protocols designed to prevent predatory practices.

Student Veterans of America’s vice president Will Hubbard said the contract between Fort Campbell and the University of Phoenix was crafted to make service members believe the military was endorsing the for-profit college.

“The University of Phoenix is spending substantially above and beyond what any public or nonprofit private school can afford,” he said. “Frankly, that’s because (other schools are) spending their money on education.”

Military Connection salutes and proudly serves veterans and service members in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard, Guard and Reserve,  and their families.


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