28
Feb
When Will The Nightmares End For Our Veteran Community? (A series introduction)
It seems everyone publicly supports our vets, millions of U.S. citizens say they honor and cherish our war-torn heroes, thousands of programs claim to serve our veterans, hundreds of veteran based organizations, corporations say they defend those who served, and our government and the greedy, politically twisted double talk say they are doing all they can to ensure our veterans are taken care of during and after active duty.
Yet all of our armed forces, the Army, Navy, Airforce, Marines, Coast Guard, Space Force, National Guard, and Reserves, all have an elementary level discharge process that barely scratches the surface of what needs to be done to transition our active-duty personnel from being combat-ready for their country, to being a self-assured productive inhabitant within the civilian sector. We have veteran elderly abuse going on, nationally, and it is a shame that it has just recently started being addressed. Our U.S. Veterans make up about 2% of the nation’s population, and they also make up around 10% of the homeless in America. Our veterans take their own lives almost twice as much as the rest of the citizenship. A veteran dies about every 60-70 mins of every day; that’s a window of about 17 to 23 a day.
The unnatural, yet necessary training and real-world military action that our service members face affects them physically, mentally, and spiritually. Coping mechanisms vary for each one, but coping is what needs to be done to keep a balance within their individual lives. This starts while on active duty, and after it is over, they cannot just leave their physical, mental, and spiritual capacities behind them. They each take what’s leftover, with them, every single time.
This story is going to be more than just a problem for someone else to deal with. I stated above multiple times, “our” when referring to our Veterans, and “We have” when referring to you and I, because this is America, you know… “We The People”, and “E Pluribus Unum” (from the many one). Today’s society seems to have lost that understanding for many reasons, mostly politically initiated, but that is for another article. What triggered me to write this series of articles, was being approached by a fellow veteran, Mr. Garret Vernon Jester, a U.S. Army / National Guard Veteran, who earned his National Defense Medal before being honorably discharged in 1997.
Garret Jester is a veteran who is part of that 10% of America’s population who are homeless. Veteran Jester is just like hundreds of whistleblowers that are sharing the truth of their own first-hand experiences at facilities and organizations that claim to be a veteran-focused operation when in the end, it seems they are mostly a money absorbent establishment that is willing to do whatever it takes to keep the funding flow active. To even go as far as the manipulation of data and of the veteran whistleblowers themselves. In 2014 the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Veteran’ Affairs, the then chairman Jeff Miller stated the following;
“…It’s important to emphasize that the national scandal regarding data manipulation of appointment scheduling did not spring forward out of thin air at the Department of Veterans Affairs. Deceptive performance measures that serve as window dressing for automatic SES bonuses have been part of the organizational cesspool at the Department for many, many years. Instead of being a customer-driven Department dedicated to veterans, the focus instead has been on serving the interests of the senior managers in charge. The manipulation of data to gain performance goals is widespread cancer within the VA. We have often heard that VA is a data-rich environment, but when data is exposed as vulnerable to manipulation it cannot be data that is trusted.”
He goes on to say:
“…whistleblowers played a vital role in exposing these patients’ deaths at the Department. Whistleblowers serve the essential function of providing a reality check on what is actually going on at the Department. At great risk to themselves and their families, whistleblowers dare to speak truth to power and buck the system in a VA designed to crush dissent and thereby alter the truth.”
Mr. Jester is just such a whistleblower, and over the next few articles, you will hear his direct testimonies, stories, and first-hand eyewitness accounts of veteran abuse, prostitution, in facility drug dealing, child abuse cover-ups, along with what appears to be retribution and bribery attempts directly from the VA itself. You will hear actual recorded conversations with management and employees of the VA and a highly respected (by the Veterans Administration) organization called the U.S. Vets. But as you hear and read this sad truth on the care of our veterans, you will also see the misleading statements and outright lies of staff members. It is just like what Chairman Miller said above about the manipulations of truths to save face and continue funding for those in the top management of these organizations. This is across the board and not just at the Department of Veterans Affairs, this evil exists in a lot of organizations claiming to have the best interests of our heroes in focus, and more has to be done than just committee hearings in Washington D.C.
Words of wisdom from Veteran Jester; “How can anyone from anywhere possibly refer or send any veteran to a facility swamped with drug abuse, prostitution, black mold, water-damaged electrical outlets, crimes of all kinds, and outright coverups and criminal negligence? Especially when the veterans are coping with physical and internal issues to begin with?” Mr. Jester is 100% spot on with these questions. We The People as a whole should be asking these questions and working towards solutions instead of the continuous committees and forked political discussions on the matter that most always go nowhere.
Too much you say? We will hear how an organization that receives millions of dollars to focus on and help keep safe millions of veterans, are actually coordinating with those doing the crimes within the facilities, to give them heads up on inspections so they have time to “clean house” before the environment is assessed, just to go back to their status quo the following day.
Stay tuned for more on this series of articles covering Mr. Jester’s first-hand accounts of these issues and let us brainstorm on some real solutions moving forward.
Until next time, “Charlie Mike” (Continue the Mission)
Hello my Brother and Sister Patriots and War-fighters, my name is Gregg C. Cummings, and I will be sharing with you my strong perspectives on our patriotism, our sovereignty, and our condition of readiness. I developed this website to do just that, to hear from the perspectives of veterans, and well-seasoned patriots on issues of the day, as well as life after active duty, but before we dive into those details, I need to tell you a little more about me.
I was born to understand the love for my country, not just because school said we should be proud, but because I grew up feeling “America” physically, and spiritually through nature, from living on campgrounds that my father managed. Experiencing the “Great American Experiment”, which surrounded every aspect of my life. My father, a WWII, Korean War and Vietnam Veteran, was definitely a personal hero to me as a child. I was camping at a very young age, making homemade bows, arrows, and spears, and running wild in the woods with my brothers before the age ten. We raised horses, hogs, rabbits, chickens, ducks, sheep and working hard alongside my brothers in it all.
I joined the boy scouts and became a star scout before it was over. Then because I stuttered as a kid, fighting all the time was a norm for me, so my dad signed me up at a boxing gym to learn how to fight so I would not fall short as often. Watching my very traditional American mother struggle through the years after their divorce gave me a great respect for women in general for the hardships they have faced throughout history and still face today.
Joining the military right out of high school I became a small arms specialist, a paratrooper, then became an engineer. During my military career I graduated from numerous combat-oriented trainings, and became a Ranger, Air Assault, Jump Master, and Rappel Master to name a few, and was an Instructor for Air Assault school, and Rappel Master School, as well as a Pre-Ranger Course, and served in real world theaters in Honduras on the Nicaraguan border, in the sands of Iraq and the Island of Haiti. Having duty stations in Ft Benning, GA, Stuttgart Germany, and Ft Bragg N.C. After the military, I finished my schooling with a degree in Sociology. I worked as a family counselor for a little while and a Police Officer for quite some time before jumping right into politics when the Tea Party Movement was triggered throughout the land.
I founded We The People Tea Party of Southern Iowa, co-founded the Iowa Grassroots Coalition, and also worked nationally with both Strong America Now and the Tea Party Patriots. More recently, I co-founded and am the Vice President of the US First Defense Coalition, which brings together for the first time many border sheriffs and border citizen rancher coalitions, Angel Moms, as well as voices from the Border Patrol and other law enforcement agencies, into this single communication strength, that gives America a message, a place to go to for real reports, news and statistics, away from the fake and twisted news from the main stream media and congress. You will find this organization under the USFDC tab above.
Now, I am consulting for some good companies and political advocacy organizations, such as, Patriot Mission out of Florida, who works with transitioning veterans who want to become entrepreneurs, and also with Vortex Blockchain Technologies out of Des Moines, Iowa, who are developing a one of a kind blockchain voting machines that are so needed and far overdue in our free Republic.
So, because I have experience and networks of these focused demographics of Grassroot Americans, Law Enforcement, EMS and Military Veterans, I saw a need to launch this website and in a couple of months, a YouTube channel that will work hand and hand together. The opportunity, need and timing is now, and it is essential for the American society to truly wake up, listen to the voices of those who have sacrificed, so We The People can feed the equal justice needed to achieve our individual pursuit of happiness, as Americans, not as a skin color, not as a class, not as a hyphen, not as a gender, and not divided by sectoring each other away from one another in the name of diversity, but instead to unite each other by melting into one Nation, one People, in the name of university; E Pluribus Unum (from the many, one). Langston Hughes, the famous poet said it best, when he said, “America, the land that never has been, yet, but yet, must be.”He wasn’t trying to dismantle the American dream by those words, but to embrace it by recognizing the importance of what that dream actually is, which later Martin Luther King Jr., gave us a speech to that vision as well.
Here is our Mission: To create an absolute, We The People network system, dedicated to Truth, Education, and Products with a seal of approval that everyone can trust.Not out to get rich, but to provide the resources available, so that Americans can prepare themselves before God, country, and family. To make available first-hand information and news straight from the sources themselves. To give resources and “how-to’s”, so the people can educate themselves about our duty to E Pluribus Unum, as citizens of this great Republic.
The Columns: I assessed and reached out to key individuals from each of those demographics mentioned above, so they can talk about vital issues within America today from their individual perspectives and expertise, which we all can learn from, and use to debate and grow our Republic back to a healthy standing and beyond.
My column will be called “Continue the Mission”, using the same title as this website. This blog is my messages to the world and to all of our great American Citizens, on many topics of discussion. You can expect my opinion, beliefs, and commitments to the oaths I gave on two separate occasions in my life. I will be straight forward, using a whole lot of candor on my positions and strong suggestions that the American people ought to behoove. For the civilian sector, that means your duty, and responsibility to do something. It is incumbent on you to stay engaged and keep our Republic alive and well. Make sure you check out all future articles, from all of our blogs, subscribe to them and reply to each, with your inputs, questions, and start being “E Pluribus Unum”. Strive to unite under our Star Spangled Banner to stay free; as an American Citizen, you must, “Charlie Mike” (Continue the Mission).
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