Honza Bear Is Asking for Your Vote to Become a “Hero Dog”

Honza wearing his doggie goggles or “doggles.”

There’s still time to vote in the 2013 American Humane Association’s annual “Hero Dog” competition.

I confess. I have a bias in the military dog category for Honza “Bear.” I fell in love with Honza and his story the first time I read about him on Kevin Hanrahan’s blog which was long before the Labrador was up for this award.

If you need incentive, know that Honza completed over 250 combat missions in Afghanistan with 14 confirmed finds of explosives weighing over 400lbs.He is credited with saving the life of his handler and many others numerous times. But, Honza didn’t stop there. If he wasn’t taking the lead on combat missions, he was visiting wounded troops and lifting morale among all the soldiers.

Moments after receiving the Bronze Star, SGT Nolan knelt down and pinned the medal on Honza.

You can vote for Honaz “Bear” to be the 2013 Military Hero Dog here.

If you need some convincing, here’s what Hanrahan wrote after having lunch with Honza’s handler, SGT Nolan:

U.S. Army Sergeant John Nolan told me a great story. When he received his bronze star right before redeploying from Afghanistan he ripped it off his own chest and placed it on his military working dog, Specialized Search Dog Honza “Bear”.

He told me that Honza Bear had done all the work, he’s the one that found all those Improvised Explosives…….Honza Bear is the reason John Nolan and many of the Green Beret Team members are alive today.

Since military working dogs cannot receive military awards, Hanrahan and Nolan hope Honza Bear will receive the American Humane Society Hero Dog Award.

Tampa VA Doctor Wins Award for Type 2 Diabetes Research

Dr. Robert Farese shows off a diagram of signals insulin sends to the liver with Type 2 diabetes.

The top biomedical researcher in the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs works at James A. Haley VA Hospital in Tampa.

Dr. Robert Farese won the 2012 William Middleton Award, which is given for outstanding biomedical research, for his investigation into the causes and possible cure of Type 2 diabetes,  

Farese’s “break-through” work is important to veterans because 25 percent of all vets discharged from the VA have a diabetes diagnosis, usually Type 2 diabetes.

His research has led to a better understanding of how insulin acts in obesity, the metabolic syndrome and Type 2 diabetes. He’s also developed a new approach to treating those disorders.

Dr. Robert Farese in his lab at James A. Haley VA Hospital.

He said they’ve actually found where the defects are in the insulin signaling with Type 2 diabetes and devised ways of hit that target or block the abnormalities.

So far in his animal models, they’ve been able to prevent Type 2 diabetes and have reversed Type 2 diabetes in animals that have had the condition for a long time.

“Whether that will happen in humans, we don’t know yet because we obviously haven’t tried it,” Farese said. “It will take a lot of work and expense to do that.”

He said it will take investment of millions from a pharmaceutical company to do additional animal testing and to take the therapies into clinical trials.

But Farese is optimistic he’s on the right track. He said in animals, his new, therapeutic approach out performs the most commonly used drug for Type 2 diabetes.

“When we hit our target, we improve glucose metabolism just exactly the way insulin does,” Farese said. “What this means is that by hitting our target we can reproduce what insulin does in the liver.”

Moving his research findings from animal models to human trials and eventually the market is years off.  

But by winning the Middleton Award, Farese will receive an additional $50,000 in research support for the next three years.

Hospitalized Vets BBQ Canceled as Sponsor Drops Out

AN UPDATE AS OF THURSDAY EVENING: Members of the Tampa law firm of Foley & Lardner have agreed to cover the cost of the barbecue. Attorney Chris Griffin contacted WUSF shortly after learning of the story to say members of the firm were willing to help so that the hospitalized veterans could enjoy a holiday barbecue.

Memorial Day is a time to remember military members who lost their lives while serving their country.

It’s also a three-day weekend at Tampa’s James A. Haley VA Hospital that staff try to make special for the hospitalized veterans who also sacrificed for their country.

Yet, Memorial Day for Haley veterans had to be scaled back this year.

For want of $500, the 150 veterans at the Haley VA Hospital will not have a Memorial Day barbecue according to Cathy Williams, head of recreational therapy.

“We actually, normally do a barbecue on Monday,” Williams said. “We would have like, Lupton’s BBQ, and we lost our sponsorship. So there was nobody that stepped forward this year to fund that. So, we had to down scale a little bit. But that’s okay.”

So without a sponsor this Saturday, it’s karaoke, a cookout for the balloon volleyball team and baseball for the 55 veterans who can travel to the Rays-Yankees game.

On Monday, the highlight will be a visit by the Buccaneer cheerleaders and a bingo game.

Military Sexual Trauma: How Cable News Reports on MST

Courtesy Dept. of Defense

Military sexual trauma (MST) and how it’s reported on cable news caught the attention of Media Matters for America especially after a recent Pentagon report that estimated there were 26,000 cases of military sexual assault in 2012.

The cable news was measured between May 6 and May 19, 2013 during a time period that included the release of the Department of Defense MST report, a major announcement by the Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and accusations of sexual misconduct against some high profile military members involved in military sexual trauma prevention programs.

Media Matters measured during those two weeks how much time three major cable news channels devoted to coverage of military sexual trauma:

According to a Media Matters analysis, Fox News devoted 18 minutes, 42 seconds to covering military sexual assault since May 6, when the month’s first sexual assault case was reported. CNN and MSNBC spent 1 hour, 36 minutes and 4 hours, 56 minutes on military sexual assault stories, respectively.

Media Matters also produced a video compiling comments from Fox News show hosts about women. These are “selective” news clips, so be cautious with your assumptions.

Yet, it is telling that an individual would have the temerity to say some of these things on a national broadcast or any broadcast.

The video is only 1:17 long and worth watching if for nothing else but to gain a perspective on how “cavalier” some attitudes are toward women even when they are guests of that cable show.

Blue Star Families Top Concern: Pay and Benefit Changes

The 2013 Survey by Blue Star Families lists changes in military pay and benefits as well as changes in military retirement benefits as the number one concern of more than 5,000 military families who responded.

This is the fourth year that Blue Star Families has collected data to assess the top priorities of military families and what can be done to support their goals. The information is shared with those who can help effect change like lawmakers and support groups from the local level all the way to the White House.

Here’s what military families ranked as their #1 issue (Percentage of Respondents Ranking #1):

• 35% Military Pay/Benefits
• 21% Change in Retirement Benefits
• 19% Spouse Employment Opportunities
• 16.4% Deployment Impact on Children
• 16% Educational Opportunities for Children
• 14% Services for Transitioning Out of the Military
• 12% Op/Tempo Deployment
• 11% PTSD/TBI/Combat Stress
• 7.7% Rising Number of Suicides
• 7.5% Service Member Educational Opportunities

Additional survey details of interest finds that 72 percent of responding military families rely on social media and say it is important for communicating with a deployed family member. And for the first time, Facebook surpassed email in popularity.

Financial stress is a major concern among military families with 65 percent reporting money problems linked to a spouse’s employment, uncertainty of military life and frequent moves.

You can read the full 54-page survey results here.

 

Where Are the Missing Iraq and Afghanistan War Records?

Florida Cong. Jeff Miller.

Army records from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars are missing. And it appears to be more than just a misplaced file or two according to a report in ProPublica.

Cong. Jeff Miller, R-Florida, sent Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel a letter requesting a detailed accounting of how many files are missing:

The 12 questions posed to Hagel in the letter focus largely on the Army because it has the largest records deficit. Among other things, the congressmen want to know what happened to operational records for the 1st Armored Division and the 82nd Airborne Division and what is being done to reconstruct them.

In November, ProPublica and the Seattle Times reported that they were among numerous Army units that had lost or failed to keep battlefield records as required, making it harder for some veterans to obtain benefits and for historians to recount what actually happened.

The top Democrat on the House Committee on Veterans Affairs, Cong. Michael Michaud, D-Maine, also signed the letter wanting to know  why records are missing and what the military is doing about it. The Department of Defense had not provided a response to ProPublica as of Monday.

How the 99 Percent Can Support Military Service Members

Lest we forget, here’s a photo to remind us that U.S. Marines and their working companions are hard at work daily in Afghanistan as are all U.S. Armed Forces.

Wilbur, a U.S. Marine Corps military working dog with a Marine special operations team, takes a break with his handler after successfully searching a build site for an Afghan Local Police (ALP) checkpoint in Helmand province, Afghanistan, March 30, 2013. The ALP complemented counterinsurgency efforts by assisting and supporting rural areas with a limited Afghan National Security Forces presence. (DoD photo by Sgt. Pete Thibodeau/Released)

Currently, only 1 percent of Americans serve in the Armed Forces.

If you are part of the other 99 percent, here’s a chance for you to support those service members and their families.

A number of community-based organizations, listed below meet a number of criteria from OurMilitary.mil , which can be found here.  Click on the type of support you would like to offer for a list of organizations that can help you get started:

• Caregiver Support
• Care Packages
• Education and Scholarships
• Electronics
• Employment Assistance and Vocational Training
• Entertainment and Recreation
• Families of the Fallen (Survivor Support)
• Financial Support
• Help for the Wounded
• Helping Troops Help Others
• Housing Assistance and Home Repair
• Interactive Communication Platforms

• Letters and Messages
• Mental Wellness and Counseling
• Military Family Support
• Military Spouse Support
• Other Support
• Phone Cards
• Physical Rehabilitation
• Retreats
• Service Aid Societies
• Travel
• Veteran Focused Support
• Youth Programs and Support