Carefree Truth
Issue #791, November 24, 2019
MC Ted Dimon thanked David Lucier for a good story and a good purpose. Ted asked to be forgiven if he got emotional, explaining that this day and this event are both particularly poignant to him because both sides of his family sat at the table when the Declaration of Independence was signed. "I told somebody that the other day and they asked me if I was one of them. I said no." His family went on to serve in every war, from the Revolutionary War through the current offensive in Afghanistan.
Ted announced, "Today, we are very fortunate to have with us again, the Main Event Band under the direction of Todd Knowles. We want you to sit back now and enjoy the music as they take us down Memory Lane."
Mustang Sally
Does Anyone Really Know What Time It Is?
Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You
Barbara Ann
Dancing In The Streets
Ballad Of The Green Beret
Proud Mary
https://vimeo.com/373733553
Ted noted that the Main Event Band just keeps getting better and better. "The band is going to take a short break now, while we proceed with our program."
Ted introduced the Keynote Speaker. "Patricia Little-Upah retired in 2005 after serving 30 years in the United States Army Nurse Corps, retiring at the rank of Colonel. In 1967, she was stationed at Fort Benning in Georgia prior to deploying in 1968 to Vietnam where she was stationed with the 93rd and 95th Evacuation Hospitals. In 1970 Pat left the military for ten years to start a family, returning to the Army Reserves in 1979. In 1991 she was reactivated and served with the 403rd Combat Support Hospital in Saudi Arabia during Desert Storm. She worked in various positions, ending her military career as the Commander of the 6253rd United States Army Reserve Hospital."
"Pat has worked in various positions as a Civilian nurse to include Emergency Room, Medical, Surgical and Behavioral Health. In 2012, she retired from nursing, having served the last ten years as the CEO for Banner Behavioral Health Hospital and The Wendy Paine O'Brian Treatment Center."
"She has received numerous civilian and military awards, including The Legion of Merit. In 2014, Pat was inducted into The Arizona Veterans Hall of Fame. She currently serves as the President of The Honor House. She is on the Board of Directors for Veterans First, as well as The Centers for Habilitation. Pat is a Commissioner on the Tempe Veterans Commission and serves on various committees at the VA Medical Center. Her story was featured in the 2009 edition of “Since You Asked” by the Veterans Heritage Project."
"Ladies and gentlemen, let's give Col. Pat Little-Upah a warm Carefree welcome."
Issue #791, November 24, 2019
MC Ted Dimon thanked David Lucier for a good story and a good purpose. Ted asked to be forgiven if he got emotional, explaining that this day and this event are both particularly poignant to him because both sides of his family sat at the table when the Declaration of Independence was signed. "I told somebody that the other day and they asked me if I was one of them. I said no." His family went on to serve in every war, from the Revolutionary War through the current offensive in Afghanistan.
Ted announced, "Today, we are very fortunate to have with us again, the Main Event Band under the direction of Todd Knowles. We want you to sit back now and enjoy the music as they take us down Memory Lane."
Mustang Sally
Does Anyone Really Know What Time It Is?
Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You
Barbara Ann
Dancing In The Streets
Ballad Of The Green Beret
Proud Mary
https://vimeo.com/373733553
Ted noted that the Main Event Band just keeps getting better and better. "The band is going to take a short break now, while we proceed with our program."
Ted introduced the Keynote Speaker. "Patricia Little-Upah retired in 2005 after serving 30 years in the United States Army Nurse Corps, retiring at the rank of Colonel. In 1967, she was stationed at Fort Benning in Georgia prior to deploying in 1968 to Vietnam where she was stationed with the 93rd and 95th Evacuation Hospitals. In 1970 Pat left the military for ten years to start a family, returning to the Army Reserves in 1979. In 1991 she was reactivated and served with the 403rd Combat Support Hospital in Saudi Arabia during Desert Storm. She worked in various positions, ending her military career as the Commander of the 6253rd United States Army Reserve Hospital."
"Pat has worked in various positions as a Civilian nurse to include Emergency Room, Medical, Surgical and Behavioral Health. In 2012, she retired from nursing, having served the last ten years as the CEO for Banner Behavioral Health Hospital and The Wendy Paine O'Brian Treatment Center."
"She has received numerous civilian and military awards, including The Legion of Merit. In 2014, Pat was inducted into The Arizona Veterans Hall of Fame. She currently serves as the President of The Honor House. She is on the Board of Directors for Veterans First, as well as The Centers for Habilitation. Pat is a Commissioner on the Tempe Veterans Commission and serves on various committees at the VA Medical Center. Her story was featured in the 2009 edition of “Since You Asked” by the Veterans Heritage Project."
"Ladies and gentlemen, let's give Col. Pat Little-Upah a warm Carefree welcome."
Lyn Hitchon and Pat Upah
Photo by Herbert Hitchon
Keynote speaker Pat Upah said, "I am so very blessed to have been asked to speak on this special day when we Honor our Veterans who throughout this country's history have served proudly and are the reason we can stand here in a free country today. As a Vietnam Veteran I am humbled that we are finally giving my fellow brothers and sisters the honor and recognition they so rightly deserve."
"I joined the Army when I was in my last year of nursing school in Ohio. I was young and full of youth and idealism like many of you. I had grown up in a military family. My Mom had been an Army Nurse in WW11 and I had seen pictures of her with the natives in the jungles of New Guinea. My Dad was in the Navy in the South pacific. Both of my brothers would also serve, my youngest in Vietnam. As a child of the fifties and sixties, I remember the ever present threat of the spread of communism. The school drills where we sheltered in the halls. People building bomb shelters and stocking supplies. It was in this environment of fear that we entered the Vietnam War to stop that country and all of Southeast Asia from falling into the hands of the communists. I believe that had we not gone into Vietnam and it had fallen into communist hands years earlier, that most of Asia would look very different today. I would join the Army Student Nurse program in my senior year of nursing school, promising our country to serve on active duty for two years after graduation."
"I volunteered for many reasons. It sounded like a great adventure to see the world, my family's values, to do my part to stop communism, and it didn’t hurt that the ratio of men to women was definitely in my favor. 2.8 million men would serve in Vietnam and a little over 6000 women, 85% of them nurses. There are 58,267 names on the Wall in Washington DC. 8 of them are women."
"I spent my first year at Fort Benning, Georgia where I would either be caring for men coming back wounded from Vietnam or going through training to be sent to Vietnam. I thought that, as a nurse, I had the skills to help our wounded and ill soldiers and volunteered for a one year tour of duty in Vietnam. My skills would be sorely tested, as nursing school in no way prepared me for the types of injuries, both physically and psychologically, that I would encounter."
"When people ask me about that year, I tell them it was the best and the worst year of my life. The dichotomy of War is that there are moments of intense humor and camaraderie matched by moments of intense fear. I arrived in-country and rang in what was to become the defining year of the Vietnam War, 1968."
"I was assigned to the 93rd Evacuation Hospital, a 400 bed hospital on the largest military complex in the country, Long Bien outside of Bien Hoa. Things were very quiet, I learned that my fear of cockroaches, rats and spiders as large as your fists are not reasons to be sent home. On January 30th, during a truce for the Vietnamese New Year, the North Vietnamese launched the Tet Offensive. This was a series, as most of you know, of audacious attacks against cities, towns and military bases in South Vietnam. Long Bien was a target I was awaken to my first sounds of war. A major ammunition dump had been hit and North Vietnamese and Viet Cong were attacking the base. The days that followed would become a blur of activity and noise as the wounded arrived in an unceasing montage of helicopters. Over a 1000 major surgeries would be performed at the 93rd as well as numerous minor procedures. We worked 12 to 16 hours a day and volunteered for air evac missions on our time off."
"In the coming months, I would learn a skill called compartmentalization or psychic numbing. If one was to survive as a nurse or a soldier in Vietnam or in any war, you quickly learned that you had to put a shell between you and the pain and death that you were seeing on a daily basis. But let me assure you that does not mean that we did not care. But we did have to find a way not to let what we were dealing with psychologically prevent us from continuing to do our jobs, just as many of our men in combat had to do. The memories would come later, in the quiet moments after we returned home."
"After the Tet offensive, which lasted several months, they called for Volunteers to go North outside of DaNang to establish the first Army Hospital in that area, the 95th Evac. Going from a fixed hospital that had been in-country for a number of years, to working and living in tents while a permanent facility was built, was challenging. The first night I headed for the outhouse across the sleeping compound. There were lookout towers behind the latrine. At a strategic moment machine gun fire started and I made the stupid decision that I would not be remembered as the nurse who died in the outhouse. I crawled out to the sounds of the laughter of the guards who thought it would be fun to initiate the new nurse."
"I worked nights and we would be mortared from a mountain nearby called Marble Mountain. In 2014, I would revisit Vietnam I would climb that mountain and stand where the Viet Cong had stood; it was a very surreal experience. The Viet Cong came off the mountain one night trying to overrun the Marine Base near us. We would experience direct fire and casualties carried in from the field. We donned our flak jackets and helmets, got all of our patients on the ground and tried to cover them as best we could. Women were not allowed to carry firearms back then, and my young corpsmen got his M16 and stood by the door. I must have looked scared as he said, “Lt. Thomson, I won’t let them get through.” One of the patients, a combat infantry guy, became very agitated and wanted to leave and find a weapon. Everyone was so scared. I knew with his injuries he could not do that, so I just sat on the floor next to him talking and holding him. In retrospect I think it was as much to calm and reassure me as it was him."
"During that visit back to Vietnam accompanied by another nurse and good friend, Macrina Galloway, our guides would locate where her brother was killed and we would visit that site, a very emotional but healing experience for her and all of us these many years later."
"After several months in the tent hospital we moved into a permanent facility. During this time, I was assigned to a Vietnamese Civilian ward which would prove to be one of my best experiences, as I would learn the cost of war to the civilian population men, women and of course the children."
"At the end of 1968 as I ready to return home I learned that my youngest brother was being sent in to country as a Private in the infantry outside of Pleuku. I knew what that meant and would bend a few rules to find and see him on my way out of country. Those months at home wondering how he was and if he would come home were much harder then being in-country. I know that many of your families went through that and we need to honor them here today also. He would be wounded, suffer malaria and, like so many others, is now suffering with the life threatening effects of agent orange. Like many Vietnam Veterans, it is only the last few years that he has really begun to talk about his experiences."
"I would leave the military for ten years, tired and trying to get through the after effects of the War alone, like so many Vietnam Veterans. There were no services at the VA for women. And when you told someone you had served in Vietnam they really did not want to hear about it, and assumed as a women you were in the rear and out of harm's way."
"I would join the Reserves and would serve again in Desert Storm in another tent hospital in the Gulf War, the 403rd Combat Support Hospital. This was a different war, with women leaving small children and babies just as women continue to do today. I left behind my Down Syndrome daughter. This was a short war but a war of intense fear with the threat of chemical weapons. I think the soldiers who fought in the Gulf War are often discounted, as it was a 100 hour war. But make no mistake, the atrocities they saw and the stress they endured in a desert environment are similar to our soldiers today."
"I am proud of my military service but it pales in comparison to what young men and now young women in combat go through and sacrifice for this country. My personal heroes in war are the combat medics and dust off pilots. They were there caring for the wounded and dying under fire; they were there holding and comforting those who did not make it to the hospitals; they were also the reason that so many did make it and survived in all wars."
"When wounded would come in, if able, the first thing they would ask about were their buddies, often telling us to help them first. I know that those who did not make it home are still asking us to do that, to look after their buddies and all veterans."
"In 2012 my life would once again be forever changed as I listened to a young combat medic, as many of you right here did several years ago in this very park, SFC Brian Mancini. Brian had served two tours in Iraq and on his second tour he was involved in a explosive device incident which should have taken his life. But due to the advances in Military Medicine, many of them from what we learned in Korea, Vietnam and the Gulf War, he did not. But it would leave Brian with serious brain injury resulting in most of his skull being replaced with a titanium plate, one of his eyes missing, his palate, all of his teeth, and the bones in his face crushed. He would spend four years at Walter Reed undergoing numerous surgeries and rehabilitation. When he returned home he would encounter a very different VA from what we have today, a system that was still failing our Veterans in many ways. He was on 30 some medications and was isolating."
"He had experienced a strong spiritual connection and faith during his recovery with several near death experiences. He decided to get up off his couch and use his medical knowledge to help himself and ultimately other veterans. He explored ways to use both alternative modalities and traditional medicine to lower his use of medication and get back into life. In 2011 he would start The Honor House program. Initially Honor House would assist a local behavior health entity to start an Intensive Outpatient program."
"Unfortunately, after several grants ran out and insurance would not fund it, the program was closed. Because the bonding of these Veterans going through this experience was so profound and these groups have stayed as support systems for each other throughout all these years, we are starting a similar program in January called Operation Hope for Heroes. In 2014, Honor House started its signature program, Operation Healing Journey. This is a ninety day program where Veterans from all Era’s, male and female, can enter the program at any time. Their home and surrounding community are the center point of services. We have two Veteran Transition Specialists, Beckett Aguirre who works with our male veterans, and Tiffany Garvine who sees our female veterans. They help them to develop a healing calendar or battle plan much like Brian did for himself, addressing the Physical, Emotional, Social and Spiritual needs of each one individually."
"What we found time and time again is if you could reduce their pain levels, increase their sleep, find that one or two things that the Veteran was passionate about and make it possible for them to engage in that, it would bring them out of their isolation and allow them to begin the journey of healing. In 2015 we began our Alumni for Life program to give the ongoing support to Veterans and their Families. The Alumni meet for social and support events sponsored by Honor House. There are so many other things this amazing organization has done. To learn more, visit our table."
"Sadly, as has happened with many of our Veterans, Brian Mancini would loose his battle with his injuries. His body and brain began to deteriorate and in 2017 he would take his life. The following year 60 Minutes did a segment on Brian’s life. His family had donated Brian's brain to Dr. Perl, one of the country's foremost researchers on TBI. In his interview, Dr. Perl was asked if we could have prevented Brian's death. He said, “No we are not there yet.” I would encourage you all to go on line, just Goggle 60 minutes, Brian Mancini. The segment is called, “How IED’s may be physically causing PTSD.” I would encourage all Veterans who have experienced a blast injury in their life to consider donating their brain. Even in death Brian made a difference and so can you."
"I am so very proud of our Veterans. So many of you have kept serving in our communities and service organizations throughout this country. Like you, I am working with several organizations such as Honor House and Veterans First, In-country Vietnam Veterans, and the VA Medical Centers to ensure that none of our Veterans ever come home to an ungrateful country and not receive the recognition and care they deserve. I am fighting like so many of you to ensure that our Vietnam Veterans dealing with the effects of Agent Orange are once again not left behind. Once you are part of the military as a service member or a family, I believe that one's duty never ends."
"Everyone in this audience, whether you served or not, has an obligation to never forget those who have given us our freedom. I call on you today, Veterans Day, no matter your age, political affiliation or ideology, to start to do something big or small to insure that our veterans and their families of all eras get the respect and care they deserve and they have earned."
"I would like to end by reading you a poem written by Brian and engraved on the Memorial in Surprise dedicated to him this morning."
PITY
DON’T YOU DARE PITY ME, FOR I LIVE PROUD AND PITY FREE.
I WOULD DO IT ALL OVER AGAIN IF NEED BE, FOR THIS GREAT NATION 'TIS OF THEE.
I STAND TALL AND PROUD SO DON’T YOU DARE PITY ME. FOR I LIVE AND WILL DIE PITY FREE.
NO MATTER HOW MANGLED MY BODY IT MAYBE, THE SCARS AND PAIN ARE SIMPLE REMINDERS YOU SEE, THE SACRIFICES MADE FOR THE LAND OF THE FREE.
THERE ARE MANY MORE WHO HAVE GIVEN MORE THAN ME, SO I HONOR THEM BY LIVING PITY FREE.
I TRULY HAVE LIVED BETTER LIVING PITY FREE, SO I HAVE ONE REQUEST, CAN YOU DO IT FOR ME? PLEASE.
DON’T YOU DARE PITY ME, FOR I LIVE PROUD AND PITY FREE.
SFC BRIAN MANCINI
"Thank You and God Bless America and those who have protected it."
https://vimeo.com/373694265
Lyn Hitchon
Prepared by Carefree Truth
Copyrighted
Visit our website at www.carefreetruth2.com If you know anyone who would like to be added to the Carefree Truth email list, please have them contact me. Feel free to share Carefree Truth with others on your list.
Visit www.carefreeazbusinesses.com to see more info about businesses in Carefree. Please support our merchants.
Photo by Herbert Hitchon
Keynote speaker Pat Upah said, "I am so very blessed to have been asked to speak on this special day when we Honor our Veterans who throughout this country's history have served proudly and are the reason we can stand here in a free country today. As a Vietnam Veteran I am humbled that we are finally giving my fellow brothers and sisters the honor and recognition they so rightly deserve."
"I joined the Army when I was in my last year of nursing school in Ohio. I was young and full of youth and idealism like many of you. I had grown up in a military family. My Mom had been an Army Nurse in WW11 and I had seen pictures of her with the natives in the jungles of New Guinea. My Dad was in the Navy in the South pacific. Both of my brothers would also serve, my youngest in Vietnam. As a child of the fifties and sixties, I remember the ever present threat of the spread of communism. The school drills where we sheltered in the halls. People building bomb shelters and stocking supplies. It was in this environment of fear that we entered the Vietnam War to stop that country and all of Southeast Asia from falling into the hands of the communists. I believe that had we not gone into Vietnam and it had fallen into communist hands years earlier, that most of Asia would look very different today. I would join the Army Student Nurse program in my senior year of nursing school, promising our country to serve on active duty for two years after graduation."
"I volunteered for many reasons. It sounded like a great adventure to see the world, my family's values, to do my part to stop communism, and it didn’t hurt that the ratio of men to women was definitely in my favor. 2.8 million men would serve in Vietnam and a little over 6000 women, 85% of them nurses. There are 58,267 names on the Wall in Washington DC. 8 of them are women."
"I spent my first year at Fort Benning, Georgia where I would either be caring for men coming back wounded from Vietnam or going through training to be sent to Vietnam. I thought that, as a nurse, I had the skills to help our wounded and ill soldiers and volunteered for a one year tour of duty in Vietnam. My skills would be sorely tested, as nursing school in no way prepared me for the types of injuries, both physically and psychologically, that I would encounter."
"When people ask me about that year, I tell them it was the best and the worst year of my life. The dichotomy of War is that there are moments of intense humor and camaraderie matched by moments of intense fear. I arrived in-country and rang in what was to become the defining year of the Vietnam War, 1968."
"I was assigned to the 93rd Evacuation Hospital, a 400 bed hospital on the largest military complex in the country, Long Bien outside of Bien Hoa. Things were very quiet, I learned that my fear of cockroaches, rats and spiders as large as your fists are not reasons to be sent home. On January 30th, during a truce for the Vietnamese New Year, the North Vietnamese launched the Tet Offensive. This was a series, as most of you know, of audacious attacks against cities, towns and military bases in South Vietnam. Long Bien was a target I was awaken to my first sounds of war. A major ammunition dump had been hit and North Vietnamese and Viet Cong were attacking the base. The days that followed would become a blur of activity and noise as the wounded arrived in an unceasing montage of helicopters. Over a 1000 major surgeries would be performed at the 93rd as well as numerous minor procedures. We worked 12 to 16 hours a day and volunteered for air evac missions on our time off."
"In the coming months, I would learn a skill called compartmentalization or psychic numbing. If one was to survive as a nurse or a soldier in Vietnam or in any war, you quickly learned that you had to put a shell between you and the pain and death that you were seeing on a daily basis. But let me assure you that does not mean that we did not care. But we did have to find a way not to let what we were dealing with psychologically prevent us from continuing to do our jobs, just as many of our men in combat had to do. The memories would come later, in the quiet moments after we returned home."
"After the Tet offensive, which lasted several months, they called for Volunteers to go North outside of DaNang to establish the first Army Hospital in that area, the 95th Evac. Going from a fixed hospital that had been in-country for a number of years, to working and living in tents while a permanent facility was built, was challenging. The first night I headed for the outhouse across the sleeping compound. There were lookout towers behind the latrine. At a strategic moment machine gun fire started and I made the stupid decision that I would not be remembered as the nurse who died in the outhouse. I crawled out to the sounds of the laughter of the guards who thought it would be fun to initiate the new nurse."
"I worked nights and we would be mortared from a mountain nearby called Marble Mountain. In 2014, I would revisit Vietnam I would climb that mountain and stand where the Viet Cong had stood; it was a very surreal experience. The Viet Cong came off the mountain one night trying to overrun the Marine Base near us. We would experience direct fire and casualties carried in from the field. We donned our flak jackets and helmets, got all of our patients on the ground and tried to cover them as best we could. Women were not allowed to carry firearms back then, and my young corpsmen got his M16 and stood by the door. I must have looked scared as he said, “Lt. Thomson, I won’t let them get through.” One of the patients, a combat infantry guy, became very agitated and wanted to leave and find a weapon. Everyone was so scared. I knew with his injuries he could not do that, so I just sat on the floor next to him talking and holding him. In retrospect I think it was as much to calm and reassure me as it was him."
"During that visit back to Vietnam accompanied by another nurse and good friend, Macrina Galloway, our guides would locate where her brother was killed and we would visit that site, a very emotional but healing experience for her and all of us these many years later."
"After several months in the tent hospital we moved into a permanent facility. During this time, I was assigned to a Vietnamese Civilian ward which would prove to be one of my best experiences, as I would learn the cost of war to the civilian population men, women and of course the children."
"At the end of 1968 as I ready to return home I learned that my youngest brother was being sent in to country as a Private in the infantry outside of Pleuku. I knew what that meant and would bend a few rules to find and see him on my way out of country. Those months at home wondering how he was and if he would come home were much harder then being in-country. I know that many of your families went through that and we need to honor them here today also. He would be wounded, suffer malaria and, like so many others, is now suffering with the life threatening effects of agent orange. Like many Vietnam Veterans, it is only the last few years that he has really begun to talk about his experiences."
"I would leave the military for ten years, tired and trying to get through the after effects of the War alone, like so many Vietnam Veterans. There were no services at the VA for women. And when you told someone you had served in Vietnam they really did not want to hear about it, and assumed as a women you were in the rear and out of harm's way."
"I would join the Reserves and would serve again in Desert Storm in another tent hospital in the Gulf War, the 403rd Combat Support Hospital. This was a different war, with women leaving small children and babies just as women continue to do today. I left behind my Down Syndrome daughter. This was a short war but a war of intense fear with the threat of chemical weapons. I think the soldiers who fought in the Gulf War are often discounted, as it was a 100 hour war. But make no mistake, the atrocities they saw and the stress they endured in a desert environment are similar to our soldiers today."
"I am proud of my military service but it pales in comparison to what young men and now young women in combat go through and sacrifice for this country. My personal heroes in war are the combat medics and dust off pilots. They were there caring for the wounded and dying under fire; they were there holding and comforting those who did not make it to the hospitals; they were also the reason that so many did make it and survived in all wars."
"When wounded would come in, if able, the first thing they would ask about were their buddies, often telling us to help them first. I know that those who did not make it home are still asking us to do that, to look after their buddies and all veterans."
"In 2012 my life would once again be forever changed as I listened to a young combat medic, as many of you right here did several years ago in this very park, SFC Brian Mancini. Brian had served two tours in Iraq and on his second tour he was involved in a explosive device incident which should have taken his life. But due to the advances in Military Medicine, many of them from what we learned in Korea, Vietnam and the Gulf War, he did not. But it would leave Brian with serious brain injury resulting in most of his skull being replaced with a titanium plate, one of his eyes missing, his palate, all of his teeth, and the bones in his face crushed. He would spend four years at Walter Reed undergoing numerous surgeries and rehabilitation. When he returned home he would encounter a very different VA from what we have today, a system that was still failing our Veterans in many ways. He was on 30 some medications and was isolating."
"He had experienced a strong spiritual connection and faith during his recovery with several near death experiences. He decided to get up off his couch and use his medical knowledge to help himself and ultimately other veterans. He explored ways to use both alternative modalities and traditional medicine to lower his use of medication and get back into life. In 2011 he would start The Honor House program. Initially Honor House would assist a local behavior health entity to start an Intensive Outpatient program."
"Unfortunately, after several grants ran out and insurance would not fund it, the program was closed. Because the bonding of these Veterans going through this experience was so profound and these groups have stayed as support systems for each other throughout all these years, we are starting a similar program in January called Operation Hope for Heroes. In 2014, Honor House started its signature program, Operation Healing Journey. This is a ninety day program where Veterans from all Era’s, male and female, can enter the program at any time. Their home and surrounding community are the center point of services. We have two Veteran Transition Specialists, Beckett Aguirre who works with our male veterans, and Tiffany Garvine who sees our female veterans. They help them to develop a healing calendar or battle plan much like Brian did for himself, addressing the Physical, Emotional, Social and Spiritual needs of each one individually."
"What we found time and time again is if you could reduce their pain levels, increase their sleep, find that one or two things that the Veteran was passionate about and make it possible for them to engage in that, it would bring them out of their isolation and allow them to begin the journey of healing. In 2015 we began our Alumni for Life program to give the ongoing support to Veterans and their Families. The Alumni meet for social and support events sponsored by Honor House. There are so many other things this amazing organization has done. To learn more, visit our table."
"Sadly, as has happened with many of our Veterans, Brian Mancini would loose his battle with his injuries. His body and brain began to deteriorate and in 2017 he would take his life. The following year 60 Minutes did a segment on Brian’s life. His family had donated Brian's brain to Dr. Perl, one of the country's foremost researchers on TBI. In his interview, Dr. Perl was asked if we could have prevented Brian's death. He said, “No we are not there yet.” I would encourage you all to go on line, just Goggle 60 minutes, Brian Mancini. The segment is called, “How IED’s may be physically causing PTSD.” I would encourage all Veterans who have experienced a blast injury in their life to consider donating their brain. Even in death Brian made a difference and so can you."
"I am so very proud of our Veterans. So many of you have kept serving in our communities and service organizations throughout this country. Like you, I am working with several organizations such as Honor House and Veterans First, In-country Vietnam Veterans, and the VA Medical Centers to ensure that none of our Veterans ever come home to an ungrateful country and not receive the recognition and care they deserve. I am fighting like so many of you to ensure that our Vietnam Veterans dealing with the effects of Agent Orange are once again not left behind. Once you are part of the military as a service member or a family, I believe that one's duty never ends."
"Everyone in this audience, whether you served or not, has an obligation to never forget those who have given us our freedom. I call on you today, Veterans Day, no matter your age, political affiliation or ideology, to start to do something big or small to insure that our veterans and their families of all eras get the respect and care they deserve and they have earned."
"I would like to end by reading you a poem written by Brian and engraved on the Memorial in Surprise dedicated to him this morning."
PITY
DON’T YOU DARE PITY ME, FOR I LIVE PROUD AND PITY FREE.
I WOULD DO IT ALL OVER AGAIN IF NEED BE, FOR THIS GREAT NATION 'TIS OF THEE.
I STAND TALL AND PROUD SO DON’T YOU DARE PITY ME. FOR I LIVE AND WILL DIE PITY FREE.
NO MATTER HOW MANGLED MY BODY IT MAYBE, THE SCARS AND PAIN ARE SIMPLE REMINDERS YOU SEE, THE SACRIFICES MADE FOR THE LAND OF THE FREE.
THERE ARE MANY MORE WHO HAVE GIVEN MORE THAN ME, SO I HONOR THEM BY LIVING PITY FREE.
I TRULY HAVE LIVED BETTER LIVING PITY FREE, SO I HAVE ONE REQUEST, CAN YOU DO IT FOR ME? PLEASE.
DON’T YOU DARE PITY ME, FOR I LIVE PROUD AND PITY FREE.
SFC BRIAN MANCINI
"Thank You and God Bless America and those who have protected it."
https://vimeo.com/373694265
Lyn Hitchon
Prepared by Carefree Truth
Copyrighted
Visit our website at www.carefreetruth2.com If you know anyone who would like to be added to the Carefree Truth email list, please have them contact me. Feel free to share Carefree Truth with others on your list.
Visit www.carefreeazbusinesses.com to see more info about businesses in Carefree. Please support our merchants.