Program that pairs service dogs with veterans booted from Fort Belvoir and Walter Reed

By Kate Ryan  | @KateRyanWTOPNovember 8, 2017 8:17 pmA program that prepares service dogs for permanent placement with wounded veterans and their families has been booted from Fort Belvoir and Walter Reed without explanation, the program's executive director says. 

Warrior Canine Connection Executive Director Rick Young with “Lou” at the Germantown training facility. (WTOP/Kate Ryan)



Rick Yount and puppy “Lou” after a play session. (WTOP/Kate Ryan)



Future service dog “Lou” sacked out. (WTOP/Kate Ryan)



Stacy, a service dog in training at Warrior Canine Connection, showing focus. (WTOP/Kate Ryan)

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Training is reward-based at Warrior Canine Connection, a program that pairs service dogs with veterans that was recently booted out of Walter Reed and Fort Belvoir. (WTOP/Kate Ryan)



The headquarters for Warrior Canine Connection in Germantown, Maryland. (WTOP/Kate Ryan)



A sign at Warrior Canine Connection. (WTOP/Kate Ryan)

GERMANTOWN, Md. — The Warrior Canine Connection, a program that uses an army of volunteer puppy raisers, dog trainers and veterans to prepare service dogs for wounded veterans and their families, has been partnering with military facilities in the D.C. region since 2009.

But suddenly — and without explanation — that came to a stop, says Warrior Canine Connection Executive Director Rick Yount.

He said his trainers and puppy raisers at Fort Belvoir and at two locations on the campus of the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, were told on Oct. 27th to vacate their offices that afternoon.

“At two o’clock in the afternoon, I received a phone call saying there was a stop work order. There was no explanation whatsoever as to why that was the decision,” Yount said.

Asked if there had been an issue with the program, problems with staff or an incident at either of the military sites, Yount said he hasn’t heard anything.

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“We’re trying to get answers. Why would — all of the sudden — a program be halted that was serving patients?” Yount asked.

If a dog had bitten someone or if there had been an incident, he said he could understand why there would be concerns about the program or even an interruption in the activities that his staffers and volunteers provide. “We’ve heard absolutely nothing” he said.

WTOP has contacted Fort Belvoir and the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.

Warrior Canine Connection had two offices at the Bethesda campus, one at the National Intrepid Center of Excellence and one at Building 11. Public affairs officials at both facilities have been contacted. Jimmie Cummings at Fort Belvoir said he was trying to track down information on the contract, which Yount said was not set to expire until 2019.

The Warrior Canine Connection training model has volunteers visit with young puppies to socialize them when they are just weeks old. Then the training begins. Volunteer puppy raisers get training on how to handle the dogs at Fort Belvoir and Walter Reed. Veterans have been taking an active part in the training so that eventually the dogs that “graduate” the program can be placed for a life of service alongside a wounded warrior.

That’s what’s so distressing, Yount said.

Some veterans told him that knowing they’d be visited by the dogs and training with them gave them a reason to get out of bed in the morning.

“There’s no question that this program saves lives” he said, cradling a future service dog “Lou” in his arms.

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Louisiana woman hailed as a hero for stopping man from beating police officer

Published February 21, 2017 

 

Vickie Williams-Tillman is pictured on the right.  (Baton Rouge Police Department)

Authorities said a Louisiana woman “made a big difference” Sunday when she jumped on a suspect’s back to save a police officer from a brutal beatdown.

Vickie Williams-Tillman, 56, was being hailed as a hero, The Advocate reported. Williams-Tillman was driving to a store, listening to gospel music on her radio, when she spotted the Baton Rouge officer and the suspect.

Baton Rouge police spokesman Sgt. L’Jean McKneely said the suspect grabbed the officer’s baton and repeatedly bashed him on the head with it, and also tried to grab the officer’s gun.

"I could see in his eyes he needed help," Williams-Tillman told The Advocate. "You don't have time to think about it … I did what God needed me to do."

Police said the officer found 28-year-old Thomas Bennett asleep inside his vehicle with drug paraphernalia out in the open at around 8 a.m. Bennett became aggressive after he exited his vehicle and that’s when the squabble started.

Soon at Williams-Tillman jumped on the man’s back, police backup arrived and the suspect was apprehended after being shot with a stun gun. The 44-year-old officer was not identified.

Baton Rouge Mayor-President Sharon Weston-Broome called the woman a courageous hero.

"Vickie Williams-Tillman epitomizes the true Good Samaritan," Weston-Broome said. "She reached out and offered a courageous and unconditional response to the officer. Ms. Williams-Tillman is a hero and demonstrates the true meaning of loving God and loving your neighbor."

Williams-Tillman said she didn’t think twice about helping the officer. "It was something that went through my soul," she said. "You don't think about the risk."

Bennett was arrested on aggravated batters, disarming a police officer, battery on a police offer, resisting an officer with violence, possession of cocaine and possession drug paraphernalia charges.

The police officer suffered a few wounds to his head. Williams-Tillman injured her wrist.

The officer and Williams-Tillman embraced in a hug after they were both treated at the hospital.

A Kurdish Peshmerga hero....

Peshmerga Fighter Uses Bulletproof BMW 7 Series to Save 70 Under ISIS Sniper Fire

By Ronnie Schreiber on November 7, 2016 

 
 
 

In the many wars spanning the globe, a variety of vehicles have been pressed into military service by insurgents and militias alike, most notably the venerable Toyota Hilux. More recently Chinese compact pickups have appeared on battlegrounds, and even one Texas plumber’s Ford F-250 turned up in the hands of some bad guys.

Now comes word that on October 21, a heroic Kurdish Peshmerga fighter used his bulletproof E32 BMW 7 Series as a military ambulance to save up to 70 people. Ako Abdulrehman made repeated trips under ISIS sniper fire to save fighters and civilians wounded during the militants’ attack on the Kurdish city of Kirkuk.

Islamic State fighters attacked several locations in the city that day, but before they were pushed back by police and security forces almost 90 people were killed and over 200 injured. Ako, whose first name means “servant of the merciful” was on a mission near southern Kirkuk when he heard of the attack.

He told BasNews, “After we arrived at the scene, we saw many wounded individuals among the security forces and civilians and no one was able to approach them due to the IS snipers. Therefore we decided to help those wounded people since bullets could not penetrate my car.”

Four months earlier, Ako had bought the bulletproof BMW for $9,000. The extent of its armoring isn’t known but from the looks of it, the glass had been substantially upgraded.

All day long and into the night, Ako ferried Kurds, Turkmens and Arabs wounded in the fighting or by crossfire to a hospital.

“My aim was to prevent any captives, wounded or martyrs falling into ISIS’ hands,” the Peshmerga fighter said. “What really made me sad,” though, was that “many of the wounded, we reached them too late and they bled to death.”

“Sadly, one injured person died on the way to the hospital although he was lightly wounded, but he had not been transferred to hospital soon enough.”

“There are marks from 50 to 60 bullets on the body of my car and many of them hit the front and the windshield of the car,” Ako told Rudaw.net. He added: “The ISIS bullets were coming in my direction. I saw death with my own eyes. Yet, I did not stop what I was doing. I could not leave the wounded in limbo. The only thing I cared about was getting the wounded into my car and driving them to the hospital.”

The brave BMW eventually succumbed to the firepower, but Ako says that BMW is willing to give him a new car in exchange for putting his trusty E32 in the automaker’s museum. BMW Cihan of Baghdad has also offered to repair the 7 Series sedan but Ako instead is going to give his car to a Sulaymaniyah museum to go on display as a symbol of the bravery of the people of Kirkuk.

(Perhaps due to transliteration, there is some confusion about the Kurdish BMW owner’s name. Rudaw.net calls him Ako Abdulrehman. Basnews.com identified him as “Ako Aburrahman, known as Ako Duzi.”)

VIDEO: AMERICANS DON’T KNOW WHO WASHINGTON D.C. WAS NAMED AFTER...guess the result?

VIDEO: AMERICANS DON’T KNOW WHO WASHINGTON D.C. WAS NAMED AFTER

"Can I Google it?"

Paul Joseph Watson - MARCH 7, 2016

If you thought that Mark Dice couldn’t top his previous videos in exposing the American public’s alarming lack of knowledge about their own country’s history, then think again – numerous beachgoers in San Diego don’t know who Washington D.C. is named after.

Asked “who is our nation’s capital named after,” one African American woman responded, “Erm, OK, umm, see why you gotta ask me something like that, can I Google it?”

The woman desperately searches in vain for the answer before giving up.

When Dice asks the same question of another two women, one of them responds, “You have to tell us,” before admitting, “I have no idea.”

Another blonde woman does actually know the answer – George Washington – but then admits that she is not sure. “I don’t really care,” she adds.

A man with a surfboard states, “I’m gonna have to go with….yeah I don’t know,” before an older man gets the answer right before telling Dice that millennials are “not gonna have a clue”.

Easily the most cringeworthy exchange is between Dice and a man wearing an “I (heart) DC” t-shirt.

“Our nation’s capital is named after who?” asks Dice.

“I don’t know, I just woke up,” responds the man, adding that he doesn’t remember where he bought his shirt.

The man struggles to remember that the city is named after Washington, but then cannot recall his first name, lamenting, “It’s not coming….I’m just out of it.”

“Out nation’s capital is Washington D.C. and I don’t know who it’s named after,” states another African-American man.

“Some president, I don’t know, is it you?” his girlfriend asks Dice.

An older lady then tells Dice that Washington D.C. is named after “Lincoln”.

Perhaps the most depressing scene comes at the end of the video when a couple on vacation from Italy immediately know the answer and then express their amazement that many Americans are completely unaware as to who their first president was or that Washington D.C. is named after him.

If BLM'd they would celebrate this young man instead of criminals. The left's grouping by race damages the individual

‘He Said Happy New Year And Pushed Her Out’: Man Killed After Heroically Rescuing Woman From Falling New York Elevator

Jan. 1, 2016 11:43am Tré Goins-Phillips

While millions rang in the new year on New York City streets, a heroic 25-year-old man rescued a woman from falling down an elevator, wishing her “Happy New Year” as he pushed her out of harm’s way — seconds later, he was fatally crushed.

Stephen Hewett-Brown got stuck in the faulty elevator shortly before midnight on New Year’s Eve and died moments after saving Erude Sanchez, 43, when the elevator began to fall. Manuel Coronado, 23, who was visiting his grandmother in the building, tried to pull Hewett-Brown from the broken elevator, but was unsuccessful.

“I tried to help the guy, but he was between the elevator and the building door,” Coronado told the New York Daily News. “He was saying ‘I can’t breathe.’ “I tried to pull him up, but he said ‘Leave me here, leave me here.’”

Though he couldn’t save him, Coronado stayed nearby as the tragic scene unfolded.

“She started going in, but the elevator started going down and he pushed her out,” Coronado said, translating for the Spanish-speaking woman. “He said ‘Happy New Year’ and pushed her out.”

It was just by chance that Hewett-Brown was in the building to save Sanchez. Coronado said the man didn’t live in the 26-story apartment complex but was in the Bronx for a New Year’s Eve celebration.

Several residents reportedly dialed 911, but it was 20 to 30 minutes before any first responders arrived, even though the 7th Precinct police office was nearby, according to Coronado.

“We called and they took a long time to come,” he said. “It’s a block away. I don’t know why they didn’t come to help.”

With only a few minutes left before the New Year, the New York Fire Department finally arrived at the scene and rushed Hewett-Brown, who was in “traumatic arrest,” to New York Hospital. But it was too late, the young man could not be saved.

“I’m grieving my son,” Brown’s distraught mother told the Daily News Friday. “I’m grieving my son. We don’t want to say anything.”

The apartment building has three active city violations, all for elevator defects dating back to May of 2014. Wavecrest Management, the company who runs the complex, said no one would comment until after the holiday.

The VA where the bureaucracy rules no matter the law breaking, incompetence or retaliation agiainst people exposing them. This is socialism.

Phoenix Veterans Affairs whistleblower retaliators not punished

Reports: Senior managers still on jobs

The VA has yet to fire or punish the senior managers in Phoenix who retaliated against whistleblowers who revealed massive dysfunction at the department, despite an internal audit from more than a year ago that said the two executives deserved to be “appropriate administrative action” or firing.

Reports obtained by The Washington Times show the Veterans Affairs Office of Accountability Review said Dr. Darren Deering, chief of staff the VA’s Phoenix facility, lashed out at Dr. Katherine Mitchell after she reported the secret wait lists that ignited a national scandal last year, putting her on administrative leave and eventually forcing her to flee her job.

Investigators also concluded Lance Robinson, the hospital’s associate director, retaliated against Paula Pedene, a legally blind public affairs officer at the hospital, who was stripped of her duties, forced to give up her work email and cell phone with no notice and sent away to work in the basement library after reporting misuse of hospital money to higher-ups.

Dr. Deering remains on the job in Phoenix while Mr. Robinson has been removed from his position but has been collecting full paid leave since May 2014, pending the investigation.

Lawmakers on Capitol Hill were stunned that the VA had ignored its own internal recommendations for so long, saying it was a black mark against a department already struggling to show it can be accountable.

“The fact that VA’s top leaders have likely known about these issues for more than a year and haven’t acted on the reports’ disciplinary recommendations severely undercuts the credibility of the department’s repeated assertions that whistleblower retaliation will not be tolerated,” said House Veterans Affairs Chairman Jeff Miller, Florida Republican.

The VA said that they have not issued any punishment, but said it’s still a possibility for both employees deemed to have retaliated.

“VA is reviewing the voluminous evidence collected through those investigations and will impose appropriate discipline based on all substantiated misconduct, including but not limited to whistleblower retaliation,” Victoria Dillon, a VA spokesperson, said in an email.

Dr. Deering and Mr. Robinson did not respond to a request for comment left through a VA official.

Dr. Mitchell has become a national figure after she revealed the secret wait lists the Phoenix VA kept, cooking their books to make their processing numbers seem better so executives could collect performance bonuses, even as dozens of veterans died while waiting for care.

Investigators concluded Dr. Deering, rather than fixing the problems Dr. Mitchell raised, lashed out at her, kicking her out of her emergency room post.

He was scheduled to testify at a Senate Veterans Affairs Committee field hearing in Arizona on Monday, but was removed from the witness list at the last minute when the senators learned that he was under investigation for whistleblower retaliation.

Dr. Mitchell, meanwhile, said the investigative report into retaliation only scratched the surface of the problems, and investigators didn’t even interview other witnesses she provided to corroborate her accounts. Without still more examples of retaliation, she said she was not sure that leadership would be convinced that they need to take disciplinary action.

Dr. Mitchell, Ms. Pedene and a third Phoenix whistleblower, program analyst Damian Reese, were given a confidential settlement for the harassment they went through at the hands of the hospital’s senior management. But without punishment for those who retaliated, the hospital is unsafe in the hands of those with bad judgment, Dr. Mitchellsaid in a telephone interview Wednesday.

“What I’m most concerned about is that there’s someone in a leadership position at Phoenix who has shown they are not capable of making decisions for VA and therefore not making good decisions for veterans,” she said. “It’s not on a personal level, it’s about what’s good for the facility and what’s good for veterans.”

Rep. Tim Walz, Minnesota Democrat, said the VA needs to make sure whistleblowers feel comfortable stepping forward if the department is to embrace accountability.

“When you look at these, a lot of these incidents that we’ve found out about have come from whistleblowers, that’s how we know about them. And that’s fact,” he said. “We’ve got the IG reports and IG investigations, but those almost always came after the whistleblower.”

The VA often puts employees on paid leave while under investigation by the agency's inspector general's office or the Justice Department, but Deputy Secretary Sloan Gibson announced last week that process would come to a halt.

“We can’t let issues languish unresolved in protracted IG or Department of Justice investigations for months and years. Our past practice has been to wait for these investigations to be complete,” he said. “We’re done waiting.”

But only when leadership take whistleblowers and their protections seriously will doctors feel safe in the agency, Dr. Mitchell said. Until then, she urged medical professionals to stay away from the VA.

“Until they make it safe for physicians to speak up, until the central officedecides to stop this, I cannot recommend that any physician join the VA, as bad as we need physicians,” she said. “And we need them badly.”