failure Archives - Page 18 of 21

August 22, 2016November 29, 2016

When Will The Storms Stop?

Thanks to all of you who have been joining us here. The response has been wonderful. We just past 3,625 new subscribers. That is a huge increase in 2016. We only had 1,000 a year ago. Help us to make it to 4,000. Could you be the one that puts us over the top? Our goal for the end of this year is 5,000.

Help us continue to grow by subscribing today if you haven’t already. Just click on the icon right after the title of this post to do that.

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Doug Bolton, the founder of the blog, Signs of Hope, which is at www.dailysignsofhope.com, has written a new book, “Signs of Hope for the Military: In and Out of the Trenches of Life.” It will be reaching out the many military and veterans who may be battling anxiety, fear, depression, addictions, rejections, and the many other usual suspects. There are 22 military connected suicides every day. That is almost one every hour. Doug wants to help stop those statistics.

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If you follow Twitter, join me by following @heavenencounter. Many veterans are starting to follow and we hope to have many more to share thoughts and ideas with. You can also connect with my on Facebook by putting my name in the search area.

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I see it has been almost three months since I last posted here. I have spent my whole summer battling an infection in my spine. I am just starting to feel well enough to be able to stop the daily IV doses of antibiotics.

I missed so much because of this. My family went on summer trips, but I couldn’t go because of the IV treatments everyday.

I wasn’t able to drive because the effects of the antibiotics made me drowsy and sleepy. So, not only was I in severe pain, I also was grounded and sent to my bedroom like a disobedient child. I spent three weeks staring out my bedroom window hoping some birds or squirrels might come by for me to see.

This is a pretty sad story so far.

I want you to know something. I never faltered. I never cursed God. I never gave up my positive attitude.

I could have given up and let the dark side have its way.

It reminds me of when I was in a huge battle with depression while in the military, and beyond. I spent many days wondering what the world was all about, and if I wanted to be a part of it.

In 2001 I actually was sitting in my Ford Explorer thinking of checking out of this hotel called earth.

God woke me up that day. He stopped me in my tracks. He had plans for me, and it wasn’t my time to leave this earth. So now I am writing this post to you to share hope.

I also share hope on my blog at www.dailysignsofhope.com. As the title states, you get daily signs of hope. Check it out and join me there as well. Find out why 94,000 people are subscribers to the blog.

I have been labeled as the “hope whisper.” I go to writer’s conferences and people address me with that name.

Why? Shouldn’t I be angry at the world? I had over ten years of serious ailments including five surgeries. This latest trial has been one of my hardest to accept.

I don’t feel anger. I don’t think this world is an awful place to be.

I have learned that we will all face trials and storms. Some will be raging storms. I have also learned that each time I make it through the storm I am a little stronger. I even learned that I can use my adversity, pain, and suffering to help others who may be going through the same things.

Remember:

You are never alone.

You are never forsaken.

You are never unloved.

And above all…never, ever, give up!

July 11, 2016July 11, 2016

Veterans Deserve Benefits From Injuries on Duty

Thanks to all of you who have been joining us here. The response has been wonderful. We just past 3,500 new subscribers. That is a huge increase in 2016. We only had 1,000 a year ago. Help us to make it to 4,000. Could you be the one that puts us over the top? Our goal for the end of this year is 5,000.

Help us continue to grow by subscribing today if you haven’t already. Just click on the icon right after the title of this post to do that.

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If you follow Twitter, join me by following @heavenencounter. Many veterans are starting to follow and we hope to have many more to share thoughts and ideas with.

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It has been quite a summer for me so far. I spent six days in the hospital; two months in incredible pain, and now daily trips to and infusion center to have antibiotic pumped into me.

What this is all about is that I have an infection on my spine. It was hard to move, breath, and even walk when the infection was at its highest moments.

I am doing better now. The pain has subsided. I can walk better now. I can take longer walks each day.

I am a veteran, and I wondered what I would be going through right now if I didn’t have insurance and could only use the military doctors and hospitals.

I am not a person who wants disability, to just to draw money from the government, but I was told be a high ranking retired military person, that if I have had a disability from the military then I deserve what ever compensation I have coming for serving my country.

The following aliment is not related to my current infection, but is for an example of how you can receive what you deserve for harm you acquired while you were actually serving your country.

I went into the military in 1959. I did the proper training and was selected to be in the ASA. (Army Security Agency.) My duties when I was deployed to Korea, was to monitor all transactions over the airways searching for breaches of security.

My daily run was up to Hill 468. A high mound with a flatten area at the top. The only equipment that was up there was a radio/teletype machine, that you had to listen to every second of your shift. Many times I had twelve hour shifts.

Even when the frequency shifted and you had to dial it back in you had to have the ear phones on. The noise was horrible quite often.

The results of this left my ears ringing and hearing loss came along as well.

I got out of the service and managed to live with my handicap of hearing loss until about thirty years ago, when the loss had become profound. That is when I was told I should apply for compensation since the loss occurred during time served.

I did apply, but the military quickly denied my plea because of the length of time I waited to apply. They felt it was a age related loss.

I have appealed the findings and I will have to share with you later what the outcome will be.

I am sorry if I strung you along with this story, but I am reaching out to all of those veterans who deserve compensation of one kind or another and have let it pass. I am wanting this blog to be a go to place to find out how you get receive what you earned.

Each post from now on will have updates as to how my appeal is going, and how I am doing on a second appeal for a back injury I received when I was thrown for a jeep.

Stay strong my fellow veterans. Be proud of your service. You did your share to protect our country and no one can take that away from you!

+Be sure to subscribe to this blog by clicking on the icon right after the title to make sure you will get updated information on disability benefits, and discussions of other military related topics.

Remember:

You are never alone.

You are never forsaken.

You are never unloved.

And above all…never, ever, give up!

February 22, 2016February 22, 2016

More Military Veteran Interviews

Thanks to all of you who have been joining us here. The response has been wonderful. We just past 3,300 new subscribers. That is a huge increase in 2015. We only had 1,000 a year ago. Help us to make it to 4,000. Could you be the one that puts us over the top? Our goal for the end of this year is 6,000.

Help us continue to grow by subscribing today if you haven’t already. Just click on the icon right after the title of this post to do that.

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On my last post below I started sharing a few of the interviews I am doing for my new book, “Signs of Hope for the Military: In and Out of the Trenches of Life.”

This book is reaching out to all the veterans who may be suffering after or even during their time in the military. It covers PTSD, deployment, loneliness, depression, domestic violence, spouses left behind, etc. It even has some humor of when I was in the military.

Today I am going to share a couple more interviews. In the last post I said that I would only be sharing a little part of each interview. I will continue that here. To see the entire interviews you will need to get the book. (This is called a hook in the writing community.)

One interview I had was with a Vietnam veteran. It wasn’t planned interview. I happened to be at a fast food restaurant and saw him sitting alone staring out the window. I could tell he was a veteran by his Vietnam hat he had on.

He finally got up and I saw that he had a cane. He hobbled over to the trash bin and then started to leave.

I asked him if he would sit with me for a while. He hesitated until I told him I was a veteran as well. Here is the conversation we had. It really wasn’t an interview. I didn’t want it to sound that way.

Me- “What unit were you in?” Veteran-“I was on a ship off the coast of Vietnam, and we had a helicopter unit that went in to rescue soldiers, bring in supplies, and did humanitarian help for some of the starving people.” Me- “What was the worst moment you had in the military?” Veteran- “I saw my best friend and the rest of his crew take off in a helicopter and suddenly crash into the ocean. They never recovered the bodies because it was too deep.”

There was much more talked about, but this was the most heart breaking part.

Another interview I had was with a Vietnam medic. He had some horror stories which I won’t share here but will be in the book. Here are some highlights:

Me- “Was being a medic a tough job?” Veteran- “Of course it was. To see young men with their legs gone, or near their last breath was extremely hard.” Me- “Did you have some special moments?” Veteran- “Yes, I was caring for a soldier who couldn’t have been much over eighteen. He asked me if I was scared. I said yes. That seemed to calm him down a lot knowing that someone felt the same way as he did, but was still trying to help him anyway.”

I will have many more interviews in the book, and the book will be full of hope, and showing veterans ways to cope in the world we have to live in after we hit the private sector.

A word to all veterans…

You are a special person. You went out of your way to serve you country. God loves as you are, warts and all. You are a hero to not only me, but many other people. Never be ashamed of what you did. Never feel your time was wasted. Never allow others to degrade you for what you have done for your country.

Remember:

You are never alone.

You are never forsaken.

You are never unloved.

And above all…never, ever, give up!