At the time of year when Americans are stringing Christmas lights, one organization was putting together a national effort to commemorate fallen soldiers with graveside wreaths. On Saturday, Wreaths Across America completed its mission of laying more than 900,000 wreaths on the graves of military veterans, not only nationwide, but all around the world. The annual community-oriented tradition, started in 1992 by Maine business owner Rob Worcester, traveled to over 1,000 national cemeteries and an additional 25 overseas.
"It's tremendous; there's a lot of help involved," Worcester told USA Today. "We have 320 trucks from about 150 volunteer truck companies."
Saturday marked the finale of a week long journey from Maine to Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia. "One part of Wreaths Across America day is an honor convoy that goes directly to Arlington (Cemetery). The 12-truck convoy takes six days (with) stops at schools, veterans' homes and other community centers," said Worcester.
U.S. congressman – and former Navy SEAL – Rep. Ryan Zinke was on hand with thousands of other volunteers on Saturday to help distribute the wreaths. According to The Hill, Zinke served in the Iraq War and spent more than 23 years in the Navy. He felt it was his duty in his life after service to be in Arlington. Looking out at the thousands of graves, he was well aware of the human cost they represented.
"We often fight wars with our young," he said. "That's the sacrifice."
Adorning Arlington's graves is just one way of making sure those sacrifices are not forgotten. Since 2007, when Wreaths Across America went non-profit, the number of distributed wreaths has skyrocketed from 30,000 to the more than 900,000 wreaths laid this year.
During the holidays, everyone wants to know that someone is thinking about them, and servicemembers are no different. That is why two Massachusetts natives, Emily Spencer and Lauren Eliopoulos, joined their nonprofits to gather holiday cards for soldiers and veterans.
Both women have personal ties to the Armed Forces and founded military-focused organizations to show their support of the troops. Every year since 2012, they have joined efforts to do something even more special. Spencer and Eliopoulos send out an annual request for holiday cards for the troops and veterans, according to Boston.com. This event is called Mission: Holiday Cards, and this year, the women received more cards than ever before.
"The fact that we've received cards from all 50 states and four countries, is insane," Spencer told CBS Boston.
A recent Facebook post from Eliopoulos' Hero Helpers of America page tallied the total number of cards up to 317,000. Boston.com reported that half of the cards will be distributed to the Fisher House medical facility in West Roxbury, Massachusetts, and the other half will be sent overseas to deployed soldiers.
For some, the best way to honor veterans is with the wind in their hair and the roar of their bike below them. Sunday was the 15th annual Vet's Christmas Charity Ride in Columbia, South Carolina, and it was by all accounts the biggest ever recorded.
According to The State, more than 7,000 riders showed up – at least 1,000 more than attended last year – ready and willing to share the holiday spirit with veterans at the Dorn VA Medical Center.
Army veteran Jim Wertman founded the event in 2000 with the help of Earl Smalls Jr. and Gene Royer.
"It was really sad to see these vets in the hospital," said Royer. "Some of them don't have family, some of them don't have Christmas. So we decided to start a Christmas ride. It's been getting bigger and bigger every year."
Many of the charity riders are veterans who have committed to giving back in their life after service. They were joined by military vehicles from the Vietnam era as they journeyed from Northeast Richland to the VA hospital in Lower Richland. Their arrival was met with waving flags. Shortly after, they distributed enough presents to fill an entire room.
The gifts sought most by Vet's Christmas Charity Ride – which ended up coming in from all over South Carolina – included clothing, winter gear, backpacks, hats, gift cards and radios, according to WLTX 19.
Gene Royer's brother, a Vietnam veteran, told The State that "It's important to me to give back to the veterans, that the veterans don't get treated the way we got treated when we got back from Vietnam. I'll be doing this until the day before I die, to make sure that new veterans and old veterans never get treated that way again."
It's been warmer than usual in much of the northeast this year, but New Englanders know that winter is coming. That's why the New England Center and Home for Veterans distributed heavy winter coats to 60 former servicemembers on Sunday morning, along with gift bags full of hats, socks and sweatshirts.
According to the Boston Globe, a big crowd of veterans and volunteers gathered together for the annual giveaway event. Some volunteers were surprised by just how much the donations meant.
"Most people aren't grateful to have a jacket," volunteer Kelsey Murphy told the Globe. "They just expect to have one. And then you come here and you see all these people who don't."
The event was put together by Rolling Thunder, an advocacy group dedicated to bringing the plight of prisoners of war and those warriors still missing in action to light.
Rolling Thunder had a busy weekend. Before their Boston chapter distributed coats on Sunday, another chapter assisted Wreaths Across America at the Somerset Hills Memorial Park in New Jersey on Saturday. MyCentralJersey.com reported that at noon, the group helped adorn the graves of 1,400 veterans after local students sang the National Anthem.
Many Rolling Thunder chapters participated in the annual event, which commemorates the sacrifices of the fallen with hundreds of thousands of wreaths.
Veterans Day isn't the only day of the year veterans are honored with parades. In San Angelo, Texas and Louisville, Kentucky, veterans were at the center of parades recognizing them for their dedication to service.
The Standard-Times reported that school bands from all over San Angelo and other parts of Texas were on hand on Thursday, Dec. 10 to receive 23 veterans wounded and disabled by combat. San Angelo Support for Veterans, Inc. and Lone Star Warriors Outdoors sponsored the men to participate in a multi-day, free-of-cost hunting trip to a number of West Texas ranches.
"Oh my gosh, this was amazing," Chris Gill, founder of LSWO, told the Standard-Times. "I've seen parades out here before but this was totally unexpected."
Uniformed servicemembers drove the 23 veterans along the Concho River route in golf carts as the Goodfellow Air Force Base Honor Guard, the Angelo State University drum corps and members of each branch of the service paid special tribute.
In Kentucky, the 60th inauguration parade – welcoming the state's 62nd governor into office – made sure veterans and first responders received their due. WHAS 11 described how four lines of marching police officers commemorated Daniel Ellis, Cameron Ponder, Eric Chrisman and Burke Rhoads – the four Kentucky officers killed in the line of duty this year.
An ambulance made its way through the parade as well, in memory of deceased paramedic John Mackey and fire chief Billy Ray Jarvis.
Servicemembers were also a main part of the parade. Medal of Honor recipient and Kentucky native Dakota Meyer, a Marine Corps veteran, was among those honored.
Charlie Coleman, a veteran who drove into town to see the parade, was moved by what he saw. "I was a coach. I've lost some players that were killed in Afghanistan and I lost a brother-in-law in Vietnam," he told WHAS 11. "So I'm pleased that they're being recognized today. What a great day for the Commonwealth."
With the arrival of the holiday season, organizations around the nation are making sure military veterans take part in the festive spirit. At St. Mary on the Hill in Augusta, Georgia on Thursday, dozens of hospitalized veterans were treated to a Christmas dinner – complete with red, white and blue iced cake – by Ancient Order of Hibernia, the oldest Irish-Catholic organization in the country.
"With everything these veterans have done for our country, this is the absolute least we can do," Michael Ramp, president of Richmond County's branch of Ancient Order of Hibernia, told The Augusta Chronicle. "It truly is a pleasure to spend part of the holiday season with these heroes."
Many of the attending veterans were from other states, but residing in the Georgia War Veterans Nursing Home or Charlie Norwood VA Medical Center, where it was hard for family members to spend more than a few days with them.
John Joe, a VA recreation therapist, said that the veterans appreciated the attention. "This night means the world to our veterans. So many of these veterans are away from home and simply don't get this same kind of camaraderie at the hospital."
Veterans hundreds of miles away in Chicago felt the same way. At the Greater Chicago Food Depository – which established a food pantry at the Edward Hines Veterans Administration building in 2014 – requests for help from veterans were heard loud and clear.
"I ain't got no job," Cedrick Pipes told ABC 7. "I'm unemployed and I got to eat. And they got real good food here and it helps me."
Chicago's food bank, like Augusta's Christmas dinner, reminds veterans that their fellow countrymen still care about them in their life after service.
"Mostly I do it because I have a friend, he's a Korean veteran, and he can't get around," said Stefan Cipot of the 101st. "His car burned down last year and so we're helping him out."
Veterans in New York City have finally seen their City Council petitions pay off. On Thursday, Mayor Bill de Blasio signed a law to create a new Department of Veterans' Services that will help the more than 225,000 veterans living in the Big Apple. De Blasio had opposed the bill for some time, but was persuaded to reverse course last month after the City Council proved overwhelmingly in its favor.
"Our veterans fought for us and served us and served through all the challenges," said de Blasio, standing on the deck of the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum, according to SIlive.com "So many continue to face challenges and they should never have to face them alone."
De Blasio had stated concerns over the intended future for the department, but perhaps his own father's fight with PTSD in his life after service in World War II had something to do with his decision to give it the greenlight. "He came back with the physical wounds and the mental health wounds of that war," the mayor said. "And so many families can tell a similar story. It's not abstract. What happens in war does not end for anyone at the conclusion of that war. Unfortunately, it carries on."
According to the New York Daily News, the new veterans' department will replace the Mayor's Office of Veterans' Affairs at the cost of an extra $335,000 a year, with additional costs likely in the future as the agency works out what veterans benefits it will provide and on what scale.
The 20,000 veterans living in Staten Island will be among those helped. Charlie Greisnky, the only member of the Mayor's Advisory Board for Veterans Affairs from Staten Island, was more than pleased to be involved in the decision.
"I'm proud to be part of this historic step forward," he said in a statement, "the greatest step forward since MOVA was founded in 1987."
Monday, Dec. 7 marked the 74th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor and citizens around the country had different ways of commemorating that infamous day. Students at Allentown High School in New Jersey did their part by conducting video interviews with war veterans as part of the U.S. Library of Congress' Veterans History Project.
Covering the experiences of military veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan all the way back to World War I, the project simply asks volunteers to record interviews with those who served to preserve their stories for future Americans.
New Jersey.com reported that students with the History National Honor Society talked to 10 veterans over two interview sessions while students in Allentown's technology program – run by Michael Dean, a U.S. Navy Reserve public affairs officer since 1988 – filmed the men's responses with school equipment.
"It's really cool," Mari Kay Hannon, a junior honor student, told the site. "I'm glad I got to do this."
At first there were concerns not enough veterans would volunteer, but after the project was announced, so many offered their time and stories that more sessions are already in the works.
Chicago experienced an even larger turnout last month, when nearly 30 veterans were interviewed by volunteers from the local legal community and media. Lake County Chief Judge John Phillips, who chose to study law in his life after service, told the Chicago Tribune that the project was important for how it captured the on-the-ground details of battles whose number of veterans is always shrinking.
All of the transcripts of the oral histories will be archived at the Library of Congress indefinitely. Researchers and anyone interested enough to go looking will find there thousands of personal stories of war and service in the veterans' own words.
Service dogs have longed helped veterans with physical disabilities. But a new Veterans Administration study has been launched to determine the difference specially-trained service dogs can make for veterans struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder in their life after service. Those veterans who have depended on their service dogs for years say the research is long overdue.
According to Breakthroughs, a Kera news blog, a nonprofit organization in Rockwall, Texas called Patriot PAWS has specialized in training service dogs to assist disabled veterans. Cheryl Woolnough, the group's training director, teaches her dogs 65 different commands, including how to open and close drawers, retrieve dropped items and even fetch the phone in case an emergency call is required.
The dogs Woolnough trains to help veterans with PTSD learn specific commands, like how to create a boundary of personal space around their owner by blocking people from approaching too closely both in front and behind, or even how to search a house for intruders.
"We teach them something called perimeter," Woolnough told Breakthroughs. "Where they go into the house and they check, they just touch all the doors and all the windows."
Terri Stringer, Patriot PAWS' assistant executive director, said that "We have 100 veterans on our waiting list waiting for dogs. So we have to get more dogs."
Service dogs trained for veterans with PTSD have already proven their worth. In Iowa, a Labrador retriever named Honor helped Wade Baker fight nightmares and delusions that had plagued him for more than 20 years. According to the Associated Press, for a time the dog was able to seriously calm Baker's anxiety. In the end Baker wasn't able to beat his PTSD – his battle ended in August, in a tragic confrontation with police – but Honor never stopped trying to help.
At Baker's funeral, Honor refused to leave his master's casket. Now he's essential in helping Baker's family to cope with his absence.
"Honor gave the boys their dad for more years," Michelle Baker said. "And that's an amazing gift."
Many veterans find in their life after service that the pains associated with military duty – like heavy Kevlar helmets and 60-plus pound packs – don't just vanish upon entering the civilian world. Instead, they can often times get worse, leading to anxiety and depression. Rather than treat these mental pains with heavy doses of medication, scientists have begun to use light therapy.
Earlier this year, the Department of Veterans Affairs reported that researchers with the VA Boston Healthcare System were experimenting with the effects of light therapy on the brain functions of veterans with Gulf War illness. After pilot work produced encouraging results, the researchers had veterans wear an unusual helmet. Unlike their old Kevlars, this helmet was lined with diodes emitting red and near-infrared light to their scalps. Applied for 30 minutes at a time, the light was totally painless and without heat.
"We are applying a technology that's been around for a while," said Dr. Margaret Naeser, the research team's lead investigator, "but it's always been used on the body, for wound healing and to treat muscle aches and pains, and joint problems. We're starting to use it on the brain."
The diodes work by increasing blood flow to the brain. There is also evidence that they have some effect on damaged brain cells, as the LED therapy moves into the skull and into brain cells where the lights trigger mitochondria to produce more ATP, a chemical that can improve thinking processes.
Jacquwlyn Jackson, a former aircraft mechanic and field medic for the U.S. Navy who experienced horrible pain after returning from the Middle East, told WGN TV that after trying out the light therapy a few times "I got into a routine of preparing for bed and going to sleep and then actually sleeping thru the night. When I got up I did feel like I had actually rested and I wasn't as irritable. I would say since then I've been 90 percent pain free so that is excellent for me."