Category: New Book Discussion

I will discussing the book, Close Enounters of the Heavenly Kind: Through Bumper Stickers. I will shae my feeling on why it got started, and my feelings as I wrote it.

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Interviews with Veterans From Wars

It has been a few days since I last posted. Very busy trying to finish my book, “Signs of Hope for the Military: In and Out of the Trenches of Life.” I just need to finish three interviews, and then I will be sending it off to my publisher. I am interviewing soldiers who have been in wars from WWII through the Afghanistan wars.

I thought I would share with you a short example of what the interviews will be like. What follows are just a snippet of what some of the interviews are about. You will have to read the book to get the rest of the story.

Interview one

One interview I am just finishing up is with a sniper during his Afghanistan tour. No punches pulled here. I asked him if he had killed anyone, and he said yes. Then I asked how he felt about it, and he said he didn’t think about it because he was protecting his buddies. He goes on and talks about the PTSD he is going through. He shares how he would do things differently if he could start over.

Interview two

Another interview was by accident. I decided to stop and get a burger at a fast food restaurant. I got my food and was heading to my table when I spotted a vietnam veteran who was a Marine. I know that because he was wearing a hat that stated that. I sat down and watched him. He was in pain. You could see him shifting to try to stop the pain in his legs. He got up to leave and I could see how bad he was hurting. He walked very slowly and each step wass hard labor for him. I asked him to sit and talk with me, and he looked like that wasn’t what he wanted to do. I told him I was a veteran and that helped, he sat with me. We exchanged the normal greetings, and then I started asking him questions. I asked him what he did, and he said he was on a ship off the coast of Vietnam. Their job was to send helicopters inland to pull wounded soldiers out, and to bring food and supplies to the civilians. The I asked what his worst moment was. Can’t tell you now, but it was horrific.

I have many more interviews with soldiers who have had some very bad experiences. Some had funny things happen, and some lost some friends who right next to them. Some interviews are from WWII, The Korean war, Vietnam war, and the Iraq and Afghanistan war. It covers all the wars in our lifetime.

Keep coming back!

So stay close and learn more in the coming days and weeks. I will be sharing more excerpts from the book, and keep you posted as to when the book is coming out.

You can follow daily by subscribing. Just click on the icon at the top that says subscribe, and then every time there is a post it will be sent right to your inbox.

For my fellow veterans:

Are you battling your demons for your service time? Do you still have nightmares about your time? You certainly are not alone. I feel your pain my friend. Stay strong and never let the dark side overcome you. If you need help, here is a hotline that will help you right away. It is:
(877-247-4645)

  • Remember:
  • You are never alone.
  • You are never forsaken.
  • You are never unloved.
  • And above all…never, ever, give up!!

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New Exciting Book for Veterans Coming

I have decided to talk to you directly this evening. I have been sharing Military news for several months, and I just wanted you to get to know me a little better. 

I am a veteran who served in the Army from 1959-1962. I had my basic training at Fort Ord, California, Which is now closed, and I was deployed to South Korea. I then was stationed at Ft Bragg, North Carolina until my discharge. 

I have many stories of my time in the military, and I am announcing that I have a book about the  military coming this next summer, called, Signs of Hope for the Military: In and Out of the Trenches of Life.

Here is an outline of what will be in the book:

  1. I will have stories from my time in the military, with each story ending with my thoughts on how you and I can be stronger, and face the civilian world better. 
  2. I will share some times and problems I had in South Korea. One was very hard in that two of my buddies and I enlisted together, and only two came back. 
  3. Then I will share one of my most frightening days of my life while at Ft Bragg. 
  4. The next section of the book will be full of interviews with actual veterans from all over this country. They will be sad stories, happy stories, or just plain frightening stories. 
  5. There will an actual letter sent home to a mom from 1944. 
  6. The final section will be full of resources for veterans. I have done a thorough search and put them all together for your use. 

It has taken more than three years to put this book together, because I keep finding more things that I feel should be in it. I have a publisher that is interested, and I have and editor who has been editing the book. 

Reason I wrote the book:

I have spent years and years floating this book around in my head. I got started writing when my first book was published called, Signs of Hope: Ways to Survive in an Unfriendly World. It was actually good therapy for me because I was writing it from journals I had been writing every day for over ten years. I saw my hurts, and my joys, and put them down on paper. The book won a national award from the Readers Favorite Awards. That helped me realize that I had  writing abilities. 

As I went through the journal again, just to make sure I covered everything, and I saw that many of the hurts were from my military days. The loneliness, fears, anxiety, depression, etc.  I thought that I need to write directly to my fellow veterans and give them hope. 

I will keep you posted here on my author as to the progress. So be sure to subscribe so that you will get the post delivered to you mail box. All you need to do is click on the subscribe icon, and fill it out. 

Stay tuned for the latest

In closing, I want to reach out to each of you right now. Are you fighting with the world? Do you have bouts of depression, anxiety, PTSD, TBI, etc? I have been there with you. I suggest you fight back as hard as you can. Never give up!! There is  a toll free number you can call if you need immediate help at: 

(877-247-4645)

Remember:

You are never alone. 

You are never forsaken.

You are never unloved.

And above all….Never, ever, give up!!

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A firing for Harassing Student with USMC Shirt

Thanks to all of you who have been joining me here. We help bring change to lives. The response has been wonderful.  We just past 4,000 new subscribers. That was a huge increase in 2017. We only had 1,000 two years ago. The year 2017 helped us to make it to 4,000. Now in 2018 we are racing to 5,000. 

We have reached our goal of 4,000!  We will now be giving a prize to the person who is our 4,500th person to subscribe. We just passed 4, 600.

WE HAVE A WINNER!! An email has been sent to our winner! New prizes for the 5,000th subscriber.

Help us make it to 5,000 by subscribing today if you haven’t already. This shows you care for veterans. Just click on the icon right after the title of this post and click on FEEDBLITZ , and the posts will come straight to your inbox.                            ____________________________________________________________

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 reaches 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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This is a new social network just for veterans. I joined it and made instant friendships with veterans who want to talk about what I want to talk about. Please check it out. You will be glad you did. 

https://www.rallypoint.com/join/spc-douglas-bolton

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Here is the news I saw today:

+Harassing people is common everywhere, but you would not expect it from a teacher.  

(Strong language)

The Teacher Who Bullied A Student For Wearing A USMC Sweatshirt Has Been Fired

The high school history teacher from El Rancho High School in Pico Rivera, Calif. who famously called military service members the “lowest of our low” earlier this year and harrassing students who support the military, has finally been fired.

The El Rancho school board voted Tuesday to fire Gregory Salcido, 49, following numerous complaints about his behavior in the classroom on Jan. 19, when he was secretly filmed  harrassing a 17-year-old student for wearing a U.S. Marine Corps sweatshirt.

“They don’t have electricity,” said Salcido. “We have all our freakin’ night vision goggles and all that kind of stuff, and we can’t freakin’ control these dudes wearing robes and [inaudible]. Because we’ve got a bunch of dumbshits over there. Think about the people you know over there. Your stupid Uncle Louie or whatever, they’re dumbshit.”

Incredibly, this wasn’t the first time Salcido was cited for courting controversy (or being what I would call a total asshole). He allegedly threatened a student in 2010 and “smacked” a student in 2012, both of which got him placed on administrative leave.

During the January incident, Salcido railed against military members as not being “talented people,” while ordering the 17-year-old he was harassing to never again wear the Marines sweatshirt, which he was sporting to show pride in his family’s service.

“Don’t you ever bring the freakin’ military into this classroom,” Professor Douche Nozzle continued. “I don’t understand why we let the freakin’ military guys recruit you at school. We don’t let pimps come into school. ”

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Overseas Commissaries Caught Charging Military Families Triple For Groceries

U.S. military commissaries in Japan and South Korea have been charging military families triple the going rate on a number of produce items in their stores, according to a recent inspector general’s report.

The problem stemmed from a $55.1 million contract to provide fresh fruit and veggies for the Defense Commissary Agency (DeCA) in the Pacific, which saved the Defense Department $38 million, but simultaneously screwed over families by charging them a 101% markup on green cabbage and an 82% markup on mushrooms, among other examples.

To add insult to injury, the overpriced produce wasn’t even all that good, when compared with what buyers could have gotten at local markets, according to customer surveys.

Oh, and did I mention that bok choy — a type of produce originally from China — was being sold in the commissary for 372% more than usual? 372 PERCENT.

I’m not sure if that bok choy was gold-plated or something, but making your customers pay $4.20 for something they could have found out in town for 63 cents seems like a bit of a dick move.

The IG investigation found that DeCA didn’t effectively oversee the contractor at various stages in the supply chain. And although the contract required that “high volume core items” — like apples, bananas, carrots and two dozen other goods — be priced 30% lower than local Japanese markets, they were only found to be about 14% cheaper.

The director of the Defense Commissary Agency agreed with all the report’s recommendations, which is great, but the report didn’t offer any timeline on when families will stop being hit with a big green weenie that’s normally reserved for only those wearing a uniform.

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I enjoy sharing these little tidbits of news. I will be continuing to do this as long as you like it. Let me know.   

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If you are a veteran, or currently in the military. We have you six here. We are veterans, and know your pain. Never let the dark side pull you under. Seek help if you need it. There is always help at:

1-800-273-8255

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Remember:

You are never  alone.

You are never forsaken.

You are never unloved.

And above all…never, ever, give up!