Troops and cold medicine ‘Ultimately, it will destroy your life’

Soldiers hope battle with cold medicines serves as warning to others
‘Ultimately, it will destroy your life’
By Erik Slavin, Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Wednesday, July 2, 2008

CAMP CASEY, South Korea — Pfc. Stephen Wanser’s typical Saturday breakfasts were the same as his Friday night dinners: 16 Coricidin Cold and Cough pills, water or soda optional.

Wanser and his roommate, Pfc. Gary Cooper, 22, remained in a hallucinatory daze most of the weekend before crashing on Sundays.

Even when Wanser thought he nearly choked to death after taking the pills — a sign from God, the deeply religious 24-year-old believed — it was only enough to keep him off the drug for a month.

Coricidin contains more dextromethorphan, also known as DM or DXM, than most cold medicines.

In small doses, DXM relieves a cough. But large doses produce abnormally elevated moods and hallucinations typically associated with drugs like PCP and LSD.

Although there are few, if any, military studies on dextromethorphan abuse, medical and 2007 sales data from Camp Casey’s post exchange stores attest to the drug’s popularity.

In a place where all soldiers receive free health care and prescriptions, Army and Air Force Exchange Service stores sold as many as 300 boxes of Coricidin and its generic equivalent in one week, according to a paper presented at a national medical conference in May.

They would often read the Bible while tripping, discussing Solomon, heaven, hell and their place in the world.

Wanser said he felt closer to God during those times.

But he acknowledges that taking potentially fatal doses of drugs is a bad way to get there.

He experienced hyper-religiosity, a relatively common phenomenon among mania-prone users of psychedelic drugs, said Area I support psychiatrist Maj. Christopher Perry.

"As people become more manic and grandiose in their thinking, religion plays a larger role in their life," Perry explains.
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http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=55894

also on this

Sales spikes, overdoses prompt drug restrictions
By Erik Slavin, Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Wednesday, July 2, 2008


CAMP CASEY, South Korea — When Pfc. Gary Cooper would go to the Camp Casey post exchange to get his fix of cold medicine, he had to act quickly.

"You get to the store and pick it up right away, because that stuff would sell so fast," Cooper said.

For several months last year, Cooper and Pfc. Stephen Wanser say they abused Coricidin Cough and Cold, which contains dextromethorphan, or DXM.

Wanser recalls other soldiers grabbing at the boxes as they were stocked. On another occasion, Wanser says a South Korean employee handed him four boxes when he asked for one.

By October, AAFES officials restricted sales of medicines with DXM to two boxes per month per servicemember, after consulting with medical officials.

Average sales dropped 57 percent following the restrictions, according to a study conducted by Area I support psychiatrist Maj. Christopher Perry and Capt. Eugene Chung.
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http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=55895

Young Marine "I'm no Vietnam vet, but a vet of Operation Iraqi Freedom"

From Healing Combat Trauma

PTSD: (That's Some) Pretty Terrible Sh*t (to Have to) Deal (With), Don't You Think?

Editor's Note: We commemorate the otherwise momentous, historic signing of the GI bill into law today with this little snippet of what life was like for someone who served recently. For everyone who doesn't "get" what sacrifice is, and that those who've served have earned their accolades and rewards, here's a grunt's-eye view of the experience of combat trauma, and how that relates to PTSD and various other topics in the news. It's doubtful that any one of us would like to have changed places with him, at such a young age. Herewith, his story, emphasis mine:


I'm no Vietnam vet, but a vet of Operation Iraqi Freedom. I turned 18 while in boot camp because I graduated high school at 17. I was discharged early for having "personality disorder" after I went to Iraq.



I was in the Marines, and my MOS was a ground communications electronics technician. A couple months after graduating my training for the job and going to my first unit, I was "volunteered" to join and train with another unit that was leaving soon. The new task I was given was "Mortuary Affairs".

This group was put together with a couple dozen other Marines from other sections. Our job was to go to locations where troops had been killed and not able to be retrieved by the group they were out with due to the fact they were under too much danger or whatever the case. I had no clue the effects this would have on me. It was a horrible experience.



It was not like going and picking up a corpse and that's it. For one, you were in a hot zone, where people were just killed, not just by gunfire.
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http://www.healingcombattrauma.com/2008/06/ptsd-pretty-terrible-sht-to-discover.html

More than half firearm deaths are suicides

More than half firearm deaths are suicides
Story Highlights
Recent Supreme Court ruling on guns focused on protection from home invasion

Suicides accounted for 55 percent of nearly 31,000 firearm deaths in 2005 in U.S.

More gun-related suicides than homicides and accidents in 20 of last 25 years

Research shows if gun in home, higher likelihood of suicide or homicide in home


ATLANTA, Georgia, (AP) -- The Supreme Court's landmark ruling on gun ownership last week focused on citizens' ability to defend themselves from intruders in their homes. But research shows that surprisingly often, gun owners use the weapons on themselves.

Suicides accounted for 55 percent of the nation's nearly 31,000 firearm deaths in 2005, the most recent year for which statistics are available from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

There was nothing unique about that year -- gun-related suicides have outnumbered firearm homicides and accidents for 20 of the last 25 years. In 2005, homicides accounted for 40 percent of gun deaths. Accidents accounted for 3 percent. The remaining 2 percent included legal killings, such as when police do the shooting, and cases that involve undetermined intent.

Public-health researchers have concluded that in homes where guns are present, the likelihood that someone in the home will die from suicide or homicide is much greater.

Studies have also shown that homes in which a suicide occurred were three to five times more likely to have a gun present than households that did not experience a suicide, even after accounting for other risk factors.
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http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/06/30/guns.suicides.ap/index.html

Six Units Get Call for 2009 Iraq Deployment

Six Units Get Call for 2009 Iraq Deployment
By Jim Garamone
American Forces Press Service


WASHINGTON, June 30, 2008 – The Defense Department has alerted six combat units for deployment to Iraq from January to March 2009, officials said here today.
Though the announcement identifies forces for the current level of effort in Iraq, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said, it does not try to predict decisions down the road.

“It’s proper, prudent planning to give units the time to train and to ensure they are notified in a deliberate fashion and well in advance of when they would have to deploy,” Whitman said.

The four Army combat brigades and two Marine regimental combat teams cover about 33,000 personnel. These are normal rotation forces, and all of the units have the capability of performing full-spectrum combat operations.

The Marine units notified today are Regimental Combat Team 8 and Regimental Combat Team 6, both based in Camp Lejeune, N.C.

The Army units are the 1st Cavalry Division’s 1st and 2nd brigade combat teams, based at Fort Hood, Texas; the 10th Mountain Division’s 3rd Brigade Combat Team, based at Fort Drum, N.Y.; and 56th Stryker Brigade Combat Team of the Pennsylvania National Guard’s 28th Infantry Division.

The announcement for the 12-month deployments assumes a force level of 15 brigade combat teams in Iraq. “This is a planning effort for maintaining a 15-combat-brigade level,” Whitman said.

“That doesn’t mean decisions down the road couldn’t affect this,” he added. “You can always have units that redeploy earlier and deploy later. This is a planning effort to sustain the current level of operations.”

The last surge brigade will leave Iraq by the end of July. Some 45 days later, officials in Iraq, U.S. Central Command and the Pentagon will assess conditions in Iraq “post-surge,” Whitman said. Decisions after that review could affect deployments, he said.

http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=50359

VCS Appeals Court Ruling Because No Veteran Gets Left Behind

Keep one thing in mind as you read this. If the government had lived up to the thoughts we the people have as being grateful, no one would have to take them to court to make sure they finally do it.

VCS Appeals Court Ruling Because No Veteran Gets Left Behind
On Jun 25, 2008, U.S. Federal District Court Senior Judge Samuel Conti issued a detailed 82-page ruling where he concluded that VA is mired in crisis and that he is "troubled" by lengthy delays veterans face trying to obtain healthcare and benefits from VA. Sounds like the veterans won, right?

Unfortunately, Judge Conti said the Court lacks jurisdiction. We are deeply disappointed that he wants VA and Congress to fix VA's enormous problems.

VCS plans to press forward so our veterans receive prompt and high-quality VA healthcare as well as fast, complete, and accurate VA claims decisions. Either we repair VA now, or we face another generation of hundreds of thousands of veterans with broken homes, lost jobs, drug and alcohol problems, homelessness, and suicide.

That's why VCS will appeal the Court’s decision primarily on the Constitutional grounds that if the Judicial Branch does not enforce the law, then Legislative Branch actions become meaningless in the face of massive Executive Branch failures.

VCS needs your help to launch our lengthy and time-consuming appeal. Please click here to make a contribution to VCS today and support our work to overhaul VA for our veterans and their families.

Here are three important items about the Court's ruling:
1. The Army Times provides the best newspaper coverage about the facts.
2. CBS News / KPIX TV broadcast a thorough review of the verdict.
3. You can read the Court's decision and see VCS and Veterans United for Truth did the right thing to file suit.

VCS needs your help. In the past year we gathered veterans' stories, we obtained hundreds of pages of VA documents under the Freedom of Information Act, we worked closely for hundreds of hours with our attorneys at Morrison & Foerster and Disability Rights Advocates, and we flew to San Francisco for the two week trial.

Please consider setting up a monthly or quarterly contribution to VCS today so we can fight for our veterans.

Here is a sample of e-mails showing the broad public and veteran support of our lawsuit:
• "Your efforts will make life better for . . . veterans."

• "Thanks for all the hard work."

• "It was a great effort. The fact you were able to get the VA attitude out in the public, presented as evidence in a federal court, was of critical importance…. KEEP IT UP!"

• "I think you did a terrific job of exposing the tragedy of the veterans with the law suit."

• "All of you working on this should be proud of yourselves."

• "You have accomplished a great deal and there still things to do. This is only the beginning of the fight; end of round one."

There is a lot more work ahead as the Iraq and Afghanistan wars continue. As of April 2008, VA medical centers have treated 325,000 recent combat veterans, including 133,000 with a mental health condition, 75,000 of whom are diagnosed with PTSD.

Although we have a temporary setback, our landmark lawsuit with VUFT achieved several important goals for veterans:
• VA opened a suicide hotline, received tens of thousands of calls from highly distraught veterans, and "rescued" hundreds.

• VA hired thousands of new mental health professionals, including hundreds of suicide prevention coordinators at their hospitals and clinics.

• A trove of VA e-mails confirmed the suicide epidemic of 1,000 VA patient attempts per month. In addition, death statistics reveal that younger veterans are 3 to 4 times more likely to kill themselves than non-veterans of the same age group.

Read more of the facts uncovered by our lawsuit - facts Judge Conti agreed with.

• Congress held several oversight hearings on VA's crisis where VCS testified. Now several critical pieces of legislation inspired by our lawsuit should become law by the end of 2008. VA was also forced to explain why they concealed the suicide epidemic and why some VA staff fought against proper healthcare and disability benefits for PTSD.

• Several major media outlets now have full- or part-time journalists dedicated to investigating the human consequences of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

Please give to VCS today so we can win our appeal on behalf of all our veterans!
Thank You,
Paul Sullivan

Executive Director

Veterans for Common Sense
VCS provides advocacy and publicity for issues related to veterans, national security, and civil liberties. VCS is registered with the IRS as a non-profit 501(c)(3) charity, and donations are tax deductible.

Chaplain Turner's War

Chapter 8 of 8: Chaplain Turner's War

A dangerous mission, a devastating night -- and God's foot soldier marches on


By MONI BASU
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Published on: 06/29/08

Baghdad — The story so far: Chaplain Darren Turner's battalion has lost another soldier. Now he must see three platoons off on a mission in unfamiliar territory. Before the day is over, more bad news tests the chaplain's emotional endurance.



Chaplain Darren Turner hurtles toward the motor pool at Forward Operating Base Falcon. He is anxious to see his men off to battle.

Turner is ordinarily not one for prayers before a mission — he abhors the idea of a soldier nurturing a 911 relationship with God: Pray before you roll out the gates. Pray when a buddy gets hurt.

Then stuff your Bible back into the trunk.

But Turner also understands the comfort that prayer can bring. And this mission to Baghdad's Sadr City is big.

It is March 28, and three 1st Battalion, 30th Infantry Regiment platoons in Bradley Fighting Vehicles and Abrams tanks have been called up to support U.S. forces already in the thick of battle.

An impoverished enclave of 2.5 million Shiites, Sadr City is unfamiliar and raw territory for Turner's soldiers. The battalion has not yet experienced urban guerrilla warfare — it is more accustomed to the farmlands and villages of Arab Jabour.

"Hey, what's up, fellas?"

Turner greets the visibly nervous soldiers.

"Ready to ride?"

They reply in a chorus of "hooahs."

"I just wanted to come and encourage you guys before you head out."

Two men who Turner baptized on Good Friday are here. The chaplain notices several others who regularly seek him out.

With those who share his Christian faith, Turner takes extra risks to know them well, to love them as brothers. It's an emotional roll of the dice, because at war, any day could be a soldier's last.

Like today.

Turner reads aloud Psalm 140.

"Keep me safe from violent people ... who plot my downfall. The proud have set a trap for me; they have laid their snares, and along the path they have set traps to catch me."

King David's words resonate, as though they were written specifically about this war, where roads are booby-trapped with improvised explosive devices.

The soldiers bow their heads before the chaplain.

Several fall to their knees.

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CHAPLAIN TURNER'S WAR
Chapter 1: Comfort in toughest of places
Chapter 2: The invisible war
Chapter 3: Summer of death
Chapter 4: Formidable enemy
Chapter 5: Nightmare revisited
Chapter 6: Easter baptisms
Chapter 7: Tragedies test the armor of God
Chapter 8: A dangerous mission, a devastating night

Media report on homeless haven opened hearts

Published: June 29, 2008 6:00 a.m.
Aid pours in to finish off haven for vets
Frank Gray
A couple of weeks ago we wrote about the Shepherd’s House, a halfway house on Tennessee Avenue that has been trying to finish a suite that would serve as a shelter for homeless veterans.

The need for such a shelter was epitomized by a man named Julius, a homeless 18-year Air Force veteran with an alcohol problem. He had suffered two strokes and a heart attack and ended up partly paralyzed, getting around in a wheelchair and living outdoors in a wooded area near a golf course off Coliseum Boulevard.

Julius, forgotten and abandoned, was the subject of a lengthy search by local veterans officials and others who had heard about him but couldn’t find him.

When Julius was finally located, people willing to help were scant. Julius was rejected by some other shelters because he posed a liability, and there weren’t any shelters specifically designed for homeless vets.

But the Shepherd’s House agreed to give him a place to stay, and after a few months he was stable enough to get his own apartment.

Unfortunately, within weeks of setting back out on his own, Julius suffered a heart attack that left him in a coma, and he eventually died.

All the Shepherd’s House founder, Barb Cox, could do was look at the partly completed suite intended as a veterans shelter. For two years she had been trying to get it finished, and it would take only a few thousand dollars to get accomplished.

But money had been tight and finding donations had been hard.
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Blind SF soldier determined to serve

Blind SF soldier determined to serve

By Kevin Maurer - The Associated Press
Posted : Monday Jun 30, 2008 9:43:22 EDT

FORT BRAGG, N.C. — When Capt. Ivan Castro joined the Army, he set goals: to jump out of planes, kick in doors and lead soldiers into combat. He achieved them all. Then the mortar round landed five feet away, blasting away his sight.

“Once you’re blind, you have to set new goals,” Castro said.

He set them higher.

Not content with just staying in the Army, he is the only blind officer serving in the Special Forces — the small, elite units famed for dropping behind enemy lines on combat missions.

“I am going to push the limits,” said the 40-year-old executive officer at the 7th Special Forces Group’s headquarters company in Fort Bragg. “I don’t want to go to Fort Bragg and show up and sit in an office. I want to work every day and have a mission.”

Since the war began in Iraq, more than 100 troops have been blinded and 247 others have lost sight in one eye. Only two other blind officers serve in the active-duty Army: one a captain studying to be an instructor at West Point, the other an instructor at the Combined Arms Center at Fort Leavenworth, Kan.

Castro’s unit commander said his is no charity assignment. Rather, it draws on his experience as a Special Forces team member and platoon leader with the 82nd Airborne Division.

“The only reason that anyone serves with 7th Special Forces Group is if they have real talents,” said Col. Sean Mulholland. “We don’t treat [Castro] as a public affairs or a recruiting tool.”

An 18-year Army veteran, Castro was a Ranger before completing Special Forces training, the grueling yearlong course many soldiers fail to finish. He joined the Special Forces as a weapons sergeant, earned an officer’s commission and moved on to the 82nd — hoping to return one day to the Special Forces as a team leader.

Then life changed on a rooftop outside Youssifiyah, Iraq, in September 2006.

Castro had relieved other paratroopers atop a house after a night of fighting. He never heard the incoming mortar round. There was just a flash of light, then darkness.

Shrapnel tore through his body, breaking his arm and shoulder and shredding the left side of his face. Two other paratroopers died.

When Castro awoke six weeks later at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., his right eye was gone. Doctors were unable to save his left.
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http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/06/ap_blind_063008/

A great example of if they want to serve and can serve, they should be allowed to no matter what their wounds are. If they can't, then take care of them. This is also an example of the magnificence of some of the men and women we have serving this country.

Two Medical helicopters collide midair, killing six

Medical helicopters collide midair, killing six
Nurse critically injured after crash over Flagstaff; two on ground wounded

updated 6:31 a.m. ET, Mon., June. 30, 2008
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. - A helicopter ferrying a patient with a medical emergency from the Grand Canyon collided into another chopper carrying a patient near a northern Arizona hospital, leaving six people dead and critically injuring a nurse.

The collision Sunday east of Flagstaff Medical Center was a few hundred yards away from a neighborhood that was spared the falling debris. Officials said they were unable to provide an account of what preceded the crash.

Lawrence Garduno, who lives about a half mile from the crash, said he heard a loud boom that rattled the windows. He drove toward the hospital and stopped to see the burning wreckage. “It kind of scares me,” Garduno said. “If this had happened a half mile closer, it could have fallen on our house.”


Blast on the ground
An explosion on one of the aircraft after the crash injured two emergency workers who arrived with a ground ambulance company. They suffered minor burns and were spending the night at the hospital, but their injuries were not life-threatening. The crash, about 130 miles north of Phoenix, also sparked a 10-acre brush fire that was contained.

One of the helicopters was operated by Air Methods from Englewood, Colo., and the other was from Classic Helicopters of Woods Cross, Utah. Both aircraft were Bell 407 models, said Ian Gregor, a spokesman with the Federal Aviation Administration.

Three people on the Air Methods aircraft, including the patient, died. On the Classic helicopter, the pilot, paramedic and patient all died. A flight nurse on the Classic helicopter suffered extensive injuries and was in critical condition at the hospital.
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http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25446869

Veterans Long to Reclaim the Name ‘Swift Boat’

John Kerry, hands on hips, and Roy F. Hoffmann, kneeling, in Vietnam. Mr. Hoffman helped start the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, which criticized Mr. Kerry in his 2004 presidential bid.

Veterans Long to Reclaim the Name ‘Swift Boat’

By KATE ZERNIKE
Published: June 30, 2008
Years ago, when William Miller talked about being in the Vietnam War — if he talked about being in the Vietnam War — he would tell people he served on a Swift boat.

At least now they have heard of it. But not in the way he would like.

“I was proud of what I did, and all the guys I was with,” Mr. Miller said. “Now somebody says ‘Swift boat’ and it’s a whole different meaning. They don’t associate it with the guys we lost. That’s a shame.”

“Swift boat” has become the synonym for the nastiest of campaign smears, a shadow that hangs over the presidential race as pundits wait to proclaim that the Swiftboating has begun and candidates declare that they will not be Swiftboated.

Swift boat veterans — especially those who had nothing to do with the group that attacked Senator John Kerry’s military record in the 2004 election — want their good name back, and the good names of the men not lucky enough to come home alive.

“You would not hear the word ‘Swift boat’ and think of people that served their country and fought in Vietnam,” said Jim Newell, who spent a year as an officer in charge on one of the small Navy vessels in An Thoi and Qui Nhon. “You think about someone who was involved in a political attack on a member of a different party. It just comes across as negative. Everyone who is associated with a Swift boat is involved in political chicanery.”
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linked from RawStory