The Dept. of Veterans Affairs needs some bailout money now!

This is really good but, I bet the author never read this blog.

The Dept. of Veterans Affairs needs some bailout money now Mr. Vice President


Submitted by Scribes Cafe on Tue, 12/23/2008 - 05:08.
The Dept. of Veterans Affairs needs some bailout money now!


Americans have been told by the news media these past eight years what most Americans already know from birth. They have been told to be patriotic with thousands of financially poor young men and women joining the armed forces, enticed with promises of education and health benefits upon their separation. Sadly, after years of defending the American executive orders without question these young men and women who have received combat related wounds, which include mental and physical breakdowns, never actually get to make use of the earned educational benefits. Many find themselves abandoned, unable to articulate what they are experiencing and they become lost on American soil with a new title; homeless veteran.

While waiting for Department of Veterans Affairs processing, which can take many months to a few years, the young, former military members are now disabled veterans and are shunned by the very society they gave up their late teenage years to defend. Being a former Marine helicopter door gunner and a disabled Vietnam; aircrew member / veteran, I know the feeling of being considered a second rate American citizen. It feels wrong, strange, and is quite confusing. The disabled veteran must enter the process of proving they are disabled. They must continue waiting for an appointment to be evaluated by a sub-contracted outside doctor who gets paid by the Department of Veterans Affairs to basically deny the claim.

I had a baby doctor evaluate my radiation burns and he, having no experience with radiation burns wrote a report which didn’t include how my feet were burned. Therefore when the report was read by the claims specialist at the Florida VA regional office they denied the VA hospital caused the burns. The baby doctor actually told me I must have stepped into something toxic. The fact is I stepped into the VA hospital radiation room and they didn’t put a protective shield over my legs and feet. I understand what the new disabled veterans are going through today. After waiting to be APPROVED by the Department of Veterans Affairs so they can be APPROVED for medical or mental treatment, or to enter an educational setting, they become more broken down both physically and emotionally. Many have resorted to the final solution and have committed suicide to end the agony they are all quietly suffering.

This is not written in the newspapers or written online nor is it mentioned on the television. When one of these stories do make it out for the public to see, the viewer has already been trained by the very same television news, and the print and online media to become numb to such events. They shrug it off as being what happens to those for actually served in a combat environment. They have actually held another service members brains or intestines in their hands. They have sucked it up and carried blown up babies and women and have become dizzy with grief. Something the rich and elected ones ignore. click link above for more

Ex-cop a suspect in Dallas highway shootings

Ex-cop a suspect in Dallas highway shootings
A former Utah policeman is a suspect in at least three of Monday's four rush-hour shootings near Dallas, Texas, including one of two fatal attacks, police said Tuesday. The suspect, Brian Smith, tried to commit suicide after the Monday-evening shootings and was in a hospital in serious condition, Dallas police detective Lt. Craig Miller said.

The first attack, which happened in Garland, Texas, about 5:41 p.m., killed Jorge Lopez. Garland police said Lopez, 20, was sitting in his Nissan at a traffic light when a man in a pickup pulled alongside him and fired shots into his car, killing him. A few minutes after the Garland shooting and two miles away on LBJ Freeway, a gunman fired at two tractor-trailers.

While one driver escaped injuries, William Scott Miller, 42, of Frankfort, Kentucky, was shot to death behind the wheel of a United Van Lines truck, police said.

full story

Icy wall of water traps 'horrified' motorists

Icy wall of water traps 'horrified' motorists
Story Highlights
NEW: "A gush of water came along with boulders and parts of trees," woman says

Rescue crews work to free people trapped in cars by water main break

Helicopter used to pluck several people from car

Road in suburban Washington floods after 60-inch pipe breaks
The story
Two rescued motorists were "absolutely horrified," after a wall of icy water trapped them and several others in suburban Washington on Tuesday morning.

A woman trapped in a black SUV scrawled her husband's phone number on a piece of paper and flashed it to rescuers and reporters in the hopes that one of them would contact her husband.

Sarah Lee, a reporter with CNN affiliate WJLA-TV, called to assure the woman's husband that "several highly skilled swift water rescue personnel" were working to save his wife. Read full article »
go here for video
http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/12/23/car.water.rescue/index.html

Madoff investor found dead in apparent suicide, police say

When people made money off of the sub-prime mortgages, they didn't think that they would be making money off of someone else's suffering when the market turned and rates went up. They didn't think about any of it because they didn't care enough to think what could happen to other people. Not very many people do when it comes to making money. We see it all the time when things go wrong and other people pay, but the ones that made the money are usually pretty happy and untouched, feeling no guilt at all. Then comes someone that pulls off what Madoff did. He was all smiles, according to the reports, pretended to be "friends" of a lot of the people he ripped off. Maybe he was a good actor? Maybe he had no conscience at all? Maybe, just maybe, he just didn't care enough to ask what would happen to other people if he did this.

Madoff investor found dead in apparent suicide, police say

Story Highlights
Thierry de la Villehuchet was a hedge fund adviser and investor

Company says firm lost $1.5 billion by investing with Bernard Madoff

Police: Body had cuts, pills were present, though it wasn't known if they were taken

No suicide note was left at office where Villehuchet was found dead

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Thierry de la Villehuchet, a hedge fund adviser and investor whose firm said he lost $1.5 billion investing with Wall Street adviser Bernard Madoff, was found dead in his office in an apparent suicide Tuesday, police said.

Emergency personnel discovered the body of Villehuchet, 65, at 7:29 a.m. in the Madison Avenue office of Access International Advisors, police said.

Villehuchet suffered "cuts made to his arm, to his wrist and also to his bicep area, with a box cutter," New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said at a news conference.

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Tough Talk when they have PTSD from Generals

Tough Talk when they have PTSD
by Chaplain Kathie

When commanding officers are willing to say they have PTSD because of their service, it sets and example for all others to follow.
General Carter Ham, Maj. Gen. Tony Cucolo and Maj. Gen. David Blackledge just made it impossible for other commanders to ignore PTSD. As you read Their stories think of all the others coming forward and know we all owe them a debt of gratitude.

General Carter Ham

PTSD:General's story highlights combat stress
Gen. Carter Ham, to call him a hero would be putting it mildly. He's a hero to the troops not just because he's a high ranking officer, but because he is willing to speak out on having PTSD. That is a kind of courage very few in his position are willing to do.When men like my husband came home from Vietnam, they knew something had changed inside of them but they didn't know what it was. They suffered in silence just as generations before them suffered. When PTSD was first used in 1976 with a study commissioned by the DAV, news was slowly reaching the veterans. While they fought to have it recognized as wound caused by their service, it was very difficult to talk about. The perception that there was something wrong with them kept too many from even seeking help to heal.

General's story puts focus on stress stemming from combatBy Tom Vanden Brook, USA TODAY
Gen. Carter Ham was among the best of the best, tough, smart and strong, an elite soldier in a battle-hardened Army. At the Pentagon, his star was rising.
In Iraq, he was in command in the north during the early part of the war, when the insurgency became more aggressive. Shortly before he was to return home, on Dec. 21, 2004, a suicide bomber blew himself up in a mess hall at a U.S. military base near Mosul and killed 22 people, including 14 U.S. troops. Ham arrived at the scene 20 minutes later to find the devastation.
When Ham returned from Mosul to Fort Lewis, Wash., in February 2005, something in the affable officer was missing. Loud noises startled him. Sleep didn't come easily.
"When he came back, all of him didn't come back. Pieces of him the way he used to be were perhaps left back there," says his wife, Christi. "I didn't get the whole guy I'd sent away."
Today, Ham, 56, is one of only 12 four-star generals in the Army. He commands all U.S. soldiers in Europe. The stress of his combat service could have derailed his career, but Ham says he realized that he needed help transitioning from life on the battlefields of Iraq to the halls of power at the Pentagon. So he sought screening for post-traumatic stress and got counseling from a chaplain. That helped him "get realigned," he says.
"You need somebody to assure you that it's not abnormal," Ham says. "It's not abnormal to have difficulty sleeping. It's not abnormal to be jumpy at loud sounds. It's not abnormal to find yourself with mood swings at seemingly trivial matters. More than anything else, just to be able to say that out loud."
The willingness of Ham, one of the military's top officers, to speak candidly with USA TODAY for the first time about post-traumatic stress represents a tectonic shift for a military system in which seeking such help has long been seen as a sign of weakness.

Maj. Gen. Tony Cucolo

PTSD News: Another Army General Fights Stigma by Announcing He Sought PTSD RecoveryPamela Walck
Savannah Morning News (Georgia)
Dec 21, 2008
December 21, 2008, Fort Stewart, Georgia - War changes a person. It's a truth Maj. Gen. Tony Cucolo knows all too well from his 29 years of service - and counting - in the U.S. Army.
And it's a truth he tries to share with each new man and woman arriving at Fort Stewart to serve in the 3rd Infantry Division he guides.
"Command Sgt. Maj. Jesse Andrews and I try to speak to each newcomers' group," said the commanding general of the 3rd ID. "We get all ranks - from private to colonel - and in part, we try to impress upon them ... it is a point of moral courage to step forward and say you need help."
Cucolo then points to a few examples of soldiers he knows who recognized the classic signs of combat-related post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury in their own behavior - then sought help for it.
"I applaud that behavior," Cucolo said Friday, moments after participating in a groundbreaking at Winn Army Hospital for a new PTSD and TBI clinic.
Cucolo said he then tells his soldiers they are looking at an officer who sought counseling and got help.
"A lot of people think it is a career-ender," Cucolo said in an exclusive interview.
But he's living proof to the contrary.
Cucolo took command of the 3rd ID in July, after serving a two-year tour at the Pentagon as the Army's chief of public affairs.
During a career that spans nearly three decades, he has served 16 of those years in infantry and armor divisions.
"Soldiers return (from war) a slightly different person," Cucolo said. "It's understood ... we all deal with it different."
The general contends that details over when, why or where he personally sought help are not important.
The fact that he sought help, however, is.
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Maj. Gen. David Blackledge

PTSD News: After Two Iraq War Deployments, Army Major General Steps Forward, Breaks Culture of Silence on Mental HealthPauline Jelinek
Associated Press
Nov 08, 2008
November 8, 2008, Washington, DC (AP) " It takes a brave soldier to do what Army Maj. Gen. David Blackledge did in Iraq."
It takes as much bravery to do what he did when he got home.
Blackledge got psychiatric counseling to deal with wartime trauma, and now he is defying the military's culture of silence on the subject of mental health problems and treatment.
"It's part of our profession ... nobody wants to admit that they've got a weakness in this area," Blackledge said of mental health problems among troops returning from America's two wars.
"I have dealt with it. I'm dealing with it now," said Blackledge, who came home with post-traumatic stress. "We need to be able to talk about it."
As the nation marks another Veterans Day, thousands of troops are returning from Iraq and Afghanistan with anxiety, depression and other emotional problems.
Up to 20 percent of the more than 1.7 million who've served in the wars are estimated to have symptoms. In a sign of how tough it may be to change attitudes, roughly half of those who need help aren't seeking it, studies have found.
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Do you think they have anything to feel ashamed of? Think of where they are and the position they have. Do you still think you have any kind of a reason to stay suffering in silence? Ran out of excuses yet? I bet you just did.

PTSD:When Dad is in treatment and family apart

Mothers' hardship letters will lead to happy morning
Boston Globe - United States
By John C. Burke
Globe Santa Staff / December 23, 2008


This year the Globe Santa staff has processed 30,365 letters requesting help in providing holiday gifts for more than 54,000 children.

A random examination of a small portion of these letters reveals a wide variety of sad reasons why adults responsible for the care of these youngsters - ranging from infants to 12-year-olds - need the help of Globe Santa and his thousands of friends.

For example, there is this letter from the mother of a 20-month-old boy.

"Currently, my son and I are staying with a family member. My husband is an American soldier who is suffering from PTSD [post-traumatic stress disorder] with violent outbursts. He has recently returned from a 16-month tour in Iraq. He fought in one of the most dangerous parts of Ramadi. He witnessed brutal and gruesome murders of fellow American soldiers.

"He is getting help for his condition and cannot be with his family through the holidays. These emotional times have been very hard for me."

She goes on to say that she has had trouble working regular hours at her part-time job, but that she hopes to stop receiving food assistance soon, because "I am a proud person and it is hard for me to ask for help from others."

Her letter concludes: "My 20-month-old son deserves to have the best Christmas I can give him. His Daddy will miss yet another holiday because of the effects of war. I am thankful to be considered for this program."

Globe Santa is going to see that her son has presents to open on Christmas morning.
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The scars of war: 'The look in her eyes was the look of a lost soul'

Former U.S. Army Capt. Fayette Frahm was diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, and traumatic brain injury, or TBI, after returning from a tour in Iraq and Afghanistan. (Ruben R. Ramirez / El Paso Times)

The scars of war: 'The look in her eyes was the look of a lost soul'
El Paso Times - El Paso,TX,USA
Chris Roberts / El Paso Times
Posted: 12/23/2008

EL PASO -- In Iraq, soldiers barely clinging to life asked Capt. Fayette Frahm to contact loved ones and deliver deathbed messages. She saw the ghosts of those mangled soldiers wandering her home after she returned.

In Afghanistan, late into the night, she contemplated what she would do if the camp was overrun by nearby Taliban fighters and she was unable to kill her attackers. Those long nights and days come back to her in nightmares.

Frahm's experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan are a testament to the fact that women, although not allowed in combat occupations, increasingly are dealing with the terrors and tests of mettle that come with war. Frahm, serving as a hospital administrator, found herself daily confronting death and her own mortality.

At 38 years of age, she has more than 17 years of experience in the medical field serving in four wars in 12 countries. Out of the Army for nearly a year, she suffers from post traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, and traumatic brain injury, or TBI, and she says the transition from soldier to civilian has been anything but smooth.

Her tour in Iraq started with Fort Bliss' 31st Combat Support Hospital.

She arrived at the Balad Hospital
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4 recruiter suicides lead to Army probe

Amanda Henderson holds a photo of her late husband Sgt. 1st Class Patrick Henderson in her home in Henderson, Texas, Nov. 20, 2008. Patrick Henderson, afflicted by flashbacks and sleeplessness after a tour in Iraq, hanged himself in a shed behind his house as his wife and her son slept. (AP Photo/Herb Nygren Jr)

4 recruiter suicides lead to Army probe

By MICHELLE ROBERTS

HENDERSON, Texas (AP) — Sgt. 1st Class Patrick Henderson, a strapping Iraq combat veteran, spent the last, miserable months of his life as an Army recruiter, cold-calling dozens of people a day from his strip-mall office and sitting in strangers' living rooms, trying to sign up their sons and daughters for an unpopular war.

He put in 13-hour days, six days a week, often encountering abuse from young people or their parents. When he and other recruiters would gripe about the pressure to meet their quotas, their superiors would snarl that they ought to be grateful they were not in Iraq, according to his widow.

Less than a year into the job, Henderson — afflicted by flashbacks and sleeplessness after his tour of battle in Iraq — went into his backyard shed, slid the chain lock in place, and hanged himself with a dog chain.

He became, at age 35, the fourth member of the Army's Houston Recruiting Battalion to commit suicide in the past three years — something Henderson's widow and others blame on the psychological scars of combat, combined with the pressure-cooker job of trying to sell the war.

"Over there in Iraq, you're doing this high-intensive job you are recognized for. Then, you come back here, and one month you're a hero, one month you're a loser because you didn't put anyone in," said Staff Sgt. Amanda Henderson, herself an Iraq veteran and a former recruiter in the battalion.
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Family's house saved because of Internet strangers

Internet strangers save family's home

Saved by the click 1:51
Photojournalist Oliver Janney introduces us to a couple giving thanks for people's generosity over the Internet.
• Focus On Giving

Town fights fears as guardsmen deploy again

Town fights fears as guardsmen deploy again


By Kevin Maurer and Mitch Weiss - The Associated Press
Posted : Sunday Dec 21, 2008 15:36:36 EST

HAMLET, N.C. — Christian Tyler knew exactly how to get ready for her first day of school: She slipped into her uniform, poured a bowl of Apple Jacks and plopped down on the living room couch to watch cartoons and wait for her dad.

The 9-year-old knew nothing about what was to come next.

Because her dad is a part-time soldier in the National Guard, the house, the school and the town — they were new.

All of it came together in the past few weeks as Christian’s father, Jobel Barbosa, prepared to leave home this month to train for a yearlong deployment to Iraq. She wound up with her grandmother with plans to spend her days at Ashley Chapel Elementary, where she starts with no friends and wonders during class whether her father will be safe.

“I’m scared,” she said softly. “I don’t want him to go.”

It has been nearly six years since the United States invaded Iraq, and while the war is not forgotten, the singular sacrifices of America’s all-volunteer military and their families sometimes slip the minds of civilians focused on their own pain amid the deepening economic crisis.

There are roughly 100,000 members of the National Guard and Reserve on active duty, weekend warriors who leave home to fight on battlefields half a world away. In 2009, they will include the 76 soldiers of E Company, 120th Combined Arms Battalion, 30th Heavy Brigade Combat Team, North Carolina National Guard.

Each deployment shrouds the soldiers, their loved ones — and especially in places such as Hamlet, their communities — in uncertainty.

Christian, a nervous honor student with long black hair facing days without dad, joins suddenly single mothers struggling to take care of the kids, rookie soldiers with nervous dreams of battle and newlyweds with nightmares their spouses won’t return.

“When you pull all of them out of here, it’s not like this community will become a ghost town. But it has a ripple effect in a small town,” said longtime Hamlet Police Chief John Haywood, who grew up with many of the company’s men. “Every soldier has family and friends. And this will be on their minds until their loved ones come home.”
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