Answering the call to become a Chaplain

by
Chaplain Kathie

Many times in my life I was told, "You missed your calling." because friends thought I should have been a minister. Considering I'm Greek Orthodox and a female, that was not something available to me. While I have a deep devotion to God and my faith, there was something missing. Since 1982 I've been working with veterans suffering from PTSD. I felt that was my calling and never thought of doing anything else aside from working regular jobs to pay the bills. One of those jobs brought me to the doors of a Presbyterian Church where I was hired to head up Christian Education. I loved it and part of my job was preaching to the children. The economy hit the church and the position was eliminated two years later.

One of the interim pastors, a wonderful man, decided he wanted to enter into hospital chaplaincy. While he was training, he called me to address questions the chaplains in his group had about PTSD. From that day on, I knew that was where God was trying to lead me. I was already doing the work but had a few more things to learn. Considering I did not have a degree in theology, it was hard to find an organization to offer the credentials I needed, but I was lead to the International Fellowship of Chaplains. I am certified, licensed, ordained and insured and have my credentials hanging all over my office wall.

If you have ever considered becoming a Chaplain, I can vouch for it 100%. There is nothing more spiritually rewarding than being a Chaplain and nothing better I can think of than taking care of our troops and in my case, the veterans as well. In my own life, God has comforted me in the darkest of times, and believe me, we've been thru hell and back. He has lead me to others offering support to me as I regained the strength to go on helping others. Calmed my nerves with public speaking more times than I can remember and gave me the words to use when I could find none.

Above all of this, working with our warriors and their families has restored my faith in human nature and the magnificence of the soul. Problems in their lives, traumatic events they are exposed to take them into the darkest of thoughts. Reconnecting them with God, no matter what faith they have been lead to, restores hope by the Grace of God. When they endure the worst humans have to offer, they end up either blaming God or believing He has abandoned them. It is the Chaplain's job to provide the reconnection to their spiritual well being and showing that they were sent by a loving God to help them. But restoring that does not end there.

When they are filled with God's mercy and love, they then take that into the relationships they have with their families and friends and most of the time, they in turn reach out to someone else in need of comforting. When they do not have someone to do this, they take the hopelessness, sense of abandonment or judgment into their families and communities and in turn hang onto anger. Chaplains are there for the warrior to take care of their wounded soul and for all they will come into contact with after. You are part of their futures.

Now it appears the Air Force is making it easier for you to train to become a Chaplain with scholarships. If you feel God has been calling you to serve others, answer His call. I can assure you that serving His children will strengthen your own faith in Him and in others. You're heart will be broken over and over again but restored over and over again in doing His work. We are all called to work with different groups of people because their needs vary. I was called to work with veterans and have met some of the finest individuals this nation has because of this.

Pray on it and then see where you are being lead to and go where you are being called without trying to find excuses for not doing it. He'll find a way. After all, if He can take a Greek Orthodox female into a Presbyterian Church so that I could finally answer my calling, think of what He can do for you if you answer Him as well.

New scholarships available for chaplains

Staff report
Posted : Saturday May 2, 2009 8:20:26 EDT

A call to the chaplaincy can only come from God, but the Air Force wants to make answering that call easier.

Struggling to fill a shortage of chaplains, the service is offering scholarships for commissioned officers, or anyone currently enrolled in a commissioning program, to earn a master’s of divinity degree. Two scholarships, which will pay tuition and a stipend, will be funded in fiscal 2009.

Because Roman Catholics are the most underserved religious population in the Air Force, these two scholarships will likely go to Catholics, said retired chaplain Rev. John Kurzak, director of chaplain accessions for the Air Force Recruiting Service. The Air Force has only about 70 Catholic chaplains to serve a population that makes up 25 percent of the service, according to the Air Force. More than 25 bases have no Catholic chaplain.

Future scholarships could go to chaplain-hopefuls of other faiths as the needs of the Air Force change.
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New scholarships available for chaplains

Nearly 11,000 could have been exposed to HIV as 5th case is linked

5th HIV Case Linked To VA Equipment

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. -- A fifth patient has tested positive for HIV, and seven more have tested positive for hepatitis after being exposed to contaminated medical equipment at three Department of Veterans Affairs hospitals, the agency said Friday.

That brings the total who have tested positive for hepatitis to 33.

They are among thousands tested because they were treated with endoscopic equipment that wasn't properly sterilized between patients and exposed them to the body fluids of others. The equipment is often used in colonoscopies and ear, nose and throat procedures.

Nearly 11,000 former sailors, soldiers, airmen and Marines could have been exposed at the hospitals in Miami, Murfreesboro, Tenn., and Augusta, Ga.

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5th HIV Case Linked To VA Equipment

Related Stories:
April 24, 2009: VA Reports 4th HIV Case
March 26, 2009: 10 VA Patients Have Viral Infections
March 11, 2009: VA Denies Hepatitis Results
January 8, 2009: Valve Problem Cited In Colonoscopy Issue
January 8, 2009: VA Volunteer Calls Hospital Tools Dirty

Ronald Richard Fajbik posthumously honored at Vietnam Memorial

Local family remembers loved one at The Wall
By LYDIA COTTRELL lcottrell@timesobserver.com
A Warren County family recently attended a memorial service in Washington, D.C., to honor its fallen hero.

On April 20, Ronald Richard Fajbik was posthumously honored during a ceremony at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, commonly referred to as "The Wall," with his wife, Laurlie; daughter, Kim; son, Brian; and grandson, Darrin in attendance.

Ron passed away in on Nov. 20, 2005 following an illness as a result of his exposure to Agent Orange in Vietnam. Herserved in the U.S. Army from 1969 to 1971.

The ceremony was a part of the In Memory program through the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, which honors those who died as a result of the Vietnam War, but whose deaths do not fit the Department of Defense criteria for inclusion on The Wall.

"There was information via the web with the Veteran memorial fund," said Laurlie.

She submitted an application for the In Memory program and was accepted.

Laurlie and her family joined 122 other families for the ceremony.

"It was very emotional," she said. "It's rewarding to know there are people out there that do care."

In Warren County, she is the director of the Order of the Silver Rose, which recognizes and honors those who have been stricken with one of the 43 diseases connected with the herbicide Agent Orange while serving in Vietnam and parts of Korea.

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Local family remembers loved one at The Wall

Army recalls helmets after test failure

Are you reading what I'm reading? I just want to make sure I'm reading this right. How is it possible they know for a fact "no soldiers or airmen" have been injured if they don't have a clue how many of these helmet were even worn in combat?

No soldiers or airmen have been injured as a result of the defect, Army officials said. They don’t know how many of the helmets have been worn into combat, they said, but about 30,000 of them have been issued to soldiers and airmen.

Next question is how can they be sure no soldier or airmen had their brains injured by these defective helmets? If they have a weak spot then isn't that possible?

Army recalls helmets after test failure

By Matthew Cox - Staff writer
Posted : Friday May 1, 2009 18:19:56 EDT

The Army has recalled about 30,000 of its Advanced Combat Helmets after a manufacture’s defect caused the helmets to fail ballistic testing.

The helmets issued to soldiers and Air Force personnel from November 2008 to February 2009 are the subject of an investigation by Army Criminal Investigation Command.

Gentex Corp. of Carbondale, Penn., was “supposed to provide a particular product and they provided something different,” Lt. Col. Robert Myles, product manager for Soldier Survivability, told Army Times April 30.

Gentex notified the Army in January that one of its subcontractors used “a different finish on the screws than what is required by the government,” Myles said. The finish is designed to protect the screws from corrosion.

The former subcontractor, A.J. Hughes Screw Products Company Inc., is under investigation by Army CID and Gentex is not, said Ken Lee, corporate counsel for Gentex.
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Army recalls helmets after test failure

White House Kicks off Wounded Warrior Ride

WH Kicks off Wounded Warrior Ride
May 01, 2009
Military.comby Bryant Jordan

They numbered 40. Some walked from the White House on legs of alloy and cable, some rolled out in wheel chairs. Some bore wounds unidentifiable by any prosthesis, chair, cane or crutch.

But all had inside them the steel that served themselves and their fellow troops so well on the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan, and which propelled them to take part in an annual Soldier Ride sponsored by the Wounded Warrior Project. The event, dubbed the "White House to the Lighthouse" ride because it runs from Washington and Annapolis, raises funds for Wounded Warriors programs.

"These wounded warriors didn't get to choose the direction their lives would take the instant they were injured, but now they choose to prove that life after injury isn't about what you can't do -- it's about what you can," President Barack Obama said. "They choose to keep their faith with the future. They choose to keep fighting for their brothers and sisters and show them that they're not alone.

As of posting time the White House was unable to furnish Military.com with complete names, service branches or unit affiliations of the participants.

The ride is now in its fifth year, and this year's marks the third between Washington and Annapolis.

Obama was accompanied at the podium by Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki and Assistant Secretary of Veterans Affairs Tammy Duckworth. Shinseki, who was Army chief of staff until he retired, had been wounded in Vietnam. Duckworth, who was confirmed to her post only recently, was a helicopter pilot who lost both her legs when she was shot down in Iraq.
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WH Kicks off Wounded Warrior Ride

Heroic School Nurse Dies After Helping Fallen Coach

Heroic School Nurse Dies After Helping Fallen Coach
Posted: 10:38 pm PDT April 30, 2009
Updated: 7:27 am PDT May 1, 2009

SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- Santa Clara High School is mourning the loss this week of a school nurse who likely helped save the life of the school's softball coach suffering from a heart attack just moments before collapsing herself. She later died.

On Tuesday, 59-year-old Eileen Bowden gave John Rahbar CPR minutes after he collapsed with no pulse while collecting foul balls following a team practice.

Bowden's actions kept Rahbar alive until paramedics arrived, but then Bowden collapsed.

"After that, Ms. Bowden kind of got up, in just a brief moment, she fell down and seemed to need medical assistance," said Santa Clara School District spokeswoman Tabitha Kappler-Hurley. "So she was taken to Valley Medical Center and unfortunately died en route."
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Heroic School Nurse Dies After Helping Fallen Coach
linked from CNN

Military using Facebook and Twitter to recruit

Services turn attention to Facebook, Twitter

By Sagar Meghani - The Associated Press
Posted : Friday May 1, 2009 14:10:45 EDT

FORT MONROE, Va. — You don’t often hear a three-star general using the word “friend” as a verb.

But for Lt. Gen. Benjamin Freakley and other Army brass, a new era has brought a new language — and new tools like online social networks Twitter and Facebook — for seeking out young recruits and spreading the military’s message.

Freakley, who heads the Army command that oversees recruiting, says social networking sites offer another way to reach tomorrow’s soldiers.

“They live in the virtual world,” Freakley said. He cited Facebook as a key component in targeting 18- to 24-year-olds. “You could friend your recruiter, and then he could talk to your friends.”

Even Gen. Raymond Odierno, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, has a new Facebook page to answer questions about the mission in Iraq and spread the word about what the troops are accomplishing there.

The Army isn’t the only branch of the military with Facebook friends or that has a following on Twitter. The Air Force has also established a Facebook page, Twitter feeds and a blog, while the Marine Corps is using various networking sites mainly for recruiting purposes. The Navy is “experimenting” with several forms of online media, and some of its commands are using Twitter, a spokesman said. Even the Coast Guard commandant regularly updates his Facebook status while traveling.
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Services turn attention to Facebook, Twitter

Sen. Russell Feingold's Bill would add support for injured reservists

Bill would add support for injured reservists

By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Friday May 1, 2009 14:24:20 EDT

Legislation aimed at ensuring wounded National Guard and reserve members don’t fall through the cracks and end up waiting for months for disability benefits was introduced Thursday by Sen. Russell Feingold, D-Wis.

The bill, S 944, requires wounded reservists to be kept on active duty until they are fully evaluated or at least have time to consult with a military lawyer about their eligibility for benefits. If they remain on active duty, the bill requires them to be returned to their homes, if medically feasible, to await the outcome of their evaluations.

If someone is discharged and cannot work because of their service-connected injury, the bill calls for them to be returned to active duty at full pay until they can access benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs.

The idea, said Feingold, is to prevent a gap in income if a person leaves active duty without being eligible for military benefits — or not knowing about military benefits for which they may be eligible — and ends up with financial problems while waiting for veterans disability benefits to kick in.

“The armed forces have come a long way in addressing the bureaucratic hurdles that have long plagued wounded service members transitioning out of the services,” Feingold said. “However, much more remains to be done to ensure that wounded service members do not go without income due to injuries sustained in the line of duty.”

He said many injured troops are going “without compensation of any kind because they are never told about the patchwork of programs designed to care for them as they transition back to civilian life and into VA.”
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Bill would add support for injured reservists

PTSD? Why wait until it's too late?

PTSD? Why wait until it's too late?

by Chaplain Kathie

While it is never too late to seek help for PTSD, the damage being done to you and your life goes on until you do. Much like an infection stops getting worse with proper treatment, so does PTSD.

We have the Vietnam veterans as living proof PTSD is not the end of your ability to live a life worth living, achieving goals, having a successful family life, career and yes, even be happy. Consider the fact that these men and women did not receive treatment or therapy until 10, 20 or even 30 years after they came home. Some still have not sought treatment, and sadly so.

As the years ticked away between combat and therapy, the damage was being compounded by living their lives. PTSD got worse with more stress and their lives got worse because of PTSD. Marriages fell apart. Jobs were lost. Overall health was worsened. Back then, there were plenty of excuses to not receive help. The biggest one was that there wasn't any help available until the Vietnam veterans fought for it.

Now there is the excuse of an overwhelmed VA but that is being addressed. There are other ways of getting help from groups all over the nation offering to help veterans and support groups in many areas of the country but above all, support groups online. There are groups for the spouses as well.

This is just part of what is going on for PTSD

CTU-Online, the Clinician's Trauma Update, is an electronic newsletter produced by the VA National Center for PTSD. CTU-Online provides summaries of clinically relevant publications in the trauma field withlinks to published abstracts or full text articles when available.

For COMPLETE summaries, see this CTU-Online in html format on ourwebsite:

VA National Center for PTSD

Telehealth Promises and pitfalls in telehealth care for PTSD: Three recent papers illustrate the ways in which telehealth can be used to improve the care of people with PTSD. Methods such as video and computer-assisted delivery are being applied to clinical assessment and treatment. For theVA, increased use of these strategies promises evidence-based assessment and treatment for Veterans for whom distance from specialists remains abarrier to care. These new studies provide preliminary support forteleheath as a viable approach to care and offer information about limitations that need to be addressed in order to promote more widespread use of telehealth in clinical care.

Abstract
Telehealth, or health care via video conferencing, constitutes a clinical option that makes it possible to treat patients remotely. A growing number of studies have demonstrated that telehealth is a feasible and effective method for diagnostic interviews and psychiatric consultations. However, few studies have assessed the effectiveness of psychotherapy given by videoconference. This study examines the effectiveness of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) administered by video conference for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Forty-eight participants with PTSD were recruited for the study: 16 in the video conferencing condition and 32 in a control face-to-face condition. Each participant received CBT for 16 to 25 weeks and completed various questionnaires before and after treatment. The results show a significant decline in the frequency and severity of posttraumatic symptoms after treatment in both conditions. A clinical improvement in overall functioning was also observed. No significant difference was observed in the effectiveness of the two therapeutic conditions. The examination of effect sizes supports these results. A number of clinical implications and certain avenues for future research are discussed.

To find the help you need all you have to do is Google it! Is it that hard? So why are you still hear reading this when you could be starting to heal?

Marine veteran murder: Gang member convicted of slaying

Marine veteran murder: Gang member convicted of slaying
Case of mistaken identity cost Marine veteran his life
By Matthew Walberg Tribune reporter
May 1, 2009
A reputed gang member was convicted Thursday of the 2006 murder of a Marine veteran of the Iraq War over a case of mistaken identity.

Steven Bryant, 23, of the 2800 block of North Milwaukee Avenue, Chicago, faces life imprisonment for the fatal shooting of Ricardo "Ricky" Martinez Jr. He is scheduled to be sentenced next month by Cook County Circuit Judge Bertina Lampkin.

Martinez, 23, was killed in April 2006 while he and his friends were on their way home from a Cubs game. When a quarrel broke out among his friends over a missing cell phone, Martinez stopped his car near Cicero Avenue and Addison Street and waited while his companions scuffled on the sidewalk.

At the same time, Bryant, a reputed member of the Insane Deuces street gang, was riding in a car with a fellow gang member who saw the group of men and mistook one of them for a member of a rival gang.
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Marine veteran murder: Gang member convicted of slaying