"They just threw a bunch of pills at me" Marine said after seeking help for PTSD

"They just threw a bunch of pills at me," seems to happen a lot more than ever before. Stories like this below have a habit of giving the message that they will not receive what they need to get better and back on duty if that's what they want or onto other futures. We tell them to watch the backs of their brothers but then when they do, it does not always work.

Sloan cited a case in June in which a Marine alerted Camp Pendleton officials after seeing a disturbing message on a fellow Marine's Facebook page.

A Camp Pendleton spokesman, 1st Lt. Ken Kunze, said the Marine's command — not mental health providers — contacted the young man. He told them he was fine and was driving off base, heading home to Michigan.

The next day, the Marine was found dead, hanging from an observation tower on base, Kunze said. His family complained that not enough was done to prevent the suicide, and the Marine Corps is investigating the case.

We tell them to get help and they try to but the help they need just isn't there. We tell them to call the suicide prevention hotline and they do. Over 2 million calls into the phone lines but no one was wondering why so many would reach the point where they felt the need to call in the first place when we've been reading claims about how the Army, the Marines, the Air Force and the Navy have taken all of this seriously. We read about Congressional hearings and money pouring into programs to help the servicemen and women but what we don't see are results that work. Great programs sprout up across the country but then soon they turn into running out of funding or just too overloaded to do as much good.

Popular charities make claims they are taking care of the veterans, claiming to be working on PTSD but when you do some checking to see what they are actually doing, there isn't much being done at all other than tugging at our heartstrings so they get our money. Over the years I've actually asked supporters of some of the groups making claims so that I would get some specifics on their programs but either I didn't get an answer at all or it was too vague to really matter. Then there are the claims coming in with programs claiming they have the "cures" to PTSD which should leave all of us scratching our heads because if they really did have cures, then the military would be jumping all over them because after all, there are millions of dollars tied up in training the men and women they send into combat, millions more in equipment and they know if they are not healed, ready to go back on duty, it will cost them a lifetime of care.

Finding the answer to restoring mental health means a lot more than just doing the right thing.

Marines pour resources into mental health care
By KEVIN MAURER and JULIE WATSON
Associated Press Writers © 2010 The Associated Press
Aug. 25, 2010, 3:21PM

CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. — They have been in harm's way for years in two countries, in a branch of the military where toughness and self-reliance have been especially prized for generations. Now the Marines are struggling against an enemy that has entrenched itself over nearly a decade of war: mental illness.

Marines stressed from repeated tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan are seeking help like never before, and their suicide rate is the highest in the military after doubling in just the past three years. Even with more mental-health professionals sent to bases to help, they have had trouble keeping up with demand.

There have been times when staff at Camp Lejeune's base hospital faced a choice of either staying with a Marine through lengthy treatment or leaving a case midstream to be able to keep up with the deluge of new patients.

"We couldn't see people as frequently as we wanted to and to see them as much as we wanted to would mean not getting another Marine an initial evaluation," said Navy Lt. Cmdr. Rebecca Webster, the hospital's head of mental health.

More than 1,100 members of the armed forces killed themselves from 2005 to 2009, and suicides have been on the rise again this year. The sharpest increases have been in the Army and Marine Corps, the services most stretched by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

One 23-year-old Marine recently treated for post traumatic stress disorder at Camp Lejeune said he felt processed by the system rather than properly treated. The Marine, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity, said that after his diagnosis he was relegated to short appointments during which mental health specialists did little more than check his dosages.

"They just threw a bunch of pills at me," he said.

Mike Sloan, a California veteran who counsels troubled Marines, said commanders should be doing more to reach out to Marines in trouble and get them help. He said the military still faces a huge challenge in changing a mindset that encourages troops to be tough and handle problems on their own.


"We people don't listen in the armed forces," said Sloan, who helped start a nonprofit veterans group in Oceanside, Calif., a community that borders Camp Pendleton. "I am positive combat stress and PTSD are caused by leadership failures."
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Marines pour resources into mental health care

Report urges new office for suicide prevention

Report urges new office for suicide prevention

By Andrew Tilghman - Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday Aug 25, 2010 9:14:15 EDT

The Defense Department should investigate military suicides more thoroughly and create a new top-level Pentagon office for suicide prevention, according to a new report from a congressional task force.

The military should “pattern suicide investigations on aviation accident investigations, and use the safety investigation process as a model to standardize suicide investigations,” said Bonnie Carroll, co-chair for the task force Congress created last year to examine the spike in military suicides.

The task force’s 14 members — seven military members and seven civilians — spent a year visiting installations and studying military suicides and the efforts in place to prevent them.

Their report, released Tuesday, includes 76 specific recommendations that include increasing troops’ dwell time, adding full-time suicide prevention coordinators and putting suicide prevention elements into broader military education programs.

A new office under the Office of the Secretary of Defense should help coordinate the tracking of suicides and the standardization of suicide prevention efforts, the report said.
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Report urges new office for suicide prevention

Military Personnel At High Mesothelioma Risk

Dept of Veteran Affairs Confirms Military Personnel At High Mesothelioma Risk
2010-08-25 04:10:33 (GMT) (mesotheliomacancernews.com - Mesothelioma News)

Washington, D.C., USA
Mesothelioma News Now!
Washington Mesothelioma Reporter

For many years, it has been widely thought that mesothelioma cancer is predominately caused by exposure to asbestos. However, recent findings has shed light on the fact that time served in the military may also be a possible culprit.

In fact, a recent report issued by the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs shows that the above-average diagnosis rates of mesothelioma in military personnel may have been inadvertently caused by their service for the nation.

Due to its extremely long latency period, mesothelioma can sometimes take up to fifty years for symptoms to appear in the body after the exposure to asbestos. The toxic substance has been used within the military for some time up, having been banned from use only recently.

In light of these findings, U.S. Navy personnel runs a particularly high risk of contracting mesothelioma, since many of the components of naval ships used asbestos in the past. In addition, the insulation surrounding pipes, sleeping quarters, and ventilation units all used to have asbestos in them.

Because of the new data provided within the military, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs will allow any veterans who have developed mesothelioma from there service in the military to apply for benefits.

It is important that all service men and women who think that they may have been in contact with asbestos, to have annual checkups for signs of mesothelioma.

This Washington Mesothelioma Report is brought to you by Mesothelioma News Now for mesothelioma attorneys and asbestos cancer lawyers.
Military Personnel At High Mesothelioma Risk

Vietnam vet to meet son conceived during war

Vietnam vet to meet son conceived during war
Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Christine Dobbyn
News Team
HOUSTON (KTRK) -- A Houston man is expected to meet his son for the first time on Wednesday morning. He is the son the Army sergeant left behind in what was then called Saigon when he his tour of duty ended during the Vietnam War.


Four decades ago, the Vietnam veteran left that country, but a website and a phone call has given him the chance to make up for lost time all these decades later.

Dr. Carlos Buchanan left Saigon 40 years ago, but the sergeant first class in the U.S. Army always knew he had left something behind.

"The time came and we were soldiers; we rotate and go home," he said.

Like many GI's at the time, Buchanan had become involved with a Vietnamese woman.

"You know soldiers, I was young at the time," Buchanan said. "We got out and met people, etcetera and eventually became fond of each other."

Before he left, he learned she was pregnant but hasn't seen her since.

The now-retired soldier, who spent 20 years in the service, always wondered what happened. He made a life here in Houston, got married and had a family.
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Vietnam vet to meet son conceived during war

Golden Knight gets stuck on ballpark flagpole

Golden Knight gets stuck on ballpark flagpole

The Associated Press
Posted : Wednesday Aug 25, 2010 10:07:35 EDT

ARLINGTON, Texas — Just a bit outside.

A U.S. Army skydiver was left dangling on a flagpole at Rangers Ballpark after his parachute got entangled during a pregame jump Tuesday night.

The Rangers said the unidentified jumper was uninjured after he unbuckled himself from the chute and dropped a few feet to a work platform on top of the scoreboard, the highest point of the stadium.
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Golden Knight gets stuck on ballpark flagpole

LAPD get well music video for LA Cop injured in Afghanistan

Hollywood-style get-well greeting for an L.A. cop in Afghanistan
A fellow police officer and his musician friend make a music video, complete with footage shot from an LAPD helicopter, for the Marine reservist injured by a bomb blast.

By Bob Pool, Los Angeles Times

August 20, 2010


Enthusiasm was sky high when Los Angeles police officers decided to cheer up a colleague injured by an Afghanistan bomb blast.

Co-workers and strangers joined to create a music video that aims to boost the spirits of Marine Staff Sgt. Joshua J. Cullins.

In civilian life, the Marine reservist is a police officer assigned to the downtown area.

Cullins, 28, is also an explosive ordnance disposal specialist assigned to a unit in Marja, in Afghanistan's dangerous Helmand province.

He was disarming a 15-pound roadside bomb when it blew up July 16. He suffered a concussion in the blast.

When word of the injury reached the Police Department's Central Division, officers decided to send Cullins their best wishes. But instead of just signing a get-well card, they set out to record personal messages to him on video.
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Hollywood style get well greeting for an LA cop in Afghanistan

The completed two-part video was being posted Thursday evening on YouTube for Cullins and his Marine buddies to see. It's labeled "Hunter Ackerman — Welcome Home."

Female Army soldier involved in domestic incident

Police: Army soldier involved in domestic incident

Associated Press
08/24/10 4:30 PM PDT SAVANNAH, GA. — Savannah police say an Army soldier is suspected in a shooting incident that left her husband seriously injured Tuesday.

Savannah-Chatham police have not identified the woman or the man. They say it happened around 11:30 a.m. at a Windsor Forest home.

Read more at the San Francisco Examiner: Army soldier involved in domestic incident

UPDATE August 26, 2010
Soldier’s husband ‘primary aggressor’ in domestic shooting
The husband of a 3rd Infantry Division soldier was determined to be the primary aggressor in a domestic shooting Tuesday on Savannah's Southside, confirmed Savannah-Chatham Metropolitan Police Department Information Officer Gena Moore. The soldier, Spc. Marlena McLaughlin, 24, is attached to an aviation brigade at Hunter Army Airfield, said Fort Stewart media chief Kevin Larson. McLaughlin's home of record is Wake Forest, N.C, Larson said.

"Officers found 26-year-old Charlie McLaughlin lying in the front yard of the residence suffering from a gunshot wound. His wife, Marlena McLaughlin, was across the street. She had run there to get help after an argument had escalated into violence. She told officers she had shot her husband after he had beaten her severely," read a SCMPD release.
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http://www.coastalcourier.com/news/article/23950/

Deputies get help with postwar trauma

Michael Sears
Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Sgt. Colin Briggs, who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, is back and supervising deputies at the lakefront. But sometimes the hot sun can bring flashbacks.

Deputies get help with postwar trauma
Sheriff's Department program will guide returning veterans
By Eric Randall of the Journal Sentinel

Aug. 24, 2010
When he's driving his cruiser on a warm day, with the sun beating down on the pavement, Milwaukee Sheriff's Sgt. Colin Briggs says it is easy to flash back to the roads in Iraq.

Briggs served there, and Afghanistan before that, as a combat adviser to local security forces.

Odd as it may seem, the difference between Milwaukee and Baghdad can be difficult to perceive for some returning veterans who serve in law enforcement - the result of a war in which urban patrolling makes a soldier's job more similar to a police officer's than in any previous war. Those similarities can be dangerous when soldiers who have been taught to drive fast and stop for nothing translate that experience to the roads of Milwaukee County.

But speeding is not the most disastrous of the potential side-effects facing veterans who return to law enforcement jobs. Last October, a sheriff's sergeant, Scott Krause, repeatedly punched a handcuffed suspect in the back of his cruiser. After a judge sentenced Krause to 18 months in prison in March, Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr. realized he had a problem.
read the rest here
http://www.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/101439164.html

Here are two of my videos that may help you understand what Sgt. Briggs is trying to explain.

900 suicide prevention programs across 400 military installations that don't work

If the task force turns to the same people they've been talking to all along, whatever they come up with will fail as well. It is not a matter of them not trying but they have been getting the wrong answers. Congress has been just as bad when they keep asking people who have suffered and it's too late to save the lives already gone. The only thing Congress hears about then is what has failed instead of what has worked. They have to start thinking outside the box and talk to different people. If they want to repeat failures, then they should be talking to people who failed or were failed. If they want to find out what works and succeeds then they should be talking to the veterans and families who already passed the test of living.

Task force calls military suicide prevention efforts inadequate
By BARBARA BARRETT
McClatchy Newspapers
A Defense Department task force devoted to preventing suicide in the military presented a grim picture of the trend Tuesday, with suicides rising at a near steady pace even as commanders apply various balms to soothe a stressed, exhausted fighting force.

The military has nearly 900 suicide prevention programs across 400 military installations worldwide, but in a report released Tuesday, the task force describes the Defense Department's approach as a safety net riddled with holes.

Last year, 309 men and women slipped through.

In 2008, 267 service members committed suicide. In 2007, the number was 224.

However, the task force also gave a message of hope: Prevention efforts can work, members said, and suicidal behavior after combat deployment isn't normal.

"Having any of our nation's warriors die by suicide is not acceptable - not now, not ever," said Army Maj. Gen. Philip Volpe, a physician and co-chairman of the Department of Defense Task Force on the Prevention of Suicide by Members of the Armed Forces.

Among the task force's findings:

-The military doesn't have enough behavioral specialists and suicide prevention officers, and that those it has need better training.

-Suicide prevention programs aren't streamlined across services.

-Service members still encounter discriminatory and humiliating experiences when seeking psychiatric help.

-Unit-level leaders especially struggle with how to assist the men and women under their guidance.



Read more: Task force calls military suicide prevention efforts inadequate

CBS News thought Afghanistan report was important, Americans didn't care

We complain about the lack of coverage on Afghanistan and Iraq yet when they do a fine job Americans just don't seem to care. We cannot use the excuse we all have our own problems. During WWII everyone had problems but paid as much attention as they could. It seemed as if everyone knew someone serving. During the Korean War, people still cared enough to find out what was going on. Vietnam was brought into our living rooms everyday. The Gulf War was covered. The invasion of Afghanistan and the first year was covered but then all the talk and coverage was about Iraq. That too faded from the news.

We didn't really know what happened to them when they came home and took off their uniforms. We were not reminded about the troops being sent back over and over again and we were not reminded that many of them were still fighting what the war did to them. Today most don't know how many are in Iraq or Afghanistan, how many died, how many were wounded or how many ended up taking their own lives.

The ratings for the CBS news coverage is about as depressing as it gets when the people of this country are detached from the men and women risking their lives for this country. We should be ashamed that Americans just don't seem to care anymore.

CBS' Afghanistan trip unrewarded, a ratings downer
(AP)

NEW YORK — Television news divisions may be thinking twice about ambitious travel plans.

That was the ominous message delivered to the "CBS Evening News" last week. The Nielsen Co. said Katie Couric's broadcast reached just under 5 million viewers, a low point for evening newscasts for at least two decades and probably much longer.

The week's centerpiece was a two-day trip to Afghanistan, where some striking work was done by Couric and reporter Terry McCarthy. Each of those telecasts had fewer than 4.7 million viewers.

Executive Producer Rick Kaplan says the low ratings aren't a surprise. He says he makes no apologies for the trip.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

NEW YORK (AP) — Katie Couric and the "CBS Evening News" team did some striking work during a two-day trip to Afghanistan last week, only to see some record-setting low ratings in return.

The Nielsen Co. ratings have to be discouraging to news organizations contemplating expensive assignments in a tough economy. The broadcast's executive producer, Rick Kaplan, said he made "no apologies" for traveling to the war zone because of the importance of the story.
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CBS Afghanistan trip unrewarded