Sunday, November 25, 2012

Veterans protest VA failures in Washington

There are things in this article that I am not sure about. There is reference to the number of homeless veterans that seems way out of whack, so please take that into consideration when you read the following. I thought it was important that there are veterans protesting what has been happening to them along with what happens with the Suicide Prevention Hotline. This part I do not doubt since I have heard many stories just like it when veterans call and are told to call back or someone will get back to them.
The Veterans Affairs Department Gets Occupied But Still Ignores
By William Boardman
11/24/2012

On October 4, a small group of American veterans went to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) in Washington, D.C., to talk to officials there about veteran suicides, veteran homelessness, veteran joblessness, and other veteran struggles. No one from the department would talk to them then.

Even the contingent of Homeland Security guards blocking the door on October 4 wouldn’t explain to the veterans why they couldn’t come in. So, they stayed on the sidewalk in front of 810 Vermont Avenue, a few hundred yards from the White House, where they established Occupy Dep’t of Veterans Affairs. They’ve been there ever since, even through Hurricane Sandy.

After more than a month, Veterans Affairs officials still have not talked to any of the diverse group. Instead, the VA has continued low level police harassment and frequent power washing of the sidewalk, threatening to arrest anyone who interfered with the activity. Trinity Church in New York City used similar tactics against Occupy Wall Street in 2011.

Medic in Vietnam, Still Trying to Heal People

In a USTREAM video by Occupy Eye on Common Dreams that was primarily about the Tar Sands Blockade in East Texas, the coverage gets to the Veterans Affairs about 40 minutes in. There, a man who calls himself “Frosty,” a Vietnam veteran and former medic, with a bushy white beard, describes what it’s been like spending a month on the sidewalk trying to talk to the administration charged with looking after his welfare and that of his fellow vets from half a dozen American wars.

Articulate and friendly in demeanor, Frosty has intense things to say – for example, that the VA has only 19 suicide hotlines in the whole country, and that a caller reaches only a recording and is promised a callback within 24 hours. “The VA doesn’t care,” he says, noting that the suicide rate among veterans is currently estimated at 18 a day, and likely under-reported. This is demonstrated by an October report by the Department of Defense which cites 20 active-duty and 13 non-active-duty suicides in that month.

Like the other vets sharing the sidewalk in front of the VA, the first thing Frosty wants is to establish a veterans’ council that will have direct access to the VA, and to which the VA will have to be responsive. Some of the veterans are trying to work with Congress to make this happen, to improve VA response to all veterans’ issues, but especially suicides, homelessness, and joblessness.
read more here

Saturday, November 24, 2012

Older vets to post-9/11 vets: 'We had it harder.'

The answer to the question is, hell yes they did, but not for the reasons you may think. Mike & The Mechanics The Living Years was the first thing I thought of when I was reading this.



WWII veterans came home when almost every family had someone serving. My husband's 3 uncles and Dad served. My uncles served in WWII. My Dad was younger and served in the Korean War. By the time he came home there were less returning from combat and less experiencing the same things. By the time my husband came home from Vietnam, even less served and they had even less support. They had it harder than past generations because they went alone and came home alone. They didn't send them all as a group. They deployed for one year and then caught a commercial flight home alone.

None of them had the press coverage unless someone did something wrong and the media just like today jumps all over the story making sure they mention the military connection. What they came home with was kept secret within the family. In other words, they buried it because they didn't really have a choice.

Right now it is important to point out that it was the Vietnam veterans pushing for everything that is available today for the OEF and OIF veterans. The newer generation of veterans also have the ability to communicate with veterans from all across the nation.

The redeployments do make it harder on them but the support for them is better. In some ways there is too much support. Yes, I said that. Too much support that is not based on research or facts. Everyone seems to want to do something but few spend the time to understand exactly what it is they are supporting.

Older vets to post-9/11 vets: 'We had it harder.' Did they?
By Bill Briggs
NBC News contributor

The war stories from his grandfather, though sparse in detail, blended one moment of explosive drama with a vague reference of death — all wrapped around a description of how old-school military men used to handle both experiences.

David Weidman, who spent two tours in Afghanistan with the Air Force, recalls his late grandfather, a veteran of World War II and Korea, telling him that he survived having his body and his Jeep blown through a wall. He did not reveal to Weidman where that attack happened. He also gave his grandson some advice: “You don’t want to be in a foxhole talking to a guy one minute and then you turn around and he’s dead. You just don’t want to experience that.”

“He said he just dealt with it all. It’s that same mentality: ‘I did what I had to do. I got myself better then I went back to work.’ Other than that, he never spoke about the wars at all. That tells me he never did deal with it,” added Weidman, 32.

Cultural fault lines clearly run between generations of veterans who saw action in different conflicts or who wore the uniform in different eras, including peacetime. The refrain echoed by some older veterans to some younger ex-service members: “We had it so much harder than today’s military.”

It is, quite likely, a tradition that hearkens back to the Civil War or possibly the Revolutionary War, according to some ex-service members. But many post-9/11 veterans who have chatted with older veterans revealed the sentiment they've often heard carry the same note: “We just came home, put our heads down and got to work — without any whining."
read more here


For the older veterans they committed suicide and tried to but no one talked about it. They were arrested for crimes but again, no one was talking about veterans courts. They had serial marriages trying to hang on to someone in their lives but because they had unaddressed issues, too many marriages didn't stand a chance. Then there were the kids of Vietnam veterans trying to deal with their own issues with their parents' PTSD.

Veterans are and always will be a minority in this nation so getting them to stand together is vital and separating them by the title of their years is not the answer. Putting them together with the "content of their character is."

Every generation in this case should thank the one before because all of their frustrations open the doors for today's veterans.

Baldwin County Deputy Killed Served In Afghanistan

Baldwin County Deputy Killed Served In Afghanistan
By: WKRG Staff
WKRG
Published: November 24, 2012

More information is coming out involving a Baldwin County Deputy who died in the line of duty. Deputy Scott Ward served with the department for 15 years and was also in the Coast Guard Reserves. According to al.com, Ward was deployed to Afghanistan a little more than a year ago. He also served at one time as a Prichard Police officer.
read more here

PTSD support doesn't mean the more the merrier

If you Google PTSD Support groups you'll find "About 3,620,000 results (0.77 seconds)"

That's a lot and just shows how many "experts" are competing for you to visit their sites. It is easy for established groups to just get buried under all the new ones popping up.

When I am contacted about a new group starting, especially from Facebook, I ask them a series of questions first. Once they can't answer what real expert they are connected to, I stop asking questions. Simple as that. It is great to have a site where people just open up and share what is going on in their lives but when they have no one they can call on when someone is in distress, they do more harm than good.

Charities are another issue. Too many start up doing what has already been done by other groups. When they are not interested in helping out established groups or trying to get them do something they are not, then you have to wonder what the real motivation is. Do they really want to help or do they want to make a name (money) for themselves?

So far after 30 years, I've seen very little new coming out of the over 3 million search results above. That's pretty depressing.

Here is one group doing it all but getting very little attention for one simple reason. We're more about the work and not the publicity but that ends up creating greater challenges to being able to do the work.

Point Man International Ministries doesn't get a lot of press but while that is not always a bad thing it is when there are so many veterans needing help to heal and getting a load of empty promises, bad advice and still left searching for some support.
Since 1984, when Seattle Police Officer and Vietnam Veteran Bill Landreth noticed he was arresting the same people each night, he discovered most were Vietnam vets like himself that just never seemed to have quite made it home. He began to meet with them in coffee shops and on a regular basis for fellowship and prayer. Soon, Point Man Ministries was conceived and became a staple of the Seattle area. Bills untimely death soon after put the future of Point Man in jeopardy.

However, Chuck Dean, publisher of a Veterans self help newspaper, Reveille, had a vision for the ministry and developed it into a system of small groups across the USA for the purpose of mutual support and fellowship. These groups are known as Outposts. Worldwide there are hundreds of Outposts and Homefront groups serving the families of veterans.

PMIM is run by veterans from all conflicts, nationalities and backgrounds. Although, the primary focus of Point Man has always been to offer spiritual healing from PTSD, Point Man today is involved in group meetings, publishing, hospital visits, conferences, supplying speakers for churches and veteran groups, welcome home projects and community support. Just about any where there are Vets there is a Point Man presence. All services offered by Point Man are free of charge.


This is one of the comments left on the video you are about to watch.
"after seeing this i sought counseling after 3 combat tours and also gave my life to Jesus!"


You'll see the link to the first part video of this veteran's testimony but I want you to focus on the possible for now.

In this video an Iraq veteran named Paul talks about how he had the gun to his head when his wife walked in. She was on the phone with Dana Morgan, President of Point Man. Paul's life was saved that day but he also began to heal soon afterwards when he was able to forgive himself as much as he was willing to forgive others.

There is so much that is possible but if things keep going the way they were with all the new groups popping up, it will just take veterans longer to find Point Man and harder to find leaders willing to do the work God has pulled them to do.

Veterans heading to Congress include Vietnam Veteran

9 More Iraq, Afghan War Veterans Joining Congress
By KEVIN FREKING
Associated Press
WASHINGTON November 23, 2012 (AP)

As Tammy Duckworth sees it, her path to Congress began when she awoke in the fall of 2004 at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. She was missing both of her legs and faced the prospect of losing her right arm.

Months of agonizing therapy lay ahead. As the highest-ranking double amputee in the ward, Maj. Duckworth became the go-to person for soldiers complaining of substandard care and bureaucratic ambivalence.

Soon, she was pleading their cases to federal lawmakers, including her state's two U.S. senators at the time — Democrats Dick Durbin and Barack Obama of Illinois. Obama arranged for her to testify at congressional hearings. Durbin encouraged her to run for office.

She lost her first election, but six years later gave it another try and now is one of nine veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars who will serve in next year's freshman class in the of House of Representatives.

Veterans' groups say the influx of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans is welcome because it comes at a time when the overall number of veterans in Congress is on a steep and steady decline. In the mid-1970s, the vast majority of lawmakers tended to be veterans.

For example, the 95th Congress, which served in 1977-78, had more than 400 veterans among its 535 members, according to the American Legion. The number of veterans next year in Congress will come to just more than 100. Most served during the Vietnam War era. In all, 16 served in Iraq or Afghanistan, not all in a combat role.
-Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii, who served near Baghdad for a year and was a medical operations specialist. Gabbard said she hopes the two of them can be a voice for female veterans and the unique challenges they face.

—Ron DeSantis of Florida was a judge advocate officer in the Navy who deployed to Iraq as a legal adviser during the 2007 troop surge.

—Brad Wenstrup of Ohio was as a combat surgeon in Iraq.

—Kerry Bentivolio of Michigan served in an administrative capacity with an artillery unit in Iraq and retired after suffering a neck injury. He also served as an infantry rifleman in Vietnam.

—Jim Bridenstine of Oklahoma was a combat pilot in Iraq and Afghanistan.

—Scott Perry of Pennsylvania commanded an aviation battalion in Iraq in 2009 and 2010.

—Doug Collins of Georgia was a chaplain in Iraq.

—Tom Cotton of Arkansas, a Harvard Law School graduate, was an infantry platoon leader in Iraq and then was on a reconstruction team in Afghanistan. In between, he was a platoon leader at Arlington National Cemetery.
read more here

Murder-suicide has East St. Louis in shock

'So out of character': ESL murder, suicide has city in shock
Published: November 23, 2012
By CAROLYN P. SMITH
News-Democrat

EAST ST. LOUIS — The 69-year-old man and 66-year-old woman who died in a murder-suicide Thursday in the 700 block of North 75th Street have been identified as Bobby Stewart and Dorothy McCaskill.

East St. Louis Police received a call at 6 p.m. to respond to what they believed was a hostage situation at the couple's residence. Once there, they called in the Illinois State Police SWAT team. The next several hours were intense and police used extreme caution in an attempt to keep the situation from escalating.
read more here

Marine Major says criminalizing attempted suicides "helps retain discipline"

With military suicides at an all time high, there are even more surviving the attempt. You'd think after all this time there would be no one in charge coming out with such a stupid statement as this but they do.

Military court to revisit statute criminalizing suicide attempts
Lawyers for Lazzaric T. Caldwell, a discharged Marine from Oceanside, will argue it is wrong for the military to punish troops whose mental problems cause them to attempt suicide.
By Tony Perry
Los Angeles Times

November 24, 2012

In a case involving a discharged Marine from Oceanside, a military court next week will consider the decades-old military statute that makes it a crime to attempt suicide.

Lawyers for Lazzaric T. Caldwell will argue it is wrong for the military to punish troops whose mental problems cause them to attempt suicide — particularly in an era when the military is trying to reduce the soaring suicide rate among troops.

According to court records, the statute in the Uniform Code of Military Justice was used in World War II to punish troops attempting to avoid duty by faking suicide. The statute has not come to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces, which will consider Caldwell's case, since the Gulf War of 1990-91, when it was upheld.

Navy Lt. Michael Hanzel, representing Caldwell, argued in a legal brief that "surely, neither Congress nor the president intended [the statute] ... to prosecute mentally ill people who make genuine suicide attempts."

But Marine Maj. David Roberts, representing the government, countered that the statute is clearly written and that it helps retain discipline within the ranks.

Caldwell, now 25, admitted that he slit his wrists in January 2010 while stationed in Okinawa, Japan. He pleaded guilty to attempting suicide and was sentenced to 180 days in the brig and a bad-conduct discharge. His lawyers are arguing that his guilty plea be thrown out.
read more here


Judge orders more treatment for troubled vet with gun

Judge orders more treatment for troubled vet with gun
By Laurence Hammack
The Roanoke Times
November 24, 2012
ROANOKE

Sean Duvall will continue to receive the help he sought the night of June 8, 2011, when the depressed veteran called a suicide crisis line - only to be charged with possessing the homemade gun he nearly turned on himself.

Federal prosecutors, who charged Duvall with four felonies after his call for help, asked Wednesday that he be kicked out of the Veterans Treatment Court. Duvall was placed in the program, designed to offer treatment to veterans struggling with substance abuse and mental illness, after his arrest sparked controversy earlier this year.

Duvall, 46, spent a week wandering around town in 2011, sinking deeper in depression and coming closer to using a gun he had made to kill himself.

After calling a toll-free help line run by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Duvall agreed to wait in a parking lot at Virginia Tech until a police officer arrived. read more here

National Guardsman Demoted by Lockheed Martin After Deployment

Veteran says Lockheed demoted him after deployment
Posted Friday, Nov. 23, 2012
Star Telegram
BY BOB COX

FORT WORTH -- Capt. Gary Ward shipped off to Afghanistan with his Army National Guard unit in April 2011, confident that after returning from active duty he could return to his job at Lockheed Martin Aeronautics.

A 16-year Army and National Guard veteran, Ward had worked at Lockheed's Fort Worth division since 2005 as a buyer on the F-35 program.

Lockheed, which has hundreds of employees deploy for active service each year, had always supported Ward's military commitments, including leaves for training. He was given his job back in 2009 after he returned from a yearlong tour in Iraq.

But not this time. When he showed up for work on June 4, Ward says, he had no desk, telephone or computer, and no duties. No one had a plan for what he was supposed to do.

"I walked in the first day and they didn't welcome me back, they didn't say anything. They pointed to an empty cubicle and told me to sit there," Ward said.

After discovering that the accounts he previously handled had been permanently assigned to other buyers, Ward asked the department supervisor what he was to do.

"He just shrugged his shoulders and walked off," said Ward. "They had six weeks notice I would be returning and they had done nothing to prepare to take me back."

That wasn't the reception Ward expected from the largest U.S. defense contractor, a company that routinely runs patriotism-rich television commercials that end with the tag line, "We Never Forget Who We're Working For." After eventually being reassigned to a lesser job, he decided to resign.

Ward, 45, is a divorced father of two daughters, Allyson, 5, and Samantha, 7. His marriage fell apart from the strain of the 2008-09 Iraq deployment, Ward said. Now the Afghanistan employment cost him his job with Lockheed.
read more here

Wounded Warrior fundraiser “unbelievable” success

While this event shows people do care about our troops and veterans, it says nothing about what Wounded Warrior Project actually does with all of the money they collect from events like this.

After reading many complaints about WWP along with more about their fundraising I wondered Is Wounded Warrior Project a Country Crock? and put up the question to veterans.

The stated mission of WWP is
To raise awareness and enlist the public's aid for the needs of injured service members.
To help injured service members aid and assist each other.
To provide unique, direct programs and services to meet the needs of injured service members.

If the veterans are taking care of each other why does WWP need so much money?

There are hundreds of reports on WWP fundraising but few on what they actually do for the veterans. I haven't been able to find anything on a program they have for PTSD veterans that they actually take care of.

Restore Warriors is an anonymous website with resources and self-help strategies for warriors living with the invisible wounds of war, such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), combat and operational stress, or depression.

The latest fundraising commercial on TV talks about PTSD but again, while they talk about the problem, then don't mention what they do.

Wounded Warrior fundraiser “unbelievable” success
Radio Iowa
November 24, 2012
By Pat Curtis

Organizers of a 5K walk/run designed to honor a former soldier from eastern Iowa are planning to make it an annual event. The Flaughless 5K is named for Dan Flaugh, who took his own life last December, just a few years after he was discharged from the military.

Flaugh’s friend, Georgia Sysouchanh, says she and others didn’t recognize it at the time, but Dan was struggling with PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) and depression. Sysouchanh organized the 5K, held last month, as a way to raise money for the Wounded Warrior Project – an organization that helps veterans heal physically and mentally.

“When we first started planning the 5K, we were hoping to raise $1,000 for Wounded Warrior. By the time it was done…we were able to raise $10,000, which is unbelievable,” Sysouchanh said.
read more here


Yes, they do have events like this and raise a lot of money with them but so far I can't find anything more than "raising awareness" and getting veterans to help each other. Does that seem worth all the money they collect every year? I'd really like to know if Wounded Warrior Project has helped you and specifics about what they actually do.