Schools, churches, court do what they can to ease soldiers' burden

For families with a deployed member, Christmas can be hard, but for too many, it isn't the first hard Christmas they endured. For many others, even with their family all together, it isn't easy.

"Just a few years back, they hid problems out of fear they’d never advance. Last summer, Fort Campbell’s top-ranked enlisted man, Command Sgt. Maj. Alonzo Smith, released a video about treatment for the psychological trauma he faced after nearly losing his leg to an explosion."

That quote is from the article below on how a community steps up to take care of the soldiers and their families. If we are ever really going to defeat PTSD, the whole family must be taken care of.

Oct 30, 2012
October is National Depression Awareness Month, the 101st Airborne Division Command Sgt. Maj. Alonzo Smith talks about his personal experience after his military vehicle was hit by a rocket propelled grenade during his deployment to Afghanistan in 2010.

Depression is a devastating illness that can impact anyone regardless of age, sex or race. The good news is, clinical depression is treatable. If you know someone who is suffering from depression, please urge them to seek treatment. Remind your fellow Soldiers, Family Members and co-workers that seeking treatment is a sign of strength, not a weakness.

Please read this whole story, about 6 pages long but well worth it.

Tenn., steps up for its Fort Campbell soldiers
Schools, churches, court do what they can to ease soldiers' burden
Dec 24, 2012

CLARKSVILLE, TENN. — Sometimes the kids at Minglewood Elementary gather in a conference room to talk, green-clad stick-people drawings decorating the wall behind them.

How many get to talk to Dad on Skype?

All six raise a hand.

How many will have Dad home for Christmas?

Two.

How does that make them feel?

Silence for a moment. Then Evelynn Johnson takes a deep breath and adjusts her little purple glasses. Like so many of her classmates, she’s seen too much to sound like the fifth-grader she is.

“What helps me is to not focus on him being gone,” Evelynn says. “One time I cried because my dad was going, and he told me, ‘You are sacrificing for this country. You’re helping out this country just by being my daughter.’ ”

These are the children of the soldiers at Fort Campbell. They’ve never known life without war. And so they don’t know what it’s like to be free of the nervous-stomach cycle of parents fighting overseas, coming home a different person with every tour, calming down just in time for another call to duty.

“PTSD is contagious, as it turns out,” said Dr. Robert Begtrup, a psychiatrist who launched a school-based program for soldiers’ children. Now he’s in private practice, working with children in Clarksville and other Middle Tennessee areas.

He sees some who wake screaming at 2 a.m. because that’s what their parents do. He sees families isolating because they don’t feel understood, living a war that’s been fought without most Americans sacrificing a single thing. Even though Clarksville does all it can to support them, he said, these damaged families are being called “the new normal” by some.
read more here

Brevard's homeless veterans get gifts, meals and motel stays

Brevard's homeless veterans get gifts, meals and motel stays
Dec 24, 2012
Written by
Rick Neale
FLORIDA TODAY

TITUSVILLE — The Stars and Stripes and a black POW/MIA flag hang from tree trunks at Harry Duhr’s secluded forest campsite outside of town, overlooking his green canvas tent and a small table crammed with provisions.

Duhr served with the 101st Airborne Division from 1969-71. A pesky raccoon keeps raiding his meager possessions. And the 62-year-old Army veteran hasn’t slept indoors since last Christmas — that’s when National Veterans Homeless Support put him up in a hotel for the holiday weekend.

Monday morning, NVHS President George Taylor picked up Duhr in a van and drove him to Super 8 in Titusville to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas as a gesture of goodwill.
read more here

National Veterans Homeless Support helps veterans during Christmas: George Taylor's group, National Veterans Homeless Support, will pull homeless veterans from the woods and put them up in hotels on Christmas Eve and Christmas.
By Tim Shortt, edited by Caroline Perez.
Posted Dec. 25, 2012.

116 101st Airborne soldiers return from Afghanistan

101st Airborne soldiers remember Gander tragedy, rejoice at homecoming from Afghanistan
Dec 14, 2012
WBIR News
By Philip Grey
Gannett Tennessee

FORT CAMPBELL, KY. - In a combat zone, the ultimate mission in the back of nearly everyone's mind is getting home safely, and on Thursday morning, it was "mission accomplished" for 116 soldiers of the 2nd Brigade Combat Team.

They were greeted at the Campbell Army Airfield with raucous cheering, tears, waving signs and cowbells.
read more here

WTU ‘Lifeliners’ getting back into the fight

WTU ‘Lifeliners’ getting back into the fight
December 6, 2012
by Staff Sgt. Peter Sinclair
101st Sustainment Brigade

Soldiers at Fort Campbell continuously train hard for the wartime mission but sometimes stepping back from the fight to get help is necessary. Making tough decisions is a common occurrence in the business of soldiering. A negative stigma associated with seeking help is a challenge for even the toughest Soldiers of all ranks. Some may even feel that addressing mental or physical issues may shows signs of weakness.

The Army has gone through great lengths to address this stigma. The Warrior Transition Unit is just one the Army’s tools that aid Soldiers in their recovery process. The WTU is a unit that gives guidance, mentorship and extra time to those who need it in order to get back to duty or in some cases back into the civilian workforce.

Colonel Charles Hamilton, commander of the 101st Sustainment Brigade “LifeLiners,” 101st Airborne Division, sat down with wounded warriors from his brigade at the “LifeLiner” dining facility, Nov. 29, to ensure that his Soldiers know that they are still part of his team even though they are assigned to the WTU.
read more here

J.R. Martinez returns to Fort Campbell Full of Heart

‘Full of Heart’: Martinez returns to post to promote new book
Posted: Thursday, November 15, 2012
by Yvette Smith, Courier staff

Before appearing on the world stage, J.R. Martinez served his country as a 101st Airborne Division Screaming Eagle. Although he is now known by many as the season 13 winner of “Dancing with the Stars”, as well as for his roles on “All My Children” and “Army Wives,” he has not forgotten his roots.

Promoting his new memoir, “Full of Heart,” Martinez took time to visit Fort Campbell and sign copies of his book while chatting with those who waited patiently Friday at the Fort Campbell Exchange.

“It’s great to be back,” said a smiling Martinez. “This is a special place in my heart. It’s nice to have the opportunity to be embraced and to be able to share with some of the troops and Families [at] a post that does so much for its country.”

With some waiting in line for more than three hours, the crowd gathered at the Exchange anxiously awaited a chance to meet Martinez. A group of Fort Campbell High School seniors were especially excited.

“We want to ask him to be our senior speaker at graduation,” said FCHS senior Charlie Cusic. “A lot of parents are being deployed this year. Like my dad, he’s not going to be at my graduation. We want to have somebody that knows what it’s like to serve in the military and all the hardships that come with it.”

Family member Miranda Poole said the book brought her out to the signing. “I don’t really watch ‘Dancing with the Stars.’ I started looking into his story and stuff, and my husband is deployed, so his story … it’s heartfelt.“
read more here

FOX being sued by fallen soldier's widow for documentary

War widow sues Fox over ‘Inside Afghan ER’ documentary featuring husband’s death
By Associated Press

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A widow of a U.S. Army soldier killed in a blast in Afghanistan has sued Fox Cable Networks and the National Geographic Society over a documentary that showed her husband and family.

The documentary about a combat hospital called “Inside Afghan ER” featured Staff Sgt. Kevin Casey Roberts, who was serving with the 4th Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division when an improvised explosive device struck his vehicle in Khost province in Afghanistan in 2008.

A year after his death, his wife, Donnice Roberts, got a call from a service member in Germany who saw her husband in the documentary. According to the lawsuit filed in Texas on Nov. 1, she never knew there was video footage related to her husband’s death and that the documentary existed.

She is seeking at least $750,000 in damages and wants a judge to prevent the film from airing again. She also wants the cable network to stop using images of military families without their permission.

The documentary was produced and distributed by the National Geographic Society, and was promoted and distributed by Fox Networks Inc. and Fox Entertainment Group Inc., which owns part of the NatGeo network.

Scott Grogin, a spokesman for Fox Networks Group, said the film never aired in the United States. Instead, it aired on the National Geographic International channel.
read more here

THAT'S THEIR EXCUSE? IT WASN'T SHOWN IN THE USA?

Henry Beck honored with Silver Star for saving lives in Vietnam

Veteran honored 45 years after saving comrades' lives
WESH.com

45 years later, local veteran honored for saving comrades' lives

DEBARY, Fla.

It may be 45 years late, but Henry Beck was proud to receive a well-deserved Silver Star honor on Veterans Day.

“It's very moving, not only for me but the guys I served with,” Beck said.

A ceremony was held in Beck's honor Sunday at the VFW center in DeBary. Beck served the Army in Vietnam in 1967 when he was 19 years old.

During a jump into the jungle, Beck and other members of the 101st Airborne Division came under sniper fire. His comrades say his heroic actions – taking out two of the snipers – saved their lives.
read more here

Congress Wants Answers on Petraeus Affair

Congress Wants Answers on Petraeus Affair
Nov 12, 2012
Associated Press
by Anne Flaherty, Kimberly Dozier and Adam Goldman

WASHINGTON -- Members of Congress said Sunday they want to know more details about the FBI investigation that revealed an extramarital affair between ex-CIA Director David Petraeus and his biographer, questioning when the retired general popped up in the FBI inquiry, whether national security was compromised and why they weren't told sooner.

"We received no advance notice. It was like a lightning bolt," said Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who heads the Senate Intelligence Committee.

The FBI was investigating harassing emails sent by Petraeus biographer and girlfriend Paula Broadwell to a second woman. That probe of Broadwell's emails revealed the affair between Broadwell and Petraeus. The FBI contacted Petraeus and other intelligence officials, and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper asked Petraeus to resign.

A senior U.S. military official identified the second woman as Jill Kelley, 37, who lives in Tampa, Florida, and serves as an unpaid social liaison to MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, where the military's Central Command and Special Operations Command are located.
read more here

101st Vietnam vet's suicide at the Wall haunts those left behind

There are plenty of stories published every year about how the Vietnam Memorial Wall heals but there are also stories no one wants to talk about. Suicides because of the Wall happen and too often some walk away more wounded than they were before they stood in front of it.

A 101st Vietnam vet's suicide haunts those left behind
Nov 9, 2012
Written by
Chuck Raasch
USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — Alice Franks is a long-distance runner.

On Veterans Day nine years ago, while walking to the starting line of a 10-mile race along the Potomac River, Franks suddenly discovered she was in a place she had tried so long to avoid. Before her was the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, the Wall where the names of 58,282 Americans are carved into black granite.

Nineteen years before, Franks’ husband – a decorated Vietnam veteran – had sat down in front of an oak tree facing the Wall and killed himself. The place harbored too much pain, and now Alice was confronting it by accident for the first time.

On Sept. 15, 1984, Jeffery Davis left his shift as a Washington, D.C., plainclothes police officer and, as he often did, went drinking. After midnight he ended up at the Wall he had described as “foreboding.” 

Later, the Bronze Star winner walked away into the night and shot himself with his service revolver.

He was 36, and he left behind Alice and their two children, Kelly, 6, and Scott, 3.

Fellow Vietnam vets holding a vigil at the memorial, which had been dedicated two years earlier, found his body the next morning.
read more here

Too many times a veteran walks away unprepared to face the emotions hidden deep inside of him or her. Yes, remember there are female Vietnam veterans just as wounded as males because of what they had to go through, but we don't like talking about them much either.

There have been many Vietnam veterans' stories you don't hear about and that is why I urge you to read the rest of the story from USA Today. When they see the Wall, they don't just see names. The see the buddies they lost and cannot forget.

Double amputee jumps into a brave new life

Double amputee jumps into a brave new life
Patriot Charities to help double amputee from 101st Airborne finally taste the skies by tandem parachute
By Karen Garloch
Posted: Friday, Nov. 02, 2012

After multiple surgeries and months of rehabilitation, Army Corporal David Bixler is able to stand without assistance on his X2 prosthetic legs. The X2 is a microprocessor-controlled device that reacts to subtle changes in terrain or the wearer’s gait, allowing Bixler to walk and even climb stairs.

Army Corporal David Bixler never got the chance to jump out of an airplane when he was assigned to the 101st Airborne Division.

Friday, he’ll get his chance.

Bixler, who lost both legs while saving his platoon from an explosion in Afghanistan in 2010, will take part in a tandem skydive over Charlotte Latin’s football stadium.

“I want to show people what’s left for guys like me,” Bixler said in an interview from Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Maryland, where he is undergoing rehabilitation.

“Just because you’re busted up doesn’t mean you can’t have fun.”

Friday’s jump is sponsored by the Patriot Charities, a Charlotte-based nonprofit that supports wounded members of the military and their families from the Carolinas.

The group raised $3,500 to pay for Bixler’s jump with Mike Elliott, an Army veteran who has made more than 9,000 parachute jumps, including two tandem jumps with former President George H.W. Bush.
read more here

Everything we're seeing on Combat PTSD is in this book

Everything we're seeing on Combat PTSD is in this book
by Chaplain Kathie
Wounded Times Blog
October 31, 2012

In 2002 I tried to warn veterans and their families about what they were getting into when they came home from combat. I was right. Everything we're seeing is in this book. Now you can know what was known way back then.

I need help to be able to help veterans and their families! I am stuck between a rock and a hard place right now. While I started working with veterans and their families long before most people, I am now last on the list for support.

I am taking care of families and out of my mind busy doing what I love but I am also flat broke. If I find a job to support what I do, I won't be able to do it as much as needed. If I don't find financial support, or a job, I won't be able to do any of this anymore.

After 30 years of working on PTSD and what it does to the veterans and their families, I am an expert. When it comes to raising funds to do it, consider me stupid. I stepped up when families needed me, now I need someone to step up and help me to continue doing it.

Will you help me by making a donation and passing on this plea for help?

Make a donation in any amount and get an ebook of FOR THE LOVE OF JACK, HIS WAR/MY BATTLE.

Point Man of Winter Park is a 501c3

101st Airborne Division Celebrates 70 Years of Valor

101st Airborne Division Celebrates 70 Years of Valor
Oct 18, 2012
by usapatriotism
Soldiers of the U.S. Army 101st Airborne Division (AASLT) gather during the "2012 Week of the Eagles" to celebrate the 70th anniversary of their great division with a truly storied past with active members carrying on this noble proud legacy and adding to its historic heritage of valor.
U.S. Army video by Maj. Robin Ochoa, August 15, 2012

Fort Campbell commander asks public for help with PTSD and TBI

Campbell seeks help in addressing PTSD, TBI
Army Times
By Kristin M. Hall
The Associated Press
Posted : Tuesday Oct 2, 2012

FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. — Fort Campbell is reaching out to the medical community in Kentucky to help address the challenges of post-traumatic stress and traumatic brain injury among returning service members and veterans.

Experts from the military’s top behavioral health and brain injury research agencies came to the Army installation on the Tennessee-Kentucky state line Tuesday to teach civilian behavioral health professionals about the military’s current research and treatments into the invisible wounds that have become prevalent among troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Col. Paul R. Cordts, the commander of Blanchfield Army Community Hospital at Fort Campbell, Ky., noted that President Obama issued an executive order in August that directed ways to improve mental health care for troops within the military and veterans under the Department of Veterans Affairs.

“We cannot do this alone on Fort Campbell,” Cordts said. “We depend on the community and we need your help in addressing these issues, especially around our mental health services.”

Faced with rising suicide rates, the Army and Fort Campbell held suicide prevention and awareness training for all its units last week. The Army recorded 131 potential suicides through the first eight months of 2012, and locally there have been 12 confirmed or suspected suicides among Fort Campbell soldiers so far this year.
read more here

101st Airborne receives unique gift from former Soldier

101st Airborne receives unique gift from former Soldier
September 27, 2012
by Sgt. Grant Matthes
101st Airborne Division

A unique flagstone rock that naturally formed to the shape of an eagle head was recently donated to the 101st Airborne Division.

“Seeing as it was the 70th anniversary of the 101st Airborne Division, it was the perfect time to present it,” said Paul Tereau, a former member of the Division and resident of the Fort Campbell area.

The stone was formed when quarry workers from Ash Fork, Ariz. were breaking down pieces of flagstone to be used as sidewalks.
read more here

Fort Campbell suicide prevention efforts target a killer by shooting blanks

They just keep repeating the same failures over and over again hoping that if they just talk about all of it more, it will suddenly work. They have learned very little. All of these programs are like putting blanks in machine guns and hoping they can just bash the target instead.

Fort Campbell suicide prevention efforts target a killer
September is Suicide Prevention Awareness Month and the 101st is ready to Stand Up to Suicide
Sep 24, 2012
Written by
Erin Stattel
Fort Campbell-101st Airborne Division Public Affairs Office.

FORT CAMPBELL, KY. — While suicide has long been believed to be a silent killer, the command at Fort Campbell and the 101st Airborne Division believe the warning signs often sound the loudest alarms. Knowing those warning signs can mean the difference between life and death.

“We would like our soldiers to look at brain injuries and illnesses much in the same way they look at physical injuries and illnesses,” said Maj. Gen. James C. McConville, commanding general of the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) and Fort Campbell.

“Prevention and early intervention are the secrets to success. Our Soldiers don't have problems going to see a doctor when they are physically injured or ill, yet they are sometimes reluctant to do so with behavioral health issues. Knowing this, we are putting embedded behavioral health teams at the brigade level to provide this service at the point of need and make it more convenient to get.”

As part of the U.S. Army’s Suicide Prevention Month, Fort Campbell and the 101st Airborne Division will host several events throughout the week to educate, train and prepare soldiers, families and civilians on spotting the warning signs of suicide.

Community members will also receive briefings on how to live healthier by making better decisions on how to handle the stressors that come with Army life. The week culminates with a Suicide Stand Up Day, Sept. 27-28, with training seminars led within soldiers’ units. A wellness walk, Sept. 29, beginning at 9 a.m. at the Sportsman’s Lodge, will provide a healthy, family-friendly way to deal with any lingering frustrations or stress in the tradition of a German Volksmarch.
read more here

I am not kidding myself thinking one day the DOD and the VA would listen to people like me. After all, they don't have a clue who I am or what I know. That's the point! They haven't learned anything new because they don't try to. I've been doing this blog, tracking all the reports from across the country for 5 years but I doubt they read a single post including the ones where I slammed them for repeating the same mistakes. That is not the part that upsets me the most. There are others out there with a larger following and a lot more power than I have but they are not listened to any more than I am.

Notice the date on this report.

They thought it was a huge problem back then. So what do they say looking back at those numbers now and how much money, time and lives were lost because they didn't even learn anything back then?

Renewal of wedding vows by ambush

Yesterday at the Nam Knights clubhouse in Orlando, John and Theresa Murphy, of Semper Fidelis, renewed their wedding vows. The catch is, she didn't know anything about it. This has to be one of the funniest renewals I've ever seen.

Bill Nelson, 101st Airborne Vietnam Vet, retires from HBO

HBO shuffles execs as Nelson retires
Richard Plepler to CEO;
Eric Kessler to prexy and COO
By STUART LEVINE

HBO is realigning its top management structure following the decision of Bill Nelson to step down after nearly 30 years as a key architect of the pay cabler's empire, including five years as CEO.

In the reorg structure, Richard Plepler will become CEO while Eric Kessler has been upped to president and chief operating officer. Michael Lombardo will see his duties expand as president of programming. Kessler and Lombardo will report to Plepler.

In announcing the changes, Time Warner and HBO emphasized that the current HBO exec team has had a long and prosperous run of working together and stressed that the transition from Nelson to Plepler would be seamless.

Nelson has been a quiet but towering force during his tenure at HBO. An Army veteran who served in the 101st Airborne Division in the Vietnam War, Nelson was upped to chairman-CEO at HBO in 2007, after Chris Albrecht's hasty exit from the company. Nelson began his career at Time Inc. in 1979 and segued to HBO in 1984.
read more here

Capt. Brian Brennan, double amputee became new commander

Double amputee now leads MCoE company
By VINCE LITTLE
THE BAYONET
Wednesday, Sep. 19, 2012

Earlier this month, Capt. Brian Brennan became the new commander of Headquarters and Headquarters Company, Maneuver Center of Excellence, in a routine ceremony on Main Post. Four years ago, however, it was unclear if he’d even speak again — or emerge from a coma. Leading Soldiers seemed unthinkable.

Brennan’s life-changing event occurred in the highly volatile eastern region of Afghanistan, not far from the Pakistan border. As a first lieutenant and platoon leader with the 101st Airborne Division’s 2nd Battalion, 506th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, he lost both his legs to a roadside bomb and was left with an “unmistakable vegetative stare” after suffering severe traumatic brain injury, his Family said.

After being evacuated to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, he was stirred from a 23-day coma by Gen. David Petraeus, then the Multi-National Force-Iraq commander, who came to visit wounded troops. The general’s whisper? “Currahee,” a Cherokee Indian word meaning “stand alone,” and the motto made famous by the “Band of Brothers” who fought with Easy Company of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment in the 101st Airborne Division during World War II.
read more here

101st Airborne Currahees receive 1st female chaplain

Currahees receive 1st female chaplain
4th Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division
Story by Sgt. Kimberly Menzies
September 4, 2012

U.S. Army Capt. Delana I. Small, chaplain with Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 4th Battalion, 320th Field Artillery Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division, and a native of Springfield, Miss., greets and shares literature with a soldier as part of her religious support duties at Fort Campbell, Ky. Small was assigned as the 101st Airborne Division’s first female chaplain in a combat arms unit as part of the Department of Defense initiative, Women in the Service Review.

FORT CAMPBELL, Ky.- Those who have been and are part of the U.S. Army will be the first to tell you that the great history of the organization and the units within, is a strong part of the esprit de corps for all soldiers. Those who serve are proud of the footprint they leave as part of the newer history but there are only a small few who can sit generations from now, open a history book and point themselves out by name.

U.S. Army Capt. Delana I. Small, chaplain with Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 4th Battalion, 320th Field Artillery Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division, and a native of Springfield, Miss., arrived June 28, 2012 and was assigned as the 101st Airborne Division’s first female chaplain in a combat arms unit as part of the Department of Defense initiative, Women in the Service Review.
read more here

101st Airborne 70th Anniversary

Happy 70th Anniversary, 101st Airborne
'Beetle Bailey' cartoonist sends a tribute to Screaming Eagles
4:49 PM, Aug 16, 2012

From cartoonist and World War II veteran Mort Walker; Sarge, Beetle, Miss Buxley and Otto commemorate 70 years for the Screaming Eagles of the 101st Airborne.
DON PRATT MUSEUM COLLECTION

FORT CAMPBELL, KY.
On the occasion of its 70th birthday, “Beetle Bailey” cartoonist and World War II veteran Mort Walker has sent along a tribute to the 101st Airborne Division, care of the Brig. Gen. Don F. Pratt Memorial Museum.

Museum director Dan Peterson proudly displayed the artwork on Thursday morning, which featured the familiar characters of Sarge, Beetle, Miss Buxley and Otto the dog riding on the back of an eagle.

Walker personally mailed the drawing to ensure arrival in time for the anniversary celebration. “It really is a neat thing for the division’s birthday,” Peterman said with a wide smile.
read more here