Army ends GED program for aspiring soldiers

Army ends GED program for aspiring soldiers

By Susanne M. Schafer - The Associated Press
Posted : Thursday Aug 26, 2010 8:42:49 EDT

FORT JACKSON, S.C. — The Army is ending a program that helped nearly 3,000 high school dropouts earn high school equivalency certificates and become soldiers.

The GED pilot program known as the Army's prep school started here in summer 2008, when the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan left the service scrambling to find soldiers. But since then, with the economy in a downward spiral and jobs hard to come by, more people with diplomas have been enlisting.

In 2008, 82.8 percent of people who enlisted for active duty were high school graduates. That number jumped to 94.6 percent in 2009.
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Army ends GED program for aspiring soldiers

5 tour veteran arrested for killing two men at party

5 tours, Master Sgt. and top that off with Chaplain's assistant. He was honorably discharged but ended up shooting two men and killing them at a party. Does any of this fit together? There has to be a lot more to this story that I'm sure will come out.

Vet accused of fatally shooting 2 at party

The Associated Press
Posted : Tuesday Aug 24, 2010 8:28:05 EDT

COLUMBIA, S.C. — A South Carolina military veteran who had served five overseas tours has been arrested and accused of killing two men.

Multiple media outlets reported that 39-year-old Leslie Todd Parvin of Columbia is charged in the deaths.

Investigators say Edgar Lopez and Pablo Gutierrez-Guzman of Columbia were shot to death at a party July 30.
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Vet accused of fatally shooting 2 at party

Is the DOD just renaming same kind of failures?

I've been reading, and reading, and reading about different programs the Army claims will work better than the other programs they've had. What I'm not reading is that they have learned anything new. This all boils down to just one more program that will replace another program that didn't work. When the DOD comes up with any kind of understanding of why some end up with PTSD and why some don't that's when I'll have some kind of hope for the soldiers. Until that day comes, plan on the numbers for PTSD go up every year along with attempted suicides and suicides. Too many years as these numbers rise but to this day, they have not shown they understand PTSD any better than they did after Vietnam. Who is in charge over these programs anyway? You can call a cat a "dog" all you want but at the end of the day, the cat will still meow instead of bark and instead of warming your feet, he'll bite them.

No waiting: New Army program puts rescue before the crisis

Enemy fire isn't the only occupational hazard of military service. Whether it's one deployment or four, those who fight face an elevated risk of post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, suicide and a host of other disruptions to their lives.

This week the Army deployed another weapon against one of the biggest adversaries - stress. It's called Master Resilience Training.

The program, initiated at Fort Jackson, S.C., focuses on helping soldiers maintain psychological as well as physical health, rather than on treating those who have already been tripped up or knocked down.

The emphasis is on positive thinking, but the training isn't an endless recitation of Norman Vincent Peale's greatest one-liners. In fact, it isn't the rank and file who will be trained at Fort Jackson. These "trainees" will be sergeants and young officers taught to mentor soldiers both before and during deployments.
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http://www.fayobserver.com/Articles/2010/04/06/988889

New school at Fort Jackson to aid in fighting stress

New school at Jackson to aid in fighting stress

By Susanne M. Schafer - The Associated Press
Posted : Sunday Apr 4, 2010 12:00:54 EDT

FORT JACKSON, S.C. — Army officials are hoping to better arm soldiers to fight the stress that comes from repeated deployment to war zones in an effort to stem record suicide rates.

The military branch on Monday plans to officially open a new school aimed at teaching soldiers how to think positively to help deal with emotional, social and psychological stress. The work being done at Fort Jackson, the Army’s largest training base, has been offered in some trial courses already.

“It helps you deal with the bruises, the bumps, ways to cope with adversity,” said Staff Sgt. Jose Sixtos, a 29-year-old from Tanasket, Wash., who has served for nine years. “It gives you some better models, some ways to cope with the grim stuff in your life.”

The school will train sergeants and young officers who mentor other soldiers during training and deployments. Those superiors will work with soldiers informally, passing on the tips and techniques they learn in the classroom, participants said.
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New school at Jackson to aid in fighting stress

Fort Hood hosts Army’s new Master Resilience Training course

Fort Hood hosts Army’s new Master Resilience Training course
By Sgt. 1st Class Gail Braymen, Div. West Public Affairs
March 18, 2010 News

More than 60 Soldiers joined the Army’s team of master resilience trainers when they graduated March 10 from a session of the Army’s new Master Resilience Training program at Fort Hood.

The 10-day course, held at First Army Division West headquarters and conducted in conjunction via video teleconference with another class of Soldiers at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, is only the fourth MRT session conducted so far Army-wide. The first course, also using video teleconferencing, was held concurrently at Fort Jackson, S.C., and Philadelphia during November 2009.

“The overall goal (of Master Resilience Training) is to be more resilient, to be able to face an adversity, to go through something and, on the other side of it, come out stronger,” said Sgt. 1st Class Charles Barrow.

Barrow, a physical therapist stationed at Fort Jackson, attended the pilot MRT program last August and then became a facilitator, traveling to wherever courses are conducted. As a facilitator he helps Soldiers acquire life skills of self-awareness, self-regulation and optimism that will help them cope with deployments and other personal and professional challenges.
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http://www.forthoodsentinel.com/story.php?id=3381

Soldier from Deltona dies during training at Fort Jackson

Soldier from Deltona dies during training at Fort Jackson


Associated Press

3:42 p.m. EDT, September 12, 2009
FORT JACKSON, S.C. - The Army says a soldier from Florida has died after being diagnosed with pneumonia during basic training.

Multiple media outlets report Army officials said 23-year-old Spc. Christopher Hogg of Deltona, Fla., died Thursday, a week after he was taken to the hospital with fever and respiratory problems.

The Army says Hogg appears to have contacted pneumonia. An autopsy is not planned.

Hogg is the second soldier at Fort Jackson to die in less than a month. On Aug, 20., 18-year-old Pvt. Jonathan Morales died from apparent heatstroke.
Soldier from Deltona dies during training at Fort Jackson

Fort Jackson Soldier dies after basic training road march

Soldier dies after basic training road march

The Associated Press
Posted : Thursday Aug 20, 2009 18:16:37 EDT

FORT JACKSON, S.C. — Officials at a South Carolina Army base say an 18-year-old recruit from Wisconsin died after a training march.

Fort Jackson officials say Pvt. Jonathan Morales of Milwaukee died sometime after 4 a.m. Thursday.

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http://www.armytimes.com/news/2009/08/ap_basic_training_death_082009/

Guard units strained by chaplain shortage

Guard units strained by chaplain shortage

By Nomaan Merchant - The Associated Press
Posted : Friday Jul 10, 2009 7:38:42 EDT

MINNEAPOLIS — When patriotism inspired the Rev. Jerry Fehn a decade ago to serve soldiers in combat zones abroad, the 45-year-old was afraid he had waited too long.

He needn't have worried. The National Guard, wrestling with a chronic shortage of priests, cleared the roadblocks that might have kept Fehn out.

"They didn't really want to take someone over 40," Fehn said. "But because there's such a shortage of Catholic priests in the military, they said they would grant me a waiver if I could pass the physical."

Fehn went on to serve in Bosnia, Kosovo and Iraq. Meanwhile, the guard has made significant strides in adding chaplains to its ranks, though many units still struggle to recruit for a position seen as crucial to morale. About 200 positions are open in the Army National Guard and 45 in the Air National Guard.

"It makes it harder to provide religious support," said Chaplain Samuel J.T. Boone, commandant of the U.S. Army Chaplain Center and School at Fort Jackson, S.C. "There are some people who we can't provide their religious rites and sacraments as we can back here in the States."
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Guard units strained by chaplain shortage
The answer is,,,,change the rules to allow Chaplains with the traning to work with the National Guard,,,,,like maybe the IFOC Chaplains I belong to, but even with over 25 years of experience with veterans and PTSD, I'm not good enough. Go figure!

PTSD: NAMB chaplains get biblical training

Today must be the day of my vindication. This is one more article written about the connection between PTSD and the spirit. You would think with what the military knows they would actually see what they know and understand it, but they don't. This is a wound to the soul, the spirit of the warrior and has been documented throughout history. Why is it the military seems all so willing to dismiss all of this when they are treating soldiers with the technology but not the spiritual needs where all of this arises from?

"Psyche means soul" in the words of Dr. Tick, author of War and The Soul. No one seems to know why the DOD and the VA have ignored so much of this. I've made more progress in the last five years than I have dreamt of before. Why? Because after I wrote my book, For the Love of Jack, His War/My Battle, I stopped just looking at the spiritual needs I had met by God but saw how the wound set in on our veterans in the first place. I understood that what my husband was saying, was what most of them were saying. I trusted that understanding enough to allow me to talk more freely about the wounded souls. I stopped approaching it as a distant, disconnected teacher and allowed the human to rise up.

When I write about the spiritual needs of healing, I am either ignored or treated to rambling emails about the proselytizing going on in the military instead of reaching out to all of God's children. Non-religious friends of mine cannot understand we are all spiritual creatures, no matter what faith we claim and all of us have the same needed of reconnecting to God, no matter which way we seek it. I don't care what church anyone decides to go to, or what religious group they belong to. That is not my job and is not my place to decide for them. I am simply trying to get them to look at another aspect of being human. A side they have forgotten in all of this screaming out for help.

Right now, to all the people dismissing the spiritual aspect of PTSD, they need to either pay attention from this point on or get out of the way. Ancient people knew better how to treat PTSD than they do but our troops and veterans have been paying the price for their ignorance of the soul and the need to be fed.

Edward Tick's Story
The warrior returns

"PTSD is a soul wound."

Dr. Ed Tick, author of War and the Soul, discusses how ancient cultures dealt with returning warriors, and the modern veteran’s place in society today.
Dr. Edward Tick, author of the groundbreaking book “War and the Soul” and founder of Soldier’s Heart, is a practicing psychotherapist specializing in veterans with PTSD. Ed received his master’s in psychology from Goddard College, Vermont and his doctorate in communication from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY. Ed has been in private psychotherapy practice since 1975 and began focusing on veteran’s issues in 1979.

http://www.notalone.com/the-warrior-returns-2065.htm

PTSD: NAMB chaplains get biblical training

Posted on Jul 2, 2009 by Ann Lovell
SEOUL, South Korea (BP)--Chaplain (Major) Ed Choi understands the reality of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Deployed as a U.S. Army chaplain in Iraq for tours of duty in 2004-05 and 2006-07, Choi lost more than 30 soldiers and conducted 18 memorial services. He returned from combat burnt out, angry and frustrated.

"I was on my knees in my living room, crying out to God," Choi said. "I read Matthew 12:18-21, and verse 20 spoke to me -- 'a bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out.' I knew I needed help, but then my wife also told me I needed help. When she speaks, I listen."

Choi attended the Advanced School for Chaplains at Fort Jackson, S.C., also known as the Captain Chaplain's Career Course or C4. At the Advanced School, he realized that he was suffering from compassion fatigue, and he was diagnosed with PTSD.

"At C4," Choi said, "I realized I was not alone."

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder affects approximately 5.2 million people in any given year. The National Center for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder estimates that 70 percent of the general population will experience a traumatic event in their lives. Of that 70 percent, 20 percent are likely to develop PTSD symptoms, which include reliving the event, avoiding situations that trigger memories of the event and feeling numb or jumpy. Those who live and work in dangerous situations are at greater risk. Military chaplains are certainly no exception.
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http://www.sbcbaptistpress.org/BPnews.asp?ID=30826

Army: AWOL Fort Jackson Soldier Spotted, Safe

Army: AWOL Upstate Soldier Spotted, Safe
POSTED: 10:18 am EDT March 17, 2009

COLUMBIA, S.C. -- A U.S. Army spokeswoman said Tuesday afternoon that a 39-year-old soldier at Fort Jackson who has been away without leave for more than a week has been spotted around Columbia and appears to be safe.

Fort Jackson spokeswoman Karen Soule said that Pvt. Danielle Williams of Spartanburg was absent without leave from her basic training unit on March 7.

Williams was identified on security video withdrawing money from her bank account at a local store adjacent to Fort Jackson on March 9 and from a local bank on March 10.

Soule said that Williams failed to return to her unit after being treated at a medical clinic at Fort Jackson the afternoon of March 7.
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Family, officials stunned by deaths at Fort Jackson

Family, officials stunned by deaths at Jackson

Three recruits die in less than a month at post
By Matthew Cox - Staff writer
Posted : Sunday Nov 9, 2008 8:54:53 EST

Cameron Oquendo will never know the soldier his mother, Pvt. Andrea Rosser, could have become.

Rosser died Oct. 25 on the toddler’s first birthday while taking the Army Physical Fitness Test at Fort Jackson, S.C. She was one week away from completing the nine-week basic combat training course.

Rosser’s family is still trying to make sense of their 21-year-old’s sudden death.

“I just spoke to her about three weeks ago; she sounded wonderful,” Rosser’s mother, Georgette, told Army Times in an Oct. 30 telephone interview from her Clayton, N.C., home.

What’s more troubling, her mother said, is Rosser is one of three privates who have died in the past month attending Jackson’s basic training program.

“Three deaths in less than a month — what’s happening?” she asked. “We are trying to grieve for our daughter, and we are still trying to grasp what happened.”

In addition to Rosser, Pvt. Dominique Brooks, 19, of Houston, died Sept. 25 after having a seizure on her barracks floor, and Pvt. Derryl Britt, 20, of Durham, N.C., died Sept. 27 when he was taken off life support after surgery to repair a brain hemorrhage.

Fort Jackson officials are still investigating Rosser’s death and provided limited details of the incident, Jackson spokeswoman Karen Soule said.

Rosser’s mother, Georgette Rosser, said post officials told her that the Oct. 27 autopsy performed on Rosser at the Richland County Coroner’s office was inconclusive.

“We are waiting for the toxicology results to come out,” she said. “She had no pre-existing heath conditions.”

Leaders at Jackson said they are shocked by the three deaths.
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http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/11/army_trainingdeaths_110908w/

Female GI dies at Jackson after collapsing during PFT

GI dies at Jackson after collapsing during PFT

The Associated Press
Posted : Monday Oct 27, 2008 19:00:54 EDT

FORT JACKSON, S.C. — Officials at Fort Jackson say a 21-year-old soldier has died after she collapsed while running during the Army’s physical fitness test.

Authorities said Monday that Pvt. Andrea D. Rosser of Raleigh, N.C., was pronounced dead at a Richland County hospital Saturday, the same day she collapsed after running for about 20 minutes during the 2-mile portion of the test.

Rosser was scheduled to graduate Friday. The Army is investigating her death.
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http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/10/ap_jackson_death_102708/

Young soldier hit by breast cancer diagnosis

Young soldier hit by breast cancer diagnosis

By Susanne M. Schafer - The Associated Press
Posted : Saturday Aug 2, 2008 16:38:11 EDT

FORT JACKSON, S.C. — As a mother of three with no health insurance and a low-wage job, 32-year-old Brandielee Marendo was thrilled to get into the Army.

Last year, she entered basic training full of hopes for a career in computers and high-tech air defense. Then she found a small lump in her breast during the third week of basic training.

A diagnosis of Stage II breast cancer meant a bilateral mastectomy, chemotherapy and what could be years of follow-up medication. But it didn’t mean an immediate discharge.

Marendo is now assigned to Fort Jackson’s “Wounded Warrior Transition Unit,” one of 35 outfits for injured soldiers recuperating from combat, training injuries or any illness that keeps them from serving in their normal units.

“Just because I have this illness doesn’t mean in any way, shape or form that life stops along the way,” Marendo said recently as she sat in a military hospital with her weekly dose of medication flowing into a stent in her chest.
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http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/08/ap_basictrainingcancer_080208/

Army barracks "better than sleeping in the woods"

Report: Thousands living in shoddy barracks
By Kristin M. Hall - The Associated PressPosted : Thursday May 8, 2008 12:08:47 EDT

FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. — Spc. Kaila Colvin is looking forward to getting married for the usual reasons, and for one more particular to a soldier: not having to live in Fort Campbell’s decrepit barracks anymore.
Spc. Loren Dauterman, who trained at Fort McCoy last month with the Wisconsin National Guard, found something good to say about the falling-apart floors and ceilings in his quarters. Barely.
“It is better than sleeping out in the woods,” Dauterman said last week, “but not a whole lot better.”
Thousands of soldiers are assigned to barracks built for the GIs who fought World War II and the Korean War. The buildings are showing their age, and the soldiers are getting fed up.
After a soldier’s father posted a video on YouTube last month showing the dilapidated barracks for paratroopers at Fort Bragg, N.C., Defense Secretary Robert Gates called those conditions appalling and ordered base commanders to ensure their troops have proper quarters.
The commanders have their work cut out for them.
A spot check by Associated Press reporters over the past week found many barracks plagued by recurring problems with mold, mildew and their plumbing and wiring.
Read:
• Barracks at Ga. posts in adequate condition
• Fort Lewis fixing up old barracks
• Fort Riley barracks undergoing changes
• Jackson barracks undergoing $1B in upgrades
• Knox working to improve housing conditions
• Meade barracks in need of repair
In many cases, the wooden, cramped and outdated housing units were scheduled for destruction, but the space and economic constraints from the war in Iraq have again filled the old barracks with soldiers. Major installations like Fort Campbell and Fort Stewart, Ga., report pumping more than $100 million into barracks improvements in recent years to make room for the flood of recruits and brigades.
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http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/05/ap_shoddybarracks_050808/