Widow pushes for change in treatment for PTSD

Our job really begins when they claim the title of Veteran and it does not end as long as they live. They will be a combat veteran 365 days a year.

The general public assumes it is all over for them and their families when they come home but as we've seen with the backlog of claims and the long lines at the VA, they may finally be getting the fact that for them and us, it is not over.

Widow pushes for change in treatment for PTSD
Jun. 3, 2012
Written by
JESSE BASS
American Staff Writer

Camp Shelby
Petal military widow Alicia McElroy cares for her 4-year-old son in the absence of his father.

"I see myself as raising a hero's son and not as a poor, single mom," she said.

Staff Sgt. James "Mac" McElroy had served in some of the most dangerous - and deadly - war zones.

A deployment with the U.S. Marine Corps to Afghanistan in the early 2000s.

A tour in Iraq with the Mississippi Army National Guard in 2005.

A return to Afghanistan in 2010 for a tour of duty with the National Guard.

But it wasn't on a battlefield where James McElroy lost his life.

Instead, nearly a year ago, the 30-year-old died suddenly - and unexpectedly - on American soil in a military hospital while undergoing treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder.

Now, his widow has joined a list of families who want to see change in military standards for treatment of PTSD.
read more here

also
Soldier's widow wages war against meds she says killed her husband

Mississippi Air National Guardsman died Friday at Camp Shelby

Air guardsman dead at Camp Shelby
Apr. 7, 2012

JACKSON — A Mississippi Air National Guardsman died Friday while performing duties at the Air-Ground Range at Camp Shelby.
Master Sgt. Kevin L. Johnson, 51, of McHenry was pronounced dead Friday afternoon at Forrest General Hospital after collapsing at the range.
An autopsy was scheduled for Monday to determine the cause of death. read more here

VA investigating 1,814 patient files found spread on office floor

VA investigating patient files found on floor
By Holbrook Mohr - The Associated Press
Posted : Friday Sep 16, 2011 13:56:58 EDT
JACKSON, Miss. — The Veterans Administration announced an investigation Friday into whether medical or financial information from parts of three states was compromised after more than 1,800 files were found spread on an office floor at a veterans’ hospital in south Mississippi.

The investigation could affect veterans, deceased veterans or VA employees in seven counties in south Mississippi, four counties in south Alabama and seven counties in the Florida panhandle.

The VA said an employee’s office at the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Biloxi was “inappropriately accessed without proper authorization” on July 21. Some of the 1,814 medical files contained veterans’ names, Social Security numbers, birthdates and medical diagnoses as well as employees’ personal information.

“Based on the medical center’s initial investigation, VA officials do not believe this information was used maliciously by others. However, the investigation also revealed all established privacy and information security regulations were not followed,” the agency said in a statement.
read more here

For Miss. vets, no 'end' in Iraq War

For Miss. vets, no 'end' in Iraq War
Soldiers, kin left with question: "Was it worth it?"
Gary Pettus • gpettus@clarionledger.com • September 8, 2010


T.L. Chandler doesn't know yet if the war in Iraq has really changed that country.
He just knows it changed him.

"When I came back," said the 21-year Army veteran, "I wasn't the person my wife had married. That person doesn't exist anymore."

Nor does his marriage - one more casualty of a war that the United States is no longer fighting, officially.

With President Barack Obama's announcement this country's combat role was formally over on Sept. 1, Mississippi veterans and their families are reflecting on the meaning of the "end" and all that came before it.

Like Chandler, many returned veterans and their loved ones aren't quite the people they used to be before Operation Iraqi Freedom divided Americans over its mission and its costs in dollars and lives.

"I still remember the suffering there, children 3 and 4 years old standing out there begging for food," said Chandler, 42, of Jackson, who was diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder before his marriage blew up.

"As a parent you think about those children. 'This could be my kid.' "

On top of PTSD - the anxiety disorder that develops after a shocking event - Chandler has had surgery to repair injuries he suffered in a war whose objectives, he said, were "clouded."

"Even so," he said, "the liberation actually happened. That was why I went."
read more here
For Miss vets no end in Iraq War

At least 7 dead in Mississippi tornado

At least 7 dead in Mississippi tornado
By the CNN Wire Staff
April 24, 2010 7:03 p.m. EDT

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
NEW: At least 7 killed in massive tornado; 2 of the dead are children
NEW: Governor calls the storm "devastating," says people have been trapped in wreckage
NEW: Worst damage is in Yazoo City and Eagle Lake, near Louisiana border
Forecaster says spotters reported the twister's path as up to a mile wide

(CNN) -- At least seven people are dead, including two children, after a tornado almost a mile wide tore through Mississippi on Saturday, the state emergency management agency said.

The tornado raked cities on the central western border with Louisiana northeastward to Alabama, the National Weather Service reported.

At least two people were killed and 15 injured in Yazoo City, one of the hardest-hit areas, where the massive twister flattened homes and downed trees.

Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, who was in Yazoo City where his home is located, called the twister "enormous" and "devastating," adding that some residents were trapped in badly damaged homes.

"They're working to get to the people and rescue as many as they can," said Dan Turner, a spokesman for the governor, reporting "significant injuries" in at least three counties.
read more here
At least 7 dead in Mississippi tornado

Football player who disarmed girl with gun on bus

High praise for football player who disarmed girl with gun on bus
Story Highlights
Bus camera footage captures Kaleb Eulls, 18, tackling girl
Sheriff: 14-year-old girl brandished gun, threatened those teasing her
"I just realized something had to be done," Eulls tells CNN affiliate
"There would've been a lot of grieving families," were it not for Eulls, sheriff says
By Emanuella Grinberg
CNN

(CNN) -- A Mississippi high school quarterback is being hailed as a hero for saving a school bus full of elementary and high school students from a gun-wielding girl.
Surveillance camera footage on the Yazoo County school bus on Tuesday captured 18-year-old Kaleb Eulls tackling the 14-year-old girl while the children evacuated the bus.
He managed to wrestle the .380 caliber semi-automatic handgun from her, Yazoo County Sheriff Thomas Vaughan told CNN.
"Things could've got real ugly and there would've been a lot of grieving families in Yazoo County right now," Thomas said. "I'm just extremely glad this young man took the bull by horns and stopped a potentially deadly situation."
Twenty-two children ages 5 to 18 were on the bus to Linwood Elementary School, Yazoo County Junior High and High School when the unidentified girl drew a gun from her bag, Vaughan said. Watch the confrontation unfold on camera »
read more here
http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/09/03/mississippi.bus.hero/index.html

A family's sacrifice: Three brothers sent to war

A family's sacrifice: Three brothers sent to war
By Thom Patterson
CNN
Story Highlights
It's unusual: Three brothers serve in same Georgia National Guard company

Another three brothers from Washington state also serve in Afghan war

Two mothers open up about the stress of having three sons in harm's way

Nevada Army National Guard unit has nine sets of brothers serving in Afghanistan


Huddling in a parking lot outside a motel near Camp Shelby, Mississippi, the Callaway family members hold on to what they value most: their faith and each other. Mark and Karmen Callaway clutched their three soldier sons before sending them off to Afghanistan. "I know that people lose their children every day," said Karmen Callaway. "A fear that I have is that something will happen to all three of them." full story

Death of Spc. Ryan Longnecker still unsolved

Guardsman’s death still a mystery

By Holbrook Mohr - The Associated Press
Posted : Monday Sep 29, 2008 13:49:30 EDT

JACKSON, Miss. — Military investigators are still tying to determine what happened to a Kentucky National Guardsman nearly four months after his skeletal remains were found on a Mississippi base and urged anyone with information to contact them, authorities said Monday.

Spc. Ryan Longnecker, 19, was training at Camp Shelby in south Mississippi when he disappeared Aug. 6, 2007, just two days before his unit left for Iraq. Soon after he vanished, the military announced that Longnecker had run off with two guns and turned the case over to the U.S. Marshals Service.

His remains, however, were found by another soldier June 3 in the woods on the sprawling 136,000-acre training base between two roads and a few hundred yards from a building, authorities have said. Longnecker’s two military issue weapons, an assault rifle and pistol, were found nearby.

“It is an undetermined death investigation at this point,” Chris Grey, an Army spokesman, said.

The soldier’s father, Bryan Longnecker, a retired Marine from Milton, Ind., said there’s been much speculation about what happened, but nothing concrete has surfaced.

“It don’t make no sense,” Bryan Longnecker said. “I don’t want to call it a possible drug overdose, but that’s the only thing that’s made sense to me so far.”
go here for more
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/09/ap_longnecker_092909/

Mississippi River washes over levees

Mississippi River washes over levees
Water spilled over two levees on the Mississippi River today, surging into west-central Illinois, covering fertile farmland and pushing residents from their homes, officials said. Stranded pigs sunned themselves atop a barn near Oakville, Iowa, with floodwaters lapping near the roof of the building. full story

'Improper denials, poor service to vets'

VA claims pace lagging: 'Improper denials, poor service to vets'
Spokesman says radiation claims slowed all claims, but that the numbers are improving
Sid Salter • ssalter@clarionledger.com • June 1, 2008


Complaints that claims for Mississippi's 233,888 military veterans - including Iraq and Afghanistan combat veterans - aren't being processed in a timely manner have led to calls for a U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs investigation

Documents obtained by The Clarion-Ledger show that in April of this year, claims at the U.S. Veterans Affairs' Jackson Regional Office were being processed 53 percent slower than the national and regional average. That includes claims from combat veterans seeking help for combat-related post traumatic stress disorder.

The records show that on April 30, the national average "days pending" on veterans' claims ratings were 127.4 days while the Southern Area average was 127.5 days. But the average "days pending" for claims ratings in the VA's Jackson Regional Office was 194.8 days - a difference of 67 days.

In a May 1 letter to Secretary of Veterans Affairs James Peake, interim U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Tupelo, called for the VA's Office of Inspector General to investigate the findings of a Senate Veterans Affairs Committee counsel who uncovered "lapses in procedure" and "complaints from senior staff regarding the work environment" at the Jackson office.
go here for more
http://www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080601/OPINION/806010327/1046

Sgt. Toby Nunn and Bad Voodoo's War

Bad Voodoo's War

Rules of Engagement

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/badvoodoo/view/main.html

Bad Voodoo Platoon sets off to Iraq.
National Guard soldiers getting ready to go to Iraq.


Camp Shelby Mississippi

Sgt. Toby Nunn Platoon Sgt. May 2007 trains 30 men in his platoon for the surge. He wanted to get a break on college costs. He was in the Balkins in the Army and is now on his 9th deployment with this deployment to Iraq. Most of the men with him have been on multiple tours.

Jason Shaw volunteered to go back to Iraq to be with his friends. He went in 2003. He went back in 2005. This was his third tour. He's been diagnosed with PTSD and says there are a lot of others. He wanted to be able to help the new guys with his experience. He already has a Silver Star.

Balkins: Nunn was trying to calm down an argument between a Muslim and a Christian. They didn't think he could be neutral. He told them he didn't care because he was
Bad Voodoo's War

Rules of Engagement

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/badvoodoo/view/main.html

Bad Voodoo Platoon sets off to Iraq.
National Guard soldiers getting ready to go to Iraq.


Camp Shelby Mississippi

Sgt. Toby Nunn Platoon Sgt. May 2007 trains 30 men in his platoon for the surge. He wanted to get a break on college costs. He was in the Balkins in the Army and is now on his 9th deployment with this deployment to Iraq. Most of the men with him have been on multiple tours.

Jason Shaw volunteered to go back to Iraq to be with his friends. He went in 2003. He went back in 2005. This was his third tour. He's been diagnosed with PTSD and says there are a lot of others. He wanted to be able to help the new guys with his experience.

Balkins: Nunn was trying to calm down an argument between a Muslim and a Christian. They didn't think he could be neutral. He told them he didn't care because he was Voodoo. When his men were trying to pick a name, they decided to take Bad Voodoo.

Sgt. Michael Butler fighting Army

Soldier found himself fighting Army
Jackson Clarion Ledger - Jackson, MS,USA
Michael Butler faced court-martial for refusing to go on "suicide mission"
Jimmie E. Gates
• jgates@clarionledger.com
• March 21, 2008


Then-Sgt. Michael Butler of Jackson took a stand in October 2004 - against a military order.

Butler and 22 other members of an Army Reserve unit refused to go on a fuel transport mission in Iraq carrying nine 5,000-gallon tanks of fuel in vehicles with only cloth tops. Their actions set off an international stir about the equipment U.S. military personnel had to use.

Butler was jailed and faced a court-martial after the incident. He eventually was reassigned and served in five different units before returning to Jackson.

"They gave us no choice," Butler said last week, explaining the action the soldiers on took Oct. 13, 2004, in his first interview about the experience.

"As a military man, I would never just not obey an order," he said. But, "It would have been a suicide mission."

Butler's story was first told in The Clarion-Ledger, after his wife contacted the newspaper. Since his return, he says he has been denied medical benefits and wishes he had never seen Iraq.

Butler said last week that the convoy didn't have air and ground support and their superiors didn't want to listen to their concerns.

Amid the international debate that followed over poorly equipped Humvees in combat zones, the military admitted the unit's vehicles were not properly armored.

Butler hopes the action he and the other reservists took made it better for soldiers who came behind them in Iraq.

"It's just like it happened yesterday," Butler said of memories of his tour of duty in Iraq.

Butler is now retired from the military after a 25-year career, but he saaid his battles continue.

Butler said he suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, has memory loss and other ailments. He said he has been denied benefits for medical claims by the Veterans Benefits Administration office in Jackson with the exception of one claim: He was approved for 10 percent disability benefits for a shoulder injury.

Butler's medical claims include stress, anxiety, hypertension, memory loss, lower back pain, a leg injury, high cholesterol and the shoulder injury.

In one instance, Butler said he received a claim rejection letter where the examiner mentioned he was dressed too nicely.
click above for the rest

Sgt. Lerando Brown another non-combat death in Iraq

US Military Deaths in Iraq at 3,992
By The Associated Press – 13 hours ago

As of Wednesday, March 19, 2008, at least 3,992 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. The figure includes eight military civilians. At least 3,251 died as a result of hostile action, according to the military's numbers.

The AP count is four more than the Defense Department's tally, last updated Wednesday at 10 a.m. EDT.

The British military has reported 175 deaths; Italy, 33; Ukraine, 18; Poland, 21; Bulgaria, 13; Spain, 11; Denmark, seven; El Salvador, five; Slovakia, four; Latvia, three; Estonia, Netherlands, Thailand, Romania, two each; and Australia, Hungary, Kazakhstan, South Korea, one death each.

___

The latest deaths reported by the military:

_ A soldier was killed Wednesday in a vehicle rollover in Diyala province.

___

The latest identifications reported by the military:

_ Army Spc. Lerando J. Brown, 27, Gulfport, Miss.; died Saturday in Balad of injuries from a non-combat incident; assigned to the 288th Sapper Company, 223rd Engineer Battalion, Mississippi Army National Guard, Houston, Miss.
_ Two Army soldiers died Monday in Baghdad when their vehicle struck an explosive. Both were assigned to the 1st Battalion, 68th Armor Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, Fort Carson, Colo.

Killed were Staff Sgt. Michael D. Elledge, 41, Brownsburg, Ind., and Spc. Christopher C. Simpson, 23, Hampton, Va.

Poplarville Family Mourns Death Of Soldier, Father, Husband
Posted: March 19, 2008 08:19 PM EDT


By Al Showers
POPLARVILLE (WLOX) -- A black ribbon posted on a mail box signifies the grief inside the Poplarville home of the Brown family.

"I done lost someone that I truly loved," said Sgt. Lerando Brown's wife, Candice.

The two married about a month before he was deployed to Iraq.

"There's a hole in my heart, cause I feel like I've lost my best friend," Candice said.

On Saturday, Candice, her mother and father were at the city park planning a July family reunion when they learned two men from the Army were at the house to see Candice.

The horrible news came with few details. Sergeant Brown was in Balad, north of Baghdad, and died of a gunshot wound to the chest.

Candice had talked to her husband just hours before his death.

"We talked because he wanted to know how I was doing, how I was feeling, cause I had a doctor's appointment the day before and he wanted to know how everything went. And we talked about that and he told me, 'Alright, I'll talk to you later. Love you," and he hung up."

Brown was with the National Guard's 288th Sapper Company based in Houston, Mississippi.

"We watch the news and we always hear about the casualties and pray for the families, but when it's your own family, it really hits home," Brown's father-in-law Jimmy Richardson said.

Brown's family said he wanted to go to Iraq to serve the country he loved. But his death has left his wife questioning the sacrifice.

"I still don't understand what they're over there fighting for. He'd always say 'for our freedom,' so it just don't make no sense to me. It tears me up inside, cause I thought we were going to have a lifetime of memories," Candice said. "He still lives in my heart, always and forever."

Sergeant Lerando Brown is at least the 60th soldier with strong ties to Mississippi to die in the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan in the last five years. Sergeant Brown leaves behind two young sons.

Funeral services will be held next Wednesday at the Hart's Chapel Baptist Church on Dupont-Harts Chapel Road in Poplarville. Visitation is at 10am, with the funeral service at noon.

http://www.wlox.com/Global/story.asp?S=8043097&nav=6DJI

While we see the numbers of troops killed in Iraq, we do not think of their families. We see a number approaching 4,000 but we do not allow the numbers of those who took their own life back here in the states. We never think of their families either. There is a lot we don't want to think about.

When they come home with devastating, disfiguring wounds, some say they should feel lucky to be alive and then leave it at that. We don't want to face the fact they will pay the price for their service for the rest of their lives. We don't want to think about the backlog of claims as they wait their turn to be able to receive compensation to be able to provide for their families and pay their bills. It's the same when they develop PTSD and TBI, unable to work and unable to pay their bills as they wait for what some consider a "government handout" instead of a debt owed.

For the families who believe in what Bush says about Iraq, they take the news of the loss as a worthy cause, yet for the families left behind when they see the occupation of Iraq as a senseless mission with no end in sight, they are left to feel the loss along with a lot of anger.

We fail to see that the soldiers serving are a mirror image of us back home. When I heard Vice President Cheney respond to the fact most of the country thinks the invasion of Iraq was not worth it and he responded with "so" then smiled, I thought about the soldiers and their families back home hearing that word coming out of one of the men responsible for waging this operation without concern for the men and women who would pay the price with their lives or for the rest of their lives.

Families like Sergeant Lerando Brown's, who loved him, worried about him, cared about him yet did not believe in a word President Bush has said about the reason he was there. We trap the word hero in our brain and then think we have to support the mission or we dishonor them. What we do not see is that these men and women were born heroes and died in service to this nation that was willing to forget all about them, refuse to seek accountability, refuse to demand they were all taken care of and paid more attention to Britney Spears actions than what was happening to them. We should be ashamed to hear Bush or Cheney making speeches that do not include truth, yet too many in this country will still cheer these men.

The fact is we are arming the Sunni and the Shia and both groups agree on one thing. They hate Al-Qaeda and will take care of the few in their country that are not connected to Osama's group. Osama's group is in Afghanistan. The military operation Bush and Cheney refuse to even speak of as they try to twist the two invasions together.

While they speak of the risk to American security if they leave Iraq because terrorism will spread, they did just that with Afghanistan. They abandoned the mission there as well as the forces trying to secure Afghanistan. We should be ashamed but we are not.

While we argue over keeping the troops in Iraq or bringing them home, we disregard the fact so many of the wounded in body or mind need to be taken care of today, are not being taken care of. We should be ashamed we do not use every spear moment of our day fighting to insure they are all cared for. When will we live up to the words we say with deeds? When will we live up to the words we use as we present a carefully folded flag to the families left behind "from a grateful nation" and actually have actions to back that up?

Chaplain Kathie Costos
Namguardianangel@aol.com
www.Namguardianangel.org
www.Namguardianangel.blogspot.com
www.Woundedtimes.blogspot.com

"The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive veterans of early wars were treated and appreciated by our nation."

- George Washington

Another Non-combat death

DoD Identifies Army Casualty


The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Spc. Melvin L. Henley Jr., 26, of Jackson, Miss., died at Camp Striker in Baghdad on Nov. 21 of injuries suffered from non-combat related incident. He was assigned to the 603rd Aviation Support Battalion, 3rd Combat Aviation Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division, Fort Stewart, Ga.

The incident is under investigation.
It would be great if this family finds out what happened unlike so many other families. That won't happen unless the media in Jackson stay on the investigation. Again do not assume this was a suicide. We just don't know until reports come out. Check back for updates on this.