Vet with PTSD has to give up guns,,,still

Where were all of these people when this happened?

Joshua Omvig Suicide Prevention Act
H.R. 327 (same title) 
Signed by the President — Nov 05, 2007

EXCLUSIVE: Feds Tell Veteran He Will Lose 2nd Amendment Rights Because of PTSD
Salem-News.com
Tim King and Jerry Freeman
January 9, 2014

When did serving your country become a crime?

Pat Kirby during the Vietnam War, and today.

(MYRTLE CREEK, OR) - If Pat Kirby has his guns taken away by the federal government, then everyone else is probably going to eventually face the same thing. The clock is ticking. Pat Kirby is a decorated Oregon Vietnam Veteran with PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder). He never imagined he would receive a letter telling him he will have to turn over his guns, or face imprisonment.
read more here

How is it that people only pay attention when it involves their personal life but otherwise, don't seem to care?

This bill did more damage to veterans than it has helped them.

Here is the whole post about losing gun rights I put up in 2009.

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Suicide prevention bill prevents veterans from getting help

by
Chaplain Kathie

I did a presentation the other day for a group of veterans about PTSD. After I was done talking there was plenty of time for questions. The question most on their minds was the right to carry a gun at the same time they were getting help.

The Joshua Omvig Suicide Prevention Bill is a wonderful thing, but yet again Congress was not thinking. What this ended up doing is raise the awareness PTSD veterans need help at the same time they were begin deterred from getting it.

Would you want a PTSD veteran needing help with a gun and getting it, or would you want one with a gun and not getting it? Seems to be the question our elected should have been asking before they wrote it the way they did.

While guns are the means of choice when it comes to suicide, and there is the domestic violence issue, they can and do find other ways. When they are trained to go into combat, they are trained to rely on their weapon as their friend. When they come home with the war inside of them, many want that friend right by their side. Many veterans with PTSD go into police and defense jobs. Taking away their gun is taking away their incomes. This leaves us with a huge problem on top of the one we've had for too many years. At the same time they hear, "go for help to heal" they are told "your right to carry a gun will go away" if you do. Ever tell a combat veteran they are no longer able to carry a gun when they did it in combat?

There is no easy answer on this when it comes to preventing suicides and domestic violence when the root cause is PTSD. Awareness is wonderful and much more of it needs to be done when two thirds of the American public have no clue what it is. Educating the communities around the nation is wonderful as well as opening Veterans' Centers but if you do not get them to go for help, none of it will do much good at all.

If this part of the bill is not removed then we will keep losing more and more veterans to suicide and see their lives slip away. One more thing if you still don't understand what this did. Some troops deployed into Iraq and Afghanistan have PTSD. They have guns. Some police officers have PTSD and serve on the streets everyday. They have guns. Do you think they could do their jobs without them? Do you see them all committing suicide or domestic violence with them? Taking away guns when they seek help is an easy answer to a very complex problem and was in fact the wrong answer.

I was worried about this and heard from a lot of veterans when the bill was signed. It took a good friend of mine to point this issue out when I was thinking the other way. Then more and more veterans contacted me with this concern. Now, I know for sure, it has kept them from getting help. Most of the veterans said it was their number one reason for not going for help. They've come to terms with the stigma being stupid now they have to deal with a catch in a bill to help them being stupid.

Write to your congressmen and have them get this right right now please. They've already waited long enough to begin the healing.

Oregon Guard Members Home From Afghanistan

Oregon Guard Members Home From Afghanistan
OPB
Jordana Gustafson
Dec. 24, 2013

Five members of the Oregon National Guard have returned home from Afghanistan in time for the holidays, and a thousand more are scheduled to deploy.

The five pilots are part of the Oregon Army National Guard’s Detachment 47. They deployed to Afghanistan more than a year ago.

Stephen Bomar is a spokesman for the Oregon Military Department. He says the military does not prioritize getting troops home for the holidays.

“You know, the mission has to be accomplished, and if we’re fortunate enough to get somebody home for the holidays or have them depart after the holidays that would always be wonderful,” Bomar said.

Twenty-one Oregon soldiers stationed in Kosovo are expected to return home after the New Year.
read more here

Veteran died in motel room hours after VA discharge

For some wounded veterans, strong prescription drugs can be cause of more pain
PBS News Hour
December 7, 2013

Transcript
GWEN IFILL: Next: a troubling account of the consequences of overprescribing addictive painkillers to veterans.

The death rate from overdoses of those drugs at Veterans Affairs hospitals is twice the national average. But data shows the VA continues to prescribe increasing amounts of narcotic painkillers to many patients.

Our story comes from the Center for Investigative Reporting.

The correspondent is Aaron Glantz.

AARON GLANTZ: U.S. Army Specialist Jeffrey Waggoner received a funeral with full military honors. He was medically evacuated out of Afghanistan in 2007 after he sustained a groin injury when a rocket-propelled grenade exploded during a house-to-house search.

But that's not what killed him. Waggoner survived his deployment. He died back home in this motel, just hours after being discharged from a Department of Veterans Affairs hospital in Oregon. While recovering from his wounds, Waggoner's mental state deteriorated. He became addicted to painkillers. And the Army sent him to the detox center at this VA hospital in Roseburg to get clean.
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WWII Navy diver who helped turn ‘frogmen’ into SEALs dies

WWII Navy diver who helped turn ‘frogmen’ into SEALs dies
Los Angeles Times (MCT)
By Tony Perry
Published: November 4, 2013

John Spence, a diver often credited as the first U.S. combat "frogman" in World War II and an important figure in the rigorous training that led to the establishment of the Navy SEALs, has died.

Spence died Tuesday at a care facility in Bend, Ore. He was 95.

Because much of what Spence and others did during the war was under the Office of Strategic Services, the forerunner to the Central Intelligence Agency, stories of their bravery and resourcefulness were long classified as top secret.

Only in the late 1980s was the secrecy classification lifted, allowing Spence to finally tell friends and family members of his wartime experiences.

Rick Kaiser, executive director of the Navy SEAL Museum at Fort Pierce, Fla., said that Spence "fought for our country with nothing more than a Ka-Bar knife, a pack of explosives and a diving rig."

"In today's age of drone strikes and worldwide instant communications," Kaiser said, "it's hard to imagine going to war depending on nothing but your training, your cause and your teammates."
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Ex-homeless veteran says "My community truly loves their veterans"

Homeless, not hopeless: 'My community truly loves their veterans'
KVAL News
By Tom Adams
Published: Oct 25, 2013

SPRINGFIELD, Ore. - Marine Corps veteran Reagan Clark arrived in Lane County 8 months ago, homeless and without much hope.

But thanks to a veterans housing voucher program, he's doing much better.

"It's great to have a roof over your head, and I think it's something that we should strive to do for all veterans," Clark said.

That's the spirit of the Lane County Stand Down, an event where veterans could get a free haricut, some clothing and information about services and programs available to men and women who have served their country available from 64 veteran and social service agencies.
go here for more

VA slowed claim when daughter helped Dad

VA slowed claim when daughter helped Dad
Donald Shank is a World War 2 veteran
KOIN News
By Chris Woodard
October 24, 2013

LAKE OSWEGO, Ore. (KOIN) - Donald Shank is a simple man with a simple request. "All I'm asking is to survive."

This 87-year-old World War 2 Navy veteran was involved in a struggle with the Veterans Affairs that was so frustrating he couldn't contain his emotions.

"It's horrible," he said. "I'm glad I have a very good heart doctor now."

His problems began after he had a heart attack and quadruple bypass surgery. His daughter, Debra Walsh, arranged for her parents to stay at an assisted living facility in Lake Oswego. But the VA benefit they expected to help pay for it wasn't coming.

Walsh loaned her parents the money and paid the rent at the assisted living facility directly.

According to the VA benefit letter, that was the problem. If she had given him the money to pay the rent himself there wouldn't have been a problem.

"It's extremely frustrating. It's very hard on my Dad," she told KOIN 6 News. "I think the whole system is so broken."

The Aid and Attendance and Housebound Benefit is available to veterans who need daily assistance, like what's offered at the assisted living facility where the Shanks are.

KOIN 6 News obtained the benefit letter and Donald Shank qualifies. But instead of being awarded the full amount of $2,019, he was only getting about $111 per month. The letter explained it was because of the technicality -- his daughter paid his rent.

The Shanks were about to run out of money and they received a notice from the VA that their appeal would take 420 days.

The government shutdown didn't make it easy, but KOIN 6 News contacted someone at the VA. After a week, the Shanks got a letter that said Mr. Shank would get the whole benefit.
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VA’s opiate overload feeds veterans’ addictions, overdose deaths

VA’s opiate overload feeds veterans’ addictions, overdose deaths
Aaron Glantz
CENTER FOR INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING
September 30, 2013

Before dawn, a government van picked up paratrooper Jeffrey Waggoner for the five-hour drive to a Department of Veterans Affairs hospital in southern Oregon. His orders: detox from a brutal addiction to painkillers.

He had only the clothes on his back, his watch, an MP3 player and a two-page pain contract the Army made him sign, a promise to get clean.

But instead of keeping Waggoner away from his vice, medical records show the VA hospital in Roseburg kept him so doped up that he could barely stay awake. Then, inexplicably, the VA released him for the weekend with a cocktail of 19 prescription medications, including 12 tablets of highly addictive oxycodone.

Three hours later, Waggoner, 32, was dead of a drug overdose, slumped in a heap in front of his room at the Sleep Inn motel.

“As a parent, you’d want to know how this happened to your child,” said his father, Greg Waggoner. “You send your child to a hospital to get well, not to die.”

Jeffrey Waggoner’s end and easy access to the narcotics that killed him have become tragically common, The Center for Investigative Reporting has found.
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Afghanistan veteran with TBI struggling after dog was shot

Is this something that should happen when they come home? Read about everything going on in his life and then as the reporter writes, get ready to have your heart broken.

Veteran with brain injury faces steep bills after his dog was shot
KATU News
By Erica Nochlin
KATU.com staff
Published: Sep 26, 2013

CLACKAMAS COUNTY, Ore. – Be prepared to have your heart broken.

Luke Hunt is an Army veteran who suffered a traumatic brain injury while fighting in Afghanistan in 2010.

He’s divorced, he’s unemployed and he doesn’t have a car.

The one thing he does have is his dog, Pepper.

Earlier this week, somebody shot Pepper. Now Hunt faces a choice: Come up with thousands of dollars to fix Pepper’s leg, or have the leg amputated.

“It’s weird to say this and I know my family understands this when I say this … but she can’t talk back, and she just lays there and listens to me,” Hunt said. “I have more conversations with the things that I struggle with. Any nightmares I have, I wake up to her. She knows when I’m having a nightmare - I open my eyes and she’s licking my face.”

Hunt was a medic in the 101st Airborne Division when it was involved in a nearly 20-hour firefight in Kunar Province in June 2010. He said a friendly-fire bomb was mistakenly dropped about 25 feet away, leaving him with injuries he didn’t immediately recognize.

Once he got back to safety, he found himself frequently lost, confused, disoriented and unable to remember conversations he’d had just few minutes before.

“The traumatic brain injury is the one I deal with the most,” he said. “But I maintained in country for the rest of my deployment because I did the same thing every single day, all day.

“I didn’t start seeing those issues until I got back. Until there was more than just a horn blowing telling you when to eat breakfast lunch and dinner.”

Life got worse for Hunt when he got home.

He had won two medals and a Purple Heart, but the losses kept mounting.

Heat or stress can cause him to black out. Divorce ruined his credit. His car was repossessed because he couldn’t remember to make the payments.
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Oregon National Guardsman, Iraq veteran, killed in plane crash

Iraq War veteran killed when experimental plane crashes in Oregon
Examiner.com
Susy Raybon
September 12, 2013

Longtime Oregon National Guard Recruiter, Murray Crowe, 47, died doing what he loved; flying his experimental Challenger II aircraft.

Sergeant First Class Crowe’s plane crashed late Sunday morning near the Prineville Airport in Oregon. His identity was released this morning in a local publication The Bulletin.

In 1984, Murray Crowe joined the Army and, among other assignments,went on to serve two back-to-back tours in Iraq, first in 2010 and then again in 2011.
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Oregon sees its own surge in military suicides: Four so far in 2013

Oregon sees its own surge in military suicides: Four so far in 2013
The Oregonian
By Mike Francis
September 08, 2013

At the funeral service for Brady Hammer in Klamath Falls this summer, Travis Nelson, a cousin of Hammer's delivers the salute to Marie Hammer, Brady's mother, who holds the folded flag in her lap. Brady Hammer's sister, Lacee Valentine of Grants Pass, wearing a pink flannel shirt, sits to her mother's right, and his other sister, Kayla King of Oregon City, in the green shirt, sits to her left.
(Courtesy of Lacee Valentine)

Brady Hammer, an Oregon National Guard soldier who died in Texas on July 28 from what El Paso police say was a self-inflicted gunshot wound, was a "happy-go-lucky person," according to his sister.

But the 24-year-old's moods were affected by a confusing cocktail of medications prescribed by his doctors at the Warrior Transition Unit at Fort Bliss, where he had been treated for post-traumatic stress disorder, said his sister, Lacee Valentine of Grants Pass and his mother, Marie Hammer of Klamath Falls.
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VA investigation takes a year to figure out while veterans are left without?

The only thing this counselor is accused of is knowing the veteran. That's it. The VA is claiming she didn't tell them she knows the veteran. Either she blew it or she didn't. So why take a year to investigate while she's still on the payroll and veterans depending on her are left without her help?

Roseburg VA counselor upset by investigation
CT Post
July 27, 2013

ROSEBURG, Ore. (AP) — A Veterans Affairs counselor in Roseburg has been idle for close to a year as officials investigate whether she had an intimate relationship with a veteran who attended support groups for those with post-traumatic stress disorder.

Jamie Carlson, 33, has remained on the payroll during the investigation, collecting her $65,000 annual salary while spending her workday on Facebook and YouTube. Though her work life might sound cushy, Carlson said she'd rather be meeting with patients.

"They have made it intolerable for me," she told the Roseburg News-Review newspaper.
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Oregon war veteran in custody after manhunt

Manhunt for possible armed man prompts Thurston HS lockdown
By KVAL News
Published: Apr 10, 2013

SPRINGFIELD, Ore. - While police search for a possibly armed war veteran with PTSD, Thurston High School went Code Blue and locked down the campus Wednesday morning.

Students were never in any danger, police later said. The wanted man was not armed when he was taken into custody.
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Bill to Add PTSD to Oregon’s Medical Marijuana Program Advances

Bill to Add PTSD to Oregon’s Medical Marijuana Program Advances
The Daily Chronic
By Thomas H. Clarke
March 2, 2013

SALEM, OR — A bill that would expand Oregon’s medical marijuana program by adding post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) to the list of qualifying ailments has advanced in the Senate.

The Senate Health Committee voted 4-1 Thursday to approve Senate Bill 281, which would add post-traumatic stress disorder to the definition of “debilitating medical condition” for the purpose of authorizing the medical use of marijuana.

Use of medical marijuana is currently allowed in the state for patients with certain debilitating medical conditions such as cancer, glaucoma, Alzheimer’s disease, HIV and AIDS.

Post-traumatic stress disorder is a type of anxiety disorder that occurs in people who have seen or experienced a traumatic event that involved the threat of injury or death.

Military veterans returning from combat often suffer symptoms of PTSD.
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VA approves request by Oregon woman to bury same-sex spouse

In a first, VA approves request by Oregon woman to bury same-sex spouse in national cemetery
By Mike Francis
The Oregonian
on February 14, 2013

Nancy Lynchild's grave at Willamette National Cemetery, when it is dug, will seal a marriage while setting a national first. And it will provide a public expression of a life that retired Air Force Lt. Col. Linda Campbell once had to live in secret.

The burial of Lynchild's ashes at the military cemetery will be the nation's first of a veteran's same-sex spouse. Eric Shinseki, the secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs, which administers national cemeteries, personally approved a waiver of VA policy to permit the burial.

Lynchild died of cancer in Eugene three days before Christmas.

Shinseki's waiver was no sure thing. It followed a monthslong campaign by Campbell, encouraged and supported by Bureau of Labor and Industries Commissioner Brad Avakian and Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., they told The Oregonian. And it didn't arrive until Jan. 29, more than a month after Lynchild died, while Campbell agonized about funeral arrangements. It is the latest signal that the military -- and the nation -- is changing the way it views same-sex relationships.

A self-described lifelong "rule follower," Campbell is overjoyed that she and Lynchild will have their ashes buried together at Willamette. They will share space in the same cemetery where her father, a World War II veteran, and her mother have their ashes under a stone that says "Together forever."
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KBR found guilty wants tax payers to pay again for Iraq veterans

KBR, Guilty In Iraq Negligence, Wants Taxpayers To Foot The Bill
Ryan J. Reilly
Posted: 01/09/2013

WASHINGTON -- Sodium dichromate is an orange-yellowish substance containing hexavalent chromium, an anti-corrosion chemical. To Lt. Col. James Gentry of the Indiana National Guard, who was stationed at the Qarmat Ali water treatment center in Iraq just after the 2003 U.S. invasion, it was “just different-colored sand.” In their first few months at the base, soldiers were told by KBR contractors running the facility the substance was no worse than a mild irritant.

Gentry was one of approximately 830 service members, including active-duty soldiers and members of the National Guard and reserve units from Indiana, South Carolina, West Virginia and Oregon, assigned to secure the water treatment plant, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Sodium dichromate is not a mild irritant. It is an extreme carcinogen. In November 2009, at age 52, Gentry died of cancer. The VA affirmed two months later that his death was service-related.

In November, a jury found KBR, the military's largest contractor, guilty of negligence in the poisoning of a dozen soldiers, and ordered the company to pay $85 million in damages. Jurors found KBR knew both of the presence and toxicity of the chemical. Other lawsuits against KBR are pending.

KBR, however, says taxpayers should be on the hook for the verdict, as well as more than $15 million the company has spent in its failed legal defense, according to court documents and attorneys involved with the case.

KBR's contract with the U.S. to rebuild Iraq’s oil infrastructure after the 2003 invasion includes an indemnity agreement protecting the company from legal liability, KBR claims in court filings. That agreement, KBR insists, means the federal government must pay the company's legal expenses plus the verdict won by 12 members of the Oregon National Guard who were exposed to the toxin at the Qarmat Ali water treatment plant.
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Oregon State safety's Mom serving in Afghanistan

With his mom in Afghanistan, Oregon State safety Tyrequek Zimmerman shoulders heavy load
By Lindsay Schnell
The Oregonian
December 28, 2012

SAN ANTONIO -- Tyrequek Zimmerman understands it's his job as a big brother to keep an eye on his younger siblings, but the 20-year-old Oregon State safety quietly shoulders more than most college football players.

When he sensed that Wykeyhe Walker was down on Christmas Day, Zimmerman insisted his little brother visit the Beavers' team hotel. When Walker arrived, Zimmerman pressed some money into the 18-year-old's hand, told him to go shopping to cheer up and then to return after team meetings so they could hang out.

Zimmerman, a starter for the No. 15 Beavers, and Walker, a junior college player in Texas, both struggled with being away from family during the holiday. But as the oldest child, Zimmerman buries the pain of missing his mom so he can put on a brave face for his siblings.

He's done it before, but when their mother, Army Sgt. Lovier Miller, deployed from El Paso to Afghanistan on Nov. 30, Zimmerman knew it was time to step up again. In addition to her two sons, Miller left behind a daughter, 10-year-old Yasmine.
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Formerly homeless vet finds a place in a widow's heart and home

Ken Reusser obituary in the LA Times brings a lot more meaning to this already wonderful story about his widow Trudy.

He received 59 medals during his career, and his 253 combat missions are considered the most ever by a Marine pilot.
After his retirement, he worked for Lockheed Aircraft, where he helped develop the U-2 spy plane, and then the Piasecki Helicopter Co. Retiring to his native Oregon, he was active in veterans groups.
He and his wife, Trudy, made headlines in 2004 when they defiantly refused to leave their home after it went into foreclosure. The couple had lost much of their retirement savings in a high-risk investment and then a swindle by a bookkeeper. Ultimately they were forced to obey a court order.

Now that you know the backstory on this, read what Trudy Reusser did.

Formerly homeless vet finds a place in a widow's heart and home
Published: Tuesday, December 25, 2012
By Mike Francis
The Oregonian

If there's one thing on which everyone -- activists, columnists, elected officials, cabinet secretaries, even the president of the United States -- seems to agree, it's that Americans should support military veterans.

Bind their wounds. Give them jobs. Provide them counseling. Welcome them home. Easy to say, harder to do.

This is the story of one welcoming. It involves a 73-year-old Milwaukie widow and her housemate, a 67-year-old Vietnam veteran.

She was married for almost 35 years to a legendary military aviator, living in a place she and her husband built before he died three years ago.

And he is her helper, sleeping in a warm bed in her spare bedroom, out of the cold and the rain since she invited him in.

If Trudy Reusser and Norm Gotovac seem an unlikely pair, that's because you don't know Reusser.

"She is a wonderful lady," says her friend, Kay Saddler of Hemlock, Ore. "She would give the shirt off her back and the shoes and socks off her feet if it would help a veteran."

Reusser. Why is that name familiar?

Military history buffs will know instantly: Ken Reusser is the most decorated Marine pilot in history. He displayed extraordinary bravery in combat not once, but repeatedly, across decades. He is, it is believed, the only pilot to have survived being downed in World War II, the Korean War and in Vietnam. He was awarded the Navy Cross twice, the Legion of Merit with V twice, the Distinguished Flying Cross five times, four Purple Hearts and numerous other commendations.
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Going to war, living in peace

Going to war, living in peace: He was both father and officer, bound by duty
The Oregonian
By Guest Columnist
on November 12, 2012
By Eric Schuck

It was a sliver of a battle in a war few people wanted and fewer still understood. It was the summer of 1967, and it was his second trip to Vietnam. The first time, in 1964, he had been idealistic about it all. He and his ship had raced across the Pacific in the firm belief they were coming to the rescue of another destroyer. This time there were no such illusions. Shots would be fired in anger. Men would die. And yet he still went.

Such was the youth of my father. I've often wondered about how he accepted that knowledge the second time around. When he spoke of it -- which was not often, not by a long stretch -- he basically shrugged it off by declaring it his duty as a naval officer. That's a difficult word for most of us, duty. To some, it implies an unthinking and unreasoning obligation. For him, it was anything but. At his heart, he was ever the Catholic schoolboy. He could reflect and question and challenge the most complex moral questions, but only up to a point. When he reached the spot where answers themselves became questions, he accepted and endured. This was one of those cases. The Navy and the people of the United States had trusted him to lead their sailors into harm's way. If he did not lead them, someone else would, someone who might himself be killed, or worse, who might lead to the death of his sailors. That he could not accept, so he went. Again.
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Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in Oregon

Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall, traveling replica, on display during long holiday weekend
By Larry Bingham
The Oregonian
on November 07, 2012

Faith Cathcart, The Oregonian PORTLAND, OREGON - November 6, 2012 - Navy Veteran Daniel Brooks arrived at Skyline Memorial Gardens with the Patriot Guard Riders who accompanied the arrival of the Dignity Memorial Wall, a replica of the Vietnam Veterans Wall in Washington DC. Faith

The last time Dignity Memorial Gardens, a national chain of funeral homes and cemeteries, brought its replica Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall to Portland, Dan Wilhelm wanted to be a part of putting it together.

Wilhelm, a Vietnam vet, was at Lincoln Memorial Garden Cemetery in Southeast Portland in 2006 when the tractor trailer arrived. He was a member of the crew that set up the elevated ramp on a bed and soil and gravel and laid the 240 feet of walkway. When the 8-foot tall individual wall panels of faux granite were unloaded, he was one of four men who carried each from the truck and set it in place.

For 63-year-old Wilhelm, who was drafted into the Army in 1967 and enlisted in the Navy in 1977, "it was a privilege to touch" each of the panels.
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Oregon National Guardsmen win $85 million from KBR

This happened when Congress didn't give a damn and KBR made a lot of money. This is how National Guards Soldiers were treated but too many didn't care to pay attention.

Iraq War Contractor Ordered to Pay $85 Million
By NIGEL DUARA and STEVEN DUBOIS
Associated Press
PORTLAND, Ore.
November 3, 2012
(AP)

A jury on Friday ordered an American military contractor to pay $85 million after finding it guilty of negligence for illnesses suffered by a dozen Oregon soldiers who guarded an oilfield water plant during the Iraq war.

After a three-week trial, the jury deliberated for just two days before reaching a decision against the contractor, Kellogg Brown and Root.

The suit was the first concerning soldiers' exposure to a toxin at a water plant in southern Iraq. The soldiers said they suffer from respiratory ailments after their exposure to sodium dichromate, and they fear that a carcinogen the toxin contains, hexavalent chromium, could cause cancer later in life.

Rocky Bixby, the soldier whose name appeared on the suit, said the verdict should reflect a punishment for the company's neglect of U.S. soldiers.

"This was about showing that they cannot get away with treating soldiers like that," Bixby said. "It should show them what they did was wrong, prove what they did was wrong and punish them for what they did."

Each soldier received $850,000 in noneconomic damages and $6.25 million in punitive damages.

Another suit from Oregon Guardsmen is on hold while the Portland trial plays out. There are also suits pending in Texas involving soldiers from Texas, Indiana and West Virginia.

KBR was found guilty of negligence but not a secondary claim of fraud.
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Oregon National Guardsmen still fighting for justice after Iraq