Showing posts with label Sgt. John Russell. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sgt. John Russell. Show all posts

Friday, May 17, 2013

Sgt. John Russell given life in prison without parole

U.S. soldier sentenced to life in prison for killing comrades in Iraq
By Chelsea J. Carter
CNN
May 16, 2013

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
A judge finds that Sgt. John Russell killed with premeditation
Russell pleaded guilty to the May 2009 killings at Baghdad's Camp Liberty
He opened fire at a combat stress clinic, killing five people

(CNN) -- A U.S. Army sergeant was sentenced Thursday to life in prison without parole for gunning down five fellow service members at a combat stress clinic in Iraq.

The sentence handed down at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, near Tacoma, Washington, came after Sgt. John Russell pleaded guilty to the killings in a deal in which prosecutors agreed not to seek the death penalty.

Russell pleaded guilty to the May 11, 2009, killings at Baghdad's Camp Liberty, telling a military court last month that he "did it out of rage."

The only question facing the judge, Col. David Conn, was whether Russell committed the slayings with premeditation, which the 48-year-old soldier disputed.

During a brief sentencing hearing, Conn ruled Russell killed with premeditation," meaning the sergeant could not be given a lesser sentence.

As part of last month's plea agreement, Russell described to the court how he killed Navy Cmdr. Charles Springle, Army Maj. Matthew Houseal, Sgt. Christian Bueno-Galdos, Spec. Jacob Barton and Pfc. Michael Yates Jr.
read more here

Tuesday, April 23, 2013

What kind of justice is this?

What kind of justice is this? When you read what happened on a 3rd tour of duty, you should be asking the same question. Families lost people they love over something that never should have happened.
May 2009

The U.S. military charged the suspect with five counts of murder, and one count of aggravated assault in the killings. Maj. Gen. David Perkins told reporters Tuesday that the charges were filed against Sgt. John M. Russell of the 54th Engineering Battalion based in Bamberg, Germany.

Perkins said the dead included two doctors, one from the Navy and the other from the Army. The other three dead were enlisted personnel.

Sources tell CBS News correspondent Kimberly Dozier the suspect was on his third tour of Iraq.

A recent Army study found soldiers on their third or fourth deployment are twice as likely to suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Caught early enough, the symptoms including nightmares, sleep disturbances and rollercoaster emotions and hypervigilance, can be treated. But often troops won't ask for help, reports Dozier.


His father was interviewed by Associated Press in May of 2009.

Army 'broke' soldier held in killings, dad says
Feels military bears some responsibility: 'It shouldn't have happened'
Wilburn Russell said Tuesday that 44-year-old Army Sgt. John M. Russell wasn't typically a violent person, but counselors "broke" him before gunfire erupted in a military stress center Monday in Baghdad.
Excerpts of his military record, obtained by The Associated Press, show Sgt. Russell previously did two one-year tours of duty in Iraq, one starting in April 2003 and another in November 2005. The stress of repeat and extended tours is considered a main contributor to mental health problems among troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.


But the military already knew the problems associated with redeployments.

The Washington Post reported this in 2006

Redeployments
U.S. soldiers serving repeated Iraq deployments are 50 percent more likely than those with one tour to suffer from acute combat stress, raising their risk of post-traumatic stress disorder, according to the Army's first survey exploring how today's multiple war-zone rotations affect soldiers' mental health........

But the military also said they had addressed it with "Battlemind" training that every soldier received by 2008. Sgt. John Russell would have been one of them. By 2009 Russell was on his 3rd deployment.

In 2007 it was another soldier.

The killing of Jamie Dean Police in rural Maryland staged a military stakeout and shot a troubled Army vet. As his family plans to sue, they are asking how a soldier being treated for PTSD could be shipped to Iraq.

Spec. Allen Hill had two months between two deployments.
Hill joined the Army in Texas in 1986 at age 18. He was placed at Fort Riley in 1990 and has lived in Kansas since. He fought in the 1991 Persian Gulf War before joining the Army National Guard.

When war again found Iraq, Hill was deployed from August 2005 to November 2006. He deployed again in January 2007 with the 731st Transportation Company out of Larned.

Hill’s unit served as convoy security, where he most often drove the Humvees. That was until Nov. 21, the day before Thanksgiving.


And then there was this report about Combat Stress Clinics

Combat stress unit at center of Iraq slaying trial
Sunday, May 17, 2009
The trial of Pfc. Steven Green may end up explaining part of what was behind Sgt. Russell's action at Camp Liberty's Stress Clinic. If doctors are under pressure to return soldiers back to duty, they are not getting the kind of care the doctors are trying to give them. What good do stress clinics do if the commanders are more interested in getting them back into action instead of being healed enough first before sending them back?

Combat stress unit at center of Iraq slaying trial
By BRETT BARROUQUERE
Associated Press Writer
© 2009 The Associated Press
May 16, 2009, 2:42PM
PADUCAH, Ky. — Pfc. Steven Dale Green held on to his sergeant on the hood of a Humvee as it sped down a road in a doomed effort to save the life of his leader.

Staff Sgt. Phillip Miller, who served in Iraq with Green, has testified the incident pushed the soldier over the edge.

"I call it his breaking point," Miller said.

Eleven days after Sgt. Kenith Casica's death on Dec. 10, 2005, near Mahmoudiya, Iraq, Green sought help from combat stress counselors. Army nurse practitioner Lt. Col. Karen Marrs listened to Green talk about wanting to kill Iraqi civilians, gave him a prescription for sleep medication and sent him back to his unit.

The combat stress unit's actions with Green have become central as defense lawyers try to persaude jurors not to condemn him to death for rape and murder in Iraq. Green was convicted May 7 for the rape and murder of 14-year-old Abeer Qassim al-Janabi and the shooting deaths of her family — an attack that took place three months after Green visited the stress unit.


Now John Russell will spend the rest of his life behind bars after pleading guilty. Is this justice? Is this justice for the families?

Was anything done about this report from Army Times?

The Camp Liberty Combat Stress Center in Baghdad, Iraq, where a soldier is accused of shooting and killing four other soldiers and a Naval officer on May 11, had “numerous physical security deficiencies” that put staff and patients at risk, according to a report released Friday.

Many of the patients seen by the center’s staff are “potentially violent,” according to the AR 15-6 investigation into the shooting. And the report highlighted several problems, among them inadequate locks on the one-story building’s exterior doors, training for staff and storage for weapons.

The investigation also found the 54th Engineer Battalion, the unit to which the accused shooter belongs, did not have formal written policies and procedures in place regarding behavioral health treatment. Instead, the battalion relied heavily on the battalion chaplain’s expertise.

Monday, March 4, 2013

Delay in trial of Sgt. John Russell leaves families frustrated

Family Frustrated by Wait in Army Fratricide Case
Mar 04, 2013
Stars and Stripes
by Megan McCloskey

WASHINGTON -- It’s been almost four years since the deadliest case of American fratricide in the Iraq War, and the Army sergeant accused of killing five of his fellow servicemembers has yet to face a court-martial.

The lengthy delay has one victim’s family questioning what, exactly, is keeping the Army from moving faster on the case.

“It’s just not justified. There’s really no good reason,” Tom Springle said. “We’ve waited long enough.”

His brother, Navy Cmdr. Charles Keith Springle, was among those killed in May 2009 at Camp Liberty in Baghdad when Sgt. John Russell allegedly opened fire on the combat-stress clinic there.

Finally, late last year, after years of delays on both sides, the court-martial date was set for March 11, but it was recently pushed back to late April because the prosecution hadn’t provided the defense with court-ordered funds for expert witnesses.

“I wouldn’t be afraid to bet money this April there’s still no court-martial,” Springle said.

The Springle family has company in their frustration with those still awaiting the trial of Maj. Nidal Hasan more than three years after he allegedly killed 13 people and wounded dozens of others in a shooting at Fort Hood in November 2009. So far, no court-martial dates have held up in that case either with delay after delay, and both groups of victims are angered by the drawn-out process that to them is seemingly without reason.
read more here

Sgt. John Russell trial, example of what went wrong

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Sgt. John Russell trial example of what went wrong on PTSD

By now most people have forgotten what happened in 2009 at Camp Liberty. The witnesses haven't forgotten. The families haven't forgotten. Aside from the trial, the military must have forgotten about this too.

Camp Liberty shootings leave a lot of questions but so far we're still asking questions and getting few answers. In May of 2009 The Guardian headline was "Horror and stress of Iraq duty led US sergeant to kill comrades" and it is something you should read before you decide how you feel about this story.

U.S. soldier enters no plea in 2009 Iraq shootings
By Laura L. Myers
Reuters
November 19, 2012

Sgt. Russell, Army sergeant accused of killing five fellow soldiers in Iraq, is seen in military photo provided by his father, Wilburn in Sherman
(JESSICA RINALDI, REUTERS / November 19, 2012)


TACOMA, Washington (Reuters) - A U.S. soldier accused of killing five fellow servicemen at a military combat stress center in Baghdad in 2009 entered no plea at an arraignment on Monday at a military base in Washington state.

Sergeant John Russell is accused of going on a shooting spree at Camp Liberty, near the Baghdad airport, in an assault the military said at the time could have been triggered by combat stress.

Russell, of the 54th Engineer Battalion based in Bamberg, Germany, faces five charges of premeditated murder, one charge of aggravated assault and one charge of attempted murder in connection with the May 2009 shootings. Six months ago, he was ordered to stand trial in a military court that has the power to sentence him to the death penalty, if convicted.

Two of the five people killed in the shooting were medical staff officers at the counseling center for troops experiencing combat stress. The others were soldiers.
read more here

Combat stress unit at center of Iraq slaying trial
May 17, 2009
The trial of Pfc. Steven Green may end up explaining part of what was behind Sgt. Russell's action at Camp Liberty's Stress Clinic. If doctors are under pressure to return soldiers back to duty, they are not getting the kind of care the doctors are trying to give them. What good do stress clinics do if the commanders are more interested in getting them back into action instead of being healed enough first before sending them back?


Fort Levenworth hearing set for Sgt. John Russell

Baghdad Shooting Spotlights Combat Stress

Friday, May 18, 2012

Sgt. John Russell faces death penalty

Soldier faces murder charges in Iraq base deaths
Published May 18, 2012
Associated Press

SEATTLE – Murder charges have been filed against a sergeant accused of killing four other soldiers and a Navy officer in May 2009 at a mental health clinic in Iraq, the Army said Friday.

The charges against Sgt. John Russell were referred Wednesday and announced Friday in a statement from Joint Base Lewis-McChord. He faces five charges of premeditated murder, one of aggravated assault and one of attempted murder.

If convicted, he could face the death penalty.

The charges result from an investigation into the shooting at the Camp Liberty Combat Stress Center near Baghdad.

No date for the court-martial has been set. Russell is being held at the base about 40 miles south of Seattle.

Russell is from Sherman, Texas, and is now about 47 years old, said Lt. Col. Gary Dangerfield. The delay since the incident has been filled with the process of determining whether Russell is fit to stand trial. Russell has an Army defense attorney but it is standard procedure for them not to comment to the media, Dangerfield said.
Read more

From 2009
Update on soldiers killed at stress clinic

Monday, August 8, 2011

Fort Levenworth hearing set for Sgt. John Russell

Before you judge, what happened is one of the reasons things changed for soldier seeking help with PTSD. There were lapses in how the Army addressed soldiers seeking help but this discovery was too late to save the lives of the five service members he is accused of killing.

Hearing set for soldier in health clinic shootings

By JOHN MILBURN
Associated Press
Published: Monday, Aug. 8, 2011 - 12:09 am
Last Modified: Monday, Aug. 8, 2011 - 12:39 am

FORT LEAVENWORTH, Kan. -- A key military hearing will begin Monday for a U.S. soldier charged in a 2009 shooting that killed five service members at a mental health clinic in Iraq.

Army Sgt. John Russell is accused of carrying out the deadliest act of soldier-on-soldier violence during the war in Iraq. The case brought attention to the issues of combat stress and morale as troops increasingly served multiple combat tours.

Russell had gone to counseling to deal with combat stress, but an investigation found lapses in how the military monitored him and how authorities responded once the shooting began at a base on the edge of Baghdad.

Russell faces five counts of premeditated murder, two counts of attempted premeditated murder and one count of assault. During the hearing beginning Monday at Fort Leavenworth, a military officer will hear evidence and decide if Russell should face a military trial. The proceedings are similar to a civilian grand jury.

Killed in the shooting were
Navy Cmdr. Charles Springle, 52, of Wilmington, N.C.
Pfc. Michael Edward Yates Jr., 19, of Federalsburg, Md.
Dr. Matthew Houseal, of Amarillo, Texas
Sgt. Christian E. Bueno-Galdos, 25, of Paterson, N.J.
Spc. Jacob D. Barton, 20, of Lenox, Mo.
Read more: Hearing set for soldier in health clinic shootings

Friday, October 16, 2009

Lax security blamed after deadly shooting at Camp Liberty

This was one of those times when I had deep compassion fatigue. I thought that since everything was done the way people like me keep pushing for it to be done, getting help as soon as possible, getting help in theater, but they still ended up dead, there really wasn't much point in fighting to get anyone into treatment. Yes, I know it is never too late to get help and that the majority will heal, lead good lives and really live a life with help, the sad part is, we just can't save them all. I really wish we could.

Lax security blamed after deadly shooting

By Michelle Tan - Staff writer
Posted : Friday Oct 16, 2009 18:32:02 EDT

The Camp Liberty Combat Stress Center in Baghdad, Iraq, where a soldier is accused of shooting and killing four other soldiers and a Naval officer on May 11, had “numerous physical security deficiencies” that put staff and patients at risk, according to a report released Friday.

Many of the patients seen by the center’s staff are “potentially violent,” according to the AR 15-6 investigation into the shooting. And the report highlighted several problems, among them inadequate locks on the one-story building’s exterior doors, training for staff and storage for weapons.

The investigation also found the 54th Engineer Battalion, the unit to which the accused shooter belongs, did not have formal written policies and procedures in place regarding behavioral health treatment. Instead, the battalion relied heavily on the battalion chaplain’s expertise.

Sgt. John M. Russell is accused in the shooting. He faces five counts of murder, two specifications of attempted murder and one count of aggravated assault.

Russell, who was 44 at the time of the shootings, is in pre-trial confinement in Kuwait. He was escorted into the Combat Stress Center where he got into an argument with the staff and was asked to leave, according to original reports.
read more here
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2009/10/army_campliberty_101609w/

Monday, May 11, 2009

5 US soldiers shot at Camp Liberty in Iraq
Update on soldiers killed at stress clinic at Camp Liberty
Updates on Camp Liberty shooting
Dr. Matthew Houseal one of the dead among Camp Liberty Shooting
Camp Liberty shootings leave a lot of questions


Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Army IDs soldiers shot by Sgt. at Camp Liberty

Maj. Matthew P. Houseal, 54, of Amarillo, Texas;
Sgt. Christian E. Bueno-Galdos, 25, of Paterson, N.J.;
Spc. Jacob D. Barton, 20, of Lenox, Mo.; and
Pfc. Michael E. Yates Jr., 19, of Federalsburg, Md.


Is Camp Liberty the tragedy that will end the excuses?
Bodies of servicemen killed by comrade come home from Camp Liberty
Mental health bill finds new urgency after Camp Liberty tragedy
Mom of GI killed in Camp Liberty clinic shooting seeks info
I almost forgot how many posts were about Camp Liberty. What I didn't forget was the fact that we failed them. We failed Sgt. Russell, his family and Maj. Matthew P. Houseal, Sgt. Christian E. Bueno-Galdos, Spc. Jacob D. Barton and Pfc. Michael E. Yates Jr. plus their families. We also failed the men and women in their units, their friends and their neighbors. We failed the others who fell through the cracks already hanging onto hope waiting for their turn to be helped. What we have to also remember is that we didn't fail all of the veterans with PTSD.

18 Veterans commit suicide everyday. That's appalling. That is also just the ones they know about. Too many more are never reported as suicides. There are over 10,000 a year attempting to commit suicide. We need to keep fighting for them just as hard as we fight for the ones we cannot save. We also need to keep fighting for the ones we did get into help, help that wouldn't have been there if we didn't care in the first place.

I applaud Vietnam veterans often when I bring up the point other veterans came home with the same kind of wound inside of them, but it took the Vietnam veterans to have it recognized and treated. What I keep forgetting to mention is that it took the American people to listen to their voices and do something about it. We heard them, at least some of us did. Imagine how many lives we managed to save!

Still stories like this end up reminding us just how much more we have to do before we can honestly say we did all we could do to save as many as possible.


I am reviewing a book written by Victor Montgomery III, Healing Suicidal Veterans. This book, like so many others, would not be possible if people didn't care, take a stand and demand someone do something. Maybe too many Moms didn't recognize their sons. Too many wives ended up knowing there was something really wrong with their veteran husbands. Maybe hearing how much they wanted to go back to Vietnam gave us enough of a clue, they just didn't feel as if they belonged here anymore. How could they really? We didn't make them feel welcomed.

We didn't want to hear what they had to say and we didn't want to establish any safety nets to be ready. We did it reluctantly. We never wanted to really witness war. That's what hurt them the most.

Ever since we sent them to go into combat, it's been easy to wave a flag and cheer. It's even easy to show up when they come home but we want to go back to our own lives, pretending they can do the same. It's just easier that way.

They were like us before they went. They stopped being like us when they went. When they came home, they even stopped being like the others taking their place, because they tasted war, risked their lives, saw things no one is ever really prepared for and they became veterans. This title they will carry the rest of their lives, but we want to pretend they just go back to being our son/daughter, husband/wife, parent, neighbor, co-worker or friend. Yet if we really thought about them, we'd want to know what they have going on inside of them even if we didn't want to know all the details. After all, if we can listen horror stories that are a part of normal "life" from "regular" people, then why can't we listen to them?

We pay to read horror books, go to movies, decorate our yards for Halloween and spend a fortune on costumes, but real life of what they go through is just too much for us? This makes no sense at all. Pretending they we just away for vacation will not help them heal and if we don't then we'll end up with a lot more horror scenes like Camp Liberty with real funerals that didn't need to happen.

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Mom of GI killed in Camp Liberty clinic shooting seeks info

Mom of GI killed in clinic shooting seeks info

The Associated Press
Posted : Wednesday Jul 15, 2009 14:05:38 EDT

FEDERALSBURG, Md. — The mother of a Maryland soldier killed with four others in a shooting at a mental health clinic in Iraq says she wants to know more about how her son died.

Shawna Machlinski says she filed a Freedom of Information Act request last month to get more details about the May shooting in which her son, 19-year-old Pfc. Michael Yates Jr. of Federalsburg, was killed.

read more here
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2009/07/ap_mom_soldier_death_071509/

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

PTSD:Bringing the war back home

Bringing the war back home ...
Growing numbers of war-traumatised US servicemen are going on the rampage. so what is the army doing to help its damaged GIs?
From Andrew Purcell in New York
BEFORE HE went on the rampage, John Russell was showing such obvious signs of combat-related stress that he should have been sent home from Iraq, according to military mental health professionals. The army sergeant, who killed five fellow soldiers at a clinic at Camp Liberty in Baghdad on Monday, was nearing the end of his third tour of duty. That he was still in a war zone despite his superiors knowing he was a threat to himself and others is a symptom of the institutional pressure to keep damaged men fighting.

Floyd "Shad" Meshad, director of charity the US National Veterans Foundation, was an army medic in Vietnam, where he counselled soldiers in the field suffering from combat-related stress.

"It's clear that this situation was escalating and sending this guy back for a third tour was just insane," he told the Sunday Herald. "If they see any sign of breaking or snapping they need to remove soldiers completely out of the combat zone and get them into professional care. That's the bottom line."


John Keaveney, a Scot who joined the US Army during the Vietnam war and now runs a veterans support organisation in California, believes that unless the military improves its mental health treatment, there will be similar massacres - but this time of civilians back home, not fellow GIs in a combat zone.

"It'll be a recurring theme," he said. "You have to understand how desperate a person has to be to get a gun and to kill something snapped inside of him, his mental pain became unbearable and he thought that maybe lashing out at people would bring attention to the fact that he was injured."

Russell's commanding officer had confiscated his weapon a week earlier because of concerns about his mental state, but on the way out of the clinic, he wrestled a gun from the staff sergeant who was escorting him, returned inside and began killing, apparently indiscriminately. Two of the dead were officer counsellors, including a volunteer psychiatrist from the army reserve. Three others were enlisted men.

Russell's comrades said that he was angry because his nightmares and constant anxiety were not taken seriously. His father, Wilburn Russell, claimed he had been sent to the clinic for punishment, not treatment. "I think they broke him," he said.

In an email, John Russell had said he was worried he would be dishonourably discharged, losing his salary and army pension, soon after taking out a mortgage on a house in Sherman, Texas.

A career soldier with the 54th Engineering Battalion, Russell had served in Kosovo and Bosnia. His specialism, salvaging robots used to destroy roadside bombs, meant that he saw "a lot of carnage and things he shouldn't have seen", according to his father. He lived in Germany, but on visits back to family in Texas he was perceptibly different - more nervous and unpredictable with each deployment. "Nobody should have to go three times. They should've realised that," his father said.
go here for more
Bringing the war back home

Sunday, May 17, 2009

Combat stress unit at center of Iraq slaying trial

The trial of Pfc. Steven Green may end up explaining part of what was behind Sgt. Russell's action at Camp Liberty's Stress Clinic. If doctors are under pressure to return soldiers back to duty, they are not getting the kind of care the doctors are trying to give them. What good do stress clinics do if the commanders are more interested in getting them back into action instead of being healed enough first before sending them back?

Combat stress unit at center of Iraq slaying trial
By BRETT BARROUQUERE Associated Press Writer © 2009 The Associated Press
May 16, 2009, 2:42PM
PADUCAH, Ky. — Pfc. Steven Dale Green held on to his sergeant on the hood of a Humvee as it sped down a road in a doomed effort to save the life of his leader.

Staff Sgt. Phillip Miller, who served in Iraq with Green, has testified the incident pushed the soldier over the edge.

"I call it his breaking point," Miller said.

Eleven days after Sgt. Kenith Casica's death on Dec. 10, 2005, near Mahmoudiya, Iraq, Green sought help from combat stress counselors. Army nurse practitioner Lt. Col. Karen Marrs listened to Green talk about wanting to kill Iraqi civilians, gave him a prescription for sleep medication and sent him back to his unit.

The combat stress unit's actions with Green have become central as defense lawyers try to persaude jurors not to condemn him to death for rape and murder in Iraq. Green was convicted May 7 for the rape and murder of 14-year-old Abeer Qassim al-Janabi and the shooting deaths of her family — an attack that took place three months after Green visited the stress unit.


Dr. Pablo Stewart, a psychiatrist at the University of California-San Francisco, told jurors Marrs and other combat stress teams are in a tough situation, charged with treating soldiers but also mindful of pleasing commanders, who wanted soldiers to stay in the field with their units.

"She's trying to please her command and at the same time treat her patients," Stewart said. "I see that as an almost impossible job."

That impossible job left some of Green's fellow soldiers with little confidence in combat stress units.
go here for more
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/6427280.html

Saturday, May 16, 2009

Some military commanders still stuck on stupid when it comes to PTSD

Conduct unbecoming of an officer should now include stupidity and the inability to learn. The wound suffered by soldiers in their command has been killing more after combat than during it since recorded history began. What part of military history did these commanders study? Didn't they ever study the aftermath of warfare? It is part of the big picture and it's their job to learn from it. They want the best and the brightest but they don't want to have to do anything when it comes to healing the best and the brightest so they can still serve their nation. The men and women serving today are no different than the other humans serving in different wars and the studies on PTSD began in the 70's showing exactly what price is paid. Along with the problem there were clear instructions on addressing it as soon as symptoms begin so that damage done is not beyond repair.

Now I'm wondering what the real problem is. Is it that they refuse to learn from what history and scientific research has shown or is there something more sinister here at work?

We know there is a problem in the military with Chaplains more interested in proselytizing than they are interested in consoling and listening. Are they part of the problem considering there is a shortage of Chaplains in the military and the ones deployed are not focused on the troops as troops instead of converts? Are they pushing the soldiers seeking help away because they will not covert or are not members of their particular denomination of Christian? There are, believe it or not, some Christian still looking at any kind of mental illness or anxiety disorder as being judged by God, counted among the "non-chosen" by God and therefor unworthy of their help. Are they part of the problem?

We know denial is a big issue when it comes to PTSD. Most of the people slamming the soldiers coming forward discussing PTSD have PTSD themselves and it is not unheard of for them to turn around and feel sorry for what they did to others while they were in denial themselves. When generals came out and discussed their own battles with PTSD, they showed great courage but before then they were in denial they were wounded. We have to ask what their attitude toward their men was in the dark days of denial in order to understand the mind-set of the commanders still dismissing PTSD for anything other than what it is.

The good news is that more and more commanders are addressing PTSD the right way but the bad news remains too many are still addressing it by attacking the soldiers with the courage to step up and say they need help. The question is, how many commanders are still ignorant and what is being done to hold them accountable?


Army fights stigma of mental care
By ROBERT H. REID – 2 hours ago

BAGHDAD (AP) — A military culture that values strength and a "can do" spirit is discouraging thousands of soldiers from seeking help to heal the emotional scars of war in Iraq and Afghanistan, despite top-level efforts to overcome the stigma, commanders and veterans say.

Up to one-fifth of the more than 1.7 million military members who have served in Iraq or Afghanistan are believed to have symptoms of anxiety, depression and other emotional problems. Some studies show that about half of those who need help do not seek it.

"It's a reality that for some — certainly not all, but for some — there's a stigma to stepping forward for behavioral health," Maj. David Cabrera, who runs counseling services at a military hospital in Germany, told The Associated Press.

"Our goal is to eradicate the stigma," he said. "We're not there yet."

Encouraging more soldiers to seek help, and training leaders to spot signs of trouble, have taken on new urgency since the fatal shooting last Monday of five U.S. service members at a counseling center at Baghdad's Camp Liberty.

Army Sgt. John M. Russell has been charged with five counts of murder. He was finishing his third tour in Iraq and had been ordered to seek counseling at the center, the Army said.

Sergeants on their third or fourth assignments to Iraq or Afghanistan are more than twice as likely to suffer mental health problems as those on their first assignment to a combat zone, according an Army study last year.

Combat stress is common in every war — including "battle fatigue" cases in World War II and the lasting trauma still suffered by thousands of veterans of the Vietnam conflict.

What makes the current conflicts different are the frequent, repeating rotations. Most soldiers spent just one or two assignments in Vietnam, but many American soldiers and Marines are on their third or fourth tours in Iraq and Afghanistan.
go here for more
Army fights stigma of mental care

Is PTSD Still Being Downplayed?

We still don't know what happened but if the Army is still trying to downplay PTSD, we have a lot bigger problem than this!

Did Doctors Deny Iraq Shooter's Stress?
Troop Mate Says Sgt. John Russell Knew He Had A Problem; Is PTSD Still Being Downplayed?

WASHINGTON, May 14, 2009
(CBS) A soldier in accused shooter Army Sgt. John Russell's unit says Russell was angry because he thought he was suffering from combat stress.

But he told his fellow troopers that the doctors at the clinic he allegedly attacked did not believe him, reports CBS News correspondent Kimberly Dozier at the Pentagon.

The 44-year-old signals specialist from the 54th Engineering Battalion, based in Bamberg, Germany, was charged with five counts of murder and one count of aggravated assault for Monday's shooting, which killed two military doctors and three soldiers, at a combat stress clinic at Camp Liberty, in Iraq.

Russell had been relieved of his weapon a week earlier, after making some "inappropriate remarks," his fellow soldier said, and he'd been referred to the stress clinic for counseling. But each day, the counselors "sent him back to his base," where Russell complained the doctors were refusing to take his symptoms seriously or give him the medication he thought he needed.

On Monday, the soldier says Russell was being transported back and forth to the mental health clinic by his staff sergeant escort.

After yet another argument at the clinic, he and his escort had just returned to Russell's brigade headquarters. That's when he "assaulted his escort, stole his weapon," and held him at briefly at gunpoint. Russell snatched away the keys for the vehicle, and drove back to the treatment center, where he allegedly opened fire.
go here for more
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/05/14/national/main5014301.shtml

Friday, May 15, 2009

Horror and stresses of Iraq duty led US sergeant to kill comrades

Horror and stresses of Iraq duty led US sergeant to kill comrades
Soldier's killing spree left five dead – adding to the grim total of murders by US veterans as the military is accused of failing its battle-scarred personnel
Chris McGreal in Washington The Guardian, Saturday 16 May 2009

Everyone – the father, the son, the army – agrees that three tours of Iraq drove ­Sergeant John Russell to the edge.

But what pushed him over, into shooting dead five of his comrades in an army that was his life for 16 years, is a matter of bitter dispute.

The military has suggested that ­Russell's work cannibalising and rebuilding robots used to set off roadside bombs brought him into regular contact with gruesome casualties, and that took a toll that exploded at Camp Liberty in ­Baghdad this week.

The army says it recognised signs of trauma in the 44-year-old sergeant, who was just a few weeks from leaving Iraq, and dispatched him for psychological assessment at a military stress centre in Baghdad. Russell got into a fight there, grabbed a gun and shot two doctors and three other soldiers dead.

That version of events has some of the familiar ring of accounts of traumatised soldiers driven to violence by violence. Ever since the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan began, soldiers have been returning to the US and killing.

Veterans from the two wars have committed at least 120 murders beginning with a spate of killings of wives at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, in 2002 and continuing with five murders at a military base in Colorado last year.

Alongside the killings has come a surge in domestic violence, drug and alcohol addiction. Meanwhile suicides run at twice the rate of people outside the military. But back at his home in Sherman, Texas, Russell's family say it was not the combat but the army that drove the sergeant in an engineering unit over the edge. His father, Wilburn, 73, said the military was Russell's life and that amid the stresses of combat he had fallen out with his officers.
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Horror and stresses of Iraq duty led US sergeant to kill comrades

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Is Camp Liberty the tragedy that will end the excuses?

by
Chaplain Kathie

Is this the tragedy that will end the excuses? Is this the moment in time when the military invests the same kind of training and time they put into sending soldiers into combat to make sure they are sending them home with the help they need to heal from it?

The military has finally come a long way from the days of chain of command not only ignoring this wound but taking it out on the wounded. Sadly, there are still too many either dismissing it or still taking it out on the men and women serving. You'd think they would all open their minds to learn about this wound they cannot see as they do when it comes to learning how to use weapons but too many still don't.

Some of the programs the military has are not working and in some cases making things worse, but they still use them. Battlemind training tells the troops they can train their brain to be "toughened" and in the process telling them anyone wounded by PTSD is wounded because they are just not tough enough, didn't prepare for battle and it's their fault. This is the beginning of the program and then they address what PTSD is but it's too late. The message has already been delivered. The only message that will sink in has been implanted. This adds to the stigma and brings a sense of shame onto their shoulders. They actually believe they can train their brains.

Instead of seeking help to heal as soon as they begin to experience the symptoms of PTSD, they try to fight it off. They have the ammunition to support this because of Battlemind and they go into denial. Anger comes out while pain sets in. They are wounded and feeling guilty because they are. Then they feel as if they are just not good enough, strong enough, tough enough to be able to stand next to the others not touched by what they also witnessed. They look at the men and women they serve with and wonder why the others are better than them. After all, the military can't be wrong about PTSD and they just must have not done a good enough job to prevent this. The problem is, the military has been totally wrong about PTSD for all these years. They have a lot to make up for.

What about today? What about the soldiers still thinking it's their fault? What about the families without a clue what PTSD is and what they can come home with? Military spouses will be the first to tell you they don't want to even think about this as they have so many other things to worry about. Yet this "worry" is something they can do something about if only they would learn what it is. Some units have begun to set up programs so that the soldiers and the spouses become fully aware of it but time will tell if these programs are any better than Battlemind training or not. How much time do we have? How many more will commit suicide because they were not trained to heal properly? How many more families will be left to grieve over needless deaths? This happened at a crisis center and there are more things coming out about this offering some clue as to why. Sgt. Russell will be able to speak on what was going on and what was behind this but there seems to be he had a sense of denial about what was going on with him. If this career solider had the wrong idea about PTSD, could that have been so embedded within him that he was willing to do anything to prove the doctors wrong and stop them from "insulting him" because of this denial? We'll have to wait to hear what he has to say as the investigation goes on but the five dead were either seeking help or trying to help, so clearly, they understood the need to seek help, but Russell still didn't.



PHOTO COURTESY OF THE BUENO-GALDOS FAMILY
Sgt. Christian E. Bueno-Galdos, 25, was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 66th Armor Regiment, 172nd Infantry Brigade, Grafenwoehr, Germany. He was a Paterson resident and one of the victims of the deadly Monday soldier-on-soldier shooting.



Paterson soldier slain at Camp Liberty shooting wanted to study medicine
by Tomas Dinges/For The Star-Ledger
Wednesday May 13, 2009, 1:44 PM




The Department of Defense today identified Paterson resident Sgt. Christian E. Bueno-Galdos as one of the five victims of the deadly shooting Monday at Camp Liberty in Iraq.

Bueno-Galdos is survived by his wife, Greisyn Bueno, his mother, Eugenia Galdos, his father, Carlos Bueno, two brothers and a sister.

"We will never forget him," said his mother. "He was always a very good kid, and we love him a lot."

Bueno-Galdos, 25, the second youngest of four children, emigrated from Mollendo, Peru when he was about 7 years old.

"He was a great kid, very studious," said Carlos Bueno, his father. "Almost everything that he wanted, he achieved."


Bueno-Galdos was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 66th Armor Regiment, 172nd Infantry Brigade, Grafenwoehr, Germany; this was his second tour in Iraq.

"SSG Bueno-Galdos was an excellent leader," said Bruce Anderson, a spokesman for the U.S. Army, in an e-mail. "His dedication to duty, to his family and to his faith was an inspiration to us all. His love for country and friends were a model for all of us to follow. His presence will be missed by all the soldiers of the Task Force Black Knights."

Bueno-Galdos's awards include: Army Commendation Medal (Two Oak Leave Cluster), Army Good Conduct medal, National Defense Service Medal, Iraqi Campaign Service Medal, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, Army Service Ribbon, and Overseas Service Ribbon.

Camp Liberty, where the deadly shooting took place in Baghdad, is operated by the 55th Medical Company, a Reserve unit headquartered in Indianapolis.
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Paterson soldier slain at Camp Liberty shooting wanted to study ...

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

What kind of tests did the military do on Sgt. Russell?

Sgt. Russell had been in the military most of his life. Third tour plus two before this in other countries. It is not as if he is new to any of this. If he had problems we need to find out what kind of tests were done and if the tests sent an already stressed out career soldier over the edge or not. If they did, then how many others were sent over the edge as well?

Base Slayings Spur Probe of Mental Health Care
By Ernesto Londoño
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, May 13, 2009

BAGHDAD, May 12 -- The U.S. military said Tuesday that it is launching a probe to identify shortcomings in mental health treatment for troops deployed in war zones, after a soldier allegedly killed five fellow service members at a base clinic in Baghdad on Monday.



Military police officers took Russell into custody outside the clinic shortly after the shooting.

Perkins said Army criminal investigators are putting together a timeline of the events leading up to the shootings. He said he was not aware of a motive and did not know whether Russell knew any of the slain troops.

Russell's father, Wilburn Russell, 73, told the Associated Press on Tuesday that counselors at the clinic "broke" his son, by putting him through stressful mental tests but not clarifying that they were merely tests. The elder Russell said his son had e-mailed his wife sometime before the shooting and told her he had had two of the worst days in his life. He told her that "his life was over as far as he was concerned," the father said. Wilburn Russell said his son was not a violent man.
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Base Slayings Spur Probe of Mental Health Care

Combat veteran links stress to multiple tours

Combat veteran links stress to multiple tours
(NECN: Greg Wayland) - The Camp Liberty shooting is being called the deadliest case of soldier-on-soldier violence since the Iraq war began in 2003. It has once again thrown a spotlight on the problem of combat-related stress.

It happened here at the combat stress control center in the place they call Camp Liberty.

Just days ago, Lt. Colonel Beth Salisbury gave ABC News a tour of the facility.

Salisbury, who runs the center, was not hurt in the shooting. But the dead were two people on her medical staff and three soldiers awaiting treatment.

U.S. officials say Sgt John M. Russell was taken into custody shortly after the rampage and was due to leave Iraq soon. He was reportedly referred to the stress center by his superiors, presumably because of concerns about his mental state.

Army officials say Russell’s weapon had been taken a way but that somehow he got a new gun at the camp, entered the clinic, argued with staff, and then opened fire.

Paul Comacho, a ninth Marine division Vietnam veteran, heads UMass Boston's Joiner Center for the study of war and social consequences.

He says multiple combat deployments can be a major stress factor. Sgt. Russell was reportedly on his third deployment and at the end of a 15-month deployment.

“These guys have four tours. I mean it's the number of tours. I think you can't say anything particular. In general you can say there's a whole issue with the number of tours and what happens between these tours.
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Combat veteran links stress to multiple tours

Camp Liberty shootings leave a lot of questions

by
Chaplain Kathie

The killing of five soldiers at Camp Liberty in Iraq raises serious questions. Sgt. John Russell was reported to have gone to a Chaplain and sent to the stress clinic. It seems he was in denial of having a need for help. Obviously his commander thought differently and took his weapon away from him. Russell's father said the military "broke" his son. After a long career in the military, Russell was on his third deployment. With serving that long in the military, should it be found he was wounded by PTSD, then why didn't it sink in that he needed help to heal? It's not as if he was a new recruit. Has the military been doing a good enough job getting thru to the soldiers that there is nothing to be ashamed of when it comes to PTSD? If they had, would this have happened?

There is also the issue of the report coming out of Afghanistan with 60 Chaplains busy trying to "hunt down" souls for God and proselytizing within the military as well as the people of Afghanistan. Are they so busy breaking military rules and evangelizing that they are not focusing on the spiritual needs of stressed out troops and is this still going on in Iraq as well?

We know there is a shortage of Chaplains in the military. The Navy has offered scholarships to recruit Chaplains. We also know that when it comes to mental health providers, there are not enough psychologist and psychiatrists to take care of the growing need of the troops. Chaplains play a vital role, or are supposed to, when the troops need help. This leaves us wondering if the Chaplains are all trained to do the work and doing it to the fullest of their duties or are they concentrating more on proselytizing instead?

While it breaks our hearts to have the men and women serving this nation die because of combat, it is part of what happens when they serve and we accept the death more easily than we do when they die needlessly. It should never, ever be acceptable for them to die because they lack help. Sgt. Russell shot five people at a Crisis Center, so we know there are soldiers seeking help and therefore the military is addressing the need, but we still have to wonder what was said or not said setting Russell off. As reports come out, this question needs to be answered. If he does have PTSD, then what was not explained to him about it leaving him in such denial he turned around and shot five of his "brothers" instead of getting the help that was available at the Crisis Center?

We know by the fact so many are taking their own lives in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as back home, that the military is still not doing enough, just as the VA is not doing enough. Who is checking on what they are doing and fully investigating if what they are doing is the right thing or not? The programs the military has been using are clearly not working. Had they been working, would units have to come up with their own programs like the Montana National Guard? If the programs in the VA were working, would there be a need for so many other groups to come up with their own programs to take on the issue? Is anyone finding out what these answers are?

So how much time are we going to tolerate being wasted when lives are on the line?

We don't know yet how Sgt. Russell was treated by the Chaplain, what the Chaplain told him or what Russell understood. We do know he was breaking and this was in an email to his father. If he talked to a Chaplain was he forced to do it or did he do it because he wanted to? Was he on any medication? If not then why not?

Dr. Matthew Houseal one of the dead among Camp Liberty Shooting


Psychiatrist from Amarillo killed at Iraq clinic


AMARILLO, Texas (AP) — A Texas clinic official says a psychiatrist from Amarillo is among the five people shot to death at a military counseling center in Baghdad.

The executive director of the Texas Panhandle Mental Health and Mental Retardation says the wife of Dr. Matthew Houseal (HOUSE'-eel) told him Tuesday that Houseal was among the dead.

Bud Schertler said Houseal had been at the Panhandle clinic for 12 years. He says Houseal had volunteered to go back to assist in Iraq and was called up for duty. He says Houseal was due to return to the clinic the first part of June.

He says Houseal was married and had six children.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — A Navy officer who spent his career helping service members deal with stress and a 19-year-old soldier from Maryland were among the five people shot to death at a military counseling clinic in Baghdad, family members and the Pentagon said Tuesday.

Cmdr. Charles Springle, 52, of Wilmington, N.C., was one of the victims of Monday's shooting, the Pentagon said. Shawna Machlinski, the mother of Pfc. Michael Edward Yates Jr., said two men from the Army came to her home on the Eastern Shore early Tuesday and said her son was also fatally wounded at the clinic by what they called "friendly fire."

One other officer and two enlisted soldiers also were among the dead, officials said, but their names have not been released.

Machlinski, who last spoke to her son on Mother's Day, said he had talked about the alleged shooter, 44-year-old Sgt. John M. Russell. She said he told her Russell was deeply angry at the military after three tours of duty in Iraq.
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Psychiatrist from Amarillo killed at Iraq clinic

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Updates on Camp Liberty shooting

U.S. soldier charged with murder in Iraq shooting deaths
Story Highlights
NEW: Suspect struggled with fellow soldier over weapon, defense official says

Army Sgt. John Russell charged in killings of five fellow soldiers

Russell, 44, of Texas serving third tour in Iraq

Military spokesman: Russell referred to counseling, had gun confiscated recently

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- The U.S. soldier who authorities say killed five fellow troops -- including a Navy commander -- at a stress clinic in Iraq on Monday apparently used a weapon he wrested away from another soldier, a Defense official said.


After getting the weapon, the soldier stole a military vehicle and drove to the clinic, where earlier he had been in a fight, the official said.

The shooter was identified as Army Sgt. John M. Russell, according to Maj. Gen. David Perkins, the military spokesman who briefed reporters in Baghdad, Iraq, on Tuesday. Russell has been charged with five counts of murder and one count of aggravated assault after the shooting at Camp Liberty, near Baghdad's international airport, Perkins added. Watch how the Army is handling the case »

A 44-year-old communications specialist from Sherman, Texas, Russell is serving his third tour in Iraq and has previously deployed to Bosnia and Kosovo, according to his service record.

His father, Wilburn Russell, also of Sherman, said Russell had e-mailed his wife saying he believed unidentified officers were trying to run him out of the military.

"As far as he was concerned, the military was the most wonderful thing that ever happened to him," Wilburn Russell said. "Evidently, he felt they turned against him and life was over. He didn't care any more, I guess.

"He broke. He just couldn't handle it."
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U.S. soldier charged with murder in Iraq shooting deaths
U.S. soldier: murder charges 3:50
CNN's Cal Perry reports on U.S. soldier charged with shooting and killing 5 fellow soldiers in Iraq.
U.S. soldier: murder charges

According to this report the stigma of PTSD lives on and keeps soldiers from getting the help they need.

Sgt. John Russell was treated badly at crisis center according to email to his father

Soldier held in killings 'snapped,' dad says
He feels counselors at stress clinic where 5 died had pushed too hard
SHERMAN, Texas - The father of the soldier charged with killing five fellow troops in Iraq said Tuesday that he believes his son snapped after counselors in a military stress center "broke" him.

Wilburn Russell spoke with reporters in front of the northern Texas home owned by his son, Army Sgt. John M. Russell.

The elder Russell said his son was six weeks away from completing his third tour in Iraq before Monday's shootings at Camp Liberty near Baghdad.

His son was treated poorly at the military stress center and had said over e-mail that two recent days were the worst in his life, Wilburn Russell said.

He felt like "his life was over" and that he had "lived for the military," the elder Russell added.

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http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30678715/