Sgt. Shawn Whitmore dazzled PGA Tour players

WTU golfer Whitmore comes full circle at Walt Disney World
October 31, 2011

By Tim Hipps (IMCOM)

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. -- Despite being told twice by doctors that he would never play golf again, Sgt. Shawn Whitmore dazzled PGA Tour players at the 2011 Children's Miracle Network Classic.

Whitmore, a two-time survivor of bouts with mortar rockets and improvised explosive devices in Afghanistan, held his own with PGA Tour golfers on the Palm and Magnolia courses at Walt Disney World Resort on Oct. 20-21.

"With the golf and the people and my wife and kids here, this is probably one of the best days and best weeks of my life," Whitmore said after ending two rounds of pro-am play with a birdie putt. "And that's the least I can say about it. It's just the epitome."

Whitmore teamed with pro David Duval on Thursday for a round of 1-under-par 71 on the Magnolia course. With his handicap, Whitmore scored 2-under after finishing with a bogey on No. 18. Davis Love III was the other pro in the group.

Whitmore is "a really good player," Love said. "He made a lot of pars. He talked about his kids, his service, and everything he's done. He's an amazing guy, very humble, and it was great to be out with him.
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Fort Drum soldier gets help instead of jail

Drum soldier admits to robbing Kinney's Pamelia location twice
By BRIAN KELLY
TIMES STAFF WRITER
THURSDAY, JUNE 2, 2011

A Fort Drum soldier admitted Wednesday in Jefferson County Court that he twice robbed the same pharmacy of drugs while threatening that he had a gun.

Sentencing was deferred until Aug. 12 while Mr. Languet completes an inpatient substance abuse rehabilitation program. Mr. L......, an Army truck driver with the rank of sergeant, served with the 3rd Battalion, 85th Infantry, Warrior Transition Unit, which is for injured and ill soldiers working to transition back to a deployable unit or to become a civilian.

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Drum soldier admits to robbing

SSG Seyward McKinney Returns to Warrior Games

SSG Seyward McKinney Returns to Warrior Games

By Donna Butler, WTC Stratcom

In March 2009, AW2 Veteran SSG Seyward McKinney’s life changed. After returning from Iraq, McKinney was diagnosed with an arteriovenous malformation (AVM) in her brain. McKinney was treated at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and underwent numerous surgeries and nine days after the last, one of the vessels in her brain leaked, which caused her to have a stroke. Paralyzed on the right side of her body, McKinney’s injury caused her to lose her right-sided peripheral vision. Although her injuries are not combat-related, she is a living testament that non-combat related injuries can challenge Soldiers just as much as combat-related injuries.

McKinney was stationed at the Walter Reed Warrior Transition Unit (WTU) and worked diligently to learn how to overcome her injuries, eventually empowering herself to reach another milestone in her life—competing in the 2010 Warrior Games. She competed in the women’s sitting shot-put, in addition to 10K recumbent cycling, sitting volleyball, and wheelchair basketball. These events helped her attain the sense of teamwork she enjoyed in the Army and now can continue to enjoy with athletics. At the 2010 Warrior Games, she won a gold medal in cycling and a bronze medal in shot-put. These two achievements demonstrated to McKinney that with determination and passion, she could continue to succeed.
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SSG Seyward McKinney Returns to Warrior Games

Nonprofit putting wounded from Fort Meade to work

Nonprofit to hire 48 wounded vets
By BEN WEATHERS Staff Writer
Published 04/27/11
The nonprofit group that takes over a multimillion-dollar contract for maintenance services at Fort George G. Meade this summer expects to hire up to 170 people.

While Upper Marlboro-based Melwood may hire many of the men and woman now working for the outgoing contractor, it is looking to add 48 people with special qualifications - veterans wounded in the service of their country.

Melwood CEO Janice Frey-Angel said her group is working with the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Maryland Center for Veteran Education and Training to identify potential candidates. Candidates may have cognitive, mental health and physical disabilities, as well as brain injuries and post-traumatic stress disorder.

The group also is recruiting the 200 soldiers in Fort Meade's Warrior in Transition unit, which helps servicemen and women return to civilian life, said Fort Meade spokeswoman Mary Doyle.

"Being able to provide veterans with jobs has been one of Melwood's missions," Frey-Angel said. "Being on base, it's a familiar (environment for them) - it's not like taking them out of their comfort zone. In many ways, it gives us the opportunity … to do our job, meet our mission and also help the country."

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Nonprofit to hire 48 wounded vets

Mistake May Shortchange Wounded Vets

Mistake May Shortchange Wounded Vets

April 07, 2011
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review|by Carl Prine
For more than five years, thousands of wounded and injured military reservists and National Guard troops nationwide might have lost medical benefits because of a Pentagon mistake, according to an investigation by Sen. Ron Wyden.

In a letter sent on Wednesday to Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, the Oregon Democrat said that many wounded troops returning from Afghanistan and Iraq who ended up in Warrior Transition Units at military bases or in community-based programs near their homes lost up to six months of medical coverage that's provided to them under a 2005 law.

The Transition Assistance Management Program, or TAMP, was supposed to help personnel returning from active duty get the medical care they needed before their civilian coverage kicked in. The problem was that the Pentagon began counting the 180 days of coverage the moment the troops returned to the United States, not once they left active duty.

Those who needed extensive care in the Warrior Transition Units often exhausted their six months of benefits before they went home, according to Wyden. Pentagon paperwork leaked last year to the Tribune-Review showed that the typical reservist or Guard member will spend about a year in the special medical units, or longer if they're in a community-based program.
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Mistake May Shortchange Wounded Vets

Fort Eustis leaders break ground for new WTU complex

Eustis leaders break ground for new WTU complex
by Lyna Tucker
633d Air Base Wing Public Affairs

4/1/2011 - FORT EUSTIS, Va. -- "The new WTU complex is very timely as the expectation of care and needs for warriors increases," said Warrior Transition Unit Commander Capt. LaCederick Jackson in a brief speech during a ceremony marking the start of construction of a new WTU complex March 25 at Fort Eustis.

With wounded warriors, WTU cadre and leadership, and members of the Joint Base Langley-Eustis on site, Fort Eustis leadership broke ground for construction of the $9.7 million complex behind the McDonald Army Health Center at the corner of Sternberg and 25th Streets.

On the nearly 15-acre site, the new complex will consist of a 16,600-square foot, two-story Company Operations Facility to house the unit command team and WTU cadre offices and a new 7,000-square foot Soldier and Family Assistance Center. The complex will also include a 48,200-square foot, 80-room barracks facility to be awarded at the end of April. The project is set for completion July 2012.
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Eustis leaders break ground for new WTU complex

Troops can't heal what they can't feel

Troops can’t heal what they can’t feel
January 27, 2011 posted by Chaplain Kathie
Drugs have one job and that is to get people to feel better. Antibiotics stop infections so that the body can take over and heal the wound. When it comes to PTSD, medications cover up the pain but too many times they cause more problems. When drugs are all that is used to fight PTSD, it isn’t giving troops a fair fighting chance to heal.

Army Trauma Unit’s Woes Detailed
By JAMES DAO
Published: January 26, 2011
The Army units created to provide special care for wounded soldiers after the Walter Reed Army Medical Center scandal continue to struggle with short staffing, inadequate training and an overabundance of prescription medications, a report by the Army inspector general’s office said.

This is from the VA

Clinician’s Guide to Medications for PTSD
What is the evidence base for the specific groups of medications used for PTSD treatment?
Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRI’s). These medications are the only FDA approved medications for PTSD . SSRIs primarily affect the neurotransmitter serotonin which is important in regulating mood, anxiety, appetite, and sleep and other bodily functions. This class of medication has the strongest empirical evidence with well designed randomized controlled trials (RCT’s) and is the preferred initial class of medications used in PTSD treatment (1, 2). Exceptions may occur for patients based upon their individual histories of side effects, response, and comorbidities. An example of an exception would be a PTSD patient with comorbid Bipolar Disorder. In this patient, there is a risk of precipitating a manic episode with the SSRI’s. Each patient varies in their response and ability to tolerate a specific medication and dosage, so medications must be tailored to individual needs. Research has suggested that maximum benefit from SSRI treatment depends upon adequate dosages and duration of treatment. Treatment adherence is key to successful pharmacotherapy treatment for PTSD.

I have listed many medications and warnings.
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Troops can't heal what they can't feel

A third of Warrior Transition Unit Soldiers addicted to painkillers

Report: A Third of WTU Soldiers Addicted
January 26, 2011
UPI
A U.S. military report says up to 35 percent of the 10,000 Soldiers in Warrior Transition Units are dependent or addicted to prescription painkillers.
An Army inspector general's report released Tuesday says 25 percent to 35 percent of the Soldiers assigned to the special wound-care companies -- established after the 2007 Walter Reed Army Medical Center scandal -- "are over-medicated, abuse prescriptions and have access to illegal drugs" as they wait sometimes more than one year for a medical discharge, USA Today reported.
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A Third of WTU Soldiers Addicted

also

Report: Many in wounded units ‘over-medicated’
Up to 35 percent of the 10,000 soldiers assigned to Warrior Transition Units are addicted or dependent on drugs, according to an inspector general’s report
By Gregg Zoroya - USA Today
Posted : Tuesday Jan 25, 2011 19:02:58 EST
Medical officials estimate that 25 percent to 35 percent of about 10,000 ailing soldiers assigned to special wounded-care companies or battalions are addicted or dependent on drugs — particularly prescription narcotic pain relievers, according to an Army inspector general’s report made public Tuesday.

The report also found that these formations known as Warrior Transition Units — created after reports detailed poorly managed care at Walter Reed Army Hospital — have become costly way stations where ill, injured or wounded soldiers can wait more than a year for a medical discharge.

Some soldiers have become so irate about the delays in leaving the Army that doctors, nurses and other medical staff say they have been assaulted in their offices and threatened, or had their private cars damaged or tires flattened, the report says.

“I’m very concerned about folks and their personal safety,” says Army Col. Darryl Williams, commander of Warrior Transition Units, of those specific allegations. “I’m going after that really, really hard.”
read more of this here
Many in wounded units ‘over-medicated’

What about soldier's rights?

We know they have the right to a military funeral and a flag over their coffin but what about the men and women coming home alive?



Think of what they give up before they go. They give up seeing their families, birthdays, holidays, anniversaries, and some soldiers even missed their own wedding days. They miss the birth of their children, first steps, first words, just as the miss the last words of people they loved passing away while they were gone. They give up the right to decide everything from where they go, when they go, how long they'll be gone and face the fact returning home wounded is a possibility out of their control just as dying in combat is. They also give up the right to free speech, are prevented from participating in political gatherings and in some cases, prevented from even posting online how they feel.

While they are gone they face all the same "normal" problems with messages from home, letters, emails and phone calls. This topped off with the reality of combat, putting someone else's life ahead of their own and mission above wanting to "call in sick" when they are too tired to get dressed. They do it over and over again no matter how they feel that day because it's their job. A job they were willing to do because they believed in something greater than themselves. It is one of the most dangerous jobs there are in this country.

We see police officers and firefighters putting their lives on the line everyday but once we send off a Soldier, a Marine, an Airman or a Sailor, we manage to forget all about the risks they take everyday doing their jobs. Out of our sight, out of our mind because we are not reminded of any of it as we watch the news or read the paper.

All of this and more, and it goes on until they come home again. Some come home on their own two feet and families breathe a sigh of relief never knowing if there could be wounds they cannot see yet. Some come home on stretchers facing months in the hospital and countless operations. Their families end up giving up their own lives to be by their side in military hospitals trying to put them back together again.

We're all oblivious to everything they go through. We talk about civil rights but we forget about a soldier's rights. Shouldn't it be their right to receive medical care as soon as they need it? Shouldn't it be their right to receive compensation to replace the income they can no longer make when they are wounded on their jobs? Shouldn't they receive all we expect for ourselves without endless lines, excuses and denials?

We've read for many years how the military is taking PTSD seriously but we see the suicide rate go up every year at the same time the suicide prevention hotline reports increased numbers of veterans seeking emergency help. If the military had it right, if the VA had it right, those numbers would be going down instead of up. If they had it right the numbers of successful suicides would be going down. The numbers of divorces would go down, just as the numbers of homeless veterans and incarcerated veterans would go down. The point is, none of it has been "gotten right" for a very, very long time.

I would love to see congress debate the rights of soldiers for a change. They manage to fight over everything but you'd think this one thing would unite all of them if they really do care about the men and women risking their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan, just as they had risked their lives in Kuwait, Bosnia, Somalia, Vietnam, Korea and other nations. Common sense should tell us that if congress really cared about the men and women putting this nation first above their own lives, above all they have to give up in order to do their jobs, they would be really taking care of all of them. If they really felt the way they say, I'd have very little to post about, less veterans to talk off the ledge and less families to comfort when they've found me too late.

Let's make sure that no veteran has to wait for a funeral like this WWI veteran. There are ashes of veterans in most funeral homes because no one claimed them and no one helped them receive the military honor they thought they had the right to.

Iowa military funeral planned to bury ashes of World War I veteran
WQAD
By AP DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The ashes of a World War I veteran are to be buried in Iowa. The Iowa Department of Veterans Affairs plans a military funeral

Let's make sure that something this stupid does not happen again because it is not the first time soldiers have been orded to stop killing themselves.

Army Officer Orders Troops Not To Commit Suicide
Blog All Over ...
By The Huffington Post News Editors
It's bad for soldiers, it's bad for families, bad for your units, bad for this division and our Army and our country and it's got to stop now, he insisted. Suicides on Fort Campbell have to stop now.

But this is the one that has my anger this morning the most.

Army Unit in Colo. Called Dark Place, Worse Than Iraq-
Soldiers returning from battle trauma say they're warehoused with too many drugs.
By JAMES DAO
THE NEW YORK TIMES


Published: Saturday, April 24, 2010 at 9:42 p.m.
Last Modified: Saturday, April 24, 2010 at 9:42 p.m.


COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. A year ago, Spc. Michael Crawford wanted nothing more than to get into Fort Carson's Warrior Transition Battalion, a special unit created to provide closely manage care for soldiers with physical wounds and severe psychological trauma.

A strapping Army sniper who once brimmed with confidence, he had returned emotionally broken from Iraq, where he suffered two concussions from roadside bombs and watched several platoon mates burn to death. The transition unit at Fort Carson, outside Colorado Springs, seemed the surest way to keep suicidal thoughts at bay, his mother thought.

It did not work. He was prescribed a laundry list of medications for anxiety, nightmares, depression and headaches that made him feel listless and disoriented. His once-a-week session with a nurse case manager seemed grossly inadequate to him. And noncommissioned officers - soldiers supervising the unit - harangued or disciplined him when he arrived late to formation or violated rules.

Last August, Crawford attempted suicide with a bottle of whiskey and an overdose of painkillers. By the end of last year, he was begging to get out of the unit.

"It is just a dark place," said the soldier, who is waiting to be medically discharged from the Army. "Being in the WTU is worse than being in Iraq."

There are currently about 7,200 soldiers at 32 transition units across the Army, with about 465 soldiers at Fort Carson's unit.

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Sgt. Maj. Kenneth O. Preston addresses Soldier issues during Wiesbaden visit

Army's senior NCO addresses Soldier issues during Wiesbaden visit
Jun 25, 2009

By Karl Weisel (USAG Wiesbaden)
WIESBADEN, Germany - Stress on the force, recruitment, retention and the Year of the NCO were among an array of topics addressed by Sgt. Maj. of the Army Kenneth O. Preston during a day-long visit to Wiesbaden Army Airfield, June 24.

The Army's senior enlisted leader told a packed auditorium of Soldiers and families that he "wanted a good feeling for what's on their minds."

After touring several facilities on the airfield – including the Warrior Transition Unit, the Better Opportunities for Single Soldiers' Warrior Zone, Wiesbaden Fitness Center and being briefed on ongoing transformation in U.S. Army Garrison Wiesbaden – Preston joined junior enlisted Soldiers for lunch. The one-on-one discussion time was followed by an open forum with Soldiers and their families in the Flyers Theater.

During the forum the sergeant major of the Army described the shape of the force, which currently includes 548,000 active-duty troops, of which 260,000 are deployed to 80 countries around the world. Those Soldiers and 95,000 members of the National Guard and Reserves also deployed are "doing an incredible job around the world," he said.

Preston described a meeting with President Barack Obama and other military leaders in which he raised concerns including stress on the force, recruiting and retention. "It's pretty stressful. There are a lot of dynamics out there because the Army is busy."

Describing how he told the president that stress occurs both during deployment and "when the units come back during dwell time," he said he "wanted the president to understand that it's not just operational stress but also institutional stress and stress on our families."

A tumbling economy was another stress factor, he noted.

Calling them "warning lights on the dashboard," the Army’s senior noncommissioned officer said a rise in suicides and post traumatic stress were visible effects of this stress on the force.
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NCO addresses Soldier issues during Wiesbaden visit

Recovery unit set up plan for wounded soldier care at Fort Bragg

Recovery unit set up plan for wounded soldier care
Rocky Mount Telegram - Rocky Mount,NC,USA
The Associated Press

Monday, June 15, 2009

FORT BRAGG, North Carolina — The first thing Lt. Col. Terry McDowell did when he took command of a recovery unit for wounded troops at Fort Bragg was establish a transition plan for each wounded soldier to work toward leaving the unit as soon as he or she arrives.

"This isn't a permanent Army unit. It is a transition unit," McDowell said in his first interview since taking command. "We've got the structure in place, medical wise, to get a WT (warrior in transition) to what their end state goal is as rapidly as possible."

At the same time, he's making sure that staff member are better trained to distinguish medical problems from disciplinary ones.

McDowell, 42, from Bonaire, Ga., took command in April of Fort Bragg's Warrior Transition Battalion, where soldiers had complained to top officials about their treatment.

McDowell said soldiers coming to the unit now have a timeline and a set of goals. It keeps the wounded soldiers motivated and allows doctors to set a target date to transition them out of the unit. In the past, wounded soldiers have languished in the unit for months with little or no idea how they are progressing. Army-wide, the average soldier spends 366 days in a Warrior Transition unit. The average at Fort Bragg is 350.

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Wounded Kentucky GI found dead at Fort Sam

Wounded Kentucky GI found dead at Fort Sam

By Scott Huddleston - Express-News Another soldier recovering from war injuries died this week in his barracks at Fort Sam Houston, the Army said Wednesday.

Spc. Franklin D. Barnett Jr., 29, was found dead in his room Sunday afternoon, according to a release from Brooke Army Medical Center. Barnett, who was hurt in Afghanistan, had been assigned to C Company of the Warrior Transition Battalion since Oct. 15.

Barnett's death, at least the third in less than three months involving members of the battalion, is under investigation.

Earlier this year, Spc. Craig Reginald Hamilton and Warrant Officer 1 Judson Erick Mount, also members of the warrior transition battalion, died on post. Army officials have not released details in either death, citing ongoing investigations.

Hamilton, 35, of Milford, N.H., had been injured at Fort Sill, Okla. He died at Fort Sam on March 27.

Mount, a 37-year-old former San Antonian, was badly wounded in a car bomb blast near a market in Iraq. He died April 7.
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http://www.mysanantonio.com/military/47693722.html

Army closing some wounded soldier units

Army closing some wounded soldier units
Army closing some wounded soldier units
By KRISTIN M. HALL
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- The Army is closing three special units for wounded and ill soldiers and downsizing others, including one at Fort Campbell, after tightening the selection process last year.

The warrior transition units were created in 2007 to address reports of substandard care for wounded soldiers. But the number of soldiers in these 36 units has dropped from a high of more than 12,000 last June to about 9,500 currently.

The Army announced last month three units at installations in Kansas and Alabama will close. Units that will be downsized are at posts in Kansas, Georgia, Washington and the Fort Campbell installation on the Tennessee-Kentucky border. Two units in Virginia will merge.

Commanders say the decrease is because the Army last year imposed stricter screening procedures for admitting wounded, ill and injured soldiers into the units.

Previously, the Army automatically sent any ill or injured soldier who needed more than six months of recovery to a warrior transition unit. The soldiers were assigned officers and enlisted leaders to manage their medical care and they were assisted by medical staff who helped them through recovery and rehabilitation.

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Horses help returning soldiers

Horses help returning soldiers

RYN GARGULINSKI

Tucson Citizen
Soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan are finding horses can be a man's best friend.

A group of horses called The Warriors in Transition Unit are helping soldiers with their return to their home turf.

For soldiers coming back from Afghanistan or Iraq, the transition back into society can be a tough one.

As strange it may sound, horses are helping them overcome survivor's guilt, battlefield nightmares and the transition back into society.
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http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/ss/fromcomments/116768.php

Missing Fort Carson Soldier Found Dead

Carson issues alert on AWOL soldier

CARLYN RAY MITCHELL
THE GAZETTE

The Army is asking for help in finding an AWOL Fort Carson soldier who may be armed.

Police and residents are asked to be on the lookout for Pfc. Roy Mason Jr., 28, and the 2008 red Chevy Cobalt he rented from Enterprise with CO license plate 253SOX.

Mason is part of Carson's Warrior Transition Unit, to which physically and psychologically wounded soldiers are assigned as they recover or wait for reassignment.
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http://www.gazette.com/news/carson-54506-fort-mason.html

UPDATE

Missing Fort Carson Soldier Found Dead

Posted: 6:48 PM May 22, 2009
Last Updated: 11:09 PM May 22, 2009

Fort Carson officials tell 11 News a 28-year-old soldier who has been missing since Tuesday has been found dead in California.

Brandy Gill, a Fort Carson spokesperson says PFC Roy Mason II was found dead this afternoon in Santa Cruz, California by the Santa Cruz Police Department.

Gill said she could not release any other details because the death is still under investigation.

A California newspaper is reporting that Mason's death was a suicide. Fort Carson officials would not confirm.

PFC Roy Mason II, was assigned to the Warrior Transition Unit, and was listed as AWOL Tuesday when he did not report to the morning's accountability formation.
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http://www.kktv.com/news/headlines/45878117.html

Pursuit of mental health care keeps warriors strong

Pursuit of mental health care keeps warriors strong
May 6, 2009

By Staff Sgt. Matthew Clifton

Related Links
Army Behavioral Health
Physical combat injuries and external wounds are easily identified by Soldiers and medics, but it is much more difficult to spot, and treat, mental wounds.

In May, the Army observes Mental Health Month, and recently Army Secretary Pete Geren paid a visit to Soldiers assigned to the Warrior Transition Unit at Fort Jackson, S.C., to speak with them and their family members about how they are addressing mental health challenges with the help of family and Army programs.

"The Army has a corner on being strong and being able to drive on, no matter what happens, and that makes it harder (for Soldiers to request help)," said Geren.

One wounded warrior, Sgt. David Marklein, who served as an infantryman for two deployments in 2003 and 2006 with 1st Brigade, 1st Armored Division. During his first deployment, Marklein was the personal driver for Command Sgt. Maj. Eric Cooke, the brigade's command sergeant major.

While on a mission on Christmas Eve, their Humvee struck an improvised explosive device, killing Cooke. While Marklein had no external injuries, his eardrums were blown out and he suffered damage to his head, neck and back.

Marklein and Cooke had been very close, and his death changed Marklein in a way he would not admit until a series of events, which would not come until after his second deployment, put his personal life and Army career into jeopardy.

"When I got off of the plane, my wife knew there was something different about me," said Marklein, who admits he couldn't see the change in himself. "Subconsciously, there was something wrong, but I wouldn't face it."
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Pursuit of mental health care keeps warriors strong

Fort Bragg wounded feel worthless and abandoned

Injured prefer combat to recovery at Bragg

By Kevin Maurer - The Associated Press
Posted : Tuesday Mar 24, 2009 14:37:55 EDT

FORT BRAGG, N.C. — Soldiers in a recovery unit for wounded troops at Fort Bragg told the Secretary of the Army that they feel forgotten by the military and that combat duty would be better than the treatment they get now, according to a memo obtained by the Associated Press.

The memo summarized the comments of soldiers who attended a closed-door meeting last week with Army Secretary Pete Geren. It was held after the service said it would look into complaints of overzealous discipline reported by The Associated Press.

Some of the soldiers told Geren they have “feelings of worthlessness and abandonment,” the memo states. They told Geren that low morale and suicides in the base’s Warrior Transition battalion are “pushed by (a) negative command climate” that is enforced by the unit’s squad leaders.

“If I had been in the (unit) after I was wounded the first time, I would not have fought so hard to stay in,” one soldier told Geren, according to the memo. “It is very demoralizing and a very different experience from my previous recuperation.”
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http://www.armytimes.com/news/2009/03/ap_wounded_bragg_032409/

Some WTU units have high rate of punishment

Some WTU units have high rate of punishment
By Kevin Maurer - The Associated Press
Posted : Tuesday Mar 10, 2009 17:38:31 EDT

FORT BRAGG, N.C. — Staff Sgt. Jason Jonas says when he goes to bed at night, he is terrified his medication will cause him to oversleep and miss morning roll call again.

His commanders are fully aware the paratrooper wounded in Afghanistan has been diagnosed with a sleep disorder, because he is one of about 10,000 soldiers assigned to the Army’s Warrior Transition units, created for troops recovering from injuries.

Instead of gingerly nursing them back to health, however, commanders at Fort Bragg’s transition unit readily acknowledge holding them to the same standards as able-bodied soldiers in combat units, often assigning chores as punishment for minor infractions.

In fact, the unit has a discipline rate three times as high as Fort Bragg’s main tenant, the 82nd Airborne Division, and transition units at two other bases punish their soldiers even more frequently than the one at Fort Bragg, according to an Associated Press review of records obtained through the Freedom of Information Act.
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Another Warrior Transition Unit Dead Ruled Suicide

Another Warrior Transition Unit Death Ruled Suicide?
by
Chaplain Kathie
How much time is enough to get this right? How many more times do they need to find one more soldier dead before they figure out that what they are doing is not good enough? PTSD is not new! Humans have been on this planet long enough, facing traumatic events, going to war with each other, documenting what comes after war and suffering while telling their stories so that the "experts" should have some clue what the hell to do to help warriors heal. Not only are the veterans suffering, their families suffer and so do the people trying to take care of them while some pea brain without the slightest clue of what they are going through claims to have found the "right treatment" but they keep suffering and killing themselves! ENOUGH TALK! Enough re-researching what has been researched to death. Enough wasting time with what does not work. For Heaven's sake, we know what needs to be done and we know how to do it. We've had over 30 years of studying this to know better.

Step one-get rid of BattleMind because it does more harm than good. I have yet to hear from one veteran BattleMind has helped.

Step two-normalize PTSD. It's a normal reaction to abnormal events. Let them know how many civilians end up with PTSD from the other causes then point out for them, it's a one time traumatic event that does it while they end up enduring event after event after event. Then they'll get it into their brains that to expect to walk away from combat without any changes is not realistic at all. They all change. Some change more than others. Others end up wounded by all of it instead of just changed.

Step three-Stop acting as if they are criminals. Do not belittle them because they seek help and honor the fact they have the courage enough to ask for help. Do not treat them like scum because they say they want to stop drinking or using drugs to cover up what they don't want to feel and then help them understand that is what medications can do for them a lot better than street drugs and getting drunk ever could.

Step four-spend as much time as need to get it into the brains of their families they are no longer dealing with "normal GI Joe" because Joe is no longer able to communicate with himself anymore. The "Joe" he used to be is trapped behind a wall of pain and he needs their help to find "himself" again. While he will never be totally the same person he was before PTSD, he can in fact end up even better as a person than he was before, even with living with flashbacks and nightmares that may never totally go away. Tell the exactly what a flashback is and what they see in their dreams without sugar coating any of it. They need to know what they are up against when confronting a zoned out veteran on a flashback trip from hell or a out of body nightmare so vivid they have no clue where they really are if you wake them up.

Step five-take the one third of Americans with a clue what PTSD is and get them to pound it into the brains of the other two thirds they better start paying attention to all of this before the National Guards and Reservists come home from yet another deployment and then have to face the next mudslide, hurricane, wildfire, tornado or flood. Make sure they get the message before they face another time when a police officer or firefighter comes back from deployment and needs their help for a change.

This isn't that hard people! Families of Vietnam Veterans have been doing it for years and found out the hard way what works to save their veterans lives along with saving their marriages. The only regret we have is that the people with the power to raise awareness of what our voices have to say ARE NOT LISTENING!

So now please tell me what there is about any of this that there is yet one more suicide from a GI that was supposed to be in the best care possible?

Transition unit spc. kills self in Colo. home
Nearly 70 soldiers died in WTUs’ first 16 months
By Gina Cavallaro - Staff writer
Posted : Sunday Feb 1, 2009 8:40:07 EST

The last person Spc. Larry Applegate is known to have spoken to before killing himself was a sergeant with the El Paso County Sheriff’s office in Colorado Springs, Colo.

His words, according to a spokeswoman, foretold a tragic ending.

“One of the sergeants talked with him briefly on the phone,” said the spokeswoman, Lt. Lari Sevene. “He was making suicidal statements.”

Applegate, according to Sevene, who cited preliminary deputies’ reports, was arguing with his wife around 10:30 p.m. on Jan. 16 in their two-story home in the Widefield area of Colorado Springs when he fired a couple of rounds, causing her to flee the house.

He pursued her, fired a few more rounds, then holed himself up inside the house. Using a .45-caliber handgun and an M16 rifle, Applegate fired multiple rounds inside the house, tearing up the couple’s belongings and firing shots through the front door, where sheriff’s deputies had surrounded the house in a standoff, Sevene said.

Agents with a special weapons and tactics team went into Applegate’s house at 12:25 a.m., about 30 minutes after the gunfire stopped, and found him dead with a gunshot wound to the head, Sevene said.

No one else was hurt and the case is still under investigation.

Applegate, 27, was an infantryman who had deployed to Iraq for a year in December 2005 with 1st Battalion, 68th Armor, 4th Infantry Division. Since February 2008, he had been assigned to the Warrior Transition Unit at Fort Carson for an undisclosed ailment.

Because of its public nature, his case is one of the most vividly detailed of the more than 70 soldiers who have died while assigned to one of the Army’s 36 WTUs, but suicide is not the leading cause.

According to data compiled by the Warrior Care and Transition Office, 68 soldiers died while assigned to a WTU between June 2007, when the wounded warrior care units were established, and Oct. 31, 2008.
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Army IDs soldier found dead in Fort Hood barracks

Army IDs soldier found dead in Hood barracks

Staff report
Posted : Thursday Jan 29, 2009 10:45:10 EST

A soldier who died Jan. 25 at Fort Hood, Texas, has been identified as Sgt. 1st Class Christoffer Hans Tjaden, according to a press release.

Tjaden, 48, was found in his barracks room by fellow soldiers who were conducting a morale check. Officials are investigating the death; the press release said the cause of Tjaden’s death is unknown.

Tjaden joined the Army in January 1987 as an infantryman. He had been assigned to 1st Battalion, Warrior Transition Brigade since November 2007.