Wounded Times Challenging PTSD and Suicide Awareness Groups

Marines march in "silkies" to raise awareness about military suicides. Sounds good but the number of members of the military, National Guards and Reservists are not part of the often quoted "22 a day" so not so much truth awareness being raised there. Actually there is not much truth awareness being shared at all and that, that my friends, has left me sick to my stomach.

How about they raise awareness on something like this considering it came from the DOD.

The DSPO has an annual budget of $24 million. The Pentagon also is the largest single supporter of suicide prevention research, funding 61 studies in recent years at a cost of more than $100 million, according to a Rand Corp. report.

Suicide prevention training is mandatory in all five military services, including the Coast Guard, whose suicide statistics are not included in the Defense Department tally.

According to the report, 120 soldiers, 39 Marines, 43 sailors and 64 airmen died by suicide in 2015. The number of Air Force deaths marks the highest for the service in the past decade.

Among the reserves and National Guard, 88 Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine reservists died by suicide in 2015, while 100 Army National Guard members and 21 Air National Guardsmen killed themselves.

Actually it is worse considering that the DOD started that "prevention" training in over a decade ago when there were more serving but less committing suicide. The Joshua Omvig Suicide Prevention Act came about in 2006 because there were 99 suicides that entire year. The bill was signed by President Bush in 2007.

These are the "military" suicides for the first quarter of 2016

In the first quarter of 2016, the military services reported the following:
 58 deaths by suicide in the Active Component
 18 deaths by suicide in the Reserves
 34 deaths by suicide in the National Guard

And here is a better way to see what is going on.

Mission 22 is a collaboration between Elder Heart, a veteran non-profit organization, and a global advertising agency. Elder Heart is comprised of Delta Force and Special Forces operators Tom Spooner, Magnus Johnson, and Mike Kissel. Because of their personal battles with PTSD and TBI they have made it their mission to raise awareness, enlist support, and end veteran suicide in America.

In 2012 48 Marines committed suicide. 2013 it was 45 followed by 34 in 2014, 39 in 2015 and for 2016 first quarter it was 12. Really not good considering how long they have been "preventing" them topped off with there have been less and less serving every year.

No evidence it worked while they were in the military and more than enough evidence it failed them when they got out of the military.

In 1999 the VA put the number of suicides at 20 a day while no one was talking about them.  

There were about 7 million more veterans in the country back then.  Now the latest report from the VA has the number at,,,,ding, ding, ding, hope alarm bells are going off, because it is right back to 20 a day.

So what exactly has all this "awareness" raising been hoping to achieve? Spreading something that is lacking solutions? Spreading rumors that are baseless especially when you read the reports and understand that while everyone has been pushing up, taking walks, running and doing a hell of a lot of talking, too few actually know what is going on and even less know how to stay alive instead of committing suicide.

I challenge every group out there with good intentions to actually stop doing what is easy for them and start doing what if necessary to change the outcome.

Here are just a few of them but they are happening all over the country.

History of #22KILL: Honor Courage Commitment, Inc. started the #22KILL movement in 2013 after learning about the staggering statistic that an average of 22 veterans are killed by suicide every day. HCC has committed to researching and understanding the genesis of this epidemic, and educating the general public on the issue. #22KILL is a platform to raise awareness not just towards veteran suicide, but also to the issues that can lead them to suicide. These mental health issues can stem from Post Traumatic Stress, Traumatic Brain Injury, or the struggles and stresses of transitioning from military to civilian life.

22 Too Many is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization that cares deeply and passionately about our nations veterans and their families. Through athletic events, we seek to serve as a living memorial, reduce the stigma by increasing public knowledge and awareness of PTS, share helpful resources, and provide support and comfort to the grieving families left behind.

Stop Soldier Suicide We’re Veterans who understand the military mindset and training. While we are not a crisis center and don't provide direct clinical services or therapy, we do offer a high-touch service with connection to resources for many of the stresses faced: job loss, relationship issues, mental health needs, financial worries, housing and more.

The challenge is simple. Since I've been doing this for over 3 decades, tracked reports right here for 9 years with over 26,000 posts, stun me.  Take the time to do a video about what you are doing and put it up on YouTube. Send me the link.

It should be simple to answer the following questions,

What is your goal?
How do you plan on achieving it?
What is the money you are raising for?
How many lives have you saved?
How many people are doing more than just talking about the problem?
What are you doing?
How is what you are doing different from everyone else?

Keep in mind, I started doing videos on PTSD back in 2006, so won't be easy to show me something new.

I'll share your video but will add my two cents to it.  That is a chance you'll have to take but if you believe in what you are doing, then that should not be a problem.

If you stun me, I'll post your video along with a full guest post to spread the word about what you are doing. Right now this is the traffic on Wounded Times.

It started on August 10, 2007 because a Marine dared me to stop posting political rants and keep this about the truth.  I kept my word after he asked me if I was doing this for "them" or myself.

The count started May 2010 with 2,812,685 page views, 79,670 page views last month. Plus I do all this for free. I lose a couple of thousand dollars every year. I have a regular job to pay my bills and I give away more than I get from Google ads.



It is read all over the world.

United States
1861484
Germany
145137
France
141682
Russia
96605
Spain
52740
United Kingdom
49471
Canada
33561
Ukraine
29659
Bulgaria
16494
China
16084

Time to step up the real challenge here because the truth is, we're losing this battle after war. They are running out of time for us to change the outcome.


UPDATE

Received the first response from an old friend, Bob Bambury
Veterans Multi-Purpose Center
Founded: 1992

Taking Some Time to Unplug

To Readers of Wounded Times

Taking some time off to unplug.  After almost 9 years publishing Wounded Times, this will make a total of 2 weeks off in all that time. No posts until August 2. 

Plagiarists At It Again

It is really pitiful to see all the hard work I put into this site simply stolen just because someone felt like it.

Much to my shock, there is a site that has most of my content going back to November of 2015. MyPTSD.com is connected to a site PTSD Blog and they have been using my work going back to November of 2015.

What I do on Wounded Times comes from countless hours of tracking news reports plus over 30 years experience researching and living with PTSD in my own home. I take all of this very seriously. 

It doesn't matter I don't get a paycheck to do it. I get one from my regular job. 

It doesn't matter that I lost a couple thousand dollars every year and no one has thought about any of this. It hasn't stopped me because this, this is my life as it has been for far too long.

It is reprehensible for all these "awareness groups" popping up all over the country expecting money from folks to do what they should be doing for free! Ask any of them what the money is for or why they deserve it and they won't be able to come up with a reasonable answer. Ask them what their background is or what qualifies them to do this work and they won't really have anything to say. Caring isn't enough! That's how we ended up with all of this getting worse instead of better.

Every news report on this site has links to the original source. Every government has links to where it came from. I do not take someone else's work and won't put up an entire article for that reason. I want my readers to go to the link to read the rest of the work the reporter put into the story. I value their work.

If you see any of my work online contact me so that we can stop these plagiarist!

Give Disabled Veterans Power To Change

Give Disabled Veterans Power To Change

The truth only has power when it is known. Support the facts and give them the ability to fight for their lives.

http://www.combatptsdwoundedtimes.org/ Covers the real news and government reports to arm veterans with information they need to know. Congress has jurisdiction over how our veterans are treated yet have failed for decades. National news used to consider what was happening to our veterans as important yet somehow managed to forget that awesome responsibility replacing their stories with politicians using them for votes. 

Since 2007 Wounded Times has covered over 25,000 stories, filmed over 200 videos and broke over 2.5 million page views.  

This proved veterans and families like mine have a hunger to know what is going on all over the country. No politics, no popular claims without facts to back them up but above all, dedicated to defeating PTSD.  I've been doing this work since 1982 when I had to go to the library to understand what combat does to our veterans beyond the wounds you can see with your own eyes.

Another fundraise for a disabled veteran coming up for Orlando Rocks and another escort for the Wall in Wickham Park. Camera is wearing out but I'm not.

Orlando Rocks 2015 Orlando Rocks 2014 Orlando Rocks 2013

Plagiarists Beware

Everything on Wounded Times is from news reports, government publications and other historical records along with articles I've written based on over 30 years of research.

There are over 24,000 articles on Wounded Times. All of them are linked to the source.

If you are among the plagiarists out there using what you find here, you better go back to whatever you simply copied and link to where you got it from!

Define Plagiarist at Dictionary.com
plagiarism definition. Literary theft. Act or instance of using or closely imitating the language and thoughts of another author without authorization and the representation of that author's work as one's own, as by not crediting the original author:

I am tired of hearing from readers something I wrote has been copied on another site hours, days, weeks and in a lot cases, years after I wrote it.

They are looking for you now. Whenever we find offenders, it will be publicized especially if it is found on a news site.

In case you doubt this, consider what happened last week when the Rachel Maddow Show decided that privatizing the VA was a great thing to report on and most of the information was what had been posted here days before including the graphic from the history of the VA cover. Could it be a coincidence? Sure that is possible but it is more likely one of her staffers got really lazy.

Wounded Times has been covering the issue of privatizing the VA for years!

If you want to cover veterans issues, do the research all by yourself.

Get an idea and the find the information all on your own the way I invest hours of my own time. I may make it look easy but it is far from it!

If you want to make your life easier, then you can use what I have when you link to it, otherwise folks will know exactly why they should trust anything else you do.

The date and timestamp are on every post on this site and that, you cannot erase that as much as you seem to want to erase my work.

"Wounded Times" Copied Title But Not Work on PTSD

There is something called "Wattpad" and it looks like my site name has been hijacked. It is called, of all things, Wounded Times. It has nothing to do with me, my work or anything else. No clue who they are or what this is all about but ticks me off! Not putting up the link since I don't want to hand them over more traffic. You can search for yourself.

I Cut My Hair Off!

I have been growing my hair for a very long time now so that I could donate it. In work yesterday a friend discovered that I only needed 8 inches, so she got out a ruler and it turned out I had a foot to give. This morning I headed off to Hair Cuttery on Red Bug Lake Road in Winter Springs where Caitlin Bevilacqua took control.

This is when it felt as if my head lost about 10 pounds.

When Caitlin was done, there were 8 inches to donate and another couple of inches on the floor since she needed some hair left over to style.

So if you see me and wonder if it is still me without all the hair you're used to seeing, it is!

Hair Cuttery has a long history of community action and each year they have special programs for veterans.

My hair is being donated to Children with Hair Loss with a prayer that they see the beauty within themselves and they are loved for who they are.

Wounded Times Breaks 2 Million Page Views! Thank You!

Today started off as a day from hell,,,,,

but now it feels like a blessing!

Merry Christmas from Wounded Times

It has been a busy year for Wounded Times with topping off over 23,000 post, over 200 videos and many local veterans events but it has been a blessing. 

Covering the news has been terrible at times when we see so many veterans suffering but renewing when we read stories of veterans doing all they can for others.
I had to return to working for a paycheck because while Wounded Times is popular, few have donated to keep the site going.

I wish I could have done more videos this year and attended more of the events I was invited to, but there are just not enough hours in the day.

With over 10 million views on my profile, if everyone chipped in a dollar, I'd have my news station by now but maybe next Christmas Santa will pull off a miracle.

So, dear readers, here's a recap of some of the events I did manage to cover.

Last Christmas


January

Lt. Nadd's plane came in late.  Uncle Sam waited on stilts for over 45 minutes.

Cathy Haynes 

Patriotic lady brought gator

Orlando Honor Flight Always There With Smiles

1Sgt. Daniel Kalagian 812th MPCO back home on December 7,  2013

Korean War Veteran and Bride

VFW Post 4287 Orlando

Motorcycle Escorts

Budweiser Clydesdales 

OK, I made them do this.  Blame me.

Honored Couple

March

April

May

Oviedo War Memorial Honors 385 Fallen

August

October






Deland Florida American Legion Post #2093 was dedicated to Sgt. Adam Quinn, of Fort Bragg, killed in Afghanistan in 2007. 

Deland American Legion Sgt. Adam Quinn Post

Deland JR ROTC

Jay Conti Sr Florida Department Commander designed this car

This lady painted all the tiles

Patriot Guard Riders

When the flag passed by, everyone saluted!

UPDATE A friend of mine saw me coming and snapped this picture. As tired as I look here, it was less than halfway to the end. Thank God he didn't see me at the end.

December

Yes, the owner let me sit on her bike.

The Grinch showed up with a bigger heart

Orlando Police Officers did a fabulous job escorting!

This is Betty.

And to cap things off, there was the movie Terrible Love that we worked on for 3 years winning the Austin Film Festival Audience Award.

Join us for the second screening in the 2015 Audience Award series: Terrible Love, Monday, February 2nd at 7:00PM at the Alamo Drafthouse Village, located at 2700 West Anderson Lane, Austin, TX 78757. The winner of the 2014 Narrative Feature Audience Award and a bittersweet autopsy of mental illness and lost love, Terrible Love tells the story of Rufus, a wounded veteran returning home from Iraq with post-traumatic stress disorder, and his devoted wife Amy. They promised themselves never to leave each other, but that promise is put to the ultimate test when Rufus’ PTSD becomes violent. Terrible Love dives head first into the heart-breaking effects of PTSD, the relationships it hurts, and the lives it threatens.