Wyoming National Guard repeating "resiliency" failure

This is stunning! First, Resiliency Training is not new and it began under Battlemind. This is and has been a failure because by the time they get to the good parts of this "plan" the soldiers have stopped listening. They were told they could train their brains to be "mentally tough" which ends up telling them they are weak. It tells them that if they end up with PTSD, it is their fault because the didn't train right so when they look at the others they were with when the trauma hits them but not their buddies, they believe it is their fault. The suicide numbers, attempted suicides and the "deaths still under investigation" are proof of that. The fact that less than half of the soldiers needing help actually ask for it after all these years proves that one too.

Military Suicide Numbers Climb, Wyo Guard Seeks Solutions
By: Karen Snyder

Suicide statistics for the military are sobering. The Associated Press reports that, so far this year, more soldiers have died by their own hand than in combat in Afghanistan.

New techniques for working with soldiers are being offered now, that, according to Wyoming National Guard Public Affairs Officer, Lt. Col. Samuel House, are designed to give soldiers and their families new tools to deal with adversity and combat stress.

It’s called “Resiliency Training” and House says the Wyoming Guard is working to train the trainers and bring it here to Wyoming.
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Wyoming veteran helps others cope with combat PTSD

Wyoming veteran helps others cope with post-traumatic stress disorder

By KRISTY GRAY
Star-Tribune staff writer
Posted: Monday, April 4, 2011

On April 1, one year ago, Spc. Jason Billiot bypassed the homecoming ceremonies for the 700 Wyoming Army National Guard soldiers returning from a yearlong deployment to Kuwait.

He got off the plane in Casper and drove straight to the Wyoming Medical Center. His family’s Jeep had rolled over as they were driving from Cheyenne to meet him, and his wife and three children all needed considerable care when they finally made it back to Cheyenne.

Billiot had no time to decompress, to readjust to the family or let the family readjust to him.
“The things that guys dealt with right after they got back, I’ve dealt with here in the last few months, almost a year later,” said Billiot, a budget analyst with the Wyoming National Guard.

This winter, he attended a presentation by retired Wyoming National Guard major and former Laramie firefighter D.C. Faber. It was called, “How and Why We Are Different After War and Trauma: A Veteran’s Perspective.”

The presentation wasn’t about war stories, the telling of what Faber saw in Afghanistan. It was about coming home, struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder and readjusting to a concept of time that isn’t hyper-focused on the present.

“It really kind of hit home for me,” Billiot said. “The family I knew was the family from 2009. You reintegrate yourself, but at the same time, you are reintegrating them to you.”
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Wyoming veteran helps others cope

Wyoming National Guard: Conference preps public for troops' return

Conference preps public for troops' return

By ALLISON RUPP
Star-Tribune staff writer
Wednesday, May 6, 2009 7:48 PM MDT


The recent deployment of roughly 700 Wyoming National Guard members has affected almost every community in Wyoming.

And the guard, the Wyoming Department of Health and Eastern Wyoming College want to make sure each community is prepared for these soldiers to return home after 18 months in the Middle East.

Wyoming has a lot of veterans per capita, according to Ronda Brauburger, a veterans' advocate for the state, but the general public is not always aware of military lifestyle.

Brauburger hopes to make people more aware of what veterans need during "Wounded Warriors Wellness Workshop: Preparing Professionals to Meet the Needs of Veterans." The conference will take place Wednesday through Friday in Casper.

"We were finding that in the state -- probably nationally, but definitely in the state -- there is not enough awareness of military culture," Brauburger said. "Military reality is not civilian reality. We are trying to marry the two."

A veteran might swerve while driving if he sees a plastic bag in the road, Brauburger. That bag could have killed him in Iraq.

The conference, the first of its kind, will help people better understand post-traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injuries and other problems with which veterans might return, said Daniella Hamilton, specialist with the Family Assistance Center for the guard.

The guard wants professionals to recognize precursors to the disorders, and the conference will identify resources for struggling veterans.
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Conference preps public for troops return

Wyoming National Guard embedding mental health care

Health Care
Embedding Mental Health In The National Guard
by Addie Goss
Listen Now [4 min 55 sec] add to playlist
All Things Considered, April 18, 2009 · Wyoming is about to mobilize its largest deployment of National Guards in state history. Embedded with the troops will be a mental health professional who is a PTSD specialist. The commander of the Wyoming Guard believes treating the mental health needs of the National Guard troops is a priority and he has also worked to connect mental health resources in Wyoming communities to those in the military.
Addie Goss reports for Wyoming Public Radio.

A war that won't let go: Decorated veteran recovers

Pay special attention to this part

That paranoia is part of the Thurin who came back from Iraq. Carla Thurin notices other changes, too. Her son is angrier, is not as committed to his faith as he used to be, and is less compassionate toward other people. That, more than anything, disappoints Carla.

A war that won't let go: Decorated veteran recovers from more than physical wounds
By KRISTY GRAY
Star-Tribune staff writer
Sunday, July 6, 2008 10:21 AM MDT

PINE BLUFFS -- It should have been a fairy-tale homecoming for Marine Cpl. Jay Thurin.

And for a time, it was.

Thurin, 23, returned to Pine Bluffs in March 2006 to grateful friends and relatives who shook his hand and thanked him for his service. Newspapers featured the stories of his two Purple Hearts. Pine Bluffs Elementary School invited him to speak to wide-eyed kids who wanted to know everything about being a Marine in Iraq. He found a good job in a field he loved -- farming.

On July 27, 2006, he married Ashley Knaub, a girl he'd met in 4-H. Then came baby MaKenna, a beautiful daughter born on March 31 this year.

On the outside, Thurin looks strong, healthy and every bit like a young man building a life for his family. His right arm -- nearly ripped apart by shrapnel from an anti-tank mine bomb near Fallujah -- is healing after five surgeries and two years of physical therapy.

But inside -- and in the nightmares -- Thurin is still fighting the war. And he struggles to find his footing in a world that seems to be crumbling around him.

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It was important for you to notice the first part because this is something we all need to pay attention to. For over 30 years scientists and psychiatrists have been trying to understand the wound of PTSD. For just as long, they have been looking in part, in the wrong places. PTSD does not begin with changes in the brain. That comes after the trauma. So why is it they are only looking at the brain instead of where the wound originates from?

Yesterday during the radio interview I was called a PTSD expert. That still has a hard time of resonating in my brain along with being called Chaplain. While I may be both, I have grown so accustomed to being ignored that when people pay attention to what I have to say, I'm shocked. Considering I've been at this since the age of 23 and heading into my 26th year of this work, (gee I'm getting old) there is a lot more knowledge of this wound in my ever crowded head than there is in the minds of people who just started working on PTSD. While I've learned a great deal reading about PTSD in clinic books as well as just about every news report that has come out since the Vietnam War, (thanking God for library achieves) the biggest source of knowledge came from living with one of them and talking to a lot of others.

Cpl. Jay Thurin is showing classic signs of PTSD not often enough addressed in media accounts. The paranoia of thinking the worst could happen at any moment as he guards the crib of his young baby. The nightly ritual of patrolling the perimeter of the home replacing the base, checking doors and windows obsessively, making sure weapons are in reach, because they think someone is always out there to get them and the enemy followed them home. That comes from the enemy hitching a ride back implanted in their memories. It also comes from a lack of faith that someone is watching over them.

We all feel that way when traumatic things shake our lives. We either walk away thinking God watched over us and protected us or God condemned us and like Job, has begun to take things away from us. Every detail of our lives is dissected looking for all the wrong things we've done up to that point when it feels as if God is fed up with us. We figure if God knows everything then there has to be something wrong with us, the way we lived our lives and the way we treated other people. Facts really don't play into this at all if our understanding of God is so simplistic that the real message from the Bibles we read remains hidden. If we think He's out to get us, then what's the point? We then lose faith, trust, love, joy while believing we have been cursed. Nothing noble or righteous means anything any more.

This is what most PTSD veterans face, as well as anyone who has suffered from traumatic events. It begins with the event itself and then penetrates the soul, traveling into the mind when the memories, nightmares and flashbacks come and then penetrates the body when the organs are attacked, the immune system breaks down and the heart is under assault from the stress. This is why there are miracles happening everyday when PTSD is addressed for the whole person and not just the mind, but the body and the spirit are included in the healing. If scientists would come to the point where they truly understand what a role faith plays in our lives, they will be a lot closer to understanding how to heal the whole person. They have not been able to find the answers by looking at the mind alone after all these years. You'd think they would have learned something else by now. They are still asking the same questions they've been asking since the beginning of man on the planet. Time for them to take a look at another part of the wounded and then maybe, just maybe they will begin to treat it the way it should have been treated all along.



Senior Chaplain Kathie Costos
Namguardianangel@aol.com
www.Namguardianangel.org
www.Woundedtimes.blogspot.com"The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive veterans of early wars were treated and appreciated by our nation." - George Washington

A look at Wyoming's new veterans

A look at Wyo's new veterans
Casper Star-Tribune Online - Casper,WY,USA
By CHAD BALDWIN
Star-Tribune editor
Sunday, July 6, 2008 2:06 AM MDT

You've read and heard the reports for months: Veterans from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are struggling with physical and psychological wounds, including traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Like so much of the national coverage of violence and death in the Middle East, these reports have become something of a blur for many of us. Unless you know a veteran who's having problems, the news about the after-effects of war tends to fly by quickly -- perhaps reinforcing your position against the war, if you're of that opinion, but not really sinking in.

The Star-Tribune has published dozens of stories about men and women from Wyoming who've served in Iraq and Afghanistan since those conflicts began. We've covered every funeral of the state's slain servicemen. We've written about and photographed several send-offs and welcome-home ceremonies for Wyoming National Guard units. We've taken a look at how their families cope while they're gone. We've done some stories about efforts to help the troops once they come home.

What we haven't done is take an in-depth look at how our servicemen and women are doing since they've returned. Until now.

Starting in today's paper, the Star-Tribune will publish a multi-Sunday series, "Back from War," examining the lives of a number of Iraq war veterans -- and what's being done to help them and others. A team of reporters and photographers has been working on the project for several months.

Our initial objective was to see if Wyoming's newly minted war veterans are having the same experiences as their counterparts across the country. We have found that is indeed the case.

Many veterans are doing fine. They've adjusted to life on the home front and have settled well back into their civilian lives. Others, however, are dealing with traumatic brain injury, post-traumatic stress disorder and other problems stemming from their time overseas.

Finding veterans willing to share their stories has been difficult. Staffers with the Wyoming National Guard, the Department of Veterans Affairs and other organizations have provided some help, but the search took considerable time. A number of veterans we contacted had compelling stories, but they weren't willing to tell them publicly. Others let us into their homes and their lives, and for that we are grateful.
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