Defense contractor takes to waters to talk about PTSD

A lot of people think PTSD is a "weakness" until it hits them. Mary Shoutherland thought that way until she discovered first hand what it was. Now she it trying to change of minds of others like her before they get the same kind of shocking awareness that told her what the truth was.

A journey to raise awareness
Times Online
By Kristen Doerschner
August 6, 2013

BRIDGEWATER — Monday evening a kayak docked along the Ohio River at Bridgewater Crossing.

Mary Southerland got out of the vessel along with her dog, Henry. Southerland set up camp for the night.

Her trip isn’t just a recreational venture. Southerland — who was a civilian contractor in Iraq — is trying to raise awareness about veterans and contractors who are returning from service and suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

Southerland, 35, of Salt Lake City, Utah, began her journey Sunday. She put her kayak in the water in Pittsburgh and plans to travel to Cairo, Ill. She estimates it will take 54 days to complete her journey.

Southerland worked for the Department of Defense in Iraq from 2008 to 2009, in Colorado from 2010 to 2011, and she returned to Iraq in 2012 under the Department of State. A contractor with a linguistics company, Southerland was essentially in quality assurance for prisoner education.

Most of the foreign prisoners are illiterate, she said. Her job was to make sure the linguists were teaching the prisoners what they were supposed to.

“War trauma” is what Southerland describes her experience as. She said she eventually hit a breaking point in December, was diagnosed as having PTSD and was sent home.

“I didn’t believe in mental injury before that,” Southerland said. She said she always thought things like PTSD were based on weakness. “I’m ashamed I thought that,” she said.
read more here

Bad contracting may have turned deadly in counter-IED program

Bad contracting may have turned deadly in counter-IED program
Stars and Stripes
By Heath Druzin
Published: July 23, 2013

KABUL — Of all the dangers American troops face in Afghanistan, shoddy contracting is not one for which they have a battle drill.

But poor contract oversight, cited in several reports by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, has not only wasted money in Afghanistan; in one case, it may have led to the deaths of U.S. troops, according to the latest report.

The report released on Tuesday detailed fraud and negligence in the installation of grates to block insurgents from placing bombs in culverts running under roads.

“The loss of life because individuals were not doing their job is horrific and unacceptable,” Special Inspector General for Afghanistan John Sopko said in a statement. “This case shows so clearly that fraud can kill in Afghanistan. We will find out if contracting officers did not do their job and if that proves to be true and Americans have died, we will hold those individuals accountable.”
read more here

Pay cut for DOD employees, but Gophers get land grant?

Military spending millions to protect gophers, while workers go on furlough
FoxNews.com
By Dan Springer
Published July 12, 2013

A total of 650,000 civilian employees are now being furloughed at U.S. military bases in response to sequester cuts -- but the Department of Defense is still spending millions to protect fuzzy critters.

Joint Base Lewis-McChord (JBLM) in Washington state just received a $3.5 million department grant to purchase land around the base in an effort to protect the Mazama pocket gopher, a species that has not even been listed as endangered or threatened.

The expense is not sitting well with furloughed workers.

"That really makes me mad that they would do that," said Matt Hines, one of 10,000 civilian employees forced to take a 20 percent pay cut. "I'm all for saving animals, but at what cost?"
read more here

650,000 Defense Department civilians hit by sequester

Furloughs kick in amid anger, resignation
Stars and Stripes
By Chris Carroll
Published: July 12, 2013

WASHINGTON — About 650,000 Defense Department civilians began doing their part this week to save the department nearly $2 billion — by not coming to work. They’re not exactly enthusiastic about pitching in.

But they found things to do. Some strategized ways to cut their own budgets, while others took the opportunity to formally protest their furloughs. According to the Merit System Protection Board, which adjudicates disputed personnel actions by the federal government, nearly 900 federal employees, including DOD workers, had filed appeals as of early Thursday.

Others worked out some of the frustration through exercise.

“On a normal day, I’d be working on combating terrorism in South Asia,” said Christine Smith, a civilian employee in the Office of the Secretary of Defense who was furloughed Monday. “Today, I’m going for a run.”

Smith was one of dozens of Pentagon workers who met Monday afternoon for a 5-mile “fun run” from the building’s north parking lot to the U.S. Capitol. But organizers unceremoniously cut it a mile short to symbolize the 20 percent pay cut imposed by the one-day-per-week furlough, which could run through September.
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DOD Contractors to Get New Whistleblower Protections

DOD Contractors to Get New Whistleblower Protections
By Nick Simeone
American Forces Press Service
Press release

WASHINGTON, June 28, 2013 – Beginning July 1, whistleblowers working for Defense Department subcontractors will begin receiving protection against reprisals through a new law intended to better protect those who expose possible wrongdoing.

In addition, as part of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2013, contractors who report suspected waste, fraud and abuse within their company rather than directly to the DOD inspector general also will be protected, a modification of previous laws aimed at better protecting whistleblowers working on DOD contracts.

Nilgun Tolek, who directs investigations against whistleblower reprisals for the Defense Department inspector general’s office, explained the new law to reporters yesterday at the Pentagon.

“Since internal complaints weren’t covered under the statute, those people who did make an internal hotline complaint and believed they were retaliated against had nowhere to get protection,” Tolek said, adding that the measure “brings the statute up to par with existing whistleblower protections.”

The new law will apply to all DOD contracts beginning on or after July 1, as well as to new amendments to existing contracts.

Marguerite C. Garrison, deputy inspector general for administrative investigations, said complaints about abuse from DOD subcontractors revealed the need for the new law.

“Congress has recognized that there have been some loopholes in the provisions, and that the protections didn’t expand to everyone,” she explained.

The law will provide added protection to whistleblowers from retaliation by requiring “clear and convincing evidence” that a contractor would have taken the same disciplinary action against an employee even if he or she had not come forward with an allegation of abuse, Tolek said.

Victim of Fort Bliss Chaplain re-victimized by Army

Assault survivor talks of retaliation, re-victimization
Sex assault victim: 'I would never ... ever report again'
Army Times
By Joe Gould
Staff writer
Jul. 1, 2013

The victim of a Fort Bliss, Texas, chaplain who groped and licked her, Michelle Ten Eyck, is saying the Army mistreated her.

The 42-year-old Army contractor was vindicated in court last month, as her tormentor, Maj. Geoffrey Alleyne, pleaded guilty in a military court to charges that include assault and battery against a civilian employee on Fort Bliss, making a false official statement and conduct unbecoming an officer. He was sentenced to six months of confinement June 19.

“There was no protection for me in the system, and I was constantly revictimized,” Ten Eyck told Army Times in a tearful June 26 interview. “Plea deals are done, and we have no say.”

Ten Eyck said she received no comfort from the sentence, which she characterized as “a slap on the wrist.” The ordeal, she said, has left her emotionally and physically spent.

“I’m tired, because this took such a toll on me, on my family,” the mother of six said. “You can only be beat up so many times before you go crazy.”
read more here

NSA leaker more a showing about defense contractors lousy security

This man was hired by a contractor. Didn't the contractor think to have him sign an agreement about talking about the government's secrets? How was this such a huge deal when reports about this came out during the Bush Administration?

Bush says he signed NSA wiretap order
Adds he OK'd program more than 30 times, will continue to do so
Saturday, December 17, 2005

President Bush arrives for his radio address in the Roosevelt Room at the White House on Saturday.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- In acknowledging the message was true, President Bush took aim at the messenger Saturday, saying that a newspaper jeopardized national security by revealing that he authorized wiretaps on U.S. citizens after September 11.

After The New York Times reported, and CNN confirmed, a claim that Bush gave the National Security Agency license to eavesdrop on Americans communicating with people overseas, the president said that his actions were permissible, but that leaking the revelation to the media was illegal read more here

Naturally the media jumped all over this story and once again avoids reporting on things that can make this country better. But, hey, they'd have to actually work for a change. Ok, not all of them. Some of them do actually work hard but most of them are just doing the bungie jump. Would have been more interesting if they actually attempted to figure out how many other defense contractors have such lousy security this could be pulled off?

White House defends surveillance as world digests leaker's motives
By Michael Pearson and Jethro Mullen
CNN
June 10, 2013

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
NEW: President open to surveillance changes if public debate leads to consensus, spokesman says
Group begins legal defense fund for self-avowed leaker, Edward Snowden
Snowden outs himself in newspaper article, saying he acted in defense of freedom and privacy
But Rep. Peter King calls him dangerous and "a defector"

Hong Kong (CNN) -- A day after former intelligence worker Edward Snowden outed himself as the man responsible for leaking details of U.S. surveillance programs, White House spokesman Jay Carney defended the administration's stance on the initiatives, calling them a necessary middle way between total privacy and unacceptable threat.

He said President Barack Obama would be willing to consider changes should a national debate show the public wants them. But, he wryly noted, "This is not the manner by which he hoped to have the debate."

Meanwhile, the world continued to digest what Snowden had to say in a Guardian newspaper interview published Sunday about the reasons for leaking the classified information.
read more here

Defense contractors gets jail time stealing from injured Marines

Man sentenced for stealing from injured troops
U-T San Diego
By Susan Shroder
MAY 20, 2013

SAN DIEGO — An Oceanside man who U.S. Attorney Laura E. Duffy said sought to profit at the expense of injured U.S. troops was sentenced Monday for stealing medical equipment from Camp Pendleton that was to be shipped to Marines overseas.

Michael Tuisee, 34, was one of three civilian defense contractors charged in the case. All three men worked at medical-supply warehouses on the base.

The other defendants, Henry Bonilla, 25, of Pomona, and Richard Navarro, 39, of Fallbrook, are scheduled to be sentenced Aug. 30. All three pleaded guilty in March to conspiracy to engage in theft of government property.

U.S. District Judge Cathy Ann Bencivengo sentenced Tuisee to six months in prison, then six months of house arrest and three years of supervised release. Tuisee also was ordered to pay nearly $180,000 in restitution to the Marine Corps and forfeit $8,250 in illegal proceeds.
read more here

More money for military "suicide prevention"

If they are planning on using that money on what they have already been doing, more suicides are to come. Then again, since so few reporters are on top of all of this, when the DOD brass come out in two years and say "suicides are down" they won't mention the fact that two wars will be over any more than they will take responsibility for OEF and OIF veteran suicides increasing.

The FY 2014 proposed budget includes a 4.2 percent average rate increase in Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH) to $21 billion and a 3.4 percent increase in Basic Allowance for Subsistence (BAS) to $5 billion. The FY 2014 budget also contains $49.4 billion to fully fund the Military Health System and to continue providing high-quality care to military personnel on active duty, their dependents, and retirees.

DoD’s budget request also seeks $8.5 billion in family support – for DoD schools, commissaries, counseling, child care, and other programs. In addition, the department will continue to invest in critical programs such as assistance to help veterans transition to civilian life, wounded warrior care, suicide prevention, and sexual assault prevention and response.

How much do you want to bet they think no one will complain about spending money on the troops no matter what damage it causes them? Like I said a long time ago, I wouldn't care how much they were spending as long as the results were less suicides, less attempted suicides, less suffering from PTSD and TBI and less families visiting graves.

Defense Department budget unveiled; takes fire from all sides
By Chris Carroll and Leo Shane III Stars and Stripes Published: April 10, 2013

Army's answer to military sexual assaults, simulate them

Army's answer to military sexual assaults, simulate them! WTF! Are they letting 18 year olds design these "programs" without adult supervision or what? This same company Will Interactive is tied to Comprehensive Soldier Fitness and you can find more on their site plus US Army Training and Doctrine Command

Army employs video game to help curb sex assaults; critics call it 'affront'
By Bill Briggs
NBC News contributor
April 10, 2013

The Army is using an interactive video game to train soldiers how to prevent sexual assaults in the ranks, and the technology has proven so popular, the branch just ordered a sequel, according to a spokesman for the company behind the video.

But advocates for military-rape survivors vilify the video — and the philosophy behind it — as “a waste of taxpayer dollars,” an “affront to victims of sexual assault” and a tool “of limited value.”

Titled “Team-Bound,” the program streams laptop-generated scenarios, allowing users to assume the roles of a male or female specialist who witness on-base sexual harassments and eventually — at a bar favored by soldiers — the warning signs of an alcohol-induced date rape. Players must choose multiple responses throughout the episodes then watch the consequences of either intervening or ignoring the observed behaviors.

If the video’s users pick passive reactions, an intoxicated female private is eventually raped in an Army barracks after leaving the bar with an aggressive, male private. In the video, the victim is shown ultimately reporting the attack then opting to leave the service, prompting an Army official to tell viewers: “A life damaged, a career ended, a unit falling apart. But it didn’t have to be this way. All you had to do was stand up and be strong.”
read more here

Feds can’t keep up with ills from 2 wars

Study: Feds can’t keep up with ills from 2 wars
By Greg Zoroya and Greg Toppo
USA Today
Posted : Wednesday Mar 27, 2013

The federal government is failing to keep pace with a torrent of ailments and issues generated by two wars for the more than 2 million Americans who served overseas since 9/11, according to a sweeping assessment by a panel of leading scientists.

The nearly 800-page study, completed over four years by the Institute of Medicine and released Tuesday, portrays a nation struggling to anticipate and understand consequences of a decade of war and grueling demands placed on its military and unprecedented kinds of wounds troops have suffered.

The Pentagon and Department of Veterans Affairs are trying to help, but “the response does not match the magnitude of the problems, and many readjustment needs are unmet or unknown,” says the report by the institute, the health arm of the National Academy of Sciences.

The nation waged war in Iraq and Afghanistan in unprecedented ways, the study found, using a limited-size, all-volunteer force; deploying troops repeatedly for up to 15 or 18 months at a time; allowing less than a year of rest between tours; and filling the military’s ranks with historically high numbers of women, parents, National Guard troops and reservists.
read more here

my comment

The Washington Post reported in 2006 the Army found redeployments increased risk for PTSD by 50%, but did it anyway. RAND found resilience programs do not work and among the reasons are people cannot be "trained" to be resilient plus these programs do not work in military culture. There are so many reasons but no signs the DOD has learned from them. 900 Suicide Prevention programs and record level of suicides taught them nothing.

The most frightening thing of all is that I don't even have a degree but in 2009 I came right out and warned if they pushed the Resilience Programs, suicides would go up. How scary is that when hundreds of millions of dollars has been spent on "professionals" with degrees up the wahzoo haven't figured it out yet! But then again, this was on Army Times this morning too.

Army defends battlefield social science program
By Tom Vanden Brook
USA Today Posted : Wednesday Mar 27, 2013

WASHINGTON — Army Secretary John McHugh defended the use of military social scientists on battlefields despite some initial “command, training and personnel challenges” with the program in its early years

McHugh sent a letter recently to Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., a member of the Armed Services Committee who had raised concerns with McHugh about the Human Terrain System after USA Today reported that an internal Army report had found team members falsified time sheets to inflate their pay and had engaged in racial and sexual harassment. The program, launched in 2007 with civilian social scientists, was aimed at helping commanders understand local populations and avoid antagonizing them.

Army internal reviews, including a 2010 report obtained by USA Today under the Freedom of Information Act were used to “increase oversight, improve personnel selection and enhance effectiveness,” McHugh wrote to Hunter on March 15.

Hunter said he’s not convinced the program, which cost the military $58 million in 2013, is worth the investment.

“The problem here is that the Army’s take on things overlooks an investigation that raises some serious concerns and doesn’t account for program shortcomings and criticisms,” Hunter told USA Today.
read more here

Human Terrain Systems CGI began in Canada with Serge Godin and Andre Imbeau revenue $1.4 billion and by 2012 it was $3.7 billion.

CGI Federal, Inc., Manassas, Va., was awarded a $42,485,968 firm-fixed-price indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract. The award will provide for the procurement and development of the Human Terrain System. Work will be performed in Newport News, Va., with an estimated completion date of Sept. 27, 2016. The bid was solicited through the Internet, with four bids received. The U.S. Army Mission and Installation Contracting Command, Fort Eustis, Va., is the contracting activity (W911S0-11-D-0058).

Lockheed Martin MS2, Liverpool, N.Y., was awarded a $26,321,139 firm-fixed-price and cost-plus-fixed-fee contract. The award will provide for the modification of an existing contract to support country field service representatives. Work will be performed in Liverpool, N.Y., with an estimated completion date of July 30, 2012. The bid was solicited through the Internet, with three bids received. The U.S. Army Contracting Command, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md., is the contracting activity (W15P7T-06-C-T004).

For dog lovers

K2 Solutions Corp.*, Southern Pines, N.C., is being awarded a $34,394,858 firm-fixed-priced contract for life cycle sustainment for the Marine Corps’ fleet of improvised explosive device detector dogs, including kenneling and daily care, operational training for Marine handlers, logistics support, transportation, support during overseas operations, and associated materials. The contract includes options, which, if exercised, would bring the cumulative value of this contract to $91,022,617. Work will be performed in Southern Pines, N.C. (70 percent), Twentynine Palms, Calif. (20 percent), and overseas (10 percent), and is expected to be completed by September 2012. If all options are exercised, work will be completed March 2014. Contract funds in the amount of $34,394,858 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was competitively procured as a total small business set-aside solicitation via the Navy Electronic Commerce Online website, with two offers received in response to the solicitation. The Marine Corps Systems Command, Quantico, Va., is the contracting activity (M67854-11-C-3015).

This was from 2011

Jardon and Howard Technologies, Inc., Orlando, Fla., is being awarded a $3,700,178 modification, which brings the total of all prior modifications/increments to $7,656,178, under previously awarded contract (HQ0034-10-F-2094) to provide administrative support services to the Defense Office of Hearings and Appeals. Work will be performed in Arlington, Va., Woodland Hills, Calif., and Fort Meade, Md., with an estimated completion date of Sept. 28, 2015. The bid was solicited through the Internet, with three bids received. Washington Headquarters Service is the contracting activity.

This was from 2005

Jardon and Howard Technologies Inc., Orlando, Fla., is being awarded a $7,568,727 ceiling amount firm-fixed-price, time and material contract for the Military Communities and Family Policy Services to provide the technical, training and administrative support required to implement programs on a national and international basis to provide innovative options for approaching the challenges that military members and their families encounter on a daily basis. Work will be performed in Orlando, Fla., and is expected to be completed in March 2006. Contract funds in the amount of $7,568,727 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured. The Naval Air Warfare Center Training Systems Division, Orlando, Fla., is the contracting activity (N61339-05-C-0111).

along with this one

Jardon and Howard Technologies Inc., Orlando, Fla., is being awarded a $7,087,539 ceiling amount time and material contract for the Victim Advocates, Shelter and Seriously Disabled Veterans Services which are programs and initiatives offered by Military Communities and Family Policy Services to provide counseling for the seriously injured, victim and shelter services for victims of domestic abuse and sexual assault in the military services and provide the support necessary to manage and coordinate services and internships for seriously disabled veterans, as a result of their services on Operation Iraqi Freedom, Operation Enduring Freedom, and the Global War on Terrorism. Work will be performed in Orlando, Fla., and is expected to be completed in March 2006. Contract funds in the amount of $7,087,539 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured. The Naval Air Warfare Center Training Systems Division, Orlando, Fla., is the contracting activity (N61339-05-C-0109).

For more contracts go here

Fort Hood families talk about cuts

Fort Hood Families Take Part In Army's Online Fiscal Cliff Chat
KCEN News
Posted: Feb 27, 2013
By Sophia Stamas

If Congress can't agree on a national budget by Friday, automatic spending cuts will take effect, delivering a hard hit to the military.

As the deadline draws near, more military families and civilian employees have questions about how the sequester might affect them.

So today the Army hosted a live chat on it's Twitter feed.

The three main topics were impact on soldier training, civilian furloughs, and how they could affect programs and services to military families.

"I'm concerned about retirement pay," says Tamma Ruth.

After 23 years as an Army wife, Tamma is intently tuning into the buzz over automatic spending cuts.

She says, "My husband has served, and been in Iraq, and been in harm's way for a long time, and I think he deserves to have his full military retirement."
read more here

Soliders will see less training and more cleaning with budget cuts

Soldiers to help maintain posts in money crunch
By Joe Gould
Posted : Monday Feb 25, 2013

Soldiers may find themselves washing windows, cutting grass, manning post gatehouses and doing other jobs they haven’t performed in a generation, under the current budget crunch, according to a top Army official.

As civilians are laid off or furloughed, the Army will have soldiers do their jobs, providing them with less training and fewer services, said Katherine Hammack, assistant secretary of the Army for installations, energy and environment.

“What it’s going to mean are shorter operating hours and closed gates,” Hammack said. “It’s going to be inconvenient; it’s going to be longer lines. It’s going to mean you’re going to see soldiers doing things you’ve seen civilians do over the last 10 years. That could be anything from mowing lawns and washing windows to replacing light bulbs.”

Soldiers, instead of training, would be working in maintenance roles because the Army will not otherwise have the money or the manpower. Sustainment, restoration and modernization funding “would have to go away,” Hammack said.
read more here

Defense Department set to announce furlough plan Wednesday

Could someone please remind members of Congress IT IS THEIR JOB TO CONTROL THE FUNDS OF THIS COUNTRY AND THIS IS THEIR FAULT?

Defense Department set to announce furlough plan Wednesday
Chris Carroll
Stars and Stripes
Published: February 19, 2013

WASHINGTON — The Defense Department intends to notify Congress on Wednesday of a plan to furlough nearly 800,000 civilian employees one day each week beginning in April, a defense official said Tuesday.

Federal law requires the Pentagon to warn Congress of furloughs at least 45 days in advance, and other regulations require direct notification of employees at least 30 days in advance.

Cutting workdays and pay will happen if Congress does not find a way to avert budget cuts known as “sequestration,” which are scheduled to kick in March 1 and cut $500 billion out of the Pentagon budget over the coming decade. Military leaders have warned of constricted operations, reduced weapons buys and eventually, reduced end strength for the services.

For now, however, military troops are spared a direct impact of sequestration on their paychecks, and most civilian workers will be the first to bear the brunt.

Defense officials say the most likely scenario would be 22 days of furlough – one day each week – beginning in the last week of April and running through the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30.
read more here

Human Terrain "teams" deemed worthless or worse

Army plows ahead with troubled aid program
By Tom Vanden Brook
USA Today
Posted : Monday Feb 18, 2013

A $250 million Army program designed to aid U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan has been riddled by serious problems that include payroll padding, sexual harassment and racism, a USA Today probe has found.

As the Pentagon plans for sizable budget cuts beginning next month, the Army is planning to use the teams in other potential hot spots around the world despite the allegations outlined in an unreleased Army investigation obtained by the newspaper and in subsequent interviews.

The program, known as the Human Terrain System, sends civilian social scientists overseas to help U.S. troops better understand the societies in which they are operating, avoid bloodshed and smooth relations with local populations.

A 2010 Army investigation shows the program was plagued by severe problems, including:

• Team members were encouraged to maximize their pay and comp time by inflating time sheets.

• Allegations of sexual harassment and racism were made against the government contractors who recruited and trained Human Terrain teams and a soldier who worked in the program.

• The program relied on unaccountable contractors and inadequate government oversight.

• Many commanders deemed worthless — or worse — the reports the teams produced. In one case, the commander of a brigade combat team in Iraq told the Army investigator that he “relied very little on his (Human Terrain team) and viewed them as incapable and of little value. He never looked at his team’s products and believed their survey efforts actually created anxiety among the local Iraqi populace.”

The problems drew the attention of Gen. Martin Dempsey, then the commander of the Army’s Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC). Dempsey, now the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, wrote in an April 2010 memo that the Human Terrain System program needed government oversight of “all phases including recruiting, training, organizing, deploying and redeploying, and in all aspects of employment including hiring and compensation.”
read more here

3,258 Civilian defense workers in Iraq killed, 90,000 wounded

Iraq War contractor fined $75,000 for failing to file 30 death reports on time
By T. Christian Miller
ProPublica

As of December, 3,258 civilian contract workers had been killed or died in Iraq, and another 90,000 had reported injuries.

The U.S. Department of Labor has fined a private security contractor $75,000 for failing to file timely reports on the deaths of workers in Iraq as required by law. The Sandi Group, based in Washington D.C., delayed telling the Labor department that 30 of its employees had been killed while working for the company between 2003 and 2005, according to the department.

The Sandi Group, a privately held company known for employing large numbers of Iraqis as security guards, did not return requests for comment. Since 2005 the company has won U.S. government contracts worth at least $80.9 million, according to a federal contracting database.

The fine, believed to be the largest ever levied against a single company for failing to report war zone casualties in a timely manner, is part of an enforcement crackdown that began after a ProPublica series highlighted problems with a government program designed to provide health benefits to civilian contractors working in Iraq and Afghanistan. “Timely reporting of work-related injuries, illnesses and fatalities are vitally important to protect the interests of injured workers and their families,” Gary A. Steinberg, acting director of the Department of Labor office which negotiated the settlement amount with the company, said in a prepared statement.
read more here

Congress Targets Contractors and Overseas Crimes

Congress Targets Contractors and Overseas Crimes
Feb 01, 2013
Associated Press
by Eric Tucker

WASHINGTON -- With thousands of civilian contractors remaining in Iraq and Afghanistan, Justice Department officials want Congress to resolve a legal issue they say obstructs efforts to prosecute any such workers who rape, kill or commit other serious crimes abroad.

Scofflaw Pentagon employees and contractors supporting the American war mission overseas are subject to federal prosecution in the U.S., but a nonmilitary contractor who breaks the law may fall outside the Justice Department's jurisdiction. Lawmakers who have pushed in the past to extend the reach of U.S. criminal law plan to renew their efforts this session with bills to make civilian contractors and employees liable to federal prosecution for acts including murder, arson and bribery.

Federal prosecutors believe clearer and more uniform rules are needed to resolve a jurisdictional question made murkier by the end of the Iraq war and the ongoing reduction of troops in Afghanistan. The issue caused problems for authorities during the first prosecution of Blackwater contractors accused in 2007 shootings in Baghdad and could again be a stumbling block as prosecutors seek a new indictment in the case.
read more here

Too many reporters write about PTSD but don't know about it

Too many reporters write about PTSD but don't know about it
by Kathie Costos
Wounded Times Blog
January 14, 2013

There are times when I am sure a "reporter" gets assigned PTSD stories and has to come up with something so they come up with anything. This very well could be one of those cases. I have no clue what background this person has other than what is on the site, but when she wrote about how the contractors "get no treatment" that made the hair on the back of my neck stand up.

There is a thing called "workman's comp" and that is in the article further down but while civilian defense contractor employees do make a hell of a lot more money than our troops do, they also get more benefits. Collecting a workman's comp check is a lot easier than getting the VA to cover a claim. Sure, they get free care for a while after they are discharged, but getting care is not the same as getting the compensation they need to live off of when they cannot work. Then there is Social Security Disability coverage for PTSD.

The problem is that civilian employees need to see trauma specialists and not just psychologists or they will not heal. They are just as human as the troops are, so it is the same story for them as well. If they see a mental healthcare worker who is not, repeat, not a trauma specialist, then it can do more harm than good.

My advice to them is simple. Learn all they can about PTSD and combat even tough they are not doing the fighting because they are exposed to some of the same type of events, long times away from home and family and face a readjustment time when they come home. They still had to worry about an IED in the road or an RPG finding them just as much as bullet could have.

My advice to reporters having to write something about this is also simple. Know what you are writing about before you do it. PTSD is very complicated but if you know enough about it, you will know what needs to be in the article you write and be a better judge on what is important.

Veterans and PTSD: Iraq and Afghanistan Civilian Contractors Get No Treatment

Policymic
Heather Beaven

The external causes of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) are well known. People who have been subject to violence or the aftermath of violence are susceptible to find that their brains actually change. But this is where science gets a bit fuzzy. According to the U.S. National Library of Medicine,

PTSD changes the body's response to stress. It affects the stress hormones and chemicals that carry information between the nerves (neurotransmitters). It is not known why traumatic events cause PTSD in some people but not others.

Noted PTSD expert, Dr. Jonathan Shay, calls PTSD "the valid adaptations in the mind and body to the real situation of other people trying to kill you." Dr. Shay calls it a moral injury and has written two books on how to protect against PTSD and how to help warriors’ transition back into civilian life.
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It is known why some "get it" and some don't and if Shay's work was taken seriously on this article, she would have understood what he said. "Moral wound" and that means when they can feel things more deeply, then they can also suffer more deeply. The rate of PTSD has been quoted as 1 out of 3 for the longest time and now it is 1 out out of 5, but I'll trust the experts doing this work the longest. The other factor is the number of "traumatic events" has to be included in. The Army discovered in research that redeployment increases the risk of PTSD. It is not the numbers of men and women being sent but the numbers exposed to traumatic events that matter and how many times it has happened.

The time between event and help is also part of it. Civilians exposed to traumatic events usually see a trauma specialist afterwards. If it is a huge event involving many people, then teams of crisis intervention specialists show up to help survivors. Getting them to talk or being there to listen helps get healing happening sooner. If after 30 days the experience does not get weaker, they usually need more help to heal than just "waiting to get over it." The same cannot be said for troops deployed into Afghanistan, just as with Iraq, because one event is followed by many more and most of the time they cannot find someone to talk to until they are back home and even then, they have to wait in a long line to get it. What makes matters worse for them is they deny they need help because they want to get back home to their families and not held up.

They get the notion that if they "got over it the last time" they can do it again ignoring the fact that the "last time" was followed up by another event and they had that one piled on top of the first one. There is always one they focus on more than others but it is not always the one that started the invasion of their lives.

A Gulf War veteran contacted me as a DEA agent. He thought he had gotten over all the things that happened to him during the war but was shocked to discover he hadn't. He told me he had been through a lot of things in his life but after his brother was killed in action in Iraq, he fell apart. He was afraid to see a psychologist because he loved his job and was afraid of losing it but he was also afraid he couldn't "get over" what he was going through alone. I told him he should pay out of his pocket if he had to but he had to see someone soon. There was only so much I could do for him other than getting him to understand that it was the death of his brother that brought out what was already there. He came to understand what PTSD is why it hit "even someone like him" as hard as it did.

Recent reports of two Navy SEALS committing suicide, one confirmed as suicide while the other remains "suspected" is a clear indication that no one is so tough they do not feel what they have been through. Then there is Medal of Honor Hero Dakota Meyer writing in his book about how he also tried to take his own life but thankfully that is something he did not succeed in doing. Yet while all this is happening the military suicide prevention efforts have a surplus of unspent funds.

We know that for all the money spent repeating research that was done 40 years ago along with attempt after attempt has been wasted for the most part when we still see the number of suicides along with attempted suicides rise for active military as well as veterans even with the suicide prevention hotline taking in tens of thousands of calls with a reported rescue data base at 30,000, the latest veterans suicide report is that there are at least 22 veterans a day taking their own lives. It is wise to use "at least" simply because there are many unknowns such as drug overdoses and vehicle deaths. Most of the time we simply don't know if they are really accidents, occurred in response to un-diagnosed PTSD issues such as flashbacks and short term memory loss when they cannot remember if they took their pills or not or if they were in fact suicides. Oh, there's really a tricky one for you there. The fact is, we will never really know how many are taking their own lives because of questionable deaths and the other factor of less than half of the veterans needing help for PTSD seek it, meaning they are not diagnosed but usually have it all the same.

If you are guess that this article matters for the wrong reason, it does. We should all be angry about what is happening because none of it has to happen. Too many times we've read stories that are not written with a true knowledge of what is really going on so they give us a couple of paragraphs fished out of the sea of articles printed while hoping to land the big one. In doing so, they never seem to notice the obvious. There are far too many sinking to the bottom.

I am sure the reporter of the story on contractors had the right intentions but got the message wrong. I could have just avoided this, the way I do with many articles but this one involved civilians sent into combat zones and they do have a huge problem that has gone on for far too long but this one really got to me.

800K civilian furloughs at stake if spending cuts happen

Congress continues to embarras this country by not being able to even pass budgets. One crisis after another while the American people end up paying for all of it. So why are we paying their salaries? They haven't done enough in years! Now more Americans will be out of work but they still get paid for not working. Does this fall under "entitlement" they love to cut from the budget?

Pentagon: 800K civilian furloughs at stake if spending cuts happen
By ERNESTO LONDOÑO
The Washington Post
Published: January 1, 2013

With lawmakers unable to approve a deal that would have averted steep spending cuts, Pentagon officials said Monday that 800,000 civilian employees could be ordered to go on unpaid leave for periods of time.

The military’s service chiefs, who have already been making cuts as part of a separate, long-term effort to whittle down the defense budget, are working to assess the impact of the congressionally mandated cuts. The broad fiscal retrenchment would begin Wednesday, although it is possible that lawmakers will find ways in coming weeks to allocate separate funding for the Pentagon and avoid the furloughs.

“Senior leaders in the department are working hard on how to communicate to the workforce what the consequences might be,” a senior defense official said Monday, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the Pentagon’s contingency planning.
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How Badly Will Budget Cuts Hurt Troops?

How Badly Will Budget Cuts Hurt Troops?
Dec 31, 2012
Stars and Stripes
by Joyce Tsai

WASHINGTON -- In the final presidential debate, President Barack Obama declared to the American people with unflinching certainty that sequestration “will not happen.”

Two months later, the Jan. 1 deadline is looming, with no debt reduction deal in sight.

Now what?

How quickly and deeply will these automatic defense budget cuts totaling about $500 billion over the next decade hit troops, Defense Department civilians and contractors?

And how much will they hurt?

Many experts agree: “The sky is not going to suddenly fall on Jan. 2,” said Todd Harrison, a defense budget expert at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, a Washington think tank. “In fact, we are likely to see hardly any impacts in that first week.”

But in the weeks that follow, the D0D could begin implementing the furlough plan for civilian employees that was announced before Christmas by Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta.

The Defense Department could hit the entire civilian workforce -- about 700,900 full-time employees -- with furloughs. In that instance, offices would not be shuttered.

Furloughs would come in waves and in a rolling manner, so only a handful of civilian employees from each department would stay home without pay each month.
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