For these veterans, Iraq is a never-ending war

For these veterans, Iraq is a never-ending war

EDITOR'S NOTE: Barbara Starr's conversation with Iraq war veterans, "Home from Iraq," can be seen throughout the day on CNN this Saturday, December 17.

By Barbara Starr

When we walked into the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post in Virginia, an elderly African American veteran of World War II came up to me and said "I take my hat off to these young folks today."

At the age of 87, his war now fading from perhaps too much of the American conscience, his worry was not about himself, but about his young brothers in arms. Veterans of today's war are young enough to be his great grandchildren. On a cold rainy day, tapping his cane, he came out in the bad weather. He wanted to meet the Iraq veterans we had assembled.

The Shakespeare "band of brothers" quote is tossed around all too frequently these days, but over the next two hours at that VFW hall, I would once again see that unbroken bond that exists among those who have gone to war for this country, whether it was 1941 or 2001.

At this VFW post, five veterans of Iraq joined me to talk about the war just as the curtain is coming down after nearly nine years of conflict. All have suffered greatly from post traumatic stress. Not surprisingly, while they are deeply conflicted about the war, all five express concern about fellow veterans and why today's vets are still not getting all the help they need with health care and jobs. The veterans I spoke with make it clear that for them the war in Iraq is not over.

"No its not over. We can't just leave the game on the court. We are struggling with things like epidemic levels of unemployment, suicide rate and because of that we have real casualties here just as we did in Iraq," says Ian Smith, who served in Iraq on tours in 2005 and 2007.
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Iraq war vets: We suffer hidden wounds
CNN Added on December 16, 2011
CNN talks with five Iraq war vets who say they suffer from the hidden wounds of traumatic brain injury and PTSD.

Army’s Sgt. major says U.S. should support vets

Army’s sgt. major says U.S. should support vets
By Kristin M. Hall - The Associated Press
Posted : Saturday Dec 3, 2011 15:31:18 EST
FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. — The Army’s top enlisted soldier said the entire nation has a responsibility to help the tens of thousands of young combat veterans who will be entering the civilian workforce in the coming years.

Sgt. Maj. of the Army Raymond Chandler visited Fort Campbell, Ky., on Friday to hear concerns of soldiers and their families about the coming changes for the Army, including the challenge of reducing the Army by 50,000 soldiers over the next five years and uncertainty about the effects of budget cuts.

Chandler told reporters at the installation on the Tennessee-Kentucky state line that the Army is preparing soldiers to leave the service but noted the American public has an important role in helping those veterans.

“Even the president has said we have to do more for our veterans,” he said. “If as a nation, we have said this is important, then all of us have a part to do, even those of us that are in the Army.”

With unemployment rates higher for recent veterans than the national average, Chandler said the Army can’t find jobs for all veterans, but can help set the conditions for them to seek employment.
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Veterans regroup after life interrupted

Veterans regroup after life interrupted
By Bill Torpy
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

U.S. Marine Corps Sgt. Manse Towery, 33, a veteran of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars who received purple hearts after being wounded in both conflicts, holding his "campaign cover" reflecting on his service in the office of his Woodstock home.

It’s better than it used be, but Woodstock resident Manse Towery, a twice-wounded Marine, still gets angry and sometimes finds it hard to suffer civilians and what he considers their insipid griping.

Sean Newman holds an interesting hospital job in Augusta. But he has yet to find anything in civilian life that affords him the same rush he felt when his combat hospital was suddenly inundated with wounded.

And Decatur native Rafael Bryan, despite a college degree, experience as a legal specialist and a strong sense of duty instilled by the Marine Corps, is struggling to find a job.

The three Georgia men are among America’s newest war vets, part of the 2.3 million servicemen and women who have served in the ongoing conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq. With the rest of the country watching, but not really paying attention, they have become their own generation, 10 years at war, among the longest periods of conflict that the nation has ever gone through.
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Camp Lejeune Chaplain briefs service members about combat stress

Chaplain briefs service members about combat stress

Posted: Thursday, September 22, 2011 12:00 am

Pfc. Nik S. Phongsisattanak Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune

When service members deploy, there are many things they sacrifice. They sacrifice the luxury of taking refreshing showers, fresh home-cooked meals, and most of all - the time they could be spending with their loved ones at home.

During deployments, Marines and sailors leave a lot behind, and when they return, common perception is that life should be grand, according to Lt. Commander John C. Rudd, command chaplain with Deployment Processing Command East, MCB Camp Lejeune. But, the weight of past experiences on their shoulders can be a lot to carry.

Rudd holds briefs that address combat stress. The briefs are for a small number of individuals, which include active-duty and reserve Marines and sailors, as well as contractors, who are augmented from their original units to temporarily support another unit. The brief is required for all augmented personnel.

"When I returned from my deployment, I wanted to go back to where I left off," said Rudd. "But things change as time passes. The general principle is realizing and admitting that time has passed and I'm not where I used to be, so I'm going to have to do the hard work of figuring out where I am right now and finding my new norm.
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For football coach back from war, it's like starting over

For football coach back from war, it's like starting over
By Rick Hampson, USA TODAY

SHELLEY, Idaho – The high school football coach known here as "Mr. November" — it was on his license plate even before he won his fifth state championship — was having a tough August.

He said he felt irritable, impatient, inadequate. Sometimes he was depressed. He had trouble remembering players' names and deciding when to defer to his assistants. "I'm lost," Dwight Richins said. "I feel like a new coach at a new school."

In a way, he was. Coach Richins was also Lt. Col. Richins, a reservist home after a year's deployment as an Army logistics officer in Afghanistan. He was struggling with the disorientation experienced by almost all such returning vets.
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Challenges facing veterans

May 29, 2011
Panelists weigh in on the No. 1 burden on our veterans once they return home from war?

Vets Tackle Transition Home

New Battlefield: Vets Tackle Transition Home
by Jeff St. Clair


August 23, 2010 from WKSU
In the military, 12 weeks of basic training can make someone a soldier. But it may take years, even decades, for many veterans to readjust to home life.

While much of the responsibility for guiding the transition falls to the Department of Veterans Affairs, community-based groups are playing a key role in helping veterans transition to civilian life. One such group, based in Ohio, is being held up as a national model.

A Warrior's Journey Home

Dustin Szarell was one of those veterans who needed help after coming home from Iraq. He tells of seeing comrades killed, and of killing in blind rage. He suffered a traumatic brain injury in an explosion, relearned how to walk and talk, and was returned to duty. When he came home to Ohio, Szarell faced a different set of challenges.

"I had such a frustrating time. You know, I finished my time in the military — six years ... and I was like, 'What am I going to do?' " he says.

Szarell married and soon divorced. He drank and struggled to find work.

Eventually the VA found him a room in a homeless veterans' shelter, where Szarell's transition began in earnest.
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http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129325820

Judge Stephen Manley says "It's Vietnam all over again"

Fisher: Courts learn lessons from Vietnam
By Patty Fisher


pfisher@mercurynews.com

Posted: 05/11/2010 04:06:25 PM PDT
Updated: 05/11/2010 10:21:53 PM PDT


For Superior Court Judge Stephen Manley, seeing a steady stream of Gulf War veterans and more from Iraq and Afghanistan in his courtroom is eerily familiar.

"It's Vietnam all over again," he said.

Since 1995, Manley has created special courts in Santa Clara County for defendants suffering from substance abuse problems or mental illness, offering them treatment instead of prison. It didn't take him long to notice that many of the defendants were Vietnam-era veterans who struggled with physical and mental conditions related to their war experiences and had been in and out of jail.

"I was frustrated for many years," he recalled. "I've had veterans who are in their 50s and 60s and still homeless and still don't have appropriate treatment because the courts and the Veterans Administration just didn't work together."

Now he is seeing a new crop of veterans in his San Jose courtroom. More than 2 million Americans have served in Iraq and Afghanistan. One-third of them suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injury, depression or other mental illness. At least a fifth struggle with drug or alcohol dependency.

"We know a lot of these vets will commit crimes," Manley said. "What we have learned over the years is that we never provided the appropriate treatment for Vietnam vets who came into the system, and many of them are still with us."
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http://www.mercurynews.com/top-stories/ci_15063922

Back from Iraq war, and alone

Back from Iraq war, and alone
By Mike Scotti, Special to CNN
March 10, 2010 2:05 p.m. EST

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
When he came back from Iraq, Mike Scotti says, he felt alien in formerly familiar surroundings
Understanding the isolation vets feel is a new challenge the nation must meet, he says
He realized he must apply the good parts of military experience to home life, let go of the bad
With a new movie, he hopes to educate people about what returning veterans face

Editor's note: Mike Scotti served as a U.S. Marine in Afghanistan in 2001 and Iraq in 2003, and is a founding board member of Reserve Aid, a military-themed, nonprofit charity. He is the founder of the Military Veterans Club at the NYU Stern School of Business and is the subject of the documentary film "Severe Clear," which opens in New York on Friday.

New York (CNN) -- A few days after I had returned from a six-month deployment to Iraq, my second sojourn in the Middle East since 2001, I remember feeling like I was an alien creature from some other planet.

It was 2003, and I was attending a friend's wedding. As I sat at the table listening to the conversation, I suddenly realized that someone who had never been in combat could never even remotely understand what I had just been through.

I looked around. The chamber music quartet, the beautiful bridesmaids, the steak dinner ... none of it was real. My buddies were, at that moment, probably on patrol and quite possibly engaged with the enemy. That was real.

And as for the other guests at the table who were staring at me in my dress blues, we were no longer even the same species.
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Back from Iraq war, and alone

Troops' Return Can Be Challenge For Whole Family

Troops' Return Can Be Challenge For Whole Family

By JESSE LEAVENWORTH

The Hartford Courant

December 27, 2009


ENFIELD — - A woman at Jessica Keller's church — the wife of a Vietnam veteran and mother of their four children — told Keller that she spoke to her husband only once during his yearlong tour of duty.

Keller said that made her see how fortunate she has been.

While Maj. James "Jake" Keller served in Afghanistan last year, he and Jessica e-mailed each other every day. They also spoke every week by phone and even had a few video conversations over the Internet. Through regular mail, Jessica Keller sent her husband drawings from their two young daughters and sent pressed leaves in the fall to remind him of his Connecticut home.

"It's good just to hear that life is actually normal back in the real world," Jake Keller, a National Guard soldier, said, "knowing that you've got something to look forward to once you get out of there."

The Kellers say that constant contact helped them adjust and carry on when Jake Keller returned from his yearlong tour two days after Christmas in 2008. People who counsel returning service members and their families say that the ease and variety of modern communications have helped with the homecoming adjustment.

"Overall, more communication tends to be better than less communication," said Joseph Bobrow, executive director of the nonprofit Coming Home Project (cominghomeproject.net), which provides counseling and support for service members and their families.

Still, communication can't smooth every jagged patch caused by long separation and the brutality of war. Keller had a relatively easy return to family and work, but some service members travel a tougher road home.

"There are many, many challenges," Bobrow said. "The first is that the service member may be home physically, but they're not home emotionally, spiritually, mentally. They haven't begun to process all that they've been through. Getting home takes quite a bit of time."
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Return Can Be Challenge For Whole Family

Video tells Minn. guardsmen in Iraq of services

Video tells Minn. guardsmen in Iraq of services

By Kari Petrie - St. Cloud (Minn.) Times via Gannett News Service
Posted : Friday Dec 18, 2009 9:26:46 EST

Minnesota National Guard soldiers serving in Iraq were able to hear from St. Cloud service providers during a live video link Thursday.

Providers of education, health care and employment services presented information to about 40 soldiers from St. Cloud City Hall. They communicated with the soldiers stationed in Iraq on a large video screen.

St. Cloud VA Medical Center spokeswoman Joan Vincent said organizers believe the video link is the first of its kind for providing reintegration information.

The goal was to provide soldiers with information before they return home, when their focus is on returning to their families and civilian jobs rather than learning about programs.

“Once they get home, they want to go home,” Vincent said.

The video link was done in coordination with Beyond the Yellow Ribbon and Warrior to Citizen programs, which work to make the transition from deployment to home as smooth as possible.
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Video tells Minn. guardsmen in Iraq of services

Specter trying to forestall closings of five veterans centers

Specter trying to forestall closings of five veterans centers
Saturday, December 05, 2009
By Jerome L. Sherman, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter is trying to find federal funding for five Pennsylvania veterans outreach centers that will run out of money by Dec. 31.

He'll have to act fast. At least one center, in Erie, has already closed. And the remaining centers -- in Harrisburg, Greensburg, Boyertown and West Pittston -- are no longer seeing clients. The state Department of Labor and Industry has provided just enough money to complete the closure process.

"If he can get the money to keep it open, I will probably stay on," James Krobath, an operations specialist in the Harrisburg center, said of Mr. Specter's efforts. "It would be pretty difficult at this point to recover. We're in the closeout mode."

Budget cuts have pushed state government to shutter the facilities, which help veterans with a range of services, from seeking pension benefits to obtaining medals. They have a strong reach in rural areas.
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http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09339/1018665-454.stm

Northrop Grumman supporting those who serve with jobs

This is posted with pleasure. I hardly ever get to do a positive post on a defense contractor but this time, what they are doing to accommodate PTSD combat veterans is nothing less than remarkable. These veterans are not "brain dead" suddenly and unable to use their talent or put their training to use. Put it this way. These are men and women who were willing to lay down their lives for this country, spent their years putting others first, mission focused and dedicated. Can you ask for a better employee than that? Ok, so yes they have some problems but at least unemployment won't add to the stress at the same time they are learning to heal. When they find jobs, it does them a lot of good to know they are still "useful" and someone values them. They also need to know that someone gives a damn.

The employer sets the tone of what will or will not be tolerated by other co-workers and this helps the veteran readjust in an atmosphere of a continuation of the "brotherhood" they just left when everyone is working together for a common goal. I think this is fabulous!

Army helps vets with `invisible wounds' find jobs
By MICHELLE ROBERTS (AP) – 4 hours ago

SAN ANTONIO — Richard Martin keeps a rearview mirror on his desk to prevent co-workers from startling him in his cubicle. The walls are papered with sticky notes to help him remember things, and he wears noise-canceling headphones to keep his easily distracted mind focused.

Martin, an Army veteran who was nearly blown up on three occasions in Iraq, once feared that post-traumatic stress disorder and a brain injury would keep him from holding down a civilian job, despite years of corporate experience and an MBA.

"Here I am with this background and I'm having problems with my memory," said Martin, a 48-year-old engineer and former National Guard major who now works for Northrop Grumman, helping to devise ways to thwart remote-detonated bombs.

The defense contractor recruited him through its hiring program for severely wounded veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan. The company consulted occupational nurses on how to help him do his job without becoming overly nervous when someone, say, drops a heavy object. Martin figured out other tricks, like the headphones, on his own.

But Martin is one of the lucky ones.

Army officials say many new veterans suffering from PTSD and brain injuries struggle to find and keep a civilian job. Advocates say many employers don't know how to accommodate veterans with these "invisible wounds" and worry that they cannot do the job and might even "go postal" someday.
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Army helps vets with invisible wounds find jobs

Open house set Nov. 3 at Vet Center in Fort Myers

Open house set Nov. 3 at Vet Center in Fort Myers

In advance of Veterans Day, the Fort Myers Vet Center today has issued an invitation to all veterans and the public to attend an Open House on Tuesday, November 3. The open house will take place from 1 to 4 p.m. at 4110 Center Pointe Drive Suite 204, Fort Myers.

"There is a growing need for readjustment counseling/ services to existing and newly returning combat veterans and their families.The VA is committed to providing these services and high-quality outreach to all combat veterans, said John Peptis, team leader.

The Fort Myers Vet Center has been a driving force in this effort, he said.

"We serve five counties, Lee, Glades, Charlotte, Hendry,and Collier. We have veterans driving from those counties to our location for treatment. So this is an outreach effort for veterans from all combat eras.

"The community-based Veteran Centers are a key component of VA's mental health program, providing veterans with mental health screening and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) counseling, along with help for family members dealing with bereavement and loved ones with PTSD," he said.

Studies by the U.S. Medicine Institute of Health have reported that Vet Centers have proven a best practice model in fostering peer-to-peer relationships. The best way to overcome concerns about stigmatization is through person-to-person contact with a trained professional, Peptis said.

The Open House will not only be a chance to meet the Vet Center staff, but it will also be an opportunity to learn more about the Vet Center program.

Light refreshments will be served.An award ceremony will take place at 2 p.m.

For more information contact Peptis at 239-479-4401 of 239-479-4401. Martha Vaugh, the officemanager can also help you with any questions.
Open house set Nov. 3 at Vet Center in Fort Myers

Soldiers Into Students

Soldiers Into Students
Veterans, Educators Try to Ease Transition


By Emma Brown
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, August 13, 2009

The new GI Bill went into effect this month, and President Obama marked that milestone last week when he addressed about 350 military veterans and advocates on the campus of George Mason University.

"It's driven by the same simple logic that drove the first GI Bill," Obama said of the legislation, passed by Congress last year and expected to help a quarter-million veterans pay for school by 2011. "You pick the school; we'll help pick up the bill."

The federal government plans to spend $78 billion over the next decade to provide veterans free in-state undergraduate education and allowances for books and housing. But across the country and at George Mason, veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are asking for more than cash to ease the transition between military and civilian student life. Their needs include resource centers to help servicepeople navigate the unfamiliar world of academia and ramped-up mental health services to help them deal with the emotional aftermath of war.
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Veterans Educators Try to Ease Transition

Yellow Ribbon Reintegration Program takes hold in Missouri

Mo. program helps guardsmen in return to U.S.

By Kavita Kumar - St. Louis Post-Dispatch via AP
Posted : Saturday Jul 25, 2009 15:53:15 EDT

ST. LOUIS — When Sgt. Nicholas Moore returned from his first deployment with the Missouri National Guard, he was too exhausted to absorb all the details about the military benefits and support services for which he was eligible.

It was 2004 and he had just returned from Iraq.

“We were so fatigued from just being back,” said Moore, 28. Then after the quick briefing at Fort Leonard Wood, “It was like, ‘OK, off you go!’ ”

But it has been a much different experience since he returned from his second deployment, this time as part of the multinational peacekeeping force in Kosovo. Since March, he has spent two weekends in the Yellow Ribbon Reintegration Program that the Pentagon started last year for guardsmen.

Along with about 350 other Missouri National Guardsmen and their families, Moore spent a weekend at the Renaissance Grand Hotel downtown. They were given spending money to eat around town and were handed certificates, pins and other mementos at a “freedom salute” ceremony.

But the heart of the program is three days of briefings on everything from military benefits such as health insurance and educational assistance to workshops on suicide prevention and reintegrating into civilian life.
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Mo. program helps guardsmen in return to U.S.

From combat to college: A tough transition that few understand

From combat to college: A tough transition that few understand

By Rick Steigmeyer
World staff writer

WENATCHEE — The small white house at 1337 Fifth St., across from Wenatchee Valley College, is their retreat. And retreat they must from the frequent irritations that can arise when a soldier becomes a student.

The house is owned by the college and used as a study lounge by students who are also military veterans. Many of them have only recently returned from combat in Iraq or Afghanistan. Others are still trying their best to fit into normal social and educational situations years after their military experience. Trading a life-threatening environment and a rifle for a classroom and a computer is no easy thing, the students will tell you in no uncertain terms.

A car backfire, a slammed door or even a dropped book can cause them to relive a frightening combat experience and send them scrambling for cover. Mostly, it's just a feeling of not fitting in.
"It's hard to get back in the swing of civilian life," said Kevin Bovee, 24, of Wenatchee. He did two tours in Iraq with the Marine Corps over the past four years. Bovee completed his service in April and enrolled at WVC to pursue a degree in business. "I feel at home with other veterans, but the young kids just getting their driver's license, I don't have anything in common with them."

Combat veterans often have to deal with a lot of anger. It's something that was nurtured in the military, but is out of place in civilian life. It's frustrating that few understand, Bovee said.
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http://wenatcheeworld.com/article/20090221/NEWS04/702219970/1005/SPORTS

Guardsman adjusting to civilian life

Guardsman adjusting to civilian life/


By Mary Jo Balasco - The (Rock Hill) Herald via The Associated Press
Posted : Saturday Dec 20, 2008 14:22:17 EST

ROCK HILL, S.C. — South Carolina Army National Guard Capt. Bill Berry spent his last holiday season on an Army base in Afghanistan, packing equipment for a mission to teach soldiers how to handle roadside bombs. During his 13-month deployment, the Rock Hill man often had to leave the base, sometimes for days, placing him in jeopardy nearly every day.

“The hair stood up on the back of my neck a few times,” said Berry, 47. “Any time you’re outside of the gate, there is danger.”

Berry and the 175 other soldiers of the 178th Engineer Battalion arrived home in May. This year, they will celebrate the holidays with their families as they continue to adjust from serving in the war zones.

Readjusting to civilian life can be fraught with problems for returning soldiers. Military officials say they may face issues that vary from mild to severe, depending on their experience.

And the adjustment for National Guard soldiers like Berry can be even more difficult than for active military soldiers. That’s because, unlike active soldiers, guardsman go home to communities where most people can’t relate to their experiences, said Chief Warrant Officer Terry O’Conner, reintegration program director for the South Carolina Army National Guard.
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Returning troops faced the airport screening from hell

After 15 months in Iraq, servicemembers face an arduous process of returning to ‘normal’
By Heath Druzin, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Monday, November 3, 2008

ALI AL SALEM AIR BASE, Kuwait — It was midnight and home was within grasp, but after 15 months of grueling battle and fleeting sleep, the soldiers of 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment now faced the airport screening from hell.

After carefully packing their bulging bags with clothes, body armor and trinkets picked up in Iraq, 305 soldiers had to empty everything for security officials who picked through shirts, underwear and socks looking for contraband. The check came between two X-ray scans and two metal detectors, a process that took about three hours.

Graffiti on the wall of the screening room summed up the grumbling of many of the bleary-eyed troops.

"The government treats me like I’m the terrorist," it read.

Staff Sgt. Douglas Reynolds mulled over what he saw as a contradiction.

"People coming from India to the United States can get into the country easier than this," he said with a resigned smile.
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http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=58578

Veteran Center hits the road with mobile counseling

VA to Deploy Mobile Counseling Centers Across America


Last update: 1:30 p.m. EDT Oct. 22, 2008
WASHINGTON, Oct 22, 2008 /PRNewswire-USNewswire via COMTEX/ -- 50 Motor Coaches to Bring Services Closer to Veterans
The first of a fleet of 50 new mobile counseling centers for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Vet Center program was put into service today with the remainder scheduled to be activated over the next three months.

"Our widespread distribution of this fleet from coast to coast marks a new chapter in VA's innovation to reach rural and underserved veterans with high-quality readjustment counseling," said Secretary of Veterans Affairs Dr. James B. Peake.

Each vehicle will be assigned to one of VA's existing Vet Centers, enabling the center to improve access to counseling by bringing services closer to veterans.

The 38-foot motor coaches, which have spaces for confidential counseling, will carry Vet Center counselors and outreach workers to events and activities to reach veterans in broad geographic areas, supplementing VA's 232 current Vet Centers, which are scheduled to increase to 271 facilities by the end of 2009.

Vet Centers, operated by VA's Readjustment Counseling Service, provide non-medical readjustment counseling in easily accessible, consumer-oriented facilities, addressing the social and economic dimensions of post-war needs. This includes psychological counseling for traumatic military-related experiences and family counseling when needed for the veteran's readjustment.
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