Military Tells Bush of Troop Strains

U.S. Army soldiers from Third Squadron, Third Armored Cavalry Regiment rest between missions at Combat Outpost Rabiy in Mosul, 360 kilometers (225 miles) northwest of Baghdad, Iraq on Wednesday, March 26, 2008. The northern city is considered by the U.S. military as the last urban stronghold for al-Qaida in Iraq. (Maya Alleruzzo/AP Photo)

Military Tells Bush of Troop Strains
At Pentagon, Bush Hears Military's Worries on War Strains From Long, Frequent Iraq Deployments
The Associated Press By ROBERT BURNS AP Military Writer
WASHINGTON Mar 27, 2008 (AP)

Behind the Pentagon's closed doors, U.S. military leaders told President Bush they are worried about the Iraq war's mounting strain on troops and their families. But they indicated they'd go along with a brief halt in pulling out troops this summer.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff did say senior commanders in Iraq should make more frequent assessments of security conditions, an idea that appeared aimed at increasing pressure for more rapid troop reductions.

The chiefs' concern is that U.S. forces are being worn thin, compromising the Pentagon's ability to handle crises elsewhere in the world.

In the war zone itself, two more American soldiers were killed Wednesday in separate attacks in Baghdad, raising the U.S. death toll to at least 4,003, according to an Associated Press count. Volleys of rockets also slammed into Baghdad's Green Zone for the third day this week, and the U.S. Embassy said three Americans were seriously wounded. At least eight Iraqis were killed elsewhere in the capital by rounds that apparently fell short.

go here for the rest
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/WireStory?id=4533124&page=1

And they wonder why there are so many veterans with PTSD?

Gen. Casey "we can fix ourselves over the next 3 to 4 years"

“If we get the resources in a timely, predictable fashion, we believe we can fix ourselves over the next three to four years.”

Casey: Move to shorter tours ‘has to happen’

By Matthew Cox - Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday Feb 27, 2008 17:41:55 EST

The Army’s chief of staff reiterated his commitment to shortening combat tours in Iraq to 12 months to a Senate panel Wednesday, stressing that current 15-month deployments are “just not sustainable.”

Echoing comments he made Tuesday to the Senate Armed Services Committee, Gen. George Casey told Appropriations Committee members the Army is out of balance from more than six years of war and back-to-back deployments.

Casey told lawmakers that the service hopes to begin restoring that balance in July when he expects the demand for forces to decrease.

“That has to happen,” he said Wednesday at a fiscal 2009 budget overview hearing on Capital Hill. “Soldiers and leaders need to see that over time they won’t be deploying for 15 months and home for 12.”

Casey, who was the top U.S. commander in Iraq before taking the chief of staff job last spring, told lawmakers that cutting the time soldiers spend in combat is an integral part of reducing the stress on the force.

He said he anticipates the service can cut combat tours from 15 months to 12 months this summer, as long as the president reduces the number of active-duty Army brigades in Iraq and Afghanistan to 15 units by July, as planned.
go here for the rest
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/02/army_casey_budget_022708w/

God help the troops survive all this. The redeployments increase the risk of PTSD by 50%, yet they keep sending them back over and over again. Not enough time between deployments increases the risk and puts a bigger burden on the families. How long can this go on?

Myasthenia Gravis but soldier being sent back to Iraq anyway

A great friend of mine Irish, sent this urgent message. It is something more veterans need to be aware of and so do reporters. Irish has been very active in veterans issues and is fairly well know in many groups. I trust the information she sent me.

WE NEED INTERVENTION FOR THIS SOLDIER... MANY OF YOU KNOW CINDY MILLOY AS BEING A YOUNGER FAMILY FRIEND TO MY SISTERS WITH SERVICE DURING THE VIETNAM ERA IN THE NAVY. WHEN CINDY CALLED ME TONIGHT I TOLD HER TO SEND ME THE FACTS AS TO THE DEPLOYMENT FOR THIS MAN. AS SHE DID NOT HAVE HIS PERMMISSION TO RELEASE HIS NAME. I TOLD HER IT WAS IMPORTANT TO GET THIS OUT TO THE VETERAN COMMUNITY ASAP... WHEN IS THE DOD GOING TO STOP SENDING MILITARY MEMBERS BACK TO THE BATTLE FIELD DISREGARDING OUR SERVICE INCURRED DISABILITIES.

WE USE THE MOTTO NO NEVER AGAIN THEY WILL NEVER BE FORGOTTEN!!!!!!!!
AND EVERY DAY WE WATCH AS MEN AND WOMEN WARRIORS ARE RETURNED TO THE BATLLE FIELD WITH OPEN WOUNDS... AND THEN DOD WONDERS WHY 6,000 VETERANS MORE THAN THE ENTIRE VIETNAM WAR KILLED THEMSELVES LAST YEAR ALONE!!!!!!!!

LETS JOIN TOGETHER OUR RESOURCES AS VETERANS TO ASSIST THIS WARRIOR .... NO ONE LEFT BEHIND. WE TOOK AN OATH REGARDLESS OF WHICH BRANCH OF THE MILITARY WE JOINED..... NOW WE MUST KEEP THAT OATH AND SAVE THIS WARRIOR...

IRISH BRESNAHAN

VVA POST 992 DAV AMERICAN LEGION POST 448 AND UNITED FELMALE VETERANS OF AMERICA LIFETIME MEMBER IN ALL THESE ORAGANIZATIONS

US ARMY 71-77 CAPTAIN SIGC/MI

----- Original Message -----
From:
Sent: Friday, February 08, 2008 11:55 PM
To: jackpot29@msn.com
Subject: Myasthenic being deployed to Iraq

A member of the US Army MP is being deployed to Iraq in the near future. The Army is not recognizing Myasthenia Gravis as a legitimate disease. If you go to www.myasthenia.org you will see what happens to a Myasthenic under normal and stressful situations. Double vision is a very prominent side effect of this disease which he suffers from. Imagine the risk his peers are at when the shooting starts.
Myasthenia Gravis is a rare Neuro Muscular disease which is treated with a variety of medications. Each individual is very unique with their symptoms as is their treatment. The right combination of drugs can take years to figure out. We suffer from extreme fatigue, no advance notice of loss of muscle control, can stop breathing at anytime, speech can become slurred, at times we can suddenly lose our ability to walk.

Here is my story of living with Myasthenia Gravis (MG).

For years, it is unknown how long, I would be accused of sleeping in classes, having "bedroom eyes" as I got older, sleeping in church and so on. I never understood since my eyes seemed wide open. I would trip over absolutely nothing at times and I remember my grandfather telling me from an early age I would trip over a marshmallow. I just thought I was clumsy. I was tired all the time and forced myself to finish a work day then go home and go to bed. I never knew why. In the early 90's I was tested for MS and it was negative.

I moved to GA in 2001 and suffered a heart attack followed by a stroke. Since I was new to GA and didn't have a neurologist I was assigned one. This man sent me to day therapy at one of the local hospitals. This meant intensive PT/Speech/OT for eight hours. By the time I was supposed to do the stationary bike I would collapse. The neuro said I was menopausal and basically crazy. It wasn't much longer that I became completely bedridden. I had an aide come in the morning to bathe me, feed me, get me up for a while, and do my housework. Another aide came in to feed me dinner and get me ready for bed. My quality of life was extremely depressing and I had given up since I had this doctor who was convinced there was nothing wrong with me.

On a good day when I tried to venture out of my wheelchair while the aides were gone I would fall. I would try to pick up a plain piece of paper and it would feel as though it weighed a hundred pounds and I would go down. The worst part was I didn't have the use of my arms to protect either my face or head from the fall. I have suffered from a fractured hip, broken fingers, broken toes, slipped discs in my neck and my lower back and yet I was just crazy. I have fallen picking up my toothbrush. I always needed someone around to help me.

Finally, one day in the emergency room I asked for a different neurologist. I was very blessed because she was on call and in the ER. Within four days she had me diagnosed with MG. This is only the beginning of my journey. I was admitted to the hospital countless number of times as I exasperated. By that I mean I lost the ability to swallow, breathing was almost impossible (lungs are a muscle), I was unable to walk or talk Many combinations were tried and finally I was treated with five days of IVIg (Intravenous Immuno Globlulin) infusions every month this was my liquid gold, miracle drug. I was able to walk on my own. Shower on my own. Brush my own teeth, hair, and dress myself.

This didn't last long though as after a few months I coded due to an allergic reaction to the infusion. That meant back to square one. You can't imagine what that was like. In fact, it was October 2005 and I began getting extremely weak again and placed on Mestinon and Prednisone which are the common first round of drugs.

By Thanksgiving I wasn't able to eat any food therefore my body was losing all nutrition besides I could not take any medications. Your mouth depends on muscles to swallow. Early December a feeding tube was placed in my stomach. Now I am a female with this tube sticking out of my stomach I remember the first feeding the nurse did to show me how to use it. I cried and begged them to take it out. It was horrible. I was to young for any of this.

I survived the ordeal but what no one thought of was the weakness in my hands. I wasn't able to operate the tube feedings, crush the meds, or even flush the tube since I had no strength. A pump was ordered to deliver the nutrition and once again nurses and aides were taking over my apartment. I refused to be spend Christmas in the hospital so I just kept saying I could do this on my own. I couldn't by January 1, 2006 I was barely breathing on my own. I had fallen out of bed and was on the floor for over three hours before anyone found me.

When the police arrived he put me in my wheelchair since I was not getting back into bed and figured I was better off in my power chair. I was in that chair for over 15 hours before finally being admitted to the hospital. It was a Monday and I remember it well. Once again I was total care only this time there was not one muscle in my body which could move on its own. I spent one month in the hospital that January. New drugs were tried before they found one which was still in the experimental stage for MG. The only problem all paperwork stated it would take 9 to 12 months before it took effect.

Presently, I take Mestinon 60 mg four times a day, Mestinon 180 mg Timespan at bedtime, and 60 mg. of Prednisone to manage my MG. I also have several other Auto Immune diseases which I have been told that once you get one you will get more. I take approximately 23 prescription drugs a day. You see with an MGer we have to take meds throughout the day. My Mestinon is used for muscle strength. For me it works maybe two hours before it wears off. That means I have a lapse of two hours before the next dosage. Now my vision is so bad I can no longer driver. I see double and at times have to wear a patch over my right eye to do even simple tasks.

Now, I don't know how the US Army can send someone with this disease over to Iraq. This soldier suffers from severe double vision and other symptoms. The stress he will be placed under will only exasperate his symptoms. I would think this would not only put him at risk but his fellow soldiers Our meds don't stay in your system for long periods of time so what happens when he misses a dose or two. Is our government really willing to sacrifice a soldiers life?

When I heard this mans story about his deployment it outraged me. I had just watched the interview of the soldier who died of cancer senselessly. Is this going to continue? Is there a reason for such disconcert of a soldier? Surely, our homeland could utilize him here.

I felt compelled to share this story however, at this time I cannot share his name since I do not have permission. Please we are losing enough men why take the chance of losing one senselessly.

Thank you for taking time to read this.
Sincerely,
Cynthia A Milloy
US Navy 74-81




SUPPORT MYASTHENIA GRAVIS FOUNDATION
LEARN MORE ABOUT IT AT www.myasthenia.org

When will government work for the veterans with PTSD?

Bad economy and bad PR hurting veterans

“The issue of mental health has turned into a double-edged sword for returning veterans. More publicity has generated more public awareness and federal funding for those who return home different from when they left. However, more publicity — especially stories that perpetuate the ‘Wacko Vet’ myth — has also made some employers more cautious to hire a veteran,” said Joe Davis, spokesman for Veterans of Foreign Wars.

Study: Job market hard on recently discharged

By Hope Yen - The Associated Press
Posted : Thursday Feb 7, 2008 19:42:42 EST

Strained by war, recently discharged veterans are having a harder time finding civilian jobs and are more likely to earn lower wages for years due partly to employer concerns about their mental health and overall skills, a government study says.

The Department of Veterans Affairs report, obtained Thursday by The Associated Press, points to continuing problems with the Bush administration’s efforts to help 4.4 million troops who have been discharged from active duty since 1990.

The 2007 study by the consulting firm Abt Associates Inc. found that 18 percent of the veterans who sought jobs within one to three years of discharge were unemployed, while one out of four who did find jobs earned less than $21,840 a year. Many had taken advantage of government programs such as the GI Bill to boost job prospects, but there was little evidence that education benefits yielded higher pay or better advancement.

The report blamed the poor prospects partly on inadequate job networks and lack of mentors after extended periods in war, and said employers often had misplaced stereotypes about veterans’ fitness for employment, such as concerns they did not possess adequate technological skills, or were too rigid, lacked education or were at risk for post-traumatic stress disorder.

go here for the rest

http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/02/ap_veteransjobs_080207/

They need a great PR firm. Educating the veterans and their families on what PTSD is and getting them into treatment cannot take a back seat. It's that simple. The problem is, while the government is finally, slowly being responsible enough to start to take care of them, the media is hugely responsible for this happening and they should be applauded, not blamed.

The problem is that the government has done very little to educate the general population on PTSD as well. How else can they view the returning forces after all these years of stress and trauma after trauma? What people do not understand is that there are many who come back fine. Others with PTSD are not suddenly so damaged they cannot work for a living. There are many of them with mild PTSD causing them sleep problems and edginess but their symptoms can be controlled with medication and therapy. While there are many who will never be able to work again, even they can lead productive lives.

We have a nation of people with PTSD and not all of them are veterans. What is the next excuse they use to not hire people? Are they going to give out a questionnaire asking them about every traumatic event in their lives and then say "sorry but your too unstable to hire?"

I really think aside from the lack of education on PTSD, there is something more serious under all of this. My gut is telling me that it's the redeployments issue is the biggest factor. If they hire someone, especially a National Guardsman or Reservists, what are the chances they will get redeployed? Pretty high right? If they get redeployed, their job has to be held open. In a weak job market you have lines of people waiting to apply to Wal-Mart, so it's very unlikely they will hire a veteran who may have to go back. With stop loss, that is another problem. You have so many who think they are done serving only to get orders to go back in. This is not helpful to an employer.

Two ways to get around this: Educate the public on what PTSD is and what it is not. Let the veterans collect unemployment until they can find a job. After all, they were doing their jobs when they went to Iraq and Afghanistan and now they can't find work. Bush can make sure he always finds the money for both occupations and to pay the contractors but has a huge problem when it comes to taking care of the men and women he sends. It's time Congress took this all seriously.

PTSD: I was right 25 years ago and still am

The questions is, if I was right 25 years ago after reading what the experts had to say back then, what took these people so long to catch up?

SAGE Publications

How do multiple deployments affect soldiers and their families?

Research published by SAGE in a special issue of Traumatology



The U.S. Military researched that question last year and put together a report, “the Mental Health Advisory Team IV,” that studied soldier mental health and well-being. The current issue of Traumatology, published by SAGE, takes a sobering look at that study, exploring the three most critical elements of the 100-page report:

* The intensity of combat and other stressors of those serving “down range”

* Battlefield ethics

* Results of efforts to prevent suicides



The special issue of the journal features commentaries written by mental health professionals, most of whom are members and veterans of the U.S. armed forces. They each write about aspects of the study’s findings, for example, how early interventions are critical in avoiding stress injuries and subsequent long-term mental health problems, including such things as: posttraumatic stress disorder, depression, substance abuse, family violence and suicide. The commentaries will enable readers to more effectively understand and help the brave combatants and their families return to civilian life with excellent prospects for resilience and post trauma growth.

“What has set these most recent wars apart from the Vietnam War is the enduring appreciation and respect for the men and women in uniform who, despite their personal misgivings, answer the call to serve their country in war,” writes Charles R. Figley, PhD, Traumatology editor. “We as a nation and as mental health professionals owe them and their families the very best help possible for as long as it is needed. I trust that this special issue contributes to that goal.”

go here back to VAWatchdog
http://www.vawatchdog.org/08/nf08/nfJAN08/nf013108-7.htm

These reports are great but they are not new. Why is it we have not stopped the redeployments knowing this? Why is it we have not made sure they all got treated early? For all they suddenly re-discover, look at all the time lost on what needed to be done to FIX IT ALL!

Two months between deployments PTSD followed him home

When war again found Iraq, Hill was deployed from August 2005 to November 2006. He deployed again in January 2007 with the 731st Transportation Company out of Larned.

Switching to convoy gunner a fateful choice

By James Carlson - The Associated Press
Posted : Friday Dec 28, 2007 7:12:22 EST

OTTAWA, Kan. — Spc. Allen Hill wakes in the middle of the night with a real-life movie playing on repeat.

Gunner position. Night-vision goggles. A man fidgeting with something. A white light, then nothing. Over and over the scene plays, and the 39-year-old Hill can’t seem to dislodge it from his mind.

He is in Kansas for the holidays with his family before returning in early January to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., where he will continue treatment and finish paperwork to receive at-home care when he returns to Kansas.

The physical signs of that day one month ago are waning, but even in the security of his Ottawa home, the mental pain continues.

Hill joined the Army in Texas in 1986 at age 18. He was placed at Fort Riley in 1990 and has lived in Kansas since. He fought in the 1991 Persian Gulf War before joining the Army National Guard.

When war again found Iraq, Hill was deployed from August 2005 to November 2006. He deployed again in January 2007 with the 731st Transportation Company out of Larned.

Hill’s unit served as convoy security, where he most often drove the Humvees. That was until Nov. 21, the day before Thanksgiving.

“I had driven and driven and driven and the monotony ...” he trails off.
go here for the rest
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2007/12/ap_flashback_071228/

He was home two months before going back. This is how they do it to our soldiers. They stick them into another unit that is heading back, and off they go. Yet they get to say the troops have rest between deployments because the unit they left does not go back that quick. Nice trick. Too bad the media let them get away with this over and over again. It happens all the time. Yet they act as if they are surprised by how many end up with PTSD?

4th tour in Iraq with PTSD

On his fourth tour downrange, soldier would like to see system tweaked
By Nancy Montgomery, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Sunday, December 16, 2007

After his third deployment, Sgt. 1st Class Charles Tingle started to think maybe he had done his bit for the global war on terror.

He had bivouacked in Afghanistan. “We lived like animals pretty much,” he said.

He had invaded Iraq. “We never stopped rolling,” said Tingle, a mechanic. “Just not sleeping for a year, always having eyes in the back of your head.”

He had spent thousands of hours on convoys, fixed who-knows-how-many broken vehicles and, although not part of his job description, worked a nightmarish job with mortuary affairs. “Part of my life I’ll never talk about,” he said.

His grandfather died during Tingle’s first Iraq tour — he heard the news three weeks later. His wife’s parents both died on another. “They let me go on leave for 10 days,” he said. “I didn’t make it to the funeral, of course, because it took me three days to get home.”

He has been married 10 years, but has spent nearly half that time thousands of miles from his wife, whose patience with him — his absence, followed by a rocky readjustment, followed by his absence — he treasures. Most of their friends have divorced, he said, but his wife has stood by him.

“She’s a good woman,” he said.

So when his request was denied to leave Fort Campbell, Ky., after a third combat tour and go to Fort Bliss, Texas — an area near relatives and to a unit that wasn’t deploying — and he instead got orders to go to Fort Riley, Kan., Tingle protested.

“I said, ‘You all know Riley’s deploying, right?’

“They said, ‘You’re going to Third Brigade. They’re not deploying for two years.’

“So I get there, they put me in First Brigade, and they were going out the door.”

Tingle is now on his fourth combat tour, based this time at Camp Taji. None of his tours have been a cakewalk, he said, and he’s been treated in the past for post traumatic stress disorder.
click post title for the rest

How long are we going to keep doing this to them?

The killing of Jamie Dean

The killing of Jamie Dean
Police in rural Maryland staged a military stakeout and shot a troubled Army vet. As his family plans to sue, they are asking how a soldier being treated for PTSD could be shipped to Iraq.

By Julia Dahl


Photo: Muriel Dean

Jamie Dean, Dec. 17, 2006.

Sept. 5, 2007 | Jamie Dean had been holed up in his childhood home for six hours when the tear gas canisters came crashing through the windows. It was a little after 4 a.m., the day after Christmas 2006, and Sgt. James Emerick Dean, 29, formerly of the 25th Infantry Division, knew he was surrounded. The white farmhouse was tucked beside a grove of trees in Leonardtown, a rural hamlet in southern Maryland, where Dean's family once raised tobacco. Now, from behind the blinds, Dean could see cops with flashlights creeping around his backyard. He could see police cars on the dirt road outside the house. He could hear the sirens and the shouting and the buzz of the police radios.

It had been a month since Dean had gotten word he'd have to go back to war. He had already served a year in Afghanistan. He'd done and seen things over there he couldn't talk about, and now they were sending him to Iraq. Like tens of thousands of soldiers fighting the post-9/11 wars, Dean was being treated by the Department of Veterans Affairs for post-traumatic stress disorder -- but the Army didn't know that because the Army and the V.A. don't typically share medical records.

Extending Tours, Stressing Troops

Features > August 29, 2007
Extending Tours, Stressing Troops
By Sarah Olson
Exhausted members of Bravo Company, 1st Armored Division, 6th Infantry Regiment, relax after a long patrol in Mahmuydiyah, Irag. On the wall behind them are messages of support from children in the United States.
Share Digg del.icio.us Reddit Newsvine Justin Thompson, 23, proposed to Erin underneath the Eiffel Tower last February. The photos of the two on her MySpace page have the hallmarks of a young couple in love. Thompson can’t wait to get back to Lacey, Wash., to get married, and go to college. There’s one problem: Thompson is in Baghdad, serving his second deployment as a sergeant in the U.S. Army, and he is losing hope that he’ll ever be allowed to leave.

Sgt. Thompson, assigned to the 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team of the Second Infantry Division, was first deployed to Iraq in November 2003. When his unit returned to the United States one year later, he immediately started hearing rumors of redeployment and stop-loss—the military’s age-old policy that compels soldiers to continue serving during wartime, even after their contract expires. Four months later, the rumors were confirmed and Thompson was stop-lossed. Despite exhibiting signs of combat-related depression—uncontrolled anger and heavy drinking, for which he was repeatedly disciplined—Thompson redeployed to Iraq on June 28, 2006, exactly one day after his contract with the Army expired.

This April, while stationed in Baghdad, Thompson received another surprise. This second, involuntary tour would be extended by three months, as part of the Pentagon’s new policy that the Army’s standard tour of duty would be extended from 12 to 15 months. The news was devastating.

“I felt that I’d given everything I had to give,” Thompson says. “I felt that I’d pushed myself to the brink of insanity and back and that still wasn’t enough. I fought in a war I didn’t agree with, but I’d taken an oath saying that I would serve, so I did. I felt used up.”

The Pentagon made this decision in spite of a growing body of medical research—all of which was available before the policy change—that shows longer tours are a primary cause of combat-related stress. Research also shows longer tours increase the psychological impact of traumatic experiences on soldiers, correlate to an increase in combat ethics violations, and put intense strains on military families. In short, increasing the length of deployment puts American soldiers, their families and Iraqis in danger.

click post title for the rest

Ignoring increased risk of PTSD in redeployed at our peril

Repeat Iraq Tours Raise Risk of PTSD, Army Finds
By Ann Scott Tyson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, December 20, 2006; Page A19
U.S. soldiers serving repeated Iraq deployments are 50 percent more likely than those with one tour to suffer from acute combat stress, raising their risk of post-traumatic stress disorder, according to the Army's first survey exploring how today's multiple war-zone rotations affect soldiers' mental health........

Searching for quotes for a new video, I kept finding the report of the increased risk associated with redeployments missing in action. Why? How could a report like this drop off the reports on PTSD when so many of them are coming out? Is this no longer important to the media considering some are on their fifth tour right now? How could they just drop this from their attention?

Easy. It does not fit in with the illusion of the "all volunteer" Army, the Marines, the Air Force or the National Guard. Think about it. Bush keeps saying "well their all volunteers" and this paints a picture in our minds that these men and women have no issues about going back over and over again. It paints a picture of everyone happily carrying out his orders.

We are sending back seriously wounded people. We need to remember they are people. Humans not machines of war. What do you see when you look into their eyes? If they have PTSD, you see a person haunted. It is deeper than being tired. Deeper than being homesick. Deeper than personal issues back home. All of these things are insignificant to what is behind those eyes. It is not something to mess around with. It is not something to ignore any more than it is something to treat with some pills, pat them on the head and send them back to be traumatized all over again.

They may have walked away from the first deployment without PTSD. They may have walked away from the second. Perhaps even the third but the odds are a lot greater they brought the combat back home with them as surely as they did their duffel bag. They are being forced to play a game of Russian roulette with their minds and their lives. Every time they go back, the risk of PTSD is 50% greater to them. Yet as the media have been reluctant to report on this crisis, the report drops off to the distant memories of the people getting the air time on cable news. You certainly won't hear any of the people supporting Bush's delusion discussing it.

The next time you hear any more figures, usually low balled, remember why the numbers are going up and then keep in mind, sometimes they won't show signs of PTSD until years later. Where will the reporters be then? Remember when they came home from Vietnam and the media ignored their problems. Less than ten years later, local newspapers were reporting on them in the obituary pages and the crime logs. Twenty years later they were reporting still in these sections but then occasionally finding the compassion to report on the homelessness of Vietnam Veterans. If we do nothing right now, if we do not keep the attention of the media right where it needs to be so that they are taken care of, how many of them will they be reporting on in the obituary pages and the crime logs ten years from now? Five years from now? Later on this year? How many families will pay the price as they watch someone they love helplessly fall apart and die a slow death? How many of them will come home one day and find they were actually a fatality of combat long after they stopped wearing their uniform?



Kathie Costos
Namguardianangel@aol.com
http://www.namguardianangel.org/
"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


***I'm posting this on both blogs since the media stopped reporting on this someone has to.***

Soldier medically unfit for fifth deployment

Soldier who fought fifth deployment to war deemed medically unfit
Lawyer says soldier wants honorable discharge and release from IRR
By Lisa Burgess
Stars and Stripes Mideast edition
August 16, 2007

ARLINGTON, Va. — The Florida reservist who asked federal courts to block the Army from sending him to Iraq on a fifth deployment was excused from active service after being found medically unfit. He is still seeking an honorable discharge to prevent another call-up, according to his lawyer.

“Now we’re working to put the icing on the cake and get him out of the IRR,” or Individual Ready Reserve, Fayetteville, N.C.-based attorney Mark Waple said.

Sgt. Erik Botta, 26, of Port St. Lucie, Fla., won’t be finished with his eight-year obligation until October 2008, so he is asking for the discharge to ensure he will not get another call-up to Iraq, Waple said.

Chances of that happening are slim, Waple said.

“I think there’s one chance in 1,000 that he’d get mobilized,” Waple said. “I don’t think any Human Resource Command [official] would dare do that.”
read more here