Army suspends Command Sgt. Major over "alcohol related" incident

Wiesbaden garrison CSM suspended in 'alcohol-related incident'
Army Times
Dec. 6, 2013

The top enlisted soldier at U.S. Army Garrison Wiesbadenhas been suspended from his job as garrison command sergeant major after “an alcohol-related incident,” according to an Army spokeswoman.

Command Sgt. Maj. Sa’eed Mustafa was suspended Nov. 25 after the off base incident, Anemone Rueger, a spokeswoman for the Wiesbaden garrison, told Army Times in an emailed statement.

Rueger said no one else was involved in the incident, but otherwise did not elaborate on the allegations against Mustafa, writing that the “investigation is ongoing.”

Mustafa, a native of Highland Falls, N.Y., is a 29-year Army veteran who took the top enlisted post of the Wiesbaden garrison in July 2012, according to his official biography on the garrison’s website. As of Friday, he was still listed on the site as the garrison’s top enlisted leader.
read more here

How the Government Is Handling 700,000 Jailed Veterans

How the Government Is Handling 700,000 Jailed Veterans
Nextgov
Bob Brewin
December 3, 2013

The 700,000 veterans consigned to the dustbins of society -- prisons and jails -- won some top level attention this week at the first national Vet Court Conference in Washington, which brings together 1,000 judges, mental health and substance abuse professionals and the leadership of the Veterans Affairs and Defense Departments.

The conference, sponsored by the Justice for Vets division of the National Association of Drug Court Professionals, focuses on veterans involved in the criminal justice system as a result of substance abuse and mental health problems. There are some grim statistics behind this issue: One in six returning veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan suffers from a substance abuse disorder; since 2004, the number of veterans treated for mental illness and substance abuse has increased 38 percent, and 81 percent of arrested veterans had a substance abuse problem.

read more here

Homeless Veteran In Popular Makeover Video, Arrested For Trespassing

Homeless veteran transformed out of simple act of love in the viral video we've all seen did not mean that this veteran was healed or changed much inside. Sure he looked like a changed person but whatever pain PTSD has caused inside of him remains. Did you expect a happy ending like they have in movies? Did you expect someone to give him a job, a place to live and someone in his life in a matter of minutes? After all, Hollywood writes those endings but for veterans, it doesn't just happen. It takes time and it takes a lot of people getting involved a hell of lot more than it takes to watch a video of a haircut.

James Wolf, Homeless Veteran In Popular Makeover Video, Arrested For Trespassing
The Huffington Post
By David Moye
Posted: 11/20/2013

A homeless U.S. Army vet who became a viral sensation thanks to a video showing him getting a makeover has been arrested.

James Wolf, 54, was arrested Sunday at a Burger King in Grand Rapids, Mich., and charged with trespassing and creating a disturbance.

Wolf pleaded guilty to both misdemeanor charges on Monday and was ordered to serve 10 days in jail on each charge, MLive.com reported.

Wolf told WOOD-TV on Wednesday that he appreciated the efforts of Dégagé Ministries, the organization that used his makeover as a fundraising tool, but admitted he's gone back to drinking.
read more here

Nation’s First Conference On Veterans And Criminal Justice System

Nation’s First Conference On Veterans And Criminal Justice System
WASHINGTON
NEWS.GNOM.ES
Nov. 19, 2013

The first national conference on veterans and the criminal justice system, focusing on those with substance abuse and mental health problems, problems opens Monday, December 2nd, 8AM, at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel, 2660 Woodley Road, NW, Washington, DC. Four-Star Gen. Barry McCaffrey (ret), former U.S. Drug Czar and Chairman of the Veterans Treatment Court Committee of the National Association of Drug Court Professionals (NADCP), Melissa Fitzgerald, Senior Director of Justice for Vets, a division of NADCP, and West Huddleston, CEO of NADCP and organizer of the conference, announced the event today.

McCaffrey and Fitzgerald pointed to alarming statistics showing:

One in 6 returning veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan suffers from substance abuse

Since 2004, the number of veterans being treated for mental illness and substance abuse has increased 38%

Over 700,000 veterans are in the corrections system

81% of veterans arrested had a substance abuse problem when arrested

There were 120,000 homeless veterans at some point last year

76% of homeless veterans have a substance abuse or mental health disorder

“Too many veterans are returning home suffering from mental health conditions and substance abuse disorders and becoming involved in the criminal justice system. This is a national crisis of alarming proportions, and it demands that we come together to focus on solutions,” McCaffrey, Fitzgerald, and Huddleston asserted.

“We’ve worked to establish Veterans Treatment Courts, now numbering over 130 and continuing to grow. This critical gathering will explore how we can expand these life-saving programs to every veteran in need,” they stated.

4-Star Gen. Barry McCaffrey (Former Drug Czar), Gen. Eric Shinseki (Sec Of Veterans Affairs), Actress and Justice For Vets Senior Director Melissa Fitzgerald, Iraq-Afghanistan Returning Veterans, Judges Speak

1 in 6 Returning Vets Suffers from Substance Abuse, 1 in 5 a Mental Health Condition; “National Crisis of Alarming Proportions”

8-10 AM, Mon. December 2, Marriott Wardman Park Hotel, DC, 2660 Woodley Rd NW; Open to Media

Also Joint Chiefs Of Staff Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey To Speak At Closing Session 8 AM December 4 read more here

Veterans Moving Forward Even Behind Bars

Some of my friends are better than I am because they have prison ministries, healing souls behind bars but you never hear about the wonderful work they do. If it doesn't make sense to you that veterans are different from the rest of us, then you must not know too many of them. If you think they should be forgotten about since they are locked up, you must have forgotten what Christ said.

34 Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:

35 For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:

36 Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.
Matthew 25

Most of these veterans came home with PTSD and self-medicated to numb the pain they felt. The fact is most veterans do not seek help from the government even after all these years. Some commit crimes and were unlucky enough to commit them in states without Veterans Courts offering them help instead of jail. Do we forget about them? Do we just leave them alone so they can do their time and not even try to help them?

Veterans Courts are not a "get out of jail free" way out. They are given the connections they need to begin treatment they should have had all along and they are helped to do what the judge says. If they do not do it, they have to serve their time behind bars. Keep in mind that veterans are only 7% of the population.

VA medical centers recognize the value of partnerships with local justice-system and community treatment partners

Many VA medical centers are engaged with partners in their local criminal justice systems. In response to a June 2008 review, more than one third of medical centers (58 of 153) indicated that they either currently engage with local justice system partners to coordinate services for Veterans, or intend to request resources to support such engagement. Currently, the VA participates in 8 Veterans Court programs located in Santa Ana, CA, Buffalo, NY, Anchorage, AK, San Bernardino, CA, Santa Clara, CA, Chicago, IL, Rochester, NY, and Tulsa, OK. Elsewhere, VA medical centers have established relationships with a range of justice system and community partners, including police and sheriffs’ departments, local jail administrators, judges, prosecutors, public defenders, probation officers, and community mental health providers.

If we did for them when they came home, most wouldn't have ended up behind bars. They commit crimes are were given jail time but that doesn't mean they do not deserve our time and efforts to do the right thing for them.

Vets unite behind bars at Vista jail
Authorities hope they can better rehabilitate service members by housing them together in unit at Vista Jail
UT San Diego
By Pauline Repard
NOV. 16, 2013

A patriotic artwork is displayed on the wall near the telephones in the Vista Jail housing module for military veterans.

Vista — Early this month, 32 veterans in blue jail uniforms filed into a freshly painted, red, white and blue Vista Jail dormitory with walls brightened by patriotic murals.

They dropped their bags of belongings in double-bunk cells, then were officially welcomed to the Veterans Moving Forward program initiated by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

By housing the veterans together, authorities hope to encourage camaraderie while helping them kick drug habits, gain job skills, find housing and undergo treatment for mental illness — all factors that could keep them from returning to jail.

“The ultimate goal is transitioning them back to the community,” Sheriff Bill Gore said in an interview.

“Veterans have given so much to this nation.”
read more here

Andrew "Sarge" Chambers PTSD after service, courage even after conviction

Since you read Wounded Times, I am sure you're among those who will get this. You will understand what kind of courage it took for this veteran to not just get up and try to do something to help others, but had the camera rolling.

Oct 31, 2013 Speaking from prison, Iraqi war veteran Andrew "Sarge" Chambers tells the story of how he got there. As the judge told him when he sentenced Chambers to 10 years at Marion Correctional: "Your time in Iraq makes you a threat to society."
Chambers reminds us of the sacrifices that linger with soldiers -- and simply asks us to listen.

Andrew "Sarge" Chambers proudly hails from Pickerington, Ohio. He served in the U.S. Army and has maintained the habit he acquired there of cursing just a bit too much. Throughout his service, Sarge was also able to maintain and hone his sense of honor and kindness, but the experience did slightly alter his sense of humor. While categorically not a morning person, when he is able to finally pry his eyes open, he always thinks to himself that he would rather be fishing. Most of his days are filled with coaching softball, Garth Brooks songs and thoughts of the family he hopes to be able to start soon. He is taking the stage to tell his story, parts of which can be seen in the documentary Operation Resurrection: The Warrior Returns. After TEDxMarionCorrectional he will work on his next unique thing.

In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.* (*Subject to certain rules and regulations)

Maryland getting Veterans' Court

State’s first veterans’ court may launch in Prince George’s
Officials hope to help former service members suffering from combat-related mental illnesses
Maryland Community News
By Sophie Petit Staff Writer
November 8, 2013

With the state’s largest population of veterans, Prince George’s County is being eyed as the future site for Maryland’s first veterans’ court, state officials said.

“I was in combat, and it’s very difficult coming back and going through the regular daily routine,” said state Sen. Douglas J.J. Peters (D-Dist. 23) of Bowie, who served during Operation Desert Storm in the early 1990s and is chairman of the special veterans task force that recommended the court. “A lot of these young people have post-traumatic stress disorder, which is basically combat stress.”

Veterans suffering from PTSD and other combat-related mental illnesses are more likely to commit crimes, Peters said, but instead of time behind bars, they need rehabilitation and mentoring services to get their lives back on track.

With the support of Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown (D), also a veteran, Peters said officials hope to open the court by 2015 and want to start the program in Prince George’s.

“Our veterans deserve our full support as they work to transition back into civilian life,” Brown said in a Nov. 8 statement.

Maryland is home to 443,076 veterans, with 62,744 living in Prince George’s — the most in the state, according to U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs data.

The task force released its final report recommending the court on Nov. 7. The next step is getting approval from the Office of Problem-Solving Courts in Annapolis, which oversees the county’s drug court, a similar system to veterans’ court.
read more here

Denial of Ohio home for homeless vets reversed

Another heartless neighborhood turns away homeless veterans turns out to be not so heartless after all.

Denial of Ohio home for homeless vets reversed

A planning commission in the southwestern Ohio city of Middletown has reversed course and approved a plan to provide housing and substance-abuse treatment for homeless veterans.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
MIDDLETOWN
OCT 11, 2013

The commission voted Wednesday to allow three to five homeless veterans to live in a residential home as they get treatment and look for work.
read more here

TROOPS FLOODING INTO HOSPITALS FOR MENTAL HEALTH CARE

Mental health leading cause of military hospital stays
TROOPS FLOODING INTO HOSPITALS FOR MENTAL HEALTH CARE

Mental disorders were the leading cause of hospitalizations and the second leading cause of medical visits for active duty troops in 2012, according to the Armed Forces Health Surveillance Center. A look at how mental health conditions affected active duty troops last year
USA Today
Gregg Zoroya and Meghan Hoyer
September 25, 2013

Through 2012, mental illness in the military took up more days for hospitalization than any other mental or physical problems, including war wounds, accidents, illness or pregnancies.

Post-traumatic stress disorder, substance abuse and other mental illnesses accounted for more days spent by troops in the hospital than any other medical condition in the military in 2012, including war wounds, injuries and illness, according to Pentagon data.

The numbers show how years of exposure to combat trauma created a core of servicemembers with severe mental health problems — about 20,000 last year — who accounted for more lost workdays than those with any other health issue.

In the worst cases, troops remained hospitalized more than a month. Only servicemembers with severe amputations and long rehabilitation stay longer, according to Pentagon data provided in response to USA TODAY queries.

One ray of hope: New Army data show the mental health hospitalization trend that began rising during the depths of two wars in 2006 finally may be reversing.
read more here

Another heartless neighborhood turns away homeless veterans

I wonder if the "neighbor" understands that homeless veterans were willing to die for the sake of someone else and just need "someone else" to give a damn about them enough to call them neighbor?

Planned Ohio home for homeless veterans denied
Associated Press
Written by
Amanda Lee Myers
August 17, 2013

“It just tears my heart out,” said Willa Fletcher, founder of Holt Street Miracle Center, which provides housing and treatment for veterans. “They just need somebody to love them, care for them and let them know they can make it. ... As much as those boys go over there and fight for America and keep the enemy out of our country, they just have nowhere to go.”

CINCINNATI — A plan to provide housing and substance-abuse treatment for homeless veterans in the southwestern Ohio city of Middletown has been derailed by a planning commission vote against it, with panel members saying the neighborhood might not be the best fit for the men and that the home was too close to other shelters.

John Porter, the homeowner, said Friday that he’s exploring options to appeal the Middletown panel’s unanimous decision against allowing the veterans to stay in the house.

Porter and Dayton-based Holt Street Miracle Center had paired up to house three to five homeless veterans as they’re treated for alcohol and substance abuse, but needed the city’s approval.
read more here

Hospital was supposed to take care of female veterans

They were supposed to be taking care of female veterans. Since they didn't think about where they would come from, they turned around and opened the door to males. Did they actually think that would serve the female veterans?

Treatment center for military females needs men to up numbers
Courier Post
Written by
Carol Comegno
Courier-Post Staff Aug. 5, 2013

WILLINGBORO — An in-patient hospital program for female active military or veterans with emotional disorders or addiction has been expanded to include men.

Despite an aggressive marketing campaign to attract them, a shortage of women has led administrators at Lady of Lourdes Medical Center of Burlington County to open the Living Springs behavioral program to active-duty males or veterans.

Alexander J. Hatala, Lourdes Health System president and CEO, said the newly-opened program has been modified in order to treat men and women in the 21-bed Willingboro unit. The first male was admitted last week.

“When we originally designed Living Springs, our intention was to create a comfortable, safe environment where servicewomen or the female family members of servicemen could relate to each other during the recovery process,” Hatala said.

He said since the program was launched in December, the hospital discovered a number of impediments for women to step forward and seek care, despite the need for behavioral health services geared toward them.

Joanne Gianndrea, Lourdes’ vice president for military affairs, said one problem is the reluctance of women to enter an in-patient program, especially if they have children or are caregivers for someone else.

Another obstacle is locating potential patients.
read more here

"Help me, please!" the former Army medic begged, "I'm dying"

"Help me, please!" the former Army medic begged, "I'm dying"
Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
August 3, 2013

The PFC Joseph Dwyer Peer-to-Peer Veterans Counseling Program in the name of the Iraq veteran made famous by a photograph taken of him holding a child.

After this picture was taken, Pfc. Joseph Dwyer life ended and because of his fame, it made national news.

The Iraq war veteran had called a taxi service to take him to the emergency room. But when the driver arrived, Dwyer shouted that he was too weak to get up and open the door.

The officers asked Dwyer for permission to kick it in.

"Go ahead!" he yelled.

They found Dwyer lying on his back, his clothes soiled with urine and feces. Scattered on the floor around him were dozens of spent cans of Dust-Off, a refrigerant-based aerosol normally used to clean electrical equipment. Dwyer told police Lt. Mike Wilson he'd been "huffing" the aerosol.

"Help me, please!" the former Army medic begged Wilson. "I'm dying. Help me. I can't breathe."

Unable to stand or even sit up, Dwyer was hoisted onto a stretcher. As paramedics prepared to load him into an ambulance, an officer noticed Dwyer's eyes had glassed over and were fixed.

A half hour later, he was dead.

After that yet another program was funded and pushed to help veterans with PTSD.

"Both state Sens. Greg Ball and David Carlucci announced recently that funding for the program has been secured in seven additional counties across the state. Funding was secured through the state Office of Mental Health with $2.3 million allocated to the program in the 2013-2014 state budget, according to Carlucci’s office.

Putnam, Rockland and Westchester counties will each receive $185,000 to fund the program named after the Iraq war veteran who died in 2008 of a drug overdose following struggles with PTSD.

While some seem to think that combat related PTSD is something new, in the above article there was this.

“I know for myself I waited 30 years after Vietnam before going to the VA because I thought I could take of it myself,” said Karl Rohde, director of the Putnam County Veterans Service Agency. “If we can get veterans in sooner and anticipate problems before it becomes a last resort and they try to harm themselves it would help.”

Vietnam veterans are the majority of the claims in the VA system waiting to be approved or reevaluated. They reflect the real issue with treating PTSD. First is that researchers have been funded and studied PTSD for over 40 years yet what was learned because of Vietnam veterans pushing for it has been forgotten. What didn't work then is suddenly something some researcher is pushing and getting money to do it. What did work but didn't cost much money has been forgotten.

Peer support works and is not expensive. If it is done right, it can help them heal. That is one more thing learned by Vietnam veterans.

Point Man International Ministries began in 1984 when a Vietnam veteran was tired of arresting other veterans clearly troubled by where they had been. Since then it has saved countless lives and supported families in emotional crisis while trying to live with their veterans.

Headed by Dana Morgan, a Vietnam veteran Marine, along with other veterans heading Out Posts and families heading Home Fronts, Point Man is peer support that heals generations. We do it with Christian based spiritual ministry. As researchers are beginning to discover the need to address PTSD and the moral issues they are trying to sort out, it was known all along.

So why are they still begging for help? Why are they still dying? Didn't we spend billions of dollars funding "prevention" so that veterans like Dwyer would not suffer more back home than they did during combat? Didn't we read about this claim and that claim made every time the number of military suicides went up? Didn't we read that every time another family went to the press to talk about their veteran suffering without help?

How much will it take for them to stop begging for help or worse, avoiding it, before this country gets the point. What has failed has been repeated so we end up with the DOD trying to spin the deadliest year on record for military suicides topped off with the fact that as veterans, suicides they don't have to count any more have gone up as well. One more thing they keep ignoring is that attempted suicides have gone up but just because they survived it, they get ignored in most of the published numbers. Families can still remember the times they begged for help but didn't find it. Will you remember them?

Troops afflicted with PTSD, alcoholism

Vietnam veterans learned years ago there is a huge difference between self-medicating and being addicted. Most of the time rehabs did not work for them simply because they were not alcoholics but were just using substances to stop feeling. It looks as if that lesson has not been learned in too many cases of new veterans.

Troops afflicted with PTSD, alcoholism
News 4 San Antonio
By: Delaine Mathieu
July 25 2013

SAN ANTONIO -- Researchers at the University of Texas Health Science Center are conducting a study on veterans with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and alcoholism. It's the only one of its kind in the nation, funded by the Department of Defense. "I felt that I was successful, because I didn't pick up a weapon and blow my brains out," said Jerry Thornton.

The 58-year-old spent 12 years in the Army as a supply sergeant. The things he saw during Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm changed him. "I experienced bodies, children." He started drinking while he was in the military, but the PTSD set in later. "I didn't know it was actually affecting me," said Thornton. "But it resulted in a divorce and the loss of my family." He became defensive and nervous. He was afraid of everything, including crowds at concerts, sporting events and even going inside H-E-B.

"It was one door," he said. "One door entering and one door to exit."

He drank to numb the pain.
read more here

A Day in the Life of a Vet With PTSD

A Day in the Life of a Vet With PTSD

Soldiers Heart, a song written and performed by The Tosspints, is one that hits close to home for many soldiers who suffer with PTSD, including guitarist and vocalist for the band, Don Zuzula. As a combat veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom, Zuzula, by way of the song, gives the perspective of a soldier returning home dealing with things like flashbacks and depression, which Zuzula says was difficult to face and relive for the video.
see interview here

Full video on YouTube
The Tosspints - "Soldiers Heart"

National Geographic Channel explores synthetic drug use in military

'Bath Salts,' 'Spice' and US Military: Are Service Members Abusing Synthetic Drugs?
ABC News
By LAUREN EFFRON
Digital Producer
via NIGHTLINE
July 9, 2013

An undercover investigation for National Geographic explores the availability of powerful synthetic drugs, with names like "spice" and "bath salts," and its popularity among members of the U.S. military.

For the next installment of National Geographic's "Inside: Secret America" series, which takes an in-depth look at how people can easily purchase synthetic drugs, investigative journalist Mariana van Zeller went undercover with a former Marine and a Marine on active duty in San Diego to local smoke shops as they purchased bath salts.

The "Bath Salts" episode airs on July 10 at 10 p.m. on the National Geographic Channel.

"Spice" mimics the effects of marijuana. While "bath salts" look as harmless as their name, they are a strong concoction with an impact similar to amphetamines or cocaine.

Despite the risks, Jordan, and his friend, who was called Chris, are no strangers to this new class of drugs. Jordan was kicked out of the Marines a month before talking with National Geographic for disciplinary reasons, but Chris is still on active duty, which is why his identity is not being revealed.

"You get this awesome, you know, just power, you know, feel inside of you," Chris said, in talking about the effects of bath salts. "Just makes you feel like you could do whatever you want, just feels good."

Jordan said synthetic drug use in the U.S. military is at "epidemic" levels.
read more here

Veterans Treatment Court a success, lawmakers told

Veterans Treatment Court a success, lawmakers told
The Lane Report


FRANKFORT, Ky. (June 14, 2013) — A specialty court in Jefferson County is the first in the state dedicated to serving veterans involved in the criminal justice system, members of the Interim Joint Committee on Veterans, Military Affairs and Public Protection heard yesterday.

Based on the drug court model, the Jefferson County Veterans Treatment Court (JCVTC) is a four-phase evidence-based program for veterans charged with non-violent crimes.

The goal of JCVTC is to identify and address veterans’ needs so they can return to productive lives and reintegrate with society, according to Judge David Holton of the Jefferson County District Court.

Many veterans suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injury or other mental illnesses and sometimes self-medicate with drugs and alcohol, Holton said.

“Combining mental illness with drugs and alcohol is like adding gasoline to fire,” he said. “The results are often broken homes, failed marriages, homelessness, unemployment. And these are all factors that lead directly to the criminal justice system.”
read more here

Fighting Military Suicide by Addressing Prescription Drug Abuse

Murkowski Fighting Military Suicide by Addressing Prescription Drug Abuse
Alaska Business Monthly

With Suicides Now Averaging One Every Eighteen Hours, Senator Co-Sponsors Legislation to Allow for Take-Back of Prescription Drugs

WASHINGTON, DC—Senator Lisa Murkowski joined a bipartisan group of her Senate colleagues as an original co-sponsor of legislation aiming to address the issue of prescription drug abuse among our nation’s veterans, and as a way to stem the military’s suicide epidemic.

The Servicemembers and Veterans Prescription Drug Safety Act would open up a drug “take-back” program through the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs similar to that available to millions of Americans through the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA).

The DEA currently authorizes retail pharmacies to collect controlled substances through civilian drug-take back programs for safe disposal. Thus far, the DEA has failed to work with the DoD and VA to provide our nation’s servicemembers and veterans with reasonable access to appropriate mechanisms for the safe return and disposal of prescription medications.
read more here

Fight goes on to get more Veterans Courts in Florida

Time for veterans court is now
Orlando Sentinel
June 1, 2013
Scott Maxwell
TAKING NAMES

This past Monday, America honored its fallen soldiers with parades, ceremonies, car deals and travel discounts.

Come November, we'll do the same for veterans in general — with a similarly unsettling mix of solemn services and retail promotions.

In between are five months when the calendar tells us we don't have to think about the men and women who served this country.

Yet that's when the gritty reality of life after combat will continue to play out for many veterans in the most inglorious of places: inside the jail cells and courthouses of communities throughout Central Florida and America.

Estimates suggest that somewhere around 10 percent of the prison population are former service members. Many have mental-health issues never adequately treated by the country they served. So they end up as cogs in an overworked justice system that temporarily medicates and incarcerates.

That's not good enough. And many communities have already acknowledged as much — setting up veterans courts that specialize in dealing with the problems of former service members.

It is time for Orange and Osceola counties to do the same.

So says Republican state Rep. Bryan Nelson, who successfully championed a bill last year to help create more of these courts — yet who still doesn't have one in his home county of Orange.

"We need to get moving," Nelson said. "These veterans have got issues that we can address at the front end. They served our country. We should take care of them."

The problem

Obviously, not everyone returns from combat the same. Many are fine. But according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, as many as 20 percent of those who went to Iraq and Afghanistan return with post-traumatic stress disorder. The numbers were even higher for Vietnam.

The effect can be everything from lost sleep and strained relationships to aggressive driving and all-out violence. Sure, the VA offers help. But the military doesn't exactly foster a culture that encourages soldiers to ask for it — especially when it comes to mental issues. So many never get the help they need.
read more here

A Military Spouse’s Tale: Criminalizing PTSD

A Military Spouse’s Tale: Criminalizing PTSD
TIME
By Virginia Lloyd
May 31, 2013

AURORA, Colo. — After fighting for his country in Iraq in 2004 as a member of the U.S. Air Force, and as a civilian contractor for nearly three years from 2007 to 2010, Maurice Lloyd — my husband — is now fighting the same government that sent him to war.

After being honorably discharged from the military in 2007, the Department of Veterans Affairs saw signs that Maurice had Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and Major Depressive Disorder.

But, like many vets, Maurice was in denial. He accepted a contracting job in Iraq a few months after exiting the military. He worked there for nearly three years. Upon returning to U.S. soil in August 2010, his PTSD worsened rapidly. He ended up chosing alcohol over continued visits to the VA.

The liquor fueled his increasing vivid nightmares, high anxiety, and paranoia. His inability to sleep soundlessly through the night, and the recurring nightmares, kept him up until all hours of the night.

Many mornings, I would wake up for work around 6 a.m. and find him either asleep on the couch downstairs, with all of the lights on, or still awake, sometimes drinking alcohol. This put a huge strain on our marriage. We began arguing more frequently.

In October 2011, Maurice left the house late one night. He would often drive around and listen to music to help clear his mind and relax. However, that night ended differently than his usual late-night drives. I received a call during the early morning hours informing me that my husband was in jail.
I was stunned and scared.
read more here

Fort Carson Wounded Transitioned to Betrayed

Left Behind No break for the wounded
The Gazette
By Dave Philipps
May 13, 2013

Jerrald Jensen holds a rocket-propelled grenade launcher at his outpost in Afghanistan in 2009. He deployed to Afghanistan after being Injured in Iraq.

A roadside bomb hit Sgt. Jerrald Jensen's Humvee in Iraq, punching through heavy armor and shooting a chunk of hot metal into his head at several times the speed of sound, shattering his face and putting him in a coma. "I wasn't supposed to live," the veteran lisped with half a tongue through numb lips.

"No one knows why I did. It's shocking." Even more shocking is what Jensen did next. After 16 surgeries, the sergeant volunteered to go back to combat in one of the most savage corners of Afghanistan, where he was injured again. Perhaps most shocking, though, is what happened when he got home.

Jensen returned to recover in a battalion at Fort Carson designed to care for wounded soldiers called the Warrior Transition Unit. In the WTU, the soldier with a heroic record said he encountered a hostile environment where commanders, some of whom had never deployed, harassed and punished the wounded for the slightest misstep while making them wait many weeks for critical medical care and sometimes canceling care altogether.

In 2011, a year after joining the WTU, just days after coming out of a surgery, Jensen tested positive for the drug amphetamine. The then-41-year-old asked to be retested, suggesting his many Army prescriptions might be to blame. His commander refused and instead gave Jensen the maximum punishment, cutting his rank to private, docking his pay and canceling surgery to fix his face so he could spend weeks mopping floors, picking weeds and scrubbing toilets.

Then, Jensen said, WTU leaders said he should be discharged for misconduct — the equivalent of getting fired — with an other-than-honorable rating that could bar him from medical benefits for life.

"To call guys who sacrificed so much dishonorable and kick them out with nothing?" said Jensen, who is now out of the Army, living in a small apartment with blankets covering the windows because his injuries make him sensitive to light. "Christ sake, man, it is a disgrace." read more here
Also
Other than honorable way to treat combat wounded, Army kicks them out