Saturday, April 9, 2011

Marine Clay Hunt another after combat casualty

Marine Clay Hunt became another after combat casualty when he took his own life. By all accounts, Hunt did everything experts say he needed to do. He went to the VA and got help. He talked about having PTSD openly, meaning the stigma induced silence was not a factor. Hunt went even beyond that and got involved trying to save the lives of others with PTSD. Even with all of this including an informed, supportive family, Hunt lost his battle after battle.


Family photo
Clay Hunt, 28, a Houston native, joined the Marines in 2005.

War casualty on the home front
A poster boy for suicide prevention, Houstonian becomes another statistic
By LINDSAY WISE
HOUSTON CHRONICLE
April 8, 2011, 6:43PM




"He thought the world was supposed to be a better place than it is, and he lived every day of his life thinking, perhaps naively, that his efforts could make the world be what he thought it should be."


Marine veteran Clay Hunt had a tattoo on his arm that quoted Lord of the Rings author J.R.R. Tolkien: "Not all those who wander are lost."

"I think he was a lot more philosophical about life than a lot of us are, but trying to search for some inner peace and the meaning of life, what was the most important thing," said his father, Stacy Hunt.

His son's quest ended last week when he took his own life at his Sugar Land apartment.

The 28-year-old had narrowly escaped death in Iraq four years ago, when a sniper's bullet missed his head by inches. But he wrestled with post-traumatic stress disorder and survivor's guilt over the deaths of four friends in his platoon who weren't so lucky.

"Two were lost in Iraq, and the other two were killed in Afghanistan," said his mother, Susan Selke. "When that last one in Afghanistan went down, it just undid him."

In many ways, Hunt's death is all too familiar: the haunted veteran consumed by a war he can't stop fighting.

Suicides among Texans younger than 35 who served in the military jumped from 47 in 2006 to 66 in 2009 - an increase of 40 percent, according to state records.

The problem seems increasingly intractable. Efforts by the Pentagon and Department of Veterans Affairs to stop the alarming rise in military suicides nationwide through training and screening have had limited success.
read more here
War casualty on the home front

When they come home with PTSD and the family was very involved in their healing, it should stun every expert. What is still missing in what we're trying to do? Why are they still reaching the point where hope has vanished to the point they do not want to survive one more day?

When they come home, deny they need help, we've pointed to that as a factor in their suicide. We say, help is available, PTSD came at them and was not caused by them. We keep talking until they get to that place within where they understand there is nothing to be ashamed of at all. Most of the time it works to the point where they want to get into treatment to heal. Then we think, ok, our job is done but we never seem to be able to wonder why so many are still calling the suicide prevention hotlines. We stop wondering why it still reaches that level of desperation they feel the need to call.

When they come home and their family turns them away, kicks them out, we say it is because their family is not supportive, didn't understand what was going on so they couldn't cope. So we end up pushing for more awareness, more understanding and more support for the families. Well aware that this is the number one cause of veterans becoming homeless we believe if we can help the families, we can prevent the homeless veteran population from growing. Yet here is a family with everything in place and still they are left to grieve for a death that did not have to happen.

Is it because of some medications being given with warnings of causing suicidal thoughts? Is it because a lot of them mix alcohol with their medications or have drug interactions? Are they not hearing what they need to know in therapy? Is it the clergy not getting involved to help them heal spiritually? Is it the lack of knowledge the general public has about where we sent them? What do we keep missing or is it all so complicated that we need to understand that sometimes everything is just not enough?

All of their deaths break my heart but when I read a story like this, it is very hard because he is one more reminder that no matter how far we've come since the early 80's, we are still not where we need to be to stop losing more after combat than during it.

Congressman Moran, the veteran and the video

Congressman Jim Moran (D) 8th District of Virginia has become the focus of the blog world because of this exchange with a veteran.




The veteran was respectful asking his question about why the congressman was there instead of in Washington working on the budget because the troops would end up not being paid if the government shut down. Moran listened without interrupting the veteran. When Moran addressed the fact that the majority party (the Republicans) control how congress runs, when they are in session and what hearings they hold, the veteran interrupted Moran and then tempers took over.

While the blog world seems to want to paint Moran as an angry man disrespecting a veteran, this is being blown out of proportion.

The veteran is clearly passionate about the troops but the bulk of his question was about why congress was not working to fix the budget to avoid shutdown. Moran was trying to address that and the veteran's interruption was about the troops. Both men were angry but neither of them got out of control.

At least there is a temporary budget deal to keep the government going as of late last night. All in all the veteran is right and they should have been working on this day and night until they managed to get a budget passed for real instead of these temporary measures. One more thing the media misses in their reporting but the American people are already thinking. How serious were they when Republican leadership didn't think it was worth everyone working overtime for?

Friday, April 8, 2011

Daughter charged in Army recruiter’s death

Daughter charged in Army recruiter’s death
The Associated Press
Posted : Friday Apr 8, 2011 7:22:19 EDT
BRASELTON, Ga. — The 15-year-old daughter of an Army recruiter has been charged in the shooting death of her mother after police said the two got into an argument.

A 42-year-old soldier and recruiter with the Army was found dead in her home Thursday by a neighbor, said Braselton assistant police chief Lou Solis.

The girl’s father is also in the Army but stationed in Alabama.
read more here
Daughter charged in Army recruiter’s death

Republicans go after cutting 1.3 Million Vets from VA





In the words of Michael Jackson, "All I wanna say is that they don't really care about us." The rich need their tax breaks and they don't care if they come from taking away from veterans to pay for it. It was the same story when the troops were sent to Afghanistan and Iraq when contractors were getting whatever they wanted (rich) and they were whining programs for the troops and veterans (poor) were too expensive. If they get their way, we will see more than 18 veterans a day killing themselves, see the homeless veterans population grow and even more regret they risked their lives to end up being treated this way.


VA Care End Eyed for 1.3 Million Vets
Tom Philpott
April 07, 2011
Budget Panel Eyes End to VA Care for 1.3 Million Vets

The House Budget Committee, chaired by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), has told a veterans' group it is studying a plan to save $6 billion annually in VA health care costs by cancelling enrollment of any veteran who doesn't have a service-related medical condition and is not poor.

Committee Republicans, searching for ways to curb federal deficits and rein in galloping VA costs, are targeting 1.3 million veterans who claim priority group 7 or 8 status and have access to VA care.

Priority group 8 veterans have no service-connected disabilities and annual incomes, or net worth, that exceed VA means-test thresholds and VA "geographic income" thresholds, which are set by family size.

Priority Group 7 veterans also have no service-connected disabilities and their incomes are above the means-test thresholds. But their incomes or net worth fall below the geographic index. In other words, because of where they live, in high cost areas, they likely struggle financially.

Joseph Violante, national legislative director for Disabled American Veterans, said he first learned of the committee's interest in possibly narrowing access to VA clinics and hospitals from a DAV member from Wisconsin, chairman Ryan's home state.

Violante and other DAV officials arranged their own meeting with a staff member for the committee. He confirmed growing interest in a cost-saving initiative to push priority 7 and 8 veterans out of VA health care.

As this budget committee staffer reminded Violante, proponents for opening VA health care to all veterans had argued it would be cost neutral to VA. That's because VA would charge these vets modest co-payments for their care. Also VA would bill these veterans' private health insurance plans for the cost of their VA care.

read more here
VA Care End Eyed for 1.3 Million Vets

Members of Congress will be paid average of $477 a day even in shut down

Here's a great update for you.

ANGRY REACTION

Many U.S. troops live paycheck to paycheck, with the average junior enlisted member -- typically with just a high school degree -- drawing a salary of about $43,000 per year.
Troops are political dynamite in budget battle
By Phil Stewart
WASHINGTON | Fri Apr 8, 2011 3:07pm EDT
(Reuters) - A looming government shutdown would be felt thousands of miles away by U.S. troops in Afghanistan and Iraq and there could be a high political cost for the lawmakers who let it happen.

Soldiers will not get their paychecks for the duration of the shutdown, leaving their families at home struggling to pay the bills.

Some relatives are already furious.

"Thanks for sending my husband to war and not paying him in return," the wife of one soldier exclaimed on a website, fearing delayed pay in the case of a shutdown.

The sharp reaction among military families underscores the political dangers for Republicans and Democrats if they fail to reach agreement on funding the government for the remainder of fiscal 2011 by midnight on Friday.
read more here
Troops are political dynamite in budget battle


Bachmann, along with other members of congress, are saying they will give up their paychecks during a shutdown. Bachmann went so far as to say that her pay will go to organizations serving military families. While this is a great publicity stunt, she does not mention which charities she plans on giving to any more than she says which ones she normally donates to in the first place. Remember she is the same person wanting to make huge cuts in the VA and stop disabled veterans from getting Social Security along with disability benefits from the VA. This could very well be another stunt to redeem herself in their eyes, but it won't work. Add up the number of days the troops won't be paid and then ask yourself if her pay or the pay of any of them is worth what they will have to go through. Try telling them that this is just a "slowdown" and not a shutdown when they don't get to slow down in Afghanistan, slow down dying, slow down being wounded and their families don't get to slow down worrying. This all adds to the burden they have to carry because people like Bachmann want to have it all their own way.

While she is at it, maybe she could even explain it to the wounded veterans waiting to have their claim processed that they have to slowdown eating and paying their bills so what little money they do have left lasts longer.

Bachmann would skip pay during shutdown
12:03 AM, Apr. 8, 2011
Written by
Larry Bivins
Times Washington correspondent

WASHINGTON — U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann announced Thursday that she would forgo her congressional pay if the federal government is forced to shut down because of a failure by lawmakers and the White House to reach a spending agreement.

Bachmann’s statement came as President Barack Obama continued to meet with House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., to find enough common ground to keep the government from shutting down at midnight tonight.

“I have serious reservations about the fact that Congress and the president will continue to receive a timely paycheck during a government slowdown,” Bachmann said. “Unfortunately, current law prevents our military men and women from receiving their pay on time if government services are interrupted. Because of this discrepancy between the troops and members of Congress, I will personally be donating my pay to a nonprofit organization serving our military families.”

The annual salary for members of Congress is $174,000, meaning Bachmann, R-Stillwater, would give up roughly $477 for each day the shutdown is in effect.
read more here
Bachmann would skip pay during shutdown

Troops wound infections serious enough to cause new study

Barry University gets $2 million grant to study infections


Acinetobacter Infections Harming Troops
2-5-2007
A story published in Wired says injured U.S. soldiers are facing dangerous infections from multidrug-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii in addition to their battle wounds. The article says 700 troops have been infected since the Iraq War began in 2003.

Since OPERATION Iraqi Freedom began in 2003, more than 700 US soldiers have been infected or colonized with Acinetobacter baumannii. A significant number of additional cases have been found in the Canadian and British armed forces, and among wounded Iraqi civilians. The Armed Forces Institute of Pathology has recorded seven deaths caused by the bacteria in US hospitals along the evacuation chain. Four were unlucky civilians who picked up the bug at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, DC, while undergoing treatment for other life-threatening conditions. Another was a 63-year-old woman, also chronically ill, who shared a ward at Landstuhl with infected coalition troops.

Behind the scenes, the spread of a pathogen that targets wounded GIs has triggered broad reforms in both combat medical care and the Pentagon's networks for tracking bacterial threats within the ranks. Interviews with current and former military physicians, recent articles in medical journals, and internal reports reveal that the Department of Defense has been waging a secret war within the larger mission in Iraq and Afghanistan - a war against antibiotic-resistant pathogens.

Acinetobacter is only one of many bacterial nemeses prowling around in ICUs and neonatal units in hospitals all over the world. A particularly fierce organism known as MRSA - methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus - infects healthy people, spreads easily, and accounts for many of the 90,000 fatal infections picked up in US hospitals each year. Another drug-resistant germ on the rise in health care facilities, Clostridium difficile, moves in for the kill when long courses of antibiotics have wiped out normal intestinal flora.

Forerunners of the bug causing the military infections have been making deadly incursions into civilian hospitals for more than a decade. In the early 1990s, 1,400 people were infected or colonized at a single facility in Spain. A few years later, particularly virulent strains of the bacteria spread through three Israeli hospitals, killing half of the infected patients. Death by acinetobacter can take many forms: catastrophic fevers, pneumonia, meningitis, infections of the spine, and sepsis of the blood. Patients who survive face longer hospital stays, more surgery, and severe complications.
read more here
Acinetobacter Infections Harming Troops

Military families back home have more to worry about, food and shelter

"It doesn't make sense. Pass the bill. You guys are still getting paid. You don't have to worry about feeding your kids. You don't have to worry about your safety." Aimee Stafford
I wonder if the Republicans would read a story like this while demanding a rider to end programs they don't like be tucked into the budget? They will get paid if they do their jobs or not. The troops and their families will still have to do their jobs but won't be paid. They don't get to just stop the wars they are fighting and go home until they get a pay check again.

Soldier's Wife Watches, Worries About Government Shutdown
While Congress stalls, Americans ponder and worry about the impact of a government shutdown and among those most vulnerable, military families.
Reporter: Ed Pearce
Email Address: ed.pearce@kolotv.com

RENO, NV - While Congress stalls, Americans ponder and worry about the impact of a government shutdown and among those most vulnerable, military families.

Aimee Stafford sits in a bare apartment in Sun Valley. She hasn't fully unpacked from a move from Fort Hood, Texas.

She's alone with her three young daughters and suddenly she's has a bigger worry. If there's a shutdown her husband's pay could be delayed.

"It's real scary," she says, "because we have these three kids and I don't want to do this alone."

Aimee and Kenneth Stafford met, dated and married out of high school here. Today finds themselves a half a world apart. Kenneth serving in Iraq.

Aimee, with some serious health issues, having just moved back home to Reno to be close to family.

She's been looking for work in day care, but at the moment Kenneth's pay is their only support. Any interruption in his pay will mean hardship.

"I don't know if I'll have enough money to buy my kids food or have a roof over their heads."

It's something they've been unable to discuss and while he's in Iraq, a worry she'd rather he wouldn't have to face.

"I want him to worry about his safety," she says. "The way he is we're his number one concern. I'm sure this is stressing him out."

Aimee first started following the debate in Washington a week ago, now with so much at stake she says she knows what she would tell those involved.

"It doesn't make sense. Pass the bill. You guys are still getting paid. You don't have to worry about feeding your kids. You don't have to worry about your safety."

For now all she can do is wait out the news, continue to look for a job and hope for the best.

And if a shutdown comes and lasts..... "To be honest I don't really want to come to reality with it, but I know I need to start think about what I would do because it could happen and it might be happening as we speak."
go here for the video report
Soldier's Wife Watches, Worries About Government Shutdown

Violent Puget Sound Soldiers? Blame PTSD

Violent Puget Sound Soldiers?
Blame PTSD
Man fires gun inside apartment with wife, daughter


By Jeff Pohjola
97.3 KIRO FM Reporter
By JEFF POHJOLA
KIRO Radio
A soldier recently returned home from duty fired shots inside his Puyallup apartment in front of his girlfriend and daughter.

"The male pulled out a gun pointed it at the female, fired off a round into the ground, took the 2-year-old daughter back into the apartment," says Pierce County Sheriff's spokesman Ed Troyer.

Troyer says the wife escaped, but by the time a SWAT team entered the home, the 2-year-old was inside alone.

The soldier was found a short time later, and arrested.
Man fires gun inside apartment with wife, daughter

Two more non-combat deaths in Iraq, both from Fort Stewart

Military probes Shippensburg University graduate's death in Baghdad

Staff report

The recent death of a Shippensburg University graduate in Iraq is under investigation.
The U.S. Department of Defense announced this week that Capt. Wesley J. Hinkley, 36, Carlisle, died Monday in Baghdad as a result of a non-combat incident.

He was assigned to the 3rd Special Troops Battalion, 3rd Sustainment Brigade, Fort Stewart, Ga.
A "non-combat related incident" may include an accident or suicide, according to Kevin Larson, military spokesman for the public affairs office in Fort Stewart, Ga.
read more here
Military probes

Woodstock soldier dies from non-combat injuries
by Barbara P. Jacoby
bjacoby@cherokeetribune.com
April 07, 2011 10:36 PM
Family and friends are remembering a Woodstock man who died while serving in Iraq.

U.S. Army Spec. Gary Lee Nelson III, 20, died on Tuesday from injuries suffered in a non-combat incident in Mosul, Iraq.

Further details have not yet been released by the Department of Defense, as his death is being investigated, which is routine for all military deaths.

A department spokesman said a casualty assistance officer will stay in contact with the family to give them updates about the process and the return of his remains.

Nelson's family traveled to to Dover Air Force Base in Dover, Del., on Wednesday to bring him home.


Read more:
Woodstock soldier

Thursday, April 7, 2011

NC academy head suspected of posing as Vietnam vet

NC academy head suspected of posing as Vietnam vet
BY MIKE BAKER
Associated Press

OAK RIDGE, N.C. (AP) -- Well before he became commandant of North Carolina's only military boarding academy, William Northrop regaled people with stories of serving in the jungles of Vietnam - how he was wounded in battle, how some comrades committed suicide, how he used amphetamines on patrol.

But his war stories may be pure fiction.

There is no record Northrop ever served in the military, let alone Vietnam.

Northrop, 66, left as commandant at Oak Ridge Military Academy last fall after just a few months on the job, the same day a parent formally asked school officials to look into his background.

He refused to discuss his past or explain the discrepancies in his record to an Associated Press reporter. The academy's president would not discuss Northrop's background either.

If his claim of wartime service proves false, it will be the latest and one of the most audacious to emerge in recent years, and comes as the courts grapple with the constitutionality of a 2006 federal law that makes it a crime to pose as a war hero.

The academy, with an enrollment of about 125, had hired Northrop to oversee the cadets even though there had been long-standing suspicions about him, including a 1998 book on military impostors, "Stolen Valor," that pronounced Northrop a "pretender."
read more here
NC academy head suspected of posing as Vietnam vet

Defense Department will have no funds to pay service members

How a shutdown would affect troops, families
By Karen Jowers - Staff writer
Posted : Thursday Apr 7, 2011 17:48:56 EDT
If the government shuts down at midnight on Friday, what are service members and Defense Department civilians expected to do? How will they be paid? What installation functions will remain open?

The intensifying budget crisis on Capitol Hill has sparked many concerns throughout the military community. While some details remain unclear, Pentagon officials have put out guidance in a number of key areas. Here’s a rundown of what is known:

REPORTING FOR DUTY
Uniformed service members are not subject to furlough and must report to duty as normal during a shutdown. Reserve component personnel should refer to the DoD Contingency Guidance document and to their chain of command for specific information.

DoD civilian personnel must still report to work on their next scheduled duty day at their normal time and await further instructions.

The military will continue to conduct operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and Japan, Libya-related support operations, and “other operations and activities essential to the security of our nation,” Deputy Defense Secretary William Lynn said in a message to the DoD workforce Thursday.

PAY
If the government shuts down, the Defense Department will have no funds to pay service members or civilian employees for the days during which the government is shut down.
read the rest here
How a shutdown would affect troops, families

Afghan Policeman who shot U.S. soldiers killed

NATO: Policeman who shot U.S. soldiers killed
The Associated Press
Posted : Thursday Apr 7, 2011 7:39:37 EDT
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — NATO says a joint operation by Afghan and coalition troops killed a border policeman who had shot and killed two U.S. soldiers earlier this week.

On Monday, an Afghan border policeman shot and killed Sgt. Scott H. Burgess, 32, of Franklin, Texas, and Sgt. Michael S. Lammerts, 26, of Tonawanda, New York.
read more here
Policeman who shot U.S. soldiers killed

Mistake May Shortchange Wounded Vets

Mistake May Shortchange Wounded Vets

April 07, 2011
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review|by Carl Prine
For more than five years, thousands of wounded and injured military reservists and National Guard troops nationwide might have lost medical benefits because of a Pentagon mistake, according to an investigation by Sen. Ron Wyden.

In a letter sent on Wednesday to Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, the Oregon Democrat said that many wounded troops returning from Afghanistan and Iraq who ended up in Warrior Transition Units at military bases or in community-based programs near their homes lost up to six months of medical coverage that's provided to them under a 2005 law.

The Transition Assistance Management Program, or TAMP, was supposed to help personnel returning from active duty get the medical care they needed before their civilian coverage kicked in. The problem was that the Pentagon began counting the 180 days of coverage the moment the troops returned to the United States, not once they left active duty.

Those who needed extensive care in the Warrior Transition Units often exhausted their six months of benefits before they went home, according to Wyden. Pentagon paperwork leaked last year to the Tribune-Review showed that the typical reservist or Guard member will spend about a year in the special medical units, or longer if they're in a community-based program.
read more here
Mistake May Shortchange Wounded Vets

Forgiven



Forgiven
Luke 5:23(New International Version, ©2011)
23 Which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’?

Jesus Forgives and Heals a Paralyzed Man

17 One day Jesus was teaching, and Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there. They had come from every village of Galilee and from Judea and Jerusalem. And the power of the Lord was with Jesus to heal the sick. 18 Some men came carrying a paralyzed man on a mat and tried to take him into the house to lay him before Jesus. 19 When they could not find a way to do this because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and lowered him on his mat through the tiles into the middle of the crowd, right in front of Jesus.
20 When Jesus saw their faith, he said, “Friend, your sins are forgiven.”

Back in the days when Christ walked the earth, people had a strange idea about their own suffering. They believed they were suffering because they did something wrong, committed a sin and God was punishing them. They even believed it when their child was ill. They thought it was their fault. Christ knew differently but was not about to argue with them before He healed them. He could heal their bodies but if they thought they were being punished, judged for some kind of sin from God, and left them believing it, then the healing would only be partial. Whatever "sin" they were guilty over, needed to be "forgiven" before they could heal all the way.

You can tell a veteran over and over again, they have nothing to feel guilty over, but if they believe they are guilty, it will do you no good. If they believe it, you need to get them to understand they are forgiven so they can see themselves and what they had to do differently.

There have been many reports of soldiers being replaced by someone else. They carry guilt over the death of their replacement saying "it should have been me" and not being able to stop thinking someone died in their place. Are they guilty? Do they really have anything to blame themselves for? Would telling them their life was saved for a reason help them? No to all of these questions. Telling them their life was spared enforces the thought the other one died in their place. You need to help them understand they were not responsible for the death because they did not plan it that way. That is the only way they would really be guilty of anything.

They feel guilty over most deaths, especially involving civilians. Could they have done something differently? What if they didn't do what they believed they had to do at the exact moment they had to decide what to do? If they only focus on the outcome, they will not remember what happened before that moment.

When a veteran has been suffering for their service, most of the time their families suffer as well. There is a lot to be forgiven for by the family when the pain the veteran carries is taken out on the people they are closest to. The family also needs to be forgiven when they do the best they can but lack understanding. When everyone is doing the best they can at that moment but suffer they need to find peace with all of it. A lot of forgiving needs to happen or the wedge between family members will never be removed.

If you are a veteran and believe you are being punished for something, then ask to be forgiven for it. Remember there is nothing you cannot be forgiven for. When Christ was taking his last breaths upon this earth, while nailed to the cross, He asked God to forgive the people for doing it. You will be forgiven for whatever you believe you need to be forgiven for. You also need to forgive yourself.

If you are a family member, try to understand as much as possible so that the mistakes you made in the past will not be repeated. This will also help you to forgive your veteran for the way he/she acted. It will help you to forgive yourself. You didn't know any better at the time, so you acted out of what you knew. You will allow love to grow back again in your family and this will ease away the emotional pain you carry.

Everyone can heal and be happy again but it takes a lot of work and a lot of faith. It is not as easy to forgive yourself as it is to forgive other people but at the end of the day, when you do forgive yourself, you will lay your head down in peace.




Well the past is playing with my head
And failure knocks me down again
I'm reminded of the wrong
That I have said and done
And that devil just won't let me forget

In this life
I know what I've been
But here in your arms
I know what I am

I'm forgiven
I'm forgiven
And I don't have to carry
The weight of who I've been
Cause I'm forgiven

My mistakes are running through my mind
And I'll relive my days, in
the middle of the night
When I struggle with my pain,
wrestle with my pride
Sometimes I feel alone, and I cry

When I don't fit in and I don't
feel like I belong anywhere
When I don't measure up to much in this life
Oh, I'm a treasure in the
arms of Christ

Doctors and help your mind with medication. You can help your body feel better by eating right, getting more rest and even taking walks. Until you learn how to find peace in your soul, you will not heal the pain within. Be forgiven and forgive others in your life. Then you will heal your whole life.

VA backlog buries veterans’ claims

UPDATE
Veterans for Common Sense has published an article on a lot of questions veterans have.
Unknown Impacts of Government Shutdown of VA on Our Veterans
Written by VCS
Thursday, 07 April 2011 11:52
Tea Party Presses for Shutting Down Government - and Our VA
The Tea Party folks do not stand by our veterans. They have proven this whenever they are asked about the debt we owe our veterans. They say turn their care over to private companies and let them be used for profit. That is what it boils down to no matter what they actually admit to wanting to do. They take pride in the fact they want to privatize the VA, get rid of Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid. The fact the troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan right now, along with the forces serving with NATO addressing the Libya crisis may not end up getting their pay does not bother them at all. They want what they want and they don't care who has to suffer for it. What really gets me angry is that there are some really good people in the Tea Party and their care for our veterans along with the troops are deeper than words. So why don't they stand up to the hacks they elected and demand they stop their plans to hurt the veterans? I do not blame Democrats on this one for standing their ground. Someone has to fight for regular people and not just the rich. These same people also demanded the tax breaks for the rich.

When you read about the backlog of claims the VA already has, know this will make their lives even worse because as far behind the VA is on processing claims, they will end up with a bigger pile of claims and more veterans suffering waiting for the debt we owe them.


VA backlog buries veterans’ claims
By Gregg Zoroya - USA Today
Posted : Thursday Apr 7, 2011 6:23:51 EDT
WASHINGTON — The number of veterans’ disability claims taking more than four months to complete has doubled, prompting criticism from veterans and Congress that the Veterans Affairs Department failed to prepare for a rise in cases it knew was coming.

“Without question, I believe that the VA disability claims system is broken,” Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., chairwoman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, said Wednesday.

The number of claims that take more than 125 days to decide has gone from 200,000 a year ago to 450,000 today, according to administration budget documents. As a result, veterans must wait even longer to receive payments for disabilities.

VA says the delays are due in part to a generation of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans with more complex claims, and a decision two years ago to expand compensation for Agent Orange-related illnesses. Claims also increase in a poor economy.

But veterans groups and Murray said VA was aware that claims would rise.

“The explosion in the claims backlog is another predictable, preventable insult to thousands of veterans of all generations,” said Paul Rieckhoff of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America.

It now takes VA six months on average to process each compensation demand for illnesses or injuries. And the delay will reach an eight-month average next year, according to documents.
read more here
VA backlog buries veterans claims

Government shutdown: How it will affect veterans

Government shutdown: How it will affect veterans
By LEO SHANE III
Published: April 7, 2011

WASHINGTON -- The Department of Veterans Affairs is less likely to see major disruptions than other government agencies in the event of a government shutdown, but that doesn't mean everything will remain normal for veterans seeking help.

According to a VA department official, veterans health care services will remain operating despite the budget impasse. Veterans’ medical appointments will not be canceled or delayed, and hospitals will stay open. That's because most of the funding for those efforts was covered in advance appropriations legislation, passed by Congress well before the current budget stalemate.
read more  here
Government shutdown: How it will affect veterans

US Marine and His Dog Honored as Fallen Soldiers



US Marine and His Dog Honored as Fallen Soldiers

Written by
Ashleigh Messervy

Columbia, SC (WLTX)- Lance Corporal William H. Crouse and his bomb sniffing dog, Caine, were honored during the annual South Carolina Fallen Soldiers Ceremony and Luncheon on Wednesday.

"They were like two peas in a pod," said Nancy Siders, Crouse's mother. "[Caine] lovingly looked after Bill. There was an enormous bond between them."

Crouse and Caine were responsible for locating bombs during their tour in Afghanistan. On December 21, 2010 the two were killed by an Improvised Explosive Device.

Siders said not even a bomb could break the bond between the two.

"My son in the medevac asked for Caine to be with him. He assumed that Caine's life could be saved. They honored that. They put Caine with William."

Siders said the two came as a package, so if one went, the other one would followed.

"Together they served. Together they died. Together they live in Heaven."
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US Marine and His Dog Honored as Fallen Soldiers

Marine attacked waiting from ride home from nightclub

Man pleads not guilty to assaulting a Marine outside nightclub
By SEAN EMERY
THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

COSTA MESA – A 24-year-old man has pleaded not guilty to blindsiding and critically injuring a Marine during an early-morning attack in a parking structure near a Costa Mesa nightclub, according to court records.

Mark Allen Vasquez is facing felony charges of battery with serious bodily injury and assault with a deadly weapon other than a gun, as well as sentencing enhancements for inflicting great bodily harm and bodily injury resulting in a coma or paralysis, according to Orange County Superior Court records.

The Marine and his friend decided against confronting Vasquez, police say, and were waiting for a ride home when they were attacked and knocked unconscious.
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Man pleads not guilty to assaulting a Marine outside nightclub

Army Captain's dead in Iraq under investigation

Army captain from Carlisle killed in Iraq
By staff reports, April 6, 2011

A 1993 graduate of Boiling Springs High School and a member of the Shippensburg University Class of 2001 died in Iraq on Monday.

Capt. Wesley J. Hinkley, 36, of Carlisle, died as a result of a non-combat related incident, the Department of Defense announced on Tuesday.

Hinkley was assigned to the 3rd Special Troops Battalion, 3rd Sustainment Brigade from Fort Stewart, Ga.

During his high school years, Hinkley was a member of the chess club, Boiling Springs High School Principal Joe Mancuso said.

He served in the Army, returned to Shippensburg University, where he was a history major and a member of the university's Army ROTC program, and then returned to the Army as an officer, Gene Mizdail, recruiting operations officer with the Shippensburg University Army ROTC, said.

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Army captain from Carlisle killed in Iraq

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Courts for PTSD-affected veterans passes Florida Senate

Courts for PTSD-affected veterans passes Senate
posted by khaughney on April, 6 2011 10:31 AM

A measure to create a statewide veteran’s court system passed the Florida Senate Wednesday morning by a 37-0 vote.

The bill, SB 138, directs the state courts to create a system where veterans with post traumatic stress disorder are identified through a preliminary screening process and then shuffled to a specific docket that places the offender in a treatment program, instead of in jail.

“They are different and this would allow them to have a healing process before going to criminal court,” said Sen. Mike Bennett, R-Bradenton, the sponsor of the bill.

The first veterans’ court was established in Buffalo, NY in January 2008, and according to the National Association of Drug Court Professionals, there are now 41 similar programs nationwide. In Palm Beach and Okaloosa counties, judges have already begun veterans programs specific to that area.

The House companion measure, HB 17, has three more committee stops before it goes before the entire chamber for a final vote.
Courts for PTSD-affected veterans passes Senate

MERCT, not your average PTSD

Military Environmental Reaction to Combat Trauma
by
Chaplain Kathie

When we lump all causes of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder together, we end up ignoring the differences between survivors of the events. When the survivor happens to be a combat veteran, they have PTSD at a whole different level than anyone else. Exposing them to life threatening situations over and over again, should be reflected in not only the term used to describe it, but in the way it is treated as well.

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder happens because of traumatic events but as we seem to be able to understand someone having trouble after one event, we don't seem to have the same capacity to understand how repeated exposures can cause a different level of PTSD. MERCT is not your average PTSD.

For almost 30 years, I've been trying to explain what PTSD is and beating my head against the wall when the stigma associated with the term gets in the way. Veterans can accept "Post Traumatic" and they may even be able to accept "Stress" but they can't accept the "Disorder" part. They do not like the term "anxiety disorder" when a mental health worker is trying to explain it is not the other types of mental illnesses. When a veteran self-medicating with drugs and alcohol would rather be considered a drunk or drug addict than confess he/she actually has PTSD, it should be a waring bell to change the term used.

These men and women are much different than the rest of the general population. They have it within them a will to be willing to die for someone else. Yet these same men and women come home so effected by what they went through, they run out of reasons to stay alive. Imagine surviving all that comes with combat, the horrors and hardships, only to return home and not be able to heal the wounds of war. That is exactly what happens in this country everyday. We lose 18 veterans a day to suicide. Over 10,000 a year attempt it. The suicide prevention hotline receives hundreds of thousands of calls from desperate veterans and their families. This is when they are supposed to be back home, safe and sound.

Thirty years ago, we had excuses for veterans not knowing what was happening to them when they came home. Twenty years ago, we had excuses for not being able to take care of them because the government was playing catchup. Ten years ago, when we sent troops into Afghanistan, we began to run out of excuses. Five years ago we should have been ashamed all the terrible suffering they were going through were still going on.

Today I posted about a Marine's Dad from Clearwater FL. Homeless Emergency Project started by Bruce Fyfe after U.S. Marine Brendan Fyfe died of a heroin overdose. He served three tours in Iraq and ended up homeless, dying in a motel room in Massachusetts. Brendan had PTSD. His family tried to do all they could to help him but something didn't get through to him so that he was able to heal. What was it? What was it that kept him from being able to heal?

It happened in my family too. My husband's nephew, a Vietnam Vet, had PTSD, locked himself in a motel room and killed himself in the 90's. His death is one more reason I do what I do. My husband has PTSD and I thank God everyday he is in treatment, healing and we're still married going on 27 years. Same family, two different outcomes.

Also posted this morning was story our of Fort Lewis when a combat medic is dead following a police chase. Along with David Stewart was a wife and 5 year old son needing to be buried. He is being blamed for killing them before the police chase.


We know more about PTSD than ever before and more people know about it. While this is a good thing, it is even more of an indication there is something missing in all of this. I can't remember how many programs have started any more than I can remember all the organizations trying to make a difference but as more is being done at the same time there are more heartbreaking stories, the difference needs to be addressed in an honest term that will not pile on stigma on top of what is already happening to them.

Combat is not a one time event but many of them along with the idea each day could be the last, on top of worrying about what is going on at home. It is behind the "environmental" aspect of MERCT.

The stress they are under causes a "reaction" inside of them, mind, body and soul.

Until we address what comes next, we will never be able to justify ourselves to any other generation of veterans. If changing the term will help them past the stigma, help them to understand they didn't cause it but combat did, we will keep reading stories like the ones posted today and that, that is just too much to be acceptable to anyone saying they care about the troops and our veterans.

Father's pain behind new $3.2 million veterans housing complex

Clearwater complex will offer abode, counseling for homeless veterans

By Keyonna Summers, Times Staff Writer
In Print: Wednesday, April 6, 2011


The Homeless Emergency Project broke ground Tuesday on a $3.2 million complex in Clearwater. U.S. Marine Brendan Fyfe died of a heroin overdose.

CLEARWATER

Homeless Emergency Project board chairman Bruce Fyfe smiled Tuesday as he and his colleagues held up shovels symbolizing the groundbreaking on the nonprofit's new $3.2 million veterans housing complex.

However, the 150 spectators at Everybody's Tabernacle also heard the occasional breaks in Fyfe's voice, the result of an underlying sadness.

Sadness that the driving force behind the project was the death of Fyfe's son Brendan, a former U.S. Marine. Melancholy that, despite Fyfe's repeated efforts, he wasn't able to save Brendan, whose severe post-traumatic stress disorder from three tours in Iraq blossomed into alcohol and drug addiction.

On Dec. 19, 2009, two years after an honorable military discharge, Brendan, 24, died homeless and alone in a Massachusetts motel room of a heroin overdose.

"I don't think any parent wants to see young men and women survive the horrors of war only to not successfully come all the way back home," said Bruce Fyfe. "I don't want any family to go through what our family has gone through."
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Clearwater complex will offer abode, counseling for homeless veterans

Don't let aircrafts for our Air Force be built by foreign companies

Hawker win is key to 800 jobs in Wichita

BY MOLLY MCMILLIN
The Wichita Eagle

Hawker Beechcraft is competing with Brazil-based Embraer for a U.S. Air Force Light Air Support contract.

The company has put its AT-6 light attack and surveillance aircraft up against Embraer's Super Tucano military aircraft in the bid for the award.

The prize is an initial contract to supply 20 aircraft to two air bases in Afghanistan and another 15 for the Air Force to use in "building partner capability."

But the number could grow to 55 aircraft worth up to $950 million.

"We believe this is the beginning of a production run that is significantly larger than this first 35 aircraft," said Derek Hess, director of light attack for Hawker Beechcraft.

The Air Force estimates a June 30 award date with deliveries beginning in April 2013.

The AT-6 is based on Hawker Beechcraft's turboprop T-6 trainer used to train U.S. Air Force and Navy pilots under the Joint Primary Aircraft Training System contract. Other countries are also using the plane.

The derivative readies the trainer for a new role — combat missions.

The AT-6 is designed for counterinsurgency, close air support, armed overwatch, homeland defense, homeland security and other missions, the company said.

A win would help Hawker Beechcraft's production line for the T-6 stay running.

"That's a key issue," said Jim Maslowski, Hawker Beechcraft president for U.S. and international government business. "This is about sustaining production."

The company has delivered nearly 700 T-6 trainers, including 444 to the Air Force and 123 to the Navy. Others have gone to Greek, Canadian, Iraqi, Israeli and Royal Moroccan air forces and NATO Flying Training in Canada.

Final deliveries to the U.S. Navy under the JPATS program are scheduled to take place in 2015.


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Hawker win is key to 800 jobs in Wichita

Fort Lewis combat medic is dead after chase, wife and son found dead

Man dies from gunshot after I-5 police chase; wife, son also dead
A Fort Lewis combat medic is dead, along with his wife and 5-year-old son, in what appears to be a bizarre murder-suicide pieced together following a high-speed police chase on south Interstate 5 near Tumwater.

By Sara Jean Green and Christine Clarridge
Seattle Times staff reporters

Three members of a Joint Base Lewis-McChord family are dead after an Army combat medic killed himself and his wife, and police found the body of the couple's 5-year-old son in their Spanaway home, according to police and the military.

Authorities identified the soldier as 38-year-old David F. Stewart, who shot himself in the head as his disabled car was approached by a Washington State Patrol trooper after a high-speed chase along Interstate 5 near Tumwater, Thurston County. In the passenger seat was the body of his wife, Kristy Sampels, also 38, who also had suffered a gunshot wound to the head. Autopsies are scheduled for Wednesday, said Thurston County Coroner Gary Warnock.

Officials said the woman appeared to have been ill.

The child was found in the couple's home in Spanaway, Pierce County. The medical examiner identified him as Jordan Stewart. The cause of his death was not immediately released.

Sampels' 10-year-old daughter from a previous marriage initially was thought to be missing but was found safe with her father in Redmond, Ore., said sheriff's spokesman Detective Ed Troyer.

The bizarre events began just before 6 a.m., when a trooper on routine patrol clocked the driver of a silver Ford Focus going south on I-5 at 85 mph, said Trooper Guy Gill. The trooper pulled his patrol car behind the Focus and turned on his emergency lights in an attempt to pull the vehicle over, he said.


As soon as the car was stopped, the trooper saw the driver — Stewart — lift his hand to his head, a gesture followed by the sound of a gunshot, Gill said. Sampels' body was found in the passenger seat and Gill said it initially did not appear that she had been shot or injured during the collision.

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Man dies from gunshot after I-5 police chase

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

3 Medal of Honor recipients ride to unite nation for wounded warriors


Mike Thornton, a Vietnam veteran who was awarded the Medal of Honor in 1972, hugs U.S. Navy Master at Arms 3rd Class Nathan DeWalt after DeWalt completed a leg of the Texas Challenge Ride 2 Recovery from Austin, Texas, to Killeen, Texas.

Photo Credit: Michael Heckman, III Corps Fort Hood Public Affairs.






3 Medal of Honor recipients join 350-mile bike ride to unite nation, wounded warriors
Apr 4, 2011

By Michael Heckman (III Corps Fort Hood Public Affairs)

FORT HOOD, Texas -- With the assistance of three Medal of Honor recipients, this year's Texas Challenge, one in the Ride 2 Recovery series, helped wounded warriors heal from the wounds of wars suffered in Vietnam, Desert Storm, Iraq and Afghanistan.

The approximately 230 riders passed through Fort Hood, Texas, March 31, en route to Arlington, Texas for a Major League Baseball game. They began their six-day, 350-mile journey March 28, at the Center for the Intrepid in San Antonio.

After a crowd of several hundred people had gathered near the flagpole outside the III Corps Headquarters, Lt. Gen. Bob Cone, III Corps and Fort Hood commanding general, praised the wounded warriors.

"To see this is awe-inspiring. Folks, the Ride Two Recovery is an amazing group," Cone said. "It represents what is best about our country, about the military and most important, the human spirit. Thanks for inspiring my Soldiers to do their best in every endeavor."

Three medal of honor recipients participated in the Texas Challenge, including Staff Sgt. Sal Giunta, the first living recipient of the nation' highest military award since Vietnam. Cone also acknowledged "Fort Hood's local hero," Staff Sgt. Patrick Zeigler.

Zeigler, who was severely wounded in the Nov. 5, 2009, shootings on Fort Hood, sat near the front of the column of riders, ready to pedal his way on a recumbent-trike from the flagpole to the front gate.

It was Zeigler's first ride since undergoing brain surgery March 4, after falling while on vacation with his wife, Jessica, in Reno, Nev.

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3 Medal of Honor recipients join 350-mile bike ride

Governor Scott Walker learns we owe veterans and not the other way around

GI Bill restored, veterans services funded in proposed Wisconsin biennial budget
by Micah Pilkington
April 04, 2011

On Friday, April 1, Governor Scott Walker met with veteran’s groups to announce that his proposed 2011-2013 Biennial budget would restore the GI bill, fully fund veteran assistance programs and ensure the solvency of the Veterans Trust Fund in the state of Wisconsin.

“Protecting Wisconsin’s most courageous citizens is of the highest priority, and restoring the Wisconsin G.I. Bill is a promise that I am proud to keep,” said Gov. Walker, who was most recently in the news in February for his controversial efforts to eliminate collective bargaining rights for the state’s government employees.

New funding for the Wisconsin G.I. Bill was eliminated from the state’s 2007-2009 budget under former Gov. Jim Doyle; increased state support for veterans was one of Gov. Walker’s campaign promises.

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GI Bill restored, veterans services funded

Tuesday execution date for former recruiter in Huntsville Texas

Tuesday execution date for former recruiter
By Michael Graczyk - The Associated Press
Posted : Monday Apr 4, 2011 19:44:50 EDT
HUNTSVILLE, Texas — A condemned inmate moved closer to being the first person to be executed with Texas’ new drug cocktail after the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles on Monday refused a petition to convert his sentence to life in prison and an appeals court rejected arguments prison officials improperly made the lethal drug swap.

Cleve Foster, 47, is scheduled to die Tuesday nine for the slaying of a Sudanese woman abducted and shot after she met Foster and another man at a Fort Worth bar nine years ago.

Foster would be the third Texas prisoner executed this year, but the first to die since the state switched from using sodium thiopental to pentobarbital in its lethal three-drug mixture. The switch resulted from a nationwide shortage of sodium thiopental. Texas is the nation’s busiest death penalty state.

Foster’s attorneys claim Texas Department of Criminal Justice officials didn’t follow administrative procedures properly when they announced the drug change last month. But a state district judge rejected that argument last week and the 3rd Texas Court of Appeals in Austin upheld the ruling Monday. Lawyers said they would take their challenge Tuesday to the Texas Supreme Court.
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Tuesday execution date for former recruiter

Fort Hood soldier charged with shooting, killing GI

Hood soldier charged with shooting, killing GI
The Associated Press
Posted : Monday Apr 4, 2011 18:32:32 EDT
KILLEEN, Texas — A Fort Hood soldier has been charged with murder in the weekend shooting death of a fellow soldier.

Michael Fitzgerald Reese, 27, remained jailed Monday on $1 million bond, according to Bell County Jail records.

Spc. Justin Sheldon Richardson, 25, was shot in the chest early Saturday morning in a restaurant parking lot a few blocks from the post, Killeen police say.
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Hood soldier charged with shooting, killing GI

Soldier dies from chest gunshot wound at Fort Hood

Soldier dies from chest gunshot wound
Circumstances under investigation

Updated: Monday, 04 Apr 2011, 12:07 PM CDT
Published : Monday, 04 Apr 2011, 12:07 PM CDT

FORT HOOD, Texas (KXAN) - Fort Hood officials have released the name of a soldier who died from a gunshot wound to the chest April 2.

Specialist Justin S. Richardson, 25, whose home is Bronx, N.Y., died at Carl R. Darnall Medical Center , Fort Hood.
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Soldier dies from chest gunshot wound

SWAT finds, arrests soldier who allegedly shot at wife

SWAT finds, arrests soldier who allegedly shot at wife
STACIA GLENN - Staff writer

Pierce County sheriff’s deputies on Sunday were looking for a soldier who shot at his wife during an argument and left his 2-year-old daughter alone for hours after he escaped the apartment while SWAT was called to respond.

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SWAT finds, arrests soldier who allegedly shot at wife

Fort Drum soldier shot at self-storage facility

NY Police Search for Soldier Involved in Shooting at Self-Storage Facility

Police are still looking for a man involved in a shooting Sunday at a self-storage facility in Watertown, N.Y.

The man has been identified as 25-year-old Leonard R. Whitefield. Police want to question him about a shooting at ABC Self-Storage on Water Street where an unnamed soldier from Fort Drum was shot in the leg.

The shooting occurred Sunday around 11 a.m. and involved two men and a woman, all three soldiers from Fort Drum, an army base located near the facility.
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NY Police Search for Soldier Involved in Shooting

Veterans "jail-diversion programs" among 50 Florida Bills in Tallahassee

Veterans Are the Focus Of 50 Bills This Session

By KATIE SANDERS
Times/Herald Tallahassee Bureau

Published: Monday, April 4, 2011 at 11:03 p.m.
Last Modified: Monday, April 4, 2011 at 11:03 p.m.
TALLAHASSEE | As a retired Army Reserve brigadier general, Judge T. Patt Maney looks out for veterans who show up in his courtroom convicted of crimes at home after a tour of war.

Lawbreakers should get a sentence appropriate for their misdeeds, he said. But certain veterans deserve special evaluation.

Maney, 62, is the namesake of SB 138, which allows counties to develop jail-diversion programs for veterans charged with certain crimes as a result of traumatic brain injury, post-traumatic stress disorder or substance use stemming from military combat. Serving in Afghanistan in 2005, Maney suffered a traumatic brain injury, the signature affliction of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

The idea is one of about 50 bills introduced between the House and Senate this session to benefit veterans and their families. The bills influence veterans' college admissions and tuition, property taxes, state parks admissions, driver's license fees and hunting grounds, among other things.
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Veterans Are the Focus Of 50 Bills This Session

Monday, April 4, 2011

2 trainers dead in attack in Afghanistan are Americans

Karzai: 2 trainers dead in attack are Americans
Victims killed by man wearing an Afghan border police uniform
By Heidi Vogt And Rahim Faiez - The Associated Press
Posted : Monday Apr 4, 2011 11:46:30 EDT
KABUL, Afghanistan — Two Americans training security forces were killed Monday by a man in an Afghan police uniform, Afghanistan’s president said.

Hamid Karzai condemned the killing of what he described as two American trainers. There were no further details in a statement released by his office. Karzai offered his condolences to the men’s families.

“According to reports this morning, two American trainers were killed by a person with a police uniform in the capital of Faryab province. Hearing this report, President Karzai was saddened and expressed his deep condolences to the families of both trainers who were killed in the incident,” the statement said.

NATO said earlier that a man wearing an Afghan border police uniform shot dead two of its service members inside a compound in northern Afghanistan. It did not provide their nationalities. It was unclear if the attacker was an Afghan police officer who turned on his Western counterparts or an insurgent who put on a uniform to infiltrate the base. There have been cases of both in Afghanistan.
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2 trainers dead in attack are Americans

Wounded Marine Gets Grand Homecoming

Woodbridge Wounded Marine Joshua Himan Gets Home Makeover and Homecoming

Written by
Brittany Morehouse

WOODBRIDGE, Va. (WUSA) - A wounded soldier returned home Saturday to a home makeover style welcome as hundreds of community members gathered for miles with flags and smiles.

Marine Corporal Joshua Himan, 27, was paralyzed from the waist down in September of 2009 when he was serving in Afghanistan as a machine gun operator for the marines. His Humvee hit an explosive device causing him to suffer life altering injuries.

Since then, Himan has spent 18 months of rehabilitation at Walter Reed Medical Center while back home, a community pulled together to raise enough money to build him a home addition.

"In 58 days we constructed a 1100 sq. ft. addition," said Jacob Koch, President of Northern Virginia Fuller Center for Housing, a non-profit that helps build homes for people in need. "We added a bathroom, a family room, his bedroom and a kitchen."

The Himan family addition marks the organization's first project for the the Center's Military Builders Program. While Himan knew about the plans, he had no idea what to expect until Saturday.


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Wounded Marine Gets Grand Homecoming

Is Iraq the New Forgotten War?

A few years ago, we were asking the same question about Afghanistan. It is still very hard for me to understand how the general public disregards the men and women serving in combat operations. According to this report, news coverage is less than one percent of the daily news. Is it the lack of coverage or is it the lack of interest from the public? Which came first? Do we really know?



Is Iraq the New Forgotten War?

April 04, 2011
Stars and Stripes|by Megan McCloskey

Before the sympathy, Britney Hocking sometimes gets skepticism when she shares that her older brother was killed last month in Iraq.

“I’ve actually had people ask me: ‘Do you mean Afghanistan?’ ” she said.

Some also have wondered aloud whether Sgt. Brandon Hocking’s death was a freak accident.

That a Soldier could still be killed in Iraq by an improvised explosive device surprises people. Our presence there and the potential for violence has largely faded from the American conscience.

Hocking’s death, one of the latest since the official end of combat operations in August, serves as a grim reminder of what is fast becoming a forgotten war. The United States has spent eight years of war in Iraq, with 4,443 servicemembers killed there. About 46,000 troops remain on the ground in “advise and assist” roles, and 23 servicemembers -- 11 this year -- have been killed since the mission change.

Iraq was once the dominant story on any given front page and nightly newscast. Today, attention has dropped to less than 1 percent of the daily news, according to the Pew Research Center.
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Is Iraq the New Forgotten War

With such little interest in Iraq and Afghanistan, do they have any chance of being paid attention to back home? I doubt it.

Last night the "feel good" making a difference story on NBC was about a man restoring children's books. Good story? Sure but how about reporting on veterans coming home, suffering, healing and then helping other veterans? How about reporting on all the work being done to help all of them? When Lifetime can do a show like Coming Home following Army Wivesbut the national news cannot be bothered to cover the men and women risking their lives in Iraq or Afghanistan, cannot be bothered to report on what it is like on any of the families, or what it is like coming back home, then there is a huge problem in this country. We're great at committing them to fight our battles but then our interest dies off. We have a state of A.D.D taking over the country. When our kids have it, parents do everything possible to get them to focus on what they need to be doing. When the media refuses to get the public to pay attention, this is what we get. A nation filled with people that stopped paying attention after a couple of months.

We forgot about Afghanistan as soon as the debate began about Iraq and then Iraq was the center of everything. Then we forgot about Iraq and Afghanistan for a while until a few reports came out about Afghanistan. Now it's all Libya. We should be ashamed to lack interest but more ashamed of our media for not reminding us about what is going on.

Battlefield angels are military's saving grace

Battlefield angels are military's saving grace
Elkton National Guardsman and medic is among 10 honorees
By Mary Gail Hare, The Baltimore Sun
2:39 p.m. EDT, April 2, 2011

Sgt. Antoine A. King, 41, lives in Elkton, works for the City of Havre de Grace and has spent much of the past decade serving as a medic with the Army National Guard.

He was one of 10 medical personnel, representing all branches of the military, honored as Angels of the Battlefield at the fifth annual Armed Services YMCA gala Wednesday in Washington.

"I really was quite surprised to receive the award and honored to represent the Army National Guard medics at this event," King said.

Each year, the ASYMCA, which has offered support and relief to soldiers and their families since the Civil War, asks the various branches to nominate their most outstanding corpsmen for the award.

"These are medics who are putting their own lives on the line to bring home their comrades," said Michael J. Landers, chief operations officer for the nonprofit organization based in Alexandria, Va. "Every year, we hear incredible instances of recovery because a wounded soldier was found in the field on time. It is amazing how quickly these medics react."

King, the only Maryland honoree, has served more than 14 years and completed three deployments, including tours in Nicaragua and Iraq.

"I joined later in life at 28," he said. "I just looked around and decided it was time for me to give back. The Guard is a great way to know you are helping others. As medics, you almost feel you are bringing people back to life."

In the late 1990s, few guardsmen ever expected to leave home on long deployments, he said. Many joined for the extra pay and benefits as much as the experience, but "that all changed after 9/11," he said. "Now nearly every Guard unit in the country has gone on deployment."

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Battlefield angels are military's saving grace
linked from Stars and Stripes

A fake Medal of Honor or Purple Heart: Is it free speech?

A fake Medal of Honor or Purple Heart: Is it free speech?
Federal appeals court rules that the "Stolen Valor Act" curbs free speech: You don't have to actually have a Medal of Honor or Purple Heart to say you have one.

By Lee Lawrence, Correspondent / April 3, 2011

New York
Manners, decency, even morality are one thing – free speech is another. So the federal court of appeals March 21 ruling that lying about one's military record is protected free speech, rankles many who respect the special currency of a military medal, badge, or honor.

At issue is the Stolen Valor Act (SVA). Until it was enacted in 2006, you could hold up a medal, say you were a war hero and, as long as you didn't actually pin it on, no law was broken. The SVA closed that loophole by making it a crime for anyone to falsely state – "verbally or in writing" – that they hold such honors.

In two of the 60 or so cases brought exclusively under the SVA, courts in Colorado and California challenged the act's constitutionality on free speech grounds. The California case – involving Xavier Alvarez, of Pomona, Calif., a public official who said at a public meeting in 2007 that he was a retired marine who had received the Medal of Honor, even though he never served in the military – went on to the US 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which last month upheld the initial ruling: Despicable, yes. Criminal, no.

More than a quarter of the 26 active judges dissented, paving the way for federal prosecutors to take it to the Supreme Court.

Decorated Vietnam veteran Doug Sterner, who was instrumental in getting the SVA enacted, maintains it is not only just, but useful: "Over the last five years, I would estimate that Stolen Valor investigations have uncovered somewhere between 5 and 10 million dollars in fraud against the Veterans Administration. And that's just the cases that I'm aware of."
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A fake Medal of Honor or Purple Heart: Is it free speech?

linked from Stars and Stripes

The Military's Secret Shame, rape

Victims speak out: (from left) Greg Jeloudov has debilitating PTSD; Blake Stephens twice attempted suicide; Jamey Michael Harding saw a drill sergeant go on to rape underage cadets.
The Military's Secret Shame
by Jesse Ellison
April 03, 2011
When men in the military rape other men in the ranks, no one wants to talk about it. Why the sexual assault of males in the service is finally being confronted.
Like in prisons and other predominantly male environments, male-on-male assault in the military, experts say, is motivated not by homosexuality, but power, intimidation, and domination. Assault victims, both male and female, are typically young and low-ranking; they are targeted for their vulnerability. Often, in male-on-male cases, assailants go after those they assume are gay, even if they are not. “One of the reasons people commit sexual assault is to put people in their place, to drive them out,” says Mic Hunter, author of Honor Betrayed: Sexual Abuse in America’s Military. “Sexual assault isn’t about sex, it’s about violence.”
Greg Jeloudov was 35 and new to America when he decided to join the Army. Like most soldiers, he was driven by both patriotism for his adopted homeland and the pragmatic notion that the military could be a first step in a career that would enable him to provide for his new family.

Instead, Jeloudov arrived at Fort Benning, Ga., for basic training in May 2009, in the middle of the economic crisis and rising xenophobia. The soldiers in his unit, responding to his Russian accent and New York City address, called him a “champagne socialist” and a “commie faggot.” He was, he told NEWSWEEK, “in the middle of the viper’s pit.” Less than two weeks after arriving on base, he was gang-raped in the barracks by men who said they were showing him who was in charge of the United States. When he reported the attack to unit commanders, he says they told him, “It must have been your fault. You must have provoked them.”

What happened to Jeloudov is a part of life in the armed forces that hardly anyone talks about: male-on-male sexual assault. In the staunchly traditional military culture, it’s an ugly secret, kept hidden by layers of personal shame and official denial. Last year nearly 50,000 male veterans screened positive for “military sexual trauma” at the Department of Veterans Affairs, up from just over 30,000 in 2003. For the victims, the experience is a special kind of hell—a soldier can’t just quit his job to get away from his abusers. But now, as the Pentagon has begun to acknowledge the rampant problem of sexual violence for both genders, men are coming forward in unprecedented numbers, telling their stories and hoping that speaking up will help them, and others, put their lives back together. “We don’t like to think that our men can be victims,” says Kathleen Chard, chief of the posttraumatic-stress unit at the Cincinnati VA. “We don’t want to think that it could happen to us. If a man standing in front of me who is my size, my skill level, who has been raped—what does that mean about me? I can be raped, too.”
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The Military's Secret Shame

Canada failing soldiers with PTSD

Soldiers paying a heavy price


BY KRIS KOTARSKI, FOR THE CALGARY HERALD APRIL 4, 2011 2:22 AM


In one of the most heartbreaking stories of the 2011 election season, the CBC reported domestic violence on Canadian military bases has climbed steadily in recent years as soldiers who carry physical and psychological battle wounds return home.

This sad piece of news did not come from a stumping parliamentarian or the Department of National Defence. Instead, it came from a freedom-of-information request that revealed a military police report that was shelved and later downplayed by Canada's military bureaucracy.

According to the report, military police noted a five-fold jump in reported cases of domestic violence after troops returned from a heavy combat tour in Afghanistan to Ontario's CFB Petawawa in 2007.

Although this should serve as yet another reminder that too many of Canada's soldiers (and families) look to be suffering from the effects of posttraumatic stress disorder, Canada's military is keen to make this issue go away.

Col. Jean-Robert Bernier, deputy surgeon general with the Canadian Forces, dismissed the report, noting "some methodological flaws in the way some of that military police data was collected and analyzed."

If you find such a dismissal a little odd considering the gravity of the statistics unearthed by the investigation, you may wish to call your local federal election candidate to ask what he or she thinks about how Canada is handling post-traumatic stress disorder and its veterans.

Is suicide interesting enough for our public debate? In 2008, the CBC cited research by Laval University doctoral student Maj. Michel Sartori, who obtained military police records that showed the suicide rate among Canada's regular forces and reserves doubled from 2006 to 2007, rising to a rate triple that of the general population.


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Soldiers paying a heavy price

Wyoming veteran helps others cope with combat PTSD

Wyoming veteran helps others cope with post-traumatic stress disorder

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Arizona Veterans Center on wheels for combat veterans

Bringing services to combat veterans
LARRY HENDRICKS News Team Leader
Posted: Sunday, April 3, 2011
The brunt of the counseling services Erik Adams, a veteran and counselor, offers is for post-traumatic stress disorder.

Combat veterans come to him to speak of their experiences in combat zones and their difficulties in readjusting to civilian life.

In Arizona, combat veterans living in rural communities typically had to drive long distances to receive services from a Veterans Center set up by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
But no longer.

"We have the ability to bring a mobile Vet Center into areas where there is no fixed site," said Bobby Fields, readjustment counseling tech for the Veterans Center in Prescott.

In late 2009, the Prescott Veterans Center received a $286,000 mobile Vet Center to take mental health services to vets throughout northern Arizona. And since 2010, the mobile unit comes to Flagstaff twice a month.

According to the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Vet Centers provide readjustment counseling to help combat veterans and their families successfully transition back to civilian life.
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Bringing services to combat veterans

Sunday, April 3, 2011

Tea Party Seniors got their wish, Medicare cuts coming

UPDATE 4-6-11

Budget Would Affect Elderly, Poor
The Republican budget proposal presents a dramatically different vision of the role of government in America.



Say a big thank you to the Tea Party folks since this is what they voted for. Yes, that's right. You get the shaft because they didn't care if you could afford to live or not. Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security are government run programs, but people like the ones below didn't understand that. This is just the beginning of the senior slaughter of programs we need.







House budget chairman to propose Medicare, Medicaid changes
By the CNN Wire Staff
April 3, 2011 11:54 a.m. EDT

House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan's spending plan is to be unveiled Tuesday.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
NEW: Democratic Sen. Warner challenges Ryan's plan
Instead of Medicare, seniors would get help paying insurance premiums
Medicaid would be cut by up to $1 trillion
Ryan offers few details, but says his plan would balance the budget and pay down debt
Washington (CNN) -- House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan said Sunday he will unveil a Republican budget for 2012 this week that proposes dramatic changes to Medicare, Medicaid and other political lightning rods.
The plan, to be released Tuesday, calls for a controversial overhaul of Medicare, the health care program for seniors, and would impose deep cuts in Medicaid, which provides health benefits to low-income Americans, Ryan told "Fox News Sunday."
Starting 10 years from now, in 2021, elderly Americans would receive government help in paying health insurance premiums instead of enrolling in the government-run Medicare program, Ryan said. He rejected the label of "vouchers" for the payments, calling them "premium assistance" payments instead.
The plan is modeled after one Ryan proposed last year with Alice Rivlin, budget director under President Bill Clinton. The Ryan-Rivlin plan said the amount of assistance would be calculated in part by taking the average federal cost per Medicare enrollee.
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House budget chairman to propose Medicare, Medicaid changes

Patriot Guard adds 10,000 additional members within weeks of the decision

Add me to the list now. I just joined. Considering how many posts I do for them along with rides we have done with them, it only made sense to join. After all, I adore them and what they do. Why haven't you joined yet?


Patriot Guard Riders expand mission
Group isn’t just antidote to Westboro Baptists anymore
By Philip Grey - The Leaf Chronicle
Posted : Saturday Apr 2, 2011 16:22:46 EDT
Mario Chavez is adamant about a lot of things. One is that he and his fellow members of the Patriot Guard Riders do not want to be forever defined strictly in the context of their opposition to the Westboro Baptists.

However, at the present time, trying to tell the story of one without the other is like trying to talk about World War II without mentioning Germany. A recent film by noted documentary maker Ellen Frick showed why.

Last Monday, Chavez and other PGR members — including Ward 2 Councilwoman Deanna McLaughlin and Deb Saunders of the Fort Campbell Casualty Affairs office — were gathered at the home of Pam Wynn, assistant state captain for the PGR, to screen the documentary, “Patriot Guard Riders.” Though the film was largely centered on the PGR, its motivations, and its appeal to veterans and current military members, the Westboro Baptist group was also an integral part of the story.

After the screening, Frick, along with PGR members and supporters of the group, stayed to talk about the film, but mostly to talk about the PGR. Also present was Kari Upchurch, the wife of Spc. Clinton Robert Upchurch, a 101st Airborne Division soldier killed by an improvised explosive device in Iraq in 2006.

Situations like the one Kari Upchurch experienced are one reason that the PGR and the Westboro Baptists are so firmly fixed together in the public mind.

As for Westboro, many PGR members feel that the PGR has won the war, even as Westboro has prevailed time after time in the courts. Following the recent Supreme Court ruling in favor of the Westboro Baptists, the PGR picked up 10,000 additional members within weeks of the decision, according to Annette Robeck, Tennessee PGR state captain.

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Patriot Guard Riders expand mission