PTSD:Eugene "Doc" Cherry brought the war home from Iraq

Eugene "Doc" Cherry brought the war home

VFA News Analysis: February 4, 2008
by Jason Knobloch on Feb 4, 2008
The Chicago Tribune tells the story of Spc. 4 Eugene “Doc” Cherry, an Army medic who served in Iraq with the 10th Mountain Division and returned home with severe post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Unfortunately, Cherry’s experiences are ones that VFA has seen many, many times. Cursory exposure to the psychiatrist in the field, long waits for appointments back in America, commanders making it next to impossible for servicemembers with mental injuries to receive help, going AWOL: this is a pattern that affects more and more servicemembers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. Their numbers will keep growing until the well-intentioned pronouncements about the military treating mental injuries as seriously as it does physical injuries makes its way into the heads of combatant commanders.
go here for the rest
http://www.veteransforamerica.org/2008/02/04/vfa-news-analysis-february-4-2008/

They are not numbers but men and women who were loved

2007
83
81
81
104
126
101
78
84
65
38
37
23
In January of 2008 we lost 40.
The total is 3,945 as of today.
http://icasualties.org/oif/

This is what happened in Iraq today, at least part of it.

FACTBOX-Security developments in Iraq, Feb 4 04 Feb 2008 17:16:35 GMT
Source: Reuters
Feb 4 (Reuters) - Following are security developments in Iraq at 1700 GMT on Monday.

* denotes new or updated items.

* KHALIS - U.S. forces killed 15 militants and detained eight other suspects in an operation on Sunday to target a suspected al Qaeda meeting place northeast of Khalis, 80 km (50 miles) north of Baghdad, the U.S. military said.

* MOSUL - Gunmen killed three policemen in two separate drive-by shootings in Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.

* KIRKUK - A roadside bomb aimed at a police patrol wounded two civilians in Kirkuk, 250 km (155 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.

SALMAN PAK - Iraqi and U.S. forces killed seven gunmen, wounded another one and arrested 28 suspects during air assaults targeting al Qaeda near Salman Pak, 30 km (20 miles) south of Baghdad, the U.S. military said.

BAGHDAD - A roadside bomb killed three soldiers and wounded two others when it struck their vehicle in northern Baghdad's Adhamiya district, a member of a neighbourhood police unit said. Two members of the local police unit were wounded in gunfire which broke out after the blast, he said.

ISKANDARIYA - U.S. forces killed nine Iraqi civilians, including a child, while pursuing al Qaeda fighters near Iskandariya, 40 km (25 miles) south of Baghdad, on Saturday, the U.S. military said. Another three people, including two children, were wounded.

BAQUBA - Gunmen killed the driver of a minibus and a girl in a drive by-shooting near Baquba, 65 km (40 miles) north of Baghdad, police said. The girl's brother was wounded.

BAGHDAD - One U.S. soldier was killed when a roadside bomb exploded near his vehicle east of Baghdad on Thursday, the U.S. military said.

BAGHDAD - Two people were wounded by a roadside bomb planted under their car in northwestern Baghdad's Hurriya district, police said.

BAGHDAD - Two policemen were wounded by a roadside bomb southwest of Baghdad, police said.

BAGHDAD - Gunmen killed a foreign ministry official in a drive-by shooting in western Baghdad's Mansour district, police said.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L04234114.htm

These are not numbers but people. The men and women we sent to risk their lives in Iraq. They had families, children, friends. They had lives. In these figures we do not see the 5 active military men and women a day attempting to commit suicide or the 17 veterans a day who end up taking their own lives. We don't see the families left to grieve and wonder what they could have done differently. They cannot see that it was not their fault but our's. We didn't have anything ready to take care of any of them. We didn't get ready for the 7 who survive for every life lost by a road side bomb blast or bullet. We were not ready for the amputations returning and when it came to the soldiers coming back with PTSD, we tried to not notice them at all until we had no choice but to face the failure we are all guilty of. We didn't fight hard enough for them. What is stopping us from doing it now?

I read what the war bloggers had to say about the surge working, as if they had reason to celebrate and relax, but what they didn't notice was the fact there were dips and peaks in the attacks since the beginning. As long as the troops are still risking their lives, we do not have the luxury of not paying attention to any of this. As the days turn into years, there are more and more who will need help physically or mentally and it's up to us to take care of them when they need us.

UK:1 out of 14 soldiers unfit deploy again

Army depleted by long-term sick and injured: report
12 hours ago

LONDON (AFP) — The manpower strength of the army has been markedly depleted by sickness and injury, The Daily Telegraph reported on Monday.

According to figures it obtained from the Ministry of Defence, of the 10 battalions that recently deployed to, or are currently in, Afghanistan and Iraq, more than 400 soldiers were left behind because they were "unfit to deploy".

That works out to around one in every 14 of the soldiers that were sent to the two countries.

The report comes after a parliamentary committee warned a week ago that pressure on Britain's military to meet its commitments in Afghanistan and Iraq has battered morale and spurred experienced officers to leave.

There are currently 7,700 British troops in Afghanistan, with a further 4,500 in Iraq.
click post title for the rest

Jennifer Pacanowski Army Medic with PTSD and shafted

A Lease on Her Life
By Maya Schenwar
t r u t h o u t Report

Friday 25 January 2008

Jennifer Pacanowski joined the Army to climb out of debt. She ended up in the hole.





It was July 2004 and Jennifer Pacanowski was headed home to Pennsylvania after six months as a medic in Iraq. Like most other soldiers in the Army, she had two weeks at home to "rest and relax" before returning to the combat zone. "It's kind of a vacation from war," she says.

But for Pacanowski, this summer vacation did not involve vegging in front of the TV or lazing on the beach; she didn't waste a moment of her break. She visited the people she was close to, spent a few days in Wildwood, New Jersey, "reliving a childhood vacation," and hosted a big barbecue for her friends and family.

"I didn't think I was ever going to see them again," she says. "I was basically preparing to die."

Pacanowski joined the Army on April 23, 2003, a month after the Iraq War began. It was a week before the "Mission Accomplished" banner flashed across television screens nationwide, as President Bush announced, "Major combat operations in Iraq have ended. In the Battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed." Like many Americans, Pacanowski and her family thought the war was, for the most part, over.

But by the time of her R & R break in 2004, she could not envision the war's end - nor a way out of her predicament. Her small consolation was that, should she get out of the war alive, she'd be student-loan-free and well on her way to beginning a career in nursing.

However, three days into R & R, Pacanowski received a letter that turned the horror of her term in Iraq to a pointless hell. It was a notice from the US Army, explaining that the government would not pay off her college loans, despite previous guarantees.

Devastated, carrying both her financial burden and a growing feeling that Iraqis wanted the US troops out, Pacanowski dragged herself back for five and half more months of deployment. Loyalty was her only motivation not to desert.
go here for the rest
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/012508A.shtml

5 Soldiers a day try to commit suicide by Senator Arlen Specter wants hearing on sports again

This is a bigger priority to Specter
Arlen Specter - The Huffington Post
That seems to be what Arlen Specter wants to know. He's asking why the NFL surreptitiously destroyed all the evidence associated with the Patriots' illicit ...
www.huffingtonpost.com/topics/Arlen%20Specter

Concern mounts over rising troop suicides

Story Highlights
Average of 5 soldiers per day tried to commit suicide in 2007, Army figures show

Sen. Jim Webb introduces legislation to improve care for soldiers

Army psychiatrist says soldiers must overcome stigma of treatment

Psychiatrist: "We know that soldiers don't want to go seek care"

Next Article in U.S. »

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Every day, five U.S. soldiers try to kill themselves. Before the Iraq war began, that figure was less than one suicide attempt a day.

The dramatic increase is revealed in new U.S. Army figures, which show 2,100 soldiers tried to commit suicide in 2007.

"Suicide attempts are rising and have risen over the last five years," said Col. Elspeth Cameron-Ritchie, an Army psychiatrist.

Concern over the rate of suicide attempts prompted Sen. Jim Webb, D-Virginia, to introduce legislation Thursday to improve the military's suicide-prevention programs.

"Our troops and their families are under unprecedented levels of stress due to the pace and frequency of more than five years of deployments," Webb said in a written statement. Watch CNN Senior Pentagon Correspondent Jamie McIntyre on the reasons for the increase in suicides »

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Washington, took to the Senate floor Thursday, urging more help for military members, especially for those returning from war.

"Our brave service members who face deployment after deployment without the rest, recovery and treatment they need are at the breaking point," Murray said.

She said Congress has given "hundreds of millions of dollars" to the military to improve its ability to provide mental health treatment, but said it will take more than money to resolve the problem.

"It takes leadership and it takes a change in the culture of war," she said. She said some soldiers had reported receiving nothing more than an 800 number to call for help.

"Many soldiers need a real person to talk to," she said. "And they need psychiatrists and they need psychologists."

According to Army statistics, the incidence of U.S. Army soldiers attempting suicide or inflicting injuries on themselves has skyrocketed in the nearly five years since the start of the Iraq war.

Last year's 2,100 attempted suicides -- an average of more than 5 per day -- compares with about 350 suicide attempts in 2002, the year before the war in Iraq began, according to the Army.
go here for the rest
http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/02/01/military.suicides/index.html

When will it become too many? More soldiers are trying to end their own lives than lives lost to combat. Five soldiers a day try to end their lives equals 35 a week. 120 veterans succeed at committing suicide each week. There are more who try to but by the grace of God they survive. Some will try again.

What are we doing? What is congress doing besides talking about it and under-funding it? Senator Specter part of the Republican leadership that held the power since the Clinton Administration, had been responsible at the time of the occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq. Did he or any of the others hold the lives of the troops and our veterans in the highest regard? No, they wanted hearings on steroid abuse committed by sports players instead of soldiers. Again Specter wants hearings on the tapes concerning yet another sports team scandal, the Patriots. Is he out of his mind?

Our soldiers and veterans are committing suicide on a daily basis but he seems to find it more important to take issue with sports? They held more hearings on Terri Schiavo and her feeding tube being removed than they did on the fact the DOD and the VA were undercut by budgets that did not include the care of our soldiers and veterans. They put more interest on deciding what to call french fries than they did on what to do about all the wounded entering into an already overloaded VA. This is all too insane!

What is wrong with the GOP and what is wrong with the citizens of the states these people come from? What is their priority in all of this and why aren't their elected representatives listening to any of them? What is wrong with the Democrats holding office as well when they take the steps to correct the problems as if they are new problems and they have time to waste? While it is needed that new VA hospitals be built, it will take years for them to be open for business and many more years to be fully functional. What about between now and then?

I've heard the hearings and listened to the testimonies. What needs to be done has already been brought to their attention but apparently they have not acted on any of it. Veterans in rural areas of the nation need Veterans Centers up and running today, not five years from now. Families need support groups all across the country today, not sometime in the distant future.

It's time America got serious about who the real heroes in this nation are and it isn't the sports players. It's the men and women risking their lives on a daily basis for what this nation asked them to do and many more who will see their lives as well as futures at risk because the nation they served abandoned them.

The soldiers and veterans need every single one of us standing up for their sake. Call your elected official today.

Seeing families with PTSD as my own

One young physician, Maj. Daniel O’Connor, of the Massachusetts Army National Guard, recently served at a triage station in Iraq for wounded soldiers and civilians. He believes that most families are resilient enough to weather the relationship stress of one deployment. But he pointed out that “by the end of the second or third deployment, and as many as three years away from home, many relationships start to suffer. When you factor in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) that affects so many soldiers, even the strongest relationships will suffer.”

Rita Watson: Challenges for returning vets

01:00 AM EST on Sunday, February 3, 2008

RITA WATSON

IT IS VALENTINE’S DAY every day that a young man or woman arrives home safely from Iraq or Afghanistan. But for returning veterans the war often comes back with them. Family, friends and lovers looking forward to normality often see soldiers struggling with health and relationships as they fall through medical-care cracks. One member of an elite combat unit seeking help in Rhode Island was told: “Not only are you not in the system, but you are listed here as ‘sensitive file.’ I can’t even confirm that you were in the military.” This is an all too familiar story at Veterans Administration hospitals. Why?

“When you are a soldier you are under the purview of the Department of Defense whereas at home you are under the Veterans Administration. Because of confidentiality rules, the two do not share medical records,” says Anne Van Cott, a neurologist at the Veterans Administration Pittsburgh Health Care System.

click post title for the rest

When I was searching for support for me to get through some of the worst times in our marriage, there wasn't any. 25 years ago, there wasn't much available to support the spouse of a veteran trying to hold it all together. I remember it all too well. While I am relieved times have changed and the net has been available around the world, I realize that very little has changed despite all the reports coming out on what PTSD is. Over and over I read how many in this country have no clue what PTSD is, what causes it or what goes along with it.

Well intended people will attack reporters doing stories on the veterans who commit crimes when they had absolutely no troubles before they left. They will attack reports on divorces and abuses instead of facing the fact that these men and women are wounded. They will label reports as being anti-military instead of seeing them as vital to preventing many of the problems these veterans have to face needlessly.

I see these families as my own and I see the veteran as my own husband. I know the suffering he is still going through and I know my own pain. I know what works and I know what needs to be done as well as what has not been done. While PTSD is complicated to understand at first, once everyone knows what it is, they have a tool to help them get though it. When they come home expecting to return to "normal" they find they cannot. How can anyone expect any of these humans exposed to the most horrific experiences known to man will return "normal" and unchanged? This is what I've been trying to get people to understand.

It has nothing to do with their bravery, patriotism, courage, ethics or character. It has nothing to do with how much they love their family or care about their friends. While I loved my husband deeply, it was not what saved his life. Knowledge was. Knowing what he was going through helped me to find the compassion and feed patience enough to stay by his side. It helped me to cope with the zone out coming as a flashback hits. I even learned to watch for the changes in his mood to know when one was coming. It helped me deal with the nightmares and the drain he would go through the next day. The mood swings on bad days when I wanted to ring his neck were not as hard to cope with when I knew where it was all coming from. All the love in the world cannot save a marriage if they don't have the tools to deal with all of this. Ignorance will destroy families and add to the difficulties these veterans have.

Imagine having cancer and dealing with it badly, then being abandoned by your family. Would you be ok with that? Would you be ok with finding out that no one was willing to "put up with you" when you were sick? Would you be ok telling someone to get a divorce because their spouse had a serious illness? Then why do we do it when the illness is PTSD? There are support groups all over the country for people who are overweight, families of alcoholics, cancer, bereavement, you name it but there are very few support groups for families of PTSD veterans and not enough for the veterans either. When people share common experiences, it is not only healing, it is empowering. We all need to give these families the power to cope and heal instead of judging them and insulting them as if they had anything to be ashamed of. They only shame in any of this is the fact we don't take this all seriously enough to have every single community across this country developing support services for the families so they can support the veteran we don't support either.

UK: Iraq veterans are denied help for combat trauma

Iraq veterans are denied help for combat trauma


Mark Townsend, defence correspondent
Sunday February 3, 2008
The Observer


Hundreds of veterans, including many who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, are being denied vital help by the government to cope with the psychological fallout of war.
Despite ministerial pledges to improve support for British soldiers suffering mental health problems, veterans diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are still not receiving funding for specialist medical treatment.

Combat Stress, a charity that assists veterans with mental health issues, is dealing with a 27 per cent increase in GP referrals of veterans - 1,200 new cases a year. More than half of those reporting psychotic nightmares, depression and suicidal thoughts have not been granted a war pension and are, therefore, not eligible for specialist psychiatric help.
go here for the rest
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,2251615,00.html

When will they understand this wound gets worse without being treated? How can they be so willing to lose time and allow the wound to cut deeper?

Combat stress defused at front

Combat stress defused at front
Two Langley Air Force Base officers brought "control" tactics to the battlefields of Iraq last year.
By STEPHANIE HEINATZ | 247-7821
February 3, 2008

LANGLEY AIR FORCE BASE - There's one Army medic whom Air Force Maj. Melissa O'Neill can't forget.

During the early years of the war in Iraq, the National Guard soldier watched as a homemade bomb exploded, hitting a military truck carrying one of his childhood friends. The medic was the first to try to save his friend from fatal wounds.

When he returned from that first deployment to Iraq, the medic kept secret the pain of not being able to revive his buddy and the struggles of living with survivor's guilt. He used alcohol to help him keep the secret.


Then, last year, he was sent back to Iraq.

"He came to me knowing he had a problem," said O'Neill, commander of the behavioral health unit at Langley Air Force Base. "He came to me wanting to use his time in Iraq to quit drinking."

O'Neill and Air Force Capt. Travis Lunasco, a Langley psychologist, spent about five months last year in Iraq as members of a combat-stress control team.

The teams are the military's way of taking the fight against combat stress — and the threat of that stress escalating into post-traumatic stress disorder when troops return home — to the front lines.

The counselors, psychologists and social workers who make up the teams run mental health clinics, advise commanders on how to help troops balance the stresses of home and the battlefield, and respond when troops survive traumatic events.
click post title for the rest

Massachusetts First Responders Trained To Help Veterans

1st responders trained to spot troubled vets

By Stephanie Reitz - The Associated Press
Posted : Saturday Feb 2, 2008 14:04:38 EST

HOLYOKE, Mass. — For many returning troops, lifesaving combat instincts can complicate life at home: constant vigilance, agitation in confined places, bolting from loud noises and other behaviors that can be misinterpreted by police.

Concerned that some may wind up in the criminal justice system instead of counseling, some police and other emergency responders are learning how to recognize and cope with unique behaviors of troubled combat veterans.

“Our law enforcement community has really become the safety net. If they can get to the root of what’s happening with these guys, they’ll get helped instead of getting criminalized,” said John Downing, president of Soldier On, a western Massachusetts service organization known until recently as United Veterans of America.

His group and other veterans’ advocates, mental health experts and prosecutors recently launched a training program for police, dispatchers and other emergency workers. Organizers believe it is the first of its kind in the nation, and hope it other regions copy it as more veterans come home from wartime deployments.
go here for the rest
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/02/ap_troubledvets_080202/

Makes me proud I was born there.

AfterDowningStreet.org wants to know too

I feel honored they picked this up.

Presidential Candidates: Stop telling us what to value when you ...
US soldiers serving repeated Iraq deployments are 50 percent more likely than those with one tour to suffer from acute combat stress, raising their risk of post-traumatic stress disorder, according to the Army's first survey exploring ...
AfterDowningStreet.org - Impeach... - http://www.afterdowningstreet.org
This is what I added when I posted it on SanchoPress
My husband and I are a military family along with our daughter. You'd never know it because he has been out of the military since 1972. He came home in 1971. He paid the price since he was in Vietnam and I paid the price when I fell in love with him and our daughter paid the price being born to us. Jack is one men who served because he wanted to. He wanted to be like his father. He didn't believe in what was being done in Vietnam, but he knew he'd be drafted as soon as he got out of high school. So he dropped out and had his Mom sign him up. My family has been living with PTSD and this very proud veteran who happens to be 100% disabled by PTSD.

My Dad was a Korean War vet. He paid the price being 100% disabled. My uncles were Korean War veterans and WWII veterans. My husband's father was a WWII veteran and so where his brothers. My husband's nephew was a Vietnam veteran, also service connected PTSD until he took his own life.

That's what most of us forget. We see the new generation and hear the stories of their families but we forget there are other generations out there with stories to tell, lives to live while suffering and futures to worry about. I've been attacked by people telling me I had no right to my opinion and told by some of the people running to replace Bush, that I was a traitor because I dared to speak of what they were getting wrong. I listened to men like Hannity and O'Reilly and Rush say that people like me had no right to "go against the troops" at the same time people like me had been fighting for them long before Iraq was invaded, long before Afghanistan was invaded and long before they were given a microphone and an audience to attack people like me.

I've been attacked on line, first called a "hero and a true patriot" for the videos I've done on PTSD because the "love I had for the troops was obvious" until they read my political blog. I was then attacked for being against the same troops by those who called me a "true patriot" before. I was attacked by veterans with PTSD because while they wanted to read more about what I had to say about PTSD, they didn't want to read "my political rants" so I started a separate blog just for PTSD to not "offend" them and their sensitivity.

Now there is no hiding the fact that everything people "like me" were complaining about, all the things we were attacked for daring to say, have not only been proven true, they were left alone to grow larger instead of being addressed. Why people vote for any of these people, defend any of these people, invest one single dime on any of their campaigns, is beyond belief. It's not the Republicans who "value the military" because they have proven they only value the contractors once they get into office. The Democrats, well at least they try to do something for the sake of the troops and their families and the veterans. Yet when I hear their speeches, I can't help but wonder if they ever really hear any of us when they are using us.
http://sanchopress.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=205

Germany says nein to NATO

Secretary of Defense Gates has pressed for more troops.
Photo Credit: AP
Related Article: Germany Rebuffs U.S. On Troops in Afghanistan, page A10

Germany Rebuffs U.S. On Troops in Afghanistan
Refusal to Shift Deployment A Setback for NATO Effort


By Craig Whitlock
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, February 2, 2008; Page A10

BERLIN, Feb. 1 -- Germany on Friday rejected a formal request from the United States to send forces to war zones in southern Afghanistan, the latest setback to the NATO alliance as it tries to scrape together enough troops to battle resurgent Taliban forces and stabilize the country.

Defense Minister Franz-Josef Jung said his country's contingent of 3,200 soldiers would stay put in the northern provinces, where they patrol some of the most secure areas of Afghanistan. "That will have to continue to be our focus," Jung said to reporters.

NATO commanders have said they need to add 7,500 troops to the 40,000-member force that NATO oversees in Afghanistan. But there have been few countries willing to comply. Meanwhile, NATO has been struggling to persuade some members not to worsen matters by pulling out.

This week, for example, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper threatened to withdraw his country's 2,500 troops next year from around Kandahar -- a major hot spot -- unless they receive reinforcements. Following a rise in casualties, the Dutch and British governments are also facing domestic pressure to reduce their military presence in southern Afghanistan.
click post title for the rest

I hope the US government, Canadian government, UK government is gearing up for a lot more wounded and a lot more with PTSD with the bombs going off and Taliban taking back what they lost before. This is not good.

5 Women shot to death in Lane Bryant store in Illinois

People in the area are going to need help with the shock of this. I hope they get it and the family members of these women.

5 Shot Dead at Suburban Chicago Store

By MICHAEL TARM
The Associated Press Saturday, February 2, 2008; 5:25 PM

TINLEY PARK, Ill. -- Five females were shot to death at a suburban Chicago clothing store on Saturday, and police were searching for a man they said fled the scene

The victims were shot and killed at a Lane Bryant store at the Brookside Marketplace, police Sgt. T.J. Grady said. Officers found the victims inside after getting a 911 call around 10:45 a.m., Grady said.

Earlier, Grady said "the offender" had apparently left the cluster of stores off Interstate 80 in the suburbs southwest of downtown Chicago.

Director of Fitzgerald House demands O'Reilly apology for homeless veterans

Director of charity for homeless veterans demands apology from Bill O'Reilly
Nick Langewis
Published: Saturday February 2, 2008

Carol Gardener, executive director of Fitzgerald House, which provides transitional housing and job placement assistance to homeless veterans, recently appeared at News Corporation headquarters to deliver a petition to FOX News mainstay and The O'Reilly Factor host Bill O'Reilly.
The petition, signed by 17,000 people, demands an apology from O'Reilly over a claim he made that there are no homeless veterans.
"The only thing sleeping under a bridge is that guy's brain," O'Reilly quipped during his January 4 broadcast, referring to part of a speech that former senator and presidential candidate John Edwards (D-NC) gave, dropping a figure of 200,000 veterans sleeping "under bridges and on grates." (The Department of Veterans Affairs estimates 195,000.)
O'Reilly repeatedly joked about homeless veterans, insisting that, even if there was such a problem, there "aren't that many."

Death of William C. Tuck ruled accidental overdose

Death of Iraq vet ruled accidental overdose
The Associated PressPosted : Saturday Feb 2, 2008 14:18:30 EST

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. — The Coconino County Medical Examiner’s Office says a 22-year-old Iraq war veteran found dead last month died of an accidental overdose.

William C. Tuck was a solder from 2002 through December and served three tours in Iraq as an Army Ranger. His mother found him dead at the family’s Flagstaff home on Jan. 1.

An autopsy showed he died from an overdose of methadone, a narcotic painkiller often used to wean heroin addicts off the drug.

Tuck’s mother Lea said Friday that she was extremely proud of his service to his country.

His company commander left a condolence note calling him “one of the best Rangers we had in the company.”

http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/02/ap_iraqvetoverdose_080202/

Staff Sgt. Doug Szczepanski face and the doctors who saved it

"It was far worse than he realized. He was rushed to Balad Air Base with his right ear torn off, his jaw broken, and the flesh on the right side of his face rent from the bone. Shrapnel blinded his left eye and lodged in his brain. Swollen and yellow-tinged, he scarcely looked as if he could still be alive."

Saving face
Doctors performing reconstructive surgery in theater help wounded troops heal, look better
By Kelly Kennedy - kellykennedy@militarytimes.com

Posted : Saturday Feb 2, 2008 13:54:33 EST

As Staff Sgt. Doug Szczepanski drove his commander out of Rustimiya, Iraq, on Sept. 15, 2005, his mind was on the new Taco Bell that had just opened at their destination, Forward Operating Base Taji.

“That’s all I was thinking about,” said Szczepanski, who was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 182nd Field Artillery Regiment, of the Michigan National Guard.

He never made it to his tacos; a suicide car bomber attacked his Humvee with an improvised explosive device made up of seven artillery rounds.

Somehow, no one in the vehicle was killed. But Szczepanski suffered horrific wounds — half his face was blown away.

“I went out for two minutes, and when I came to, I thought we were still going to Taji,” Szczepanski said. “I’m saying, ‘Let’s go, guys.’”

But when he reached for his M-16, he realized his thumb was gone. And his eye hurt; a piece of shrapnel had blown through it. He recalls being angry that his protective goggles hadn’t worked and were no longer on his face.
go here for the rest
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/02/army_reconstruct_080204w/

Get This Out to all Viet Nam Veterans

Pass this on. Sent from email.

Got this through several friends - have not been able to verify it but thought best to forward FYI. As usual, check with your Doctor and the VA.

Subject: Get This Out to all Viet Nam Veterans
All:
Forwarded for your information. Please consider forwarding to those on you E-Mail list who may be impacted by this information. ~~ Semper Fidelis!!! . . .

-------------"Therefore I say; know the enemy and know yourself; in a hundred battles you will never be in peril. When you are ignorant of the enemy but know yourself, your chances of winning or losing are equal. If ignorant both of your enemy and of yourself, you are certain in every battle to be in peril." ~~ Sun Tzu


http://www.vva.org/veteran/0807/letters.html

PARASITE WARNINGI am writing to inform all Vietnam veterans about a potential health risk that they may have been exposed to while serving in Vietnam: the little-known danger from parasites.

My husband, who was otherwise healthy, passed away on January 20, 2006, from cholangiocarcinoma, cancer of the bile duct of the liver. It is very rare in the United States, but it is very prevalent in Vietnam and surrounding countries. There are two (2) known causes of this type of cancer: from contracting hepatitis C and from ingesting a parasite from the water supply in Vietnam. My husband did not have hepatitis C; therefore, it was determined that his cancer derived from a parasite. I have received official notification from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) that his death was service related, which is not something the VA determines without an overwhelming amount of evidence.This cancer does not manifest itself until later in life, when you are between 60 and 70 years old.

Once the symptoms occur, which usually include jaundice, it is very difficult to treat or beat. My husband was 58 years old when he passed away. If he had been informed that there was a possibility that he could have ingested a parasite while serving in Vietnam, he would have taken precautions to have his bile ducts examined, possibly extending his life. The parasite is long gone, but it left behind damaged cells, which developed into cancerous tumors in the bile ducts.If you spent time in Southeast Asia and are having gastrointestinal issues for no apparent reason, please have your physician check for damage within the bile ducts. It may save your life.

Mrs. Edward S. (Pete) Harrison

Horseheads, New York

There is a long list of problems Vietnam veterans faced and still deal with today. They were joined by Gulf War veterans and to this day, they still fight. Wonder when the Iraq and Afghanistan veterans will be able to say they don't have to fight to have their wounds treated and their illnesses taken care of because the government did in fact honor them?

Pittsburgh Homeless man critical after clothes catch fire

Homeless man critical after clothes catch fire
Saturday, February 02, 2008
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
A homeless man camped underneath the Veteran's Bridge was taken to the hospital in critical condition last night after suffering burns over 70 to 75 percent of his body, police said.
Firefighters responded to an area not far from where Interstate 279 crosses underneath East Ohio Street on the North Side for a report of a debris fire.
When they arrived on scene a little after 8:30 p.m., they found the man on the ground with most of his clothes stripped off, police said.
The man, who was not identified, was taken to Mercy Hospital.
Authorities believe the man's clothing caught on fire from a burning barrel he was using to keep warm in below-freezing weather.
First published on February 2, 2008 at 12:00 am
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08033/854254-53.stm

Marines left behind Lance Cpl. James Jenkins

Denial in the Corps
By Kathy Dobie
The Nation

18 February 2008 Issue

Marine Lance Cpl. James Jenkins is buried in the same New Jersey cemetery that he used to run through on his way to high school, stopping at the Eat Good Bakery to get two glazed doughnuts and an orange juice before heading off to class. When his mother, Cynthia Fleming, visits his grave, she looks over the low cemetery wall at not only the bakery but the used-car lot where James used to sell Christmas trees during the winter and the nursing home where he worked every summer and says, "Lord, son, you're on your own turf." James, who died at 23, is buried in Greenwood Cemetery; the owners told Cynthia they're proud to have him there.

During his short career as a marine, Corporal Jenkins received many commendations recognizing his "intense desire to excel," "unbridled enthusiasm" and "unswerving devotion to duty." It was for heroic actions performed during a fifty-five-hour battle with the Mahdi militia in Najaf that Jenkins was awarded a Bronze Star for valor. The fighting, which began on the city streets in August 2004 and moved into the Wadi al Salam Cemetery, was ferociously personal. Marines and militiamen were often only yards apart, killing one another at close range. When the battle was over, eight Americans and hundreds of militiamen were dead.

After that tour, his second in Iraq, Jenkins could barely sleep. When he did, the nightmares were horrible. He was plagued by remorse and depression, unable to be intimate with his fiancée, run ragged by an adrenaline surge he couldn't turn off.

Back at San Diego's Camp Pendleton the following January, Jenkins took to gambling, or gambling took to him; he became addicted to blackjack and pai gow, a fast-moving card game where you can lose your shirt in a minute. The knife-edge excitement felt comfortingly familiar. Jenkins went into debt, borrowing thousands of dollars from payday loan companies. Busted for writing bad checks, he was locked up in the Camp Pendleton brig that spring pending court-martial. In the months that followed, he was released, locked up and released again. He spoke often of suicide. The Marines never diagnosed his post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). When his mother called his command seeking help, Jenkins's first sergeant, who had not served in Iraq, told Fleming he thought James was using his suicidal feelings to his advantage. "I have 130 marines to worry about other than your son," she recalls the sergeant saying. When his command decided to lock him up a third time, James Jenkins ran.

On September 28, 2005, eight months after returning from Iraq, Jenkins found himself cornered in the Oceanside apartment he shared with his fiancée. A deputy sheriff pounded on the front door, while a US Marshal covered the back. The young man with the "intense desire to excel" decided he could not go back to the brig or get an other-than-honorable discharge. He would not shame his family or have his hard-won achievements and his pride stripped away. And he was in pain. "He said, 'I can't even shut my eyes,'" his mother says, recalling one of his calls home that month. "He said, 'I killed 213 people, Mom.' He said, 'I can't live like this.' He said, 'Everything I worked for is down the drain,' and he was crying like a baby." While the officers waited for his fiancée to open the door, Jenkins shot himself in the right temple.

In the wake of Jenkins's suicide, the Marine Corps attempted to deny death benefits to his mother by claiming he'd died a deserter; but in a report based on that eligibility investigation, Thomas Ferguson, a special agent from the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, described the young man as a "salvageable marine" whose untreated PTSD had led to his suicide.

go here for the rest

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/020208Z.shtml

The motto "leave no man behind" didn't hold true for Jenkins and a lot of other Marines. The leadership in the Marines needed to take the lead on watching out for them when they returned from combat and needed help. Marines like Jenkins were left behind to wage their own battle against the enemy they brought home with them. They didn't fight alone in Iraq or in Afghanistan, but they were left alone to fight in the USA.

Presidential Candidates: Stop telling us what to value when you don't value us.

Presidential Candidates: Stop telling us what to value when you don't value us.


In 2006 did you value the soldiers or their families when this came out?

Repeat Iraq Tours Raise Risk of PTSD, Army Finds

By Ann Scott Tyson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, December 20, 2006; Page A19

U.S. soldiers serving repeated Iraq deployments are 50 percent more likely than those with one tour to suffer from acute combat stress, raising their risk of post-traumatic stress disorder, according to the Army's first survey exploring how today's multiple war-zone rotations affect soldiers' mental health.

More than 650,000 soldiers have deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan since 2001 -- including more than 170,000 now in the Army who have served multiple tours -- so the survey's finding of increased risk from repeated exposure to combat has potentially widespread implications for the all-volunteer force. Earlier Army studies have shown that up to 30 percent of troops deployed to Iraq suffer from depression, anxiety or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), with the latter accounting for about 10 percent.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/
article/2006/12/19/AR2006121901659.html

Did you value the troops who had already developed PTSD and were forced to go back into combat when these came out?

NAMI honors
Investigative Reporting:

The Hartford Courant, Lisa Chedekel and Matthew Kauffman


Four-part series on soldiers being sent to front-lines taking psychiatric medication without counseling or monitoring and troops diagnosed with PTSD being sent back into combat. Finalist for 2007 Pulitzer Prize.

“Jeffrey Was Really Messed Up” (May 14, 2006)
“Mentally Unfit, Forced to Fight” (May 14, 2006)
“Slipping Through the System” (May 15, 2006)
“Still Suffering, But Redeployed” (May 17, 2006)

http://www.nami.org/Template.cfm?
Section=Top_Story&Template=/ContentManagement/
ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=47626

When the claims began to get so out of control they reached over 600,000 deep, did you value the men and women putting in those claims for wounds they suffered? For every claim filed there is a human who was willing to lay down their lives for this nation but by the grace of God they returned home to what they thought would be a grateful nation. Grateful enough to take care of them because they were wounded. Grateful enough that they would make sure they didn't have to suffer for the rest of their lives financially because they were wounded.

When PTSD soldiers were being discharged under "personality disorders" which would mean they had a condition before they entered into the military but the tests never showed any signs when they enlisted and their families never saw any problems, did you value them then?

When they were committing suicide because of PTSD or stress back home, did you value their lives enough to make sure you did everything possible to save the lives of the rest of them? No, it took the heartbreaking stories of families left behind to do that. It also took the outrage of the American people before anything was done.

When National Guardsmen and Reservists returned to find their jobs gone and their business closed, did you value them and their families enough to take action and stop redeploying them so that they could make a living to survive?

I hear a lot of talk from some of the candidates on how we should make sure we raise our kids to know before they have a baby they should be married. I hear a lot about how abortion is so evil that it should take a congressional act to stop it. Yet how many hearings and speeches were given on the fact so many women were suffering after being raped by other soldiers or gang raped?


I hear a lot of talk about how it should be a value issue regarding the rights gay people are seeking. Yet no one was talking about them being kicked out of the military because they were gay even though they were needed to translate and even though they were great at their jobs.

Congress spent years on hearings about steroid abuse by sports players but spent no time on how veterans were seeking relief for their flashbacks and nightmares with self-medicating using drugs and alcohol. There were no hearings on homeless veterans or on their suicides. That is up until the last two years.

When the VA was under-funded and Nicholson was returning funds unused, did you take emergency action to fix the problem and hold him accountable? When you were told about the deplorable conditions at Walter Reed, did you take it seriously enough to notice that while you were visiting there, having your picture taken with the wounded soldiers, there was an entire building in worse condition than a prison?

When the VA was so overloaded with the newer veterans seeking medical care and the older veterans were pushed back and told they had to wait longer to be seen, did you put in for emergency funding so this could be made right? No, you let them be cast aside as if they should be lucky to still be alive. PTSD veterans were pushed from having monthly appointments to waiting three months to be seen again.

When the reports came in how the veterans centers were vital for veterans with PTSD, did you make sure they were opened across the country, especially in rural areas so the veterans could get the help they needed while trapped in a mountain of claims and appeals filed for denials that should have been honored?

When families started to ask for support groups for them so they could support the veterans and understand what they were dealing with, did you make sure you refunded the programs that worked when Vietnam veterans came home?

These are the men and women and their families, the rest of the nation is told to support when it comes to the occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan. It is clear the only support required is to keep our mouths shut and support the orders given, the mission they are sent on, no matter how long it takes, no matter how many mistakes were made, no matter how much of a hardship this places on any of them. When it came to really supporting the troops and the veterans, there were excuses.

This does not even begin to address the problems the rest of the citizens of this nation face on a daily basis some of you are still totally ignoring.



Candidates, you can say whatever you want but you prove you do not value what is important. You only value what you think will get you votes you don't deserve because you don't value us.





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


"The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive veterans of early wars were treated and appreciated by our nation."

- George Washington

Antonio Pierce "He got his legs blown off...All we had to do was play a football game"

Just a heart warming story.



Wounded Veteran Brings Out Giants' Best

By DOM AMORE | Courant Staff Writer
January 31, 2008

CHANDLER, Ariz. — The playoffs hadn't begun yet, and already the Giants could see a major victory. They began filing into their hotel in Tampa on Jan. 4 and they saw Lt. Col. Greg Gadson standing to greet them.

Standing, just as Lt. Col. Gadson, who had lost both legs to a roadside bomb in Iraq, had told them he would several weeks before.

"It was shocking," said Giants linebacker Antonio Pierce. "We knew the ordeal this man was going through. He got his legs blown off, he's fighting for his life. All we had to do was play a football game. That's easy."

Gadson, a linebacker at West Point in the late 1980s, was introduced to the Giants by receivers coach Mike Sullivan, who had been his teammate at the academy. They stayed in touch on and off through the years, then Sullivan got an e-mail last April with the awful news. Gadson, who had served in the Gulf War and in Bosnia, was seriously injured by an improvised explosive device. The soldiers of the 2nd Battalion, 32nd Field Artillery, whom he had helped train, had performed courageously to save his life, but back at Walter Reed Hospital in Maryland, the infections forced doctors to amputate his legs.
click post title for the rest

Lt. Terry Dugas Hanged Himself Near Sicily

Third death in a week shakes Sigonella
By Sandra Jontz, Stars and Stripes
European edition, Friday, February 2, 2008

A third death stunned an already shaken and grieving Navy community in Sigonella this week. The Navy on Friday identified a sailor found dead late Wednesday in a small town about an hour’s drive from Naval Air Station Sigonella, Sicily.

Lt. j.g. Terry Dugas, 37, who hanged himself in a semi-populated area in the small town of Sant’Alfio, was found by base security personnel who had been searching for him, said Lt. Jon Groveman, a base spokesman.
go here for the rest
http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=52133

The Death of Marine Carmelo Rodriguez

I found the link to the video posted on VAWatchdog.org.

From CBS Evening News with Katie Couric, Thursday, January 31, 2008.
Length of video is 8:20.
Posted on YouTube here...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5l7BObKkb5Q

A Question Of Care: Military Malpractice?
One Marine Served His Country With Care. Was His Cancer Misdiagnosed, Leading To His Death?

ELLENVILLE, N.Y., Jan. 31, 2007
(CBS) Carmelo Rodriguez was dancing with his niece just last year. By all accounts Rodriguez, a 29-year old, loved life, his family and the Marine Corps. He was also an artist, a father, and a part-time actor. He once appeared with Katie Holmes in a scene on the TV series Dawson's Creek.

An image of Sgt. Rodriguez with his Marine buddies in Iraq in 2005 shows him as a fit, gung-ho platoon leader.

CBS News correspondent Byron Pitts met Rodriguez two months ago. That once-buff physique had been whittled down to less than 80 pounds in 18 months by stage 4 melanoma. He was surrounded by family, including his 7-year-old son holding his hand. It was Rodriguez's idea we meet.

When Sgt. Rodriguez was in Iraq, military doctors, he says, misdiagnosed his skin cancer. They called it "a wart."

Eight minutes after Pitts met Sgt. Carmelo Rodriguez, and CBS News was preparing to interview him, he died.
for more of this go here
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/01/31/eveningnews/main3776580.shtml

But he's not the only one.

Friday, January 25, 2008

VA Red Flag turned away veteran with tumor
Sick Redmond veteran says he's getting run-aroundJan 24, 2008 10:35 PM ESTVA denies 'red-flagging' means care is deniedBy Nina Mehlhaf, KTVZ.COMA Redmond veteran says he was refused medical treatment at the Bend VA Clinic, red-flagged and now can't get the treatment he needs for advanced cancer.Now he's pleading with officials to fix the system, while they say he was a disturbance.

Pill bottles in the dozens line the bedside 52-year-old Jeffery Severns sleeps in in his Redmond living room.The veteran was a combat nurse all over the world and served in Operation Desert Storm.But cancer has spread into his shoulder, tailbone, spine, ribs and gall bladder.Last spring, it was his throat that hurt him the most, so he went to the VA Clinic in Bend without an appointment and begged to be seen, but it didn't happen."Since [my vocal cords] were paralyzed, there was too much air going in and out," Severns explained Thursday. "I couldn't speak, so I would have to take in huge amounts of air to take in a few words. So they thought I was weird.

They thought because I was anxious, because I thought I was going to die, they thought I was a threat."Severns says he was red-flagged, a process the Department of Veterans Affairs uses when someone is disruptive, threatening or violent.He says the Bend clinic refused him service, so he got a ride to Portland's VA Medical Center. He says doctors there were ready to help - until they looked at his file and saw the red flag.He says he was escorted right out of the building and continues to be banned from the Bend office.It wasn't until a private doctor at a Washington hospital scanned him and found what was wrong. He had a tumor the size of his heart, wrapped around his aorta.
http://woundedtimes.blogspot.com/2008/01/va-red-flag-turned-away-veteran-with.html

Veterans Helping Hands Give Help to PTSD Veterans

Reporter: Andrew Del Greco
Local Soldiers Can Find Help For Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

Posted: Jan 31, 2008 11:37 PM EST


According to the U.S. Army, suicides among active-duty soldiers in 2007 hit the highest level since the Army began keeping track in 1980.

The president of "Veterans Helping Hands" says many of our soldiers come back home with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. He says he wants them to know they're not alone in any feelings of depression, and that there is help available.

These are numbers from the U.S. Army: In 2007, 121 soldiers took their own lives, which is an increase of about 20% over 2006. Also in 2007, about 2,100 soldiers attempted suicide. In 2002, prior to the Iraq war, that number was 350. Jerry Schmidt and others helps veterans and their widows file claims with the V.A. and get benefits and other services.

He says the soldiers' Post-Tramautic Stress Disorder stems from the horrors of warfare that many of us will never know. And there are 'new' horrors in Iraq where suicide bombs explode suddenly and kill innocent people.

Schmidt says in East Idaho, there should be more psychiatrists or pyschologists trained in military P.T.S.D., with just two doctors in Pocatello and one in Idaho Falls. But those kinds of counselors are available for our local soldiers - and veterans like Jerry are available too.
go here for the rest
http://www.kpvi.com/Global/story.asp?S=7806641

PTSD:Suicides and stress, the world is watching

Lt. Elizabeth Whiteside, attempted suicide again, but failed and is still here. Thank God!

US military suicides reach record level


Roxanne Escobales and agencies
Friday February 1, 2008
The Guardian


The suicide rate among US soldiers has reached its highest level since records began almost 30 years ago. Last year, 121 active members of the army took their own lives, up 20% on the previous year. Thirty-four of last year's deaths were in Iraq, compared with 27 in 2006.
Also on the rise are attempted suicides and self-harm. The number of US soldiers who tried but failed to kill themselves or who deliberately injured themselves rose to 2,100 in 2007, up from 500 in 2002.
go here for the rest
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,2250400,00.html

When the Washington Post reported on the suicides and the attempted suicides of US forces, the world was watching as they have since the beginning of deaths following the Vietnam War. The entire world has been watching and waiting for America to take this seriously and take action. While our healthcare as a whole is sorely lacking, our doctors, scientist and psychologists have been leading the way in many treatments. So why not this one?

While the military has been focusing on "winning" the "war" which is really two occupations producing higher and higher deaths, they fail miserably at focusing on what these two occupations are doing to the US forces they sent to risk their lives. In the silent suffering of the American military families, we also fail to see how this is all effecting them. Has anyone tracked how many divorces or suicides or suicide attempts they have made since this began?

Why "silent suffering" term is used? Because no one is paying attention to them. They are key to the survival and healing of the wounded when they come home. They are key to the families they are raising. Why are they forgotten?

When my husband came home from Vietnam, his father, a WWII veteran, told him to get over it. His mother opted to ignore it. By the time we met, he had been home for 10 years. The signs of PTSD were there to the point where my father, a Korean War veteran, said Jack had shell shock. The hunt for the invisible killer inside of him began. What I didn't know was that Jack had mild PTSD to the point where he could function enough to go to work, be sociable enough that he was willing to enter into movies and clubs, but not enough to stay. He was able to talk a lot more to me, but still had a hard time talking to others. His nightmares, flashbacks and physical symptoms left him drained but not to the point where he was unable to do things during the day. I accepted the oddities of him as "quirks" finding some of them cute. Even with all of this the day we got married 23 years ago, I married my best friend.

It was not until a secondary stressor hit that our world took a nosedive and I was suddenly married to a man I no longer knew.

This is happening all across the country today. Some come home with PTSD in a mild form and function but their family members can see the changes. They can see the times when the veteran has a flashback but if they don't know what it is, the connection between combat and the zone out are not made. They can see the odd reactions to sudden moves or noises, they can become shocked with the mood swings and wonder what they did to set it off. They notice it all but if they don't know what they are witnessing first hand, they are helpless to do anything about it.

It is damn near impossible to get them to go for help. Even knowing what I did back then it took years to get Jack to go for help. They go into a denial stage where they know there is something wrong with them but refuse to come to the conclusion they need help to get back to "normal" and seek to deal with it in their own way. They turn to self-medicating to kill off feelings they don't want to feel.

This is only the PTSD part of all of this. The families need support to go through the stress of separations and being a single parent over and over again. They have to deal with the loneliness as well as the constant worry while their spouse is deployed, risking their lives and facing death or serious wounds. This adds to the stress of the families. When the spouse, son or daughter comes home, there is a euphoria epidemic taking over the entire family. The relief that they returned covers the problems that are there. Then they enter into their own state of denial that with time, they will get over what they went through and everything will go back to normal. The family cannot see that there is nothing normal about combat.

There needs to be a nation wide emergency alert to address all the issues the soldiers face along with their families. We know the redeployments increase the risk of PTSD and increase the pressure on the families at home. We know financial problems associated with the Reservists and Guardsmen make all of this worse for them. We know that early intervention for PTSD works best. We also know that medications need to be monitored and there has to be therapy included in on addressing PTSD for it to work. We know all of this because of our researchers but we do none of it. When will this nation take the lead on this? The rest of the world is watching our troops and their families suffer. Do we really want to be considered leaders in needless suffering instead of healing?

Kathie Costos
Namguardianangel@aol.com
www.Namguardianangel.org
www.Namguardianangel.blogspot.com
www.Woundedtimes.blogspot.com
"The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive veterans of early wars were treated and appreciated by our nation." - George Washington

Homeless veterans protest FOX and O'Reilly

On MSNBC Countdown tonight, Keith Olbermann showed homeless veterans showing up from a shelter to let Bill know they were real and yes, homeless. Keith did such a fantastic job on his commentary, I almost forgot to post it. Now I can't remember the woman's name who said she delivered a petition to O'Reilly with thousands of signatures on it. Somehow I doubt O'Reilly offered them some of his pocket change which could have kept the entire group fed for about a year. I'm sure they'll be more on this tomorrow when Olbermann updates his site. You know there will be more posting on YouTube about his comment.


UPDATE here's a link

Yesterday, we organized a group of vets to deliver your 17,000-signature petition to the FOX building in NYC, and it went better than we could've ever imagined. The story was even featured on Keith Olbermann's show last night... the very same day!
Watch as the vets delivered the petition:
http://foxattacks.com/blog/27414?utm_source=rgemail

You are having a huge impact with this campaign, in just three years we have dramatically changed the public's perception of FOX. Election time is around the corner, and we all know what's going to happen at FOX.

The vets in NYC who took the lead on this were mad and ready to do something (speaking as a New Yorker, I can attest to good old-fashioned NYC disdain for truthiness). Carol Gardener, the executive director of Fitzgerald House, which provides transitional housing to homeless vets, is so passionate about taking care of these heroes that she would not be deterred. And Jonathan and Nichole worked hard and fast to get them all the support possible, from getting the petition printed to a press release to anything else they needed.
And then we get the reports from Olbermann, the Huffington Post, and the NY Daily News, with more on the way!
Watch Keith: http://bravenewfilms.org/blog/27412
Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/02/01/fox-news-oreilly-offer-_n_84404.html
New York Daily News: http://www.nydailynews.com/gossip/rush_molloy/index.html
It was a wonderful day, and now the blogs and other media are picking up the story.
Forward this email on to your friends. Show them what activism and accountability looks like -- and how you made it happen. And help keep it happening financially by becoming a subscriber: https://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/552/p/10040/donate
All the best,Robert Greenwald, Jonathan Kim, and the crew at Brave New Films.
P.S. Filmmaker Dan Lohaus made the great documentary "When I Came Home" about homeless veterans. He filmed the petition delivery, and was instrumental in making this all happen. You can learn more about the situation for homeless veterans in America by checking out his film: http:///whenicamehome.com/
You can even organize a screening for it with Brave New Theaters here: http://whenicamehome.bravenewtheaters.com
P.P.S. Here's the original FOX Attacks! "Non-Existent" Veterans:
http://foxattacks.com/vets

PTSD: I was right 25 years ago and still am

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

SAGE Publications

How do multiple deployments affect soldiers and their families?

Research published by SAGE in a special issue of Traumatology



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

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

* Battlefield ethics

* Results of efforts to prevent suicides



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

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

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

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

PTSD: Point Man Ministries showing the way

Group organizing help for veterans
By R. Eric Burdette, News Staff Reporter
Wednesday, January 30, 2008

MOUNT VERNON — Point Man Ministries is organizing a local chapter for Knox and the surrounding counties of Morrow and Coshocton to help veterans suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Veterans of the Army Reserve and the National Guard are seeing PTSD rates as high as 40 percent, said Larry Waltman, spokesman for the newly organized chapter. Typical symptoms for PTSD include anger, insecurity, alcohol or drug abuse, or an inability to adapt with job or family. Because the reserve and guard members return to a civilian life, isolated from other veterans with similar experiences, they are more prone to PTSD symptoms, said Waltman.

He said the highest rates are in returning Army reserve and Army guard combat service support units such as transportation, supply, aviation, medical and military police, among others.
go here for the rest
http://www.mountvernonnews.com/local/08/01/30/ptsd.html

Fort Sill Soldier killed outside bar

Lawton Soldier Killed At Westside Bar
Video High
The shooting happened very late Monday night outside a west Lawton club called Alabis. Lawton police say 27 year old Ira Easterling, was shot after an apparent argument. He was rushed to the hospital in Lawton, but died as he arrived. Captain Will Hines says after an exhaustive investigation a suspect has been identified."Through the investigation we have come up with a suspect. At this time, we don't have the suspect in custody."
Hines says the investigation has revealed the suspect is connected to the army base. "He has some ties to a person in the military. Whether he is a military dependent or not is really unclear at this time."
go here for the rest
http://www.kauz.com/home/ticker/15045931.html

When will they notice us falling into darkness?

When will they notice us falling into darkness?
Army suicides up as much as 20 percent
By PAULINE JELINEK, Associated Press Writer 31 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - As many as 121 Army soldiers committed suicide in 2007, a jump of some 20 percent over the year before, officials said Thursday.

The rise comes despite numerous efforts to improve the mental health of a force stressed by a longer-than-expected war in Iraq and the most deadly year yet in the now six-year-old conflict in Afghanistan.

Internal briefing papers prepared by the Army's psychiatry consultant early this month show there were 89 confirmed suicides last year and 32 deaths that are suspected suicides and still under investigation.

More than a quarter of those — about 34 — happened during deployments in Iraq, an increase from 27 in Iraq the previous year, according to the preliminary figures.

The report also shows an increase in the number of attempted suicides and self-injuries — some 2,100 in 2007 compared to less than 1,500 the previous year and less than 500 in 2002.

click post title for the rest

Pfc. Eli Mundt Baker non-combat death at Fort Huachuca

Army IDs soldier found dead in barracks
Staff report
Posted : Wednesday Jan 30, 2008 16:10:25 EST

Officials on Wednesday identified the soldier who was found dead in the Warrior Transition Unit barracks at Fort Huachuca, Ariz.
Pfc. Eli Mundt Baker, 22, of Foothill Ranch, Calif., was undergoing advanced individual training at Fort Huachuca.
On Monday morning, military police and emergency medical services responded to a 911 call from a noncommissioned officer in the barracks. Baker was pronounced dead at the scene at 9:12 a.m.
The cause of death is still under investigation.
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/01/army_huachucaupdate_080130w/

51 homeless veterans housed at Ignatia House about to be homeless again

Formerly Homeless DC Veterans About to Lose Housing



District Homeless Veteran Program Needs Emergency Assistance



WASHINGTON, Jan. 30 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Fifty-one formerly
homeless veterans who live at Ignatia House on the grounds of the Armed
Forces Retirement Home (AFRH) in Northwest Washington must find new homes
by the end of next month to make way for a $2 billion redevelopment effort
on the grounds of the current housing site. The men and women of Ignatia
House, some of whom have been living at the House for years while seeking
employment and permanent housing, receive important health care services
from the VA Medical Center which is located across the street.



"Ignatia House helps make the lives of many veterans better," said
Stephanie Buckley, Regional Director of the United States Veterans
Initiative, the national organization that developed the supportive housing
program. "Our house is a community of individuals making progress one day
at a time. We hope there is a way to keep this important program going.
After all, there is such a need in the Washington area for the services we
provide."

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Lt. Elizabeth Whiteside attempts suicide again

Soldier Suicide Attempts Skyrocket
CBS News And Washington Post: Staggering New Army Numbers Show Serious Problem
Comments 389


WASHINGTON, Jan. 30, 2008

Just one who is part of a staggering rise in suicide attempts by soldiers, Lt. Elizabeth Whiteside was admitted to the psychiatric lockdown ward at Walter Reed Army Medical center after trying to kill herself earlier this week. She had already been nearly court-marshalled for an earlier suicide attempt.

A Soldier's Cry For Help
CBS News first broke the story of the growing epidemic of suicides among army personnel last November. David Martin has one soldier's harrowing story and her struggle to get help. Share/Embed
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Suicide Epidemic Among Veterans
VA Struggles With Vets' Mental Health
(CBS) CBS News broke the story of the epidemic of suicides and attempted suicides among veterans in November. And tonight, new Army figures illustrate how serious the problem has become among active military servicemembers. It's part of an exclusive report that will appear in Thursday's Washington Post and on washingtonpost.com. CBS News national security correspondent David Martin has one soldier's harrowing story - and her struggle to get help.

Lt. Elizabeth Whiteside was admitted to the psychiatric lockdown ward at Walter Reed Army Medical center after trying to kill herself earlier this week, Martin reports. "She took two weeks worth of medicines - four different medications... and she took them all at once," her father, Tom Whiteside, said. He holds a note she left, reading in part: "I'm very disappointed with the Army." He says her suicide attempt was brought on by the stress of waiting to find out if she would be court-martialed for an earlier attempt to kill herself. "It became so distressing to my daughter, it just drove her over the edge and, um, she attempted to take her own life," Whiteside said. Lt. Whiteside is the latest in the epidemic of attempted suicides and self-injuries by soldiers.
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WHAT THE HELL ARE WE PUTTING THEM THROUGH AND WHY ARE WE PUTTING THEM THROUGH HELL AT ALL?

PTSD: From Iraq, to college, to prison

Back from Iraq with Plenty of Problems
Paul Miles returned from Iraq needing help with the death in his head. He got prison.
By Craig Malisow
Published: January 17, 2008
The patient came to Brentwood Hospital in handcuffs, escorted by Nacogdoches police. Paul Miles, 22. Something about making bombs and threatening to kill kids. He tested negative for drugs at Nacogdoches Memorial, and his parents had asked if he could be brought here to Brentwood in Shreveport.

During intake, he told the staff, "I have not had thoughts of hurting kids in years."

When he was passed on to Dr. Greg Seal, the treating psychiatrist, Miles was rambling, illogical.

"I don't want the cops to die," he told Seal. "I needed new boots."

Seal got some of the patient's basic background: Five years in the Texas Army National Guard. Spent 2005 in Iraq. No history of physical, sexual or emotional abuse. No psychiatric history reported. Currently a student at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches. Miles and a roommate lived in an off-campus apartment where, about eight hours earlier on this morning of November 20, 2006, police found gunpowder and PVC pipes. Federal agents were combing the place now. Neighbors were evacuated.
go here for the rest
http://news.myspace.com/events/houstonevents/item/14172012

Soldier Found Dead in Car

Soldier Found Dead in Car
Hayat Al-Ghamdi, Arab News

ABHA, 31 January 2008 — A 26-year-old soldier committed suicide by shooting himself while on duty last Friday. The young man in uniform was found dead in his car. His family raised the alarm that he was missing after he failed to return home after night shift. A forensic expert said the death was most likely suicide and that no one else was involved. The soldier’s family said the man might have killed himself as he had a history of drug abuse.
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Non-combat death:Dallas-area soldier dies in Germany

Jan. 30, 2008, 3:02PM
Dallas-area soldier dies in Germany


© 2008 The Associated Press


FRANKFURT, Germany — A memorial service for a U.S. soldier who died in Germany will be held this week, the U.S. Army said Wednesday.

Pfc. David W. Webb, 26, of Duncanville, Texas, was taken to the Leopoldina Hospital in Schweinfurt, Germany, Sunday morning and pronounced dead by German medical authorities, the Army said. The cause of his death was being investigated.

Webb was assigned to the 1-18th Infantry Battalion, 2nd Brigade, 1st Infantry Division in Schweinfurt.

A memorial service will be held at the Ledward Barracks Chapel in Schweinfurt on Thursday. Webb's survivors include his father and sister.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/5499478.html

Military Mom, one son on 3rd tour, other son PTSD put him in jail

These are our soldiers. Why do we forget that? The photo is of troops in Iraq not the subject of the following piece.

Self-medicating to kill off what they do not want to feel again.


From MyFox Kansas City

PTSD More of a Problem for Returning Soldiers

Last Edited: Wednesday, 30 Jan 2008, 3:57 PM CST


OLATHE, KAN. -- A military study reached a new conclusion about returning soldiers who have memory loss, irritability and trouble sleeping. The cause, more often, may be due to depression and post traumatic stress disorder than blast related concussions.

Olathe mom Cindy Goforth knows about the problem first hand. She has two sons. One who's back from Iraq, 19-year-old David, and the other who's serving his third tour there.

She said her younger son is in jail because of PTSD and she hopes the new study will help convince him he can be treated.

"The night before he come home on R and R one of his best buddies was killed and he did not handle that well. He didn't handle that one well at all," said Goforth.

That was in October. He was supposed to go back in November, but went AWOL at the airport.

"Did he ever get mental health treatment when he came home? No, of course they teach them to be Army strong. Well, they're Army strong. The only problem is these kids don't realize they've got problems," said Goforth.

Goforth said that her son's PTSD was so bad, that David was so sensitive to noise, that simply turning on a computer, a sound you probably barely notice, caused him to the hit the ground for cover.

Angry and constantly unnerved, she said David turned to drugs when he got home. A week ago, he was arrested on drug charges.

"I've told my son that if I get you out of there, you aren't coming home. You're going to the VA. Any arguments, I'll leave you there. He's like 'Mom, I'll go to the VA,' Now, I'm getting the point of what you were saying," Goforth said.
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This is why I do what I do. This is why there are over a thousand just like me doing what we do. David Goforth didn't know what was wrong with him. Maybe he took it as if he would "get over it" and go back to the way he was before. Maybe he thought that if anyone knew what was going on in his mind, they would lock him up. After all, when they don't know what PTSD is, this is what usually happens.

When they do finally understand what PTSD is and that is a normal reaction to all they went through in the abnormal world of combat and carnage, they seek help but end up in a pile of claims 650,000 deep with 147,000 more on appeal. These are wounded veterans being tortured by the system unable, unprepared thanks to Nicholson and the Bush Administration not valuing the men and women they sent to risk their lives.

VA urged to use advanced technology to cut backlog of benefit claimsBy Bob Brewin bbrewin@govexec.com January 30, 2008
Advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence could help the Veterans Affairs Department reduce a backlog of disability claims that has spiked past 1 million, according to computer experts and veterans advocates.

The Veterans Benefits Administration, which processes the claims, has a backlog of 650,000 pending claims and another 147,000 that are under appeal and working their way through a process that "is paper intensive, complex to understand, difficult to manage and takes years to learn," Rep. John Hall, D-N.Y., chairman of the Veterans Affairs Subcommittee on Disability and Memorial Affairs, said at a Jan. 29 hearing of the House Veterans Affairs Committee.

Training an employee to rate VBA claims can take two to three years and many leave within five years, Hall said. Experienced raters can adjudicate only about three claims a day, spending two to three hours on each claim. He said the VA should consider the use of artificial intelligence technologies, such as automated decision-support tools that can determine disability payments, which would speed up claims processing.

Computer experts who testified at the hearing said technology exists today that can automate the claims process and eliminate the backlog.

VBA repeatedly loses paper records submitted by claimants. Robin Cleveland, wife of retired Marine Gunnery Sgt. Tai Cleveland, told the hearing that since November 2005, she has submitted multiple copies of Tai's medical record and was told that the VBA could not find the records and she needed to resubmit them. She said her husband, a paraplegic after injuries incurred in August 2003 during a hand-to-hand training exercise in Kuwait, only started to receive benefit payments this month after Congress intervened.

http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0108/013008bb1.htm

Years ago, when veterans came to me to understand PTSD, I would explain it to them and their families, get the idea of it having anything to do with them out of their mind, support them until they were ready to go for help and then send them to it. Now I have no place to send them. This is especially hard for veterans in rural areas of the country. Help is often too far away. The suicide prevention lines are helping. The veteran can reach out in the middle of the night to talk to someone but unless they get into treatment with an approved claim, they find themselves either being billed for their treatment or being pushed back so that veterans with approved claims can be seen.

Between the time they come back and understand what PTSD is, vital time is lost. The sooner they begin treatment PTSD stops getting worse. It's like an infection that spreads untreated. The system is adding stress to them on a daily basis as they have to wait to have their claims approved. It's like a knife in their back when their claim is denied and they have to file an appeal.

With the changes in the new VA Bill providing five years of free care to returning forces, this will help in having them treated without charging them but it does not address the income stress they and their families face when most of the time, they are unable to work in the condition PTSD puts them in.

650,000 backlogged claims and 147,000 on appeal means they are just one of 797,000 veterans suffering for their service to this country and countless family members suffering right along with them.

Kathie Costos
Namguardianangel@aol.com
http://www.namguardianangel.org/
http://www.namguardianangel.blogspot.com/
http://www.woundedtimes.blogspot.com/
"The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive veterans of early wars were treated and appreciated by our nation." - George Washington

UK another murder on mentally handicapped innocent

Deborah Orr: We must protect disabled people against this wave of barbaric and hateful crimes
He died in his mother's arms, so badly beaten that his uncle did not at first recognise his face

Wednesday, 30 January 2008


Brent Martin's story should, and could, have been a story of quiet success. The 23-year-old had struggled in his short life with his learning difficulties, and those struggles more than once had become so serious that he had been compelled to spend long periods in psychiatric hospitals. Even a generation ago, such a history might have condemned a young man to an institutionalised life. But we are more enlightened now, in theory at least.


Martin, released in spring of last year into the care of his family, was recognised as a man who was quite capable of living independently, supporting himself through work, paying his taxes, living and loving like the equal member of a civilised society that he was, or should have been. In August last year, he was winning. He was about to start a new job as a landscape gardener, about to move into a flat and live on his own for the first time, and enjoying the time that he spent with his girlfriend.

Then, on 23 August, he was chased for a mile and a half through two estates in Sunderland. Repeatedly, he was set upon by 21-year-old William Hughes, and two boys of 16 and 17. Between them – they had trained as boxers – they bet £5 that one of them could knock him out with their fists. Their attacks got more frenzied until they started kicking Brent, and stamping on him. They removed his lower clothing, at the end, and took photographs of their bloodied selves to mark the occasion.

Brent died in his mother's arms of a massive head injury. He had been so badly beaten that his uncle did not at first recognise his face. Hughes and the 16-year-old admitted murder, while the 17-year-old was found guilty of murder at Newcastle Crown Court last week, after telling witnesses that "he was not going down for a muppet". All three have been warned that they face mandatory life imprisonment, when sentencing takes place next month.




Practical counter-measures are needed when such additional stresses are being perpetrated against already vulnerable people in such a widespread manner. The advances that have been made towards the full participation of disabled people in everyday life are still fragile, and they need to be defended. A concentrated effort to reduce the barbaric lack of stigma around such a cowardly form of criminality is absolutely essential.

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It doesn't matter what country you live in because it happens here too. Remember the homeless people killed here in Orlando and other parts of the country. Why do they do it?