Sgt. Brian Rand worth training but not worth saving

Since the start of the Iraq war, Fort Campbell, a sprawling installation on the Kentucky-Tennessee border, has seen a spike in the number of suicides and soldiers suffering from severe post traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD. Sgt. Brian Rand, shown here grilling chicken in Iraq, killed himself a few months after being discharged from his second tour of duty in Iraq. Rand believe he was being haunted by the ghost of the Iraqi man he killed.

Memories of Iraq haunted soldier until suicide
By HALIMAH ABDULLAH
McClatchy Newspapers

Until the day he died, Sgt. Brian Rand believed he was being haunted by the ghost of the Iraqi man he killed.

The ghost choked Rand while he slept in his bunk, forcing him to wake up gasping for air and clawing at his throat.

He whispered that Rand was a vampire and looked on as the soldier stabbed another member of Fort Campbell's 96th Aviation Support Battalion in the neck with a fork in the mess hall.

Eventually, the ghost told Rand he needed to kill himself.

According to family members and police reports, on Feb. 20, 2007, just a few months after being discharged from his second tour of duty in Iraq, Rand smoked half of a cigarette as he wrote a suicide note, grabbed a gun and went to the Cumberland River Center Pavilion in Clarksville, Tenn. As the predawn dark pressed in, he breathed in the wintry air and stared out at the park where he and his wife, Dena, had married.

Then he placed the gun to his head and silenced his inner ghosts.

"My brother was afraid to ask for help," said April Somdahl. "And when he finally did ask for help the military let him down."

Since the start of the Iraq war, Fort Campbell, a sprawling installation on the Kentucky-Tennessee border, has seen a spike in the number of suicides and soldiers suffering from severe post traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD.

In 2007, nine soldiers from Fort Campbell committed suicide - three during the first few weeks of October, according to a letter sent to base personnel by the 101st Airborne Division's commander, Maj. Gen. Jeffrey Schloesser.

"As our soldiers fight terrorism, the sacrifices asked of them and their families have increased significantly," Schloesser said in the letter. "... Regrettably, under such circumstances, it is natural for our people to feel the stress of these demands and to be overwhelmed at times. Tragically, these pressures too often end in suicide."

Fort Campbell spokeswoman Cathy Gramling said post officials were unable to track the suicides referred to in the letter and declined to give additional suicide figures. The Pentagon said it does not track suicides by military installation.
go here for more
http://www.kansascity.com/440/story/635463.html

It costs a lot of money to get a soldier and even more to train them.

The military spends a fortune on recruitment advertising but relatively little on retention of trained soldiers. Substantially more money needs to be shifted from recruitment to retention. The reasoning: it can cost as much as $250,000 to properly train a soldier for a skilled assignment -- only to have them leave after one term of service.
http://www.politics1.com/jcoc.htm

It costs even more to outfit them.

It Ain't Cheap to Outfit a Soldier
Modern soldiers, with their night-vision goggles and high-tech vests, are starting to look more and more like they might have dropped out of a popular video game. But it's a pretty expensive one:

It now costs 100 times more to outfit a soldier than it did during World War II. Back then, it cost $170, even adjusted for inflation. These days, The Associated Press reports, it costs $17,000 and could reach $28,000 or even $60,000 by 2015.

In the 1940s, a GI went to war with little more than a uniform, weapon, helmet, bedroll and canteen. He carried some 35 pounds of gear that cost $170 in 2006 inflation-adjusted dollars, according to Army figures. That rose to about $1,100 by the 1970s as the military added a flak vest, new weapons and other equipment during the Vietnam War.

Today, troops in Iraq and Afghanistan are outfitted with advanced armor and other protection, including high-tech vests, anti-ballistic eyewear, earplugs and fire-retardant gloves. Night-vision eyewear, thermal weapons sights and other gear makes them more deadly to the adversary.


These days, soldiers are responsible for more than 80 items, weighing a total of 75 pounds. And in the future, their gear could include "a weapon that can shoot around corners so soldiers don't have to expose themselves to their enemy and a helmet-mounted 1.5-inch computer screen showing maps of the battlefield."

All this new technology stands to increase the pressure on the military to retain well-trained personnel because of the cost to train and equip new ones.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/news/2007/10/it_aint_cheap_to_outfit_a_sold.html

When it comes to the price tag on getting them ready for combat, it seems as if the sky is the limit. So where is the money when they are done doing the risking of life? Why are they no longer of value? Sgt. Brian Rand was still the same person the military trained, spent a lot of money on and depended on. He was still the same person who left his family and friends to serve the nation and still the same person they loved. Why is it that when they come back home, no one seems to take what happens seriously enough in the chain of command? Is it because they were willing to risk their lives that the military has taken this long to care what happens to them and felt their deaths by their own hands was no great loss? Aside from the moral question, we have the financial one. Sgt. Rand, along with all the others who took their own lives because of being wounded, have to be replaced. You would think it would be in the financial interest of the military to take care of them and get them help as soon as humanly possible in order to retain the trained and not have to replace them. Think of what kind of symbol taking care of them would provide for those who are contemplating joining the military or not. It would go a long way for them to truly believe their lives were valued. Think about it. It's too late for Sgt. Rand and all the others. But what about the next one?

Honored soldier is plagued by memories of war

Video: Honored soldier is plagued by memories of war
David Edwards
Published: Saturday May 24, 2008


He was honored by President Bush with the second-highest award in the military, but Sgt. Christopher Corriveau does not feel like a hero.

CBS' David Martin reports that after his sniper team was ambushed and outnumbered 10 to one, Corriveau fought his way out. But his two best friends did not make it..

"They were some of the best friends I've ever had," he said. "I almost wanted to die on that roof that day with my brothers."

Corriveau's unit returns to Iraq this fall, but he will be staying in the US to attend college.

This video is from CBS's Evening News, broadcast May 22, 2008.
go here for video
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/CBS_Honored_soldier_plagued_by_memories_0524.html

My friend Jen

My friend Jen passed away between last night and early this morning. Her husband called to tell me a little while ago. Over the last couple of days, it's been very difficult to concentrate on much more than her. Before I go on, please offer a prayer for her family. Jen, well she needs no more prayers because she has returned to where love began. She no longer has to feel cancer trying to take over her life and no longer has to battle for the next breath.

If you ever read AOL Political Conundrum you would have read a lot of what Jen did. She posted there and on a couple of other message boards for a long time. She was a powerhouse! There was not much she didn't know about the government or what was going on in this country. She posted as FloridaBeachBum.

After 9-11, I was fully invested in PTSD and what we were headed for when it came to it in our new veterans that would come. Jen was already up on all the questions that should have been asked but never were by anyone who would have made the answers matter. Both of us ended up focusing on the 2004 election and the rest of what was going on, but it was the way we started that proved what a intelligent woman she was along with a loving one.

Jen had emailed me a very, very long post about 9-11 too soon for us to know each other well enough. I emailed her back and told her that I couldn't use any of it because I had to deal with facts, not speculation. (She should have smacked me) Jen turned around and spent hours upon hours finding what she thought I needed to read and then she opened my eyes to things I didn't want to see, things I didn't want to know or even think were possible. She's probably the reason why it finally dawned on me that either this nation had such a massive failure of all our defense systems, all at the same time, the same day we needed them, or someone made them fail.

Anyway, setting that aside, Jen and I got very close after that. She managed to do the same to people who agreed with her on the PC board as well as people who did not agree with her. No one ignored Jen, that's for sure and she earned their respect.

When she was first diagnosed with cancer, I drove down to Stuart to see her in the hospital. We hadn't met yet. I walked into the hospital room and as soon as I did it was as if she just saw a movie star show up at her doorway. Her face lit up. Believe me, I'm not that big of a deal. When I returned home, I posted on the PC board to let people know what was going on and within a couple of hours, there were a lot of messages from people praying for her, even the people she argued with. Two thought it was inappropriate that I posted "such personal information" on the board, but considering I was doing what Jen asked me to do, I basically told the two people where to go and how to arrive there swiftly.

Time never allows me to go in there anymore. It's too hard to post anything there and then go back over and over again to reply to replies. It just never ends. I do miss most of the people in that group and Jen was responsible for brining a lot of the people there together.

The arrangements have not been made yet. Her parents have to come from California. I don't know when I will have to go back to Stuart. Traveling down there the other day and back took 5 hours, so whenever the day is, I won't post that day or very little if at all. Now think of this. Jen meant a lot to me and to all the people she came into contact with on line. Naturally she meant a lot to her family. Think of all the lives this woman touched. Jen's life ended because of cancer. It ended because she didn't have health insurance and didn't go for check ups until she had problems. We need to do something so that the next time someone like Jen comes into this world with the ability to bring people together, make them think and encourage them to do something about it, we do not let them go through life without the medical care that could save their lives.

We need to make sure that all our troops coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as the veterans already here, do not come back to a system designed to help them heal, end up being the reason they die.

This world is filled with too many selfish people who see nothing wrong with making more and more money while other people have to suffer for it. We cannot afford to loose more like Jen so early in life. She had too much more to give. Gifts we will never have because she is no longer here.

Financial reality of ignoring PTSD

American Psychiatric Foundation, Lilly Foundation And Give An Hour Join Forces To Provide Mental Health Care To Iraq And Afghanistan Veterans

Heeding the call of a growing public health crisis -- the unmet mental health needs of returning soldiers and their families -- Give an Hour (GAH) and the American Psychiatric Foundation (APF) announced a major expansion of a nationwide effort to help U.S. veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.

GAH and APF, the philanthropic and educational arm of the American Psychiatric Association (APA), will be using a $1 million grant from the Lilly Foundation to recruit and educate volunteer mental health professionals, who will become part of a network aiming to bridge the gap in mental health services for soldiers returning from service, as well as their families. Among troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, approximately 40 percent of soldiers, a third of Marines, and half of the National Guard members report psychological problems, but mental health services are in short supply.

Details of today's announcement were made public by the three organizations at the Reserve Officers Association (ROA) building on Capitol Hill -- one week prior to the nation's Memorial Day holiday. The ROA represents the interest of the soldiers of the Army National Guard, who suffer high rates of post-combat psychological problems, exacerbated by repeat deployments, detailed front-line combat positions and little access to the services of military treatment facilities.

"This all-volunteer effort provides badly needed support to help our veterans, many of whom come home with mental health needs," said U.S. Representative Steve Buyer (R-Indiana), Ranking Member, House Committee on Veterans' Affairs. "I applaud the hard work of Give an Hour, the American Psychiatric Foundation, and the Lilly Foundation, which are stepping up to help those who have selflessly served."

Efforts will be made to create a large, national, volunteer network over the next three years to address postwar mental health issues such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), traumatic brain injury (TBI), drug abuse, anxiety and depression.

"This grant will allow us to get out the message that help is available. We want to normalize what our military personnel and their families are experiencing and support the sacrifices that they are making by providing critical mental health support at no cost," said Barbara V. Romberg, Ph.D., founder and president of GAH. "We will be educating the military community and broader public about these mental health needs in hope of helping veterans keep their lives and families intact."
go here for more
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/108689.php

Aside from the emotional costs when families fall apart, this is a glimpse of what it costs the nation.

April 15, 2008
Study: Single parents cost taxpayers $112 billion
Story Highlights
New study says divorce, unwed childbearing cost taxpayers

Says $112 billion spent on welfare, healthcare, criminal justice

Study sponsors want more funding for strengthening marriages
http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/personal/04/15/fragmented.families.ap/index.html

We cannot save all marriages and some marriages should not be saved. Yet this is not about the rest of the nation. This is about families trying to cope with Post Traumatic Stress. There are too many who have no idea what PTSD is, what the cause of the changes in their family life comes from or why someone they loved suddenly turned into a stranger.

It is nearly impossible to hold a family together when we know what PTSD is and why everything is falling apart, yet when we do not know the cause of it, the veteran is blamed for all of it. Families fall apart, but it does not stop there.

The veteran, still suffering from PTSD, from the wound they brought home with them, is suffering alone because his/her family could not deal with the way they acted any longer. Jobs are very hard to keep when there is no support and they lost their home life. The financial burden on them to support themselves along with child support and financial obligations to their family, adds stress to a veteran trying to survive.

Yet when they know what PTSD is, what is causing the upheaval in the home, the changes in the person they love, they are armed to fight it all. They are given the tools to cope until they get the treatment they desperately need. When anyone says that the price is too high, they should have considered this when the war was planned out. When they say it costs too much money to take care of all the veterans with PTSD, they better reconsider anything they knew about accounting because the money they spend now, early on, is a lot less than they will have to pay for years to come by doing nothing.

Give An Hour volunteers are giving up a lot of money for the time they donate. They understand that failing to act will cost lives, marriages and futures for far too many.

What are you doing?

Vets taking PTSD drugs die in sleep

May 24, 2008
Vets taking PTSD drugs die in sleep
Hurricane man's death the 4th in West Virginia
By Julie Robinson
Staff writer
By Julie Robinson

jul...@wvgazette.com

A Putnam County veteran who was taking medication prescribed for post-traumatic stress disorder died in his sleep earlier this month, in circumstances similar to the deaths of three other area veterans earlier this year.

Derek Johnson, 22, of Hurricane, served in the infantry in the Middle East in 2005, where he was wounded in combat and diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder while hospitalized.

Military doctors prescribed Paxil, Klonopin and Seroquel for Johnson, the same combination taken by veterans Andrew White, 23, of Cross Lanes; Eric Layne, 29, of Kanawha City; and Nicholas Endicott of Logan County. All were in apparently good physical health when they died in their sleep.

Johnson was taking Klonopin and Seroquel, as prescribed, at the time of his death, said his grandmother, Georgeann Underwood of Hurricane. Both drugs are frequently used in combination to treat post-traumatic stress disorder. Klonopin causes excessive drowsiness in some patients.
go here for more
http://wvgazette.com/News/200805230640

linked from
http://www.paxilprogress.org/forums/showthread.php?t=36129

Personal note on life

Yesterday and today, I haven't been posting much. To tell you the truth it's been very hard to concentrate.

I woke up yesterday planing on finally tackling repainting my office at the house. A few hours later, I received a phone call from one of the daughters of a very close friend. She's been battling cancer for a few years now. It spread into many parts of her body. Jen's daughter told me they were taking her to a hospice because she was not doing well at all and couldn't breathe. I went on painting assured they would keep me informed and planned on heading out to Stuart Florida today to spend some time with Jen and her family. The phone rang again and Jen's daughter told me that she may not make it through the night. I drove down there last night.

Jen is surrounded by her daughters, her son-in-law and her husband. She is in and out of sleep and pain. They have her medicated and are watching over her. The people who work in a hospice are angel sent, that is for sure. To be able to comfort people finishing this part of their journey here, is something very rare. I've seen their compassion many times before.

Today, I half heartedly finished painting. My attention span was not into it. Then my sister-in-law called and told me my brother back in Massachusetts is in the hospital because he had a small stroke. He should be fine. It's just impossible to concentrate on reading everything about PTSD at this moment. I tried to read and pay attention to what I'm reading but it just isn't working.

Please keep Jen in your prayers and my brother. It's a rough time for everyone. I should be posting again more tomorrow, God willing.

Marines:5 deaths in 8 days Pendleton and Twentynine Palms

5 in 8 days worsen 1st MEF's bad year
By Rick Rogers
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

May 23, 2008

CAMP PENDLETON – Three servicemen from Camp Pendleton and two from Twentynine Palms have died in the past eight days, and the confirmed or probable causes are homicide, suicide and traffic accidents.

None of the Marine officials interviewed for this story could remember a worse week in terms of noncombat losses.

Camp Pendleton is home to the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, commonly called the 1st MEF, which includes troops at Twentynine Palms and Miramar Marine Corps Air Station.

At least 13 Marines from the 1st MEF – most of them stationed at Camp Pendleton – have died this year. Most of the causes are believed to have been vehicle crashes, homicides and suicides, although some cases are still being investigated.

By comparison, six Camp Pendleton-based Marines have died from combat in Iraq during the same time period, according to the Defense Department.

Officials for Camp Pendleton and the 1st MEF didn't immediately provide or confirm the death toll for 2008 or past years. They also didn't say whether the recent deaths may have been linked to drug or alcohol abuse, gang activity or suicide.

They said those questions must be submitted as a Freedom of Information Act request or, in the case of gang problems, to Marine Corps headquarters at the Pentagon.

Then Camp Pendleton-based Lance Cpl. Samuel Stucky, 19, died Saturday. A day earlier, he had been found unconscious in his Camp Pendleton barracks with a gunshot wound.

Also on Saturday, Camp Pendleton-based Lance Cpl. Noah Cole, 25, died from injuries suffered in an apparent motorcycle accident. Cole, who was visiting relatives in Grand Rapids, Mich., was scheduled to deploy on his second combat tour early next month.

And again Saturday, Twentynine Palms-based Pfc. Jack Kenner, 22, died in Upland after he tried to maneuver his motorcycle between two vehicles, struck one of them and crashed.

Finally, on Tuesday, Cpl. Chad Oligschlaeger, 21, was found dead in his barracks room at Twentynine Palms. Camp Pendleton officials said the cause of death is under investigation.

go here for more

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/military/20080523-9999-1m23marines.html

Soldiers with combat experience wanted as counsellors

Soldiers with combat experience wanted as counsellors, therapists


ARGHANDAB DISTRICT, Afghanistan — Cpl. Darrell Rostek has been there and done that.

Now almost half way into his fourth overseas tour with its mad kaleidoscope of intense and sometimes bloody experiences, Rostek also knows what it's like to go home, almost lose himself and finally pull himself up by the boot straps.

He had served three times in Bosnia before coming to Afghanistan.

It's the kind of experience very few have, one that those who've been through it find tough to convey, especially to someone who hasn't been there.

The Defence Department is planning a pilot program to encourage soldiers who have done to tours abroad to take up mental-health counselling.

Rostek, who expects to do one more six-month tour of Afghanistan in 2009, says he's very interested in pursuing the opportunity as a way to give back to the guys and gals who have watched his back, literally and figuratively.

"I want to get into counselling because it's someone who's roughly my own age group and they can see I've been there," he said in a recent interview at an undisclosed forward operating base.

"We can talk about things we may have done, things we may have seen ... we've got some common ground with what we've done. We've shared the same Earth."

Rostek, a Winnipeg native, freely admits he had a problem with drinking after serving in Bosnia - something he has now licked.

The Canadian military has poured more resources and emphasis into mental health programs and counselling since the Afghan war became more intense two years ago.

Over the next couple years, $98 million has been set aside to improve post-traumatic stress care for soldiers returning from the battlefield, including hiring more psychiatrists and social workers.

An additional $9 million is going into opening more operational stress injury clinics across the country.

Auditor General Sheila Fraser issued a stern rebuke last year to the Department of National Defence over the way it has handled mental-health programs, especially the practice of out-sourcing care to civilian centres.

The military's surgeon-general and chief of personnel expressed frustration to a House of Commons committee last winter, saying one of the biggest impediments is actually getting soldiers to come forward and talk about their experiences.

Rostek says he know why.

He says some of the civilian counsellors and even military ones back in Canada have never done overseas tours.

Rostek acknowledges he's generalizing, but he says many of the social workers to whom soldiers are expected to pour out their hearts are women in the late 40s or 50s.

"It's more like looking at Mom, talking about your problems," said Rostek, 34, a rifleman in 7 Platoon, Charlie Company, 2nd Battalion, Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry.

If soldiers were doing the counselling instead, he said, they would not be regarded as just a stranger.

The opportunity to move into counselling involves four years of schooling and a degree, paid for by the military, followed by a four-year period as a uniformed counsellor.

Rostek says one downside is that he would be promoted to an officer - something he believes could potentially put some distance between him and ordinary soldiers.

The army has given soldiers in each unit limited training to help them spot post traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, among their buddies. If someone is showing signs, it's the job of these individuals to encourage their friends to seek help.

Early intervention is seen as the key to battling PTSD.

A Veterans Affairs Canada report noted that the number of former soldiers suffering from post-traumatic stress has more than tripled since Canada first deployed troops to Afghanistan.

The Commons defence committee is studying post traumatic stress treatment in the military.
click post title for link

PTSD, How Many Are Worthy Of The Grave?

Monday is Memorial Day. The day we honor the men and women who sacrificed their lives for this nation, what this nation asked them to do. Some went willingly, some were drafted, but when they stood side by side, all of them were in it for each other. They were their "brother's keeper" watching out for their friends. Some sacrificed their lives in order to save the life of someone else. We honor them because they gave their lives but we do not honor all of them.

After Vietnam, there were an additional 200,000, by the last attempt to count them, who died as a result of their wounds. These men an women suffered a horrible death and they suffered in silence. Everything they were slipped away. All their hopes and dreams faded, replaced by vengeful ghosts. The sights, sounds and smells they were surrounded by in combat, refused to die the day they faced death eye to eye. The battle they waged, was not fought with their brothers by their side. They were fought alone, too afraid to speak. Too stunned to scream for help. Too drained to fight to stay alive.

We speak of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder today, but when they came home, no one would discuss it in anything above whispering "There is something wrong with him." They became someone to stay away from instead of someone to reach out to. Had they been wounded by a visible wound, they would have received compassion and pity, but this wound could not be seen by a stranger. It was seen by those who loved the stranger who returned home in place of the man who left.

These men and women received no honor of a medal for the wound they would carry for the rest of their lives. A wound so deeply imbedded within them that they could not heal on their own and did not know where to go for help. Their bodies paid the price with illnesses caused by the constant stress of endless nights dreaming of death and destruction vividly resurrected. The days of flashbacks arising without warning. Their hearts suffered from the constant adrenaline rush. Their digestive system began to break down. Nerves jumped out of control. Muscles weakened. Livers were damaged by the self medication of choice, alcohol, so they could kill off the feelings they could no longer fight. Yet this wound was not done with the wounded. It sought to inflict the entire family. Families of these men and women also suffered from the constant trauma of daily living with them. The stress took such a strong hold that wives and children were constantly on edge. Without help, they wanted to get rid of the problem, the stranger in their home they could not control and could not depend on.

Thirty years ago, there was an excuse to not know what PTSD was. There is no excuse today. There is too much information, too many research documents, too many experts, to be able to dismiss or diminish this devastating wound.

When you go to the monuments for the war dead, understand that there are ghosts within the lines between the names. Men and women who died because of service to this nation, wounded by their service and died a lonely death by taking their own lives unable to fight off the enemy any longer.

There is a serious question being discussed all over the nation. The awarding of the Purple Heart for this wound. Arguments arise because some cannot see it as a wound, yet when you discover the word trauma means wound in Greek, there is no question what the cause was. Some want to see PTSD as a wound of a lesser degree of worthiness, when they can never be cured of this, when the scar cuts so deeply they will never be free of it, but can only be helped to live with it. Bullet wounds, can be sewn up, but PTSD can not be so easily treated. PTSD if anything, is a wound to a greater degree. A Purple Heart for the loss of a limb, is the same medal they award for a bullet wound, yet no one will diminish a tiny scar left behind when the bullet is removed. Yet with PTSD they diminish the scar that penetrated all the muscles, all the parts of the body and every part of the wounded's life.

The wounded by PTSD who could no longer fight, took their own lives because of the battles they were sent to fight in Vietnam, in Kuwait, in Korea, in the nations of WWII and WWI and all the way back to the beginning of this nation. Those who carry it within them are still regarded as "there is something wrong with them" instead of finally understanding there is something wrong with all of us that the wounded are not treated as wounded, but left to fight their own battles here at home. It's time we got this right for the sake of the living or next Memorial Day, there will be too many more who will also go unnoticed among the sea of headstones at your local cemetery. We need to ask how many of the over 1,000 a month trying to end their lives because of PTSD are worthy of the grave? Were those who ended their lives any less worthy of the honor we give to others on Monday? Do you really want to add more than the enemy did during combat?



Senior Chaplain Kathie Costos

International Fellowship of Chaplains

Namguardianangel@aol.com

www.Namguardianangel.org

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

McCain's YouTube Problem Just Became a Nightmare

McCain's YouTube Problem Just Became a Nightmare

Description from robertgreenwald:
There's no question John McCain is getting a free ride from the mainstream press. But with the power of YouTube and the blogosphere, we can provide an accurate portrayal of the so-called Maverick. We can put the brakes on his free ride!
Since we first released The Real McCain a year ago, our REAL McCain series has garnered close to 2 million views, with over 13,000 comments and tens of thousands more in petition signatures! Clearly, John McCain's record is something the public wants to discuss, and yet the corporate media is doing NOTHING to present the truth. We feel obliged to continue countering the mainstream media's love of McCain. And so we thought it was high time for a sequel: The Real McCain 2.
We're doing everything to get the facts out there about McCain. Join us in making a concerted effort to tell the story that corporate media refuses to tell. E-mail this video to all of your friends and family membe! rs, news blogs and other local media outlets. And don't forget to Digg it!
According to Cliff Schecter, author of

The Real McCain: Why Conservatives Don't Trust Him And Why Independents Shouldn't:

"It is dangerous for a democracy when a presidential candidate can lie with impunity, change positions on a whim, and physically and verbally threaten others and virtually none of it is reported by a besotted media eagerly awaiting the next moment when he might slap their backs in friendship."
The mainstream press may not do their job, but we can surely do ours. It is crucial that we alert the public to the REAL McCain, and it is crucial we act now, before it's too late.
Watch the video →
Please forward this on to other people who might like it.

Senate passes Webb GI Bill

Senate passes Webb GI Bill

By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Thursday May 22, 2008 16:17:38 EDT

The Senate voted 75-22 for a GI Bill education benefits package that defense and service officials say would hurt the military but that veterans groups say is an overdue adjustment to make the benefit more like the World War II-era GI Bill.

The House of Representatives passed the bill last week, meaning the fate of the proposal — which would pay full tuition at a four-year public college or university plus living expenses and a book allowance — rests on whether President Bush vetoes the measure, as Pentagon officials have recommended and White House officials have threatened.

Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., chief sponsor of the bill, said he hoped the president would listen to veterans groups and sign it, which he said would be a boost to recruiting and a reward for those who have served in the military since the 2001 terrorist attacks.

The main Pentagon objection, and there are several, is that the benefits package does not include an administration proposal that would blunt the draw of leaving the service to use GI Bill benefits by giving those who stay for six years or longer the option of transferring benefits to a spouse or children.

The benefits package, called the 21st Century GI Bill of Rights, is attached to a wartime supplemental funding bill that has been loaded with billions of dollars for nondefense proposals, including extended unemployment compensation, aid for farmers and highway construction funds — which gives President Bush a variety of reasons to veto the bill even though defense officials are begging for money for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
go here for more
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/05/military_gibill_passescongress_052208w/

Montana National Guard, Picking Up The Pieces

Picking up the Pieces (PDHRA)

This is the link to the video the Montana National Guard is showing. I've been posting about it for a couple of days now and it is very important that it not only be seen, but duplicated across the country.

Guard stresses PTSD symptoms at meetings
By ERIC NEWHOUSE • Tribune Projects Editor • May 21, 2008

LEWISTOWN — Montana's National Guard expanded its PTSD outreach efforts this week, hosting a series of 20 public meetings in armories across the state.


As part of its effort to familiarize the public — and veterans in particular — with post-traumatic stress disorder, it played a video produced at Fort Harrison entitled "Picking Up the Pieces." That had Tiffany Kolar wiping her eyes.

"It raised a lot of questions for me," Kolar said after Monday night's meeting. "I have a brother who served with the Idaho National Guard and who later committed suicide. Now I'm learning a lot about what must have been happening."

Kolar's husband is currently serving his second tour of duty in Iraq, and she and her mother-in-law need to understand the danger signs, she said.

"There were some things we didn't recognize the last time he came home, so we want to be better informed this time," said Darlene Kolar, his mother.

Only a handful of people showed up for the meeting here, but the Guard's personnel officer, Col. Jeff Ireland, said he was happy for any attention.

"If these meeting are able to help even one person, for all the time and effort we've expended, it's been worth it," Ireland said.

The Guard has sent out personal invitations and videos to 2,000 behavioral health care specialists in Montana, as well as to all the veterans' organizations, he said. Next on the list is a mass mailing to all ministers and religious leaders in the state, he added.

The meetings are the result of the suicide of Spec. Chris Dana of Helena, who shot himself in March 2007 after returning from combat with the 163rd Infantry. He was not able to handle weekend guard drills, and was given a less-than-honorable discharge as a result.

As a direct result, Ireland said, Montana is now providing longer mental health assessments after return from combat, strengthening its family support units, creating crisis readiness teams to investigate abnormal behavior, requiring a personal investigation by the adjutant general before any soldier is discharged less than honorably, and producing and promoting its own video. go here for more

http://www.greatfallstribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080521/NEWS01/805210309

The video interviews hit all the points. Getting the clergy involved, how it hits the members of the family trying to understand and be supportive, what goes on inside of the veteran, how it's not their fault. The beginning of the video, I have to say I was no impressed. The graphics moved too fast and blurred when on full screen but as soon as the interviews began, I knew they hit the mark. Get passed the beginning and pay attention to the value in the interviews. It's a shame more people did not attend this.

VA message to older vets "If you flip out call 911" not them

VA Capacity Crisis Hits California - Older Veterans Feel Forced Out of Counseling by Newer Veterans

Mark Muckenfuss


Press - Enterprise (California)

May 21, 2008
May 20, 2008 - A group of older military veterans in the Inland region says the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is pushing it out of counseling programs to make room for an expected influx of Afghanistan and Iraq war veterans.

Albert Cruz, 59, of Hesperia, said officials at the Victorville Veterans Center told him and other members of a post-traumatic stress disorder therapy group that "they have to bring (the group) to an end."

Cruz, a veteran of Vietnam and Desert Storm, and his colleagues are convinced that their government is abandoning them.

"It's like a slap in the face," he said.

When he asked the veterans officials what he should do about treatment, he said, "They said, 'Well, if you flip out again, call 911.' "

Lois Krawczik, a psychologist who oversees post-traumatic stress programs for the VA Medical Center in Loma Linda, said Cruz is mistaken. She said the VA has no plans to eliminate programs at the Victorville clinic. In fact, the clinic is expanding, she said.

"There may be some changes," Krawczik said, but "we're not discontinuing or cutting back services."

Budget figures provided by the Loma Linda medical center show that funding earmarked for mental health has increased dramatically in recent years, from $70,000 in 2004 to $3.1 million in 2007. During the same period, the number of patients seen each month for mental health went from 6,700 to 9,600.

Cruz, and others, insist they have been told they'll have to go. Whether it is a misunderstanding or not, there seems to be a pervasive suspicion among older veterans, particularly those with post-traumatic stress disorder, both locally and in other parts of the country, that the VA is interested in pushing them out.
go here for more
http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/ArticleID/10180

If this shocks you, you have not been paying attention. The new veterans, well the media is focused on them so the older veterans can just fend for themselves, like they always did before. No one ever paid attention to them while they were being denied claims, turned away from the VA, ignored when they were becoming homeless and committing suicide. Had it not been for them fighting for what little they received, none of the newer veterans would stand a chance in hell of being treated for PTSD or any of the other conditions they managed to get put into law that they should be treated for as a price of war. They fought for the benefits and treatment for PTSD and too many paid the price with their own lives. They fought for the illnesses attached to Agent Orange, yet again, too many paid for with their lives. The older veterans, well, maybe the VA's attitude is their time has come and gone and it's the media's fault for not paying attention to any of them. After all, what's an older veteran's life worth these days? There are too many of them getting in the way of the new veterans the media has been winning awards for reporting about.

Montana National Guard puts focus on PTSD

Guard's road show puts focus on post-traumatic stress
By ZACH BENOIT
Of The Gazette Staff

In an effort to increase awareness and treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder in military personnel returning from combat, the Montana National Guard has been holding a series of public presentations in 20 communities across the state.

At St. Vincent Healthcare's Marillac Auditorium on Wednesday night, the Guard presented resources and information on PTSD and talked about what people can do to help those afflicted with it.

"If you understand what the signs and symptoms are and you know somebody who may be suffering, you can refer them to get help," Col. Jeffrey Ireland said. Ireland is the director of personnel and manpower for the Montana National Guard.

PTSD is an anxiety disorder that can occur after someone experiences or witnesses traumatic events. Many returning soldiers develop PTSD, and it often goes untreated. Efforts to increase awareness of PTSD in Montana began after the suicide of Guardsmen Christopher Dana of Helena in March 2007. He had been home from duty in Iraq for 16 months when he shot himself. Family members said he was suffering from PTSD.

After Dana's death, the Guard and state officials vowed to re-evaluate PTSD treatment in Montana and work to prevent more such tragedies, said John Allen, a Montana Air National Guard chaplain from Great Falls.

"The governor appointed a task force to look into it," he said. "The National Guard also appointed a working group to find out about the processes we go through to see if there's any way we can do a better job."

Studies and evaluations determined that the Montana Guard was meeting or exceeding the basic requirements for returning soldiers and airmen, but Guard officials wanted to do more.

It took a number of steps to aid in recognizing and treating PTSD. In every other state, troops undergo a post-deployment assessment within 90 to 180 days of returning. Montana standards now include more frequent and longer monitoring for up to two years.

"Those that come back don't develop PTSD right away," Ireland said. "We don't want to let anyone slip through."

Crisis response teams in Helena and Great Falls were created, the Guard mandated enrollment into the Veterans Affairs system upon returning from duty, created suicide prevention and PTSD training programs, beefed up reintegration programs to help troops return to daily life and expanded family resource centers across the state to aid military members and their families.

"We've accomplished a tremendous amount of things in the last few months," Ireland said. He added that the Montana National Guard has become a leader in diagnosing and treating PTSD.

At the presentation, Ireland showed a DVD produced by the Montana National Guard called "Picking Up the Pieces. Operation Outreach: A Community Effort." The DVD details the effects of PTSD on service members and their families. It includes detailed interviews with several Guardsmen who have undergone or are in treatment for PTSD. It also includes interviews with Matt Kuntz, Dana's stepbrother. Ireland said the Montana National Guard hopes to use the video to help returning soldiers and airmen and increase community awareness.

"We are very proud of this," he said. "It's so useful in sending a message to service members and the community. We use it to tell our story."

Ireland said one of the most important steps in treating PTSD is erasing the stigma often associated with seeking treatment.

"We have so many that are reluctant to step forward because they're afraid of seeming weak," he said. "But we treat it as we would any other battle injury."

Presentations on PTSD by the Montana National Guard will be tonight at 7 in Malta, Miles City, Livingston and Missoula. On May 28, they will be in Helena and Butte and in Great Falls and Belgrade on May 29, all at 7 p.m.


Published on Thursday, May 22, 2008.
Last modified on 5/22/2008 at 1:19 am


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