Troubling Leadership Bringing More Troops Into Iraq

Army chief: Division headquarters going to Iraq
The Leaf Chronicle
Michelle Tan
September 24, 2014

Odierno says division has not yet been identified, but headquarters will be 'small'


As the U.S. expands its war against the Islamic State, the Army is preparing to deploy a division headquarters to Iraq.

Officials have not identified the division that will deploy — the first division headquarters to go to Iraq since the U.S. withdrawal in 2011.

An official announcement is expected in the coming days. But Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ray Odierno recently confirmed the Army "will send another division headquarters to Iraq to control what we're doing there, a small headquarters."

It's unclear how many soldiers will be sent, or how long they will deploy. Division headquarters average between 100 and 500 soldiers and deploy for one year.

The division headquarters deploying to Iraq is expected to be responsible for coordinating the efforts of the 1,600 troops President Obama has sent to Iraq. Many of these troops are advising and assisting the Iraqi Security Forces, others are providing extra security, while others are providing intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities. The headquarters also is expected to head up the joint operations center that since July has been run by Maj. Gen. Dana Pittard, the deputy commanding general for operations for U.S. Army Central.
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Who are these two leaders?

Start with Major General Dana Pittard and what he wrote on the Fort Bliss blog while "Working out in the gym."

“I have now come to the conclusion that suicide is an absolutely selfish act,” he wrote on his official blog recently. “I am personally fed up with soldiers who are choosing to take their own lives so that others can clean up their mess. Be an adult, act like an adult, and deal with your real-life problems like the rest of us.”

And General Raymond Odierno, Army Chief of Staff said this last year during Suicide Prevention Month

"First, inherently what we do is stressful. Why do I think some people are able to deal with stress differently than others? There are a lot of different factors. Some of it is just personal make-up. Intestinal fortitude. Mental toughness that ensures that people are able to deal with stressful situations.

But it also has to do with where you come from. I came from a loving family, one who gave lots of positive reinforcement, who built up psychologically who I was, who I am, what I might want to do. It built confidence in myself, and I believe that enables you to better deal with stress. It enables you to cope more easily than maybe some other people.

Makes what more troops being sent to Iraq are going to be subjected to above combat all the more troubling.

Suicide Prevention Sorely Lacking Military Intellligence

Considering the government has been spending billions a year on "prevention" they really need to ask for their money back.

More servicemen and women die by suicide than in combat,,,,still.

From Senator Joe Donnelly on Military Suicides Using an updated method of tracking suicides, DoD also announced in the new military suicide report that 475 servicemembers took their lives in 2013. This total is slightly lower than the 479 total DoD had previously reported. While the total number of servicemembers who took their lives declined from 522 in 2012 to 475 in 2013, there was an increase in the number of National Guard and Reserve Members who committed suicide last year. The 134 National Guard Members who took their own lives is a record high, up from 130 in 2012. Last year, 86 Reserve Members committed suicide compared to 72 in 2012.

The DOD and psychiatrists talk about pre-existing mental health issues but never seems to manage to explain how their psychological testing in the beginning could have missed it in so many cases.

"Roughly 18 out of every 100,000 Army soldiers commit suicide every year, while many more attempt or consider killing themselves. A new study on the rise in suicides found that 1 in 10 soldiers could be diagnosed for an anger impulse control disorder. Jeffrey Brown talked to Dr. Ronald Kessler of Harvard Medical School about how pre-existing mental illness may make soldiers more vulnerable."

After all, if the mental health issue was that big of factor in suicides, shouldn't they have noticed before investing so much time and training recruits they also armed? How is it no one is asking them to explain that?

The DOD says most of the suicides were not tied to deployments. What they don't explain is if their "prevention" programs were not even sufficient to prevent suicides in non-deployed, how did they expect the training to work on those deployed multiple times? How is it no one is asking them that either?

They say the majority of the suicides can be tied to relationship problems but never seem to mention what PTSD can do to a relationship.

They say financial issues are a part of the problem but never explain how it is they were willing to work 24-7 for less pay than they could get flipping burgers. (Add up the hours and how much they make and you'll understand)

Now the latest is that suicides are down from last year but yet again, they don't seem willing to explain the simple fact that there are also less serving.

2012 1,393,948
2013 1,372,336
2014 1,347,187

The ugly truth is if they explain it, then they'd have to actually admit what they have been doing to prevent them sorely lacked military intelligence!

Disabled Marine Veteran "canceled appointment" 4 days after he died?

UPDATE
VA inspector general finds no evidence of falsified record in Marine's death
Star Tribune
Article by: MARK BRUNSWICK
Updated: October 10, 2014

In its letter to the congressional delegation, the inspector general said an e-mail shows that Buisman used his cellphone to call the VA’s automated appointment center to cancel an appointment on Nov. 26 at 11:17 a.m., and that he died later that day.

The notification generated by his telephone call was subsequently transmitted to a VA schedulers’ e-mail group on the following day, Nov. 27, at 6:01 a.m.

At 10:11 a.m. that day, the scheduler who ultimately canceled Buisman’s appointment transmitted a response to the schedulers’ group that she would take care of the request. The scheduler was on leave on Nov. 28. On Nov. 30, she entered a note in the system that she had canceled the patient’s appointment as requested and tentatively scheduled him for the next available appointment, which was Jan. 17, 2013.
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Minn. VA paperwork shows Marine rescheduled appointment — from the grave
The Washington Times
By Douglas Ernst
September 23, 2014

The family of a deceased Marine is looking for answers after records from the Department of Veterans Affairs showed that he rescheduled an appointment after his death.

Cpl. Jordan Buisman, a former Marine videographer, was medically discharged after developing epilepsy. In June 2012 he saw a neurologist at a Minnesota VA, who instructed him to seek an appointment if there were any changes in his condition. After Cpl. Buisman had a seizure in September, he scheduled an appointment with the VA on Oct. 12, and was confirmed for an appointment Dec. 20, a local NBC affiliate reported.

Cpl. Buisman died Nov. 26, 2012, with “seizure disorder” listed as the cause on his death certificate. On Nov. 30, four days after his death, someone wrote in the Marine’s VA records that he canceled his appointment and rescheduled it for Jan. 17, NBC reported.
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VA Healthcare Crisis Exploited by Politics

This is about a group on the Right exploiting the VA crisis. Nothing new considering the Left does it too. So when exactly do both sides actually do something to fix what has gone on for decades instead of using veterans for some kind of political war? If they fixed the VA then how could they use veterans? By showing what they did for them instead of using what they did against them.

How the Koch Network Exploited the Veterans Affairs Crisis
The Nation
George Zornick
September 23, 2014

As the scandal over waiting lists at Veterans Affairs hospitals exploded earlier this year, there was widespread outrage—and justifiably so, as the country learned that more than 100,000 veterans waited over ninety days for care or never received it.

An ever-present force in this debate was a group called Concerned Veterans for America. Its leader, Peter Hegseth, frequently appeared on cable news segments about the scandal, and CVA was often mentioned on the floor of the Senate.

Though the group doesn’t disclose its donors, it has for a long while been clear the group is funded in part, or perhaps even in full, by the Koch brothers. Any remaining doubt can now be erased thanks to audio from the secretive Koch donor retreat this summer, obtained by The Undercurrent and reported here.

Hegseth addressed the crowd and not only confirmed that the Koch network “literally created” CVA but explained giddily “the central role that Concerned Veterans for America played in exposing and driving this crisis from the very beginning.”

Most notably, during his roughly ten-minute speech, Hegseth outlined how the group was turning legitimate grievances over Veterans Affairs care into a political weapon to attack both the Obama administration and the idea of government-provided healthcare.
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Department of Veterans Affairs Highers PR Firm for "Shareholders"

First Generation Delivers Video Series for U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
Insurance Net.com
Allentown, PA (PRWEB) September 23, 2014

First Generation (FG), an advertising and integrated marketing agency and service-disabled veteran-owned small business (SDVOSB), was recently awarded a contract with the Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA), an administration within the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).

The contract grants First Generation the opportunity to assist the VBA in effectively communicating changes in VA benefits and services to a wide variety of shareholders. The 508 compliant videos will describe new technology initiatives, transformation milestones and how to apply for benefits online.

Under the direction of the award-winning production team of Stephen White, David Beedle and John Costello, FG will script, direct and edit several public service announcements, develop multiple animated videos and produce over twenty video interviews to help the VBA communicate important information to valued shareholders.

"FG has a history of creating videos to assist the VA, and we are thrilled for the opportunity to continue to do so," says First Generation President, Alexandra Shade. "Our dedicated team of producers, directors and editors are eager to deliver high-quality videos to help the VBA accomplish their mission and reinforce our status as a robust partner for the U.S. government."
go here for more

Iowa VA let SWAT Team train where PTSD are trying to heal!

SWAT Training Conducted Near Veterans With PTSD
13 WHO NBC News
BY AARON BRILBECK
SEPTEMBER 23, 2014

MARSHALLTOWN, Iowa — Masked Marshalltown police officers, decked out in SWAT gear and carrying realistic looking guns, conducted training last Friday at the Iowa Veterans Home where quite a few residents suffer with post traumatic stress disorder.

“You get somebody with pistols out there violently trying to break into a building, even if it’s an empty building, and if they see it and they’ve been in Fallujah or some of the other places where there has been that kind of combat, you’re gonna have problems,” says Bob Krause with the Veterans National Recovery Center.

The training was conducted at an auditorium and cottages where family members can stay. Commandant Jodi Tymeson says it’s not uncommon for police and firefighters to train on the grounds of the Iowa Veterans Home. She says, staff who need to know are given ample warning, but warning everyone is difficult. “We are a large campus with a lot of staff and a large number of residents so we do our best to notify everyone.”
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VA Doctor's Answer to PTSD, More Pills, Less Talk

Since I already popped my cork today I will not add more to this.

Dr. Suris is the Chief of Psychiatry of Mental Health at Dallas’ VA Medical Center. Her research into a more efficient PTSD treatment has been called promising because it does not dwell on the traumatic memory.

“You come in and you have a 30 second exposure to your trauma,” Dr. Suris said. “That 30 second exposure is paired with a medication that we know is safe. We’re trying to interfere with that emotional connection. So you don’t lose the memory of the trauma, at all. But, you lose how you respond to that trauma. So if you think about your trauma, you’re not upset. It’s a fact.”

Enough said

‘Ghost Closet’ Vietnam Veteran Shares Story of Little Girl Lost in Duc Pho

One lost little girl haunts Vietnam veteran still today
Monroe News
By Tom Treece
September 22, 2014

“I go to sleep and dream about ’Nam, and I see her face, and then … I see her hand slipping out of mine.”

As he shared his heartbreak with me, my heart went out to him. “After reading your ‘Ghost Closet’ book, I realized we had served in the same area, and knowing you have connections there, I’m hoping you can check to see if she might have survived.”

Late August, 1970, was the calendar’s breeding grounds for Southeast Asia’s monsoon season that would sweep in off the South China Sea and hang around for the next three months. The place he described, I remembered all too well.

LZ Bronco — the home firebase of my 11th Infantry unit — sat just outside the gates to the Village of Duc Pho in what was then South Vietnam. More importantly, it also stood just off the coast of that now-raging sea. “She’d probably be in her 50s … if she survived,” he continued. “ What a burden I could lose if I KNEW she had made it.”
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'Horror show’ hotel transformed into home for veterans

'Horror show’ hotel transformed into home for veterans
San Francisco Gate
By John Coté
September 23, 2014

Four years ago it was described as San Francisco’s worst SRO and a “horror show.” Now, after almost $10 million in renovations, the former Stanford Hotel on Kearny Street is about to give 130 veterans something many have lacked for years: a home.

San Francisco is preparing to lease the former single-room-occupancy hotel for about $2 million a year for at least 10 years to provide housing for the city’s most desperate homeless veterans. About 73 percent of the costs are to be covered by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

The project, known as 250 Kearny, represents a sizable piece of the city’s effort to end homelessness for veterans by the end of 2015, a challenge that President Obama issued to the nation’s mayors in June.

“This project will place San Francisco within reach of meeting that ambitious goal,” said Mayor Ed Lee.

“This is the largest number of homeless veterans housed at a single time ever in San Francisco.”
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Ryan Kreider stepped in and saved Reveille

Reveille VIII: Texas A and M Collie Mascot Saved By Handler From Sideline Hit
[Viral Video]
Inquisiter
The best block of the SMU-Texas A and M game may have occurred off the field, as a quick acting cadet dog handler saved the Aggies’ mascot from being accidentally run over during yesterday’s NCAA football action.

Reveille VIII, the Lassie-lookalike who is the school’s current mascot, might have had a close encounter on the sidelines, but the game wasn’t even close as Johnny “Football” Manziel’s former team defeated SMU by a score of 58-6 at Gerald J. Ford Stadium in Dallas.

Designated as a Senior Military College, one of only six in the U.S., Texas A and M is one of three public universities with a full-time volunteer Corps of Cadets in an ROTC program. One of the Corps duties is to protect the mascot.

The Dallas Morning News summarized what happened on the sidelines with Reveille VIII’s close call.

“Late in the second quarter of Texas A and M’s game against SMU, Mustangs receiver Der’ikk Thompson stumbled out of bounds after an incomplete pass and was on a collision path with Reveille. That’s when sophomore Ryan Kreider stepped in. Kredier threw a body check on Thompson to knock him off course and leave Reveille unharmed.”
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Corps Member Saves Reveille

But here is the best part of all

Texas A and M cadet to be rewarded for saving Reveille
By Tom Fornelli
College Football Writer
September 22, 2014

We now know the identity of the cadet who saved the day because he's being rewarded for his mascot heroism. Ryan Krieder will receive a special gift from the Commandant of Texas A and M's Corps of Cadets, Brigadier General Joe E. Ramirez.

"Cadet Ryan Kreider made ALL Aggies VERY proud today! What a selfless way for a cadet to take care of our beloved mascot, Miss Reveille," wrote Ramirez on his Facebook page. "As a result, the Commandant is going to buy Ryan's Senior Boots. Fellow cadets can give him junior/senior privileges as they deem appropriate, but I am so proud of what he did, that I'm willing to do something a little more 'substantial' to show the appreciation of ALL Aggies for his selfless act. Ryan, thanks for being such a superb example of what being a member of the Corps of Cadets and being an Aggie is all about! Your senior boots are now compliments of the Commandant! Well done, Ryan! Aggie nation is VERY proud of you!"
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North Dakota National Guardsman's Family Talks About Suicide

For Tom: After losing soldier son to suicide, family seeks to dispel stigmas
Jamestown Sun
By Ryan Johnson
Sep 22, 2014

Dave Lautt and Beth Doyle-Lautt reminisce about their son, Spc. Thomas Avery Doyle, from their home in Jamestown. David Samson / Forum News Service

JAMESTOWN — Beth Doyle-Lautt has gotten used to the clutter in her house.

A basement room is filled with boxes and totes, tools and extra furniture.

The shed her husband, Dave Lautt, bought to store his new Harley-Davidson in last year is too full for the motorcycle, which now stands in the garage that doesn’t have room for their pickup.

"It’s too soon to get rid of anything and too soon to even go through it yet," he said. "We will; we’ll get there. It’s just on our terms."

Since Sept. 7, 2013, it’s been easier to keep busy than dwell on the loss they suffered that day when their son, Thomas Avery Doyle, a specialist in the North Dakota National Guard who served in Kuwait, died by suicide at the age of 22.

The couple have since worked to break through the stigma surrounding mental illness and post-traumatic stress disorder within the military and the world at large — something they believe contributed to their son’s suffering and eventual death.
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CSF: How to Increase Military Suicides Without Really Trying

Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
September 23, 2014

What is the job of military leaders? Kill the enemy and get them to surrender with psychological pressure. Who had the bright idea they would be remotely capable of doing anything to save the lives of the troops serving under them?

There is a great line in the movie Steel Magnolias by Shirley MacLaine "I'm not crazy, M'Lynn, I've just been in a very bad mood for 40 years!" I've been in an every increasing bad mood for the last 30 years and today I may very well blow my top.

Fuck is an English-language word, a profanity which refers to the act of sexual intercourse and is also commonly used to denote disdain or as an intensifier. Its origin is obscure; it is usually considered to be first attested to around 1475, but may be considerably older. In modern usage, the term fuck and its derivatives (such as fucker and fucking) can be used in the position of a noun, a verb, an adjective or an adverb. There are many common phrases that employ the word, as well as compounds incorporating it, such as motherfucker.

So I'm using it right now in place of the inability to provide another word suitable for the ever growing emotional pain being inflicted on the troops and families, including veterans, trained and sent by the Department of Defense to defeat the enemy time and time again. When are they going to get a fucking clue?

CSF, Comprehensive Soldier Fitness IS THE PROBLEM NOT THE SOLUTION! Gee what other words could those letters stand for? Here's a hint. They are not good words but I just gave you the last one. The terms are used everyday when soldiers try to explain the "efforts" the military has been doing for the last decade while they kill themselves more often than the enemy does.

PowerPoint Commando / PowerPoint Ranger
A briefer notorious for producing overly complex briefs in PowerPoint that are too long and use too many effects, such as animations and sounds.

Suicides tied to military service among veterans are twice the civilian population. If that doesn't seem bad enough then consider they are only 7% of the population. Maybe that means something to you but when you consider there are more veterans no longer counted by the DOD as they hide behind the reduction in suicides, that should really be a huge slap in the face.

They say;

"Number of soldier-suicides down Bobeck said the Army National Guard had 120 suicides in 2013. There have been 44 this year, he said.

“That’s tragic that we’ve even had 44, but that’s a significant difference in number,” Bobeck said. “We’ve made a tremendous investment in our resiliency campaigns and our resiliency training. Can we tie that directly to that? We’re still looking at that, but we know we’ve had a significant reduction.” Yet, each soldier’s suicide “is still tragic,” said Bobeck, who noted the necessity of reducing the incidence of such tragedies “to zero.”

There are less serving to count in the first place because of sequestration and the cutbacks thanks to Congress. They came out with Battlemind and then CSF. Congress has funded billions a year yet what happened? What happened to all that money? Who got it? Was anyone held accountable for the money wasted as more and more lives were lost to suicides? No, the bullshit result is the DOD and the VA say they don't have a clue if any of it is working or not. Well here's the biggest clue of all. They filled more coffins than the Taliban, al-Qaeda, Iraq Republican Guard. When you add up the number of suicides in the military plus those of the discharged the number is higher but one more catch is the DOD doesn't have to count them after they are discharged including those discharged under bad papers leaving them with nothing but heartache.

If all that isn't bad enough, here comes yet on more crap load of results of what they have done.

Report: Some causes of suicide in military need more study
USA TODAY
Gregg Zoroya
September 22, 2014

While the military has poured more money into suicide research than any other sector of American society in recent years, certain targets in dire need of study remain under-funded, according to a RAND Corp. report released Monday.

Researchers sampled opinions of leading suicide experts within the military and on the RAND Corp. staff about the most important areas needing research. They found the those areas — improving ways of identifying those who are suicidal; and developing better methods for the ongoing care of those with self-destructive tendencies — receive little or moderate focus in either funding or number of studies.

"There is no apparent relationship between what is being funded and what (Defense) representatives perceive as important," RAND researchers concluded.

RAND researchers found that the largest sums of money and the greatest numbers of studies were devoted to finding better treatment methods and improving care, each ranked ninth and fifth, respectively, on a list of most important research areas.
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UPDATE

Now add this to the above out of a report on the situation at Fort Hood

Inferior testing and evaluation procedures,
Lack of adequate funding for clinic services,
Senior mental health professionals forced into retirement by the Army,
Months-long wait times for soldiers seeking evaluation and treatment for psychological conditions,
Only one trained clinical neuropsychologist for more than 50,000 soldiers

Someone is waiting for you to come home

We all get it. A lot of veterans drink. Sometimes you drink too much. This is something to think about the next time that happens. Someone loves you and will be waiting for you to come home. Make sure you don't let your buddy down.

How the Army Fails Soldiers: Fort Hood Psych Crisis

FENCE-JUMPER: ANOTHER VICTIM OF 'PSYCH CRISIS' AT FORT HOOD?
'Omar is not some maniac. He's a veteran who needs help'
WND
Chelsea Schiliing
September 22, 2014

Only five months after a senior neuropsychologist in charge of Fort Hood’s outpatient psychiatry clinic revealed to WND a crisis in psychological testing and treatment at the U.S. Army post, a decorated war veteran who sought therapy at the installation is now in federal custody for jumping the White House fence and bursting through the executive mansion doors.

On Sept. 19, Omar J. Gonzalez, a 42-year-old Army veteran who had deployed to Iraq three times and was injured by a homemade bomb, jumped over the north fence, sprinted across the lawn and was stopped only after he entered the White House doors.

Gonzalez has suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and paranoia and was being treated at Fort Hood, Texas, for a time, according to his former stepson, Jerry S. Murphy.

A psychiatrist at Fort Hood prescribed Gonzalez medications, he said.

An unidentified family member told the Los Angeles Times Gonzalez said he had planned to go to a Veterans Administration hospital to seek treatment after his exit from the military in 2012. The person said Gonzalez had been taking antidepressants and anti-anxiety medication, but he was unsure if Gonzalez had stopped.

“Omar is not some maniac,” he said. “He’s a veteran who needs help.”
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FORT HOOD POST MORTEM: CRISIS IN PSYCH TESTING
Top doctor warns, 'There's no way to keep up with the workload'
WND
Chelsea Schilling
April 13, 2014

Soldiers assigned to the 1st Cavalry Division's Company F, 3rd Assault Helicopter Battalion, 227th Aviation Regiment, 1st Air Cavalry Brigade. (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Travis Zielinski)

The Army terminated its psychological testing contract at Fort Hood, Texas, only seven months before Spc. Ivan Lopez’s eight-minute shooting rampage that left Lopez and three other soldiers dead and 16 more wounded on April 2, WND has learned.

Instead, Fort Hood – one of the largest military installations in the world and the primary hub for deploying U.S. soldiers overseas – has been using free tests it finds on the Internet to evaluate soldiers’ psychological health and only employs a single neuropsychologist to treat up to 500 soldiers a month.

And while the post’s traumatic brain injury clinic has a brand-new hot tub in storage, it receives little money to test soldiers for psychological trauma.

The senior neuropsychologist in charge of Fort Hood’s outpatient psychiatry clinic – who resigned from his position only two months ago – tells WND the post has insufficient resources to treat soldiers seeking psychological help, including:

Inferior testing and evaluation procedures,
Lack of adequate funding for clinic services,
Senior mental health professionals forced into retirement by the Army,
Months-long wait times for soldiers seeking evaluation and treatment for psychological conditions,
Only one trained clinical neuropsychologist for more than 50,000 soldiers
read more of this here