Local Paper Uncovers Another Apparent Soldier Suicide in Iraq

This is what it takes to end "under investigation" and get real figures of the price of war!

Local Paper Uncovers Another Apparent Soldier Suicide in Iraq
From Editor & Publisher, November 24, 2007
By Greg Mitchell

Hundreds of U.S. troops in Iraq have committed suicide since the war began in 2003, though this subject is kept quiet by the military. As E&P has documented in recent months, the deaths are announced as “noncombat” with the only details that they are “under investigation.” But local newspapers often find out the true cause from surviving family or friends, and occasionally from nearby military bases.

Some 130 are now officially listed as suicides in Iraq but dozens more being probed, and then there are the suicides in Afghanistan, and hundreds or thousands more back in the U.S., as CBS News recently revealed. Now there is probably one more.

Spc. Melvin Henley was on his second tour of duty in Iraq family members say when he died Wednesday at Camp Striker in Iraq from injuries suffered from a noncombat-related incident, the Associated Press reports.

The U.S. Department of Defense announced Henley’s death on Friday.

The cause of death was a single gunshot wound to the head, Jim Jeffcoat, a spokesman for Fort Stewart in Georgia, where Henley was assigned, told The Clarion-Ledger newspaper in Jackson, Miss. “It is under investigation,” Jeffcoat said.

Henley, 26, from Jackson, was a helicopter mechanic. He was assigned to the 3rd Infantry Division at Fort Stewart in March 2007. He served one tour of duty in Iraq from November 2003 to November 2004.
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http://www.freepress.net/news/28402

What PTSD warriors are up against at home

TODAY'S LETTERS: Military Suicides, Bob Dylan, Scott McClellan and Bilal Hussein

By E and P Staff

Published: November 26, 2007 10:20 AM ET

NEW YORK Readers wrote in about military suicides, the Bob Dylan biopic and Scott McClellan and the AP's stance on Bilal Hussein.

Who Will Probe 'Noncombat' Deaths in Iraq?
Gimme a break. The guys who commit suicide would probably do the same in any type of tough situation, whether it be war or bad times at home.

This is a volunteer ARMY. If you're not willing or able to fight and serve overseas, don't join the army. People are just looking for any reason to blast America's military forces.

Army Mom

Click post title for link to this. I had to stop reading as soon as I read this first one from "Army Mom" because, as hard as it is to believe, this is what our soldiers are up against when they come home.

This attitude still exists! It is a wonder what this "Army Mom" would do if it was her son or her daughter returning home with a mind wounded by trauma. Either the woman has not read a single report on PTSD in over thirty years, or she will never understand this is a wound no different than a bullet wound, bomb wound or burn wound. It is a wound cutting down humans.

They come home and they look fine. At least they do until you take a good look at them. You notice it in their eyes. You then notice it in the way they act, what they say or don't say. The signs of PTSD are there if you care enough to look for them. Yet when military families, especially, pass it off, belittle the wound, attack the wounded, they are in fact causing the wound to fester.

Veterans will tell you that their families fell apart when they were needed the most. Some families, even knowing what this is, just don't have enough compassion to stay together. Some find it impossible to live together. I used to blame the families for turning their backs on the wounded but understanding first hand how hard it can be, some are just not able to fight for them. Then there are people like "Army Mom" who would rather pass all of it off, ignore it, not bother to research a single report, or even talk to someone who has it. If FOX did a report on it the way CNN, the Military Channel, National Geographic, Discovery Channel, The History Channel or PBS has done, they may wake up and believe it. Yet FOX would rather ignore it. Occasionally they talk about it but they do not do any real reports. These other stations dedicated hours of programming on it. Even that is not enough to stop attitudes such as what you just read.

Can you imagine coming home to a family you thought would stand by you, love you, missed you, only to find out they did not trust you, believe in you or even know you well enough to understand you have been wounded? They are still the same person inside, under the wound, but too many family members would rather suddenly blame the wounded than realize who sent into the horrors of war did not come back the same.

To "Army Mom" you need to get educated and stop being an enemy to the men and women who serve this nation. You need to stop being an enemy to the veterans of this country. You need to stop being an enemy to the wounded. It will not go away just because you say it is not real, but they will when they commit suicide!

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

NYC Columbia University PTSD study wants you

Columbia University in NYC now recruiting PTSD patients for study of serotonin & stress system interactions

ImmuneSupport.com

11-26-2007
This study, to be conducted at Columbia's Neuroscience Clinic for Mood and Personality Disorders in New York City, will involve brain imaging/analysis, and compensation will include up to 6 months of outpatient treatment.

STUDY TITLE:
PTSD: Serotonin & Stress System Interactions
Please refer to this study by Identifier # 4344
Principal Investigator: Gregory Sullivan


For More Information Contact:
Brendan Carroll; bc2234@columbia.edu
phone 212 543-5902


PURPOSE & DETAILS
This is a brain imaging research study of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) with and without depression.

Eligible participants receive two brain positron emission tomography (PET) scans on one day which assess the amounts of two proteins of the brain’s serotonin system in various brain regions.

A magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan is also obtained, and there are interviews and rating scales that are part of the study.

Participants also receive a test of the stress system known as the low dose dexamethasone test.
Up to 6 months of outpatient treatment is offered to participants in the study at no cost.

Also, participants may be compensated $350 for time and inconvenience. For info call 212 543-5902
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http://www.immunesupport.com/library/showarticle.cfm/ID/8533

New Jersey Homeless Veterans

Nonprofit aims to give vets hope
Lyons VA campus opening wing for homeless veterans.

By KARA L. RICHARDSON STAFF WRITER
BERNARDS -- A transitional housing program for homeless veterans was full within a year of its 2004 opening at the Lyons Veterans Administration campus here.

Now, as a new wing with 25 more beds is about to be unveiled today, Community Hope, a private nonprofit organization contracted to run the homeless veterans program, has the same challenge.

The additional beds, making a total of 95 spots in the program, will be helpful, but J. Michael Armstrong, Community Hope's executive director, said, "It will still only be a drop in the proverbial bucket."

On any given night, an estimated 8,000 veterans in New Jersey are homeless. So, the additional beds already are spoken for from a long waiting list of clients, he said.

"Our residents have experienced repeated homelessness as far back as their service in Vietnam. It is an incredible challenge to break that lengthy cycle, but these veterans are succeeding in the program and experiencing hope for the first time in many years," Armstrong said. "The opening of this new wing enables us to help more veterans turn their lives around."
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Homeless veterans in Michigan

Group Steps Up Aid for Thousands of Homeless Michigan Veterans
by: Eartha Jane Melzer
Monday (11/26) at 08:59 AM
Thousands of veterans of wars from Korea to Iraq, who returned to Michigan traumatized and without adequate care and who are suffering in poverty, are living on the street this fall, including in makeshift shelters under highway overpasses, veterans' advocates say.
Tyrone Chatman, associate executive director at the Detroit-based Michigan Veterans Foundation, says he sees the problem daily. The foundation's main project is the Detroit Veterans Center, a transitional housing and resource center run by and for veterans. The foundation plans to expand services and set up similar community-based veterans centers beyond Detroit.
"We serviced over 1,100 veterans this year and on any given day there are over 130 that reside with us," Chatman said.
Continued -
Eartha Jane Melzer ::
Group Steps Up Aid for Thousands of Homeless Michigan Veterans