Two VA employees slain, one wounded during shooting at Fort Hood

VA Suffers Losses and Offers Help at Ft. Hood

Two VA Employees Slain, One Wounded during Shooting

WASHINGTON (Nov. 10, 2009) -- In the midst of providing mental health
services and other support to the Ft. Hood community following the
recent shooting, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) learned about
its own losses from the violence. Two VA employees, both serving on
active duty with their Army Reserve units, were among the slain. A
third VA health care worker on reserve duty was seriously wounded.



"Speaking for the entire VA family, I offer heart-felt condolences to
the families of these dedicated VA employees," said Secretary of
Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki. "They devoted their working lives to
care for our Veterans, and they died in uniform, preparing to safeguard
our Nation's freedom."



Russell G. Seager, Ph.D., a 51-year old nurse practitioner at the
Clement J. Zablocki VA Medical Center in Milwaukee was killed in the
deadly attack. He was a captain in the reserves. In his VA duties, he
led a mental health team treating a wide variety of Veteran patients,
from the youngest combat Veterans just back from deployments to Iraq and
Afghanistan, to World War II Veterans dealing with depression.



Seager signed up for the Army Reserve four years ago. This would have
been his first overseas deployment. Seager was motivated to prevent the
mental health problems of young combat soldiers from occurring in the
first place. He was to be assigned to a Combat Stress Control unit to
watch for warning signs, such as anger and insubordination, among
front-line soldiers.



Seager, who was also a well-respected teacher at Bryant and Stratton
College in Milwaukee, leaves behind a wife and son.



VA's other fatality was Juanita L. Warman, 55, a nurse practitioner at
VA's medical center in Perry Point, Md. She was a lieutenant colonel in
the Maryland National Guard, with two daughters and six grandchildren.
Herself the daughter of a career Air Force member, she held a masters
degree from the University of Pittsburgh.



Warman volunteered for "Beyond the Yellow Ribbon," a program to help
members of the Maryland National Guard readjust after returning from
overseas deployments. She provided mental health counseling and helped
develop a program about the myths and realities of post-traumatic stress
disorder. She was preparing for deployment to Iraq at the time of her
death.



Dorothy Carskadon, 47, a captain in the reserves and a social worker and
team leader at the VA Vet Center in Madison, Wis., was wounded in the
gunfire that brought Ft. Hood activities to a halt. She is currently in
stable condition in the intensive care unit at the Darnall Army Medical
Center at Ft. Hood.



As a VA team leader, Carskadon oversees other social workers in
providing individual and group counseling for combat Veterans
experiencing difficulty readjusting to the civilian community following
military service. A new Army officer, Carskadon was preparing for her
first deployment.



On an average day, more than 850 VA employees don uniforms to serve
military commitments in Reserve and National Guard units across the
country and overseas.



VA has been responding to the Ft. Hood tragedy since shortly after the
sound of gunfire was replaced by the sirens of emergency responders.



Through official agreements and the shared sense of mission to care for
military members and Veterans in the central Texas region, VA has
provided clinical supplies, including pharmaceuticals, and sent mental
health teams from nearby facilities as well as four fully staffed,
portable Vet Centers to aid in counseling military members and families.




Teams of physicians, nurses and other clinical and support personnel
were placed on stand-by for possible deployment to Ft. Hood or to
receive additional patients following the shooting.



VA operates several clinical and benefits processing locations on Ft.
Hood and routinely has about 18 employees working on the post. Initial
actions included confirming the safety and security of those employees.



VA continues to coordinate with the Department of Defense on providing
care and support to all those affected by the tragedy.

Lt. Col. Juanita Warman killed at Fort Hood wanted to help female soldiers

FORT HOOD SHOOTINGS

Trauma expert wanted to help female soldiers
Highest-ranking person killed in shootings, Lt. Col. Juanita Warman, had husband, two daughters and six grandchildren.
By Patrick George

AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF


Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Editor's Note: Lt. Col. Juanita Warman was one of 13 people killed Thursday at Fort Hood.

Just a day after Lt. Col. Juanita Warman arrived at Fort Hood, the shooting started.

Warman had arrived in Texas to be processed for her deployment to Iraq at the end of the month. On Thursday, she was at the post's Soldier Readiness Processing Center when a gunman entered and began firing, killing her and a dozen others. She was 55.

Warman is survived by a husband, two daughters and six grandchildren.

"I kept thinking, 'She can't be in the processing center,' " her husband, Philip Warman, told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. "She had just gotten there; she had more training to undergo. She was not due to leave until the end of November. The base hot line didn't have her on the initial list of casualties."

But a half-hour later, two soldiers arrived in dress uniforms, and Warman immediately knew she had been killed, he told the paper.
read more here
Trauma expert wanted to help female soldiers

Decorated Army Ranger became chaplain to fight differently

A Major and a Chaplain, Jeff Struecker went from fighting as a warrior, taking that experience and fighting a different way to save the lives of others.

Face of Defense: Chaplain Helps Others Fight Stress
By News Editor • on November 9, 2009

By Samantha L. Quigley
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, Nov. 9, 2009 – Readers of Mark Bowden’s “Black Hawk Down” can put the book aside when they’ve had enough of their mind’s reaction of the brutal 1993 battle of Mogadishu, Somalia.

But Chaplain (Maj.) Jeff Struecker isn’t that lucky. The decorated Army Ranger was charged with leading the ground assault force on all the targets that the task force hit in Somalia.

“I had been shot at and seen many dead warriors [before Mogadishu],” Struecker said. “I never experienced anything like the violence and the overwhelming sense of desperation like I experienced in Somalia. After losing one of my men and having many others wounded around me, I found a great sense of peace and courage through my faith.”

Struecker, who also deployed to Operation Just Cause in Panama in 1989 and Operation Desert Storm in the Middle East in 1991, went back and forth into Mogadishu three times during the main firefight.

His experience in the Somalian capital was a turning point for the soldier who’s currently deployed to Afghanistan with the 75th Ranger Regimental Special Troops Battalion.

“My wife, Dawn, and I had a great relationship before Somalia, but after the operation we both understood just how fragile human life is and how valuable our relationship is,” he said. “Somalia helped me put my priorities in order.”

It also led him to consider pursuing a different aspect of his military career.

“After the big firefight was over, I had many men that I work with asking me questions about matters of faith and how to deal with the trauma of an event like this,” Struecker said. “It was this experience — talking with my friends about combat stress and faith in Jesus Christ after the big firefight — that caused me to start thinking about becoming an Army chaplain.”

Since 2001, every time Struecker has deployed, it’s been as a chaplain, drawing on the combat experiences he’s had during his 22-year military career to help servicemembers dealing with the traumatic stress they may be feeling.
read more here
Chaplain Helps Others Fight Stress

N.J. flags to fly at half-staff to honor those killed in Fort Hood shooting

AP Photo/Paul Sakuma
Soldiers from Fort Hood fold an American flag inside Fort Hood in Killeen, Texas today in preparation for President Obama's planned visit on Tuesday. Flags will fly at half-staff in New Jersey on Tuesday.

N.J. flags to fly at half-staff to honor those killed in Fort Hood shooting
By The Star-Ledger Continuous News Desk
November 09, 2009, 3:38PM
TRENTON — Flags in New Jersey will fly at half-staff on Tuesday to honor those killed in last week's shooting rampage at Fort Hood, Texas.

Acting Gov. Richard J. Codey signed an executive order today directing that United States and New Jersey flags be lowered in recognition of the lives lost.

Thirteen people were killed and 29 wounded, including Alan Carroll, a 20-year-old soldier from Bridgewater, in the shooting on Thursday.

Carroll, who was shot in the bicep, tricep and side during the rampage, was reported to be making a steady recovery.
read more here
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2009/11/nj_flags_to_fly_at_half-staff.html

Army Therapists Stretched Too Thin? Obviously!

They say they want to reduce the stigma of PTSD but they won't say they will change the way they hire and train people to treat PTSD the way the rest of the country is, by heading most of it off as soon as possible. They tell you that you have to be a certain age and have to enlist with two military operations going on, eliminating probably thousands of experts on PTSD. Even becoming a chaplain is close to impossible when they will not open doors to chaplains who are good enough for police and firefighters, but just not good enough to help fill the gaps to save the lives of the troops while they finally get up to speed on all of this. So much for planing. Reducing the stigma would have happened if they had put some of their focus on this a long time ago and removed any roadblocks standing in the way of them getting the care they needed as soon as they needed it.

Army Therapists Stretched Too Thin?
Military Hopes to Take Away Stigma of Seeking Therapy
By Don Teague


(CBS) Their mission was to help soldiers deal with the stress of war on the battlefield. Instead, they were attacked at home. Three Army therapists were killed, and six other members of a combat stress control team were wounded in last week's rampage on fort hood.

They were preparing to deploy to Afghanistan. The team's critical mission is on hold for now.

"We're taking a hard look and making sure they have every thing they need and again they may be delayed in regard to additional personnel being brought in," said Lt. Gen. Robert Cone.

Special Section: Tragedy at Fort Hood

Eight years of war has taken its toll across the military. Some 300,000 service members, almost one out of every five who have returned from Iraq and Afghanistan, report symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Corporal Nathan Hewitt, an Iraq war veteran who was wounded in last week's attack, says his commanders encourage returning veterans to get help.

"They tell us soldiers all the time you know if you have problems like this, go see the psychiatrist, or go get some mental health," he said.

But experts say finding enough qualified counselors is a challenge. "It's the face to face counseling that's so important for preventing and treating PTSD," said former Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs Dr. S. Ward Casscells.

The Army has just over 400 psychiatrists to treat nearly 550,000 active duty soldiers.
read more here
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/11/09/eveningnews/main5593039.shtml