Fort Hood suicidal soldiers slipped through the cracks

This is what I've been talking about. There have not been enough people to take care of the need at Fort Hood or any other base. There are not enough deployed with the troops either and if Major Hasan is any indication of the kind of care some have been getting, the problem is a lot worse than many would ever suspect.

This is what I've been hearing when I get the emails flying in from frantic family members not knowing what to do. This is what I've been hearing when I get the phone calls from veterans who were never properly taken care of. What I tell them is not rocket science. It's what they need to hear. What I hear from them has had me terrified for years and it's getting worse. People like me are not paid attention to because we have no money, no clout, no advertising budgets and as for all the organization springing up as charities, most of them I can't get a straight answer out of what they have in place to take care of the need. They say they have people there for the soldiers and veterans to talk to but they can't answer how experienced these listeners are, what they know, how they were trained and they can't tell me if any of these helpers are even monitored. Wanting to help is one thing but are they actually helping or hurting?

If they think they have a problem at Fort Hood they need a lot more help with, they are not even close and frankly I'm sickened by being proven right so often while they are paying the price for how much others keep getting wrong. We need an immediate influx of trained trauma responders today, not when the military decides they can find later. We need them out in the communities to help the National Guards and we need them to be trained on PTSD as well as trauma and not just mental illness in general. PTSD comes only after trauma so it is absurd to have doctors not fully trained on trauma and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

If they are like Hasan, then you'll need a calculator to figure out where this is going because you'll have to factor in the normal rate of PTSD, one out of three, multiply that by 50% for each redeployment and then factor in the scale of PTSD ranging from mild to full blown but then you'll also have to factor in the family members living with untreated PTSD because they'll end up with secondary PTSD from all the turmoil in the house. Wonder if they are thinking of any of this especially when the troops at Fort Hood have just had their last sanctuary attacked leaving them with no safe place in their mind.

Soldiers' mental health comes under scrutiny
Ft. Hood has had 10 soldier suicides this year, the second-highest of any Army post. Families of troops who have committed suicide say troubled soldiers are slipping through the cracks.

By Molly Hennessy-Fiske

November 10, 2009 1:30 p.m.


Sgt. Justin "Jon" Garza joined the Army eight years ago at age 20. When he arrived at Ft. Hood in June, the communications specialist had deployed six times to Europe and the Middle East, including two bloody stints in Iraq, and was due to return in September. He had broken up with his girlfriend, developed a drinking problem and gone AWOL.

While he was AWOL, Garza threatened to kill himself with a shotgun. Military personnel took him to Ft. Hood's Darnall Army Medical Center.

Psychiatrists there diagnosed him with an adjustment disorder and depression and sent him home with his best friend, a fellow soldier. He was put on a Monday-through-Friday suicide watch. Eleven days later, on July 11 -- a Saturday -- Garza was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot to the head.

It was the eighth anniversary of his enlistment.

"I've been a wreck and in pain for a long time. I could not take it anymore," Garza wrote in a suicide note left for his mother. "I was never good at opening up and letting things out, so things just festered and got worse."

With the shooting rampage at Ft. Hood last week drawing attention to the mental state of America's troops, the families of soldiers who have returned from combat with significant mental health issues believe the public may be ready to listen to their stories.

"My son slipped through the cracks," said Garza's mother, Teri Smith, 52.

Army records show that 117 active-duty soldiers have committed suicide so far this year, including 10 at Ft. Hood, the second-highest number of any Army base (Ft. Campbell in Kentucky had 14 soldier suicides). Ft. Hood has had 76 soldier suicides since 2003, according to Army records, but it is also the largest base in the country, home to about 50,000 soldiers.

Two weeks after Garza's death, Ft. Hood's commander, Lt. Gen. Rick Lynch, told Congress that he needed more mental health staff.

"That's the biggest frustration," Lynch told a House subcommittee. "I'm short about 44 [personnel] of what I am convinced I need at Fort Hood that I just don't have."
read more here
Soldiers mental health comes under scrutiny

Ex-Marine who survived three tours in Iraq is slain while installing cable TV

Three tours in Iraq but this Marine was killed in his own home. How do we make sense out of this? How do we make sense out of what happened at Fort Hood? How do we make sense out of anything that happens to any of these men and women when they are supposed to be out of danger and safe back home?

Ex-Marine who survived three tours in Iraq is slain while installing cable TV in Victorville
November 10, 2009 4:23 pm
A former U.S. Marine who survived several tours of duty in Iraq and a knife attack at his Phelan home a few months ago was violently beaten to death with a hammer while installing cable at a Victorville home, authorities said. A relative of the homeowners has been arrested in the attack.

Trevor Neiman, 25, a Charter Communications Cable installer, was found beaten and bloody by San Bernardino County sheriff’s deputies who responded to the home shortly after 4:30 p.m. Monday.

While Neiman was working on the cable at the home in the 15200 block of San Jose Drive, a man attacked and repeatedly beat him with a small hammer, authorities said.


"He was doing a cable installation. There was no exchange of words. There was nothing that occurred before the unprovoked attack," said Jody Miller, a San Bernardino County sheriff’s spokeswoman.

Miller said witnesses told investigators there was no indication of what set off the attack. Paramedics rushed Neiman to Victor Valley Community Hospital, where he died of his injuries.

After the attack, investigators say, the suspect fled the home.
read more here
Ex-Marine who survived three tours in Iraq is slain

We can't. We can't make sense out of anything people do to them any more than we can make sense out of what they do not do for them. We manage pretty well at saying slogans like "support the troops" and tomorrow as the day we honor our veterans is supposed to be foremost in our thoughts and prayers, the truth is, for the vast majority of the people in this country, it will just be another day like any other. For them, it will be a day to remember friends they lost and some they gained. It will also be a day of remembering how they were transformed from being a citizen into being a member of the armed forces. A minority in this country soon forgotten after their uniforms are taken off and their weapons turned in. They return to their families and friends, neighbors, all the people they once thought they knew well, suddenly finding out they can no longer talk to them the same way they did before.

They became veterans and it is a title they will carry for the rest of their lives. The same lives they risked for the sake of everyone else in the country. They same lives they laid on the line. The same lives we were willing to sacrifice for our own freedom, our own needs and our own prosperity.

With WWII it was all about revenge for the most part for Pearl Harbor. Then it was about stopping the communists from taking over South Korea. We then decided their lives were worth risking to stop the communists from taking over Vietnam. Again we decided to send them for the sake of Kuwait just as we sent them into Somalia and other nations with lesser numbers. We sent them into Afghanistan for retaliation of the attacks on that clear September morning in 2001 and then we sent them into Iraq for reasons we are still not clear about but the fact remains, they are still in Afghanistan and Iraq, still risking their lives and still coming home to an absent nation.

Trevor Neiman, 25 served three tours but aside from his family and friends, we will not really remember his name. The list of those we honored and remembered from Fort Hood today will soon be forgotten just as the numbers of the wounded will fade from memory. We will focus on the trial to come remembering the name of the Major who betrayed his soldiers and slaughtered them while they were unarmed. They had no way of defending themselves and Hasan took full advantage of this. We however manage to betray them as well when we do not really value them. We do not take care of them and accept substandard care for the wounded. We do not honor them when we make no plans ahead of time to take care of their needs and then find even more excuses for why the problems they have to face go on. When they become homeless we blame them instead of ourselves for not taking care of them and making sure they can make a living to pay their bills. We don't make sure their families stop living in a bubble and open their eyes to what wounds they may not be able to see and God forbid we manage to make sure communities are ready for the National Guards coming back into the community in any kind of need.

Tomorrow I hope to focus on what is being done for them but above all, focus on them even more than usual. Tomorrow is Veterans day but for them it is everyday they are a veteran and we need to remember this. Keep in mind with two campaigns going on, PTSD all over the news, you'd think the rest of us would care enough to stay informed, but we don't. That's really sad.

Fort Hood day to remember, grieve and begin to heal

We've seen the images but they remember their smiles, the way they laughed, the way they shared what they had, the way they cared, above all, how much they were loved.

We've read snippets from their lives, but their families and friends were there all along.

General Casey said not to grieve for them but grieve with them. They were inviting us into their family today at the Fort Hood Memorial.

These men and women live and die for the public, but they want no publicity for themselves, but they do want publicity for their units and the whole family they serve with. When one of them falls, they hold a memorial much like the one we saw publicly today. They grieve and send the bodies of their friends back home, while they pick up their weapons and do their duties. They know if they do not more could die. While we can call in sick take a day off, coworkers may have to answer a few more phone calls but if they don't their co-workers could end up dying instead of them. Our jobs take care of business, but theirs' takes care of lives.

After what happened when so many were lost in this attack and so many wounded, we need to remember that this was their home. This is where they live, their families live and a place where there is supposed to be a calmness away from the chaos. Please hold them all in your prayers and the next time you read about one of them falling in Iraq or Afghanistan, understand that it is not just about the fallen but those they leave behind as well.

Fort Hood killings 'incomprehensible,' Obama says
November 10, 2009 4:23 p.m. EST


STORY HIGHLIGHTS
NEW: "Grieve with us; don't grieve for us," Army chief of staff says
Fact that soldiers died on base "makes the tragedy even more painful," Obama says
Troops, military brass, Congress members, Texas governor also attend memorial
Remains of one victim greeted by honor guard on return to Wisconsin

Fort Hood, Texas (CNN) -- The sound of taps echoed across the Texas plains Tuesday after President Obama pledged that the work of those killed in last week's Fort Hood massacre will go on despite their "incomprehensible" slayings.

Speaking to an estimated 15,000 people at a memorial service at the post, Obama vowed that justice will be done in the attack that left 13 dead and 42 wounded.

Though he told the families that "no words can fill the void that has been left," he added, "your loved ones endure through the life of our nation."

"Their life's work is our security and the freedom that we too often take for granted. Every evening that the sun sets on a tranquil town; every dawn that a flag is unfurled; every moment that an American enjoys life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness -- that is their legacy," the president said.

After his remarks, Obama and first lady Michelle Obama laid a presidential coin before each of the 13 battlefield crosses -- the helmet, boots and rifle representing each of those killed -- before family members and comrades filed past.
read more here
http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/11/10/fort.hood.memorial/index.html
Fire chief recalls 'shots fired' moment
First responder: 'It was game on'
Report: Hasan asked military to give Muslims an out
Toobin: Case jurisdiction unsettled
Missed clues sought in Fort Hood inquiry
Soldier did 'what I'm trained to do'
Fort Hood civilian loved work, family
Fort Hood investigators appeal for help
No evidence wounded hit by friendly fire
Slain soldier's family 'blindsided'
Family: Suspect's religion an issue
Motive still uncertain in Fort Hood shootings
From the eyes of an Army wife iReport
Inside Fort Hood center, where horror unfolded
Fort Hood victims Sons, a daughter, a mother-to-be

President Barack Obama speaks at the memorial service for the victims of the shootings on the Fort Hood Army post in Fort Hood, Tx. November 10, 2009. (Official White House Photo by Chuck Kennedy)

Text of President Obama's remarks at Fort Hood

From the White House press office
We come together filled with sorrow for the thirteen Americans that we have lost; with gratitude for the lives that they led; and with a determination to honor them through the work we carry on.

This is a time of war. And yet these Americans did not die on a foreign field of battle. They were killed here, on American soil, in the heart of this great American community. It is this fact that makes the tragedy even more painful and even more incomprehensible.

For those families who have lost a loved one, no words can fill the void that has been left. We knew these men and women as soldiers and caregivers. You knew them as mothers and fathers; sons and daughters; sisters and brothers.

But here is what you must also know: your loved ones endure through the life of our nation. Their memory will be honored in the places they lived and by the people they touched. Their life’s work is our security, and the freedom that we too often take for granted. Every evening that the sun sets on a tranquil town; every dawn that a flag is unfurled; every moment that an American enjoys life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness – that is their legacy.

Neither this country – nor the values that we were founded upon – could exist without men and women like these thirteen Americans. And that is why we must pay tribute to their stories.

Chief Warrant Officer Michael Cahill had served in the National Guard and worked as a physician’s assistant for decades. A husband and father of three, he was so committed to his patients that on the day he died, he was back at work just weeks after having a heart attack.

Major Libardo Eduardo Caraveo spoke little English when he came to America as a teenager. But he put himself through college, earned a PhD, and was helping combat units cope with the stress of deployment. He is survived by his wife, sons and step-daughters.

Staff Sergeant Justin DeCrow joined the Army right after high school, married his high school sweetheart, and had served as a light wheeled mechanic and Satellite Communications Operator. He was known as an optimist, a mentor, and a loving husband and father.

After retiring from the Army as a Major, John Gaffaney cared for society’s most vulnerable during two decades as a psychiatric nurse. He spent three years trying to return to active duty in this time of war, and he was preparing to deploy to Iraq as a Captain. He leaves behind a wife and son.

Specialist Frederick Greene was a Tennessean who wanted to join the Army for a long time, and did so in 2008 with the support of his family. As a combat engineer he was a natural leader, and he is survived by his wife and two daughters.

Specialist Jason Hunt was also recently married, with three children to care for. He joined the Army after high school. He did a tour in Iraq, and it was there that he re-enlisted for six more years on his 21st birthday so that he could continue to serve.

Staff Sergeant Amy Krueger was an athlete in high school, joined the Army shortly after 9/11, and had since returned home to speak to students about her experience. When her mother told her she couldn’t take on Osama bin Laden by herself, Amy replied: “Watch me.”

Private First Class Aaron Nemelka was an Eagle Scout who just recently signed up to do one of the most dangerous jobs in the service – diffuse bombs – so that he could help save lives. He was proudly carrying on a tradition of military service that runs deep within his family.

Private First Class Michael Pearson loved his family and loved his music, and his goal was to be a music teacher. He excelled at playing the guitar, and could create songs on the spot and show others how to play. He joined the military a year ago, and was preparing for his first deployment.

Captain Russell Seager worked as a nurse for the VA, helping veterans with Post-Traumatic Stress. He had great respect for the military, and signed up to serve so that he could help soldiers cope with the stress of combat and return to civilian life. He leaves behind a wife and son.

Private Francheska Velez, the daughter of a father from Colombia and a Puerto Rican mother, had recently served in Korea and in Iraq, and was pursuing a career in the Army. When she was killed, she was pregnant with her first child, and was excited about becoming a mother.

Lieutenant Colonel Juanita Warman was the daughter and granddaughter of Army veterans. She was a single mother who put herself through college and graduate school, and served as a nurse practitioner while raising her two daughters. She also left behind a loving husband.

Private First Class Kham Xiong came to America from Thailand as a small child. He was a husband and father who followed his brother into the military because his family had a strong history of service. He was preparing for his first deployment to Afghanistan.

These men and women came from all parts of the country. Some had long careers in the military. Some had signed up to serve in the shadow of 9/11. Some had known intense combat in Iraq and Afghanistan, and some cared for those did. Their lives speak to the strength, the dignity and the decency of those who serve, and that is how they will be remembered.

That same spirit is embodied in the community here at Fort Hood, and in the many wounded who are still recovering. In those terrible minutes during the attack, soldiers made makeshift tourniquets out of their clothes. They braved gunfire to reach the wounded, and ferried them to safety in the backs of cars and a pick-up truck.

One young soldier, Amber Bahr, was so intent on helping others that she did not realize for some time that she, herself, had been shot in the back. Two police officers – Mark Todd and Kim Munley – saved countless lives by risking their own. One medic – Francisco de la Serna – treated both Officer Munley and the gunman who shot her.

It may be hard to comprehend the twisted logic that led to this tragedy. But this much we do know – no faith justifies these murderous and craven acts; no just and loving God looks upon them with favor. And for what he has done, we know that the killer will be met with justice – in this world, and the next.

These are trying times for our country. In Afghanistan and Pakistan, the same extremists who killed nearly 3,000 Americans continue to endanger America, our allies, and innocent Afghans and Pakistanis. In Iraq, we are working to bring a war to a successful end, as there are still those who would deny the Iraqi people the future that Americans and Iraqis have sacrificed so much for.

As we face these challenges, the stories of those at Fort Hood reaffirm the core values that we are fighting for, and the strength that we must draw upon. Theirs are tales of American men and women answering an extraordinary call – the call to serve their comrades, their communities, and their country. In an age of selfishness, they embody responsibility. In an era of division, they call upon us to come together. In a time of cynicism, they remind us of who we are as Americans.

We are a nation that endures because of the courage of those who defend it. We saw that valor in those who braved bullets here at Fort Hood, just as surely as we see it in those who signed up knowing that they would serve in harm’s way.

We are a nation of laws whose commitment to justice is so enduring that we would treat a gunman and give him due process, just as surely as we will see that he pays for his crimes.

We are a nation that guarantees the freedom to worship as one chooses. And instead of claiming God for our side, we remember Lincoln’s words, and always pray to be on the side of God.

We are a nation that is dedicated to the proposition that all men and women are created equal. We live that truth within our military, and see it in the varied backgrounds of those we lay to rest today. We defend that truth at home and abroad, and we know that Americans will always be found on the side of liberty and equality. That is who we are as a people.

Tomorrow is Veterans Day. It is a chance to pause, and to pay tribute – for students to learn of the struggles that preceded them; for families to honor the service of parents and grandparents; for citizens to reflect upon the sacrifices that have been made in pursuit of a more perfect union.

For history is filled with heroes. You may remember the stories of a grandfather who marched across Europe; an uncle who fought in Vietnam; a sister who served in the Gulf. But as we honor the many generations who have served, I think all of us – every single American – must acknowledge that this generation has more than proved itself the equal of those who have come before.

We need not look to the past for greatness, because it is before our very eyes.

This generation of soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines and Coast Guardsmen have volunteered in a time of certain danger. They are part of the finest fighting force that the world has ever known. They have served tour after tour of duty in distant, different and difficult places. They have stood watch in blinding deserts and on snowy mountains. They have extended the opportunity of self-government to peoples that have suffered tyranny and war. They are man and woman; white, black, and brown; of all faiths and stations – all Americans, serving together to protect our people, while giving others half a world away the chance to lead a better life.

In today’s wars, there is not always a simple ceremony that signals our troops’ success – no surrender papers to be signed, or capital to be claimed. But the measure of their impact is no less great – in a world of threats that no know borders, it will be marked in the safety of our cities and towns, and the security and opportunity that is extended abroad. And it will serve as testimony to the character of those who serve, and the example that you set for America and for the world.

Here, at Fort Hood, we pay tribute to thirteen men and women who were not able to escape the horror of war, even in the comfort of home. Later today, at Fort Lewis, one community will gather to remember so many in one Stryker Brigade who have fallen in Afghanistan.

Long after they are laid to rest – when the fighting has finished, and our nation has endured; when today’s servicemen and women are veterans, and their children have grown – it will be said of this generation that they believed under the most trying of tests; that they persevered not just when it was easy, but when it was hard; and that they paid the price and bore the burden to secure this nation, and stood up for the values that live in the hearts of all free peoples.

So we say goodbye to those who now belong to eternity. We press ahead in pursuit of the peace that guided their service. May God bless the memory of those we lost. And may God bless the United States of America.

Stars and Stripes stories about the Fort Hood shooting
Stars and StripesEuropean edition, Tuesday, November 10, 2009, 2009
Fort Hood deals with aftermath of shooting as details of accused gunman emerge
After the shooting, combat instincts kicked in
Muslim groups quick to condemn shooting
Civilian police officer acted quickly to help subdue alleged gunman


This may be the most troubling article of all
Despite Army efforts, no catch-all test for troubled soldiers

Roughly 34,000 soldiers have been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. And the Army has 194 civilian, 121 military and 93 contract psychiatrists available to its population of more than half a million people, according to the surgeon general’s office. In the war zones, there are about 200 behavioral health specialists deployed in Iraq and just 30 in Afghanistan.

Trauma specialists are in high demand but the military will not open the doors to all of the trained trauma responders to fill in until more can be trained that have been acceptable to them. In other words, people like me need not apply. I only have over 27 years of doing this plus living with it, but the Chaplains I belong to, good enough for the police departments, fire departments and most walks of life, are not good enough for the military or the Veterans Administration. We're trained, certified and have to carry insurance. We act as chaplains wherever we are for whoever needs it. In my case, I act as a Chaplain reaching the entire country on this blog and my website, plus with the videos I make being used in more places than I can even remember.

The reason why I bring this up is, while the soldiers at Fort Hood put a public view of their grief, they fight a very private battle healing their wounds. Not just the wounds we can see but the ones it takes brain scans to see. They try to hide the need they have but their family and friends see the changes even if they do not know what those changes really signify.

The military and the VA need to bring in as many people as possible to take care of them and they need to stop waiting for the next crisis to strike. After what happened at Fort Hood last week, this is about to get a whole lot worse. Not just at Fort Hood but on all bases with soldiers wondering if they will ever really feel in a safe zone ever again. They don't have one in Iraq. They don't have one in Afghanistan. They thought they had one on Fort Hood, but now, now they don't even have that. If you think they have trauma related problems now the military can't handle, this will make it a lot worse.

Fort Hood suspect asked military to give Muslims an out

Report: Fort Hood suspect asked military to give Muslims an out
November 10, 2009 12:24 p.m. EST
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
NEW: Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan's presentation raised issue, Washington Post reports
NEW: Post: Let Muslims be conscientious objectors, he said
President, other dignitaries will attend memorial service
FBI says U.S. intelligence flagged shooting suspect's communications in late 2008
Fort Hood, Texas (CNN) -- The suspect in the Fort Hood shootings gave a presentation in 2007 saying the military should allow Muslim soldiers to opt out of fighting Muslim enemies, The Washington Post reported Tuesday.

Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, who allegedly killed 13 people and wounded 42 Thursday at Fort Hood Army post in Texas, delivered the presentation as part of his medical training at Walter Reed Army Medical Hospital in Washington, the Post reported.

"It's getting harder and harder for Muslims in the service to morally justify being in a military that seems constantly engaged against fellow Muslims," he said during the PowerPoint presentation before his supervisors and other mental health staff members, according to the paper.
read more here
http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/11/10/fort.hood.shooting/index.html

Don't stop with just praying, hear them and help them

Recently I was at an event with Christians taking care of homeless people. They were doing what Christ told them they should do. They did this without thinking someone would pay them back or do anything for them in return because they did it out of compassion.

There was a young father there. He came over to a group, telling them he didn't know what to do and was clearly very upset. He told how he had lost his job and had a sick infant at home with the threat of his electricity being shut off. A pastor came over to the group and asked him if he was a Christian. The young father said he was but had not been active as a Christian. The pastor then went into full battle mode to get him to accept Christ into his life, and after he did, the pastor walked away, leaving me stunned and the young father crushed. The pastor was not interested in hearing about his problems but above that, he did not offer a prayer for this young father's need or prayers for his sick child.

I offered a prayer for the father and the child which let this man know someone was at least listening to him.

The rest of the night, the homeless were fed, provided with personal care items and given some clothing along with prayers. These are very caring people giving up their time and their hearts to help others. The pastor had good intentions and maybe he believed that if this father accepted Christ back into his life, everything would be taken care of by Christ, but he lost the opportunity to show what Christ was all about. Christ didn't give someone a cloak when they needed food. He took care of the need as it was to show God's love. He taught those who followed Him to do the same.

When we pray to God, how do you expect God to answer your prayers? Do you think He just snaps His fingers and it's done? He answers our prayers by asking other people to fill them in many cases. Sometimes there are divine interventions where something just happens like healing without any medical reason for it but more often He is trying to get people with the ability to answer the prayers of someone to answer them.

We have veterans all across this country needing help and they need it from members of the clergy. From all denominations and all walks, they need them there to show God's love by listening to them but first they can only help them if they know what the problem is. How can a man or woman raised in faith in normal life never touched by trauma understand what combat does? How can they understand the aftermath if they do not understand the event itself? Our veterans need the help of the churches to heal but very few churches are getting involved. Talk to a National Guards soldier and you'll know how deep their pain is.

They need to know just as Christ came and walked with the poor and needy, what their lives are like in the first place before they can even hope to fulfill the need acting as Christ did, taking care of the need as they are in need and then, only then, really being able to draw people close to Christ and really feel Him as a part of their lives. Otherwise, they are not doing the job they said they would do.

I don't know if the pastor at the event knew what it was like to be under so much stress or not, but he needed to listen just as much as he needed to talk about Christ.