Army Sends Infant to Protective Services, Mom to Afghanistan
Friday 13 November 2009
by: Dahr Jamail Inter Press Service
Ventura, California - US Army Specialist Alexis Hutchinson, a single mother, is being threatened with a military court-martial if she does not agree to deploy to Afghanistan, despite having been told she would be granted extra time to find someone to care for her 11-month-old son while she is overseas.
Hutchinson, of Oakland, California, is currently being confined at Hunter Army Airfield near Savannah, Georgia, after being arrested. Her son was placed into a county foster care system.
Hutchinson has been threatened with a court martial if she does not agree to deploy to Afghanistan on Sunday, Nov. 15. She has been attempting to find someone to take care of her child, Kamani, while she is deployed overseas, but to no avail.
According to the family care plan of the U.S. Army, Hutchinson was allowed to fly to California and leave her son with her mother, Angelique Hughes of Oakland.
read more here
http://www.truthout.org/1114098
linked from RawStory
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Police officer helps Vietnam vet get new home and real welcome home
We see the crowds cheer when a veteran comes home today. We see them respectfully line the street as a flag draped coffin is carried to the fallen's place of rest. We saw the outpouring of support for the soldiers and families following the atrocity at Fort Hood. We see the best we can give them as a nation today but what the Vietnam veterans came home to was a much different nation.
This is one case of a Vietnam veteran, Officer William Gates, taking care of a brother. This is what is greatest about these veterans and most of the country will never know how much they have been involved with what is being done for veterans today. This at the same time they are finally discovering what was eating them alive has a name, a reason and a way to be healed.
There are still Vietnam veterans learning about PTSD from their own adult children. The newer generation connected to others across the country know far more than most of Vietnam veterans but they only understand it from the perspective of their own generation. They may have heard stories about the way Vietnam veterans were treated. Some would believe them, others would dismiss them. What cannot be dismissed is the fact had it not been for Vietnam veterans coming back, enduring all, risking all, fighting for all the benefits related to PTSD, this nation would look like a much different place for the newer veterans. Consider this the next time you read about how hard it is for our veterans and remember, it would a lot worse had it not been for those who were neglected and mistreated the most.
Photo by Hayley Kappes
League City code enforcement officer Chris Torres, right, hands Vietnam veteran Jim Stepanski the keys to his new trailer on Willow Lane. Stepanski’s old home sustained irreparable damage from hurricanes Rita and Ike.
City workers get Vietnam vet new home
By Leigh Jones
The Daily News
Published November 15, 2009
LEAGUE CITY — Vietnam veteran Jim Stepanski’s trailer on Willow Lane became unlivable after water damage from hurricanes Rita and Ike caused the walls to peel and wore holes in the floor.
Mold coated the interior. Rats and raccoons infested the structure.
Stepanski, 61, lived in the trailer until a local police officer and fellow Vietnam veteran decided to take action.
City employees officially gave Stepanski the keys to a new trailer Saturday afternoon. His new home sits on the site where his former trailer was.
League City police officer William Gates made a welfare check on Stepanski on June 1 after a family member could not reach the man on his birthday. Gates and Stepanski talked for a while about their war experiences, especially the disconnect from society they felt upon returning home. The two shared an instant bond.
“We’re from a forgotten era,” Gates said. “When I came home in 1970, I was screamed at and spit on. Police officers told me not to wear my uniform in public because it would cause an uproar.”His worst injury was invisible to the human eye. Stepanski withdrew from society and lived alone for years after returning from combat as a way to deal with the horrible memories of war that haunted him. Large crowds and constant loud noises still cause him to suffer panic attacks, he said.
“I now realize that what I had was post-traumatic stress disorder,” Stepanski said. “Back then my doctors just told me to put the war behind me and try to forget about it. There was no counseling for it back then.”go here for more
This is one case of a Vietnam veteran, Officer William Gates, taking care of a brother. This is what is greatest about these veterans and most of the country will never know how much they have been involved with what is being done for veterans today. This at the same time they are finally discovering what was eating them alive has a name, a reason and a way to be healed.
There are still Vietnam veterans learning about PTSD from their own adult children. The newer generation connected to others across the country know far more than most of Vietnam veterans but they only understand it from the perspective of their own generation. They may have heard stories about the way Vietnam veterans were treated. Some would believe them, others would dismiss them. What cannot be dismissed is the fact had it not been for Vietnam veterans coming back, enduring all, risking all, fighting for all the benefits related to PTSD, this nation would look like a much different place for the newer veterans. Consider this the next time you read about how hard it is for our veterans and remember, it would a lot worse had it not been for those who were neglected and mistreated the most.
Culpability in complacency
Culpability in complacency
by
Chaplain Kathie
When dedicated people assume all is well, it adds to the reality that veterans live with on a daily basis as they seek help after combat. The VA will say they have added on psychologists, psychiatrists and even claims processors, but what they won't tell you is that there are still not enough to meet the need. The DOD will say they have instituted programs to address the anguish of PTSD but what they won't say is if these programs are working or not as we read the suicide figures rise every year even after millions of funds have gone into the programs they claim will work.
Take a look at your own life. When you go home at the end of the day, it's doubtful you spend any time researching what you do for a living. Unless you are in college to get a degree, what you do for a living is not part of your home life. That is the way it is for most people in the VA as well as the DOD. They see what they are shown, doing very little investigating on their own.
When they see new soldiers or veterans seeking help, they assume they are filling the need, however missing the long lines behind these new patients. They don't have to read about another suicide some place else across the country. They don't read the story of yet another homeless veteran's body being found in the woods. They don't read about the National Guards soldier being told they have to go to the back of the line for help, wait for their claim to be approved so their war wound is taken care of, as they try to find out how the hell they are supposed to pay their bills and take care of their families.
In the DOD, they have their own way of doing things. The chain of command feeds them the programs they are supposed to use and they are just supposed to use what they are given no matter if they believe in the program or not. Much like the attitude of "it's better than nothing" they dutifully use it and hope for the best.
The people in charge are supposed to be keeping up on facts and removing themselves from ego driven attachment to what they have been doing. If they spend no time investigating what is being done across the country to find the programs that have been proven successful, they will never know how much they are part of the problem.
When the DOD assumed a program called Battle Mind was working the VA adopted the program. We saw the suicides, attempted suicides, homelessness, divorce, incarcerations and crimes go up to the point where there are now special veterans' courts opening the doors to address the unique aspect of being a veteran of combat. Had there not been such enormous public pressure on the DOD and the VA do to more, they would still be relying on this program instead of finding something that would not do more harm than good.
The problem was so bad that when Spec. Chris Dana, of the Montana National Guard, committed suicide, his commanders were fed up with losing more after combat than they did during it. They came up with their own program to address the aftermath of combat. Had the DOD been doing due diligence, they would have figured out the failure of this program long ago. It's not that they didn't care. They suffered from complacency assuming it was working. Maybe they figured they just needed to give their efforts more time to work since the chain of command above them came up with the programs they were using.
At the VA there is a long line the mental health providers never see. While they see their cases rise and see more new faces joining as co-workers, they assume all that is needed to be done is being done. They don't read about the phone calls the suicide prevention hotline gets that are never followed up on, or the calls when the veteran is told to call back in the morning. They only know about the ones who are saved and the ones who are helped because of this effort. They know about approved claims but they don't know about the devastation veterans suffer when their claim is tied up or erroneously denied.
Members of congress will not know until either reporters break stories in their district or a constituent reaches their aid to tell of a heartbreaking story of a family member no longer here because they were not provided with the help they needed to heal after war. Congress will assume the DOD and the VA are taking care of all the issues because they have provided increased funding to address the problem. What they do not do is follow up to make sure there are no more veterans falling through the cracks.
All of this makes them culpable and us as well.
When the veterans are suffering, when the troops do not have what they need, we are all responsible for it. If we ignore what is happening, we are part of the problem. Even service organizations assume that the VA is taking care of all of the need or at least getting close to it. They simply do as they always did with small efforts on the local level, while in their local community there are hundreds of National Guards coming home to no jobs, no financial support, families unaware of what came home with them in the form of PTSD, leaving them feeling abandoned until it's time to deploy them again.
Marines, soldiers, airmen and sailors desiring to dedicate their lives as career military, suddenly find themselves unable to return to duty after the wounds of war strike them down. This they wanted to spend the rest of their lives doing, yet because of a physical wound or invisible one they are discharged. Then they must try to find a job if they can work or compensation if they cannot. Then they wonder what they are supposed to do with the rest of their lives now that their life plans are no longer possible. They also have to deal with members of their units deploying again while they remain here.
The VA and the DOD have not taken notice of the fact that many groups have formed outside to address the needs. They have also not seemed to have noticed that it is not happening in every community just as there are not enough Vet Centers in every community. Veterans are unique because while they may leave small towns and rural areas, they serve in the same place, taking the same risks, suffering the same kinds of wounds, as others from larger cities with more resources to provide veterans with. These veterans deserved the same care other veterans receive but not much is being done for them.
Congress continues to look for ways to help. They keep finding funding to try to address the problems. They keep holding hearings to find out what is going on. The problem is, they are not holding hearings on what has already been done that has been proven to work. They are not talking to people that have been already having successful outcomes.
How did a lot of Vietnam veterans marriages survive when there was nothing for support back then but now there is support but shattered families go up as well as suicides and homelessness?
How did some veterans manage to heal so much so that they turned around and started organizations to help other veterans heal, yet some fall so far into the abyss they end up living in the woods or on the streets?
How did some members of the clergy take their ministries to a whole new level and begin to train on trauma while most members of the clergy avoid any knowledge of it?
There needs to be an attitude adjustment in this country and all of us need to stop assuming someone else will do what needs to be done because clearly the evidence is in and it is not happening. Congress needs to find out what really works and stop hearing the same things over and over again. The DOD and the VA need to take a fresh look at the results of what they've done so far and keep doing what has proven to be successful and ditching what doesn't work the same way they would ditch faulty weapons.
The numbers are not all in. Even the experts point out the reluctance of seeking help because of the stigma at the same time they are unaware of the fact mild PTSD can be healed pretty successfully and they can stay in the military. Just ask the four generals who had the courage to talk about their own wounds. This means for all the numbers we have now, we are not even close to what is to come. If we do not treat this as an emergency situation now, it will be catastrophic over the next few years.
by
Chaplain Kathie
When dedicated people assume all is well, it adds to the reality that veterans live with on a daily basis as they seek help after combat. The VA will say they have added on psychologists, psychiatrists and even claims processors, but what they won't tell you is that there are still not enough to meet the need. The DOD will say they have instituted programs to address the anguish of PTSD but what they won't say is if these programs are working or not as we read the suicide figures rise every year even after millions of funds have gone into the programs they claim will work.
Take a look at your own life. When you go home at the end of the day, it's doubtful you spend any time researching what you do for a living. Unless you are in college to get a degree, what you do for a living is not part of your home life. That is the way it is for most people in the VA as well as the DOD. They see what they are shown, doing very little investigating on their own.
When they see new soldiers or veterans seeking help, they assume they are filling the need, however missing the long lines behind these new patients. They don't have to read about another suicide some place else across the country. They don't read the story of yet another homeless veteran's body being found in the woods. They don't read about the National Guards soldier being told they have to go to the back of the line for help, wait for their claim to be approved so their war wound is taken care of, as they try to find out how the hell they are supposed to pay their bills and take care of their families.
In the DOD, they have their own way of doing things. The chain of command feeds them the programs they are supposed to use and they are just supposed to use what they are given no matter if they believe in the program or not. Much like the attitude of "it's better than nothing" they dutifully use it and hope for the best.
The people in charge are supposed to be keeping up on facts and removing themselves from ego driven attachment to what they have been doing. If they spend no time investigating what is being done across the country to find the programs that have been proven successful, they will never know how much they are part of the problem.
When the DOD assumed a program called Battle Mind was working the VA adopted the program. We saw the suicides, attempted suicides, homelessness, divorce, incarcerations and crimes go up to the point where there are now special veterans' courts opening the doors to address the unique aspect of being a veteran of combat. Had there not been such enormous public pressure on the DOD and the VA do to more, they would still be relying on this program instead of finding something that would not do more harm than good.
The problem was so bad that when Spec. Chris Dana, of the Montana National Guard, committed suicide, his commanders were fed up with losing more after combat than they did during it. They came up with their own program to address the aftermath of combat. Had the DOD been doing due diligence, they would have figured out the failure of this program long ago. It's not that they didn't care. They suffered from complacency assuming it was working. Maybe they figured they just needed to give their efforts more time to work since the chain of command above them came up with the programs they were using.
At the VA there is a long line the mental health providers never see. While they see their cases rise and see more new faces joining as co-workers, they assume all that is needed to be done is being done. They don't read about the phone calls the suicide prevention hotline gets that are never followed up on, or the calls when the veteran is told to call back in the morning. They only know about the ones who are saved and the ones who are helped because of this effort. They know about approved claims but they don't know about the devastation veterans suffer when their claim is tied up or erroneously denied.
Members of congress will not know until either reporters break stories in their district or a constituent reaches their aid to tell of a heartbreaking story of a family member no longer here because they were not provided with the help they needed to heal after war. Congress will assume the DOD and the VA are taking care of all the issues because they have provided increased funding to address the problem. What they do not do is follow up to make sure there are no more veterans falling through the cracks.
All of this makes them culpable and us as well.
When the veterans are suffering, when the troops do not have what they need, we are all responsible for it. If we ignore what is happening, we are part of the problem. Even service organizations assume that the VA is taking care of all of the need or at least getting close to it. They simply do as they always did with small efforts on the local level, while in their local community there are hundreds of National Guards coming home to no jobs, no financial support, families unaware of what came home with them in the form of PTSD, leaving them feeling abandoned until it's time to deploy them again.
Marines, soldiers, airmen and sailors desiring to dedicate their lives as career military, suddenly find themselves unable to return to duty after the wounds of war strike them down. This they wanted to spend the rest of their lives doing, yet because of a physical wound or invisible one they are discharged. Then they must try to find a job if they can work or compensation if they cannot. Then they wonder what they are supposed to do with the rest of their lives now that their life plans are no longer possible. They also have to deal with members of their units deploying again while they remain here.
The VA and the DOD have not taken notice of the fact that many groups have formed outside to address the needs. They have also not seemed to have noticed that it is not happening in every community just as there are not enough Vet Centers in every community. Veterans are unique because while they may leave small towns and rural areas, they serve in the same place, taking the same risks, suffering the same kinds of wounds, as others from larger cities with more resources to provide veterans with. These veterans deserved the same care other veterans receive but not much is being done for them.
Congress continues to look for ways to help. They keep finding funding to try to address the problems. They keep holding hearings to find out what is going on. The problem is, they are not holding hearings on what has already been done that has been proven to work. They are not talking to people that have been already having successful outcomes.
How did a lot of Vietnam veterans marriages survive when there was nothing for support back then but now there is support but shattered families go up as well as suicides and homelessness?
How did some veterans manage to heal so much so that they turned around and started organizations to help other veterans heal, yet some fall so far into the abyss they end up living in the woods or on the streets?
How did some members of the clergy take their ministries to a whole new level and begin to train on trauma while most members of the clergy avoid any knowledge of it?
There needs to be an attitude adjustment in this country and all of us need to stop assuming someone else will do what needs to be done because clearly the evidence is in and it is not happening. Congress needs to find out what really works and stop hearing the same things over and over again. The DOD and the VA need to take a fresh look at the results of what they've done so far and keep doing what has proven to be successful and ditching what doesn't work the same way they would ditch faulty weapons.
The numbers are not all in. Even the experts point out the reluctance of seeking help because of the stigma at the same time they are unaware of the fact mild PTSD can be healed pretty successfully and they can stay in the military. Just ask the four generals who had the courage to talk about their own wounds. This means for all the numbers we have now, we are not even close to what is to come. If we do not treat this as an emergency situation now, it will be catastrophic over the next few years.
Local veterans honored, forum tackles homefront issues
Dedication to America
Local veterans honored; forum tackles homefront issues
by Timothy J. Carroll
Hoboken hosted two events last week to honor local servicemen and servicewomen for Veterans Day, once known as Armistice Day to remember the end of World War I.
Dubbed by Woodrow Wilson the “War To End All Wars,” World War I ended in the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month in 1918. Unfortunately, WWI did not end all wars.
On Wednesday, Nov. 11, local veterans and other city officials gathered at Pier A Park to remember fallen soldiers and pay tribute to others who served.
At 11 a.m., they observed a moment of silence and rang a bell 11 times in memory of Armistice Day.
On Wednesday night, the city and other sponsors conducted a public forum on veterans’ homefront issues. The forum featured a shortened version of a play dealing with suicide among veterans, a documentary film about soldiers’ homefront groups, and a discussion about post-war issues.
Mayor Dawn Zimmer attended the forum and asked all veterans in the audience to stand before the forum began so that everyone could show appreciation for their service.
read more here
Dedication to America
Local veterans honored; forum tackles homefront issues
by Timothy J. Carroll
Hoboken hosted two events last week to honor local servicemen and servicewomen for Veterans Day, once known as Armistice Day to remember the end of World War I.
Dubbed by Woodrow Wilson the “War To End All Wars,” World War I ended in the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month in 1918. Unfortunately, WWI did not end all wars.
On Wednesday, Nov. 11, local veterans and other city officials gathered at Pier A Park to remember fallen soldiers and pay tribute to others who served.
At 11 a.m., they observed a moment of silence and rang a bell 11 times in memory of Armistice Day.
“When I came home, what I did, I cannot tell you those things, but God was with me.” – Orlando Addeo
On Wednesday night, the city and other sponsors conducted a public forum on veterans’ homefront issues. The forum featured a shortened version of a play dealing with suicide among veterans, a documentary film about soldiers’ homefront groups, and a discussion about post-war issues.
Mayor Dawn Zimmer attended the forum and asked all veterans in the audience to stand before the forum began so that everyone could show appreciation for their service.
read more here
Dedication to America
The Growing PTSD Plague
The Growing PTSD Plague
November 15, 2009: For the last six years, the U.S. Army has been conducting mental health surveys of troops in the combat zone. As expected, troops on their second or third trip to the combat zone, have more stress related mental problems. While 14 percent of troops on their first combat tour have stress problems, that goes to 18 percent for those on their second tour, and 31 percent for those on their third.
A growing proportion of NCOs and officers are doing their third or fourth combat tours (in Iraq or Afghanistan), and that means more and more of them are approaching the point where they will have to take a non-combat job. Otherwise, they risk severe mental problems from the accumulated stress. In effect, PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) epidemic has been created by the unprecedented exposure of so many troops, to so much combat, in so short a time. Once a soldier has PTSD, they are no longer fit for combat, and many troops headed for Afghanistan are falling into this category. PTSD makes it difficult for people to function, or get along with others. With treatment (medication, and therapy), you can recover from PTSD. But this can take months or years. In extreme cases, there is no recovery.
read more here
http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htatrit/articles/20091115.aspx
November 15, 2009: For the last six years, the U.S. Army has been conducting mental health surveys of troops in the combat zone. As expected, troops on their second or third trip to the combat zone, have more stress related mental problems. While 14 percent of troops on their first combat tour have stress problems, that goes to 18 percent for those on their second tour, and 31 percent for those on their third.
A growing proportion of NCOs and officers are doing their third or fourth combat tours (in Iraq or Afghanistan), and that means more and more of them are approaching the point where they will have to take a non-combat job. Otherwise, they risk severe mental problems from the accumulated stress. In effect, PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) epidemic has been created by the unprecedented exposure of so many troops, to so much combat, in so short a time. Once a soldier has PTSD, they are no longer fit for combat, and many troops headed for Afghanistan are falling into this category. PTSD makes it difficult for people to function, or get along with others. With treatment (medication, and therapy), you can recover from PTSD. But this can take months or years. In extreme cases, there is no recovery.
read more here
http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htatrit/articles/20091115.aspx
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