CBS 60 Minutes lets what veterans face into public mind

If you are a regular reader of this blog, you don't need to have a lecture from me about how bad it is for our veterans, so you can move on to the videos and then maybe thank 60 minutes and above all Paul Sullivan for doing this.

If you are not a regular reader, then please stay with me here a second. Before you watch these clips from 60 minutes, you need to think about something.

When they talk about a million claims, when they talk about 4 years to have a claim honored, they are not just talking about a claim. They are talking about a serviceman or woman, wounded because they served this country. They are talking about someone willing to give up their life if they had to, but managed to make it back home with wounds. They are also talking about this same man or woman, coming home with no income in the case they are unable to work or hold down a job because of their injuries. Usually the kind of injury we're talking about is PTSD. With this, they also see their family shatter under the weight of all the stress of a husband/wife with PTSD, their symptoms, unable to work because of those symptoms, and then they are left to wonder if they would have been better off dying in combat than surviving it.

After the Vietnam war, it seemed no one really cared about the veterans. We had some kind of twisted excuse to not pay attention back then. But this, this time it happened while we were watching and supposedly paying attention. It all happened since 9-11 when it just kept getting worse for our veterans at the same time they heard every political hack on TV and radio squawk about how much they cared but never once bothered to let the general public know what was going on.

Paul Sullivan is a hero to many veterans. He has been trying to get this right for the veterans since he left the VA. Isn't it time you decided to do the same for our veterans? I don't mean quit your day job but you can get involved my calling your congressman's office and letting them know, this will not be allowed to go on. Write letters to your local newspaper and send me a copy. I'll be happy to post it up for you. There is much you can do and much that has to be done but remember, they never once made us wait for them.

"We owe a debt to all who served and when we repay that debt to those bravest Americans among us, then we are investing in our future."
~ Barack Obama, August 3, 2009

VCS on "60 Minutes" Exposing Long Delays Veterans Face with VA Claims
Written by Byron Pitts
Sunday, 03 January 2010 20:41
Why The VA Frustrates Veterans: Two Wars Are Slowing The Large Bureaucracy, Delaying Benefits

January 3, 2010 (CBS News "60 Minutes") - There is a sacred tradition in the military: leave no one behind on the battlefield. But many veterans are beginning to believe their country has left them behind at home, once they're out of uniform and in need of help. That help is supposed to come from the Department of Veterans Affairs and the financial compensation it gives to veterans disabled by their military service.

It was Abraham Lincoln who said the purpose of the VA was to "care for him who shall have borne the battle." But the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have pushed the VA further behind in that mission, and today there are a million veterans waiting for the VA to handle their disability claims.

That has led some to latch onto another motto making the rounds for how the VA operates: "Delay, Deny and Hope That I Die."

Extra: Watch extented segment posted at CBS News featuring Veterans for Common Sense

Extra: Read how VA tried to launch a pre-emptive strike against "60 Minutes" and VCS at VAWatchDog.org

"When I hear that, I will tell you that it really troubles me. As somebody who has devoted 35 years of my life to this organization, and to serving veterans, it's extremely troubling that there are veterans who feel that way," the VA's Deputy Undersecretary for Benefits Michael Walcoff, told 60 Minutes correspondent Byron Pitts.

read more of this here
Exposing Long Delays Veterans Face with VA Claims

Web Extra: A Four Year Wait?
January 3, 2010 5:30 PM

Paul Sullivan is executive director of Veterans for Common Sense, an advocacy group that works on behalf of veterans' issues.

Watch CBS News Videos Online

Veterans' Benefit FrustrationsJanuary 3, 2010 5:30 PM

Two wars and a recession have significantly increased the claims handled by the U.S. Dept. of Veteran's Affairs, slowing the large bureaucracy and frustrating many veterans. Byron Pitts reports.

Watch CBS News Videos Online
CBS) There is a sacred tradition in the military: leave no one behind on the battlefield. But many veterans are beginning to believe their country has left them behind at home, once they're out of uniform and in need of help. That help is supposed to come from the Department of Veterans Affairs and the financial compensation it gives to veterans disabled by their military service.

It was Abraham Lincoln who said the purpose of the VA was to "care for him who shall have borne the battle." But the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have pushed the VA further behind in that mission, and today there are a million veterans waiting for the VA to handle their disability claims.

That has led some to latch onto another motto making the rounds for how the VA operates: "Delay, Deny and Hope That I Die."

"When I hear that, I will tell you that it really troubles me. As somebody who has devoted 35 years of my life to this organization, and to serving veterans, it's extremely troubling that there are veterans who feel that way," the VA's Deputy Undersecretary for Benefits Michael Walcoff, told 60 Minutes correspondent Byron Pitts.
read more here
Veterans Benefit Frustrations

House Fire Leaves Iraq War Veteran, Wife Homeless

House Fire Leaves Iraq War Veteran, Wife Homeless
A neighbor and friend helps the veteran, a stroke victim, to get out of the house as flames were increasing.
Story by D.K. Wright

DEEP RUN, Ohio -- The worst possible circumstances were all present on New Year's morning at a major house fire in Belmont County.
A recovering stroke victim was alone in the house, plus there were icy roads, no fire hydrants, a long distance for help to travel and the flames were prompting ammunition in the house to explode.

The house belongs to Joseph Ross and his wife Jenny.

Joseph, in his 40s, and a veteran of the Iraq War who was just recovering from a stroke, was at home alone Friday morning when he awoke to flames all around him.

"He said he was sleeping and he woke up and there was fire around him and he got his dogs out; he was over there counting the dogs and he got them out," said Linda Irwin, Ross' mother-in-law.

Neighbors who are dear friends reportedly got Joseph out the door to safety.
read more here
http://www.statejournal.com/story.cfm?func=viewstory&storyid=72793

Bullets, bombs, bills and books?

2 veterans help others battle debt
In exchange for donations, vets do community service under charity's auspices

By Bonnie Miller Rubin

Tribune reporter

January 2, 2010


It was past midnight in December 2003, when Roy Brown, a 23-year-old soldier serving in Iraq, experienced a life-changing moment.

Ironically, it didn't happen in combat but while the South Sider was on the phone, doing battle with a bank over his college loans.

"I'm on the other side of the world, worrying about (bombs) and where my unit would be moving next, and some loan officer is harassing my mother over $82.67," said Brown, shaking his head. "I just felt so disheartened and let down."

His high school pal, Eli Williamson, dealt with similar phone calls while overseas: "You can't even print what I was feeling."

But the disappointment and anger were followed by action. Once back home in Chicago, the two soldiers used their experiences as motivation to launch a nonprofit called Leave No Veteran Behind, dedicated to relieving the educational debt of those who have served in the military.

Brown and Williamson, both 29, have found office space on LaSalle Street, assembled a board of directors, connected with donors and erased the tuition bills of two servicemen and enrolled another 100 or so applicants, all of whom have been dogged by college bills.

Leave No Veteran Behind uses private donations to pay off a veteran's outstanding loans. In exchange, the soldier commits to 100 hours of community service, which helps provide purpose for someone who might have difficulty re-entering civilian life.
read more here
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-vet-charityjan02,0,7557334.story

They don't hate you, they hate what is happening to you

They don't hate you, they hate what is happening to you
by
Chaplain Kathie

If you have PTSD and are under the impression you are hiding it, you're not. You cannot hide what PTSD is doing to you. They notice how you are no longer laughing like you used to. They notice every part of you has changed including how they felt loved by you. They hear you in the middle of the night when the nightmares come. They see you when a flashback takes you back into combat. As you self-medicate to kill off feeling pain, you may say "I'm not hurting anyone." in order to justify yourself, but the truth is, you are hurting yourself and everyone in your life.

Your spouse, the one you promised to stay with in sickness and health, cannot understand that you do not suddenly hate her/him but are wounded inside.

Your kids don't understand and they feel as if you don't even like them anymore.

Your parents don't understand why their child, the man/woman they watched grow from infancy, has suddenly turned into a cold stranger in the body of their child.

Is it so easy to accept the idea they think you are a drug addict or alcoholic over having PTSD? Do you really think they admire you for coming home drunk? High? Talking tough? Getting into trouble? Do you want them to hate you so that no longer allowing yourself to feel anything for them is justified? Why is it so hard for you to remember that these people loved you no matter what happened before in your life?

They prayed for you before you left, while you were gone and thanked God because they assumed you came home fine. They loved you every time you achieved something just as much as they loved you every time you failed. They rejoiced for you just as much as they grieved for you but now you think they will not be there for you because you have PTSD. They knew "you" but they don't understand what has happened to change you unless you explain it to them.

The general public has very little understanding when it comes to PTSD. Your family is no different. Most of them say that while you were deployed, they had enough to worry about, so most did not even pay attention to the news and you didn't tell them much while you were gone either. They were not detached from you but detached from what you were going through just as much as they are detached from what is happening to you now that you're back. They cannot understand how to help you if you keep pushing them away instead of getting them involved back in your life.

If you are a veteran of Iraq or Afghanistan, now is the time to ask them to help you. Show them this video and let them know anger coming out of you is born out of the pain you are carrying. Let them understand that you are carrying what you went thru even if you do not go into detail with them. Help they understand what PTSD is and stop thinking there is more shame in being wounded than there is in being what they think you're becoming.

PTSD I Grieve

Posted to Great Americans by NamGuardianAngel on September 11, 2009

Click to Play View Details

While this video was developed for National Guardsmen, it applies to all combat veterans. Use it to help them understand why you act the way you do, say the things you do and have not said what you should have said a long time ago.

If you think for a second it's too late for you to heal, it's not. Today Vietnam veterans are finally beginning to heal, feel again, hope again, love again. It is not too late for them so it is not too late for you. When you start to seek help to heal, PTSD stops being able to increase the pain you feel. It stops getting worse.

When you begin to heal the first thing most experience is a flood of emotions, usually tears coming out feeling as if they will never stop falling. All of your emotions have been trapped behind a wall of pain built to protect yourself from more pain. The only emotion you felt safe to let out was anger but everything else was trapped behind the wall. Getting help cracks the wall and the release of emotions trapped behind it start to come out. That's why you cry. Pain is the emotion you felt first and is the strongest one. It has to be released first.

Once the pain is released then you can begin to find hope of being alive again. This will be your own alive day just as when a soldier has experienced a horrific wound awakening in the hospital calls the day they survived as their alive day. This is the day you begin to live again.

Stop trying to get the people in your life to get away from you and start to get them back in your life again.

Do you want to be homeless? What will that prove? That you don't need anyone in your life? Try surviving on the street with no one giving you a buck or two, or without anyone giving you food at a shelter or a blanket to keep you warmer. No matter what you want to believe, you do need people in your life and no one really lives without someone else helping them. It can either be your family or it can be total strangers but you do need someone.

Do you want to go to jail because you wanted to do drugs more than you wanted to be on medication? Do you want your family to really believe you hate them? Is it so much easier to put the burden of your wound onto their shoulders and make them suffer for what you will not tell them? Whatever you think will be easier to do instead of asking them to help you heal, you're wrong. They loved you before and they still love you now. Ask them for help and shove that stupid pride back where it belongs because as much as you want to think you're hiding the fact you're human, you're not fooling anyone.

The fact is that PTSD only comes after trauma, which is caused by something out of your control, from the outside attacking you. It "picked" on you because you have the ability to care more than others, have more compassion than others, feel deeper than others. It does not mean you are not courageous. It means you had the courage to act because you cared and now you can use the same courage to heal. Do you want to feel good things again? Do you think you can without getting drunk or high? You may have not noticed but when you are drunk or high, you surly don't look very happy. You are also unable to "feel" the good stuff humans are supposed to feel, like love, hope, passion and you stop feeling what it's like to be bonded to anyone.

Do you want to feel love for your family again? For your parents? For your spouse/girlfriend/boyfriend? Do you want to feel love for your kids again? Remember what it was like when you could feel the words "I love you" coming from them? When was the last time you "felt" those words reach your heart? When was the last time you felt anything other than anger?

The trauma of what you survived was out of your control. The rest of your life is within your control. God created a perfect chain of elements within all of us and it all comes from your soul. All you need to heal is within you but you need help finding out how it all works. Psychiatrists can help you fix the chemistry in your brain with medication and therapy. You can help your body work better when you eat better and exercise with calming activities. Yoga, meditation, martial arts and something as simple as taking a walk will get your body stronger and cleanse the negative energy from you. Just as important as taking care of your mind and body, is taking care of your spiritual life. Knowing God did not do this to you opens the door to asking Him to come back into your life.

There is an expression that infuriates. "God never gives us more than we can handle." This expression means that some people believe God is doing all of the bad stuff to them or causing it to happen. It is not that God is doing it to us, but that God is ready to give us what we need to get thru all of it. He can restore hope if you stop running from Him. He can restore all the faith you had before and even make it stronger if you allow Him. He can have you feeling all the good emotions you had before and make the sadness weaker.

You can heal but you can't heal if you keep trying to run away from it. You can't run from it because it will follow you no matter where you go. If you leave the people you love, what have you gained? You lost them and stand alone with no one by your side. You have also hurt people you once loved.

How do I know healing is possible? Because I have seen it in my own husband and many other veterans. There is no cure for PTSD yet and you cannot return to the way you were before. What can happen is that you come out of the darkness of PTSD better than you were before, more caring, more loving and yes, even happier. What you cannot heal, you can make weaker. You can come to a point where when nightmares come, they are not as powerful. When flashbacks come, they do not drain you as much or last as long. You can also come to a point where your family will react differently because they understand what is going on inside of you instead of blaming you for what comes out of you. The choice is your's to make but understand you did not end up with PTSD for any other reason than you survived traumatic events in combat so you can't really expect someone never exposed to any of it to automatically understand anything. Give then a chance to help you and give yourself a chance to feel love again for them.

No US combat deaths in Iraq in December but three non-combat deaths

One ugly truth about war is that we lose more after it than during it. With all the counts from the Department of Defense and the VA, the truth is that we never really know how many die because of war but are not counted in any of the totals. If they are out of the military, they are not tracked by the DOD. If they are not in the VA system as a veteran, they are not counted when they die either. It's almost as if they fall into a dark hole but their families know who they are, remember them and mourn them.

Zero combat deaths in Iraq for December but three non-combat deaths. This should not be the end of this story.

No U.S. combat-related deaths in Iraq in December
January 1, 2010 3:54 p.m. EST

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
NEW: Casualties decreasing among Iraqis with civilian death toll at its lowest in November
December is first month with no U.S. combat deaths since war began
"That is a very significant milestone for us," top U.S. commander in Iraq says
4,373 Americans have died in Iraq since start of war

Baghdad, Iraq (CNN) -- December was the first month since the beginning of the Iraq war in which there were no U.S. combat deaths, the U.S. military reported.

There were three noncombat fatalities.

"That is a very significant milestone for us as we continue to move forward, and I think that also speaks to the level of violence and how it has decreased over time," said Army Gen. Ray Odierno, the top U.S. commander in Iraq.

Since the beginning of the war more than six years ago, 4,373 U.S. military members have died -- 3,477 from hostilities and 898 in non-combat incidents.
read more here
http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/meast/01/01/iraq.us.deaths/index.html