New Mentor Program Helps Area Veterans Adjust to Civilian Life
Posted: Jan 04, 2010 5:49 PM EST
by Kristen Elicerio
For a lot of veterans combat service, repeated deployments or drug and alcohol abuse make the adjustment back to civilian life difficult.
A new program aims to help soliders adjust and steer clear from troubles with the law.
"This is a mentors program where we have mentors deal completely outside the court system as early as possible when a veteran is identified as having some legal issues. Whether a victim, or a witness or a perpetrator," said Judge Todd Bjerke.
Mentors in the program help further push vets towards getting help.
"This is a way to maybe reach people who have not asked for help or were not aware of help. If we can get them into the VA system, get them some assistance, maybe mediate some legal problems, I see that as a big plus for this community," said Veteran Services Officer Jim Gausmann.
Mentors who were sworn into the program Monday are also veterans.
read more here
http://www.wkbt.com/Global/story.asp?S=11767126
Monday, January 11, 2010
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Oklahoma City vets’ claims being rejected
None of this is new, it is just worse than it was. My husband's claim took six years to have approved and a friend of his saw his claim rejected for 19 years. While some will say the claim was finally granted, what it takes to get from admitting they need help, especially with PTSD claims, to getting them is more hell than anyone would ever put up with in civilian life, but the veterans are all expected to just deal with the system and wait. Wait for money when they can't work because they were wounded in service? This isn't right and never has been right, never will be right making them wait for what they need from us.
Oklahoma City vets’ claims being rejected
Many armed forces veterans in Oklahoma are having trouble receiving disability payments
BY ANN KELLEY The Oklahoman
Published: January 10, 2010
Four times Gary Endsley has applied for disability compensation for health problems he thinks are related to exposure to Agent Orange in Vietnam. Each time Endsley has been turned down by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
With each rejection letter he’s flooded with more disappointment and frustration, and feels that he’s "being called a liar” about his military record, he said.
"I’m beginning to feel like I had been better off going to Canada and skipping the war,” said Endsley, 65, of Oklahoma City.
Endsley is one of many armed forces veterans living in Oklahoma and wrangling with Veterans Affairs over disability compensation.
Nationally, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs processed more than 1.1 million claims in 2009, including 25,396 for Oklahoma, said Jessica Jacobson, spokeswoman for the agency’s regional office in Dallas.
The Oklahoman requested the number of Oklahoma veterans denied disability compensation for 2009, but Jacobson Friday said those numbers were not available.
She said the caseload has increased 50 percent since 2000, with Afghanistan and Iraq military servicemen and women returning home and the aging population of other war veterans, as well as the initiation of new U.S. Department of Defense benefits and recent court rulings.
Read more: Oklahoma City vets’ claims being rejected
A story by an Army wife is not from a TV show
Real military life is not what you see on TV.
The lives of veterans after war become America's secret. The civilians are under the impression all is well until a report comes out proving everything they think they know about how this country treats veterans has been wrong. Usually reports about what is really going on cause such an outrage by the American people, the government manages to make swift changes because voters will not let our veterans be mistreated by anyone. While the bureaucracy in Washington manages to muck things up, the American people are fiercely loyal to the troops when they serve and to the veterans they become.
Things changed since Vietnam veterans came home mistreated but they changed for all generations of veterans because these Vietnam veterans refused to surrender to the powers of the government and they forced them to act on addressing Post Traumatic Stress Disorder as well as Agent Orange and the rest of what was wrong with the way our veterans were treated. Things also changed because the Internet linked them together so they no longer felt isolated, discovering the power of their united numbers could move mountains and those mountains did in fact move.
Fast forward thirty years and we find reports online about PTSD, suicides, homeless veterans, divorces, suffering and we also read about healing because they shared their stories and made it all personal to the rest of the population. Things changed because they had the courage to speak out. The current members of the military and their families however, do not have the same ability to speak out without paying a price for it.
Carissa Picard spoke out and paints a picture of military life few others will ever know. Do all marriages end up like her's? No but considering the divorce rate in the military it's obvious these marriages are in trouble for more than just the usual reasons people have when getting divorced. They have to live where they are told to live for however long they are told to live there. Their kids end up going through different schools in different states so often they have a hard time making friends because they think they'll end up moving again. Wives end up not being able to work because there are only so many jobs they can hold close to base allowing them to be able to pick their kids up from school while their spouse is deployed. Yes, it's even hard when both parents are in the military.
Maybe things will change in the military because people like Carissa show there is a big difference between watching TV shows making us think we know what military life is about. Lord knows they need more support than they are getting and this can come when we are able to understand some of what they really face.
Please read what she has to say about her life as a real Army Wife.
"The Unit" (2006) Covert warriors. Unsung heroes. Plot:Hour long show which looks at the life of American super-secret operators.
"Army Wives" (2007) The army has its code... the wives have their own.
Plot:
About a woman who marries a soldier and moves her family onto an Army base, where she becomes friends with other women whose husbands are in the military.
The lives of veterans after war become America's secret. The civilians are under the impression all is well until a report comes out proving everything they think they know about how this country treats veterans has been wrong. Usually reports about what is really going on cause such an outrage by the American people, the government manages to make swift changes because voters will not let our veterans be mistreated by anyone. While the bureaucracy in Washington manages to muck things up, the American people are fiercely loyal to the troops when they serve and to the veterans they become.
Things changed since Vietnam veterans came home mistreated but they changed for all generations of veterans because these Vietnam veterans refused to surrender to the powers of the government and they forced them to act on addressing Post Traumatic Stress Disorder as well as Agent Orange and the rest of what was wrong with the way our veterans were treated. Things also changed because the Internet linked them together so they no longer felt isolated, discovering the power of their united numbers could move mountains and those mountains did in fact move.
Fast forward thirty years and we find reports online about PTSD, suicides, homeless veterans, divorces, suffering and we also read about healing because they shared their stories and made it all personal to the rest of the population. Things changed because they had the courage to speak out. The current members of the military and their families however, do not have the same ability to speak out without paying a price for it.
Carissa Picard spoke out and paints a picture of military life few others will ever know. Do all marriages end up like her's? No but considering the divorce rate in the military it's obvious these marriages are in trouble for more than just the usual reasons people have when getting divorced. They have to live where they are told to live for however long they are told to live there. Their kids end up going through different schools in different states so often they have a hard time making friends because they think they'll end up moving again. Wives end up not being able to work because there are only so many jobs they can hold close to base allowing them to be able to pick their kids up from school while their spouse is deployed. Yes, it's even hard when both parents are in the military.
Maybe things will change in the military because people like Carissa show there is a big difference between watching TV shows making us think we know what military life is about. Lord knows they need more support than they are getting and this can come when we are able to understand some of what they really face.
Please read what she has to say about her life as a real Army Wife.
Invisible Casualties of an Invisible War
Carissa Picard
http://sites.google.com/site/carissapicard/
War never ends for those we send
War never ends for those we send
by
Chaplain Kathie
No matter when all the troops are pulled out of Iraq and Afghanistan, when there are no more wars to fight and no more dying in combat, there will still be casualties of war being added. This we must all understand and prepare to fight a new kind of war during peacetime.
If you need a better idea of what happens when they come home, read any story about a Vietnam veteran still trying to come all the way home, or a Korean veteran or talk to some of the remaining WWII veterans, and you will see it in their eyes as they think about their days while they risked their lives. They were once civilians just like the rest of us, but when they were sent to fight our military battles, they became veterans of war. While they may have returned physically the same, they knew they were different, unlike everyone else they live with because so few have ever experienced what they survived.
We may have thought it was all over when we stopped sending them into other nations, when we stopped paying for the deployments and weapons, when we stopped feeding and clothing them as well as training them, but for those we send, wars never really end. They are part of them.
As high as the numbers are of the PTSD wounded, the fact is, less than half seek help for PTSD, which means, we really don't know how many more there are. We don't know how many more are carrying torment PTSD but are trying to hide it, how many have mild PTSD believing they will just "get over it" instead of being aware not treating it is like having a time bomb ready to blow with another traumatic event in their life or how many will end up so severely wounded, their family ends up with PTSD as well from living with the mood swings, angry outbursts, overblown responses and nightmares so harsh the whole family is losing sleep. What is worse is that we don't know how many could have been spared most of it had they received help in time.
We read about suicides yet we never seem to come to terms with the fact the only reason people commit suicide is they have no reason to hope. Once hope is gone, hope of a better day, hope that the pain they feel will go away, hope for anything better, there is no reason to carry on. We all live with hope in our hearts or none of us would do anything at all.
If they were all helped as soon as they came home, you would see less suicides, less divorces, less domestic violence, less drug and alcohol arrests, less crime and less homelessness. Imagine if the older veterans were helped when they came home what their lives would be like today as well as the lives of their families for generations. Families carry on the burden of what their veteran brought home but no one really talks about this either. Each generation carries on what they live with. For most of them, they have no idea of what "it" is. Dismissing what they never understood, what they never paid attention to is easy. They view what the veteran does without understanding it and then blame the veteran instead of wondering what was behind all of it. Wives blame the veteran and then they blame themselves. Kids blame the parent and then blame themselves. These thoughts are carried on into every relationship they have and it is all carried onto the next generation.
Talk to the children of veterans as they have grown up with no understanding and you will hear about the father that didn't care, the mean dad, the drunk, the coldness and how nothing they did was ever good enough. They see how their parent acted but never understood why they acted the way they did. All they knew about war was what was written in history books because they never heard any real life experiences from their parent or grandparent. They are detached from it while living with it.
When the military leaves Iraq, when the military leaves Afghanistan, they will come home with these nations in them. We have yet to treat all the veterans of the past wars and these newer veterans will be added to the secret casualty count along with their families. Communities will be dealing with the result of many PTSD veterans for generations to come unless they come together to help the veterans heal.
We see this in many parts of the nation but we also see how many others are still dismissing this wound of war. The Vietnam War ended in 1973 officially but the deaths went on until 1975. at least the acknowledged deaths. We still lost more after the war was declared over than we did during it. They died because of Agent Orange, this more easily acceptable than when they died from suicide and they are still dying. We lose 18 veterans a day from suicide. Another 10,000 a year attempt it. None of this has to happen as long as we all understand that just because a war is over and they are back home, too many are still fighting for their lives because they went to war.
by
Chaplain Kathie
No matter when all the troops are pulled out of Iraq and Afghanistan, when there are no more wars to fight and no more dying in combat, there will still be casualties of war being added. This we must all understand and prepare to fight a new kind of war during peacetime.
If you need a better idea of what happens when they come home, read any story about a Vietnam veteran still trying to come all the way home, or a Korean veteran or talk to some of the remaining WWII veterans, and you will see it in their eyes as they think about their days while they risked their lives. They were once civilians just like the rest of us, but when they were sent to fight our military battles, they became veterans of war. While they may have returned physically the same, they knew they were different, unlike everyone else they live with because so few have ever experienced what they survived.
We may have thought it was all over when we stopped sending them into other nations, when we stopped paying for the deployments and weapons, when we stopped feeding and clothing them as well as training them, but for those we send, wars never really end. They are part of them.
As high as the numbers are of the PTSD wounded, the fact is, less than half seek help for PTSD, which means, we really don't know how many more there are. We don't know how many more are carrying torment PTSD but are trying to hide it, how many have mild PTSD believing they will just "get over it" instead of being aware not treating it is like having a time bomb ready to blow with another traumatic event in their life or how many will end up so severely wounded, their family ends up with PTSD as well from living with the mood swings, angry outbursts, overblown responses and nightmares so harsh the whole family is losing sleep. What is worse is that we don't know how many could have been spared most of it had they received help in time.
We read about suicides yet we never seem to come to terms with the fact the only reason people commit suicide is they have no reason to hope. Once hope is gone, hope of a better day, hope that the pain they feel will go away, hope for anything better, there is no reason to carry on. We all live with hope in our hearts or none of us would do anything at all.
If they were all helped as soon as they came home, you would see less suicides, less divorces, less domestic violence, less drug and alcohol arrests, less crime and less homelessness. Imagine if the older veterans were helped when they came home what their lives would be like today as well as the lives of their families for generations. Families carry on the burden of what their veteran brought home but no one really talks about this either. Each generation carries on what they live with. For most of them, they have no idea of what "it" is. Dismissing what they never understood, what they never paid attention to is easy. They view what the veteran does without understanding it and then blame the veteran instead of wondering what was behind all of it. Wives blame the veteran and then they blame themselves. Kids blame the parent and then blame themselves. These thoughts are carried on into every relationship they have and it is all carried onto the next generation.
Talk to the children of veterans as they have grown up with no understanding and you will hear about the father that didn't care, the mean dad, the drunk, the coldness and how nothing they did was ever good enough. They see how their parent acted but never understood why they acted the way they did. All they knew about war was what was written in history books because they never heard any real life experiences from their parent or grandparent. They are detached from it while living with it.
When the military leaves Iraq, when the military leaves Afghanistan, they will come home with these nations in them. We have yet to treat all the veterans of the past wars and these newer veterans will be added to the secret casualty count along with their families. Communities will be dealing with the result of many PTSD veterans for generations to come unless they come together to help the veterans heal.
"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
We see this in many parts of the nation but we also see how many others are still dismissing this wound of war. The Vietnam War ended in 1973 officially but the deaths went on until 1975. at least the acknowledged deaths. We still lost more after the war was declared over than we did during it. They died because of Agent Orange, this more easily acceptable than when they died from suicide and they are still dying. We lose 18 veterans a day from suicide. Another 10,000 a year attempt it. None of this has to happen as long as we all understand that just because a war is over and they are back home, too many are still fighting for their lives because they went to war.
Vietnam veteran works to heal spiritual wounds of warfare
Vietnam veteran works to heal spiritual wounds of warfare
Friday, January 8, 2010
By Bryan Cones
By Ed Langlois Catholic News Service
PORTLAND, Ore. (CNS) -- Gary Ascher has a good life. Amiable and bright, he's in a long-lasting marriage. His children are high-achieving. He holds down a steady job making patterns for cast metal machinery.
But for more than 40 years, Ascher has yearned to pacify his conscience. A U.S. infantryman in Vietnam between November 1967 and November 1968, this gray-haired man with intense brown eyes wonders how he can be forgiven for taking lives.
"Yes, I was defending myself, but we were the initial aggressors," said the 62-year-old member of Holy Trinity Parish in Beaverton. "We were sent out in hopes we would be ambushed."
Ascher, who plays guitar for his church choir, was one of 15 people with links to the military who came to Our Lady of Peace Retreat House in Beaverton in December for a weekend on war and healing. Leaders of the session know that the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan mean more retreats will be needed in the future.
Father Michael Drury, a former military chaplain from Montana, reminded the group that there is such a thing as a just war in Catholic teaching. It's a fight "when there is an unjust aggressor who cannot be stopped by any other means."
read more here
Vietnam veteran works to heal spiritual wounds of warfare
Friday, January 8, 2010
By Bryan Cones
By Ed Langlois Catholic News Service
PORTLAND, Ore. (CNS) -- Gary Ascher has a good life. Amiable and bright, he's in a long-lasting marriage. His children are high-achieving. He holds down a steady job making patterns for cast metal machinery.
But for more than 40 years, Ascher has yearned to pacify his conscience. A U.S. infantryman in Vietnam between November 1967 and November 1968, this gray-haired man with intense brown eyes wonders how he can be forgiven for taking lives.
"Yes, I was defending myself, but we were the initial aggressors," said the 62-year-old member of Holy Trinity Parish in Beaverton. "We were sent out in hopes we would be ambushed."
Ascher, who plays guitar for his church choir, was one of 15 people with links to the military who came to Our Lady of Peace Retreat House in Beaverton in December for a weekend on war and healing. Leaders of the session know that the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan mean more retreats will be needed in the future.
Father Michael Drury, a former military chaplain from Montana, reminded the group that there is such a thing as a just war in Catholic teaching. It's a fight "when there is an unjust aggressor who cannot be stopped by any other means."
read more here
Vietnam veteran works to heal spiritual wounds of warfare
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