The War Followed Him Home
Veterans discuss PTSD and the suicide of a brother in arms
By Marisa Demarco
Veteran Micah Shaw in Trebil, Iraq, on the Jordanian border Joseph Callan was shocked and saddened when he heard about the Jan. 13 death of Iraq veteran Kenneth Ellis III. And he was angry.
Callan is a combat veteran who did three tours of duty in Iraq, including the initial invasion of the country. He was an infantryman, but he left the Marine Corps in early 2008 and came back to Albuquerque. "I had every intention of being in the Marines for 20 years and retiring," he says, but he couldn't live with his conscience. "I couldn't believe what we were doing." When he returned to civilian life, he says he felt isolated and didn't have support from the Department of Veterans Affairs or the military. "I started to get angry." He was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.
So was Ellis, the man who died in front of the 7-Eleven at Constitution and Eubank last week. The 25-year-old was pulled over because his car had the wrong plates, according to news reports. He got out of the car and put a gun to his head while he was talking to his mother on his cell phone. Police shot him after he refused to put the weapon down.
Ellis had been part of an inpatient PTSD program at the VA Medical Center. Sonja Brown, spokesperson for the VA, would not confirm or deny Ellis was kicked out of the program, as has been reported. She wouldn’t comment on Ellis’ case due to patient privacy laws.
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The War Followed Him Home
Thursday, January 21, 2010
At Vatican, U.S. military chaplains study PTSD
At Vatican, U.S. military chaplains study post-traumatic syndrome
By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Like chaplains in the U.S. military around the world, a group of Catholic chaplains meeting at the Vatican spent a full day studying how to provide pastoral and spiritual care to people suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.
Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio, head of the U.S. Archdiocese for the Military Services, brought 40 U.S. Catholic chaplains, who are on active military duty, to the Vatican Jan. 19-21 to discuss what's going on in the archdiocese, learn more about responding to post-traumatic stress disorder and discuss preparations for using the new Mass translations.
By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Like chaplains in the U.S. military around the world, a group of Catholic chaplains meeting at the Vatican spent a full day studying how to provide pastoral and spiritual care to people suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.
Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio, head of the U.S. Archdiocese for the Military Services, brought 40 U.S. Catholic chaplains, who are on active military duty, to the Vatican Jan. 19-21 to discuss what's going on in the archdiocese, learn more about responding to post-traumatic stress disorder and discuss preparations for using the new Mass translations.
With 285 active duty chaplains for the military and about 150 chaplains working in the hospitals, "we are terribly undermanned," he said.
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Canada looks at caring for veterans as a human rights issue
That is what it all boils down to isn't it? Replacing income because a combat veteran suffers for having served, having risked their life, having already paid the price few others will come close to understanding, leaving them without enough money to live off of, should be considered nothing less than a human rights issue. They are disabled and should be treated as disabled with the medical care and financial support they need just like anyone else but unlike anyone else, they would not be disabled unless they risked their lives for the sake of everyone else in the country. So how is it that they are forced to fight yet another battle to make sure they do not have to suffer even more for suffering in the first place?
Disabled vets wage new war
By SEAN BRUYEA
Thu. Jan 21 - 4:46 AM
It has become a sad truth that the path of an injured soldier to receive disability benefits in Canada is a minefield of obstacles. Today, the Supreme Court of Canada will hear about some of them.
When Canadian Forces members are injured on duty, they receive pain and suffering payments from Veterans Affairs while keeping their full salary. If soldiers are so disabled as to be unemployable, they are kicked out of the military and paid 75 per cent of their salary through a long-term disability plan held by the Canadian Forces. Then, in some seemingly petty act of revenge, the Canadian Forces insurance plan deducts amounts for pain and suffering paid by Veterans Affairs.
No other long-term disability income plan in Canada is allowed to deduct Veterans Affairs payments for pain and suffering. This is why Nova Scotia resident Dennis Manuge has brought his case to the Supreme Court; his case represents more than 4,000 disabled soldiers similarly affected. I am one of the 4,000.
The National Defence ombudsman has called the deductions "profoundly unfair" and said that "the inequity might very well be serious enough to attract the protection of human rights legislation" including "the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which identifies physical and mental disabilities as prohibited grounds of discrimination."
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http://thechronicleherald.ca/Columnists/1163449.html
Trijicon said it has had such inscriptions on its products for three decades
N. Zealand to remove Bible verses from sights
By Ray Lilley - The Associated Press
Posted : Thursday Jan 21, 2010 5:48:01 EST
WELLINGTON, New Zealand — New Zealand said Thursday that Biblical citations inscribed on U.S.-manufactured weapon sights used by New Zealand’s troops in Afghanistan will be removed, saying they are inappropriate and could stoke religious tensions.
The inscriptions on products from defense contractor Trijicon of Wixom, Michigan, came to light this week in the U.S. where Army officials said Tuesday they would investigate whether the gun sights — also used by U.S. troops in Afghanistan and Iraq — violate U.S. procurement laws.
Australia also said Thursday its military used the sights and was now assessing what to do.
Trijicon said it has had such inscriptions on its products for three decades and has never received complaints about them before. The inscriptions, which don’t include actual text from the Bible, refer numerically to passages from the book.
New Zealand defense force spokesman Maj. Kristian Dunne said that Trijicon would be instructed to remove the inscriptions from further orders of the gun sights for New Zealand and that the letters would be removed from gun sights already in use by troops.
“The inscriptions ... put us in a difficult situation. We were unaware of it and we’re unhappy that the manufacturer didn’t give us any indication that these were on there,” Dunne said. “We deem them to be inappropriate.”
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N. Zealand to remove Bible verses from sights
By Ray Lilley - The Associated Press
Posted : Thursday Jan 21, 2010 5:48:01 EST
WELLINGTON, New Zealand — New Zealand said Thursday that Biblical citations inscribed on U.S.-manufactured weapon sights used by New Zealand’s troops in Afghanistan will be removed, saying they are inappropriate and could stoke religious tensions.
The inscriptions on products from defense contractor Trijicon of Wixom, Michigan, came to light this week in the U.S. where Army officials said Tuesday they would investigate whether the gun sights — also used by U.S. troops in Afghanistan and Iraq — violate U.S. procurement laws.
Australia also said Thursday its military used the sights and was now assessing what to do.
Trijicon said it has had such inscriptions on its products for three decades and has never received complaints about them before. The inscriptions, which don’t include actual text from the Bible, refer numerically to passages from the book.
New Zealand defense force spokesman Maj. Kristian Dunne said that Trijicon would be instructed to remove the inscriptions from further orders of the gun sights for New Zealand and that the letters would be removed from gun sights already in use by troops.
“The inscriptions ... put us in a difficult situation. We were unaware of it and we’re unhappy that the manufacturer didn’t give us any indication that these were on there,” Dunne said. “We deem them to be inappropriate.”
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N. Zealand to remove Bible verses from sights
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Report on Virginia VA center finds problems
Report on Virginia VA center finds problems
By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday Jan 20, 2010 10:08:20 EST
A new report from the Veterans Affairs Department inspector general will help fuel complaints about an error-filled disability claims process in need of a complete overhaul.
Investigators looking at claims processing at the VA regional office in Roanoke, Va., found that 25 percent of the case files they closely studied had serious mistakes. Some veterans were denied benefits they deserved, and disability compensation was given to others who were not eligible.
Many errors involved Vietnam veterans with disability claims related to exposure to the defoliant Agent Orange.
In one case, a veteran was underpaid $21,857 because the claims staff did not properly consider a physician’s opinion that coronary artery disease was a complication of service-connected diabetes.
In another, a veteran was overpaid $15,640 for a diabetes-related amputation below the knee that he said was related to exposure to Agent Orange in Vietnam. His claims folder contained no evidence that he had served in Vietnam, the IG report says.
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Report on Virginia VA center finds problems
By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday Jan 20, 2010 10:08:20 EST
A new report from the Veterans Affairs Department inspector general will help fuel complaints about an error-filled disability claims process in need of a complete overhaul.
Investigators looking at claims processing at the VA regional office in Roanoke, Va., found that 25 percent of the case files they closely studied had serious mistakes. Some veterans were denied benefits they deserved, and disability compensation was given to others who were not eligible.
Many errors involved Vietnam veterans with disability claims related to exposure to the defoliant Agent Orange.
In one case, a veteran was underpaid $21,857 because the claims staff did not properly consider a physician’s opinion that coronary artery disease was a complication of service-connected diabetes.
In another, a veteran was overpaid $15,640 for a diabetes-related amputation below the knee that he said was related to exposure to Agent Orange in Vietnam. His claims folder contained no evidence that he had served in Vietnam, the IG report says.
read more here
Report on Virginia VA center finds problems
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