New caucus to address vets’ mental health
By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Thursday Jan 21, 2010 13:27:19 EST
After a year in which more service members across the military committed suicide than were killed in action in Iraq and Afghanistan, four lawmakers have formed a congressional caucus to push for improvements in military and veterans mental health services.
Reps. Michael McMahon, D-N.Y.; Harry Teague, D-N.M.; Phil Roe, R-Tenn.; and Tom Rooney, R-Fla., announced Thursday they are the founding members of Invisible Wounds Caucus in the House of Representatives.
The caucus has two basic goals:
• To promote more awareness of wounds like traumatic brain injury, post-traumatic stress disorder, substance abuse and mental disorders that may not be readily apparent.
• To push for expanded government treatment programs for those suffering from these so-called “invisible” wounds.
In a joint letter to colleagues inviting them to join the caucus, the founders say mental health for combat veterans is “becoming a pressing national issue worthy of our attention.”
“Not doing enough has had a high price paid by our returned service members and those close to them in the form of depression, lower quality of life, economic insecurity, substance abuse, and suicide,” the letter states.
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New caucus to address vets’ mental health
Thursday, January 21, 2010
No More Jesus Rifles
No More Jesus Rifles
After ABC News Report, Trijicon Announces Plan to Remove Bible Codes from Gun Sights Provided to U.S. Military
By LUIS MARTINEZ, JOSEPH RHEE and MARK SCHONE
Trijicon, the gunsight maker that has imprinted Bible verse numbers on its scopes, has announced that it will no longer imprint the verses on the sides of scopes intended for the U.S. military, and will also provide clients with the kits to remove the Bible verse numbers from existing scopes.
An ABC News report earlier this week revealed that the Michigan-based company, which has a contract to provide up to 800,000 scopes to the U.S. military, prints references to New Testament chapters and verses in code next to the model numbers of its scopes. The scopes are used by the U.S. Marine Corps and Army in Iraq and Afghanistan, and by U.S. allies in those countries, and for the training of Afghan and Iraqi troops.
Earlier today, Gen. David Petraeus, who commands CentCom, which oversees U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, told a D.C. thinktank that the company's practice was "disturbing …and a serious concern for me" and field commanders. He said there had been considerable discussions within the Department of Defense about how to deal with Trijicon's practice.
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No More Jesus Rifles
After ABC News Report, Trijicon Announces Plan to Remove Bible Codes from Gun Sights Provided to U.S. Military
By LUIS MARTINEZ, JOSEPH RHEE and MARK SCHONE
Trijicon, the gunsight maker that has imprinted Bible verse numbers on its scopes, has announced that it will no longer imprint the verses on the sides of scopes intended for the U.S. military, and will also provide clients with the kits to remove the Bible verse numbers from existing scopes.
An ABC News report earlier this week revealed that the Michigan-based company, which has a contract to provide up to 800,000 scopes to the U.S. military, prints references to New Testament chapters and verses in code next to the model numbers of its scopes. The scopes are used by the U.S. Marine Corps and Army in Iraq and Afghanistan, and by U.S. allies in those countries, and for the training of Afghan and Iraqi troops.
Earlier today, Gen. David Petraeus, who commands CentCom, which oversees U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, told a D.C. thinktank that the company's practice was "disturbing …and a serious concern for me" and field commanders. He said there had been considerable discussions within the Department of Defense about how to deal with Trijicon's practice.
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No More Jesus Rifles
The War Followed Him Home
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
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
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
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