Navy SEAL turns to treatment to heal a broken life

How is it easier to understand what it takes to heal a broken bone than it is to heal a broken life? Use whatever word you want, soul, mind, if you take issue with the choice of words in the following article, but if you do, then you are missing the most important message of it.

A broken leg bone will heal with just time but it doesn't heal right. The rest of the body suffers with endless pain, weakened by constantly compensating for the part that was broken. The pain will not allow true rest or sleep. Emotions get hung up on feeling the misery until every good experience is overcome by pain.

Yet when a broken bone is treated properly and is supported by a cast, it heals right. It heals in the right place after a doctor has reset it. Medication can numb the pain until it heals. The pain subsides as time goes by. The pain that remains is easy to adjust to and compensate for.

That is PTSD. It is a "break" that usually can't be seen by eyes unless it breaks through the skin. It can be healed with treatment but also needs to be healed with support. In this case, the support comes from family, friends, communities and mental health trauma experts. They become your cast so you are able to stand up supported until you can stand up on your own.

This story is about a Navy SEAL, as tough as they come, named Nathan. I urge you to read the whole article and if you take nothing else away from this, let it be the fact he was falling apart to the point where he wanted to end the pain he felt by ending his life.

Former Navy SEAL turns to treatment
Healing a broken life: Nathan lives with survivor’s guilt and PTSD following a failed Afghan mission
UT San Diego
By Jeanette Steele1
FEB. 2, 2013

It was 5 o’clock on a July morning, and Nathan’s mother stopped the car on Park Boulevard.

They looked at the collection of San Diego’s homeless veterans stretching up the block. It was a line of haggard faces, all waiting to get a warm meal and a cot for the weekend.

Nathan, a tall, broad-shouldered former Navy SEAL, was under a court order to join them. His precarious high-wire act fueled by alcohol and post-traumatic stress disorder had finally collapsed, ending in a dust-up outside a bar and a criminal charge.

A judge mandated treatment, starting with the “Stand Down” event for homeless vets.

Nathan remembers that morning, less than seven months ago. His mother cried.

His mind still carries the image of 11 buddies whose remains he had to gather after a disastrous June 2005 mission in Afghanistan’s Hindu Kush mountains. It was the single largest loss of life for Navy SEALs at that point since World War II: Operation Red Wings.

He was becoming one of them. He was already one of them.

“I was on the way out. I’ve put a gun in my mouth. I’ve felt it in my mouth. I’ve not known if there was a round in the chamber because I’ve been so drunk. And I’ve pulled the trigger,” said the 29-year-old San Diego native.

Nathan thinks combat vets, in particular those from special operations, should get at least three months to decompress before returning to normal American life. He calls the idea a “retreat,” where service members take classes on the interaction of PTSD and drugs or alcohol and tackle their VA paperwork.
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Famous Navy SEAL Sniper Chris Kyle killed at Texas gun range

UPDATE from CNN
Ex-Navy sniper killed at Texas gun range
By the CNN Staff
February 3, 2013

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
NEW: The suspect is a former Marine, a U.S. military official says
Eddie Ray Routh faces two counts of capital murder
Chris Kyle and Chad Littlefield were working to help veterans with PTSD
Kyle had declared himself the "most lethal sniper in U.S. history"

"He was a man of incredible character, he led by example," Jason Kos, a friend of Kyle's, told CNN. "He always stopped to take time to talk to whoever was around him. Just incredibly humble, very funny as well."

Kyle helped establish the nonprofit Fitco Cares Foundation to enable veterans battling post-traumatic stress syndrome get access to exercise equipment.

In a statement, the foundation described Kyle as an "American hero" and pledged to carry on his mission.

"What began as a plea for help from Chris looking for in-home fitness equipment for his brothers- and sisters-in-arms" struggling with PTSD turned into an organization that will continue after his death, Fitco Director Travis Cox said in a statement. "Chris died doing what he filled his heart with passion -- serving soldiers struggling with the fight to overcome PTSD. His service, life and premature death will never be in vain. May God watch over his family and all those who considered Chris a true friend."

"What began as a plea for help from Chris looking for in-home fitness equipment for his brothers- and sisters-in-arms" struggling with PTSD turned into an organization that will continue after his death, Fitco Director Travis Cox said in a statement. "Chris died doing what he filled his heart with passion -- serving soldiers struggling with the fight to overcome PTSD. His service, life and premature death will never be in vain. May God watch over his family and all those who considered Chris a true friend."

Littlefield was also a veteran working to help people with PTSD, and also leaves behind a wife and children, Cox said.
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'American Sniper' author Chris Kyle fatally shot at Texas gun range
By Gil Aegerter and Alastair Jamieson
NBC News

A former Navy SEAL who wrote "American Sniper," a best-selling book about his lethal career as a marksman in Iraq, was shot to death with another man at a gun range near Stephenville, Texas, on Saturday.

Chris Kyle, 38, and the other man were found dead at the shooting range of Rough Creek Lodge on Saturday afternoon, Texas Highway Patrol spokesman Lonny Haschel told KXAS.

The gunman, identified as (the shooter) of Lancaster, Texas, was arrested after a brief pursuit, Trooper Haschel said. The other victim was named as Chad Littlefield, aged 35.

Kyle, a Texas native who grew up hunting, served four tours in Iraq with Navy SEAL Team 3. His shooting during battles in Ramadi and Fallujah became legendary, and insurgents nicknamed him the "Devil of Ramadi" and put a bounty on his head.

He was credited with 160 confirmed kills, including one in 2008 in which he said he fired from 2,100 yards away -- 1.2 miles.
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Army tells soldiers "Satellite network isn’t for Facebook"

Army: Satellite network isn’t for Facebook
Army Times
By Joe Gould
Staff writer
Posted : Friday Feb 1, 2013

Soldiers are using a war zone logistics satellite network to surf Facebook, Twitter and other sites that are off limits on Army computers.

And the Army is ordering them to knock it off.

An Army bulletin warns soldiers that the mobile satellite network is not for non-Army uses like file-swapping networks, checking e-mail or visiting non-Army web sites. Army deputy chief of staff for logistics Lt. Gen. Raymond Mason issued the message Jan. 13.

The terminals and mobile network are commonly used by lower enlisted soldiers to request supplies in the war zone, according to source familiar with them. The Army blocks their ability to access the commercial, classified and non-classified Internet.
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This soldier must love kittens

6 minutes ago
Photo of soldier, furry friend makes a viral splash on the web
By MEREDITH TIBBETTS
Stars and Stripes
Published: February 2, 2013

Pfc. Kevin Davidson takes a cat nap with a stray that was "adopted" by some troops at a U.S. base in Kuwait.
COURTESY OF KEVIN DAVIDSON

It’s just an image of two friends sleeping together: a warm cat seeking comfort with U.S. soldier Pfc. Kevin Davidson in Kuwait. But it went viral on the Web with the help of reddit.com and Purina pet food.

Perhaps the cat could smell food cooking inside the base or maybe it was looking for a place out of the sun. On Christmas Eve the feline curled up outside a U.S. base in Kuwait to lie down for a nap.

Like other cats and dogs at overseas posts, troops noticed him and took him inside the base. Despite the fact that “adopting as pets or mascots, caring for, or feeding any type of domestic or wild animal” is a punishable offense under the UCMJ, taking in a furry local is commonly overlooked.

As one lieutenant colonel told Stars and Stripes in 2010, there’s a lot more to worry about in the life-and-death world of a war zone than who’s sneaking puppies and kittens.

Andrew Baumgartner was a Marine, who served in Afghanistan

Surveillance video shows Marine, burglary suspect trying to get into Granger Twp home before suicide
Search ends after man turns gun on self
Posted: 02/01/2013
By: Bob Jones, newsnet5.com
By: Stephanie Ramirez, newsnet5.com

Investigators wondered how the Marine, who had served in Afghanistan, had found so much trouble just a few months after he was discharged.

MEDINA, Ohio - Andrew Baumgartner was a Marine, who served in Afghanistan, and planned to become a cop, according to Medina County detectives.

But on Thursday night, the police were after Baumgartner after he scuffled with Sgt. Scott Schmoll on I-271 near State Route 94.

Baumgartner, 27, of Westlake, also tried to get inside a Granger Township home before disappearing into a wooded area and taking his own life.

The bizarre and tense chain of events unfolded shortly after 11 p.m., after concerned drivers called 911 to report a man walking along the expressway.

Sgt. Schmoll responded and offered to give Baumgartner a ride.

But when Schmoll patted the man down, he felt a pistol tucked inside his waistband. Schmoll didn't know it at the time, but the gun was loaded.

Suddenly, the two wrestled to the ground.

"The suspect turned on my sergeant and they were hands on and they were involved in a tussle. The sergeant told me as soon as he put his hands and felt the weapon, it started right then. It happened very fast," said Lt. Matthew Linscott.
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