Fort Bragg Soldier found dead at home

Bragg soldier dies at family home in Georgia
WRAL.com
February 21, 2013

FORT BRAGG, N.C. — A Fort Bragg soldier was found dead over the weekend at his family's home in Tucker, Ga., the U.S. Army said Thursday.

Pfc. Andrew W. Brown, 28, was a health care specialist with 1st Battalion, 325th Airborne Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team.

Brown was found unresponsive Sunday morning. The cause of death is under investigation.
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US veterans being deported finally being addressed

Bill Would Slow U.S. Veteran Deportations
Feb 21, 2013
Military.com
by Bryant Jordan

A California congressman plans to file new legislation to make it more difficult to deport U.S. military veterans who are not citizens.

U.S. Rep. Mike Thompson, D-Calif., previously filed the bill in December 2011 but it died in committee.

The bill will not help veterans who have already been booted from the country, but it will ensure due process and require the authorization of the Secretary of Homeland Security before vets could be deported.

Now, according to attorneys and advocates for deported veterans, immigration and Customs Enforcement officials are able to boot veterans from the U.S. with the minimal amount of process even over questionable cases sometimes many years old.

Margaret Stock, an immigration attorney in Alaska and an Army Reserve officer, said immigration officials are very aggressive in trying to deport people, regardless of their veteran’s status.

She said that in some cases job performances are based on the numbers you rack up, giving agents more incentive to make cases. read more here

"I was prepared to die for my brothers around me"

"I was prepared to die for my brothers around me"
by Kathie Costos
Wounded Times Blog
February 21, 2013

Think about what this veteran said. Let it sink in. Think about what it takes to be willing to do that. Could you do that? Could you train to do that? No. No amount of training to kill trains you to die for the sake of someone else. That is already within them when they decide to join the military. They are rare in this country. America has only 8% of the population knowing what it is like to be willing to do that, less than 1% are serving right now. Now think about the military suicides. Do you think it is fair when military brass compares military suicides to the civilian suicide statistics? They fail to mention the fact that veterans are among some of them.

How do they go from that during combat to not wanting to live when they go back home and no longer have to worry about sacrificing their lives to save someone else?

The only reason for this to happen is when they lose hope that the next day can be better than this day was.

Veterans describe devastating effects of PTSD
WNCN-TV
2/20/2013

For some veterans, the war doesn't end when they arrive back in the United States. Shaken by their experiences, they can suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, living with a severe anxiety that can devastate lives and families.

Two veterans who have struggled with PTSD are Matthew Brown and Bobby Price, who explained their symptoms and their paths to recovery.

"I was prepared to die for my brothers around me," said Brown. "I was prepared to die to keep people at home safe."

"I signed up to serve my country," said Price, a retired member of the Military Police.

Brown said he never touched a single drink before joining the military.

"It didn't hit me in the beginning," said Price. "It started wearing on me little by little."

Brown and Price had two very different experiences in the military, but have at least two things in common – their love for their families – and post-traumatic stress disorder.
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When General Dana Pittard said "suicide was a selfish act" he was wrong beyond belief because these are not selfish people. They are hurting because they do not get what they need to heal from where they've been. Brass blames families and girlfriends and money, you name it but never mention their hardships during deployments are a lot harsher than those reasons. Never mention that most of the problems with relationships are because of PTSD even though less than half seek help for it so that means half don't even know if they have it or not.

These men and women are killing themselves because they are suffering and the DOD doesn't want to change a thing they are doing to address any of it. More of the same will result in more of the same deaths because of combat and not during it.

Bill may finally cover adult children under CHAMPVA

Right now medical insurance is costing us almost $1,000 a month even though my husband is 100% disabled and I get CHAMPVA. My deductible is $2,500 a year if they were my primary insurance but we have two problems. One is Lake Nona Hospital has not opened yet and it is better to have the extra coverage for my husband if something happens and he needs to go to a hospital. The other reason is our adult daughter. Without private insurance, she wouldn't have any coverage. This is yet one more of the untold things disabled veterans families are going through. I was shocked when the VA told me adult children would not be covered under the current rules. This is the right thing to do.

Bill would extend CHAMPVA to adult children
Army Times
By Patricia Kime
Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday Feb 20, 2013

A bill has been introduced in the Senate that would increase the age limit for veterans’ children to get health coverage under the Veterans Affairs’ Department’s Civilian Health and Medical Program, known as CHAMPVA, bringing it in line with the Affordable Care Act.

Sens. Patty Murray, D-Wash., and Jon Tester, D-Mont., introduced legislation Feb. 14 that would allow CHAMPVA beneficiaries to keep coverage until age 26. Currently, beneficiaries lose coverage at age 18 unless they are enrolled as full-time students. Then, they become ineligible at age 23.

The bill would create program parity with age requirements of the Affordable Care Act, which now allows adult children to remain on their parents’ health insurance until age 26.

“As more and more service members return home from Afghanistan, CHAMPVA will continue playing a vital role in caring for veterans’ loved ones,” Murray said in a release. “In our ongoing commitment to keep the faith with our nation’s heroes, this bill ensures CHAMPVA recipients, without regard to their type of coverage, student status, or marital status, are eligible for health care coverage under their parent’s plan in the same way as their peers.”

The bill is similar to a law passed in January 2011 that increased coverage for adult children of Tricare beneficiaries, bringing it on par with the Affordable Care Act.
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Deal reached in malpractice lawsuit agains VA over suicide

Deal is reached in lawsuit over veteran's death
By Kate Wiltrout
The Virginian-Pilot
© February 20, 2013
NORFOLK

Darla Grese can finally stop fighting for her sister.

Kelli Grese - a Navy veteran like her twin sister - killed herself on Veterans Day in 2010. She overdosed on Seroquel, an antipsychotic medication that was part of a cocktail of drugs prescribed by doctors at the Hampton Veterans Administration Medical Center.

Darla Grese, of Virginia Beach, filed a malpractice suit against the medical center, seeking $5 million. It was scheduled for trial in Norfolk in April. On Tuesday, Grese and the U.S. government reached a settlement, according to her lawyer, Bob Haddad: If a judge approves the deal, the government will pay Grese $100,000.

Grese hopes publicity about the suit will draw more attention to the treatment of veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder or depression, both of which her sister battled.

In a single year, Grese said in an interview, doctors at the Hampton facility prescribed 5,370 pills of Klonopin, used to treat anxiety disorders, for her sister.
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