Wheeler Army Airfield soldier standoff with MP ends

Standoff ends peacefully at Wheeler Army Airfield housing
By Star-Advertiser staff
Mar 02, 2013

Military police have resolved a standoff at a home on Wheeler Army Airfield this afternoon.

A 25th Infantry Division soldier barricaded himself at about 1 p.m. Saturday in his home on Pikake Street at Wheeler, Army spokesman Dennis Drake said.

Police had surrounded the home, Drake said.

At about 3:30 p.m. Army law enforcement officials took the soldier into custody.

As a precaution, officials from the Army and Island Palm Communities relocated residents in the surrounding streets in the Wiliwili Housing area to an area community center, Drake said.

The Army is investigating the incident.

It is unclear if the soldier was armed.
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Dentist among "PTSD research" grants

UPDATE March 3, 2013
Looks like the CDC has been giving out money too.

CDC Grant Supports New Research Center for Suicide Prevention
August 20, 2012

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has awarded the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Rochester Medical Center a five-year grant of $4.1 million to establish an Injury Control Research Center for Suicide Prevention (ICRC-S).

Rochester’s center is one of only 11 Injury Control Research Centers in the country funded by the CDC and the only one focused primarily on suicide prevention. The ICRC-S is unique as well for being based in a psychiatry department.

“The suicide rate in the United States has been climbing over the last decade,” said Eric D. Caine, M.D. chair of the Department of Psychiatry and the grant’s principal investigator. “We will investigate the factors that contribute to family-level violence and intimate partner violence that also are factors that contribute to suicide. We will pay special attention to suicide occurring among men and women in the middle years, from 35 to 65. The overall increase in suicide in the United States has been driven by increases in the mid-life age range.”

For the ICRC-S, the Department of Psychiatry has partnered with the Education Development Center Inc. (EDC), a non-profit organization based in Waltham, Mass., that, Caine said, has extensive experience providing technical assistance and outreach to states and local communities to help them develop new knowledge, disseminate information, implement evidence-based practices, collect and analyze data, and evaluate outcomes.

If you read the other post on Military Suicides and the money behind them, you will really love this one. There are millions of dollars being made on redoing research that had been done over the last 40 years and the following will make your jaw drop too. The worst thing is, it took less than an hour to find these reports.

Dentistry gets grant to develop PTSD test
LOS ANGELES — Each year, more than a million Americans are at risk of developing serious mental health problems after experiencing a terrifying event or serious physical injury. Once manifested, these psychiatric illnesses, such as post-traumatic stress disorder and depression, can be extremely crippling and difficult to treat and are a leading cause of disability in civilian, military and minority populations.

Recognizing these emerging disorders early on provides health care professionals the best opportunity for preventive interventions.

Now, a team of researchers, led by Dr. Vivek Shetty, a professor at the UCLA School of Dentistry, has received a $3.8 million research grant to develop a salivary-biomarker approach for identifying individuals at future risk of developing post-traumatic stress disorder and depression following a traumatic event.

Co-funded by the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research and the National Institutes of Health's Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research, the study seeks to develop a panel of salivary stress biomarkers that will allow early recognition of emerging mental health disorders and permit preemptive psychological care.

"Current assessment strategies rely on subjective reports of symptoms by trauma survivors," Shetty said. "The symptom-based nature of psychological assessments presents significant challenges for trauma-care specialists attempting to differentiate between temporary distress and the early stages of mental health illnesses.

$2.4 Million Grant to Study the Transcendental Meditation program and PTSD in Veterans
December 2, 2012
Maharishi University of Management Research Institute in partnership with the San Diego Veterans Administration Medical Center received a $2.4 million grant from the U.S. Department of Defense to study the effect of the Transcendental Meditation® technique on post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in veterans.

The randomized controlled clinical trial will compare the Transcendental Meditation program to prolonged-exposure treatment — a trauma-focused cognitive-behavioral therapy considered to be the VA’s gold standard. A third group will receive health education. The study will follow 210 subjects and will take four years to complete.

Grant gives counties chance to tackle PTSD treatment
By Charlie Ban
STAFF WRITER

A single gunshot makes an indelible mark in the memory of anyone who hears it. The flurry of them in combat can build a wall that people who haven’t experienced the same thing likely cannot penetrate.

There is no one right way to treat a mental illness like post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). That truism has led to several approaches to combat it, and three counties in New York are starting two-year pilot programs to bring peer mentors to their veterans who suffer from PTSD.

A state grant gives $200,000 for two years to Jefferson, Rensselaer and Saratoga counties. Suffolk also received a grant through the program, and has formed a task force to study the increased incidence of suicide among veterans. Students at the State University of New York-Albany School of Social Work will evaluate the programs starting in 2013.

Tim Ruetten, Jefferson County’s coordinator of mental health, said research on peer-to-peer support for veterans is sparse, but the approach is sound. If nothing else, it allows veterans to spend time with someone who understands their experiences. The county is contracting out program administration.

“They provide camaraderie,” he said. “When they are discharged (from the military), they lose contact with a culture that saturates you.”

Although the volunteers are given training, focusing on confidentiality, identifying PTSD, engagement skills and suicide prevention protocols, Ruetten said the program will be non-clinical.

“We don’t want to create counselors, there are plenty of clinical approaches available,” he said. “This will be a way for a veteran to find an advocate, a buddy, and someone who is able to help streamline them into treatment if that’s where it needs to go.”

The U.S. departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs both support clinics in Jefferson County, which includes Fort Drum, but Ruetten said the program will serve to add diversity in the treatment offerings available. And it will give retired combat veterans an opportunity to lend their help to their brothers and sisters in arms.

September 19, 2012
VA and DoD to Fund $100 Million PTSD and TBI Study
WASHINGTON – The Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Defense (DoD) are investing more than $100 million in research to improve diagnosis and treatment of mild Traumatic Brain Injury (mTBI) and Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

“At VA, ensuring that our Veterans receive quality care is our highest priority,” said Secretary Eric K. Shinseki. “Investing in innovative research that will lead to treatments for PTSD and TBI is critical to providing the care our Veterans have earned and deserve.”

The two groups, The Consortium to Alleviate PTSD (CAP) and the Chronic Effects of Neurotrauma Consortium (CENC) will be jointly managed by VA, and by the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs (CDMRP), on behalf of the DoD.

Detrick receives $100M for PTSD, TBI research
The Associated Press
Posted : Saturday Sep 8, 2012

FREDERICK, Md. — Fort Detrick is receiving $100 million in federal grants to fund research into post-traumatic stress disorder and mild traumatic brain injury.

The Frederick News-Post says the initiative, funded by the departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs, was announced Friday by the Fort Detrick-based Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs.

Penn Medicine Receives $7.7 Million Grant From Department of Defense to Study PTSD
September 25, 2012
PHILADELPHIA – A team of researchers led by Edna Foa PhD, professor of Clinical Psychology in Psychiatry and director of the Center for the Treatment and Study of Anxiety (CTSA) at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania , has received a $7.7 million grant from the Department of Defense (DoD) to study the most effective way to implement Prolonged Exposure therapy, an effective and efficient treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), among mental health practitioners who treat soldiers suffering from this disorder.

PTSD research team gets $3.5 million Defense Department grant
March 8, 2012

The U.S. Department of Defense has awarded a $3.5 million grant for a research project to more effectively treat post-traumatic stress disorder and ultimately prevent it from occurring.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency grant awarded to an interdisciplinary team of scientists from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia is intended to fuel the development of innovative technology for the military,according to a statement from Penn Medicine. It is being used to fund studies of military personnel who are being treated for post-traumatic stress disorder over a two-year period and marks the second phase of a two-part project.

Department of Defense grant boosts PTSD research
Woodruff Health Sciences Center
Dec. 13, 2011

Researchers at Emory University School of Medicine, New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center and the University of Southern California have been awarded an $11 million Department of Defense grant to test two different types of exposure therapy combined with the drug D-Cycloserine (DCS) for the treatment of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

Exposure therapy is an evidence-based intervention that has been demonstrated as effective in the treatment of PTSD. During each exposure therapy session, patients repeatedly retell their traumatic experience with the guidance of a trained clinician. D-Cycloserine, a cognitive enhancer, has been found by Emory researchers to facilitate the extinction of fear that occurs during exposure therapy.

also this report

$11 Million Grant Funds Study of PTSD Therapies
December 14, 2011

Researchers at USC’s Institute for Creative Technologies (ICT), New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center and the Emory University School of Medicine have been awarded an $11 million, four-year grant from the U.S. Department of Defense to test different ways to treat post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), including the use of a virtual-reality exposure therapy developed at ICT.

The study will involve 300 military and civilian personnel who have been diagnosed with PTSD as a consequence of their service in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. The goals are to decrease the time needed for effective treatment of PTSD, give the right treatment to the right person, and identify factors involved in its development and response to treatment.

The researchers also will examine personal and genetic factors that may impact an individual’s chances of developing PTSD, as well as future response to therapy.

The grant is a culmination of years of collaborative and novel research by investigators who are known as leaders in their field. It was led by JoAnn Difede, director of the Program for Anxiety and Traumatic Stress Studies at New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell and professor of psychology in psychiatry at Weill Cornell Medical College. Co-investigators were Albert “Skip” Rizzo, associate director of medical virtual reality at ICT and research professor at the USC Davis School of Gerontology, and Barbara Rothbaum, director of the Trauma and Anxiety Recovery Program and professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Emory University School of Medicine.

Study seeks biomarkers for Invisible War Scars
New York Times
James Dao
February 6, 2013

Now, in one of the largest studies of its kind, a team of researchers based out of New York University’s medical school have begun a five-year study to find biological signals, known as biomarkers, that could provide reliable, objective evidence of those so-called invisible injuries of war.

Researchers at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, the military’s medical school in Bethesda, Md., are studying soldiers at Fort Bragg, N.C., in search of PTSD biomarkers. And Draper Laboratory, a nonprofit research company based in Cambridge, Mass., has recruited experts to look for biomarkers for the disorder.

Dr. Marmar’s project is significant both because of its size — researchers hope to recruit 1,500 subjects — but also because much of its financing is already guaranteed through a $17 million grant from the Steven A. and Alexandra M. Cohen Foundation, founded by the billionaire hedge-fund manager. Dr. Marmar hopes to match that with federal grants.

Research Program: PTSD Protocol for War Veterans Marshall University is a central player in furthering the goals of the Research and Recognition Project. Grant projects and the development of the first NLP University Center in the U.S. are moving forward. Professor William McDowell, a long time NLP trainer, joined the Research & Recognition Project at its inception in 2007. When we decided to focus on the PTSD area he collected a team necessary to develop grant proposals. The team spearheaded the writing and development of a $300,000 pilot grant proposal and a three year state of the art scientific grant proposal of $12,000,000 to $13,000,000. Both those grants are currently being circulated for funding, at Marshall University, D.O.D., and in a number of White papers to Congress and the Services. A terrible development occurred with this in mid April (2008) when Professor McDowell suffered a massive heart attack and was forced to retire from Marshall University. With Professor McDowell’s recovery last summer and his appointment as Professor Emeritus, the Grant applications and the development of the first NLP University Center in the U.S. are again going forward. When difficulties arose communicating the nature of the NLP PTSD treatment protocol it was decided to produce a DVD example of the treatment applied to an Iraq War veteran from the pilot program at Marshall University. Funds to do this were found by Howard McClintick of CTC Foundation, and the DVD example of the NLP PTSD treatment protocol was successfully completed at Marshall University.

While this was not from last year, it added in this bit of news on "Cognitive-Behavior Therapy, the best of the researched methods, is effective 32% of the time and takes four to nine months."

Military Suicides and the money behind them

Military Suicides and the money behind them
by Kathie Costos
Wounded Times Blog
March 2, 2013

When you read about suicides going up, think of all the money spent on "doing" something to prevent them. Here's a good place to start.

Warnings Ignored on “Soldiers’ Fitness”
from The Warrior SAW, Suicides After War

It should come as no surprise that Resilience Training was a failure after reading more and more committed suicide. It shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone but few noticed the connection.

In 2006 the Army released a warning that redeployments increased the risk of PTSD by 50% and it was reported in the Washington Post. It was however treated as the “answer to all” by the Department of Defense despite many mental health professionals pointing to the deplorable results this “training” created. Midway through 2012, the deadliest suicide year, a group of psychiatrist felt compelled to write about this program calling it “flawed” and a “dangerous idea.”

Concerns raised by critics span a wide range of significant issues (and led to Congressional inquiries last year): the questionable empirical evidence behind the rapid creation and implementation of CSF; indications that CSF is actually a research study involuntarily imposed upon troops without appropriate protections such as independent ethical review and informed consent; the possibility that CSF may distract attention from addressing the documented adverse effects of multiple and lengthy deployments and high levels of combat exposure; potential negative effects of CSF, common in prevention programs, that have not been carefully considered or monitored; concerns as to whether the “spirituality” component of CSF is inappropriately promoting religion; the insufficient examination of ethical questions posed by efforts to build “indomitable” soldiers; issues concerning the awarding of a $31 million no-bid contract to Seligman’s positive psychology center at the University of Pennsylvania for CSF development; and the seemingly uncritical embrace and promotion of CSF by the American Psychological Association (of which Seligman is a past president). (Psychology Today June 4, 2012 by Roy Eidelson, Ph.D.)

The report went on to say that “Master Resilience Trainer” is placed into an Army unit after 10 days of training. They were “charged with equipping fellow soldiers with thinking skills and strategies intended to help them more effectively handle the physical and psychological challenges of military life, including, most especially, combat operations.” The analysis added this, “However, the public that has paid over $100 million for the CSF program and, even more, the one million soldiers who are involuntarily subjected to CSF’s resiliency training deserve much better than the misrepresentations of effectiveness aggressively promoted.”

That’s how we got to where we are today. In the following chapters you will read where the news went from bad to worse.

But that is not the worse report from 2012. In October the Department of Defense Military Suicide Research Consortium decided they had $677,000 laying around and thought it would be good to spend in on finding out how 100 military families felt after the suicide loss of someone they loved and it would be worth the two years it would take thee the University of Kentucky to do it. You read that right. $677,000. (Study seeks out families touched by suicide, Mark Brunswick Star Tribune October 31, 2012) Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky happens to be on the Department of Defense Committee as well as Appropriations, Military Construction and Veterans Affairs.

But then you also have the contracts the DOD has been paying for medications.

OFF-LABEL USE SOARS

Prescriptions for Seroquel have exploded in the past decade, especially in the armed forces, where it often is prescribed off-label as a sleep aid.

In 2003, service members were diagnosed with insomnia at a rate of 30 per 10,000; by 2009, the rate had risen to 226 per 10,000. Prescriptions for Seroquel, or quetiapine, have subsequently soared, multiplying 27-fold in the same time period.

The drug is known to cause drowsiness and chase away nightmares associated with post-traumatic stress disorder.

Navy Capt. Mike Colston of the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs said medications become popular as providers learn about them and as they receive new approvals for use by the Food and Drug Administration — in the case of quetiapine, as an add-on therapy for antidepressants.

Yet questions have been raised over whether its off-label use for insomnia was more than a grass-roots movement by physicians. In April 2010, manufacturer Astra-Zeneca agreed to pay $520 million to the federal government to settle a civil suit alleging that it illegally marketed Seroquel for a host of off-label uses such as Alzheimer’s disease, anxiety, PTSD and sleeplessness.

According to The Associated Press, in 2009, the Pentagon spent $8.6 million on the drug, while the Veterans Affairs Department spent $125.4 million.

Here are some more contacts the DOD spent money on at the same time the troops are worried about cuts to what matters to them under sequester. Department of Defense Contracts over $6.5 million they have to report
More contracts from the Department of Defense for March 2013
CONTRACTS
DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY

Bayer Healthcare Pharmaceuticals, Wayne, N.J., was issued a modification exercising the first option year on contract SPM2D0-12-D-0002/P00006. The modification is a fixed-price with economic-price-adjustment, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract with a maximum $49,401,788 for various pharmaceutical products. Location of performance is New Jersey with a March 5, 2014 performance completion date. Using military services are Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, and federal civilian agencies. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2013 Warstopper funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pa.

Tennier Industries*, Boca Raton, Fla., was awarded contract SPM1C1-13-D-1028. The award is a fixed-price with economic price adjustment contract with a maximum $15,551,438 for universal camouflage patterned jackets. Locations of performance are Florida, Tennessee, West Virginia and Georgia with a Feb. 28, 2014 performance completion date. Using military service is Army. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2013 through fiscal 2014 Defense Working Capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pa.

Exide Technologies, Milton, Ga., was awarded contract SPM7LX-13-D-0029. The award is a fixed-price with economic price adjustment contract with a maximum $6,754,515 for procurement of storage batteries. Locations of performance are Iowa and Georgia with a Feb. 24, 2014 performance completion date. Using military services are Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2012 Defense Working Capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Land and Maritime, Columbus, Ohio.

AIR FORCE

DLT Solutions, Herndon, Va., is being awarded a $23,212,706 firm-fixed-price contract (FA8771-13-F-8100) for procurement of software maintenance and support for perpetual enterprise Oracle software licenses. The location of performance is Herndon, Va. Work is expected to be completed by Feb. 28, 2014. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2013. The contracting activity is AFLCMC/HIK, Maxwell Air Force Base-Gunter Annex, Ala.

L-3 Communications Vertex Aerospace L.L.C., Madison, Miss., is being awarded a $8,076.281 contract modification (FA3002-09-C-0006, P00022) for aircraft flightline maintenance for the F-16 aircraft in support of Taiwan's F-16 program. The location of performance is Luke Air Force Base, Ariz. Work is expected to be completed by Feb. 28, 2014. Type of appropriation is international funding. The contracting activity is AETC CONS/LGCI, Randolph Air Force Base, Texas. Contract involves Foreign Military Sales.

NAVY

General Dynamics National Steel and Shipbuilding Co., Norfolk, Va., is being awarded a $14,648,643 modification to previously awarded cost-plus-award-fee contract (N00024-10-C-4401) to exercise options for repairs and alterations for the USS Fort McHenry (LSD 43) non dry-docking fiscal year 2013 chief of Naval operations (CNO) availability. The CNO availability consists of various repairs and alterations such as engine replacement/repair, jacket water cooler, lagging and insulation, ballast tank repair/preserve, well deck repair, cylinder head and components, etc. Work will be performed in Norfolk, Va., and is expected to be completed by August 2013. Fiscal 2013 funding in the amount of $14,648,643 will be obligated at time of award, and will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Norfolk Ship Support Activity, Norfolk, Va., is the contracting activity.

Canadian Commercial Corp., Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, is being awarded a $9,839,099 firm-fixed-price, cost-reimbursable, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for services and supplies for land and sea-based modeling, testing and risk reduction flights for the U.S. Navy and the governments of Australia, Spain, Japan, South Korea and Norway. In support of these efforts, the contractor will utilize a Vindicator II System comprised of contractor-owned unmanned air vehicles and high-speed maneuvering unmanned surface vehicles, as well as a contractor-owned helicopter radar signature simulator. Work will be performed at the Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division (NAWCWD), Pt. Mugu, Calif. (30 percent); the Pacific Missile Range Facility, Barking Sands, Kauai, Hawaii (30 percent); NASA Wallops Flight Facility, Wallops Island, Va. (15 percent); Virginia Capes, Dam Neck, Va. (15 percent); NAWCWD China Lake, Calif. (5 percent); and Key West, Fla. (5 percent), and is expected to be completed in March 2018. Fiscal 2013 Operations and Maintenance, Navy contract funds in the amount of $262,723 will be obligated at time of award, all of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured pursuant to the FAR 6.302-1. This contract combines purchase for the U.S. Navy (8,264,844; 85 percent) and the governments of Australia ($314,851; 3 percent); Spain ($314,851; 3 percent); Japan ($314,851; 3 percent); South Korea ($314,851; 3 percent); and Norway ($314,851; 3 percent) under the Foreign Military Sales Program. The Naval Air Systems Command, Weapons Division, China Lake, Calif., is the contracting activity (N68936-13-D-0005).

DEFENSE ADVANCED RESEARCH PROJECTS AGENCY

HRL Laboratories L.L.C., Malibu, Calif., is being awarded a $10,150,974 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract (HR0011-13-C-0027). This work is under the Structural Logic program, which seeks revolutionary structural designs that make up the basis for modern military platforms and systems by passively adapting to varying loads and simultaneously exhibiting high stiffness and high damping over a wide dynamic range. The goal of the Structural Logic Phase II is to demonstrate that this radically new approach to structural design can be applied to relevant and real world tactical systems. During Phase I of the program a wide range of relevant tactical applications were evaluated for the Structural Logic concepts and technologies including: space, armor, aerodynamic, hydrodynamic and civil engineering structural systems. The government has selected a hydrodynamic application, in particular a high speed boat (watercraft) for the Phase II demonstration. Work will be performed in Malibu, Calif. (34.3 percent); Baltimore, Md. (26.6 percent); Champaign, Ill. (18.6 percent); Chesapeake, Va. (8.2 percent); Austin, Texas (6.8 percent); Akron, Ohio (4.0 percent) and Portland, Maine (1.5 percent). The work is expected to be completed by Feb. 27, 2015. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is the contracting activity.

How to honor non-combat military deaths?

How to honor non-combat military deaths?
By Leo Shane III
Stars and Stripes
Published: March 1, 2013

WASHINGTON -- Jack Fletcher doesn’t have an objection to the new Distinguished Warfare Medal. He just thinks that his son, a soldier who died in the line of duty, deserves an award as well.

“There are a lot of troops and families who fall through the cracks,” he said. “It’s baffling to me that everyone who loses their life serving honorably in the military isn’t somehow honored.”

Fletcher’s son, Lt. Robert “Bart” Fletcher, was shot and killed by a fellow soldier during a confrontation over missing weapons at Fort Hood, Texas, in 2008. Because the attack was not combat-related, he was not eligible for the Purple Heart.

As Pentagon officials work to recognize the exemplary actions of servicemembers serving safely away from the battlefield, Fletcher and his supporters want military leaders to honor non-combat casualties who have sacrificed their lives in service.

“You feel slighted, because your son or daughter didn’t get any recognition,” the elder Fletcher said. “That’s extremely painful for a grieving family.”

Lawmakers have unsuccessfully wrestled with the issue in recent years, sparring over whether to make casualties of the 2009 Fort Hood mass shooting and related tragedies eligible for the Purple Heart.

Pentagon officials have remained steadfast against any such proposal, in part because of the benefits and combat classifications that might confer.
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Fighting PTSD And Bolstering Troop Morale with video care packges

Call of Duty to fight PTSD? I don't think so!

Operation: Supply Drop: Fighting PTSD And Bolstering Troop Morale, One Video Game Care Package At A Time
Forbes
Michael Venables, Contributor
March 1, 2013

My Forbes colleague, John Gaudiosi, recently wrote an excellent post on the Matheson bill introduced Jan. 15 in the House. H.R. 287 proposes to make it unlawful to sell or rent violent or Mature-rated video games to minors, making it punishable by a fine of up to $5,000. With the culture war over video games evident in full force, it’s a distinct pleasure to highlight the inspiring story of Operation Supply Drop’s Captain Stephen “Shanghai Six” Machuga. Now retired from active military service, Machuga is a former airborne Army Ranger who created Front Towards Gamer, a site that provides video game reviews, editorials, geek content and the Claymore Podcast Network. Operation Supply Drop is the charity wing of the site, a military-themed charity organization that raises money to build video game care packages for soldiers deployed to high-threat provinces in Afghanistan and hospitalized veterans in Army hospitals in the U.S. Machuga got the nickname “Shanghai Six” after having been “stop-lossed” in the Army following 9/11. Originally only supposed to do four years in the Army, he ended up doing a total of eight years instead, thus the “Shanghai-ed” moniker. The “Six” is used in military radio chatter to designate the unit’s leader. In two and a half years, Operation Supply Drop has raised over $150,000 in support of getting video games and gear to troops deployed overseas to combat zones.
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