Veteran Suicide Triple Crisis Counting Congress

Coffman: The twin crisis of veterans' mental health and suicide
Denver Post
By Mike Coffman
Guest Commentary
POSTED:02/06/2016

In April 1991, I returned home from serving as a light armored infantry officer with the U.S. Marine Corps in the first Gulf War. The unit was the first battalion to engage Iraqi forces inside of Kuwait. We did so for three days prior to the main ground attack on Feb. 24, 1991.

Mike Coffman Denver Post

For us, the stress of being on the front lines waiting for combat turned out to be worse than the actual combat phase itself because the Iraqi army had been severely degraded in a punishing bombing campaign that preceded the ground attack.

While preparing to go home after the war ended, I attended an out-briefing by Navy psychologists about some of the psychological challenges that we would likely face. What I remember most was his warning that we had become members of a highly interdependent ground combat team that had been together for months and that after we were separated and alone for the first time, we were likely to experience depression.

Many troops used to the stresses of combat and the interdependent bonds of their fellow soldiers have a difficult time adjusting to civilian life and come home feeling isolated and alone. 

In fact, many find themselves needing help that too often just isn't there.

It is absolutely vital that we as a nation address the twin crisis of veteran suicide and mental health issues.

Today, thousands of servicemen and women and recent military veterans have seen combat. Many have seen their buddies killed or witnessed death up close. Many have also been wounded and had to endure extended and frequently painful and difficult recoveries. These are types of events that can lead to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other types of mental illness.
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I left this comment.

While I applaud you talking about all this, it is troubling to see the "22 a day" used when it is not true. Sorry, but you are on the Committee and should know better. The CDC reports there are more than 40,000 suicides in America. At the same time, states are reporting veterans are committing suicide double the civilian population rate. That means there are over 26,000 veterans ending their lives after risking them for the sake of others. The VA study was an average from 21 states with limited data.

Gulf War veterans have been forgotten about but so have Vietnam veterans. They are the majority of the suicide demographic yet no one is talking about that fact. They are not talking about families like mine even though Vietnam veterans are the ones who came home and fought for all the research done on PTSD. Had Congress asked any of us, we could have helped these young veterans everyone is talking about.

By the way, all the Bills Congress passed did not work. OEF and OIF veteran suicides are triple their peer rate after they had been trained to be "resilient" even though researchers knew it would make the problem worse. All the Bills coming out of Congress are repeats of "doing something" instead of doing the right thing.

Looks more like there is a triple crisis for veterans when members of Congress haven't even taken the time to find out what is true and what is false.

PTSD 90 Year Old WWII Veteran Forced From Home By VA?

Veterans Administration forces 90-year-old chaplain from home
Portland Tribune
Written by Molalla Pioneer
Friday, 05 February 2016

Baker was also a prolific writer. He wrote eighteen (18) books addressing depression, pain, forgiveness and many other issues.

COURTESY OF BAKER FAMILY - Don and Martha Baker in 2011

The Veterans Administration has ordered a 90-year-old chaplain, who once preached before President Gerald Ford, to move from his home of five years. Don Baker will be forced to relocate from the Molalla Manor Care Center, to the nearest VA sanctioned facility in Woodburn, 15 miles away.

“This move will be very difficult for him, because his health is tenuous,” said Baker’s daughter, Kathryn Thomas Barram. Baker suffers from Post-Tramautic Stress Disorder stemming from his service in the Air Corps during World War II, said Barram.

Last month, the Veterans Administration notified Baker’s family that it was pulling its contract with Molalla Manor.

Baker was ordered to move within six weeks.

Armed with more than 200 pages of testimony supporting the chaplain, his physicians and family appealed to the VA to reconsider its decision. The VA denied the formal appeal, but extended the relocation date by 12 days to Feb. 12, 2016.

"This is a shame - not ethical treatment of a family and a patient," wrote Baker's physician, Ray E. Smucker, M.D. in his letter to the VA. "Is this the care the VA expects for their patients? I would understand if his care was at risk. His care at Molalla Manor has been great over the years."
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Remains of SPC Brian Orolin Identified

Remains Identified as Missing Army Veteran Brian Orolin
NBC News
by RACHAEL TROST
FEB 4 2016

Remains found in Harris County, Texas have been positively identified as those of missing Army veteran Brian Orolin, who disappeared in November 2014.

According to officials with the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences, the remains were discovered the day after Christmas 2015 and took several weeks to identify.

The cause and manner of death are still pending.

Donna Orolin, Brian's wife, confirmed the news late Wednesday on the 'Help Find Brian Orolin' Facebook page.

"The search for missing Army Veteran, SPC Brian Orolin, has come to an end," she posted. "I would appreciate your continued prayers for my 2 young daughters and I, as we begin our journey to mourn from his loss and for my 2 girls to grow up without their Dad. We would appreciate your respect for our privacy at this time."
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From 2015
Family Searching For Missing Texas Afghanistan Veteran

BOHICA Suicide Prevention Bill

I'm going to keep this short but far from sweet. There is yet another suicide prevention bill out of congress. Yep, those guys who did such marvelous work on all the others they decided to just do more of them.  As if that makes sense to anyone.

"According to Brown's office, an average of 18 to 22 veterans take their lives each day — a statistic that has largely remained unchanged for more than a decade."

If he's quoting those numbers while writing a bill for female veteran suicide prevention, we're all screwed! This one is out of Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown on the Veterans Affairs Committee. If he doesn't know where those numbers came from or what the real ones are, pretty much sums up lack of attention to all the hearings they've held IN THE LAST DECADE!

Wounded Warriors United Worried About Name?

Small veterans group concerned they may get shut down
KAKE ABC News
By: Gloria Balding
Feb 04, 2016

MANHATTAN, Kan. (KAKE) — A small non-profit group helping servicemen and women in Kansas fears they may be shut down.

Tom Tavtigian returned home a broken man after being wounded in combat.

He founded the group Wounded Warriors United as a way to help veterans like himself who were struggling.

"While I was still stationed at Fort Riley in the warrior transition unit, where all the wounded guys go, I started to take a few guys out here and there and the response was pretty good. So, I started a non-profit." explains Tavtigian.

Wounded Warriors United focuses on taking veterans on hunting and fishing trips. Tavtigian hopes to expand.

"What we are doing next year is the guys that need the grab bars, or need to widen their doors for their wheelchairs, we are going to do it for them," says Tavtigian.

Tavtigian is concerned that Wounded Warrior Project could come after him for using the term 'wounded warriors." because they have done it before. A search of federal court records show the Wounded Warrior Project has sued three non-profits for trademark infringement in the past. In one complaint WWP noted that "defendant's infringement of WWP's trademark rights has caused defendant monetary harm." It is wording like this from such a large non-profit that concerns Tavtigian.

WWP does not make money solely from donations or investments. According to tax filings they have made more than 3 million dollars since 2009 by renting their mailing list.
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This all leaves me wondering how much money I'd have right now if I was ever in any of this for the money? Good Lord!

I was using the term "wounded warriors" long before this group became a famous name.  The truth is I was simply tired of using wounded Soldier, Marine, Airmen and Sailor.  The Native Americans used it long before I did. But it goes to show that just because someone makes something famous, it isn't as if they invented it or can claim ownership of it against all others.

This is from my site December 2005

When they are warriors no more, who will hear their cries? When they are warriors no more, who will help them find peace?Who will lift their voice to be heard above their whispers and suffering silence?

The men and women of our military should never have to go to war, but they do.

They should never have to heal wounds, but they do. They should never have to watch a comrade die, but they do. They should never have to worry about a place to call home when they are warriors no more, but they do. On any given night in America, thousands of those who answered the call of this nation, walk the streets because they are homeless.

Our nation has forgotten them when their duty is done and we as a people refuse to see them. The people who run the New England Shelter For Homeless Veterans in Boston, MA refuse to let them remain alone. They are there when the rest of us forget them. They are there to give them a bed to sleep in, a meal to feed them, comfort and support when we have all forgotten them. There are homeless veterans in this nation with half a million at one time or another become homeless during any given year and over a quarter of a million of them are homeless every night. Men who made a choice to protect and serve this nation, walk the streets while we still remain safe in our beds. As bad as that is that one veteran would be homeless, there are also women who served and are homeless. Even more, there are women veterans of this nation with children and no place to call home.

Check out your state and see how many there are in your state alone. Go to The National homeless veterans site. Check out the shelter's site in Boston MA. If you are not moved to help them, then may God have mercy on this nation that asked so much of them yet was willing to do so little for them in return.

This one really sums up what this is all about. It is from January 2006. Long before I ever heard of this famous group but far too many years after I knew what it was like living with a Wounded Warrior.

'Marlboro Man' in Iraq War Photo Suffers from PTSD So whatever happened to Lance Cpl. Blake Miller -- the U.S. Marine pictured as a kind of war-weary "Marlboro Man" in one of the most widely published iconic images of the Iraq war? The 2004 photograph by Luis Sinco of the Los Angeles Times showing Miller, face dirty under a helmet, a cigarette dangling from his lips, went around the world and back again, hitting front pages everywhere. Now Miller, of Jonancy, Ky., is a civilian "and is having trouble adjusting to civilian life," CBS News reports.

Why is it so hard for other veterans to accept that PTSD is real? Is it because somewhere deep inside they see the possibility of it existing within themselves? I must have heard it a thousand times in the last twenty years. Veterans attacking other veterans because of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. They will claim PTSD is not real and label those with it as frauds. No about of scientific evidence, no amount of clinical studies and no amount of suicides resulting from PTSD will ever be enough to penetrate their brains. They are the kind of people who live in a state of disgust toward anyone, civilian or military, living with what they fear the most. It could have been them.

When you look at the pictures of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington, among the carved names, there are many more names which Vietnam claimed the lives of. Forty years after the official start of America's entry into the conflict in 1964, Vietnam is still taking lives from PTSD and suicides as well as Agent Orange. Yet this is the timeline of death.
http://thewall-usa.com/stats/
This is the list of the years the troops died in Vietnam. Look at the years and then remember the attitude of those who failed to see the futility of staying the course.
1957 1
1958 0
1959 2
1960 5
1961 16
1962 53
1963 118
1964 206
1965 1863
1966 6,144
1697 11,153
1968 16,589
1969 11,614
1970 6,083
1971 2,357
1972 640
1973 168 The last two Marines were killed in April of this year.

Numbers were added after as follows
1974 178
1975 160 The last two Marines died in Vietnam in April.
1976 77
1977 96
1978 447
1979 148
1980-1995 66
The total is 58,178

The Wall is finding more names added to it. One count put the figure at 58,249, although I do not know the exact numbers as of today. Within the reflection of the Wall there are faces to each name of the lives lost. There are also many more who paid with their lives who will never be known. Men like my husband's nephew who took his own life because of PTSD are not there.

Too many are gone and the connection to Vietnam were never made in the minds of the families these men left behind. Yet to some veterans these of the fallen are not to be honored for the price they paid to serve the nation in Vietnam.

The faces of the homeless veterans are a reminder of the suffering in silence and isolation. Are they too unworthy of honor because Vietnam so changed their state of being they are unable to stop the invasion of their mind and remove the traumatic results?

This Wall should be a reminder to the nation that the price paid for war by those sent to fight it, do not end when the pieces of paper are signed and they get to go home. It does not end for the families when their son or daughter, husband or wife, parent or child, are no longer there to be held. It does not end for the veterans with wounds of their body or unseen wounds of the mind or for the families of those left wondering when the war will ever end for them.

In 2002 when I finished my book the sub title was, His War/My Battle for this very reason. He is the one who put his life on the line, as all others did, by choice of volunteering as my husband did, or by draft as so many others did. The war has yet to be finished for him. This is the battle he fights on a daily basis to try to keep up with his medication and treatment. Vietnam became my battle when I had to fight for him because he couldn't fight for himself.

War reaches out to total strangers years after. I didn't know him when he was in Vietnam. We didn't meet until ten years after he returned home. Yet my life changed because of Vietnam when I lost my best friend because of it. 500,000 other families are just like mine. The truly sickening part is that the number is even higher because too many other families never knew what was wrong with their family member, were never diagnosed and never had their claim approved to be recorded within the VA system.

Today there is a chance to stop the procession of suffering in silence for this new generation of veterans and wounded warriors. The chance is for the rest of us to stand up and tell the others who want to dismiss PTSD to either start supporting other wounded warriors or shut up and get out of their way. The time for needlessly adding to the death count of Vietnam is over. This new generation needs to see an example of what true support really means. Until we take a stand for the dignity of all veterans, too many of them will end up never really being supported or honored for their sacrifices.

How can anyone stand and say they support the troops when any of them have to go without treatment from the Veterans Administration because the funding is not there? How can anyone claim it when any veteran has to go homeless? Can it be claimed if any veteran has to spend their days drinking and doing drugs to kill off the effects of war because they have been so stigmatized by the term mental illness they would rather be labeled an alcoholic or drugged up? How pathetic is that? Are there some who actually are alcoholics or drug addicts? Sure, but for the most part these people are self medicating because they cannot turn to the VA for legal medication and treatment.

Congressman Murtha put the figure of veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan at 50,000 already. How many of them are we willing to let slip through the cracks in the system designed to help them heal and cope with their service to this nation? How many are we willing to let go homeless because they served in the military? Is any of this proving they are supported? What made us think that supported ended when they were no longer doing our bidding?

The time to take the steps to insure we prove what we say was yesterday when the funding was not put into place for the veterans we already had. Tomorrow will be too late for too many. How many names are you willing to look at when they erect a monument to the fallen of Iraq and Afghanistan? How many names are you willing to acknowledge still paying the price for Vietnam? If you care nothing about being part of the solution to their problems, then shut up and get out of the way. The rest of us are willing to prove what we say when we say we honor them. Isn't it time you did the same thing?

http://thewall-usa.com/
Kathie Costos
Nam_guardianangel@yahoo.com
www.Namguardianangel.org
http://namguardianangel.blogspot.com
http://journals.aol.com/namguardianangel/media
http://hometown.aol.com/namguardianangel/KathieCostosindex.html
http://hometown.aol.com/namguardianangel/fortheloveofjackindex.html

From New York Times

The Wounded Warrior Project’s roots are more humble. Its founder, John Melia, was a Marine veteran who had been injured in a helicopter crash off the coast of Somalia in 1992. When wounded troops began returning from Iraq in 2003, Mr. Melia remembered how he had arrived in a stateside hospital with only his thin hospital gown, and began visiting military hospitals to distribute backpacks stuffed with socks, CD players, toothpaste and other items.

As the backpack project grew, Mr. Melia hired a few employees, including Mr. Nardizzi, a lawyer who had never served in the military but was an executive for a small nonprofit, the United Spinal Association, which served disabled veterans.

They began raising millions of dollars and broadening their services to include adaptive sports for disabled veterans, employment and benefits help, and retreats to teach veterans to cope with post-traumatic stress disorder.

By 2009, the group had grown to about 50 employees and $21 million in revenue. But by then, Mr. Melia and Mr. Nardizzi were fighting over the charity’s future, with Mr. Nardizzi pushing for more aggressive expansion than Mr. Melia, former employees said.

In January 2009, Mr. Melia resigned.

I've been doing this for so long now that lost count on how many different websites I've had over the years, but emails, well they're very important to me, so I save a lot of them.

This is from 2004 about the book I wrote in 2002.

This one is about another charity using "Wounded Minds" but I leave them alone even though my first video on PTSD was "Wounded Minds." This email is from 2006.

Their tax filings go back to 2005

WOUNDED WARRIOR PROJECT INC

4899 BELFORT RD STE 300, JACKSONVILLE, FL 32256-6033 | TAX-EXEMPT SINCE AUG. 2005

From my book 2002

500,000 Vietnam Veterans continue to pay because of Post Traumatic Stress and have been joined by veterans of all the other actions that followed. Hundreds of thousands continue to pay with wounds and broken bodies as well as wounded spirits. I pray that if President Bush is re-elected he learns this lesson as well. War is something that should always be the last attempt to have peace. The peace of a nation is paid by the turmoil of those who defend it.