PTSD Patrol light your own way out of darkness

Got your headlights on?
PTSD Patrol
Kathie Costos
June 24, 2108

When most people are still sleeping, I am on the road at 5 am, heading into work. Most of the time I am thinking of what it is going to take to get you guys to turn on your own headlights and see more clearly. 

Friday, I decided to take my camera and show what it is like on the road before most people wake up!

Considering how my life has been that way, wake before most people on PTSD, the road was basically mine. There were people on the road before me, but we had a better chance of getting people to follow us than we do now.

Back then, they could see us easily. We had our high beams on to show the way out of darkness. Now it is like there are way too many people congesting the road and leaving us trapped behind them.

It is too hard to see where you are going, depending on the lights in your rearview mirror to show you the way. It is too hard to see when you have someone driving toward you with their high beams on and blinding you from seeing what is in front of you.

Anyway, you have control over your own headlights. Not the ones on your dashboard, but the ones in your own head. 

Why drive in darkness? If you do not know what PTSD is, then that is exactly what you are doing. Sure you can move from one place to another, but do you ever find where you want to be?

You can drink or do drugs, but that only gets you numb.

You can stop talking, stay in the house and keep to yourself, but that leaves you alone. This is your battle now but just like in combat, you do not have to face this enemy by yourself.
read more here

Nam Knights off to the races in Leesburg

I see bed people!
Combat PTSD Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
June 24, 2018

Yesterday at Gator Harley Davidson in Leesburg Florida, the Green Swamp chapter of the Nam Knights had a unique fund raiser. They had groups race with costumes pushing beds. Yes, beds.

Members of some businesses, police officers, firefighters, Marines and one of them did pushups on the bed, Soldiers and even SWAT. Naturally SWAT had to top everyone with blowing something up!

And SWAT won!

Senate hearing with veterans charity got testy

Alleged altercation at US Senate hearing between VA staffer and MVP founder
WIBW 13 News
By Shawn Wheat
Jun 21, 2018

TOPEKA, Kan. (WIBW) -- 13 NEWS has learned that there was an alleged physical altercation in April of 2017 during a subcommittee meeting in Washington D.C., between an employee of the VA and the founder of the Military Veterans Project.

In a recent e-mail exchange, Military Veteran Project (MVP) founder Melissa Jarboe told Joseph Burks, the Public Affairs Officer for VA Eastern Kansas Health Care System, to cease and desist any communication with her.

“The physical attack, verbal abuse and intimidation you displayed on April 27, 2017 has not been forgotten, rather thoroughly documented via video, audio and written statement to appropriate parties and chain of command,” Jorboe said in the e-mail, obtained by 13 NEWS.

Jarboe declined an on camera interview, but told 13 NEWS, she was called to testify by Senator Jerry Moran, at a hearing on "Preventing Veteran Suicide".

When asked by Senator Moran if there was a partnership between the MVP program and the VA, Jarboe said, “We do not currently have a strong partnership with the Veterans Administration. We are there if they need us. We are not asked to attend any of their boards. We are not a part of their direct community approach or outreaches. But, we will still eagerly assist the Veterans Administration when they are in crisis or in need because that’s what we’re supposed to do as Americans.”
read more here

Because you did cry their tears

Older veterans cried the same tears
Combat PTSD Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
June 23, 2018

Considering this is PTSD Awareness Month, the most important thing has been missing from what you need to be aware of. The results prove that.

The latest suicide report from the Department of Veterans Affairs is missing a lot of information, but within the report it states two very damning facts.

Veterans over the age of 50 are over 58% of the known suicides, and veterans are twice as likely to commit suicide as civilians.

Pretty shocking stuff considering the topic is all over social media and stunts are pulled all over the country on a daily basis to "raise awareness" of the deaths, but few offer hope of healing.

Very hard to take for any advocate, especially when there have been decades of research to prevent veterans from taking their own lives after surviving combat.

"I'd protect you from the sadness in your eyes, give you courage in a world of compromise" so the song goes and how I wish I could change things for you. The sadness in your eyes does not go away because there is a smile on your face. Yet, those same eyes that have seen way too much, end up shining when you heal.

It seems that most people want what is easy, while you did what was hard. They want easy solutions, slogans that make them feel better, but do not accomplish much else, and fast answers, so they do not have to look too hard.

Why do you continue to risk your life now after you risked it for everyone else? Is it your pride? Do you fear being seen as weak? Then you've been getting the wrong message. This is an old video I did and it shows what PTSD is.

And here is another one on grieving.

If you grieve, then you cared and there is nothing weak about that. It took a lot of inner strength to put your life on the line.

Find that same care for your own life now and heal so you can still help others now. When you can, you can take away the sadness in someone eyes of someone else, because you did cry their tears!

She was shot 5 times, but Navy Master Chief stays in!

Shot 5 Times by Afghan Soldier, Navy Master Chief Refused to Quit
Military.com
By Matthew Cox
21 Jun 2018

"Whether that is three years or four years or 10, as long as I can make a difference every day, and I know I am making a difference every day, and I can serve my country in an operational function -- I'm gonna stick around."

Navy Master Chief Raina Hockenberry remembers everything from that day in 2014 when an Afghan soldier shot her five times.

Master Chief Personnel Specialist Raina Hockenberry, from Kalihi, Hawaii, competes in the 50-meter breaststroke swimming competition at the 2018 Department of Defense Warrior Games at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo. (U.S. Navy photo/ Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Marcus L. Stanley)

She was serving as the senior enlisted leader position for Combined Security Transition Command Afghanistan. Hockenberry was part of a group visiting a basic training facility for Afghan soldiers.

We stopped for our last briefing of the day, and one of the Afghan soldiers just opened fire through a window," she told reporters at the Pentagon Wednesday describing the green-on-blue attack that wounded 13 other military personnel that day. "He just started shooting."

Hockenberry suffered two gunshot wounds to the right leg, shattering her tibia. She was shot once in the groin and twice in the stomach.

While at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, "people tended to assume that I would be medically retired; I can understand why, but I just didn't see it."

Four years later, she won eight gold medals in the recent Warrior Games in Colorado Springs and now serves on the USS Port Royal at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

In four months, she plans to participate in the Invictus Games in Sydney, Australia.
read more here