There comes a time when we get sick and tired of being left behind

Leaving behind being left behind

Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
January 1, 2019

There comes a time when we get sick and tired of being left behind. We see others being crushed by circumstances or moved passed the masses as if blessed by a force beyond reason. What do those left behind do when they are not so blessed? Do they stay where they are, as sadness overcomes them, or do they make their own path forward?

We make our own path forward if others will not help us or get out of our way, and then lead the way for others.

My Mom always told me the surest way to get me to do something, was to tell me I could not do it. She was right. I could not look at life as if it was determined by gender. If my two older brothers could do it, so could I.

There was a time when I was about a year old that I thought I would grow up to become a boy.

My Mom took a picture of me in a dress with a football helmet and holding a football. Safe bet I had shinny shoes and lacy ankle socks on instead of cleats. I had no clue girls were not supposed to do something like that.

For the last 37 years working on researching and healing PTSD, I competed in a male dominated field. I worked with veterans, mostly males, even though I am not a veteran. Most say it has been OK since I talk like them. Yet those with the power to help me get the message across, would rather use what I could do for their own benefit, or just take it from me. Much like the football, I have a tight grip on what I want to do and will not let go.

So, here we are in a new year and I found my way to do what I was meant to do because some males finally believed in my ability to do it.

The group that has supported me for over a decade, Point Man International Ministries, decided it is time for me to lead the way for female veterans to begin to heal in their own group. We couldn't wait any longer for this to happen, so when I announced my husband and I were moving to New Hampshire, it was to begin this ministry.

Before I decided to do it, I needed to talk to a few female veterans I knew and they agreed I should do it. Then the hardest challenge was to present the idea to a group of veterans on Rally Point. I was again supported by males. They said as long as I was clear that I am not a veteran, they will take what I say based on my background, which includes being an Army brat and spouse of a veteran. Basically it is in my blood.

While I do not know what it is like to risk my life for someone else, or endure what military women go through, I can understand what it can sometimes do to them. If you read FOR THE LOVE OF JACK HIS WAR MY BATTLE you can catch up on that part.

When we consider that women have done many things they were not supposed to do because they are women, we need to look at the beginning of this country and how they have served in every war, including the Revolutionary War.

"Left to support herself alone, Corbin struggled financially. After she recovered, Corbin joined the Invalid Regiment at West Point, where she aided the wounded until she was formerly discharged in 1783. Then, on July 6, 1779, the Continental Congress, in recognition of her brave service, awarded her with a lifelong pension equivalent to half that of male combatants. Congress also gave her a suit of clothes to replace the ones ruined during the conflict."

After all these years and rich history, one would think, had it not been for women doing things they were not supposed to be able to do, we wouldn't leave any female veteran behind. Well, more and more are deciding they are also leaving behind being left behind, and forging ahead.

Marines have to be able to carry one another if necessary. USMC Cpl. Gabrielle Green hefts a fellow marine as they ready for deployment on a Navy ship at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. Of the 38,000 recruits who enter the corps each year, about 3,500 are women—or, in USMC phrasing, “female marines.”

Want to be part of this moving ahead place and time? Contact me at 407-754-7526. Yes, I know that is a Florida area code, but I am not changing my number after all these years. I am just changing the focus from mostly male veterans to females.

If you find a great story on females in the military or in the veteran community, email the link to me woundedtimes@aol.com and we can share more of their stories!

Get rid of the reason they are suffering instead of healing

Veterans already led the way on preventing suicides

Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
December 31, 2019


Today Martin Kuz asked a question on the Christian Science Monitor "Can veterans lead the way on preventing suicide?" but apparently, much was missed. The premise of the article seems to have been focusing on guns instead of acknowledging the fact that given the rate of suicides in the veteran community, the known numbers anyway, has gone up, this is an odd place to start.

"Guns rank as the most lethal method of suicide, with 9 in 10 attempts proving fatal. Almost 70% of veterans who take their own lives use a firearm – compared with about half of civilians who die by suicide – and one-third of former service members store guns loaded and unlocked in their homes."

Kuz began the subheading with this.

"WHY WE WROTE THIS Highly regarded in society, veterans hold the potential to help bridge America’s divide over firearms by recasting the debate as a public health issue."

Yet it seems he missed the point.

"Suicide rates for veterans and the overall population have climbed over the past 20 years, and more than 6,100 former service members died by their own hand in 2017. Mental health researchers suggest that, given the public’s esteem for veterans, the VA campaign holds potential to influence civilian attitudes about lethal means safety as a deterrent to suicide. “Veterans are venerated in our society,” says Dr. Joseph Simonetti, an assistant professor at the University of Colorado School of Medicine who has studied gun storage habits among veterans and civilians. “To the extent that they make changes in their approach to gun safety, that could have an effect on the rest of the country.”"

How can veterans with a higher suicide rate, mostly committed by the use of guns, lead the way on preventing them in the civilian world?

Actually they not only can, but they should. The thing is, they cannot do it from where they are right now.

"In response, the VA has sought to promote firearm safety as part of its campaign to reduce suicide risk, urging veterans to consider precautions that include gun locks, removing a gun’s firing pin, or storing firearms outside the home."

There was a bill passed by Congress and signed by President Bush in 2007 addressing suicides and linking guns to it. The Joshua Omvig Suicide Prevention Act was supposed to "prevent suicides" but as we have witnessed, higher number of suicides happened within the military community as well as the veteran community, just as they also went up in the civilian population.

Taking away guns does not prevent suicides. They just choose another way to do it. It would make a lot more sense to get rid of the reason they are suffering instead of healing.

The thing that most people miss is that when someone joins the military, they train to do whatever is necessary to save the lives of those they are with. Civilians do not do that, for the most part, but we have seen many times when they also put the lives of others ahead of their own.

If we cannot get those individuals to recognize that fact, then how can we get the average person to see that there is nothing wrong with asking for help. It is only wrong when the help they need is replaced by what has already failed.

We know that addressing PTSD needs to begin as soon as possible after "it" happened. The sooner, the more healing can happen but even after decades, there is recovery happening. It has to include mental health help, taking care of the physical reactions and above all else, the spiritual needs of the survivors.

As for the rest, Kuz also must have missed the point that the civilian world already received lessons from veterans. It came in the form of all the research done on what trauma does and that was provided by Vietnam veterans coming home and making all that possible way back in the 70's.

Was WWI veteran Josef Prusek's death suicide or murder?

Suicide or murder? Death of Iowa veteran in Montana in 1921 raised questions

The Gazette
December 31, 2019

“A wound made by a large caliber bullet extended clear through the skull, there were no powder marks and the coroner expressed the opinion that it would have been impossible to have held a heavy revolver far enough away from his head to have left no powder burns. The bruised condition of the man’s knuckles indicated he had been in a fight,” The Gazette reported.

This April 11, 1921, Gazette story was headlined, “Evidence points to murder of Prusek.” One of Joe Prusek’s brothers went to Montana, attempting, without success, to get more details about his brother’s untimely death. (Gazette archives)

Josef Prusek had lived in Cedar Rapids since 1890. He built a two-story family home at 1601 N St. SW, where he died April 24, 1915.

At the time, his daughters Mary, Lillian and Harriet and son Milo lived in Cedar Rapids, but his son Joseph Jr., or “Joe,” had moved to Montana in 1914.

Joe staked a claim near Briley in south-central Montana near Big Timber.

He joined the Army’s 88th Division in 1917 during World War I and went to France. He was assigned to the 77th Division, where he was part of the Lost Battalion that was surrounded by German troops in the Argonne Forest.

The battalion was rescued Oct. 7, 1918, after enduring more than four days without food or water. Attempts to get water to the soldiers were met with sniper fire, so the troops subsisted on leaves. At one point, they were targets of friendly fire until a message delivered by homing pigeon alerted the Allies they were firing on their own.

Having survived that horrendous ordeal, Joe was discharged and returned to his Montana home. That’s where he was when, at age 32, he died from a gunshot wound to his head.

His body was found April 5, 1921, outside his Montana cabin.
read it here

2020 time for veterans to stop trying to be normal when they can be stronger than that

Seeing 2020 through stronger eyes

Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
December 31, 2019

When you hear a number like 20/20, the automatic thought is that someone has perfect vision. After all, that number stuck like glue for decades. Numbers usually do "stick" even if they are wrong.


I took a look at the facts on this at All About Vision by Amy Hellem and Gary Heiting, OD and this was a real eye opener. (pun intended)

If this more inclusive (and accurate) definition of "vision" is used, what most people call "20/20 vision" should really be called "20/20 visual acuity." Realistically, that probably won't happen. For better or worse, the term "20/20 vision" is likely here to stay.

As some have thought that 20/20 was the best, it is actually stronger to have 20/10.

On most Snellen charts, the smallest letters correspond to 20/10 visual acuity. If you have 20/10 visual acuity, your eyesight is twice as sharp as that of a person with normal (20/20) vision.

20/20 may be "normal" but 20/10 is stronger than normal.

Most people have also heard the number "22" referring to the number of veterans thought to have committed suicide on any given day. That number is also wrong. Because so many people simply believed it without looking to see what the reality was, nothing changed. Much like the article on All About Vision, they are blind if that is all they can see.

The single big "E" at the top of most Snellen eye charts corresponds to 20/200 visual acuity. If this is the smallest letter size you can discern with your best corrective lenses in front of your eyes, you are legally blind.

It is time to see how to change what veterans hear, as well as what they can see.

They can heal PTSD if how they see themselves is put into focus!

This video is from 2016 when a veteran I worked with, was willing to do the work necessary to heal. He went to the VA for mental health help, started taking care of his body and we worked on the spiritual needs he had. He was able to see himself as a survivor instead of a victim. The world is better off because he came out of the darkness he had lived with and wanted to share a message of hope to start off the new year!

This is Johnnie. He has survived three attempted suicides and spent time as a homeless veteran. A year ago, he never thought he would be where he is today. He is healing and he wants to make sure other veterans get the message of something worth living for instead of the message spread about suicides. Spend next year healing and let this New Year be the year you begin to change again, only this time, for the better!

That is how you get veterans to change their focus from what others perceive as "normal numbers" and begin to see what is much stronger than that.

Help them to see that they can spend their last worst day on earth and begin to celebrate an alive day by finding hope again.

Coming home after combat should not be more dangerous but it is. Too many veterans committed suicide today. Be alive today to heal tomorrow. You served because you loved this country and those you served with. Live for love now!
UPDATE
This was uploaded on 1-2-2012, long before the reports became headline news. The number back then was 18 a day. Goes to show how little has changed and how all the talk about "raising awareness" has been a lot of stunts and very little progress.

"VA officials overlooked or were unaware that a doctor was on the data bank’s list" and veterans suffered

Wichita VA fires doctor who medical board accuses of botching operations in Missouri

Kansas City Star
BY MIKE HENDRICKS
DECEMBER 30, 2019

The Government Accountability Office earlier this year faulted the VA for not always doing a good job checking the credentials of the doctors and other health professionals it hires. The report did not single out the Wichita hospital, but said that in some cases VA officials overlooked or were unaware that a doctor was on the data bank’s list.

Jim Guillaume of Independence blames the 2013 death of his wife, Susan, on a surgeon’s incompetence. Missouri officials agree that urologist Christel Wambi-Kiesse was out of his depth in the operating room. RICH SUGG RSUGG@KCSTAR.COM

The Department of Veteran Affairs hospital in Wichita has fired a doctor who Missouri regulators say botched operations while he was in private practice in the Kansas City area several years ago.

The VA began its investigation of Christel O. Wambi-Kiesse in September after The Kansas City Star reported that Missouri’s Board of Registration for the Healing Arts was seeking to discipline the 44-year-old urologist for allegedly harming patients while performing robot-assisted surgeries that were beyond his abilities.

The board cited three examples, all during 2013, while he was working for a now-defunct urology clinic associated with Centerpoint Medical Center in Independence. One woman died from a massive infection two months after Wambi-Kiesse punctured her bladder while performing a biopsy and failed to repair the damage, according to the complaint. The Star independently confirmed her identity as Susan Guillaume, who was 69 and lived in Independence.

“He poked two holes in her bladder, and then he said ‘we’re just going to let it heal naturally,’ “ her husband, Jim Guillaume, said in August. “Heal naturally? All that poison went into her abdominal cavity.”
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