Tens of thousands based in N.C. coming home
By Estes Thompson - The Associated Press
Posted : Friday Dec 28, 2007 16:53:50 EST
FORT BRAGG, N.C. — For much of 2007, this normally bustling post — home of the U.S. Army’s airborne infantry — was quiet: all four combat brigades of the storied 82nd Airborne Division were deployed overseas. Ditto at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, where the resident II Marine Expeditionary Force was fighting in Anbar, Iraq.
That changes in 2008, as more than 22,000 troops based in North Carolina are set to return home from their latest deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan.
“As they come back, other infantry battalions are going to head out the door again,” said Lt. Col. Curtis Hill, a Marine Corps spokesman at Camp Lejeune.
About 10,500 Marines who are assigned to the 2nd MEF — including aircraft pilots, infantrymen, and support troops units — are expected to return to the Corps’ main East Coast base in 2008, Hill said.
Glenn Mayberry, deputy family readiness officer with the 2nd MEF, said those returning Marines will get more concentrated attention now than at any point in the 12 years he has worked in the Corps’ family programs.
Mayberry said conflicts during the transition from life on the battlefield to life at home don’t have to be dramatic to be troublesome. Even the mundane — such as deciding which spouse gets to go out by themselves to shop: the stay-at-home spouse who watched the family’s children for months or the Marine who was in a combat zone all that time — can cause tension.
To help, returning troops are given plenty of time off. The Marines also compare results of pre-deployment examinations with later reviews to look for problems, and family members are also are asked to report anything they notice among the returned.
“They’re seeing mental health (professionals), chaplains and the doctors,” Hill said. “We’re relying on the Marines to tell the truth. There’s the pride thing and sometimes they’re not going to do it. What we’re trying to stress is just because you have an issue and you tell us, that doesn’t mean your career is over.”
go here for the rest
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2007/12/ap_nccominghome_071228/
All family members need to learn the signs of PTSD to be ready for them to come home. If the family and friends don't know what to look for, they will not know what to do to help them.
Go to the right side of this blog and watch the videos on PTSD to know what to look for and understand what they just came home from.
Friday, December 28, 2007
Fort Campbell is getting its own VA field office
VA field office was due on post
Fort Campbell is getting its own Tennessee Department of Veterans Affairs field office, and it's about time.
Montgomery County veterans have had to drive to either Dickson or Nashville regarding benefits.
While those are not, of course, particularly long drives, with all of the veterans who decide to retire or start a second career in this community, it was ridiculous that Fort Campbell didn't have a field office before now.
The new office is at 5661 Screaming Eagle Blvd. on post. For more information, call the Department of Veterans Affairs at 615-741-6663.
Primarily, the office will help file benefit claims for soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan and transitioning out of service. It also will help family members who may be entitled to federal benefits.
Anything that can help speed up the bureaucracy will be welcome.
click post title for link
Fort Campbell is getting its own Tennessee Department of Veterans Affairs field office, and it's about time.
Montgomery County veterans have had to drive to either Dickson or Nashville regarding benefits.
While those are not, of course, particularly long drives, with all of the veterans who decide to retire or start a second career in this community, it was ridiculous that Fort Campbell didn't have a field office before now.
The new office is at 5661 Screaming Eagle Blvd. on post. For more information, call the Department of Veterans Affairs at 615-741-6663.
Primarily, the office will help file benefit claims for soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan and transitioning out of service. It also will help family members who may be entitled to federal benefits.
Anything that can help speed up the bureaucracy will be welcome.
click post title for link
Photo of Dead Soldier Inspires Surprising Response
Photo of Dead Soldier Inspires Surprising Response
By Greg Mitchell
Published: December 28, 2007 12:15 PM ET
NEW YORK Sometimes a picture is, indeed, worth a thousand, or maybe 100,000, words. That seemed true two days ago when, in my regular pursuit of stories about noncombat American deaths in Iraq. I came upon the name of a new victim.
As usual, the Pentagon release merely stated that he had died in a non-hostile situation and that an investigation would proceed. Also as usual, I then googled for stories in local news outlets, which often provide some details about the deceased, occasionally even the true cause of death.
In this case, I also found a haunting photograph, after a newspaper link took me to – of all places – an elementary school’s online newsletter. I wrote about all this on my new blog (see link below), posted the photo and, amazingly, at least five people who knew the dead soldier and/or attended that school have written me or posted remarks at the blog.
It's rare that the war "comes home" for average Americans like this -- at least with this war. A new AP poll today reveals that only one in five Americans know of a family member, friend or neighbor who has been wounded or killed in Iraq.
My blog report opened: The Pentagon revealed today that a soldier from suburban Detroit died on Christmas Day in Iraq. Sgt. Peter Neesley, 28, was from Grosse Pointe Farms. The military says he died of an undetermined cause in a "noncombat environment" in Baghdad. In the photo at right, Neesley is shown on a recent visit to his nephew's 4th grade classroom in Grosse Pointe Farms.
The school's newsletter described it this way: "Sergeant Peter Neesley, uncle of Patrick D., visited Richard Elementary while home on leave from Iraq. Sgt. Neesley led the school in the Pledge of Allegiance and visited several classrooms answering questions from our inquisitive students. Thanks for spending valuable time with us Sgt. Neesley and don’t forget to write and keep in touch. Thanks to all the men and women in the armed forces. We are so proud of you!"
The blog item got picked up on a few other sites, and the surprising reaction soon arrived.
click post title for the rest
By Greg Mitchell
Published: December 28, 2007 12:15 PM ET
NEW YORK Sometimes a picture is, indeed, worth a thousand, or maybe 100,000, words. That seemed true two days ago when, in my regular pursuit of stories about noncombat American deaths in Iraq. I came upon the name of a new victim.
As usual, the Pentagon release merely stated that he had died in a non-hostile situation and that an investigation would proceed. Also as usual, I then googled for stories in local news outlets, which often provide some details about the deceased, occasionally even the true cause of death.
In this case, I also found a haunting photograph, after a newspaper link took me to – of all places – an elementary school’s online newsletter. I wrote about all this on my new blog (see link below), posted the photo and, amazingly, at least five people who knew the dead soldier and/or attended that school have written me or posted remarks at the blog.
It's rare that the war "comes home" for average Americans like this -- at least with this war. A new AP poll today reveals that only one in five Americans know of a family member, friend or neighbor who has been wounded or killed in Iraq.
My blog report opened: The Pentagon revealed today that a soldier from suburban Detroit died on Christmas Day in Iraq. Sgt. Peter Neesley, 28, was from Grosse Pointe Farms. The military says he died of an undetermined cause in a "noncombat environment" in Baghdad. In the photo at right, Neesley is shown on a recent visit to his nephew's 4th grade classroom in Grosse Pointe Farms.
The school's newsletter described it this way: "Sergeant Peter Neesley, uncle of Patrick D., visited Richard Elementary while home on leave from Iraq. Sgt. Neesley led the school in the Pledge of Allegiance and visited several classrooms answering questions from our inquisitive students. Thanks for spending valuable time with us Sgt. Neesley and don’t forget to write and keep in touch. Thanks to all the men and women in the armed forces. We are so proud of you!"
The blog item got picked up on a few other sites, and the surprising reaction soon arrived.
click post title for the rest
Suicide of Spec. Chris Dana causes Montana to change
''The federal government does a remarkable job of converting a citizen to a warrior,'' said Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer, a Democrat. ''I think they have an equal responsibility converting a warrior back to a citizen.''
Suicide shocks Montana into assessing vets' care
Chris Adams
December 28, 2007 1:25 PM
McClatchy Newspapers
(MCT)
HELENA, Mont. - Chris Dana came home from the war in Iraq in 2005 and slipped into a mental abyss so quietly that neither his family nor the Montana Army National Guard noticed.
He returned to his former life: a job at a Target store, nights in a trailer across the road from his father's house.
When he started to isolate himself, missing family events and football games, his father urged him to get counseling. When the National Guard called his father to say that he'd missed weekend duty, Gary Dana pushed his son to get in touch with his unit.
''I can't go back. I can't do it,'' Chris Dana responded.
Things went downhill from there. He blew though all his money, and last March 4, he shot himself in the head with a .22-caliber rifle. He was 23 years old.
As Gary Dana was collecting his dead son's belongings, he found a letter indicating that the National Guard was discharging his son under what are known as other-than-honorable conditions. The move was due to his skipping drills, which his family said was brought on by the mental strain of his service in Iraq.
The letter was in the trash, near a Wal-Mart receipt for .22-caliber rifle shells.
All across America, veterans such as Chris Dana are slipping through the cracks, left to languish by their military units and the Department of Veterans Affairs.
The VA's ability to provide adequate care for veterans with mental ailments has come under increasing scrutiny, and the agency says it's scrambling to boost its resources to help treat post-traumatic stress disorder, prevent suicides and help veterans cope. It's added more mental health counselors and started more suicide-prevention programs.
But the experience in Montana, which by some measures does more than any other state to support America's wars, shows how far the military and the VA have to go.
click post title for the rest
Linked from ICasualties.org
Also on this
Suicide shocks Montana into assessing vets' care
Chris Adams
December 28, 2007 1:25 PM
McClatchy Newspapers
(MCT)
HELENA, Mont. - Chris Dana came home from the war in Iraq in 2005 and slipped into a mental abyss so quietly that neither his family nor the Montana Army National Guard noticed.
He returned to his former life: a job at a Target store, nights in a trailer across the road from his father's house.
When he started to isolate himself, missing family events and football games, his father urged him to get counseling. When the National Guard called his father to say that he'd missed weekend duty, Gary Dana pushed his son to get in touch with his unit.
''I can't go back. I can't do it,'' Chris Dana responded.
Things went downhill from there. He blew though all his money, and last March 4, he shot himself in the head with a .22-caliber rifle. He was 23 years old.
As Gary Dana was collecting his dead son's belongings, he found a letter indicating that the National Guard was discharging his son under what are known as other-than-honorable conditions. The move was due to his skipping drills, which his family said was brought on by the mental strain of his service in Iraq.
The letter was in the trash, near a Wal-Mart receipt for .22-caliber rifle shells.
All across America, veterans such as Chris Dana are slipping through the cracks, left to languish by their military units and the Department of Veterans Affairs.
The VA's ability to provide adequate care for veterans with mental ailments has come under increasing scrutiny, and the agency says it's scrambling to boost its resources to help treat post-traumatic stress disorder, prevent suicides and help veterans cope. It's added more mental health counselors and started more suicide-prevention programs.
But the experience in Montana, which by some measures does more than any other state to support America's wars, shows how far the military and the VA have to go.
click post title for the rest
Linked from ICasualties.org
Also on this
When the battalion's tour of duty ended in late 2005 after 18 months away from home, Specialist Dana was rapidly processed through Department of Defense demobilization facilities to expedite his return home and reintegration into civilian environment. This expedited approach is standard operational procedure for Reserve Component (National Guard and Reserve) units whose tour of duty supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom or Enduring Freedom has ended.
However. Chris Dana's suicide-as well as the many others that have occurred nationwide in the aftermath of National Guard and Reserve combat veterans' return to mainstream civilian life-has prompted Montana's critical assessment of the PDHRA program's effectiveness in reintegrating combat veterans into civilian society.
go here for the rest
http://dma.mt.gov/mvad/documents/PDHRA.pdf
Two months between deployments PTSD followed him home
When war again found Iraq, Hill was deployed from August 2005 to November 2006. He deployed again in January 2007 with the 731st Transportation Company out of Larned.
Switching to convoy gunner a fateful choice
By James Carlson - The Associated Press
Posted : Friday Dec 28, 2007 7:12:22 EST
OTTAWA, Kan. — Spc. Allen Hill wakes in the middle of the night with a real-life movie playing on repeat.
Gunner position. Night-vision goggles. A man fidgeting with something. A white light, then nothing. Over and over the scene plays, and the 39-year-old Hill can’t seem to dislodge it from his mind.
He is in Kansas for the holidays with his family before returning in early January to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., where he will continue treatment and finish paperwork to receive at-home care when he returns to Kansas.
The physical signs of that day one month ago are waning, but even in the security of his Ottawa home, the mental pain continues.
Hill joined the Army in Texas in 1986 at age 18. He was placed at Fort Riley in 1990 and has lived in Kansas since. He fought in the 1991 Persian Gulf War before joining the Army National Guard.
When war again found Iraq, Hill was deployed from August 2005 to November 2006. He deployed again in January 2007 with the 731st Transportation Company out of Larned.
Hill’s unit served as convoy security, where he most often drove the Humvees. That was until Nov. 21, the day before Thanksgiving.
“I had driven and driven and driven and the monotony ...” he trails off.
go here for the rest
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2007/12/ap_flashback_071228/
He was home two months before going back. This is how they do it to our soldiers. They stick them into another unit that is heading back, and off they go. Yet they get to say the troops have rest between deployments because the unit they left does not go back that quick. Nice trick. Too bad the media let them get away with this over and over again. It happens all the time. Yet they act as if they are surprised by how many end up with PTSD?
Switching to convoy gunner a fateful choice
By James Carlson - The Associated Press
Posted : Friday Dec 28, 2007 7:12:22 EST
OTTAWA, Kan. — Spc. Allen Hill wakes in the middle of the night with a real-life movie playing on repeat.
Gunner position. Night-vision goggles. A man fidgeting with something. A white light, then nothing. Over and over the scene plays, and the 39-year-old Hill can’t seem to dislodge it from his mind.
He is in Kansas for the holidays with his family before returning in early January to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., where he will continue treatment and finish paperwork to receive at-home care when he returns to Kansas.
The physical signs of that day one month ago are waning, but even in the security of his Ottawa home, the mental pain continues.
Hill joined the Army in Texas in 1986 at age 18. He was placed at Fort Riley in 1990 and has lived in Kansas since. He fought in the 1991 Persian Gulf War before joining the Army National Guard.
When war again found Iraq, Hill was deployed from August 2005 to November 2006. He deployed again in January 2007 with the 731st Transportation Company out of Larned.
Hill’s unit served as convoy security, where he most often drove the Humvees. That was until Nov. 21, the day before Thanksgiving.
“I had driven and driven and driven and the monotony ...” he trails off.
go here for the rest
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2007/12/ap_flashback_071228/
He was home two months before going back. This is how they do it to our soldiers. They stick them into another unit that is heading back, and off they go. Yet they get to say the troops have rest between deployments because the unit they left does not go back that quick. Nice trick. Too bad the media let them get away with this over and over again. It happens all the time. Yet they act as if they are surprised by how many end up with PTSD?
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