Military sexual assault victims raped twice, forced to pay for care

V.A. Plans Review of Billing for Care in Sexual Assaults
By JAMES DAO
Published: May 6, 2009
The Department of Veterans Affairs will review the billing practices of veterans health centers around the country amid concerns that some are improperly charging for care relating to sexual assault in the military, officials said Wednesday.

The department is required to provide free care, including counseling and prescription drugs, to veterans who were sexually harassed or assaulted while in military service. Sexual assault includes rape and attempted rape.

But the Office of Inspector General at the department found this year that an outpatient clinic in Austin, Tex., had repeatedly charged veterans, mostly women, for those services. Based on concerns that the practice may be more widespread, the office decided to expand its review to a sampling of veterans health care centers and clinics nationwide.

An official in the office declined to comment, saying it does not discuss pending reviews. The official said the review would be made public when it was completed, possibly by October.

In a statement, the Department of Veterans Affairs said the Central Texas Veterans Health Care System, which oversees the Austin clinic, was reimbursing patients who had been improperly billed. “Patients seen for military sexual trauma should not be billed for payment,” the statement said. “We apologize for the inconvenience this has caused.”

GAO: Sex assaults at West Point may be underreported

GAO: Sex assaults at West Point may be underreported

By Brendan McGarry - Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday Feb 19, 2008 20:12:18 EST

The U.S. Military Academy has taken steps to prevent sexual assault on campus, but student surveys indicate such incidents may be vastly underreported, according to a new government report.

West Point reported 45 sexual assaults from 2003 through 2006, according to a Government Accountability Office report released Tuesday.

That was the same as the Air Force Academy near Colorado Springs, Colo., and compares to 55 at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md. Taken together, the Defense Department academies reported 145 sexual assaults during the four-year period, according to the GAO report.

The Coast Guard Academy in New London, Conn., part of the Department of Homeland Security, recorded 12 sexual assaults during the same period, according the GAO report.

However, anonymous surveys administered in 2006 indicate about 200 female students and 100 male students at the Defense Department academies may have experienced “unwanted sexual contact” in 2005 alone, according to the GAO.
go here for the rest
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/02/army_westpoint_sexassault_080303w/

The Invisible War: Sundance Film Review

Maybe this should be titled "It's not new just because it is news to you." but this has been going on for a very long time. Women have been complaining about attacks, rapes and a lot of other things the general public has not been made aware of, and it is high time everyone knew. The only problem I see with this is because of the changes in attitudes and more support women have been getting to come forward, it ends up looking as if the newer veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan are the only groups that have done this. Look back in history and you'll see that none of this is new.

The veterans subjected to sexual assaults should be fully supported and the criminals should not only be removed from service but put in jail. This is a crime no matter where it happens but when it happens at a time when these men and women are supposed to be able to trust each other with their lives, the last thing they should have to worry about is not being able to trust them with their bodies.

The Invisible War: Sundance Film Review
12:15 AM PST 1/29/2012 by David Rooney

The Audience Award winner for best documentary at Sundance 2012, Kirby Dick's shocking investigation into widespread sexual assault in the U.S. military is an urgent call to action.

PARK CITY – A gut punch of moral outrage, Kirby Dick’s The Invisible War presents overwhelming evidence that the U.S. military’s purported zero-tolerance attitude to sexual assault is a charade. It illustrates the human cost of that sham with heart-wrenching displays of courage and dignity in the face of institutional indifference. Destined to draw major editorial attention, this hard-hitting advocacy film exposes the dirty secret not as an attack on the armed forces but as an indignant petition to protect the more vulnerable among their ranks.

Emotionally powerful interviews with rape victims, conducted by Dick’s producer Amy Ziering, form the core of the documentary. But even without putting faces to the issue, the statistics alone are staggering. Department of Defense data shows that 20% of servicewomen experience rape, sexual assault or sexual harassment, causing a higher rate of PTSD among them than among men in combat.

Given the repercussions – violence, ostracization, loss of rank or career – it’s estimated that 80% of sexual assault cases in the military go unreported. With 3,158 cases recorded in 2010, that puts the likely total for the year at more than 19,000. Of the more than 108,000 veterans who screened positive for Military Sexual Trauma (MST) in 2010, 45.7% were men.
read more here

Senators outraged over military sexual assaults....again

Today in Washington, yet again, Senators expressed outrage over the rise in military sexual assaults. While they can act as if this is a "new" problem...their problem is very little was done over all these years. This hearing happened in 2013!

Female Senators Express Outrage Towards Male Military Commanders at Sexual Assault Hearing
11,082 views •Jun 5, 2013

Navy brass targets hike in sexual assaults

Navy brass targets hike in sexual assaults
Intervention strategy mimics college efforts
By Jeanette Steele, UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

Originally published July 3, 2010 at 10:41 p.m., updated July 4, 2010 at 12:02 a.m.

The Navy’s top brass wants commanders to “get uncomfortable” about sexual assaults, which are happening at the rate of more than one a day and to one in five female sailors during her career — mostly at the hands of other shipmates.

“A lot of it is blue on blue, sailor on sailor,” the Navy’s No. 2 officer, Vice Chief of Naval Operations Jonathan Greenert, said during a recent speech in San Diego.

“In your Navy and my Navy, that’s, to me, totally unsatisfactory. I have a problem even talking about it. It gets me irritated,” he said.

After spending five years concentrating on supporting victims but seeing no decrease in assault numbers, the Navy’s new tactic is to get “left of the event” — the same language the Pentagon used when it concentrated on diminishing roadside bomb deaths.

They are instructing sailors to step in when something looks sinister, even if the perpetrator is of a higher rank — something, they acknowledge, that may be tough to achieve because the difference between a commander and a petty officer is woven into the basic fabric of the military.

The Navy recently held “bystander intervention” seminars in San Diego, Virginia and Hawaii. It’s a pilot program, and officials will look at the results before they roll out the seminars to the entire fleet.
read more here
Navy brass targets hike in sexual assaults
linked from Stars & Stripes

Pentagon’s Sexual Assault and Prevention Office taking women seriously

Rape and sexual assaults are crimes that no one should ever ignore.

New campaign aims to stop sexual assault

By William H. McMichael - Staff writer
Posted : Friday Apr 3, 2009 14:49:01 EDT

The Pentagon on Friday launched a campaign to raise awareness of and prevent sexual assaults with a focus on what it calls “bystander intervention” — service members taking the initiative to step in when someone is about to be victimized.

The campaign, dubbed “Our Strength is for Defending,” is running throughout April in tandem with National Sexual Assault Awareness Month.

Officials are employing posters, brochures and radio and TV announcements and focusing the campaign on 18- to-24-year-old men and women — the age range in which officials say most sexual assaults take place.

The campaign resembles a similar effort by the international advocacy group Men Can Stop Rape. That group’s campaign is focused on men; SAPRO worked with the group to adapt the program to the military and include women as a focal point.

“We all have a responsibility of intervening if we think a sexual assault is going to occur,” said Kaye Whitley, director of the Pentagon’s Sexual Assault and Prevention Office, or SAPRO.

The campaign goal is twofold, Whitley said: preventing sexual assault, and raising awareness of the issue.
go here for more
New campaign aims to stop sexual assault

Senator Hillary Clinton slams Pentagon action on sexual assaults

Clinton slams sex assault prevention efforts

By William H. McMichael - Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday Aug 6, 2008 18:32:56 EDT

Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., has called for an investigation into the Pentagon program that aims to prevent and respond to sexual assaults, expressing particular concern that such assaults may be on the rise and citing the failure of the defense official who runs that program to appear before Congress last week.

“I am deeply concerned by the Pentagon’s inadequate response to sexual assaults on our troops and the administration’s unwillingness to answer questions about this important issue,” Clinton said in an Aug. 6 letter to Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. “Service members who brave so many dangers while defending our nation deserve better.”

Clinton asked Levin to hold an oversight hearing that would “allow us to identify the necessary reforms to protect our service members from sexual assault.”

During a July 31 hearing before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee’s national security and foreign affairs panel, the Government Accountability Office released a report stating that while the military response to sexual assault is improving, efforts are hindered by such factors as inadequate guidance on implementation in deployed and joint environments, part-time program coordinators filling the job as a collateral duty, and a failure by some commanders to support the program.
go here for more
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/08/military_clinton_sexassault_prevention_080608w/

Shocked and offended by explicit questions on military sexual assault survey

Military sex-assault survey asking explicit questions draws complaints
The Associated Press
By LOLITA C. BALDOR
Published: October 31, 2014

WASHINGTON — Shocked and offended by explicit questions, some U.S. servicemen and women are complaining about a new sexual-assault survey that hundreds of thousands have been asked to complete.

The survey is conducted every two years. But this year's version, developed by the Rand Corp., is unusually detailed, including graphically personal questions on sexual acts.

Some military members told The Associated Press that they were surprised and upset by the questions, and some even said they felt re-victimized by the blunt language. None of them would speak publicly by name, but Pentagon officials confirmed they had received complaints that the questions were "intrusive" and "invasive."

The Defense Department said it made the survey much more explicit and detailed this year in order to get more accurate results as the military struggles to reduce its sexual assaults while also encouraging victims to come forward to get help.

The survey questions, which were obtained by The Associated Press, ask about any unwanted sexual experiences or contact, and include very specific wording about men's and women's body parts or other objects, and kinds of contact or penetration.
read more here

Women Veterans Complicated Road "After Fire"

‘AFTER FIRE’ AND WOMEN VETERANS’ COMPLICATED ROAD TO HEALING TRAUMA
NEWSWEEK
BY LUCY WESTCOTT
11/16/16

“The culture of the military is about sucking it up. It’s not about you, it’s about the mission. It’s about life and death. They have to be ready for a life or death situation, and they have to put their unit, their team, ahead of themselves,” says Huckabee.

Veteran Laly Cholak is seen on Capitol Hill in a still from the new documentary "After Fire."

AFTER FIRE/BRITTANY HUCKABEE

Like everyone who deals with trauma, women veterans who return to the U.S. after serving in the military have their own ways of healing.

For some, it’s small bottles of refrigerated wine, talking with friends and family or keeping their experiences locked inside. For others, like Valerie Sullivan, the focus of the new documentary After Fire, it’s spending six hard months training for a bodybuilding competition. After Fire, directed by Brittany Huckabee, follows women veterans based in San Antonio who survived military sexual trauma. All are actively involved in helping veterans, whether it’s fellow MST survivors or lobbying with older male veterans on Capitol Hill.

Women are the fastest-growing group of military veterans, and one in every five new military recruits is a woman. Yet 4.3 percent of active-duty women say they experienced unwanted sexual contact in 2014. That number is likely higher due to fears about reporting incidents and the retaliation that so often follows; a December 2014 report found that the estimated number of rape and violent sexual assaults experienced by women in the military was higher than previously thought. Around 90 percent of female vets don’t use Veterans Affairs Department health care, according to the film.
read more here

Military men and the secrets they carry

Military Men Silent on Sexual Assaults
October 05, 2009
Virginian-Pilot

For years after the parachute accident that ended his Army service, Cody Openshaw spiraled downward.

He entered college but couldn't keep up with his studies. He had trouble holding a job. He drank too much. He had trouble sleeping, and when he did sleep, he had nightmares. He got married and divorced in less than a year. He had flashbacks. He isolated himself from his friends and drank more.

"His anxiety level was out of this world," his father said. "This was a young man who got straight A's in high school, and now he couldn't function."

Openshaw had the classic symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, even though he had never been in combat. His parents attributed the trauma to the accident and the heavy medications he was taking for the continuing pain.

But there was more.

Finally, he broke down and told his father.

A few months after his accident, as he was awaiting his medical discharge from the Army, he had been sexually assaulted.

The attack left him physically injured and emotionally shattered. Inhibited by shame, embarrassment, sexual confusion and fear, it took him five years to come forward with the full story.

What truly sets this story apart, however, is not the details of the case, horrific as they are, but the gender of the victim.

There is a widespread presumption that most victims of sexual assault in the military services are women. That presumption, however, is false.

In a 2006 survey of active-duty troops, 6.8 percent of women and 1.8 percent of men said they had experienced unwanted sexual contact in the previous 12 months. Since there are far more men than women in the services, that translates into roughly 22,000 men and 14,000 women.
read more here
Military Men Silent on Sexual Assaults

Bereavement Valentines for Military Families

Bereavement Valentines for Military Families
by Kathie Costos
Wounded Times Blog
February 14, 2013



When you read about Military suicides there is a family left behind to grieve for each one of them. Last years alone almost 500 military families received word someone they loved committed suicide. That was 60 Naval families, 59 Air Force families, 48 Marine Corps families, 182 Army families and the usually forgotten about 96 Army National Guards families with 47 Army Reservist families.

Eighty percent of veterans who attempted suicide and survived had received mental health care one month earlier from the Department of Veterans Affairs, underscoring the potential peril of 50-day average wait times they face in trying to access VA treatment, a suicide expert told a Congressional committee Wednesday.

From the same article

According to a VA report released earlier this month, 18 to 22 veterans commit suicide each day. And that rate “has remained steady” since the Iraq and Afghanistan wars began 12 years ago, said Veterans' Committee chairman Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., who noted that during that same span the VA has increased its budget by 39 percent and its staffing by 41 percent.

From the same article

In 2012, for example, the VA’s 24-hour crisis line fielded 193,000 phone calls that resulted in more than 6,400 “rescues” of veterans who were threatening to hurt themselves or their family members, Petzel said.

This part paints the clearest picture of what a massive failure all of this is. 193,000 calls to the crisis line with 6,400 rescues shows what the DOD has been doing on PTSD, outreach, training and everything else they claim they have "done" has resulted in deadly outcomes. They have been claiming to be "taking steps" to reduce the stigma and get these servicemen and women the help they need for too many years and when the press was no longer accepting that for an answer they tried to detour the conversation into the civilian suicide rate without ever mentioning many of the "civilians" committing suicide were in fact veterans. Then they proceeded to further outrage bereaved families by saying "many of them had never been deployed" as if that would make any sense at all.

These men and women were willing to risk their lives when they signed up. They were exposed to combat within the training itself along with seeing coffins come home and amputees fill military hospitals. Did they ever once consider some of these high school kids ended up with some level of PTSD from the training itself? Civilians get PTSD from not being in combat but the military has failed to grasp that simple fact. Not everyone joining the military is cut out to be in the military but they can't just quit so that is more traumatic than losing a job. They also seem unable to consider hazing. Military sexual assaults are forgotten about. The list goes on but again, the military failed to acknowledge that people do not simply go from being willing to die for the sake of others to taking their own lives on a whim.

So each day news arrives that a family member decided they would rather die than spend one more day on this earth because they cannot endure the hell they are in when the military and the VA get away with making unsubstantiated claims.

Female veterans #BreakTheSilence and get your service on equal footing

Yesterday I posted on PTSD Patrol about female veterans service being overlooked. Too many times people have assumed that when you mention a female veteran with PTSD, they try to point to military sexual assaults. Not that they do not happen, but no one jumps to that conclusion when a male veteran has PTSD, even though they get attacked too.

As you can see in this recent report, it happens to males as well as females.

The US military is reporting a disturbing spike in the number of active-duty service members who said they’d experienced sexual assault last year, raising questions once again about the military’s handling of misconduct.
The Pentagon estimates that about 20,500 service members across the military branches — about 13,000 women and 7,500 men — were sexually assaulted in the 2018 fiscal year, based on data from an anonymous survey that’s compiled by the Department of Defense every two years.
That’s a four-year high — and an alarming jump from 2016, in which 14,900 service members said they had been sexually assaulted. VOX.com

Yet the public assumes that PTSD caused by combat situations in females, on top of everything else, does not happen.

There are, sadly still, too many things that are getting worse while it seems as if more is being done claiming to change all of it.

Things our politicians do, do not work, then everyone wants more done. Huge problem when it is all more of the same and the worst outcome spreads out! If you are a female veteran, or currently serving, use your voice and make sure that your service is honored, your wounds are tended to and you get the help you need to live a better quality of life. #BreakTheSilence

Why do women wonder when their service will count?

PTSD Patrol
Kathie Costos
December 22, 2019

We read about it all the time. A couple is sitting together, both wearing military hats, yet it is only the male who receives a "thank you" for his service.

Someone forgot to inform the "thanker" that women have served this country since before it was a country.

Today over 210,000 women serve on active duty in the military services of the Department of Defense (Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force), and another 5,955 serve in the Active Coast Guard—part of the Department of Homeland Security in peacetime.

The Reserve Components are federal forces. Guard components play dual state and federal roles. Like most of the active forces, the Reserve and Guard components have an increasing percentage of women in their ranks. As of February 2018, women constituted 158,090 or 19.8 percent—of all personnel serving in the six DoD Reserve and Guard forces. Women number 1,067—or 17.4 percent—of all personnel serving in the Coast Guard Reserve.

Women have been bestowed with every military medal for heroism, including the Medal of Honor. Dr. Walker not only served during the Civil War, she was a POW.

Released from government contract at the end of the war, Dr. Walker lobbied for a brevet promotion to major for her services. Secretary of War Stanton would not grant the request. President Andrew Johnson asked for another way to recognize her service. A Medal of Honor was presented to Dr. Walker in January 1866. She wore it every day for the rest of her life. read it here

14,000 male soldiers experience some type of unwanted sexual contact per year

Female Commander Investigated over Alleged Sexual Assaults of Male Subordinates, Pattern of Harassment

Military.com
By Steve Beynon
25 Apr 2023

Male victims account for only 10% of sexual assault cases in the military, according to 2021 data from the Department of Defense. That data estimates roughly 14,000 male soldiers experience some type of unwanted sexual contact per year, though male cases of sexual assault and harassment are likely underreported due to societal stigma.

Lt. Col. Meghann Sullivan takes the 5th Battalion, 5th Security Force Assistance Brigade guidon at Joint Base Lewis McChord, Washington, June 28, 2021. (U.S. Army photo by Spc. Joseph Knoch)

A top officer in the Army's 5th Security Force Assistance Brigade has been investigated following allegations of multiple sexual assaults and a pattern of sexual harassment, according to two sources with knowledge of the investigation. It is unclear whether the investigation is ongoing, but it comes while another is underway into allegations of toxic leadership by the brigade's commander.

Col. Meghann Sullivan, commander of the 5th Brigade Engineer Battalion, 5th SFAB, faces allegations of assaulting at least two subordinate men and harassing several others, with some of those incidents allegedly tied to alcohol abuse, according to one of the two sources. At least one of those alleged assaults involved forceful kissing and another grabbing a man below the belt without his consent.
read more here

Veterans Groups "1 in 3 women are raped during military service"

Vets Claim Nearly 1 in 3 Women Are Raped During Military Service
Courthouse News
By RYAN ABBOTT
May 5, 2014

WASHINGTON (CN) - The Department of Veterans Affairs refuses to respond to a rulemaking petition addressing the alarming numbers of rape and sexual assaults in the U.S. military, two veterans' groups claim in court.

The Service Women's Action Network and Vietnam Veterans of America filed a petition with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, claiming that Veterans Affairs (VA) constructively denied their petition seeking to ease the administrative burdens of rape victims looking for benefits.

"Widespread rape, sexual assault, and sexual harassment plague the military, threatening the strength of the armed forces, undermining national security, and destroying the lives of survivors and their families," the petition states.

"Nearly one in every three women is raped during her service and more than half experience unwanted sexual contact."

The petition continues: "Moreover, of the 26,000 service members who reported unwanted sexual contact in 2011-12, fifty-two percent were men. These assaults often result in devastating, long-term psychological injuries, most notably Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder ('PTSD'). Sexual violence correlates with PTSD more highly than any other trauma, including combat."
read more here

Army didn't want family of fallen Major saying he was gay

How bad has it been for gay soldiers serving this country when a family is asked to keep it to themselves that a Major, killed serving his country, was gay? That is something that is never really discussed.  There are men and women buried in graves at Arlington but you'd never know it.  It is not as if they have rainbow colored headstones popping up amid the sea of white stones.  At Arlington, they all look the same.  You can't tell what race they were but you can remember a time in the history of this nation when only white soldiers were allowed to serve.  You can't tell if the grave belongs to a male or female unless you are close enough to read the name, but you can remember a time when females were not allowed to serve.  When you see the graves at Arlington, you don't know if they were married, single, straight or gay.  The only thing you can be sure of is they all died serving this country.

Did the Major have an honor guard and full military funeral just like everyone else?  An honor, a true honor, would be they honored the life of his man who died for it but the Army only wanted to pretend to honor his life when they asked the family to keep his personal lifestyle quiet.  They must have forgotten that the military only borrows these men and women from their families while they live and when they die, it is the family returning to the grave to mourn the loss of the person they loved for who he or she was and all they were.

Friends honor gay soldier Maj. Alan Rogers, killed in Iraq, after repeal of 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell'

BY BILL HUTCHINSON
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Monday, December 20th 2010, 9:53 AM

A gay Bronx soldier who fought for the repeal of the military's Don't Ask Don't Tell policy and died serving in Iraq was honored by friends at his snow-covered grave site.

Pals decorated Maj. Alan Rogers' grave at Arlington National Cemetery Saturday with flowers, a rainbow-colored lei, a Christmas wreath and congratulatory notes.

"Alan, we did it," one note read.

Tony Smith, 40, of Alexandra, Va., said he was one of the first friends to reach Rogers grave after the historic vote.

Daly wrote that the folded flag from Rogers' coffin was presented to a cousin and that his relatives were asked by the Army to refrain openly discussing his sexual orientation.

Read more: Friends honor gay soldier Maj. Alan Rogers

A dear friend of mine is also buried at Arlington. The fact she was gay is not something I focus on because I focus on her laugh and how much she cared about the others serving this country. When her military life was over, it really wasn't over as a veteran fighting for other veterans. She testified before congress on Agent Orange and PTSD many times as a veteran. No one in congress cared about anything other than she was suffering from Agent Orange and PTSD as they listened to her talk.

When she decided to tell me that she was gay, it was years after we had spent many hours communicating with emails and phone calls. It was not until after we had a discussion about a news report that came out about a gay soldier and I voiced my opinion that she felt safe in telling me. She said it was a relief knowing she didn't have to hide her personal life from me anymore.

We talked about my husband and daughter, her family and the work we did. She was a wonderful woman, dear friend and true champion for veterans. That is what mattered to me and still stands out in my mind.

This talk about gays serving open being a distraction in battle seems more like a made up excuse when you consider if a soldier or Marine is so poorly trained they would be hitting on another soldier or Marine during a battle, that would indicated a larger problem with the preparedness of them than anything else. They must have used the same excuse when women were entering into the military without having to disguise themselves as males. When they are facing guns and bombs, the last thing on their mind is sex. They are too busy worrying about the lives of the others they are with and dying that day to think about anything else.

With all the talk about this sexual issue no one seems to be talking about all the sexual assaults that should be a more important issue to focus on since it is a crime. Where are these same commanders on this issue? Are they raising warnings about females being sexually assaulted by "straight" soldiers and Marines? Do they talk about how it is a distraction in battle? It seems more like rape has been one more "don't ask don't tell" practice for them.

Does it bother soldiers when they know someone in their unit has raped a female soldier? Does it harm the unity they are supposed to have when one of their own has been assaulted?

Rape is a crime because it is forced on someone else. Being "gay" is not a crime unless they force themselves on someone else. The issue here is that it is considered a "sin" and often people will quote from the Old Testament or letters from Paul but never once did Christ speak of it. He did talk about adultery because it hurts other people. He talked about judging someone but His issue was loving God and loving other people. This nation is supposed to be about freedom to worship as we want and equality as humans so how can we treat other humans as worth less because they are in the minority? When you consider that the men and women wiling to serve this nation are a minority as it is, gay people in the military should be the least of their issues and true crimes against them should be a lot more important. If commanders really cared about morality, they should be stopping rapes and treating it like the crime it is or they have no real moral ground to stand on.

But now we have an elected official fighting to dishonor yet again by forcing them to keep silent on their personal lives. He wants to keep "don't ask, don't tell" which only served to keep them hiding, much like the Army wanted to keep Major Roger's family silent.

Virginian: Bar gays from National Guard
After Hill move, Marshall says it's state prerogative
By Seth McLaughlin-The Washington Times
Responding to the federal repeal of the military policy banning open gays from serving in the armed forces, a state lawmaker in Virginia plans to fight back with legislation that bars "active homosexuals" from serving in the Virginia National Guard.

Delegate Robert G. Marshall said the Constitution reserves states with the authority to do so and that he'll introduce a bill in the state General Assembly next year that ensures the "the effect of the 1994 federal law banning active homosexuals from America's military forces will apply to the Virginia National Guard."

"With the repeal of 'don't ask, don't tell,' President Obama seeks to pay back his homosexual political supporters," the Prince William County Republican said, echoing a sentiment shared by many of the repeal's most ardent opponents. "This policy will weaken military recruitment and retention, and will increase pressure for a military draft."

"The Constitution never would have been ratified if states were not [guaranteed] unqualified control of the militia, now called the National Guard," he said.

But Claire Gastanaga, legislative counsel for Equality Virginia, a gay-rights group, said the National Guard is a federal military unit subject to the same rules as other federal military units and that "any state statute seeking to set different standards for the Virginia National Guard would be a nullity with no effect."
read more of this here
Bar gays from National Guard

Army's ineffective to prevent sexual assaults in Korea

Report underscores Army's ineffectiveness to prevent sexual assaults in Korea
By Ashley Rowland
Stars and Stripes
Published: May 21, 2013

SEOUL – Failed leadership, easy access to alcohol and mixed messages about questionable off-post establishments have rendered the Army’s sexual assault prevention programs in South Korea largely ineffective, according to a military study.

Stars and Stripes obtained a copy of a 28-page draft report produced by a sexual assault task force formed in spring 2011 to study the problem. For nearly two years, Eighth Army officials have refused repeated requests from Stars and Stripes for the report, instead providing a one-page summary this month.

The draft report documented the Army’s inability to respond to what it described as “special circumstances” in South Korea that might contribute to sexual assaults, including widespread underage drinking.
read more here

Suicide Rate Now Likely Double or Triple Civil War

Disappointed in this study because they fail to address the fact that during the Civil War most died following amputations and serious wounds while today, they live on. Had more survived during those dark times in our history, there would have been more suicides. Plus the researchers would also have to take into account how news traveled back then.

How do they know? They don't. Read further down and see the word "estimate" along with what their research was.

What do they think "not deployed" means? Do they think the suicide had nothing to do with combat? How about the fact that most killed and maimed are killed by bombs? Do you think that might just be a factor in being so terrified they'd rather kill themselves now? What about Mefloquine? Hazing? Sexual Assaults? Or a lot of other causes for military suicides in the "31%" never deployed but must have passed their psychological tests, meaning they didn't have any issues when they signed up. When you have these kind of numbers coming out on military suicides, it shows how twisted some research can be when they answer the easy questions but never mention the obvious.

They used to shoot a lot of them for desertion too.

New Study: U.S. Military Suicide Rate Now Likely Double or Triple Civil War’s
By BARTLEY FRUEH AND JEFFREY SMITH
Time Battleland
August 6, 2012

Can medical data from the U.S. Civil War help us better understand military suicides?

Your recent Time cover story in the July 23 issue detailed the tragic facts that suicide rates among active-duty U.S. military personnel rose dramatically over the past decade. Military suicide rates doubled between 2001 and 2006, while remaining flat in the general population, with more military fatalities attributed to suicide than to actual combat in Afghanistan during that period.

To make matters worse, we do not understand why. Stressors related to military training, overseas deployment, transition back to civilian life, and combat are widely believed to be major driving factors. However, 31% of soldiers who committed suicide had never been deployed to a war zone. Furthermore, suicide rates in British military forces have also increased recently, though to a lesser degree, and do not exceed the rate of the general population.

Is there a lack of historical context?

Compounding our inability to understand this current phenomenon is the lack of adequate historical data to provide context on whether high suicide rates were typical of prior wars. Review of archival records from past wars might help shed some light on the current military suicide epidemic.

In a recent study (Frueh & Smith, 2012) we reviewed historical medical records on suicide deaths among Union forces during the U.S. Civil War (1861-1865), a brutal war that many consider the first modern one, and for the year immediately after the war to estimate the suicide rate among its Union combatants. We also reviewed these same historical records for data on rates of alcohol abuse and other probable psychiatric illnesses.
Read more

Finally Congress does something helpful for PTSD troops

This is one of the times when reporters caused change. All the media hype on what has been going on for years in the IRS and over National Security, as if these things just happened, ignoring something that they could have done something about for the sake of the troops has me sick to my stomach. With the 24-7 news cycle now, you'd think they would have some time to cover our troops and veterans but they just ignored what they were going through.

If you have been reading Wounded Times, you've read all the articles The Gazette did on what is really going on in the military. Congressman Mike Coffman, an Iraq veteran, paid attention and decided to do something about it.

Congress eyes changes to military discipline
The Gazette
By Dave Philipps
June 7, 2013

Congress moved Wednesday to review and possibly overhaul the military discipline system to keep wounded combat troops from being discharged for bad behavior related to post-traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injuries and other war wounds.

Rep. Mike Coffman, a Denver-area Republican who is on the House Armed Services Committee, introduced an amendment to the 2014 Defense Authorization Act that would create a 10-member Commission on Military Behavioral Health and Disciplinary Issues.

The commission would study whether the military discipline system needs to change in light of emerging research on the connection between PTSD and TBI and behavioral problems that can get troops in trouble.

The House Armed Services Committee also voted late Wednesday to change current military regulations to require all service members facing court-martial to first have a medical evaluation for PTSD and TBI.

"The Gazette's investigation brought the issues to my attention," said Coffman, an Iraq War veteran who represents the suburbs east of Denver. "There is a problem. We need to analyze the problem and take action."
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The congressional commission
- Ten experts will be appointed within a month of passage of the bill. Two will be appointed by the president. Two will be appointed by the Republican chair of the House Armed Services Committee. Two will be appointed by the ranking Democrat of the House Armed Services Committee. Two will be appointed by the Democrat chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee. And two will be appointed by the ranking Republican of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
-They will consider whether the military discipline system needs reforms to address the impact of service-connected injuries such as PTSD and TBI.
- They may hold hearings and collect information from the Department of Defense.
- They are to report their findings to Congress and the President by June 30, 2014.

This is Coffman on Military Sexual Assaults

After four tours, PTSD and TBI Staff Sgt. Bales to plead guilty

UPDATE
US soldier pleads guilty in Afghan massacre

After four tours, PTSD and TBI Staff Sgt. Bales to plead guilty
by Kathie Costos
Wounded Times Blog
June 5, 2013

Who is really guilty here? What is the military doing? Are they trying to say that Staff Sgt. Bales is the only one responsible for the deaths of the Afghan civilians? What about sending Bales back into combat for the fourth time with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Traumatic Brain Injury? What about the medication he must have been on? Any clue on any of these questions?

If you believe this is cut and dry, you are not paying attention to what else has been going on and what kind of ramification this case has.

"Defense attorneys have argued that Bales, the father of two from Lake Tapps, Washington, was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and a brain injury even before his deployment to Afghanistan."

U.S. soldier expected to plead guilty to killing Afghans in cold blood
By Eric M. Johnson
SEATTLE
Jun 5, 2013

(Reuters) - A U.S. Army sergeant charged with killing 16 Afghan civilians in cold blood was due in court on Wednesday for a court-martial proceeding in which he is expected to plead guilty under a deal with military prosecutors to avoid the death penalty.

Staff Sergeant Robert Bales, a decorated veteran of four combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, is accused of roaming off his Army post in the Afghan province of Kandahar last March and gunning down unarmed villagers, mostly women and children, in attacks on their family compounds.

The shootings marked the worst case of civilian slaughter blamed on a rogue U.S. soldier since the Vietnam War and further eroded strained U.S.-Afghan relations after more than a decade of conflict in that country.

Defense lawyer Emma Scanlan told Reuters last week that Bales had agreed to plead guilty during the hearing at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state to 16 counts of premeditated murder, as well as to charges of attempted murder and assault.
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This is a high profile murder trial because of the horrific nature of the crime Bales is planning to plead guilty of committing. The problem is, Bales had PTSD and TBI along with being redeployed instead of treated properly. We have heard the claims the military has made about treating the soldiers for these injuries and how they have "trained" them to be "resilient" and prevent PTSD. As those claims have been made over and over again, we have also seen the rise in suicides tied to military service, the flood of veterans filing claims with the VA and showing up in more and more veterans courts across the country.

Adverse effects of sleep medications causing emergency situations but the DOD has been using them on soldiers in Afghanistan just as they did in Iraq. There are warnings for these drugs for the civilian population but it appears the military does not think these soldiers are as human as the rest of us. They simply ignored the warnings.

Everything indicates what the military has been doing has failed. As with the case of Sgt. John Russell and his guilty plea for killing five service members at Camp Liberty Stress Clinic in Baghdad Iraq.

Russell had sought help for PTSD. "As part of last month's plea agreement, Russell described to the court how he killed Navy Cmdr. Charles Springle, Army Maj. Matthew Houseal, Sgt. Christian Bueno-Galdos, Spec. Jacob Barton and Pfc. Michael Yates Jr." What this guilty plea did was remove accountability from the military itself.

Two high profile murder cases, two guilty pleas and no one taking any responsibility for either of these cases no matter what led to them happening in the first place. Soldiers do not turn into murderers for no reason at all. Both of these soldiers sought help for what combat was doing to them.

Afghanistan veteran accused of stabbing policeman to remain in custody. Another case from Texas, "Sgt. Paul Sasse arrived at Fort Carson in February in a uniform glistening with decorations from three combat tours: five medals for heroism, four for excellence, three for good conduct and one for nearly getting killed in Iraq. The 32-year-old Special Forces soldier also wore shackles. He was facing court-martial for assaulting his wife and two military police officers. Sasse had been sitting in solitary confinement at the El Paso County jail for months without military charge and had been brought to the Colorado Springs Army post to be arraigned. "I just need someone to help me," he said, reaching with bound hands to show a Gazette reporter his medical files." Another case of a Veteran with PTSD sent to VA after police standoff.

There are so many cases that are not high profile but happen all over the country. No one is held accountable except for the soldier accused of committing the crimes.

When Vietnam veterans came home the only time people read about them was when one of them ended up arrested for something and the headline made sure to mention it was a Vietnam Veteran involved. The only impression of veterans people had came from those headlines. They were put on trial, convicted and sent to jail with the same thing this generation of veterans are treated for under the supervision of a judge after appearing in Veterans Court.

What is the responsibility of the military? Veterans should be treated fairly in court but they should be treated properly before it gets to the point where they are charged with committing crimes. Can all crimes be prevented? No and we see that when hearings in Congress continue without much change to prevent sexual assaults in the military. The issue is the military does a great job talking about how they have changed but when they do not accept responsibility, the public will just blame the veterans instead of the system that let them down. Who is in charge and being held accountable for what is going on?

Chandler brings resilience, accountability message to Fort Hood

Everyone has that one buzz word that can send their blood pressure up in a nanosecond. For me, that word is "resilience" because I believe it is more responsible for military suicides than anything else. It is almost as if they do not understand what that word even means while they produce program after program using it. There are over 900 Suicides Prevention Programs all based on this "abhorrent" approach.

This is from my book, THE WARRIOR SAW, SUICIDES AFTER WAR

The program was designed for school age children and the creator didn’t think there was a single reason it wouldn’t work on the military. Experts started to line up and explain that to put a “program” into this kind of setting without being tested were not justified to justify the Army program.

Bryant Welch was a bit harsher but closer to telling the truth about what many experts had confirmed in a nicer way.

“They had schoolchildren, each night, write down three positive things about themselves. And then they noticed in a follow-up study that those children felt better about themselves. But to go from that to saying that we can have a soldier in a foxhole who says positive things about himself and follows the precepts of this program, is going to watch his buddy blown to smithereens and spend four tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan and come out feeling better about himself, there is a shallowness to the assessment that, from my vantage point, I find abhorrent.”

DR. BESSEL VAN DER KOLK, Boston University School of Medicine: “It doesn't make sense from a neuroscience point of view, because -- and what all of our research shows is that trauma affects cognition. And the very piece that you need to think clearly and to be optimistic gets severely impacted by being traumatized. So, traumatized people cannot think straight because their brains are sort of locked in horror and terror.”

“Recently, the Army released an evaluation of the program, which said, in part, "There is now sound scientific evidence that Comprehensive Soldier Fitness improves the resilience and psychological health of soldiers.” But there is disagreement over that statement in psychiatric circles from doctors and Ph.D.s who say the evaluation is flawed and doesn't prove anything. Meanwhile, the Air Force is in the process of implementing its own version of the program.” (Army Program Aims to Build Troops Mental resilience to Stress, PBS News Hour, Judy Woodruff, December 14, 2011)

That word does not make them unbreakable and as for being resilient, they were long before the military got their hands on them. It takes a special person to be willing to go through what they do for the sake of someone else. Think about it. Would you go through job training the way they do? Leave your family and friends behind for some other country? Would you be willing to go through what they do while deployed? This isn't even addressing the risks of combat itself. They were resilient already. What they were not capable of is being machines. The fact they actually push past all of it until the members of their unit are all home safely is a testament to how resilient they truly are but that has more to do with them and less about the brainwashing the military did to them.

When I read the following headline, it felt as if my brain was going to explode. I am grateful the word was used without being tied to this program. Chandler talked more about military sexual assaults and being accountable than what I thought this was going to be all about.

Chandler brings resilience, accountability message to Fort Hood Soldiers, civilians
May 31, 2013
Army
By Sgt. Ken Scar, 7th Mobile
Public Affairs Detachment

FORT HOOD, Texas (May 31, 2013) -- Sgt. Maj. of the Army Raymond F. Chandler III spent three days here this week, and managed to cover a good portion of the largest military installation in the country during that time.

"I came to Fort Hood to meet with Soldiers and their families, talk to leadership, and see what's going on at the 'Great Place,'" he said, noting he has been stationed here a few times in his military career.

"It was important for me to come down and listen to what Soldiers have on their minds, and deliver some messages from the Army leadership about where we are, where we're going, and what we need to focus on."

Chandler's busy schedule took him from one event to the next nonstop, from a Memorial Day commemoration in Georgetown, Texas, to a 2nd Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment tank range, to assemblies, meals and functions in dining facilities and meeting rooms.

Along the way, he had positive things to say about the Soldiers he met.

"If you think about it, most of these young men and women came in the Army after 9/11," he said. "They volunteered to serve their nation in a time of war, knowing they were probably going to be deployed in harm's way. I came in the Army in 1981, during the Cold War. We mostly did training. I'm not sure, if I was 18 again, if I would choose to join the service knowing that."

"All of the services add up to about 3.1 million people," he noted. "There are about 330 million people in our country. You got the top one percent of the American people out here doing amazing things each and every day. If you can't get excited by that, I don't know what's going to get you motivated."

"What I want to relay to every Soldier is that it's preventable," he continued. "If we choose to be professionals, who are engaged with each other, if we're a person of character willing to do what's supposed to be done even when no one is looking, if we're committed to each other and our Army, then we'll be successful in preventing sexual assault from happening. It's not someone else's problem. It's an Army problem."
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