Combat Veterans with PTSD need to beware of a hack

It gives me no pleasure to read what Sue Frazier has to say about PTSD or veterans. It is because of the harm people like her cause, masquerading as advocates for veterans, that force me once again to address her rants.

From: Sue Frasier
Subject: Re:PTSD: REPLY

PTSD is a real and valid cause
but not the way many of you
are putting it out.

PTSD only effects a small and
teeny percentage of the population
some 17% and getting smaller,
and out of that number, many
are cured or recovered along
they way (the Veterans themselves
say so).

PTSD is not even the leading
psychiatric diagnoses in the
VA system --- schizophrenia
is and that does make a lot
more sense to me as I do
see more of that than any
real PTSD in my travels.
Schizophrenia is organic
and means they either had
it when they were drafted or
acquired it from long term
drug abuse. It's the doper
crowd who are clouding the issue.
take care everybody and
have a nice day.
Sue Frasier, albany ny

combatvetswithptsd : Message: Re: [Combat Vets with PTSD] Who is Susan Frasier ?

Frazier or Frasier, has attacked veterans on the Combat Vets with PTSD group. Think of what she said to them and then think about the truth. Below are the causes of both illnesses, which she has no idea about.

Schizophrenia
Introduction
Experts now agree that schizophrenia develops as a result of interplay between biological predisposition (for example, inheriting certain genes) and the kind of environment a person is exposed to.

These lines of research are converging: brain development disruption is now known to be the result of genetic predisposition and environmental stressors early in development (during pregnancy or early childhood), leading to subtle alterations in the brain that make a person susceptible to developing schizophrenia. Environmental factors later in life (during early childhood and adolescence) can either damage the brain further and thereby increase the risk of schizophrenia, or lessen the expression of genetic or neurodevelopmental defects and decrease the risk of schizophrenia.

The Path to Schizophrenia - The diagram above shows how genetic and prenatal factors are believed to create a vulnerability to schizophrenia. Additional envronmental exposures (for example, frequent or ongoing social stress and/or isolation during childhood, drug abuse, etc.) then further increase the risk or trigger the onset of psychosis and schizophrenia. Early signs of schizophrenia risk include neurocognitive impairments, social anxiety (shyness) and isolation and "odd ideas". (note: "abuse of DA drugs" referes to dopamine affecting (DA) drugs). Source: Presentation by Dr. Ira Glick,"New Schizophrenia Treatments" Read below for an indepth explanation of the genetic and environmental factors linked to schizophrenia.
Neither of these two categories is completely determinant, and there is no specified amount of genetic or environmental input that will ensure someone will or will not develop schizophrenia. Moreover, risk factors may be different for different individuals - while one person may develop schizophrenia due largely to a strong family history of mental illness (i.e. a high level of genetic risk), someone else with much less genetic vulnerability may also develop the disease due to a more significant combination of prepregnancy factors, pregnancy stress, other prenatal factors, social stress, family stress or environmental factors that they experience during their childhood, teen or early adult years.
http://www.schizophrenia.com/hypo.php

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
What is Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder?
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, PTSD, is an anxiety disorder that can develop after exposure to a terrifying event or ordeal in which grave physical harm occurred or was threatened. Traumatic events that may trigger PTSD include violent personal assaults, natural or human-caused disasters, accidents, or military combat. More about PTSD »
Signs & Symptoms
People with PTSD have persistent frightening thoughts and memories of their ordeal and feel emotionally numb, especially with people they were once close to. They may experience sleep problems, feel detached or numb, or be easily startled. More about Signs & Symptoms »
Treatment
Effective treatments for post-traumatic stress disorder are available, and research is yielding new, improved therapies that can help most people with PTSD and other anxiety disorders lead productive, fulfilling lives. More about Treatment »
http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/post-traumatic-stress-disorder-ptsd/index.shtml

What she fails to understand is that PTSD is caused by trauma. That is why it's called Post-traumatic-stress-disorder. Obvious to anyone paying even minimal attention to this. It is not caused by the person. I have my suspicions about people like this "advocate" and put her in line with fellow dispensers of bitchery like Sally Satel, who have done more harm to the already wounded than should be forgiven.

When you are attacked by people, telling you that PTSD is not such a big problem, turn to the experts and find the tools you need to help you recover. Hacks will only make it worse for you. Go to the Veteran's Administration for facts.
http://www.ncptsd.va.gov/ncmain/index.jsp

Do not turn to hacks pretending to give a crap when they end up attacking you.

PTSD is not cured. You can recover and heal your life, but you are never totally free of it.

At least 3.6 percent of U.S. adults (5.2 million Americans) have PTSD during the course of a year.

About 30 percent of the men and women who have spent time in war zones experience PTSD.

One million war veterans developed PTSD after serving in Vietnam.

PTSD has also been detected among veterans of the Persian Gulf War, with some estimates running as high as 8 percent.
http://www.mentalhealthamerica.net/go/ptsd

As you can see the percentage is not tiny and not getting smaller. It is one out of three for combat veterans.

ASD
Acute Stress Disorder
If PTSD is the most severe form of deployment-related stress problem, then the closely related Acute Stress Disorder, ASD, is the second most severe form. Both involve exposure to a significant traumatic event and a response of intense emotions. Overall ASD looks and feels a lot like PTSD. There are, however, a few very important differences.

First, ASD does not last as long as PTSD. In most cases, ASD lasts less than 1 month. If symptoms last longer than that, then the person may have PTSD rather than ASD. Second, in addition to the re-experiencing, avoiding, and being "keyed-up" that is associated with PTSD, people who have ASD also experience "dissociation." Basically, dissociation occurs when the mind and the body part company for a while. Examples of dissociation are listed in the following table.
(click link for table)
http://chppm-www.apgea.army.mil/deployment/Guides/RedeploymentTri-Fold/Deployment_Related_Stress.pdf

What is also not addressed is that the Army released their own study about the redeployments and they increase the risk of PTSD by 50%.

There are too many people in this country putting out false information for their own reasons, but none of the reasons are good or for the sake of those who serve this country.

Kathie Costos
Namguardianangel@aol.com

DAV Funding flaws turn veterans away

DAV: Funding Flaws Turn Veterans Away October 10th, 2007
Disabled American Veterans (DAV) Legislative Director Joseph Violante outlines flaws in Veterans Administration (VA) funding in this interview. According to Violante, flaws in Congress’ budgeting system for VA healthcare turn veterans away from receiving medical care when they need it.
click post title for video

Teaching them to kill but forgetting to teach them how to heal

'You can teach a man to kill but not to see dying'
Ex-soldier wins award for speaking frankly and forcefully on the mental distress of war veterans.
Hear him talk about combat stress in this audio clip.
Mark Gould
Wednesday October 10, 2007
The Guardian

The air is blue with cigarette smoke and swearing as Chris Duggan recalls the smell of his injured comrades: "If you imagine burnt pork and plastic; I can still taste it." Flashbacks are common symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), but Duggan, a Falklands war veteran, wasn't diagnosed until 1990, eight years after the conflict. By then his mood swings and aggression had destroyed his marriage and nearly killed him.

Tonight, his courage in talking about his illness in Combat Stress, a BBC Radio Wales programme, and his calls for more support for ex-forces' personnel, is being recognised when he receives the Speaking Out award at the annual Mental Health Media Awards.

Duggan joined the Welsh Guards when he was 16 and served in Northern Ireland and Cyprus before the Falklands. Sitting in his house on a Swansea council estate, he takes alternate pulls on his asthma inhaler and a roll-up cigarette as he tells how he lost 48 friends and colleagues when the landing ship Sir Galahad, packed with troops and ammunition, was bombed and caught fire in San Carlos Water.

"On the 8th of June, 1982, me and a couple of others were on a 'foraging' expedition, scrounging some fags and booze for our boys," he recalls. "We heard 'all hands' and we went up to the field hospital. These helicopters were coming in and we were asked to help get the boys off. We didn't know who they were or what had happened, but when they opened the doors the stench was horrendous."
click post title for the rest

PTSD does not know one nation from another. It does not know one combat mission from another. It does not know one century from another. It is the aftermath of trauma on the human brain. Some scar. Some are cut so deeply by it they need help to heal. Why is there still a stigma stuck to this wound?

Atlantic City Mayor suspected of fraud on military records

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Atlantic City Mayor plans to resign amid scrutiny
The Star-Ledger reports:
Atlantic City Mayor Robert Levy plans to resign as early as today amid a federal investigation into allegations he profited from embellishing his military service record, according to two people who have been briefed on his plans.The people declined to be identified because they were not authorized to discuss Levy's plans.
go there for the rest


This frustrates me beyond belief! How can it be so easy for people to claim PTSD when they don't have it and so very hard for those with it to say they do? How can we keep reaching the veterans with PTSD when people like this try to take advantage of it? We just got sent back about five years of working to get them to come forward and seek help because of people like Levy if this is true. The problem is that he isn't the only one.

A Homeless Veteran's Day

When you think about Veteran's Day, do you think about what it's like in a veteran's day, every day of the year? Do you think about the wounds they have to live with or the memories they have? Do you think about the hundreds of thousands who spent another sleepless night haunted by nightmares so vivid they were not sure where they were when they woke up? Do you think about how they function after those nights or how they survive with the daily flashbacks? Do you think about the families that fell apart because of PTSD, or the stress of being away from those serving today? Do you think about them being homeless, begging for change on the streets, sleeping in cardboard boxes, park benches or in the shelters when they are lucky enough to find an empty bed?

These are the things they deal with everyday of the year. Sure, there are some who come home fine and get on with their futures, but too many have yet to recover from their past as active duty. These are the ones I think about everyday. Anyone with a family member in the military or veteran, thinks of these things constantly. Veteran's Day to all of us is everyday.

Vietnam was really no different from Iraq. There are those who agree with it and those who do not. Some were drafted into Vietnam and some went willingly. Today they all volunteered but they did not all volunteer to stay. In the long run, these things have little to do with what they deal with as veterans. A limb blown off of someone who was regretting being where they are hurts just as much as someone who still believes in why they are risking their lives. PTSD hits both sides just as a bullet shows no favoritism. The price they pay for what they are asked to do should be repaid but this will only begin to be repaid if we listen to them, take care of what they need and finally understand that our obligation to them begins when we send them into combat and does not end until the lives they were willing to risk are returned home to God. They risk their lives for us, doing what we ask of them.

I just did a new video on homeless veterans in America and you can watch it below on this blog. To have homeless in this nation is terrible but to have homeless veterans is a disgrace. We build monuments to them instead of shelters. Millions are being raised to build a monument to disabled veterans right now, when we need to be rebuilding their lives. On Veteran's Day this year, do something for them. Change your heart to see them instead of just walking by them. Donate some money to a shelter in your state, or clothes, or time. Give them something back that will really matter to them.

Kathie Costos
Namguardianangel@aol.com
www.Namguardianangel.org
www.Namguardianangel.blogspot.com
www.Woundedtimes.blogspot.com
"The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive veterans of early wars were treated and appreciated by our nation." - George Washington

Mental Illness Awareness Week and NAMI

Help CANVAS Fight Stigma This Week
Mental illness-themed movie needs your help—no matter where you live


View the TrailerJust in time for Mental Illness Awareness Week (October 7-13), the movie CANVAS is being released in Chicago and New York on Friday, to be followed by three other cities next week. If Friday and Saturday ticket sales run high in these five cities, the release may expand to 200 cities nationwide.

Starring Emmy Award-winner Joe Pantoliano and Academy Award-winner Marcia Gay Harden, CANVAS is the story of a family's struggle with schizophrenia. It educates as well as entertains. It will build awareness about mental illness and strike a blow against stigma--but only if enough people see it. In order for the movie to reach a nationwide audience, please take action to help:
Spread the word! Please forward this email now with a personal message to family and friends in the cities below—and friends elsewhere.

Buy tickets on-line early each week. You don't even have to live in the opening cities. Tickets make great gifts or donations. Use the links below to purchase tickets online.

If you live in one of the five cities, go see the movie on a Friday or Saturday. Take a friend. Go in a group. Hold a discussion afterwards.
Starting October 12
In Chicago, AMC Loews 600 North Michigan 9, 600 N. Michigan Ave. 60611
In New York, Regal Union Square Stadium 14, 850 Broadway, 10003
Starting October 19
In Los Angeles, Laemmie Sunset 5, 8000 Sunset Boulevard, 90046
In Phoenix, Harkins Shea 14, 7354 E. Shea Blvd, (Scottsdale) 85260
In Fort Lauderdale, check local listings as the date approaches.
Remember to: Buy tickets early Forward this message Go see the movie
CANVAS director Joe Greco, and stars Devon Gearhart and Joe Pantoliano take questions from NAMI members after a screening at the 2007 NAMI Convention in San Diego; actress Marcia Gay Harden as Mary Marino in the film.

If you think there is just a stigma with PTSD, it's not. While PTSD comes from trauma and an outside source, part of removing the stigma of it is to educate people on all forms of mental illness. We forget the brain is another organ that needs medical treatment.

148,000 Vietnam Vets sought help in last 18 months

In the past 18 months, 148,000 Vietnam veterans have gone to VA centers reporting symptoms of PTSD "30 years after the war," said Brig. Gen. Michael S. Tucker, deputy commanding general of the North Atlantic Regional Medical Command and Walter Reed Army Medical Center. He recently visited El Paso.



Two-tiered system of healthcare puts veterans of the war on terror at the top and makes everyone else -- from World War I to the first Gulf War -- "second-class veterans"
by Chris Roberts, El Paso Times
An internal directive from a high-ranking Veterans Affairs official creates a two-tiered system of veterans health care, putting veterans of the global war on terror at the top and making every one else -- from World War I to the first Gulf War -- "second-class veterans," according to some veterans advocates.

"I think they're ever pushing us to the side," said former Marine Ron Holmes, an El Paso resident who founded Veterans Advocates. "We are still in need. We still have our problems, and our cases are being handled more slowly."

Vice Adm. Daniel L. Cooper, undersecretary for benefits in the Department of Veterans Affairs -- in a memo obtained by the El Paso Times -- instructs the department's employees to put Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom veterans at the head of the line when processing claims for medical treatment, vocational rehabilitation, employment and education benefits...




Veterans Affairs officials say prioritizing war-on-terror veterans is necessary because many of them face serious health challenges. But they don't agree that other veterans will suffer, saying that they are hiring thousands of new employees, finding ways to train them more quickly and streamlining the process of moving troops from active duty to veteran status.

"We are concerned about it, and it's something we are watching carefully," said Jerry Manar, deputy director national veterans service for Veterans of Foreign Wars in Washington, D.C. "We'll learn quickly enough from talking with our veterans service officers whether they're seeing a dramatic slowdown in the processing of claims."

Manar and Holmes said Afghanistan and Iraq veterans deserve the best care possible, but so do all other veterans.
click post title for the rest

148,000 in 18 months. This tells me the outreach workers around the country are beginning to get through to them. It tells me the media paying attention to this is beginning to get through to them. The battles being fought for Vietnam Veterans are being won, but unless the funding is there to take care of all the combat wounded, we will lose the war.

I've spent the last 25 years trying to get through to them and so have an army of volunteers across the country. We don't use anything but compassion and facts. Sooner or later, if we keep trying, we will reach all the veterans with Post Traumatic Stress from this generation and beyond to all veterans, but what good will it do if the help they need is not there?

I started doing videos in February of 2006. Is this a coincidence? From the emails I get, it is part of it. It was the goal anyway.

When War Comes Home PTSD
2418
50

Veterans and PTSD version 1
All time views:14,283

Wounded Minds Veterans and PTSD version 2
1567
36

Wounded Minds PTSD and Veterans version 3
7777
176

PTSD After Trauma on Google
1709
85

End The Silence of PTSD on Youtube

Views: 2,919

Hero After War Combat Vets and PTSD on Google
3697
38

Views: 1,772 on Youtube

Coming Out of The Dark of PTSD on Google
889
33

Coming Out Of The Dark-PTSD&Veterans on Youtube

Views: 4,304

Death Because They Served PTSD Suicides
1442
14

Nothing else seemed to work as well as these videos did. They are being used in colleges, by service organizations and individuals all across the country as well as other nations. This wound does not know national borders.

After reading this, and knowing from personal experience, I wonder what good it does if the help is not being addressed as actively?

What good does it do the veterans if I can talk them into going for help, but they can't get to it? I'm working between 10 to 12 hours a day now on this 7 days a week. Where is the dedication of the people who have the power to make sure the help is there? The people working for the VA and service organizations have that dedication but the politicians don't seem as focused and certainly Bush is not when he threatened congress to not fund the VA unless they found the way to pay for it.

We keep getting promised the problems with the VA will be corrected but we don't know when that will happen. Someday will not make things easier on them! Yesterday would have! Last year would have! Twenty five years ago it would have!

Kathie Costos

Toll of Iraq too much to bear

VIEWPOINTS
Posted Monday October 8, 2007
VIEWPOINT
Toll of Iraq too much to bear
By Tom Lickona



In a front-page story this summer, The Washington Post put a human face on the suffering caused by the Iraq war: "On the military plane that crossed the ocean at night, the wounded lay in stretchers stacked three high. Pfc. Joshua Calloway was at the top of one stack, handcuffed to his stretcher."

Private Calloway had been in the ninth month of a year's tour with the 101st Airborne Division. Fifty soldiers in his brigade had died; two had committed suicide. Then one afternoon, he watched his sergeant, who had been like a big brother to him, step on a bomb in the road and be blown to bits. When Calloway was ordered to help collect the body parts, he cracked. A week later, he was sent home, one of up to 40 soldiers evacuated from Iraq every month because of mental problems.

American soldiers returning from Iraq with combat-stress disorder outnumber amputees 43 to one. Many of these soldiers will be dealing with their post-traumatic stress disorders for years.

click post title for the rest

Screaming as loudly as you can, "support the troops" will not bring any peace to their minds. It will not if you stand in the way of them getting the help they need to recover from being a soldier. Think about it. Think about what they see. Think about what they do. Then think about the aftermath of all of it.

This is not a matter of supporting Bush and his decisions, or being against them. This is a matter of life and death for those who serve under him. Set aside for a second if you agree with him. Then allow your brain to open enough to penetrate your heart. This is not about bravery, courage, patriotism. These exist in every single one of them. While almost half are coming home with psychological wounds, it is a wonder more are not. The redeployments have increased the risk of developing PTSD by 50% for each tour. This is why the rate of one out of three no longer applies.

Take an emergency responder. Often they have to go to the scene of a horrific car accident. Sometimes there are body parts. This may happen once in a lifetime for them, but think of them having to go through it everyday for up to fifteen months.

Take a fireman. Often they are not able to rescue all the people from buildings burning. Sometimes they have to see bodies burnt beyond recognition. Sometimes there are children they know were burnt alive. Now think of having to go through that on a daily basis.

Take a police officer. Sometimes they are involved in gun battles and sometimes innocent people get in the cross fire. Now think of having to deal with that on a daily basis. Sure, we think about the training they get to be able to pull the trigger but do we think of what training they get to be able to deal with the blood coming out of the bodies as the bullets go in?

All of these "jobs" have problems with PTSD.

Our soldiers, just humans, are not able to go home and be comforted by their families at the end of the day. They are not able to go home, kick off their shoes and watch some comedy. They do not even have the luxury of getting a shower and hopping into a clean bed. They sleep on the floor sometimes. They sleep in tents. They sleep when they can and where they can, but it is never a deep, peaceful rest. They are always alert, even in their dreams, waiting for the next attack, the next battle when their lives will be on the line again and they have to face the decision to pull the trigger again or not.

If they are lucky enough to survive attacks without being physically wounded, they are given the task of taking care of those who perished. These are not intact bodies. Often they are blown into pieces. They are covered with blood. They are broken. They are burnt. They were friends. There is an emotional connection beyond a human connection. There is a bond that ties them together. They are family.

Our soldiers do their duty and put in everything they have regardless of if they believe in the mission or not, they believe in each other. They know each decision they make, is not just a decision for their own lives, but for the lives of all around them. This is stress on steroids. In these dark days, there are no thoughts of Washington, the president or congress, responsible for them being there. There are only thoughts of those around them and if there is time, of their families back home because the family they are with, faces death daily.

This is what we put them through.

When their minds get wounded so deeply they cannot recover on their own, where are we? Why are we always looking the other way? If you agree with Bush, then you have a duty to the troops he sent into combat without the plans to take care of their wounds. If you don't agree with Bush you also have the same responsibility. This is not about sides. This is not about politics. This is about justifying the claims we honor those who serve.

When the Army released the information that these redeployments increased the risk of developing PTSD, where were we? Why weren't we screaming at the top of our lungs to stop this practice?

When the Army again released another study about rest time, where were we as men like Jim Webb were fighting to make the changes necessary to take care of the men and women who were willing to serve?

Where are we when they need us? What are we really doing for them? Do we think we are doing all we can because we fight to keep them there or fight to have them come home? What are we asking them to come home to? Are we a nation ready to take care of their wounds? How many of us even attempt to try to understand what we have put them through?

Kathie Costos
Namguardianangel@aol.com
www.Namguardianangel.org
www.Namguardianangel.blogspot.com
www.Woundedtimes.blogspot.com
"The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive veterans of early wars were treated and appreciated by our nation." - George Washington

Homeless Veterans don't choose it, they endure it.

Walking wounded: Duluth veteran's life shattered by PTSD

Brandon Stahl
Duluth News Tribune



A bowl of corn flakes and room-temperature milk sits in front of Kevan Boman, 52, at a table in the Duluth Union Gospel Mission. His eyes flip down for a second, his lips purse and twist into a slight frown; just another reminder of what his life has become.

"This is breakfast," he says as his eyes shift up to the acrid cafeteria, not wanting any of the other sad, tired faces of destitute and homeless people to get too close to him. As he eats, he reminisces about what his life once was. He was a military man for 27 years, a veteran of two wars who retired as a decorated officer. He was a nurse, a proud husband and father of three daughters, once so wealthy that he donated thousands of dollars to the very soup kitchens where he now eats.

Now, he lives in a car. Before that it was other cars, before those were stolen or repossessed. In between were unlocked garages, tool sheds and apartment building basements, gas station bathrooms, drug houses or the couches of his daughters' homes. Before all that, before he had to sneak into hospital and gas station bathrooms to bathe and groom himself, before the drugs and the suicide attempts, it was a three-bedroom, two-bath, two-car-garage home in a tree-lined Duluth neighborhood with his family.

That was his life three years ago, before his mind was overwhelmed by the guilt and shame from post-traumatic stress disorder, and he walked out on it all.

Since then, he has lived on the streets, but it doesn't have to be that way. He could take his military disability checks for a tax-free $4,400 a month, get an apartment and start his life over. But he won't. He says he would rather give his money away, to his kids, to friends, to just about anyone who asks for it. He says he would rather punish himself.

"I haven't made peace with myself," he says, pausing for a moment as his eyes drop again, disappointment stretching across his face. "This is my penance. I don't let God forgive me. I don't know why I do this. I have to."

go here for the rest

http://www.vawatchdog.org/07/nf07/nfOCT07/nf100807-5.htm

I hear it too often when people want to dismiss the ravages of PTSD. They say, "well they were cowards" but never seem to notice most of them, do their duties and it is not until they are home safe, with no threat of going back hanging over them, they collapse. How does someone go from serving in two war, three wars or any war at all, getting decorated for bravery in the face of death, not retain the same courage after when they are safe? Doesn't make sense does it? But in the minds of the dismissals, they cannot look deeply enough. Is it because we do in fact look to them for our own security and safety that we have such a hard time seeing them as humans just like the rest of us beneath their bravery? Why can't we really see them as ourselves?

Each one of us will be brave and afraid at the same time in our own lives but we don't face death on a daily basis. Each one of us will weep for one event and take another as just a part of life. So why is it we expect them to be so much different than us?

How can Kevan Boman serve this nation for 27 years and in two wars, suddenly be nothing more than a burden to avoid? The drinking and drugs some of them do when they come home are not as addicts, addicted to the chemical, but wounded seeking relief from feelings they do not want to feel. They call it self-medicating. Yet society will not look to the core or attempt to understand what it is they seek.

Over the years, I've come into contact with many of these men and women. They end up feeling worth-less than they did when they were serving. Imagine that? A few, simple honest, kind words of valuing them will produce tears. They cannot see how rare they are and how worthy of our attention they always have been while we ignore them, blame them or dismiss them.

Over 300 million people live in this country yet we have only about 17 million combat veterans remaining with us. Think of how rare they are. Think of the fact they are normal humans, exposed to the most traumatic events man can create. These are not abnormal people, but normal ones who have survived the abnormal events of combat. We decide they need to get over it. We decide they need to get back to work and put it all behind them. We are also the first to stand in their way, dismiss their wounds because we cannot see them and then blame them when they become homeless, have their careers end, families fall apart and loose everything they were taught mattered in polite society.

Yet we also have men like Kevan Boman who have enough income to survive without living in his car or shelters, but he decided he isn't worth it. He decided he does not deserve it. Who told him that? Who put that kind of an idea into his head that his wounded mind made him so much of lesser value to this nation than when this nation was sending him into combat for us? We did.

That is the message we gave hundreds of thousands of Vietnam Veterans when they were suffering the same thing thirty years ago. We had an excuse back then because when the veterans of WWII and Korea came home, no one talked about the ravages of PTSD on their minds. What was our excuse in the late 70's, or the 80's, 90's or since these two new combat actions began? The only excuse we have now is ignorance. Ignorance makes us intolerant. Ignorance makes us ambivalent. Ignorance causes us to blame them for getting wounded with wounds so deeply etched within the walls of their souls, it takes a tender soul to heal them. It requires us to fight the ignorance of others when we come up against them. It requires truth and education to remove the stigma and tendency to blame them. It takes caring, informed eyes, to stop looking at them as anything other than rare people with battled scars. Combat is not normal. Why do we insist they come back from it the same way they went into it?


Kathie Costos

Namguardianangel@aol.com

Help for vets returning from combat

Help available for vets returning from combat

By Cameron Fullam

Staff Writer

Sunday, October 07, 2007

HAMILTON — More than 185,000 veterans of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are seeking help for physical and mental injuries sustained in combat.

The return to life as usual can be difficult and prolonged.
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