California tunnel truck fire can add to PTSD

Fire Shuts Down California Freeway
By NOAKI SCHWARTZ,AP
Posted: 2007-10-13 16:31:39
Filed Under: Nation News
SANTA CLARITA, Calif. (Oct. 13) - A 15-truck pile-up on a rain-slicked Southern California freeway left 10 people injured and at least one missing, sent flames shooting out of a tunnel and blocked a key link between Los Angeles and San Francisco.
http://news.aol.com/story/ar/_a/fire-shuts-down-california-freeway/20071013053209990001

If you go onto the link, you can see a video report from AP. I posted this so that you can see what the troops see in Iraq when a bomb goes off. This happened in California, which is home to the largest veteran's population in the nation. It can and will, set off PTSD above normal. Please watch your veteran more closely to see if they need help. Not just the veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan, but all combat veterans. There is a thing called a "secondary stressor" which can send mild PTSD or even dormant PTSD into overdrive.

Fallen Guard's Mom, A woman of courage and love

When I talk to people doing this kind of work, I thank them for being a member of this Army of love. That's really all it takes. A love so deep that everything else is set aside. We all have our political differences, which seem to attract the spotlight of the media, but the spotlight of the soul is found within the volunteers who step forward, set political differences aside, for all the warriors. They are no different than the wounded they fight for. They come from the left and they come from the right. They come in all skin colors and all income brackets. They come to make a difference for those who are willing to do so much for us.

I remembered reading about Sgt. Patrick McCaffrey along with several other stories about Iraqi trainees turning around and killing their US trainers.




This is what happened

Sergeant Patrick R. McCaffrey, Sr. (May 26, 1970–June 22, 2004) was a United States Army soldier killed in Iraq.

McCaffrey was born in Palo Alto, California. He was a U.S. Army soldier who joined the United States National Guard the day after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 and was assigned to the 579th Engineer Battalion, based in Petaluma, California.

On June 22, 2004, McCaffrey was on a patrol with Iraqi Security Forces officers when the two U.S. soldiers were killed, initially thought by the Iraqi insurgents in an ambush near Balad, Iraq. However, witnesses reported that members of the Iraqi Security Forces accompanying McCaffrey's unit opened fire. At the same time, a third gunman simultaneously drove up to the American unit in a van, climbed onto the vehicle and fired at the soldiers.

McCaffrey's mother Nadia McCaffrey was dissatisfied with the findings by the United States Army of her son's death and asked Senator Barbara Boxer for assistance to pressure the Pentagon for answers about the case. Nadia McCaffrey stated, "I really want this story to come out; I want people to know what happened to my son, there is no doubt to me that this (ambushes by attached Iraqi units) is still happening to soldiers today, but our chain of command is awfully reckless; they don’t seem to give a damn about what’s happening to soldiers." "He was killed by the Iraqis that he was training. People in this country need to know that."[1]

On June 20, 2005, the United States Army Criminal Investigation Division concluded that the Iraqi Security Forces officers patrolling with them had killed McCaffrey. [2]

McCaffrey was promoted posthumously to sergeant.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_R._McCaffrey,_Sr._and_Andre_D._Tyson

McCaffrey's son, Sgt. Patrick McCaffrey, a National Guard soldier, was killed by the Iraqi troops he was training in 2004.

A soldier who served in the National Guard with McCaffrey's son volunteered to redeploy to Iraq in July rather than cope with the transition to civilian life, said McCaffrey, who has kept in touch with soldiers who served with her son. The soldier, whom McCaffrey did not name, had taken to heavy drinking and risky behavior as he attempted to settle back into civilian life, McCaffrey said.

Could you imagine the kind of pain this mother went through? What did she do? She made sure she knew what happened to her son and once she found out, she was still not satisfied in just thinking about her own son, her own loss. She reached out to move some mountains in the way of those who survive to make it back home.

Land donation opens door for Veterans' Village plan
By Jake Armstrong
Record Staff Writer
October 12, 2007 6:00 AM
TRACY - An unexpected donation of land and a four-story building in Sonoma County has ramped up a Tracy woman's plans for a retreat center to segue soldiers from the battlefield to civilian life.
The building, in final phases of construction on a wooded hillside outside idyllic Guerneville, and 2 acres of farmland will serve as a pilot location for Nadia McCaffrey's Veterans' Village, a self-sustaining counseling and job-training center for armed forces members returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.
A World War II veteran, who wants to remain anonymous, made the donation late last month after hearing McCaffrey speak in Petaluma two months ago about her vision for the Veterans' Village program.
"He is a veteran himself. He understands what they are going through when they come home," McCaffrey said.
Contact reporter Jake Armstrong at (209) 239-3368 or

jarmstrong@recordnet.com.
go here for the rest
http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071012/A_NEWS/710120314

We speak often of courage and some of us will remember the words of Christ when he talked about there being no greater love than the willingness to lay down one's life for the sake of another. That is what women like Nadia McCaffrey do. They set aside their own personal lives, their own needs for the sake of others. It was not just the physical life Jesus was talking about and when you read the rest of his words, you know he meant to set aside yourself for someone else. When he was quoted in the Bible he was addressing the fact that he knew he would set aside his physical life for "the sake of his friends" but everything else addressed the sense of self. Nadia will not only reach men and women right now, but for generations to come and generations of the past because they will also notice they are loved as well.

What began my attention to this piece, beyond the human interest part, was soldier she would not name. He wanted to go back because he couldn't adjust to civilian life after. This I still hear from Vietnam veterans. They wanted to go back because they changed from the civilian the day they set foot in Vietnam. They left their "safe" world to enter into another world of death and horror. They no longer felt as if they belonged in this "peaceful" side of life. They didn't want to keep risking their lives but they didn't want to feel like an outsider here as well. They belonged to neither world.

Some adjusted back fairly easily but others, it was damn near impossible. As the levels of PTSD are rated, so too are the levels of adjusting back into normal. Most of us grew up with either a WWII veteran, Korean Veteran or Vietnam veteran, and know how quiet they were about what they were a part of. We know how differently they acted, but never knew why.

My father-in-law, was a veteran of WWII. He had a Purple Heart and Bronze Star, yet aside from funny stories about his time at war, he never talked about any of it, not even to his son, my husband, who is a veteran of Vietnam. You would think they would at least speak to each other about but they didn't. His father said, "get over it" when it came to the combat brought back with him from the jungles and the memories of Camp Evans and Camp Eagle. But as the pictures he took faded, the memories did not. (I find it ironic that he can remember names and faces he knew over thirty years ago, but he cannot remember what he had for dinner or if he took his pills or not.)

We need to make a path for them to come home and feel that they do belong back home within this nation they risked their lives for. We need to find a place in our days to do something for them even if it is to offer kindness, a prayer or a warm smile when you see them in uniform. Each one of us can do so much for them if we "lay down" at least part of our lives for them. I'm not saying you should do what I do. Most people think I'm nuts doing this 10 to 12 hours a day for free. I only do it because I can and because I fell in love with a Vietnam vet 25 years ago. I do it for him. In their eyes, I see him. I remember what he went through and is still going through but I also remember their families going through what I went through. If I didn't have the tool of knowledge and the deep faith, I doubt I would have been doing any of this. I wouldn't be able to. Had I not met Jack, I wouldn't have been touched so deeply by these rare men and women.

What I am suggesting is that if the rest of us 283 million people in this country took care of the 17 million combat veterans, their lives would no longer be trapped between two worlds, but would find home with all of us again.

I found this story from the PTSD Combat blog of Ilona Meagher, who also wrote a fantastic book on PTSD, Moving a Nation To Care. She is one more of the people who set aside her life for the sake of others. Visit her blog and see with your own eyes how much love she has for our combat veterans. Ilona Meagher
http://ptsdcombat.blogspot.com/

Put Ilona with Nadia and then ask yourself what you can do for them to help them heal. Begin by finding out what you can about PTSD and then listen. Remember what you learned and then if you hear a parent speak of the changes, speak up and let them know what PTSD is. You can be a part of moving the rest of this nation to care.


Kathie Costos
Namguardianangel@aol.com
http://www.namguardianangel.org/
http://www.namguardianangel.blogspot.com/
http://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
See what's new at AOL.com and Make AOL Your Homepage.

Temporary soldiers and permanent combat

UK
From The Times
October 13, 2007

Combat Stress
Reservists’ mental suffering is acute and, too often, neglected

“The best time of my life was being in the Army and fighting for my country,” Private Dave Forshaw wrote in his heart-rending suicide note. It was life outside the Army, back in the country for which he had been fighting as a reservist, that he could not face. As Martin Fletcher reports today, Private Forshaw may or may not have been suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), but he was surely a casualty of the Iraq war in which he fought for two six-month tours. And there will be more like him.

Even in peacetime, the Territorial Army provides essential technicial, logistical and medical support for regular soldiers. With British troops engaged in two major military operations, it carries a heavy burden. Yet while reservists and regulars run similar risks and endure comparable hardships in warzones, there is mounting evidence that those who serve in the TA pay a higher price in terms of mental health. Their transitions between civilian and military life are harsher, and they stand less chance of finding timely and appropriate treatment. Help is available, but too few reservists know about it and the systems in place to encourage them to use it are inadequate. They deserve better.

Suicides such as that of Private Forshaw are, so far, mercifully rare. But the odds of more returning reservists taking their own lives or inflicting serious harm on themselves or others are high. Studies suggest that 700 of the 12,000 TA members who have served in Iraq may be suffering from PTSD, and that, far from being shielded from the worst horrors of battle, they are more exposed to them than regular troops because so many serve as medics. Specialists, in particular, tend to deploy to Iraq and Afghanistan individually rather than as units. And reservists are expected, in principle, to return at once to civilian life on completion of tours of duty. The luckier ones will find in family members and colleagues a level of support and understanding comparable with that offered by regular soldiers to each other. But many experience only mutual incomprehension, leading to deep isolation, depression and worse.
go here for the rest
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/leading_article/article2648698.ece

It is the same problem in all countries involved with combat. The National Guard forces are expect to return to civilian lives, lacking the support from others in the same life threatening situations. Most will have no one to talk to and their families are unaware of what the changes in their combat veteran actually mean. They assume the veteran of combat will simply get over it as time goes by. In this case, time does not heal old wounds. Time is the problem with this wound. The sooner treatment begins, the better the healing. Not unlike an infection, if you ignore it, it does get worse eating away more healthy areas. Yet if you get to a doctor, the infection stops spreading and healing begins.

National Guard members need more outreach work to be done for them than the regular military because they will not stay with their unit. They return home.

Mental Health Care and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
About one-third of these combat veterans who seek care from VA have a possible diagnosis of a mental disorder, and VA has significantly expanded its counseling and mental health services. VA has launched new programs, including dozens of new mental health teams based in VA medical centers focused on early identification and management of stress-related disorders, as well as the recruitment of about 100 combat veterans in its Readjustment Counseling Service to provide briefings to transitioning servicemen and women regarding military-related readjustment needs.

http://www1.va.gov/opa/fact/returning_vets.asp
Additional Resources:
Combat Veterans Information
http://www.va.gov/Environagents/page.cfm?pg=16
Transition Assistance Program
http://www.va.gov/opa/fact/tranasst.asp
PTSD and Combat Veterans
http://www.ncptsd.org/topics/war.html
Survivors Benefits
http://www.vba.va.gov/survivors/index.htm
Women Veterans Information
http://www.vba.va.gov/bln/21/Topics/Women/

They all leave combat changed. Sometimes it is changes in small ways, but other times it is changes that place their lives and futures at risk. If they are in the regular military units, they need help, but more must be done to help the National Guard forces because their support is not in place.

Why avoid the obvious insult to the troops?

Honoring veterans
By James Wright October 6, 2007

LAST WEEK, the new Ken Burns series on World War II aired on public television around the country. As we remember that generation and all it accomplished, let us not forget our current generation of veterans from the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. I fear, in the midst of the debate over troop levels, exit strategies, and assessment of the war's progress, we have lost sight of the men and women who are fighting this war. To be sure, there is deference to them, but too often they are seen as abstractions, as numbers and not individuals, as heroes or helpless pawns. Those who gave their lives are remembered for but a moment, except in their hometowns. Those who have been seriously injured seldom even have the moment.
click post title for the rest of this

It is a great piece of writing, however, what keeps getting missed is that they knew how long this would last and what price would be paid by the men and women they sent. Set aside the usual argument just for now. Put aside why we invaded. The utter shame this country has on its hands out of ignorance is shocking. No one has addressed the fact that from 1991 until 1998, Cheney, along with everyone else involved with the Gulf War, knew exactly what they were sending the troops into, no matter what they claimed this time, because it was all captured on tape. It was all known and predicted. The shocking fact is not just that they did it anyway, but they did nothing to prepare for the wounded bodies or minds.

In 2005, with the VA already under-funded, Bush and Nicholson decided the VA didn't need to be fully funded and they cut the budget. No one cared about the troops or the wounded combat veterans they would become. This cannot be ignored.

I keep hearing from people on both sides of the Iraq debate, but what cannot be avoided, dismissed or passed off as just politics, are the lives paying the price for surviving combat. How anyone can dismiss this glaring example of disdain for the men and women who serve this country, speaks volumes of the gratefulness of this nation, or the lack of it. We avoid the disgrace we all carry when they come home and the help is not there.

Each report I read mentions the statements of "they didn't know" because that is what they claimed but the truth is, it was all known well in advance but no one did anything about it. So please, tell me how any of this is supporting the troops when we allow them to keep saying this? How is supporting outrageous lies supporting the troops? Is it just so impossible to admit we have a president and vice president so detached from the lives of those in their hands they cared nothing for them?

Is it because we see pictures and news footage with them surrounded by men and women in uniform and think they must love the troops? While the pictures of the smiling faces behind the Commander-in-Chief, may be worth a thousand words, what he actually does is worth billions, hundreds of billions, he always has no problem asking for on emergency basis claims, while he fails to use the same sense of urgency for the sake of the men and women wounded by where he sent them to go.

Enough of the "they didn't know" because not only was it their job to know, it was their moral obligation to know all the facts and make arrangements for what the facts and history predicted.

Read the article anyway because it is very good but keep this important fact in mind when you do. They did know. Quagmire is not something Cheney suddenly said. He said it right after the Gulf War and kept saying it until 1998! PTSD has claimed too many lives and too many futures, along with other wounds, for them to have not made every plan they could do to take care of the wounded they knew would come. The rate of PTSD was already known and the Army released a report a couple of years ago about the increase risk of developing PTSD by 50% for each time they were sent back, yet they didn't increase the numbers of troops enough to avoid this. They just increased the number of times they sent them back.

Kathie Costos

Namguardianangel@aol.com

http://www.namguardianangel.org/

http://www.namguardianangel.blogspot.com/

http://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

Muslims call for peace with Christians

Muslims call for peace with Christians
The Australian
MORE than 130 Muslim scholars from around the globe have called for peace and understanding between Islam and Christianity, saying "the very survival of the world itself is perhaps at stake". In an unprecedented letter to Pope Benedict and other Christian leaders, 138 Muslim scholars said finding common ground between the world's biggest faiths was not simply a matter for polite dialogue between religious leaders. "If Muslims and Christians are not at peace, the world cannot be at peace," the scholars wrote.

National Guard PTSD veteran needed to be helped, not locked up in jail

Family defends former deputy
Mother-in-law says Bailey would not threaten sheriff
By BRANDON PUTTBRESE
bputtbrese@dnj.com
— Brandon Puttbrese, 615-278-5153


The Iraq war veteran accused of trying to kill Rutherford County Sheriff Truman Jones, his former boss, suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, a family member said Wednesday.

Bruce Bailey, 34, of Murfreesboro was arrested Monday night after an off-duty state trooper saw the ex-deputy sheriff carrying a military, semi-automatic rifle at Mt. Tabor Cumberland Presbyterian Church.



Detectives said Bailey fired shots near the sheriff's home and was waiting for Jones, who was not at home. Bailey was charged with attempted first-degree murder, aggravated criminal trespassing, carrying a weapon on school property and public drunkenness.

Bailey is being held at the Rutherford County jail in lieu of a $250,000 bond. A preliminary hearing on the charges in General Sessions Court was scheduled for Dec. 12.

Bailey's mother-in-law, Pat Cosgrove, doubts that her daughter's husband would threaten the sheriff's life. The National Guard sergeant suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder from his military service, wrestles with alcoholism and requires medical counseling, she added.

Post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, is an often debilitating mental condition that can produce a range of unwanted emotional responses to the trauma of combat, according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

It can emerge weeks, months or years later. If left untreated, it can severely affect the lives of veterans and their families, the agency's Web site states.

"Bruce wouldn't have done anything," the mother-in-law said. "He needs to be at the (veteran's hospital) where he can get some help, not locked up in jail."
click post title for the rest

Combat PTSD soldiers asked to tell their stories

10/10/2007
Affected By Post Traumatic Stress Disorder?

After military combat, it is not uncommon for soldiers to develop an anxiety disorder which can cause sleep problems among other physical and emotional symptoms.If you're a returning soldier or family member deeply affected by Post Traumatic Stress Disorder - and you're willing to share your experiences with us - please send an e-mail using the link below
.Don Jorgensen
© 2007 KELOLAND TV. All Rights Reserved.

You know how I feel about doing something like this. If you have PTSD please, think of talking about it. The more this is talked about, the sooner the stigma will end and the sooner the government will be pushed to make real efforts to help others heal.

25 years ago, no one was talking about this. 15 years ago the media wouldn't even pay attention to it. I know because I tried even back then. But now, stories about the wounded warriors are coming out. This is a chance to show that a next door neighbor can be suffering with wounds they cannot see. Show that you are not all "dangerous" or "criminals" of a "bunch of drunks" as so many have been believing for far too long. You are all very rare in this nation of over 300 million people. Veterans are only about 25 million in numbers now and combat veterans are only 17 million.

People have a hard time understanding what they know little about. They can understand someone being changed after a tornado or hurricane or tragic death, but they can't understand someone being changed by the constant trauma of combat. They forget just how human you are and that you are having a normal reaction to an abnormal event. Combat is not normal. What you live through, what you have to do and what you have to survive is not part of normal daily life.

Please, if you can tell your story, contact the link above or contact your local media. End the silence of PTSD so we can end the stigma and help all of you heal. You are nothing to be ashamed of and have nothing to be ashamed of. You are all very rare. Remember, PTSD had nothing to do with your courage, your bravery or your love of country. Think of the wounds you carried while in danger, and did not even begin to think of getting help until you were no longer in danger. That's bravery! That's courage. Use that same courage to fight for others dealing with PTSD.

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?