Less Than Honorable When Military Turns Against PTSD

All Things Considered, December 20, 2007 ·
"Our military families deserve better," President Bush declared in October as he sent a proposed bill to Congress. The legislation, he said, would make it easier for our troops to receive care for PTSD, "and it will help affected service members to move forward with their lives."
But veterans advocates say that even if the military and the Department of Veterans Affairs became models for helping troops with mental health problems, it wouldn't help a large category of vets who are already wounded and forgotten. These soldiers and Marines came back from combat, couldn't get adequate help, "flipped out" and misbehaved in some way — and as a result, were kicked out of the military without all the financial and medical benefits that veterans usually receive.
"I think it's an outrage that we have not taken proper care of them," said Sen. Christopher "Kit" Bond (R-MO), one of the most influential voices on veterans' affairs. "Too many of these people have been kicked out because of the results of the stress they've been under."
'Head and Shoulders Above His Peers'
NPR has tracked down dozens of vets across the U.S. to put a face on the problem.
Until he got PTSD, Patrick Uloth was a poster boy for the Marines in Iraq. He enlisted right out of high school, fought two tours and quickly was promoted to lance corporal. His commander hailed him as "head and shoulders above his peers." He received an award for valor, for helping save his unit one night near Fallujah.
But, like just about every Marine and soldier who has fought in Iraq, Uloth saw violence and death in ways that most people can barely imagine. During one patrol, for instance, a suicide bomber's vehicle exploded in front of Uloth's convoy.
Uloth said that the explosion left one of his Marine buddies decapitated. He remembers that he and two other Marines "scooped the Marine into bags, because he was in pieces." When Uloth rushed to another victim, he realized it was one of his best friends. "There was a large hole in the back of his head," Uloth says.

go here for the rest

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=17362654







Uloth says that if he had benefits, he'd check himself into a psychiatric hospital because, although he can seem charming and cheerful on the surface, he says he is in deep emotional trouble.


Uloth's Superior Speaks
Letter from Uloth's Platoon Sergeant

(Requires Adobe Acrobat)

Uloth says that when he went to the mental health center at Camp Pendleton's hospital to ask for help, they were so overwhelmed by returning troops with mental health problems that he couldn't book a therapy appointment for months. The staff eventually gave him sporadic counseling, and prescribed a cocktail of powerful medications, but Uloth complained that the drugs made him feel worse.

So, he took off from Camp Pendleton without permission: Uloth went AWOL, as it's commonly called. (The Marines call it UA for "unauthorized absence.")

But he didn't disappear. Instead, Uloth checked himself into a psychiatric center he had heard about at an Air Force base in Mississippi. He started getting intensive therapy, which he couldn't get at his own base.

When Uloth's commanders learned where he was, they sent two guards to arrest and restrain him with handcuffs and metal shackles. They locked him in a jail cell at Camp Pendleton for almost two months, even though a military medical staff member concluded that he was "unfit for confinement."

Listen: Matt McLauchlen explains to NPR's Daniel Zwerdling how
he has "fallen through the cracks" of the military system.

add



Read Letter to President Bush
Letter: Sen. Bond Calls for Special Discharge Review Program
(Requires Adobe Acrobat)

How many more reports do we have to read to understand these men and women risked their lives for us, were wounded in the process, and then they were betrayed by less than honorable treatment of them? When are we going to get this right for all of them? Are we even really trying? I've heard testimonies for years about PTSD and the way the veterans have been treated and I've heard a lot of promises to change what is wrong but have seen very little evidence of it.

Is anyone in Washington giving these veterans the same sense of urgency they did when they issued the orders to deploy them and get them there? It seems only logical and honorable to take care of them when they are wounded. So what's the problem? It can't be money because in the long run taking care of them now saves a lot of money. Is it still ignorance? After years of testimonies by experts and over 30 years of studies, there isn't that much more they have to know before they figure out they have a serious problem. How many more times do they have to hear the figures of the ever growing number of veterans with PTSD not being taken care of, committing suicide because they are not being taken care of or about the numbers of the wounded being kicked out of the military with dishonorable discharges? Seems like we have a bigger problem with the congress being less than honorable to them than the other way around.

Is The Military Neglecting PTSD Troops?

Is The Military Neglecting PTSD Troops?
Veterans' Advocates Say Ignoring Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Is A Military-Wide Problem

WASHINGTON, Dec. 20, 2007

(CBS) Army Spc. Shawn Saunders was proud of his first two tours in Iraq. But midway through his third tour - he snapped.

"If I hear loud noises, I get, I'm real, real jumpy,” Saunders told CBS News correspondent Kimberly Dozier. “I get paranoid."

"Distraught, lost, confused..." is how Saunders’ father characterizes his behavior.

His parents say his breaking point was watching his best friend die while guarding a checkpoint.

"He kept saying, it should have been me, it should have been me," said his mother, Pam Wilson.

Texas medic Taylor Burke took Saunders’ turn, and the car blew up.

"When he passed, it was like a part of me that's left me, and I haven't been the same since," Saunders said.

During home leave from Iraq, Shawn talked of suicide.
go here for the rest
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/12/20/eveningnews/main3637097.shtml

The War Over PTSD or dealing with a soulless jerk

December 20, 2007, 7:14 PM
The War Over PTSD
Posted by Kimberly Dozier


Kimberly Dozier is a CBS News correspondent based in Washington.
There's a war inside the military over how to treat a not-so-new enemy: Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

"I've never had a guy in my unit develop PTSD," one senior general from Iraq told me. 'It's nonsense."

"You're only scratching the surface," of cases from this war, another senior general told me. "Keep looking."

Simply put, PTSD is what happens when you put a combatant in the pressure cooker of Iraq or Afghanistan, and tell him or her, "No matter what you see or feel, tough it out. Lock it down. Keep it to yourself." After multiple tours living on high boil, with no relief valve, some U.S. troops are breaking. Make that thousands.

The largest military employer, the U.S. Army, has rolled out new programs to teach troops what PTSD is, to try to reduce the stigma. It can be as simple as asking a patrol that saw something traumatic to talk about it out loud. That way, the incident on the battlefield gets tamed by a jawing session with your buddies, instead of becoming a nightmare that wakes you sweating at 4 a.m. with visions of the dead and maimed that won't leave you.
click post title for the rest

When military people claim no one in their unit developed PTSD, it's easy to understand why they say that. No one would tell someone with that kind of attitude about it. You don't share that kind of pain with a soulless jerk. Anyone left in the military dismissing PTSD as a load of crap or trying to trivialize reality, is a soulless jerk or a really stupid fool with no ability to learn anything.

Are you too busy to pay attention to homeless veterans?

Forgive me for doing it the easy way today, but I've been really busy today with my job and running around. I'm no where near being ready for Christmas and this is one of the busiest times of the year for a church. I did mention I worked for a church right? Anyway, usually I read all the links I post, plus a ton more, but today there just isn't enough time to play catch up with a box full of emails, gifts to buy, shopping trips and Christmas parties and plays to go to.

There just isn't enough time for me to be spending on line like I normally do. See even I can come up with plenty of excuses for not doing something that is needed, yet I expect people who come into my blog to read the links I provide so that they can make a difference in the world. After all, what good can one person do? I'm only one person. I have a job that is demanding, a family, a dog and a very busy life. Surely other people have more time than I do. Normally I spend between 10 to 12 hours a day on line and that's seven days a week, except for play day with my husband when I get to just go out and enjoy life. Let someone else do it for a change. I do enough.

How many times have you thought the same way? How many times in the last month or so have you thought about your list of things to do and places to go that you took no interest in what you normally do or care about the rest of the year? We can find so many other things to fill up our time that suddenly all that matters involves "us" our lives and our own needs.

This time of year it's easy to make excuses for what we ignore because we are thinking about other people, people to shop for, people to send cards to and what to make for the holiday party we have to go to. We go to our kids Christmas plays and focus only on them instead of the little kid on the end crying or the kid in back making the weird faces. We pay little attention to the people sitting right next to us or the story being told, ignoring the message that they are trying to deliver to our ever clogging ears.

Christmas the message that was supposed to be absorbed by us has been filled with everything and anything other than the purity of love. The compassion that was born on that one day over 2,000 years ago in a tiny town called Bethlehem has been replaced by Santa and the rain deer instead of Jesus and the disciples. Elves replace the 70 sent out by Jesus to deliver the messages of love, forgiveness, mercy and redemption by a loving God "who so loved the world He gave His only son" to the rest of us. Frosty sings of being frozen water while we absent mindedly freeze our hearts to the needs of strangers seeking a safe place to give birth to a child that would change the world forever.

Some of us go to church on Christmas and Easter, the high holy days of the Christian faith, avoiding going to church the rest of the year because our lives are just too busy to bother. After all, we tell ourselves, it's not like we don't go when it really matters. We are CEO, for Christmas and Easter Only, people and that's all that God can want of us in return for what He gave to us. We are all "good people" who write a check once a year to our favorite charity for the tax write-off just in time for the deadline. I'm honest enough to admit that there were many years in my life that I felt the same way. When my mother was alive, I wouldn't dare avoid going to church if I didn't have a terrific excuse. When my daughter was born, I recommitted to going again all the time but never failed to find excuses when I was just too tired or too busy to go.

When we moved to Florida, it was easy to find excuses to not attend church because we didn't know anyone but God, having a wonderful sense of humor, filled my need for a part time job by placing me in a Presbyterian Church (even though I'm Greek Orthodox) so that I wouldn't have any excuses to not show up. Now I have to be there for two services on Sunday and the rest of the week as well. Do I feel as if I'm a better person than you? Absolutely not! Look at the confession I made in the beginning of this post. I admitted I'm too busy to read about the homeless veterans in this country. They have tugged at my heart for over half my life and I don't have time for them. I didn't want to make the time for them. I had better things to do.

Where would Jesus have been born had the inn keeper been too busy to talk to Joseph? How can any of us really call ourselves Christians and then find no time to actually practice what Jesus preached? Especially at this time of year? Think about it. Buying gifts for people who can say thank you reward you for what you did for them by returning the favor and handing you a gift. It's good to think about making other people happy but that is not the point of this time of year. We're supposed to be unselfish and give to people who have less than us, people in need of shelter, clothing or even a simple prayer. We are to give without expecting anything in return but the simple fact they will thank God for what we did for them because they cannot thank us.

Ok, so now I have to read the links I just put up because I feel too guilty to avoid doing it. I have a couple more posts to put up and then I'll read all of them. I hope you will too and I hope you will remember that while you have been too busy to pay attention to any of this, you will find time in your day to remember what this time of year is supposed to be all about.
Kathie Costos
Namguardianangel@aol.com

Google News Alert for: homeless veteran
Wing's New Mission: Aid Homeless Vets

Military.com - USAFeurt is the chairman of the Missouri Department of American Legions' Homeless Veterans Task Force, and a tireless volunteer worker on veterans' issues. ...

Edwards Campaign: Announces holiday ad campaign
IowaPolitics.com (press release) - IA,USAOne out of every four homeless people on our streets is a veteran. This is the season of miracles, of faith and love. So let us promise together: you will ...

When I came Home - Homeless Veterans - This must end!
By Realist(Realist) I have ordered the movie and Humanity for Homeless will host a screening sometime after Christmas. Any suggestions for a good site to show it would be great. I have several ideas in mind. The treatment of our veterans disgusts me to the ...

PSA: Rally for Forrest Clayton Salcido tomorrow
By Jay Stevens Ellie Hill of the Poverello Center, the sponsor of tomorrow's rally, also wrote her shock at Clayton's death, and the plight of fellow homeless veterans. Remember, you can actually make a difference for the homeless here in Missoula by ...

Tucker Attacks John Edwards For Remembering Homeless Vets In ...By Logan Murphy On Wednesday's Tucker, the soon to be unemployed host gets riled up because Democratic presidential candidate, John Edwards, had the nerve to mention homeless veterans and those less fortunate in his holiday ad. ...

Free Phone Calls from HELP (Homeless Evaluation Liaison Program)By Myrna the Minx Vincent's Dining Room will likely feed 400-500 people each of these days and not all are homeless. Some are retired veterans, disabled, working class and "regular folks." Reno Police Crisis Intervention Team and Reno HELP officers will ...

Stop creating homeless, damaged vets; stop the war
By xofferson ... the homeless, as well as a day to take some action to stop the war in Iraq. And, yes, they are related. As the environmentalists remind us, everything is connected. We are creating future homeless veterans every day in Iraq. ...

Homeland security official Keith Washington Murder Trial Brings PTSD In News Again

Marnell wrote that Washington didn’t appear to be a risk to others, but a September report in The Washington Post said other assessments disputed that finding. One psychiatrist reportedly wrote that Washington was ‘‘a potential danger because of his impulsivity and generalized fearfulness.” Another report allegedly said he had ‘‘fleeting homicidal and suicidal thoughts.”

Washington's mental records barred from trial
Business Gazette - Gaithersburg,MD,USA
Judge: 12-year-old evalution too old to use in upcoming murder case
by Daniel Valentine Staff Writer

The psychological records of former Prince George’s County homeland security official Keith Washington cannot be used in his upcoming murder trial, a Circuit Court judge has ruled.

Washington, 46, shot two deliverymen – Oxon Hill resident Brandon Clark 22, and District resident Robert White, 36 – while they were apparently delivering furniture to his Accokeek home. Washington has claimed self-defense; White said they were shot without provocation. Clark died a week after the shooting without making a public statement.

Washington, who is also a former county police officer, was indicted in July on 12 counts, including second-degree murder, attempted second-degree murder, using a handgun in commission of a felony and first-degree assault.

The report said Washington had previously been diagnosed with depression; post-traumatic stress disorder; paranoid state and adjustment disorder, a condition caused when stress triggers short-term depression; anxiety; and other symptoms.

Non-combat death investigated at Camp Casey

Army investigating the death of a soldier at Camp Casey
Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Thursday, December 20, 2007



CAMP CASEY, South Korea — Army officials are investigating the death of a 2nd Infantry Division soldier whose body was found Monday at Camp Casey, according to an Army spokeswoman.

The soldier was assigned to the 1st Heavy Brigade Combat Team.

The soldier’s name was being withheld on Tuesday pending notification of family.

No other information was available Tuesday.
http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=51120&source=rss

Soldier Found Dead At Fort Belvoir Army Base

Soldier Found Dead At Fort Belvoir Army Base

POSTED: 12:34 am EST December 19, 2007

A soldier was found dead inside her housing unit in Virginia on Monday.

Investigators have not released the dead soldier's name or age.

The FBI is now involved in the mysterious death of the woman found inside the Fort Belvoir army base in Fairfax County.


Officials would confirm only that the dead woman was an army reservist who was living on the base.

They would not say how long she had been assigned the military facility, give an address where she was found or say what circumstances led military police at the scene to contact the FBI.
go here for the rest
http://www.nbc4.com/news/14886625/detail.html

Suicide by cop in Canada

Ex-soldier had pellet gun when shot by police: report
Taser used but ineffective in incident

Bruce Owen, Winnipeg Free Press
Published: Wednesday, December 19, 2007


WINNIPEG -- A man shot to death by Winnipeg police this week spent two decades with the Canadian military, but was discharged in 2004 because of anger management issues, the Winnipeg Free Press learned Wednesday.

Roy Thomas Bell, 42, was shot and killed behind a city apartment building Monday night in an incident some residents have described as "suicide by cop."

A family acquaintance told the Free Press the distraught man confronted police carrying a pellet gun that closely resembled a real firearm.

Witnesses say Mr. Bell ignored repeated demands from two officers to drop the replica pistol and, at one point, dared officers to shoot him.

Mr. Bell served more than 23 years in the 17 Wing post office at CFB Winnipeg, but was discharged three years ago when the military deemed he was unfit for active duty overseas, a family acquaintance said Wednesday.

There have been several reports of disturbing incidents involving Winnipeg soldiers recently.

In August, a Winnipeg soldier who served in Kandahar for two months last year was charged in with seriously assaulting his six-month old triplet sons.
One of the babies suffered fractured ribs, a punctured lung and contusions to his liver.
The 24-year-old soldier cannot be named because Child and Family Services has removed the children.

Another former Canadian soldier is still behind bars after allegedly trying to contact a teenage girl he was accused of sexually assaulting.
Roger Borsch, 35, made national headlines last year after becoming the first soldier to successfully use post-traumatic stress disorder as a defence.
Mr. Borsch admitted to breaking into a co-worker's home in 2004 and sexually assaulting her 13-year-old daughter at knifepoint.
He claimed his mind had been affected by horrific killings he said he witnessed a decade earlier in Bosnia.
However the not-guilty verdict was later overturned on appeal and a new trial has been ordered.

Winnipeg Free Press


go here for the rest
http://www.nationalpost.com/story.html?id=184101

Marine will get his pot plants back

Judge: Return marijuana to former Marine

By Andrew Tilghman - Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday Dec 19, 2007 18:10:57 EST

A Colorado judge ruled Wednesday that police should return dozens of marijuana plants to a former Marine and 1991 Persian Gulf War veteran who is a licensed medical marijuana user.

“It’s great — I need my stuff back,” said Kevin Dickes, 39, a Denver-area construction worker who left the Marine Corps as a lance corporal in 1993.

Aurora, Colo., police raided Dickes’ home in April and seized plants growing in his basement. He was handcuffed, arrested and charged with a felony count of cultivating marijuana, which carries a maximum sentence of six years in prison.
go here for the rest
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2007/12/marine_marijuana_folo_071219/

If the plants are not returned in good condition consider this

The Drug Enforcement Agency applies a price of $5,200 to each pound of marijuana; if that standard applies, Dickes’ plants could be worth more than $100,000, depending on the weight.

When Iraq Comes To Wal-mart

MP blames flashback in Wal-Mart assault

The Associated Press
Posted : Wednesday Dec 19, 2007 11:52:48 EST

BLOOMSBURG, Pa. — A Wal-Mart shopper said a “flashback” from her military service in Iraq made her shove a 70-year-old greeter at the store.

Jessica R. Bogart, 24, was sentenced Monday to four days in jail for assault.

“My first instinct was to get away. I pushed her,” Bogart told Columbia County Judge Thomas A. James Jr.

James replied, “Nonetheless, the lady was hurt.”

Bogart was leaving a Wal-Mart store near Bloomsburg in February when greeter Ahnastacia Miller asked to see a receipt for items in Bogart’s cart that were not in shopping bags. Bogart shoved Miller to the floor and Miller hit her head.

Bogart said she got upset after Miller threw the receipt at her 2-year-old son, who was seated in the shopping cart. Miller denied the claim.

Defense attorney Leslie Bryden said Bogart, who spent a year in Iraq as a military police officer, had “a difficult adjustment” returning home with one child and being pregnant with another.

In addition to the jail time, Bogart was sentenced to 18 months of probation. She will also pay a $300 fine and $1,986 for the victim’s medical expenses.
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2007/12/ap_walmartshove_071219/

It is surprising there haven't been a lot more of these reports. It is what happens when soldiers are stressed to the breaking point and there is no one interested in putting them back together again. As you read the number of claims the VA is behind on, what we do not read is how many the DOD is not processing either. While we assume active military are being taken care of on the spot for whatever they need, it is an assumption without any link to fact. If Walter Reed was not an eye opener, nothing will ever remove the grandiose blinders.

Does anyone really understand what we are asking of the troops in these two occupations? Anyone other than their families?

Ahnastacia Miller was just doing her job and should not have been subjected to this. MP Jessica Bogart had done her job being deployed. What's missing in between these two women who did their jobs, is the problem something like this happened. Did Bogart have a flashback or was she just being a jerk? The only people who know are the ones who really know her and what she has always been like.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and the Legacy of Iraq

The Aspen Institute
Aspen, CO
Oct 4th, 2007

From the Front Lines: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and the Legacy of Iraq at the 2007 Aspen Health Forum with discussants Charles Figley, Georg-Andreas Pogany, Jennifer Vasterling and Barbara Rombergat.

The panelists will explore the health care consequences of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder related to the Iraq war for our families, communities and our society - The Aspen Institute

http://fora.tv/2007/10/04/Front_Lines_PTSD_and_the_Legacy_of_Iraq



Dr. Rombergat began Give An Hour so that psychologist could see veterans without charging them. She understood what damage was being done with the delay in treating the wounded. With the backlog of claims, she knew it meant time was being lost in treating these veterans from coast to coast.

Georg-Andreas Pognay, came into the media spotlight, next to Jessica Lynch. As Pognay pointed out, CNN had their photographs side by side with the headline Hero and the Coward. Pognay, dealing with the brain damage being done by the drug Lariam, sought help because he felt he could no longer do his duty. He spent 10 years in the military and was in Special Forces as a sniper. During training, he had to undergo psychological testing to make sure he had what it would take to use the training he received as a sniper, able to kill at a moments notice from great distances and making snap decisions.

After seeking help, seeing a psychologist, his commander sent him back home and he was to stand trial for being a coward. He was returned to Fort Carson during a time when they were not only dismissing PTSD as a non-illness, but were berating the veterans and attacking them with insults as well as false charges of having a pre-existing personality disorder. This would have carried the death penalty for him. He was then to stand trial in a Court Martial. The charges were later all dropped but they insisted he was one of the thousands of other veterans with “pre-existing personality disorder” instead of suffering from the side effects of Lariam and PTSD.

As we later discovered, Lynch was not a “hero” the way what happened was sold to the public but she was however a real hero by having the courage to tell the truth about what really happened that day. The military loves to twist things around to sell what they want the public to believe and they have done this throughout history. We also discovered that Pognay was no coward. He was brave all those years in service to this nation and always doing what was asked of him until Lariam affected his brain and the prolonged stress of combat claimed the rest.

Pognay was eventually given an honorable discharge and then began a non-profit group Just One Wounded Warrior. He’s been speaking out on PTSD and the wounds our warriors receive doing what this nation asks of them.

If you really want to understand the facts about PTSD and our veterans, go and watch the video. It's a little over an hour long and worth the time. kc

Another non-combat death in Iraq

12/18/07 DoD Identifies Army Casualty
Pfc. Juctin R. P. McDaniel, 19, of Andover, N. H., died Dec. 17 in Baghdad, Iraq, of injuries sustained from a non-combat related incident in Taji, Iraq. He was assigned to the 524th Combat Service Support Battalion, 45th Sustainment Brigade...

Linked from

http://icasualties.org/oif/

Insurance company sidelines Homeless Veterans Service Center

Tuesday, December 18th, 2007
Homeless vets' office won't open in Puyallup
Posted by Scott Fontaine @ 11:34:15 am
Robert Boyd is discovering helping people isn’t always easy.

The former Air Force veteran hoped to open an office in Puyallup that would serve homeless vets. He founded the Homeless American Veterans Relief Fund, which he said will complement the veterans’ services already in place through government agencies, earlier this year.

It’s an issue close to Boyd, who fought in Vietnam and was homeless for a time after leaving the Air Force.

“I just hoped to get a place where people could go to start over,” he said. “It can get tough when you’re on the streets.”

John Aldrich, a friend who owns a transmission shop, offered to provide free space from which Boyd could operate.

But a problem with insuring the building has sidelined the office’s opening – but only after he cleaned up the office, built new counters, accepted donations of free furniture and painted the room, Boyd said.
click post title for the rest

Vets' Advocacy Group Comes Out Fighting And Chasing Presidential Campaigns

Vets' Advocacy Group Comes Out Fighting, Will Be Birddogging Presidential Campaigns All Over Primary and Caucus States

Falls Church, VA 22046 December 17 2007

VETS’ ADVOCACY GROUP COMES OUT FIGHTING, WILL BE BIRDDOGGING PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGNS ALL OVER PRIMARY AND CAUCUS STATES

City Rallies for 300,000 Homeless Vets; VA Funds Only 12,000 Beds

Falls Church, VA-- Beginning in December 2007 and running through February 2008, the president of the Circle of Friends will again lead a circuit of rallies across America to raise support for the homeless veterans on our streets. The rallies will feature a color guard, speakers, an open bar, and recognition of veterans who are in attendance. Invited speakers include 2008 Presidential candidates or their representatives. A complete schedule of rallies can be found at the end of this press release.

There are approximately 300,000 homeless veterans on our streets any given night. About 3,000 of the valiant troops who served in Iraq and Afghanistan are now homeless veterans. The VA only funds 12,000 beds a years for these homeless veterans.

The burden for supporting homeless veterans comes to rest on the approximately 250 not-for-profit transitional facilities in our country. Only about 50 of these receive any kind of VA funding, and even then, this funding is inadequate. Closer to home, the VA funds only 56 beds for homeless veterans for the entire state of Iowa.

“We want to help everyone we can, but we have to start with the core,” said MAJ Brian Hampton USAR (ret), President of the Circle of Friends for American Veterans.
click post title for the rest

More Than 1200 East Timor Veterans Now Suffering PTSD

Thursday, December 20, 2007
More Than 1200 East Timor Veterans Now Suffering PTSD



He served in Afghanistan for just six weeks, but it was enough time to see things that would haunt Andrew Paljakka long after his tour of duty ended.

He told of having witnessed an atrocity with a civilian victim, and of having to listen to the sounds of a man he had shot slowly dying.

After Captain Paljakka, 27, returned to Australia last year, he began drinking heavily and was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress and severe depression. In February he was admitted to a private hospital, but discharged himself.

On February 26 he was found hanging from a bootlace in a cupboard in a Kings Cross hotel room. He left a young widow.

In May, a former SAS trooper, Geffry Gregg, took his life in Perth. He was a signalman, and had been among the first SAS soldiers deployed to Afghanistan. He had been involved in a bungled mission in which 11 civilians died and many were injured in an attack by Australian troops.

Mr Gregg's family were angry that the Defence Department did not try to find out why he missed psychiatric appointments in the nine months before he killed himself. He had been suffering from post-traumatic stress, and they said he was frustrated at having to deal with three different agencies.

Attempted suicide
In August 2005, two years after being discharged from the navy after rising to the rank of lieutenant commander, David Buck, 53, a Timor veteran suffering from post-traumatic stress as a result of seeing machete-wielding mobs and hacked bodies, tried to get police to shoot him by staging a robbery at the Umina Bowling Club with a fake bomb. He hoped the police would kill him in the belief he was a terrorist.

go here for the rest
http://theorstrahyun.blogspot.com/2007/12/more-than-1200-east-timor-veterans-now.html

Do you still wonder why we have so many more?

Despite signs, suicidal soldier not taken out of Iraq

For Jason Scheuerman, death came on July 30, 2005, around 5:30 p.m., about 45 minutes after his first sergeant told the teary-eyed private that if he was intentionally misbehaving so he could leave the Army, he would go to jail where he would be abused.

AP IMPACT: Despite signs, suicidal soldier not taken out of Iraq
The Associated Press
Published: December 19, 2007

SANFORD, N.C.: Private First Class Jason Scheuerman nailed a suicide note to his barracks closet in Iraq, stepped inside and shot himself.

"Maybe finaly I can get some peace," said the 20-year-old, misspelling "finally" but writing in a neat hand.

His parents didn't find out about the note for well over a year, and only then when it showed up in a government envelope in his father's rural North Carolina mailbox.

The one-page missive was among hundreds of pages of documents the soldier's family obtained and shared with The Associated Press after battling a military bureaucracy they feel didn't want to answer their questions, especially this: Why did Jason Scheuerman have to die?

What the soldier's father, Chris, would learn about his son's final days would lead the retired Special Forces commando, who teaches at Fort Bragg, to take on the very institution he's spent his life serving — and ultimately prompt an investigation by the Army Inspector General's office.
go here for the rest
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/12/19/america/A-Soldiers-Suicide.php

"The people that I trusted with the safety of my son killed him, and that hurts beyond words because we are a family of soldiers," Scheuerman said.

I've been doing this too long. As I read what happened to him, what he went through and how he tried to do exactly what he should have done, none of it worked and I'm not shocked. He tried to get help. The Chaplain tried to help him. His mother tired to help him. The people who wouldn't help him were the people in charge of him. They ordered him to do everything but take care of his wounds. Worse is that they threatened him with jail time and a "butt-buddy" for seeking help.

Combat is a living hell. The leadership failed him, but they have failed hundreds a year as well. There is no excuse for this and their is no reason for any of this to keep going on. Are their lives so dispensable that they no longer care who lives or dies or by what means? What is the point of telling these men and women to seek help so that they can heal before PTSD begins to eat away at them only to be humiliated for it? He was ordered to do pushups in front of other men and they humiliated him!

His family is left behind knowing their son did not have to die. As for the nation, they are too busy shopping for Christmas gifts to write to their elected to make sure this does not happen again. Two years too late for too many.

Coroner: Heroin killed soldier on leave

Coroner: Heroin killed soldier on leave

The Associated Press
Posted : Tuesday Dec 18, 2007 12:58:48 EST

RACINE, Wis. — A soldier on leave from Iraq whose body was found in a Racine apartment on Thanksgiving died from heroin use, according to the Racine County medical examiner.

Tests are being done to determine whether the heroin used by Army Pvt. Tue Tran, 20, was laced, Medical Examiner Tom Terry said Monday.

Tran and Joseph Dumont, 19, were found dead Thanksgiving in Dumont’s apartment. Terry said he is still waiting for test results to help determine how Dumont died.

Tran was a member of the 10th Mountain Division, 2nd Battalion, 22nd Infantry.

Authorities have said a man checking on his son after he failed to show up for a Thanksgiving gathering found the two dead.
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2007/12/ap_heroin_071218/

Navajo medicine man Albert Laughter ancient ways go around the world

Courtesy/Walter T. Cody, Bob Stump VA Medical Center Arlene Gregorius, British Broadcasting Corporation producer, records Albert Laughter, Navajo medicine man, for an upcoming documentary on the integration of traditional American Indian ceremonies into the Bob Stump VA Medical Center’s mental health program for the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder.

Ancient ways go around the world
By Derek Meurer, The Daily Courier

Monday, December 17, 2007

PRESCOTT - To Navajo medicine man Albert Laughter post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a curse.

Standing before a roaring fire, with an eagle feather, a bamboo flute, clay pipes and herbs in hand, Laughter uses lore handed down from generation to generation to remove the curse war leaves in the mind.

"When we leave the land and ways we know to take up a rifle and kill, we are cursed. We use tradition to remove that curse," said Laughter. "The ceremony for veterans with PTSD usually takes three days, sometimes longer; there's so much mental anguish and anger to deal with."

Laughter works with the Bob Stump VA Medical Center's mental health department, where he incorporates traditional American Indian ceremonies into the treatment of mental disorders. He comes from five generations of medicine men, dating back to the time of the Trail of Tears.

After fighting for the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War, Laughter dealt with his own PTSD experiences.

"The curse comes mostly at night, when they're isolated, when it's quiet," said Laughter. "It seems like someone's touching you, like someone's watching you, like you're back in the jungle, and the enemy is all around you."

Laughter said the ceremony translates to "Beautiful Way," a process of cleansing the lingering spirits of war and helping a soul reintegrate into a peaceful life.

"We say to the earth: 'I'm your child, I want to be reborn, to be cleansed,'" said Laughter. "We rid ourselves of those burdens the war placed on our hearts, and are welcomed back to the earth, the fire, the songs, and to family."

Orlando Area finally getting a VA Hospital

Veterans hospital comes to Lake Nona
An agreement brings the $553 million facility to Orlando's new medical campus.
Harry Wessel Sentinel Staff Writer
December 19, 2007
The two-decadelong dream of a VA hospital in Central Florida took a big step toward reality Tuesday when the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and the Tavistock Group signed an agreement to bring the long-awaited facility to a planned "medical city" in the southeast corner of Orlando.

"Finally, the largest metropolitan area not serviced by a VA medical center will now have a facility at Lake Nona," said U.S. Rep. Tom Feeney, R-Oviedo, who said he would push for full funding of the VA hospital in the federal government's fiscal 2008 budget.

Congress has previously authorized money for the Orlando VA hospital, including $35 million to purchase the property. Terms of the agreement Tuesday were not disclosed, though Feeney's office noted the authorization amount had not changed and that the total amount for the VA hospital "will be over $377 million."


It should be well over that. The total bill for the VA-hospital project will be an estimated $553 million, according to a letter sent Tuesday from U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez to Veterans Affairs Secretary Dr. James Peake.

In a separate press release, Martinez pledged to work for full funding of the VA hospital now that "all major aspects of the negotiation have been agreed upon."
click post title for the rest

Up until then Orlando has the VA Clinic

About Orlando VAMC
The Orlando VA Medical Center includes the Orlando VA Medical Center, Nursing Home Care Unit, the Domiciliary and Rehabilitation Program, Viera OPC, Daytona OPC, and the 3 Community Based Outpatient Clinics which are located in Leesburg, Kissimmee, and Sanford. Learn more about Orlando VAMC.

About this Facility
The Orlando VA Medical Center, serving an area of more than 90,000 veteran patients in East Central Florida, is one of seven members of the VISN 8 Healthcare System. The Orlando VA Medical Center includes the Orlando VA Medical Center, Nursing Home Care Unit, the Domiciliary and Rehabilitation Program, Viera OPC, Daytona OPC, and the 3 Community Based Outpatient Clinics which are located in Leesburg, Kissimmee, and Sanford.

The East Central Florida veteran population is slated for a new hospital to be built in 2012 to serve nearly 400,000 veterans. This much needed facility will make it easier for east central Florida veterans to access VA’s world-class medical center and relieve the burden of traveling long distances for their inpatient care.

In addition to our main facility in Orlando, we offer services in several outpatient clinics in our 6 county patient service area. These clinics are located in —
Daytona Beach
Kissimmee
Leesburg
Sanford
Viera




Suicide Prevention Awareness
Together, Vet Centers and VA Medical Centers stand ready to reach out and help veterans at risk for suicide. Seek professional help. Learn more about Suicide Prevention.

Not that the news has paid much attention to what is going on with Orlando area veterans.

Combat PTSD A Debt That Haunts

Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Shrinking The News


A column by Peter Sheehy

"But my dear man, reality is only a Rorschach ink-blot, you know" -Alan Watts



A Debt That Haunts...

During his second night in Iraq in October of 2003, Sergeant Andreas Pogany witnessed an Iraqi man cut in half by a machine gun. Pogany vomited, shook for hours, and by his own confession, “couldn’t function.” Despite Pogany’s insistence that he was having panic attacks, he was denied proper therapeutic care and was eventually sent home. Before long, Pogany faced court-martial for cowardice, a charge the military had not pursued since the Vietnam war, and one that carries a maximum sentence of death.

Although the military eventually dropped the charges against Pogany, the government's neglect of combat traumas is a bad flashback to the Vietnam era. Even worse, it's a denial of the therapeutic practices that our armed forces developed during World War II. Turning its back on our soldiers' psychiatric wounds, today's military is also rejecting its own history.
click post title for the rest

PTSD and why war could shrink your brain

When I have time, (lately that hasn't happened much)I pop into different news sites and see what they have reported on in the past. Occasionally I come up with something that supports PTSD is not new and the studies on PTSD have been done before. It galls me no end that there are still "experts" acting as if the studies they do are brand new. Tonight is just one of those nights. I came across this report out of Scotland from 2003.

There has been a lot of talk from parts of this nation acting as if PTSD is new, that the numbers of veterans claiming PTSD are fakes or frauds, looking for a free ride, along with a whole host of character assignations. It's almost as if these people live in some kind of alter-reality where they are touched by nothing.

PTSD is not new. It's been documented since man first knew how to write. Veterans get PTSD just as ancient warriors did. It has nothing to do with what nation they live in or if they support their mission or not. It has nothing to do with courage either. Had it involved courage, they would fall apart before their first mission, not after the risk to their life is over and they are home and certainly not after their second, third or fourth tour.

I hope that Raj Persaud, the reporter on this forgives me for posting this in its entirety but as I was trying to pull out different sections, it was just too good to break up. kc

Why war could shrink your brain
Published Date: 25 March 2003
Source: The Scotsman
Location: Scotland

"‘PTSD could soon be an exclusionary factor for some types of military service’"
By Raj Persaud

Doctors have long known that stress can have crippling and tangible effects on the body, directly contributing to physical problems including stomach ulcers, heart disease and asthma. But new medical research suggests it could actually shrink our grey matter, causing physical brain damage.

The finding came about through the study of one of the most stressful experiences of all - war. In the mid-1990s military combat veterans in the US had their brains scanned with the latest imaging machines. The surprising finding was that those who had seen more action, who had been nearer and longer at the front line, tended to have a significantly smaller brain structure called the hippocampus. It looked as if being at war actually caused parts of the brain to shrink and wither away.

The hippocampus - the word derives from the ancient Greek sea horse because this small, paired structure near the centre of the brain resembles the shape of a tiny sea horse - now appears to be the part of the brain most vulnerable to sustaining structural damage secondary to mental stress.

Stress causes an increase in a variety of hormones released into our bloodstream, but of most interest is a group called glucocorticoids, which raise the heart rate, boost the immune system and suppress energy-intensive systems such as reproduction. Such changes are clearly useful for an animal trying to escape from a predator, but a side-effect of decades of chronic stress is that over-exposure to these particular stress hormones seems to shrink the hippocampus.

But do you have to go to war to damage your brain? Is less extreme stress still a danger? Sure enough, studies have now established that the longer people have experienced symptoms of mere depression, the smaller their hippocampus.

Yvette Sheline of Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis recently reported a brain imaging study which revealed that the hippocampi of depressed patients were on average 12 per cent to 15 per cent smaller than those of controls of the same age, height and level of education. Numerous other studies have found similar results. "It is absolutely clear that really prolonged major depression is associated with loss of hippocampal volume," concludes Robert Sapolsky of Stanford University - the first neuroscientist to discover how vulnerable the hippocampus was to stress from his work with primates.

Exactly why the hippocampus shrinks is still open to debate, but we also know that it is one of the few parts of the brain where new nerve cell growth occurs. This may be because it is a key part of the nervous system involved in memory. It now seems that when we lay down new memories it is because new nerve cells have grown in our hippocampus to code for these recollections.

The kind of memory supported by the hippocampus is spatial memory - when you are looking for your misplaced car keys it is your hippocampi that will be activated.

Taxi drivers recently given brain scans by scientists at University College London had a larger hippocampus compared with other people - it appears that their extensive geographical knowledge leads to remarkable growth in this part of the brain.

The hippocampus is significantly bigger in birds and animals for whom navigation is a vital part of their evolutionary strategy. For example, birds that use space around them to hide and locate food, and voles and deer mice that traverse large distances to find mates, all have larger hippocampal volumes than closely related species which do not.

If the hippocampus codes for spatial memory and shrinks when stressed, it is intriguing to note that stress can have important effects on our memory. Traumatic stress often leads us to avoid the place where we experienced the shock, or to become anxious as we get near that location again, particularly as a result of our vivid memories for the traumatic incident.

For example, those involved in automobile accidents often become more upset as they get closer to the precise road where the event occurred, suggesting that the hippocampus which codes for spatial memory is playing a key role in how stress effects us. A key symptom of post traumatic stress disorder is intrusive memories, nightmares that recall the original shock and flashbacks.

Princeton University neuroscientist Elizabeth Gould has found that exposing monkeys to chronic stress blocks the new nerve growth and perhaps it is cell destruction combined with a lack of new growth that produces the effects of stress on our hippocampi.

Intriguingly, several treatments for depression might have the opposite effect. Some anti-depressants, for example, increase the amount of serotonin in the gaps between brain cells, and serotonin is a well-known promoter of cell growth. Neuroscientist Ronald Duman of Yale University has found that rodents given antidepressant drugs or electroshock therapy all have significantly more newly grown cells in the hippocampus. This suggests, Duman argues, that increased nerve cell growth is a common effect of antidepressant treatment and could even be the main mechanism by which antidepressants work.

A recent study published in the Lancet confirms that patients on mood stabilising medication such as Lithium for just four weeks do seem to grow a small but measurable amount of grey matter as a result.

Doctors had assumed that depression results from changes on a more molecular scale - an imbalance in chemical messengers that communicate among brain cells. But perhaps the real issue is the way the actual physical structure of the brain is altered in depression or stress.

A more natural antidepressant - exercise - may also encourage brain cell growth. Exercise has been shown to increase the level of serotonin in the brain and can often help patients shake off mild depressive symptoms. Neuroscientist Fred Gage, of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in California, reports that rats with access to a running wheel had more than twice as many newly growing brain cells as did mice with no running wheel. Since the rodents ran an average of nearly five kilometres per day for several months, it would seem that next time you pass an ardent jogger you should admire the size of their grey matter.

But one question continued to trouble scientists despite these exciting developments: how could they be sure that the smaller hippocampi the depressed and stressed seemed to have was a consequence of stress? Perhaps it was still remotely possible that it was having a smaller hippocampi in the first place which predisposes some to more mental problems? Which comes first: the small hippocampi or the large stress?

Now a study has been published which appears to take a big step to resolving this vital question. Mark Gilbertson, of Harvard Medical School, brain scanned 70 identical twins, one of each pair was a Vietnam combat veteran who was clearly exposed to the stress of war, while the other stayed at home and had no combat exposure. Sure enough, the men who went to war, and who ended up suffering from post traumatic stress disorder, also had smaller than average hippocampi.

But more astonishing yet was the finding that their identical non-combat twin also had smaller hippocampi, of roughly the same size as the twin who had served in war and then developed PTSD.

So one group went though combat trauma while their siblings were not in the war, yet both groups had small hippocampi. So instead of brain shrinkage happening as a consequence of stress, a small hippocampus must have preceded the war. The amazing finding suggests that having a smaller hippocampus predisposes a person to develop traumatic stress, and maybe even predicts that they will suffer from mental health problems if they are stressed.

It could well be, with more research to explore and confirm this finding, that a small hippocampus should be viewed as a risk factor for PTSD and thus, like a heart murmur, be an exclusionary factor for some types of military service. It could even be that brain scanning our hippocampi might help predict who is going to develop depression or other mental illnesses in the future.

Just because identical twins were involved in the study does not mean that having a smaller hippocampus is a purely genetic effect. Identical twins can have much more similar foetal environments than do non-identical twins. A "two hit" model is possible whereby early childhood stress causes the hippocampus to shrink a lot and it was this prior vulnerability combined with the second hit of stress from then fighting a war that later tipped those who finally got PTSD over the edge.

Some support for this "two hit" model comes from Gilbertson’s finding that those who developed PTSD had a shared higher chance of experiencing childhood abuse with their co-twin who had not gone to war.

Oddly, the "two hit" theory has dramatic implications for the population back home when an army is abroad fighting, which is that the first "hit" could be happening as mothers who are pregnant experience the stress and uncertainty of war. Recent research by psychiatrist Jim Van Os from Holland has found that the chances of a Dutch mother giving birth to a child who later grows up to develop schizophrenia went up by at least 28 per cent if she was pregnant during the very stressful time of May 1940, when the Germans invaded the Netherlands.

The maternal stress hormones or glucocorticoids, which can damage the hippocampus in adult life, might even be damaging the hippocampus of an unborn child.

It would seem that it is vital pregnant mothers try to stay as relaxed as possible during these troubled times and in particular ensure that they keep eating a healthy diet . Otherwise their stress and possible temporary loss of appetite could effect the brain development of their unborn children, leading the first part of the two hits needed to cause later problems such as depression or traumatic stress.

In other words, to echo the words of one psychiatrist Robert Sapolsky likes to quote, and who oversaw a ward full of PTSD sufferers in an American Veteran’s Administration hospital: "You have to understand that these boys had a lot of mileage under the hood before they ever set foot in Vietnam."


Dr Raj Persaud is consultant psychiatrist at the Maudsley hospital and author of From The Edge Of The Couch - Bizarre Psychiatric Cases And What They Teach Us About Ourselves, Bantam, £12.99.

The full article contains 1748 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
Last Updated: 24 March 2003 6:30 PM

Former Lance Cpl. Kevin Dickes wants his pot plants back, they are legal!

Former Lance Cpl. Kevin Dickes could have faced up to six years in prison after police raided his home and charged him with a felony count of cultivating marijuana. But last week, a prosecutor dropped the charge after confirming that Dickes is a licensed grower of medical marijuana.

Former Marine wants marijuana plants back

By Andrew Tilghman - Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday Dec 18, 2007 19:09:11 EST

A former Marine and 1991 Persian Gulf War veteran is demanding that Denver-area police return dozens of marijuana plants they seized from his basement.

Kevin Dickes, 39, a construction worker and former lance corporal, could have faced up to six years in prison after Aurora, Colo., police raided his home April 27 and charged him with a felony count of cultivating marijuana.

But last week, a Colorado prosecutor dropped the charge after confirming that Dickes is a licensed grower of medical marijuana.

Dickes says he suffers severe pain in his legs stemming from shrapnel injuries sustained in Kuwait in early 1991. He was transporting a group of Iraqi prisoners of war when one of them detonated a grenade hidden under his clothing.

Dickes said he prefers marijuana to other pharmaceuticals. “It keeps me off the Percodine, and it’s better than OxyContin,” he said in a telephone interview Tuesday.

“It may not relieve your pain, but it helps your mood swings — if you’re down, it will bring you up.”

On Wednesday, Dickes is going to state court to demand that police return the plants that he grew legally.
go here for the rest
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2007/12/marine_marijuana_071218/
They are legal for him to grow them. Pot helps a lot of veterans when the drug companies won't. Pot helps veterans when the VA won't. I think all PTSD veterans should be given a prescription for medical marijuana. After all, other civilizations have been using it for centuries. Isn't that where most medications come from? What's the problem? Is it because Nixon caved into the drug manufactures to make pot illegal? Do you have any idea how many veterans ended up in jail because pot helped them cope with what combat did to them? What about the other health problems all kinds of people have and pot is there only relief? Give them what works!

Israel Defense does not take care of troops wounded by PTSD

Israel Defense does not take care of troops wounded by PTSD

Last update - 23:34 18/12/2007


Shell-shocked troops overlooked by gov't recognized in new law

By Yuval Azoulay, Haaretz Correspondent

Tags: Israel, IDF

An amendment passed Tuesday will enable shell-shocked Israel Defense Forces troops to receive recognition and stipends as disabled veterans from the Defense Ministry, despite prior recognition as disabled by the National Insurance Institute.

MK Zahava Gal-On (Meretz) advanced the amendment, which is to the law on disabled soldiers.

Gal-On said that soldiers experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder frequently failed in proving to the Defense Ministry's pensions officer the connection between their suffering and their army service. As such, they were discounted from benefits mandated by the law on disabled soldiers.
go here for the rest
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/935989.html

Canada does not take care of their troops with PTSD

England, Scotland, Australia, the list goes on but at the top of the list of the nations not taking care of their veterans with PTSD is America. Why? Because they have the most vetearns needing to be taken care of and failing them the worst.

Christmas random act of kindness

From WanderingVets

“I noticed a man looking rather down and just… not right… at a bus stop right next to (in front of) where my car was parked at a convenience store near my sister’s, and he slowly began to approach me as I was walking back to my car after being in the store. I didn’t smell alcohol. The guy looked more depressed than anything, but was certainly not waiting for the bus. It was a sheltered stop, and a place to sit out of the rain.

Before he could say something I said, “You have a place to stay tonight?” trying to get him to look at my face “No, ma’am.” “Have something to eat… or any money? I assume you’re not actually waiting for the bus.”

“Well… no, not actually, ma’am” (must’ve been in the military).

He wouldn’t look me in the face, but it was dark, and raining. It’s been pretty cold here. I handed him a juice I’d just bought for myself and a five dollar bill from my wallet, and I thought he didn’t believe me at first.

He just kinda stood there and then said, “Wow, thank you!!!” and he finally looked me in the eyes. I smiled at him and told him good luck and wished him a merry Christmas, such as it was.

“God bless you ma’am, and merry Christmas to you, too” and then looked down at the bill I’d handed him. He was still looking at it as I was driving away.

‘So then I drove to my sister’s crying. Thankfully my son was asleep in his booster seat.”

go here for more
http://wanderingvets.wordpress.com/2007/12/17/92random-acts-of-kindness/

Ok so you know there is a sermon coming on. I can't help it.

When Joseph and Mary went to Bethlehem there was no place for them to stay. No one knows what would have happened that night to them or to the baby Mary was delivering that night had it not been for a random act of kindness from the man letting them seek shelter in the stable. Where would the angles have lead the shepherds? Where would the Magi have followed the star too? More to the point is what would God think of the people who would provide no shelter to His child?

We are all children of God. Our souls sent from His side to live on this earth. We live in a nation claiming to be a "Christian Nation" since most claim the faith in Christ and we claim God "shed His grace on thee" "crowning they good with brotherhood" and yet we allow our brothers and sisters to go without shelter, food, clothing and depleting hope on a daily basis.

A while ago someone posted an angry comment about how I could pay more attention to the homeless veterans in this nation than I do to all the homeless. I tried to explain that if we cannot even take care of the homeless veterans, who unselfishly were willing to sacrifice their lives for this nation, the rest of the homeless were more unlikely to be taken care of or even noticed in the kind of nation refusing to take care of the ones responsible for this nation still existing.

As individuals we can do random acts of kindness that will warm the heart of God but as a nation on the whole, we prove we are not as good as what all the songs about this country claim. We ask God to bless this nation and yet we act like the man in this parable;

Luke 12
The Parable of the Rich Fool 13Someone in the crowd said to him, "Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me."
14Jesus replied, "Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?" 15Then he said to them, "Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions."
16And he told them this parable: "The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop.
17He thought to himself, 'What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.'
18"Then he said, 'This is what I'll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19And I'll say to myself, "You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry." '
20"But God said to him, 'You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?'
21"This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God."
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+12%3A13-34

I often wonder what people are going to do with all the money they have accumulated over the last decade when they die? What could they possibly plan on doing when their kids will inherit it all after they die? Do they really think their kids need that much money? It's one thing to want a mansion and live the good life if they worked hard for it, but too many have made their billions off the backs of other people. We have a nation of over 300 million people yet less than 30 million veterans and only about 17 million of them are combat veterans. We no longer attribute wealth in the millions but in the billions. You cannot even get honorable mention on Forbes anymore unless you have a billion.

The World's Billionaires
Edited by Luisa Kroll and Allison Fass 03.08.07, 6:00 PM ET
It has been a busy year in the fortune-hunting business. Strong equity markets combined with rising real estate values and commodity prices pushed up fortunes from Mumbai to Madrid. Forbes pinned down 946 billionaires, including 178 newcomers and 17 people who climbed back into the ranks after being absent for a year or more. Two-thirds of last year's billionaires are richer. Only 17% are poorer, including 32 who fell below the billion-dollar mark. The billionaires' combined net worth climbed by $900 billion to $3.5 trillion. That equates to $3.6 billion apiece. More . . .

BILLION BUCKS isn't what it used to be. Own a few apartment buildings in Tokyo, and—even in this market—you're almost certainly worth a bill. Take a high-tech company public when it's hot, and you're in the no-longer-so-exclusive billionaire club.
Ten years ago Forbes started counting billionaires outside the U.S. We found 96. Last year, 298—plus 149 American billionaires. With stock markets around the world up an average 23% in the last year, the billionaire population, like the deer population, is sure to have increased.
http://www.uni-muenster.de/PeaCon/eliten/Forbes-Global.htm

If this makes sense to people who want to have a fit over the so called "war on Christmas" like Bill O'Reilly, then you haven't a clue who Christ was, what He wanted us to be or what He wanted us to do. You don't have the slightest idea what He was born to teach all of us as well as die for us because of our own sins.

This Christmas, have a real war on Christmas that would make Jesus smile. Wage war on greed and selfishness. Return one of your gifts and donate the money to a shelter. Take the sweater someone gave you and donate it. Tell your husband you don't need another diamond but you want him to donate the money to a charity in your name for all the love you gave him over the years. Tell your wife you don't need a new set of golf clubs but you want her to donate the money instead to a charity in honor of your life. Create your own random act of kindness and be blessed like the Inn keeper was on the night Christ was born or you can be cursed like the rich land owner who only care about what he could gain.


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

"The politicians should be ashamed Umoja Village had to exist"

Cata hugs Florida International University student Nathaly Charria after a news conference held by former residents and activists at the Umoja site. College students from FIU and the University of Miami spent many hours volunteering at Umoja. They built model shanty towns on their campuses to show solidarity with the Umoja residents. They donated water and canned foods and built a library for the residents and filled it with books. NURI VALLBONA/MIAMI HERALD STAFF

MEAN STREETS A STORY TOLD IN THREE PARTS
Flames ignite activism in homeless man
A fire that ravaged Umoja Village consumed John Cata's belongings -- and set him on a mission to call attention to Miami's affordable-housing crisis.
BY LISA ARTHUR AND NURI VALLBONA
larthur@MiamiHerald.com

Just after daylight on April 26, John Cata knelt in the charred remains of his Umoja Village shanty and picked through the rubble.

Someone had apparently left a candle burning when going out for the night. About midnight, it tipped over and flames raced through the wood and cardboard village. Several propane tanks in the open-air kitchen exploded. The entire village was consumed in less than 20 minutes.
go here for the rest
http://www.miamiherald.com/519/story/347517.html


PART 1: Homeless man fights for place in a new Miami
Video Activist without a home

Clark County Washington Bowlers take care of local veterans

This is what people in a community can do when they care more than words. This is being repeated by different groups all across the country, but there are not enough of them. If you really care about our veterans and belong to a local group, talk to them about doing something like this for the veterans.

Tuesday, December 18, 2007


The Veterans Administration hospital in Vancouver received about $2,700 worth of merchandise last week as part of the Clark County United States Bowling Congress chapter Bowlers to Veterans Link program.

The merchandise was purchased from donations by bowlers in Clark County leagues and tournaments.

Among the items donated last week to the recreational therapy program at the local hospital were three carts to haul TVs, three boom boxes, six 20-inch TVs, and eight VCR-DVD combinations.

The decades-old program has raised funds for veterans hospitals by seeking donations and running 50-50 raffles during league play and tournaments at area bowling centers. Prior to last year, money raised was given to the VA. Beginning last year, the Clark County program began buying the local hospital items it requested with the funds.

"They give us a wish list and we fill their wish list for them," said Dan Neuman, who coordinates the BVL program for Clark County.

The new system ensures the money donated by area bowlers helps the local VA, Neuman said. It also helps him deliver requested items quickly. He said the new process also allows him to show the bowlers photographs of the items their donations purchase, which helps maintain interest in the program.

"I think it's been great to be able to show the bowlers where their money has gone," Neuman said.

Neuman said local bowlers have raised about $3,535 for the BVL program so far this year. The main fundraising push happens around Veterans Day, though the program accepts donations at any time, Neuman said.

http://www.columbian.com/sports/localNews/2007/12/12182007
_Community-Notebook-Bowlers-donations-help-local-VA-hospital.cfm

New Mexico LT. Gov. Denish plays Santa for wounded soldier to go home

Denish helps unite wounded Iraq veteran with family
Posted 12/17/2007 09:02:00 AM


Lt. Gov. Diane Denish has stepped up in a big way to help unite a wounded Iraq veteran with his family this Christmas.

Army Private James Browning was wounded during a firefight in Iraq earlier this year. Twelve of his fellow soldiers died; only two survived. Since then, Browning has battled post-traumatic stress disorder and a traumatic brain injury. He’s currently at Fort Hood in Texas and was recently granted holiday leave.


His family, however, was unable to afford a ticket home.
http://haussamen.blogspot.com/2007/12/denish-helps-unite-wounded-iraq-veteran.html

What a great story! Random acts of kindness, stranger helping a stranger because of someone in their life had touched their hearts. She did this because of her uncle's actions during his life. It's amazing how much we can touch other people many years from now by what we do today.

Vietnam vets used courage to fight for their wounds to be taken care of, to be accepted by other veterans who shut them out and now they are moving mountains for the sake of the newest generation to make sure they are not shut out or forgotten about. We can make a difference just by doing what Lt. Gov. Denish did. She cared enough to help.

Galloway: Disgraceful treatment of veterans stains America's honor

Galloway: Disgraceful treatment of veterans stains America's honor
Joseph Galloway
Article Last Updated: 12/14/2007 07:22:13 PM MST


As you do your holiday shopping this year and think about a big turkey dinner and piles of gifts and the good life that most Americans enjoy, please spare a thought for those who made it all possible: those who serve in our military and the veterans who've worn the uniform. There are some new statistics that give us reason to be ashamed for the way that our country has treated those who've served and sacrificed for us. Those statistics damn the politicians who start every speech by thanking the troops and veterans and blessing them. They indict our national leaders who turn up at military bases and the annual conventions of veteran's organizations and use troops and veterans as a backdrop for their photo-ops.

Consider this:
* An average of 18 veterans commit suicide each and every day of the year, according to recent statistics from the Veterans Administration. That's 126 veterans who kill themselves every week. Or some 6,552 who take their own lives each year. Our veterans are killing themselves at twice the rate of other Americans.
* One quarter of the homeless people in America are military veterans. That's one in every four. Is that ragged man huddled on the steam grate in a brutal winter wind a Vietnam vet? Did that younger man panhandling for pocket change on the street corner fight in Kandahar or Fallujah?

go here for the rest
http://www.sltrib.com/opinion/ci_7725456

Another non-combat death in Iraq

Multi-National Corps – Iraq
Public Affairs Office, Camp Victory
APO AE 09342

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
RELEASE No. 20071217-05
December 17, 2007

MNC-I Soldier dies from non-combat related injury
Multi-National Corps – Iraq PAO

LSA ANACONDA, Iraq – A U.S. Soldier died as a result of a non-combat related injury in the vicinity of Camp Taji, Iraq, today.

The Soldier was taken to a nearby Coalition Forces medical facility for emergency life-support treatment and was subsequently pronounced dead by the attending medical official there.

The name of the deceased is being withheld pending notification of next of kin and release by the Department of Defense.

The incident is under investigation.
http://icasualties.org/oif/

UPDATE
12/18/07 DoD Identifies Army Casualty
Pfc. Juctin R. P. McDaniel, 19, of Andover, N. H., died Dec. 17 in Baghdad, Iraq, of injuries sustained from a non-combat related incident in Taji, Iraq. He was assigned to the 524th Combat Service Support Battalion, 45th Sustainment Brigade...

Notice to emailers

I'm not your therapist!

I'm really sorry to all the veterans and their family members emailing me seeking help with your relationships because I know there is not enough help out there, but that is not my role in all of this. I am mainly researching whatever is printed on PTSD to provide greater understanding of what it is. The more people learn about PTSD, the easier it will be to remove the stigma of it, remove the barriers of seeking help and hopefully moving Congress past talking about addressing the problem so they actually do something about it. The more time I spend doing one on one, the less time I have to research.

I will continue to answer your questions and provide you with knowledge of what is normal and part of PTSD, but I cannot be used as a tool between you and your spouse. I can no longer go on acting as a surrogate therapist or marriage councilor. There are several message groups available on line for when you want to reach out to others who will understand.

I am only one person that cannot keep doing this 12 hours a day seven days a week while holding down a job and taking care of my own family. My health is paying the price. I posted that I am now on blood pressure medicine for the first time in my life and I'm not able to sleep. Emails keep me up too late at night and then I cannot fall asleep. There has to be a line that cannot be crossed over no matter how much more I would like to do. I simply cannot go on doing what is asked of me.

My book is on this blog. All you have to do is open it in Adobe and read it to understand what they go through as well as what a spouse goes through. It covers 18 years of the hardest time in our life together. I should not have to keep repeating what is in the book. That's why it's on line for free. Chapters are titled so that you can skip over parts you feel as if you do not need to read.

My web page at www.namguardianangel.org is on line and has five pages of information. Most of you never go there.

My videos are on line and posted on this blog. Watch them. If you still do not understand or have more questions after, then please email me. I'll be happy to answer any remaining questions but please understand the days of using me as a private therapist are over. I made it clear to you that I am not a therapist, not a psychologist or a psychiatrist. I am just one of you with 25 experience in all of this. Please stop asking me to solve all your problems.
Kathie Costos
Namguardianangel@aol.com

Fort Carson Commander wants a network of caregivers

Commander wants a network of caregivers
By TOM ROEDER
THE GAZETTE
December 17, 2007 - 12:00AM


Fort Carson’s top general says his post is ready for the growth ahead and is focusing on caring for soldiers coming home now.

Maj. Gen. Mark Graham, who took command of the post this fall, has set his top priority as building a network of Army and civilian caregivers who can address the needs of soldiers and their families as the post deals with continued wartime deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan.

With the post expecting 4,000 soldiers back from Iraq combat in the next month, Graham said he recognizes that all of his soldiers will come home changed men and women and that some of them will have what is becoming the signature disease of this war: post-traumatic stress disorder.

“PTSD is like a hurricane,” Graham said. “If you’re in the path, it doesn’t matter who you are, it hits you.”
http://www.gazette.com/articles/soldiers_30975___article.html/graham_post.html

Veterans with injuries physical and mental, struggle to adapt and get care

Derek Gee/Buffalo News
“ One night in bed I woke and had my wife in a headlock. She said ‘ What are you doing? It’s me, babe.’ ” — EDDY DELMONTE, 21, IRAQ WAR VETERAN

Veterans with injuries physical and mental, struggle to adapt and get care
By Lou Michel NEWS STAFF REPORTER Updated: 12/16/07 8:52 AM

You can see the cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in their empty shirt sleeves, the scars on their heads, in their eyes so weary from sleepless nights.

They return to their homes, trying to fit in again. Most will. Too many will not.

At least 25 local soldiers, four Marines and one sailor have been killed overseas since the war on terror began. Less known are the local veterans returning home with broken bodies or troubled souls.

Some 30,434 men and women in uniform have been wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan, but the Pentagon does not say where they are from, so it’s unclear exactly how many of the wounded hail from Western New York.

Almost 1,700 of those veterans have sought medical treatment at the Veteran Affairs Medical Center in Buffalo since 2003, with a majority seeking help for war-related injuries.
There are probably many more local veterans seeking medical treatment who are not counted in VA enrollment figures because of their status as citizen soldiers. Reservists and National Guard members often have access to private health insurance provided by from their civilian employers, according to VA officials in Washington, D.C.

But for the veterans who are trying to adjust while under the care of the local VA, the navigation of a sometimes unresponsive bureaucracy adds to the pain of life beyond the combat zone.
More than 600 of the 1,659 veterans treated here sought assistance for posttraumatic stress and other psychological readjustment troubles, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs.

go here for the rest
http://www.buffalonews.com/cityregion/buffaloerie/story/230124.html

Support the troops and get rid of Mitch McConnell

This is a no-brainer! If you really support the troops and the veterans, you need to get rid of Mitch McConnell. Take a look at his record and fully understand that while he claims to care about those who serve this nation, he has served his friends instead. This is a double post on both blogs because it is too important to not post all over the place. If you're like me, you are tired of hearing what they say but watching what they do proves they are full of hot air!

Dear VoteVets.org Supporter,
How badly do you want to send Mitch McConnell, the Senate Minority Leader, packing? Pretty bad, right? Now, how badly would you love to see an Iraq War Marine be the guy who takes McConnell's place? If you're like me, the very idea of that has you pretty pumped.
Well, I have some good news for you. Lt. Col. Andrew Horne (Ret.), a Marine who served in both the current war in Iraq and Desert Storm, has launched his campaign to beat Mitch McConnell and take this government and country back for the people. The Louisville Courier-Journal wrote of the promise Andrew holds in an editorial this weekend, saying, "Mr. Horne is a serious man, and his candidacy should be taken seriously," and "He would be a credible alternative to the incumbent."
CLICK HERE TO SUPPORT ANDREW HORNE IN HIS RACE TO BEAT MITCH MCCONNELL
While Andrew holds great promise for us this cycle, he cannot do this without your financial help. Mitch McConnell is one of the best-funded politicians in 2008, because of the support he gets from his corporate buddies. So, what's all that special interest money gotten us? Let's take just a small walk through the record of Mitch McConnell (Warning: Hold your nose):
He led the filibuster of the Webb-Hagel "Dwell Time" amendment that would have given our exhausted troops as much time at home as in the field.
He led the all-night filibuster of legislation that would have set us on a real change of course in Iraq, that would have allowed us to give Iraqis more responsibility, while freeing U.S. forces to take on the real threat to America -- al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
He consistently worked his side of the aisle against the same veterans he's been fighting tooth and nail to keep in Iraq, beating back amendments to ensure a funding stream for veterans' health care, increase Veterans' medical services by closing corporate tax loopholes, and guarantee full-funding for the Department of Veterans Affairs.
And, most recently, he callously quipped that we ought not feel too bad about those who died in Iraq, because, afterall, "remember, these are not draftees, these are full-time professional soldiers."
CLICK HERE TO TAKE DOWN MITCH MCCONNELL AND SUPPORT THE TROOPS
We all know these issues are going to come up in McConnell's campaign. When they do, at the debate, who do you want on the stage with McConnell to challenge him face-to-face? A politician, or a genuine patriot who served our nation in Iraq? As Andrew says, "Simply put, while Mitch McConnell carries George Bush's water on Iraq, I carried a rifle in Iraq."
That's the type of opponent that Mitch McConnell fears the most, but this can only come to pass if you get into the fight. That's why today, I'm proud to say VoteVets.org PAC endorses Andrew Horne for Senate, and why I am asking you to please give him your support.
Sincerely,
Jon SoltzIraq War VeteranChairman, VoteVets.org
P.S. The above links will take you to Andrew's donation page. If you're in Kentucky and are interested in helping his campaign, or just want to find out more, you can go to his website - http://salsa.wiredforchange.com/dia/track.jsp?key=135352556&url_num=4&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.andrewhorne.org%2F

Champix warning: Quit smoking drug should be avoided if you have depression

Anti-smoking pill linked to suicide

Natasha Wallace Health Reporter
December 17, 2007


THE first anti-smoking drug that specifically targets nicotine cravings will be launched in Sydney today, but there are concerns that it has been linked to depression and suicide.

Varenicline tartrate, a prescription treatment for adults marketed as Champix, will be available on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme from January 1 and will cost about $60 for a 12-week treatment and about $10 for pensioners and health care card holders. Patients will receive a subsidy for one course a year.

The drug works by blocking the effect of nicotine on the brain, reducing the pleasurable and reinforcing feelings associated with smoking. Smokers set their quit date between day eight and day 14 of taking the tablets.

Nick Zwar, professor of general practice at the University of NSW, said he was concerned about US reports of suicide and depression among users of the drug and recommended that people with mental health problems avoid it.
click post title for the rest

Another Non-combat death

Helena soldier killed in Iraq
By MARTIN J. KIDSTON - Independent Record - 12/16/07
A 19-year-old soldier from Helena died in Iraq on Thursday of non-combat related injuries, the Department of Defense announced Saturday night.

Pvt. Daren Smith became the sixth soldier or Marine from Helena to die in the Iraq war since it began more than four years ago.

Capt. Michael MacKinnon was killed on Oct. 27, 2005; Cpl. Phillip Baucus on July 29, 2006; and Sgt. Scott Dykman on Dec. 20, 2006.

Three additional Helena men have died this year including Staff Sgt. Shane Becker on April 3, 2007; Spec. Donald Young on Aug. 8, 2007; and Smith on Thursday.

To date, 22 Montana men have died in Iraq dating back to Dec. 22, 2003, when 1st Lt. Edward Saltz was killed by a roadside bomb.

The DOD has not released any additional information regarding Smith’s death, but said the incident is still under investigation.
http://www.helenair.com/articles/2007/12/16/helena/a03121607_01.txt


UPDATE
8/13/08

Montana Discovers Local Soldier's Suicide in Iraq -- Files for Documents



Published: August 13, 2008 12:25 PMET

HELENA, MT. A U.S. Army investigation has determined the December 2007 death of a 19-year-old Montana soldier was a suicide.

Jeffrey Castro, a spokesman for the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command, told the Independent Record on Tuesday that Pvt. Daren Smith died Dec. 13, 2007, of self-inflicted wounds. [As often the case, this information only became public due to the queries of a local newspapper.]

Castro declined further comment, prompting the newspaper to file a Freedom of Information Act request for details about the soldier’s death. Attempts to reach Smith’s family Tuesday were unsuccessful.

Records show that Smith, who was born in Butte and grew up in Helena, joined the Army in March 2007. He was deployed to Iraq around Nov. 30, where he was a cavalry scout with the 10th Mountain Division.
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003838442

4th tour in Iraq with PTSD

On his fourth tour downrange, soldier would like to see system tweaked
By Nancy Montgomery, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Sunday, December 16, 2007

After his third deployment, Sgt. 1st Class Charles Tingle started to think maybe he had done his bit for the global war on terror.

He had bivouacked in Afghanistan. “We lived like animals pretty much,” he said.

He had invaded Iraq. “We never stopped rolling,” said Tingle, a mechanic. “Just not sleeping for a year, always having eyes in the back of your head.”

He had spent thousands of hours on convoys, fixed who-knows-how-many broken vehicles and, although not part of his job description, worked a nightmarish job with mortuary affairs. “Part of my life I’ll never talk about,” he said.

His grandfather died during Tingle’s first Iraq tour — he heard the news three weeks later. His wife’s parents both died on another. “They let me go on leave for 10 days,” he said. “I didn’t make it to the funeral, of course, because it took me three days to get home.”

He has been married 10 years, but has spent nearly half that time thousands of miles from his wife, whose patience with him — his absence, followed by a rocky readjustment, followed by his absence — he treasures. Most of their friends have divorced, he said, but his wife has stood by him.

“She’s a good woman,” he said.

So when his request was denied to leave Fort Campbell, Ky., after a third combat tour and go to Fort Bliss, Texas — an area near relatives and to a unit that wasn’t deploying — and he instead got orders to go to Fort Riley, Kan., Tingle protested.

“I said, ‘You all know Riley’s deploying, right?’

“They said, ‘You’re going to Third Brigade. They’re not deploying for two years.’

“So I get there, they put me in First Brigade, and they were going out the door.”

Tingle is now on his fourth combat tour, based this time at Camp Taji. None of his tours have been a cakewalk, he said, and he’s been treated in the past for post traumatic stress disorder.
click post title for the rest

How long are we going to keep doing this to them?