The invisible wounds of the Iraq War
Mar 29, 2008 7:53 AM (11 hrs ago)
By SUSAN HARRISON WOLFFIS, AP
MUSKEGON, Mich. (Map, News) - As dawn broke over Baghdad in the early hours of March 20, 2003, U.S. Army Pvt. Daniel Nichols was on the outskirts of the city, driving a Humvee in a 3rd Infantry division convoy, on his way to war.
It was 5:34 a.m. Baghdad time. Overhead the skies exploded with bombs, mortar shells and rockets raining down on the enemy as the enemy returned fire.
"It was just like something out of a movie," Nichols says.
Back home in the United States, where it was still 9:34 p.m. EST March 19, President Bush announced to the American people that U.S. forces had just invaded Iraq.
"The first couple of hours, everything was being blown up. We could hardly catch our breath. Everything was ringing," Nichols remembers.
Nichols, then a 21-year-old kid from Muskegon, had joined the Army out of a sense of patriotism after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the U.S. "I woke up that day and thought: What can I do to help? What if Muskegon got attacked?" he says.
The first night of combat, after dodging incoming mortar shells and being on high alert for deadly land mines on the roads he traveled, Nichols says, "I dug my foxhole really, really deep.
"I told the guys I was with: `This is not a game. This is real,'" he says.
Three weeks into combat, Nichols' commanding officer and four other soldiers were killed after being ambushed by insurgents. Nichols was "blown" off the roof of a two-story building while on sniper watch in Baghdad. For seven months, Nichols fought in Iraq, driving a Humvee through dangerous territory, never sure when or where he'd be under attack.
"Everybody I knew over there was blown up or shot," he says.
Although Nichols, 26, was not physically wounded, the husband and father of two is a casualty of the Iraq war.
At night, he is haunted by nightmares and images of war. During the day, he has panic attacks and can't concentrate.
"Do I regret having gone?" he asks, just days before the fifth anniversary of the war. "No, not really. I regret my commander being blown up. I regret what's happened to me."
Nichols has been diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and is being treated by doctors at the Veterans Affairs clinic in Muskegon. Doctors also suspect he suffers from a mild to moderate case of Traumatic Brain Injury - caused from an explosion while he was driving and the effects of being under constant mortar attack. Nichols planned to undergo special testing in Ann Arbor.
But in many ways, those are only superficial wounds.
Nichols tells a story of "thousands" of vets returning from war in Iraq and Afghanistan, says David Eling, director of the Muskegon County Department of Veteran Affairs. Nichols is unemployed. Since coming home from war, he's held a series of temporary jobs but none that has lasted past short-term assignments.
His family is homeless.
For the past three months, Nichols and his family have lived in a one-bedroom apartment in the Veterans Service Center's transitional housing. On April 5, Nichols and his wife, Ardis, 25, and their two children, Mason, 3, and Jasmine, 1, will have to leave the premises. Their allotted time is up - and there is a waiting list of veterans and their families who need the space, too.
"I don't know where we're going," Nichols says. Eling calls Nichols' social and medical ailments "invisible wounds" of the Iraq War. "I don't know how we get across to the public about the sacrifices these guys have made," Eling says.
click post title for the rest
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Chaplain in Iraq:All he carries is a camouflage Bible.
Steve Lannen
U.S. Army Chaplain Maj. Charles 'Ed' Hamlin, left, offered Communion at a recent service in Iraq. Photo by Steve Lannen staff
Kentucky chaplain seeks to give comfort in IraqHelps in the toughest times
By Steve Lannen
McClatchy Newspapers
CAMP LIBERTY, Iraq — In a place where everyone is armed, all he carries is a camouflage Bible.
Five years into the war, this is Maj. Charles ”Ed“ Hamlin's first tour in Iraq.
At 44, Hamlin is old enough to be the father of many of the soldiers he ministers to. The lanky man wears oval glasses and his black hair is high and tight.
Hamlin is in Baghdad, part of the 101st Airborne Division out of Fort Campbell, attached to the 716th Battalion, 18th Military Police Brigade.
He is still in the early stages of his own 15-month deployment, which had him and his battalion in Kuwait for Christmas. He readily admits he would rather be at home in Flaherty, Ky., with his wife, Pam, two sons, a daughter and golden Labrador retriever. ”I have 11 months, 25 days to go.“
The Army chaplain was very familiar with this war and its results before he got to Baghdad. From 2004 to 2006, he was posted at Arlington National Cemetery outside Washington, where he officiated at services and ministered to the families of soldiers who'd been killed in action.
Now he ministers to young soldiers who are alive, saluting or joking with them, a friendly face in a war of daily drudgery spliced with moments of terror.
go here for the rest
http://www.kentucky.com/158/story/360148.html
Don't tell Melinda Bygate one person can't make a difference
In wake of deadly tornadoes volunteer 'put life on hold to help'
Adrian G. Uribarri Sentinel Staff Writer
March 29, 2008
LADY LAKE - Melinda Bygate paced around Sunshine Mobile Home Park, cell phone to her ear.
"I'll get you that money, one way or another," Bygate blurted. "Don't you worry."
For more than a year, Bygate has been helping victims of the Feb. 2, 2007, tornadoes cope with their losses. Now, she is receiving national recognition for her efforts.
The U.S. Small Business Administration will honor her with its Phoenix Award for Outstanding Contribution to Disaster Recovery by a Volunteer. She will drive to Washington, D.C., next month to receive the award.
Before the tornadoes, which killed 21 people in Lake County and destroyed hundreds of homes in Lake and Sumter, the 56-year-old golfed five days a week and enjoyed retirement after a decade running a cabinet shop in Oldsmar with her husband, Arnie, 68. The devastation she saw that morning spurred her into action.
"I just felt this incredible need to help these people," she said.
When she offered her help to organizers at a church, she said she was told there were already enough volunteers.
Undeterred, she lent a hand anyway.
click post title for the rest
Adrian G. Uribarri Sentinel Staff Writer
March 29, 2008
LADY LAKE - Melinda Bygate paced around Sunshine Mobile Home Park, cell phone to her ear.
"I'll get you that money, one way or another," Bygate blurted. "Don't you worry."
For more than a year, Bygate has been helping victims of the Feb. 2, 2007, tornadoes cope with their losses. Now, she is receiving national recognition for her efforts.
The U.S. Small Business Administration will honor her with its Phoenix Award for Outstanding Contribution to Disaster Recovery by a Volunteer. She will drive to Washington, D.C., next month to receive the award.
Before the tornadoes, which killed 21 people in Lake County and destroyed hundreds of homes in Lake and Sumter, the 56-year-old golfed five days a week and enjoyed retirement after a decade running a cabinet shop in Oldsmar with her husband, Arnie, 68. The devastation she saw that morning spurred her into action.
"I just felt this incredible need to help these people," she said.
When she offered her help to organizers at a church, she said she was told there were already enough volunteers.
Undeterred, she lent a hand anyway.
click post title for the rest
Reality in Iraq and Afghanistan today are predictors of what will come
March 27, 2008
Areas of Baghdad fall to militias as Iraqi Army falters in Basra
Iraq’s Prime Minister was staring into the abyss today after his operation to crush militia strongholds in Basra stalled, members of his own security forces defected and district after district of his own capital fell to Shia militia gunmen.
With the threat of a civil war looming in the south, Nouri al-Maliki’s police chief in Basra narrowly escaped assassination in the crucial port city, while in Baghdad, the spokesman for the Iraqi side of the US military surge was kidnapped by gunmen and his house burnt to the ground.
Saboteurs also blew up one of Iraq's two main oil pipelines from Basra, cutting at least a third of the exports from the city which provides 80 per cent of government revenue, a clear sign that the militias — who siphon significant sums off the oil smuggling trade — would not stop at mere insurrection.
In Baghdad, thick black smoke hung over the city centre tonight and gunfire echoed across the city.
The most secure area of the capital, Karrada, was placed under curfew amid fears the Mahdi Army of Hojetoleslam Moqtada al-Sadr could launch an assault on the residence of Abdelaziz al-Hakim, the head of a powerful rival Shia governing party.
While the Mahdi Army has not officially renounced its six-month ceasefire, which has been a key component in the recent security gains, on the ground its fighters were chasing police and soldiers from their positions across Baghdad.
Rockets from Sadr City slammed into the governmental Green Zone compound in the city centre, killing one person and wounding several more.
go here for the rest
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/iraq/article3631718.ece
Linked from RawStory
Last year was the deadliest in Iraq. We lost 901 plus those who came home and committed suicide. So far this year, we lost 103. 40 in January, 29 in February, and 34 more as of today according to ICasualties.org. They also found six deaths that were not counted anywhere.
This is the news out of Afghanistan.
03/29/08 AFP: Bomb hits Afghan electricity building killing two
A bomb blew up a small electricity department building in southern Afghanistan's troubled Helmand province Saturday, killing two people and wounding eight, police said.
03/29/08 AP: Afghan radio station set ablaze
Arsonists set fire yesterday to a radio station accused of being un-Islamic, and two poppy-eradication policemen were killed in southwestern Afghanistan, officials said.
03/29/08 AP: Defense secretary says Britain must be willing to talk to Taliban
Britain's defense secretary said the government must be willing to talk to elements of the Taliban and other extremist groups to persuade them to abandon violence.
03/29/08 AP: Pakistan military intelligence center opens on volatile border
U.S., Afghan and Pakistani are opening the first of six joint military intelligence centers along the rocky Afghan-Pakistan border.
http://www.icasualties.org/oef/
Last year was also the deadliest in Afghanistan. We lost 117. 16 more gone this year.
Why am I posting this here this time instead of my other blog? Because it's important. It is important that while most of the country thinks Iraq and Afghanistan are not worth being informed of, the fact is, what happens today will be something we all have to deal with for the rest of our lives.
From the Marine who comes back wounded after wanting to spend the rest of his life in the Marines, suddenly so wounded he cannot even hold down a civilian job, to a female Air Force pilot who has been so traumatized by sexual assaults, she may not want to live anymore instead of wanting to become something so much more. We'll have to live with the Army soldier who wanted to earn the college benefits for his future returning so wounded by PTSD that he ends up becoming homeless because the VA would not honor his claim, and the soldiers who were given dishonorable discharges because their PTSD claims were dismissed and they were given discharges under "preexisting conditions" and no help at all. We will have to deal with the National Guardsmen and women who wanted to join the guard to help the people here when natural disasters strike but were instead sent into Iraq and Afghanistan, leaving behind their families, jobs and coming home either too wounded to work or facing a financial crisis because their incomes were hit hard by being deployed.
Some people in this country, like Vice President Cheney view it as "they volunteered" but what they didn't volunteer for is what happens to them after when this nation does not take care of them. They did not volunteer to lose all they had because they were wounded. They did not volunteer to be extended over and over again under "stop loss" to the point where they feel they were betrayed.
While we read the stories of what happens to them after, we need to stay fully involved in what's happening to them while they are deployed to know what we will face tomorrow. The stories we read today are all predictors of what is to come. We have to face the reality of what they are going through today or their tomorrows will be even worse.
Chaplain Kathie Costos
Namguardianangel@aol.com
www.Namguardianangel.org
www.Namguardianangel.blogspot.com
www.Woundedtimes.blogspot.com
"The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive veterans of early wars were treated and appreciated by our nation."
- George Washington
Areas of Baghdad fall to militias as Iraqi Army falters in Basra
Iraq’s Prime Minister was staring into the abyss today after his operation to crush militia strongholds in Basra stalled, members of his own security forces defected and district after district of his own capital fell to Shia militia gunmen.
With the threat of a civil war looming in the south, Nouri al-Maliki’s police chief in Basra narrowly escaped assassination in the crucial port city, while in Baghdad, the spokesman for the Iraqi side of the US military surge was kidnapped by gunmen and his house burnt to the ground.
Saboteurs also blew up one of Iraq's two main oil pipelines from Basra, cutting at least a third of the exports from the city which provides 80 per cent of government revenue, a clear sign that the militias — who siphon significant sums off the oil smuggling trade — would not stop at mere insurrection.
In Baghdad, thick black smoke hung over the city centre tonight and gunfire echoed across the city.
The most secure area of the capital, Karrada, was placed under curfew amid fears the Mahdi Army of Hojetoleslam Moqtada al-Sadr could launch an assault on the residence of Abdelaziz al-Hakim, the head of a powerful rival Shia governing party.
While the Mahdi Army has not officially renounced its six-month ceasefire, which has been a key component in the recent security gains, on the ground its fighters were chasing police and soldiers from their positions across Baghdad.
Rockets from Sadr City slammed into the governmental Green Zone compound in the city centre, killing one person and wounding several more.
go here for the rest
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/iraq/article3631718.ece
Linked from RawStory
2 US troops die in rising Iraq violence
US Widens Bombing in Basra;
Baghdad Blast Kills 2 US Soldiers;
40 Iraqi Police Surrender Arms
RYAN LENZAP News
Mar 29, 2008 13:38 EST
U.S. jets widened the bombing of Basra on Saturday, dropping two precision-guided bombs on a suspected militia stronghold north of the city, British officials said.
Maj. Tom Holloway, a British military spokesman, said U.S. jets dropped the two bombs on a militia position in Qarmat Ali shortly before 12:30 p.m.
In eastern Baghdad, two American soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb about 5:30 p.m. Saturday in a mostly Shiite area that has seen fierce clashes this week.
http://www.rawstory.com/news/mochila/2_
US_troops_die_in_rising_Iraq_viol_03292008.html
Last year was the deadliest in Iraq. We lost 901 plus those who came home and committed suicide. So far this year, we lost 103. 40 in January, 29 in February, and 34 more as of today according to ICasualties.org. They also found six deaths that were not counted anywhere.
McDonald, James W. 12-Nov-2007
Wasielewsk, Anthony Raymond 08-Oct-2007
Cassidy, Gerald J. 25-Sep-2007
Richards, Jack D. 29-Jul-2007
Salerno III, Raymond A. 16-Jul-2006
Smith, John "Bill" 01-Oct-2005
This is the news out of Afghanistan.
03/29/08 AFP: Bomb hits Afghan electricity building killing two
A bomb blew up a small electricity department building in southern Afghanistan's troubled Helmand province Saturday, killing two people and wounding eight, police said.
03/29/08 AP: Afghan radio station set ablaze
Arsonists set fire yesterday to a radio station accused of being un-Islamic, and two poppy-eradication policemen were killed in southwestern Afghanistan, officials said.
03/29/08 AP: Defense secretary says Britain must be willing to talk to Taliban
Britain's defense secretary said the government must be willing to talk to elements of the Taliban and other extremist groups to persuade them to abandon violence.
03/29/08 AP: Pakistan military intelligence center opens on volatile border
U.S., Afghan and Pakistani are opening the first of six joint military intelligence centers along the rocky Afghan-Pakistan border.
http://www.icasualties.org/oef/
Last year was also the deadliest in Afghanistan. We lost 117. 16 more gone this year.
Why am I posting this here this time instead of my other blog? Because it's important. It is important that while most of the country thinks Iraq and Afghanistan are not worth being informed of, the fact is, what happens today will be something we all have to deal with for the rest of our lives.
From the Marine who comes back wounded after wanting to spend the rest of his life in the Marines, suddenly so wounded he cannot even hold down a civilian job, to a female Air Force pilot who has been so traumatized by sexual assaults, she may not want to live anymore instead of wanting to become something so much more. We'll have to live with the Army soldier who wanted to earn the college benefits for his future returning so wounded by PTSD that he ends up becoming homeless because the VA would not honor his claim, and the soldiers who were given dishonorable discharges because their PTSD claims were dismissed and they were given discharges under "preexisting conditions" and no help at all. We will have to deal with the National Guardsmen and women who wanted to join the guard to help the people here when natural disasters strike but were instead sent into Iraq and Afghanistan, leaving behind their families, jobs and coming home either too wounded to work or facing a financial crisis because their incomes were hit hard by being deployed.
Some people in this country, like Vice President Cheney view it as "they volunteered" but what they didn't volunteer for is what happens to them after when this nation does not take care of them. They did not volunteer to lose all they had because they were wounded. They did not volunteer to be extended over and over again under "stop loss" to the point where they feel they were betrayed.
While we read the stories of what happens to them after, we need to stay fully involved in what's happening to them while they are deployed to know what we will face tomorrow. The stories we read today are all predictors of what is to come. We have to face the reality of what they are going through today or their tomorrows will be even worse.
Chaplain Kathie Costos
Namguardianangel@aol.com
www.Namguardianangel.org
www.Namguardianangel.blogspot.com
www.Woundedtimes.blogspot.com
"The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive veterans of early wars were treated and appreciated by our nation."
- George Washington
Ladies, VA Watchdog wants to hear from you on the VA
From Larry Scott, VAWatchdog.
VA CLAIMS IT IS REACHING OUT TO WOMEN VETERANS --
But, what do you say, women veterans? Is this really the case?
I get lots of email from women veterans.
Almost all of it has unkind things to say about the VA and VA services for women.
Now, the VA is touting the great job they do for women veterans in the press release below.
Is this really so?
Well, women, here's your chance to let me know more. Send me an email about your VA experiences...and we'll get them posted as a response to the VA's claim of "reaching out" to you.
Email me here... email Larry
We will not use your name or any identifying information.
For what caused Larry to ask click below.
http://woundedtimes.blogspot.com/2008/03/va-reaches-out-to-women-veterans.html
The government likes to say it's doing this and it's doing that, but when you get right down to it, if they were doing half the things they say they are doing, there wouldn't be this many reports coming out on what they are not doing.
Many other Veterans suffered the same fate of homelessness
Helping Homeless Vets
Barre, Vermont - March 28, 2008
Under bridges, behind dumpsters, in dark alleys, in cars; they are common places Vermont's homeless veterans sleep when shelters are full.
Richard Schroeder knows. He's been there. The former Vietnam medic-- who earned the nickname "Doc"-- spent six years homeless.
"I've eaten out of dumpsters before. That's where I ate," says Doc. "When I talk to a vet who is struggling, I know where he's coming from. I been there and done that."
Doc suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder after what he saw during combat. His marriage fell apart and he became an alcoholic.
Many other Veterans suffered the same fate.
One central Vermont group is working to get homeless vets off the streets and back into society.
"We can provide a transition back into stability so they don't have to wander around," explains Rev. Ralph Howe of the Hedding United Methodist Church.
go here for the rest
http://www.wcax.com/Global/story.asp?S=8085279&nav=menu183_15_1_4
Barre, Vermont - March 28, 2008
Under bridges, behind dumpsters, in dark alleys, in cars; they are common places Vermont's homeless veterans sleep when shelters are full.
Richard Schroeder knows. He's been there. The former Vietnam medic-- who earned the nickname "Doc"-- spent six years homeless.
"I've eaten out of dumpsters before. That's where I ate," says Doc. "When I talk to a vet who is struggling, I know where he's coming from. I been there and done that."
Doc suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder after what he saw during combat. His marriage fell apart and he became an alcoholic.
Many other Veterans suffered the same fate.
One central Vermont group is working to get homeless vets off the streets and back into society.
"We can provide a transition back into stability so they don't have to wander around," explains Rev. Ralph Howe of the Hedding United Methodist Church.
go here for the rest
http://www.wcax.com/Global/story.asp?S=8085279&nav=menu183_15_1_4
Bay Area Iraq War Vets Face Possible Blindness
Bay Area Iraq War Vets Face Possible Blindness
KNTV-TV
updated 9:16 a.m. ET, Thurs., March. 27, 2008
Soldiers coming back from the war in Iraq are being treated for many combat-related injuries. But doctors at the VA Hospital in Palo Alto found something they haven't seen before. NBC11's Damian Trujillo investigates why soldiers, with no obvious signs of trauma, are at risk of going blind. It's hard for Army Specialist Jason Kvasnak to remember every single explosion he survived in Iraq.
"We were in several IED (improvised explosive device) blasts throughout the tour," Kvasnak said.
But Kvasnak remember the one that left him with the injuries no one saw coming.
"It was just massive concussive force and it thrust you forward, or whatever. I just felt really dazed afterwards and ringing in the ears and I couldn't really see straight," Kvasnak said.
Kvasnak hasn't been able to see straight since that blast. He sees double, has sensitivity to light and the headaches he gets from trying to read or watch TV are so bad that he sometimes passes out.
Doctors at the Veterans Affairs Hospital in Palo Alto are seeing more and more troops returning from Iraq with vision problems from exposure to roadside bombs.
"In this war, blast injuries have become the signature injuries. These can cause damage to the eye. They can also cause damage to the visual system and the visual processing centers in the brain," VA research psychologist Gregory Goodrich said.
Many soldiers don't even realize something's wrong with them. They're returning home with only half their visual field, not knowing that they're missing their entire left field of perception.
Without treatment, blast injuries like Kvasnak's can lead to long-term problems, even blindness
"The things that we're finding are damage to the soft tissue in the eye that can lead to glaucoma at any time in their life. There is a life-long risk, and bear in mind that these people are very young. In general, the median age so far is 28 years old some are as young as 19 when they are injured so that is a long lifetime," VA ophthalmologist Glenn Cockerham said.
The traumatic injury leads to a lifetime of treatment that starts with intense rehabilitation.
A driving simulator like the one at the VA in Palo Alto is an important tool in getting injured soldiers back on the road to recovery.
Soldiers are required to wear protective eye gear but since the vision loss is a result of a closed head injury, goggles and glasses aren't enough to protect the eyes from IED blasts.
Doctors encourage all Iraq veterans to have their eyes checked since many of the symptoms could take years to show up and by then, it could be too late.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23817493/
Ex-homeless Vietnam vet finally gets full benefits
Could someone tell Bill O'Reilly this is how they end up homeless to begin with?
Ex-homeless Vietnam vet finally gets full benefits
BY MITCHELL FREEDMAN | mitchell.freedman@newsday.com
8:27 PM EDT, March 28, 2008
Valentine's Day will always be important for Joseph Soukup Jr., but not for the reason that most people remember the holiday.
For the former Marine, it was the day his life almost came to an end.
Yesterday, with that day still a vivid memory, Soukup smiled as he held up a big symbolic check for $57,834 -- the benefits owed to him by the Veterans Administration.
"I trust him," Soukop said of Rep. Steve Israel (D-Huntington), who had fought for those benefits and held a news conference in Hauppauge on Friday.
The benefits were the final chapter of a journey Soukop took back into life, that started on Valentine's Day 2007.
Homeless for three years, he had been living in his red Ford F-150 truck, parked at the Mayfair Shopping Center in Commack. "It was near my post office box," he explained.
The weather report that day was for snow, ice and freezing temperatures. In the past, he would have driven to an underpass for protection from the weather. But, he realized there was not enough gas in his tank to keep warm through the night.
He thought he would freeze to death. So, he made a choice that -- for years -- he had previously rejected. He drove to the Veterans Administration hospital in Northport where he was put into a program for veterans suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. "I said to myself 'I was going to die'. But something inside me said 'go to the VA," Soukop, 61, explained.
click post title for the rest
That took Israel's final call to resolve. "It shouldn't take a member of Congress to make phone calls and pester the VA to get him his benefits," Israel said. "I'm proud of what we've done, but I'm not proud that we had to do it."
Ex-homeless Vietnam vet finally gets full benefits
BY MITCHELL FREEDMAN | mitchell.freedman@newsday.com
8:27 PM EDT, March 28, 2008
Valentine's Day will always be important for Joseph Soukup Jr., but not for the reason that most people remember the holiday.
For the former Marine, it was the day his life almost came to an end.
Yesterday, with that day still a vivid memory, Soukup smiled as he held up a big symbolic check for $57,834 -- the benefits owed to him by the Veterans Administration.
"I trust him," Soukop said of Rep. Steve Israel (D-Huntington), who had fought for those benefits and held a news conference in Hauppauge on Friday.
The benefits were the final chapter of a journey Soukop took back into life, that started on Valentine's Day 2007.
Homeless for three years, he had been living in his red Ford F-150 truck, parked at the Mayfair Shopping Center in Commack. "It was near my post office box," he explained.
The weather report that day was for snow, ice and freezing temperatures. In the past, he would have driven to an underpass for protection from the weather. But, he realized there was not enough gas in his tank to keep warm through the night.
He thought he would freeze to death. So, he made a choice that -- for years -- he had previously rejected. He drove to the Veterans Administration hospital in Northport where he was put into a program for veterans suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. "I said to myself 'I was going to die'. But something inside me said 'go to the VA," Soukop, 61, explained.
click post title for the rest
Battling bureaucracy to ensure long term care for veterans
March 28, 2008
Battling bureaucracy to ensure long term care for veterans
I discovered this article surfing military.com the other day and found it emotionally riveting. Many of us who served in the Armed Forces were fortunate enough not to have sustained life altering injuries of the magnitude described during a recent hearing on March 13th reflecting on the Care of Seriously Wounded After In-Patient Care conducted by the House Veterans' Affairs Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee. The purpose of the hearing was to assess how the Department of Veterans Affairs cares for our nation's most seriously wounded veterans following inpatient treatment.
An opening statement by the Chairman, Representative Harry E. Mitchell, from Arizona set the tone for the hearing:
"We are here today to hear from veterans, their families, and the Department of Veterans Affairs about the long-term care of our most severely wounded Afghanistan and Iraq veterans. We know that DoD and VA provide the excellent inpatient healthcare for these warriors. But many of the most seriously injured require extensive outpatient care, some of them for life. Their families need care and assistance as well. Unfortunately, once these veterans leave the hospital, the care they receive does not seem to be on par with what they received directly following their injury. I think we can do better."
He went on to say:
"...The Department of Defense and the VA are large organizations with an overwhelming bureaucracy. Their care and services often overlap in messy and unpredictable ways. At a time of enormous stress, this bureaucracy only hurts the injured warrior and his family... We are going to hear from people that have been dealing with the difficulties of the system for a long time. On February 14, 2004 Army Sergeant Ted Wade lost his right arm and suffered severed traumatic brain injury, along with many other injuries, in an IED explosion in Iraq. Sgt. Wade is here today with his wife, Sarah."
go here for the rest
http://asmba.typepad.com/veterans/2008/03/battling-bureau.html
Non-combat wounds and "non-service connected" are two terms we need to dispose of. If they are deployed, then it is a combat wound. Doesn't matter if it was because of TBI, vaccines, tainted water, bombs, bullets, accidents or Post Traumatic Stress. If they were not deployed then fine, it's non-combat. If they went, they went into combat zones and came home wounded. What are they afraid of? Too many Purple Hearts to give out? Then let them design another kind of badge of honor for everyone else wounded. How they could even consider PTSD or TBI a non-combat wound is beyond reason.
When you hear "non-service connected" that does not mean it was not connected to service but the Veterans Administration has not yet acknowledged the claim. This happens when they claim is in process of being approved or denied, denied and on appeal or trapped between the two. Until a claim is approved, they call it "non-service connected" even if you are sitting there with two missing legs blown off by an IED. This leaves the wounded veterans SOL and out of income. It adds to the stress they already have to deal with trying to heal when they have bills coming in and no way to pay them because they have a claim that is not approved yet. The answer the VA gives is "Well once your claim is approved it's retroactive and then you'll have your money" but this does not tell them how to pay the bills between wound and approval. It does not tell them how they can find faith in the system of the government they served, were willing to lay down their lives for, were wounded in the service of, when the same government is allowing them to be penalized for the lack of planning to make sure all departments were ramped up in order to take care of them.
Noah’s clause may save lives with mandatory counseling
Around the clock access to trained professional is available for anyone struggling with thoughts of suicide. Call 1-800-273-TALK (8255) to reach the National Suicide Prevention Hotline. If you are a veteran and would like to speak with someone trained in working with military members, press “1” to reach the VA hotline.
Reporter's Notebook: Soldier Suicides: veterans are killing themselves in record numbers
Filed under: City Pages
As of recently, soldiers killing themselves upon their return to combat have become all too familiar to Cheryl Softich, of Eveleth, Minn. Her son, Army Specialist Noah Pierce, 23, killed himself in July after deployment in Iraq.
He came home and was felt like he was a murderer. He said he killed a doctor while he was there; he mistook the doctor for a suicide bomber, his mother says.
Back home he couldn’t sleep at night. He was drinking all the time and the spark had drained from his eyes, Softich remembers.
“There were very few smiles that were genuine,” she says.
At the time of his death, Pierce, a member of the Army's Third Infantry Division, had plans for a third tour.
Unlike most parents and family members who are stonewalled by their sons and daughters in uniform who don’t want to speak about the trauma they experienced at war, Pierce journaled his experience in war, leaving behind a book of poetry.
"His writing just brings you to Iraq with him," says Softich, who published her son’s work in the California publication Rogue Voice.
In the poem “WTF” Pierce reflects on the accidental killing of the Iraqi doctor. "The investigation said it was done by the books / I ask myself, 'What the fuck kind of war is this?'"
In “Friends” Pierce writes about Iraqi kids who would give him food in exchange for water. "No english / No arabic / Yet we still understand each other."
He wrote about desert sandstorms in “Dust” and called Iraq a “godforgotten country,” where smoking is an imperative and the “girlfriends, the parties, the training /GONE.”
Softich is on a one-woman mission to change the military’s current mental health screening system for returning veterans.
Pierce, like the others in our feature on soldier suicides and PTSD, passed post deployment medical and psychological tests that allowed him to return sooner.
Softich is trying to enact a Noah’s clause, legislation that would require all troops to receive mandatory counseling, at least once every two weeks for a year, upon their return from active duty. Since coming forward, Representatives Jim Oberstar, D-Minnesota and Neil Abercrombie, D-Hawaii along with Senators Norm Coleman, R-Minnesota, and Amy Klobuchar R-Minnesota, have taken interest her idea, she says.
go here for the rest
http://blogs.citypages.com/blotter/2008/03/reporters_noteb_5.php
Honoring Noah
Current mood: satisfied
Category: News and Politics
HONORING NOAH
Bringing more awareness to PTSD
Linda Tyssen
Last updated: Wednesday, December 26th, 2007 10:07:03 PM
VIRGINIA — Noah Charles Pierce wasn't there to answer roll call. The sounding of taps responded instead, as the new AMVETS Post 33 was named in his honor at a special ceremony Dec. 15.
The 23-year-old Army veteran of the war in Iraq committed suicide in July, following a battle with post-traumatic stress disorder. Spc. Pierce served with the Third Infantry Division in Kuwait and Iraq, driving a Bradley fighting vehicle and serving as a gunner on a Humvee. After his discharge from the military, he had told his family he would have gone back for a third tour of duty.
Shortly after the AMVETS post was chartered in Virginia, Commander Shawn Carr announced his wish to name the post for Pierce. AMVETS, short for American Veterans, is open to all those who served in the military, whether in wartime or peacetime, overseas or at home. Post 33 is headquartered at the Servicemen's Club.
A large group of Pierce's family and friends and military veterans came to the ceremony at the Servicemen's Club. Pierce's parents, Cheryl and Tom Softich of Sparta, and his sister, Sarah Snyder, were among those in attendance.
"In naming this post Noah C. Pierce AMVETS Post 33, we wish to give Noah a fitting memorial, raise community and public awareness of PTSD and in some way help the healing for his family to begin,'' Commander Carr said in his remarks.
go here for the rest of this
http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=148938536&blogID=341746064
If you can't talk to your family, then talk to another veteran. If you can't talk to another veteran, then talk to a Chaplain. Talk to someone who will listen and understand that you have been wounded. In a perfect world, the VA would be waiting for you to get there and every military brass would be up to speed on PTSD so the DOD would do the right thing. This isn't a perfect world although the military wants to portray discipline and duty as an organized bunch, they are far from it when it comes to the wounds they cannot see. Anyone still treating PTSD as anything other than a wound should be ashamed of themselves for being so uneducated and uninformed. It's been around a lot longer than they have and documented since the beginning of recorded history. They better hurry up and understand this before they all look like members of the culture that brought us leaches and bleeding a patient to death.
Friday, March 28, 2008
Bail out wounded veterans not Bear Stearns
Reid Calls Bear Stearns `Bailout' Unfair to Taxpayers (Update1)
By Laura Litvan
March 17 (Bloomberg) -- Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, said a decision by the Federal Reserve to provide as much as $30 billion to JPMorgan Chase & Co. to help it buy Bear Stearns Cos. is a ``bailout'' unfair to taxpayers.
``The Federal Reserve's latest actions appear to shift large risks to taxpayers, who may find themselves on the hook for billions in worthless securities,'' Reid said in a prepared statement. ``The public has a right to know why President Bush and his administration believe this bailout is necessary and what steps they are taking to both protect taxpayers and to hold accountable those whose bad decisions led to this crisis.''
Look how fast Bush moved on this. Do you think he could move that fast for the sake of the "troops" he keeps saying we all need to support? What about the wounded veterans and soldiers coming back without income while they have to wait for claims to be approved and still have bills to pay with no income? I'm sure the tax payers would rather their money go to helping the wounded veterans he keeps making than to his rich pals who have been sucking the life out of the rest of us with his tax breaks at the same time he managed to have two occupations killing and wounding the troops he sent then forgot about until he needs more to send. He bails out the jerks who did this to people who are going to end up losing their homes and yes, a lot of them are veterans. Poverty went up with him not caring and so have the numbers of people being homeless. With people paying more for everything and making less to do it with, you'd think we would have someone in charge who cares about doing the right thing for the tax payers of this country, because aside from it being the right thing to do with our money, it's our money! Remember when he said the money needed for the VA was too much money? He had a problem with spending our money then but he has no problem taking care of the rich. If you want to know why the veterans and everyone else in this country is having a hard time, ask them about their bank account and you'll know why. He only cares about rich people. Iraq is still going on because of the contractors and everyone knows it. Peace is just too damn expensive for them. There is no money in peace for any of them. The wounded soldiers are an expense to them they are not willing to pay for. This is why they have no problem coming up with the money to keep Afghansitan and Iraq going on and on without end but always have a hard time taking care of the wounded and the widows.
$30 billion? What would that do to help veterans or any of the people who are going to get kicked out of their homes?
Sgt. Godfrey J. Hurley gets life for murder of Lisa Nossett
Sgt. gets life for killing troop’s wife
The Associated Press
Posted : Friday Mar 28, 2008 16:06:35 EDT
FORT LEWIS, Wash. — A sergeant with 16 years in the Army has been sentenced to life in prison without parole for killing another soldier’s wife at Fort Lewis.
A panel of officers decided on the sentence Thursday, a day after convicting 40-year-old Godfrey J. Hurley of premeditated murder.
Investigators said Hurley stabbed and beat 28-year-old Lisa R. Nossett, a mother of two daughters, on March 11, 2006.
The attack occurred at Nossett’s living quarters at Fort Lewis, reportedly after she tried to end a two-year affair with Hurley. Her husband, Sgt. Christopher Nossett, was stationed in South Korea at the time.
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/03/ap_sgtsentenced_032808/
The Associated Press
Posted : Friday Mar 28, 2008 16:06:35 EDT
FORT LEWIS, Wash. — A sergeant with 16 years in the Army has been sentenced to life in prison without parole for killing another soldier’s wife at Fort Lewis.
A panel of officers decided on the sentence Thursday, a day after convicting 40-year-old Godfrey J. Hurley of premeditated murder.
Investigators said Hurley stabbed and beat 28-year-old Lisa R. Nossett, a mother of two daughters, on March 11, 2006.
The attack occurred at Nossett’s living quarters at Fort Lewis, reportedly after she tried to end a two-year affair with Hurley. Her husband, Sgt. Christopher Nossett, was stationed in South Korea at the time.
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/03/ap_sgtsentenced_032808/
At home, but not at peace: A soldier's struggle with PTSD
At home, but not at peace: A soldier's struggle with PTSD
Spc. Brandon Garrison volunteered to deploy and loved putting on his uniform each day. But after watching a mortar attack claim one of his friends in Afghanistan, he joined the thousands of servicemembers battling PTSD.
By Tracy Burton, Special to Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Sunday, March 30, 2008
Army Spc. Brandon Garrison looks fine. He pulls his wife, Lily, close. He gives her a quick kiss on the cheek and wraps his hand over her stomach, carrying their first child.
Inside, Garrison fights a rage that consumes most of his days since returning from 17 months of combat in Afghanistan. It’s a demon that shows no mercy and interrupts even simple routines like eating and sleeping. At any moment, halfway through a football game or in the middle of the night, he can lose himself to this evil.
This is his war now. A war that started on a battlefield a half a world away and has now embedded itself in his mind. Through nightmares, flashbacks, anxiety and fear, he battles this beast each day.
Garrison is among thousands of troops experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, as they return from Afghanistan or Iraq. The 21-year-old from northeastern Kansas is also part of a growing number of servicemembers whose well-being has been compromised in a system that’s supposed to take care of them.
go here for the rest
http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=53683
Spc. Brandon Garrison volunteered to deploy and loved putting on his uniform each day. But after watching a mortar attack claim one of his friends in Afghanistan, he joined the thousands of servicemembers battling PTSD.
By Tracy Burton, Special to Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Sunday, March 30, 2008
Army Spc. Brandon Garrison looks fine. He pulls his wife, Lily, close. He gives her a quick kiss on the cheek and wraps his hand over her stomach, carrying their first child.
Inside, Garrison fights a rage that consumes most of his days since returning from 17 months of combat in Afghanistan. It’s a demon that shows no mercy and interrupts even simple routines like eating and sleeping. At any moment, halfway through a football game or in the middle of the night, he can lose himself to this evil.
This is his war now. A war that started on a battlefield a half a world away and has now embedded itself in his mind. Through nightmares, flashbacks, anxiety and fear, he battles this beast each day.
Garrison is among thousands of troops experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, as they return from Afghanistan or Iraq. The 21-year-old from northeastern Kansas is also part of a growing number of servicemembers whose well-being has been compromised in a system that’s supposed to take care of them.
go here for the rest
http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=53683
PTSD:Can we smell danger? New study says possible
Can we smell danger? Study shows it's possible
The associated press
March 28, 2008
WASHINGTON - Know how a whiff of certain odors can take you back in time, either to a great memory or bad one?
It turns out emotion plays an even bigger role with the nose, and that your sense of smell actually can sharpen when something bad happens.
Northwestern University researchers proved the surprising connection by giving volunteers electric shocks while they sniffed novel odors.
The discovery, reported in today's edition of the journal Science, helps explain how our senses can steer us clear of danger. More intriguing, it could shed light on disorders such as post-traumatic stress disorder.
"This is an incredibly unique study," said Dr. David Zald, a Vanderbilt University neuroscientist who studies how the brain handles sensory and emotional learning. "We're talking about a change in our perceptual abilities based on emotional learning."
Scientists long have known of a strong link between the sense of smell and emotion. A certain perfume or the scent of baking pie, for instance, can raise memories of a long-dead loved one.
Conversely, a whiff of diesel fuel might trigger a flashback for a soldier suffering from PTSD.
Northwestern neuroscientist Jay Gottfried, the study's senior author, says the work illuminates a sense that society too often gives short shrift.
"People really dismiss the sense of smell," said Gottfried, who researches "how the brain can put together perceptions of hundreds of thousands of different smells. . . . Work like this really says that the human sense of smell has much more capacity than people usually give it credit."
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/services/newspaper/printedition/friday/orl-smell2808mar28,0,1775496.story
The associated press
March 28, 2008
WASHINGTON - Know how a whiff of certain odors can take you back in time, either to a great memory or bad one?
It turns out emotion plays an even bigger role with the nose, and that your sense of smell actually can sharpen when something bad happens.
Northwestern University researchers proved the surprising connection by giving volunteers electric shocks while they sniffed novel odors.
The discovery, reported in today's edition of the journal Science, helps explain how our senses can steer us clear of danger. More intriguing, it could shed light on disorders such as post-traumatic stress disorder.
"This is an incredibly unique study," said Dr. David Zald, a Vanderbilt University neuroscientist who studies how the brain handles sensory and emotional learning. "We're talking about a change in our perceptual abilities based on emotional learning."
Scientists long have known of a strong link between the sense of smell and emotion. A certain perfume or the scent of baking pie, for instance, can raise memories of a long-dead loved one.
Conversely, a whiff of diesel fuel might trigger a flashback for a soldier suffering from PTSD.
Northwestern neuroscientist Jay Gottfried, the study's senior author, says the work illuminates a sense that society too often gives short shrift.
"People really dismiss the sense of smell," said Gottfried, who researches "how the brain can put together perceptions of hundreds of thousands of different smells. . . . Work like this really says that the human sense of smell has much more capacity than people usually give it credit."
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/services/newspaper/printedition/friday/orl-smell2808mar28,0,1775496.story
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