Army medical unit leaves St. Petersburg for Iraq

Army medical unit leaves St. Petersburg for Iraq
By Dagny SalasTimes Staff Writer
Published Thursday, April 3, 2008 11:41 PM

Nancy Reuter of St. Petersburg says goodbye to her daughter, Spc. Daphne Reuter, as Bravo Company 345 departs at the United States Army Reserve. “I’m being brave. I was okay until I saw the buses ... my only daughter ... my only child,’’ Reuter said. 

ST. PETERSBURG — For the sake of the kids, Elizabeth Rogers held back her tears. There would be time for that later, she said.

Her husband Charlie and about 50 other members of Bravo Company 345, a U.S. Army medical unit, left St. Petersburg on Thursday on their way Iraq, a deployment expected to last about a year.

"It's rough, but I try to be strong for them," Elizabeth said of Emma, 4, and Ethan, 2. "It doesn't really hit until they're gone."

For his part, Charlie said he has mixed feeling about leaving for his second tour.

"I want to go but I don't want to go,'' he said. "I like what I do in the Army, but I don't want to leave my family. It's just time to go to work, do the year and come home."

But the families could take some comfort that their loved ones will probably be in less danger than combat troops, said Staff Sgt. Robert Hogg.
go here for the rest
http://www.tampabay.com/news/humaninterest/article442619.ece

If you've been watching Bad Voodoo's War, or any of the other documentaries on the serial deployments in and out of Iraq and Afghanistan, by now you are aware, the troops are tired and their families are tired. Tired of seeing them go and come back, only to be sent back again.

I often wonder what is going through their heads when they hear Bush say "We will stay in Iraq" but never says what it is he thinks will be accomplished. The Iraqi forces have been proven to be not worth the training when they turned around and refused to fight Al-Sadr's militia, handed in their weapons to him, or did go up against him only to be defeated and driven back. There is Sunni, Shia, Shia Shia fighting and all sides what the troops out of there. I hear all kinds of reports on how much good the troops are doing in Iraq yet no one mentions they didn't join the armed forces to become contractors or escorts for them when all sides in Iraq, including most Iraqi police forces, wanting to kill them. Again, go watch Bad Voodoo's War and see what I mean.

What are we doing to the troops? We are not taking care of them. We are not taking care of the National Guard families who have to do without the regular income these people make back here. What exactly does "support the troops" really mean? What's our job in all of this? The most pressing issue before us is the fact that the Republicans in office seem too disinterested in any of this to even support the new GI Bill, support hearings being held on the contractors not providing good body armor to protect them and the list goes on in bloody detail of the things they are not interested in. So where are the voters who put them into office and shout the loudest about "support the troops" when it comes to supporting what Bush has been doing to them?

For Iraq Vets and Their Families, Trauma Can Be Contagious

For Iraq Vets and Their Families, Trauma Can Be Contagious
By Stacy Bannerman, Foreign Policy in Focus.
Posted March 25, 2008.
Depression and suicidal thoughts aren't limited to vets with PTSD; family members may experience it as well.
This is an excerpt from testimony before a House Veterans Affairs Subcommittee on Health hearing held February 28, 2008, regarding the Iraq War's mental health impacts of Iraq War on the families of Guard/Reserve veterans.
I am the author of When the War Came Home: The Inside Story of Reservists and the Families They Leave Behind. I am currently separated from my husband, a National Guard soldier who served one year in Iraq in 2004-05. Just as we are beginning to find our way back together, we are starting the countdown for a possible second deployment. Two of my cousins by marriage have also served in Iraq, one with the MN Guard, a deployment that lasted 22 months, longer than any other ground combat unit. My other cousin, active duty, was killed in action.
My family members have spent more time fighting one war -- the war in Iraq -- than my grandfather and uncles did in WWII and Korea, combined. When the home front costs and burdens fall repeatedly on the same shoulders, the anticipatory grief and trauma -- secondary, intergenerational and betrayal -- is exponential and increasingly acute. Nowhere is that more obvious than in Guard and Reserve households.

Same Duties, Less Training
Our Guardsmen and Reservists perform the same duties as regular active troops when they are in theatre, but they do it with abbreviated training and, all-too-often, insufficient protection and aging equipment. It was a National Guardsman who asked then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld what he and the Army were doing "to address shortages and antiquated equipment" National Guard soldiers heading to Iraq were struggling with.
Guard families experience the same stressors as active duty families before, during, and after deployment, although we do not have anywhere near the same level of support, nor do our loved ones when they come home. Many Guard members and their families report being shunned by the active duty mental health system. Army National Guard Specialist and Iraq War veteran Brandon Jones said that when he and his wife sought post-deployment counseling, they were "made to feel we were taking up a resource meant for active duty soldiers from the base." One Guardsman's wife was told that "active duty families were given preference" when seeking services for herself and her daughters while her husband was in Iraq.
The nearly 3 million immediate family members directly impacted by Guard/Reserve deployments struggle with issues that active duty families do not. The Guard is a unique branch of the Armed Services that straddles the civilian and military sectors, serves both the community and the country. The Guard has never before been deployed in such numbers for so long. Most never expected to go to war. During Vietnam, some people actually joined the Guard in order to dodge the draft and avoid combat. Today's National Guard and Reservists are serving with honor and bravery, each and every time they're called. But when the Governor of Puerto Rico called for a U.S. withdrawal from Iraq at the annual National Guard conference, more than 4,000 National Guardsmen gave him a standing ovation.
These factors are crucial to understanding the mental health impacts of the war in Iraq on the families of Guard/Reserve veterans, and tailoring programs and services to support them.
Several weeks after my husband got the call he was mobilized. There was very little time to transition from a civilian lifestyle and employment to full-time active duty. The Guard didn't have regular family group meetings, and I couldn't go next door to talk to another wife who was going through the same things I was, or who had already been there, done that. Most Guard/Reservists live miles away from a base or Armory, many are in rural communities. We are isolated and alone.
At least 20 percent of us experience a significant drop in household income when our loved one is mobilized. This financial pressure is an added stressor. The majority of citizen soldiers work for small businesses or are self-employed. Some have lost their jobs or livelihoods as a direct result of deployment. The possibility of a second or third tour makes it difficult to secure another one. Guard members have reported being put on probation or having their hours cut within a few days of being put on alert status for deployment. Some of us have to re-locate. Some of us go to food shelves. Where we once had shared parenting responsibilities, the spouse left behind is now the sole caregiver, without the benefit of an on-base child care center.

Secondary Traumatic Stress DisorderDuring deployment, we withdraw and do the best we can to survive. Anxious, depressed, and alone, we attempt to cope by drinking more, eating less, taking Xanax or Prozac to make it through. We close the curtains so we can't see the black sedan with government plates pulling into our drive. We cautiously circle the block when we come home, our personal perimeter check to make sure there are no Casualty Notification Officers around. Every time the phone rings, our hearts skip a beat. Our kids may act out or withdraw, get into fights, detach or deteriorate, socially, emotionally, and academically. There are no organic mental health services for the children of National Guard and Reservists, even though they are more likely to be married with children than active duty troops.
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Stacy Bannerman, M.S., is a Foreign Policy In Focus contributor and author of "When the War Came Home: The Inside Story of Reservists and the Families They Leave Behind." (2006) She's also the wife of a National Guard soldier/Iraq War veteran, Bronze Star and Combat Infantry Badge recipient.

AMVETS commander speaks out on murder

Claudia Hoerig photo America's Most Wanted

AMVETS commander speaks out on murder
By STEPHEN ORAVECZ Tribune Chronicle
The AMVETS national commander turned up the heat Thursday to get Brazil to return a murder suspect for trial in Trumbull County.

John P. ‘‘JP’’ Brown asked members of the U.S. Senate and House Veterans Affairs committees to support efforts to extradite Claudia Hoerig, who is accused of murdering her husband, Air Force Maj. Karl Hoerig, who was a decorated Iraq war veteran.

‘‘The case has been stalled in light of Mrs. Hoerig returning to Brazil, her native country,’’ Brown, AMVETS national commander, told a joint meeting of the veterans affairs committees.

‘‘I request that each of you support the Department of of Justice in extraditing Mrs. Hoerig so she can stand trial for the crime of which she is accused, and allow the family of an American hero to have some closure in this tragic event.’’

Brown’s statement was the first from a national veterans group.
go here for the rest
http://www.tribune-chronicle.com/page/content.detail/id/503733.html?nav=5021

Karl Hoerig was a real American hero. The decorated Army reservist piloted nearly 200 combat missions in Iraq and Afghanistan during his military career.

It Starts Online And Ends In Murder

Claudia Hoerig met her husband -- and alleged victim -- on an online dating site.


View LargerOhio cops are searching for Claudia Hoerig, a woman they say killed her husband Karl on March 12, 2007 in Newton Falls.

Hoerig met her husband online through a dating service. After just a six-week courtship, they were married at a chapel in Las Vegas in June 2005.

Even though the marriage was short, prosecutors say it was plenty rocky. The couple's marital problems were so bad that investigators say Karl spoke to friends and colleagues about how unhappy he was with Claudia, and that he feared what she would do. He even allegedly told a fellow Southwest Airlines pilot that he planned to move out of the house on Monday March 12, and that the marriage had always been bad.

Trumbull County Sheriff's deputies say the union reached its worst point on March 12, when Claudia Hoerig shot her husband three times, killing him. Then, they say that using her privileges as a wife of a pilot, Hoerig flew first to New York on a free airline ticket the very same day and then on to her native Brazil.


Marshals say Hoerig plotted the murder of her husband, who was a decorated hero with the U.S. Armed Forces.

go to America's Most Wanted for the rest

http://www.amw.com/fugitives/case.cfm?id=44618

Tornado leaves Little Rock like 'war zone'

Tornado leaves Little Rock like 'war zone'
Story Highlights
The storm hit parts of Saline County, about 12 miles west of Little Rock
More than 50 mobile homes were reported on fire at a large mobile home park
At least four people were reported injured
CNN) -- At least one tornado ripped through central Arkansas Thursday evening, savaging a mobile home park and sending National Weather Service forecasters into a bunker as the storm roared overhead.
"There's pretty extensive damage in the Little Rock area," said John Lewis, a senior forecaster with the weather service at the North Little Rock Airport.

At least four people were hurt, authorities said, but there were no reports of fatalities.
"We went into our shelter," Lewis said. "We could hear it ... go by."

The storm destroyed hangars at the North Little Rock Airport and tossed numerous small planes. The forecasters spent about three minutes in their shelter.

"The scariest moment of my life," said Mike Aubrey, who was at the airport securing his plane ahead of the storm. "Debris was flying across the ramp. Planes were beginning to stack up."
Aubrey said he saw a Douglas DC-3, an early passenger plane, spin around. The aircraft was nowhere to be found after the tornado passed, he said.
The damage extended from southwest of Little Rock to the northeast. "There's some structural damage in the city of Little Rock and several areas north of North Little Rock," said John Rehrauer, spokesman for the Pulaski County Sheriff's Department. "A lot of trees and power lines are down."

The same storm also caused damage in southwestern Little Rock and the town of Benton, Lewis said. It also pummeled the Hurricane Lake Mobile Home Park in Saline County, about 12 miles southwest of Little Rock. Watch how tornado scares residents »


Again remember here, PTSD is caused by trauma.

Is McCain Hiding PTSD?

McCain delays releasing medical records again, raising suspicion
John Byrne
Published: Friday April 4, 2008


Declined to provide files three times to New York Times

A little noticed remark in the press is generating heat for McCain's presidential campaign.

On Wednesday, McCain's campaign told CNN that the Arizona senator's medical file would be produced May 15. Trouble is, they previously said they'd be released April 15, and they've refused to turn the records over to the New York Times on at least three occasions.

This has led some on the left to question, "What's he hiding?" -- as is the banner headline on the politics section of liberal blog, The Huffington Post.

"Mr. McCain has yet to make his full medical records or his physicians available to reporters," the Times veteran medical correspondent Dr. Lawrence Altman penned in March. "At least three times since March 2007, campaign officials have told The New York Times that they would provide the detailed information about his current state of health, but they have not done so. The campaign now says it expects to release the information in April."
click post title for the rest

While there is nothing to be ashamed of if he has PTSD, it is a question that needs to be answered, now more than ever as he tries to become the President. We've all seen enough of the side problems PTSD causes to know we have a right to worry. His anger issues, mood swings, memory loss are all issues that need to be addressed. Above all is the fact that experts say the rate of PTSD in people who have been tortured is 100%, assuming this is correct, the American people have a right to know if McCain is mentally disabled and at what level if he is to be even considered for the job of President. As President he will have to make very important decisions, deal with world leaders and have very clear thinking. While McCain's age is a concern, it is not the most pressing one.

McCain wants to run on being a POW Veteran and seems to believe this alone qualifies him to lead the nation as well as stand as Commander-in-Chief, however his voting record is something he is either apparently avoiding or forgetting about. His record on veterans issues as well as the care of the Armed Forces plainly sucks. It's one thing for the media to think he's charming, but I want the media to think more about his ability than his charm. They already showed how little they care about who leads this nation when they adopted Bush and pushed him on the public instead of asking and investigating answers.

4 Year Later, Women Veterans Summit In DC

Record your Oral History At the Summit - BY APPOINTMENT ONLY
Contact: oralhistory@womensmemorial.org

We are pleased to announce Summit 2008
Dates: June 20-22, 2008
Location: Westin Washington DC City Center
1400 M Street, NW, Washington, DC, 20005
Registration Fee: Free ( limited to the first 300)

This fourth National Summit promises to be the best yet:
Providing meaningful updates on issues raised in the Summit held in 2004
Addressing new and breaking issues
Offering attendees an opportunity to shape a plan for future progress on women veterans issues
Providing information for women veterans of all eras, including National Guard, Reserves, and active duty
Offering a Health Expo on Saturday, June 21
Introducing, for the first time, a Town Hall Meeting on Saturday, June 21!
Please view the links below to obtain information with regards to registration, exhibiting,and hotel accommodations.
Registration Information
Traveler Fact Sheet
Summit Agenda
Exhibit Registration Information

More Soldiers Return From War With PTSD

More Soldiers Return From War With PTSD

Reporter: Matt Felder

Soldiers Return From War With PTSD

(April 3, 2008) -- With the Iraq war entering it's sixth year, the Army is seeing thousands of troops return home, suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

According the Army about a third of soldiers returning home experience symptoms of the disorder.

One of the main problems with post-traumatic stress is that it's not as visible as more physical type injuries. It doesn't follow any trends on whom it may affect, but if left untreated can lead to various troubles affecting more than just the soldier.

Since the start of the Iraq war, the U.S. has come to grips with one major consequence, a high number of soldiers returning suffering from post traumatic stress.

"It's significant in just that that's a large number when you think of all the soldiers who are deployed,” said Army psychologist Lt. Col. Kathleen Lester. “So it certainly represents an area of concern."

The army says about a third of Iraq vets are diagnosed.

Unlike previous wars, there are no front lines in Iraq; the war zone is all around. More than 80 percent of people serving there have witnessed or been a part of a traumatic event. That has created a new generation of veterans, some of them wounded in ways seen and unseen.

“PTSD can be much more subtle so that in an average conversation with someone you might not be alert that they have PTSD," Lt. Col. Lester said.
click above for video and the rest

In the Body of a Soldier

“Why do the American people tolerate this?” asked Donahue, referring both to the broken system of care for returning veterans and to the continued devastation the war is causing to families like Young’s and the U.S. military.

But, said Young, “The majority of families don’t feel the sting or sacrifice” for this war. “Until they do feel that sting, we will not have a strong enough groundswell to stop it.”

In the Body of a Soldier

April 3, 2008

Twenty-two year-old Tomas Young called his Army recruiter on September 13, 2001. He wanted to go to Afghanistan to fight the Taliban and Al Qaeda. Instead, his unit was sent to Iraq in March 2004. Less than a week after arriving, Young suffered a shot to the collarbone that left him paralyzed from the chest down.

While Young was recovering at Walter Reed Army Hospital in Washington DC, he met former talk-show host Phil Donahue. “I didn’t know then that I was going to make a movie,” Donahue said last night at a Reel Progress screening of the film. But upon hearing Young’s story, he wanted to show the human costs of war to a larger audience.

Donahue had never made a movie, so he partnered with documentary filmmaker Ellen Spiro. The resulting film, “Body of War,” follows Young from his 2005 wedding, through his daily struggles with physical disability, to his involvement in Iraq Veterans Against the War, all set against the backdrop of the 2002 congressional debate over whether to authorize the president to use military force in Iraq. The past year has seen a glut of films about the Iraq conflict, but none so pointedly from the perspective of a returned soldier.

Young cannot cough, nor can he control his bowel movements or body temperature. He has to wear a vest packed with ice when in warm environments. When Young tells Bobby Muller, a similarly paralyzed Vietnam veteran and president of Veterans for America, that he was only in the hospital for two or three months after his injury, Muller is shocked at the VA’s impetuousness.


go here for the rest

http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2008/04/body_of_soldier.html

Young is absolutely correct. Admittedly I would among those who would be disconnected from what is happening. I wouldn't be spending 12 hours a day doing this. I would be concerned with making a good living back in Massachusetts, going shopping and for walks in the woods with my dog. I would be spending time reading books instead of online news reports and blogs. I would be watching Life Time channel instead of news stations. I would be listening to music online playing games to take the stress of everyday living off my shoulders. I would be doing anything but what I'm doing if I didn't meet a Vietnam Veteran over half my lifetime ago. As the saying goes, I have skin in this game. I have a personal interest in the troops, in the wounded and in the families, especially the families dealing with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. To me this is all personal because I've walked in their shoes.

What does it take to get a nation to care about those who serve it? I mean for real, when it matters to those who serve instead of just taking one political position or another? What does it take to motivate them to want to do something about what is going on or to at least reach a point in their lives when they pay attention. It's appalling so few know how many deaths have occurred in Iraq and especially in Afghanistan. As of today, the count is 4,013 in Iraq with at least six deaths not counted according to ICasualties.org and in Afghanistan there have been 491. We don't talk about Afghanistan and the media won't touch it unless something catastrophic happens.

Ilona Meagher wrote a book Moving A Nation To Care. It was a fantastic book, but I often wonder how many books would have been sold if the nation had already really cared. Would the book have been necessary at all? In a perfect world, everyone would be involved. The media would be all over both occupations and fit in reports on a daily basis, but they've been far too busy reporting celebrity shenanigans and over a year covering the chosen running of the presidency. In a perfect world we would be sacrificing back home and buying war bonds instead of the latest gadget out of Best Buy. We wouldn't be talking about tax cuts for the wealthy either because that would not have even been considered during a time when we have men and women in Iraq and Afghanistan risking their lives. In a perfect world, no wounded veteran would ever have to lift a finger to have their claim honored by a truly grateful nation because people would be ready and waiting to take care of them instead of standing in their way on Capitol Hill and you know exactly whom I'm referring to.

I've been racking my brains trying to figure out how it is possible that so many in this nation will take to the streets to protest the occupation of Iraq, or to support it going on, yet there have been so few pressuring Congress to do something about any of this. I've been wondering what could get me involved if I had no personal interest in this? The answer is clear. It's information. Being informed, seeing the price the families are paying and the toll it is taking on those who are on yet another deployment. Too many in this country have no idea and they are not apt to search for information unless they already care to learn. It has to be the media, the 24 hour stations paying an interest before any of this will happen.

With Iraq taking a back seat to the economy, yet blamed on the bad economy and the devastation across the country of resources, more attention should be on Iraq. It's not that people don't care but when they think they have their own problems in their lives, it's hard to think of others unless someone reminds them.

My blog is about the wounds they have especially Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, yet the largest hit count I ever received was on the YouTube video of the reported Marine doing a puppy toss over a cliff. That astounded me! People were more informed about this video than the men and women who died that week while deployed or how many had committed suicide. You cannot find a video on YouTube unless you really search for it. If enough people search for it, it becomes front and center and it gets more hits. That's a very troubling sign because videos like mine hardly get any, yet the news reports on PTSD are all over the Internet.

What happened to the days when the stations like CNN and MSNBC were doing specials on Iraq and Afghanistan? Body of War is getting attention now because it's important but is it important enough to the rest of the nation when they are not already motivated to watch it? Will there be more specials because of it? PBS is showing Bad Voodoo and I wonder how many are watching it and learning from it, at least enough to do something?

But, said Young, “The majority of families don’t feel the sting or sacrifice” for this war. “Until they do feel that sting, we will not have a strong enough groundswell to stop it.”

It would be great if they at least made sure the wounded were taken care of. Isn't that the least we owe them? The question is, how do we get there from here?

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

Jay Fondren On A Mound of Faith

On a mound of faith
April 4, 2008

By Will Parchman
Sports editor
When Jay Fondren's wheelchair crests the Baylor Ballpark mound on Saturday to throw out the first pitch for Baylor's baseball game against the University of Kansas, not everyone will know his story, one that's equal parts tragic and triumphant.

But as a soldier with scars to show, he remembers all too well where he was a scant three years ago.

From his earliest memories, Fondren entertained thoughts about being a soldier. He'd been a talented soccer player in high school and showed proficiency for military life upon enlisting.

After beginning his service in March 2004, he was promoted to staff sergeant as a 24-year old in October of that year and appeared on a track for higher positions.

And then disaster struck and forever altered his course.


Bombs over Baghdad

While in a convoy in 2004 near the dangerous Baghdad suburb of Sadr City, a roadside bomb skidded below the undercarriage of Fondren's Humvee and detonated. It was the day before Thanksgiving. Fondren's lower body absorbed a direct hit.

As Fondren drifted in and out of consciousness, his squad-mates worked feverishly to shear off his 2-year-old wedding ring and cut through his riddled and bloodied battle fatigues.

"Hang in there!" the doctors shouted.

When a chaplain approached him at the aid station, ready to read him his last rites, he waved him off.

"Sir, I'm not going to die here," he said. "I told my wife before I left that I'd be back home."

Fondren lost both his legs in the blast, and severe shrapnel damage to his arms caused the amputation of his right thumb. But he was alive, and he'd return home like he promised.

When Fondren's wife Anne first heard the news, she cried for 10 minutes and "automatically knew" he'd lost something, a limb or perhaps something even deeper, something harder to quantify.

So when she first saw Fondren in Walter Reed Hospital in Washington D.C., the only thing she could think to do was pray.
go here for the rest
http://www.baylor.edu/lariat/news.php?action=story&story=50276

Sgt. Toby Nunn and Bad Voodoo's War

Bad Voodoo's War

Rules of Engagement

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/badvoodoo/view/main.html

Bad Voodoo Platoon sets off to Iraq.
National Guard soldiers getting ready to go to Iraq.


Camp Shelby Mississippi

Sgt. Toby Nunn Platoon Sgt. May 2007 trains 30 men in his platoon for the surge. He wanted to get a break on college costs. He was in the Balkins in the Army and is now on his 9th deployment with this deployment to Iraq. Most of the men with him have been on multiple tours.

Jason Shaw volunteered to go back to Iraq to be with his friends. He went in 2003. He went back in 2005. This was his third tour. He's been diagnosed with PTSD and says there are a lot of others. He wanted to be able to help the new guys with his experience. He already has a Silver Star.

Balkins: Nunn was trying to calm down an argument between a Muslim and a Christian. They didn't think he could be neutral. He told them he didn't care because he was
Bad Voodoo's War

Rules of Engagement

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/badvoodoo/view/main.html

Bad Voodoo Platoon sets off to Iraq.
National Guard soldiers getting ready to go to Iraq.


Camp Shelby Mississippi

Sgt. Toby Nunn Platoon Sgt. May 2007 trains 30 men in his platoon for the surge. He wanted to get a break on college costs. He was in the Balkins in the Army and is now on his 9th deployment with this deployment to Iraq. Most of the men with him have been on multiple tours.

Jason Shaw volunteered to go back to Iraq to be with his friends. He went in 2003. He went back in 2005. This was his third tour. He's been diagnosed with PTSD and says there are a lot of others. He wanted to be able to help the new guys with his experience.

Balkins: Nunn was trying to calm down an argument between a Muslim and a Christian. They didn't think he could be neutral. He told them he didn't care because he was Voodoo. When his men were trying to pick a name, they decided to take Bad Voodoo.

Back On My Feet, Woman gets homeless to run

Runner gets homeless on right track

Story Highlights
Philadelphia marathoner found herself running past homeless shelter every day
After contacting shelter, Anne Mahlum started running club "Back On My Feet"
Club now has teams in three city shelters with 54 homeless members
Job training partnership has helped members take classes, find employment

PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania (CNN) -- At 5 a.m. on any given day, Anne Mahlum could be found running the dark streets of Philadelphia -- with homeless men cheering her on as she passed their shelter. But one morning last spring, she stopped in her tracks.

"Running really is a metaphor for life," Anne Mahlum says. "You just have to take it one step at a time."

"Why am I running past these guys?" recalls Mahlum, 27. "I'm moving my life forward every day -- and these guys are standing in the same spot."

Instead of continuing to pass them by, the veteran marathoner sprang into action so they could join her.

She contacted the shelter, got donations of running gear, and in July 2007 the "Back On My Feet" running club hit the streets.

The first day, Mahlum led nine shelter residents in a mile-long run. Today, Back on My Feet has teams in three Philadelphia shelters, including 54 homeless members and more than 250 volunteers. The group has logged more than 5,000 miles.

Requirements for shelter residents to join are simple -- they must live in an affiliated facility and be clean and sober for 30 days. Members receive new shoes and running clothes, and teams run together three times a week between 5:30 and 6 a.m.

The runners are diverse -- doctors, janitors, students and shelter residents -- but such distinctions aren't apparent.

"All you can tell is who's the fastest," says Mahlum. "You can't tell who's homeless and who's not."

For Mahlum and others, Back On My Feet is more than a running club.

"We're a community of support, love, respect," she says.

Watch how the group hits the predawn streets of Philadelphia. »

Last year I post how I was in Philly for a conference of the Association of Presbyterian Church Educators. It was a great conference and we were in the Marriott Convention Center. As a smoker, (yes I still do have the habit) I would go outside and take in the crisp winter air. I missed the winters in Massachusetts since moving down to Florida. The people would pass me by and most would look at me as if I lost my mind. Aside from the fact I would move from under the protection of the overhang so that the snow would hit me, I was also handing money out to panhandlers. Can't help it. I managed to make sure I had a few bucks in my pocket each time I wanted a cigarette. I wondered why so many people would just walk by these people without even offering a kind word. It was almost as if they thought they'd catch something from the homeless people on the streets. After reading this story, I know how small an act I did myself. Anne Mahlum not only gave them a kind word, she gave them a kind deed and let them know people do care about them. She also gave them a sense of hope. Great job she did!

19 year old soldier found guilty of being drunk on duty

Soldier found guilty of being drunk on duty
By Matt Millham, Stars and Stripes
European edition, Friday, April 4, 2008



WIESBADEN, Germany — Hours after his unit left Wiesbaden Army Airfield for a 15-month tour in Iraq, a military policeman facing court-martial was found guilty Thursday of being drunk on duty.

Pvt. Eric C. Samaniego, a 19-year-old member of the 212th Military Police Company, also faced charges of aggravated sexual assault and a related burglary charge, but was found not guilty on both counts.

“The case before you is truly a tragedy,” Capt. Jocelyn Stewart, Samaniego’s lead defense counsel, said in her closing argument. Regardless of the outcome, she said, Samaniego’s accuser would leave the courtroom believing she’d been the victim of sexual assault.
The accuser, a woman in Samaniego’s unit, testified that on the night of Oct. 5, she drank way past her limit, starting in her barracks room, and continuing at a club in nearby Mainz. Samaniego was at the club when she arrived. He bought her a drink and asked her twice to dance. She declined both times, and asked a mutual friend to tell Samaniego to leave her alone because he was annoying her.
go here for the rest
http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=53830

Another KBR Rape Case

article posted April 3, 2008 (web only)
Another KBR Rape Case
Karen Houppert


Editor's Note: Lisa Smith is a pseudonym used on request. Additional reporting by Te-Ping Chen. Research support provided by the Investigative Fund of The Nation Institute.


Houston

It was an early January morning in 2008 when 42-year-old Lisa Smith*, a paramedic for a defense contractor in southern Iraq, woke up to find her entire room shaking. The shipping container that served as her living quarters was reverberating from nearby rocket attacks, and she was jolted awake to discover an awful reality. "Right then my whole life was turned upside down," she says.

What follows is the story she told me in a lengthy, painful on-the-record interview, conducted in a lawyer's office in Houston, Texas, while she was back from Iraq on a brief leave.


That dawn, naked, covered in blood and feces, bleeding from her anus, she found a US soldier she did not know lying naked in the bed next to her: his gun lay on the floor beside the bed, she could not rouse him and all she could remember of the night before was screaming and screaming as the soldier anally penetrated her while a colleague who worked for defense contractor KBR held her hand--but instead of helping her, as she had hoped, he jammed his penis in her mouth.

Over the next few weeks Smith would be told to keep quiet about the incident by a KBR supervisor. The camp's military liaison officer also told her not to speak about what had happened, she says. And she would follow these instructions. "Because then, all of a sudden, if you've done exactly what you've been instructed not to do--tell somebody--then you're in danger," Smith says.

As a brand-new arrival at Camp Harper, she had not yet forged many connections and was working in a red zone under regular rocket fire alongside the very men who had participated in the attack. (At one point, as the sole medical provider, she was even forced to treat one of her alleged assailants for a minor injury.) She waited two and a half weeks, until she returned to a much larger facility, to report the incident. "It's very easy for bad things to happen down there and not have it be even slightly suspicious."
go here for the rest
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080421/houppert

KBR, as you know, has no US connection because they said they paid their employees from an offshore account. The US government may be able to allow a suit because of the tax shelter they set up for themselves in order to not play by the rules, they now want the protection of. The case came out last week that may have paved the way for others to be given some justice for what they have gone through with these rapes. Rape is a crime and not a dispute for an arbitrator to deal with. Much like the Catholic Arch Diocese decided that child abuse and rape was a bad thing to do instead of a crime, covering this up only comes back to bite them in the end. Let's pray in this case, they get the full Monty in terms of justice!

Wavers given to contactors on body armor?

Investigators question body armor tests

By Matthew Cox - Staff writer
Posted : Thursday Apr 3, 2008 16:38:28 EDT

The Army failed to adequately document testing of hundreds of thousands of soldier body armor components the service bought between 2004 and 2006, according to a Defense Department Inspector General audit.

The March 31 draft report on DoD procurement policy for body armor states that specific information concerning testing of “first articles,” or initial production samples, was not included in 13 of 28 Army contracts reviewed for the DoD audit. In addition, the report states that the contracting files of 11 of 28 Army contracts did not show why the procurement decisions were made. Such documentation is required by Federal Acquisition Regulations, the audit states.

“As a result, DoD has no assurance that first articles produced under 13 of the 28 contracts and orders reviewed met the required standards, or that 11 of the 28 contracts were awarded based on informed procurement decisions,” the audit report states.

The Army took issue with the audit’s findings in an April 2 release.

The service maintains that it is in “full compliance” with federal regulations and current policy when it comes to buying body armor, Army spokesman Paul Boyce said in the release.

go here for the rest
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/04/army_armor_040208w/

How many died and were wounded because of this?

Admiral Mullen thinking service all in the family

U.S. Marines and Sailors of the 1st Air Naval Gunfire Liaison Company bid farewell before being deployed to Iraq.
David McNew / Getty

A War Machine for the Whole Family
Wednesday, Apr. 02, 2008
By MARK THOMPSON/WASHINGTON

The nation's top military officer told reporters at the Pentagon on Wednesday that the U.S. military isn't planning on sending additional troops to Iraq to deal with the recent surge in violence. While Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, didn't say as much, the reality is that there aren't any more U.S. troops to send to Iraq, or anywhere else. Partly to ensure that an overstretched military doesn't break, Mullen pleased troops in North Carolina on Monday when he told them that the Pentagon soon may begin replacing its Cold War-era assignments to South Korea — one-year tours without family — with three-year deployments with families.
go here for the rest
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1727490,00.html

Kevin Brown OIA Bomb Suspect Is Contractor Back From Iraq

Contractor: Airport suspect recently back from Iraq
Story Highlights
NEW: Kevin Brown worked in Iraq until late last year, former employer says

Brown admitted he planned to build a bomb after he landed, court documents say

FBI: Brown arrested on charges of carrying a weapon or explosives onto a plane

Brown tried to board flight at Orlando airport Tuesday
ORLANDO, Florida (CNN) -- The man accused of trying to sneak bomb-making materials onto a flight from Orlando, Florida, to Jamaica recently had returned from a contract job in Iraq, a spokesman for his former employer said Thursday.


Kevin Brown is accused of trying to sneak bomb-making materials onto a flight from Florida to Jamaica.

1 of 2 Kevin Brown worked for Lear Siegler International in Iraq from July until mid-December, said a spokesman for Lear Siegler International, which does contract work for the U.S. Defense Department.

The spokesman would not describe the kind of work Brown did in Iraq.

The Jamaican national was arrested Tuesday at Orlando International Airport on charges of carrying a weapon or explosive on an aircraft, the FBI said. He was taken into custody after an air safety officer noticed him acting strangely as he waited to board an Air Jamaica flight, federal authorities said.

Brown made an initial court appearance Wednesday, but government officials asked for a delay, saying there were indications he might have a history of mental illness.

Another hearing is scheduled for Thursday afternoon.

Brown admitted that he planned to create a bomb after landing in Jamaica, authorities alleged in court papers.
go here for the rest
http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/04/03/orlando.airport/

Veterans United for Truth at War

Photo: Don Katz

Veterans United for Truth at War
Still Fighting


Thursday, April 3, 2008
By John McReynolds

More than a third of veterans returning from Iraq or Afghanistan suffer from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), yet only a tiny number of veterans’ hospitals treat the problem. In 2005, the Veterans Administration acknowledged a backlog of 350,000 disability claims. It is now estimated to be almost 600,000. What possible impact could be made on a national scandal like that by a handful of aging Korea and Vietnam vets on the Central Coast?

Last summer, led by three salty old guys from Santa Barbara, Santa Maria, and San Luis Obispo, they filed suit. In January, they won their first victory.

“Our average age is 75,” guffawed Bob Handy, U.S. Navy (Ret.), of Santa Barbara. “We’re not afraid of the bastards. For a group of old farts like us to take on something like this is pretty unique. A lot of guys our age would be out vegetating.” Handy, 75, is chairman of the Santa Barbara-based Veterans United for Truth (VUFT). Sandy Cook of San Luis Obispo, 72, is vice chairman, and Russ Weed of Santa Maria, 75, is treasurer.

In a sitcom, Handy would be cast as an Irish bartender. His thatch of white hair spilling down to his gold-rimmed glasses, his plump rosy cheeks, and his jovial manner raise the suspicion that his mother was born in Ireland. She was. Treasurer Weed was a Lt. Colonel in the Air Force. He resembles Handy so closely that people confuse the two. Cook was a Lt. Colonel in the Army. His receding hairline and lantern chin give his face an aerodynamic look that, together with darkened lenses in his glasses, suggest an aging Uncle Duke of Doonesbury. All together, the trio looks like two Wilford Brimleys and a Jack Nicholson, and they are just as cantankerous. “We are war veterans who have come to believe that both serving military and veterans are being treated shamefully,” they thunder in their basic flyer. VUFT takes no stand on Iraq but pointedly calls for “truth in justification for war” along with truth in delivery of benefits. VUFT assembled in 2005 to lobby for veterans and to document reports of increasing strain on a military called to fight long-term foreign wars.

Group leaders met one another earlier in an unlikely venue for vets — the veterans caucus of the California Democratic Party. Handy is a party director representing the Central Coast. “In 2004, we started talking to officers and NCOs in all branches,” he explained. The vets heard heart-wrenching accounts of reservists’ difficulty in returning to their jobs after their tours, backlogs in approval of disability claims, delays in medical treatment, and PTSD cases misclassified as preexisting personality problems (a condition ineligible for Veterans Administration assistance), not to mention multiplying reports of suicides.

go here for the rest
http://www.independent.com/news/2008/apr/03/veterans-united-truth-war/

McCain runs as Veteran then runs from Veterans

McCain loves to talk about his military record and the record of his family members. What he does not like to talk about his is lousy record as a veteran when it comes to voting to take care of veterans. He should be ashamed of himself. Look up his record in case you've missed the posts on it here. His record is never standing with the veterans while he wants to run as a veteran for the Presidency. Instead of standing up for them, he runs from them. His theme music should be Run-run-run-run away!

Robert Lopez served 8 years in our military, fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan as a tank commander. He was told he'd get his whole education bill paid for when he got out of the service. Mr. Lopez has fought and sacrificed for our country but like so many others, Mr. Lopez has faced the bleak reality of a government that has turned its back on its veterans.

That is why Senators Jim Webb and Chuck Hagel proposed the new GI Bill, which would bring back WWII-style standards of providing vets with full tuition, room and board. And that is why 51 senators have signed on, including 9 Republicans like John Warner, giving this GI Bill tremendous bi-partisan support.

But it isn't enough.

Faced with unprecedented filibusters, the only way to ensure Senate passage of the GI Bill is to get 60 co-sponsors. So far, John McCain has refused. The same McCain who insists he supports our troops. The same McCain who is voting lockstep with the Bush administration (who have also resisted this bill). We need to get John McCain to do the right thing -- to sign now and signal to other Republican leaders that we should be strongly behind our vets.

Sign the petition to John McCain!

The original GI Bill transformed American history, providing education for returning soldiers. Not only was this our nation's moral duty for the unbelievable sacrifices of our World War II veterans, it helped create America's middle class and spurred decades of economic growth for our country.
Why then is John McCain silent on passing a new GI Bill for our "new greatest generation"?
Robert Lopez thinks John McCain ought to stand in his shoes to know how difficult it is to be a vet and have to pay staggering education costs. This is your call to arms. Pass the video along and implore your friends to sign the petition.
Click here to watch the video and sign the petition today!

VoteVets.org, WesPAC and Brave New Films feel passionately about giving our veterans the support they rightly deserve. Our government owes our troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan the opportunity to receive full educational benefits. These patriots have fought hard for our government; it's time our government started fighting hard for them.

Sincerely yours,

General Wesley Clark,

Robert Greenwald, and

Jon Soltz

No answers on death of Staff Sgt. Shawn Gillespie

Army looking into cause of soldier's death
By MARTIN J. KIDSTON
Independent Record

HELENA - The March death of a U.S. Army soldier with ties in Hardin remains under investigation, officials said Wednesday, bringing to two the number of Montana soldiers whose cause of death has not been released by the military.

Staff Sgt. Shawn Gillespie, who was born in Wyoming and grew up in Montana, died in King George, Va., on March 24. The cause of death has not been released by investigators.

"They're not telling us," said Col. Garth Scott, public relations officer for the Montana National Guard. "It's under investigation. The cause of death is pending."

Gillespie was not a Montana Guard soldier, but military protocol calls for Guard officials to answer media questions about the death of soldiers in their state, placing Scott in the difficult position of fielding media calls surrounding the case. The soldier was assigned to Fort Myer, Va.
go here for the rest
http://www.billingsgazette.net/articles/2008/04/03/news/state/33-investigation.txt

Why does it take so long for the family to have answers? Why do they make the families wait to know the answer?

US Army 'war hero' outed as fraud after 40 years

A real lieutenant colonel and West Point graduate, Mark Kimey, instantly spotted there was something not quite right about McGuinn and reported him.
"They're always (Navy) SEALs or special forces," Kimey told the New York Daily News last year. "Nobody ever masquerades as a cook."

US Army 'war hero' outed as fraud
A New Yorker who for 40 years passed himself off as Vietnam war hero who had been decorated for extreme gallantry was sentenced to community service Wednesday after being outed as a fraud.

According to prosecutors, Louis Lowell McGuinn claimed to have been a lieutenant colonel in the US special forces and had used his fake military history since 1968 to get work or to win kudos at social functions.

His military records showed that McGuinn had indeed been in the US Army and served in Vietnam, but was discharged as a private without being decorated.

In 2006, McGuinn, who is now in his 60s, attended a ball in New York's glitzy Pierre Hotel wearing the Distinguished Service Cross, Silver Star, Bronze Star and three Purple Hearts, awarded for being wounded in action.

click post title for the rest

Marine Col. Jenny Holbert 30 year career Marine

Holbert managed 40 military correspondents and oversaw 70 civilian reporters during the battle to control Fallujah, Iraq. (Courtesy photo)

Life in the Marine Corps full of reward, pain
By Kate Wiltrout
The Virginian-Pilot
© April 3, 2008
NORFOLK

During 30 years in the Marine Corps and reserves, Col. Jenny Holbert witnessed a revolution in women’s military service – and confronted the personal costs and professional perils of war.

When Holbert enlisted in 1978, women at Parris Island, S.C., weren’t taught to shoot – but they were educated in luncheon etiquette and how to wear gloves and apply cosmetics. They weren’t supposed to wear camouflage.

Today, Holbert finishes her post as a public affairs officer with the Marine Corps Forces Command in Norfolk. After two months at Quantico, she’ll hang up her camouflage at the end of May.

During the first Gulf War, Holbert learned what it’s like to be the spouse left behind when a parent deploys. Her husband, a Marine tank officer, was sent to Saudi Arabia after Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait. Then a reservist, Holbert was called up to active duty and worked 14 to 16 hours a day.

“Honestly, about the first 30 days that Lloyd had left, I was very angry with him for leaving me, because I was stuck,” she said. “It was just so difficult, trying to hold everything together and you’ve got the kids wondering what’s going on.”

“Sometimes I’d come home, and the kids had been watching TV and they wanted to know if Daddy died,” she recalled.

She remembers a surreal scene at a kids’ birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese near Twenty nine Palms, Calif. There wasn’t a single man present. The entire Marine division had been sent overseas.

Holbert and her husband eventually divorced. In 2004, her children now grown, she was sent to Iraq.

“It was my first deployment ever to a combat zone. When I was a young Marine, a female officer, women didn’t deploy. You might fly in – I was a finance officer at the time – to pay Marines, but then you’d leave again,” she said.
go here for the rest and for video
http://hamptonroads.com/2008/04/life-marine-corps-full-reward-pain

Veterans Voice Rally Unplugged

Veteran Rally Goes On – Without The Mic
By TONY MARRERO

Hernando Today

Published: April 2, 2008

BROOKSVILLE - Just past noon on Wednesday, John Russell walked to his Honda Accord parked in front of the old courthouse and started unloading public address equipment as Brooksville Police Chief George Turner and seven other officers from the department watched.

The day before, Russell vowed that his Veterans Voice rally would go on as planned despite warnings from Turner that it was against city code to use the PA system at the event. That policy, Russell contends, pulls the plug on his free speech rights.

For a few moments, it seemed Russell was ready to test the code – and Turner's mood – by using the PA system anyway.

Russell toted one speaker to the top courthouse step, then the other. Out came the amplifier and microphone.

Then he grabbed a can of black spray paint and a couple of old signs, turned them over and wrote "Veterans Unpluged." Even without the necessary second "g," the point was clear: the PA system had been reduced to a prop this day.

He set up a video camera and gave the handful of veterans who showed up the chance to speak.
"I was never going to violate the law," Russell told a reporter. "The veterans are free to fight and die for our country, forever altering their lives and the lives of their families, and they are free to speak as along as they say accepted things."

Russell, a Democrat who has twice run unsuccessfully for U.S. Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite's 5th Congressional seat, says he organized the rally to bring attention to problems veterans are encountering as they seek benefits and services from the Veterans Administration.

He maintains that the county had given him the OK to have the event with the PA system. But Turner, still a little new to the city, checked with the city attorney, who pointed out a chapter of the city code that disallows amplification systems for "the producing or reproducing of sound which is cast upon the public streets for the purpose of commercial advertising or attracting the attention of the public to any building or structure." There are exemptions for parades, charity events and events organized by the government.
go here for the rest
http://www2.hernandotoday.com/content/2008/apr/02/veteran-rally-goes-without-mic/

Military spouse needs to know rights with PTSD Vet

This picture of Capt. Drew Jensen and his wife shows how a spouse is by the side of a wounded warrior. The wounds can be seen, but when it comes to PTSD, you are the one who can see the wound in what they do, what they say and how they act. You need to know your rights to make sure you are included in on how your spouse is being treated.

This morning we received a call from our friend's wife. He is a Vietnam vet with PTSD. A few weeks ago I posted how she was going through hell when she called to let us know he was in the hospital again. She told us that the VA would be keeping him for a long time to get him regulated with medication. It was a relief to her. What she went through between the first call and this morning was unnecessary torture to her and her family. While I cannot get into details of this, it caused me to post some advice when dealing with the doctors on behalf of your spouse. This advice needs to also be paid attention to by the VA nurses and doctors.

As soon as you can, get a Medical Power of Attorney. You need to be able to speak to the doctors. With the privacy rules, some doctors and nurses get out of control and many will tell the spouse they have no right to know what is going on if the veteran does not want them to. This happens all the time especially if they are in the hospital and don't want to be there. They get angry at their spouse and believe that keeping them out of the loop is punishment. Rational thinking has been tossed out the window.

With the Medical Power of Attorney, they have to speak to you. This is vital! You are the one who knows them the best. You have been living with them and can see the changes in them. The doctor often has either just met them or has had limited contact with them while the veteran is on their best behavior. Most of the time they give the doctor a snow job trying to minimize what is going on inside of them. Sometimes they are unable to connect to the reality of the kind of damage they are doing to their own lives. Making irrational decisions, taking too many chances speeding or drunk driving, taking off for hours or days at a time without contacting you at all. The list goes on. They do not want to admit what they are doing or they really cannot see the damage being done to their lives.

They will act as if they are not having increased issues with their mood swings and anger. If they do not tell the doctor and he does not see it first hand, he has no way of knowing how they are acting unless someone tells him. If the Vet has told them not to talk to you, they have to listen to the Vet unless you have medical power of attorney. You would think that common sense would overrule this but it doesn't and you are left to keep out of it when you could be providing important information to the doctor so the Vet is treated appropriately as soon as possible. With it, you can speak to the doctor and the nurses. There are times when the nurses will tell you they don't have to talk to you if the Vet has told them not to. They have to honor the MPA. Tell them that. Otherwise you are left to endure needless stress not knowing what is going on and feeling frustrated the Vet is telling them one thing while you know otherwise.

You are their best advocate. You are part of the healing process. You will be the first to see changes in them. You will be the first one to understand they are in need of attention from a doctor. You have an important role in all of this and the medical community needs to understand that you are in fact not only part of the treatment they receive, you are also part of the outcome of the treatment they are given.

When dealing with the VA, most of the time they will refuse to talk to you. They will say they can only talk to the veteran. If you have the right to speak to them on behalf of your spouse, they have to talk to you. Make sure you have your spouse sign Release of Information form for you giving you the right to speak to the VA.

Power of Attorney for Health Care
Power of Attorney for Health Care for all States. This document allows an individual to designate another person to make health care related decisions on their behalf in the event they are unable to do so.
$17.95
Please select your state:

Alabama [+] Alaska [+] Arizona [+] Arkansas [+] California [+] Colorado [+] Connecticut [+] Delaware [+] District of Columbia [+] Florida [+] Georgia [+] Hawaii [+] Idaho [+] Illinois [+] Indiana [+] Iowa [+] Kansas [+]
Kentucky [+] Louisiana [+] Maine [+] Maryland [+] Massachusetts [+] Michigan [+] Minnesota [+] Mississippi [+] Missouri [+] Montana [+] Nebraska [+] Nevada [+] New Hampshire [+] New Jersey [+] New Mexico [+] New York [+] North Carolina [+]
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Release of Information Form

http://www.va.gov/vaforms/medical/pdf/vha-10-5345-fill.pdf
You can type in your information, have the veteran sign it and then send it to the VA. They will put it into their system and then next time you need to get some information, they will provide it to you. It sounds ridiculous that you have to go through this as their spouse, but it is the rule.

Durable Power of Attorney

http://www.va.gov/vaforms/medical/pdf/vha-10-0137-fill.pdf
Durable Power of Attorney form so that the veteran can enable someone to make medical decisions for them when they cannot.

The best time to do this is when you do not need it. The last thing you want to do is try to do this at the same time you are dealing with a crisis. Wives have had to obtain restraining orders to provide for their safety needlessly. The Vet may talk about doing something to them because they put them in the hospital while they are thinking irrationally. If the doctor has the form in hand, he knows he is required to speak to you so that you know what is going on. There have been a lot of Vets who have gone off the deep end and lie to their spouse of family member saying the hospital is releasing them or making all kinds of false claims just to freak you out. You have no way of knowing what is real or made up in revenge unless someone at the hospital is telling you the truth.

You have to keep in mind when they are in a crisis state, they are not thinking rationally at all and most of the time what they say is not what they really feel deep inside. You need to remember who they really are under PTSD. Their character is still there buried under the things they are doing and saying.

Get informed of what PTSD is, what causes it and the changes you need to look out for. Watch the videos I've done on the right side of this blog.

Last night I was on Stardust radio speaking with Mike from Point Man Ministries. We were talking about my book and how I got through all of this. Take my life and go from there. You don't have to live through 25 years to get to where I am. You can do it in a few hours. The book is written simply and unfortunately shows the dark side of me going through all of this. We all need to understand that while we need to be an advocate for them, we also need to remember we are still just humans going through the abnormal would of warfare. My husband and I found what works for us and to us, this is a normal life. We managed to find peace with the life we have together and it's our own kind of normal.

While we still have days when I can't stand the way he's acting, it helps to know why he is acting the way he is. I've learned when to walk away, when to not overreact or take it personally. Oh sure, there still times when I want to fight back but then I realize that it does no good to try to be rational when frankly, they are not "all there" while standing in front of you.

None of us are going to perfect in any of this but with the knowledge in hand, you have the tool you need to cope with all of it. Your marriage does not have to end and your children do not have to wonder what they did wrong when your spouse is bouncing off the wall. There will be days that no matter how much you know, you need to find help for yourself as well.

It took me ten years of living with all of this before I called a psychologist for myself. The frustration was eating away at me to the point where I was actually feeling the anger. That is out of my character. I knew I needed some help. I needed to talk to someone who knew what PTSD was and what I was dealing with just to vent the frustration. If there is a support group in your area, go there! I cannot tell you how much of a gift it is for yourself to find people going through the same things you are. If there is not a support group, then ask your spouse's doctor how you can get in touch with other wives and start one. There was a time when all VA mental health facilities had support groups for the spouse. Unfortunately the VA forgot how beneficial they were in caring for the veteran to take care of the spouse as well. As with anything else, if enough people ask for something, the VA will pay attention knowing what the need is.

The last piece of advice I can give you as a spouse is to also take care of your own mind-body-spirit connection. Go to church or whatever religious structure you feel comfortable with. Fellowship with others helps to feed your soul. Prayer is an energy boost and meditation is calming the nerves. If you are under too much stress, seek professional help to help you deal with what you are going through. You will be helping your relationship at the same time and keep things from getting out of control. Living with stress can damage your own health. Take care of your body as well. Eat a good balance of food and yes, if you need it, eat sweets and deserts as long as you do not eat an unhealthy portion of them. We are too often the last ones we take care of at the same time we are taking care of everyone else. Go for walks! Get back in touch with nature. Ride a bike. Go swimming. The same advice I give to veterans applies to you as well. You may not have gone to war, but it is your battle to fight for the sake of your spouse and your family. You need all the ammunition you can get your hands on to keep it all together.

If your marriage has already ended or your family member is no longer alive, you also need to know why things were the way they were. It isn't your fault it turned out the way it did. The majority of people in the world have no clue what PTSD is and you had no way of dealing with any of this. Understanding what caused it can bring forgiveness for yourself and often you will be able to forgive the veteran as well. I've seen many relationships restored once they understand where it all came from. Children end up finally understanding that none of it had anything to do with them and they in turn heal as they forgive.

If you have any questions, just email me anytime.




Chaplain 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

Marine Retreat Aids War-Strained Couples

Marine Retreat Aids War-Strained Couples
By CHELSEA J. CARTER | Associated Press Writer
7:08 AM EDT, April 2, 2008

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. - Fighting in Iraq took a heavy toll on Marine Lance Cpl. Daniel Patrick, damaging his hand, injuring his brain and causing him to suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder.

But Patrick's body wasn't the only thing hurt by combat. His relationship with his wife was wounded, too. The couple got married shortly after he returned, yet Patrick refused to talk to her about the war. Sometimes he yelled at her.

So the pair marked their first anniversary this past weekend at a Marine Corps retreat that took a decidedly un-military approach to saving marriages: Combining classes in communication with massage therapy, yoga and meditation. It's an effort by the military to ease the strain on married couples when soldiers return to civilian life after long, repeated deployments.

Navy Chaplain Dwight Horn came up with the idea after returning from Fallujah, where he witnessed some of the fiercest fighting in the war.

"It just opened my eyes. I began to see a lot of issues that needed to be addressed," said Horn, a member of the Marine Corps chaplains' program that organized the retreat. He also had trouble resuming life with his wife after coming back from Iraq.

"We're seeing some warriors having a hard time readjusting ... and their spouses are confused by it."

The first-of-its kind program is called "Warrior Couple Readjustment Retreat." Joining the Patricks were 12 other couples, mostly wounded Marines and their spouses from Camp Pendleton.

Pentagon statistics released last year showed the divorce rate in the military holding steady at 3.3 percent, but the numbers say nothing about troubled marriages.

Sitting in a conference room at a Los Angeles-area hotel, Navy Corpsmen Aaron Seibert, 35, and his wife listen to a therapist encouraging couples to open up to one another before their frustrations explode.

The couples discuss the emotional distance that military duty and, in some cases, combat injuries have put between them.

Robin Seibert, 38, nods as she listens. After seven years of marriage, she knows the frustration that comes with a military marriage. But nothing prepared her for her husband's three consecutive deployments, including the one that ended in April 2006 when a mortar round riddled his body with 100 pieces of shrapnel.

"The injuries were extremely tough. I was thinking first, 'Is he going to live?' Then it was, 'Is he going to recover?' Then it was, 'What are we going to do? Is he going to have a job?'" she said.

Meanwhile, Aaron Seibert, of Riverton, Wyo., was battling the mood swings and flaring temper that come with PTSD.
click post title for the rest

TORONTO:Reservists claimed right to kill 'bums,' court hears

Reservists claimed right to kill 'bums,' court hears
Shannon Kari , Canwest News Service
Published: Wednesday, April 02, 2008
TORONTO - The key prosecution witness in the trial of three Canadian Forces reservists accused of fatally beating a homeless man testified Wednesday that two of the defendants were enraged and claimed to have the right to kill "bums" and "drug addicts" while their colleague appeared to be a reluctant participant.

"I was told we were all useless pieces of skin," said Valerie Valen, who tried to intervene and stop the brutal attack against Paul Croutch, a 59-year-old homeless man who was killed on August 31, 2005 while trying to sleep on a park bench in downtown Toronto.

Jeffrey Hall, 24; Mountaz Ibrahim, 25 and Brian Deganis, 23, are all charged with second-degree murder and assault causing bodily harm for allegedly beating Valen.


The defendants, who were members of the Queen's Own Rifles of Canada which has its headquarters in an armoury in the park where Croutch was beaten, have pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Valen was returning to visit a friend at a nearby residential shelter when she saw the attack
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Orlando bomb suspect not same since being in Iraq

Kevin Brown, 32, is charged with attempting to carry an explosive or incendiary device on an aircraft. (SEMINOLE COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE)

Family: Bomb suspect not same since being in Iraq

Jim Leusner and Sarah Lundy Sentinel Staff Writers
3:24 PM EDT, April 2, 2008

Although authorities say Kevin Brown tried to take bomb material onto a plane at Orlando International Airport, his former mother-in-law said this afternoon that he is not a terrorist.

"This is not him," Karen Holt said today from South Carolina. "It has to be a mental issue for him. I know if they looked through his medical records...I'm sure they will see."

Brown and Holt's daughter, Kamishia, 25, married about three years ago. The couple met while serving in the U.S. Army, Holt said. About a year later, the two separated, and Holt doesn't know what Brown has been up to since then.

Her daughter told her that Brown wasn't the same since returning from Iraq. He was put on medication for depression, Holt said.
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Clearwater Florida "Taliban Tom" murder suicide

Police: Man acted erratically before killing family, self
By Times Staff Writer
Published Wednesday, April 2, 2008 3:10 PM


CLEARWATER — In the days after Oliver Thomas Bernsdorff murdered his family, acquaintances said they were stunned that a man who talked about how much he loved his children could shoot them in cold blood.

But Clearwater police investigative records released today show that Bernsdorff, 36, showed signs of increasingly erratic behavior in the weeks and days leading up to the Dec. 14 shootings:

• Bernsdorff, a GED teacher for Pinellas County schools for 13 years, was disliked by his coworkers and apparently hated women, according to a school district employee interviewed by police. In the last weeks of his life, Bernsdorff began dressing all in black, sometimes wearing robes and head wrappings. That prompted coworkers to start referring to him as "Taliban Tom."

• Bernsdorff dated a woman he met online during the final 2 1/2 to 3 months of his life. After an incident where he kicked his ex-wife while picking up the children from a visitation, he became paranoid that police would come for him, according to the girlfriend, Melissa Redding. At one point, he also told her that he had two options: to take the children and flee the country, or to kill them, his ex-wife, her new girlfriend and himself. Then, three days before the shooting, he seemed to have had a breakthrough and seemed calm and happy.

• The day Bernsdorff picked up the 9mm semiautomatic pistol used in the murders, he declined the pawn shop owner's offer of a gun lock and pamphlet on gun safety and children, leaving them both on the counter.

•Bernsdorff told one of his co-workers, Nancy Hopp, that he had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder about a year ago. A doctor put him on medication, but Bernsdorff didn't like the way it made him feel and stopped taking it after three weeks, she said.
http://www.tampabay.com/news/publicsafety/crime/article440759.ece

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