May 30 - INTERNATIONAL STOP MILITARY RAPE AWARENESS DAY
One of the saddest realities I faced when my daughter joined the U.S. Army was that sexual abuse is an epidemic in our military. Both of my grandfather's were in the military, one being a Colonel and the other was a Sergeant, and both were good men. I heard the statistics, but thought I had raised a tough daughter, she could deal with anything they threw at her. I had no idea how many perpetrators and sex offenders lurk and hide in our military. I did not realize was that one out of every three women and one out of every five men in the U.S. Military are sexually assaulted. I still feel shocked by these numbers. And even worse is that it is rare that the perpetrator is prosecuted for the crime of rape/sexual assault.
There are some fundamental changes that need to change so that people can serve in our armed forces without fear of being sexually assaulted by their own fellow soldiers. One is hold the command responsible for any type of complaints that are generated. This means independent investigations into any type of complaint is absolutely crucial. All the policies and procedures and task forces in the world won't help iF the command is able to choose which one to enforce.
Informing young people before they sign away their rights about the statistics of rape in the military should be mandated. Informed and honest recruiting needs to be upheld and not a joke.
We must take a stand together to end the good ole' boy mentality of "boys will be boys" and demand a ZERO tolerance for sexual abuse in the military.
Peace~Sara Rich, M.S.W. and proud mom of Spc. Suzanne Swiftsuzanneswift.org
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Fort Benning:PTSD to "recover" near bullets?
What lame brain decided sending PTSD soldiers next to firing range to "recover" would be a helpful thing? Are they out of their minds? Do they know anything about PTSD? What's next? Sending soldiers with amputations next to bombing ranges to "recover" and have them dodge targets as therapy?
Just when you think it's getting better for the wounded, (and yes that is exactly what they are) and there is hope for them to recover without screwing around anymore, they pull something like this! When will these reports get to the point when we can finally, once and for all know they are taking PTSD seriously? All of this leads to the rise in the death count from suicide and the rise in attempted suicides. Can't they understand this?
Firing ranges complicate vets' PTSD recoverySoldiers at Fort Benning say proximity to gunfire aggravates their disorder
By Ann Scott Tyson
updated 3:24 a.m. ET, Tues., June. 3, 2008
FORT BENNING, Ga. - Army Sgt. Jonathan Strickland sits in his room at noon with the blinds drawn, seeking the sleep that has eluded him since he was knocked out by the blast of a Baghdad car bomb.
Like many of the wounded soldiers living in the newly built "warrior transition" barracks here, the soft-spoken 25-year-old suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder. But even as Strickland and his comrades struggle with nightmares, anxiety and flashbacks from their wartime experiences, the sounds of gunfire have followed them here, just outside their windows.
Across the street from their assigned housing, about 200 yards away, are some of the Army infantry's main firing ranges, and day and night, several days each week, barrages from rifles and machine guns echo around Strickland's building. The noise makes the wounded cringe, startle in their formations, and stay awake and on edge, according to several soldiers interviewed at the barracks last month. The gunfire recently sent one soldier to the emergency room with an anxiety attack, they said.
Just when you think it's getting better for the wounded, (and yes that is exactly what they are) and there is hope for them to recover without screwing around anymore, they pull something like this! When will these reports get to the point when we can finally, once and for all know they are taking PTSD seriously? All of this leads to the rise in the death count from suicide and the rise in attempted suicides. Can't they understand this?
Sgt. Jonathan Strickland, 25, who has been diagnosed with PTSD, in barracks at Fort Benning that house wounded and are soldiers located across from several major firing ranges.
Firing ranges complicate vets' PTSD recoverySoldiers at Fort Benning say proximity to gunfire aggravates their disorder
By Ann Scott Tyson
updated 3:24 a.m. ET, Tues., June. 3, 2008
FORT BENNING, Ga. - Army Sgt. Jonathan Strickland sits in his room at noon with the blinds drawn, seeking the sleep that has eluded him since he was knocked out by the blast of a Baghdad car bomb.
Like many of the wounded soldiers living in the newly built "warrior transition" barracks here, the soft-spoken 25-year-old suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder. But even as Strickland and his comrades struggle with nightmares, anxiety and flashbacks from their wartime experiences, the sounds of gunfire have followed them here, just outside their windows.
Across the street from their assigned housing, about 200 yards away, are some of the Army infantry's main firing ranges, and day and night, several days each week, barrages from rifles and machine guns echo around Strickland's building. The noise makes the wounded cringe, startle in their formations, and stay awake and on edge, according to several soldiers interviewed at the barracks last month. The gunfire recently sent one soldier to the emergency room with an anxiety attack, they said.
Soldiers interviewed said complaints to medical personnel at Fort Benning's Martin Army Community Hospital and officers in their chain of command have brought no relief, prompting one soldier's father to contact The Washington Post. Fort Benning officials said that they were unaware of specific complaints but that decisions about housing and treatment for soldiers with PTSD depend on the severity of each case. They said day and night training must continue as new soldiers arrive and the Army grows.
go here for more
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24942390/
Monday, June 2, 2008
Up to 180,000 gallons waste water released into Puget Sound
Lewis waste water released in Puget Sound
Staff report
Posted : Monday Jun 2, 2008 20:49:44 EDT
Up to 180,000 gallons of partially treated waste water was released into the Puget Sound between 11 p.m. Sunday and 2 a.m. Monday because of an electrical problem at the Fort Lewis, Wash., waste water treatment plant, officials announced Monday in a press release.
Officials emphasized that no completely untreated water was released during the incident. All the water that escaped had received at least primary treatment, meaning it had been stripped of solid wastes. In addition, about 45 minutes after the problem was detected, workers restored the secondary treatment process, which involves more sophisticated filtration. Chlorination, the last step in water treatment at the facility, was restored about 2 a.m.
Officials estimate that the event released up to 60,000 gallons of water that had only received the primary treatment and up to 120,000 gallons of water that had been fully treated but had not been chlorinated.
go here for more
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/06/army_lewis_wastewater_060208/
Staff report
Posted : Monday Jun 2, 2008 20:49:44 EDT
Up to 180,000 gallons of partially treated waste water was released into the Puget Sound between 11 p.m. Sunday and 2 a.m. Monday because of an electrical problem at the Fort Lewis, Wash., waste water treatment plant, officials announced Monday in a press release.
Officials emphasized that no completely untreated water was released during the incident. All the water that escaped had received at least primary treatment, meaning it had been stripped of solid wastes. In addition, about 45 minutes after the problem was detected, workers restored the secondary treatment process, which involves more sophisticated filtration. Chlorination, the last step in water treatment at the facility, was restored about 2 a.m.
Officials estimate that the event released up to 60,000 gallons of water that had only received the primary treatment and up to 120,000 gallons of water that had been fully treated but had not been chlorinated.
go here for more
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/06/army_lewis_wastewater_060208/
Marine Lance Corporal Robert Crutchfield killed for $8.00
Ohio Marine succumbs to injuries
Was shot, robbed of $8 at bus stop in early January
Ohio Marine succumbs to injuries
Was shot, robbed of $8 at bus stop in early January
The casket of Marine Lance Corporal Robert Crutchfield was carried out of Sacrificial Missionary Baptist Church after his funeral service in Cleveland last week. (Jamie-Andrea Yanak/Associated Press)
Email|Print|Single Page| Text size – + By Thomas J. Sheeran
Associated Press / June 2, 2008
CLEVELAND - On leave from the violence he had survived in the war in Iraq, a young Marine was so wary of crime on the streets of his own hometown that he carried only $8 to avoid becoming a robbery target.
Despite his caution, Lance Corporal Robert Crutchfield, 21, was shot in the neck at close range during a robbery at a bus stop. Feeding and breathing tubes kept him alive 4 1/2 months, until he died of an infection on May 18.
Two men have been charged in the attack, and Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Bill Mason said the case was under review to decide whether to seek the death penalty.
"It is an awful story," said Alberta Holt, the young Marine's aunt and his legal guardian when he was a teenager determined to flee a troubled Cleveland school for safer surroundings in the suburbs.
Crutchfield was attacked on Jan. 5 while he and his girlfriend were waiting for a bus. He had heeded the warnings of commanders that a Marine on leave might be seen as a prime robbery target with a pocketful of money, so he only carried $8, his military ID card, and a bank card.
click post title for more
Divorces inflict home front damage on US troops
Divorces inflict home front damage on US troops
David Smith (The Guardian)
2 June 2008
In an army base in Baghdad, in functional wooden booths in a white-walled room, a row of young men in uniform stare at computer screens. Many are emailing, instant messaging or playing online card games with their wives and girlfriends seven or more time zones away.
There is a background hum from others talking on a bank of phones. One soldier can be heard protesting: 'You have no idea what I'm going through out here.'
With the Iraq war in its sixth year, some of these American soldiers are on their third or fourth combat tour - 15 months away from home with just 18 days' leave. The strain is showing on their relationships and many will return home, exhausted, to find a disenchanted wife has walked out. Divorce rates among the US military are soaring.
Corporal Leonard Allen, 33, is missing his son's first year of life. A member of the 2-4 Infantry 'Warrior' Battalion, 10th Mountain Division, Allen served a nine-month stint in Afghanistan in 2006. Normally he could then have expected at least a year at home. But eight months later he and his comrades were training in Kuwait, then deploying for a long tour in Baghdad.
'There were a lot of deployment babies after Afghanistan,' Allen joked. His son Colton is eight months old. 'I've seen two and a half months of his life. My wife Andrea gives me daily progress reports - he's learning to crawl - but it's a shame when a father has to miss being there. Six or nine months here wouldn't be so bad, but these 15- month tours are killing everybody.'
Allen, a former bill collector now regularly on patrol in the streets of Baghdad, married two years ago in Las Vegas. 'We knew there was a chance I'd be sent to Iraq. She was pretty down for a while, quite sad, and she worries about me here. She knows why I'm here and she's glad, but she wants me to come home.'
go here for more
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/darticlen.asp?xfile=data/theworld/2008/June/theworld_June46.xml§ion=theworld&col=
linked from ICasualties.org
David Smith (The Guardian)
2 June 2008
In an army base in Baghdad, in functional wooden booths in a white-walled room, a row of young men in uniform stare at computer screens. Many are emailing, instant messaging or playing online card games with their wives and girlfriends seven or more time zones away.
There is a background hum from others talking on a bank of phones. One soldier can be heard protesting: 'You have no idea what I'm going through out here.'
With the Iraq war in its sixth year, some of these American soldiers are on their third or fourth combat tour - 15 months away from home with just 18 days' leave. The strain is showing on their relationships and many will return home, exhausted, to find a disenchanted wife has walked out. Divorce rates among the US military are soaring.
Corporal Leonard Allen, 33, is missing his son's first year of life. A member of the 2-4 Infantry 'Warrior' Battalion, 10th Mountain Division, Allen served a nine-month stint in Afghanistan in 2006. Normally he could then have expected at least a year at home. But eight months later he and his comrades were training in Kuwait, then deploying for a long tour in Baghdad.
'There were a lot of deployment babies after Afghanistan,' Allen joked. His son Colton is eight months old. 'I've seen two and a half months of his life. My wife Andrea gives me daily progress reports - he's learning to crawl - but it's a shame when a father has to miss being there. Six or nine months here wouldn't be so bad, but these 15- month tours are killing everybody.'
Allen, a former bill collector now regularly on patrol in the streets of Baghdad, married two years ago in Las Vegas. 'We knew there was a chance I'd be sent to Iraq. She was pretty down for a while, quite sad, and she worries about me here. She knows why I'm here and she's glad, but she wants me to come home.'
go here for more
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/darticlen.asp?xfile=data/theworld/2008/June/theworld_June46.xml§ion=theworld&col=
linked from ICasualties.org
Exposure Therapy Effective To PTSD
Exposure Therapy Effective To Prevent Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
Editor's Choice
Main Category: Anxiety / Stress
Also Included In: Psychology / Psychiatry; Depression
Article Date: 02 Jun 2008 - 13:00 PDT
The progression from acute stress disorder to post-traumatic stress disorder may be prevented by exposure-based therapy, in which trauma survivors are guided to relive a troubling event. These reults were published in an article released on June 2, 2008 in the Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
Acute stress disorder, sometimes called shock, involves the development of a strong stress response after a traumatic event. Symptoms are brought on when the sympathetic nervous system reacts, in the familiar fight or flight response. If this threat is perceived as unusually serious, a more intense and prolonged physiological response can results. The presence of shock after a traumatic event is linked to the subsequent development of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), an anxiety disorder that involves prolonged reaction to the event or events. PTSD is associated with other mental and physical disorders, as well as a reduced quality of life and increased cost of health care.
Cognitive restructuring, which entails rebuilding the thoughts and responses to a traumatic event to be more accurate and beneficial for the patient, is one common form of therapy to help prevent PTSD in those with acute stress. Exposure therapy is another therapy used to this end in which the patient is re-exposed in some way to the source of the trauma, in the hopes of habituating the patient and thus decreasing the response. There is some evidence that many clinicians do not use the latter form of therapy because it can cause distress for recent survivors of trauma.
go here for more
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/109599.php
What we know is the sooner treatment begins, the better the result. This study seems to have proven it very well.
It is what people working in the field have been pushing for. The question is how do we get there from here?
Today and tomorrow I'm in CISM training. Critical Incident Stress Management at a local hospital. We're covering the need to address stressful/traumatic events head on. Chaplains know this works and so does every police department, fire department along with emergency responders and hospitals. Hurricane and tornado victims, survivors of all kinds of traumatic events know that if someone is looking out for them, they are a lot better off than if they go through it alone. To have another survivor does little good if that person is also under stress and suffering from the trauma. The other person has to be from outside the event itself. This is why it does not work very well when it is a unit under attack in combat.
While it does tend to help to have someone to lean on, they are individually dealing with the event on their own terms or avoiding it. Having someone to go to, removed from the event but attached enough to show they care is vital. Most of the time if the survivor of trauma has someone to vent to, cry on the shoulder of or just have them sit by their side, it does a world of good. This would happened in every unit deployed into combat but that only happens in a perfect world. Most of the time there is no one to do this with them.
When a police officer is involved in a traumatic event, most departments have a Chaplain they can call upon to talk to. This way they unload what is going on inside of them and they face it. Otherwise, with no one to talk to, they tend to stuff it in the back of their brain and move on, believing they "got over it" yet only to have to face it later on when the damage is being done.
With a soldier this happens more than not. They may find their buddies back to normal when they are waking up in the middle of the night covered with sweat and shaking from the nightmare they just had so vivid it was like reliving the entire experience. If their buddies are sleeping soundly, they tend to be reluctant to say anything. As the changes become more and more deeply imbedded within them, they tend to close down even more, afraid to say anything. Again, in a perfect world, there would be a Chaplain or a mental health professional right there for them to go to.
When they come home, they have suffered from and stuffed it back in their memory, believing that back home they will "get over it" and move past it. This does not happen when it is the wound of PTSD they have carried back with them. The changes become apparent to the family but most of the time the family has no clue what it is.
Now think of what it would be like if the family were fully aware of the signs to watch out for. They would be the first to see the changes and help the veteran to face them, seek help for them and they could heal as a family together. What if the veteran knew when it was something beyond getting over on their own? They would seek treatment as soon as possible understanding that once they did, they would begin to heal and would not get worse.
There is so much that needs to be done but again, with PTSD, the sooner the better. These delays in therapy and treatment cut the wound deeper. Education has to be provided immediately and the stigma of PTSD has to be placed where it needs to be and that is on anyone getting in the way of these veterans from seeking help. The the next step is to educate all the family members what they need to watch out for when in communication with their soldier while deployed and what to watch out for when they get home.
We need more mental health professionals and we need more Chaplains dealing with the tsunami coming. Failing to do this will increase the suicide rate, the divorce rate, the homeless rate and the crime rate along with driving under the influence. We need to spend money wisely on this right now to save money later and at the same time save the veterans futures.
Editor's Choice
Main Category: Anxiety / Stress
Also Included In: Psychology / Psychiatry; Depression
Article Date: 02 Jun 2008 - 13:00 PDT
The progression from acute stress disorder to post-traumatic stress disorder may be prevented by exposure-based therapy, in which trauma survivors are guided to relive a troubling event. These reults were published in an article released on June 2, 2008 in the Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
Acute stress disorder, sometimes called shock, involves the development of a strong stress response after a traumatic event. Symptoms are brought on when the sympathetic nervous system reacts, in the familiar fight or flight response. If this threat is perceived as unusually serious, a more intense and prolonged physiological response can results. The presence of shock after a traumatic event is linked to the subsequent development of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), an anxiety disorder that involves prolonged reaction to the event or events. PTSD is associated with other mental and physical disorders, as well as a reduced quality of life and increased cost of health care.
Cognitive restructuring, which entails rebuilding the thoughts and responses to a traumatic event to be more accurate and beneficial for the patient, is one common form of therapy to help prevent PTSD in those with acute stress. Exposure therapy is another therapy used to this end in which the patient is re-exposed in some way to the source of the trauma, in the hopes of habituating the patient and thus decreasing the response. There is some evidence that many clinicians do not use the latter form of therapy because it can cause distress for recent survivors of trauma.
The study was completed by 63 of the participants. After the completion of treatment, the following proportions of patients met the criteria for PTSD: in the exposure therapy group, 33% (10 patients,); in the cognitive restructuring group 63% (19 patients,) and in the wait-list group 77% (23 patients.) After the six month follow-up, 37% (11 patients) in the exposure therapy group met the criteria for PTSD in contrast with the 63% (19 patients) in the cognitive restructuring group. Additionally, in the exposure group, 47% (14 patients) achieved full remission, while only 13% (4 patients) achieved this in the cognitive group. In all, this indicates relative success on the part of exposure therapy to prevent PTSD.
go here for more
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/109599.php
What we know is the sooner treatment begins, the better the result. This study seems to have proven it very well.
It is what people working in the field have been pushing for. The question is how do we get there from here?
Today and tomorrow I'm in CISM training. Critical Incident Stress Management at a local hospital. We're covering the need to address stressful/traumatic events head on. Chaplains know this works and so does every police department, fire department along with emergency responders and hospitals. Hurricane and tornado victims, survivors of all kinds of traumatic events know that if someone is looking out for them, they are a lot better off than if they go through it alone. To have another survivor does little good if that person is also under stress and suffering from the trauma. The other person has to be from outside the event itself. This is why it does not work very well when it is a unit under attack in combat.
While it does tend to help to have someone to lean on, they are individually dealing with the event on their own terms or avoiding it. Having someone to go to, removed from the event but attached enough to show they care is vital. Most of the time if the survivor of trauma has someone to vent to, cry on the shoulder of or just have them sit by their side, it does a world of good. This would happened in every unit deployed into combat but that only happens in a perfect world. Most of the time there is no one to do this with them.
When a police officer is involved in a traumatic event, most departments have a Chaplain they can call upon to talk to. This way they unload what is going on inside of them and they face it. Otherwise, with no one to talk to, they tend to stuff it in the back of their brain and move on, believing they "got over it" yet only to have to face it later on when the damage is being done.
With a soldier this happens more than not. They may find their buddies back to normal when they are waking up in the middle of the night covered with sweat and shaking from the nightmare they just had so vivid it was like reliving the entire experience. If their buddies are sleeping soundly, they tend to be reluctant to say anything. As the changes become more and more deeply imbedded within them, they tend to close down even more, afraid to say anything. Again, in a perfect world, there would be a Chaplain or a mental health professional right there for them to go to.
When they come home, they have suffered from and stuffed it back in their memory, believing that back home they will "get over it" and move past it. This does not happen when it is the wound of PTSD they have carried back with them. The changes become apparent to the family but most of the time the family has no clue what it is.
Now think of what it would be like if the family were fully aware of the signs to watch out for. They would be the first to see the changes and help the veteran to face them, seek help for them and they could heal as a family together. What if the veteran knew when it was something beyond getting over on their own? They would seek treatment as soon as possible understanding that once they did, they would begin to heal and would not get worse.
There is so much that needs to be done but again, with PTSD, the sooner the better. These delays in therapy and treatment cut the wound deeper. Education has to be provided immediately and the stigma of PTSD has to be placed where it needs to be and that is on anyone getting in the way of these veterans from seeking help. The the next step is to educate all the family members what they need to watch out for when in communication with their soldier while deployed and what to watch out for when they get home.
We need more mental health professionals and we need more Chaplains dealing with the tsunami coming. Failing to do this will increase the suicide rate, the divorce rate, the homeless rate and the crime rate along with driving under the influence. We need to spend money wisely on this right now to save money later and at the same time save the veterans futures.
Buffalo NY offers treatment instead of jail for veterans
City launches treatment court for vets
By Matthew Daneman - USA Today
Posted : Monday Jun 2, 2008 12:42:38 EDT
BUFFALO, N.Y. — When police entered Tom Irish’s suburban Buffalo home March 9 responding to a call about a disturbance, the 59-year-old Army veteran says he did not see uniformed officers.
He says he was drunk on vodka, suffering from a flashback to his wartime experiences, and saw in his mind the Viet Cong soldiers he fought close to 40 years ago.
“I’m still in recovery, still facing myself,” Irish said as he stood last month before Buffalo City Court Judge Robert Russell in a courtroom half-filled with fellow military veterans in trouble with the law.
Instead of time behind bars, Irish is in counseling. The felony weapons possession charge against him — for brandishing a loaded shotgun at police — likely will be dropped if he finishes everything required of him by Buffalo’s veterans treatment court, according to Hank Pirowski, project director for Buffalo City Court.
Russell, who created Buffalo’s drug treatment court in 1995 and mental health treatment court in 2003, started holding sessions in January in what is, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs and the National Drug Court Institute, the nation’s first veterans’ treatment court.
The defendants all are military veterans or family members. The court typically handles nonviolent offenses, Russell said, with the veterans required to get mental health or addiction counseling, find jobs, stay clean and sober and get their lives back on track.
Court meets weekly or biweekly, with veterans reporting back about once a month to update the court on their progress, Russell said. The judge said that, based on his past experience with other treatment courts, the veterans tend to remain in treatment court a year or more before making enough progress to graduate and see their charges reduced or cases adjourned.
go here for more
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/06/gns_vetscourt_060208/
By Matthew Daneman - USA Today
Posted : Monday Jun 2, 2008 12:42:38 EDT
BUFFALO, N.Y. — When police entered Tom Irish’s suburban Buffalo home March 9 responding to a call about a disturbance, the 59-year-old Army veteran says he did not see uniformed officers.
He says he was drunk on vodka, suffering from a flashback to his wartime experiences, and saw in his mind the Viet Cong soldiers he fought close to 40 years ago.
“I’m still in recovery, still facing myself,” Irish said as he stood last month before Buffalo City Court Judge Robert Russell in a courtroom half-filled with fellow military veterans in trouble with the law.
Instead of time behind bars, Irish is in counseling. The felony weapons possession charge against him — for brandishing a loaded shotgun at police — likely will be dropped if he finishes everything required of him by Buffalo’s veterans treatment court, according to Hank Pirowski, project director for Buffalo City Court.
Russell, who created Buffalo’s drug treatment court in 1995 and mental health treatment court in 2003, started holding sessions in January in what is, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs and the National Drug Court Institute, the nation’s first veterans’ treatment court.
The defendants all are military veterans or family members. The court typically handles nonviolent offenses, Russell said, with the veterans required to get mental health or addiction counseling, find jobs, stay clean and sober and get their lives back on track.
Court meets weekly or biweekly, with veterans reporting back about once a month to update the court on their progress, Russell said. The judge said that, based on his past experience with other treatment courts, the veterans tend to remain in treatment court a year or more before making enough progress to graduate and see their charges reduced or cases adjourned.
go here for more
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/06/gns_vetscourt_060208/
Back at home, war toll grows
Back at home, war toll grows
BY MARTHA BELLISLE • mbellisle@rgj.com • June 1, 2008
As Ryan Gorgoglione manned a gun on an Army Humvee during a patrol north of Baghdad, his best friend strolled out on point 5 feet in front of the vehicle, stepped on a buried bomb and disappeared in a flash of light.
"The blast threw me back, and I woke up on the deck," said Gorgoglione, a 24-year-old Hug High School graduate who spent more than a year in Iraq. "There was nothing but dust. You can't see anything. You can't hear anything. And they were still hitting us from across the river."
When the patrol regained control, Adam Frolic was found with his throat ripped out, a leg torn off and most of an arm gone, Gorgoglione said.
The look on the doctor's face said it all, Gorgoglione said. Frolic had just turned 21.
The bloody battle that ended his buddy's life is one of dozens of tales Gorgoglione can tell, when pressed, about his time in the war. He doesn't think about it much, he says, and goes about his days like a normal guy. He rejects the diagnosis of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder by a psychologist at the Veterans Affairs hospital in Reno.
But after dark, he's plagued with nightmares that keep him awake. Soon after his return, he started drinking heavily to make himself pass out when he went to bed.
His drinking led to his first driving under the influence charge, then a second. He awaits a court hearing to determine punishment and counseling to ensure he doesn't get a third DUI citation, a felony in Nevada.
Help before the crisis
Gorgoglione's story has become increasingly common as more young men and women return from Iraq and Afghanistan with mental health issues and physical ailments that sometimes land them in jail.
The VA hospital in Reno has begun working with the Washoe County public defender's office to identify veterans who might be struggling with PTSD or traumatic brain injuries and get them help, said Alicia Adams, manager for the hospital's Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom program.
"The idea is to be proactive and get to them before they end up in crisis," Adams said. "When they come back home, in their mind they're fine, but within a year or two, they're in crisis, and often a family member steps in and says, 'Get in and get help or I'm going to leave you.' It doesn't need to be that way."
Kathy O'Leary, a chief deputy public defender, said the effort has helped the staff and attorneys understand the veterans' special needs.
"We are trying to ask the right questions at an early stage," O'Leary said. "That way we can connect our clients with appropriate services and make sure they get the screenings they need."
BY MARTHA BELLISLE • mbellisle@rgj.com • June 1, 2008
As Ryan Gorgoglione manned a gun on an Army Humvee during a patrol north of Baghdad, his best friend strolled out on point 5 feet in front of the vehicle, stepped on a buried bomb and disappeared in a flash of light.
"The blast threw me back, and I woke up on the deck," said Gorgoglione, a 24-year-old Hug High School graduate who spent more than a year in Iraq. "There was nothing but dust. You can't see anything. You can't hear anything. And they were still hitting us from across the river."
When the patrol regained control, Adam Frolic was found with his throat ripped out, a leg torn off and most of an arm gone, Gorgoglione said.
The look on the doctor's face said it all, Gorgoglione said. Frolic had just turned 21.
The bloody battle that ended his buddy's life is one of dozens of tales Gorgoglione can tell, when pressed, about his time in the war. He doesn't think about it much, he says, and goes about his days like a normal guy. He rejects the diagnosis of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder by a psychologist at the Veterans Affairs hospital in Reno.
But after dark, he's plagued with nightmares that keep him awake. Soon after his return, he started drinking heavily to make himself pass out when he went to bed.
His drinking led to his first driving under the influence charge, then a second. He awaits a court hearing to determine punishment and counseling to ensure he doesn't get a third DUI citation, a felony in Nevada.
Help before the crisis
Gorgoglione's story has become increasingly common as more young men and women return from Iraq and Afghanistan with mental health issues and physical ailments that sometimes land them in jail.
The VA hospital in Reno has begun working with the Washoe County public defender's office to identify veterans who might be struggling with PTSD or traumatic brain injuries and get them help, said Alicia Adams, manager for the hospital's Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom program.
"The idea is to be proactive and get to them before they end up in crisis," Adams said. "When they come back home, in their mind they're fine, but within a year or two, they're in crisis, and often a family member steps in and says, 'Get in and get help or I'm going to leave you.' It doesn't need to be that way."
Kathy O'Leary, a chief deputy public defender, said the effort has helped the staff and attorneys understand the veterans' special needs.
"We are trying to ask the right questions at an early stage," O'Leary said. "That way we can connect our clients with appropriate services and make sure they get the screenings they need."
The Demon of Brian Rand
The Toll - 6/1/08 - The Demon of Brian Rand
by Dave McGill
June 01, 2008 08:25 PM EDT
You generally hear of multiple demons in the minds of those who are severely tormented, but there was only one ghost haunting Brian Rand as he held the rifle in his hands. He was sitting in a picturesque setting at the Cumberland River Center Pavilion in Clarksville, Tennessee, just a few steps from where he and his wife, Dena, had been married.
The shadows of twilight were lengthening as he wrestled with that one demon. He was undoubtedly also thinking of his pregnant wife and the joys and responsibilities of raising his as yet unborn child. But the ghost wouldn't go away, the ghost of an Iraqi man he had killed while on guard duty in the Green Zone during his first deployment.
According to an article published today by McClatchy Newspapers, that particular ghost wouldn't leave Brian alone. It choked him "while he slept in his bunk, forcing him to wake up gasping for air and clawing at his throat. It whispered that Brian was a vampire and looked on (during his second deployment) as Brian stabbed another (service) member...in the neck with a fork in the mess hall (the soldier was only slightly injured). Eventually, the ghost told Brian he needed to kill himself."
Brian's sister, April Somdahl, was quoted as saying: "The spirit of the man that he killed didn't leave him, it kept harassing him. He said 'this guy is following me around in the mess hall, he's trying to kill me. I told him to leave me alone but he says he wants to take me with him.' "
At first, like many soldiers afflicted with post traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, Brian avoided asking for help, fearing the negative impact on his career. The McClatchy article quoted the Rand family as attributing the depth of his condition to this fear and the military culture that caused it, as well as to the Army's stop-loss policy which is designed to keep soldiers on the battlefield longer than one normal tour.
go here for more
http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474977359118
by Dave McGill
June 01, 2008 08:25 PM EDT
You generally hear of multiple demons in the minds of those who are severely tormented, but there was only one ghost haunting Brian Rand as he held the rifle in his hands. He was sitting in a picturesque setting at the Cumberland River Center Pavilion in Clarksville, Tennessee, just a few steps from where he and his wife, Dena, had been married.
The shadows of twilight were lengthening as he wrestled with that one demon. He was undoubtedly also thinking of his pregnant wife and the joys and responsibilities of raising his as yet unborn child. But the ghost wouldn't go away, the ghost of an Iraqi man he had killed while on guard duty in the Green Zone during his first deployment.
According to an article published today by McClatchy Newspapers, that particular ghost wouldn't leave Brian alone. It choked him "while he slept in his bunk, forcing him to wake up gasping for air and clawing at his throat. It whispered that Brian was a vampire and looked on (during his second deployment) as Brian stabbed another (service) member...in the neck with a fork in the mess hall (the soldier was only slightly injured). Eventually, the ghost told Brian he needed to kill himself."
Brian's sister, April Somdahl, was quoted as saying: "The spirit of the man that he killed didn't leave him, it kept harassing him. He said 'this guy is following me around in the mess hall, he's trying to kill me. I told him to leave me alone but he says he wants to take me with him.' "
At first, like many soldiers afflicted with post traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, Brian avoided asking for help, fearing the negative impact on his career. The McClatchy article quoted the Rand family as attributing the depth of his condition to this fear and the military culture that caused it, as well as to the Army's stop-loss policy which is designed to keep soldiers on the battlefield longer than one normal tour.
go here for more
http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474977359118
Jonathan Michael Boucher succumbed to wound of war
At home, but locked in war
Haunted by what he saw in Iraq, a former soldier takes his life
By DENNIS YUSKO, Staff writer
Click byline for more stories by writer.
First published: Monday, June 2, 2008
SARATOGA SPRINGS -- The war in Iraq never ended for Jonathan Michael Boucher. Not when he flew home from Baghdad, not when he moved to Saratoga Springs for a fresh start and, especially, not when nighttime arrived.
Tortured by what he saw as an 18-year-old Army private during the 2003 invasion and occupation, Boucher was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and honorably discharged from the military less than two years later.
On May 15, three days before his 24th birthday, the young veteran committed suicide in his apartment's bathroom, stunning friends and family, including more than three dozen cousins. There was no note. He was buried in the Gerald B.H. Solomon Saratoga National Cemetery just days before Memorial Day.
His death came even as Pentagon officials prepared to release numbers showing an increase in suicide and PTSD rates among active-duty troops. Some 115 killed themselves in 2007 -- a 20 percent increase since 2005.
PTSD, an anxiety- and stress-related disorder, has afflicted some 40,000 American troops since 2003. The military, in last week's report, acknowledged lengthy and repeated deployments are taking their toll.
"I (have) been shot at by AK-47s, rocket launchers, mortars and tanks," Boucher wrote to his family in May 2003. "I didn't think I was going to make it."
Boucher's short but intense life was marked by an adventurous spirit and a love for his family, his country and its military. He grew up with a zest for the outdoors and snowboarding and often visited family in the Saratoga area. He had an enormous work ethic and moral compass, family members said.
"He really loved angels," said his mother, Janet Boucher, 50, of Corinth. Mom and son spent weekends walking together in downtown Saratoga Springs and admiring his favorite art piece, the Spirit of Life statue in Congress Park.
go here for more
http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=692776&category=REGION&newsdate=6/2/2008
When they come home and commit suicide, we just simply call it suicide. Some of us will dare to call it non-combat death, but usually that is reserved when they take their own lives while deployed. For years, I've wrestled with the right word and now I think I've found it. Succumbed. He was carrying a wound that penetrated into every fiber of his being. He died as a result of that wound and that wound was caused by combat. There is no excuse to keep using non-combat wound or non-combat death, other than it's the lazy way out. Who will do a search for succumbed or put out an alert on that word? No one.
We've all grown so accustomed to reading about them and slapping the label of non-combat death associated with their name. Does this help the family when they know full well that their sons, daughters, husbands and wives would not be suffering had it not been for the trauma war created?
How many times do we need to read their stories and see "they suddenly changed" or "they didn't come home the same" before we let any of this really sink into our own brains, once and for all allowing us the opportunity to do far more than we have ever thought of doing? How many more lives will be sacrificed to this wound that far too few are trying to treat?
Haunted by what he saw in Iraq, a former soldier takes his life
By DENNIS YUSKO, Staff writer
Click byline for more stories by writer.
First published: Monday, June 2, 2008
SARATOGA SPRINGS -- The war in Iraq never ended for Jonathan Michael Boucher. Not when he flew home from Baghdad, not when he moved to Saratoga Springs for a fresh start and, especially, not when nighttime arrived.
Tortured by what he saw as an 18-year-old Army private during the 2003 invasion and occupation, Boucher was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and honorably discharged from the military less than two years later.
On May 15, three days before his 24th birthday, the young veteran committed suicide in his apartment's bathroom, stunning friends and family, including more than three dozen cousins. There was no note. He was buried in the Gerald B.H. Solomon Saratoga National Cemetery just days before Memorial Day.
His death came even as Pentagon officials prepared to release numbers showing an increase in suicide and PTSD rates among active-duty troops. Some 115 killed themselves in 2007 -- a 20 percent increase since 2005.
PTSD, an anxiety- and stress-related disorder, has afflicted some 40,000 American troops since 2003. The military, in last week's report, acknowledged lengthy and repeated deployments are taking their toll.
"I (have) been shot at by AK-47s, rocket launchers, mortars and tanks," Boucher wrote to his family in May 2003. "I didn't think I was going to make it."
Boucher's short but intense life was marked by an adventurous spirit and a love for his family, his country and its military. He grew up with a zest for the outdoors and snowboarding and often visited family in the Saratoga area. He had an enormous work ethic and moral compass, family members said.
"He really loved angels," said his mother, Janet Boucher, 50, of Corinth. Mom and son spent weekends walking together in downtown Saratoga Springs and admiring his favorite art piece, the Spirit of Life statue in Congress Park.
go here for more
http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=692776&category=REGION&newsdate=6/2/2008
When they come home and commit suicide, we just simply call it suicide. Some of us will dare to call it non-combat death, but usually that is reserved when they take their own lives while deployed. For years, I've wrestled with the right word and now I think I've found it. Succumbed. He was carrying a wound that penetrated into every fiber of his being. He died as a result of that wound and that wound was caused by combat. There is no excuse to keep using non-combat wound or non-combat death, other than it's the lazy way out. Who will do a search for succumbed or put out an alert on that word? No one.
We've all grown so accustomed to reading about them and slapping the label of non-combat death associated with their name. Does this help the family when they know full well that their sons, daughters, husbands and wives would not be suffering had it not been for the trauma war created?
How many times do we need to read their stories and see "they suddenly changed" or "they didn't come home the same" before we let any of this really sink into our own brains, once and for all allowing us the opportunity to do far more than we have ever thought of doing? How many more lives will be sacrificed to this wound that far too few are trying to treat?
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