Christmas Charity Appeal: Andy McNab on fighting the battle that does not end

Christmas Charity Appeal: Andy McNab on fighting the battle that ...
Telegraph.co.uk - United Kingdom


Combat Stress is one of the charities you can support in this year’s Telegraph appeal. Here, Andy McNab, who has seen brave friends devastated by the aftermath of war, explains why it is such a vital cause.

With thousands of members of the Armed Forces returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, the number of soldiers suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is rising dramatically.

We shouldn’t be surprised by this. The ancient Greeks recorded similar symptoms in their soldiers after they returned from battle. They understood that their veterans would require support. But somehow the Greeks’ lessons were lost on us.

During the First World War, a PTSD sufferer would have been placed against a wall and shot because it was believed that this condition was brought on by weakness of character. During the Second World War, the sufferer was instead sent down the coal mines and made to wear a LMF (lack of moral fibre) armband.

Even today, PTSD suffers are stigmatised. This has to stop. Any service personnel hit by the disorder are casualties of war, just as much as soldiers hit by an enemy bullet. More service personnel who fought in the 1982 Falklands War have gone on to commit suicide than the 255 killed in action.

I know this from experience. Two of my closest friends have committed suicide as a result of post-traumatic stress disorder, and many more have suffered terribly for years. My SAS troop, 7 Troop, was never more than 12-strong, so we knew each other very well. Frank Collins and Nish Bruce were a bit older than me and they became my heroes. I operated with both of these men in South East Asia, as well as under cover in Northern Ireland. Frank eventually left the SAS, got ordained into the Anglican Church and became an Army Padre.
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Recalled 12 year old spare tired causes fatal crash

How a 12-year-old recalled tire caused a crash that killed one man, paralyzed another
Rene Stutzman | Sentinel Staff Writer
November 24, 2008


SANFORD - The tire was a Firestone ATX, the subject of one of the nation's biggest consumer-product recalls. Millions of Americans read or heard news reports about it in 2000 and 2001, warning that it was dangerous.

But for a decade this particular tire was just a spare, bolted to the underside of an aging Ford Explorer.

A lawsuit settled in October revealed how in 2005 -- long after consumers and mechanics had stopped checking -- this tire did exactly what safety officials feared: It shredded at 65 mph.

Rotated into service on the right rear hub of the 1993 sport utility vehicle, the tire flew apart on Interstate 4 near Sanford, and the Explorer went out of control.

Its driver, Michael Enriquez, a Deltona father of four on his way home from work, hit the brakes. The vehicle skidded across the median, flipped and plowed head-on into an Infiniti driven by Douglas George Gibson, 56, of Orlando.
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Sword-Wielder Killed At Scientology Center

Sword-Wielder Killed At Scientology Center
Security Guard Shoots Man Waving Pair Of Samurai Swords At Hollywood Building, LAPD Says

LOS ANGELES, Nov. 24, 2008
(AP) Police said a man who waved a pair of Samurai swords on the grounds of a Hollywood Scientology building had a "previous relationship" to the church, but released little other information about the man shot and killed by a security guard.

The unidentified man, described as being in his 40s, approached three guards Sunday in the parking lot of the Scientology Celebrity Centre, Los Angeles Police Deputy Chief Terry S. Hara said.

The man was "close enough to hurt them" when one of the guards shot him, Hara said, and after questioning the guards and looking at surveillance tape decided the shooting was justified.

"The evidence itself, it's very, very clear," Hara said. "The security officers were defending their safety."
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Unhappy couples staying together as economy makes divorcing too costly

‘I just want to leave him, but I can’t afford it’
Unhappy couples staying together as economy makes divorcing too costly
By Alex Johnson
Reporter
msnbc.com
updated 7:42 p.m. ET, Sun., Nov. 23, 2008
what pastors, family therapists and matrimonial counselors have long struggled to accomplish: keeping troubled marriages together.

Marriage counselors and divorce lawyers nationwide say more distressed couples are putting off divorce because the cost of splitting up is prohibitive in a time of stagnant salaries, plummeting home values and rising unemployment.

While the stress of economic uncertainty often worsens already shaky unions, it also can make couples more financially dependent on each other, said Pamela Smock, a researcher at the Population Studies Center at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
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http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27808110/

1 dead, 2 wounded in N.J. church shooting

1 dead, 2 wounded in N.J. church shooting
Published: Nov. 23, 2008 at 6:14 PM

CLIFTON, N.J., Nov. 23 (UPI) -- A man opened fire in a church in Clifton, N.J., Sunday, killing his estranged wife and critically wounding two other people before fleeing, police said.

The shooting -- just before noon in the vestibule of St. Thomas Syrian Orthodox Knanaya Church -- left Reshma James, 24, dead and a 47-year-old woman, described as James's cousin, and a 23-year-old man clinging to life with head wounds, The (Newark, N.J.) Star-Ledger reported.
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Non-combat death in Iraq

DoD Identifies Army Casualty


The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who
was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Pvt. Charles Yi Barnett, 19, of Bel Air, Maryland, died on Nov. 20 of
injuries sustained from a non-combat related incident in Tallil, Iraq.
He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 12th Cavalry Regiment, 4th
Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas.

The incident is under investigation.

http://icasualties.org/oif/

Police search for shooter in mall slaying Tukwila, Washington.

Police search for shooter in mall slaying
Story Highlights
Police trying to determine if mall shooting was gang-related

Some people said group of teens had been involved in a fight

Store manager: "Parents grabbed their kids and ran out of there"

Mall placed on lockdown while police search for suspect


(CNN) -- Authorities continued to search for the person who shot one man to death and critically injured another Saturday evening at a shopping center in Tukwila, Washington.



The shooting victims, believed to be in their 20s, were removed from the Westfield Southcenter on stretchers and taken to Harborview Medical Center, police spokesman Mike Murphy said Saturday.

He didn't know how many times they were shot.

A woman who appeared to go into labor and a man who suffered a neck injury as people rushed from the shopping area were also taken to the hospital, Murphy said.

Eyewitness Chris Plummer told CNN affiliate KIRO-TV there was a fight between a group of 18- to 20-year-olds, and one of them pulled out a gun and started shooting. Plummer told KIRO-TV he was standing next to the shooter when bullets started to fly -- six to seven shots in all.

Murphy told KIRO-TV that authorities are trying to determine whether the shooting was gang-related.

The mall was placed on lockdown as SWAT teams searched store-to-store for the shooter. At least two people were detained for questioning, but neither was the shooter, Murphy said.

Shoppers and employees described a chaotic scene.
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http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/11/23/mall.shooting/index.html

PTSD:“Killing really changed me.”

When I was in Ohio for the IFOC conference, I was interviewed by another chaplain who is also a therapist. I told her about the depth of cuts. They come in all sizes when we're talking about PTSD. Combat soldiers have the deepest cuts because they are exposed to horrific events more often and they are also forced to kill. The second comes the police officers, there again, horrific events and often they are force to kill. The third level are the National Guards, reservists and firefighters. They are exposed to horrific events as well, but in their core, they do what they do in order to help. Most never think of having to take a life when they enter into the world of the citizen soldiers but they find themselves in combat between Iraq and Afghanistan, a rock and a hard place. The numbers are higher for the citizen soldiers but I believe the depth of the wound is higher in the soldiers, then the Marines, Navy and Air Force. Each time they kill, the cut of the wound sinks deeper.

I do not come to this conclusion lightly. It's from years of communicating with them online. It comes from listening to them from different walks of life. Just as I believe the God factor plays a huge role in the wounded warriors, also from what they've said, it does not take a lot to see what connects them and what makes them different.

Study: PTSD rates higher for troops who kill

By Kelly Kennedy - Staff writer
Posted : Saturday Nov 22, 2008 12:51:21 EST

CHICAGO — New research presented at the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies shows post-traumatic stress disorder rates are higher in service members who have had to kill someone.

Shira Maguen, health sciences assistant clinical professor at the University of California, began her research when she realized that the Vietnam vets she treated at the San Francisco VA Medical Center were “really struggling with taking another life,” she said, adding that they often told her: “Killing really changed me.”

She started hearing the same complaint from veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but found “there’s not much discussion” about the issue in VA and Pentagon research. She and her colleagues decided to look into past research to see if there was a correlation between those who had killed and those who had mental health issues. They found that killing is “strongly predictive of PTSD.”

She talked to 259 veterans involved in the National Vietnam Veterans Readjustment Study, and found that if a person had killed someone, they were 3½ times more likely to have symptoms of PTSD than someone who hadn’t killed.
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http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/11/military_ptsdkill_112208w/

Staff Sgt. Travis Twiggs and the story behind the story

Here's the story behind the story. It isn't written in the article from Bill Finnegan in this version or the one the New Yorker published.


Dear Ms. Costos,

I've recently started researching a story about the difficulties faced by soldiers now returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. I know that a lot of journalism has already been produced on this subject, but it seems to me that PTSD and related problems can't get too much publicity. The New Yorker is also able to devote more time and space to a subject such as this one than most other magazines and news outlets are.

Subject:
New Yorker Magazine interview
Date:
7/9/2008 6:02:58 P.M. Eastern Standard Time
From:
billfinn@rcn.com
Reply To:
To:
Namguardianangel@aol.com
I would like to speak to you, if you have a few minutes. I am looking for leads and insights and I gather, from what I've read so far, that you have a lot of experience in this area.

Please give me a call or drop me an email if you might be willing to chat.

Thanks.

Sincerely,
Bill Finnegan

William Finnegan
Staff Writer The New Yorker Magazine 4 Times Square New York, NY 10036 USA

Well, I emailed him back and we spent about an hour on the phone. Bill spent some time on my blog and picked the "subject" which turned out to be Travis Twiggs. In July he emailed me that he was in Texas.

When I first posted the link to the New Yorker, I was devastated. Finnegan said that he was using some quotes from me but said his editor cut me out of the story. I thought for once the videos I did would finally get some attention because the need is so great. I keep getting contacted by reporters and others working on PTSD and they will pick my brain dry, which is fine but when I am stuck in obscurity no matter what I know or how many hours a day I spend doing this, they don't take any of this into consideration at all.

When this article was in the New Yorker, I decided to avoid doing a rant but now that the UK picked it up, enough is enough. There is always someone behind these reporters giving them the stories they cover. When it came to Travis Twigg, there was another one working on this story, to make sure the world did not forget about him. Lily Casura at http://www.healingcombattrauma.com/ also had her site gone over looking for information on Travis by Bill and other reporters. When it came time to publish the stories by these so called reporters, none of them gave her any credit either. Just go into her site and see how well she covered the story of this hero who was let down. Had it not been for us, he would have ended up just another veteran who met a tragic end. We did not let the story die but the "real reporters" who have their names published around the net did until they thought they had an easy way to cover this.

It's one thing to spend countless hours a day trying to bring the suffering of our veterans into the light of day, doing it for the sake of helping them, without much financial gain, and another to use people like us.

I don't make a habit of posting emails I receive but if I just ranted about this without proving it, no one would believe me. I've been doing this for 26 years! I track it everyday and live with it so all of this is personal to me. I take this so personally that in 2004, the hours I spend were taking too much time and I was working too many hours. I figured Florida would give me the chance to do this full time and work a part time job for the income. In February of 2005 I started my other blog after several others and 9,992 posts later, you can see how much went into that one. It's at http://www.namguardianangel.blogspot.com/.

Last year, I started this one to devote it to trauma, mainly focusing on the men and women who serve this nation and the veterans. This post is 4,781. Think of how much work goes into this. Think about all the articles I read that don't get posted. If it's the editor's fault when a reporter tires to give credit where credit is due, then they are eliminating getting their hands on stories people like me find. I know I will not be so willing to help a reporter the next time. As for the reporters who think they can just take the work other people do and get all the credit for it, you should think twice about doing it because you never know when a blogger will be so fed up with the way they are treated that they turn around a blast you publicly. Finnegan can live with the global fame he's getting for this, he has the true talent to write a compelling story but as for the state of his heart and conscience, that is left up to your own imagination.

Sergeant Travis Triggs: Driven over the edge
Times Online - UK
A US soldier tried to drive himself and his brother over the rim of the Grand Canyon. When that failed, he blew their brains out. What did the war do to Sergeant Travis Twiggs?

William Finnegan
When the Twiggs brothers got to the Grand Canyon, on May 12, Willard called his girlfriend, a married woman in Louisiana, on Travis’s mobile phone. She had to see the canyon someday, he said. “It will make the hair on your arms stand up.” A few minutes later, driving east along the South Rim past a spot called Twin Overlooks, Travis took a sharp left and drove his Toyota Corolla straight towards the 5,000ft drop. The Corolla jumped over the kerb, but did not take the plunge. It got caught in a small fir tree clinging just below the rim.

Travis and Willard Twiggs were not in trouble with the law. Willard, 38, was a former maritime-logistics specialist in New Orleans. He had been working in construction, intermittently, since Hurricane Katrina. Travis, 36, was a Marine Corps staff sergeant, a decorated combat veteran with one tour of duty in Afghanistan and four tours in Iraq. In January 2008 he had created a minor stir by writing an article about his struggle with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in the Marine Corps Gazette.

Twiggs emphasised his recovery; he soon found himself working with a new unit, the Wounded Warrior Regiment, spreading the word about the treatment and prevention of PTSD. In late April, he met President Bush at the White House. Rather than shake the president’s hand, Twiggs bear-hugged him, proclaiming: “Sir, I’ve served over there many times — and I would serve for you any time.”

Three weeks later, he tried to drive into the Grand Canyon. Witnesses said the brothers behaved oddly after the crash. They tried to reverse the Toyota out of the tree branches but could gain no traction. They did not want anyone to call for help. One seemed interested only in finding his cigarettes. They put on backpacks, said they were going to continue with their plans, and set off on foot before park rangers arrived. More likely, they went across the road and waited in the scrubby conifer forest while the rangers cleared the wreck.

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Disabled veteran's dream of a new home comes true

Laney Cope and her father, Joshua, test the water in the pool at their new Oakland home this week. (Gary W. Green, Orlando Sentinel)

Home at last: Disabled veteran's dream of a new home comes true
Nov 22, 2008
Darryl E. Owens | Sentinel Staff Writer
November 22, 2008
As soon as the Honda Element eased into the driveway Tuesday morning, a barefoot Laney Cope bolted from her car seat and scampered around to the passenger side to greet her father. The 2-year-old just couldn't wait. Neither could Joshua Cope.The doors of his adaptive vehicle couldn't open soon enough, the hydraulic ramp couldn't lower quickly enough, and his motorized wheelchair couldn't roll out of the hold fast enough. Finally, this was the day. Joshua and Erica Cope were homeowners.


The Copes' 3,775-square-foot house, nestled on a tree-lined half-acre plot in this west Orange County town, was built and paid for by West Orange Habitat for Humanity. The group's "Home at Last" project, which will be dedicated this morning at Oakland Avenue Charter School, was a pioneering venture to build a house for a severely injured veteran of the wars in Iraq or Afghanistan.

Its first recipient: Army Sgt. Joshua Cope.

Usually, recipients of Habitat houses must invest hundreds of hours of their own labor in building their home, which in the United States costs an average of $60,000. The "sweat equity" requirement was waived for the Copes.
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The Copes tour their new home Photos

Do you know a severely injured vet who need a home?
Josh Cope - Long journey back, a step at a time Photos

Two US Generals and Iraqi General survive suicide bomber

Close call

Senior leaders’ MRAP is destroyed by suicide bomb, but they survive
By Sean D. Naylor - Staff writer
Posted : Saturday Nov 22, 2008 8:05:14 EST

Two U.S. generals and an Iraqi general survived an Aug. 24 suicide car bomb attack that destroyed the armored vehicle in which they were riding.

The attack occurred as a convoy rolled out of Forward Operating Base Marez on the edge of Mosul, said Multi-National Division-North spokesman Maj. Dan Meyers. “They had just left the base,” he said.

The bomber aimed his car, packed with 800 pounds of explosives, at a mine-resistant, ambush-protected vehicle carrying Lt. Gen. Frank Helmick, commander of Multi-National Security Transition Command-Iraq, and Brig. Gen. Raymond “Tony” Thomas, assistant division commander for support of Multi-National Division-North. Also riding in the vehicle were an Iraqi general, a linguist and the MRAP crew, said MNSTC-I spokesman Col. Steven Wujciak, who added that he did not know the Iraqi general’s name.

The generals were on what Wujciak called “a normal battlefield circulation,” a phrase the military uses when senior leaders tour their areas of operations, visiting troops. Although the blast destroyed the vehicle and left a crater five feet deep and 10 feet wide, none of the vehicle’s occupants was seriously hurt, he said.

Thanks to the MRAP’s protection, the only casualty of the attack was the suicide bomber.
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http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/11/army_generals_112208w/

If you think you had a bad day, read this

Pasco man pulled from burning house, sent to jail
By Erin Sullivan, Times staff writer
Saturday, November 22, 2008

ZEPHYRHILLS — A few minutes before 11 o'clock Friday morning, Henry Morgan's wife called his cell phone. When he answered, he could barely make out her voice because she was crying.

"The house is on fire," she shouted.

And then the phone went dead.

Morgan didn't know if she was stuck inside the house. He kept trying to call her back, but her phone wouldn't pick up. He and his wife, Sherry, live in the 1,200-square-foot house with their three children — daughters Brandy, 17, and Sierra, 13, and son Cameron, 7 — along with several cats and dogs. One of the cats had just had kittens.

Morgan jumped in his pickup truck and sped to the house on Chester Drive in Zephyrhills. He and Sherry have been married for 20 years and the house is nearly paid off. But he works in construction and is only getting one or two days of work a week. Sherry, who had always been a stay-at-home mom, went to work at a daycare about a month ago. They didn't want to lose their house to foreclosure, so something had to go.

They canceled their homeowner's insurance.

When Morgan got to the house one side of it was engulfed in flames. There were three firetrucks, two rescue vehicles and tons of emergency workers. Morgan, 41, said he didn't see his wife or children or pets so he thought they were inside the house.

And he ran toward it.

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http://www.tampabay.com/news/publicsafety/fire/article912912.ece

St. Petersburg Times hero to single mom laid off

November 21, 2008
Followup: Readers respond to unemployed single mom's story
At least six people want to interview Annie Lesso for a job.
Dozens more want to donate money to her and help her give her kids Christmas. Others want to give her advice.
Dozens of readers reacted to Lesso's story, which appeared in the St. Petersburg Times Friday, and detailed her plight trying to get a job in the current economy.
Lesso, a 45-year-old widow, was laid off Oct. 1 from her job as an airline manager. She has sent out 200 resumes and has not received one reply.
"There have been many articles in the Times that I wanted to respond to and offer some assistance,'' wrote Sandi Ford of St. Petersburg. "I had to respond to this one because it hit so close to home. I have been a single working mother most of my adult life and have been laid off twice so I know what Annie Lesso is going through. I felt exactly the way she does - that my faith would get me through - and it did.''
Several said they might have a job opportunity for Lesso. One paramedic company wanted to interview her for a management position that paid $45,000, the same amount she was making before she was laid off.
Another wanted to talk to her about a new career. "Your story about Annie Lesso was compelling and made me cry,'' wrote Lynne Herrick of Valrico, a district sales manager at American Family Life Assurance Co. "I have been a single mom and know the emotional strain it can put on you, knowing you are the provider of your children and yet through all of this she relies on God and is reaching out to others in her church. What an amazing woman!''

Related content:Lesso's struggles show job crisis is far-reaching

Angel to homeless, Brenden Foster died in his mom's arms

May the Good Lord comfort Wendy and Brenden's family. This little angel changed the world for the better.
Brenden Foster: 'I had a great time'
Brenden Foster, who inspired countless people around the world with his wish to feed the homeless, died early Friday in his mother's arms. He was 11. Read more »
By Elisa Jaffe BOTHELL, Wash. -- The day I met Brenden Foster, I met an old soul in an 11 year old's body.

"I should be gone in a week or so," he said calmly.

When I asked him what he thought were the best things in life, Brenden said, "Just having one."

I didn't understand how this child, who was a year younger than my own son, could be so courageous facing death.

"It happens. It's natural," Brenden told me.

Three years ago, doctors diagnosed Brenden with leukemia. The boy who once rushed through homework so he could play outside found himself confined to a bed. But there was no confining his spirit.

"I had a great time. And until my time comes, I'm going to keep having a great time," he said.

Brenden's selfless dying wish was to help the homeless.

"They're probably starving, so give'em a chance," he said, "food and water."

But Brenden was too ill to feed them on his own. So volunteers from Emerald City Lights Bike Ride passed out some 200 sandwiches to the homeless in Seattle.

Then Brenden's last wish took on a life of its own.

A TV station in Los Angeles held a food drive. School kids in Ohio collected cans. People in Pensacola, Florida gathered goods.

And here in Western Washington, KOMO viewers from all over took part in the Stuff the Truck food drive in Brenden's honor. Hundreds with generous hearts donated six and a half huge truck loads of groceries and more than $60,000 in cash to benefit Northwest Harvest and Food Lifeline.

Brenden touched hearts all over the world. His wish came true, and he lived to see it.
"He had the joy of seeing all of the beautiful response to his last wish," said his grandmother, Patricia McMorrow. "It gives him great peace and he knows that his life has meaning."

"He's left a legacy and he's only 11," said his mother, Wendy Foster. "He's done more than most people dream of doing just by making a wish."


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