Troops give new meaning to distance learning
Darryl E. Owens Sentinel Staff Writer
March 31, 2009
The day starts before 8a.m. for Jonathan Richman, a religious-program specialist 2nd class with the U.S. Navy, based at Joint Task Force-Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
After a day spent boosting troop morale and interacting with detainees, the petty officer 2nd class typically clocks out at 5p.m. He plays some racquetball, tends to his room and laundry, then pulls up a seat and dives into deep discussions with his legal-studies classmates at the University of Central Florida.
The Orlando campus might be miles from the military base, but online-degree programs are growing in appeal for veterans who've suffered grievous injuries and service members such as Richman whose worldwide deployments underscore the term "distance" learning.
"The biggest advantage of online education is the ability to 'attend' class when it is convenient for me," said the 25-year-old from Orlando. "If I feel like it, I can sign on in the middle of the night and do some homework, take a quiz or ask a question via e-mail or the bulletin board."
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Troops give new meaning to distance learning
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Three Fort Benning Soldiers awarded medals of valor
3 Benning soldiers awarded medals for actions
The Associated Press
Posted : Tuesday Mar 31, 2009 11:16:20 EDT
FORT BENNING, Ga. — Three Fort Benning soldiers have been awarded medals of valor for their action in Afghanistan.
The honors Monday were for action in the Battle of Wanat on July 13, 2008. Silver stars went to Capt. Matthew E. Myer and Sgt. Michael T. Denton. A bronze star with a V device was awarded to Sgt. 1st Class David L. Dzwik.
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3 Benning soldiers awarded medals for actions
The Associated Press
Posted : Tuesday Mar 31, 2009 11:16:20 EDT
FORT BENNING, Ga. — Three Fort Benning soldiers have been awarded medals of valor for their action in Afghanistan.
The honors Monday were for action in the Battle of Wanat on July 13, 2008. Silver stars went to Capt. Matthew E. Myer and Sgt. Michael T. Denton. A bronze star with a V device was awarded to Sgt. 1st Class David L. Dzwik.
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3 Benning soldiers awarded medals for actions
Fort Hood Soldier home on leave killed near Fort Bragg
Soldier shot on leave is identified
Staff report
Posted : Tuesday Mar 31, 2009 12:20:23 EDT
A soldier from Fort Hood, Texas, who was home on leave from Afghanistan died Sunday after he was shot at a club in Spring Lake, N.C., just outside Fort Bragg, officials said Tuesday.
Spc. Charles Corrothers Clements, 27, of Baltimore was assigned to 1st Battalion, 6th Field Artillery Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division.
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Soldier shot on leave is identified
Staff report
Posted : Tuesday Mar 31, 2009 12:20:23 EDT
A soldier from Fort Hood, Texas, who was home on leave from Afghanistan died Sunday after he was shot at a club in Spring Lake, N.C., just outside Fort Bragg, officials said Tuesday.
Spc. Charles Corrothers Clements, 27, of Baltimore was assigned to 1st Battalion, 6th Field Artillery Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division.
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Soldier shot on leave is identified
Mental Health America awarded grant for Native Americans
Mental Health America Awarded Grant To Deliver Culturally Appropriate Support For Native Americans With Serious Mental Illness
Regional Approach to Eliminating
Behavioral Health Disparities
Contact: Steve Vetzner, (703) 797-2588 or svetzner@mentalhealthamerica.net
ALEXANDRIA, Va. (March 31, 2009)-Mental Health America today announced it has been awarded a $750,000 grant by Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation to develop culturally appropriate support for Native Americans with serious mental illness and in rural and frontier communities.
The program takes a regional approach toward eliminating behavioral health disparities among Native American and frontier populations.
The funding will be used to develop a peer-to-peer program for use in the Navajo and Ute Nations region in tribal lands in the Four Corners area (the borders of Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and Arizona).
Mental Health America will also create education programs to help reduce the stigma and discrimination around mental health disabilities in the frontier and tribal lands of North Dakota.
Among the approaches to be used will be creation of leadership groups within tribal communities focusing on behavioral health, and peer-led mental health programs in tribal and frontier communities. Each year, 30 peer specialists are expected to graduate from peer-to-peer training to staff these programs.
Mental health America will work with MHA affiliates in Utah, New Mexico, Colorado and North Dakota to implement the program.
Many obstacles exist that prevent adequate and culturally competent behavioral health care in rural areas and for Native American populations. These include scarcity of professional staff, a lack of cultural and linguistically competent providers, discrimination and social stigma, a real fear that confidentiality won't be protected, financing and reimbursement issues, insufficient integration of behavioral (mental and substance use) with physical health, little prevention efforts, transportation difficulties and low numbers of providers.
Native Americans suffer from higher rates of suicide, alcohol abuse and/or dependence, post-traumatic stress disorder, fetal alcohol syndrome, poverty, homelessness and unemployment than any other cultural group.
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Mental Health America Awarded Grant
Regional Approach to Eliminating
Behavioral Health Disparities
Contact: Steve Vetzner, (703) 797-2588 or svetzner@mentalhealthamerica.net
ALEXANDRIA, Va. (March 31, 2009)-Mental Health America today announced it has been awarded a $750,000 grant by Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation to develop culturally appropriate support for Native Americans with serious mental illness and in rural and frontier communities.
The program takes a regional approach toward eliminating behavioral health disparities among Native American and frontier populations.
The funding will be used to develop a peer-to-peer program for use in the Navajo and Ute Nations region in tribal lands in the Four Corners area (the borders of Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and Arizona).
Mental Health America will also create education programs to help reduce the stigma and discrimination around mental health disabilities in the frontier and tribal lands of North Dakota.
Among the approaches to be used will be creation of leadership groups within tribal communities focusing on behavioral health, and peer-led mental health programs in tribal and frontier communities. Each year, 30 peer specialists are expected to graduate from peer-to-peer training to staff these programs.
Mental health America will work with MHA affiliates in Utah, New Mexico, Colorado and North Dakota to implement the program.
Many obstacles exist that prevent adequate and culturally competent behavioral health care in rural areas and for Native American populations. These include scarcity of professional staff, a lack of cultural and linguistically competent providers, discrimination and social stigma, a real fear that confidentiality won't be protected, financing and reimbursement issues, insufficient integration of behavioral (mental and substance use) with physical health, little prevention efforts, transportation difficulties and low numbers of providers.
Native Americans suffer from higher rates of suicide, alcohol abuse and/or dependence, post-traumatic stress disorder, fetal alcohol syndrome, poverty, homelessness and unemployment than any other cultural group.
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Mental Health America Awarded Grant
Congress passes bill to make Vets’ Corps
Congress passes bill to make Vets’ Corps
By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday Mar 31, 2009 16:28:19 EDT
Legislation that would create a Veterans’ Corps as a new element of the AmeriCorps national service plan has passed Congress and is on its way to the White House for President Barack Obama’s signature.
Rep. Phil Hare, D-Ill., one of the chief sponsors of the Veterans’ Corps portion of the national service expansion, said he has high hopes for the new program that will give veterans a way to help other veterans make the transition to civilian life.
By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday Mar 31, 2009 16:28:19 EDT
Legislation that would create a Veterans’ Corps as a new element of the AmeriCorps national service plan has passed Congress and is on its way to the White House for President Barack Obama’s signature.
Rep. Phil Hare, D-Ill., one of the chief sponsors of the Veterans’ Corps portion of the national service expansion, said he has high hopes for the new program that will give veterans a way to help other veterans make the transition to civilian life.
The bill, HR 1388, does not specify how many people will be able to sign up for the Veterans’ Corps, but it greatly expands the size of the U.S. national service program.
Under the bill, which lawmakers decided to name the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act, the number of national service positions would be about 88,000 in 2010 but would grow to 250,000 by 2017.go here for more
Medically unfit still being deployed?
Medically unfit being deployed?
By Tony Lombardo - Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday Mar 31, 2009 16:33:47 EDT
Conflicting policies, inaccurate records, and uninformed commanders and medical providers all could play a role in the Army’s deployment of soldiers medically unfit to serve, according to an Army inspector general’s report.
It was obtained Monday by Army Times through a Freedom of Information Act request.
The report is a response to “numerous Congressional inquiries, media releases and complaints from soldiers and veteran organizations regarding the growing perception that the Army is deploying soldiers to Iraq and Afghanistan who are medically unfit,” the executive summary states.
Army Secretary Pete Geren called for an inspection of the Army’s medical deployment process June 18. Seven inspectors general and a team including representatives from Army G-1, Army Medical Command, the National Guard and the Army Reserve conducted the inspection.
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Medically unfit being deployed?
By Tony Lombardo - Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday Mar 31, 2009 16:33:47 EDT
Conflicting policies, inaccurate records, and uninformed commanders and medical providers all could play a role in the Army’s deployment of soldiers medically unfit to serve, according to an Army inspector general’s report.
It was obtained Monday by Army Times through a Freedom of Information Act request.
The report is a response to “numerous Congressional inquiries, media releases and complaints from soldiers and veteran organizations regarding the growing perception that the Army is deploying soldiers to Iraq and Afghanistan who are medically unfit,” the executive summary states.
Army Secretary Pete Geren called for an inspection of the Army’s medical deployment process June 18. Seven inspectors general and a team including representatives from Army G-1, Army Medical Command, the National Guard and the Army Reserve conducted the inspection.
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Medically unfit being deployed?
Two heroes catch falling baby in Lawrence MA
Two men praised after catching falling baby in Lawrence
March 31, 2009
By Brian R. Ballou, Globe Staff
LAWRENCE - It might have ended so differently, if Robert Lemire had not decided on pizza for dinner or if Alex Day had not come to the apartment on Haverhill Street for Bible study.
Neither might have seen the heart-stopping sight of a girl in a diaper and T-shirt dangling from an apartment window three stories above the ground, and they might not have been waiting to catch her when she finally fell.
Eighteen-month-old Caliah Clark survived a 30-foot plummet Sunday night and probably owes her life to the two men who ran to the spot below the window and caught her, one by the legs, another above the waist, and brought her, unhurt, back to her father in the apartment upstairs.
"When they saved my daughter's life, they saved my own life because if she would have been hurt, I don't know what I'd do," said the father, 28-year-old Randall Clark. "For them to be there to catch my daughter, it's unbelievable. Accidents do happen in a split second."
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Two men praised after catching falling baby in Lawrence
March 31, 2009
By Brian R. Ballou, Globe Staff
LAWRENCE - It might have ended so differently, if Robert Lemire had not decided on pizza for dinner or if Alex Day had not come to the apartment on Haverhill Street for Bible study.
Neither might have seen the heart-stopping sight of a girl in a diaper and T-shirt dangling from an apartment window three stories above the ground, and they might not have been waiting to catch her when she finally fell.
Eighteen-month-old Caliah Clark survived a 30-foot plummet Sunday night and probably owes her life to the two men who ran to the spot below the window and caught her, one by the legs, another above the waist, and brought her, unhurt, back to her father in the apartment upstairs.
"When they saved my daughter's life, they saved my own life because if she would have been hurt, I don't know what I'd do," said the father, 28-year-old Randall Clark. "For them to be there to catch my daughter, it's unbelievable. Accidents do happen in a split second."
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Two men praised after catching falling baby in Lawrence
Monday, March 30, 2009
Baltimore Sun Investigation reveals Army's risky medical practices
This was sent from Shelia over at Quilt of Tears. Agent Orange Quilt of Tears
Our troops guinea pigs? Does this surprise anyone?
Our troops guinea pigs? Does this surprise anyone?
Innovations were rushed to the battlefield without thorough testing
Investigation reveals Army's risky medical practices
By Robert Little mailto:%20robert.little@baltsun.com
March 28, 2009
The U.S. Army in recent years has rushed a number of medical innovations onto the battlefields in Iraq and Afghanistan with little testing or data to support them, and then altered or abandoned them when they didn't live up to expectations.Things like advanced battle dressings, a blood-clotting drug and alternative procedures for emergency blood transfusions were introduced into military hospitals without the rigorous review common in civilian hospitals, and Army officials sometimes changed or disregarded data from their own scientists that questioned their effectiveness, The Baltimore Sun found in an investigation.In some instances, wounded service members were among the first humans on whom the treatments were used. And while virtually all of the Army's published research supports the treatments, some Army studies concluding that they are ineffective or potentially dangerous haven't been published.The aggressive push is a point of pride to some Army doctors and officials, but others deride it as reckless and say they felt pressured to defy their own judgments in favor of the military's favored, but unproven, treatments.
Related links
Interview with Army surgeon general Audio
Factor VII timeline
Sun coverage: Factor VII
And controversy over the experimental nature of the Army's combat medicine continues in Iraq today. A new formula for blood transfusions, hailed by the Army as its greatest medical breakthrough of the war, has been adopted by civilian hospitals around the world, based largely on the military's experience. Some civilian studies also support it, yet others, including a two-year study at Baltimore's Shock Trauma center, raise doubts that the procedure works.
Among The Sun's findings:• Roughly 17,000 packages of a blood-clotting substance were shipped to Iraq last year for distribution to Army medics, despite warnings from the service's own scientists against using it on humans. It was quickly recalled when animal tests revealed potentially deadly complications.
• An $89 bandage given to every combat soldier and honored by the Army as one of its "greatest inventions" was deployed despite two unpublished studies from the service's research lab showing that it was no more effective than gauze. After mixed reports from the battlefield, it is being recalled and replaced.
• Liberal use of a blood-clotting drug, injected copiously into wounded soldiers in 2005 and 2006, became the Army's "standard operating procedure" more than a year before any clinical studies evaluating the drug's use on trauma patients had been completed. The drug has since proven largely ineffective in three unpublished Army studies and potentially dangerous in at least one, and is now used only in extreme cases.
• Transfusions of fresh whole blood, considered dangerous and unnecessary in civilian medicine, became standard treatments early in the Iraq war, based on anecdotes and theoretical arguments. They unwittingly exposed 20 or more patients in Iraq and Afghanistan to hepatitis. Studies of the practice have since found mixed results, and it is now used only in emergency situations.
Read the story on the investigation this Sunday in The Baltimore Sun.
New spotlight on child suicide
New spotlight on child suicide
Childhood suicide is being talked about with increasing candor, a change that became relevant last month when three Illinois children took their own lives.
Childhood suicide is being talked about with increasing candor, a change that became relevant last month when three Illinois children took their own lives.
"I'd say suicide-prevention education is following the same path as drug prevention in the 1990s," said Christine Mitchell, state director of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. "There's more resources ... more sharing of information. We need to stop whispering and start talking so kids can get the help they need." click link for more
"Losing a Marine to suicide is like abandoning a Marine in combat"
Marine Corps takes a new approach to suicide prevention
A dramatic, multimedia presentation is intended to get troops' attention. Suicide rates have shown an alarming increase.
By Tony Perry
March 28, 2009
Reporting from Camp Pendleton -- Forty-one Marines marched on command to the front of the hall and stared at hundreds of their comrades assembled Friday for a presentation ordered by top generals to try to stem a rising rate of suicide.
The Marines represented the number who took their own lives last year, more than were killed in Iraq (34) or in Afghanistan (27).
Losing a Marine to suicide, Col. Lori Reynolds told the group, is like abandoning a Marine in combat.
Marines must be more diligent in looking for signs that one of them is thinking of suicide, she said.
"Last year, we left 41 Marines out there on the battlefield," Reynolds said. "There were signs."
The suicides equaled a rate of 19 per 100,000 troops, up from 33 suicides and a rate of 16.5 in 2007, and 25 suicides and a rate of 12.9 in 2006.
Of the 41, 36 were junior enlisted, three were non-commissioned officers and two were officers. Twenty-nine shot themselves; 12 hanged themselves.
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Marine Corps takes a new approach to suicide prevention
A dramatic, multimedia presentation is intended to get troops' attention. Suicide rates have shown an alarming increase.
By Tony Perry
March 28, 2009
Reporting from Camp Pendleton -- Forty-one Marines marched on command to the front of the hall and stared at hundreds of their comrades assembled Friday for a presentation ordered by top generals to try to stem a rising rate of suicide.
The Marines represented the number who took their own lives last year, more than were killed in Iraq (34) or in Afghanistan (27).
Losing a Marine to suicide, Col. Lori Reynolds told the group, is like abandoning a Marine in combat.
Marines must be more diligent in looking for signs that one of them is thinking of suicide, she said.
"Last year, we left 41 Marines out there on the battlefield," Reynolds said. "There were signs."
The suicides equaled a rate of 19 per 100,000 troops, up from 33 suicides and a rate of 16.5 in 2007, and 25 suicides and a rate of 12.9 in 2006.
Of the 41, 36 were junior enlisted, three were non-commissioned officers and two were officers. Twenty-nine shot themselves; 12 hanged themselves.
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Marine Corps takes a new approach to suicide prevention
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