Parents Say Soldier Likely Committed Suicide

Parents Say Soldier Likely Committed Suicide
Family Says 25-Year-Old Was Depressed

POSTED: 3:48 pm EDT June 22, 2009

INDIANAPOLIS -- The family of an Indianapolis soldier who died last week in Iraq said they knew he was depressed, but didn't know how to help.

Army Spc. Chancellor A. Keesling, 25, died Friday in Baghdad, according to a release from the Department of Defense.

His parents, Jannett and Gregg Keesling, said that after talking with military officials and the soldier who found their son, they believe he committed suicide.

go here for more

http://www.theindychannel.com/news/19825379/detail.html

UPDATE to this

Soldier, 25, killed self in Iraq, family says

GI troubled by stress from an earlier tour and by quarrel with girlfriend, dad says
By Robert Annis - Indianapolis Star
Posted : Tuesday Jun 23, 2009 18:37:43 EDT

The family of an Indianapolis soldier who died in Baghdad last week confirmed Monday that he took his own life.

Army Spc. Chancellor Keesling, 25, Indianapolis, shot and killed himself Friday, just two weeks after he returned for his second tour of duty in Iraq and days after an argument with a girlfriend.

Keesling’s father, Gregg Keesling, said his son and his son’s wife had separated during his first tour, and he was despondent over the possibility that a second relationship was crumbling.

Chancellor Keesling suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder from his first tour, his father said, but neither his commanding officer nor fellow soldiers with the 961st Engineer Company out of Sharonville, Ohio, had any idea.

Keesling’s firearm, his father said, was taken away from him for one month during his initial deployment for fear he would harm himself.

Gregg Keesling applauded the military’s efforts to assist soldiers with mental health issues, but he said something as simple as the family having the e-mail address of the unit chaplain could have helped save his son’s life.

“We talked to him 15 hours earlier and told him to go see the chaplain, but he didn’t go,” he said. “There was enough time to get to someone to keep this from happening, but we didn’t know who (to talk to).”
go here for more
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2009/06/gns_soldier_suicide_062309/

It seems that Gregg Keesling has one of the answers to this. The families. They know the soldiers and veterans better than anyone else does. They know their character, their moods, everything that is a part of their lives. They are also the first ones to see when something isn't right and when they need help. Maybe part of the solution is to give all families the contact information for unit chaplains just in case they are needed.

Ex-Husband charged with killing Sgt. Shaneka Jones

FORT HOOD

Soldier stabbed to death

A Fort Hood soldier was fatally stabbed, and her civilian ex-husband is being charged with murder, an FBI official said Monday.

Fort Hood police found the soldier wounded in her home on the post after receiving a 911 call about 3 a.m. Monday, Army officials said. Emergency responders could not revive her, and she was pronounced dead at a nearby Army hospital.

Sgt. Shaneka Jones, 26, apparently had been arguing with Donovan Lair, 36, before she was stabbed once in the chest, FBI spokesman Erik Vasys said. Lair was detained at the house by military police, Vasys said.

Because Lair is not a soldier, he was taken into custody by FBI agents and taken from Killeen to Waco, where he appeared before a federal magistrate Monday, Vasys said.

Lair was ordered to be detained until a preliminary hearing Thursday, when bail will be discussed, Vasys said.
Soldier stabbed to death

GOP WAR AGAINST VETERANS: NO ACT TOO LOW

To top all of this off, she has no clue what she is quoting to congress.,,,This is part of her testimony to congress and in on the AEI website.....Satel was talking about not granting full disability to a young veteran because it would discourage him from healing and going back to work.

This is a good place to mention remission rates of PTSD. According to the National Vietnam Veterans' Readjustment Study (NVVRS, 1988) fifty percent of those who develop the diagnosis of PTSD will recover fully over time. A recent re-analysis of the NVVRS, (Science, vol. 313 18 August 2006) found the lifetime rate of PTSD to be 18.7 percent vs. point prevalence (current) of 9.1 percent. Notably, those with a lifetime history of PTSD but not current PTSD exhibited virtually no lingering functional impairment at the time of assessment. Thus, to grant total disability compensation in light of a fifty percent chance of total remission (and a much higher chance of achieving partial or near-total remission) makes little sense.

http://www.aei.org/speech/28034

Yet read this. Either she out and out lied to congress about this report or she had no clue what it meant.


This is from the National Center for PTSD

Epidemiological Facts about PTSD
What causes Posttraumatic Stress Disorder? How common is it? Who gets it?
These questions are asked by epidemiologists, and two major epidemiological studies have produced some answers.

Several studies have been conducted in the history of the US to examine how prevalent PTSD is in the general population or in special populations. The National Vietnam Veterans Readjustment Survey (NVVRS), conducted between November 1986 and February 1988, comprised interviews of 3,016 American veterans selected to provide a representative sample of those who served in the armed forces during the Vietnam era. The National Comorbidity Survey (NCS), conducted between September 1990 and February 1992, comprised interviews of a representative national sample of 8,098 Americans aged 15 to 54 years. The most recent National Comorbidity Survey Report, published in 2005 on a newer sample, estimated lifetime prevalence of PTSD among adult Americans at 6.8%.

The earlier NCS data set estimated prevalence of lifetime PTSD to be 7.8% in the general adult population, with women (10.4%) twice as likely as men (5%) to have PTSD at some point in their lives. This represents a small portion of those who have experienced at least one traumatic event; 60.7% of men and 51.2% of women reported at least one traumatic event. The most frequently experienced traumas were:

Witnessing someone being badly injured or killed
Being involved in a fire, flood, or natural disaster
Being involved in a life-threatening accident
Combat exposure
The majority of the people in the NCS experienced two or more types of trauma. More than 10% of men and 6% of women reported four or more types of trauma during their lifetimes.

The traumatic events most often associated with PTSD in men were rape, combat exposure, childhood neglect, and childhood physical abuse. For women, the most common events were rape, sexual molestation, physical attack, being threatened with a weapon, and childhood physical abuse.

However, none of these events invariably produced PTSD in those exposed to it, and a particular type of traumatic event did not necessarily affect different sectors of the population in the same way.

The NCS report concluded that "PTSD is a highly prevalent lifetime disorder that often persists for years. The qualifying events for PTSD are also common, with many respondents reporting the occurrence of quite a few such events during their lifetimes."

The National Vietnam Veterans Readjustment Survey (NVVRS)
The NVVRS report provided the following information about Vietnam War veterans:

PTSD
The estimated lifetime prevalence of PTSD among American Vietnam theater veterans is 30.9% for men and 26.9% for women. An additional 22.5% of men and 21.2% of women have had partial PTSD at some point in their lives. Thus, more than half of all male Vietnam veterans and almost half of all female Vietnam veterans -about 1,700,000 Vietnam veterans in all- have experienced "clinically serious stress reaction symptoms."

15.2% of all male Vietnam theater veterans (479,000 out of 3,140,000 men who served in Vietnam) and 8.1% of all female Vietnam theater veterans (610 out of 7,200 women who served in Vietnam) are currently diagnosed with PTSD ("Currently" means 1986-88 when the survey was conducted).

Other problems of Vietnam veterans
Forty percent of Vietnam theater veteran men have been divorced at least once (10% had two or more divorces), 14.1% report high levels of marital problems, and 23.1% have high levels of parenting problems.

Almost half of all male Vietnam theater veterans currently suffering from PTSD had been arrested or in jail at least once -34.2% more than once- and 11.5% had been convicted of a felony.

The estimated lifetime prevalence of alcohol abuse or dependence among male theater veterans is 39.2%, and the estimate for current alcohol abuse or dependence is 11.2%. The estimated lifetime prevalence of drug abuse or dependence among male theater veterans is 5.7%, and the estimate for current drug abuse or dependence is 1.8%.

Because the NVVRS sample size underrepresented members of certain ethnic minorities, the Matsunaga Vietnam Veterans Project undertook further epidemiological research among Native American, Asian American, and Pacific Islander veterans. These findings are summarized in two separate National Center for PTSD fact sheets.

This Fact Sheet Was Based On:
Richard A. Kulka et al., Trauma and the Vietnam War Generation: Report of Findings from the National Vietnam Veterans Readjustment Study (New York: Brunner/Mazel, 1990; ISBN 0-87630-573-7)

Ronald C. Kessler et al., Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in the National Comorbidity Survey Archives of General Psychiatry, 52(12), 1048-1060 (December 1995)

http://www.ncptsd.va.gov/ncmain/ncdocs/fact_shts/fs_epidemiological.html

This piece is right to the point. Sally Satel has been an abomination. She has assaulted veterans from coast to coast with her insults and accusations, claiming PTSD is fake, even though police officers carry this wound as well. I would hate to be her if she gets pulled over for a DWI or speeding ticket and finds herself face to face with a cop on the beat she insulted when he was coming back from Iraq. Her refusal to acknowledge these remarkable men and women, our troops and our veterans, along with this wound they have carried within them, accusing them of looking for a free ride, after they were willing to die so that people like her could shoot their mouths off, is nothing less than treason to every man and woman that has laid down their lives for this nation.

What is worse is that she was held up as an expert on PTSD at the same time the troops and veterans were killing themselves instead of seeking help for PTSD. As an advisor and expert, she is responsible for what all of her advice lead to. People like her did more damage to our veterans than any enemy bullet ever could.

Op-Ed Contributor
For Some, the War Won't End

By Sally Satel
Published: March 1, 2006
Washington

ACCORDING to a report from its inspector general, the Department of Veterans Affairs is now paying compensation for post-traumatic stress disorder to nearly twice as many veterans as it did just six years ago, at an annual cost of $4.3 billion. What's more surprising is that the flood of recent applicants does not, for the most part, consist of young soldiers just returned from Iraq and Afghanistan. Rather they are Vietnam veterans in their 50's and 60's who claim to be psychologically crippled now by their service of decades ago.

This leads to an obvious question: Can it really take up to 40 years after a trauma before someone realizes he can no longer cope with the demands of civilian life? The answer: possibly, but it is often hard to know which applicants can be helped with short-term psychiatric care, which are seeking a free ride and which are truly deserving of the diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder and thus long-term care and payments of up to $2,300 a month for life. The task before the Veterans Affairs Department is to come up with criteria.

Medically speaking, there is some evidence to support what psychiatrists call "reactivated" post-traumatic stress disorder. The literature is dotted with cases of veterans of World War I, World War II and the Korean War who, after briefly showing signs of stress disorders in the immediate aftermath of their ordeals, led productive lives for decades before breaking down in their 60's and 70's. Little is known about the treatment of reactivated symptoms, but there is reason to be optimistic that patients will recover nicely in view of their having functioned well for so long.

But it's also very likely that some of the veteran baby boomers who have filed claims in recent years did so not out of medical need but out of a desire for financial security in their retirement years. Indeed, 40 percent of last year's claimants had been out of the military for 35 to 49 years.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/01/opinion/01satel.html?_r=1

Is Satel suggesting that a Vietnam veteran returned, worked all these years and is so greedy they are willing to subject themselves to being called "crazy" by their friends? Does she understand the stigma still attached to this? It's because they are finally finding out what has been "wrong" with them all these years. I'm still contacted by Vietnam veterans just now hearing the term PTSD! It's not that they are finally deciding to show up at the VA to secure their old age. They already did that by working! There is no excuse for this from someone who worked for the VA.

Are there frauds? Yes. Some of their stories have been on this blog, but considering how low the percentage is, that is not the problem here. We have more veterans, as a matter of fact, half of the men and women with PTSD seek help, which means, half of them do not. Doesn't Satel get this?

Apparently not. While she is a psychiatrist, what was her training in? Is she among the ranking real experts on PTSD? The ones I trust, like Dr. Jonathan Shay? Or did the Bush Administration just need someone to slam the troops and the veterans? I've been asking that question for years wondering why it is that the experts I read never seemed to have been the people showing up to testify before Congress. Maybe this question has just been answered.

Special Report: THE GOP WAR AGAINST VETERANS: NO ACT TOO LOW
Posted on June 21, 2009 by gordonduff
THE AMERICAN ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE AND DR. SALLY SATEL

EVERY VET A MALINGERER AND PHONY

By Gordon Duff STAFF WRITER

With the Keith Roberts hearing coming up, perhaps we should look at the mechanism that gave the government the ability to destroy veterans files, even imprison veterans who filed appeals, such as Keith Roberts.

Giving full aid and comfort to the enemies of America's veterans is the American Legion and VFW, two groups that stand, side by side with the Republican politicans and the conservative think tanks that work to eliminate veterans benefits and GI Bill enhancement.

THE AEI: NOMINEE FOR THE COVETED AIRPORT SPITTER AWARD

"Conservative" means "saving money" and "keeping soldiers as slaves onto death." Whether we are talking John McCain or Burr or Graham or two dozen others, these patriotic heroes have done nothing over the years but receive continual support from our favorite veterans groups for gutting military and veterans benefits.

With a series of "think tanks" selling pseudo science, most of them got their feet wet with decades of "smoking and lung cancer denial," or similar idiocy, the American Enterprise Institute stands out as the lead in the war against American heroes.

Even more maniacal and radical than the Heritiage Foundation, private "rubber stamp" for the schemes of Amway/Blackwater, Coors extremism and Richard Mellon Scaife, private funder for the failed Clinton impeachment, the AEI focuses on destroying veterans.

Their primary tool is a Doctor Sally Satel. Satel is an "odd duck" who believes that secret groups of extremist veterans, when not busy trying to overthrow the government or tap her telephone, plot to destroy the American economy by faking symptoms of PTSD after experiencing combat.

The Bush 2005 attempt to stop all payments to veterans receiving disability for PTSD was based on her politically inspired writing.

Standing against Satel, Bush and then VA director Nicholson was Senator Barak Obama, now president and under continual attack from, not only conservative groups, but clandestinely by mainstream veterans organizations.

Satel claims that the price for treating PTSD will go over $4 billion dollars and this will bankrupt the United States
go here for more
http://www.veteranstoday.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=7413

Armed Man Holed Up In Home in South Daytona

Armed Man Holed Up In Home
Monday, June 22, 2009 6:37:23 PM

Reported By Saul Saenz

SOUTH DAYTONA -- A man armed with a gun is inside a home, and police told News 13 the man shot at them.

Police said it started at the Palm Garden Apartments on Segrave Street.

They told News 13 the man was shooting up into the air when an officer on a motorcycle approached him. The suspect then fired at the officer.

A pursuit ensued and ended at Boulder Drive and Magnolia Avenue.

The suspect apparently hit a truck when he turned onto Boulder Drive.

A man working on a vehicle outside a duplex in the 900 block on Boulder ran inside the home and warned family members as the suspect made his way inside the duplex.

The family barricaded themselves in the master bedroom.
go here for more
http://www.cfnews13.com/News/Local/2009/6/22/armed_man_holed_up_in_home.html

Two Metro Trains Crash, 7 dead

Two Dead, Many Injured in Red Line Collision
Two Metro trains were involved in a collision between the Takoma and Fort Totten stations at about 5 p.m., leaving two people dead and many seriously injured, according to preliminary reports. Here's a link to a Twitter picture, a screen shot from Channel 9. It shows one train car resting on top of another.

D.C. Fire/EMS spokesman Alan Etter said: "We have a number of injuries. We have at least one fatality. And we have dozens of injuries. The fire depatment is still in the proecess of extricating people from the cars. We're using heavy rescue equipment to cut open the cars to get whoever's trapped in there out."

"There will obviously be a very thorough investigation into what caused this derailment," said Metro spokeswoman Lisa Farbstein. She said there were "many serious injuries" and that passengers were being taken to hospitals."Our hearts are with the families of those who have passed," she said............

Posted at 5:43 PM ET, 06/22/2009
At Least 1 Dead, 9 Hurt in Metro Crash: Report
A Metro representative has just told ABC-7 television that one person died and at least one was injured in the collision near Fort Totten. CNN has also reported the death.

go here for updates and the rest
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/getthere/?hpid=topnews

Two D.C. Metro trains collide, 4 confirmed dead
Two Metro trains collided between stations north of downtown Washington, D.C., during afternoon rush hour Monday, killing at least four people, CNN has confirmed. The crash occurred just before 5 p.m. on an above-ground track on the Red Line near Takoma Park, Maryland. At least nine people have been hurt, a Metro representative said, according to CNN affiliate WJLA. full story


UPDATE June 23
Death toll 7 in D.C. Metro crash
Story Highlights
NEW: Next-of-kin notifications to begin Tuesday morning, D.C. mayor says

Official death toll in accident is 7, mayor says; as many as 9 reported earlier

Traffic on the Red Line will be "severely" affected Tuesday, officials say

One train was stationary when crash happened, Metro official says



WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Seven people were killed in a rush-hour collision between two Metro trains in Washington on Monday, D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty said Tuesday.
There had been conflicting figures on the number of deaths.

Fenty said 76 people were taken to hospitals, including two who were in critical condition. Their conditions remained stable overnight, he said at a news conference. The condition of another critical patient was upgraded.

Two of the injured were emergency responders, said Washington Fire Chief Dennis Ruben.
go here for more
http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/06/23/washington.metro.crash/index.html

American Legion shines light on how claims are pushed away

“Body-count” Processing Must End at VA, Says The American Legion
National Commander Calls for Urgent Changes in Claims System

WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--An immediate overhaul of the Department of Veterans Affairs disability claims processing system is the only way out of a fast-growing nationwide backlog of unresolved cases, American Legion National Commander David K. Rehbein said after a congressional hearing last Thursday evening.

“As the backlog of claims approaches 1 million, and the needs of deserving veterans go unmet, VA can wait no longer to institute new and workable policies and procedures,” the leader of the nation’s largest veterans service organization said following a House Veterans Affairs subcommittee session on the problem.

Lawmakers heard compelling testimony from American Legion member David Bohan, a Gulf War Army combat veteran from Oregon who suffered service-connected permanent damage to his left foot as well as post-traumatic stress disorder. His disability claim is one of hundreds of thousands caught up in the VA backlog. Bohan’s story is among those highlighted in an extensive, three-part series of articles that debuted in the June issue of The American Legion Magazine.

The scope of the VA claims backlog problem and some potential solutions were detailed to subcommittee members by Ian dePlanque, assistant director of The American Legion’s Veterans Affairs and Rehabilitation Commission.

The VA’s so-called work-credit system, which awards a claims processor credit in “body-count” fashion for completion of a job even if errors occur, was criticized by The American Legion representative.

“To count work credit the same whether it is performed properly, or whether details are overlooked encourages corners to be cut,” dePlanque said. “In the past, it has been proposed that VA count work credit when a claim reaches a final decision. In that manner, the encouragement will be to perform every aspect of the claim correctly, as appeals over missed technical details will only hamper the process and create lengthy delays in the claims process.”
go here for more
Processing Must End at VA, Says The American Legion

Pilot buries helicopter crash survivor in sand

Pilot buries helicopter crash survivor in sand
Story Highlights
Helicopter pilot buries injured passenger in sand to save him from hypothermia

Pilot dragged him from crocodile-infested mudflats in Australia's Northern Territory

Helicopter crashed as they flew in low over mudflats to look for the giant reptiles

Passenger remains hospitalized Monday in serious but stable condition

By Saeed Ahmed
CNN

(CNN) -- A pilot dragged his passenger to safety and buried him neck-deep in sand to protect him from hypothermia Sunday night after their helicopter crashed in crocodile-infested mudflats in Australia's Northern Territory.
go here for more
http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/06/22/australia.chopper.crash/index.html

VA Launches 10-Year Health Study of 60,000 New Veterans

VA Launches 10-Year Health Study of 60,000 New Veterans



WASHINGTON (June 22, 2009) -- The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)
has initiated a large, long-term study to look carefully at a broad
array of health issues that may affect Operation Enduring
Freedom/Operation Iraqi Freedom (OEF/OIF) Veterans and their
counterparts who served during the same time period. VA's "National
Health Study for a New Generation of U.S. Veterans" will begin with
30,000 Veterans deployed to OEF/OIF and 30,000 comparison Veterans who
were not deployed.



"This study will help us fulfill President Obama's pledge to 'stand with
our Veterans as they face new challenges' by enabling us to understand
the health problems of our newest generation of combat Veterans," Dr.
Gerald M. Cross, VA's acting under secretary for health, said. "The
study's findings will help us plan more effectively to provide the best
care possible for these deserving Veterans."



The study will include Veterans who served in each branch of service,
representing active duty, Reserve, and National Guard members. Women
will be over-sampled to make sure they are represented and will comprise
20 percent of the study, or 12,000 women. A combination of mail
surveys, online surveys, telephone interviews, and in-person physical
evaluations will be used to collect data from the Veterans.



The study will compare the deployed and non-deployed Veterans in terms
of chronic medical conditions, traumatic brain injury (TBI), post
traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other psychological conditions,
general health perceptions, reproductive health, pregnancy outcomes,
functional status, use of health care, behavioral risk factors (smoking,
drinking, seatbelt use, speeding, motorcycle helmet use, and sexual
behavior), and VA disability compensation. VA has contracted with an
independent Veteran-owned research firm, HMS Technologies Inc., to
collect the data.



The Department of Veterans Affairs is responsible for providing federal
benefits to Veterans and their families. VA is the second largest of
the 15 cabinet departments and operates nationwide programs for health
care, financial assistance and burial benefits. The VA health care
system operates more than 1,400 sites of care. Nearly 5.5 million
people received care in VA health care facilities in 2008.

Veteran rebuilds life after brain injury

Veteran rebuilds life after brain injury

By Lindsay Wise - Houston Chronicle
Posted : Monday Jun 22, 2009 9:53:03 EDT

HOUSTON — Mark DeJaico hit rock bottom late last year at a Houston nightclub.

He had just worked up the nerve to chat with a cute girl when her friend interrupted them.

“She said: ‘What are you doing, talking to him? He’s kinda slow,’ ” DeJaico remembered. “Like I couldn’t even hear her.”

The 30-year-old Army veteran had developed a severe stutter after being knocked unconscious during a mortar attack in Afghanistan in 2006. Doctors diagnosed him with traumatic brain injury and generalized anxiety disorder.

Just getting his own name out of his mouth could take DeJaico half a minute. Every time he tried to talk, his heart thudded in his chest and his hands shook as his throat closed tight around the words. Sometimes, he just gave up and wrote things down.

For a military communications specialist who describes himself as talkative and happy-go-lucky, the impediment was devastating. “That’s why I didn’t talk to anybody anymore,” DeJaico said. “Especially civilians.”

A Rand Corp. study published last year estimated that out of 1.6 million troops who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, about 320,000 may have suffered a brain injury during deployment. The Defense Department reported in March that the number with brain injuries could be as high as 360,000, based on health screening programs that show 10 percent to 20 percent of returning troops experienced at least a mild concussion, most often caused by roadside bombs. Of those, 45,000 to 90,000 veterans have persistent symptoms that require specialized care, according to the Pentagon.

Earlier this year, DeJaico graduated from Project Victory, a collaborative between Houston’s TIRR Foundation and TIRR Memorial Hermann, which helps service members recover from traumatic brain injury.
go here for more
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2009/06/ap_veteran_braininjury_061909w/

Maryland Therapeutic Riding needs money, horses and volunteers

Tough soldiers find gentle care at riding center
Annapolis Capital - Annapolis,MD,USA
Maryland Therapeutic Riding needs money, horses and volunteers
By EARL KELLY, Staff Writer
Published 06/21/09
A disabled soldier, back from fighting in Iraq, leaned forward and rubbed the small gray mare's neck. He whispered to the horse, as if confiding in a girlfriend.

Across the arena, another injured warrior, a larger man, was leaning back in his saddle and actually appeared to be dozing off as the gelding named Dakota walked along gently in the arena at Maryland Therapeutic Riding in Crownsville.

"Talk about being in the moment - when you are up there, everything else is blocked out, everything else goes away," the group's founder, Naomi Parry, said as she looked out over the riding area.

Tears came to Parry's eyes on one occasion as one of the disabled riders leaned forward and put his arms around the horse's neck.

"That's enough to make you cry," she said.

A week later, on the following Wednesday, these soldiers were back at MTR, ready for more riding therapy.

The soldiers were from Fort George G. Meade's Warrior Transition Unit, an outfit consisting of about 145 soldiers, half of whom were injured fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.

click link for more

Shinseki Encourages Veterans, Families to Help Their Communities

VA Secretary Hits the Road to Highlight "United We Serve" Effort

Shinseki Encourages Veterans, Families to Help Their Communities



WASHINGTON (June 22, 2009) - Heeding President Obama's call for
Americans to commit themselves to meaningful, long-term service to their
communities as part of the "United We Serve" campaign, Secretary of
Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki spent part of his morning today
transporting patients to the Washington, D.C., VA Medical Center.



"We, who enjoy liberty's blessings, will forever remain in debt of the
men and women who served our nation in uniform," Secretary Shinseki
said. "Volunteering on their behalf is one way we can show our respect,
regard and devotion for their service."



He noted that the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has a long
tradition of volunteering. Last year over 80,000 people volunteered
more than 11 million hours to service to VA. They drove patients to
medical appointments, welcomed returning combat Veterans home, helped
homeless Veterans and donated time to maintain VA's 128 national
cemeteries.



Shinseki was joined by several members of VA's senior leadership.
Assistant Secretary L. Tammy Duckworth addressed a group of youth
volunteers about "Knowing and Respecting Disabled Veterans" and helped
escort a patient to a rehabilitation appointment. Assistant Secretaries
John U. Sepulveda and Roger W. Baker escorted patients to their
appointments at the D.C. VAMC. Assistant Secretary Jose D. Riojas and
Acting Assistant Secretary Karen W. Pane served meals at a local D.C.
shelter.



"There is no better way to honor America's heroes than to spend time
every week giving back to those who have already given so much,"
Shinseki said.



VA's principals and other cabinet officials and senior federal leaders
across the country highlighted the President's summer service program,
which encourages Americans to recommit themselves to improving their
communities. The campaign runs through September 11, which will be
National Day of Service and Remembrance.



The campaign, coordinated by the Corporation for National and Community
Services, is encouraging Americans to develop their own service programs
that benefit their communities. Toolkits for developing projects are
available online at www.serve.gov

Touched by an Angel

UPDATE June 23, 2008

Looks like I'm not so dumb after all,,,,but I may be forgetful. I was just doing a search and came across this. Reading it, I'm sure I read it before. I think you will want to read this too.

Symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, PTSD symptoms, survivor guilt and trauma caused by bullying, harassment, abuse and abusive life experiences
What is Post Traumatic Stress Disorder?
How do I recognise the symptoms of PTSD? How do I recover from PTSD?
Updated 4 November 2005
Please link to this page: stress/ptsd.htm

by
Chaplain Kathie

I am not talking about the series that used to be on TV about a well meaning angel coming to earth to help people understand God's love for them. I am talking about being touched by the angel trying to get you to find compassion within yourself enough so that you at least try to understand our veteran with PTSD.

My heart goes out to everyone suffering from this wounded spirit. Police, firefighters and emergency responders end up wounded trying to help others and being willing to risk their lives in order to do it. Regular citizens, just like you and me, end up wounded by PTSD after accidents, crimes and natural disasters yet we cannot understand how others, just like us, can end up with PTSD when they are serving the rest of us.

Soldiers, Marines, Sailors and Airmen, along with National Guardsmen, risk their lives all the time. In times of peace, the men and women in the military prepare to do it as they train to do it. National Guards train to rescue people when natural disasters hit and they train to fight. What no one ever thought about was training them to recover from what was required of them.

When regular citizens are exposed to traumatic events, the mental health community responds immediately. As a Chaplain, I'm trained to respond to all kinds of traumatic events to take care of the responders as well as the victims. Saturday I received further training from Disaster and Extreme Event Preparedness (DEEP) to be even more prepared to help. My training never ends. Why? Why would so much time and funding be invested in responding to what happens here? Because we acknowledge it is necessary to take care of our fellow humans. We need to be asking why it is no one is doing the same when it comes to the men and women serving in Iraq and Afghanistan or for our veterans.

They are exposed to traumatic events over and over and over again while they are deployed and as the campaigns go on in Iraq as well as Afghanistan, face being redeployed. Some have been on their 5th or more tour of duty. The chain of command seem to be stunned by the increase in PTSD, suicides and attempted suicides. What did they expect out of these humans?

All generations of veterans from every corner of the globe have faced this human wound. This is not some isolated illnesses nor is it simply generational but they have regarded it as unimportant until the last few years. Even now, they are taking the wrong steps to address the traumatic events of combat head on right after they happen, but the rest of us, well, we get help right away.

People like me spend time training on different programs to respond to humans in all walks of life following all kinds of traumatic events. The military however never saw the need to mobilize all the help they can get in helping our troops right after or even helping our veterans heal long after. Looking over their programs now they seem to be more focused on getting them to be tough enough to get thru what they are being sent into. This is all fine and dandy in part but they are not separating the battle training from the healing training. The troops end up getting mixed messages from programs like Battlemind telling them they can prepare to avoid the trauma getting to them.

DEEP training reminded me of the difference. When I hear something like "resilient" it sounds a lot different than the troops will hear the word.

characterized or marked by resilience: as a: capable of withstanding shock without permanent deformation or rupture b: tending to recover from or adjust easily to misfortune or change

The difference is, I've been trained to respond after the event while they are being trained to participate in the traumatic events. I hear the word and it translates into taking care of the responders and victims as fellow humans. When they hear the word, it translates into shutting down their emotions as humans. I hear the word and know I need to prepare for what I am to face so that I can take care of others. They hear the word and believe they have to be shut off from being human to kill others. Huge difference in how the word translates to these very two different paths.

A Marine in Afghanistan trained as a sniper aims at another sniper, but misses him, striking the child behind him. Can his training shut off the fact of what he just did? A National Guards solider, prepared to save lives, trains as a soldier to kill enemies. As he tosses a grenade into a home where it is believed a terrorist has been targeting the troops, he discovers there were women and children in that home and the terrorist cannot be found among the dead. Can his training shut off what he just did? He just spent most of his life training to save lives as a Guardsman but discovers he just killed a family much like his own back home.

Does the military see why the National Guardsmen and women are presenting with rates as high as 50% for PTSD? Do they really think telling them to become resilient will have them walk away as if things like this didn't just happen? Do they think it will work when they end up seeing someone they were just joking with blown up right in front of them?

Adrenalin can get them through it but it also comes back to bite them in the ass if they do not honor the human inside of them.

Adrenalin

Definition: Also known as epinephrine, adrenalin is a naturally occurring hormone. During the fight-or-flight response, the adrenal gland releases adrenalin into the blood stream, along with other hormones like cortisol, signaling the heart to pump harder, increasing blood pressure, opening airways in the lungs, narrowing blood vessels in the skin and intestine to increase blood flow to major muscle groups, and performing other functions to enable the body to fight or run when encountering a perceived threat.

This is why when a flashback comes, the response of their body is the same as when it happened.

If they do not get the same kind of help other humans get after traumatic events, the body and mind take over to fill in the gaps, often years later. The mind will reinvent the event itself until it is faced head on and acknowledged, treated and healed from. While time moves on and the event takes hold, more damage is done as the body and mind continue to get the person to pay attention to it and take action. While this is going on, other events cut the wounded spirit deeper forcing the body and mind to fight off the added traumatic event. Piled on and piled on, events become too much for the body and mind to attempt to take care of and they crash.

This happens all the time when a veteran is able to stuff all of this in the back of their minds and mask the symptoms with anything and everything to avoid it taking over their lives. Many veterans will spend years, as in the case of Vietnam veterans, stuffing it until the last straw is cast and mild PTSD becomes like a monster inside of them taking over every aspect of their lives.

One veteran reached out to me trying to understand because he had experienced an event in Vietnam he thought he coped with until he went to the Vietnam Memorial Wall in Washington and saw the names of the men fallen on that day. His secondary stressor hit him that hard, that fast and he never saw it coming. Looking back months later he discovered that he was masking the wound inside of him by smoking pot to calm his nerves. Had he received help to heal years before, his mild PTSD would not have become so all consuming he could no longer ignore any of it. He was and still is unable to work, unable to have a healthy relationship, avoids people and has developed a total lack of trust in others.

My husband came home with clear PTSD but had avoided it. My father was a Korean veteran and said "that guy has shell shock" the day he met him. What we didn't know back then because research was just beginning, was that it would get worse. That came with his secondary stressor and my best friend turned into a total stranger the day I miscarried the twins I was carrying.

Another Vietnam vet was working as a DEA agent. Again, he thought he managed to deal with what he went through until one of his brothers was killed in Iraq. All the stressors in between Vietnam and the death of his brother had piled on each other until his body and mind were no longer able to protect him from them.

WWII veterans, Korean veterans, Vietnam veterans, Gulf War veterans, veterans of Bosnia and Somalia are seeking help this many years after because their wounds were not addressed when they happened and other events in their lives took hold. Iraq and Afghanistan veterans are seeking help after their umpteenth deployment again because the first one was not addressed. While you can see a pattern here, the military and the VA cannot see it.

Some researchers are just as bad. I keep hoping to find the answer in what they "discover" but only find it is more of the same studies they have been doing all along. Finding the same answers known 30 years ago. They will only find what they are looking for. They cannot understand this. The answer is right in front of their face in what other groups have been doing to address traumatic events in citizens. If the military would take the same approach to responding to traumatic events there wouldn't be this complex traumatic wounding in our veterans or the troops.

The problem is the military has not considered the fact the men and women in their ranks are still humans after all is said and done.

What I've found in all these years, is the men and women most wounded by PTSD, is they were always the type wanting to help others. They enter into the military with the thought of protecting their nation first and killing down on the list of reasons. National Guards, police officers, firefighters, all have this in common. The first thought is to save. They have been touched by the angels and this calling is from their soul to act, enabled with the courage to face whatever comes to save the lives of others. While others are not as emotionally pulled, they can walk away feeling differently than those with the more caring souls. This is what makes them different. Just as some of us are more caring, so are they. Some of us are more selfish, just as they are.

There is a difference between what we participate in and what is thrust upon us. Responders, the military and police officers face a different kind of trauma than firefighters and victims. While firefighters save lives, victims are also not challenged with taking lives either willingly. This adds to what comes next after trauma and it's time to look at them differently than we do others we find it so much easier to accept are wounded by what they go through. They have heard the call of greater angels to act for the sake of others. The military needs to acknowledge this and remember that they are still humans in need of us to act for their sake. The military will not understand this, but you can because they see uniforms and you see other humans.

Research claims to shed light on post-traumatic stress disorder

Reading this and looking back on my own life, leaves me to believe this is yet another load of crap study they are trying to pull off all over again. So many of these studies have been done to death and have lead to nowhere.

First, I'm sure you've noticed I am a female. This study suggests childhood and environment along with IQ? Well, considering my father was a violent alcoholic very experienced with beating my older brother and breaking almost everything in the house, along with constant load shouting matches with my Mom, according to this study, I must have PTSD. See my life was begun with this kind of upbringing, followed by getting pushed off a slide at the age of 4 onto concrete fracturing my scull and resulting in a concussion. This wasn't the worst but I very well could have died because the idiot at the emergency room didn't know how to read an X-ray properly and told my Mom to just take me home. My scull was cracked all the way around and the next morning, my eyelid was swollen shut. I was rushed to the emergency room and was admitted right away.

This wasn't the last of the trauma for me. It was followed by more nights of my father's violence and the fact I tried to crack my scull again so that my parents would stop fighting. Later in life I was in a terrible car accident and this was followed by an ex-husband who tried to kill me one night by beating me. Divorce filed for and he then ended up stalking me for over a year. This was followed by the miscarriage of twins when I was married to my current husband for two years and I would have bled to death had the doctors not stopped it. This was followed by an infection after giving birth to our daughter that ended up going thru my entire system and I almost died yet again. There were other times but I won't go into more because I think so far, the point has been proven.

While I don't have PTSD, the difference is not that I am stronger or any better than anyone else. I am still searching for the reason but all indications point to faith and my own understanding of God. It's not that people have weak faith but they just understand things differently than I do.

I share all the characteristics with the people I've met over the years including my husband and I wondered why they had PTSD but I didn't. I am compassionate, sympathetic and empathetic. There are times when some of the stories I hear and the stress I'm under doing what I do result in nightmares and terrible dreams but they fade away. I get depressed and cry, just as I get angry and get over it. I tend to not hold onto bad thoughts or emotions even though I've had plenty of reason to hang onto all of it. Even at this moment writing this I'm wondering yet again what the answer is. But the difference between me and veterans is that I have never been in combat. What I faced was different than their stressors.

I can also tell you that each time my life was on the line, recovering from it was harder and harder to manage. This report does not take into account the prevalence of PTSD after multiple tours of duty. It also does not take into account people like me. My husband was the perfect young child according to his family and I,,well let's just say I was a trouble maker. It was my way of coping with the life I had.

In my opinion for what it's worth, this is yet again another study that is a pure waste of time when they could actually be doing something that was not already done in the last 30 years!

Research sheds light on post-traumatic stress disorder


By Jean-Louis Santini, AFP
February 16, 2009
CHICAGO - Research on post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which can haunt former soldiers and survivors of catastrophes, is shedding light on who may be more vulnerable, and how best to treat each case.


"Interestingly, there are some individuals who, when confronted with extreme stress, their hormone profile is rather unique," said Deane Aikins, a psychiatrist at Yale University in Connecticut, at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) which ends Monday.


"It doesn't reach the same peak as the rest of us. So we are ready to scream in our chair, and there are certain individuals who just don't get as stressed. Their stress hormones are actually lower and the peptides that down regulate that stress are quite higher," he explained.

"For example for rape, about 50 per cent of women developed PTSD and why is that? One issue is the severity of the trauma but we also found that early childhood and genetic factors influence who develop PTSD much later in life," she said.

She and her colleague found factors such as low IQ early as age 5, difficult temperament at age 3 and then family environment factors such as growing up in poverty, having a depressed mother, moving often or being separated from parents at a young age all could help predispose people to developing the condition.


Also "some people have genetic variants that make them more vulnerable to the effects of trauma," so now "basically we know now that PTSD is not just about the trauma, that early child characteristics, family environment and genetic factors influence how people respond to horrible events during their life," she said.

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Research sheds light on post-traumatic stress disorder

Armed Forces Day: the heroes who are just like us

Armed Forces Day: the heroes who are just like us
Our servicemen and woman are ordinary people who have chosen an extraordinary job, says Andy McNab

Published: 5:00PM BST 21 Jun 2009


It is all too easy to think of the Armed Forces as belonging to a different tribe from us “pencil necks” (one of the many terms used by our services to describe civilians). Despite the occasional differences in language and culture, however, they are made up of regular people. They’re just like us.

But, according to a recent statistic, the average Briton is more likely to know a copper in the Metropolitan Police than a soldier in the British Army.


One reason for this lack of integration is that servicemen and women had to go off-radar during the years of conflict in Northern Ireland. When the Provisional IRA started to target our forces and their families, our servicemen and women had no choice: they simply had to disappear from public view in order to avoid getting shot or blown up. When out and about on the streets, they were even instructed not to wear uniform, to reduce the potential of becoming targets.

They have had to keep a “low profile” for more than 30 years, and consequently, they have fallen out of the public’s consciousness, and this, inevitably, has led to them being considered with less regard – simply, because we don’t know them.

Get to know some of the individuals as I have, in the past and most recently in Iraq and Afghanistan, and you find people who make you feel proud.
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The heroes who are just like us