Michael Musto just became a hero

Michael Musto just became a hero to me because he was on MSNBC talking about the Wedding video and this latest video being great for advertising music. He said that record companies are hurting and videos drive sales of CD's. He's right.




So how does this make him a hero to me. My videos! No, my videos will never come close to hitting the kind of hits videos like this one did. Mine are geared to PTSD and veterans, providing understanding and support. I've taken over half my life and crunched down what I know into videos lasting under half an hour, most lasting under 10 minutes. I use mostly old songs to help deliver the message that hope lives on no matter how bad things seem right now.

The videos I created took a long time to put together and a small fortune to buy the CD's searching for the right song to go along with the video. Aside from the educational purposes, these videos also end up being free advertising for the group and the record company. YouTube and the record companies decided that they didn't want their music used on videos, but only on selected videos, not all of them.

This is what one of the messages looked like

Video Disabled

A copyright owner has claimed it owns some or all of the audio content in your video Hero After War With PTSD. The audio content identified in your video is I'll Stand By You by Pretenders. We regret to inform you that your video has been blocked from playback due to a music rights issue.


It didn't matter that this song was used with permission. I emailed the Pretenders and let them know about the music. I was told that Chrissie Hynde would feel honored to be able to help the veterans with this song once I explained what the video was for.

It happened with Toby Keith. I used a couple of his songs on When War Comes Home Part Two. Again, another pull from YouTube, I fought it and the release was given by the music company. It was too late. The music was muted so that people could still watch the video. By the time I received the release, I couldn't get the music to play again, so I deleted it, tried to upload it again but received a message saying the song was in violation of copyright. That's when I had enough.

Ever since I pulled my videos off YouTube, they have not been able to help as many people. They are now on Great Americans, which does not receive as much traffic. It breaks my heart that this is happening especially when I go into YouTube and find the same music I use on someone else's video, but the song is playing loud and clear.

Michael Musto is right on the mark when he said it's free advertising. People asked me about the songs I used so they could go out and buy the CD. Since, as I said, I use old songs, this drives demand for songs that had been forgotten. Most of the songs stopped getting air time years ago unless they occasionally pop up on the oldies stations. Some of the songs I used received no air time at all, buried in a CD and would not have had any publicity at all otherwise but truly touching songs.

One of the other videos I did, The Hardest Times You Could Imagine, was for women veterans. The song by Skylark was stuck in my head. I couldn't find the music anywhere, so I emailed the agent. After months of working with the agent, the group and the record company, I received the music file and support of Skylark and EMI plus the man who wrote the lyrics, Dave Richardson. He was touched by what I created with his words.
This is part of the email he wrote.

Valley Hennell has been forwarding the details of your contact with her to me, and last night I watched the "Hardest Times" video. I am honoured that the lyrics I wrote so long ago are still being used to bless others in a manner such as you describe with these women - may the Lord bless them abundantly for everything they endure in serving their country. And may He bless you as well, Chaplain Kathie, for all you do in your service to Him and to your country.......

The song, was Wildflower very popular in the 70's but hardly ever heard on the radio. Think of a song thirty years old helping women veterans heal from what was asked of them. What is really amazing about these videos is that they are touching even the newer veterans.

The artists care about our veterans and they want to give back. Each video I create, I am prepared to pull if the artist does not want their music to be used. So far that has not happened. I had to pull them because of software!

YouTube should set up a way for educational videos to not be trapped in their software searching for copyright music that does not break the rules. They not only provide support, education and help for the veterans, but they also offer artists and record companies a new way of reaching people that may have never heard the song without it. I really wish they would do this or actually either make sure that if they want to stop people from using music they do to everyone or allow them to be used at least as free publicity for the songs. People work hard putting these videos together and we don't get paid for any of the work we do. You'd think that would penetrate the record executives heads so they would be more than happy to allow all their music to be used but they never think of it that way.

Maybe with the exposure of the Wedding and Divorce videos, this will change but at what price for hurting troops, veterans and their families? No matter what I wrote in all these years, it did not have the same affect on the veterans as these videos. They are being used all over the country to help our veterans heal. Therapist are using them working with veterans for heaven's sake! Last year I received an award from the IFOC for my work. One of the videos, PTSD Not God's Judgment is being used to help police officers and firefighters heal from PTSD. Think of how many other people these videos could be helping if YouTube would stop the nonsense. Maybe they will take the advice Michael Musto just gave and give video creators a break.

Capt. Michael "Scott" Speicher remains found after 18 years

Remains found of officer shot down in '91 Gulf War
The remains of the first American shot down in the 1991 Persian Gulf War have been identified, according to the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology. The announcement ends more than 18 years of speculation about whether U.S. Navy Capt. Michael "Scott" Speicher may have survived the crash and been held captive, or died in captivity in the ensuing years. full story

Counsel for a Marine’s mother

Counsel for a Marine’s mother
By Terri Barnes, Special to Stars and Stripes
Stars and Stripes Scene, Sunday, August 2, 2009
Q. My 22-year-old son, a Marine, came back from nine months in Iraq and now will not even speak to me. My son who left for Iraq came back very different. I raised him, practically by myself, sacrificed for him and gave him the best upbringing I could. He never went hungry, dirty or did without. He was fine before he left and while he was there. He called me from Iraq a couple of times and sent e-mails back and forth.

I don’t know what happened to change him like this. I do know that he suffers from (post-traumatic stress disorder) and he was in a dangerous zone there, but why has he turned on me, his mother?

He came back from Iraq and two months later, he married a girl he barely knew that he met up with on MySpace while in Iraq.

Has anyone else heard of a case like this? My son still keeps in contact with his high school friends also, but not me. This has broken my heart. The pain is indescribable.
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Counsel for a Marine mother

The advice given on Spouse Calls by Terri Barnes was good on two levels. First she told the Marine Mom to get counseling for herself. The other level was that she shared her own story with the Marine Mom. Barnes also told her to learn what PTSD is. This is something everyone should learn at the very least, so they can pass on the information especially to other military families.

PTSD is a wound that cuts into emotions. Love is one of the targets. They end up pushing away the people that loved them the most, knew them best, because they no longer feel like they are the same person. Inside the old person is still there but they cannot find "themselves" in their own skin.

Sons push away parents. Daughters push away parents. Spouses push away wives/husbands. At a time when they needed these people most in their lives, they push them out of their lives. Most will say that they don't want the other person to know what's inside of them. They fear the person they love the most will end up hating them so it's easier to just push them away first.

Even more complicated is the "need" they have to be loved is working in the opposite direction. Serial marriages are part of it. They can hide the pain they have for a while as the fantasy of a "new life" fills them with false hope that this time things will be different. This time they will be happy. This time they will be loved. Sometimes the flashbacks don't seem as strong or hit as often. Other times the nightmares may stop coming every night. The "honeymoon" stage wears off and it all comes back. Depending on the understanding of the spouse and the ability they have to cope with PTSD in their lives, this can either help the veteran or quickly end another marriage.

The VA is seeing a lot of older veterans seeking help for the first time with PTSD. Part of the reason is they are finally understanding what has been going on inside of them all along because of outreach efforts and media attention. The most striking reason is that they are no longer working having retired. When they went to work after WWII, Korea, Vietnam and the Gulf War, they sunk themselves into their jobs avoiding any focus on the changes in them. They became "workaholics" focusing on work alone. Every time the demons of combat began to strike, they avoided dealing with any of them and quickly changed their focus onto work. Work was not remembering "who they were inside" before combat. It didn't demand love they couldn't really feel as much as they wanted to. Distant and detached from the rest of the family, they grew accustomed to the reactions or lack of reactions.

Once they retire, there is nothing to hide behind. They are forced to see what has been there all along.

In other cases, it is not so much hiding their emotions in work, but mild PTSD striking full force after suffering emotionally. Secondary traumas or "secondary stressors" strike without warning. It is the one "too many times" assault on their emotions. It could be the loss of a spouse, parents, children, an accident, a natural disaster or crime sending mild PTSD into PTSD on steroids.

A WWII veteran, lived his life as a professional, long term married believing he had a good life. He was a lawyer. He wouldn't talk about WWII except to tell impersonal accounts or funny stories. One night his apartment was broken into. That was all it took. Nightmares stuck and flashbacks invaded. Every sound became someone else wanting to break in. Doors and windows were constantly checked. Alarms were put in as fear took hold.

These traumatic events in lives already assaulted by PTSD become a living hell.

They hope if they close their eyes and shut their ears it will all go away. They escape what They do not want to face with whatever they can find. Drugs, alcohol, work, new love, driving too fast, dangerous sports, pushing away people once close to them and seeking others they feel nothing for is all safety in the storm for them.

Believing if they do not feel anything, they will feel no more pain at the same time they want to feel all the good they used to feel.

If people in their lives do not know what is happening, there is a sense of wondering taking hold. We blame ourselves, wonder what we did wrong or what we did not do at all. It eats away at us like this Marine Mom wondering why her son has pulled away from her. It happens all the time. When it comes to PTSD, what we do not know can destroy us, eat away at our self confidence and change us to the point where we can't recognized who we are. Often living with PTSD in our homes can cause what is called Secondary PTSD. That comes from all the chaos and confusion living on the roller coaster ride of emotions out of control in the other person. If we know what is behind all of it, it gives us tools to cope and respond in the right way so that emotional turmoil does not escalate. Again, everyone should learn what PTSD especially if you are involved with someone in the military or a veteran. Knowledge could end up saving "you" instead of leaving everything you were sure of behind.

Mental trouble is no less real

Mental trouble is no less real
By Mark M. Rasenick
August 2, 2009
Men and women serving in our armed forces are returning home with not only broken bodies, but broken brains. According to a recent Pentagon health survey, 31 percent of Marines, 38 percent of Army soldiers and 49 percent of National Guard members suffered from anger, depression or alcohol abuse after they came home from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The Army recently announced that it will fund the largest study ever undertaken about suicide and the mental health of military personnel.

Researchers will try to identify the risks and the factors that may protect soldiers from mental health problems.

The problems in the military cut across the entire U.S. population. According to the National Institute for Mental Health, suicide is the fourth leading cause of death among 25- to 44-year-olds in the U.S. Depression impairs 15 million Americans each year. That's more people than are affected by cancer, AIDS or coronary heart disease. Women are twice as likely as men to suffer from depression.
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Mental trouble is no less real

After Combat, Victims of an Inner War

This hasn't gotten any easier over the years. I've been at this for so long now that it should be easy to just post these stories and move on. It should be, but I doubt it will ever stop hurting. If anything, the pain in my soul of having to still be reading about the suffering of our troops, our veterans and their families, cuts even deeper. We do a great job sending them off to risk their lives for us, but after that, well, they're someone else's problem. They're all stuck in a political game right in the middle of the Right ranting that other people are "Bush bashing" and the Left screaming about how they all need to just come home. Is anyone screaming about them? Is anyone willing to stuff politics, their own ideology, their own power trip, long enough to notice what is happening to them?

I have to read the emails from both sides and most of it has nothing to do with anything we can do anything about today. They have nothing to do with the troops suffering from PTSD, being pushed into such a deep depression that they lose all hope, or what they come home with haunting them. Cable news is useless when they could be reporting on what has been happening all along, but they don't want to bother. People, well they want to be entertained so very few will bother to read this article beyond the first page, if they read it at all. They get their news from their TV sets so if the broadcasts don't bother to tell them, they will never know and the troops, well, they'll just keep paying the price.

Clinton Gill
Sgt. Jacob Blaylock, seated left, one of four in his Guard unit to commit suicide, at the grave of Sgt. Brandon Wallace.

Suicide's Rising Toll
After Combat, Victims of an Inner War

By ERICA GOODE
Published: August 1, 2009
Sgt. Jacob Blaylock flipped on the video camera he had set up in a trailer at the Tallil military base, southeast of Baghdad.


He lit a cigarette, inhaled deeply, blew the smoke upward.

“Hey, it’s Jackie,” he said. “It’s the 20th of April. We go home in six days. I lost two good friends on the 14th. I’m having a hard time dealing with it.”

For almost a year, the soldiers of the 1451st Transportation Company had been escorting trucks full of gasoline, building materials and other supplies along Iraq’s dark, dangerous highways. There had been injuries, but no one had died.

Their luck evaporated less than two weeks before they were to return home, in the spring of 2007. A scout truck driving at the front of a convoy late at night hit a homemade bomb buried in the asphalt. Two soldiers, Sgt. Brandon Wallace and Sgt. Joshua Schmit, were killed.

The deaths stunned the unit, part of the North Carolina National Guard. The two men were popular and respected — “big personalities,” as one soldier put it. Sergeant Blaylock, who was close to both men, seemed especially shaken. Sometime earlier, feeling the strain of riding the gunner position in the exposed front truck, he had switched places with Sergeant Wallace, moving to a Humvee at the rear.

“It was supposed to be me,” he would tell people later.

The losses followed the men and women of the 1451st home as they dispersed to North Carolina and Tennessee, New York and Oklahoma, reuniting with their families and returning to their jobs.

Sergeant Blaylock went back to Houston, where he tried to pick up the pieces of his life and shape them into a whole. But grief and guilt trailed him, combining with other stresses: financial troubles, disputes with his estranged wife over their young daughter, the absence of the tight group of friends who had helped him make it through 12 months of war.

On Dec. 9, 2007, Sergeant Blaylock, heavily intoxicated, lifted a 9-millimeter handgun to his head during an argument with his girlfriend and pulled the trigger. He was 26.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/02/us/02suicide.html?_r=1&hp

2 Ft. Lewis soldiers sentenced in UW robberies

2 Ft. Lewis soldiers sentenced in UW robberies

By KOMO Staff SEATTLE -- Two Fort Lewis soldier have been sentenced for his role in an attack near the University of Washington earlier this year.

Pvt. 1st Class Chad A. Braden, 19, of Etna, Ohio, and Pvt. Robert E. Lucas, Jr., 20, of Murfreesboro, Tenn. were sentenced to 34 months in jail on Friday after reaching a plea deal. The two pleaded guilty to beating and robbing two men in January.

But before the judge made his decision, Braden broke down in tears and apologized to the victims and his own family.
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http://www.komonews.com/news/local/52233972.html

National Guard Mom watches daughter grow a world away

Mother logs on, watches her daughter grow up a world away
By James Janega and Sara Olkon Tribune reporters
August 2, 2009

In the predawn darkness, Ashley Calhoun's laptop cast a blue glow over her tiny Army National Guard cubicle as she adjusted her Web camera so she could be seen in her living room back home.

"You have to say hi to Mommy," he told their daughter. At the moment, the toddler wasn't interested, another torment for her mother in a year of missed milestones.


Around her in the tight quarters were a still-warm bunk, a folding metal chair, a 9 mm pistol on the floor and 103 photographs fixed to the wall -- all but five chronicling the life of a little girl Calhoun has watched grow up over the Internet during the year she has spent in Afghanistan.

"Zoey, come and see Mommy," Ashley Calhoun begged softly in her plywood barracks. "Please?"

Thousands of miles from her home in Rockton, Ill., yet connected through a peculiar online intimacy, Calhoun watched on her computer display as her husband, Tim Calhoun, turned off the family television in an attempt to coax Zoey's attention from a Dora the Explorer cartoon to her mother's image on the computer.

The girl was 14 months old when Ashley Calhoun left home, committed to a career in the National Guard and resolved to endure the separation. Since then, however, the Rockford police officer has missed a year of holidays and watching her child learn how to run. Zoey has discovered how to ride a tricycle, started to speak in sentences and gotten dressed up for her first class picture, all without her mother's help.
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Thousands attend memorial for slain Border Patrol agent

Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times
Thousands attend memorial for slain Border Patrol agent
The Border Patrol honor guard stands at attention before carrying agent Robert Rosas' flag-draped coffin from a memorial service at the Southwest High School theater in El Centro.

About 4,000 attend a service for Robert Rosas, who was shot dead while on duty in eastern San Diego County. Mexican authorities have detained five men in connection with the case.
Associated Press
6:27 PM PDT, July 31, 2009


EL CENTRO, CALIF. -- A Border Patrol agent who was slain in a rugged, remote area along the Mexican border was buried today after being remembered as a gregarious family man who dreamed that his 2-year-old son would follow in his footsteps.

About 4,000 people attended a memorial service for Robert Rosas, 30, who was found dead with bullet wounds to his head and body on the night of July 23 in Campo, about 60 miles east of San Diego. People crowded the aisles of Southwest High School's theater, and many agents arrived too late to get even a glimpse of the service on closed-circuit television in the adjoining gym.
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Thousands attend memorial for slain Border Patrol agent

Women's Air Force Service pilot flew in World War II

Women's Air Force Service pilot flew in World War II
WASP Marjory Munn, an aviation pioneer, dies at 88.

By Nancy Bartley

Seattle Times staff reporter


Marjory Munn received a three-year appointment in 1983 to the Defense Advisory Committee On Women in the Services, the equivalent of being a lieutenant general when visiting bases for inspections.

Marjory Munn was a West Virginia-born beautician when she won a contest that would change her life. The prize was flying lessons, and they opened a world Mrs. Munn had never experienced and for the first time made her feel totally free, she said in 1993.

Mrs. Munn, who in 1943 became a Women's Air Force Service Pilot, or WASP, continued flying and became one of a group of women who flew noncombat missions in the U.S. during World War II. She died July 25 of cancer. She was 88.

In early July, President Obama signed an order giving the more than 1,000 WASPs the Congressional Gold Medal for their service. Mrs. Munn will receive hers posthumously in January.

"She was a very remarkable woman and a great lady," said Dr. Bonnie J. Dunbar, chief executive officer of the Museum of Flight, in which Mrs. Munn was deeply involved for years. "If you look back in history, women started flying not long after the Wright Brothers but never flew in combat. The WASPs were put together to train other pilots and test airplanes, and they did it before the era of good navigation. Their performance opened the door to many ... in aviation and space."
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Women Air Force Service pilot flew in World War II

Killer python owner: 'It was a terrible, awful accident'

Killer python owner: 'It was a terrible, awful accident'
In his first interview with the Orlando Sentinel, Charles Darnell said he has been stricken by grief in the month since the family's pet Burmese python suffocated his girlfriend's 2-year-daughter in her crib in a rural community about 60 miles northwest of Orlando.

Anthony Colarossi

Sentinel Staff Writer

6:41 PM EDT, July 31, 2009


Almost a month ago, a pet Burmese python escaped from its enclosure in a rural Sumter County home and suffocated 2-year-old Shaiunna Hare as she slept in her crib.

The attack made international headlines and became a convenient tragedy for politicians and bureaucrats to use as they called for organized hunts of wild Burmese.

But for Charles Darnell and his girlfriend Jaren A. Hare, the loss was indescribable.

The last month left them mourning a child they loved, questioning themselves for becoming so trusting of the snake and worrying if criminal charges will come.

Darnell, 32, spoke Friday in his first interview with the Orlando Sentinel.

He said the child's death has altered his life forever and made him a "monster" in the eyes of many around the world and in his tiny town Oxford, 60 miles northwest of Orlando.
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It was a terrible awful accident