PTSD on trial, veteran receives acquittal

PTSD cited in vet’s murder acquittal
Kim Murphy Los Angeles Times
JOHN DAY, Ore. – When Jessie Bratcher’s fiancee told him the baby might not be his, that she had been raped two months earlier, he went quiet.

The former Oregon National Guardsman hung his head for the longest time. Then he went into the next room, put the barrel of an AK-47 in his mouth and took it out again.

He told Celena Davis not to expect to get any sleep that night. He walked up to her with a pair of scissors and slowly cut off her hair.

Two mornings later, they drove to the hardware store. While Davis waited in the truck, Bratcher went in and bought a gun. He came out, loaded it and asked: Do we go to the police? Or go find the guy? “Police,” Davis said.

Except that it was a Saturday, and the main door to the station was locked. Bratcher and Davis didn’t know there was an emergency door on the side of the building.

So they headed for Jose Ceja Medina’s trailer. At first Medina, standing on his porch in running shorts, denied knowing Davis. Then he said they’d had sex, but that he hadn’t raped her, and he offered to take care of the baby.
read more here
http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2009/nov/29/ptsd-cited-in-vets-murder-acquittal/

4 police officers killed in coffee shop ambush

4 police shot dead in coffee shop
November 29, 2009 2:21 p.m. EST
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
NEW: Police are looking for one man and possibly a second person in the attack
$10,000 reward offered for information leading to arrest, police spokesman says
Police were in coffee shop before the start of their shifts
Law enforcement official describes fatal shootings as an ambush

Lakewood, Washington (CNN) -- Four police officers were fatally shot Sunday in what police said was an ambush in a coffee shop near Tacoma, Washington.

The officers were sitting in the coffee shop in Lakewood, Washington, before the start of their shifts, reading on their computers, when the shooting occurred, said Sheriff's Department spokesman Ed Troyer. He told reporters that authorities believe the officers were meeting and going over cases or doing paperwork.

"This was a targeted, selected ambush," Troyer told reporters. He said a gunman came inside, opened fire and shot all four officers. Two baristas and other customers inside the shop were unharmed -- "just the law enforcement officers were targeted."

Authorities know the identity of the four fallen officers, and were in the process of notifying family members and their departments, he said. He would not say what agencies the officers were from, but said, "they're all from this area."
read more here
4 police shot dead in coffee shop

HLN Clark Howard offers advice to the troops

Operation Clark Smart
Clark Howard has served for eight years as a member of his state guard. And now, he wants to serve his fellow military personnel!

Join Clark and HLN's Robin Meade at the National Infantry Museum in Columbus, Georgia, as they field the money questions from soldiers of nearby Fort Benning.

Troops have unique financial challenges, and Clark has the solutions -- from help for homeowners who've been ordered to relocate, to paying for moving expenses, and what kind of assistance is available for families of soldiers who've been deployed overseas.

You'll get money-saving tips you can use whether you're in the military or not. Clark talks retirement savings, paying off student loans, and buying cars.
Plus, Robin's stories from her own "Salute To Troops" on HLN's "Morning Express with Robin Meade."

And, Clark teaches soldiers how to get through a year-long deployment on just two razors! Tune in for "Operation Clark Smart" -- this weekend at 6 a.m., 12 p.m. and 4 p.m. ET.

Wisconsin State Veterans Affairs Secretary fired

Performance, politics or something more?

State Veterans Affairs Secretary fired

By MARY SPICUZZA and JASON STEIN
Wisconsin State Journal
Sunday, November 29, 2009 7:06 AM CST


State Veterans Affairs Secretary John Scocos was fired Tuesday — just two months after returning from a tour in Iraq — and replaced with an agency official he had recently demoted.

Scocos, secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs since 2003 and a colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve, returned to work in late September after a year in Iraq, his second tour there.

The Veterans Affairs board has been signaling disapproval of the agency’s leadership for months, seeking a wide-ranging legislative audit of its workings and criticizing Scocos for failing to update them on the findings of an inquiry into alleged improper spending at a state veterans home.

After a one-and-a-half hour meeting during which board members sharply criticized Scocos’ communication and financial management, the board met briefly in private then voted 5-0 to fire Scocos and replace him with Ken Black, administrator of the agency’s Division of Veterans Benefits. Board chairman Marv Freedman was absent, and one unconfirmed board member, David Boetcher, was ineligible to vote.
read more here
http://www.dunnconnect.com/articles/2009/11/29/news/doc4b1057c08f841499945914.txt

Sometimes you have to laugh

The Muppets: Bohemian Rhapsody

SC WWII vet's battle ends in gunshot at VA clinic

SC WWII vet's battle ends in gunshot at VA clinic
By JEFFREY COLLINS (AP) – 3 hours ago

GREENVILLE, S.C. — On the last day of his long, troubled life, Grover Cleveland Chapman packed a black duffel bag, washed out his coffee cup, put it in the dish rack and fetched his Smith & Wesson.

He threw away his favorite slippers and left his house key on his bedside table in the two-bedroom yellow bungalow he shared with his daughter, tucked in an aging neighborhood full of 1950s starter homes a few miles from downtown Greenville.

Harriett Chapman called as she always did on her morning break at the Walmart deli, checking on her 89-year-old dad. Everything is fine, he told her.

As he shuffled down the steps that spring morning in 2008, Grover Chapman carried the latest letter denying him treatment at the Veterans Affairs clinic in Greenville, directing him instead to take a 200-mile round trip to the VA hospital in Columbia. This time it was about his prostate cancer, though Chapman had received plenty of notices just like it turning him down for help with his jumpiness and frayed nerves. He folded this letter neatly into the bag beside his bottles of medicine and settled into a taxi.

In a few weeks, candidate Barack Obama would take note of what Chapman would do upon arriving at the clinic this last time, calling it an indictment of society's treatment of disabled veterans.

And maybe that's what it was. Or maybe Chapman just didn't want his daughter to have to come home and find him.
read more here
SC WWII vet battle ends in gunshot at VA clinic

He restores my soul and defeats PTSD

Psalm 23 (New International Version)
A psalm of David
Psalm 23
A psalm of David.
1 The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.
2 He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters,

3 he restores my soul.
He guides me in paths of righteousness
for his name's sake.

4 Even though I walk
through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me.

5 You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.

6 Surely goodness and love will follow me
all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the LORD
forever.

He restores my soul and defeats PTSD
by
Chaplain Kathie

The military has forgotten one of the most important rules in combat. Know your enemy. No army on earth has ever been able to defeat an enemy until they understood them, knew how they thought, what they needed to in order for the enemy to be able to be subdued. When it comes to PTSD, they still don't understand it enough to have a good idea how to defeat it.


The evil that veterans fear comes when their compassion has been attacked. These are normal humans exposed to abnormal events while they risk their lives. They see what man is capable of. A picture of this reality is captured beyond their memories. It is embedded within their soul. They no longer see the moments before. They cannot remember what they were thinking right before "it" happened. If the military does not understand what PSTD is, where it comes from, why it chose them instead of others, then how in the world can the military ever really expect to do anything about it? This has been the biggest problem of all and no amount of funding can stop this enemy from killing more after war than are lost during it.

The military needs to understand all that makes the men and women serving so different from the rest of us is courage fed by compassion. The deeper the ability to feel the wider the door to PTSD swings open.

While dehumanizing the enemy allows them hold the "kill them all" attitude, that soon fades after the action is over. What is left is the fact the enemy they killed were still humans just like them. They had friends and families. They had hopes and dreams just like everyone else including the soldier who pulled the trigger. Under different circumstances, there would have been no need to kill. This haunts them. They forget what they did to try to prevent killing.

In Vietnam, innocent people were killed. The enemy hid among civilians. Kids with hands reaching out for candy with one hand held a grenade in the other. Women would attack the GIs as they thought they were in friendly territory. No one could be trusted. Nerves were on edge. Attempts to warn them to stay back were ignored and innocents were killed. The GI forgot what they tried to do to prevent having to react and only held onto the memory of what they were forced to do in order to protect their brothers.

This happened in Iraq as well. They were told to reduce the insurgents into a sub-human category. When they died, they were no longer humans but like animals on the ground. Body parts were not part of a human but parts of animals. The grief was reserved for their brothers as they were placed into body bags with gentleness. In the heat of the moment that image took over yet their subconscious took in the memories of what came before that moment. These images begin to be frozen as the anger is allowed to remain.

The compassion within the soldier, the very reason they wanted to serve by acting as defense for the rest of the population, becomes that which hurts them the most. Deep feelings enabling them to love, care about others, has a flip side. It also enables them to feel pain more deeply. Compassion is the doorway to PTSD.

When they know what to expect as the demons haunt them, they know how to take control over them, defeat the evil trying to capture all that is righteous inside of them. They stop wondering when they became evil, when God stopped being good and when the faith they had all their lives stopped being real. The images they have replaying in their mind's eye is able to be changed back to when they tried to prevent what they had to do. Then they are able to see that God is still good and He was there with them because even with all that was going on around them, they were still able to care, to feel and to grieve. Evil cannot inspire those things. The ability to still grieve after what they have been through is a testament to their soul. The ability to keep doing what is asked of them no matter how deeply they are in pain, is a testament to their commitment. The ability to still rush into danger no matter what has already happened is a testament to their courage. This is what they need to see within them.

PTSD is an emotional wound. It comes only after traumatic events. It does not come from within but it invades into the soul. There should be no shame in being a caring individual especially when that was the basis for why they wanted to serve in the first place.

When we think of King David, we remember the courage he had when he faced the "giant" while others ran from him. We think of the fact he was a warrior. Then we remember the sins he committed and how he was forgiven. What we tend to not see was the compassion and love he had. That is evident in the psalms he wrote. When we think of Christ, we remember the stories He told, the miracles He performed, His birth and His death with His last words being about forgiving those who nailed him to the cross. His story is also about having compassion and courage. Christ could have said He would not sacrifice His life as it was supposed to be, but we tend to forget that and thus, we dismiss the courage He showed all of His life.

The men and women in the military care. Some care for others more deeply. Some would willingly sacrifice their life even off duty. The depth of their compassion is what should be used to predict PTSD. The deeper they feel the deeper PTSD will cut them.

Just as there are different levels of PTSD, there are also different types of PTSD. For the military/veterans and law enforcement, there is the ability in their core to take lives in order to save lives. There is also the fact that there will be one too many times when they had to risk their lives, witnessed horrific events and participated in them. They either turn stone cold retaining no emotions other than anger or they grieve so deeply they cannot find their way out of the abyss. They are the "Michael" angels. Courage and compassion feed their soul.

For the emergency responders, including the National Guards, their core is different. They have it within them to risk their lives for the sake of someone else, but taking lives is beyond what they were intended to do. No amount of preparing can over come the "Gabriel" angel within them. When asked to do what they were not guided to do, their cuts go deeper. It is also depending on the number of times that became the time too many.

Survivors of traumatic events have a different type of PTSD and they also end up with survival guilt. After trauma there is the shock and then the reasoning. God saved them but why? God didn't save others but why? Why didn't God stop the perpetrator? Why did God allow any of it? How can God be good when all they just saw was evil? These questions come to all humans. What they see is evil and they do not consider that evil is not created by God. Just as if we believe in heaven, we must also believe in hell, we must also acknowledge that humans are capable of both as well.

While some will give their last dime to help someone else, someone else will take away a last dime from someone just because they want it. While some heroes get medals and refuse to call themselves hero, others will never do anything worthy but claim the valor they do not have, wear the medals they did not earn and pretend to be something they are not for whatever they feel they can gain. There is evil in every walk of life but there are more caring in every walk of life. They do not make the newspapers because good people still out number the evil ones. This makes the "good" ones wondering if everyone is out for themselves while in fact the "evil" ones are a minority.

They become evil because they avoid their destiny. They do not do what they were intended to do. They walk a path they have chosen and they become miserable.

When we follow our destiny, no matter what hardships we face, we find peace inside of us that overcomes whatever we face getting there. There are road blocks and obstacles trying to trip us up, hurt us, make us suffer. There are people we know able to help us, but they refuse to, all too often deciding to stand in our way. There are some who will judge instead of understand. Some will lash out instead of help up. Some will rejoice in our suffering as if they decided we deserve it while others only rejoice when we have overcome.

PTSD comes from that place inside of us causing us to question everything. Into our souls comes a struggle between that which is good within us and that which was evil we experienced. Seeing who we really are, what we were intended to become and what we intended at the time, enables us to fight off the hounds of hell trying to take over everything good within us, making us regret the tender hearts we have, confusing every part of our being. We think we are not courageous because we are soft and cry. We think we are evil because we were forced while fighting evil. We think we are now cursed instead of blessed. The inner struggle does not end unless there is the right help available to fight against it but the military still does not know what causes PTSD any more than they understand what makes the men and women in their command decide to serve in the first place.

The pay isn't great. The hours suck. Deployment after deployment followed by a transfer and having to uproot the entire family at the same time everyone is wondering if they will make it home again from yet another deployment. The fact that each day in combat could be their last or they may have to fly home because someone in their own family has die. Every moment they do not know what to expect from the next. Yet they are willing to do this. They are willing to forget their own individuality, give up making their own decisions and follow orders no matter what. Willing to sacrifice their lives should be a red flag to the military they have a unique caring individual among the ranks and this should be honored as well as cherished instead of being regarded as a thing of shame. They do not understand this,

Given the fact the civilian world responds with help after every crisis for the responders as well as the survivors, you'd think the military would understand they should do the same to avoid the breathing room PTSD needs to take control. The soldiers will go through hell and then minutes later go into the chow hall for a bite to eat sitting there without the strength to pick up a fork. Drained they sit in silence. They return to their bunks at the end of their shift with the images pounding in their heads, sounds in full volume pound their ears, smells grab hold in nostrils as they try to recover. Days, weeks, months later, they finally surrender to the fact they need help. When they need it they are told it is available, they may even be supported by commanders to seek it but when they go for it, they discover there is a long, long line in front of them or the person they are supposed to open their soul to does not have the slightest clue what PTSD is. This keeps happening.

Psychiatrist and psychologists fully educated in the workings of the human mind have not all been educated on PTSD. This has been omitted from the "training manuals" of common sense. They should all be experts on trauma considering combat is traumatic! Chaplains may have every chapter and verse committed to memory but what most of the words mean escapes them and they admit they know nothing about PTSD.

I belong to a group of chaplains comprised of walks from all life. Among the chaplains are VA psychiatrists as well as civilian psychiatrists. We have pastors and ministers, nurses and volunteers. We have law enforcement officers and emergency responders. All of us are dedicated to understanding PTSD before it become PTSD. Immediately after a traumatic event it is a crisis and we train for intervention. We do this to prevent the tearing away at the soul of the survivors. If we can understand this, why can't the military?

Are police officers less courageous? Are fire fighters? Are EMT's? They put their lives on the line everyday but they are expected to turn to a chaplain for support after or a trained professional. The military, well, they are expected to put their boots on and get back on duty no matter what. Even when they return to US soil they are not finding the help they need. They are not told what they should know and they are not helped in changing the images in their minds so they can make peace with the outcome.

There is so much the military does not understand and until they do, we will keep seeing the numbers of suicides and attempted suicides rise just as we see in the veteran population.

Even though I walk
through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me.

If we allow evil to remain alive trapping out that which is good, then PTSD wins. They do not have to fear they are evil when they remember who they were and who sent them here. They can have a rod and staff to comfort them but only if that rod is the reason they grive and the staff is prepared for them to lean on as they heal. We need to help them remember that God is not evil and since He gave them that which is good inside of them making them want to be of service, they are not evil either.

When a soldier kills himself, no letter from any President

This has been one more heartache for the families who stood by as their family member was laid to rest as if they should have anything to be ashamed of. The practice of not sending letters of condolences to servicemen and women has been around about as long as the military itself. The presidents just don't do it. It's almost as if the sacrifice of a man or woman serving this nation somehow suddenly becomes less than something to honor if their life ends by their own hands. This last resort of humans in crisis so busily eating away at them should never be something to be ashamed of unless that shame is directed at all of us.

It's really that simple. We ask so much of them. We train them and then expect them to put their training to use following orders, facing dangers and witnessing events few others will ever know, yet then we expect them to just get over it with little or no help when they need it.

Even now as the Obama Administrations tries to play catch up, they are dealing with high flood waters with a tsunami getting ready to wipe it all out. Yes, what is coming is that catastrophic and many, too many more will end up taking their own life because the help that is there for them is too little, too late and most times, too inadequate. Believe it or not, there are many practicing mental health professionals with absolutely no training in PTSD, just as there are many Chaplains without a single clue what it is. Given the fact there are still misdiagnosis due to this, is it really any wonder why so many of them lose any hope they had of recovering?

More and more will be seeking help as the awareness rises and the stigma evaporates. What will they do then? Will the military still think the lives are not worthy of every effort to help them heal? Will they ever come to terms with PTSD the way the rest of the population has when crisis teams rush in for any traumatic event yet they are not sent in when soldiers face them? Will they ever get a clue that what they've been doing has been doing more harm than good? Will the President finally change this policy and honor the life of the fallen no matter how they passed away as if that life was just as worthy as the day they decided to dedicate it to serving the nation? See, we do a great job sending them away, but do are really lousy job of getting them back home. It's time for all leadership to get out of the box they've been operating in or at least cut a few windows so they can finally see what the hell they've been getting wrong for so very long.

When a soldier kills himself, no letter from President Obama
By Adam Levine, CNN
November 27, 2009 8:27 p.m. EST

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Family of Spc. Chancellor Keesling, 25, wants condolence letter from President Obama
Parents believe his suicide brought on by stress of war, distance from loved ones
White House: "Inherited" policy only lets president write families of fallen soldiers
Family hopes President Obama would want to thank them for their sacrifice

Spc. Chancellor Keesling was given almost all the honors afforded a fallen service member after killing himself in June.

Washington (CNN) -- Gregg Keesling chooses his words carefully when he talks about the death of his son, Spc. Chancellor Keesling.

As far as he's concerned, the soldier didn't "take his own life" or "commit suicide."

His son "died by suicide," Keesling insists -- and he has his reasons why.

When 25-year old Chancellor Keesling shot himself in Iraq on June 19, his family received much support from the military and local officials. Gregg Keesling's son was given the honor afforded to a fallen service member.

The Keesling family went to Dover Air Force Base to watch as his body was flown back to Indiana six days later. At his burial, seven rifles fired three times each in true military tradition.

Later, the soldier's aunt created a memorial wall in the family's Indianapolis living room. On the wall hangs Spc. Keesling's uniform, the U.S. flag that was handed to his mother, Jannett, after the service, and the Indianapolis state flag that flew over the state capital in his honor.

Yet, there's an empty spot on the wall for an honor that never arrived -- a letter from the president.
read more here
http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/11/27/soldier.suicide/index.html