War never ends for those we send

War never ends for those we send

by
Chaplain Kathie

No matter when all the troops are pulled out of Iraq and Afghanistan, when there are no more wars to fight and no more dying in combat, there will still be casualties of war being added. This we must all understand and prepare to fight a new kind of war during peacetime.

If you need a better idea of what happens when they come home, read any story about a Vietnam veteran still trying to come all the way home, or a Korean veteran or talk to some of the remaining WWII veterans, and you will see it in their eyes as they think about their days while they risked their lives. They were once civilians just like the rest of us, but when they were sent to fight our military battles, they became veterans of war. While they may have returned physically the same, they knew they were different, unlike everyone else they live with because so few have ever experienced what they survived.

We may have thought it was all over when we stopped sending them into other nations, when we stopped paying for the deployments and weapons, when we stopped feeding and clothing them as well as training them, but for those we send, wars never really end. They are part of them.

As high as the numbers are of the PTSD wounded, the fact is, less than half seek help for PTSD, which means, we really don't know how many more there are. We don't know how many more are carrying torment PTSD but are trying to hide it, how many have mild PTSD believing they will just "get over it" instead of being aware not treating it is like having a time bomb ready to blow with another traumatic event in their life or how many will end up so severely wounded, their family ends up with PTSD as well from living with the mood swings, angry outbursts, overblown responses and nightmares so harsh the whole family is losing sleep. What is worse is that we don't know how many could have been spared most of it had they received help in time.

We read about suicides yet we never seem to come to terms with the fact the only reason people commit suicide is they have no reason to hope. Once hope is gone, hope of a better day, hope that the pain they feel will go away, hope for anything better, there is no reason to carry on. We all live with hope in our hearts or none of us would do anything at all.

If they were all helped as soon as they came home, you would see less suicides, less divorces, less domestic violence, less drug and alcohol arrests, less crime and less homelessness. Imagine if the older veterans were helped when they came home what their lives would be like today as well as the lives of their families for generations. Families carry on the burden of what their veteran brought home but no one really talks about this either. Each generation carries on what they live with. For most of them, they have no idea of what "it" is. Dismissing what they never understood, what they never paid attention to is easy. They view what the veteran does without understanding it and then blame the veteran instead of wondering what was behind all of it. Wives blame the veteran and then they blame themselves. Kids blame the parent and then blame themselves. These thoughts are carried on into every relationship they have and it is all carried onto the next generation.

Talk to the children of veterans as they have grown up with no understanding and you will hear about the father that didn't care, the mean dad, the drunk, the coldness and how nothing they did was ever good enough. They see how their parent acted but never understood why they acted the way they did. All they knew about war was what was written in history books because they never heard any real life experiences from their parent or grandparent. They are detached from it while living with it.

When the military leaves Iraq, when the military leaves Afghanistan, they will come home with these nations in them. We have yet to treat all the veterans of the past wars and these newer veterans will be added to the secret casualty count along with their families. Communities will be dealing with the result of many PTSD veterans for generations to come unless they come together to help the veterans heal.

"The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive veterans of early wars were treated and appreciated by our nation." - George Washington

We see this in many parts of the nation but we also see how many others are still dismissing this wound of war. The Vietnam War ended in 1973 officially but the deaths went on until 1975. at least the acknowledged deaths. We still lost more after the war was declared over than we did during it. They died because of Agent Orange, this more easily acceptable than when they died from suicide and they are still dying. We lose 18 veterans a day from suicide. Another 10,000 a year attempt it. None of this has to happen as long as we all understand that just because a war is over and they are back home, too many are still fighting for their lives because they went to war.

Vietnam veteran works to heal spiritual wounds of warfare

Vietnam veteran works to heal spiritual wounds of warfare
Friday, January 8, 2010
By Bryan Cones
By Ed Langlois Catholic News Service

PORTLAND, Ore. (CNS) -- Gary Ascher has a good life. Amiable and bright, he's in a long-lasting marriage. His children are high-achieving. He holds down a steady job making patterns for cast metal machinery.

But for more than 40 years, Ascher has yearned to pacify his conscience. A U.S. infantryman in Vietnam between November 1967 and November 1968, this gray-haired man with intense brown eyes wonders how he can be forgiven for taking lives.

"Yes, I was defending myself, but we were the initial aggressors," said the 62-year-old member of Holy Trinity Parish in Beaverton. "We were sent out in hopes we would be ambushed."

Ascher, who plays guitar for his church choir, was one of 15 people with links to the military who came to Our Lady of Peace Retreat House in Beaverton in December for a weekend on war and healing. Leaders of the session know that the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan mean more retreats will be needed in the future.

Father Michael Drury, a former military chaplain from Montana, reminded the group that there is such a thing as a just war in Catholic teaching. It's a fight "when there is an unjust aggressor who cannot be stopped by any other means."
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Vietnam veteran works to heal spiritual wounds of warfare

Debate over cognitive, traditional mental health therapy

Debate over cognitive, traditional mental health therapy
Psychologists who favor the more medical-minded cognitive behavioral model point to growing evidence of its efficacy. Proponents of psychoanalysis deride a one-size-fits-all approach.
By Eric Jaffe

January 11, 2010


If your doctor advised a treatment that involved leeches and bloodletting, you might take a second glance at that diploma on the wall. For the same reason, you should think twice about whom you see as a therapist, says a team of psychological researchers.

In a November report that's attracting controversy the way couches attract loose change, three professors charge that many mental health practitioners are using antiquated, unproved methods and that many clinical psychology training programs lack scientific rigor.

The accusation has reignited a long-standing "holy war" within the psychological profession.

On the one side sit the report's authors and other like-minded psychologists who say that too many clinicians favor personal experience over scientific evidence when deciding on a patient's treatment. They are particularly unsettled by the number of therapists -- especially from training programs that grant a higher degree known as doctor of psychology, or PsyD -- who ignore the most-studied type of treatment: cognitive behavioral therapy.

"Evidence-based therapies work a little faster, a little better, and for more problematic situations, more powerfully," says psychologist Steven D. Hollon of Vanderbilt University.

Research shows that many patients respond to the therapy within 12 to 16 sessions, far more quickly than in traditional psychoanalysis, making the treatment highly cost-effective.

England is convinced. In 2007, the British government -- a "decade ahead of us," Hollon says -- adopted a massive program to train 3,600 therapists in cognitive behavioral therapy with the hope of weaning 900,000 people off medication.


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Debate over cognitive, traditional mental health therapy

Service dog comforts Bells veteran with PTSD

Service dog comforts Bells veteran with PTSD

By MARIANN MARTIN
mmartin10@jacksonsun.com
January 10, 2010


When Aimee Sherrod paces the floor after a nightmare, her dog Bear licks her face. When she feels frightened by a large crowd, Bear blocks people by standing in front of her. When she yells at her husband and family, Bear puts his nose in her hand.

"On the days I push everyone else away, he won't leave me alone," Sherrod says as she sits on the couch in her Bells home. Bear, a service dog from the organization Puppies Behind Bars, puts his head in her lap, letting her play with his ears.

Sherrod, a mother of two, suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder after serving two tours of duty in Iraq in the Air Force.

The first Air Force casualty in the war came from her unit. During her second tour in 2003 and 2004, her unit was stationed in the Baghdad International Airport, which was targeted by bombings and sniper fire.

Post-traumatic stress disorder was diagnosed in 2004, and Sherrod took a medical discharge from the Air Force in 2005.

Since then, she has struggled to cope with her illness, which has kept her from holding a steady job or staying in school. She hopes that may change since she got Bear in October.

"He is not a robot or a magic fix, but he helps," she said. "And anything that makes it (the post-traumatic stress disorder) less, is good with me. Just like today - he can tell I'm more nervous than usual and he is right on top of me."
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Service dog comforts Bells veteran with PTSD

Ministry reaches out to Fort Campbell soldiers

Ministry reaches out to Fort Campbell soldiers
Seminar instructs on helping heal lives of troops, their families
By JAKE LOWARY • The Leaf-Chronicle • January 10, 2010


Fort Campbell will begin a mass exodus of soldiers in the coming days, beginning another tumultuous year for not only them, but the families left behind.

The installation and its soldiers have become well-versed at serving in combat, but also have seen the side effects of many months in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"As a result, they (the soldiers and families at Fort Campbell) have experienced pain and trauma," said retired Maj. Gen. Bob Dees, the former commander of the 3rd Brigade Combat Team and now the executive director of Campus Crusade for Christ Military Ministry.

Dees helped lead one of the biggest seminars Saturday at First Baptist Church, designed to help the soldiers and families through not only the next 12 to 18 months, but also the families left at home wondering about their loved ones.

"Church can provide compassion, comfort and understanding," said Stephen Dorner, who along with his wife Karen was one of three couples who provided first-hand tales of fighting through combat trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder.

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Ministry reaches out to Fort Campbell soldiers

Colorado veteran starts PTSD support group

Carbondale veteran starts PTSD support group
26-year-old Iraq War veteran creates outlet for those suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
John Gardner
Post Independent Staff
Glenwood Springs, CO Colorado

CARBONDALE, Colorado — Adam McCabe knows the affects of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder all too well.

McCabe, a 26-year-old Marine veteran of the Iraq War, has been dealing with the disorder since he returned from his second tour of duty in 2006. He found that it was hard to acclimate back into society after having seen the reality of war.

“I've been having a lot of struggles the past few years,” McCabe said.

McCabe found that he was pushing those closest to him away, and he had a tough time connecting with people. Life was very different than he remembered.

“I thought that I would be successful in the civilian world because I was successful in the military,” he said. “But there is a big disconnect here. I couldn't connect with people, family and friends. Not because I didn't want to, but because everything had changed about me.”

He's undergone intensive inpatient treatment for PTSD, he said. And now, he's found solace in talking with other veterans who suffer from the same disorder.

“Once I started talking about it, it was a good thing,” McCabe said.

And now he's helping other veterans in the Roaring Fork Valley, who suffer from the disorder, to deal with it head on.
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Carbondale veteran starts PTSD support group

Hit-and-run hospitalizes Pearl Harbor veteran

Hit-and-run hospitalizes Pearl Harbor veteran
Friday, January 08, 2010

Bob Banfield

BANNING, Calif. (KABC) -- The highway patrol is asking for the public's help, hoping a tip will lead them to the hit-and-run driver who crashed into a car driven by an 86-year-old survivor of Pearl Harbor.

The incident being investigated occurred Thursday at 9:45 a.m. on Palm and De Waide avenues in Hemet.

The driver of a 1998 Honda stolen from a parking lot in Bulmont collided with a Dodge Neon driven by Benjamin Weat a resident of a retirement home in Hemet.

"Both vehicles were disabled at the scene. He did flee the scene, and we have set up a perimeter for several hours looking for the suspect but were unable to locate him," said Scott Beauchene of the California Highway Patrol.

The driver of the Honda may have been injured but he left the accident site on foot. He is described as a Hispanic male, 5 feet 6 inches to 5 feet 10 inches tall, with short black hair, with a tattoo on the left side of his head and may answer to the name Angel.
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Hit-and-run hospitalizes Pearl Harbor veteran

Iraq War veteran, mother battle the odds

Iraq War veteran, mother battle the odds

B.J. Steed

Steven McFarland is a decorated war veteran who served as a gunner along the front lines in the War on Terror.

After returning home in 2006, his mother, Jan McFarland, noticed something about her son had changed.

"Tossing and turning, he was hyperventilating; if you came up behind him he would jump and scream. He didn't like being cornered in," says McFarland.

Jan, a former nurse with UAMS, recognized her son's symptoms as Post-traumatic Stress Disorder.

"He would re-enact a person dying that he saw, and the death scene," McFarland says.

The 21-year-old began seeking treatment for the disorder, taking medication prescribed by his doctor.

But his mother says those doses couldn't block the terrible things he had experienced in battle.

He began medicating himself with multiple drugs.

In February, just two months after returning from battle, McFarland's lawyer, Chip Welch, says things took a turn for the worst.
read more here
http://www.todaysthv.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=97379&catid=2

video

Iraq War veteran, mother battle the odds
Steven McFarland is a decorated war veteran who served as a gunner along the front lines in the War on Terror.

"We've had 7 suicides in 2009."
Watching this video provides a lot of hope that many in leadership are understanding PTSD a lot better than ever before. The story of Steven McFarland should not have happened but it did because when it comes to PTSD, there is a very long way to go but this video should restore hope that we are closer than we ever were before of getting these men and women help to heal.

92 year old man doesn't let car crash stop breakfast

Man Rams Car Into Restaurant, Eats Breakfast
92-Year-Old Cited For Reckless Driving
PORT ORANGE, Fla. -- Diners at the Biscuit's "N" Gravy and More restaurant in Port Orange received a surprise Wednesday when a car plowed into the side of the building.

A 92-year-old man was at the wheel when his vehicle crashed into the busy restaurant on Nova Road.

The driver wasn't hurt, but the cook said a customer had just left the damaged seating area.
read more here
http://www.wesh.com/news/22157235/detail.html

What's the right answer with PTSD and gun rights?

What's the right answer with PTSD and gun rights?
by
Chaplain Kathie

I know a lot of veterans with PTSD and they own guns. For too many not receiving the help they need, having a gun helps them feel "protected" instead of being any kind of danger to themselves or others. While tracking PTSD reports across the country for all this time, I am also fully aware of the fact guns are used to end their pain as well as take the life of someone else when they "freak out" usually due to a flashback and other factors of PTSD. So what's the right answer? Is it to not allow them to have guns or would it be more appropriate to get them the help they need?

Not such a simple answer. When you consider some of the law makers wanting to do the right thing they need to look at the bigger picture. A knee jerk reaction is that it makes sense to take guns away but they need to look at what this ends up doing. It stops PTSD veterans from getting help because they don't want to give up their guns. Do you want them to have no help as PTSD gets worse while they have guns in the house?

I do presentations providing awareness of what PTSD is and what it does. Usually there is a question and answer time following the video. Most of the questions are about gun rights. This is not a good thing. Innocent civilians never being deployed into combat are victims of combat when PTSD takes hold and a veteran opens fire. They know how to use guns and they know how to hit what they aim for. After all, this is what kept them alive in combat. When they come home, they have relied on weapons to stay alive to the point where they cannot even think of being without their guns and knives. Weapons become a part of them and they would never think of leaving them behind or not having one within reach because in combat, every second brings more danger to them, then they take that thought into civilian life.

The best answer to this is to make sure every veteran with PTSD receives the help they need and this requires learning to live a peaceful life again. They cannot do this with medication alone. They need therapy provided by an expert dedicated to healing PTSD and not someone with such limited knowledge they can't even understand what PTSD is. Too often this is exactly what the veterans are getting.

The issue of them not being responsible for their financial affairs is connected to the majority of veterans with high PTSD scores. Short term memory loss and irrational thinking are parts of it as well, but just because they want to go out and spend money they can't afford or can't remember to pay a bill, that does not automatically make them dangerous to themselves or others.

When the Joshua Omvig Suicide Prevention Act was first being debated, my knee jerk reaction was supporting this effort. It made sense until it was pointed out to me that it could potentially cause more harm than good. I did not really understand how deep the need was to hang onto guns or how much this would hurt them emotionally. It was pointed out to me by one of my friends that they would end up feeling as if their time in combat meant nothing and that they were suddenly supposed to give up their rights just because they came home wounded by PTSD. PTSD hit them while they were in combat but they still had weapons, trusted to have the weapons and now when they are trying to live a relatively "normal" life again, they are supposed to give up their weapons leaving them feeling they are penalized for serving and risking their lives.

We read about veterans taking the life of someone else and think this is a huge problem. We read about them committing suicide with a gun but we fail to understand they find other ways. What we also fail to understand is that when we're talking about numbers measured by hundreds of thousands the percentage of veterans with PTSD using guns against someone else is low enough to show this is not the answer.

Bush Signs Joshua Omvig Veterans Suicide Prevention Bill into Law

The Joshua Omvig Suicide Prevention Act (H.R. 327) is designed to help address Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) among veterans by requiring mental health training for Veterans Affairs staff; a suicide prevention counselor at each VA medical facility; and mental-health screening and treatment for veterans who receive VA care. It also supports outreach and education for veterans and their families, peer support counseling and research into suicide prevention. The VA had been implementing a number of these programs, but not in a timely manner, whereas the Joshua Omvig bill mandates these programs and subsequent deadlines as a means of expediting the process for returning veterans.

The rate of 18 veterans a day taking their own lives does however prove the need to be better at taking care of them overall not just those deemed too impaired to handle their own finances.

In a perfect world, all our veterans would receive whatever care they need to recover from physical and invisible wounds, would be able to have the financial security when their wounds prevent them from working and would find their families receiving the full support they need to care for them, but this is not a perfect world. Less than half of PTSD veterans seek help to heal even though the sooner they seek help the better the outcome, they fight against getting help, partly because of the stigma but also because they do not trust the government to deliver anything. Can you blame them?

Depending on what part of the country they live in, their claims can be harder to have approved, harder to get to care and harder to find the best care. Even when you look at the National Guards, you'll find some states ahead of the rest with programs to address PTSD and suicides. The Montana National Guards efforts prove this and this program is being taken to a national level, but in between then and now, the Montana National Guardsmen are able to use this program while other National Guardsmen are receiving very little. Then there is the issue of the backlog of claims along with denials. There are too many obstacles already.

Threatening veterans to take away their guns ends up making sure less veterans seek help for PTSD and with the system the way it is, they don't need one more reason to stay away from the VA.

Bill protects rights of wounded veterans

It is clear from your recent editorial about S. 669, the Veterans' Second Amendment Protection Act, that you took the time to read the talking points of an organization opposed to my legislation, but never bothered to actually read the bill. I welcome the opportunity to inform your readers what it really does.

The Veterans' Second Amendment Protection Act requires a judicial process, rather than a bureaucratic one, to determine whether or not veterans are a danger to themselves or others before stripping them of their constitutional rights. These men and women are the only recipients of federal benefits who are automatically deprived of a constitutional right solely because they've been appointed a fiduciary, regardless of the reason. Recipients of Social Security and other federal benefits are not subject to such arbitrary decisions.

You wrote that the current process is "not easy." You are correct in one regard. While it is quite easy for VA to add a veteran--and family members--to the NICS list, it is extremely difficult for a veteran to appeal that decision. Just ask Corey Briest, a veteran who was severely wounded in Iraq. Corey's wife Jennifer, his fiduciary, wrote to me that a VA field examiner admonished them to rid the house of their guns or they could be prosecuted. Never mind that Corey was encouraged to hunt as part of his rehabilitation, and never mind that he owns a heirloom rifle, handed down to him by his grandfather (also a veteran) that Corey wanted to pass on to his son. And never mind that no one bothered in the first place to assess whether Corey was a danger to himself or anyone else.
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Bill protects rights of wounded veterans

We Will Remember Them

We Will Remember Them
'We Will Remember Them' - Stars Record Tribute to Troops - ALL proceeds from the sale of this single will go to 'Help for Heroes' and 'The Royal British Legion.'
We Will Remember Them

Injured veterans are stuck in limbo

Injured veterans are stuck in limbo
No longer in war zone but also not 'home,' they battle for normal

James Janega

Tribune reporter

January 3, 2010


For Mitch Chapman, recovering from broken bones and a brain injury, the mission now is treating the pain and surviving the nightmares.

For Michael Brown, who suffers from a shoulder wound and post-traumatic stress disorder, it is controlling sudden outbursts.

For Casey Church, the muscles in his left buttocks and hip gone, it is learning to walk again.

Three months after the end of the Illinois National Guard's yearlong deployment in Afghanistan, these young men are among 108 wounded soldiers who returned ahead of nearly 2,900 uninjured comrades -- but who are still fighting their bit of the war.

The 40 who suffered the worst injuries remain hospitalized at a dozen facilities that include Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., and Brooke Army Medical Center in Texas. The remainder, many suffering serious but less obvious wounds, shuttle back and forth to Veterans Affairs hospitals and rehabilitation clinics across Illinois.
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Injured veterans are stuck in limbo

Help Other People Evolve

Help Other People Evolve

by
Chaplain Kathie

H O P E

Today I went to a trauma seminar at Holmes Regional Medical Center in Melbourne FL. The speakers were wonderful but my mind drifted away from the civilians they were talking about focusing instead on the men and women in our military as well as the veterans.

We all get up in the morning not thinking today is the day our life will change forever, as a couple of the presenters pointed out. No one plans on traumatic events. It could be a car accident. It could be a fire. It could be someone deciding they wanted to obliterate co-workers they thought treated them badly. No matter how careful we are and no matter how much we don't deserve traumatic events to come into our lives, they happen usually because we are careless or because someone else caused it.

Getting over it depends on the kind of help we receive after, support from family instead of them avoiding us and the event and it also depends on our own inspiration to heal. God blessed us with the ability to overcome. All we need is already there but most of us have no clue where to look for it. Most want to return to the way they were before and when they can't this adds to the pain they carry. Any good therapist will tell them honestly there is no way possible to "return" to normal after trauma but they will also add in that the survivor can be better than they were before since every event in our lives, no matter how trivial or serious, changes us in some way.

Normal, regular people experience traumatic events in daily life even though we all try to avoid them. As bad as things can get for us, we need to stop and think about the men and women in the military serving today and the veterans we have living among us. Think of purposely going into danger and what that takes to be able to do it. Knowing someone ahead of them wants to kill them yet doing it anyway. This takes great courage to expose themselves to danger constantly in order to do their "jobs" and what deliver on what is asked of them.

We see police officers respond as they did today to the shooting in St. Louis

8 people shot, 3 fatally, at St. Louis factory, police say
January 7, 2010 2:50 p.m. EST

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
NEW: Suspect identified as Timothy Hendron; no word whether he's among those killed
Police doing room-by-room search at plant; interstate, surface streets closed
Of 8 shot, 3 are dead, 3 critically injured, two in fair condition, officials say
St. Louis, Missouri (CNN) -- Three people were killed and five others wounded Thursday in a shooting at a St. Louis, Missouri, transformer manufacturing company, police said.

It was unclear whether the suspect was among those killed at ABB Inc., St. Louis Metropolitan Police said in a statement.

A law enforcement official identified the suspect to CNN as Timothy Hendron.

The shooting occurred just before 6:30 a.m. Arriving officers were told that a man had entered the building with a rifle and a handgun, and that several people had been shot, police said.
read more here
http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/01/07/factory.shootings/index.html

We know they have to do this kind of thing all the time as well as respond to everything else going on in "regular" life. What we do not see is what happens in Iraq and Afghanistan any more than we saw what really happened in Kuwait, Bosnia, Somalia, Vietnam or any of the other actions. We saw news reports but do you ever wonder what it would have been like if film was rolling 24-7 with each and every unit? It would begin to help the rest of us understand that if traumatic events can change our lives so drastically with one event, what must it be like for them with event after event after event? We know civilians end up with PTSD and we know responders do as well but somehow that does not translate into assumption of "normalcy" when it comes to the servicemen and women.

Years ago I tried to explain that PTSD is a normal reaction to abnormal events, events out of our control bringing everything in our lives into question, because we can understand the shock a family feels when someone dies unexpectedly, the shock when a fatal diagnosis is given or when someone never walks thru the door again. We have an easier time acknowledging what the survivors are going through than we do when it comes to people dealing with all of it, plus their own "normal" traumatic events the rest of us go through. An example of this came this week.

Mom serving in Iraq hears two young sons died in house fire back home
Sons die in fire while mom's in Iraq'SHE'S DEVASTATED' Father pulls boys, ages 2 and 5, from room as smoke billows out window
January 5, 2010
BY STEFANO ESPOSITO Staff Reporter
If the dreaded news comes, it's supposed to arrive stateside with a knock at the front door and a visit from two somber soldiers.That tragedy played out in reverse Monday when a Lansing soldier serving in Iraq was told her two small children had perished in a fire while napping at home."She's devastated, and she is trying to hold on," said Clint Towers, who is Areah Brown-Towers' father-in-law and grandfather to the two victims -- Joshua, 2, and Jeremiah, 5.Clint Towers said the American Red Cross was making arrangements Tuesday to bring the grieving mother home -- perhaps as soon as Thursday.
read more here Sons die in fire while mom in Iraq

This Mom expected traumatic events in Iraq but as she faced them, the trauma came back home when her two sons died. Her life changed in an instant, yet not the kind of change, not the kind of trauma, she suspected would happen. In Iraq, in Afghanistan, they are prepared for the fact they could be in the wrong place when a bomb blows up or when a bullet has their name on it, just as they are prepared for the fact one of their friends could die, but as they face this reality, they also know something could happen back home even though they force themselves to not think about it, push it out of their minds because they have enough to worry about where they are as they face the reality they can do very little about it while they are deployed.

This is their reality.

When they are in the National Guards, they are soldiers while deployed, first responders back home facing natural disasters at the same time they worry about their families. For many, they work regular jobs, but these regular jobs often come with facing traumatic events on a daily basis while they are police officers, firefighters and emergency responders. All of this adds to what they have to heal from.

We are all humans, no matter what caused the trauma. It doesn't matter if we willingly risked our lives or not because all of our lives are at risk everyday. Most of us make it through our days without anything terrible happening, but for those touched by trauma, there is a private hell we either climb out of or sink into. For those who are able to climb out, we have a unique place in this world. We can help others find hope of being able to make it out of that pit because we are standing there.

We do not have to have PTSD to understand someone with it. We don't have to lose a limb to understand how something like that can change a life just as we don't have to lose a family member to be able to understand that. We understand better if we are survivors of the same kind of outcome, but just surviving trauma in itself helps us to be able to help them.

There is no kind of trauma that has not touched my life and perhaps that is why I was able to understand my husband better. He's the combat veteran and I am a veteran of trauma. My traumatic experiences began the day I was born with an violent alcoholic father who stopped drinking when I was 13. Before I was 5 I almost died because of what someone else did. Another child pushed me off a slide. I landed on my head, cracked my scull and had a concussion, but my life was placed in greater danger because the x-ray was read wrong and I was sent home. This was followed by a car accident, being beaten by my ex-husband, miscarriage and then almost dying after my daughter was born and an infection turned my system septic. With all of this and more, I was able to understand that trauma changes everyone. I also knew being a survivor was not anything to be ashamed of or feel hopeless about.

We can always offer hope to someone else. We can help other people evolve from darkness, feeling lost, frightened and alone into someone able to see that they can come out on the other side stronger too. We do this with experience, compassion and living an example of the continuation of living a full life by overcoming that which we cannot heal. Some trauma survivors have had serious bodily injuries they may never be able to fully recover from but that is not what has trapped them. It is what they have living inside of them trapping them from healing. You can help them find the power to heal and help them make peace with the fact the event changed them but does not have to destroy them.

When you read stories like the ones above, remember that most of the people on this planet will experience something out of the ordinary finding it hard to find someone as a role model to find hope from. Be there for them. Try contacting others online and share what you did to heal. If you are not healed yet, reach out to someone else and heal each other. None of this is impossible as long as there is still compassion in your heart from someone walking in your well worn shoes.

We were warned about what they carry home with them

The warning bells rang before the first troops were sent into Afghanistan but few heard them. They began to ring after Vietnam and grew louder every year as more and more veterans we asked much of were forgotten about when they were no longer of use to this nation. Some hard hearts will say that when a veteran is homeless it is his/her own fault because they cannot open their eyes and see the truth of the wound carried deeply in the soul of the men and women we send into combat. The things they carry home are our duty to tend to but when we don't this is what comes after they come home.

Year in Review: The Things Veterans Carry
By: GRITtv Saturday January 2, 2010 11:17 am

It’s 2010, and we’re still at war in Iraq and Afghanistan–and there are some who seem to think that adding a new war would be a great idea. It’s often pointed out that those who are willing to rush into wars are often not the people who fight in them. Back in May, we held a discussion on veterans’ issues. We wrote then:
More than one million soldiers have been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan over the last eight years. Close to 4,500 have died in Iraq and nearly 20 percent of those who return have Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Well over 100,000 Iraqis have been killed. As Memorial Day approaches how will soldiers, families of soldiers, and the rest of our society reflect on the dead and those still living with the trauma of war?
Today on GRITtv Darren Subarton a veteran who served in the Army’s 101st Air Borne Division, Joshua Kors who has written extensively on the experience of veterans returning from war, Dan Lohaus director of When I Came Home, and Nada Michael a student in Social Work at Smith College discuss the challenges veterans face, dealing with the VA, and what likely won’t be discussed Memorial Day.
For additional information on organizations and websites that support veterans you can visit Wounded Warriors Family Support, Community of Veterans, Iraq Veterans Against the War, and Support Your Vet.

PTSD posts open up healing

Thirty years ago something like this was not possible, then again, there were very few even talking about PTSD openly at all.

This post came from a friend of a veteran's son but opened up a lot of other people as they shared their own stories. Some also have PTSD or have someone in their life with it. They are talking and this is a wonderful thing as heartbreaking as some of the posts are to read.

We've come a long way since the early days of discovering what wounds came home with the veterans. It's not a matter of the wounds being new because they are as old as man, but no one wanted to talk about it. Veterans were sent to mental institutions or, as with my husband's uncle, sent to live on a farm to be "taken care of" until they died. These veterans suffered just as much as the families had no one to talk to about any of it. It was the well kept secret of the family.

This changed when Vietnam veterans came back and fought for research and treatment at the same time their own suffering was taken care of by using alcohol and drugs, usually resulting in broken families and incarcerations. Still even they didn't want to talk about the suicides among them either. Families searched frantically for help, advice and support but knew that would all be impossible to find if no one wanted to talk about it. If they were lucky, someone they know would mention something from time to time and discussions would breakdown the loneliness they felt.

Veterans would seek out other veterans, soon starting their own groups and they began to finally talk. They learned how to lean on each other the same way they did in battle but this time fighting a battle to heal.

Twenty years ago, the ability of the Internet opened up even more conversations as people were able to reach out across the country and share. Things changed for the better, the isolation and loneliness was replaced by a common bond and today we see posts like this.

The person did not have a PTSD veteran but was exposed to the reality they live with because he cared.

I witnessed my friend's Dad have a PTSD attack this weekend... it has really messed me up.

Hero's ashes found in trash end up with proper burial because teenagers cared

Ashes Found in Trash Led to Proper Burial
January 05, 2010
St. Petersburg Times

The two teenagers got to the cemetery first. He wore his dark green dress uniform from the National Guard. She wore a long black dress. They stood on the edge of the road, across from rows of matching military headstones, waiting for the funeral of the man they had never met.

Mike Colt, 19, and his girlfriend, Carol Sturgell, 18, had driven more than an hour from their Tampa homes last month to be at Florida National Cemetery in Bushnell.

They weren't really sure why they had come. They just knew they had to be here.

"It's kind of sad, huh?" asked Sturgell, scanning the sea of white gravestones.

Colt nodded. "Yeah, but it feels kind of important."

She pulled it out, brushed off the dust. Across the top, bold letters said, "Department of Defense." Inside, she found retirement papers from the U.S. Army; a citation for a Purple Heart issued in 1945; and a certificate for a Bronze Star medal "for heroism in ground combat in the vicinity of Normandy, France ... June 1944." In the center of the certificate there was a name: Delbert E. Hahn.

read more here

Ashes Found in Trash Led to Proper Burial

Free housing deals for Salvation Army officers?

Stunned by this report? Wondering how is it that the Salvation Army is paying for houses? Do they look at it the same way churches do and they supply housing for their clergy? I doubt anyone would have a problem with that as long as the property was in the name of the organization and not the person living there. It happens all the time but we never think of it.

The more expensive home away from where the Majors and Commander live seem just wrong when you think about the need increasing for people to be helped and many of the people seeking help of the Salvation Army have lost their homes along with everything else, plus add in people usually able to donate are seeking help for themselves now, the Salvation Army is under attack for something that was probably a practice they had for many years when times were better.

Don't let this report take away from the rank and file workers of the Salvation Army doing this work.

Free housing deals for Salvation Army officers create image problem
Mitch Lipka
Jan 5th 2010 at 10:00AM

Probably at the bottom of the list of things the millions of donors to the Salvation Army expect of those running the charity's programs would be arrogance and a cushy lifestyle.

If you're one of those donors, the purchases of two homes in Massachusetts for Salvation Army officers and the comments by a resident of one might change that perspective.

The Salvation Army, a religious organization best known for helping the homeless and addicted, does not lavish great wealth upon its officers. But as part of its compensation package, it does provide them with housing.

A story by the Worcester (Mass.) Telegram & Gazette done in conjunction with Boston University's New England Center for Investigative Reporting showed the practice can create some serious image problems at a time when charities are battling over a shrunken pool of donations.

First, we'll start with Divisional Commander Major William Bode. He and his wife Major Joan Bode (Salvation Army officers share the same ranks as their wives, who also serve the organization) live in a $900,000 home in Needham, Mass. Nice.

Then there's Major Michael Copeland, who, by his own account, repeatedly pushed property limits set for him in the Worcester area until settling on a four bedroom, two and a half bath home in suburban Holden, Mass., for $350,000 (pictured above). When the basement and garage are added in, the home's 3,800 square feet exceeds the 3,000 square foot cap permitted by the Salvation Army's own rules.
read more here
Free housing deals for Salvation Army officers

Mom serving in Iraq hears two young sons died in house fire back home

Sons die in fire while mom's in Iraq

'SHE'S DEVASTATED' Father pulls boys, ages 2 and 5, from room as smoke billows out window

January 5, 2010

BY STEFANO ESPOSITO Staff Reporter
If the dreaded news comes, it's supposed to arrive stateside with a knock at the front door and a visit from two somber soldiers.

That tragedy played out in reverse Monday when a Lansing soldier serving in Iraq was told her two small children had perished in a fire while napping at home.

"She's devastated, and she is trying to hold on," said Clint Towers, who is Areah Brown-Towers' father-in-law and grandfather to the two victims -- Joshua, 2, and Jeremiah, 5.

Clint Towers said the American Red Cross was making arrangements Tuesday to bring the grieving mother home -- perhaps as soon as Thursday.
read more here
Sons die in fire while mom in Iraq

Dover Air Force Base to expand care with Center for Families of fallen

Dover facility will serve families of war dead

By Randall Chase - The Associated Press
Posted : Tuesday Jan 5, 2010 12:55:06 EST

DOVER, Del. — The military mortuary at Dover Air Force Base, where U.S. war casualties from overseas are brought home, will open a new facility Wednesday to serve families who travel there to witness the return of their loved ones’ remains.

The Center for Families of the Fallen will be staffed by counselors and support specialists who will assist families awaiting the return of their loved ones to the nation’s largest military mortuary. Families also will be able to meet with casualty assistance officers who are assigned to them.

Officials said the new center will be more convenient both for families and mortuary officials than the space now shared by the Air Force Mortuary Affairs Operations Center at Dover with the base’s active duty and reserve wings.

“Sadly, as the death toll has grown in Afghanistan and Iraq, we find we need a larger facility,” said Maj. Shannon Mann, a spokeswoman for AFMAO.
read more here
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2010/01/ap_dover_new_mortuary_010510/

Landmark CBS Investigation and Veterans for Common Sense

Veterans for Common Sense and Paul Sullivan are proving a point. When people care beyond politics, speak the truth and fight to change things, things change. It is basic common sense. They are fighting for our veterans to receive the care they thought they were promised as anyone working a job would assume.

The rest of us go to work in the civilian world expecting that if we're hurt on the job, workman's comp will take care of our injury as well as the lost income when we cannot work. That's the rest of us and we'd be pretty angry if anyone prevented us from getting it. There would be people lining up in every newspaper office around the country demanding action because it would be simply wrong to not pay when we ended up hurt just doing our jobs. So why isn't this happening when it is men and women serving this country in one of the most dangerous jobs anyone could do?

These men and women agree to risk their lives everyday they are deployed. They agree to do jobs not many others would be willing to do. They are not just sent to another state to fill in gaps in manpower, they are sent into nations around the world and since 2001, they have been sent to a couple of the most dangerous places on earth to provide for what this nation needs.

They don't play politics. They don't get to decide to go into combat or not. They don't get to decide who to fight or how long it goes on. They don't even get to quit when they just don't want to do it anymore unless their enlistment time is up. They also have to leave their families behind when they are deployed for a year or, more often, longer than a year.

What do they ask of the rest of us? The same thing we expect out of our own employers and nothing more.

We hear all the talk about the backlog of claims but we tend to forget that number is a veteran usually along with an entire family waiting for us to do the right thing for them. We show up to send them off and we show up to welcome them home but then we pull a vanishing act as if our job is done and we don't need to care anymore.

The way our veterans are treated is not unique to the world. No nation really lives up to taking care of any of their servicemen and women properly but you'd think since we spend the bulk of the world's defense spending, we'd have at least a higher standard when it came to taking care of them men and women in the military. Why is it that we never think of them this way?

For years we've heard politicians say no amount of money is too much for this nation's defense. We were told that hundreds of billions of dollars had to spent to pay for Iraq and Afghanistan but did we hear the same cry for necessity when it came to talking care of the people we depend the most on? No. When it came to them some politicians were on the floor of congress whining about tight budgets with two wars to pay for.

The time to do the right thing was before they were sent. All of the wounded should have been planned for ahead of time and not when it was too late to save so many. To lose more after combat than we do during it is simply wrong and we didn't have to see so many die by their own hand but the DOD and the VA were not prepared to take care of all of them. We need to make sure this never happens again.

The other factor is as the newly wounded were waiting in line for help, the older wounded were getting into the same line and no one planned for them either. This all got worse very, very fast but until we get things right, it will keep getting worse at the same time we ask more and more out of the servicemen and women. Taking care of them is not just common sense, it's common decency.

Landmark CBS Investigation

The landmark news segment by reporter Byron Pitts and Producer David Schneider at "60 Minutes" revealed many new pieces of information because it was the first-ever major investigation into VBA.

* CBS reported the fact that more than 400,000 Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans have already filed disability claims against VBA. This information was obtained by VCS using the Freedom of Information Act.

* CBS embarrassed VBA into admitting VBA's disability claim form is an insane 23 pages long. We want to know when VBA will use a shorter, veteran-friendly form.

* CBS mentioned that VBA will be issuing new claim processing rules for PTSD. This an effort initiated and led by VCS since 2007 worth an estimated $5 billion for our disabled veterans.

VBA didn't dispute any of the facts presented by VCS and broadcast by CBS. Top on the list is the fact VBA has one million backlogged claims. Our lawsuit uncovered the long and outrageous waits veterans endure - six months for an initial decision and four years for an appealed decision.

Your Turn to Act

Now, today, it is your turn to call local newspapers, TV stations, and your local Congressman and demand immediate reform at VBA. We also need more investigations into VBA. For example, VBA illegally shredded veterans' claims, VBA improperly backdated computer records, and VBA paid top leaders huge cash bonuses while the claim backlog grew larger and veterans waited longer.

VBA urgently needs pro-veteran leaders, a pro-veteran culture, streamlined rules, and VBA claims staff to help veterans in every Veterans Health Administration medical facility.