Disabled veteran's mission: to help wounded soldiers and kin
By John Kelly
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Stephen Maguire explained how it works.
"The soldiers will arrive three times a week by air evac from Germany," he said. "Always on Sunday evening, Tuesday evening and Friday evening -- about 5:30ish. They land at Andrews, then the big superbus brings them over here."
"Here" is Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
"It brings them to the front of the hospital, on the second floor, and they come in right through the main lobby. Some are ambulatory, some are on respirators. . . . At the same time all this is going on, Department of Army casualty affairs has contacted the family and has issued them tickets and booked them to come the next day -- not the day the soldier arrives, but the next day. They want the soldier to be kind of settled in."
Wounded soldiers and their families: Steve Maguire's customers.
Steve always thought he'd make the Army a career. He enlisted in 1966. Armor was what he wanted, but he got infantry.
"I fell in love with infantry at Officer Candidate School," Steve said. "I went to Ranger school, and they kept me on as an instructor. I had the time of my life being a Ranger instructor."
He was sent to Vietnam in early '69, a recon platoon leader for a battalion.
read more here
Disabled veteran mission
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Repaying the support from a wounded Marine
Repaying the support
Since her brother was wounded last year in war, Sarah Himan has been there for him. Now Josh was giving back, cheering on her softball team.
By Mark Berman
RADFORD -- Sarah Himan was in the Radford University library when her younger brother gave her the bad news on the phone.
Their eldest brother, Josh, had been wounded in Afghanistan.
Josh, whose love of sports led to Sarah becoming an athlete.
Josh, who had so enjoyed his years at RU that she decided to accept a softball scholarship from the university.
She ran out of the library that September night, packed a bag and drove home to Woodbridge in Northern Virginia to be with her family.
A lance corporal in the Marines, Josh suffered damage to his spinal cord when his Humvee hit an improvised explosive devise. He has quadriplegia, paralyzed from the chest down.
Sarah has made many trips from Radford to visit her hospitalized brother. She and the rest of the family celebrated Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's and Easter with Josh at the Hunter Holmes McGuire VA Medical Center in Richmond.
Wednesday night, it was Josh who visited Sarah.
read more here
http://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/243391
Since her brother was wounded last year in war, Sarah Himan has been there for him. Now Josh was giving back, cheering on her softball team.
By Mark Berman
RADFORD -- Sarah Himan was in the Radford University library when her younger brother gave her the bad news on the phone.
Their eldest brother, Josh, had been wounded in Afghanistan.
Josh, whose love of sports led to Sarah becoming an athlete.
Josh, who had so enjoyed his years at RU that she decided to accept a softball scholarship from the university.
She ran out of the library that September night, packed a bag and drove home to Woodbridge in Northern Virginia to be with her family.
A lance corporal in the Marines, Josh suffered damage to his spinal cord when his Humvee hit an improvised explosive devise. He has quadriplegia, paralyzed from the chest down.
Sarah has made many trips from Radford to visit her hospitalized brother. She and the rest of the family celebrated Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's and Easter with Josh at the Hunter Holmes McGuire VA Medical Center in Richmond.
Wednesday night, it was Josh who visited Sarah.
read more here
http://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/243391
ACLU fights to protect rights of Marine posting anti-Obama Facebook page
Marine's anti-Obama Facebook comments fuel debate
(AP) – 12 hours ago
SAN DIEGO — A Camp Pendleton Marine has removed his Facebook page after his comments fueled a free-speech debate about whether troops are allowed to criticize President Barack Obama's policies while serving in the military.
Sgt. Gary Stein said he was asked by his superiors to review the Pentagon's directive on political activities after he criticized Obama's health care reform efforts and then was asked this week to talk about his views on the MSNBC cable TV channel.
Stein said his supervisor told him of his right to an attorney about the matter. He said he decided to close his Facebook page and review his military code obligations. He also contacted private attorneys who told him he had done nothing wrong.
"There's this illusion that when we sign our contract and voluntarily commit, that we lose our right to speak out," Stein told the San Diego Union-Tribune in a story published Wednesday.
The local American Civil Liberties Union said in a statement Wednesday that it has sent a letter to Camp Pendleton's commanding officer urging the Marine Corps to protect Stein's right to freedom of speech.
read more here
Marine anti Obama Facebook comments fuel debate
(AP) – 12 hours ago
SAN DIEGO — A Camp Pendleton Marine has removed his Facebook page after his comments fueled a free-speech debate about whether troops are allowed to criticize President Barack Obama's policies while serving in the military.
Sgt. Gary Stein said he was asked by his superiors to review the Pentagon's directive on political activities after he criticized Obama's health care reform efforts and then was asked this week to talk about his views on the MSNBC cable TV channel.
Stein said his supervisor told him of his right to an attorney about the matter. He said he decided to close his Facebook page and review his military code obligations. He also contacted private attorneys who told him he had done nothing wrong.
"There's this illusion that when we sign our contract and voluntarily commit, that we lose our right to speak out," Stein told the San Diego Union-Tribune in a story published Wednesday.
The local American Civil Liberties Union said in a statement Wednesday that it has sent a letter to Camp Pendleton's commanding officer urging the Marine Corps to protect Stein's right to freedom of speech.
read more here
Marine anti Obama Facebook comments fuel debate
Florida based Navy plane crash in Georgia claims lives of crew
Update
Levittown Marine killed in training flight
By Robert Moran
Inquirer Staff Writer
First Lt. Shawn Nice, 26, a Levittown native, was a Marine officer training in Pensacola, Fla., to be a naval flight officer.
He had a degree in electrical engineering.
He and his wife, Kimberly, were expecting their first child.
Nice was on a routine training flight on a T-39N Sabreliner out of Pensacola when it crashed in dense forest in northern Georgia on Monday.
He was one of four killed in the crash. The twin-engine jet nearly struck a house when it went down, according to authorities, but no one on the ground was hurt.
go here for more
Levittown Marine killed in training flight
At Least 3 Dead in Navy Crash in Georgia
April 13, 2010
Associated Press
MORGANTON, Ga. -- A Florida-based Navy plane just missed a house and crashed in dense woods in north Georgia on Monday, killing three crew members, and authorities were looking for a fourth person believed to be aboard, officials said.
Naval Air Station Pensacola spokesman Harry White said authorities have not confirmed whether the pilot was among those killed when a T-39N training plane went down at 4:26 p.m. No one on the ground was injured, he said.
The plane was part of Training Air Wing 6, which conducts routine cross-country missions through Fannin County, where it crashed, about two hours north of Atlanta, on the edge of the North Carolina and Tennessee borders, White said. Searchers found three bodies. The twin-jet plane can carry two pilots and seven passengers, according to a Navy Web site.
read more here
At Least 3 Dead in Navy Crash in Georgia
Levittown Marine killed in training flight
By Robert Moran
Inquirer Staff Writer
First Lt. Shawn Nice, 26, a Levittown native, was a Marine officer training in Pensacola, Fla., to be a naval flight officer.
He had a degree in electrical engineering.
He and his wife, Kimberly, were expecting their first child.
Nice was on a routine training flight on a T-39N Sabreliner out of Pensacola when it crashed in dense forest in northern Georgia on Monday.
He was one of four killed in the crash. The twin-engine jet nearly struck a house when it went down, according to authorities, but no one on the ground was hurt.
go here for more
Levittown Marine killed in training flight
At Least 3 Dead in Navy Crash in Georgia
April 13, 2010
Associated Press
MORGANTON, Ga. -- A Florida-based Navy plane just missed a house and crashed in dense woods in north Georgia on Monday, killing three crew members, and authorities were looking for a fourth person believed to be aboard, officials said.
Naval Air Station Pensacola spokesman Harry White said authorities have not confirmed whether the pilot was among those killed when a T-39N training plane went down at 4:26 p.m. No one on the ground was injured, he said.
The plane was part of Training Air Wing 6, which conducts routine cross-country missions through Fannin County, where it crashed, about two hours north of Atlanta, on the edge of the North Carolina and Tennessee borders, White said. Searchers found three bodies. The twin-jet plane can carry two pilots and seven passengers, according to a Navy Web site.
read more here
At Least 3 Dead in Navy Crash in Georgia
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Army announces March suicide numbers
Not a shock at all for anyone reading this blog over the years. How many times have they said they have a new program to take care of them only to end up discovering what they have been doing is more of the same that has not worked. Hell they even tried to order them a while ago to not kill themselves but that didn't work either. Nothing will work until they finally figure out what we know. They don't even know why it strikes some but not others. We do but they wouldn't listen to us because we are not a defense contractor or some Ph.D with a grant. Gee I really hate being right when they are still ending up taking their own lives. I rather be wrong and have them still here.
Army announces March suicide numbers
By Michelle Tan - mtan@militarytimes.com
Posted : Wednesday Apr 14, 2010 14:33:34 EDT
As many as 13 active-duty soldiers killed themselves in March, the Army announced April 14.
One of the deaths has been confirmed to be a suicide, while the others are still under investigation.
The total for March was one fewer than February. The Army continues to struggle to combat suicide among soldiers.
Among Army National Guard and Army Reserve soldiers who were not on active duty at the time of their deaths, there were eight suspected suicides. All eight remain under investigation.
The same number of suspected suicides among this population of soldiers was reported in February.
Officials have said about 90 percent of such investigations are determined to be suicide.
The Army has seen its suicide numbers increase in the last five years.
go here for more
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2010/04/army_suicides_041410w/
Muppets, Mullen help kids deal with grief
Muppets, Mullen help kids deal with grief
By Karen Jowers - Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday Apr 14, 2010 6:12:10 EDT
The Muppets Rosita, Elmo and his cousin Jesse were having a heart-to-heart discussion about death with Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen and Deputy Secretary of Defense William Lynn at the Pentagon.
Jesse confided that her Muppet father died last year.
“We know you’re here to share that experience,” Mullen said. “We very much appreciate your doing that. That will make a big difference for military children who have experienced that as well, and to other children in America. “
The three Muppets, Mullen and Lynn came together to host a screening of the latest in Sesame Street’s “Talk, Listen, Connect” series, titled “When Families Grieve.”
A one-hour special produced by Sesame Workshop launches the effort on PBS at 8 p.m. Eastern Time and Pacific Time on Wednesday. Check local listings for times.
The special includes four families, two of them military, talking about their experience, and what helped them get through it. It also features Katie Couric, whose husband died when their children were young. She notes that many people don’t talk about death with children because it’s so difficult — not only for the children, but also for the adults who are grieving themselves.
read more here
Muppets, Mullen help kids deal with grief
By Karen Jowers - Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday Apr 14, 2010 6:12:10 EDT
The Muppets Rosita, Elmo and his cousin Jesse were having a heart-to-heart discussion about death with Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen and Deputy Secretary of Defense William Lynn at the Pentagon.
Jesse confided that her Muppet father died last year.
“We know you’re here to share that experience,” Mullen said. “We very much appreciate your doing that. That will make a big difference for military children who have experienced that as well, and to other children in America. “
The three Muppets, Mullen and Lynn came together to host a screening of the latest in Sesame Street’s “Talk, Listen, Connect” series, titled “When Families Grieve.”
A one-hour special produced by Sesame Workshop launches the effort on PBS at 8 p.m. Eastern Time and Pacific Time on Wednesday. Check local listings for times.
The special includes four families, two of them military, talking about their experience, and what helped them get through it. It also features Katie Couric, whose husband died when their children were young. She notes that many people don’t talk about death with children because it’s so difficult — not only for the children, but also for the adults who are grieving themselves.
read more here
Muppets, Mullen help kids deal with grief
Is the U.S. Army Losing Its War on Suicide
The answer is YES! By the way, as for "new research" the Army released a study reported in the Washington Times that repdeployments increased the risk by 50%, so this is an old study some people are just finding out about.
Is the U.S. Army Losing Its War on Suicide?
By Mark Thompson / Washington Tuesday, Apr. 13, 2010
From the invasion of Afghanistan until last summer, the U.S. military had lost 761 soldiers in combat there. But a higher number in the service — 817 — had taken their own lives over the same period. The surge in suicides, which have risen five years in a row, has become a vexing problem for which the Army's highest levels of command have yet to find a solution despite deploying hundreds of mental-health experts and investing millions of dollars. And the elephant in the room in much of the formal discussion of the problem is the burden of repeated tours of combat duty on a soldier's battered psyche.
The problem is exacerbated by the manpower challenges faced by the service, because new research suggests that repeated combat deployments seem to be driving the suicide surge. The only way to apply the brakes will be to reduce the number of deployments per soldier and extend what the Army calls "dwell time" — the duration spent at home between trips to war zones. But the only way to make that possible would be to expand the Army's troop strength, or reduce the number of soldiers sent off to war.
Read more: Army Losing Its War on Suicide
Tammy Duckwoth speaks on what leadership is
This Story
On Leadership: Tammy Duckworth on being 'mommy platoon leader'Video On Leadership: Iraq war veteran and Assistant Secretary of Veterans Affairs Tammy Duckworth on why women are 'already leading' in combat.
'I will never leave a fallen comrade behind'
Transcript: Tammy Duckworth on being the 'mommy platoon leader'
The Federal Coach: Advice and inspiration for government leaders
On Leadership: Adm. Mullen on Being a Senior Leader
On Leadership: Gen. Petraeus names Giuliani as role model
On Leadership: Rear Admiral Margaret Klein
Tammy Duckworth on her new role at VA
On Leadership: Tammy Duckworth on being 'mommy platoon leader'Video On Leadership: Iraq war veteran and Assistant Secretary of Veterans Affairs Tammy Duckworth on why women are 'already leading' in combat.
'I will never leave a fallen comrade behind'
Transcript: Tammy Duckworth on being the 'mommy platoon leader'
The Federal Coach: Advice and inspiration for government leaders
On Leadership: Adm. Mullen on Being a Senior Leader
On Leadership: Gen. Petraeus names Giuliani as role model
On Leadership: Rear Admiral Margaret Klein
Tammy Duckworth on her new role at VA
Vietnam Veterans of Australia report problems with 800 help line
Difficulties with Veterans & Veterans Families Counselling Service 1800 Number
Announcement by President Danny
Following inquiries by VV&VFACT with respect to VV&VFACT and Veterans concerns in regard to the Counselling Service, 1800 number, President Danny announced at the BBQ today, that the problem has been recognised by the relevant authorities and is Australian wide.
VV&VFACT has been assured that the problem with the 1800 number will be resolved within six weeks.
As an interim measure, VV&VFACT Office Manager Karen Toscan, has volunteered to be the VV&VFACT Point of Contact (POC) for members or partners who experience problems with the Counselling Service 1800 number.
Karen can be contacted on 0438 123 268, 24/7.
As President Danny stated, do not bottle it, ring, because if you bottle it you take it out on your family or friends.
http://www.vvfact.org.au/?p=3515
Announcement by President Danny
Following inquiries by VV&VFACT with respect to VV&VFACT and Veterans concerns in regard to the Counselling Service, 1800 number, President Danny announced at the BBQ today, that the problem has been recognised by the relevant authorities and is Australian wide.
VV&VFACT has been assured that the problem with the 1800 number will be resolved within six weeks.
As an interim measure, VV&VFACT Office Manager Karen Toscan, has volunteered to be the VV&VFACT Point of Contact (POC) for members or partners who experience problems with the Counselling Service 1800 number.
Karen can be contacted on 0438 123 268, 24/7.
As President Danny stated, do not bottle it, ring, because if you bottle it you take it out on your family or friends.
http://www.vvfact.org.au/?p=3515
Nadia Bloom’s hero said God showed him the way
Nadia Bloom’s hero said God showed him the way
By Bianca Prieto, Orlando Sentinel
6:56 a.m. EDT, April 14, 2010
WINTER SPRINGS — James King says it was an act of God that led him to find Nadia Bloom in a thick swamp early Tuesday.
"God directed me to her," King said hours after finding the 11-year-girl alive.
A day earlier, the 44-year-old University of Central Florida alum was part of a volunteer search crew that had been unable to find Nadia.
But at first light Tuesday, King, a military contractor, entered the woods armed with two cell phones, his shoes taped to his feet and some food and water to give Nadia if she was found. He prayed, quoted Scripture and looked to God to direct him to Nadia.
Then he called her name repeatedly as he ambled through the woods.
"I knew the Lord wanted me to go back in as soon as it was daylight," King said. "I needed him to direct my path. I asked him, would he guide my path?"
The path led him to the middle of the swampy area between state roads 434 and 417 and the girl's gated subdivision, Barrington Estates.
"I said, 'Nadia!' and she answered, 'What?' " said King, recalling a moment about 8:30 a.m.
The missing 11-year-old was sitting calmly on top of a log. She didn't appear to be injured but was "polka-dotted" by bug bites, he said.
He scooped her up gingerly, praised God and then called 911 from the phone he knew was equipped with GPS.
go here for more and videos
Nadia Bloom hero said God showed him the way
Pictures: Nadia Bloom found alive
Nadia Bloom 911 call: Listen to the 911 call made by James King upon finding Nadia Bloom
LISTEN NOW: 911 call from Nadia Bloom's mother when girl went missing
By Bianca Prieto, Orlando Sentinel
6:56 a.m. EDT, April 14, 2010
WINTER SPRINGS — James King says it was an act of God that led him to find Nadia Bloom in a thick swamp early Tuesday.
"God directed me to her," King said hours after finding the 11-year-girl alive.
A day earlier, the 44-year-old University of Central Florida alum was part of a volunteer search crew that had been unable to find Nadia.
But at first light Tuesday, King, a military contractor, entered the woods armed with two cell phones, his shoes taped to his feet and some food and water to give Nadia if she was found. He prayed, quoted Scripture and looked to God to direct him to Nadia.
Then he called her name repeatedly as he ambled through the woods.
"I knew the Lord wanted me to go back in as soon as it was daylight," King said. "I needed him to direct my path. I asked him, would he guide my path?"
The path led him to the middle of the swampy area between state roads 434 and 417 and the girl's gated subdivision, Barrington Estates.
"I said, 'Nadia!' and she answered, 'What?' " said King, recalling a moment about 8:30 a.m.
The missing 11-year-old was sitting calmly on top of a log. She didn't appear to be injured but was "polka-dotted" by bug bites, he said.
He scooped her up gingerly, praised God and then called 911 from the phone he knew was equipped with GPS.
go here for more and videos
Nadia Bloom hero said God showed him the way
Pictures: Nadia Bloom found alive
Nadia Bloom 911 call: Listen to the 911 call made by James King upon finding Nadia Bloom
LISTEN NOW: 911 call from Nadia Bloom's mother when girl went missing
VCS on the National Stage Providing Advocacy
VCS on the National Stage Providing Advocacy
Your support goes a long way in making sure the voices of veterans are heard throughout America.
Here are three outstanding examples of how VCS helps lead the charge to inform Congress and the public about the urgent needs and concerns of our veterans, especially delays in receiving benefits from the Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA).
On Friday, April 9, VCS appeared on KPBS in San Diego, California, as they covered our VCS press conference about fixing VBA with Representative Bob Filner, the Chairman of the House Veterans' Affairs Committee.
On Saturday, April 10, VCS was quoted in The Washington Post in an article about Gulf War illness research.
Then on Sunday, April 11, VCS was quoted in a Chicago Tribune investigation describing how badly broken VBA has become.
Please share these important news articles with your friends and let them know VCS fights for our veterans in Washington and in the national press.
VCS on the Cutting Edge Advocating for Our Veterans
In the next few weeks VCS plans to ask VA to expand benefits and healthcare for our Gulf War veterans based on new scientific evidence.
Veterans for Common Sense thanks you for your support that allows us to continue moving forward on behalf of our veterans!
Paul Sullivan
Executive Director
Veterans for Common Sense
P.S. Please visit our new web site, http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1103299154776&s=6998&e=001ZkIBIDqezRA3Gb_OP2owb6LQ1s0DhKkG8GPDMtDnRaeOL0vwj3RlpwGSp0yfU3UyDRiE6XOr9Qz9WbSDZYaZ3Gs6yYuj9d2McDU7RyKcJTM=. VCS advocates for veterans before Congress and with reporters so our veterans get faster access to VA health care and benefits.
Your support goes a long way in making sure the voices of veterans are heard throughout America.
Here are three outstanding examples of how VCS helps lead the charge to inform Congress and the public about the urgent needs and concerns of our veterans, especially delays in receiving benefits from the Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA).
On Friday, April 9, VCS appeared on KPBS in San Diego, California, as they covered our VCS press conference about fixing VBA with Representative Bob Filner, the Chairman of the House Veterans' Affairs Committee.
On Saturday, April 10, VCS was quoted in The Washington Post in an article about Gulf War illness research.
Then on Sunday, April 11, VCS was quoted in a Chicago Tribune investigation describing how badly broken VBA has become.
Please share these important news articles with your friends and let them know VCS fights for our veterans in Washington and in the national press.
VCS on the Cutting Edge Advocating for Our Veterans
In the next few weeks VCS plans to ask VA to expand benefits and healthcare for our Gulf War veterans based on new scientific evidence.
Veterans for Common Sense thanks you for your support that allows us to continue moving forward on behalf of our veterans!
Paul Sullivan
Executive Director
Veterans for Common Sense
P.S. Please visit our new web site, http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1103299154776&s=6998&e=001ZkIBIDqezRA3Gb_OP2owb6LQ1s0DhKkG8GPDMtDnRaeOL0vwj3RlpwGSp0yfU3UyDRiE6XOr9Qz9WbSDZYaZ3Gs6yYuj9d2McDU7RyKcJTM=. VCS advocates for veterans before Congress and with reporters so our veterans get faster access to VA health care and benefits.
Haven't got time for the pain of PTSD
Haven't got time for the pain of PTSD
by
Chaplain Kathie
When soldiers first realize they cannot pass off the pain anymore, ignore the nightmares and flashbacks, control their anger and "get back to the way they were before" the battle to heal just begins. They spend weeks, months, even years trying to get over it and be themselves again. The problem is they don't want to understand that this will never happen. It is an unrealistic goal. The good news is that because they survived the kind of traumatic events combat offers, they can end up being better than before with the right kind of help to heal.
If they understand why they are suffering and know what PTSD is, then they regard anyone standing in the way of their healing as ignorant jerks without a clue. Much as illnesses were regarded as a judgement from God in Biblical days, people blamed the person for being ill. Now many illnesses are being treated so that the person survives. These illnesses cannot be seen with human eyes because they are inside of the body but the affects of them can be seen in the changes of how the person acts. This we are all able to understand but when it comes to PTSD too many still dismiss it and blame the person. Most of the time the people blaming the ill, the wounded, never understand that it very well could happen to them or someone they love.
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder comes after surviving traumatic events. That is the only way to have it change a person's life. It strikes from an outside force by man or nature. One event piles onto others, digs deeper into the soul and changes the way the person sees the world as well as themselves. The survivor changes in response to these events. Some become what they see as "stronger" but when there is an underlying condition what really happens is they become emotionally colder, meaner, angrier than they had been. There is a saying that no one leaves combat the same way and this is very true because every event in a human's life changes them. If the soldier happens to be a compassionate person, the events touch them deeply and they walk away with their own pain plus the pain of others added to their burden.
While there are other causes for PTSD to strike, combat and law enforcement are different in that the person with PTSD has been exposed to events multiple times as well as the fact they have been participants in the events. They put their lives on the line doing their jobs and sometimes they have to either take a life to the job or they witness someone else taking a life. For most other people, they are more victim of events instead of part of them. Firefighters and emergency responders also face multiple events but they do not have to face taking a life to save lives. National Guardsmen and Reservists deployed into combat usually end up with dangerous jobs back home in police and fire departments after being deployed into combat. Just as there are different causes for PTSD, there are different types of it. We cannot treat all of them the same way.
When the soldier gets past wondering what's wrong, past the ignorant standing in the way of healing, find the help they need, they move from existing in a life filled with pain into one of living a life with hope, joys and love. They make peace with the parts of their lives that will not "return to normal" as they are strengthened by the understanding few others have been where they were, did what they did and ended up standing on the other side. The men and woman recovering from PTSD end up helping others get to where they are by offering support as well as inspiration. They don't have time to let the pain get the best of them once they begin to heal because they have taken that same compassion and put it to use to help others.
When the people in their lives understand what PTSD is, we can help them heal faster and stronger than if we don't understand, react badly or if we walk away. Standing by their side helps them to see they are worthy, see the best of themselves through our eyes and know there is hope of living a better life. We can help them find their own kind of a "new normal" and find peace enough to rejoice.
by
Chaplain Kathie
When soldiers first realize they cannot pass off the pain anymore, ignore the nightmares and flashbacks, control their anger and "get back to the way they were before" the battle to heal just begins. They spend weeks, months, even years trying to get over it and be themselves again. The problem is they don't want to understand that this will never happen. It is an unrealistic goal. The good news is that because they survived the kind of traumatic events combat offers, they can end up being better than before with the right kind of help to heal.
If they understand why they are suffering and know what PTSD is, then they regard anyone standing in the way of their healing as ignorant jerks without a clue. Much as illnesses were regarded as a judgement from God in Biblical days, people blamed the person for being ill. Now many illnesses are being treated so that the person survives. These illnesses cannot be seen with human eyes because they are inside of the body but the affects of them can be seen in the changes of how the person acts. This we are all able to understand but when it comes to PTSD too many still dismiss it and blame the person. Most of the time the people blaming the ill, the wounded, never understand that it very well could happen to them or someone they love.
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder comes after surviving traumatic events. That is the only way to have it change a person's life. It strikes from an outside force by man or nature. One event piles onto others, digs deeper into the soul and changes the way the person sees the world as well as themselves. The survivor changes in response to these events. Some become what they see as "stronger" but when there is an underlying condition what really happens is they become emotionally colder, meaner, angrier than they had been. There is a saying that no one leaves combat the same way and this is very true because every event in a human's life changes them. If the soldier happens to be a compassionate person, the events touch them deeply and they walk away with their own pain plus the pain of others added to their burden.
While there are other causes for PTSD to strike, combat and law enforcement are different in that the person with PTSD has been exposed to events multiple times as well as the fact they have been participants in the events. They put their lives on the line doing their jobs and sometimes they have to either take a life to the job or they witness someone else taking a life. For most other people, they are more victim of events instead of part of them. Firefighters and emergency responders also face multiple events but they do not have to face taking a life to save lives. National Guardsmen and Reservists deployed into combat usually end up with dangerous jobs back home in police and fire departments after being deployed into combat. Just as there are different causes for PTSD, there are different types of it. We cannot treat all of them the same way.
When the soldier gets past wondering what's wrong, past the ignorant standing in the way of healing, find the help they need, they move from existing in a life filled with pain into one of living a life with hope, joys and love. They make peace with the parts of their lives that will not "return to normal" as they are strengthened by the understanding few others have been where they were, did what they did and ended up standing on the other side. The men and woman recovering from PTSD end up helping others get to where they are by offering support as well as inspiration. They don't have time to let the pain get the best of them once they begin to heal because they have taken that same compassion and put it to use to help others.
Haven't Got Time For the Pain
(Carly Simon/Jacob Brackman)
All those crazy nights when I cried myself to sleep
Now melodrama never makes me weep anymore
'Cause I haven't got time for the pain
I haven't got room for the pain
I haven't the need for the pain
Not since I've known you
You showed me how, how to leave myself behind
How to turn down the noise in my mind
Now I haven't got time for the pain
I haven't got room for the pain
I haven't the need for the pain
Not since I've known you
Suffering was the only thing that made me feel I was alive
Thought that's just how much it cost to survive in this world
'Til you showed me how, how to fill my heart with love
How to open up and drink in all that white LIGHT
Pouring down from the heaven
I haven't got time for the pain
I haven't got room for the pain
I haven't the need for the pain
Not since I've known you
When the people in their lives understand what PTSD is, we can help them heal faster and stronger than if we don't understand, react badly or if we walk away. Standing by their side helps them to see they are worthy, see the best of themselves through our eyes and know there is hope of living a better life. We can help them find their own kind of a "new normal" and find peace enough to rejoice.
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Bubba the "love sponge" takes on Westboro Baptist Church
Today driving to work I heard "Bubba the Love Sponge" talking about Westboro Baptist Church and how he is planning on having on Shirley Phelps. My husband had the station on from last night and I couldn't change the station because I hung onto every word. Bubba said that since she knows the Bible inside and out, he wanted a pastor or minister to go on the show to counter what she claims is "gospel" since she can quote chapter and verse.
Considering that she may very well be able to do that, it does not mean she understands what she has read. Bubba mentioned she likes to quote Romans.
I do not suggest you look up the site because I tried a couple of times and ended up with a frozen screen.
If she is quoting anything that Christ didn't say, then she needs to consider the source of who said it. In this case, it's St. Paul.
This is part of what he said:
This shows that you cannot love your neighbor, which Christ pointed out was anyone, at the same time you hate them. This group hates soldiers, the very people deciding to lay down their lives for the sake of this country. This is another thing this group of people forget.
The part that gets me on all of this is that while we need to defend even the rights of people to say what they want when they are terrible, there is also a need for the families of the fallen to have some allowance to mourn the loss without being attacked. They should be able to go to the cemetery and bury their family member without having to hear these hateful words and see the horrible signs by people claiming to be Christian or from anyone else. They are a tiny group and have a right to believe whatever they want, but they do not have the right to subject everyone else to their twisted views of it. Just because someone has the right to say something no one should be forced to hear it. In the case of a military funeral, these families have no choice but to hear them and see their signs and this is wrong.
So please out there in blog world. If there is a pastor or a minister or someone with a lot more biblical knowledge than I have, please contact Bubba's show and take on this woman with a very twisted view of love.
Considering that she may very well be able to do that, it does not mean she understands what she has read. Bubba mentioned she likes to quote Romans.
I do not suggest you look up the site because I tried a couple of times and ended up with a frozen screen.
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Yesterday on the show… Editor-in-chief of DailyCaller.com, Tucker Carlson, called in to thank Bubba for giving him a Special Forces dickie; We are looking for a minister, priest, or pastor of a legitmate Christian organization to debate, Shirley Phelps of the Westboro Baptist Church also known as the “God Hates Fags” people! Don’t forget to tune into today’s Show!!!
If she is quoting anything that Christ didn't say, then she needs to consider the source of who said it. In this case, it's St. Paul.
This is part of what he said:
24Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.
26Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. 27In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.
28Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. 29They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, 30slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; 31they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans+1&version=NIV
Seems to me that the folks at the "church" have a lot in common with this part but I bet they don't see it.
When you consider that Paul was equally sure of what he believed that he lived his life after the crucifixion hunting down Christians so they could be killed, he had a habit of getting things messed up. He lived as Saul of Trasus until Christ spoke to him and "helped him see the light" by showing him how wrong he was. Anyone using what another human said to support a twisted vision of what Christianity is supposed to be is missing the point of Christ Himself.
Christ did say a lot about divorce and getting remarried but you'll hardly ever hear anyone saying much about this since so many have been divorced and remarried. Christ talked about sex without being married too. What all of this boiled down to is that it hurt other people and you shouldn't do it. This fits perfectly with what he said the greatest commandment was too.
The Greatest Commandment
28One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, "Of all the commandments, which is the most important?"
29"The most important one," answered Jesus, "is this: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.[e] 30Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.'[f] 31The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'[g]There is no commandment greater than these."
This shows that you cannot love your neighbor, which Christ pointed out was anyone, at the same time you hate them. This group hates soldiers, the very people deciding to lay down their lives for the sake of this country. This is another thing this group of people forget.
John 15:13
(New International Version)
13Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.
The part that gets me on all of this is that while we need to defend even the rights of people to say what they want when they are terrible, there is also a need for the families of the fallen to have some allowance to mourn the loss without being attacked. They should be able to go to the cemetery and bury their family member without having to hear these hateful words and see the horrible signs by people claiming to be Christian or from anyone else. They are a tiny group and have a right to believe whatever they want, but they do not have the right to subject everyone else to their twisted views of it. Just because someone has the right to say something no one should be forced to hear it. In the case of a military funeral, these families have no choice but to hear them and see their signs and this is wrong.
So please out there in blog world. If there is a pastor or a minister or someone with a lot more biblical knowledge than I have, please contact Bubba's show and take on this woman with a very twisted view of love.
Two Army Families Deal With PTSD, and Suicide
Two Army Families Deal With PTSD, and Suicide
Two Army Wives Share Stories About Their PTSD-Affected Husbands
By BOB WOODRUFF and MICHAEL MURRAY
April 13, 2010
In addition to the insurgents who fight from the hillsides before vanishing into caves in Afghanistan, the U.S. Army has fought an equally elusive and silent enemy here at home: suicide.
Many family members of soldiers returning from their deployment with post-traumatic stress disorder say the stigma associated with seeking psychiatric help has hurt their cause.
Last year marked the fifth consecutive year the Army experienced a record number of suicides in its ranks.
As with thousands of soldiers before them, and thousands more likely to come, Maj. Chris Galloway and Master Sgt. Jim Haus returned home tormented by their experiences at war.
"His behavior was really changing a lot after Afghanistan," Haus' wife, Amanda Cherry-Haus, said. "He was drinking a lot ... he would do all these reckless, endangering things that were obviously PTSD and say, 'No, I don't have a problem.'"
Galloway's wife, Shannon, said, "I was sensing depression and I was sensing probably some PTSD and I talked to him about it, and he was like, 'No, no, no. The Army says I'm fine. I'm fine … You're the crazy one.'"
read more here
Two Army Families Deal With PTSD, and Suicide
Two Army Wives Share Stories About Their PTSD-Affected Husbands
By BOB WOODRUFF and MICHAEL MURRAY
April 13, 2010
In addition to the insurgents who fight from the hillsides before vanishing into caves in Afghanistan, the U.S. Army has fought an equally elusive and silent enemy here at home: suicide.
Many family members of soldiers returning from their deployment with post-traumatic stress disorder say the stigma associated with seeking psychiatric help has hurt their cause.
Last year marked the fifth consecutive year the Army experienced a record number of suicides in its ranks.
As with thousands of soldiers before them, and thousands more likely to come, Maj. Chris Galloway and Master Sgt. Jim Haus returned home tormented by their experiences at war.
"His behavior was really changing a lot after Afghanistan," Haus' wife, Amanda Cherry-Haus, said. "He was drinking a lot ... he would do all these reckless, endangering things that were obviously PTSD and say, 'No, I don't have a problem.'"
Galloway's wife, Shannon, said, "I was sensing depression and I was sensing probably some PTSD and I talked to him about it, and he was like, 'No, no, no. The Army says I'm fine. I'm fine … You're the crazy one.'"
read more here
Two Army Families Deal With PTSD, and Suicide
Quilt of Tears part of Memorial Day observance
When we remember the loss of life from wars we need to also remember that the loss does not end when the guns go silent. When it came to Agent Orange, the death count for Vietnam veterans has still not been reached. It still claims lives everyday. Just as with PTSD, we don't seem to remember the lives lost because of combat as well as we remember the lives lost during it.
April 12, 2010 Orland Park News Highlights
Memorial Day services for Veterans planned in Orland Park
ORLAND PARK, IL – The Village of Orland Park’s Memorial Day Ceremonies are poignant tributes to those who have died serving our country. Flags from each of the 50 states billow as they provide a colorful frame for the village’s towering memorial, Ara Pace – Place of Peace. Bagpipes wail as veterans file in for the presentation of colors as audience members silently rise to their feet.
This year’s ceremony will be the first in almost twenty years without retired US Air Force Colonel Father Leo Lyons who passed away at the age of 87 on February 18, 2010.
“Father Leo never missed one of our ceremonies,” said Mayor Dan McLaughlin. “He was a true veteran’s veteran and made sure he participated every Memorial Day and Veterans Day,” the mayor recalled.
Orland Park’s observance of Memorial Day 2010 will span four days with the Agent Orange Quilt of Tears on display in the Jane Barnes Annex of the Orland Park Civic Center from 9:00 a.m. until 7:00 p.m., May 28 through May 31. Vietnam War era memorabilia will be on display for the four days with guest speakers and presentations planned for each of the days the quilt is in Orland Park.
read more here
http://www.swnewsherald.com/news_frontpage/2010/04/041210op_vets.php
National Guard helicopters cause flashbacks for Vietnam Veteran
This is the one sound that sets Vietnam veterans off but you have to remember how many were in Vietnam. They meant life or death for the soldiers in the jungle and will bring back very unhappy memories.
National Guard Helicopters in the Air
Reported by: Erica Proffer
Last Update: 4/12 7:51 pm
HIDALGO COUNTY - CHANNEL 5 NEWS learned the state sent two National Guard helicopters to the Valley to assist law enforcement
It's been a big secret. The governor announced they were beefing up security along the border. The helicopters were part of the Phase 1 plan. However, no details were given.
The secrecy has many concerned.
One Vietnam veteran tells CHANNEL 5 NEWS he was afraid when he saw a mysterious helicopter in his neighborhood.
"Whenever I hear the choppers come over, I... I automatically get flashbacks from Vietnam," explains "Joe," who didn't want his identity revealed.
"We don't know what we're facing, because of the stories of what's going on across the border. We're so close to it. Anything can happen here."
We told him the "mystery" helicopter is part of the National Guard. But he doesn't want to take chances.
"I don't trust them," says "Joe." "It's very untrustworthy. They're supposed to have a letter somewhere on the tail, fin, somewhere. They should be identifiable by a letter, but there's no identification."
read more here
National Guard Helicopters in the Air
Monday, April 12, 2010
USA LZ Agony
USA LZ Agony
by
Chaplain Kathie
Back home from combat the Landing Zone, the place where they are supposed to feel safe again after putting their lives on the line, has been turned into a nightmare for far too many combat veterans. The VA figures that 18 veterans a day commit suicide and 12,000 try to take their own lives every year. When you stop to think that these men and women had been willing to lay down their lives for the sake of this nation, for the sake of their buddies, it should be stunning to hear that kind of numbers. The truth is, if the American people knew one tenth of what the veterans come home to, there would be a thunder of feet taking to the streets that would deafen any politician not paying attention.
They were sent into Afghanistan without anything being prepared to take care of the wounded in 2001. There were less doctors and nurses working for the VA than after the Gulf War. A normal response to sending men and women into combat would be to prepare to take care of the wounded but no one thought of them. This was at the same time the majority of the American people approved of sending them to Afghanistan in response to the attacks of 9-11. They simply assumed any nation so able to claim how much they support the troops would have really meant it and did something to take care of all their needs. This assumption not only made an ass out of all of us, it endangered their lives.
This wasn't bad enough. Then came the invasion of Iraq. Still no one planned on taking care of the wounded. March 2003 they were sent in but when they started to come home from Iraq with wounded bodies and minds, there was a long line ahead of them waiting to be taken care of. Claims were deep and getting even deeper because the media finally began to pay attention to PTSD. This meant there were more and more older veterans finally being told what had been wrong with them for over 30 years. They began to flood into the VA for help to heal and compensation. This was at the same time the survival rate was at an all time high with technological advances in trauma care. More and more were surviving with horrific wounds that would have killed them during past wars. Still no one cared to prepare to take care of them.
As reports came out about the suicide rates going up, the homeless veterans population going up, divorces going up, incarcerations and accidents going up, the VA was slow to ramp up and the congress was slow to ask tough questions. The congress was not acting to demand accountability for the lack of care any more than they were ready to increase the funding of the VA so they could hire more people. This didn't begin to happen until 2006. As it was it was too little too late to really matter. Since then they have been trying to take care of a flood while there is a tsunami offshore of wounded needing to be taken care of.
We don't hear anything about any of this on the cable news stations and hardly hear enough on the local TV stations. We do see from time to time one of them being honored as their flag draped coffin passes by a sea of red-white and blue flags while neighbors show up to pay tribute to the life lost, but the same people showing up to show they care know nothing of the suffering of others living on their own street. No one told them.
When they come home, they are supposed to be able to concentrate on healing and reconnecting with their families. They are supposed to not have to suffer for being wounded risking their lives doing what we sent them to do, but they suffer all the same. So do their families. They are not supposed to have to fight to have claims honored any more than they are supposed to have to wait to have their case heard anymore than they never made us wait to go where we were sending them. They were not supposed to have to end up jobless or homeless because they put their personal lives on hold, left their families and friends and risked their lives. Their lives were supposed to matter to all of us and all of us would know that if we bothered to pay attention and find out what was going on. We didn't and they ended up suffering because none of us were demanding CNN, FOX and MSNBC stopped talking about celebrities as if they were bought out by the Star or the Enquirer. We didn't demand we were informed about how many were wounded. We didn't demand to know what happened to families after someone they loved took their own lives because they managed to survive combat but couldn't survive coming back to the USA and landing in the zone of agony!
Whatever suffering their going through is our fault because we didn't want to know enough to make sure we did. Now they come home just as the Vietnam veterans did. They come home to a nation detached and avoiding the reality they live with. We claim we learned something from Vietnam and never again will we take out our feelings of the combat on them, but reality sucks and at least we cared enough during Vietnam to feel one way or the other but now, no one even wants to know. Shame on us! We hardly learned anything at all. We've spent so many years trying to make it up to the Vietnam veterans for the way we treated them but when you get right down to it, we are still treating all of them as if they don't matter because we are neglecting them when they need us.
This leaves us with this question. If we have failed them so badly, why would anyone want to still serve? Read the following and keep in mind that this man wouldn't need to smoke pot if he had the help he needed to heal but since no one demaded they come up with programs that actually work, it happened to him because he was too afraid to talk to his buddies. See, no one told them what PTSD is or what causes it. So this is going on in every state and they come home wondering why they are suffering and no one seems to care.
by
Chaplain Kathie
Back home from combat the Landing Zone, the place where they are supposed to feel safe again after putting their lives on the line, has been turned into a nightmare for far too many combat veterans. The VA figures that 18 veterans a day commit suicide and 12,000 try to take their own lives every year. When you stop to think that these men and women had been willing to lay down their lives for the sake of this nation, for the sake of their buddies, it should be stunning to hear that kind of numbers. The truth is, if the American people knew one tenth of what the veterans come home to, there would be a thunder of feet taking to the streets that would deafen any politician not paying attention.
They were sent into Afghanistan without anything being prepared to take care of the wounded in 2001. There were less doctors and nurses working for the VA than after the Gulf War. A normal response to sending men and women into combat would be to prepare to take care of the wounded but no one thought of them. This was at the same time the majority of the American people approved of sending them to Afghanistan in response to the attacks of 9-11. They simply assumed any nation so able to claim how much they support the troops would have really meant it and did something to take care of all their needs. This assumption not only made an ass out of all of us, it endangered their lives.
This wasn't bad enough. Then came the invasion of Iraq. Still no one planned on taking care of the wounded. March 2003 they were sent in but when they started to come home from Iraq with wounded bodies and minds, there was a long line ahead of them waiting to be taken care of. Claims were deep and getting even deeper because the media finally began to pay attention to PTSD. This meant there were more and more older veterans finally being told what had been wrong with them for over 30 years. They began to flood into the VA for help to heal and compensation. This was at the same time the survival rate was at an all time high with technological advances in trauma care. More and more were surviving with horrific wounds that would have killed them during past wars. Still no one cared to prepare to take care of them.
As reports came out about the suicide rates going up, the homeless veterans population going up, divorces going up, incarcerations and accidents going up, the VA was slow to ramp up and the congress was slow to ask tough questions. The congress was not acting to demand accountability for the lack of care any more than they were ready to increase the funding of the VA so they could hire more people. This didn't begin to happen until 2006. As it was it was too little too late to really matter. Since then they have been trying to take care of a flood while there is a tsunami offshore of wounded needing to be taken care of.
We don't hear anything about any of this on the cable news stations and hardly hear enough on the local TV stations. We do see from time to time one of them being honored as their flag draped coffin passes by a sea of red-white and blue flags while neighbors show up to pay tribute to the life lost, but the same people showing up to show they care know nothing of the suffering of others living on their own street. No one told them.
When they come home, they are supposed to be able to concentrate on healing and reconnecting with their families. They are supposed to not have to suffer for being wounded risking their lives doing what we sent them to do, but they suffer all the same. So do their families. They are not supposed to have to fight to have claims honored any more than they are supposed to have to wait to have their case heard anymore than they never made us wait to go where we were sending them. They were not supposed to have to end up jobless or homeless because they put their personal lives on hold, left their families and friends and risked their lives. Their lives were supposed to matter to all of us and all of us would know that if we bothered to pay attention and find out what was going on. We didn't and they ended up suffering because none of us were demanding CNN, FOX and MSNBC stopped talking about celebrities as if they were bought out by the Star or the Enquirer. We didn't demand we were informed about how many were wounded. We didn't demand to know what happened to families after someone they loved took their own lives because they managed to survive combat but couldn't survive coming back to the USA and landing in the zone of agony!
Whatever suffering their going through is our fault because we didn't want to know enough to make sure we did. Now they come home just as the Vietnam veterans did. They come home to a nation detached and avoiding the reality they live with. We claim we learned something from Vietnam and never again will we take out our feelings of the combat on them, but reality sucks and at least we cared enough during Vietnam to feel one way or the other but now, no one even wants to know. Shame on us! We hardly learned anything at all. We've spent so many years trying to make it up to the Vietnam veterans for the way we treated them but when you get right down to it, we are still treating all of them as if they don't matter because we are neglecting them when they need us.
This leaves us with this question. If we have failed them so badly, why would anyone want to still serve? Read the following and keep in mind that this man wouldn't need to smoke pot if he had the help he needed to heal but since no one demaded they come up with programs that actually work, it happened to him because he was too afraid to talk to his buddies. See, no one told them what PTSD is or what causes it. So this is going on in every state and they come home wondering why they are suffering and no one seems to care.
Corpsman turned to pot to deal with stress
By Gidget Fuentes - Staff writer
Posted : Monday Apr 12, 2010 9:00:03 EDT
OCEANSIDE, Calif. — The enemy’s bullet tore into his arm, knocking Hospital Corpsman 2nd Class William Osborn out of commission during a firefight May 4, 2009, in Afghanistan.
Just six days later, Osborn was back in action, operating as the team medic with his Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command unit and completing a seven-month deployment.
The events of that day and the totality of his combat tour weighed heavily on him well before he left Afghanistan.
“After I was shot, things obviously changed,” he said. “Psychologically, it starts taking a toll on you.”
Nights were spent tossing and turning. He became moodier. Facing near-death experiences in combat, Osborn, a single father, often thought of his three children. “A lot of rough nights that I still don’t want to talk about,” he said.
But in a spec-ops unit and community known more for its machismo, intense drive and universal strength, he felt that to tell teammates of his struggles — even men with whom he shared a tight brotherhood — would be to admit that he’s less of a man than the rest of them.
“I wasn’t going to tell my team of Marines, of special operators, that I had a depressive disorder,” he said.
So he did two things that would get him in trouble. He self-medicated with antidepressants, which he later confessed to his superiors. Then, while his case was being processed, he began smoking marijuana at home to help him sleep.
In early March, he popped positive on a random urinalysis for the key active chemical in marijuana. For his two transgressions, he said, instead of preparing to advance to first class petty officer this year, he’s at Camp Pendleton, Calif., busted in rank to E-4 and serving his punishment of 45 days’ restriction along with loss of half his pay for four months and 45 days’ extra duty as he awaits the Navy’s decision about his administrative discharge for smoking pot and taking antidepressants.
He hopes that publicly drawing attention to his use of marijuana to treat PTSD will change the law on how the Navy and Marine Corps handle service members who struggle with ways to live with PTSD.
read more here
Corpsman turned to pot to deal with stress
Marine's Mom talks about what PTSD looks like
The only term I would change on this is when she uses "victim" instead of survivor. PTSD only comes after traumatic events. The person standing there after, survived the event but sometimes it hurts more. If we manage to focus on this, then they will feel like a survivor, acknowledge they lived through something horrible, the same way they would see other people with amazement over the fact they made it out of hell.
We need to change the way the troops and veterans look at PTSD. It is not a sign of weakness. It is a sign they are a survivor. It is a sign they were compassionate enough to feel the pain just as surly as they felt love more deeply. It is a sign they had the courage to act on that level of compassion to put the lives of others ahead of their own lives when they decided to serve.
PTSD is a wound to the soul and the best way to heal it is to understand it but the military has a very hard time understanding what targets some over others. After all these years I can assure you, it is the depth of their ability to feel that causes them to carry away so much pain.
We need to change the way the troops and veterans look at PTSD. It is not a sign of weakness. It is a sign they are a survivor. It is a sign they were compassionate enough to feel the pain just as surly as they felt love more deeply. It is a sign they had the courage to act on that level of compassion to put the lives of others ahead of their own lives when they decided to serve.
PTSD is a wound to the soul and the best way to heal it is to understand it but the military has a very hard time understanding what targets some over others. After all these years I can assure you, it is the depth of their ability to feel that causes them to carry away so much pain.
Eager: Combat PTSD by knowing the signs
Posted Sunday, Apr. 11, 2010
"Open fire!"
The phrase is expected to be heard on a battlefield, but not after a soldier or Marine returns from combat. Post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, is an enemy that follows some home, a sniper of sorts that marks its target and picks off its unsuspecting victim with pinpoint precision.
What does combat PTSD look like? The disorder might be easier to treat if the blow were from a real bullet, where a wound or blood is visible and a clear-cut protocol for treatment exists.
Victims of PTSD often trudge on, initially not realizing they are wounded. No cries of "Man down!" are heard.
Sometimes there is only silence until it is too late. They are our community's walking wounded.
PTSD was not at the forefront of my thoughts when our son first deployed to Iraq. I had a naive hope (or denial) that he wouldn't see much combat.
That illusion was shattered March 17, 2007. Soon after he deployed as part of the surge into Anbar Province, we received a phone call. I could sense something was wrong.
My usual question of, "How is your squad?" was met with, "One is no longer with us."
A fellow Marine was killed by a sniper while the squad was on a foot patrol. It was a precise hit; death was immediate.
Little did I know then that 2007 and the ensuing months that our son was in Iraq would be the deadliest since the start of the war. But at that point, a new worry fixed itself within me: How will this affect my 21-year-old son, who witnessed his buddy's death on the battlefield?
It is as impossible to determine who will be the next victim of PTSD as it is to determine who will be the next battlefield casualty. Out of our son's original squad of 13, nine came home together. Three others were severely wounded.
Read more: Combat PTSD by knowing the signs
Florida Highway Patrol Trooper and wife die in "apparent murder-suicide"
Married for 29 years. On the force since 1988. The officer and his wife were both 48. How do you go from putting your life on the line everyday for that many years, shared with a wife you've spent over half your life with, raised children with, cried and laughed with, and then decide to take her life plus your own? Something had to have happened to lead to this. That is what we cannot dismiss.
FHP trooper and wife die in apparent murder suicide
Reported by: Victoria Benchimol
Email: vbenchimol@abcactionnews.com
Last Update: 6:54 am
FLORAL CITY, FL - A Florida Highway Patrol Trooper shot his wife and then killed himself in an apparent murder-suicide, deputies say.
The Citrus County Sheriff's Department says the trooper called 911 shortly after 3:00 a.m. Sunday. Deputies responded to his home at 4525 E Seese Lane, a rural road in Floral City.
When they arrived, deputies found FHP Trooper Eddie Silcox, 48 and his wife, Sandra June Silcox, 48 inside. Sandra had been shot and was deceased at the scene.
Trooper Silcox, who had apparently shot himself, was transported to Citrus Memorial Hospital where he died from his wounds.The trooper and his wife have two sons, one is in the military overseas, the other is a teenager.
read more here
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Revolving Door of Multiple Tours Linked to PTSD
We knew this would happen back in 2006 but since no one did anything about it, it has gotten worse for the men and women we send over and over again. What good does it do to know something if no one does anything with it?
We also knew here
They didn't learn much since then. They keep redeploying them over and over again. If they have to do this then it is not only their responsibility but their duty, to make sure they are able to care for the wounded because of this and stop allowing them to suffer when they come home wounded by PTSD.
Repeat Iraq Tours Raise Risk of PTSD, Army Finds
By Ann Scott Tyson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, December 20, 2006; Page A19
U.S. soldiers serving repeated Iraq deployments are 50 percent more likely than those with one tour to suffer from acute combat stress, raising their risk of post-traumatic stress disorder, according to the Army's first survey exploring how today's multiple war-zone rotations affect soldiers' mental health........
Ignoring risk of PTSD at our peril
We also knew here
Monday, August 11, 2008
Five deployments, a bad omen
The percentage of soldiers who have served multiple deployments has jumped, as well. Today, 31 percent of soldiers have been to war zones more than once. That compares with 20 percent in 2006. The number of soldiers with more than five tours has increased to 2,358 in 2008, compared with 961 in 2006.
Martin said commanders should carefully monitor soldiers and Marines who face the most stressful combat assignments, calling them “canaries in the coal mine.”
“Those who are most exposed and in the most challenging spots are at greater risk for post-traumatic stress,” he said.
They didn't learn much since then. They keep redeploying them over and over again. If they have to do this then it is not only their responsibility but their duty, to make sure they are able to care for the wounded because of this and stop allowing them to suffer when they come home wounded by PTSD.
Revolving Door of Multiple Tours Linked to PTSD
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: April 11, 2010
Filed at 12:47 a.m. ET
It wasn't his first tour in Iraq, but his second and third when Joe Callan began wondering how long his luck would last -- how many more months he could swerve around bombs buried in the dirt and duck mortars raining from the skies.
It was only natural, considering the horrors he'd seen: One buddy killed when a mortar engulfed his tent in flames. A fresh-faced Marine sniper dead (also a mortar) on his first day in Iraq. A 9-year-old Iraqi boy, blood trickling from his head, after he was mistakenly shot by U.S. troops.
Three tours in four years and Callan wanted out. Out of Iraq, out of the Marines.
''I became numb,'' he says. ''I just wanted to be home. And that became more intense each time.''
When Callan did return to New Mexico, he couldn't sleep. He drank heavily. He had a short fuse. ''I knew,'' he now says, ''I was different. But I didn't think it was going to be that bad.''
Maj. Jeff Hall's world imploded after his second tour in Iraq.
Overwhelmed with guilt and rage, the 18-year Army veteran became so depressed that one day he lay on the ground and pointed a pistol at his head. The only reason he didn't kill himself, he says, is he didn't want his two daughters to discover him. ''I couldn't do that to my kids,'' he says. ''I had seen people with their heads blown off.''
read more here
Revolving Door of Multiple Tours Linked to PTSD
Unexploded round removed from Afghan soldier's head
Live round taken from ANA soldier’s head
By Pauline Jelinek - The Associated Press
Posted : Saturday Apr 10, 2010 10:46:08 EDT
WASHINGTON — A U.S. military doctor removed a live round of ammunition from the head of an Afghan soldier in an unusual and harrowing surgery.
Doctors say a 14.5 millimeter unexploded round — more than 2 inches long — was removed from the scalp of an Afghan National Army soldier at the Bagram Air Field hospital last month.
When the Afghan soldier, in his 20s, arrived at the base, doctors thought it was shrapnel or the spent end of some sort of round, said Lt. Col. Anthony Terreri, a radiologist deployed from Wilford Hall Medical Center at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas.
read more here
Live round taken from ANA soldiers head
By Pauline Jelinek - The Associated Press
Posted : Saturday Apr 10, 2010 10:46:08 EDT
WASHINGTON — A U.S. military doctor removed a live round of ammunition from the head of an Afghan soldier in an unusual and harrowing surgery.
Doctors say a 14.5 millimeter unexploded round — more than 2 inches long — was removed from the scalp of an Afghan National Army soldier at the Bagram Air Field hospital last month.
When the Afghan soldier, in his 20s, arrived at the base, doctors thought it was shrapnel or the spent end of some sort of round, said Lt. Col. Anthony Terreri, a radiologist deployed from Wilford Hall Medical Center at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas.
Maj. Jeffrey Rengel, put on body armor for the surgery.
read more here
Live round taken from ANA soldiers head
Disabled vet has to prove he isn't dead yet
South Weber veteran fighting red tape after receiving notices of his death from VA
By Charles F. Trentelman (Standard-Examiner staff)
Last Edit: Apr 10 2010 - 9:20pm
SOUTH WEBER -- Being declared dead can be scary if, as the old Monty Python movie gag says, you aren't quite dead yet.
Merle Voss, South Weber, received a letter from the Department of Veterans Affairs on April 1 telling him he was dead. He felt alive enough to spend the weekend on the phone trying to convince people he was alive, with little success.
He felt alive enough Monday to go to work, which was good because the Veterans Administration not only cut off his benefits, it asked him to send money back.
And will he keep his job? He works at Hill Air Force Base, which is operated by the same government that declared him dead.
"These big bureaucracies talk to each other, so I was worried," he said. So far his co-workers have shown no problem with hanging out with a dead guy.
All this started on April 1. Voss, who is 53, found out quickly it was not a joke. He actually got two letters. One was from the Veterans Administration addressed to "The estate of Merle D. Voss," commiserating on the event of his death and elling his survivors they qualified for funeral benefits.
The other letter was more ominous. It was from Department of Veterans Affairs Debt Management Center. It said dead people can't collect benefits, said Voss had been sent money after he died and asked Voss to send it back.
read more here
South Weber veteran fighting red tape
By Charles F. Trentelman (Standard-Examiner staff)
Last Edit: Apr 10 2010 - 9:20pm
SOUTH WEBER -- Being declared dead can be scary if, as the old Monty Python movie gag says, you aren't quite dead yet.
Merle Voss, South Weber, received a letter from the Department of Veterans Affairs on April 1 telling him he was dead. He felt alive enough to spend the weekend on the phone trying to convince people he was alive, with little success.
He felt alive enough Monday to go to work, which was good because the Veterans Administration not only cut off his benefits, it asked him to send money back.
And will he keep his job? He works at Hill Air Force Base, which is operated by the same government that declared him dead.
"These big bureaucracies talk to each other, so I was worried," he said. So far his co-workers have shown no problem with hanging out with a dead guy.
All this started on April 1. Voss, who is 53, found out quickly it was not a joke. He actually got two letters. One was from the Veterans Administration addressed to "The estate of Merle D. Voss," commiserating on the event of his death and elling his survivors they qualified for funeral benefits.
The other letter was more ominous. It was from Department of Veterans Affairs Debt Management Center. It said dead people can't collect benefits, said Voss had been sent money after he died and asked Voss to send it back.
read more here
South Weber veteran fighting red tape
The dark demons of policing
Officer down: The dark demons of policing
By MARK BONOKOSKI, Toronto Sun
Last Updated: April 11, 2010 1:00am
BRACEBRIDGE — From the outside looking in, Bruce Kruger would appear to have an idyllic life.
Retired from the OPP within the top 4% of its hierarchy, his final rank after almost four decades being a detective inspector, he lives in a perfect-setting, bed-and-breakfast home on the banks of the Muskoka River, and owns a successful Swiss Chalet-Harvey’s franchise in the heart of town as well as in Huntsville.
He has been married 40 years to wife, Lynda, has four children, one a cop, and 13 grandchildren.
He has both the Canada Medal of Bravery and the Ontario Medal of Bravery, as well as a number of valour certificates and commendations, and with nary a recorded blemish on his career.
He’s Bracebridge’s Town Crier, and award-winning one at that, and has served on more municipal boards, organizing committees, and charitable groups than one can imagine.
Back in December, he was an official Olympic torchbearer, one of his last public functions before going to ground.
Bruce Kruger, as it turns out, had a dark secret.
And now he wants it out.
A few days ago, Bruce Kruger returned from an eight-week, in-house stay at the Homewood Health Clinic in Guelph where, partially at his own expense, he finally dealt with the post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) that plagued him most of his life as a cop, and throughout the entire 10 years he has been in retirement.
read more here
The dark demons of policing
By MARK BONOKOSKI, Toronto Sun
Last Updated: April 11, 2010 1:00am
BRACEBRIDGE — From the outside looking in, Bruce Kruger would appear to have an idyllic life.
Retired from the OPP within the top 4% of its hierarchy, his final rank after almost four decades being a detective inspector, he lives in a perfect-setting, bed-and-breakfast home on the banks of the Muskoka River, and owns a successful Swiss Chalet-Harvey’s franchise in the heart of town as well as in Huntsville.
He has been married 40 years to wife, Lynda, has four children, one a cop, and 13 grandchildren.
He has both the Canada Medal of Bravery and the Ontario Medal of Bravery, as well as a number of valour certificates and commendations, and with nary a recorded blemish on his career.
He’s Bracebridge’s Town Crier, and award-winning one at that, and has served on more municipal boards, organizing committees, and charitable groups than one can imagine.
Back in December, he was an official Olympic torchbearer, one of his last public functions before going to ground.
Bruce Kruger, as it turns out, had a dark secret.
And now he wants it out.
A few days ago, Bruce Kruger returned from an eight-week, in-house stay at the Homewood Health Clinic in Guelph where, partially at his own expense, he finally dealt with the post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) that plagued him most of his life as a cop, and throughout the entire 10 years he has been in retirement.
read more here
The dark demons of policing
Marine helps save couple after hippo attack
“I was just in the right place at the right time,” he said. “I’m no hero. Any Marine would have done the same thing.”
Marine helps save couple after hippo attack
MarineCorpsTimes.com
By Staff writer
Corporal: ‘Any Marine would have done the same thing’
By James K. Sanborn - Staff writer
Posted : Sunday Apr 11, 2010 8:35:24 EDT
Hippopotamus attacks aren’t covered during standard Marine training, but that didn’t stop one corporal from rushing to the aid of a married couple while on safari in Zimbabwe after their inflatable canoe was flipped and the husband mauled.
Cpl. Justin Trinidad, 24, a Marine security guard at the U.S. embassy in Zimbabwe, was with his girlfriend, Kaylynn Hankey, when the hippo attacked their tour group on the Zambezi River in mid-March. About 30 minutes into the trip, the group — which included four canoes — asked for a break. As they headed for shore, tour guides spotted the hippo and yelled for the canoes to move away, but Javier and Patricia Franco didn’t hear the warning.
“I look back and all I see is Mr. and Mrs. Franco thrown up in the air a few meters,” Trinidad told Marine Corps Times in a telephone interview from Africa.
Patricia Franco was thrown clear of the hippo, but her husband came down almost on top of it. That’s when the animal chomped down on his leg, nearly severing his foot, Trinidad said.
Marine's home trashed by burglars
Marine's home trashed by burglars
Saturday, April 10, 2010
Kevin Quinn
HOUSTON (KTRK) -- A local Marine who served in Iraq is now concerned about his home turf after burglars trashed his house in northwest Harris County and even took some of his military gear.
Folks along his street are concerned. The Marine tells us he was actually able to find some of his stolen belongings.
Homeowners in the part of northwest Harris County called Copperfield are fed up about the crime here. One is a military veteran so disgusted by what happened to him that he called Eyewitness News asking for help.
read more here
Marine home trashed by burglars
Saturday, April 10, 2010
Kevin Quinn
HOUSTON (KTRK) -- A local Marine who served in Iraq is now concerned about his home turf after burglars trashed his house in northwest Harris County and even took some of his military gear.
Folks along his street are concerned. The Marine tells us he was actually able to find some of his stolen belongings.
Homeowners in the part of northwest Harris County called Copperfield are fed up about the crime here. One is a military veteran so disgusted by what happened to him that he called Eyewitness News asking for help.
read more here
Marine home trashed by burglars
From hard life in LA teen heading to West Point
LA Teen Beats Odds to Earn Admission to West Point
Mara Gay
Contributor
(April 9) -- This is what it looks like to beat the odds.
Tyki Nelworth, 18, was accepted to the United States Military Academy at West Point last week after enduring a lifetime of obstacles that would have stopped most people from accomplishing much of anything.
Nelworth's mother is in jail, his father is dead and he has had no permanent home.
At one point, he was taken from his mother because of suspected child neglect, and his sister told him he was a "crack baby."
read more here
LA Teen Beats Odds to Earn Admission to West Point
Mara Gay
Contributor
(April 9) -- This is what it looks like to beat the odds.
Tyki Nelworth, 18, was accepted to the United States Military Academy at West Point last week after enduring a lifetime of obstacles that would have stopped most people from accomplishing much of anything.
Nelworth's mother is in jail, his father is dead and he has had no permanent home.
At one point, he was taken from his mother because of suspected child neglect, and his sister told him he was a "crack baby."
read more here
LA Teen Beats Odds to Earn Admission to West Point
Media darlings and ignored heroes
In every city, in every home town they grew up in, they are mourned. When the flag draped casket carrying their body to rest passes thru the streets, total strangers turn out to comfort the families but above that, they turn out to honor the life gone for the nation's sake. Regular people prove the men and women serving in the military do matter to us. You'd never know this if all you've been getting your news from has come from cable news stations.
These men and women are heroes but the cable news stations would rather make celebrities our of people like Sarah Palin. What makes her deserve such attention? Wouldn't you think that a man or woman serving in the military risking their lives everyday would be more worthy of that kind of attention?
When they come home wounded, as they wait for claims to be approved, neighbors step up to help alter homes to be able to fit wheelchairs into tiny bathrooms. They step up with contractors and build homes for them when they have no home to call their own to alter. They may not know all that is going on in Afghanistan or Iraq (because the news doesn't cover it) but they do know what has happened to one of their own neighbors. They also care when it happens to a soldier clear across the nation.
The American people do care about the men and women serving as well as veterans of past wars but they are not being provided with the information they need to know what is happening to them and this is the fault of the cable media stations. You'd think with 24-7 coverage to fill they'd find some time between reporting on Sarah Palin and Tiger Woods, but then they would have to care enough to find the time and honor these real heroes instead of making celebrities.
They matter to a lot of the people in this country.
They should be important to the cable news stations enough to report on them instead of what they have been focused on. In the words of Charles Lewis "It makes me mad" too.
Once in a while they will cover some story about what is going on but minutes of footage from Iraq, when they forgot all about Afghanistan, did not make up for the lack of reporting. Now it is the reverse. They forget about Iraq for a few seconds spent on Afghanistan.
These men and women are heroes but the cable news stations would rather make celebrities our of people like Sarah Palin. What makes her deserve such attention? Wouldn't you think that a man or woman serving in the military risking their lives everyday would be more worthy of that kind of attention?
When they come home wounded, as they wait for claims to be approved, neighbors step up to help alter homes to be able to fit wheelchairs into tiny bathrooms. They step up with contractors and build homes for them when they have no home to call their own to alter. They may not know all that is going on in Afghanistan or Iraq (because the news doesn't cover it) but they do know what has happened to one of their own neighbors. They also care when it happens to a soldier clear across the nation.
The American people do care about the men and women serving as well as veterans of past wars but they are not being provided with the information they need to know what is happening to them and this is the fault of the cable media stations. You'd think with 24-7 coverage to fill they'd find some time between reporting on Sarah Palin and Tiger Woods, but then they would have to care enough to find the time and honor these real heroes instead of making celebrities.
Luke Sharrett/The New York Times
Marine Sgt. Frank J. World of Buffalo, N.Y., was carried from the back of a C-17 plane to a mortuary truck at Dover Air Force Base on Easter Sunday.
As Families Gather at Dover, Efforts to Ease Pain
By ELISABETH BUMILLER
Published: April 9, 2010
DOVER AIR FORCE BASE, Del. — Shortly after 4:20 a.m. on Easter Sunday, a pair of flag-covered cases with the remains of two Marines, both killed the previous week in Afghanistan, were carried out of the belly of a C-17 into the sight of their waiting families.
As two mothers, a widow and a knot of other kin watched from the tarmac, the bodies of Sgt. Frank J. World, 25, of Buffalo and Lance Cpl. Tyler O. Griffin, 19, of Voluntown, Conn., were loaded into a large van. Marines in white gloves and camouflage fatigues gave a final salute in the dark chill, then marched in formation behind the van as it rolled slowly toward the base mortuary, the largest in the nation.
In the past year, as the remains of 462 service members along with nearly 2,000 relatives have passed through Dover, the experience on the flight line has become as common as it is excruciating. Now, to meet the demand and to accommodate what Dover officials expect to be increasing casualties from Afghanistan, the military has embarked on a building surge at this main entry point for the nation’s war dead.read more here
They matter to a lot of the people in this country.
Rochester Marine Remembered
ROCHESTER, MN---Friends, family members and strangers alike are remembering a Southern Minnesota Marine.
"It's hard to stand here and watch when somebody that young comes home like this," said Allen Larson of Rochester as he stood across from Bethel Lutheran Church on 3rd Avenue South.
He and dozens of others watched a small army of American flag carrying Minnesota Patriot Guard members help line up in front of the church and help to bid farewell to a Marine for his service and sacrifice.
It's really good to see the Patriot Guard and all the flags and everybody showing up just to honor him," said Larson.
Larson said he served 26 years in the Army Reserve and also served in Desert Storm.
"I'm standing here getting choked up you know it’s hard to see somebody come home like this," said Larson.
Lance Corporal Curtis Michael Swenson died from the wounds he received when his Humvee hit a roadside bomb in Afghanistan last week.
read more here
Rochester Marine Remembered
They should be important to the cable news stations enough to report on them instead of what they have been focused on. In the words of Charles Lewis "It makes me mad" too.
“I don’t watch cable news,” he said. “I’ll be honest with you. It makes me mad.”
Cable news shows a waste of time, veteran journalist tells Naples audience
By ELIZABETH KELLAR
Posted April 10, 2010 at 10:39 a.m
NAPLES — Veteran investigative journalist Charles Lewis described his journey from Watergate-era intern to government watchdog as a “long, strange road.”
Lewis addressed the Forum Club of Southwest Florida on Friday at an afternoon luncheon event at the Naples Beach Hotel. It was the final speaker event of the Forum Club’s annual series.
Lewis is now the executive editor of the Investigative Reporting Workshop at American University in Washington, D.C. Raised in a Republican household, he was interning for Delaware Sen. Bill Roth at the time of the Watergate scandal.
read more here
Cable news shows a waste of time
Once in a while they will cover some story about what is going on but minutes of footage from Iraq, when they forgot all about Afghanistan, did not make up for the lack of reporting. Now it is the reverse. They forget about Iraq for a few seconds spent on Afghanistan.
Fisher House recipient of President Obama's Nobel Peace Prize money
Obama Funds A Place For Vets To Heal
April 10, 2010 Alan Greenblatt NPR
Fisher House one of the charities to which President Obama donated his Nobel Prize money offers housing to wounded soldiers, veterans and their families. The families find in each other support during a traumatic period in their lives.
Fisher House helped Tammy Duckworth heal. As an Army Reserve helicopter pilot in Iraq, she was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade that cost her both her legs and severely injured her right arm. Eventually, she ended up at Fisher House at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
The Fisher House Foundation has built 45 facilities on campus at military medical centers around the country, providing housing to veterans, wounded soldiers and their families free of charge. When he was a senator from Illinois, Barack Obama regularly visited Fisher House at Walter Reed.
First lady Michelle Obama, through her work with military families, is also "very aware" of Fisher House, says Duckworth, now an assistant secretary of Veterans Affairs. Last month, when President Obama announced that he would give his $1.4 million Nobel Peace Prize money to 10 charities, Fisher House was the single largest recipient.
Fisher House saves families money during long hospital stays. More importantly, it offers them a ready-made support group. People who have already been in residence at Fisher House for months help newcomers navigate the military and hospital bureaucracies — and offer them someone to talk to who understands what they're going through.
read more here
Obama Funds A Place For Vets To Heal
April 10, 2010 Alan Greenblatt NPR
Fisher House one of the charities to which President Obama donated his Nobel Prize money offers housing to wounded soldiers, veterans and their families. The families find in each other support during a traumatic period in their lives.
Fisher House helped Tammy Duckworth heal. As an Army Reserve helicopter pilot in Iraq, she was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade that cost her both her legs and severely injured her right arm. Eventually, she ended up at Fisher House at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
The Fisher House Foundation has built 45 facilities on campus at military medical centers around the country, providing housing to veterans, wounded soldiers and their families free of charge. When he was a senator from Illinois, Barack Obama regularly visited Fisher House at Walter Reed.
First lady Michelle Obama, through her work with military families, is also "very aware" of Fisher House, says Duckworth, now an assistant secretary of Veterans Affairs. Last month, when President Obama announced that he would give his $1.4 million Nobel Peace Prize money to 10 charities, Fisher House was the single largest recipient.
Fisher House saves families money during long hospital stays. More importantly, it offers them a ready-made support group. People who have already been in residence at Fisher House for months help newcomers navigate the military and hospital bureaucracies — and offer them someone to talk to who understands what they're going through.
read more here
Obama Funds A Place For Vets To Heal
Saturday, April 10, 2010
Veterans Administration Pulls Funding From Therapeutic Farm Training Program
This is not some kind of new program that has not been proven to work. As a matter of fact, they had farms after WWII where spiritually wounded could go to live out their days in a peaceful environment as well as feel needed. My husband's uncle was one of them. He was a Merchant Marine and the ship he was on was sunk by a Kamikaze pilot. He was in the ocean for days before rescue. When he came back to the USA, he was sent to live on a farm, where other veterans were also spending their days living and working on the farm.
We do a good job patting them on the back, telling them how much we need them when we send them off to risk their lives, yet when they come home, should they come home wounded by body or mind, we end up delivering an entirely new message. When we ignore them, make them fight to have claims approved and are nowhere to be found when they need us, we end up telling them they are not only no longer needed, they are no longer worthy of the pat on the back or our support.
Programs like this not only provide shelter, food and support from other veterans, they make the veterans feel they are still needed. Most of us know they never stop giving back in one form or another, but for them, for how they feel about themselves, feeling as if they still mean something is often hard for them to understand. Canceling a program like this, for whatever reason unless they were being abused in some way, is wrong and there are no ifs, ands or buts about it.
Reading this just gave me a migraine!
We do a good job patting them on the back, telling them how much we need them when we send them off to risk their lives, yet when they come home, should they come home wounded by body or mind, we end up delivering an entirely new message. When we ignore them, make them fight to have claims approved and are nowhere to be found when they need us, we end up telling them they are not only no longer needed, they are no longer worthy of the pat on the back or our support.
Programs like this not only provide shelter, food and support from other veterans, they make the veterans feel they are still needed. Most of us know they never stop giving back in one form or another, but for them, for how they feel about themselves, feeling as if they still mean something is often hard for them to understand. Canceling a program like this, for whatever reason unless they were being abused in some way, is wrong and there are no ifs, ands or buts about it.
Reading this just gave me a migraine!
Veterans Administration Pulls Funding From Therapeutic Farm Training Program
Brigid Brett
Writer, the Los Angeles Times; Tricycle
Posted: April 9, 2010 04:50 PM
If I hadn't known better I'd have thought it was just another early morning of basil picking in the hothouse at Archi's Acres Veterans Sustainable Agriculture Training (VSAT) in rural San Diego County. But it wasn't just another morning. There was none of the usual good natured bantering I'd seen in the past; the veterans were grim-faced and tense, and they'd shown up for work despite the fact that the VA had pulled their funding from the program and there was no money to pay their wages.
"I'm here because it's harvest day and there's a heck of a lot of basil to be harvested and delivered. This program has given me so much and I'm not about to turn my back on them," said Rod, a Vietnam era veteran and former Navy Corpsman, when I asked him why he'd come to work without pay. "Because of Archi's Acres I've been able to have a normal life again and move into my own apartment." Before coming to Archi's Acres just over a year ago, he'd spent four years on narcotics and bed rest for back pain; he had become homeless and unable to support himself. I'd met Rod on other occasions and noticed how he always seemed to be smiling while he worked. He wasn't smiling now.
The two Iraq veterans, Carlos and Corey were there too. They both have that look that many young combat veterans have: too young to have seen the things they've seen and old beyond their years because of it. Because of their post traumatic stress issues they were referred by the VA San Diego Healthcare System to Archis Acres, as much for its peaceful therapeutic environment as its training and employment opportunities.
"It's more than a job," said Carlos when I asked him why he was prepared to work without pay. "This is the first time I've felt safe since I got back from Iraq."
click link for more
And then there were 29 miners lost
"We did not receive the miracle we prayed for," said West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin after notifying grieving family members that officials found the bodies of four miners who had been missing after a coal mine explosion.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Four missing miners found dead; death toll in West Virginia coal mine explosion now at 29
Officials say neither of the two rescue chambers were used by miners
President Obama has called for inquiry into mine blast
FULL STORY
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Four missing miners found dead; death toll in West Virginia coal mine explosion now at 29
Officials say neither of the two rescue chambers were used by miners
President Obama has called for inquiry into mine blast
Of the 29 dead, the bodies of 22 still remain inside the mine. Stricklin said most of them will have to be hand-carried out because of the lack of equipment.
FULL STORY
Poland mourns after plane crash kills President and more than 80 others
Poland's president and more than 80 others were killed today in a plane crash in western Russia. The president's wife and many government officials are among the dead. FULL STORY
LIVE: Russia Today TV coverage
President was workers' advocate
Crippling effect on government
LIVE: Russia Today TV coverage
President was workers' advocate
Crippling effect on government
Why do some suffer PTSD, others don’t
This is partly right but mostly misses the point. The fact that PTSD is caused by an outside force, a traumatic event, to even consider it is linked in anyway to genetics or "predisposition" totally misses what is real.
When researchers look at PTSD and then families, they miss the factor of living with PTSD in the household. If they understood how hard it is, how traumatic it is to live with a ticking time bomb, calm one minute and exploding the next, they'd understand genetics has nothing to do with this but it is secondary PTSD from living with them and the constant stress. This happened in veterans' families since the beginning of time. It happened even more when Vietnam veterans came home and they had no where to turn for help or support. With that in mind, what they accomplished despite the lack of care for them is truly remarkable. Had it not been for them fighting to have PTSD treated, nothing would be available for today's veterans. Trauma is not genetic, it's human.
What opens the door to PTSD is the ability to care. The deeper they feel, the deeper they are wounded. They mistake being sensitive as something limiting them from being courageous. Once they understand that being sensitive/compassionate, does no good without the courage to act, they then begin to understand themselves. Take a compassionate person on the sidewalk with a child in the middle of the street. If they cared but had no courage, they would stand there and fear for the child. With courage, they would rush into the street to save the child. If they had courage but no compassion, they would not care enough to even think of saving the child. The deeper their soul feels, the deeper the wound.
If they understood this to begin with, you'd see a lot less damage done by PTSD produced from combat or law enforcement. This type of PTSD is brought on by numerous times putting their lives on the line and being participants in the traumatic event itself. Age is also a factor. We know the human mind is not truly "grown" until the age of 25. Ask a Vietnam vet how old they were when they were in Vietnam and the answer is usually way under 25 beginning with the age of 18. So we have age and compassion that needs to be addressed and considered when they begin to look at preventing PTSD. Until they understand the difference they will not be able to treat it properly either.
There are different levels of PTSD, different types of trauma as well, so until they acknowledge the differences between traumatic events brought on by acts of God, response by man or created by the hands of man, they will not treat it properly. There is a difference between being a victim of the traumatic event and being a participant in the event itself. Combat veterans are exposed to traumatic events more often than law enforcement during the year, but the law enforcement officers usually risk their lives for longer spans. What is even more crucial to acknowledge is that when the National Guards and Reservists are sent into combat, they return to jobs as cops and firefighters, continuing to put their lives on the line for the sake of others. Their traumatic cycle never really ends. This is why the rate of PTSD for them was over 50% a few years ago.
They also have to factor in the fact the Army did a study that warned the risk for PTSD went up by 50% for each redeployment. How many times have many of them been sent back into combat? Some are on their 6th tour. There are so many things the "researchers" need to understand that they are still missing, but most of this comes with years of talking to them and living with them and talking to their families as well as being one. It's all personal to me. The best therapists for PTSD to find either have it or live with it. Their inside world helps them know what is real and what someone wrote in a clinical book.
When researchers look at PTSD and then families, they miss the factor of living with PTSD in the household. If they understood how hard it is, how traumatic it is to live with a ticking time bomb, calm one minute and exploding the next, they'd understand genetics has nothing to do with this but it is secondary PTSD from living with them and the constant stress. This happened in veterans' families since the beginning of time. It happened even more when Vietnam veterans came home and they had no where to turn for help or support. With that in mind, what they accomplished despite the lack of care for them is truly remarkable. Had it not been for them fighting to have PTSD treated, nothing would be available for today's veterans. Trauma is not genetic, it's human.
What opens the door to PTSD is the ability to care. The deeper they feel, the deeper they are wounded. They mistake being sensitive as something limiting them from being courageous. Once they understand that being sensitive/compassionate, does no good without the courage to act, they then begin to understand themselves. Take a compassionate person on the sidewalk with a child in the middle of the street. If they cared but had no courage, they would stand there and fear for the child. With courage, they would rush into the street to save the child. If they had courage but no compassion, they would not care enough to even think of saving the child. The deeper their soul feels, the deeper the wound.
If they understood this to begin with, you'd see a lot less damage done by PTSD produced from combat or law enforcement. This type of PTSD is brought on by numerous times putting their lives on the line and being participants in the traumatic event itself. Age is also a factor. We know the human mind is not truly "grown" until the age of 25. Ask a Vietnam vet how old they were when they were in Vietnam and the answer is usually way under 25 beginning with the age of 18. So we have age and compassion that needs to be addressed and considered when they begin to look at preventing PTSD. Until they understand the difference they will not be able to treat it properly either.
There are different levels of PTSD, different types of trauma as well, so until they acknowledge the differences between traumatic events brought on by acts of God, response by man or created by the hands of man, they will not treat it properly. There is a difference between being a victim of the traumatic event and being a participant in the event itself. Combat veterans are exposed to traumatic events more often than law enforcement during the year, but the law enforcement officers usually risk their lives for longer spans. What is even more crucial to acknowledge is that when the National Guards and Reservists are sent into combat, they return to jobs as cops and firefighters, continuing to put their lives on the line for the sake of others. Their traumatic cycle never really ends. This is why the rate of PTSD for them was over 50% a few years ago.
They also have to factor in the fact the Army did a study that warned the risk for PTSD went up by 50% for each redeployment. How many times have many of them been sent back into combat? Some are on their 6th tour. There are so many things the "researchers" need to understand that they are still missing, but most of this comes with years of talking to them and living with them and talking to their families as well as being one. It's all personal to me. The best therapists for PTSD to find either have it or live with it. Their inside world helps them know what is real and what someone wrote in a clinical book.
Why do some suffer PTSD, others don’t?
By Gretel C. Kovach, UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
Saturday, April 10, 2010 at 12:04 a.m.
The National Center for PTSD identified six factors essential to building resilience against those sources of stress:
• Positive outlook
• Spirituality
• Active coping
• Self-confidence
• Learning and making meaning
• Acceptance of limits
When Sgt. Michael Blair awoke from a drug-induced coma four years ago, doctors gave him a choice.
Blair’s legs had been blasted by a roadside bomb in Iraq. The physicians could amputate both limbs, or they could try to save them through a series of grueling medical procedures. More than 60 surgeries later, the Marine, formerly stationed at Twentynine Palms, still struggles with chronic pain as he continues his care at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C.
With the help of a cane, though, Blair walked amid the cherry blossoms at the White House this week with his wife and 4-year-old daughter. He has piloted his first solo flight, kayaked through the Grand Canyon, used a hand cycle to finish several marathons and dreamed of opening a therapeutic recreation center for wounded troops.
Blair relies on a strong support network that includes his family, sports organizations and the Marine Corps. But he also may be genetically predisposed to withstand physical and mental trauma.
“I am just so freakin’ grateful to be alive,” said Blair, 35, who will be a featured speaker next month at the Naval Center for Combat & Operational Stress Control’s conference in San Diego.
Researchers are just starting to understand what gives some service members the mental hardiness, or resilience, to fend off post-traumatic stress disorder. Is it innate, a matter of training or a complex interaction between the two?
The answers could help inoculate both combat veterans and civilians against potentially debilitating bouts of trauma-induced stress.
read more here
Why do some suffer PTSD
VA claims "math" explained by Chicago Tribune
Veterans benefits: How the Tribune calculated the numbers
By Jason Grotto
Tribune reporter
10:55 p.m. CDT, April 9, 2010
The analysis underlying the Tribune's story on U.S. veterans' disability claims is based on data from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs that includes more than 3 million claims and nearly 12 million diagnoses as of Jan. 5, 2010.
Because veterans are compensated based on a score measuring their overall disability, or combined disability, the VA does not track the total costs associated with individual ailments or categories of ailments. The Tribune estimated those costs by calculating the percentage that each ailment contributed to a veteran's overall disability rating and applying those percentages to the amount of compensation the veteran receives. Cost figures were then totaled by category for all veterans.
read more here
How the Tribune calculated the numbers
By Jason Grotto
Tribune reporter
10:55 p.m. CDT, April 9, 2010
The analysis underlying the Tribune's story on U.S. veterans' disability claims is based on data from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs that includes more than 3 million claims and nearly 12 million diagnoses as of Jan. 5, 2010.
Because veterans are compensated based on a score measuring their overall disability, or combined disability, the VA does not track the total costs associated with individual ailments or categories of ailments. The Tribune estimated those costs by calculating the percentage that each ailment contributed to a veteran's overall disability rating and applying those percentages to the amount of compensation the veteran receives. Cost figures were then totaled by category for all veterans.
read more here
How the Tribune calculated the numbers
Friday, April 9, 2010
Veterans Affairs reaching out to vets via blogs and social media
Department of Veterans Affairs reaching out to vets via blogs and social media
By Amanda Erickson
Friday, April 9, 2010
A little before 8 every morning, Brandon Friedman steps into his cubicle, turns on his computer and tries to single-handedly revolutionize the way the Department of Veterans Affairs talks to vets.
Friedman, who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, arrived at VA eight months ago with a mandate: to reach veterans using new media -- and little else. It's no easy mission at a department known for its communication failures and cumbersome bureaucracy.
Friedman has helped overhaul the department's Web site, created a dozen Facebook pages and launched a Twitter account. The goal, he said, is to improve communication between veterans and the department.
Friedman, who served in the 101st Airborne, knows how hard life can be for veterans. "When I got out of the Army, I was done," he said. "I didn't want to deal with anything anymore."
He spent his first months at home drinking and traveling. But after a bout of appendicitis left him bedridden, he began blogging about his experiences. That led to a book deal ("The War I Always Wanted" was published in 2007) and eventually a position with VetVoice, an online forum for progressive veterans.
read more here
Veterans Affairs reaching out to vets via blogs and social media
By Amanda Erickson
Friday, April 9, 2010
A little before 8 every morning, Brandon Friedman steps into his cubicle, turns on his computer and tries to single-handedly revolutionize the way the Department of Veterans Affairs talks to vets.
Friedman, who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, arrived at VA eight months ago with a mandate: to reach veterans using new media -- and little else. It's no easy mission at a department known for its communication failures and cumbersome bureaucracy.
Friedman has helped overhaul the department's Web site, created a dozen Facebook pages and launched a Twitter account. The goal, he said, is to improve communication between veterans and the department.
Friedman, who served in the 101st Airborne, knows how hard life can be for veterans. "When I got out of the Army, I was done," he said. "I didn't want to deal with anything anymore."
He spent his first months at home drinking and traveling. But after a bout of appendicitis left him bedridden, he began blogging about his experiences. That led to a book deal ("The War I Always Wanted" was published in 2007) and eventually a position with VetVoice, an online forum for progressive veterans.
read more here
Veterans Affairs reaching out to vets via blogs and social media
Military condemns Taliban video of U.S. soldier's pleas
Military condemns Taliban video of U.S. soldier's pleas
By Laura King, Los Angeles Times
Stars and Stripes online edition, Friday, April 9, 2010
RELATED STORY: Taliban release video of captured U.S. soldier
KABUL, Afghanistan — The Western military on Thursday condemned a Taliban video that shows a captured U.S. soldier pleading for the release of Afghan detainees to help secure his own freedom.
Pfc. Bowe Bergdahl, an Idaho native who was captured by insurgents 10 months ago in eastern Afghanistan, was last heard from at Christmastime, when his captors released a video in which the young private declared that the American military effort in Afghanistan was doomed to failure.
"The continuing use of (Bergdahl) as a means of propaganda is a deplorable act, and only fuels our efforts to find him and bring him home," said Rear Adm. Gregory Smith, a spokesman for Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the commander of Western forces in Afghanistan.
Bergdahl is the only U.S. service member known to have been captured by insurgents in the Afghan conflict. In the video, he appears in good health, but it could not be determined when the footage was shot.
read more here
http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=69260
By Laura King, Los Angeles Times
Stars and Stripes online edition, Friday, April 9, 2010
RELATED STORY: Taliban release video of captured U.S. soldier
KABUL, Afghanistan — The Western military on Thursday condemned a Taliban video that shows a captured U.S. soldier pleading for the release of Afghan detainees to help secure his own freedom.
Pfc. Bowe Bergdahl, an Idaho native who was captured by insurgents 10 months ago in eastern Afghanistan, was last heard from at Christmastime, when his captors released a video in which the young private declared that the American military effort in Afghanistan was doomed to failure.
"The continuing use of (Bergdahl) as a means of propaganda is a deplorable act, and only fuels our efforts to find him and bring him home," said Rear Adm. Gregory Smith, a spokesman for Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the commander of Western forces in Afghanistan.
Bergdahl is the only U.S. service member known to have been captured by insurgents in the Afghan conflict. In the video, he appears in good health, but it could not be determined when the footage was shot.
read more here
http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=69260
Troops as Republicans has decreased by one-third since 2004
The answer should be as clear as Iraq and what happened to them ever since. Sending them into a nation they did not have to be sent to is not a good idea. Sooner or later they figure it out. Sending them to risk their lives, watch their friends die and then end up wounded is not a good idea either when the VA is not able to take care of them. There was a lot they noticed.
They noticed that stations like FOX cable news loves to say they support the troops but when it really mattered to them, hosts of the FOX shows were all about really supporting the politicians and the defense contractors instead of the men and women we sent to risk their lives. Once in a while they had some solider saying hi to family back home but when it came to talking about what was happening to them, no one on FOX seemed interested at all.
They were not able to get into the VA to see psychologists. They were committing suicide but the VA budget was cut, Nicholson was returning funds and none of this seemed to matter. In 2006 when the Democrats took control over the chairmanships of the committees, they managed to pass the largest VA increase in over 30 years. This should have been done when there were two wars producing more and more wounded and in need of care but no one on FOX wanted to talk about this.
We saw them coming home and falling apart. We saw them coming home to no jobs. We saw them coming home and becoming homeless. We saw them suffering from PTSD and TBI and we saw their families paying the price as hope was taken away from them. We saw the survival rate from catastrophic wounds rise as the death count was low, yet no one was talking about the need to take care of these men and women for the rest of their lives.
We saw the families head over to Germany, fly to Walter Reed and Bethesda, giving up their jobs to take care of their sons, daughters, husbands and wives. We saw them being taken care of by the people at Fisher House, yet no one was talking about them. When the reports came out about the deplorable conditions at Walter Reed, the people at FOX were more angry over the fact the report was written instead of what was happening to our wounded troops.
We show up and line the streets to welcome them home and most of us, well, we wonder exactly what it is we are welcoming them home to when we know how much they have gone through as well as how much they will have to go through. The people over at FOX, well, they avoid all of this.
That's the biggest problem of all. We have an obligation to them that should transcend any political agenda. They should never,ever be used by either side for any reason. They should be supported by all sides no matter how they feel about the battles being fought. We need to all remember that after they decide this nation is worth risking their lives for, we better make sure we don't make them regret that decision once they are in combat or after.
Most of what they are still facing today was begun in 2002 but most of the American public didn't have a clue. Why? Because the people watching FOX were never told. The people watching CNN and MSNBC were hardly ever told. Is it any wonder most of them still don't know what PTSD is? The problem is not that the people don't care. The problem is the media just doesn't care enough to let them know what's going on. The GOP get to say they support the troops while they ignore them but support the defense contractors. The Democrats get to say they support the troops because they do fight for them but they hardly ever go on TV to talk about what the troops need. This should clear up why so many are switching to the Independent party. They've been let down by both sides.
They noticed that stations like FOX cable news loves to say they support the troops but when it really mattered to them, hosts of the FOX shows were all about really supporting the politicians and the defense contractors instead of the men and women we sent to risk their lives. Once in a while they had some solider saying hi to family back home but when it came to talking about what was happening to them, no one on FOX seemed interested at all.
They were not able to get into the VA to see psychologists. They were committing suicide but the VA budget was cut, Nicholson was returning funds and none of this seemed to matter. In 2006 when the Democrats took control over the chairmanships of the committees, they managed to pass the largest VA increase in over 30 years. This should have been done when there were two wars producing more and more wounded and in need of care but no one on FOX wanted to talk about this.
We saw them coming home and falling apart. We saw them coming home to no jobs. We saw them coming home and becoming homeless. We saw them suffering from PTSD and TBI and we saw their families paying the price as hope was taken away from them. We saw the survival rate from catastrophic wounds rise as the death count was low, yet no one was talking about the need to take care of these men and women for the rest of their lives.
We saw the families head over to Germany, fly to Walter Reed and Bethesda, giving up their jobs to take care of their sons, daughters, husbands and wives. We saw them being taken care of by the people at Fisher House, yet no one was talking about them. When the reports came out about the deplorable conditions at Walter Reed, the people at FOX were more angry over the fact the report was written instead of what was happening to our wounded troops.
We show up and line the streets to welcome them home and most of us, well, we wonder exactly what it is we are welcoming them home to when we know how much they have gone through as well as how much they will have to go through. The people over at FOX, well, they avoid all of this.
That's the biggest problem of all. We have an obligation to them that should transcend any political agenda. They should never,ever be used by either side for any reason. They should be supported by all sides no matter how they feel about the battles being fought. We need to all remember that after they decide this nation is worth risking their lives for, we better make sure we don't make them regret that decision once they are in combat or after.
Most of what they are still facing today was begun in 2002 but most of the American public didn't have a clue. Why? Because the people watching FOX were never told. The people watching CNN and MSNBC were hardly ever told. Is it any wonder most of them still don't know what PTSD is? The problem is not that the people don't care. The problem is the media just doesn't care enough to let them know what's going on. The GOP get to say they support the troops while they ignore them but support the defense contractors. The Democrats get to say they support the troops because they do fight for them but they hardly ever go on TV to talk about what the troops need. This should clear up why so many are switching to the Independent party. They've been let down by both sides.
Survey: Military independents on the rise
By Brendan McGarry - Staff writer
Posted : Friday Apr 9, 2010 14:53:53 EDT
Political party affiliation has fallen sharply among those wearing the uniform today, a new Military Times survey shows.
An exclusive survey of some 1,800 active-duty troops shows the percentage of self-identified Republicans has decreased by one-third since 2004, from 60 percent to 41 percent, while the percentage of self-identified independents has nearly doubled to 32 percent during the same period.
These career-oriented officers and mid-grade and senior enlisted members are still far more conservative than liberal, but they are less likely today to identify with the GOP, the survey shows.
Much of the shift appears to have occurred only very recently, with the percentage of troops identifying themselves as Republican dropping nine percentage points from 2008 to 2009 and the percentage of those calling themselves independents increasing 10 points over the same period.
read more here
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2010/04/military_poll_advance_040910w/
Vietnam veteran remains active despite physical ailments
Local Vietnam veteran remains active despite physical ailments
By RICK JAKACKI
Times Herald
April 9, 2010
Chuck Zimmer is nearly 60, legally blind and suffers from a number of physical ailments.
Yet the Port Huron resident isn't letting any of that slow him down.
Zimmer, 59, spent last week participating in the 24th National Disabled Veterans Sports Clinic in Snowmass, Colo. Among the events in which he competed were downhill skiing, fly fishing, goal ball and skeet shooting.
"It was a beautiful time," Zimmer said, adding the city had a couple of blizzards, which dumped more than 20 inches of snow in two days.
A Vietnam War veteran from the 25th Infantry Division, Zimmer has retinitis pigmentosa, a genetic disease that causes the degeneration of photoreceptor cells in the retina. He has almost no vision in his right eye; in his left eye, he has tunnel vision, except his tunnel is the size of a juice box straw.
He also has Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (P.T.S.D.) and a variety of other health issues from his exposure to Agent Orange, Zimmer's daughter, Amy Zimmer-Smith said.
read more here
Vietnam veteran remains active despite physical ailments
By RICK JAKACKI
Times Herald
April 9, 2010
Chuck Zimmer is nearly 60, legally blind and suffers from a number of physical ailments.
Yet the Port Huron resident isn't letting any of that slow him down.
Zimmer, 59, spent last week participating in the 24th National Disabled Veterans Sports Clinic in Snowmass, Colo. Among the events in which he competed were downhill skiing, fly fishing, goal ball and skeet shooting.
"It was a beautiful time," Zimmer said, adding the city had a couple of blizzards, which dumped more than 20 inches of snow in two days.
A Vietnam War veteran from the 25th Infantry Division, Zimmer has retinitis pigmentosa, a genetic disease that causes the degeneration of photoreceptor cells in the retina. He has almost no vision in his right eye; in his left eye, he has tunnel vision, except his tunnel is the size of a juice box straw.
He also has Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (P.T.S.D.) and a variety of other health issues from his exposure to Agent Orange, Zimmer's daughter, Amy Zimmer-Smith said.
read more here
Vietnam veteran remains active despite physical ailments
ALS, Lou Gehrig's disease and PTSD found in Gulf War Vets
Review confirms PTSD, other syndromes in Gulf vets
Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor
WASHINGTON
(Reuters) - Studies confirm that Gulf War veterans suffer disproportionately from post-traumatic stress disorder and other psychiatric illnesses as well as vague symptoms often classified as Gulf War Syndrome, a panel of experts reported on Friday.
The Institute of Medicine panel said better studies are needed to characterize a clear pattern of distress and other symptoms among veterans of the conflicts in the Gulf region that started in 1990 and continue today.
"It is clear that a significant portion of the soldiers deployed to the Gulf War have experienced troubling constellations of symptoms that are difficult to categorize," said Stephen Hauser, chairman of the department of neurology at the University of California, San Francisco.
The committee declined to say that there was any such thing as Gulf War Syndrome but did note many veterans had "multisymptom illness."
"Unfortunately, symptoms that cannot be easily quantified are sometimes incorrectly dismissed as insignificant and receive inadequate attention and funding by the medical and scientific establishment," Hauser added in a statement.
"Veterans who continue to suffer from these symptoms deserve the very best that modern science and medicine can offer to speed the development of effective treatments, cures, and -- we hope -- prevention."
Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor
WASHINGTON
(Reuters) - Studies confirm that Gulf War veterans suffer disproportionately from post-traumatic stress disorder and other psychiatric illnesses as well as vague symptoms often classified as Gulf War Syndrome, a panel of experts reported on Friday.
The Institute of Medicine panel said better studies are needed to characterize a clear pattern of distress and other symptoms among veterans of the conflicts in the Gulf region that started in 1990 and continue today.
"It is clear that a significant portion of the soldiers deployed to the Gulf War have experienced troubling constellations of symptoms that are difficult to categorize," said Stephen Hauser, chairman of the department of neurology at the University of California, San Francisco.
The committee declined to say that there was any such thing as Gulf War Syndrome but did note many veterans had "multisymptom illness."
"Unfortunately, symptoms that cannot be easily quantified are sometimes incorrectly dismissed as insignificant and receive inadequate attention and funding by the medical and scientific establishment," Hauser added in a statement.
"Veterans who continue to suffer from these symptoms deserve the very best that modern science and medicine can offer to speed the development of effective treatments, cures, and -- we hope -- prevention."
The experts, including epidemiologists who study patterns of disease, neurologists and psychiatrists, found limited but suggestive evidence that Gulf War veterans have higher rates of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also called ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease -- a crippling, progressive and fatal nerve disease.
read more here
Review confirms PTSD, other syndromes in Gulf vets
Law Suit:"The worst law enforcement tragedy in the history of Washington state, was completely preventable,"
Families of slain Washington state police officers file suit
By the CNN Wire Staff
April 8, 2010 9:05 p.m. EDT
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Four police officers were shot to death in a Washington state coffee shop last year
Families of three of the officers have filed a $134 million lawsuit against Pierce County
Lawsuit says jail didn't heed warnings that should have kept gunman behind bars
Family of fourth officer has filed suit against friends, relatives of suspect in case
(CNN) -- The families of three police officers shot to death in a Washington state coffee shop last year are suing a county in the state, alleging its jail didn't heed warnings that should have kept the gunman behind bars, officials announced Thursday.
"This catastrophe, the worst law enforcement tragedy in the history of Washington state, was completely preventable," the lawsuits said.
The families are seeking a total of $134 million in damages against Washington's Pierce County.
A spokesman for the Pierce County Sheriff's Department announced the suits on Thursday.
Investigators identified the man who killed the three Lakewood, Washington, officers as Maurice Clemmons, an ex-convict who had served time in Arkansas before being jailed on charges in Washington state.
read more here
Families of slain Washington state police officers file suit
By the CNN Wire Staff
April 8, 2010 9:05 p.m. EDT
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Four police officers were shot to death in a Washington state coffee shop last year
Families of three of the officers have filed a $134 million lawsuit against Pierce County
Lawsuit says jail didn't heed warnings that should have kept gunman behind bars
Family of fourth officer has filed suit against friends, relatives of suspect in case
(CNN) -- The families of three police officers shot to death in a Washington state coffee shop last year are suing a county in the state, alleging its jail didn't heed warnings that should have kept the gunman behind bars, officials announced Thursday.
"This catastrophe, the worst law enforcement tragedy in the history of Washington state, was completely preventable," the lawsuits said.
The families are seeking a total of $134 million in damages against Washington's Pierce County.
A spokesman for the Pierce County Sheriff's Department announced the suits on Thursday.
Investigators identified the man who killed the three Lakewood, Washington, officers as Maurice Clemmons, an ex-convict who had served time in Arkansas before being jailed on charges in Washington state.
read more here
Families of slain Washington state police officers file suit
Grant Funds Efforts to Prevent Stress Disorder
Grant Funds Efforts to Prevent Stress Disorder
By Cortney Fielding on April 7, 2010 8:04 AM
A USC School of Social Work professor will use a $1.8 million federal grant to help prevent long-term mental-health disturbances, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), from developing among the children in military families.
Marleen Wong, assistant dean and clinical professor of field education, and her partners at RAND, the UCLA Health Services Research Center and the Los Angeles Unified School District recently were awarded funds from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration to develop trauma interventions for military children that can be implemented during the regular school day.
The researchers have received a total of $5.2 million in grants since 2002.
Wong and her colleagues, who formed the Trauma Services Adaption Center for Resiliency, Hope and Wellness in Schools, created the Cognitive Behavioral Intervention for Trauma in Schools. This evidence-based program provides mental health screening and 10 weeks of therapy sessions in public schools to reduce symptoms related to existing traumatic experiences and build skills to handle future stress.
read more here
Grant Funds Efforts to Prevent Stress Disorder
By Cortney Fielding on April 7, 2010 8:04 AM
A USC School of Social Work professor will use a $1.8 million federal grant to help prevent long-term mental-health disturbances, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), from developing among the children in military families.
Marleen Wong, assistant dean and clinical professor of field education, and her partners at RAND, the UCLA Health Services Research Center and the Los Angeles Unified School District recently were awarded funds from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration to develop trauma interventions for military children that can be implemented during the regular school day.
The researchers have received a total of $5.2 million in grants since 2002.
Wong and her colleagues, who formed the Trauma Services Adaption Center for Resiliency, Hope and Wellness in Schools, created the Cognitive Behavioral Intervention for Trauma in Schools. This evidence-based program provides mental health screening and 10 weeks of therapy sessions in public schools to reduce symptoms related to existing traumatic experiences and build skills to handle future stress.
read more here
Grant Funds Efforts to Prevent Stress Disorder
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Female troops take on new role in Afghanistan
Female troops take on new role in Afghanistan
By Jessica Binsch - Medill News Service
Posted : Thursday Apr 8, 2010 12:55:46 EDT
Teams of female Marines are stepping off their bases in Afghanistan and entering villages to build relationships with an often overlooked sector of the Afghan population: women.
Contrary to their image in the West, Afghan women can be powerful allies because of their central role in their families. And in the battle for the hearts and minds of the Afghan population, they can be a critical link, experts said Wednesday at a panel in Washington hosted by the Institute for the Study of War.
“Female engagement is really, absolutely a part of counterinsurgency,” said Claire Russo, who served in the Marine Corps for four years as an intelligence officer, including a 2006 deployment to Iraq. Russo now works as a civilian advisor to the Army in eastern Afghanistan to help create the so-called Female Engagement Teams.
read more here
Female troops take on new role in Afghanistan/
By Jessica Binsch - Medill News Service
Posted : Thursday Apr 8, 2010 12:55:46 EDT
Teams of female Marines are stepping off their bases in Afghanistan and entering villages to build relationships with an often overlooked sector of the Afghan population: women.
Contrary to their image in the West, Afghan women can be powerful allies because of their central role in their families. And in the battle for the hearts and minds of the Afghan population, they can be a critical link, experts said Wednesday at a panel in Washington hosted by the Institute for the Study of War.
“Female engagement is really, absolutely a part of counterinsurgency,” said Claire Russo, who served in the Marine Corps for four years as an intelligence officer, including a 2006 deployment to Iraq. Russo now works as a civilian advisor to the Army in eastern Afghanistan to help create the so-called Female Engagement Teams.
read more here
Female troops take on new role in Afghanistan/
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