PTSD Soldier Punished by Army
Friday 04 June 2010
by: Dahr Jamail, t r u t h o u t Report
Iraq war veteran Eric Jasinski, after seeking treatment for his post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), is being punished by the Army.
Jasinski turned himself in to the Army late last year, after having gone absent without leave (AWOL) in order to seek help for his PTSD. Help, he told Truthout, he was not receiving from the Army, even after requesting assistance on multiple occasions.
He was court-martialed and jailed for 25 days for having gone AWOL, during which time he was escorted in shackles to therapy sessions for his PTSD. After being released from prison, he was informed that he would be given an other-than-honorable discharge, which means he is likely ineligible for full PTSD treatment from the Veterans' Administration (VA) after he leaves the service.
Jasinski enlisted in the military in 2005, and deployed to Iraq in October 2006 as an intelligence analyst with the U.S. Army. He collected intelligence in order to put together strike packets - where air strikes would take place.
Upon his return to the U.S. after his tour, Jasinski was suffering from severe PTSD due to what he did and saw in Iraq, along with remorse and guilt for the work he did that he knows contributed to the loss of life in Iraq.
read more here
PTSD Soldier Punished by Army
Friday, June 4, 2010
If you can't see PTSD, you're not looking
If you can't see PTSD, you're not looking
by
Chaplain Kathie
There are many people calling PTSD an invisible wound. Frankly I'm guilty of this too. It's a lot easier to explain it that way without taking the time to really define it. The largest problem with this seems to be the people doing the explaining, don't really understand it. It is only a wound you cannot see if you are not aware of what you're looking at.
If I said childbirth was extremely painful, you may not have a hard time understanding that. After all, pushing a baby out of your body doesn't seem to be very easy and it isn't. We can see the pain in a woman giving birth. She screams, her face turns red as blood pressure fills her head and her body goes through abnormal movements. All in all, the signs of pain are there for anyone to see. You wouldn't have to give birth to understand pain comes with it because you've been exposed to it by people you know or seeing it on TV.
After 9-11 we saw a lot of pictures of people in pain following the Twin Towers coming down.
We didn't have to be there to see it in order to understand the pain other people felt.
The pain caused that day caused two military occupations, over 5,000 fallen troops and over 10,000 wounded treated at Walter Reed Hospital alone. We understood what it was like to see that kind of horror one day, for most of us, just from our TV sets in the safety of our own living rooms. It hit us so hard, for weeks none of us could get our eyes off the news when we were home. Every year on the anniversary, the shock of that day, the pain of that day comes back to everyone across the nation.
So hard should it be for us to understand what we're looking at when it comes to PTSD? How hard should it be to understand what that kind of pain looks like? Perhaps the most important question is; Why aren't we looking for the signs? These men and women are only human so it shouldn't be that hard to understand what it would feel like when it the pain cuts that deeply when we seem to have no problem understanding pain caused by other reasons.
by
Chaplain Kathie
There are many people calling PTSD an invisible wound. Frankly I'm guilty of this too. It's a lot easier to explain it that way without taking the time to really define it. The largest problem with this seems to be the people doing the explaining, don't really understand it. It is only a wound you cannot see if you are not aware of what you're looking at.
If I said childbirth was extremely painful, you may not have a hard time understanding that. After all, pushing a baby out of your body doesn't seem to be very easy and it isn't. We can see the pain in a woman giving birth. She screams, her face turns red as blood pressure fills her head and her body goes through abnormal movements. All in all, the signs of pain are there for anyone to see. You wouldn't have to give birth to understand pain comes with it because you've been exposed to it by people you know or seeing it on TV.
After 9-11 we saw a lot of pictures of people in pain following the Twin Towers coming down.
We didn't have to be there to see it in order to understand the pain other people felt.The pain caused that day caused two military occupations, over 5,000 fallen troops and over 10,000 wounded treated at Walter Reed Hospital alone. We understood what it was like to see that kind of horror one day, for most of us, just from our TV sets in the safety of our own living rooms. It hit us so hard, for weeks none of us could get our eyes off the news when we were home. Every year on the anniversary, the shock of that day, the pain of that day comes back to everyone across the nation.
So hard should it be for us to understand what we're looking at when it comes to PTSD? How hard should it be to understand what that kind of pain looks like? Perhaps the most important question is; Why aren't we looking for the signs? These men and women are only human so it shouldn't be that hard to understand what it would feel like when it the pain cuts that deeply when we seem to have no problem understanding pain caused by other reasons.
Make an effort to bring peace to our troubled veterans
Woolner: Make an effort to bring peace to our troubled veterans
Ann Woolner, BLOOMBERG NEWS
He is wearing an orange prison jumpsuit during the TV interview, so you figure life hasn't turned out so well for this open-faced young man with an engaging smile.
What you can't see is the Purple Heart Jose Barco earned when, as a teenage soldier stationed in Iraq, he ignored his own wounds and pulled burning wreckage off two Army buddies pinned beneath it, even as his own clothes were aflame.
These days Barco lives in a Colorado prison, where he's serving a 52-year sentence for twice shooting randomly at party-goers in Fort Collins, Colo., after his second tour of Iraq. No one was seriously injured, although a pregnant woman was shot in the leg. Barco was convicted of two counts of attempted murder.
Troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan have been getting short shrift on several fronts. But, as Barco's case shows, the legal system usually cuts them no slack and sometimes slams them extra hard precisely because they wore a U.S. uniform.
Prison is where "Frontline" interviewed him for the documentary "The Wounded Platoon." He is one of 17 men returning to the Army's Fort Carson in Colorado, who, over a five-year period, were convicted or charged with homicide or attempting it. Most of them seemed to suffer from a condition that has plagued combat veterans as far back as anyone noticed.
go here for more
Make an effort to bring peace to our troubled veterans
Ann Woolner, BLOOMBERG NEWS
He is wearing an orange prison jumpsuit during the TV interview, so you figure life hasn't turned out so well for this open-faced young man with an engaging smile.
What you can't see is the Purple Heart Jose Barco earned when, as a teenage soldier stationed in Iraq, he ignored his own wounds and pulled burning wreckage off two Army buddies pinned beneath it, even as his own clothes were aflame.
These days Barco lives in a Colorado prison, where he's serving a 52-year sentence for twice shooting randomly at party-goers in Fort Collins, Colo., after his second tour of Iraq. No one was seriously injured, although a pregnant woman was shot in the leg. Barco was convicted of two counts of attempted murder.
Troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan have been getting short shrift on several fronts. But, as Barco's case shows, the legal system usually cuts them no slack and sometimes slams them extra hard precisely because they wore a U.S. uniform.
Prison is where "Frontline" interviewed him for the documentary "The Wounded Platoon." He is one of 17 men returning to the Army's Fort Carson in Colorado, who, over a five-year period, were convicted or charged with homicide or attempting it. Most of them seemed to suffer from a condition that has plagued combat veterans as far back as anyone noticed.
go here for more
Make an effort to bring peace to our troubled veterans
ND Guard members work to bring PTSD into the spotlight
ND Guard members work to bring PTSD into the spotlight
Fargo, ND (WDAY TV) - It would be easy to get lost in the numbers and percentages. Those returning North Dakota guard members who suffer P-T-S-D. That is until you see a face, a name. Today, the hard work and perseverance of a few North Dakota guard members paid off when Senator Kent Conrad met with them and focused the spotlight on a problem kept in the dark too long.
By: Kevin Wallevand, WDAY
Video
PTSD awareness
It would be easy to get lost in the numbers and percentages. Those returning North Dakota guard members who suffer P-T-S-D. That is until you see a face, a name. Today, the hard work and perseverance of a few North Dakota guard members paid off when Senator Kent Conrad met with them and focused the spotlight on a problem kept in the dark too long.
Friends will tell you Joe Biel was a soldier's soldier. Confident, a battle buddy who served the North Dakota guard in Kosovo with two tours in Iraq.
“He was amazing, just amazing that is one word that wraps it up. He was selfless and would give you the shirt off his back. He would give you the last ten dollars in his wallet.”
But just months after Joe returned from Iraq to the Dakotas, PTSD pushed him over the edge. He took his own life at the age of 36.
“We did not recognize it. We were all going through the same thing and we were all having our own issues and having our own problems at the same time and there just wasn't enough support there for him.”
go here for more
http://www.wday.com/event/article/id/34380/
Fargo, ND (WDAY TV) - It would be easy to get lost in the numbers and percentages. Those returning North Dakota guard members who suffer P-T-S-D. That is until you see a face, a name. Today, the hard work and perseverance of a few North Dakota guard members paid off when Senator Kent Conrad met with them and focused the spotlight on a problem kept in the dark too long.
By: Kevin Wallevand, WDAY
Video
PTSD awareness
It would be easy to get lost in the numbers and percentages. Those returning North Dakota guard members who suffer P-T-S-D. That is until you see a face, a name. Today, the hard work and perseverance of a few North Dakota guard members paid off when Senator Kent Conrad met with them and focused the spotlight on a problem kept in the dark too long.
Friends will tell you Joe Biel was a soldier's soldier. Confident, a battle buddy who served the North Dakota guard in Kosovo with two tours in Iraq.
“He was amazing, just amazing that is one word that wraps it up. He was selfless and would give you the shirt off his back. He would give you the last ten dollars in his wallet.”
But just months after Joe returned from Iraq to the Dakotas, PTSD pushed him over the edge. He took his own life at the age of 36.
“We did not recognize it. We were all going through the same thing and we were all having our own issues and having our own problems at the same time and there just wasn't enough support there for him.”
go here for more
http://www.wday.com/event/article/id/34380/
Kirk, 5 terms in congress shows no respect for combat veterans
There is "misspeak" when a Vietnam Era veteran calls himself a Vietnam Vet, which is debatable and most people consider it a slip up. What most do not understand is that there were other Vietnam Era Veterans that did participate in combat operations and incidences reporters don't seem to have the ability to research on.
Even though the names of the fallen are on the Vietnam Memorial Wall, the veterans of this are not considered "Vietnam Veterans" because they did not enter into Vietnam. Imagine that. When politicians use wrong terms, they should be called out for it and if it's an honest mistake of choice of words, forgiven. However if they deliberately try to pass themselves off as combat veterans, it is beyond forgivable. It looks as if we've just discovered someone wanting to have a political life off of real combat veterans.
It also looks as if he's been at it a long time making claims that are not true but we should be wondering why on earth no one discovered this before now. How is this possible? Didn't anyone check his record before now? 5 terms in Congress?
One of the jobs a senator has is to decide about sending young men and women to risk their lives in combat. Making claims like this, shows a total lack of respect for what it means to be able to risk your life when Kirk decided his real service just didn't look good enough. How is it they manage so well to "respect" them enough to want to pretend to be them but never manage to actually do anything worthy of them?
The Mayaguez incident involving the Khmer Rouge government in Cambodia on May 12–15, 1975, marked the last official battle of the United States (U.S.) involvement in the Vietnam War. The names of the Americans killed are the last names on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, as well as those of three Marines who were left behind on the island of Koh Tang after the battle and who were subsequently executed by the Khmer Rouge while in captivity. The merchant ship's crew, whose seizure at sea had prompted the U.S. attack, had been released in good health, unknown to the U.S. Marines or the U.S. command of the operation, before the Marines attacked. It was the only known engagement between U.S. ground forces and the Khmer Rouge.
Even though the names of the fallen are on the Vietnam Memorial Wall, the veterans of this are not considered "Vietnam Veterans" because they did not enter into Vietnam. Imagine that. When politicians use wrong terms, they should be called out for it and if it's an honest mistake of choice of words, forgiven. However if they deliberately try to pass themselves off as combat veterans, it is beyond forgivable. It looks as if we've just discovered someone wanting to have a political life off of real combat veterans.
The furor over Kirk's military record heated up last week when he acknowledged that, contrary to his many statements over the years, he hadn't won the Navy's award for intelligence officer of the year.
Illinois Senate candidate apologizes for misstatements on military service
Republican hopeful Mark Kirk admits to inaccuracies, but declines to characterize them as intentional embellishments.
Times wire services
June 3, 2010 9:16 p.m.
Reporting from Chicago — Republican Senate candidate Mark Kirk of Illinois apologized Thursday for making inaccurate statements about his 21-year record as a Navy Reserve intelligence officer and acknowledged more discrepancies between his service and the political rhetoric describing his actions.
Appearing before the Chicago Tribune's editorial board, Kirk would not directly answer questions about whether the misstatements amounted to an effort to embellish his military history as he takes on Democrat Alexi Giannoulias for the seat formerly held by President Obama.
Kirk, a five-term congressman, acknowledged that his campaign's promotion of him coming under fire while aboard an intelligence reconnaissance plane in Iraq may not be correct because there is no record of his aircraft being fired upon.
read more here
It also looks as if he's been at it a long time making claims that are not true but we should be wondering why on earth no one discovered this before now. How is this possible? Didn't anyone check his record before now? 5 terms in Congress?
One of the jobs a senator has is to decide about sending young men and women to risk their lives in combat. Making claims like this, shows a total lack of respect for what it means to be able to risk your life when Kirk decided his real service just didn't look good enough. How is it they manage so well to "respect" them enough to want to pretend to be them but never manage to actually do anything worthy of them?
Man faces charges in death of homeless veteran
Police Charge Suspect In Veteran's Beating Death
Victim Dies 13 Months After Sustaining Injuries
By Steve Tellier/WLKY
POSTED: 8:20 pm EDT June 3, 2010
LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Police said a man beat a war veteran to death in a homeless camp. Now, 15 months after the alleged crime, police are charging that suspect with murder.
Police said they found William Brian, 52, a war veteran, severely beaten at a homeless camp near Campbell and Geiger Streets in March 2009.
"Most of his injuries were due to blunt force trauma, he was severely beaten, and then, obviously, that's why we took over the case back then due to the severity of his injuries," said Lt. Barry Wilkerson, with the Louisville Metro Police Homicide Unit.
Police quickly arrested Donald Ulrich, 37, for assaulting Brian.
"He was seen by witnesses at that location shortly after the incident took place. He was arrested a short time later," Wilkerson said.
Police said they don't know what the dispute was about. And for the next 12-plus months, Brian fought for his life. He eventually lost that fight on April 23.
"Mr. Brian was in the VA Hospital for a long time and then went to a nursing home, and then his health decreased and went back to the hospital where he died," Wilkerson said.
read more here
http://www.wlky.com/news/23787463/detail.html
Victim Dies 13 Months After Sustaining Injuries
By Steve Tellier/WLKY
POSTED: 8:20 pm EDT June 3, 2010
LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Police said a man beat a war veteran to death in a homeless camp. Now, 15 months after the alleged crime, police are charging that suspect with murder.
Police said they found William Brian, 52, a war veteran, severely beaten at a homeless camp near Campbell and Geiger Streets in March 2009.
"Most of his injuries were due to blunt force trauma, he was severely beaten, and then, obviously, that's why we took over the case back then due to the severity of his injuries," said Lt. Barry Wilkerson, with the Louisville Metro Police Homicide Unit.
Police quickly arrested Donald Ulrich, 37, for assaulting Brian.
"He was seen by witnesses at that location shortly after the incident took place. He was arrested a short time later," Wilkerson said.
Police said they don't know what the dispute was about. And for the next 12-plus months, Brian fought for his life. He eventually lost that fight on April 23.
"Mr. Brian was in the VA Hospital for a long time and then went to a nursing home, and then his health decreased and went back to the hospital where he died," Wilkerson said.
read more here
http://www.wlky.com/news/23787463/detail.html
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Indiana soldier presumed dead after swimming accident
Indiana soldier presumed dead after swimming accident
Fox59
11:36 AM EDT, June 2, 2010
Specialist Anthony Carter along with four other soldiers rented a boat over the Memorial Day Weekend in Taylorsville, Kentucky. Carter's friends said he was swimming and went under as he tried to get back to the boat.
Fox59
11:36 AM EDT, June 2, 2010
Specialist Anthony Carter along with four other soldiers rented a boat over the Memorial Day Weekend in Taylorsville, Kentucky. Carter's friends said he was swimming and went under as he tried to get back to the boat.
Fort Carson Mental Health Crisis: 1,000 New Patients
I cannot emphasize this enough. None of what we're seeing today has to happen and the suffering does not have to get worse. As soon as they begin to get treatment, start to talk about what's happening inside of them, PTSD loses control over their lives. Most of what they are going through can be reversed, but as time goes by, it's harder to do that. While it is never too late, which has been proven by Vietnam veterans seeking help 30-40 years after they knew "something was wrong" they have shown they can heal if not be cured. For the parts of their lives they cannot heal, they learn ways to cope with what is left over. So who is giving them hope now instead just pills and push offs?
Fort Carson Mental Health Crisis: 1,000 New Patients
Written by Staff Reports
Wednesday, 26 May 2010 13:55
Post-Deployment Needs of 4th Infantry Rise Sharply
May 24, 2010 (Army Times) - Nearly 1,000 soldiers from the 4th Infantry Division’s 4th Brigade Combat Team have been identified as needing special counseling when they get home from their yearlong tour in Afghanistan, Fort Carson officials said.
The impact will be so significant that the Warrior Transition Unit at Fort Carson, Colo., may have to expand - just to accommodate the 4-4th combat veterans.
It was a difficult deployment for the 4-4th, which suffered among the heaviest casualties since the start of the war. Thirtynine soldiers were killed and nearly 500 wounded during 12 months in Afghanistan. The now-infamous Combat Outpost Keating battle in October 2009 took eight 4-4th soldiers and left 24 wounded.
Given the rough deployment, medical professionals did one-onone screenings with every soldier in the brigade before they left the war zone. Based upon their answers - and input from commanders - soldiers were classified as red, green or amber, based upon officials’ concerns about their ability to transition back to society after such a difficult deployment.
The Enhanced Medical Exam of the 3,800 soldiers in the 4-4th rated 21 soldiers "red," 917 "amber" and the rest "green." "Red" soldiers are identified as needing immediate help; "amber" soldiers are considered to be susceptible to behavioral health problems, while "green" soldiers are those who seemed less scarred by the deployment. The designation determines what happens when they get home. "The red ones will be met at the ramp," said Maj. Gen. David G. Perkins, commander of the 4th Infantry Division. They will be met by licensed behavioral health providers - psychologists, psychiatrists and clinical social workers to determine if they need special immediate treatment.
read more here
Fort Carson Mental Health Crisis: 1,000 New Patients
Private LaVena Johnson's family still waits for answers
Family of soldier who died in Iraq is still looking for answers
By Sandra Jordan of the St. Louis American
Wednesday, June 2, 2010 11:37 PM CDT
Memorial Day 2010 for John Johnson and his wife Linda Johnson was marked quietly at their Florissant home with a little barbeque shared with a few close family members and friends.
As he does most days, John Johnson thought about justice for his late daughter, Private LaVena Johnson, who was killed nearly five years ago on July 19, 2005 – just a little over a week before her 20th birthday.
She joined the U.S. Army after graduating from Hazelwood Central High School to save money to pay her way to college. She never made it back home from Balad, Iraq.
Her death was not the result of a roadside bomb or an exchange of enemy fire. The Army calls it a suicide. Her family and others working on the case call it rape and murder.
The last five years have been very hard on the entire family, which includes LaVena’s parents; her three older brothers, John, JayVince and Jermaine Johnson; and her sister, LaKesha.
read more here
Family of soldier who died in Iraq is still looking for answers
By Sandra Jordan of the St. Louis American
Wednesday, June 2, 2010 11:37 PM CDT
Memorial Day 2010 for John Johnson and his wife Linda Johnson was marked quietly at their Florissant home with a little barbeque shared with a few close family members and friends.
As he does most days, John Johnson thought about justice for his late daughter, Private LaVena Johnson, who was killed nearly five years ago on July 19, 2005 – just a little over a week before her 20th birthday.
She joined the U.S. Army after graduating from Hazelwood Central High School to save money to pay her way to college. She never made it back home from Balad, Iraq.
Her death was not the result of a roadside bomb or an exchange of enemy fire. The Army calls it a suicide. Her family and others working on the case call it rape and murder.
The last five years have been very hard on the entire family, which includes LaVena’s parents; her three older brothers, John, JayVince and Jermaine Johnson; and her sister, LaKesha.
read more here
Family of soldier who died in Iraq is still looking for answers
Sister wants honor for fallen brother
The sister said she's been fighting for years to convince American Legion Post 575 to add Andrew's name to the memorial, but they refuse because he was not killed in action.
Sister wants honor for fallen brother
Posted: June 3, 2010
By Adam D. Young
Brothers Andrew and Jose "Freddy" Velez may both have died in war zones, but how they've been honored couldn't be more different - a reality their sister hopes to change.
It was 2004 when Freddy, then a 23-year-old Army specialist, was shot in the back of the neck by enemy fire while protecting fellow soldiers as they retreated from an enemy stronghold in Fallujah, Iraq.
The Army awarded him with two Purple Hearts, a Bronze Star and Silver Star for his bravery and posthumously promoted him to corporal.
It's Andrew, who committed suicide as a 22-year-old Army specialist in Afghanistan, who's gone relatively forgotten. Despite being buried next to his brother, the Estacado High graduate has an unmarked tombstone and his name isn't inscribed in the memorial's African granite.
read more here
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