Fort Hood takes aim at stigma of needing help

The more I think about what needs to be done, the more I am convinced a huge part of this is being missed. We've talked about getting them to understand that considering what they survived, PTSD is one of the results for those able to feel things deeply. The more they are able to feel, the deeper they are also able to feel pain. For them, they don't just walk away with their own pain but pain felt from the suffering of others. This is what haunts them. We've talked about the need for more therapists to be ready for them to talk to and sort it all out. Medications to help level off the chemical balance in their brains. Family involvement and getting them to understand how they react has a lot to do with how much healing can happen. Early treatment to prevent full blown PTSD. The list goes on. But one other fact about their character stands out and we cannot avoid talking about it.

Pride. Not the kind of pride that tells them they are better than PTSD or the kind of pride that tells them they will look weak to the people in their lives. The kind of pride that a "helper" feels when they are the ones always being ready to help also being the last to ask for help.

I know that feeling well. I am the type of person always rushing to help someone else but I also find it nearly impossible to ask for help when I need it. "I should be able to do it all." "If I need help someone out there needs it more than I do." While this type of personality does not look down at the people we help, when we need it, we feel we shouldn't need it at all.

Fort Hood takes aim at stigma as it battles record suicide pace
Officials hope role-playing sends message to soldiers: It's OK to get help.
By Jeremy Schwartz
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Friday, Sept. 3, 2010
FORT HOOD — Inside a darkened theater, camouflage-wearing soldiers shuffle toward their seats to confront an enemy that has taken record numbers of their comrades in the past year.

On the stage, four actors re-enact a situation in which a soldier who recently returned from war describes the pain and hopelessness he feels but doesn't know how to handle. Jamey Gadoury , an Army veteran who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, interrupts the action and talks directly to the troops, many of whom are about to deploy to Iraq next month.

"We talk a lot as an Army about warrior culture," he says. "As an Army we know what courage on the battlefield looks like. The question is, when it comes to a life-and-death situation with a buddy, can I dig deep to that same sense of courage?"

This sprawling Army post, the nation's largest, is set to pass an unwelcome milestone. Through July, officials say there have been 14 confirmed or suspected suicides of Fort Hood soldiers, eclipsing last year's total by three and matching the total in 2008, which saw the most suicides of Fort Hood soldiers since the wars began. The spike at Fort Hood comes as the suicide rate for the whole Army doubled between 2005 and 2009, leaving military leaders searching for answers and scrambling to implement suicide prevention measures.

"The Army realized too late that there was a very serious problem," Gen. Peter Chiarelli , the vice chief of staff for the Army, wrote in a report last month that provided a stark assessment of the Army's suicide prevention efforts.
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Fort Hood takes aim at stigma

To explain this take two houses on fire. An average person will take care of their own home first and then go help the neighbor. If one of the homes belongs to a firefighter, they will help the neighbor first and then take care of what is left of their own home. They are that devoted to helping others.

For the men and women in the military, it's the same devotion few average people come close to understanding. For the members of the National Guard and Reserves, it is more deeply rooted within them. They are ready 24-7 risking their lives in other countries as well as in their own states or other states depending on the level of the emergency.

I give time, hours when I can but they are willing to give their lives. As hard as it is for me to ask for help, for them it is nearly impossible. Once they understand they cannot help anyone if they are falling apart, losing sleep and suffering, they are more willing to ask for help. If they are approached by someone pointing out that there is a need for help for them alone, they have a hard time being willing to accept it.

We've gotten the message through to a lot of veterans and servicemen/women that there is a reason PTSD has entered into their lives and a lot have sought help but too many still refuse to ask. If we are going to reach them, they need to know asking for help will help them to be able to help others again.

A lot of veterans I talk to want one thing out of healing. The ability to help other veterans like themselves. Often they want to do this while they are just beginning to heal. This happens more often with Vietnam veterans than the newer generation. It is in their nature to help and if this feature of their character is understood and supported, they want it. It helps them to put the fire out in their own home first so they can take care of their neighbor better.

Medal of Honor finally for Richard Etchberger KIA in Laos

Richard Etchberger was killed in Laos by N. Vietnamese.

Forty-two years on, a posthumous award for a Pa. veteran
By Robert Moran

Inquirer Staff Writer

Richard Etchberger died in Laos in 1968, saving fellow Americans at a top-secret radar station overrun by North Vietnamese commandos.

Etchberger, who grew up north of Reading, was nominated that year for the Medal of Honor. But there was a problem: The United States was not supposed to have troops in Laos. President Lyndon B. Johnson declined to award the medal.

On July 7 of this year, Etchberger's son, Cory, received a phone call. "Will you please hold for the president?" a woman asked.

President Obama then told Cory Etchberger that his father would finally receive the Medal of Honor.

"It's been a long time coming," Obama told Etchberger, 51, of Schwenksville, Montgomery County.

Read more: http://www.philly.com/inquirer/local/20100904_Forty-two_years_on__a_posthumous_award_for_a_Pa__veteran.html#ixzz0yYqPVph0
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Unemployment numbers drop for younger veterans

Being back in college myself I can tell you a lot of them went back to school. Yes, this old lady is back in college taking tech classes on digital media and post production. There is usually a line at the VA service clerks desk in the financial aid office. You can spot them walking around campus because of the way they carry themselves. You can spot a Marine a lot quicker than a soldier because of the way they walk. I still have to admit that when I talk to a young female student, I can't tell if they were in Iraq or Afghanistan or right out of high school until they tell me.

Unemployment numbers drop for younger veterans

By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Friday Sep 3, 2010 15:46:33 EDT

The unemployment rate for Iraq- and Afghanistan-era veterans dropped sharply in August but rose for other veterans and for the general population, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The drop in unemployment may not be good news — part of the reason for the decline could be that some younger veterans have stopped looking for work.

In their Friday release of August employment statistics, the BLS, an arm of the Labor Department, reports the national unemployment rate rose one-tenth of a percentage point to 9.6 percent.

For all veterans over age 18, the unemployment rate climbed from 8.4 percent in July to 8.7 percent in August. One year ago, it was 7.7 percent.
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Unemployment numbers drop for younger veterans

Medevac door gunner takes bullet to her helmet in rescue

Gunner takes bullet to helmet in rescue

By Jake Lowary - The (Clarksville, Tenn.) Leaf-Chronicle
Posted : Friday Sep 3, 2010 16:22:42 EDT

FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. — Spc. Patricia Fowler says the Taliban got a lucky shot off, but she was glad to take the bullet.

Fowler, a crew chief and door gunner on a Black Hawk medevac helicopter in southern Afghanistan, earned the Purple Heart following that incident in May in which she was fractions of an inch from a much more serious injury, probably death.

“I was just doing my job, and they happened to get a lucky shot off,” she said in a phone interview from Afghanistan with The Leaf-Chronicle.

Fowler is part of Task Force Shadow and B Company, 5th Battalion, 101st Aviation Regiment, 101st Combat Aviation Brigade, 101st Airborne Division. In May, she was on a helicopter that was in the role of “medical chase,” providing air support to another helicopter sent to pick up wounded Marines.

“I feel worse for those guys than I do for us,” she said of her fellow aviators, who set down in the midst of Taliban gunfire to rescue the wounded Americans.
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Gunner takes bullet to helmet in rescue

Soldier survived brutal deployment

Shooter’s troubled soul: Soldier survived brutal deployment
By Matthew D. LaPlante

The Salt Lake Tribune

Sep 3, 2010
A U.S. Army soldier who was killed in a shootout with police in downtown Salt Lake City on Friday afternoon had suffered through a brutal combat tour in Afghanistan, where he survived mortar attacks, sniper ambushes, roadside bomb blasts and a suicide bombing — and in which he took the lives of several enemy fighters, according to soldiers who served with him.

Just days after returning home from the war, Brandon Barrett was cited for driving under the influence of alcohol after police found him asleep and intoxicated behind the wheel of his car at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in western Washington. Fellow soldiers say that Barrett went AWOL on July 19 shortly after being berated for the incident in front of his comrades by a senior soldier.

“We all thought he was going to take a month or two and come back,” said one of Barrett’s fellow soldiers. “I guess that wasn’t his plan.”

The factors leading up to Barrett’s death in Salt Lake City may never be clear, but friends and family members say the Army appears to have quickly washed its hands of Barrett after he left, leaving a clearly troubled soldier to his own devices just weeks after returning home from war.
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Soldier survived brutal deployment

Soldier found dead at Fort Stewart

Soldier found dead at Fort Stewart
By Associated Press
September 2, 2010

For the AJC

FORT STEWART, Ga. -- Investigators at Fort Stewart are trying to determine what caused the death of a military policeman whose body was found on the Army post.

Fort Stewart spokesman Kevin Larson said Wednesday investigators are awaiting results of an autopsy on the soldier, who was found unresponsive by Fort Stewart police inside a building Tuesday.

The dead soldier was identified as Maj. Paul A. Egli, a military policeman from Thompson Station, Tenn.

Larson said investigators were withholding further information about the death until they received the autopsy results.

The Army says Egli had served in uniform since 1981. He had been stationed at Fort Stewart for the past year. http://www.ajc.com/news/soldier-found-dead-at-605191.html

GOP want to cut budget by hitting veterans

I have no clue what the hell happened to Republicans in Congress but this is what they have been doing behind the backs of veterans for a long time. This is not new and frankly didn't make it into the 24/7 cable news shows. When Congress was debating the VA budget during the ticking time bomb of wounded veterans entering into the VA system, GOP in congress said they couldn't afford to increase the VA budget to take care of them because "There are two wars to pay for." Yes, that's right and if you watched CSPAN you would have heard these words come right out of their mouth with absolutely no shame. After all, when it came to defense contractors, they demanded money to just flow in if other congressmen "supported the troops" they had to support the missions without hesitation. They didn't seem to make the same connection in their own heads when it came to really taking care of the troops and our wounded.

They want to keep going on the tax breaks for the wealthy claiming it's all about jobs but after all these years, the average American is still asking when these breaks for the rich will make any jobs. We're still working with the budget giving the rich money off our backs, but again, the media has not thought this was an important point to make when they talk about how much the average American in hurting. Well if that wasn't enough to get our blood boiling these same folks now say support the rich by letting the wounded veterans suck it up and give up their own lives and futures as if they have not already done that.

When members of the GOP called the VA a welfare program, the mass media ignored it. They were too busy letting the talking heads spout off about how the tax cuts for the rich were needed and covering every single word Sarah Palin tweeted about what she just ate for breakfast. They never once confronted her on the fact for every dollar the people of Alaska paid out in taxes, the state got $5 back,,,,,,in other words, tax breaks worked for them but she complains about paying taxes? What? Yet this makes sense? Rich? Hell ya they should get all they wanted after all they already paid to put the bodies in congress to watch their backs so screw the rest of the American people and the veterans.

If you heard a tenth of the things I've heard coming out of their mouths you'd want to send each and everyone of them to Iraq and Afghanistan with combat boots on and a pack on their backs to see what it was really like for the wounded coming home. A few of them went with a military escort protecting them so they never really understood what it was really like and they were in safe zones just to show up and get a picture taken with some real heroes.

The truth is members of the GOP in congress stopped being real Republicans a long time ago. I used to find many of them deeply committed to the military and veterans but then things changed. They started to vote against them while they pretended to care. Now they don't even bother to pretend they give a damn at all. They'll show up at meetings and talk about how the nation has to support the troops and honor veterans but they are not including themselves in on that. They just expect the American people to take over what they want the government to stop doing. When it came time to really show they had the backs of the men and women risking their lives, the GOP had out a dagger in perfect position to drive the knife straight in without ever once having to look into the eyes of the men and women they just betrayed!

GORDON DUFF: TWO WARS LOST, AN UNGRATEFUL NATION NOW TURNS ON ITS VETERANS
September 3, 2010 posted by Gordon Duff

CONGRESS PLANS “STEALTH ATTACK” ON VETERANS BENEFITS
By Gordon Duff STAFF WRITER/Senior Editor

A week ago, we marched out of Iraq, leaving 50,000 “administrative” troops and tens of thousands of contractors behind. They perform no useful purpose of any kind, no more than the original attack which Secretary of Defense Robert Gates now openly refers to as unnecessary and wrong. The war that never should have started cost America 3 trillion dollars, much of it unaccounted for. Along with the thousands of American dead and the untold devastation in Iraq, the war also cost America health and welfare of up to 400,000 of her veterans, America’s children. A generation of young adults, another generation of our best and bravest stand betrayed.

We have money for fraud of every kind, projects paid for but never finished, weapons stolen, defective or never delivered, buying poisoned water for our troops at 5 times the cost of French Wine, I could go on for hours, the list is endless.
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AN UNGRATEFUL NATION NOW TURNS ON ITS VETERANS

So why not tell corporations to pull up their own bootstraps and pitch in? Why not ask them to be patriotic in this time of crisis? Why not? Because while the veterans were so deeply patriotic they were willing to die for this country, the corporations have proven their are selfish and only care about themselves, what they can get out of this nation and what they can retire on. Think I'm wrong? Then ask them why it is when NAFTA was passed and they were able to set up businesses outside the US hiring foreign workers, they not only jumped at the chance but demanded the right to do it more? Ask them why when two wars were going on and contractors were sent in more than the troops were, why they thought they could get away with the way they were treating the troops, getting pay outs for cost plus contracts and then decided it was in their best interests to just pay fines for what they did? Because that would make sense to the American people but would make a lot of really rich people upset enough they stopped backing these BS superstars we were suckered into sending to congress.

The same folks who said no to reform of the health insurance industry did it off our backs siding with the corporations. Did the American people notice this? Nope and for the most part, they are ticked off the things the congress has managed to do were just not big enough or fast enough even though with the Democrats in the majority of the House, they have passed more bills waiting for some in the Senate to stop blocking debate. We're all suffering while they hold our futures for ransom thinking if things are bad enough no one will remember how we ended up like this in the first place.

I've been angry for a long time but even this one is just about the lowest blow the GOP could ever pull off. Telling wounded veterans they are not patriotic enough because they want what we promised them is the lowest level of depravity. This is not a handout! They paid for it with their lives for 4 years and even more in too many cases while the elected in congress ended up doing a couple of years of living off what the men and women serving risking their lives provided them with. This democracy of ours was provided by the men and women who served this nation since it was begun and now people like Simpson are saying they just haven't done enough? Now do you get the idea why people like me are furious?

VA Secretary Addresses TBI Conference

VA Secretary Addresses Traumatic Brain Injury Conference

WASHINGTON (August 30, 2010) - Recognizing the longstanding, integrated
collaboration shared by the Department of Veterans Affairs and
Department of Defense, VA Secretary Eric K. Shinseki gave the keynote
address Monday at the fourth annual Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)
Military Training Conference here.

"We--DoD and VA--simply cannot afford to be less than aggressive in our
effort to identify, treat and rehabilitate TBI victims," Shinseki told
the approximately 1,000 military, VA and civilian health care workers at
the conference sponsored by the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center
(DVBIC).

The Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center was established by
Congress in 1992. DoD and VA together offer clinical care, research and
education on traumatic brain injury. DVBIC is the operational component
of the Defense Center of Excellence for Psychological Health and
Traumatic Brain Injury.

In praise of the collaborative DVBIC model, Secretary Shinseki said it
should be replicated for all military personnel transitioning to VA
care, and not just for TBI or burn care.

"When it comes to DoD's patients, there is a network of information and
hands-on human care," the Secretary said, "that helps a wounded warrior
transition from one system to the other-- from the battlefield to our
polytrauma centers."

There are DVBIC researchers assigned at each of the four VA Polytrauma
Rehabilitation Centers (Tampa, Richmond, Minneapolis and Palo Alto)
where they gather information regarding care of patients with TBI,
analyze and translate this information into recommendations to improve
care, and educate providers in implementing those improvements
clinically.

DVBIC and VA have shared, and continue to collaborate, on many
significant initiatives. Recent examples include developing and
implementing:

* Joint DoD/VA clinical practice guidelines for TBI;

* Materials and information for families and caregivers of
Veterans with TBI;

* Integrated education and training curriculum, and joint
training on TBI of VA and DoD heath care providers;

* A Congressionally-mandated 5-year pilot program to assess the
effectiveness of providing assisted living services to Veterans with
TBI;

* The TBI Screening tool used for all Veterans who served in
Iraq or Afghanistan and are receiving care within VA; and

* A specialized Emerging Consciousness Care program at the four
polytrauma centers to serve those Veterans with severe TBI who are also
slow to recover consciousness.

VA Publishes Final Regulation to Aid Veterans Exposed to Agent Orange

VA Publishes Final Regulation to Aid Veterans Exposed to Agent Orange

VA Health Care and Benefits Provided for Many Vietnam Veterans

WASHINGTON (August 30, 2010)- Veterans exposed to herbicides while
serving in Vietnam and other areas will have an easier path to access
quality health care and qualify for disability compensation under a
final regulation that will be published on August 31, 2010 in the
Federal Register by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). The new
rule expands the list of health problems VA will presume to be related
to Agent Orange and other herbicide exposures to add two new conditions
and expand one existing category of conditions.

"Last October, based on the requirements of the Agent Orange Act of
1991 and the Institute of Medicine's 2008 Update on Agent Orange, I
determined that the evidence provided was sufficient to award
presumptions of service connection for these three additional diseases,"
said Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki. "It was the right
decision, and the President and I are proud to finally provide this
group of Veterans the care and benefits they have long deserved."

The final regulation follows Shinseki's determination to expand the list
of conditions for which service connection for Vietnam Veterans is
presumed. VA is adding Parkinson's disease and ischemic heart disease
and expanding chronic lymphocytic leukemia to include all chronic B cell
leukemias, such as hairy cell leukemia.

In practical terms, Veterans who served in Vietnam during the war and
who have a "presumed" illness don't have to prove an association between
their medical problems and their military service. By helping Veterans
overcome evidentiary requirements that might otherwise present
significant challenges, this "presumption" simplifies and speeds up the
application process and ensure that Veterans receive the benefits they
deserve.

The Secretary's decision to add these presumptives is based on the
latest evidence provided in a 2008 independent study by the Institute of
Medicine concerning health problems caused by herbicides like Agent
Orange.

Veterans who served in Vietnam anytime during the period beginning
January 9, 1962, and ending on May 7, 1975, are presumed to have been
exposed to herbicides.

More than 150,000 Veterans are expected to submit Agent Orange claims in
the next 12 to 18 months, many of whom are potentially eligible for
retroactive disability payments based on past claims. Additionally, VA
will review approximately 90,000 previously denied claims by Vietnam
Veterans for service connection for these conditions. All those awarded
service-connection who are not currently eligible for enrollment into
the VA healthcare system will become eligible.

This historic regulation is subject to provisions of the Congressional
Review Act that require a 60-day Congressional review period before
implementation. After the review period, VA can begin paying benefits
for new claims and may award benefits retroactively for earlier periods.
For new claims, VA may pay benefits retroactive to the effective date of
the regulation or to one year before the date VA receives the
application, whichever is later. For pending claims and claims that
were previously denied, VA may pay benefits retroactive to the date it
received the claim.

VA encourages Vietnam Veterans with these three diseases to submit their
applications for access to VA health care and compensation now so the
agency can begin development of their claims.

Individuals can go to a website at
Claims

to get an
understanding of how to file a claim for presumptive conditions related
to herbicide exposure, as well as what evidence is needed by VA to make
a decision about disability compensation or survivors benefits.

Additional information about Agent Orange and VA's services for Veterans
exposed to the chemical is available at Public Health Exposures to Agent Orange



The regulation is available on the Office of the Federal Register
website at OFR.gov

PTSD: The battle after the war

PTSD: The battle after the war

Edmonds woman starts support group for veterans

By Mina Williams
Enterprise editor

EDMONDS -- For armed services men and women returning stateside, fear can become a ghost haunting them in daily life, more frightening than the firestorms and improvised explosive devices they encountered abroad. For these veterans, a new war begins at home with post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD.

“Admitting you have PTSD is like admitting you are a bad soldier,” said Dedie Davis, an Edmonds resident and wife of a veteran. Davis' husband asked not to be identified.

Watching her husband struggle to adjust to life in Edmonds spurred her to create Operation Open Arms in 2006. The relief and support network is for veterans with PTSD, an anxiety disorder triggered by witnessing events that cause intense fear, and others suffering from post-combat angst.

Although the organization has been supported through casual donations, Davis is spearheading an event Sept. 1o aimed at raising funds to provide support for veterans with PTSD.
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PTSD The battle after the war

also you can watch the video I made.