Five pillars of fitness

Wounded veteran shares stories of resilience

DVIDS

“The fact is we have the right ingredients to sustain us in times of great difficulty,” said Roever, a Fort Worth, Texas, native.

While this may have worked for some veterans, there is not telling how many it helped any more than it answers how many it didn't help.

Whenever I hear about any program being pushed now, my first question is usually "How long have they been doing this?" Followed by "Has it worked." Judging by the fact the suicide numbers have gone up over the last couple of years, I don't hold out much hope on what the military is doing. It looks like this program has been up for about a year now but the results are a higher suicide rate across the military. It all depends on how much this program is being used but if it is wide spread, that is not a good result at all.


I have hopes that this may be close to where it needs to be because it does address the mind-body-spirit connection that has to be addressed. It does try to include families in on the healing. That's all good but the questions it asks trying to figure out if a soldier is in need of help are much like the kind of test you'd answer for a job. The open ended questions leave too much room to answer what they think the right answer should be instead of an honest one.

Much like the question "Have you thought of harming yourself or anyone else today does not factor in what the thoughts were yesterday or that they may come on later today, this leaves way too much room to play with the answers.

Here are a couple of links so that you can take a look at this yourself.

Herald Union - News
Five pillars of fitness


Oct 8, 2009 ... The Army has come out with the Comprehensive Fitness Campaign. ... It's about total wellness and fitness, building strength and resiliency in our Soldiers, families

Microsoft PowerPoint
Cornum CSF Overview Brief 23SEP09

Oct 26, 2009 ... COMPREHENSIVE SOLDIER FITNESS: STRONG MINDS, STRONG BODIES. \. BG Rhonda Cornum. UNCLASS/FOUO. DAMO-CSF

Can it work? Yes but it all depends on what they put into it. If they say they include the family in on healing then how do they do it? Do they tell the family what they need to know or do they gloss over it?

All of us need to take a good look at programs they are putting out and ask some hard questions because the answers involve life or death issues. So far, no program has been a real success since the numbers have kept on going up. The Montana National Guard's program, which I thouht was the best a few years ago, may still be the best one out there but I have not seen new data released from them lately.

Iraq Vet learns to live after combat

Last weekend I was invited to speak at the Point Man Ministries conference in Buffalo. This Iraq veteran has a message for all combat veterans. He came home from Iraq and did not want to live anymore with the pain he carried inside his soul. He found forgiveness thru Christ and learned to forgive himself. He spoke with the soul of a poet unashamed to admit how much he was hurting so that others could see that no matter how bad things get, there is still hope to heal.





The number of military suicides goes up and up but this veteran is not only a survivor, he is helping others to come out of the darkness of pain and into a new world of healing with hope and love. There is no reason of what we're seeing today if they all have what they need to survive coming home from combat. This Iraq veteran and leader of a Point Man Ministries Combat Outpost proves there is a way to walk in the light again and live still watching the backs of his brothers the same way he did in Iraq.

Funeral Protest Case Reaches High Court

Funeral Protest Case Reaches High Court


September 30, 2010
Associated Press


YORK, Pa. -- One thing Al Snyder wants to make clear: His boy fought and died for freedom in Iraq, but not for the right of some "wackos" to spew hate at troops' funerals under the protection of the Constitution.

"It's an insult to myself, my family and the veterans to say this is what our military men and women died for," Snyder says, barely concealing his anger.

Yet more than four years after the death of his only son, Matthew, Snyder is in the middle of a Supreme Court case that raises almost precisely that issue.

The court is set to decide whether members of a fundamentalist church in Kansas who picketed Matthew's funeral with signs bearing anti-gay and anti-Catholic invective have a constitutional right to say what they want.


Or, in intruding on a private citizen's funeral in a hurtful way, have the protesters crossed a line and given Snyder the right to collect millions of dollars for the emotional pain they caused?
The justices will hear arguments in the case next Wednesday.
read more here
Funeral Protest Case Reaches High Court

Homeless vets get dignity in death

They were someone's son, someone's daughter. A husband, wife, brother, sister and many times, someone's parent. They were "veteran" to everyone in this nation and it is very sad that one of them dies forgotten and alone, but too many had to live forgotten and alone as well.

I have been to a few of these funerals and posted on many more. Dignity Memorial services honor the death of a veteran but they also honor the life they lived in service to this country.

Homeless vets get dignity in death
THE ISSUE: Homeless vet gets dignity in death.


September 30, 2010


For all the multitrillion-dollar military appropriations and congressional hearings and loud, political "support the troops" stump speeches, one of the good things being done for America's veterans is one you haven't heard much about.

The Dignity Memorial Homeless Veterans Burial Program, a cooperative among veterans organizations, advocates and cemeteries, is a way of giving a proper burial to homeless and/or indigent veterans who are too easily forgotten. The program gives those who served and then came upon hard times some dignity.

Last week, at the South Florida National Cemetery west of Lake Worth, Thomas Allen Clay became the first Broward County veteran to be buried with the help of the 10-year-old program. Five homeless veterans from Palm Beach County have been interred at the national cemetery.

The burial program is meaningful in Florida, where the number of homeless vets has been estimated at between 8,600 and 19,000. There could be as many as 250,000 homeless veterans nationwide.

read more here
Homeless vets get dignity in death

Community mourning death of young soldier

Community mourning death of young soldier with local ties
Clinton Springer II had hundreds of friends, father says

By Ellen W. Todd
Sanford News Writer
Thursday, September 30, 2010

SANFORD — Clinton Springer II will be long remembered by his fellow soldiers, his hundreds of friends and, most of all, by his loving family.

Pfc. Clinton E. Springer II, 21, of Sanford, died last Friday, Sept. 24, in Kabul, Afghanistan, in what the U.S. Department of Defense has called a noncombat related incident. The cause of death is under investigation.

"His commanding officer in Afghanistan said he was a magnificent soldier and that he watched him develop from a boy to a man," said Springer's father, Clinton E. Springer, of Sanford.

"He said Clint got along with everyone in his unit," the elder Springer said.

That didn't surprise him.
read more here
Community mourning death of young soldier