Soldiers say work helped after Fort Hood shootings

Some things were done by the book after the shooting at Fort Hood. Trauma teams rushed in and that was good. Soldiers banded together no matter where they were from, if they were staying at Fort Hood or deploying. As reported in the story below, the soldiers deployed to Afghanistan helped each other. That's all good but the troubling part is there was very little followup done after this event that shattered their sense of safety on their own base.

There are stories coming out about female troops stopping their fluid intake at noon, no matter how hot it is, because they fear having to use the latrine in the middle of the night. It doesn't matter if no one they knew was attacked or not, it is the reports of it happening that cause them to fear it will happen to them. A sense of safety is gone when there is one report of a female solider being attacked and it causes psychological damage. It's the same thing with the soldiers at Fort Hood and even on other bases.

Major Hasan was in a position of power but betrayed the men and women he was supposed to be serving with and taking care of. The commanders that allowed him to not only stay in the military but be promoted, betrayed the troops. All the way around, there was a deep sense of betrayal and it caused fear for them as well as for their families because this happened in their own back yard.

There is still much that needs to be done for the soldiers at Fort Hood but by the looks of it, not enough is happening.

Soldiers say work helped after Fort Hood shootings


By TODD RICHMOND
The Associated Press
Sunday, October 31, 2010; 12:04 AM

MADISON, Wis. -- For nearly a year in Afghanistan, a tightly knit Army Reserve unit kept the memories of their comrades killed during a shooting rampage Fort Hood close. But not too close.

The Madison-based 467th Combat Stress Control Detachment wore black wrist bands and dedicated field clinics to their fallen friends. At the same, they poured themselves into their jobs, blocking out their grief by helping combat troops deal with theirs.

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Soldiers say work helped after Fort Hood

Wounded Soldiers Stuck in Middle of Aircraft Battle

Wounded Soldiers Stuck in Middle of Aircraft Battle
Sharon Weinberger
Contributor



This is the third in a series of stories by our special correspondent about military aviation issues linked to the war in Afghanistan. Read also the growing pains of the Afghan air force and the attempts of women pilots to find a place in it.

RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany (Oct. 30) -- More than two dozen injured U.S. troops, including six critical-care patients, have been loaded onto the C-17 transport aircraft destined for Andrews Air Force Base, Md. Then everyone aboard gets the bad news:

There's a fuel leak, and the aircraft may not be able to fly today.

That means more waiting for the patients, a number of whom were wounded in operations in Afghanistan.

If the aircraft can't be fixed within a few hours, a new aircraft will have to be found, and that's easier said than done. Flights these like -- aeromedical evacuation -- have a high priority, but with military operations in Afghanistan surging, finding an aircraft can be a game of musical chairs.
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Wounded Soldiers Stuck in Middle

Soldier's longest struggle after the battlefield

Soldier's longest struggle has taken place off the battlefield
After year of rehab, surgeries, staff sergeant shot in the head at Fort Hood is determined to recover, continue his Army career.

AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF

Staff Sgt. Patrick Zeigler saw the red laser sight approach his head, and then it all became like a dream. He opened his eyes and he was on the ground, the sound of screams filling the air. He tried to crawl out of the medical building, but he kept slipping on the blood pouring from his head. He grabbed the leg of a chair, but it slid across the wet floor.


His eyes closed, and the world grew dark. "I'm pretty much done for," he thought.


When he opened his eyes again, he was on the ground outside Fort Hood's Soldier Readiness Processing Center. He doesn't remember, but he would later learn that he could move somehow, despite the bullet lodged in his brain and the three others in his shoulder, arm and hip. He cried out for a cell phone so he could call Jessica.


With his massive head wound, paramedics said he easily could have been ignored among the growing number of dead and wounded soldiers being pulled from the unfolding massacre in the processing center — which happened a year ago this Friday.


But his talking attracted the attention of a medic. He was lifted onto a gurney, an oxygen mask was slipped over his face, and needles were plunged into his arm. The helicopter rose into the air and flew 27 miles east to Scott and White Hospital — Temple. The doctors who met his flight were amazed that he was still alive.
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Soldier longest struggle

Fort Hood shooting, odyssey of despair, hope

Fort Hood shooting sent wounded warrior, his fiancée on odyssey of despair, hope

12:00 AM CDT on Sunday, October 31, 2010
By DAVID TARRANT / The Dallas Morning News
dtarrant@dallasnews.com / The Dallas Morning News
Lee Hancock contributed to this report.
When Jessica Hansen awoke that Thursday morning, she found a text message on her cellphone.

"Happy Nov. 5th. I love you."

It was from Staff Sgt. Patrick Zeigler of Fort Hood. He and Jessica, a senior at Boston University, met 11 months earlier on Dec. 5, 2008, and they liked to celebrate each new month of their relationship. They kept in constant communication, so when Patrick followed up his text with a noontime call, it wasn't unusual – except for the way it ended:

"I love you, Jessica," he said.

"I love you, too," she replied.

"No, really, I love you," he insisted.

He sounded serious, unlike his usual wisecracking self. She wondered if he was having a hard day.

Hours later, after the news broke of a mass shooting at Fort Hood, after her frantic calls to Patrick's cellphone went unanswered, after the late-night call from Patrick's father telling her Patrick had suffered a gunshot wound to the head, Jessica replayed that last conversation over and over.

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Fort Hood Shooting

Danish people more aware of PTSD than we are

To deny an award for certain wounds is wrong. Tell me that TBI caused by a bomb in Iraq or Afghanistan is not the same as having metal pierce the skin or tell me having PTSD is not yet another wound caused by trauma during combat and I'll point to the countless articles on this blog alone proving that these two wounds deeper than skin do in fact matter.

There have been some in this country saying that Washington designed the Purple Heart for wounds, but the truth was he designed it to honor service. It was adopted later on for wounds received during combat at a time when PTSD was still not acknowledged and no one knew about TBI. We know better now but there are still some saying PTSD and TBI are just not worthy of getting the Purple Heart. Well, thank's to Lily over at Healing Combat Trauma, we know the Danes have been ahead of us on this and bravo for them!

October 27, 2010
Those Progressive Danes! Their Purple Heart Just Extended to Include PTSD


Those (ultimately) progressive Danes!

In a momentous development yet to be mentioned in the American or the English language-speaking press, we've learned that Denmark has expanded the criteria for their version of our Purple Heart medal -- given to those who have been wounded physically in combat operations -- to include those who suffer the less-visible wound of post-traumatic stress disorder.

(We wrote about the topic back in 2008, linked here, about whether it would be wise to extend the Purple Heart's criteria to include PTSD. That proposal generates controversy here, but the Danes have since moved past the controversy to actual recognition.)

From an official Danish government publication, issued date October 10, 2010, and translated here: "In 2010 Her Majesty The Queen approved that...veterans who are wounded physically in international operations can receive the Armed Forces Medal for Wounded in Service."

Importantly, the publication adds, "The Government recognizes the psychological harm on an equal footing with physical damage, and has therefore taken the initiative to add recognition of physical and mental injuries treated. The Defense medal "Wounded in Service" will from now on be attributed also to those mentally wounded."

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Those Progressive Danes

The Toll of Veteran Suicide: Those Unnecessary Deaths

The Toll of Veteran Suicide: Those Unnecessary Deaths
by
Lily Casura
The poet T.S. Eliot called April "the cruelest month," but you know, this time of year, heading into the holidays, isn't that great either -- especially for those who are suffering from post-traumatic stress, when numbers of those who take their own lives actually climb. The numbers are already bad enough; and 'tis the season, so to speak, when they actually get worse.

Currently, 18 veterans a day(!!!) kill themselves; and one active duty servicemember every 36 hours(!!!).

Those are TERRIBLE numbers, because each one represents a life that can never come back, and plunges a family and a community into an often never-ending ordeal.
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The Toll of Veteran Suicide: Those Unnecessary Deaths

If Lily's words do not hit you as hard as they should, maybe if you read some of their stories it will matter to you more than just seeing numbers. This video is a couple of years old but I found over a hundred of their stories.

Most Troops, Families OK With Gays

DoD Study: Most Troops, Families OK With Gays
October 29, 2010
Associated Press
WASHINGTON -- An internal Pentagon study has found that most U.S. troops and their families don't care whether gays are allowed to serve openly and think the policy of "don't ask, don't tell" could be done away with, according to officials familiar with its findings.

The survey results were expected to be used by gay rights advocates to bolster their argument that the 1993 law on gays could be repealed immediately with little harm done to the military. But the survey also was expected to reveal challenges the services could face in overturning the long-held policy, including overcoming fierce opposition in some parts of the military even if they represent a minority.

Details on the survey results were still scarce Thursday, with the Pentagon declining to discuss the findings until after Dec. 1 when it rolls out its own plan for repeal.

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Most Troops, Families OK With Gays

Air Force Academy Survey: Proselytizing Cited

Faith plays a big part in the lives of a lot of our servicemen and women but it is of their own freewill they decide how to worship, when to worship and in what manner they worship. Trying to get them to convert to one denomination over another is appalling when they should be trying to sooth their souls and ease their minds. This is one of the biggest reasons they do not trust military chaplains even if most of them do their jobs the right way. 

I believe in the power of prayer and I am a devoted Christian but that is where it ends when I am working with veterans or their families.  My job is to help their souls heal not to get new members into a church someone told me to. I believe military chaplains are very important and that the biggest issue is that there are not enough of them to go around but my blood boils when I read about what too many of them are doing.  They end up pushing them away from the very faith they are trying to force them into. No one is served by this.  Not the men and women serving, not the chaplains and not the military as a whole. God is not served either by pushing people away.

AF Academy Survey: Proselytizing Cited


October 29, 2010
Associated Press
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- An Air Force Academy survey found that 41 percent of cadets who identified themselves as non-Christian said they were subjected to unwanted proselytizing at least once or twice last year.

Overall, 19 percent of all cadets said they were subjected to unwanted proselytizing.

Participation by cadets in the official academy survey, conducted in December and January, was both voluntary and anonymous. Forty-seven percent, or 2,170, of the cadets participated in the poll.

Lt. Gen. Michael Gould, the academy superintendent, had resisted disclosing specifics of the survey but now plans to release some details on Friday after several groups, including The Associated Press, filed Freedom of Information Act requests.

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AF Academy Survey

Number of veterans in Congress likely to drop

They know how to get things done, how to work together but above that, they know what it is like to put their lives on the line and not put themselves always first. We need them in congress no matter what political side they are on because when it comes to veterans, they are always on America's side. Isn't that what really should matter in the long run? We cannot assume all veterans care about other veterans. Look at John McCain and his voting record. He votes against veterans most of the time but too many others, on both sides, deeply care about this country and those who serve more than political agenda.

Number of veterans in Congress likely to drop
By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Thursday Oct 28, 2010 18:55:01 EDT
The number of veterans serving in Congress is likely to drop as a result of Tuesday’s elections, according to the executive director of a nonpartisan group that teaches veterans how to run for political office.

Seth McCormick Lynn, executive director of the Veterans’ Campaign, said Thursday that the number of veterans in the Senate — now 26 — might increase as a result of the election. But in the House of Representatives, the number of veterans is certain to decline from the current 95.

Of the total, 61 are Democrats — including two delegates — and 60 are Republicans.

A drop in the number of veterans in Congress would be significant, Lynn said. “The lack of military experience in Congress has implications far beyond foreign policy and national defense,” he said.

“Veterans share a common bond that transcends party affiliation. Fewer veterans mean increasing polarization and partisanship.”
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Number of veterans in Congress likely to drop

Fort Hood soldier died in shooting spree in Iraq, kin say

GI died in shooting spree, kin say
By DENNIS YUSKO Staff Writer
Published: 02:38 p.m., Wednesday, October 27, 2010

By Wednesday. nearly 600 Facebook users had joined the site's page called "Justice for Dead Army Pfc. David R. Jones." A user named Chris Wheeler of Canajoharie wrote: "It's coming. The truth is (going) to come out. Victim of another soldier gone nuts."

ST. JOHNSVILLE -- The family of a Montgomery County soldier killed in Iraq said Wednesday that they have received information from Baghdad saying that he and others were murdered during a one-person shooting spree.

The Department of Defense confirmed Wednesday that Army Pfc. David Jones of St. Johnsville, Montgomery County, died Sunday from injuries sustained in a "non-combat incident" in Baghdad.

But Theresa Bennett, an aunt who helped raised Jones, received a copy of a text message from a soldier who worked with him in Iraq that stated Jones was one of five people killed or wounded Sunday in a shooting "rampage" on a U.S. military base in the Iraqi capital, Jones' cousin George Bennett said Wednesday.

The text came Tuesday afternoon to the family of Jones' girlfriend, Brittany Winton, George Bennett said. Brittany Winton declined comment on Wednesday, but a member of her family who asked not to be identified confirmed receiving the text and its contents.

"Someone went on a rampage and killed David," George Bennett said, though he said he didn't know who.

As of late Wednesday, the Pentagon's casualty notification website made no mention of additional soldiers dying in Iraq on Sunday.

Asked Wednesday about the message received by Jones' family, a spokesman at Fort Hood in Texas, where Jones was assigned, said, "the circumstances surrounding the incident are currently under investigation by the military."
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GI died in shooting spree, kin say
linked from ICasualties.org