Specialist’s sacrifice spurs soldiers to reach out to Afghan villagers
By LAURA RAUCH
Stars and Stripes
Published: May 30, 2011
COMBAT OUTPOST NALGHAM, Afghanistan - Spc. Preston Dennis didn’t have to come back just yet. It had been less than a year since he had left Afghanistan, and the Army owed him more time with his wife before he had to return.
But his new unit, the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, was deploying to the Kandahar province. At just 23, he was a veteran and a team leader, and he couldn’t let his men go without him. He and his wife, Heather, signed the official paperwork allowing him to return three months early.
“It’s kind of hard. You want to be there for your family, but once you become a leader, you’re supposed to be there for your military family, too,” said Staff Sgt. Chuck Stevens, Dennis’ squad leader. “That’s what he chose to do.”
A month had passed since Company C arrived in the Nalgham region, just southwest of Kandahar city and about two miles from Sangsar, home of Taliban founder and spiritual leader Mullah Mohammed Omar. Patrols were going out daily, and most were taking small arms fire. Several improvised explosive devices had been uncovered, and a few had blown. More than 10 soldiers had been wounded.
Just before dusk on April 28, soldiers from the third platoon set out on a night patrol near the village of Sarkilla. As they made their way from a poppy field onto a road, an insurgent spotter was perched nearby, quietly waiting to kill them.
Dennis was at the end of the column and one of the last to leave the poppy field. When it was his turn to step into the road, the silent attacker tripped a device, which sent a current of electricity down a wire to a buried IED. The earth beneath Dennis ripped open in a violent explosion of debris and smoke.
read more here
Specialist’s sacrifice spurs soldiers to reach out to Afghan villagers
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Father wonders when suicides due to combat will matter
Even in suicide, soldiers' families deserve condolences from president
By Gregg Keesling, Special to CNN
May 30, 2011 2:18 p.m. EDT
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Gregg Keesling says his son, Chance, died by suicide when he was serving in Iraq in 2009
He says he learned later that the suicide would keep Obama from sending condolences
The White House is reviewing policy; what's taking so long, he asks? This sends wrong message
Keesling: Policy telegraphs that suicide is dishonorable
(CNN) -- Two years ago, my son, Army Spc. Chancellor Keesling, died by suicide in Iraq. He was 25 and on his second deployment.
Shortly after his death, my wife, Jannett, and I learned of a long-standing policy in which presidential letters of condolence are withheld from families of American service members who die by suicide.
We wrote to President Barack Obama on August 3, 2009, asking him to reverse this policy, and since then we have tried to keep up a steady drumbeat for change. There has been a fair amount of media attention, including from CNN, and recently U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer, co-chair of the Senate Military Family Caucus, and a bipartisan group of Senate colleagues sent a letter to the president on behalf of this issue, echoing a bipartisan request from House members.
We learned in late 2009 that the White House would be reviewing the policy, when then-White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told then-CNN reporter Elaine Quijano that the White House had inherited this policy and was reviewing it. Yet as of this writing, we and the hundreds of other families whose children have died by suicide while at war wait for a result.
read more here
Even in suicide
By Gregg Keesling, Special to CNN
May 30, 2011 2:18 p.m. EDT
Chancellor Keesling and his father, Gregg Keesling in April, 2009
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Gregg Keesling says his son, Chance, died by suicide when he was serving in Iraq in 2009
He says he learned later that the suicide would keep Obama from sending condolences
The White House is reviewing policy; what's taking so long, he asks? This sends wrong message
Keesling: Policy telegraphs that suicide is dishonorable
Editor's note: Gregg Keesling's son, Army Spc. Chancellor Keesling, died in Iraq in 2009. Keesling is president of Workforce, Inc. an electronic recycling company that help provide employment for those coming home from incarceration
(CNN) -- Two years ago, my son, Army Spc. Chancellor Keesling, died by suicide in Iraq. He was 25 and on his second deployment.
Shortly after his death, my wife, Jannett, and I learned of a long-standing policy in which presidential letters of condolence are withheld from families of American service members who die by suicide.
We wrote to President Barack Obama on August 3, 2009, asking him to reverse this policy, and since then we have tried to keep up a steady drumbeat for change. There has been a fair amount of media attention, including from CNN, and recently U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer, co-chair of the Senate Military Family Caucus, and a bipartisan group of Senate colleagues sent a letter to the president on behalf of this issue, echoing a bipartisan request from House members.
We learned in late 2009 that the White House would be reviewing the policy, when then-White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told then-CNN reporter Elaine Quijano that the White House had inherited this policy and was reviewing it. Yet as of this writing, we and the hundreds of other families whose children have died by suicide while at war wait for a result.
read more here
Even in suicide
Secondary PTSD over diagnosed?
Considering I met my husband way back in 1982, you may be shocked to hear I agree with this study. Why? It is not that I do not believe there is such a thing as "secondary PTSD" since I know what it is like to live with a veteran with PTSD, but it is more I believe the spouses have been able to avoid it by understanding what it is and their role in all of this.
Do wives end up with paying the price for their husbands' service? You bet they do. It isn't just the stress of deployments they are under or the constant worry of the strange car in the driveway, but it is more of a case of basically watching them die inside. The family of a PTSD veteran has to walk on eggshells, never knowing what will set off a situation. Even something as simple as walking up a husband in the middle of a nightmare can produce a black eye or bloody nose if it is not done right. There is constant stress until they begin to heal. By that time, most wives have figured out what works and what doesn't. Now, we can hang onto anger and hurt feelings and allow them to eat away whatever happiness we should have, or we can understand it enough to be able to forgive and find our own kind of normal to live a happier life together.
Keep in mind this does take two to do it. There are many spouses actually being abused, physically and emotionally. If they have no clue what's going on, it is like living in hell. The kids pay the price as well. Emotional roller coasters are not much fun at all for anyone even if there isn't any kind of abuse.
Living with PTSD can be depressing to the point where we don't eat, don't sleep and some will stop doing things they enjoyed. We go to work, hear other wives complain about stupid silly things and we wish we had their problems instead of facing what we will go home to. I remember those darks days well but maybe I'm one of the lucky ones since I knew all along what PTSD was and what it was doing to my husband.
Over the years I've met a lot of other wives with stories worse than what I had been through and many of them ended up having to bury their husband because of suicides no one wanted to talk about at the time. Support was no where to be found for them, so they had to do it on their own. When I say older wives had nothing, consider the Internet was not around until the 90's.
Today a spouse, female or male, has the ability to find a lot of support out there and a means to heal the family.
I went to see a psychologist even knowing what I knew because the stress caused me to actually feel angry. I'm the type of person slow to anger, and if I get angry, I blow then get over it. I was at a point where I couldn't let go of it. I saw a psychologist for several months fully aware of what PTSD was and talking to her because she understood helped me more than anything else could at the time. I strongly suggest that to avoid "secondary PTSD" a spouse needs to find a support group with people knowing what life is like for her/him.
If this turns out to be a story with a twist and it is under-diagnosed as later suggested in this article, then the need to have support for the spouse can no longer be dismissed.
When none of us get the support and help we need to heal from combat, it all goes beyond our front door and will carry on for generations.
Do wives end up with paying the price for their husbands' service? You bet they do. It isn't just the stress of deployments they are under or the constant worry of the strange car in the driveway, but it is more of a case of basically watching them die inside. The family of a PTSD veteran has to walk on eggshells, never knowing what will set off a situation. Even something as simple as walking up a husband in the middle of a nightmare can produce a black eye or bloody nose if it is not done right. There is constant stress until they begin to heal. By that time, most wives have figured out what works and what doesn't. Now, we can hang onto anger and hurt feelings and allow them to eat away whatever happiness we should have, or we can understand it enough to be able to forgive and find our own kind of normal to live a happier life together.
Keep in mind this does take two to do it. There are many spouses actually being abused, physically and emotionally. If they have no clue what's going on, it is like living in hell. The kids pay the price as well. Emotional roller coasters are not much fun at all for anyone even if there isn't any kind of abuse.
Living with PTSD can be depressing to the point where we don't eat, don't sleep and some will stop doing things they enjoyed. We go to work, hear other wives complain about stupid silly things and we wish we had their problems instead of facing what we will go home to. I remember those darks days well but maybe I'm one of the lucky ones since I knew all along what PTSD was and what it was doing to my husband.
Over the years I've met a lot of other wives with stories worse than what I had been through and many of them ended up having to bury their husband because of suicides no one wanted to talk about at the time. Support was no where to be found for them, so they had to do it on their own. When I say older wives had nothing, consider the Internet was not around until the 90's.
Today a spouse, female or male, has the ability to find a lot of support out there and a means to heal the family.
I went to see a psychologist even knowing what I knew because the stress caused me to actually feel angry. I'm the type of person slow to anger, and if I get angry, I blow then get over it. I was at a point where I couldn't let go of it. I saw a psychologist for several months fully aware of what PTSD was and talking to her because she understood helped me more than anything else could at the time. I strongly suggest that to avoid "secondary PTSD" a spouse needs to find a support group with people knowing what life is like for her/him.
If this turns out to be a story with a twist and it is under-diagnosed as later suggested in this article, then the need to have support for the spouse can no longer be dismissed.
When none of us get the support and help we need to heal from combat, it all goes beyond our front door and will carry on for generations.
Study: Secondary PTSD Overdiagnosed
May 31, 2011
Military.com|by Amy Bushatz
More than half of military spouses who think they are suffering from secondary PTSD symptoms may have been misdiagnosed, a new study finds.
"A lot of times, people see a spouse that's distressed and say it's secondary PTSD," said Keith Renshaw, a psychology professor at George Mason University who authored the study. "There's kind of an over-assumption that this is prevalent, and that anything and everything that comes up for a spouse is due to that."
Secondary post-traumatic stress disorder has become a common catch-all label in the military community for the intense stress many spouses feel while living with a veteran suffering from PTSD. Unlike caretaker stress or stress from traumatic events in their own lives, secondary PTSD has sudden, specific characteristics including vivid dreams about the servicemember's traumatic event or avoiding reminders of that event, Renshaw said.
The study, due for release this fall, found that up to 41 percent of the 190 spouses it surveyed had symptoms similar to those linked with secondary PTSD. But when questioned further, only about 15 percent of respondents pointed to their husbands' military experience as the sole cause for their stress -- a key trait of secondary PTSD.
The popularity of the term "secondary PTSD" may have been caused by the desire among spouses to give a name to the feelings they are experiencing, Renshaw said. But without mental health expertise to sort through their issues, spouses can easily misidentify their symptoms -- a mistake that may lead to improper treatment, he said.
read more here
Secondary PTSD Overdiagnosed
VA secretary learns what 'rural' means for Alaska veterans
VA secretary learns what 'rural' means for Alaska veterans
The nation's top official for veterans affairs told reporters in Anchorage on Memorial Day that his agency can and must do a better job of reaching military veterans.
BY LISA DEMER
LDEMER@ADN.COM
The nation's top official for veterans affairs told reporters in Anchorage on Memorial Day that his agency can and must do a better job of reaching military veterans.
Eric Shinseki, secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs, is in Alaska for several days at the invitation of U.S. Sen. Mark Begich. He spoke to a crowd of hundreds Monday at Fort Richardson National Cemetery.
During his time here, he's meeting with veterans in Anchorage. And he's traveling with Begich, a Democrat from Anchorage who is on both the Armed Services and Veterans Affairs committees, to Bethel and the village of Kwigillingok.
Shinseki noted that Alaska has the highest concentration of veterans in the country, with 17 percent of the state population identified as such. Some 77,000 veterans live in Alaska.
Shinseki is a retired Army general who served as Army chief of staff from 1999 to June 2003. He clashed with then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld during the planning of the war in Iraq over how many troops were needed, calling for several hundred thousand soldiers during postwar occupation, many more than Rumsfeld wanted. Some military leaders have said since then that Shinseki was right.
read more here
VA secretary learns what 'rural' means
The nation's top official for veterans affairs told reporters in Anchorage on Memorial Day that his agency can and must do a better job of reaching military veterans.
BY LISA DEMER
LDEMER@ADN.COM
ERIK HILL / Anchorage Daily News
Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki pauses for a chat with Fred "Bulldog" Becker IV of the Vietnam Veterans Motorcycle Club after a Memorial Day ceremony May 30, 2011, at the Veterans Memorial on the Delaney Park Strip. Shinseki attended the downtown event and delivered the keynote address at the Fort Richardson National Cemetery observance. He was also scheduled to fly to Bethel and Kwigillingok on his Alaska trip hosted by Sen. Mark Begich.
The nation's top official for veterans affairs told reporters in Anchorage on Memorial Day that his agency can and must do a better job of reaching military veterans.
Eric Shinseki, secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs, is in Alaska for several days at the invitation of U.S. Sen. Mark Begich. He spoke to a crowd of hundreds Monday at Fort Richardson National Cemetery.
During his time here, he's meeting with veterans in Anchorage. And he's traveling with Begich, a Democrat from Anchorage who is on both the Armed Services and Veterans Affairs committees, to Bethel and the village of Kwigillingok.
Shinseki noted that Alaska has the highest concentration of veterans in the country, with 17 percent of the state population identified as such. Some 77,000 veterans live in Alaska.
Shinseki is a retired Army general who served as Army chief of staff from 1999 to June 2003. He clashed with then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld during the planning of the war in Iraq over how many troops were needed, calling for several hundred thousand soldiers during postwar occupation, many more than Rumsfeld wanted. Some military leaders have said since then that Shinseki was right.
read more here
VA secretary learns what 'rural' means
Retired, stop loss, fugitive soldier?
How do you make sense out of something like this? How can this be right?
U.S. army fugitive illegally forced to return to Iraq: Report
By Amy Minsky, Postmedia News
An American soldier, now living in Toronto, was ordered to report to Fort Hood, Texas and then back for more duty in Iraq, even though he had been discharged.
Photograph by: Joe Raedle, Getty Images
A U.S. war resister who is facing deportation from Canada was illegally forced to do a second tour in Iraq, a U.S. magazine reports.
Phil McDowell has been on the lam since 2006, after being ordered to return to the U.S. army less than two months after retiring — and according to GQ Magazine, only a week after being formally discharged.
McDowell served one year in Iraq and finished his tour, even though his feelings about the war had changed and he no longer supported it.
He voluntarily joined the U.S. army one month after the attack on the World Trade Center in 2001, was sent to Iraq in 2004 and returned to the U.S. in 2005 to serve the remaining year left on his contract before being discharged.
Shortly afterward, he was served a "stop loss," a program adopted in 2002 which extended any active soldier's contract without consent, and which the U.S. government began phasing out in January 2010.
Read more: U.S. army fugitive illegally forced to return
USC Professors Testing New Ways To Treat PTSD
USC Professors Testing New Ways To Treat PTSD
Written by
Nate Stewart
FILED UNDER
News
Columbia, SC (WLTX) - Memorial Day is when Americans take time to honor those who have died serving in our country's military. For thousands who survive the front lines, they often come home to face another battle: post traumatic stress disorder.
In a lab at the VA hospital, Dr. Shawn Youngstedt is demonstrating the newest treatment for veterans with post traumatic stress disorder called a light box, often associated with the treatment of depression.
"The instructions are to be doing something else while receiving the light exposure," said Dr. Youngstedt.
Patients in the study will sit in front of the white light for thirty minutes right after they wake up. So far, Youngstedt says he's seen it decrease anxiety, depression, and even improvements in memory.
read more here
USC Professors Testing New Ways To Treat PTSD
Written by
Nate Stewart
FILED UNDER
News
Columbia, SC (WLTX) - Memorial Day is when Americans take time to honor those who have died serving in our country's military. For thousands who survive the front lines, they often come home to face another battle: post traumatic stress disorder.
In a lab at the VA hospital, Dr. Shawn Youngstedt is demonstrating the newest treatment for veterans with post traumatic stress disorder called a light box, often associated with the treatment of depression.
"The instructions are to be doing something else while receiving the light exposure," said Dr. Youngstedt.
Patients in the study will sit in front of the white light for thirty minutes right after they wake up. So far, Youngstedt says he's seen it decrease anxiety, depression, and even improvements in memory.
read more here
USC Professors Testing New Ways To Treat PTSD
Soldiers Angel
I was sent a link to Stevie Nicks Soldier's Angel. I finally had a chance to listen to it.
I am a soldier's angelThrough the eyes of a soldierThrough the eyes of a soldierI am a soldier's motherThrough the eyes of an angelI am a soldier myselfAnd no one walks awayFrom this battleI'm a soldier myselfIn the presence of angelsI am a soldier's widowIn the background at nightI am a ghostly shadowAs I follow close behind themI try to push them gentlyBack into the lightI am a soldier's angel four years laterIn a war of words between worldsAbout what is wrong, 'bout what is righteousI am a soldier's girlI am a soldier's memoryAs I write down these wordsI try to write their storiesAnd explain them to the worldI float through the halls of the hospitalsI am a soldier's nurseI keep the tears insideAnd put them down in verseI'm a soldier's angel four years laterIn a war of words between worldsAbout what is wrong and about what is righteousI am a soldier's girlI am a soldier's girlfriendAs I look upon their facesThey make me remember my first loveAnd going out to dancesThey make me remember CamelotAnd being young and taking chancesThey make me fall in love againThey give me all the answersI'm a soldier's angel four years laterIn a war of words between worldsAbout what is wrong, 'bout what is righteousI am a soldier's girlI'm a soldier in their armyThey are the soldiers of my heartI try to make them smile againThough it tears me apartTheir bravery leaves me spellboundI try to be a small partBringing them back againThey are the soldiers of my heartI'm a soldier's angel four years laterIn a war of words between worldsAbout what is wrong, 'bout what is righteousI am a soldier's girlI'm a soldier's angelThrough the eyes of a soldierThrough the eyes of a soldierI'm a soldier's motherThrough the eyes of an angelI'm a soldier myselfNo one walks awayFrom this battle
Monday, May 30, 2011
When A Soldier Brings War Back Home
When A Soldier Brings War Back Home
Filed by KOSU News in US News.
May 30, 2011
This Memorial Day, we remember our fallen soldiers. Many have died in combat, but increasingly, for off-duty members of the National Guard and Army Reserves, soldiers are dying by their own hands. Nationally, the number of those who’ve committed suicide has nearly doubled from 80 in 2009 to 145 last year.
On the track team of Philadelphia’s Thomas Edison High School, Jadira Angulo was fast. But not as fast as Ivan Lopez, her teammate.
“I was always right behind him; [I'd] never catch up,” Angulo says. “One day I was weightlifting, and I just started looking at him and this attraction just came over me.”
Angulo flips through a scrapbook that records the couple’s romance: prom, graduation, marriage and the birth of their first child, Maya.
In December 2007, Lopez deployed to Afghanistan. Sgt. Jose Matos says even there, his best friend kept running.
“We’re running on this asphalt, and it’s probably like 102 or 103 degrees. So he would finish his run, come get the other soldiers and bring ‘em back in. He’d be like, ‘Come on stay with me! You can do it! You can do it!’ That’s the type of soldier he was,” he says.
Depression Sets In
After Lopez returned home in November 2008, he found a job at Amtrak. He drank more and was quick to lose his temper.
read more here
When A Soldier Brings War Back Home
Filed by KOSU News in US News.
May 30, 2011
This Memorial Day, we remember our fallen soldiers. Many have died in combat, but increasingly, for off-duty members of the National Guard and Army Reserves, soldiers are dying by their own hands. Nationally, the number of those who’ve committed suicide has nearly doubled from 80 in 2009 to 145 last year.
On the track team of Philadelphia’s Thomas Edison High School, Jadira Angulo was fast. But not as fast as Ivan Lopez, her teammate.
“I was always right behind him; [I'd] never catch up,” Angulo says. “One day I was weightlifting, and I just started looking at him and this attraction just came over me.”
Angulo flips through a scrapbook that records the couple’s romance: prom, graduation, marriage and the birth of their first child, Maya.
In December 2007, Lopez deployed to Afghanistan. Sgt. Jose Matos says even there, his best friend kept running.
“We’re running on this asphalt, and it’s probably like 102 or 103 degrees. So he would finish his run, come get the other soldiers and bring ‘em back in. He’d be like, ‘Come on stay with me! You can do it! You can do it!’ That’s the type of soldier he was,” he says.
Depression Sets In
After Lopez returned home in November 2008, he found a job at Amtrak. He drank more and was quick to lose his temper.
read more here
When A Soldier Brings War Back Home
Women Fighting and Dying in War, Despite Combat Exclusion Policy
Women Fighting and Dying in War, Despite Combat Exclusion Policy
By KRISTINA WONG
May 30, 2011
By this Memorial Day, nearly 150 U.S. female troops have made the ultimate sacrifice in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, with over 700 wounded. Although Department of Defense policy precludes women from being assigned to ground combat-infantry units, women have for years served in combat situations where they're just as vulnerable.
Marine Lance Corp. Angelica Jimenez, 26, was one of them.
On June 25, 2005, Jimenez was riding in the back of a truck carrying 14 female Marines near the Iraqi hotbed of Fallujah. The all-female unit was tasked with searching and questioning Iraqi women at security checkpoints, ensuring they were not armed with explosives. Since females were not allowed to sleep at the checkpoints as their male counterparts were, every day the women would be driven to and from an American base, making them a visible target each time they hit the road. It was only a matter of time before their luck would run out, and that night, it did.
read more here
Women Fighting and Dying in War
By KRISTINA WONG
May 30, 2011
By this Memorial Day, nearly 150 U.S. female troops have made the ultimate sacrifice in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, with over 700 wounded. Although Department of Defense policy precludes women from being assigned to ground combat-infantry units, women have for years served in combat situations where they're just as vulnerable.
Marine Lance Corp. Angelica Jimenez, 26, was one of them.
On June 25, 2005, Jimenez was riding in the back of a truck carrying 14 female Marines near the Iraqi hotbed of Fallujah. The all-female unit was tasked with searching and questioning Iraqi women at security checkpoints, ensuring they were not armed with explosives. Since females were not allowed to sleep at the checkpoints as their male counterparts were, every day the women would be driven to and from an American base, making them a visible target each time they hit the road. It was only a matter of time before their luck would run out, and that night, it did.
read more here
Women Fighting and Dying in War
Jacksonville soldier killed in Afghanistan
Jacksonville soldier killed in Afghanistan
JACKSONVILLE, NC (WWAY) -- A soldier from Jacksonville is among the latest American casualties of war.
The Department of Defense says says SSGT Ergin V. Osman died Thursday in Afghanistan. The DOD says the 35-year-old was one of six soldiers killed when insurgents attacked his unit with an improvised explosive device in Kandahar Province.
The soldiers were part of the 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, KY.
Jacksonville soldier killed in Afghanistan
JACKSONVILLE, NC (WWAY) -- A soldier from Jacksonville is among the latest American casualties of war.
The Department of Defense says says SSGT Ergin V. Osman died Thursday in Afghanistan. The DOD says the 35-year-old was one of six soldiers killed when insurgents attacked his unit with an improvised explosive device in Kandahar Province.
The soldiers were part of the 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, KY.
Jacksonville soldier killed in Afghanistan
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