Ministering to Soldiers, and Facing Their Struggles

ON RELIGION
Ministering to Soldiers, and Facing Their Struggles
By SAMUEL G. FREEDMAN
Published: July 1, 2011

Maj. David Bowlus, a chaplain, in Iraq. He now instructs chaplains at the military's school for them at Fort Jackson, S.C.

"During the Vietnam War, a chaplain typically deployed once, for six months. Of the approximately 1,650 active-duty chaplains now, more than one-third have had multiple deployments, according to statistics from the Army’s Office of the Chief of Chaplains. And the average deployment has lasted 13 months."

FORT JACKSON, S.C. — Growing up on a farm in Ohio, the son of an Army medic in World War II, David Bowlus often sneaked into the attic to try on his father’s uniform as if it were a destiny. At 16, on a family trip to West Point, he watched the cadets drill and knew what he wanted for the future.

After graduating from the academy, an armor officer trained for war, he entered a military doing the peacetime duties of the 1990s. The closest Mr. Bowlus got to combat before retiring from the Army in 1998 was a round of war games, fought with weapons that fired only laser beams.

But as this Independence Day nears, Mr. Bowlus, 40, has served more than his share of time under fire, having returned to active duty in 2002. He has made eight tours of duty, rising to the rank of major. He has done it, however, in his second Army incarnation, as a chaplain.

In those years, he has held syringes and gauze for a medic while praying the 23rd Psalm with a soldier shot during a raid in Mosul, Iraq. He has administered first aid and God’s word to the fighting men raked by rocket-propelled grenades when the Taliban ambushed their convoy. He has soothed grieving parents and overseen the loading of coffins for the long flight home.

All of it has imbued him with purpose, and all of it has tested his endurance, both psychologically and theologically. Major Bowlus is part of a cohort of military chaplains who have gone through the same kind of multiple deployments as American soldiers in nearly a decade of war in Afghanistan and Iraq, and suffered similar emotional aftershocks.
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Ministering to Soldiers, and Facing Their Struggles

Homeless Veteran Refuge Turned Into Private Golf Course

Golf is a game played by a different class of people, usually upper income folks. Homeless veterans are another class, usually thinking of other people more than themselves even when they don't have a place to live. There is something really wrong with this country!

PTSD: Racing shop offers special course to disabled vets

Racing shop offers special course to disabled vets

Jul 2, 2011 12:00am

MOORESVILLE, N.C. (AP) — At first glance, Emmett Thomas and Brian Fox look like ordinary 30-somethings.

But both have scars. They just aren't visible.

They suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, a by-product of their time in the military.

Thomas is an Army veteran who served in Iraq.

Fox did two yearlong tours of duty in Iraq before being honorably discharged last year.

Things weren't the same when they returned home.

Fox sleepwalks and has intense night sweats. Some days Thomas can't force himself to leave the house.

And both shy away from large groups of people.

But they feel at home inside SMP Motorsports' racing shop in Mooresville, where they attend motorsports classes.

Earlier this year, Rowan-Cabarrus Community College joined forces with SMP Motorsports to offer a certificate program in motorsports management technology.

The seven-course program is offered exclusively to disabled veterans. It is a spin-off of the nonprofit organization Manpower to Horsepower, which was founded by SMP President Sue Roberson to meet the transitional needs of post-combat veterans.

"Roberson wanted to expand her program to include hands-on training, and she contacted RCCC to see how we could work together," said Richmond Gage, head of the RCCC motorsports management technology program. "We are honored and proud to offer this program for veterans with disabilities."

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Racing shop offers special course to disabled vets

'Families of the Wounded' saving families -- and lives

'Families of the Wounded' saving families -- and lives

Sam Brock
Anchor/Reporter
12:37 a.m. EDT, July 2, 2011

MECHANICSVILLE, VA (WTVR) - 'Families of the Wounded' is an organization that has pulled together more than 260 families from across the country and helped hundreds of military veterans recover from injury.

However, the organization started, oddly enough, rather unceremoniously.

"I threw down $100 in the middle of the table and began the process of what is now a fund that has raised more than $2.5 million dollars," recalled Tom Winfree, the president and CEO of Village Bank and one of the co-founders of the 'Families of the Wounded' fund.

About six years ago, Winfree and fellow board member Cal Esleeck both chipped in $100.

Today, the fund has grown exponentially and provides meaningful assistance to military families rocked by the injuries- both physical and psychological- of their loved ones.

"They're a caring group of people, and even if they gave us no money I would be here saying the same things to you today," said Angie Pearce, whose husband Brian nearly died in 2006 from an improvised explosive device in Iraq.

"They came into that room, and they changed our family's life," said Pearce.
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Families of the Wounded saving families and lives
 

National Guard Colonel does not think PTSD is normal?

Col. John Coffin has just shown part of the problem with the stigma of PTSD living on.

"It is a term just thrown around that Vietnam veterans like me object to, although sadly enough it is one of the things that honors people. If you have PTSD people really feel for you as a Vietnam veteran. But however, if I declare myself having PTSD, I have just called myself less than a normal person," Coffin said.

"Less than normal" is what he said but it shows he does not understand what PTSD is. It is a very NORMAL response to the abnormal world of combat. What does he think trauma is? Trauma comes with traumatic events, in other words, not part of normal life. Simple to understand if you want to.

It looks like Coffin doesn't want to but he's in a role of deciding what happens to the men and women under his command. If he has this attitude, then what chance does a soldier with PTSD have if he can't understand what it is?

Vermont soldiers confront the challenges of PTSD

Colchester, Vermont - July 1, 2011

Megan Daleiden works in Human Resources for the Vermont Guard, but 5 years ago after she returned from a deployment in Iraq she found herself struggling to readjust.

"I was jobless, I was bored and I was suddenly finding myself as a housewife! Looking for jobs, as opposed to a team leader who was in charge of eight other soldiers," she said.

She said her spouse, a war vet himself, noticed a change in her personality after she got back.

"The problem is you are going through it. So you do not notice what you are doing to other people," Daleiden said. "One day my husband just sat down and said, 'Why are you so angry?' And I thought, 'I am not angry, at all!'"

Col. John Coffin says Daleiden's behavior is normal. He works with soldiers before deployment and after they return to evaluate their mental state.

Coffin explained, "We ask them three questions. Who are you, what did you do? What was your first thought or feeling when you got off the plane? Then the money question-- is there anything you want to say now as you leave your tour?"

He says soldiers need an opportunity to talk about the deaths of fellow soldiers and troubling memories. His team then evaluates them individually to see who needs extra help readjusting.

"When they get home to avail themselves of vocational and counseling services, so they can lift off into a new life, having been at the gates of hell," Coffin said.

And for some, that leaves a mark.
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Vermont soldiers confront the challenges of PTSD

Retired admiral and his wife lead Heritage Days parade for Wounded Warriors

Retired admiral and his wife lead Heritage Days parade for a cause

By Seth Koenig, Times Record Staff
Published:
Friday, July 1, 2011 2:08 PM EDT
BATH — Retired four-star Adm. Gregory “Grog” Johnson has been places few other people in the world have been allowed.

As a high-ranking Navy officer, he was in the loop — if not in the room — for sensitive Pentagon talks charting America’s course for conflicts in Iraq, Kosovo, Bosnia and Somalia.

But for Bath’s 39th annual Heritage Days festival, Johnson will be somewhere he’s never been before. Along with his wife, Joy, Johnson will serve as a grand marshal of the celebration’s Fourth of July parade Monday. In those roles, the couple will attempt to raise awareness about Wounded Warrior programs, which offer recreational and rehabilitative activities for military personnel who are disabled in combat.

“I’ve watched lots of parades, but I don’t know if I’ve ever been in one before,” he said. “I’ve certainly never been one of the marshals.”

While thousands of eyes on Monday will be on the Johnsons, who retired to Harpswell, it figures to be a low pressure environment compared to what the retired admiral is used to from his days in the service. He told The Times Record on Tuesday that the one thing he learned to expect was: You never know what to expect.
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Retired admiral and his wife lead Heritage Days parade for a cause

The other side of suicide by cop, deputy sheriff killed

When police are called because of a combat veteran in trouble, we are saddened by reading about one more veteran dying needlessly. Depending on where the veteran lives, they can be responded to by a very aware police force, or tragically not. Even when they are aware of what combat can do to people, sometimes cops don't have a choice. This is one of those times. A man said he wanted to die according to reports, with the police pulling the trigger. He got his wish but he ended the life of a deputy sheriff. While there is no link to Connors to the military there is one to Kyle Pagerly. We need to be aware of both sides of veterans facing off with police to not pass judgment on police as much as we should with the system that fails them.

The next time you read a story about another veteran killed by police on this blog, think about this story and acknowledge what the police have to go through as well as veterans.

Sheriff Shooting Suspect Left Suicide Note: Cops
Authorities say the man that shot and killed Kyle Pagerly wanted to die.
By Kelly Bayliss
Friday, Jul 1, 2011

The Berks County man that opened fire on 28-year-old deputy sheriff Kyle Pagerly resulting in the death of both men wanted to die, according to police.

Police say that Matthew Connors, 25, left a suicide note two days prior to the incident for his friends and family. Sources say that Connors wanted to die -- suicide by cop.

On Wednesday night around 8 p.m., authorities paid a visit to 43 Pine Swamp Road in Albany, Pa. to serve Connors with a warrant for burglary, criminal trespass and various other offenses.
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Sheriff Shooting Suspect Left Suicide Note

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Finding the truth for families of fallen warriors

Finding the truth for families of fallen warriors
A military forensic anthropologist seeks answers in her work with the remains of the American war dead. The news is often painful, but 'families deserve to know,' she says.

David Zucchino
July 2, 2011
Reporting from Rockville, Md.— Sometimes the remains of American war dead arrive at the military morgue intact, sealed inside a "human remains pouch" — a body bag.

Sometimes they arrive as "dissociated remains" — a leg, an arm or other body parts ripped loose by the force of a roadside bomb or suicide bomber or air crash.

And sometimes there are commingled remains of several victims of a blast or crash, including service members, civilian bystanders and, in some cases, a suicide bomber.

Air Force Lt. Col. Laura Regan literally lays hands on remains of the dead. For U.S. troops killed in action, she is among the last service members to touch them as she tries to provide families of the fallen with the full truth about their deaths.
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Finding the truth for families of fallen warriors

Canadian forces:End of combat not the end of battle

July 02, 2011, EDT.
End of combat not the end of battle for soldiers wounded in Afghanistan
Dene Moore, The Canadian Press

Bombardier Matt Coles, who was injured in Afghanistan, is seen through camouflage netting as he poses for a photograph at the 15th Field Regiment unit in Vancouver, B.C., on Tuesday April 5, 2011. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck"

VANCOUVER - Bombardier Matt Coles remembers thinking the bullets had missed him.

In the frenzied moments after he and his sergeant were sprayed by a volley of accidental fire as they prepared to go out on patrol in Kandahar city, Coles lay in the dust and thought maybe he hadn't been hit at all.

Then he remembers pulling his hands away from his leg to see it covered in blood. The bullet had hit him above his left knee, ricocheted off the bone, and ripped an exit through the other side of his leg. En route, it broke his femur and tore through a vein.

Beside Coles lay the sergeant, his legs and abdomen riddled with bullets, bleeding from his femoral arteries.

"Right away, you do think you're going to die — I mean, when someone gets shot in a movie they die, right? Everybody knows that," said Coles, a wise-cracking soldier from Chilliwack, B.C., whose life experiences belie his 20 years of life.

But the realization soon dawned that help was close at hand, since the two soldiers were still inside the confines of the Canadian base at Camp Nathan Smith, with medics and a field hospital close at hand.

"At first, you know — 'OK, all right, I'm not going to die, I'm just going to lose my leg,' and then you try and cope with that," Coles said. Had they not been on the base, the sergeant would likely not have survived, he added.

Coles and his sergeant — the two of them are still recovering from the "friendly fire" incident in February 2010 that nearly took their lives — were among the more than 1,800 Canadian soldiers wounded in Afghanistan as of the end of last year.

By the time the combat mission ends next month, that number will surely be higher.

Of those, 615 troops were wounded in action by improvised explosive devices, mines, rocket attacks and direct fire, as well as friendly fire related to combat action and "acute psychological trauma directly attributable to combat action that required medical intervention."

Another 1,244 suffered unspecified "non-battle injuries."

Not all wounds are easy to see.
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End of combat not the end of battle

Panetta sworn in as new defense secretary

Panetta sworn in as new defense secretary
By Robert Burns - The Associated Press
Posted : Friday Jul 1, 2011 9:51:38 EDT
WASHINGTON — On his first day as Pentagon chief, Leon Panetta said his top priorities are preserving U.S. military power despite budget cuts, defeating al-Qaida, stabilizing Afghanistan and forging a "real and lasting partnership" with Iraq.

Panetta huddled Friday with the Joint Chiefs of Staff shortly after taking the oath as the nation's 23rd secretary of defense, signaling that he intends to follow the example of his predecessor, Robert Gates, in building ties with the military brass. He said he would, like Gates, put a premium on advocating for the needs of troops and their families.

"Rest assured that ... I will fight for you," he said in a video message to U.S. troops worldwide.

He sounded the same theme at his swearing-in, which was closed to reporters. According to a Pentagon spokesman, Marine Col. David Lapan, Panetta said during the brief oath-taking ceremony in his new office, "There is no higher responsibility for a secretary of defense than to protect those who are protecting America."
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Panetta sworn in as new defense secretary