Reporter does hardest job, writes about suicide of Marine friend

Reflecting on the suicide of a Marine friend made in Afghanistan
JULY 14TH, 2011

DAN LAMOTHE

This is one of the hardest pieces of journalism that I’ve written in a long time.

As it appears online, the family members of a friend of mine — Sgt. Ian McConnell, 24 — are traveling today from Camp Pendleton, Calif., to his hometown in Woodbury, Minn. They’re preparing for his funeral at Fort Snelling National Cemetery, a U.S. cemetery in nearby Minneapolis.

It’s common that when a person dies with most of his or her life seemingly ahead of them, friends and family create online memorials. Ian is no different. His sister, Meg, posted one on Facebook over the weekend, and it has overflowed with stories of his compassion, selflessness and sense of humor as a human being and his honor, courage and commitment as a Marine.

A key detail hasn’t been shared publicly, though.

Ian killed himself.

With a self-inflicted gunshot wound, he ended his life on the 4th of July, shocking those who know him as an upbeat, kind young man who went out of his way to regularly pick up the spirits of those around him. He left no note explaining why, his family said.
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Reflecting on the suicide of a Marine

Five hour standoff with veteran ends with suicide

Ex-Military Man Dies After Five-Hour Standoff With Law Enforcement

Brian Hartsock, 21, held off law enforcement in a five-hour standoff that ended when he killed himself with a shotgun.

By Annie Lane

A young ex-military man who held officers at bay as he repeatedly fired a shotgun into the air at his home in North County killed himself with the weapon after a five hour standoff with law enforcement, authorities said.

Brian Hartsock, 21, barricaded himself in the house in the 700 block of Stanley Avenue in an unincorporated area just outside Escondido city limits shortly before 7:30 p.m. Monday, according to sheriff's officials.

When deputies arrived at the residence, they heard Hartsock talking on the telephone in a seemingly hostile tone of voice, then saw him walk onto a rear patio, carrying what appeared to be a shotgun, Sgt. Mark Haynesworth said.
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Ex Military Man Dies After Five-Hour Standoff

New Guide Helps Communities Aid Homeless Women Vets

New Guide Helps Communities Aid Homeless Women Vets

By Cheryl Pellerin
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, July 20, 2011 – The Women’s Bureau of the Department of Labor has released an online publication that will help community service providers aid homeless women veterans, Labor Secretary Hilda L. Solis said today.

Solis addressed an audience of several hundred at the Women in Military Service for America Memorial Theater on the grounds of Arlington National Cemetery.

“Where we’re falling short in meeting the challenge of service women is when they come home,” Solis said.

“Too many women who once wore our uniform now go to sleep in our streets,” she added. “It breaks my heart to see that because many of them are sick [and] in need of help, and many are hungry. And it isn’t just them -- some of them have children.”

The publication, called Trauma-Informed Care for Women Veterans Experiencing Homelessness: A Guide for Service Providers, also known as the Trauma Guide, is the result of nationwide listening sessions with women veterans and service providers about the challenges of homelessness.

Women now make up 20 percent of new recruits, 14 percent of the military and 18 percent of the National Guard and Reserve.

Women represent only 8 percent of veterans, according to the guide, but they are at a four-times-greater risk of homelessness than their nonveteran male counterparts.
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New Guide Helps Communities Aid Homeless Women Vets

Iowa National Guards Soldier get briefings on PTSD coming home

Iowans At War: Soldiers Turn In Their Guns and Gear

Sonya Heitshusen
Reporter
9:29 p.m. CDT, July 20, 2011



A chartered plane lands in the stormy night at Volk Airfield in Wisconsin. It's carrying about 200 Soldiers from the Iowa National Guard's 113th Cavalry. The 16 hour flight is just the beginning of their journey back to their families.

After a personal greeting from some of the Guard's top brass, the Soldiers line up for buses, waiting to take them to their next stop, a garage. Here, they will part with one of their closest companions.

In addition to the physical screenings, all Soldiers receive a mental health evaluation. They must also attend briefings on how to identify Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

"If you get home and you're having feelings of helplessness, hopelessness or worthlessness and you don't know where to go, you can always go to your local emergency room," says a Chaplain leading a debrief.

Lt. Col. Sutton notes the difference between PTSD and Post Traumatic Stress. She says every Soldier experiences stress. PTSD is diagnosed when a Soldier experience behavioral disorders like nightmares and hyper-vigilance for more than two months.

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Soldiers Turn In Their Guns and Gear

Marine Dakota Meyer to receive Medal of Honor

Obama to present Medal of Honor to Marine for valorous actions in Afghanistan

By Associated Press, Published: July 20

WASHINGTON — Pentagon officials say President Barack Obama will present the Medal of Honor to a Marine who braved enemy fire in Afghanistan in a bid to find and retrieve three missing Marines and a Navy corpsman.

Dakota Meyer, who left active duty in June 2010, will be the first living Marine in 41 years to receive the nation’s highest award for valor.
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Obama to present Medal of Honor to Marine

Remains of Korean War MIA identified after 60 years

Laflin soldier's remains identified 60 years after disappearance

BY BOB KALINOWSKI, STAFF WRITER
Published: July 20, 2011

More than 60 years after he was reported missing following a Korean War battle, the remains of an Army soldier from Laflin have been identified and will be buried at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va., the military announced today.

The remains of Army Pfc. Peter Kubic, who went missing in South Korea at age 22, will be laid to rest in the revered cemetery Thursday, the Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office announced.

On Feb. 12, 1951, Kubic was assigned to the 2nd Infantry Division in South Korea, when his division came under attack near Hoengsong. Following the battle, Kubic was reported missing in action, authorities said.

In the early 1990s, North Korean forces gave the United States 208 boxes of remains believed to contain the remains of up to 400 U.S. servicemen, the Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office said.

Scientists from the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory used mitochondrial DNA to match Kubic's remains with his sister, authorities said. Kubic’s military identification tags were included with the boxes of remains handed over to the Untied States, officials said.



Read more:
Laflin soldier remains identified

Pennsylvania National Guard:3 killed, 5 wounded in Afghanistan

Three Pennsylvania National Guard Soldiers Killed in Action
HARRISBURG, Pa., July 20, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Three Pennsylvania National Guard soldiers were killed and five wounded Monday when an improvised explosive device detonated on their convoy outside of Bagram, Afghanistan.

Sgt. Edward Koehler, 47, of Lebanon, Sgt. Brian Mowery, 49, of Halifax, and Staff Sgt. Kenneth VanGiesen, 30, of Kane, were transporting supplies and equipment when they were killed in the same vehicle.

None of the five wounded soldiers sustained life-threatening injuries.

The soldiers were serving with the Pennsylvania Army National Guard's, 131st Transportation Company, 213th Area Support Group, based in Williamstown and Philadelphia. The company is primarily in charge of convoys and convoy security.

"Our thoughts and prayers go out to the families of these brave young men who have made the ultimate sacrifice on behalf of this country," said Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett. "This tragic incident is a stark reminder of the dangers our troops face on a daily basis for the cause of freedom. We owe them our respect, our support and our gratitude."
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Three Pennsylvania National Guard Soldiers Killed

Disabled Army vet wins free wedding

Army vet wins free wedding at Musket Ridge Gulf Club

Wednesday - 7/20/2011, 2:29pm ET
FREDERICK COUNTY, Va. -- U.S. Army veteran Eddie Casenover expected to wed his fiancee, Christine Briggs, in a simple civil ceremony. But thanks to a Maryland contest, they will instead get a free wedding at one of the state's top ten golf courses.

Musket Ridge Gulf Club created the Love and Liberty Wedding Giveaway to recognize the bravery of military personnel and first responders on Sept. 11, a date that coincides with the club's 10th anniversary.
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Army vet wins free wedding

Abnormal biopsies showing up in Iraq-Afghan veterans with unexplained breathing problems

Breathing Problems Strike Soldiers Returning From Iraq
Exposure to some unknown toxin in the air could be the cause, experts say
Posted: July 20, 2011

By Steven Reinberg
HealthDay Reporter

All the biopsies were abnormal, and the researchers diagnosed 38 soldiers with constrictive bronchiolitis. Constrictive bronchiolitis is a rare non-reversible lung disease in which the small airways in the lungs are compressed and narrowed by scar tissue or inflammation.

WEDNESDAY, July 20 (HealthDay News) -- Some U.S. soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan are suffering unexplained breathing problems that may be related to exposure to unknown toxins, a new study indicates.

"Respiratory disorders are emerging as a major consequence of service in southwest Asia," said study author Dr. Matthew S. King, an assistant professor of pulmonary and critical care at Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tenn.

"In addition to our study, there have been studies showing increases in asthma, obstructive lung disease, allergic rhinitis and a general increase in reports of respiratory symptoms," he added.

The report was published in the July 21 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
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Breathing Problems Strike Soldiers Returning From Iraq

Colorado Springs Soldier Dies In Non-Combat Incident

Colorado Springs Soldier Dies In Non-Combat Incident
Sgt. Mark A. Cofield, 25, of Colorado Springs, Colo., died July 17 in Baghdad, Iraq, of injuries sustained from a non-combat related incident.
Posted: 10:35 PM Jul 19, 2011
Reporter: Alyssa Chin
Email Address: achin@kktv.com

The Department of Defense has confirmed the death of a local soldier who was supporting Operation New Dawn.

Unanswered questions linger for a family who lost their soldier in Iraq. Sergeant Mark Cofield died July 17, 2011 from non-combat related injuries in Baghdad.


According to his family, this was a man who was promoted to Sergeant just 18 months after basic training. Coming from a military background, Sgt. Cofield’s father was in the Air Force for many years and recently re-enlisted into the military, this time into the Army. His brother is also a soldier who served two tours overseas. With almost her entire family a part of the military, his sister Sara Cofield had trouble believing the news of her brother’s death.

"Never thought it'd be (us), (we) always thought (we) were the lucky ones to have all three of them come back. So that was hard," Sara said.

Friends and family are left wondering what happened overseas to Sgt. Cofield, a man they watched grow up.
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Colorado Springs Soldier Dies In Non-Combat Incident

Losing Soldiers to Suicide

Losing Soldiers to Suicide

(ABC 6 NEWS) -- In just the last two years, there have been more men and women in uniform who have died on American soil than overseas; soldiers who have died by suicide.

And one local family says their story is a reflection of how there is much more that needs to be done.

"When a person enlist, that's when they become a hero, because they have pledged to honor their country in whatever way the military sees fit," said Connie Scott, who lost her son to suicide.

Her hero is her 20-year-old son Brian Williams, a Private First Class in the Army.

"He was always volunteering, he never complained, he was the first one to show up and the last one to go home and he was proud of what he did," said Scott.


But in 2007, while on leave from Iraq, Brian took his own life.

He is among thousands of men and women fighting on a lesser known battlefield. According to the Armed Services, in 2009 there were more deaths by suicide, 334, than in combat, 297. Just last year in 2010, there were 434 more suicide deaths.

"The tragedy of that for the family is unspeakable, and for the nation, it's unconscionable for us to allow that," said Congressman Tim Walz, who serves on Veterans Affairs Committee.

"Regardless of the cause of death, it's the service that we recognize, the service that we honor," said Gail Springborge, Survivors of Suicide (SOS) Program.

According to Veterans Administration, Post Traumatic Stress disorder is an illness many face when they return from war. "It's a condition that affects your judgement, there's not shame in having that anymore than there is shame in having diabetes, or cancer," said Scott.

"They're not signs of weakness, they're not poor character, these are honorable men and women who have worked hard and have been proud of their country," she added.

Removing an overdue stigma, that those who die by suicide do not deserve the same honor as those who die on in war zones.
read more here
Losing Soldiers to Suicide

There was a report "PTSD linked to immune system in veterans" which is true but the article also pointed out this,

Patients with PTSD are six times more at risk of committing suicide and the annual loss of productivity in the United States is estimated to be approximately $3 billion."

When most people read about the excuses coming out of the DOD and the VA on why veterans commit suicide it usually has more to do with PTSD than anything else. While having a supportive family does help, in the end if they do not understand PTSD, it just doesn't do enough good. Instead of understanding the true value of involving families, the DOD comes out with something like this.

The Sensitive Soldier
The new training program offers soldiers a tool kit of psychological techniques based on years of research. They can be just as useful in facing the fear of battlefield combat as in living room flare-ups. Senior military officers say the chief stressor in our current wars—when spouses and parents can call their warriors on cellphones at any time, day or night—are the fights that lead to family breakdown. But at a much deeper level is the emotional fallout from the nonstop cycling of soldiers through several deployments.

This is the same tired old approach they've been using all along.

Brigadier General Rhonda Cornum, "new director of Comprehensive Soldier Fitness. In 1991, as a flight surgeon during the first Gulf War, she was taken prisoner when her helicopter was shot down in Iraq. After three days of beatings and humiliations, this mother of a then-14-year-old daughter was released from Iraqi prisons. Her resilience and heroism as a prisoner of war convinced many in the Pentagon that women could indeed serve on the frontlines. And unlike former POWs, Cornum stayed in the military."

Maybe they figure whatever is inside of her worked then it can work for everyone but it is more likely they don't understand what "it" is.

Unless the DOD and the VA finally understand what PTSD is, why it attacks some but not others, they will never be able to get ahead of the suicides and suffering.

Inside look: Deadly threat for returning Valley soldiers
By: Steve Kuzj
PHOENIX - There’s an enemy killing off Valley soldiers, and it’s not the Taliban or terrorists -- it’s stress.

Hundreds of thousands of servicemen and women are being affected.

After years in the military, Jeremiah Pulaski, a 24-year-old soldier in the Army came back home from the war in Afghanistan. He may have left the fighting, but the fighting never left him.

Doctors and his family believe Pulaski suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, although he was never officially diagnosed with the condition.

Pulaski shared his depressed feelings on Facebook, writing: “Today has been very depressing.” In another he wrote, "I have to figure out how to undo 5 years of military training, so I can feel a soul again."

The overwhelming emotion and pain came to an end on a cold March night in Glendale. Pulaski got into a shootout with police and was killed.

Doctors say the incredible mental stresses from his time in combat may have pushed Pulaski to snap, leading to his death.

"The stress of being overseas, being in a warzone, and knowing that any day you could be killed, really has an impact on you," Phoenix veteran Brittany Hodge said.

PTSD causes extreme anxiety, depression, and anger, among other symptoms. The condition is an enemy that kills hundreds of military servicemen and women through suicide and other means every year.

"There was a fire that killed two little kids,” Hodge remembered. “I was a first responder, I was the first there. Dealing with watching these kids die, it was pretty intense."
read more here
Deadly threat for returning Valley soldiers

This report says that "one out of five" soldiers develop PTSD but yesterday I posted another report that was closer to reality.

The numbers go up and will keep going up because it is not addressed as soon as the event is over. I trained in Crisis Intervention. One of the most important things in this training came in the form of knowing how to do a debriefing. Time matters. If a soldier is debriefed soon after the events like the above, they are able to take a closer look, step by step at everything that happened instead of allowing only the outcome to be frozen in their minds.

Even after some time has passed, when PTSD is mild, they can be taken back to everything that happened before the end of what has changed them and find peace with it. Most of the changes within them can be reversed.

The National Guards soldier I write about often experienced blaming himself for the deaths of a family and it ate away at him. The outcome was all he could remember. It haunted him. He started to believe he was evil, unworthy of being loved or even feeling it, so he pushed people away. We talked about what happened and he was able to remember all the details of that horrible day. He remembered how hard he tried to prevent it from happening. He made peace with the outcome and himself.

If they are serious about "preventing" PTSD then they better be able to deploy Crisis Intervention teams with the troops or they will never be able to do it. If they really want to heal these veterans before PTSD is so engrained within them, then they better get serious about true therapy that has been working for other humans. Treat them as if they still human and maybe, just maybe, they'll be able to really do something to help them.

Army to move hundreds of wounded troops as Walter Reed closes

Army to move hundreds of wounded troops as Walter Reed closes
By CHRIS CARROLL
Stars and Stripes
Published: July 19, 2011

WASHINGTON — Hundreds of wounded and sick servicemembers will be on the move in August as Walter Reed Army Medical Center enters its final weeks in existence.

About 445 troops currently are recuperating at the 102-year-old facility in Washington, D.C., which is slated for closure next month. Two-thirds of patients will be transferred in August to the new Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., opening on the current grounds of Bethesda National Naval Hospital.

The remaining one-third will go to the soon-to-open Fort Belvoir Community Hospital, which is replacing the nearby DeWitt Army Community Hospital at the northern Virginia Army base.
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Army to move hundreds of wounded troops as Walter Reed closes

Senators want to cut cost of living raises for veterans?

Well why not since WE HAVEN'T HAD ANY RAISES IN OVER TWO YEARS but hey, someone has to pay for what congress wants to give away to the rich!

Senators endorse lower COLAs for retirees
By Stephen Losey - Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday Jul 19, 2011 16:31:41 EDT
A bipartisan group of a half-dozen senators Tuesday presented a deficit-reduction proposal that would mean smaller annual cost-of-living adjustments for federal and military retirees.

The so-called Gang of Six said the government should switch to the so-called chained Consumer Price Index to set all inflationary adjustments, including COLAs, for federal and military pensions and Social Security payments.

The senators’ plan would cut deficits by about $3.7 trillion over a decade. President Obama called the plan good news and said it appeared to be a balanced approach, though he said the White House was just starting to review its details.
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Senators endorse lower COLAs for retirees

Martin Sheen fighting to get congress to expand Veteran's Courts

Expand veterans drug courts, senators told
By Gina Harkins - Medill News Service
Posted : Tuesday Jul 19, 2011 17:28:08 EDT
Actor Martin Sheen pressed Congress on Tuesday to authorize the $88.7 million needed to fund veterans drug treatment courts in 2012, and urged lawmakers to keep expanding both civilian drug courts and those set up specifically to help veterans struggling with substance abuse.

Veterans drug treatment courts serve active-duty service members and veterans who have committed low-level drug crimes. The courts focus on curbing recidivism by helping veterans get treatment for substance abuse so they can stay out of the jail system.

Sheen, testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee, emphasized that he is not a former president, but has played one on TV. “The West Wing” star helped set up a civilian drug court system in Berkeley, Calif., in 1996, with a focus on the homeless addicts in the city.

“We ask so much of our men and women in uniform, and they ask for so little in return,” Sheen said. “They are often the last to ask for counseling or treatment. It is our duty to care for our veterans when they suffer as a direct result of their service to our country.”

Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said veterans are returning from combat with invisible wounds that can lead to alcohol and drug abuse or other kinds of serious problems.
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Expand veterans drug courts, senators told

New program to fight PTSD blames families?

When I first started to read this, I thought, "wow they finally got it" but by the second paragraph, I knew I was wrong.

They still don't get it. If the "years of research" they are basing this on has anything to do with the crap of training them to be tough, we can plan on a lot more funerals that didn't need to happen.

The Sensitive Soldier
Can U.S. troops be rewired to be impervious to trauma? In the wake of Fort Hood, Brigadier General Rhonda Cornum launched a groundbreaking program to eliminate PTSD.
Nov 11, 2009 6:09 PM EST


“How am I going to get people to focus not on tragedy, but on resilience?” Brigadier General Rhonda Cornum asks rhetorically as we sit in her Pentagon office. The question is now Gen. Cornum’s mission: She is charged with teaching the Army’s warriors—even in the wake of the homegrown tragedy at Fort Hood—to persevere in the face of any crisis.

Cornum’s program represents a historic shift in the Army’s training philosophy. Instead of lavishing resources on those warriors who have succumbed to post-traumatic stress, depression, drug dependency, DUI, or sought the ultimate escape of suicide, the Army this week began training its “healthy” soldiers in emotional and spiritual fitness.

“We’re devoting a great deal of effort to treating pathology, but 99 percent of people in the Army have normal reactions to fear and trauma. And we have done nothing for these people.”

Cornum is uniquely qualified to be the nation’s new director of Comprehensive Soldier Fitness. In 1991, as a flight surgeon during the first Gulf War, she was taken prisoner when her helicopter was shot down in Iraq. After three days of beatings and humiliations, this mother of a then-14-year-old daughter was released from Iraqi prisons. Her resilience and heroism as a prisoner of war convinced many in the Pentagon that women could indeed serve on the frontlines. And unlike former POWs, Cornum stayed in the military.

The new training program offers soldiers a tool kit of psychological techniques based on years of research. They can be just as useful in facing the fear of battlefield combat as in living room flare-ups. Senior military officers say the chief stressor in our current wars—when spouses and parents can call their warriors on cellphones at any time, day or night—are the fights that lead to family breakdown. But at a much deeper level is the emotional fallout from the nonstop cycling of soldiers through several deployments.
please don't read more here
The Sensitive Soldier

Well at least on this last part they got that right. Redeployments increase the risk by 50% for each time back.

Hit and run driver killed Fort Hood Reservist

Hit-and-run driver kills local soldier
by Spencer Crawford/Villa Rican

A Villa Rica soldier was killed by a hit-and-run driver outside Fort Hood, Texas, early Friday morning, just weeks before he was to be sent to the Middle East for his fourth tour of duty.

James Michael Butler, 35, was an Army Reservist who had just reported to duty to Fort Hood on July 11 for four weeks of preparation before being sent to Afghanistan for a tour as a fixed-wing aircraft pilot. He had served three previous tours in either Iraq or Afghanistan as a Blackhawk helicopter pilot.

According to Killeen, Texas, media reports, a woman was driving down U.S. Business 190 near South Fort Hood Street about 4 a.m. Friday morning when she saw something in the road, tried to swerve and miss it, but couldn’t. It turned out to be Butler’s body, which state troopers say had already been run over by another car that fled the scene and is still being sought.


Read more: Times-Georgian -
Hit and run driver kills local soldier

Wounded Afghan war veteran beaten near N.H. bar

UPDATE

3 held in beating of wounded Afghanistan vet
The Associated Press
Posted : Tuesday Jul 19, 2011 6:56:12 EDT
PORTSMOUTH, N.H. — Three Portsmouth residents authorities allege participated in the severe beating of an Army veteran who had been wounded in Afghanistan have been ordered held on bail.

Police say Daniel May, his girlfriend, Jessica King, and Daniel Hayes participated in the beating outside a city bar late Saturday night that landed Steve Bohn of Peabody, Mass., in the hospital with severe internal injuries.
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3 held in beating of wounded Afghanistan vet

Afghan war veteran beaten near N.H. bar
By John M. Guilfoil
Globe Staff / July 19, 2011

A war veteran and Purple Heart recipient was beaten unconscious early Sunday morning outside a Portsmouth, N.H., bar, according to reports.

New England Cable News and other news organizations reported that Steven Bohn, an Army veteran who served in Afghanistan as part of Operation Enduring Freedom, was badly beaten by two men and two women outside the Page Restaurant and Bar.

Portsmouth police declined to identify the victim yesterday, but detailed the alleged assault. Bohn, who appeared on several news programs, was taken to Portsmouth Regional Hospital, in serious condition and suffering from internal injuries. He underwent emergency surgery and is recovering at home this week. He could not be reached for comment.
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Afghan war veteran beaten near N.H. bar

PTSD numbers growing

PTSD numbers growing
by
Chaplain Kathie

40% of the soldiers, one out of three for Marines and half of the National Guards. Depending on who the reporters ask, they will get all kinds of numbers but given all the data that has been coming in on top of what was learned after Vietnam, these are the closest numbers I've seen.



There have been over 2 million deployed into Iraq and Afghanistan. Take a look back at the numbers from Vietnam.

If you think these numbers are too high to be real, here's something reporters forgot they already reported about.

The redeployment of forces contributed to the huge increase.

But the most troubling fact is, we have only seen the beginning. In 1978 a DAV study published this report.

Troops NumbersDuring the 15 years of the Vietnam conflict, around 2.4 million troops served there, according to a study of Pentagon data by the Heritage Center for Data Analysis. Some estimates put another 1 million troops in surrounding countries during that time. The U.S. started moving new troops into the Vietnam arena in 1956 and troop levels peaked in Vietnam in 1968 when nearly a half-million troops were there. Most news reports about current military engagement focus on the number of troops in Iraq now: 150,000 are there, with another 20,000 on the ground in Afghanistan, according to the Pentagon.

Unlike today's wars, the average time in a combat zone was 12 months and no redeployment. They faced death for one year and unless they wanted to stay in the military, they went back home without having to fear being sent back. Still they returned back to the same problems faced by today's veterans with the lack of jobs topping off a terrible year in hell.

While some in the media say that Afghanistan is the longest war, they forget how long troops were in Vietnam.

Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a long, costly armed conflict that pitted the communist regime of North Vietnam and its southern allies, known as the Viet Cong, against South Vietnam and its principal ally, the United States. The war began in 1954 (thought conflict in the region stretched back to the mid-1940s), after the rise to power of Ho Chi Minh and his communist Viet Minh party in North Vietnam, and continued against the backdrop of an intense Cold War between two global superpowers: the United States and the Soviet Union. More than 3 million people (including 58,000 Americans) were killed in the Vietnam War; more than half were Vietnamese civilians. By 1969, at the peak of U.S. involvement in the war, more than 500,000 U.S. military personnel were involved in the Vietnam conflict. Growing opposition to the war in the United States led to bitter divisions among Americans, both before and after President Richard Nixon ordered the withdrawal of U.S. forces in 1973. In 1975, communist forces seized control of Saigon, ending the Vietnam War, and the country was unified as the Socialist Republic of Vietnam the following year.

The truth is, the DOD and the VA did not learn all the lessons from Vietnam and while we talk so much about the needs of the newer generation, the Vietnam veterans are forgotten in all of this. They are still waiting for the day to come when they are not still being left behind.

Reporters contact me on what is going on with our veterans and troops but they are only interested in the Iraq and Afghanistan veterans. If I try to tell them about a news story that just came out involving a Vietnam veteran, they don't want to hear it. Why? Don't they know if it had not been for Vietnam veterans, there would be nothing available for any of these newer veterans? Don't they know that none of them would have found the support to say anything about what was happening to them just like veterans from WWI, WWII and Korea?

Vietnam veterans are not "old news" any more than the veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan from the start of these wars are but no one seems willing to keep telling their stories. This insures the mistakes of the past will be repeated and we'll have another generation of veterans wondering if they still matter, more families wondering where to turn for help and justice and reporters sticking their fingers in their ears so they don't have to hear their cries.

Teen killed parents then had a party with Facebook friends

Off topic, totally stunned.

This teenager is charged with killing his parents, then covered up the bodies, invited friends over to have a party while his parents lay dead in another room. His so called friends must have had woken up to the shocking news that their "friend" thought nothing of killing his parents and even less of them.

Police: Florida teen killed parents with hammer, hosted house party
By the CNN Wire Staff
July 19, 2011 7:25 a.m. EDT

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
NEW: Tyler Hadley, 17, faces 2 counts of 2nd degree murder in his parents' deaths
Police say he fatally bludgeoned them with a hammer, then covered their bodies
Hours later, 40-plus people attended a party with the dead pair hidden nearby
A Port St. Lucie neighbor describes the Hadleys as a "nice family"

(CNN) -- A Florida teen bludgeoned his parents to death with a hammer, stashed their bodies in a bedroom, then hosted dozens of people for a house party, police said Monday.

Tyler Hadley, 17, is in police custody, booked just before 5 p.m. Monday on two counts of second-degree murder with a weapon, according to the St. Lucie County Sheriff's website. Port St. Lucie Police spokesman Tom Nichols told reporters earlier that the teenage boy, who will be tried as an adult, was denied bond.

Around 1:30 p.m. Saturday, Port St. Lucie Police Capt. Don Kryak said Hadley posted an invitation on Facebook, inviting friends to a party at his house.

Sometime after that, police said he used a 22-inch framing hammer to fatally beat his parents -- Blake and Mary-Jo Hadley -- in the head and torso outside their master bedroom door of their Port St. Lucie home. He then dragged them inside the room and used "books, files, towels, anything that he could find inside the home to cover the bodies," Nichols said.
Then the teenager proceeded to party.
read more here
Florida teen killed parents with hammer

Nephew of VIetnam Vet raising money for wounded with Hero

HERO MUSIC VIDEO DEDICATED TO INJURED SOLDIERS
A Film/Video project in Los Angeles, CA by Jon Collins Band

The Jon Collins Band has released their new album “HERO” to rave reviews. They have decided to create a music video for the title track single “Hero” dedicated it to all the U.S. service men and women who have been injured over the last 10 years in the wars of Iraq and Afghanistan.

Over the last 10 years, over 43,000 U.S. soldiers have officially been injured in these two wars. However, some estimates put that number at over 100,000. Including these injured soldiers’ mothers and fathers, sons and daughters and husband and wives, literally millions of Americans have been directly impacted by these injuries.

Jon Collins' had personal experience with this when his uncle was injured in the Vietnam war. After his uncle and tens of thousands of other soldiers returned with injuries in the ‘70s, most of them suffered and recovered in silence. Because of the opposition to the war, many of their psychological wounds lingered in ways that affected our country for decades after.
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HERO MUSIC VIDEO DEDICATED TO INJURED SOLDIERS