Army Pilot Program Allows Soldiers to Confidentially Enroll in Alcohol Treatment

Army Pilot Program Allows Soldiers to Confidentially Enroll in Alcohol Treatment

August 23rd, 2011
A pilot Army program allows soldiers at high risk for developing alcohol problems to enroll in a confidential treatment program that will not adversely impact their careers. The program, which started at three Army installations, is now at six posts.

The Confidential Alcohol Treatment and Education Project (CATEP) is aimed at helping soldiers who abuse alcohol, before more serious substance abuse problems develop that could harmfully impact their finances, health, relationships and military career.

Soldiers are overwhelmingly young males, who have higher rates of drinking than the general population, according to Colonel Charles S. Milliken, MD, of the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research. In addition to drawing from this demographic, soldiers have specific reasons for abusing alcohol, including “self-medicating” sleep problems and irritability. These reasons are common in not just those with post-traumatic stress disorder, but in many soldiers first returning from war.


One study found that an estimated 27 percent of soldiers reported alcohol misuse three months after redeploying from Iraq, Col. Milliken says. “Soldiers who drink too much are at high risk of behaviors that put themselves and others at risk, including drinking and driving or riding with a drunk driver.”

Traditionally, when a soldier enrolls in the Army’s substance abuse treatment program, known as ASAP, his or her Commanding Officer is automatically notified. Soldiers who fail to comply with or respond successfully to treatment are processed for administrative separation from military service.

The project initially started in 2009 at three sites: Schofield Barracks Army Health Clinic in Hawaii, Fort Lewis in Washington and Fort Richardson in Alaska. In April 2010, the program was expanded to include Fort Riley in Kansas, Fort Carson in Colorado and Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri. Col. Milliken estimates that the program now covers about 25 percent of those on active duty in the Army.

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Hurricane to do list

After surviving Charlie, Francis and Jeanne in 2004, my family learned a lot of lessons. As Irene heads up the East Coast, there are a lot of people without any idea what they need to do before it hits. Plus, while I live in Florida now, I am a New Englander!

First, go shopping. Think about nothing to cook with unless you have a gas stove. Don't think about using the BBQ grill until it is all over.

Buy
Bread, Peanut Butter/Jelly and marshmallow, fresh fruit or canned as long as you have a hand held can opener. Cereal and comfort foods should be on your list too.

Milk, cold cuts and bags of ice to put in a cooler. If you don't have one, buy one. Keep the bags of ice in your freezer in case the power goes out and then load them into the cooler along with anything that has to stay cold.

Avoid buying frozen foods.

Water, water and more water.

Batteries for a radio and if you don't have one, get one. If your power goes out, your cable TV will too. Forget about portable TV's (analog) because you need cable to get a signal. Batteries for flashlights. Candles do little good if you have nothing to light them with so make sure you have a few lighters or matches to last. Do not leave candles burning unless you are in the room.

Make sure your cell phone is fully charged. Think about buying a car charger so that you can power it up from your car if the power is out for too long. Most people do not have land lines anymore. If you have a battery operated/electric home phone and the power goes out, it will not work.

Buy meats only if they will fit into a cooler so that you can use your grill if the power goes out.

Gas for your car and for your grill for when the hurricane passes.

Think before you buy if you have what you need for at least three days and then think about if you can keep the food safe to eat without any power.

Go to buy plywood for your windows. Taping your windows up won't work with hurricane force winds. Don't forget you need to cut the plywood and need to nail it to your house.

Buy a large tarp in case you lose shingles. It could be a long time before anyone can come to fix your roof.

Buy a bucket in case you lose power and cannot flush your toilet or wash.

Make sure you have enough medicine for at least three days.

Make sure you have some cash in case banks lose power for days.

Shopping done, take care of your home. First remove anything not "nailed down" in your yard. It will save you a lot of grief if there are not things blowing around aimed at your house.

Nail up the plywood to windows. Things left out by your neighbors will blow around plus tree branches can come smashing into them.


Fill your bathtubs and sinks so that you can flush toilets and wash up.

Walk around your property and take a look at trees to see if dead branches should be removed and then get them into a garage until they can be hauled away. If not, then tie up heavy bunches so that the wind will not take them one by one.

Let family members know who to call in case it hits and not everyone is home. This needs to be done in case all you have is a cell phone and cannot power it up or get a signal.

Remember that the wind is not the only thing that you have to worry about. We all live with electronics. No power means nothing will work and this can cause a lot of anguish if you are not ready to rough it a few days and get prepared ahead of time.

For pets

Cats are easy but they may act out so just be aware they may. For dogs, you have to stop feeding and giving water so they can empty themselves before the storm comes. The last thing you want is for your dog to have to go "potty" in the middle of the hurricane. When it is safe, take them out as soon as you can and once it passes, feed them, give them water and plenty of love.

Check for roofing shingles in your yards because if you see them there are roofing nails to go with them somewhere. Watch for broken glass as well.

Fort Riley private. not robbed, shot himself

Police: Riley pvt. not robbed, shot himself
The Associated Press
Posted : Friday Aug 26, 2011 8:29:15 EDT
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A Fort Riley soldier who said he was shot and robbed while jogging in Kansas City has been charged with making a false report.
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California, Others Cut Veterans Courts From Budget

California, Others Cut Veterans Courts From Budget

Though specialized veterans courts can save taxpayers up to $12,00 per client, some states have squashed the initiative to curb budget spending.

As many as 25 to 30 percent of returning veterans suffer from mental illness, according to the National Association of Drug Court Professionals, a statistic that inspired Buffalo, NY to establish the first Veterans Treatment Court in 2008. Modeled after drug courts, it aims to lead veterans down the road of recovery and sobriety, instead of throwing them behind bars. While more than 80 such courts have cropped up in the last three years, states like California have nixed their opening to cut spending, the Bay Citizen reports.

“Nobody knows what the hell these guys are going through. It can quickly spiral out of control,” Ken Gardner, a veteran who now practices law, told Lancaster Online. “We certainly owe it to them to at least look at another option [for prosecution].”

Lancaster, PA—home to more than 250 imprisoned veterans—is slated to open a veterans court in January, the news outlet reported.

Though offering troubled veterans access to drug and alcohol treatment, mental health counseling and employment services has proven to help them rehabilitate and kick their criminal past, California Gov. Jerry Brown recently vetoed a bill that would’ve expanded the system, according to the Bay Citizen.
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Camp Pendleton house fire claims life of Marine's daughter

Teenager dies in Camp Pendleton house fire

Written by
Pauline Repard

CAMP PENDLETON — A Marine’s 13-year-old daughter died Thursday morning after a fire swept through their single-family home on base at Camp Pendleton, officials said.

The fire broke out about 6:30 a.m. in the O’Neil Heights military housing area, in the southeastern part of the base near the Naval hospital, base spokesman Sgt. John Jackson said.

One Camp Pendleton firefighter was taken to Tri-City Medical Center for treatment of burns and smoke inhalation, Jackson said.
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Troops photograph every Arlington grave

Troops photograph every Arlington grave

August 26, 2011 5:21 AM
KIMBERLY HEFLING
Associated Press
ARLINGTON, Va. — Night after night this summer, troops from the Army's historic Old Guard have left their immaculately pressed dress blues, white gloves and shiny black boots at home to slip into Arlington National Cemetery in T-shirts and flip-flops to photograph each and every grave with an iPhone.

The sometimes eerie task to photograph more than 219,000 grave markers and the front of more than 43,000 sets of cremated remains in the columbarium is part of the Army's effort to account for every grave and to update and fully digitize the cemetery's maps. The Old Guard performs its work at night to escape the summer heat and to avoid interrupting funerals.

Last year a scandal over mismanagement at the nation's most hallowed burial ground revealed unmarked and mismarked graves. Congress then mandated that the cemetery account for the graves of the more than 330,000 people interred in the cemetery. Markers may bear more than one name, such as a service member and spouse.

The photos taken at night are matched with other records to find the discrepancies that need to be fixed, a process officials say is too early to draw any conclusions. Military officials hope they can eventually use the photos to create an online database for the public.
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Some 9/11 Charities Failed Miserably

Some 9/11 Charities Failed Miserably
August 25, 2011
Associated Press|by Brett J. Blackledge and David B. Caruso

NEW YORK - Americans eager to give after the 9/11 terrorist attacks poured $1.5 billion into hundreds of charities established to serve the victims, their families and their memories. But a decade later, an Associated Press investigation shows that many of those nonprofits have failed miserably.

There are those that spent huge sums on themselves, those that cannot account for the money they received, those that have few results to show for their spending and those that have yet to file required income tax returns. Yet many of the charities continue to raise money in the name of Sept. 11.

One charity raised more than $700,000 for a giant memorial quilt, but there is no quilt. Another raised more than $4 million to help victims, but didn't account publicly for how it spent all of the money. A third helps support a 9/11 flag sold by the founder's for-profit company.
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Families say "help" for PTSD is not there

OEF stands for Operation Enduring Freedom. It began in 2001 when troops were sent into Afghanistan. Ten years later, the fact too many are enduring the emotional pain caused by war it should be clear that while many have returned from war, they have not found freedom from it.

If you read this, there can be little doubt that the claims the DOD make about addressing PTSD and combat stress, are nothing more than claims.

The 11 potential suicides would set a record at JBLM. There were nine suicides on the base in 2010.

This following statement is misleading at best, uninformed at worst.

"The leaders at Joint Base Lewis-McChord say the Army now has dozens of programs aimed at preventing suicide."

"Now" would suggest that they learned from the mistakes of the past and just addressed it. The problem is, they began all of these "programs" back in 2003 for Iraq and Afghanistan troops.

While they pretended there was nothing before this, the truth is, there were programs going all the way back to the 70's for Vietnam Veterans. Research started because they demanded it. To end up with this many suicides after they came out with the programs proves they are not working.

"Aimed at suicide prevention" is also misleading because while they have saved lives, the numbers would have gone down on successful suicides. As bad as the number of attempted suicides are, it is one more indication the "programs they now have" are not working any more than they worked back in 2003 when they came out with their "Battlemind" program.

They would not need suicide prevention if any of their other programs worked in the first place. They would have to be totally blind to the data coming into the Suicide Prevention Hotline proving yet again, the programs to help them after war, are just not there.

Then we have this report.

'If you're going to ask for help ... they're going to chastise you'
By Keith Eldridge Published: Aug 22, 2011

JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, Wash. -- A record-setting month for soldier suicides has the U.S. Army taking the offensive, saying it's making every effort to prevent them.

But the families of some of those soldiers say the military is not doing enough.

The Army says suicide prevention is a top priority, with scores of programs in place to help identify someone in trouble. But several families of the soldiers who took their own lives say the programs are falling short, and their loved ones paid the price.

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are really taking their toll, both in the combat field and in the heads of soldiers. The Army says July hit a record for potential suicides at 22.

The mother of Spc. Jonathon Gilbert says her son committed suicide in Lakewood because he didn't want to return to combat after one tour in Iraq.
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The fact redeployments increase the risk of PTSD by 50% for each time sent back into combat did not change the fact the DOD still does it.

"Just one month earlier, the wife of Army Ranger Jared Hagemann says her husband committed suicide on base because he didn't want to be deployed a ninth time."

Ten years of war and a ninth tour of duty? How could anyone think this would end well?

We keep heading onto YouTube links when there is a video of soldiers acting silly, dancing to the sound track of a pop star but we don't head onto videos about what they come home to. Yesterday there was a video of a dog laying by the casket of Navy SEAL Officer Jon Tumilson that made it into the emails of people around the world. It was touching but while families are touched by funerals everyday that did not need to happen, no one is watching their tributes or doing anything to ease their grief.

Ask them what they want after they had to bury a son or daughter because of military suicide and they will tell you they want no other family to suffer the way they are. Ask a wife after she has had to endure months or years after her husband came back from war changed as she stands near his casket what she wants. She will tell you that she doesn't want any more families to have to endure that pain or watch their children grow up knowing their Dad took his own life.

Dying in combat is considered to be the ultimate sacrifice. Families know the doorbell can ring at any moment. Dying after they have come home because of combat by taking their own lives is the direct result of the failures of this nation. How long will we accept the claims the DOD makes while they cannot endure coming home?

"For those I love I will sacrifice"

UPDATE
Wounded Big Red One Soldier continues to serve Army family
Army
By Mollie Miller, 1st Infantry Division Public Affairs
January 9, 2012

FORT RILEY, Kan. (Jan. 9, 2012) -- Love can make people do some crazy, unusual, heroic things.

A dance outside in a rain storm, a midnight flight across the country, a dash into a burning home, none of these are outside the realm of what people will do for those they love.

For one 1st Infantry Division Soldier, his love for his family and his country led him into an Army recruiter's office, onto basic training, up the road to Fort Riley, Kan., and around the world to Afghanistan.

And then that love led him right to death's front door.

Pfc. Kyle Hockenberry, 4th Squadron, 4th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Heavy Brigade Combat Team, joined the Army in the fall of 2010 after a summer full of friends, dirt bikes and post high school graduation parties. Joining the Army was the realization of a dream for the young man from Marietta, Ohio.

"I always wanted to serve my country, protect our freedom, to keep the life that all the ones I love live safe," the 19-year-old said recently.

Hockenberry's enlistment wasn't much of a surprise for his parents, Chet and Kathy Hockenberry.

"Being a Soldier was all Kyle ever talked about, even when he was little," Kathy said of her youngest son. "I still have all his G.I. Joe guys that he always used to play with because he didn't want me to get rid of them."

Kyle graduated from basic training in January 2011 and was assigned to the Big Red One's 4th Squadron, 4th Cavalry Regiment "Pale Riders." The Pale Rider team was already busy making final preparations for a deployment to Afghanistan when Kyle arrived and the new Soldier began his own preparations for this upcoming mission -- a mission that would have him leaving Kansas in less than six weeks.

First on Kyle's list of deployment preparations was a visit to a tattoo shop in Manhattan, Kan.

"I had wanted a tattoo for a long time and I wanted to finally get one before we left," he said.

One evening, shortly before the deployment, Kyle and a few fellow Soldiers "went under the needle." One of the Soldiers had his children's names or birth dates tattooed, some had a lucky number or special picture done but Kyle selected a seven word phrase that had been rolling around in his head ever since he decided he was going to be a Soldier.

That night, the tattoo artist etched, "For those I love, I will sacrifice" onto Kyle's right side.

"I thought since I was in the military that it would be a good one to get," he said. "'Those I love' is for everyone -- for my parents, my brother and all my family but it really for everyone in the country."
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"For those I love I will sacrifice" pretty much sums up how they all feel. They are ready to face danger and ready to save a life even if it means they lose their own. If you want to see how much they care about each other, go to the link below and see the pictures going with this article. If you want to know why they are willing to do all of this, read it and know this isn't about killing. It is about caring.

Pfc. Kyle Hockenberry, of 4th Squadron, 4th Cavalry Infantry Regiment, 1st Heavy Combat Brigade, 1st Infantry Division, who was injured in an improvised explosive device attack near Haji Ramuddin, is treated by flight medic Cpl. Amanda Mosher while being transported by medevac helicopter to the Role 3 hospital at Kandahar Air Field in Afghanistan on June 15, 2011. Laura Rauch/Stars and Stripes

Calm in the midst of chaos is lifesaving protocol for medevac crew in southern Afghanistan
By LAURA RAUCH
Stars and Stripes
Published: August 25, 2011
FORWARD OPERATING BASE PASAB, Afghanistan — It was the worst of places, but the soldiers on the ground had few options when they marked the landing zone for the medevac helicopter. One of their buddy’s legs had been blown off by an Improvised Explosive Device near Pashmul South, and another had suffered a traumatic brain injury from the blast.

Grape rows, tree lines and mud walls surrounded the field. It was the perfect setting for an ambush.

Purple smoke billowed from the landing zone as the crew of Dustoff 59 sped toward a small band of 1st Infantry Division soldiers, waiting with their wounded. As pilot and Chief Warrant Officer 2 Marcus Chambers slowed for the landing, gunfire broke out and the all-too-familiar tat-tat-tat-tat, tat-tat-tat-tat pinged around them.

Chambers set the aircraft down and flight medic Staff Sgt. Garrick Morgenweck flung the door open to retrieve the wounded. As he stepped out, insurgents fired a rocket-propelled grenade from close range, striking a mud wall and narrowly missing the helicopter as it blasted through.
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If you ask a Vietnam veteran why they did what they did, there are several reasons they may give to get you to stop asking them. The honest answer is "we did it for each other" and that is what they are all fighting for today in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Time had an update on this story

No Idle Boast: A Soldier's Tattoo Becomes Truth
Posted by Mark Thompson Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Tattoos are as old as war. Lots of soldiers get them, with military motifs, girlfriend's names, or various guns, skulls or dragons adorning their skin. Some get something less ornate. Private First Class Kyle Hockenberry had For those I love I will sacrifice stitched into his flesh. He had no idea how prescient he was.

A member of the 1st Infantry Division, Hockenberry's world changed June 15. He was on a foot patrol just outside Haji Ramuddin, Afghanistan, when an improvised explosive device detonated nearby. In this photograph, by Laura Rauch for the military's Stars and Stripes newspaper, flight medic Corporal Amanda Mosher is tending to Hockenberry's wounds aboard a medevac helicopter minutes after the explosion.

Kyle Hockenberry, 19, lost both legs and his left arm in the blast.
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Dog of Fallen Navy Seal won't leave casket

Dog of Fallen Navy SEAL, Officer Jon Tumilson, Refuses To Leave Casket (VIDEO)
The dog of fallen Navy SEAL Officer Jon Tumilson refused to leave his owner's casket at the officer's funeral earlier this week, Animal Planet reported.

Tumilson's cousin Lisa Pembleton captured the loyal pup, Hawkeye, resting alongside Tumilson's casket at the Rockford, Iowa ceremony.
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