Man Charged For Killing Wife
Posted in Local
23 March 201
A retired Marine is being charged for shooting and killing his wife. Some think as a result of PTSD.
As we dug deeper we found out that 43 year old Bourne Huddleston, suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder from his time in the military as a Marine. To those who knew him, it was a shock.
read more here
Saturday, March 24, 2012
Navy Civilian Employee Accused Of Defrauding Navy and VA
Gardener Accused Of Defrauding Navy, VA
Leray Shurn Faces Fraud Charges, According To Federal Indictment
March 23, 2012
SAN DIEGO -- A Chula Vista gardener allegedly defrauded the Navy and U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs out of $400,000 in workers' compensation claims and disability benefits, according to a federal indictment unsealed Friday.
Leray Shurn, 59, was compensated for claims that he suffered back and knee injuries as a Navy civilian employee, but hid the fact that he ran his business and performed some of the landscaping work himself, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
read more here
Leray Shurn Faces Fraud Charges, According To Federal Indictment
March 23, 2012
SAN DIEGO -- A Chula Vista gardener allegedly defrauded the Navy and U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs out of $400,000 in workers' compensation claims and disability benefits, according to a federal indictment unsealed Friday.
Leray Shurn, 59, was compensated for claims that he suffered back and knee injuries as a Navy civilian employee, but hid the fact that he ran his business and performed some of the landscaping work himself, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
read more here
Alabama Chilton County VA officer position eliminated
County VA officer position eliminated
By Stephen Dawkins
Published 1:59pm Friday, March 23, 2012
Many former soldiers in Chilton County are upset and confused about the closing of the local Veterans Affairs office.
Jennifer Kamerer, who served as a full-time VA agent in the Chilton County Courthouse, told the county commission at its meeting on March 12 that her position had been eliminated.
“What we’re looking at is a major, major blow to our county,” Kamerer told the commission.
The office will be staffed one day a week, on Fridays, from 8:30 a.m. until 4 p.m., by a service officer that travels from the Shelby County office in Columbiana. Or veterans can travel to VA offices in Autauga, Bibb, Dallas or Shelby counties.
Kamerer said the arrangement isn’t adequate to serve the county’s more than 3,000 veterans, an opinion seconded by Phil Burnette, commander of the 23rd District, American Legion Department of Alabama.
“I’m hearing a lot of anger from the veterans, myself included,” Burnette said. “A lot of our veterans are not able to travel. To be quite blunt, I think it’s a shame and a disgrace that we’re being left without representation in the county.”
read more here
Friday, March 23, 2012
Daily headaches common in soldiers after concussion
Let me give you some hope here. If you have TBI you'll find it helps.
Before doctors knew anything about traumatic brain injury, I had one. I was 4. My parents brought my brothers and me to a drive-in movie. There was a playground for little kids like me and another one for older kids. Well, I snuck away from my brothers, climbed the big slide and got scared being up that high alone. A kid behind me wasn't about to wait any longer, so he shoved me. The problem was, I didn't go down. I went over the side. Head first on concrete, my oldest brother thought I was dead. My scull was cracked all the way around and I had a concussion. Making a long story short, no one really connected what came next after that night.
I started to have problems with my speech. They sent me to a therapist. I couldn't remember things as easily as I did before, so I got frustrated with everything and got yelled at a lot by my parents.
That was then. I learned to play with my memory so that I could remember things. Headaches come and go even now, almost 50 years later (yes, I'm that old.) The therapy helped with my speech except when I get excited, I talk too fast. While I can read anything, I have a hard time spelling, but all that is easy to deal with.
The trauma of that night was another story. That was harder to overcome but I'm not afraid of heights anymore.
TBI is not the end of anything except the past. When you think that each day we change a little bit just living a normal life, that isn't so hard to understand. We adapt and change with what happens in our lives. That's the human spirit. Don't give up. Work on getting better with your therapist and have some patience with yourself.
Once all of these experts understand that PTSD and TBI are only connected to the event that caused both, they'll be able to treat each one differently. I don't have PTSD but as my body had to heal from the injury, my mind had to heal from the event itself. Oh, heck, maybe back then I had mild PTSD too but they didn't know anything about that either.
Before doctors knew anything about traumatic brain injury, I had one. I was 4. My parents brought my brothers and me to a drive-in movie. There was a playground for little kids like me and another one for older kids. Well, I snuck away from my brothers, climbed the big slide and got scared being up that high alone. A kid behind me wasn't about to wait any longer, so he shoved me. The problem was, I didn't go down. I went over the side. Head first on concrete, my oldest brother thought I was dead. My scull was cracked all the way around and I had a concussion. Making a long story short, no one really connected what came next after that night.
I started to have problems with my speech. They sent me to a therapist. I couldn't remember things as easily as I did before, so I got frustrated with everything and got yelled at a lot by my parents.
That was then. I learned to play with my memory so that I could remember things. Headaches come and go even now, almost 50 years later (yes, I'm that old.) The therapy helped with my speech except when I get excited, I talk too fast. While I can read anything, I have a hard time spelling, but all that is easy to deal with.
The trauma of that night was another story. That was harder to overcome but I'm not afraid of heights anymore.
TBI is not the end of anything except the past. When you think that each day we change a little bit just living a normal life, that isn't so hard to understand. We adapt and change with what happens in our lives. That's the human spirit. Don't give up. Work on getting better with your therapist and have some patience with yourself.
Once all of these experts understand that PTSD and TBI are only connected to the event that caused both, they'll be able to treat each one differently. I don't have PTSD but as my body had to heal from the injury, my mind had to heal from the event itself. Oh, heck, maybe back then I had mild PTSD too but they didn't know anything about that either.
Daily headaches common in soldiers after concussion
By Kerry Grens
NEW YORK | Fri Mar 23, 2012 6:04pm EDT
(Reuters Health) - One in five soldiers who returns from Iraq or Afghanistan having suffered a concussion develops chronic headaches that occur at least half the days of each month, according to a new survey.
Army researchers examined nearly 1,000 soldiers with a history of deployment-related concussion and found 20 percent had suffered the frequent headaches diagnosed as "chronic daily headache" for three months or more. Of those, a quarter literally had the headaches every day.
Concussion is considered a mild traumatic brain injury and is commonly followed by headaches. But little was understood about how many military personnel were experiencing the intense head pain daily -- or close to it -- for months on end.
"In general we know that chronic daily headache is itself one of the most debilitating forms of headache...and can sometimes be difficult to treat," said Major Brett Theeler, the study's lead author.
To gauge how widespread the problem is, Theeler, a doctor with the AMEDD Student Detachment, 187th Medical Battalion, Fort Sam Houston, Texas, and his colleagues surveyed 978 soldiers who had been deployed in Iraq or Afghanistan.
read more here
Creed singer visits Yokosuka to thank troops for earthquake relief efforts
Creed singer visits Yokosuka to thank troops for earthquake relief efforts
By TREVOR ANDERSEN
Stars and Stripes
Published: March 18, 2012
YOKOSUKA NAVAL BASE, Japan — Scott Stapp, the lead singer of the rock band Creed, toured Sendai on Saturday to see the destruction left from last year’s massive tsunami. Then, he stopped by Yokosuka Naval Base to thank some of the troops for their efforts in the days and weeks following the March 11, 2011, disaster.
“It’s amazing what Operation Tomodachi did,” said Stapp who performed an acoustic concert Sunday aboard the USS George Washington. He was traveling in Japan with his wife, Jaclyn, a former Miss New York.
“We visited Sendai yesterday; we saw the destruction and we saw what you did, so we hoped to give everyone here a time to escape from their responsibilities and have fun,” Scott Stapp said. “We want to remind everyone how much we appreciate and support them.”
The rock singer also visited Haiti in 2010 to help the earthquake victims and was impressed by the humanitarian aid provided by the US military.
read more here
By TREVOR ANDERSEN
Stars and Stripes
Published: March 18, 2012
YOKOSUKA NAVAL BASE, Japan — Scott Stapp, the lead singer of the rock band Creed, toured Sendai on Saturday to see the destruction left from last year’s massive tsunami. Then, he stopped by Yokosuka Naval Base to thank some of the troops for their efforts in the days and weeks following the March 11, 2011, disaster.
“It’s amazing what Operation Tomodachi did,” said Stapp who performed an acoustic concert Sunday aboard the USS George Washington. He was traveling in Japan with his wife, Jaclyn, a former Miss New York.
“We visited Sendai yesterday; we saw the destruction and we saw what you did, so we hoped to give everyone here a time to escape from their responsibilities and have fun,” Scott Stapp said. “We want to remind everyone how much we appreciate and support them.”
The rock singer also visited Haiti in 2010 to help the earthquake victims and was impressed by the humanitarian aid provided by the US military.
read more here
Staff Sgt. Bales charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder
Bales charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder
By MATT SCHOFIELD
McClatchy Newspapers
Published: March 23, 2012
Army Staff Sgt Robert Bales could face the death penalty after being officially charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder. Bales, who has been held at the Ft. Leavenworth military prison for about a week also faces six attempted murder charges.
WASHINGTON — Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales was charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder Friday in a case that could lead to the death penalty.
Bales allegedly armed himself with a pistol, rifle and grenade launcher and shot men, women and children in a nighttime raid that stands as the worst American atrocity since the beginning of the war in Afghanistan.
The charges — given to Bales on Friday at the high-security Army prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kan. — also include six counts of attempted murder and six of assault carried out in two remote villages in southern Afghanistan on March 11. The incident has deeply shaken U.S.-Afghan relations and fueled outrage against the U.S. and its continued presence in that country.
read more here
By MATT SCHOFIELD
McClatchy Newspapers
Published: March 23, 2012
Army Staff Sgt Robert Bales could face the death penalty after being officially charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder. Bales, who has been held at the Ft. Leavenworth military prison for about a week also faces six attempted murder charges.
WASHINGTON — Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales was charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder Friday in a case that could lead to the death penalty.
Bales allegedly armed himself with a pistol, rifle and grenade launcher and shot men, women and children in a nighttime raid that stands as the worst American atrocity since the beginning of the war in Afghanistan.
The charges — given to Bales on Friday at the high-security Army prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kan. — also include six counts of attempted murder and six of assault carried out in two remote villages in southern Afghanistan on March 11. The incident has deeply shaken U.S.-Afghan relations and fueled outrage against the U.S. and its continued presence in that country.
read more here
Army improves help for sexual assault victims
Army improves help for sexual assault victims
By Cid Standifer - Staff writer
Posted : Thursday Mar 22, 2012 15:18:11 EDT
Pvt. Jessica Kenyon was in the Army from 2005 to 2006. In that short time, she says she was raped twice and also forcibly groped by three fellow soldiers.
She stayed silent because she feared retaliation and being ostracized, she said. She sought counseling after the groping because the cumulative trauma was crippling her ability to work, she said.
“I felt like I was betraying my country,” she said.
Instead of trying to help her, she said her commanders tried to charge her with adultery for becoming pregnant, despite having already filed divorce papers from her husband.
She told Military Times that the fetus, which she later miscarried, probably belonged to one of her alleged rapists.
read more here
By Cid Standifer - Staff writer
Posted : Thursday Mar 22, 2012 15:18:11 EDT
Pvt. Jessica Kenyon was in the Army from 2005 to 2006. In that short time, she says she was raped twice and also forcibly groped by three fellow soldiers.
She stayed silent because she feared retaliation and being ostracized, she said. She sought counseling after the groping because the cumulative trauma was crippling her ability to work, she said.
“I felt like I was betraying my country,” she said.
Instead of trying to help her, she said her commanders tried to charge her with adultery for becoming pregnant, despite having already filed divorce papers from her husband.
She told Military Times that the fetus, which she later miscarried, probably belonged to one of her alleged rapists.
read more here
Iraq Veteran killed under Florida law didn't matter as much
Where was national media when this happened?
Iraq War veteran killed; widow says Florida's "Stand Your Ground" law is free pass for murder
12:50 PM, Mar 22, 2012
Written by
Kevin Held
Valrico, FL (CNN/WFLA/WTFS/WTSP) - Outrage over last month's shooting death of an unarmed teen in Florida has put a new focus on the state's "Stand Your Ground" law. The widow of a man shot dead in front of his daughter, says it is a free pass for murder.
When David James, an Iraq War veteran, escaped combat in the Middle East unscathed, his wife Kanina breathed a sigh of relief.
"I would worry about him but I thought he'd be safe here," she said.
Kanina was wrong; and now wants to know why Trevor Dooley, a 71-year-old retired bus driver, shot her husband in broad daylight, right front of their eight-year-old daughter. Dooley claims it was self defense. Kanina James calls it murder.
read more here
For all the people getting ready for 12/21/12, they need to think again
Off topic but can't help it.
For all the people getting ready for 12/21/12, they need to think again. What was 12/21/12 to Maya, was changed a long time after they developed the calendar.
For all the people getting ready for 12/21/12, they need to think again. What was 12/21/12 to Maya, was changed a long time after they developed the calendar.
Maya CalendarSo does anyone really know what time it is?
A different calendar was used to track longer periods of time, and for the inscription of calendar dates (i.e., identifying when one event occurred in relation to others). This is the Long Count. It is a count of days since a mythological starting-point.[6] According to the correlation between the Long Count and Western calendars accepted by the great majority of Maya researchers (known as the Goodman-Martinez-Thompson, or GMT, correlation), this starting-point is equivalent to August 11, 3114 BCE in the proleptic Gregorian calendar or 6 September in the Julian calendar (−3113 astronomical).
15 soldiers learn results of PTSD re-evaluations
15 soldiers learn results of PTSD re-evaluations
The Army announced Wednesday that it has notified 15 soldiers of their behavioral health diagnoses amid an investigation into whether Madigan Army Medical Center’s forensic psychiatry unit wrongly changed post-traumatic stress disorder diagnoses.
STACIA GLENN; STAFF WRITER
Published: 03/22/12
The Army announced Wednesday that it has notified 15 soldiers of their behavioral health diagnoses amid an investigation into whether Madigan Army Medical Center’s forensic psychiatry unit wrongly changed post-traumatic stress disorder diagnoses.
In January, the Army opened an investigation into the Madigan evaluation team following complaints that it adjusted diagnoses in such a way that soldiers did not receive full disability benefits for PTSD. The Army is conducting at least three investigations into Madigan’s PTSD diagnoses.
Of the 1,500 soldiers who have been diagnosed at Madigan since 2007, 285 were invited to be re-evaluated.
read more here
The Army announced Wednesday that it has notified 15 soldiers of their behavioral health diagnoses amid an investigation into whether Madigan Army Medical Center’s forensic psychiatry unit wrongly changed post-traumatic stress disorder diagnoses.
STACIA GLENN; STAFF WRITER
Published: 03/22/12
The Army announced Wednesday that it has notified 15 soldiers of their behavioral health diagnoses amid an investigation into whether Madigan Army Medical Center’s forensic psychiatry unit wrongly changed post-traumatic stress disorder diagnoses.
In January, the Army opened an investigation into the Madigan evaluation team following complaints that it adjusted diagnoses in such a way that soldiers did not receive full disability benefits for PTSD. The Army is conducting at least three investigations into Madigan’s PTSD diagnoses.
Of the 1,500 soldiers who have been diagnosed at Madigan since 2007, 285 were invited to be re-evaluated.
read more here
Army: PTSD treatable; some diagnosed return to war,,,with meds
By most accounts, Sgt. Robert Bales has PTSD and TBI. If true, then sending him back into combat, more than likely, included medications for both. Is anyone looking into what medications he was on and if they played a role in what happened more than PTSD and TBI? Most medications the troops are given come with clear warnings about side effects. Does this mean everyone will become worse on the same medication? No. What works for one may do harm to another. This is why they need to be monitored by a doctor to make sure the right medication is given to them. If they have no clue about what side effects they need to report to their doctor, they suffer needlessly instead of healing. If there is no doctor for them to talk to, then who is checking on them?
Most Combat PTSD veterans do fine on medications and with proper treatment, begin to heal, so sending them back into combat or employing them in any field is not an issue. For others the medications they are on makes it worse.
Most Combat PTSD veterans do fine on medications and with proper treatment, begin to heal, so sending them back into combat or employing them in any field is not an issue. For others the medications they are on makes it worse.
Army: PTSD treatable; some diagnosed return to war
BY JULIE WATSON
ASSOCIATED PRESS
SAN DIEGO -- It is still not known if the soldier accused of killing 17 Afghans was ever diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder - but even if he had been, that alone would not have prevented him from being sent back to war.
The Army diagnosed 76,176 soldiers with PTSD between 2000 and 2011. Of those, 65,236 soldiers were diagnosed at some stage of their deployment.
Many returned to the battlefield after mental health providers determined their treatment worked and their symptoms had gone into remission, Army officials and mental health professionals who treat troops say. The Army does not track the exact number in combat diagnosed with PTSD nor those who are in combat and taking medicine for PTSD.
The case of Sgt. Robert Bales has sparked debate about whether the Army failed in detecting a soldier's mental instability or pushed him too far. The Army is reviewing all its mental health programs and its screening process in light of the March 11 shooting spree in two slumbering Afghan villages that killed families, including nine children.
read more here
Wounded Warrior Dreams of Home
Wounded Warrior Dreams of Home
Updated: Thursday, 22 Mar 2012
Valerie Calhoun
Memphis, Tn - A mid-south marine needs our help. Munford's Corporal Christian Brown was seriously injured in Afghanistan last December. Today, he remains hospitalized at a military hospital in Maryland.
"I remember just getting hit and just watching the marines take care of me and doing what they were taught," Brown told us by phone.
Corporal Brown's life changed forever when his unit stumbled upon an IED (Improvised Explosive Device) during a combat operation on December 13. He remembers everything.
"When I got back on the bird, I lost consciousness 'til I woke up here."
read more here
Updated: Thursday, 22 Mar 2012
Valerie Calhoun
Memphis, Tn - A mid-south marine needs our help. Munford's Corporal Christian Brown was seriously injured in Afghanistan last December. Today, he remains hospitalized at a military hospital in Maryland.
"I remember just getting hit and just watching the marines take care of me and doing what they were taught," Brown told us by phone.
Corporal Brown's life changed forever when his unit stumbled upon an IED (Improvised Explosive Device) during a combat operation on December 13. He remembers everything.
"When I got back on the bird, I lost consciousness 'til I woke up here."
read more here
Military's Illegal Personality Disorder Discharge Problem
As Dr. Thomas Berger pointed out in this article, they would have had to talk to family members before making a diagnosis of Personality Disorder. The other factor in all of this is you'd have to believe the DOD tests missed it when they enlisted. All this leads to the DOD is basically telling the troops, they had it before they served so they owe the veteran nothing. Nothing including compensation so they can pay their bills, no jobs because without an honorable discharge, employers don't want them and service organizations only help those with honorable discharges, topped off with the fact that even they have trouble getting jobs. Uncle Sam went to the bowl and washed his hands of these men and women after they served.
U.S. military illegally discharging veterans with personality disorder, report says
POSTED: 03/22/2012
By Mary E. O'Leary
The New Haven (Conn.) Register
Dr. Thomas Berger, VVA executive director for the Veterans Health Council, said to properly diagnose someone with personality disorder, the Department of Defense would have had to consult with the families and he doubted that happened.
NEW HAVEN, Conn. — The Department of Defense has illegally discharged hundreds of veterans in the past decade by not following their own protocols when making a diagnosis of personality disorder, which denies them certain medical benefits and carries a stigma that hurts re-entry to civilian life.
That conclusion is based on data collected from the Department of Defense as the result of two Freedom of Information suits filed by the Veterans Services Clinic at Yale Law School on behalf of its clients, Vietnam Veterans of America.
The VVA and the Yale clinic Thursday released their report: "Casting Troops Aside: The United States Military's Illegal Personality Disorder Discharge Problem."
A person let go from military service with a diagnosis of personality disorder cannot access retirement disability benefits or severance disability payments and they may not qualify for monthly service connected compensation and timely health care from Veterans Affairs.
Personality disorder is considered a pre-existing condition, as opposed to post-traumatic stress disorder or traumatic brain injury and usually manifests itself in adolescence.
The Veterans Affairs Committee in the U.S. House of Representatives in 2007 accused the Department of Defense of deliberately misusing the personality diagnoses to save some $12.5 billion in health care and compensation.
The law clinic has determined that a total of 31,000 service members from 2001 to 2010 were discharged on the basis of alleged personality disorder, which is nearly 20 percent more than the 26,000 personality disorder discharges estimated by the federal General Accounting Office for 2001 to 2007.
read more here
Gilroy missing mom of Iraq war veteran in murder-suicide found dead
Missing mom of Iraq war veteran in murder-suicide found dead
Published March 22, 2012
Associated Press
GILROY, Calif. – The missing mother of an Iraq war veteran who police say killed his family in a murder-suicide was found dead on Thursday off a rural Northern California road.
Gilroy police and volunteers had been looking for 52-year-old Martha Gutierrez since last week, after the bodies of her children, 27-year-old Abel and 11-year-old Lucero, were found in their apartment.
Investigators believe Abel Gutierrez, a National Guardsman, fatally shot his mother and sister before turning the gun on himself.
read more here
Iraq War veteran likely shot mother before killing sister then self
Published March 22, 2012
Associated Press
GILROY, Calif. – The missing mother of an Iraq war veteran who police say killed his family in a murder-suicide was found dead on Thursday off a rural Northern California road.
Gilroy police and volunteers had been looking for 52-year-old Martha Gutierrez since last week, after the bodies of her children, 27-year-old Abel and 11-year-old Lucero, were found in their apartment.
Investigators believe Abel Gutierrez, a National Guardsman, fatally shot his mother and sister before turning the gun on himself.
read more here
Iraq War veteran likely shot mother before killing sister then self
Thursday, March 22, 2012
After Staff Sgt. Bales' arrest, military tried to delete him from the Web
After Bales' arrest, military tried to delete him from the Web
By DAVID GOLDSTEIN AND MATTHEW SCHOFIELD
McClatchy Newspapers
Published: March 21, 2012
WASHINGTON — Besides waiting nearly a week before identifying the Army staff sergeant accused of killing 16 Afghan villagers, the U.S. military scrubbed its websites of references to his combat service.
Gone were photographs of the suspect, Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, as well as a recounting in his base’s newspaper of a 2007 battle in Iraq involving his unit, a report that quoted him extensively.
But they weren’t really gone.
Given the myriad ways that information remains accessible on the Internet, despite the best efforts to remove it, the material about Bales was still out there and available, such as in cached versions of Web pages. Within minutes of the Pentagon leaking his name Friday evening, news organizations and others found and published his pictures, the account of the battle — which depicts Bales and other soldiers in a glowing light — and excerpts from his wife’s personal blog.
So why did the Pentagon try to scrub Bales from the Internet in the first place?
read more here
By DAVID GOLDSTEIN AND MATTHEW SCHOFIELD
McClatchy Newspapers
Published: March 21, 2012
WASHINGTON — Besides waiting nearly a week before identifying the Army staff sergeant accused of killing 16 Afghan villagers, the U.S. military scrubbed its websites of references to his combat service.
Gone were photographs of the suspect, Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, as well as a recounting in his base’s newspaper of a 2007 battle in Iraq involving his unit, a report that quoted him extensively.
But they weren’t really gone.
Given the myriad ways that information remains accessible on the Internet, despite the best efforts to remove it, the material about Bales was still out there and available, such as in cached versions of Web pages. Within minutes of the Pentagon leaking his name Friday evening, news organizations and others found and published his pictures, the account of the battle — which depicts Bales and other soldiers in a glowing light — and excerpts from his wife’s personal blog.
So why did the Pentagon try to scrub Bales from the Internet in the first place?
read more here
Who thought civilians treating soldiers for PTSD was a good idea?
Civilian psych staff doubled since 2007
By Joe Gould - Staff writer
Posted : Thursday Mar 22, 2012 11:20:30 EDT
As soldiers have increasingly struggled with post-traumatic stress, suicide and drug abuse, the Army has added thousands of civilian mental health specialists to treat troops and their families.
Army Medical Command reports it has more than doubled its inventory of civilian behavioral health care providers since 2007, with 1,985 hires. In five years, the service’s civilian corps gained 819 social workers, 510 psychologists and 73 psychiatrists, in large part due to an increase in congressional funding after the patient-care scandal at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in 2007.
Amid lengthy deployments and 10 years of war, the Army has seen behavioral health needs rise among troops. Since 2003, more than 70,000 soldiers have been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress. Last year alone, 278 suicides were reported in the active force, National Guard and Reserve, and more than 24,000 soldiers were referred to the Army Substance Abuse Program.
read more here
By Joe Gould - Staff writer
Posted : Thursday Mar 22, 2012 11:20:30 EDT
As soldiers have increasingly struggled with post-traumatic stress, suicide and drug abuse, the Army has added thousands of civilian mental health specialists to treat troops and their families.
Army Medical Command reports it has more than doubled its inventory of civilian behavioral health care providers since 2007, with 1,985 hires. In five years, the service’s civilian corps gained 819 social workers, 510 psychologists and 73 psychiatrists, in large part due to an increase in congressional funding after the patient-care scandal at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in 2007.
Amid lengthy deployments and 10 years of war, the Army has seen behavioral health needs rise among troops. Since 2003, more than 70,000 soldiers have been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress. Last year alone, 278 suicides were reported in the active force, National Guard and Reserve, and more than 24,000 soldiers were referred to the Army Substance Abuse Program.
read more here
YouTube video shows military helicopter crash in Afghanistan
Mar 22, 2012 by AssociatedPress
Video shows a US military helicopter apparently losing control and crashing near a base in Afghanistan. Reports indicate that no one was injured in the crash. The cause of the crash is said to be under investigation. (March 22)
Video shows a US military helicopter apparently losing control and crashing near a base in Afghanistan. Reports indicate that no one was injured in the crash. The cause of the crash is said to be under investigation. (March 22)
GOP budget, written by Rep. Paul Ryan "budget" does not include veterans
GOP Budget Doesn't Even Say the Word "Veteran"
Jon SoltzCo-Founder of VoteVets.org, Iraq War Veteran
Posted: 03/21/2012
Do Republicans care about keeping our promise to veterans?
Looking at the recently released GOP budget, written by Rep. Paul Ryan, it's hard to see how they do. In fact, looking at the nearly 100 page document, the word "veteran" doesn't appear once. Not once.
Today is the 9th anniversary of the start of the Iraq War. Last night, I spoke with someone who served with me in Iraq during my first tour. And for the first time in almost nine years, she wanted to talk to me about an incident where she drove through an IED and a soldier was killed. It was a profound moment that shows how war and sacrifice stay with us, always. For those of us who served, in many ways, yesterday is today. And today, we read that the GOP doesn't even talk about veterans in their budget.
But, without saying the word "veteran," the budget tells us a lot about what they think about veterans. The budget calls for across the board spending freezes and cuts. If enacted, the Ryan GOP budget would cut $11 billion from veterans spending, or 13 percent from what President Obama proposes in his own plan.
It's unconscionable that they'd do this at a time when so many Iraq veterans have just come home and rely on veterans care. Over 45,000 US troops were wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan, and more will come who will rely on VA services, on top of veterans of other wars and eras who depend on the VA. But, this shortsightedness isn't new.
read more here
Jon SoltzCo-Founder of VoteVets.org, Iraq War Veteran
Posted: 03/21/2012
Do Republicans care about keeping our promise to veterans?
Looking at the recently released GOP budget, written by Rep. Paul Ryan, it's hard to see how they do. In fact, looking at the nearly 100 page document, the word "veteran" doesn't appear once. Not once.
Today is the 9th anniversary of the start of the Iraq War. Last night, I spoke with someone who served with me in Iraq during my first tour. And for the first time in almost nine years, she wanted to talk to me about an incident where she drove through an IED and a soldier was killed. It was a profound moment that shows how war and sacrifice stay with us, always. For those of us who served, in many ways, yesterday is today. And today, we read that the GOP doesn't even talk about veterans in their budget.
But, without saying the word "veteran," the budget tells us a lot about what they think about veterans. The budget calls for across the board spending freezes and cuts. If enacted, the Ryan GOP budget would cut $11 billion from veterans spending, or 13 percent from what President Obama proposes in his own plan.
It's unconscionable that they'd do this at a time when so many Iraq veterans have just come home and rely on veterans care. Over 45,000 US troops were wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan, and more will come who will rely on VA services, on top of veterans of other wars and eras who depend on the VA. But, this shortsightedness isn't new.
read more here
Military Wives Rally Around Wife of Accused Afghanistan Shooter Robert Bales
Military Wives Rally Around Wife of Accused Afghanistan Shooter Robert Bales
by Jesse Ellison Mar 22, 2012 5:43 AM EDT
Since the slaying of 16 Afghans allegedly by Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, the ‘silent ranks’ of military wives are rallying around one of their own, recognizing they could easily have found themselves in Karilyn Bales’s shoes.
Most of us will, blessedly, never be in Karilyn Bales’s shoes. We will never know what it is like to discover that the person we married, the father of our two young children, has been accused of mass murder. Most of us wouldn’t even be able to begin to imagine how we might feel, or what we might do.
But most of us aren’t married to men in the military. Those who are—the more than one-million-strong ‘milspouses’ who make up the ‘silent ranks’ of the U.S. Armed Forces—can imagine it all too well. In the days after the news broke that Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, a 38-year-old father of two from Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington State, had allegedly killed 16 Afghan civilians, many veterans and service members hastened to distance themselves from the horrific act, rejecting the notion that PTSD or combat stress could be blamed for the soldier’s actions. But while the men scurried, the women rallied, taking to their blogs and social networks to voice their unconditional support for Bales’s wife, whom many even began to call ‘Kari.’
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by Jesse Ellison Mar 22, 2012 5:43 AM EDT
Since the slaying of 16 Afghans allegedly by Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, the ‘silent ranks’ of military wives are rallying around one of their own, recognizing they could easily have found themselves in Karilyn Bales’s shoes.
Most of us will, blessedly, never be in Karilyn Bales’s shoes. We will never know what it is like to discover that the person we married, the father of our two young children, has been accused of mass murder. Most of us wouldn’t even be able to begin to imagine how we might feel, or what we might do.
But most of us aren’t married to men in the military. Those who are—the more than one-million-strong ‘milspouses’ who make up the ‘silent ranks’ of the U.S. Armed Forces—can imagine it all too well. In the days after the news broke that Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, a 38-year-old father of two from Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington State, had allegedly killed 16 Afghan civilians, many veterans and service members hastened to distance themselves from the horrific act, rejecting the notion that PTSD or combat stress could be blamed for the soldier’s actions. But while the men scurried, the women rallied, taking to their blogs and social networks to voice their unconditional support for Bales’s wife, whom many even began to call ‘Kari.’
read more here
Vietnam vet suffers PTSD, murders wife
While watching this last night I was taken back to the time when PTSD was not talked about. It was something families felt they had to keep secret.
The common understanding is that PTSD was not acknowledged until many years after psychiatrists had already termed the condition and that was in the 70's. By 1978 there was a report commissioned by the Disabled American Veterans, stated that there were 500,000 Vietnam veterans with PTSD.
The DAV already set up Veterans Centers to help combat veterans heal by offering support and knowledge. That is how long this has all be going on but as you can see from reports coming out on this generation of veterans, few lessons have been learned.
Tracking reports across the country makes me furious because this pamphlet hangs on the wall behind my computer to remind me of just how lousy of a job we're doing and none of what we see happening to our veterans should be excused. They knew too much 40 years ago to be so far behind.
The common understanding is that PTSD was not acknowledged until many years after psychiatrists had already termed the condition and that was in the 70's. By 1978 there was a report commissioned by the Disabled American Veterans, stated that there were 500,000 Vietnam veterans with PTSD.
Tracking reports across the country makes me furious because this pamphlet hangs on the wall behind my computer to remind me of just how lousy of a job we're doing and none of what we see happening to our veterans should be excused. They knew too much 40 years ago to be so far behind.
Vietnam vet suffers PTSD, murders wife
Erin Burnett Out Front
Added on March 21, 2012
CNN's Miguel Marquez talks to veteran Gary Hulsey, a Pacific, Washington City Council member who killed his wife in 1978.
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