OEF OIF TBI cases could reach 460,000

Soldiers' brain trauma cases disputed
Thousands of terror war soldiers who are back home struggle with TBI
By Bill Torpy and Mark Davis

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

"A congressional report in February said studies indicate between 15 percent and 23 percent of the 2 million who have served in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have experienced a TBI, which would mean 300,000 to 460,000 cases."

David McRaney always considered himself a quick thinker, a problem solver who threw himself into challenges.

Now, he struggles to find the right words when talking. He starts sentences and stops in the middle. He reads a chapter, then realizes none of it has soaked in. Some days, he goes out to get the mail, then can’t remember if he brought it in. If he remembers he brought it in, he can’t remember where he put it.

The Army captain says his brain acts like an Internet dial-up connection: The information is there, and it’s coming. But ... he ... must ... wait ... for ... it.

Two years ago, McRaney, a reservist, was in Afghanistan when a mortar shell landed on his bunker, killing three civilian contractors who were with him. McRaney survived, but his brain was damaged in the explosion, diminishing his memory, ability to follow directions and process speech.
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A war correspondent and veteran's reflection

A war correspondent's reflection: If I don't tell the story, who will?
April 22, 2012
By Jackie Spinner

Coming Home PA is a project spearheaded by PublicSource, a local nonprofit investigative news group, with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and other local media partners.

We were an odd trio, sitting in a hipster lounge in Dupont Circle, last November, smoking flavored tobacco, sharing war stories, oblivious to the people around us.

Joao Silva, a photographer, was still getting treatment in Washington, D.C., after stepping on a land mine in October 2010 in Afghanistan while on assignment for the New York Times. He lost both his legs. A year later, Joao was in shorts, even though it had been snowing earlier in the day, and the disco lights kept catching the metal of his prosthetic legs in a dancing twinkle that matched our mood.

Bill Putnam, a multimedia journalist and former U.S. soldier, was on his way back to Afghanistan. Putnam has gone to war now as a soldier and civilian seven times since 1996. Once again, he was putting everything else aside to cover war.

"I literally don't know anything else but this life," he said in a recent email from Afghanistan. "I don't feel fulfilled back home."
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More soldiers in the Army overall are testing positive for heroin

Opiates killed 8 Americans in Afghanistan, Army records show
By Michael Martinez,
CNN
Sat April 21, 2012

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Eight soldiers died of overdoses involving heroin, morphine or other opiates in 2010-11
56 soldiers, including the eight, were investigated for using, possessing or selling the drugs
More soldiers in the Army overall are testing positive for heroin use
The Taliban are believed to be stockpiling opium to finance their activities, U.N. reported

(CNN) -- Eight American soldiers died of overdoses involving heroin, morphine or other opiates during deployments in Afghanistan in 2010 and 2011, according to U.S. Army investigative reports.

The overdoses were revealed in documents detailing how the Army investigated a total of 56 soldiers, including the eight who fell victim to overdoses, on suspicion of possessing, using or distributing heroin and other opiates.

At the same time, heroin use apparently is on the rise in the Army overall, as military statistics show that the number of soldiers testing positive for heroin has grown from 10 instances in fiscal year 2002 to 116 in fiscal year 2010.

Army officials didn't respond to repeated requests for comment on Saturday. But records from the service's Criminal Investigation Command, obtained by the conservative legal group Judicial Watch, provided glimpses into how soldiers bought drugs from Afghan juveniles, an Afghan interpreter and in one case, an employee of a Defense Department contractor, who was eventually fired.
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Gold Star Dads grieve too!

Military dads with tragic bond share their grief
By HOWARD ALTMAN
The Tampa Tribune
Published: April 21, 2012

RUSKIN

The men in the living room at the Southern Comfort Inn Bed and Breakfast nod knowingly as they talk about things no one else fully can understand.

They are part of a small fraternity no man wants to join. They are gathered in Ruskin to share their stories and their pain, and to be with the only people who truly know what it's like.

There are about 68 million fathers in the United States. A few more than 6,000 of them have lost a child to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The six men in the living room are among that .001 percent, gathered on a cloudy Saturday by American Gold Star Mothers Inc., a service organization dedicated to helping the parents of the fallen, be it from battle, accident and even suicide.
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1 Out of 3 G.I. Deaths Are Suicides

Do you really need more evidence "resiliency training" does not work?

1 Out of 3 G.I. Deaths Are Suicides, a New U.S. Epidemic Among Veterans
Thomas Cuffein
Politics,Veterans

For every two American combatants killed by enemy action, one more dies by suicide. The Department of Defense reports that in the last 10 years 4,989 military personnel have been killed in action in Afghanistan and Iraq, while in the same period 2,293 active duty personnel have taken their own lives. American veterans of these and other wars account for 20% of U.S. suicides. The reality is that this country is now facing an epidemic of dire national security and humanitarian consequences as an increasing segment of our military population is turning to suicide.

Direct causes of this upward trend largely stem from issues of mental health which include traumatic brain injury, post traumatic stress disorder, survivor’s guilt as well as increased drug and alcohol dependency. These are often exacerbated by the transition to civilian life that removes many of the previous support networks of service life.

Economic issues are also prevalent, as veterans often find themselves in trying financial situations as they attempt to reintegrate into a civilian society with high unemployment where the few jobs available have little demand for military skills. It does not help that the while the Veteran’s Administration budget of $138 billion has almost quadrupled since the beginning of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, it is still woefully inadequate to serve expanding veteran numbers and requirements.

Maybe the biggest problem confronting those that need help is the continuing stigma that comes with seeking out a mental health professional. This needs to change both within the military and in society as a whole. While the number of service members that pursue mental health help has increased, the stigma against asking for help is still strong – 43% of those service members who killed themselves in 2010 did not seek assistance through official channels.
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Marine’s medals stolen during car break-In

Marine’s medals stolen during car break-In
April 21, 2012
By Scott Wise KTVI
St. Louis, MO (KTVI)

The story of yet another car break-in in the area around the Gateway Arch comes with a new and sad twist. The victim, in this case, is a United States Marine, and what he has lost cannot be replaced.

Sgt. Ethan Stoeckel and his wife Kaitlin had been visiting her family in Central Illinois, and decided to visit the Arch Grounds while waiting for a plane out of St. Louis. It was April 10, around noon.

The parked in a lot right along the river, directly across from the Gateway Arch. The parking lot had an attendant. It seemed like a perfectly safe place to park, but it wasn’t. They returned to their pickup truck, where their luggage had been locked in the cab, and found everything was gone. Stoeckel’s uniforms and medals he had earned were among the stolen items, but there was more.

“I lost six guys this time,” said of the Afghanistan tour he completed last month, “and one of them was my really close friend. And I had a coin he had given me that I was gonna give my dad.”

And that wasn’t the only memento of his friendship with that buddy, a Texan named Joseph Logan.

“I had pictures on my phone that was only on my phone of my best friend and like I said, I’ll never see ‘em again,” he lamented. “We had patches made up, we will never forget patches. And I had one of eight and I’ll never see that patch again.”
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Marine kills another Marine near D.C. barracks

Marine kills another Marine near D.C. barracks, police say
By Allison Klein and Clarence Williams
Published: April 21

One Marine allegedly stabbed another Marine to death early Saturday on Capitol Hill’s Barracks Row, near the Marine Barracks and the residence of the Marine commandant.

The Marines got into a fight that began when the suspect called the victim an anti-gay slur, police said.

After the stabbing, Marine guards stationed nearby subdued the suspect and handed him over to D.C. police.

Phillip Bushong, 23, who was based at Camp Lejeune, was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
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Veterans tell their stories of war in 10-part radio series

Veterans tell their stories of war in 10-part radio series
BY HANNAH KOHUT Correspondent
April 20, 2012

Veterans from World War II and wars in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan are sharing their war stories as part of a new 10-part radio series at St. Xavier University dubbed “Veteran Matters.”

Producer Peter Kreten said the veterans’ experiences are “very much” a part of our American history.

“You can hear honest experiences,” Kreten said. “You’re going to hear stories about being a sailor on the USS Bunker Hill; about Korea and running away from aircraft fire; and of the experiences from Army nurses.”

One of those nurses, 91-year-old Joan Schechner, of Evergreen Park, said that participating in the radio program was “very exciting.”

“We took care of soldiers in Iwo Jima and Okinawa,” Schechner said. “In Iwo Jima, the hospital was just a tent put together with dirt floors and no cots. We prepared the patients to go in for surgery, and penicillin was only about a year old at the time, and we were able to give penicillin shots.

“I spent my 25th birthday in Okinawa, and my grandson had his 25th birthday in Afghanistan,” Schechner said. “It was wonderful being in the service; I’d do the same thing again today.”

Some of the oral histories are from more recent wars.
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Killing in war linked with suicidal thoughts, duh

This shocker came from college research?

“We want clinicians and suicide prevention coordinators to be aware that in analyzing a veteran’s risk of suicide, killing in combat is an additional factor that they may or may not be aware of.” Shira Maguen, a clinical psychologist at SFVAMC and an assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at UCSF.

Mind boggling that they understand so little after so long. Do they ever read research already done? One other cause of a survivor wanting to die is guilt when they believe they should have died instead. Is this the next thing they'll feel the need to put out a press release over?

Killing in war linked with suicidal thoughts among Vietnam veterans
University of California at San Francisco
April 21, 2012

The experience of killing in war was strongly associated with thoughts of suicide, in a study of Vietnam-era veterans led by researchers at the San Francisco VA Medical Center (SFVAMC) and the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF).

The scientists found that veterans with more experiences involving killing were twice as likely to have reported suicidal thoughts as veterans who had fewer or no experiences.

To evaluate the experience of killing, the authors created four variables – killing enemy combatants, killing prisoners, killing civilians in general and killing or injuring women, children or the elderly. For each veteran, they combined those variables into a single composite measure. The higher the composite score, the greater the likelihood that a veteran had thought about suicide.
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Former POWs reject Utah man’s claims of being one of them

Former POWs reject Utah man’s claims Stolen valor?
A nonprofit that investigates vets’ claims of service says the Utah man is not on a Department of Defense list of POWs.

By Kristen Moulton
The Salt Lake Tribune
First Published Apr 20 2012
POWs from the Vietnam War contend that Dave Groves, a West Jordan man honored last week by the Veterans Administration and years ago by the University of Utah, was never held captive in Vietnam.

(Al Hartmann The Salt Lake Tribune) Dave Groves, who claims he was captured and held as a POW in the Vietnam war, shakes the hands of POWs from World War II during a POW appreciation luncheon Friday, April 13, in Salt Lake City. Some now question Groves' account.

Groves does not appear on a database of Department of Defense Vietnam-era POWs, compiled from military records.

"He’s a typical liar," said Mike McGrath, historian of Nam-Pow, a nonprofit organization of Vietnam prisoners of war. "There are 540 of us still alive from Vietnam, and we have 3,000 wannabees who want to be us."

Groves, who has hired an attorney after a week of online challenges to his truthfulness, insists he was a POW who for unexplained reasons does not appear in the Pentagon’s database.
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Vietnam Veteran remembers "Five minutes later, he was dead"

When you think about what they go through during war, never forget what they have to remember afterwards.

Vietnam War Veteran Awarded Bronze Star for Valor
Updated: Friday, 20 Apr 2012
By BETH PARKER/myfoxdc

WASHINGTON - Great sacrifice was remembered Friday on the National Mall. About 100 people gathered at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial wall. One of them was honored for a brave act 40 years ago.

When Tony Martinez looks at the wall, he sees himself.

“My name should be there, not his,” he says.

In 1970, Martinez was an 18-year-old serving in a village in Vietnam. Over breakfast, his friend Joe Billy McNett asked him to trade duties for the day. That made McNett the first man on patrol.

“We had just shared a meal that morning,” says Martinez. “He showed me some pictures of his family and we were laughing about the old times back in basic. Five minutes later, he was dead.”
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Vietnam War Veteran Awarded Bronze Star for Valor: MyFoxDC.com

D-Day 101st vet beaten, wife killed in robbery

D-Day 101st vet beaten, wife killed in robbery
By Philip Grey -
The (Clarksville, Tenn.) Leaf-Chronicle
Posted : Saturday Apr 21, 2012


The 101st Airborne Division Association is asking its members and other Screaming Eagles veterans to step up and help one of their own — a 90-year-old D-Day veteran who nearly died as a result of a brutal home invasion last month.

Bob Strait of Tulsa, Okla., was hospitalized after a vicious March 14 robbery that killed his wife, 85-year-old Nancy Strait. She was beaten and raped in the attack.

The couple, who met on a blind date on Thanksgiving Day 1946, had been married for 65 years.

Police have one suspect in custody, but they believe as many as four others took part in the home invasion.

TO DONATE Send checks to the Nancy Strait and Bob Strait Support Trust, c/o Arvest Bank, Tulsa Branch, 502 S. Main St., Tulsa, OK 74103. Please include on the check’s memo line that is for the Straits’ account.

One of the Strait’s daughters, Lenore Gay, said the investigation is ongoing, but she is unhappy that Tulsa police have mustered nowhere near the resources in her parents’ case as those applied to a nationally reported shooting spree in Tulsa that occurred at around the same time.
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original post
WWII veteran in hospital after being attacked, wife was killed

Afghan military recruits found dealing drugs to US soldiers

So it is ok for the Afghans if the soldiers do drugs but not ok if they have a beer? Did we send our troops to protect drug dealers? Are they trying to kill our troops with drugs instead of bombs and bullets? Does any of this make any sense to you?

Afghan military recruits found dealing drugs to US soldiers, Army documents show
By Catherine Herridge
Published April 20, 2012
FoxNews.com

Afghan forces are being trained by the U.S. military to take over the mission by 2014, but new documents obtained by Judicial Watch through a request under the Freedom of Information Act show that some of the Afghan recruits stand accused of dealing drugs to U.S. soldiers.

“It's really troubling that our troops are being placed in this situation where they're under enough pressure as it is,” Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton told Fox News. “But evidently our allies there are acting as drug pushers in some ways.”

Fitton and his investigators found that between January 2010 and December 2011, the Army investigated 56 soldiers in Afghanistan for the possession, use or distribution of opiates. Heroin was cited 26 times.
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16 forgotten veterans in Tucson receive military funerals

16 homeless and indigent veterans honored today
Posted: Apr 20, 2012
TUCSON
Sixteen indigent and homeless Arizona veterans are being laid to rest today as part of a project conducted by members of the Arizona Missing in America Project, the Veterans Recovery Program.

The national organization locates unclaimed remains and works with VA offices to determine the veterans' status so they can provide a military honors service for them.
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