Hundreds attend funeral for Capt. MacFarlane

This morning at Glen Haven Memorial Park in Winter Park Florida, hundreds of people gathered together to honor the life of Capt. MacFarlane. The Orlando Nam Knights and Patriot Guard Riders formed a wall of flags.

Oviedo soldier dies in Afghanistan
July 8, 2012
By Leslie Postal and David Breen
Orlando Sentinel


A U.S. Army captain from Oviedo died in Afghanistan on Friday about three months after his Army Reserve unit was mobilized.

Bruce A. MacFarlane, 46, died in Kandahar, according to the Department of Defense, which did not provide information on how he died.

He was assigned to the 1186th Transportation Company, 831st Transportation Battalion, which is based in Jacksonville.

"He was a great guy, good family guy," said Keith Marang, who lives next door and said he met MacFarlane when both families moved into their new homes in 2008. "I was just floored when I heard the news."

He said MacFarlane, befitting his military career, was clean-cut and fit and looked younger than his age. He and his wife have two children, a son and a daughter, Marang said, adding that he thought they were in their early teens. He said the family moved to Oviedo from DeLand.

A person who answered the door at the family's large, modern home Sunday afternoon said they were not available, and she was not authorized to release any information. She said she was a friend of the family, and they'd been devastated by the news.

MacFarlane, who spent 12 years on active duty, was very patriotic, with an American flag always flying from his home, his neighbor said. Several small flags and red, white and blue pinwheels decorated the flower pots at the front door Sunday, presumably from the Fourth of July holiday last week.
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General says "suicide is the toughest enemy I ever faced"

Army leaders hear concerns from troops
Posted: Jul 27, 2012
KCTV
By DeAnn Smith, Digital
By Sandra Olivas, Reporter

FORT RILEY, KS (KCTV)
Top leaders in the U.S. Army on Friday met with soldiers at Fort Riley to hear their concerns.

Reporters were not allowed to videotape the Army leaders meeting with the soldiers and the military declined to provide any video taped by its own photographers, saying they wanted to ensure the discussions were open and honest.

Army Gen. Lloyd J. Austin III, the Army chief of staff and who previously oversaw the armed forces in Iraq, said the war in Afghanistan is the top priority.

"We want to finish that mission successfully, but equally important and mutually supporting mission is the health of our force," Austin said.

Austin and others toured this week six Army posts, including Fort Riley. The focus is ways to improve the lives of soldiers and their families. The focus is the solders' physical and mental well being.


"I have been deployed to Iraq three times and once to Afghanistan and been in good fights with tough enemies," Austin said. "And I will tell you: suicide is the toughest enemy I ever faced."
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PTSD The Final Battle After War

"America I gave my best to you." is part of the song American Anthem from Ken Burns The War. I never really understood this growing up because I was surrounded by veterans. My Dad was a Korean War veteran and my uncles were WWII veterans. To me, they were normal. When my friends told me their family members didn't serve, I thought they were the odd ones. As I got older, I knew I had it backwards.

Still I didn't have a true sense of what came back with the men and women sent to fight in combat until I met a Vietnam veteran. We've been together for 30 years and it is because of him I know that when it comes to the population of America, we are odd but when you consider 8% of the population can call themselves veterans, we are not so odd among them.

What shall be our legacy?
What will our children say?
Let them say of me
I was one who believed
In sharing the blessings
I received
Let me know in my heart
When my days are through
America
America
I gave my best to you

When it comes to Combat PTSD, we are not odd at all. The heart/soul/spirit of a man/woman, so committed to another human they would die for them, is magnificent. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. which is the most courageous love there is. Felt so deeply by so many that it is also the thing that burdens them the most. It is what causes the cut so deeply within them they cannot heal it without help.

Battles fought together acts of conscience fought alone, these are the seeds from which America has grown.

If there was ever an anthem for Combat PTSD, this should be it.

Marine sentenced to death on spy charge in Iran

Family of ex- Marine sentenced to death on spy charge in Iran receiving little news of case
By Associated Press
Published: July 27

FLINT, Mich. — The family of an ex-U.S. Marine sentenced to death for spying in Iran said Friday that members have received little information about his case months after a new trial was reportedly ordered.

Amir Hekmati was accused of working for the CIA and sentenced to death in January, the first American to receive a death penalty since the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran. His family and the U.S. government have denied the allegations.
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Wisconsin National Guard Sergeant not guilty reason of insanity

Iraq veteran not guilty reason of insanity
Article by: BILL McAULIFFE
Star Tribune
Updated: July 27, 2012

A two-time Iraq war veteran who was denied admission to the Minneapolis Veterans Affairs Medical Center hours before going on a car-jacking spree and jumping in front of highway traffic has been found not guilty by reason of insanity by a Dakota County judge.

Blake Uddin, 31, a Wisconsin National Guard sergeant who worked on communications equipment during two deployments to Iraq, was found guilty of three counts of attempted robbery and one count of theft for the string of incidents last Aug. 23.

But District Court Judge David Knutson, who heard the case instead of a jury, also ruled that Uddin was so mentally disturbed at the time that he didn't know what he was doing, or that it was wrong.
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Sequestration could mean another 100K-troop cut

Sequestration could mean another 100K-troop cut
By Rick Maze
Staff writer
Posted : Thursday Jul 26, 2012

The possibility that sequestration could lead to an additional reduction of 100,000 active-duty troops has been seized upon by a key House Republican as the newest reason why the Defense Department needs special protection from across-the-board cuts.

The estimate of personnel cuts came from Defense Secretary Leon Panetta on Wednesday during a hearing about military transition programs, in response to a question from Rep. Buck McKeon, R-Calif., about the impact of sequestration on the unemployment rate for veterans.

McKeon’s office is widely circulating the statement as a sign of the potential damage posed by the automatic, across-the-board federal spending cuts known as sequestration that could happen in January.

“It would obviously add another 100,000 that would have to be reduced, and the impact of that on top of the reductions that are currently going to take place would place a huge burden on the systems to be able to respond to that,” Panetta said. “I think it would be near-impossible to try to do the kind of work that we are trying to do and make it work effectively.”

It was McKeon, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, who first suggested the possibility of the 100,000-troop cut. “We know that there’s high unemployment among our veterans, our young veterans, and we know that, with the $487 billion cut in defense, we will have 100,000 leaving the military. We will have another 100,000 if the sequestration takes effect,” he said.
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Charges sought in Wisconsin veterans cemetery trash dump

Charges sought in veterans cemetery trash dump
By Scott Bauer
The Associated Press
Posted : Friday Jul 27, 2012

MADISON, Wis. — The state Department of Justice has been asked to bring charges against a former maintenance supervisor at a veterans cemetery for allegedly using the grounds as his private dump, burying everything from lawnmower blades to refrigerators.

The Department of Natural Resources on Thursday referred the case to the DOJ for alleged violations at the Southern Wisconsin Veterans Memorial Cemetery outside of Union Grove. The cemetery has been designed as a national shrine.

The Associated Press is not naming the former worker because he has not been formally charged. The worker resigned in November, three months after loads of garbage were removed from the cemetery.
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Iraq and Afghanistan veterans with PTSD more likely to commit suicide than others

I thought about this title for while, trying to figure out how to get as much attention as possible. This one seemed to fit best. While I used PTSD and this report used "mental health condition" we really know what the majority of the "mental health" conditions really are all about. PTSD is the major one followed by, TBI. The rest, well if you listen to most experts they tell you that when a veteran has PTSD and a psychologist is looking for something else, they are usually able to link what is PTSD to other illnesses. If they are actually looking for PTSD, all they need to do is find a traumatic event. Why? Because the only way to end up with PTSD is after trauma.

Study examines suicide among OEF, OIF vets
By Patricia Kime
Staff writer
Posted : Friday Jul 27, 2012

Iraq and Afghanistan veterans are no more likely to commit suicide than other veterans — unless they have been diagnosed with a mental health condition.

Then, their risk is four times higher than veterans who have not received any mental health diagnosis, according to a study published in the June Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology.

While psychiatric disorders are a known risk factor for suicide in the general population as well as in veterans, researchers sought to determine whether those who served in Iraq and Afghanistan were especially vulnerable.

They cross-referenced the Veterans Health Administration’s National Patient Care Database with the Centers for Disease Control’s National Death Index for answers. In fiscal 2007 and 2008, there were 1,920 veteran suicides, 96 of whom served in Iraq or Afghanistan.

Analysis showed that having a mental health condition correlated with increased risk: a mental health diagnosis increased the suicide risk in Iraq and Afghanistan veterans four-fold, while other veterans with a mental health condition were 2½ times more likely to commit suicide.
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Support for Homeland Heroes

Support for Homeland Heroes
by SHELLY on JULY 27, 2012

Did you know that around 38% of Fire Rescue personnel and 32% of Emergency Dispatchers suffer from symptoms of PTSD? Or that every 17 hours a law enforcement officer takes his or her own life? The suicide rate among correctional officers is estimated to be even more than double that rate. These devastating statistics are provided by Serve & Protect’s website.

Serve and Protect is more than just an online presence. It is an organization dedicated to providing emotional, educational and spiritual support to Homeland Heroes (law enforcement, fire/rescue, corrections and emergency dispatch personnel) across the country and around the world. “The emotional trauma of the job, post traumatic stress, depression, and emotional isolation are killers,” says S and P. “Serve and Protect is there to care, help, and listen rooted in experience on the job and a rock solid network of partners and affiliates”.

Senior Chaplain Robert Michaels founded Serve & Protect in 2011. He knows all too well how first responders and criminal justice professionals put their lives on the line and the trauma they witness in the line of duty. Before embarking on his pastoral training, Michaels served for the 229th Military Police Battalion of the Virginia National Guard and as an officer and detective for the Norfolk Police Department. Serve and Protect’s board of directors, advisors and staff are also made up of individuals who have served as homeland heroes. For example, Dr. Melissa Riley, who has extensive experience counseling individuals suffering from PTSD, and other forms of mental illness, has 19 years experience working in fire/rescue.
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This PTSD I Grieve about National Guards and Reservists coming home and risking their lives back here after they risked them in combat. I did it for them but it turned out it was helping police and firefighters.

Sheriff can't get help for PTSD shooter because the VA said NO

Here we go again! We tell law enforcement to get their act together so they treat veterans with PTSD as if they are troubled and need help. This Sheriff listened. He paid attention. He didn't kill this veteran. He took him into custody and tried to get him help. What happened? Nothing! The VA said they would't help!

Sheriff can't get help for PTSD shooter
VA denied mental treatment, lawman says
Updated: Thursday, 26 Jul 2012
Ian Schwartz

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - A heavily armed veteran who caused quite a scare Wednesday remains jailed on Thursday.

Torrance County Sheriff Heath White told KRQE News 13 the man needs mental help, so he turned to the agency he thought would be most likely to provide it but came up empty.

White said, Morris Haviland, the ex-soldier, suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, PTSD, after being badly wounded during peacekeeping duty in Bosnia.

On Wednesday he fired a dozen shots inside his house in Mountainair, and after surrendering, claimed it was booby trapped with explosives.

"He started deteriorating throughout the week," White said. "He started reliving his experience through the military while he was overseas."

White said during his PTSD episode Haviland, 54, started firing his AK-47 inside his home getting the attention of a lot cops and then the bomb squad.

"He definitely needed some type of mental health assistance, whether it be medication, counseling," White said.

After deputies took Haviland into custody, White called the Veterans Administration hospital in Albuquerque.

He wanted to get Haviland immediate mental help for his PTSD, help he could not get in jail.
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Michael saluted, raised a gun to his head and pulled the trigger

For too many veterans, the ultimate defeat
By Phil Stewart
updated 7/26/2012

CHAMPION, Ohio — On a warm summer afternoon in Champion, Ohio, Michael Ecker, a 25-year-old Iraq war veteran, called out to his father from a leafy spot in their backyard. Then, as the two stood steps apart, Michael saluted, raised a gun to his head and pulled the trigger.

"His eyes rolled back," his father, Matt, said softly as he recounted the 2009 suicide.

"There was just nothing I could do."

Weeks before he killed himself, Michael received a letter from the Department of Veterans Affairs accusing him of "over-reporting" the extent of his psychiatric problems. It was the culmination of a long struggle that Ecker, diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury related to his service, had waged since returning home from the war to try to hold down a steady job, obtain VA disability benefits and resume a life as close to normal as possible.

"I've often thought about finding that doctor and saying, ‘Over-reporting?!' and giving him the death certificate," Matt Ecker said.

About once every half hour in America, a veteran within the VA healthcare system tries to commit suicide, according to VA figures for fiscal year 2011.
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