War veterans hit Sandy's front lines for rescues, cleanup

War veterans hit Sandy's front lines for rescues, cleanup
By Bill Briggs
NBC News contributor

Up to his armpits in flood water, flanked by darkened buildings and submerged vehicles, Iraq veteran Peter Meijer felt oddly at home Monday night as he trudged through the streets of Brooklyn at the height of Sandy's fury: "The right place at the right time with the right mission."

With a fellow veteran at his side, Meijer had driven a van from a Brooklyn high school-turned-evacuation shelter to the Gerritsen Beach neighborhood, stopping only when the van's tires met the storm surge. From there, the pair went on foot. With 911 phone lines down, the Army reservist was trying to reach and rescue a man who had climbed into his attic with his dog to escape the rising tide. Back at the shelter, the man's wife — who had been on the phone with him — pleaded Meijer to try to save him.
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Marines back after tragic Afghanistan deployment

Marines back after tragic deployment
Yuma Sun
November 01, 2012
BY JAMES GILBERT

The Harrier squadron that lost its commanding officer and the aviation support unit that lost one of its fellow Marines in an insurgent attack on their base during a six-month deployment to Afghanistan both returned to Marine Corps Air Station Yuma Thursday afternoon to a tearful, hug-filled reunion with friends and family.

Approximately 88 members of Marine Attack Squadron 211 and Marine Aviation Logistics Squadron 13 were greeted by relatives, loved ones and fellow Marines who had returned in late September, when they arrived outside the squadron's hangar.

Despite all the happy reunions, there was also a sense of sadness. While deployed, the squadron was touched by tragedy when Lt. Col. Christopher “Otis” Raible, VMA-211's commanding officer, and Sgt. Bradley Atwell, a Marine Aviation Logistics Squadron 13 electronics technician, were killed in an insurgent attack on Camp Bastion on Sept. 14.
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Retired Marine gets keys to Oxnard home

Retired Marine gets keys to Oxnard home
VCStar.com
By Gretchen Wenner
Posted November 1, 2012

The former enlisted Marine and his family walked through the door of their Oxnard home for the first time Thursday morning thanks to a charity program for veterans.

"Is that a real fireplace?" wondered Manuel Lopez, 32, as he, his wife and their four daughters toured the two-story house in the Lemonwood neighborhood, northeast of Rose Avenue and Channel Islands Boulevard. (Answer: Yes, it's real.)

"I'm in shock," Lopez said as his daughters picked out bedrooms. When he saw the garage, he knew that's where his prized '63 Pontiac Bonneville would live.

With three bathrooms, the new digs will be a major step up from the place the family has been renting in Whittier. Living with five girls has meant getting up at "zero dark thirty" to get his showers in, Lopez mused, adding, "Even my dog's a girl."

The family — Lopez; his wife, Raquel, 29; his daughters, Cecilia, 11, Nahdia, 8, Sofia, 6, and Juliana, who turns 2 in December; and dog Roxy, a Maltese/Shih Tzu mix — is getting the home mortgage-free through a program launched in February by Operation Homefront. The Texas-based nonprofit formed in early 2002 helps military families and wounded warriors through what has become a range of programs.
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Double amputee jumps into a brave new life

Double amputee jumps into a brave new life
Patriot Charities to help double amputee from 101st Airborne finally taste the skies by tandem parachute
By Karen Garloch
Posted: Friday, Nov. 02, 2012

After multiple surgeries and months of rehabilitation, Army Corporal David Bixler is able to stand without assistance on his X2 prosthetic legs. The X2 is a microprocessor-controlled device that reacts to subtle changes in terrain or the wearer’s gait, allowing Bixler to walk and even climb stairs.

Army Corporal David Bixler never got the chance to jump out of an airplane when he was assigned to the 101st Airborne Division.

Friday, he’ll get his chance.

Bixler, who lost both legs while saving his platoon from an explosion in Afghanistan in 2010, will take part in a tandem skydive over Charlotte Latin’s football stadium.

“I want to show people what’s left for guys like me,” Bixler said in an interview from Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Maryland, where he is undergoing rehabilitation.

“Just because you’re busted up doesn’t mean you can’t have fun.”

Friday’s jump is sponsored by the Patriot Charities, a Charlotte-based nonprofit that supports wounded members of the military and their families from the Carolinas.

The group raised $3,500 to pay for Bixler’s jump with Mike Elliott, an Army veteran who has made more than 9,000 parachute jumps, including two tandem jumps with former President George H.W. Bush.
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Fort Hood Shooting Survivor Begins 80-Mile Run To Capitol

Ft Hood Shooting Survivor Begins 80-Mile Run To Capitol
KCENTV.com
Posted: Nov 01, 2012
By Sophia Stamas

A soldier who survived the Fort Hood massacre hit the road for an 80-mile run to the state capitol Thursday morning.

It was an emotional send-off near Fort Hood's Clear Creek gate, as others wounded that tragic day waved him off at the starting line.

CW5 Chris Royal was shot twice in his lower back, on either side of his spine on November 5, 2009, while getting ready for a deployment on Fort Hood.

He remembers it like it was yesterday.

"A lot chaos broke out, it was a lot of gunfire," said Chris.

His wife, Stephanie, is also a Fort Hood soldier and was taking part in a training exercise across post, when she got the news.

"I was reading the text message that said Chris was shot, and I was just like, oh my God," she recalls.

The couple will never forget the events of that day.

Now despite shooting pain caused by his wounds, Chris is running to the Texas capitol so that the nation doesn't forget those who are still hurting.

"I want America to see that the 32 still standing, we're going to be here, we're not going anywhere, but we do need their support," Chris said.
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Air Force Academy Religious Respect Program May Go Servicewide

As a Chaplain, the only thing that matters to me is someone needs help. After they are respected as a human in need, what they believe is secondary. If I am talking to a Christian, I talk to them about Christ and what He said. It doesn't matter to me what denomination they were trained to believe. If I am helping someone of a different faith, I have a basic knowledge of what they believe and I don't try to change that. If I talk to someone with no beliefs at all, it is the same way. It is not up to me to covert them any more than it is to condemn them if they do not believe as I do. Usually people laugh when I tell them I won't hit them over the head with a Bible or try to convert them especially when I am Eastern (Greek)Orthodox. If I have the right to believe what I make the choice to do, so do they.

That is what Religious Freedom is all about. No one faith has the right to force their views on others. Even if you accept the claim the US is a "Christian Nation" whenever you hear someone say that, you need to ask them what one they are talking about. Don't forget there are so many different denominations of Christians it is hard to keep track. Even within groups, there are divisions so all people should be able to have their rights to use their own God Given Freewill to make their own choices in life. No one should have the right to have what they believe forced on anyone else. This is a step in the right direction.

AFA Religious Respect Program May Go Servicewide
Nov 02, 2012
The Gazette
Colorado Springs, Colo.
by Erin Prater

An Air Force Academy program to teach cadets to respect the religious beliefs of comrades will soon go to all Air Force bases and schools, if academy chaplains have their way.

While a target date has not been set for the program's expansion, chaplains hope to transition the Religious Respect Training Program throughout the Air Force as soon as possible, chaplain Maj. Shawn Menchion said Wednesday at the conclusion of the academy's Religious Respect Conference.

"It may reach basic training for enlisted airmen before it reaches the officers," Menchion said.

The program was launched in 2010 at the recommendation of senior academy leaders after several years of religious-related controversies, Menchion said.

Initially, it was a one-hour training session on the First Amendment's clauses that relate to religious freedom, and was taught by academy chaplains to the class of 2014 at cadet basic training.

Last year, the academy and its partners, including the Anti-Defamation League, developed three additional lessons that will be taught at other times: one-hour lessons during sophomore and junior years, and a two-hour lesson during senior year, Menchion said.

The training teaches cadets "to become allies to other cadets when they witness respect infractions," he said. "We're giving them avenues to address those issues. We emphasize addressing those issues at the lowest level."

"This is something new," Menchion said of the program. "No other military members are getting this training except for the cadets."
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When PTSD articles fail to tell the whole truth, suffering goes on

When PTSD articles fail to tell the whole truth, suffering goes on
by Chaplain Kathie
Wounded Times Blog
November 2, 2012

I just read an article "Does PTSD Cause Violence?" that appeared to have a lot to offer in the discussion involving the different type of PTSD veterans and police officers are hit by than what civilians end up with. While civilians can suffer from traumatic events that happen once in their lives, usually they do not have to face it happening over and over again.

Abuse is different from other traumatic "events" in a person's life. Abuse is a continuing cycle with the constant fear of repeated threats to their lives and wellbeing. For abuse victims, if they live with the abuser, events feed what living with trauma has already done to them. Victims are told to get away from the abuser but until that person is in jail or has died, the fear remains until the survivor can be sure they are no longer in danger. They cannot begin to heal until the threat is gone.

In attempting to remove the idea that PTSD veterans are dangerous the article misses too much that needs to be discussed. Apparently the authors have not discovered what a flashback is or they would know what happens if a veteran is having a flashback and some decides to yell at them or touch them, especially a spouse. Nightmares, well they are just as bad if someone goes about waking them up the wrong way. They put "flashback" in the list along with hyper-arousal but while attempting to eliminate the fear some people have they cut out some really important details.

Does PTSD Cause Violence? Article from Badge of Life
By Andy O’Hara, Sergeant (ret.) California Highway Patrol and Founder, Badge of Life,
and
Richard L. Levenson, Jr., Psy.D., CTS, Vice Chairman, Badge of Life

Are veterans (or police officers) with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) a danger on the streets? Are combat veterans with PTSD returning home as “trained killers?”

We have all read these newspaper headlines: “PTSD made him a Murderer!” “Psychologist: Killer has PTSD!” “War damaged vet kills girlfriend; PTSD to blame?” “Officer uses PTSD defense for strangling, battering his wife.”

These are the kind of headlines making the rounds as thousands of military veterans return from our wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Not only is society fearing them, but some police departments are warning their personnel to “be on the watch” for veterans in general (as if you can tell them apart), with the implication that military service alone carries the threat of having the “PTSD germ.”

Defense attorneys are always open for a ready-made opportunity to suggest that a suspect was conditioned by the military into responding to any stress situations with violence—and thereby commit a murder. The media, of course, sees a story guaranteed to generate both interest and controversy throughout the extended length of a trial, and the headlines, as we have seen, inflame and arouse a variety of passions.

The unfortunate consequence of this sensationalism, sadly, is to stigmatize not only veterans with PTSD, but all PTSD sufferers, as being potentially dangerous.

This is not really new. To begin with, society has always tended to view the mentally ill as “dangerous.” Mental Health America reports that characters with mental illnesses are depicted in prime time television shows as the most dangerous of all demographic groups: 60 percent were shown to be involved in crime or violence. Also, most news accounts portray people with mental illness as dangerous. The vast majority of news stories on mental illness either focus on other negative characteristics related to people with the disorder (e.g., unpredictability and unsociability) or on medical treatments.

Simply put, PTSD is “fear” based, not “aggression” based. The DSM-IV-R (Diagnostic Statistical Manual, Revised) is clear. In brief, the primary features of the this illness are:
· flashbacks
· withdrawal
· numbing
· hyperarousal
· and isolation.

Violence is not included. In fact, not one single research study exists linking violent behavior with the diagnosis of PTSD. While, anger and agitation are common symptoms of PTSD, these feelings tend to be turned inward, contributing to making it the terribly painful disorder it is. Combined with depression, it is not unusual for the sufferer to become suicidal. But a diagnosis of PTSD, in itself, does not make a person violent towards others. Again, the concern should be more that they will be a danger to themselves, not others. There is a possibility, of course, that unintentional harm could come to others as the result of a suicide attempt, not only by gunshot, but though an intentional automobile accident, jumping from a building, or any other number of self-destructive acts. John Violanti, Ph.D., in his book, “Police Suicide: Epidemic in Blue,” points out the interesting phenomenon of “suicide by suspect,” in which an officer consciously or unconsciously wishes to die and willfully involves himself in situations of extreme danger or confrontation with a criminal, thereby increasing the risk of death. Even so, in these situations the danger to others is indirect and unintentional.

Here are just two of them the authors said do not exist.

VA research shows that male vets with PTSD are two to three times more likely than veterans without PTSD, to engage in intimate partner violence and more likely to be involved in the legal system.

Veterans with PTSD are two to three times as likely to be physically abusive of their wives and girlfriends as those without the diagnosis. They’re three times as likely to get into fistfights when they go to college. One study showed they are especially prone to “impulsive aggression,” but that “premeditated aggression” — the kind of act Bales is accused of — was far more common in veterans without PTSD than in those with it.

They are in fact more likely to harm themselves than anyone else and this blog proves that. There are more posts about suicide than crimes and Wounded Times Blog tracks these stories across the country everyday. Few news reports are missed.

The reason is simple. Police officers and combat veterans "serve and protect" but because they are required to use violence as well as face it, the type of PTSD they end up with is much different than what civilians go through. They are not just survivors of traumatic events, they are participants in them. For them it is not just once, over and done with, but they live in a daily fear of something happening when they will once again risk their lives.

Now, think about what it takes for them to be willing to and able to do what they do everyday. It requires a deep level of core beliefs they can make a difference. They do not risk their lives to kill someone else, but they do risk their lives to save someone else.

When they have PTSD, the moment they had to take a life is frozen in their minds and they forget the events leading up to it unable to see "rest of the movie" in their own minds. If they begin to think it was an "evil" act then they think they have become evil as well. Their thoughts end up struggling to take over the core of their character. Emotional debriefing (when done right) allows them to view everything leading up to what they had to do. Once they remember their primary motivation was to protect someone else, they begin to forgive themselves for what they had to do.

They get survivor's guilt when they were not able to save a victim or their buddy. They blame themselves. Again this feeds into the "evil" thoughts because "they didn't deserve" to survive.

Most of the reaction we see is tied to if they get help or not. If the families know what to do and understand that how they react has a lot to do with how they all cope and heal.

We also need to think about side effects from medications they are given, if they use street drugs or alcohol to "get numb" along with a very long list of everything else including getting proper treatment and compensation. A lack of income when they can't work anymore adds to the stress they are under and there is nothing worse than finally admitting they need help but find no support in healing. This replaces the threat to their lives from combat with a threat of not being able to keep a roof over their heads and food for their families.

Trying to set the record straight avoids the reason Veterans Courts have been established across the country.

Secret Service mourning loss of agent after suspected suicide

Source: Secret Service agent dead of apparent suicide
By Carol Cratty
CNN
November 1, 2012
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Rafael Prieto was a 20-year veteran of the Secret Service
He was assigned to President Obama's protective detail
Authorities were looking into a suspected long-term relationship with a foreign national

"Rafael Prieto had a distinguished 20-year career with the Secret Service that was marked by accomplishment, dedication, and friendships," said Secret Service spokesman Edwin Donovan. "The Secret Service is mourning the loss of a valued colleague."

A law enforcement source says his death last Saturday was an apparent suicide Washington (CNN) -- A Secret Service agent suspected of having a romantic relationship with a Mexican woman is dead of an apparent suicide, a law enforcement official told CNN Thursday.

The source said Rafael Prieto, 48, was assigned to President Obama's protective detail. The Secret Service confirmed Thursday that Prieto's death last Saturday is currently being investigated by the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington, along with the medical examiner's office. No official determination of death has been made.

Prieto's access to Secret Service facilities had been suspended while authorities were looking into his apparently unreported and long-term relationship with a foreign national, the law enforcement official said.

"There is nothing to indicate that any classified or sensitive information was compromised as a result of this relationship," according to the source.
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Crying 4 year old resonates with over a million YouTube viewers

Crying Fort Collins Girl Isn’t Alone. How the Election is Emotional for Kids
By Grace Hood

A YouTube clip shot in Fort Collins has gone viral on the Internet. It features four-year-old Abbie Evans crying, saying she’s tired of election coverage. The video has struck a chord with adults who also can’t wait to see the election come to a close. But it got us pondering this question: What effect does the non-stop political marathon have on young children?

Listen to what Abbie's mom, Elizabeth, has to say about the viral YouTube video Abbie’s, mom, Elizabeth says she was listening to NPR on the way to the store when Abbie broke down. Elizabeth’s taken her daughter to political rallies and watched presidential debates with her daughter, all with the hope of creating a well-informed citizen.

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Marines in CS gas chamber as part of training

Gas chamber allows recruits to be confident in abilities
By Lance Cpl. Bridget M. Keane
Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego
October 31, 2012

The recruits of Company K, 3rd Recruit Training Battalion, lined up outside the door of the Confidence Chamber at Edson Range aboard Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, Calif. Oct. 26.

The Confidence Chamber is a gas chamber that allows recruits to become familiar with the M50 Joint Service General Purpose Mask and experience the effects of CS gas, also known as tear gas, a non-lethal, riot control agent.

“This training is for the recruits to build confidence in their ability to don and properly use the mask,” explained Cpl. Carlos Gama, field instructor, Weapons and Field Training Battalion. “The recruits get to experience the effects of CS with and without the mask.”

The day began with a series of classes explaining the M50 mask, how to properly wear it, how to clear it, and CS gas and its effects.

CS gas reacts with moisture on the skin and in the eyes, causing it to burn. It also irritates the respiratory system causing unpreventable coughing and sneezing.

“This is to simulate how stressful someone would feel in a chaotic combat environment,” explained Gama.

Next was the moment most recruits dreaded, breaking the mask’s seal. The recruits were required to close their eyes, hold their breath and lift their masks off, exposing their face.

Some recruits struggle to hold their breath and begin to cough, breathing in the gas. The reactions are expected; skin burning, eyes tearing, and uncontrollable coughing.

“When I broke the seal, I started freaking out,” said Pvt. Alek Garrett, Platoon 3221, Co. K. “It was stinging so bad, I cried.”

The muffled sound of recruits crying out and gagging can be heard from the outside, making the next group anxious and nervous.
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