Department of Veteran's Affairs Still Shows Veterans to the Door

Everyday 18-22 American Veterans Commit Suicide and The Department of Veteran's Affairs Still Shows Veterans to the Door
By Jennifer McClendon
OpEdNews Op Eds
11/26/2012

The point of this Op Ed is to illustrate significant flaws in the system that is set up to treat our veterans. If we continuously operate with a longstanding maladaptive treatment system for our veterans we might want to ask ourselves as a nation what their sacrifice was worth to this nation. We may want to ask ourselves whether we can do better on their behalf.

The Politics of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) treatment is a moral atrocity at the Department of Veteran's Affairs and in military medicine. There is a national discussion between veterans about the treatment of traumatized at the Department of Veteran's Affairs specialized trauma departments.

PTSD can be described as a set of symptoms that are normal reactions to abnormal and tragic stimuli such as war, natural disaster, or sexual assault. Another approach to defining PTSD is to define PTSD as a set of maladaptive traits that developed as a result of a trauma. The latter definition presents the traumatized veteran as flawed or defective. The conditions that cause PTSD are so horrific that referring to the person that suffers, as "Disordered" is a misnomer at best and victim blaming at worst.

Paula J. Caplan, in her book When Johnny and Jane Come Marching Home: How all of Us Can Help Veterans, alerts the American public to the fact that war is indeed horrific. Perhaps listening to veterans rather than labeling them is the most humane thing that America can do for those that served us.

The term "Disordered" is not the worst part of PTSD diagnosis and treatment. There is a politics that accompany PTSD diagnosis and treatment. Symptoms of PTSD can overlap with several other conditions such as "Bipolar II" and "Borderline Personality Disorder." According to a 2004 Article that was written by pioneer Military Sexual Trauma Advocate Susan Avila Smith:

These women are misdiagnosed and labeled as "psychotic," "drug-seeking," and "bipolar" or "borderline personality." Knowing this, I tell them that they are "normal" if they are experiencing such symptoms and that they need to file claims for these symptoms Secondary to their PTSD. They typically break down with relief that they are not alone, because they often have been led to believe that they are crazy or somehow "delusional" because they have failed to "get over it." (Smith 2004)
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Testing to prevent PTSD

Where do I start on this one? It is obvious that Sgt. Major Devaney gave this a lot of thought and is very smart. The problem is he seems to have done too much studying of books and not enough studying of people.

Combat PTSD is not as much of a mystery as it is a misery. They can prevent PTSD in a lot of cases but that can only be accomplished by responding to the survivors right after "it" happens. They haven't been able to do that because while the commanders understand the nature of warfare they do not understand the nature of humans.

Testing to prevent PTSD
Avoiding people and increased anxiety are signs of PTSD.
Author: SgtMaj David K. Devaney

I believe many cases of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can be prevented in combat troops through proper education. According to the American Psychiatric Association, PTSD is a severe anxiety reaction to a traumatic event, such as rape or war, in which individuals repeatedly relive the event, avoid stimuli associated with the trauma, and experience symptoms such as difficulty sleeping and irritability.

1 Typically the symptoms develop shortly after the event, but also could take years to develop. The duration for symptoms is at least 1 month for this diagnosis. Symptoms include reexperiencing the trauma through nightmares, obsessive thoughts, and flashbacks. There is an avoidance component as well, where the individual avoids situations, people, and/or objects that remind him of the traumatic event. For many people there is increased general anxiety, possibly with a heightened startle response. According to D. Grossman, for many people diagnosed with PTSD, it is like being told they have cancer; they assume it is fatal.

2 PTSD is more like being overweight.

3 Some people are just a couple of pounds overweight and they can use self-aid to get their weight under control. Other people are 20 to 30 pounds overweight and will need buddy aid and/or professional assistance. But full-blown PTSD is like being 50 to 100 pounds overweight, and without professional assistance they will likely have much trouble surviving. Almost all combat troops will have some form of PTSD or combat stress after continuous combat, but most of them will be fine.
Precombat education in the form of lectures about the psychological and physiological effects of combat will prevent much combat stress because it teaches warriors about the phenomena found in combat. Much self-induced stress comes from a lack of education, such as people being raised hearing “thou shall not kill.”

4 According to The Marines’ Bible the commandment should have been written, “thou shall not murder.”

5 The point is there is a big difference between murder, which is unjustifiable killing, and justifiably killing an enemy combatant. When someone is trying to kill you or those you are sworn to protect, you are justified in killing them first.
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While it is not always possible emotional debriefing works when it is done correctly. Having a safe place to talk about what happened brings the whole warrior into the "now" and begins the process of leaving the event behind them. If it is not done, then that event takes hold. Changes happen in all traumatic events. Every part of the survivor is reacting to it. Leaving them psychologically where it happened ends up freezing the end in their minds.

I had a National Guardsman contact me after two suicide attempts. He was on patrol in Iraq when a car approached them at a high rate of speed. The end result was he had to open fire and killed everyone in the car. It was a family.

The image of the parents and kids lying dead in the car haunted him. He had kids of his own back home. He couldn't let that image go and it took over his whole life.

Once we had established mutual trust and he knew his thoughts were safe to relate, he trusted me enough to be able to "watch" the whole event. Long story short, he had forgotten everything he tried to do to prevent what happened.

He thought he had become evil but when he was able to understand what happened, why it happened and what his intent was, he was able to forgive himself and he started to heal.

The above article points out the spiritual aspect of PTSD. It is a spiritual wound and must be addressed spiritually, not pacified by religious slogans.

It cannot be medicated away. Medications numb so that therapy has a chance to work but if that is the only treatment they receive, then all it does is puts PTSD to sleep along with every other good emotion.

The whole veteran must be treated in order to really heal. They have to relearn how to calm down their bodies as much as they have to calm down their thoughts. If this is all done soon after the traumatic event, they have a better outcome. If it is allowed to go on for years, then they face a lifetime of medical intervention.

As Vietnam veterans have proven it is never too late to get help to heal even for them, but had they been treated soon after they came home properly, it would have prevented a lifetime of suffering and most of what they lived with afterwards could have been bypassed.

Special courts aim to keep vets out of jail

Special courts aim to keep vets out of jail
By Meg Kinnard
The Associated Press
Posted : Sunday Nov 25, 2012

COLUMBIA, S.C. — When a knee injury left him on disability and reliant on pain medication, Army veteran Clarence Johnson hit a wall. Out of his prescription drugs, the New York City native was arrested during a visit to South Carolina last year after buying narcotics on the street.

Johnson was facing up to two years in jail.

But under a new program for veterans facing some nonviolent crimes, Johnson was able to stay out of jail — and get off drugs, he hopes, for good.

Because of his military service — four years each in the Army and National Guard — Johnson, 55, was eligible for something called a veterans treatment court. They are set up like drug courts, which offer people facing nonviolent drug offenses a chance to stay out of jail as long as they comply with court-ordered attendance at rehab and meetings. The veterans courts give people with military service ways to get and stay connected with resources available through the Veterans Administration, like addiction treatment and counseling.

Through weekly meetings with attorneys, counselors and a veteran mentor, participants get the encouragement that hopefully will help them both stay clean and keep from breaking the law again.

“This time, it seemed like my chance to really clean my act up,” said Johnson, who was among 18 men who were the first graduates of Richland County’s veterans court, the first in South Carolina. “It changed my life.”
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US Marine's murder in Bel-Air caught on cam

US Marine's murder in Bel-Air caught on cam
report from Maan Macapagal ABS-CBN News
Posted at 11/26/2012

MANILA, Philippines - A closed-circuit television (CCTV) camera recorded the mauling and stabbing of a member of the US Mission to the Philippines by 4 men in Makati on November 24.

The CCTV footage from the corner of Rockwell Drive and Kalayaan Avenue in Bel-Air, Makati City at around 4 a.m. Saturday shows the victim, George Anikow, walking home to Bel-Air Subdivision.

He asked the guard how he could get in.

The guard answered that the gate is always closed between 1 a.m. and 5 a.m.

A Volvo car then arrived with 4 men on board.

The guard asked where they were going and checked their IDs.

Anikow suddenly joined the conversation and hit the side of the car with his hand.
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118 views at 8:25

Marine's Dad surround by love and more Marines

Yesterday I posted this story. Dad of Marine killed in accident wants stolen memories back I couldn't imagine how this Dad felt. By the response around the country, it looks like it really pulled at our hearts.

Marine's dad gets nationwide support
Photos of late Marine Gregory Courtney stolen
Monday, 26 Nov 2012
By Ken Kolker

GOBLES, Mich. (WOOD) - A Marine dad who made a desperate plea to burglars to return the memories they stole of his son said he has received support from around the country since telling 24 Hour News 8 his story.

Many of his son's Marine buddies have offered to gather up their videos and photographs and send him those.
read more of this great story here

Marine's dad gets nationwide support

Finding Peace With Combat PTSD

In 2002 I self published For the Love of Jack so that families like mine would not have to learn the hard way how to find peace living with Combat PTSD. Everything I was afraid of happened.

Suicides and attempted suicides went up. Families fell apart. Older veterans realized they did not escape Vietnam as much as they thought they did. Newer veterans came home to the same issues all generations faced before them but as millions of dollars were spent every year, charity after charity collected more and more money, they went without the help they needed.

The book is no online again after being provided for free on my old website.

If you want an inside look at what was known so long ago, read my book and then you'll know that nothing is impossible. They can heal and so can their families if they are finally told what they needed to know.

You can also watch my videos on the above link to Great Americans to help you understand what it took 30 years for me to learn.

For the Love of Jack His War/My Battle: Finding Peace With Combat PTSD
Authored by Kathie Costos
List Price: $10.00
6" x 9" (15.24 x 22.86 cm)
Black & White on Cream paper
268 pages
ISBN-13: 978-1481082570 (CreateSpace-Assigned)
ISBN-10: 1481082574
BISAC: Biography and Autobiography / Military

The battle to save the lives of combat veterans is not lost and it is not new. 18 veterans and more than one active duty service member take their own lives each day. More attempt it.

Kathie Costos is not just a Chaplain helping veterans and their families, not just a researcher, she lives with it everyday. Combat came home with her Vietnam veteran husband and they have been married for 28 years.

She remembers what it was like to feel lost and alone.

Everything you read in the news today about PTSD is in this book originally published in 2002 to serve as a guide to healing as well as a warning of what was coming for Iraq and Afghanistan veterans.

If you see a link this book with a different cover, it is not a legal copy. It was pulled from the original publisher years ago.

Deputies had no warning man had history of mental health crisis

Baldwin sheriff: Deputies had no warning before man with mental health history started shooting AL.com
By Brendan Kirby
November 24, 2012

Baldwin County Deputy Scott Ward, left, died on Friday, Nov. 23, 2012, during a violent confrontation with Michael J. Jansen, right, according to law enforcement officials

MARLOW, Alabama – Deputy Scott Ward and two other law enforcement officials had no warning before a man with a history of mental health problems started firing shots from a 9mm handgun, Baldwin County Sheriff Huey “Hoss” Mack said today.

The Friday evening shooting in this community east of Fairhope resulted in the deaths of both Ward and Michael J. Jansen, and left a second deputy critically wounded.

“A number of gunshots were fired by Mr. Jansen and the deputies. Both deputies were shot numerous times. I don’t have the number of gunshots,” Mack said. “We’re still working the scene even today.”

Mack said autopsies had been performed on both Ward and Jansen, but he added that he has not seen the report.

Ward, 47, was a 15-year veteran of the Sheriff’s Office and previously served as a Prichard police officer. He also was a Coast Guard Reserve officer who had served in Afghanistan.

Citing an ongoing internal affairs investigation, Mack would not release the names of the other deputies involved. He said the wounded deputy is a sergeant who was the shift supervisor. The sheriff said that the third deputy, who was not hurt, has been with the Sheriff’s Office for about a year.
read more here

Baldwin County Deputy Killed Served In Afghanistan

Military family start charity to help other just like them

Couple pay it forward with charity
MIKE DUNHAM
Anchorage Daily News
Posted : Saturday Nov 24, 2012

ANCHORAGE, Alaska— Rich and Tonya Watson are looking for a few good gifts. The couple’s nonprofit enterprise, Christmas for Heroes, is collecting Christmas presents for wounded soldiers and their families attached to Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson.

The holidays can be particularly difficult for injured military personnel, the Watsons say — and they speak from experience.

Rich, a 1993 graduate of Service High School in Anchorage, was seriously wounded in Iraq in 2007.

“A grenade launcher blew up behind me in a crossfire,” he said.

He suffered traumatic brain injuries and was sent back to Fort Lewis, Wash., the home base of his outfit, the 2nd Infantry Division, 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team.

Tonya, who had been working as a substitute teacher and nurse’s assistant, quit work to take care of him.

“Most of his appointments were at the Seattle Veterans Administration Hospital because the military hospital on base was overloaded with other wounded,” she said.

The cost of driving him back and forth to Seattle three or four times a week, the loss of her paycheck and the end of the additional pay he received while in a combat zone combined to create what Tonya described as “a financial disaster.”

It looked like the Watsons and their three children would miss out on Christmas.

“We didn’t have anything,” Rich said. “We didn’t have a tree. We were thinking of skipping a car payment to buy a few presents.”

Then a Seattle law firm stepped in to help.

“To this day we still don’t know the name of the firm,” said Tonya. “But they gave us the Christmas we would have been missing if not for them.”

Other groups helped the Watsons buy food and pay bills.

“After that, we wanted to find a way to show our gratitude and pay it forward,” she said.
read more here

Dad of Marine killed in accident wants stolen memories back

Father of Marine killed in car crash wants stolen videos, pictures of his son returned
By Anthony Smigiel
November 24, 2012

ALLEGAN, MI – The father of a U.S. Marine who has already suffered the loss of his son has now lost most of the memories he had of his son as well.

Gregory Courtney, 22, died in a car crash in Allegan County on Sept. 16, 2011, just a little more than a month after returning home from Afghanistan.

His father, Joe Courtney, said someone on Nov. 15 stole a digital camera containing pictures of his son, a Sony camcorder, videos of his son and a Marine sign from his home on 102nd Avenue in Allegan County.
read more here

Veterans Affairs office 'Pennsylvania's best-kept secret'

Franklin County Veterans Affairs office 'Pennsylvania's best-kept secret'
Public Opinion
By ANDREA RICH

Bob Harris, Franklin County director of veterans affairs, said one vet told him the county office is "Pennsylvania's best kept secret."

Why is it so hard to reach veterans?

"We try to do a campaign when units return from Reserves or National Guard," Harris explained, but the most recent group returns for Franklin County were in 2004 and 2009.

Since then troops typically separate from their units in Fort Dix, N.J. where representatives from the Disabled American Veterans and Veterans of Foreign Wars give presentations about post-active-duty life and services.

"At that point you are so overwhelmed (with the separation process) and you just want to go home," Harris said. It's a lot for soldiers to take in, he added.

As is the national trend, many young soldiers don't realize what the county office can do for them.

"We advocate - at no cost to you (the soldier)," Harris said. That includes getting veterans connected to the right people for veteran's health care, education benefits, housing allowance and employment.

The latest veteran count in Franklin County was done in Fiscal Year 2010 and at that time Franklin County had 12,984 veterans.

Harris said the county office is even more important to young veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan because they don't connect with groups that typically can get them connected to services through experience.
read more here