U.S. Special Operations Command is recalling thousands of body armor plates

SOCOM Faces Scrutiny after Body Armor Recall
Nov 27, 2012
Military.com
by Matthew Cox

U.S. Special Operations Command is recalling thousands of body armor plates after discovering a manufacture’s defect that could put operators at risk. At the same time defense industry experts, are questioning whether SOCOM may have added to the risk by searching for the lightest plates possible.

Throughout the war, elite troops have worn body armor known as the Special Operations Forces Equipment Advanced Requirements, or SPEAR, made by Ceradyne Defense. The lightweight, ceramic plates have proven to be effective at stopping enemy rifle bullets and weigh significantly less than the conventional Army’s Enhanced Small Arms Protective Insert, or ESAPI.

A little less than a year ago, government inspectors discovered a defect in Ceradyne’s new SPEAR Gen III plates. The special, metal “crack arrestor” in the back of the plate began separating or “delaminating” from the plate’s ceramic material. The arrestor was designed to reduce the spreading of cracks in the ceramic when dropped – a common characteristic of all ceramic body armor plates.
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Battleland Contributor says PTSD claims incentive to keep it?

Ok, I admit it. I lost my temper this morning and left a comment on Time about some nonsense a "expert" posted. I can't help it. Usually I will just bypass what Elspeth Cameron Ritchie writes. She's a paid "expert" after all and I am just a lowly volunteer. Who am I to argue with someone like her?

Yesterday I posted how there was a report from NBC about PTSD deniers and now this!

The Unintended Consequences of the Current PTSD Diagnosis
Battleland
By Elspeth Cameron Ritchie
Nov. 27, 2012

This is the last in my series of posts on the ethics of treating post-traumatic stress disorder (the first simply outlined ethical issues for military mental-health personnel; then I wrote about when is the right time to send a Soldier back into combat, how can you maintain confidentiality between a Soldier and the mental-health professional, and why the military’s best mental-health programs are not available to everyone in uniform).

Now I want to discuss the good and bad consequences of automatically giving a 50% disability rating for PTSD.

I hesitate to post on this, as I know that there will be folks out there who say I am “trying to save the Army money by screwing the vets out of what is rightfully belongs to them.”

Know this is not my intention: I am all for vets receiving the disability that is due them.

But to give automatically 50% disability for one particular diagnosis creates a major incentive to get that diagnosis — and keep it.
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This is the comment I left.

Are you talking to Sally Satel? After all that is the same kind of nonsense she has been talking about since she gave the same advice to the Bush Administration leading to the lack of planning to have programs and claims processors in place.


The first fact is that less than half of the veterans needing help for PTSD actually go for it. When the troops come home, this generation is no different than all others before them. They don't want to wait another second before they can return to their families. There are two differences between this generation and older veterans. One is that the media is finally reporting on what war does to those we send and the other is the redeployments increasing the risk of PTSD which the Army knew would happen in 2006.

If what you claim came close to being true, you'd see lines around every VA facility and processing centers implode. If they have PTSD, by the time they get help it is usually a lifetime change for them that does not go away. They can heal but that depends on the right help and above all the right information which you just stuck block to.

Post Office delivers help for Marines Toys for Tots

Postal Toys for Tots plan puts Brevard Marines at ease
Postal carriers will help Toys for Tots in collecting for countywide drive
Nov 27, 2012
Written by
R. Norman Moody
FLORIDA TODAY

MELBOURNE — A new partnership involving the U.S. Postal Service will help more children than ever. At least, that’s the hope of the Marine Corps Reserve Toys for Tots program, which for the first time in Brevard County will involve mail carriers picking up toys from postal customers this Saturday.

The partnership was officially announced to letter carriers Monday morning. And already a least one stepped up with four toys she bought.

“It’s for a great cause,” said Melinda Smith. “I wanted to be able to do it. I love doing it.”

Smith, who works out of the main post office in Melbourne, said the partnership will allow a lot more children from needy families to get a toy at Christmas.
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Foundation set up for Navy SEAL killed in Afghanistan

Local Navy SEAL dies in Afghanistan
Luke Ramseth
The Times-Standard
Created:11/27/2012

The mother of a local Navy SEAL killed over the weekend in Afghanistan said a “Kevin Ebbert Memorial Fund” has been set up through the Humboldt Area Foundation for people who would like to donate in his name.

Petty Officer 1st Class Kevin Ebbert, 32, of Arcata, died Saturday while “supporting stability operations in Uruzgan Province, Afghanistan,” according to a Department of Defense press release. The region is a mountainous area in the center of the country. Ebbert was assigned to an East Coast-based Naval Special Warfare unit in Virginia Beach, Va.

In an email to the Arcata Eye, Ebbert's mother Charlie Jordan said her son was a U.S. Navy SEAL, serving his second deployment in Afghanistan. She said he was “poised to return home early next year and start medical school completing his training started as a Corpsman to become an MD. We last spoke about he and his wife Ursula joining Rotary, where he could work in clinics internationally.”
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Combat medic wounded in Afghanistan last year passed away

Army medic dies of Afghanistan injuries
The Associated Press
Posted : Monday Nov 26, 2012

ROCKFORD, Mich. — A 24-year-old Army medic from western Michigan who enlisted in the military because of the poor job market in 2009 died from injuries he sustained while serving in Afghanistan, it was announced Monday.

Spc. Zachary Shanafelt of Grand Rapids was hurt in an accident last year and died Wednesday at Walter Reed Hospital in Washington, said Pederson Funeral Home in Rockford. He was serving as a field medic with a unit based in Fariyab province.

Shanafelt underwent treatment at hospitals in Germany and the U.S., according to Sgt. 1st Class Jeffrey Arnold, a military liaison official.

Why do some people reject the existence of PTSD?

First is it not over-diagnosed. If that was an issue then you'd see the VA hospitals with lines going around the buildings and yes, you would see VA claims offices collapse under the weight of the claims. The fact is less than half seek help for PTSD.

Then this piece is right where it points out how so many are "uneducated" deniers of the reality of PTSD. If they were right, I wouldn't have done this for the last 30 years for FREE and had my heart broken on a daily basis.

Why on earth what some person wrote in July ended up being a part of this report is really stomach turning. Did Briggs really have search that hard to find deniers of PTSD? They are all over the military!

PTSD may be overdiagnosed, but PTSD deniers are 'wrong,' psychologists say
By Bill Briggs
NBC News contributor

Why do some people reject the existence of PTSD?

The topic is touchy. Even asking the question is slammed as irresponsible.

“Why on Earth would you try to put out something that states combat PTSD isn't a true affliction? Or even try to debunk it? Or to put questions into the minds of society? In the first 155 days of 2012, we lost 154 men,” Amy Cotta, an author and the mother of a Marine wrote in an email to NBC News. Her message arrived minutes after she learned NBC News was seeking to interview a PTSD denier.

Despite exhaustive scientific studies that have explored the symptoms, causes, diagnoses, and prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder, hardcore skeptics remain. They exist within the military, where some leaders openly call PTSD a mental weakness, according to mental health advocates. David Weidman, who did two tours in Afghanistan and was diagnosed with PTSD, said all of his senior non-commissioned officers advised him not to seek treatment, instead suggesting he “just put your head down and keep going” in order to maintain any chance at a promotion.

They exist within the veteran community. Kevin R.C. “Hognose” O’Brien, who operates a blog called “WeaponsMan” and identifies himself as “a former Special Forces weapons man,” wrote in July that PTSD was a “quack” diagnosis, “invented” to clump “any odd and many normal behaviors.” He added: “If a vet is wound up tight? PTSD! If he or she is calm? Hypercontrolling due to PTSD! Lose weight, gain weight, maintain weight, those are all PTSD markers. Get in fights? PTSD, natch. And avoid fights? Well, clearly it's .... are you starting to get the idea?” O’Brien declined to be interviewed for this story.

To Afghanistan veteran Weidman, most people who so stridently dismiss PTSD have simply failed to read the available scientific literature on the subject and are, he said, “uneducated.”

But Weidman acknowledged that different people possess varying degrees of mental “resiliency,” underscoring the slippery nature of diagnosing anxiety disorders. That means, he added, that if an entire platoon collectively endures the same moment of extreme combat violence, not every platoon member will ultimately feel the symptoms of post-traumatic stress. According to the Mayo Clinic, those signs can include “flashbacks, nightmares and severe anxiety, as well as uncontrollable thoughts about the event.”
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Oklahoma National Guards struggle with PTSD rates

Military in Oklahoma, nationwide still struggling with PTSD rates, treatment
NewsOK
By Bryan Dean
Published: November 22, 2012

“If 75 percent of the people who need care aren't getting it, we aren't doing our job right,” Kilpatrick said.

WASHINGTON — If the averages apply, at least 500 Oklahoma National Guard soldiers who returned earlier this year from Afghanistan will show symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.

Identifying and treating those soldiers is one of the great challenges for the modern military, and both military and mental health professionals said they still aren't very good at it.

Officials with the U.S. Defense Department, Veterans Affairs, the National Institutes of Health and other agencies gathered last week for a workshop on post-traumatic stress.

Despite monumental efforts by the military to grapple with PTSD and suicide, the numbers aren't encouraging.

Dr. Michael Kilpatrick, deputy director of force health protection and readiness programs at the U.S. Department of Defense, said about 5 percent of those in the military show signs of post-traumatic stress when they are screened before going on deployments.
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Veteran sent home with appointment instead of care died

VA sued for negligence in ex-Councilman Witter’s death
GlobeGazette
By JOHN SKIPPER
November 21, 2012

MASON CITY — The widow of former Mason City Councilman Scott Witter is suing the U.S. Veterans Administration, claiming that negligence by the Mason City VA outpatient clinic contributed to his death.

Witter, 56, died Feb. 23 of a massive heart attack, according to papers filed in U.S. District Court.

His widow, Teresa L. Witter, says her husband went to the Mason City VA outpatient clinic at about 3 p.m. on Feb. 22 complaining of chest pains.

According to the suit, Witter was examined by an outpatient nurse who questioned him about his complaints and took his vital signs.

The clinic office records state Witter felt better after interacting with the nurse. He was to have lab tests the next morning and made a follow-up appointment at the clinic for March 8.

At no time was he seen by a physician nor was any physical examination or any diagnostic testing done, according to the suit.

Witter suffered the fatal heart attack the next morning.
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Veterans team up to help others

Veterans raise money to build sport court at VA Medical Center in Prescott
Lisa Irish
The Daily Courier
11/25/2012

Young veterans are returning with different needs for recreation and rehabilitation than older vets, so a veterans group is raising funds to build a sport court at the Bob Stump Memorial Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Prescott.

"The needs are great," said Bob Wallace, with the Arizona Military Order of the Devil Dogs Charities, part of the Marine Corps League. "We do a great job for our older veterans, but we need more for our younger veterans."

The project includes a wheelchair-accessible lighted multi-sport court where able-bodied and disabled veterans can play basketball, tennis, badminton, paddleball, volleyball, and shuffleboard, a single-wall handball and racquetball court, and seating which can be expanded for large events.

"More than $42,500 has been raised of the $75,000 anticipated cost of the facility," said Wallace, project director in Prescott for the Arizona Military Order of the Devil Dogs Charities.

Funds for the project have been collected through yard sales, raffles, and donations from individuals, organizations and businesses, and the nonprofit 501c3 organization is looking for more donations to they can start building this summer, Wallace said.

After Wallace told his 8- and 10-year-old grandchildren about the project, they asked him why he was doing this.

"I told them I wanted to give back to the veterans who sacrificed so much for us," Wallace said. "They just opened up their piggy banks and said here's some dollars to help."
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What It's Like to Go to War

Encore: What It’s Like to Go to War
November 20, 2012
America has been at war for over a decade, with millions of soldiers having seen death and dying up close in Afghanistan and Iraq. But most Americans — watching comfortably on their TVs and computers, witness to statistics, speeches, and “expert” rhetoric — don’t get what’s really going on there. In this encore broadcast, Bill talks to Karl Marlantes — a highly-decorated Vietnam veteran, Rhodes Scholar, author, and PTSD survivor — about what we on the insulated outside need to understand about the minds and hearts of our modern warriors. Marlantes shares with Bill intimate stories about how his battlefield experiences both shaped and nearly destroyed him, even after returning to civilian life.

“’Thou shalt not kill’ is a tenet you just do not violate, and so all your young life, that’s drilled into your head. And then suddenly, you’re 18 or 19 and they’re saying, ‘Go get ‘em and kill for your country.’ And then you come back and it’s like, ‘Well, thou shalt not kill’ again. Believe me, that’s a difficult thing to deal with,” Marlantes tells Bill. “You take a young man and put him in the role of God, where he is asked to take a life — that’s something no 19-year-old is able to handle.”
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