Rep. looks outside VA to fill mental care gap

Rep. looks outside VA to fill mental care gap
By Kevin Freking
The Associated Press
Posted : Tuesday Jan 29, 2013

WASHINGTON — Veterans who have trouble getting timely mental health care from Veterans Affairs hospitals and clinics should also have access to thousands of health care providers who care for military personnel and their families, says the Republican chairman of the House Committee on Veterans Affairs.

The proposal by Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., borrows from the playbook of Republican Mitt Romney, who raised the idea of tapping into the military’s Tricare network of doctors during the course of the presidential campaign.

“We can double overnight the number of providers for those who are in need,” Miller said in an interview. “Eighteen veterans a day commit suicide in this country. Nobody thinks that is acceptable.”

The VA has beefed up its mental health staff over the years to try to keep up with the needs of soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, but a critical inspector general’s report last year found that about half of those seeking care for the first time waited about 50 days before getting a full evaluation. The VA had been reporting that the vast majority of those patients were getting care within 14 days.

Shortly before that report was released, the VA announced it would be adding 1,900 mental health professionals to its staff. VA officials said the department has made good progress on the hires, but they couldn’t provide specific numbers yet.
read more here

Father of slain 6 year old Sandy Hook student heckled by gun activists

Neil Heslin, Father Of Newtown Victim, Heckled By Pro-Gun Activists
(VIDEO, PHOTOS)
Huffington Post
Posted: 01/29/2013

Neil Heslin, the father of a 6-year-old boy who was slain in the Sandy Hook massacre in Newtown, Conn., on Dec. 14, stoically faced down pro-gun activists last night.

More than 1,000 people attended a hearing before the Gun Violence Prevention Working Group at the Legislative Office Building in Hartford on Monday to share their views on gun control, USA Today reported. Among them was Heslin, who held a large framed picture of himself and his son Jesse as he urged officials to consider strengthening gun laws in Connecticut.

But as he gave his emotional testimony, pleading with lawmakers to improve mental health options and to ban assault weapons like the one Adam Lanza used to murder his child and 25 other people, his speech was interrupted by dozens of audience members, The Connecticut Post reported.

“I still can't see why any civilian, anybody in this room in fact, needs weapons of that sort. You're not going to use them for hunting, even for home protection," Heslin said.

Pro-gun activists responded by calling out: "Second Amendment!"
read more here

Camp Pendleton Marine Awarded Bronze Star While Deployed At Sea

Camp Pendleton Marine Awarded Bronze Star While Deployed At Sea
KPBS
By Beth Ford Roth
January 28, 2013

Cpl. Timothy R. Childers
USMC
Lieutenant Col. John Wiener, commanding officer, Combat Logistics Battalion 15, 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit, pins the Bronze Star with Combat Distinguishing Device on 1st Sgt. Bradley G. Simmons, Sergeant Major, CLB-15, 15th MEU, during his award ceremony aboard the USS Rushmore, Jan. 25.

Camp Pendleton Marine 1st Sgt. Bradley G. Simmons was awarded the Bronze Star January 25 on the flight deck of the San Diego-based USS Rushmore during the ship's deployment at sea.

Simmons is assigned to the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit, which is currently deployed with the Peleliu Amphibious Ready Group.

Simmons received the Bronze Star with Combat Distinguishing Device for "heroic service" while serving in Sangin District, Afghanistan in 2011, according 15th MEU Public Affairs. Simmons served then as the first sergeant of Company B, 1st Battalion, 5th Marines, Regimental Combat Team 8, 2nd Marine Division (Forward), II Marine Expeditionary Force.
read more here

Veteran Iraq sniper targets new enemy

I am glad this veteran came forward for several reasons. Above all, he sought treatment to heal. Other than that, he was a sniper. I know a couple of them and they got help too. These guys are about as trained and tough as they come so when others notice even they need help, it makes it easier for them to come to terms with their own needs.

PTSD in-patient treatment changes life of Denver veteran
FOX31 Denver
by Jeremy Hubbard
January 28, 2013

He was there as a truckload of soldiers from his unit were blown up by an improvised explosive device, and the trauma of that – and other horrors he witnessed in Iraq – have haunted him for years.

But now Army veteran Curtis Bean is getting intensive help for his Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD. And it’s been a life changing experience.

In Iraq, Bean was a sniper, one of those guys constantly staring through a scope with an eye out for the enemy. Little did he know, when he got home from war, he’d have a few different enemies to look out for.

“I was drinking heavily. There were times I was drinking so heavily I wouldn’t remember what I did,” Bean said.

He was trying to deal with his PTSD, a condition up to 80 percent of soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan face. He encountered some horrifying things during his two tours in Iraq, including an IED blast that killed four men from his unit.

“Not dealing with it is not the right answer,” Bean said.
read more here

Vietnam veterans honored on 40th anniversary of Paris Peace Accords

Vietnam veterans honored
By Zack McDonald
The News Herald
January 27, 2013

PANAMA CITY — Several Vietnam veteran groups stood in silence, heads bowed, eyes closed, as a bell tolled far off in the distance after each name of a deceased Vietnam veteran echoed through Oaks by the Bay Park Sunday.

The scene Sunday afternoon coincided with the 40th Anniversary of the Paris Peace Accord signing, which formally brought the Vietnam War to an end. It was intentionally reminiscent of an earlier event in Bay County. Four years ago The Moving Wall, a replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington D.C., was at Oaks by the Bay Park to mark the state of efforts to place a permanent dedication to fallen soldiers.
read more here

Paris Peace Accords

Quadruple amputee Iraq veteran gets new arms

UPDATE
January 29, 2013


Soldier who lost all four limbs in Iraq bomb blast receives double arm transplant
Brendan Marrocco, injured by a roadside bomb in 2009, was the first soldier to survive after losing all four limbs in the Iraq war. The New York City native is recovering after undergoing a double arm transplant and a bone marrow transplant on Dec. 18 at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, his father said Monday.
BY CHELSIA ROSE MARCIUS , JOSEPH STEPANSKY AND STEPHEN REX BROWN
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

He was the first soldier to survive the loss of all four limbs in Iraq, and now he’s the recipient of a cutting-edge double-arm transplant.

Staten Island’s own Brendan Marrocco, 26, endured the 13-hour operation on Dec. 18 at Johns Hopkins Hospital to replace the arms he lost because of a roadside bomb on Easter Sunday 2009.

“He never quits, he fights to survive,” said Giovanna Marrocco, 76, Brendan’s grandmother.

“He’s very happy, he wanted this transplant. I’m happy, too.”
read more here

Double-arm transplant given to Iraq war veteran
By The Associated Press
on January 28, 2013

BALTIMORE — A soldier who lost all four limbs in a roadside bomb attack in 2009 in Iraq has received a double-arm transplant in Baltimore, Johns Hopkins Hospital officials said Monday.

Surgeons who treated the unidentified infantryman plan to discuss the transplant Tuesday at a news conference with the soldier. The soldier is one of seven in the U.S. who have undergone successful double-arm transplants, the hospital said.

The transplant last month is the first for the hospital and involved an innovative treatment to prevent rejection of the new limbs. The treatment used the dead donor’s bone marrow cells and so far has prevented rejection and reduced the need for anti-rejection drugs. Those drugs can cause complications, including infection and organ damage, hospital officials said.

The novel treatment to help prevent rejection was pioneered by Dr. W.P. Andrew Lee, plastic surgery chief at Johns Hopkins, when he previously worked at the University of Pittsburgh.
read more here

Soldier famous for YouTube video of Taliban firefight

I don't mind admitting when I'm wrong but in this case I am doing it when no one knew I was. When this video first came out, I watched it a few times and there was something about it that didn't look right to me. I can't explain it, but it seemed fake. After reading the interview, now I know I was wrong.

Soldier famous for YouTube video of Taliban firefight interviewed
Stars and Stripes
Published: January 27, 2013

The formerly anonymous soldier made famous on YouTube for scrambling away from Taliban gunfire on an Afghanistan hillside reflected on the incident viewed at least 23 million times in a recent interview with The Washington Post.

The harrowing helmet cam footage, with bullets landing to each side of Pfc. Ted Daniels as he tries to find cover, perhaps is the most popular online video from what is known as the most filmed war in history.

For Daniels, a former cop in Maryland and Pennsylvania who enlisted at age 37, the drama of that firefight didn’t end when he was injured and eventually sent stateside.
read more here

Fort Bragg spouse of the year was not good enough for some

Lesbian Wife Named Fort Bragg's Spouse of the Year
Jan 26, 2013
Fayetteville (N.C.) Observer
by Drew Brooks

A lesbian wife of a Fort Bragg soldier was named the installation's military spouse of the year through a voting competition.

Ashley Broadway is not recognized as a spouse under federal law, and she recently was denied official membership in a Fort Bragg officers' spouses organization.

But her selection in the competition by Military Spouse magazine was praised by advocates for gays and lesbians, who say it underscores the need for the federal government to extend full benefits to same-sex couples.

Broadway, the wife of Lt. Col. Heather Mack of Fort Bragg's 1st Theater Sustainment Command, will represent Fort Bragg in the 2013 Armed Forces Insurance Military Spouse of the Year competition.

Broadway will be pitted against winners from other Army installations.

Online voting on Feb. 5 at msoy.militaryspouse.com will decide who will be the Army-wide spouse of the year.

That person will compete against winners from the five other service branches for the national title.

The military is not involved in the competition, though spouses of top Pentagon leaders help pick the national winner.
read more here

Fort Bragg Officer Spouse changed rule after gay spouse wanted to join

These military women were already doing it

Female Soldier Recounts Time Under Fire
Jan 28, 2013
Military.com
by Richard Sisk

Army Lt. Col. Kellie McCoy adopts the just-doin’-my-job poker face when asked about her combat time, but she stands out in history along with many other of the 280,000 military women who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan.

McCoy has served three tours in Iraq and one in Afghanistan. She knows what it feels like to kill on the battlefield. She earned a Bronze Star with Combat “V” in the process. Maybe most importantly, McCoy knows how to cram 11 paratroopers and their combat gear into a Humvee under fire.

All of that would set her apart from other uniformed women had so many other women not experienced similar situations the past 10 years of fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. McCoy is part of the generation of women that convinced U.S. military leaders to make women eligible for combat roles for the first time in U.S. military history.

A West Point graduate who completed airborne school as a cadet, McCoy led 11 male paratroopers with the 82nd Airborne Division into combat in Iraq in 2003. The St. Louis native was a captain at the time.

Soon after a firefight off Highway 10 near Fallujah, she spoke to a reporter and gave full credit to her men for overcoming the ambush. McCoy explained how she led her men to concentrate fire in specific directions.
read more here

1st Woman to Lead in Combat 'Thrilled' With Change
Jan 25, 2013
Associated Press
by Michael Biesecker

RALEIGH, N.C. - Former U.S. Army Capt. Linda L. Bray says her male superiors were incredulous upon hearing she had ably led a platoon of military police officers through a firefight during the 1989 invasion of Panama.

Instead of being lauded for her actions, the first woman in U.S. history to lead male troops in combat said higher-ranking officers accused her of embellishing accounts of what happened when her platoon bested an elite unit of the Panamanian Defense Force. After her story became public, Congress fiercely debated whether she and other women had any business being on the battlefield.

The Pentagon's longstanding prohibition against women serving in ground combat ended Thursday, when Defense Secretary Leon Panetta announced that most combat roles jobs will now be open to female soldiers and Marines. Panetta said women are integral to the military's success and will be required to meet the same physical standards as their male colleagues.
read more here

Silver Star Recipient A Reluctant Hero
NPR
by RACHEL MARTIN

February 22, 2011

The idea of being a hero doesn't really sit well with Leigh Ann Hester, so having an action figure modeled after her is, in a word, surreal. The doll, decked out in Army fatigues, an M4 rifle and small Oakley sunglasses, is supposed to be a tribute to Hester, a sergeant in the Army National Guard who received the Silver Star in 2005 for valor during a firefight in Iraq. "The action figure doesn't really look a whole lot like me," she says. "The box is better."

Hester has had a hard time seeing herself in any of the hero stuff that has been made of her — and there has been a lot: paintings, posters, even a wax figure on permanent exhibit at the Army Women's Museum in Fort Lee, Va.

When Hester enlisted with the National Guard in the spring of 2001, she had been selling shoes at the local Shoe Pavilion near her home in Nashville, Tenn. The terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, happened right before she left for basic training. She remembers the drill sergeants telling her and the other recruits that they would be the ones to go to war. And that's exactly what happened. In July 2004, Hester was ordered to Iraq.
read more here

Woman Gains Silver Star -- And Removal From Combat
By Ann Scott Tyson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, May 1, 2008

KHOST, Afghanistan -- Pfc. Monica Brown cracked open the door of her Humvee outside a remote village in eastern Afghanistan to the soft pop of bullets shot by Taliban fighters. But instead of taking cover, the 18-year-old medic grabbed her bag and ran through gunfire toward fellow soldiers in a crippled and burning vehicle.

Vice President Cheney pinned Brown, of Lake Jackson, Tex., with a Silver Star in March for repeatedly risking her life on April 25, 2007, to shield and treat her wounded comrades, displaying bravery and grit. She is the second woman since World War II to receive the nation's third-highest combat medal.
read more here

Military suicides and the power of the point

Military suicides and the power of the point
by Kathie Costos
Wounded Times Blog
January 28, 2013

There are too many people still asking why soldiers commit suicide. After all, the reasons have been known for over 40 years but when the military knows the answers, they ask a different question until they hear the answer they want to receive. Much like when facing the enemy, they want to know how many, where they are, what the weaknesses are and how well they are armed. That's how they defeat the enemy they can see but when it comes to the enemy they can't see, it is anyone's guess in the position of authority they listen to. Guess? Yes. Considering how long this has all been going on and the lack of progress in saving lives, they are still listening to the wrong people.

This came out in February of 2008 along with surveys and expert reviews of the Daddy of "Resiliency training" but the military pushed the program no matter how it failed those who serve.

The "Battlemind" program dealing with PTSD and TBI is simplistic almost to the point of being insulting - dealing with two very complex issues as a simple "cause and effect" scenario. The psych care afforded to active duty military personnel is at best "sketchy" and at worst, dangerous.

Again in 2008 there was this report but again, nothing substantial was done about it so we ended up with a record year of suicides in 2012.

'Battlemind' is the Soldier's inner strength to face fear and adversity with courage. Key components include: - Self confidence: taking calculated risks and handling challenges. - Mental toughness: overcoming obstacles or setbacks and maintaining positive thoughts during times of adversity and challenge.

Battlemind skills helped you survive in combat, but may cause you problems if not adapted when you get home.

Conclusions
• Multiple deployments and longer deployments are linked to more mental health and marital problems.
• Good NCO leadership is related to better Soldier/Marine mental health and adherence to good battlefield ethics.
• Good officer leadership results in Soldiers/Marines following ROE.
• Soldiers/Marines with mental health problems were more likely to mistreat non-combatants, highlighting the importance of getting them help early.
• Mental health services are most needed during the last six months of a year-long deployment since this is when Soldiers experience the most problems.

Now you have a bit more background on how we got where we are on addressing the enemy the DOD can't see.

'The storm' is coming
As the U.S. military suicide rate soared to record heights during 2012, the families of service members say they, too, are witnessing a silent wave of self-harm occurring within their civilian ranks: spouses, children, parents and siblings.

Some suicides and suicide attempts — like those that ravaged the Velez family — are spurred by combat losses.

Others may be triggered by exhaustion and despair: As some veterans return debilitated by anxiety, many spouses realize it's now up to them — and will be for decades — to hold the family together.

'Like an airborne disease:' Concern grows about military suicides spreading within families
By Bill Briggs
NBC News contributor
Before Army Spc. Andrew Velez left Texas for the final time, he asked his fragile sister to write him a promise – a vow he could carry with him to Afghanistan.

Monica Velez knew she owed him that much. In the horrid weeks after each had lost their beloved brother, Freddy Velez, to enemy fire in Iraq, Monica tried to end her life with pills and alcohol. Now, she put pen to paper: “I will not hurt myself. I will not do anything crazy. I know that Andrew loves me. I know that Freddy loved me.” Andrew folded her note and slipped it into his pocket.

“Don’t break your word to me,” he told her before heading back to war.

Seven months later, Andrew, 22, sat alone in an Army office at a base in Afghanistan. He put a gun to his head and committed suicide. Back in Texas, word reached Monica Velez who, once again, found herself in a dangerous place. Only now, she was alone. Days of alcohol and anti-depressants. Nights of dark thoughts: “It would just be better if I was gone.”
read more here

The Powerpoints can be, “for lack of a better term, overkill,” said Knowles, not part of the Connecticut Guard’s new outreach. “They jam it down your throat, and I don’t find it to be effective because you’re getting it SO much.”

Connecticut National Guard Feels Pain of Military Suicides Directly
Litchfield County Times
By Joe Amarante
January 27, 2013

When he heard of his good friend’s death by suicide recently, National Guard Capt. Kyle Knowles said he was shocked at first but not very surprised.

“He was just a tense kind of guy. I never would have thought he would do something that drastic, but he fit the bill.”

Knowles, a central Connecticut resident, husband and father who previously deployed to Iraq with the Massachusetts National Guard, now works on active duty in the ROTC center at Western New England University in Springfield. He spoke last week, a day before attending Massachusetts funeral services for his friend, who had PTSD and served at Iraq’s Abu Graib prison during one of two deployments.

“I don’t think he’d ever say, ‘Hey, I want to kill myself,’ but ... certainly somebody should have grabbed him and said, ‘Dude, are you just a stressed-out guy or do you need to really talk to somebody?’” Knowles said of the man he served with about 18 months ago.

Military suicides hit a record high last year at about one a day nationally amid a chorus of concern and a growing list of prevention efforts. Connecticut officials are feeling the urgency but also some confidence in their approach.

Col. John Whitford of the Connecticut National Guard said his units have had two and three deployments to the war zones. For each, they are first sent to a behavioral health specialist. But you can only prepare so much for mental and physical trauma, and sometimes it’s just white noise for a soldier headed into action.
read more here

Now for all the people trying to say that "oh well suicides in the general population have gone up too, there is this piece of information that once and for all should cut the claim down to the size it should be.

“Suicide is a national issue as well as one for the Army,” he said.

During World War II, suicide rates went down compared with what they were during peacetime, and physicians believed they understood mental health problems in the military, Dr. Ursano said.

Some 300,000 service members developed PTSD or major depression after tours in Iraq or Afghanistan.

In more recent times, suicide rates have increased during war. Rates for civilian and military suicides are now about the same when matched along age and gender demographics, but before the Iraq and Afghanistan wars started, the military suicide rate was about half of the rate for the general population.

War creates particular stress for servicemen and women. They are in high-tempo operation environments — where everything moves faster — at the same time that they are separated from family and significant others. Physicians who study military suicides often find depression or anxiety before such a death, but there are other variables.

The power of the point was reached a very long time ago. Showing soldiers a Power Point presentation not only bores them out of their minds, it is a waste of time, and as it turns out, deadly to their lives. If the military continues to push the programs that have not worked, the only thing they succeed at doing is insuring more soldiers take matters into their own hands. These folks are a lot different than the rest of the population.

Consider this. How can they be willing to survive during combat, doing whatever it takes to stay alive along with their buddies, yet back home, can't find any reason to stay alive another day?