Santa Cruz Police department grieve 2 Officers killed

'Darkest day': Two police officers killed in line of duty
By Erika Conner, Kyle Bonagura and Lisa Fernandez
NBCBayArea.com

Two Santa Cruz, Calif., police officers were shot to death Tuesday afternoon - the first time in city history that officers were killed in the line of duty. One suspect was also killed.

The two officers who died, Det. Sgt. Loran "Butch" Baker and Det. Elizabeth Butler, had a combined 38 years of experience with the Santa Cruz Police Department.

"We at the Santa Cruz Police Department are like family," Santa Cruz police chief Kevin Vogel said.

"I've known both of these officers for a long, long time and there just aren't words to describe how I feel personally about this and how our department is reacting to this horrific, horrific tragedy."

Baker had been with the department for 28 years and leaves behind a wife, two daughters and a son, Adam, who works for the department as a community service officer.

Butler leaves her partner, Peter, and two young sons.

"This is the darkest day in the history of the Santa Cruz Police Department," Vogel said.
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New Secretary of Defense, Chuck Hagel, Vietnam Veteran

Senate confirms Hagel for defense secretary
By Michael O'Brien
Political Reporter
NBC News

The Senate voted to confirm former Sen. Chuck Hagel as President Barack Obama's next secretary of defense following weeks of dogged opposition by Republican senators to their erstwhile colleague. The Senate voted 58 to 41 to formally confirm Hagel, on the heels of a procedural vote earlier in the day that cleared the way for Tuesday afternoon's final vote.
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UPDATE
With a "friend" like John McCain comes a political enemy.

“I do not believe that Chuck Hagel, who is a friend of mine, is qualified to be secretary of defense,” fellow Vietnam vet and Arizona Senator John McCain of Arizona said on CNN on Sunday. McCain voted Tuesday with a 71-senator majority to end the filibuster, but later voted against confirmation.

This is what he had to say about Chuck Hagel, a former buddy of his, also a Republican and even once considered by McCain and the best person for Secretary of Defense when he had his eyes on the office of Commander-in-Chief.

But that was way back in 2000 before McCain wanted the war in Iraq.

More bad news for veterans, thanks to Congress

VA backlog continues to mount; no clear solutions in sight
By Leo Shane III
Stars and Stripes
Published: February 26, 2013

WASHINGTON — VA Secretary Eric Shinseki pledged Tuesday that his department will make progress toward ending the benefits backlog this year. House and Senate leaders promised to tackle the issue in upcoming hearings. Veterans groups are lobbying lawmakers this week on the depth of the problem.

But exactly how anyone can fix the mounting headache remains unclear.

As of last week, the benefits backlog – the number of claims pending for more than 125 days – sat above 600,000 cases, up about 7 percent from a year ago. The average claim takes about 270 days to process.

Department officials have offered a host of solutions over the last year, but have no positive trend to show for it. More claims adjusters, different processing methods and closer coordination with veterans groups have yet to pull down the overdue case numbers.
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VA protected from sequester cuts, but veterans will feel the pain
By Leo Shane III
Stars and Stripes
Published: February 26, 2013

WASHINGTON — The Department of Veterans Affairs will be spared when sequestration hits March 1.

But veterans will not.

Despite assurances that veterans benefits and services will be exempt from the budget cuts, veterans and their families will share the suffering along with military counterparts. The result could mean more homeless veterans, less help for those looking for work, and tens of thousands of furloughed veteran struggling to make ends meet.

“There’s a very large concern about the secondary effects (of sequestration) on veterans programs nationwide,” said Joe Davis, spokesman for the Veterans of Foreign Wars. “We still don’t know all the ways veterans might be hurt.”

VA programs and payouts are exempt from the mandated spending cuts. White House and department officials have promised that that disability benefits, veterans education funds and health care services will continue uninterrupted.
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American Legion Commander "Washington is failing troops and veterans"

Washington failing military, Legion leader says
Army Times
By Rick Maze
Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday Feb 26, 2013

The head of the nation’s largest veterans’ group said Tuesday that Washington is failing troops and veterans.

Army veteran James Koutz of Boonville, Ind., national commander of the American Legion, criticized politicians for using the defense budget and service members as pawns in a battle over deficit reduction and spending priorities.

He also objected to attempts to increase out-of-pocket Tricare costs for retirees and opposed a recent Pentagon move to create a new medal for drone operators that ranks higher in precedence than some medals awarded to combat troops on the ground.
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also

New VA clinics, expansions left in limbo
By Kevin Freking
The Associated Press
Posted : Tuesday Feb 26, 2013
WASHINGTON — A veterans’ health clinic in Brick, N.J., is in such disrepair that when the snow gets heavy, patients have to go elsewhere for fear the roof might collapse. Another in San Antonio has extensive mildew and mold problems that could prove a health hazard for employees and patients in the coming years.

In Lake Charles, La., it’s not the condition of a clinic but the lack of one. It’s estimated that 6,000 veterans would enroll in VA health care if the community were to get a new clinic.

The Department of Veterans Affairs has cited these examples as it sought approval from Congress last year for a dozen new or expanded health clinics around the country.

Lawmakers anticipated that the cost for the current fiscal year would probably run into the tens of millions of dollars, but the estimate from the Congressional Budget Office came in at $1.2 billion. The nonpartisan CBO said that sound accounting principles require the full cost of the 20-year leases for the clinics be accounted for up front.

The huge jump in the clinics’ price tag left lawmakers scrambling, and in the face of the budget-cutting climate on Capitol Hill, the VA request stalled. Now the agency is warning that unless lawmakers act, some currently operating clinics may have to close after their old leases expire and other long-planned expansions will not go forward.
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Tapping the rest of your life for PTSD treatment?

Here's one more example of a headline not turning out the way it sounds. Watch the video on this page and notice the veteran still "tapping" a year later in a follow up interview. What did the reporter mean by "it works" if this veteran still has to "tap" a year later?

Study Involving Rochester Veterans Shows PTSD Treatment Works
Rochesterhomepage.net
By: Ali Touhey
Updated: February 25, 2013

There's news about service members coming home with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. A study with connections to veterans in Rochester shows a nontraditional therapy works.

A study on the success of a therapy called "Emotional Freedom Technique" is published this month's "Journal of Nervous and Mental Disorders."

It's also called the "Tapping Solution." We first told you about it last year because some of the research was done locally.
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Here's the truth on this. You don't have to "tap" to feel better. You can skip and it would work just as good as long as you are talking and someone is listening.

Comprehensive Solider Fitness increased suicide warning ignored

Comprehensive Solider Fitness increased suicide warning ignored
by Kathie Costos
Wounded Times Blog
February 26, 2013

Working on The Warrior SAW, Suicides After War, my new book on military suicides and reviewing some research I've done over the years has dropped a bombshell of a reminder of how we got the deadliest year of suicides connected to military service. While suicides within the military made headlines across the country and internationally, the results of a study done trying to figure out how many veterans have committed suicide produced a finding that their suicides are almost one an hour everyday.

What no one seems to be talking about is how did they get there from when nothing was being done? How is it possible with all the Bills Congress has passed and funded, these suicides have been allowed to increase without accountability from them?

In May of 2009, I offered this warning about what they were doing.

Comprehensive Soldier Fitness will make it worse
General Casey, now hear this, you cannot, repeat, cannot train your brain to prevent PTSD and until you understand this "Because it is scientifically proven, you can build resilience." does not equal the cause of PTSD, you will keep making it worse! Did the rise in suicides and attempted suicides offer you no clue that Battlemind didn't work? Apparently something told you it didn't or you'd still be pushing this. When you have a program in place to "train them to be resilient" beginning with telling them if they do not, it's their fault, what the hell did you and the other brass expect? Did you think they would listen to the rest of what the Battlemind program had to say to them? Are you out of your mind?

With all due respect, because I do believe you care about the men and women you command, this is just one more in a series of mistakes because it seems no one in the Pentagon or the upper rows of the food chain have a clue what causes PTSD.

While adversity does make some stronger, you cannot train them to do it. Life and character does that quite effectively on their own. Some will walk away stronger after traumatic events but one out of three humans will not. Some experts put the rate at one out of five walk away wounded but the best experts I've listened to since 1982 have put it at one out of three.

Do you think that this man could have "trained his brain" as well?

UK:WWII veteran finally diagnosed with PTSD
A D-DAY hero has been told he is suffering a stress related illness picked up in battle — 65 years AFTER he was the first Brit to storm an enemy beach.

WWII vet George McMahon, who was the first soldier on Sword Beach in Normandy, France, had revealed he is still suffering terrifying flashbacks from June 6, 1944.

And Army docs have told the 89-year-old war hero he is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) picked up during WWII.

Mr McMahon's family first sought help from docs when the ex-soldier talked vividly about the war in the lead-up to the 65th anniversary of D-Day.

Mr McMahon of Kirk Ella, Hull, was then visited by the Service Personnel and Veterans' Agency — part of the Ministry of Defence — who said he was displaying PTSD symptoms.

The Scotland-born Army vet who served with The King's Regiment Army was awarded the Military Cross for storming two machine-guns.

Back then there were plenty of excuses to use for what happened to veterans but after Vietnam veterans came home and forced the wound to be treated, we ran out of excuses. How can you continue to dismiss what is so obvious? It is the nature of man, what is in their core, their empathy for others that is at the root of PTSD. I've talked to them long enough and enough of them to have understood this over 20 years ago. I also live with one.

I'm sick and tired of reading about what does not work being repeated. In all these years, people like me have already learned from the mistakes we made trying to help our husbands and others. To us, it wasn't a numbers game or a research project. This has meant our lives and the lives of the men we wanted to spend the rest of our lives with. Aside from that General Casey, I've spent countless hours attempting to undo the damage done because the troops are not being told what they need to hear in the first place.

I've held Marines in my arms crying because the military told them they were not strong enough and National Guardsmen told they were not cut out for combat. All of this because the military has been telling them it's their fault they didn't work hard enough to toughen their brains.

How many more suicides are you willing to live with? Has it not gotten thru to you yet that you are losing more men and women after combat than you do during it? This is only part of it because I doubt you have considered how many have committed suicide and tried it after they were discharged. You cannot order them to stop caring! You cannot order them to become callous or oblivious to the suffering of others. Between the members of their own unit to the innocent civilians that do end up in the wrong place at the wrong time, you cannot seriously expect them to just "get over it" and "toughen" their brains. These men and women walk away with their own pain compounded by the pain of others. This is what opens the door to PTSD and until you understand this is what the difference is, you will never get close enough to finding the best treatment for it and they will continue to pay for it.

Ever notice the vast majority of the men and women you command end up carrying out the mission they are given, fighting fiercely and showing great courage even though they are already carrying the wound inside of them? They fulfill their duty despite flashbacks and nightmares draining them because their duty comes first to them. Do you understand how much that takes for them to do that? Yet you think telling them their minds are not tough enough will solve the problem? What kind of a tough mind do you think they needed to have to fight on despite this killing pain inside of them?

I fully understand to you, I'm no one. I have been ignored by senators and congressmen, doctors and other brass for as long as I've been trying to help, so you are not the first. I've also been listened to by others trying to think outside the box, but more importantly to me, by the men and women seeking my help to understand this and their families. I tell them what you should have been telling them all along so that they know it's not their fault, they did not lack courage and they are not responsible for being wounded any more than they would have been to have been found by a bullet with their name on it.

If you promote this program the way Battlemind was promoted, count on the numbers of suicides and attempted suicides to go up instead of down. It's just one more deadly mistake after another and just as dangerous as sending them into Iraq without the armor needed to protect them.

Army Launching Program To Train Soldiers To Combat Post-Traumatic Stress
Sam Stein stein@huffingtonpost.com HuffPost Reporting

Faced with a growing number of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder cases in the armed forces, the U.S. Army will begin a program this summer to proactively address the problem by focusing on building the mental resilience of its personnel.

In a speech before the international affairs organization the Atlantic Council on Thursday, U.S. Army Chief of Staff Gen. George Casey laid out the virtues of the newly formed initiative, which he called Comprehensive Soldier Fitness.

"We have been looking very hard at ways to develop coping skills and resilience in soldiers, and we will be coming out in July with a new program called Comprehensive Soldier Fitness," said Casey. "And what we will attempt to do is raise mental fitness to the same level that we now give to physical fitness. Because it is scientifically proven, you can build resilience."

"The whole idea here is to give soldiers the skills they need to increase their resilience and enhance their performance," he went on. "A lot of people think that everybody who goes to combat gets post-traumatic stress. That's not true. Everybody that goes to combat gets stressed. There is no doubt about it. But the vast majority of people who go to combat have a growth experience because they are exposed to something very, very difficult and they prevail. So the issue for us is how do we give more people the skills so that more people have a growth experience... We thought it was important to get started on this because everything else involves you treating the problem. We need to be more proactive."

Yet this did little good. Researchers ignored this warning. In June, half way through the worst suicide record in 2012, there did come a warning from psychiatrists but again, most reporters failed to fully understand what this all meant.

Dangerous Ideas
How our core beliefs promote and prevent progressive change
by Roy Eidelson, Ph.D.
The Army’s Flawed Resilience-Training Study: A Call for Retraction
Claims about the CSF program’s effectiveness are not supported by the research.
Published on June 4, 2012 by Roy Eidelson, Ph.D. in Dangerous Ideas
Note: My thanks to co-author Stephen Soldz.

Ten years of continuous war, characterized by multiple deployments, elusive guerilla adversaries, and occupied populations seemingly more tilted toward resentment than gratitude — have taken a significant toll on US troops. In addition to those who have been killed, physically maimed, or neurologically impaired by combat, many soldiers have experienced debilitating psychological disorders including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, and anxiety. Large numbers are on antidepressants and other psychotropic medications, while the suicide rate among troops has risen to alarming levels.

The sobering realities of the psychological effects of war pose a serious challenge for the US military tasked with simultaneously fighting multiple wars and anticipating years of “persistent conflict” ahead. The good news is that key sectors within the military have now identified the mental health of our troops as a major issue that must be addressed. Indeed, in addition to treatment for those suffering psychological impairment, the military leadership is pursuing intervention efforts aimed at preventing such adverse outcomes by increasing soldiers’ psychological resilience to combat exposure. The largest of these new initiatives is the Army’s Comprehensive Soldier Fitness (CSF) program, launched in 2009 and based upon the “positive psychology” framework of psychologist Martin Seligman. And that brings us to the bad news: despite the over-hyped claims of CSF’s leading proponents, at this point there is little evidence to suggest that CSF works.

I strongly suggest that if you are researcher or member of the media trolling this blog, you go to the link and read what else was in the report. When you do you'll understand what I've been screaming about all this time.

Congress gets paid after screwing up country

Whatever budget battle's outcome, lawmakers themselves unaffected
By Joyce Tsai
Stars and Stripes
Published: February 25, 2013

WASHINGTON — Sequestration’s across-the-board assault on hundreds of thousands of government workers is set to hit Friday, but some will be spared, including active-duty troops and Defense Department civilians working in combat zones.

Add to that short list of protected workers: congressional lawmakers, who could put a stop to it all.

“The whole thing is dripping with irony and hypocrisy,” especially if you consider that they’re the ones who created this problem in the first place — and now seem resigned to letting it happen, said David Williams, president of the Taxpayers Protection Alliance, a nonpartisan government watchdog group in Alexandria, Va.
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Special Operations Aviation Regiment receive 20 medals for valor

Spec ops unit awarded 20 medals for actions
Army Times
By Michelle Tan
Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday Feb 26, 2013

Seven soldiers from the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment received Silver Stars for their actions during a harrowing rescue in Afghanistan.

The soldiers, from the regiment’s 3rd Battalion at Hunter Army Airfield, Ga., were honored with the nation’s third-highest award for valor during a ceremony Feb. 22.

They were honored for their actions of Sept. 14, 2011.

Six other soldiers received the Distinguished Flying Cross, also for their actions on that day.

In addition, seven soldiers from the 160th, including one of the Silver Star recipients, received the Air Medal with “V” device for their actions during separate missions.

One other soldier, Sgt. Jonathan L. Nichols, received a Purple Heart for wounds he received in action Sept. 29.

Officials declined to discuss many details of the events of Sept. 14, 2011, due to the sensitive nature of the 160th’s missions. However, officials confirmed that the soldiers were responding to a distress call for a risky daytime casualty evacuation in an area known for heavy insurgent activity.
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Point Man Ministries, PTSD Moral Code Talkers

Point Man Ministries, PTSD Moral Code Talkers
by Kathie Costos
Wounded Times Blog
February 26, 2013


Last night during our weekly conference call on Skype, leaders of Point Man International Ministries had a discussion about the latest news centered on the "moral injury" and some "experts" acting as if it was not part of Combat PTSD. What stuns most of us is the fact that these same experts fail to comprehend the fact that Combat PTSD is different than other types of PTSD. Why? Because war fighters are not just survivors of the trauma, they participate in the event itself. Members of law enforcement are hit almost as hard by this type of PTSD simply because of the fact they also participate in the events with weapons. While there is always a spiritual connection between trauma and faith, experts have failed to notice.

Humans walk away after surviving a traumatic event either believing they were saved for a reason or God did it to them. When we're talking about the traumatic events of combat, it is the same process but when they are looking around at the carnage left behind, it is very hard to think that God is real when all of it was allowed to happen. How could a loving God let all that happen? Why did they survive but others did not? Their moral code is broken. Before PTSD hit, they knew what they were doing but above that, they knew why they were doing it. It wasn't about what people talked about, the need to send them into combat or the need to keep them there. The number one job of a war fighter is to end it. That's right. It is not to kill as many opponents as possible but it is to get them to stop fighting. It is not to take lives but to save the lives of the men they are with. It is not to take over another country but to preserve their own country.

Those are the reasons they are willing to die. Those are the reasons they are prepared to risk their lives for. Those are the reasons they keep going until as many as possible return home.

Jake Wood, a PTSD soldier from the UK said that "war made sense" because everyone was watching out for each other. They knew what they had to do and didn't think about the politics behind it. They were trying to do what they were sent to do. He talked about how it was a matter of being unselfish.

This "moral injury" or wound, has been known for generations. Lately it has been in the news, recorded by reporters with no knowledge of the history behind it.

Veterans' 'moral injuries' are wounds of the soul
Wars leave troops haunted by guilt, shame
Written by
PAULINE JELINEK
Associated Press
Feb 23, 2013

WASHINGTON — A veteran of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, former Marine Capt. Timothy Kudo thinks of himself as a killer — and he carries the guilt every day.

“I can’t forgive myself,” he said. “And the people who can forgive me are dead.”

With American troops at war for more than a decade, there’s been an unprecedented number of studies into war zone psychology and an evolving understanding of post-traumatic stress disorder. Clinicians suspect some troops are suffering from what they call “moral injuries” — wounds from having done something, or failed to stop something, that violates their moral code.
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Frankly after almost 30 years of taking care of the spiritual aspect of PTSD, this "news" has left us stunned. How is it possible that "experts" are now paying attention to this as if it is new? How much else have they gotten wrong on Combat PTSD? We knew it hit the emotional part of the brain where most believe the soul lives but "experts" never think about what goes into being "human" anymore than they think about what makes them "who" they are inside.

Members of Point Man International Ministries have been "moral code talkers" all this time and finally now, mental health "professionals" are looking at what we've known all along.

Moral
adjective
1.of, pertaining to, or concerned with the principles or rules of right conduct or the distinction between right and wrong; ethical: moral attitudes.
2.expressing or conveying truths or counsel as to right conduct, as a speaker or a literary work.
3.founded on the fundamental principles of right conduct rather than on legalities, enactment, or custom: moral obligations.
4.capable of conforming to the rules of right conduct: a moral being.
5.conforming to the rules of right conduct ( opposed to immoral ): a moral man.

Code
noun
1.a system for communication by telegraph, heliograph, etc., in which long and short sounds, light flashes, etc., are used to symbolize the content of a message: Morse code.
2.a system used for brevity or secrecy of communication, in which arbitrarily chosen words, letters, or symbols are assigned definite meanings.
3.any set of standards set forth and enforced by a local government agency for the protection of public safety, health, etc., as in the structural safety of buildings (building code) health requirements for plumbing, ventilation, etc. (sanitary or health code) and the specifications for fire escapes or exits (fire code)
4.a systematically arranged collection or compendium of laws, rules, or regulations.
5.any authoritative, general, systematic, and written statement of the legal rules and principles applicable in a given legal order to one or more broad areas of life.

It is as if this is all a foreign language to the "experts" much like the Navajo language was so foreign that no one could break their code.

Navajo Code talkers
They were a small band of warriors who created an unbreakable code from the ancient language of their people and changed the course of modern history.
KNOWN AS NAVAJO CODE TALKERS, they were young Navajo men who transmitted secret communications on the battlefields of WWII. At a time when America's best cryptographers were falling short, these modest sheepherders and farmers were able to fashion the most ingenious and successful code in military history. They drew upon their proud warrior tradition to brave the dense jungles of Guadalcanal and the exposed beachheads of Iwo Jima. Serving with distinction in every major engagement of the Pacific theater from 1942-1945, their unbreakable code played a pivotal role in saving countless lives and hastening the war's end.

They understood each other but no one else could. We understand the code of the soul but few others do. Until more understand, the troops and veterans are doomed to treatments and medications that numb them instead of heal them like the latest from the Navy "The procedure is meant to numb nerves in the neck that can cause physical arousal and therefore allow patients to feel more calm and decrease the symptoms of PTSD."

We will keep seeing a rise in military suicides and attempted suicides until the "experts" actually learn what has been know all these years.

There are many things that keep getting missed when we talk about Combat and PTSD. This is to clear up the biggest one of all. What is courage and how does it link to being "mentally tough" so that you can push past what you were told about "resiliency" training. Chaplain Kathie "Costos" DiCesare of Wounded Times Blog tries to explain this in interview done by Union Squared Studios. woundedtimes.blogspot.com

After police standoff veteran hopes to get help for PTSD

Veteran at center of police standoff hopes treatment of PTSD will help him
NEWS 10 ABC
Feb 25, 2013
Gabriel Roxas

EL DORADO COUNTY, CA - He held sheriff's deputies at bay and forced his neighborhood to be evacuated for hours, but even so, neighbors said their hearts went out to him.

Witnesses say the teen's injury was not serious, but Ramirez's situation is.

Cameras weren't allowed inside the El Dorado County Jail when News10 report Gabriel Roxas sat down with Miguel Ramirez during visiting hours. The Marine veteran, who served in Afghanistan, requested an interview after initially turning down the station's request to talk.

Last week, Ramirez locked himself inside his Cameron Park home after officers responded to a call of an assault with a deadly weapon.

The scene was something neighbor Frances Lopez couldn't have imagined last fall when she first met the man she described as a nice guy.

"My son is also in the military and was over in Afghanistan, so we discussed that a little bit," Lopez recalled.

But as the months passed, Lopez says Ramirez's behavior became more erratic.
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