Iraq veteran wants us to know he had to pass a background check

I received an email from an Iraq veteran with a video on Vote Vets.

I needed to pass a background check to join the Marine Corps and carry an assault weapon in Iraq. We should require the same of anyone who wants to carry one at home. As veterans, we're familiar with these weapons and why its so important we keep them out of the hands of criminals and the mentally ill. That's why I'm proud to appear in VoteVets latest 30-second ad on the issue. With the Senate set to vote on gun legislation in a few weeks, watch the ad and tell your Senators that you support universal background checks.

Glenn Kunkel said that he had to pass a background check before he could carry his weapon. Why shouldn't everyone else?
Glenn Kunkel
Iraq War Veteran
Purple Heart Recipient

Institute of Medicine study shows why DOD and VA not helping

"The IOM study reports that 44 percent of veterans have had "readjustment difficulties," 48 percent have dealt with "strains on family life," 49 percent have experienced post-traumatic stress, and 32 percent have felt "an occasional loss of interest in daily activities." Those figures were plucked from an earlier Pew Research Center survey."

Rough landings: DOD, VA sluggish helping returning veterans, study says
By Bill Briggs
NBC News contributor

Nearly half of the 2.2 million U.S. troops who served in Iraq and Afghanistan have struggled to readjust to American life in part because the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs have been sluggish in helping those coming home in droves, according to a sweeping report released today.

After examining veteran suicides and unemployment as well as the military’s handling of sex assaults, women in uniform and same-sex family issues, the Institute of Medicine said returning service members deserve “timely and adequate care,” yet it cited cases in which the DOD and VA are using unproven diagnostic and therapy tools.

The tool DOD uses to assess cognitive function following a head injury – Automated Neuropsychological Assessment Metrics (ANAM) — carries “no clear scientific evidence” to show that it works.

One of the VA’s “first-line treatments for depression” — Acceptance and Commitment Therapy — similarly “lacks sufficient evidence” to show its efficacy. read more here

Where has all the money gone on Suicide Prevention?

These are just some of the grants going into PTSD and Suicide Prevention.
*editors note: If you are a reporter, I left the links out because I am tired to doing the work for you. If you want to verify them, you just have to find them on this blog.

February 2007

But in 2005 and 2006, despite telling Congress that it was setting aside an additional $300 million for expanding mental-health services, such as PTSD programs, the VA didn't get around to spending $54 million of that, according to the Government Accountability Office.”

Jan. 3, 2008

BATTLEMIND Title:Battlemind Transition Office Role:Prime Contractor Contract Number:VW81XWH-07-D-0011-0001 Contracting Agency:US Army Medical Research Acquisition Activity Type:IDIQ Period of Performance: 30-SEP-2007 through 29-SEP-2010 Customer:

News American Forces Press Service ‘Battlemind’ Prepares Soldiers for Combat, Returning Home By Susan Huseman Special to American Forces Press Service STUTTGART, Germany, – Every soldier headed to Iraq and Afghanistan receives “Battlemind” training designed to help them deal with combat experiences, but few know the science behind the program. Consequently, Dr. Amy Adler, a senior research psychologist with the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research’s U.S. Army Medical Research Unit Europe, in Heidelberg, Germany, visited Patch Barracks here, breaking down the program, which is a system of support and intervention.

April 2008

By 2008 another $2.7 million was handed over to a contractor to make phone calls. Yep~phone calls! 570,000 veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan were supposed to be called to find out why they hadn’t gone to the VA.

October 2008

“The Army and the National Institute of Mental Health have begun a five-year, $50 million research program into the factors behind soldier suicides and how to prevent them, Army Secretary Pete Geren told reporters at the Pentagon.

April 2009

“The Army's alarming suicide trend continues this year, said David Rudd, the chairman of Tech's psychology department who will head the $1.97 million Defense Department study.

March 23, 2010

Dr. Thomas Insel, director of National Institute of Mental Health gave testimony to congress on March 23, 2010. “In Fiscal Year 2009, NIMH spent over $41 million in 97 grants, in 23 states, dedicated to helping veterans. We are working with DoD, VA, and academic clinicians and researchers to focus on the mental health needs of active duty, National Guard, and Reserve service personnel, as well as veterans and their families.

December 2011

The $125-million Comprehensive Soldier Fitness program requires soldiers to undergo the kind of mental pre-deployment tests and training that they have always had to undergo physically. Already, more than 1.1 million have had the mental assessments.

$11 million Department of Defense grant to test two different types of exposure therapy combined with the drug D-Cycloserine (DCS) for the treatment of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).Emory University School of Medicine

March 2012

$3.5 million grant for a research project to more effectively treat post-traumatic stress disorder and ultimately prevent it from occurring.

May 2012

$10 million to outsource PTSD and TBI care. Congressmen Mike Thompson of California and Pete Sessions of Texas announced an amendment to create a five year “pilot program” to allow military patients to from civilian healthcare facilities. “Utilizing an array of leading-edge successful therapies to treat TBI and PTSD for the 2013 budget.

June 4, 2012

“Master Resilience Trainer” is placed into an Army unit after 10 days of training. They were “charged with equipping fellow soldiers with thinking skills and strategies intended to help them more effectively handle the physical and psychological challenges of military life, including, most especially, combat operations.” The analysis added this, “However, the public that has paid over $100 million for the CSF program and, even more, the one million soldiers who are involuntarily subjected to CSF’s resiliency training deserve much better than the misrepresentations of effectiveness aggressively promoted.”

$31 million no-bid contract to Seligman’s positive psychology center at the University of Pennsylvania for CSF development

June 12, 2012

The Pentagon has not spent much of some $8 million Congress has provided for suicide prevention because the funds are allocated only for “in-house,” or hospital, care — not education and outreach programs, according to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.

July 2012

Army Comprehensive Soldier Fitness is a $125 million program that seeks to make troops as psychologically fit as possible. But a group of psychologists says there’s no proof that the program — or similar resilience-building efforts in the other services — works.

August 18, 2012

Garrett Lee Smith Memorial Act Signed Authorization of Appropriations.--For the purpose of carrying out this section, there are authorized to be appropriated $5,000,000 for fiscal year 2005, $5,000,000 for fiscal year 2006, and $5,000,000 for fiscal year 2007.''. 108th Congress Public Law 355 The US Army has awarded a scientist at the Indiana University School of Medicine $3 million to develop a nasal spray that eclipses suicidal thoughts. Dr. Michael Kubek and his research team will have three years to ascertain whether the nasal spray is a safe and effective method of preventing suicides. US Army grants $3 million for anti-suicide nasal spray research

August 2012

UCLA School of Dentistry, has received a $3.8 million research grant to develop a salivary-biomarker approach for identifying individuals at future risk of developing post-traumatic stress disorder and depression following a traumatic event.

Department of Psychiatry at the University of Rochester Medical Center a five-year grant of $4.1 million to establish an Injury Control Research Center for Suicide Prevention (ICRC-S).

$2.4 million grant from the U.S. Department of Defense to study the effect of the Transcendental Meditation

Sept. 2012

VA, DOD to Fund $100 Million PTSD and TBI Study From a Department of Veterans Affairs News Release WASHINGTON, – The Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Defense today announced they are investing more than $100 million in research to improve diagnosis and treatment of mild Traumatic Brain Injury and Post-traumatic Stress Disorder. This year, approximately 3,400 researchers will work on more than 2,300 projects with nearly $1.9 billion in funding. Specific information on the consortia, including the full description of each award, eligibility, and submission deadlines, and general application instructions, are posted on the Grants.gov and CDMRP websites.

Fort Detrick is receiving $100 million in federal grants to fund research into post-traumatic stress disorder and mild traumatic brain injury.

$7.7 million grant from the Department of Defense (DoD) to study the most effective way to implement Prolonged Exposure therapy, an effective and efficient treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), among mental health practitioners who treat soldiers suffering from this disorder.

October 31, 2012

Department of Defense Military Suicide Research Consortium decided they had $677,000 laying around and thought it would be good to spend in on finding out how 100 military families felt after the suicide loss of someone they loved and it would be worth the two years it would take thee the University of Kentucky to do it.

Camp Lejeune's Marine families may have to wait longer

Camp Lejeune's water woes keep growing worse
The Virginian-Pilot
© March 26, 2013

Evidence of one of the worst cases of drinking water contamination in American history continues to build at Camp Lejeune. So, unfortunately, does the record of disastrous responses by federal authorities.

In August, President Barack Obama signed a bill to open up more health care resources for an estimated 1 million Marines and family members exposed to carcinogens at the base in Jacksonville, N.C., during a 30-year period ending in 1987.

But officials at the Department of Veterans Affairs now say it may take until next year, or even early 2015, before the law is fully implemented.

In the meantime, it appears the VA is doing little to accelerate benefit claims; since December 2010, the department has rejected 75 percent of the 1,483 veterans who've sought benefits.

News of the delay arrives amid a new study showing that the contamination began earlier than previously thought. Drinking water from wells tainted by leaking fuel tanks and an off-base dry cleaner have been linked to cancer, birth defects and other health problems.
read more here

Camp Pendleton "new suicide prevention" program?

I guess 900 programs is just not enough.

New suicide prevention training
By Cpl. Derrick Irions
Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton
March 25, 2013
CAMP PENDLETON, Calif.

In accordance with Marine Corps Order 1720.2, a recently released MarineNet activation announcement, indicates every Marine Corps battalion and squadron must appoint a Suicide Prevention Program Officer (SPPO).

Each SPPO is required to complete MarineNet course MFCSPPO001.

The MairneNet course will educate SPPOs in prevention, intervention, reporting and response for suicide related incidents within their commands.

The course’s USMC SPPO Distance Learning Module includes the USMC Suicide Prevention Program and Suicide Prevention Program Officer Responsibilities.

Military Reporters just repeating DOD claims on suicide prevention

Military Reporters just repeating DOD claims on suicide prevention
by Kathie Costos
Wounded Times Blog
March 26, 2013

It took Army Times a few days to pick up on Military suicides up despite 900 Suicide Prevention Programs but glad they did since they get more hits than I do. More people finding out about this may actually get the DOD to stop doing it instead of pushing it. I read Army Times a couple of times a day when I can because tracking these reports from news sites is a mission I have been on since I started this blog in 2007. There have been only a few times I can remember where I felt the report was wrong. This is one of them.

DoD reviews 900 suicide-prevention initiatives Army Times
By Patricia Kime
Staff writer
Posted : Monday Mar 25, 2013

The Defense Department is reviewing more than 900 suicide prevention initiatives at the DoD and service levels to determine which ones support the overall strategy of reducing suicides and which can go in the dustbin.

The review by DoD’s Suicide Prevention Office, which follows a record year for suicides in the ranks — 349 in 2012 — began last fall, and a preliminary report should be out by October, Jacqueline Garrick, acting director of the DoD office, told members of the House Armed Services Committee on March 21.

“We’re working very closely with the services. They are providing us data and input on their programs and what they look like so we can flesh out … what strategic objectives they serve and the costs,” she said.

The Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force have tailored their own programs to reverse the decadelong trend of rising military suicide rates.

In 2001, the rate was 10.3 suicides per 100,000 troops; by 2009, that had risen to 18.3. Garrick said the rate remained fairly level in 2010 and 2011 but is expected to increase in 2012 once all the data is reviewed.

To fight the problem, the services have focused on resilience training, equipping soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines with strategies to cope with stress.
read more here

In the same hearing it was said that the number of suicides reported for 2012 will likely increase as they research "cause of death" but even with that, the number of 349 is wrong. It is at least 492 when you add all the reported branches however even those numbers are not complete. I've seen nothing on Air National Guard and Marine Reservists. Researching all of this has only confirmed my fear that CSF-resilience based programs do more harm than good. RAND looked at these programs and among the findings was that this approach does not fit with military culture and there is no evidence anyone can train or be taught to be resilient.

Again here are the reported numbers including 48 Marines, 59 Air Force, 60 Navy as reported On "Chiarelli:Suicide a nation wide problem by Patricia Kime on January 16, 2013 for Marine Corps Times. How could she forget about them? The total of Army Suicides was not released until February 1, 2013 and that release was only for Army, Army National Guards and Army Reservists. "In 2012, the Army had 182 active-duty suicides, the Marine Corps, 48; the Air Force, 59 and the Navy, 60, according to the services." Those numbers equal 492, not 349.

The 349 came from 2012 military suicides hit record high of 349, Robert Burns of Associated Press on January 14, 2013 before the DOD released their report in February. "The Army, by far the largest of the military services, had the highest number of suicides among active-duty troops last year at 182, but the Marine Corps, whose suicide numbers had declined for two years, had the largest percentage increase — a 50 percent jump to 48. The Marines' worst year was 2009's 52 suicides.

The Air Force recorded 59 suicides, up 16 percent from the previous year, and the Navy had 60, up 15 percent."

All of the numbers are tentative, pending the completion later this year of formal pathology reports on each case.

USA reported the numbers in November of 2012.

Gregg Zoroya's report on USA Today in November of 2012 Army Navy suicides at record high.

Of that total, the Army accounted for 168, surpassing its high last year of 165

53 sailors took their own lives, one more than last year.

The Air Force and Marine Corps are only a few deaths from record numbers. Fifty-six airmen had committed suicide as of Nov. 11, short of the 60 in 2010.

There have been 46 suicides among Marines, whose worst year was 2009 with 52.

That was not the worst reporting done on this hearing. The was another one that was nothing more than a selling job on Comprehensive Soldier Fitness.

It came from Military Suicide Research Consortium.

'Invisible wounds' taking toll, Congress told By David Vergun Source: United States Army Published: Thursday 21 March, 2013.

This sounds like it is working,

"Results from the Sample Survey of Military Personnel from 1999 to fall 2012 revealed that the percentage of officers and enlisted Soldiers who felt seeking behavioral health care would harm their career dropped significantly, from 81 to 54 percent for officers and from 69 to 52 for enlisted, he said."

but, after all these years there are still over half not believing they can seek help? Are we really expected to believe that? They came out with Battlemind so long ago that I was complaining about it in 2008. The other factor is if there were that many more thinking getting help was OK, then why was 2012 the deadliest on record? Do you see what is in the carefully chosen words released?

Start with the number of servicemen and women seeking help. 43% of those who committed suicide did not seek help. The problem is, that means 57% were "helped" but committed suicide afterwards. That news came from Senator Joe Donnelly.

Those numbers prove it is not working but then again all you have to do is listen to the families after they had to bury their family member lost to suicide connected to military service.

"The Army has additionally increased access to behavioral health care services, he added, pointing out that this has contributed to an overall increase in the number of behavioral health encounters from 991,655 in fiscal year 2007 to 1,961,850 in fiscal year 2012, a 97.8-percent increase."

WOW that sounds like they really have their act together. Sounds like it but again, look at the numbers. Now look back at the number of suicides for last year and then factor in at least 22 veterans committing suicide a day, then remember those veterans are part of the "civilian" suicides they point to.

I want to read a report that actually says they figured out what they got wrong but since all of this started so long ago and they haven't figured it out yet, with all the hundreds of millions of dollars spent, thousands of suicides that we were told should not happen, it is unlikely they will get it right now unless they stop all of these programs that do not work!

Booted and banned: Former U.S. troops battle to come home

Tony Lamson in the photo is from Point Man Ministries and doing all he can to help these veterans know they have not been forgotten and are not alone.

Booted and banned: Former U.S. troops battle to come home
By Bill Briggs
NBC News contributor
Five ex-American service members are mashed into a two-bedroom apartment in the Mexican border town of Rosarito Beach — a place of last stand, a foreign exile they’ve dubbed the “support house for banished veterans.”

Courtesy of Hector Barajas Expelled to Mexico from the United States after serving in the American military, veterans Fabian Rebolledo (first from the left), Juan Jose Sotomayor (third from the left) and Hector Barajas fourth from the left) are waging a legal battle for medical benefits and, perhaps, a return home. Tony Lamson, (second from the left), is a missionary helping the veterans

All five were deported from the United States after being convicted of unrelated crimes — including nonviolent offenses — committed after serving their nation, both in war and peace. They’re using their cramped hub to push for veterans’ medical benefits and lobby for a Congressional hearing to examine their expulsions. Yet there’s an even more pressing matter: more ex-U.S. troops are headed their way following similar deportations.


“It’s just a matter of time before I get two or three more guys. We don’t have the room. I guess we’ll put up some tents outside,” said Hector Barajas, 36, leader of the house and an Army paratrooper from 1995 to 2001. He immigrated from Mexico with his family when he was a child, growing up in Compton, Calif. Soon after his service, he pleaded guilty to firing a gun into a vehicle. No one was hurt. He served two years. In 2004, he was deported to Mexico.

read more here

Virus Vial Missing From Galveston National Laboratory

I agree with Ryan at Huffington Post, don't panic!

Guanarito Virus Vial Missing From Galveston National Laboratory's Secure Facility
The Huffington Post
By Ryan Grenoble
Posted: 03/25/2013

Don't panic, but a vial of Guanarito virus, capable of causing hemorrhagic fever, has gone missing from a secure research lab in Galveston, Texas.

In a statement released March 23, University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) President David Callender explained "less than a quarter teaspoon" of the virus was unaccounted for from a locked freezer within a secure facility at the Galveston National Laboratory. A routine inspection on March 20 and 21 revealed the virus was missing.

"There was no breach in the facility’s security and there is no indication that any wrongdoing is involved," Callender added in the release. "It is likely, but not confirmed, that the vial was destroyed during normal laboratory sterilization practices."

The laboratory's scientific director, Scott Weaver, told The Houston Chronicle the vial may have become stuck to a glove and fallen onto the floor, where it would have been destroyed as a part of the lab's normal cleaning and decontamination process.

The vial, containing what is commonly referred to as Venezuelan hemorrhagic fever, was stored in a Biosafety Level 4 laboratory. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) reserves for Biosafety Level 4 for "dangerous and exotic agents that pose a high individual risk of aerosol-transmitted laboratory infections."
read more here

Man in custody after stabbing shoppers at Target store

Several stabbed inside East Liberty Target; Person in custody
EAST LIBERTY, Pa. — Authorities took a man into custody after the report of a stabbing at the Target in East Liberty Monday night.
According to police, several emergency crews were dispatched to the store about 5 p.m.

According to Channel 11’s news exchange partners at TribLIVE, a 16-year-old suffered the most serious wounds and was taken to Children's Hospital in Lawrenceville. The rest of the injuries were classified as moderate to minor.

Tyrique Walker told Channel 11’s Vince Sims that he saw the suspect outside the store.
read more here

COMBAT PTSD BLOG BREAKS ONE MILLION

WOUNDED TIMES BLOG BREAKS ONE MILLION PAGE VIEWS!

Thank you to all the readers and especially the subscribers following this blog and passing on the news you find here.



When I started this blog in August of 2007 I knew it would matter to our veterans but I had no idea a blog like this would reach so many.

For all the veterans out there feeling as if you are alone, you're not! You do matter not just to me but to all the others coming here and paying attention to what is happening to you.

In case I haven't said it lately, I LOVE YOU! You are the reason I start every morning at 7:00 and shut my phone off at 10:00 each night.