Guitars helping veterans move past trauma

The phrase was coined by William Congreve, in The Mourning Bride, 1697

Musick has Charms to sooth a savage Breast

To soften Rocks, or bend a knotted Oak.

I've read, that things inanimate have mov'd,

And, as with living Souls, have been inform'd,

By Magick Numbers and persuasive Sound.

What then am I? Am I more senseless grown

Than Trees, or Flint? O force of constant Woe!

'Tis not in Harmony to calm my Griefs.

Anselmo sleeps, and is at Peace; last Night

The silent Tomb receiv'd the good Old King;

He and his Sorrows now are safely lodg'd

Within its cold, but hospitable Bosom.

Why am not I at Peace?

Guitars helping veterans move past trauma
South Charlotte News
Apr. 26, 2013
By Eileen Schwartz

Jim Spagnolo, left, receives a guitar from volunteer instructor Dan Pfeiffer after completing the G4V program.

What do guitars and veterans have in common? More than you can imagine.

Ask Gary Walbrun and he’ll tell you about Guitars for Vets.

The national organization started in Milwaukee, Wis., in 2008. There now are 25 chapters nationwide that offer loaner guitars, free lessons and the gift of a guitar for veterans who complete a 10-week series of one-on-one lessons – all to help veterans suffering the effects of trauma.

Walbrun and his wife relocated to Fort Mill three years ago from Minneapolis.

Walbrun, 61, retired as a human resource executive, and he’s also a lifelong musician who plays in a group called RyvrWud. After reading about Guitars for Vets in a guitar magazine, Walbrun volunteered to be a guitar instructor to veterans.

Want to donate? Have a guitar to donate or looking for a way to thank a veteran? Contact Guitars for Vets: visit www.guitarsforvets.org or contact Gary Walbrun at G4VCarolina@comporium.net or “Guitars For Vets Carolinas” on Facebook.
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A Mortuary Affair in Iraq

A Mortuary Affair in Iraq
New York Times
By TERESA FAZIO
April 25, 2013

I never meant to be a wartime hussy. Unlike Paula Broadwell, I was not buff and beautiful; I was a shy Catholic girl from White Plains, N.Y., with a calligraphed physics diploma. As a 23-year-old Marine lieutenant just a year and a half out of R.O.T.C., my plan for a seven-month Iraq deployment included laying fiber-optic cable underground, not taking up with a comrade 12 years my senior.

I befriended him in the cavernous chow hall as he forked limp cabbage onto a plastic plate. He worked in our battalion’s mortuary affairs unit, and scraping human remains from helicopters had killed his taste for meat. When I asked if he had a family, he said, “what’s left of it.” His estranged wife cared for their 7-year-old son, who was my youngest brother’s age. Soon we e-mailed bawdy jokes over the network my wire platoon helped set up on our base in Anbar Province.

I didn’t look feminine; my hacked-off hair and wire-rim glasses let me roll from my sleeping bag into uniform. My Kevlar jacket barreled a camouflage carapace onto my 5-foot-1 frame. Even slung tight, my M-16 hung past my knees. The combined effect was less “Hurt Locker” than “Harry Potter Goes to War.”
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Ex-Marine says cops beat him

Ex-Marine says cops beat him in Jamaica's 103rd Precinct: suit
Dwight Edwards, 35, walked into the 103rd Precinct unscathed and came out beaten, according to a lawsuit corroborated by his girlfriend, Alicia Branford.
BY JOHN MARZULLI
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
April 26, 2013

The Queens district attorney’s office is investigating a former Marine’s claim that he was punched and kicked in the face by cops as they ejected him from the 103rd Precinct stationhouse, where he had gone to retrieve a friend’s personal property.

Dwight Edwards, 35 — who served in combat in Afghanistan, where he was severely injured by an improvised explosive device — suffered a fractured eye socket in the alleged attack. “He walked into the precinct unscathed and came out beaten,” lawyer Joel Berger said Thursday after filing a lawsuit in Brooklyn Federal Court.

Edwards was not arrested or even given a summons.

Already diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of a brain injury he suffered in the bombing, Edwards has been severely depressed since the Jan. 2 incident at the police station and checked himself into a hospital for treatment this week, according to his girlfriend, Alicia Branford.
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Fort Bragg Army wife stands by her man when Army didn't

UPDATE April 27, 2013

Support pours in for this family!

Crystal Reilly knows the price families pay when their husband's get deployed because she had to do it six times. Her husband was supposed to come back from Afghanistan so that he could get help in a hospital. The hospital became her home instead and she was the one on suicide watch.

If you believe the headlines from the military about "resilience" training, understand something right here, right now. Since 2009 they all have had this special "training" that was not tested so when a wife like Crystal uses the term "guinea pig" know that this is the biggest part of the problem. When suicides go up after billions are spent every year to "prevent them" it shows there is something really, really wrong with this.

Army wife battles military over husband's post-traumatic stress disorder
ABC News
Thursday, April 25, 2013
Nicole Carr

FAYETTEVILLE (WTVD) -- The spouse of a Fort Bragg soldier is taking her battle with the Army public after she says they abandoned them in their time in need.

Crystal Reilly, a mother of two, says she took her concerns about her husband's post traumatic stress disorder to the Army, and was virtually ignored.

So Thursday, she did something that couldn't be ignored. Almost anything you could imagine was for sale at Reilly's home in the 1600 block of Lakeway Drive in Fayetteville.

If you a double take, you realize the house and its owner are crying out.

A sign on the home reads, "The Reilly family is done with the guinea pig Army system. Get us real help."

Reilly has been married to the Army for 15 years, but it became apparent in 2009 that her husband, Sgt. Charles Reilly, was starting to change.
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US military faulted for burn-pit use

US military faulted for burn-pit use
By Ernesto Londoño
The Washington Post
Published: April 25, 2013

The U.S. military spent $5 million on incinerators at a base in Afghanistan that never became operable, forcing troops to use a type of open-air burn pit that has been linked to serious respiratory problems among veterans, according to a government report.

The Pentagon banned burn pits at large war-zone bases after facing a flurry of lawsuits and health claims by Iraq and Afghanistan veterans who were exposed to toxic fumes during deployments. The pits are used to burn everything from cafeteria waste to feces.

The case of the inoperable incinerators at Forward Operating Base Salerno in eastern Afghanistan, detailed in a new inspector general report, sheds light on the continued challenges of waste disposal in combat zones and the stark choices that commanders in Afghanistan are having to make as the U.S. military footprint continues to contract.
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Outcry erupts over 1% pay raise proposed for military

Outcry erupts over 1% pay raise proposed for military
USA Today
Gregg Zoroya
Apr. 24, 2013

Military families and their advocates are battling an Obama administration proposal to limit troops’ pay raises to 1 percent in 2014, the lowest increase in half a century.

The raise comes at a time when forces will still be fighting in Afghanistan.

“We’re sending the wrong message to the ones who have worked the hardest in our country by the multiple deployments and family separations,” says Michael Hayden, deputy director of government relations for the Military Officers Association of America.

White House spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden, no relation to Michael Hayden, said Obama is committed to “a sacred trust” with military members, but needed to reduce the pay raise, partly to offset congressional refusal to cut spending on “outdated weapons system.”
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Florida Veteran's story inspires outpouring of support

Veteran's story inspires outpouring of support
By Ben Wolford
Sun Sentinel
April 25, 2013

For one struggling Iraq War veteran, the generosity of South Florida has restored the young man's faith in the people he fought for, after what had been a brutal homecoming.

Since the story of 30-year-old Adam Peters was published, people have been calling, emailing and sending letters, offering everything from cash to a motorcycle that would replace the one thieves stole from him.

Peters returned to Boca Raton last month with symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, inflamed by tragedies in the news and the stolen bike. He says the outpouring has been cathartic.

"I didn't know it was going to be like this," he said.

The article detailed Peters' difficulty re-adjusting to civilian life. He served in Baghdad from 2006 to 2007, and his new perspective, molded by combat horrors, clashed with the suburban landscape. Like perhaps a third of the 231,000 Iraq and Afghanistan veterans in Florida, Peters deals with insomnia, irritability, anxiety and other afflictions — the hallmarks of PTSD or traumatic brain injury.
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Family of Sgt. Manuel Loggins may get justice after all

Orange County Supes Agree To Settle Camp Pendleton Marine Lawsuit
KPBS News
Wednesday, April 24, 2013
By Beth Ford Roth

The Orange County Board of Supervisors has agreed to settle a lawsuit brought by the family of Camp Pendleton Marine Sgt. Manuel Loggins, according to the San Clemente Times.

Orange County Sheriff's Deputy Darren Sandberg shot Loggins to death on February 7, 2012 in the parking lot of San Clemente High School. Loggins, 31, was standing near his vehicle when he was fatally shot, while his two young daughters watched from the backseat.
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Granger Smith marches for unsung heroes

Texas country western singer Granger Smith marches for unsung heroes
DVIDS
7th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment
Story by Sgt. John Healy

FORT HOOD, Texas - Since 2001, country-western artists have been more than vocal in their support of the American soldier. Songs about soldiers have topped the charts for nearly 13 years, yet how many artists can say that they went the extra mile?

Austin-based country singer Granger Smith not only went the extra mile, he went the extra 100 miles.

Smith began his walk in South Austin on Sunday, April 7. Over the span of five days, he marched, feet clad in a dusty pair of combat boots.

Throughout the walk Smith conducted daily radio interviews, talking about remembering to thank the men and women in the armed forces.

During every interview, Smith spent time encouraging listeners to donate to the Boot Campaign, a Texas-based nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting awareness of the issues faced by soldiers returning home and easing their reintegration to civilian culture.

“I really wanted to do something other than just doing a benefit concert or a celebrity golf tournament,” said Smith. “I wanted to do something that was a little more memorable, something that means a little bit more.”
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Woman runs Army Marathon in memory of two brothers

With Family, for Family
By Daniel Cernero
Fort Hood Sentinel Sports Editor
APRIL 25, 2013
SPORTS

TEMPLE - For years now, Monica Velez has turned to running the Marine Corps Marathon as a way to deal with the emotional toll of losing her two brothers, Cpl. Jose “Freddy” Velez and Spc. Andrew Velez.

On Sunday, in the inaugural Army Marathon, Monica set out on yet another marathon, this one on the same ground she’d run with Freddy years ago.

“It’s just a lot of emotions,” said Monica, running with the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors team, before the start of the race. “I lived here with my brother Freddy for quite some time, with him and his wife Nickie. As young adults, this was our first place away from home. We were together and kind of experiencing life.”

That was in 2003, when Freddy, a 1st Cavalry Division Soldier was stationed at Fort Hood before a deployment to Iraq. In 2004, on Veterans Days, Freddy was killed in Fallujah. Two years later, Andrew took his own life while deployed in Afghanistan.

Running, something Monica had always down with her Family, became her outlet.

“It brings back good memories, and I can sit and get lost within those memories and just enjoy myself,” she said. “I’ll cry and I’ll run and I’ll cry. This is the only place that I can scream out loud and everybody gets it; they’ll even scream with you.”
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