Canada: "PTSD is a horrendous injury"

‘They’re not to be shunned, they’re to be respected’
BY LETHBRIDGE HERALD
MARCH 27, 2014

“When a veteran is wounded, it’s not just the one individual, it affects the whole family; it’s the children, it’s the spouses, everyone who knows that individual,” Critchley said.

Steve Critchley says his organization, Can Praxis, unlike the federal government, “walks the talk” when it comes to helping Canada’s veterans deal with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Although he doesn’t like to use the word “disorder.”

“That actually upsets me. The evidence now shows that there is physical damage to the brain,” Critchley said as he presented “How are Canadian military veterans surviving in a civilian world?” to SACPA at Country Kitchen Catering Thursday afternoon.

“These individuals are wounded. They’re not to be shunned, they’re to be respected. The challenge is that you cannot see mental injuries. PTSD is a horrendous injury. It really messes people up in an ugly way. There’s no easy fix for it.”

PTSD affects personalities, relationships, sex drive and even the ability to hold a simple conversation. But it also affects people differently and there is no one cure-all solution, said Critchley, a retired former harassment investigator, harassment adviser and an assisting officer for the Canadian Forces.
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Boynton Beach Police Officer "Happy" feet

Mar 23, 2014
Boynton Beach Police Officer Ron Ryan shows off his smooth moves dancing to Happy by Pharrell Williams after responding to a call about a house party last night. Watching this will make you happy!!!

Retired Medevac pilot reflects on 27-year Army career

Medevac’s memories: Retired pilot reflects on 27-year Army career
Harker Heights Herald
Bob Massey
Herald correspondent
March 28, 2014

Retired Col. Otis Evans remembers the very long and harrowing day of Dec. 1, 1968, like it was yesterday. The day began at 4:30 a.m. with a mission to extract a wounded soldier from Vietnam’s trenches.

“We received fire, but it didn’t disable the aircraft. We tried another route in and it was the worst choice we could have made,” he said. His rescue mission suffered a barrage of enemy fire, destroying the tail rotor system of his helicopter and causing the chopper to crash.

Not willing to abandon their mission, Evans and his crew loaded up another helicopter and made another attempt to that same location later in the evening when there was very little action.

Unfortunately, the soldier they were sent to retrieve was dead.

“Regardless, we were still bound and determined to bring the soldier out,” Evans said.
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Another bill to improve Veterans Affairs benefit claim process

In June of 2008 we heard promises of fixing the claims backlog when there were 879,291 claims waiting to be honored. Way back then, thousands of veterans had died waiting.

Report: 8,763 vets died waiting for benefits
Army Times
By William H. McMichael - Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday Jul 15, 2008 14:56:15 EDT

The title of the House committee report sums up what happened: “Die or Give Up Trying: How Poor Contractor Performance, Government Mismanagement and the Erosion of Quality Controls Denied Thousands of Disabled Veterans Timely and Accurate Retroactive Retired Pay Awards.”

The report by the majority staff of the House Oversight and Government Reform domestic policy panel, released Tuesday, concluded that at least 28,283 disabled retirees were denied retroactive pay awards because rushed efforts to clear a huge backlog of claims led program administrators to stop doing quality assurance checks on the claims decisions.

And of the original 133,057 potentially eligible veterans, 8,763 died before their cases could be reviewed for retroactive payments, according to the report.

At issue are the Concurrent Retirement and Disability Payments and Combat-Related Special Compensation programs, approved by Congress in 2003 and 2004 to allow large numbers of disabled retirees to receive full concurrent military retirement pay and veteran’s disability compensation.

In February, the backlog was said to be “more than 39,000” cases. Jonas said she had been assured that the backlog would be cleared by April.

That did not happen, according to the subcommittee report, because Lockheed Martin, the contractor hired in July 2006 to compute the complex retroactive pay awards, had difficulty making the computations fast enough to eliminate the backlog quickly. The complexity of the computations also hindered Lockheed Martin’s ability to develop software to automate the process. read more here

So why is there yet one more politician introducing yet one more bill to fix what has been broken all this time but forgetting it wasn't fixed before? The likelihood of a bill being written the right way once and for all is slim until they figure out what they already got wrong.

Rep. Dan Maffei introduces bill to improve Veterans Affairs benefit claim process
Robert Harding
March 27, 2014

U.S. Rep. Dan Maffei is seeking to improve the Veterans Affairs benefit claims process for families of deceased veterans.

Maffei, D-Syracuse, introduced a bill Thursday, the Veteran Families Fairness Act, to assist veterans' families and ensure the veteran's benefits aren't lost.

Right now, a veteran's parents, spouse and children under 18 years old are considered eligible survivors who would receive benefits from the VA if the veteran passes away during the claims process. But there have been cases of veterans who die without a spouse, living parents or children under 18. In those cases, the veteran's benefits are lost, Maffei said.

For eligible survivors, there are challenges. In order to receive the deceased veteran's benefits, they must start from the beginning of the claims process, even if the veteran had already gone through the process and was waiting to receive benefits.

According to figures from the VA cited by Maffei, approximately 22,000 veterans died with a pending claim in the 2013 fiscal year. Some veterans died while waiting up to three years in the VA claims process and yet, their family members were unable to receive benefits because they weren't considered eligible survivors.

Maffei said his legislation will help address these flaws in the VA claims process.
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It Depends on Which Part of the Sky You See

It Depends on Which Part of the Sky You See
Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
March 28, 2014

Maybe you live in Florida and can get thru winter without putting on a coat. How could you understand someone freezing to death in a northern state because they cannot afford to buy one?

Maybe you have been healthy and complain about insurance premiums being deducted from your paycheck because you don't need to go to a doctor. How could you understand someone dying because they got sick, needed to see a doctor but couldn't afford to go?

Maybe you have been lucky all your life. If you never had to worry about paying bills, how would you be able to understand someone who has had everything wrong happen to them?

We are all human, living under the same sky, but we only see what is right over our heads. Sometimes the sun is shining over us. Sometimes it is dark. It all depends on what part of the sky you see.

If you are a combat veteran, one of the lucky ones returning home, able to overcome the memories of where you've been, how could you understand another veteran unable to do it?

So many times there is a heartbreaking story in the news of a veteran suffering from PTSD with a comment from another veteran attacking the one the story is about.

No one leaves combat without being changed by it. The only difference is change comes in different levels and outcomes.

One veteran may come home more caring about others. Maybe he never had the opportunity to focus on anyone but himself in the civilian world but was drafted into service during Vietnam. Once there, he had to quickly acknowledge that his life depended on the others he was with and in return their lives depended on him. He was conditioned to pay attention to them and learned how to care.

One veteran may come home pushing family members away from him because he is in so much pain. Maybe he cared too much about the others he was with and it broke his heart.

The only way for his heart to be mended is for another veteran to care enough about him they want to help because even though fighting in Vietnam ended, the battle goes on back home for far too many. PTSD is claiming more and more lives everyday.

If the sky is clear over your head, try to understand that it isn't clear over everyone.

During combat they knew they could lean on you.

During combat they knew you would not leave them behind.

During combat they knew you would pick them up when they were down.

During combat they knew you cared about them.

So why do you pretend to not care now?

If everyone is talking about 22 veterans a day committing suicide

you need to wonder why they don't matter as much today as they 

did during Vietnam because most of the veterans wanting to end 

the pain they carry are Vietnam Veterans.

Vietnam Vet's Grandson Comes Home to Save Life

Grandson returns from Afghanistan to donate part of liver to dying Vietnam vet
WSMV News
By Bob Hallmark
Posted: Mar 27, 2014

Ricky Glenn returned from Afghanistan to donate part of his liver to his dying grandfather, a Vietnam vet.

LONGVIEW, TX (KLTV)
It's an amazing story of family, love and honor from one East Texas soldier to another. A dying Vietnam veteran is in desperate need of a liver transplant and his grandson is stepping in to help.

Rick Homer spent four years in the Marines and 16 in the U.S. Army. He survived the savage fighting in Vietnam, but now the 62-year-old Longview man is dying.

"I found out about it a little over three years ago. I have hemachromatosis, which is genetic. The liver doesn't purify the blood like it supposed to. The only time I've got left is what the good Lord gives me," Homer says.

He could have been on a donor list for years, but his grandson, 21-year-old U.S. Army Specialist Ricky Glenn, came to his rescue.

"The loss and the regret of me not doing anything would have outweighed this. I'm the firstborn grandson I carry my grandfather's name," Glenn says.

Glenn arranged with his commanding officer to be flown back from Afghanistan to Baylor Medical Center to be tested as a match.
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Florida funeral bill prevents Vietnam Veteran being laid to rest

Staten Island veteran, who asked for Arlington burial, still at Fla. funeral home 15 months later
Staten Island Advance
By Timothy Harrison
March 28, 2014

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Almost 15 months after he died, John L. Matyi, a disabled Vietnam War veteran who lived on Staten Island for six decades, still hasn't been buried at Arlington National Cemetery, his dream since he left the battlefield in 1970.

The Army awarded Matyi a Purple Heart.

Later, he suffered from severe post-traumatic stress disorder and subsequent alcoholism.

But according to Matyi's only survivor, his brother Alex, none of that mattered to Brown Funeral Home in Lecanto, Fla., which handled his cremation last year, when money ran short and the $1,200 charge couldn't be paid.

Alex Matyi said the funeral home assured him months ago that the service would be taken care of.

"I got all the papers from the V.A. for the burial," he said. But without a confirmation from Arlington seven months after his brother's death, he called officials at the cemetery, who searched for a week for the missing remains.

"I was under the impression that he had already left that funeral home," Alex Matyi said. He called the funeral director, who, according to Matyi, said: "No he's still here - it's a matter of $1,200."
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Vietnam Vet William Welsh Killed in Washington Mudslide

Vietnam Vet William Welsh Is Confirmed as Latest Mudslide Victim
NBC News

Another victim of the deadly Washington mudslide was formally identified by authorities Thursday night.

William E. Welsh was a 66-year-old electrician who was on his way to install a hot water tank when the mudslide ripped through the Stillaguamish Valley. The Army veteran served in Vietnam.

According to the Snohomish County Medical Examiner's Office he was killed by "blunt impact" injuries.
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ABC Nashville show films at Fort Campbell

Soldiers, families participate in TV show filming
Kentucky News Era
By Carla Jimenez
New Era Staff Writer
March 26, 2014

The airfield on Fort Campbell transformed into a concert scene Wednesday afternoon — but it wasn’t a real concert.

The fake show was for another show: ABC’s show “Nashville,” and soldiers on Fort Campbell and their families got to watch the crew film and also be part of the concert scene.

The show, which centers on a rivalry between two country singers, filmed a concert scene taking place at Fort Campbell with soldiers from the military post in the background. Wearing a star-spangled scarf, Connie Britton — who plays reigning country queen Rayna James on the show — thanked the soldiers as the real heroesand superstars.

It’s that same patriotic sentiment Melvin Kearney said the show really takes to heart. Everyone from the crew to the stars understands and truly appreciates all service men and women.

Kearney plays Bo, a bodyguard for one of the country stars on the show. He’s also a veteran who served as a sergeant for two combat tours in Iraq. So for him, seeing all the soldiers and families gathered for the filming was a lot like coming home.
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Aging veterans and Combat PTSD

PTSD 101 Course
National Center for PTSD

Transcript for: Aging and PTSD
Welcome to PTSD 101. These PTSD 101 podcasts were extracted from online multimedia courses and may refer to tables, charts, or videos. To view the complete courses, which include all these elements, and to find out about earning free continuing education credits, please go to ptsd.va.gov.

Today we are going to talk about a topic that is near and dear to my heart, Aging and PTSD.

Hello and welcome. My name is Dr. Joan Cook and I am a psychologist on faculty in the Yale School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry and am a researcher at the National Center for PTSD.

Veteran 1:
Our company went in with 220 men and by nightfall only 23 of us were still able to fight. We lost almost 90% that day. I got captured in September 30th of 1944, and I was a POW from the 30th of September until April the 15th of '45. And I never told anybody about my experiences, because I didn't want to remember exactly what I'd seen. What I've seen, you cannot describe! It's too horrible.

Why is the topic of aging and PTSD so important? The answer is for numerous reasons.

The number, proportion and diversity of older adults in the general population are steadily increasing, particularly in industrialized countries, where older adults are expected to constitute 33% of the population by 2050.

Compared to the scientific investigation of exposure to potentially traumatic events and potential mental health effects in other age groups, much less is known about those aged 65 and over.

The graying of the population can particularly be seen in Veterans served in the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). In Fiscal Year 2009, almost 100,000 Veterans received services in the VA Specialized Outpatient PTSD Programs. Of these, 41% served during the Vietnam War era, 1% during the Korean War era, and 1% during the World War II era. The remainder served during other eras. So although we are losing our World War II and Korean Conflict Veterans to death, our Vietnam Veterans, which comprise a large part of our patient care in VA, are on average 59 years old and aging.

A number of my colleagues and I suspect that trauma and PTSD in older adults is under-recognized and thus under-treated. Lack of recognition of the effects of trauma including PTSD or misattribution of symptoms to other psychiatric or medical problems can have serious consequences for older adults.

Indeed it may have negative implications for older adults’ treatment and recovery, including the design of inadequate treatment plans, administration of poorly focused or inappropriate psychotherapy, medication or other medical intervention.

Veteran 2
My PTSD has changed as I've gotten older, like in my 50's, in that things have gotten more intense: my feelings, sounds, startle response. It seems like my health problems, I'm finding out now, are more related to Vietnam and the side effects of the herbicides.

And the stress, heart condition, diabetes, it just seems to pile on year after year. I find I'm getting more and more illnesses associated with my tour in Vietnam. As I've gotten older, I'm getting the nightmares more intense; waking up with the heart palpitations the sweating, you know, shortness of breath.

Veteran 3:
Well for me, when I retired, I struggled with--I had more time to think with my PTSD so, even though I was getting the treatment, I felt like I was doing well, there were episodes where, because I was getting older, I didn't feel as strong as I used to. I felt more vulnerable.

Two empirical studies present the strongest evidence to date of a link between PTSD and dementia. In one investigation, researchers followed over 181,000 Veterans over six years, including more than 53,000 with PTSD. Those with PTSD were more than twice as likely to develop dementia.

In another investigation, older Veterans with a diagnosis of PTSD, or who were Purple Heart recipients, were compared to age and gender matched Veterans with no PTSD or Purple Heart. There was a greater prevalence and incidence of dementia in older Veterans with PTSD. Those who had PTSD, but whom were not Purple Heart recipients, had almost twice the odds of developing dementia as those who did not have PTSD but were Purple Heart recipients or the comparison groups. The authors concluded that PTSD may be a greater risk factor for dementia than combat-related trauma alone.

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