Iraq War Vet Talks Fort Hood Shooting, PTSD
HuffPost Live
by Emily Tess Katz
Posted: 04/03/2014
In the wake of the Fort Hood shooting Wednesday, war veterans joined HuffPost Live to discuss the mental health issues, namely Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, plaguing their community.
Travis Bickford, an Iraq War veteran and District Director of Veteran Services of City Colleges Chicago, suggested that soldiers might be more susceptible to mental illness depending on their upbringing.
"If you look at the demographic for which the population pool that the military recruits from, especially on the enlisted side, you're recruiting from a demographic that's already possibly predisposed to trauma given it's typically low-income areas that we're pulling from, so you're dealing with that," he told HuffPost Live's Ricky Camilleri in an interview on Thursday.
"We hyper-focus on the PTSD that's related to battlefield trauma when, in actuality, we need to start looking at both of those, and looking at how the battlefield trauma could be exasperating and compounding some other traumas that they've experienced," he added.
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Friday, April 4, 2014
Vets maligned by lazy media on shooter story
Last night I channeled surfed to catch up on what happened at Fort Hood. I came across the Rachel Maddow Show just as she was talking about how the lazy media jumps on the PTSD story as if that was the whole story behind the latest shooting.
Lazy is right! Too many times reporters just jump on what they hear with no understanding of what the truth is. The public is deluded into thinking something is true when it turns out the reporter made the wrong assumption. By the time the truth comes out, it is too late to change minds.
That report was followed up by talking about how the civilian world is totally disconnected from our veterans. No big secret there among veterans and families. Who has time for veterans when there is reality TV shows to watch?
The reality for families like mine is, we just never did matter enough to reporters. As bad as it has been for OEF and OIF veterans, senior veterans/families have gone through all of it longer but ended up getting forgotten about. The press has yet to acknowledge any of this.
Lazy is right! Too many times reporters just jump on what they hear with no understanding of what the truth is. The public is deluded into thinking something is true when it turns out the reporter made the wrong assumption. By the time the truth comes out, it is too late to change minds.
Vets maligned by lazy media on shooter story
MSNBC News
Rachel Maddow Show
April 3, 2014
Rachel Maddow points out the shocking number of mass gun killings in the U.S., and criticizes lazy civilian media for using military service as shorthand for a false stereotype when the shooter happens to be a veteran.
That report was followed up by talking about how the civilian world is totally disconnected from our veterans. No big secret there among veterans and families. Who has time for veterans when there is reality TV shows to watch?
The reality for families like mine is, we just never did matter enough to reporters. As bad as it has been for OEF and OIF veterans, senior veterans/families have gone through all of it longer but ended up getting forgotten about. The press has yet to acknowledge any of this.
Military spouses face another fight over VA death benefits
Death certificate snafu can leave military spouses battling for benefits
Staten Island Live
Tom Wrobleski
April 1, 2014
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- It was hard enough for Josephine Maruffi and Carmela Fernandes to lose their husbands after lifetimes spent together.
But the pain was deepened when the Veterans Administration (V.A.) denied the widows the benefits they were due through their husbands' military service.
And all because of a paperwork issue that should be easily remedied, said Rep. Michael Grimm (R-Staten Island/Brooklyn) and City Councilman Vincent Ignizio (R-South Shore).
And many more military spouses in New York City could be suffering the same difficulty without even realizing it, they said.
"I dealt with the V.A. for almost two years," said Ms. Fernandes, an 80-year-old Eltingville resident.
"I must have spoken to them 50 times. They never said why they were denying me."
Speaking in Grimm's New Dorp district office, Ms. Fernandes said that she was due close to $1,800 in monthly benefits through her late husband, Anthony, an Army veteran who'd served in combat in the Korean War and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
The problem: The V.A. does not approve death benefits if a death certificate does not list a cause of death. New York City's one-page, "short-form" death certificate does not list causes of death, Grimm said.
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Staten Island Live
Tom Wrobleski
April 1, 2014
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- It was hard enough for Josephine Maruffi and Carmela Fernandes to lose their husbands after lifetimes spent together.
But the pain was deepened when the Veterans Administration (V.A.) denied the widows the benefits they were due through their husbands' military service.
And all because of a paperwork issue that should be easily remedied, said Rep. Michael Grimm (R-Staten Island/Brooklyn) and City Councilman Vincent Ignizio (R-South Shore).
And many more military spouses in New York City could be suffering the same difficulty without even realizing it, they said.
"I dealt with the V.A. for almost two years," said Ms. Fernandes, an 80-year-old Eltingville resident.
"I must have spoken to them 50 times. They never said why they were denying me."
Speaking in Grimm's New Dorp district office, Ms. Fernandes said that she was due close to $1,800 in monthly benefits through her late husband, Anthony, an Army veteran who'd served in combat in the Korean War and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
The problem: The V.A. does not approve death benefits if a death certificate does not list a cause of death. New York City's one-page, "short-form" death certificate does not list causes of death, Grimm said.
read more here
Thursday, April 3, 2014
1,000 OEF OIF veterans diagnosed weekly with PTSD
Military playing catch-up on PTSD
USA TODAY
Gregg Zoroya
April 3, 2014
Even as a soldier diagnosed with mental illness opened fire at Fort Hood, Texas, this week, a river of troubled veterans from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars keeps flowing out of the military, according to data from the Department of Veterans Affairs.
The Pentagon's struggle to cope with war's invisible wounds is certain to intensify after the revelation that the gunman, Spc. Ivan Lopez, was suffering depression and anxiety and was being examined for signs of post-traumatic stress disorder after serving in Iraq in 2011.
Lopez killed three soldiers Wednesday and injured 16 other people before taking his own life in a parking lot at the post.
About 1,000 veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan war era are diagnosed each week with post-traumatic stress disorder and more than 800 with depression, according to VA statistics.
The Pentagon said Thursday that more than 155,000 U.S. troops have PTSD and that more than three-quarters of them are combat veterans.
read more here
USA TODAY
Gregg Zoroya
April 3, 2014
Even as a soldier diagnosed with mental illness opened fire at Fort Hood, Texas, this week, a river of troubled veterans from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars keeps flowing out of the military, according to data from the Department of Veterans Affairs.
The Pentagon's struggle to cope with war's invisible wounds is certain to intensify after the revelation that the gunman, Spc. Ivan Lopez, was suffering depression and anxiety and was being examined for signs of post-traumatic stress disorder after serving in Iraq in 2011.
Lopez killed three soldiers Wednesday and injured 16 other people before taking his own life in a parking lot at the post.
About 1,000 veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan war era are diagnosed each week with post-traumatic stress disorder and more than 800 with depression, according to VA statistics.
The Pentagon said Thursday that more than 155,000 U.S. troops have PTSD and that more than three-quarters of them are combat veterans.
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Nephews of Vietnam veteran charged with his murder
Brothers arrested in uncle's homicide in Wagoner County
FOX 23
Reported by: Jonathan McCall
April 2, 2014
PORTER, Okla. - Two brothers have been arrested in connection with the shooting and killing their uncle in Porter Tuesday evening.
Wagoner County Sheriff Bob Wagoner tells FOX 23 that the victim is a Vietnam veteran in his 60s. "(He’s) an elderly gentlemen. He was a veteran, military veteran. I'll just say there have been two people taken into custody, relatives. It started out as a family disturbance and ended up with shots fired."
Wagoner says the victim and suspects had been involved in a long standing family feud, when according to Colbert, the suspects went to settle it.
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FOX 23
Reported by: Jonathan McCall
April 2, 2014
PORTER, Okla. - Two brothers have been arrested in connection with the shooting and killing their uncle in Porter Tuesday evening.
Wagoner County Sheriff Bob Wagoner tells FOX 23 that the victim is a Vietnam veteran in his 60s. "(He’s) an elderly gentlemen. He was a veteran, military veteran. I'll just say there have been two people taken into custody, relatives. It started out as a family disturbance and ended up with shots fired."
Wagoner says the victim and suspects had been involved in a long standing family feud, when according to Colbert, the suspects went to settle it.
read more here
VA pays out $200 million nationally for veterans' wrongful deaths
Over 10 years, VA pays out $200 million nationally for veterans' wrongful deaths
The Center for Investigative Reporting
BY AARON GLANTZ
April 3, 2014
An Iraq War veteran with post-traumatic stress disorder and a history of drug dependency is found dead on the floor of his room at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs hospital in West Los Angeles after doctors give him a 30-day supply of the anti-anxiety medication alprazolam and a 15-day supply of methadone.
At the VA in San Diego, an intern fails to remove a central-line catheter in a hospitalized veteran, causing his immediate death.
In San Francisco, a Vietnam veteran is admitted to the VA with a special notation that he is prone to falling. Hospital staff regularly leave him unattended, and the veteran falls five times over two weeks, injuring his head, finger, ribs and left knee. After each fall, VA doctors prescribe escalating doses of narcotic painkillers until he overdoses and is moved to hospice care.
These are some of the deaths that resulted in more than $200 million in wrongful death payments by the Department of Veterans Affairs in the decade after 9/11, according to VA data obtained by The Center for Investigative Reporting.
In that time, CIR found the agency made wrongful death payments to nearly 1,000 grieving families, including 59 in California, ranging from decorated Iraq War veterans who shot or hanged themselves after being turned away from mental health treatment, to Vietnam veterans whose cancerous tumors were identified but allowed to grow, to missed diagnoses, botched surgeries and fatal neglect of elderly veterans. Two of the cases involved patients at the Fresno VA hospital.
read more here
The Center for Investigative Reporting
BY AARON GLANTZ
April 3, 2014
An Iraq War veteran with post-traumatic stress disorder and a history of drug dependency is found dead on the floor of his room at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs hospital in West Los Angeles after doctors give him a 30-day supply of the anti-anxiety medication alprazolam and a 15-day supply of methadone.
At the VA in San Diego, an intern fails to remove a central-line catheter in a hospitalized veteran, causing his immediate death.
In San Francisco, a Vietnam veteran is admitted to the VA with a special notation that he is prone to falling. Hospital staff regularly leave him unattended, and the veteran falls five times over two weeks, injuring his head, finger, ribs and left knee. After each fall, VA doctors prescribe escalating doses of narcotic painkillers until he overdoses and is moved to hospice care.
These are some of the deaths that resulted in more than $200 million in wrongful death payments by the Department of Veterans Affairs in the decade after 9/11, according to VA data obtained by The Center for Investigative Reporting.
In that time, CIR found the agency made wrongful death payments to nearly 1,000 grieving families, including 59 in California, ranging from decorated Iraq War veterans who shot or hanged themselves after being turned away from mental health treatment, to Vietnam veterans whose cancerous tumors were identified but allowed to grow, to missed diagnoses, botched surgeries and fatal neglect of elderly veterans. Two of the cases involved patients at the Fresno VA hospital.
read more here
US Army suicides up over losing without grace, according to Russian news
US Army suicides grow as soldiers unable to lose with grace – army expert
Voice of Russia
April 2, 2014
US Army suicides are on the increase as soldiers are unable to lose with grace, according to an army expert. One new study found an increasing amount of Americans are suicidal even before they enter into the military and have a hard time defusing their aliment— intermittent explosive disorder, or repeated anger fits. An expert in military coaching, Jaynine Ray-Howard, gave the Voice of Russia the inside scoop on the silent epidemic spreading throughout the nation.
She claims that family, friends, and military commanders need to team up to watch out for the tell-tale signs of suicide in fellow recruits.
The study's findings are quite disturbing, according to the documents posted by JAMA Psychiatry, a journal, it discovered that both males and females enlisted in the US Army have higher rates of suicidal tendencies. The fairly new report, released in the beginning of March 2014, found that the proportion of suicides in soldiers has more than doubled on an annual basis during the years of 2004 and 2009. Startling enough, over 23 per 100,000 combatants have committed suicidal. That number was at 10 per 100,000 on a yearly basis but data has indicated that number has clearly risen since then.
It is fair to point out that the rate of suicide has slightly fallen to 20 per 100,000, which is the average, but that number could easily rise once more if the suicide issue is not taken care of in the proper manner or worse off, blatantly ignored by US Army officials.
Voice of Russia
April 2, 2014
US Army suicides are on the increase as soldiers are unable to lose with grace, according to an army expert. One new study found an increasing amount of Americans are suicidal even before they enter into the military and have a hard time defusing their aliment— intermittent explosive disorder, or repeated anger fits. An expert in military coaching, Jaynine Ray-Howard, gave the Voice of Russia the inside scoop on the silent epidemic spreading throughout the nation.
She claims that family, friends, and military commanders need to team up to watch out for the tell-tale signs of suicide in fellow recruits.
The study's findings are quite disturbing, according to the documents posted by JAMA Psychiatry, a journal, it discovered that both males and females enlisted in the US Army have higher rates of suicidal tendencies. The fairly new report, released in the beginning of March 2014, found that the proportion of suicides in soldiers has more than doubled on an annual basis during the years of 2004 and 2009. Startling enough, over 23 per 100,000 combatants have committed suicidal. That number was at 10 per 100,000 on a yearly basis but data has indicated that number has clearly risen since then.
It is fair to point out that the rate of suicide has slightly fallen to 20 per 100,000, which is the average, but that number could easily rise once more if the suicide issue is not taken care of in the proper manner or worse off, blatantly ignored by US Army officials.
Intermittent explosive disorder is defined as an aliment causing the sufferer to ignite aggressive and violent acts, or verbally overreact to a situation in an intense and angry fashion in repeated episodes, according to The Mayo Clinic. People who have intermittent explosive disorder could plunge onto innocent people, attack their possessions, or worse injure themselves during an outburst. After an episode has come to an end, the aggressor may have feelings of remorse, be regretful, or totally ashamed of their actions.
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Capt. James E. Chaffin III died in Afghanistan
West Columbia paratrooper dies in Afghanistan
by South Carolina Radio Network
April 2, 2014
An airborne officer from West Columbia has died of a non-combat related accident in Afghanistan, according to the Defense Department.
A brief release from the agency said Capt. James E. Chaffin III, 27, died Tuesday in Kandahar, Afghanistan. The Army released no details of the incident, other than to say it is under investigation.
Chaffin had been assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 319th Field Artillery Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg.
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by South Carolina Radio Network
April 2, 2014
A brief release from the agency said Capt. James E. Chaffin III, 27, died Tuesday in Kandahar, Afghanistan. The Army released no details of the incident, other than to say it is under investigation.
Chaffin had been assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 319th Field Artillery Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg.
read more here
Female MP ended shooting at Fort Hood
Fort Hood shooting leaves 4 dead, 16 wounded
Stars and Stripes
By Jennifer Hlad and Toshio Suzuki
Published: April 2, 2014
A soldier opened fire with a semi-automatic pistol Wednesday at Fort Hood — the scene of a mass shooting in 2009 — killing three servicemembers and wounding 16 others before fatally shooting himself.
The suspect, who had recently transferred to the central Texas base, began shooting at about 4 p.m. CDT, according to Lt. Gen. Mark Milley, commanding general of Fort Hood. He was assigned to the 13th Sustainment Command (Expeditionary).
The gunman entered two buildings — the medical and transportation brigades — and also fired his pistol from a vehicle, according to Milley.
“The shooter is dead,” said Milley during his news conference at the base. There is no indication of the shooting being terrorism related but nothing has been formally ruled out, he said.
The violence ended after 15 or 20 minutes, when a female military police officer engaged the suspect, who then shot himself in the head.
"It was clearly heroic, what she did," said Milley of the officer, who added he expects nothing else of his military police.
read more here
Stars and Stripes
By Jennifer Hlad and Toshio Suzuki
Published: April 2, 2014
According to Milley, the soldier was currently being evaluated for PTSD and investigators were looking at reports of a self-reported traumatic brain injury from serving four months in Iraq in 2011.
A soldier opened fire with a semi-automatic pistol Wednesday at Fort Hood — the scene of a mass shooting in 2009 — killing three servicemembers and wounding 16 others before fatally shooting himself.
The suspect, who had recently transferred to the central Texas base, began shooting at about 4 p.m. CDT, according to Lt. Gen. Mark Milley, commanding general of Fort Hood. He was assigned to the 13th Sustainment Command (Expeditionary).
The gunman entered two buildings — the medical and transportation brigades — and also fired his pistol from a vehicle, according to Milley.
“The shooter is dead,” said Milley during his news conference at the base. There is no indication of the shooting being terrorism related but nothing has been formally ruled out, he said.
The violence ended after 15 or 20 minutes, when a female military police officer engaged the suspect, who then shot himself in the head.
"It was clearly heroic, what she did," said Milley of the officer, who added he expects nothing else of his military police.
read more here
Wednesday, April 2, 2014
Iraq veteran charged with collecting donations and keeping it
Iraq vet charged with soliciting money for Wounded Warriors, keeping it
St. Louis Post Dispatch
By Mark Schlinkmann
4 hours ago
A wounded Iraq War veteran from St. Charles County is accused by authorities of soliciting unauthorized donations of at least $6,200 for the nonprofit Wounded Warrior organization but keeping the money himself.
The man, William Ronald Harshbarger, 34, faces 11 felony counts in St. Charles and St. Louis counties, Attorney General Chris Koster announced Wednesday morning.
"Many good-hearted people gave money to Mr. Harshbarger, believing that they were contributing to a well-established, nationally recognized charity, benefiting our nation's servicemen and women," Koster said.
Koster said his office and prosecutors in the two counties cannot stand by when anyone "collects donations, falsely, in the name of a respected organization, and then keeps the money for his personal use."
St. Charles County Prosecutor Tim Lohmar, who joined Koster at a news conference in the attorney general's downtown St. Louis office, said prosecutors had sympathy for Harshbarger's military service but that he nevertheless broke the law.
Among other things, prosecutors allege that Harshbarger received almost $750 from a three-day fundraising event at Living Word Christian School in O'Fallon, Mo., falsely indicating he was raising the money on behalf of the Wounded Warrior Project.
read more here
St. Louis Post Dispatch
By Mark Schlinkmann
4 hours ago
A wounded Iraq War veteran from St. Charles County is accused by authorities of soliciting unauthorized donations of at least $6,200 for the nonprofit Wounded Warrior organization but keeping the money himself.
The man, William Ronald Harshbarger, 34, faces 11 felony counts in St. Charles and St. Louis counties, Attorney General Chris Koster announced Wednesday morning.
"Many good-hearted people gave money to Mr. Harshbarger, believing that they were contributing to a well-established, nationally recognized charity, benefiting our nation's servicemen and women," Koster said.
Koster said his office and prosecutors in the two counties cannot stand by when anyone "collects donations, falsely, in the name of a respected organization, and then keeps the money for his personal use."
St. Charles County Prosecutor Tim Lohmar, who joined Koster at a news conference in the attorney general's downtown St. Louis office, said prosecutors had sympathy for Harshbarger's military service but that he nevertheless broke the law.
Among other things, prosecutors allege that Harshbarger received almost $750 from a three-day fundraising event at Living Word Christian School in O'Fallon, Mo., falsely indicating he was raising the money on behalf of the Wounded Warrior Project.
read more here
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