Fort Campbell Green Berets in Afghanistan From the Start

Green Berets took center stage in war to rebuild Afghanistan
Fayetteville Observer
By Drew Brooks Military editor
Posted: Sunday, December 14, 2014

Staff photo by Andrew Craft
Special Forces in Afghanistan
At Fort Bragg Col. Michael Sullivan is commander 
of the 3rd Battalion 3rd Special Forces Group.
In Afghanistan, he leads those soldiers and a
small group from the 7th Special Forces Group.

CAMP VANCE, Afghanistan - Michael Sullivan was training to join the Special Forces when he and his fellow soldiers had a real-world lesson to talk about in a food court on Fort Bragg.

On Sept. 9, 2001, suicide attackers posing as journalists assassinated Ahmed Shah Massoud, a leader of the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan.

The Green Beret trainees were familiar with the ongoing conflict in Afghanistan, Sullivan said. They knew Massoud was seen as a threat to the Taliban regime.

Two days later, on Sept. 11, Sullivan - then a captain - was signing for textbooks for his language courses when the planes crashed into the towers in New York and the Pentagon in Washington.

Almost immediately, the Special Forces trainees were speculating - correctly - that the attacks originated in Afghanistan.

For Sullivan and thousands of other Special Forces soldiers, the attacks were life-defining.

Just days after the terrorists struck, Green Berets from the Fort Campbell-based 5th Group were in Afghanistan. In more than 13 years since, the Special Forces presence in the country has been a constant. Thousands of soldiers have given years out of their lives to the Afghanistan mission.

Many have been wounded.

Many have died.

In the process, they say, they have built the foundation for a future in a country that has known decades of war.

Mark Schwartz was a Green Beret major when he became one of the first American soldiers to enter Afghanistan after 9/11.

"You can imagine, you've never been to combat before and you're going to get off an aircraft with yourself and about 10 of your closest friends and you're walking into an uncertain environment," he said.

Now a brigadier general helping to lead special operations forces in Afghanistan, Schwartz said he and his team flew into northern Afghanistan from Central Asia to organize and assist the anti-Taliban forces.
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60 Percent Unemployed Veterans 45 and Older

Older Vets Make Up Most Of Unemployed, New VA Report Shows
Hartford Courant
By LISA CHEDEKEL
Conn. Health I-Team Writer
December 12, 2014

Veterans ages 18 to 54 had similar, or slightly lower, rates of unemployment than their civilian counterparts from 2000-2013, but older veterans were more likely than their peers to be unemployed, according to a new report by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

The report also shows that the majority of veterans who were unemployed – 60 percent – were 45 and older, and that nearly a third were veterans who served after 2001.

The unemployment rate for that latest generation of veterans fell to 5.7 percent in November – down from 9.9 percent a year ago.

The newest women veterans face a higher unemployment rate than men: 8.1 percent, compared to 5.3 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The unemployment rate for the U.S. as a whole was 5.8 percent in November.
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National Guards Keepers of the Dream for 378 Years

You show up when your neighbors are facing fires, floods, tornadoes, hurricanes and snowstorms. You show up even though your family is going through the same thing and need you there too.

You show up no matter what you had planned for the day when fellow citizens decide they will take the opportunity of a protest to turn into looting and vandalizing their own neighborhoods.

You show up when someone in your community needs help and much of those efforts are for the poor, needy, forgotten and the elderly.

You also show up on regular jobs working in offices, for hospitals, driving ambulances, riding on firetrucks and in police cruisers. You show up as teachers and even some preachers. You show up in college classrooms as students and in your kids schools as members of the PTA.

You also show up and get shipped out to foreign lands away from those jobs and from your own families.

The thing is, no matter how many times we ignore how much you do for us, you still do it and that, that a lot of us are eternally grateful for.

We recognize December 13th as the birthday of the National Guard.

On this date in 1636, the first militia regiments in North America were organized in Massachusetts. Based upon an order of the Massachusetts Bay Colony's General Court, the colony's militia was organized into three permanent regiments to better defend the colony.

Today, the descendants of these first regiments - the 181st Infantry, the 182nd Infantry, the 101st Field Artillery, and the 101st Engineer Battalion of the Massachusetts Army National Guard – share the distinction of being the oldest units in the U.S. military.

December 13, 1636, thus marks the beginning of the organized militia, and the birth of the National Guard's oldest organized units is symbolic of the founding of all the state, territory, and District of Columbia militias that collectively make up today's National Guard.

NATIONAL GUARDS THE KEEPERS OF THE DREAM. This is a message to anyone who ever believed they could be something great when they grow up. It’s an invitation to the future deliverers of promise and agents of change. To all who want to better themselves and the world around them by taking a path with purpose and being a part of something bigger. Join the heroes who have taken the vow to rebuild the broken and defend the good. Welcome to the greatest cause of your lifetime. Your own.

Terrible Love is in the Austin Film Festival

"A bittersweet autopsy of mental illness and lost love, Terrible Love tells the story of Rufus, a wounded veteran returning home from Iraq with post-traumatic stress disorder, and his devoted wife Amy. They promised themselves never to leave each other, but that promise is put to the ultimate test when Rufus’ PTSD becomes violent. Terrible Love dives head first into the heart-breaking effects of PTSD, the relationships it hurts, and the lives it threatens."

Terrible Love Winner of the Audience Award at the 2014 Austin Film Festival
This is just to let you know you do matter to a lot of people and we care about what is happening to you over there as much as we care about what happens to you here.

Amputee Afghanistan Veteran Skateboards Again!

How Sergeant Stubbs learned to skateboard again:
Inspirational video shows Afghanistan veteran's painstaking determination to get back on his board after losing both legs in front line explosion
Ian Parkinson, 24, from Arizona, lost both legs when he stepped on an IED
He was on patrol near Kandahar in June 2011 when the device exploded
Ian, who calls himself Sergeant Stubbs, lost both legs at the knee
He has had 24 major operations and spent two years in rehabilitation
In March 2012 he stepped back on his skateboard for the first time

Using his 'stubbies' - prosthetics - Ian is re-learning to skateboard again
Ian said without his friends and family he couldn't have made it through
He credits his wife and high school sweetheart Ashley as being his 'rock'
Daily Mail
By LIZZIE PARRY FOR MAILONLINE
PUBLISHED: 13 December 2014

His is a tale of triumph over adversity.

Growing up there were just two things that were certain in Ian Parkinson's mind - the army and skateboarding.

For as long as he can remember, the now 24-year-old from Arizona, wanted to be a soldier.

He admired the uniform, looked up to veterans, and watched and read anything he could about the military. The only other thing captivating his young imagination was skateboarding.

But as a teenager, Ian could never imagine how both would change his life.

In June 2011, while serving with the US Army in Afghanistan, Ian lost both his legs after stepping on to an IED.
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We were young too and we still need help scream from Vietnam family veterans

Ok, I am officially pissed off again. Do they have a clue that PTSD and combat wounds didn't just start? Everytime I read about young "caregivers" thinking they are the only ones needing help, it is infuriating because my generation followed in the footsteps of older veterans and their families. We just took those steps and managed to walk miles more to get this country to do the right thing for all of us and whatever generation coming behind us would face.

Military caregiver: We're young, and we need help
AZ Central
Melissa Comeau, AZ
December 12, 2014

Wife of a veteran: Soldiers returning from war today often require care for decades. Yet many programs don't support them or their caregivers. Here's how you can help us.
read more here


My Comment

We were young too. I was only 23 when we met. My husband was young when he enlisted at 17 and turned 19 in Vietnam. PTSD took control of our lives and we had nowhere to turn. We didn't have Facebook or online support groups. We didn't even have the internet. While everything available for the younger veterans today became possible because of older veterans and our families, we're left out of what younger ones think should only be for them.

We were caregivers longer but no one ever thinks of us. Most of the backlog claims are from 50 and older veterans. Most of the veterans committing suicide are over 50.

I am glad your generation has been getting plenty of attention because that is what our generation fought for.

The question is, when does your generation remember we've been waiting even longer?

The pictures all over Facebook are of young veterans but our's are in photo albums unless someone knows how to use a scanner. They are in books at the library because they are part of history that apparently has been forgotten by this generation. Pictures like this one.

Veterans came back from Vietnam but older veterans didn't want anything to do with them. When they decided to fight for what was right, they included the older veterans because they knew they waited longer for the same wounds to be taken care of. They used the power of their numbers and their voices even though the American public wanted nothing to do with them.

This generation doesn't even know where the term "new normal" came from and my generation started it because we were pissed off watching talk shows about trivial problems when what we were going through was kept secret. We were conditioned to feel ashamed by our parents telling us to suck it up and get over it. After all that was what they did.

They did it and they suffered for it instead of healing and finding peace. They committed suicide and drank too much. They got divorced at higher percentages than their civilian peers. They swapped war stories at the local bar. So did we but we were not willing to settle for bitter tears and we opened our mouths.

We did it without the internet at first but then in the 90's we managed to learn how to join forces across the nation and make things happen faster.

We ended up left out of what this internet generation thinks they are the only ones going through any of this. So how is it the generation that fought for all generations is yet again last on the list to get what we waited longer for and fought harder for?

We want this generation to have it better than we did but that doesn't mean we should be shoved out of their way.

We were there when troops were sent off to war in the 90's and when they were sent into Afghanistan and Iraq. Our generation sent our own kids. We knew that while things were not perfect for them when they came home, they were a hell of a lot better than what our generation came home to. We were there to offer support, help and educate them so they wouldn't have to learn all of this the hard way.

I've been doing this for over 30 years and I am no longer young. None of the leaders are young and we are far from foolish yet this generation fails time after time to listen to those who have been here longer and had to learn the hard way.

So how is it this generation so technological savvy is so misinformed?

I read Facebook posts and pop into this group or that one after someone wants me to support their group yet have found too few deserving it. Why? Because they cannot even answer basic questions.

They don't understand PTSD or why some have it and they sure as hell have no clue what works yet they get the attention as "experts" pushing others into information overload.

It happens when news reports come out and they just post what was reported without understanding basic history enough to know it is a load of crap just like the latest suicide prevention bill coming on the tail of others that failed.

We know better because we've been doing it longer and as for learning, we researched as if our lives depended on it simply because they did.  No one was fighting for us back then and no one is remembering us now.

WE ARE VETERAN FAMILY VETERANS

Police need help finding missing Iraq Veteran with PTSD from Libertyville

Police search for missing vet from Libertyville
FOX 32 News
By Tisha Lewis, Reporter
Posted: Dec 12, 2014

CHICAGO (FOX 32 News)
A desperate search is underway for a suburban man and Iraq war veteran.

Police are very concerned about 30-year-old Daniel Nerstrom. Nerstrom's car is not with him and his handgun is missing. He's believed to have left his Libertyville home on foot.

Police say he's not a danger to anyone else, but he might be to himself.

"Just come home, I need you Dan. I will come to you," said Kim Nerstrom, Daniel's mother.

Fighting through tears, Nerstrom's mother made an emotional plea for her son's safe return. It's been 11 days since the army veteran was last seen. Police said Nerstrom walked out of his Libertyville home shortly after sunset on Monday, December 1st.

"We need our boy home," said Kim.

"We just need to get some word that he's ok and we'll go from there," said Douglas Nerstrom, Daniel's father.

Nerstrom's parents said the Iraqi war veteran was battling post traumatic stress disorder and sought help on several occasions.

"He's always gone to the VA and it just seemed like it never got any better, if anything it was on the slow decline," said Douglas.
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Camp Pendleton Corpsman Memorial Rededicated

Corpsman monument rededicated
OC Register
By ERIKA I. RITCHIE
STAFF WRITER
Published: Dec. 12, 2014

Original memorial was installed at old Naval Hospital in 1983 but was damaged when it was moved.

JOSHUA SUDOCK , STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Raul Avina created a corpsmen monument in 1983. The monument was in front of the Naval Regional Medical Center Camp Pendleton for 31 years. Last year a new Naval Hospital Camp Pendleton opened on the base.

Attempts to move Avina's sculpture didn't go well and a new monument was created from Avina's original.

An unveiling was held Friday at the base. Many of Avina's family members were on hand for the event.

Corpsman are the Marines "docs" in combat and have saved countless lives over the decades.

"They will do this because each and every one of them know that their Marines will protect them with their very lives as well, he added."

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1,200 Fort Carson soldiers volunteered for needy in Colorado

Local Soldiers on a special ruck march Friday morning
KOAA News
By Joanna Wise
December 12, 2014

COLORADO SPRINGS
UPDATE: Fort Carson says more than 1,200 soldiers volunteered for the event, a record-setting number.

Hundreds of Fort Carson soldiers are going the extra mile, marching through downtown Colorado Springs for a good cause Friday morning.

The 5th annual 1st SCBT's Operation Holiday kicked off at Dorchester Park on South Nevada Avenue. More than 500 soldiers from the 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, donated clothing and canned goods to people in need this holiday season.

They stuffed their rucksacks with the items and then marched from the park to the soup kitchen. The departure time was set for 7:00 a.m.

The soldiers trekked across Pikes Peak Greenway Trail to Bijou Street and were expected to arrive at the Marian House around 7:30 a.m.

Rochelle Schlortt, spokesperson for the Marian House, said the event always has a huge impact.
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Utica Contractors Team Up for Disabled Vietnam Veteran

Volunteers band together to help local veteran
By WKTV News
Story Created: Dec 12, 2014

(WKTV) - It was a chilly day to be working outside Friday, but that's what about a dozen local contractors did all day long -- and they're donating their services.

They are teaming up to make a local veteran's life more comfortable. The man who lives in a home on Kirkland Avenue in Clinton is 68-year-old Richard Koury, a Clinton native. Koury served in Vietnam as a Marine in 1965 and 1966.

He suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, as well as health problems related to Agent Orange and napalm, but still worked for years at Kelsey Hayes in Utica, not taking any government help at all.

Recently, he suffered two strokes and is confined to either his hospital bed or his wheelchair in one room of his home, which is not very handicapped accessible.
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Two American soldiers were killed overnight

Two American Soldiers Killed in Afghanistan Attack: Official
NBC News

KABUL, Afghanistan — Two American soldiers were killed overnight when their convoy came under enemy attack near Bagram Airbase near Kabul in Afghanistan, a U.S. official told NBC News on Saturday. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Earlier, NATO coalition spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Justin Hadley said a roadside bomb had killed two foreign soldiers traveling in convoy near the largest U.S. military base in that country late on Friday. "It is coalition policy to defer the identity and nationality of the service members to the national authorities," Hadley said.

The bomb detonated while vehicles passed a road leading up to Bagram Airfield, local police chief Gen. Zaman Mamozai. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack in a Twitter message.
see more here
UPDATE Department of Defense

IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Release No: NR-617-14
December 14, 2014
DoD Identifies Army Casualties

The Department of Defense announced today the deaths of two soldiers who were supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

They died Dec. 12, in Parwan Province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when the enemy attacked their vehicle with an improvised explosive device. These soldiers were assigned to 3rd Engineer Battalion, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas.

Killed were:
Sgt. 1st Class Ramon S. Morris, 37, of New York, New York; and
Spc. Wyatt J. Martin, 22, of Mesa, Arizona.

VA split up PTSD veteran peer support group on purpose?

Veterans are stronger together but the VA in Cape Coral just split up a group of 10 veterans.

Tell Mel: Vets with PTSD say Cape VA clinic kicked them out
News Press By Melanie Payne
December 11, 2014

No doubt the 10 men who were booted out of the Veterans Administration Healthcare Center in Cape Coral were treated shabbily. These guys are combat veterans who fought in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan. They all suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder or PTSD, a mental disorder that can develops following a terrifying events like those that happen in war.

Every Friday for the past 18 months the men have held their support group at the VA Clinic offices. And they wanted to continue those meetings there with their current group leaders.

The VA has a different idea. It wants one of two peer specialists, employees who are certified mental health professionals, to help run the group; something the members of this PTSD support group have refused to allow.

The current group leader is a trained volunteer, Luis Casilla. A 63-year-old Vietnam vet, Casilla is a trained peer specialist with more than a decade of experience.

"They don't want to associate with these guys," Casilla said the PTSD support group members have told him. The VA's specialists haven't had PTSD. "They don't trust them. They want keep our group. But (the VA) wants to do it their way."

The change is being dictated by a national policy, said spokesman Jason Dangel, a public affairs officers with the Bay Pines VA Healthcare System.
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Gringe Landlord says Soldier can't stay with wife and new baby for holidays

Visiting soldier can’t stay in wife’s SC apartment, landlord says
BY CNN WIRE
DECEMBER 12, 2014

CENTRAL, S.C. — A soldier returning home for the holidays to see his wife and newborn baby in South Carolina is being kicked out of his wife’s apartment after the landlord said he is overstaying the time allowed for visitors, reported WHNS.

Sergeant William Bolt is stationed in Missouri, but his wife has been in Central, S.C. She gave birth to their daughter two weeks ago.

Bolt said the landlord at The Groves apartment complex in Central told him he had overstayed, saying visitors are not allowed to stay in the apartments past seven days, per the agreement signed by Bolt’s wife, Lily.

“I’m stationed in Missouri and we haven’t seen each other in six months. What’s the problem with me staying and visiting with my wife?” Bolt said.
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Tom Coburn Kicks Suicide Prevention Bill Down the Road

Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
December 12, 2014

Clay Hunt Suicide Prevention Bill is on hold and I am glad. When I read that Tom Coburn is holding it up, I had to leave the computer to fight the gag reflex. It isn't about what Coburn said but the simple fact I found myself agreeing with him and that left a lousy taste in my mouth. I just don't like politicians in general.

Tom Coburn puts hold on veterans suicide prevention bill

But Mr. Coburn, an Oklahoma Republican serving out his final days in the Senate before his retirement, said the bill wouldn’t accomplish much new.

“In almost every case, VA already has the tools and authorities it needs to address these problems,” he said in a statement listing his objections. “The department needs leadership, not another piece of ineffective legislation. Congress should be holding the VA accountable rather than adding to its list of poorly managed programs.”
The bill, largely driven by Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, would require an annual outside review of suicide prevention programs to expand what works best for veterans and do away with ineffective programs. The bill also allows the VA to partner with mental health nonprofits, create a website to consolidate the VA’s mental health resources, and expand peer support networks.

Had this bill, or any of the others, come close to actually reducing suicides tied to the military, I'd be screaming "No amount of money is too much" to save their lives. But it isn't even going to come close to solving anything. We've had 40 years to learn that what works best is peer support but if their peers think PTSD is a sign of weakness, that support goes out the fucking door. Therapy works great but if they are not trained on trauma, especially combat trauma, that won't work as well. Drugs only numb but they are used all the time. Spiritual help works, especially with survivor guilt but then they turn around and shut up Chaplains sharing their own struggles with PTSD.

Here's a thought. How about "Stop Passing PTSD-Suicide Bills Without Knowing Cost" since all that billions a year have produced are higher suicides in the military and among the veteran population? How much time are they supposed to get to figure that out? How many more lives have to be lost after a decade of attempts to prevent suicides?

This part really got to me and actually proves the point of a clueless congress.

Saul Levin, CEO of the American Psychiatric Association, said, “Hundreds of additional lives will be lost” if lawmakers wait until the next Congress to put these reforms into place.

Reform needed to start by getting rid of Comprehensive Soldier Fitness.
The Dark Side of Comprehensive Soldier Fitness

There seems to be reluctance and inconsistency among the CSF promoters in acknowledging that CSF is "research" and therefore should entail certain protections routinely granted to those who participate in research studies. Seligman explained to the APA's Monitor on Psychology, "This is the largest study - 1.1 million soldiers - psychology has ever been involved in" (a "study" is a common synonym for "research project"). But when asked during an NPR interview whether CSF would be "the largest-ever experiment," Brig. Gen. Cornum, who oversees the program, responded, "Well, we're not describing it as an experiment. We're describing it as training." Despite the fact that CSF is incontrovertibly a research study, standard and important questions about experimental interventions like CSF are neither asked nor answered in the special issue. This neglect is all the more troubling given that the program is so massive and expensive, and the stakes are so high.

The biggest part of the problem rests on this same group backing up Comprehensive Soldier Fitness. It was a research project sold to the military for soldiers even though they were just studying kids and their sense of self worth. How did they actually expect it to work on soldiers in combat?

"Regardless of how one evaluates prior PRP research, PRP's effects when targeting middle-school students, college students, and adult groups can hardly be considered generalizable to the challenges and experiences that routinely face our soldiers in combat, including those that regularly trigger PTSD."

In 2009, the evidence was already gathered to the point where this was predicted to increase suicides if it was pushed on soldiers. It was easy to see it. It was more of the same the soldiers were already complaining about. It was yet one more way of feeding the stigma by telling them they would be able to train their brains to be resilient. It was obvious that they would translate this into not training right and being mentally weak. Who predicted it? I did. That was just from talking to them and reading the reports. Members of congress could have done the same basic research before they shoved it down the throats of the troops.

Congress had the same ability to take the data coming in after this clusterfuck was pushed and suicides went up at the same time the number of enlisted went down.

What makes all of this even worse is when troops become veterans, the military stops counting them even though they are paying the price for what the military failed to do.

Top that off with the fact that this program isn't even good enough to keep "non-deployed" from committing suicide and you get the drift of what is behind all of this.

Add in the fact that out of Texas, the Dallas Morning News and NBC joint investigation actually documents the fact that PTSD soldiers in Warrior Transition Units were still being treated like crap, told to man up and get over it.

So yes, Coburn is right. He just doesn't know why he is.

The day I support something like this is when they prove they not only care about what they are doing, they actually understand it.

Soldier Dad Welcomed Home For Christmas Wish

Soldier Fulfills Daughter’s Wish At ESPN Wide World of Sports
ESPN Sports

Published on Dec 8, 2014

One year ago 9-year-old Adisen Kallas made a wish with her family in front of Cinderella Castle. She wished that her dad, Navy SEABEE UT1 Scott Kallas, would return from deployment in Afghanistan in time to watch her dance at the 2014 Pop Warner National Cheer and Dance Championships at ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex at Walt Disney World Resort. At that time Scott was preparing for his fifth military deployment.

Well Adisen, wishes do come true.

What happened on Saturday after Adisen and the Mighty Might Tri Town Raiderettes dance team from Schererville, IN, performed was nothing short of magical. It is a moment you will want to watch for yourself.

Welcome home Scott Kallas. Thank you for serving our country and showing all of us that wishes do come true

Fort Bragg Soldier's Death Under Investigation

Soldier's death at Fort Bragg under investigation 
WRAL News
December 11, 2104

FORT BRAGG, N.C. — Military investigators are looking into the death of a Fort Bragg soldier in his home on post last week, officials said Thursday.

Sgt. Donald "Charlie" Higgins, 34, of Barberton, Ohio, was found dead on Dec. 4.

No details of his death were released.

Higgins had been in the Army for 12 years, most recently serving as a human-resources personnel specialist.
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