Marine Robert Richards Life Remembered

Marine sniper saluted as more than the controversial video that defined him 
The Washington Post
By Greg Jaffe
Published: February 24, 2015

He was still recovering at Walter Reed when he learned that one of his Marines, Josh Desforges, had been killed.

"That was the only time I heard him crack," his mother said. "He was begging to go back to Afghanistan, even though he had a hole in his throat."

Edward Deptola, center, was Robert Richards's platoon sergeant. Deptola and others gathered to remember Richards on the night before his interment.
MATT MCCLAIN/THE WASHINGTON POST

WASHINGTON — His three combat tours in Afghanistan had been boiled down to a 38-second video clip, played and replayed on YouTube more than a million times. In it, Rob Richards and three other Marine Corps snipers are seen urinating on the bodies of Taliban fighters they had just killed.

"Total dismay" were the words then-Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton used to describe the video when it surfaced on the Internet in January 2012. "Utterly deplorable," agreed then-Defense Secretary Leon Panetta. Richards's career in the military was finished.

More than two years later — long after the rest of the country had moved on to other scandals — Richards, 28, died at home and alone from an accidental painkiller overdose.

Now an ammunition can carrying his cremated remains sat on the table of a hotel bar in Arlington, Va., as his family, friends and fellow Marines swirled around it.

Almost everything about war is complicated, messy or morally fraught; in this case even more so. A Marine vilified by his country's leaders and court-martialed for "bringing discredit to the armed forces" would soon be buried at Arlington National Cemetery, the country's most hallowed ground. On this mid-February night before the funeral, dozens who knew Richards beyond those 38 seconds gathered to celebrate his life.
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Fort Hood Soldier Kills 3, Self in Killeen Rampage

Shooter kills 3, self in Killeen rampage 
Killeen Daily Herald
Chris McGuinness Herald staff writer
February 24, 2015

Killeen police named a 30-year-old Fort Hood soldier as the person responsible for a deadly shooting rampage in a north Killeen neighborhood that left four dead and one seriously injured Sunday night.

Police said the suspect, Atase Giffa, opened fire on three people, killing two and injuring one before forcing his wife, 28-year-old Dawn Giffa, into another home, where he killed her and then himself.

Fort Hood did not immediately release Atase Giffa’s rank and unit.
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Colorado Army National Guard Sued By Ranchers After Fire

Ranchers Sue National Guard, Federal and State Governments For $6.8 Million Over Damages From Fires
K2 Radio
By Tom Morton
February 23, 2015

Colorado Army National Guard troops training at Camp Guernsey in 2012 used ammunition and explosives that caused the 22-square-mile Sawmill Canyon Fire that also scorched thousands of acres of a nearby ranch.

Kevin and Susan Rothschild, who have owned the 5,000-acre Bulls Bend Ranch, LLLP, for 20 years, are demanding nearly $6.8 million in damages from the National Guard and other defendants, according to a lawsuit filed in federal court on Monday.

“The Defendants were further negligent, irresponsible, reckless, and acted without regard to plaintiff’s property by not having any fire extinguishing equipment or other controls in place to control and minimize the risk of fire from their activities,” according to the complaint filed by the Cheyenne law firm the Kuker Group, which represents the Rothschilds.
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Fake Wounded Veteran Tried to Pay Bar Bill With Rock

Landscaper pretending to be a wounded veteran 'threatened to blow up a Florida bar after employees would not let him pay his tab with a ROCK'
Jared Simpson, 23, from Maine, charged with making false bomb threats, petty theft and disorderly conduct Told people he arrived in Tallahassee, Florida, to party with Rainbow People in national forest
He walked into 4th Quarter Bar and Grill on crutches, which he later ditched and was seen doing handstands on the sidewalk
Witnesses say Simpson placed a briefcase on a table and said, 'Anyone touch this, they will die'
Arrest affidavit states Simpson told police the briefcase contained 'maybe a bomb or a baby' before breaking into a song
By SNEJANA FARBEROV FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
23 February 2015

But when his new acquaintance, who turned out to be a veteran, inquired which military branch he had served in, the 23-year-old replied, 'if I tell you, I have to kill you,' the court documents stated.

Bizarre behavior: The 23-year-old landscaper was overheard 'speaking in tongues' and singing a song to a police officer about how he was a 'rainbow man'

Jared Simpson has learned first-hand what it means to be between a rock and a hard place when he landed behind bars for allegedly trying to pay his bar tab with a pebble – and then threatening to blow up the bar.

Simpson, 23, of North Waterford, Maine, was taken into custody in Tallahassee February 18 on charges of making false bomb threats, petty theft and disorderly conduct.

According to investigators, the bizarre incident unfolded at around 4pm last Wednesday when Simpson tottered into the bar on crutches, ordered a Bud Light beer and then offered the bartender a rock to cover his $10 tab.
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PTSD? Stop Chasing Your Tale, Start Leading Your Future

My dog isn't the smartest dog on the block. He gets really confused. If I tell him to run, he chases his tail, catches it after 20 times going in circles, then he walks sideways with his tail in his mouth as if he just accomplished something amazing, he wants a treat for doing it. Yep, that's my boy!

We all go around in circles in our own lives but instead of chasing a tail, we're really chasing our own tales. The stuff that happened in our lives that goes into making us who are are and where we are in life. Sometimes we've got really good memories that make us smile even though they happened years ago. Other times there are memories that happened years ago that make us feel the same pain as if it just happened all over again.

For veterans, you have all the same stuff the rest of us deal with. The tragedies we think we're never going to get over as well as great times we hope to never forget. Yet for you, your tales come with a lot of events we're never going to have to experience because you went into combat and we didn't.

Don't expect us to understand any of that. We're just not capable of coming close to knowing what it was like. Even when you talk to other military folks, if they didn't go into combat, no matter what war, they won't get it either.

I wouldn't expect a civilian wife to understand what it is like to live with a Vietnam veteran anymore than they should expect me to understand what is like to live with live with a famous actor. Not that they would know what that's like either but you get the idea. I also don't know what it is like for a current military wife worrying about their husbands deployed into combat. I met mine long after he was back.

What I do understand is trauma and what it can do to someone. Aside from coming close to death several times, knowing how hard the next moment it is to relax, I can assure you that it is more than possible. It is probable if you work at it. It ain't easy but it is a hell of lot easier than going through it in the first place.

You just have to decide to stop chasing your tales and start leading your life.

There is nothing you cannot defeat after surviving whatever it was that almost won your life. Think about that for a second. The event tried to kill you. If an IED wasn't blowing up someone you knew, you were worried about it happening. If you weren't worried about the bullet coming for you, you were aiming at someone else. In other words, it was traumatic even when it wasn't happening because you knew at any moment it could have. But you survived all of it.

You defeated combat but you're willing to sacrifice your future for your past?

Everything you needed to be strong enough to survive combat is still in you but you have it trapped behind painful memories. The cause of PTSD happened while you were deployed but you don't seem to get the fact that no matter how much pain it caused you, you still did everything humanly possible so that you could take care of your brothers.

So not only were you in a lot of pain, you refused to stop fighting. Why stop now? Why give up now? Because it is hard? Because it is just too damn painful? How is it more painful now than when it happened?

The word trauma actually means "wound"

Emotional shock following a stressful event or a physical injury, which may be associated with physical shock and sometimes leads to long-term neurosis.

The event tried to claim your physical life but it didn't quit there. It tried to claim your existence. It wanted to end what makes you who you are.

In a way, it does achieve that. How much it changes you for the worst or better, depends on you and what you allow.

I hate talking about this because it brings back pain but it is necessary for you to understand what I'm trying to say here.

I was married before. It lasted about 18 months. My ex-husband came home from work one night and tried to kill me. I fought back and survived with the help of my landlady calling the police and banging on our door until he understood his hands were on my throat.

He tried to kill my body but the next moment, the event tried to kill me. It tried to take away everything I believe in from what love was to where God was. Betrayal is hard by itself but then when you add in someone you loved trying to kill you, that is about as hard as it gets to move on.

It wasn't easy but then again, being chased throughout the apartment and fighting for my life wasn't easy either. I had to come to terms with the facts as they were and then decide what I was going to do with it. I took the same will to fight him and fight the wound from infecting my future.

By the time I met my current husband over 30 years ago, I was healed emotionally. What I didn't fully understand is that I was also spiritually healed enough so that when his mild PTSD sent him into the abyss, I was strong enough to pull him up.

I've written about this a lot but back in 2008, it was on our 24th anniversary and pretty much sums up what you need to know about all this.

Jeremiah 29:11-13 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.

In 2006 the Sun Journal piece "Shattering of the Soul" there was this,

Maj. Gen. Bill Libby, Maine's adjutant general, issued orders this year for every National Guard member who returns from Iraq or Afghanistan to talk one on one with a counselor.

"We are all Type A's," Libby said. "Lots of us don't like talking about our feelings. We'd rather do something."

However, Libby knows the emotional healing needs to happen.

"These men and women have been forever changed by their experiences," said Libby, a veteran of the Vietnam War. "Thirty-eight years later, I am still struggling with my experiences."

We can pretend that this is all new and then it makes it easier to accept what has been happening with the rise in suicides but the truth is, it is far from new and hardly improved enough. So here is the news you need to know that you may not have heard before. It has to be fought with all you've got inside your skin. Your mind with whatever therapy works best for you, your body because you need to teach it to relax instead of just going in circles and your spirit so that you can heal the best part of what makes you "you" only better.

We all walk away from trauma either believing God was taking care of us or doing it to us. In 2011 there was actually a study about this.

Positive beliefs included trusting God was watching over them and cared about their lives. Anxiety significantly increased for those who believed just the opposite, that God was indifferent or even out to punish them.

When my ex tried to kill me I could have lost faith and sight of the fact that there was still good in this world. It started with my landlady doing whatever she could to save me. It transferred onto my family and friends and all the support they gave me. (Ok, it also helped that they got me out of the apartment every night to go to our favorite bar.) I kept finding what I was looking for. I wanted to see the goodness and found it.

So can you. Even during combat those moments were there when you were seeing something else instead of someone doing something out of kindness with compassion. For those two qualities to survive in the hell of combat, that says something about God. LORD my God has given me rest on every side

1 John 3:16 This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.

International Positive Psychology Association did a study back in 2011 finding that after trauma you can actually be better. This part they got right!

"We were sort of surprised by the themes that kept coming up that the grief experience had, in some ways, forced them to become different people and ... that the new person was better than the old one,"

The rest, well, not so much but that part is absolutely correct.  You can't heal PTSD but you can heal the rest of your life.  Stop chasing your tale and make peace with what is grieving you.  On the other side of this darkness is all that you can't notice now.  You do matter now and will matter even more when you're healing enough to help someone else heal too.

News Station Facebook Page Saved Suicidal Veteran

Part two: Iraq war veteran suffering from PTSD 
KATC News
By Akeam Ashford
February 25, 2015

"It's like I was so far gone," Thomas said. "I lost all hope in life because I wasn't getting the treatment that I needed."

After coming home from Iraq, it didn't take long for the signs of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD, to show up in Lance Thomas' life.

The U.S. Army National Guardsman began taking medication for other diagnoses in 2012, but was first diagnosed with PTSD in 2013.

Thomas said he was put on various prescription medications to deal with PTSD, but he said the disorder left him a shell of who he once was.

"It's like I was so far gone," Thomas said. "I lost all hope in life because I wasn't getting the treatment that I needed."

According to the the federal Veteran's Affairs Office, between 10 and 18 percent of veterans of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan are likely to have PTSD and suicidal thoughts after they return home from war.

Feeling as though he was fighting a losing battle alone, Thomas' thoughts turned to suicide. He made a desperate plea for help through KATC'S Facebook page.

Thomas said he sat on a Lafayette bridge, where he'd planned to jump for hours, but he was unable to bring himself to jump into the water because he was a good swimmer and didn't want to fight death.
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Texas Jury Finds Routh Guilty

Man convicted in deaths of 'American Sniper' author, friend 
Feb 24th 2015

A forensic psychologist testified for prosecutors that Routh was not legally insane and suggested he may have gotten some of his ideas from television.

STEPHENVILLE, Texas (AP) -- A former Marine was convicted Tuesday in the deaths of the "American Sniper" author and another man at a shooting range two years ago, as jurors rejected defense arguments that he was insane and suffered from psychosis.

The trial of Eddie Ray Routh has drawn intense interest, in part because of the blockbuster film based on former Navy SEAL Chris Kyle's memoir about his four tours in Iraq.

Since prosecutors didn't seek the death penalty in the capital murder case, the 27-year-old receives an automatic life sentence without parole in the deaths of Kyle and Kyle's friend, Chad Littlefield.

The prosecution painted Routh as a troubled drug user who knew right from wrong, despite any mental illnesses.

While trial testimony and evidence often included Routh making odd statements and referring to insanity, he also confessed several times, apologized for the crimes and tried to evade police. read more here

Montel Williams Fighting For Medical Marijuana in Missouri

Montel Williams to speak for Missouri medical marijuana bill
By The Associated Press
Tuesday, February 24, 2015

JEFFERSON CITY (AP) — Medical marijuana access in Missouri would become a reality under a bill sponsored by a Republican representative and supported by television personality Montel Williams.

Williams will testify in support of a bill to allow limited medical marijuana access for patients through a state-monitored distribution program at a House committee hearing Monday.

The measure would set up a process for patients to register for access to marijuana for cancer, HIV, post-traumatic stress disorder and other medical conditions.

Williams said the legislation could be a model for the rest of the country to allow access to medical marijuana. Williams, who starred in the syndicated talk show “The Montel Williams Show,” has multiple sclerosis and uses marijuana to treat some of his symptoms. He lives in New York and has advocated for medical marijuana across the country.
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Iraq Veteran Returns to Fight for Assyrian Christians

Iraq Vet Joins Fight Against ISIS 
Video report from ABC News
He is fighting for Iraq's Assyrian Christians
World News Videos | US News Videos

ISIS abducts scores of Christians in northeastern Syria, groups say
CNN
By Greg Botelho and Gul Tuysuz
February 24, 2015

CNN)Assyrians in northeastern Syria villages awoke Tuesday to ISIS militants at their doors, with the Islamist extremists abducting scores from the Christian group and forcing hundreds more to run for their lives, an advocate said.

The ISIS fighters burst past a few men guarding the village of Tal Shamiram at about 4 a.m. (9 p.m. ET Monday) and abducted children, women and the elderly, said Usama Edward, founder of the Assyrian Human Rights Network.

Talking to CNN from Stockholm, Sweden, Edward said that between 70 and 100 people were kidnapped in that village and others in the same cluster near Tal Tamer.
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National Guardsman Iraq Veteran Didn't Want to Be Here

Part one: Iraq war veteran suffering from PTSD
KATC News
By Akeam Ashford
February 23, 2015

"I just felt as if it would be better because the struggles wouldn't continue," Thomas said. "I felt like if I was gone it would be better for my family."

Returning home from war is often when a veteran's real fight begins, and for one U.S. Army National Guardsman, the fight never really ended.

Between 10 percent and 18 percent of servicemen and women from Operation Enduring Freedom/Operation Iraqi Freedom are likely to have Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) after they return, according to research cited by the federal Veterans Affairs Office.

Estimates of depression in returning troops range from three percent to 25 percent. Veterans with PTSD are three times more likely to report hopelessness or suicidal ideation than those without PTSD, according to the VA.

Iraq war veteran Spc. Lance Thomas is one of those returning soldiers suffering from PTSD.
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Wisconsin VA "Breeding Drug Addicts" Instead of Healing Veterans?

You know it is really bad when the Wisconsin VA gets called "Candy Land" because of the drugs they have been handing out. This is from NBC News.

"I just feel that he didn't have a chance," Simcakoski's mother, Linda, told Farrow. "We trusted them and we expected them to know what to do...and it just seems like they just kept giving him more and more."

A Wisconsin VA hospital nicknamed "Candy Land" by some for an alarming surge in pain-killer prescriptions is under investigation — six months after a Marine Corps veteran died of an overdose in the psychiatric ward.

The amount of opiates doled out by the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs Medical Center in Tomah nearly quadrupled over eight years, under the leadership of the chief of staff, Dr. David Houlihan, as the non-profit Center for Investigative Reporting first revealed.

Prescriptions for just one of them, often-abused oxycodone, shot up ten-fold — from about 78,000 pills in 2005 to almost 712,000 in 2012, the center found.

Meanwhile, some staffers complained they were pressured to refill prescriptions early and to keep giving powerful narcotics to patients who may not have been taking the doses themselves.

"They're breeding drug addicts," Jason Bishop, an Air Force veteran who is a patient at the Tomah facility, told MSNBC's Ronan Farrow, who reported this story in collaboration with NBC Investigations.

The problem is, some member of Congress will jump on this story and write a bill with his name on it or some other veteran who tried to get help only to end up in the grave.

Why not? They've gotten away with it all these years. The reports go back to at least 2008 on what the VA has been doing with handing out drugs instead of therapy. Some find it all too easy to numb them instead of work with them. Others, well, they do the best they can but even the best VA doctors are overwhelmed by the number of veterans looking for help to heal.

If you are thinking that veterans would be better off outside the VA, think again. Years ago I work for a group of psychiatrists and they made a lot more money with med appointments than they did providing actual therapy sessions. These appointments were done in 15 minutes meaning they could see at least 4 patients an hour every hour they were in the office. When they needed time off, appointments had to be changed. I had to do the med appointments first and then squeeze everyone else in afterwards.

So why is it still this way after all these years of sad outcomes? Drugs aren't free and someone is making money off the veterans who fought to retain the freedom we still have. The other reason is that members of congress are "doing something" about all this without a clue as to what that something actually should be.

Calling Veterans Crisis Line Shouldn't Leave Life On Hold

Veterans describe runaround when calling crisis line; Texas man records 36 minutes on hold 
KJRH News
Amanda Kost, Scripps News
Isaac Wolf, Scripps News
Feb 23, 2015

WASHINGTON D.C. - On an evening last March, 42-year-old Dedra Hughes’ thoughts turned to suicide.

The Army veteran, who had been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder five years earlier, had split with her boyfriend days before. She was unemployed and had stopped taking classes. And she was convinced her two daughters would be better off without her. Sitting on the floor of her suburban Chicago living room, Hughes attempted to slash her wrist but didn’t draw blood, and says she passed out from anxiety. Her 12-year-old discovered her there on the floor with the knife beside her.

Hughes decided that night to turn to the national Veterans Crisis Line, a 24-hour, seven-day-a week service that promises an immediate, open line to professional help. But when Hughes phoned, she said, her call went straight to hold. After several minutes, she became frustrated and hung up. “I would never call the hotline again,” said Hughes. She said she needed to quickly get to someone that night who could give her help and reassurance.
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Older Veterans Will Need More Help Filling Claims

New VA Claims Process Called Detrimental to Older Veterans 
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
by Brian Bowling
Feb 23, 2015

While the new Department of Veterans Affairs claims process uses forms that are simpler than income tax return forms, they have similar names and designs. More importantly, they represent a shift that puts more of the burden on veterans for starting a claim and will end up hurting older veterans and those with traumatic brain injuries, spokesmen for the Veterans of Foreign Wars and Disabled American Veterans said. "In the end, the changes are being implemented for the convenience of the VA and not for the benefit of the veterans," said Gerald Manar, deputy director of the VFW's National Veterans Service.

The policy, which will take effect March 24, eliminates the informal claim process that allowed veterans to start a claim simply by making a written request. Under the existing policy, the veteran then had one year to file a completed claim. Any benefits awarded would be backdated to the day of the request.

The new policy requires veterans to fill out a standardized form to start the claims process. "They're not going to do anything until they receive the correct form, completed correctly," said Jim Marszalek, the DAV's National Service Director. Consequently, veterans could lose months of benefits while waiting for the VA to notify them that they need to send in the correct form, and some are likely to simply give up, he said. "There's nothing (in the regulation) to specify how long the VA has to respond to someone who doesn't use a standard form," Marszalek said.
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VA Secretary McDonald Told Homeless Veteran He Was Special Forces Too?

VA Secretary Robert McDonald Apologizes for Misstating Military Record 
NBC News
February 24, 2015

WASHINGTON — Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert McDonald apologized Monday for misstating that he served in the military's special forces. In a statement released Monday by the VA, McDonald said: "While I was in Los Angeles, engaging a homeless individual to determine his veteran status, I asked the man where he had served in the military. He responded that he had served in special forces.

I incorrectly stated that I had been in special forces. That was inaccurate and I apologize to anyone that was offended by my misstatement." The VA website says McDonald is an Army veteran who served with the 82nd Airborne Division.
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WWII Navy Nurse Veteran Had Life From Hell After VA Lobotomy

Lobotomy

Dorothy Ludden, Survivor of VA Lobotomy Program, Dies
One of the 2,000 World War II veterans who received the procedure
Wall Street Journal
By MICHAEL M. PHILLIPS
Feb. 23, 2015

Mrs. Ludden married after her brain surgery and raised three sons. Her volatile temper, odd behavior and limited emotional range left scars on her family that lasted decades.

Dorothy Ludden, one of the last survivors of a government program that lobotomized mentally-ill World War II veterans, died on Monday. She was 94.

During the war, Mrs. Ludden served as a Navy nurse in stateside military hospitals. She was hospitalized for psychiatric reasons soon after her discharge from active duty in 1946. Diagnosed with schizophrenia, she underwent a lobotomy at the Veterans Administration hospital in Tuscaloosa, Ala.

The Tuscaloosa facility was one of 50 VA hospitals that performed the controversial brain surgery to treat intractable mental illness among veterans. Some 2,000 veterans were lobotomized by the government before the first antipsychotic drug, Thorazine, came on the market in the mid-1950s.
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The U.S. government lobotomized roughly 2,000 mentally ill veterans — and likely hundreds more — during and after World War II, according to a cache of forgotten memos, letters and government reports unearthed by The Wall Street Journal.

“They got the notion they were going to come to give me a lobotomy,” Roman Tritz, a World War II bomber pilot, told the newspaper in a report published Wednesday. “To hell with them.”

Tritz said the orderlies at the veterans hospital pinned him to the floor, and he initially fought them off. A few weeks later, just before his 30th birthday, he was lobotomized.

Besieged by psychologically damaged troops returning from the battlefields of North Africa, Europe and the Pacific, the Veterans Administration performed the brain-altering operation on former servicemen it diagnosed as depressives, psychotics and schizophrenics, and occasionally on people identified as homosexuals, according to the report.

Tritz was one of roughly 2,000 World War II veterans lobotomized during and after the war, a recent Wall Street Journal investigation discovered. The procedure, once lauded as a "miracle cure" for nearly all types of mental illness, has since fallen so far out of favor in the medical community that it's rarely even discussed, said Mario DeSanctis, medical director at the Tomah VA. Vet one of thousands lobotomized by government after WWII, La Crosse Tribune, Wis., By Allison Geyer Published: February 8, 2014