Veteran Committed Suicide After Zoloft

Grieving Father: VA Isn’t Doing Enough To Prevent Vet Suicides
CBS Pittsburgh
Andy Sheehan
KDKA-TV Investigator
April 23, 2015

(Photo Credit: KDKA) 

PITTSBURGH

(KDKA) — His son survived the war, but lost the battle at home.

“Everything seemed to be well with David, going his way and then all of a sudden this drops out of the sky, like an anvil hits you on the top of the head,” said Bob Cranmer.

Just last month Iraq war veteran David Cranmer joined the growing ranks of US veterans who have committed suicide. His father is former Allegheny County Commissioner Bob Cranmer.

“Twenty-two suicides a day,” said Cranmer, “that’s a crisis.”

He thinks vets suffering from PTSD — post-traumatic stress disorder — are not getting the treatment they need and deserve from the US Department of Veteran’s Affairs.

“It’s gone beyond, with me anyway, the tragedy of my own son,” said Cranmer, “to many, many other veterans that are out there, like him who are just being given medication by the VA and pushed out the door.”

David Cranmer enlisted in the marines and served in a forward area of Iraq. He returned home to meet and marry a young woman, they bought a house and had a daughter who is now 5 years old.

But recent stresses led him to a VA therapist — who after one session prescribed the psychotropic drug Zoloft. 

It carries an FDA warning that it can sometimes lead to suicidal thoughts and actions. A month later — David Cranmer hung himself.

“He had some marital issues,” said Cranmer. “Nothing that I think rose to the level of committing suicide, but when you add to that mix this, what I feel is a very dangerous drug.” “We don’t have a proven medication or a proven therapy that we know will prevent suicide, but we’re trying,” said David Macpherson.
read more here


Seriously? They don't have enough information? After all these years?

Nearly 40% of Army suicide victims in 2006 and 2007 were on Prozac or Zoloft Nearly 40% of Army suicide victims in 2006 and 2007 took psychotropic drugs like Prozac and Zoloft.

The military’s invisible wounds
by David Isenberg
August 4th, 2008

Yesterday I was a panelist on a television program talking about the rising number of suicides and suicide attempts in the American military.

Being a veteran myself, and having acted as a veteran’s advocate in my undergraduate days vets issues have always been of special interest to me. So let me summarize some of the facts that you may be unfamiliar with.

Currently, many veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan are suffering from invisible wounds. As in previous wars, service members can leave a war zone, but the war often follows them in their minds.

Numbers are always iffy but according to a RAND study released in April, nearly one in five Iraq and Afghanistan veterans report symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or major depression. It estimated that 830,000 veterans - 300,000 of whom served in Iraq or Afghanistan - suffer from depression or PTSD symptoms.

I checked the link to the story and it is still active. You can read more of Military's Invisible Wounds here
There are a lot more reports on this and what the VA should have known. By the way Congress knew.

What Has Been Achieved By Raising Awareness?

Right now I would like to raise awareness of a very simple fact. We are all suffering from stupefaction!

Stupefaction verb (used with object), stupefied, stupefying.
1.to put into a state of little or no sensibility; benumb the faculties of; put into a stupor.
2.to stun, as with a narcotic, a shock, or a strong emotion.
3.to overwhelm with amazement; astound; astonish.

If you are sensing a rant coming on, you know me all too well by now.

Before technology changed the way we discover information, there were town criers

(formerly) a person employed by a town to make public announcements or proclamations, usually by shouting in the streets.

There was a time when someone wanted to know something they'd read a newspaper,

The New-England Courant (also spelled New England Courant), one of the first American newspapers, was founded in Boston on August 7, 1721, by James Franklin.

Then they could go to a library,

On July 1, 1731, Franklin and a group of members from the Junto, a philosophical association, drew up "Articles of Agreement" to form a library. The Junto was interested in a wide range of ideas, from economics to solving social woes to politics to science. But they could not turn to books to increase their knowledge or settle disputes, as between them they owned few tomes. But they recognized that via the Junto's combined purchasing power, books could be made available to all members.

So it was that 50 subscribers invested 40 shillings each to start a library. Members also promised to invest 10 shillings more every year to buy additional books and to help maintain the library. They chose as their motto a Latin phrase which roughly translates as "To support the common good is divine." Philip Syng, a silversmith who would one day create the inkstand with which the Declaration and Constitution were signed, designed the Company's seal.

Most of the time folks would have to hear about something from someone else to get their curiosity just enough to ask questions, seek answers and then, hopefully, gain enough knowledge to attempt to change the future after learning from the past.

Fast forward a few hundred years and now we have thing I spend so much time on putting access to millions of pages on a subject within fingers on a keyboard limited only by ones ability to search.

Thats where we got into trouble. The problem is not being aware of history or what is happening with our veterans. The problem is everyone seems to be aware of the same wrong information.

Someone along the way figured that if trying to find cures and treat illnesses was money maker than raising awareness should be as lucrative for them. After all, a town crier got paid, so why shouldn't they?

In the beginning it was a good idea since most people didn't have a clue what PTSD was or how many veterans were committing suicide other than the veterans and their families. We knew all about it since we lived it everyday. Plus we hung out with other veterans, so what was secret in our world along with pretty much everything else, was forgotten about.

Ever wonder who did what when? Considering that by the time troops were coming home from Afghanistan and Iraq, there were PTSD programs being run. Contrary to popular belief, it was happening even though the public didn't notice. (Don't you hate that when that happens? It is almost as if no one did anything, suffered from anything or waited in the VA lines before this generation showed up and no one thought about how long it had been going on.)

This is a bit of history on PTSD from the VA

In 1980, the American Psychiatric Association (APA) added PTSD to the third edition of its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-III) nosologic classification scheme (2). Although controversial when first introduced, the PTSD diagnosis has filled an important gap in psychiatric theory and practice. From an historical perspective, the significant change ushered in by the PTSD concept was the stipulation that the etiological agent was outside the individual (i.e., a traumatic event) rather than an inherent individual weakness (i.e., a traumatic neurosis). The key to understanding the scientific basis and clinical expression of PTSD is the concept of "trauma."

History of the National Center for PTSD
Congressional Mandate

The National Center for PTSD was created in 1989 within the Department of Veterans Affairs in response to a Congressional mandate (PL 98-528) to address the needs of Veterans and other trauma survivors with PTSD. The Center was developed with the ultimate purpose to improve the well-being, status, and understanding of Veterans in American society.

The mandate called for a center of excellence that would set the agenda for research and education on PTSD without direct responsibility for patient care. Convinced that no single VA site could adequately serve this unique mission, VA established the Center as a consortium of five divisions.

Organization of the Center

The Center now consists of seven VA academic centers of excellence across the U.S., with headquarters in White River Junction, VT. Other divisions are located in Boston, MA; West Haven, CT; Palo Alto, CA; and Honolulu, HI, and each contributes to the overall Center mission through specific areas of focus.

The National Center for PTSD is an integral and valued component of the VA's Mental Health Services (MHS), which itself is within the Veterans Health Administration. MHS and the National Center for PTSD receive important budget support from VA, although the National Center also leverages this support through successful competition for extramural research funding.

Impact of Scientific and Clinical Interest in PTSD

Scientific and clinical interest in PTSD has grown exponentially in the past 25 years. PTSD is recognized as a major public health problem and a behavioral health problem for military Veterans and Active Duty personnel subject to the traumatic stress of war, dangerous peacekeeping operations, and interpersonal violence.

Moreover, due to the surprisingly high prevalence of assault, rape, child abuse, disaster, and severe accidental and violent trauma in the civilian arena, PTSD is a serious public health problem in the general population. It is estimated that PTSD affects more than ten million American children or adults at some point in their lives.

The Center has emerged as the leading center of excellence in research and education on PTSD. We will continue to uphold our mission to advance the clinical care and social welfare of America's Veterans and others who have experienced trauma, or who suffer from PTSD.

Now we can pretend all this is new, but it isn't. We can pretend that veterans have not been committing suicide until this generation but then we'd have to ignore the simple fact that older veterans have been committing suicide, not of just decades but for generations.

We can dismiss the fact that there has never been more done on PTSD and raising awareness on suicides connected to military service achieving more of them instead of reducing them but that won't bring them back. Do you see where I'm going with this?

Raising awareness on the end result does not raise awareness on what they need to heal and live. It does not clue them in on anything they need to know but does clue them in on not being alone wanting to die instead of live.

How about we give them what they need to understand they are not alone on struggling to heal and change again? Yep, now that's a novel idea. How about we let them know that PTSD caused a change inside of them and they can actually change again?

How about we raise awareness that millions of veterans not only live with PTSD but are living a good quality of life, healing and sharing how they did it everyday?

When things get worse with knowing more, it means the wrong lessons have been learned and frankly, that is what the veterans have been crying about for decades!

National Guardsmen Face Hard Time Getting Help to Heal

National Guard Members Face Challenges In Seeking Help For PTSD 
NPR
APRIL 22, 2015

Darryl Davidson, who served in Iraq with the National Guard, started having symptoms of PTSD 18 months after he left active duty. Getting treatment took several more months. Officials acknowledge guard members have less support than active forces. Julysa Sosa for NPR

NPR — along with seven public radio stations around the country — is chronicling the lives of America's troops where they live. We're calling the project "Back at Base."

This is the last of four reports this week about the National Guard. It was December 2007 and Darryl Davidson was driving down a busy San Antonio street when something flew off the truck in front of him. He thinks it might have been a car battery, but he still isn't sure. "I was in some sort of flashback.

I was there for probably 20 or 30 minutes," he says. In that moment, Davidson imagined an IED — like the homemade bombs he saw in Iraq — and his survival instinct kicked in.

"So I swerved over four lanes of traffic and crunched my truck. Well, I didn't crunch the truck, but I busted a tire on the curb and ended up in a field."

Then he took cover. When the police arrived, he told them to take cover, too.

"You know, as far as I could tell, we were under fire. I just kept telling officers they need to get down.

They needed to take cover. You know, we're under fire. And I guess one of the officers was a vet and understood what was going on and kind of talked me down," Davidson says.
read more here

Gen. David Petraeus Gets Probation Plus Fine

Petraeus sentenced: 2 years probation; $100K fine 
CNN
By Theodore Schleifer
 April 23, 2015

That rebranding is made easier thanks to a plea deal that allowed Petraeus to escape jail time by paying $40,000 and serving two years on probation. But a federal judge on Thursday in Charlotte, North Carolina instead ordered him to pay $100,000.

Washington (CNN)
Gen. David Petraeus, once a widely celebrated military leader who oversaw operations in Afghanistan and Iraq and was touted as a potential presidential candidate, was sentenced to serve two years on probation and to pay an $100,000 fine on Thursday for sharing classified information with his biographer and lover, Paula Broadwell.

Petraeus, who resigned as director of the Central Intelligence Agency in November 2012 after the relationship became public, avoided jail time as part of a plea deal. Some of his supporters believe that he can recover his reputation -- and argue in some ways, he already has. "I don't want to wallow in 2012, and luckily neither has he," said Michael O'Hanlon, a close friend of Petraeus and a scholar at the Brookings Institution. read more here

Veterans Invade Melbourne

'Largest veterans reunion' brings tens of thousands to Melbourne
News 13
By Jerry Hume, Brevard County Reporter
April 23, 2015

MELBOURNE -- Tens of thousands of people are making their way to the Space Coast on Thursday for an event that is being billed as the largest veterans reunion in the country.

The 28th annual Vietnam and All Veterans Reunion will take place at Wickham Park in Melbourne.

The centerpiece of the reunion is the Vietnam Traveling Memorial Wall, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year.

The traveling wall, which was made in Brevard County, has traveled about 160,000 miles across the United States.

"It affects everybody differently — family members are moved one way, friends another," said Greg Welsh, the chairman of the event. "Just a Vietnam veteran could be moved someway else. It's an emotional experience for most people when they come out here."

Event organizers expect about 100,000 people to show up for Thursday's reunion, which will fill up local campgrounds and hotels. 

The reunion was originally designed just for Vietnam veterans, but it has expanded in its 28 years. Now, all veterans are invited to show up and remember friends and family members who were killed while fighting for the U.S.
read more here

Tri-Pawed Afghanistan Hero

'Superhero' Dog Saves Army Partner's Life in Afghanistan -- and He Stands by Her 
ABC News
By AMANDA KEEGAN
via GOOD MORNING AMERICA
Apr 22, 2015

U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Julian McDonald says Layka, the 4-year-old Belgian Malinois with a missing paw, saved his life on an overseas deployment in Afghanistan in 2012. Courtesy Julian McDonald

For U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Julian McDonald, Layka, the 4-year-old Belgian Malinois with a missing paw, isn’t just a canine companion. She’s a hero.

McDonald, 29, said Layka saved his life on an overseas deployment in Afghanistan in 2012. McDonald was on his eighth overseas tour and completing a routine mission with his teammate and Layka, a trained military dog. “We got there to kind of assess the situation a little bit more.

That's when the guy ... started to shoot,” McDonald recalled to ABC News. Layka was hit. “He shot her, about four to six controlled rounds at her,” McDonald said, calling it “a dire situation.” 

Despite her wounds, Layka continued the mission with her team, and was rushed into treatment when she made it back to safety. After multiple surgeries, doctors had to amputate the dog’s right paw.
read more here

Special Operations Sister Soldiers

The sister soldiers who assisted Special Ops in Afghanistan 
PBS News Hour
April 22, 2015

TRANSCRIPT

JUDY WOODRUFF: Next: the newest addition to the NewsHour bookshelf, women in war. They were an elite band of sister soldiers deployed on insurgent-targeting night raids with one of the toughest special operations units in Afghanistan, the Army Rangers.

Their story is recounted in “Ashley’s War,” a new book by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon. Margaret Warner recently talked with Lemmon at Busboys and Poets, a bookstore in the Washington area. 

MARGARET WARNER: Gayle Lemmon, welcome. You profile some remarkable women in this book, but first explain what the theory was behind creating these all-female teams that went out on some of the riskiest missions in the Afghan war.

GAYLE TZEMACH LEMMON, Author, “Ashley’s War”: They were the cultural support teams, which were created to fill a security breach, which is that American soldiers could not go into quarters that were inhabited by women. Right?

So, to have a sense of what was happening in the women’s rooms and among women and children, you really needed female soldiers. And so, in 2010, Admiral Olson, who was then the head of Special Operations Command, had this idea.

A little bit later, Admiral McRaven, then running Joint Special Operations Command, actually says, we need these female out there with the Ranger regiment and the other special operations teams.

 read more here

RELATED LINKS ‘Women, War and Peace’ Highlights Changing Females’ Roles in Global Conflicts Military to Lift Ban on Women in Combat Roles
Majority of U.S. army women say they do not want combat roles

Air Force Veteran Showed Disrespect for Flag On Her

There are more pictures online but Manhart clearly had no problem disrespecting the flag, before she decided to stop someone else from doing it. Oh, by the way,it seems she uploaded the video herself according to the YouTube video "Published on Apr 18, 2015 Video courtesy of Michelle Manhart: https://www.facebook.com/Californiasu..."

Michelle Manhart (Photo: File photo courtesy PETA)

Air Force vet scuffles with police over American flag
Air Force Times
By Jeff Schogol, Staff writer
April 20, 2015

"They said, 'If you release it to us, we will not give it back to them,'" Manhart said. "I disagreed with that wholeheartedly. There were other people's hands on it as well that belonged with the organization, so, of course I wasn't going to let go, because if I did, it would have been in their hands again."

Manhart felt the need to take the flag from the demonstrators because she was outraged at how they were treating what she sees as an iconic symbol of freedom.

"We drape that flag over many coffins over the men and women that unfortunately don't get to come home the way they left; over our firefighters, our police officers, a lot of our civil servants," Manhart said. "If you're walking on that flag, then you're also walking on their caskets and you're walking on everything they stood for and you have no respect for the freedom that they have fought to make sure that you can have."

As part of a campaign for the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals years ago, Manhart posed nude while draped in the American flag. She said that the picture was meant as a sign of respect for the flag.
read more here

National Guard Soldiers Multi-Tasked Lives

National Guard Soldiers Balance Military, Civilian Life
KPBS News

The National Guard is a reserve force that can be mobilized in a crisis, but soldiers in the Guard have to support themselves with a civilian job. Many veterans find it challenging to transition from military to civilian life, but those in the National Guard have to balance the two worlds simultaneously.

North County Bureau Editor Alison St John tells us how that’s playing out for two National Guardsmen in San Diego.

Vietnam Veteran Left With Stunning Note on Car

Veteran thanks stranger who left kind note on his car 
WPTV West Palm Beach News
Jacqulyn Powell
Apr 21, 2015

BOYNTON BEACH, Fla. - A Vietnam veteran is looking to thank the person who anonymously made his day.

Richard Smith says a note of gratitude from a complete stranger is the greatest thanks he has ever been given.

With a Vietnam veteran license plate and bumper sticker, the back of Smith’s car prompts some attention.

"People have noticed it and they say thank you,” he said, “But never has anybody ever taken the time to write like this." 

The note was left in his driver’s door handle Sunday when he briefly parked in a Delray parking lot. “I thought at first that maybe somebody had hit the car in a spot I didn’t see,” he said, “And then I opened it right here and I'm reading it.

I said ‘wow’, That's really something. It got me a little emotional." read more here

Troop Greeters Honor Vietnam Veterans

Maine Troop Greeters to honor Vietnam War veterans 
WCSH 6 News
Portland Katharine Bavoso, WLBZ
April 21, 2015

"Somebody had to say it. Then, they didn't. So we're saying it now. Welcome home," said Troop Greeter and Vietnam era veteran, Jerry Lyden.

Vietnam era vets to be honored decades later (Photo: NEWS CENTER)

BANGOR, Maine (NEWS CENTER) -- When troops returned home from the Vietnam War, they were often faced with negativity and anger instead of the hero's greeting returning troops are given today. The Maine Troop Greeters want to make up for that lack of thanks.

The Troop Greeters announced Tuesday that they will be holding a Welcome Home Vietnam Era Veterans celebration to give Maine Vietnam Veterans the welcome home they never received.

It's a collaborative effort by the Troop Greeters as well as the City of Bangor, the Bangor International Airport, the Maine Bureau of Veterans Services and the Cross Insurance Center.

The event is part of a 10 year nationwide program to welcome home Vietnam Veterans from all over the country. According to the Troop Greeters, there are 44,000 Vietnam Veterans in Maine.

April marks 40 years since the Vietnam War ended in 1975.

"It's a responsibility that we should finally try to make make things right or make amends," said Maine Troop Greeter and event organizer, Nory Jones.
read more here

Auto Dealer Fined for Targeting Military Members

Auto dealer fined $50,000 for ad targeting military 
The Leaf-Chronicle
April 20, 2015

NASHVILLE – Middle Tennessee auto dealer, Wholesale Inc., has agreed to immediately change its advertising practices and pay the State of Tennessee $50,000, Attorney General Herbert H. Slatery III announced Monday.

A Davidson County Court approved the settlement between Wholesale Inc., the Tennessee Attorney General’s Office, and the Tennessee Division of Consumer Affairs.

The agreement centers around two advertising mailers sent to would be customers. One of the mailers specifically targeted service members living near Fort Campbell. Wholesale Inc. operates used car sales lots in downtown Nashville, the Rivergate area and in Mount Juliet.

After reviewing a service member’s complaint filed at Fort Campbell, the state alleged that the defendant made numerous false representations in violation of the Tennessee Consumer Protection Act.

According to the state, a fictitious lender called “CreditAble Auto Funding” claimed to be “by military, for military” and was offering a limited amount of loans to military personnel.
read more here

Traveling Vietnam Memorial Wall Escort into Wickham Park

Sunday, April 19, 2015 over 1,000 escorted the Traveling Vietnam Memorial Wall into Wickham Park in Melbourne Florida for the start of the Veterans Reunion.

American Sniper UCLA Conversation They Missed

UCLA missed the conversation they could have had, like maybe, the same one taking place in the veterans community. We talk about the power this movie has to help people understand what PTSD to the point where they actually care about the veterans and their families.

Right up front understand I have not seen it yet for a reason. I live with what combat does everyday, so I am waiting for it to come out on pay-per-view so I can walk away from it if I have to. Most of the veterans I know are doing the same thing because the last thing they want to do is sit in a huge, dark, crowded room with a bunch of strangers behind them.

This movie started a conversation few others have managed to do and that is what war does to those we send.

From their point of view, it isn't about right or wrong reasons. It is about those on their left and their right. It is about the bond they share willing to die for each other and the pain they bring home.

Politicians start wars and they are the ones who get to decide to end them. Ever since the beginning of this country, one group makes the decision to risk lives while about group decides to put their lives on the line. Even with the draft, most enlisted because it was supposed to be important enough that the security of this nation was in jeopardy. If politicians lied, the end result was the same for those who went.

Nothing is new in any of this. No wound is different. No suffering is different. No struggle trying to deal with the VA is different no matter how many times politicians want to blame the VA instead of themselves. Doesn't seem to matter this has all been going on for decades as more and more veterans are failed.

How great would it have been if students talked about any of this? How about if they talked about the history of what politicians have said about taking care of our veterans since the Patriots decided freedom was worth fighting for?

So many conversations they could have had but they decided to get political instead of historical. For heaven's sake! Reporters won't do it and if UCLA students won't who will?

CEC to hold post-film talk on ‘American Sniper’ after student outcry 
Daily Bruin
BY SAM BOZOUKOV
Posted: April 20, 2015

On the undergraduate government's Campus Events Commission's Facebook event page for Tuesday's film screening of "American Sniper," students protested the free showing of the controversial, Oscar-nominated film. In response, CEC added a discussion after the screening. (Warner Bros.)

Undergraduate student government officers added a post-film discussion to their Tuesday screening of “American Sniper” after dozens of students plastered its Facebook event page with concerns that the film promotes Islamophobia and glorifies war.

“American Sniper,” released in January, is based on the true story of Chris Kyle, a Navy SEAL who has the most recorded kills in U.S. military history and who served four tours during the Iraqi war.

Some who like the film say it celebrates an American war hero and sheds light on the internal struggles soldiers face after war. But many of the commenters on Facebook said they want the screening on campus to be cancelled because they said they think the film perpetuates Islamophobia and ideas of American imperialism.

Undergraduate Students Association Council Campus Events Commissioner Greg Kalfayan said he decided to show “American Sniper” for students who didn’t have the opportunity to watch it when it was first released. The commission is currently showing all films nominated for the best picture Academy Award, which includes “American Sniper.”

“We anticipated criticism, but not in the amount we received,” Kalfayan said. The CEC staff knew “American Sniper” had already stirred controversy on other college campuses, said CEC director of films and third-year sociology student Stone Frankle.

At the University of Michigan, over 200 students signed a petition earlier this month asking the school to cancel a student-planned free showing of the movie. The school canceled the showing at first, but ended up showing the movie despite the petition, saying that canceling the event was inconsistent with its values of freedom of expression. read more here

Servicemembers Win Fight for $3.1 Million

Servicemembers win $3.1M relief over hidden fees 
USA TODAY
Kevin McCoy
April 20, 2015

One of the largest U.S. processors of bill payments by military servicemembers will pay nearly $3.1 million in consumer relief after a review found the firm charged millions of dollars in hidden fees. Kentucky-based Military Assistance Company and its parent firm, Fort Knox National Co., will repay soldiers, sailors, Marines and other servicemembers who were harmed, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said Monday.

"Servicemembers paid millions of dollars in fees, probably without knowing it," said CFPB Director Richard Cordray. "Today we are taking action, and others should take note."

Under the terms of a consent order, the companies will pay the settlement to the CFPB, which will contact servicemembers who may be eligible for refunds. read more here