New VA Suicide Reports Shows Little Change

Nothing Changed Because We Did Not Care Enough
Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
July 7, 2016

As bad as it has been for our veterans the thing is, it still is.  After all the groups popping up all over the country, all the Facebook posts, reporters covering this one taking a walk, doing pushups, raising funds and awareness, it has resulted in little more than nothing being changed.  As a matter of fact, the more you learn about how far back all this goes, it means nothing has changed but more veterans dying instead of healing PTSD.


After 4 years of folks raising awareness of veterans committing suicide at "22 a day" what do they do now that the VA says it is down to "20" still not getting the help they need to stay alive? Isn't that what we really should be talking about? How did it turn out this way with thousands of charities popping up all over the country?

VA Releases Results of Largest Analysis of Veteran Suicide Rates
ABC News
Elizabeth McLaughlin
July 7, 2016

The VA treated more than 1.6 million veterans for mental health in 2015.

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) released sobering new statistics today about veteran suicide rates in the United States.

According to the VA, an average of 20 veterans died from suicide every day in 2014.

The VA examined over 55 million veteran records from 1979 to 2014 from every state in the nation. The last time the VA conducted a study like this was in 2010, but that report only included data from 20 states.

Veterans accounted for 18 percent of all suicides among U.S. adults in 2014, down from 22 percent in 2010. That means of the 41,425 suicides among U.S. adults in 2014, 7,403 of those were veterans.

Today’s results also included comparisons between civilians and veterans. Since 2001, the VA found that suicides among U.S. adult civilians increased 23 percent, while veteran suicides increased 32 percent in the same time period – making the risk of suicide 21 percent greater for veterans than civilians (after controlling for age and gender).

Older veterans face a higher risk of suicide, the data showed. In 2014, about 65 percent of veterans who died from suicide were 50 years or older.
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The truth is, it never was "22 a day" and the VA Suicide Report explained how they got to that number with data collected up to 2010 from just 21 states. The reported listed factors on how they knew veterans were not counted. Even back then the VA was reporting that the majority of the suicide were by veterans over the age of 50. 69% in the veterans community and about 78% from veterans within the VA system.

The other factor, even with a report like this, shows how little has changed for our veterans who still cannot find hope that their last worst day does not have to end with their lives. So does anyone get held accountable for any of this?

Where was all the concern for our veterans in 1999? 

When I started out in all of this over 3 decades ago, we had plenty of excuses why it was hard to not just research PTSD but reach veterans in need of hope. We didn't have the internet.  Advocates like me invested countless hours going over clinical books at the library trying to understand at least enough to do more good than harm.

With the internet, we have the ability to reach veterans across the country and yes, even the rest of the world. The problem is, there are plenty of people talking about it but not willing to actually do the work to understand any of this.

What happened to understanding the difference between helping and hurting? 

Do they understand that this is a matter of life and death? That knowing the wrong thing can be fatal? That they can do more harm to veterans than help any of them?

I have been very hard on all these instant experts using an "easy to remember number" as if any this is supposed to be easy for their sake.  It is far from easy for the veterans or their families.  As usual, they just didn't get the message and now I wonder if they ever will.

Maine Vietnam Memorial Right Next To Restrooms?

Local Vietnam veterans upset about restrooms next to Vietnam memorial
WAGM News
By Joey Prechtl
July 6, 2016

MADAWASKA, Maine (WAGM) - "What it represents to them is shame to their sons."

For Vietnam veteran Jack Meyers, he says the new restroom facility built adjacent to the memorial is a shame and a sign of disrespect to the fallen. This Vietnam memorial is hallowed ground he says and It's a statue to remember the ultimate sacrifice paid by the 21 men from the St. John Valley.

"We honored those families, those boys came back and they were dead. You can't change that. They gave their lives. Those families didn't have to give up those boys. The government gave up on us, and what now is the town of Madawaska giving up on us," Meyers said.

He co-founded the statue 20 years ago. He said he still remembers the emotions he felt the day it was unveiled to the Valley.

"It was amazing, and I felt like I had said thank you to my boys."

Town manager Ryan Pelletier said the town never meant to disrespect the veterans. The land is owned by the Diocese of Portland and the town is a tenant, so all permanent structures must be proposed and approved by the Diocese before construction. The local Parrish would only approve a location if it was okay with the neighbors of the park, and the neighbors rejected all other possible locations.
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Iraq Veteran Killed in North Carolina

Mother says man shot to death was 31-year-old Iraq war vet
WBTV 3 News
By WBTV Web Staff
Wednesday, July 6th 2016

CHARLOTTE, NC (WBTV)
A man was shot and killed at a home in Charlotte's Wesley Heights community early Wednesday morning.

Javarius Roberts, 31 (Photo provided to WBTV by a friend)

Charlotte-Mecklenburg police say officers were called by a neighbor who heard commotion in an adjacent apartment on Grandin Road. When officers got to the scene at 3:18 a.m. they found 31-year-old Javaris Roberts shot. Medic pronounced the him dead on scene.

Roberts' mother identified her son on scene to WBTV, police confirmed his name around 10 a.m. Wednesday morning. She said her son is a disabled veteran who fought in Iraq.

"He graduated high school and went to college and decided after one year he wanted to join the military," said Roberts' mother.

She says he was stationed at Fort Bragg before being sent overseas to Iraq.

His mother was very emotional since the family had just been together over the 4th of July weekend.
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Corpsman Refused to Quit After Being Wounded

Injured by rocket-propelled grenade, Navy hospital corpsman refuses to quit and now serves aboard USS Truman
The Virginian-Pilot
By Brock Vergakis
July 4, 2016

“We’re out here because we believe in one thing, and that’s keeping everyone back at home safe as well as keeping everyone out here safe as well. So just know that we’re going to continue doing that to the best of our ability.” Petty Officer 3rd Class Vanzorro L. Gross

ABOARD THE USS HARRY S. TRUMAN

Nobody would’ve blamed Vanzorro Gross for leaving the Navy.

The hospital corpsman had served honorably for years when he was struck by a rocket-propelled grenade in Afghanistan four years ago at Camp Bastion while supporting a Marine air wing. Two Marines died in the attack, multiple Harrier aircraft were destroyed and 14 insurgents disguised in U.S. uniforms were killed during a battle that lasted hours.

When another corpsman found Gross in the midst of a firefight, his face was bleeding and he had a piece of metal protruding from his left foot that had to be yanked out immediately.

He later discovered three of his ligaments were sliced, every bone in his foot was shattered and he had shrapnel in his leg, side, neck and head.
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Seven Fort Hood Soldiers July 4th Shootout

Update

Couple charged after man shoots at Fort Hood soldiers in New Braunfels

Police: Fort Hood soldier returned fire as others ran for cover
Killeen Daily Herald
Clay Thorp
Herald staff writer
July 4, 2016

One soldier was able to get to his vehicle and retrieved his personal .40 caliber handgun and he began firing as well, laying down what he described as ‘cover fire’ so that his fellow soldiers could reach cover.”

Several Fort Hood soldiers had to put their combat training to use during a Fourth of July shootout after police said the soldiers tried to break up a domestic disturbance at Prince Solms Park in New Braunfels early Monday.

New Braunfels Police Department officers arrived at the park about 1:30 a.m. after multiple shots were reportedly fired and began to investigate what happened, according to a news release.

“That investigation revealed that a total of seven soldiers from Fort Hood, Texas, had arrived in the park shortly after 1 a.m.,” the news release said. “The soldiers explained to officers that shortly before 1:30 a.m. they had witnessed a disturbance between a male and female in the parking lot of the park, and they had intervened. The soldiers believed they had successfully de-escalated the situation and began to walk back to their vehicle.”

But the soldiers told police that after walking away, the female involved in the dispute ran back to her boyfriend’s car, retrieved a 9 mm handgun from under the driver’s seat and handed it to her boyfriend, who allegedly opened fire on the soldiers as they scattered for cover.
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Salt Lake City Marine Veteran Victim of Stolen Valor

Former Marine has uniform, medals stolen by man posing as fellow Marine vet
KSL News
By Nicole Vowell
Posted Jul 4th, 2016

The man who goes by the name of "Michael Manning," posing as a former Marine veteran. (KSL TV)

SALT LAKE CITY — With a decade of service fighting on the front lines, Marine veteran Kurt Harris was stationed all over the world.

“Dominican Republic, Africa, Ethiopia, Panama, Peru, Kuwait and Iraq,” said Harris.

About six months ago, Harris said he met a man who goes by the name of Michael Manning at a gym in downtown Salt Lake City.

“We became friends on the shared bond of being in the military together,” Harris said.

So this past week when his fellow "Marine" vet needed a place to stay, Harris opened his home without hesitation.

“I said, ‘Sure, my couch is open. You can crash there as long as you need,’” Harris said.

But he quickly discovered Manning had other plans.

“When those were gone, it just felt like the last decade was just robbed just right out from under me,” Harris said.

After being robbed, Harris took to Facebook. That's when the messages started rolling in. Harris found out he apparently wasn't the only one duped by dishonor.
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MOH Sammy Davis Returns From Vietnam

Veteran whose actions were adapted for ‘Forrest Gump’ returns to Vietnam
WTTV CBS News
By Russ McQuaid
JULY 4, 2016 

"I stood on the exact same piece of dirt that I earned this medal on.  I been waiting to go back for forty years." Sammy L. Davis

OWEN COUNTY, Ind.-- Truth be told, Sammy L. Davis doesn’t remember the last time he left Fire Support Base Cudgel west of Cai Lay in what was then called South Vietnam 48 years ago. Davis was choppered off the battlefield, severely wounded, after a night of war that saved the lives of three fellow Americans, held off an enemy onslaught and resulted in Davis being awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor.

This Independence Day, the night of November 18, 1967, is once again fresh in Davis’ memory as the Mooresville native has just returned from his first visit back to the riverbank where Hoosier-bred heroics were displayed and lives were changed nearly a half century ago.

“I stood on the exact same piece of dirt that I earned this medal on,” said Davis as he held the honor that hung from a sky blue ribbon around his neck during a recent memorial service. “I been wanting to go back for forty years.

Davis was promoted to sergeant for what he did at Fire Support Base Cudgel. He also received the Medal of Honor, a Silver Star and two Purple Hearts.
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UK:Chilcot Report On Iraq War Due To Be Released

Jeremy Corbyn Labour coup designed to stop him 'calling for Tony Blair's head' after Chilcot report, says Alex Salmond
'It would be a mistake to believe that Chilcot and current events are entirely unconnected. The link is through the Labour Party'
Independent
Ashley Cowburn Political Correspondent
July 4, 2016


Alex Salmond has appeared to suggest the internal Labour party coup against Jeremy Corbyn is connected with the publication of the long-awaited Chilcot report into the Iraq war.

His comments come just three days before the publication of the inquiry into the 2003 Iraq war. Earlier reports have suggested Mr Blair, the former Prime Minister, and his contemporaries will be savaged in an “absolutely brutal” verdict.

In an article for the Herald, the former Scottish First Minister wrote: “It would be a mistake to believe that Chilcot and current events are entirely unconnected. The link is through the Labour Party”

“I have been puzzling as to exactly why the Parliamentary Labour Party chose this moment to launch their coup against Jeremy Corbyn and just what explains the desperation to get him out last week. It can hardly be because of a European referendum where [Mr] Corbyn’s campaigning, although less than energetic, was arguably more visible than that of say the likely big political winner Teresa May?”
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From The Guardian
Tony Blair faces calls for impeachment on release of Chilcot report

The Chilcot report is due to be released on Wednesday 6 July.

Photograph: Chris Jackson/PA

“The reason is 179 British war dead, 150,000 immediate dead from the Iraq conflict, the Middle East in flames, the world faced with an existential crisis on terrorism – these are just some of the reasons perhaps he should understand why people don’t hold him in the highest regard."

“[MPs] believe you cannot have a situation where this country blunders into an illegal war with the appalling consequences and at the end of the day there isn’t a reckoning. There has to be a judicial or political reckoning for that.”

It means individual soldiers could be prosecuted for war crimes but not Blair.

The ICC, based in The Hague, has begun a preliminary examination of claims of torture and abuse by British soldiers, after receiving a dossier from human rights lawyers acting for alleged Iraqi victims.

PTSD: Taking the Mystery Out of IT

PTSD and Demystifying IT
Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
July 4th 2016

Independence Day is the day we honor all the generations of men and women putting their lives on the line as Patriots to obtain freedom and all those who came afterwards to retain it.

The price paid is usually measured within the count of war deaths.  Sometimes when thought more deeply about all that is involved the number of all those who fought for this country are counted.  Sometimes when even more respectful thought is applied the wounded are counted but then there are those whose wounds are never accounted for.

There is a reason for that. As hard as researchers try to figure out how many carry the wounds borne by battle, there are far too many left out of the total. Many of the wounded never forget the price they paid while no one ever sees the cost embedded within their minds.

No generation came home without paying a price.  No wound is new and that is the most depressing thing of all. For all the years of research into what has been called Post Traumatic Stress Disorder since the 70's, it has actually been studied in WWI.

While the military has been attempting to counter the stigma of PTSD and reduce the number of suicides for a decade, the result has proven to be a failed attempt. While every member of the military has been trained in "prevention" that clearly has not worked on those with multiple deployments. What has been the most overlooked aspect of all is that it did not even work for those who never deployed.

Gen. Robert Neller said he is also troubled by the spike in suicides for Marines who’ve never deployed. That number has jumped from 36 percent of the service’s suicides in 2013 to 66 percent in 2015. During the first four months of this year, that number is up to 73 percent. Sixteen Marines who never deployed have taken their own lives in 2016.

The stigma is alive but far too many are no longer alive because the root of PTSD remains a mystery to them. To feel ashamed of feeling when it is that very aspect within a person compelling them to be willing to die for the sake of someone else is astonishing. One would have to have a very strong emotional core to be even thinking of doing that for a living.

We need to demystify IT to take away the power it has and restore power to the veterans over the next part of life, healing.

P Post is listed "to bring to public notice by or as by a poster or bill" but is also defined as 'a prefix, meaning “behind,” “after,” “later,” “subsequent to,” “posterior to,” occurring originally in loanwords from Latin ( postscript)'

You were a certain way before IT happened to you. The second IT happened, you were a victim of it. The next second, you were a survivor of IT. IT attacked you and changed you. Here is the thing you do not hear often enough. You can change again.

T Trauma is defined as "an agent, force, or mechanism that causes trauma" and is Greek for "wound" so, it hit you not started from within you.

Yet again, we see another example of the simplicity within the complexity of PTSD. IT caused a wound within your skin striking at the part of your brain where feelings are fueled by your past and doing battle with your future.

As with all wounds, it heals treated properly. The sooner the wound is treated, the less of a scar it leaves behind.  Much like a wound on your body, an infection can spread out destroying tissue. Once treated, a scar is often left behind but treated soon after IT happened, it is hard to notice it was ever there.

S Stress is defined as "a state resulting from a stress; one of bodily or mental tension resulting from factors that tend to alter an existent equilibrium "

The stress you feel should actually be less than when IT happened in the first place. Too often you can push the pain to the back of your mind but IT is still there.Flashbacks are caused by stuff that awakens the memory you thought was gone. Things you see, smell, feel and the often overlooked, anniversary date, can bring IT back as if was happening all over again.

D Disorder is defined as "to destroy the order or regular arrangement of; disarrange" and "to derange the physical or mental health or functions of."

Having the disorder of PTSD is not a sign of weakness and is not as bad as it may sound.  When something is out of order, it means at one time it was in order, all where it was supposed to be. It also means it can be put back into place again. Nothing about PTSD is hopeless and no one is destined to remain as you are this second.

The way you think and how you feel has been disrupted but the origins of who you were, your foundation, is all still there. IT just keeps getting in the way of feeling anything good because what was bad about IT was allowed to gain strength.

Strength is yet one more aspect of PTSD that is not talked about enough.  It is because your emotional core is so strong you felt IT all more than others. Maybe you survived IT once and just had memories left behind. Maybe you survived more times when you were hit again and those times built onto what the original IT did. Sooner or later you felt too much of IT and not enough of dealing with IT so IT got embedded within you.

As with everything, what something means to you is all too often based on what you think it means instead of what it actually means.

Ohio Women Stolen Valor Used Go Fund Me

Mansfield woman claimed she was a military veteran with cancer to solicit GoFundMe donations, prosecutors say
Cleveland.com
By Eric Heisig
June 30, 2016

Donations came from all over the country. The indictment says one person who lived in Adrian, Michigan gave $1,000.

CLEVELAND, Ohio — A Mansfield woman set up a GoFundMe page and claimed that she was a U.S. Marine in need of money for breast cancer treatments, despite the fact that she was never sick and never served in the military, according to a federal indictment.

Joyell "J.D." Riley, 41, was indicted Wednesday by a federal grand jury on a wire-fraud charge. An FBI investigation showed that 32 people sent a total of $3,515 to Riley after she set up the fundraising page in November 2014.

Riley represented herself on the site as a "highly decorated combat veteran" who served as a captain in the U.S. Marine Corps, the indictment says. Prosecutors also say she tried to prove that she was a veteran by using white out to falsify a government form that says she was discharged from active military duty.
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