Las Vegas Vietnam Veterans Learned to Heal PTSD Together

Las Vegas psychiatrist helps Vietnam veterans heal ‘invisible wounds’
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
By KEITH ROGERS
August 7, 2016

Until he began therapy sessions with Dr. Steven Kingsbury to cope with post-traumatic stress disorder, Marine veteran Lonnie Coslow was in denial about his invisible wounds from the Vietnam War.

“I told him that if the Marines wanted me to have PTSD they would have issued it to me,” Coslow, 71, said Thursday.

Looking back, Coslow now understands how Kingsbury, a wheelchair-bound psychiatrist at the North Las Vegas Veterans Affairs Medical Center, helped him realize how to live with the nightmares, flashbacks and pent-up emotions that have simmered since 1968.

Kingsbury became a mental health expert after earning degrees, completing residencies and serving on faculties at universities like Harvard, Loyola, Miami, Texas and Southern California. Through his knowledge and experience he gradually won Coslow’s confidence.

After 10 years of private sessions with Coslow, the affable doctor persuaded him to join the Tuesday gatherings of a group of about 20 other Las Vegas area combat veterans.

“One of the great things we had going was we saw these guys in a group and they were able to help each other,” Kingsbury said. “Any trust issues that they had with me, they still had trust among themselves.”

When issues like suicidal thoughts, marriage problems and anger flare-ups surfaced, he said, 


“They were there for each other and they could call each other and just get away for awhile.”
read more here

PTSD EVOLUTION
There wasn't a specific name for post-traumatic stress disorder when Dr. Steven Kingsbury first began working with combat veterans a few years after the Vietnam War ended in 1975.

PTSD didn't become part of the VA's vocabulary until the American Psychiatric Association's manual for mental health disorders was revised in 1980.

Some symptoms had been described as "shell shock" or "war neuroses" for World War I veterans; or "combat stress reaction" from "battle fatigue" for World War II veterans, according the VA's National Center for PTSD.

During the Korean War era, the association's manual from 1952 made reference to "gross stress reaction" as a symptom of traumatic combat events. The diagnosis, however, was struck from the revised 1968 manual and replaced with an "adjustment reaction to adult life." That was later described on the center's website as "clearly insufficient to capture a PTSD-like condition."

In 2013, more than 500,000 veterans were receiving treatment for PTSD at VA facilities.

WWP Still Doesn't Get What Accountability Should Be

There is a report on Stars and Stripes about Wounded Warrior Project employees bracing for some layoffs. In the report there was this.

The difference, he said: Wounded Warrior Project invests heavily in fundraising in part because of the scope of services it provides to wounded veterans and their families.

The problem is that no one has addressed the fact that WWP does not "provide" all the help they claim by themselves. They give out donations (grants) to other charities and colleges leaving donors to wonder why WWP assumed they had the right to use their money without providing them the opportunity to say no.

Here are some of the charities getting their money last year.

This cycle’s grant recipients are Catch a Lift Fund (Baltimore, MD), Shepherd Center Foundation (Atlanta, GA) Rocky Mountain Human Services (Colorado Springs, CO), Northeast Nebraska Community Action Partnership (Pender, NE), Western Dairyland Economic Opportunity Council (Independence, WI), Brain Injury Services of Southwest Virginia (Roanoke, VA), Yellow Ribbon Fund (Bethesda, MD), Colorado State University Foundation (Fort Collins, CO), and David Lynch Foundation (New York, NY).

Stunning, Sexy, Nude Veterans

Amputee Veterans Reveal Why They Showed Off Their Battle Scars in Latest Nude Photo Shoot
Inside Edition
by Johanna
August 2, 2016

These sexy veterans are back, and they're wearing nothing but their battle scars.

Just when our hearts and loins thought they've had enough, photographer Michael Stokes of Los Angeles is back behind the lens shooting amputees in a steamy sequel to his wounded veteran series, and he guarantees: "Yes, they are nude."

Stokes said he reached out to 13 new veterans to be featured in Invictus, and revisited five models he photographed for his first book, Always Loyal.

Of the 18 veterans he photographed for his series on battle scars, 17 are amputees.
read more here 

Read: Go Behind the Scenes as Naked Wounded War Veterans Pose for Steamy Photos

Vietnam Veteran's Son Killed Fighting ISIS Wanted to Be a Marine

Colorado mother struggles to bring her son’s body home from Syria
“Jack” Shirley of Arvada was killed fighting the Islamic State with Kurdish forces in Syria
Denver Post
By CLAIRE CLEVELAND
PUBLISHED: August 6, 2016

Frustrated that his eyesight rendered him unfit for the U.S. Marines, Jack joined the war on terror, against the wishes of his government, by volunteering with the People’s Protection Unit, a Kurdish group clashing with the Islamic State in northern Syria. Amid the tangled geopolitical alliances of the Middle East, the YPG — shorthand for Jack’s unit — falls under a political wing believed to have ties to yet another group the U.S. has classified as a terrorist organization.

Joe Amon, The Denver Post
Susan Shirley with a picture of

her son Levi Jonathan Shirley that
died in Syria as a volunteer with
an armed Kurdish group, the YPG to
fight ISIS.

Day after day, Susan Shirley sits at the round, wooden table in her Arvada kitchen, her blue eyes intensely scanning e-mails or Facebook messages on her laptop and then, eventually, wandering past the window into the yard where her son once played.

She refocuses on the spiral notebook before her and logs another entry in a minute-by-minute to-do list of grief: 10:30: …request info costs embalming etc….

The notes go on for pages, chronicling a mother’s complex quest to bring home her son, 24-year-old Levi Jonathan “Jack” Shirley, who was killed on a Syrian battlefield while fighting the Islamic State.

And so news of his death, the second among an estimated 100 Americans who have volunteered with such militias, arrived not with a hero’s accolades and the thanks of a grateful nation, but with a logistical burden heaped upon sorrow at the loss of a son.

Russell Shirley, who served two tours in Vietnam and has struggled with post-traumatic stress disorder and readjusting to civilian life, felt relief when Jack was disqualified from the Marines. He figured that put an end to the possibility of his son joining a foreign battle.
read more here

Veterans Charities Waiting for No-Show Donations From McGraw Concert

Veterans still waiting for donations from McGraw show
Press of Atlantic City
Michael Miller
August 5, 2016

Vietnam Veterans of America officer Vincent DePrinzio said the groups would understand if the show didn’t generate a profit for donations.

Scenes from the July 4th Tim McGraw concert on the beach in Wildwood.
Monday July 04, 2016. (Dale Gerhard/Press of Atlantic City)

WILDWOOD — Four veterans groups that partnered with the Celebrate America Weekend featuring Tim McGraw on July 4 said they have not received any donations promised from proceeds of the beach concert.

Promoter Boardwalk Entertainment Co. Inc., of Ocean City, promised to donate proceeds from ticket sales to Wildwood’s American Legion Post 184 and Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter 955, and Operation First Response in Virginia and the Michael Strange Foundation in Pennsylvania. Boardwalk Entertainment President Amanda Thomas said she expects to be able to announce the donations next week.

“We’re still going through all our numbers and our books, trying to determine how much the groups will get,” she said.

Thomas said her company offered the groups 10 percent of profits from ticket sales.
read more here

Did You Know Lake Baldwin VA Closed?

Bad reporting right here in my own state!  

First Lake Baldwin VA was not closed. It has been open all along. 

The state of Florida did not take it over. 

The Dom, the place where homeless veterans were taken care of was moved to Lake Nona and that is what reopened.

Ok, so here is the article. Will come as a big shock to the Central Florida veterans among 400,000 who have been going to Lake Baldwin all along. 

VA clinic reopens in Orlando WESH 2 News Robert Lowe August 4, 2016

ORLANDO, Fla. —Two years ago, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs came under heavy scrutiny for poor service across America.

Long lines meant a number of veterans died while they waited for treatment. Since that time, the agency underwent major changes.

On Thursday, the Lake Baldwin facility, now run by the state, reopened its domiciliary.

"Today is a very special day for Central Florida veterans," said U.S. Rep. John Mica.

Mica spent the past two years working to reopen the facility. It closed after the opening of the new Orlando VA Center in Lake Nona. But, with approximately 400,000 veterans throughout Central Florida, Mica said there was a great need to reopen.read more here

Suicide Awareness Not Same As Reason To Live With PTSD

Stop Raising PTSD-Suicide Awareness, Start Sharing Hope
Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
July 6, 2016

This morning my email box was full of news on veterans committing suicide and folks "raising awareness" about what they were doing for them.  Some use "22 a day" others use the latest number from the VA of "20 a day" and some even use "25 a day" as if any of those numbers will change anything.

The simple fact is, none of what has been done since 1999 has been enough to actually help change the outcome for far too many. With a reduction of almost 7 million veterans leaving us since then, the numbers from the VA on suicides are still "20 a day" even after a decade of stunts to "prevent" them from taking their own lives.

Pushups put focus on veteran suicides on the Clarion Ledger covered an event with participants dropping to the floor while believing they will do what exactly?

Senator Roger Wicker, center left, and Jackson Mayor Tony Yarber, center right, do pushups as part of the "22 Pushup Challenge," a social media campaign to raise awareness for veteran suicide prevention, Thursday at the Capitol. (Photo: Elijah Baylis/The Clarion-Ledger)

This happened at the Mississippi State Capitol. In the article there was this,

"There’s no reason for any veteran to feel that he or she needs to take their own life," said Senator Roger Wicker just before he, Jackson Mayor Tony Yarber, Flowood Police Chief Richie McCluskey, and others hit the deck for 22 pushups in the Mississippi state capitol rotunda on Thursday.

I have no doubt they are filled with good intentions but lack good information so they share pain instead of hope.

The problem is, there are plenty of reasons veterans are still taking their own lives after risking them for the sake of others. All the raising awareness about them committing suicide has managed to do is spread the hopelessness. If others did not find the help they needed, then what are the chances a veteran in crisis will be able to change his/her own tomorrow?

The other thing is that older veterans, waiting longer for help and hope, forgotten by all these "new efforts" has left them in the majority of veterans committing suicide. They look at all the attention the younger veterans are getting, doing little good, and that removes hope for them. It devalues all the decades of them suffering in silence for what they fought so hard to change.

I could go on and on, but you have read enough of the bad reports here for a very long time. This month Wounded Times has been up for 9 years. That is a lot of covering the sad news but for now, I think it is vital to talk about the good news. If anything will ever change, we need to start raising awareness on what works. That begins with telling them what they have not heard enough. They are not condemned to suffer as much as they are today and their lives are healable.

Yesterday a veteran called to thank me for what I helped him with. Usually when I hear that, it is followed by heartache and I prepare to do battle with the demon of death to give them back the hope they lost.  This time, the thank you was followed by a series of blessings shared by him.

He proceeded to tell me that his claim had been upgraded and he would not have to worry about how to feed himself and his service dog. He talked about how so many people surrounded him in his darkest times, listening to him pour his heart out. They made sure he had food to eat and rides to get to around. They made sure he knew he mattered to them when he could not find a reason to matter to himself.

He also talked about how God was very busy in his life when He sent all of them to get him through all the hardships he had to face.

The most wondrous thing of all about this veteran is his voice was filled with hope when he talked about helping other veterans heal like he did.

So, for what it is worth, after over 3 decades of doing this work, this is what I feel needs to be shared right now to actually make a difference.

We have to start with what PTSD really is.

Post means "after' because things go from one way in your life to chaos and your life changed in a second. Trauma is something you survived that very well could have taken your life or the life of someone else. In other words, it happened to you. That trauma caused your entire body to go into stress mode. That caused the way you think and feel to be in disorder.  In other words, it was in order before it, got shaken up and you can put things back in order again. Maybe not in the same exact way, but at least an order you can live with.

One more thing to mention on this is  that "trauma" is actually Greek for "wound" and with all wounds, left untreated they get worse but with help, all wounds do in fact heal. YOU CAN HEAL!

If you think that PTSD is something to be ashamed of, think better about yourself since you survived it.  You are not a "victim" of the event but you are a survivor.  It was not able to kill you. So why are you letting it destroy you now?

Like the veteran needed to be reminded of a long time ago, when you were in combat and outnumbered, you called in all the help you could get.  If ground support was not enough, then you called in for air support.  Lives were on the line so you did what you had to do to keep them alive. How is this different?

Every veteran I have helped over the years said the first thing they wanted to do was help other veterans live better lives. Staying here and healing actually means you will save lives now by getting whatever you need to defeat this.

If you do not find what you need, then keep calling in as much help as you can find the same way you did in combat.

Brandon Ketchum tried to stay alive and tried to help raise awareness but when he was in his darkest hour, he was turned away from the VA after requesting emergency care.

Last October, former Marine sergeant and Army National Guard veteran Brandon Ketchum led a team in an awareness walk to honor military friends who had died by suicide.But this year, Ketchum won’t be present at the Out of the Darkness event in Rock Island, Illinois. Instead, he will be among those remembered, having died July 8 of a self-inflicted gunshot wound just hours after expressing his frustration with Veterans Affairs medical care on a closed Facebook page.Ketchum wrote that he had sought emergency inpatient care for his substance abuse issues but was turned away.

Right now no one knows for sure why it happened anymore than they know why he did not keep trying to find help in crisis with all the other groups out there or even something as simple as calling 911 to get into a mental health hospital until he could get a bed at the VA.

Right now if you are like me, you are wondering what good the "Out of darkness" awareness did when he did not think about turning to them for help. Ketchum turned to Facebook to post his exit interview.

I do not have anything to do with that group but I do have something to do with Coming Out of The Dark. This is a video I made 10 years ago.


You are not alone so why be afraid? You may feel like reaching out for help is like hitting a stone wall, but look on your side and find folks standing right there waiting to help you.

They may not be able to give you what you want, but if you let them, they can give you what you need. If you are hungry, let them feed you. If you are without clothes, let them cover you. If you are lonely, let them visit you.

‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ Matthew 25

When you were able to help someone, how did you feel? Did you feel good or did you feel as if they were less since they needed help? Safe bet you were glad to help them and felt blessed being able to.  How is it different being on the receiving end and letting them get that same rush by helping you so you can help someone else along the line?

Do not let the life you lived go without putting up a fight the same way you did in combat.  They talk about the lives lost but it is time to talk about the lives not just spared, but shared. You cared so much you were willing to die for the sake of someone else.  How about you care enough to live for the same reason?

Gulf War Veteran-Des Moines Police Officer Remembered For Service

Fallen West Des Moines officer found ways to serve others
The Des Moines Register
MacKenzie Elmer and Charly Haley
August 4, 2016

Miller graduated in 1987 and joined the Iowa National Guard, serving in the 186th Military Police Company. His company deployed to northern Saudi Arabia and Iraq during Desert Storm from January 1991 through May 1991.

Shawn Miller was remembered Thursday as a leader who found ways big and small to touch the community he served as a police officer for 26 years.

(Photo: West Des Moines Police Department)

The 47-year-old was killed in the line of duty Wednesday after colliding with a car while riding his personal motorcycle on U.S. Highway 169 in Dallas County. He was returning to West Des Moines after testifying in a hit-and-run case at the Dallas County Courthouse in Adel.

"It's always the good ones that go," said Joe Carter, of West Des Moines.

Carter knew Miller from the officer's off-duty job as a security guard at the Sheraton hotel in West Des Moines. Miller was always there to bring order during hectic weekends when Carter worked the hotel's front desk.
read more here

SWAT Standoff Man Killed In Coltart Was Former Marine

Cove police ID man shot in SWAT standoff; Coltart was former Marine
Killeen Daily Herald
Clay Thorp
August 4, 2016

COPPERAS COVE — Cove police identified the 41-year-old man who pointed a rifle at police in Copperas Cove Wednesday, and was subsequently shot by police officers.

The man was identified by police as Alexander Scott Coltart, a former Marine.

Donald Byers, who lives in the North 17th Street neighborhood where Coltart was shot following a standoff with Cove police, said the neighborhood is usually “nice and quiet.” It’s a middle-class neighborhood of brick homes and hilly streets.

But the peace and quiet Byers has come to enjoy over some 30 years was broken Wednesday when a man was shot on the sidewalk across the street from Byers’ home after Copperas Cove police said they tried to arrest the man on a felony warrant.
read more here

PTSD On Trial: Iraq Veteran Faces Murder Charges in Alabama

Keep in mind that we have millions of veterans with PTSD yet the majority are more of a danger to themselves than anyone else. These cases are in fact rare.

Attorney: Dothan murder suspect an Army veteran diagnosed with PTSD
Dothan Eagle
Matt Elofson
August 2, 2016

Steensland said his client is a disabled veteran of the U.S. military.

“It’s my understanding he’s 100 percent disabled, and diagnosed with PTSD,” Steensland said. “I believe he served a 15-month tour in Iraq, and served approximately eight years in the Army.”

A Dothan man who surrendered to police Monday night after being charged with murder hopes to be released from jail after a bail hearing next week.

Attorney John Steensland III said he formally requested a bail hearing for his 29-year-old client, Brandon Allen Ransom, during his first appearance of court on Tuesday.

Dothan police filed a felony warrant charging Ransom with murder in the shooting death of 26-year-old Christopher “Chris” Bailey.
read more here