UK Gulf War, Ex-POW hopes MOD pays attention

Top guns in tears: The bravest and the best yet weeping and traumatised, war heroes say they have nowhere to turn for help - will the MoD heed their call?
Daily Mail
John Nichol For Mail On Sunday
PUBLISHED: 27 January 2018

"My experiences have also made me a much more emotional person and tears can flow at the simplest of triggers such as Remembrance Sunday, when I recall the friends I have lost. In those moments I take solace that at least I understand what is happening to me – the processes of PTSD and how it shows its teeth."

John Nichol was beaten by Hussein's henchmen and paraded on Iraqi television, with his picture flashing across the world

Twenty-seven years ago I was shot down over Iraq, captured, tortured and forced by Saddam Hussein’s henchmen to appear on television to denounce my actions as an RAF officer.

Images of my bruised face flashed across the world and became a lasting image of the horrors of the 1991 Gulf War.

As a prisoner of war, I felt like the most insignificant, terrified human being on Earth.

The memories of my abuse and brushes with death are still with me. Dealing with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) has become part of my life.

For this reason I am backing The Mail on Sunday’s campaign to improve mental healthcare for serving troops, including the introduction of a 24/7 helpline.

I feel the pain of those worst affected by PTSD. As someone who has experienced it myself, I understand what they are going through and the confusion they can face. I can be enjoying a perfectly normal day or night when a sensory stimulus, or trigger, fires me back into my past.

For me it is primarily noise – loud bangs, fireworks going off, trains going past, all these sound like the Coalition jets that flew missions over Baghdad attacking several of the buildings we were held in.
read more here

Iraq Veteran, Security Expert Hacker Suicide Left Many Wondering

These hackers’ suicides are eerily similar
New York Post
By Isabel Vincent
January 27, 2018

"War hero and Internet activist — it’s the dichotomy that made up the complicated life of James Dolan."

James Dolan and Aaron Swartz Freedom of the Press Foundation; Reuters

The ambulances and police cars came to a screeching halt outside the Gowanus Inn and Yard, a hip, ultramodern hotel that had recently opened on an edgy strip of Union Street in Brooklyn.

But the first responders were 48 hours late. James Dolan, a 36-year-old former Marine and computer security expert, had hanged himself in his room two days before, on Dec. 26, according to the NYPD.

Curious crowds gathered on Dec. 28 outside Dinosaur BBQ and an auto mechanic’s shop across the street from the new hotel whose boxy, gray industrial facade gives it an institutional air, like a hospital or a prison.

“They just opened that place, and someone goes there to die,” said a worker at Tomato N’Basil pizzeria around the corner, on Fourth Avenue. He had been among the crowds when they wheeled Dolan’s body out the door in a bag.

“What could have been so bad for him to do that?” he asked.

The answer may never be known. What is known is Dolan was the second member of a small team of brilliant Internet activists who developed SecureDrop — a whistle-blower submission system — to commit suicide by hanging in Brooklyn.
read more here

Scotland PTSD Veterans Feel Neglected Too

Insight: Neglect of Forces veterans continues to end in tragedy
The Scotsman
Dani Garavelli
January 28, 2018

"There is more than one way to self-destruct, of course. Some people kill themselves in a single act, others in installments. Their sense of purpose and self-worth evaporates; they stop caring whether they live or die until, eventually, they are beyond reach."

Veteran Steven Wyllie outside the Reid Mcewan activity centre. Picture: John Devlin

Former Army sergeant Calum MacLeod was in an Irish American bar in Germany when he suffered the flashback that forced him to face up to his post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). With hindsight, he accepts he had been struggling for a long time.

Ever since he had been attacked while serving with the King’s Own Scottish Borderers in Northern Ireland in 1992, he had suffered nightmares, which he countered with heavy drinking. Back then, a crowd of youths had cornered him in an alleyway, hit him over the head with a concrete slab and stolen his gun. When he regained consciousness in a hospital in Belfast, he was told one of the youths had pointed the weapon at his head and fired, but the mechanism had jammed, so he survived.

Hearing U2’s Sunday Bloody Sunday on the jukebox in Heidelberg more than a decade later triggered a violent outburst. “One of the Yanks had put it on and I just lost it,” says MacLeod. “My best friend was with me. He said: ‘Your eyes just changed; you were hyper-aroused.’ He forced me into a taxi. I was lashing out, trying to escape. The song, the sounds, the crowd: I really thought I was back in the Province.” 

MacLeod, from Hamilton, ended up in a psychiatric hospital where a colonel told him he was suffering from one of the worst cases of PTSD he had ever seen. Posted back to the UK and unable to cope with confined spaces, he pioneered a successful scheme to help would-be Army recruits reach the required level of fitness. But, in 2011, after 23 years of service, he decided it was finally time to call it a day.

“I think I am one of the lucky ones and that’s largely because my family got me through. Some of the veterans come out and there’s no-one there for them. In the last 18 months, I have been to seven funerals: all suicides.” Calum MacLeod
read more here

Healing PTSD Is My Business

In the business of spreading healing since 1982
Combat PTSD Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
January 27, 2018

I finally did what one of my co-workers has been after me to do for a long time. Now I can go into work on Monday and say, "Yes I did publicize how long I've been doing this."

I got into the healing business of Combat related PTSD back into 1982. Yes, I am that old. My Dad was a Korean Veteran and my uncles were WWII veterans. On the night my Dad met my then, Vietnam veteran boyfriend, he said "He seems like a nice guy, but he's got shell shock." Never heard that term before. When I asked what it meant, he said "It has to do with war" but he couldn't explain it. He told me to go to the library. 

Basically, he started this but the man I fell in love with and married back in 1984 kept me going ever since.

I am sure you've read about the rants I do regarding reporters not doing their jobs and the awareness raisers taking the easy way out on all of this, but now you'll know why I get so angry.

Two years after researching PTSD, I finally knew enough to write about it. It was mostly in local newspapers. Then I got on the phone to get reporters involved with what families like mine were going through. They ignored all of it.

In 1993, it was doing online research and writing and there were a lot more like me out there. I learned from them and they learned from me too.

My first book "For the Love of Jack" was done in 2000 but I couldn't find a publisher. It was self published 2003.

Wounded Minds is one of the first videos I created back in 2006. I spent a long time going through files to find some of the older ones that used to be up on YouTube. Here are some of them that may prove the point, that taking the easy way out on taking care of our veterans, has been the reason we have lost so many of them. You can watch a couple of hundred more here.

Want to stop supporting people in the business of having fun with talking about suicides or do you want to start publicizing people in the business of healing?

I have a lot of emails saved on what this work meant and the fact that regular people like me can make a huge difference if we take the time to actually learn what this is. 

3/6/2006
Kathie, You may be receiving an E-mail from the 'Huffington Post - Contagious Videos' as I just Registered your video 'Wounded Minds'!!

I posted your name and e-mail on the online registration form, I think you should post the video up there, Hell even All of them, which I just Viewed and will pass on!

Hope you don't mind me taking the Liberty of writing them for you, if so just let me know!

THANKS for putting these together, I'll post them up on my blog: http://imagineaworldof.blogspot.com/ along with LinkBacks to your site and blog, and will be passing All of them on to as many as possible!!!

James XXXXX USN '67-'71 GMG3 Vietnam In-Country '70-'71 Member: Veterans For Peace

And from the Navy

7/17/2006 I saw your PTSD presentation online and want to share it with our Sailors returning from Iraq/Afghanistan. Thanks for providing this much needed information, Ralph

And that lead to even more videos

Vietnam Veteran and PTSD Service Dog Bonded and Dying

Despite illness, Honey the ‘wonder dog’ helps her human
Gainesville Sun
By Rebecca Santana / Correspondent
Posted Jan 26, 2018

Seven years ago, Michael Gaither felt hopeless. Long after his military service in Vietnam, he was still traumatized and suffering. He didn’t want to see his children. He drew the curtains and locked the doors of his Chiefland home.

This is how he planned to spend the rest of his life.

Then came Honey, a full mobility and post-traumatic stress disorder medical service dog.

Michael Gather, a Vietnam veteran, and his service dog Honey are reunited after Honey's 100th treatment at the University of Florida small animal clinic. Lauren Bacho Staff Photographer

Gaither and Honey met through a research project conducted by the Veterans Administration that pairs medical service dogs and veterans with PTSD.

Honey and Gaither were the first dog-and-man pair in the program. The moment Honey met Gaither she stayed with him, and she hasn’t left his side since. The couple call her “Honey the wonder dog.”

For the past seven years Honey has given Gaither physical and emotional support. She helps the 72-year-old dress every morning, picks up anything he drops and comforts him when he has night terrors.

“She’s like she’s part of me,” Gaither said. “I’ve never left the house for seven years without her.”

Both Gaither and Honey are terminally ill. Besides PTSD, Gaither has multiple sclerosis and osteoporosis. He’s currently in hospice care at Malcom Randall VA Medical Center.

“Honey takes his mind off all that,” said Gaither’s wife, Kaye, 75.

Honey is affected by aspergillus, a fungal infection that no amount of antibiotics has been able to quell. She’s being treated at the UF Small Animal Hospital with the integrative medicine service.
read more here

World War I's shell shock is today's PTSD

VERHULST: World War I's shell shock is today's PTSD
Grand Haven Tribune
By Mike VerHulst
January 26, 2018

For as long as humans have walked this earth, there has been a risk that they would experience a traumatic event. For some, traumatic events create psychological effects that will last for months after the initial event.

Photo courtesy of TCHM

The "Courage Without Fear" exhibit is now on display at the Tri-Cities Historical Museum, 200 Washington Ave. in downtown Grand Haven.

Today, this is commonly referred to as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). According to the American Psychiatric Association, about 3.5 percent of adults in the U.S. will experience PTSD in a given year and 9 percent of people will develop it at some point in their life.

For those who have served in the armed forces, that number is even higher. The Department of Veterans Affairs estimates that 10-18 percent of veterans who have served in Iraq or Afghanistan are likely to develop PTSD after coming home. For some, PTSD can lead to substance abuse or other issues. The good news is that veterans are now seeking care more than ever.

Earlier this month, the Tri-Cities Historical Museum opened a new exhibit titled “Courage Without Fear: The Red Arrow Division in World War I.” This new exhibit uses first-hand accounts to tell the stories of local soldiers who braved muddy trenches, attacks on machine gun nests and hours-long artillery barrages during the war. Men from the Tri-Cities saw combat in some of the most intense battles of late World War I, including the famous Meuse-Argonne offensive that sealed victory for the Allies.

In 1915, the British Army Council gave in to the doctors and public sentiment and officially declared shell shock as a wound.

Early on in the war, British doctors tried a variety of treatments, including hypnosis, in an attempt to keep as many soldiers on the front lines as possible. As the war dragged on, the British Army continued to change procedures for how doctors could diagnose and treat shell shock. By 1917, soldiers were treated by being assigned to a rearward trench where they could get a break from battle, sleep and eat in relative comfort. After a short break, they would return to the front. A full evacuation of a shell-shocked soldier was only considered if no improvement was seen after several weeks of treatment. This style of treatment was used until the end of the war in 1918 and was seen as effective by the medical community and the army alike.

Unfortunately, following World War I, there was a collective silence in regards to shell shock. Many of the survivors feared a rekindling of their symptoms if they discussed their war experiences. In the medical community, hardly anything was published on the causes of shell shock or ways to improve treatment. It wasn’t until decades later, in 1952, that “gross stress reaction” was added to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. In the 1970s, PTSD became the commonly accepted term.
read more here

San Diego Marine Honored After Saving UPS Driver

San Diego Marine honored for saving UPS driver's life
CBS 8 News
By Abbie Alford, Reporter
January 27, 2018

Staff Sgt. Vuong said he was just upholding his Marine pledge of honor, courage and commitment.

SAN DIEGO (NEWS 8) – A special honor Friday for a San Diego Marine who was in the right place at the right time to save a life.

Staff Sergeant Hai Vuong Rushed into action when two semi-trucks collided on a San Bernardino freeway last November – pulling one of the drivers to safety.

Staff Sgt. Vuong was honored with the Liberty Mutual Insurance Lifesaver award for his heroic actions. “I just happened to be there at the right time and the right place,” he said.

Staff Sgt. Vuong was driving on Interstate-15 in San Bernardino with his family when the two semi-trucks collided. He was able to safely pull over and rescue one of the drivers.

Vuong said he could smell fuel leaking into the cab and feared it could explode. The driver had a gash on his head was bleeding.
read more here

New Hampshire Hospital for the mentally ill is prison?

Families, Advocates Speak Out Against the Secure Psychiatric Unit at NH Men’s Prison
InDepthNH.org
Written by Nancy West
January 26, 2018

CONCORD — Two mothers told lawmakers their daughters are harassed, humiliated, and sometimes “locked down” at the Secure Psychiatric Unit at the New Hampshire Prison for Men, and a former patient recounted nearly dying as his pleas for emergency medical care were ignored.

The Secure Psychiatric Unit has stirred controversy because mentally ill people are held there if they haven’t committed a crime, but are considered too dangerous to be housed at the New Hampshire Hospital for the mentally ill.

At SPU, civilly committed patients who were found not guilty by reason of insanity and not competent to stand trial are commingled with convicted criminals who are mentally ill in a 60-bed unit on the grounds of the men’s prison. Presently, three women and one person who is transitioning from male to female, are housed in the unit on the prison campus with about 1,400 men.

“My daughter has been in SPU (Secure Psychiatric Unit) for three years,” said Cindy Glazier. “I can visit on weekends. That’s it. It’s a prison setting, not a psychiatric unit. It’s not for patients. She’s treated like a prisoner and it’s not set up as a hospital.

Glazier’s daughter, Patina Welch, pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity in 2015 to jumping out a second-story window in Lyman holding her 4-month-old boy-girl twins, killing her son and injuring her daughter the summer before. Welch told police she was trying to save them from armed intruders.

The prosecutor at the time said there was clear and convincing evidence that Welch suffered from a mental disease or defect. Welch was diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder, bipolar disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder and personality disorder.
read more here

UK: Firefighter's Book Falling Through Fire and PTSD

Former London firefighter 'floored' by trauma of job encourages others to seek help
Get West London
By Rachael Bletchly and Frederica Miller
26 JAN 2018

"As professional firefighters, we weren’t expected to show our feelings; it was just our job. I was 25 and had my whole life and career ahead of me. But what happened to Gordon floored me. I felt like a failure." Clifford Thompson

A former London firefighter has opened up about how his dream job spiralled into a nightmare when years of trauma finally caught up with him.

Clifford Thompson opened up about the emotional toll of firefighting  (Image: CLAUDINE HARTZEL)

Now a BBC journalist, Clifford Thompson was a London Fire Brigade officer for half a decade.

From 1987 to 1992 he tackled some of the capital's most devastating events, including the King's Cross tube tragedy and the Clapham rail crash.

But after five years in the brigade, Cliff's world collapsed when he watched a three-year-old boy he rescued from a house fire die before his eyes.
read more here

Homeless Vietnam Veteran Found Dead

UPDATE

CORONER OFFERS TO HELP PAY FOR BURIAL OF HOMELESS VETERAN
The body of 69-year-old Dennis Reidy was found Tuesday in the corner of a park in Lexington. Coroner Margaret Fisher tells WYFF-TV that Reidy was found in "a type of garage storage box" wearing a South Carolina Gamecocks jacket.

Homeless vet found dead in woods was USC grad, former deputy, and Vietnam vet
FOX 8 News
By Chad Mills
January 25th 2018

LEXINGTON COUNTY, SC (WIS)
It’s a picture that tells a story of loneliness, hopelessness, despair. In the quiet corner of a Lexington park is the place where a homeless veteran lived and died.

A 15-year-old discovered the body of 69-year-old Dennis E. Reidy there on Tuesday.

“Lying in, basically, a type of garage storage box,” said Lexington County Coroner Margaret Fisher.

It’s a case that brings tears to Fisher’s eyes. Since Tuesday, she’s discovered Reidy was a Vietnam War veteran, a Richland County deputy from 1978 to 1990, and a University of South Carolina grad.

“He was found on the day that he passed wearing a South Carolina Gamecock jacket, and it just broke my heart,” Fisher said, her voice trembling. “When you give up your life and your family and everything that you have to go out and serve your country, they deserve everything that they need when they get back. They deserve health care. They deserve shelter. They deserve everything that we can do for them as a country because they went out and protected us.”

But what’s more unforgettable to Fisher is where he was found. His body was found on Chariot Street, which is just a short walk from a shelter for homeless veterans where James Wardlaw, who goes by J.W., is outreach manager.
read more here