Be defined by what is strong inside of you!

Don't be defined by what is wrong with you!
PTSD Patrol
Kathie Costos
March 4, 2018

Yesterday I went to an event for this fantastic veteran!

Kelly Smith will not let anything stop her. You can see the video from the event on Combat PTSD Wounded Times later today.

For now, we need to talk about some of the conversations going on at the event. It was more about a veteran worried about another veteran, than anyone talking about themselves. AND THAT IS THE POINT MOST OF YOU MISS!

No one is in this after combat alone! The same people you would have died for, the same ones who would have died for you, still care! What the hell makes you think they wouldn't listen to you if you need them? What stops you from talking to them if you think they need help?

This video also introduces Murray! It is a glorious morning here in Florida and he wanted to get some fresh air. 
Don't settle for the way thing are today! TAKE YOUR LIFE BACK!
Cross posted from PTSD Patrol

Three Non-combat deaths Operation Inherent Resolve this year

Mystery surrounds 'non combat' death of female soldier battling ISIS in Iraq as her body is returned home and Department of Defence announce an investigation
Daily Mail UK
Associated Press
March 3, 2018

The Department of Defense announced Tuesday that 26-year-old Christina Marie Schoenecker, Arlington, died Monday in Baghdad, Iraq
The department did not release any details about her death and said it is under investigation
The Army Sgt. was the third soldier to die since the beginning of 2018 in the U.S.-led fight against ISIS called Operation Inherent Resolve
The military noted that 51 U.S. military members have died since the start of Operation Inherent Resolve in 2014

Mystery surrounds the death of an Army Reserve soldier from Kansas who has died in Iraq in a non-combat situation.

The Department of Defense announced Tuesday that 26-year-old Christina Marie Schoenecker, Arlington, died Monday in Baghdad, Iraq.

The department did not release any details about her death and said it is under investigation.

The Department of Defense announced Tuesday that 26-year-old Christina Marie Schoenecker (Pictured), Arlington, died Monday in Baghdad, Iraq

The Army Sgt. was the third soldier to die since the beginning of 2018, according to The Kansas City Star. 

All three deaths in the ongoing, U.S.-led fight against ISIS called Operation Inherent Resolve were non-combat related. Schoenecker enlisted in the Army in May 2009 and was on her first deployment, which began last June. A human resources specialist, she was assigned to the 89th Sustainment Brigade out of Wichita. read more here

Disabled Iraq Veteran Continues to Serve Others...why aren't you?

Veteran seriously injured in Iraq continues to serve at home
St. Louis Post Dispatch
Lori Rose
March 4, 2018

“I got involved with the Disabled American Veterans - they were the ones that helped me with my disability claim and helped me get my head out of the funk,” Alexander says. “We do whatever we can do to help veterans. Pretty much whatever a veteran needs, we try to get it for him or her.”

Tim Alexander (U.S. Army)

He doesn’t know why he didn’t strap in as regulations dictated, but that one decision may have saved his life.

Army Staff Sgt. Tim Alexander was a sniper atop a Humvee traveling outside Basra in southern Iraq on Oct. 29, 2005, when an IED hidden in the sand detonated, destroying the vehicle, killing the four soldiers inside and blasting Alexander some 45 feet through the hot, dusty air.

“All I remember is hearing the explosion and seeing the flash and seeing the sky,” the Glen Carbon man says. “The next thing I know I woke up in Germany.”

Alexander, now 46, doesn’t remember the fighting that ensued, in which two more American soldiers were injured, or the helicopter flight to Baghdad, where doctors put him in a medically induced coma and transferred him to a military hospital in Germany. He had broken his back in six places.

“We had vehicles in front of us clearing (improvised explosive devices) but you knew every day when you went outside the wire there was a chance they could miss something,” he said. “I still don’t know why I didn’t strap myself in that day. I’ve racked my brain. I can’t say why.”
read more here

My husband is a life member of the DAV, he was Commander of Chapter 16 for a few years and I'm a life member of the DAV Auxiliary.
 
If you're a disabled veteran, why aren't you a member?

PTSD "Prevention" on Trial but Judges MIA

PTSD "Prevention" on Trial
Combat PTSD Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
March 4, 2018

The military did a great job selling "resilience" training. Too bad it turned out that it did not work. As a matter of fact, it made seeking help an impossible dream. Who the hell would want to ask for help, especially a Marine, after hearing the training was intended to make them mentally tough enough?

That is exactly what this training did. Every member of the military has to take this training since 2009 and since then, while the number of enlisted personnel went down, the number of suicides were not reduced accordingly.

There was Sergeant Major's trail that is more of an indictment on this FUBAR than on him. 

Marine sentenced for hate crime at Iraqi restaurantBy: The Associated PressMarch 3, 2018
PORTLAND, Ore. — A highly decorated active-duty Marine who slammed a chair into the neck and shoulder of an employee at an Iraqi restaurant in Portland has been sentenced to five years of probation and $21,000 in fines.
The Oregonian/OregonLive reports Damien Rodriguez was charged with a hate crime and assault that could have put him in prison for a mandatory five years and 10 months.
But Rodriguez’s defense attorney presented evidence that Rodriguez suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder from witnessing soldiers die while in combat in Iraq.read more here

Is anyone paying attention to this? It keeps happening but no one with the power to end this deadly assault on our troops, will call for accountability!

It was predicted to have this outcome back in 2009! And it was predicted right here. 

So, now this Marine, has lost everything because no one stopped what should have never been pushed before they had any proof of what the results would be.

Who is accountable to this Marine?

Marine Corps sergeant major indicted on hate crime charges

Immediately following the incident, the 1st Marine Division removed Rodriguez from his position as the 1st Battalion, 11th Marines battalion sergeant major. "The 1st Marine Division will continue to assist the Portland District Attorney with this matter," Gainey said. "The Marine Corps does not tolerate disorderly conduct or bad behavior from its Marines or senior leaders and expects all Marines to uphold the highest of principles and ethical behavior, both on and off duty."

Who is accountable for any of them since this cause more harm to them than enemy bullets? 

Factor in all the younger veterans committing suicide, despite having been trained to be "resilient" and out of the combat zones. 

Factor in how they now have 400,000 charities to turn to for help. 

Factor in how they have Veterans Courts to get them the help they need.

Factor in the Suicide Prevention hotline.

Why would they continue to push this training when they could have easily accomplished the same result by giving them bean bags to fight with instead of bullets? 

The deadly outcome was predicted but no one listened. They are still not listening!

Iraq veteran survived war, police work but not son's gun

Police arrest Plainfield teen suspected of killing his parents at Central Michigan University
Chicago Tribune
Matthew Walberg, Angie Leventis Lourgos and John Keilman
March 3, 2018

The victims were identified by authorities as Davis’ parents, James Eric Davis Sr. and Diva Jeneen Davis. Davis Sr. was a police officer in west suburban Bellwood and an Illinois National Guard veteran who served in Operation Iraqi Freedom. Diva Davis’s Facebook page identified her as a real estate broker; friends said she was also a breast cancer survivor and had worked as a flight attendant.

After a nearly daylong manhunt, authorities took into custody a college student from the Chicago suburbs who police said fatally shot his parents on the campus of Central Michigan University.

Part-time Bellwood police Officer James Eric Davis Sr. He and wife Diva Davis were shot and killed, allegedly by their son, James Eric Davis Jr., at Central Michigan University. (Bellwood Police Department)

The university and local police said 19-year-old James Eric Davis Jr., of Plainfield, was taken into custody after being seen passing through the campus after midnight Saturday.
read more here

Las Vegas Victims Fund Raised $31.5 Million

$275K going to family of each person slain in Vegas shooting
Associated Press
By KEN RITTER AND ANITA SNOW
Published: March 2, 2018

Victims fund spokesman Howard Stutz said the nonprofit expects to pay 100 percent of the funds raised, with payouts beginning Monday.

Manuela Barela passes crosses set up to honor those killed during the mass shooting in Las Vegas. GREGORY BULL/AP

Police say 851 people were hurt by gunfire or other injuries while fleeing. LAS VEGAS — A $31.5 million victims' fund that started as a GoFundMe effort announced plans Friday to pay $275,000 to the families of each of the 58 people killed in the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history.

The Las Vegas Victims Fund said the maximum $275,000 also will be paid to 10 other people who were paralyzed or suffered permanent brain damage in the Oct. 1 shooting on the Las Vegas Strip.

The nonprofit posted a chart projecting payments on a scale to a total of 532 people, including more than $10 million divided among 147 people who were hospitalized.
read more here

Choice Providers "know little about the military or veterans"

Study: Private sector may not be ready for new veteran patients
Military Times
Leo Shane
March 2, 2018

Only about one in three providers met the study’s “minimum threshold for familiarity with military culture,” and only one in five routinely asked patients if they had a military background.

WASHINGTON — Lawmakers appear poised to send tens of thousands of veterans in the private sector for health care in an effort to provide quicker, more convenient appointments for an array of medical needs.

But a new study casts doubt on whether private care providers can do that.

Researchers from the Rand Corp. on Thursday released a new study of New York state medical providers that noted the majority of physicians working outside Veterans Affairs programs “know little about the military or veterans, are not routinely screening for conditions common among veterans, and are unfamiliar with VA.”

Though restricted to one state, the findings echo concerns among critics of the White House push to send more veterans outside the VA’s medical system to receive care: that easing access for veterans appointments may bring with it a host of other, unintended problems.

House and Senate lawmakers are currently crafting separate but similar measures which would ease access for veterans to receive health care from doctors in their communities at the federal government’s expense.
read more here

PTSD Retired Police Officer and Veteran's Dogs Missing

Woman asks for help locating service dogs who assist her husband with PTSD
WMBF News
Friday, March 2nd 2018

CONWAY, SC (WMBF) – A Conway woman is asking for the public’s help in locating two lost service dogs that her husband relies on daily.

According to Tillman, her husband, Chris, is a retired police officer and Army veteran who suffers from severe post-traumatic stress disorder. The registered service dogs help him to feel secure, she said.

Anyone with information is asked to call Tillman at (843) 340-6611 day or night.
read more here

Yale Law School giving PTSD veterans fighting chance for justice

Suit Calls Navy Board Biased Against Veterans With PTSD
New York Times
Dave Philipps
March 2, 2018

The office that oversees discharges for the Navy and Marines, the Naval Discharge Review Board, rejects nearly 85 percent of requests for upgrades relating to PTSD, compared with 45 percent for the Army board.

Things got ugly for Cpl. Tyson Manker in Iraq. During a firefight in the confusion of the 2003 invasion, the 21-year-old Marine shot up a bus full of civilians. Later, during a chase, he dropped an Iraqi in a flowing white robe with a shot to the torso, only to discover afterward that he had hit a teenage girl. His squad beat detainees, and accidentally shot several other civilians.

After his deployment, Corporal Manker was kicked out of the Marine Corps with an other-than-honorable discharge — not for anything that happened in combat, but for smoking marijuana to try to quiet his nerves when he got home.

The military has increasingly acknowledged in recent years that there are tens of thousands of Corporal Mankers — troops whose brutal experiences left them with post-traumatic stress disorder, and who were then pushed out of the military for misconduct. Many were given other-than-honorable discharges that stripped them of veterans’ benefits.

The Army and Air Force have moved in recent years to make it easier for these veterans to get their discharges upgraded to honorable. But not the Marine Corps. read more here

Good time to be reminded of the fact, if they did not receive an "honorable discharge" and ended up committing suicide, they were not counted by anyone other than those who loved them!

And Yale fought for Army veterans too.

Veterans Clinic Files Nationwide Class-Action Lawsuit on Behalf of Army Veterans
Yale Law School
April 17, 2017

Two Army veterans, Steve Kennedy and Alicia Carson, filed a federal class-action lawsuit on Monday seeking relief for the thousands of veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan who developed post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other mental health conditions during their military service and received unfair less-than-Honorable discharges. The plaintiffs are represented by Yale Law School’s Veterans Legal Services Clinic.

Since September 11, 2001, hundreds of thousands of veterans have received less-than-Honorable (“bad paper”) discharges imposing a lifetime stigma, impairing their employment prospects, and denying them access to critical government services, including the GI bill, mental health treatment, and disability benefits. Tens of thousands received these bad paper discharges as a result of misconduct attributable to conditions like PTSD and traumatic brain injury.

“As my PTSD became impossible to manage on my own, my commander told me that the only way I could receive treatment was by leaving the Army with a bad paper discharge,” said plaintiff Steve Kennedy, leader of the Connecticut chapter of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. “Just like that, the Army wiped away years of distinguished service to my country and deemed it less than Honorable.”

Even worse, after their discharge the Army regularly denies these veterans a second chance, according to the lawsuit. While Congress created an agency called the Army Discharge Review Board (ADRB) to help veterans upgrade their unjustly harsh discharges after returning to civilian life, the clinic said the ADRB has systematically failed veterans for decades.
read more here

Veterans Fight PTSD with Tai Chi

To Control Pain, Battle PTSD And Fight Other Ills, Tennessee Vets Try Tai Chi
Nashville Public Radio
Blake Farmer
March 2, 2018

The VA acknowledges that there's very little proof that tai chi — or other alternative treatments like mindfulness and acupuncture — will do any good for PTSD or addiction, though there has been research into the benefits of tai chi related to quality of life among the elderly. Still, Aaron Grobengieser, who oversees alternative medicine in Murfreesboro, says the VA will attempt to track the effectiveness by the numbers.

Zibin Guo, a medical anthropology professor UT Chattanooga, developed a seated version of tai chi and launched at UTC.

Credit Blake Farmer / WPLN

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has been desperate to cut down on the use of powerful pills. So the mammoth agency has taken a sharp turn toward alternative medicine. The thinking goes that even if it doesn’t cure a mental or physical ill, it can't hurt.

In Tennessee, treatment for veterans is beginning to include the ancient martial art of tai chi. Zibin Guo leads a weekly session at the Alvin C. York VA hospital in Murfreesboro. He guides vets through slow-motion poses as a Bluetooth speaker blares a classic tai chi soundtrack.

"Cloudy hands to the right, cloudy hands to the left," he tells the veterans, seated in wheelchairs. "Now we're going to open your arms, grab the wheels and 180-degree turn."
read more here

Someone needs to tell the VA the proof is in how they feel and if they look forward to doing it!!! They do!

Data Breach Roughly 21,426 Marine Corps Forces Reserve

Major data breach at Marine Forces Reserve impacts thousands
Marine Corps Times
Shawn Snow
February 28, 2018

The personal information of thousands of Marines, sailors and civilians, including bank account numbers, was compromised in a major data spillage emanating from U.S. Marine Corps Forces Reserve.

A U.S. Marine assigned to the cyber security technician course, Marine Corps Communications-Electronics School, work on an assignment at Marine Corps Base Twentynine Palms, California, March 15, 2017. (Lance Cpl. Jose Villalobosrocha/Marine Corps)

Roughly 21,426 people were impacted when an unencrypted email with an attachment containing personal confidential information was sent to the wrong email distribution list Monday morning.

The compromised attachment included highly sensitive data such as truncated social security numbers, bank electronic funds transfer and bank routing numbers, truncated credit card information, mailing address, residential address and emergency contact information, Maj. Andrew Aranda, spokesman for Marine Forces Reserve said in a command release.
read more here

VA’s Center for Women Veterans to highlight, connect and inform

VA’s Center for Women Veterans to highlight, connect and inform women Veterans through outreach and social media
VAntage Point
Department of Veterans Affairs
Danielle Corazza
February 28 2018

The women Veteran population is growing and VA is stepping up to meet the need through innovative programming and services specifically designed to serve women. But, once the programs are deployed, how do we get the word out? How do we ensure that women Veterans self-identify and take advantage of the benefits they’ve earned and deserve? And, how do we capture the sentiment and reality of what women Veterans are experiencing so we can raise those voices to drive effective policy?

My name is Danielle Corazza, and after 15 years serving Veterans from outside the government, I’m thrilled to be the first national outreach coordinator for VA’s Center for Women Veterans. As part of my new role and responsibilities, I’ll be working to expand the center’s outreach efforts through in-person events and digital outreach, primarily in the area of social media. Which leads me to some exciting news.

In conjunction with the Women Veteran Athlete Initiative kickoff and Women’s History Month, we are excited to announce that the Center for Women Veterans is launching women-Veteran dedicated social media channels on March 1. We will use the @VAWomenVets moniker for both Facebook and Twitter – like or follow us to stay informed.

These new accounts will give us greater flexibility in how women Veterans communicate with us and how we disseminate important news, research, events and program information to women Veterans and community stakeholders. All the information from across VA and the Veteran community curated for women Veterans, by women Veterans and in an easily accessible social media streaming format.

We hope you’ll follow us, retweet us and generally get involved in sharing your experiences and thoughts as we develop this new information pipeline. Feel free to send feedback and thoughts as the month progresses – there’s a stellar amount of information of all sorts hitting the presses soon, so stay tuned.
Women's History Month
Center for Women Veterans Facebook

Stolen Valor--Massachusetts History Teacher Made Up His Own

Mass. teacher admits to lying about military service, Purple Heart awards
FOX 25 News Boston
Updated: Mar 1, 2018

"I made up time in the Army. Over the intervening years I added details as people asked. I am deeply sorrowful for this and did not see a way out," he wrote.

TAUNTON, Mass. – A Taunton teacher whose students thought he was a decorated war hero has been fired after it was discovered he was not telling the truth.

Boston 25 News has learned that when 36-year-old Andrew Gaboury was hired to teach at Coyle Cassidy High School in Taunton four years ago he claimed to be a veteran with two Purple Hearts.

It was a big deal at the school and he was featured in the student newspaper in an article headlined "Gaboury goes from military to history classroom."

"I'm so pleased to have a man like Mr. Gaboury to be on our staff. He had a lot of experiences and was well educated. He even served for our country's military," Principal Kathleen St. Laurent said in that article.
read more here

Lebanon city councilman at-large, was found dead Thursday

Lebanon city councilman dies in apparent suicide, authorities say
Indy Star
Holly V Hays
March 1, 2018

Jeremy Lamar, Lebanon city councilman at-large, was found dead Thursday morning, Boone County officials confirm.

(Photo: Provided by the City of Lebanon)

Lamar's death is being investigated as a suicide, Boone County Sheriff's Deputy Ken Conley told IndyStar Thursday afternoon.

Authorities were called to a cemetery northeast of Lebanon around 11 a.m., where Lamar's body was found, Conley said. Investigators do not suspect foul play. A final ruling on cause and manner of death will be determined by the Boone County coroner's office.

The city confirmed Lamar's death, but did not elaborate on details, in a news release Thursday afternoon.
read more here

More BS on privatization of the VA!

More BS on privatization of the VA!

Vets groups want a meeting with Trump to sort out VA choice impasse

"Rep. Phil Roe, R-Tennessee, called on both sides of the argument to recognize that private and community care, when properly integrated with the VA's health care system, was in the best interests of veterans caught up in wait lists for appointments, or who need specialized treatment unavailable at the local VA."

NO IT WAS NOT!

Oh, well, then he must not know about what our healthcare looks like. I have to deal with what the rest of the population has to go through, and while members of Congress keep telling us how lousy our healthcare is, they want to dump disabled veterans into this mess? Are they out of their minds?

Did he bother to check the history of all this?

This should not even be debated! Fix the VA since veterans were disabled while putting their lives on the line every time Congress sent them to fight wars and risk their lives across the world! Did they forget it was their job to fix it or did they care more about breaking it to sell off the care these veterans were promised?

How much BS are we going to put up with?

Maybe someone should send him this!

Firefighters getting PTSD peer-support and stigma out of the way

Survey: Firefighters Struggling With Mental Health and PTSD
NECN
By Karen Hensel
Feb 28, 2018

“You guys all signed up for PTS, that’s what you did when you became a firefighter," Lavoie cautions. "You’re not going to get out of this without some level of PTS.”

They don’t want it to get to “the disorder part of it,” meaning PTSD. It’s why the Worcester Fire Department agreed to share their message with NBC 10 Boston Investigators

Firefighters across the country and in Massachusetts are struggling with mental health issues and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), according to a study where NBC-owned stations partnered with the International Association of Firefighters to anonymously survey firefighters.

The groundbreaking survey gives insight into the everyday challenges facing firefighters.

Long-time Worcester, Massachusetts firefighters talked openly with the NBC10 Boston Investigators about the 1999 Cold Storage Warehouse fire, a subject which few have spoken about publicly. That is part of the issue and now, 18 years later, they face it head-on.

The Parkland, Florida school shooting had the nation gripped with emotions of grief and anger. The focus was initially on the families of the 17 killed and the mental health of the shooter. Unseen was the emotional toll on first responders.
read more here

Did you deliver early after deployment? You're not alone.

For pregnant soldiers, recent deployment linked to higher risk of premature delivery
Stanford Medicine
Erin Digitale
March 1, 2018

Giving birth soon after military deployment is linked to greater risk of premature delivery, a Stanford study of U.S. servicewomen found, but deployment history itself does not raise prematurity risk.

Female soldiers who give birth within six months of returning from military deployment face twice the risk of having a preterm baby as other active-duty servicewomen, a new study from the Stanford University School of Medicine has found.

The study, which examined 12,877 births to American soldiers from 2011-14, published online March 1 in the American Journal of Epidemiology. In total, 6.1 percent of births studied were premature, meaning the baby was born three or more weeks early. But among women who had recently returned from deployment, 11.7 percent of deliveries were premature. Women giving birth soon after deployment were, on average, younger than other military mothers, and with lower education and lower pay, the study found.
read more here

Gulf War Officially Ended, But Veterans Still Fight

If you're wondering why Iraq lasted as long, claimed as many lives, this day is a good reminder of what had been forgotten about by Congress.

New York Times

History:Persian Gulf War

With Iraqi resistance nearing collapse, Bush declared a ceasefire on February 28, ending the Persian Gulf War. According to the peace terms that Hussein subsequently accepted, Iraq would recognize Kuwait’s sovereignty and get rid of all its weapons of mass destruction (including nuclear, biological and chemical weapons). In all, an estimated 8,000 to 10,000 Iraqi forces were killed, in comparison with only 300 coalition troops.

General Colin Powell

Would you describe the decision to stop the fighting?

The last day was a fascinating one. In briefing the president, I said Norm and I thought that in another couple of days we would be asking him to end the war. The Highway of Death was all over television at that point.The president said, “Well, if we've accomplished the mission, and I think we have, then what's the point of killing more people. Why not end it in the next 12 to 18 hours?”I agreed. Mr. Cheney agreed. Norm agreed. All the president's advisors agreed. And that's what we did. We gave Norm like 12 hours to stake out a line, figure out where everybody was to give up, and halt the war at that point. It was the subject of great controversy afterward.For more than 10 years, I had people asking me, “Why didn't you go to Baghdad?” I explained why, as did the president and Mr. Cheney. Then, in 2003, we went to Baghdad, and nobody asked me again.

General Norman Schwarzkopf

Despite extensive second-guessing about the conclusion of the Persian Gulf War, former Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf said the United States and its allies never seriously considered pressing the military offensive on to Baghdad.

In a radio interview and in his forthcoming autobiography, "It Doesn't Take a Hero," Schwarzkopf, the field commander during the conflict, said that taking Baghdad would have splintered the 28-nation Gulf War coalition, cost American lives and dragged the United States into a quagmire "like the dinosaur in the tar pit."

The result:Department of Veterans Affairs

Gulf War

Veterans discharged under conditions other than dishonorable who served in the Southwest Asia theater of military operations, which includes the areas specified by regulation, but not Afghanistan, may be entitled to disability compensation for certain undiagnosed illnesses, certain diagnosable chronic disability patterns, and certain presumptive diseases ( as described below) even though these disorders did not become manifest during qualifying service. Veterans who served in Afghanistan on or after September 19, 2001, may be entitled to disability compensation for certain presumptive diseases.

Eligibility Requirements

• Qualifying undiagnosed illnesses or diagnosable chronic disability patterns, that appeared either during a qualifying period of active service or prior to December 31, 2021, must meet the following conditions:
  • There must be no other cause for your disability or illness than service in the Southwest Asia theater of military operations.
  • your disability existed for 6 months or more, AND
  • If your disability or illness did not appear during active duty in the Southwest Asia theater of military operations, then it must have appeared prior to December 31, 2021, to a degree that is at least 10-percent disabling (for VA rating purposes).

The disability must be one or more of the following:

• Undiagnosed illnesses. These are illnesses that may include but are not limited to: abnormal weight loss, fatigue, cardiovascular disease, muscle and joint pain, headache, menstrual disorders, neurological and psychological problems, skin conditions, respiratory disorders, and sleep disturbances.
• Diagnosable functional gastrointestinal disorders. Functional gastrointestinal disorders are a group of conditions characterized by chronic or recurrent symptoms that are unexplained. These disorders may include but are not limited to irritable bowel syndrome, functional dyspesia, functional vomiting, functional constipation, functional bloating, functional abdominal pain syndrome, and functional dysphagia.
• Diagnosable Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
• Diagnosable Fibromyalgia

Certain presumptive diseases, which will be considered to have been incurred in or aggravated by service even if there is no evidence of such disease during active service. With three exceptions (see asterisks), one of the following must have become manifest to a degree of 10 percent or more within 1 year of the date of separation from a qualifying period of active service:

• Burcellosis
• Campylobacter jejuni
• Coxiella burnetii (Q fever)
• Malaria* (if not 10 percent or more within one year of separation, may be 10 percent or more at a time when standard or accepted treatises indicate that the incubation period commenced during qualifying period of service)
• Mycobacterium tuberculosis* (no time limit)
• Nontyphoid Salmonella
• Shigella
• Visceral leishmaniasis* (no time limit)
• West Nile Virus

 Congress did not learn from history, and the troops were destined to repeat it. 

UK: Homeless PTSD veteran searching for veteran angels who took care of him

Homeless Army veteran tries to track down Good Samaritans 'John' and 'Patrick' who paid for him to stay in a hotel and gave him 'military-grade' clothing after seeing him in a doorway
Daily Mail
Rory Tingle
February 28, 2018

Ed was approached by the two men when he was on the streets in Bridgend
The pair took him for a meal in Wetherspoons and then paid for a hotel room
When he returned to his spot next day he found a bag of cold-weather gear
Do you know the good Samaritans? Contact rory.tingle@mailonline.co.uk

A homeless Army veteran with PTSD is trying to track down two Good Samaritans who paid for him to stay in a hotel and gave him 'military-grade' warm clothing after seeing him in a doorway.

Ex-serviceman Ed - who was deployed to Iraq, Afghanistan and Sierra Leone - thought he was being moved on by security when he was approached in Bridgend, south Wales, last week.

Instead the two men, who are also thought to be ex forces, took the 48-year-old for a meal at Wetherspoons and then to a hotel where he stayed for two nights.
read more here

Medic posted soldier's body part on Snapchat?

This is the excuse?

"The soldier’s motive for posting the image stemmed from his pride in taking part in the procedure rather than in seeking to embarrass or violate the patient’s rights, the source said."

But evidently not enough respect for the soldier!

Medic disciplined after posting photo of soldier’s severed body part on Snapchat
STARS AND STRIPES
By JOHN VANDIVER
Published: February 28, 2018

STUTTGART, Germany — Military medical officials are imposing new social media guidelines after an Army medic at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany posted an operating room photo of a patient’s severed body part.

The incident, which occurred in mid-September but was just confirmed Wednesday, provoked unspecified disciplinary action against the medic and a commandwide warning from the Army’s top doctor.

“This type of behavior is unprofessional and violates the trust of those we serve, and the tenets of our profession,” said Army Surgeon General Lt. Gen. Nadja West in an email to medical staff.

The image of “unrecognizable body tissue that had been removed" from a soldier was posted to the social media site Snapchat Story, where images automatically expire after 24 hours. However, personnel learned of the incident and ordered that the picture also be deleted from the staffer’s phone, LRMC officials said.
read more here