On Memorial Day, this is a pleasure to post. A reporter actually did a fantastic job regarding our Vietnam veterans. Sherry Barkas, The Desert Sun, wrote 'I need help.' Vietnam veteran in Palm Springs had been living for decades with PTSD and Agent Orange exposure
A comprehensive study of veteran suicide rates was released in 2016 by the Department of Veterans Affairs and showed that, on average, 20 veterans a day died from suicide in 2014. While it doesn’t break down results by wars, approximately 65 percent were 50 and older – which would include those who served in Vietnam and Korea.
David Carden served as a medic in Vietnam after volunteering for the draft in 1968. (Photo: Courtesy Photo)
The dates are right too,
By choosing the Army, Carden knew he would wind up on the battlefield where he said the lifespan of an infantryman was 30 to 60 days, but enlisting in the Navy or Air Force meant four years of service vs. two.
The Vietnam War started in November 1955. The U.S. had ships off the gulf in 1964 with the first ground troops sent in on March 8, 1965, landing in Da Nang. Direct U.S. military involvement ended on Aug. 15, 1973, though the war continued until the fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975.
Those who served came home to a cold reception from a nation angered by U.S. involvement in the war – a far cry from the “Welcome Home” banners and parades that greeted veterans of wars before and since Vietnam.
And this is yet another important part to remember,
Carden recalled 1990 and the first Gulf War under President George H.W. Bush, when people were hanging yellow ribbons in trees.
“I remember driving through a neighborhood in Long Beach and they had all these yellow ribbons hung on both sides of the street with big yellow bows, and I thought they’re having a big neighborhood party. Then I went to another neighborhood and there were more of them.
“I was listening to the radio and they were saying the American public tied these ribbons around the trees for the Gulf War guys to come home safely” and as an expression of gratitude, Carden said.
“I pulled the car over and I started crying. I said, ‘What about me? What about us?’ We didn’t get this kind of reception, and I always resented that,” he recalled.
At the time, the VA and government weren’t helpful to the Vietnam vets either, he said.
“I never talked about the war. All of my pain and anxiety – PTSD issues – were just kept inside,” he said.
Leaving Pain Behind You PTSD Patrol Kathie Costos May 27, 2018
Commuter: Drives down same road without change.
Sightseer: Just looking at what others found.
Adventurer: Drives down new road to see where it goes.
Pioneer: Makes the roads everyone else takes.
What type of driver are you? Do you look forward to the next part of your journey, or do you constantly look in the rear view mirror? If you escaped death in the service of others, why wonder where it is now? Why think that the others were worth saving, but you are not? Why look at things through the darkness surrounding you as if there is all there is? It depends on where your light source is. These pictures were taken at Glen Haven Memorial Park, at the same time, with the same camera and the same settings.
There are things we see, then, there are things we just imagine. You may imagine that the pain you feel right now is all there is. Do you want to see things with a different light source? Then look at the reasons you were willing to die for others to find the reason to live for yourself. read more here
PTSD potentially a life and death struggle for veterans Lima Ohio News By Bryan Reynolds MAY 26, 2018
Veterans with PTSD face second life and death struggle
LIMA — Barney Hovest of Pandora last saw his son alive on Easter 2016 while driving him home to Chicago after spending the holiday in Ohio.
Staff Sgt. Benjamin Hovest had served two tours of duty in Iraq with the Army Rangers 82nd Airborne from 2002 to 2003 and in 2006. He returned home from his first tour showing symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
Barney Novest holds a photograph of his son Benjamin with his jacket and flag. Benjamin was an Army Ranger in the Iraq war that suffered from PTSD and took his life in 2016.
“He was different when he came home after his first tour,” his father said. “We talked on the way home and he actually talked about committing suicide. And I said, ‘You know you can’t do that. That would just kill us all.’ He goes, ‘I know, I just started going to this veterans group and talking.’ I really thought, ‘Finally, he’s talking to somebody at least.’”
On June 5, 2016, Hovest received the call no parent should ever receive. His son had turned his suicidal thoughts into action. After 13 years of dealing with PTSD, Benjamin Hovest wrote letters to each family member, got the military paperwork together his family would need for organizing a funeral, walked behind the place he was living and shot himself in a deserted alley.
“I was shocked because I thought he just sounded like he was different. He’s finally getting some help talking to these other vets,” Hovest said. “I don’t know what happened that day or that night. It’s a phone call I’d rather not ever get again.” read more here
Did you notice the date? How is it that the press still settles for what they think is happening instead of ever researching how it got worse than they can imagine? Isn't that what they are supposed to be doing? This is Memorial Day weekend, and tomorrow is the official day we are supposed to be honoring the lives lost keeping this nation free. Some died in combat and others died because of it. It is for them we have got to get this right...and long overdue. 'He Had A Very Sad Heart': This Memorial Day, Remembering The Overlooked Heroes on NPR seemed like a good story to read.
In 2012, Army Spc. Robert Joseph Allen took his own life while serving in the U.S. military. At the time, the suicide rate for active-duty troops was at its highest ever, with more soldiers dying from suicide than in combat. Since then a law enacted in 2014 requires all service members to undergo one-on-one mental health screenings once a year and there's been growing attention to reducing military suicide.
It looks like NPR failed to read this report before doing this story.
Department of Defense Quarterly Suicide Report which shows that after the "law was enacted in 2014, it did no good at all. Keep in mind that as the number of suicide remained about the same, the number of enlisted went down.
The "training" to prevent suicides started over a decade ago and the "law" that said they had to have mental health screenings did not happen. All NPR had to do is review the videos on C Span during hearings with the Committees and hear Generals say they were not doing "post" deployment screenings and the Senators held none of them accountable for ignore the law. Maybe if all the reporters paid attention all along there would be fewer veterans in their graves instead of in their homes.
Peer programs key to helping vets move forward Metro Daily News By Jeff Malachowski Daily News Staff
May 27, 2018
Young, who spent 42 years in the National Guard, served for 24 months in Iraq and said there was heavy fighting during his second deployment, which took its toll. Young learned of Project Healing Waters while on a group hike with Manson and felt the companionship of his fellow veterans would help be a distraction from his PTSD.
SUDBURY — The tranquility of a peaceful spring evening at Josephine Pond is a far cry from the battlefields of Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan.
Instead of hearing the pop of gunfire, more than a dozen veterans last week listened to the birds chirp and traded stories as they cast their lines into the small pond behind the Wayside Inn in hopes of landing a trout - a welcome respite for some of America’s heroes.
“It’s very rewarding and uplifting,” said George Kincannon, a retired Army first sergeant.
A national program with small chapters across the country, Project Healing Waters Fly Fishing brings together disabled veterans from all branches of the military twice a month for an evening of fly fishing and conversation that doubles as a form of rehabilitation. The organization is one of many aiming to ease the transition back to civilian life and help veterans deal with grief and loss they experienced while serving in combat.
“It’s an opportunity to immerse yourself in an activity that needs your focus and not think about anything else,” said Bill Manson, program leader for Project Healing Waters’ Fitchburg chapter. “It’s something that pays dividends.”
Many of the close to 20 veterans that participate in the Fitchburg chapter suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Joe Young, a retired sergeant major with the Massachusetts National Guard, is one of those veterans. He said spending an evening fishing and socializing with his fellow veterans keeps his mind away from his memories of the battlefield during two deployments to Iraq between 2003 and 2005. read more here
When my father needed help, no one was there Sydney Morning Herald By Cidney Jenkins 27 May 2018
Many of us assume that the most traumatic part of a paramedic’s job is what they find when they respond to an emergency call. What many of us failure to consider is what happens to paramedics once they leave a scene.
For many of us, an experience requiring an ambulance is often limited to a single unfortunate event. An event that will never be repeated or forgotten. For our paramedics, this is their daily life.
My father, Tony Jenkins, was one of them. As I sat at my laptop a few weeks ago, fumbling around with words for my father’s eulogy, I was left questioning how it had come to this.
How could a man, who preached about his good fortune, his loving family and his remarkably happy life, be driven to take his own life, without warning? How could a husband, father and friend who had never spent a day in bed leave the world that he had so openly enjoyed and loved every single day?
But the final hours of my father’s life were spent behind closed doors with incompetent and insensitive managers, whose response to my father’s plea for help was to drive him back to his station, where he was left to walk off into the street, by himself. The next morning, police and ambulance workers came to our house, to tell us they had found his body. read more here
Veterans battling PTSD are being sacked by heartless employers, top army officer claims Portsmouth News UK Tom Cotterill May 26, 2018
TRAUMATISED veterans battling a silent war against mental health are still facing an uphill struggle against fearful employers, a decorated army officer has claimed.
Lieutenant Colonel Chris Parker has hit out saying ex-soldiers, diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), are still being penalised by employers. This comes despite a national drive for companies to sign up to the armed forces covenant, which is a pledge to offer fair treatment for military veterans and their families.
The retired officer – who was chief of staff of the 8,000-strong 7th Armoured Brigade in the Middle East during the Iraq War – said scores of troops were being sacked or pushed out of roles after admitting to their condition. Lt Col Parker, who grew up in Cowplain and is the chairman of the Princess of Wales’ Royal Regiment Association – which looks after troops across the area – said things needed to change.
Speaking to The News, the nine-time combat veteran said: ‘There is clearly evidence that, although the public is very positive and say when asked they will support the military, it can be a very different story with employers.
‘The sad news is once employers find out their employees have PTSD or have had mental health issues in the past, very often we find people lose their jobs. ‘There seems to be a fear that someone will turn into an axe murderer. This certainly isn’t an issue. read more here
Veterans with offenses struggling to find jobs The Associated Press By JENNIFER McDERMOTT May 26, 2018
"You may as well be a felon when you're looking for a job," said Iraq War veteran Kristofer Goldsmith, who said the Army gave him a general discharge in 2007 because he attempted suicide.
PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Military veterans who were discharged for relatively minor offenses say they often can't get jobs, and they hope a recent warning to employers by the state of Connecticut will change that.
In this May 9, 2018 photo, Iraq War veteran Kristofer Goldsmith, sits in a campus park after his last final exam of the semester at Columbia University in New York. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)
The state's human-rights commission told employers last month that they could be breaking the law if they discriminate against veterans with some types of less-than-honorable discharges. Blanket policies against hiring such veterans could be discriminatory, the commission said, because the military has issued them disproportionately to black, Hispanic, gay and disabled veterans.
At least one other state, Illinois, already prohibits hiring discrimination based on a veteran's discharge status, advocates say, but Connecticut appears to be the first to base its decision on what it deems discrimination by the military. read more here
We build monuments to honor the lives lost of those who risked all for us. We have ceremonies talking about all they gave. We have politicians making speeches about how much our heroes matter. When do we finally acknowledge we suck at risking anything for them? Police officers fight to save victims of crimes and accidents...and each other. Firefighters fight to save victims of fires and accidents...and each other. Reserve and National Guard members fight to recover victims and save survivors of natural disasters...and each other. Servicemembers risk their lives for strangers...and each other.
The price they pay for all they do for us will never be repaid by us. It haunts them and they forget they did not do their jobs alone, but fight this alone.
Friends do not let friends decide to give up. They fight for them when they cannot fight for themselves. Friends to not let friends suffer in silence. They speak up for them. Friends do not walk away because they do not know what to say. They find someone who does. Friends do not let friends repeat lies. The number of these men and women, who did all they could to save lives of strangers, but not their own, is unknown. If you do not know why, then you have not bothered to take the time to research anything. Stop spreading something that is simply not true. It is the least we can do.
U.S. troops guarding nuclear missiles took LSD, Air Force records show CBS News May 24, 2018
A slipup on social media by one airman enabled investigators to crack the drug ring at F.E. Warren Air Force Base in March 2016, details of which are reported here for the first time. Fourteen airmen were disciplined. Six of them were convicted in courts martial of LSD use or distribution or both.
WASHINGTON -- One airman said he felt paranoia. Another marveled at the vibrant colors. A third Air Force member admitted, "I absolutely just loved altering my mind." Meet service members entrusted with guarding nuclear missiles that are among the most powerful in America's arsenal who used LSD both on and off base.
Air Force records obtained by The Associated Press show they bought, distributed and used the hallucinogen LSD and other mind-altering illegal drugs as part of a ring that operated undetected for months on a highly secure military base in Wyoming. After investigators closed in, one airman deserted to Mexico.
"Although this sounds like something from a movie, it isn't," said Capt. Charles Grimsley, the lead prosecutor of one of several courts martial. read more here
