Web Site That Solicited Donations For Returning War Veterans Home In Phelps County A Fraud, Missouri AG Says
Mon, 09/17/2007 - 12:41 — newsdesk
September 14, 2007 -- Jefferson City, Mo. — The owner of a Web site that solicits donations purportedly for military and veterans related causes - including a supposed rural retreat in Phelps County for war veterans recovering from post-traumatic stress disorder - has been defrauding donors, Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon says. Nixon obtained a temporary restraining order today against James Barbee of Carpinteria, Calif., and Liberty Spirit Farm Foundation, who solicit donations for Liberty Spirits Farm and Liberty Spirit Ranch on the Web site. The Attorney General is also seeking injunctions, restitution and civil penalties.
Nixon says that Barbee, who operates www.libertyspiritsfarm.org, began soliciting for charitable contributions on the site for the Liberty Spirits Farm near Lake Spring in April. The Web site describes the location as a rural retreat for military veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, and states that donations would help pay for the costs associated with operating the farm. At one time the site also featured pictures of the farm, including specific rooms and the 840 acres surrounding it.
click post title for the rest
Monday, September 17, 2007
Saturday, September 15, 2007
When nightmares followed him home from Iraq
Nightmares, horrors of war follow Bryan man home from Iraq
KVIA - El Paso,TX,USA
09.15.07
Nightmares, horrors of war follow Bryan man home from Iraq
BRYAN, TX. (AP) - For six days, Sgt. Byron Hancock hunched on his belly, motionless in the shallow, soggy trench he and his partner spent eight hours digging under the cover of night - surviving with little food and almost no sleep as he directed his focus through the high-powered scope of his M40A3 sniper rifle.
He tried not to think about the surprisingly cold winter that had hit Iraq's Al Anbar province - a dangerous region teeming with insurgents who had fled the hellish urban warfare of Fallujah a month earlier. At night, it would be cold enough to freeze the rain that seeped into his hole. Go figure, the lifelong hunter thought when he allowed his mind to wander: Stuck in the middle of a desert with water up to my neck and experiencing the most bone-chilling weather of my life.
The decorated police officer had fought in Fallujah, too, scared out of his mind but earning a war hero's reputation when he made a 1,050-yard kill - touted by the military as the longest successful sniper shot of the Iraq war. Now it was the Marine reservist's duty to patrol the countryside, finding suspected insurgents and gathering probable cause just like his days back home on the Bryan police force.
But this was different. It wasn't Texas. The stakes were higher and the judgment - whether someone deserved to live or die - needed to be lightning quick. If he didn't strike, it could mean his own life or the lives of other troops. He'd seen it happen before. It gets to the point where, faced with constant danger, you accept your own potential death. But you never accept letting your fellow troops down. In this case, the suspect was a teenager - 14, 15, 16 ... who knows - who had ridden his motorcycle day after day down a road commonly used by U.S. forces, always pausing suspiciously for a moment at the same spot before moving on.........................
KVIA - El Paso,TX,USA
09.15.07
Nightmares, horrors of war follow Bryan man home from Iraq
BRYAN, TX. (AP) - For six days, Sgt. Byron Hancock hunched on his belly, motionless in the shallow, soggy trench he and his partner spent eight hours digging under the cover of night - surviving with little food and almost no sleep as he directed his focus through the high-powered scope of his M40A3 sniper rifle.
He tried not to think about the surprisingly cold winter that had hit Iraq's Al Anbar province - a dangerous region teeming with insurgents who had fled the hellish urban warfare of Fallujah a month earlier. At night, it would be cold enough to freeze the rain that seeped into his hole. Go figure, the lifelong hunter thought when he allowed his mind to wander: Stuck in the middle of a desert with water up to my neck and experiencing the most bone-chilling weather of my life.
The decorated police officer had fought in Fallujah, too, scared out of his mind but earning a war hero's reputation when he made a 1,050-yard kill - touted by the military as the longest successful sniper shot of the Iraq war. Now it was the Marine reservist's duty to patrol the countryside, finding suspected insurgents and gathering probable cause just like his days back home on the Bryan police force.
But this was different. It wasn't Texas. The stakes were higher and the judgment - whether someone deserved to live or die - needed to be lightning quick. If he didn't strike, it could mean his own life or the lives of other troops. He'd seen it happen before. It gets to the point where, faced with constant danger, you accept your own potential death. But you never accept letting your fellow troops down. In this case, the suspect was a teenager - 14, 15, 16 ... who knows - who had ridden his motorcycle day after day down a road commonly used by U.S. forces, always pausing suspiciously for a moment at the same spot before moving on.........................
Friday, September 14, 2007
Patriot Guard at service for sailor in Oregon
Phillip Leveque has spent his life as a Combat Infantryman, Physician, Pharmacologist and Toxicologist.Patriot Guard at a service for a fallen sailor in Oregon
Photo by: Tim King
(MOLALLA, Ore.) - Margie Boulé authored an article in the September 9th edition of the Oregonian about the Patriot Guard and PTSD. She unknowingly pushed the button of PTSD and inadvertently touched the tip of the PTSD iceberg.
The Patriot Guard is a nationwide group of 110,000 “bikers” who ride, some in groups as large as 200 riders, as “Honor Guards” for their dead war comrades and heroes returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan. This is a noble tribute by many who have “been there, seen that, done that”. However, when many of them came home, a large portion from Viet Nam, they were spit on and reviled.
The only mission of a soldier, or Marine, in the service is to “kill or be killed”. If anyone thinks their mission is otherwise or that the rifleman has any control what-so-ever as to what happens to him or what he has to do to survive doesn’t know or understand anything about battle.
go here for the rest
http://www.salem-news.com/articles/september142007/leveque_ptsd_91407.php
Patriot Guard Riders Mission Statement
The Patriot Guard Riders is a diverse amalgamation of riders from across the nation. We have one thing in common besides motorcycles. We have an unwavering respect for those who risk their very lives for America’s freedom and security. If you share this respect, please join us.We don’t care what you ride or if you ride, what your political views are, or whether you’re a hawk or a dove. It is not a requirement that you be a veteran. It doesn't matter where you’re from or what your income is; you don’t even have to ride. The only prerequisite is Respect.Our main mission is to attend the funeral services of fallen American heroes as invited guests of the family. Each mission we undertake has two basic objectives.
1. Show our sincere respect for our fallen heroes, their families, and their communities.
2. Shield the mourning family and their friends from interruptions created by any protestor or group of protestors.We accomplish the latter through strictly legal and non-violent means.
To those of you who are currently serving and fighting for the freedoms of others, at home and abroad, please know that we are backing you. We honor and support you with every mission we carry out, and we are praying for a safe return home for all.
Lineage of the Patriot Guard Riders.
Updated
Several people have asked how the Patriot Guard Riders got started. Here’s what we’ve been able to piece together. If anyone can give us more details, it would be greatly appreciated.It all started back in early August of 2005 with the American Legion Riders chapter 136 from Kansas. They were appalled to hear that a fallen hero’s memory was being tarnished by misguided religious zealots who were protesting at funerals.
They decided to do something about it. At the ALR 136 August meeting, Director: Chuck " Pappy " Barshney appointed members, Terry “Darkhorse” Houck, Cregg “Bronco 6” Hansen, Steve “McDaddy” McDonald, and Bill ”Wild Bill” Logan to form a committee to strategize and form a battle plan to combat Fred Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church.When they heard that the WBC was going to protest at the Funeral of Sgt. John Doles in Chelsea, Oklahoma, they established a Mission Statement, which included getting the families permission and contacting Law Enforcement and other Motorcycle Groups in Oklahoma.
They agreed that their ultimate goal was to get veterans and motorcycle organizations involved in every state so that each state could handle the situation internally and not rely on other states to do the job. They were very successful in mustering riders to honor Sgt. Doles and limiting the intrusion by the WBC.
After the Chelsea Mission the Kansas American Legion Riders wanted all Motorcycle Groups/ Organizations to be recognized. On the 18th of October 2005 the Patriot Guard name was established and was announced on the 27th of October 2005 to the 100 + motorcyclists present at the Tonganoxie Mission to Honor Spc Lucas Frantz.Following the missions in South Haven, KS and a later ride in Edmond, OK, Jeff “Twister” Brown, from Broken Arrow, OK, decided to do more than just ride.
He saw a need to get a strong nation-wide communications and recruiting program in place. He contacted the original AL riders in Kansas and told them of his plans. They openly shared their experiences, suggestions, and encouragement. Within a matter of days, Brown had formed the Patriot Guard Riders and began a nation-wide campaign to garner support.Similarly, after a mission ride in Greeley, CO, Hugh Knaus and Jason “Waldo” Wallin answered the call of the newly formed Patriot Guard Riders, becoming the national webmaster and communications director, respectively. Within a matter of days, a mission statement was refined and a website was built, rebuilt, and launched.
A call immediately went out to individual riders and groups across the nation to join and ride with the PGR. State Captains were recruited to work more closely with the members in their area.The growth has been phenomenal. Within a week their membership included many riders from associations like the VFW, American Legion, Rolling Thunder, ABATE, Combat Vets Motorcycle Association, Intruder Alert, Leathernecks Motorcycle Club, and almost five hundred individual riders. To the credit of Hugh and “Waldo”, the PGR website had received almost 566,000 hits in the first two weeks! Patriots from all over America and several foreign countries responded. Emails were pouring in from people wanting to support and join the newly formed PGR.So, that’s a pretty concise picture of where we came from and where we are today.
A great deal of credit goes to that small group of Kansas American Legion Riders, but none of this could have ever been accomplished without the patriot member who takes time out of their life to honor a fallen soldier and their family.
http://www.patriotguard.org/Home/tabid/53/Default.aspx
Thursday, September 13, 2007
Beyond Walter Reed Hospital
The Wounded Warrior at Home: Walter Reed and Beyond
The Washington Post's ongoing investigation of the state of medical care and facilities at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and the overall military and VA health care systems.
Casualties Without a Scratch
Living with PTSD
The Invisibly Wounded
The Washington Post's ongoing investigation of the state of medical care and facilities at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and the overall military and VA health care systems.
Casualties Without a Scratch
Living with PTSD
The Invisibly Wounded
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Support the troops? Then why aren't we taking care of the wounded?
When I hear people on both sides of the debate say "support the troops" I want to scream "THEN DAMN IT TAKE CARE OF THEM WHEN THEY GET WOUNDED" because if we don't we are just a bunch of frauds!
Wounded Soldier's Family Feels Forgotten
NPR - USA
by Howard Berkes
This is the first of a two-part report.
All Things Considered, September 12, 2007 · Two years ago, Army Specialist Ronald Hinkle left a good trucking job, a working ranch, a wife and two daughters in Byers, Colo., to serve in Iraq.
Now Hinkle is one of more than 13,000 American service men and women who have suffered serious wounds in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Hinkle survived an IED blast but festering wounds nearly killed him.
He and his family are struggling to rebuild lives completely transformed by that explosion in Iraq.
Hinkle was diagnosed with Traumatic Brain Injury, or TBI, as a result of the IED explosion. He suffers from sudden seizures. He tires quickly. He doesn't think clearly, and he cannot be left alone.
Hinkle was honored for his service in November when Vice President Dick Cheney pinned a Purple Heart to his desert fatigues, but his family feels otherwise deserted by the Army.
The U.S. Army failed to provide all the benefits and support for which the family is entitled. Now the Hinkles are tens of thousands of dollars in debt, and they may lose their ranch. Ron's wife, Reece, gave up her lucrative income as a corporate accountant to take care of him.
Reece now finds herself as more of a caretaker than wife, and she laments that Ron has lost the ability to be a father, a son and a husband because "he is living his life being injured."
"Just trying to just figure out how to deal with that is enough," Reece said. "What people don't realize is it's not the injury that destroys families. It's the aftermath. It's how you reconstruct your life, how you physically regroup, emotionally, financially. It will never be the same."
The Strength Within: One NCO's Experience with Suicide and PTSD
The Strength Within: One NCO's Experience with Suicide and PTSD
Sep 12, 2007
BY Elizabeth M. Lorge
WASHINGTON (Army News Service, Sept. 12, 2007) - In the face of rising suicide rates among Soldiers, the Army is making a renewed effort to help Soldiers at risk and educate Soldiers and leaders about the signs to look for in their battle buddies and subordinates. That education is crucial in saving Soldiers' lives, said retired 1st Sgt. Cornell Swanier.
He has first-hand experience with suicide - as a prevention-education coordinator, as a noncommissioned officer who lost a Soldier and as a combat veteran with post-traumatic stress disorder who has thought about killing himself. On Thanksgiving Day, 2002, he got the call every leader dreads. One of the Soldiers he had brought safely through a deployment to Kuwait for Operation Enduring Freedom was dead by his own hand, an event 1st Sgt. Swanier is still trying to comprehend. "I really got close to my Soldiers," he said. "I really tried to know the Soldiers, know their families, from top to bottom. It was tough on me. It's still tough on me to this day to walk in the barracks room and to see a dead Soldier. When Thanksgiving comes around, I think about that Soldier."
go here for the rest
http://www.army.mil/-news/2007/09/12/4829-
the-strength-within-one-ncos-experience-with-suicide-and-ptsd/
also
Suicide Prevention: Watch Out for Your Buddy
Sep 10, 2007
BY J.D. Leipold
WASHINGTON (Army News Service, Sep. 10, 2007) - In conjunction with National Suicide Prevention Week Sep. 9-15, the Army wants Soldiers and their Families to know help is available to those struggling with issues that sometimes bring about suicide.
"This year's strategy focuses on three key points - training the Army Family in positive life skills, buddy care and counseling through a variety of ways," said Army Chief of Chaplains Chaplain (Maj. Gen.) Douglas L. Carver. "I think educating our leaders, Soldiers and Families on what to look for in suicidal behaviors has made our people more sensitive and aware."
Soldiers who commit suicide usually do so because they can't see another way out of a painful situation Chaplain Carver said. Frequent and longer deployments add yet more burden, especially on relationships, he said.
"We've looked pretty closely at all the various factors involved in Soldier suicide - failed relationships, this long war," said Chaplain Carver, "yet the morale of our Soldiers is as high as it's ever been because they sense the importance of their mission down-range and they look out for one another."
go here for the rest
http://www.army.mil/-news/2007/09/10/4765-
suicide-prevention-watch-out-for-your-buddy/
Sep 12, 2007
BY Elizabeth M. Lorge
WASHINGTON (Army News Service, Sept. 12, 2007) - In the face of rising suicide rates among Soldiers, the Army is making a renewed effort to help Soldiers at risk and educate Soldiers and leaders about the signs to look for in their battle buddies and subordinates. That education is crucial in saving Soldiers' lives, said retired 1st Sgt. Cornell Swanier.
He has first-hand experience with suicide - as a prevention-education coordinator, as a noncommissioned officer who lost a Soldier and as a combat veteran with post-traumatic stress disorder who has thought about killing himself. On Thanksgiving Day, 2002, he got the call every leader dreads. One of the Soldiers he had brought safely through a deployment to Kuwait for Operation Enduring Freedom was dead by his own hand, an event 1st Sgt. Swanier is still trying to comprehend. "I really got close to my Soldiers," he said. "I really tried to know the Soldiers, know their families, from top to bottom. It was tough on me. It's still tough on me to this day to walk in the barracks room and to see a dead Soldier. When Thanksgiving comes around, I think about that Soldier."
go here for the rest
http://www.army.mil/-news/2007/09/12/4829-
the-strength-within-one-ncos-experience-with-suicide-and-ptsd/
also
Suicide Prevention: Watch Out for Your Buddy
Sep 10, 2007
BY J.D. Leipold
WASHINGTON (Army News Service, Sep. 10, 2007) - In conjunction with National Suicide Prevention Week Sep. 9-15, the Army wants Soldiers and their Families to know help is available to those struggling with issues that sometimes bring about suicide.
"This year's strategy focuses on three key points - training the Army Family in positive life skills, buddy care and counseling through a variety of ways," said Army Chief of Chaplains Chaplain (Maj. Gen.) Douglas L. Carver. "I think educating our leaders, Soldiers and Families on what to look for in suicidal behaviors has made our people more sensitive and aware."
Soldiers who commit suicide usually do so because they can't see another way out of a painful situation Chaplain Carver said. Frequent and longer deployments add yet more burden, especially on relationships, he said.
"We've looked pretty closely at all the various factors involved in Soldier suicide - failed relationships, this long war," said Chaplain Carver, "yet the morale of our Soldiers is as high as it's ever been because they sense the importance of their mission down-range and they look out for one another."
go here for the rest
http://www.army.mil/-news/2007/09/10/4765-
suicide-prevention-watch-out-for-your-buddy/
Tennessee Gulf War Vet put to death with PTSD
Gulf War veteran who killed his four children CHOOSES to go to the electric chair
Last updated at 20:00pm on 12th September 2007
Murderer: Daryl Holton
A Quadruple killer went to the electric chair yesterday after choosing to be electrocuted rather than receive a lethal injection.
Daryl Holton, 45, a Gulf war veteran who murdered his three sons and their half-sister with an assault rifle after promising them a Christmas surprise, was the first inmate to be electrocuted in the state of Tennessee since 1960.
When prison warden Ricky Bell asked Holton if he had any last words, he replied only 'Yeah, I do,' but said nothing further.
Officials at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution then placed a wet sponge and metal plate on Holton's head.
Holton kept his eyes closed.
As a towel was used to wipe away water from the sponge, he said: "Don't worry about it."
A black shroud was placed over his head.
Then a 20-second shock was administered. Holton's back straightened and his hips moved up out of the chair before he slumped back.
After a 15 second pause, Holton was given a second shock that lasted 15 seconds.
He was pronounced dead moments later.
Tennessee law states the voltage used must be at least 1,750 volts.
Electrocution was first introaduced in New York in 1888 as a more humane method of execution than hanging, but there have been horrific instances of inmates catching on fire, multiple jolts being needed to kill, and bones being broken by convulsing limbs.
Holton had methodically killed his children and their half-sister in Shelbyville, Tennessee, garage in 1997, following a lengthy custody battle with his ex-wife.
Lined up on the promise of a Christmas surprise, the youngsters - Steven, 12, Brent, ten, Eric, six, and their four-year-old half-sister Kayla - were shot in the back.
Holton told police he killed the children because his ex-wife had not let him see them for months.
Holton said he was suffering from severe depression at the time. His lawyers maintain he had a long history of mental illness and may have suffered post traumatic stress disorder following the 1991 Gulf War.
click post title for the rest
When I was researching the suicide deaths of our veterans, I came across more stories like Holton's and their families. The percentages of murder-suicides is low. There were other crimes committed but most of the ones I found had suspicions of links to inoculations and drugs given before deployments. The majority of the PTSD findings I came across were suicide.
Too many of these men and women have the mind-set that people with PTSD are defects, useless or even deserve what they're going through. Others around them don't want PTSD talked about because they feel it will make them look bad.
Although I am grateful the media began to pay attention to PTSD, they still have fallen short of removing the stupidity from the minds of those in the military and eliminating the stigma attached to having it. What will it take for everyone to finally and fully understand that PTSD is a wound. It is caused by trauma. It has nothing to do with being "bad" or "evil" or their courage or their patriotism but has everything to do with getting help to heal.
The dangerous ones are rare with PTSD. Most are just trying to spend one night without having a nightmare, without having a flashback, without forgetting what happened ten minutes ago because of short term memory loss.
There are different degrees of PTSD and it is about time for us to understand this. It is not a one size fits all diagnosis. Some have mild PTSD that if they get treated early on, it does not develop into full blown life altering PTSD for the rest of their lives. Others develop it stronger from trauma upon trauma piling up until they can no longer see themselves when they look in the mirror. Until the sickening, judgmental response of those around these wounded warriors develops into positive support, more will end up suffering needlessly. More families will fall apart and more people will blame themselves instead of the trauma.
Kathie Costos
Namguardianangel@aol.com
www.Namguardianangel.org
www.Namguardianangel.blogspot.com
www.Woundedtimes.blogspot.com
"The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive veterans of early wars were treated and appreciated by our nation." - George Washington
Last updated at 20:00pm on 12th September 2007
Murderer: Daryl Holton
A Quadruple killer went to the electric chair yesterday after choosing to be electrocuted rather than receive a lethal injection.
Daryl Holton, 45, a Gulf war veteran who murdered his three sons and their half-sister with an assault rifle after promising them a Christmas surprise, was the first inmate to be electrocuted in the state of Tennessee since 1960.
When prison warden Ricky Bell asked Holton if he had any last words, he replied only 'Yeah, I do,' but said nothing further.
Officials at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution then placed a wet sponge and metal plate on Holton's head.
Holton kept his eyes closed.
As a towel was used to wipe away water from the sponge, he said: "Don't worry about it."
A black shroud was placed over his head.
Then a 20-second shock was administered. Holton's back straightened and his hips moved up out of the chair before he slumped back.
After a 15 second pause, Holton was given a second shock that lasted 15 seconds.
He was pronounced dead moments later.
Tennessee law states the voltage used must be at least 1,750 volts.
Electrocution was first introaduced in New York in 1888 as a more humane method of execution than hanging, but there have been horrific instances of inmates catching on fire, multiple jolts being needed to kill, and bones being broken by convulsing limbs.
Holton had methodically killed his children and their half-sister in Shelbyville, Tennessee, garage in 1997, following a lengthy custody battle with his ex-wife.
Lined up on the promise of a Christmas surprise, the youngsters - Steven, 12, Brent, ten, Eric, six, and their four-year-old half-sister Kayla - were shot in the back.
Holton told police he killed the children because his ex-wife had not let him see them for months.
Holton said he was suffering from severe depression at the time. His lawyers maintain he had a long history of mental illness and may have suffered post traumatic stress disorder following the 1991 Gulf War.
click post title for the rest
When I was researching the suicide deaths of our veterans, I came across more stories like Holton's and their families. The percentages of murder-suicides is low. There were other crimes committed but most of the ones I found had suspicions of links to inoculations and drugs given before deployments. The majority of the PTSD findings I came across were suicide.
Too many of these men and women have the mind-set that people with PTSD are defects, useless or even deserve what they're going through. Others around them don't want PTSD talked about because they feel it will make them look bad.
Although I am grateful the media began to pay attention to PTSD, they still have fallen short of removing the stupidity from the minds of those in the military and eliminating the stigma attached to having it. What will it take for everyone to finally and fully understand that PTSD is a wound. It is caused by trauma. It has nothing to do with being "bad" or "evil" or their courage or their patriotism but has everything to do with getting help to heal.
The dangerous ones are rare with PTSD. Most are just trying to spend one night without having a nightmare, without having a flashback, without forgetting what happened ten minutes ago because of short term memory loss.
There are different degrees of PTSD and it is about time for us to understand this. It is not a one size fits all diagnosis. Some have mild PTSD that if they get treated early on, it does not develop into full blown life altering PTSD for the rest of their lives. Others develop it stronger from trauma upon trauma piling up until they can no longer see themselves when they look in the mirror. Until the sickening, judgmental response of those around these wounded warriors develops into positive support, more will end up suffering needlessly. More families will fall apart and more people will blame themselves instead of the trauma.
Kathie Costos
Namguardianangel@aol.com
www.Namguardianangel.org
www.Namguardianangel.blogspot.com
www.Woundedtimes.blogspot.com
"The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive veterans of early wars were treated and appreciated by our nation." - George Washington
Cleansing Wounded Warriors
Federal government taps ancient healing methods to treat native American soldiers
The veterans administration teams up with medicine men to use sweat lodges and talking circles to deal with post-traumatic stress disorder.
By JENnifer miller Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor
from the September 13, 2007 edition
Page 1 of 3
Rock Spring, N.M. - In a dusty lot on the Navajo reservation, a cleansing ceremony is about to take place. Women sit on rickety chairs outside a hogan, (a circular, squat Navajo home with a dirt floor). A line of parked cars sizzle in the Southwestern sun. Suddenly, a pack of horses rushes into view. They stop just short of the hogan, their hooves beating up a cloud of dust.
A man appears in the doorway – an unassuming figure, dressed in a work shirt, jeans, and cowboy boots. He is a medicine man who has spent decades learning ancient Navajo healing techniques. He waits for the lead rider – the patient – to dismount and then ushers him inside.
For the next hour, the spiritual leader, Alfred Gibson, conducts an "enemy way" ceremony, a form of Navajo therapy that cleanses physically and mentally ill individuals by forcing them to confront their pain.
The technique is increasingly being used across the American West to help native American soldiers deal with the traumas of war..................
The veterans administration teams up with medicine men to use sweat lodges and talking circles to deal with post-traumatic stress disorder.
By JENnifer miller Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor
from the September 13, 2007 edition
Page 1 of 3
Rock Spring, N.M. - In a dusty lot on the Navajo reservation, a cleansing ceremony is about to take place. Women sit on rickety chairs outside a hogan, (a circular, squat Navajo home with a dirt floor). A line of parked cars sizzle in the Southwestern sun. Suddenly, a pack of horses rushes into view. They stop just short of the hogan, their hooves beating up a cloud of dust.
A man appears in the doorway – an unassuming figure, dressed in a work shirt, jeans, and cowboy boots. He is a medicine man who has spent decades learning ancient Navajo healing techniques. He waits for the lead rider – the patient – to dismount and then ushers him inside.
For the next hour, the spiritual leader, Alfred Gibson, conducts an "enemy way" ceremony, a form of Navajo therapy that cleanses physically and mentally ill individuals by forcing them to confront their pain.
The technique is increasingly being used across the American West to help native American soldiers deal with the traumas of war..................
Ex-soldier faces charges after standoff with police
Ex-soldier faces charges after standoff with police
Phil Couvrette, CanWest News Service
Published: Tuesday, September 11, 2007
A former member of the Canadian Forces accused of blindly firing weapons through the wall of his trailer home, hitting his neighbours' property, and engaged in a standoff with authorities last week was in court Tuesday facing over half a dozen charges.
They include mischief, production and possession of cannabis, possession of explosives, negligent use of firearms as well as improper storage of weapons, said his attorney, Luc Tourangeau, who described his client as "not fit to stand trial" and asked for a psychiatric evaluation. Tourangeau said Daniel Maltais, 41, formerly of the Valcartier military base, did not have a police record and didn't know whether Maltais had a history of mental troubles.
Maltais' home was cordoned off and surrounded by authorities Friday after police investigating the source of bullet holes appearing on nearby homes turned to his Chicoutimi home, some 200 kilometres north of Quebec City.
A man who had barricaded himself in his home "spoke very incoherently" when finally reached by phone after hours of trying to contact him and ultimately turned himself in during the evening, said Bruno Cormier, spokesman for the Saguenay police...............
Phil Couvrette, CanWest News Service
Published: Tuesday, September 11, 2007
A former member of the Canadian Forces accused of blindly firing weapons through the wall of his trailer home, hitting his neighbours' property, and engaged in a standoff with authorities last week was in court Tuesday facing over half a dozen charges.
They include mischief, production and possession of cannabis, possession of explosives, negligent use of firearms as well as improper storage of weapons, said his attorney, Luc Tourangeau, who described his client as "not fit to stand trial" and asked for a psychiatric evaluation. Tourangeau said Daniel Maltais, 41, formerly of the Valcartier military base, did not have a police record and didn't know whether Maltais had a history of mental troubles.
Maltais' home was cordoned off and surrounded by authorities Friday after police investigating the source of bullet holes appearing on nearby homes turned to his Chicoutimi home, some 200 kilometres north of Quebec City.
A man who had barricaded himself in his home "spoke very incoherently" when finally reached by phone after hours of trying to contact him and ultimately turned himself in during the evening, said Bruno Cormier, spokesman for the Saguenay police...............
HEALTH-US: Soldier's Tragic Suicide Just One of Dozens
HEALTH-US: Soldier's Tragic Suicide Just One of Dozens
By Aaron Glantz
Brian Rand
SAN FRANCISCO, Sep 10 (IPS) - Dane and April Somdahl own the Alien Art tattoo parlor on Camp Lejeune Boulevard -- just outside the sprawling Marine Corps base of the same name in Jacksonville, North Carolina.
In an interview from the back of her shop, April talked about how her customers' tastes have changed since George W. Bush ordered the invasion of Iraq in March 2003.
As the war approached, she said, "The most popular tattoos were eagles and United States flags. Those were coming in so often and, you know, everybody was like 'I gotta get my flag.'"
Then, a year into the war, the Somdahls noticed a new wave of Marines coming in to get information from their military dog tags tattooed onto their bodies. Most said they wanted so called "meat tags" so their bodies could be identified when they die.
"We went through over a year of meat tags, but then that passed too," she said. "Now we are seeing a lot of memorial tattoos. Even the wives are getting memorial tattoos -- moms and dads in their fifties too. And in a lot of cases they're getting their first tattoos. And they're saying 'We didn't think we would ever get a tattoo, but this one is to remember my son.'"
Because of the changing needs of their clientele, the Somdahls no longer blast rock and roll music inside the shop. Instead, the artists work in silence.
"The mood has died," April told IPS.
go here for the rest
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=39203
By Aaron Glantz
Brian Rand
SAN FRANCISCO, Sep 10 (IPS) - Dane and April Somdahl own the Alien Art tattoo parlor on Camp Lejeune Boulevard -- just outside the sprawling Marine Corps base of the same name in Jacksonville, North Carolina.
In an interview from the back of her shop, April talked about how her customers' tastes have changed since George W. Bush ordered the invasion of Iraq in March 2003.
As the war approached, she said, "The most popular tattoos were eagles and United States flags. Those were coming in so often and, you know, everybody was like 'I gotta get my flag.'"
Then, a year into the war, the Somdahls noticed a new wave of Marines coming in to get information from their military dog tags tattooed onto their bodies. Most said they wanted so called "meat tags" so their bodies could be identified when they die.
"We went through over a year of meat tags, but then that passed too," she said. "Now we are seeing a lot of memorial tattoos. Even the wives are getting memorial tattoos -- moms and dads in their fifties too. And in a lot of cases they're getting their first tattoos. And they're saying 'We didn't think we would ever get a tattoo, but this one is to remember my son.'"
Because of the changing needs of their clientele, the Somdahls no longer blast rock and roll music inside the shop. Instead, the artists work in silence.
"The mood has died," April told IPS.
go here for the rest
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=39203
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
When they come home, why do they have to wait?
WHEN I CAME HOME....
Posted By Ex SSG Michael J Goss at 6:40 PM
Monday, 10 September 2007
Statistics are one way to tell the story of the approximately 1.4 million servicemen and women who've been to Iraq and Afghanistan. According to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2004, 86 percent of soldiers in Iraq reported knowing someone who was seriously injured or killed there. Some 77 percent reported shooting at the enemy; 75 percent reported seeing women or children in imminent peril and being unable to help. Fifty-one percent reported handling or uncovering human remains; 28 percent were responsible for the death of a noncombatant. One in five Iraq veterans returns home seriously impaired by post-traumatic stress disorder.
Words are another way. Below are the stories of three veterans of this war, told in their voices, edited for flow and efficiency but otherwise unchanged. They bear out the statistics and suggest that even those who are not diagnosably impaired return burdened by experiences they can neither forget nor integrate into their postwar lives. They speak of the inadequacy of what the military calls reintegration counseling, of the immediacy of their worst memories, of their helplessness in battle, of the struggle to rejoin a society that seems unwilling or unable to comprehend the price of their service.
Strangers to one another and to me, they nevertheless tried, sometimes through tears, to communicate what the intensity of an ambiguous war has done to them. One veteran, Sue Randolph, put it this way: "People walk up to me and say, 'Thank you for your service.' And I know they mean well, but I want to ask, 'Do you know what you're thanking me for?'" She, Rocky, and Michael Goss offer their stories here in the hope that citizens will begin to know.
go here to read their stories
Veterans For America
Posted By Ex SSG Michael J Goss at 6:40 PM
Monday, 10 September 2007
Statistics are one way to tell the story of the approximately 1.4 million servicemen and women who've been to Iraq and Afghanistan. According to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2004, 86 percent of soldiers in Iraq reported knowing someone who was seriously injured or killed there. Some 77 percent reported shooting at the enemy; 75 percent reported seeing women or children in imminent peril and being unable to help. Fifty-one percent reported handling or uncovering human remains; 28 percent were responsible for the death of a noncombatant. One in five Iraq veterans returns home seriously impaired by post-traumatic stress disorder.
Words are another way. Below are the stories of three veterans of this war, told in their voices, edited for flow and efficiency but otherwise unchanged. They bear out the statistics and suggest that even those who are not diagnosably impaired return burdened by experiences they can neither forget nor integrate into their postwar lives. They speak of the inadequacy of what the military calls reintegration counseling, of the immediacy of their worst memories, of their helplessness in battle, of the struggle to rejoin a society that seems unwilling or unable to comprehend the price of their service.
Strangers to one another and to me, they nevertheless tried, sometimes through tears, to communicate what the intensity of an ambiguous war has done to them. One veteran, Sue Randolph, put it this way: "People walk up to me and say, 'Thank you for your service.' And I know they mean well, but I want to ask, 'Do you know what you're thanking me for?'" She, Rocky, and Michael Goss offer their stories here in the hope that citizens will begin to know.
go here to read their stories
Veterans For America
Monday, September 10, 2007
Bill O'Reilly slapped down
Mark Cuban and Bill O'Reilly Throw Down
By Tim Swanson "You have PTSD and you need help. We're gonna get you the right help." He said, "Thank you." And then the Army put him in the brig in a straight jacket in solitary confinement with a helmet on for three months and that's the help he got ...
Portfolio.com: The Hollywood Deal - http://feeds.portfolio.com/portfolio/thehollywooddeal
O'Reilly is at it again!
I have no clue what this man's problem is but he has a habit of making life harder on veterans with PTSD. Case in point:
By Tim Swanson "You have PTSD and you need help. We're gonna get you the right help." He said, "Thank you." And then the Army put him in the brig in a straight jacket in solitary confinement with a helmet on for three months and that's the help he got ...
Portfolio.com: The Hollywood Deal - http://feeds.portfolio.com/portfolio/thehollywooddeal
O'Reilly is at it again!
I have no clue what this man's problem is but he has a habit of making life harder on veterans with PTSD. Case in point:
News HoundsWe watch FOX so you don't have to.
Bill O'Reilly's false accusations du jour a trifecta of smears
Reported by Chrish - July 11, 2006 - 69 comments
Bill O'Reilly was back on The Factor tonight 7/10/06, more shrill than ever. The lies were fast and furious, beginning with his claim to be hosting a "no-spin zone." At issue were comments about the mental health of our troops in Iraq and recent recruiting numbers. Colonel David Hunt and Lt. General Thomas McInerney were on hand to triple-team the absent victims.
The introductory teasers at the top of the hour included a clip of Senator Barbara Boxer on CNN's Late Edition, saying that one in three troops are suffering Post-Traumatic Stress and many are being sent into battle while using anti-depressants. Off camera O'Reilly asks incredulously "Is that true?!? The far-left is saying the military in Iraq is falling apart. Also, charges that white supremacists have infiltrated the military."
A few minutes later, for the "top story", he repeated the charge to introduce the segment : "The far-left believes the US military is falling apart in Iraq." Cut to video of Boxer, who says "They are in deep trouble over there - our troops are. And many of them are being sent onto the battlefield with anti-depressants. I really feel that the whole issue here is getting out of there. "
Also, according to O'Reilly, "New York Times columnist Bob Herbert wrote today that the military is 'infested with Nazis and morale is akin to Viet Nam. But is all this true?" (Comment: NO. O'Reilly is spinning Herbert's words.) He is joined by the two hard-right military guys, Col. David Hunt and Lt. General Thomas McInerney.
McInerney is FOX's dream military commentator - all hawk, all flag, no patience for Americans with different viewpoints from his.
O'Reilly quoted Herbert, whom they all know is very anti-Bush, as saying
"The Army has had to lower its standards because most young Americans want no part of George Bush's war in Iraq. Recruiters, desperate to meet their quotas, are sifting for warm bodies among those who are less talented, less disciplined, and in some cases repellant. John Kifner reported in the Times last week that a study by a watchdog group that showed recruiting shortfalls caused by the war in Iraq have allowed quote 'large numbers of neo-Nazis (his emphasis) and skinhead extremists to infiltrate the military unquote.''"
What's left out (c'mon, you knew there was something pertinent left out) is the following paragraph:
"The study, by the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks racist groups, was titled "A Few Bad Men." It said that recruiters and base commanders, under intense pressure to fill the thinning ranks, "often look the other way" as militant white supremacists and anti-Semites make their way into the armed forces.
The center quoted a Defense Department investigator as saying: "We've got Aryan Nations graffiti in Baghdad. That's a problem."
Unaware of the DoD concern, McInerney voiced his indignation and denial first, and in true FOX fashion smears the New York Times: "All the trash that's fit to print, Bill" and proceeds to defend and glorify the military, calling it the best ever. He is pleased that the reserves and the National Guard, for the first time in history, are integrated with the active force and have combat experience. He asserts that the re-enlistment rate is about 2/3 and claims that recruiters are more than making their goals for thirteen months in a row now. (That's more than a year, he tells the math-impaired in the audience.) But according to ABCNews.com, "This June marked the ninth month in a row that the Army has met or exceeded its monthly recruiting goal." After finding numerous articles on the shortfalls of last year, figures for the current year are strangely hard to come by. The shortfall last year, the largest margin since 1979 according to Military.com, was attributed to potential recruits shying away from Irag and Afghanistan.
As McInerney continues to defend the military, O'Reilly asks then why would Herbert write that? Is he just misinformed? O'Reilly says "He's basically saying flat out the military's taking Nazis because they can't fill the ranks."
McInerney smears the messenger again, saying "Jason Blair wrote better stuff than this guy. ... I'd can him...He has an agenda, like the New York Times....Let's go after Bush...." and accuses Herbert of going after the troops, absolutely disgraceful. He's the perfect straight man to answer O'Reilly's falsehoods.
Herbert's opinion piece was based on the report from The Southern Poverty Law Center, which in part said
"Ten years after a scandal over neo-Nazis in the armed forces, extremists are once again worming their way into a recruit-starved military. The Intelligence Project uncovers how white supremacists are using military training to prepare for their own wars at home.
Under pressure to meet wartime manpower goals, the U.S. military has relaxed standards designed to weed out racist extremists. Large numbers of potentially violent neo-Nazis, skinheads and other white supremacists are now learning the art of warfare in the armed forces.Department of Defense investigators estimate thousands of soldiers in the Army alone are involved in extremist or gang activity. "We've got Aryan Nations graffiti in Baghdad," said one investigator. "That's a problem."
Hm, Herbert is opining on an earlier Times report that refers to a SPLC report that quotes the DoD, yet somehow O'Reilly is telling his viewers that the "far-left" Herbert at the treasonous New York Times is the source of these unpatriotic (and probably treasonous too, why not) statements. No, no spin there!
O'Reilly turns to Hunt and changes the subject to Boxer's comments and asks if they're true? Hunt acknowledges that returning from a deployment usually requires an adjustment, and that there are doctors better equipped to help those who need it, but denies that the numbers are 30%. He states that we're not sending kids who are on depressants into combat; in fact, he says, "if a soldier is taking a depressant he can't go into combat." O'Reilly lets the mistake go, which leaves viewers with the impression that the Colonel just completely refuted what Senator Boxer said early in the segment. He too defends the soldiers working in 125 degree heat, and then says "I'm afraid there's some lying going on. Boxer knows better. She took a statistic and embellished and once again used soldiers for her political purpose, and that's just wrong. Herbert is either lying or doesn't know what the truth is." He agrees with McKinerney - imagine that - and says there might be one or two neo-nazis - there were two cops working for the Mafia in NYC; does that mean all the NC cops are working for the Mafia? He is making no sense and O'Reilly butts in to prevent him from going any farther afield. Loon.
Maybe Boxer got her numbers from FOXNews.com, which reports that
"Steve Robinson, director of the National Gulf War Resource Center, a veterans advocacy organization.... and other critics point to recent Army statistics indicating that 35 percent of soldiers and Marines returning from Iraq sought mental health care and 19 percent were diagnosed with a mental disorder like post traumatic stress disorder, depression or anxiety within a year of coming home.
"The high rate of using mental health services among Operation Iraqi Freedom veterans after deployment highlights challenges in ensuring that there are adequate resources to meet the mental health needs of returning veterans," reads the study, published by the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in the March 1 Journal of the American Medical Association.
The numbers were based on screening and follow-ups of more than 300,000 troops returning from Iraq, Afghanistan and Bosnia from May 2003 to April 2004, leading many to surmise that the number with mental health problems has increased since then, since the rate of battlefield casualties among U.S. service members has also risen.
"[The study] is only marginally relevant to what condition our troops currently find themselves in," said I.L. Meagher, editor of PTSD Combat: Winning the War Within. "A lot has changed since that time, including increased number of troop deployments ... and an escalation in [improvised explosive device] attacks."
go here for the rest of this
http://www.newshounds.us/2006/07/11/bill_oreillys_false_accusations_du_jour_a_trifecta_of_smears.php
Sunday, September 9, 2007
Nicholson to veterans, you're no different than the rest of the citizens
Nearly $2 billion has been budgeted for homeless veterans’ health care, but $1 billion is earmarked for faith-based programs, such as that operated by the Volunteers of America, to provide per-diem assistance to veterans suffering from addiction and mental disease, Nicholson said.Half the money went to "faith base" programs instead of the VA programs and shelters already operating for all veterans without any strings attached.
“We’re aware of the influx of homeless veterans here and (are aware of the need for) making more resources available for medical and grant per-diem programs,” Nicholson said. “And we’re constantly looking for good, faith-based sponsors here like the VOA.”And are they supporting the shelters that operated all over the country? No they are looking for more "faith based" ones to give money to. Nicholson seems proud of this instead of ashamed that the money has not gone to fund the VA but faith base groups.
Veterans vent to VA leader
Homelessness, few resources are big issues
By SAMUEL IRWIN
Special to The Advocate
Published: Sep 9, 2007 - Page: 5B
Page 1 of 2 SINGLE PAGE VIEW
U.S. Veterans Affairs Secretary Jim Nicholson heard praise, complaints and suggestions Saturday from homeless military veterans while touring the Baton Rouge Volunteers of America nine-bed transitional housing facility on West Garfield Avenue.
Nicholson visited with the veterans in the parlor of the old Odd Fellows Lodge a few blocks away from Magnolia Mound Plantation and the LSU campus.
“We (the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs) are the agents of a grateful society grateful for people who put on the uniform,” Nicholson said. “But we have challenges to take care of the many living veterans who are no different from the rest of the citizens of our country. We have veterans who have problems.”
This is the other part that made me lose my dinner. Nicholson told this group of homeless veterans, they are no different than that rest of the citizens in this country. No different! No different! Is he out of his mind? I wonder how they avoided beating the crap out of him to show him how very different they are?
go here for the rest
http://www.2theadvocate.com/news/9669677.html
Friday, September 7, 2007
Over 500 mental health pros GIVE AN HOUR to veterans
Mental health experts agree to ‘Give an Hour’
By Lisa Burgess, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Friday, September 7, 2007
ARLINGTON, Va. — Mental-health professionals from across the United States are offering free services to military personnel and their families struggling to cope with the effects of deployment and combat.
More than 550 licensed providers have joined Give an Hour, according to its founder and executive director, Barbara Romberg.
The program’s name comes from its basic commitment: Each volunteer agrees to provide at least one hour per week of mental-health support or treatment at no charge, and to participate in the network for at least a year.
Current or former members of the military are a large part of Give an Hour’s target audience, but “we are offering the services to anyone who is affected” by deployments to Iraq or Afghanistan, Romberg said on Wednesday.
click post title for the rest
We do have some heroes here. This needs to be talked about more because a lot of people want to help, they just don't know how. Do you know how much money these people make? This is a real gift to the wounded veterans coming home and much needed.
By Lisa Burgess, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Friday, September 7, 2007
ARLINGTON, Va. — Mental-health professionals from across the United States are offering free services to military personnel and their families struggling to cope with the effects of deployment and combat.
More than 550 licensed providers have joined Give an Hour, according to its founder and executive director, Barbara Romberg.
The program’s name comes from its basic commitment: Each volunteer agrees to provide at least one hour per week of mental-health support or treatment at no charge, and to participate in the network for at least a year.
Current or former members of the military are a large part of Give an Hour’s target audience, but “we are offering the services to anyone who is affected” by deployments to Iraq or Afghanistan, Romberg said on Wednesday.
click post title for the rest
We do have some heroes here. This needs to be talked about more because a lot of people want to help, they just don't know how. Do you know how much money these people make? This is a real gift to the wounded veterans coming home and much needed.
36 percent of veterans have at least one mental health issue
VA to spend $6.5M reviewing mental health care
By Kelly Kennedy - Staff writer
Posted : Friday Sep 7, 2007 15:52:32 EDT
The Department of Veterans Affairs awarded a $6.5 million contract to evaluate its mental health services to Altarum Institute and The Rand/University of Pittsburgh Health Institute.
The two institutes will look at Veterans Health Administration services throughout the country, concentrating on services to veterans with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, major-depressive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder and substance-abuse issues.
The group will conduct surveys, review medical charts and interview patients to determine what works well and what could be done better — including making sure veterans have timely access to care.
VHA officials say 36 percent of the 1.5 million veterans enrolled in the VA health system have at least one mental health issue. Demands upon the mental health care system have increased greatly as troops have returned from Iraq and Afghanistan, overwhelming the administrative system used to process claims as well as the medical staff that provides care.,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2007/09/military_va_mentalhealth_070907w/
By Kelly Kennedy - Staff writer
Posted : Friday Sep 7, 2007 15:52:32 EDT
The Department of Veterans Affairs awarded a $6.5 million contract to evaluate its mental health services to Altarum Institute and The Rand/University of Pittsburgh Health Institute.
The two institutes will look at Veterans Health Administration services throughout the country, concentrating on services to veterans with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, major-depressive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder and substance-abuse issues.
The group will conduct surveys, review medical charts and interview patients to determine what works well and what could be done better — including making sure veterans have timely access to care.
VHA officials say 36 percent of the 1.5 million veterans enrolled in the VA health system have at least one mental health issue. Demands upon the mental health care system have increased greatly as troops have returned from Iraq and Afghanistan, overwhelming the administrative system used to process claims as well as the medical staff that provides care.,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2007/09/military_va_mentalhealth_070907w/
Ohio Cop arrested for shooting himself?
Petition asks court to free officer
By Kelli Wynn
Dayton Daily News
The family of Donald Fink, the Dayton, Ohio, police officer accused of stealing a gun from the department's property room and using it to shoot himself March 13, is asking the community to sign a petition to help get him out of jail.
A Montgomery County grand jury indicted Fink, 32, on charges of grand theft, theft in office, tampering with evidence, inducing panic, making false alarms and misdemeanor falsification. At the time of the incident, Fink was being treated for depression, panic disorder and anxiety disorder, according to attorney Jon Paul Rion.
click post title for the rest
Are they more upset he stole the gun or that he stole it to use it on himself? Guess they never heard of PTSD in Ohio. If they did they would know all it takes is trauma and police are one of its targets.
By Kelli Wynn
Dayton Daily News
The family of Donald Fink, the Dayton, Ohio, police officer accused of stealing a gun from the department's property room and using it to shoot himself March 13, is asking the community to sign a petition to help get him out of jail.
A Montgomery County grand jury indicted Fink, 32, on charges of grand theft, theft in office, tampering with evidence, inducing panic, making false alarms and misdemeanor falsification. At the time of the incident, Fink was being treated for depression, panic disorder and anxiety disorder, according to attorney Jon Paul Rion.
click post title for the rest
Are they more upset he stole the gun or that he stole it to use it on himself? Guess they never heard of PTSD in Ohio. If they did they would know all it takes is trauma and police are one of its targets.
Thursday, September 6, 2007
Spc. Virgadamo, wounded to death
DoD Identifies Army Casualty
The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Spc. Travis M. Virgadamo, 19, of Las Vegas, Nev., died Aug. 30 in Taji, Iraq, in a non-combat related incident. He was assigned to the 3d Squadron, 7th Cavalry Regiment, 2d Brigade Combat Team, 3d Infantry Division, Fort Stewart, Ga.
The circumstances surrounding the death are under investigation.
The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Spc. Travis M. Virgadamo, 19, of Las Vegas, Nev., died Aug. 30 in Taji, Iraq, in a non-combat related incident. He was assigned to the 3d Squadron, 7th Cavalry Regiment, 2d Brigade Combat Team, 3d Infantry Division, Fort Stewart, Ga.
The circumstances surrounding the death are under investigation.
This is how the military reports a suicide death. Under investigation. They leave it up to the media to do follow ups. In this case, they did and so did the family. This is what is needed to fully tell their stories. Stories of deaths just as related to combat as a bullet or a bomb.
Sep. 05, 2007 Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal Soldier from LV dies in Iraq REVIEW-JOURNAL
Operation Iraqi FreedomA special package of news updates, local coverage, multimedia and more.
A soldier from Las Vegas died Thursday in Taji, Iraq, of a non-combat related incident, Department of Defense officials said in a statement.
An Army official told the family that 19-year-old Spc. Travis M. Virgadamo died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound and that the circumstances surrounding his death are under investigation.
The statement posted Monday on the Pentagon's Web site said Virgadamo was assigned to the 3rd Infantry Division's 3rd Squadron, 7th Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team out of Fort Stewart, Ga.
The family prefers donations be made to the Disabled American Veterans.
PTSD is a wound to the mind. How do they send soldiers back into combat with a wounded mind? What are they thinking? Are they thinking at all?
Rushed back to the front: Experts say depressed soldier on drug needed more time
By Ed Koch and Mary ManningPublished in the Sun on Sept. 6
A Las Vegas Army infantryman who was prescribed Prozac for depression and several weeks later killed himself in Iraq should have undergone at least three months of observation before returning to normal duties, psychiatrists and other medical experts said in interviews Wednesday.
Family and friends of Pfc. Travis Virgadamo say he told them he was prescribed daily doses of 12.5 milligrams of the antidepressant Prozac beginning in July. He died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound last Thursday outside of Baghdad, the military said.
Medical experts interviewed by the Sun said anyone given prescription antidepressants should be watched carefully and kept out of high-stress duty for at least three months.
Las Vegas psychiatrist Dr. Mark Collins said anyone on Prozac needs to be checked regularly for 90 days before being returned “to combat — the most stressful of all situations.”
Collins said he has treated many firefighters and police officers with Prozac. “I would return them to light duty or partial duty for a three-month period.”
Experts also noted that research has found that the drugs pose a special risk to teenagers. Virgadamo was 19.
Prozac’s manufacturer, Eli Lilly and Company of Indianapolis, says in its warning that clinical studies indicate that antidepressants “increased the risk of suicidal thinking and behavior in children, adolescents and young adults with depression and other psychiatric disorders.”
Dr. Andrew Leuchter, a professor of psychiatry at UCLA, said young combat soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan are often treated with antidepressants and sent back into the field despite the risks.
“Unfortunately, they take kids out of these situations and put them right back in,” Leuchter said. “The major factor for suicide is to have a major depressive episode.”
http://politics.lasvegassun.com/2007/09/rushed-back-to-.html
Early intervention and treatment saves lives. If they simply give them a couple of sessions with a psychologist and prescription, it is as if they gave them the ammunition to kill themselves. Medications need to be monitored. If they wait until the veteran has healed enough and is truly ready to go back to "work" then they put a dedicated solider back to where they can thrive. This should not be sending them back into combat. It will only make the wound deeper and stronger. There are other jobs the military has for those who want to stay and they do not all involve combat. Whatever they are thinking by putting these wounded soldiers into positions where they are traumatized even more is a disgrace. They are not machines!
Kathie Costos
Wednesday, September 5, 2007
The killing of Jamie Dean
The killing of Jamie Dean
Police in rural Maryland staged a military stakeout and shot a troubled Army vet. As his family plans to sue, they are asking how a soldier being treated for PTSD could be shipped to Iraq.
By Julia Dahl
Photo: Muriel Dean
Jamie Dean, Dec. 17, 2006.
Sept. 5, 2007 | Jamie Dean had been holed up in his childhood home for six hours when the tear gas canisters came crashing through the windows. It was a little after 4 a.m., the day after Christmas 2006, and Sgt. James Emerick Dean, 29, formerly of the 25th Infantry Division, knew he was surrounded. The white farmhouse was tucked beside a grove of trees in Leonardtown, a rural hamlet in southern Maryland, where Dean's family once raised tobacco. Now, from behind the blinds, Dean could see cops with flashlights creeping around his backyard. He could see police cars on the dirt road outside the house. He could hear the sirens and the shouting and the buzz of the police radios.
It had been a month since Dean had gotten word he'd have to go back to war. He had already served a year in Afghanistan. He'd done and seen things over there he couldn't talk about, and now they were sending him to Iraq. Like tens of thousands of soldiers fighting the post-9/11 wars, Dean was being treated by the Department of Veterans Affairs for post-traumatic stress disorder -- but the Army didn't know that because the Army and the V.A. don't typically share medical records.
Soprano's Gandolfini takes on PTSD and the troops
James Gandolfini's Iraq documentary Sept. 5: Learn more about the HBO documentary that will be featured on tonight's Nightly News broadcast. "Sopranos" star James Gandolfini talks to Brian Williams about taking on a new role -- advocating for the wounded.
Today show
Today show
James Gandolfini returns to HBO with new documentary
Posted Jun 30th 2007 11:30AM
Posted Jun 30th 2007 11:30AM
Filed under: Programming, Celebrities, The Sopranos
Remember that exclusive three-year deal that James Gandolfini signed with HBO last year? Well, it's finally bearing fruit in the form of a documentary that focuses on the wounded soldiers of the Iraq War.
Remember that exclusive three-year deal that James Gandolfini signed with HBO last year? Well, it's finally bearing fruit in the form of a documentary that focuses on the wounded soldiers of the Iraq War.
Alive Day Memories: Home From Iraq is Gandolfini's first post-Sopranos project for HBO as well as the first project from his new production company, Attaboy Films. The documentary, which will debut on Sunday, September 9, will focus on the new generation of wounded veterans who have returned from Iraq. Gandolfini, the documentary's executive producer, interviews ten of the wounded veterans who reveal their severe disabilities and their plans for the future.
This will be the third HBO Documentary Films production focusing on the Iraq War. The first, Baghdad ER, focused on the personnel of a Combat Support Hospital and won an Emmy and Peabody award. The second, Last Letters Home: Voices of American Troops from the Battlefields of Iraq, featured the letters of ten men and women killed in action over in the Middle East.
From HBO
From Executive Producer James Gandolfini
Alive Day Memories
Home From Iraq
Premieres Sunday, September 9 at 10:30PM
In a war that has left more than 25,000 wounded,
ALIVE DAY MEMORIES: HOME FROM IRAQ looks at a new generation of veterans. Executive Producer James Gandolfini interviews ten Soldiers and Marines who reveal their feelings on their future, their severe disabilities and their devotion to America. The documentary surveys the physical and emotional cost of war through memories of their "alive day," the day they narrowly escaped death in Iraq.
Watch the entire ALIVE DAY MEMORIES special on HBO.com beginning Sunday, September 9 at 11:30pm, immediately following the premiere.Watch the Entire Film-->
> Interview with Executive Producer James Gandolfini
READ THEIR STORIES
Tuesday, September 4, 2007
Veteran good enough to fight, get wounded, but not good enough for congresswoman to meet
Wronged vet fighting for justice here, in D.C.
FORT WAYNE-More than a decade ago, U.S. Army veteran John Evans was trying to alert the nation to a serious healthcare crisis when it came to treating military men who had served their nation admirably in times of war. He largely was ignored. Now with recent startling and embarrassing revelations about conditions and treatment at once-highly regarded military healthcare facilities such as Walter Reed Hospital in Washington, D.C., Evans finally is being vindicated by many who once tried to ignore him-including some politicians. But, rather than retiring from the fight, Evans is planning to step up his battle to find justice for veterans. That includes organizing a public protest for Sept. 5 through Sept. 7 in front of the Federal Building, 1300 S. Harrison St.-right here in Fort Wayne, where it all began.
In 1994, Evans, a decorated Vietnam War veteran who said he had been declared 100 percent disabled due to Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome, woke up to find his world had collapsed around him. His veteran's benefits mysteriously had disappeared leaving him unable to pay his bills and his bank account had been closed. After frantically calling the Veterans Administration and the bank, Evans discovered that he mistakenly had been declared dead by the Social Security Administration, which had confused him with his son, John Patrick Logan, who had passed away. According to Evans, it was two months before he received a letter informing him that he had been-mistakenly-declared dead. During that time, stress began to mount until he suffered a severe heart attack.
The situation went from bad to worse. While having the heart attack, Evans instructed his brother to take him to Parkview Hospital on Randallia Drive-just blocks away from the local Veterans Administration Medical Center on Lake Avenue. Evans said he made the decision to be taken there because he knew the VA didn't have the facilities for critical heart care and credits that decision-along with doctors, he said-with saving his life through emergency bypass surgery. But, not having a fee–based medical card, which allows veterans to seek care from private sources under various circumstances, the Veterans Administration refused to pay his hospital bills, leaving Evans under even more stress.
He moved to Washington to get things done for veterans, but when it came to his own member of Congress, he was screaming in an empty room (just like most of us have been)
For a time, he lived in Maryland, where he met with congressional representatives there, before moving officially to Washington, D.C., where he's organized protests in front of the White House. But in a bit of bitter irony, Evans said he hasn't gotten any support from his Washington representative-Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, who like Evans, is black. According to Evans, he's been trying to get a meeting with Norton for about a year and has received no word back.
"I'm good enough to fight for our country and get wounded, but I'm not good enough to meet with my congresswoman," said Evans.
click post title for the rest
Bike trip from Seattle to Gloucester to raise awareness of PTSD
Vacation Spent Helping Veterans
Cyclist Rides Across Country
By LORETTA WALDMAN | Courant Staff Writer
September 5, 2007
SIMSBURY - In mid-June, 53-year-old Tariffville resident Wayne Coste began a 4,200-mile coast-to-coast bicycle trip.
The 64-day journey, which took him and 25 other cyclists through 13 states and a Canadian province, began in Seattle and ended Aug. 18 in Gloucester, Mass.
That may seem less than relaxing as vacations go, but Coste wasn't looking to kick back.
He was on a mission to raise awareness about the plight of returning military personnel suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, an invisible but devastating psychological wound affecting one in five veterans returning from Iraq.
Coste, an engineer with ISO New England, is not a veteran, nor is he close to anyone diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. His interest in the condition, he said, began with reading articles about how difficult it can be for veterans to get treatment. It solidified in October when he attended a presentation by Dr. Edward Tick, director of Soldier's Heart, an Albany, N.Y.-based nonprofit that promotes community-based efforts helping service personnel and their families heal from the effects of war.
click post title for the rest
Cyclist Rides Across Country
By LORETTA WALDMAN | Courant Staff Writer
September 5, 2007
SIMSBURY - In mid-June, 53-year-old Tariffville resident Wayne Coste began a 4,200-mile coast-to-coast bicycle trip.
The 64-day journey, which took him and 25 other cyclists through 13 states and a Canadian province, began in Seattle and ended Aug. 18 in Gloucester, Mass.
That may seem less than relaxing as vacations go, but Coste wasn't looking to kick back.
He was on a mission to raise awareness about the plight of returning military personnel suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, an invisible but devastating psychological wound affecting one in five veterans returning from Iraq.
Coste, an engineer with ISO New England, is not a veteran, nor is he close to anyone diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. His interest in the condition, he said, began with reading articles about how difficult it can be for veterans to get treatment. It solidified in October when he attended a presentation by Dr. Edward Tick, director of Soldier's Heart, an Albany, N.Y.-based nonprofit that promotes community-based efforts helping service personnel and their families heal from the effects of war.
click post title for the rest
Traumatised soldier admits hitting wife
TRAUMATISED SOLDIER ADMITS HITTING WIFE
South Wales Evening Post - Swansea,Wales,UK
He said Storey "had come to accept that he is exhibiting the archetypal symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder". Mr Harrett went on to say: "As is usual ...
South Wales Evening Post - Swansea,Wales,UK
He said Storey "had come to accept that he is exhibiting the archetypal symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder". Mr Harrett went on to say: "As is usual ...
Colonel draws fire for study on recruit stress
Colonel draws fire for study on recruit stress
The Associated Press
Posted : Tuesday Sep 4, 2007 7:38:20 EDT
COLUMBUS, Ga. — A decorated Army colonel who served as a combat surgeon in Afghanistan is now at odds with the Army over a scientific study aimed at identifying the impact of stress on recruits.
Col. Richard Gonzales earned a Bronze Star and other Army accolades for his service and was recognized for volunteering for an extra year in the Middle East but has since been demoted and is under investigation for arranging a researcher’s no-bid contract and conducting an unapproved study, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Monday.
Army documents show the research board that first approved the study shares blame for miscommunication and mistakes, and did not explain study requirements or properly supervise Gonzales, who was a first-time researcher. The research board is now investigating Gonzales’ team.
At issue is whether intensely private details shared by recruits — including accounts of childhood abuse and molestation — have been disclosed. In the course of the investigation, the Army removed the recruits’ private files so it could turn Gonzales’ locked study office into an employee break room without his knowledge. The Army wouldn’t tell him where the study’s computer was, according to records.
click post title for the rest
The Associated Press
Posted : Tuesday Sep 4, 2007 7:38:20 EDT
COLUMBUS, Ga. — A decorated Army colonel who served as a combat surgeon in Afghanistan is now at odds with the Army over a scientific study aimed at identifying the impact of stress on recruits.
Col. Richard Gonzales earned a Bronze Star and other Army accolades for his service and was recognized for volunteering for an extra year in the Middle East but has since been demoted and is under investigation for arranging a researcher’s no-bid contract and conducting an unapproved study, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Monday.
Army documents show the research board that first approved the study shares blame for miscommunication and mistakes, and did not explain study requirements or properly supervise Gonzales, who was a first-time researcher. The research board is now investigating Gonzales’ team.
At issue is whether intensely private details shared by recruits — including accounts of childhood abuse and molestation — have been disclosed. In the course of the investigation, the Army removed the recruits’ private files so it could turn Gonzales’ locked study office into an employee break room without his knowledge. The Army wouldn’t tell him where the study’s computer was, according to records.
click post title for the rest
Lawmaker Seeks “De-Boot” Camp Following Tour
Lawmaker Seeks “De-Boot” Camp Following Tour
Terri
September 4th, 2007
In The News, Military
When reading this story, I was reminded of the program that the Minnesota National Guard does with their Troops as they return from Iraq and Afghanistan. Upon their return, they stay in the barracks for 3-6 weeks where they undergo debriefing and decompression time. Their families are an integral part of this process and it appears to be extremely successful; so much so, that it’s being considered as a program that may be used nationwide.
I’m all for anything that will assist our Troops in being able make the transition back into life at home easier for them. The more interventions that are in place and the more preventative programs that are in place from the start, the less problems we’re likely to see. I think the program that Representative Filner describes here would be a wonderful addition to programs that are already in place. I know that it would be tough, having to spend that much more time away from their homes, but having seen some of the problems that can result from suddenly thrusting our Warriors immediately back into life here at home, I think it’s something that should be given some heavy consideration.
In a speech he made on Wednesday, Representative Bob Filner, a Democrat from California announced that he will push a bill in Congress, to open camps that can possibly help prepare veterans for some of the difficulties that they face as they return from the war-torn regions of Iraq and Afghanistan. These camps, called “de-boot camps” or “Heroes Homecoming Camps” could be made a mandatory requirement for active duty Soldiers and could include their family members as well as others in their unit, according to Rep. Filner.
“When you leave the combat zone, you can be in Baghdad yesterday and tomorrow you are taking your kids to a soccer game. There is no time for decompression,” he said, pointing to the high rates of domestic violence, alcohol and drug abuse, increases in teh diasnosis of PTSD and TBI and a increase in the suicide rate. “We’re releasing a time bomb to the community.”
click post title for the rest
Terri
September 4th, 2007
In The News, Military
When reading this story, I was reminded of the program that the Minnesota National Guard does with their Troops as they return from Iraq and Afghanistan. Upon their return, they stay in the barracks for 3-6 weeks where they undergo debriefing and decompression time. Their families are an integral part of this process and it appears to be extremely successful; so much so, that it’s being considered as a program that may be used nationwide.
I’m all for anything that will assist our Troops in being able make the transition back into life at home easier for them. The more interventions that are in place and the more preventative programs that are in place from the start, the less problems we’re likely to see. I think the program that Representative Filner describes here would be a wonderful addition to programs that are already in place. I know that it would be tough, having to spend that much more time away from their homes, but having seen some of the problems that can result from suddenly thrusting our Warriors immediately back into life here at home, I think it’s something that should be given some heavy consideration.
In a speech he made on Wednesday, Representative Bob Filner, a Democrat from California announced that he will push a bill in Congress, to open camps that can possibly help prepare veterans for some of the difficulties that they face as they return from the war-torn regions of Iraq and Afghanistan. These camps, called “de-boot camps” or “Heroes Homecoming Camps” could be made a mandatory requirement for active duty Soldiers and could include their family members as well as others in their unit, according to Rep. Filner.
“When you leave the combat zone, you can be in Baghdad yesterday and tomorrow you are taking your kids to a soccer game. There is no time for decompression,” he said, pointing to the high rates of domestic violence, alcohol and drug abuse, increases in teh diasnosis of PTSD and TBI and a increase in the suicide rate. “We’re releasing a time bomb to the community.”
click post title for the rest
Part of being tough is admitting you need help with PTSD
"Many Vietnam vets died miserable, alone and young," he said. "This is not going to happen to these guys."
Army taking stress out of seeking help
Tuesday, September 04, 2007
By NIKI DOYLE
Times Staff Writer niki.doyle@htimes.com
Program aims to fight idea that it's a sign of weakness
More than 30 years after thousands of "shell-shocked" soldiers left Vietnam, the U.S. Army is taking steps to help soldiers leaving Iraq adjust successfully to civilian life.
The Army is requiring all its employees - soldiers and civilians - to participate in a seminar on post traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, and mild traumatic brain injury.
........"Soldiers don't want to appear weak," Battle said. "That's the kind of statement that leaders want to fight against. Part of being tough is admitting you need help."
click post title for the rest
Army taking stress out of seeking help
Tuesday, September 04, 2007
By NIKI DOYLE
Times Staff Writer niki.doyle@htimes.com
Program aims to fight idea that it's a sign of weakness
More than 30 years after thousands of "shell-shocked" soldiers left Vietnam, the U.S. Army is taking steps to help soldiers leaving Iraq adjust successfully to civilian life.
The Army is requiring all its employees - soldiers and civilians - to participate in a seminar on post traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, and mild traumatic brain injury.
........"Soldiers don't want to appear weak," Battle said. "That's the kind of statement that leaders want to fight against. Part of being tough is admitting you need help."
click post title for the rest
Monday, September 3, 2007
Soldiers Urged to Get Treatment for Stress
Soldiers Urged to Get Treatment for Stress
Stars and Stripes | Erik Slavin | August 31, 2007
CAMP RED CLOUD, South Korea — U.S. Army Garrison Red Cloud officials urged soldiers and civilians at a Thursday briefing in the theater to get help if they are dealing with post-combat stress.
Camp Stanley operations officer Capt. Lis-Mary Wilson’s briefing also encouraged supervisors to watch for signs of post-traumatic stress disorder in their workers.
The message was delivered, but its success ultimately depends on soldiers and civilians feeling comfortable enough to seek help from chaplains, doctors and social workers.
PTSD News and Resources
“No one has the right to judge you. They don’t know what you saw or what you’ve done,” Wilson told the 30 to 40 soldiers and civilians in attendance, along with about 20 South Korean soldiers.
Soldiers won’t be punished for seeking help, Wilson said. But how will a soldier who misses time at his post for long-term care be seen in the eyes of a commander? What will care from a psychiatrist mean to a promotion board?
click post title for the rest
Stars and Stripes | Erik Slavin | August 31, 2007
CAMP RED CLOUD, South Korea — U.S. Army Garrison Red Cloud officials urged soldiers and civilians at a Thursday briefing in the theater to get help if they are dealing with post-combat stress.
Camp Stanley operations officer Capt. Lis-Mary Wilson’s briefing also encouraged supervisors to watch for signs of post-traumatic stress disorder in their workers.
The message was delivered, but its success ultimately depends on soldiers and civilians feeling comfortable enough to seek help from chaplains, doctors and social workers.
PTSD News and Resources
“No one has the right to judge you. They don’t know what you saw or what you’ve done,” Wilson told the 30 to 40 soldiers and civilians in attendance, along with about 20 South Korean soldiers.
Soldiers won’t be punished for seeking help, Wilson said. But how will a soldier who misses time at his post for long-term care be seen in the eyes of a commander? What will care from a psychiatrist mean to a promotion board?
click post title for the rest
Sunday, September 2, 2007
Suicide, is something we can live without
Suicide: ‘People think it’s a choice’
West Virginia has eighth-highest rate in country
By Mary Wade Burnside
Times West Virginian
FAIRMONT — Rebecca Wells saw her husband transform from a motivated business executive who enjoyed working out to someone overcome by depression, which ran in his family.
He sought counseling, took medication and even tried shock therapy. But one day in March 2006, the Huntington man told his wife he was going out of town. Instead, he went to a nearby lake and killed himself. Authorities found him just after Wells filed a missing person report.
“I have days that I have anger, but I’m not angry at him,” she said. “I watched him struggle to get out of bed and I watched him cry.
“What really makes me angry is when people think it’s a choice. He didn’t go through what he did because he wanted to.”
Because Wells wants to spread the word about suicide, she has become a bit of an activist. She has organized a walk called “Out of the Darkness” that will take place Oct. 6 in Ritter Park in Huntington, and she also joined the board of the Morgantown-based West Virginia Council for the Prevention of Suicide.
Bob Musick, executive director of the council, which he runs from his office at Valley Healthcare System in Morgantown, began the group in 2001 to reach out statewide to help people, both those considering suicide and those who have experienced the self-imposed death of a loved one.
West Virginia, he noted, has the eighth-highest suicide rate per capita of all 50 states, he noted. Alaska ranks No. 1.
“One reason is we rank high in guns in the home,” Musick said. “We also rank high in rural areas and we rank high in the number of senior citizens. Each one adds on to it.”
To commemorate National Suicide Prevention Week, which takes place Sept. 9-15, the council will begin a Suicide Survivors Group, which will meet from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Sept. 11 at Valley Healthcare System, 301 Scott Ave., Morgantown.
click post title for the rest
Luke 10
26 He said unto him, What is written in the law? How readest thou?
27 And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself.
28 And he said unto him, Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt alive.
29 But he, willing to ajustify himself, said unto Jesus, And who is my neighbour?
30 And Jesus answering said, A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead.
31 And by chance there came down a certain priest that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.
32 And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side.
33 But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him,
34 And went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him.
35 And on the morrow when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave them to the host, and said unto him, Take care of him; and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee.
36 Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbour unto him that fell among the thieves?
37 And he said, He that shewed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise
Veterans deserve needed care for life
Editorial: Veterans deserve needed care for life
Eagle Editorial
Byron Hancock is a hero, a veteran of battles foreign and domestic who continues to struggle with emotional wounds suffered in defense of this country.
His war in Iraq is over, but we fear his war with his own government for the treatment he deserves will continue well into the future. Like far too many other service men and women, he has had to fight for the treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder he has received so far.
A four-part series in The Eagle this past week (www.theeagle.com) told Hancock's story in dramatic and often frustrating detail. Parts of the saga make you want to cheer. Others make you want to weep for a country that would do so little for those who have done so much for us all. It is a cautionary tale about the cost of waging war and the obligation we have to those who fight our battles.
Hancock joined the Marine Corps Reserve in 1988, while still a senior in high school near Nacogdoches. At boot camp, he was named his platoon's top graduate and earned the marksmanship and physical fitness awards. In 1992, Hancock was sent to the extremely difficult Marine Corps Sniper School. Of the 32 men who started the training, Hancock was one of only six to finish, graduating second in the class and becoming one of the elite of the elite. The next year, he became the first Reservist and the first corporal to be invited to return for advanced training.
Being a sniper requires great patience, outstanding skills and the ability to kill, even when not directly threatened. It is a thankless job, but a necessary one.
Hancock spent the next few years as part of the 15-member Marine Reserve Rifle Team, during which he continued to hone his sniper skills.
Eventually, though, he decided to return full time to his job with the Bryan Police Department. He was named Officer of the Year by the Bryan Police Officers Association in 1997 and again in 1998. Eventually, Hancock left the Marine Corps Reserves - that is, until after Sept. 11, 2001. He rejoined the active Reserves and, after service teaching sniper tactics to South American militaries, Hancock was sent to Iraq in August 2004. He fought in Fallujah, killing an enemy insurgent from 1,050 yards away - believed to be the longest successful sniper shot of this war. Months later, after six days lying in a cold, wet ditch observing suspicious activity, Hancock was ordered to kill a teenage boy who was trying to connect several improvised explosive devices that could have killed many American soldiers.
Eventually, Hancock came home, bringing with him an emotional burden that would haunt him and his family in the months to come. He began having flashbacks and nightmare images of slitting throats - events that never happened. He was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, an illness once denied by the government but one that continues to haunt many veterans of the Korean and Vietnam conflicts and, increasingly, veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. Doctors still struggle to learn all its ramifications, but treatment is available, although success rates vary with the individual.
The real problem is that the Veterans Administration is unable to handle the growing number of current and former service members needing assistance. Hancock learned that when he tried to get help for his illness from the VA. Amazingly, he was put on a waiting list for the post-traumatic stress disorder program at the Temple Veterans Administration Hospital.
The VA says between 12 percent and 20 percent of Iraq war veterans suffer from the disorder, although a study cited by a Department of Defense task force puts that number at 38 percent for Army soldiers and 31 percent for Marines. Alarmingly, the study found that 49 percent of its respondents in the National Guard reported problems.
click post title for the rest
Saturday, September 1, 2007
WOUNDS OF WAR Mental troubles plagued man before suicide
WOUNDS OF WAR
For one veteran, struggle didn't end
Mental troubles plagued man before suicide
By Laura Ungar
lungar@courier-journal.com
The Courier-Journal
RELATED VIDEO: Derek Henderson Interviews
Derek Henderson's hands shook as he held the railing on the Clark Memorial Bridge and stared down at the dark waters of the Ohio River.
A few feet away stood Aisha "Nikki" McGuire and her boyfriend, Patrick Craig, who had spotted Henderson while driving by. They begged him not to jump -- "It's not worth it," they said.
Henderson wouldn't say what brought him there. "I don't want to talk about it," he told Craig, before climbing over the railing and hanging for a moment off the other side.
McGuire looked at his face and saw fear. She ran to police officers who were just pulling up, as the big clock on the Colgate plant across the river in Indiana showed a few minutes before midnight.
Craig kept pleading with Henderson: "God is with you, man. Come on."
"Thank you, brother," Henderson said.
Then he let go.
On that night in mid-June, Henderson, a 27-year-old Louisville resident who'd served with the Army in Iraq and Afghanistan, surrendered to an enemy that has tormented thousands of veterans.
Like nearly one out of every five Americans who have served in the conflicts, Henderson suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. And like many of them, he had made the rounds of veterans' hospitals and psychiatric wards but still was unable to defeat his demons.
Although it's unclear exactly when he was diagnosed.click post title for the rest
also from this site
MORE PHOTOS
Iraqi war veteran Derek Henderson
RELATED STORIES
• Video: Derek Henderson Interviews [9.2.07]
• Brain injuries haunt soldiers [7.15.07]
• Veterans' ills may show MS link to Gulf War [6.3.07]
• Iraq news brings on relapses for earlier war's vets [5.28.07]
• Hospitals plagued by long waits, low staffing [5.28.07]
• More war vets bring disabling stress home [5.28.07]
• Fighting financial wounds [5.23.07]
• War widow serves by attending funerals [5.23.07]
• Army vows to inspect its hospitals [5.23.07]
• Problems at Walter Reed spark criticism [5.23.07]
• Getting 'back to normal' [5.23.07]
• Many vets lose health benefits [5.23.07]
• VA backs directive against recruiting [5.23.07]
• Days marked by duty, dismay, death [5.23.07]
• VA's ban on recruiting vets angers activists [5.23.07]
FULL COVERAGE: Wounds of War
How many times is this going to happen? How much more do we need to know before we do whatever it takes to stop them from killing themselves? When will I be able to read the reports and stop asking "why" there still isn't enough being done?
Military PTSD support for spouse on line
Spouse Calls
Stripes columnist Terri Barnes offers advice and an understanding ear to her fellow military spouses.
EMDR treatments for PTSD
Posted August 19th, 2007
by Terri Barnes
in
Spouse Calls
A Spouse Calls reader who suffered from PTSD wrote recently to tell me that she had found relief from her debilitating symptoms through eye movement desensitizing and reprocessing (EMDR). She had been following the Spouse Calls blog regarding PTSD, and wondered if her experience could help others.
A story by Steve Mraz in Stars & Stripes details how medical professionals at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany are being trained to administer EMDR to returning veterans. The treatment has been around since the late 1980's.
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If you have a family member in the military or veteran, go there and find some support. You need it as much as they do.
If you want some help understanding that what you're going through is not just you, click the link on this blog for the free book. It's about 18 years of our life together. My husband is a Vietnam Vet with PTSD. The book is For The Love Of Jack His War/My Battle. It opens in Adobe. I've been doing outreach work ever since the day I fell in love with him and my father said he had "shell shock"
As you read it, keep in mind one really important thing to find some hope. This month we've been married for 23 years.
The videos I've done are also here whenever you need them.
Clergy in New Orleans need PTSD counseling
Clergy in New Orleans need counseling
By JANET McCONNAUGHEY, Associated Press Writer
Fri Aug 31, 5:20 PM ET
NEW ORLEANS - Clergymen struggling to comfort the afflicted in New Orleans are finding they, too, need someone to listen to their troubles.
By JANET McCONNAUGHEY, Associated Press Writer
Fri Aug 31, 5:20 PM ET
NEW ORLEANS - Clergymen struggling to comfort the afflicted in New Orleans are finding they, too, need someone to listen to their troubles.
The sight of misery all around them — and the combined burden of helping others put their lives back together while repairing their own homes and places of worship — are taking a spiritual and psychological toll on the city's ministers, priests and rabbis, many of whom are in counseling two years after Hurricane Katrina.
Almost every local Episcopal minister is in counseling, including Bishop Charles Jenkins himself, who has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.
Jenkins, whose home in suburban Slidell was so badly damaged by Katrina that it was 10 months before he and his wife could move back in, said he has suffered from depression, faulty short-term memory, and difficulty concentrating or sleeping.
Low-flying helicopters sometimes cause flashbacks to the near-despair — the "dark night of the soul" — into which he was once plunged, he said. He said the experience felt "like the absence of God" — a lonely and frightening sensation.
Churches and synagogues have played an important role in New Orleans' recovery, supplying money and thousands of volunteers to rebuild homes and resettle families. But an April survey found 444 places of worship in metropolitan New Orleans — about 30 percent — were still closed 20 months after the storm because they were damaged or their congregations scattered. click post title for the rest.
Even clergy can feel the absence of God after trauma. It is not the only outcome of PTSD but it shows that a strong faith will not prevent PTSD. It has nothing to do with faith, nothing to do with courage, or bravery, education, intelligence, patriotism or anything else other than a human being exposed to trauma.
Think of what this event in New Orleans is teaching us about combat. Think of the results from this one storm and the flood that followed when the waters came rushing in. Leaving politics out of it ( which is very hard for me to do) this event left scars that will last a lifetime that no one else can see with their eyes.
September 11, 2001, is engrained in the soul's of the people from New York more than anyone else in the nation, while the nation feels the heart tug, we were not there. Some felt as if their lives were in danger across the nation, but they were not there witnessing it in real time. We are still seeing the numbers increase from those exposed to this one day's events.
Now add in these traumatic days, acknowledge the wounds the people exposed to them carry, then think about experiencing them everyday for a year or now for fifteen months, and still knowing that when you go home, the safety of home will not last because you will be re-attacked all over again in the next round of redeployments. Some are on their fifth tour.
Then think of the people having to live in Iraq. Those who do not get to go home for a rest because it is their homes being attacked on a daily basis. They did nothing wrong and they lived in relative peaceful neighborhoods before the invasion. The Iraqi people have traumatic events happen daily, horrifically and without end.
Why is it we can understand the effects of Post Traumatic Stress when it happens here but we can never accept it when it happens someplace else? Each time this nation experiences a traumatic event, there are after shocks reverberating for many years and yet this nation still regards PTSD as if it were some kind of personal defect.
The plain simple truth is, you cannot expose a human to trauma and expect them to just get over it. No one ever lives their lives the same way after trauma. A part of them changes. Sometimes it is only slight changes but other times it is truly life altering.
Friday, August 31, 2007
PTSD Vet Of Iraq War Honored In Launch Of Foundation
Aug 30, 2007 4:27 pm US/Central
Vet Of Iraq War Honored In Launch Of Foundation (AP) Minneapolis Robert Herubin knew his friend Jonathan Schulze, after a tour of combat duty in Iraq, was on a downward spiral.
Depressed, drinking heavily and suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, nobody was able to reach the troubled Marine before he killed himself in January. Herubin and others close to the Purple Heart recipient wondered what more could have been done. An answer has since emerged in the form of the Jonathan Schulze "I Can't Hear You" Foundation, which aims to pair veterans returning from combat with other veterans who have experienced war. Such a relationship might have saved Schulze, believes Herubin, himself a veteran of the first Gulf War.
"This is about these guys being able to talk to someone who's been there and done that.
Someone who knows what it's like to fight and kill," he said. Herubin came up with the foundation's name while he was at Schulze's wake. Herubin had placed a cap next to Schulze's body with the words "I Can't Hear You!" emblazoned across the front.
It's a phrase often doled out by drill instructors to their timid new recruits, but as Herubin stared into Schulze's coffin, it suddenly meant something else. "You were right there," Herubin recalled thinking, "and I couldn't hear you." The group is launching its first chapter at a VFW post in suburban Prior Lake, where Herubin first met Schulze after he returned from Iraq and a grueling tour that included door-to-door combat in the city of Fallujah. go here for the rest http://wcco.com/local/local_story_242173154.html
If you watched Death Because They Served (video at the bottom of this blog) you will see Jonathan in the video, along with over a hundred more. It took a long time to find their stories. Stories very few even want to hear, yet these men and women, so wounded by combat, could not find anyone to help them heal. Love cannot cure PTSD no more than time can. You cannot wish it away or ignore it away. Jonathan tired to get the help he needed but it wasn't there for him when he needed it. Too many have been sent away because no one bothered to prepare for these combat wounded before the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq happened. History had already recorded the battle wounds of those who came from other wars, in other times and in nations around the world because history knew those who participated in combat were only humans exposed to the most horrific experiences known to man.
There are many who succeeded in committing suicide, while many more have tired. They have been redeployed tragically wounded with a boat load of pills to keep them useful, instead of healing their wounded minds. Rob Withrow is one of them. He tried to commit suicide four times but they sent him back all the same.
Broken Warrior: One soldier's struggleFirst it was the horrors of Iraq. Now, Rob Withrow is locked in a fight with his own Army superiors.He is not the only one this happened too. There have been over 22,000 given a dishonorable discharge instead of being appreciated and treated for their wounds received while serving the directives of this administration. They have done every duty the other wounded and fallen accomplished and yet their wounds are to be ignored, treated as a burden to society and cast aside as if suddenly they are no use to the military they loved and the nation they served.
He wants mental health treatment -- they want him to face a court-martial
By CAROL SMITHP-I REPORTER
Rob Withrow was a good soldier until he got back from combat duty in Iraq.
Now by his own admission, he is no longer anyone's idea of a model fighting man. He screwed up, and he's screwed up -- an assessment the Army would agree with.
Mike Urban / P-I
U.S. Army soldier Rob Withrow, photographed among the yellow ribbons tied to the Freedom Bridge across Interstate 5 near Fort Lewis. Since his problems began, Withrow has been reduced in rank from sergeant to private.
But that's where their agreement ends.
Withrow wants mental health treatment. He has tried to commit suicide four times since returning from Iraq. He has been hospitalized in Madigan Army Medical Center's inpatient psychiatric unit on multiple occasions and is currently on a cocktail of antidepressants and psychoactive drugs. He is a month out of treatment for an addiction to narcotic pain pills that he began taking to "numb out" the month he returned from Iraq and he does not fit the Army's new criteria for deployment.
But now the Army wants to redeploy him to Iraq, and court- martial him over there.
The charges stem from his pattern of not showing up on time, or sometimes at all.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/311672_soldier14.html
The shame is shared by everyone in this nation who believes sticking a removable magnet to the back of their vehicle is all that is needed to support those we send. It is remarkable that this is also the attitude they show to the wounded where their "support" is as removable as the magnet that leaves no trace when taken away. The traces they cannot see or feel because that is reserved for those who truly cared about them and for them.
Kathie Costos
Namguardianangel@aol.com
http://www.namguardianangel.org/
http://www.namguardianangel.blogspot.com/
http://www.woundedtimes.blogspot.com/
"The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive veterans of early wars were treated and appreciated by our nation." - George Washington
Thursday, August 30, 2007
Dave Matthews fighting for those who fight for us
Why do veterans have to fight for their wounds to be treated and to be compensated for what they have lost? What about the dignity of those who have earned everything they are asking for and need? Why do they have to beg and plead with the country for help that should have been ready and waiting for them? kc
Dave Matthews Fights for Vets' Rights
Load: jimstaro
Dave Matthews Fights for Traumatized Troops http://abcnews.go.com/ThisWeek/Voices/story?id=3378402
Voices: Pushes to Ensure Those Who Served Aren't Denied Disability Benefits Matthews Urges Better Care for Troops
http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory?id=3379596
Dave Matthews Band Petition Drive Urges Better Mental Health Care for Troops For more information on the Dave Matthews...Tags: Iraq Afganistan War VeteransRights Veterans DaveMatthewsBand MilitaryCare
Spc. John R. Fish death suspected suicide
Thursday, August 30, 2007
Associated Press
EL PASO, Texas — U.S. Army officials have found the body of a 19-year-old soldier who vanished this week from a desert training range in Texas and they say he apparently killed himself.
Searchers found Spc. John R. Fish, clad in his Army uniform, Wednesday afternoon while flying over a patch of rugged desert surrounding the Dona Ana Base Camp, about 30 miles (50 kilometers) from Fort Bliss in New Mexico, said Jean Offutt, a fort spokeswoman. His body was found about 1 1/2 miles (2.4 kilometers) north of the camp.
Fish suffered what investigators believe to be a single, self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, Offutt said. His weapon was found near his body, Offutt said.
Fish was reported missing Monday morning when he did not show up for morning roll call. Army officials later found a handwritten note on his bunk reading: "I have some things to take care of. I won't be coming back."
Fish vanished that morning wearing his camouflage uniform and carrying a squad automatic weapon.
He served a yearlong tour in Iraq, returning in November, but was assigned largely non-combat jobs, said Lt. Col. Ina Yahn, who commands Fish's 589th Brigade Support Battalion.
Associated Press
EL PASO, Texas — U.S. Army officials have found the body of a 19-year-old soldier who vanished this week from a desert training range in Texas and they say he apparently killed himself.
Searchers found Spc. John R. Fish, clad in his Army uniform, Wednesday afternoon while flying over a patch of rugged desert surrounding the Dona Ana Base Camp, about 30 miles (50 kilometers) from Fort Bliss in New Mexico, said Jean Offutt, a fort spokeswoman. His body was found about 1 1/2 miles (2.4 kilometers) north of the camp.
Fish suffered what investigators believe to be a single, self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, Offutt said. His weapon was found near his body, Offutt said.
Fish was reported missing Monday morning when he did not show up for morning roll call. Army officials later found a handwritten note on his bunk reading: "I have some things to take care of. I won't be coming back."
Fish vanished that morning wearing his camouflage uniform and carrying a squad automatic weapon.
He served a yearlong tour in Iraq, returning in November, but was assigned largely non-combat jobs, said Lt. Col. Ina Yahn, who commands Fish's 589th Brigade Support Battalion.
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