Thursday, May 29, 2008

Spc. Justin Buxbaum non-combat death in Afghanistan

Maine Native Killed In Afghanistan


Web Editor: John Blunda, Associate Producer
Created: 5/27/2008 1:38:33 PM
Updated: 5/28/2008 3:50:44 PM



SOUTH PORTLAND (NEWS CENTER) -- A soldier from South Portland has been killed while serving with the military in Afghanistan. According to family members, Justin Buxbaum died after being shot in a non-combat related incident.


Buxbaum's grandfather says Justin was shot in the stomach. He says the Army is looking into what happened, and says his grandson's death may have been caused by friendly fire.

He says Justin was serving his third tour overseas. He had already served two tours of duty in Iraq.

Justin Buxbaum graduated from South Portland High School in 2004. His aunt is a teacher there.

Two other South Portland graduates have died in fighting in Iraq. Marine Lance Cpl. Angel Rosa and Army Sgt. Jason Swiger were killed within two weeks of each other in March 2007.
http://www.wcsh6.com/news/article.aspx?storyid=87986



Justin Buxbaum was interviewed in 2005

Troops Comb Streets of Iraq for IEDs
Soldiers work to ensure roads are safe for convoys, civilians.

By U.S. Army Master Sgt. Lek Mateo
56th Brigade Combat Team Public Affairs Office
Texas Army National Guard
TIKRIT, Iraq, July 8, 2005 — The improvised explosive device, or IED, is the greatest casualty producer in Iraq, and the three-letter acronym has found its place in the military vocabulary.
Department of Defense statistics show that IEDs have killed almost 20 percent of service members in Iraq and wounded many more. The official figure does not show the numbers of innocent civilians who were killed or wounded by these crude devices.

"You are always going to be scared . and I have been. But I have a lot of faith in my equipment and training," Pfc. Justin L. Buxbaum, combat engineer of Company B, 467th Engineer Battalion.

To help combat the problem, specially trained military combat engineers and explosive ordnance disposal teams have joined forces to hunt and remove the IEDs that are hidden in tons of trash and debris that litter Iraq's highways and roads.

The job is very tedious and dangerous as the teams employ their high-tech equipment to scour the endless miles of roadway looking for any telltale signs that may reveal the location of the low-tech threat. Many compare the daunting tasks to looking for a needle in a haystack.

To help the soldiers in their search, IED hunters use their keen eyesight and experience to spot an IED and then verify its exact location by using specially designed armored vehicles before calling in the EOD team to destroy it.

The soldiers hope that their strong commitment to their work and attention to detail will ultimately help save other soldiers and innocent civilian lives.

Pfc. Justin L. Buxbaum, of South Portland, Maine, and a combat engineer of Company B, 467th Engineer Battalion, U.S. Army Reserves, said he knew very little about IEDs before he was deployed to Iraq with his unit.

Now the private, who has been in the service for only six months, finds himself face to face with the deadly device as he drives a heavily armored truck called the Buffalo to a suspected IED location. He goes there to make visual identification of an IED before calling in the EOD team.

Buxbaum said driving the Buffalo is like driving a big bus. The vehicle has an armored V-shaped hull undercarriage designed to deflect the explosion and shrapnel from an IED outwards, away from the crew.

The private said he believes in the reliability of the Buffalo after having seen firsthand the amount of punishment it can take, but he still respects the IEDs.

"You are always going to be scared . and I have been," Buxbaum said. "But I have a lot of faith in my equipment and training."

He added that the work is slow and meticulous. He and his crew never lose focus as they clear the routes because they have people's lives to think about and can't afford any doubts in what they are doing.

"It is a very rewarding feeling knowing that the job that we perform may save someone's life so that they can go back home to their families."

Spc. Randall S. Bollinger, of Clarksville, Ind., and also a combat engineer of the 467th Engineer Battalion, is on the security team that travels ahead of the lumbering Buffalo in more mobile armored HMMWVs to look for the IEDs.

Bollinger emphasized that this is a type of job in which everyone has to pay attention to detail and be very cognizant of the environment to know what is out of place.

The specialist said the people who are placing the IEDs are very insensitive because they endanger everyone's lives with their indiscriminate attacks. But helping to find an IED before it can do any harm gives him and his team a sense of satisfaction.

"I think we are doing something good for our soldiers and the public when we locate and remove the IEDs -- especially for the children," said Bollinger.

No one appreciates the job that the engineers do more than Staff Sgt. Arthur M. Ruiz, of Leander, Texas, and a Texas National Guardsman in the 56th Brigade Combat Team, 36th Infantry Division. He has traveled thousands of miles on the main supply routes with his security team protecting supply convoys.

Ruiz said that it makes him feel good knowing engineers are out there trying to find IEDs and that, even if they find only one, then that is one less that they will have to come into contact with during their journey.

"I respect the combat engineers and the EOD team for the dangerous job that they do," Ruiz said. "They put their life on the line to protect ours."

http://www.defendamerica.mil/articles/jul2005/a070705dg3.html

Sgt. 1st Class Jason F. Dene non-combat death in Iraq

Mia Farrow's nephew dies of non-combat causes in Iraq
By John Curran
Associated Press Writer / May 28, 2008
MONTPELIER, Vt.—A U.S. Army sergeant originally from Castleton has died in Iraq, but of injuries not related to combat, the Pentagon announced Wednesday.

Sgt. 1st Class Jason F. Dene, 37, a nephew of actress Mia Farrow, died Sunday of injuries suffered in an incident in Baghdad on Saturday, according to the Department of Defense, which gave no other details about his death except to say it was under investigation.

The Pentagon referred questions to Fort Stewart, Ga., where Dene -- an infantry paratrooper -- was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 64th Armor Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division. A spokesman there did not immediately return a phone call Wednesday evening.

Dene's mother is Tisa Farrow, of Castleton, whose famous sister is a vocal opponent of the war in Iraq.

On Mia Farrow's web site, a posting under the title "What For?" read, in part: "Jason loved his parents and sister, his wife Judi and their three small children. He also loved his country and he was proud to serve it. But I honestly don't know why Jason died."
click post title for more

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Staff Sgt. Matthew Ritenour awarded Silver Star

Staff sergeant receives the Silver Star at Hohenfels ceremony
By Seth Robson, Stars and Stripes
European edition, Thursday, May 29, 2008

HOHENFELS, Germany — His combat boots thumping with each step, Staff Sgt. Matthew Ritenour climbed on stage at Hohenfels’ Community Activity Center to accept a Silver Star medal on Tuesday.

Ritenour’s lumbering gait and a scar on his shaved head are reminders of the battle he and 2nd Platoon, Company A, 1st Battalion, 4th Infantry Regiment fought against 180 Taliban fighters who attacked Forward Operating Base (FOB) Baylough, in southern Afghanistan on Sept. 4 last year. The 32-year-old Chicago native was shot in the head and partially paralyzed during the battle but fought on, encouraging nearby soldiers and using a radio to call in mortar fire on the enemy.

But the ceremony isn’t the end of Ritenour’s journey.

The Army has given him a year to heal, after which he will go before a board that will decide his future career. His goal is to return to the infantry.

After spending time at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., Ritenour and his family returned to Hohenfels to welcome Company A back from its deployment in February.

Now, he’s headed to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., so he can receive therapy not available in Bavaria, he said.
go here for more
http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=55171

Another non-combat death in Iraq

DoD Identifies Army Casualty


The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Sgt. 1st Class Jason F. Dene, 37, of Castleton, Vt., died May 25 in Baghdad, Iraq, from injuries suffered in a non-combat related incident on May 24. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 64th Armor Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, Fort Stewart, Ga.

The incident is under investigation.

Linked from ICasualties.org

Women Warriors "What so proudly we hail"

While it appears the blog world is abuzz with either McCellan's tell all or McCain's invitation to Obama to go to Iraq, there is much that is being missed. The fact a VA psychiatrist came out saying that rapes and sexual assaults do not cause PTSD, has all but been avoided. Sure, there are a few hundred jumping on the rise in PTSD cases in the DOD but there has been really nothing new in news on that front. It's just and endless cycle of what we already knew was coming. Some may find it shattering, disgraceful, whatever, but to me it's just more of the same type of treatment the veterans and the troops have been receiving for far too long. It was to be expected, yet we should be grateful the media has finally paid all of this the attention it is due.

I want to go back on something that was said by McCain the other day when he was speaking out on being against women in combat. He actually said there is no history of women in combat. While I did a small post on this yesterday, today I was spending more time thinking about it because of the news the VA has a psychiatrist denying PTSD can be caused by sexual attacks. For Heaven's sake, the population of the world knows it can so how can someone supposedly listed as a professional in mental health within the VA does not seem to be clued in at all?

Women are just as human as males in the military, but women are more likely to be sexually assaulted than men are. Yes, there are some men who have been assaulted as well, but a tiny fraction. We cannot diminish their contribution to the nation. As such, here are just two more parts to what I began yesterday. When you read their names and some of their stories, think about if their lives are being honored when rapes and sexual assaults are passed off and ignored within the military and now a psychiatrist denies their wound from it all together.



So Proudly We Hail!
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
So Proudly We Hail! is a 1943 film made by Paramount Pictures, directed by Mark Sandrich, and starring Claudette Colbert, Paulette Goddard (who was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance), George Reeves and Veronica Lake.
An effective sample of wartime propaganda, the film follows a group of military nurses sent to the Philippines during the early days of World War II. The movie was based on a book written by nurse Juanita Hipps[1] a WWII nurse who served in Bataan and Corrigedor during the time when McArthur withdrew to Australia which ultimately led to the surrender of US and Philippine troops to Japan. Those prisoners of war were subjected to the infamous Bataan Death March. The movie was based on LTC Hipps' true story "I Served On Bataan."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/So_Proudly_We_Hail!


ACCOMPLISHED WOMEN BURIED AT ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY
Commander Beatrice V. Ball, b. December 2, 1902. d. October 21, 1963. U.S. Coast Guard Reserve. She was a senior officer in SPARS (Women's Coast Guard unit) founded in World War II.

Lt. Ollie Josephine B. Bennett, b. March 27, 1874. d. February 4, 1953. Pioneer woman doctor in World War I.

Lt. Kara Spears Hultgreen, U.S. Navy -- Was the first female pilot killed after the Department of Defense Risk rule was rescinded. Lt. Hultgreen was one of the first U.S. Navy female combat pilots.

Commodore (Rear Adm.) Grace Murray Hopper - 1906-1992 U.S. Navy -- Was a mathematician, and a pioneer in data processing and computer science. Admiral Hopper invented COBOL and coined the term "bug" in computers. When she retired from the Navy in 1986, at the age of 80, she was the oldest officer on active duty.

Captain Winifred Love, USN, of Newport, Rhode Island, 1914-1999 In 1967, Captain Love, who was among the first group of Navy women officers selected to the permanent rank of Captain, reported to her last command as director of training publications for the operating Fleet. In 1973 she retired after 30 years of distinguished service to her country. Captain Love has awards and decorations that include the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal, the American Campaign Medal, World War II Victory Medal, and the National Defense Service Medal.

Maj. Marie Therese Rossi During Desert Storm the first woman pilot gave her life while flying in a combat zone. Major Marie T. Rossi died at age 32 on March 1, 1991, when the Chinook helicopter she was piloting crashed near her base in northern Saudia Arabia. The unit she commanded was among the very first American units to cross into enemy held territory flying fuel and ammunition to the rapidly advancing 101st and 82nd Airborne Divisions. Major Rossi is buried in Arlington Cemetery where her simple epitaph there reads "First Female Combat Commander To Fly into Battle."

Constance Bennett -- Acted in more than 50 films, including 1937 "Topper" married Brig. Gen. Coulter.

Jane Delano -- Second superintendent of Army Nurse Corps 1909-12, active with the Red Cross during World War I.

Ruth M. Gardiner, b. May 20, 1914. d. July 27, 1943. One of the first Army Nurses killed in WWII.

Lillian Harris, b. May 6, 1913. d. April 15, 1998. She was a member of the original WAC ( Women's Army Corps) and graduated in its first class. She served as an executive officer during World War II in North Africa. She retired in 1968, she was the recipient of the Bronze Star and Legion of Merit award.

Marguerite "Maggie" Higgins - 1920-1966 -- Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, only woman correspondent during the Korean Conflict. She also reported from the battlefields of WWII - where she witnessed the liberation of Dachau and covered the Nuremburg Trials.

Juanita Hipps -- Wrote I Served on Bataan, best seller in 1943 and basis for movie "So Proudly We Hail," World War II Army Nurse.

Juliet O. Hopkins -- "Florence Nightingale of South" during the Civil War.

Dr. Anita Newcomb Magee - 1864-1940 -- First woman Army surgeon in 1898, assigned to secure and train nurses for the Spanish American War. When the war ended she organized the Army Nurse Corps under the U.S. Surgeon General and served as its first director and the first woman assistant surgeon general.

Katherine Marshall -- Wrote Together, an autobiography about her life with Gen. George C. Marshall.

Anna C. Maxwell, Army Nurse Corps

Barbara Allen Rainey - 1948 - 1982 -- First woman pilot in the history of the U.S. Navy, earning her gold wins in 1974. She was killed while training another pilot, in an air accident at Middleton Field near Evergreen, Alabama.

Mary Randolph -- First person buried on grounds that became Arlington Cemetery, cousin of Mary Custis, wife of Gen. Robert E. Lee, wrote The Virginia Housewife, a best seller in late 1700s .

Vinnie Ream - 1847 - 1914 -- Sculpted Lincoln statue in Capitol at age 18. First woman artist to be commissioned by the government and last artist whom Lincoln sat for before his death; sculpted many other statues including Sappho, the poetess, above her grave.

Mary Roberts Rinehart - 1876-1958 -- America's first woman war correspondent during World War I for the Saturday Evening Post; wrote mystery novels, including The Circular Staircase and The Bat; in 1921 was referred to as "America's Mistress of Mystery."

Lt Commander Catherine Dodson "Cay" Callahan, US Navy (Ret) World War II veteran whose duties included service as a legislative liaison officer to the U.S. Congress. She began her naval career as a member of a graduating class of WAVE Midshipmen from Smith College in 1943. As a young communications officer, she served on the staff of Fleet Adm. Ernest J. King throughout World War II.

Fay Bainter -- Actress during silent films (wife of Lt. Cmdr. Reginald Venable).

Captain Winifred Quick Collins, USN. 1912-1999 Captain Collins served 20 years in the Navy, beginning in the early period of World War II. Most of her career was in personnel positions, related to the integration of women into the Navy. She served in Hawaii, San Francisco and Washington. Her decorations included a Bronze Star and the Navy Commendation Medal. After retiring from active duty, Captain Collins served as vice president and director of the National Navy League. She was the first woman to hold that position. In 1997, the University of North Texas published her book, "More Than a Uniform: A Navy Woman in a Navy Man's World."
Colonel Geraldine Pratt May, WAF Director, USAF. 1895-1997.

Col. May joined the newly formed Women's Army Auxiliary Corps in July 1942 to attend officer candidate school at Fort Des Moines, Iowa. May received her commission in August 1942 and the following March was among the first women officers assigned to the Army Air Forces where she served as WAC staff director of Air Transport Command, With the enactment of the Women's Armed Services Integration Act in June 1948, May received a reserve commission in the newly created Air Force. She was appointed director of Women in the Air Force with the rank of full colonel, the first woman in the Air Force to hold that rank and the first to hold this post. As WAF director, May advised the chief of staff and the Air Staff on the formulation of the plans and policies for integrating women into the regular and reserves of the Air Force.


Colonel (Retired) Bettie J. Morden died of breast cancer on Friday, October 12, 2001 at her home in Arlington, Virginia. She was a pioneer Army woman, acclaimed historian/writer and tireless supporter of the Women's Army Corps Museum (now the Army Women's Museum). Colonel Morden has been described by Army senior leaders past and present as the "best of the best". Funeral services were held at the Fort Myer Old Post Chapel on Monday, November 5, 2001 at 9 AM. She was buried with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery. Memorial contributions may be made to the United States Army Women's Museum Foundation (formerly WAC Foundation), P.O. Box 5030, Fort Lee, Virginia 23801-0030 or to the Hospice of Northern Virginia, 6400 Arlington Boulevard, Suite 1000, Falls Church, Virginia 22042.
Capt. Helen Krystopik Garrison , is buried at Arlington. She was a Bellevue Nursing School graduate who served in England, and France during WWII, and later Norfolk, Virginia and Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, immediately after the war. She was buried in Arlington in 2001.
http://userpages.aug.com/captbarb/arlington.html

DOD tried to cover up electrocution death of Staff Sgt. Ryan Maseth


Green Beret electrocuted in shower on Iraq base
Story Highlights
At least 12 U.S. troops have been electrocuted in Iraq from wiring problems

Ryan Maseth, 24, died January 2 while taking a shower on base

"I truly couldn't believe he would be electrocuted," his mom says

Defense Department inspector general, Congress launch investigation


By Abbie Boudreau and Scott Bronstein
CNN Special Investigations Unit

PITTSBURGH, Pennsylvania (CNN) -- A highly decorated Green Beret, Staff Sgt. Ryan Maseth died a painful death in Iraq this year. He died not on the battlefield. He died in what should have been one of the safest spots in Iraq: on a U.S. base, in his bathroom.


Ryan Maseth, a 24-year-old Green Beret, died in his shower January 2.

1 of 2 The water pump was not properly grounded, and when he turned on the shower, a jolt of electricity shot through his body and electrocuted him January 2.

The next day, Cheryl Harris was informed of his death. A mother of three sons serving in Iraq, she had feared such news might come one day.

"I did ask exactly, 'How did Ryan die? What happened to him?' And he had told me that Ryan was electrocuted," she said.

Her reaction was disbelief. "I truly couldn't believe he would be electrocuted ... in the shower," she said.

Maseth, 24, was not the first. At least 12 U.S. troops have been electrocuted in Iraq since the start of the war in 2003, according to military and government officials. Watch mom describe horror, heartbreak over son's electrocution »

In fact, the Army issued a bulletin in 2004 warning that electrocution was "growing at an alarming rate." It said five soldiers died that year by electrocution, with improper grounding the likely culprit in each case.

The Army bulletin detailed one soldier's death in a shower -- eerily similar to Maseth's case -- that said he was found "lying on a shower room floor with burn marks on his body."

Maseth's mother says the Army was not immediately forthcoming with details about her son's death.

At one point, she says, the Army told her he had a small appliance with him in the shower on his base, a former palace complex near the Baghdad airport.

"It just created so much doubt, and I know Ryan, I know Ryan, I know how he was trained, I know that he would not have been in a shower with a small appliance and electrocuted himself," she said. Watch "I can't make sense around Ryan's death" »

The Army refused to answer CNN's questions about the case, citing pending litigation by Maseth's family.

Maseth's mother says she pressed the military for answers, eventually uncovering more details about her son's electrocution. The surging current left burn marks across his body, even singeing his hair. Army reports show that he probably suffered a long, painful death.

go here for more

Iraq war vet killed in crane accident

Worker killed in crane accident was a young father and veteran
The construction worker killed when a massive crane boom collapsed Friday at the Iatan Power Plant near Weston was identified Tuesday as 23-year-old Terry Eugene Stimpson of Peculiar.
A U.S. Army veteran of the Iraq war, Stimpson is survived by his wife, Alexandria, and two children. He grew up in of Chillicothe, Mo.
The boom for the crane collapsed as it was being lowered after a test of wind speed determined that its use was unsafe. It has been used to install pollution control equipment on Unit 1, the operating plant next to a second unit under construction by the Kansas City Power & Light Co.
Three other workers injured during the collapse were treated and released, said Steven Goldberg, a spokesman for Alstom Power Inc. of Windsor, Conn., the general contractor for the new plant and the pollution control retrofit for Unit 1.
Construction crews returned to the job site Tuesday, said Bill Downey, chief executive officer of KCP&L. The site and the collapsed crane are quarantined as teams investigate what caused the accident, Downey said.
Bill Graham, bgraham@kcstar.com.
http://www.kansascity.com/115/story/638569.html

Iraq senders knew it all, troops did not have a clue

Warrior Transition Units Help Soldiers Heal
Reporting
Jim Benemann FORT CARSON, Colo. (CBS4) ― The United States military has formed special units to help wounded soldiers recover from the injuries of war. One of the so-called Warrior Transition Units (WTU) is at Fort Carson in Colorado Springs.

A leader at the WTU in Fort Carson said the driving force behind the concept was a report last year on the volume of injured soldiers going through Walter Reed Army Medical Center outside Washington, D.C.

"We never anticipated the length of the war," she said. "We never anticipated the volume of causalities that were going to come out of both Afghanistan and Iraq and our system needed to grow, needed to change, needed to evolve."
Specialist Michael Janke served in Iraq and was injured when a grenade exploded three feet in front of him.

"And I woke up and I just wasn't right," Janke said. "I had a lot of pain in my head. And I wasn't aware of my surroundings.

"I live with pain all day long. When it's really bad, I can't move."

Janke is assigned to Fort Carson's WTU where multiple caseworkers are assigned to help him recover and map out his future. The philosophy brings military structure to the healing process.

The WTU has its own campus at the mountain post with 164 staff serving 600 recovering soldiers. The healing soldiers live together and eat together in their own area.
go here for more
http://cbs4denver.com/local/warrior.transition.unit.2.733580.html


Again, the problems encountered with by invading Iraq were all known ahead of time and all of the people involved with doing this, knew what would happen. Their words of caution captured on tape and video for generations to see. Interviews on PBS, speeches in front of veterans groups, all answering why they did not take Iraq after Saddam's forces were pushed out of Kuwait. It's all documented and recorded for history. The problem is that no one learned anything from it when the people doing the most warning, seemed to change their minds and were asked nothing about what they said back then. The devastation left behind was no surprise to any of the planners but the American public was left out of the loop. What's worse is that the troops were all left out of it as well. No one told them about the warning Stormin Norman gave about Iraq becoming "like a dinosaur stuck in a tar pit" or the warning Cheney gave about "a quagmire" or Bush 41's warning that it would created "countless losses" or any of the other warnings.

All of this was known but no one considered the troops who would have to pay the price with their bodies, their minds and their lives. Right now after the release of McClellan's tell all book, the media should finally put two and two together and demand answers. None of this was unknown but too much of it was left undone and no one prepared for any of the wounded this would create.

GAO finding: No accountability for claims processors

GAO faults training for VA claims processors

By Kelly Kennedy - Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday May 28, 2008 6:18:36 EDT

Although the Veterans Affairs Department has added thousands of staff to help process disability claims, a new study finds those new employees face no consequences if they don’t attend mandatory training.

And because the caseload is so heavy, instructors aren’t always available to provide on-the-job training for new employees.

The Veterans Benefits Administration “is taking steps to strategically plan its training, but does not adequately evaluate its training and may be falling short in some areas of training design and implementation,” the Government Accountability Office said in a report released Tuesday.

Rep. Bob Filner, D-Calif., chairman of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, asked GAO to find out what training is provided and whether it is uniform; how well it is implemented and evaluated; and how it compares with performance management practices in the private sector.

The questions came after veterans testified that the disability compensation system is Byzantine in complexity, and that it takes months — sometimes years — to make it through the process.

From September 2007 to May 2008, GAO looked at four VBA regional offices, in Atlanta; Baltimore; Milwaukee; and Portland, Ore.

VA officials said it takes at least two years to properly train disability claims employees, and they must complete 80 hours of training a year. New employees have three weeks of intense classroom training before they begin several months of on-the-job training at their home offices.

But “because the agency has no policy outlining consequences for individual staff who do not complete their 80 hours of training per year, individual staff are not held accountable for meeting their annual training requirement,” the GAO found. “And, at present, VBA central office lacks the ability to track training completed by individual staff members.”

In 2007, VBA conducted 67 centralized training sessions for 1,458 new claims processors, compared with 27 sessions for 678 new employees in 2006.

VBA’s online training tool, the Training and Performance Support System, was found to be out of date, too theoretical, and lacking in real-life examples. Employees at one office did not know what the system was.

GAO also found that more experienced staff members felt training was not helpful because it was redundant or was not specific to the work they do, and some said the training is adapted directly from training for new employees. They also said they did not have time to spend 80 hours a year in training because their caseloads are too heavy.

“A number of staff from one regional office noted that instructors were unable to spend time teaching because of their heavy workloads and because instructors’ training preparation hours do not count toward the 80-hour training requirement,” the GAO said. “Staff at another regional office told us that, due to workload pressures, staff may rush through training and may not get as much out of it as they should.”
go here for more
http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2008/05/military_va_training_052708w/

VA Psychiatrist says Sexual Trauma does not cause PTSD?

VA Ignores PTSD in Women
Posted by Christy Hardin Smith, Firedoglake at 4:00 PM on May 27, 2008.
The VA will not consider trauma from sexual assault a cause of PTSD.

As a female soldier or Marine, you prepare for service with a lot of training with your squad, a lot of extra time in the gym, a lot of mental and physical preparation. But nothing could prepare you for an assault ... a sexual assault ... from one of your fellow soldiers.

What do you do, as a female soldier, when the VA folks in charge of your treatment don't think you merit psych care in the wake of this trauma?

Via AnchorageDailyNews:
I asked the briefer, a VA psychiatrist, whether the VA also considered Military Sexual Trauma an experience that can lead to PTSD. He replied "no."

I looked at the physician with amazement. Many peer-reviewed journal articles assert that Military Sexual Trauma, or MST, is especially associated with PTSD. That the Veterans Administration continues to disassociate MST with PTSD is remarkable.

But it may be understandable, considering the military is a culture that ostracizes and ridicules women who "rock the boat" by reporting incidents of sexual assault and violence.

This is not an isolated opinion, unfortunately. Sen. Patty Murray, who has personal experience working with Vietnam vets in the VA system and understands the long-term ramifications of not doing this work properly, has been trying to give this issue a much louder voice on the Hill.

Kudos to her. But it's going to be a long road to change.
go here for more
http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/86579/

Where did this psychiatrist get his training? How many others dismiss what the mental health workers have known for years?

Served with foreclosure notice for serving your country well

Foreclosures in Military Towns Surge at Four Times U.S. Rate
By Kathleen M. Howley

May 27 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. Air Force Technical Sergeant Jeffrey VerSteegh, who repairs F-16 jets for the 132nd Fighter Wing, departed Des Moines, Iowa, in April for his third tour in Iraq. The father of four may lose his home when he returns.

The four-bedroom farmhouse he and his wife, Kathleen, own near the Iowa State Fairgrounds went into default in December after their monthly mortgage costs doubled to $1,100. Kathleen missed work because of breast cancer and they struggled to keep up the house payment, falling behind on other bills. Their bankruptcy was approved by the court a week after VerSteegh left for Iraq.

In the midst of the worst surge in mortgage defaults in seven decades, foreclosures in U.S. towns where soldiers live are increasing at a pace almost four times the national average, according to data compiled by research firm RealtyTrac Inc. in Irvine, California. As military families like the VerSteeghs signed up for the initial lower rates and easier terms of subprime mortgages, the number of people taking out Veterans Administration loans fell to the lowest in at least 12 years.

``We've never faced a situation like this, not in the Vietnam War, World War II, or the Korean War, where so many military are in danger of losing their homes,'' said Paul Sullivan, executive director of Veterans for Common Sense, a Washington-based advocacy group started in 2002 by Iraq and Afghanistan War veterans. ``No one asked them for their credit score when we asked them to fight for us.''

Military Foreclosures
Foreclosure filings in 10 towns and cities within 10 miles of military facilities, including Norfolk, Virginia, home of the Navy's largest base, rose by an average 217 percent from January through April from a year earlier. Nationally, the rate was 59 percent in the same period, according to RealtyTrac, which tallies bank seizures, auctions and default notices.

The biggest surge was in Columbia, South Carolina, home to Fort Jackson, where the Army trains recruits for combat in Afghanistan and Iraq. Properties in some stage of foreclosure rose 492 percent from a year earlier, RealtyTrac said. The second-biggest increase was 414 percent in Woodbridge, Virginia, next to the Marine Corps Base Quantico.

Foreclosure filings tripled in the cities surrounding Norfolk Naval Base and the Camp Pendleton Marine Corps Base near Oceanside, California, RealtyTrac said. Havelock, North Carolina, site of Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, saw foreclosures more than double.

Weak Credit
Military families were targeted as customers during the boom in subprime lending because their frequent moves, overseas stints, and low pay meant they were more likely to have weak credit ratings, said Rudi Williams of the National Veterans Foundation in Los Angeles. In 2006, at the peak of U.S. subprime lending, the number of VA loans fell to barely a third the level of two years earlier, according to VA data.

VA loans totaled 135,000 last year, its fourth consecutive annual decline.

An Army or Marine Corps sergeant with four years of experience makes $27,000 a year, plus combat pay of $225 a month, according to the 2008 Military Authorization Act, which increased basic pay rates 3.5 percent from a year ago.

Soldiers authorized to live off-base also receive a housing allowance that this year starts at about $500 a month, 7.3 percent higher than in 2007, paid even when they are deployed. Counting the stipends, they still fall short of the 2007 median U.S. household income of $59,224 as measured by the National Association of Realtors in Chicago.

Legislative Effort
``Think about how much stress comes with a foreclosure, and then imagine you're walking the same tightrope while being employed in Baghdad,'' said Paul Rieckhoff, 33, the head of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America and a former 1st lieutenant with the Army's 3rd Infantry Division.

The Servicemembers' Civil Relief Act protects soldiers and sailors from losing homes for nonpayment of mortgages only while on active duty and for 90 days after they return home.

Members of Congress, including Senator Johnny Isakson, a Georgia Republican, and Representative Bob Filner, a Democrat from California, are trying to extend that to a year, saying three months isn't enough.

Another flaw in the current law is it puts the burden on the soldiers, sailors or the families they left behind to come up with the paperwork and notify the bank, said Sullivan of the Washington Veterans' group. Unlike in other wars, members of the military often are able to telephone home or receive e-mails, creating a ``morale problem'' as they try to deal with foreclosure notices, he said.

VA Mortgages
``It's heartbreaking to see people struggling with a foreclosure while they or someone they love is in a war zone, or when they're trying to adjust after coming back from one,'' said Sullivan, a Cavalry Scout with the Army's 1st Armored Division during the 1991 Gulf War.

Lenders aren't required to keep records on the status of non-government loans to military members or veterans, said Mike Frueh, the VA's assistant director for loan management in Washington. Judging solely by data on VA mortgages, active military and veterans in the current housing slump are getting into trouble with their home loans at a pace only slightly above the civilian rate, he said.

The share of VA mortgages in foreclosure was 1.12 percent in the fourth quarter, compared with 0.96 percent for so-called prime borrowers with the highest credit scores, the Washington- based Mortgage Bankers Association said in a March 6 report.
click post title for more

Scott McClellan spills the beans. Can you hear me now?

In 2001, I was in a rush to get my book published because I knew PTSD would explode. I was in such a hurry, I gave up trying to find a publisher and paid to have it published. After all, Dr. Jonathan Shay, had done all he could to help me find a publisher there didn't seem to be any point it wasting time when lives would be on the line. If you think fireworks can set off a combat veteran, 9-11 was like a volcano going off.

Then came the invasion of Afghanistan. Given the history of Afghanistan and what the Russian troops faced, I knew it would be a long, brutal fight. The problem was, no one in the White House was getting ready for any of the wounded that would come. They sold it as an easy move to the American people. We only lost 12 taking Afghanistan. Too many in this country figured it was a done deal. Over and done. By 2002, 49 more lives were lost from the US and 20 from the coalition. The propaganda of the need to invade Iraq was taking full control of the Sunday news shows and the selling off of American lives was already carved in stone. No one listened. All the evidence, not suggestions and claims, pointed to the fact there should have been a lot more skeptics asking a lot more questions, but too many were jumping on the "patriotic" bandwagon. I was leery. I wrote a piece about if it was a good idea or not. It turns out, all these years, all the people who were way ahead of me were all right. They were the people who were attacked for being right and paying attention.

Scott McCellan just proved what was already know with the Downing Street memo.





McClellan Rips Bush, White House
By Mike Allen,Politico.com
Posted: 2008-05-28 09:04:36
Filed Under: Politics News
(May 27) -- Former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan writes in a surprisingly scathing memoir to be published next week that President Bush “veered terribly off course,” was not “open and forthright on Iraq,” and took a “permanent campaign approach” to governing at the expense of candor and competence.

http://news.aol.com/story/_a/mcclellan-rips-
bush-white-house/20080528063409990001?icid=1615988631x1203152132x1200309168



I am not so trusting that I could not believe that needless wars have been perpetrated before, any more than I am delusional enough to think we would have learned from the past, but I did not think anyone would be so callous with the lives of the men and women being sent they would pull troops out of Afghanistan in order to just do it. They did.

For years, we've all heard about the need to defend this nation by what we were doing in Iraq and the media allowed them to never mention Afghanistan. Anyone daring to ask was regarded as a traitor and told they were against the troops. The manipulation of the propaganda was in full swing. The few in congress daring to speak out were no longer allowed on the 24 hour news channels. Only the timid were allowed to go up against the zealots so they could be easily controlled and silenced.

When we had generals resigning, no one wanted to hear from them. These are the generals who spent countless years not only participating in combat, planning and adapting, they made it their careers.

Still in all of this, the worst part is, no one got ready for the wounded. No one cared. Had they cared about the lives of the wounded that they knew would come, none of these reports would be occurring. Walter Reed would not have been a problem. The lack of mental health professionals would not have been a problem. The lack of services in outreach would not have been a problem. Suicides would have been an oddity. Outreach work would have begun in 2001. The VA would have had whatever funding they needed to prepare by hiring all the workers they could find and have them trained ahead of time to not only care for the wounded but process the claims with all sense of urgency they deserved. None of this was done because they ignored the obvious. The data was all in from Vietnam. They decided against even looking at any of it.


Perhaps the most appalling thing to come out of all of this is the fact those who supported the combat operations in Afghanistan and Iraq decided the outcomes of both were not their problem. They didn't care about the wounded or the suffering of the troops as long as they got what they wanted. Waving the flag replaced honoring it. Defending Bush replaced defending the truth. Patriotism became associated with appeasement of the White House and no one was allowed to have questions answered.

Had they acted in honor, none of the reports that came out since the invasion of Afghanistan would have been possible. These are just some from today.



Huge spike in troops diagnosed with PTSD

Baltimore Sun - United Statesby Aamer Madhani Nearly 14000 US service members who had previously served in Iraq and Afghanistan were newly diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder





Post-traumatic stress soars in US troops

Reuters - USABy David Morgan WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Newly diagnosed cases of post-traumatic stress disorder among US troops sent to Iraq and Afghanistan surged 46.4



Veterans seek help for the wounds of war

Seattle Post Intelligencer - USAA panel of experts addressed such issues as post-traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injury and homelessness.




Readers of this blog have been aware of the problems since August and many more from my other blog going back to 2003. Even more going back to the posting I've done on AOL blogs and message boards. With all the news that has come out since 2002 how is it possible, how is it morally possible that no one bothered to take care of all of this until it was totally out of control? Didn't the lives of the men and women serving this nation matter enough to invest the time in paying attention to the rest of the people in this nation?

We can bicker all we want about getting the troops out of Iraq or the need to keep them there, but in the process, we devalue their lives by not taking care of their needs. Solutions will come either by way of public pressure to address both occupations or by the fact we can no longer afford to do either one. Set all that aside. Nothing will change with Iraq or Afghanistan until there is a new president and a new administration who will take the lives of the troops seriously enough to act. What we can and need to do today is find out who knew what when and why they did not know more.

The law suit filed by Veterans For Common Sense has provided some of the answers and none of them reflect the notion we are a grateful nation because they were allowed to pull all of it off. Who has been held accountable? Who has been charged or fired? How many of the dishonorably discharged have had justice provided to them? How many of the misdiagnosed have had their cases reviewed and honored? How many of the claims filed and denied wrongly have been made right? Where are we on any of this?

The VA and the DOD do not have enough mental health workers. They do not have enough Chaplains. Where are we on any of this? Have they changed the rules to allow trained Chaplains from the IFOC, who happen to be good enough for law enforcement and emergency responders, but are not good enough for the VA to provide vital services? Have the advocates been able to provide their knowledge to the Washington elected so that solutions come instead of more countless hearings reviewing what is already known?

There are so many questions we need to address and so many solutions that need to be implemented but if we just wait and wonder, the problem will only get worse for all of them.

Let's get our heads together and figure out how to make Washington hear us now. They didn't hear me in the 90's and they didn't hear me in the beginning of all of this. Will they listen now?

Senior Chaplain Kathie Costos
Namguardianangel@aol.com
www.Namguardianangel.org
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

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

China:1,000 teenagers died in school collapse

Crying for the children, and for justice

Posted: Tuesday, May 27, 2008 11:38 AM
Filed Under: Beijing, China
By Kari Huus, msnbc.com reporter
DUJIANGYAN, China – Releasing a tidal wave of emotion and anger, hundreds of grieving parents and sympathizers gathered at a pile of rubble that was once the Juyuan Middle School on Tuesday to memorialize the nearly 1,000 teenagers who died when the building collapsed in the May 12 earthquake.

The heart-rending ceremony also offered the victims’ parents an opportunity to demand justice.

A woman clutching the portrait of her daughter, Dong Yan, cursed the people in charge of building the school, which collapsed even though all the buildings around it remained standing. Like most of the people in the crowd, she believes local corruption was the reason for the poor construction.




Ryan Pyle / msnbc.com

"We want the truth to come out and the corrupt officials to be punished," she said between sobs. "These corrupt players are the ones who have caused us so much misery."

Banners hung across the destroyed building for the occasion were more blunt: "Get even for the deaths of the Juyuan students," read one.

Another demanded harsh punishment for the "murderers" responsible for the collapsed school.

"Whoever is responsible for the building should pay with their life," said another, comparing the building materials used in the structure to tofu.

As the crowd grew, the sound of weeping became a chorus. Women sobbed, and men drew deeply on cigarettes as tears trickled down their cheeks. Mourners lit candles and incense in the wreckage.

Some women were so distraught they were carried away by family and friends. A girl recovering from head injuries stood holding a picture of her dead brother, a faraway look on her face. A hastily set up sound system broadcast a dirge. The crack of fireworks cut through the din.

Notably missing from the memorial service were any representatives of the school or the local government, who in most crises would be expected to attempt to console the mourners.
go here for more
http://worldblog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/05/27/1067009.aspx

Finler:Stop talking and start doing

This is what I've been screaming about!!!!!

“The VA can set up five commissions – yet the real problem goes unresolved. We all know that convening meetings to study an issue in order to formulate a report to offer recommendations IS NOT ACTION. I strongly encourage the VA to proactively reach out to all our returning veterans now. Veterans cannot wait – and should not have to wait – for a blue ribbon panel to come out yet again with another report.

“We KNOW what needs to be done. Each and every service member, Reservist and Guardsman must be given a thorough and mandatory medical evaluation by competent medical personnel when they separate from military service for PTSD and TBI. The VA Secretary was asked to do this weeks ago.

“The time for panels has past. I expect immediate action to address the immediate needs of our veterans.”
go here for more
http://www.vawatchdog.org/08/nf08/nfMAY08/nf052408-7.htm


Hearing after hearing, listening to one heartbreaking story after another has accomplished more heartbreaking stories following all of the ones already heard. That's it. What good does it do to already know we failed in taking care of our veterans to hear more of them we failed? Does it make the problem go away to listen to the stories of these shattered lives? How many hearings does it take before they actually do something about any of this?

There is nothing new about PTSD. Humans have not changed and war is still war. What good does it do to listen to the new kids on the block when they already have several generations of older ones who have been there and done that and lived to tell their own stories? What good did it do to call on people who just stepped into this landmine and expect solutions from any of them? It accomplished a gigantic waste of time and in the process, more lives that could have been saved if they acted on what was already known.

I apologize to some of the people who have been testifying to congress on this, but the truth is, they can only talk about the problems the new generation of veterans have but they can offer nothing in the form of answers. I've heard all the hearings. I've read the transcripts and it is just rehashing what was already known in the 80's. The names have changed but that's just about all of it. The numbers are coming in sooner than they did after Vietnam, but most of that has more to do with outreach work (thousands of us have been doing since Vietnam) and the fact the redeployments increase the risk of developing PTSD by 50%. We have the numbers in from Vietnam and they are devastating,but we need to understand that as bad as those numbers are, they will be repeated faster simply because so little has been done to deal with it. Talking about it is not dealing with it and fixing the problems, helping them heal and compensating them for their wounds. It's all just more of the same.