Friday, December 2, 2011

Chaplain Corps Celebrates 236 Years

Chaplain Corps Celebrates 236 Years

December 01, 2011
U.S. Coast Guard|by Petty Officer 3rd Class Jonathan Lally

A lighthouse is a beacon of safety to mariners coming into a harbor or transiting through treacherous waters near shore. In many ways, a chaplain is like a lighthouse to military members and their families.

U.S. Navy chaplains have served the men, women and families of the Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard for 236 years as leaders in spiritual matters. They are a resource for military members to confide in and get help in non-spiritual matters as well.

Since 1775 the chaplains have been guiding members of the nation’s sea services. Their rich history began with the Navy’s predecessor, the Continental Navy. Since the commissioning of the Navy’s first chaplain, William Balch, the chaplain corps has expanded to more than 850 members. These men and women serve the nation throughout the world.

Senate revises death benefits for reservists

Senate revises death benefits for reservists
By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Thursday Dec 1, 2011 18:16:30 EST
A retroactive change in death benefits that would extend payment to reservists who die at home during drill weekends passed the Senate on Thursday by voice vote.

Retroactive to Jan. 1, 2010, death gratuity and burial benefits provided for active-duty deaths will be extended to reservists who die while at home during or between successive days of inactive duty training, under the amendment to the 2012 defense authorization bill sponsored by Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark..

Pryor’s interest is the result of a 2010 death of Army National Guard Capt. Samson Luke, a member of the 142nd Field Artillery Regiment, who lived about 15 minutes from his weekend training site of Fort Chaffee, Ark. While many members of his unit stayed in hotels on the weekend, Luke went home, where he died in his sleep after spending the day working in a cold warehouse.

Luke’s family initially received the military’s $100,000 death gratuity and $8,000 in other death benefits but were forced to repay the money for what Pryor said was “a classic case of getting pencil-whipped by the government.”
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V.A. Dom Prepares For More Returning Soldiers

We've all heard the term "too big to fail" when it comes to huge companies and millionaires. We've heard about the fact the rich are only 1% of the population, so the other 99% say they are really the ones "too big to fail" but congress doesn't seem to want to believe them. The Republicans in the Senate just voted down the tax breaks for the workers of this country.


Republican leaders shifting stance on payroll tax cut
By Tom Cohen, CNN
updated 5:31 AM EST, Fri December 2, 2011

House Speaker John Boehner concedes that extending the payroll tax cut would help the economy.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
NEW: The Senate blocks Democratic, Republican plans on a payroll tax cut extension
NEW: President Obama says Republicans voted for higher taxes on the middle class
House Speaker Boehner concedes the payroll tax cut helps the economy
Republicans differ with Democrats on how to pay for a one-year extension
Washington (CNN) -- A top Republican leader agreed Thursday with President Barack Obama and Democrats that extending the payroll tax cut would help the economy, but the parties remained divided over how to pay for the move.
Later Thursday, the Senate blocked competing Democratic and Republican proposals from moving forward, setting up negotiations on a possible compromise.
The Democratic plan to extend and expand the payroll tax cut set to expire at the end of the year would assess a 3.25% tax on income over $1 million to pay the cost of more than $200 billion for the extension. Taxpayers with an income of $50,000 would benefit by $1,500 a year.
Senate Republicans prevented Democrats from getting the 60 votes needed to proceed on the measure, which was blocked on a 51-49 vote.
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But that is really nothing new since the GOP has been fighting to protect the wealthy while the men and women risking their lives everyday end up coming back with the burden of war for the rest of their lives.

V.A. Dom Prepares For More Returning Soldiers

December 1, 2011
By Sharon Ko


WHITE CITY, Ore. -- The Department of Veteran Affairs new data shows more and more combat veterans are seeking help for post-traumatic stress disorder. Thousands of veterans are flooded hospitals, according to the Department. This increase is putting stress on several of the V.A. hospitals across the nation. As soldiers are expected to return home from Iraq near Christmas, more soldiers are going to need help.

The V.A. Dom in White City says they had a meeting Thursday to talk about how the hospitals are going to handle the influx. Doctors say they don' t have a set game plan quite yet. They say the PTSD clinic is still fairly new, starting up about seven months ago and with only five PTSD staff. They'll probably have to hire more staff, however, and start changing how they're going to admit patients into the hospital.

Those treatment groups and educational classes help combat vets cope with their experiences. Staff there says many returning soldiers can't cope with it by themselves and their spouses or family can't always help. The staff also say about 30 to 40 percent of their residences at the hospital are treated for PTSD.
go here for video

As bad as it has been for the troops coming home, it is about to get a lot worse when Iraq and Afghanistan wars are coming to an end and more will leave the military.

Wouldn't you like to see someone in congress fight for the troops and veterans as hard as they fight for the rich? Will congress ever get the fact that when it comes to them, they are "too important" to fail them?

Congress seeks national recognition for Vietnam vets

Congress seeks national recognition for Vietnam vets

By Bill Thompson
Staff writer
Published: Thursday, December 1, 2011
Ben Crosby recalls how gracious people were when he came home from his first combat tour in Vietnam. It was 1967, and as the young Army major, clad in uniform, passed through the civilian world, women hugged him, his drinks in airport bars came free and people were appreciative.

"It was really kind of nice," said Crosby, and not unlike the warm welcome contemporary veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan receive.

The second time, not so much. In 1971, Crosby, still a major, came home from a second year of fighting the Viet Cong. He was ordered not to wear his uniform outside the confines of his post. The risk from anti-war protesters, he was told, was too great.

"Nobody ever did anything to me," said Crosby, an Ocala resident. "But when I look back on it, it was pretty damn bad: a soldier told to put on civilian clothes because his countrymen were mistreating him."
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Civilian contractors from war zones not getting help for PTSD

As far as I know, this report is totally right in reporting that no one is tracking them and even fewer people are helping them. I track these reports all the time and have seen very little reports about civilian employees coming home and getting help.

Civilians often don't get PTSD help
Thursday, December 01, 2011

Gilbert Baez
More: Bio, News Team
FAYETTEVILLE (WTVD) -- Troops returning from war zones go through a rigorous reentry screening to check for signs of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder or PTSD.

But, there are thousands of civilian contractors returning from Iraq and Afghanistan without any check for mental health problems.

Alice Redding is a computer systems engineer. She has spent more than a year in Iraq and Afghanistan as a civilian contractor setting up servers and computer systems for soldiers.

Redding has flown with the troops into combat zones wearing a flack jack and helmet and has come under fire. Now that's she's back home in Fayetteville, it's emotionally tough.

"I would wake up and realize I'm not there anymore. But it would take me a moment to realize that. And speaking to some of my friends that are retirees from the military, that do have PTSD, they recognize - they say hey you've got a touch of PTSD," she explained.
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5 percent of the approximately 650 military dogs have PTSD

After Duty, Dogs Suffer Like Soldiers
By JAMES DAO
Published: December 1, 2011


SAN ANTONIO — The call came into the behavior specialists here from a doctor in Afghanistan. His patient had just been through a firefight and now was cowering under a cot, refusing to come out.

Apparently even the chew toys hadn’t worked.

Post-traumatic stress disorder, thought Dr. Walter F. Burghardt Jr., chief of behavioral medicine at the Daniel E. Holland Military Working Dog Hospital at Lackland Air Force Base. Specifically, canine PTSD.

If anyone needed evidence of the frontline role played by dogs in war these days, here is the latest: the four-legged, wet-nosed troops used to sniff out mines, track down enemy fighters and clear buildings are struggling with the mental strains of combat nearly as much as their human counterparts.

By some estimates, more than 5 percent of the approximately 650 military dogs deployed by American combat forces are developing canine PTSD. Of those, about half are likely to be retired from service, Dr. Burghardt said.

Though veterinarians have long diagnosed behavioral problems in animals, the concept of canine PTSD is only about 18 months old, and still being debated. But it has gained vogue among military veterinarians, who have been seeing patterns of troubling behavior among dogs exposed to explosions, gunfire and other combat-related violence in Iraq and Afghanistan.
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Thursday, December 1, 2011

Half of Iraq war veterans will be homeless

This is not entirely out of the "possible" when you factor in what they come home to. Combat PTSD and families that don't understand it. A backlog of claims leaving them with no income when they can't work. When they can work, the jobs are not there yet. Substance abuse because they can't get what they need from the VA.

Study: Half of Iraq war veterans homeless
Jacksonville veteran gets help; Sulzbacher Center serving more vets

Published On: Dec 01 2011
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -
Some men and women who have put everything on the line to fight for our country say they now feel betrayed by the country they were sworn to protect.

A study just released by the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans shows that more than half the men and women returning from Iraq will be homeless for at least two years.

Robert Brown, a 13-year veteran of three different branches of the military, is one of more than 100,000 homeless veterans in America. He says he feels like coming home was the biggest battle he's faced.

"I feel betrayed," Brown said.

Brown said his wife left him during his deployment, so he had no home to return to. He said it took him nearly a year to get his disability check, and he would lose his benefits if he got a job.
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Iraq Vet wrote "donate organs please" before suicide

A final request from Iraq vet who took own life
Sean Alexander Dacus, 31, wrote on his arm that he wanted his organs donated
According to a police source, he wrote on his arm “Donate organs please” shortly before fatally shooting himself outside the emergency room at Altru Health System in Grand Forks. Dacus served two tours of duty in Iraq and one in Afghanistan.
By: Chris Bieri, Grand Forks Herald

Sean Alexander Dacus, a veteran of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, wrote out a final request Tuesday morning before fatally shooting himself in the chest outside the emergency room at Altru Health System.

According to police, the 31-year-old Grand Forks resident walked into the Altru Clinic just before 11:30 a.m. and borrowed a marker at the coffee shop.

He wrote on his arm “Do not resuscitate” and below that, “Donate organs please,” a police source said. To the right of those lines, he wrote “A-,” which police believe was his blood type.

Alone, Dacus sat on park bench outside between the clinic and emergency room and shot himself in the chest with a .380-caliber handgun. Police believe he was not targeting Altru or any person.
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Washington Army and Air Guard suicides increased

When will they wake up to the fact that while it is great there are "saves" with suicide prevention programs, it should never get so bad that suicide is their only "hope" of ending their pain? These programs do in fact save lives but as the numbers prove, they cannot be the only answer when everything else the DOD is doing has failed.

WA Guard suicides rise even as prevention efforts pay off with interventions
Post by Adam Ashton
The News Tribune on Nov. 30, 2011
The Washington National Guard is seeing mixed results from an “all hands” effort to halt service member suicides, military leaders told state lawmakers in a briefing Wednesday.

The number of suicides among Washington Army and Air Guard service members increased from 0 in 2010 to four so far this year. Seven Washington National Guard soldiers took their own lives in 2009.

But leaders are taking heart in multiple successful suicide interventions that they attribute to enhanced awareness about behavioral health concerns in the military.

“These efforts are saving lives,” Washington National Guard commander Maj. Gen. Timothy Lowenberg said. “We have effectively intervened and prevented suicides form occurring because of this all-hands engagement.”

The saved lives in 2011 include a senior officer who posted on Facebook that he was ready to kill himself. Fellow service members spotted his plea and helped law enforcement officers find him before he could act.
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Hidden App Installed On Smartphones Causes Change in Army

UPDATE on this

Army may Change Standard for Classified Info on Smartphones

December 01, 2011
Stars and Stripes|by Chris Carroll
WASHINGTON -- The Army may take another look at how it decides what information is classified as it looks to ease the integration of popular mobile devices like iPads, iPhones and Android-based smartphones.

The only popular smartphones now approved for widespread use on DOD computer networks are Blackberries, and only for unclassified email. But an Android-based phone from Dell was recently approved for use in testing and pilot programs, and many experts say the Pentagon is likely to open the door wider in coming months.
read more here

From Yesterday
One thing to keep in mind is that a lot of servicemen and women use these phones. Do you really want them tracked?

Carrier IQ: Researcher Trevor Eckhart Outs Creepy, Hidden App Installed On Smartphones (VIDEO)
A security researcher has posted a video detailing hidden software installed on smart phones that logs numerous details about users' activities.

In a 17-minute video posted Monday on YouTube, Trevor Eckhart shows how the software – known as Carrier IQ – logs every text message, Google search and phone number typed on a wide variety of smart phones - including HTC, Blackberry, Nokia* and others - and reports them to the mobile phone carrier.

The application, which is labeled on Eckhart’s HTC smartphone as "HTC IQ Agent," also logs the URL of websites searched on the phone, even if the user intends to encrypt that data using a URL that begins with "HTTPS," Eckhart said.

The software always runs when Android operating system is running and users are unable to stop it, Eckhart said in the video.
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VA hospitals swamped as more than 200,000 have been treated

Local veteran waited nearly two years for PTSD treatment
VA hospitals swamped as more than 200,000 have been treated
Jeff Van Sant
Q13 FOX News reporter
5:25 p.m. PST, November 30, 2011

SEATTLE—
New figures show VA hospitals are becoming overwhelmed by cases of veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

More than 211,000 U.S. veterans of the 1.3 million who have served in the Iraq and Afghan wars have been treated for PTSD. One of them is Joshua Simpson, an Iraq war veteran.

While on a mission in Iraq, he saw an Iraqi get killed and he had to search the body for intelligence.

“I could see like blood starting to pool out from under him and … I was thinking to myself, like this doesn`t bother me anymore. And that's kind of when I realized that like I was suffering from something,” Simpson said.

It’s a memory he can’t shake. Simpson is now an antiwar activist and also helps other veterans cope with PTSD.
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Returning vets can face more problems from people wanting to help

Returning vets can face more problems from people wanting to help
by
Chaplain Kathie

Good intentions can make things worse if the people don't understand what they are doing. It has been going on for years. Charities spring up so fast I can't keep up with them. Most of them really want to help and they do all they can but when they admit they are clueless about veterans, that has the hairs on the back of my neck shaking.

For almost 30 years, this has been my life and I don't welcome anyone to my world lightly. I get emails all the time from college students thinking about going into mental health so they can work with veterans. First I ask them why they want to do it. If they tell me they were in the military or related to someone, that is one thing but if they say they want to do it for job security, I'll tell them to focus on civilians.

Being there to support them is one thing but well meaning people can do more harm than good if they do not offer the right kind of help.

I've heard Chaplains telling them if they not convert, they will go to hell. Mental health professionals tell veterans that the programs like Battlemind are better than nothing. Psychiatrist say that medications are all they need. I've even heard some "helpers" tell them they are selfish and only thinking of themselves. If you care about them, then why on earth would you want to make things worse?

Returning vets can face problems
Wednesday, November 30, 2011


By BRAD GASKINS / Staff Writer

When Jenny Camp became executive director of the DreamPeace Foundation in April 2011, she thought she knew what to expect.

The grassroots, non-profit provides free counseling to veterans and their families. Since Camp grew up in a military family, she thought she had a handle on veterans’ issues.

She thought wrong.

“What this job has shown me is how clueless we really all are,” Camp said. “If you haven’t actually gone and been in combat, you really don’t get it. We don’t understand. We’re not going to. But we can listen, and we can start paying attention.”

Of the 14,000 veterans in Shelby County, about 3,500 – or 25 percent – are 9/11 veterans who have served in Iraq or Afghanistan. When those veterans return home, they can face many challenges.

At the very least, experts say, it will take time for returning veterans to assimilate back into the society they left behind. At the very worst, the experts say, returning veterans can suffer from post traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injury and have extreme trouble finding jobs.

“We as a society are not doing a good enough job of transitioning them back,” Camp said. “Most of us want to help. It’s hard to know how.”
read more here

Here are some tips if you want to work with veterans.

First, learn everything you can about where they were. Know the difference between Iraq and Afghanistan, when the Gulf War was and where just as you learn about when the Vietnam War actually ended claiming lives. (Hint: 73 it was officially over The peace settlement was signed in Paris on 27 January 1973 but The Mayaguez incident between the Khmer Rouge and the United States from May 12–15, 1975, was the last official battle of the Vietnam War.) but the number of deaths tied to the Vietnam War are still happening today. Deaths tied to Agent Orange and suicides keep claiming lives.

When you read something like the recent report every 80 minutes another veteran takes his/her own life you need to be aware that those "reported" deaths are just from what they bothered to track within the VA system. If a veteran did not have an approved claim, but committed suicide, the VA does not track them. When you read about numbers coming out about military suicides, the Marines keep their own numbers and so does the Army, with National Guards and Reservists coming in in other totals. In other words, they keep their own numbers. If a serviceman or woman is discharged, they don't track those deaths either.

When you talk to them you have to ask about their families so you have an idea what kind of support they are getting at home. If they have a strong family or close friends, you have to get them involved. If they have a messed up family, that is something else you'll have to help them overcome.

Face the fact that while text books are great to give you a clinical understanding, they do little good when it comes to knowing who these men and women are or what makes them so different.

After 30 years, I still don't know everything and I live with PTSD everyday. Never get to the point in your career where you think there is nothing left to learn.

Last piece of advice is, never be afraid to admit that you are not the one that can help them the best. Know who is. Many times I will refer them to someone else when their needs are more than I am capable of meeting.

Deputy's son killed in Fort Myers shooting

Deputy's son killed in Fort Myers shooting

Posted: Nov 30, 2011
By Joe Roetz, NBC2 Reporter

FORT MYERS, FL -
A man is dead after a shooting near Dunbar High School Wednesday.

Police say brothers Sharod and Keamon Hayes were in the backyard of 3759 Minnesota Drive when a car drove down Dupree Street, which dead-ends at the backyard.

A man got out, fired multiple shots, and then got back in the car and took off, according to police.

"I started hearing gunshots. At first I thought it was firecrackers," said neighbor Shirley Whitmore.

Sharod Hayes, 20, was killed, Keamon Hayes, 19, was wounded and was expected to survive.

The men are the sons of a sheriff's deputy, according to Fort Myers police.
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Funeral for fallen Danville Marine draws nearly 1,800 mourners

When I tell a young veteran that people do really care about them, they are shocked. After all, they never see their stories on cable news. They hardly ever see anything about them. It's one of the reasons this blog is here. Their stories come out across the country but usually on local news stations and in their newspapers.

When they ship out, spend their days in Iraq or Afghanistan, they wonder if anyone really cares about what they are doing other than their own families. When they come home they wonder even more when no one wants to talk to them about anything. When they are wounded and have to fight for benefits, face financial hardships because they can't work, they stop wondering and start believing no one really gives a damn.
Yet they still do things like reenlist. They still want to serve. Even when they can't stay in the military anymore, they end up joining groups giving back to others.

Well, here's a story about a Marine dying in Afghanistan at the age of 19. This story shows that the men and women serving today are not only dedicated, but they are appreciated. 1,800 people showed up for the funeral of Lance Cpl. Joshua "Chachi" Corral. If you know a veteran or someone deployed right now thinking no one cares, pass this onto them so they will know while they never see their stories on major news stations or read about them in big newspapers, most people have not forgotten about them.
Funeral for fallen Danville Marine draws nearly 1,800 mourners

By Paul Thissen
Contra Costa Times
Posted: 11/30/2011

DANVILLE -- It was barely two months after he arrived in Afghanistan and just a few weeks before his 20th birthday. Lance Cpl. Joshua "Chachi" Corral died a Marine; it was what he had long dreamed of becoming.

He excelled at it. At the Marine boot camp, he got a perfect score on his physical fitness test and ran the fastest time among 300 recruits -- despite having a stress fracture.

When he got to the Helmand Province, one of Afghanistan's most volatile, Corral was a "sweeper," a Marine who walked in front of his squad, looking for improvised explosive devices or other trouble.

He died while conducting combat operations, according to the Defense Department.
Nearly 1,800 mourners packed every available seat at the East Bay Fellowship on Wednesday for his funeral.

"Chachi was the name of a real-life hero," said Don Busboom in his tearful eulogy, using the nickname bestowed by Corral's older brother, when he was too young to correctly pronounce Joshua.

"By living for others, Chachi lived well, because he lived for something bigger than himself," said Busboom, a teacher at San Ramon Valley High School, where Corral graduated in 2010.

He wore his Marine uniform proudly, and he showed his faith in God with the ink under that uniform.
"He was tatted up," Busboom said.
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Wounded Marine ‘He would do anything for his friends’

‘He would do anything for his friends’
Community responds to story of local boy-turned-Marine injured in Afghanistan
By Lloyd Nelson
La Grange Suburban Life
Posted Nov 30, 2011
La Grange, IL —
When Ryan Kelly, Matt Scheef and Jim Williams first walked into Walter Reed Medical Center in Maryland to see their childhood friend, they didn’t know what to expect.

Josh Misiewicz, 23, of La Grange Park, was severely injured in July while on patrol in Helmond Province in Afghanistan after stepping on a landmine. He lost both his legs and shattered his eardrums.

But they had a surprise for him.

Misiewicz couldn’t grow facial hair, but he was a big supporter of the mustache, so when his three closest friends walked into the hospital room, they “rocked the ‘stache” in his honor.

“He smiled,” 23-year-old Kelly, of Wheaton, said of his friend’s reaction to seeing them with their new mustaches.

It was a much-needed moment for his three buddies who’d spent months worrying about the guy they grew up with.

But they weren’t the only ones concerned. Upon hearing about Misiewicz, the community responded with a plethora of fundraisers, including the latest at Bella Banquets on Friday.

A former Illinois State Hockey League all-star and student at Lyons Township High School, Misiewicz was always in great shape. He was, his friends admitted, the best hockey player with them on the ice — a winger with a real knack for scoring.

“He could stick handle through anybody,” Kelly said. “He was untouchable.”
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