Boston Strong Survivor with PTSD Gained Strength From Soldiers

Soldiers Inspire Boston Marathon Bombing Survivor to Run Again
People Magazine
By JOHNNY DODD
04/20/2014

"Army Lt. Col. Brett Sylvia not only helped counsel Clark, but also oversaw the soldiers who reached out to her. Sylvia says he and his men understood what the 37-year-old mother of two was going through and what she needed to hear."

When the Boston Marathon starting gun goes off Monday, runner Demi Clark will have a group of soldiers to thank as she heads out over the 26-mile course.

Clark says she struggled with post-traumatic stress disorder after becoming the final runner to cross the finish line while bombs exploded and debris rained down around her during the 2013 race.

"So many people around me were hit with shrapnel," recalls Clark, whose left eardrum was blown out by the blast.

"I had such massive guilt that I walked away uninjured."

Within months of the blast, the guilt and memories of the victims, the blood and severed limbs she'd seen, took its toll on her. She began seeing a therapist, who diagnosed her with PTSD.

"I wasn't sleeping, and I was anxious whenever I went into public spaces," she recalls. "I just wanted to close the drapes and become a hermit."
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National Guardsman fears discharge after surviving suicide attempt

There is something really wrong when soldiers are still trying to commit suicide. There is something even more wrong when they have to fear they survived.

If you have any advice for this Guardsman, read the post on Yahoo.

Military discharge for suicide attempt?
I dont want to hear any opinions or anybody giving me a lecture why i shouldnt have done it because its already happened and cant be undone.

About three weeks ago I attempted suicide by trying to OD on a variety of pills.

I started feeling really sick. Got very scared and went to the hospital. They pumped my stomach and sent me to a behavioural and mental hospital and had me locked in a room. Unfortunately it was the same weekend as my National guard drill.

After three days I was out and sent my documents of my stay to my First sergeant. Of course leaving out most of the information of why I was there in the first place. Then about a week later he called me enraged and kept going on about how he needs all my information and medical paper work from my stay there. He is very suspicious and very angry.

I just signed to have all my paper work released to my First Sergeant. It sounds silly because I just tried to takr my own life but I do not want to be discharge d at all. I fear that when he gets ahold of the paper work he I will be discharge d from the National Guard. Does any one know what they do for attempted suicide????

Nashville Double Amputee Rolling in Boston Marathon

Wounded Nashville vet in today's Boston Marathon
The Tennessean
Heidi Hall
April 21, 2014

(Photo: Photos by John Partipilo / The Tennessean )

What Marine-turned-marathoner Benjamin Maenza calls his arrogance, other people might call his valor. Or tenacity.

Or insanity.

Because Maenza finished his first marathon in 2011, only a year after an IED in Afghanistan efficiently shredded both his legs to above the knee. He used a handcycle to churn out those 26.2 miles without a day's training, and he was hooked.

At 9:22 a.m. today in Boston, the Lipscomb University student will start his seventh marathon. But this one will be like none he's finished before.

He will meet people who lost their limbs — not defending their nation overseas as he did, but because they simply wanted the exhilaration of running in the world's most famous marathon. Three people died and more than 250 were injured when a bomb exploded at the Boston Marathon finish line on April 15, 2013. Some survivors are expected back, some of them in handcycles such as Maenza's.
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Former U.S. Army Ranger thinks he may have shot Pat Tillman

Former U.S. soldier says his friendly-fire shots might have killed Tillman
Reuters
Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis
Sun Apr 20, 2014

(Reuters) - A former U.S. Army Ranger who was in the same platoon as ex-NFL player Pat Tillman has stated in a television interview that he believes he might have fired the shots that killed Tillman in a 2004 friendly-fire incident in Afghanistan.

Steven Elliott, 33, told ESPN program "Outside the Lines" in an interview scheduled to air on Sunday that he regrets joining other soldiers in firing on the spot where Tillman had taken position during a chaotic incident in a mountainous area.

"It is possible, in my mind, that I hit him," Elliott said.

Tillman gave up a multimillion dollar career as a defensive back with the Arizona Cardinals football team to enlist in the military in the wake of the September 11, 2001, attacks and served in the U.S. Army's 75th Ranger Regiment, becoming one of the U.S. military's most high-profile service members.

The U.S. military initially said he was shot by enemy fighters in an ambush, but a subsequent investigation determined he was killed by friendly fire.

Elliott's comments to "Outside the Lines" mark his first public statements on Tillman's death. ESPN reported that two other soldiers who previously acknowledged firing at Tillman's position had declined to comment for the sports program.
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Did you hear the one about a woman, a Rabbi and a Chaplain

Did you hear the one about a woman, a Rabbi and a Chaplain walking into a room full of soldiers,,,,and then she began to preach?

Female rabbi, chaplain with 82nd Airborne in Afghanistan, has no regrets
The Fayetteville (N.C.) Observer
By Drew Brooks
Published: April 18, 2014

Capt. Heather Borshof, the battalion chaplain of the 330th Joint Movement Control Battalion, 1st Sustainment Command (Theater), speaks at a service at Bagram Air Field, Afghanistan, on March 14, 2014. JARRED WOODS/U.S. ARMY

BAGRAM AIRFIELD, Afghanistan — Army Capt. Heather Borshof expects the questions.

"What's that on your uniform?" passers-by ask the chaplain for the Fort Bragg-based 330th Movement Control Battalion. It's the Ten Commandments topped with a Star of David, the symbol for Jewish chaplains.

"Women can be rabbis?" they ask. Yes, they have served in that role for decades.

Borshof, who deployed with her battalion — part of the 82nd Sustainment Brigade — in November, said she is used to the queries.

A female chaplain is a rare sight in the military. A female Jewish chaplain? There is only one other in the active-duty Army, she said. And Borshof was the first in a generation. She follows in the footsteps of Chana Timoner, who served at Fort Bragg in 1993 and died in 1998 from complications with a virus.

This week, Borshof has hosted two Passover seders at Bagram Airfield, where she is the only rabbi to be stationed long-term. But she said her chief role is to counsel soldiers, no matter their religion.

"I travel for our soldiers," she said, referring to the battalion's 19 movement control teams spread across Afghanistan. "I actually don't travel for the religious community."
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Australia War widow touched by Kate's sympathy

War widow touched by Kate's sympathy
News Australia
24 HOURS AGO APRIL 20, 2014

WAR widow Nicole Pearce says her meeting with the Duchess of Cambridge was a surreal and privileged experience, but she desperately wishes it could have been under different circumstances.

It's been almost seven years since a roadside bomb claimed the life of her husband, Trooper David Pearce, just two weeks into a tour of Afghanistan.

Her daughters Stephanie and Hanna lost their father. She lost the man she loved, and, for too many years, any sense of a normal life.

Nothing can bring her 41-year-old husband back but the widow was touched by the duchess's heartfelt concern for her family.

Kate and Prince William spoke with four families who lost loved ones in Afghanistan and Iraq during their tour of Queensland's Amberley RAAF base on Saturday.

"She asked how long David had been in the military for and how long he'd been overseas when he was killed," Mrs Pearce told the Nine Network.

"She was sincerely quite sad for us to think David was only over there for two weeks when he was killed. She seemed very, very genuine and she was very sweet."

It was a bitter sweet occasion for the family.
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Returning soldiers now battling homelessness

When it happened to Vietnam veterans no one knew and few cared. With OEF and OIF veterans coming home and facing the same thing, everyone knows but not everyone cares. Think about all we've been told all these years later about what the DOD and the VA have been doing to counter Combat PTSD. Then think of how there is no excuse for any of this still happening. If you care, demand change and accountability because if no one is held accountable, nothing will change and our veterans will keep suffering.

US veterans: returning soldiers now battling homelessness
Channel 4
THURSDAY 17 APRIL 2014

Tens of thousands of US troops are withdrawing from Afghanistan, but many are finding their return home is less than heroic, and the substantial number of veterans facing homelessness is on the rise. Sergeant Randy Vaccaro is what most Americans would describe as a hero.

As a US Marine, he did three combat tours in Iraq. During one, he said he was facing attack every day, small arms and Improvised Explosive Devices. He saw two of his closest friends die in front of him during one firefight in Fallujah.

But now, almost three years on from the US troop withdrawal from Iraq, Randy and tens of thousands of his comrades from that war and America’s other 21st century conflict – Afghanistan – find themselves home. But homeless.

An estimated 48,000 Iraq and Afghanistan veterans were homeless in 2013, according to figures from the US Department of Veterans Affairs.

Although homelessness among military veterans in general is in decline – down by a quarter in the last four years – the current generation of combat veterans are finding themselves homeless at a rising rate.

We met Randy Vaccaro at the Veterans Village of San Diego.

Yes, an entire village created in 1981 to serve the men and women who served their country, and now can’t find their place in it.
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Pascha a new beginning for you

Pascha a new beginning for you
Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
April 20, 2014

Today we celebrate the day Christ defeated death and the stone was rolled away leaving the tomb empty. It was a new beginning for His followers after spending two traumatized days shocked by how it all turned out so bad. They lost hope, questioned everything they believed while suffering for believing that goodness and miracles from God were all false. After all, if God really sent Christ to them, then He would have not been nailed to the Cross and carried to that tomb.

Hope that they were forgiven for all they had done wrong in their lives was taken away from them. They saw with their own eyes that all Christ preached about led to His death. All the blessings He told them about resulted in this terrible ending.

Sermon on the Mount when He said:

3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

4 Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

5 Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

7 Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.

8 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

9 Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.

10 Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

11 “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.

12 Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you."

Christ even had mercy for a Roman Centurion. The Faith of the Centurion

5 When Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, asking for help.
6 “Lord,” he said, “my servant lies at home paralyzed, suffering terribly.”
7 Jesus said to him, “Shall I come and heal him?”
8 The centurion replied, “Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed.
9 For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and that one, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”
10 When Jesus heard this, he was amazed and said to those following him, “Truly I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith.
11 I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.
12 But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
13 Then Jesus said to the centurion, “Go! Let it be done just as you believed it would.” And his servant was healed at that moment.

Those words had filled them with love for others and had them believing they were loved no matter what was happening in their own lives, yet when He died, they believed His life had been wasted and He was not what they thought He was. How could they believe anything He told them? What about the miracles they saw Him do? Were they all some kind of magic trick? Was any of it real?

For those two nights they were filled with grief but afterwards they rejoiced knowing that what Jesus told them, what He stood for and everything He did was from God.

John:20
Jesus Appears to His Disciples

19 On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!”

20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.

21 Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.”

22 And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”

Peace be with you? He said that after being betrayed, abandoned, beaten, mocked and nailed to the cross. He said "Peace be with you" to the people he called his friends and was willing to die for yet they ran from Him as soon as there was trouble.

There was a spiritual awakening that Sunday morning.

For Greeks the day is called Pascha, otherwise known as Easter.

Origins of Pascha and Great Week Rev. Alciviadis C. Calivas, Th.D has a good article on this and points this passage out.

"...purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth" (1 Cor 5:7-8).

These people made new. It all meant more to them after Jesus defeated death. His last words of asking for God to forgive everyone for what was done to them changed the way they felt about the spiritual connection they had to the Creator.

There is a difference between religion and spirituality. Most of them were living under the religious rules of their Jewish heritage but Christ made it more personal to them.

Kairos is in play when things happen unpredictably, but at just the right moment. Eternity and clock time seem to intersect for human benefit and instruction. Such an experience, when something eternal appears to break through into everyday life, is an ‘epiphany'. Heaven and earth may seem briefly to coincide and... ‘Something happens'! Something new and profound, something inspiring and life-changing is revealed in an instant.

The new wisdom resonates powerfully with something already present, deep inside. It feels like a reminder and confirmation of something already known but forgotten. Such revelations herald a kind of awakening, a key moment of transition on life's journey towards spiritual maturity. As the fallen leaf never rises to rejoin the tree, so is this a point of no return. The significance of these experiences is re-enforced by ‘synchronicities' unexpected but meaningful coincidences; such as may occur when two people meet for the first time, who later become life partners.

Synchronicities and serendipities - unexpected discoveries - often go together. There is a kind of mystery about kairos. Kairos is spiritual time.
Spiritual Wisdom for Secular Times The search for meaning and faith Psychology Today by Dr. Larry Culliford

So what does all of this have to do with you?

You are not stuck where you are spiritually. You do not have to question everything you thought was the right thing to do for the right reasons because you are hurting today. The outcome of your life has not been written yet.

The followers of Christ were miserable after doing things for a good reason and out of love but ended up knowing that they were not wrong. Their suffering did not have to last a lifetime and they were not stuck in those dark days between the Crucifixion and Resurrection. You are not stuck where you are spiritually either.

In one week it all went to hell from Palm Sunday when Jesus was welcomed.

8 A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road.
9 The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted, “Hosanna[b] to the Son of David!” “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”[c] “Hosanna[d] in the highest heaven!”
10 When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, “Who is this?”
11 The crowds answered, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.”
(Matthew 21)

To the night He was arrested and His friends abandoned Him, tried and people called for Him to be put to death to the day they heard the news the tomb was empty.

In 7 days the world changed for the people following Jesus but as you grieve now, know that the world can change for you as well.

Look at why you did what you did if the reason was from goodness, then forgive yourself as well as the people who did wrong against you. If you did it for the wrong reasons, ask for forgiveness and then forgive yourself. There is nothing you cannot be forgiven for. Christ not only asked for forgiveness for the people after they betrayed Him, He died for their sake and ours. Let Him heal your spirit so that you can rejoice again just as the people did when they heard the news they were not wrong believing that love lives on.

Soldier Dad Becomes Knight for a Day

Video: Dad Serving In Afghanistan Surprises Kids At Medieval Times

Medieval Times is a joyous place under just about any circumstances, but it was especially so for two NJ children yesterday when they were reunited with their father who has been serving in Afghanistan since November.
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Apr 17, 2014
Staff Sgt. Devin Lee, who has been serving in Afghanistan since November, surprised his children at Medieval Times restaurant in Lyndhurst, N.J. CBS 2's Hazel Sanchez reports.

Pat Tillman's spirit lives on in a military scholar program

Ten years after his death, Pat Tillman's spirit lives on in a military scholar program
San Jose (Calif.) Mercury News
By Mark Emmons
Published: April 19, 2014

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Ten years after the death of Pat Tillman in a remote Afghanistan pass, monuments to his memory are everywhere.

A stone marker in San Jose's community of New Almaden. An 8-foot statue in Glendale, Ariz. The Pat Tillman Stadium at Leland High School and the Tillman Tunnel that Arizona State football players run through.

But the most fitting tributes to an admired man are not found in concrete and bronze. They are living legacies of flesh, blood and passion — the Tillman Military Scholars.

Nearly 300 active-duty service members, veterans and spouses inspired by Tillman's story have received college scholarships with the hope they will create a ripple effect that makes the world a bit better.

"We don't know what Pat would have done if he had lived, but I imagine he would have continued to serve for the rest of his life," said Adrian Kinsella, a Marine captain who attends the UC Berkeley School of Law. "That's what all of the Tillman scholars feel like we have to do. Every day I ask: 'Am I living up to Pat's ideal?' "

The San Jose native remains the best-known soldier of the post-9/11 era — an enduring symbol of selfless patriotism for putting an NFL career on hold to enlist in the U.S. Army, and then making the ultimate sacrifice for his country.
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If you had been here,,,,,

This year the Orthodox and Catholic Easter are celebrated at the same time. Long story about why Easter is celebrated is at different times. Here is a pretty good article on the difference between Orthodox and Protestants The Sacrament of Holy Unction

Tomorrow we'll celebrate His life after death and how His life changed the world. Some will say for bad but most say for better. His life was about love but that love goes beyond what many think about.

John 15:13 "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." But that wasn't the only time He talked about loving and what He was willing to do. It wasn't the last time either.

The most powerful sentence in the Bible is also the shortest. It is only two words but before you read them, you need to know what was happening before.

Jesus Comforts the Sisters of Lazarus
John 11
17 On his arrival, Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. 18 Now Bethany was less than two miles[b] from Jerusalem, 19 and many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them in the loss of their brother. 20 When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed at home.

21 “Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.”

23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”

24 Martha answered, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”

25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; 26 and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

27 “Yes, Lord,” she replied, “I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.”

28 After she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary aside. “The Teacher is here,” she said, “and is asking for you.” 29 When Mary heard this, she got up quickly and went to him. 30 Now Jesus had not yet entered the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him. 31 When the Jews who had been with Mary in the house, comforting her, noticed how quickly she got up and went out, they followed her, supposing she was going to the tomb to mourn there.

32 When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”

33 When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. 34 “Where have you laid him?” he asked.

“Come and see, Lord,” they replied.

35 Jesus wept.

36 Then the Jews said, “See how he loved him!”

37 But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?”

He cried because He knew how much she was in for the loss of her brother. He knew He was going to take her pain away and He was preparing for His own suffering but in that moment, all that mattered was that she was deeply troubled.

Jesus Prays on the Mount of Olives 39 Jesus went out as usual to the Mount of Olives, and his disciples followed him. 40 On reaching the place, he said to them, “Pray that you will not fall into temptation.” 41 He withdrew about a stone’s throw beyond them, knelt down and prayed, 42 “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” 43 An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him. 44 And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.[c]

Some people thought it was all a failure even though the way it was to happen was already known and Christ came to fulfill all of it. He showed that no matter what He was going to endure, He loved and He did it all out of love.

So many times we do things out of love but suffer and we wonder where our reward is until we remember what Christ went through. We understand that while some talk about our reward in Heaven, they don't seem to understand what it is like in the moments when we do things out of love in that instant. There is nothing that can match doing something for the sake of someone else out of love and that is what He wanted us to remember to actually honor His life.

We are not supposed to have perfect faith and suffering does not mean we deserve it. He didn't deserved to suffer and even He struggled with what He knew He had to do. He also had a choice to do it or walk away. He made the choice to finish what He came here to do and again, out of love.

Don't assume just because someone else is suffering they deserve it. If you do then you didn't deserve Christ dying for you to pay for your sins. None of us actually deserve what He did for us. We mess up all the time. We judge people and judge ourselves. We forget so much good that happened and hang onto too much that was bad. If you are struggling I wanted you to know that He does understand and cares about you the way He cared about Lazarus' sister. He knows that your life can be so much better than it is right now, but He still cares about how you feel right now and wants to help ease your pain. Let Him help you know that you are loved no matter what you are facing, believe you did wrong or had wrong done to you. He will send people to help the way He sent the Holy Spirit to comfort those who traveled the last days of His life on this earth.

U.S. special forces struggle with record suicides

U.S. special forces struggle with record suicides even after all these years of the DOD saying they were taking care of the men and women serving this country. Even after suicides and attempted suicides went up. Even after even the "toughest" of the tough suffered. Anyone know what is going to change? How to change it? Who is accountable for it?

Joe Miller, then an Army Ranger captain with three Iraq tours under his belt, sat inside his home near Fort Bragg holding a cocked Beretta 40mm, and prepared to kill himself.

Staff Sgt. Jared Hagemann, 25, of the 2nd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, killed himself June 28 (2011) at Lewis-McChord. Staff Sgt. Hagemann had orders to return to Afghanistan for a ninth tour of duty.

Crowley-Smilek, 28, a former U.S. Army Ranger who suffered from combat stress and physical injuries from service in Afghanistan, was dead; shot multiple times by a police officer outside the Farmington municipal offices on U.S. Route 2.

Staff Sgt. Charles Reilly, is a Special Forces soldier who has been deployed six times in the past decade. She said psychiatrists have diagnosed him with PTSD, and he's assigned to Fort Bragg's Warrior Transition Battalion, where soldiers recover from physical and mental wounds.

Sgt. Ben Driftmyer was discharged and betrayed. Survived.

"I had spent eight years serving the military. I never got in trouble. Never did anything bad. And I got treated like I was a piece of crap because of it," said Ben Driftmyer, discharged U.S. Army Sergeant and Cottage Grove resident. Driftmyer was diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder by Eugene doctors after he was chaptered out from the special forces unit in Baghdad. He suffered several mental breakdowns during his service, but his discharge was classified as "other than medical." "Because the military didn't want to pay for me for the rest of my life," said Driftmyer.

Chief Petty Officer Jerald Kruse, served 19 years in the Navy. He was a SEAL, an elite warrior sent to fight in some of the toughest situations around the world, including in Iraq. “His problems really began in ’05. That’s when I really began to notice something was wrong,” she said. He drank excessively, stayed up all night and lashed out at her and their three kids.

Navy Cmdr. Job W. Price, 42, of Pottstown, Pennsylvania, died Saturday while serving as the commanding officer of SEAL Team 4, a special warfare unit based in Virginia Beach, Virginia.

Navy SEAL Robert Guzzo returned from Iraq, he feared seeking treatment for PTSD would endanger his career.

U.S. special forces struggle with record suicides: admiral
Reuters
BY WARREN STROBEL
TAMPA, Florida
Thu Apr 17, 2014

(Reuters) - Suicides among U.S. special operations forces, including elite Navy SEALs and Army Rangers, are at record levels, a U.S. military official said on Thursday, citing the effects of more than a decade of "hard combat."

The number of special operations forces committing suicide has held at record highs for the past two years, said Admiral William McRaven, who leads the Special Operations Command.

"And this year, I am afraid, we are on path to break that," he told a conference in Tampa. "My soldiers have been fighting now for 12, 13 years in hard combat. Hard combat. And anybody that has spent any time in this war has been changed by it. It's that simple."

It may take a year or more, he said, to assess the effects of sustained combat on special operations units, whose missions range from strikes on militants such as the 2011 SEAL raid that killed al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden to assisting in humanitarian disasters.
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Vet with PTSD lawsuit settled for $3.1 million

Vet with PTSD to receive $3.1 million from government
Times Tribune
TERRIE MORGAN-BESECKER
Published: April 19, 2014

Fifteen months after he was awarded $3.7 million in a federal lawsuit, a Marine suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder will receive all but roughly $600,000 of the verdict after the government agreed to drop most of the issues it raised on appeal.

Stanley Laskowski III of Carbondale and his wife, Marisol, filed suit against the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs in 2010, alleging medical officials at the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Plains Twp. improperly treated his PTSD for years, causing it to worsen.

The case went before Senior U.S. District Judge James Munley for a nonjury trial in September 2012. In a 69-page ruling issued in January 2013, the judge agreed doctors made numerous errors in treating Mr. Laskowski, 36, and awarded him $2.4 million for past and future lost earnings and $1.2 million for pain and suffering. Mrs. Laskowski was awarded $140,615 for loss of her husband’s companionship.

Mr. Laskowski receives disability based on his PTSD. The government argues the value of those future benefits over his projected lifetime should be deducted from the award. Mr. Brier said he opposes that because there is no guarantee Mr. Laskowski will continue to receive the benefits as disability determinations undergo periodic review and payments could be halted in the future.

Regardless of the outcome of that dispute, Mr. Brier argued, and the government agreed, the portion of the verdict that is not in dispute should be paid. The 3rd Circuit Court on Thursday approved the request.

“This court order is a tribute to the Laskowski family’s perseverance, courage and faith in each other and the judicial system,” Mr. Brier said in a prepared statement. “This partial victory permits these American heroes to start to rebuild their lives.”
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Marine's family allowed to sue VA after suicide and being turned away twice

COURT REINSTATES LAWSUIT OVER MARINE'S SUICIDE
A P
By BRETT BARROUQUERE
Apr. 18, 2014

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — The family of a Marine who killed himself after a tour of duty in Iraq will be allowed to proceed with a lawsuit against the federal government over his treatment by two Veterans Affairs facilities in Kentucky.

The U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals concluded Friday that the lawsuit brought by the family of 21-year-old Cameron Anestis of Georgetown shouldn't have been dismissed. Anestis' widow, Tiffany Anestis, sued the federal government in 2011, seeking $22.5 million in damages after her husband developed mental and emotional problems.

"You're just shocked," said Al Grasch, the attorney for the Anestis family. "The VA turned him away, not once, it turned him away twice."

Anestis' family claimed the VA was negligent when it turned away the Marine at two VA hospitals in Lexington when he sought a mental health evaluation and treatment.

A spokesman for the VA declined to comment on the pending litigation.
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