PTSD:Resilience, recovery, reintegration and Shakespeare

"Lamentable neglect" is a great choice of words to use. It's not as if they didn't know what would come. Reminds me of a movie I watched,

Something Wicked This Way Comes (novel) - Wikipedia, the fre...
Something Wicked This Way Comes is a 1962 novel by Ray Bradbury. It is about two thirteen-year-old boys, Jim Nightshade and William Halloway

Later I read the book. There were warnings about PTSD, or to put it properly, the tsunami alarm was screeching coast to coast but the Bush administration had their fingers stuck in their ears afraid to look at what they had created with taking on two military campaigns. As the experts began to speak out the claim of the quick conclusions was dripping thru the media channels and it became clear no matter what facts had been known from the history of both nations, no one thought to acknowledge any of it.

William Halloway and Jim Nightshade tried to warn the people of Green Town about this but no one would listen. As the townspeople began to change, they tried even harder to get the adults to pay attention.

"Cooger and Dark's Pandemonium Shadow Show," a traveling carnival with many wonders and delights

The "Cooger" in this case is the administration and they were oblivious with deadly results. The "Dark" in this case is the darkness the men and women of the armed forces were forced to be vanquished to in an unending nightmare game of "catch me if you can" while they fell thru the cracks instead of being helped.

When lip service and programs slapped together like using the cartoon of The Epic Of Gilgamesh to address PTSD was followed by BattleMind, another program that clearly didn't work because the rate of attempted suicides went up along with successful suicides, time was wasted, veterans were betrayed by insulting them with half-baked amateur productions passed off as brilliant. Just for an example, this was posted on my other blog before I started this one.

Sunday, December 31, 2006
VA AND DoD USING CARTOON VIDEOS

http://www.vawatchdog.org/
VA AND DoD USING CARTOON VIDEOS AS TEACHING TOOLS FOR EMPLOYEES
(12-30-06)The "Epic of Gilgamesh" cartoons used to teach Clinical Practice Guidelines for Post-Deployment Health Evaluation and Management.

Larry Scott of VAWatchdog.org just did it again. He never fails to shock me. This is just one more of the incredible reports he finds. The VA are up to their old ticks of offering cartoons instead of help.

I really wonder how much they paid to have this three part cartoon made.

One of the biggest things I noticed was when the "Doctor" suggested what to do while he was still trying to find a reason was for the "veteran" to get exercise and change their lifestyle. What is done to the veteran in the process is without a diagnosis by the VA along with a disability rating, the veteran is "non-service connected" for the disability and as such they are not treated for free for the wound they received from combat. Congress passed the rule change which allows the VA to bill for treatment for any veteran without their rating and a recognized service connected disability. In other words, until the VA puts a label on a veteran, it doesn't matter to them where the wound came from. They could be sitting in a wheel chair without the legs that got blown off in Iraq and all the VA will see is the service connected disability rating in the system. No rating, they pay. Nice isn't it?

Then when you take a veteran discharged a year or so before showing up complaining of the symptoms of PTSD and they will make them pay for the treatment unless the VA finally gives the determination of a service connected condition.Go watch the videos and then email your congressmen the link. Let them see what the VA is doing with the money they don't have to spend on our veterans. After all it is a new congress coming in now. The one who funded this kind of crap were voted out!

While I was one of the first bloggers to pick up on it after Larry Scott posted it, if you go looking for it now, my post is buried under the list of "experts" I never heard of. Anyway, it gives you some idea of what they were doing instead of investing in the time, finding the right talent and getting it right. But then again you'd also have to forget people like Sally Satel were advising Bush on mental health care and she was one of the "foremost experts" on how PTSD was a false illness used by frauds out for a free ride and trying to suck off the system.

At least now they appear to be serious. What it took to get this far were people finally thinking outside of the box they were given. All this time lost though while people like me were treated like Jim and William by the people of Green Town. It's really too bad no one listened to them or us when a lot of suffering could have been avoided.

At least this time they're using quotes from Shakespeare. By the information in this article, Brig. General Loree K. Sutton has her act together and just may be able to prevent something even more wicked from happening. We've lost too much time and lives already. I have to rank this one as hopeful.

Marching toward wellness
Ann Geracimos THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Wednesday, December 3, 2008

The military finally is getting ahead in the head business - tackling the psychological health and traumatic brain injuries of soldiers and their families in a comprehensive way.

It's happening at the moment under the leadership of an energetic, Shakespeare-quoting Army psychiatrist, Brigadier Gen. Loree K. Sutton.

Gen. Sutton holds a medical degree from Loma Linda University in Loma Linda, Calif. She completed her internship and residency in psychiatry at Letterman Army Medical Center in San Francisco.


Gen. Sutton, 49, is director of the year-old Defense Centers of Excellence (DCoE), an arm of the Department of Defense dealing with health matters. The concept is to find the means of caring for troops and their leaders before, as well as after, service members and their relations suffer the debilitating effects of trauma.

The game plan focuses on building up what is being called "resilience" among the military's many warrior volunteers as well as providing more and better treatment options for visible and invisible injuries of this type in a totally integrated program for recovery and reintegration. Gen. Sutton describes it as a network "like the Internet - a collaborative global network" functioning in a partnership, which is expected to take four years to put fully in place.

The plan, and its three R's - resilience, recovery, reintegration - had a big workout at a recent three-day DCoE symposium, titled Warrior Resilience Conference: Partnering With the Line and attended mainly by service members involved in health matters. Billed as the first of its kind, the event at the Fairfax Marriott at Fair Oaks typified what the organization sees as its mandate: promoting a shift of emphasis in the military away from what is known, in jargon terms, as an "illness-based medical model" toward a "wellness-centric resilience continuum."

The latter phrase is a mouthful, with good reason, covering as it does a range of approaches that almost directly counter traditional military culture and practices.

"It's ironic how the military trains us to overcome discomfort but not how to deal with invisible injuries," Gen. Sutton notes. "As soldiers, we keep a lid on our feelings while we do our job. But nobody tells us when to take the lid off or how to deal with it when we do."

At some point, too, she feels compelled to quote Hamlet on his deathbed, addressing his friend Horatio: "If thou didst ever hold me in thy heart, absent thee from felicity awhile and enter my harsh world and draw my breath in pain to tell my story." This is Gen. Sutton's way of emphasizing the necessity of bringing soldier-warriors' stories to light.

Such a shift acknowledges what has been lamentable neglect and often superficial understanding of the wounds of war that have proved to be different in different eras. Some degree of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is known to affect hundreds of thousands of today's military serving overseas, along with the mental and physical impacts felt by the prevalence of improvised explosive devices (IEDs).
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New homeless: families in bind

New homeless: families in bind
By Cristina Silva, Times Staff Writer
Tuesday, December 2, 2008


ST. PETERSBURG — Ethan Hite sits on the twin bed he shares with his 2-year-old brother and cuts coupons for PlayStation games.

"Can I have these two games for Christmas?" the 7-year-old calls to his mother. "This one is $10 and this one is $7."

Mary Hite, her husband and their three children live in an efficiency apartment in a homeless shelter. Neither parent has a full-time job.

But Mary Hite doesn't tell her oldest any of that. She tucks the coupons into her pocket and embraces him.

The Hites are among the Tampa Bay area's fastest-growing homeless population: parents and children.

Area shelter directors, homeless advocates, government officials and child welfare agencies say the rising unemployment rate, the sluggish housing market and the spiraling economy have forced an unprecedented number of families out of their homes.

And these officials aren't sure what to do about it. Limited social service funding, a dearth of affordable housing and a homeless assistance system designed for single men — the largest homeless demographic — make catering to families difficult.

"It has emerged as the next crisis in terms of housing," Pinellas County Commissioner Ken Welch said.

Numbers are hard to come by, but the overwhelming anecdotal evidence has pushed advocates for the homeless into action.
go here for more
http://www.tampabay.com/news/humaninterest/article922647.ece

Military Spouse, do you want to save your marriage?

by Chaplain Kathie

Well do you? When my generation was welcoming home the veterans of Vietnam, we had an excuse. No one knew what PTSD was. No one had the opportunity to find the information you now have available. We didn't know what caused the roller-coaster ride of emotions, angry outbursts, sudden silence, flashbacks, nightmares, paranoia, "patrolling the perimeter" checking all the doors and windows in a nightly ritual, jumping out of their skin with the sound of something dropping or freak out with fireworks. Never mind what the sound of a helicopter did. We had an excuse to walk away from our marriages because of all that and the self-medicating with alcohol and drugs. After all, we're just as human as everyone else and we want a happy life with the person we fell in love with. When they come home with PTSD it's like looking into the eyes of a stranger.

The problem is, with this generation it's not lack of resources, it's lack of will. Let me tell you something. I've been doing this for 26 years and I would have given anything to have the kind of information all of you have now. I had to hunt for it before there were computers in every home and my butt still hurts from the library seats. I didn't have people from all over the country reaching back to me and offering support. You all have it and much more than I ever dreamt of but do you use it? Do you attend any of the presentations about PTSD, join the groups or research it? No. I can't count how many times I've heard "I have enough to worry about" because you don't want to think about what they can come home with. That leaves you totally unprepared to save your marriage, help your spouse and your kids adapt to what could have become what I have. I have a marriage that has lasted 24 years for several reasons. First, I adored my husband when PTSD was mild. He was my best friend. The bond was there when he got worse. I knew what PTSD was and that gave me what I needed to get up one day after another ready to make it from one second to the other. I also had a tremendous amount of faith and was able to hang onto hope and be able to keep forgiving instead of hanging onto the pain.

If you still don't want to know what PTSD is and what you can do to keep your marriage together, then you don't deserve them. If you can walk away without doing everything you can to understand them and help them, then you shouldn't have gotten married in the first place. Then you can face your kids and tell them that their other parent changed because they got sick and you turned your back on them "because they were too hard to live with" and explain to them why it was that you raised your kids when they were hard to live with but didn't walk away from them.

Now, I'm not saying that every marriage can be saved and frankly there are some that are beyond help. There have been some very dangerous situations when they come home and they are a danger to others. In those cases, there is the need to be safe first. I still want those families to know what PTSD is so they can explain it to their children and help them understand it had nothing to do with them. Help them find compassion and forgiveness for their sake. It will also help you to forgive yourself because you will know it wasn't your fault either.

If you love them then invest the time in understanding them. Avoiding the knowledge leads to very unhappy endings.

Senior Chaplain Kathie "Costos" DiCesare
International Fellowship of Chaplains
Namguardianangel@aol.com
http://www.namguardianangel.org/
http://www.woundedtimes.blogspot.com/
www.youtube.com/NamGuardianAngel
"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

Divorces rise among military couples
USA Today - USA
By Gregg Zoroya, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — Enlisted soldiers and Marines divorced their spouses at a higher rate in fiscal 2008 than at any time in at least 16 years, according to Pentagon data released Tuesday.
Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has warned that stress among military families remains intense after years of multiple combat deployments and lengthy separations.

Many soldiers saw their combat tours extended to 15 months in 2008; many of them returned for only about a year at home before facing another deployment. The strain has also been reflected in a record number of suicides in the Army, which military doctors blame largely on relationships damaged by lengthy deployments.

Mental health problems, particularly post-traumatic stress disorder and depression, are also occurring in greater numbers, according to Pentagon data. Army and Marine forces have been involved in more combat in Iraq and Afghanistan than other services branches.

About 4% of married enlisted troops in both the Army and Marines, or 8,842 GIs and 2,842 Marines, obtained divorces during fiscal 2008, the numbers show.
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'Idealist' tried to halt Saddam's Kurdish slaughter

When President Bush sent the troops into Iraq, first it was because of our security. Then some of the people on the right pointed out how Saddam killed the Kurds, as if it had just happened. It was the talking point of the time when the WMD claim fell flat on the face of the all involved. The truth was, when it came to a choice between people and business, business won and people died.

After the Gulf War, President Bush (41) was blamed for telling the Kurds to rise up against Saddam and they would have the backing of the America. We didn't help them at all. The only thing that was done was the establishment of the no-fly zone under the UN sanctions. By then it was too late for hundreds of Kurds.

What really gets me in all of this is that when the Kurdish north was being bombed by Turkey and Iran because of the new freedom the Kurds had, the media never really covered any of it.

Well, now can know the rest of the story if you haven't read any of the history of what went on in Iraq.

'Idealist' tried to halt Saddam's Kurdish slaughter

Scream Bloody Murder
Christiane Amanpour introduces you to the courageous few who saw evil and tried to stop the killing.December 4, 9 p.m. ET
see full schedule »

Story Highlights
Years before the first Gulf War, Saddam Hussein was slaughtering Iraq's Kurds

Peter Galbraith was one of the first Westerners to see the effects of the killing

A Senate staffer at the time, he tried to invoke the U.N. Genocide Convention

The House killed his sanctions bill with backing from the Reagan White House

By Andy Segal
CNN Senior Producer

(CNN) -- Years before the first Gulf War, Saddam Hussein was slaughtering Iraq's Kurds with bombs, bullets and gas


The Reagan White House saw it as a ruthless attempt to put down a rebellion by a minority ethnic group fighting for independence and allied with Iraq's enemy, Iran.

But Peter Galbraith thought it was something worse.

"A light went off in my head, and I said, 'Saddam Hussein is committing genocide,'" said Galbraith, who was on the staff of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee at the time.

An unabashed idealist, Galbraith was known for tackling unconventional issues.

"If you're going to be idealistic in life, you're going to be disappointed," he said. "But that's not a reason to abandon idealism."

Galbraith was one of the first Westerners to witness the effects of the slaughter. During a fact-finding trip for the Senate in 1987, he saw something troubling.


"When we crossed from the Arab part of Iraq into the Kurdish part of Iraq, the villages and towns that showed on our maps just weren't there," he said. Bulldozing Kurdish villages was just the first phase of Hussein's war against the Kurds. In 1988, it escalated with chemical weapons.

"Thousands, maybe tens of thousands of people were killed in those attacks, and then Iraqi troops moved into those villages and gunned down the survivors."

Galbraith wanted to invoke the U.N.'s Genocide Convention, which requires countries to prevent and punish such crimes.

"We could not stand aside and allow Saddam Hussein to commit genocide against the Kurds of Iraq."

With the support of his boss, Democratic Sen. Claiborne Pell of Rhode Island, Galbraith drafted a bill -- the Prevention of Genocide Act -- that would cut off U.S. foreign aid to Iraq and impose a trade embargo.


"That would have been an appropriate response to a dictator who is gassing his own people," Galbraith said. "I thought with a name like that it would garner a lot of support."

But the compelling name was not enough. So Galbraith went back to the region to gather more evidence.


Tens of thousands of Kurds had fled to Turkey. Survivors described blinding, burning clouds of poison gas that dropped people in their tracks.

"These people don't make up these stories. These are real stories. And if you talk to them, if you simply talk to them ... you know that they're telling the truth," Galbraith said.

His report was still not enough to persuade the White House to punish Saddam.


The Reagan administration had invested several years cultivating Iraq as an ally against Iran, their mutual enemy, and as a market for U.S. products, including more than $1 billion a year in farm exports.

The Prevention of Genocide Act would end the diplomatic courtship and hurt U.S businesses.
Read once-secret documents from the Reagan administration
go here to read more
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/11/20/sbm.iraq.galbraith/index.html

Sgt. Evan Minnear, back from Iraq, killed here trying to stop gunman

When I talk about how heroes are not made, they are born, Sgt. Minnear is an example of that. The men and women serving, for the most part aside from rare few, were born to do what they do. Serve the nation. We see this when you read about how some of the fallen were when they were young. You read it in the stories of what they did when they came home as members of the National Guard and Reservists retuning to their civilian jobs, usually on police forces, as firefighters, doctors, nurses along with others never failing to show what is in their core.

Minnear died at the hands of the enemy but in this case the accused is another American. People who make a choice to commit evil acts are the enemy to those who want to help others. The huge difference is that the people who want to help, wish the others no harm but will do what it takes to stop them. Too often that comes with the price of their own lives.

Just-released felon arrested in death of MP

The Associated Press
Posted : Tuesday Dec 2, 2008 15:56:26 EST

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — An Army military police officer survived 15 months in Iraq, but it was the Anchorage streets that claimed his life.

Authorities say Army Sgt. Evan Minnear died at the hands of a convicted felon who had been out of jail 16 days and was not supposed to be carrying a firearm.

They believe 26-year-old Vongdeuane Vongthongdy killed Minnear outside the Woodshed Lounge in downtown Anchorage on Sunday.

Vongthongdy was already on probation for the felony assault with a weapon during the shooting.

But police said that day, he stood outside the bar brandishing a semiautomatic weapon and fired the gun into the air. Police said witnesses told them how Minnear was simply trying to instill calm and implore Vongthongdy to stay in the area until police arrived.

Instead the 24-year-old Minnear was shot in the upper torso and died several hours after being rushed to a local hospital.

A surveillance camera posted in the captured some of what happened around 1 a.m. Sunday morning.
go here for more
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/12/ap_richardson_death_120208/

ABC reporter Peter Lloyd faces jail in Singapore with PTSD

Lloyd faces jail in Singapore
By Greg Jennett in Singapore

Posted Tue Dec 2, 2008 6:21am AEDT
Updated Tue Dec 2, 2008 6:53am AEDT


In court today: Peter Lloyd (AAP: Joseph Nair)
ABC reporter Peter Lloyd is today set to go to jail for breaking Singapore's tough anti-drug laws.

The 42-year-old will face the Subordinate Courts, where he will plead guilty to some of the four drugs charges against him.

Lloyd was arrested in Mount Elizabeth Hospital in July and charged with trafficking, possessing and consuming methamphetamine, or "ice".

He was also charged with having utensils for using the drug and Ketamine, better known among party drug users as "Special K".

Singapore's Attorney-General has since dropped the most serious trafficking charge, which would have carried jail terms of between five and 20 years and five to 15 strokes of the cane.

In return, Lloyd will plead guilty to some of the remaining charges.

Under Singaporean law, sentencing Judge James Leong could give Lloyd up to 10 years jail.

But lawyers will lodge submissions for the punishment to be reduced.

The guilty plea, contrition and a recent diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) will be among the arguments.

The former Delhi-based foreign correspondent told Fairfax newspapers in November that his exposure to mass casualties in the Bali bombings and the 2004 tsunami in Thailand had left him in a "zombie" state of depression.

He said he had an "instant sense of wellbeing" when he smoked "ice" for the first time at a party in Singapore in February.
go here for more
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/12/02/2434958.htm

The Legacy Of Joshua Omvig

from www.namguardianangel.org
by Chaplain Kathie

The story of Joshua Omvig turned out to be one of hope. While his family grieved for the tragic death of their son, they turned that grief into action. Joshua was like so many not taken care of by the country when they needed us. They wanted to make sure that no other family would have to feel their pain without fighting to change what was wrong. They did just that. The Joshua Omvig Suicide Prevention Bill was signed into law. Senator Tom Coburn was the only holdout. He too issue with the gun rule that would stop PTSD veterans from getting gun permits.

Statistics show the suicide method of choice is firearms. The problem with this is that there are a lot of PTSD veterans on police forces and other jobs that require firearms. There is also the problem this rule would prevent many veterans from seeking help if they thought they would have to surrender their guns.

There was a time when I thought it made more sense to keep the rule in until a friend of mine pointed this out. He has a gun and he has PTSD. If this rule was in place when he was diagnosed, he wouldn't have taken the chance of giving up his gun. The paranoia factor played into this as well. When a veteran has PTSD, part of it is "patrolling the perimeter" in a nightly ritual. They are constantly on guard duty. Taking away their guns would have caused more harm than helped the suicidal veteran. If they don't have guns, they use other things to commit suicide. What it would reduce is using them in domestic violence. There have been many cases where guns have been used but there are other cases when the spouse was killed by other means. The answer is not to take guns away but to treat the veterans with the therapy and medications they need to cope with it.

Here is the story of Joshua Omvig and what his parent did to help others.


Joshua Omvig
12/22/2005 JOSHUA OMVIG 22 GRUNDY CENTER, IA GUNSHOT Rep. Boswell, a Vietnam veteran, last month proposed a new suicide-prevention program for veterans. The “Joshua Omvig Veterans Suicide Prevention Act,” H.R. 5771, now has 77 sponsors in Congress. It would set up a VA program to screen and monitor veterans for suicide risk factors. Nearly one of every five returning Iraq veterans reported a mental-health problem, according to an Army study published in March. And nearly one in 10 was diagnosed with Post-tramatic Stress Disorder.

Joshua Omvig (1983 - 2005)
Jan 7, 2006 ... THE WAR AGAINST PTSD STARTS NOW

THE SHOT HEARD AROUND THE WORLD

Josh was a Proud American, an American Hero and a member of the United States Army Reserve 339th MP Company based in Davenport, Iowa. At six foot three, the impressiveness of his jet black hair, dark brown, almost black, eyes and long black eye lashes were matched only by his devilish charm and wit. Josh was everyone's friend whether he knew you or not. There were no strangers when he was in the room. He made everyone feel apart of the whole, and being the "clown" of the class made sure entertainment was never lacking either.

To say Josh was the typical "Kid Next Door" sounds odd but he really was JUST A GOOD KID. His whole life he wanted to work in public service and stayed focused on that dream of being a Police Officer for as long as I can remember. He always kept his nose clean knowing it was going to someday be important to his career. He loved to participate in sports, hang out with his friends, play video games and spend time with his family.

As an adult, Josh was a PROUD member of the Grundy Center American Lutheran Church, the Grundy Center Volunteer Fire Department, and the Grundy Center Police Reserves.

He insisted on graduating early from high school after joining the reserves to get his career started. So excited about his future, he wanted to get into basic training as fast as he could....He had wanted to serve and protect his country, and it's citizens. His dream of becoming a Police Officer was nearly here. The Army Reserves was his ticket to achieving that dream.

......then came 911, The War Against Terror, Operation Iraqi Freedom, and Iraq.

In November of 2004, Josh returned from an 11 month tour of duty in Iraq, fighting for his country and it's people in "Operation Iraqi Freedom."

While serving in Iraq, the conditions where unimaginable, and worse yet were the UNSPEAKABLE "jobs" and "duties" they had to do.

One truly can't understand unless they've been there, what these men and women face every single day. From the moment they set foot on foreign soil, they are in a combat zone every single second of every single day ...until they return home. Any moment could be their last moment... they know it... they have to... in order to survive.

The stories that come out of these war zones covered in the news are unimaginable to those of us safe in our homes. It's inconceivable, the damage that could be done to one's mind after seeing the mutilation an IED does to a human body, or what it would be like to retrieve the body parts of a friend to send home to their family for burial.

What must it be like to have to watch your back 24 hours a day, even while you sleep...to know any garbage bag on the side of the road could be a bomb...any child could be a decoy for an ambush....any woman who approaches you crying could be strapped with explosives...that giving a candy bar to a child could cost that child his arms as retrobution for accepting it.

THE STORIES JUST GO ON..AND ON...AND ON!

Josh loved his country, and was HONORED to defend her and the freedoms of it's people. He knew why he had to do the things he and others did, he was just never able to recover from having seen and done them.

He came home to us from Iraq with PTSD (POST TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER) and was never the same Josh again.

Josh's "DEBRIEFING" consisted of ONLY 15 minutes of "Welcome Home, Got any Problems? No? Great.. well, Let us know...See Ya"
AND IT'S HAPPENING TO OTHERS: Read the article -
"Navy acts to improve mental health screening for sailors"

THIS IS COMMON AMONG OUR RETURNING NATIONAL GUARD AND RESERVE UNITS!

THIS IS NOT EVEN THEIR PROTOCOL (rules) FOR DEBRIEFING!
What they are doing (OR NOT DOING) is killing our troops!

We knew Josh was having a hard time, but not in ANY way to the extent it REALLY was. We surely didn't know it had a name, or that it was an epidemic with our American Heroes in and returning from Iraq.

We knew there was such a thing as PTSD, but it just never "clicked" that THIS was what was happening to our Josh!..Josh was the clown, the one with the smile, the one who made others feel better. He hid the magnitude this disorder had on him very well. He suffered in silence like MOST of our soldiers with PTSD are doing.

On Thurs. Dec. 22, 2005, our Josh took his life after leaving a note explaining his torment.

Through the course of Josh's viewing and funeral ( attended by an overflow crowd of over 500 ), his family was made aware there were others suffering from the same disorder, in silence, like Josh had...LOTS OF THEM

While sitting in the Emergency Room for ONE HOUR with their dead son's body, being asked and explained about ORGAN DONATION, the nurse got off the phone with University Hospital in Iowa City and told Josh's parents that despite Josh's request to have his organs donated, "OH, I'M SORRY... WE FORGOT THAT HE CAN'T DONATE ORGANS BECAUSE HE WAS IN THE MID EAST... HE HAS A VIRUS."

When asked "WHAT Virus?", they were 'put off' and never responded to.

When BEGGED by Josh's parents to TEST him to SEE if he had a VIRUS "just in case he COULD DONATE".. They just said, "WE WON'T CHECK THE BODIES, EVERYBODY FROM THE MID EAST HAS GOT IT" "..it's a blanket policy!"

Vets Step Up To Prevent Suicide

Toll Free Hot Line, Clinics Go Online

POSTED: 9:25 am CDT July 7, 2008

OMAHA, Neb. -- The Veterans Administration said it is taking new steps to help men and women who can't leave the battles behind.

It's a direct response to the number of soldiers suffering post-traumatic stress disorder and the number of suicides among America's veterans.

Iowa native Joshua Omvig was a soldier who served many months in Iraq. The battle never ended when he came home, his family said, and the 22-year-old took his own life. Omvig's parents said that the transition from war zone to home was too much. He didn't have enough time to decompress, and they said he suffered in silence.

Omvig's parents later discovered he had post-traumatic stress disorder, which they believe triggered by what he saw and experienced daily while at war.

Doctors said that coming home doesn't automatically shut off the images for veterans.

"The sheer terror of dying in situations no one in their rational mind could begin to explain," said Col. Richard Harper (Ret.).

Harper said he understands the personal fight Omvig and other veterans go through. He said that he suffers from PTSD, and as a decorated career military man, it wasn't easy to ask for help. He said it was too hard to admit weakness until he was overcome by depression and could no longer function at work.

"Very difficult to accept, because it wasn't who I was. It wasn't what I'd achieved," Harper said.

Since October, the Nebraska-Western Iowa Veteran Health Care System has diagnosed close to 5,000 veterans with PTSD. About 450 of those served in Iraq or Afghanistan.

Since January, there have been four veterans in the Nebraska VA system who committed suicide and eight have attempted to take their lives. Those are only the ones reported to the VA.

"It doesn't matter what the numbers are, even if we have one in a calendar year, that's one too many," said David Tuttle, a suicide prevention coordinator.

Now the local VA said it is doing a number of things to try and reach veterans who need help but may be afraid to ask. Last year, the VA established a suicide hot line. If a veteran calls in crisis, there's immediate help and follow-up care.
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US official urges mental health changes

Randall Omvig testifies about his son Joshua's suicide during an appearance before the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee on Capitol Hill in April 2007. Veterans' groups and families who have lost loved ones say not enough help is being provided by the Pentagon for troops struggling with mental health issues.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon's top health official said Thursday he wants to see better mental health assessments, stronger privacy protections and a "buddy system" to change the military's stigma against seeking help for anxiety and depression.
Speaking to Congress as the military rushes to improve its much-criticized mental health system, S. Ward Casscells, assistant secretary of defense for health affairs, also acknowledged that the Army's touted plans to hire 25% additional mental health specialists may prove hard to fulfill for awhile because of problems in recruiting and retaining active-duty professionals.

"It's not easy to get people into the military," said Casscells, referring to plans by Army Surgeon Gen. Gail Pollock. "We cannot hire 200 Army psychiatrists, which Gen. Pollock wants to do, we can't do that overnight. So we need everyone to reach out and look out for service members."

"It might mean if your buddy in combat is staring off into space and not laughing anymore at the dumb jokes, maybe it's a sign they might need to go back to base, get three hot meals and to talk to someone confidentially," he added. "I don't expect we will have a perfect solution."

Casscells' comments came as the Pentagon and Congress are reviewing 95 recommendations made last month by a task force chaired by Navy Surgeon General Donald Arthur. Issuing an urgent warning, the panel found that more than one-third of troops and veterans currently suffer from problems such as traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder and urged stronger leadership, more money and a fundamental shift in treatment to focus on prevention and screening.

More than Two Thirds of Americans Unaware of PTSD

This does not surprise me at all. The problem is no one wants to talk about it or listen. It's almost as if they hear about it, they will be aware of the fact it could happen to them as well. PTSD hits humans exposed to traumatic events. Everyone knows they cannot prevent traumatic events. It's out of their control. What really gets me is that the families of the men and women serving and of our veterans don't want to hear it. Military wives tell me they have enough to worry about and they don't want to think about it. It takes a lot of convincing for them to understand they are on the front lines when their husbands come home. They'll be the first to notice the signs of PTSD but if they don't know what the signs are, they will ignore what the changes mean. They will delude themselves in thinking the warrior will just get over it with time. In the process time that could have been spent on the warrior healing ends up being lost time as PTSD eats away at them and the family.

As hard as it is to convince the families they need to pay attention, it's harder to get the clergy involved. This is imperative especially with the National Guards and Reservists coming home to communities around the nation. When the mind-body-spirit are all treated the healing rate is greatly increased. There are not enough psychologist and mental health professionals to go around and then when you add in claims being tied up, the clergy could play a vital role in filling in the gaps. The problem is when you try to talk to most of them, their eyes glaze over as if you're speaking in a foreign language.

It's been over a 26 year battle for me to get the information out there and with that I also have to add that I have never had so much hope for our veterans. They are coming forward and talking about it to the media finally willing to cover it and give PTSD the attention it deserves, even if it is sparse.

I left this comment on Veteran's For Common Sense after reading this.

Dec 1: More than Two Thirds of Americans Unaware of Post Traumatic ...
By contact@veteransforcommonsense.org

Ad Council and Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America


Army Times

Dec 01, 2008


December 1, 2008 - In a survey conducted Oct. 24-27, most of the 1,008 respondents said they had never even heard of the acronym PTSD, or post-traumatic stress disorder.

Of the respondents, 9% answered "Yes, I have heard of it but am not sure what it stands for."

24% said "yes, I have heard of it and know what it stands for," and a whopping 68% of respondents stated "no, I have never heard of it."

* Veterans for Common Sense note: We need your help to get the word out that PTSD is real, that one-in-five (or more) of our Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans may return home with PTSD, that it is OK for veterans to seek care for PTSD, and that DoD and VA need to hire more doctors to meet the tidal wave of demand for PTSD treatment and recovery.

Tim Padgett Way - firefighters dedicate street to fallen soldier

Tim Padgett Way - firefighters dedicate street to fallen soldier
November 30, 2008 - 9:02 PM
Kimberly White
Daily News
The Northwest Florida Daily News - Fort Walton Beach,FL,USA
GASKIN - When Army Sergeant and DeFuniak Springs native Tim "Timmy" Padgett was killed last year in Afghanistan, his friend and former co-worker Paul Trynoski began thinking how he and other Darlington/Gaskin firefighters could honor their fallen comrade.

After considering ideas, Trynoski remembered that the street that runs along Walton County Station 3 did not have a name.

Then he recalled a training session during which Padgett was teaching other firefighters a hose-lay technique.

"People were questioning what kind of hose lay this was and what it was called, and I think it came down to Tim saying, ‘We're going to do it the Tim Padgett way,' " Trynoski said. "And after that, I always thought of that when we were doing things with Tim - that we were doing it Tim's way."

At 11 a.m. Saturday, Darlington/Gaskin firefighters will gather at the Gaskin station to name that street "Tim Padgett Way."

Padgett's mother, Glenda Penton, and his 10-year-old daughter, Summer, will be invited to unveil the sign and stroll down the two-block street. Trynoski and former Fire Chief Ronald Prokop said all of Padgett's co-workers and friends are invited.

One firefighter affectionately nicknamed Padgett "Rubber Band" because he was always so wound up, Prokop remembered with a laugh. Prokop said Padgett was so full of energy that he often had to be restrained from acting on impulse.

"I'm sure that's the reason he was in the position where he was killed in Afghanistan. He didn't want to be second," Prokop said. "Some of his friends that I talked to at the funeral said, ‘Tim had to be the first one out there.' Knowing Tim, I betcha he took somebody else's spot ... You had to really hold him back because he would give 110 percent in everything he did."
click post title for more

Trio of Marines receive Bronze Star

Trio of Marines receive Bronze Star
By Cindy Fisher, Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Monday, December 1, 2008
CAMP SCHWAB, Okinawa — Although Iraq is much quieter these days for U.S. troops, danger still lurks.

Just ask some of the Marines of 3rd Reconnaissance Battalion. The Okinawa-based troops returned here last month after a seven-month deployment in Anbar province, where they patrolled booby-trapped areas and engaged in firefights.

Last week, their battalion commander pinned combat decorations on the chests of three of those Marines.

The commanding officer of 3rd Recon — Lt. Col. Oliver B. Spencer — presented the Bronze Star Medal with V device for valor to Sgt. Scott D. Redmund, Capt. Luke Lazzo and Sgt. George J. Callum for their actions in combat.

"You just have to say, ‘My God, I am standing amongst heroes,’ " said Spencer, who did not deploy with the recon Marines and just took command of the battalion Nov. 19.

Spencer’s heroes told the stories behind the medals.
go here to read their stories
http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=59150

5th deployment for Connecticut Air National Guard

Air Guard Unit Again Mobilized For Service In Iraq
The Hartford Courant
5:40 PM EST, December 1, 2008
The Connecticut Air National Guard's 103rd Air Control Squadron has been mobilized for service in Iraq. About 50 members of the Orange-based unit will be honored at 5 p.m. Tuesday at a send-off ceremony at the William A. O'Neill Armory in Hartford. The unit is to leave for Iraq in a few days.Unit members will direct coalition aircraft and monitor the skies over Iraq. The deployment is the unit's fifth since Sept. 11, 2001.
http://www.courant.com/news/local/hcu-airguard-1201,0,5627977.story

Women and children hurt at New London Christmas Parade

OVERTON (KLTV)
Update: 5 boys, 3 women injured in Overton

Posted: Dec 1, 2008 07:49 PM EST


An accident related to the annual Overton-New London Christmas parade has left at least nine people hurt, including five boys between the ages of 7 - 11 and three women, ages 28, 33, and 49.

Those people have been taken to Mother Frances hospital in Tyler. Another injured person has also been transported by helicopter to Dallas.
go here for more
http://www.kltv.com/global/story.asp?s=9440202
linked from CNN

Senator Jim Webb wants to put dwell-time rule into law

Webb wants to put dwell-time rule into law
By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Monday Dec 1, 2008 16:34:32 EST

Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., is not giving up on his so-far unsuccessful bid to guarantee in law that troops will get as much time at home as they spend deployed.


Although the services generally have a 1:1 ratio of time deployed to time at home since U.S. ground forces in Iraq have returned to pre-surge levels, Webb sees benefits to putting the so-called “dwell time” plan into law. “While current policy has taken it down to 1:1, the only way to ensure that is to codify it,” said Webb spokeswoman Kimberly Hunter.

Webb plans to reintroduce legislation early next year, Hunter said, but has not decided when to press for a vote on what could be a key test of whether Democrats will have the support of at least a handful of moderate Republicans to push through legislation that was blocked earlier this year.

With two Senate races yet to be decided, Democrats have 58 votes if they get the support of the Senate’s two independents, just two short of the 60 votes needed to stop a filibuster and push legislation forward.

click link above for more

Give you one guess on which party has been against doing this.

Senator Akaka wants answers on burn pit toxins

Akaka wants DoD, VA to review war-zone toxins

By Kelly Kennedy - Staff writer
Posted : Monday Dec 1, 2008 19:08:25 EST

Sen. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii, chairman of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, has asked that the co-chairs of the Defense Department and Veterans Affairs Oversight Committee begin a review of environmental toxins — including those coming from burn pits — at bases in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“Reports of possible exposure to smoke from burn pits in Iraq and Afghanistan have come to the committee’s attention,” Akaka wrote in a letter dated Dec. 1. “Concerns about such exposure would appear to be an ideal opportunity for focused efforts to track the location of service members in relation to the possible exposure sites.”

The letter was addressed to Gordon England, deputy defense secretary, and Gordon Mansfield, deputy VA secretary.
go here for more
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/12/military_akaka_burnpits_120108w/

Burn Pit Video at the bottom of this blog

Also on Army Times on this

PREVIOUS STORIES
• Burn pit at Balad raises health concerns
• Possible contaminants and their potential effects
• Senator wants answers on dangers of burn pits
• Burn pit fallout
LETTERS
What the troops are saying
EDITORIAL
Pentagon must recognize burn-pit health hazards
VIDEO
An interview with a patient at Walter Reed who believes burn-pit fumes caused her leukemia
DISCUSS
CONTRIBUTE YOUR STORIES AND PHOTOS

PTSD:Mom of Iraq vet in jail needs help in Florida

This Mom reached out and wanted her son's story told. He is like so many clearly coming home with PTSD but not being treated as wounded. How many tragic stories have you read here when it was too late to save their lives. Well folks, here's your chance to make a difference. Read her story and then think of what you can do to make a difference for one of our warriors. He was there when we needed him now let's be there now that he needs us.

My son is an Iraq war vet and has been in treatment at the VA for severe PTSD for almost two years now. He was in the Army for 8 years, two of which were served in Iraq. After his discharge he went through a divorce and found out that one of his sons is autistic.(All within a month after returning from Iraq and getting out of the Army!) He had Iraq nightmares, withdrew from family, drank, was jumpy, hyper-vigilant, and more. He seemed to have every single symptom of PTSD. He tried to commit suicide last year and was in the VA hospital for a while.

In July he went off of the deep end and rammed his arms through a glass window and cut his arms to shreds in a fit of rage. He had experienced a real series of “stressors, because his grandmother, who he loved dearly, died, and a week before that he found some guy behind an abandoned building that had been assaulted and he watched him bleed to death. (He told me that this disturbed him a lot and brought back Iraq memories) The police had to come and take him to the hospital, but they never reported this incident to the V.A. I told the V.A. before this, that he was a not well, and they wouldn’t take me seriously.

I wrote my congressmen and V.A. about the substandard care he was getting from his therapist and begged for help. An investigation was done by the V.A. and all I got was a call from his social worker who was obviously agitated, telling me that she was aware I had alerted the V.A. about my sons care, and that she was required to call and tell me she was trying to help him. The day that he rammed his arms through the glass, I left his therapist three messages telling her my son had done this, and that she needed to call me because I had some things to tell her. Things that my son had said and done, that I am sure she was unaware of. (Like building bunkers in the yard, running to the door with a gun whenever anyone came up the driveway, setting his bedroom up exactly like the little room he slept in while in Iraq, and many more) She never returned my calls.

He was in her office the day after he cut his arms, and she didn’t see that he was on the verge of a meltdown. After his arrest she finally spoke with me briefly and said she thought he seemed fine that day. What did she need to see other than the bandages on his arms? A bullet hole in his head? A dead body somewhere? About two weeks later my son was coming home from eating out with his girlfriend, and they had stopped to let some tourists cross the road. Some idiot in the car behind then started honking his horn and yelling at them. He followed them to the next intersection and continued to harass.

My son freaked out and showed the guy his gun when he pulled up beside him. At one point my son and girlfriend got out of the car and asked the man to leave them alone. That made the man in the other car even more mad, and he continued to stalk them for several blocks more. My son did what he was programmed to do and snapped into his survival mode. He shot his gun out of the window, in the air, to ward the guy off. Someone called the police who chased my son to his house, and arrested him.

He now sits in the jail awaiting a trial for two counts of aggravated assault and one of firing a gun from a vehicle. In the state that he is in that carried mandatory minimum sentences of more than 20 years in prison.

He has a 250,000 dollar bond, so he can’t get out and continue to get help.(it was originally set at one million) I called his VA caseworker and she finally decided to talk to me (after it was too late) She said that she didn’t return my calls in the past because of privacy laws. I had already discussed "privacy laws" with her before and she knew that I already understood that she could not discuss my son’s case with me, but she could listen to what I had to say. (A good caseworker would have been truly interested in hearing input from close family members) I told her that my son was in jail and she said she was sorry! I told her that if she had returned my calls I would have told her that my son was about to snap and she would have learned of things that my son had said and done that he had told only me. I asked her why they could not have put him back in the hospital after the last rage incident, and she said she though that he was fine, and even if she thought he needed to be there, she could not force him to go unless she thought that he was going to harm himself or someone else.

I think that putting your arms through glass constitutes an effort of harming ones self doesn’t it? She also told me that she would no longer be able to see my son nor anyone at the VA because he was now incarcerated. So they ignored my obvious cries for help and kicked my son to the curb when he finally went off of the deep end. My son was failed by the government and the V.A. It wasn’t like he was out there not getting help. He went to the V.A. every week. He was taking care of his 85 year old grandpa, and taking college classes. Now he is looking at spending the best years of his life in jail.

This is how we treat our vets.

I have cried every day until I cannot cry anymore. His and my life will never be the same. I have done all I could do to help him and cried out for help so many times and I was ignored. This is so unfair. I feel so sorry for his two little boys who will miss him. He has been in jail for four months now, and the jail has not provided him with any mental health counseling. They won’t even give him the meds that the VA was prescribing before his incarceration. He has told me once that he was ready to hang himself. His pre trial hearing doesn’t come up until January.

He needs to be in treatment, not jail.

My son was a totally different person before PTSD, and I know he could be that person if he could get some decent treatment. If he stays I jail for much longer, he may get beyond the point of return.

The state of Florida and our Veterans administration just seem to want to sweep my son under the rug, I just don’t know what else to do but write my congressmen and pray. Currently under the state of Florida’s 10-10-20 laws, my son can be incarcerated for up to 40 years. Is this the way to treat a veteran who just returned from war and eight years of serving his country?

I am now researching how many of our soldiers are returning from war and getting into the same situation as my son’s. The numbers are incredible, and this country needs to be made aware of what is going on. I am currently working on getting this issue out in the open so positive change can be made on behalf of our warriors that we owe so much to. I am looking for as much support as we can get so this never has to happen again. Please join me in my fight to pay our soldiers and veterans back for the selfless service and freedoms that they gave us. We need to rally our congressmen for better treatment at the VA and jail diversion programs for our returning wounded warriors.


Jamie Keyes

Jamie set up a bank account to try to get her son out of jail. If you email me, I'll give you the account number. There is something I would like all of you to do that would mean a lot more to this veteran. Call your congressman right now. One more thing, for my readers associated with Veterans' courts, put your thinking cap on and see if you can think of a judge down here in Florida that would be willing to help this veteran out. It took a long time for Jamie to seek help for her son and she can't move mountains on her own. This is not justice for a wounded veteran.

If you know a veteran going thru the same then leave a comment on my blog and I'll email her. She's getting ready to go to Washington look for help. Not just for her son but for all the sons and daughters out there needing help.

Healing Combat Trauma: A Growth Benchmark of Our Own

Congratulations to Lily Casura of Healing Combat Trauma! Most of my readers know Lily is a wonderful friend of mine and couldn't be prouder of her. I know her work, dedication and her passion. I hope you visit her site so you can see what I mean. She really is an amazing woman.

December 01, 2008
A Growth Benchmark of Our Own
Today, we passed 100,000 page views on this blog for the year to date, a growth of 10,000x over last year, and 100,000x over the first full year of the blog, in 2006.

May it represent some sort of fulfillment of the intention here: To provide a framework of the therapeutic resources for healing combat trauma, and a way for veterans, their families, their providers and policy decisionmakers to take a look at some options besides the ordinary ones that may bring combat veterans some catharsis through their suffering. Fantastic if it does, and we believe it can.

go here for more

http://www.healingcombattrauma.com/2008/12/a-growth-benchmark-of-our-own.html

Our Veterans: Invisible Wounds — A Documentary on Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

There are three videos to watch in this documentary. I highly recommend you watch them and hear first hand how three generations of veterans have been changed by PTSD. There is a WWII veteran, Vietnam veterans and Iraq/Afghanistan veterans opening up on one of the hardest things to talk about, coming home with the wound of PTSD.

Our Veterans: Invisible Wounds — A Documentary on Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
"Invisible Wounds" is the powerful and moving documentary that portrays the suffering of combat veterans and their families from the effects of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Interviews with returning soldiers and their families bring to light the rarely discussed challenges they face back home. Further interviews with Vietnam and World War II vets add perspective to the problem, showing that it is not something new.
Our Veterans: Invisible Wounds
A Documentary on Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
Published: Nov. 10, 2008 at 3:38 PM
http://www.upi.com/Features/Military_Matters/2008/11/10/Media/1226349520590/

Family from Maitland FL talks about Taj Mahal Palace and Tower hotel terror

Maitland family tells of Taj ordeal
Hiding under a bed in their hotel room, Luis Allen and his family could hear the explosions of grenades as they rocked the historic Taj Mahal Palace & Tower hotel.
Sara K. Clarke | Sentinel Staff Writer
December 1, 2008

Hiding under a bed in their hotel room, Luis Allen and his family could hear the explosions of grenades as they rocked the historic Taj Mahal Palace & Tower hotel.

They could smell the smoke from fires. They listened as a woman pleaded with someone before shots rang out.

The Maitland family recalled the terror of their vacation Sunday from the home they thought they might never see again.

Luis Allen, a psychiatrist, and his wife, Maxine Williams Allen, were on their last night of vacation in Mumbai, India, with their sons, Brandon, 13, and Jonathan, 10.

They encouraged their children to keep the faith. The children weren't scared; the youngest often slept. But when Maxine put the phone number of their aunt in her youngest son's pocket -- just in case she and her husband didn't survive -- Jonathan grew upset.

"He said: 'I don't want to go to your funeral,' " Maxine recalled.

Then the older boy said: "We live together; we're all going to die together."
click above link for more

Photos: Mumbai terrorist attacks
Last of the bodies cleared from Taj hotel
Dec 01, 2008 16:13 -0500
Updated: 26 minutes ago
Confirmed foreigner deaths in Mumbai attacks

The death of Chris Dana changed Montana National Guard

From NamGuardianAngel.com
List of Names Gone Too Soon

While I posted on PTSD on my blog (link above) and on my newer blog Wounded Times Blog, I try to spotlight what comes after this kind of tragedy. Families step up and go to Washington to offer testimony to congress. Regular people decide to start programs, groups and foundations to try to keep other families from experiencing what they had to live thru.

I was doing research for the video on suicides, Death Because They Served, when I found some pretty remarkable stories. Regular people suffering after the tragedy of a suicide death usually causes people to become more introverted. There are others willing to do whatever it takes to try to stop it from happening to others. In the next series of posts, I want to spotlight some of these great stories of what came after the loss of some amazing warriors.



The life of Chris Dana from the Montana National Guard is one of those stories because of what came after his life ended.

CHRIS DANA 23 MONTANA GUNSHOT FORT HARRISON - 3/4/2007

It took several months of pushing, but finally, Chris Dana was ready.

The 23-year-old veteran of the Iraq war, who served with the 163rd Infantry Battalion, Montana National Guard, agreed to see a counselor for post-combat stress.

Members of his family, concerned for months about his change in behavior, believed they were starting to get through to him. Their son and brother promised to seek the help they all knew he so desperately needed.Then Dana canceled the appointment. He began screening his calls. He stopped showing up at drill with the National Guard.

He quit his job at Target, cleaned his car and the trailer he shared with a friend. And then, on March 4, he shut himself into his bedroom, put a blanket over his head, and shot himself.
Chris Dana

When you read about the backlog of VA claims, you may not stop and think about what waiting is doing to the veteran and their family. It's not just about the financial compensation they need to pay their bills because they can no longer work. It's about justice. On one hand the VA doctors and DOD doctors will tell them it's PTSD but the administration end of the VA tells them to prove it beyond a doubt then wait to have the decision made on their case. This brings either an approval or a denial. They have to fight a denial feeling as if they just received a knife in their backs. The VA says that legitimate claims are honored, which is true, but what they don't say is how claims can be turned down because the paperwork is not filled out right or they don't have all the paperwork they need.

Suicide shocks Montana into assessing vets' care

Chris Adams
December 28, 2007 1:25 PM
McClatchy Newspapers
(MCT)
HELENA, Mont. - Chris Dana came home from the war in Iraq in 2005 and slipped into a mental abyss so quietly that neither his family nor the Montana Army National Guard noticed.

He returned to his former life: a job at a Target store, nights in a trailer across the road from his father's house.

When he started to isolate himself, missing family events and football games, his father urged him to get counseling. When the National Guard called his father to say that he'd missed weekend duty, Gary Dana pushed his son to get in touch with his unit.

''I can't go back. I can't do it,'' Chris Dana responded.

Things went downhill from there. He blew though all his money, and last March 4, he shot himself in the head with a .22-caliber rifle. He was 23 years old.

As Gary Dana was collecting his dead son's belongings, he found a letter indicating that the National Guard was discharging his son under what are known as other-than-honorable conditions. The move was due to his skipping drills, which his family said was brought on by the mental strain of his service in Iraq.

The letter was in the trash, near a Wal-Mart receipt for .22-caliber rifle shells.
All across America, veterans such as Chris Dana are slipping through the cracks, left to languish by their military units and the Department of Veterans Affairs.

The VA's ability to provide adequate care for veterans with mental ailments has come under increasing scrutiny, and the agency says it's scrambling to boost its resources to help treat post-traumatic stress disorder, prevent suicides and help veterans cope. It's added more mental health counselors and started more suicide-prevention programs.

But the experience in Montana, which by some measures does more than any other state to support America's wars, shows how far the military and the VA have to go.

''The federal government does a remarkable job of converting a citizen to a warrior,'' said Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer, a Democrat. ''I think they have an equal responsibility converting a warrior back to a citizen.''

''I can't imagine that it's only Montana that's experiencing this,'' Schweitzer added. ''Our men and women are part of this country, and we have common experiences.

It's not as though the water we drink and the air we breathe in Montana make our experience completely different than everywhere else.''

McClatchy Newspapers analyzed a host of VA databases and records, and found that mental health treatment across the country remains wildly uneven. While mentally ill veterans in some parts of the country are well tended, those in other places - especially Montana - are falling by the wayside.

The data and records, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, included all 3 million VA disability claims in the nation and 77 million medical appointments in the agency's health system in fiscal 2006.

At a U.S. Senate committee hearing last summer in Great Falls, Mont., a top VA official touted the success of the department's mental-health operations in the region that includes Montana. But the agency's records indicate that it ranks below most other regions in measures of access and success.

In fact, Montana veterans trail far behind their peers around the country on the two main VA functions:

-By several measures, the agency provides less specialized mental-health care in Montana than it does in most other states. Veterans seeking to enter the mental health system at Montana's only VA hospital had longer waits and received fewer visits than veterans did at almost any other VA hospital in the country.

-Recent veterans in Montana with mental ailments receive far lower payments, on average, from the VA disability system than veterans in almost any other state do.
Adam Olivas, from the central Montana town of Laurel, had his post-traumatic stress disorder payment cut this month.

Olivas had been regular Army, and had come home from Iraq with a Purple Heart, shrapnel in his left side, ringing in his ears, back problems and the nightmares, hair-trigger responses and survivor's guilt that are hallmarks of PTSD.

Since Olivas left the military, his life has been a blur of sleepless nights, drowsy days, nightmares, flashbacks, constant fatigue, spotty memory, counseling sessions and medication. He goes to work, goes home and rarely sees other people.

''I married Adam right before he went to basic training,'' said his wife, Shannon. ''The only reason I am married to this man is because I know who he was before he went to Iraq.''

His PTSD was rated a 50 in the VA's complicated system, and with his other injuries he was entitled to a monthly disability check for $1,567. Earlier this year, however, the Montana VA benefits office sent Olivas a letter proposing to drop his PTSD rating from 50 to 30. It would cost him $2,600 a year.

PTSD is rated at zero, 10, 30, 50, 70 or 100, and the VA office in Montana, the McClatchy analysis found, is less likely to rate recent war veterans 50 or above than any other office is. The McClatchy analysis zeroed in on veterans who've left military service recently and most likely had combat experience in Iraq or Afghanistan.

The lower rating was a slap in the face, to both Adam and Shannon Olivas, who said that the last four years had been ''absolutely horrific.''

Adam Olivas, who works in hospital security, and his wife, a schoolteacher, drove three hours to Helena to appeal the decision, assisted by experts from two veterans groups. A representative from the American Legion said that Olivas' PTSD rating probably should go up, not down.

But the Montana VA office said that Olivas' symptoms weren't severe enough to warrant a 50, and that he'd gotten it only because of a quirk in the rating rules.

The Montana office dropped the rating after it was allowed to do so.

Olivas doesn't know how he'll handle the cut in income.

''I can't afford to pay for the gas to go to all these meetings and counselings and all this stuff,'' he said. ''Which probably isn't going to be the best thing for me.''

More than 2,500 members of the Montana Air National Guard and Montana Army National Guard are among the 10,000 men and women from the state who've served in Iraq and Afghanistan or elsewhere in the war on terrorism, according to Department of Defense numbers.

''When they were called to active duty, they were running a business, driving a truck, working at a mill, teaching school,'' Gov. Schweitzer said. ''When they returned from being a soldier, they didn't go back to a military base. . . . They don't have people they can talk to. They are 300 miles away from their detachment, and everybody where they work didn't experience what they've gone through.

''In fact, nobody where they work experienced what they've gone through. Their family doesn't understand it well.''

Montana has more veterans per capita than any other state, and they return from war to a vast expanse with few hospitals and miles between the ones that do exist. The VA has only one hospital in the state.

Chris Dana's suicide roiled Montana, which set up a task force to determine how a Guardsman had slipped through the cracks. It concluded that the Montana National Guard was following the national standard program, designed by the Department of Defense, to catch mental health issues as soldiers return from war.

But the task force also found that the national program is ''deficient'' because it doesn't provide the vision or the resources necessary to pinpoint veterans' mental heath problems.

Among other things, the task force said, the standard demobilization process is ''ineffective for identifying mental health issues,'' and coming-home briefings include such a blizzard of paperwork that things get lost in the shuffle. It noted that veterans are reluctant to disclose their mental health problems and that counseling is lacking and uncoordinated in many parts of the state.

Guard members themselves - more than 40 percent in a survey the task force conducted - said they didn't think that they were getting sufficient information about the health benefits and services available to them.

The Montana Guard is working to beef up its demobilization process significantly, hoping to keep better tabs on its soldiers as they return to their small towns and their businesses, farms, schools and families.
---
(c) 2007, McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

In Chris Dana's case, he was one of the over 20,000 discharged under "less than honorable" when it was PTSD that was causing the problems. I would still love to know who is looking at all of those discharges to find out what happened to them or at least to find out if they have PTSD or not.

The following was posted on my blog but I cannot give the link to the Great Falls Tribune. The link must have moved and I cannot find it.

Montana Guard confronts post-combat stress head-on in wake of suicide

Great Falls Tribune
By ERIC NEWHOUSE
Tribune Projects Editor

HELENA — Montana's National Guard is becoming a model of how to help service members adjust to post-combat stress.

"Montana has gone beyond the level of other states in the country, and I applaud that," said Capt. Joan Hunter, a U.S. Public Service officer who was recently designated the director of psychological health for the National Guard Bureau in Washington, D.C.



"They saw an emergency need, studied the problems and make some significant improvements," Hunter said Friday.

State Adjutant General Randy Mosley said that the effort stems from a former Montana soldier who didn't get the help he needed and who killed himself a year ago.

"We want to make sure we're doing everything we can to help our people and their families pick up the pieces for the problems that may have begun during their deployment in Iraq," Mosley said last week.

"The Guard has done an unbelievable job in changing," said Matt Kuntz, a Helena attorney and stepbrother of the late Spc. Chris Dana, who killed himself March 4, 2007. At the time, Dana was having trouble handling weekend drills after returning from combat in Iraq. He was given a less-than-honorable discharge and then shot himself a few days later.

"It takes a lot for a big organization that does a lot of things right to look for what they did wrong and address those flaws," Kuntz said. "I'm really impressed with what they've done."

Thursday, May 22, 2008

Montana National Guard, Picking Up The Pieces
Picking up the Pieces (PDHRA)
This is the link to the video the Montana National Guard is showing. I've been posting about it for a couple of days now and it is very important that it not only be seen, but duplicated across the country.

Guard stresses PTSD symptoms at meetings
By ERIC NEWHOUSE
Tribune Projects Editor
May 21, 2008
LEWISTOWN — Montana's National Guard expanded its PTSD outreach efforts this week, hosting a series of 20 public meetings in armories across the state.

As part of its effort to familiarize the public — and veterans in particular — with post-traumatic stress disorder, it played a video produced at Fort Harrison entitled "Picking Up the Pieces."

That had Tiffany Kolar wiping her eyes."It raised a lot of questions for me," Kolar said after Monday night's meeting. "I have a brother who served with the Idaho National Guard and who later committed suicide. Now I'm learning a lot about what must have been happening."Kolar's husband is currently serving his second tour of duty in Iraq, and she and her mother-in-law need to understand the danger signs, she said.

"There were some things we didn't recognize the last time he came home, so we want to be better informed this time," said Darlene Kolar, his mother.Only a handful of people showed up for the meeting here, but the Guard's personnel officer, Col. Jeff Ireland, said he was happy for any attention."If these meeting are able to help even one person, for all the time and effort we've expended, it's been worth it," Ireland said.

The Guard has sent out personal invitations and videos to 2,000 behavioral health care specialists in Montana, as well as to all the veterans' organizations, he said. Next on the list is a mass mailing to all ministers and religious leaders in the state, he added.The meetings are the result of the suicide of Spec. Chris Dana of Helena, who shot himself in March 2007 after returning from combat with the 163rd Infantry. He was not able to handle weekend guard drills, and was given a less-than-honorable discharge as a result.As a direct result, Ireland said, Montana is now providing longer mental health assessments after return from combat, strengthening its family support units, creating crisis readiness teams to investigate abnormal behavior, requiring a personal investigation by the adjutant general before any soldier is discharged less than honorably, and producing and promoting its own video.

This is what I wrote on my blog about this program.

The video interviews hit all the points. Getting the clergy involved, how it hits the members of the family trying to understand and be supportive, what goes on inside of the veteran, how it's not their fault. The beginning of the video, I have to say I was no impressed. The graphics moved too fast and blurred when on full screen but as soon as the interviews began, I knew they hit the mark. Get passed the beginning and pay attention to the value in the interviews. It's a shame more people did not attend this.

This is what came after because Chris Dana's life meant something to the family and to the National Guard enough that they said there needed to be more done to hit PTSD head on.

Spc. Chris Dana's story told to Obama by step brother
Stepbrother tells guardsman's story to Obama Helena soldier took his own life after tour of duty in IraqBy LAURA TODEOf The Gazette StaffMontana National Guard Spc. Chris Dana will never know the impact his life and ultimately his death may someday have on the lives of veterans nationwide.Dana took his life in March 2007, less than two years after returning from a tour in Iraq. His family believes he was a victim of post-traumatic stress disorder, brought on by his combat experience.Since Dana's death, his stepbrother Matt Kuntz has campaigned for more awareness of the costs of untreated post-traumatic stress syndrome in Iraq war veterans.Wednesday, he was invited to meet with Sen. Barack Obama to share the message he's been spreading statewide for more than a year. At a quiet picnic table at Riverfront Park, Obama sat across from Kuntz, his wife, Sandy, and their infant daughter, Fiona.

Obama promises to repeat Montana's National Guard PTSD work nation wide
Obama Pledges Nationwide Use of PTSD Program
Eric Newhouse
Great Falls Tribune
Aug 28, 2008August 28, 2008 - Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama promised Wednesday to expand Montana's pilot program to assess the mental health of combat vets nationwide, if elected.The Montana National Guard has developed a program to check its soldiers and airmen for signs of post-traumatic stress disorder every six months for the first two years after returning from combat, then once a year thereafter.

The program exceeds national standards set by the U.S. Department of Defense.

The pilot program was created in response to the suicide of former Army Spc. Chris Dana of Helena, who shot himself on March 4, 2007, days after being given a less-than-honorable discharge because he could no longer handle attending drills following a tour in Iraq.

"He (Obama) told me he understood why we need to have additional screenings for PTSD," said Matt Kuntz, Dana's stepbrother, who was among a small group invited to meet with Obama on Wednesday in Billings. "And he told me when he is elected president, he will implement Montana's pilot program nationwide.

"Kuntz, who recently gave up his job as a lawyer in Helena to advocate for the mentally ill and their families, said he was invited to brief Obama on how Montana had become a national model for assessing the mental health of its combat vets.Besides the additional screenings, the Montana National Guard has developed crisis response teams that include a chaplain to investigate behavioral problems among its troops, and TriWest Healthcare pays to have four part-time counselors on hand to talk with soldiers and airmen during weekend drills.

After the briefing, Obama spent about 20 minutes telling several hundred veterans and their families that, if elected as president, he will be committed to meeting their needs.


Obama win also means PTSD work gets new hero
This is one of the biggest reasons I am so delighted that Senator Obama will be President Obama. In August, he visited the Montana National Guard because he heard about the great work they were doing on PTSD. He was so impressed that he promised to take their program nationally.Up until now, PTSD has only recently become a hot topic. President Bush surrounded himself with people who either had no clue what PTSD was or denied it was real. This prevented years of research not being done and programs that could have been created sooner, to not even be dreamt of. Thousands of our veterans and troops, guardsmen and reservists died as a result, not by enemy hands but because of the enemy within them.

Military families and veteran families have a new hero coming to fight for them and I'm sure when you get to know exactly how much he does care, plans to act, you will feel the same way too. He's been on the Veterans Affairs Committee and has paid attention to all that is going on.

Court to focus on vet substance issues

Court to focus on vet substance issues

The Associated Press
Posted : Monday Dec 1, 2008 7:01:36 EST

TULSA, Okla. — A proposed new Veterans Treatment Court in Tulsa will focus on people with military backgrounds who are experiencing alcohol or drug addiction.

The therapeutic court program represents an opportunity to “give back to the people who have stood for us,” Tulsa County Special District Judge Sarah Smith said.

“I feel like it is an honor to be able to offer some assistance to veterans who need help to get back on their feet,” Smith said.

A specialized focus on treating veterans opens the door to additional resources available through the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and other agencies that would not be available for a program dealing with nonveterans.

Under the umbrella of the well-established Tulsa County Drug Court, the court will deal with people who are accused of nonviolent felony offenses and who have substance-abuse issues.
go here for more
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/12/ap_veteranstreatmentcourt_120108/

Some vets exploring Chinese healing for PTSD

While it is easier to understand PTSD is not one size fits all when it comes to different levels of it, or "level of cuts" I often discuss, the treatment is not one size fits all either. Different medications work differently person to person. Doctors understand this and if a medication is not working, they try something else. It is the same with therapy. There needs to be a wide variety of treatments to use just as there are a wide variety of medications. If something is not working for you, talk to your doctor and your therapist so that they can try something else. Mention this and see if they think it could be right for you.

Some vets exploring Chinese healing

By Carol Ann Alaimo - Arizona Daily Star via The Associated Press
Posted : Monday Dec 1, 2008 7:17:25 EST

TUCSON, Ariz. — Can ancient Chinese healing rites help Iraq war veterans cope with combat trauma?

A Tucson-area therapist believes they can, and is offering free treatments for local Iraq vets to test an approach that involves tapping on the acupuncture points used in Chinese medicine.

The Emotional Freedom Technique, or EFT, relatively little known and not widely embraced in traditional therapy circles, has been used to successfully treat crime victims, disaster responders and witnesses to the World Trade Center attacks, according to recent articles in psychology and traumatology journals.

It also is being used to treat troops for combat stress at a handful of veterans’ hospitals around the country, though not in Tucson.

Mary Stafford of Oro Valley is one of a dozen or so therapists nationwide taking part in a clinical trial of the method to assess its effectiveness on returning veterans.

Stafford, who has used the technique for a decade, is approved by the National Board for Certified Counselors to teach it to other therapists.

“This is a counselor’s dream because of how quickly it works and how much you can help people,” Stafford said.

She and other practitioners say the technique takes the sting out of trauma memories, in some cases after years of traditional therapy could not.
go here for more
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/12/ap_chinesemedicine_120108/

Kingsport veteran closer to proving he has Gulf War Syndrome

Kingsport veteran closer to proving he has Gulf War Syndrome
Published 11/30/2008 By Rick Wagner


KINGSPORT — Gulf War veteran Todd Sanders and his family are looking forward to less uncertainty this holiday season than last year.

His blackouts, as recounted in a Kingsport Times-News article in August 2007, have grown worse, and he still has issues with short-term memory and getting too hot.

However, he qualified in September for Social Security disability almost two years after applying and 16 years after his military service, from 1987 to 1992, ended.

Sanders, age 42, believes he may be close to proving he has Gulf War Syndrome, something he’s believed for more than two years.

“We’re looking a lot better than we were the last time (the newspaper interviewed them),” said his wife, Paula Sanders.

And the disabled automobile mechanic said the biggest victory to date for him and others who served in the Gulf War in the early 1990s is that the federal government a few weeks ago acknowledged the existence of Gulf War Syndrome. Sanders hopes to prove next month he has the syndrome from his military service so he can receive military disability and Veterans Administration medical care for himself and his wife.

He likened the delay to the 20 years it took for the federal government to acknowledge the ill health effects of Agent Orange on Vietnam War veterans.

“They’ve (federal officials) finally acknowledged it,” Todd Sanders said during a recent interview. “Even though they’ve owned up to it ... you still have to prove your case.”

The Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans Illness compared the foot-dragging and denials to the treatment of earlier troops who claimed that they had been dangerously exposed to Agent Orange and other toxic herbicides in Vietnam and to radiation during World War II.

In both cases, the claims turned out to be true.
go here for more
http://www.timesnews.net/article.php?id=9009258

Aaron Glantz's new book takes a look at when War Comes Home

"A must-read for anyone who wants to make the phrase, 'Support the Troops,' more than a slogan."--Former US Senator Max Cleland

The War Comes Home is the first book to systematically document the U.S. government's neglect of soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Aaron Glantz, who reported extensively from Iraq during the first three years of this war, interviewed more than one hundred recent war veterans, and here he intersperses their haunting first-person accounts with groundbreaking investigative journalism. This timely book does more than provide us with a personal connection to those whose service has cost them so dearly. It compels us to confront how America treats its veterans and to consider what kind of nation deifies its soldiers and then casts them off as damaged goods.
http://www.aaronglantz.com/

Attack on soldier by police caught on CCTV

Mr Aspinall, who returned from Afghanistan in February and was working his notice in the Army at the time of the attack, told the Sunday Mirror: "I went into the Army thinking this country was worth fighting for. I put my life on the line every day in Afghanistan, so to come back and be treated like this for no reason was just so depressing."

Attack on soldier caught on CCTV

An investigation has been launched into two police officers and a special constable who were caught on camera attacking a soldier.

CCTV footage shows Lance Corporal Mark Aspinall being punched on the floor by one officer while under restraint from two others.

Mr Aspinall, who has served in Iraq and Afghanistan, was set upon after a night out in his home town of Wigan, Lancashire, in July. He was then charged and convicted on two counts of attacking police officers - until last week when he won an appeal at Liverpool Crown Court.

The turnaround has sparked an investigation with one officer's duties already restricted.

Terry Sweeney, Assistant Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police, said: "Greater Manchester Police's professional standards branch is investigating the conduct of the officers on the Wigan division.

click post title for more

Homeless veterans "ain't too proud to beg" but too proud to ask for help

America we have a serious problem in this country when a veteran is not ashamed to ask for spare change or beg for a place to sleep when the shelters are full but they are too proud to ask for help to heal, stop self-medicating themselves to death and do whatever it takes to hold their families together. What's wrong with us? As the media reports more and more on PTSD how is it that the numbers of homeless veterans, attempted suicides and successful suicides goes up instead of down? How is it that with years of covering the veterans of Afghanistan and Iraq, they have not managed to get it into our brains that this nation needs to fully mobilize to help them come back home? Read this from July.

Homeless veterans face new battle for survival
Story Highlights
More veterans are facing a new enemy on the nation's streets
Veterans make up almost a quarter of homeless population
Homeless rate among veterans expected to rise



By Mike Mount
CNN

(CNN) -- "I can't find the right words to describe when you are homeless," says Iraq war veteran Joseph Jacobo. "You see the end of your life right there. What am I going to do, what am I going to eat?"


Jacobo is one of an increasing number of veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan who come home to life on the street. The Department of Veterans Affairs is fighting to find them homes.

Veterans make up almost a quarter of the homeless population in the United States. The government says there are as many as 200,000 homeless veterans; the majority served in the Vietnam War. Some served in Korea or even World War II. About 2,000 served in Iraq or Afghanistan.

The VA and several nongovernmental organizations have created programs that address the special needs of today's veterans returning from war. In addition to treating physical and mental injuries, there are career centers and counseling programs. But the VA still expects the homeless rate among the nation's newest veterans to rise because of the violent nature of combat seen in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Officials say many more Iraq and Afghanistan veterans suffer post-traumatic stress disorder than veterans of previous wars. The government says PTSD is one of the leading causes of homelessness among veterans.

"They come back, and they are having night trauma, they are having difficulty sleeping. They are feeling alienated," says Peter Dougherty, the director of homeless programs for the VA.

The VA says 70 percent of veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan saw some form of combat, either through firefights, rocket attacks or the most common strikes on troops -- roadside bomb attacks on their vehicles.


That is three times the rate of combat experienced by Vietnam veterans, according to the VA.
go here for more
http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/07/02/homeless.veterans/index.html

Maybe it didn't matter than much back then because it was the summer after all and the weather was warm. We tend to not think of the homeless when it's not freezing outside but we never stop to think about things like them swelter in the heat of a summer day and not having enough fluid in them to stay alive. Well this is approaching winter as snow comes into parts of the nation right now and ski enthusiast take to the slopes. Better start to think about them if you managed to forget about them the rest of the year.

We really have a bigger problem than we know about. It's because of the attitudes of so many disinterested people in this country we have the veterans and their families falling apart with so little help from their own communities. Sure things are better than they were when the veterans came straggling home from Vietnam one by one, but National Guards and Reservist go straggling back to jobs and businesses one by one. Veterans go back to school or begin civilian jobs one by one. They are left to wonder if they are the only one going through what they are going through. Wouldn't it be great if they had a friend to talk to who knew exactly what the "thing" was when their friend mentioned it? Wouldn't it be wonderful if a wife confided in a co-worker or parent about the changes in her husband and have the person respond with "It may be PTSD" instead of silence or "you should leave him" the way people will use blanket responses instead of informed ones. It would really be even better if no one ever had to wonder what PTSD was because they had been exposed to it so much that it was as obvious as talking about any other illness from erectile dysfunction to bone loss in women. But it isn't and it isn't very likely to happen unless all the information out there gets as much attention.

The obvious answer would be for the pharmaceutical companies making the drugs to treat PTSD to do what they do for the other illnesses they push pills for and make people wonder enough to learn. That would be a great place to start to stop the veterans from being too proud to ask for help but not too proud to beg for pocket change. When you think about it, think about the lack of commercials on it, it's easy to understand why most of this is happening and will very likely get much worse.


Chaplain Kathie
International Fellowship of Chaplains
Namguardianangel@aol.com
http://www.namguardianangel.org/
http://www.woundedtimes.blogspot.com/
www.youtube.com/NamGuardianAngel
"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