Tammy Duckworth Tapped for VA Assistant Secretary

This will make a lot of people as happy as I am.

Recent VA News Releases

Duckworth Tapped for VA Assistant Secretary

WASHINGTON (Feb. 3, 2009) - President Barack Obama has announced his
intent to nominate L. Tammy Duckworth, director of the Illinois
Department of Veterans Affairs, to be the Assistant Secretary of Public
and Intergovernmental Affairs for the Department of Veterans Affairs
(VA).



"Effective communications with Veterans and VA's stakeholders is key to
improving our services and ensuring Veterans receive the benefits they
deserve," said Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki. "Tammy
Duckworth brings significant talent, leadership and personal experience
to this important work."



As assistant secretary, Duckworth will direct VA's public affairs,
internal communications and intergovernmental relations. She also will
oversee programs for homeless Veterans, consumer affairs and special
rehabilitative events.



Duckworth was appointed director of the state Veterans office in
Illinois in 2006. In previous testimony before Congress, she expressed
her commitment to Veterans and the need for transformation of the
Department. "The VA system faces new challenges as a result of the wars
in Iraq and Afghanistan." She also noted "the patient profile is
changing. More wounded soldiers are surviving very serious injuries."



She is serving as a major in the Illinois National Guard and was
previously deployed to Operation Iraqi Freedom where, as a captain, she
was assistant operations officer for a 500-soldier aviation task force.
She also served as a logistics officer and company commander. As a
helicopter pilot flying combat missions in 2004, she suffered grave
injuries when her helicopter was struck by a rocket-propelled grenade,
losing both legs and partial use of one arm.



Her previous managerial experience includes coordinating the Center for
Nursing Research at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, and working
for Rotary International's Asia-Pacific region from 2002 to 2004.



Duckworth earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Hawaii and a
master's degree from George Washington University in Washington, D.C.
Born in Thailand, she is the daughter of a U.S. Marine who fought in
Vietnam. She is married to Iraq war Veteran and National Guard officer,
Major Bryan Bowlsbey.

National Guard Soldiers laid to rest

Rockland bids a soldier farewell
Boston Globe - United States
February 2, 2009
By Brian R. Ballou, Globe Staff

ROCKLAND -- A bagpipe player led a winding procession today past several thousand mourners standing on Union Street, his tune echoing off storefronts, city offices, and homes.

They cried as the white, horse-drawn caisson carrying the casket of Massachusetts National Guard Specialist Matthew Pollini passed. Members of the military stood at attention, and veterans offered a salute. Schoolchildren waved small US flags through the air.

The caisson stopped in front of the Holy Family Church, where six servicemen and women carried the flag-draped coffin into the half-filled church. Within moments, 800 of the mourners who had waited outside for the procession filled the church.
click link for more

Wading River soldier remembered
Newsday - Long Island,NY,USA

Sgt. Jonathan Keller, Army National Guardsman, front left, of Wading River is seen here training at Fort Bragg, NC in 2008 prior to deploying to Afghanistan. (Photo by Charles Eckert)

A Wading River soldier who died nine months after he was wounded in a firefight in Afghanistan was remembered at his hometown church Monday before being laid to rest at Calverton National Cemetery.

Spc. Jonathan Keller, 29, an Army National Guardsman, was shot in the arm and shoulder during a firefight near the Pakistan border in April.

He died Jan. 24 in Fort Bragg, N.C. His death is under investigation and the circumstances remained unclear on Monday.

During his funeral at St. John the Baptist Roman Catholic Church, packed with more than 400 friends and family, the Rev. James Pereda recalled Keller's "infectious smile" and said he had "a boyish and youthful enthusiasm for everything in life."
click link for more

Soldier on 1st skydive leads dying instructor down

Soldier on 1st skydive leads dying instructor down
By JEFFREY COLLINS

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Strapped to his dying instructor a few thousand feet from the ground on his first skydive, Daniel Pharr found himself floating toward a house and some trees.

The military taught the 25-year-old soldier not to panic. And TV taught him to pull the toggles on the already-deployed parachute to steer.

So Pharr grabbed the right handle and pulled to avoid the house and tugged again to miss the trees, landing safely in a field about a third of a mile from their intended landing spot.

Pharr said he wrestled out of the harness binding him to his instructor, George "Chip" Steele, and started CPR trying to save him from an apparent heart attack.

Steele was later pronounced dead, but the tragedy could have been worse: Other instructors at the skydiving school told Pharr if he had pulled the toggle too hard, the chute would have spun out of control, and he could be dead, too.

"They told me afterward that it was amazing that I knew to do that. This is my survival instinct at that point. I just kind of did what I had to do," said Pharr, taking a break Monday from his job at Fort Gordon near Augusta, Ga.

The jump was a Christmas gift from Pharr's girlfriend. The two went to Skydive Carolina in Chester on Saturday to jump from 13,500 feet in the air while attached to instructors.
click link for more

Memorial service set for Fort Wainwright soldier

Memorial service set for Fort Wainwright soldier
February 02, 2009 19:01 EST


FORT WAINWRIGHT, Alaska (AP) -- A memorial service for an Alaskan-based Tennessee soldier is set for Thursday afternoon.

The Army says Spc. Cody Lamb was found dead at his family's home while he was on a mid-tour leave.

Unicoi County Sheriff Kent Harris said last week foul play is not suspected and suicide has been ruled out.

Lamb was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 8th Field Artillery Regiment, 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division at Fort Wainwright in Fairbanks.

Officials say the brigade was deployed to Iraq in September.

The artilleryman entered the Army in November 2006 and was assigned to Fort Wainwright four months later.

Alabama National Guard selects 1st female general

Ala. Guard selects 1st female general
The Associated Press
Posted : Monday Feb 2, 2009 20:21:47 EST

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Sheryl Gordon, a member of the Alabama National Guard for nearly 30 years, has been selected for promotion to become its first female general.

Gordon, who retired recently as an assistant principal at Benjamin Russell High School in Alexander City, took command Sunday of the 62nd Troop Command in Montgomery, where she started her Guard career.

The unit at Fort Taylor Hardin is the state’s largest with about 5,000 troops.

In taking command, the paperwork process began for her to officially rise to the rank of one-star general.
click link for more

Judge sets date for soldiers’ suit vs. KBR

Judge sets date for soldiers’ suit vs. KBR

The Associated Press
Posted : Monday Feb 2, 2009 20:21:47 EST

EVANSVILLE, Ind. — A federal judge has set a trial date for a lawsuit by 16 Indiana National Guard soldiers who claim they were exposed to a toxic chemical in Iraq.

Judge Richard L. Young on Monday set 10 days for the trial beginning May 3, 2010, in U.S. District Court in Evansville. He also scheduled a settlement conference for Aug. 17.

Soldiers from the 1st Battalion, 152nd Infantry, filed a federal lawsuit in December against defense contractor KBR Inc., saying its employees knowingly allowed them to be exposed to sodium dichromate, a known carcinogen, while guarding a water plant in Iraq in 2003.

KBR has said it notified the Army Corps of Engineers after finding the chemical at the site and the Corps concluded the company’s efforts to remediate the situation were effective.

DOD releases another non-combat death in Afghanistan

DoD Identifies Army Casualty


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

CW4 Milton E. Suggs, 51, of Lockport, La., died Jan. 30 at Camp Lemonier, Djibouti, of injuries sustained from a non-combat related incident. He was assigned to the 38th Operational Support Airlift Detachment, Hammond, La.

The circumstances surrounding the incident are under investigation.

http://icasualties.org/oef/

Navy Petty Officer 3rd Class David A. Cedergren was electrocuted in Iraq

AP NewsBreak: Sailor electrocuted
By KIMBERLY HEFLING
Associated Press Writer


WASHINGTON (AP) -- A third U.S. service member has been determined to have been electrocuted in a shower in Iraq, and Navy criminal investigators are investigating, The Associated Press has learned.

Navy Petty Officer 3rd Class David A. Cedergren, 25, of South St. Paul, Minn., died Sept. 11, 2004, while showering. His family was told he died of natural causes.

Late last year, the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology changed the manner of Cedergren's death to "accidental," caused by electrocution and inflammation of the heart. The Naval Criminal Investigative Services has reopened an investigation into his death, Ed Buice, a NCIS spokesman, said Monday.

click link for more
Linked from ICasualties.org

Potential VA benefits chief has new ideas

No I don't have ESP and I did not go to Harvard. I just pay attention and read about people like Linda Blimes thinking it would be a great idea to take care of the veterans by pushing their claims thru. Ironic as it is this showed up today on Army Times, but hey, anyone paying attention feels the same way.

Potential VA benefits chief has new ideas/

By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Monday Feb 2, 2009 17:36:26 EST

A Harvard University researcher with some radical ideas about how to reduce the backlog of veterans disability claims appears to be in line to head the Veterans Benefits Administration.

Linda Blimes, a public policy lecturer and research at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, wants the Department of Veterans Affairs to operate like the Internal Revenue Service — on an honor system that trusts veterans claiming service-connected disabilities. All veterans claims would be approved as soon as they are filed, with a random audit conducted to “weed out and deter fraudulent claims,” Blimes told the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee in testimony in 2008.

Ninety percent of veterans disability claims end up being paid after they make it through the system, she said — proof, she said, that most veterans are asking only for what they deserve.

Immediate payment of at least a minimum benefit would help to reduce the average 180-day waiting time for initial benefits claims to be processed and allow VA to redeploy the employees processing those claims to work on more complicated appeals, she said.

Blimes also has talked of a vastly simplified disability rating system that would have just four ratings instead of the current 10 for service-connected disabilities and illnesses.

Blimes has not been formally announced as a nominee, but her name is being circulated among lawmakers and congressional staff in what has become a standard procedure to determine whether there is any strong opposition to her taking the key post.

Her idea of a streamlined claims process has some prominent supporters, among them Rep. Bob Filner, D-Calif., the House Veterans Affairs Committee chairman who has talked of automatic claims approval as a way to quickly eliminate the claims backlog.

Proud to announce Military Spouses of America new site

Dear Friends and Colleagues:
I am pleased to announce that Military Spouses for Change (MSC) is now Military Spouses of America (MSA). MSA seeks to be a voice for the American military spouse and her family, in a MEANINGFUL way. MSA will help our spouses understand and utilize all resources available to them, both within the Departments of Defense and VA (if applicable) and outside of them. MSA will also encourage spouses to share their insight and experiences with each other, DoD leadership, elected officials, and the American public.
Why? Because Military Spouses of America believes (and is committed to promoting) the following facts:
1. Family readiness is vital to mission readiness.
2. The well-being of the spouse cannot be divorced from the well-being of the servicemember or veteran (and vice-versa).
3. Both the military and veteran communities benefit from well-informed and well-connected military spouses.
4. The spouses of servicemembers and veterans face unique challenges--challenges for which spouses can, and have, come up with the most effective and creative solutions (individually and collectively).
5. Servicemembers are not the only veterans in military marriages!
Military Spouses of America can be found at www.militaryspousesofamerica.org.
Please make a note of this change and pass this on to anyone you know who may be interested in our organization. Our site also provides fairly in-depth information on PTSD and TBI (as those are issues of particular importance to our community in this time of prolonged military conflict).Take care,Carissa-- Carissa Picard, Esq.PresidentMilitary Spouses of Americawww.militaryspousesofamerica.org

I am on the Board of Directors and have been excited about this for a while but I was waiting for the new site to be up and for Carissa to announce it publicly. She has been working tirelessly to get this up and running.

I will be doing a Q & A session every night very soon where you can ask questions and get some insight to help you understand what is "normal" with PTSD and to learn a lot easier than I did.

What a lot of people do not understand is that older veterans and their families made all the mistakes already and found out what works to live with PTSD in their lives. This is not hopeless, marriages do not have to fall apart and end if love is there and you have the tools to help you navigate through all the changes it brings. Naturally as a Chaplain I can, and probably will more often than not, address the spiritual issues that lead to reconnecting with God and your own faith, or finding faith when you had none before.

Keep in mind that I am not a minister, so I don't push one faith over another nor do I recommend one branch of Christianity over another. I'm too complicated for that. I'm Greek Orthodox, which is a minority in the Christian faith but is the oldest, so I tend to stay out of supporting one denomination over others. As a Chaplain, I'm here to address spiritual needs as you are and where you are spiritually. So if you happen to be of another faith, I will address the faith you have as well as I can. Your spirit called you to your faith for a reason.

The only thing I stay away from as much as possible is medication. That's for your doctor to decide and not someone like me. Your body is too complicated for me to recommend any medication over any others. I will post up warnings when I see them and will post stories on medications but I draw the line on what I will and will not say.

I am not in competition with the VA psychologist and social workers. My job is to get you to understand what PTSD is so you go to them for help and above all, get enough of them there so they are there to help you.

Please go to the new site for Military Spouse of America and go over the pages. A lot of information there. I'll post up when the Q & A begins. Hope to see you there.

Homeless man left to die on sidewalk in DC

No it wasn't at night when no one would have seen him. It wasn't in a part of the city where no one would see him. No, not at all. It was in front of a grocery store, on the sidewalk of a busy street in broad daylight with plenty of people just walking by. Their excuse was that they see this all the time. Amazing!

Passers-by ignore dying man 2:02
Passers-by ignore dying man 2:02
A man dies after being beaten on a D.C. street and then ignored by passers-by. WJLA reports.

Fix the economy by fixing veterans first

If the congress really wanted to fix the economy, aside from the infrastructure and turning this country green, they could start with one very urgent "social program" no Republican in their right mind would ever complain about. That's taking care of the veterans. With over 800,000 claims tied up and over 300,000 on appeal, that means veterans are waiting for care but it also means they are waiting for money so they can pay their bills and support their families. They need to face the fact that sooner or later, most of these claims will be approved and very few will be found to be fraudulent.

VA Compensation Tables
Veteran Alone
30% $376
40% $541
50% $770
60% $974
70% $1,228
80% $1,427
90% $1,604
100% $2,673

Take the backlogged claims and approve all of them at 50% that way you put food in their stomachs and help them pay the rent or mortgage. Review them afterward to either increase or decrease the compensation. Make sure they fully understand that if their claim was fraudulent, then they will be prosecuted plus forced to repay. The VA is supposedly already hiring more claims processors and this will free up the pile to allow them to fully review claims that were pushed through, give them ample time to get the information and documentation they need and actually help veterans with their claims instead of ending up acting as if they are against the veteran. Sorry folks but this is the way the VA is viewed by anyone filing a claim. They feel as if the VA is out to turn them down and make them just go away.

I'm sure they can come up with some kind of coding system that will flag these expedited claims and assist doctors in either proving or disproving claims. They need to listen to doctors considering they are paid by the VA and they were trained by the VA to know what they are doing.

There were some experts in the past that suggested pushing through the claims to free up the backlog but it seems to me we have a much better reason now. Stop and think about the way the economy is and how hard it is to get a job for civilians. It's even harder for veterans, believe it or not, and almost impossible if they happen to be disabled on top of that.

We have National Guards troops coming back to job losses plus the employers that are hiring unwilling to even think of hiring them because of the chance they will be redeployed again. Toss in a disabled National Guards combat veteran and then try to tell them why they have no money to pay their bills. Won't be an easy task at the same time they've been told this is a grateful nation.

As for veteran that can work, put them to work on all of these massive infrastructure projects. Give companies that hire them a better chance of competing for contracts. Give a company owned by one a better chance than that. Then maybe, just maybe, we can do the right thing for a change.

Aftermath of 9-11 leaves PTSD legacy

A few hours on one September morning shattered the city of New York, the state and the entire nation. One morning. We read about what happened that day along with what came after with PTSD cases, illnesses and yes, even suicide cases. We read about broken families. Why is it so easy for us to understand what came after 9-11 when we cannot seem to find the same level of understanding when it comes to the police officers the rest of time on duty, the firefighters the rest of their time on duty or the emergency responders the rest of their time on duty? Where is this understanding when National Guardsmen come home or the troops, or the veterans years after they were exposed to traumatic events over and over and over again?

Let that sink in a moment then read the following.

Ground Zero workers 'six times more likely to be stressed'
InTheNews.co.uk - London,UK
Monday, 02 Feb 2009 08:02
Workers at Ground Zero six times more likely to suffer from serious stress disorders, study shows Printer friendly version Ironworkers at Ground Zero are almost six times more likely to suffer from serious stress disorders than the general public, a new study showed today.

Research published today revealed that 18.5 ironworkers situated at the ruins of the World Trade Centre suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

In comparison, the national average in the United States is 3.5 per cent.

Of the study's 124 participants – all of whom attended the World Trade Centre mental health screening programme in New York City between 14 and 17 months after the September 11th 2001 terrorist attacks – 60 per cent displayed symptoms of psychiatric disorders.

As well as establishing a causal link between PTSD and working at Ground Zero, researchers, publishing their study in Psychiatric Bulletin, revealed near double rates of anxiety and panic attacks among participants. click link for more

Here you have us in the year 2009 but we're still talking about what happened that one morning on September 11, 2001. We still want to hear about the police officers, firefighters, the survivors and what happened to family members. We find it so easy to look at how their lives changed from this one morning but we don't want to look at how the lives change of those we send into combat or their families.

As bad as that is, yesterday I posted about how to normalize PTSD when it comes to the troops and veterans. That's because PTSD is a human wound caused by traumatic events, like this one morning in September. We need to help the troops and veterans let this sink into their own brains. New York experienced the horrific images of carnage but the troops and veterans experience this type of event over and over again. They cannot understand that sooner or later it does get to them simply because they are still human despite all the training, planing and equipping they receive. No matter how hard the military may try, they cannot prevent the men and women serving from being human. PTSD cannot be prevented unless somehow someone manages to stop all crime, stop all natural disasters, stop all fires and stop all wars.

As much as we claim to value the troops and the veterans this one fact is what makes them just like the rest of us and it's about time someone got the message thru to them that they are in fact still humans and they suffer like any other human. They need help like any other human. Would they think the people that responded to ground zero are weak or would they understand? Would they think the firefighters and police officers rushing to the Twin Towers were cowards because they didn't walk away the same as they rushed in or would they admire their courage in the first place? Then why can't they let those facts translate into what they go through? Why can't we make sure they look at themselves as a human first and a warrior second?

Columbia woman implores judge to keep her husband committed

A friend of ours is in a halfway house because of PTSD. We just got word he may never be able to go home. He came home from Vietnam with PTSD but was able to bury it for years. A secondary stressor sent him over the edge so fast his family couldn't understand what just hit all of them.
After WWII veterans with PTSD (not called PTSD back then) were sent to live on farms because they had shell shock. We need to face the fact that while the vast majority of PTSD wounded vetearns are not violent, some are.

Columbia woman implores judge to keep her husband committed
Baltimore Sun - United States
Octogenarian attacked his wife with a hammer last year
By Don Markus don.markus@baltsun.com
February 2, 2009

Cedric Payne's visits to the state mental hospital where his father, Calvin, was involuntarily committed after beating his wife with a hammer last May follow a similar pattern: the elder Payne experiencing fleeting moments of focus followed by long periods of confusion.

As a result, Cedric, the only child of the Columbia couple, said that his 84-year-old father is where he should be, but that his 81-year-old mother, Alma, still fears for her life.

"She thinks that if he can get out, he'll come back and complete the job," Cedric Payne said in a telephone interview last week.

Alma Payne was attacked May 5 by her husband of 64 years in their Columbia home. Calvin Payne was charged with attempted murder and assault. After being sent to the Clifton T. Perkins Hospital Center, a maximum-security psychiatric hospital in Jessup, Calvin Payne was moved in October to Springfield Hospital Center in Sykesville.
click link for more

Reporter does not know when Vietnam ended?

This really could have been a great story. The problem is, it just doesn't add up.

Veterans Of Homlessness

By Gary Gray
Reporter / Bristol Herald Courier
Published: February 1, 2009

A door cracked slowly open, and a shadow stretched across the cold, gray floor.

Bob Nyert entered the meeting room at a snail’s pace, eyed his surroundings and tentatively rolled his wheelchair to a spot where he felt comfortable.

When asked to come closer, he gripped the wheels tightly and cautiously made his way forward. He positioned himself, locked his wheels in place and linked his hands together on his lap.

When he did, rays of sunshine poured down on his face and shoulders from a nearby window and bounced off the black and gold cross hanging from his neck.

The 51-year-old former Navy missile technician is a homeless veteran. His path through life has not been laden with the pretty and pleasant. The foundations of his story are built on heartache, anger and loss.

“It’s ugly,” he said of being homeless.

His eyes were wide and fixed. His body language projected clear signs of a man weighed down by regret and apprehension.

Nyert, originally from Illinois, was a missile technician from 1976-78. He joined the military to further his high school education and serve his country.

“I went in when I was 18, and at that point there was no thought in my mind at all that I might end up homeless,” he said. “But I found out I had a congenital spine disease while I was still in. That’s probably where it all started.”

Following an early honorable discharge because of his disability, Nyert became angry at his circumstances and at the world.

“When I got out I was filled with rage,” he said, his body stiffening. “I started using alcohol and drugs. I became a loner. People would look at me funny, and that increased the rage that was locked up inside me.”

In 1981, that rage finally got the better of Nyert, when he lashed out at another human being, committing a crime, which he would not discuss, that locked him and his rage behind bars for 26 long years.

“My war was prison,” he said softly, looking at the ground. “A lot of the guys from the Vietnam era – for them it was a war their government didn’t want to commit to, and the media forced that issue on the public. It damaged a lot of the men’s psyches.

“Today, the Vietnam vets see the guys returning from Iraq and being treated like heroes when they were spit on when they returned,” Nyert said. “It made them angry.”

Nyert was released from an Arizona prison just more than a year ago.

click link for more

Why am I upset? Because while this would have made a great story and was well written, the problem is, this "Vietnam veteran" was not if this reporter has his dates right.

Vietnam Era Veteran

According to the U.S. Department of Labor, the Vietnam Era Veterans' Readjustment Assistance Act of 1974 (VEVRAA) states, "A Vietnam era veteran is a person who served on active duty for a period of more than 180 days, any part of which occurred between August 5, 1964 and May 7, 1975, and was discharged or released with other than a dishonorable discharge.
Was discharged or released from active duty for a service connected disability if any part of such active duty was performed between August 5, 1964 and May 7, 1975.
Served on active duty for more than 180 days and served in the Republic of Vietnam between February 28, 1961 and May 7, 1975."

Veterans do go homeless. I can't remember how many stories out of over 5,000 I've done on this blog alone about them. They also ended up in jail because back then when they committed crimes, no one cared they were a veteran. Today, well Veterans Courts are finally finding a balance of justice for the veterans.

Is Bob Nyert a veteran? I have no way of knowing and I don't know if the reporter asked for any proof either. What I do know is that the Vietnam War, for the most part was over in 1973 but the deaths didn't stop until 1975. I know Vietnam veterans from that time between the "end" and the real end, treated as if they are "not really Vietnam veterans" and this man claims he was one but served in 1976. So why drag Vietnam into any of this. It would be a bad enough story of yet another veteran ending up homeless, maybe going to jail when he should have been helped instead, but to drag Vietnam into this, does not do the story or the suffering of so many other homeless veterans justice at all.

National Guard troops marking homes that need assistance in Kentucky

Troops mark homes; Kentucky is warned of strong winds
Story Highlights
NEW: One mayor says it may be two months before county has all electricity back

National Weather Service warns winds could knock loose trees down

National Guard troops marking homes that need assistance

More than 400,000 Kentuckians without electricity

LOUISVILLE, Kentucky (CNN) -- National Guard troops were going door to door Sunday in Kentucky, checking on families in the worst-hit areas of what Gov. Steve Beshear called "the biggest natural disaster that this state has ever experienced in modern history."


The devastating ice storm has been blamed for at least seven deaths in Kentucky, Beshear said. In total, 21 deaths have been reported in the state since the storm hit on Tuesday, but authorities could not immediately confirm whether all were directly storm-related.

The "unprecedented" call-up of the National Guard includes 4,600 troops in various roles.

Of 120 counties in the state, 92 had declared emergencies, the governor's office said. More than 400,000 customers were without power. See images of the ice storm's aftermath »

Temperatures were higher Sunday -- in the 40s -- which meant some relief, but also new problems. Melting ice and snowcan make it more difficult for utility trucks to reach certain areas.

And the National Weather Service warned of another potential problem: winds that could knock down loose trees.
click link for more

Another Warrior Transition Unit Dead Ruled Suicide

Another Warrior Transition Unit Death Ruled Suicide?
by
Chaplain Kathie
How much time is enough to get this right? How many more times do they need to find one more soldier dead before they figure out that what they are doing is not good enough? PTSD is not new! Humans have been on this planet long enough, facing traumatic events, going to war with each other, documenting what comes after war and suffering while telling their stories so that the "experts" should have some clue what the hell to do to help warriors heal. Not only are the veterans suffering, their families suffer and so do the people trying to take care of them while some pea brain without the slightest clue of what they are going through claims to have found the "right treatment" but they keep suffering and killing themselves! ENOUGH TALK! Enough re-researching what has been researched to death. Enough wasting time with what does not work. For Heaven's sake, we know what needs to be done and we know how to do it. We've had over 30 years of studying this to know better.

Step one-get rid of BattleMind because it does more harm than good. I have yet to hear from one veteran BattleMind has helped.

Step two-normalize PTSD. It's a normal reaction to abnormal events. Let them know how many civilians end up with PTSD from the other causes then point out for them, it's a one time traumatic event that does it while they end up enduring event after event after event. Then they'll get it into their brains that to expect to walk away from combat without any changes is not realistic at all. They all change. Some change more than others. Others end up wounded by all of it instead of just changed.

Step three-Stop acting as if they are criminals. Do not belittle them because they seek help and honor the fact they have the courage enough to ask for help. Do not treat them like scum because they say they want to stop drinking or using drugs to cover up what they don't want to feel and then help them understand that is what medications can do for them a lot better than street drugs and getting drunk ever could.

Step four-spend as much time as need to get it into the brains of their families they are no longer dealing with "normal GI Joe" because Joe is no longer able to communicate with himself anymore. The "Joe" he used to be is trapped behind a wall of pain and he needs their help to find "himself" again. While he will never be totally the same person he was before PTSD, he can in fact end up even better as a person than he was before, even with living with flashbacks and nightmares that may never totally go away. Tell the exactly what a flashback is and what they see in their dreams without sugar coating any of it. They need to know what they are up against when confronting a zoned out veteran on a flashback trip from hell or a out of body nightmare so vivid they have no clue where they really are if you wake them up.

Step five-take the one third of Americans with a clue what PTSD is and get them to pound it into the brains of the other two thirds they better start paying attention to all of this before the National Guards and Reservists come home from yet another deployment and then have to face the next mudslide, hurricane, wildfire, tornado or flood. Make sure they get the message before they face another time when a police officer or firefighter comes back from deployment and needs their help for a change.

This isn't that hard people! Families of Vietnam Veterans have been doing it for years and found out the hard way what works to save their veterans lives along with saving their marriages. The only regret we have is that the people with the power to raise awareness of what our voices have to say ARE NOT LISTENING!

So now please tell me what there is about any of this that there is yet one more suicide from a GI that was supposed to be in the best care possible?

Transition unit spc. kills self in Colo. home
Nearly 70 soldiers died in WTUs’ first 16 months
By Gina Cavallaro - Staff writer
Posted : Sunday Feb 1, 2009 8:40:07 EST

The last person Spc. Larry Applegate is known to have spoken to before killing himself was a sergeant with the El Paso County Sheriff’s office in Colorado Springs, Colo.

His words, according to a spokeswoman, foretold a tragic ending.

“One of the sergeants talked with him briefly on the phone,” said the spokeswoman, Lt. Lari Sevene. “He was making suicidal statements.”

Applegate, according to Sevene, who cited preliminary deputies’ reports, was arguing with his wife around 10:30 p.m. on Jan. 16 in their two-story home in the Widefield area of Colorado Springs when he fired a couple of rounds, causing her to flee the house.

He pursued her, fired a few more rounds, then holed himself up inside the house. Using a .45-caliber handgun and an M16 rifle, Applegate fired multiple rounds inside the house, tearing up the couple’s belongings and firing shots through the front door, where sheriff’s deputies had surrounded the house in a standoff, Sevene said.

Agents with a special weapons and tactics team went into Applegate’s house at 12:25 a.m., about 30 minutes after the gunfire stopped, and found him dead with a gunshot wound to the head, Sevene said.

No one else was hurt and the case is still under investigation.

Applegate, 27, was an infantryman who had deployed to Iraq for a year in December 2005 with 1st Battalion, 68th Armor, 4th Infantry Division. Since February 2008, he had been assigned to the Warrior Transition Unit at Fort Carson for an undisclosed ailment.

Because of its public nature, his case is one of the most vividly detailed of the more than 70 soldiers who have died while assigned to one of the Army’s 36 WTUs, but suicide is not the leading cause.

According to data compiled by the Warrior Care and Transition Office, 68 soldiers died while assigned to a WTU between June 2007, when the wounded warrior care units were established, and Oct. 31, 2008.
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Off-duty LAPD officer is shot, in serious condition

Off-duty LAPD officer is shot, in serious condition
Los Angeles Times - CA,USA
By Ruben Vives and Richard Winton
February 1, 2009
A 49-year-old off-duty Los Angeles police officer was in serious condition Saturday night after being shot in the shoulder during a struggle with two assailants who approached him as he was leaving his City Terrace home, police said.

The 14-year-veteran, Anthony Razo, is assigned to the Hollenbeck division and previously worked with the station's gang detail. He was leaving his house in the 800 block of North Gage Avenue about 5 a.m. Saturday to play golf when he was attacked near his SUV.


The motive for the assault, and whether the officer was targeted or a random victim, is under investigation.

Police said Razo and one attacker were armed with handguns.

During the struggle, Razo's weapon dropped and was picked up by one of the assailants and used to shoot the officer in the upper region of his right shoulder, Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca said.


Razo was found in his front yard, said Los Angeles County Sheriff's Lt. Gil Carrillo. Razo was taken to Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center.
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Col. James L. Merchant III, died after parachute accident

Parachutist was a distinguished soldier
Tampabay.com - St. Petersburg,FL,USA
Curtis Krueger, Times Staff Writer
Saturday, January 31, 2009


TAMPA — The Army colonel who died in a parachute accident this week was a career soldier who served in Iraq and Afghanistan and earned the Bronze Star.

Beyond being a fighter, Col. James L. Merchant III also was an intellectual who puzzled out how to communicate advantageously with foreign enemies.

"It required much intellectual energy and rigor," said his friend and colleague at Special Operations Command, Col. John Leonard. Merchant succeeded with "his ability to think through some of the most difficult problems that we deal with in the command here."

Merchant, 46, was from South Carolina and joined the military in 1984 through a program at the Citadel, where he graduated. His career took him to Korea, Italy, Croatia, Qatar and the Air War College, which emphasizes use of air and space power in joint and multinational fighting.

Witnesses said one parachutists seem to veer far from the group, and dropped into a lake outside of MacDill Air Force Base. He separated from his parachute and began swimming, but for unknown reasons he went under the water. The cause of the accident is under investigation.
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Welcome Home Indiana National Guard, Your Car Was Just Towed

Guardsmen find parking problem after ceremony

Updated: Jan 31, 2009 09:25 PM EST

Richard Essex /Eyewitness News

Indianapolis - Several Indiana National Guardsmen got a surprise when they left a ceremony welcoming them home Saturday.

According to Specialist Ronnie Capps, about 25 guardsmen had their cars towed from a White Castle parking lot during the ceremony at Lucas Oil Stadium. Capps said they had permission to park in the lot of the White Castle restaurant on South Street, but when they returned, their cars were gone.

"We came home and we get to told to park there, they said it was fine, the manager said it was fine at White Castle down the road and next thing you know, we come out from our ceremony, our welcome home, and it was like a welcome home present, the car was gone," said Spec. Capps.

With the tow came a $165 charge for the soldiers and airmen.

As if having their car towed wasn't bad enough, the soldiers had to walk three blocks in the snow, some of them with small children in tow.

"The women are out here getting cold and we're getting cold and their kids, they're sitting at White Castle until they get their cars back. It's just unnecessary," Capps said.

The tow left a bad taste in the soldiers' mouth.

"I used to come up to Indy at least once a week just to go to White Castle. No more," said one soldier.

The manager on duty at the White Castle told Eyewitness News she was unable to comment about the situation, instead referring questions to Jamie Richardson with the White Castle corporation. Richardson said the company is working to make amends with the troops.

"What we didn't realize, what we are feverishly working to make right, we didn't know necessarily this was related to our troops coming home, which we have the utmost respect and support," Richardson said. (click link for more or watch video)