Report on Virginia VA center finds problems
By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday Jan 20, 2010 10:08:20 EST
A new report from the Veterans Affairs Department inspector general will help fuel complaints about an error-filled disability claims process in need of a complete overhaul.
Investigators looking at claims processing at the VA regional office in Roanoke, Va., found that 25 percent of the case files they closely studied had serious mistakes. Some veterans were denied benefits they deserved, and disability compensation was given to others who were not eligible.
Many errors involved Vietnam veterans with disability claims related to exposure to the defoliant Agent Orange.
In one case, a veteran was underpaid $21,857 because the claims staff did not properly consider a physician’s opinion that coronary artery disease was a complication of service-connected diabetes.
In another, a veteran was overpaid $15,640 for a diabetes-related amputation below the knee that he said was related to exposure to Agent Orange in Vietnam. His claims folder contained no evidence that he had served in Vietnam, the IG report says.
read more here
Report on Virginia VA center finds problems
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Three weeks shy of his 21st birthday, Tilton had shot himself
After over 30 years of trying to get ahead of what PTSD does, will there ever come a day when we can finally say it is no longer claiming more lives after war than during it? Time ran out for too many last year and the year before that and so on and so on. It ran out for too many families as well.
Just 20 years old.
4,000 more U.S. troops to Haiti
The U.S. military said it plans to send 4,000 more troops to earthquake-ravaged Haiti, bringing to 15,000 the number of U.S. service members in or near the country. FULL STORY
When they come home at the age of 19 or 20, they have seen and done things most of us will never go through in an entire lifetime. Most of us will decide that we don't need to pay attention to what happens when they come home and the media, well, they certainly won't take the time to remind us. Most reports come from local newspapers never picked up by national papers or news stations. As for the 24-7 cable news, they are too consumed with stories like Haiti covering that for over a week except for the special election to fill the Senate seat held by Senator Kennedy in Massachusetts, but then it was right back to the Haiti reports. When that was not enough the story ended up being the reporters feeling they needed to do something like the CNN reports Cooper and Gupta. There are thousands of troops arriving in Haiti to supply aid but we don't know exactly how many have arrived after serving in Iraq and Afghanistan or if there is any help for them with what they will see in Haiti. Imagine a young man or woman a few years out of high school going through this after being deployed into combat. It can either be very healing depending on what their mission is or it can be very harmful depending on what they see.
While the devastation in Haiti needs to be reported on, there is a bigger crisis that is being ignored and this is one of them. We are still losing more after combat than during it.
What if PTSD became a priority 30 years ago? 20 years ago? How about 9 years ago? Did any reporter pick up on the fact no one in the VA was preparing for the wounded when the troops were sent into Afghanistan? Did any reporter pick up on the fact that the DOD was not gearing up with psychologist and psychiatrists in place ready to respond? No. No reporter was covering the fact there were less doctors and nurses working for the VA than there were after the Gulf War. It was assumed since the population of veterans was dying out, they didn't need to prepare anything but they should have known better.
Reporters forgot how to study the facts and history. Reporters covered the Gulf War and they covered what was said, given as a reason to not invade Iraq after the Gulf War, that it would be a "quagmire" in the words of then Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney and leaving the troops "like a dinosaur stuck in a tar pit" in the words of General H. "Stormin" Norman Schwarzkopf. History provided the need to ramp up services in the DOD and the VA just as history provided the need to do it as soon as troops were sent into Afghanistan. If the reporters had bothered to report on this, the American people would have been screaming for everyone to be ready to take care of the wounded, but most of us were left uninformed.
Even today they jump on stories about these suicides but each and every one of them add nothing to correcting the reason why they would rather die than live after surviving combat. People paying attention see the death by suicide as a condemnation and a price paid that should have never happened. People not paying attention have the excuse no one told them and this, this is the greatest sin of all.
Military suicides the deepest wounds of war
By LAURA BAUER
The Kansas City Star
Two months after returning from Iraq, 20-year-old Pfc. Gregory Tilton committed suicide. The soldier, who was based at Fort Riley, is seen here with his wife, Molly.
The day before Thanksgiving, Army Pfc. Gregory Tilton was on the phone with his parents, talking about recipes.
He needed tips on ingredients for the first holiday meal he and his wife, Molly, would prepare together. The previous year during the holidays, he was in Iraq with Fort Riley’s 1st Battalion, 63rd Armor, so this one was important.
“I’ve got to make Thanksgiving a great thing,” the soldier told his dad, Tim Tilton. They were to host four other couples at their apartment near the post. “We have to do things up right.”
But as the day went on, things weren’t right. Flashbacks of the war — the crack of gunfire, helicopters overhead, the smell of smoke and images of blood-soaked earth — were playing through his head.
By 9 that night, his family said, he was mentally back in Iraq, climbing a hill to bury bodies. About four hours later, there was a gunshot — and not just in his nightmares.
Three weeks shy of his 21st birthday, Tilton had shot himself.
read more here
Military suicides the deepest wounds of war
Just 20 years old.
4,000 more U.S. troops to Haiti
The U.S. military said it plans to send 4,000 more troops to earthquake-ravaged Haiti, bringing to 15,000 the number of U.S. service members in or near the country. FULL STORY
When they come home at the age of 19 or 20, they have seen and done things most of us will never go through in an entire lifetime. Most of us will decide that we don't need to pay attention to what happens when they come home and the media, well, they certainly won't take the time to remind us. Most reports come from local newspapers never picked up by national papers or news stations. As for the 24-7 cable news, they are too consumed with stories like Haiti covering that for over a week except for the special election to fill the Senate seat held by Senator Kennedy in Massachusetts, but then it was right back to the Haiti reports. When that was not enough the story ended up being the reporters feeling they needed to do something like the CNN reports Cooper and Gupta. There are thousands of troops arriving in Haiti to supply aid but we don't know exactly how many have arrived after serving in Iraq and Afghanistan or if there is any help for them with what they will see in Haiti. Imagine a young man or woman a few years out of high school going through this after being deployed into combat. It can either be very healing depending on what their mission is or it can be very harmful depending on what they see.
While the devastation in Haiti needs to be reported on, there is a bigger crisis that is being ignored and this is one of them. We are still losing more after combat than during it.
Military suicides set record in 2009
Published: Jan. 16, 2010 at 3:41 PM
WASHINGTON, Jan. 16 (UPI) -- At least 301 active-duty members of the U.S. military took their own lives in 2009, more than in any year since the Pentagon began keeping track in 1980.
There were 235 suicides in 2008, the Chicago Tribune reports.
In 2009, the suicide rate in all four branches of the military was higher than the national average, Defense Department statistics reported by the Congressional Research Service show. They included 160 in the Army, 52 Marines, 48 sailors and 41 members of the Air Force.
read more here
Military suicides set record in 2009
What if PTSD became a priority 30 years ago? 20 years ago? How about 9 years ago? Did any reporter pick up on the fact no one in the VA was preparing for the wounded when the troops were sent into Afghanistan? Did any reporter pick up on the fact that the DOD was not gearing up with psychologist and psychiatrists in place ready to respond? No. No reporter was covering the fact there were less doctors and nurses working for the VA than there were after the Gulf War. It was assumed since the population of veterans was dying out, they didn't need to prepare anything but they should have known better.
Reporters forgot how to study the facts and history. Reporters covered the Gulf War and they covered what was said, given as a reason to not invade Iraq after the Gulf War, that it would be a "quagmire" in the words of then Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney and leaving the troops "like a dinosaur stuck in a tar pit" in the words of General H. "Stormin" Norman Schwarzkopf. History provided the need to ramp up services in the DOD and the VA just as history provided the need to do it as soon as troops were sent into Afghanistan. If the reporters had bothered to report on this, the American people would have been screaming for everyone to be ready to take care of the wounded, but most of us were left uninformed.
Even today they jump on stories about these suicides but each and every one of them add nothing to correcting the reason why they would rather die than live after surviving combat. People paying attention see the death by suicide as a condemnation and a price paid that should have never happened. People not paying attention have the excuse no one told them and this, this is the greatest sin of all.
Major Hasan "may have been developing a psychosis" but no test was done
Leaders of Fort Hood review to testify today
By Calvin Woodward and Richard Lardner - The Associated Press
Posted : Wednesday Jan 20, 2010 7:59:29 EST
WASHINGTON — Leaders of an internal Pentagon inquiry into deadly shootings at the Fort Hood military installation that left 13 dead aren’t talking about why the accused gunman moved through the military’s ranks despite repeated concerns over his performance and behavior.
Former Army Secretary Togo West and retired Navy Adm. Vern Clark were expected to testify Wednesday on Capitol Hill, but they said they won’t discuss specifics about Army psychiatrist Nidal Hasan in open session “in order to preserve the integrity of the ongoing military justice process,” according to their prepared testimony before the House Armed Services Committee.
Hasan’s supervisors sanitized his performance appraisals in the years prior to the shootings, according to government documents obtained by The Associated Press that reveal concerns about him at almost every stage of his Army education.
Officers in charge of Hasan loaded praise into the alleged gunman’s record despite knowing he was chronically late for work, saw few patients, disappeared when he was on call and confronted those around him with his Islamic views.
The materials also disclose concerns that the psychiatrist-in-training might have been developing a psychosis, according to the documents, yet no mental health evaluation was done.
read more here
Leaders of Fort Hood review to testify today
By Calvin Woodward and Richard Lardner - The Associated Press
Posted : Wednesday Jan 20, 2010 7:59:29 EST
WASHINGTON — Leaders of an internal Pentagon inquiry into deadly shootings at the Fort Hood military installation that left 13 dead aren’t talking about why the accused gunman moved through the military’s ranks despite repeated concerns over his performance and behavior.
Former Army Secretary Togo West and retired Navy Adm. Vern Clark were expected to testify Wednesday on Capitol Hill, but they said they won’t discuss specifics about Army psychiatrist Nidal Hasan in open session “in order to preserve the integrity of the ongoing military justice process,” according to their prepared testimony before the House Armed Services Committee.
Hasan’s supervisors sanitized his performance appraisals in the years prior to the shootings, according to government documents obtained by The Associated Press that reveal concerns about him at almost every stage of his Army education.
Officers in charge of Hasan loaded praise into the alleged gunman’s record despite knowing he was chronically late for work, saw few patients, disappeared when he was on call and confronted those around him with his Islamic views.
The materials also disclose concerns that the psychiatrist-in-training might have been developing a psychosis, according to the documents, yet no mental health evaluation was done.
read more here
Leaders of Fort Hood review to testify today
Making peace for a peace keeper
by
Chaplain Kathie
After going through something horrific and life threatening, there is a process the mind automatically begins. Every aspect of that event is stored as the mind tries to find a peaceful conclusion with inclusion of the memory itself. We get in the way of this happening instead of breathing and letting our mind function the way it was intended to do. We question everything. Our motives, our reason for being there, for doing what we did or not doing what we could not bring ourselves to do. We question if we were just rescued by God or it was brought to us because we have angered God in someway and He did it to us. It all depends on how much we know about our own minds, body and spirit, how it all works together and how we can help ourselves heal.
For the men and women in the military they have other things on their minds, like staying alive today as they try to make sense out of what happened yesterday. For them, it is not just one shocking event followed by a return to their normal lives. It is a series of events piled onto others with no time to heal. They know their lives are on the line for the entire time of their deployment into combat zones. For some they will bring back an infection going after every part of their lives in the form of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. PTSD is much like an infection because it keeps getting worse if left untreated. It eats away more and more of the life they had replacing it all with unknown reactions. Like a stranger inside their skin, they are unfamiliar with the way they will react or treat other people. The changes inside of them create yet another shock.
They return back home facing the healing of many traumatic events as well as having to re-establish normal life with normal food, normal shelter, normal beds to sleep in, normal simple life with showers, TV shows, shopping, friends and family. This return to "normal" life is anything but normal for them. They are changed by their experiences. They want to just go back to the way they were before, but this is not possible no matter how hard they wish for it and try to make it happen, the events in their lives have changed them.
The sleeping in their own beds they longed for cannot provide the same rest they had before as nightmares take them back to where their lives were in danger, where they saw something they wish they had never seen, where they did something they wish they didn't have to do and to where it was all just one time too many. The food they couldn't wait to eat again can suddenly turn foul in their mouths as the taste reminds them of an unpleasant experience. Simple TV shows they used to enjoy can snap them back in time. Shopping can remind them of a crowd they were in when chaos struck. Driving down the road can remind them of a bomb blowing up in front of them or under them. It can all come back with living simple "normal" lives.
There are still some people pretending PTSD is not real, that it does not change a person's life, as others want to blame the wounded for it happening to them as if they are defective in some way. They want to dismiss the fact that PTSD comes only after trauma, in other words, from an outside force, and does not come from within. If they were responsible for it, then it would not take a traumatic event to happen for it to strike. It would have been mental illness already there and not brought on suddenly. It would have been any number of them with some of the same symptoms found in PTSD but not caused by trauma. The only way for PTSD to hit is after trauma and that is why it is called Post Traumatic instead of something else.
The good news is that science has been able to show the changes in the brain after trauma, which prove the reality of PTSD.
Veterans and family members have seen these changes in the lives of the veterans as they are challenged to heal and the reality of PTSD is all too well known, but for the sake of the deniers, scientific proof may get them to once and for all get out of the medieval response akin to bloodletting and believing that illness is a curse from God.
When an event is trapped, often it is the result of many other events behind it. Veterans may focus on this one event coming back to haunt them but it very well could be the "one that broke the camels back" instead of the one that opened the door. We have to remember combat produces event after event after event. Each one will build on the other, adding more fuel for PTSD to thrive.
Usually it is best to let the veteran talk as we listen very carefully to what they are not saying.
"Just like when" is a clue there is something that happened before not addressed. This usually means a time when they thought they had forgotten about but very well could be the event that set off the changes in them.
They will talk about the nightmares, usually involving the same incident, but if there are more listen until they are done recounting them. There may be a key in the last one they talk about.
While it would be easier to address the beginning of their deployments, this does not work simply because the event haunting them most of the time could have been during the end of their deployment and this is the one they are focused on. We cannot dismiss it or trivialize it. When civilians survive a traumatic event, that is the one we know we have to get them to recover from but with combat, just as with police and firefighters, it is not just one time. All of the other events feed into the one they focus on.
When you hear them walk them through the entire event. Most of the time they are not seeing what happened before because the memory snap shot is usually on the outcome and not the other factors leading to it. Get them to see the whole movie instead of just the ending. They are missing a lot in between.
Walking them through it will remind them of what happened before, what they were thinking, what they were feeling and what they were worried about. An example is the bombs in the road in Iraq and Afghanistan that blow up and this is in their minds every time they drive over there carried with them back on city streets and country roads in their community. While they didn't need to be near any of these bombs blowing up, the chances are they knew someone blown up or at the very least had a strong reaction to the reporting of them. This sticks in their mind because they know it could have happened to them with no warning at all.
There is a big difference between the known, as with a firefight, and the unknown, as with a roadside bomb or suicide bomber. With a firefight, they are mentally and physically preparing for all of it within seconds as all parts of them are fully engaged. With the unknown, parts of them are working independently with some of their senses on high alert subconsciously as they talk to their buddies or listen to music. This unknown factor follows them home just as much as it stays with them while they are deployed.
A soldier can remember the fact he had to take out a car approaching a convoy too fast. He will remember the people in the car he killed but will not remember what happened before he did whatever it took to stop the car. He will not independently think of the fact the practice of blowing away convoys with vehicles was common and he had no idea if this was yet another attempt. He will not think of what he did to try to stop the vehicle from getting too close or anything else he tried to do to prevent the outcome. He has only been focused on the result of seeing dead civilians because of what he did instead of the rest of the event itself.
For a female soldier, deployed with no safe zones, they face the same dangers but for them there is the other factor of sexual attacks and abuse from their own people. While most male soldiers have arrived to the point where they respect their "sisters" having to fight as well, others still see them as objects. There have been reports of women stopping fluid intake at noon to avoid having to use the latrine in the middle of the night out of fear of being attacked by another soldier. They would rather be dehydrated in the heat of the day than have to worry about opening themselves up to being attacked. The other problem for them is that some males will feel strongly they are more of a problem and should not be there. Their attitude comes out with what they say within earshot of the female soldier and it penetrates to their core.
There is still no cure for PTSD but there are keys to helping them heal. If practitioners think of their own human emotions and how they would react, they will get a lot further in helping the veteran heal.
The practice of medicating the veterans of combat is dangerous because the core of the wound is not treated, which are the human/emotional reactions to what they went through. Medication will change only the chemicals in the brain but not the way they remember. Medications calming the nerves will have to be increased as PTSD tries to regain control. Medications to sleep will end up having to be increased because PTSD is allowed to grow stronger. Without addressing the cause of the wound, it will fester like an untreated infection. All parts of "them" need to be treated at the same time. The mind, with medications, the body with re-learning how to relax the muscles and nerves and the soul with learning how to trust themselves and others again.
The best people to treat combat veterans are other veterans or at least, survivors of trauma. It has to be from a true understanding of how humans react to all of it. Reading about it in books and talking to a few veterans will not do much good if there is no personal experience behind it.
When veterans finally find what begins their "journey" home, they stumble and fall as their families encounter enlistment into the result of combat, unprepared and without understanding. Families must be included in healing the veteran. Depending on how they adjust how they react to them they can either aid the healing or hinder it. If they understand where it is all coming from, they are more able to react instead of over-react the wrong way. Waking up a veteran while in a nightmare the wrong way has resulted in a spouse being attacked for doing it simply because they do not understand that while the veteran may be sleeping right there, their mind is in a danger zone back in combat. They will lash out against the enemy only to find their wife is holding her nose or her eye without a clue about what they just did to her.
What families understand can also help them heal from living with a PTSD veteran. They will understand it is not their fault any more than it is the fault of the veteran. They will stop trying to find blame instead of gaining a deeper understanding.
Veterans can make peace with what they had to do. They can heal this wound with the proper help and the right tools to get the job done but as long as the military misunderstands what PTSD is, they will not be able to provide them with the help needed. They can try to avoid addressing the compassion in the soldiers but it is their compassion that opened the door to PTSD just as much as it was strong enough to feed their courage. It should be acknowledged and respected. As soon as it is, they will be able to treat and retain a trained soldier with courage and compassion still motivating them to serve where they are needed and ready to do whatever it takes to get it done. Medicating them allows only anger to come out as everything else is turned inward. PTSD gains more territory and they lose a fully engaged soldier ready for the next battle.
Everyone that comes into the life of a PTSD veteran can either contribute to the healing or harming. What we understand about them and about trauma determines what they will see within themselves and the keys to healing are all there. They just need help finding the keys to unlock it.
Chaplain Kathie
After going through something horrific and life threatening, there is a process the mind automatically begins. Every aspect of that event is stored as the mind tries to find a peaceful conclusion with inclusion of the memory itself. We get in the way of this happening instead of breathing and letting our mind function the way it was intended to do. We question everything. Our motives, our reason for being there, for doing what we did or not doing what we could not bring ourselves to do. We question if we were just rescued by God or it was brought to us because we have angered God in someway and He did it to us. It all depends on how much we know about our own minds, body and spirit, how it all works together and how we can help ourselves heal.
For the men and women in the military they have other things on their minds, like staying alive today as they try to make sense out of what happened yesterday. For them, it is not just one shocking event followed by a return to their normal lives. It is a series of events piled onto others with no time to heal. They know their lives are on the line for the entire time of their deployment into combat zones. For some they will bring back an infection going after every part of their lives in the form of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. PTSD is much like an infection because it keeps getting worse if left untreated. It eats away more and more of the life they had replacing it all with unknown reactions. Like a stranger inside their skin, they are unfamiliar with the way they will react or treat other people. The changes inside of them create yet another shock.
They return back home facing the healing of many traumatic events as well as having to re-establish normal life with normal food, normal shelter, normal beds to sleep in, normal simple life with showers, TV shows, shopping, friends and family. This return to "normal" life is anything but normal for them. They are changed by their experiences. They want to just go back to the way they were before, but this is not possible no matter how hard they wish for it and try to make it happen, the events in their lives have changed them.
The sleeping in their own beds they longed for cannot provide the same rest they had before as nightmares take them back to where their lives were in danger, where they saw something they wish they had never seen, where they did something they wish they didn't have to do and to where it was all just one time too many. The food they couldn't wait to eat again can suddenly turn foul in their mouths as the taste reminds them of an unpleasant experience. Simple TV shows they used to enjoy can snap them back in time. Shopping can remind them of a crowd they were in when chaos struck. Driving down the road can remind them of a bomb blowing up in front of them or under them. It can all come back with living simple "normal" lives.
There are still some people pretending PTSD is not real, that it does not change a person's life, as others want to blame the wounded for it happening to them as if they are defective in some way. They want to dismiss the fact that PTSD comes only after trauma, in other words, from an outside force, and does not come from within. If they were responsible for it, then it would not take a traumatic event to happen for it to strike. It would have been mental illness already there and not brought on suddenly. It would have been any number of them with some of the same symptoms found in PTSD but not caused by trauma. The only way for PTSD to hit is after trauma and that is why it is called Post Traumatic instead of something else.
The good news is that science has been able to show the changes in the brain after trauma, which prove the reality of PTSD.
Brain scans pinpoint stress disorder in war veterans
Study shows that certain brain signals can indicate stress disorder
By MAURA LERNER, Star Tribune
Last update: January 20, 2010 - 12:57 AM
There's never been a simple test to diagnose post-traumatic stress, but a group of Minnesota scientists say they've found a high-tech way to identify people who have the disorder -- by studying their brain signals.
The discovery could have huge implications for the way PTSD is diagnosed and treated in the future, says Dr. Apostolos Georgopoulos, who led the research as director of the Brain Sciences Center at the Minneapolis VA Medical Center.
PTSD is thought to afflict tens of thousands of combat veterans, but it can be hard to diagnose. It's a collection of psychological symptoms that can, in some cases, be caused by other conditions, such as head injuries or depression.
Brain scans pinpoint stress disorder in war veterans
Veterans and family members have seen these changes in the lives of the veterans as they are challenged to heal and the reality of PTSD is all too well known, but for the sake of the deniers, scientific proof may get them to once and for all get out of the medieval response akin to bloodletting and believing that illness is a curse from God.
When an event is trapped, often it is the result of many other events behind it. Veterans may focus on this one event coming back to haunt them but it very well could be the "one that broke the camels back" instead of the one that opened the door. We have to remember combat produces event after event after event. Each one will build on the other, adding more fuel for PTSD to thrive.
Usually it is best to let the veteran talk as we listen very carefully to what they are not saying.
"Just like when" is a clue there is something that happened before not addressed. This usually means a time when they thought they had forgotten about but very well could be the event that set off the changes in them.
They will talk about the nightmares, usually involving the same incident, but if there are more listen until they are done recounting them. There may be a key in the last one they talk about.
While it would be easier to address the beginning of their deployments, this does not work simply because the event haunting them most of the time could have been during the end of their deployment and this is the one they are focused on. We cannot dismiss it or trivialize it. When civilians survive a traumatic event, that is the one we know we have to get them to recover from but with combat, just as with police and firefighters, it is not just one time. All of the other events feed into the one they focus on.
When you hear them walk them through the entire event. Most of the time they are not seeing what happened before because the memory snap shot is usually on the outcome and not the other factors leading to it. Get them to see the whole movie instead of just the ending. They are missing a lot in between.
Walking them through it will remind them of what happened before, what they were thinking, what they were feeling and what they were worried about. An example is the bombs in the road in Iraq and Afghanistan that blow up and this is in their minds every time they drive over there carried with them back on city streets and country roads in their community. While they didn't need to be near any of these bombs blowing up, the chances are they knew someone blown up or at the very least had a strong reaction to the reporting of them. This sticks in their mind because they know it could have happened to them with no warning at all.
There is a big difference between the known, as with a firefight, and the unknown, as with a roadside bomb or suicide bomber. With a firefight, they are mentally and physically preparing for all of it within seconds as all parts of them are fully engaged. With the unknown, parts of them are working independently with some of their senses on high alert subconsciously as they talk to their buddies or listen to music. This unknown factor follows them home just as much as it stays with them while they are deployed.
A soldier can remember the fact he had to take out a car approaching a convoy too fast. He will remember the people in the car he killed but will not remember what happened before he did whatever it took to stop the car. He will not independently think of the fact the practice of blowing away convoys with vehicles was common and he had no idea if this was yet another attempt. He will not think of what he did to try to stop the vehicle from getting too close or anything else he tried to do to prevent the outcome. He has only been focused on the result of seeing dead civilians because of what he did instead of the rest of the event itself.
For a female soldier, deployed with no safe zones, they face the same dangers but for them there is the other factor of sexual attacks and abuse from their own people. While most male soldiers have arrived to the point where they respect their "sisters" having to fight as well, others still see them as objects. There have been reports of women stopping fluid intake at noon to avoid having to use the latrine in the middle of the night out of fear of being attacked by another soldier. They would rather be dehydrated in the heat of the day than have to worry about opening themselves up to being attacked. The other problem for them is that some males will feel strongly they are more of a problem and should not be there. Their attitude comes out with what they say within earshot of the female soldier and it penetrates to their core.
There is still no cure for PTSD but there are keys to helping them heal. If practitioners think of their own human emotions and how they would react, they will get a lot further in helping the veteran heal.
The practice of medicating the veterans of combat is dangerous because the core of the wound is not treated, which are the human/emotional reactions to what they went through. Medication will change only the chemicals in the brain but not the way they remember. Medications calming the nerves will have to be increased as PTSD tries to regain control. Medications to sleep will end up having to be increased because PTSD is allowed to grow stronger. Without addressing the cause of the wound, it will fester like an untreated infection. All parts of "them" need to be treated at the same time. The mind, with medications, the body with re-learning how to relax the muscles and nerves and the soul with learning how to trust themselves and others again.
The best people to treat combat veterans are other veterans or at least, survivors of trauma. It has to be from a true understanding of how humans react to all of it. Reading about it in books and talking to a few veterans will not do much good if there is no personal experience behind it.
When veterans finally find what begins their "journey" home, they stumble and fall as their families encounter enlistment into the result of combat, unprepared and without understanding. Families must be included in healing the veteran. Depending on how they adjust how they react to them they can either aid the healing or hinder it. If they understand where it is all coming from, they are more able to react instead of over-react the wrong way. Waking up a veteran while in a nightmare the wrong way has resulted in a spouse being attacked for doing it simply because they do not understand that while the veteran may be sleeping right there, their mind is in a danger zone back in combat. They will lash out against the enemy only to find their wife is holding her nose or her eye without a clue about what they just did to her.
What families understand can also help them heal from living with a PTSD veteran. They will understand it is not their fault any more than it is the fault of the veteran. They will stop trying to find blame instead of gaining a deeper understanding.
Veterans can make peace with what they had to do. They can heal this wound with the proper help and the right tools to get the job done but as long as the military misunderstands what PTSD is, they will not be able to provide them with the help needed. They can try to avoid addressing the compassion in the soldiers but it is their compassion that opened the door to PTSD just as much as it was strong enough to feed their courage. It should be acknowledged and respected. As soon as it is, they will be able to treat and retain a trained soldier with courage and compassion still motivating them to serve where they are needed and ready to do whatever it takes to get it done. Medicating them allows only anger to come out as everything else is turned inward. PTSD gains more territory and they lose a fully engaged soldier ready for the next battle.
Everyone that comes into the life of a PTSD veteran can either contribute to the healing or harming. What we understand about them and about trauma determines what they will see within themselves and the keys to healing are all there. They just need help finding the keys to unlock it.
What I Did For Love
Kiss today goodbye,
The sweetness and the sorrow.
Wish me luck, the same to you,
But I can't regret
What I did for love, what I did for love.
Look, my eyes are dry.
The gift was ours to borrow.
It's as if we always knew,
And I won't forget what I did for love,
What I did for love.
Gone,
Love is never gone.
As we travel on,
Love's what we'll remember.
Kiss today goodbye,
And point me t'ward tomorrow.
We did what we had to do.
Won't forget, can't regret
What I did for love.
Marines thinking Bibles and bullets shouldn't blend
There is something beyond just having these Bible verses on the sites, as if that was not bad enough, but to think they are on the sites at all is very perplexing. Are they supposed to be looking at the verses or the enemy? What was the manufacturer thinking and what was the military thinking when they let this happen? Didn't they inspect the weapons?
It was pointed out yesterday that should a serviceman or woman become captured and they see the Biblical verses on the sites, they will be treated a lot worse for this and it very well could inspire more hatred toward the troops in Muslim nations. If Trijicon wanted to support the troops with Bible verses then they should have handed out prayer cards with them on it instead of putting them on the sites of weapons.
The other factor is, the American people are paying for the weapons, thus paying for the verses to be on the sites and we should be asking exactly how much money we were billed for to cover Trijicon doing this. It's an easy guess that it would be a lot cheaper for them to not do this.
It was pointed out yesterday that should a serviceman or woman become captured and they see the Biblical verses on the sites, they will be treated a lot worse for this and it very well could inspire more hatred toward the troops in Muslim nations. If Trijicon wanted to support the troops with Bible verses then they should have handed out prayer cards with them on it instead of putting them on the sites of weapons.
The other factor is, the American people are paying for the weapons, thus paying for the verses to be on the sites and we should be asking exactly how much money we were billed for to cover Trijicon doing this. It's an easy guess that it would be a lot cheaper for them to not do this.
Marine Corps considers ending contract with Trijicon
New York Daily News
The Marine Corps is reconsidering its contract with a Michigan company that has engraved hundreds of thousands of rifle sights with Bible inscriptions, a spokeswoman said Tuesday.
"We are aware of the issue and are concerned with how this may be perceived," USMC spokeswoman Capt. Geraldine Carey told ABC News. "We will meet with the vendor to discuss future sight procurements."
Trijicon, based in Wixom, Mich., has been making the rifle scopes for the Marines since 2005 - and carving references to Bible passages next to the scope's serial number.
U.S. military rules prohibit any service member from proselytizing while serving in Iraq or Afghanistan, which are primarily Muslim nations.
click link for more
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Reporters Become Part of the Story in Haiti
Reporters Become Part of the Story in Haiti
Updated: 1 hour 29 minutes ago
Steve Pendlebury
Editor
(Jan. 19) -- As a rule, journalists try to avoid getting personally involved in the stories they cover. But in the midst of such a monumental tragedy as the Haiti earthquake, professional detachment is sometimes put aside -- especially when the reporter is also a physician.
Case in point: CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta, who's spent a week treating quake victims in between filing compelling reports about the medical catastrophe in Haiti. Gupta -- a neurosurgeon who turned down President Barack Obama's offer to become surgeon general -- has played this dual role before, in 2004 after the tsunami in Southeast Asia and the next year after the earthquake in Pakistan. While reporting on a team of Navy doctors in 2003, he was called on to perform emergency brain surgery on a wounded boy in Iraq. A few days ago, the Navy paged Dr. Gupta again. He went to the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson to operate on a Haitian girl who suffered a severe head injury in the quake.
read more here
Reporters Become Part of the Story in Haiti
Gunsights' biblical references concern US and UK forces
Gunsights' biblical references concern US and UK forces
Coded references to Biblical passages are inscribed on gunsights widely used by the US and British military in Iraq and Afghanistan, it has emerged.
The markings include "2COR4:6" and "JN8:12", relating to verses in the books of Corinthians II and John.
Trijicon, the US-based manufacturer, was founded by a devout Christian, and says it runs to "Biblical standards".
But military officials in the US and UK have expressed concern over the way the markings will be perceived.
The company has added the references to its sights for many years, but the issue surfaced only recently when soldiers complained to an advocacy group.
Raised lettering
Versions of Trijicon's Advanced Combat Optical Gunsight (Acog) are used by the US Special Operations Forces, the US Marine Corps and the US Army.
US soldier, quoted by Military Religious Freedom Foundation
Britain's Ministry of Defence has just ordered 480 Acog sights for use on its new Sharpshooter rifles - to be used by troops in Afghanistan. Other versions of the Acog sight are "widely in service", the ministry says.
The inscriptions are subtle and appear in raised lettering at the end of the stock number.
John 8:12 reads: "When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, 'I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."
The nod to part of the second letter of Paul to the Corinthians, found on the company's Reflex sight, references the text: "For God, who said, 'Let light shine out of darkness,' made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ."
read more here
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8468981.stm
Coded references to Biblical passages are inscribed on gunsights widely used by the US and British military in Iraq and Afghanistan, it has emerged.
The markings include "2COR4:6" and "JN8:12", relating to verses in the books of Corinthians II and John.
Trijicon, the US-based manufacturer, was founded by a devout Christian, and says it runs to "Biblical standards".
But military officials in the US and UK have expressed concern over the way the markings will be perceived.
The company has added the references to its sights for many years, but the issue surfaced only recently when soldiers complained to an advocacy group.
Raised lettering
Versions of Trijicon's Advanced Combat Optical Gunsight (Acog) are used by the US Special Operations Forces, the US Marine Corps and the US Army.
US soldier, quoted by Military Religious Freedom Foundation
Britain's Ministry of Defence has just ordered 480 Acog sights for use on its new Sharpshooter rifles - to be used by troops in Afghanistan. Other versions of the Acog sight are "widely in service", the ministry says.
The inscriptions are subtle and appear in raised lettering at the end of the stock number.
John 8:12 reads: "When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, 'I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."
The nod to part of the second letter of Paul to the Corinthians, found on the company's Reflex sight, references the text: "For God, who said, 'Let light shine out of darkness,' made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ."
On 14 January, the MRFF received an e-mail, purportedly from a Muslim US Army infantryman, complaining about the markings.
"Many soldiers know of them and are very confused as to why they are there and what it is supposed to mean."
The email adds: "Everyone is worried that if they were captured in combat that the enemy would use the Bible quotes against them in captivity or some other form of propaganda."
read more here
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8468981.stm
Florida veterans look for help
Notice how Democrats and Republicans can step up to try to make sure our veterans are taken care of? So how is it that the rest of us cannot put aside political differences and do the same? Florida had almost 2 million veterans! Brevard County, where they have been a lot more active doing things for veterans than Seminole and Orange County, had 77,169 veterans. We don't know how many veterans we have right now since the census was from 2008. It would be great to finally really take care of our veterans and step up.
Florida veterans look for help
Advocacy groups meet with congressional committee Wednesday
By Bart Jansen • Tallahassee Washington Bureau • January 19, 2010
WASHINGTON — Florida veterans are urging Congress to shorten the backlog for disability claims and to eliminate an overlap in survivors' benefits.
Veterans are also wary of cuts in Medicare for the elderly and disabled that could ripple through the military health-care system called TRICARE for troops, their dependents and retirees.
These are among the top concerns that advocacy groups will raise Wednesday at a roundtable with the House Veterans' Affairs Committee. Florida is second only to California as a home for veterans, with 1.9 million, according to the U.S. Census. Brevard County has 77,169 veterans, Lee County 66,081, Escambia 38,510 and Leon 20,561, according to 2008 Census figures.
Rep. Jeff Miller, a Chumuckla Republican and committee member, recently met with Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki about the backlog that is surging with the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
"The disability-claims backlog has become a deteriorating issue for the Department of Veterans Affairs and is in need of much improvement," Miller said.
The department's spending bill that Congress approved in December included $1.7 billion to hire 1,200 new claims processors, in an effort to reduce a backlog with nearly 397,000 claims pending, according to the group Disabled American Veterans.Reps. Suzanne Kosmas, D-New Smyrna Beach, and Bill Posey, R-Rockledge, helped secure funding last year for a new VA Medical Center in Orlando. But lawmakers noted the need to do more to speed processing of disability claims and improve survivor benefits.
"I will continue working to protect and improve the benefits for our veterans who have so bravely sacrificed in service to their country," Kosmas said.read more here
Seeking donations for Haiti but forgetting about veterans?
Americans are certainly generous people when other people are suffering. They prove it all the time. They proved it in 2001 when the Twin Towers fell. Donations poured in. Celebrities lined up to make sure people paid attention and donated what they could to help. Other people from around the world donated to help the American people. The donations poured in again after Katrina. We donated after the tsunami hit Indonesia. Whenever a massive disaster strikes, the American people have been there with aid, funds and prayers, no matter where the disaster hit in the world. People from other nations did the same proving at the end of the day when we see the images of other people suffering, we all acknowledge we are all just humans living on this planet.
People have been lining up, jamming phone lines and hitting websites to donate to the Haitian people after the massive earthquake. Again celebrities stepped up to keep focus on the need.
All of this is wonderful but it seems there is always one more tragedy to report on, one more salacious gossip story or political story for the media to focus on instead of our troops and our veterans. We have had a solid week of reporting about the earthquake. There are a lot of people suffering in Haiti and we should help but we need to be asking about why the media does not report on veterans going homeless sleeping in the streets or in the few beds available at shelters for them. What about the homeless people in general?
Brenden Foster's dying wish to feed the homeless at age 11 managed to put the spotlight on homeless people. The media paid attention and donations came in from around the world to help but by the time he passed away in his Mom's arms, the media lost interest.
If an 11 year old boy facing the end of his short life can think of the homeless instead of himself, then why can adults do the same? We can't remember the homeless all year round and spend even less time thinking about veterans being homeless.
We have a habit of thinking of the homeless twice a year and that's just about it. The local media stations will report on Thanksgiving and Christmas as volunteers show up, giving up their own celebrations to help the less fortunate but they fail to report on them the other 363 days a year unless one of them is arrested or murdered. When it comes to the suffering right here in our own back yards, we pretty much ignore them. Wonder what would have happened in this country if the homeless people received as much attention over the years as the people in other nations?
What is reported on even less is the other group of homeless we have. The American Veterans! Over the years they not only showed up to fight the battles this country decides are necessary, they show up to respond to the needs on humanitarian missions. We have troops in Haiti right now and even more on their way, most of them are already battle scared back from Iraq and Afghanistan, yet still stepping up to help. When we look at the history of military reaction to disasters, these men and women come home to find very little humanitarian relief for themselves.
Few of us know many military and National Guards families have to rely on food stamps. Few of us know that National Guard families suffer great financial loss when they have to leave their jobs to deploy for a year risking their lives just as the regular military men and women do but have to pay mortgages, rent and other expenses they budgeted for with paychecks from regular jobs. Yet they set their own needs aside and do what is asked of them. Doesn't seem very far when they come home wounded with battle scars of mind and body no one seems willing to rush to help them.
Yesterday I had a conversation with Tric Ortiz of Sisters of Service. She is starting a female homeless veterans shelter. We talked about the fact the media pays so much attention to the suffering in other nations but the burden this nation places on our troops and veterans is too often ignored. It is heartbreaking for us because we are aware of what is going on, but the majority of the American people simply don't have a clue.
National media, especially the 24-7 cable news stations, send in their top reporters to cover the devastation and human suffering. How could the American people avoid any of it or forget about it? It is on their TV set every time it's turned on. Had the media been so interested in what is happening to our veterans or our troops, there is no way possible the American people would allow any of it to happen to them, but if they don't know, they cannot respond with the same empathy they did with the disaster in Haiti or any other disaster they have responded to.
CNN has a list of charities seeking donations for Haiti. Looking over the list most of these charities have some type of program for veterans, but we never seem to see the pleas for help for their sake. CNN has reported on some of what is going on in Iraq and Afghanistan but if you look at how many years we're talking about, very little reporting has been done yet Haiti has dominated the reporting done for a week. The same happened after Katrina. When you think about how many people we're talking about, the number of veterans waiting for relief is much higher than any other disaster reported on.
Paul Sullivan of Veterans for Common Sense managed to shine the light on what they are going through on CBS recently.
Really should get us to wonder about the suffering of so many with very few paying attention at the same time we have so many paying attention to what is happening in Haiti. Don't get me wrong. I believe we should help as much as we can but I also believe we have the capacity to care about the men and women we asked so much out of.
Is it because we can understand the suffering of regular humans so easily and have a harder time understanding the suffering of men and women willing to risk their lives? Do they suddenly stop being human, with human needs just because they put on a uniform?
We responded with millions of dollars for Haiti but end up ignoring our own veterans. What if we all paid attention when this was reported with as much care?
What if we had been paying attention all along?
There are over 8,000 posts on this blog going back two years. These reports are not new but the reporting on them has been so lax it is a tough hunt to find out what is going on across the nation and getting harder every year.
The American people have no limits to their generosity. We prove it all the time. We show we do care about the men and women serving this nation, at least to the point where we are aware of them when they deploy and when they return. We send our thoughts and prayers with them but unless there is something catastrophic happening in Iraq or Afghanistan, there is very little we actually hear about. We hear even less when they become veterans in need of attention.
We can do better. We have to do better or they will look at us and wonder what is wrong with them that we care so much to mobilize for the sake of strangers in another nation when they are forgotten about in the process. We ask more and more of them but their sacrifices, their burdens are all too easy to forget about because the media does not remind us. When you watch reports on Haiti, think of the hours spent on it and then wonder why there is so little reporting on what is happening right here, right now and to the men and women we count on 24-7 365 days a year then ignore when they need us.
People have been lining up, jamming phone lines and hitting websites to donate to the Haitian people after the massive earthquake. Again celebrities stepped up to keep focus on the need.
Celebrity telethon to raise money for Haiti efforts
By David Daniel, CNN
January 15, 2010 1:58 p.m. EST
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Fundraising program to be telecast on numerous networks on Friday, January 22
All proceeds will be split among five relief organizations
Other celebrities have already launched efforts to aid quake-ravaged Haiti
(CNN) -- In the wake of the earthquake in Haiti, George Clooney and other celebrities have signed on for a telethon to aid the devastated island nation.
The Oscar-winning actor will take part in a fundraising program to air commercial-free across several networks, MTV announced.
"Hope for Haiti" will air on ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, CNN, BET, The CW, HBO, MTV, VH1 and CMT starting at 8 p.m. ET/PT and 7 p.m. CT on Friday, January 22.
MTV said Clooney will serve as a host in Los Angeles, while musician Wyclef Jean will be in New York, and CNN's Anderson Cooper will appear from Haiti.
read more here
Celebrity telethon to raise money for Haiti efforts
All of this is wonderful but it seems there is always one more tragedy to report on, one more salacious gossip story or political story for the media to focus on instead of our troops and our veterans. We have had a solid week of reporting about the earthquake. There are a lot of people suffering in Haiti and we should help but we need to be asking about why the media does not report on veterans going homeless sleeping in the streets or in the few beds available at shelters for them. What about the homeless people in general?
Brenden Foster's dying wish to feed the homeless at age 11 managed to put the spotlight on homeless people. The media paid attention and donations came in from around the world to help but by the time he passed away in his Mom's arms, the media lost interest.
Sunday, November 9, 2008
11 year old Brenden Foster's dying wish, feed the homeless
If an 11 year old boy facing the end of his short life can think of the homeless instead of himself, then why can adults do the same? We can't remember the homeless all year round and spend even less time thinking about veterans being homeless.
We have a habit of thinking of the homeless twice a year and that's just about it. The local media stations will report on Thanksgiving and Christmas as volunteers show up, giving up their own celebrations to help the less fortunate but they fail to report on them the other 363 days a year unless one of them is arrested or murdered. When it comes to the suffering right here in our own back yards, we pretty much ignore them. Wonder what would have happened in this country if the homeless people received as much attention over the years as the people in other nations?
What is reported on even less is the other group of homeless we have. The American Veterans! Over the years they not only showed up to fight the battles this country decides are necessary, they show up to respond to the needs on humanitarian missions. We have troops in Haiti right now and even more on their way, most of them are already battle scared back from Iraq and Afghanistan, yet still stepping up to help. When we look at the history of military reaction to disasters, these men and women come home to find very little humanitarian relief for themselves.
Few of us know many military and National Guards families have to rely on food stamps. Few of us know that National Guard families suffer great financial loss when they have to leave their jobs to deploy for a year risking their lives just as the regular military men and women do but have to pay mortgages, rent and other expenses they budgeted for with paychecks from regular jobs. Yet they set their own needs aside and do what is asked of them. Doesn't seem very far when they come home wounded with battle scars of mind and body no one seems willing to rush to help them.
Yesterday I had a conversation with Tric Ortiz of Sisters of Service. She is starting a female homeless veterans shelter. We talked about the fact the media pays so much attention to the suffering in other nations but the burden this nation places on our troops and veterans is too often ignored. It is heartbreaking for us because we are aware of what is going on, but the majority of the American people simply don't have a clue.
National media, especially the 24-7 cable news stations, send in their top reporters to cover the devastation and human suffering. How could the American people avoid any of it or forget about it? It is on their TV set every time it's turned on. Had the media been so interested in what is happening to our veterans or our troops, there is no way possible the American people would allow any of it to happen to them, but if they don't know, they cannot respond with the same empathy they did with the disaster in Haiti or any other disaster they have responded to.
CNN has a list of charities seeking donations for Haiti. Looking over the list most of these charities have some type of program for veterans, but we never seem to see the pleas for help for their sake. CNN has reported on some of what is going on in Iraq and Afghanistan but if you look at how many years we're talking about, very little reporting has been done yet Haiti has dominated the reporting done for a week. The same happened after Katrina. When you think about how many people we're talking about, the number of veterans waiting for relief is much higher than any other disaster reported on.
Paul Sullivan of Veterans for Common Sense managed to shine the light on what they are going through on CBS recently.
Sunday, January 3, 2010
CBS 60 Minutes lets what veterans face into public mind
Really should get us to wonder about the suffering of so many with very few paying attention at the same time we have so many paying attention to what is happening in Haiti. Don't get me wrong. I believe we should help as much as we can but I also believe we have the capacity to care about the men and women we asked so much out of.
Is it because we can understand the suffering of regular humans so easily and have a harder time understanding the suffering of men and women willing to risk their lives? Do they suddenly stop being human, with human needs just because they put on a uniform?
We responded with millions of dollars for Haiti but end up ignoring our own veterans. What if we all paid attention when this was reported with as much care?
What if we had been paying attention all along?
Thursday, December 10, 2009
VA budget still not enough, group warns
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
For soldiers, stress after war may be the biggest enemy
For soldiers, stress after war may be the biggest enemy
by Karen Leigh
June 02, 2009
Insurgents are stealthy fighters, their attacks unexpected, startling and violent.Combined with the stress of longer deployments, loneliness and brutal desert conditions, they are the perfect trigger for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.Soldiers now returning from Iraq and Afghanistan are experiencing the highest levels of PTSD since the Vietnam War.
Some just have trouble sleeping. Some find themselves emotionally numb or easily startled.In the most extreme cases, soldiers have killed themselves – and fellow soldiers.The nonprofit aid organization Veterans for Common Sense said that as of December 15, 2008, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, or VA, had diagnosed 115,000 Iraq and Afghanistan vets with PTSD.“These are staggering numbers,” said VCS executive director Paul Sullivan. “We can either admit that there’s a very serious problem and begin treatment, or we can ignore the problem and wait until the PTSD turns into unemployment, drug use, and suicide – very expensive social problems.”
There are over 8,000 posts on this blog going back two years. These reports are not new but the reporting on them has been so lax it is a tough hunt to find out what is going on across the nation and getting harder every year.
The American people have no limits to their generosity. We prove it all the time. We show we do care about the men and women serving this nation, at least to the point where we are aware of them when they deploy and when they return. We send our thoughts and prayers with them but unless there is something catastrophic happening in Iraq or Afghanistan, there is very little we actually hear about. We hear even less when they become veterans in need of attention.
We can do better. We have to do better or they will look at us and wonder what is wrong with them that we care so much to mobilize for the sake of strangers in another nation when they are forgotten about in the process. We ask more and more of them but their sacrifices, their burdens are all too easy to forget about because the media does not remind us. When you watch reports on Haiti, think of the hours spent on it and then wonder why there is so little reporting on what is happening right here, right now and to the men and women we count on 24-7 365 days a year then ignore when they need us.
South Florida woman is pulled from a collapsed supermarket in Haiti
Added On January 18, 2010
A South Florida woman is pulled from a collapsed supermarket in Haiti, after five days beneath the rubble. WFOR reports
A South Florida woman is pulled from a collapsed supermarket in Haiti, after five days beneath the rubble. WFOR reports
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)