Marine Memorial Both Somber and Sobering

Marine Memorial Both Somber and Sobering

By Christopher Brown Digital Journalist
Published: April 30, 2010
CAMP LEJEUNE, NC—A bell of remembrance tolls for the 90 Marines who lost their lives fighting for our country. “Honoring our fallen comrades today, “said General Larry Nicholson, “we honored the 90 marines and sailors that we lost in Afghanistan last year.
As they read aloud the ninety names, one by one, their battlefield memorials stead fast
Tears were shed for loved ones who paid the ultimate price.

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Marine Memorial Both Somber and Sobering

Please Stop Saying Post Traumatic Stress Is Incurable

As far as I know, experts have not found a "cure" for PTSD yet but that shouldn't stop more research being done. Some pretty amazing treatments have come out over the last few years while scientists search for a "cure" or a way to prevent it. What cannot be dismissed is there are treatments for it and no one has to just deal with it as it is.

Even with the length of time between Vietnam veterans coming back and finally getting help, it was not hopeless. Some of what PTSD claimed from these veterans was reversed and for what they could not be "cured" of, they learned how to minimize the symptoms. With the newer veterans they have more hope of healing than every before because of the increased awareness and availability of treatments. They won't have to have life piled onto combat traumas feeding PTSD.

For Vietnam veterans being treated for PTSD, they are overcoming the odds. These survivors end up healing, learning to cope with what cannot be healed or reversed, then they turn around, rise about all of it, fighting for someone else to heal as well. While some veterans say they just want to be like they were before, what many discover is that they end up better than they were before because they not only survived the trauma, they survived the enemy inside of them.

Note to Colleagues: Please Stop Saying Post Traumatic Stress Is Incurable

Belleruth Naparstek
Psychotherapist, Author, Guided Imagery Innovator
Posted: May 1, 2010 07:00 AM

A recent AP article by Sharon Cohen described posttraumatic stress as something you just have to learn to live with, because you can't recover from it. [Revolving Door of Multiple Tours Linked to PTSD] . It's a terrific article, but Cohen was misled by the mental health professionals she talked to, as well as the warriors who received less than optimal treatment.

You can recover from posttraumatic stress. Certainly, you can significantly reduce - not just manage - its symptoms. But - and here's the thing - not with traditional treatment. The problem is, a lot of my colleagues don't know this yet. So they go about it in traditional ways and pronounce the condition incurable, based on the results they get.

This is changing, but not fast enough - especially given the numbers of traumatized soldiers returning home these days. And the incidence we're seeing is just the tip of the iceberg - traumatic stress can gestate deep inside the body for a long time, rearing its nasty head years later.

This phenomenon of well-meaning but ignorant mental health professionals was even more obvious a decade ago, around Ground Zero after 9/11. (I speak of this with humility, having been an ignorant but well-meaning psychotherapist myself.) The neighborhood was overrun by eager volunteers, trying to help shell-shocked survivors and traumatized recovery workers. Not only were most not helped, but many were further agitated, distressed or angered by these incursions.

Asking numb, severely traumatized people to share their feelings or describe the horrific events that triggered their distress is what therapists typically do. Yet with this population, it yields either a blank, thousand yard stare or catalyzes a re-experiencing reaction or flashback.
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Old news about women at war never dies

I finally have some time today to collect pictures for a new video I'm working on. While searching I came across some really great stories on our "sisters" in the military. Feeling very nostalgic, thinking about my friend Capt. "Irish" Bresnahan, who passed away March 2009 and missing her deeply, it seemed like a good time to work on another video for female veterans. That's why you're seeing some older stories all of a sudden on this blog today.

The stories may be old to us, but the truth is, for them, for the men and women going into combat, the stories never get old and more often than not, are never told enough.

Irish didn't stop fighting for this country. She never stopped fighting for women veterans as well as male veterans, but her heart knew the additional burden women carried after war. Irish was wounded by PTSD and Agent Orange. To her, anyone fighting for their claim to be approved or trying to be taken care of, was personal to her because she knew it first hand. Irish never saw justice for herself.

In March she was in Washington for another hearing on her claim. No stranger to Washington since she had testified about the burdens veterans carry trying to open up the eyes and hearts of congress, this was nothing new for her. She was excited to have some time to go to see the monuments this time, but her health had her pretty weak. While there, she became very ill and passed away in the hospital far from New Hampshire where she lived, but she passed away where she loved and dedicated her life to.

She would call me all the time and I can still hear her laugh and I know the female veterans in this country have a real angel watching over them.

Here's a couple of videos on female veterans.

The Voice, Women at War

Posted to Great Americans by NamGuardianAngel on September 10, 2009

Click to Play View Details

Women at War, Sisters After War

Posted to Great Americans by NamGuardianAngel on September 10, 2009

Click to Play View Details

Women at War, Hardest Times

Posted to Great Americans by NamGuardianAngel on September 10, 2009

Click to Play View Details

Women At War

Posted to Great Americans by SM on January 15, 2009

Click to Play View Details

Women at War

Posted to Great Americans by NamGuardianAngel on September 10, 2009

Click to Play View Details

Think of it this way. Old news never really dies even though they do. I miss you Irish!

Female Corpsman Team Trauma Nurse

Photo by Cpl. Zachary J. Nola
Navy Lt. Amy Zaycek, the severe trauma platoon nurse with the Female Corpsman Team holds an Afghan child during a recent patrol in the area of Now Zad, Afghanistan. The FCT recently returned to Now Zad, Jan. 3, to assist members of the Female Engagement Team, Marine Expeditionary Brigade-Afghanistan, with their effort to further the process of treating, educating and engaging the women of Now Zad. Zaycek is a native of Wall, N.J.

Marines use more bandages, less bullets to counter insurgency
Published: Friday, January 8, 2010 2:41 PM CST
Cpl. Zachary J. Nola

Regimental Combat Team 7

HELMAND PROVINCE, Afghanistan - Recently during Operation Cobra’s Anger, a multi-day operation led by Company L, 3rd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment, to rid the Now Zad area of Taliban control, members of the company's severe trauma platoon extended an invitation to members of the battalion’s civil affairs group to take cover from the rain in their mobile severe trauma bay.

Within the security and warmth of the STB, the members of the two parties began talking about the day’s events.

“We started talking about stuff on the battle front,” said Cmdr. Tom Craig, the officer in charge of the emergency medical facility, Severe Trauma Platoon 3. “What CAG said was that there were a lot of females who needed to voice complaints and that if we could get a female in the battle zone to talk to these people, we could probably help a lot of folks.”
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Marines use more bandages

There’s no such thing as a female Marine

A Marine by any other name ...

Tampa Military Headlines Examiner
M Jessie Barczak

"There’s no such thing as a female Marine” said Lance Cpl. Jordan Herald of Chenoa, Ill. “We do the same things, so there’s no reason to classify us any different.” Cpl. Herald was reacting to the publishing of a photograph of four women Marines at an Afghanistan patrol base, resting with their guns and helmets propped up against the dugout. Two of the Marines were snacking and one was tending to her bare left foot.

The four Marines appeared in a photo snapped by David Furst of Getty Images, in The New York Times’ front page above the fold. The fact that the caption made no mention of the Marines’ gender bothered Lory Manning, a retired Navy captain. “Isn’t it amazing? It’s just four Marines in a dugout. And nobody’s pointing out that it’s four female Marines,” said Manning in the St. Petersburg Times. Manning is the Director of the Women in the Military Project at the Women’s Research and Education Institute in Washington, D.C.
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A Marine by any other name-

Life as an American Female Soldier

What does the rest of America know about the war? Not much. These days, even I barely follow the news from Iraq. The headlines are always negative: "Thirty-seven soldiers killed today." And you're like, "I hope it isn't another one of my friends."

CAPTAIN JENNIFER ERRINGTON, 30 COLUMBIA, MD

I spent nearly a year in Iraq. How do you go back to normal life after something like that? You can't just turn it on and off. Home looks the same, but I'm not. I'm harsher; I'll get in these moods where I go from happy-go-lucky to "get away from me." I have nightmares. I can't stand it when a balloon pops. I'm less trusting.

My husband works part-time at Wal-Mart, and I'm not working at all. After everything I've been through, I can't concentrate. I was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder last fall. I'm not looking to the future anymore. I look at every day and how I'm going to get through it.

SPECIALIST ASHLEY PULLEN, 23 EDMONTON, KY

Life as an American Female Soldier
Hair falling out, periods on hold, and peeing in a cup: for female soldiers, life on the front lines involves stuff men never have to think about.
By Tara McKelvey

SERGEANT STEPHANIE JAMES, 23
URBANA, IL

"THERE WERE SO MANY THINGS I COULDN'T CONTROL. LOSING CLUMPS OF HAIR WAS JUST ONE MORE THING."

I signed up for the army in June 2001, when I was 17. They were offering to pay for some of my college education. I wasn't concerned about the possibility of going to war; I just kept thinking, This is going to be cool.

Two years later, I was a sophomore at the University of Illinois in Urbana, and I got a phone call from my platoon sergeant, who said, "Your unit has been put on alert." That evening, I went to see The Vagina Monologues at a local theater with friends from my dorm. I didn't say anything about the phone call. On November 11, Veterans Day, I was told I was being deployed. I quit my part-time job at David's Bridal shop and boxed up the clothes in my dorm.

In February, I went to a base in Kuwait, where you had to wait in long lines no matter where you were: in the mess hall, bathroom, shower. You were never alone. At night, I put on headphones and played Norah Jones to block it all out.

One of the most important things I brought from home was a photograph of me and my mom. I'm 1 or 2 years old in the picture, and I'm wearing overalls and a red shirt. My mom is holding me, and she's wearing a beaded necklace. When I was feeling homesick, I'd look at the picture. I also had a bright-orange University of Illinois T-shirt that I slept in at night. As soon as I got to Kuwait, I regretted not packing my flatiron. My hair gets so frizzy when it's hot outside — and over there, it was always hot. I finally had my mom mail me one.

In the military, they try to make things equal. Mainly, that means women are supposed to look like men. You can't wear earrings. Makeup can't be excessive. I didn't wear any, but I always carried ChapStick. Once, a friend sent me nail polish. She wrote, "There probably aren't many times you can feel like a girl. If you have some downtime, have a pedicure party." During off-hours, we watched TV. I got everyone hooked on Sex and the City.

I met another soldier, Sergeant [Ivory L.] Phipps from Chicago. He was in his 40s and had been in Desert Storm. He always had the Bible with him, reading Psalms. I felt calm when he was around.

On the evening of March 16, 2004, I arrived at a base near Baghdad. The next day, my friends and I were standing next to the laundry building at lunchtime. We had only been in Iraq about 18 hours. I saw Sergeant Phipps nearby. Then I heard the explosion. When a mortar goes off, first you hear a thunk and a second later — boom. It's basically just a shell filled with pieces of metal and random stuff. The shrapnel blows up and out, so you have to get down out of trajectory range.

Our squad leader yelled, "Get down!" and he grabbed me. I blacked out. Next thing I remember, I was sitting in the bunker. My heart was beating so fast. I could hear people outside yelling for help.

Afterward, I saw my squad leader carrying Sergeant Phipps's duty cap in his hand. It was covered in blood. I was like, "Oh, my God." Phipps passed on. In my time in Iraq, my squad lost five people.
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Life as an American Female Soldier

Soldiers arrested for beating homeless man

Homeless coalition protests vicious beating
By Jennifer Baker


Sensitivity training toward homeless people for the military. Moving all the homeless into available housing.

Those are just some of the proposals that will be outlined in an 11 a.m. press conference Friday at the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless, 117 E. 12th St.

The development comes after a 52-year-old man was severely beaten April 10 in a homeless encampment in Spring Grove Village.

Cincinnati police say four skinheads – including three active-duty soldiers in the U.S. Army – targeted Johnson because he is homeless. The four men had been out drinking in Northside bars before they went out in search of someone to beat up.

So far, three of the suspects – two soldiers and one resident of Norwood who is not in the military – have been arrested and taken into custody. The fourth, a soldier from Fort Bragg, North Carolina, remains at large.
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Homeless coalition protests vicious beating+

Victim’s family: No anger at soldier from Jacksonville

Victim’s family: No anger at soldier from Jacksonville
The Atlantic Beach mother of a woman shot in Alaska says she wouldn’t press charges.
By Dana Treen
The picture pulled from the refrigerator door in an Atlantic Beach apartment shows a daddy and baby cheek to cheek in the way thousands of those moments are captured.

"Does he look upset?" Christina Kulik asks, passing the photo of her son-in-law and 8-month-old granddaughter. "Does he look like he's, 'Aw, get the kid away from me?' No."

Thursday, baffled family members of Kip Lynch and his wife Raquell were left with memories like the one caught on camera and confusion over why the 21-year-old soldier would kill his wife and daughter in what police are calling murder and an attempted suicide outside an Alaska Army base.

Kulik said her daughter and Lynch met when they were in high school and even split time living with her or with his family while they were in school. He joined the Army and was on deployment in Afghanistan while she stayed home and finished a medical business course.

She joined him at his Anchorage station when he returned in February.

On Monday police there found Raquell and Kyirsta dead and Kip Lynch gravely wounded in their apartment near Fort Richardson. All had been shot, police said.

Kip Lynch remained in critical condition Thursday and may never be able to answer police questions, said Lt. Dave Parker of the Anchorage Police Department.

An account to help defer the expenses has been set up in Kulik's name at BB&T banks in Jacksonville
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Victim's family: No anger at soldier Florida Times-Union

PTSD on Trial:Marine veteran found guilty of capital murder

PTSD was considered and all the facts were tied together for the justice system to work. While he was convicted we need to remember there was a time when military service and PTSD was not even mentioned. The families must take care of their own shock from all of this as well. PTSD does not just come from being involved in wars, crimes or natural disasters. It comes after trauma itself.

Marine veteran found guilty of capital murder in ex-girlfriend's death
Posted Saturday, May. 01, 2010
By ALEX BRANCH

abranch@star-telegram.com

FORT WORTH -- Jurors deliberated for about three hours Friday evening before convicting Eric Acevedo of capital murder for killing his ex-girlfriend, rejecting the defense argument that Acevedo, a combat veteran of Iraq, suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder and, therefore, did not intend to kill her.

Intent is a crucial factor in a capital murder conviction, and Acevedo's attorneys had hoped to show that he was unable in his mental state to form the intent to break into Mollie Worden's Saginaw town home on March 22, 2008, and stab her repeatedly.

Because the prosecution waived the death penalty, Acevedo, 23, was automatically sentenced to life in prison without parole.

Acevedo, a Marine, served three tours in Iraq.

'You had honor once'

During the final phase of the trial, when relatives of victims are allowed to address the defendant, Fuentes told Acevedo that her family once considered Acevedo their "brave Marine."

She told him that she never believed he didn't realize he was killing Worden.

"In my heart, Eric, I believe you knew what you were doing," she said.

Fuentes urged him to find the goodness that once existed inside him and put it to good use in prison.

After she spoke, Wisch paused, then looked at Acevedo and echoed that sentiment.

"You had honor once," Wisch told him. "You have the rest of your life to try and reclaim it."

Read more: Marine veteran found guilty of capital murder

CNN decides to wait for war reporter to heal

Michael Ware has done some amazing reporting from Iraq and Afghanistan but as the years ticked by, you could see the changes in him. At least CNN had someone there all the time but when they failed to understand the need to heal from being exposed to war for so long, they also failed to show they understood what the troops were going through.

Imagine being a solider with PTSD and hearing CNN didn't want their war reporter to have the time he needed to be treated for PTSD and time to heal. That would have delivered the message that a wound like PTSD was less worthy and Ware should just get back to work.

Ware has been with CNN long enough to understand the way they do things, so it's doubtful he misunderstood them. The question is, what turned CNN around? Was it public pressure? Bloggers were really upset over this. What will they learn from this? Will they finally do some really great reporting on PTSD with one of their own trying to heal? Time will tell.

April 30, 2010, 7:03 pm
CNN Is ‘Standing With’ Stressed-Out War Correspondent
By BRIAN STELTER
Michael Ware has spent so much of the past nine years reporting from war zones for Time magazine and CNN that it’s almost like he’s a citizen of Iraq.

That experience, he says, has left him with post-traumatic stress disorder. In an interview on Thursday, he said that CNN wanted him back in the field before he felt he was ready and, as a result, he was under the impression that he had been released from his contract. “I required further time off than I think CNN was able to give,” he said.

But there may have been a misunderstanding. On Friday CNN said that Mr. Ware is still employed by the network, disputing an unsourced report on a blog that he was no longer working for the network and that the disorder was a reason.

“We will continue to support him during this time,” the cable news network said in a statement. The network said it was “rightly regarded as an industry leader” in dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder, and that it offers support services to past and present employees.

Mr. Ware’s agent, Richard Leibner, said, “They are clearly standing with him now.”
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CNN Is Standing With Stressed-Out War Correspondent