Salem minister takes on military suicides

Will the military ever get it? This isn't about fundamentalist or evangelists out there trying to put butts in the pews. This is about the relationship between faith and healing. While there are many Christians taking different walks with many different denominations, this isn't about one branch of the tree over another. This isn't about one faith over another. This is about addressing the spiritual connections to PTSD. It is caused by an outside force and follows after traumatic events. It hits the emotional part of the brain causing a chain of changes in how the mind works. Since it is an assault against that part of the brain, it only makes sense to address it for what it is and that requires spiritual help above all else. Yes, I said that. Medication is usually needed to alter the chemicals of the brain back to normal levels. Depending on how much time between event and seeking medical care has passed, much of what PTSD does can be reversed with the proper care. That comes with treating the whole person. Mind, body and soul need to be equally treated.

October 9, 2010
Salem minister takes on military suicides
By Tom Dalton
Staff writer

SALEM — The Rev. Laura Biddle, the minister of Tabernacle Church, flew to Washington, D.C., this week to take part in a conference on a silent and often concealed killer within the U.S. military — suicides.

The number of military personnel, many recently returned from Iraq and Afghanistan, who have taken their own lives is nearly epidemic. There were 309 suicides last year and more than 1,100 over the past five years, according to a Defense Department task force.

"It's staggering," Biddle said. "The numbers are staggering. It's staggering because we didn't even know it existed."

Biddle is the spiritual advisor to a suicide outreach and education program run by the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS), a Washington, D.C., nonprofit that assists anyone who has "suffered the loss of a military loved one."

Biddle's first encounter with military suicides occurred five years ago when she was a minister in Newburyport. She served as a spiritual counselor to a member of her congregation, Kim Ruocco of Newbury, whose husband, U.S. Marine Maj. John Ruocco, a decorated helicopter pilot, hanged himself in a hotel room near Camp Pendleton, Calif. He had just returned from Iraq and was preparing for another tour.

read more here
Salem minister takes on military suicides

also

Suicidal soldiers are humiliated by superiors with fatal results, 

military medical experts say

BY RICHARD SISK
DAILY NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU

Friday, October 8th 2010, 4:00 AM

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/2010/10/08/2010-10-08_mocked_to_death_suicidal_soldiers_often_humiliated_by_superiors__with_fatal_resu.html#ixzz11rYcEorN

WASHINGTON - Depressed soldiers who seek help for suicidal thoughts have been publicly mocked by higherups, military medical experts told the Daily News.

The bullying involves "humiliating-type behavior in ranks, formations, where soldiers were singled out and identified as someone who is suicidal, publicly ridiculed, and things along that nature," said Army Maj. Gen. Philip Volpe.

"They call a person out in front of a formation and chew 'em out" in a misguided effort at "tough love," said Bonnie Carroll, a retired Air Force major and head of the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors. "They tell them, 'You dishonored your unit. You're worthless.'"

Volpe, who with Carroll led the Pentagon's suicide-prevention task force, said he has witnessed bullying - and in one case relieved a lieutenant colonel who was verbally abusing a distraught soldier.

As military suicide rates continue to rise as a result of multiple deployments to Afghanistan and Iraq, the Army and the other services have struggled to erase the longstanding stigma of seeking professional help.

Read more: Suicidal soldiers are humiliated by superiors

Here is a video of a Staff Sgt. talking about PTSD, suicide and healing with Point Man Ministries. I want you to know how this ended up on YouTube.

I was invited to speak at the Point Man Ministries Conference in Buffalo. I brought my camera just in case I had the opportunity to film. I filmed the band that was playing when this Staff Sgt. got up to the microphone. I kept filming. After I told him that I had him on tape and asked what he wanted me to do with the tape. I thought he may want to just get a copy of it and that would be the end of it but he told me that he wanted it out there. He knew it would save some lives. I didn't shoot it as a professional. I left my tripod at home. I didn't focus or stabilize the shoot. I just let it roll. When I loaded it, what he said, how he said it and the emotion behind it replaced anything that all the normal routines could have provided.

He talked about how he went home one night with a gun in his hand and sat in his room with the barrel in his mouth. He talked about his wife and her love for him. Above all, he talked about how faith has begun to heal his soul and that he is forgiven for whatever he has done. He was a leader of men in battle and now he leads them in a battle to save their lives from the enemy embedded within their souls.

PART ONE

PART TWO

Some Veterans Fall Through Huge Cracks

The VA is faster than the DOD? This is an example of what is going on. The Army wanted this disabled veteran to redeploy. That screams no one was ready to take care of the wounded before they were sent. He was wounded in 2005 but two years later the Army wanted him to go back!

Some Veterans Fall Through Huge Cracks
One St. Louis veteran, badly injured in 2005, has yet to get benefits.

By PHILIP O'CONNOR
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH

Published: Friday, October 8, 2010 at 6:46 p.m.
Last Modified: Friday, October 8, 2010 at 6:46 p.m.
ST. LOUIS | Army Reserve Spc. Michael Pyatt mounted a machine gun on the turret of his Humvee in August 2005 for another mission into the volatile city of Hillah, Iraq. As he stepped off the bumper, he landed awkwardly, injuring his hip and back, and leaving him crippled.


Back home, he asked for a medical discharge.

In July 2007, his unit tried to deploy him a second time, even though he wore a knee brace and used a cane.

Just months later, the Department of Veterans Affairs declared Pyatt permanently and totally disabled. Yet today, more than five years after he was hurt, the Army still has not declared Pyatt unfit for duty, which would make him eligible for disability retirement pay and medical insurance for his wife and daughter.

Pyatt, 38, struggles to get by. He is deep in debt and must make frequent trips from his home in Bonne Terre for free treatment at VA facilities in St. Louis.

"I've fallen through the cracks," he said. "I've been abandoned."

Pyatt's story is an example of a military disability system that Congress and others contend is woefully unprepared to deal with the hundreds of thousands of troops injured while serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.

read more here
Some Veterans Fall Through Huge Cracks

Wounded Vietnam veteran devoted to others

Wounded veteran devoted to others
Newsmaker
Intelligencer Journal
Lancaster New Era
Oct 08, 2010 21:24 EST


By ENELLY BETANCOURT, Staff Writer

"I'm just a veteran helping veterans get out of the cave I was once in," he said.

For hundreds of thousands of veterans who have not been able to leave the horrors of war on the battlefield, life at home is a nightmarish rollercoaster.

Lewis Alston is a living testament to that. He brought the war home and re-lived it every day, for 15 years.

Alston, 59, fought in the Vietnam War from 1969 to 1971 as a corporal with the 1st Marine Division.

As a reconnaissance scout, he saw combat action and witnessed severe human suffering.

On the battlefield, he was wounded by shrapnel that hit his chest and legs.

Also, he lost his father during that time.

But his biggest wounds were psychological: the rage, the flashbacks, the sleeplessness.

"I had a hard time separating the war from the warrior," Alston said.

Alston returned from his combat service angry, distrustful and suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

"I became a terrible person," he said. "My family wanted nothing to do with me."


Read more:
Wounded veteran devoted to others

UK Soldiers return home hours after soldier killed in Afghanistan

Joy and sadness blended together. This must be very hard on them and their families.

Heroes return home from Afghanistan


Published on Sat Oct 09 11:30:39 BST 2010

It was a bittersweet homecoming for Lancashire’s heroes as they returned home from Afghanistan just hours after one of their colleagues was killed in an explosion.

Around 75 soldiers from the 1st Battalion the Duke of Lancaster’s regiment arrived home at their Catterick, North Yorkshire, base yesterday after a gruelling six month tour, in which time they lost three of their own.

But celebrations were tempered when the news went round the Garrison that a soldier from 2nd Battalion The Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment had died in Afghanistan that very day.

The soldier, attached to 1st Battalion The Royal Gurkha Rifles, serving as part of Combined Force Nahr-e Saraj (South), was killed in an explosion in the Nahr-e Saraj district of Helmand province.

Dozens of families, many from Preston and the surrounding areas, had made the trip to Catterick to show their support for the battle-scarred soldiers.
read more here
Heroes return home from Afghanistan

Cracks in Vietnam Veterans Memorial stump scientists

Cracks in Vietnam Veterans Memorial stump scientists

A team of scientists has been hired to inspect newly discovered vertical cracks in the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in D.C., the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund announced.

Geophysicists Dorothy Richter and Gene Simmons will be at the site today to continue their evaluation and hope to release a report in a few weeks.

It's possible heat is to blame for the cracks, but Richter told The Washington Post the experts "do not know with certainty" what caused them. Most are small, and the Memorial Fund says they're not an immediate threat to the memorial.

In fact, as the Post points out, the wall has a history of cracks that dates back to 1984, just two years after it was opened to the public. Those cracks were horizontal, and in 1986, two of the wall's 144 slabs were taken out and studied.
read more here

Cracks in Vietnam Veterans Memorial stump scientists USA Today

Sgt. Eric Walker, Marine of the Year

Lexington Marine Receives Top Award
WTVQ
WRITTEN BY JACQUELINE SPRAGUE
THURSDAY, 07 OCTOBER 2010 23:44

Sergeant Eric Walker put his life on the line to save an injured fellow Marine. The 30-year-old was honored for those brave actions tonight in the nation's capitol. His parents went with him to Washington DC, the rest of his family back stayed here in Lexington but were still able to watch the ceremony live online. They say now the entire nation can see that he's a hero. Sgt. Walker was named USO Marine of the Year.

SC Vietnam veterans join for a healing mission

When they were serving in Vietnam, some of their buddies died. They did't get much time to grieve. Some of their buddies were wounded and they never saw them again. Because of the Internet, they have been reaching out to try to find the people they served with and in a lot of cases, they find them.  This is one of the ways they find people they have not seen in over 40 years.

U. S. Army Lost and Found Listings

There are newer veterans searching as well as discovering what they have in common with Vietnam veterans.  All of this is finding some kind of healing closure as well as re-connection.  Taking them to Walter Reed is a wonderful idea.  They see the wounded but they also see the care they receive.  They see the strength in the wounded as well as pain they carry offering hope the pain is not unconquerable.

SC Vietnam veterans join for a healing mission
by SUSAN TRAUTSCH on OCTOBER 8, 2010
The South Carolina Combat Veterans Group is taking part in what they consider to be a ”healing mission” over the weekend of October 8. Approximately 100 members of Combat Veterans of the Vietnam War are traveling to Walter Reed Army Hospital in Washington, D.C. to visit patients who have returned from combat in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Commander Tommy Olds, a Vietnam veteran, says this is a trip to help heal both physical and emotional injuries. He says this is an opportunity to close painful gaps of memories that he and his comrades have experienced.

Ninety percent of these guys making this trip were Vietnam veterans. One thing a lot of us went through when we went to Vietnam, we saw the loss of a lot of our comrades on the battle field. A lot of them were injured, or perhaps lost their lives. And it’s real difficult, even after 40 years, it’s difficult to deal with to not to have the closure of being back here in the states when we returned here from Vietnam.
read more here
SC Vietnam veterans join for a healing mission

More women WWII veterans take Honor Air Flight

More women WWII veterans take Honor Air Flight

Written by
Jim Matheny

Wednesday marked the eighth flight in the history of HonorAir Knoxville. The volunteer organization flies veterans of World War II to Washington D.C. for a one-day visit to the national memorial that honors their service and sacrifice.

Among the 142 veterans from East Tennessee on Wednesday's flight, five were women veterans of World War II.

"This may not seem like much, but it is a record number of ladies traveling on one of our flights," said Eddie Mannis, chairman of HonorAir Knoxville.
read more here
More women WWII veterans take Honor Air Flight
WBIR-TV

Navy warship honoring a New York Marine's 2004 sacrifice is headed for South Florida

Memory of Marine reborn in Navy ship


A newly minted Navy warship honoring a New York Marine's 2004 sacrifice is headed for South Florida and 10 days of celebrations capped by a Nov. 13 commissioning ceremony.
BY CAROL ROSENBERG

CROSENBERG@MIAMIHERALD.COM

It was a year into the U.S. invasion of Iraq, and a young Marine manning a checkpoint threw his body on a hand grenade.

Cpl. Jason Dunham saved the lives of two buddies but would die of his wounds days later.
Now, the 22-year-old Marine's sacrifice is being immortalized.

A warship bearing his name sailed from the General Dynamics Bath Iron Works in Maine on Wednesday morning, the start of a nearly monthlong training cruise down the East Coast ahead of a 10-day visit to South Florida.

It's expected to arrive on Nov. 5. And eight days later, the U.S. Navy will commission its newest $1.1 billion destroyer, DDG 109, at Port Everglades. Name: the USS Jason Dunham.


Read more: Memory of Marine reborn in Navy ship

VA already treated 565,000 first-time Iraq and Afghanistan War veteran patients

Do you want to know why you are needed to help our veterans? Do you want to know why you should pay attention to what is happening to them? If you already know these answers, then read what Veterans for Common Sense has been up to. If you don't know the answer, then you haven't been paying attention all along and wouldn't know that had it not been for the President and what this congress has been doing, it would have been a lot worse. Too many people just want to slam President Obama and they attack Democrats in congress, especially down here in Florida but the truth is there for anyone who wants to know the facts. Start with their voting records and know who has voted against veterans especially when most of them want your votes again. If they can't support veterans or the troops then what chance do you as an average citizen have?

VCS Advocacy in Action - VCS Government Relations Advocacy On September 30, after nine years of endless war in Afghanistan and Iraq, Congress held a hearing on "The True Cost of War."  VCS thanks Chairman Bob Filner for holding this vital oversight of VA's long-term needs and obligations. VCS testified with Nobel Prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz and Harvard Professor Linda Bilmes. Because of our VCS research, for the first time, the Associated Press reported the facts. What is the tragic human cost?  VA already treated 565,000 first-time Iraq and Afghanistan War veteran patients, and VCS estimates the total will hit one million by the end of 2014. What is the enormous financial cost?  Pushing toward one trillion dollars for healthcare and benefits for our disabled veterans for the next 40 years.  The total financial cost of the wars to Americans?  Up to $6 trillion, and escalating.  Please read our testimony and watch the official Congressional video clip (click on "Multimedia Link') where VCS speaks at 1 hour, 45 minutes. VCS Public Relations Advocacy VCS was quoted in three major news stories this week: Boston Globe - The Prudential Scandal Grows Austin American-Statesman - Improper Military Discharges Often Block VA Benefits Houston Chronicle - Escalating Military Suicide Epidemic

Love Scammers Use Dead Soldiers to Snare Victims

Love Scammers Use Dead Soldiers to Snare Victims
Michael Brick

(Oct. 6) -- Tired of masquerading as the obscure nephew of some deposed banana republic dictator? What if I told you that you could make a good income, starting today, all from the comfort of your own neighborhood cafe in Lagos, Nigeria -- or wherever? Using the quick, easy, not-patented method of impersonating fallen American soldiers, you too can exploit the trust of lonely women. All you need is an Internet connection!

Yes, it has come to this: Twenty-one years after Elwood Edwards recorded the announcement "You've got mail" and nearly nine years into one of the country's most prolonged overseas military engagements, purveyors of fraud have built a ghoulish trade on the combination of those two seemingly permanent aspects of modern life.

"They look for patriotic women, and they play on their heartstrings," Christopher Grey, a spokesman for the United States Army Criminal Investigation Command, told AOL News.

Using photographs and biographical details culled from Facebook pages, memorial sites and news accounts, the perpetrators pose as living soldiers looking for love online.

In response, the U.S. government has issued warnings, with its embassy in London going so far as to post online examples of fraudulent military papers used in scams.

read more here
Love Scammers Use Dead Soldiers to Snare Victims

Fallen hero receives Medal of Honor from Ovideo FL

Last Memorial Day I heard the story of Staff Sgt. Miller and saw his parents sitting in the front row of the honored guest. Pride and a grief blended together with dignity. I will never forget how they were that day. Many other places want to claim Staff Sgt. Miller as their own but Oviedo was his home after high school and his parents still live there. I just wish that as states want to claim the right to say one of their own "won" the Medal of Honor as if it is some kind of sport, they would also fight over the right to take care of all the wounded and the homeless with as much passion and turn having the highest success rate as their goal so they can honor all the heroes who served from their state. That would really be honoring them!

Fallen hero receives Medal of Honor
By Mark K. Matthews, Orlando Sentinel Washington Bureau
4:55 p.m. EDT, October 6, 2010
WASHINGTON -- Calling his sacrifice the "true meaning of heroism," President Barack Obama on Wednesday presented the Medal of Honor to the Oviedo family of Army Staff Sgt. Robert J. Miller, who died in January 2008 protecting a patrol of American and Afghan soldiers.

"It has been said that courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point," said Obama, addressing a solemn crowd in the East Room of the White House. "For Rob Miller, the testing point came nearly three years ago, deep in a snowy Afghan valley. The courage he displayed that day reflects every virtue that defined his life."

Their son is buried in Central Florida; his family moved to Oviedo soon after Robert Miller graduated from high school in Illinois, where he grew up.

Miller, who died at 24 on his second tour in Afghanistan, is only the third service member from that conflict to receive the Medal of Honor. The Green Beret earned the distinction when his team of eight U.S. Special Forces and about 15 Afghan troops, with Miller on point, was caught in a ferocious ambush by insurgents in northwest Afghanistan.

read more here
Fallen hero receives Medal of Honor

New Program Eases Veterans' Transition to College Life

VA Announces Expansion of VetSuccess on Campus Pilots
New Program Eases Veterans' Transition to College Life

WASHINGTON (Oct. 5, 2010) -- "Two community colleges and three other
four-year colleges and universities are being added to the Department of
Veterans Affairs (VA) VetSuccess on Campus pilot program. VA counselors
are being assigned to assist Veterans attending school under the
Post-9/11 GI Bill make the most of their educational opportunities at
Salt Lake City Community College, the Community College of Rhode Island,
Rhode Island College, Arizona State University and Texas A&M University.

"A growing number of the eight million students in America's community
colleges are Veterans," said Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K.
Shinseki. "VA will do all it can to make Veterans' experiences in our
community colleges and universities fulfilling and productive for them,
their schools and the Nation."

The pilot program is designed to ensure Veterans' health, educational,
and benefits needs are met as they make the transition from active-duty
military service to college life.

The announcement comes as the White House holds the first-ever community
college summit chaired by Dr. Jill Biden, wife of Vice President Joe
Biden and adjunct English professor at Northern Virginia Community
College. The meeting of top school and federal education officials will
focus on ways that community colleges can help meet education and
workforce demands.

"I am thrilled to see the expansion of the VetSuccess program" said Dr.
Biden. "I know the transition from military to student life can be
challenging and we owe it to those who have served our country to make
their transitions as easy and successful as possible."

Under the pilot program already underway at the University of South
Florida, Cleveland State University, and San Diego State University,
experienced VA vocational rehabilitation counselors and outreach
coordinators from VA's Vet Centers are assigned to campuses to provide
vocational testing, career and academic counseling, and readjustment
counseling services to ensure Veterans receive the support and
assistance needed to successfully pursue their educational and
employment goals.

VA counselors work directly with school officials to establish effective
communications channels with Veteran students and coordinate the
delivery of VA benefits and services.

Peer-to-peer counseling and referral services are also available to help
resolve any problems that could potentially interfere with a Veteran's
educational program, including referrals for more intensive health
services through VA Medical Centers, Community-Based Outpatient Clinics,
or Vet Centers, as needed.

For more information on VA benefit programs and VetSuccess, go to
http://www.vba.va.gov or www.vetsuccess.gov
or call 1-800-827-1000.

Thank you Scott Mendelson, M.D.

THIS MAN IS RIGHT ON. Here is just part of what he wrote.

Soldier Suicides And The Dumbing Down Of Military Mental Health Care

Scott Mendelson, M.D.
Author of Beyond Alzheimer's
Posted: October 6, 2010

Unfortunately, the evidence for this type of program being effective is some of the weakest data I have ever seen in my professional life. The evidence is derived almost entirely from a 2006 paper by psychologist Simon Gilbody and associates titled, "Collaborative Care for Depression" (Archives of Internal Medicine 166:2314-2312, 2006). This paper reviewed a series of studies of what is referred to in the "civilian" literature as the Collaborative Care for Depression Model. In this model, nurses are trained in roughly eight weekend training sessions to become "Depression Care Managers" or, in the military's more Pollyannaish term, "Champions." These Champions call regularly, report back to the primary care doctor, and if necessary, inform the primary care doctor that things are not going well and more help is needed. Admittedly, these are all good things. I was, however, astonished to hear at a Veterans Administration conference for the related TIDES program, that these Champions are also expected to advise the doctors as to when and if medication should be adjusted.

Finally, the addition of the new, highly touted, "Resiliency Training" as a method to avert depression, PTSD and suicide completes the recipe for inadequacy, incompetence, and disaster in the treatment of mentally ill soldiers and veterans. The 10 hour course on resiliency is taught by "Master Trainers" who themselves are soldiers who have had 10 days of training to become skilled enough to encourage resiliency and strength, and to prevent suicide in their charges. What are these people thinking?

click the link above and then email this wonderful man for this great piece! We may have been thinking it but he is saying it.  Battlemind and all the other programs they've come up with have produced more suicides, attempted suicides, veterans going to jail and a whole lot of pain that does not need to happen.

Westboro Baptist Church video you have to see

What part of what Christ taught do these people follow? Free speech does not demand that ears are forced to hear or eyes forced to see. The families have to be there to bury their family member, the Phelps do not have to be there to use their free speech rights. What about protecting the free expression of religious practices the families are supposed to be able to do that the Phelps are trying to stop? It is bad enough they are attacking the unselfish men and women who gave up their lives serving this country and the families right along with them but enough is enough. This video shows what they really are or are play acting for the publicity.
Westboro Baptist Church video you have to see

10/5/10: Pastor Fred Phelps and several members of the Westboro Baptist Church discuss their upcoming case before the Supreme Court, in which they'll be arguing for their right to picket at military funerals with the message that soldier deaths are divine punishment for America's tolerance of homosexuality.
Read a Q&A about the case with First Amendment expert Floyd Abrams.
K. Ryan Jones is the director of 'Fall From Grace,' the only feature-length documentary about the Westboro Baptist Church, which is available on DVD.

http://www.newsweek.com/video/2010/10/05/free-speech-fight.html

Mental exam set for Hood shooting suspect

Mental exam set for Hood shooting suspect

By Angela K. Brown - The Associated Press
Posted : Tuesday Oct 5, 2010 16:15:09 EDT

FORT WORTH, Texas — The Army psychiatrist accused in last year's shooting rampage at Fort Hood is to have a mental evaluation before a key hearing to determine whether he will stand trial, a military commander ordered Monday.

Earlier this year Army officials appointed a three-member board of military mental health professionals to determine whether Maj. Nidal Hasan is competent to stand trial. At issue is his mental status during the Nov. 5 shootings, which left 13 dead and dozens wounded on the Texas Army post.

Mental exam set for Hood shooting suspect

When you’re the 'battle buddy' unexpectedly in trouble

Letter from Iraq:
When you’re the 'battle buddy' unexpectedly in trouble
Posted By Thomas E. Ricks Friday, October 1, 2010


Here's a sad comment from Capt. Tim Mills, who is now serving in Iraq.

By Capt. Tim Mills
Best Defense guest columnist

On April 23, I submitted an opinion editorial to the local paper. It ran with a picture of my kids and expressed sincere appreciation to my family for supporting my military service. In that editorial I said, "I don't know the total 'cost' this deployment will have on my family." Unfortunately, the editorial was outdated before it ever went to print.

I arrived at the airport on R&R leave April 29 and struggled to understand the awkwardness and inability to reconnect with my wife. On May 11 I discovered the security of a fourteen-year marriage had been compromised and the life my family had enjoyed seemed headed for destruction.

Boarding an airplane at 5:15 a.m. on May 15 was one of the hardest things I've done. Struggling to breathe and unable to sleep I weathered the endless hours of travel from the U.S. to Iraq. How does a Soldier board an airplane for another six months of deployment fearing his family being torn apart? The same way soldiers going through similar adversity boarded the plane at the beginning of the deployment.

"Take a walk in someone else's shoes. Step out of your own and try to view situations from a different set of shoes," these were my words of challenge to the unit before we deployed. I viewed this as an "elective" not a "core" requirement and didn't know I would involuntarily experience the pain some of them had already endured.

I have joined them. I've struggled to survive the injuries from a different battlefield -- the mind. The wounds my unit has sustained have largely been fought on this hidden battlefield. The fear of losing someone they love or someone who loves them can be consuming. Relationship struggles, newborn complications, back-to-back mobilizations, fearing the loss or losing a family member and fears resulting from deployment experiences have threatened the stability of my unit.
read more here

When you’re the 'battle buddy' unexpectedly in trouble

Visitor to SeaWorld water park in
Florida found dead

From John Couwels, CNN

October 4, 2010

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Unresponsive man was pulled from a pool, pronounced dead at a hospital
Sheriff's Office is investigating the death by interviewing witnesses, victim's family
Autopsy to be performed on 68-year-old man, sheriff says


(CNN) -- A guest at SeaWorld's water park Aquatica in Orlando, Florida, was pulled from a pool and later pronounced dead over the weekend, park officials said.
A lifeguard found a 68-year-old international visitor unresponsive Saturday morning in the park's Roa's Rapids, a SeaWorld spokesman said.
Visitor to SeaWorld water park in Florida found dead

Tucson news focus on military family and veterans in need

Instead of spending time on nonsense, this news station is doing something really important. Once a week on Mondays, they will be reporting on a family in need connected to the military. The fact is, once you are in the military, you are part of the military family for the rest of your life. They are unique among the rest of the population because they were willing to risk their lives for the rest.

A veteran with post traumatic stress disorder can use your help

Posted: Oct 4, 2010 4:51 PM 

TUCSON - Every Monday, through the holidays, we'll be showing you a local military family in need.

This week, a retired U.S Marine is back from Afghanistan.

Tony Garcia joined the military when he was 17-years-old.

Almost 4 years ago, Tony came home, but with complications. Then, his Mon and Dad passed away within the same year.

Tony felt guilty, suffered from chronic migraines, and he was losing sleep.

Garcia said, "I was over medicating myself, it felt like I was a stranger in my own home."

http://www.kvoa.com/news/a-veteran-with-post-traumatic-stress-disorder-can-use-your-help/

Hundreds show support for wounded Marine

Hundreds show support for wounded Marine

By Matt Stephens
Updated: 10.03.10
When asked if they support their troops, more than a hundred bikers outside T’s Bar in Conroe responded with a deafening positive response.

As many as 300 bikers showed up at the bar Sunday to participate in a benefit for an injured Marine, 21-year-old Lance Cpl. Jordan McBryde. McBryde, from the Spring Branch area, was serving his first tour in Afghanistan when he was hit by an improvised explosive device on Aug. 10.

His mother, Sheri McBryde, said her son suffered lacerations on both legs and fractured his forearm. Despite the injuries, she said he son is in high spirits as he undergoes therapy.

“He’s come a long way in six weeks,” she said. “I just found out he can actually walk with a cane now.”

Lisa Hamlet, McBryde’s aunt, said the event was a surprise to Sheri McBryde, who works with the bar’s owner at a Harley Davidson dealership.

Paul Lance, Jr. Vice Commandant for the Eastex Detachment No. 779 of the Marine Corps League in Conroe, said the benefit was a partnership between the bar and the Marine Corps League.

Lance said they hold about six or seven similar benefits a year for wounded Marines to provide them support and monetary help.
read more here
Hundreds show support for wounded Marine

The country he fought for failed him

This happens all the time. Justice should never depend upon where a veteran lives. Some cities and towns are well ahead of this, setting up Veterans Courts, and that's a good thing but it does not happen everywhere. Who is doing anything for the veterans in jail because they were arrested before courts started to address this? Who is making sure that if a veteran lives in an area without a veterans court receives the same kind of justice? You may want to write them off as criminals but keep in mind, they were not committing crimes before they deployed into combat, risking their lives for the sake of other people, and it is very unlikely they would have committed any crime had they not gone. Sometimes combat does things to a human just as any traumatic event will change the way people think and feel about everything.

'THE COUNTRY HE FOUGHT FOR HAS FAILED HIM'
Iraq war veteran in jail two years after Pahrump shootout

Wife waits for answers

By KEITH ROGERS

LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL

Two years after her husband, an Iraq war veteran, snapped and engaged Nye County sheriff's deputies in a pre-dawn shootout on the outskirts of Pahrump, Sue Lamoureux wants some answers.

She wonders why he's still in jail and why it took 18 months to remove a bullet from his leg after the gunbattle at Terrible's Lakeside RV Park and Casino on Sept. 19, 2008.

She also wants authorities to explain why Joseph Patrick "Pat" Lamoureux, a former Army Reserve sergeant with no previous criminal history, would do such a thing.

"There is not an answer for that except he went to war and he came home broken," Sue Lamoureux said Friday. "The country he fought for has failed him, and most certainly, Nye County, Nevada is trying to crucify him."
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The country he fought for failed him

Hazelden and Navy team up to help sailors online

Navy offers online addiction help

By STEVE SZKOTAK
Associated Press Writer

The Navy is teaming up with a highly regarded addiction treatment center to provide Web-based support for thousands of sailors, their families and retired personnel struggling with alcohol and drug abuse. The $3.25 million program is intended to keep sailors with addiction problems on the road to recovery and links them to support programs anywhere in the world, at anytime, even when they're deployed. It is tailored primarily to younger sailors, who are at greater risk and are comfortable navigating the Internet and social programs.

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linked from Stars and Stripes

Coward Afghan men hide behind children to take on female Marines

For female Marines, tea comes with bullets in Afghanistan

By ELISABETH BUMILLER
Published: October 2, 2010

They expected tea, not firefights. But the female Marines and their patrol were shot at one day, a burst of Kalashnikov rifle fire from a nearby compound. The group hit the ground, crawled into a ditch and aimed its guns across the fields of cotton and corn. In their sights they saw the source of the blast: an Afghan man who had shot aimlessly from behind a mud wall, shielded by a half-dozen children.

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link from Stars and Stripes

UK soldier defused bomb with broken hand

Medal for soldier who defused bombs with broken hand
Trapped in a minefield, under heavy attack from the Taleban and with daylight running out, Staff Sergeant Gareth Wood knew he had to work fast.

By Sean Rayment, Defence Correspondent
Published: 1:10AM BST 03 Oct 2010

But as the bomb disposal expert removed one of five explosive devices that stood between a stranded British patrol and safety, he felt an excuciating pain.

SSgt Wood had broken two fingers in his right hand - the one he used to seacrh for the Improvised explosive Device, making it almost impossible to continue.


His fellow soldiers urged him to return to base for treatment but SSgt Wood persisted, defusing the bomb and neutralising a further three IEDs even though his right arm in a sling.

SSgt Wood's bravery has now been recognised with the Military Cross and the admiration of his fellow bomb disposal experts.

The head of Army Explosive Ordnance Disposal has described his actions as "truly humbling" and in the "highest traditions of the Army".

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Medal for soldier who defused bombs

Tennessee National Guard families find Iraq war's wounds are slow to heal

TN families find Iraq war's wounds are slow to heal
By Brandon Gee and Chris Echegaray
THE TENNESSEAN
October 3, 2010

More than 20,000 members of the Tennessee National Guard have been deployed since Sept. 11, 2001, with about 17,800 going to Iraq, where 20 members died. The number of Tennessee National Guard members deployed to the Middle East has been reduced substantially to 434.

The Iraq war is officially over, but it continues in the heart of Patricia Shaw, who lost her only son.

Photographs of Steven Cates fill his mother's Wilson County living room six years after the 22-year-old Marine was shot by a sniper in Anbar province.

"There comes a point in time when you wonder if you should put them away," Shaw said. "I can't. I just can't. It's like he's still here. In my heart, he still is."

Although Aug. 19 marked the official end of combat operations in Iraq, the war's toll is still being tallied in Tennessee. Nearly 100 Tennesseans were killed, and more than 600 were wounded. Nationwide, about 4,400 servicemen and servicewomen died in the war, and 32,000 were wounded. Those numbers are easily tabulated, but the impact on families and communities is immeasurable.

And casualty numbers fail to capture the 30 percent of troops who are estimated to develop serious mental health problems upon returning home.

"When you have a war, you automatically affect several generations," said Dr. Paul Ragan, associate professor of psychiatry at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and a former Navy psychiatrist stationed with the Marines during Operation Desert Storm. "I think we're very concerned about a ripple effect."

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TN families
About a year ago I was contacted by the Mom of a National Guard soldier from Tennessee. Her son had already tried to commit suicide twice and she was feeling lost, afraid he'd try it again. Her son had also gone through a divorce, was one of the countless homeless sleeping on the sofa of friends. He had gone to the VA. They put him on medication but that didn't help. It made him feel worse plus added to the meds for his mind, they had him on pain pills for the wounds to his body.

When we read stories like the one above, keep in mind that while we read about some, there are many more you'll never hear about. The one out of three rate in this article from The Tennessean, is right on the mark. That is the common rate used no matter what the cause of the trauma is. The problem comes in when there are countless traumas hitting people over and over again that throws the figures all out of whack.

The Army stated repeat deployments increase the risk by 50% but there have been so many on a growing series of deployments it is hard to come up with the right figure. By the looks of it and data from Vietnam, we're already in the million range for PTSD.

Here's a video I did that may help you to understand that when it comes to the men and women we deploy the Guard and Reservists have it worse when they come home because many of them return to jobs as emergency responders putting their lives at risk back home as well.

Marine Found Dead on Base in Yuma Arizona

MCAS Yuma Marine Found Dead on Base

MARINE CORPS AIR STATION YUMA, Ariz. -- United States Marine Corps Air Station Yuma officials confirmed a marine died on base early Friday morning.

MCAS public affairs officials said Sgt. Martin Servando Cienfuegos, originally from Phoenix, was found dead at 5:13 a.m. Friday in base housing. He was just 24 years old. He is survived by a wife and two children.

Few details have been released about how Cienfuegos died, because the cause of his death is still under investigation.
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MCAS Yuma Marine Found Dead on Base

Five pillars of fitness

Wounded veteran shares stories of resilience

DVIDS

“The fact is we have the right ingredients to sustain us in times of great difficulty,” said Roever, a Fort Worth, Texas, native.

While this may have worked for some veterans, there is not telling how many it helped any more than it answers how many it didn't help.

Whenever I hear about any program being pushed now, my first question is usually "How long have they been doing this?" Followed by "Has it worked." Judging by the fact the suicide numbers have gone up over the last couple of years, I don't hold out much hope on what the military is doing. It looks like this program has been up for about a year now but the results are a higher suicide rate across the military. It all depends on how much this program is being used but if it is wide spread, that is not a good result at all.


I have hopes that this may be close to where it needs to be because it does address the mind-body-spirit connection that has to be addressed. It does try to include families in on the healing. That's all good but the questions it asks trying to figure out if a soldier is in need of help are much like the kind of test you'd answer for a job. The open ended questions leave too much room to answer what they think the right answer should be instead of an honest one.

Much like the question "Have you thought of harming yourself or anyone else today does not factor in what the thoughts were yesterday or that they may come on later today, this leaves way too much room to play with the answers.

Here are a couple of links so that you can take a look at this yourself.

Herald Union - News
Five pillars of fitness


Oct 8, 2009 ... The Army has come out with the Comprehensive Fitness Campaign. ... It's about total wellness and fitness, building strength and resiliency in our Soldiers, families

Microsoft PowerPoint
Cornum CSF Overview Brief 23SEP09

Oct 26, 2009 ... COMPREHENSIVE SOLDIER FITNESS: STRONG MINDS, STRONG BODIES. \. BG Rhonda Cornum. UNCLASS/FOUO. DAMO-CSF

Can it work? Yes but it all depends on what they put into it. If they say they include the family in on healing then how do they do it? Do they tell the family what they need to know or do they gloss over it?

All of us need to take a good look at programs they are putting out and ask some hard questions because the answers involve life or death issues. So far, no program has been a real success since the numbers have kept on going up. The Montana National Guard's program, which I thouht was the best a few years ago, may still be the best one out there but I have not seen new data released from them lately.

Iraq Vet learns to live after combat

Last weekend I was invited to speak at the Point Man Ministries conference in Buffalo. This Iraq veteran has a message for all combat veterans. He came home from Iraq and did not want to live anymore with the pain he carried inside his soul. He found forgiveness thru Christ and learned to forgive himself. He spoke with the soul of a poet unashamed to admit how much he was hurting so that others could see that no matter how bad things get, there is still hope to heal.





The number of military suicides goes up and up but this veteran is not only a survivor, he is helping others to come out of the darkness of pain and into a new world of healing with hope and love. There is no reason of what we're seeing today if they all have what they need to survive coming home from combat. This Iraq veteran and leader of a Point Man Ministries Combat Outpost proves there is a way to walk in the light again and live still watching the backs of his brothers the same way he did in Iraq.

Funeral Protest Case Reaches High Court

Funeral Protest Case Reaches High Court


September 30, 2010
Associated Press


YORK, Pa. -- One thing Al Snyder wants to make clear: His boy fought and died for freedom in Iraq, but not for the right of some "wackos" to spew hate at troops' funerals under the protection of the Constitution.

"It's an insult to myself, my family and the veterans to say this is what our military men and women died for," Snyder says, barely concealing his anger.

Yet more than four years after the death of his only son, Matthew, Snyder is in the middle of a Supreme Court case that raises almost precisely that issue.

The court is set to decide whether members of a fundamentalist church in Kansas who picketed Matthew's funeral with signs bearing anti-gay and anti-Catholic invective have a constitutional right to say what they want.


Or, in intruding on a private citizen's funeral in a hurtful way, have the protesters crossed a line and given Snyder the right to collect millions of dollars for the emotional pain they caused?
The justices will hear arguments in the case next Wednesday.
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Funeral Protest Case Reaches High Court

Homeless vets get dignity in death

They were someone's son, someone's daughter. A husband, wife, brother, sister and many times, someone's parent. They were "veteran" to everyone in this nation and it is very sad that one of them dies forgotten and alone, but too many had to live forgotten and alone as well.

I have been to a few of these funerals and posted on many more. Dignity Memorial services honor the death of a veteran but they also honor the life they lived in service to this country.

Homeless vets get dignity in death
THE ISSUE: Homeless vet gets dignity in death.


September 30, 2010


For all the multitrillion-dollar military appropriations and congressional hearings and loud, political "support the troops" stump speeches, one of the good things being done for America's veterans is one you haven't heard much about.

The Dignity Memorial Homeless Veterans Burial Program, a cooperative among veterans organizations, advocates and cemeteries, is a way of giving a proper burial to homeless and/or indigent veterans who are too easily forgotten. The program gives those who served and then came upon hard times some dignity.

Last week, at the South Florida National Cemetery west of Lake Worth, Thomas Allen Clay became the first Broward County veteran to be buried with the help of the 10-year-old program. Five homeless veterans from Palm Beach County have been interred at the national cemetery.

The burial program is meaningful in Florida, where the number of homeless vets has been estimated at between 8,600 and 19,000. There could be as many as 250,000 homeless veterans nationwide.

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Homeless vets get dignity in death

Community mourning death of young soldier

Community mourning death of young soldier with local ties
Clinton Springer II had hundreds of friends, father says

By Ellen W. Todd
Sanford News Writer
Thursday, September 30, 2010

SANFORD — Clinton Springer II will be long remembered by his fellow soldiers, his hundreds of friends and, most of all, by his loving family.

Pfc. Clinton E. Springer II, 21, of Sanford, died last Friday, Sept. 24, in Kabul, Afghanistan, in what the U.S. Department of Defense has called a noncombat related incident. The cause of death is under investigation.

"His commanding officer in Afghanistan said he was a magnificent soldier and that he watched him develop from a boy to a man," said Springer's father, Clinton E. Springer, of Sanford.

"He said Clint got along with everyone in his unit," the elder Springer said.

That didn't surprise him.
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Community mourning death of young soldier

Cal Gunshot Victim Was Iraq Veteran

Cal Gunshot Victim Was Iraq Vet

While initial reports called student's death suicide, his family say Alex Lowenstein was full of life and future plans

By AARON GLANTZ, NEW AMERICA MEDIA on October 1, 2010 - 9:22 a.m. PDT

The UC Berkeley student who died at a fraternity house early last Friday morning has been identified as Alex Lowenstein, an Iraq war veteran and graduate of Marin County's Tam Valley High School.

Lowenstein, 24, who served a tour in Iraq as a member of the California Army National Guard, is at least the second Iraq war veteran to die while attending Cal.

Two years ago, UC Berkeley senior Elijah Warren took his own life after serving tours in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Somalia.

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Wounded face new foe: drug-resistant infections

Wounded face new foe: drug-resistant infections
By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Thursday Sep 30, 2010 14:26:40 EDT
Aggressive tactics are being used against strains of drug-resistant infections that are creating new risks for combat-injured service members who survived the war but may not survive the recovery, military medical officials said Wednesday.

Called multi-drug resistant organisms, or MDROs, the infections “are not unique to the military” but are a “serious problem for the military,” said Dr. Jack Smith, acting deputy assistant defense secretary for health affairs responsible for clinical and program policy.

Smith and other military health officials testified before the House Armed Services Committee’s oversight and investigations panel.

The hearing was called to look at how the military was dealing with infection and whether more money was needed for military-specific research.

Rep. Vic Snyder, D-Ark., the panel chairman, said he thought that given the implications of problems with treating combat-wounded service members, a case could be made for spending more money on research — but Smith did not ask for more.
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Wounded face new foe drug-resistant infections

Reports have come out for years that there is very little therapy going on but a lot of pills being given. Looks like that could be the problem here. Pills help with PTSD but talking helps a lot more.

Bragg PTSD Cases Low, but Meds use High

September 30, 2010

Fayetteville Observer

Fort Bragg, N.C., Soldiers are being diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder less than half as often as Soldiers Armywide.

Figures provided by the Army also show that Fort Bragg Soldiers are medically retired or discharged for PTSD far less often than Soldiers as a whole.

Yet the number of Soldiers meeting with psychological counselors at Fort Bragg is similar to the overall Army rate in each of the past three years.

Meanwhile, the figures show prescriptions for anti-depressants and other drugs have grown tremendously at Fort Bragg since 2004. More than one in three Soldiers on post -- 17,594 -- took some form of opiate last year, mostly for pain relief. One in 10 took an anti-depressant, according to statistics from Womack Army Medical Center.

Officials with Womack and PTSD experts say the numbers are intriguing, but there is no way to single out one factor to explain them.

"The analyst in me would say that clearly shows a pattern of lower incidence of unfit Soldiers at Fort Bragg. Why? I couldn't tell you," he said. "There are a lot of Soldiers who have been diagnosed with PTSD who continue to serve. It has to be severe enough that either he's a danger to himself or others or he's unable to perform his duties."

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Spouse of the Year award to Carren Ziegenfuss

September 30, 2010

Military.com|by Ward Carroll

Military.com and CincHouse.com presented the 2010 Spouse of the Year award to Carren Ziegenfuss Sept. 30 at a ceremony held at the Minuteman Memorial Building on Capitol Hill.

Congressman Glen Thompson, R-Pa., who represents Ziegenfuss’ hometown of Franklin, highlighted the poise and dedication exemplified by those who hold down the fort while troops are overseas.

“The heroes and patriots are the spouses,” Thompson said, adding that a Ziegenfuss friend told him, “This lady has a spine of steel.”

In 2005 Ziegenfuss’ husband was wounded in Iraq while serving as an Army officer.  During his recovery at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, she started an outreach group for families of Wounded Warriors through Soldier’s Angels, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping injured troops and their families.

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Time to claim military Stop-loss pay extended

This money is yours. You earned it. There are no strings attached to this so file your claim for the money you are owed. If you don't want it file the claim and give the money away to charity.

Stop-Loss Claims Deadline Extended

October 01, 2010

Stars and Stripes|by Jeff Schogol

WASHINGTON -- Congress has extended the deadline to December for veterans to apply for retroactive stop-loss pay.

Under the program, troops who have been stop-lossed since Sept. 11, 2001, or their surviving spouses are eligible for $500 for every month they were kept beyond their initial separation date. The program was slated to end in October, but now it has been extended to Dec. 3.

The move drew praise from AMVETS spokesman Ryan Gallucci, who said, “Extending the deadline is an appropriate course of action to ensure that veterans have an opportunity to take advantage of their earned benefit.”
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