VA investigating how a veteran’s personal files were mistakenly sent to Fredericksburg vet
ABC 7 News
By Joce Sterman
March 2, 2015
FREDERICKSBURG, Va. (WJLA) – The Department of Veterans Affairs is investigating how sensitive personal files were sent to the wrong person. It's a problem brought to light by the 7 On Your Side I-Team.
Continue reading
Taking care of her husband is Carolyn Wilkins’ primary job these days. But for the Fredericksburg woman, battling to get the Vietnam veteran's medical care covered is a close second.
Wilkins said, "That's a fight in and of itself."
But when Wilkins asked the VA for copies of her husband's medical files, her fight took an unexpected turn. Instead of receiving Joseph Wilkins’ records, she received a package of files belonging to an Iraq war veteran from North Carolina. It's a man with no connections to the Wilkins family. The files contain everything from the man's high school diploma to his service record, and they include multiple notations of his Social Security number.
The 7 On Your Side I-Team looked through the files, discovering Wilkins was also sent the other veteran's complete personnel and dental records, as well as a folder full of evidence related to the man's case with the Board of Veterans Appeals. read more here
Pulled twice from exchanges, OxyElite Pro supplement now found to contain Prozac drug
Stars and Stripes
By Travis J. Tritten
Published: March 2, 2015
WASHINGTON — A fitness supplement that was twice pulled from exchange store shelves, first following soldier deaths and then after an outbreak of liver disease, has now been found to contain the active ingredient in the prescription drug Prozac, the Food and Drug Administration announced Saturday.
OxyElite Pro Super Thermogenic is sold as a weight-loss supplement, but the FDA said it has discovered the product contains fluoxetine, a drug used in treating mental disorders such as depression, bulimia and obsessive-compulsive disorder.
Fluoxetine and other drugs in its class can have serious side effects such as suicidal thinking, seizures and abnormal bleeding, the FDA said in its warning.
The agency said consumers should not buy or use OxyElite Pro.
The Marine Corps Exchange, the Navy Exchange and the Army and Air Force Exchange Service said Monday that they do not stock it.
The supplement was first pulled from military bases in 2011 after it and other supplements were found to contain the unregulated synthetic stimulant methylhexanamine, known as DMAA, which was suspected in the deaths of two soldiers at Fort Bliss, Texas. read more here
Veterans, active duty military, tap social media network for support
FoxNews.com
By Brian Mastroianni
Published March 02, 2015
Around last April, LinkedIn co-founder Konstantin Guericke was approached by Yinon Weiss about supporting an interesting twist on the social media networking model that he helped introduce back in 2003.
Weiss, who served for 10 years on active duty as a Marine Corps scout and sniper platoon commander as well as an Army Special Forces officer, met with Guericke to discuss RallyPoint, a professional network for active duty members of the military and veterans alike.
Weiss founded the site back in 2012 alongside Aaron Kletzing, another veteran, when they were both students at Harvard Business School. In fact, the idea literally was formed on the back of a napkin in a Cambridge, Mass. restaurant.
The two men saw their project as filling a big void for military personnel – both veterans transitioning to civilian life and individuals serving on active duty often express frustration at not having guidance and networking in navigating life in and outside of the military.
Flash forward three years, and the site has grown beyond networking.
It is a social forum that has become an online community, sounding board, and professional guide for over 500,000 veterans and active duty men and women serving in the military.
The site’s growth has made it an indispensable resource for individuals hailing from a very specialized career who didn’t necessarily find the guidance and social connections they needed from sites like LinkedIn or Facebook. With the announcement last week that Guericke was joining RallyPoint’s board of directors the site has further established itself as a go-to social networking venue.
“One of the big problems for people from the military is that they don’t build a strong network,” Weiss told FoxNews.com. “It’s not really part of the culture of the military – you don’t have a resume, you don’t practice job interviews, you typically get assigned to places, and you don’t have much influence over that. So, when you transition to civilian life, it leads to intense frustration.” read more here
When You Understand You Won't Get Over It, Heal It
Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
March 2, 2015
Did you know that in order to heal combat PTSD, you have to abandon hope? Yep, that's the first step. No, I don't mean give up on healing but give up on "getting over it" since that notion actually has you getting worse. PTSD gains more control over you while you refuse to ask for help. Letting your misinformed ego get in the way of healing traps you in an endless cycle of getting worse. Much like an infection, it spreads out, claims more of what is good and destroys what it touches.
If untreated, it destroys your future as well as everything else today. Your relationships are robbed by you being disconnected, unable to feel emotional connection to anyone. Joy, that happy feeling you used to have is something you can't even remember the last time you laughed so hard you cried. Things you used to love to do are no longer even thought of during the day.
The worst part of all is, sooner or later as PTSD gains, you lose hope. That day comes when you wake up understanding that today isn't the day you just get over it. You fully accept that fact and then you decide you don't want to be here anymore. Without hope, you decide to take your life into your own hands instead of putting your life back into your control.
Suck it up pal cause this is about to get worse for you to read before it gets a whole lot better.
I am sure you've heard about Dante's Inferno but may have forgotten what it was all about. There are nine circles of hell and the ways people got sent to each level. Don't worry about reading them since combat isn't one of the paths taken.
Dante passes through the gate of Hell, which bears an inscription, the ninth (and final) line of which is the famous phrase "Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch'intrate",
"Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.
Every single generation and major religious group believes in the soul with the exception of atheists.
Hemant Mehta says that he believes you did not exist before you were born so after you've lived your life, that's it. There isn't anything else other than what you leave behind.
Seems he's missing a lot of detail there. Like what makes each of us so different if there is nothing going on other than brain cells. What makes us decide what we want to do in life? What makes some of us more selfish than others? What makes some of us be willing to die to save someone else? What makes a serviceman or woman really able to do that?
The difference is, you were some place before. No, not your body. That is genetic and because of your parents. I'm talking about the soul and that is who you are inside that body your parents started.
5 “Before I formed you in the womb I knew[a] you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”
Translation is God knew him (his soul) before it was sent to live inside the body his Mom was carrying around in her own body. The other part of this often overlooked is, God had plans for his life and everything he was supposed to do, he was equipped to do.
A safe bet is if you joined the military, you always thought of doing it. You felt pulled or compelled to join. If that is the case then it was your calling and everything you needed to do it was within you. Being a simple human and with simple understanding of the nature of things, you more than likely didn't understand it. Most of us don't. Some just get it a little better than others and when they do, they are actually happier doing what they were intended to do instead of just floundering with no calling tugging them.
11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
Translation is, God put everything into him he would need to do what he was sent here to do. He did the same for you. Everything you needed to serve was within you from you ability to care that much that you were willing to die for someone else, to the courage you had to do it, the physical stamina to get through it and still be able to retain your compassion.
It is that same ability to feel things so deeply that allowed you to also feel pain so strongly. You just felt it more than others and didn't know how to feel better.
After the event people walk away one of two ways. Either God did it to them or God spared them. As time goes on, depending on which way they thought life gets worse where the thoughts of God not even being real becomes real and hope evaporates or better because the goodness within them lives on.
Once it is decided that God isn't real, after all the horrors you've seen in combat, it is easy to say that if God was real then He wouldn't have let it happen. You dismiss the fact that God doesn't mess with freewill and it was a choice between the starters of the wars you were sent to fight and those who ended them. It is easy to also forget all that was going on at the same time that was not horrific.
You forgot about all the times you shed a tear, reached out a hand to comfort someone, said a prayer, spent time listening to someone or the biggest thing of all is that you were able to get through all that and still be able to grieve. The pain you feel comes from grief.
Ecclesiastes 3:1-14 New International Version (NIV)
A Time for Everything
3 There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under the heavens:
2 a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
3 a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
4 a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
5 a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
6 a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
7 a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
8 a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.
And you thought it was just a song by the Byrds.
Everyone in the Bible knew what grief was including Christ. It is the shortest and most powerful sentence in the entire bible.
Christ knew God better than anyone else yet He still wept. He knew how His life would end but still had that much compassion for a moment of pain even though He knew what was coming next. (John 11)
32 When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”
33 When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. 34 “Where have you laid him?” he asked.
“Come and see, Lord,” they replied.
35 Jesus wept.
36 Then the Jews said, “See how he loved him!”
37 But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?”
So how about we make a deal right now and let Him open your eyes? See where your pain comes from and that it comes from the goodness within you. You can heal but not as long as you are looking in the wrong place to start with. It is all within you because it was all put there before you were born into your body.
Let Him keep you from dying so that you can start living again. Push away that thought that you are stronger and shouldn't have PTSD. Are you stronger than Christ? Do you have more faith than He had?
Think of something else that was said
13 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
This is what you were willing to do. When you start to heal, then you can keep serving others by helping them heal as well. The best therapy is peer support because you understand them. Find the right path toward healing and then reach back so they get there too.
The Watchfire stems from the military tradition that following a battle or long march, a large fire would be started so those missing or lost could locate and rejoin their comrades.
The flame has been lit by Vietnam veterans for decades so that you understand you are not lost but just need help finding your way to healing.
You can read the rest of the levels here.
Before entering Hell completely, Dante and his guide see the Uncommitted, souls of people who in life did nothing, neither for good nor evil; among these Dante recognizes either Pope Celestine V or Pontius Pilate (the text is ambiguous). Mixed with them are outcasts who took no side in the Rebellion of Angels. These souls are neither in Hell nor out of it, but reside on the shores of the Acheron, their punishment to eternally pursue a banner (i.e. self interest) while pursued by wasps and hornets that continually sting them as maggots and other such insects drink their blood and tears. This symbolizes the sting of their conscience and the repugnance of sin. This can also be seen as a reflection of the spiritual stagnation they lived in.
First Circle (Limbo)
In Limbo reside the unbaptized and the virtuous pagans, who, though not sinful, did not accept Christ. Limbo shares many characteristics with the Asphodel Meadows; thus the guiltless damned are punished by living in a deficient form of Heaven. Without baptism ("the portal of the faith that you embrace")[6] they lacked the hope for something greater than rational minds can conceive.
Second Circle (Lust)
Gianciotto Discovers Paolo and Francesca by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres
In the second circle of Hell are those overcome by lust. Dante condemns these "carnal malefactors"[8] for letting their appetites sway their reason. They are the first ones to be truly punished in Hell. These souls are blown back and forth by the terrible winds of a violent storm, without rest. This symbolizes the power of lust to blow one about needlessly and aimlessly.
Then there is gluttony on the 3rd level, greed on the 4th, anger on the 5th, heresy on the 6th, violence on the 7th, fraud is 8th and the 9th "and last circle is ringed by classical and Biblical giants, who perhaps symbolize pride and other spiritual flaws lying behind acts of treachery."
When you read something like this report about Amanda Lee Weyrick losing her battle with PTSD, it is easy to think OEF and OIF veterans are the only ones suffering.
Iraq veteran Amanda Weyrick was buried Thursday at Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery, her once-promising life ruined by the effects of war, PTSD and a fatal infection likely driven by methamphetamine abuse, her family said.
A San Antonio native, she spiraled down after returning from deployment, serving a stint in prison, taking drugs and running in the wrong crowd.
Weyrick was tough, stubborn and tenacious, developing into a standout basketball player at Greenville High School and a top graduate in the Army’s MP course. There were signs of trouble, however, even in Iraq, where fellow GIs say she and other first-tour soldiers were hardened by war.
Family members share tales of her shooting insurgents in Diyala province, one of Iraq’s most violent areas, but fellow soldiers say she endured close calls but didn’t kill anyone. Back in Greenville, she wrestled with post-traumatic stress disorder and took meth and crack cocaine — all the while denying she had a PTSD or drug problem.
Since 2009, the number of veterans qualifying for government PTSD disability pay has nearly doubled, to 684,000. Studies show that one in every five veterans has PTSD, but only about 40 percent are even in the VA network.
What you do not think about is the fact most of those veterans are not OEF or OIF. They are older veterans suffering longer but mostly forgotten about.
It is great to have a story to make us think we're doing something about this growing tragedy for our veterans. Really nice to think we've done something good so reporters tend to paint a picture so that we don't actually stop to remember how long we've told ourselves a bedtime story of doing good when the outcomes have been so deplorable.
In the process, reporters and a lot of charities have turned other veterans into last on the to do list.
This was reported by El Paso Times, Chris Roberts, in October of 2007. It is up on Wounded Times and still up on Veterans Today where you can read the whole article.
Two-tiered system of healthcare puts veterans of the war on terror at the top and makes everyone else -- from World War I to the first Gulf War -- "second-class veterans"
An internal directive from a high-ranking Veterans Affairs official creates a two-tiered system of veterans health care, putting veterans of the global war on terror at the top and making every one else -- from World War I to the first Gulf War -- "second-class veterans," according to some veterans advocates.
"I think they're ever pushing us to the side," said former Marine Ron Holmes, an El Paso resident who founded Veterans Advocates. "We are still in need. We still have our problems, and our cases are being handled more slowly."
Vice Adm. Daniel L. Cooper, undersecretary for benefits in the Department of Veterans Affairs -- in a memo obtained by the El Paso Times -- instructs the department's employees to put Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom veterans at the head of the line when processing claims for medical treatment, vocational rehabilitation, employment and education benefits...
Veterans Affairs officials say prioritizing war-on-terror veterans is necessary because many of them face serious health challenges. But they don't agree that other veterans will suffer, saying that they are hiring thousands of new employees, finding ways to train them more quickly and streamlining the process of moving troops from active duty to veteran status.
"We are concerned about it, and it's something we are watching carefully," said Jerry Manar, deputy director national veterans service for Veterans of Foreign Wars in Washington, D.C. "We'll learn quickly enough from talking with our veterans service officers whether they're seeing a dramatic slowdown in the processing of claims."
Manar and Holmes said Afghanistan and Iraq veterans deserve the best care possible, but so do all other veterans.
This was also in the article.
In the past 18 months, 148,000 Vietnam veterans have gone to VA centers reporting symptoms of PTSD "30 years after the war," said Brig. Gen. Michael S. Tucker, deputy commanding general of the North Atlantic Regional Medical Command and Walter Reed Army Medical Center. He recently visited El Paso.
Iraq War Veteran Stripped of Benefits For Wife and Daughter Because of the State They Live In
IJ Review
BY KATIE LAPOTIN
(3 HOURS AGO)
LEGAL, MILITARY, POLITICS
An Iraq War veteran has been ordered to pay back the benefits she received from the Department of Veterans’ Affairs (VA) for her family.
The VA claimed the vet received them by mistake.
According to The Advocate, Melissa Perkins-Fercha must pay back the federal money because she and her wife live in a state – Texas – which does not recognize same-sex marriage.
Perkins-Fercha, a disabled veteran, and her wife, got married in the state of Washington, in 2012. In 2014, her wife gave birth to their daughter.
The VA covered Perkins-Fercha’s wife and daughter for less than a year.
Then they sent her a letter, informing the veteran that all of her benefits would be frozen until she paid back the money sent for her legally unrecognized family. read more here
We have unlimited access to knowledge today but if we settle for what some folks want us to know, we won't know much at all. That is the basis behind one issue veterans face after another. Some want to believe PTSD only hits the OEF and OIF veterans. That way they won't have to take a look at how many years this has all been going on while members of congress make a bunch of bullshit speeches that allow bad to turn into worse.
We also see it going on even know with speeches about military sexual assaults, as if anything has changed.
Never settle for what we're being told today without wondering how it got this bad. Reporters have a nasty habit of forgetting who did what and when they did it. Nothing will get fixed unless we really hold folks accountable. Never stop asking questions and when you get the answer, ask for more.
In 2012 there was a case where a female veteran had been waiting years for justice. How long? 50 years!
If you want to know why female veterans are fed up with what has been coming out of congress, begin with understanding this betrayal is far from new. All of these stories are on Wounded Times and when possible the link to the source is provided, still active and you can read the entire story.
2008
Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., a member of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, said in a Monday letter to Defense Secretary Robert Gates that harassment and assault of military women, especially in combat zones, is a “scourge” that needs to be eliminated.
Casey is particularly interested in how the military handles complaints from women in the National Guard and reserve, whose cases may be harder to investigate than those of women on full-time active duty and in the federal civilian workforce.
In the letter, Casey said he knows the military is trying to do more, but added: “I am still very troubled by a process that may dissuade many victims from ever coming forward with claims.”
The department is required to provide free care, including counseling and prescription drugs, to veterans who were sexually harassed or assaulted while in military service. Sexual assault includes rape and attempted rape.
But the Office of Inspector General at the department found this year that an outpatient clinic in Austin, Tex., had repeatedly charged veterans, mostly women, for those services. Based on concerns that the practice may be more widespread, the office decided to expand its review to a sampling of veterans health care centers and clinics nationwide.
An official in the office declined to comment, saying it does not discuss pending reviews. The official said the review would be made public when it was completed, possibly by October.
In a statement, the Department of Veterans Affairs said the Central Texas Veterans Health Care System, which oversees the Austin clinic, was reimbursing patients who had been improperly billed. “Patients seen for military sexual trauma should not be billed for payment,” the statement said. “We apologize for the inconvenience this has caused.”
In February 2009, she reported for active duty training and, upon seeing her rapist, went into shock.
"She immediately sought the assistance of the military chaplain," the lawsuit reads. "When SGT Havrilla met with the military chaplain, he told her that 'it must have been God's will for her to be raped' and recommended that she attend church more frequently."
The House Armed Services Committee adopted a series of new protections when it passed the 2012 defense authorization bill last week, and similar legislation was introduced Wednesday in the Senate by Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass., and Susan Collins, R-Maine.
Rep. Niki Tsongas, D-Mass., one of the cosponsors of the House sexual assault provisions, said introduction of a Senate bill “will help move this legislation closer to becoming law.”
The House and Senate initiatives are similar, drawn from recommendations of the 2009 final report of the Defense Task Force on Sexual Assault in the Military Services to fix flaws in the rights and legal protections for assault victims.
Supporters said one in three women leaving the military report experiencing sexual trauma while in the service, but less than 14 percent of sexual assaults in the military are reported to authorities, and only about 8 percent of reported sexual assaults in the military are prosecuted.
A U.S soldier committed a violent sex crime every six hours and 40 minutes in 2011, a rate far above that of the general population, the report found.
"This is unacceptable. We have zero tolerance for this," Gen. Peter Chiarelli, Army vice chief of staff, said at a press conference Thursday. "Army leaders take sexual assault seriously."
Chiarelli said the Army was confronting the problem by stepping up surveillance of barracks and cracking down on drug and alcohol abuse, a key factor in sexual assault.
Stephanie Schroeder joined the U.S. Marine Corps not long after 9/11. She was a 21-year-old with an associate's degree when she reported for boot camp at Parris Island, South Carolina.
"I felt like it was the right thing to do," Schroeder recalls.
A year and a half later, the Marines diagnosed her with a personality disorder and deemed her psychologically unfit for the Corps.
Anna Moore enlisted in the Army after 9/11 and planned to make a career of it. Moore was a Patriot missile battery operator in Germany when she was diagnosed with a personality disorder and dismissed from the Army.
Jenny McClendon was serving as a sonar operator on a Navy destroyer when she received her personality disorder diagnosis.
These women joined different branches of the military but they share a common experience:
Each received the psychiatric diagnosis and military discharge after reporting a sexual assault.
2013
Earlier in the month, U.S. Sen. Bob Casey Jr., D-Pa., was one of the first to call for action in light of the Pentagon’s Fiscal Year 2012 Annual Report on Sexual Assault in the Military.
“I am deeply outraged that today’s report released by the Pentagon indicates that sexual assault continues to be so prevalent today in our military,” Casey said in a May 7 statement.
A recent VA survey found that 1 in 4 women said they experienced sexual harassment or assault.
WASHINGTON — Thousands of female veterans are struggling to get health care and compensation from the Department of Veterans Affairs on the grounds that they suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder caused by sexual trauma in the military.
The veterans and their advocates call it the second battle — with a bureaucracy they say is stuck in the past.
Judy Atwood-Bell was just a 19-year-old Army private when she was locked inside a barracks room at Fort Devens in Massachusetts, forced to the cold floor, and raped by a fellow soldier, she said.
For more than two decades, Atwood-Bell fought for an apology and financial compensation for PTSD, with panic attacks, insomnia, and depression that she recalls starting soon after that winter day in 1981.
She filled out stacks of forms in triplicate and then filled them out again, pressing over and over for recognition of the harm that was done.
And the Pentagon released data on Dec. 4 that showed that 62 percent of those who reported being sexually assaulted had experienced retaliation or ostracism afterward.
They have been waiting for someone to change things so that more victims won't have to remember what we've been allowed to forget.
Reading an article on Breitbart about Rep. Ryan Zinke was stunning since it appears Edwin Mora decided to just follow along the rest of the crowd and give President Obama credit for something President Bush actually did.
The panel’s moderator asked Rep. Zinke, a former Navy SEAL Team Six commander, “You fought that war, would you have gone in knowing what we now know?”
“No,” candidly responded Zinke who led a force of over 3,500 Special Operations personnel in Iraq.
“I probably would not have gone, nor would I have left as soon as we did,” also said Zinke, later adding,“We left too soon and now we have to reengage.”
See, not only did President Bush start the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, he actually ended US operations in Iraq before being replaced by the newly elected President Obama.
For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary December 14, 2008
President Bush and Iraq Prime Minister Maliki Sign the Strategic Framework Agreement and Security Agreement
Prime Minister's Palace
Baghdad, Iraq
PRIME MINISTER MALIKI: (As translated.) I'd like to welcome the President of the United States, President George W. Bush. I would like to welcome you here as a guest. You have stood by Iraq and the Iraqi people for a very long time, starting with the -- getting rid of the dictatorship, helping the Iraqis to fight terrorism.
President George W. Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki shake hands following the signing of the Strategic Framework Agreement and Security Agreement at a joint news conference Sunday, Dec. 14, 2008, at the Prime Minister's Palace in Baghdad. President Bush said, " The agreements represent a shared vision on the way forward in Iraq."
Your visit today to Iraq, Mr. President, comes after the signing of the agreement between the two countries, which represents -- (audio drop) -- foundation and draws a road map that will govern and guide the relationship between the two states.
I believe that Iraq, we have performed and have done great work in a cooperative and integrated way in fighting terror. We have succeeded in Iraq, and we hope that efforts also around the world will succeed in defeating terrorism. Today Iraq is moving forward in every field. Through the new Iraqi political system we are working very hard through this, as well as developing the Iraqi economy, and reconstruction of Iraq. We are doing all of this in order for Iraq to restore its rightful place among nations and among the world, and away from the previous reckless policies that focused on wars with the previous regime.
The various political institutions have taken a very strong leadership position and the agreement was ratified, was approved by our political system, our parliament, and various institutions of the Iraqi government. They have approved and ratified the SOFA agreement and the withdrawal of American forces. We believe that these efforts culminated the height of real understanding and cooperation and friendship between Iraq and the United States. Now remains the part of implementing such an agreement. Now we are in the process of forming the proper committees that will carry out all elements of the various two agreements that were signed -- and I'm referring to the various fields, military, scientific, educational, commerce, as well as economic fields.
President Bush, you have played a very supportive role in achieving and concluding this agreement and prior to the actual date of starting to implement this agreement, in January 1, '09 we already start working through the United Nations Security Council we are in the process of drafting a resolution that will make it very clear that Iraq no longer represents a threat to world peace and security. And also a resolution that will set the basis for the protection of Iraqi financial capabilities and bring Iraq back to its rightful place among world communities.
Once again I would like to take this opportunity to welcome you, Mr. President. Once again I wish you a very joyful stay here in Baghdad and a safe trip back home.
We're also signing a Security Agreement, sometimes called a Status of Forces Agreement. The agreement provides American troops and Defense Department officials with authorizations and protections to continue supporting Iraq's democracy once the U.N. mandate expires at the end of this year. This agreement respects the sovereignty and the authority of Iraq's democracy. The agreement lays out a framework for the withdrawal of American forces in Iraq -- a withdrawal that is possible because of the success of the surge.
the link is still live and you can read the rest here
Whenever you read something be careful of what the article really says as much as what it doesn't say. A lot of smart people look really stupid when they believe something just because they want to.
A Veteran’s Fight: TAKING ACTION, GETTING RESULTS for a Forgotten Hero
WHNT 19 News
BY AL WHITAKER
FEBRUARY 26, 2015
Ron Buis came home from Vietnam with a Purple Heart, a Vietnamese Citation for Gallantry with Bronze and Silver stars, and a Gold Star from the Marines in lieu of a second Purple Heart.
He also brought with him the haunting memories of a horrible experience that would later manifest themselves as psychotic depression and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. From the records we could obtain, Buis was being treated for these issues a decade ago.
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WHNT) – WHNT News 19 is Taking Action on the behalf of a prisoner in the Madison County Jail. Ron Buis served his country with honor but now he’s serving time. We agreed to do his story because of the reason he’s behind bars.
Buis is charged with shooting into an occupied dwelling. It’s a felony, and he’s being held without bond. It’s not that Buis was outside shooting into someone else’s house. He was in his mobile home and the bullets traveled into the mobile homes near his. It happened on more than one occasion, too.
His friends tell us Ron wasn’t trying to hurt anyone. They say he was shooting at the voices in his head.
In 1967, Ron Buis was only 17 years old when he enlisted in the Marines. As a member of Alpha Company, First Battalion, First Marines, he saw plenty of combat in Vietnam, plenty of things he would seldom discuss.
“It’s frustrating. You feel really helpless, you know, somebody you love, and they’re suffering,” said longtime friend Kay Sewell.
“What we have is the VA that’s releasing these people out here in society that need help. And the overall society is at risk in addition to these men are at risk. And there’s no reason for that,” says Buis’ attorney, John C. Taylor of Huntsville.
read more here
If you are stunned by this report, don't be. It shows how the military has not been doing a very good job getting servicemen and women to understand what PTSD is and what it does, anymore than they explain to them how to heal. It shows how all these years of Congress passing bills claiming they understand how to do it, actually boils down to they don't have a clue.
When a veteran is a "helper" and tries to help others, you pay a price emotionally if you do not have the strength to begin doing it. If you want to help others, get stronger first the way you had to train to go into combat in the first place, preparing your body as well as your mind.
Next, don't be afraid to ask for help no matter how others seem to think you know it all. They will actually look up to you more considering you have more knowledge than they do but still need help from time to time.
We've lost too many advocates in this battle after war. Remember to be good to yourself so you can help even more veterans just like you.
How veterans are helping other vets fight against suicide
KTBC News
Mike Warren
Posted: Feb 26, 2015
This week the Central Texas community lost another veteran.
On Monday Brett Aycock, a U.S. Army sniper veteran, killed himself.
This is especially hard for the community because Aycock was actively involved in raising awareness about veteran suicides.
He'd recently been working with the WYSH Project, a group we have profiled several times on the Care Gorce that fights against military suicide.
We want to extend our condolences to Aycock's family and friends.
The WYSH project isn't the only group fighting against vet suicide. There is also a state-wide organization called the Military Veterans Peer Network.
Mike Warren caught up with Christopher Araujo to learn more about the organization.
Araujo is one of about 36 area coordinators with the Military Veterans Peer Network.
The group's formula to help struggling vets is simple: they are veterans too.
"I'm a combat vet, you're a combat vet, I understand what you're going through, I can help with what you're going through because I've been there. I've done it," Araujo said.
He says that method works in Central Texas because the rate of veteran suicides here is far less than the national average of about 22 a day.
He says he's never lost anybody, and he's sure not going to lose Darrell Garrett, despite his PTSD.
Garrett served in Iraq and it was his parents who contacted the peer network because Garrett was isolating himself and they were worried.
"There've been days where I'm sad I woke up but I've never made a plan. You feel alone. Nobody understands what you're going through," he said. read more here
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