Tragedy Made Changes At Fort Carson

Over the years I've done a lot of posts associated with Fort Carson. When I did a post about the changes being made at Carson to address the way combat wounded with PTSD are treated, I had no idea why this was happening but I did think it had to do a lot with the new commander, Mark Graham. It turns out his son Kevin was a combat casualty of PTSD. How could anyone at Carson or any other base ignore PTSD after this?

A son dies by his own hand, or so they say. Kevin Graham came home from combat with the enemy in his soul. He had PTSD. He hung himself. People will pass off this kind of death as if it should not count in with the price of war paid by those who serve. Some think it should be a thing of shame, a secret kept by the family and friends.

The only shame belongs to the rest of this nation who allow so many to commit suicide when they know what to do to save their lives. End the stigma and you end the hopelessness. End the silence and you end the barrier of them opening up to get the help they need. Fully fund the VA and open clinics across the nation and you help to heal them. Involve the communities to embrace them as wounded by what they were asked to do and you save their lives.

Our Son died on his own battlefield. He was killed in action fighting a civil war. He fought against adversaries that were as real to him as he casket is real to us. They were powerful adversaries. They took toll of his energies and endurance. They exhausted his last vestiges of his courage and strength. At last these adversaries overwhelmed him and it appeared he had lost the war. But did he?

I see a host of victories he has won.For one thing, he has won our admiration because even if he lost the war, we give him credit for his bravery on the battlefield. And we give him credit for the courage and pride and hope that he used as his weapons as long as he could. We shall remember not his death but his daily victories gained through his kindness and thoughtfulness, his love for family and friends, animals, books and music, for all things beautiful and honorable. We shall remember not his last day of defeat but we shall remember the many days he was victorious over the overwhelming odds. We shall remember not the many years we thought he had left, but the intensity with which he lived the years he had.

Only God knows what this child of his suffered in the silent skirmishes that took place in his soul. But our consolation is that God does know and understands.

http://grahammemorial.com/_wsn/page3.html

MAJOR GENERAL MARK GRAHAM
Commanding GeneralDivision West, First Army and Fort CarsonFort Carson, Colorado 80913Major General Mark Graham became the commander of Division West and Fort Carson on 14September 2007. He was commissioned a Second Lieutenant of Field Artillery on 22 December 1977 at Murray State University, Murray, Kentucky. Following the Field Artillery Officer Basic Course, Major General Graham was assigned to the 1-2nd Field Artillery, 8th Infantry Division, Baumholder, Germany.

During this assignment, he served as a FIST Chief, Fire Direction Officer, Battery Executive Officer and Battalion Special Weapons Officer. Major General Graham has served in command and staff positions throughout the Army in the United States and overseas. His command assignments include: C Battery, Staff and Faculty Battalion, Field Artillery School Brigade, A Battery, 2-18th Field Artillery at Fort Sill, Oklahoma; 1-17th Field Artillery, Fort Sill, Oklahoma; Division Artillery, 40th Infantry Division (Mechanized), Los Angeles, California; 3rd Battlefield Coordination Detachment-Korea; and Deputy Commander/Assistant Commandant, U.S. Army Field Artillery Center and School, Fort Sill, Oklahoma.go here for the rest

http://www.carson.army.mil/Fort%20Carson/cg_bio.html

This site has been established to tell the story of two brothers, inseparable in life and now together again in death.Our goal is for others to know Jeff & Kevin better. Additionally we hope to help you or others that suffer from depression, a dark road where illness can lead to death.

QPR (Question, Persuade. Refer)
SPAN USA (Suicide Prevention Action Network)
JED FoundationHOPES
Suicide Prevention Care Fund
American Society of Suicidology
http://www.grahammemorial.com/

If we are ever going to remove the stigma it has to begin with it being personal. When the families speak out on what their members go through, others can see how they would feel if it happened in their own family.

Silence makes it all seem as if there is something to hide or something to be ashamed of. These are the same men and women so brave, so committed to this nation, so honorable they were willing to lay down their lives, so patriotic they were willing to set their own personal wealth aside that they enlisted in the military. Most will do their duty for however long they are needed to be deployed, return home, rationally out of danger from the enemy, yet find their battles did not end. While they are no longer in danger from the bombs or the bullets, they kill themselves. How could that be cowardly? How could that be a "preexisting condition" or a "personality disorder" suddenly being a reason to discharge them?Every civilization has recorded combat wounds of the mind and spirit since the beginning of recorded time. This is not new.

This has not changed since man first went into combat against others. So how in this century are we still finding it so hard to talk about? How is it that there are still so many in this nation dismissing it, minimizing it and attacking it? How can they go from being regarded as a hero one day and coward the next day? PTSD is a wound but we are the reason the wound is untreated. How many more can we lose after combat than we do during it and when the hell are they all going to be counted as a price of war? When will we treat their wounds instead of burying them? Go and watch Death Because They Served and then tell me what can possibly still be in your own brain that you cannot grasp how serious all of this is?

Major General Mark Graham and his wife are doing something about this. What are you doing?

Kathie Costos
Namguardianangel@aol.com
http://www.namguardianangel.org/
http://www.namguardianangel.blogspot.com/http://www.woundedtimes.blogspot.com/
"The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive veterans of early wars were treated and appreciated by our nation." - George Washington