There still is a war at hand

There still is a war at hand
by Kathie Costos
Wounded Times Blog
May 28, 2013

This morning reading True meaning of Memorial Day stressed at ceremony by Chantal Lovell right after reading about another veteran committing suicide it seemed so fitting what a keynote speaker for Memorial Day service had to say.

An unusually rainy Memorial Day made for somber remembrance at the Veterans Home of California at Yountville, where a few hundred gathered Monday morning to remember America’s war dead.

The annual ceremony was held just outside the gates of the home’s decorated cemetery, where more than 5,500 veterans are buried including many who served in the Civil War, the war which led to the designation of what is now known as Memorial Day.

Similar ceremonies were held throughout the Napa Valley, including one at Veterans Memorial Park in American Canyon. There, keynote speaker retired Army Sgt. Jeremy Profitt asked everyone to remember service men and women who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury, and the increasing number of suicides in the military.

“There still is a war at hand. This war has claimed many lives,” Profitt said, “with no Medal of Honor, Purple Heart or Silver Star given to these great sacrifices.”

“With headlines reading: ‘Suicide claims more U.S. military lives than the Afghanistan War,’ (and) ‘Suicides outpacing the war deaths of today’s troops’ ... I’m talking about the war of mental health,” Profitt, the son of American Canyon Troop Support founder Sindy Biederman, said.

There are no medals for these scared by battle war fighters even though they carry their wounds for the rest of their lives. There is no term for ex-veteran. Sure there are titles like ex-POW but a veteran is a veteran for the rest of their lives. They never return to being a civilian as they were before.

When they come home they need help but more they need the damage done to them undone. They are told before they go fight our battles they can "train their brains" and become resilient. That message is received as they are weak if they end up with PTSD and didn't train right. Whatever else the military tells them, is blocked out after they hear that. Telling them they should ask for help afterwards means to them they have to admit they are mentally weak, yet the DOD pushed this type of approach harder. With over 900 prevention programs producing more and more suicides, it is obvious to the rest of us this approach is doing more harm than good, yet they spend billions a year. What makes this worse is, they fail to see what they have done to the men and women they claim to want to help.

Other than honorable discharges are still happening even though clearly most of them are dealing with self medicating because of PTSD. If they can't admit they need help then they seek whatever means possible to numb themselves. Even when they do seek help most of the medications they are given cause more problems than they had before.

During Vietnam they stenciled "front toward enemy."

The M18A1 Claymore mine has a horizontally convex green plastic case (inert training versions are blue). The shape was developed through experimentation to deliver the optimum distribution of fragments at 50 m (55 yd) range. The case has the words "Front Toward Enemy" embossed on the front of the mine.

While it was something that should have been obvious, the DOD thought it was a good idea to remind the troops. The truth is, the DOD didn't do the same thing when it came to their weapons to fight PTSD. Every program they came up with should have come with a warning. Reenforcing the stigma is the biggest enemy they face.