When I stopped crying, Wounded Times was born

When I stopped crying, Wounded Times was born
Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
September 28, 2013

There are things that get to me and lately, it has been reading the achieves of my older blog. I wrote it during a time when I was stupid and got political, which am not proud of. Considering the men and women in the military are willing to die for each other, it seems a bit ridiculous that politics have gotten to the point where civilians can't even appear to care about the other side. I was like that until a Marine set me straight again and that is how Wounded Times came to be. He was in Iraq, risking his life and wrote to me to complain about my political posts. I got up on my high horse and slammed him defending my right to write whatever I wanted. Yep, I was that much of a jerk. Anyway after a long email ranting and raving about my rights, he responded with one question, "Are you doing this for us or yourself?"

When I stopped crying, Wounded Times was born.

That's the point too many make all the time. We miss the fact that if we are supposed to be doing things for them we need to remember that all the time. We also need to remember what happened or things will just keep getting worse for them.

Sometimes I forget how bad it has been for them because of how bad things are now. Even researching The Warrior SAW Suicides After War, things fade from my memory. I turn back when I have time and look at some of the over 8,000 posts there and the almost 20,000 posts here. Newspaper achieves can vanish but mine are always here year by year. Stuff bothers me!

Things like US Marines went hungry

"There are a lot of stories like that. We don't hear them much. They're kind of personal.So Nick Andoscia went to Iraq. And hunger soon followed."I got a letter," says Karen. "And he had called me before that. He said, 'Send lots of tuna.' "Nick told his mother that he and the men in his unit were all about 10 pounds lighter in their first few weeks in Iraq. They were pulling 22-hour patrol shifts. They were getting two meals a day and they were not meals to remember."He told me the two meals just weren't cutting it. He said the Iraqi food was usually better. They were going to the Iraqis and basically saying, 'feed me.'

That report was from 2006 with two wars going on. It proved that even back then the troops didn't matter a lot to the military but the did matter to a lot of people here.

The one that really gets me the most is when I read about what is still happening to our troops when more and more kill themselves after more and more has been done by the DOD and the VA.

Despite a congressional order that the military assess the mental health of all deploying troops, fewer than 1 in 300 service members see a mental health professional before shipping out.Once at war, some unstable troops are kept on the front lines while on potent antidepressants and anti-anxiety drugs, with little or no counseling or medical monitoring.And some troops who developed post-traumatic stress disorder after serving in Iraq are being sent back to the war zone, increasing the risk to their mental health.

These practices, which have received little public scrutiny and in some cases violate the military's own policies, have helped to fuel an increase in the suicide rate among troops serving in Iraq, which reached an all-time high in 2005 when 22 soldiers killed themselves - accounting for nearly one in five of all Army non-combat deaths.The Courant's investigation found that at least 11 service members who committed suicide in Iraq in 2004 and 2005 were kept on duty despite exhibiting signs of significant psychological distress. In at least seven of the cases, superiors were aware of the problems, military investigative records and interviews with families indicate.Among the troops who plunged through the gaps in the mental health system was Army Spec. Jeffrey Henthorn, a young father and third-generation soldier, whose death last year is still being mourned by his native Choctaw, Okla.What his hometown does not know is that Henthorn, 25, had been sent back to Iraq for a second tour, even though his superiors knew he was unstable and had threatened suicide at least twice, according to Army investigative reports and interviews.

That was reported Mentally Unfit, Forced To Fight By LISA CHEDEKEL And MATTHEW KAUFFMAN The Hartford Courant Published May 14, 2006 but since nothing was fixed back then, we ended up with 2012 worst year on record for suicides to the point where the number of suicides surpassed the reported numbers for the entire Vietnam war.

The worst thing is that things were not fixed back in the 70's when the Vietnam War ended and we ended up with what has been happening ever since.

If we do not revisit history to see where we have been, we will never be reminded enough to make changes that will really matter. So yet again I sit here and the tears come because I am reminded of what we knew and how long ago we knew it.