New Year Begins To Heal Veterans

New Year Begins To Heal Veterans
Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
January 1, 2014

Fireworks fill the air over the San Francisco skyline

near the San Francisco Oakland Bay Bridge, as part of

New Year's Eve celebrations just after midnight on Wednesday, January 1.

Click through to see other New Year's celebrations around the world

One thing was added to my daily routine this morning. I took down the old calendars and put up the new ones for 2014. A new year begins with hope for everyone. Gone are the days of the past, at least for some but for others, the days remain as fresh as living them.

Looking back on the reports from last year, by the 4th day of 2013, it did not start out to be a very good year at all.

One January 3, 2013, Bill Briggs of NBC wrote this about military suicides.

Some Army families who recently lost members to suicide criticize the branch for failing to aggressively shake a culture in which soldiers believe they'll be deemed weak and denied promotion if they seek mental health aid. They also blame Army leaders for focusing more heavily on weeding out emotionally troubled soldiers to artificially suppress the branch's suicide stats versus embracing and helping members who are exhibiting clear signs of trouble.

Furthermore, in September, two U.S. lawmakers pressured the Pentagon to immediately use unspent money specifically appropriated to the agency to help slow the suicides within the military. Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash., and Rep. Leonard Boswell, D-Iowa, also pushed for increased anti-suicide funding for the Department of Defense in 2013.

On January 9, The Fold on The Washington Post released the story of Navy SEAL Robert Guzzo who "went to be with the angels" just after Veterans' Day in 2012.


Everyone was talking about Zero Dark Thirty but no one was talking about Robert, the family he left behind including his Dad, also a Navy SEAL, or the hundreds of enlisted personnel and thousands of other veterans across the country committing suicide after surviving combat.

Robert was not afraid to risk his life as a SEAL. He was afraid to ask for help because he was a SEAL. He "was told he would lose his security clearance and it would end his career as a SEAL." He was told to not report it.

The Navy denied it.

Guzzo went to a private psychiatrist for help. Help that was not enough for him to recover, heal and live to fight this nation's battles.

He just couldn't find what he needed to fight as hard for himself as he did for his brothers in combat.

The same day The Fold released another video report,

Army psychiatrist Christopher Ivany discusses what it being done to combat the high number of suicides by members of the armed forces.
The Fold/ The Washington Post
Veterans Suicides may very well have increased to 22 a day.

The first time I took down a calendar while thinking about suicides tied to the military was on January 1, 1983, 31 years ago today, long before most of the servicemen and women were born. It was the first year of full knowledge that I was in a battle I didn't ask for. It started out as trying to help my own veteran heal in 82. My eyes were shockingly opened and the notion of this nation taking care of our veterans evaporated like the smoke from my cigarette.

As the years went by and more calendars were replaced, I made a promise to not give up until no veteran was left behind. I knew we couldn't save all of them. All they needed was a chance to heal. We didn't have the internet. There were few support groups. There was no national attention and even the local press didn't want to hear anything simply because we were talking about Vietnam veterans.

I called the newspaper in my hometown to let them know what was going on in 2004. The reporter told me what I had to say sounded like "sour grapes" and no one was interested in what they were going thru. He as right. No one was but us. Families like mine were suffering and we were losing our veterans every day of the year.

Testimony presented to the Massachusetts Commission on the Concerns of Vietnam veterans in Greenfield, Massachusetts on May 4, 1982, declared that "Vietnam veterans have nationally averaged 28 suicides a day since 1975, amounting to over 70,000." Point Man International Ministries started in Seattle Washington in 1984 by a Vietnam veteran and Seattle Police Officer Peter Landereth. He was seeing more and more Vietnam veterans suffering and wanted to do something about it. While he was trying to keep crime off the streets he was also trying to keep more veterans from losing hope and save their lives.

One of the founding members of Point Man was Chuck Dean, "publisher of a Veterans self help newspaper, Reveille, had a vision for the ministry and developed it into a system of small groups across the USA for the purpose of mutual support and fellowship. These groups are known as Outposts. Worldwide there are hundreds of Outposts and Homefront groups serving the families of veterans."

Nam Vet by Chuck Dean was released in 1990.

Although the Vietnam War officially ended in 1975, it still rages in the lives of thousands of veterans and their families. Note these statistics: Since 1975 nearly three times as many Vietnam veterans have committed suicide than were killed in the war; the divorce rate among Vietnam Veterans is above 90 percent What's behind these frightening numbers? Why do so many Vietnam veterans suffer from flashbacks, depression, fits of rage, nightmares, emotional numbing, substance abuse, and helplessness? Author and Vietnam veteran Chuck Dean endured years of agony before he found the answer. In Nam Vet, he explains what caused these symptoms and suggests how veterans can break free from self-destructive behaviors... through the saving power of Jesus Christ.

Knowing what works in the battle of PTSD, or Combat Post Traumatic Change, as I think it should be properly titled, every year I made a promise that I will fight harder to save more lives and heal more families. This year I don't know how I can do that.

I don't know how many more books I can write, information I can post, videos I can make that will finally increase healing enough so that we don't start one more year of reports of more dying after war than during it.

This started out to be a post on looking back at 2013 posts on Wounded Times but I couldn't get past the 9th. I just couldn't read more of what happened last year and be reminded of the fact that for all these years the answers have been known but maybe it is because the healing involves matters of faith and Christianity reporters ignore it.

We don't advertise on TV with heart-tugging images or raise funds to "raise awareness on PTSD" because we are raising awareness for free everyday. This is what we believe.

Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received; freely give." Matthew 10:8 New International Version (NIV)

To heal the veteran researchers are claiming all kinds of nonsense as if any of it is new while ignoring what is old and proven.

Until they take care of the whole veteran, mind, body and spirit, we will see more ending their own pain by ending their lives instead of healing.

Will you help? Will you talk to a veteran and tell them that they don't have to fight this alone? That you care about them? That tomorrow can be a lot better than today was? I will keep fighting as hard as always but I can't fight alone any more than they can. If you find something helpful or hopeful on Wounded Times this year, pass it on to them. The years of excuses we had ran out in the 90's long before the troops were sent into Afghanistan and Iraq. They can now find more information than ever but they are overwhelmed by too many places to find and the lack of true healing leaves them frustrated to the point where they just give up the search. Help them find what you did so they can help others as well.