Hundreds of Fort Carson soldiers help the homeless during Operation Stryker Christmas
FOX 21 News
By Angela Case and Lauren McDonald
Published: December 15, 2016,
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Hundreds of Fort Carson soldiers delivered items to those in need during the annual Operation Stryker Christmas Thursday morning.
About 350 soldiers from the 4th Battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment, 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team carried donated goods from Fort Carson to the Marian House Soup Kitchen in downtown Colorado Springs. They started the 25-mile ‘Manchu Mile’ Wednesday evening and arrived at Marion House Thursday morning.
The Manchu Mile commemorates the 85-mile march the 9th regiment completed during the Boxer Rebellion in July 1900.
Another 1,400 soldiers with the 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team marched from Dorchester Park to Marian House Thursday with rucksacks full of donated goods.
All of the items were donated by soldiers and their families.
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Veterans consider the next commander-in-chief on PRI by Steven Snyder posted yesterday, this report on how our veterans are looking at the results of the election differently.
Brian McGough is a combat-wounded veteran who served in the initial invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq.
McGough, who has fought for the right of women to serve in combat, worries that President-elect Trump's views might result in limiting opportunities for women in the military.
"It's important to remember that there are a lot of veterans out there who are now feeling like they don't belong in this country," McGough adds. "There are veterans of color, veterans of different religious preferences, gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender veterans who now feel threatened in their own country. And for me that's very concerning."
Another vet, who wrote to us from Ellwood City, Penn., expresses bitterness.
"I'm a veteran with mental health issues, and we just elected a man that thinks I need to just toughen up. ... I wish I was born with a silver spoon in my mouth. I'm neither proud of my country nor my service today. I just want to wake up from this nightmare."
But Dean Castaldo, an eight-year military veteran, points out that the men and women in the armed services — more than a million — represent a cross-section of America.
And regardless of their differences, Castaldo says, they all work together as a team.
Residual War, Something Worth Living For is about a female soldier, proven hero, suffering for what she thinks she caused by saving the wrong person. Suicides, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, military women, Warrior Transition Units mistreatment of our soldiers and the rest of the things that they really go through are within this work of fiction.
Some hear about a female soldier with PTSD and assume it is just because of sexual assault, failing to notice females are just as human as the male soldiers and are exposed to the same dangers of combat. Some hear about soldiers committing suicide, assume they "just couldn't take it" without ever considering the simple fact they managed to "take it" when other lives were in danger, but did not receive the help they needed to heal afterwards.
Some hear about folks running around the country, screaming about how they are raising awareness, but the reality is there are less serving now than when the Army started to "address PTSD" yet it translated into more suicides among less to count.
Whatever you have heard up to this day after Veterans Day, you will now have the power to change the conversation.
Keep in mind that Combat PTSD Wounded Times has over 27,000 posts on it, so there is a lot of "news" put into this book. Your challenge is to discover what is true about the lives of these fictional characters.
Once in a while someone says something completely stupid about PTSD. While they may care about the troops and our veterans, it becomes obvious they did not care enough to learn much about them.
When folks lined up to start repeating "22 a day" and how they were raising awareness, I'd argue with them about the numbers and what the VA report actually said. That was when I'd hear the words that made me hang up the phone. "Its just a number" they said defending their use of someone else's anguish.
So how is it they survived combat but could not survive when they were back home?
We may see them as heroes, but they say they were just doing their jobs. We may see them as victims, but they see themselves as survivors. We may see them as someone to feel sorry for but they discovered the truth and found the power within all they still had to give.
From Residual War, Something Worth Living For by Kathie Costos DiCesare
FIRST NIGHT
LEVERAGE’S ROOM
Alarm clock shows 3:15 near the window where she is standing looking out.
The soldiers were in their rooms.
Michaels paces the floor
Alvarez is sleeping with his machine gun by his side.
Franklin is sitting on the side of the bed. Elbows on knees, head down in his hands.
Daniel's room was empty
Shultz is in bed with glow of cell phone on his face.
Bean and Murray are sleeping in the same bed. Bean has arm around Murray as his legs are moving and he is whimpering.
Daniels is walking around as if on patrol.
Faith is in fetal position, shaking with tears coming out of his eyes.
The next day all of them were talking about how they ended up at Fort Christmas. Each one of them had proven themselves as heroic and human. They had heard all the rumors about PTSD but they survived the causes while idiots spread gossip.
"So you see ma’am every one of us did something for the right reason without thinking about what the consequences would be because it had to be done."
"It had to be done" and it was done over and over again. They did it because everyone they served with in Afghanistan and Iraq were worth dying for. The trouble was, none of them had found something worth living for until someone else proved to them their own worth.
