Soldier's heart does not have to include head full of demons

You are smarter than slogans

Combat PTSD Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
February 5, 2019

Someone lied to you. Someone told you something and you believed it because you trusted them. You never bothered to ask them to prove it was true.

I do not need someone to prove God is real. I see it everyday. I see it in the unique people who always put others first, even if it means they will be last for everything.

I see it when men and women are willing to endure all kinds of hardships, including the judgment of fools, for the sake of others.

I see God's Love in all types of acts of kindness and compassion, mercy, inspiration and unselfishness.

I also see what evil can do pretending to be good. I do not need proof that the Demon is real. I see what he does to those who find purpose serving others.

I also see it when people claim they are doing something to change what is wrong, when the result proves they lied to us. They can deny it all they want, but after all these years of hearing how important it is to prevent suicides, and how expensive it is according to them, we see suffering increase every year.

We hear it from the Department of Defense, the Department of Veterans Affairs, Congress and especially from all the "awareness" fundraisers running around the country with their BS stunts. Did they think we wouldn't notice that they are spreading messages of despair instead of anything helpful?

Before they were "paying attention" we were way ahead of all of them. We were talking about what failed as well as what worked. Ignorance failed but knowledge heals.

Kathie Costos DiCesare
Published on Oct 21, 2012
There are many things that keep getting missed when we talk about Combat and PTSD. This is to clear up the biggest one of all. What is courage and how does it link to being "mentally tough" so that you can push past what you were told about "resiliency" training. Chaplain Kathie "Costos" DiCesare of Wounded Times Blog tries to explain this in interview done by Union Squared Studios. woundedtimes.blogspot.com

So we were told over and over again, that everyone in charge was paying attention at the same time they tried to come up with excuses. Then they asked for more money, to keep doing the same thing that already failed, and we were no longer able to count the number of the dead. Well, at least not in the veterans community, but because Congress mandated the DOD to track suicides within the military, we have a more up to date report with data that proves none of the "awareness" they actually needed to become aware of was able to get to them. All the crap got in the way.

So, here are the latest headlines on military suicides. 

Suicides among active-duty soldiers are up about 20 percent

Army Times
By: Meghann Myers
February 4, 2019

“We must continue to ensure commanders have the policies and resources they need to prevent suicides, that all leaders have the tools to identify soldiers who are suffering and to positively intervene, and that all soldiers view seeking mental health care as a sign of strength.” Col. Kathleen Turner

The Army reported an uptick in active-duty suicides in 2018, according to service statistics, though deaths by suicide were slightly down in the total force.

Out of 303 total reports, 138 came from the active-duty side ― 22 more than in 2017, Defense Department statistics show.

“Like the rest of America, the Army continues to grapple with the loss of too many of our people to suicide," Army spokeswoman Col. Kathleen Turner told Army Times in a statement Friday. “The loss of any soldier or Army family member to suicide is a tragedy.”

The most recent DoD quarterly suicide report goes back to 2012, showing a six-year high of 325 total suicides in the Army. That number dropped to 300 in 2013 and then to a low of 245 in 2014, before ramping back up to 279 in both 2015 and 2016, then jumping again to 303 in 2017.

During that time, active-duty numbers also fluctuated. The Army reported 165 active-duty suicides in 2012, which dropped to 121 in 2013, then 126 in 2014 and 120 in 2015. The past three years, the numbers have swelled and dipped from 120 in 2016 to 116 in 2017, then back up to 138.

“While the Army has made progress, more work needs to be done,” Turner said.
read more here

US Special Ops suicides triple in 2018, as military confronts the issue

CNN
Barbara Starr
February 2, 2019

Washington (CNN)Suicides among active duty military personnel assigned to US Special Operations Command tripled in 2018, in a disturbing and as yet unexplained spike, CNN has learned.

Special Operations units saw 22 deaths by suicide in 2018, almost triple the eight cases seen in 2017, according to figures provided to CNN by the command. SOCOM, as it's known, is the unified combatant command charged with overseeing the various Special Operations component of the Army, Marine Corps, Navy and Air Force that take on counterterrorism and other specialized missions. read more here

Active-Duty Military Suicides at Record Highs in 2018

Military.com
Patricia Kime
January 30, 2019

Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to include Army year-end totals.

The U.S. military finished 2018 with a troubling, sad statistic: It experienced the highest number of suicides among active-duty personnel in at least six years.

Lt. Cmdr. Karen Downer writes a name on a Suicide Awareness Memorial Canvas in honor of Suicide Awareness Month at Naval Hospital Jacksonville, Sept. 10, 2018. (U.S. Navy/Jacob Sippel, Naval Hospital Jacksonville).

Active duty Military members could save more with GEICO. Get a quote today! A total of 321 active-duty members took their lives during the year, including 57 Marines, 68 sailors, 58 airmen, and 138 soldiers.

The deaths equal the total number of active-duty personnel who died by suicide in 2012, the record since the services began closely tracking the issue in 2001. read more here

Don't you love the slogan? One too many or too few actually paying attention?

The question is, if we knew what had to be done over 4 decades ago, when serious research started, then why haven't they figured it out yet? Do not spend so much time thinking about taking your own life when you can think about how to #TakeYourLifeBack and heal! The road ahead is in your control!

Dr. Ed Tick: Healing PTSD New-Song

Decades later, a Troy veteran of Vietnam heals
Reconciliation tours of Vietnam aid veterans who served in war
Albany Times Union
By J.p. Lawrence
August 14, 2016

Vietnam veteran Dan New of Troy met with Viet Cong veteran Tam Tien, as part of a reconciliation tour led by psychotherapist Ed Tick and his organization Soldier's Heart. 

IMAGE 1 OF 8 Vietnam veteran Dan New of Troy met with Viet Cong veteran Tam Tien, as part of a reconciliation tour led by psychotherapist Ed Tick and his organization Soldier's Heart. (Photo: Ed Tick).

Troy
The heat of the night enveloped Dan New as he got off the plane. The 68-year-old man was back in the city he had known as Saigon. New marveled at how much had changed in what was now known as Ho Chi Minh City.

Waiting for him at the airport was another veteran of the war that ended 40 years ago. That man, Tran Dinh Song, had served in the South Vietnamese Air Force.

Over the next two weeks, New and Song would learn more about each other's story. In the years after coming home from Vietnam, New had sealed an intense feeling of guilt within him. In the years after his country lost to Communist forces, Song of South Vietnam had spent three years in a re-education camp. In December, the two men's winding paths after the war intersected in Ho Chi Minh City.

Song, 67, was New's guide in a two-week reconciliation tour of a dozen American veterans and researchers arranged by the Soldier's Heart, a Troy-based organization that helps veterans heal the psychological wounds of war.
read more here

Warriors Journey Home Ministry

This is what a church can do when they are willing to step up and do the work of a true believer. All religions demand action, not just attending worship services or putting in money in the collection plate, but actually doing the work the needs to be done to help heal their communities.

I traveled locally for several months trying to get local churches in Central Florida to step up to help the veterans heal from what they had to go through. Only one responded and the pastor of the church happened to be a Chaplain as well.

Houses of worship, no matter what faith they belong to, have a responsibility to go beyond just spreading a weekly message from the pulpit. When a warrior returns from combat, they need help to heal and when they do not receive it, they suffer, their families suffer, relatives suffer, friends suffer and the community as a whole suffers. This is a time of great need for communities across this nation. Too many forget that while they do not have a military base, they do have National Guards and Reservists serving or have served in Iraq or Afghanistan along with veterans from other wars.

When you think that at a time when all houses of worship should be growing, far too many leave them because the need is not being met. If houses of worship refuse to address the needs of their communities, they are not serving God.

When the spiritual needs of the veterans are being tended to, there are miracles happening everyday. Veterans are able to reconnect to God, find forgiveness for whatever they feel they need to be forgiven for, awaken their spiritual core, heal marriages, rebuild relationships with their families and most will then turn to help others heal with the peace they have found inside.

This wound has been documented throughout history from ancient Greek and Roman writers and from the Bible itself. All cultures have had ways of healing after combat with rituals for "cleansing" the spirit. If you think that God wants nothing to do with them, think again. Here is just one example but you can find more when you read from the Old Testament Judges and Kings along with the writings from King David.

When God was about to create the souls of man, He first created a warrior. The need to protect because of the freewill God would be enabling would take a great warrior to accomplish this. God created it in the Archangel Michael. Michael is acknowledged through the major religions. The people who serve, willing to lay down their lives for the sake of others, hold Michael as their Patron Saint. While God created a warrior before He even created mankind, how could anyone, especially members of the clergy, forget that defending others is one of the most noblest calling of all?

In our core, there are established abilities from God's hand. Some are called to serve as preachers, others are called to serve their communities. When it comes to those who serve in the military or in the police and fire departments, again there is the ability within their core. When they choose to enter into the military, they do so willing to risk their lives for the sake of others, but they are also enabled to take a life when necessary. It is the same with members of the police forces. They are enabled with bravery and commitment to do all that is required.

When people enter into the National Guards and Reservists ranks, again they are enabled within their core to be able to save lives. They are willing to risk their own lives in order to save someone else, but in their core, they are not as able to take a life. It is the same thoughts of those who enter into the fire departments and emergency response groups. At their core is the same bravery as the military but when they have to take another life or see the deaths in combat, they have a harder time. The thought of having to kill is absent when they enter into the National Guards. The ability to do it and cope after is not within them as much as it is within those who enter into the regular military. Events have penetrated their core. They need extra help to heal as they return to the civilian world.

While all need help to heal, some need it more than others. This is a time when the psychiatric community and the spiritual communities should be mobilizing their efforts to address the needs of the mind-body-spirit since these three elements are within each human. One by one, churches are stepping up but it is a slow process and still the vast majority of them remain ignorant to the needs of their own congregations. If you attend a church, contact your own pastor and make them aware of what this church is doing and what the need is. Convince them to do something to help those who serve all in this nation.

Senior Chaplain Kathie Costos
International Fellowship of Chaplains
Namguardianangel@aol.com
www.Namguardianangel.org
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

Programs to focus on stress disorder from war
Stow Sentry - Stow,Ohio,USA


Warriors Journey Home Ministry (WJHM) of First Congregational Church of Tallmadge will be host to a week of activities focused on the community's response to post traumatic stress disorder resulting from war.

Dr. Edward Tick, founder of Soldier's Heart in Albany, N.Y., is an international speaker and author of "War and The Soul" will be present at all events as the workshop leader, retreat leader and speaker.

Psycho-spiritual Approach to the Treatment of PTSD

Soldier’s Heart Has Gathered a Community!
By Kate Dahlstedt, co-director of Soldier’s Heart
Community plays an integral part in healing our veterans. Just as “it takes a village to raise a child,” it also takes a village to transform a soldier into a warrior. When a nation is at war ideally the whole community is involved - not just soldiers and their loved ones. Otherwise we risk alienating and isolating the very people who are making the greatest sacrifice.
As Soldier’s Heart has unfolded people from all over the country have reached out to ask, “What can I do?” Many of these are helping professionals offering their skills and devotion. Others are concerned and compassionate citizens. The outpouring of gifts, services and monetary support for our Veterans Return Retreat last January exemplified the desire of citizens to give back to military service people.
There are innumerable ways we can contribute to helping veterans reintegrate well on their return from the war zone and support their families while they are gone. These can be as diverse as vendors giving free or discounted goods and services (car repair, child care, gasoline, tutoring, hair cuts, household services, etc.) to military families. People from the community can volunteer to do household chores such as shovel the walks and mow the lawns of military families living in our neighborhoods.
Beyond this kind of giving, church groups and community organizations can offer emotional and spiritual support. This doesn’t require professionals or specialists. All of us are able to lend a compassionate ear. A hallmark of the healing arts teaches us that storytelling is essential to healing; storytelling to those who can really listen, feel the truth of what is shared, refrain from judging and agree to help carry the story in their hearts.
Over and over again we hear from veterans that their healing became possible when they could finally let out the truth of their experiences and have it received by the rest of the community with love and respect. Once a community agrees to carry the stories and the emotional burden they evoke veterans can release the shame, guilt and horror of what they have been through. Honored as chief witnesses to the realities of war, our veterans can transform from wounded soldiers to embrace the identity of the True Warrior.
Ed’s work in the last year has spread this message to communities throughout the country. These communities have, in turn, begun to address the soul needs of their veterans with a better understanding. As we prepare to celebrate Soldier’s Heart’s first year anniversary, we feel gratitude for all of the wonderful and inspiring people we have met along the way, people who have led us, one to another, to form a great circle. People from all walks of life are coming together in a united mission to help our veterans return and claim their true identities as warriors.
These newsletter pages are a gathering place. All of you are welcome to submit articles about what you are doing in your own towns and cities. Together, from all over our nation, we support and encourage, challenge and inspire each other. Together we are “the village.”
for more information, go here
http://www.soldiersheart.net/Newsletters/SHNewsletter-4-07.pdf

8th grade class moved by Soldier's Story to do something

Students surrender sweets for soldiers
Book set during Civil War spurs students to donate part of Halloween spoils

By LEIGH HORNBECK, Staff writer
Click byline for more stories by writer.
First published: Friday, November 30, 2007

SCHUYLERVILLE -- Somewhere in Iraq or Afghanistan, a soldier is snacking on Crystal Briere's Halloween candy.

Briere, 13, an eighth-grader at Schuylerville Central School, dressed up as a Gothic sorceress and went trick-or-treating this year, but she didn't keep all the candy. Briere's classmates donated a portion of their goodies and sent them to the Middle East as part of "Trick or Treat for Our Troops."

The initiative took shape after students read "Soldier's Heart" by Gary Paulsen. The book chronicles the experiences of a 15-year-old boy after he enlists in the First Minnesota Volunteers during the Civil War. He leaves the service at age 19, suffering from "soldier's heart," a term used in the book to describe what would now be called post-traumatic stress disorder.

"Our eighth-graders were so moved by this book and the information on post-traumatic stress disorder that they wanted to do something to help today's soldiers," said Mary Lou Liptak-Masten, a remedial reading teacher who oversaw Trick or Treat for Our Troops.
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Imagine that! A Civil War story so moving it caused this 8th grade class to think of the soldiers serving today. Now this is history come to life!

'Soldier's Heart' has heartbreaking relevance

'Soldier's Heart' has heartbreaking relevance
By Bob Minzesheimer, USA TODAY
Fresh out of Harvard and Yale, Elizabeth Samet began teaching English at West Point a decade ago, when life there was peaceful — "there's no other word for it," she writes. Then came 9/11.
Samet and her students — future second lieutenants — found new meaning in works such as Tolstoy's War and Peace and Randall Jarrell's poem, The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner.
Samet's account of teaching and learning, Soldier's Heart: Reading Literature Through Peace and War at West Point, is absolutely fascinating. Never has Tolstoy or Homer seemed more relevant.
Her book explores serious issues — moral questions about courage and obedience — but with graceful writing and flashes of humor.
She is an outsider: a civilian and a woman in a military culture of, in Virginia Woolf's phrase, "unmitigated masculinity."
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Bike trip from Seattle to Gloucester to raise awareness of PTSD

Vacation Spent Helping Veterans
Cyclist Rides Across Country

By LORETTA WALDMAN | Courant Staff Writer
September 5, 2007

SIMSBURY - In mid-June, 53-year-old Tariffville resident Wayne Coste began a 4,200-mile coast-to-coast bicycle trip.

The 64-day journey, which took him and 25 other cyclists through 13 states and a Canadian province, began in Seattle and ended Aug. 18 in Gloucester, Mass.

That may seem less than relaxing as vacations go, but Coste wasn't looking to kick back.

He was on a mission to raise awareness about the plight of returning military personnel suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, an invisible but devastating psychological wound affecting one in five veterans returning from Iraq.

Coste, an engineer with ISO New England, is not a veteran, nor is he close to anyone diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. His interest in the condition, he said, began with reading articles about how difficult it can be for veterans to get treatment. It solidified in October when he attended a presentation by Dr. Edward Tick, director of Soldier's Heart, an Albany, N.Y.-based nonprofit that promotes community-based efforts helping service personnel and their families heal from the effects of war.
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