Soldier asks out Katy Perry to raise awareness of PTSD

Soldier asks out Katy Perry to raise awareness of PTSD
By Alex Cabrero
April 11th, 2012
SALT LAKE CITY

Sgt. Drew Reese-Howells is being brave. He's been brave before - he's been to war as a soldier in the Utah National Guard. But asking a woman out on a date takes a different kind of brave, especially when that woman is pop star Katy Perry.

Sgt. Reese-Howells is a not only a soldier and a big fan of Katy Perry, but he is also a singer in the army band. They actually perform two of Perry's songs. Later this month is the military ball, and Reese-Howells would love to do those two songs - with Katy Perry. So, he invited her to be his date after he saw her latest music video where Perry dresses up as a Marine.

"I figured she would probably understand what veterans and soldiers are going through," Reese-Howells said .

Sgt. Reese-Howells isn't just inviting Perry to meet a celebrity, he's doing it to raise awareness for something close to his heart.
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Utah National Guard scrambling now that Iraq deployment is called off

Guard members scrambling now that Iraq deployment is called off
Published: Wednesday, Aug. 24, 2011 10:59 a.m. MDT
By Steve Fidel, Deseret News

WEST JORDAN — Members of the Utah National Guard's 1-211 Attack Recon Battalion have been preparing for as long as a year to deploy to Iraq in September.

The Apache attack helicopter battalion's deployment was scrubbed at the last minute, leaving about 400 Guard members in a scramble to reconnect with their lives at home while also having a "warning order" they will instead go to Afghanistan in about 13 months.

"What am I going to do now?" was the first thing to go through Spc. Angela Christiansen's mind when members got word on Thursday the deployment had been scrubbed. "I have no idea since I was focused completely (on deploying) since June."

As unnerving as deploying to Iraq might have been, unhitching from deployment plans "is more frightening because it's more uncertain," she said. "I quit my job. I was renting an apartment. I left that. I was staying with a friend temporarily, so now I have nowhere to live."

Sgt. David Driscoll has a house he can't live in because he leased it for the time he expected to be gone. Now he's trying to find something else near where his children are going to school. Spc. William Price, an Apache crew chief, took a year off school to get ready for the deployment. He has been out of school long enough that he will soon have student loans coming due without the combat-zone-enhanced full-time military paycheck to cover those costs.
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11 Utah Guard workers hospitalized

11 Utah Guard workers hospitalized

By Mike Stark - The Associated Press
Posted : Thursday Mar 25, 2010 19:33:00 EDT

CAMP WILLIAMS, Utah —Eleven workers who were exposed to an irritating material at a Utah National Guard training base on Thursday had to be decontaminated in a hospital parking lot before they were taken to the emergency room and released several hours later.

The irritant came from material leaking from a building’s heating system that was dripping onto some drywall, according to Maj. Craig Bello of the 85th Civil Support Team.
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11 Utah Guard workers hospitalized

Utah National Guards lost 2 soldiers in combat, but ten more because of it.

This is not new because people lost track of how many we lost after Vietnam. Two studies put their numbers between 150,000 and 200,000 of suicide deaths. Then you can add in the numbers of the Agent Orange deaths to get a better understanding of how large the Vietnam Memorial Wall in Washington would really have to be to honor all the lives lost because of Vietnam. While losing more after combat than during it, is not new, the numbers are early can coming faster. The worst part about this is that Army Secretary Pete Geren doesn't have a clue why. How many years do the people in charge need before they understand what we already know?

Suicide claiming more Utah Guard members than combat
Rising numbers » Military responding with increased social workers, counselors.
By Matthew D. LaPlante

The Salt Lake Tribune

Updated: 02/03/2009 06:18:20 PM MST


Since 2005, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have cost the lives of two soldiers from the Utah National Guard.

Suicide has claimed 10.

In response to an alarming increase of suicide in its ranks, the military has hired a virtual army of social workers, mental health professionals and suicide-prevention counselors to work with its members. But for the fourth consecutive year, the Army has reported an increase in the number of soldiers it has lost to suicide. At least 128 soldiers took their own lives in 2008 - - --- and that number could rise, as 15 other deaths remain under investigation.

"Why do the numbers keep going up? We cannot tell you," said Army Secretary Pete Geren. "But we can tell you that across the Army, we're committed to doing everything we can to address the problem."

In response to the rising numbers, the Army will conduct a 30-day "stand-down" starting Feb. 15, which will include training for members to recognize behaviors among their peers that may lead to suicide.

Utah National Guard officials said they are awaiting guidance on how to conduct that program, but will continue education and training efforts that seem to have helped to decrease suicide among their ranks in the past four years.

The Utah guard lost three soldiers to suicide in 2005, four in 2006, one in 2007 and two in 2008. Officials said statistics from prior years were unavailable because the Guard's personnel officers didn't track suicides separately from other deaths until 2005, but at least one soldier killed himself in 2004 while on duty in Afghanistan with the 211th Aviation Battalion.
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