"They treated me like a crazed criminal" says defiant Major

Major Gant can't understand that bringing his girlfriend to Afghanistan and living with her among the "natives" plus drinking and popping pills, were the wrong things to do.

Green Beret brings girlfriend to Afghanistan, ‘goes native’
New York Post
By Gary Buiso
June 29, 2014

In a remote village in the dangerous northeastern Kunar province of Afghanistan, Army Green Beret Maj. Jim Gant was doing something few others had — he was making progress against the enemy.

To do so, he and his men went native — trading their body armor for traditional Afghan garb, growing long beards, speaking the local Pashto tongue, and forging close alliances with tribesmen, who would come to revere Gant as “Commander Jim.”

But when he went to bed at night, Gant had one thing his men did not — company.

Ann Scott Tyson, a Washington Post war correspondent, quit her job to live secretly with him on the front lines — where he taught her how to shoot an assault rifle for protection. They drank alcohol and made their own rules.

When his commanders got wind of the domestic bliss he carved out for himself in the heart of a war zone, Gant was quietly relieved of his command and pushed to retire in disgrace.

Once nicknamed “Lawrence of Afghanistan” by Gen. David Petraeus, Gant was now more like Col. Walter Kurtz, the Green Beret who goes native — then loony — in the 1979 film “Apocalypse Now.” Gant indulged in a “self-created fantasy world,” his commanders charged.

To this day, Gant remains as defiant as Kurtz.

“They treated me like a crazed criminal instead of who I was,” Gant, 46, tells The Post. “My expectation was only ever that I would be treated honorably, and that just did not happen.”
read more here

Marine Squad's Lone Survivor Opens Up About Life After War

A Marine Squad's Lone Survivor
On August 3, 2005, Marine Lance Corporal Travis Williams lost his entire squad in an explosion in Iraq. Seven years later, the noise from his work making custom knives helps him drown out the memories. WSJ's Michael M. Phillips reports.

Politico gives W.P credit day later after Army Times reported story

Obama Demands VA Investigation Into PTSD Diagnoses
By Daniel W. Reilly

May 16, 2008
(The Politico) Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) is demanding an investigation into reports that a supervisor at a Texas Veterans' Affairs facility told staff members to refrain from diagnosing returning war veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder in order to reduce costs.

On Friday, Obama sent a letter to Veterans Affairs Secretary James Peake expressing his "serious concerns" over the reports and demanding an investigation.

The Washington Post broke the story on Friday, which included emails from Dr. Norma Perez suggesting to her staff members that they "refrain from giving a diagnosis of PTSD straight out," because of the increasing costs of treating the disorder.

"Simply put, Ms. Perez's email is outrageous," Obama wrote in the letter. "As you well know, PTSD is the most prevalent mental disorder afflicting our returning...veterans."

"In order to receive their deserved benefits, these brave men and women must endure a long and arduous process. To hear that a VA official is promoting misdiagnoses of soldiers to save money is unacceptable and is tantamount to fraud. "

Peake issued a statement on the matter, saying that Perez's email was "inappropriate" and did not reflect VA policy.

"Too many veterans see the VA as a bureaucracy with the singular goal of denying services and benefits to veterans," said Obama. "This recent incident merely serves to promote that impression."

The Democratic presidential hopeful gave Peake a deadline of May 23 to inform him if the department will open an investigation.

Obama, who is a member of the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee, also wrote a letter to committee chairman Sen. Daniel Akaka (D-Hawaii) asking him to look into the matter.


http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/05/16/politics/
politico/thecrypt/main4103492.shtml

If the Washington Post broke the story on Friday, then how did I post it Thursday and Army Times was where I got it from?

Thursday, May 15, 2008

PTSD in troops dismissed to save money! Was it worth it?
I am posting this is very large type so that no one misses a single word of this.
Four who committed suicide so that the government could save money! Many more each week did the same thing. Over 12,000 a year tried to.
VA Secretary James Peake acknowledged in a statement that the e-mail did come from a VA facility, but said it’s not official policy.

“A single staff member, out of VA’s 230,000 employees, in a single medical facility sent a single e-mail with suggestions that are inappropriate and have been repudiated at the highest level of our health-care organization,” he said. “The employee has been counseled and is extremely apologetic.”

VoteVets.org and Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington filed a Freedom of Information Act request May 14 asking VA for all documents relating to PTSD, said Naomi Seligman Steiner, spokeswoman for the latter group.

“We’re not head-hunting,” Friedman said. “There are a lot of great people who work at VA who have helped me and my friends. We had to file the FOIA to get to the bottom of this. Is it from the head of the VA? The presidential administration? Or individual hospitals? I would like to know where this directive is coming from.”

Peake said his staff “works hard” to make sure mental health issues are accurately diagnosed.

“VA’s leadership will strongly remind all medical staff that trust, accuracy and transparency is paramount to maintaining our relationships with our veteran patients,” he said. “We are committed to absolute accuracy in a diagnosis and unwavering in providing any and all earned benefits. PTSD and the mental health arena is no exception.” http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/05/military_va_adjustmentdisorder_051508w/

Washington Post's Walter Reed Report Wins Pulitzer Prize

Washington Post Wins 6 Pulitzers
AP foreign, Tuesday April 8 2008
By DEEPTI HAJELA

Associated Press Writer

NEW YORK (AP) - The Washington Post won six Pulitzer Prizes on Monday - the most in its history - including awards for its coverage of the Virginia Tech massacre and a series exposing shoddy treatment of America's war wounded at Walter Reed hospital.

The New York Times received two Pulitzers: one for investigative reporting, for stories on toxic ingredients in medicine and other products from China, and one for explanatory reporting, for examining the ethical issues surrounding DNA testing.

Previously, the Post won as many as four Pulitzers in a single year, in 2006. The record is seven, won by the Times in 2002, mostly for its coverage of the Sept. 11 attacks.

Cheers erupted in the Post newsroom when the prizes were announced. Like many newspapers, the Post is struggling mightily with falling circulation and advertising revenue. It is going through its third round of employee buyouts since 2003.

``This is actually a boost to remind people that we can produce this kind of journalism at any time,'' said Post Executive Editor Leonard Downie Jr. ``We're going to have a large enough newsroom to continue to produce this kind of quality journalism.''

Post reporter Dana Priest said the Walter Reed story was among the work in which she took the most pride. She and Hull worked on the story for about six months, developing sources among soldiers and their families.

``It's a reminder of what basic journalism can get you involved in,'' she said. ``At a time when journalism is under this cloud of financial uncertainty, reporters have to stay focused, and if we don't, we sort of doom people like the Army specialist who lived with the cockroaches in Building 18.

``We can do better than that.''

go here for more
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/feedarticle/7444849

The story behind the reporting on Walter Reed

March 15, 2008...2:29 pm
‘Creating An Investigative Narrative’
I’m here at the Nieman narrative journalism conference in Boston, sitting in on this morning’s keynote speech, “Creating An Investigative Narrative,” with Washington Post writers Anne Hull and Dana Priest. They are explaining the story behind their award winning Walter Reed series. It’s my first time blogging live from a conference, so bear with me. Feedback is welcome.

Some notes from their talk:

Hull and Priest focused on the army’s neglect and the treatment of wounded soldiers at Walter Reed Hospital. Neither of them were prepared for the reaction, they said. They received hundreds of e-mails in response to the series.

“For the first time in my life I realized the true power we have as journalists to create change.” –Anne
click post title for the rest

Prosecute Army For Dereliction Of Duty

I was thinking about some of the stories I've posted this year and this was one of the ones that made me think of how many others like 1st Lt. Elizabeth Whiteside there are. What if Dana Priest and Anne Hull didn't report on what she was going through? What would have happened to Whiteside if the Army got away with just prosecuting her?

Update on Veteran Army 1st Lt. Elizabeth Whiteside
Army 1st Lt. Elizabeth Whiteside, who was recently profiled by Post reporters Dana Priest and Anne Hull, has received good news: an Army hearing officer has recommended that she should not face a court-martial for attempting suicide and endangering another soldier while in Iraq. Whiteside, who is undergoing psychiatric treatment at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, should be allowed "to end her military service and receive the benefits that she will desperately need for the remainder of her life," said Maj. Mervin H. Steals, the officer assigned to conduct a preliminary hearing. His decision will be passed along to an officer who has jurisdiction over the matter and can accept or reject the recommendation. Whiteside suffered a mental breakdown earlier this year, waving a gun and threatening others before she fired a shot into her stomach. She faces the possibility of life in prison if she is tried and convicted. Her story was part of the Post's ongoing coverage of the treatment of veterans at Walter Reed.

By The Editors December 11, 2007; 10:00 AM ET Walter Reed Previous: Responding to a Critic Next: Meet the Reporters and Editors

click post title for the rest of this

Dana Priest and Anne Hull have done a great service to the men and women who risk their lives everyday and for all veterans who were ignored by the media before. They've done it time and time again. In each case we really need to wonder what would have been done or allowed to go on if they didn't bother?

Would Walter Reed hospital still be treating the wounded as if they were lucky to be there at all in squalor? Would the DOD still be allowed to ignore the suffering of thousands of veterans, forced out under "personality disorders" unable to be compensated for their wounds or support themselves or their families? Would the VA get away with ignoring the problem of suicides reaching epidemic proportions doing absolutely nothing to open clinics and veterans centers, hiring more psychologist and therapists as well as claims processors? Not that they have even come close to fulfilling those needs still.

Without reporters and families standing up to say this is all wrong, nothing would be fixed at all. We owe them our willingness to fight for all of them, to stand up and say "you can't get away with treating our troops like this" to the Army. As a matter of fact it needs to be said to the Marines, the Navy, the Air Force and the National Guards as well. It is dereliction of duty to leave any of these wounded behind and without their wounds being tended to.

As the brass contemplates any more charges against them they should wonder what they did that caused it to happen because it begins and ends with them. kc

Steroids in Sports Or Suicides In Soldiers?

I get alrerts all the time on a lot of subjects. This really got me! I received this one from the Washington Post, yet never got one on the hearing being done in Washington over the suicides of our soldiers and veterans. Imagine that! I never would have imagined that steroid use in sports players would be more important than our soldiers and veterans killing themselves needlessly. Just goes to show where our priorities in this country are.

The care and needs of our veterans as well as active deployed forces today are not even the number one issue facing voters according to recent polls. We have two occupations going on right now and the majority of the country seem to not even want to have the slightest clue what is going on in either of them. This make no sense to me at all because when the subject of Iraq comes up, everyone seems to have an opinion of it, but really has nothing to base that opinion on. This is evident when you read the poll data and the impression of events in Iraq as well as Afghanistan, never seem to match the news reports. Ambivalence is easy to twist when passion may be there but there is no knowledge to go with it.

I don't know if it is the case of the media not reporting on the importance of Iraq and Afghanistan and the lives of our veterans, or it's a case of the media just reporting on what the public is showing interest in. Whatever the reason, our troops and veterans are the ones suffering while sports players are the ones getting all the attention.

Kathie Costos
Namguardianangel@aol.com


News Alert 3:47 p.m. ET Thursday, December 13, 2007

VIDEO: MLB Commissioner on Mitchell Report, 4:30 ET Commissioner Bud Selig will respond to report on use of steroids and performance-enhancing drugs. To view live streaming video of this event on the Web (courtesy of Comcast), go to http://letters.washingtonpost.com/WBRH016F1841EE30A48E73787BC7D0.

Diva Veteran's warrior reporters hold Q & A at Walter Reed

All veterans should thank Priest and Hull for fighting for you!


Post Reporters Hold Chat on Walter Reed Series

The Washington Post
Below are excerpts from a recent Washington Post online reader chat with Washington Post reporters Dana Priest and Anne V. Hull, who discussed the latest installment in their "Walter Reed and Beyond" series chronicling the care and treatment given to service members returning from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. The story focused on First Lt. Elizabeth Whiteside and how the military handles mental problems differently than physical wounds.

Q: Why do you suppose those in charge remain so uninformed about wounds of the mind?

A (Hull): Some "get it" and others seem to still be a product of the culture. Like all culture shifts, these are slow to change. And yet the high numbers of returning soldiers with post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental problems have forced them to take notice. Many initiatives launched and in the works from the Army, but still the disturbing trend continues of service members with mental issues not getting treated the same as the physically wounded.

Q: How is the mental stress of soldiers coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan different than those who returned from other wars?

A (Hull): What's different about this war is that they come back to hometowns and cities that are not really engaged in the war. Less than 1 percent of Americans are serving. Also, the battlefield in Iraq is everywhere, with no clear-cut front lines. The randomness of violence and the mutilating nature of bombs and explosives make every day stressful. Just driving a car once home again sets off a lot of soldiers.
go here for the rest

Washington Post needs to look back at homeless figures

Many D.C. Veterans Homeless, Study Says
Report Sounds a National Alarm

By Steve Vogel
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, November 8, 2007; Page B01

As many as 195,800 military veterans were homeless on any given night last year, and there are "troubling" indications that many service members returning from Iraq and Afghanistan could eventually face the same fate, according to a study being released today.

The report, from the National Alliance to End Homelessness, found that veterans make up a quarter of the United States' homeless population and that the District has a particularly high rate, with an estimated 7.5 percent of the nearly 32,000 veterans in the city living on the streets, in shelters or in assisted housing.

click post title for the rest

This is a great piece and worth reading. What the Post didn't do was check the figures from past years from the National Coalition For Homeless Veterans. Then maybe they could answer how the government lost over 100,000 homeless veterans when they couldn't take care of the homeless after Katrina. It's for damn sure they all didn't die suddenly and I really doubt, based on the track record of this administration they managed to house over 100,000 veterans who had already been reported homeless.

Tom Shroder wants questions from you on ecstasy trials for PTSD

Tom Shroder
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, November 26, 2007; 12:00 PM
After decades of wariness about hallucinogenic drugs, researchers are now measuring the therapeutic effects of MDMA, or ecstasy, in a federal clinical study. In this week's issue of Washington Post Magazine, Tom Shroder explores the drug's scientific potential in treating post-traumatic stress disorder.
Submit your questions and comments before or during today's discussion.
Tom Shroder is the editor of the Magazine . He can be reached at shrodert@washpost.com.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2007/11/21/DI2007112101072.html

A while ago, I can't remember which blog it was on, I posted a story of a woman who had been brutally raped. They tried everything to ease her PTSD but nothing worked. They tried ecstasy. It helped her a great deal. Don't laugh at this study. There are many drugs being used today that were forbidden many years ago and some regarded as illegal now were used then, like marijuana. A lot of people are being helped using pot. Ask Willy Nelson.