TroopTube is Pentagon's answer to YouTube

Pentagon launches its own version of YouTube

By William H. McMichael - Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday Nov 12, 2008 16:04:27 EST

Eighteen months after banning access to YouTube and other social networking and entertainment sites on Defense Department computers, the Pentagon has launched a site where troops and families can upload and share videos.

Don’t look for anything too edgy on TroopTube. All videos are subject to screening for “taste, copyright violations and national security issues,” according to the Web site, which is administered by Military OneSource, the Pentagon’s online family resource center.

But the good news is that unlike YouTube, MySpace and 10 other networking and entertainment sites banned on official sites worldwide by the Pentagon in May 2007 — primarily, officials said, because they took up too much bandwidth — TroopTube can be viewed on an official computer.
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http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/11/military_trooptube_111208w/

This sounds great and maybe it'll replace what the troops have been missing.

If you think any of my videos will help a service member understand what PTSD is, not just for themselves, but their friends as well, please feel free to just upload away. No permission needed for what I do. Here's all the links so that you can use whatever you want.


When War Comes Home Part One04:33
From:NamGuardianAngelViews: 387
2 ratings

When War Comes Home Part Two

Women At War08:02
From:NamGuardianAngelViews: 10,571
17 ratings


Hero After War08:27
From:NamGuardianAngelViews: 4,966
16 ratings


A Homeless Veteran's Day04:00
From:NamGuardianAngelViews: 1,247
7 ratings


Nam Nights Of PTSD Still08:33
From:NamGuardianAngelViews: 2,431


Coming Out Of The Dark Of PTSD04:25
From:NamGuardianAngelViews: 1,234

The Voice Women At War09:49
From:NamGuardianAngelViews: 1,017

PTSD Not God's Judgment06:00
From:NamGuardianAngelViews: 2,168

Point Man Int. Ministries Is There04:41
From:NamGuardianAngelViews: 360

PTSD After Trauma04:44
From:NamGuardianAngelViews: 2,314

PTSD I Grieve08:40
From:NamGuardianAngelViews: 1,109

PTSD Final battle of war05:01
From:NamGuardianAngelViews: 268

PTSD It's All About Soul06:12
From:NamGuardianAngelViews: 83

Veterans Day Memories of Vietnam08:50
From:NamGuardianAngelViews: 179

Wounded Minds Veterans and PTSD

Dad has message after family killed:Don't drink and drive

Josh Jahn of Dwight speaks of missing his wife and children after Tuesday's funeral for Amanda, 27, Ryan, 3, and Kaitlyn, 11 months, in First Christian Church in Morris. The three family members died in a two-car accident near Morris on Thursday night. The other driver, Ann Marie Getz, 43, of Streator was charged with three counts of aggravated driving under the influence. (Tribune photo by John Smierciak / November 11, 2008)

'Please don't drink and drive. ... This is what happens—three beautiful lives abruptly cut short.'
By Emma Graves Fitzsimmons Tribune reporter
November 12, 2008
Amanda Jahn was driving home from teaching a violin lesson, her two young children strapped into their car seats, when a vehicle came barreling through a stop sign and slammed into their car.

A repeat drunken driver was behind the wheel of the other vehicle, officials said.

Josh Jahn, a volunteer firefighter, was at home with his police scanner on. When he heard the accident come over the radio, he drove to the scene because he had just talked with his wife and knew she was driving on that road.

Jahn saw his son being loaded onto the ambulance but not his wife. He followed the ambulance to the hospital, where he kept asking where his wife was until someone told him she had died at the scene.

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http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-dui-deathsnov12,0,1585608.story

Only 1 boy's body found in car in Green River

Only 1 boy's body found in car in Green River
A car that plunged into the Green River last week was finally pulled from the water Tuesday, but inside was the body of only one of two boys who had been trapped.

By Nancy Bartley

Seattle Times staff reporter

AUBURN — Eleven years ago, the Beaupre family gathered on the banks of the Green River to scatter the ashes of patriarch Paul Beaupre, an avid fisherman who died at 72.

On Tuesday, the family was back at the river holding vigil as King County sheriff's deputies recovered the body of 2-year-old Hunter Beaupre from a car that had careened into the murky, brown water on Friday. Hunter was Paul Beaupre's grandson.

But the body of Hunter's 13-year-old cousin Austin Fuda, who also had been in the car when it plunged into the river, was not found in the battered Volkswagen Beetle. A search of the riverbank also turned up no sign of the teen, adding to the anguish of the family that has waited nearly a week for some sign of the two boys.

"We were hoping and praying he was in the car," said Kristin Fuda, Austin's aunt. "This is like another nightmare on top of everything."
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Please pray for the family

Hard times forcing more families to give up pets

Hard times forcing more families to give up pets
The couple brought everything with their two dogs -- beds, food, even favorite toys. "I just felt for these people. They were having a hard time," said Gloria Thomas, director of the West Volusia Humane Society. "You could tell they were devastated they had to give up these two little pets."

By NICOLE SERVICE
Staff Writer
DAYTONA BEACH -- The couple brought everything with their two dogs -- beds, food, even favorite toys.

"I just felt for these people. They were having a hard time," said Gloria Thomas, director of the West Volusia Humane Society. "You could tell they were devastated they had to give up these two little pets."

As Thomas tells the story, the couple didn't have much choice. Their home was being foreclosed on and they were about to lose everything, which now included their beloved pets.

Shelter workers and volunteers throughout Volusia and Flagler counties tell similar stories about people faced with foreclosure, unemployment, or falling wages being forced to surrender their pets.

"You can always tell who they are," said Lynda Mays, a board member with Southeast Volusia Humane Society in New Smyrna Beach. "They are the people who sit and cry in our office for an hour. They feel they are not living up to their responsibility. It is terribly sad."

Bobbi Gibson with the Flagler County Humane Society said that facility has been getting one or two such pets per day -- about five a week -- from people who admit they have to surrender their pets because of financial problems.

Amy Beliman, a board member and volunteer, said the Flagler facility had five such surrenders on Monday alone.

"It is a sign of the times," she said. "Unfortunately, there are people who can't take care of their animals."

She said the influx of abandoned or surrendered pets is putting animal shelters into a financial bind, too.

"We are in dire need of funding," Beliman said. "People are hurting and the economy is tough, but we need to remember that the animals really need the help right now, too."
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Girl dies after possible school shooting in Fort Lauderdale

Girl dies after possible school shooting in Fort Lauderdale
By Ihosvani Rodriguez and Kathy Bushouse | SunSentinel.com
1:28 PM EST, November 12, 2008
FORT LAUDERDALE - A Dillard High School junior has died after a possible shooting on campus this morning, Superintendent James Notter said.

Notter confirmed the 15-year-old girl's death. He said he believed the shooting occurred in a school hallway after some sort of dispute with another 15-year-old female student around 11 a.m., but police still aren't sure exactly what.

The victim was found unresponsive in the hallway, but an initial examination found no evidence of a major wound, police spokesman Sgt. Frank Sousa said.

As police arrived, dispatchers got a call from Captain Crab's, a nearby restaurant, reporting that another girl may have been involved in a shooting, Sousa said.
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Vet highlights women in combat, military health care

Vet highlights women in combat, military health care
Newsday - Long Island,NY,USA

BY ZACHARY R. DOWDY | zachary.dowdy@newsday.com
8:13 PM EST, November 11, 2008
Iraq War veteran Tammy Duckworth stood alongside President-elect Barack Obama for a Veterans Day observance at a memorial in Illinois Tuesday and saluted those who fought beside her and died - men and women who weren't as lucky as she was.

Duckworth, 40, who in 2004 lost both of her legs and partial use of an arm during the conflict, had flown combat missions as a Black Hawk helicopter pilot. The decorated soldier, who spent 13 months recuperating at Walter Reed hospital in Washington, D.C., received the Purple Heart and the Air Medal for her service.

A major in the Illinois National Guard, she had flown the fighter plane for more than 200 combat hours before a grenade exploded in her cockpit. She told The Associated Press that her experience is an example of women's increased exposure to military combat.

"The American public is beginning to realize that women are playing an equal part in this war and that they are facing the same risks," she said.
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We neglect our veterans to our shame

We neglect our veterans to our shame
Stamford Advocate - Stamford,CT,USA


Staff Reports
Article Launched: 11/12/2008 03:00:24 AM EST


Somehow, somewhere the plight of some veterans became lost in the excitement and hubbub of the national election. In a preview to Veterans Day on Tuesday, it was disclosed that 1,200 veterans of the armed forces are homeless in Southwestern Connecticut. That should not be. Consider that those same veterans served us and protected us from harm. Most of them served overseas in faraway lands, fighting desert sands and other discomforts. They risked their lives every day fighting for our freedom. Why there are not places for them to live is beyond me, and is in a word, shameful.

As a veteran myself, I find that some of our comrades, even those separated from us by a generation, are basically forgotten.

It wasn't always this way. There was a time when we did a much better job of living up to our obligations toward our veterans. Following World War II, veterans came home to temporary housing. Quonset huts were erected on public land. Here in Stamford, that kind of housing was established in Shippan adjacent to Cummings Park. Other, more conventional housing was constructed on city-owned land on High Ridge Road where Rippowam School now stands. They were attractive Cape Cod-style cottages. Many World War II veterans received their re-start and return to family life as they knew it in the temporary housing.

There are some shelters for homeless veterans in Connecticut. In Bridgeport, for example, where they are provided with housing, instruction in the use of a computer,
and programs to help them gain employment. But they are shelters, pure and simple. Not enough.

The questions posed here is: If the government can pour billions of dollars into the banking community, something, by the way, that should be rescued, why hasn't adequate money been set aside to care for our veterans? Not only as far as housing and jobs are concerned - but what about health care and rehabilitation?

Remember the conditions that were discovered at Walter Reed Hospital in Washington - literally under the noses of the administration and our legislators in the Congress? It is almost as though the thinking was, "Send them off to battle with a parade and hugs from their families, and we will think about health care, jobs and their general well being when we get around to it."

We didn't know about the terrible conditions at Walter Reed until reporters from the Washington Post newspaper exposed them. What would conditions be like today if those reports had never come out? The disclosure spirited some good citizens to become active in helping veterans, including a group that established a state-of-the-art hospital for veterans in Texas. But more is needed as the wars go on and service people return with arms and legs missing and need help.
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UK:NHS failing 'soldiers with post traumatic stress'

NHS failing 'soldiers with post traumatic stress'Western Morning News - Plymouth, England,UK

Wednesday, November 12, 2008, 10:00

THE NHS has been accused of failing armed forces personnel suffering from post traumatic stress syndrome.

New information obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by the leader of the Teignbridge District Council, Alan Connett, revealed that mental health trusts throughout the country are not aware of new Government rules demanding that injured armed forces personnel are given priority treatment.

Coun Connett e-mailed 74 trusts in England with a set of 11 questions and was surprised that the majority were not aware of the Government guidelines.

Coun Connett's findings revealed many trusts do not even record if patients are, or have been, in the armed forces.

He said: "During the First World War, people would get shot for being shell-shocked.

Nowadays they don't get shot, thank God, but it seems people still don't care about our armed forces and all the stress they suffer from. We haven't learned the lesson."

In the Westcountry, only the Cornwall Partnership Trust has a £70,000 pilot programme in place to help veterans.

Other partnership trusts have nothing specific in place or did not even respond to Coun Connett's request for the relevant information.

Lisa Whyte, 34, wife of Scott Whyte, 30, a former lance corporal in the 38 Engineer Regiment, who suffered from severe post traumatic stress disorder after an eight-month tour of Iraq, said her husband had only been properly diagnosed a few weeks ago after the Royal British Legion stepped in to help.

Mrs Whyte, who lives in Uffculme, Devon, said: "I'm not surprised with these findings. The NHS has been useless. It's falling apart in this country."

On December 12, 2007, NHS chief executive David Nicholson wrote to all NHS trusts telling them about the new priority for veterans, which came into effect on January 1this year.

However, in their responses to Coun Connett's request, only 48 mental health trusts out of 74 made any reference to the new guidance. Most also confirmed they would not give any priority to treating service personnel or veterans or did not routinely ask if PTSD patients have served in the armed forces.

Coun Connett added: "As we reflect on those who have paid the ultimate price for their country, many who have fought in previous wars continue to bear the wounds, both physical and mental, of their service.
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Jonestown, Escape from madman

I watched this the other night. It's powerful. When you want to know what trauma looks like, watch it. There are interviews with people who escaped, had relatives and friends die there and what was going on in other branches of the People's Temple. The lingering heartache did not fade with the years.

Escape from a madman
"It was a slave camp run by a madman," and escape from Jim Jones' Peoples Temple cult compound in Guyana meant hiking 30 miles through the jungle. Leslie Wilson was one of the lucky handful who did escape 30 years ago. More than 900 others didn't. full story
Jones stockpiled cyanide
Escape from Jonestown, 9 p.m., Thursday

US Troops begin to shift out of Iraqi cities

Troops begin to shift out of Iraqi cities

By Robert Burns - The Associated Press
Posted : Wednesday Nov 12, 2008 9:23:58 EST

WASHINGTON — The U.S. military in Iraq is abandoning — deliberately and with little public notice — a centerpiece of the widely acclaimed strategy it adopted nearly two years ago to turn the tide against the insurgency. It is moving American troops farther from the people they are trying to protect.

Starting in early 2007, with Iraq on the brink of all-out civil war, the troops were pushed into the cities and villages as part of a change in strategy that included President Bush’s decision to send more combat forces.

The bigger U.S. presence on the streets was credited by many with allowing the Americans and their Iraqi security partners to build trust among the populace, thus undermining the extremists’ tactics of intimidation, reducing levels of violence and giving new hope to resolving the country’s underlying political conflicts.

Now the Americans are reversing direction, consolidating in larger bases outside the cities and leaving security in the hands of the Iraqis while remaining within reach to respond as the Iraqi forces require.

The U.S. is on track to complete its shift out of all Iraqi cities by June 2009. That is one of the milestones in a political-military campaign plan devised in 2007 by Gen. David Petraeus, when he was the top U.S. commander in Iraq, and his political partner in Baghdad, Ambassador Ryan Crocker. The goal also is in a preliminary security pact with the Iraqi government on the future U.S. military presence.

The shift is not explicitly linked to U.S. plans for increasing its military presence in Afghanistan, but there is an important connection: The logistical resources needed to house and supply a larger and more distributed U.S. force in Afghanistan have been tied up in Iraq. To some extent that will be relieved with the consolidation of U.S. forces in Iraq onto larger, outlying bases that are easier to maintain.
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http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/11/ap_iraqcities_111208/