Changing after PTSD

Changing after PTSD
by
Chaplain Kathie

If you are new to this blog, I am married to a Vietnam Vet with PTSD and have struggled to understand why I don't have it after multiple life threatening events in my own life. What I have learned is that talking about it after played a huge part in this ability to heal as well as the understanding I have about God. My faith and my family have been my "rock" all my life. Coming from big Greek family, we talked everything to death. In other words, until there was nothing left to say about a subject. There were no secrets. Surrounded by love and caring ears gave me the support I needed and my faith gave me the strength to overcome. I cannot say that events in my life did not change me. I cannot say that healing after was easy. It was a struggle. I had all the questions everyone else has and I had the same desire to be "who" I was before. To be "myself" again.

Let Me Be Myself lyrics

I guess i just got lost being someone else,
I tried to kill the pain
But nothing ever helped
I left myself behind
Somewhere along the way
Hoping to come back around
and find myself some day

Lately I'm so tired of waiting for you
To say that it's OK, tell me please
Would you one time,
Let Me Be Myself
So I can shine,
with my own light
Let Me Be Myself

Would you Let Me Be Myself
Coz I'll never find my heart
Behind someone else
I'll never see the light of day
Living in this cell
It's time to make my way
Into the world i knew
And take back all of these times
That I gave in to you

Lately I'm so tired of waiting for you
To say that it's OK, tell me please
Would you one time,
Let Me Be Myself
So I can shine,
with my own light
Let Me Be Myself,
For a while
If you don't mind,
Let Me Be Myself
So i can shine,
with my own light
Let Me Be Myself

That's all i ever wanted from this world
Was to let me be me..

Please, would you one time,
Let Me Be Myself
So i can shine,
with my own light
Let Me Be Myself
Please, would you one time,
Let Me Be Myself
So i can shine,
with my own light
Let Me Be Myself,
For a while
If you don't mind,
Let Me Be Myself
So i can shine,
with my own light
Let Me Be Myself

Let Me Be Myself

Discovering that was impossible was really not so bad. There were changes in how I thought about other people but I was amazed at the same time with how much stronger I had become.

When a veteran comes back from combat, they have lived with facing death from the moment they touch soil there until the moment they touch soil home. Every second there changes the next moment for them. When they come home there are profound changes for some.

Function: adjective
Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French parfunt, profond deep, from Latin profundus, from pro- before + fundus bottom — more at pro-, bottom
Date: 14th century
1 a : having intellectual depth and insight b : difficult to fathom or understand
2 a : extending far below the surface b : coming from, reaching to, or situated at a depth : deep-seated
3 a : characterized by intensity of feeling or quality b : all encompassing : complete
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/profound

These changes can feel like weakness as they wait to "get over it" at the same time they want to go back to the way they were before combat. The truth is every event in our lives changes all humans but we never really think about how much we do change. When it is after trauma, especially trauma in combat, no one is ever the same person they were before. Some need help to heal from it. Some need to talk after to feel "normal" again coming to terms with what they saw or what they had to do. They need to know other people understand. Above all they need to know they are still loved, cared about and that they still matter.

For some they need to feel that they have been forgiven by God as well.

When they come home and they do not receive the help all humans need, find the support and a safe place to talk about it, then it eats away at them. They lose. This is why we are seeing so much suffering in our veterans. PTSD is a human wound that comes only after trauma. There is trauma from natural events like the flooding in Tennessee or the floods we saw in New Orleans after Katrina. There are events caused by other humans. Traffic accidents and crimes. There are traumas we put ourselves into as our jobs as emergency responders, firefighters, but there are also those that come with the extra component of participating in the trauma itself. Law enforcement and combat.

While we all need help to heal from one traumatic event, we need to pay special attention to those who suffer from trauma in extended periods of time. This is why the Army study of the increase risk of redeploying troops found what it did. The risk of PTSD increased by 50% for each time sent back, yet they continue to do it sending troops into Iraq and Afghanistan over and over again. This at the same time they did little to have mental health and chaplains there to listen when needed. This is one more indication of why the flood of veterans has been coming in seeking help.

When they do receive the help they need to heal, they stop wishing to be the person they were before because they discover, as I did, events we survive are only part of it. Healing from them makes us stronger and usually, even better than we were before.

The choice is our's. Do we let them wait without help so that PTSD gets worse or do we take the time to care and be there now?

Iraq Vet killed by five officers in stand off

Lily Casura over at Healing Combat Trauma sent the link to this story. She is a true hero in the effort to bring attention to stories happening everyday in cities and towns across America. So many stories that never get the attention they deserve. When no one knows, no one cares and maybe that is the reason we know so much more about PTSD than ever before. The Internet has provided a means to read stories from across the country so that if a veteran is suffering in a huge city, another veteran in a tiny town will know he is not alone. A family shocked by the changes in someone they love will not feel totally alone or left with wondering where to turn.

Here's one more heartbreaking story about another veteran's death that did not need to happen.

Autopsy: All five of officers' shots hit Eagle Point vet

May 04, 2010 An autopsy on the 34-year-old man who was shot by police after a standoff in Eagle Point on Friday has revealed that he was shot five times in the chest and abdomen, authorities said today.

Jackson County Medical Examiner Dr. James Olson conducted the autopsy of Adam Wehinger today, Jackson County District Attorney Mark Huddleston said in a news release.

The medical examiner's report matches the statements of the officers involved in the shooting. Jackson County Sheriff's Department Detective James Biddle told investigators that he fired two shots, and Oregon State Police trooper Tyler Lee said he fired three shots.

Medford police are heading the interagency investigation into the shooting, which happened at an apartment complex at 139 Royal Ave. on Friday.

Family members said Wehinger struggled with alcoholism and had post-traumatic stress disorder after returning from the Iraq War, where he served on a mortar crew.

read more here
All five of officers shots hit Eagle Point vet

Mullen apologizes for comments on wounded care

Mullen apologizes for comments on wounded care

Disabled American Veterans had issued a statement blasting comments made recently by the JCS chairman
By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday May 4, 2010 19:07:43 EDT

A call by the chairman of the Joint Chiefs for community organizations to step in to help wounded war veterans make the transition to civilian life has drawn complaints from a major veterans organization and an apology from the JCS chairman.

There is nothing wrong with asking community-based groups to help, but the primary responsibility for wounded warriors rests with the federal government, said David Gorman, executive director of the Washington headquarters of Disabled American Veterans, in reaction to remarks made over the last few weeks by Adm. Mike Mullen.

“It is the exclusive responsibility of the federal government because it creates disabled veterans,” Gorman said Tuesday in a statement. “It is the government’s solemn duty to care for and treat all veterans who are wounded and disabled in America’s wars. It is unfathomable that Adm. Mullen would suggest such a plan, asking charities to provide the care now given so compassionately by the VA.

“It makes one wonder if Adm. Mullen believes it is best to return to the days when disabled veterans sold pencils on street corners and relied on the support of charitable organizations,” Gorman said. “The DAV has the greatest respect for Adm. Mullen” and said the organization commends Mullen’s “remarkable service to our country, but one must wonder what he was thinking.”
read more here
Mullen apologizes for comments on wounded care

Marine killed by train in Va

Marine killed by train in Va.
Authorities said a 20-year-old Marine stationed at Marine Corps Base Quantico was killed early Sunday morning in an incident involving a train.
According to police were called to a railroad crossing at Henderson Road on the Quantico base at approximately 12:45 a.m. Sunday and discovered the body of Lance Cpl. Lucas G. Lowe, who was stationed on the base. The investigation into Lowe's death is continuing.
Marine killed by train in Va

A real look at PTSD the AP story didn't include

There was a time when a soldier, usually a young soldier, with signs we now call PTSD, were shot for being a coward. We managed to call this psychological wounding of the soul many different names, but since the history of man, we have seen what it does to humans exposed to the abnormal events in their lives. We've read accounts, too often without acknowledging this wound to the soul was written in ancient text, historical accounts of warfare and in the Bible itself. It is far too easy to understand the way we would feel after living through horrifying moments when we feared we would die or when we were forced to do something we would not normally do. We still have a hard time understanding exactly what we are asking the young men and women to do when we send them off into combat.

The worst part of all of this is that in a time when we have come so far after over 30 years of expressing this as a normal reaction to abnormal events, there are still too many with way too much power and publicity trying to now shoot the survivors of combat.

For those like me trying to save the lives of these men and women because we've become informed, because we care or because we've been touched by them in our own personal lives, here's some ammunition to fight against the others with an agenda all their own. The report in the AP about fraud is not a new accusation. Paul Sullivan of Veterans for Common Sense set that record straight and was posted on this blog earlier today. But here is a report from the UK and the suicide hotline, another report about suicide of Airmen and another about Marines.

There is also a report of the DOD Virtual Reality endeavor. All supporting the reality of how bad PTSD is for our veterans. There are over 9,000 more posts on this blog you can find as well.

While the reporter for AP did a hatchet job to support whatever he wanted to find, I have an agenda all my own as well. Mine is to do whatever it takes to get our veterans to heal, keep families together and make sure that veterans like my husband never reach the point when they are more afraid to live than they were when they were fighting in combat. They survived the enemy in combat, but when they lose their lives back here at home, or even think of taking their own lives after, that right there is unacceptable. I've seen the worst in my own home and I've seen what can happen when they are helped to heal. Even after the passing of years without help, it was not too late for him. It almost was too many times but he's still here. His nephew was not able to recover and committed suicide. I've seen too many gone too soon, read too many reports and emails to ever think for a second the number of frauds looking to cash in could no way come close to the numbers of veterans we've still been unable to reach. Thanks to the report in AP, we may never get the chance again to reach some of them.

Hundreds call post traumatic stress disorder helpline

Children of service personnel have been among those using the helpline
An ex-serviceman from Berkshire who has set up a helpline for soldiers said more than 800 people have been in contact in its first six months.

Alex Webster established PTSD Worldwide last year after his own battle with post traumatic stress disorder.

He said one call was from an 11-year-old girl wanting to know why her father was "broken".

Mr Webster has previously criticised the Ministry of Defence for the way it has dealt with people suffering trauma.

Mr Webster, who spent 18 months in hospital after an explosion in Northern Ireland, said: "I had everything, from me being scared to leave the house, having manic depression, having to take so many pills a day just to get yourself out of bed in the morning.

Reducing stigma

"It's not just the physical pain, it's the mental pain that is actually inside and takes over your life every single day."
read more here
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/berkshire/8659886.stm

DOD using virtual reality for PTSD treatment
May 4, 2010

By Jessica Maxwell


WASHINGTON (Army News Service, April 30, 2010) -- A humvee slowly drives down a dusty road in Afghanistan and seconds later, an IED explodes off to the right, causing the windshield to crack and the driver to swerve.

Time to press the restart button.

At a demonstration Thursday, guests at the National Press Club saw first-hand the capabilities of virtual reality in treating Soldiers with post-traumatic stress disorder.

The Defense Department's Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury have begun a pilot program that uses multi-sensory virtual reality to treat Soldiers with post-traumatic stress disorder. The program enables doctors to choose a scenario, customized around a Soldier's personal experience.

Brig. Gen. Loree K. Sutton, director of the program, said she is very hopeful in the use of virtual reality but notes that no one approach will reach out and touch everyone.

"We owe these young Americans our very best," Sutton said. "We know the issues of post-traumatic stress, these unseen wounds of war. If left in silence, they can be the deadliest wounds of all."

Sutton said medical specialists are constantly learning more about treating PTSD and TBI, and how these injuries fit into other types of injuries from war.

read more of this here

DOD using virtual reality for PTSD treatment

AF discusses suicide prevention, safe driving

By Scott Fontaine - Staff writer
Posted : Monday May 3, 2010 10:29:11 EDT

Units across the Air Force will spend a half-day this month focusing on suicide prevention and safe driving.

Each unit will determine when to conduct its training — on the squadron level or below, according to the Air Force.

Eighteen active-duty airmen, eight guardsmen or reservists and three civilian employees have killed themselves so far this year, a trend that has been on the rise since 2007. About 50 airmen die each year in car accidents.
read more of this here

AF discusses suicide prevention, safe driving

Corps had military’s highest rate in 2009

By Gretel C. Kovach,
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

Commanders recently honored a young lance corporal in Afghanistan for saving another Marine’s life, giving the hero a medal. But it was not a sniper or roadside bomb that nearly claimed the Marine in distress.

It was a battle with suicide. The U.S. military’s own fight with that enemy has escalated during the more than eight years of combat between the Afghanistan and Iraq wars.

In 2009, the Marine Corps reported the highest suicide rate among the armed forces — 24 per 100,000. It lost more troops to suicide than combat in Afghanistan last year. Fifty-two took their own lives in 2009, including 11 who did so while deployed.

The active-duty Army had 21.7 suicides per 100,000, its highest rate since the Vietnam War. Its much larger force suffered 160 suspected or confirmed suicides.
read more here

Corps had military highest rate in 2009

My job is to report the truth so that they may live, heal, find hope, support and comfort the families, to educate and save lives. Was it the job of the AP reporter to hurt them when so few are fakes but more end up not being helped at all?

PTSD is Real, PTSD Fraud is Not

I got into working with veterans because I fell in love with one of them, was raised by another (my Dad) and surrounded by them (my uncles) all my life including my father-in-law. He was a WWII veteran with a Purple Heart and Bronze Star. Nothing new for my husband's family. All four brothers were fighting in WWII. One, a Marine, was killed in action and another uncle, a merchant Marine never really recovered from being on a ship, hit by a Kamikaze pilot and ended up in the ocean. PTSD was just as real during WWII but no one talked about it. Very little was done for the survivors of combat. As a matter of fact despite the fact PTSD is as old as mankind, there was very little done until Vietnam veterans came home and fought for it.

When WWII veterans came home with "shell shock" they were either sent to the "nut house" or to farms. My husband's uncle ended up on a farm. Out of view and conscience of the public, these veterans were hidden away to live out their days. Korean veterans came home the same way. They were conditioned to be silent in their suffering. Like other generations of veterans, they were expected to just get over it, move on, go back to their lives before combat, while the general public simply assumed all was well and our veterans were taken care of.

The truth is we do a fantastic job sending them off to combat, find all the money needed to fund the combat they risk their lives carrying out, but then, well then we complain about the money needed to care for the wounded, the widow and orphans. Too often there are widows and orphans to care for because we didn't care for the wounded. 18 veterans a day commit suicide. Nothing really new there but most Americans don't have a clue. They don't know about the rise in suicides of active duty personnel either. They just don't want to know.

Maybe it's because we pride ourselves believing we really do support the troops and it's just too damn hard to discover we stop supporting them when they come home needing us after we needed them. I have more faith in us and really believe in my soul that if the general public knew a tenth of what these men and women have to endue when they come home, they would take to the streets and demand changes in every city and town. The passion of so many lining the streets when one of them returns home in a flag draped coffin, weeping for loss, indicates just how attached our hearts are to them. The media needs to inject reality into their minds so they understand sending men and women into combat is just the beginning of our obligation.

I live with PTSD in my home. I've seen the worst when help is not there and I've also seen healing when it is provided. Even with the healing, there are still parts of his life he can never reclaim, but we've learned to live with the unhealed. It's normal to us now. Over the years, I've watched too many suffer without seeking help. Read too many stories of men and women we would call hero one day, abandon the next, and bury the day after that. All of them make me remember my own life and I grieve for what was possible but unknown to the families.

Over the years I've also met people just as dedicated as I've been to our veterans. One of them is a hero to me and his name is Paul Sullivan, of Veterans for Common Sense. He knows what's going on, what is real, what is claimed and he has the passion to do something about it. When the AP report came out about frauds, Paul fought back. Here's what he had to say.

PTSD is Real, PTSD Fraud is Not
Written by VCS
Monday, 03 May 2010 15:46
May 3, 2010, Washington, DC (VCS) - Last weekend, the Associated Press printed an incomplete and inaccurate article about veterans who file disability claims against the Veterans Affairs Department (VA) for post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Without citing a source, AP wrote, “The problem: The [VA claims] system is dysfunctional, an open invitation to fraud. And the VA has proposed changes that could make deception even easier.”

AP is wrong, and VCS asked AP to correct the story.

Here are two very important facts AP overlooked. If AP had included these two facts, then readers would understand more about VA and veterans suffering with PTSD after deploying to the brutal Iraq and Afghanistan wars, sometimes two or three times.

Fact Number One

There is no widespread fraud problem at VA. Out of more than one million claims per year, less than a score are ever investigated for fraud.

Furthermore, in November 2005, VA auditors randomly selected 2,100 PTSD claims. After an exhaustive investigation, VA found zero cases of fraud. VA has extensive methods to prevent fraud, contrary to AP's baseless assertion. AP should have reported that fact.

VA’s investigation began when a reporter at the Chicago Sun Times observed that VA pays different average amounts in disability benefits based on a state-by-state comparison. The true culprit: poor leadership, staff shortages, and a lack of consistent training. VA Secretary Shinseki is taking bold steps to address these challenges, and he has broad support among veterans’ groups.
read more here
PTSD is Real, PTSD Fraud is Not

Over the years scientists have used the latest technology to view what people like me have lived with. The reality of PTSD is no longer just something we say, but something that can be seen with machines. Changes in the brain can be seen with their eyes while we live with the daily struggle of trying to help them heal. It has also been a battle to fight against the uninformed and fearful. The fact is that veterans are very reluctant to seek approval of a claim or treatment because the diagnosis of PTSD is just too painful to hear. They would rather go on suffering waiting for their "get over it alive day" to just come on its own. A diagnosis of PTSD to them has been a sign of being weaker than their buddies. It has been a "career" killer for lifers never wanting to do anything other than serve in the military. It's taken over 30 years to get the message thru to them that as a human, they were wounded because of combat.

Genetic changes show up in people with PTSD
But it's unclear if alterations cause the disorder
By Nathan Seppa Web edition
Monday, May 3rd, 2010

People with post-traumatic stress disorder seem to accumulate an array of genetic changes different from those found in healthy people, researchers report online May 3 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The new findings, while showing differences between people with and without PTSD, don't shed light on whether these differences might play a role in PTSD, says study coauthor Sandro Galea, a physician and epidemiologist at Columbia University in New York City.

Only a fraction of people who witness a traumatic event develop PTSD. In an attempt to identify what makes people who develop PTSD biologically different from those who don’t, Galea and his colleagues obtained blood samples from 100 people in the Detroit area. All had been exposed to at least one potentially traumatic event, and 23 were diagnosed with PTSD. The scientists tested 14,000 genes in these blood samples for chemical changes to DNA that can affect gene activity without altering the genetic information itself.

The team found that the people with PTSD showed less methylation in several immune system genes and more methylation in genes linked to the growth of brain cells. “There is evidence that PTSD is involved in immune dysfunction, and we suggest that that’s part of a larger process,” Galea says. Although previous studies have also suggested a PTSD link to immune gene activation, the connection is unclear.

“This is interesting data, but there are a lot of things still to do,” says Manel Esteller, a molecular geneticist at the Bellvitge Institute for Biomedical Research in Spain and the University of Barcelona who was not part of the study. “What’s missing is an explanation of how the traumatic stress really causes these changes in methylation — what is the mechanistic link?”

read more here

Genetic changes show up in people with PTSD

Even today there are many still holding on to false impressions of what PTSD is and what the missing link is. The missing link is the fact they are compassionate people, able to feel deeply. They confuse this with being weak instead of seeing it is required for them to be able to do what they do, go where they go and see what they see but manage to still get up, stand up and carry on. That compassion is required of all the courage in the world would be of little good. If they didn't care deeply in the first place, they wouldn't be wounded as a survivor. There are different levels of PTSD just as there are different types of PTSD. Some are caused by natural events but others are caused by man. The ones caused by man cut deeper. The ones when the person is also a participant in the traumatic event, cuts even deeper. This is why warriors are cut deeper than police officers and they are cut deeper than firefighters. It is the participation in the event itself as well as the number of times the events involve them.

So now we have to fight all over again because the uninformed, blame the veteran crowd, has something we've tried to eradicate for over 30 years. This article will undo all these years worth of work to convince the veterans Americans want to live up to their obligation to them and care of the wounded. I'm still wondering how many veterans on the verge of seeking help for PTSD will not seek it now. How many will suffer needlessly longer as we have to fight back on an irresponsible article on AP?

"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

At least 19 dead as storms pound Southeast

At least 19 dead as storms pound Southeast
By the CNN Wire Staff
May 3, 2010 2:46 p.m. EDT

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

NEW: Latest fatality discovered Monday morning in Nashville, mayor's office says

Cumberland River is expected to crest at 11 feet above flood stage in Nashville

At least 19 dead after storms in Tennessee, Mississippi and Kentucky

Storms delay flights at Atlanta airport; heavy rain moves through north Georgia

Atlanta, Georgia (CNN) -- A massive system of rain and thunderstorms that spawned tornadoes continued to pound the Southeast on Monday, leaving at least 19 dead in its wake and displacing or stranding thousands of people.

The storm moved through north Georgia on Monday, flooding streets in Atlanta and delaying flights into Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. No deaths or injuries were immediately reported there.

But the rain and flooding left at least 12 dead in Tennessee, state and Nashville officials said. The latest fatality was discovered Monday morning, the Nashville mayor's office said. Six deaths occurred in the Nashville area, officials said.

In Mississippi, two tornadoes killed three people Sunday, and a fourth person died in a rain-related traffic accident.

Three people died in storm-related incidents in southern and south-central Kentucky, emergency services spokesman "Buddy" Rogers said Monday.
go here for more
At least 19 dead as storms pound Southeast

PTSD cases, fear of fraud growing when caring should have

While some in the blog world are fixated on this,,,,

In tide of PTSD cases, fear of fraud growing - Army News, news ...
By The Associated Press Moved by a huge tide of troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan with post-traumatic stress, Congress has pressured the Department of Veterans Affairs to settle their disability claims

The stories like this are the ones I think about

Vet who committed suicide fought depression, PTSD
DAYTON — In the three years since his discharge from the Army, Jesse Huff never fully revealed the furies of his demons as storm cloud after storm cloud gathered over his life.
In 2008, his mother, Sharon Nales, died from an accidental drug overdose. His father, Charles Huff Sr., has had several convictions for cocaine possession. He rarely got to see his adored young daughter, Gabriella. He suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and his injuries from a roadside bomb in Iraq left him with chronic, severe pain in his lower back and legs.

But that isn't anything new for this blog. I remember stories going back for over 25 years and over 9,000 other stories on this blog alone.

Sunday, January 20, 2008

PTSD 'If you get shot in the soul ... no one can see it'
'If you get shot in the soul ... no one can see it'
By Steve Youngsyoung@argusleader.comComment Print Email PUBLISHED: January 20, 2008The stress of war is no stranger in South Dakota.It lies in the memory of a self-inflicted gunshot blast that ended Staff Sgt. Cory Brooks' despair on an April day in 2004 in Baghdad.And it troubles a community of military and health care officials back here at home who know that one of every four suicides in this state involves a veteran - but aren't sure why."It is troubling," says Rick Barg, state adjutant/quartermaster for the Veterans of Foreign Wars. "If you get shot in the arm or leg and you lose that arm or leg, people can see that."But if you get shot in the soul, you bring it home and no one can see it."Of 750,000 U.S. veterans who have marched off to Afghanistan and Iraq since 2003, 100,500 have come home with a mental-health condition, said Dr. Ira Katz of the Department of Veterans Affairs' Office of Mental Health.

You can find more stories like these using suicide or military suicide in the search field. You can go to my web site www.namguardianangel.com and take a look at the video Death Because They Served or click on the Power Point to read more of their stories. Collecting reports for this I found over 400 of their stories.

But aside from all of that, there are hundreds of other stories no one will ever hear about. Veterans trying to figure out what was wrong with them, then when they discover it is connected to their service they are told they have to prove it. Ok, fine, but even when they did, the claim was denied and they had to file an appeal. After fighting to have their claims honored, after suffering without help and more stress added onto them financially, their claims were finally approved. What happened then was that the PTSD caused by combat was fed by the delay in honoring their claims as well as the assault on their character.

These men and women didn't want to file claims. They wanted to do their duty, do what was asked of them and then go back to the lives they had before. Most had no intention of becoming a lifer in the military. They just wanted to help. Some were drafted and forced to go but they served the same way the enlisted did. With courage and commitment to their brothers. Yet they came home with PTSD trying to claim them after they survived the physical part of combat.

Marriages fell apart. Jobs were hard to get and harder to keep when they were drained from nightmares or zoned out with flashbacks. Mood swings left co-workers complaining and bosses frustrated. But they carried on, waiting for the day they would just get over it and get back to the lives they had before. How they thought this would happen after they were exposed to hell is something they were never able to explain. It was just a dream they wanted to believe was possible.

Ask any real veteran with PTSD if they would take a pill to wipe all of it away and they would take that deal in a heartbeat. You have to remember these men and women know the harshest conditions there are. They risk their lives daily 24-7, knowing any moment could be their last. They see people die, their enemies as well as their friends and innocents. They hear the pounding of weapons, the helicopter blades, machine guns just as much as they hear orders and screams. To ask them to do a civilian job after would be like a vacation.

It would be if the war was not trapped inside of them eating them alive. They see their buddies getting on with their lives and wonder why they cannot do the same. Instead of them receiving help right away to ease the trauma, they have to carry on fed by adrenaline until they are out of perceived danger, only to discover the danger to their lives is inside of them.

For all the attention the "report" on false claims has created, I regret that the real suffering, the real stories of these men and women never came close to getting the same kind of attention from the same people now blaming the veterans. The truth is, it is a sad case when a veteran tries to get what they can instead of what they need because the vast majority of them still need what they cannot get.

Congress has to deal with the fact that our veterans are dying because they cannot get the help they need to heal. They are dying by their own hands. They are suffering while they wait to have their claims approved. It is all falling apart because some people thought that they could look the other way all these years because it was not in their own interest politically to publicize the suffering. Where was all of this attention when the reports first started coming out about Iraq and Afghanistan veterans dying for their attention?

Vietnam Vet Hero in NY sent police to SUV with bombs

Times Square vendor says he helped alert police to car bomb
By Rohan Mascarenhas/The Star-Ledger
May 02, 2010, 11:50AM
NEW YORK -- Duane Jackson was particularly busy this morning as he occupied a spot selling flags, sunglasses and pocketbooks on West 45th Street and 7th Avenue in Times Square.

But tourists hadn't come to buy the vendor's usual assortment of goods. They went to see Jackson, a 58-year-old Vietnam veteran who said he helped alert police to a suspicious sport utility vehicle parked near his stand Saturday night, which later turned out to have a bomb inside.
read more here
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2010/05/post_162.html

The question is, who did FOX interview?

About that T-Shirt Vendor…
May 2, 2010 - 9:07 AM by: Michael Sorrentino
The T-Shirt vendor that works in Times Square who spotted the potentially deadly car bomb on Saturday is being hailed as a hero by many. As Fox photographer Keith Lane caught him walking towards a taxi cab Sunday morning, he avoided many of the questions reporters were throwing his way.
Vietnam veteran, Lance Orten
http://liveshots.blogs.foxnews.com/2010/05/02/17907/?test=latestnews

COC Helps Veterans With Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

COC Helps Veterans With Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
Sunday, May 02 2010

College of the Canyons will host a panel presentation designed to help the families of military veterans and community members, learn about the various symptoms, causes and therapeutic treatments of war-induced Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder or PTSD.

The panel discussion, "The Silent Wounds of Trauma: Hearing the Hurt, Helping to Heal, Being a Vocal Partner" will be held from 7 to 9:30 p.m., Tuesday, May 11, in Hasley Hall room 101, on the COC Valencia campus.

Being presented by the Santa Clarita veteran organization Vets Back To The War Zone, the panel presentation will address combat stress reactions, how those reactions lead to PTSD, and how the support of loved ones and community partners can help ease the challenge of returning to civilian life.

"The issue of war is about more than countries at conflict, it's about the cost to the human condition," said Dr. Patty Robinson, dean, COC social sciences and business division and panel moderator. "To really understand the nature of human conflict, it's important to examine the subjective side of war and to witness its effect on the human spirit."
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COC Helps Veterans With Post Traumatic Stress Disorder