Tampa veteran's hospital earns state honor
By Joyce McKenzie The Tampa Tribune
Published: May 14, 2010
UNIVERSITY AREA - When put to the test at the state level, the management and staff at the James A. Haley Veterans' Hospital and Clinics have validated their worth.
One of the Department of Veterans Affairs biggest health care facilities has been named a recipient of the 2010 Governor's Sterling Award, an honor that for 18 years has acknowledged organizations and businesses throughout Florida that demonstrate excellence.
Officials from Haley, along with Orlando's Florida Hospital and South Miami Hospital, will be on hand to receive the award June 4 in Orlando. It's the first time in the award's history that the recipients all come from the health care industry.
Each of the honorees has gone through a rigorous process of on-site evaluations where Florida Sterling Council-appointed examiners rated them on the basis of knowledge, leadership, strategic planning, customer and market focus, results and analyses. Employees at all levels were interviewed.
Nancy Reissener, Haley's acting medical center director, is pleased to represent what she considers an outstanding team of colleagues.
"This award is in recognition of the quality of work, professionalism and dedication of the staff at James A. Haley Veterans' Hospital and Clinics," she said. "Our veterans deserve the best care anywhere and I am so proud of our employees who make this happen every day."
Sterling Award winners are meant to serve as role model organizations across the state and their business practices are intended to help other institutions elevate their performance and productivity levels.
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Tampa veterans hospital earns state honor
Friday, May 14, 2010
Military Sexual Trauma A Little Known Veteran Issue
Susan Kaplan for NPR
Rachel Caesar left the military after serving for 14 years. She suffered from military sexual trauma, but it took her a long time to admit it. According to the Department of Veterans Affairs, more than 48,000 female veterans screened positive for military sexual trauma just in 2008.
Military Sexual Trauma: A Little-Known Veteran Issue
by Susan Kaplan
text size A A A May 13, 2010
Rachel Caesar first tried to join the Army after she saw a recruitment insert in Jet magazine. She filled it out and sent it in. She was 8 years old.
It wasn't long before her mom's phone started ringing. Caesar's mom told the Army recruiter: "Maybe you'll see her in 10 years," according to Caesar today.
Sure enough, after Caesar graduated high school, she joined the Massachusetts Army National Guard. But her experience didn't live up to the dream she'd had of the Army as a kid.
'I Was Sexually Harassed'
In 1996, while on active duty in Korea, Caesar became pregnant. She says that after that, a noncommissioned officer sexually harassed her.
read more here
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126783956
Understanding what trauma does
Understanding what trauma does
by
Chaplain Kathie
NASA is getting ready to send the Atlantis shuttle up for the last time. Here in Florida each time the shuttle goes up, it's stunning, especially when one takes off at night. We can see it all the way over in the Orlando area even though it takes off from the east coast. There are times when we hold our breath because we remember the day when a shuttle exploded.
I was still living in Massachusetts when it happened and I can remember what I was doing when the news broke on the radio. I was in MacDonald's ordering lunch at the drive-thru listening to WBZ radio. Even after all these years I am greatly sadden remembering that day when I was simply listening to the radio instead of being personally involved. I didn't have to be there to be touched by it. No one in the country had to be there to feel strong emotions.
Each time they come home, we remember this as we pray it does not happen again.
The memory comes back when triggered by similar events or anniversary dates.
It is the same way around the country when September rolls around again. We all remember what we were doing that morning when we first heard the news about a plane hitting the tower in New York. I was glued to the radio after my boss came into my office to tell me the news. One of my co-workers rushed home to get a portable TV so that we could find out what happened as soon as the other tower was hit. We were sure there would be more tragedy to follow.
Again, I wasn't living in New York. I was far away from the attack in Massachusetts. I didn't know anyone killed or anyone working in the towers. For the rest of the day and weeks after, just like everyone else, I took a personal interest in every bit of news coming out. A sadness comes over this nation every year remembering what happened that horrible day.
Something as simple as moving from one state to another can be traumatic. We moved from the city I had spent my entire life in to Florida in 2004. Needless to say since I could get lost getting out of a paper bag, it was terrible learning how to get around. My elderly Mom was still back in Massachusetts after she changed her mind about moving with us. The first meal I cooked, I packed up the left overs as always forgetting how far away I was from her. We had a good laugh over what I did but there was a sadness in me when I realized how far away from home I really was. Then came hurricane Charlie, Francis and Jeanne. Each year when hurricane season rolls around, I remember what it was like to live thru a hurricane like Charlie as if it was yesterday and my neighborhood was destroyed.
These are just triggered memories of unpleasant things. The events were shocking but they do not affect my daily life nor do they haunt my days unless something brings back the memory. The trigger sets off seconds or a minute or two of great sadness but then that sadness fades away.
People surviving traumatic events experience the same thing when the remember the death of someone they loved, an accident, a fire or a crime. For some it's triggered memories and not part of their daily lives. For others, the memory never dulls. The events have become a part of them so strongly they cannot move on.
When participating in traumatic events, instead of surviving them, exposing themselves to the events on a repeating basis, it can leave scars upon scars. This is what happens to men and women deployed into combat. It's not just one moment in time they have to be recovered by triggers. It is a series of them. Imagine a full year of tragedy and shock each building on the other events. Then imagine having a break between trauma and normalcy back home followed by re-exposure to more of the same. The traumatic events become more "normal" for them than uneventful days.
We can all understand what trauma does to them when we take a look at what it has done to us in our own lives. It is not so impossible to imagine what it would be like for us to have it never go away. Some need time to heal but others need help to recover from the events. We experience abnormal events all the time but for them, they experience horrors as active participants in them and their emotional wounding cuts deeper, takes a stronger hold, leaves a deeper scar and takes more effort to recover from. When they are changed by combat, we need to realize how much events in our own lives leave their mark and then we can use that same understanding to help them.
by
Chaplain Kathie
NASA fuels space shuttle Atlantis for final voyage, afternoon flight to space station
MARCIA DUNN
AP Aerospace Writer
7:38 a.m. EDT, May 14, 2010
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA fueled space shuttle Atlantis on Friday for its final journey, a delivery trip to the International Space Station that will provide fresh batteries and extra room.
Atlantis was slated to blast off at 2:20 p.m. Everything was going well in the countdown and the weather was looking favorable. Forecasters were sticking with their 70 percent odds of good weather, but a NASA spokesman said that likely would improve as the morning wore on.
The launch team began pumping more than 500,000 gallons of fuel into Atlantis' massive external tank well before dawn, just as the six astronauts assigned to the mission woke up. The all-male crew downed a hearty breakfast: medium-rare steaks and French fries for three of them, a cheeseburger for another and sandwiches for the remaining two.
The 12-day mission is the last one for Atlantis, the fourth in NASA's line of space shuttles. Only two flights remain after this one, by Discovery and Endeavour. NASA hopes to end the 30-year program by the end of this year.
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NASA fuels space shuttle Atlantis for final voyage
NASA is getting ready to send the Atlantis shuttle up for the last time. Here in Florida each time the shuttle goes up, it's stunning, especially when one takes off at night. We can see it all the way over in the Orlando area even though it takes off from the east coast. There are times when we hold our breath because we remember the day when a shuttle exploded.
Challenger
The Challenger flew nine successful missions before that fateful day of the disaster in 1986.
Sharon Christa McAuliffe, the first teacher to fly in space.
Mission commander Francis R. Scobee; pilot Michael J. Smith; mission specialists Ronald E. McNair, Ellison S. Onizuka, and Judith A. Resnik; and payload specialists Gregory B. Jarvis.
I was still living in Massachusetts when it happened and I can remember what I was doing when the news broke on the radio. I was in MacDonald's ordering lunch at the drive-thru listening to WBZ radio. Even after all these years I am greatly sadden remembering that day when I was simply listening to the radio instead of being personally involved. I didn't have to be there to be touched by it. No one in the country had to be there to feel strong emotions.
Each time they come home, we remember this as we pray it does not happen again.
The Space Shuttle Columbia Disaster happend on Saturday 1st, February, 2003 and was the second Space Shuttle Disaster and the first shuttle lost on landing. There was shock around the world over the tragedy.
The memory comes back when triggered by similar events or anniversary dates.
It is the same way around the country when September rolls around again. We all remember what we were doing that morning when we first heard the news about a plane hitting the tower in New York. I was glued to the radio after my boss came into my office to tell me the news. One of my co-workers rushed home to get a portable TV so that we could find out what happened as soon as the other tower was hit. We were sure there would be more tragedy to follow.
Again, I wasn't living in New York. I was far away from the attack in Massachusetts. I didn't know anyone killed or anyone working in the towers. For the rest of the day and weeks after, just like everyone else, I took a personal interest in every bit of news coming out. A sadness comes over this nation every year remembering what happened that horrible day.
Something as simple as moving from one state to another can be traumatic. We moved from the city I had spent my entire life in to Florida in 2004. Needless to say since I could get lost getting out of a paper bag, it was terrible learning how to get around. My elderly Mom was still back in Massachusetts after she changed her mind about moving with us. The first meal I cooked, I packed up the left overs as always forgetting how far away I was from her. We had a good laugh over what I did but there was a sadness in me when I realized how far away from home I really was. Then came hurricane Charlie, Francis and Jeanne. Each year when hurricane season rolls around, I remember what it was like to live thru a hurricane like Charlie as if it was yesterday and my neighborhood was destroyed.
These are just triggered memories of unpleasant things. The events were shocking but they do not affect my daily life nor do they haunt my days unless something brings back the memory. The trigger sets off seconds or a minute or two of great sadness but then that sadness fades away.
People surviving traumatic events experience the same thing when the remember the death of someone they loved, an accident, a fire or a crime. For some it's triggered memories and not part of their daily lives. For others, the memory never dulls. The events have become a part of them so strongly they cannot move on.
When participating in traumatic events, instead of surviving them, exposing themselves to the events on a repeating basis, it can leave scars upon scars. This is what happens to men and women deployed into combat. It's not just one moment in time they have to be recovered by triggers. It is a series of them. Imagine a full year of tragedy and shock each building on the other events. Then imagine having a break between trauma and normalcy back home followed by re-exposure to more of the same. The traumatic events become more "normal" for them than uneventful days.
We can all understand what trauma does to them when we take a look at what it has done to us in our own lives. It is not so impossible to imagine what it would be like for us to have it never go away. Some need time to heal but others need help to recover from the events. We experience abnormal events all the time but for them, they experience horrors as active participants in them and their emotional wounding cuts deeper, takes a stronger hold, leaves a deeper scar and takes more effort to recover from. When they are changed by combat, we need to realize how much events in our own lives leave their mark and then we can use that same understanding to help them.
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Fate or fluke? Air crash sole survivors
Ruben van Assouw will probably spend the rest of his life wondering why he survived and no one else did. Hopefully it will be a long happy life for him and the reason he survived will be made clear as he grows older.
The problem with stories like this is there is always someone wondering why other people died and they lived. Why did a tornado skip one house but wipe out the rest of the street or a hurricane cause a tree to crash into a house right after the people living there walked out of the room? Why does a car accident happen right after we were right there instead of when we were there. Surviving can be a blessing but there is always that question of "why" popping up all the time and then comes wondering if your survival meant that much in the long run.
Divine intervention? Luck? Guardian Angels? Karma? Why do some seriously ill people suddenly heal and others pass away seemingly too fast? Why does someone live through a plane crash when everyone else on the plane died? There are so many questions we may never know the answers to but each day there are chances to live our lives differently for having survived it and ended up saved.
The problem with stories like this is there is always someone wondering why other people died and they lived. Why did a tornado skip one house but wipe out the rest of the street or a hurricane cause a tree to crash into a house right after the people living there walked out of the room? Why does a car accident happen right after we were right there instead of when we were there. Surviving can be a blessing but there is always that question of "why" popping up all the time and then comes wondering if your survival meant that much in the long run.
Divine intervention? Luck? Guardian Angels? Karma? Why do some seriously ill people suddenly heal and others pass away seemingly too fast? Why does someone live through a plane crash when everyone else on the plane died? There are so many questions we may never know the answers to but each day there are chances to live our lives differently for having survived it and ended up saved.
Fate or fluke? Air crash sole survivors
By Barry Neild, CNN
May 13, 2010 8:13 p.m. EDT
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Dutch boy lone survivor after escaping air crash with broken bones
Only a few dozen people have become lone air crash survivors
Many survival stories reveal remarkable feats of endurance
(CNN) -- Some will see it as divine intervention, others a simple quirk of fate, fortune or physics, but one boy's cheating of death in an air crash in Libya this week adds another name to a small roll call of aviation disaster sole survivors.
The boy, identified as Ruben van Assouw, suffered multiple fractures in his lower limbs when the Afriqiyah Airways Airbus A330-200 crashed Tuesday at Tripoli International Airport killing 92 passengers and a crew of 11.
Details of how Assouw, a Dutch national, emerged alive from such an appalling disaster are not yet known, but his survival has already been called a "miracle" by Jerzy Buzek, president of the European Parliament.
Statistically improbable, the fact of his survival is also unlikely to shed any light on the mysterious factors that increase the chances of escaping alive from a plane wreck.
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Air crash sole survivors
12th Combat Aviation Brigade received German medals for bravery
14 soldiers receive German medals for bravery
By Deb Riechmann - The Associated Press
Posted : Thursday May 13, 2010 14:53:08 EDT
KABUL — Fourteen U.S. soldiers have received Germany’s Gold Cross Medal for their bravery in extracting wounded German soldiers from a firefight in northeast Afghanistan — the first time the award has been given to troops from another nation.
The members of the Army’s 12th Combat Aviation Brigade received the medals — one of Germany’s highest awards for valor — on Wednesday at a German base in Kunduz province.
read more here
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2010/05/ap_army_germany_gold_cross_051310/
By Deb Riechmann - The Associated Press
Posted : Thursday May 13, 2010 14:53:08 EDT
KABUL — Fourteen U.S. soldiers have received Germany’s Gold Cross Medal for their bravery in extracting wounded German soldiers from a firefight in northeast Afghanistan — the first time the award has been given to troops from another nation.
The members of the Army’s 12th Combat Aviation Brigade received the medals — one of Germany’s highest awards for valor — on Wednesday at a German base in Kunduz province.
read more here
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2010/05/ap_army_germany_gold_cross_051310/
Caregivers of veterans offered relief
Caregivers of veterans offered relief
MARTIN J. KIDSTON Helena Independent Record
HELENA — Mike Bolin’s slide into dementia was years in the making.
During his lectures at the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, the Vietnam veteran and teacher began losing his words. It wouldn’t be long before Parkinson’s would set in. Dementia would follow, along with the hallucinations.
Now, 65, the winner of the Distinguished Flying Cross and retired military man has lost the ability to walk, to feed himself and to care for his most basic needs. As a result, his wife, Lynn, has made some dramatic changes to her life.
“I had to quit work in November when I couldn’t leave him alone anymore,” Lynn said.
“This happened fast. He’s young and we don’t know what the future holds.”
Mike eased in and out of sleep recently in a La-Z-Boy recliner at the Rocky Mountain Care Center in downtown Helena. When he stared across the room, his eyes fixed on nothing in particular. When he tried to talk, his words came randomly, as if he were dreaming.
Chances are, Lynn knows, that his condition will only get worse.
But, where Lynn once cared for Mike alone, she now relies upon a new service launched by the Veterans Administration at Fort Harrison to help carry the responsibility of providing around-the-clock care.
Known as the Non-Institutional Care program, the service offers relief to those who find themselves responsible for the ongoing and often constant care of an ailing veteran.
go here for more
Caregivers of veterans offered relief
MARTIN J. KIDSTON Helena Independent Record
HELENA — Mike Bolin’s slide into dementia was years in the making.
During his lectures at the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, the Vietnam veteran and teacher began losing his words. It wouldn’t be long before Parkinson’s would set in. Dementia would follow, along with the hallucinations.
Now, 65, the winner of the Distinguished Flying Cross and retired military man has lost the ability to walk, to feed himself and to care for his most basic needs. As a result, his wife, Lynn, has made some dramatic changes to her life.
“I had to quit work in November when I couldn’t leave him alone anymore,” Lynn said.
“This happened fast. He’s young and we don’t know what the future holds.”
Mike eased in and out of sleep recently in a La-Z-Boy recliner at the Rocky Mountain Care Center in downtown Helena. When he stared across the room, his eyes fixed on nothing in particular. When he tried to talk, his words came randomly, as if he were dreaming.
Chances are, Lynn knows, that his condition will only get worse.
But, where Lynn once cared for Mike alone, she now relies upon a new service launched by the Veterans Administration at Fort Harrison to help carry the responsibility of providing around-the-clock care.
Known as the Non-Institutional Care program, the service offers relief to those who find themselves responsible for the ongoing and often constant care of an ailing veteran.
go here for more
Caregivers of veterans offered relief
Vietnam vet's widow is still waiting
Barbara Hollingsworth: Vietnam vet's widow is still waiting
By: Barbara Hollingsworth
Local Opinion Editor
May 11, 2010
If anybody deserves government health care, it's members of the armed services who literally put their lives on the line for their country. But the government's promise to take care of wounded and sick warriors has too often been an empty one. The Veterans Administration is notorious for red tape that keeps veterans from actually receiving the health benefits they were promised.
Here's just one example: For many years, the Navy provided sailors with government-subsidized cigarettes, which they could purchase for just five cents a carton. So seven months before Vietnam veteran Robert Krone died from end-stage lung disease on Aug. 20, 1998, the VA admitted that his emphysema "is not questioned as being service connected."
Eight months before his death -- and three weeks before the VA stopped accepting tobacco-related claims -- Krone got a call from a VA employee telling him that his tobacco claim had finally been approved and the check would be in the mail within 10 days. His wife, Bessie, who was caring for her terminally ill husband, dashed off a letter thanking former Montgomery Service Center manager Jack Downes and his staff.
Thirteen years later, the check has still not arrived.
Read more at the Washington Examiner: Vietnam vet's widow is still waiting
By: Barbara Hollingsworth
Local Opinion Editor
May 11, 2010
If anybody deserves government health care, it's members of the armed services who literally put their lives on the line for their country. But the government's promise to take care of wounded and sick warriors has too often been an empty one. The Veterans Administration is notorious for red tape that keeps veterans from actually receiving the health benefits they were promised.
Here's just one example: For many years, the Navy provided sailors with government-subsidized cigarettes, which they could purchase for just five cents a carton. So seven months before Vietnam veteran Robert Krone died from end-stage lung disease on Aug. 20, 1998, the VA admitted that his emphysema "is not questioned as being service connected."
Eight months before his death -- and three weeks before the VA stopped accepting tobacco-related claims -- Krone got a call from a VA employee telling him that his tobacco claim had finally been approved and the check would be in the mail within 10 days. His wife, Bessie, who was caring for her terminally ill husband, dashed off a letter thanking former Montgomery Service Center manager Jack Downes and his staff.
Thirteen years later, the check has still not arrived.
Read more at the Washington Examiner: Vietnam vet's widow is still waiting
Army National Guard suicides increased 75 percent in 2009
When the battle comes home: Preventing suicides
Posted: May 11, 2010 - 3:21pm
First of three parts
There is something especially troubling about suicides in the armed forces.
Start with this statistic: More military personnel died by suicide in 2009 than in either of the wars in Afghanistan or Iraq, reports the Congressional Quarterly.
Rates are high for both active duty personnel and veterans.
- In fact, of the more than 30,000 suicides in the nation each year, fully 20 percent are by veterans, said Eric Shinseki, Veterans Affairs secretary.
- Army National Guard suicides increased 75 percent in 2009.
- An average of 18 veterans each day die by suicide.
Stemming the increase
When death comes from the soldier's own hand after returning home, it seems especially tragic.
"This is horrible. Every single loss is devastating," said Gen. Peter Chiarelli, Army vice chief of staff, in The Washington Post.
read more here
When the battle comes home Preventing suicides
Great information here
Fallen officers to be honored at national memorial
Fallen officers to be honored at national memorial
Submitted by Molly Shen on Thursday, May 13th, 07:38am
Family members, friends and fellow officers of six slain law enforcement officers from Western Washington are in Washington D.C. today for a ceremony honoring fallen officers from around the country.
The names of Seattle police Officer Timothy Brenton, Pierce County Deputy Kent Mundell and Lakewood officers Tina Griswold, Ronald Owens, Mark Renninger and Greg Richards were recently engraved on the National Law Enforcement Memorial wall.
A formal ceremony marking the addition of the six names and the names of other 318 other officers from across the U.S. will be held Thursday night. About 20,000 people are expected to attend the vigil.
go here for more
http://lakewood.komonews.com/content/fallen-officers-be-honored-national-memorial
Submitted by Molly Shen on Thursday, May 13th, 07:38am
Family members, friends and fellow officers of six slain law enforcement officers from Western Washington are in Washington D.C. today for a ceremony honoring fallen officers from around the country.
The names of Seattle police Officer Timothy Brenton, Pierce County Deputy Kent Mundell and Lakewood officers Tina Griswold, Ronald Owens, Mark Renninger and Greg Richards were recently engraved on the National Law Enforcement Memorial wall.
A formal ceremony marking the addition of the six names and the names of other 318 other officers from across the U.S. will be held Thursday night. About 20,000 people are expected to attend the vigil.
go here for more
http://lakewood.komonews.com/content/fallen-officers-be-honored-national-memorial
Five to ten more years to add wounded, waiting and dying?
We can't take care of the wounded veterans we have now. Does anyone know what this will mean over the years considering Vietnam ended 35 years ago and Vietnam veterans are still seeking help for the first time?
Cartwright: Expect war for 5-10 more years
For the next “five to 10 years,” the U.S. military likely will remain engaged in the same kinds of conflicts it has been fighting since 2001, said Marine Corps Gen. James Cartwright.
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