Message to PTSD soldiers: Go away boy, you're bothering me.

It often seems as if we're really living in two different countries at times. Thousands of people are getting ready to honor the fallen for Memorial Day. Tributes to the men and women laying in their graves after giving all they had for this country are forming in every tiny town as well as huge city. Arlington Virginia is getting ready to be invaded by Rolling Thunder, the Nam Knights, Patriot Guard Riders, the list goes on. One more reminder of how good we are at honoring the dead but have a hard time taking care of the living.


It's as if they said to them: "We can't use you anymore so go away and stop bothering us."

First, trying to wash their hands after they were doing using these soldiers up, this also insults every American with any kind of mental health condition. Did they think of this when they started to try to claim "pre-existing" personality disorders instead of accepting responsibility for this wound as old as mankind? Nope! Glad to say this practice is not still going on, or at least, it was supposed to have ended a couple of years ago, but then again, we've all read claims made before that turn out to not be true.

This practice was not in all units but the issue is it was still allowed to happen. Now the VA is trying to make things right. The question the rest of us should be asking is what happened to these men and women at the military got it wrong? How many ended up homeless because they had PTSD but ended up with a discharge like this? How many committed crimes because they had no hope of justice? How many families fell apart? Will we ever know the true price the veterans paid for serving this country?

“Freedom for the few”
May 16, 2010 posted by Bob Higgins

“They told me I wasn’t a real soldier, that I was a piece of crap. All I wanted was to be treated for my injuries, now suddenly I’m not a soldier. I’m a prisoner, by my own people.” Chuck Luther, after he was discharged from the Army for having Pre-Existing Personality Disorder.

By Marcelle Rico
In order to be in the Army Luther had to pass the various medical and psychological examinations, so his condition couldn’t possibly be pre-existing. He was kept in an isolation chamber for one month, where he was treated worse than a prisoner, until he agreed to sign a pre-existing PD discharge. The Army’s officials found a way to get away with misdiagnosing him and he was denied treatment for his disabilities. The Army’s Chapter 5-13 says that any soldier with pre-existing PD should be discharged from the army with no medical benefits. This excuse is used to avoid paying medical treatment to soldiers who get wounded in battle. This is how the Army makes money out of their war heroes. The Army is using a technicality to deny benefits to service men that desperately need and deserve them. This must stop.

In addition to being discharged with no benefits, soldiers have to pay the Army a slice of their re-enlistment bonus. The Army has left thousands of veterans struggling to pay back the bonus, with no medical treatment, and fighting against Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. In 2008 the Nation magazine reported that 22,000 soldiers had been discharged from the Army with PD. Dozens of those soldiers have been found to be wrongly diagnosed. This raises the question: how many more soldiers have been erroneously diagnosed for the Army’s convenience? Our country doesn’t realize how hard it is for veterans to go back to the lives they had, now that they have PTSD.

“I see the ugly,” Luther said in an interview with Truthout news website, “I see soldiers beating their wives and trying to kill themselves all the time, and most folks don’t want to look at this, including the military.” Soldiers diagnosed with Personality Disorder are ineligible to be treated by The Department of Veterans Affairs. Most of them have severe injuries and need immediate care, but they are not being treated because they did not receive a disability rating from the Army. The VA is aware of this problem and is doing its best to find veterans who are being misdiagnosed.

Due to the lack of public knowledge of this issue, proper measures have not been taken to end it. We need more transparency on this issue. The more it is talked about and the more people find out about it, the easier it will be for Barack Obama to make it a priority to end the chapter 5-13 discharges. The first step is to set regulations in the Department of Defense. The files should be reviewed by a trustworthy member of the government and any misdiagnosed soldiers should be found and given the proper medical care. The second step would be to create a bill that says the government can view the lists of medical examinations and that officials from an outside organization should be appointed in each military base to avoid any more misdiagnoses.

read more here

Freedom for the few

Man Killed by Train While Trying to Help Woman

Man Killed by Train While Trying to Help Woman
(May 15) -- A Brooklyn man died Friday after jumping onto the subway tracks to help a woman who was trying to fetch her jacket.

Fellow riders told the New York Post that Jose Gomez, 29, and Beatriz Briceno, 19, were traveling together near 36th Avenue in Astoria, Queens, when Briceno jumped onto the elevated tracks to get back her jacket. Gomez went after the teen and a northbound N train struck the pair, pinning them to the tracks beneath the third car.

"There was blood dripping all over and a lot of frantic movement underneath the train as firefighters tried to get them out," witness Bruce Williams told the Post.
read more here
Man Killed by Train While Trying to Help Woman

Trooper killed in Miami-Dade Turnpike crash

Trooper killed in Miami-Dade Turnpike crash

By Mike Clary, Sun Sentinel

8:50 a.m. EDT, May 16, 2010

Miami – A 35-year-old Florida Highway Patrol officer was killed in a fiery collision Saturday evening in northwest Miami-Dade County when his patrol car was stuck from behind on the Florida Turnpike.

Patrick Ambroise, who had just marked his fourth anniversary as an FHP officer, was trapped in his car and engulfed in flames. He was prounounced dead at the scene.

Ambroise, in a 2006 Ford Crown Victoria, was parked on the right shoulder of the northbound toll road just north of the Okeechobee Road interchange at 8:39 p.m. when his vehicle was struck from hehind by a 1995 Lexus, according to FHP investigators.


read more here
Trooper killed in Miami Dade Turnpike crash

One man's war on military-hero impostors

One man's war on military-hero impostors
Most people can't tell the difference between the hero who was awarded his Purple Heart for taking shrapnel in the Battle of Fallujah and the fraud who bought his medal on the Internet.
By Christian Davenport

The Washington Post

Since 2006, claiming an unearned military decoration has been a federal offense, thanks to a federal law Doug Sterner, guardian of the nation's military decorations, helped to craft.

WASHINGTON — It certainly looked real. It had the right font, right seal. It was even signed by the secretary of the Navy.

But Doug Sterner, self-appointed guardian of the nation's military decorations, immediately suspected that there was something fishy about the Marine's citation for the Navy Cross, one of the military's most prestigious awards.

First of all, it said that the president "takes pride" in presenting the prize. "Pride," Sterner knew, is typically used only when the recipient is dead. This Marine was very much alive, which meant the citation should have said the president "takes pleasure."

Then Sterner noticed that the citation was supposedly signed in 1968 by Navy Secretary Paul Nitze. But Nitze was secretary only until 1967.

Sterner, who lives in Alexandria, Va., knew that in his obsessive quest to compile a database of recipients of the military's top decorations, he had found yet another phony. This time, the man he outed was Richard Thibodeau, who for years had proudly spun tales of heroism and even had his awards hung in a veterans museum.

Some phonies do it for the money they collect posing as war heroes. But Tom Cottone, an FBI agent who for years busted them, said most do it for an adoration money can't buy. "They get access to people, places and events they would never have except that they are representing that they earned awards for valor in combat," he said.

go here for more

One man war on military hero impostors

Married into the wars they fought?

Married into the wars they fought?
by
Chaplain Kathie

When I receive emails from a spouse of a veteran, they are kept private, but I can tell you there is a lot of heartbreaking stories out there. One of the wives I've been helping is toward the end of the struggle of getting her husband the help he's desperately needed since Vietnam. Emotionally drained after a hearing on his claim, she emailed me this morning. Answering her email, I sent this and as I typed it, it made me aware that I have not done enough to help the wives/husbands, needing support and encouragement to finish the good fight.

The wife said that at the VA she was called her husband's guardian angel. In a way, we all are when we decide to fight for them. We didn't fight the wars they did but we end up fighting to get them the care they need, holding our families and our marriages together. We married into the wars they fought.

That's exactly how I ended up using Nam Guardian Angel. A friend of mine called me that when she heard our story so long ago. I didn't think I was doing anything that earth shattering either. After all, he's my husband. The man I knew, the man I planned to spend the rest of my life with, my best friend, was hurting. What else could I do? Walk away? Then what? Christ helped me to see into his heart, beneath the pain, past the way he treated me and He kept showing me just enough glimpses of the man he really was. I did so very imperfectly as a human with needs, wants and desires of my own but Christ "allowed me to put childish things aside." This is not the marriage I wanted and not the way I thought I would spend the rest of my life.

There were times when I thought this was hell and hopeless but He managed to help me to see what the truth was and now this. This "new normal" world for us and I feel blessed I stayed all these years.

Too many others, just like you and me, wander through this hell alone. They never know there is a hand to hold onto, that forgiving is possible and healing waits ahead for them. Like the pain of childbirth, the pain they feel now will end and they will rejoice in the light of the love they have built together through the fire.

I wish I could tell you that all the emotional drain you feel right now will be over tomorrow. This may last a while but considering how long you've been emotionally drained, you have been strengthened by it. There will come a day when you just remember this pain but do not feel it anymore. It will be replaced by hope to feed your soul. There will come a day when you look at him and marvel at how far he's come and know you were a part of his healing.

Blessings upon you and your husband that the Light of the World ease your journey on this path He has set your foot upon. He knows you didn't have to follow where He lead you. You let love lead the way instead of walking away.

Deciding to stay was one of the hardest choices I've ever had to make. Could I be that unselfish? Could I forgive all that he had done when PTSD was changing him so much? Could I still see him inside there under all the pain?

It's not just the changes in our relationship that were hard but the financial strain was almost unbearable. He couldn't work anymore with medications, drained by flashbacks and nightmares but his claim was still not approved. It seemed to go from bad to worse and so many nights falling down on my knees wondering how we would make it through one more day, knowing each day also brought the chance that one day would end up being the one day too many for him.

One night as I waited for him to come home, I prayed that since God could see into his heart, that if evil had taken over, that he not walk in the door. It was that bad. It had gotten to the point when even I couldn't see any resemblance of the man I fell in love with. Too many problems, too many arguments, too much of my own pain had become too much of everything bad.

He came home. By the time he walked in the door, I noticed I was not angry. I was grateful. The pain I felt inside was eased enough so that when I looked into his eyes, I realized he was still in there and God could still clearly see the man he had always been.

Astonishing to think of how bad things were for us even though I knew everything about PTSD and had been helping other veterans with their families, but there I was falling apart finding it so impossible to get through any more of it.

All these years later whenever I get an email from a spouse, usually a wife, I am taken back to those dark days and grieve for them. If I hurt that much inside with abundant faith and full knowledge of what I was dealing with, how much harder is it on them? If it hurts this bad even remembering it, what's it like for them going through it right now?

I wish I could tell all the families of our PTSD veterans changed by combat that there is hope and they can help with the healing, be part of recovery, because it is all possible, but I have to face the reality that in this huge blog world, I'm pretty insignificant. So I just do the best I can helping the people God sends my way stumbling upon me out of darkness and desperation. And I grieve with them.

When I read about another suicide I grieve because I know it was one more life that could have been saved and one more family spared the heartache if they knew what they could have done. I grieve when I read about another homeless veteran abandoned by family and society cast off into the abyss. I grieve when I read about an arrest of a veteran because flashbacks have taken control and took them back to the combat they thought they survived. Above all this, I grieve for the children as they have to watch their Dad or Mom change and live with the turmoil they will internalize because they don't understand. The price paid by military families and veterans families is astonishing but few others understand. As a nation of over 300 million, less than 10% are veterans and even less combat veterans. It's almost as if when they come home standing, the country wants to just move on expecting them to just do the same. The country can move on but they never think of the price paid for their chance to forget.

This blog is here so that if something is written about PTSD or our veterans they can all be found together. I had so little information when I first started to learn that I know the value of having it easy to find. I took comfort every time I read an article or a book on PTSD and the Internet has richly blessed all the people feeling lost and helpless. We had our 25th anniversary in September. I gather what I can and share what I have hoping one day will come when no one has to send me an email still feeling alone and lost. None of this is hopeless and we can all stop fighting these wars of the soul trying to destroy what is good and noble and worthy of love.

Fellow marine mourns fallen comrade

Fellow marine mourns fallen comrade
23-year-old Ludlow marine killed in Afghanistan
Updated: Sunday, 16 May 2010, 1:06 AM EDT
Published : Saturday, 15 May 2010, 11:36 PM EDT

Jacqueline Jing
LUDLOW, Mass. (WWLP) - James Torrey and Joshua Desforges knew each other in high school, but a common goal would bring them together: the United States Marine Corps. Desforges, a 23-year old Ludlow native, was killed during combat operations in Helmand province in Afghanistan on Wednesday.

"He had marine written all over him, from his high and tight throughout high school. This kid knew he was going into the Marine Corps," said Torrey.
read more here
Fellow marine mourns fallen comrade

There are some things they do that we can't put a price on

Friday I was at the Orlando VA with my husband. When I walked by the reception desk, there was this picture of General Eric K. Shinseki and a picture of President Obama. I smiled as I walked by and felt so much better than in years of going there or to other VA hospitals. The Orlando VA is the size of a hospital but it is just a clinic. The new hospital being built in Lake Nona isn't scheduled to open until 2012. Until then, the parking lot will still not have enough space even when the snow birds go back north, the waiting rooms will still be full and every eye I see in the halls will remind me of the price paid by so many.

It is all a reminder of how far the VA has come in such little time. It greatly saddens me when I hear veterans bash President Obama and claim Democrats are evil, yet had it not been for them taking control of congress in 2007, this would all be so much worse for our veterans. It's not that Republicans don't care but they had other things on their mind. I heard them and read their speeches about having two wars to pay for and used that as a reason to not fix the VA to take care of those they sent to Iraq and Afghanistan any better than they had taken care of older veterans still waiting for care.

President Obama was on the Veterans Committee when things started getting better, funding was increased and there was hope once more for our veterans. He knows there is so much more that needs to be done and I am one never reluctant to post on how much they still need to get right, but when it comes to "change" he promised in his campaign speeches, it is "change" I can believe in.

There is such a great need out there for them across the country. The VA needs us to help them take care of the men and women we claim to care so much about. Showing up for parades, visiting a cemetery or monument to their sacrifices is wonderful but as we try to raise funds to build more, there are living monuments to our freedom suffering and waiting for this nation to live up to the promises.

With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in
the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on
to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds;
to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow,
and his orphan--to do all which may achieve and cherish a just
and lasting peace among ourselves, and with all nations.
President Lincoln

Or take these words seriously enough that we run out of excuses to not take care of our veterans. That we live up to the true worthiness of being a grateful nation toward them.

"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

There needs to be people stepping up across the country to really take care of them. The VA can only do so much. We need to stop saying "let the VA do it" because between now and then, there are veterans suffering for their service. These men and women, no matter how severe their wounds are, still say they would serve again, do it all over again for the sake of those they served with. The bond built by combat surpasses all understanding of human nature because we see the situation with human eyes instead of loving ways. They loved each other and were willing to die for each other. How great is that in a time when so many others only think of themselves?

So what's our problem? They need us. Where are you? What are you doing? Joining any of the organizations trying to take care of them? Donating to any of the charities dedicated to veterans? Spending any time as a volunteer at a VA hospital? Volunteering any time to mow the law of an elderly veteran or helping one get to the VA when they cannot drive themselves? It's never enough to make us ever feel as if there is nothing more we can do when they did it all and still want to do more.

Shinseki Extols Value of Volunteerism

Volunteers "Priceless" to VA, Country



WASHINGTON (May 15, 2010) - Random acts of kindness are nice, but
Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki told graduates at the
University of Maryland University College (UMUC) that the world needs
more "people who are regularly, habitually and deliberately kind."

"We can no more put a value on kindness than we can put a price on
heroism," Shinseki told nearly 1,300 graduates. "People who make caring for others a personal devotion, a part of their everyday lives, that's what's needed - people who are willing to serve the needs of others."

At the Department of Veterans Affairs, Shinseki noted, about 140,000
volunteers help Veterans at VA's hospitals, Vet Centers and cemeteries.
Conservatively, VA prices their time as worth $240 million, while the
volunteers also contribute more than $80 million yearly in gifts and
donations.



"There are some things they do that we can't put a price on. Not
everything can be reduced to a dollar value," Shinseki added. "What's
the price of a Thank you? How about an hour of patience? What's the
going rate for dignity and respect for a combat Veteran? Such values
cannot be calculated."



The VA Secretary noted that Veterans in the class of 2010 were the first
to take advantage of the Post-9/11 GI Bill, the largest improvement in
the traditional educational program since its inception in 1944.



"By time [the original GI Bill] ended in 1956, it had profoundly
transformed America economically, educationally and socially,
catapulting our economy to the world's largest and our nation to a
global leader and a victor in the Cold War," Shinseki said.



He saluted the UMUC staff for their programs tailored to the educational
needs of the men and women on active duty. About 60,000 of the school's
100,000 students are military personnel. The school operates on 130
military installations, including four in Iraq and four in Afghanistan.



"UMUC and the military have long shared a vital partnership in
education," said Shinseki, a retired Army four-star general. "Wherever
the Army went campaigning, UMUC went with us."

Fallen soldier returns home

There are a lot of other stories I read that never appear on this blog. For one simple reason. Poor writing, done by someone needing to fill in some space with absolutely no clue how emotional the return of a flag draped coffin is. Doesn't matter what branch of the military or if it contains a citizen soldier from the National Guards or Reservists. It seems insulting to post some of the filler things I've read and I am so grateful this is not one of them. It's well written and addresses the emotions of people showing up to honor this fallen Guardsman.

Staff photo by Joe Phelan Maine Army National Guard soldiers move the casket containing U.S. Army Spc. Wade A. Slack's remains from a Falcon 20 charter jet to a waiting hearse Friday morning at the Augusta State Airport. The motorcade then drove north to Waterville.

Joe Phelan

Fallen soldier returns home
Wade A. Slack, of Waterville, arrives at airport and funeral home
By Scott Monroe



AUGUSTA — Under overcast skies this morning, Spc. Wade A. Slack was returned home to Maine.

Slack, 21, of Waterville, died of wounds sustained May 6 in Jaghatu, Afghanistan, after insurgents attacked his Army unit using indirect fire. Slack, who specialized in disarming explosives, was assigned to the 707th Ordnance Company, 3rd Ordnance Battalion, of the Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Wash.

At 9:14 a.m. this morning at the Augusta State Airport, a Falcon 20 plane of Kalitta Charters touched down on the runway on schedule, and rolled toward a crowd gathered at gate 2.

Slack’s family — including mother Mary Slack, father Alan Slack and stepmother Rose Slack and many others — were gathered together on the tarmac in a line, watching with hands clasped together and some with cameras raised.

Also at the airport as escorts were Waterville police, including Deputy Chief Charles Rumsey, Waterville Fire Chief David LaFountain, and officers from the Kennebec County Sheriff’s Office. Maj. Gen. John W. Libby of the Maine National Guard was also there, as were scores of guardsmen, and 21 members of the Patriot Guard Riders and their motorcycles.

The plane came to a rest and its door slowly opened. Rail supports were placed down from the door to the tarmac and a platform on wheels, draped in black cloth, was lowered.

A couple of guardsmen walked across the tarmac to the plane, including Capt. Earl Weigelt, a Maine National Guard chaplain. Also standing by the plane was Sgt. James Cribbett, who served with Slack in Afghanistan and was a good friend. Cribbett also accompanied Slack’s remains on the flight from Afghanistan to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware a week ago.
read more here
http://www.onlinesentinel.com/news/Fallen-soldier-returns-home.html

Vietnam's rising toll includes Stratford man

Vietnam's rising toll includes Stratford man
Written by John Kovach
Saturday, 15 May 2010 12:07


The name of Dennis Leo Gazaille does not appear on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C.

He was 17 when he left with his fellow Marines, serving from 1966 to 1969.

Dennis Gazaille made it home.

It was stateside, in 2003, that cancer blamed on exposure to Agent Orange manifested itself.

It was here in December 2008 that complications of that cancer, coupled with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, took his life.

“He was the bravest man I knew,” Nancy Gazaille said of her late husband after she returned from Washington, D.C., where he was one of 97 former service personnel honored on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund’s In Memory Day.

The annual observance salutes those who made it home, but later died as a result of their service in Vietnam.
read more here
Vietnam's rising toll includes Stratford man

Belated recognition a balm for Vietnam veteran

Things like this happened all the time. When my husband was awarded his Bronze Star, he looked at the certificate and said it had the wrong social security number typed in. His CO said it would be fixed and since it ended up on his DD214, he figured no problem. The local newspaper reported on the award and he did have all the paperwork to go with it, but that was not the end of the story.

He applied for disability but was told that there was not record of his receiving a Bronze Star. Way too long of a story, somehow I managed to get in touch with a General and his aid gave him copies of all the paperwork we had, all with the same wrong social security number on it and we even sent the copy of the old newspaper article his Mom saved. The General had it fixed.

The problem is with so many fakes running around making claims when they weren't even in Vietnam, it ends up making the real veterans suffer and have a harder time proving they are telling the truth.

The only thing that I don't understand is how could this veteran be awarded 4 Bronze Stars and not know anything about it? How messed up was the Army back then?

Belated recognition a balm for Vietnam veteran
By Liz Carey
Posted May 14, 2010 at 4:36 p.m.

ANDERSON — For 40 years, Danny Glenn didn’t know he had been awarded a Bronze Star in Vietnam.

It wasn’t until he applied for military benefits that he found he had been awarded not one, but four.

For him, it makes up for years of feeling unappreciated for his service.

Glenn, who lives in Fair Play, served in Cuchi, Vietnam, in the 25th infantry. Wounded four times in battle, he spent a year battling the enemy. He won’t talk much about what happened there, said his wife, Alice.

But harder than being there was coming home, he said.

“I was sitting there talking to the guy who was helping me with the paperwork and I said, ‘That’s not my Social Security number.’ The last number was wrong,” he said.

With a little help and some research, Glenn was able to get his Social Security number corrected. When he applied for the assistance, the right number went through the system and the Army sent him a letter letting him know he had been awarded several medals — a good-conduct medal, a meritorious unit commendation, a National Defense Service medal, sharpshooter badge, an expert rifle badge and four Bronze stars.

go here for more

Belated recognition a balm for Vietnam veteran