Oregon lawmakers want Guard medical care reviewed

Ore. lawmakers want Guard medical care reviewed

By Peter Urban - Gannett Washington Bureau
Posted : Monday May 17, 2010 19:11:00 EDT

Two Oregon lawmakers are seeking an investigation into the quality of medical treatment provided to National Guard and Reserve troops before and after combat deployment to Iraq.

Sen. Ron Wyden and Rep. Kurt Schrader sent joint letters Monday to the Army’s inspector general and the Government Accountability Office seeking an investigation after their offices uncovered evidence that Joint Base Lewis-McChord treated active-duty soldiers differently from National Guard members and reservists returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.

They also wrote to Army Secretary John McHugh asking him to investigate their concerns that returning National Guard members and reservists are being treated as “second-class soldiers.”

“I am outraged after hearing troubling reports about the disrespectful and inequitable treatment received by Oregon Guardsmen,” Schrader said in a news release issued with Wyden.
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Oregon lawmakers want Guard medical care reviewed

Missing Ark. Guard hard drive located

Missing Ark. Guard hard drive located

The Associated Press
Posted : Monday May 17, 2010 16:30:11 EDT

NORTH LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — A hard drive containing personal information about more than 32,000 current and former Arkansas National Guard soldiers has been located.

The hard drive had been missing since Feb. 22.
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Missing Ark. Guard hard drive located

Stiff upper lip not biggest reason behind lower PTSD in UK

Deployment durations, dwell time and the use of National Guards and Reservists is more responsible than anything else, and the DOD knew this. They reported on the fact PTSD would be increased with redeployments but did it anyway just as they knew dwell time would affect the rates as well. Now maybe they will hear this!

Study: British troops less likely to get PTSD
Stars and Stripes
Stars and Stripes online edition, Monday, May 17, 2010
British combat troops are far less likely to suffer post-traumatic stress disorder than their American counterparts, The New York Times reported Monday, citing a recent psychiatric study of the British military.

Just 4 percent of Brits who have served in Iraq or Afghanistan exhibit symptoms of PTSD compared with 10 to 20 percent of Americans, though both have seen comparable levels of combat in recent years, according to the study.

“This is truly a landmark study, in its size and rigor, and the findings are surprisingly positive,” said Richard J. McNally, a psychologist at Harvard, told the Times. “The big mystery is why we find these cross-national differences.”
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http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=70043

Veterans Deadly Isolation Gap, their own family

WARNING: I am one angry woman right now!

I wanted to think this was a great story when I read the headline. Then as I read the part about the fact Patt Cottingham goes to the VA with her husband, but didn't know what has been going on all these years with Vietnam veterans, I wanted to punch my computer screen! I can't help it every time I am reminded that the majority of veterans wives, husbands, kids, parents and other partners have absolutely no clue what it is like for them. IT'S OUR JOB TO KNOW!

If you are under the delusion your job is done when they come home and you can stop praying for them, then you are part of the problem. You are part of the problem when they commit suicide and you didn't want to understand them, try to get them help or even notice they needed it. It was your job to know enough to be able to make some kind of informed judgement for their sake. Screw your pride if you think you may be wrong about them needing help because if they do and you do nothing, you'll have to live with that when they pay the price for your lack of attention.

Don't get me wrong here, there are many families stepping up to try to save their lives but even with everything being done right by them, there are still suicides and some cannot be reached. We can't save all of them. I wish we could. But because families do care, do take action, do learn what they can and managed to stay and fight for them, many lives have been saved.

Speaking from experience, I can assure you I would not still be married if I didn't know what PTSD was. It was almost impossible even knowing what was going on inside of him, so it's hard to imagine not knowing anything.

We can be proud as hell of the fact we are the wives of veterans but if we do not know what is going on with all of our veterans, we should be ashamed of ourselves.

I used to post on Military Spouses of America so that new wives would have the knowledge it took me over 20 years to learn. I didn't want them to go through the same hell of not knowing anything and making the same mistakes I made. It began to really get to me when there was so little commenting on the posts I put up. No questions to ask, no support seeking, no sharing. I flipped my lid. I managed to get responses like "We have enough to worry about" while they are deployed and don't want to worry about what happens when they come home.

Sure they have a lot to worry about while they are deployed along with having to be a single parent while married, take care of all the things their spouse did and still manage to everything they already had to do, but the truth is, they would have less to worry about in the long run if they knew what combat was doing to their spouse. For heaven's sake, even for the sake of another veteran they should know and maybe save a life or two.

When we marry into war/combat, it is our job to know everything that ends up coming home with them. We don't need to hear the gory details but we do need to know they are hurting and why they are hurting instead of living like the rest of the population without a clue. They are a fraction of the population of America, which means so are we. It's our job to know so we can support them and help them when they need it. If we don't care enough to learn, then how in the hell can we expect the rest of the country to care either?

Goodbye/Hello 17 "Veterans Deadly Isolation Gap Between Combat And Back Home"
Patt Cottingham
Patt Cottingham has been working as a brand communication strategist for the past ten years.
Posted: May 10, 2010 10:57 AM

Here is a tragic statistic that just blew my mind recently. Of the veterans from the all US wars on average, 18 veterans commit suicide each day. "Of the more than 30,000 suicides in this country each year, fully 20 percent of them are acts by veterans,'' said VA Secretary Eric Shinseki at a VA-sponsored Suicide Prevention Conference Jan.11, 2010 "That means on average 18 veterans commit suicide each day. Five of those veterans are under our care at VA." Now there are those within the VA that dispute this number and others that say that there has been under reporting of suicides by the VA Here is an article link that speaks directly to this http://ipsnorthamerica.net/news.php?idnews=2784

I don't think that very many people are aware of this statistic. I know that I wasn't and my husband is a veteran. That is until I saw a recent interview by John Roberts interviewing Tammy Duckworth on CNN. Scrolling along the bottom of the screen was "18 veterans commit suicide each day " Duckworth is an Iraq War veteran and former U.S. Army helicopter pilot whose severe combat wounds cost her both of her legs and damaged her right arm. She is also the Assistant Secretary of Public and Intergovernmental Affairs for the United States Department of Veterans Affairs. Tammy Duckworth went on to say in the interview that the VA and the society as a whole have a long way to go to help returning veterans feel whole and connected again. For her CNN interview visit this link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9YQJFrngYvY&feature=fvsr


My husband Kenneth is a Vietnam Veteran so I am in and out of the VA Medical Center in East Orange New Jersey quite often. Last week I was sitting in the pharmacy and to the left of me was a young man. I leaned over and asked him "Which war are you returning from?". "He said Afghanistan." I said "Thank you for your service to our country" I went on to say that it must be very hard to re-enter society when you can't really share your experiences with anyone and I assumed that is why so many vets go back for more tours. "He said, that even though he had plastic in his head from a traumatic injury and that his leg was screwed up he still wanted to go back but the army wouldn't let him because his wounds were too serious. I thought to myself, "My god he is saying it is easier to go back to the horrors of war than it is to rejoin American society." I went on to say that recently I had seen a statistic that every day 18 veterans commit suicide. He said, "Yeah, I tried that" He also told me that the divorce rate was very high, especially for newly married veterans. I asked him what could people do to help returning vets. He said, "It always helps to be thanked. And that just having someone care enough to reach out try to connect is also a good thing." I thought to myself a simple "thank you" is the very least that we, as a society should do. For soldiers that have been asked to volunteer their service again and again in wars that exacted such a toll in their lives
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Awake during surgery: 'I'm in hell'

Awake during surgery: 'I'm in hell'
By Elizabeth Landau, CNN
May 17, 2010 8:22 a.m. EDT

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Although general anesthesia is commonly used, doctors do not know exactly how it works
There has been controversy about the use of brain function monitors in general anesthesia
The patient and anesthesiologist gather as much medical history as possible
(CNN) -- When Carol Weiher was having her right eye surgically removed in 1998, she woke up hearing disco music. The next thing she heard was "Cut deeper, pull harder."

She desperately wanted to scream or even move a finger to signal to doctors that she was awake, but the muscle relaxant she'd received prevented her from controlling her movements.

"I was doing a combination of praying and pleading and cursing and screaming, and trying anything I could do but I knew that there was nothing that was working," said Weiher, of Reston, Virginia.

Weiher is one of few people who have experienced anesthesia awareness. Although normally a patient does not remember anything about surgery that involves general anesthesia, about one or two people in every 1,000 may wake up during general anesthesia, according to the Mayo Clinic. Most of these cases involve the person being aware of the surrounding environment, but some experience severe pain and go on to have psychological problems.
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Awake during surgery

Five Americans among 18 killed in Afghan suicide attack

Five Americans among 18 killed in Afghan suicide attack
By the CNN Wire Staff
May 18, 2010 8:25 a.m. EDT

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
NEW: Five Americans among 6 ISAF service members killed
Suicide car bomb also kills 12 civilians, wounds 48, officials say
Taliban claim responsibility for attack near military recruiting post
Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Five U.S. service members were among the 18 people killed in a suicide car bombing Tuesday in Kabul, a U.S. defense official confirmed.

Women, children and a NATO-led soldier also were killed when the bomb exploded near a registration center for Afghan Army recruits, officials said.

The attack occurred near an International Security Assistance Force military convoy on a busy road, ISAF said.

Along with the international service members, at least 12 civilians were killed and 48 others were injured, local medical officials said.

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Five Americans among 18 killed in Afghan suicide attack

St. Louis Marine Gives Insight To War In Afghanistan

St. Louis Marine Gives Insight To War In Afghanistan
By Charles Jaco FOX2now.com
May 17, 2010

LOUIS (KTVI - FOX2now.com) - A St. Louis area Marine came home on leave Monday from combat in Afghanistan and his story tells us a lot about the kind of war our troops are fighting. U.S. Enclaves, strict rules of engagement, a hit-and-run enemy, the inability to tell friend from foe: that's the reality in Afghanistan. And as combat heats up so will the problems. Marine Corporal Nicholas Wicker is one small part of one large war that's becoming larger.

20,000 Marines from the 1st Marine Division had been slugging it out with the Taliban in Helmand Province, a Taliban stronghold. Now, they're responsible for two other provinces, tripling their combat area in a region infested with Taliban. It's also the primary opium poppy producing area of the country.

"Every day. Every day. Summer months it gets worse. They hammer you in summer. Let off. It never ends," says Cpl. Wicker.

In Helmand Province, about one-third the size of Missouri, 9 marines have been killed just this month. And with a summertime goal to root the Taliban out of their traditional strongholds, expect that total to go up:
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St. Louis Marine Gives Insight To War In Afghanistan

The other Major Hassan, healing PTSD with Avatar

Wonderful idea considering few therapists understand this kind of PTSD. There is a difference between combat PTSD and the rest of the causes of PTSD, although law enforcement comes in very close. The difference is, they are participants in the traumatic events themselves. Much like crime survivors are part of the event, they cannot be treated the same way a witness is treated. Very different experiences behind this wound caused by traumatic events.

It's easier to put yourself if the position of others when you can really relate to how you would feel and react to it happening to you but how do you relate to risking your life day in and day out with people trying to kill you at the same time you need to do the same as part of your job? It's not just about witnessing horrific events, too often, it's about having to create them as well.


Avatar Teaches Social Workers How to Talk With Iraq and Afghanistan Vets
BY Lydia Dishman
Mon May 17, 2010

Lieutenant Rocco’s recently returned from deployment in Iraq and he’s having trouble acclimating. He sits near the edge of a sofa in his social worker’s office, still dressed in fatigues, and sporting a buzz cut. Even though he says he’s okay, he admits to getting flack from his boss about his lack of productivity and that he’s arguing with his wife. "There are things I don’t want to talk about with her. Things I can’t get out of my head," he says.

The more you listen in on Lieutenant Rocco’s session, the easier it becomes to forget the slightly odd cadences of his speech and the blocky outlines of his clothing which point out that the Lieutenant isn’t a real person. He’s a digital avatar designed to be a training tool as part of University of Southern California School of Social Work’s curriculum for the Master of Social Work degree with a Sub-concentration in Military Social Work. A virtual patient like Lieutenant Rocco teaches prospective counselors how to deal with soldiers returning from duty where they may have witnessed life-altering atrocities.

One in three of the nearly two million American soldiers returning from tours in Iraq or Afghanistan will have Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). You can’t look at them and see battle scars or missing limbs. They're not wounded in the traditional sense, but they're wounded nonetheless.

PTSD manifests in a variety of ways, from substance abuse to domestic violence, even suicide, which is reaching epidemic proportions. U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs found suicides among veterans increased 26% between 2005 and 2007. Today, one in five suicides involves a veteran, and they can’t rely only on a 1-800 hotline to stem the growing tide. "If [a soldier] comes in and says ‘I’m suicidal,’ you can’t mess it up," says Dr. Anthony Hassan, director of USC’s Center for Innovation and Research on Veterans and Military Families (CIR).

Though the staggering statistics are reaching unprecedented levels, the good news is that with early screening and access to adequate treatment and counseling, the psychological effects of combat are treatable. The challenge, Hassan says, is to train a new generation of clinical social workers to deal with veterans’ mental trauma.

As a retired Major in the U.S. Air Force, Hassan knows that having a military concentration is critical to the success of the social workers’ therapeutic training. "If a veteran doesn’t make a therapeutic alliance [with the social worker] and come back after the first visit, they won’t come back," he says, leaving them open to a number of problems. That's where Lieutenant Rocco comes in.

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Avatar Teaches Social Workers

Traumatised Victoria Cross winner tells of 100mph suicide bid

Aside from the fact this decorated hero is talking about PTSD and his suicide attempt, it also shows that we will never know how many have committed suicide in car accidents and motorcycle accidents. We won't know how many had these accidents while having a flashback or because they did not want to live in pain anymore. We also don't know how many were spared because they finally understood they could heal the scars of war.

• Lance Corporal Johnson Beharry was awarded the Victoria Cross in 2005 for his actions in May and June, 2004. Picture: PA

But he said that despite his bravery, the engagements had left him tortured by nightmares: "During the daytime I can keep busy to keep away the demons, but at night when I'm alone with my thoughts, my mind drifts back to my friends being blown up and all those I left behind."

Traumatised Victoria Cross winner tells of 100mph suicide bid
Date: 18 May 2010
By CRAIG BROWN
A VICTORIA Cross-decorated soldier has told how depression and nightmares pushed to him attempt suicide by driving his car into a lamppost at high speed.




Lance Corporal Johnson Beharry, who saw action in Iraq, has said that he hoped the car crash would "be my end" after being tormented by depression and nightmares.

The 30-year-old, who was awarded Britain's highest military honour for twice saving comrades while under fire, said: "Sometimes you just can't get away from the things you have seen."

Speaking out about his problems, he said he had stormed out of his house after an early-morning argument with his partner in December, 2008. The soldier, of the 1st Battalion, Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment, drove off and accelerated as he raced down a street in south-east London.

L/Cpl Beharry said: "I picked a lamppost which seemed to be next to a slightly raised section of pavement and drove straight for it. I looked at the road and there was nobody. So I thought if I could hit the side of the pavement and then the lamppost, I could damage the fuel tank and hit the electricity to create a spark which would set the car on fire. So I did it.

"I heard a huge crash as the right hand side of my car collided with the lamppost. I closed my eyes and hoped that would be my end."

His car was destroyed in the 100mph crash, and although L/Cpl Beharry was knocked unconscious, he escaped with minor scrapes and bumps.

The soldier was awarded the Victoria Cross for his actions in May and June, 2004.

Vietnam service claimed by Blumenthal is challenged

If Richard Blumenthal only claimed to be a Vietnam Era Veteran, then he did nothing wrong when talking about how anyone in the military at the time was treated. If he claimed he was a Combat Vietnam Veteran, then there is a problem even if only said the wrong words without clearing it up right away as soon as the words left his mouth. There were hundreds of thousands of people in the military during the Vietnam War who never set foot out of the states and they are Vietnam Era Veterans.

Vietnam service claimed by Conn. Senate hopeful Blumenthal is challenged

By Chris Cillizza
Tuesday, May 18, 2010

The New York Times reported Monday night that Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal has claimed numerous times that he served in Vietnam, even though he obtained at least five military deferments and avoided ever going to war.

Blumenthal (D) is a candidate for the U.S. Senate seat now held by Christopher J. Dodd (D), and he has held a commanding lead in the race since he entered it. But the Times report has the potential to fundamentally reshape the contest in the Nutmeg State.

His campaign manager, Mindy Myers, called the article "an outrageous distortion of Dick Blumenthal's record of service." She noted his six years of service in the Marine Corps Reserve and said he "received no special treatment from anyone."

The Times reported that Blumenthal obtained deferments from 1965 to 1970, then joined the Marine Reserve in 1970 and was based in Washington through the end of the war. The newspaper said that the deferments allowed him to finish a degree at Harvard and serve as an assistant to The Washington Post's publisher, Katharine Graham.
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Vietnam service claimed by Blumenthal is challenged

UPDATE

Senate candidate questioned about Corps record

By Susan Haigh - The Associated Press
Posted : Tuesday May 18, 2010 14:33:57 EDT

HARTFORD, Conn. — Democratic state Attorney General Richard Blumenthal disputed a newspaper report that he once lied about his Vietnam record, a brewing crisis that gave hope to Republicans pursuing control of the Senate.

Blumenthal, who was easily leading a pack of Senate candidates in a recent poll, is planning a Tuesday afternoon news conference at a Veterans of Foreign Wars post in West Hartford to respond to the New York Times story, which said Blumenthal said at a 2008 event that he had served “in Vietnam.”

Blumenthal served six months in Parris Island, S.C., and six years in the reserves.

He told the newspaper that he has always tried to make it clear his Marine Reserve service never took him overseas. His campaign called the report an “outrageous distortion” of his record. read more here
Senate candidate questioned about Corps record