PTSD:Growing need of National Guard and Reservists

This is one of the biggest reasons I made this video. The problem is, too few cities and towns are stepping up to help them really come home.

The risk of mental health problems may be more persistent among National Guard soldiers, the study suggests. A greater proportion of men and women in the National Guard than in the Army were diagnosed with PTSD and depression one year after their return, although the two groups had similar rates at the three-month mark.

"These were soldiers who were exposed to the same level of combat; who, by and large, reported similar rates of being attacked, ambushed, [and] rocketed; and who reported similar symptoms when they got home," says the lead author of the study, Major Jeffrey L. Thomas, Ph.D., the chief of military psychiatry at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, in Silver Spring, Maryland.

Depression, PTSD plague many Iraq vets
By Amanda Gardner, Health.com
June 7, 2010 5:30 p.m. EDT


STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Up to 31 percent of soldiers returning from combat in Iraq experience depression or PTSD
In extreme cases, relationship problems and stress can lead to suicide
The time between deployments may not be sufficient for many soldiers to recover

(Health.com) -- Up to 31 percent of soldiers returning from combat in Iraq experience depression or post-traumatic stress disorder that affects their jobs, relationships, or home life, according to a new study by Army researchers.

For as many as 14 percent of these veterans, depression and PTSD cause severe problems in their daily life. These problems are often accompanied by alcohol misuse and aggressive behavior, the study found.

"These things begin to snowball," says Robert Bossarte, Ph.D., an assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of Rochester Medical Center, in Rochester, New York. "Your work performance suffers; you experience job loss and economic strain."

In extreme cases, the resulting relationship problems and stress can lead to suicide, adds Bossarte, who was not involved in the new study.

The researchers analyzed mental health surveys from more than 13,000 Army and National Guard infantrymen who fought in Iraq. The soldiers completed the surveys between 2004 and 2007, three and 12 months after returning to the U.S.
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http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/06/07/iraq.vets.ptsd/

also

National Guard Troops question Army Weekend Warrior Healthcare
Robert L. Hanafin

Members of an Oregon National Guard unit have made complaints about medical care they are receiving or have received from the Regular Army in a throwback to the Weekend Warrior mentality of active duty Regular Army prior to the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan. Well, frankly an RA attitude of the Guard as weekend warriors was held as the Guard really did transform from an expectation of being weekend warriors to becoming part of the Total Force. We believe that the Guard has earned the right to have that attitude pushed back to the Vietnam War Era when the National Guard truly were weekend warriors enlisting to avoid combat.

In order to politically avoid the publicly unpopular Selective Service Draft, but to have the adequate bodies needed to sustain wartime operations tempo of multi-deployments to two war zones, the Pentagon and Congress has exploited the use of each state’s National Guard. While this approach of avoiding THE DRAFT allows the vast majority of Americans’ to not have to relate to the war(s) that only our federal government, Pentagon, and war profiteers are committed to, it is our National Guard troops and families who take the heat.
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Comfort in an hour of greatest need

Comfort in an hour of greatest need
Chaplain Rick Bulman serves sheriff’s office to assist both the public and emergency responders



DEBBY ABE; Staff writer
Rick Bulman always asks prospective police chaplains if they’ve ever cradled a dead baby or seen people with their heads shot off.

Bulman has. Far too many times.

As the full-time chaplain for the Pierce County Sheriff’s Office, he sees the bodies and emotional wreckage of some of the most heartwrenching deaths in the county.

He gives people the worst news of their lives, and as they collapse in disbelief and grief, he helps them navigate those first few horrible hours.

In 2008, he told Judith Mitchell-Ballard her three young daughters had perished in a fire in Graham.

In 2009, he told Angela Harrison her husband had killed himself. Hours later, he broke the news that all five of her children were dead as well.

Last month, he accompanied the mother of slain Deputy Kent Mundell to memorial ceremonies in Washington, D.C., but returned early to confront another tragedy: 11-year Deputy Allen Myron had fatally shot his in-laws in Gig Harbor before killing himself.

But it did. It took a divorce, multiple jobs, a conversion to Christianity, and finally visiting the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington, D.C., in 1989 before he realized that he suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder. Failing to deal with the disorder caused him to be a “major jerk” to his first wife and to his current wife, Kathi, during the first decade of their marriage.

“Anger is the only emotion I showed. And control. It’s a subconscious thing, but when you’re not in control, something bad happens. You have to realize also that military and cops basically are taught to react without thinking to any stimulus. If you take time to think, somebody gets hurts or dies.”

Kathi Bulman recalls he was so controlling, she had to ask permission to go to the grocery store. “He would tell me he how embarrassed he was if my purse wasn’t in order,” she said.

Once he began confronting the stress disorder and the couple grew as Christians, she said, their marriage flourished. The Parkland couple have four adult children and 14 grandchildren.

Today, he leads a military veterans support group in Federal Way and serves as the western state coordinator for a veterans group called Point Man Ministries.



Read more: Comfort in an hour of greatest need

Chaplains follow strict code

Lives shaded by grief: The families of slain police officers

Records reveal horrific details of night Pierce County deputy shot in-laws, himself

body of boy found Officials believe he is one of two missing persons

Pierce deputy's motives in killing in-laws remain unclear

Senator Jim Webb wants to stop what began 40 years ago

Tell Senator Webb and the rest of congress that this began when they decided to spray Agent Orange no matter what it would do to the men and women they already sent to risk their lives. Any delay in doing the right thing finally is making them suffer for having served. In case Senator Webb forgot, many of these men had no choice in going but were forced to under the draft. They served with honor. They served with courage. They served as well as the others who went willingly. Now after all these years, there should be on more acceptable excuses for not honoring that at least.

The following was sent from Shelia over at
Agent Orange Quilt of Tears/

Webb: Delay AO Claims, Stop Bigger Raises
by Tom Philpott
http://www.military.com/features/0,15240,215720,00.html?wh=wh
Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.), chief architect of the pricey Post-9/11 GI Bill education benefit for veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan war era, could become a new champion, for taxpayers, against what he perceives as excess spending on military pay and on a new wave of Agent Orange claims.
Webb, a former Navy secretary and decorated Vietnam War veteran, risked the anger of thousands of veterans from that war when he won Senate approval last week of an amendment to block, at least temporarily, the Department of Veterans Affairs from paying new disability claims on three prominent diseases presumed linked to wartime herbicide exposure.
As many as 86,000 Vietnam veterans with ischemic heart disease, Parkinson's disease or B-cell leukemia are awaiting a final VA regulation to receive disability compensation based on a decision last fall by VA Secretary Eric Shinseki of evidence linking these diseases with exposure to deadly defoliant used during the war. Many more vets could file first-time claims.
VA officials not only have published interim regulations already but, for months, have been encouraging veterans stricken with these diseases, or their surviving spouses, to file new claims or re-file claims as soon as possible because benefits would be paid back to claim filing dates.
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VA uses trailer near dumpsters as morgue

"The treatment of these deceased veterans is absolutely despicable," Anderson said in the news release. "To think they would throw a metal box onto the parking lot next to a couple of dumpsters and call that dignified and respectful treatment of the bodies of people who serve our country is sickening. I can't tell you how upset the staff are by all of this."

Submitted photo
National Association of Government Employees’ spokesperson Stephanie Zaiser says the Martinsburg Veterans Affairs Medical Center used this old tractor-trailer, shown at the far left, as a temporary morgue, and that action has outraged VA employees.

VA uses trailer as morgue
Group outraged that remains were housed in ‘dilapidated box’ next to dumpsters

By Jenni Vincent, Journal staff writer
MARTINSBURG - A union representing workers at the Martinsburg Veterans Affairs Medical Center is accusing the facility's administration of using an old tractor-trailer as a temporary morgue during renovations.

That accusation has brought little response from VA officials, who said only that renovation work has been finished and the regular morgue is back in service.

In a news release issued Monday, National Association of Government Employees' spokesperson Stephanie Zaiser said local workers were "outraged" after learning about a makeshift morgue that was in a "dilapidated 40-foot tractor-trailer box outside a warehouse dock."

Evidence of its existence was found at the regular morgue, the news release stated.
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VA uses trailer as morgue

Count the witnesses to know the need to address PTSD

According to ICasualties.org, the current death count for US forces in Iraq is 4,402 and for Afghanistan, 1,103.

Given the fact a company can be ten more, 5,503 would mean there would have been about 55,030 witnesses.

To get a better understanding of what these witnesses see, look at the number of IED attacks coupled with the numbers of amputations from Vietnam to Afghanistan to Iraq.

Squad - 9 to 10 soldiers. Typically commanded by a sergeant or staff sergeant, a squad or section is the smallest element in the Army structure, and its size is dependent on its function.

Vietnam War
Casualties:
Hostile deaths: 47,359

Non-hostile deaths: 10,797

Total: 58,156 (including men formerly classified as MIA and Mayaguez casualties).

Highest state death rate: West Virginia--84.1. (The national average death rate for males in 1970 was 58.9 per 100,000).

WIA: 303,704 - 153,329 required hospitalization, 50,375 who did not.

Severely disabled: 75,000, 23,214 were classified 100% disabled. 5,283 lost
limbs, 1,081 sustained multiple amputations. Amputation or crippling wounds to the lower extremities were 300% higher than in WWII and 70% higher than in Korea. Multiple amputations occurred at the rate of 18.4% compared to 5.7% in WWII.

How many US Military amputees are there due to the Iraq War?
1,091.

The 2009 United States Military Casualty Statistics report, published by the Congressional Research Service, states the amputee population in the US Military forces due to Operation Iraq Freedom (OIF) consists of 1,091 servicemembers. This number represents 85% of the total servicemember amputations occurred between 2001 and 2009. More than 50% of the amputations were caused by improvised explosive devices (IEDs).

How many IED attacks have occurred in Afghanistan?
18,319.

According to an article posted on The Washington Post website, from 2004 to February 2010 about 18,319 IED attacks took place in Afghanistan. Such attacks are on the rise in the country since 2008, while, in the same year, Iraq IED attacks started to decrease. Solely between January and February 2010, 721 attacks have already occurred.

The real issue we need to focus on, is not just the deaths in combat, but the numbers of the wounded that needs to be counted when trying to figure out how many veterans will end up needing help for PTSD.

The most common question when veterans are evaluated for disability, addresses anyone they knew killed in action. Too often witnessing wounds are ignored. Imagine seeing someone you were in a vehicle with one moment, having their leg or arm blown off the next. Imagine trying to pull them out of a burning vehicle. Then imagine you were not in the vehicle with them but in the one behind them escaping the blast or in the vehicle in front of them that just missed the bomb. Instead of 10 witnesses, there are twenty, thirty, forty more. Each one having to live with that memory etched in their mind and then, then having to face the fact it could have been them or very well could be them the next time. Then imagine going home, making it back to family and friends, parties and celebrations, while you remember what you just left.

Civilian psychologists use either one out of five or one out of three susceptible to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder after traumatic events. There is a clear indication that despite the military's best efforts in preventing PTSD, they are running about the same averages as the rest of the population. Unlike the rest of the population, they are supposed to be "trained" to prevent PTSD and be "resilient" enough to "get over it" instead of being trained to recover from it after the fact.

The attitude of the military has been one of train them to do anything and they will do it when ordered to. This was translated when the troops were under orders to not kill themselves. Yes, that actually happened several times out of frustration because no matter how much money was invested in coming up with programs, the suicide and attempted suicide rate went up instead of down. They should have focused on healing after as soon as possible instead of preventing the inevitable human chain reaction.

If PTSD is already digging into them the added stress of repeated redeployments, which the Army study had shown to increase the risk of PTSD by 50%, not only prolongs the damage done, it adds to it during a time when they could have been healing and recovering. Mild PTSD can often be almost fully reversed but the longer it is allowed to fester the less the chance of reversing it becomes. Vietnam veterans proved this because for far too many, help was not available, the wound was allowed to cut deeper into them as the reality of life back home added to their stressors at the same time they were wondering what the hell was happening to them.

Talk about resilient! These men and women ended up going on to get educations, jobs, start families and take over almost every service organization in the country, but managed to run a lot of companies. All of this without help from the communities they lived in simply because no one had a clue or cared to even learn. Yes, they committed suicide, ended up homeless, some had serial marriages and a long list if failed career moves. Yet at the same time many ended up still wanting to give back and went to work in law enforcement and firefighter jobs. When you consider how long they went from combat to care, it is amazing so many of them are still able to heal even a fraction of their pain, but they are. Many of them have found peace with the fact they will be on medication and in therapy the rest of their lives to remain stabilized but they are living lives again. They don't like the odds of the alternative suffering in silence, too proud to ask for help.


Add into the above how many had to kill in combat. How many will be among the one to have their futures challenged by their past and how many will be suffering instead of healing? How many will become statistics of suffering we study ten or twenty years from now? The best indication of this is the numbers we already have. We know what Vietnam produced and we still see many suffering instead of healing, families still trying to come to grips with what came home with their own veteran, just as we are seeing today in Iraq and Afghanistan veterans and their families after multiple tours of duty and very little support. The National Guards and Reservists forces receive even less support from their communities detached from what they went through and uninterested to learn out of fear they may learn what they do not want to know.

All of this indicates that while the military attempts to produce super Soldiers and Marines untouched, they have failed at the task to provide the best case scenario for the survivors. The numbers we're seeing now are only the beginning because as the operations in Iraq wind down and Afghanistan gears up, the veterans of each will increase as will the price they pay for the "success" of the campaigns. The numbers from Vietnam will be trumped by today's wars. The question is, "Will the survivors win or lose the peace?"

No letup in Marine attempted suicides

No letup in Marine attempted suicides

By Gregg Zoroya, USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — Marines are trying to kill themselves at a record pace this year despite a 2009 program aimed at stemming the problem, according to Marine Corps data.
Eighty-nine Marines tried to commit suicide through May, most commonly by overdose or lacerations, according to statistics and the Marine Corps suicide prevention program officer, Navy Cmdr. Aaron Werbel. At that rate, there could be more than 210 attempted suicides this year.

There were a record 164 attempted suicides in 2009.

With 21 confirmed or suspected suicides by Marines this year, the Corps is on track to near last year's record number of 52, Werbel says. The Marine Corps suicide rate in 2009 was 24-per-100,000, the highest in the military, Marine records show. The latest demographically adjusted suicide rate among civilians in 2006 was 20 per 100,000, federal records show.

The Marines introduced a training program for sergeants and corporals last year aimed at suicide education and urging them to become more knowledgeable about the lives of their younger Marines.
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No letup in Marine attempted suicides

Mom faces bank robber at Wendy's drive-through

One minute she was trying to figure out what to order and the next minute, she was trying to figure out how to stay alive and keep her kids safe.

Wounded mother, Jacksonville police give accounts of Wendy's shooting
Officers didn’t see hostages in the car, resulting in injury.
By Jim Schoettler
Joann Cooper told the hurried gunman she’d obey his demand for her car if she could leave with her two kids.

Standing in the drive-through of the Baymeadows Road Wendy’s, bank robber Jeremiah Mathis reached inside the car’s open window and unlocked the driver’s door. Mathis then raised his gun and told Cooper he would kill her if she didn’t get out. Mathis pushed his way inside and Cooper began wrestling with him over the gun. She told him he wasn’t going to kill anyone.
read more here

Jacksonville police give accounts of Wendys shooting

He struggled with demons — and lost

He struggled with demons — and lost
By Rubén Rosario



Duy Ngo, the veteran Minneapolis cop who apparently killed himself Monday, left a message on my cell phone May 28.

"This is Duy Ngo, officer Ngo,'' the message started.

I remember distinctly the "officer" mention.

He called me after I dropped off my contact information and a copy of a story that week in the New York Times on a national study of police-on-police shootings. I left it on the doorstep of his immaculately manicured Mendota Heights home when no one answered the bell. I remember the American flag planted near the mailbox, flapping in the wind.

Not knowing he had remained on the police force, I reached out to him because there was no other cop in the Twin Cities or Minnesota who could provide the proper insight or perspective about the results of this study.

"This is my cell phone," Ngo said on the message I still have. "Feel free to call me, and I'll see what I can do for you."

That was the last time I heard from or about Ngo. He never returned my calls before I wrote my piece. Then came Monday's shocking development.

Seven years ago, Ngo, then an undercover Minneapolis cop assigned to the scandalized and now-defunct Metro Gang Strike Force, was wounded by a robbery suspect he was chasing one wintry night. The still-unknown suspect fired a shot from a .40-caliber weapon that struck Ngo on the side of his bulletproof vest.
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He struggled with demons and lost

Minneapolis police officer Duy Ngo's death: Some wounds never heal
Some wounds never heal

Minneapolis police officer Duy Ngo had always said the lawsuit he filed against a fellow officer who shot him six times was not about the money but about justice. He got the money — $4.5 million in a record settlement with the city — but more elusive were justice and the ability to make it through a day without pain.

On Monday, Ngo was found dead at his home in Mendota Heights. He was 37.

16-year-old boy accused of shooting Sanford cop

16-year-old boy accused of shooting Sanford cop
A police detective said the suspect 'didn't care of the seriousness of the crime.'
By Walter Pacheco, Orlando Sentinel

7:49 a.m. EDT, June 8, 2010
A 16-year-old is at a juvenile detention center in Seminole County after officers arrested him this morning for allegedly shooting a Sanford police officer last week.

Officers arrested the suspect in the Pine Hills neighborhood of Orange County at 1 a.m.

Investigators said tips led them to a home on Mercy Drive, where he had been staying with his two sisters.

Detectives said more than a dozen U.S. Marshals, Orlando police and Orange County deputies surrounded the home before arresting the suspect.

The Orlando Sentinel is not identifying the suspect because he is a minor.

He faces charges of attempted murder of a law-enforcement officer in the shooting of Sanford Officer Brandon Worrall. He is being held without bond at the Seminole Regional Juvenile Detention Center in Sanford.

"It's a little disheartening, you know," Sanford police Chief Brian Tooley said at a news conference this morning. "You got 16-year-old kids out there shooting a police officer."
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16 year-old boy accused of shooting Sanford cop

VA Has $80 Million Available for Private Sector Innovations

VA Announces Industry Innovation Competition
$80 Million Available for Private Sector Innovations

WASHINGTON (June 7, 2010) - Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K.
Shinseki announced today the opening of the Industry Innovation
Competition by the Department of Veterans Affairs, the most recent
effort under the VA Innovation Initiative. With this competition, VA
seeks the best ideas from the private sector to address the department's
most important challenges.

"At VA, we are continually looking for new ways to improve the care and
services we deliver," said Secretary Shinseki. "Engaging the private
sector to tap its expertise and find ways to leverage private-sector
innovations, we can improve the quality, access and transparency in
service to our Nation's Veterans."

The VA Innovation Initiative (VAi2) is a department-wide program that
brings the most promising innovations to VA's most important challenges
by involving employees and the private sector in the creation of
visionary solutions in service to Veterans.

"Innovation is more than simply a collection of ideas," said Jared
Cohon, president of Carnegie Mellon University. "It requires close
collaboration between academia, industry and government to produce
solutions that make a meaningful impact on society. VAi2's programs
bring about exactly that kind of fruitful collaboration."

"Creativity in the private sector generates a wealth of technology
capability that can help drive VA forward," said Dr. Peter Levin, senior
advisor to the secretary and VA's chief technology officer. "By
targeting innovations that are nearing commercialization, the Industry
Innovation Competition provides a bridge between creative ideas in the
private sector and real-world deployments that improve the services we
deliver."

Public and private companies, entrepreneurs, universities and
non-profits are encouraged to participate in the competition, which
targets advancements in:

* Innovative Housing Technology to Address Veteran Homelessness:
Eliminating Veteran homelessness is a top VA priority. New design and
construction techniques, materials and building technology can enable VA
to use existing buildings and unused space to rapidly create highly
functional, energy efficient and affordable housing.

* Telehealth: VA is a leader in telehealth implementation and
currently serves many thousands of Veterans with solutions such as home
health monitoring. Potential applications for telehealth solutions are
broad and varied and department officials are interested in pursuing
integrated solutions that improve their ability to provide the right
treatment at the right place and at the right time.

* New Models of Dialysis and Renal Disease Prevention: VA
currently provides dialysis for more than 10,000 Veterans annually, at
both VA and community-based medical facilities. Alternative treatment
strategies and dialysis technology can extend and improve our ability to
provide quality care in a patient-preferred setting.

* Improvement of Polytrauma Care: VA provides comprehensive,
inter-disciplinary rehabilitation care to Veterans and returning Service
members with multiple injuries, or polytrauma. Solutions in areas such
as the application of dynamic treatment algorithms, home monitoring of
diverse and complex symptoms and assistive technologies can help the
broad advancement of polytrauma care.

* Reduction of Adverse Drug Events: The development and deployment
of strategies to prevent patient harm from adverse drug events is an
on-going priority at VA. Tools that can integrate with VA records and
systems and provide an increased ability to continuously monitor for
at-risk situations can enhance dramatically the quality and safety of
care provided by VA.

* Integrated Business Accelerator: A wide array of services and
benefits are available to assist Veterans, and Service Disabled Veterans
in particular, in starting and sustaining new businesses. However, an
integrated, long-term approach that assists Veterans in accessing
existing resources and provides services that aid in the launch and
maintenance of startup businesses can help insure the long-term success
of Veteran-owned businesses.

VAi2 identifies, funds, tests and deploys new efforts that significantly
improve the access, quality, performance and cost of VA services. For
more about VAi2 please visit www.va.gov/vai2 .
Please go to
www.FedBizOpps.gov to learn more about
federal opportunities for businesses.