Fireworks and PTSD a matter of perception

When a PTSD veteran told his psychologist that he loves to go to the Disney Parks, she was stunned. PTSD veterans hate crowds so it didn't make sense he would really enjoy the rides, even in the dark, the crowds and strangers walking around in costumes. Then he said "it's a matter or perception." For him, Disney is all about families and most of the people there are kids under 12. Yet this same veteran can't go to a movie, sits with his back to the wall in restaurants and tries to stay out of stores as much a possible unless it's a food store. For him a grocery store is all about people being just human and filling a need to eat.

This veteran has carried PTSD inside of him since Vietnam and was tested very high for PTSD. Sleep problems, nightmares, flashbacks, twitches and all of this with heavy medications, yet he can understand the difference between what is supposed to be safe and what is unknowable. Fireworks can bother some veterans and remind them of combat. For others, while the reminders of combat are still awakened, they enjoy them. It is such a big problem for some that I added it into the video Hero After War when I try to explain what a flashback looks like along with how simple things we see everyday can become a dangerous reminder to them.

When it comes to fireworks, amusement parks and living in general, "it's a matter of perception" above anything else. Support them and try to understand why they react the way they do.

Fireworks and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
Submitted: 07/02/2010

RHINELANDER - July 4th is a holiday when we celebrate our nation's birthday and those who selflessly fought for her.

But it can also be a dreaded day for some veterans, especially for someone who's been in combat warfare.

One veteran shares how this holiday can have a different meaning.

Jacob Lobermeier served his country in the Middle East as a platoon leader in combat warfare.

While he says he doesn't suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, he says the effects of his experiences are long-lasting. "Things that you see, decisions that you make, friends that you've lost. And those things stay with you. You're never the same after as you were before."

And those memories can return in a split second with things like the common bang of 4th of July fireworks.
read more here
http://www.wjfw.com/stories.html?sku=20100702181841

MOAA defends military benefits to cost-cutters

The Military Officers Association had to explain to law makers what "earned by service and sacrifice" means but they should have understood this all along. This is what they were promised and what they earned. Any law maker forgetting what we owe to them should be forced to walk up to a combat veteran after his/her 3rd, 4th, 5th or more tour and explain why the government can't afford to take care of them if they need it. They should have to explain to a young wife after her husband was sent to Afghanistan with the National Guard unit again why she can't afford to take care of her family or why her husband won't have a job any more when he comes back home. Maybe they should have to tell a widow or a Mom how much the sacrifice of their solider meant to this country when the men he served with can't get what they need when they come home. Do you think these "law makers" would find it so easy to say that other law makers need to find the money to pay for it all first? This debt was owed the day they were sent into combat!

MOAA defends military benefits to cost-cutters

By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Thursday Jul 1, 2010 13:15:16 EDT

Current and former service members and their families understand the need for federal fiscal responsibility, but they don’t believe their benefits should be the first place the government looks when it tries to cut spending, a representative of a major military association told a federal budget commission.

Speaking Wednesday before the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, Steve Strobridge of the Military Officers Association of America said his organization “believes strongly that there is a fundamental difference between social insurance programs that are made available to every American, and programs such as military and veterans’ compensation that are earned by service and sacrifice to the nation.”
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MOAA defends military benefits to cost cutters

June unemployment rates rise for veterans

June unemployment rates rise for veterans

By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Friday Jul 2, 2010 12:39:16 EDT

The unemployment rate for veterans rose slightly in June, to 8 percent overall and 11.5 percent for Iraq and Afghanistan-era veterans, a sign that expanding programs aimed at helping veterans find work are not working in a stagnant job market.

June employment statistics released Friday by the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics show the overall unemployment rate for veterans rose slightly from 7.8 percent in May. Still, the unemployment rate for veterans remains lower than the overall national rate of 9.5 percent.
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June unemployment rates rise for veterans

Homeless vets starting new lives

Homeless vets starting new lives

By Mindy Blake - email

TUCSON, AZ (KOLD) - On any given night there are 700 homeless veterans sleeping in temporary shelters or on the streets of Tucson.

For many of them, homelessness is just one problem.

If they had a permanent place to stay, they could begin to deal with their other difficulties.

There is a place they can go for help.

It's the first step to getting out of a painful and dangerous cycle.

Navy veteran David Smith doesn't get to sit in an air conditioned room very often.

"I'm experiencing some difficulty in my life. I've been living in a wash for the past six weeks."

And before that, David lived in his pickup truck for two years.
read more here
http://www.kold.com/Global/story.asp?S=12737436

Community steps up to find PTSD Vet's dog

A War Hero Reunites with his Dog

Two days after a Rogersville War Hero's dog disappeared, the much loved pet is back home.

Tuesday night, WAAY 31 told you about "Sam." he was a gift to wounded veteran, Jimmy Roberts, who struggles with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, after two tours in Iraq. After our story aired, people all over Rogersville started looking for Sam. Tonight, we're happy to report he's back home.

It's the story of a War Hero, wounded in Iraq, given the gift of a Blue Heeler, to help him get through the day. The dog named Sam disappeared on Monday, but now he's back in his owner's arms. He's Jimmy best friend, he's also his therapy, as he fights Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

"I feel like things are more cheerful and lighter now, it's good to have him back," said Former Sgt. Jimmy Roberts.
read more here
http://www.waaytv.com/Global/story.asp?S=12738523

VA Scandal - VA Manipulates Appointment Scheduling

Thanks to Larry Scott over at VAWatchdog.org this became a story in the first place. Then Paul Sullivan over at Veterans For Common Sense.org jumped on it to get the word out to even more people. These are the heroes who track what is really happening to veterans day in and day out. Want to know how we really care, or should I say, don't really care about our veterans, read some of the work they do and then you'll know what are fairytales and what is their worst nightmare. We cannot go blindly day to day and just assume all is well with our veterans because it isn't and it won't be until the American people actually do pay attention as much as they pay attention to them coming home to their hometowns in flag draped coffins.

VA Scandal - VA Manipulates Appointment Scheduling

On June 23, 2010, veteran Larry Scott at VA Watchdog uncovered a huge VA scandal. Larry posted VA's memo descrbing 24 "tricks" or "gaming strategies" so VA would appear to help veterans get appointments fast. In fact, VA was delaying and denying medical care.

VA failed to fulfill the agency's promise to provide our veterans with prompt medical care. Instead of taking responsibility and actually improving access to care, VA is cooking the books and hoping no one will dig deeper.

VA cheated, and our veterans suffered.

Thanks go out to the investigative journalist who wrote the first news article about the VA scandal, Nora Eisenberg at AlterNet. Additional commendation goes to Kyra Phillips at CNN for making this national news. The CNN article contains a VCS statement about VA's outrageous "Cooked Appointment Books" scandal.

Vets' care hurt by bureaucratic games, memo says
By the CNN Wire Staff
July 2, 2010 12:25 p.m. EDT

Paul Sullivan, from the group Veterans for Common Sense, told CNN the memo is "absolutely" symptomatic of a nationwide problem with the VA. "It's tragic (and) beyond unacceptable," he said. If VA employees are "cooking the books, (they) need to find another job."

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Memo: Veterans being denied care due to improper scheduling practices
VA employees using "gaming strategies" for better performance scores
Top VA official promises to stop denial of care
Advocate for veterans says practice is "tragic" and "unacceptable"

(CNN) -- Military veterans are being denied health care due to "inappropriate scheduling practices" at VA facilities, according to an internal memo from the Department of Veterans Affairs.

The memo, written on April 26, says employees at various VA facilities often canceled veterans' appointments with doctors in order to generate better performance scores in reports to supervisors.

"In order to improve scores on assorted access measures, certain facilities have adopted use of inappropriate scheduling practices sometimes referred to as 'gaming strategies,'" the memo says.

"Example: as a way to combat Missed Opportunity rates some medical centers cancel appointments for patients not checked in 10 or 15 minutes prior to their scheduled appointment time. Patients are informed that it is medical center policy that they must check in early and if they fail to do so, it is the medical center's right to cancel that appointment."
read more here
Vets care hurt by bureaucratic games, memo says

Texas Revokes Late Senator Herring's Hero Status

Texas Revokes Late Senator’s Hero Status
July 02, 2010
El Paso Times

EL PASO -- Charles Ferguson Herring, a former state senator and U.S. attorney, no longer will be proclaimed a war hero by the state of Texas.

All references to combat valor were stripped Thursday from Herring's online biography at the Texas State Cemetery. The action came after its officials received military records contradicting Herring's claims of heroism during World War II.

Herring said he received the Navy Cross, a decoration for valor second only to the Medal of Honor; three Purple Hearts, each indicating combat injuries; and a Bronze Star, although not for valor. The biography also stated Herring left the Navy as a lieutenant commander.

Related story: Honored Texan's Medal Claims Fraudulent?

The record shows that Herring received no awards for combat valor or for being wounded. It makes no mention of a Bronze Star for service in a war zone. And it shows he left the Navy Reserve as a lieutenant junior grade, two ranks below lieutenant commander, after 10 years of service.
go here to read more
http://www.military.com/news/article/texas-revokes-late-senators-hero-status.html

Vietnam Vets have Graves' Disease to worry about after Agent Orange exposure

Link Between Agent Orange Exposure and Graves’ Disease in Vietnam Veterans
June 30, 2010 posted by Michael Leon ·


By Source:
Lois Baker
University at Buffalo

Vietnam War-era veterans exposed to Agent Orange appear to have significantly more Graves’ disease, a thyroid disorder, than veterans with no exposure, a new study by endocrinologists at the University at Buffalo has shown.

Ajay Varanasi, MD, an endocrinology fellow in the UB Department of Medicine and first author on the study, garnered first prize in the oral presentation category for this research at the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists annual meeting held in Boston in April.

“Our findings show that Vietnam veterans who came in contact with Agent Orange are more likely to develop Graves’ disease than those who avoided exposure,” says Varanasi.

“The autoimmune disorder was three times more prevalent among veterans who encountered the dioxin-containing chemical. We also looked at other thyroid diagnoses, but we didn’t find any significant differences in thyroid cancer or nodules.”
go here for more
Link Between Agent Orange Exposure and Graves Disease

Medal of Honor recommendation for a soldier's bravery in Afghanistan

Military recommends MoH for living recipient

By Pauline Jelinek - The Associated Press
Posted : Thursday Jul 1, 2010 11:17:30 EDT

WASHINGTON — U.S. officials say the military has sent the White House a recommendation to award the Medal of Honor to a soldier for bravery in Afghanistan, which could make him the first living recipient since the Vietnam War.

The military says the soldier ran through a hail of enemy fire to repel Taliban fighters in a 2007 battle, saving the lives of a half dozen other men. Officials spoke on the condition of anonymity and declined to name the soldier because he is still under consideration for the honor.

The nation's highest award for valor has been awarded only six times in the nine years of war in Afghanistan and Iraq — and all were awarded posthumously.
Military recommends MoH for living recipient

Protesters gather at Roseburg VA

While seeing any veteran forced to protest for the care they have already paid for is heartbreaking, maybe we need to see more protests at VA hospitals before the American public gets it. It is not that they don't care about our veterans. It's more a matter of they don't have a clue what's going on. Most simply assume veterans are taken care of after they served this country.

If you read blogs you may have encountered postings about private health insurance and the VA but what you have not read is the fact our veterans have to carry private health insurance, Medicaid or Medicare. If they have a disability rating from the VA, they will cover the care attached to the disability claim for free, but the rest is billed to insurance companies. Most of the time the insurance companies won't pay because they say it's the responsibility of the VA to cover the cost. With a claim pending or denied and on appeal, that is a claim considered "non-service connected" which means the veteran is responsible unless their income is too low to be able to afford to pay. No rating from the VA actually means that any medical need caused by service leaves the veteran S.O.L.

With all the pending claims, the private insurance companies deny claims because the doctor diagnosis cases like PTSD as service connected but the VBA denies the claim over paperwork. This happened to and is still happening to Vietnam veterans along with the new veterans. When my husband is treated for anything not attached to his claim, they bill our private insurance, which is very expensive. Before his claim was approved, the VA tried to bill our insurance but the claim was denied and we had to pay the fees. This was terrible for a couple of years until his claim was finally approved and we got most of the money back.

There are veterans across the country being denied the help they need to heal and be well after service to this country and they are suffering. Maybe if every veteran caught in the red tape flood, took to the streets and protested at the VA hospitals and clinics across the country then maybe the media may actually find their hearts and report on it so the public knows how the veterans are actually being treated or neglected. Politicians actually have the courage to stop bills for veterans by saying the congress has to pay for anything done for the veterans. They don't have a clue our veterans already paid for their care when they served with their lives on the line.

It is time the public knew exactly what was going on so if you are part of a group, paint your signs and show up in mass and let the American people know their independence they celebrate in a few days came with a heavy price you are still paying for.

Protesters gather at Roseburg VA

ANNE CREIGHTON
The News-Review

More than 50 protesters gathered in front of the Roseburg Veterans Affairs Medical Center Monday morning to voice concerns about health care for Southern Oregon veterans.

After the local VA medical center replaced its six-bed intensive care unit with a two-bed telemetry unit last October, veterans began to fear more changes.

“People are always skeptical of services being moved,” said State Rep. Tim Freeman, R-Roseburg, who was standing among fellow protesters on Garden Valley Boulevard. “There's a certain anxiety that surrounds a change in health care.”

A press release from the Douglas County Veterans Forum said “the reduction of medical services at the VA not only degrades our veterans rights for quality and timely care in a VA environment, but impacts the livelihood of thousands of residents in our area.”

The press release also emphasized the importance of veteran health care in a facility that understands and respects their experiences and needs.

“We made a promise to our vets that we would take care of them when they went in harm's way,” said James Little, forum president, on Monday. “It's dishonorable to not give them the health care they deserve.”
read more here
Protesters gather at Roseburg VA