Newly-released documents from Vietnam era resonate even now
In the thick of the Vietnam War, senators harrumphed about White House arrogance, fretted over their own ineffectiveness, complained bitterly about misleading information from the Johnson administration and debated the value -- and potential damage -- of telling Americans the truth.
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Deaths of Texas city mayor, daughter ruled murder-suicide
Deaths of Texas city mayor, daughter ruled murder-suicide
By the CNN Wire Staff
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
NEW: Mayor, daughter both die of gunshot wounds, says medical examiner
NEW: Mayor's death is suicide, daughter's a homicide, ME says
NEW: Police "not ruling out anything" in investigation, spokeswoman says
Police checking on the family's welfare found Coppell mayor, daughter dead
(CNN) -- The Dallas County Medical Examiner's Office ruled Wednesday that a Texas mayor's death was a suicide and her daughter's a homicide.
Coppell Mayor Jayne Peters and her daughter Mary Corinne were found dead Tuesday evening by officers who had been sent to check on the family's welfare. The officers had gone to the home at the request of the city manager's office after the mayor did not show up for a scheduled council meeting.
Police in Coppell have not said if the mayor killed the daughter before turning a gun on herself.
"The case is still under investigation, and we have established no classification with regards to the incident," spokeswoman Sharon Logan said. " We are not ruling out anything at this time."
read the rest here
Deaths of Texas city mayor, daughter ruled murder suicide
By the CNN Wire Staff
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
NEW: Mayor, daughter both die of gunshot wounds, says medical examiner
NEW: Mayor's death is suicide, daughter's a homicide, ME says
NEW: Police "not ruling out anything" in investigation, spokeswoman says
Police checking on the family's welfare found Coppell mayor, daughter dead
(CNN) -- The Dallas County Medical Examiner's Office ruled Wednesday that a Texas mayor's death was a suicide and her daughter's a homicide.
Coppell Mayor Jayne Peters and her daughter Mary Corinne were found dead Tuesday evening by officers who had been sent to check on the family's welfare. The officers had gone to the home at the request of the city manager's office after the mayor did not show up for a scheduled council meeting.
Police in Coppell have not said if the mayor killed the daughter before turning a gun on herself.
"The case is still under investigation, and we have established no classification with regards to the incident," spokeswoman Sharon Logan said. " We are not ruling out anything at this time."
read the rest here
Deaths of Texas city mayor, daughter ruled murder suicide
VA, vets groups oppose new idea to speed claims
VA, vets groups oppose new idea to speed claims
By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday Jul 14, 2010 14:07:02 EDT
The Veterans Affairs Department and major veterans groups showed a united front Wednesday in the battle to reduce the large and growing backlog of benefits claims.
They agree that the 17 percent increase since Jan. 1 in the number of pending claims — including 207,568 pending for more than 125 days — is a sign of serious problems in the claims system.
They also agree that the Claims Processing Improvement Act, S 3517, introduced in June by Sen. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii, the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee chairman, is not the answer.
Testifying on behalf of major veterans’ groups, Joseph Violante of Disabled American Veterans told Akaka and the veterans’ committee that there are “grave concerns” over the bill, which attempts to improve and speed payments by developing a new standard for determining the severity of disabilities — adopting the same procedures currently used for Social Security disability benefits and workers’ compensation.
read more here
VA, vets groups oppose new idea to speed claims
By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday Jul 14, 2010 14:07:02 EDT
The Veterans Affairs Department and major veterans groups showed a united front Wednesday in the battle to reduce the large and growing backlog of benefits claims.
They agree that the 17 percent increase since Jan. 1 in the number of pending claims — including 207,568 pending for more than 125 days — is a sign of serious problems in the claims system.
They also agree that the Claims Processing Improvement Act, S 3517, introduced in June by Sen. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii, the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee chairman, is not the answer.
Testifying on behalf of major veterans’ groups, Joseph Violante of Disabled American Veterans told Akaka and the veterans’ committee that there are “grave concerns” over the bill, which attempts to improve and speed payments by developing a new standard for determining the severity of disabilities — adopting the same procedures currently used for Social Security disability benefits and workers’ compensation.
read more here
VA, vets groups oppose new idea to speed claims
Medal of Honor recipient Vernon Baker, 90, dies
Medal of Honor recipient Vernon Baker, 90, dies
By Rebecca Boone - The Associated Press
Posted : Wednesday Jul 14, 2010 14:22:03 EDT
ST. MARIES, Idaho — Vernon Baker, who belatedly received the Medal of Honor for his role in World War II, died at his home near St. Maries, Idaho. He was 90.
Baker died Tuesday of complications of brain cancer, Benewah County coroner and funeral home owner Ron Hodge said.
President Clinton presented the nation’s highest award for battlefield valor to Baker in 1997. He was one of just seven black soldiers to receive it and the only living recipient.
“The only thing that I can say to those who are not here with me is, ‘Thank you, fellas, well done,’ ” Baker told The Washington Post after the ceremony. “ ‘And I will always remember you.’ ”
read the rest here
Medal of Honor recipient Vernon Baker 90 dies
By Rebecca Boone - The Associated Press
Posted : Wednesday Jul 14, 2010 14:22:03 EDT
ST. MARIES, Idaho — Vernon Baker, who belatedly received the Medal of Honor for his role in World War II, died at his home near St. Maries, Idaho. He was 90.
Baker died Tuesday of complications of brain cancer, Benewah County coroner and funeral home owner Ron Hodge said.
President Clinton presented the nation’s highest award for battlefield valor to Baker in 1997. He was one of just seven black soldiers to receive it and the only living recipient.
“The only thing that I can say to those who are not here with me is, ‘Thank you, fellas, well done,’ ” Baker told The Washington Post after the ceremony. “ ‘And I will always remember you.’ ”
read the rest here
Medal of Honor recipient Vernon Baker 90 dies
Women, barred from combat but still in danger
More vets may get treatment for PTSD
Women, barred from combat but still in danger, stand to benefit from change.
By Jeremy Schwartz
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Like tens of thousands of her fellow soldiers, Serena Hayden, 28, filed a claim for service-related post-traumatic stress disorder when she left the Army in 2008 and moved to Pflugerville. As a military public affairs officer in Iraq, she traveled in convoys susceptible to roadside bombs and viewed the war's horror in hospitals and mortuaries. In one of the attacks that marked her deployment during the bloody 2007 surge, a mortar fell about 30 feet from the trailer she called home.
During her 14-month deployment, she arranged for a public affairs soldier to ride in a convoy. The soldier was killed when the convoy was attacked.
"I sat curled up next to his body bag, crying and crying because of the guilt I felt," she said. "I still to this day feel responsible. I don't know when it's ever going to end or get better."
Because she didn't serve in a direct combat role, Hayden had to prove to Department of Veterans Affairs officials that her PTSD stemmed from incidents during her deployment. A VA official rejected her PTSD claim.
But Hayden and thousands of service members might find some relief with a regulation that went into effect Tuesday that changes how the VA treats claims for PTSD. The new regulation, hailed as a sea change by some veterans organizations, will make it easier for the more than 2 million service members who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan to get benefits for PTSD, which affects an estimated 20 to 30 percent of returning troops.
go here for more
More vets may get treatment for PTSD
Women, barred from combat but still in danger, stand to benefit from change.
By Jeremy Schwartz
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Like tens of thousands of her fellow soldiers, Serena Hayden, 28, filed a claim for service-related post-traumatic stress disorder when she left the Army in 2008 and moved to Pflugerville. As a military public affairs officer in Iraq, she traveled in convoys susceptible to roadside bombs and viewed the war's horror in hospitals and mortuaries. In one of the attacks that marked her deployment during the bloody 2007 surge, a mortar fell about 30 feet from the trailer she called home.
During her 14-month deployment, she arranged for a public affairs soldier to ride in a convoy. The soldier was killed when the convoy was attacked.
"I sat curled up next to his body bag, crying and crying because of the guilt I felt," she said. "I still to this day feel responsible. I don't know when it's ever going to end or get better."
Because she didn't serve in a direct combat role, Hayden had to prove to Department of Veterans Affairs officials that her PTSD stemmed from incidents during her deployment. A VA official rejected her PTSD claim.
But Hayden and thousands of service members might find some relief with a regulation that went into effect Tuesday that changes how the VA treats claims for PTSD. The new regulation, hailed as a sea change by some veterans organizations, will make it easier for the more than 2 million service members who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan to get benefits for PTSD, which affects an estimated 20 to 30 percent of returning troops.
go here for more
More vets may get treatment for PTSD
24 hours in Afghanistan, 8 troops killed
8 U.S. troops killed in 24 hours in Afghanistan
By Mirwais Khan - The Associated Press
Posted : Wednesday Jul 14, 2010 13:50:26 EDT
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — Eight American troops died during a 24-hour span in attacks in southern Afghanistan, including a car bombing and gunfight outside a police compound in Kandahar, officials said Wednesday as the Taliban push back against a coalition effort to secure the volatile region.
The deadly 24 hours for U.S. troops came a day after three British soldiers were killed when one of their Afghan army allies attacked them with gunfire and rocket-propelled grenades. A senior Afghan army officer identified the man as a Shiite Hazara — an ethnic minority usually opposed to the Taliban — and said his motive was still unclear.
go here for the rest
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2010/07/ap_afghanistan_071410/
By Mirwais Khan - The Associated Press
Posted : Wednesday Jul 14, 2010 13:50:26 EDT
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — Eight American troops died during a 24-hour span in attacks in southern Afghanistan, including a car bombing and gunfight outside a police compound in Kandahar, officials said Wednesday as the Taliban push back against a coalition effort to secure the volatile region.
The deadly 24 hours for U.S. troops came a day after three British soldiers were killed when one of their Afghan army allies attacked them with gunfire and rocket-propelled grenades. A senior Afghan army officer identified the man as a Shiite Hazara — an ethnic minority usually opposed to the Taliban — and said his motive was still unclear.
go here for the rest
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2010/07/ap_afghanistan_071410/
A predictable suicide at Camp Lejeune
Comment often left on this blog boggle my mind. I wonder how some people can be so oblivious to what PTSD does to men and women that they feel defending them is reached by denying reality. They seem more bothered when a reporter writes a story on a suicide, or a suicide by cop, domestic violence or other crime committed than the reason why it happened. Keep in mind these are not average citizens dealing with their own problems and issues, but individuals dealing with their own problems and still willing to lay down their lives for others. For them to have no history of violence, crimes or behavioral red flags before they deploy, to ending up with all of them after, there is a reason behind it. It is called war and war changes people, changes the way they think, the way they feel and their total outlook on their lives. Denying these deaths are happening is ending up killing more of them. Thinking they have something to be ashamed of, is killing them. Treating them as if they are broken makes them give up. Yet knowing what it is, why it is and what can be done to help them heal, plus doing something about it, that is really defending them. We owe them that much.
A predictable suicide at Camp Lejeune
A doctor warned that mental health care for violent, disturbed Marines was inadequate. Sgt. Tom Bagosy proved it
By Mark Benjamin
Marine Sgt. Tom Bagosy stepped out of his black GMC Sierra pickup and onto the gray, speckled pavement of McHugh Boulevard, a busy thoroughfare in the heart of Camp Lejeune, N.C. He held a pistol in his right hand.
The military police car that had pulled him over idled on the shoulder a safe distance behind him. The midday traffic stopped. Bagosy stood for a moment on the warm pavement under a cloudless May sky. Then he raised the pistol, pointed it to the right side of his throat just below his jaw, and pulled the trigger.
The bullet sliced through his jugular vein, traveled through his skull and exited near the top left side of his head. He crumpled down in the road. Even if the bullet had failed to rip through his brain, shooting through the jugular was solid insurance. He would have bled out in minutes anyway.
Bagosy, 25, who had served in Iraq and Afghanistan, had become another statistic in the war-fatigued military and its steadily escalating suicide rate. Last year, 52 Marines committed suicide. The suicide rate among Marines has doubled since 2005, and the Corps has the highest suicide rate in the military. The circumstances of Bagosy's death, however, provide a particularly poignant case study in what many critics say is the military's inadequate response to that suicide crisis.
read more here
A predictable suicide at Camp Lejeune
Reducing The Stigma Of PTSD In Army Culture
Reducing The Stigma Of PTSD In Army Culture
by Ron Capps
July 14, 2010
Ron Capps retired from the Foreign Service and the Army Reserve in 2008, after a 25-year career serving in Kosovo, Rwanda, Afghanistan, Iraq and Sudan. He now works for a small NGO in Washington D.C. His full essay appeared in the July issue of the journal Health Affairs.
When the phone rang I jumped a little, startled, and nearly shot myself. This would have been ironic because I was holding the pistol in my hand planning to kill myself — but I would have pulled the trigger while it was pointed at my foot rather than my head.
This was in 2005. I was a soldier on active duty. I spent more than 20 years working in places like Kosovo, Rwanda, Afghanistan, Iraq and Darfur. I've seen some bad stuff, and somewhere along the way, my brain stopped working right. I have post-traumatic stress disorder and depression.
I remember lying on my cot in my tent in Afghanistan bundled into my sleeping bag, terrified because the dead had come to talk with me. They came every night, wresting me away from a warm, comforting sleep into a series of wretched, tormenting, wide-awake dreams.
On one night, it would be a farmer and his wife burned Bible-black and twisted into hideous shapes who asked, "do you remember us?" Oh, most certainly. On another, 42 men all shot in the back or in the head and left to die in rocky ditch on a frozen January morning. "Why didn't you do more to save us?" they asked. Why, indeed.
The images terrified me mostly because I couldn't stop them from taking control of my mind. I knew I needed help but I didn't ask for it because I thought I would be ridiculed, considered weak and cowardly.
In Army culture, especially in the elite unit filled with rangers and paratroopers in which I served, asking for help was showing weakness. My two Bronze Stars, my tours in Airborne and Special Operations units, none of these would matter. To ask for help would be seen as breaking.
read more here
Reducing The Stigma Of PTSD In Army Culture
by Ron Capps
Courtesy of Ron Capps
Ron Capps spent 25 years in the Foreign Service and the Army Reserve. Like many other soldiers, he suffers from PTSD, but unlike some others he asked for help.
July 14, 2010
Ron Capps retired from the Foreign Service and the Army Reserve in 2008, after a 25-year career serving in Kosovo, Rwanda, Afghanistan, Iraq and Sudan. He now works for a small NGO in Washington D.C. His full essay appeared in the July issue of the journal Health Affairs.
When the phone rang I jumped a little, startled, and nearly shot myself. This would have been ironic because I was holding the pistol in my hand planning to kill myself — but I would have pulled the trigger while it was pointed at my foot rather than my head.
This was in 2005. I was a soldier on active duty. I spent more than 20 years working in places like Kosovo, Rwanda, Afghanistan, Iraq and Darfur. I've seen some bad stuff, and somewhere along the way, my brain stopped working right. I have post-traumatic stress disorder and depression.
I remember lying on my cot in my tent in Afghanistan bundled into my sleeping bag, terrified because the dead had come to talk with me. They came every night, wresting me away from a warm, comforting sleep into a series of wretched, tormenting, wide-awake dreams.
On one night, it would be a farmer and his wife burned Bible-black and twisted into hideous shapes who asked, "do you remember us?" Oh, most certainly. On another, 42 men all shot in the back or in the head and left to die in rocky ditch on a frozen January morning. "Why didn't you do more to save us?" they asked. Why, indeed.
The images terrified me mostly because I couldn't stop them from taking control of my mind. I knew I needed help but I didn't ask for it because I thought I would be ridiculed, considered weak and cowardly.
In Army culture, especially in the elite unit filled with rangers and paratroopers in which I served, asking for help was showing weakness. My two Bronze Stars, my tours in Airborne and Special Operations units, none of these would matter. To ask for help would be seen as breaking.
read more here
Reducing The Stigma Of PTSD In Army Culture
Do you want a stronger, spiritual life
When people ask me what a Chaplain is, I tell them that we take care of people, listen to their problems, help with what they need within our means, offer a caring, listening ear, and love them. A Chaplain works 24-7.
At the local Publix I know the manager well and when I was dressed in shorts and a T-shirt, she used to ask if I had the day off. I told her, if I'm awake, I'm working. My Chaplain ID hangs from a hat on my dashboard for when I arrive at an accident or called to visit someone at the hospital. Most of the time I'm just going about my daily business and not dressed up in Chaplain gear, so having some kind of identification to let people know who I am is vital. It reassures them that I am trained and ready for any crisis they have.
Yet as a Chaplain, no matter how much faith I have in God and Christ, no matter how much I pray and put my faith in God's hands, I know I am subjected to the actions of others. Sometimes they are angry and take it out on me. Sometimes they are grieving so much, there isn't much I can say to ease their pain, but I offer a listening ear and all the time they need while I pray for them.
The work I do online is mixed between heartache when I read about another suicide or veteran on the brink, yet I am fed when I read stories about how far we've come in taking care of our veterans or stories about other people stepping up to help. I go to bed each night, praying and saying Thank You to God for the blessing I do have even as I pray for help with what I need, and I wake up with prayers sitting quietly as the day begins. I grieve. I rejoice. I beg. I rejoice. I cry and feel hopeless thinking about how much I mess up my life and then I rejoice knowing God can fix even people like me.
On this I am reassured simply by what He managed to do with the people we call heroes of the Bible. Each one of them messed up. They all made mistakes. They were all simple humans but no matter how much they messed up, God had not given up on them and the world was better off for them having lived.
Yet even with what I know, what I believe or how strong my faith is, there are times when I want to just go home to God unable to carry this burden and times when I regret I asked Him to use me. Times when it feels as if the entire world has turned against me so I would be better off not getting out of bed. I see how mean people can be, how selfish and uncaring, but the next moment I see how unselfishly they reach out to offer comfort to someone else and then, then I know I want to be counted among the caring and belong right where I am.
One of them is another Chaplain in the Brevard County Chaplains' group I belong to. Papa Roy sends out daily reminders of faith to offer support to other Chaplains. Today it was a message too beautiful to not share. He sends them everyday no matter what is going on in his life or what pain he has. He lets nothing stop him from getting up way too early to share the love of God.
We are not supposed to be prefect. We are simple humans, complicated by living.
Our identification is not what we are paid but what we make different. Our lives are not perfect but we put our faith in Perfect Love. We do not rejoice always but rejoice we have God to turn to when people let us down. We do not judge others as evil but understand what it is like to also do things we are not proud of. We look at the possibilities in others just as much as we look at how far we've come from the days when we lived for ourselves.
Chaplain Kathie
PTSD Consultant
Senior IFOC Chaplain
DAV Chapter 16 Auxiliary Chaplain
At the local Publix I know the manager well and when I was dressed in shorts and a T-shirt, she used to ask if I had the day off. I told her, if I'm awake, I'm working. My Chaplain ID hangs from a hat on my dashboard for when I arrive at an accident or called to visit someone at the hospital. Most of the time I'm just going about my daily business and not dressed up in Chaplain gear, so having some kind of identification to let people know who I am is vital. It reassures them that I am trained and ready for any crisis they have.
Yet as a Chaplain, no matter how much faith I have in God and Christ, no matter how much I pray and put my faith in God's hands, I know I am subjected to the actions of others. Sometimes they are angry and take it out on me. Sometimes they are grieving so much, there isn't much I can say to ease their pain, but I offer a listening ear and all the time they need while I pray for them.
The work I do online is mixed between heartache when I read about another suicide or veteran on the brink, yet I am fed when I read stories about how far we've come in taking care of our veterans or stories about other people stepping up to help. I go to bed each night, praying and saying Thank You to God for the blessing I do have even as I pray for help with what I need, and I wake up with prayers sitting quietly as the day begins. I grieve. I rejoice. I beg. I rejoice. I cry and feel hopeless thinking about how much I mess up my life and then I rejoice knowing God can fix even people like me.
On this I am reassured simply by what He managed to do with the people we call heroes of the Bible. Each one of them messed up. They all made mistakes. They were all simple humans but no matter how much they messed up, God had not given up on them and the world was better off for them having lived.
Yet even with what I know, what I believe or how strong my faith is, there are times when I want to just go home to God unable to carry this burden and times when I regret I asked Him to use me. Times when it feels as if the entire world has turned against me so I would be better off not getting out of bed. I see how mean people can be, how selfish and uncaring, but the next moment I see how unselfishly they reach out to offer comfort to someone else and then, then I know I want to be counted among the caring and belong right where I am.
One of them is another Chaplain in the Brevard County Chaplains' group I belong to. Papa Roy sends out daily reminders of faith to offer support to other Chaplains. Today it was a message too beautiful to not share. He sends them everyday no matter what is going on in his life or what pain he has. He lets nothing stop him from getting up way too early to share the love of God.
Good morning, thank Him for your blessings!
Do you want a stronger, spiritual life?
The more ministry involves working with people, the more we need quiet time with God. In the previous verses in Mark 1, Jesus has been highly involved in people-intensive ministry as he teaches, preaches, heals, and casts out demons. This is exhausting work. Yet there is always more work with people than any one of us can complete. There will always be another need, broken heart, hurting soul, and desperate problem. For us to continue to minister, we desperately need to get alone and be with God to renew our relationship, to restore our soul, and to rekindle our passion in the presence of God. (Phil Ware)
Now in the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, He went out and departed to a solitary place; and there He prayed. (Mark 1:35)
Our response to the normal, ordinary demands of life and the power to cope with those demands must come from our reliance upon Him at work within us. This is the secret: All power to live the Christian life comes not from us, doing our dead-level best to serve God, but from Him, granted to us moment by moment as the demand is made upon us. Power is given to those who follow, who obey. The Father is at work in the Son; the Son is at work in us. As we learn this, then we are given power to meet the demands and the needs that are waiting for us in the ministry yet to come. (Ray Stedman)
Thank You, Father, that the same power is available to me today, making me ready so be your instrument in any and every situation in which demand is laid upon me.
Depending on His grace.
Papa Roy
July 14, 2010
In God we trust
We are not supposed to be prefect. We are simple humans, complicated by living.
Our identification is not what we are paid but what we make different. Our lives are not perfect but we put our faith in Perfect Love. We do not rejoice always but rejoice we have God to turn to when people let us down. We do not judge others as evil but understand what it is like to also do things we are not proud of. We look at the possibilities in others just as much as we look at how far we've come from the days when we lived for ourselves.
Chaplain Kathie
PTSD Consultant
Senior IFOC Chaplain
DAV Chapter 16 Auxiliary Chaplain
Marine killed in armed police confrontation laid to rest
Marine killed in armed police confrontation laid to rest
Sarah Delage, Multimedia Journalist
MEDWAY, Maine (NEWS CENTER) -- James "Bing" Popkowski was laid to rest with full military honors Tuesday.
The thrity-seven year-old marine veteran from grindstone was shot and killed during an armed confrontation with police near the togus V.A. Hospital last week. Hundreds of people attended services, including family, former classmates from Schenck high school, fellow veterans, and his young daughter Vianca, who was presented with the American flag. Skip Cram is Popkowski's former boss. He says he will remember him as a hard worker and devoted friend.
read more here
Marine killed in armed police confrontation laid to rest
Friends recall life of ex-Marine killed at Togus
Sarah Delage, Multimedia Journalist
MEDWAY, Maine (NEWS CENTER) -- James "Bing" Popkowski was laid to rest with full military honors Tuesday.
The thrity-seven year-old marine veteran from grindstone was shot and killed during an armed confrontation with police near the togus V.A. Hospital last week. Hundreds of people attended services, including family, former classmates from Schenck high school, fellow veterans, and his young daughter Vianca, who was presented with the American flag. Skip Cram is Popkowski's former boss. He says he will remember him as a hard worker and devoted friend.
read more here
Marine killed in armed police confrontation laid to rest
Friends recall life of ex-Marine killed at Togus
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