PTSD sufferers often slow to seek help

First comes the shock of the traumatic event itself. Then comes the shock of discovering that it has taken hold and won't let go. It won't weaken. It gets stronger and stronger until you no longer recognize the person you used to be. Your thoughts change. Your control over your own thoughts and emotions vanish. Then comes the denial. You don't want to admit this is beyond your control. You don't want to admit you need help, because if you do, that means you have to admit you are weaker than PTSD. You have to admit that you have a mental illness.

For some it seems tougher to be a drunk or a drug user than it does to admit something has defeated you. It's all a matter of perception. A bomb blast is stronger than your body. A bullet is stronger than any armor and targets unprotected areas. That is what you are fighting against. That is what caused PTSD to attack you. You survived all of it. How can that mean you are weak in any way?

Then comes fighting with the people you love, care about, are a part of your life, because the last thing you want them to see is that you are no longer yourself. You don't want them to see the guy/girl who was always there to help needing help. You don't want them to see that you are falling apart when you were the one with all the answers before. So you do whatever you can to cover up your pain just as long as they don't end up feeling sorry for you. Anger from them is better to face than anyone feeling sorry for the soldier they were so proud of.

The point is, they are still proud of you no matter if you need their help or not simply because you have not really changed and they have not stopped loving you, or at least the you that is buried beneath all the pain. Trying to get over it is wasting time when you could be healing and getting your life back.

Yes, you can get your life back. You can heal the pain you feel and you can defeat this but just as with combat, you need ammunition. Instead of bullets, your ammunition now is knowledge. As with combat, you had your buddies watching your back just as you watched their's. Now you need someone to trust and talk to so that you have help fighting this enemy inside of you.

Your friends and your family are depending on you to win this last battle of war so that you will live again.

There are more seeking help than surrendering. Don't let PTSD defeat you.

Full disclosure: This news report is about the DAV. I am the Chaplain of the DAV Chapter 16 Auxiliary and a Senior Chaplain with the International Fellowship of Chaplains.

PTSD sufferers often slow to seek help

By Julian March
jmarchnews@gmail.com

Saturday, July 17, 2010 at 3:30 a.m.


An Army veteran who served in Iraq sits in Ron Holtberg's office. His biceps are larger than his infant, but he holds her softly and pats her back. His wife sits with a folder of documents. They've come to Holtberg, the executive committeeman for Wilmington's chapter of the Disabled American Veterans, to help straighten out their child's medical coverage.

Holtberg tells the couple which form to file, then focuses his eyes on the father. How is he sleeping? Does he insist on facing the door when he sits in a restaurant? How often does he check the locks on the house?

The veteran clenches his left hand.

He checks every room in the house whenever the family returns home, his wife says.

He's quiet when Holtberg tells him he has post-traumatic stress disorder and needs treatment.

After the family leaves, Holtberg says it is common for veterans to try to live with PTSD symptoms without seeking treatment.

"If they don't get help, what will happen is it festers," he said.

He said the local DAV served 547 claims in the first four months of this year. About 40 percent of those are soldiers who served in Iraq or Afghanistan.

"Nobody counsels them," he said. "Hopefully, they come here."
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PTSD sufferers often slow to seek help

Military reckons with the mental wounds of war

COMBAT GENERATION: BLOODLESS TRAUMA
Military reckons with the mental wounds of war

Staff Sgt. James Ownbey, a Marine who served in Iraq as an explosive ordnance disposal technician in 2007, and two other deployments, now suffers from a traumatic brain injury (TBI), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and numerous physical ailments. Ownbey and his wife, Sandy, recently bought a home in Hedgesville, W.Va., and he often commutes with her more than two hours each way to attend appointments at the Natinal Naval Hospital in Bethesda. (Photo by Whitney Shefte -- The Washington Post)

Story by Greg Jaffe Videos by Whitney Shefte
The Washington Post
Sunday, July 18, 2010
The 300-pound bomb blasted Marine Staff Sgt. James Ownbey's mine-resistant truck so high that it snapped power lines before it slammed to the dusty ground in western Iraq.

Ownbey, knocked briefly unconscious by the blast, awoke to suffocating black smoke and a swirling cloud of dirt. He felt for the vehicle's door, then stumbled into the sunlight where he was joined by the rest of his woozy, three-man crew. Their bodies were sore, but they looked fine.

Two years after the explosion Amos and Ownbey met again, this time in a cramped room at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda. Ownbey had been overtaken by terrifying panic attacks, puzzling memory loss and strange rib-snapping coughing fits that left him hospitalized for weeks at a time. Doctors diagnosed post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and traumatic brain injury, caused by battlefield concussions.

For Amos, seeing Ownbey's condition was the moment that the bloodless trauma of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars became tangible. "I thought we can't do this anymore," said Amos, referring to the military's slow response to treating PTSD and traumatic brain injury.

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Military reckons with the mental wounds of war

Honoring the service of soldiers who commit suicide

Reading this there was hopeful signs things were changing for the better, but too late to save the life of Staff Sgt. Montgomery.

Because Montgomery insisted he was not suicidal, he wasn't immediately evacuated from the base. When his condition didn't improve, his company commander arranged for him to fly out on a Jan. 20 re-supply helicopter. Montgomery killed himself that morning.

He said he was not suicidal. That's it? Just because he said so? Didn't they know? Why didn't they know? They are supposed to be professionals and able to at least take steps even if it turns out they were wrong in trying to save a life, they should have tried anyway. How many signs did he have to show that he was in deep trouble? The Army numbers are still going up but the Marines reported their number of suicides has gone down. Why? What are the Marines doing the Army is not?

Honoring their lives, even when they commit suicide, is the right thing to do, but not letting it reach that point would really be honoring their lives.


Honoring the service of soldiers who commit suicide

Gen. Peter Chiarelli, the Army's vice chief of staff, recently told commanders to conduct the same memorial services for battlefield suicides as they would for other deaths. The order provoked controversy among some commanders, who argued that suicide was dishonorable, an aide to Chiarelli said.

By Greg Jaffe
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, July 18, 2010

There was only the subtlest hint that this memorial service was different.

The Baker Company first sergeant called his men to attention in front of a ragged rock wall, built to shield troops from incoming mortar fire. A chaplain read an invocation, followed by a brief recitation of Staff Sgt. Thaddeus S. Montgomery Jr.'s biography. He had spent three years in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan as a Humvee gunner, a sniper and infantry squad leader. He loved reggae music, camping and fishing and wore his hair in dreadlocks before enlisting.

"Monty was someone I could talk to when things got tough," said one of his men, according to a video of the ceremony, which was held early this year in eastern Afghanistan. "He brought laughter to the squad and a bright outlook on life."

He was a "fearless leader," his company commander said.

"I'll never know why Monty did what he did on the 20th of January," said his best friend in the platoon.

On that day Montgomery, 29, aimed his gun at himself and pulled the trigger, Army officials said.

The Pentagon doesn't tell units how to mourn soldiers who commit suicide in combat, but it makes distinctions between suicides and other war deaths. The families of those who die of combat wounds or in noncombat accidents receive condolence letters from the president. The families of suicide victims do not.

Some Army and Marine Corps brigades inscribe the names of suicide victims on unit war memorials. Many units choose not to include them.

It fell to Col. Randy George, who commands Montgomery's brigade, to decide how the soldier would be remembered. George weighed Montgomery's history with the Army and the unit.

"This was his third deployment," the colonel said. "He was an incredible squad leader and soldier. He was well-liked." Montgomery's death was a combat fatality, he decided.
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Honoring the service of soldiers who commit suicide

Soldier from Tallahassee killed in Afghanistan

DOD Identifies Army Casualty


The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

Pvt. Brandon M. King, 23, of Tallahassee, Fla., died July 14 at Combat Outpost Nolen, Afghanistan, of wounds sustained when insurgents attacked his unit with small arms fire. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 320th Field Artillery Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), Fort Campbell, Ky.

http://icasualties.org/OEF/index.aspx

Iraq War Veterans Join Environmentalists in the Oiled Gulf of Mexico

Iraq War Veterans Join Environmentalists in the Oiled Gulf of Mexico
By Bryan Walsh Saturday, Jul. 17, 2010
Robin Eckstein has a closer relationship than most of us to the long supply chains that brings oil from the well to the wheel. In 2007 she was an Army truck driver in Iraq, shipping fuel from Baghdad International Airport to the forward bases of American operations. The U.S. military is an oil-thirsty machine, and it was the job of troops in logistics, like Eckstein, to keep the occupation fueled. That meant driving miles every day in a fuel convoy through some of the most dangerous streets in the world.

"Every day when we left the airport, I was thinking, time to roll the dice," she said. "Would it be insurgents, an IED, something else? We were just a big, slow, vulnerable target."

To Eckstein—who made it home OK from her tour in Iraq—the epiphany was inevitable. If gas was still cheap in America it was in part because the U.S. military was paying to keep some level of stability in the Middle East. Oil had its hidden costs for the U.S., costs that weren't factored into the price of gas—one of which was the blood of young American soldiers. "It all really resonated with me," the 33-year-old said. "Why weren't we doing things in a more efficient way?"

Read more: Iraq War Veterans Join Environmentalists

Fort Bragg lost 7 soldiers this week in Afghanistan

7 Fort Bragg soldiers killed in Afghanistan this week
By: News 14 Carolina Web Staff

FORT BRAGG -- More than half a dozen Fort Bragg soldiers were killed this week in Afghanistan.

Military officials say 24-year-old Sgt. Zachary Fisher of Missouri, 21-year-old Spc. Matthew Johnson of Minnesota, 26-year-old Spc. Jesse Reed of Pennsylvania and 21-year-old Spc. Chase Stanley of California died Wednesday when insurgents hit their vehicle with a roadside bomb.

“We truly mourn the loss of our paratroopers from the 618th Engineer Company, and we will never be able to fill the hole that now exists in our hearts,” Col. Richard G. Kaiser, commander, 20th Eng. Bde said in statement Friday. “These men were in the most dangerous spot on this Earth, doing what is arguably one of the most dangerous jobs that can be imagined--clearing roadside bombs, or improvised explosive devices. They did so willingly, professionally and absolutely without fear. Their whole purpose was to make Afghanistan a safer place for our American troops and our Afghan partners, as well as every citizen of Afghanistan. What more noble and selfless task could there be? They are true American heroes.”

On Tuesday, 23-year-old 1st Lt. Christopher Goeke, 34-year-old Staff Sgt. Christopher Stout and 27-year-old Staff Sgt. Sheldon Tate died in Kandahar City, Afghanistan when insurgents attacked their unit with rifle, rocket propelled grenade and small arms fire.

go here for the rest and video
Fort Bragg soldiers killed in Afghanistan this week

New "best friend" helps wounded warrior

New "best friend" helps wounded warrior
by Christopher Heath - KENS 5

kens5.com

Posted on July 16

Bosley is a 15 month old golden retriever; he is also the new best friend of Army Staff Sergeant Kimberly Ison.

Sergeant Ison suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), an anxiety disorder that causes the re-experiencing the trauma through flashbacks or nightmares. The Army estimates that 1 in 8 soldiers returning from combat, like Sgt. Ison, suffer from PTSD.

Tours in Serbia and Iraq have left Sgt. Ison with anxiety in large crowds and night terrors that often manifest in the form of sleepwalking.

While Sgt. Ison is still receiving treatment for PTSD, Bosley is now a new part of her daily life. A trained service dog, Bosley can take Sgt. Ison to the nearest exit if she becomes overwhelmed, the dog can also guide her back to bed if she wakes in the middle of night and begins to sleepwalk.
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New best friend helps wounded warrior

DOD officials commit to disabled veterans' small businesses

DOD officials commit to disabled veterans' businesses

Posted 7/16/2010

by Army Sgt. 1st Class Michael J. Carden
American Forces Press Service

7/16/2010 - WASHINGTON (AFNS) -- Defense Department officials are committed to providing service-disabled, veteran-owned small businesses with contracting opportunities, and are closer to its goal of awarding 3 percent of department contracts to such businesses, the acting director for the Pentagon's Small Business Programs Office said July 15.

The department has seen a steady increase in its annual contract awards to such businesses since 2003, when $300,000 was awarded to disabled-veteran-owned small businesses, Linda B. Oliver said before the House Small Business Committee.

In 2009, $4.3 billion in contracts was awarded to disabled-veteran-owned small businesses.

"We are proud of this progress, one that shows a 14-fold increase," Ms. Oliver said in her written testimony, which also noted the number of contracts awarded also has increased. "It is good for (veterans) when the percentages are increasing in an upward trend and also when the total dollars are increasing at an even faster pace.
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http://www.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123213752

Did you get your Stop-loss pay? 120,000 didn't and the Army is trying to find them

United States Army owes 120,000 veterans money

Updated: 07.16.10
The U.S. Army owes about 120,000 veterans extra pay, and the Veterans Administration is reaching out to find them.

The Army is seeking soldiers, veterans and survivors of soldiers whose service was involuntarily extended under Stop Loss Authority between Sept. 11, 2001 and Sept. 30, 2008.

The 2009 War Supplemental Appropriations Act stipulates they are eligible for special pay; those eligible will receive $500 for each month or partial month served in stop-loss status.

To receive this benefit, those who served under Stop Loss must submit a claim by Oct. 21, 2010. Stop-loss veterans can submit their claims online at www.stoplosspay.army.mil
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United States Army owes 120000 veterans money

Judge rules Stolen Valor Act unconstitutional

Judge rules Stolen Valor Act unconstitutional

By Dan Elliott - The Associated Press
Posted : Friday Jul 16, 2010 19:14:54 EDT

DENVER — A law that makes it illegal to lie about being a war hero is unconstitutional because it violates free speech, a federal judge ruled Friday as he dismissed a case against a Colorado man who claimed he received two military medals.

Rick Glen Strandlof claimed he was an ex-Marine who was wounded in Iraq and received the Purple Heart and Silver Star, but the military had no record he ever served. He was charged with violating the Stolen Valor Act, which makes it a crime punishable by up to a year in jail to falsely claim to have won a military medal.

U.S. District Judge Robert Blackburn dismissed the case and said the law is unconstitutional, ruling the government did not show it has a compelling reason to restrict that type of statement.

A spokesman for the U.S. attorney in Denver said prosecutors are reviewing the decision and haven’t decided whether to appeal. The spokesman said that decision would be made by the U.S. Justice Department in Washington and prosecutors in Denver.

Strandlof’s lawyer didn’t immediately return a call.

The law has also been challenged in California and a case now before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
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Judge rules Stolen Valor Act unconstitutional


Also on Stolen Valor

Vet who faked medals, ID still in custody

The Associated Press
Posted : Friday Jul 16, 2010 8:32:39 EDT

SAN ANTONIO — A 39-year-old Army veteran who faked being a military hero will remain in custody until a judge in San Antonio decides whether to revoke his probation.

Brian Culp, who served two tours of duty, had faced six months in prison on charges of falsely claiming a Purple Heart, falsely claiming a Bronze Star with valor and creating a fake ID that gave him access to military installations.
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Vet who faked medals ID still in custody