By Jim Tice - Staff writer Posted : Sunday Aug 1, 2010 10:37:38 EDT
A June surge of awards and decorations for redeploying soldiers in Iraq has pushed the combined medal count for the Middle East wars past 835,000, the third largest total in Army history.
The service’s most recent accounting of awards shows 597 medals were awarded for Afghanistan service in June, and 11,999 for Iraq.
The Afghanistan total is about half as large as the monthly average for that nearly 10-year war, while the monthly total for Iraq is unusually large, about one-third larger than normal.
The Army began awarding medals for Afghanistan and other Operation Enduring Freedom locations in December 2001. As of early July, the count was 154,177.
The Operation Iraqi Freedom medal count began in March 2003 and now stands at 681,351
Veterans find some peace where the river runs deep
Far from the battlefield but still in pain, they seek refuge
By Brian MacQuarrie
Globe Staff
August 1, 2010
UPTON, Maine — Under a canopy of towering pines, the fly-fishermen snap their arms forward, over and over, with balletic finesse. The men, who bear scars you can see and scars you can’t, focus solely on their lines, as the rhythm of the river runs through them.
Here on the banks of the Rapid River, deep in the woods of far western Maine, these veterans have found refuge from the wars that still haunt them.
“It’s the flow,’’ Army veteran John Rogers, a paraplegic since 2004, said of the river’s medicine. “It’s the sound. Continual, eternal . . . soothing.’’
They have come for the quiet repetition of fly-fishing, and also for each other, new comrades still struggling after service in Vietnam, Iraq or Afghanistan. During a week at Forest Lodge here, they sleep in bunks, swap stories around a campfire, and learn fishing techniques from volunteer guides, almost all of whom are also veterans.
They arrive as strangers and leave as friends.
“The last weeks, I’ve been having a real tough time,’’ said Alan Johnston, an Army veteran from Windsor, Maine, whose body and life were shattered by an Iraqi suicide bomber in 2004. “But coming out here with the vets is the best therapy there is.’’
Johnston, who received a medal from General David Petraeus for saving lives while wounded, has lost portions of his lungs, endured multiple operations, battled depression, and expects to visit doctors about 250 times this year.
“Inside my body,’’ Johnston said, “I’ve felt like I just wanted to break down, and explode, and scream.’’
Instead, Johnston took to the woods with seven other veterans in a program coordinated by the Department of Veterans Affairs and a nationwide nonprofit group called Project Healing Waters.
Decades later, Max Cleland faced PTSD from Vietnam By DEBORAH CIRCELLI, Staff Writer
The unwavering voice of a U.S. senator echoed through the halls of Walter Reed Army Medical Center from a video. The senator encouraged the newly wounded soldiers to "get strong at the broken places" and "turn their scars into stars."
Max Cleland, the former senator and Stetson University alumnus, should know. He survived the unthinkable, losing his legs and right arm in a grenade explosion in Vietnam.
And at the same time the video of him played on that day four years ago, Cleland was in another office receiving counseling for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) -- about 36 years after first being saved in the same hospital and patched together from his physical war injuries.
"It's like the flip side of my life. On one side of the wall, there I was on the video saying how you can overcome and on the other side of the wall, I'm crying like a baby," Cleland, 67, said in a phone interview.
He shared insight into his experience in his book, "Heart of a Patriot," which includes his struggle with PTSD. The pain and depression of losing his legs and right arm in Vietnam in 1968 was something he buried deep inside. It came to the surface when his life went awry after losing his Senate re-election bid in a bitter battle in 2002. read more here Max Cleland faced PTSD from Vietnam
Healing and family are next missions for Afghanistan vet from Lake Worth
By John Lantigua
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer WASHINGTON — U.S. Army paratrooper Travis Brown of Lake Worth is bursting with frustration.
He is 21, with a 6-foot-4-inch body full of broken bones - including a pelvis fractured in eight places and shattered legs. A foot-long scar that looks like the stitching on a football descends from his chest to his belly, where his spleen was removed.
Ten of his teeth are broken and he wears a pirate patch over his left eye because powerful medications have given him double vision. His nose looks normal, but only because military surgeons did a good job sewing it back on.
He is in bed, restless but immobile, and desperate to convince the people around him at Walter Reed Army Medical Center that today, the meds aren't working well. Simply by touching him they are causing him excruciating pain.
"It's your fingertips," he utters through his clenched remaining teeth to veteran physical therapist Arnette Smith, who is gently moving his left leg.
"Don't you understand? Your fingertips are hurting me."
Brown is a tough, brave, idealistic young man who pictured himself fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan. But he never did engage the enemy.
Frustration and pain are about all he has known since he was deployed there on April 30. In that respect, he is much like the nation as a whole when it comes to the war. read more here Healing and family are next missions
Maj. Gen. William Grimsley, Fort Hood Acting Senior Commander wrote a piece on the rise of domestic violence at Fort Hood. Spike in domestic violence at Fort Hood.
First, if there is domestic violence in your home, get out, call the police and be safe. You can't fix this on your own no matter how much you may know, how much you love them or how much you remember they loved you. If they have changed from gentle and loving, there is something very deep and dark going on inside of them. If there was never any indication of violent outbursts from them, more than likely you're dealing with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
There is another kind of domestic violence that is not intentional. Many veterans have ended up being arrested for domestic violence because they were in the middle of a nightmare and their wife tried to wake them up by shaking them and hollering at them. They had no clue where they were or that the hand on them was not from some enemy in the middle of battle. Wives have ended up with broken noses and black eyes because no one told them to get out of bed before they attempted to wake up a veteran in the middle of a nightmare.
There are a lot of things they do that appear to be domestic violence but turn out to be part of PTSD controlled over reactions.
Living with PTSD in the house is like living on a roller coaster. It's a ride that is much easier to just get off of. You want to stand on firm ground and be living a normal life again. You see the carriage going up and up as your heart beats fast because you can't see where it is going. You know that sooner or later you're going to go down very fast as you fear crashing to the earth. Nothing makes sense anymore. Mood swings make the day totally unpredictable.
One minute they are calm and sitting there drinking coffee and the next, their hand shakes. Their soulful eyes become dark and lifeless. Their face suddenly appears to be hard as their facial muscles become tense. A flashback fueled volcano rises to the top and they explode. The trigger was something as simple as seeing the date on the calendar, when "it" happened. An anniversary date snuck up on them once again and there was no way for them to prepare because no one ever warned them.
26 years after I married my best friend and got on this ride, I can't honestly say I have no regrets. I regret the times when all of this just seemed too hard and I wanted leave especially now that the huge roller coaster rides have been downsized to a kiddy ride. Sure we have ups and downs still but our "normal" is something we're used to. It is not until I receive emails from wives new to all of this that my heart breaks remembering all the dark days.
This is what I sent to the wife of a Vietnam Vet. I don't normally get this preachy but they are involved with ministry.
I know you are in a place where it seems everything is impossible and it hurts, but "all things are possible for God" and He's proven that to me many times.
Right now I am facing very hard times, financially and emotionally. I struggle with times when I try so hard to remember all the times God bailed me out of trouble and wondering where He is right now. I've been in these darks days before yet remember when the sunlight warmed my soul and I knew He was there all the time.
There were times when my husband's PTSD brought me shaking down on my knees feeling absolutely hopeless and helpless. I prayed for him to be healed. So that one morning I'd wake up and have him back to the way he was when we met. I wanted God to do it because it just felt so right that He did, but I couldn't see tomorrow. I had no idea that while I was waiting for Him to heal my husband, He was working on both of us.
I do what I do because He helped me grow by His grace and love. I went from the darkness of praying my husband not come back home from another day of drinking to having him take my hand in the grocery store telling me "you're my best friend" because he finally understood all I did was for him. I put him into God's hands and got out of the way at the same time God used me to help him.
We are only human. We have needs and wants just like everyone else. No one would ever deliberately choose a marriage like this because with all the normal problems, this kind of marriage comes with an abundance of struggles. Don't beat yourself up over being a normal woman/wife. Even after all these years, I still pop my cork now and then because I am just human. I hear people complain about the simple, normal issues with their husbands and I wonder what they would do if they had just part of what life is like with a PTSD veteran.
The thing is, there was a day that came, after the diagnosis for PTSD, six years of struggling to keep him alive while his claim was being denied, more diagnosis tied to Agent Orange and believing nothing would ever get better, when suddenly it did.
(He) is at the point he is because you were there to help him. He will get past that point and even better because you are there with the Lord standing right by your side. What you may not notice is you will be there for others because these "dangerous toils and snares" are teaching you so that you will be one of the pastors not turning away this new generation seeking help and you will be there to help their families.
What is happening right now with the National Guards and Reservists is that in June, one committed suicide each day. We lost over 30 to suicide. They are struggling and most churches refuse to help. Most of them have PTSD, TBI and other health issues going on plus a family falling apart because they have nowhere to turn and no one to give them hope. You've been through the fire and your heart will welcome them. When (he) is feeling better, he'll join you in this because he is another one who understands the pain but will again know the rejoicing in the arms of God.
What this wife cannot see is how much has been possible with her husband because she was helping him heal. She learned about PTSD, asked questions about what she didn't understand and opened up about what they were going through. She has abundant faith in Christ and knows that miracles happen everyday, but what she needs to be reminded of is Christ often sets us up for where He wants us to go. It's up to us to stay on the ride or walk away. It is up to us to forgive and understand or hang onto anger seeking revenge for what we feel we were denied.
As a wife, there are certain things we feel we are entitled to. Love and respect are often taken away when PTSD takes over. It's not that they don't want to still show us love or treat us with respect. It's more that they can't. Not when PTSD has taken over and all the good feelings are frozen behind the wall of pain. While no one would blame us for hanging onto the bad feelings, our choice is to hang onto them or grab onto knowledge so that we can understand what changed them and what we can do to help them heal. It's our choice.
It's often easier for me to work with the veteran than it is to work with the spouse. I was an observer in my husband's life. I understood the flashback and the nightmares but I didn't feel them the way he did. I understood what Vietnam did to him but I don't understand what it felt like. Working with the spouse, I know what it feels like and I'm taken back to my own dark days when pain seemed to be the only feeling I was capable of. I remember the days and nights of prayer without finding the words to express anything yet somehow knowing God heard me when a calm rushed through my body and the tears suddenly stopped. I knew I wasn't alone and no matter what I faced I was safe in the arms of His Son.
The choice is our's to stay and we can once we understand this is something we didn't deserve any more than they deserved this to happen to them. They did not bring this on themselves but their level of compassion opened the door to this kind of pain. The very thing that made us fall in love with them was destroying them. It is all still in there and we can help it grow stronger than the pain. What we find at the end up this roller coaster ride is someone more loving and caring than we ever dreamed possible. God works wonders when love is behind what we try to do and we are not alone.
To the one who's dreams are falling all apart And all you're left with is a tired and broken heart I can tell by your eyes you think your on your own But you're not alone
Have you heard of the One who can calm the raging seas Gives sight to the blind, pull the lame up to their feet? With a love so strong He'll never let you go No, you're not alone
You will be safe in His arms You will be safe in His arms 'Cause the hands that hold the world Are holding your heart
This is the promise He made He will be with You always When everything is falling apart You will be safe in His arms
Did you know that the voice that brings the dead to life Is the very same voice that calls you now to rise? So hear Him now, He's calling you home You will never be alone
You will be safe in His arms You will be safe in His arms 'Cause the hands that hold the world Are holding your heart
This is the promise He made He will be with You always When everything is falling apart You will be safe in His arms
These are the hands that built the mountains The hands that calm the seas These are the arms that hold the heavens They are holding you and me
These are hands that healed the leper Pulled the lame up to their feet These are the arms that were nailed to a cross To break our chains and set us free
You will be safe in His arms You will be safe in His arms The hands that hold the world Are holding your heart
This is the promise He made He will be with You always When everything is falling apart You will be safe in His arms, safe in His arms
He held my heart just as He does now. When the world tells me what I have is not normal, I thank God for it. How could a marriage to a PTSD veteran be considered normal by anyone? A nation with over 300 million people has less than 24 million veterans and even less have seen combat. What do they know about any of this? What do they know about the magnificent soul in any of them "willing to lay down their lives for the sake of their friends" as we know them? What does the world know about battles being fought everyday in our homes when they were not interested in the battles they fought in Korea,Vietnam, Kuwait, Somalia, Bosnia, Beirut, Afghanistan or Iraq? What does the world know about unselfish love that seeks nothing for self but everything for someone else?
We can go to church and hear the sermon about devotion, love, compassion, mercy, forgiveness and the love of Christ and actually know what the pastor is talking about. We've lived it because we allowed Him to guide us, strengthen us and help us heal.
We know what it's like when the uniforms come off and together we can stand strong against all odds. Half of the regular marriages end in divorce so the odds of us staying married with PTSD in the house are not very good, but if we made it this far, we've already beaten the odds. This tiny minority of this nation's people are stronger than they will ever understand because we stand side by side ready to help each other thru any trial.
Reading this blog, you've read how many stories about veterans coming home and ending up setting up support groups for other veterans, starting charities to help others, volunteering at shelters and churches? This few others understand and it's something I wouldn't miss for the world. This ride came with a high price of admission but it is one ride I am glad I got on. I know I'm safe in His arms just as I am safe with my husband's love.
If I walked into a training session and heard any plans for starting crisis intervention in the middle of a tornado or hurricane, I would walk out the door. It seems they are doing this type of thing in Afghanistan. Good intentions? Absolutely. I've been complaining there isn't enough crisis intervention in the military and they have not responded the way civilians do when crisis teams hit it head on as soon as the event itself is over. Having them respond in combat areas is not that bad of an idea but when they are doing it to a soldier who already has PTSD, that idea is deadly. You cannot treat them for PTSD caused by traumatic events in combat while they are still in combat! You can't medicate it out of them either.
The other part to this story is for 5,000 soldiers there are two social workers, one psychiatrists and one psychologist! What good do they think this will do with so many men and women begin exposed to combat trauma on top of the stress of being redeployed over and over again? They are being medicated, probably with very little attention from the psychiatrist, and more than likely, no real therapy. All the ingredients necessary to help a soldier heal are spread out too far to do any good at all. Sending them back to help them is like sticking a tornado survivor into a wind tunnel and telling them it's for their own good.
Military keeps distressed soldiers at combat site
By HEIDI VOGT The Associated Press Saturday, July 31, 2010; 12:00 PM
The 5,000 troops that make up Task Force Mountain Warrior - which includes the Fort Carson soldiers - are served by a psychologist, a psychiatrist and two social workers. Collectively known to soldiers as "Combat Stress" - as in, "I had to go see Combat Stress" - this four-person team makes the rounds to about 30 bases. They arrive after any potential trauma: the death of a soldier, an arduous battle or a large roadside bombing.
FORWARD OPERATING BASE BOSTICK, Afghanistan -- Sgt. Thomas Riordan didn't want to return to Afghanistan after home leave. He had just fought through a battle that killed eight soldiers, and when he arrived home his wife said she was leaving. He almost killed himself that night.
When his psychologist asked what he thought he should do, Riordan said: Stay in Colorado.
Instead, the military brought Riordan back to this base in the eastern Afghan mountains, where mortar rounds sound regularly and soldiers have to wear flack jackets if they step outside their barracks before 8 a.m., even to go to the bathroom.
Increasingly, the army is trying to treat traumatized soldiers "in theater" - where they're stationed. The idea is that soldiers will heal best if kept with those who understand what they've been through, rather than being dumped into a treatment center back in the States where they'll be surrounded by unfamiliar people and untethered from their work and routine.
However, the policy may serve the military at least as much as the soldiers. Treating soldiers on site makes it easier to send them back into battle - key for a stretched military fighting two wars. It also brings up a host of challenges: Ensuring soldiers get the treatment they need in the middle of war, monitoring those on antidepressants and sleeping pills, and deciding who can be kept in a war zone and who might snap.
Wars take a heavy toll on one California school Buchanan High School in the Central Valley community of Clovis has lost seven troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, the most of any school in the state. By Diana Marcum, Los Angeles Times
July 31, 2010 Reporting from Clovis, Calif. — The seventh funeral was Friday. The church was full, even strangers lined the streets and everyone in sight stopped what they were doing and bowed their heads as Brian Piercy's body moved from church to cemetery — the same as they had done for six others.
Wrangler Bde volunteers help grieving children By Pfc. Amy M. Lane, 4th Sust. Bde. Public Affairs July 29, 2010 News
One of the Army values is selfless service, and volunteers from the 4th Sustainment Brigade, 13th Sustainment Command (Expeditionary), along with other III Corps Soldiers, were a living example of this value during last weekend’s two-day Good Grief Camp at Fort Hood.
The Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors, known as TAPS, organized the annual event, which pairs children who have lost a loved one in the military with a Soldier-mentor for two days of activities aimed at dealing with grief. Mentors received training before the event.
The Wrangler Brigade sent 15 volunteers to the event. Each had various reasons for offering their time. Some said they were doing it to honor a loved one they had lost, to honor those lost in the Nov. 5 shooting or simply to help children. go here for more Wrangler Bde volunteers help grieving children
Remember that Fort Hood had their sense of safety shattered when Maj. Hasan opened fire last year. Aside from the deployments over and over again into two combat zones, this very well could have a lot to do with the spike at Fort Hood.
Stop family violence - Love should never hurt By Maj. Gen. William Grimsley, Fort Hood Acting Senior Commander
Combat is a necessary part of our lives in the Army. Few of Fort Hood’s Soldiers have not been affected by it during eight years of combat deployments. We’re trained to inflict harm and do violence on the enemy in defense of our country. However, we’re also taught restraint and how to properly apply controlled measures of violence only when necessary.
In our line of work, it’s crucial that we know where that violence ends. One thing we must always remember is that we can never bring violence into our homes. In April, I signed the Month of the Military Child Proclamation, recognizing the importance of our children and bringing awareness to the problem of child abuse. Fortunately, that has not been a significant problem in our Fort Hood community.
Lately, however, we have been seeing a spike in the number of reported cases of spousal abuse. In some of these cases the female, both Soldier and spouse, has been determined to be the aggressor. A few other cases are a result of mutual combat. Regardless of the circumstance, victim or perpetrator, if you find yourself in a situation that might escalate to violence you must choose to walk away and remove yourself from the scenario. read more here Stop family violence
July 30, 2010 More vets getting mental health care, more need care Posted by Meredith Cohn
As the wars continue in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Department of Veterans Affairs can be sure of something: more people will leave the military in need of long-term medical care – and long-term mental health care.
Robert A. Petzel, undersecretary for health at the VA, was in Baltimore for a meeting of mental health professionals trying to get up to speed on the latest treatments and services, and I was able to quiz him on the latest efforts to care for former service members. Joining in the discussion was Sonja V. Batten, Assistant Deputy Chief Patient Care Services Officer for Mental Health.
They told me that the agency has been working to bolster its staff of mental health professionals – adding 6,000 staffers from the field in the last four years, bringing the total to 20,673.
The VA has also added a suicide prevention hotline, which has taken 293,000 calls in the last two years, referred 35,000 callers to a suicide prevention coordinator and rescued 9,700 of those in immediate crisis.
But the number of those on active duty taking their own lives is, not surprisingly, rising. And many more are coming home from combat distressed.
For post traumatic stress disorders, almost 366,000 vets were treated in fiscal 2009. That number is also rising. There were almost 255,000 treated in fiscal 2006. Of course, during conflicts, there will be more PTSD – as estimated 30 percent of those who served in Vietnam, for example, experienced PTSD and 10 percent of those in the Gulf War did. (About 6.8 percent of Americans will experience PTSD at some time in their lives.)
Officials say a main reason the numbers are going up now is because screening has gotten better. But certainly more vets need care.
In fiscal 2009, more than 1.4 million vets received care from the VA for a mental health problem, up from close to 1.2 million in fiscal 2006. read the rest here More vets getting mental health care, more need care
