Prisoner in Afghanistan kills two US Marines
(AFP) – 5 hours ago
KABUL — A prisoner killed two US Marines in southern Afghanistan after escaping a prayer room and grabbing a rifle, NATO said Monday.
The alliance said the gunman was later shot dead and that the incident on Saturday was under investigation.
"The prisoner escaped a room where he was observing prayer time, acquired a rifle and subsequently engaged Afghan and coalition forces. The Marines were killed while trying to subdue the prisoner," said NATO in a statement.
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http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jixtFRWm8zowW5HKGqB3nm28NOIg
Monday, August 9, 2010
Crooks taking advantage of servicemen, women
Scammers targeting veterans
Crooks taking advantage of servicemen, women
COVINGTON — Things aren’t always what they seem, warns Tommy Clack, field manager and veterans service officer for the Georgia Department of Veterans Services for the east side of Atlanta.
Reporter: By Barbara Knowles
COVINGTON — Things aren’t always what they seem, warns Tommy Clack, field manager and veterans service officer for the Georgia Department of Veterans Services for the east side of Atlanta.
Telephone solicitors may not be who they say they are and just because a guy with a pair of camouflage pants and a flag sets up a table outside a local retail store, he may not be a veteran.
Clack says scam artists are running rampant in an effort to circumvent government funding and charitable donations intended for veterans.
“It’s an epidemic going on in Georgia and the country,” he said. “All these billions of dollars the federal government is acknowledging they are putting into the veterans’ arena, there are unscrupulous people out there who want to partake of that. They fake being a veteran, fake credentials, have fake offices and collect money from an unknowing public.”
Clack said the reason is simple — the word “veteran” evokes an emotional response.
“When you use the word ‘veteran’ in public, you’re going to get a response,” he said. “Americans want to take care of them.”
Newton County resident Randy Upton said he was curious about a group he found soliciting money in front of one of the area Wal-Mart stores and struck up a conversation with them. He said the solicitors acknowledged they were not veterans, had never served, much less been wounded, in military service and were being paid to sit in front of the store, dressed in paramilitary outfits and collect funds.
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Clack says emphatically citizens should not donate to any group without knowing if the money is actually going to be used for the stated purpose.
“I suggest before anybody gives them money, you find out about them by getting a financial sheet showing where their money goes and if they are putting most of it back into the community. What services are they providing. What veterans are they benefiting? Legitimate groups are going to take your name and address and mail you a financial statement. Those groups are required to do a monthly, quarterly, yearly statement to show where their money goes,” he said.
Scammers targeting veterans
Tennessee Air National Guardsman meets son for first time
Local guardsman returns from Iraq and meets his infant son for the first time
By Nash Armstrong
One hundred and nine days after watching the birth of his first son via Skype, Master Sgt. Stan Edward Drozdowski with the 134th Security Forces Squadron of the Tennessee Air National Guard on Sunday was finally able to hold and kiss his infant son.
Drozdowski and 43 other members of the 134th Air Refueling Wing returned home Sunday, and he met his son - 3 1/2-month-old Talon Edward Drozdowski - for the first time at the McGhee Tyson Air National Guard Base.
When Holly Drozdowski gave birth on April 21, her husband was serving his country in Iraq.
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Local guardsman returns from Iraq and meets his infant son
By Nash Armstrong
One hundred and nine days after watching the birth of his first son via Skype, Master Sgt. Stan Edward Drozdowski with the 134th Security Forces Squadron of the Tennessee Air National Guard on Sunday was finally able to hold and kiss his infant son.
Drozdowski and 43 other members of the 134th Air Refueling Wing returned home Sunday, and he met his son - 3 1/2-month-old Talon Edward Drozdowski - for the first time at the McGhee Tyson Air National Guard Base.
When Holly Drozdowski gave birth on April 21, her husband was serving his country in Iraq.
read more here
Local guardsman returns from Iraq and meets his infant son
Pennsylvania veterans homes seizing patients' savings
When my Dad passed away my Mom was taken care of simply because my Dad had 100% service connected disability claim with the VA. When my Father-in-law passed away, there wasn't anything for my Mother-in-law or even help to bury him. The man was a WWII veteran with a Bronze Star and Purple Heart. The difference was, he never filed a claim for anything. He was one of the countless veterans too proud to ask for anything and under the impression it was a hand out instead of something they earned.
This is a story about WWII veteran who didn't fall thru the cracks. She was pushed into the abyss.
This is a story about WWII veteran who didn't fall thru the cracks. She was pushed into the abyss.
Pennsylvania veterans homes seizing patients' savings
By Walter F. Roche Jr.
PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Monday, August 9, 2010
It seemed reasonable.
When Rosella Stitzell checked into the state-run Southwestern Veterans Center in 2002, the World War II veteran was told 80 percent of her monthly pension would pay for her stay. Twenty percent would go into a personal savings account maintained by the home in Lincoln-Lemington.
Over the next seven years, the savings account grew, eventually topping $20,000.
But when Stitzell, 97, checked out late last year, she and her three children got a surprise. Not only did the state Department of Military and Veterans Affairs refuse to let her have the $20,000, the family learned she owed more than $200,000 for her stay.
The Stitzells had run headlong into a little-known knot of state bureaucracy, a knot that grabbed up the savings of dozens of deceased veterans, including homes and a coin collection.
What's more, some relatives must go to court to fight the state for money to bury their kin.
A review of court records across the state and interviews with family members show many were unaware they would be billed for thousands of dollars after their loved ones died.
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Pennsylvania veterans homes seizing patients savings
81 year old widow waits for VA to honor husband's service
Long wait for V.A. benefits nearing end for veteran's widow
Greg Dawson
The Last Resort
4:42 p.m. EDT, August 8, 2010
Dear Greg: My husband of 57 years, Joseph Suda, passed away on Feb. 27, 2008. He was in the army infantry in Italy in the Blue Devils company. As his widow, I called the Veterans Administration to obtain his pension benefit. About a week after his death, a lady came to my door at the Brookdale assisted living facility where we moved in 2006. She asked for our marriage license, my husband's death notice and discharge papes, and said I would be hearing from them. Well, a year went by and I didn't hear anything, so I called the V.A. and spoke to Tom, who said they lost the file but would keep looking for it.
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Long wait for VA benefits nearing end
Greg Dawson
The Last Resort
4:42 p.m. EDT, August 8, 2010
Dear Greg: My husband of 57 years, Joseph Suda, passed away on Feb. 27, 2008. He was in the army infantry in Italy in the Blue Devils company. As his widow, I called the Veterans Administration to obtain his pension benefit. About a week after his death, a lady came to my door at the Brookdale assisted living facility where we moved in 2006. She asked for our marriage license, my husband's death notice and discharge papes, and said I would be hearing from them. Well, a year went by and I didn't hear anything, so I called the V.A. and spoke to Tom, who said they lost the file but would keep looking for it.
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Long wait for VA benefits nearing end
"Supporting" the troops
"Supporting" the troops
by Joan McCarter
Sun Aug 08, 2010 at 10:09:04 AM PDT
My first job out of college was with then-Rep. Ron Wyden, in his district office in Portland. I was a caseworker, there to help constituents work their way through the maze of federal agencies when something had gone wrong. One of my permanent, and pointless, assignments was the military; pointless because the Pentagon was little influenced by a member from Oregon who didn't sit on any relevant committees. My efforts were mostly limited to finding lost paperwork, trying to expedite emergency leave requests, that kind of thing.
There was one category of military cases that the casework staff split up on a rotating basis--veterans' work. We had to split it up for our own well-being, both because of the volume of cases and because of how emotionally draining they could be. We weren't in a war at the time, and didn't have returning vets needing our help. But the fight of Vietnam vets for recognition of disabilities from Agent Orange exposure to PTSD was in full swing. VA Medical Centers around the country were understaffed, underfunded and in some instances, the worst place to try to receive medical care. At the time, I didn't know any veterans of real war. Somehow no close relatives or family friends had gotten the call to serve in Vietnam. My memories of that war were hazy, as I was pretty young through the worst of it and shielded for the most part from those images Walter Cronkite broadcast every night into our homes. But I held the prevailing sentiment of kids raised by liberals in the sixties, seventies, and eighties--the Vietnam war was a mistake on many grounds, but I didn't get the individual sacrifice part, the real impact it had on the men who had to serve there until I started working on these cases.
read more here
Supporting the troops
by Joan McCarter
Sun Aug 08, 2010 at 10:09:04 AM PDT
My first job out of college was with then-Rep. Ron Wyden, in his district office in Portland. I was a caseworker, there to help constituents work their way through the maze of federal agencies when something had gone wrong. One of my permanent, and pointless, assignments was the military; pointless because the Pentagon was little influenced by a member from Oregon who didn't sit on any relevant committees. My efforts were mostly limited to finding lost paperwork, trying to expedite emergency leave requests, that kind of thing.
There was one category of military cases that the casework staff split up on a rotating basis--veterans' work. We had to split it up for our own well-being, both because of the volume of cases and because of how emotionally draining they could be. We weren't in a war at the time, and didn't have returning vets needing our help. But the fight of Vietnam vets for recognition of disabilities from Agent Orange exposure to PTSD was in full swing. VA Medical Centers around the country were understaffed, underfunded and in some instances, the worst place to try to receive medical care. At the time, I didn't know any veterans of real war. Somehow no close relatives or family friends had gotten the call to serve in Vietnam. My memories of that war were hazy, as I was pretty young through the worst of it and shielded for the most part from those images Walter Cronkite broadcast every night into our homes. But I held the prevailing sentiment of kids raised by liberals in the sixties, seventies, and eighties--the Vietnam war was a mistake on many grounds, but I didn't get the individual sacrifice part, the real impact it had on the men who had to serve there until I started working on these cases.
read more here
Supporting the troops
Troubled vet helps others seek help
Troubled vet helps others seek help
BY JULIAN MARCH - Star-News
WILMINGTON -- Sgt. Peter Linquist rides an elevator down from his Carolina Beach apartment, his bulldog leaping out into the summer afternoon.
Linquist limps into the sun, lights a Camel cigarette and steps back into the shadows of the garage. On his Operation Iraqi Freedom hat, the word "veteran" stands out in gold letters.
He snaps his wrist, watching a string of smoldering black ash fly off his cigarette.
"I've slipped through the cracks," he said. "I have not gotten the help I deserved."
He finishes the cigarette and calls the dog back in, limping back to the elevator.
"I'm really not supposed to be walking around," Linquist said. It's been a little over a week since he had surgery on his left ankle for an injury caused by a blast.
Living with pain has become a central part of his life since he left Iraq in 2005.
He's only 27 years old, but he's on multiple medications. He takes antidepressants and mood stabilizers to treat symptoms from post-traumatic stress disorder. Because of injuries from a roadside bomb, he takes painkillers and muscle relaxants.
He said he has fought for adequate care from the Department of Veterans Affairs for nearly four years.
Recent news that the VA will make it easier for veterans to file PTSD claims may come too late for him. The VA said the changes would reduce the evidence needed for a veteran to say PTSD was connected to military service. Linquist, who had to outline specific dates of traumatic experiences, said making that process easier will be good for other vets.
He's also making a personal effort to make sure others don't suffer as he did by launching an advocacy organization to help veterans. It's called We Can Do This Together.
Read more: Troubled vet helps others seek help
BY JULIAN MARCH - Star-News
WILMINGTON -- Sgt. Peter Linquist rides an elevator down from his Carolina Beach apartment, his bulldog leaping out into the summer afternoon.
Linquist limps into the sun, lights a Camel cigarette and steps back into the shadows of the garage. On his Operation Iraqi Freedom hat, the word "veteran" stands out in gold letters.
He snaps his wrist, watching a string of smoldering black ash fly off his cigarette.
"I've slipped through the cracks," he said. "I have not gotten the help I deserved."
He finishes the cigarette and calls the dog back in, limping back to the elevator.
"I'm really not supposed to be walking around," Linquist said. It's been a little over a week since he had surgery on his left ankle for an injury caused by a blast.
Living with pain has become a central part of his life since he left Iraq in 2005.
He's only 27 years old, but he's on multiple medications. He takes antidepressants and mood stabilizers to treat symptoms from post-traumatic stress disorder. Because of injuries from a roadside bomb, he takes painkillers and muscle relaxants.
He said he has fought for adequate care from the Department of Veterans Affairs for nearly four years.
Recent news that the VA will make it easier for veterans to file PTSD claims may come too late for him. The VA said the changes would reduce the evidence needed for a veteran to say PTSD was connected to military service. Linquist, who had to outline specific dates of traumatic experiences, said making that process easier will be good for other vets.
He's also making a personal effort to make sure others don't suffer as he did by launching an advocacy organization to help veterans. It's called We Can Do This Together.
Read more: Troubled vet helps others seek help
106,000 Soldiers were on prescription medication for three weeks or more last year
They give them meds to sleep, calm down and then to wake up. They go for help with PTSD but are given meds and sent back to duty. What really gets missed is that most meds come with a warning about the need to reduce stress and be monitored by a doctor. They are not given therapy and usually end up with chaplains without a clue what PTSD is. One other problem with this is the fact part of PTSD is short term memory loss. If they pop a pill when they are supposed to then forget they took it, you have an overdoes. If they think they took it but didn't, then there is another problem. With just medication, still in danger and under stress, they are not getting better and lose hope of ever feeling better. Heavily armed, depressed, medicated warriors arrive at the choice of pulling the trigger or trying again tomorrow.
Chiarelli Rejects ‘Medicated’ Army Claim
August 09, 2010
Military.comby Bryant Jordan
The Army is not drugging its troops to cope with combat, Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Peter Chiarelli said during an Aug. 8 interview on ABC’s “This Week with Christiane Amanpour.”
Chiarelli, referencing a July Army report showing a sharp increase in Soldier suicides and an increase in serious crimes committed by GIs, said the study’s claim that “data would suggest [the Army is] becoming more dependent on pharmaceuticals to sustain the force” is a concern. The report continues: “In fact, anecdotal information suggests that the force is becoming increasingly dependent on both legal and illegal drugs,” with about one-third of Soldiers on some kind of prescription drug.
Chiarelli acknowledged that more than 106,000 Soldiers were on prescription medication for three weeks or more last year -- including antidepressants and anti-anxiety medication. But he said the drugs were authorized by U.S. Central Command’s medical personnel, rejecting Amanpour's comment that the report “raises the specter of a significant number of people out there, heavily armed, afraid, under fire, IEDs [around], and drugged.”
“But we know,” Chiarelli said, “that the drugs we’re talking about are cleared by CentCom surgeons for Soldiers to be taking when they’re down-range. So we’re not sending any Soldier into harm’s way who is taking any drug that we feel would somehow endanger him or some others.”
read more of this here
Chiarelli Rejects Medicated Army Claim
Bodies of soldiers who committed suicide found weeks afterward?
Are you tired yet? I am. I am so tired of hearing them say they get it while I have to read about more suicides.
If you read about the rate of suicides and attempted suicides in the Army, you won't read the numbers from the Marines in the same piece very often and even less often are the numbers from the National Guards. If you read those numbers you won't be reminded of how many veterans are taking their own lives or trying to. What is the most disgusting part of any report I've read after all these years is this part;
Yes, you read that right "Suicide victims not being found until they had been dead for three or four weeks" but pay attention to the other part of this. The warning that it is "worsening" even after all these years of combat. There will be 50,000 left in Iraq until next year. Some want to believe that they are out of harms way since their combat missions are essentially over but they are still at risk because of the combat they've already seen along with the bombs that still blow up in Iraq from insurgents. More troops have headed into Afghanistan and Lord only knows when they will come home for good. This warning should have everyone in the country screaming but so far, they've been oblivious unless they are a family member left behind after suicide caused another death.
This is why I get so angry and tired of hearing the leaders tell us they get it.
Mental Health Disorders Common in Returning Troops March 12, 2007
Is anyone asking why so many have to reach that point in the first place?
Each month we read about the numbers going up in the branches of the military and we read about the suffering of so many veterans but the leaders in the military keep saying they get it, they are doing something about it but what they don't answer is why nothing they've done so far has worked.
If you read about the rate of suicides and attempted suicides in the Army, you won't read the numbers from the Marines in the same piece very often and even less often are the numbers from the National Guards. If you read those numbers you won't be reminded of how many veterans are taking their own lives or trying to. What is the most disgusting part of any report I've read after all these years is this part;
"There are instances where a leader's lack of soldier accountability resulted in suicide victims not being found until they had been dead for three or four weeks," the report said. "In an organization that prides itself on never leaving a soldier behind, this sobering example speaks to the breakdown of leadership in garrison, which appears to be worsening as requirements of prolonged conflict slowly erode the essential attributes that have defined the Army for generations."
Yes, you read that right "Suicide victims not being found until they had been dead for three or four weeks" but pay attention to the other part of this. The warning that it is "worsening" even after all these years of combat. There will be 50,000 left in Iraq until next year. Some want to believe that they are out of harms way since their combat missions are essentially over but they are still at risk because of the combat they've already seen along with the bombs that still blow up in Iraq from insurgents. More troops have headed into Afghanistan and Lord only knows when they will come home for good. This warning should have everyone in the country screaming but so far, they've been oblivious unless they are a family member left behind after suicide caused another death.
Army General Chiarelli Tackles Issue of Soldier Suicide
Army Suicides in June Hit All-Time High
By JOSHUA MILLER
The number of army suicides hit an all-time high in June, with 32 servicemembers taking their own lives.
A startling 350-page U.S. Army report released last week was stark in its assessment of the growing tragedy: "Simply stated, we are often more dangerous to ourselves than the enemy."
"We have an army that's, for almost a decade, has been going very, very hard with our operational tempo," Army General Peter Chiarelli told Christiane Amanpour in an exclusive interview on 'This Week.' "[It has] our soldiers deployed for 12 months, home anywhere from 12 to 16 months, and back for another 12- or 15-month deployment."
Chiarelli, who commissioned the report, said there is not a direct connection between multiple deployments and increased risk of suicide. 60% of suicides are during the soldier's first term of enlistment, he told Amanpour. Even so, he emphasized that the growing strain on military leaders increased risky behavior in some soldiers and made monitoring at-risk soldiers harder.
read more here
This is why I get so angry and tired of hearing the leaders tell us they get it.
Mental Health Disorders Common in Returning Troops March 12, 2007
Researchers looked at more than 100,000 troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan treated at Veterans Affairs facilities between 2001 and 2005. They found that almost one-third suffered from a mental health problem.
September 28, 2007 the Joshua Omvig Suicide Prevention Bill passed in the House. Three years ago. Since then the numbers have gone up.
Is anyone asking why so many have to reach that point in the first place?
Each month we read about the numbers going up in the branches of the military and we read about the suffering of so many veterans but the leaders in the military keep saying they get it, they are doing something about it but what they don't answer is why nothing they've done so far has worked.
Sunday, August 8, 2010
Heroes' stories told in leaked Wiki documents
A TALE OF WAR
Heroes' stories told in leaked documents
By Edward Colimore
Inquirer Staff Writer
With public information about the battle still sketchy, Cynthia Woodard could only imagine how her son died last fall as hundreds of insurgents swarmed over his combat outpost in Afghanistan.
The Northeast Philadelphia woman had searched an Army report and found many pages blank or covered with dashes and garbled characters for privacy or security reasons.
Nothing adequately described the attack that claimed her son, Spec. Michael Scusa, 22, of Villas, Cape May County, and seven comrades on Oct. 3, 2009 - one of the deadliest days of America's longest war.
Then, last week, for the first time, Woodard read a running narrative of computer messages typed by U.S. soldiers that pulled back the curtain on the desperate battle.
" . . . we are taking casiltys," wrote one of the soldiers in a frantic call for help filled with misspellings.
read the rest here
Heroes stories told in leaked documents
linked from Stars & Stripes
Heroes' stories told in leaked documents
By Edward Colimore
Inquirer Staff Writer
With public information about the battle still sketchy, Cynthia Woodard could only imagine how her son died last fall as hundreds of insurgents swarmed over his combat outpost in Afghanistan.
The Northeast Philadelphia woman had searched an Army report and found many pages blank or covered with dashes and garbled characters for privacy or security reasons.
Nothing adequately described the attack that claimed her son, Spec. Michael Scusa, 22, of Villas, Cape May County, and seven comrades on Oct. 3, 2009 - one of the deadliest days of America's longest war.
Then, last week, for the first time, Woodard read a running narrative of computer messages typed by U.S. soldiers that pulled back the curtain on the desperate battle.
" . . . we are taking casiltys," wrote one of the soldiers in a frantic call for help filled with misspellings.
read the rest here
Heroes stories told in leaked documents
linked from Stars & Stripes
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