Seven Special Forces, Seven Silver Stars, for "just doing their jobs"

7 Special Forces soldiers to get Silver Star for Afghan valor
Post by: CNN Pentagon producer Larry Shaughnessy


It's been clear for months that the fighting in Afghanistan is more intense than it's been since the war there started nearly nine years ago. Yet, from the midst of those increasingly violent firefights come some amazing stories of heroism.

On Monday, seven soldiers will receive public recognition for their actions during a Silver Star ceremony at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

The medals - the third-highest award for valor in the Army - are being awarded for five separate battles over a span of more than two years.

Sgt. 1st Class Antonio Gonzalez and
Sgt. 1st Class Mark Roland
were part of Special Forces Operational Detachment Alpha (SFODA) 732.

Staff Sgt. Mario Pinilla and
Staff Sgt. Daniel Gould
also had Bronze Star medals to their name, and Gould had also received the Silver Star for past heroics. They were both serving with Special Operational Detachment Alpha 7134 near Kandahar Airfield in southern Afghanistan.

Master Sgt. Julio Bocanegra
An enemy unit ambushed Master Sgt. Julio Bocanegra's convoy on August 26, 2008. During the attack in Paktika province, Bocanegra noticed that a group of four Afghan national policemen were pinned down by the enemy, their pickup truck blocking the route for the rest of the unit. According to the Army, Bocanegra jumped out of his vehicle and ran through a hail of fire to reach the Afghan police, all but one of whom was wounded. The Army account spells out how he helped get them to safety.

Sgt. 1st Class Jonathan Clouse, an Army veteran, was working with a Marine special operations unit and was walking along a boulder-strewn path when one of his teammates was badly wounded. He immediately provided medical attention to that man. Then, according to the Army, another teammate was wounded.

"SFC Clouse ran through the kill zone to render further medical attention under head machine gun fire that struck the back of his body armor," according to the Army summary of the battle. The second man's life couldn't be saved.

Sgt. 1st Class David Nunez was in a convoy of U.S. Special Forces and Afghan national army soldiers traveling through the village of Shewan in Ferah province on May 29, 2008.

As many as 60 insurgents attacked the convoy, disabling Nunez's vehicle with a rocket-propelled grenade. The vehicle started burning, and Nunez was worried that other soldiers were still in the vehicle, according to the Army.

go here for the rest of what they did

7 Special Forces soldiers to get Silver Star

Veterans Airlift Command flying wounded Major to her niece's wedding

Nonprofit group flies hurt maj. to wedding

The Associated Press
Posted : Tuesday Aug 17, 2010 7:55:41 EDT

FORT BRAGG, N.C. — A nonprofit group of volunteer pilots will fly a wounded North Carolina-based major to her niece's wedding in Oklahoma.

Maj. Yvonne Heib will leave Fayetteville's Regional Airport on Tuesday and fly to Enid, Okla. The Army said in a news release that it will be the first time Heib has seen her family since she was wounded in Afghanistan in January. Heib is a nurse who was wounded in a mortar attack two days before her yearlong deployment was to end.

Veterans Airlift Command flies wounded service members, Iraq and Afghanistan veterans and their families to and from hospitals and events. Pilot Andre Bohy, who also is president of New York-based Omni Financial, will fly Heib to the wedding.
Nonprofit group flies hurt major to wedding

New normal life with PTSD

In my book For the Love of Jack, His War/My Battle (published 2002 Xlibris online for free at www.namguardianangel.com) I wrote about how living with PTSD is not hopeless and how we found our own kind of normal. There is nothing normal about living through traumatic events and even less normal about going into combat. We can more easily understand someone changing after surviving a crime or natural disaster, but we find it more difficult to understand veterans of combat having to deal with surviving traumatic events everyday. These men have come to terms with what makes them unique and are making peace with what is now normal for them. They are not ashamed of what they are going through and because of them, others will find the inspiration to seek help.

‘We don’t do normal no more, we do it our way now.’

Wounded warriors visit Telluride
By Kathrine Warren
Staff Reporter
Published: Tuesday, August 17, 2010 6:11 AM CDT
Post-traumatic stress disorder is something many have heard of but few understand. It’s the result of a physical or psychological injury, and it causes anxiety, depression, mood swings or personality changes to strike like lightning.

“There are different triggers to PTSD,” said Joe Perez, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran who was injured in Iraq in 2003. A bumpy car ride. A certain smell. The boom of fireworks. Anything can snap a person back to the time and place where they were injured or traumatized.

For Perez, it’s the smell of a broken water pipe.

“I don’t know why,” he said. “We don’t do normal no more, we do it our way now.”
read more here
Wounded warriors visit Telluride

Advocacy comes with a price tag

Advocacy comes with a price tag

Asking for donations is one of the least favorite things to do for advocates. It is not just that it is hard to ask people for money, but it is more the idea they have to do it at all. When you work as hard as an advocate does, it should be assumed by others they need financial support to keep going. But this does not happen.

I used to put in 70 hours a week on this blog alone, plus volunteer work with the emails and phone calls, training and meetings. Now I do about 40 hours and I can tell you it is getting harder and harder to justify doing that emotionally. I can't pay my own bills and no matter how many times I ask for donations that are tax deductible, no one pitches in to support the work I do. I have a free online book that hundreds of people have read and thanked me for but no one feels it is worth kicking in any money for. I used to travel a lot going wherever I was asked to go and paying the cost of it by myself. When I asked for the trip to be funded, the requests stopped coming in. I worked countless hours on making over 30 videos to provide a great understanding of what PTSD is and to support the troops, but few seem to find them of monetary value. Now while I am sure this is what God wants me to do, and I will keep doing it as long as I can, I wonder why I do more often than just knowing why I do it. The price to pay is just too high when I have to suffer emotionally and financially. When an advocate is not supported, they go away for this reason more than any other. It is not that the love or commitment ends, but they just can't carry the burden alone anymore.

I wanted to share that with you for a reason. I am one person and if I am going through this much hardship, I want you to think about the need for financial support a large organization has. They fight for others, reporting what is happening to them and coming up with solutions. They provide awareness to things few others know about but touch the lives of thousands of people. When it comes to advocates for veterans, often it is the only voice that can be heard for the sake of over 24 million veterans and their families. If their voice goes away because they cannot find financial support, who will fight for the veterans?

There are many fine groups out there fighting for veterans but they do not try to fight for all veterans. Veterans for Common Sense fights for the troops serving today and all of our veterans. The advocacy work of the entire group has managed to raise awareness on the suffering of millions, gaining media attention and thus, the attention of congress to create bills and come up with the funds to take care of veterans. They keep pushing and will keep pushing until this nation finally gets it right. The American public would have no clue what was happening if their voice was not heard.

Paul Sullivan has been a great champion in all of this. He has traveled across the country, been interviewed by news organizations and has been a voice for veterans. He is also a friend of mine. I don't know what I would do without his hard work on many of the issues you read about here all the time. What I often wonder is, what this nation would do if Veterans for Common Sense went away. We know that their work is important but what we don't think about is how they need support to do their work and yes, encouragement knowing their work is valued. While it is wonderful to say thank you to them, it does not pay their bills. Please read the following and then think of the work they do but don't stop there. Wonder what it would be like if they cannot find financial support to keep doing it.

Special Summer Message from VCS Executive Director

Dear VCS Supporter:

Thank you for working with us as we continue to win several important, new policy victories for our veterans. Together, we advocate for the needs of our veterans with Congress, VA, and reporters.

If you like what we're doing, then VCS asks you to please make a special one-time Summer 2010 donation of $50 today.

We need your help because next month Veterans for Common Sense, along with other advocates, will testify before Congress about how the military continues improperly discharging thousands of our service members -- in some cases our new Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans are losing vital VA benefits.

In the past month, here are two solid victories for our veterans - -

Government Relations:

* VCS succeeded in advocating on behalf of veterans to have VA's disability claim form shortened from 26 pages to 6 pages, a very important improvement for our veterans who suffer from TBI and/or PTSD.

* VCS successfully advocated for streamlining how VA processes PTSD benefit claims, making it easier and faster for our veterans to receive needed care and compensation.

Public Relations:

* VCS was interviewed live on CNN after President Barack Obama's Saturday morning radio and video broadcast about veterans and PTSD claims. VCS supports the President's strong anti-stigma message encouraging veterans who need care to seek help.

* VCS was interviewed by McClatchy News about the military's tragic and escalating suicide epidemic, a story VCS helped publicize for the past three years on CBS Evening News and on PBS News Hour. We continue pressing for more doctors and post-deployment exams so our veterans get prompt and high-quality care.

VCS Asks for Your Help:

VCS keeps the heat on VA to continue overhauling the agency so our veterans don't wait to see doctors or get disability benefits.

That's why VCS asks you to please make a special, one-time Summer 2010 donation of $50.


VCS is a 501(c)(3) non-profit formed by war veterans in 2002, and we focus on improving VA policies so our veterans receive prompt and high-quality medical care and disability benefits.

You've seen our advocacy in action - before Congress, working with VA, and raising veterans' needs in the press so Americans know about and support our veterans.

Please take the time and ask your friends assist VCS with a donation at our secure web site.

We are able do this because of your generous support !

Sincerely,

Paul SullivanExecutive Director
Veterans for Common Sense

Stand on higher ground about Ground Zero Mosque

Stand on higher ground about Ground Zero Mosque
by
Chaplain Kathie

The first thing to think about is the fact this is not a repeat of Saladin sending his men to take over Jerusalem, replacing the temple with a dome or is it about the Crusaders trying to stop him. This is not a holy war against Muslims. If you believe the "mosque" shouldn't be built at Ground Zero, then you don't know what this nation stands for any more than you know where Ground Zero is.

This "mosque" is not really a mosque they are planning to build. They are not taking over a sacred site but an old Burlington Coat factory building. It is supposed to be a cultural center, but even if it was a true mosque, that shouldn't matter either. At least not in this country.

If you value the Constitution, then you should not try to stop it or condemn it because if you do, then you better start to wonder about your own rights to worship as you see fit. If you value the troops, then you better start wondering what they are doing in Iraq and Afghanistan, because both missions have turned into protecting the people of both nations and trying to give them a better life. While they didn't start out that way, Saddam was captured and killed and then it became a mission of protecting the Iraqi people from sectarian violence. In Afghanistan, it became getting the Taliban out of power and setting up road map for the Afghans to have a better life. Our troops have shed their blood in both nations fighting side by side with Iraqis and Afghans but some here in this country are outraged over a Muslim cultural center blocks away from where the Twin Towers came down?

We found no problem paying and borrowing money for combat operations in both nations. We have thousands of wounded troops, thousands put into graves and countless thousands suffering from PTSD, more dying by their own hand because of combat and families destroyed. They have paid a tremendous price for the sake of these Muslims, yet talk show hosts fuel the fire of hatred, want to pick and choose whose religious freedom is worthy of being protected and what group can build where it wants.

If you value the troops and your own religious freedom then stop attacking both of them. Actually open your eyes and see clearly what this is all about. If our troops can die for their sake, why can't you show a little tolerance for them?

Oprah helps with funeral expenses for Hannibal soldier

Oprah helps with funeral expenses for Hannibal soldier

By BRENT ENGEL
Hannibal Courier-Post
Posted Aug 15, 2010 @ 03:40 PM
Hannibal, MO — A celebrity has made sure that a Hannibal family won’t have to worry about its humble hero’s funeral expenses.
A representative of “The Oprah Winfrey Show” contacted James O’Donnell Funeral Home shortly after the death of Sgt. Paul M. McAlister II and offered to pick up the unpaid expenses, which the family estimated at more than $3,000.
McAlister’s mother, Deborah Wilson, planned a letter of thanks to the multi-media star.
“I’m going to let her know how appreciative we are,” Wilson said Friday. “She took away a burden.”
Wilson and the rest of McAlister’s family also planned to publish in the Courier-Post a thank you to all in the Hannibal region who had expressed condolences.
McAlister, 37, died of natural causes on Aug. 2 at his Hannibal home. The service was held Aug. 6 at O’Donnell Funeral Home in Hannibal. Burial with full military rites was at Sunset Cemetery on the grounds of the Illinois Veterans Home in Quincy.
read more here
Oprah helps with funeral expenses for Hannibal soldier

US struggles with surge of returning veterans

When reporters heard the words coming out of the mouths of politicians, did they ever think to ask exactly what they meant by "support the troops" when they said it in speeches? Did reporters ever bother to read the transcripts from the speeches when some members of congress were saying they couldn't afford to increase the funding for the VA with "two wars to pay for" as if that was supposed to make any sense at all? Nope. They just let them get away with saying whatever they wanted to.

Five years ago on my other blog, Screaming in an Empty Room, I was screaming but no one heard me. Three years ago I started to scream even louder but no one heard me. All the work of putting together these stories in one place so that people could find out what a huge problem was going on as well as find someone going through the same thing, did very little good.

So here we have a great article about 5 pages long and really worth the read. This is the point I want to focus on right now so that nobody ever tries to minimize the crisis we are already in, how we got here but above all, does something before the tsunami hits!

Wounds of Iraq war: US struggles with surge of returning veterans
With combat operations set to end in Iraq, many veterans come home diagnosed with post traumatic stress syndrome and other maladies related to modern war. What's being done to help.

By Michael B. Farrell
Correspondent
August 16, 2010

"We were not only caught with our pants down, but we were dropping them farther," says David Segal, director of the Center for Research on Military Organization at the University of Maryland in College Park. But, he says, "under the best of situations you can't ramp up a military structure to meet the needs as fast as you need."


Critics say the military services and the VA didn't move fast enough to meet the growing needs of wounded warriors and disabled veterans. In fact, the VA underestimated by 77,000 the number of returning vets who would seek its services, according a 2006 Government Accountability Office report. Today, it faces a backlog of about 1 million benefit claims. Many wounded veterans complain that the system is cumbersome and antiquated. Even though it has made efforts to address the issues of today's vets, the VA is still struggling to adapt to the demand created by fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan – as Brian Fuqua knows all too well.

In september 2006, Mr. Fuqua, an Army paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne Division, was in Iraq battling an increasingly deadly insurgency. The war was grinding into its fourth year. The fighting was intense and frantic.

At one point in the hostilities, Fuqua found himself too close to a detonation set off by US forces to disarm an unexploded bomb. He lost consciousness and, like many others who suffer possible brain injuries on the battlefield, didn't seek immediate help.

"There really wasn't time to sit there and analyze that," he says. "It was more like, I had a job to do and I had to be on point – people are getting killed."

When he got back home to Roanoke, Va., however, Fuqua did have time to think about the experience. Maybe too much time. Doctors had diagnosed Fuqua with both PTSD and probable TBI.

At first, he sought help from the VA. But he soon became frustrated with the agency's slow pace and burdensome bureaucracy. Fuqua, a big man with tight-cropped hair and a quiet demeanor, says many of his fellow service members refuse even to go to a VA hospital.

"I had better luck Googling how to deal with PTSD than going to a specialist," he says over a cup of coffee at his apartment in Roanoke. "When you have this government you just fought for, and all of a sudden you have to fight them, it makes people go rogue."

Fuqua finally decided to handle the problem on his own, through self-medication and finding other ways to deal with daily life. For him, that means working out or keeping his mind focused on anything other than his time in Iraq.

go here for more

US struggles with surge of returning veterans

linked from http://icasualties.org/Iraq/index.aspx

The last combat troops left Iraq this morning.

Here are more stories to read
DAY 1: The soldiers
As U.S. combat troops exit Iraq, unresolved issues left behind in country facing uncertain future
Personal victories, personal sacrifices
Is Iraq worth fighting for?
DAY 2: The wounded
Back home, but still fighting
'I chose the right way, and no one rewarded me'

Mental health and spiritual health should not be either or none

Using Chaplains in the military to address PTSD is nothing new. As a matter of fact it's pretty ancient. There have always been religious leaders accompanying troops into battle no matter what generation or nation did the fighting. What is wrong about this? The fact that Chris Rodda addresses nothing more than copying the letter from Veterans for Common Sense, her choice of title shouts out something she does not address. The fact that Chaplains are needed to substitute for mental health professionals should have been the primary focus under a title like this. It is happening and has been happening because when the first troops were sent into Afghanistan and then into Iraq, the Bush administration was ignoring anything that had to do with taking care of the wounded. Mental health was the last thing on their minds.

I fully agree with Veterans for Common Sense and that Chaplains, no matter what faith they practice, should never, ever try to force their beliefs on anyone, especially men and women under their command. Chaplains have a higher rank than most of the men and women turning to them for help. In emotional crisis, it takes a lot of courage to go to talk to someone but it also requires hope that when they leave the person they turn to, they feel better instead of worse. Proselytizing instead of ministering removes the hope that they will feel better. They begin to think what they are going thru just doesn't matter unless they convert.

The troops are in trouble spiritually and mentally because no one thought about them when they were sent into combat any more than they thought to address the Army's report that repeated deployments increased the risk of PTSD by 50%. When the commanders made the decision to repeatedly send them back, they should have also deployed an Army of mental health crisis teams to take care of them, but they didn't. They took so little interest that men like Dr. Hasan, the accused Fort Hood shooter, was promoted up the chain and put in a position to take care of the mental health of troops he hated.

PTSD is a wound to the emotional part of the brain and as such, it is necessary to medically and spiritually treat it. Chaplains cannot be left out of this treatment but they should never have to replace mental health workers. Keep in mind that military Chaplains are also fully trained with Bachelors Degrees and part of their training is psychological.

While the proselytizing is bad and most Chaplains think it is their job, it is clearly wrong needing to be addressed but there is a bigger problem that is all too often overlooked.

When the condition is PTSD, the people treating it have to be fully educated on the difference between PTSD and other mental illness. PTSD is caused by an outside force and not an internal genetic mental illness. It is an anxiety disorder and only comes from surviving traumatic events. If they don't know anything about PTSD, it often resembles other mental health conditions. If they are looking for depression, it's there. If they are looking for "personality disorder" the symptoms are there but they need to know the difference between diagnosis of PTSD or any other illness. Chaplains unfortunately have been given very little training on PTSD. I've heard some admit they know nothing about it, yet they were supposed to be treating it when they were not trying to get troops to convert.

Muslim Chaplains treat Muslims or anyone interested in it. Hebrew/Jewish Chaplains treat that group. Christian Chaplains treat Christians or anyone interested in it but they are not supposed to be trying to convert someone outside their faith before they take care of them. There are not enough Chaplains to go around for any faith, so troops must turn to anyone available. This is where they line gets crossed. Someone who says they believe in God but does not practice as a member of any religious group still has spiritual needs that need to be taken care of and the Chaplains are supposed to be able to minister to them where they are spiritually.

I am a non-military Christian Chaplain but I have promised to take care of all people, no matter what faith or lack of it they have. It isn't up to me to decide these people should be converted to the Eastern Orthodox faith just because I am Greek Orthodox. It isn't up to me to decide anything other than how I can help them as a human.

Military Religious Freedom is a very valid protector when it comes to crossing the line of what the Constitution allows. Veterans for Common Sense are one of the bona fide heroes as watchdogs for the sake of the troops and veterans and their work needs to be taken seriously but it should never be taken so lightly that a headline like this ties to minimize the importance of this undertaking and the very real problem of not enough mental health workers or trained Chaplains to take care of the crisis of PTSD. Mental health and spiritual health should not be either or none because both have been proven to heal more deeply considering it is an emotional crisis after trauma and does not begin within the person. It attacks them!

The Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) has learned on numerous occasions over the past several years about blatantly sectarian Christian religious programs and Christian proselytizing in the military. The proselytizing is unconstitutional and we demand you issue an order to stop it now.

Chaplains and Religion Substituted for Professional Mental Health Care in the Military

Chris Rodda
Senior Research Director, Military Religious Freedom Foundation; author, "Liars For Jesus"
Posted: August 15, 2010

The following is a joint letter sent by the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) and Veterans for Common Sense (VCS) to Secretary of Defense Robert Gates. The military's practice of substituting religion for professional mental health care for PTSD and suicide prevention has become increasingly frequent, with alarming reports coming in to MRFF from active duty troops, and reports coming in to VCS from veterans who were subjected to this practice while on active duty and are now suffering the consequences of not getting the professional help they needed when they needed it.
read more here
Chaplains and Religion Substituted for Professional Mental Health

Note to the writer of this, it is not "now" and not "new" because the reports have been coming out for a very long time. This crisis has been getting worse because people with the power to do something about it wouldn't even bother to learn. As for the Chaplains in the military crossing the line, that is not new either. It was done in all wars but the Chaplains trying to do it were stopped.

Soldier's Family Erroneously Told He Died

Soldier's Family Erroneously Told He Died
Spat Among Relatives Blamed For Misinformation, Heartbreak Reporting
Jay Levine PARK FOREST, Ill. (CBS)
CBS
It was an agonizing 48 hours for a family from south suburban Park Forest. Told Tuesday morning that a loved one had died from injuries suffered in Afghanistan, they learned two days later he was still alive.

CBS 2 Chief Correspondent Jay Levine has the heart-wrenching story.

Was it a mistake or something more sinister?

Residents say it's fallout from a family feud. It led to a call to Sgt. 1st Class Edgar Roberts' father and word spreading to his family that he had passed away, when he was in fact, very much alive.

"I'm just in a state of shock because one minute he's doing so good and then he's going south, and it's like, what happened?" Roberts' half-sister, Robyn Anderson, said.

Roberts, a Thornton Township High School grad, was proud to serve -- first in the regular Army, now in the National Guard -- though a recent email to Robyn admitted he was lucky to be alive.
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Soldier's Family Erroneously Told He Died

Tennessee Marine dies in Afghanistan

Middle Tennessee Marine dies in Afghanistan
By Matt Lakin
Knoxville News Sentinel
Posted August 14, 2010

Daniel Greer spent his life in service - sometimes as a firefighter, sometimes as a Marine reservist.

He gave his life for that service a week ago. Greer, 25, of Ashland City, Tenn., died Aug. 8 in Afghanistan's Helmand province while serving with Knoxville's Delta Company of the 4th Engineer Battalion.

Greer grew up in nearby Pegram and spent most of his life there except for trips to Knoxville to drill with his unit, Ashland City Fire Chief Chuck Walker said.

"He was the typical all-American guy," Walker said. "He'd been volunteering as a firefighter since he was a teenager. His family always came first, but when he wasn't with them, he was at the fire hall or with the Marines. He loved taking care of people and serving his country."
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Middle Tennessee Marine dies in Afghanistan