Vets Tackle Transition Home

New Battlefield: Vets Tackle Transition Home
by Jeff St. Clair


August 23, 2010 from WKSU
In the military, 12 weeks of basic training can make someone a soldier. But it may take years, even decades, for many veterans to readjust to home life.

While much of the responsibility for guiding the transition falls to the Department of Veterans Affairs, community-based groups are playing a key role in helping veterans transition to civilian life. One such group, based in Ohio, is being held up as a national model.

A Warrior's Journey Home

Dustin Szarell was one of those veterans who needed help after coming home from Iraq. He tells of seeing comrades killed, and of killing in blind rage. He suffered a traumatic brain injury in an explosion, relearned how to walk and talk, and was returned to duty. When he came home to Ohio, Szarell faced a different set of challenges.

"I had such a frustrating time. You know, I finished my time in the military — six years ... and I was like, 'What am I going to do?' " he says.

Szarell married and soon divorced. He drank and struggled to find work.

Eventually the VA found him a room in a homeless veterans' shelter, where Szarell's transition began in earnest.
go here for more
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129325820

USO Helps Troops With PTSD Symptoms

USO Helps Troops With PTSD Symptoms
Daniel Novick-KFOX News Weekend Anchor/Reporter
Posted: 4:42 pm MDT August 20, 2010


EL PASO, Texas -- Soldiers and post traumatic stress disorder. It's a problem that has only gotten worse as troops have been at war for much of the last decade, and now some of those soldiers could be getting help from the USO.

The USO has a unique relationship with troops, as they see many of them everyday, but not for training, combat or other daily duties. Many soldiers and their families told KFOX they are an extended family for soldiers, providing an array of services.

USO officials said it's that unique relationship that has opened the door for USO staffers and volunteers to help troops deal with their PTSD.
read more here
http://www.kfoxtv.com/news/24706306/detail.html

MEDAL OF HONOR RECIPIENT YOU'VE SEEN, BUT NOT MET UNTIL NOW

He played Shenandoah on the harmonica his Mom sent and still does every time he talks about his time in Vietnam. He plays it when he talks about what he did and what he did not get to do with a humble voice filled with more regrets about those he was not able to save than about the lives he did. Sammy won my heart a couple of years ago when we met at the Nam Knights Eternal Chapter dedication in Orlando.

When Sammy was in Vietnam, his CO was made aware his men were not writing back home and their Moms were worried. The problem was, none of the men wanted to worry their Moms so they didn't want to write. The CO told them they had to write no matter what. If they didn't want to write about what was going on, then they should write about something pleasant, anything as long as they wrote home.

Sammy wrote letters about the weather and small talk nonsense that had nothing to do with what was going on. His Mom sent him a package. He thought it was goodies to eat and share but it turned out there was a harmonica wrapped up. She sent a note that since he was so bored there, it was something to fill up the time. His CO wanted him to play Shenandoah but Sammy tried to explain he didn't know how to play it. The CO ordered him to learn. He did. He played it every time they needed to be calmed and then he played it every time their hearts were heavy. It is what he played during this interview followed by a salute to the friends gone so long ago from this earth but not from his memory.
Chaplain Kathie


sent from email,,,,,,

I consider my self very fortunate to have known Sam Davis for 25 years.

He earned the medal six weeks before I began my second tour.

We met at a veteran's reunion in Kokomo, IN in Sept. 1985 and have a good deal of outreach together, traveling across several states in the ensuing years.

A kinder, humbler gentleman you will not find. This forward comes about because of the kindness of a brother Australian Vietnam veteran, Bob "Gibbo" Gibson.
Paul Sutton

From: Bob Gibson
Subject: MEDAL OF HONOR RECIPIENT YOU'VE SEEN, BUT NOT MET UNTIL NOW
To:
Date: Monday, August 23, 2010, 4:45 AM

Bob "Bomber" Gibson

Gold Coast AUSTRALIA.
Aussie Vietnam vet 1967-Oct 1968.
Infantry Rifleman D&E Platoon 1ATF.
VIETNAM.

Well im happy to say ive met Sammy in 1986 in chicago and we have stayed mates ever since, Sammy also come down under to help me with the national vietnam vets welcome home in sydney in 1987 he was such a big help to aussie vietnam vets during that time of Silence we all faced since our return from SVN.

Here you go mates think I told you all the story of "Forest Gump" the movie.
I will be linking up with Sammy again in Chicago next June 2011 for 25th
anniversary of Chicago welcome home Vietnam vets parade as i did way back in 86. We all went to Vietnam as boys come home as men,went to our first welcome home in Chicago as middle age men and return 25yrs later as old diggers ( Soldiers ) where has all the time gone.

Thousands strain Fort Hood's mental health system

It never feels good being right when it didn't stop anything. It's almost as if I saw flames coming out a window and screamed for the fire department to come but no one was around to hear me. I would have done what I could to have stopped the fire but the house still would have burnt to the ground. I feel that way now when it comes to Fort Hood. I warned there would be a bigger need for helping the Fort Hood soldiers because of the shooting there last year. Less than a year later, looks like I was right but considering the price paid because no one listened, it just makes me sick to my stomach that someone like me saw it coming but the "experts" being listened to, had no clue.

Thousands strain Fort Hood's mental health system
By Gregg Zoroya, USA TODAY
FORT HOOD, Texas — Nine months after an Army psychiatrist was charged with fatally shooting 13 soldiers and wounding 30, the nation's largest Army post can measure the toll of war in the more than 10,000 mental health evaluations, referrals or therapy sessions held every month.
About every fourth soldier here, where 48,000 troops and their families are based, has been in counseling during the past year, according to the service's medical statistics. And the number of soldiers seeking help for combat stress, substance abuse, broken marriages or other emotional problems keeps increasing.

A common refrain by the Army's vice chief of staff, Gen. Peter Chiarelli, is that far more soldiers suffer mental health issues than the Army anticipated. Nowhere is this more evident than at Fort Hood, where emotional problems among the soldiers threaten to overwhelm the system in place to help them.

Counselors are booked. The 12-bed inpatient psychiatric ward is full more often than not. Overflow patient-soldiers are sent to private local clinics that stay open for 10 hours a day, six days a week to meet the demand.

"We are full to the brim," says Col. Steve Braverman, commander of the Carl R. Darnall Army Medical Center on the post.

That doesn't even count those soldiers reluctant to seek care because they are ashamed to admit they need help or the hundreds who find therapy outside the Army medical system, Braverman and other medical officials say.

Officials worry the problems may worsen — for the military and the country.
read more here
Thousands strain Fort Hoods mental health system

Thursday, November 5, 2009

Aftermath of Fort Hood shootings may be worse
Aftermath of Fort Hood shootings may be worseAs the news reports kept coming out today about the carnage at Fort Hood, my greatest fears were not for today, but for the next few months ahead. No one is talking about "secondary stressors" and this needs to be addressed quickly.

There are crisis teams heading there according to the press briefing by Lt. Gen. Robert Cone. This is one of the best things they can do. I spent months taking this kind of training and it is very thorough. The issue that we need to be concerned about is when there are thousands of soldiers, combat soldiers with multiple tours, many of them are dealing with mild PTSD. Mild PTSD is not that hard to cope with. They live pretty normal lives while covering up the pain they have inside. Many even cope well the rest of their lives but many do not.

Like a ticking time bomb, PTSD rests waiting to strike if untreated. It waits for the next traumatic event and then mild PTSD turns into PTSD on steroids. These are the soldiers that will need the greatest help as soon as possible.

These bases are very well secured. That makes the soldiers and their families feel safe. Think about going into combat and then making it home alive where you are supposed to be safe. Then having this happen.

I was at Fort Hood in March. I had an auto rental and even though I had a military issued ID, that was not good enough at the guard house. I had to show my rental agreement every time I drove onto the base. Even if you have a Department of Defense sticker on your car, you still have to show your military ID. That makes them feel they are safe. Then away from harm, away from combat, they end up having to face something like this from not only one of their own, but a Major and a Doctor who is supposed to be there for them, trying to kill them.

Crisis teams will address the traumatic events of today, but the soldiers that have already been involved in traumatic events cutting into them will need far greater help than anyone is really prepared to deliver. This is my greatest fear for them.Then we have troops from Fort Hood and other bases deployed into Iraq and Afghanistan wondering who they can trust now after one of their own did something like this. None of this is good and the aftermath may be worse than this day itself.

Media keeps missing point after Fort Hood

Thursday, February 18, 2010

3 Fort Hood Soldiers committed suicide last month alone
There are more and you can search the blog looking up Fort Hood to find the rest but I bet you get the point. There are domestic violence reports, suicides, you name the aftermath and it's there.

Soldiers Punished for Refusing to Attend a Christian Rock Concert

There is nothing wrong with being a Christian. There is something very wrong with trying to force others to become one. There is nothing wrong with talking about the love of Christ. There is something wrong with trying to force someone to love Christ. There is nothing wrong with talking about your own faith, no matter which group you happen to belong to. There is something wrong with power being given to your denomination over others just as there is something wrong with the military doing any of this.

Maybe you're devoted like I am but thinking of what Christ means in your own life was not forced on you. You had the right to decide which church to attend. Christians come from many different denominations and each has their own set of rules as well as beliefs. If you read this story based on your own faith then look deeper and know this isn't about just being a Christian, but a member of the selected group of Christians above all others. This isn't about making a choice of your own freewill but being forced to conform. This nation was built on the foundation of religious freedom and was defended by the blood of those who serve in the military. If you find no problem with these things going on in the military then you are not supporting your own faith, your own country or the troops.

All faiths should be treated equally. If the majority of the troops are Christian, then there should be more spiritual avenues for them from every denomination. If there are Christian Rock concerts, great, but no one should be forced to attend. What if the soldier simply doesn't like rock music or the band at all? What if their upbringing was opposed to rock music? If a church forced you to go to a service, would you still want to belong to that church or would you feel so bitter toward it, you never returned? You may have had a wonderful spiritual church life but keep in mind that there are many who have not. If you were treated badly by a church would you want to be forced to attend anything having to do with that church?

Things in the military have gotten totally out of control and it should disgust every citizen in this country. Having a choice to retain one's own faith of their own freewill is a fundamental right in this country. If we allow this to go on in the military then what have we become?

I've said it many times that there needs to be more Chaplains in the military. A lot of the Chaplains serving now are appalled by what has been going on when evangelism and proselytizing has become more important that taking care of everyone honoring their own freewill. This is not a slam against Chaplains, especially when I am a civilian Chaplain, believing in the power of faith. Forcing anyone dishonors the faith, this country and our troops.

Soldiers Punished for Refusing to Attend a Christian Rock Concert
Posted by steved at 2:46 pm
August 22, 2010
This post first appeared on Booman Tribune.
There is so much that is just so wrong with this story I don’t know where to begin:
The Army said Friday it was investigating a claim that dozens of soldiers who refused to attend a Christian band’s concert at a Virginia military base were banished to their barracks and told to clean them up. [...]Pvt. Anthony Smith said he and other soldiers felt pressured to attend the May concert while stationed at the Newport News base, home of the Army’s Transportation Corps.

“My whole issue was I don’t need to be preached at,” Smith said in a phone interview from Phoenix, where he is stationed with the National Guard. “That’s not what I signed up for.” {…]

Smith, 21, was stationed in Virginia for nearly seven months for helicopter electrician training when the Christian rock group BarlowGirl played as part of the “Commanding General’s Spiritual Fitness Concerts.”

Smith said a staff sergeant told 200 men in their barracks they could either attend or remain in their barracks. Eighty to 100 decided not to attend, he said.

“Instead of being released to our personal time, we were locked down,” Smith said. “It seemed very much like a punishment.”


Banished for refusing to attend a Christian concert? What is happening to our military? When did it morph into you must be a Christian to serve or else? And what the hell does being a Christian, or following any other religion, have to do with being a soldier?
go here for more
Soldiers Punished for Refusing to Attend a Christian Rock Concert

A Love Story after PTSD

Match.com commercials never seem to have a part two. We get to see these happy couples finally finding someone to love but we don't get to see them after new love becomes normal. Normal relationships are filled with joys as well as heartaches. Someone dies, someone is born, someone loses a job, someone gets a promotion. There are times of plenty when there is extra money and times of lean when bills cannot be paid. It is not the joyous times that test a marriage under any circumstances but it is the hardships that either break or bond.

The rest of us spend our youth thinking about the type of person we want to spend the rest of our lives with. Some girls think of someone like their Dad or the total opposite of him depending on their own relationship with him. We think about someone strong, smart, funny, caring, passionate and will make us feel better about ourselves. What we don't think about is falling in love includes someone else's problems.

When relationships begin after combat, the civilian thinks of all the qualities the veteran has but they never seem to be able to think of the unique issues they bring into the relationship. When a relationship begins while they are active military, the hardships are right there to be looked at and considered. The spouse decides with all the information known. But when a relationship begins after, it's all unknown territory for them. Most have no clue what they're getting into. When the relationship becomes normal, they discover their idea of normal does not fit in with what they thought it was.

Today we see it all over the country as veterans come home and families, friends and lovers try to understand. It is a timeless story because I was new wife of a Vietnam vet 11 years after his trip back from Vietnam. Looking back over stories from all combat eras, there was always a family, always friends and always lovers these veterans returned to.

This is a story of a relationship begun after combat. It began after a veteran tried to kill himself but as with any good love story, the darkness of what Josh was carrying was not too great of a burden for Helen to carry. The qualities within him were stronger than the heartache she would have to bear. This story is about love and finding what normal really means when the veteran comes from the minority of combat veteran.

This is not a commercial or a movie. This is real life. Turn on talk radio shows or TV shows focused on relationships and one like this is not considered normal. Considering that we're talking about people surviving the rarity of combat operations, what is normal for their families seems hard to understand by the casual observer just trying to deal with their own lives without all the complications of combat. What is "abnormal" for the civilian population is normal to the minority of us.

Another great article from Lily Casura over at www.healingcombattrauma.com

August 23, 2010
Sometimes You Have to Choose to Love -- A Love Story after PTSD
by
Lily Casura

Into the dearth of "good news" about combat veterans with PTSD and their partners comes the remarkable love story of Josh and Helen, who met and fell in love AFTER his service, his suicide attempts, and his PTSD diagnosis. While PTSD can seem like the "third partner" in a relationship -- the ever-present elephant in the room -- in Josh and Helen's story, it's what brought them together, and love, wisdom and maturity is what keeps their union intact.

I had the pleasure of getting to spend a few days recently with Josh and Helen, and was impressed by both of them, and the sheer fun of their relationship, which can be too rare among partners where one has PTSD. I was struck by Helen's clear-eyed, open-hearted approach -- the education she sought about PTSD, as she was falling in love with Josh -- and the way in which she's really becoming a wise "spokesperson" for how love is possible after PTSD. For all the broken relationships out there, and all the partners barely enduring and tolerating one another, I felt like Josh and Helen's story needed to be told, so I asked Helen to tell it. Just as a point of reference, Josh served in the U.S. Army from 2002 to 2008. He was honorably discharged in 2008, and served in Iraq from 2005 to 2006.

Here is Helen's story:
Sometimes You Have to Choose to Love

Valley woman suffers from effects of Agent Orange

Valley woman suffers from effects of Agent Orange
By Susan Abram, Staff Writer
Posted: 08/21/2010

Before the cancer settled into her blood and stole parts of her stomach, spleen, and pancreas, the photographs and diary Lesli Moore Dahlke saved from her time in war-torn Vietnam symbolized only her Valley Girl innocence.

She was 18 then, a tall, blonde, blue-eyed beauty from Encino with high cheekbones and an easy smile.

Grieving the recent death of her father, comedian Del Moore, and touched by the televised images of young soldiers fighting an unpopular war, Dahlke volunteered for the USO's Handshaking Christmas Tour in 1970.

During the 18-day trip with legendary entertainer Johnny Grant and three other "handshake girls," she flew by helicopter over thick jungles from Saigon to Quang Tri, swooping in for morale-boosting visits with soldiers at field and evacuation hospitals and fire-support bases.

Carrying along a small, white leather diary, she wrote about what she saw and the young men she met:

"December 14th, 3:00. Went to 3rd Division Evacuation Hospital. Visited three wards and emergency area. The men were all very friendly and glad to see smiling faces from home. They were shy at first but were grateful to be remembered. They talked mostly about their hometowns and about going home.

"Everyone here is very warm but the sadness and loneliness in their eyes is heartbreaking."

She walked where the soldiers walked, breathed in their air, drank their water and bathed in their showers.
read more here
Valley woman suffers from effects of Agent Orange

TBI and PTSD are not new wounds

TBI and PTSD are not new wounds. Traumatic brain injury is a relatively new diagnosis only because researchers are studying the damage done in recent years but look back at the history of warfare and find this wound under the skin.

WWII hearing loss for example

Noise-Induced Hearing Loss and Tinnitus Associated with Military Service from World War II to the Present
Type: Consensus Study
Topics: Veterans Health
Boards: Medical Follow-Up Agency
Activity Description
A congressionally mandated study by the Institute of Medicine assessed noise-induced hearing loss and tinnitus associated with military service from World War II to the present, the effects of noise on hearing, and the availability of audiometric testing data for active duty personnel.

The expert committee was charged with providing recommendations to the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) on the assessment of noise-induced hearing loss and tinnitus associated with service in the Armed Forces.
The committee was asked to;

review staff-generated data on compliance with regulations regarding audiometric testing in the services at specific periods of time since World War II,
review and assess available data on hearing loss,
identify sources of potentially damaging noise during active duty,
determine levels of noise exposure necessary to cause hearing loss or tinnitus,
determine if the effects of noise exposure can be of delayed onset,
identify risk factors for noise-induced hearing loss, and
identify when hearing conservation measures were adequate to protect the hearing of service members.

http://www.iom.edu/Activities/Veterans/MilitaryHearingLoss.aspx

Hearing loss was not something that could be seen but it was there anyway.

It was not a matter of it not happening, but more a matter of no one doing anything about it.

It was the same story for PTSD and TBI

Shell Shock and Mild Traumatic Brain Injury: A Historical Review
Edgar Jones, Ph.D., D.Phil., Nicola T. Fear, D.Phil., and Simon Wessely, M.D.
Mild traumatic brain injury is now claimed to be the signature injury of the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts. During World War I, shell shock came to occupy a similar position of prominence, and postconcussional syndrome assumed some importance in World War II. In this article, the nature of shell shock, its clinical presentation, the military context, hypotheses of causation, and issues of management are explored to discover whether there are contemporary relevancies to the current issue of mild traumatic brain injury.

When shell shock was first postulated, it was assumed to be the product of a head injury or toxic exposure. However, subsequent clinical studies suggested that this view was too simplistic, and explanations soon oscillated between the strictly organic and the psychological as well as the behavioral. Despite a vigorous debate, physicians failed to identify or confirm characteristic distinctions. The experiences of the armed forces of both the United States and the United Kingdom during World Wars I and II led to two conclusions: that there were dangers in labeling anything as a unique "signature" injury and that disorders that cross any divide between physical and psychological require a nuanced view of their interpretation and treatment. These findings suggest that the hard-won lessons of shell shock continue to have relevance today.
http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/full/164/11/1641

By reporters taking the easy way out on doing stories like this, they have allowed the myth of PTSD and TBI to be viewed as something totally different than what humans exposed to combat situations have had to endure all along. Humans still have the same basic design as they have had since the beginning. The flesh still gets cut and burnt. Bones still break and limbs still get blown off. What is under the skin is still just as fragile as ever and the organ that controls the whole person, the human brain, is the same as it was all along. The difference between what we now know and what was thought of throughout history does not change the reality of being human.

Whenever PTSD and TBI are the topic of any report, it would benefit all of us if they would do their research and stop treating these as if they are just now happening to the veterans of today's military campaigns. That would be a helpful thing to do and get this nation past the notion this is anything new. It may all be news but it is far from new.

Soldiers' survival rates on rise, but so are challenges presented by brain injuries

12:00 AM CDT on Sunday, August 22, 2010
By DAVID TARRANT / The Dallas Morning News
dtarrant@dallasnews.com
Thanks to advances in combat gear and battlefield medicine, more troops survive injuries that would have killed them in previous wars.

This is good news, but it also presents some long-term challenges. The soldiers are "surviving, but with things like post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury," said Dr. Carol Tamminga, professor of psychiatry at UT Southwestern Medical Center.

Traumatic brain injury, or TBI, is caused by a blow or jolt to the head, or a penetrating head wound, that disrupts the function of the brain. Because of its prevalence, TBI has been called one of the "signature injuries" of today's wars, along with PTSD.

An estimated 19 percent of the 1.8 million troops who have served in Iraq or Afghanistan – about 342,000 – may have experienced a traumatic brain injury during deployment, according to Rand Corp., a California-based nonprofit research organization.
read more here
Challenges presented by brain injuries

We do have more surviving horrific wounds and this contributes to the rise in brain injuries, which in reality is what PTSD is. It does not come from within but begins with an outside force, the traumatic event itself. What we are seeing in terms of numbers is more a reflection of what is known now and the awareness of the afflicted as well as the numbers of wounded surviving what used to kill them. It also has to do with the repeated exposures to traumatic events during combat and the practice of redeploying troops increasing the risk of PTSD by 50%. They also have to have the notion of being wounded or killed added to what they already had to endure.

Take a survivor of a hurricane. Here in Florida we all remember the summer of 2004. Four hurricanes hit Florida. Charlie, Francis, Jeanne and Ivan. The first three hit Central Florida. It was also the summer we moved to Florida just outside of Orlando. Every summer we cringe remembering what happened that year. You'd think that with 6 years between then and now we'd be over it, but no matter how much time goes by, we still remember it. I couldn't imagine if Central Florida got hit over and over and over again every single summer. There would be the memory of other hurricanes piled onto the fear of the ones coming. It is this way for combat forces being sent back over and over again. It is not just the matter of what happened before but the fear of what can happen next that weighs heavily on their minds.

Before Afghanistan and Iraq they were not redeployed into combat unless it was their choice. Most had a year during Vietnam but some had more than one tour. Even with the years of the Vietnam war going on, the military was careful of how many tours someone would be safely expected to be able to do. What we see today is some on their 5th and 6th tour. These are not pleasant tours of duty but they are dangerous ones. This is something else reporters seem to not comprehend when they write about PTSD and TBI. It also supports the notion that somehow these new veterans are slackers when they seek help for PTSD and TBI, or as some have suggested, criminals making fraudulent claims for compensation, because they cannot explain the increase in the numbers seeking help.

For heaven's sake! Given all the facts, all the years of research, we should be more fearful of fewer seeking help when statistics indicate there should be more of them seeking help by now.

One tour of duty in Vietnam translated into over 500,000 with PTSD by 1978. This did not include veterans with TBI because the studies were not being done enough by then. It was not that there were only 500,000 cases, but only that many sought any kind of help. There were more and the problem is, there are still more without seeking help. Think of all the years they went without help to heal but because there was awareness, they begin to think it was possible to get better.

148,000 Vietnam Veterans Sought Help in 18 Months
In the past 18 months, 148,000 Vietnam veterans have gone to VA centers reporting symptoms of PTSD "30 years after the war," said Brig. Gen. Michael S. Tucker, deputy commanding general of the North Atlantic Regional Medical Command and Walter Reed Army Medical Center. He recently visited El Paso. 10/08/07

The wonderful thing is, it was not too late to help them but a lot of what could have been reversed had they been helped early on, had become permanent. This is the fear we should have today. Getting them help now will reduce the problems associated with PTSD in the long run but too many are getting false information leading them to prolong seeking help today. If you think the numbers are bad now, you have to consider how much work went into getting to this point as well as how many others are out there needing help but not getting it.

For kin, the Iraq mission isn’t over

US forces have been deployed into Pakistan to help flood survivors. They are in Afghanistan trying to stop the Taliban from regaining brutal control over the villages at the same time trying to find remaining members of Al Qaeda crisscrossing the two countries. They are also still in Iraq but no longer in combat roles. They still have work to be done there and as this piece points out, we should not forget about the remaining troops there. Given the fact we have pretty much forgotten about all the troops we have deployed, it is pretty doubtful we will think of any of them. More people in this country know more about Lindsay Lohan's couple of days in jail than they do about how many troops are deployed, where they are deployed, how many killed in action or how many wounded.


For kin, the Iraq mission isn’t over
As troops depart, work remains

By Brian MacQuarrie
Globe Staff

When the last US combat brigade from Iraq crossed into Kuwait this past week, that benchmark in a bloody, seven-year war was greeted with mixed reactions from veterans and military families who have ties to Massachusetts.

To some, the withdrawal is tangible proof of a job well done. To others, the 50,000 US troops left behind to provide training and security underscore the daunting perils that face Iraq’s fragile, fledgling democracy.

All agree, however, that much work remains to be done.

To Maura Kilbride, a Newton native whose husband, Bryan, recently deployed to Iraq for a fourth tour, the war has been measured in sleepless nights, the births of three children, and questions about whether the United States will ever be at peace.


Occasionally, Kilbride said, people are surprised to hear that her husband has returned to Iraq. They will ask, “Aren’t we done over there?’’ she said.

“Yes, the combat troops are gone, but my husband is over there,’’ Kilbride said. “I don’t want people to take their eye off the war. The war is not over. There are still troops over there who are still in harm’s way, and families here whose brothers, husbands, and sons are there.’’

Since Sept. 11, 2001, a total of 8,300 Army and Air National Guard members from Massachusetts have been deployed overseas, with the bulk of them dispatched to Iraq. Currently, 594 Massachusetts National Guard members are serving there.

read more here

For kin the Iraq mission isnt over

Frustration, pride in a year of danger in Afghanistan

Frustration, pride in a year of danger
This is the story of the 1st Battalion, 17th Infantry Regiment's year in Afghanistan, as soldiers struggled with their mission in the conservative Islamic region. The story reflects broader tensions within the U.S. military and among civilian leaders about the conduct of the war: how to balance battling the Taliban with winning the trust of Afghans.
By Hal Bernton

Seattle Times staff reporter

About the Strykers

The 1st Battalion, 17th Infantry Regiment, based at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, served in Afghanistan from July 2009 to July 2010. The 750-member battalion, under command of Lt. Col. Jonathan Neumann, was divided into smaller units that include Bravo, Charlie and Alpha companies. The battalion is part of an infantry brigade of about 3,700 soldiers built around eight-wheeled Stryker vehicles that can travel at more than 60 mph and have high-tech communications and considerable firepower.

1st Battalion casualties The battalion lost 22 soldiers in Afghanistan, and more than 65 were wounded.

On a late September afternoon last year, Capt. James Pope climbed a hill that offered a sweeping view of the Arghandab Valley. He gazed on thousands of acres of irrigated farm fields and orchards that faded into a dusty, mountain-ringed desert.

Pope, a North Carolinian with a reputation as a hard charger, commanded a company of soldiers from the Western Washington-based 1st Battalion, 17th Infantry Regiment.

He took a certain pride in pointing out the formidable size of his area of operations, which stretched some 15 miles through some of the most hostile terrain of southern Afghanistan, a place the Taliban claimed as a staging ground for its growing insurgency in Kandahar province.

Two months into the deployment, Pope had yet to visit all of the villages in his sector. But he knew where to find a fight: amid the orchards that offered thick cover for insurgents.

"See that green zone, where it's very thick," Pope said. "That's where the Taliban like to hide."

It was from these orchards two decades ago that Afghan mujahedeen fought off the Soviet army as it tried to secure southern Afghanistan.

Seattle Times reporter Hal Bernton spent two weeks in Afghanistan last fall with the 1st Battalion, 17th Infantry Regiment. This story is based on reporting during that period as well as interviews this summer with soldiers after their return to Joint Base Lewis-McChord. He can be reached at 206-464-2581 or hbernton@
seattletimes.com

read more here
Frustration pride in a year of danger