Ex-Marine who survived three tours in Iraq is slain while installing cable TV

Three tours in Iraq but this Marine was killed in his own home. How do we make sense out of this? How do we make sense out of what happened at Fort Hood? How do we make sense out of anything that happens to any of these men and women when they are supposed to be out of danger and safe back home?

Ex-Marine who survived three tours in Iraq is slain while installing cable TV in Victorville
November 10, 2009 4:23 pm
A former U.S. Marine who survived several tours of duty in Iraq and a knife attack at his Phelan home a few months ago was violently beaten to death with a hammer while installing cable at a Victorville home, authorities said. A relative of the homeowners has been arrested in the attack.

Trevor Neiman, 25, a Charter Communications Cable installer, was found beaten and bloody by San Bernardino County sheriff’s deputies who responded to the home shortly after 4:30 p.m. Monday.

While Neiman was working on the cable at the home in the 15200 block of San Jose Drive, a man attacked and repeatedly beat him with a small hammer, authorities said.


"He was doing a cable installation. There was no exchange of words. There was nothing that occurred before the unprovoked attack," said Jody Miller, a San Bernardino County sheriff’s spokeswoman.

Miller said witnesses told investigators there was no indication of what set off the attack. Paramedics rushed Neiman to Victor Valley Community Hospital, where he died of his injuries.

After the attack, investigators say, the suspect fled the home.
read more here
Ex-Marine who survived three tours in Iraq is slain

We can't. We can't make sense out of anything people do to them any more than we can make sense out of what they do not do for them. We manage pretty well at saying slogans like "support the troops" and tomorrow as the day we honor our veterans is supposed to be foremost in our thoughts and prayers, the truth is, for the vast majority of the people in this country, it will just be another day like any other. For them, it will be a day to remember friends they lost and some they gained. It will also be a day of remembering how they were transformed from being a citizen into being a member of the armed forces. A minority in this country soon forgotten after their uniforms are taken off and their weapons turned in. They return to their families and friends, neighbors, all the people they once thought they knew well, suddenly finding out they can no longer talk to them the same way they did before.

They became veterans and it is a title they will carry for the rest of their lives. The same lives they risked for the sake of everyone else in the country. They same lives they laid on the line. The same lives we were willing to sacrifice for our own freedom, our own needs and our own prosperity.

With WWII it was all about revenge for the most part for Pearl Harbor. Then it was about stopping the communists from taking over South Korea. We then decided their lives were worth risking to stop the communists from taking over Vietnam. Again we decided to send them for the sake of Kuwait just as we sent them into Somalia and other nations with lesser numbers. We sent them into Afghanistan for retaliation of the attacks on that clear September morning in 2001 and then we sent them into Iraq for reasons we are still not clear about but the fact remains, they are still in Afghanistan and Iraq, still risking their lives and still coming home to an absent nation.

Trevor Neiman, 25 served three tours but aside from his family and friends, we will not really remember his name. The list of those we honored and remembered from Fort Hood today will soon be forgotten just as the numbers of the wounded will fade from memory. We will focus on the trial to come remembering the name of the Major who betrayed his soldiers and slaughtered them while they were unarmed. They had no way of defending themselves and Hasan took full advantage of this. We however manage to betray them as well when we do not really value them. We do not take care of them and accept substandard care for the wounded. We do not honor them when we make no plans ahead of time to take care of their needs and then find even more excuses for why the problems they have to face go on. When they become homeless we blame them instead of ourselves for not taking care of them and making sure they can make a living to pay their bills. We don't make sure their families stop living in a bubble and open their eyes to what wounds they may not be able to see and God forbid we manage to make sure communities are ready for the National Guards coming back into the community in any kind of need.

Tomorrow I hope to focus on what is being done for them but above all, focus on them even more than usual. Tomorrow is Veterans day but for them it is everyday they are a veteran and we need to remember this. Keep in mind with two campaigns going on, PTSD all over the news, you'd think the rest of us would care enough to stay informed, but we don't. That's really sad.

Fort Hood day to remember, grieve and begin to heal

We've seen the images but they remember their smiles, the way they laughed, the way they shared what they had, the way they cared, above all, how much they were loved.

We've read snippets from their lives, but their families and friends were there all along.

General Casey said not to grieve for them but grieve with them. They were inviting us into their family today at the Fort Hood Memorial.

These men and women live and die for the public, but they want no publicity for themselves, but they do want publicity for their units and the whole family they serve with. When one of them falls, they hold a memorial much like the one we saw publicly today. They grieve and send the bodies of their friends back home, while they pick up their weapons and do their duties. They know if they do not more could die. While we can call in sick take a day off, coworkers may have to answer a few more phone calls but if they don't their co-workers could end up dying instead of them. Our jobs take care of business, but theirs' takes care of lives.

After what happened when so many were lost in this attack and so many wounded, we need to remember that this was their home. This is where they live, their families live and a place where there is supposed to be a calmness away from the chaos. Please hold them all in your prayers and the next time you read about one of them falling in Iraq or Afghanistan, understand that it is not just about the fallen but those they leave behind as well.

Fort Hood killings 'incomprehensible,' Obama says
November 10, 2009 4:23 p.m. EST


STORY HIGHLIGHTS
NEW: "Grieve with us; don't grieve for us," Army chief of staff says
Fact that soldiers died on base "makes the tragedy even more painful," Obama says
Troops, military brass, Congress members, Texas governor also attend memorial
Remains of one victim greeted by honor guard on return to Wisconsin

Fort Hood, Texas (CNN) -- The sound of taps echoed across the Texas plains Tuesday after President Obama pledged that the work of those killed in last week's Fort Hood massacre will go on despite their "incomprehensible" slayings.

Speaking to an estimated 15,000 people at a memorial service at the post, Obama vowed that justice will be done in the attack that left 13 dead and 42 wounded.

Though he told the families that "no words can fill the void that has been left," he added, "your loved ones endure through the life of our nation."

"Their life's work is our security and the freedom that we too often take for granted. Every evening that the sun sets on a tranquil town; every dawn that a flag is unfurled; every moment that an American enjoys life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness -- that is their legacy," the president said.

After his remarks, Obama and first lady Michelle Obama laid a presidential coin before each of the 13 battlefield crosses -- the helmet, boots and rifle representing each of those killed -- before family members and comrades filed past.
read more here
http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/11/10/fort.hood.memorial/index.html
Fire chief recalls 'shots fired' moment
First responder: 'It was game on'
Report: Hasan asked military to give Muslims an out
Toobin: Case jurisdiction unsettled
Missed clues sought in Fort Hood inquiry
Soldier did 'what I'm trained to do'
Fort Hood civilian loved work, family
Fort Hood investigators appeal for help
No evidence wounded hit by friendly fire
Slain soldier's family 'blindsided'
Family: Suspect's religion an issue
Motive still uncertain in Fort Hood shootings
From the eyes of an Army wife iReport
Inside Fort Hood center, where horror unfolded
Fort Hood victims Sons, a daughter, a mother-to-be

President Barack Obama speaks at the memorial service for the victims of the shootings on the Fort Hood Army post in Fort Hood, Tx. November 10, 2009. (Official White House Photo by Chuck Kennedy)

Text of President Obama's remarks at Fort Hood

From the White House press office
We come together filled with sorrow for the thirteen Americans that we have lost; with gratitude for the lives that they led; and with a determination to honor them through the work we carry on.

This is a time of war. And yet these Americans did not die on a foreign field of battle. They were killed here, on American soil, in the heart of this great American community. It is this fact that makes the tragedy even more painful and even more incomprehensible.

For those families who have lost a loved one, no words can fill the void that has been left. We knew these men and women as soldiers and caregivers. You knew them as mothers and fathers; sons and daughters; sisters and brothers.

But here is what you must also know: your loved ones endure through the life of our nation. Their memory will be honored in the places they lived and by the people they touched. Their life’s work is our security, and the freedom that we too often take for granted. Every evening that the sun sets on a tranquil town; every dawn that a flag is unfurled; every moment that an American enjoys life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness – that is their legacy.

Neither this country – nor the values that we were founded upon – could exist without men and women like these thirteen Americans. And that is why we must pay tribute to their stories.

Chief Warrant Officer Michael Cahill had served in the National Guard and worked as a physician’s assistant for decades. A husband and father of three, he was so committed to his patients that on the day he died, he was back at work just weeks after having a heart attack.

Major Libardo Eduardo Caraveo spoke little English when he came to America as a teenager. But he put himself through college, earned a PhD, and was helping combat units cope with the stress of deployment. He is survived by his wife, sons and step-daughters.

Staff Sergeant Justin DeCrow joined the Army right after high school, married his high school sweetheart, and had served as a light wheeled mechanic and Satellite Communications Operator. He was known as an optimist, a mentor, and a loving husband and father.

After retiring from the Army as a Major, John Gaffaney cared for society’s most vulnerable during two decades as a psychiatric nurse. He spent three years trying to return to active duty in this time of war, and he was preparing to deploy to Iraq as a Captain. He leaves behind a wife and son.

Specialist Frederick Greene was a Tennessean who wanted to join the Army for a long time, and did so in 2008 with the support of his family. As a combat engineer he was a natural leader, and he is survived by his wife and two daughters.

Specialist Jason Hunt was also recently married, with three children to care for. He joined the Army after high school. He did a tour in Iraq, and it was there that he re-enlisted for six more years on his 21st birthday so that he could continue to serve.

Staff Sergeant Amy Krueger was an athlete in high school, joined the Army shortly after 9/11, and had since returned home to speak to students about her experience. When her mother told her she couldn’t take on Osama bin Laden by herself, Amy replied: “Watch me.”

Private First Class Aaron Nemelka was an Eagle Scout who just recently signed up to do one of the most dangerous jobs in the service – diffuse bombs – so that he could help save lives. He was proudly carrying on a tradition of military service that runs deep within his family.

Private First Class Michael Pearson loved his family and loved his music, and his goal was to be a music teacher. He excelled at playing the guitar, and could create songs on the spot and show others how to play. He joined the military a year ago, and was preparing for his first deployment.

Captain Russell Seager worked as a nurse for the VA, helping veterans with Post-Traumatic Stress. He had great respect for the military, and signed up to serve so that he could help soldiers cope with the stress of combat and return to civilian life. He leaves behind a wife and son.

Private Francheska Velez, the daughter of a father from Colombia and a Puerto Rican mother, had recently served in Korea and in Iraq, and was pursuing a career in the Army. When she was killed, she was pregnant with her first child, and was excited about becoming a mother.

Lieutenant Colonel Juanita Warman was the daughter and granddaughter of Army veterans. She was a single mother who put herself through college and graduate school, and served as a nurse practitioner while raising her two daughters. She also left behind a loving husband.

Private First Class Kham Xiong came to America from Thailand as a small child. He was a husband and father who followed his brother into the military because his family had a strong history of service. He was preparing for his first deployment to Afghanistan.

These men and women came from all parts of the country. Some had long careers in the military. Some had signed up to serve in the shadow of 9/11. Some had known intense combat in Iraq and Afghanistan, and some cared for those did. Their lives speak to the strength, the dignity and the decency of those who serve, and that is how they will be remembered.

That same spirit is embodied in the community here at Fort Hood, and in the many wounded who are still recovering. In those terrible minutes during the attack, soldiers made makeshift tourniquets out of their clothes. They braved gunfire to reach the wounded, and ferried them to safety in the backs of cars and a pick-up truck.

One young soldier, Amber Bahr, was so intent on helping others that she did not realize for some time that she, herself, had been shot in the back. Two police officers – Mark Todd and Kim Munley – saved countless lives by risking their own. One medic – Francisco de la Serna – treated both Officer Munley and the gunman who shot her.

It may be hard to comprehend the twisted logic that led to this tragedy. But this much we do know – no faith justifies these murderous and craven acts; no just and loving God looks upon them with favor. And for what he has done, we know that the killer will be met with justice – in this world, and the next.

These are trying times for our country. In Afghanistan and Pakistan, the same extremists who killed nearly 3,000 Americans continue to endanger America, our allies, and innocent Afghans and Pakistanis. In Iraq, we are working to bring a war to a successful end, as there are still those who would deny the Iraqi people the future that Americans and Iraqis have sacrificed so much for.

As we face these challenges, the stories of those at Fort Hood reaffirm the core values that we are fighting for, and the strength that we must draw upon. Theirs are tales of American men and women answering an extraordinary call – the call to serve their comrades, their communities, and their country. In an age of selfishness, they embody responsibility. In an era of division, they call upon us to come together. In a time of cynicism, they remind us of who we are as Americans.

We are a nation that endures because of the courage of those who defend it. We saw that valor in those who braved bullets here at Fort Hood, just as surely as we see it in those who signed up knowing that they would serve in harm’s way.

We are a nation of laws whose commitment to justice is so enduring that we would treat a gunman and give him due process, just as surely as we will see that he pays for his crimes.

We are a nation that guarantees the freedom to worship as one chooses. And instead of claiming God for our side, we remember Lincoln’s words, and always pray to be on the side of God.

We are a nation that is dedicated to the proposition that all men and women are created equal. We live that truth within our military, and see it in the varied backgrounds of those we lay to rest today. We defend that truth at home and abroad, and we know that Americans will always be found on the side of liberty and equality. That is who we are as a people.

Tomorrow is Veterans Day. It is a chance to pause, and to pay tribute – for students to learn of the struggles that preceded them; for families to honor the service of parents and grandparents; for citizens to reflect upon the sacrifices that have been made in pursuit of a more perfect union.

For history is filled with heroes. You may remember the stories of a grandfather who marched across Europe; an uncle who fought in Vietnam; a sister who served in the Gulf. But as we honor the many generations who have served, I think all of us – every single American – must acknowledge that this generation has more than proved itself the equal of those who have come before.

We need not look to the past for greatness, because it is before our very eyes.

This generation of soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines and Coast Guardsmen have volunteered in a time of certain danger. They are part of the finest fighting force that the world has ever known. They have served tour after tour of duty in distant, different and difficult places. They have stood watch in blinding deserts and on snowy mountains. They have extended the opportunity of self-government to peoples that have suffered tyranny and war. They are man and woman; white, black, and brown; of all faiths and stations – all Americans, serving together to protect our people, while giving others half a world away the chance to lead a better life.

In today’s wars, there is not always a simple ceremony that signals our troops’ success – no surrender papers to be signed, or capital to be claimed. But the measure of their impact is no less great – in a world of threats that no know borders, it will be marked in the safety of our cities and towns, and the security and opportunity that is extended abroad. And it will serve as testimony to the character of those who serve, and the example that you set for America and for the world.

Here, at Fort Hood, we pay tribute to thirteen men and women who were not able to escape the horror of war, even in the comfort of home. Later today, at Fort Lewis, one community will gather to remember so many in one Stryker Brigade who have fallen in Afghanistan.

Long after they are laid to rest – when the fighting has finished, and our nation has endured; when today’s servicemen and women are veterans, and their children have grown – it will be said of this generation that they believed under the most trying of tests; that they persevered not just when it was easy, but when it was hard; and that they paid the price and bore the burden to secure this nation, and stood up for the values that live in the hearts of all free peoples.

So we say goodbye to those who now belong to eternity. We press ahead in pursuit of the peace that guided their service. May God bless the memory of those we lost. And may God bless the United States of America.

Stars and Stripes stories about the Fort Hood shooting
Stars and StripesEuropean edition, Tuesday, November 10, 2009, 2009
Fort Hood deals with aftermath of shooting as details of accused gunman emerge
After the shooting, combat instincts kicked in
Muslim groups quick to condemn shooting
Civilian police officer acted quickly to help subdue alleged gunman


This may be the most troubling article of all
Despite Army efforts, no catch-all test for troubled soldiers

Roughly 34,000 soldiers have been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. And the Army has 194 civilian, 121 military and 93 contract psychiatrists available to its population of more than half a million people, according to the surgeon general’s office. In the war zones, there are about 200 behavioral health specialists deployed in Iraq and just 30 in Afghanistan.

Trauma specialists are in high demand but the military will not open the doors to all of the trained trauma responders to fill in until more can be trained that have been acceptable to them. In other words, people like me need not apply. I only have over 27 years of doing this plus living with it, but the Chaplains I belong to, good enough for the police departments, fire departments and most walks of life, are not good enough for the military or the Veterans Administration. We're trained, certified and have to carry insurance. We act as chaplains wherever we are for whoever needs it. In my case, I act as a Chaplain reaching the entire country on this blog and my website, plus with the videos I make being used in more places than I can even remember.

The reason why I bring this up is, while the soldiers at Fort Hood put a public view of their grief, they fight a very private battle healing their wounds. Not just the wounds we can see but the ones it takes brain scans to see. They try to hide the need they have but their family and friends see the changes even if they do not know what those changes really signify.

The military and the VA need to bring in as many people as possible to take care of them and they need to stop waiting for the next crisis to strike. After what happened at Fort Hood last week, this is about to get a whole lot worse. Not just at Fort Hood but on all bases with soldiers wondering if they will ever really feel in a safe zone ever again. They don't have one in Iraq. They don't have one in Afghanistan. They thought they had one on Fort Hood, but now, now they don't even have that. If you think they have trauma related problems now the military can't handle, this will make it a lot worse.

Fort Hood suspect asked military to give Muslims an out

Report: Fort Hood suspect asked military to give Muslims an out
November 10, 2009 12:24 p.m. EST
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
NEW: Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan's presentation raised issue, Washington Post reports
NEW: Post: Let Muslims be conscientious objectors, he said
President, other dignitaries will attend memorial service
FBI says U.S. intelligence flagged shooting suspect's communications in late 2008
Fort Hood, Texas (CNN) -- The suspect in the Fort Hood shootings gave a presentation in 2007 saying the military should allow Muslim soldiers to opt out of fighting Muslim enemies, The Washington Post reported Tuesday.

Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, who allegedly killed 13 people and wounded 42 Thursday at Fort Hood Army post in Texas, delivered the presentation as part of his medical training at Walter Reed Army Medical Hospital in Washington, the Post reported.

"It's getting harder and harder for Muslims in the service to morally justify being in a military that seems constantly engaged against fellow Muslims," he said during the PowerPoint presentation before his supervisors and other mental health staff members, according to the paper.
read more here
http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/11/10/fort.hood.shooting/index.html

Don't stop with just praying, hear them and help them

Recently I was at an event with Christians taking care of homeless people. They were doing what Christ told them they should do. They did this without thinking someone would pay them back or do anything for them in return because they did it out of compassion.

There was a young father there. He came over to a group, telling them he didn't know what to do and was clearly very upset. He told how he had lost his job and had a sick infant at home with the threat of his electricity being shut off. A pastor came over to the group and asked him if he was a Christian. The young father said he was but had not been active as a Christian. The pastor then went into full battle mode to get him to accept Christ into his life, and after he did, the pastor walked away, leaving me stunned and the young father crushed. The pastor was not interested in hearing about his problems but above that, he did not offer a prayer for this young father's need or prayers for his sick child.

I offered a prayer for the father and the child which let this man know someone was at least listening to him.

The rest of the night, the homeless were fed, provided with personal care items and given some clothing along with prayers. These are very caring people giving up their time and their hearts to help others. The pastor had good intentions and maybe he believed that if this father accepted Christ back into his life, everything would be taken care of by Christ, but he lost the opportunity to show what Christ was all about. Christ didn't give someone a cloak when they needed food. He took care of the need as it was to show God's love. He taught those who followed Him to do the same.

When we pray to God, how do you expect God to answer your prayers? Do you think He just snaps His fingers and it's done? He answers our prayers by asking other people to fill them in many cases. Sometimes there are divine interventions where something just happens like healing without any medical reason for it but more often He is trying to get people with the ability to answer the prayers of someone to answer them.

We have veterans all across this country needing help and they need it from members of the clergy. From all denominations and all walks, they need them there to show God's love by listening to them but first they can only help them if they know what the problem is. How can a man or woman raised in faith in normal life never touched by trauma understand what combat does? How can they understand the aftermath if they do not understand the event itself? Our veterans need the help of the churches to heal but very few churches are getting involved. Talk to a National Guards soldier and you'll know how deep their pain is.

They need to know just as Christ came and walked with the poor and needy, what their lives are like in the first place before they can even hope to fulfill the need acting as Christ did, taking care of the need as they are in need and then, only then, really being able to draw people close to Christ and really feel Him as a part of their lives. Otherwise, they are not doing the job they said they would do.

I don't know if the pastor at the event knew what it was like to be under so much stress or not, but he needed to listen just as much as he needed to talk about Christ.

Young man found dead Saturday in Batavia was Iraq War veteran

Young man found dead Saturday in Batavia was Iraq War veteran

Posted by Howard Owens on November 10, 2009 - 7:19am

A young man who was found dead outside the Blockbuster store on Lewiston Road on Saturday night was being treated for PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) at the VA Medical Center in Batavia, according to an obituary published in the Albany Times-Union.

The obituary reports that James M. Maher, 27, died of injuries sustained in a fall.

The official cause of death remains under investigation. It has been categorized by Batavia Police as an "unattended death." No foul play is suspected.

Maher was an Iraq war veteran, having served an 11 month tour in Iraq with the U.S. Army 101st Armored Division, earning the Combat Infantry Badge and the Army Achievement Medal.
read more here
Iraq War Vet found dead

Media keeps missing point after Fort Hood

Lowry is close but he's missing the point too. It seems they all are. Major Hasan was trained by the military to address combat trauma for our troops. Keep that in mind. If he kept getting bad reviews for how he treated soldiers, what was he telling them? Did he even know anything about PTSD considering he was trained around the same time they were still kicking out soldiers for "personality disorders" instead of PTSD? Did he end up involved with any of the soldiers who ended up committing suicide or trying to end their own lives?

Secondary PTSD is real. It comes from living with PTSD veterans and even civilian survivors of traumatic events. It can come from the stress of trying to help them too, but if the responders are trained properly, they understand what PTSD is, where it comes from, what their own symptoms are and usually they know what to do to help themselves heal. (I know because I've been there too many times when I end up with nightmares, depression and burn out under stress.) If they are trained they also end up with an arsenal to protect themselves and distance themselves from what they hear. If Hasan does in fact have secondary PTSD, then why didn't anyone see it and treat him for it? He was in mental health for heaven's sake and surrounded by people who were supposed to know how to spot it. Somehow I doubt they could be so inept they wouldn't have a clue this man was not in any kind of right mind to be treating soldiers if this was the case.

The other issue is why was Hasan being deployed if they were already really concerned about his performance? What were they thinking?

Fort Hood: The PTSD Evasion
By Syndicated columns
November 10, 2009, 6:08AM
By Rich Lowry

Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the Army psychiatrist who killed 13 of his fellow soldiers in a rampage at Fort Hood, is a most unlikely victim of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).



Rich Lowry He never experienced any combat-related trauma. He had never even been deployed overseas. Yet, he had barely stopped shooting his victims in cold blood, chasing the wounded to finish them off, when the media rushed to their copy of the “Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.”

The New York Times headlined an analysis piece on the incident, “When Soldiers Snap.” It reported that in World War II, military doctors believed “that more than 90 days of continuous combat could turn any soldier into a psychiatric causality.” With Hasan, the paper stipulated, “that point may have come even before he experienced the reality of war.”

Time magazine blamed the stressful environment of Fort Hood, where frequent deployments meant “the kindling was hiding in plain sight.” The Washington Post ran a piece on Walter Reed Army Medical Center, where Hasan had served, as indicative of “the ongoing tensions, frustrations and problems in the military health-care system for (returning) troops.”

The press keeps mistaking Hasan for Private Ryan, when the closest he’d come to combat was counseling sessions with soldiers. Another New York Times piece raised the possibility that Hasan might have acquired PTSD from the very act of treating those patients -- “in contact distress, of a kind.”

The obsession with PTSD serves two purposes. First, it fits the media’s favorite narrative of soldiers as victims. Here was poor Hasan, brought low like so many others by the unbearable burden of Iraq and Afghanistan. Never mind that PTSD usually results in sleeplessness, flashbacks and -- in the extreme -- suicide. Hasan is the first victim of PTSD known to jump on a table and allegedly yell “Allahu Akbar” while slaughtering his fellow troops.
read more here
http://www.oregonlive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2009/11/fort_hood_the_ptsd_evasion.html

Two VA employees slain, one wounded during shooting at Fort Hood

VA Suffers Losses and Offers Help at Ft. Hood

Two VA Employees Slain, One Wounded during Shooting

WASHINGTON (Nov. 10, 2009) -- In the midst of providing mental health
services and other support to the Ft. Hood community following the
recent shooting, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) learned about
its own losses from the violence. Two VA employees, both serving on
active duty with their Army Reserve units, were among the slain. A
third VA health care worker on reserve duty was seriously wounded.



"Speaking for the entire VA family, I offer heart-felt condolences to
the families of these dedicated VA employees," said Secretary of
Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki. "They devoted their working lives to
care for our Veterans, and they died in uniform, preparing to safeguard
our Nation's freedom."



Russell G. Seager, Ph.D., a 51-year old nurse practitioner at the
Clement J. Zablocki VA Medical Center in Milwaukee was killed in the
deadly attack. He was a captain in the reserves. In his VA duties, he
led a mental health team treating a wide variety of Veteran patients,
from the youngest combat Veterans just back from deployments to Iraq and
Afghanistan, to World War II Veterans dealing with depression.



Seager signed up for the Army Reserve four years ago. This would have
been his first overseas deployment. Seager was motivated to prevent the
mental health problems of young combat soldiers from occurring in the
first place. He was to be assigned to a Combat Stress Control unit to
watch for warning signs, such as anger and insubordination, among
front-line soldiers.



Seager, who was also a well-respected teacher at Bryant and Stratton
College in Milwaukee, leaves behind a wife and son.



VA's other fatality was Juanita L. Warman, 55, a nurse practitioner at
VA's medical center in Perry Point, Md. She was a lieutenant colonel in
the Maryland National Guard, with two daughters and six grandchildren.
Herself the daughter of a career Air Force member, she held a masters
degree from the University of Pittsburgh.



Warman volunteered for "Beyond the Yellow Ribbon," a program to help
members of the Maryland National Guard readjust after returning from
overseas deployments. She provided mental health counseling and helped
develop a program about the myths and realities of post-traumatic stress
disorder. She was preparing for deployment to Iraq at the time of her
death.



Dorothy Carskadon, 47, a captain in the reserves and a social worker and
team leader at the VA Vet Center in Madison, Wis., was wounded in the
gunfire that brought Ft. Hood activities to a halt. She is currently in
stable condition in the intensive care unit at the Darnall Army Medical
Center at Ft. Hood.



As a VA team leader, Carskadon oversees other social workers in
providing individual and group counseling for combat Veterans
experiencing difficulty readjusting to the civilian community following
military service. A new Army officer, Carskadon was preparing for her
first deployment.



On an average day, more than 850 VA employees don uniforms to serve
military commitments in Reserve and National Guard units across the
country and overseas.



VA has been responding to the Ft. Hood tragedy since shortly after the
sound of gunfire was replaced by the sirens of emergency responders.



Through official agreements and the shared sense of mission to care for
military members and Veterans in the central Texas region, VA has
provided clinical supplies, including pharmaceuticals, and sent mental
health teams from nearby facilities as well as four fully staffed,
portable Vet Centers to aid in counseling military members and families.




Teams of physicians, nurses and other clinical and support personnel
were placed on stand-by for possible deployment to Ft. Hood or to
receive additional patients following the shooting.



VA operates several clinical and benefits processing locations on Ft.
Hood and routinely has about 18 employees working on the post. Initial
actions included confirming the safety and security of those employees.



VA continues to coordinate with the Department of Defense on providing
care and support to all those affected by the tragedy.

Lt. Col. Juanita Warman killed at Fort Hood wanted to help female soldiers

FORT HOOD SHOOTINGS

Trauma expert wanted to help female soldiers
Highest-ranking person killed in shootings, Lt. Col. Juanita Warman, had husband, two daughters and six grandchildren.
By Patrick George

AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF


Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Editor's Note: Lt. Col. Juanita Warman was one of 13 people killed Thursday at Fort Hood.

Just a day after Lt. Col. Juanita Warman arrived at Fort Hood, the shooting started.

Warman had arrived in Texas to be processed for her deployment to Iraq at the end of the month. On Thursday, she was at the post's Soldier Readiness Processing Center when a gunman entered and began firing, killing her and a dozen others. She was 55.

Warman is survived by a husband, two daughters and six grandchildren.

"I kept thinking, 'She can't be in the processing center,' " her husband, Philip Warman, told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. "She had just gotten there; she had more training to undergo. She was not due to leave until the end of November. The base hot line didn't have her on the initial list of casualties."

But a half-hour later, two soldiers arrived in dress uniforms, and Warman immediately knew she had been killed, he told the paper.
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Trauma expert wanted to help female soldiers

Decorated Army Ranger became chaplain to fight differently

A Major and a Chaplain, Jeff Struecker went from fighting as a warrior, taking that experience and fighting a different way to save the lives of others.

Face of Defense: Chaplain Helps Others Fight Stress
By News Editor • on November 9, 2009

By Samantha L. Quigley
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, Nov. 9, 2009 – Readers of Mark Bowden’s “Black Hawk Down” can put the book aside when they’ve had enough of their mind’s reaction of the brutal 1993 battle of Mogadishu, Somalia.

But Chaplain (Maj.) Jeff Struecker isn’t that lucky. The decorated Army Ranger was charged with leading the ground assault force on all the targets that the task force hit in Somalia.

“I had been shot at and seen many dead warriors [before Mogadishu],” Struecker said. “I never experienced anything like the violence and the overwhelming sense of desperation like I experienced in Somalia. After losing one of my men and having many others wounded around me, I found a great sense of peace and courage through my faith.”

Struecker, who also deployed to Operation Just Cause in Panama in 1989 and Operation Desert Storm in the Middle East in 1991, went back and forth into Mogadishu three times during the main firefight.

His experience in the Somalian capital was a turning point for the soldier who’s currently deployed to Afghanistan with the 75th Ranger Regimental Special Troops Battalion.

“My wife, Dawn, and I had a great relationship before Somalia, but after the operation we both understood just how fragile human life is and how valuable our relationship is,” he said. “Somalia helped me put my priorities in order.”

It also led him to consider pursuing a different aspect of his military career.

“After the big firefight was over, I had many men that I work with asking me questions about matters of faith and how to deal with the trauma of an event like this,” Struecker said. “It was this experience — talking with my friends about combat stress and faith in Jesus Christ after the big firefight — that caused me to start thinking about becoming an Army chaplain.”

Since 2001, every time Struecker has deployed, it’s been as a chaplain, drawing on the combat experiences he’s had during his 22-year military career to help servicemembers dealing with the traumatic stress they may be feeling.
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Chaplain Helps Others Fight Stress

N.J. flags to fly at half-staff to honor those killed in Fort Hood shooting

AP Photo/Paul Sakuma
Soldiers from Fort Hood fold an American flag inside Fort Hood in Killeen, Texas today in preparation for President Obama's planned visit on Tuesday. Flags will fly at half-staff in New Jersey on Tuesday.

N.J. flags to fly at half-staff to honor those killed in Fort Hood shooting
By The Star-Ledger Continuous News Desk
November 09, 2009, 3:38PM
TRENTON — Flags in New Jersey will fly at half-staff on Tuesday to honor those killed in last week's shooting rampage at Fort Hood, Texas.

Acting Gov. Richard J. Codey signed an executive order today directing that United States and New Jersey flags be lowered in recognition of the lives lost.

Thirteen people were killed and 29 wounded, including Alan Carroll, a 20-year-old soldier from Bridgewater, in the shooting on Thursday.

Carroll, who was shot in the bicep, tricep and side during the rampage, was reported to be making a steady recovery.
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http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2009/11/nj_flags_to_fly_at_half-staff.html

Army Therapists Stretched Too Thin? Obviously!

They say they want to reduce the stigma of PTSD but they won't say they will change the way they hire and train people to treat PTSD the way the rest of the country is, by heading most of it off as soon as possible. They tell you that you have to be a certain age and have to enlist with two military operations going on, eliminating probably thousands of experts on PTSD. Even becoming a chaplain is close to impossible when they will not open doors to chaplains who are good enough for police and firefighters, but just not good enough to help fill the gaps to save the lives of the troops while they finally get up to speed on all of this. So much for planing. Reducing the stigma would have happened if they had put some of their focus on this a long time ago and removed any roadblocks standing in the way of them getting the care they needed as soon as they needed it.

Army Therapists Stretched Too Thin?
Military Hopes to Take Away Stigma of Seeking Therapy
By Don Teague


(CBS) Their mission was to help soldiers deal with the stress of war on the battlefield. Instead, they were attacked at home. Three Army therapists were killed, and six other members of a combat stress control team were wounded in last week's rampage on fort hood.

They were preparing to deploy to Afghanistan. The team's critical mission is on hold for now.

"We're taking a hard look and making sure they have every thing they need and again they may be delayed in regard to additional personnel being brought in," said Lt. Gen. Robert Cone.

Special Section: Tragedy at Fort Hood

Eight years of war has taken its toll across the military. Some 300,000 service members, almost one out of every five who have returned from Iraq and Afghanistan, report symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Corporal Nathan Hewitt, an Iraq war veteran who was wounded in last week's attack, says his commanders encourage returning veterans to get help.

"They tell us soldiers all the time you know if you have problems like this, go see the psychiatrist, or go get some mental health," he said.

But experts say finding enough qualified counselors is a challenge. "It's the face to face counseling that's so important for preventing and treating PTSD," said former Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs Dr. S. Ward Casscells.

The Army has just over 400 psychiatrists to treat nearly 550,000 active duty soldiers.
read more here
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/11/09/eveningnews/main5593039.shtml

Did the military's own negligence contribute to the slayings?

While I don't think it was all the fault of the military, it is easy to say that what they did not do added to all of this. Just think about knowing repeat deployments incresed the risk of PTSD but no one seemed to be bothered by this fact at all even though this report came from the Army. Think of the lack of programs proven to work instead of as one provider told me, "better than nothing" when it came to addressing the never ending stress on these men and women. Then remember how they saw over 22,000 needing mental health care, asking for it, but being kicked out of the military with dishonorable discharges, leaving them unable to get any help at all or any benefits. If you think that did not make things worse for the attitude of the troops, you may be of like mind with military leaders and part of the problem as well.

The Fort Carson Murder Spree
Soldiers returning from Iraq have been charged in at least 11 murders at America's third-largest Army base. Did the military's own negligence contribute to the slayings?
L. CHRISTOPHER SMITH
Posted Nov 06, 2009 9:58 AM

It was just after closing time on Saturday night when the four soldiers staggered out of the Rum Bay nightclub ("Southern Colorado's largest supply of rum!"), piled into a gray Audi A4 and lit a blunt. Since they had returned from fighting in Iraq, where they had seen some of the bloodiest action of the war, nights like this had become common. There are more than 50 bars in downtown Colorado Springs, and on some nights thousands of people, many of them troops from nearby Fort Carson, pour out onto the streets after last call, looking for trouble. Rum Bay was one of the worst dives in town: Infamous for brawls involving drunken soldiers, locals called it "Fight Club." That night, the bar offered a special dispensed by shooter girls in denim cutoffs, who carried trays filled with test tubes of vodka mixed with apple schnapps. "We drank an ungodly amount," one of the men, Kenneth Eastridge, later recalled. "Like, hundreds of shots."

Eastridge and the others were members of the same Army unit, and they had all served together in Baghdad during the most volatile phase of the war. A 24-year-old specialist known as a "crazy bastard with no remorse," Eastridge had been court-martialed for stockpiling 463 pills of Valium in his barracks. Two of his buddies from Charlie Company carried equally sketchy reputations: Bruce Bastien, a 21-year-old medic who had been arrested for beating his wife while on leave, and Louis Bressler, a 24-year-old private who "started acting like King Kong," in the words of a fellow soldier, after being diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. Tucked beneath the driver's seat of the Audi was a .38 revolver registered to Bressler's wife.
read more here
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/30794989/the_fort_carson_murder_spree/

Scanning invisible damage of PTSD, brain blasts

Whenever you hear anyone complain about money being spent taking care of our veterans, remind them of something. Anything done for them is done for the benefit of the rest of us as well.

What scientist study, really study with new technology not available when PTSD research first began, will end up helping all civilians in their own lives.

If you doubt this then think about what happens when traumatic events strike. Crisis teams arrive to be able to address these horrific events right after they happen so that no one has to walk away with no one to talk to. We have to face the fact that trauma survivors will return to family and friends with absolutely no understanding of this and unable to help. Worse, they may make things worse because of what they do not know. Trauma is abnormal but their reactions to it is what normal humans do.

The only objection we should have when it comes to doing this type of research is when they repeat studies they've already done over the years. This type of study is new and this technology is vital to addressing the "realness" of PTSD and TBI.

Scanning invisible damage of PTSD, brain blasts
By LAURAN NEERGAARD (AP) – 1 hour ago

WASHINGTON — Powerful scans are letting doctors watch just how the brain changes in veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder and concussion-like brain injuries — signature damage of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

It's work that one day may allow far easier diagnosis for patients — civilian or military — who today struggle to get help for these largely invisible disorders. For now it brings a powerful message: Problems too often shrugged off as "just in your head" in fact do have physical signs, now that scientists are learning where and how to look for them.

"There's something different in your brain," explains Dr. Jasmeet Pannu Hayes of Boston University, who is helping to lead that research at the Veterans Affairs' National Center for PTSD. "Just putting a real physical marker there, saying that this is a real thing," encourages more people to seek care.

Up to one in five U.S. veterans from the long-running combat in Iraq and Afghanistan is thought to have symptoms of PTSD. An equal number are believed to have suffered traumatic brain injuries, or TBIs — most that don't involve open wounds but hidden damage caused by explosion's pressure wave.

Many of those TBIs are considered similar to a concussion, but because symptoms may not be apparent immediately, many soldiers are exposed multiple times, despite evidence from the sports world that damage can add up, especially if there's little time between assaults.

"My brain has been rattled," is how a recently retired Marine whom Hayes identifies only as Sgt. N described the 50 to 60 explosions he estimates he felt while part of an ordnance disposal unit.

Hayes studied the man in a new way, tracking how water flows through tiny, celery stalk-like nerve fibers in his brain — and found otherwise undetectable evidence that those fibers were damaged in a brain region that explained his memory problems and confusion.

Her lab performed MRI scans while patients either tried to suppress their negative memories, or followed PTSD therapy and changed how they thought about their trauma. That fear-processing region quickly cooled down when people followed the PTSD therapy.

It's work that has implications far beyond the military: About a quarter of a million Americans will develop PTSD at some point in their lives. Anyone can develop it after a terrifying experience, from a car accident or hurricane to rape or child abuse.

read more here

Scanning invisible damage of PTSD, brain blasts

Reservist Arkansas Army National Guard Capt. John Vanlandingham Earns Silver Star in Iraqi Save

Reservist Earns Silver Star in Iraqi Save
November 06, 2009
Stephens Mediaby Lewis Delavan
Bullets, grenades, shrapnel and smoke seared the desert. Danger lurked where reed-lined ditches hid ambushers on the narrow, isolated dirt road.

"You couldn't see anything from the dust and the smoke as we moved through the explosive area," Capt. John Vanlandingham recalls. "I saw a black object coming through the air over the reeds. It landed about five feet from me in a tire rut. Luckily, it rolled away. I dove down by a wounded soldier and the grenade blew."

It was Nov. 14, 2004, and the insurgency was rocking the Sunni Triangle. Leader of a 10-vehicle convoy that came under attack, the 37-year-old Arkansas Army National Guard captain from tiny New Blaine, 97 miles northwest of Little Rock, refused to leave behind the Iraqis he had trained to become guardsmen.

Twenty miles short of safety at Camp Taji, north of Baghdad, blasts from improvised explosive devices (IEDs) ripped motors, trucks and human bodies during the enemy attack.

One explosion pitched 25 Iraqis from an unarmed troop carrier into a ditch. Three dead and others wounded. None, however, would be left behind.

Smoke hid the carnage. Some 200 yards toward safety, Vanlandingham realized one Iraqi vehicle was missing. He told his sergeant to reverse the Humvee and ordered a Mark-19 grenade launcher to cover one roadside, two 50-caliber machine guns to cover the other.

Vanlandingham then ran into the kill zone.
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Reservist Earns Silver Star in Iraqi Save

Ft. Hood is site of stress experiment

Sounds great. Sounds like what I've been "preaching" and screaming about for years. Still you know the saying "If it sounds too good to be true, it probably isn't." I really hope I'm wrong.

The problem is not that taking care of the mind-body and spirit is wrong, because it is the best way to treat PTSD. Taking care of the whole person including their family has shown what can be accomplished with treating PTSD. The problem is if they go about it in the wrong way. Without fully understanding what PTSD is and does, they can do more harm than good.

There are many people working on PTSD in the military and they know a lot more than the "experts" coming up with some of these programs. It would be great if the planners would talk to them and get their input since they not only treat the soldiers, they live near them. Some even have PTSD in their own families with aging Vietnam veteran parents. What some experts lack is life knowledge and this has been made clear when the military has come out with programs in the past trying make the troops more "resilient" as if they can prevent PTSD instead of healing PTSD.

This program leaves a lot of questions just as the "experts" should have been addressing in the past. With the increase of suicides as well as attempted suicides, warning bells should have been heard loud and clear to make them understand for the most part, they are going about addressing PTSD the wrong way.

Again, I really hope I'm wrong but I've been hoping I've been wrong for a very long time only to sadly proven right.

Ft. Hood is site of stress experiment
Training soldiers how to deal with stress
Updated: Monday, 09 Nov 2009, 9:31 AM EST
Published : Monday, 09 Nov 2009, 6:49 AM EST

Kate Weidaw
FORT HOOD, Texas (KXAN) - The man accused in the deadly shooting at Fort Hood, Major Hasan treated soldiers dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder.

The Army was also experimenting with a new program at Fort Hood to try and help soldiers learn new coping skills before they were deployed.

In September, the Army launched what they called a Resiliency Campus at Fort Hood as an experiment to see if giving soldiers skills to deal with post-traumatic stress before leaving would help them once they come back home.

Military leaders acknowledge there are serious psychiatric problems in their midst.

According to the Army, the suicide rate among soldiers in Iraq is five times that seen in the Persian Gulf War and 11 percent higher than during Vietnam.

These resiliency camps train soldiers, family members and civilians on post ways to increase their fitness in mind, body and spirit.
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Ft. Hood is site of stress experiment

Orlando shooting "It's all about the healing"

Orlando shooting: 'It's all about the healing,' CEO says as grief counselors get busy
By Walter Pacheco and Amy L. Edwards, Sentinel Staff Writers

10:04 a.m. EST, November 9, 2009
Today is a day of healing for employees and their families at RS&H, an executive with consulting firm said this morning.

RS&H Chairman and CEO Leerie Jenkins the comments during a news conference today -- four days after a shooting rampage at the company's Orlando office on the eighth floor of the Gateway Center office building.

Jenkins, whose company used to be called Reynolds, Smith & Hills, said "we are really saddened by the falling of our colleague, Otis Beckford," who was killed in the shooting. Five others were wounded.

"We are here to really begin the healing process. Inside, we are going to be going through group counseling and individual counseling starting today and moving forward as long as we need to provide that to our employees," Jenkins said. "So it's all about healing for our employees and their families."

He asked the media to respect the privacy of his employees and their families.
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Orlando shooting

Fort Hood shooting suspect conscious, talking, hospital says

Fort Hood shooting suspect conscious, talking, hospital says
November 9, 2009 10:29 a.m. EST
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
NEW: Nidal Malik Hasan awake, says spokesman at hospital where's he's being treated
Soldier wounded in Fort Hood attack: It's difficult to believe this could happen
Obama: Massacre and response showed worst and best of human nature
Thirteen dead, 42 wounded, according to Fort Hood's public information office
(CNN) -- Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the suspect in last week's mass shooting at the Fort Hood Army Post, is conscious and talking, according to a spokesman for the Army hospital where he is being treated.

Authorities have not identified a motive in Thursday's attack that left 13 dead and 42 others wounded.

Hasan, a 39-year-old licensed Army psychiatrist who worked at a hospital on the post, has been identified as the suspected shooter. He was shot several times after the attack. On Sunday, he was listed in critical but stable condition and in intensive care at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas.

Hasan's ventilator was removed over the weekend, and he began talking afterward, hospital spokesman Dewey Mitchell said. He is speaking with hospital staff, but Mitchell was unable to say whether Hasan has been speaking with Army investigators.
go here for more
http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/11/09/fort.hood.shootings/index.html

Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan wanted to be lay Muslim leader at Fort Hood

"Deeply troubled" and "almost incoherent" but Hasan was to be deployed anyway?
The FBI was watching him according to reports. But Hasan was to be deployed anyway?
He was able to get his hands on the guns he used to cause 13 deaths and over 40 wounded. Yet again, this same man was to be deployed with the troops and the military had no problem with this? Hasan's record is coming out because of all he did but what about the ones we don't know about?

Cleric said he sensed Hasan was troubled
By Angela K. Brown - The Associated Press
Posted : Sunday Nov 8, 2009 8:52:21 EST

FORT HOOD, Texas — An Army psychiatrist who authorities say went on a shooting rampage at Fort Hood was so conflicted over what to tell fellow soldiers about fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan that a local Islamic leader was deeply troubled by it, the leader said Saturday.

Osman Danquah, co-founder of the Islamic Community of Greater Killeen, said he was disturbed by Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan’s persistent questioning and recommended the mosque reject Hasan’s request to become a lay Muslim leader at the sprawling Army post.

Danquah said Hasan never expressed anger toward the Army or indicated any plans for violence, but during the second of two conversations they had over the summer, Hasan seemed almost incoherent, he said.
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Keep in mind this was a doctor and trained to take care of the mental health of our troops. He was trained by the military. What was he telling the troops he was supposed to be taking care of? Was he in anyway treating any of the soldiers who ended up taking their own lives or attempting to do it? Above all, keep in mind the same person described above was still allowed to be treating our troops as a psychologist. How was this allowed to happen? Was wasn't he removed from having anything to do with the mental healthcare of our soldiers? Is anyone checking on the state of the mental health of the providers they have treating the troops? Is anyone checking to see if they are trained experts on PTSD to be able to treat this wound of war? How seriously is the military taking this when this was all allowed to happen? What policies do they plan on changing? Do they plan on changing any at all?

There are so many questions when it comes to what happened last week at Fort Hood, but while the carnage is fresh, all that came before needed to be taken seriously and maybe, just maybe, it could have been prevented.

More Fort Hood stories come out

No evidence wounded hit by friendly fire at Fort Hood
November 8, 2009 2:01 a.m. EST

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
NEW: Official: Evidence so far indicates alleged shooter acted alone
NEW: Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan off ventilator, spokesman says
Chief of surgery: Some patients will be "physically impaired" for life
President Obama says he met with FBI director and will monitor investigation
A CNN Special Investigation drills down on the causes and the impact of the Fort Hood shootings, at 11 p.m. ET Saturday on CNN TV.

Fort Hood, Texas (CNN) -- There is no evidence of "friendly fire" during this week's deadly shooting at Fort Hood, an Army spokesman said Saturday.

Army Criminal Investigation Command spokesman Chris Grey said authorities did not believe that any of those killed or wounded were shot by anyone other than the suspect, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan.

Furthermore, Grey reiterated that all evidence indicates that the suspect "acted alone." Grey said there was "no evidence to contradict that finding." He added that the investigation is continuing.

Thursday's mass shooting left 12 soldiers and one civilian dead and 42 people wounded, according to the post's public information office. It was unclear how many of those injured suffered bullet wounds.
read more here
http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/11/07/fort.hood.shootings/index.html

November 6, 2009
CNN's Campbell Brown talks to the medic who treated the Fort Hood hero cop and the suspected shooter.


Suspect off ventilator, breathing on own

FORT HOOD, Texas — An Army spokesman says the man authorities say went on a shooting spree at Fort Hood has been taken off a ventilator

For troubled service members, military therapists are at their sides

The problem is not just there are not enough to take care of the need, nor is it that they are burning out. The biggest problem is that too many of "healers" are clueless when it comes to PTSD. Sounds harsh? Yes, but it is heartbreakingly true.

Ever since the campaign in Afghanistan, there was a great need to play catchup to the veterans we already had needing help. How did they expect to be prepared for any of the troops they knew would need help? Didn't anyone think of stocking the military and the VA with qualified PTSD experts? What did they think would happen when more troops were sent into Iraq on top of the veterans already waiting for care? Remember this was at the same time we were finally getting thru to Vietnam veterans about taking care of their own combat related wound of PTSD.

The people advising the military about mental health were telling them that either they had a tsunami coming or the soldiers claiming PTSD were looking for a lifetime free ride. Commanders were still dealing with their own dismissal of the realities of combat trauma, just as some were using personality disorders as a quick campaign against the soldiers to get them off the books instead of providing them with a lifetime of care for their wounds. Remember, there were over 22,000 dishonorably or "less than honorably" discharged, leaving them absolutely nothing available to them. Service organizations would not help them. They were not able to get any care at all from the government and as for jobs, even if they could work, employers would toss out their applications without consideration. Given the fact the unemployment pool was growing, there was no need at all to even think of what could have been behind the "less than honorable" discharge.

When the kicking out began it also sent a message to the brains of the commanders that PTSD was not really a wound and they were just not tough enough.

As the years went on, it changed to the troops just needed "train their brains" to become "resilient" so they pushed Battlemind telling them that they could just get tough and suck it up, and oh, by the way, PTSD is real but if you get it, it's your fault. Check out the Battlemind program and the way it began. Whatever message they were supposed to get after the first couple of minutes was lost.

The biggest problem is that while most working with the troops may be really bright when it comes to mental health, they are clueless about PTSD, the one thing going on in the minds of the troops they should have been experts on.

The psychologist and psychiatrists along with chaplains, trained by the military, later entering into the VA, never got the real scoop on PTSD but they were expected to treat it. This was happening at the same time colleges were turning out mental health providers with a full range of knowledge regarding PTSD to treat it. One more reason why depending on where a veteran lives, their care can be anywhere from wonderful to abysmal. We tend to assume that if someone has a degree and is on the job, they are experts on what they treat but this was not the case.

It was training them the usual way other psychology students were trained, looking for the usual mental health illnesses instead of Post Traumatic Stress. This was made crystal clear when the misdiagnoses began and the troops were being discharged under every illness other than PTSD. One thing you have to understand about PTSD is if they are looking for any other illness, they will find it even though they may be looking at PTSD. PTSD comes only after trauma but can look like a lot of other illnesses including heart problems and gastrointestinal. Instead of noticing what was happening around the country with training to address people after crisis and traumatic events, the military was performing with their head in the sand. This is not a baseless claim. I've talked to too many veterans over the years telling me they were treated by idiots when it came to what was going on inside of them. They were given bags filled with prescription medications and very little therapy or information on what PTSD was.

What was the military thinking when they trained these mental health experts when they were not addressing the number one cause of mental health crisis with troops deployed into two military campaigns? Some VA doctors were fully trained and knew what they were talking about. The veterans were treated with medications and talk therapy. The problem here is that they were not told what they really needed to hear so they understood exactly where PTSD came from and why it "picked" on them instead of buddies they served with. They also had no clue they were supposed to address all aspects of their being with spiritual healing as well as physical healing on top of mental healing.

This is the most mind boggling aspect of all. When you think about what programs followed from yoga to martial arts, from art and writing for therapy, all the way up to civilian spiritual programs being studied over the years, you'd think the military was paying attention to at least some of this, but they were not. They also never addressed the need for the families to be educated on what PTSD was so they could help with the healing instead of making things worse.

When the military became overwhelmed by suicides going up every year, again, they took no clue from the civilian world. While they were well aware crisis teams responded to the people in New York after 9-11, they would not let that reaction to trauma penetrate into addressing crisis in the units deployed into combat.

Chaplains were not trained to address it. Mental health professionals were not trained properly. All this lead to what we've been seeing and unfortunately, they are nowhere close to being prepared for what is to come. The numbers keep going up for the troops and our veterans committing suicide along with attempted suicides. The numbers keep going up when it comes to families falling apart while commanders look for excuses instead of the basis for the problems the families face. Drug and alcohol abuse is seen as a discipline issue instead of self-medicating. Dangerous driving is the cause for reprimand instead of a clue these are the men and women willing to lay down their lives for the sake of their countrymen and would not so easily change into people with no regard for the lives of others. The same applies with domestic violence when the soldier responds to someone with sudden violence when they had absolutely no history of it in the past.

What happened at Fort Hood needs to be looked at but not the way they are looking at it. The tragedy of the safe zone being invaded by one of their own will end up complicating the traumas of war so severely that no amount of pills will ease it. If they are responding with what they've already been doing addressing PTSD, then we can expect far more tragedies to come.

Shortage of military therapists creates strain
By KIMBERLY HEFLING (AP)

WASHINGTON — Amputations. Combat stress. Divorce. Suicide. For troubled service members, military therapists are at their sides.

But with the U.S. fighting two wars, an acute shortage of trained personnel has left these therapists emotional drained and overworked, with limited time to prepare for their own war deployments.

An Army psychiatrist is suspected in the shootings at Fort Hood, Texas, and the rampage is raising questions about whether there's enough help for the helpers, even though it's unclear whether that stress or fear of his pending service in Afghanistan might be to blame.

An uncle of Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan said Saturday that Hasan was deeply affected by his work treating soldiers returning from war zones. "I think I saw him with tears in his eyes when he was talking about some of patients, when they came overseas from the battlefield," Rafik Hamad told The Associated Press from his home near the West Bank town of Ramallah.

Rep. Tim Murphy, R-Pa., a psychologist in the Navy Reserves, said the toll is sometimes described as "compassion fatigue" or "vicarious trauma."
read more here
Shortage of military therapists creates strain

Right after Fort Hood was traumatized, an ex-employee in Orlando went to kill people he used to work with. He killed one and wounded several others. What came after was that a church was opened up to the survivors and their families and crisis teams were sent in to address this horrific event. These are highly trained people on trauma. They did not send in any people they could get just to have someone there. They knew untrained people would add to the crisis. Who knows who will be sent to help the survivors of the Fort Hood massacre or if anyone will be sent to help the families scattered around the country to cope with their own trauma. Given what we've already seen, it's easy to guess they haven't even thought about this at all.

As for this evil committed by a "healer" we also need to be asking what he was telling the soldiers going to him for help after the traumas they had seen in Iraq and Afghanistan. Did he fill their heads with facts or did he tell them things that would make their PTSD worse? Was he part of an even bigger problem in the military behind what we've seen?

PTSD should be a badge of honor

With PTSD in the news after what happened at Fort Hood, when a doctor that was supposed to help PTSD soldiers, ended up going on a killing mission, we forget a lot of history. As bad as it is for the newer veterans, think of what it's been like for the Vietnam veterans as they suffered all these years, watching their families fall apart, doing the best they can to "get over it" and attempt to hide it without anyone they knew understanding it. Heck, some of them didn't understand it themselves. Some still don't understand.

PTSD should be a badge of honor
By Guest Columnist
November 07, 2009, 7:33AM
By JACK ESTES

The doctors fixed his body but there was trouble in Bobby's mind.

What happens to our soldiers when they return from war? Where do they go? What do they do? For many the war isn't over, it's only just begun.

Forty years ago I carried Bobby out of a rice paddy. He was shot four times and covered with blood when I laid him down in the safety of a tree line. He had a shoulder wound, a sucking chest wound and his forearm was shattered. I tied my sock around his arm to hold the bone in place.

Then I pulled Bobby to his feet and we staggered to the medivac truck. As he left I feared I'd never see him again. They took him to a firebase, put him in a bunker and worked feverishly to save his life. When the doctor probed inside the hole in his chest, to spread his ribs, the pain was so great Bobby sat up and punched him. They shot him up with more morphine, inserted a tube in his lung and soon he's on a gurney, in a plane full of wounded, on his way to Guam.

In Guam they re-broke his arm and spent hours suturing him up. Days later he's on another plane headed to Camp Pendleton in Southern California. Back in Vietnam I already missed him. I trusted him. We used to run patrols during the day, set up ambushes at night and lived through nightmare firefights, often tending to our dying brothers. Like all combat Marines, we became adrenaline junkies, hooked on hunting other men.

Months later, Bobby is awarded the nation's second-highest medal, the Navy Cross, and meritoriously promoted to sergeant. Then he began his long rehabilitation at the Naval Hospital and soon married his high school sweetheart. The Marines tried to give him a medical discharge but he wanted to go back to Vietnam, to finish his duty. He worked out every day. He aced the physical fitness test and appealed to the commandant and was allowed to stay in the Corps.
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PTSD should be a badge of honor

Two veterans laid to rest with honor instead of pauper's grave

Unknown vets spared paupers' graves
By Tim Hart, CNN
November 7, 2009 6:07 a.m. EST

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Two Air Force veterans died in California without any next of kin
Local coroner's official helped make sure the men got military burials
Without her efforts, they would have been interred in a county-owned facility
Small army of men and women turned out to pay their respects

Bakersfield, California (CNN) -- When Vincent Barrett died alone in July at age 72, the coroner's office could not find any next of kin.

Similarly, Ronald Axtell was listed as indigent -- no survivors and no funds for a funeral -- when he died at age 69.

And yet a small army of men and women gathered to pay their respects to the two men, both Air Force veterans, as they were buried at Bakersfield National Cemetery in September.

Marsha Dickey, who works in the Kern County coroner's office, was instrumental in making sure the men got the honors they deserved.

"She worked very hard to see that they were veterans ... and without that ... we probably would not be here today to honor them," said Lynn Sprayberry, founder and chairwoman of Friends of Fallen Heroes, a local organization that makes sure veterans receive a respectful service at Bakersfield National Cemetery.
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http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/11/07/vif2.unknown.vets/index.html

Staff Sgt. Amy Seyboth Tirado, served with her husband

Death quiets hero's music
Staff Sgt. Amy Seyboth Tirado, who played Taps, comes home at last

By DENNIS YUSKO, Staff writer

First published in print: Saturday, November 7, 2009

COLONIE -- Someone else will have to play Taps.

Staff Sgt. Amy Seyboth Tirador was remembered Friday as a determined soldier who was passionate about her job, family and hometown. She is the first woman soldier in the Capital Region to die in Iraq.

The 29-year-old Albany native grew up with sports and music at South Colonie High School, and had played Taps on her trumpet at the funerals of family members who were veterans of World War II, her father Gerard Seyboth recalled.

Tirador also played the instrument in church and excelled in softball and lacrosse. She grew up to become an Army medic, and helped save the life of a soldier while taking arms fire in Iraq during an attack on an American convoy. She also volunteered to return to Iraq in August as an Arabic-speaking interrogator, a job she would not talk about, her father said.

Amy Tirador deployed to Iraq in 2004 with the Army's First Infantry Division. She provided medical support for escorts on convoys, a dangerous job in an environment of roadside bombs and snipers.

"She had no problems with it," her father recalled. Amy Tirador returned happy, and her family threw a welcome back party in the Joseph E. Zaloga Post 1520 on Everett Road.

A few years later, she met her husband on a military base. They moved to Washington before deploying together.

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http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=862862&TextPage=1

Fort Hood soldiers stories begin to come out

Report: Fort Hood victims include PA soldier

The Associated Press

PITTSBURGH - A western Pennsylvania soldier is reportedly among those wounded in the shooting rampage at Fort Hood.

Sabrina Heath, of Monessen, told KDKA-TV on Friday that her niece Army 2nd Lt. Brandy Mason was shot in the thigh.

Heath said Mason made a brief call Thursday. Mason said she was at the a Soldier Readiness Center waiting her turn when the suspect came in and opened fire.

Heath says Mason spent 14 months in Iraq and was never shot at.
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Fort Hood victims include PA soldier

Soldier was willing to give 'anything it took' for her country
By Tom Held of the Journal Sentinel

Posted: Nov. 6, 2009 2:32 p.m.

Kiel - Staff Sgt. Amy Krueger decided she was willing to put her life at risk for her country the instant a second airplane crashed into the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001.

"We looked at each other and knew, and the next day we were in the recruiter's office," recalled Kristin Thayer, who watched the attack with Krueger in a commons area at a college in Sheboygan. "Anything it took, anything our country needed of us, even if that meant giving our lives."

Krueger made the ultimate sacrifice that pledge carried. She died Thursday when an Army psychiatrist opened fire on soldiers proceeding through deployment preparations at Fort Hood, in Killeen, Texas.

On Friday, Thayer grieved the loss of her best friend, a classmate and teammate who joined her at that recruiting station determined to serve her country. Both joined the Army Reserves.

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http://www.jsonline.com/news/wisconsin/69398932.html

Ogden soldier injured in Fort Hood shooting
By Joseph M. Dougherty

Deseret News

Published: Friday, Nov. 6, 2009 5:09 p.m. MST

WASHINGTON TERRACE — These emotions weren't supposed to come yet.

The worry, the heartache, the fear: They were expected later, once Aggie Foster's son deployed to Afghanistan, not on Thursday while he still was awaiting his deployment at a Texas Army base.

Aggie Foster was at work at Ogden Regional Medical Center when her daughter-in-law called to tell her that a gunman had walked into Fort Hood's Soldier Family Readiness Center and shot her youngest son, Joey, an Army private first class, in the hip.
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Ogden soldier injured in Fort Hood shooting

Local Soldier Injured in Fort Hood Attack
A Dothan man serving in the Alabama National Guard was wounded yesterday when a fellow soldier allegedly opened fire on Fort Hood, Texas.
A Dothan man serving in the Alabama National Guard was wounded yesterday when a fellow soldier allegedly opened fire on Fort Hood, Texas.

13 people were killed and the Wiregrass man was among the more than 30 injured.

Major Randy Royer of the 135th expeditionary sustainment command based in Birmingham was shot twice during Thursday’s shooting spree.
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http://www.wtvynews4.com/news/headlines/69413897.html

Fort Hood victims include St. Paul soldier

11/06/2009

By AMY FORLITI / Associated Press


A Minnesota soldier and father of three who had a knack for making people laugh was among those killed when an Army psychiatrist allegedly opened fire on fellow soldiers at Fort Hood, Texas.

Kham Xiong of St. Paul, died in the attack Thursday that left 13 people dead and more than two dozen wounded. The alleged gunman, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, was among the injured.

KSTP-TV reported that Xiong was 23, and had three children ages 4, 2 and 10 months. He and his wife had moved to Texas just five months ago, the station said.
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http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/APStories/stories/D9BQB69G1.html

Oklahoma high school graduate one of the soldiers killed at Fort Hood
By BRYAN DEAN Staff Writer
Published: November 6, 2009

A Tipton soldier killed Thursday during a shooting rampage at Fort Hood, Texas, was a quiet boy who thought the military would help him grow into a man, his family said Friday.

Spc. Jason Dean Hunt, 22, was one of 12 soldiers killed when a gunman opened fire at a soldier readiness center on the post. The gunman, identified by authorities as Maj. Nadil Malik Hasan, 39, was shot several times by a civilian police officer but survived the attack.

Hunt was a 2005 graduate of Tipton High School. Tipton is near Altus in southwest Oklahoma.
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Oklahoma high school graduate one of the soldiers killed at Fort Hood

UPDATE from CNN

Fort Hood victims: Sons, a daughter, mother-to-be
November 7, 2009 12:52 p.m. EST
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Kham Xiong, 23, remembered as "a very fun, outgoing person"
"What hurts the most is that one of her own killed her," Francheska Velez's father says
Sister recalls Spc. Jason Dean Hunt's words: "He said he would die for a stranger"
Sheryll Pearson, mother of slain soldier Pfc. Michael Pearson says: "We're all very angry"

A CNN Special Investigation drills down on the causes and the impact of the Fort Hood shootings, at 8 p.m. ET Saturday on CNN TV.

Fort Hood, Texas (CNN) -- Thirteen people died after a shooting spree Thursday at Fort Hood, a sprawling Army post in Texas.

Here's a look at the victims whose names have been released:

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http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/11/06/fort.hood.shootings.victims/index.html

Female soldier killed at Fort Hood had just returned from Iraq due to pregnancy

Fort Hood shooting: one of victims was pregnant
One of the 13 people shot dead in the massacre at the Fort Hood military base in Texas was a pregnant woman, according to reports.

Francheska Velez, 21, from Chicago, was filling out paperwork when Major Nidal Malik Hasan opened fire on the Texas base .

She had only just returned from a tour in Iraq three days before, coming back early because she was pregnant, her father Juan Velez told Fox News Chicago. She was expecting a baby boy in May, he said.


Mr Velez said it had been his daughter's dream to join the army and she had just signed up for another three years.
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Fort Hood shooting one of victims was pregnant

DOD announced non-combat death in Iraq

DOD Identifies Army Casualty


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



Staff Sgt. Amy C. Tirador, 29, of Albany, N.Y., died Nov. 4 in Kirkush, Iraq, of injuries sustained from a non-combat related incident. She was assigned to the 209th Military Intelligence Company, 1st Squadron, 14th Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, Fort Lewis, Wash.



The circumstances surrounding the incident are under investigation.

http://www.icasualties.org/Iraq/index.aspx

Suspect in Hood shootings remains in coma

Suspect in Hood shootings remains in coma

By Brett J. Blackledge and Mike Baker - The Associated Press
Posted : Friday Nov 6, 2009 19:00:58 EST

FORT HOOD, Texas — As if going off to war, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan cleaned out his apartment and called another to thank him for his friendship — common courtesies and routines of the departing soldier. Instead, authorities say, he went on the killing spree that left 13 people — 12 service members and one civilian — at Fort Hood, Texas, dead.

Investigators examined Hasan’s computer, his home and his garbage Friday to learn what motivated the suspect, who lay in a coma, shot four times in the frantic bloodletting that also wounded 30. Hospital officials said some of the wounded had extremely serious injuries and might not survive.

The 39-year-old Army psychiatrist emerged as a study in contradictions: a polite man who stewed with discontent, a counselor who needed to be counseled himself, a professional healer now suspected of cutting down the fellow soldiers he was sworn to help.
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Suspect in Hood shootings remains in coma

also

Soldiers say carnage could have been worse

By Allen G. Breed and Jeff Carlton - The Associated Press
Posted : Friday Nov 6, 2009 19:52:11 EST

FORT HOOD, Texas — Pfc. Marquest Smith, on his way to Afghanistan in January, was completing routine paperwork about a bee-sting allergy when the sounds erupted.

A loud, popping noise. Moans. The sudden, urgent shout of “Gun!” Smith poked his head over the cubicle’s partition and saw an extraordinary sight: An Army officer with two guns, firing into the crowded room.

The 21-year-old Fort Worth native quickly grabbed the civilian worker who’d been helping with his paperwork and forced her under the desk. He lay low for several minutes, waiting for the shooter to run out of ammunition and wishing he, too, had a gun.

After the shooter stopped to reload, Smith made a run for it. Pushing two other soldiers in front of him, he made it out of the Soldier Readiness Processing center — only to plunge into the building twice more to help the wounded.
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Soldiers say carnage could have been worse

War of words heats up over vets bill blockage

War of words heats up over vets bill blockage

By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Friday Nov 6, 2009 14:26:56 EST

The chairman of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee remains hopeful that a roadblock holding up consideration of an omnibus veterans’ health care bill can be cleared early next week.

Speaking Friday on the Senate floor about a procedural hold that is blocking passage of S. 1963, the Veterans’ Caregiver and Omnibus Health Benefits Act, Sen. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii, said “it would be truly disgraceful” if the bill didn’t clear the Senate by Veterans’ Day.

Akaka said the bill represents a bipartisan collection of veterans’ committee proposals packaged into one bill so it could quickly pass. Consideration of the measure is being blocked by Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., who doesn’t want the measure brought up unless he is given an opportunity to offer amendments.

“This single senator is denying veterans many benefits and services,” Akaka said, including a new caregiver assistant program at families of the “most seriously wounded veterans.”

Akaka said the veterans’ committee “continues to hear about family members who quit their jobs, go through their savings and lose their health insurance as they stayed home to care for their wounded family members.”
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War of words heats up over vets bill blockage

God, the Army, and PTSD

The problem is not that they are Christian. It is more they forget about one is when they see the worst man can do to man. They wonder how the loving God they knew would allow all of it to go on. They wonder if their faith was in a real God or not. They question what they lived their lives believing in and this, this is the worst part of faith when they live through the evil.

God, the Army, and PTSD
Is religion an obstacle to treatment?

Tara McKelvey

When Roger Benimoff arrived at the psychiatric building of the Coatesville, Pennsylvania veterans’ hospital, he was greeted by a message carved into a nearby tree stump: “Welcome Home.” It was a reminder that things had not turned out as he had expected.

In Faith Under Fire, a memoir about Benimoff’s life as an Army chaplain in Iraq, Benimoff and co-author Eve Conant describe his return from Iraq to his family in Colorado and subsequent assignment to Walter Reed Army Medical Center. He retreated deep into himself, spending hours on the computer and racking up ten thousand dollars in debt on eBay. Above all, he was angry and jittery, scared even of his young sons, and barely able to make it through the day. He was eventually admitted to Coatesville’s “Psych Ward.” For a while the lock-down facility was his home. He wondered where God was in all of this, and was not alone in that bewilderment and pain.

In a 2004 study of approximately 1,400 Vietnam veterans, almost 90 percent Christian, researchers at Yale found that nearly one-third said the war had shaken their faith in God and that their religion no longer provided comfort for them. The Yale study found that these soldiers were more likely than others to seek mental health treatment through the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) when they came home. It was not that these veterans had unusually high confidence in government or especially good information about services at VA hospitals. Instead, they had fallen into a spiritual abyss and were desperate to find a way out. The trauma of war seems to be especially acute for men and women whose faith in a benevolent God is challenged by the carnage they have witnessed.
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http://bostonreview.net/BR34.6/mckelvey.php

Military’s stance on burn pits assailed

Military’s stance on burn pits assailed

By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Friday Nov 6, 2009 13:01:40 EST

The Air Force bioenvironmental officer who was among the first to warn about the potential effects of open-air burn pits on U.S. troops deployed in the war zones said Friday that he does not believe the findings of a 2008 Army report that discounted the possibility of long-range health risks from exposure to the smoke, fumes and ash.

Retired Air Force Lt. Col. Darrin Curtis, a biomedical sciences officer who was deployed to Joint Base Balad, Iraq, in 2006 and 2007, told a Senate panel looking into military contracting issues that he believes the Army lacked the necessary data to conclude, as it did in a report from its Center for Health Promotion and Preventive Medicine, that long-term health effects from breaking smoke from burn pits is unlikely.

A new joint study by the Defense Department and Veterans Affairs Department is underway that focuses on comparing the health of 30,000 combat veterans who deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan and 30,000 veterans who never deployed to see whether there are signs of ill effects from exposure to burn pits. This is similar to post-Vietnam and post-Gulf War studies that took years to complete.

“Although I have no hard data, I believe that the burn pits may be responsible for long-term health problems in many individuals,” Curtis said. “I think we are going to look at a lot of sick people.”
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http://www.armytimes.com/news/2009/11/military_burnpits_curtis_110609w/

Slain Fort Hood soldier's family 'completely blindsided'

Slain Fort Hood soldier's family 'completely blindsided'
By Ann O'Neill, CNN
November 6, 2009 2:13 p.m. EST

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
First known Fort Hood fatality is Pfc. Michael Pearson of Bolingbrook, Illinois
Brother says he finds it hard to accept that shooter was fellow soldier
Pearson was set to deploy overseas in January, brother says
Watch a CNN special investigation at Saturday 8 p.m. ET on CNN TV
The CNN Special Investigation Unit drills down on the causes and the impact of the Fort Hood shootings, at 8 p.m. ET Saturday on CNN TV.

(CNN) -- U.S. Army Pfc. Michael Pearson wasn't much with words, his older brother said through tears, but when he picked up a guitar he let his music speak for him.

"He was a genius as far as we were concerned," Kristopher Craig told CNN affiliate WGN-TV in Chicago, Illinois, late Thursday, reeling from the news that his 21-year-old "little kid brother" was among the 12 soldiers and one civilian killed in a shooting rampage at Fort Hood, Texas.

Pearson grew up in Bolingbrook, Illinois, with two brothers and a sister. "He was really living his life playing guitar," Craig said. "When he picked up a guitar, we all understood that he was expressing himself."
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http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/11/06/fort.hood.pearson/index.html