Vietnam vet in standoff had stopped taking meds

UPDATE
August 29, 2011

Vietnam Vet given 10 years probation

Before we moved to Florida, we made two trips to visit Disney. In 1999, my husband was acting like a kid again, enjoying the rides and really excited by the attractions. The following year, a return trip was just the opposite. He complained most of the time we were at the parks about the heat, the crowds and didn't want to go on some of the rides he really enjoyed just the year before. I was very worried about him, wondering why he was acting the way he did and getting very aggravated that he would not just stay in the hotel room instead of making us miserable by his whining at the parks.

When we got back to Massachusetts, I made him go to the VA to find out what was going on. When we got there, he told the triage nurse that he stopped taking one of his medications. He said he was afraid to tell me because I would get mad at him. Turned out he never stopped to think that he was risking his life and making the people around him angry anyway. That was the last time he stopped taking his medication.

When people on medication feel better there is a tendency to stop taking them. After all, instead of thinking they are stable because of them, it's more hopeful for them to think they are cured. This is what can happen when they decide to become their own doctor and their worst enemy.

Wednesday, Jul. 15, 2009
Vietnam vet in standoff had stopped taking meds
By MITCH MITCHELL and BILL MILLER
Keller and North Richland Hills SWAT officers rushed through a back door and tackled a troubled Vietnam veteran in Watauga on Thursday night after an armed standoff that lasted more than nine hours.

Ronnie Paul Crowder, 57, was taken to John Peter Smith Hospital for a psychiatric evaluation, stunned relatives said. He faces two charges of attempted capital murder for shooting at two officers who arrived at his house in the 5900 block of Robin Drive about 11:15 a.m., Watauga police Chief Randy Benjamin said.

About 8:45 p.m., he said, officers shot at least six rounds of a chemical agent before entering the house and tackling Crowder.

The man was combative during and after the arrest and had to be strapped down for the ambulance ride, Benjamin said.

During the long, hot afternoon, homes were evacuated on Robin Drive and Kary Lynn Street South, a few blocks from Whitley Road Elementary School. As people arrived home from work, they were directed to a nearby public library to wait.

Relatives said Crowder had "not taken his medicine in six days. He’s not in his right mind." He served two tours in Vietnam with the U.S. Marines and suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, as well as numerous physical ailments.
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http://www.kellercitizen.com/101/story/13347.html

The Physical Aspects of Loss

The Physical Aspects of Loss
July 15, 2009 by

By Kirsti A. Dyer MD, MS, FT –

People experience many losses in their lifetime. The most common loss is the death of a loved one, but people experience other losses e.g. loss of a relationship, loss of a job or loss of health. Most of these losses result in some type of a grief response. Grief is the entire body’s response to the loss–mind, body and spirit.

A person grieving a loss may feel grief in many different ways–physically, emotionally, spiritually, socially and intellectually. He or she may experience a variety of body complaints that include:

Fatigue

Problems sleeping (insomnia)
General aches and pain
Backaches
Stomach pains
Intestinal symptoms (diarrhea, constipation, pain, discomfort)
Chest Pressure
Palpitations
Panic Attacks
Increased Anxiety
Many of these physical complaints are potentially serious and require a medical evaluation to exclude a serious medical disorders before determining that the symptoms are due to grief.
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the physical aspects of loss Open to Hope Foundation

Returning veterans now battling at home

Returning veterans now battling at home
By Paul Thissen
Contra Costa Times
Posted: 07/14/2009 04:01:28 PM PDT

They've left the battlefield, but their fights are not over yet.

Veterans returning from service in Iraq or Afghanistan face the highest unemployment rate in decades. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Physical injuries. Homelessness. Dee Pu'u didn't know what to do.

"In the military you could trust somebody with your life," said Pu'u, 32, one of about 300 veterans attending the East Bay Veterans Fair in Concord on Monday. On the outside, he said, everyone is out for themselves.

He rejoined civilian life a year-and-a-half ago after two tours in Iraq. Two weeks later he was homeless, living in a park in Fairfield, he said.

He now realizes, he said, that there were resources available to him that could have helped him sooner. But after a dozen years in the Army, including the traumas of fighting in the initial push into Iraq, he just wanted to be left alone, he said.

Pu'u didn't realize he was suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder until another veteran tricked him, saying they would go to San Francisco. Instead, they went to a group meeting for people with the disorder. At that point, Pu'u had been homeless for a year.
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Returning veterans now battling at home

New PTSD Approach Offers Reduced Stigma at Lackland Air Force Base

New PTSD Approach Offers Reduced Stigma
July 14, 2009
Air Force Print Newsby Lt. Col. Lesa Spivey

LACKLAND AIR FORCE BASE, Texas - Servicemembers seeking help for deployment-related post-traumatic stress disorder now have the option of being treated through primary care channels at a new pilot program offered at Wilford Hall Medical Center here.

The primary goal of this new research program is to offer effective therapy for PTSD within the primary care environment, where servicemembers are likely to feel more comfortable seeking mental health assistance.

Servicemembers who wish to participate in this type of treatment program simply schedule an appointment with their primary care manager and go to their primary care facility, just as they would for any other treatment. The primary care manager then refers the servicemember to the behavioral health consultant who works in the primary care clinic. This process helps to mainstream the treatment alongside other, more routine care. It is hoped that, as a result, a servicemember will feel less isolated or ostracized and be more willing to ask for help.

PTSD is caused by exposure to a traumatic event that involves actual or threatened death or serious injury. An individual who is experiencing PTSD symptoms may have been personally threatened or injured, or he or she might have witnessed the death or serious injury of another. In either case, the severity of PTSD is directly related to the level of threat to the person's life or the lives of others while in the combat environment.

PTSD is one of the top health concerns for servicemembers returning from combat duty in Iraq and Afghanistan. Recent studies of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom veterans suggest that 5 to 17 percent of U.S. military personnel returning from deployments have PTSD symptoms and as many as 25 percent report some psychological problems.

Almost 2 million U.S. military personnel have deployed in support of OIF/OEF, and estimates in this population indicate that 100,000 to 300,000 OIF/OEF veterans are at significant risk for chronic PTSD.
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New PTSD Approach Offers Reduced Stigma

Veterans Still waiting, and waiting

Sun editorial:

Still waiting, and waiting
Veterans Affairs’ backlog in processing veterans’ disability claims just gets bigger
Tuesday, July 14, 2009 2:05 a.m.

The long wait time for disability claims to be processed has been a complaint among veterans since the early days of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Troops were sent into combat in both wars by the administration of President George W. Bush without necessary preparations, such as expanding the veterans hospitals that would be caring for the wounded and adding staff and facilities to the Veterans Affairs Department so that the inevitable disability claims could be handled efficiently.

The result has been eight years of disservice to members of the military who were sent into harm’s way.

A New York Times story Monday revealed that veterans are still waiting interminably to hear back on their disability claims — in a recession, no less, during which many are desperate to receive what they have earned.

Veterans groups are forcefully speaking out. “The VA’s claim situation is so bad that it is exacerbating veterans’ already difficult situations,” the executive director of Veterans for Common Sense told the newspaper.
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http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2009/jul/14/still-waiting-and-waiting/

Suicides by soldiers tragic in Canada

Suicides by soldiers tragic
By PETER WORTHINGTON, SUN MEDIA

Last Updated: 14th July 2009, 3:57am
Last week the Toronto Star ran a disturbing front page headlined story about suicides in the Canadian military, and cited evidence that the stress of overseas missions may result in criminal acts by returned veterans.

The renewed concern about suicide and stress disorder among the military has intensified since Maj. Michelle Mendes, a fast-tracked and respected intelligence officer, committed suicide shortly after arriving in Afghanistan in April.

Now research is underway among veterans, dating back to the Korean war and peacekeeping, to see if there's a pattern of what they went through that may have affected their later lives.

Soldiers who commit suicide has always been a puzzling phenomenon that is rarely diagnosed except by hindsight. Maybe it57;s incomprehensible, except that it happens and is always tragic and seemingly unnecessary.

DND prides itself in noting that the suicide rate in the military is lower than the national average, but this is misleading because military personnel are screened before they are accepted, and are not the average.

A harsh reality is that since 1995 when the UN's peacekeeping role in the Balkans was turned over to NATO to become more aggressive, through 2008 and the "war" in Afghanistan, more Canadian service personnel have committed suicide than have been killed by enemy action - 145 suicides to 124 killed in action (at this writing) in Afghanistan.
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Suicides by soldiers tragic

Britain faces a "ticking timebomb" of mental illness and suicide

GETTY IMAGES

The cortege of hearses passes through Wootton Bassett yesterday

Shocking suicide toll on combat veterans

Tories demand better mental health care for troops returning from front

By Nigel Morris and Kim Sengupta


Britain faces a "ticking timebomb" of mental illness and suicide among young Army veterans who return from hand-to-hand combat in Afghanistan, the Conservatives will warn today.


A lack of mental health care for veterans, combined with the stress of fighting the Taliban, will mean many survivors of the conflict pay a heavy price in psychological problems and self harm, according to David Cameron and the shadow Defence Secretary Liam Fox.

As the bodies of eight soldiers – including three teenagers – killed in a bloody 24 hours in Helmand were repatriated yesterday, mental health experts joined the politicians in warning that not enough was being done to care for returning members of the armed forces.
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Shocking suicide toll on combat veterans

2nd Ky. widow settles suit over husband's VA death

2nd Ky. widow settles suit over husband's VA death
By JIM SUHR

EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. (AP) — The second of two Kentucky widows has settled her federal lawsuit over surgical care they say killed their husbands at an Illinois Veterans Affairs hospital where major surgeries have been halted for nearly two years after a spike in patient deaths.

Terms of Darla Marshall's April settlement over 61-year-old James Marshall's July 2007 blood infection death six days after his lymph node biopsy at the VA hospital in Marion were not disclosed in online court records. The Benton, Ky., widow had sought $10 million in her wrongful-death lawsuit, filed here in April of last year.

Another widow, Katrina Shank of Murray, Ky., last year settled for $975,000 her lawsuit involving Robert Shank III, an Air Force veteran who was 50 when he bled to death in 2007 a day after undergoing gallbladder surgery at the Marion site. Katrina Shank had sought $12 million in damages.
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2nd Ky. widow settles suit over husband VA death

Cook County Veterans Court offers helping hand

Cook County Veterans Court offers helping hand
Judge sets up a system of services and support for those in trouble after serving U.S.
By Matthew Walberg Tribune reporter
July 15, 2009
For the first time in three decades, Army veteran Eric Myers says he is confronting his addiction to heroin, an addiction that sent him to federal prison, ruined his marriage, cost him many jobs and most recently led to his arrest for drug possession.

Now he meets daily with a social worker and attends classes on drug addiction and behavior modification, all mandated by Cook County Veterans Court, a newly formed court geared to military veterans charged with non-violent crimes, mostly drug offenses.

"This arrest saved my life," said Myers, 54. "If I hadn't got caught, I wouldn't have ever thought about getting clean."

The court is part of a small but growing national trend to help veterans who sacrificed for their country. While the law treats the veterans no differently from other defendants, the court tries to deal with any underlying problems that contributed to their legal troubles in the hope that they can avoid further run-ins with the law.
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Cook County Veterans Court offers helping hand

Memorial service planned for North Fort Myers Marine

Memorial service planned for North Fort Myers Marine
Dave Breitenstein • dbreitenstein@news-press.com • July 14, 2009


The family of Sgt. Michael C. Roy is planning a funeral for North Carolina and a memorial service in Lee County.

Roy, 25, a U.S. Marine killed last week in Afghanistan, was from North Fort Myers and graduated from Academy High School in Fort Myers at the age of 17. He enlisted three months later.
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Memorial service planned for North Fort Myers Marine

Traveling Dignity Memorial Vietnam Wall Comes to Seattle

Traveling Dignity Memorial Vietnam Wall Comes to Seattle

Community Invited to Pay Respects to America's War Veterans


SEATTLE, July 13 /PRNewswire/ -- The Dignity Memorial(R) Vietnam Wall, a three-quarter-scale traveling replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., will be open for public viewing August 14-16, 2009 at Acacia Memorial Park, 14951 Bothell Way NE in Seattle.


Free and open to the public 24 hours a day from Friday, August 14 through Sunday, August 16, the replica is eight feet high and 240 feet long. Its black, reflective surface is inscribed with the names of more than 58,000 servicemen and women who died or are missing in Vietnam. Paper and pencils will be provided so visitors can make rubbings of names etched on the wall.


The Dignity Memorial Vietnam Wall is dedicated to all Americans who served in Vietnam and honors all veterans of the U.S. military. The three-day exhibition is sponsored by Vietnam Veterans Association Posts 102 and 423 and local Dignity Memorial funeral, cremation and cemetery service providers.


"The monument was created as a service to those who might never travel to the nation's capital to experience the Vietnam Veterans Memorial firsthand," said Donna Wagner, director of Dignity Memorial providers in Seattle. "Our replica offers visitors a chance for healing and reflections, and we are very pleased to be able to share it with the community," she said.
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Traveling Dignity Memorial Vietnam Wall Comes to Seattle

Nashville angles step up to help homeless veterans after media coverage

This is what can happen when reporters want to help. They end up letting the public know what is needed and then mountains can move! What a great country this is when people set themselves aside to help those in need!

Campground residents' struggles hit home with readers
Gifts, job offers pour in to help people who lost jobs and homes to the economic downturn and are now living in campers and tents
By Jennifer Brooks • THE TENNESSEAN • July 14, 2009

Kathy Newton opened her eyes Sunday morning to find a BMW parked outside her tent.
Her visitors unloaded a brand-new tent, offered to pay off the money she owed on her storage unit and were on their way back to Nashville before the delighted woman fully realized what had happened.

It was the first stroke of luck in a long time for Newton, a disabled veteran living full time at the Timberline Campground in Lebanon. But it wasn't the last.

Donations and job offers are pouring into Timberline as Tennessean readers react to a front-page Sunday story about residents who lost jobs and homes to the economic downturn and are now living in campers and tents.

"I wasn't expecting it," Newton said, admiring her new tent as it stood drying in the sun after Sunday's storms. "I just wanted to get the point across about what the economy was doing to people."

As the day wore on, donations began to pile up at the tents and trailers of the people who appeared in the article. People came with food, clothing, toys for the children, refrigerators and air conditioning units.
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Campground residents struggles hit home with readers

Juveniles sentenced to community service help Vietnam Veteran

This is such an excellent idea! Aside from the help this Vietnam veteran received to make his life a little better, it managed to let these kids come into contact with someone willing to give up his life in service to this nation. Even if just one of these kids sees this nation differently and values the veterans, he will be a remarkable citizen. When regular people value the veterans with more than words, they see America thru different eyes. Instead of seeing only what is wrong with the USA, they begin to see what was so worthy to the veterans they were willing to die for it.

Some teens can see their impoverished neighborhood and think the world is out to get them. They can think money is the only way to get respect and they can be lead to do anything in order to obtain it. They end up spending their days making life miserable for others. Taking them out of their own problems and leading them to help someone, especially a veteran, shows them a different view. This is a good thing!

Juveniles On Probation Fix Up Vietnam Vet's House
Allegheny County Delinquents, Ages 10 To 18, help Gerald Lee Williams
POSTED: 6:54 pm EDT July 13, 2009


PENN HILLS, Pa. -- Instead of picking up trash alongside a highway, some local juveniles sentenced to community service worked at the home of a Penn Hills Vietnam veteran.

Ranging in age from 10 to 18, they fixed Gerald Lee Williams' garage door, painted his house inside and out and did some yard work.
read more here
http://www.thepittsburghchannel.com/news/20043407/detail.html

Bystanders beat up attempted abduction suspect

Bystanders beat up attempted abduction suspect
By Luke Duecy
Watch the story
TACOMA, Wash. -- Police here say two men who witnessed an attempted abduction of young girls couldn't just sit and watch, or even wait for the law.

The incident took place on Saturday afternoon in the 500 block of South L Street. A 5-year-old girl said she was standing outsider her home when a complete stranger grabbed her and her friend.

"(I) scratched him," she said.

The man wanted the pair to have sex with him, the girl said.

"He was trying to make us go to his house and go to bed," she said. "He said it to my sister, too."

But before the man could take the girls away, nearby kids who had seen what had happened began screaming at the man until he finally let the girls go.
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http://www.komonews.com/news/50689032.html

Sheriff: Woman pulls gun on Wal-Mart customers

Sheriff: Woman pulls gun on Wal-Mart customers

By Tom Callis, Peninsula Daily News PORT ANGELES, Wash. - A 37-year-old woman was arrested after the Clallam County Sheriff's Department said she threatened several people with a handgun in the Wal-Mart parking lot.

Clallam County Undersheriff Ron Peregrin said Teresa Nadine Dumdie of Port Angeles threatened four other customers with a .22 caliber handgun at 4:54 p.m. Friday outside the store at 3500 E. U.S. Highway 101.
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http://www.komonews.com/news/local/50583352.html

Tears of soldier's girlfriend as eight killed in Afghanistan come home

Tears of soldier's girlfriend as eight killed in Afghanistan repatriated


By Murray Wardrop
Published: 9:56PM BST 14 Jul 2009


Sasha, the 20 year-old girlfriend of fallen Rifleman Daniel Hume, was joined by thousands of mourners who lined the streets of the town to to pay their respects to the men killed during the bloodiest 24 hours for British front line troops since the Falklands.

The bodies of Corporals Jonathan Horne, 28 and Lee Scott, 26, Private John Brackpool, 27, and Riflemen William Aldridge, 18, James Backhouse, 18, Joseph Murphy, 18, Daniel Simpson, 20, and Hume, were flown into RAF Lyneham on Tuesday afternoon.


A private ceremony for friends and relatives was held at the base's chapel of rest before a cortege of eight hearses left the base, carrying the Union flag-draped coffins through Wootton Bassett.

The market town fell silent before a church bell tolled and friends and family sobbed and hugged each other as the cortege, bound for John Radcliffe hospital in Oxford, passed by.

Many people threw flowers on the hearses, veterans saluted and some clapped to honour the men who were killed in Helmand province.
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Tears of soldiers girlfriend as eight killed in Afghanistan repatriated

Dive teams search for missing Iraq war veteran

July 13, 2009
Dive teams search for missing Iraq war veteran
NECN - Newton,MA,USA
Play video
(NECN: Prat Thakkar, Lawrence, Mass.) - Crews have resumed their search for an Iraq war veteran missing after a boating accident in Massachusetts.
Investigators say 29-year-old Juan Carlos Guzman of Methuen fell overboard last night when the boat he was on was struck by a smaller boat on the Merrimack River in Lawrence.
Relatives say Guzman's second tour in Iraq ended in 2006 and he was working as an electrician.

PTSD on Trial:James Guthrie

Traumatised soldier threatens pub-goer
Tuesday, July 14, 2009, 07:06

A former soldier traumatised by service in Afghanistan pulled a knife on a man in a pub toilet and threatened to cut his throat, a court heard.
James Guthrie was sentenced to 12 months jail, suspended for a year, after Gloucester Crown Court heard he held Daniel Sollis in a headlock with the knife an inch from his Adam's Apple and then cut his chin and hand in the ensuing struggle.
The 47-year-old, of Sallis Close, Northway, Tewkesbury, who is said to be suffering from post traumatic stress disorder, admitted unlawfully wounding Mr Sollis and having an offensive weapon in a public place.
Judge Martin Picton also gave Guthrie a six-month mental health treatment order and placed him under an 8pm to 6am home curfew for three months with two years supervision.
He said: "What you did was very serious and very frightening for the victim and, of general concern in terms of public safety.
"But I recognise your behaviour on this night is as a result of your mental health problems, in particular post-traumatic stress disorder coupled with depression."
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Traumatised soldier threatens pub-goer

Law Center slams L.A. as America's 'meanest city' toward homeless"

Law Center slams L.A. as America's 'meanest city' toward homeless
2:58 PM July 14, 2009
Los Angeles tops the list of America's "10 Meanest Cities" in its treatment of the homeless as criminals, two legal advocacy agencies for the poor say in a report proposing alternatives for handling the down-and-out.
The survey of 273 cities by the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty and the National Coalition for the Homeless based its rankings on the number of laws targeting the homeless by making it illegal to sleep, eat or sit in public spaces.
"Homelessness in America is a human-rights crisis right here at home," said Maria Foscarinis, executive director of the law center. click link for more

This reminds me of a speech I gave a while ago. It was to a group of "church people" but evidently they didn't understand that as "church people" they were compelled to care.

My argument is a simple one. Let's say that some of the more ridiculous rumors about homeless people are true. What is required of Christians then? Let's just say they deserve to be homeless because they don't want to work. Or that they are drug addicts and alcoholics. Or that they end up panhandling in the streets only to jump into expensive sports cars. Let's just think if all those rumors were true. As Christians, it's not up to us to judge. It's required of us to help.

The Good Samaritan Christ talked about came upon a man laying in the street. He had been beaten and robbed. Others walked by him but the Samaritan stopped, picked him up, took him to an inn and then paid for him to stay there so that he could recover, fed and provided with shelter. The Samaritan then told the inn keeper he would pay for any other expenses to take care of this stranger. He never asked why the man was laying in the streets or what he did for a living. He never asked to see what background this man had or where he came from. He never asked what he would get in return for his money and time. He just did it because he put himself in this stranger's state and acted the way he'd hope someone else would for him.

This is what Christ was talking about. He told us to take care of the poor and needy, not ask them how they got that way or stand in judgement over them. I often wonder if Calvin ever explained Christ Himself being homeless, depending on the charity of strangers to feed Him and give Him shelter? How would that jive with the attitude about being "chosen" ahead of time and nothing else we do matters because God chose us for blessings and others for cursing? This really does away with using any rumor as a way to avoid taking care of the homeless.

Now with that out of the way, the rumors, for the most part, are not true. Many of the homeless people we see on our streets have mental illness. Many of them using drugs and alcohol are suffering from addiction but others are self-medicating to mask the illness they carry and need medication for. A third of the homeless on our streets every night are veterans. We have homeless people because they lost their jobs. We have homeless families. Does any of this sink into what Christ was talking about as being "just the way it is because they were not blessed" or even coming close to imagining they deserve to be that way? Hell no!

Some people don't want to give homeless "beggars" a dime because they will use it to buy alcohol or drugs. How do we know for sure? How do we know they are not planning on getting something to eat for a friend just too sick to leave the box they sleep in? We don't know anything about them and we are not even required to ask. We are required to help. If you don't want homeless people living in your town or city, then give them a place to live. If you don't want them asking you for money so they can eat, then feed them. If you don't want them walking near you in smelly clothes then give them others to wear. Why is any of this so hard for us to understand?

Privacy deemed lacking for female veterans at some VA hospitals

Privacy deemed lacking at some VA hospitals

By Kimberly Hefling - The Associated Press
Posted : Tuesday Jul 14, 2009 12:52:04 EDT

WASHINGTON — Veterans Affairs Department hospitals and clinics aren't always making sure women veterans have privacy when they bathe and receive exams, government auditors said Tuesday.

As thousands of women veterans return from Iraq and Afghanistan and enter the VA's health system, the Government Accountability Office reported that no VA hospital or outpatient clinic under review is complying fully with federal privacy requirements.

GAO investigators found that many VA facilities had gynecological tables that faced the door — including one door that opened to a waiting room. It also found instances where women had to walk through a waiting area to use the restroom, instead of it being next to an exam room as required by VA policy.
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Privacy deemed lacking at some VA hospitals