Soldier-scholar saves an Iraqi pup

Hutchison adopted Laia, a stray he found on the base near Basra, Iraq.

Soldier-scholar saves an Iraqi pup
Before he was killed, Army Maj. Steven Hutchison, 60, gave aid and comfort to a stray found near Basra.
By Jason Felch
August 9, 2009
In his final months in Iraq, love came unexpectedly to Maj. Steven Hutchison.

His 11-man crew was running errands on an Army base near Basra when Hutchison ordered a lunch break.

The transition team, whose job was to train Iraqi police and soldiers, pulled their armored vehicles into the base's Subway restaurant and ordered sandwiches.

Hutchison paid, as was his wont, and gave the thumbs up to roll out, team members recall. But the logistics advisor threw back a thumbs down.

Soldiers had gathered around the back of one vehicle and were playing with a scrawny yellow puppy, one of the many strays that wander Iraqi streets.
read more here
Soldier scholar saves an Iraqi pup

Cutting in line lead to innocent bystander's death in Tampa

Fight Over Line Jumping Leads To Deadly Shooting
Saturday, August 08, 2009 1:10:39 PM


TAMPA -- An argument over people accused of cutting in line led to a deadly shooting early Saturday, police said.

According to reports, a group of people were waiting in line at a portable canteen trailer in a parking lot on Hillsborough Avenue just after 3 a.m., when some people accused others of cutting in line.

Police said the ensuing argument quickly turned into a fight, and at some point, several shots were fired.

One of the two people shot -- Alquan Garner, 23 -- got into his car and drove away. He ended up crashing his vehicle, and was taken to St. Joseph’s Hospital, where he later died from his injuries.

Police said Garner was an innocent bystander.
read more here
Fight Over Line Jumping Leads To Deadly Shooting

Widow of Vietnam Vet sues VFW over too much alcohol

I had to change the title of this post for a simple reason. We talk a lot about
bartenders needing to be aware when a patron has had too much to drink. The problem here is that this was the VFW, a place where everyone should know just about everyone else there. Top that off with this Vietnam Veteran was the Commander of the post itself. We need to ask where everyone else was when the Post Commander headed for the door. Where were they? Didn't they care he had too much to drink and shouldn't be driving? I thought the VFW Posts were about friendship and a bond between veterans watching over each other. Am I wrong here? Dennis Gill was the Commander for Heaven's sake! If it happened to him where no one stepped in to drive him home, then how many others are able to just drink what they want and then drive away? Where is the bond they are supposed to have? Read the original post I put up in March about Gill having a Silver Star, Bronze Star and Purple Heart then wonder after he watched over others during Vietnam, then took care of others as the Commander of the VFW, how it is no one was watching over him?

Widow of Hernando Beach VFW commander sues post over husband's death
By Logan Neill, Times Staff Writer
In Print: Saturday, August 8, 2009



HERNANDO BEACH — Shortly after 1 a.m. on March 13, Dennis Gill left the Veterans Of Foreign Wars Post 9236 in his pickup truck and headed south on Shoal Line Boulevard toward his home in Spring Hill.

A few minutes later, the post commander's truck veered onto the road shoulder and slammed sideways into a tree, throwing Gill from the vehicle. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Gill's wife of two years now believes that someone working at the VFW post's bar knowingly served her alcohol-addicted husband too many drinks that night, causing him to be too intoxicated to drive.

On Wednesday, Gail Gill filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the post in Circuit Court, seeking damages in excess of $15,000.

A Brooklyn, N.Y., native, Gill was an Army veteran of the Vietnam War. He earned both a Bronze Star and Silver Star for saving comrades' lives in combat, and received a Purple Heart for injuries that left him 100 percent disabled.
read more here
http://www.tampabay.com/news/courts/civil/article1025844.ece

Friday, March 13, 2009

Hernando Beach VFW commander killed in wreck
March 13, 2009
Tom Marshall, Times staff writer

HERNANDO BEACH -- The commander of Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 9236 was killed early this morning in a one-car accident.

Dennis P. Gill, 60, was driving south on Shoal Line Boulevard around 1:10 a.m. when his car left the road and struck a tree. He died at the scene, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.

Gill was a combat veteran of the Vietnam War, having served in the 173rd Airborne Division of the Army. He received the Purple Heart and both the Bronze Star and Silver Star for valor in combat, and spent much of his time working on behalf of veterans, said post quartermaster Bob Estrada."

A lot of times he was very private because of his post-traumatic stress disorder," Estrada said. "(But) I think his heart and feelings for the last couple of years have been with this post."
click links above for more

Billy Mays' family criticizes autopsy finding

Family of TV pitchman Billy Mays criticizes autopsy finding that cocaine helped lead to death

MITCH STACY

Associated Press Writer

6:59 AM EDT, August 8, 2009


TAMPA, Fla. (AP) —The family of TV pitchman Billy Mays said they were never aware that he used cocaine or other non-prescription drugs before his death and they were considering whether to have an independent review of an official autopsy.

The Hillsborough County medical examiner's office released the results of its autopsy on Friday, finding that cocaine use had contributed to the heart disease that suddenly killed the 50-year-old in June. He was discovered by his wife in bed at their Tampa condo the morning of June 28.

The medical examiner "concluded that cocaine use caused or contributed to the development of his heart disease, and thereby contributed to his death," the office said in a press release.

The office said Mays last used cocaine in the few days before his death but was not under the influence of the drug when he died. Hillsborough County spokeswoman Lori Hudson said nothing in the toxicology report indicated the frequency of Mays' cocaine use.

Cocaine can raise the arterial blood pressure, directly cause thickening of the left wall of the ventricle and accelerate the formation of atherosclerosis in the coronary arteries, the release said.

The toxicology tests also showed therapeutic amounts of painkillers hydrocodone, oxycodone and tramadol, as well as anti-anxiety drugs alprazolam and diazepam. Mays had suffered hip problems and was scheduled for hip-replacement surgery the day after he was found dead.

Mays' family questioned the finding of cocaine and criticized the medical examiner's officer for issuing the report.

"We were totally unaware of any non-prescription drug usage and are actively considering an independent evaluation of the autopsy results," Mays' family said in a statement.
read more here
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/sns-ap-us-billy-mays,0,7323767.story

Helicopter carrying six collides with plane over Hudson River

Helicopter carrying six collides with plane over Hudson River
Helicopter and Small Plane Collide Over Hudson River
By AL BAKER 9 minutes ago
A small aircraft and a helicopter collided in midair over the Hudson River in Lower Manhattan on Saturday, raining debris down into the waterway, the authorities said.


UPDATE from CNN

One rescued after helicopter, plane collide over Hudson River
Story Highlights
NEW: One person rescued after air crash over river between New York, New Jersey

Plane believed to have taken off from Teterboro Airport in New Jersey

Copter belonged to Liberty Helicopter Sightseeing Tours, official says

Helicopter had six people on board, New York police official says
NEW YORK (CNN) -- One person was rescued from the Hudson River on Saturday after a tour helicopter collided with a small plane, the Coast Guard said.


First responders gather on a pier after a plane and helicopter collided Saturday over the Hudson River.

A helicopter believed to have six people on board collided with a plane over the river between Lower Manhattan and Hoboken, New Jersey, New York Deputy Police Commissioner Paul Browne told CNN.

Rescue divers and Coast Guard boats were searching the water. The helicopter belonged to Liberty Helicopter Sightseeing Tours.
go here for more and updates
http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/08/08/hudson.helicopter.crash/index.html

Flaws in senior NCOs’ records can end careers

Moral waivers have stopped and this is a good thing. I still have a problem with this considering PTSD is still not treated right by the military. Drug use and alcohol abuse unfortunately often go with PTSD when they are self-medicating. What if they had been written up for one of these only to have it discovered later the soldier was actually suffering from PTSD instead? Do they remove the document from the file? Do they consider this at all? Do they treat a recovering PTSD soldier, still ready, willing and able to serve with the respect they should have had all along?

So many issues within these new rules it makes my head spin just thinking about them given the fact we've read so many reports of PTSD soldiers being punished for PTSD instead of helped to recover.

Flaws in senior NCOs’ records can end careers

By Jim Tice - Staff writer
Posted : Saturday Aug 8, 2009 9:49:49 EDT

The Army will soon start screening senior NCOs with the aim of kicking out those with problem records.

All sergeants first class and above with 20 or more years of active service will be subject to the reviews, which will target members of the Regular Army and the Army Reserve component of the Active Guard and Reserve program.

Members whose records document problems with conduct, morality, performance or professionalism could be separated under the new Qualitative Management Program (QMP), approved July 23 by Thomas R. Lamont, assistant secretary of the Army for manpower and reserve affairs. The active component has about 41,000 sergeants first class, 12,000 master sergeants and 3,700 sergeants major, but officials did not say how many of those are retirement-eligible and also subject to review under QMP.

Under the program, a soldier’s record will be flagged if one of the following documents is received by Human Resources Command (HRC) for filing in a soldier’s Official Military Personnel File:

• General officer letter or memorandum of reprimand.

• Conviction by courts-martial or Article 15.

• NCO Evaluation Report documenting a relief for cause action.

• A rating of 4 (fair) or 5 (poor) in the senior rater performance and potential blocks of the NCO evaluation report.

• An Academic Evaluation Report indicating a soldier has failed an NCO Education System course.

When HRC receives one of the documents, the command will notify the soldier that he will be considered for separation from service by a centralized promotion board.

The move to boot out senior NCOs with such records comes as the Army is tightening standards for who can stay and in what numbers. Since the active Army recently hit its end-strength goal of 547,000 soldiers, it has suspended re-enlistment bonuses. The service also had cut its recruiting goal of 78,000 to 65,000, but recently was authorized to add 22,000 soldiers to help meet the demands of fighting two wars. The Army also has stopped allowing enlistment of recruits who needed waivers for past misconduct, such as criminal activity or drug use.
read more here
Flaws in senior NCOs records can end careers

PTSD Still Affecting Vietnam Vets

PTSD Still Affecting Vietnam Vets


Grand Island
Posted: 6:52 PM Aug 7, 2009
Last Updated: 6:57 PM Aug 7, 2009
Reporter: Sara Geake
Email Address: sara.geake@kolnkgin.com

Vietnam Vets & PTSD, Sara Geake reports





More Vietnam War veterans are asking for help for post traumatic stress disorder.

The disorder was a topic at the Nebraska Vietnam Veterans Reunion Friday.

Only about three percent of Americans have PTSD, but 30 percent of Vietnam veterans admit they suffer from the disorder.

Another 20 to 25 percent have enough symptoms to affects their life.

But not everyone reports their symptoms, and the symptoms can resurface over time.

More than three decades after the war ended, Vietnam Veterans fill a room at the reunion to learn more about PTSD.

Dr. Krista Krebs says she's seeing more veterans from the era seeking help these days, and many for the first time.
read more here
PTSD Still Affecting Vietnam Vets

Nam Nights Of PTSD Still - watch more videos

Innocent man freed after 23 years

DNA Evidence Helps Release Man After 23 Years in Prison
Ernest Sonnier is released from prison after he was falsely accused of a crime
Steve Simon KIAH
August 7, 2009


DNA evidence helps release man after 23 years in prison

After 23 years, roughly 8,000 days and nights in prison, Ernest Sonnier is home with family. DNA tests show he may not have committed a rape and abduction from December 1985.

Three hours after a hearing with State district Judge Michael McSpadden, Sonnier, 46, walked into the arms of his family at the Harris County Jail.

The Innocence Project, a national organization working to exonerate wrongfully convicted people, began conducting new tests last year that cast doubt on his guilt, attorneys said.

Sonnier was released on his own recognizance. He will wear a GPS monitoring device and be supervised as a condition of his release while attorneys move to have him officially exonerated.

With his mother and aunt at his side, Sonnier said he worried that he would never see his mother again.

"In jail everyone tells the same story but I told everyone I was innocent," he said. "The evidence was on the table that I wasn't the guy."
read more here

DNA Evidence Helps Release Man After 23 Years in Prison

Evidence frees 23-year inmate 2:10
DNA evidence proves an inmate of 23 years did not commit the crime he was convicted of. KIAH's Steve Simon reports.

Dramatic car crash rescue in Washington DC by witnesses

They could have just stood there watching. They could have just made a call to 911. They didn't wait. These people are heroes! They rush in to help without one single thought about themselves, what they were supposed to be doing instead, or what danger they would be in. They just thought about the people trapped in two cars.

Dramatic car crash rescue 1:32
A serious car accident in Washington, DC causes pedestrians to spring into action. WJLA's Kris Van Cleave reports.

NY man in divorce kills daughter, wife's mom, self

NY man in divorce kills daughter, wife's mom, self
By Cristian Salazar
Associated Press Writer

NEW YORK—A man with a shotgun opened fire inside a suburban residence Friday, critically wounding his estranged wife and killing his daughter and mother-in-law before turning the weapon on himself, police said.

Officers responding to afternoon calls of a shooting found Mohamed Shojaeifard, 49, and his mother-in-law, Batool Biraman, 66, of Greenvale, dead from shotgun wounds. The two were found inside a small white house in Roslyn Heights, about 20 miles east of Manhattan, police said.
read more here
NY man in divorce kills daughter, wifes mom, self

Afghanistan now unpopular

Is it the fact it has gone on so long or is it the lack of media attention? I really wonder. Bloggers have a hard time finding stories sometimes, but they are out there.
The absence of TV coverage however removes the ability of the casual observer to learn much at all unless there is something catastrophic requiring an interruption of the celebrity coverage holding so much more importance. It really is a shame we manage to do so much to send them to fight these battles but our interest seems to fade too soon. War is not like a TV series that ends when summer begins. It's not a fill in show for the summer viewer. It doesn't take holidays. It lasts until it's over and in too many case for those we send, it lasts as long as their life does. So why are we comfortable treating it like something unworthy of our attention?

Vietnam in Afghanistan: Now an Unpopular War

By Spencer Ackerman 8/7/09 4:23 PM
A new CNN poll has found, for what I think is the first time, a majority of Americans opposed to the war in Afghanistan. Pentagon officials and Afghanistan-watchers have thought for months that this moment was inevitable: public support for Afghanistan, those people thought, was broad mostly because of media neglect. Now, with Marines dying in Helmand Province, soldiers dying in the east, and reporters covering the war more than ever since 2002, the numbers have met their inevitable date with gravity.

click link for more

NBA crew chief Bob Delaney wants to help Iraq veterans with PTSD

This NBA ref, who knows the combination to the hurt locker, helps Iraq veterans cope with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
By Dave Scheiber, Times Staff Writer
In Print: Sunday, August 9, 2009
In the dangerous desert sands of northern Iraq, an NBA referee arrived in July on a mission that had nothing to do with officiating. But it did involve helping soldiers make the right calls for themselves — and keep order in their lives while immersed in the most difficult of circumstances.

• For veteran NBA crew chief Bob Delaney, 10 days of living with U.S. troops on the front lines of battle — offering them comfort and counsel about the hazards of posttraumatic stress disorder — was the latest step in a journey that began more than 30 years ago by the shadowy docks of northern Jersey.

• That is where Delaney was known as Bobby Covert, a young undercover agent for the New Jersey State Police who lived in the constant presence of the Genovese and Bruno crime families.

• The experience was life-changing at a fundamental level. But in its own way, so was the most recent one, supporting soldiers fighting a ruthless enemy on the outside — and teaching them to cope better with the demons that can arise within.

• Many of them don't understand or wish to acknowledge that enemy, one veiled in whispers and a stigma of shame. PTSD has risen to crisis levels in the military, with scores of American troops committing suicide each year, and more than a third of returning vets reporting mental health problems from the immense pressures of combat.

• Delaney knows a little bit about facing pressure.

• And, at his core, he knows the heavy toll it can take.
read more here
http://www.tampabay.com/sports/article1025531.ece

Homestead Florida Marine among 5 killed in Afghanistan

News

08/07/09 : DoD Identifies Marine Casualties (4 of 4)
Cpl. Christian A. Guzman Rivera, 21, of Homestead, Fla...assigned to the 3rd Combat Assault Battalion, 3rd Marine Division, III Marine Expeditionary Force...died Aug. 6 while supporting combat operations in Farah province...

08/07/09 : DoD Identifies Marine Casualties (3 of 4)
Sgt. Jay M. Hoskins, 24, of Paris, Texas...assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division, III Marine Expeditionary Force...died Aug. 6 while supporting combat operations in Farah province...

08/07/09 : DoD Identifies Marine Casualties (2 of 4)
Lance Cpl. Travis T. Babine, 20, of San Antonio, Texas...assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division, III Marine Expeditionary Force...died Aug. 6 while supporting combat operations in Farah province...

08/07/09 : DoD Identifies Marine Casualties (1 of 4)
Lance Cpl. James D. Argentine, 22, of Farmingdale, N.Y...assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division, III Marine Expeditionary Force...died Aug. 6 while supporting combat operations in Farah province...

08/07/09 AP: 1 U.S. soldier killed in Afghanistan
NATO also said an American service member was killed in an attack on a convoy Friday morning in eastern Afghanistan. The alliance did not immediately provide further details.

http://icasualties.org/oef/

Senior leaders fight rise in alcohol violations

Driving down DUIs: Senior leaders fight rise in alcohol violations
By Jennifer H. Svan, Stars and Stripes
European edition, Wednesday, August 5, 2009

For the 52nd Fighter Wing commander at Spangdahlem Air Base, Germany, even one drunken driving violation by one of his airmen is one too many.

It’s a line repeated often by most commanders, to the point it can sound cliche.

But for Col. Lee Wight, the campaign against drunken driving is deeply personal.

In 1982, while working as a civilian police officer in Norman, Okla., a 16-year-old girl died in his arms after her car was T-boned at an intersection by a drunk driver.

"It sticks in your mind," Wight said. Ever since, "I’ve been kind of waging a war against DUIs."

A spike in drunken driving and other alcohol-related offenses this spring did not go unnoticed. After one DUI and one alcohol-related incident in January, the numbers for both began to creep up: 4 in February, 6 in March and 7 in April. And then in May there were several off-base incidents and serious accidents, some involving alcohol.

Wight and senior leaders across base cracked down, using a mixture of policy, punishment and programs to combat drunken driving and promote responsible choices.

Wight looked into raising the drinking age on base — in Germany it’s legal to consume beer and wine at 16, hard liquor at 18 — but was told he couldn’t legally do that.
read more here
http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=64033

Finally a good use of research funds, Saint Louis University maps brains

I thought we ran out of good studies to talk about when it comes to invisible injuries like PTSD and TBI, but I am so glad to be wrong. This sounds like the right way to go so that changes in the brain can be studied more closely.

Unlocking the Mysteries of the Brain:
Saint Louis University Investigators Search for Answers about Injuries, PTSD
Veterans from Around the Country, Civilians Sought for DOD-Funded Brain Mapping Study

Carrie Bebermeyer
314.977.8015
bebermcl@slu.edu


ST. LOUIS - In the first study of its kind, researchers at Saint Louis University are recruiting patients for a clinical trial that will use cutting-edge imaging equipment to map the brain injuries of combat veterans and civilians, aiming to better understand the nature of their injuries. Funded by a $5.3 million grant from the U.S. Department of Defense, researchers will use three types of imaging equipment together, producing better data and a more complete taxonomy of brain injuries, information that investigators hope may lead to better treatment for blast injuries and car accidents.

"It's an extraordinarily significant study. We are casting about with a new net. We think there is a lot of information that we don't know about brain injuries," said Richard Bucholz, M.D., lead investigator of the study and director of the division of neurosurgery at Saint Louis University School of Medicine.

"It's an opportunity to get a better handle on the problem, to see what actually constitutes head injury as opposed to relying on a vague description of someone who is having problems after a blow to the head."

Traumatic brain injury is caused by physical trauma to the head, and symptoms can range from mild, with headaches or nausea, to severe, with seizures or decreased levels of consciousness. In the United States, approximately 1.4 million people suffer traumatic brain injuries each year. Of these, 230,000 are hospitalized and survive, while another 50,000 die.

At the same time, combat veterans, now equipped with better body armor and armored vehicles, are thought to be surviving injuries that were once lethal and are returning from war zones with brain injuries rather than fatal wounds.
read more here
http://www.slu.edu/x31438.xml

PTSD on Trial:Suicidal Iraq veteran charged with attempted murder

Before you judge too quickly, this veteran's wife said he didn't try to kill her. She stopped him from trying to kill himself.

"If you catch this early, you stop a cycle of people who are self-medicating or acting out in a violent way," says Ron Crowder, a district court judge and retired major general from the National Guard who served in Vietnam.

Soldier's invisible war: Iraq vet charged with attempted murder
Story Highlights
Soldier accused of trying to kill wife, could face up to 15 years in jail

Wife says prosecutors have it all wrong -- her husband didn't try to kill her

Thomas Delgado's case may go before new veterans' court in Colorado

Wife says her husband was trying to commit suicide and she wrestled gun away

By Jim Spellman and Wayne Drash
CNN

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado (CNN) -- Army Spc. Thomas Delgado saved lives as a combat medic on the front lines in Iraq, earning a Purple Heart when a bomb rocked his vehicle during his nearly yearlong tour. Back home, he was sometimes assigned the role of insurgent during combat training at a mock Iraqi village in California.

What really happened?

For the Delgados, the evening of September 24, 2008, just days after their fifth wedding anniversary, began with drinks and an argument. Then everything escalated with whirlwind speed.

Shayla Delgado says her husband grabbed a gun and rattled off suicidal thoughts. "I've been thinking about how I'm going to do it," she recalled him saying. "I just can't live like this any more. I can't do it, I can't do it."

"He was telling me, 'Take our son and leave because you don't want to be here for this,'" she said, breaking down in tears. "I was really, really scared."


She says she pleaded, begged him, to get on the phone with his father. The two spoke. The soldier kept telling his dad how much he loved him, she says. She rushed to the bedroom, cradling their sleeping year-old son, and sprinted out of the apartment.

She dropped the infant off at a neighbor's and returned home, heading straight to the bathroom where her husband was holed up. She kicked in the door. "I see him with the gun in his mouth and I just ripped the gun from his arms and I ran."

It was during that scuffle to wrestle the gun away, prosecutors say, that the soldier tried to kill his wife, breaking her nose and attempting to choke her. Prosecutors have charged Thomas Delgado with one count of first-degree attempted murder and an array of other charges. They have offered a plea bargain of 5 to 15 years in prison -- a deal Delgado has so far rejected.
read more here
http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/08/06/accused.soldier.ptsd/

Orlando-area suicides rising

While suicides need to be looked at in hard times, we cannot forget about other health problems. Less than a week after my brother lost his job in October 2008, he died of a massive heart attack. He was 56. The stress of losing his job was just too much for him. He wasn't feeling well, popped a few "pills" of his nitroglycerine but refused to go to the hospital. He told my sister-in-law there was no point because they would just keep him in the hospital for observation then send him home, but he had a job interview for the next day. She went to take a shower and by the time she came back down the stairs, he was gone.

Some companies offer help for people they have to let go simply because they understand that these are not just jobs involved, but in many cases, a sense of identity, security, or a life's work. I think they all should do the same. Then there are suicide cases that also need to be looked at so that someone can step up and set up some kind of support to help people through extremely troubled times.

Orlando-area suicides rising
As financial woes mount, more deaths can be expected, an expert predicts
By Rene Stutzman

Sentinel Staff Writer

August 7, 2009
In 1933, during the toughest year of the Great Depression, America's suicide rate spiked. Now, public health officials are watching to see whether suicide rates climb as more and more people lose their jobs and homes. Last year was a difficult one for the economy in Central Florida, and 567 people killed themselves, a 13 percent jump over the year before, according to state and county death records.

If the unemployment rate continues to climb and hard times linger, there's a strong likelihood even more people will take their own lives, according to Steven John Stack, a professor of sociology and suicide expert at Wayne State University in Detroit.

"The evidence is that as the unemployment rate increases, there's an uptick in the suicide rate over time," Stack said.

Central Florida's unemployment rate last month rose to 10.8 percent, more than double what it was two years ago, according to state labor statistics.

On May 6, a Maitland woman jumped from the top floor of the Orange County Courthouse parking lot, falling 76 feet to her death.

Why Siu Fong Ng, 50, killed herself and why she chose such a public place are not clear. She left no note.
read more here
Orlando-area suicides rising

WEWS News team comes thru for homeless veteran

Homeless Veteran Turns To Troubleshooter Team For Help

POSTED: 5:51 pm EDT August 6, 2009
UPDATED: 7:00 pm EDT August 6, 2009

CLEVELAND -- For the past year, veteran Joseph Cooley, of Ravenna, has been living in his 1995 Buick.

The 65-year-old keeps food and supplies in the back seat. A tree has fallen on the roof, and it leaks.

“Every penny counts when you’re living like I’m living,” said Cooley.

Cooley isn’t penniless. He gets a veteran’s benefit check every month, but there’s a problem.

The Social Security Administration is taking a Medicaid deduction out of his check. He said they shouldn’t because he uses Veterans Affairs healthcare.
read more here
http://www.newsnet5.com/troubleshooter/20308435/detail.html

VA Offers Legal Alternatives to Those Accused of Crimes

Troubled Veterans Get a Hand
VA Offers Legal Alternatives to Those Accused of Crimes

By P. Solomon Banda
Associated Press
Friday, August 7, 2009

DENVER -- The Department of Veterans Affairs has launched an ambitious program offering legal intervention on behalf of veterans with arrest records, an effort aimed at preventing repeat crimes among service members returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.

The VA started its Veterans Justice Outreach Initiative early this year -- before public attention intensified on a Fort Carson, Colo.-based unit from which a handful of soldiers have been accused of murder, attempted murder or manslaughter after returning from Iraq, where they faced intense combat. Most of the soldiers had been arrested on charges of domestic violence, assault, illegal gun possession, or alcohol and drug violations before the slayings.

A July 15 Army report said more study is needed to determine whether there is a link between the soldiers' alleged crimes and their heavy combat duty and lengthy deployments.

The VA is training 145 specialists at its hospitals nationwide to help veterans who are in jails, awaiting trial or serving misdemeanor sentences. Other VA programs target homelessness and help veterans readjust after serving prison terms for serious crimes.

To date, more than 1.9 million U.S. service members have gone to Iraq and Afghanistan, the largest deployment since 3.4 million were sent to Southeast Asia in support of the Vietnam War.

James McGuire, the Los Angeles-based director of the VA's incarcerated veterans outreach programs, said some war veterans "are obviously struggling."

"The VA is very attuned to this and received an education about all this after Vietnam, when the whole issue of PTSD came up," he said, using the abbreviation for post-traumatic stress disorder.
read more here
Troubled Veterans Get a Hand

Dr. Jonathan Shay talks about not seeking help for PTSD

Dr. Shay is a hero to me. He knows more about PTSD than anyone I can think of and believe me, I've read just about everything on PTSD since 1982. I contacted Dr. Shay after reading Achilles in Vietnam. I wasn't past the third chapter when I emailed him. I had to. He managed to make me cry because it was the first book I read that addressed what I was going through living with my own Vietnam vet husband. The other books were clinical, distant, while they did help me to understand PTSD, they authors were detached from all of it. Dr. Shay took a different approach and made it personal.

I wrote my own book on PTSD to show what people go through telling the story of my husband's PTSD getting worse and what it did to my family. I also wrote about healing. Dr. Shay read it and supported me while I was trying to get it published. He was amazing. I couldn't believe someone this important would take that kind of time with someone like me, but he did it with grace.

Long story short, 9-11 attacks came and I knew I had to rush to book out because of what was coming. Dr. Shay agreed with what my fear was, that it was about to get a whole lot worse for the Vietnam veterans and the rest of the military. I self published, which was the biggest mistake I could have made because no publisher saw the need of a book like mine. It's been online for about 4 years now for free. For the Love of Jack, His War/My Battle is about us, but more it's about what we knew and when we knew it, long before anyone else was talking about it.

The last time I talked to Dr. Shay we were involved in a dispute with someone questioning him on tanks in Vietnam. The "person" basically called him a liar. I sent Dr. Shay a link to the site with tanks in Vietnam and a few pictures. I couldn't believe anyone was questioning his honesty or knowledge.

There is no way I would ever come close to the way Dr. Shay writes or what he knows. I strongly suggest you pick up a copy of this book and listen very carefully to what he has to say.

Fewer than half of returning Vets suffering PTSD seek help, VA Doc says.
Written by Sherwood Ross

Veterans returning from the fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq are displaying many of the same post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms of troops that fought in Viet Nam, yet most do not seek treatment.

“I’m not an alarmist but I think this is a serious problem,” Dr. Matthew Friedman, executive director of the Department of Veterans Affairs’ National Center for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder(PTSD), wrote in The New England Journal of Medicine.

Referring to a 2004 study of 6,201 returned service members who had been on active duty in Afghanistan and Iraq, Friedman said most “apparently were afraid to seek assistance for fear that a scarlet P would doom their careers.”

Although one in eight veterans reported PTSD, the survey showed that “less than half of those with problems sought help, mostly out of fear of being stigmatized or hurting their careers,” the Associated Press reported.

“Once called shell shock or combat fatigue, PTSD can develop after witnessing or experiencing a traumatic event. Symptoms include flashbacks, nightmares, feelings of detachment, irritability, trouble concentrating and sleeplessness,” AP said.

Symptoms of major depression, anxiety or PTSD were reported by about 16 to 17 percent of though who served in Iraq.

Findings by the National Vietnam Veterans Readjustment Survey showed 35.8 percent of male Vietnam combat veterans in the late 1980s suffered from PTSD at the time, almost 20 years after their war experience, said Dr. Jonathan Shay, a psychiatrist at the Department of Veterans Affairs Outpatient Clinic, Boston.

In an article in The Long Term View, the magazine of the Massachusetts School of Law at Andover, Shay wrote that Vietnam combat veterans have been hospitalized for physical problems about six times more often than troops that did not fight in Vietnam and are three times more likely to have been “both homeless and vagrant” than their civilian counterparts.

Shay is a recipient of a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation “genius” award for his work in this area.

“The supposedly traditional idea of honoring returning veterans ran afoul of deep divisions over the justice and wisdom of the war as a whole, making honor to the veterans seem an endorsement of the war policy,” Shay writes. Many veterans suffer from lingering doubts about the rightness of the war, causing some to feel deeply dishonored even as they accepted medals for bravery. Concern over the “rightness” of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan may be producing similar doubts among veterans today.
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Fewer than half of returning Vets suffering PTSD seek help