Divorce veteran

Divorce veteran
by
Chaplain Kathie

A conversation I had last night with a young wife ended with thoughts of how many Vietnam veterans ended up with multiple marriages. Just as with today's young veterans, being married into the world of combat, has not been easy, it was especially hard on the Vietnam generation of veterans. While PTSD has not changed, the ability to communicate and find support has. Now we are able to reach out to other people going through the same difficulties and hardships all over the country. We are able to connect to people around the world if we can't find someone else right here. We can find information and inspiration but perhaps the most important gift is the knowledge we are not alone.

The Vietnam War brought about 2 million combat veterans home. Perhaps the most shocking piece of news is that we've reached almost as many serving in Iraq and Afghanistan as we did with all those years in Vietnam. This means that there were just as many families adopted by combat and living with the results of it. We've already seen the increased rates of suicides and attempted suicides just as we've seen the increase rates of divorces. Many families are facing year of regrets because they do not know what to do to help their veteran heal or even know the right questions to want to have answered.

Information is available all over the web for them to learn if they want to. What about the veteran's spouse from the Vietnam generation with marriages that ended long ago? Divorce under any circumstances is hard. It's heartbreaking to see a marriage end and being left with an unknown future when you thought you had it all planned. They fell in love with one person only to discover all too often they were really married to a stranger.

For the spouse of a combat veteran with a marriage that ended long ago, the fact remains that you were married into the results of combat, but you just didn't know it. You simple assumed that you were married to someone who changed, or wasn't what you thought they were and you're still living with the pain of a shocking situation. Don't blame yourself. You didn't know what the newer generation of spouses know today. No one told you that it all came back with them. The support wasn't there. Knowledge was not available to you or to your well meaning friends giving you advice to end the marriage. Your kids didn't know why their parent acted the way they did and most blamed themselves just as you blame yourself. The veteran blames himself/herself just as much because they didn't know any better.

There are jobs for all of you to do and that is to first understand what happened by know why it happened. Learn what PTSD is and what it does to survivors of combat and what makes them so unique. You didn't have a common marriage with just the usual problems everyone else faces, but you had a combat marriage with all the other problems that came with it. Once you have a great understanding, first forgive yourself for not knowing and for making mistakes because you didn't know. You did the best you could with what you knew at the time, so forgive yourself. Explain it to the kids because they have to forgive their parent too. It was not the fault of the veteran because while they knew there was something wrong, they didn't know what it was or what they could do to stop feeling pain so deeply. It was not that they didn't love you enough, it was more that they couldn't stop feeling pain enough to feel the blessings that come with love.

Many veterans ended up homeless because you had no support to be able to live together.  Some committed suicide because they had no hope of being happy again.  Remember, you did the best you could for them at the time.  You just didn't know what else to do.  You cannot change your past but you can learn why it all happened and this will give you some peace.

If you are a veteran, make peace with that part of your life. There was a lot of damage done to people you loved even though you didn't mean it. Learn what was behind the way you acted and then explain it to your ex-spouse and your kids. Even if nothing comes out of it, at least give them the chance to forgive because in the process you will give them the chance to stop thinking it was their fault. No one was to blame for what no one knew. Many veterans have had three, four or even five marriages. Each one the result of hoping to find happiness thru someone else but doomed to end because the pain lived stronger than hope. Making peace with your past has to involve them as well. This way, there is hope for a fresh start in your life and healing the life you had after combat just as much as it's about healing the life you lived during combat.

Find the knowledge you need on the web and in support groups. It's not too late for you so stop wishing you knew all of it long ago and begin to use what you learn today. To heal your future you must first heal your past and then even you can find happiness in a loving relationship. It is not uncommon for an aware veteran to restore relationships with their kids once they understand why things were the way they were. Give them a chance to heal the pain they carry. It was no one's fault but the pain was no less real to everyone involved. Life is hard enough just as a human but when you're a human with combat in your life, it makes it all the more harder to find peace in your life but it is not impossible. Learn and act on what you finally understand for the sake of people you loved.

Jack Nicklaus is helping combat veterans

Jack Nicklaus donates design for VA course

By Gregg Bell - The Associated Press
Posted : Sunday Jun 20, 2010 15:07:09 EDT

LAKEWOOD, Wash. — Jack Nicklaus takes the wrapping off another in his signature line of hybrid clubs and hands it to Danny Dudek.

The Army lieutenant colonel, paralyzed below both knees, is propped up inside a “SoloRider,” a specially designed cart with a seat that tilts up to support disabled golfers when they swing. He takes the new club, leans over the ball and follows the legend’s instructions.

THWACK! The white ball soars into the sunny Northwest sky, past lush evergreens and lands about 150 yards down the driving range.

Dudek’s drive — specifically the dedication and promise for renewal it represents — is why Nicklaus is here outside Tacoma. The golf great is donating his expertise to design what will perhaps be the most appreciated course he’ll ever build.

Nicklaus is helping combat veterans by redesigning and expanding the American Lake Veterans Golf Course. It’s going to be a one-of-a-kind, 18-hole layout geared specifically for disabled golfers.
read more here
Jack Nicklaus donates design for VA course

Lance Cpl. "just knew something was going amiss with me"

All are heroes: the Lance Corporal
A Lance Corporal who suffered from post traumatic stress has told how he struggled with the condition while serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"I'll tell you what the worst feeling in the world is: it's flying out on a C-17 with the seriously injured guys, when there's not a scratch on you."

This is Jim Maguire* and he's 29. He joined the Army in 1998 and saw service in Iraq and Afghanistan as a gunner and a Lance Corporal commanding a Scimitar armoured reconaissance vehicle.

He now suffers from post traumatic stress disorder.

"I died of shame 100 times, talking to lads from the same battle with missing limbs. Yet I was still thinking, 'But I was there, I'm no coward, I was there fighting to help you guys stay alive.'

"In the UK they don't look at your passport, no debrief, nothing. I walked off the plane and walked home. Soon after that is when I first tried to kill myself.

"Thank God somebody passed my details to Combat Stress and when they got my file they sent someone straight away. Honestly, they showed up just in time! I went into Audley Court, where they truly appreciate what's happened to you."

It took about three years for the seriousness of Mr Maguire's illness to reach critical, having first been to Iraq in June 2003, to the volatile area of Al Amarah.

He was then seconded to Baghdad and that's when he first noticed signs of PTSD, though he had no idea what it was.

"I just knew something was going amiss with me," he says.
read the rest here
All are heroes

Vietnam MIA's remains laid to rest with honor

Vietnam Veteran's Body Finally Home
Indiana's NewsCenter

By Megan Trent
Jun 19, 2010

COLUMBIA CITY, Ind. (Indiana's NewsCenter) - Hundreds of people lined the streets of Columbia City today as Sergeant Roy DeWitt Prater was laid to rest with full military honors nearly 40 years after his death.


"It just warms my heart that so many people have come out here today, and obviously this example of patriotism, to recognize this fallen hero. And he truly is a hero," says funeral attendee Steve Mundy.

Prater's aircraft was shot down over South Vietnam during a search and rescue mission in 1972. He was buried with six other airmen in Arlington Cemetery in 1997, but recent DNA testing positively identified Prater's remains.
read the rest here
Vietnam Veterans Body Finally Home

Stone pavilion would honor Hood victims

Slavonic Benevolent Order of the State of Texas via AP This rendering provided by the Slavonic Benevolent Order of the State of Texas shows a proposed memorial honoring the victims of the Fort Hood shootings. The granite and limestone pavilion is planned near the Killeen Civic and Conference Center.

Stone pavilion would honor Hood victims

Staff report
Posted : Sunday Jun 20, 2010 8:44:56 EDT

The Killeen, Texas, city council has approved plans for a Fort Hood Memorial to victims of the deadly Nov. 5 shooting rampage.

The memorial, approved June 8, is planned near the Killeen Civic and Conference Center. The city will search for an engineer and architect for a granite-and-limestone pavilion.

Brian Vanicek, president of the Slavonic Benevolent Order of the State of Texas, said June 9 that his group will spearhead the project, seeking donations from the public and private groups. He had no cost estimate.

The group has collected $36,000, with $25,000 more in pledges for the monument, according to the Killeen Daily Herald.
read more here
Stone pavilion would honor Hood victims

Camp Lejeune Marines begin to get benefits for toxic water

VA quietly giving benefits to Marines exposed to toxic water
By BARBARA BARRETT
McClatchy Newspapers
WASHINGTON -- Former Marine Corps Cpl. Peter Devereaux was told about a year ago that he had just two or three years to live.

More than 12 months later, at 48, he still isn't ready to concede that the cancer that's wasting his innards is going to kill him. He swallows his pills and suffers the pain and each afternoon he greets his 12-year-old daughter, Jackie, as she steps off her school bus in North Andover, Mass.

The U.S. Department of the Navy says that more research is needed to connect ailments suffered by Marines such as Devereaux who served at Camp Lejeune and their families who lived there to decades of water contamination at the 156,000-acre base in eastern North Carolina. Meanwhile, however, the Department of Veterans Affairs has quietly begun awarding benefits to a few Marines who were based at Lejeune.



Read more: VA quietly giving benefits to Marines exposed to toxic water

Dad and six year old daughter share hospital room at Walter Reed

Dad, daughter share hospital room at Walter Reed
June 19, 2010 3:20 PM
Katie Tammen
Daily News
FORT WALTON BEACH — It wasn’t quite the reunion with his daughter he’d imagined, but it was memorable nonetheless.

Air Force Staff Sgt. Travis Dalton and his oldest daughter, Eva, saw each other for the first time in about four months at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C.

Eva had traveled to the hospital with her mother, Kara, and two younger siblings to see Dalton after he was wounded by an improvised explosive device.

But then, instead of seeing her father right away, the 6-year-old had a severe asthma attack that got her hospitalized, too.

Dalton had no inkling of his daughter’s attack when he awoke from surgery and found himself alone in a hospital room. It was about 45 minutes later that Kara came to see him.

Initially, she gave no indication anything was amiss.

Then Dalton asked about the kids.

“She said, ‘Well, we’ve had an eventful day while you’ve been in surgery,’ ” Dalton recalled.
go here for the rest
Dad daughter share hospital room at Walter Reed

Beloved Marine statue stolen from Larksville home

Beloved Marine statue stolen from Larksville home
By Matthew Harris (Staff Writer)
Published: June 20, 2010

The taciturn-faced Marine stood at attention in his dress blues, gripping an American flag and keeping watch at his post.

For six years, the 175-pound concrete sentinel, who stood barely 3 feet tall, steadfastly protected Florena Sorokas' front yard in Larksville.

Sure, he was a statue. But in a family where two sons are Marine veterans and two more grandsons served the Marine Corps, the oversized figurine was a talisman from the boys to the family matriarch.

"They bought it to protect me while they were gone," said Sorokas, who got the statue before her grandsons left for tours in Afghanistan.

And he never flagged in his duty - until Saturday, and not on his own will.

In the wee hours, someone sneaked onto Sorokas' lawn and made off with the statue, leaving the 71-year-old grandmother heartbroken and her family upset. Larksville police are investigating the theft and offering a reward to anyone with information leading to its return.
read more here
Beloved Marine statue stolen from Larksville home

A Marine, a Mosque, a Question

Leave it to a Marine to ask the right questions!

A Marine, a Mosque, a Question
By JIM DWYER
Published: June 18, 2010
A few hours after the town hall meeting began, deep into the question-and-answer portion, Bill Finnegan lined up for a turn at the microphone. He had not come with any intention to speak, but as the evening dragged on, he changed his mind.

A Muslim group had made a deal to buy an empty convent from the Catholic parish of St. Margaret Mary in the Midland Beach section of Staten Island and open a mosque. A civic association organized a meeting with representatives of the group, the Muslim American Society, on the evening of June 9. Mr. Finnegan had gone, he said later, to “see what all the hoopla was about.”

Mr. Finnegan, 25, began by introducing himself. “I said, ‘My name is Bill Finnegan, and I’m a United States Marine recently returned from Afghanistan,’ ” he said.


Cheers rang out. He turned to the representatives of the Muslim group, seated at a table in the front.


“My question to you is, will you work to form a cohesive bond with the people of this community?” he asked.


The men said yes.


Mr. Finnegan then faced the audience. “And will you work to form a cohesive bond with these people — your new neighbors?” he asked.


The crowd booed. A voice called out: “No!”

read more here
A Marine a Mosque a Question

Paul Revere's Ride to The Wall

Ride to the Wall


This project would not have been possible without Rolling Thunder, who invited us to do a free musical tribute at their annual veteran’s demonstration in Washington, D.C.; Paul Allen, whose “Experience Music Project” in Seattle provided the ideal venue for the kickoff concert, EMP’s Ben London who coodinated the event, Richard Foos and Mark Pinkus of Rhino Entertainment, who worked with us in manufacturing the Ride To The Wall CD, Steve Mueller and his staff at Signature Design for the design and production of the CD Booklet and a special thanks to Larry Leasure, we couldn’t have done it without you. To them, Adrian Cronauer, Heather French Henry and my good friend Dick Clark, a heartfelt “thank you” for helping us help America’s veterans. --Paul Revere

Ride To The Wall

Lyrics By Tommy D.

Music By C. Driggs & O. Martinez

Now here’s a story that needs to be told, Of a midnight ride not the one of old

Paul Revere with his rock band, Told his Raiders he had a plan

Rolling Thunder bikers heard the call. Fired up their hogs and headed for the Wall

Coast to coast the veteran brothers grew, To show in numbers ‘cause they all knew

We’ll ride to the Wall the Vietnam shrine

To honor those who put it all on the line

We’ll ride to the Wall...the price they had to pay

Young warriors in blood for the U.S. of A. ... USA

Some say get over it, it’s in the past. But the Wall is proof that their story will last

Tears in our eyes as choppers flew overhead, Reminds us of the veterans living and dead

Rolling Thunder bikers side by side, Remembering names carved in the Wall who had died

Harley’s roaring by the thousands they ride, To the big black Wall with honor and pride

Chorus

Wall of my soul ... Vietnam Vet, Ride to the Wall ... Never forget

Wall of my soul ... Vietnam Vet, Ride to the Wall ... Never forget

Chorus

Wall of my soul ... Vietnam Vet

Ride to the Wall but you never forget

With love in our hearts - we ride to the Wall

See the names of my brothers and sisters

Too young to have died ... I’ll never forget

Ride to the Wall ... our Vietnam Vets

Wall of my soul

PTSD I Grieve Video for National Guards

It all depends on who is doing the study and the results come out based on how they do it. The going rate for PTSD for humans in general is one out of three, the next highest used rate is one out of five exposed to traumatic events. Factor in the redeployments increase the risk by 50% and then you can see how there could be such a huge number of PTSD veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan. One more thing to consider is that National Guards and Reservist often have dangerous jobs when they return home. Many of them are in law enforcement and others are firefighters as well as EMT's. Many times they return from combat in Iraq or Afghanistan, back to their regular jobs but also as part of the National Guard, they are expected to respond to events in their own communities. Floods, tornadoes, hurricanes, snow storms and mud slides along with forest fires, will often put them under even more stress. Today we see them being called to act as border patrol and clean up of the coasts after the oil rig explosion.

These men and women have regular lives, with families to worry about and jobs to do to provide for their families, yet too often all the demands placed on them are not considered when they come home and receive even less help to heal than the active military members do. We need to do a better job supporting them for real!

PTSD Hits National Guard Soldiers Harder: Study
National Guard Soldiers Have Higher Rates of Mental Health Problems Than Others

By KRISTINA FIORE
MedPage Today Staff Writer
June 13, 2010
After combat duty in Iraq or Afghanistan , members of the National Guard appear to have higher rates of mental health problems than those in the Active Component, researchers have found.


Rates of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) with serious functional impairment increased from about 7 percent to more than 12 percent over a nine-month period, compared with only about a 1 percent increase among those in the Active Component, according to Jeffrey Thomas of Walter Reed Army Institute in Silver Spring, Md. and colleagues.

The researchers reported their findings in the June issue of Archives of General Psychiatry.

"The emergence of differences ... likely does not have to do with the differences in the health effects of combat, but rather with other variables related to readjustment to civilian life or access to health care," they wrote.
read more here
PTSD Hits National Guard Soldiers Harder

From 2008

PTSD and Depression Increase in Veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars
SALT LAKE CITY— Rates of PTSD and depression are high and increasing among combat veterans of the current Iraq and Afghanistan wars who sought care from US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) medical facilities, reported Charles Marmar, MD, at the 133rd Annual Meeting of the American Neurological Association.

Despite evidence that the rate of VA specialty visits is increasing for veterans with a mental health diagnosis, as many as two-thirds of these patients are receiving minimal or no psychiatric care, according to Dr. Marmar. In the absence of widespread early intervention for specific subgroups of combat veterans, he believes that returning Iraq and Afghanistan servicemen and servicewomen with mental health problems will create a significant burden for the US health care system, including general medical services.

Dr. Marmar, Chief of Mental Health Services at the San Francisco VA Medical Center and Professor of Psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco, and colleagues assessed the electronic medical records of more than 206,000 veterans entering the VA health care system from 2002 to 2007. They found that one in three patients was diagnosed with at least one mental health disorder, and 41% were diagnosed with either a mental health or behavioral adjustment disorder. The diagnosis rate for PTSD was 20%, followed by 14% for depression, about 7% for alcohol abuse, and 3% for substance abuse.

For PTSD, no significant differences were seen between active-duty veterans and members of the National Guard or reserve units or between men and women. However, women had higher rates of depression than men did, and male veterans—regardless of whether they were in active duty, the National Guard, or reserve components—had nearly twice the rate of alcohol and drug use, compared with female veterans.
read more of this here
http://www.neuropsychiatryreviews.com/08nov/PTSDDepression.html

But then there is this report from RAND

Studies' Estimates of PTSD Prevalence Rates for Returning Service Members Vary Widely
In allocating resources to treat posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among service members, policymakers rely on estimates of how prevalent this condition is among troops. But published prevalence rates vary extensively and are often disputed. For example, the most frequently cited estimate for PTSD among Vietnam veterans — nearly 31 percent — is still highly criticized. Similar concerns have been raised about PTSD prevalence estimates among U.S. service members serving in Afghanistan as part of Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) and in Iraq as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF).
A team of RAND researchers analyzed the literature to document the extent of the variation in PTSD prevalence rates for military personnel who had served in OEF and OIF since 2002 and to identify possible explanations for these discrepancies. The team found 29 relevant studies and documented the following findings
read the findings here
http://www.rand.org/pubs/research_briefs/RB9509/index1.html

Military investigates Iowa National Guard soldier's death

Military investigates Iowa National Guard soldier's death

Associated Press - June 19, 2010 1:14 PM ET

SPENCER, Iowa (AP) - Military officials have continued their investigation of the death of a 29-year-old Iowa solider who died in Iraq during a "non-combat incident."

The United States Forces-Iraq offered no new details Saturday in the death of Spc. Christopher Opat. He died last Tuesday from injuries in a non-combat incident in Baquah, Iraq.
read the rest here
http://www.ktiv.com/Global/story.asp?S=12676764

Army mounts anti-suicide campaign with soldier who survived

Spc. Joseph Sanders survived thanks to the awareness of Spc. Albert Godding. He took a chance and was more afraid of a friend losing his life than of losing a friendship. After all, when you think about pull out the pin on a rifle in Iraq, it is a dangerous thing to do but it would have been more dangerous for Sanders to be able to fire the bullet into himself. Now this act by Godding could in fact end up saving many more lives. Sanders lived to tell his story and will be part of the campaign to save more lives. Sanders also credits the fact he was able to talk to a mental health worker soon after. Wonderful story all the way around.

A victory as Army mounts anti-suicide campaign

By DAN ELLIOTT, Associated Press Writer
Jun 19, 10:27 am ET
DENVER – Army Spc. Joseph Sanders was despondent over the breakup of his marriage and feeling alone in the oppressive heat of an Iraqi summer when he turned his rifle on himself and pulled the trigger.

Nothing happened. His buddy, Spc. Albert Godding, had disabled the rifle by removing the firing pin after Sanders told him he was thinking of killing himself.

It was a singular but welcome victory in the Army's battle against suicides, which last year claimed the lives of 163 soldiers on active duty and 82 Guard and Reserve soldiers not on active duty.

Congress ordered the Defense Department in 2008 to study ways to address the problem, and the Army started its own task force last year after an alarming spike in suicides in January and February.

The Army also launched a campaign to teach soldiers how to spot suicide warning signs and what to do about them. Godding credits that training for making him aware of the danger Sanders was in.

"Feeling better took time," said Sanders. "I believe a lot had to do with that I had a mental health specialist to speak to right away."

Sanders has agreed to appear in an upcoming video for the Army's suicide-prevention campaign, said Col. Chris Philbrick, director of the Army Suicide Prevention Task Force.

also on this
Carson GI cited for preventing suicide in Iraq

Elderly Vietnam Vet Attacked, Left to Die

Elderly Man Attacked, Left to Die
Darsha Philips FOX40 News
June 18, 2010


SACRAMENTO - A 70 year old wheelchair-bound man was robbed, beaten and left to die in his home.

Robert Gonzales is a former Marine and Vietnam Veteran. He was attacked sometime before Wednesday.
go here for more
Elderly Man Attacked, Left to Die

Overdue Medals Awarded to Wounded Vietnam Veteran

Overdue Medals Awarded to Wounded Vietnam Veteran

By Matt Smith

More than four decades after returning from Vietnam, a Door County veteran received an honor that long in the making. Action 2 News was invited to the ceremony.

Still a teenager, Navy corpsman Scott Chobot was front and center during the post-Tet offensive of 1969.

"Got hit on an average of about every two-and-a-half weeks," he recalls.

"Doc," as they call him, wasn't in Vietnam for even three months. He was wounded three times -- the last of which took his legs from him.

Not one, not two, not even three. Doc was honored Friday with eight medals and one ribbon, including two Purple Hearts and two Bronze Stars, the National Defense Service medal, and the Republic of Vietnam Campaign medal.
read more here
Overdue Medals Awarded to Wounded Vietnam Veteran

Fort Campbell soldier saves drowning woman

Police: Campbell soldier saves drowning woman

The (Clarksville, Tenn.) Leaf Chronicle
Posted : Saturday Jun 19, 2010 11:05:41 EDT

CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. — A Fort Campbell soldier is being called a hero after he saved the life of a 58-year-old woman who police said tried to commit suicide by drowning herself.

Clarksville police say Spc. Jose Ortiz and his girlfriend, Kathy Dewitt, were sitting on a log at McGregor Park about 11:15 p.m. Friday when the woman drove her vehicle into the river.
read more here
Campbell soldier saves drowning woman

VA still battling errors, claims backlog

VA still battling errors, claims backlog

By Tristan Hallman - Gannett Washington Bureau
Posted : Saturday Jun 19, 2010 10:03:41 EDT

“When [the VA is] processing 1 million claims, 1 percent error is 10,000 veterans,” De Planque said at a recent House subcommittee hearing. “That is completely unacceptable.”

Retired Marine Sgt. Michael Madden of Prescott, Ariz., knows what it means to battle. In Vietnam, he was shot in the head, forcing him to undergo spinal cord surgery that has left him in a wheelchair.

But the fight was not over for Madden. After being told by a Veterans Affairs doctor to file for funding to make his home and car wheelchair-adaptable, Madden has spent the last decade in a jungle of bureaucracy, legalese and claim denials.

More than $6,000 of out-of-pocket expenses and a suspended Arizona driver’s license later, Madden is still searching for answers.

“I find it kind of ironic that the VA tells me that I can’t drive without the equipment, and then tells me that I can’t have the equipment for a service-connected disability,” Madden said.

Madden is not alone in struggling with the bureaucracy of the Veterans Benefits Administration, the VA sub-agency that handles veterans’ disability claims. Seeing the challenges VBA faces, Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki has made fighting inefficiency a top priority.

Shinseki’s main target is a backlog of claims. As of June 8, a total of 186,777 claims — 35.8 percent of total pending claims — were still unprocessed after VBA’s new 125-day processing goal, according to Veterans Affairs.
read more here
VA still battling errors, claims backlog

Marine Corps suicides on near-record pace

MILITARY: Marine Corps suicides on near-record pace
Seven self-inflicted deaths in May raise this year's toll to 21
By MARK WALKER

Seven U.S. Marines killed themselves in May, raising the number of self-inflicted deaths this year to 21 and continuing a trend that saw a record 52 troop suicides in 2009.

An additional 89 among the service's 202,000 men and women have attempted suicide this year, including 15 in May, according to a report from the Marine Corps Suicide Prevention Program in Washington.

Despite a host of outreach efforts, the numbers continue to rise, surpassing the rate of 20 per 100,000 in the civilian population and that for all the other services.

In 2009, the Marine Corps' rate reached 24 per 100,000, according to service statistics. The Army's rate last year was 22 per 100,000 while the Air Force's was 15.5 and the Navy's was 13.3.

The 21 suicides this year compare with 55 Marine combat deaths in Afghanistan since Jan. 1, underscoring the breadth of the problem.
go here for more
Marine Corps suicides on near-record pace

Jury watches handcuffed Iraq War Vet being beaten

Jury watches video of Housing Officer David London bashing handcuffed Iraq war veteran
BY Oren Yaniv
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Saturday, June 19th 2010, 4:00 AM


Nobody disputes that the disturbing surveillance video screened for a Manhattan criminal jury Friday shows a housing cop bashing an Iraq war veteran with his baton.

The question is whether Housing Officer David London, 45, was committing an act of police brutality or using necessary force to subdue an aggressive suspect.

Prosecutors called London's beating of 28-year-old Walter Harvin in July 2008 an assault that the cop tried to cover up. But the defense insisted London's response was appropriate.

In the video, captured on security cameras at the upper West Side housing project where Harvin's mother lived, Harvin is seen shoving and scuffling with London, who then beat the ex-soldier even after he was cuffed.



Read more: Jury watches video of Housing Officer

Wounded Times going thru face lift

Today there will be a lot of changes made to Wounded Times Blog. It has gotten out of control over the last few years with all the news and great videos coming out that I wanted to share. My videos will be on the side bar with the direct play feature instead of links. A few items on the sidebar will be removed. Please come back later today when the changes have been made.