When no one wants to accept the painful outcome

He served in the Army. Now he serves in the National Guards. The Army doesn't want to accept responsibility for what his service did to him any more than the National Guard does. If you think we take care of our veterans, read this and understand we are far from it.

Safe at home, a soldier struggles with PTSD

Paul Raines saw a close friend burn to death after an explosion in Baghdad. Another soldier in his unit was shot in the neck, and Raines experienced almost daily mortar and rocket attacks.

When he returned in 2006 after a year in Iraq, the Frederick man chalked these up as the realities of war. He did not seek treatment.

Five years later, Raines -- who joined the National Guard after being discharged from the Army -- says he has post-traumatic stress disorder and a litany of medical issues that have led to a downward spiral in his life.

"It's still fresh as the day I got back," Raines, 30, said in an interview at his home. "The day-to-day stuff, that's the thing that upsets me the most."

Now that he is seeking help, Raines said, the problem is bureaucracy. The National Guard and the Army go back and forth over who should address his problems because they arose when he served in Iraq.

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs will not give him full disability benefits, Raines said, because he continues to serve in the Guard, which he joined after four years of Army active duty ended in 2007.

He is a specialist with the 291st Army Liaison Team out of Adelphi and his contract runs until 2013.

He cannot drive through downtown Frederick because it reminds him of Baghdad. He wakes up in the middle of the night unaware that he is safe at home. He often forgets whether he has eaten that day.

"They just leave him damaged and walk away and don't even care," Jessica Raines said. "You feel like you're fighting a war with your own country. He fought for our country."

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Siblings serve together on the front lines on 60 minutes

Siblings serve together on the front lines

(CBS News) Lara Logan goes to Afghanistan to report on a rare situation that the military tries to avoid: siblings serving in combat together. Her report on five sets of real brothers in combat will be broadcast on "60 Minutes" Sunday, Jan. 8 (8:00-9:00PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.

There is no rule against it, but the military has tried to avoid having more than one family member serve together in combat since the WWII attack on a U.S. battleship that resulted in the deaths of the five Sullivan brothers. So, when siblings want to fight a war together, there is resistance from the chain of command. Members of the military have to persuade officers, sometimes bringing their parents into the fight, to allow them to go to the front with their brothers.

"60 Minutes" managed to get eight of those brothers together for a group interview. All of these Marines serve in the same battalion in Southern Afghanistan. They are: Lance Cpl. Joshua Beans of Tampa and Cpl. Daniel Beans of Cedar Key, Fla.; Lance Cpls. Cody and Bobby Henrichsen of Katy, TX; Gunnery Sgt. Hector Vega and his brother Sgt. Francisco Vega from Houston; Lance Cpl. Matthew Faseler from Jourdanton, Tx., who never realized his aim of serving in combat with his brother Jonathon, a lance corporal who was hurt in training; Lance Cpls. Will and Raul Hernandez of Corpus Christi, TX.
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Point Man shows the way to what faith can do

In 2008 I made a video for Point Man Ministries

Point Man started with and for Vietnam Veterans.

Since 1984, when Seattle Police Officer and Vietnam Veteran Bill Landreth noticed he was arresting the same people each night, he discovered most were Vietnam vets like himself that just never seemed to have quite made it home. He began to meet with them in coffee shops and on a regular basis for fellowship and prayer. Soon, Point Man Ministries was conceived and became a staple of the Seattle area. Bills untimely death soon after put the future of Point Man in jeopardy.

However, Chuck Dean, publisher of a Veterans self help newspaper, Reveille, had a vision for the ministry and developed it into a system of small groups across the USA for the purpose of mutual support and fellowship. These groups are known as Outposts. Worldwide there are hundreds of Outposts and Homefront groups serving the families of veterans.

PMIM is run by veterans from all conflicts, nationalities and backgrounds. Although, the primary focus of Point Man has always been to offer spiritual healing from PTSD, Point Man today is involved in group meetings, publishing, hospital visits, conferences, supplying speakers for churches and veteran groups, welcome home projects and community support. Just about any where there are Vets there is a Point Man presence. All services offered by Point Man are free of charge.

Think about that for a second. Bill saw the need because he was arresting veterans back in 1984. Not that much differently than what is happening now all across the nation. The only new thing is Veterans Courts. What PTSD does is not new. What combat does is not new. Unless God drastically redesigns how humans are made, the outcome is not likely to change, since it hasn't changed throughout the history of humanity. Read ancient texts on combat and the aftermath of war, read the Bible and search the pages of the earliest humans struggling with what combat did to them and you'll know, what we call PTSD now has been afflicting humans since their story first began.

If Satan had a perfect weapon, it would be PTSD. He wouldn't be delighted with a heroic instantaneous death on the battlefield but when there are survivors, he must dance with glee. More souls to torture for today and more to come. The word "trauma" is actually Greek for "wound" because that is what is left over after traumatic events in a human's life. Wounds to the body are easy to see. We can see the damage done just as we can watch them heal with our own eyes. If a limb is lost or there is a deep scar left behind, our heads get wrapped around the fact something awful happened and they are dealing with something we can't really understand. If there is nothing to see with our own eyes, well then, we think they should get over it. After all, they look fine to us.

People walk away from traumatic events one of two ways. Either they were saved by the grace of God or He did it to them. If they believe God did it to them based on what they think of their relationship with Him, then they begin to be destroyed. What point is there to hope for anything if God hates them? What are they supposed to hope for if God is against them? When they need help to recover and it isn't there for them, it only reinforces the notion that they deserve to suffer. When they find no one to come and help them, no one to stand by them, no one to show any kind of compassion to them, they grow more convinced they are paying for "what they did" and there is no mercy for them. They begin to believe they do not deserve to be loved, to be helped, to be healed or to be forgiven for whatever sin they believe they committed.

If they believe they are evil, they begin to act that way. If they believe there is nothing worthy in them, they unleash all that is safe to express in battle beginning with anger. They push people away, especially those they loved trying to justify themselves along with all the negative emotions they cling to. PTSD spreads out claiming more and more souls in the process. Yep, it is Satan's perfect weapon.

It pulls good people away from God all the time. The notion of the Commandment "thou shall not kill" pounds the point home all the time. Doesn't seem to matter to the veteran that God also commanded war to be waged or that the first warrior created was an arch angel named Michael. The fact that Christ forgave the very hands that nailed Him to the Cross escapes the "unforgiven" sufferers because they cannot remember any of the good they did or the reason they wanted to serve in the first place anymore than they can remember they were will to die for the sake of someone else.

Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. John 15-13

There was no evil in them when they were willing to do this. No one enters into the military thinking they will never face battle. Sure they may hope they don't but even National Guards and Reservist know the risk. Some do it because they feel called to serve this way. Some do it because of a relative or a friend. A few do it because they were in trouble and they were sent to get some discipline in their lives. For whatever the original reason behind entering into the military, there was not one evil intent. If someone just wanted to kill, the psychological testing would have shown it and they wouldn't be allowed to serve.

While the draft stopped sending young men into war after Vietnam, there were still plenty of then willing to serve. Even when the draft basically forced them to go, they served with the same purpose as the enlisted. They all wanted to get back home with as many as possible as they left with. Again, no evil in that.

War makes everyone question the existence of God. How could God allow all they see to happen without stopping it? How could a loving God allow so much suffering and death? What they don't see is all the moments within all that "evil" that clearly showed God was there. Whenever they could shed a single tear, He was there. Whenever they were still able to call out His name, He was there. Any act of compassion they were able to do, He was there. When they were able to pray, He was there. His love was there all along but they just couldn't see Him.

Much like a bad headline in the news will stay with us trumping any good news we read, the terrible outcome lingers in combat. They forget too much as the last part of the event gains strength. The image of a dead family in a car on a road in Iraq, was all a National Guard soldier could remember. He knew he was the one who ended their lives. Everything that came after was punishment for taking their lives. At least that is what he thought.

He came home to a family that couldn't understand anything about him anymore. Like a stranger, he tried to fit back in but then he reached the point where, he just didn't want to anymore. He lost his wife, kids, home, the rest of his family and then slept on whatever sofas he could. His body was paying the price from wounds he received later but his soul was already ravaged. The outcome haunted his days and came alive in his dreams. Every time he found the will to reach out for help but was rebuffed, it dug the wound deeper into his soul until he ran out of hope. One suicide attempt failed. He thought maybe, just maybe he was supposed to live. So a glimmer of hope started another round of trying to heal, but life interrupted his search. He wanted to end the pain again. Another attempted suicide failed. Again, he had hope he was supposed to live but nothing changed.

Appointments for medications were kept but nothing was helping him. Physical pain was nothing compared to the spiritual pain he was carrying. After a while the hope came when his Mom contacted me. I talked to her about what he was going through and helped her understand why he changed so much. Then I talked to him a few times. I helped him remember what happened before he opened fire on the car with the family. He screamed at them to stop, threw rocks, fired warning shots and prayed. Once he remembered what he did was not evil and he did not want to kill them, he was able to forgive himself for what he had to do. Had it gone differently, the car could have been carrying another bomb to blow up as soon as it was near enough to the him and his men. His intent was to save the lives of his unit.

This is what Point Man understands. War is never pretty. It is never undone. There is only once cure for war and that is peace but not "world peace" we all pray for. It is the peace inside the soul of a soldier when they are forgiven for whatever they need to be forgiven for, forgive themselves for what they see they did or could not do and then find peace within to live as a veteran of combat.

Troubled vets find sympathetic forum in camaraderie of Point Man
Group helps vets deal with the changes the war made in them

By Mark Wilson
Posted January 7, 2012

"Whether people want to believe it or not, one of the first casualties of war is their soul," he said. "That's one thing the VA cannot deal with, the morality of it."

EVANSVILLE — Mike Wilson returned from the war in Iraq physically unhurt, but he nearly lost his marriage before he understood that he is still affected by the war.

Now 26, Wilson joined the Marines while a senior at Central High School. He spent four years on active duty in the military police. During a stint in Iraq, he mostly worked providing convoy security. Among his assignments was duty as a machine-gunner on the seven-ton flatbed trucks with mine rollers that led the convoys.

He saw combat.

After seven months in that high-pressure environment, Wilson returned home to his wife and a life outside the military that he had never experienced as an adult.

"I just wanted to be left alone by myself. I wanted to stay home and drink. The turning point for me was that it just about cost me my marriage," he said. "Because of my wife, I started counseling."

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We have seen what faith can do. How men and women can come out on the other side of this darkness better than they were before. We do not seek to cure them but to help them heal. To put them back in touch with what they already have inside of them so they can rediscover God does still love them. When they prayed for help from God, He loved them enough to send people to help them.

What Faith Can Do

I’ve seen dreams that move the mountains
Hope that doesn’t ever end
Even when the sky is falling
I’ve seen miracles just happen
Silent prayers get answered
Broken hearts become brand new
That’s what faith can do

What Faith Can Do Lyrics at elw

This is a video from the Point Man conference last year in Buffalo. A Iraq veteran talks about his wife walking in when he had the gun in his hand and what happened after. He is an outstanding Out Post leader in Washington State.


This is what faith can do because this is what faith has been doing all over the country.

Suicidal soldier prompts SWAT standoff

Suicidal soldier prompts SWAT standoff
Chelsea Bannach The Spokesman-Review
A suicidal soldier prompted a SWAT standoff in Spokane County this afternoon.

A few minutes before noon, a couple called police after finding a bloody man in a truck parked near Nevada Street and Magnesium Road that was running for more than an hour and a half, said sheriff’s Spokesman Sgt. Dave Reagan.

Police thought the 35-year-old man may have been armed with a gun because he is a military reservist, Reagan said. The SWAT team responded after the man refused to exit the vehicle and began revving his engine.

As SWAT moved in, the man exited the truck and surrendered. He had self-inflicted knife wounds to his legs and neck, and was transported to a downtown hospital for surgery and a mental evaluation.
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Fort Carson soldier left suicide note on Facebook

Soldier wrote Facebook suicide note before Springs crash
January 07, 2012 11:00 AM
JAKOB RODGERS
THE GAZETTE
Fort Carson Pvt. Jordon DuBois visited Facebook a little more than an hour before he was killed Thursday in a Colorado Springs crash.

The 20-year-old wrote a message. “I’m goin to kill myself this is my last post ever ill will miss u all…” he wrote at 5:49 p.m. Then he posted a picture of himself.

By 7:09 p.m., DuBois was dead.

The Army on Saturday confirmed DuBois’s death. Colorado Springs police have said they suspect suicide in the crash, but haven’t finished an investigation.

DuBois, a soldier with less than a year in the Army who’d never seen combat, died when his speeding truck veered into a streetlight, a metal-and-concrete bus bench and slammed though several landscaping boulders. The battered truck came to rest at the base of a tree off Westmeadow Drive in a quiet neighborhood at the foot of Cheyenne Mountain.

There is no sign DuBois braked or turned the wheel to avoid the obstacles.

“At this point, it doesn’t appear there was anything he was trying to avoid,” said Colorado Springs police Sgt. Robert Weber, on Thursday evening.
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Original report