Medical Schools to Increase Focus on PTSD, TBI
January 11, 2012
Stars and Stripes
by Leo Shane III
WASHINGTON -- Medical schools will soon include more course work on post-traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injury and other common military ailments as part of a White House-led effort to prepare future physicians for the next generation of veteran patients.
First Lady Michelle Obama and officials from the Association of American Medical Colleges will announce the plans Wednesday afternoon. The effort includes more shared research and clinical trials among 130 medical and osteopathic schools around the country, including Ivy League and other major collegiate research institutions.
Officials from the association on Tuesday told reporters the goal is to ensure that young medical professionals are familiar with the signature wounds of war, and able to more effectively treat the millions of veterans who will struggle with those issues for decades to come.
White House officials said more than half of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans receiving treatment for mental health issues rely not on Department of Veterans Affairs physicians, but instead on private medical practices.
read more here
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Vietnam Veteran's wheelchair stolen from his yard
UPDATE
Veteran, whose wheelchair was stolen, gets new wheels from fellow vet
Posted: Jan 10, 2012
By Brittany Dionne
COLUMBUS, GA (WTVM) - -
The Vietnam veteran whose wheelchair was stolen out of his Columbus driveway has new wheels.
After News Leader 9 aired the story, we were flooded with calls and emails from viewers wanting to help. Another veteran saw the story, looked him up on Google, and within an hour was at his door with a new chair.
Gary Hudgins' wheelchair was stolen out of his driveway last week at their home on Oak Circle. He can only walk for a certain amount of time and without his chair he rarely leaves the house.
A man named Ellis Leader brought him a chair Monday night.
read more here
Veteran, whose wheelchair was stolen, gets new wheels from fellow vet
Posted: Jan 10, 2012
By Brittany Dionne
COLUMBUS, GA (WTVM) - -
The Vietnam veteran whose wheelchair was stolen out of his Columbus driveway has new wheels.
After News Leader 9 aired the story, we were flooded with calls and emails from viewers wanting to help. Another veteran saw the story, looked him up on Google, and within an hour was at his door with a new chair.
Gary Hudgins' wheelchair was stolen out of his driveway last week at their home on Oak Circle. He can only walk for a certain amount of time and without his chair he rarely leaves the house.
A man named Ellis Leader brought him a chair Monday night.
read more here
Veteran's wheelchair stolen, family pleads for its return
Posted: Jan 09, 2012
By Brittany Dionne
COLUMBUS, GA (WTVM) – A war veteran is having trouble getting around because someone stole his wheelchair right out of his yard.
With limited resources to get a new one, the family is pleading for the wheelchair to be returned.
The Hudgins family has been living on Oak Circle for more than 30 years. In the past year, Mrs. Hudgins says things have changed, "It seems like the past year they vandalized things in my yard."
Someone stole her husband's wheelchair out of his drive way built for him by "Houses for Heroes".
read more here
Maj. Thomas B. Bryant sings for betterment of troops
Third Army soldier sings for betterment of troops
13th Public Affairs Detachment
Story by Cpl. Christopher Calvert
CAMP ARIFJAN, Kuwait – For many, singing offers an outlet to express one’s feelings. Troops often find singing helps pass the time during a deployment while building esprit de corps among members of a unit. For one Third Army soldier, singing is more than just a hobby; it’s a way to help his fellow brothers and sisters in arms.
Maj. Thomas B. Bryant, Third Army/ARCENT Logistics, deputy plans chief and Silver Creek, Miss., native, grew up singing his entire life.
“I’m the son of a preacher,” said Bryant. “I’ve been singing pretty much all of my life. It’s just been one of those things God has blessed me with. I like to make people feel what I’m feeling, and singing helps me accomplish this.”
When Bryant graduated from high school, he felt compelled to join the U.S. Army Reserves and serve his country like his father did before him, he said.
“My father was prior military,” Bryant explained. “I felt obligated to do something for my country as well. My father was a little reluctant for me to join, but after I did and found it was something I really enjoyed, he gave me 120 percent of his support.”
After serving six years in the Reserves, Bryant decided to transfer to active duty and was commissioned as an infantry officer in 1995, then transferred to the Quartermaster Corps in 1998.
It was after this transition that Bryant realized the true power of his singing and began wondering how he could use it to better his fellow soldiers, many of whom would go on to suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and other mental illnesses after multiple deployments, he said.
“I felt compelled to tell the story of the nation being at war for the past 10 years,” explained Bryant. “How could I capture that in a 3.5 minute song? A lot of my fellow comrades have made the ultimate sacrifice, and many who came home are suffering from PTSD and things of that nature. I was able to record the song ‘Fall on my Knees,’ and I pray that it is a blessing and an inspiration to all of my fellow service members.”
read more here
13th Public Affairs Detachment
Story by Cpl. Christopher Calvert
CAMP ARIFJAN, Kuwait – For many, singing offers an outlet to express one’s feelings. Troops often find singing helps pass the time during a deployment while building esprit de corps among members of a unit. For one Third Army soldier, singing is more than just a hobby; it’s a way to help his fellow brothers and sisters in arms.
Maj. Thomas B. Bryant, Third Army/ARCENT Logistics, deputy plans chief and Silver Creek, Miss., native, grew up singing his entire life.
“I’m the son of a preacher,” said Bryant. “I’ve been singing pretty much all of my life. It’s just been one of those things God has blessed me with. I like to make people feel what I’m feeling, and singing helps me accomplish this.”
When Bryant graduated from high school, he felt compelled to join the U.S. Army Reserves and serve his country like his father did before him, he said.
“My father was prior military,” Bryant explained. “I felt obligated to do something for my country as well. My father was a little reluctant for me to join, but after I did and found it was something I really enjoyed, he gave me 120 percent of his support.”
After serving six years in the Reserves, Bryant decided to transfer to active duty and was commissioned as an infantry officer in 1995, then transferred to the Quartermaster Corps in 1998.
It was after this transition that Bryant realized the true power of his singing and began wondering how he could use it to better his fellow soldiers, many of whom would go on to suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and other mental illnesses after multiple deployments, he said.
“I felt compelled to tell the story of the nation being at war for the past 10 years,” explained Bryant. “How could I capture that in a 3.5 minute song? A lot of my fellow comrades have made the ultimate sacrifice, and many who came home are suffering from PTSD and things of that nature. I was able to record the song ‘Fall on my Knees,’ and I pray that it is a blessing and an inspiration to all of my fellow service members.”
read more here
What is Combat PTSD?
What is Combat PTSD?
by
Chaplain Kathie
It is intended to avoid detection. It is designed to not be noticed until it is too late.
I can sit here and explain all the signs but then I'd have to explain all the different causes and levels. I can explain what treatments they've been using but then have to point out that one treatment won't work as well for everyone else. I can tell you that a marriage does not have to end just because of PTSD but then I'd have to comfort someone after they have already divorced someone they used to love. I can spend hours a day posting news reports on what is going on all around the country, but for every one good story I post there are ten bad ones.
PTSD is a "stealth bomber" and while the pilot may target one object, there is far reaching damage done after the impact. Once the target explodes, everything around it is damaged.
We know what a bullet looks like. We know what it does when it explodes. No matter how much we know, we never see it happen. We don't see the bullet sitting inside the gun. We don't see it leaving it. We don't see it fly through the air. We don't actually see the bullet hit the body. We don't see it explode. We only see what happens when it breaks through the skin and what happens after the damage is already done.
A unit doesn't know if a bomb is waiting to blow them up in a road. They only know they have to go down that road to get to where they are supposed to go.
We know what a bomb looks like. We know what it does. Much like the bullet, we don't see it before it explodes because it is hidden under something. A suicide bomber looks just like everyone else. They don't walk around with a sign "I hate you so much I'm dying to kill you!" any more than a hero walks around with a sign "I care so much I'll die to save you!" No one knows what will happen one moment to the next.
Take your worst day. A sudden death of a family member here one moment and gone the next. The next day you are left without some you cared about but there is also the unknown gnawing at you. "Who's next?" Over the next few days, the sense of "loss" lost power over your thoughts even though it lingered. You breathe again. Then repeat that horrible day every week for a year. It is one moment after another waiting for the next bad thing to happen without a warning coming before it does.
The rest of us go to work or college, doing what we have to do to get to where we have to be only worried about some idiot on a cell phone not paying attention to the road or the "more important" driver too important to abide rules of the road. When we're in traffic, we're running late. When they're in traffic, they're running on borrowed time.
Most of the time, they do a great job of just pushing on and you don't know what is going on inside their heads. Most of the time they are just "sad" while waiting for the day to come when they can be "themselves" again. After all, that is what everyone is waiting for and expecting out of them. That's how we get all of this all wrong.
It is acceptable for us to grieve a loss and have our friends all come to comfort us for a few days. When they think we should be over it, well then, there is no need for us to be given any extra attention. If we dare to grieve beyond their "acceptable timeframe" they tell us we need to get over it, move on, change or offer any other answer that fits their thoughts at that exact moment.
Take a veteran back from combat and all they are carrying around inside of them and with that same impatient attitude, at it does a lot of damage. We tell them they need to do the same exact thing they want to do the most but never manage to tell them how to do it any more than we explain to them that with any huge traumatic event in any human's life will change everything. It changes how they think, how they feel, how they look at life and yes, changes their faith. Sometimes in bad ways where the worse parts of them surface as the good parts of them get pushed out of the way. They are still in their but we can't see them anymore. We see the stranger inside the body we used to know. If we react badly, we fuel that negative change until it totally takes over. How far it takes over depends on them and the people around them.
There is no "one size fits all outcome" in any of this. For now shove the easy answer out of the way because there are hard facts we need to face. Start with the fact that we have a lot of reports on them dying by their own hands more than we have reports of them taking others with them. There have been clusters of reports coming out with veteran killing police officers and officers having to kill veterans. Again, low percentages but these reports show an increase just as there have been increased numbers of veterans coming home and most of them are coming home under the radar with no one paying attention to them. They don't make the news.
They read the same news reports the rest of us do and then they read the comments about how terrible the veteran was. They wonder why on earth they should go for help if people will fear them as well or why they should even try to get better if they "deserve to suffer" like someone else did.
The other easy answer we need to toss out is that "we didn't know" this was coming because people were screaming about all of this as soon as the troops were sent into Afghanistan ten years ago. I was only one of them. We need to start screaming about change and we need to start doing it in every news paper across the country. We need to write letters and make phone calls to the major news stations to get off the political reporting and start reporting on what is happening all over this country because politicians didn't do their jobs and demand accountability as they were dying for attention. We need to start asking the politicians running for office what they plan on doing to fix this. We need to stop being lazy and accepting what is happening as if there is nothing we can do about any of this.
by
Chaplain Kathie
It is intended to avoid detection. It is designed to not be noticed until it is too late.
Now you know what PTSD is.How Stuff Works
Out of Sight
Northrop Grumman's primary goal for the B-2 was stealth, or low observability. Simply put, stealth is the ability to fly undetected through enemy airspace. Ideally, a stealth aircraft will be able to reach and destroy desired targets without ever engaging the enemy in combat.
To do this, the aircraft needs to be nearly invisible in a number of different ways. Obviously, it needs to blend in with the background visually, and it needs to be very quiet. More importantly, it needs to hide from enemy radar as well as infrared sensors. It also needs to conceal its own electromagnetic energy.
I can sit here and explain all the signs but then I'd have to explain all the different causes and levels. I can explain what treatments they've been using but then have to point out that one treatment won't work as well for everyone else. I can tell you that a marriage does not have to end just because of PTSD but then I'd have to comfort someone after they have already divorced someone they used to love. I can spend hours a day posting news reports on what is going on all around the country, but for every one good story I post there are ten bad ones.
PTSD is a "stealth bomber" and while the pilot may target one object, there is far reaching damage done after the impact. Once the target explodes, everything around it is damaged.
We know what a bullet looks like. We know what it does when it explodes. No matter how much we know, we never see it happen. We don't see the bullet sitting inside the gun. We don't see it leaving it. We don't see it fly through the air. We don't actually see the bullet hit the body. We don't see it explode. We only see what happens when it breaks through the skin and what happens after the damage is already done.
A unit doesn't know if a bomb is waiting to blow them up in a road. They only know they have to go down that road to get to where they are supposed to go.
We know what a bomb looks like. We know what it does. Much like the bullet, we don't see it before it explodes because it is hidden under something. A suicide bomber looks just like everyone else. They don't walk around with a sign "I hate you so much I'm dying to kill you!" any more than a hero walks around with a sign "I care so much I'll die to save you!" No one knows what will happen one moment to the next.
Take your worst day. A sudden death of a family member here one moment and gone the next. The next day you are left without some you cared about but there is also the unknown gnawing at you. "Who's next?" Over the next few days, the sense of "loss" lost power over your thoughts even though it lingered. You breathe again. Then repeat that horrible day every week for a year. It is one moment after another waiting for the next bad thing to happen without a warning coming before it does.
The rest of us go to work or college, doing what we have to do to get to where we have to be only worried about some idiot on a cell phone not paying attention to the road or the "more important" driver too important to abide rules of the road. When we're in traffic, we're running late. When they're in traffic, they're running on borrowed time.
Most of the time, they do a great job of just pushing on and you don't know what is going on inside their heads. Most of the time they are just "sad" while waiting for the day to come when they can be "themselves" again. After all, that is what everyone is waiting for and expecting out of them. That's how we get all of this all wrong.
It is acceptable for us to grieve a loss and have our friends all come to comfort us for a few days. When they think we should be over it, well then, there is no need for us to be given any extra attention. If we dare to grieve beyond their "acceptable timeframe" they tell us we need to get over it, move on, change or offer any other answer that fits their thoughts at that exact moment.
Take a veteran back from combat and all they are carrying around inside of them and with that same impatient attitude, at it does a lot of damage. We tell them they need to do the same exact thing they want to do the most but never manage to tell them how to do it any more than we explain to them that with any huge traumatic event in any human's life will change everything. It changes how they think, how they feel, how they look at life and yes, changes their faith. Sometimes in bad ways where the worse parts of them surface as the good parts of them get pushed out of the way. They are still in their but we can't see them anymore. We see the stranger inside the body we used to know. If we react badly, we fuel that negative change until it totally takes over. How far it takes over depends on them and the people around them.
There is no "one size fits all outcome" in any of this. For now shove the easy answer out of the way because there are hard facts we need to face. Start with the fact that we have a lot of reports on them dying by their own hands more than we have reports of them taking others with them. There have been clusters of reports coming out with veteran killing police officers and officers having to kill veterans. Again, low percentages but these reports show an increase just as there have been increased numbers of veterans coming home and most of them are coming home under the radar with no one paying attention to them. They don't make the news.
They read the same news reports the rest of us do and then they read the comments about how terrible the veteran was. They wonder why on earth they should go for help if people will fear them as well or why they should even try to get better if they "deserve to suffer" like someone else did.
The other easy answer we need to toss out is that "we didn't know" this was coming because people were screaming about all of this as soon as the troops were sent into Afghanistan ten years ago. I was only one of them. We need to start screaming about change and we need to start doing it in every news paper across the country. We need to write letters and make phone calls to the major news stations to get off the political reporting and start reporting on what is happening all over this country because politicians didn't do their jobs and demand accountability as they were dying for attention. We need to start asking the politicians running for office what they plan on doing to fix this. We need to stop being lazy and accepting what is happening as if there is nothing we can do about any of this.
Joint Base Lewis-McChord soldiers want to know why they pay for leadership failures
UPDATE
JBLM ends 100 soldiers’ lockdown in theft probe
The Associated Press
Posted : Wednesday Jan 11, 2012 7:20:45 EST
JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, Wash. — The Army says about 100 soldiers have been released from lockdown at Joint Base Lewis-McChord but criminal investigators continue their probe into the theft of $600,000 worth of weapons accessories.
read more here
JBLM ends 100 soldiers’ lockdown in theft probe
The Associated Press
Posted : Wednesday Jan 11, 2012 7:20:45 EST
JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, Wash. — The Army says about 100 soldiers have been released from lockdown at Joint Base Lewis-McChord but criminal investigators continue their probe into the theft of $600,000 worth of weapons accessories.
read more here
POLL: Lockdown at Joint Base Lewis-McChord Affecting Morale, Soldiers Say
The March Forward! group claims the soldiers in the 4th Battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment are being subjected to abusive treatment by their chain of command.
By Brent Champaco
January 9, 2012
You might have caught KOMO's story that morale for the 4th Battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment at Joint Base Lewis-McChord is eroding with every minute of the lockdown that passes.
Patch and other media outlets received a statement from a group of veterans and active-duty service members called March Forward!, over the weekend. (I've posted the statement below)
Obviously, the lockdown - which JBLM leadership enacted after hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of equipment reportedly went missing - has implications that could go beyond standard disciplinary issues.
Service Members and Military Families Speak Out Against the Lockdown
The Fort Lewis, 4th Battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment is again being subjected to abusive treatment by its chain of command. At this moment, Battalion Commander LTC James Dooghan has Charlie Company on lockdown. This means the soldiers who have done no wrong are being held against their will, not allowed to leave the base or even their barracks 24 hours a day.
Battalion Commander LTC Dooghan has also denied soldiers their right to properly prepare themselves to leave the military by ACAP (Army Career and Alumni Program—a mandatory series of workshops that are essential to helping soldiers transition from military to civilian life) and forcing them to participate in training exercises.
Enlisted soldiers in 4/9 Infantry are on lockdown because of the negligence of their officers and senior NCOs, who failed to maintain positive control over their sensitive items. Somehow over $630,000 worth of equipment have gone missing from C co.
Who pays for the failures of this unit’s leadership? The soldiers and their families. Incompetent leaders are punishing the entire company with a lockdown to cover their tracks. Why should service members be denied free time or the right to be with their families when we have committed no wrong? Why should officers exercise such reckless control over our lives?
read more here
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