Student's Documentary On PTSD
Reported by: Greg Stotelmyer
Jason Edwards, 32, steps into an audio booth to lay down part of his voice track for a documentary he is doing this summer with his college instructor.
“This would be the largest deployment of National Guard soldiers overseas since World War 2,” he reads in his east Kentucky twang. “One of them was my brother. This is the story of Joe."
Joe Edwards is 26, the youngest of 3 boys in a family from Harlan, Ky. Jason is telling his brother’s story of struggles with PTSD in hopes of helping him while also enabling his brother to help others who have also struggled after returning home from a war zone.
Joe Edwards was deployed to Iraq for 18 months. Jason Edwards is using a 12 week summer internship as a broadcasting major at Eastern Kentucky University to face the family’s trauma head on.
“Honestly it's a therapy for both of us,” Jason said during a break with editing and post-production on the documentary.
“That's why we call the documentary Two Brothers,” Jason explained. “You know, because my brother that left is not the brother that came back."
In video clips of interviews with Joe Edwards he tells of the nightmares, anxiety, depression and drinking that came with PTSD.
read more here
Wednesday, July 4, 2012
Mike Mullen On Military Veteran Suicide
Mike Mullen On Military Veteran Suicide: 'We've Got 18 Vets A Day Who Are Killing Themselves'
The Huffington Post
By Nick Wing
Posted: 07/02/2012
Mike Mullen, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, spoke at the Aspen Ideas Festival this weekend, giving a candid assessment of the growing problem of military suicide.
Discussing the status of the military's health in terms of both individuals, as well as the overall force, Mullen spoke openly of his concerns about personnel increasingly strained by both physical and "invisible" wounds. He also laid out an anecdote to underscore the emotional toll that the last decade of war has taken on members of the military and their families.
read more here
The Huffington Post
By Nick Wing
Posted: 07/02/2012
Mike Mullen, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, spoke at the Aspen Ideas Festival this weekend, giving a candid assessment of the growing problem of military suicide.
Discussing the status of the military's health in terms of both individuals, as well as the overall force, Mullen spoke openly of his concerns about personnel increasingly strained by both physical and "invisible" wounds. He also laid out an anecdote to underscore the emotional toll that the last decade of war has taken on members of the military and their families.
read more here
Gold Star Moms group helps local women cope
Gold Star Moms group helps local women cope with their military sons' deaths
Jul 4, 2012
Written by
Jennifer Bowman
The Enquirer
Six years ago, Vicki Dickinson’s phone rang. It was her daughter-in-law. “She said, ‘The chaplain is here.’ And I knew what that meant,” said Dickinson, a Battle Creek resident. “I hung up with her and I couldn’t breathe.” Dickinson’s son, Michael, was serving in the U.S. Army when he was killed in Iraq by a sniper in 2006. The 26-year-old was on his fifth tour and was supposed to return home just nine days later.
“You lose a piece of you,” Vicki Dickinson said. “It’s gone, and it doesn’t come back.”
Other Gold Star Moms are familiar with the feeling.
Emily Hansen, an Athens resident, said she was at work when she was escorted to the building’s human resources department in 2010. There, she was told that her 25-year-old son, Jimmy Hansen, had been killed on a base in Iraq while serving in the U.S. Air Force.
“I wanted to walk out the door,” she said, “but they shut it on me.”
read more here
Jul 4, 2012
Written by
Jennifer Bowman
The Enquirer
Six years ago, Vicki Dickinson’s phone rang. It was her daughter-in-law. “She said, ‘The chaplain is here.’ And I knew what that meant,” said Dickinson, a Battle Creek resident. “I hung up with her and I couldn’t breathe.” Dickinson’s son, Michael, was serving in the U.S. Army when he was killed in Iraq by a sniper in 2006. The 26-year-old was on his fifth tour and was supposed to return home just nine days later.
“You lose a piece of you,” Vicki Dickinson said. “It’s gone, and it doesn’t come back.”
Other Gold Star Moms are familiar with the feeling.
Emily Hansen, an Athens resident, said she was at work when she was escorted to the building’s human resources department in 2010. There, she was told that her 25-year-old son, Jimmy Hansen, had been killed on a base in Iraq while serving in the U.S. Air Force.
“I wanted to walk out the door,” she said, “but they shut it on me.”
read more here
Marines Semper Fi fund charity bike ride
Local bikers raise funds for injured Marines
Kyrie O'Connor
July 3, 2012
COLLEGE STATION - If you let Texans Dennis McLaughlin or Troy McLehany tell the story, Ben Maenza of Tennessee is the hero. If you let Maenza tell it, the heroes are McLaughlin, McLehany and their crew.
Let's stipulate up front: They're all heroes.
All of them, plus McLaughlin's brother-in-law, John Gerlaugh of Virginia, are riding recumbent bicycles across the U.S. to raise money for the Injured Marine Semper Fi Fund, which provides aid to injured Marines well past their hospital stays.
read more here
Kyrie O'Connor
July 3, 2012
COLLEGE STATION - If you let Texans Dennis McLaughlin or Troy McLehany tell the story, Ben Maenza of Tennessee is the hero. If you let Maenza tell it, the heroes are McLaughlin, McLehany and their crew.
Let's stipulate up front: They're all heroes.
All of them, plus McLaughlin's brother-in-law, John Gerlaugh of Virginia, are riding recumbent bicycles across the U.S. to raise money for the Injured Marine Semper Fi Fund, which provides aid to injured Marines well past their hospital stays.
read more here
Camp Pendleton Marine Electrocuted In Afghanistan
Camp Pendleton Marine Electrocuted In Afghanistan
Tuesday, July 3, 2012
KPBS News
By Beth Ford Roth
Cpl. Anthony R. Servin was electrocuted to death in Afghanistan on June 8th - the third Marine from Camp Pendleton to die from electrocution in Afghanistan since the beginning of 2012, according to the Marine Corps Times:
The latest electrocution occurred after the Marine’s radio antenna touched a low-hanging power line, the Naval Safety Center reported.
read more here
Tuesday, July 3, 2012
KPBS News
By Beth Ford Roth
Cpl. Anthony R. Servin was electrocuted to death in Afghanistan on June 8th - the third Marine from Camp Pendleton to die from electrocution in Afghanistan since the beginning of 2012, according to the Marine Corps Times:
The latest electrocution occurred after the Marine’s radio antenna touched a low-hanging power line, the Naval Safety Center reported.
read more here
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