Auto anxiety: Some returning veterans struggle with driving
CBS News
By Lee Woodruff
August 9, 2012
(CBS News) Veterans have many difficulties readjusting to civilian life. Thousands of them have trouble with the simplest things, such as driving a car.
It can be a terrifying ordeal for some vets.
Former Marine Sgt. Eric Campbell has knee braces, the obvious physical evidence of his two tours of duty in Iraq. Less obvious are the psychological effects of those experiences. But they are there.
Recalling a moment from one of his tours, Campbell said, "This van started coming down the road toward our roadblocks and our translators were translating, 'Stop, stop, stop your vehicle.' We ended up firing on this van. There was a dad driving, a mother in the passenger seat, the pregnant sister of the mother, and two children. The only one that survived was the pregnant sister."
Events like that have left Campbell with post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD. After fighting in Operation Iraqi Freedom he's lost some of his own. Anxiety has made it impossible for him to drive. "I would hit potholes and it would throw me into a flashback."
Campbell and his fiancee Amy live 20 miles outside of Fresno, Calif., in a tiny trailer they share with her three kids and two of his own. His inability to drive puts an increased burden on her, and makes a difficult situation, worse.
Campbell is one of more than 200,000 vets who've sought treatment for PTSD. Roadside bombs and improvised explosive devices in Iraq and Afghanistan made driving treacherous in those war zones and back home veterans have to navigate a new set of hazards.
read more here
Thursday, August 9, 2012
Social media creates spokesmen at Camp Lejeune
Social media creates spokesmen
August 9, 2012
Camp Lejeune Globe
Lance Cpl. Jackeline M. Perez Rivera
Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune
Marines use social media the same way everybody else does, said Sgt. Mark Fayloga, Headquarters Marine Corps head of Social Media. Through Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, Hi5, MySpace, Flickr, Reddit and many more, Marines connect and interact with people and ideas across a wide variety of avenues.
Social media gives people numerous ways to share any detail of their lives. The military community has used those resources to blog about their wartime experiences. YouTube videos have landed Marines dates and brought smiles back home through groups’ renditions of popular songs matched to complicated choreography.
Questions can be posted and answered by not only everyone in the Marines’ social network, but their friends’ social networks as well. They can find people willing to share their experience about a duty station, a job or a temporary additional billet such as recruiter or Drill Instructor.
“(With social media) you can be the voice of the Marine Corps,” said Fayloga. “You can share your story.”
Social media can serve as a soapbox to present information and opinions, or it can provide an interactive experience to can help clarify misinformation.
However, it’s very important to cite sources, said Capt. Joshua Smith, the Deputy Public Affairs Officer of Marine Corps Installation East – Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune. Without proper citation it’s just an opinion, he added.
Social media can also make anyone a micro-journalist, said Smith.
read more here
August 9, 2012
Camp Lejeune Globe
Lance Cpl. Jackeline M. Perez Rivera
Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune
Marines use social media the same way everybody else does, said Sgt. Mark Fayloga, Headquarters Marine Corps head of Social Media. Through Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, Hi5, MySpace, Flickr, Reddit and many more, Marines connect and interact with people and ideas across a wide variety of avenues.
Social media gives people numerous ways to share any detail of their lives. The military community has used those resources to blog about their wartime experiences. YouTube videos have landed Marines dates and brought smiles back home through groups’ renditions of popular songs matched to complicated choreography.
Questions can be posted and answered by not only everyone in the Marines’ social network, but their friends’ social networks as well. They can find people willing to share their experience about a duty station, a job or a temporary additional billet such as recruiter or Drill Instructor.
“(With social media) you can be the voice of the Marine Corps,” said Fayloga. “You can share your story.”
Social media can serve as a soapbox to present information and opinions, or it can provide an interactive experience to can help clarify misinformation.
However, it’s very important to cite sources, said Capt. Joshua Smith, the Deputy Public Affairs Officer of Marine Corps Installation East – Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune. Without proper citation it’s just an opinion, he added.
Social media can also make anyone a micro-journalist, said Smith.
read more here
Combat Medic listed as AWOL turned himself in
Army Specialist Catalino Rodriguez of Aberdeen, Md.,Turns Himself In After Being AWOL For Two Years
Written by
Surae Chinn
WUSA9.com
Aug 9, 2012
BETHESDA, Md. (WUSA) -- An Aberdeen, Maryland soldier who went AWOL (Away Without Leave) two years ago has decided to turn himself in.
Army Specialist Catalino Rodriguez says he suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or PTSD and major depression. He has emerged from hiding in his mother's basement.
"It's a nightmare. A two year nightmare. I don't want to do this anymore," he said.
He said he fell into a dark place after a 15 month deployment as a combat medic in Iraq.
He further spiraled into mental illness when he learned he would be deployed to Afghanistan.
"I felt the demons that were in my head," he said. "I felt I was not prepared to go to Afghanistan. Being a medic, I was fearful of my personal demons getting in the way in how I would treat a battle buddy."
He sought help, but he says the military's solution only masked the problem.
"The only thing they gave me was medication, medication, medication," Rodriquez said.
read more here
Written by
Surae Chinn
WUSA9.com
Aug 9, 2012
BETHESDA, Md. (WUSA) -- An Aberdeen, Maryland soldier who went AWOL (Away Without Leave) two years ago has decided to turn himself in.
Army Specialist Catalino Rodriguez says he suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or PTSD and major depression. He has emerged from hiding in his mother's basement.
"It's a nightmare. A two year nightmare. I don't want to do this anymore," he said.
He said he fell into a dark place after a 15 month deployment as a combat medic in Iraq.
He further spiraled into mental illness when he learned he would be deployed to Afghanistan.
"I felt the demons that were in my head," he said. "I felt I was not prepared to go to Afghanistan. Being a medic, I was fearful of my personal demons getting in the way in how I would treat a battle buddy."
He sought help, but he says the military's solution only masked the problem.
"The only thing they gave me was medication, medication, medication," Rodriquez said.
read more here
Wednesday, August 8, 2012
Military bonds draw veterans to mental health jobs
This is a great article on veterans helping veterans as well as a reminder that after all this time, all this attention and all the new groups popping up online, less than half of the veterans needing help, receive it.
Military bonds draw veterans to mental health jobs
By Maria LaMagna
Special to CNN
August 8, 2012
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Study: Only half of U.S. service members with PTSD received treatment
18 veterans commit suicide every day, VA statistics show
Programs that train veterans to assist other veterans have popped up
"They let you talk about the stuff that's ugly," one veteran says
(CNN) -- Things probably should have turned out differently for Samantha Schilling.
The stories she tells have dark beginnings and could have had, under different circumstances, dark endings -- as so many stories for those in the military do.
Schilling, now 31, served in the U.S. Navy from 1999 to 2003. She was never deployed but worked as an information systems technician at Naval Station Norfolk in Virginia.
Several of her friends were killed during the 2000 al Qaeda bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen, which left 17 dead and at least 37 injured. Some of the injured were transferred to her base in Norfolk.
Many of the survivors suffered from mental trauma after the bombing. One of them, a man who had been aboard the ship, attacked Schilling and attempted to rape her.
That assault drove home the impact that active duty had on her colleagues' mental state.
"I experienced military sexual trauma, and that just inspired me," she said. "Coming back into civilian life, you're not the same person you were in the military. ... You carry with you all these burdens, all these stressors."
Schilling was released from service with an honorable medical discharge in 2003. Since that time, she has taken on a personal mission to help others who need counseling after military service. She's nearly completed a masters in a joint military psychology and neuropsychology program at the Adler School of Professional Psychology in Chicago and plans to finish her doctorate degree in 2015.
read more here
Father honored for fight against Camp Lejeune water
Father honored for fight against Camp Lejeune water
Tuesday, August 07, 2012
Fred Shropshire
ABC News Team
RALEIGH (WTVD) -- A retired North Carolina Marine is finally seeing the results of a 15 yearlong crusade.
Retired Master Sgt. Jerry Ensminger set out on a mission to honor his daughter's memory and help others poisoned by tainted tap water at Camp Lejeune.
Tuesday evening, Sen. Richard Burr attended a ceremony in downtown Raleigh to honor Ensminger's efforts.
read more here
Tuesday, August 07, 2012
Fred Shropshire
ABC News Team
RALEIGH (WTVD) -- A retired North Carolina Marine is finally seeing the results of a 15 yearlong crusade.
Retired Master Sgt. Jerry Ensminger set out on a mission to honor his daughter's memory and help others poisoned by tainted tap water at Camp Lejeune.
Tuesday evening, Sen. Richard Burr attended a ceremony in downtown Raleigh to honor Ensminger's efforts.
read more here
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