Monday, May 6, 2013
Ground breaking for Tuskegee Airmen in Orlando
Tuesday, May 7, 2pm at the Orlando Science Center. Groundbreaking ceremony for a monument to honor the Red Tail Pilots of the Tuskegee Airmen. 3 local Central Florida pilots of the WWII group will be there. This is the anniversary of their last mission. OSC is located at 777 E. Princeton St., Orlando, 32803. Free parking at Science Center garage. Please RSVP during work business hours to Ms. Heydi at 407-514-2042 or anytime to hopazo@osc.org.
What is the holdup with DOD Suicide Event Report?
Every year since 2009 the DOD Suicide Event Report has reported a detailed study of the suicides and attempted suicides, usually by April, but this year, they have not released the data yet.
If the warning issued to Congress is any indication, the numbers are likely to show an increase. DOD expects to increase 2012 suicide death reports
As bad as that warning was, the truth is, a large part of the "civilian" suicides are in fact veterans. When you consider how many of these deaths can be connected to military service, add in the number of VA claims and calls to Suicide Prevention Hotline, none of this will be good news. The DOD already released the numbers for the yearly total of 2012 in February. There doesn't seem to be any reason for the hold up two months later.
If the warning issued to Congress is any indication, the numbers are likely to show an increase. DOD expects to increase 2012 suicide death reports
Jacqueline Garrick, acting director of the Defense Suicide Prevention Office, told the House Armed Services Committee’s military personnel subcommittee the service member suicide rate had increased from 10.3 to 18.3 per 100,000.
DOD officials saw leveling in suicide rates for 2010 and 2011, Garrick told the House panel, but they expect an increase in the suicide rate for 2012 upon the completion of investigations and final determinations of manner of death.
As bad as that warning was, the truth is, a large part of the "civilian" suicides are in fact veterans. When you consider how many of these deaths can be connected to military service, add in the number of VA claims and calls to Suicide Prevention Hotline, none of this will be good news. The DOD already released the numbers for the yearly total of 2012 in February. There doesn't seem to be any reason for the hold up two months later.
Invisible wounds of war
Invisible wounds of war
60 Minutes
May 5, 2013
Tens of thousands of servicemen and women are dealing with lasting brain damage as the Pentagon scrambles to treat these invisible wounds. David Martin reports.
We all learned a lot in recent years about the dangers of head injuries from contact sports like football. We now know that a hard hit can cause brain damage that only becomes apparent after an athlete's playing days are over. Football is violent, no doubt, but it's nothing compared to war. And just as the National Football League has struggled to come to grips with head injuries so has the military - but on a much vaster scale.
An estimated quarter million servicemen and women have suffered concussions over the past decade of war. Tens of thousands -- no one knows the precise number -- are dealing with lasting brain damage. The Pentagon, which did not recognize the problem until the war in Iraq was almost over, is now scrambling to treat these invisible wounds. And soldiers suffering from them sometimes end up wishing they had a wound people could see.
Ben Richards: If I could trade traumatic brain injury for a single-leg amputation I'd probably do that in a second.
You heard that right -- retired Army Major Ben Richards would rather endure the disfigurement and disability of losing a limb than live with the aftershocks of the concussions he suffered in Iraq. The first one happened on Mother's Day 2007 when his armored vehicle was rammed by a suicide car bomber.
Ben Richards: Everyone that was in the vehicle, walked away with a pretty significant concussion. My head hurt for about a week. I was nauseated for a week. Literally couldn't see straight.
read more here
In the early 60's I was only 4 when I was pushed off a slide at a drive-in movie. The slide was very high and I was not allowed to be on it without one of my brothers. Somehow I got away from them and got to the top. Without sitting on a lap, I was afraid and didn't know what to do. I was trying to figure out how to get down when a kid behind me gave me a push. He pushed me over the side and I fell head first onto concrete. My oldest brother found me lifeless on the ground. He thought I was dead. He carried me to my parents and by then I opened my eyes. They rushed me to the hospital.
My scull was cracked and I had a concussion. The nurse at the hospital read the X-ray wrong and didn't see the crack. She told my parents to take me home.
The next morning my left eyelid was swollen so much I couldn't open it. My parents rushed me to a different hospital. Another X-ray showed the crack and I spent a week in the hospital.
The swelling in my eyelid went away and I looked like there was nothing wrong with me on the outside, but on the inside, my brain was not working right.
Back then they didn't know what kind of damage could be done to brains. When I had a hard time remembering things and issues with my speech, no one connected the change to the injury.
There are still problems I face but I get around them. I can't spell as well as I should. Top that off with being from Massachusetts and learning to spell using phoenix when we pronounce many words in a unique way. Now there is spell check for the words that won't come together. I am usually astonished to discover there is an "r" in many words I hear often. Pretty great when you consider how much I write. I cannot remember the rules of grammar, so I write the way I talk. I believe the message means more than rules even though I know it drives some people crazy.
I can remember important things, like what is in the Bible but I cannot remember chapter and verse. I have to use BibleGateway to find what I need to reference.
It is like my brain has a filing cabinet. The top drawer is for what I need to remember right now. The next drawer is for what I need for a long time. The rest has to go into the shredder and is forgotten about.
Most of the time I learn things pretty fast but as soon as I no longer need to know something it is almost as if I never knew it.
When you have TBI, you adapt. You learn to fix what is broken in your head by playing tricks and using tools to help you do what you have to do. For the rest I have one piece of advice. What you can't fix, chill out and do what is important. Stop being so hard on yourself. It is frustrating and you may think you are not "smart" but you are still just as smart as you were before you "broke your head" the way I did.
Take lots of notes on things you need to remember. Use a calendar with large enough spaces to write on. If you can't remember something let someone know and tell them something smart-ass like one of your connections is fried. That will usually get you a laugh so if they want to be hard on you, they just got disarmed by your charm.
If you make a big deal out of it or get angry with yourself, it will make people feel uncomfortable around you. If you are having a really bad day with your memory, try to talk as little as possible because on those bad days it is almost as if your brain is trying to work things out. Those are the days when I don't write very much at all.
60 Minutes
May 5, 2013
Tens of thousands of servicemen and women are dealing with lasting brain damage as the Pentagon scrambles to treat these invisible wounds. David Martin reports.
We all learned a lot in recent years about the dangers of head injuries from contact sports like football. We now know that a hard hit can cause brain damage that only becomes apparent after an athlete's playing days are over. Football is violent, no doubt, but it's nothing compared to war. And just as the National Football League has struggled to come to grips with head injuries so has the military - but on a much vaster scale.
An estimated quarter million servicemen and women have suffered concussions over the past decade of war. Tens of thousands -- no one knows the precise number -- are dealing with lasting brain damage. The Pentagon, which did not recognize the problem until the war in Iraq was almost over, is now scrambling to treat these invisible wounds. And soldiers suffering from them sometimes end up wishing they had a wound people could see.
Ben Richards: If I could trade traumatic brain injury for a single-leg amputation I'd probably do that in a second.
You heard that right -- retired Army Major Ben Richards would rather endure the disfigurement and disability of losing a limb than live with the aftershocks of the concussions he suffered in Iraq. The first one happened on Mother's Day 2007 when his armored vehicle was rammed by a suicide car bomber.
Ben Richards: Everyone that was in the vehicle, walked away with a pretty significant concussion. My head hurt for about a week. I was nauseated for a week. Literally couldn't see straight.
read more here
In the early 60's I was only 4 when I was pushed off a slide at a drive-in movie. The slide was very high and I was not allowed to be on it without one of my brothers. Somehow I got away from them and got to the top. Without sitting on a lap, I was afraid and didn't know what to do. I was trying to figure out how to get down when a kid behind me gave me a push. He pushed me over the side and I fell head first onto concrete. My oldest brother found me lifeless on the ground. He thought I was dead. He carried me to my parents and by then I opened my eyes. They rushed me to the hospital.
My scull was cracked and I had a concussion. The nurse at the hospital read the X-ray wrong and didn't see the crack. She told my parents to take me home.
The next morning my left eyelid was swollen so much I couldn't open it. My parents rushed me to a different hospital. Another X-ray showed the crack and I spent a week in the hospital.
The swelling in my eyelid went away and I looked like there was nothing wrong with me on the outside, but on the inside, my brain was not working right.
Back then they didn't know what kind of damage could be done to brains. When I had a hard time remembering things and issues with my speech, no one connected the change to the injury.
There are still problems I face but I get around them. I can't spell as well as I should. Top that off with being from Massachusetts and learning to spell using phoenix when we pronounce many words in a unique way. Now there is spell check for the words that won't come together. I am usually astonished to discover there is an "r" in many words I hear often. Pretty great when you consider how much I write. I cannot remember the rules of grammar, so I write the way I talk. I believe the message means more than rules even though I know it drives some people crazy.
I can remember important things, like what is in the Bible but I cannot remember chapter and verse. I have to use BibleGateway to find what I need to reference.
It is like my brain has a filing cabinet. The top drawer is for what I need to remember right now. The next drawer is for what I need for a long time. The rest has to go into the shredder and is forgotten about.
Most of the time I learn things pretty fast but as soon as I no longer need to know something it is almost as if I never knew it.
When you have TBI, you adapt. You learn to fix what is broken in your head by playing tricks and using tools to help you do what you have to do. For the rest I have one piece of advice. What you can't fix, chill out and do what is important. Stop being so hard on yourself. It is frustrating and you may think you are not "smart" but you are still just as smart as you were before you "broke your head" the way I did.
Take lots of notes on things you need to remember. Use a calendar with large enough spaces to write on. If you can't remember something let someone know and tell them something smart-ass like one of your connections is fried. That will usually get you a laugh so if they want to be hard on you, they just got disarmed by your charm.
If you make a big deal out of it or get angry with yourself, it will make people feel uncomfortable around you. If you are having a really bad day with your memory, try to talk as little as possible because on those bad days it is almost as if your brain is trying to work things out. Those are the days when I don't write very much at all.
Sunday, May 5, 2013
Easter is more than what we get
Easter is more than what we get
by Kathie Costos
Wounded Times
May 5, 2013
It is Orthodox Easter and a good time to tell this story because of how much we get wrong when we may think we are not good enough just as much as when we think we are "too" good.
(This is fiction so please don't ask who the twins are.)
Soon after Jacob and Thomas were born, their young Mom put them up for adoption. The twins were born early and Thomas was the smallest. Jacob was adopted by a wealthy couple. Thomas was adopted soon afterwards by a middle class couple. The wealthy couple didn't want the extra burden of a sickly child.
Jacob was given everything he wanted accept being able to see his brother. As he grew older, the thought of his brother stayed with him and he always wondered where he was and what he was doing, but the bond the twins had was strong enough for Jacob to know that Thomas was doing ok.
Thomas' parents were hard working, loving and kind but never really considered themselves "Christians" because they did not attend church. Childhood experiences turned them away from the church their parents attended. The had a crucifix over the doorway and believed in God as well as believing Christ was in fact His Son. As for the rest of it, they didn't think that "religion" was for them.
Jacob went to church every weekend, attended all the religious training he was supposed to but to tell the truth he didn't act like a "churchgoer" the rest of the week. He was a spoiled young man, easy to anger and very judgmental. That he got from his parents.
Thomas and Jacob grew up living in a large city never expecting to see each other again. Strange thing about twins is that there is a physical tie as well as an emotional one. Jacob was rushed to the hospital when his appendix ruptured. Within an hour, Thomas was also on the operating table. A nurse was very puzzled when she saw Jacob in the recovery room because a few minutes before that she had transferred Jacob to his room.
She made sure the two men were in the same room.
While they were still sleeping, an angel appeared in their dreams. Jacob and Thomas were happy to see their brother but pretty terrified to be looking at a very large angel.
The angel talked to the brothers about their lives. To Thomas, he praised him for always being kind and thinking of others. To Jacob he admonished him for being so "nasty" to everyone around him. Then Jacob got angry and defended himself.
"I go to church every single week no matter if I feel like it or not. You just said my brother doesn't go at all. So how is it that I am the one being judged and you're praising him?
The angel said "You go to church but you visit Christ like a man going to a dead man's house looking for what you can get from his estate and not to see him. Thomas visits Christ everyday by what he does and how he treats other people. He goes to visit Christ for what he can do for the sake of Christ and not for what he can get for himself. Big difference. You treat Christ's words as if you are ordering from the deli with taking a little of this and some of that but leaving out the things you don't like.
Christ said the greatest commandment was to love God and the second was to love one another. You have time to change your life but first you have to change your attitude.
From that day on the two men spent most of their free time together. Thomas started going to church, not on Sunday but during the week to volunteer helping with missionary work. Jacob started a program to feed the needy with his own money and put Thomas was in charge.
Both men learned a lesson that church is not so much what you can get out of it but what comes out of you to be of service to others the same way Christ was and still is. Christ is very much alive as long as we live by His words and do for one another as He told us we should. Easter is not about what we got out of it but what HE did for the sake of all of us.
by Kathie Costos
Wounded Times
May 5, 2013
It is Orthodox Easter and a good time to tell this story because of how much we get wrong when we may think we are not good enough just as much as when we think we are "too" good.
(This is fiction so please don't ask who the twins are.)
Soon after Jacob and Thomas were born, their young Mom put them up for adoption. The twins were born early and Thomas was the smallest. Jacob was adopted by a wealthy couple. Thomas was adopted soon afterwards by a middle class couple. The wealthy couple didn't want the extra burden of a sickly child.
Jacob was given everything he wanted accept being able to see his brother. As he grew older, the thought of his brother stayed with him and he always wondered where he was and what he was doing, but the bond the twins had was strong enough for Jacob to know that Thomas was doing ok.
Thomas' parents were hard working, loving and kind but never really considered themselves "Christians" because they did not attend church. Childhood experiences turned them away from the church their parents attended. The had a crucifix over the doorway and believed in God as well as believing Christ was in fact His Son. As for the rest of it, they didn't think that "religion" was for them.
Jacob went to church every weekend, attended all the religious training he was supposed to but to tell the truth he didn't act like a "churchgoer" the rest of the week. He was a spoiled young man, easy to anger and very judgmental. That he got from his parents.
Thomas and Jacob grew up living in a large city never expecting to see each other again. Strange thing about twins is that there is a physical tie as well as an emotional one. Jacob was rushed to the hospital when his appendix ruptured. Within an hour, Thomas was also on the operating table. A nurse was very puzzled when she saw Jacob in the recovery room because a few minutes before that she had transferred Jacob to his room.
She made sure the two men were in the same room.
While they were still sleeping, an angel appeared in their dreams. Jacob and Thomas were happy to see their brother but pretty terrified to be looking at a very large angel.
The angel talked to the brothers about their lives. To Thomas, he praised him for always being kind and thinking of others. To Jacob he admonished him for being so "nasty" to everyone around him. Then Jacob got angry and defended himself.
"I go to church every single week no matter if I feel like it or not. You just said my brother doesn't go at all. So how is it that I am the one being judged and you're praising him?
The angel said "You go to church but you visit Christ like a man going to a dead man's house looking for what you can get from his estate and not to see him. Thomas visits Christ everyday by what he does and how he treats other people. He goes to visit Christ for what he can do for the sake of Christ and not for what he can get for himself. Big difference. You treat Christ's words as if you are ordering from the deli with taking a little of this and some of that but leaving out the things you don't like.
Christ said the greatest commandment was to love God and the second was to love one another. You have time to change your life but first you have to change your attitude.
From that day on the two men spent most of their free time together. Thomas started going to church, not on Sunday but during the week to volunteer helping with missionary work. Jacob started a program to feed the needy with his own money and put Thomas was in charge.
Both men learned a lesson that church is not so much what you can get out of it but what comes out of you to be of service to others the same way Christ was and still is. Christ is very much alive as long as we live by His words and do for one another as He told us we should. Easter is not about what we got out of it but what HE did for the sake of all of us.
Landstuhl hospital’s trauma status on the line as Afghan War winds down
Landstuhl hospital’s trauma status on the line as Afghan War winds down
by Matt Millham
Stars and Stripes
Published: May 3, 2013
LANDSTUHL, Germany — On returning from his first trip to Afghanistan as defense secretary in March, Chuck Hagel had planned a stopover that is something of a tradition for administration officials conducting America’s longest war — a visit to injured troops at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany.
But there was a hitch in the plan that would have seemed nearly impossible a year ago. The day Hagel planned to visit the hospital — the first stop for all injured U.S. personnel evacuated from the war zone — not a single American casualty was laid up there.
Col. Barbara Holcomb, Landstuhl’s commander, cautioned against reading too much into the rare absence of U.S. casualties.
“The following day we had 12.”
But, she said, the number of wounded streaming out of Afghanistan has been trending downward since 2010, when nearly 500 U.S. servicemembers deployed there died. Earlier this year, the entire U.S.-led coalition went more than a month without losing a servicemember in combat — the longest such streak in 10 years, according to an Associated Press casualty database.
read more here
by Matt Millham
Stars and Stripes
Published: May 3, 2013
LANDSTUHL, Germany — On returning from his first trip to Afghanistan as defense secretary in March, Chuck Hagel had planned a stopover that is something of a tradition for administration officials conducting America’s longest war — a visit to injured troops at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany.
But there was a hitch in the plan that would have seemed nearly impossible a year ago. The day Hagel planned to visit the hospital — the first stop for all injured U.S. personnel evacuated from the war zone — not a single American casualty was laid up there.
Col. Barbara Holcomb, Landstuhl’s commander, cautioned against reading too much into the rare absence of U.S. casualties.
“The following day we had 12.”
But, she said, the number of wounded streaming out of Afghanistan has been trending downward since 2010, when nearly 500 U.S. servicemembers deployed there died. Earlier this year, the entire U.S.-led coalition went more than a month without losing a servicemember in combat — the longest such streak in 10 years, according to an Associated Press casualty database.
read more here
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