Deployed father renders first salute to newly commissioned son
By U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Richard Andrade, 4th BCT 1st Cav. Div. Public Affairs
May 14, 2013
LAGHMAN PROVINCE, Afghanistan - U.S. Army Master Sgt. Marshall Rader opened up a laptop and turned on a projector atop the conference room table at Forward Operating Base Gamberi, May 10. He then opened a video chat program and saw a familiar face on the screen projected onto the wall.
A video teleconference was set up inside the conference room at FOB Gamberi so that Rader could render the first salute to his son Gregory during his officer commissioning ceremony following a ceremony held at North Georgia University campus.
Rader said he has 17 years in active service with the U.S. Army. He served as a military policeman before changing his military occupational specialty to human resources specialist. Rader serves as human resources noncommissioned officer-in-charge with 4th Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, based out of Fort Hood, Texas.
The native of Clarington, Ohio, served honorably for ten years in the Army before getting out. Rader said he was out for five years when he decided to re-enlist.
“My wife deployed and 29 days later, I came back into the Army,” said Rader. “I just missed it too much, I love the military.”
Rader’s wife is a major, her father is a retired Lt. Colonel and her grandfather was a major in the U.S. Army. Rader said his son was always interested in the military growing up.
read more here
Tuesday, May 14, 2013
Another member of Team Rubicon lost battle to suicide
Another member of Team Rubicon lost battle to suicide
Team Rubicon
From Facebook
Team Rubicon mourns the loss of a veteran, volunteer, and brother. Neil Landsberg, a former Combat Controller in the United States Air Force, was an active Region 3 team member. As an Air Force Special Operator, Neil completed multiple overseas combat deployments. When he took off the uniform he volunteered at Walter Reed and served as a role model for many TR volunteers around the Washington, DC area. Neil is remembered by his teammates and fellow volunteers as a “total stud”.
This is why it makes it all the more difficult to announce that Neil took his own life last week. He leaves behind many friends at Team Rubicon who will carry on his name and spirit through service.
I left this comment
I can't tell you how many times I heard a veteran tell me they think they are evil because of what they had to do and go through. Evil people do not grieve. Evil people are selfish and do not think of others. These men and women join the service to help not harm. They are ready to risk their lives to save someone else. How can any of that be evil? They do have to face bad things and sometimes they do have to kill to do it but if the enemy they were sent to fight just put down their weapons, they would be the happiest people on earth. They do not want to kill but they are prepared to do it.
They can heal once they get the right help but from every sad outcome like the death of Neal it is clear what these young men and women are getting is far from what they need.
I always ask the veterans I work with what they want to do in the next part of their lives. They say they want to help others. What does that tell you?
Team Rubicon
From Facebook
Team Rubicon mourns the loss of a veteran, volunteer, and brother. Neil Landsberg, a former Combat Controller in the United States Air Force, was an active Region 3 team member. As an Air Force Special Operator, Neil completed multiple overseas combat deployments. When he took off the uniform he volunteered at Walter Reed and served as a role model for many TR volunteers around the Washington, DC area. Neil is remembered by his teammates and fellow volunteers as a “total stud”.
This is why it makes it all the more difficult to announce that Neil took his own life last week. He leaves behind many friends at Team Rubicon who will carry on his name and spirit through service.
I left this comment
Wounded Times I just wish all of you could understand that what you did in the name of someone else shows just how "good" you are. It is that goodness that also opens the door to feel pain more deeply. Look at how much you do for others to help, not harm and that comes from caring. Evil people do not care. YOU ARE NOT EVIL but you are in pain. You can heal and then go on to help others but you have to be stronger first. The right help will get you there and then you can do wondrous things.
I can't tell you how many times I heard a veteran tell me they think they are evil because of what they had to do and go through. Evil people do not grieve. Evil people are selfish and do not think of others. These men and women join the service to help not harm. They are ready to risk their lives to save someone else. How can any of that be evil? They do have to face bad things and sometimes they do have to kill to do it but if the enemy they were sent to fight just put down their weapons, they would be the happiest people on earth. They do not want to kill but they are prepared to do it.
They can heal once they get the right help but from every sad outcome like the death of Neal it is clear what these young men and women are getting is far from what they need.
I always ask the veterans I work with what they want to do in the next part of their lives. They say they want to help others. What does that tell you?
Orlando area veteran's events from Cathy Haynes
UPDATES for Orlando area veteran's events from Cathy Haynes
Veterans Outreach Foundation, Inc. (VOF) is hosting their 2nd Annual Charity Golf Tournament to benefit the Haley House Fund, Inc. of Tampa. Sat. May 18. The fund provides assistance for temporary housing and transportation to families of critically wounded service members being treated at the James A. Haley VA Hospital in Tampa – one of only five military Polytrauma Rehabilitation Units in the country. Orange County National Golf Center and Lodge (Panther Lake Course). 7am registration, 8:30am tee time, 4-man scramble, shotgun start, $100 per player. On-course events include farthest drive, closest-to-pin, and hole-in-one with a grand prize of a 2013 Honda Accord! Sponsorships are available, 100% of proceeds benefit the charity. Entry fee includes golf, lunch, giveaways, and entry to silent auction. For more information or to register a foursome, contact Brandan Holbrook at 407-437-5922 or email VOF777@bellsouth.net.
6th Annual Memorial/National Armed Forces Day Event and Freedom Ride – Sat. May 18; Activities begin at 10am at Stormy Hill Harley-Davidson at 2480 U.S. 27, Clermont, 34711. $10pp tickets benefitting DAV. Live music, free lunch and “Freedom Isn’t Free” event pin to first 300 who register. See website for list of events. Ribbon signing which will be placed on wreath, at abt. 2pm Police escorted Freedom Ride to Bushnell National Cemetery for patriotic ceremony. Bring unwanted cell phones to donate to Wounded Warriors Outdoors. Stormy Hill Harley, click ‘News and Events’ or call Peggy at 352-787-8050 or cell 352-267-3190
Vietnam Veterans Recognition Celebration – Sat. May 18. Parade starts at 10am on Main Street Main Street and Disston Avenue, Tavares, 32778 in Lake County. Recognition and Honor Ceremony at 12noon in Wooten Park – notable keynote speaker is Capt. Charlie Plumb, USN(R) - a POW in Vietnam for six years. Info on website: http://vvr2013.org POC: George Wanberg at 352-250-9728 georgew@vvr2013.org Free and Sponsors welcomed!!!
The Museum of Military History in honor of Armed Forces Day presents their first annual Military Appreciation Weekend on Sat. and Sun., May 18 and 19 at Mac Overstreet Regional Park, 5271 Pleasant Hill Rd., Kissimmee, 34746. (South of Kissimmee on Co Rd 531) The event will be highlighted by a WWII battle re-enactment and weapons demonstration on Saturday. Local historian and re-enactor will attend in Civil War uniform to share information about the war that almost divided our country. Sunday: The 463rd Cadet Squadron Civil Air Patrol and Sea Cadet units will present the colors and participate in competitive events. Also a special concert of WWII and USO era music by the Bahia Dance Band. The program opens at 9am on Sat. and is open to the public. Admission is free but there is a parking fee of $7 to offset event expenses. Food vendors, booths, radio controlled airplane demonstrations, displays, and children’s activities will be available both days. Details: 407-507-3894 MuseumofMilitaryHistory.com
3rd Annual Pars and Stripes Forever Golf Tournament Camaraderie Foundation MONDAY May 20 at the Country Club of Orlando, 1601 Country Club Dr., Orlando, 32804. Assist our current military, veterans and their families through mental health support and counseling. Currently, Camaraderie has 59 people getting active counseling assistance. These are active duty personnel, veterans, spouses and their children seeking to strengthen troubled areas in their lives such as adjusting to home from the battlefield, Post Traumatic Stress and other issues. The organization gives scholarships to these brave families to assist them quicker/more timely than other resources. 407-841-0071
Veterans Outreach Foundation, Inc. (VOF) is hosting their 2nd Annual Charity Golf Tournament to benefit the Haley House Fund, Inc. of Tampa. Sat. May 18. The fund provides assistance for temporary housing and transportation to families of critically wounded service members being treated at the James A. Haley VA Hospital in Tampa – one of only five military Polytrauma Rehabilitation Units in the country. Orange County National Golf Center and Lodge (Panther Lake Course). 7am registration, 8:30am tee time, 4-man scramble, shotgun start, $100 per player. On-course events include farthest drive, closest-to-pin, and hole-in-one with a grand prize of a 2013 Honda Accord! Sponsorships are available, 100% of proceeds benefit the charity. Entry fee includes golf, lunch, giveaways, and entry to silent auction. For more information or to register a foursome, contact Brandan Holbrook at 407-437-5922 or email VOF777@bellsouth.net.
I am volunteering at this. Are you?
Seminole County Homeless Veterans’ Stand Down on Sat. May 18, (Armed Forces Day) at the Seminole County Health Department. Stand Downs typically provide services such as food, shelter, clothing, health screenings, VA and Social Security benefits counseling; as well as referrals to a variety of other necessary services, such as housing, employment and substance abuse treatment. Volunteer registration can be found on their website at HSNCFL. 400 W. Airport Blvd. Sanford.
6th Annual Memorial/National Armed Forces Day Event and Freedom Ride – Sat. May 18; Activities begin at 10am at Stormy Hill Harley-Davidson at 2480 U.S. 27, Clermont, 34711. $10pp tickets benefitting DAV. Live music, free lunch and “Freedom Isn’t Free” event pin to first 300 who register. See website for list of events. Ribbon signing which will be placed on wreath, at abt. 2pm Police escorted Freedom Ride to Bushnell National Cemetery for patriotic ceremony. Bring unwanted cell phones to donate to Wounded Warriors Outdoors. Stormy Hill Harley, click ‘News and Events’ or call Peggy at 352-787-8050 or cell 352-267-3190
Vietnam Veterans Recognition Celebration – Sat. May 18. Parade starts at 10am on Main Street Main Street and Disston Avenue, Tavares, 32778 in Lake County. Recognition and Honor Ceremony at 12noon in Wooten Park – notable keynote speaker is Capt. Charlie Plumb, USN(R) - a POW in Vietnam for six years. Info on website: http://vvr2013.org POC: George Wanberg at 352-250-9728 georgew@vvr2013.org Free and Sponsors welcomed!!!
The Museum of Military History in honor of Armed Forces Day presents their first annual Military Appreciation Weekend on Sat. and Sun., May 18 and 19 at Mac Overstreet Regional Park, 5271 Pleasant Hill Rd., Kissimmee, 34746. (South of Kissimmee on Co Rd 531) The event will be highlighted by a WWII battle re-enactment and weapons demonstration on Saturday. Local historian and re-enactor will attend in Civil War uniform to share information about the war that almost divided our country. Sunday: The 463rd Cadet Squadron Civil Air Patrol and Sea Cadet units will present the colors and participate in competitive events. Also a special concert of WWII and USO era music by the Bahia Dance Band. The program opens at 9am on Sat. and is open to the public. Admission is free but there is a parking fee of $7 to offset event expenses. Food vendors, booths, radio controlled airplane demonstrations, displays, and children’s activities will be available both days. Details: 407-507-3894 MuseumofMilitaryHistory.com
3rd Annual Pars and Stripes Forever Golf Tournament Camaraderie Foundation MONDAY May 20 at the Country Club of Orlando, 1601 Country Club Dr., Orlando, 32804. Assist our current military, veterans and their families through mental health support and counseling. Currently, Camaraderie has 59 people getting active counseling assistance. These are active duty personnel, veterans, spouses and their children seeking to strengthen troubled areas in their lives such as adjusting to home from the battlefield, Post Traumatic Stress and other issues. The organization gives scholarships to these brave families to assist them quicker/more timely than other resources. 407-841-0071
The Ripple Effects of PTSD
The Ripple Effects of PTSD
KALW
By Casey Miner
May 13, 2013
What veterans have seen at war doesn’t just affect them – it also affects the people around them. Journalist Mac McClelland has been reporting on how Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) affects families and how they cope when very little treatment is available. KALW’s Casey Miner interviews McClelland about her recent article in Mother Jones magazine titled, “Is PTSD contagious?”
The article opens with Brannan Vines’ story:
My comment
In 2002 I finished my book FOR THE LOVE OF JACK HIS WAR MY BATTLE and republished it last year about finding peace living with combat PTSD. It can be done if families know what it is and what they can do to help veterans heal. We are on the front lines when they come home because we know them better than anyone else. We know what they were like before combat and what changed in them but all too often families have no clue what they seeing. They don't understand so they blame themselves. If they know then they do not take the veterans actions and reactions as personal.
I have worked with families that started out with no knowledge and going through hell because of it. Once they understood it, they moved mountains out of the way to help. I am a firm believer that if more families learned, we would see less suicides, less homelessness and a whole lot of healing going on.
KALW
By Casey Miner
May 13, 2013
What veterans have seen at war doesn’t just affect them – it also affects the people around them. Journalist Mac McClelland has been reporting on how Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) affects families and how they cope when very little treatment is available. KALW’s Casey Miner interviews McClelland about her recent article in Mother Jones magazine titled, “Is PTSD contagious?”
The article opens with Brannan Vines’ story:
“Brannan Vines has never been to war, but she's got a warrior's skills: hyperawareness, hypervigilance, adrenaline-sharp quick-scanning for danger, for triggers. Super stimuli-sensitive. Skills on the battlefield, crazy-person behavior in a drug store, where she was recently standing behind a sweet old lady counting out change when she suddenly became so furious her ears literally started ringing. Being too cognizant of every sound – every coin dropping an echo – she explodes inwardly, fury flash-incinerating any normal tolerance for a fellow patron with a couple of dollars in quarters and dimes. Her nose starts running she's so pissed, and there she is standing in a CVS, snotty and deaf with rage, like some kind of maniac, because a tiny elderly woman needs an extra minute to pay for her dish soap or whatever.”Listen to story
Brannan Vines’ husband, Caleb, did two tours in Iraq, where he suffered a traumatic brain injury, and developed severe PTSD. Since he returned from the war seven years ago, things have gotten worse – for Caleb, for Brannan, and for their daughter.
My comment
This is and always has been a huge issue for families. I know because in 1982 I fell in love with a Vietnam veteran. One of the groups I belong to is Point Man International Ministries and they started in 1984, not just helping veterans with Out Post, but helping families with Home Fronts. Families are the front lines and we suffer because they are suffering. We heal when they heal but what is lacking is the knowledge they need to know to cope with all of this. I've been married since 1984, so it is possible if families understand and find support.
read more here
In 2002 I finished my book FOR THE LOVE OF JACK HIS WAR MY BATTLE and republished it last year about finding peace living with combat PTSD. It can be done if families know what it is and what they can do to help veterans heal. We are on the front lines when they come home because we know them better than anyone else. We know what they were like before combat and what changed in them but all too often families have no clue what they seeing. They don't understand so they blame themselves. If they know then they do not take the veterans actions and reactions as personal.
I have worked with families that started out with no knowledge and going through hell because of it. Once they understood it, they moved mountains out of the way to help. I am a firm believer that if more families learned, we would see less suicides, less homelessness and a whole lot of healing going on.
PTSD study reveals "There's not a single pharmacological treatment out there"
Brain-imaging study links cannabinoid receptors to post-traumatic stress disorder
May 14, 2013
Psychology and Psychiatry
In a first-of-its-kind effort to illuminate the biochemical impact of trauma, researchers at NYU Langone Medical Center have discovered a connection between the quantity of cannabinoid receptors in the human brain, known as CB1 receptors, and post-traumatic stress disorder, the chronic, disabling condition that can plague trauma victims with flashbacks, nightmares and emotional instability. Their findings, which appear online today in the journal Molecular Psychiatry, will also be presented this week at the annual meeting of the Society of Biological Psychiatry in San Francisco.
CB1 receptors are part of the endocannabinoid system, a diffuse network of chemicals and signaling pathways in the body that plays a role in memory formation, appetite, pain tolerance and mood. Animal studies have shown that psychoactive chemicals such as cannabis, along with certain neurotransmitters produced naturally in the body, can impair memory and reduce anxiety when they activate CB1 receptors in the brain. Lead author Alexander Neumeister, MD, director of the molecular imaging program in the Departments of Psychiatry and Radiology at NYU School of Medicine, and colleagues are the first to demonstrate through brain imaging that people with PTSD have markedly lower concentrations of at least one of these neurotransmitters —an endocannabinoid known as anandamide—than people without PTSD. Their study, which was supported by three grants from the National Institutes of Health, illuminates an important biological fingerprint of PTSD that could help improve the accuracy of PTSD diagnoses, and points the way to medications designed specifically to treat trauma.
"There's not a single pharmacological treatment out there that has been developed specifically for PTSD," says Dr. Neumeister. "That's a problem. There's a consensus among clinicians that existing pharmaceutical treatments such as antidepressant simple do not work. In fact, we know very well that people with PTSD who use marijuana—a potent cannabinoid—often experience more relief from their symptoms than they do from antidepressants and other psychiatric medications. Clearly, there's a very urgent need to develop novel evidence-based treatments for PTSD."
read more here
May 14, 2013
Psychology and Psychiatry
In a first-of-its-kind effort to illuminate the biochemical impact of trauma, researchers at NYU Langone Medical Center have discovered a connection between the quantity of cannabinoid receptors in the human brain, known as CB1 receptors, and post-traumatic stress disorder, the chronic, disabling condition that can plague trauma victims with flashbacks, nightmares and emotional instability. Their findings, which appear online today in the journal Molecular Psychiatry, will also be presented this week at the annual meeting of the Society of Biological Psychiatry in San Francisco.
CB1 receptors are part of the endocannabinoid system, a diffuse network of chemicals and signaling pathways in the body that plays a role in memory formation, appetite, pain tolerance and mood. Animal studies have shown that psychoactive chemicals such as cannabis, along with certain neurotransmitters produced naturally in the body, can impair memory and reduce anxiety when they activate CB1 receptors in the brain. Lead author Alexander Neumeister, MD, director of the molecular imaging program in the Departments of Psychiatry and Radiology at NYU School of Medicine, and colleagues are the first to demonstrate through brain imaging that people with PTSD have markedly lower concentrations of at least one of these neurotransmitters —an endocannabinoid known as anandamide—than people without PTSD. Their study, which was supported by three grants from the National Institutes of Health, illuminates an important biological fingerprint of PTSD that could help improve the accuracy of PTSD diagnoses, and points the way to medications designed specifically to treat trauma.
"There's not a single pharmacological treatment out there that has been developed specifically for PTSD," says Dr. Neumeister. "That's a problem. There's a consensus among clinicians that existing pharmaceutical treatments such as antidepressant simple do not work. In fact, we know very well that people with PTSD who use marijuana—a potent cannabinoid—often experience more relief from their symptoms than they do from antidepressants and other psychiatric medications. Clearly, there's a very urgent need to develop novel evidence-based treatments for PTSD."
read more here
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