Quick Impressions from the Survivor Corps Veterans Community Reintegration Summit
Great things happening at the Carnegie Institution in Washington, D.C., today and into tomorrow as an historic conference has gotten underway. Its aim: Foster synergy among a wide range of stakeholders to better serve the reintegration needs of returning veterans and military families.
To do this, barriers and competition between entities need to be breached and broken down into a laser-focused 'megacommunty' made up of the federal, state, and local government sectors; large and small businesses; national and community-based NGOs and nonprofits; media (national, local and new); health care providers; educational institutions; veterans service organizations and veterans/military families.
Click on 'Article' link below tags for more...
In educational interest, article(s) quoted from extensively.
Today was a full day -- working lunch included.
This is not a conference where panelists talk about the issues, wrap up with a brief Q & A, and then move on to the next thing.
Early this morning, attendees were assigned to their stakeholder category (I'm in the Media/Communications group) and, following a brief but inspiring welcome and introduction, then set out to first nail down what the current reintegration landscape is -- from each group's vantage point -- and then begin to brainstorm what must be done to "scale it up."
For the first time, community leaders from government, businesses, non-profit and veteran service organizations are convening in Washington DC on January 26-27 to collaboratively address the reintegration of service members and veterans as they return home to their families, communities, schools and jobs. Booz Allen Hamilton and The Veterans' Coalition are co-hosting the historic summit with Survivor Corps. ...
"We must recognize that it is our responsibility to do everything we can to ensure, not just that returning service members and veterans survive, but that they have every opportunity to thrive physically, psychologically, socially, and economically," says Jerry White, founder and executive director of Survivor Corps.
Over the past ten years Survivor Corps experience working with survivors of conflict has proven that reintegration is a key factor in whether survivors successfully overcome the traumatic experiences of war.
Survivor Corps U.S. Program Manger Scott Quilty is a U.S. Army Captain (Retired) who knows first hand about the challenge of recovering from the wounds of war after being severely injured by an improvised explosive device while on duty in Iraq.
“Reintegration didn’t occur for me as a result of orthopedic surgery or expert prosthetic care," Scott says. "It came through months of learning about myself, how I had changed from my experience… and by becoming a productive member of my community. Most importantly, I didn’t do it by myself, or with the help of any single organization."
"There are numerous organizations…many of which are represented in this room, who are doing what they can to improve the reintegration experience," Harry Walters, Chairman and President of the Veterans Coalition, said in his address to the Summit. "On the other hand, many of these very good intentions and best efforts are uncoordinated and can be confusing to those most needing assistance."
The Conference on Reintegration of Service Members and Veterans marks the start of an ongoing, close collaboration between the numerous individuals and organizations addressing the reintegration issue. Leaders from all sectors will share experiences, knowledge and perspectives in order to improve the overall quality of services and support for returning troops, their families and their communities.
"We truly believe this will be the beginning of a new type of effort that will positively impact the reintegration of service members and veterans to an extent never seen before," said Jerry White.
I'll have more when I return home (along with a few photos).
For now, let me close by saying that it is a hopeful endeavor. I'm very pleased to see so many from all segments come together and meet on equal terms. These types of mash-ups have been taking place on a more local level for the past few years (for example, in Kansas City last October and in Nashville last May); but, it's not enough for those on the lower rungs to stretch and strain to find new ways of doing what needs to be done.
That commitment needs to come from the top, too.
Imagine what a resounding success it would be if even a handful of the 200 or so high-level attendees (many greatly situated-to-move-the-necessary-levers for broad and deep change) is inspired enough to say to themselves, "I don't need a new law or regulation or mandate, I can do some digging and tweaking and implement some of these changes myself."
I am a Gulf War I vet, I felt the same as you when I returned home from combat. For me it was the total sense of feeling alive and being a part of my squad that I missed, although I did not figure this out until after 15 years of insanity.
In the mix, blood pounds through the veins and I received a powerful sense of completeness that I still chase today. The intensiveness of combat will never be matched in the civilian world, all the mundane things we did before seem totally a way to piss us off today. When faced with survival we let all the silly shit slough off of us and become one with the universe.
Our field of vision opens completely to encompass all within our sight, the tiny reflection in the corner of the eye becomes a sharp focus without having to direct attention its way. Time becomes suspended and we know and feel what omnipresence really means. How can anything else ever compare to this experiential endeavor?
I finally received help after 15 years, I could not drink enough alcohol, smoke enough weed, or seek out enough violence to get past the feelings of emptiness. I felt such an utterly and complete loss of self and sense of identity. We were trained to feel invincible, and it may even have seemed that way at times, but we did not get through combat without the help from the soldier next to us. We cannot make it through the confines of our minds without the help of others. We could not do it alone in combat, what makes you think that you can make it alone today?
He goes on to invite his readers to take a look at his process of returning to the fold of civilian life, learning how to deal with the changes that brings into a former combat veteran's life. Check out the rest of his postings.
I've included my response to Scott in extended.
Click on 'Article Link' below tags for more...
Editors Note: This is the second in an evolving series of posts weaving together data and developing research for my NIU Honors Capstone paper, Combat Veterans, Mass Media and the Advancement of Social Consciousness: An Historical and Contemporary Review, the draft of which is due in April 2008.
Relevant comments, info-sharing and direction are highly appreciated, as the paper is fluid and in formation. I'm hoping to both present the research at this year's 17th Annual Clement S. Stacy Undergraduate Research Conference hosted by Purdue University, as well as submit it for publication in a peer-reviewed journal when everything is complete. That will be a first for me, and I'm excited at the prospects.
Thanks in advance for your help and patience with me as the semester unfolds and updates to PTSD Combat become hit-or-miss once more. -- Ilona Meagher
My response (I welcome any comments/corrections):
Scott, this is a remarkable piece.
You're on the leading edge of something magnificent, using new media to add your insightful observations to the mix. To me, that is the power of the era we are living in today. The immediacy of the exchange of these thoughts and observations is going far to change the way we view these grand issues we all grapple with, veterans and civilians alike.
So, I do believe that your work here (and at facebook) to help raise awareness and advance a higher consciousness forged out of your experiences is a great gift to the rest of society -- and humanity as well. It is one of the positive aspects of the dichotomy of war, that its participants often struggle yet often rise out of those struggles to become even better leaders and providers of truth and knowledge. Thank you for your continued service to us.
Wanted to let you know that I'm going to include some of your words and insights here in my Honors Capstone paper. ... They are directly on target for what I'm researching and will help to move my thesis forward.
Thank you for what you're doing!
---
P.S. I have talked about this facet of feeling so 'alive' during combat that you point to [in your post]. I have a certain theory on this, culled from a lot of reading and researching the issue of consciousness and presence, etc. over the past years.
One of the reasons why I believe you feel so alive at those moments is not merely because you're faced with your own mortality. But rather, imho, it's because your situation demands that your mind be fully present in the moment. Your mind knows that the only way it can survive is if your physical body survives, and so it shuts itself down for a change and becomes clear and present in the moment.
The mind tamps down all of its usual destructive 'mind chatter' (that most people usually have going on in their heads all the time) in those times of danger. It pushes out the usual stuff that takes us away from being in the moment every moment: those endless loops of thoughts on resentments or hang-ups over past situations (like how your parents or friend or girlfriend did this or that to you last week or last year or last decade and you can't forgive them or you are damaged because of them, etc.).
And your mind in those 'alive' moments also for a change gives up its power and control over your peace of mind, allowing streams of anxiety or worry over the future dissipate.
In those moments, where your mind melts away and you become alert and present to where you are at that very moment, you have clarity and an awesome and powerful feeling and knowledge of your aliveness because you're present in the moment liked you've never been before. When I mentioned this recently to an Iraq veteran who I am friendly with, he looked at me with a kind of 'ah-ah' look on his face and said that definitely makes a lot of sense.
Now, the reason why I think this is important to consider if you're a former combat veteran grieving a bit over the 'loss' of that feeling of aliveness, is that knowing why you felt alive actually opens up a pathway to returning to that state -- but without having to have fear or having to be in mortal danger be the fuel for it.
There are a lot of ways to presence.
While today's moments may not 'live up' to the exciting moments of your days in combat, they are the only moments you really have. The past is gone (and it's not coming back), and the future is never guaranteed. All we as humans should focus on is bringing our full attention and energy into experiencing the present moments that we live in.
Our minds play funny tricks on us, have you noticed?
Our mind devalues the present. It actively places a higher value on the past (that's why memories are usually more rose-colored than not), and it also places a higher value on the future (life will be better when I get to x,y,z...).
But 'aliveness' is not experienced in the past or the future -- no matter how much the mind would like you to think that it does. The present is the only vehicle to feeling alive, because it's the only time we really are. I know this is long and maybe a bit difficult to get a handle on (I'm still working on understanding it all as well), but your incredible post here drove me to wish to share these musings with you.
Again, keep up the great work, (((((Scott))))).
You are an important element in the progress we see today in our treatment and understanding of the issues that surround war and the search for meaning and peace with ourselves and the environment that envelops us.
Renaissance by Fire: Returning Veterans, Society & the Forging of a New Enlightenment
Just a few days ago, Vet Art Project creator and founder Lisa Rosenthal honored me with the opportunity to develop a program, one of many upcoming VAP offerings that I've mentioned here before, as part of February's month long Chicago Cultural Center Incubator Series.
The list of events taking place next month is enormous.
Please visit the Vet Art Project website for a full listing; you can also download the event flyer [pdf] for all the specifics. All activities and community outreach work that Lisa has been doing in neighborhoods all across Chicago since October, will culminate in a public performance not to be missed:
No fee but advance reservations are recommended. For tickets: www.dcatheater.org or 312.742.8497.
But, a reminder: There are dozens of VAP offerings throughout February; please see the full listing [pdf].
If you are a Chicago-area veteran -- of any and all generation -- or a military family member, these events are meant to engage and delight you. If you're a civilian living in the area, you're definitely part of this community-veteran conversation and artistic expression. Please join us at any number of the free events being offered next month. Details on my event, Renaissance by Fire, in extended.
This is a special, special engagement for Chicago.
Don't miss it!
Click on 'Article Link' below tags for more...
Renaissance by Fire: Returning Veterans, Society & the Forging of a New Enlightenment [A community discussion - OPEN TO THE PUBLIC]
THIS IS A FREE EVENT
A discussion examining how combat veterans are leading us to a stronger awareness and consciousness of the pervasive themes (conflict, love, loss, honor, violence, etc.) that envelop society and its veterans alike.
A program on the eve of the first anniversary of the Northern Illinois University school shooting.
// this list is fluid and will fill and firm up as we move closer to the event//
- NIU Veterans Club members (TBA) - Anna Stevens, current NIU grad student and Vet Club Secretary, former Naval officer. - J.D. Kammes, current NIU student and Vet Club member, former Kosovo and Iraq veteran. - Jeff Merkel, former NIU student and Navy combat medic with service in Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq. - Bruce Jacobsen, NIU alum and Vietnam-era vet, VietNow Director and Legislative Rep - Rockford Chapter.
-----
WHAT TO EXPECT
This event will not be a discussion on war, per se.
Rather, the aim of this program is to explore issues that all of humanity grapple with, themes that revolve around dealing with the complexity and dichotomy of life, the search for meaning and purpose and satisfaction in life, etc. All veterans, even those who do not directly serve in combat, hone certain skills due to their sacrifice of time and work as part of a larger and more powerful entity.
Those sent to combat, are forced to deal with these universal themes in a more direct way.
Because of this, they have knowledge that they can provide the rest of civilian society. While veterans during deployment and during their return to society need the social supports of those on the home front, civilians often forget what veterans can provide them in return.
This event aims to examine those issues in a dynamic, inclusive discussion format.
================ Discussion flow ================
I’m planning to divide our discussion time into four sections where we’ll bounce around:
--- Funny stories/reflections on military life, including how civilians are different than military-types --- The bonds (love/brother-sisterhood) shared by military members, including positive aspects (honor/heroism) of combat or of serving as one among many toward a purpose higher than self --- The existential/spiritual challenges that veterans face when trying to resolve the difficult things they see and do during combat, what is learned about life in the process, and how meaning is forged (or not forged) as a result --- What civilians should know about veterans, what they can do to best welcome them home into their communities
“It is important not only that the veteran tells his story but that he experiences it as being heard. Today, we tend not to think of people as living in tribes. But we all need a sense of belonging to a tightly knit community in which we have significant relations that matter to and help uphold us all. Having one’s story validated is a critical step in the transformation of identity into warriorhood and mature adult status. The public platform is necessary for the story to get passed on and become part of the community’s collective wisdom and mythic history.” -- Dr. Edward Tick, author of War and the Soul
Dr. Tick is credited with being the inspiration for the Vet Art Project.
VAP creator and leader Lisa Rosenthal has stated that after reading War and the Soul, she was moved to take the journey she is on to help forge ties between veterans and the society they serve. The Vet Art Project is also inspired by the following quote used by Lisa in all of her materials:
“Veterans are the light at the tip of the candle, illuminating the way for the whole nation. If veterans can achieve awareness, transformation, understanding, and peace, they can share with the rest of society the realities of war. And they can teach us how to make peace with ourselves and each other, so we never have to use violence to resolve conflicts again.” -- Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh
If you are in the area, or if you know others who are and would be interested in attending Renaissance by Fire, please come and/or help spread the word. All are welcome!
PTSD, the VA and Suicide: Massachusetts Family Settles Government Lawsuit
On the heels of last week's news that the U.S. Marine Corps suicide rate is the highest seen since 2003, came the close of a chapter on one of the Iraq War's first such casualties. It was a case that received national exposure and made many stand at attention, wondering how the system that was meant to take care of our returning troops could fail so desperately.
Kevin and Joyce Lucey were at the leading edge of military families coping with the loss of a loved one returning home forever changed following deployment to the Middle East. Their pain moved them to go public, shining a light on the grave consequences of shortfalls at the VA at the time.
By sharing the story of their son Jeffrey's 2004 suicide, they went far to drag post-combat suicide out of the darkened corners of our military family homes and into the lap of the civilian population, asking if what was happening to our returning troops was right or just. The verdict to the family's 2007 VA lawsuit came last Friday.
The US government has agreed to pay $350,000 to settle a federal claim by a Belchertown family who blamed Northampton VA Medical Center for the suicide of their son, an Iraq war veteran who hanged himself after he allegedly was denied mental healthcare.
A lawyer from the office of US Attorney Michael J. Sullivan said in a letter filed yesterday at US District Court in Springfield that the June 2004 suicide of Jeffrey Lucey, a 23-year-old Marine, "while under VA care was a tragedy for the VA and the individual care providers."
The lawyer, Assistant US Attorney Karen L. Goodwin, said the suicide had led to improvements in how Veterans Administration medical centers treat veterans. Changes included the hiring of suicide-prevention coordinators and 100 new adjustment counselors at 207 Vet Centers.
Click on 'Article Link' below tags for more...
In educational interest, article(s) quoted from extensively.
Continuing:
"VA, both nationally and locally, has been challenged to appreciate and meet the healthcare needs of veterans returning from the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan," Goodwin wrote Jan. 6 to the lawyer for Lucey's parents in a letter calling the $350,000 settlement a final offer.
"Jeffrey's case, among others, fostered awareness and led to improvements in the VA's approach to the new generation of war veterans."
The government admitted no responsibility in the suicide, and Goodwin wrote that the Veterans Affairs administration would have had a strong legal defense at trial.
The Marine's father, Kevin Lucey, said he and his wife, Joyce, believe their son was suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder. They settled, he said, because the steps that the Department of Veterans Affairs has taken amount to an admission that medical treatment provided to veterans was deficient.
"When I brought Jeff to the VA, I really thought I was bringing him into the arms of angels," said his father, a therapist. "I thought they'd help us help him save himself, and, regretfully, because of how broken and how dysfunctional the system is, that never was."
Unfortunately, even with families like the Luceys (and the Omvigs, the Schulzes, the Bowmans and far too many others) first coming forward so many years ago, the suicides continue. Reporter Chris Dark writes of one that took place just a little over a year ago in an extensive piece, "Diary of a Suicide," featured in last month's Salk Lake Weekly:
It was just after midnight on Dec. 31, 2007, and bitterly cold outside, when two Ogden police officers knocked on the door of Jason Ermer’s home.
Earlier that night, Danny Murchie, an addictions counselor at the U.S. Department of Veteran’s Affairs (VA) Salt Lake City office, had called Ogden police and asked for a courtesy check on Ermer, his 28-year-old client, a recent Iraq war veteran. Murchie had talked with Ermer and feared he might harm himself.
When no one answered at the Ermer home, police followed footprints in the snow a few blocks into the Ogden Canyon foothills. Near a large boulder, a man’s body lay in the snow, blood pooling near his head. His breathing was slow and gargly.
Ermer was dressed in a black leather jacket and a baseball hat with the logo “Airborne.” When paramedics moved Ermer, barely breathing, to a stretcher, they found his black Ruger .45 pistol beneath him. Hours later, Ermer died at McKay-Dee Hospital Center.
A native of Roy, Utah, Jason Ermer served his country for a year in the northern Iraq city of Mosul in 2003. He was a soldier in the 37th Engineering Battalion of the 82nd Airborne division, later of the 101st Airborne. He was redeployed to Fort Bragg, N.C., in March 2005 and discharged from the Army seven months later. On Nov. 11, 2005, he returned to Utah with his wife Brandi and their newborn daughter Marley.
But Jason was scarcely the same man who had enlisted three and a half years earlier. He brought back to Utah constant pain from a parachuting injury to his neck and lower back, a growing addiction to painkillers and Iraq-fueled nightmares that wouldn’t let him sleep at night. One particularly graphic flashback plagued him—the last terrified look of an Iraqi child, who fell beneath the wheels of a Humvee Jason was driving near Mosul.
When he could hardly function anymore, Jason’s family says, he voluntarily entered the VA system for treatment. But the VA, after helping him with counseling, ultimately added insult to his injuries. In the early hours of Thanksgiving Day 2007, staff members suspected the confused veteran was high. In the emergency room, Jason later told his parents, he was held down and forcibly catheterized by several nurses and security personnel to obtain a urine sample for a drug test. His parents later obtained medical records from the VA that confirmed Jason’s story. The test, his parents add, came back negative. “Now I know what a woman feels like being raped,” he told his wife afterwards in tears. One month later, Jason was dead.
On a recent rainy night, 28-year-old Brandi Ermer stands beside the boulder where her husband shot himself. She looks toward her former home and says of Jason’s two-block journey to his suicide site: “It’s the longest walk anyone ever does.”
Jason’s suicide is a bitter symbol, a summation of issues that many Iraq veterans reportedly struggle with—marital and financial difficulties, health problems, post-traumatic stress disorder and drug addiction. His is also a journey that many other Iraq veterans in Utah are all too familiar with. Since the end of 2007, 130 Utah veterans have attempted suicide, according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Of the seven Utah veterans who succeeded in taking their own lives since Jason’s death—down from 13 in 2007—six were from the Korean or Vietnam War era. Only Jason served in Iraq. Of the 130 attempts, however, almost a third were by veterans young enough to have served in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Mike Koplin, suicide-prevention coordinator for the Salt Lake City VA office, is one of 150 such specialists appointed nationwide in April 2007. “The problem is increasing as vets come home and try to make the transition,” from soldier to civilian, Koplin says. For Iraq veteran and Salt Lake City antiwar activist Andy Figorski, Jason’s life and death offer a painful mirror of what might have been, indeed what still might be for other soldiers returning from the Middle East. “I could see myself in that kid, looking for a warm place, for acceptance in society,” he says. “He went to war thinking he was doing right in the world, promoting human rights, peace—then he ran over a kid in a Humvee and the downward spiral began.”
Please read the rest, for it is long and instructive. While the VA continues to make improvements, and while one facility may provide better service over another, we are still not where we should be when it comes to caring for our returning veterans.
Ermer's family provided this recording of Jason's funeral, which included a military honor guard. We often don't get to see such services on our television screens. Heartbreaking. My thoughts go out to the Ermers and the Lucey and all other families who have sacrificed so much for our country.
On National Day of Service: Civilians, Consider Serving Those Who Serve Us
"Everybody can be great because anybody can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love." -- Martin Luther King, Jr.
Today, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, is designated a National Day of Service. My husband is spending it with his 'Little Brother' via the YMCA's Big Brothers program, while my service today is in reaching out to help an Iraq veteran with an upcoming project he is organizing (more about this in extended).
The rest of my day is, unfortunately, devoted to studying for my classes, so additional service will have to come from me later. But, I'm inspired by the promise of the day, and the energy that everyone is putting into it all across the country. Fortunately, as Michelle Obama says in this explanatory video below, "This is more than a single day of service."
To extend that service into the future, may I suggest that you consider serving/helping one of those who have served us in uniform...and continues to serve now that he is out of it?
Click on 'Article Link' below tags for more...
Editors Note: This is the first in an evolving series of posts weaving together data and developing research for my NIU Honors Capstone paper, Combat Veterans, Mass Media and the Advancement of Social Consciousness: An Historical and Contemporary Review, the draft of which is due in April 2008.
Relevant comments, info-sharing and direction are highly appreciated, as the paper is fluid and in formation. I'm hoping to both present the research at this year's 17th Annual Clement S. Stacy Undergraduate Research Conference hosted by Purdue University, as well as submit it for publication in a peer-reviewed journal when everything is complete. That will be a first for me, and I'm excited at the prospects.
Thanks in advance for your help and patience with me as the semester unfolds and updates to PTSD Combat become hit-or-miss once more. -- Ilona Meagher
I received a really kind email today from Tyler Boudreau, OIF vet and author of one of the best books in its class (Packing Inferno: The Unmaking of a Marine; I've previously posted on him and his work here and here). His email was in response to a recent VetVoice post of mine (What OEF/OIF vets are best using mass media to reach society?), which included mention of his incredible engagement of society and attempts to advance our collective consciousness on issues of great importance to all of us.
My VetVoice post was a response to OEF/OIF vet and author Brandon Friedman's 'On Milblogging' post and a comment he made:
What are the 10 best blog posts (or book passages) written by Iraq or Afghanistan veterans? I can think of a couple by Alex Horton, another by Kate, and a couple by Ben at 2 Dinar off the top of my head. What am I missing? (Political persuasion, of course, is irrelevant here.)
His question especially excited me because of its timing; I'm on full-on press for related data for my NIU Honors Capstone Paper, specifically looking into how OEF/OIF veterans (like Brandon, for example via his excellent book The War I Always Wanted and his blogging, as well as Tyler through the same -- and additional -- channels) are using all the new media communications technology available for the first time to this generation of warriors to communicate *directly* with the civilians they served. This communication is a lot more immediate and intimate, so we are seeing changes taking place in quick order compared to the past.
In the long and short run, this back-and-forth communication by the enlightened-by-fire and the unenlightened and comfortable back at home will go far in helping to broadly raise consciousness on things having to do with war, yes; but also on life in general, especially examining the dichotomy of life. How good and bad exist in all things, because if warriors learn anything it is that war, to them at least, is glorious and damned, filled with triumph and tragedy, grandeur and misery...
My research isn't focused on OEF/OIF vets speaking out against war, per se (the anti-war movement has already been researched ad naseum); but rather about greater reflections on humanity, meaning, purpose, love, hate, violence -- all of the things that we all as humans grapple and deal with through the course of our lives. The only difference is that veterans' understanding of these things is forged deeper and more violently by serving in combat and being pushed to that extreme in life.
The world hears war stories told by reporters and retired generals who keep extensive notebooks and journals. They carry pens as they walk, whereas I carried a machine gun. War stories are told to those that have not experienced the worst in man. And to the listener’s ears they can sound like glory and heroism. People mutter phrases like, ‘I don’t know how you did it.’ And ‘I could never have done that.’ And they look at you wondering how you have changed, wondering if you have forever lost the moral dilemma associated with taking another person’s life.
and
War stories end when the battle is over or when the soldier comes home. In real life, there are no moments amid smoldering hilltops for tranquil introspection. When the war is over, you pick up your gear, walk down the hill and back into the world.
[Since surviving the bomb that landed on his platoon and returning home from war feeling as though everything he's lived since the war is a dream, not real]... I hold on too tight. I am too controlling, too serious. There is an urgency and desperation in everything I do. I am trying to do as much as I can in this extended spit-second before that bomb bursts. I wish this moment would last forever.
Killing is wrong, war is miserable. I miss being soldier. I cannot reconcile these things.
[He goes on to tell of a phone call with a battle buddy about a year after returning from Iraq. His buddy had hated the deployment, was bitter over the whole ordeal.]
And then, in his Boston accent, he added, "Yeah, it was miserable...ya know...prob'ly the wust period of my life. I wouldn't eva do that shit again in a million yea's." I agreed.
Then he paused. "But you know...we did have a pretty good time, didn't we?" A lot of people can't understand a contradiction like that. But we can. We are enlightened.
They say war is hell. But I say it ain't. War is the foyer to hell. The journey home from war is the threshold between a killing order and a peaceful chaos, between the rational and the distorted. Those few hours on the plane are the last of a crystalline euphoria a soldier will know before he steps across the river for good. It was in the passage through Anchorage that I believed I was coming home.
But just like war ain't hell, home ain't a point on the map -- it's a point of view; it's an attitude, and the origin of all my points had broken from the mainland. I had no anchorage anymore. My attitude was like a cooked egg -- permanently altered. My basis was adrift. I had completed the unmaking of myself. I just didn't know it yet. From the very instant my foot touched the American tarmac, I began my descent.
So, what is Tyler up to now and how does he need us?
I will post more on his project in the future, but for now I ask that you check out his "The Other Side: Cross-Country Cycling Tour Summer 2009" page for the full details of this exciting initiative to bring veterans and society together to talk about these issues. See if you are anywhere near the route (scroll down on the page to see the Google Map). If you can help in some way, please do.
I'm hoping to share connections and contacts, set up an event on the route, and may even sign up to a be a short-haul rider as he swings through Illinois. I better get serious about my training!
A few details from Tyler sets the stage:
A group of veterans (and non-veterans, too) will cycle from one side of the country to the other over the summer of 2009 in an effort to re-acquaint themselves with the land, to reintegrate with their communities and families, and to positively re-invest their strength in America.
...In its most fundamental sense, this project is about searching for what's on "the other side" of the battlefield. It is very much about veterans who have found themselves hurled suddenly to the other side of a catastrophic injury, or Post-Traumatic Stress, or an inexplicably dysfunctional life in the aftermath of war. But it is also about the nature of warfare itself. There is a great mythology associated with battle. We seek "the other side" of that mythology. We seek the other side of ourselves. We travel to "the other side" of the country to find it.
Please help to move this conversation forward. Email Tyler Bourdreau if you can assist him in organizing an event on the route, or if you have any questions or suggestions. And, if you're far from the planned trail, perhaps you can drop a nickle or two into the bucket to help make sure this endeavor is a full success.
Donations online via PayPal at the Collaborative Revolution page or via snail mail by sending a check to Collaborative Revolution, P.O. Box 60399, Florence, MA 01062. ***Be sure to type/write in "The Other Side" Cycle Tour in the memo line at the top of the PayPal page or into your check's memo line so the funds make their way to support Tyler's mission.***
U.S. Marine Suicides Highest Since 2003, Incoming VA Chief Promises Reform as Gulf Vets Testify on VA, DoD/VA Suicide Conference
The past two days have been stunning.
Seven years into the uptempo stress of our extended wars in the Middle East, as a first-ever joint three-day DoD/VA suicide prevention conference wound down in San Antonio, news came that the selected topic of study remains desperately relevant and urgent. Tony Perry, Los Angeles Times:
More active-duty Marines committed suicide last year than any year since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003, although the suicide rate remained virtually unchanged because the Marine Corps is increasing in size, according to a report issued Tuesday.
Forty-one Marines are listed as possible or confirmed suicides in 2008, or 16.8 per 100,000 troops, the Marine Corps report said. Nearly all were enlisted and under 24, and about two-thirds had deployed overseas.
In 2007, 33 Marines committed suicide -- a rate of 16.5 per 100,000 troops. The Marine Corps is adding troops and calling in reservists to serve in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as other foreign bases and stateside.
The Marine suicide rate is still below that for civilian populations with similar demographics -- 19.5 per 100,000. It is also less than that of the Army in 2007 (18.1 per 100,000). The Army suicide figures for 2008 have not yet been released, but officials said late last year they expected the number and rate to increase from 2007. [More OEF/OIF suicide stats].
The suicide rates for the Marines and the Army have been closely tracked because the two services have borne the brunt of the fighting and repeat deployments in the Middle East.
What's really disturbing about this news is that any increase has taken place, countering an aggressive Marine Corps suicide prevention campaign. Considering their laudable efforts, the figure takes on a starker tone.
Today, as General Eric Shinseki sat down before Congress in Washington, D.C., for his confirmation hearing to speak of his desire to improve VA services for our veterans, a nation's breadth away, Gulf War veterans appeared before a special VA panel assembled in Seattle, Wash., to tell of the care they have received over the years.
Click on 'Article Link' below tags for more...
In educational interest, article(s) quoted from extensively.
As President-elect Barack Obama’s nominee to head the second-largest bureaucracy in the government, behind the Pentagon, General Shinseki said that if confirmed he would streamline the disability claims system, use new information technologies to improve the delivery of benefits and services, and focus on unemployed and homeless veterans.
He also said the nation would more effectively fulfill its promise to take care of wounded veterans, those “bearing scars of battle, some visible and many others invisible,” a reference not only to those with physical wounds but also to those suffering from post-traumatic stress and traumatic brain injuries. ...
General Shinseki said he was troubled by the department’s history of lost or misplaced medical records. And he said the department must work to ensure that those leaving military service make a seamless transition to veterans’ health care. If confirmed, General Shinseki said, the department “would treat our veterans with dignity and respect.”
“For the V.A.,” he said, “the single focus for transformational change should be the veteran — providing for generations of veterans, who have done their duty, the support and services they have earned and we have promised.”
Mark Barber's piece in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer showcases some of the very real challenges facing the VA:
A special Veterans Affairs panel aiming to do justice for the long-neglected veterans of the 1991 Persian Gulf War convened in Seattle on Wednesday -- at the same time retired Gen. Eric Shinseki was testifying at a Senate confirmation hearing Wednesday to be the new VA secretary.
While Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., spoke at Shinseki's hearing about the need to change the current culture of the VA, several veterans in Seattle told the 14-member Advisory Committee about problems they had after returning from Operation Desert Storm 18 years ago.
Each veteran had fallen ill in the 1990s and never recovered from similar, mysterious symptoms they said they were discouraged from reporting or treating after returning from war:
"I felt kicked out, humiliated ... I looked elsewhere for answers" and dropped all contact with the VA in 1996, said Mark Nieves, 38, of Seattle. He came home ill displaying a variety of mysterious symptoms after serving as a cavalry scout with the 1st Armored Division in the 1991 Iraq invasion.
Lee Christopherson, 47, of Seattle, a former Coast Guard commander who also served in the Iraq war in 2003, was urged to attend the meeting by his mom, who said she wanted him to share what she had seen him bottle up over the years, including multiple strokes, blood clotting, vascular dementia, severe joint pain, fatigue, sweats, and involuntary muscle spasms all over his body.
"I had significant medical issues but I avoided recording them due to the fear of repercussions to my career," said Christopherson, who has been waiting since 2004 for a decision on his disability claim.
Beckie Wilson, a retired enlisted sailor and veteran of Desert Storm in 1991, said she gave up seeking VA treatment 10 years ago, opting for private doctors, in part from feeling vulnerable as a woman and made to feel "crazy."
"I didn't feel like the VA is changing so why bother? Is it truly changing? Are you truly trying to do something for us?" she asked.
Such disheartening accounts, and more to come below.
And yet, I do believe that the VA and DoD are attempting to do a better job. The evolution (or is that revolution?) that's necessary in care is an unwieldy, ongoing, steady but still too slow process for those who need the best medical attention ASAP. We need to keep pushing them to improve, giving them the funding and encouragement to continue moving forward.
If just “one good person” had helped him, Pfc. Jason Scheuerman might still be alive, the soldier's father told hundreds of military and civilian professionals in San Antonio at the largest suicide prevention conference ever focused on war stress.
“The only one who was ever found culpable for Jason's death was Jason,” Christopher Scheuerman said as the audience saw a photo of him with his son projected onto a screen.
Scheuerman, who testified before a House Armed Services subcommittee in March, said his 20-year-old son was ridiculed by others in his unit before he shot himself in his barracks in Iraq. He called for the military to adopt a “zero-tolerance” policy against supervisors who ignore pleas for help.
“This is an ugly story,” Scheuerman said. “But we have to have the courage to tell these stories as an institution.”
There was an air of candor at the annual DOD/VA Suicide Prevention Conference, sponsored by the Department of Defense and Department of Veterans Affairs. Aside from often being hard to isolate as a cause of death, suicide is an issue many in the military are slow to deal with because of the stigma attached, officials said.
“Stigma kills, and caring leadership saves,” said Brig. Gen. Loree K. Sutton, director of the Defense Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury.
In opening remarks Monday at the three-day forum, Sutton told of a sergeant who needed “to talk to someone” after he woke up his wife and kids one night, reliving an attack, after his third combat tour. When he sought help, he was called “a wuss, a wimp and a coward” by his superiors.
“Folks, that is toxic leadership,” Sutton said. ...
The conference, which began in 2002 as an Air Force event, drew 130 people when it was expanded to all four services in 2004, organizers said. It has a record attendance of about 700 in its first year in San Antonio.
Maj. Gen. Mark Graham lost his son Kevin, a senior ROTC cadet in college who took his own life in 2003. Eight months later, his other son, Jeff, was killed by a bomb blast in Iraq. Now, as commander of Fort Carson, Colo., Graham has made suicide prevention and mental health a focal point of his officer training regimen.
Through programs such as ACE — Ask, Care, Escort — for his troops, and “Army 101,” an initiative to teach police, school officials and other civilians in nearby Colorado Springs about the stresses of soldiers and their families, Graham said he's trying to keep troops from falling though the cracks. He said he has support at the highest levels of the Army, but hasn't been able to erase the stigma that lingers servicewide.
“We're moving in the right direction, but I think we could move a lot faster,” Graham said. His wife, Carol Graham, said she wished she had done something for their son Kevin, who had told her depression was an illness, not just a sad feeling, shortly before he used a cable to hang himself in his bedroom.
“He just didn't know he could die from being too sad,” she said during a panel discussion of family members.
The Rev. Susan Turley, a VA chaplain in California, said her son, Pfc. Keith Moore, 28, shot himself in Iraq. In e-mails, he grew despondent about a recent breakup with a girlfriend and began questioning the mission. Turley was afraid he'd “hate me forever” if she reported his behavior to the Army.
“I'm not here to blame anybody,” she said. “I have my own guilt and shame as a mother.”
Anne Scheuerman said she reported a suicidal e-mail from her son, a Lynchburg, Va., native, in 2005, and his unit seized his weapon and put him on “suicide watch” in Iraq. He sent her an angry text message, saying, “You just brought down all hell on me,” she recalled. Despite that, she was glad to know he couldn't hurt himself. But the Army determined he probably was faking mental illness in hopes of being booted.
“They just think that I want to be sent home. They told me to man up,” he wrote to her. She pleaded with professionals at the conference to listen to service members who ask for help and to give them hope.
“As a mother,” she said, “I am begging you. Take them seriously.”
Previous suicide awareness training emphasized recognizing warning signs, Cornum said. Now the Army is taking that a step forward by getting soldiers to act when they see those signs. “We have to ensure that the Army as a culture and soldiers individually know how to help someone else get through the low points,” she said.
As one way to encourage intervention, the Army is promoting the “ACE” – Ask, Care, Escort -- concept, and has printed up wallet-size cards to explain it to soldiers.
Cornum explained the technique:
“Ask about (a soldier’s) situation or problem,” she said. “Don’t just sit there and know it. Don’t ignore it.”
“Care enough to take action.” She urged soldiers to intervene, such as taking a weapon away from a suicidal soldier.
Escort the person to a health-care provider or chaplain or unit leader.
“Don’t just make the suggestion that he seek help and then leave,” she said.
“Knowing the ACE technique when someone is suicidal is critical,” Cornum said. “It is just as critical as knowing CPR to prevent cardiac death when someone has a heart attack.”
But just as CPR alone isn’t enough to prevent heart disease, ACE alone won’t prevent suicide, Cornum said. “There are no simple problems and there are no simple solutions," she said. "There is no program that has been shown to be truly effective at preventing suicides.”
Success will be “the sum of a number of smaller steps,” all linked to a broad behavioral health strategy, she said.
“To really and truly prevent death by suicide, we need to … build resilience, increase social competence and enhance problem-solving skills,” Cornum said. “Our goal is to develop an approach that builds lifelong resilience in our recruits, makes them successful soldiers as well as successful citizens long after they leave the Army and makes strong mental health as much of a priority as strong physical health.”
The two-day program gets underway January 26-27, 2009, and is going to be quite exciting. It has the promise of drilling down on the issues that face our military families' transition back into the ebb and flow of civilian life. It will also illuminate some of the hurdles and challenges that those of us who want to help face in our desire to extend ourselves to them.
In order for me to make the best contribution possible, I'm humbly seeking your expertise and help.
Click on 'Article Link' below tags for related links...
Details:
The goal is to convene a broader community of leaders from the public, private, and civil sectors to collaboratively address the issues of reintegration that affect how service members return to family, work, school, and community following their war time service.
There are four key objectives for the Summit:
Review themes, issues, and challenges faced by service members and veterans returning to civilian life
Develop a definition of successful community reintegration
Develop action plans to address specific issues of community reintegration that reach across sectors
Launch megacommunity workgroups to address specific issues of community reintegration
At the Summit, attendees will confront the toughest issues of community reintegration by participating in a dynamic simulation. Participants will be divided into various teams, whose assumptions, actions, and agreements will drive the simulation. Teams will work together, share information, and develop coordinated decisions and actions. As the simulation advances in time, participants will see the consequences and long-term impacts of their decisions on service members and veterans.
The issues of community reintegration are complex and will likely take years to solve. Participants will leave the Summit with a greater understanding of these issues as informed by the perspectives of leaders from all sectors. They will also have the opportunity to engage in action-oriented workgroups to facilitate leader-to-leader collaboration between organizations moving beyond the Summit. We believe that by gaining commitments to action, developing measurable goals, and routinely checking our progress against them, together we can sustain progress toward helping service members make a healthy return to their families and communities.
It's a great honor to be invited to participate and to represent the concerned civilian element of this issue. Please consider sharing your own thoughts and experiences on the challenges you have found to successful military veteran-community reintegration while going about your own work in this field, either through a comment here or by sending me an email at mail@ptsdcombat.com.
Your concerns and insights will greatly increase the value of my participation at the Survivor Corps Summit in two weeks.
Many thanks,
P.S. As those of you who have tried in earnest to receive an email reply from me to any number of emails you may have sent my way (especially over the past six months or so), I apologize if yours have been the neglected ones. I literally receive more email than I can personally process, alongside my class schedule, etc. As all of this work is pro bono, I can't afford to hire anyone to help in that area. Please forgive that sorry lack of feedback; but know that while I can't always reply to all of your communications, I do appreciate and try to read everything that comes in.
California's Landmark Combat PTSD Case: Former Army Ranger Sargent Binkley Receives Treatment, Not Jail Sentence
If you ever feel less than empowered, if you ever wonder if members of society can actively play a role in shaping how its returning veterans are treated beyond the accolades given at welcome home parades and Veterans Day potlucks, look no further than the citizens of California for one shining example of how its done.
Corté's article introduced us to a former West Point graduate who served in Bosnia and Honduras who was arrested and facing a possible 12-year stint in jail for holding up two pharmacies to feed his painkiller addiction, the same medication the VA prescribed -- over 15 times -- for injuries suffered while the former Army Ranger was based in Honduras.
Civilian doctors had also diagnosed PTSD.
His watershed case has gone to trial and the verdict was delivered yesterday. [ABC-San Francisco news report is now available online; KTVU news report up, which includes interviews with his parents.] Full details in extended.
Click on 'Article Link' below tags for details on the decision...
In educational interest, article(s) quoted from extensively.
There were a number of petitions and videos produced to support Binkley and get the word out on his case, including the one below.
Tormented by nightmares stemming from both his Honduran service and that in Bosnia, where his unit was assigned guard and exhumation duty over a mass grave filled with the four-years-decayed bodies of 7,000 Muslim men and boys cut down by Serb forces at Srebrenica, his downward spiral began.
In Honduras, he witnessed drug smuggler executions that he was unable to intervene in; Binkley also had to open fire on two approaching drug trafficking security guards, killing them both. One turned out to be a teenage boy and, not surprisingly, the incident consumed him long after he returned from deployment.
Binkley had years of struggle ahead of him, including an addiction to painkillers stemming from fracturing his pelvis and dislocating his hip. In 2002, with an honorable discharge making him eligible for full VA benefits, he sought help for his ailments. He was prescribed the highly-addictive Percocet to relieve his pain, but both military and VA doctors allegedly never found anything wrong with his hip.
A private civilian doctor, however, was able to find the cause of the pain and perform surgery to relieve it. Unfortunately, his addiction to Percocet remained. In addition, he was now embarking upon the journey, one fully documented and endured by so many of our returning veterans, to receive his official PTSD diagnosis from the VA.
His battle for proper care and treatment -- benefits he earned full and well through his service to our country -- dragged on for two years of military and VA claims paperwork mess.
His addictions continued as well, leaving him unable to hold down a job as he struggled with all of the layers of stress and strain enveloping his life. In order to feed his all-consuming habit, in 2006, Binkley held up two Walgreen's pharmacies in Mountain View and San Carlos, California. One county was willing to take his previously unblemished police and service record into account for a reduced sentence; the other was not.
At the time of my post, the question I posed was: Did he let us down, or did the system let him down? The trial that determined the answers to that question ended yesterday with a verdict of 'not guilty by reason of insanity.'
From a must-read piece (please read it in full) by Tracey Kaplan, San Jose Mercury News:
In a potential landmark case for soldiers suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, a Santa Clara County jury Tuesday found a former Army captain diagnosed with PTSD not guilty by reason of insanity for robbing a Mountain View pharmacy of drugs at gunpoint.
The jury's verdict means that West Point graduate Sargent Binkley of Los Altos will be treated for the disorder in a state hospital or as an outpatient rather than face 12 to 23 years behind bars.
"It's great news he's getting treatment," said Dr. Tom Berger, a leading PTSD expert with the Maryland-based Vietnam Veterans of America who testifies frequently before Congress. "PTSD shouldn't be used as a get-out-of-jail-free card, but studies have shown that at least 20 percent of veterans have it, and their problems need to be addressed."
The atmosphere in the courtroom Tuesday morning was tense as the same jury that had convicted Binkley, 34, earlier this month of using an unloaded service revolver three years ago to rob a Walgreen's of prescription drugs, came back in the sanity phase of the trial to announce its decision.
Binkley, who served in Bosnia and Honduras, and his father, a retired Los Altos engineer, both burst into tears as the verdict was read and enfolded each other in bear hugs. Binkley, who has been in a residential drug-treatment program after serving two years in county jail awaiting trial, was immediately taken into custody. He will be evaluated by court-appointed mental health professionals, who will recommend to the judge the duration of his psychological treatment.
What makes the case 'landmark' in my eyes, is that so many supporters -- individuals and groups alike, chief among them SupportSarge.org -- of Binkley's came forward to ensure that their voices would be heard. And unequivocally, those voices said that Binkley deserved to receive appropriate medical care for his addictions and actions, not jail time.
Defense attorney Chuck Smith said Binkley now be evaluated by the county mental health department as to whether he needs to be hospitalized. Smith said there is a possibility that Binkley will be set free and receive only outpatient treatment for his post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and addiction to painkillers.
"He will not spend a day in prison, which is just spectacular," Smith said.
Family and friends were tearful after the verdict Tuesday, said Alan Lubke, a Vietnam veteran who has been following the trial.
Before the sanity phase of the trial began, the jury had found Binkley guilty of the armed robbery, which he committed in January 2006 at the Walgreens pharmacy on the corner of El Camino Real and Grant Road using an unloaded handgun. Due to mandatory sentencing rules, he would have spent a minimum of 12 years in prison for the crime.
Binkley, 33, is an Army veteran from Los Altos who attended Los Altos High School and West Point military academy. Psychiatrists testified at the trial that Binkley developed PTSD during his time in Bosnia and Honduras and developed an addiction to painkillers after a hip injury that went untreated for years.
I say, kudos to those who worked tirelessly to ensure that the situation was handled with thoughtfulness and consideration of his full record. While breaking the law is certainly never acceptable, nor should ramifications for such conduct be casually tossed to the side, in cases where combat veterans are clearly spiraling downward as a result of their service experiences, society has a duty to try its hardest to ensure fair and equitable justice is done.
Just a quick note to say what may already be apparent if you're a regular visitor: I'm in the process of sprucing up the PTSD Combat template just a tad. Although I won't have time for any really fun changes, I've been wanting to do a few things before classes begin this week. I've already added a third column to the layout and let the belt out a bit on the width of the page to make room for it.
Things aren't yet where they will eventually rest, so pardon the dust while I retool things and move the furniture around a bit today. Have a great day, everyone!
Click on 'Article Link' below tags for specific updates...
[Update 6:10 pm]: All right, I'm done for the day with the web work, and want to share a few things with those of you who may be looking for something that's been moved.
The lion's share of the outside resource links have been moved onto the consolidated Emergency Helpline Phone Numbers, Places to Turn, and Reintegration Resources for OEF/OIF Troops and Families page (it used to be the free reintegration resources page). These were the links originally found in the right-hand column. The list was getting cluttered, and I always kept myself from adding to it to keep the content down to a reasonable level. A losing battle. So, everything is now in one place (more links will be added in the coming weeks as I have time). With one click, you'll have access to it all via the 'resources' or 'Combat Stress Resources' links found at the top of the middle column.
I wanted to add value to the home page, and I hope the new middle column of links galore will do just that. Being able to quickly see the five latest articles in the most-popular categories will hopefully supercharge your own research. Maybe just the right piece will catch your eye, one you weren't necessarily on the hunt for.
The Google PTSD Combat feed, which was near the bottom of the right-hand column on the old template can be found below the category offerings along with article links from the feeds for the other top blogs that cover this issue. The blogroll has also been moved into the middle column, below everything else.
The home page may load faster for those of you on dial-up as a result of the pruning done today. I've been well aware that this is far from a dial-up friendly blog, and I do apologize for that. That's had to suffer as a result of wanting to share as much info with you as possible.
There are still some minor changes coming, but for the most part this will be the layout of the place for a while. I hope it's a few degrees easier and more fun to navigate and explore.
[Update Jan 13, 2009]: I'm aware of the slow download speed of the background image, which is making it hard to read the text while waiting for the rest of the page to download. I've tried tweaking a few things quickly this morning to no good effect. Will return to resolve the problem later this evening. Thanks for your patience.
[Update Jan14 2009]: This will be my final update. After working to resolve the slow download time of the background image (especially in Firefox browsers), I found that the feeds were creating the problem. To try to resolve this issue, I've had to swap most of the information around from one column to another. I'm sorry if this has created some confusion in the meantime. In honesty, I'm not entirely happy with the result, but for now this is what we'll have to stay put with.
A few other notes:
Another set of links formerly in the right-hand column are now on their own page. You'll find research tools -- my full del.icio.us and Blogger label links; information on my PTSD Timeline data; and links to important studies -- on the new Combat Stress/PTSD Data Resources for Students, Researchers and Reporters page. You can access that page quickly by clicking on the 'Researcher Tools' found at the top of the middle column.
Because I needed to move the majority of the feeds back to the extreme right-hand column (they were slowing things down in the middle column), I've moved the events listing into the middle column.
Blogroll links remain in the middle column.
Congress/Media Contact Center is now at the bottom of the middle column.
Reaction to DoD Decision Against Awarding Purple Heart to Veterans with Combat PTSD
This week's news that the Purple Heart will not be considered for those coping with the psychological wounds of war has gotten a reaction from many quarters. The military decoration is awarded for "being wounded or killed in any action against an enemy of the United States or as a result of an act of any such enemy or opposing armed forces."
Through August 2008, 2,743 OEF and 33,923 OIF veterans have received the distinguished medal (of ~1.7 million given out since its modern inception in 1932; more Purple Heart history), which brings with it "enhanced benefits, including exemptions from co-payments for veterans hospital and outpatient care and gives them higher priority in scheduling appointments."
In extended, a selection of some of the debate on the matter. These are lengthy and multiple pieces, but are quite enlightening to read through if you have the time. The issue touches upon a slew of concerns dealing with our positions on tradition, progress, science, psychology, honor, equity -- all well worth examining.
One irony pointed out in the debate over the modern definition of what a combat wound is or is not comes from a Florida mental health counselor, who points out that our present-day enemies are foremost using terror as a weapon against us.
Their attacks are intended to deliver wounds of fear.
Our political and military leaders, therefore, have termed this ideological struggle of our time The War on Terror[ism], finding that descriptor to be the most appropriate for the current generation of war -- an ideological battle to end all battles.
It's quite an interesting insight when considering this debate, since the DoD has ruled that these wounds (the very wounds that our campaigns in the Middle East are named after) don't qualify for the Purple Heart. Interesting paradox, no?
Of course, fear itself does not bleed visibly.
Fear is something felt and experienced in the mind (and the body responds, as well to this emotion). If we know nothing else about traumatic stress, we know that fear borne of terror is the lead quantifiable and diagnosable cause of PTSD.
The first element of PTSD, as defined in the DSM-IV:
309.81 DSM-IV Criteria for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder
A. The person has been exposed to a traumatic event in which both of the following have been present:
(1) the person experienced, witnessed, or was confronted with an event or events that involved actual or threatened death or serious injury, or a threat to the physical integrity of self or others (2) the person's response involved intense fear, helplessness, or horror.
1. Intense, overpowering fear. 2. One that instills intense fear: a rabid dog that became the terror of the neighborhood. 3. The ability to instill intense fear: the terror of jackboots pounding down the street. 4. Violence committed or threatened by a group to intimidate or coerce a population, as for military or political purposes.
Click on 'Article Link' below tags for much more...
In educational interest, article(s) quoted from extensively.
The Pentagon on Thursday sought to assure troops that it takes post-traumatic stress seriously despite the recent decision not to award the Purple Heart to those with the disorder.
An advisory committee concluded that troops coming home from the wars with combat stress cases collectively known as post-traumatic stress disorder will not qualify for the prestigious medal awarded to service members wounded in action. ...
The Pentagon decided in November that troops with the disorder cannot be awarded the Purple Heart, but the decision was not known until it appeared Monday on the Web site of Stars and Stripes newspaper.
"The Purple Heart recognizes those individuals wounded to a degree that requires treatment by a medical officer, in action with the enemy or as the result of enemy action where the intended effect of a specific enemy action is to kill or injure the service member," Defense Department Eileen Lainez said of the decision. "PTSD is an anxiety disorder caused by witnessing or experiencing a traumatic event." It is not "a wound intentionally caused by the enemy from an outside force or agent," but is a secondary effect caused by witnessing or experiencing a traumatic event.
The matter came up in May, when a military psychologist at Fort Bliss, Texas, told reporters he felt that making troops suffering from PTSD eligible for the Purple Heart would help remove the disorder’s stigma.
"These guys have paid at least a high — as high a price, some of them — as anybody with a traumatic brain injury, as anybody with shrapnel wound, and what it does is it says this is the wound that isn’t worthy, and I say it is," John E. Fortunato said in May.
When a reporter asked Defense Secretary Robert Gates about Fortunato’s comments, Gates said the matter was "clearly something that needs to be looked at," prompting a review by the Defense Department’s Awards Advisory Group.
Based on the group’s findings, Dr. David Chu, undersecretary of personnel and readiness, has decided that PTSD does not meet the requirements for the Purple Heart, Lainez said on Monday. ...
The Military Order of the Purple Heart, a veterans group, responded [when the question was first raised] by saying the Purple Heart should only be awarded to troops who shed blood.
"I don’t think people should get the Purple Heart for almost getting wounded," said Joe Palagyi, the group’s national adjutant.
Many Stripes readers also opposed the idea.
"Every badge hunter and his brother will have this distinguished award in their sights," Army Capt. Matthew Nichols wrote in a May letter to the editor.
But Edward Stump, who said he served in Vietnam with the Marines from 1966 to 1967, wrote that the psychological wounds are just as real as physical ones.
"My wounds do not bleed but they have as many scars as a lot of other wounds," Stump wrote. "These wounds will never heal anymore than the scars, from any that are from combat-related fighting, will disappear."
CBS News segment from June 2008 regarding the issue of possibly awarding Purple Hearts to veterans with PTSD:
For some soldiers suffering from the disorder, the historical distinction between blood and no blood in an injury fails to recognize the depths of their mental scars. A modern war — one fought without safe havens and with the benefit of improved armor — calls for a new definition of injuries, some veterans say.
Kevin Owsley, 47, who served in the Ohio National Guard in 2004 as a gunner on a Humvee and who is being treated for PTSD and traumatic brain injury, said he disagreed with the Pentagon’s ruling.
Unable to hold a job, Mr. Owsley supports his family on disability payments. This week he told his Veterans Affairs doctor he was fighting back suicidal impulses, something he has struggled with since his return. “You relive it every night and every day,” he said. “You dream about it. You can see it, taste it, see people getting killed constantly over and over.”
“It is a soldier’s injury,” he said, angrily, in a telephone interview on Wednesday.
But many soldiers do not feel that way. In online debates and interviews they expressed concern that the Purple Heart would be awarded to soldiers who faked symptoms to avoid combat or receive a higher disability rating from the Department of Veterans Affairs.
“I’m glad they finally got something right,” said Jeremy Rausch, an Army staff sergeant who saw some of the Iraq War’s fiercest fighting in Adhamiya in 2006 and 2007. “PTSD can be serious, but there is absolutely no way to prove that someone truly is suffering from it or faking it.” ...
Dr. Barbara V. Romberg, a psychologist in Bethesda, Md., and founder of Give an Hour, which offers mental health services to troops and their families, said that she and many other psychologists believed the discussion of Purple Hearts had brought more attention to post-traumatic stress disorder and the seriousness of psychological wounds suffered on the battlefield.
“We’re working to normalize post-traumatic stress as an understandable human consequence of war that can result in very serious damage to some people’s lives, and they deserve honoring for that,” she said. “But I don’t want to be so quick to condemn the decision,” she added.
Many have post-traumatic stress, but only some develop a serious lasting disorder; in both cases, she said, “people deserve to be honored in some way for the injury they received in combat.”
After years of criticism for ignoring the problem, the Defense Department and the Veterans Administration have bolstered their capacity to diagnose and treat PTSD, and those with serious cases may receive substantial disability benefits. Some of those suffering from severe traumatic brain injuries qualify for a Purple Heart because they required medical treatment.
Clincial psychologist Elvira G. Aletta, Ph.D., Psych Central:
This is an interesting decision on many levels. My first reaction was: How typical. Go ahead and ignore all the research and data collected by psychologists, neuropsychologists and psychiatrists the world over to define and develop diagnostic and treatment protocols for this horrible condition. ...
The Times article, placed on the front page above the fold, was uncharacteristically lacking in good reporting. I’d like to learn more about who was on the panel. What experts did they talk to and what are they really afraid of? Was it a hard decision to come to or a ‘non-starter’? The reporters did not have one well-qualified behavioral health specialist speak in favor of awarding the Purple Heart to PTSD victims. How about someone from the National Institute of Mental Health? Was no one willing to go on the record? This seems strange to me. Also the NYT reporters had a layman, someone clearly against such a measure, stating, “PTSD can be serious but there is absolutely no way to prove that someone truly is suffering from it or faking it.”
Really? What makes him qualified to make such a statement? How about a rebuttal?
Addressing the issue of mental health stigma is something that the government has only recently, maybe the last ten years, had the guts to face. Congress took forever but finally came around to passing legislation that advanced third party payer parity for mental health diagnostics and treatments. As a public service this action brought the issue of how mental health is seen and treated to the public. Stigma is all over this Purple Heart decision as illustrated in the position the Military Order of the Purple Heart takes. They are “strongly opposed to expanding the definition to include psychological symptoms, saying it would “debase” the honor.”
That’s what it is all about: the age-old mental illness fear and stigma. All other arguments are excuses for not giving wounded soldiers their due. My opinion.
Here’s an example. Take this argument also from the Military Order of the Purple Heart : Q: “Would you award it to anyone who suffered the effects of chemicals or for other diseases and illnesses?” A: Sure! If it was a result of combat. Q: “How far do you want to take it?” A: As far as we need to to honor our veterans who put themselves in harm’s way for their country.
Living in the 21st century means having the strength to live with ambiguity. Are we going to be inclusive or exclusive? Isolationist or communal? Back in the ’90s the acceptance of gays in the military was a reflection of American society’s struggle as a whole. This PTSD and the Purple Heart thing feels similar. Some day it will be acknowledged that the nature of war and our understanding of its impact has changed radically since the Purple Heart was commissioned in the 1930s.
The people in favor of exclusivity say you have to shed blood to get a Purple Heart. What about conditions like traumatic closed head brain injury? No bloodshed there. Sometimes the injury doesn’t even show on a CAT scan. Our diagnostics haven’t yet caught up with what we know and are on the verge of proving. Why deprive our soldiers of this deserved honor because of our ignorance? PTSD and major depression can also be fatal diseases if untreated. In other words, you can die from PTSD, through suicide, alcoholism or related illness. Not enough?
It’s hard for me not to have a kneejerk reaction to this decision. I’ve treated my share of PTSD cases, combat veterans and civilians. My patients were not faking their symptoms. If I had a doubt I referred them to a well-established expert who provided the testing and diagnostics needed for a conclusive diagnosis.
So the bad news is the Pentagon, a bastion of conservatism after all, decided against giving the Purple Heart to soldiers wounded with PTSD.
The general public has long stigmatized people with mental illness. In pre-scientific times, mental illness was believed to result from demons, and in modern times some people still believe that people could control mental illness with more desire and self-control.
But severe mental illness, such as PTSD, is accompanied by actual physical changes in the brain. Brain imaging techniques are improving and revealing areas of the brain that show abnormal activity in these disorders.
Psychological tests can also quantify the severity of PTSD and detect malingering, though no test is perfect in either regard. [Ed. note: it wasn't so long ago, three years to be exact, when the malingering charge was being hurled at some of our veteranas suffering with TBI] ...One problem with identifying PTSD is that its causes can be cumulative. That is, multiple exposures to trauma can ultimately cause the disorder. Another complication is that PTSD can have delayed onset, sometimes decades later as has been seen in Vietnam veterans.
Police officers also often experience cumulative and delayed onset PTSD, and this complicates their disability compensation determinations. But because an illness is complicated is not a justification for denying recognition of it.
For both soldiers and police officers, the standards for medals and disability awards should be updated to include these very real and serious psychiatric injuries. Though they may be difficult to rate, the disorders are a result of service to the nation and community, and it is a slap in the face of these men and women with PTSD to imply that their sacrifices are unworthy.
The Pentagon has decided that the disabled and damaged young people who return from war with post-traumatic stress disorder should not get the Purple Heart, which recognizes the sacrifice that soldiers have made. The Pentagon says this is because the wound is not physical and because the damage was not caused intentionally by the enemy.
Those who say this live in unbelievable ignorance. They need a higher awareness of the nature of warfare today, and a better knowledge of medical science.
Today the weapon of our enemy is "terror," and we have identified our enemies, the "terrorists," not by nation, but by their chief weapon of destruction and the damage it causes. PTSD is a result of contact with not only the enemy's terror, but with the bullets and bombs used to create it. PTSD is a tormenting, disabling condition, caused by direct contact with violent trauma. The enemies' destruction of us is certainly intentional, and the reality of our troops' psychological wounding is not up for debate. ...
William Anderson Licensed mental health counselor Sarasota
Lesson Three: The hippocampus, a part of the brain responsible for our ability to have a conscious history, is one of the neurological casualties of traumatic experiences It is damaged to the point of shrinking when saturated with a toxic flood of stress hormones. This not only leads to impaired memory. It also prevents the hippocampus from putting the brakes on the hair-trigger emotional responses of one of the brain's more primitive structures, the amygdala.
Lesson Four: Traumatic stress is often the result when soldiers are required to risk mutilation or death, to inflict it on others, or witness the maiming or annihilation of friends and comrades.
Lesson Five: Trauma sufficient to cause PTSD is no less physical than a bullet to the head.
That the decision left hundreds of PTSD-suffering Louisiana war veterans with no medal recognizing their agony did not seem to upset the veterans. They tend to have larger issues.
"We've been toting this burden around for 40 years," said R.L. Smith of Monroe.
On a random weekday afternoon some 40 years after their return from Vietnam, these men tell harrowing stories of brutal killings committed as teenagers and the trauma that the memories still cause. They share the frustration that no one outside their circle is listening or could understand if they did.
At Dr. Mitchell Young's clinic on Evangeline Street in Monroe, a different PTSD support group for veterans meets every day of the week. They come from all over the region — hundreds of men who would normally avoid a social setting even among their own families because people and noise make them uneasy.
They come to bond. But they also come to heal.
"I was a squad leader when I was 20 years old," Estep said. "I was the oldest person in my squad. I had two 17-year-old kids who had to have letters signed by their parents just to join the military. One cried himself to sleep every night. What training did I have to deal with him, to help him?"
No one has answers, but everyone in the room can relate to the question.
Again and again, stories of horror are told and are greeted not by disbelief but knowing nods. PTSD might not be sufficient injury for a Purple Heart, but Vietnam vets the first warriors diagnosed with the condition say they would gladly accept almost any physical ailment as a replacement.
"I couldn't keep a job. I've had five DWIs. I slept under a bridge," said Eddie Jackson, of Monroe, who is on 100 percent disability for the disorder. "They trained us to not get killed. But they never talked about the realities. I wish I had lost an arm or leg. I wish people knew, with PTSD, it seems like as you get older, it gets worse."
"They told us we could lose a limb or even die," Estep said. "They didn't tell us we could lose our identity."
"We lost our soul," Byrd said. ...
These days, the support groups are dotted with young men, recent veterans of war in Afghanistan and Iraq. The Vietnam vets invest in them, and hope their struggle will not become the struggle of the next generation of soldiers.
"We hope that 40 years from now, these Iraq and Afghanistan vets aren't dealing with this," Estep said. "I hope they can find some peace."
Unlike a shattered limb or ruptured artery, PTSD takes time and expertise to accurately diagnose. And as opponents to its inclusion for Purple Heart qualification status argued, it also can be faked — for a time.
The Purple Heart medal has roots in the Revolutionary War. Since its official creation in 1932, some criteria for the award have been altered and expanded, but the fundamental requirement has never changed. As a May 8, 2008, news release from the Military Order of the Purple Heart declared:
“The memories of far-off battles … are steeped in the blood of Patriots and sends [sic] a resounding pledge that the Purple Heart Medal shall be for those who have shed their blood.”
No blood, no Purple Heart.
Those who carry the internal wounds of PTSD — and the medical professionals who treat them — are all too aware that real blood sometimes is shed because of the disorder. Tragically, that blood comes months or even years after the battlefield from self-inflicted gunshots or sliced wrists, when a combat veteran can no longer survive the emotional and psychological holes inside. ...
(Post-traumatic stress is common among men and women in combat situations but usually subsides. Post-traumatic stress disorder, which affects fewer troops, is a lasting and severe condition that can include nightmares, crippling anxiety, vivid flashbacks, acute depression and suicidal or violent tendencies.) ...
The process pitted vet against vet with groups such as the Military Order of the Purple Heart Medal virtually transforming some of their fellow combat veterans into enemies. In the May 2008 news release, the group’s national service director, Jack Leonard, was quoted: “We must withstand courageously any attempt at downgrading our most prized Purple Heart Medal.” ...
Thanks largely to mental health care activists, veterans and their families, the U.S. military has come a long way in a relatively short time with regard to post-traumatic stress disorder. As knowledge and understanding increase, it seems reasonable to imagine an appropriate medal — not too far in the future — that recognizes the pain and sacrifice of men and women who suffer PTSD in the service of their country.
Blood or no blood, there is honor in their wounds.
"It brings back a lot of bad memories," recalled Purple Heart reciepient Jerry Whiteker. ... "I do feel that there is a mental side to that, and that the regulations should be changed," says retired Army veteran Bennie Moye. Moye served in Korea and Vietnam, and he says the decision is wrong, believing that not only do injuries hurt the body, but also the mind.
"There is a mental side to it, and i do feel that there are a lot of guys who are broken down mentally because of that."
"You dog gone right, (they deserve the honor) that is exactly how I feel."
Jerry Whiteker was awarded a Purple Heart, after being wounded in combat, his thoughts are with those who were mentally scarred.
"I don't think it takes away from their service at all, but [I] think in certain instances that they need to be compenstated." Whiteker continued, "I do not think that it should be limited, I really don't. I know that those injuries exist, they are out there."
Not not everyone shares that opinion, some military vets agree with the decision. The Purple Heart should be for the physically injured.
"People are upset, but the Army made the right decision," said retired veteran Harry Conway. "If you bring in Post Traumatic Stress and other things into it, then you are taking away from what the medal was designed for," Conway stated, "it should be for wounds, if you are shot or hit by shrapnel, that is what the purple heart is for, that you physically bleed."
For Kevin, Joyce and Debbie Lucey the recent news from the Pentagon is disappointing. On June 22, 2004, their son, 23-year-old Jeffrey Lucey, a former Marine, hung himself after returning from Iraq a year earlier. Kevin Lucey said, "If anybody even questions how lethal or how damaging PTSD can be and whether it's real we would invite them to go down to our son's grave."
The Lucey's say they know first had that not enough is being done to help Veterans suffering from PTSD and denying them recognition is another step in the wrong direction. Debbie Lucey said, "It's reinforcing a stigma that is that is already set that so many veterans and their families are trying to overcome."
Traditionally the medal has been awarded to men and women who have given blood in defense of their homeland and not those who have suffered mental disorders. The Lucey's say their son paid the ultimate price and in the end his blood was shed.
Kevin Lucey said, "Unless you see blood then it's not really a wound, well I can tell you the day that I found our son Jeff was bloody, on his arm and down his shoulders."
Defense Secretary Robert gates says they may revisit the decision. Either way the Lucy's say the fact that it's even an issue has already disappointed many veterans and their families.
Kevin Lucey Said, "If they don't want to give the purple heart, fine, but then shouldn't there be something for the sacrifice that they gave, couldn't there be another type of recognition that could be given."
"It would be like anyone in theatre was given a Bronze Star or Silver Star for being in theatre, it would diminish what those mean to the heros of the past," said Eric Cook, a U.S. Army Desert Storm veteran and Purple Heart winner. "As a battlefield commander, how could I have expressed to the family of a son or daughter that lost limbs and someone standing their without any physical harm to them at all and awarding them the same award."
William Terry was literally blown off the USS Reid during the air attack on Pearl Harbor December 1941. He lost 103 of his shipmates that day.
"We had 2 kamikazes hit our ship simultaneously and it sank within 2 minutes," said William Terry a U.S. Navy WWII veteran and Purple Heart winner. "I don't believe they should, I can sympathize with the people that have the syndrome. I think it would diminish it. You can have that syndrome and never be in a battle."
Eric Cook was awarded the Purple Heart for action in Desert Storm and says there can be no mistake of who should get the award.
"It's what the medals about, it's about those that are wounded during combat," said Cook. "Awarding medals to people with stress disorders I think really diminishes especially our forefathers people that fought in the great wars."
Some veterans believe as war has changed, so too should our definition of what a wound is.
"Active duty military is stretched very very thin they spend more time in combat theater than ever in our history and exposed to more stress than ever before," said Amos Snow who was in the U.S. Navy from 1981 to 1989. "With post traumatic stress syndrome it might show up for years andI think it does a dis-service to those who are defending our nation that , that is not a recognized combat related wound."
It's a decision charged with emotion -- one that has left some of the borough's Purple Heart recipients torn between how to separate the physical scars from the emotional ones, which many times run just as deep. No matter their opinion, however, all agree on one thing: Veterans new and old suffering from PTSD deserve the same benefits and medical care afforded to all injured soldiers.
Joseph Di Giovanni, commander of the Military Order of the Purple Heart, Father Capodanno Chapter, who lost a finger and took shrapnel in the eyes and chest during an ambush in Vietnam, believes the Pentagon should rethink its decision.
"Anybody who served in combat knows it's a tragic thing," said the Great Kills resident. "It just lingers on afterward. It could be a smell, a sight, the sound of a firecracker. It brings you back in an instant."
He just wants to ensure the PTSD has been verified by appropriate medical professionals before the honor is bestowed. William Liell, a Korean War veteran and adjutant for the Capodanno Chapter, shares that view.
"I disapprove of [the Pentagon's] decision," said the South Beach resident. "Anybody who comes back with credited PTSD deserves [the Purple Heart]." ... "There are people who come back without cuts and bruises, but anyone who sees vehicles getting bombed or their friends killed is going to be shaken up," he said.
Every day, Chris DeLisa witnesses the damage, both physical and mental, that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have inflicted on today's soldiers as she helps them readjust to civilian life in the Staten Island Supports Our Soldiers Resource Center in Sea View. Mrs. DeLisa, whose son served in Iraq, believes the Pentagon should "re-educate themselves and change the qualifications of the award." ...
When Bob Tamburri visits his father's Bulls Head home, he often pauses to look at the two Purple Hearts hanging from the wall. One belongs to his dad, John Tamburri Sr., wounded on the island of Peleliu during World War II; the other to his brother, John Jr., killed in Vietnam in 1970 at age 19.
"It's a hard call to make," said Tamburri, a Marine who is the commander of AmVets Post 917, which bears his brother's name. "I certainly agree that mental suffering is a wound just as much as a physical wound."
"It's a double-edged sword," said the Eltingville resident and Marine who lost his right leg when a mortar round landed in his foxhole in Vietnam. "There are probably some people who deserve it, but how do you make that determination?
"Until [the Pentagon] comes up with a concrete way of making that determination, it should be reserved for those who shed blood on the battlefield. I recognize the stress and the trauma and they should get everything as far as benefits go, but the actual award?"
Anyone who has served in a combat zone will suffer PTSD on some level at some point in their lives, he said.
I had what I must admit was a singularly undistinguished military career. About the most noteworthy thing you can say about it is that I happened to enlist in the United States Army Nov. 11, 1975. In addition to being Veterans Day, it was also the last few weeks of the last year of what the Veterans Administration officially terms the Vietnam era, so technically I am a "Vietnam-era veteran" with a scar on my shoulder to prove it. ...
The truth is that although I was a squad leader in basic training, a shoulder injury cut my military career short; I ended up spending just two years in the Army, most of it painting barracks or pulling guard duty, all of it as a private far from harm's way. ...
Still, having spent much of my life reading up on military matters, I'll always respect the men and women who willingly and ably serve their country. Their service often comes at great cost. That's why I'm sorry about the Pentagon's decision last week not to award the Purple Heart to soldiers suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. ...
No doubt, there is legitimate concern among some soldiers that some malingerers might find themselves with a medal. But everything I've read on the combat experiences of real soldiers suggests the Pentagon's decision is half right and half wrong - and likely to be completely misunderstood by many. ...
In his profound study of the psychological effects of combat, "On Killing," Army psychiatrist Lt. Col. David Grossman writes, "Post-traumatic stress disorder has always been with us, but the long delay time and erratic nature of its occurrence has made us like the ancient Celts who do not understand the link between sex and pregnancy."
Grossman writes that PTSD is an inevitable result of the carnage of combat because, he believes, soldiers must overcome a natural psychological barrier humans have against killing their own species. He cites an authoritative World War II study that determined 98 percent of all soldiers would become psychological casualties after 60 days of continuous combat. And a 1988 study of Vietnam veterans indicated the victims of PTSD were "almost solely veterans who participated in high-intensity combat situations."
Real soldiers I've talked to know the vast majority of psychological casualties aren't cowards or malingerers, and armies have long understood that combat wounds the psyche as well as the body. In fact, the purpose of long-range bombing and artillery barrages is as much to produce psychological casualties as to inflict material damage.
So it's hard to fathom how psychological wounds are any less real than physical ones. Or that these casualties are somehow less deserving of our honor than those hurt by enemy lead. A significant contributor to PTSD in soldiers is the guilt they carry over killing, Grossman writes. That's why civilian acceptance and honor when they come home is so important to those soldiers' recovery.
Medals don't mean much, but maybe those Purple Hearts would remind us of the real cost of war, and to honor those who must pay it for us.
Obviously, all combat wounds deserve to be considered and treated with equal respect and dignity and care of the highest quality and order. It's appropriate and good to honor those whose bodies have bled for our nation, but we also have to equally honor those whose hearts bleed from war-pierced wounds of the mind and soul.
Providing the best, easy-to-access care should be a given. Often it is not. Taking care of and showing concern for our military families may be the most tangible way to honor those we've sent to war.
Ribbon or no ribbon.
[UPDATE Jan. 11, 2009]: I've been adding to this post throughout the day and, through handling the material, have found the issue to be a touchstone, a marker of so many things that we grapple with when it comes to the micro issue of PTSD and the macro issue of war in general.
Tyler Boudreau, a 12-year Marine Corps Infantry veteran who served in Iraq, wrote a stunning account (Packing Inferno: The Unmaking of a Marine) of the external and internal experience of combat when he returned home. It far surpasses most other books of its kind. In it, he speaks presciently in a section of the book subtitled simply, "Purple Heart."
I hope he will allow me to quote the section in full, for it touches on many elements that make this debate so tense:
Purple Heart
Crossing over to war, or crossing back -- I'm not sure which was more thrilling. To make that plane ride home is to have overcome war. It is to have made it through alive. And for that you get the solemn distinction, the enviable title of "combat veteran." There are men who seek the Combat Action Ribbon (CAR) more fervently than any other personal decoration.
It's true, because it means you've been in the shit -- at least that's what it's supposed to mean. The intent we clear enough. A Marine was supposed to have been in a fight, a direct fire fight, with bullets whizzing by, some guys getting shot at, and others shooting back. But then people started scratching their heads as Marines were getting shelled and IED'd, day in and out, without ever having fired their rifles. Could you really tell them they weren't in combat? A guy could have his legs blown off from an IED, but no Combat Action Ribbon. It didn't seem right.
Suddenly the meticulous criteria for a CAR became hazy. Suddenly it was a matter of dispute. So they loosened the regs. And then they loosened them a little more. The next thing we knew, CARs were getting doled out to anybody with the loosest affiliation to combat. To us grunts, that didn't seem right either. Purple Hearts, as a result, took on an interesting new importance. It let people know that you were in a real fight, a fight close enough to feel the heat, close enough to catch some lead. But then the credibility of the Purple Hearts started taking hits too.
There was a corpsman -- a medic -- in my company who was hit in the face with a piece of shrapnel from an IED. But not to worry, it was no bigger than a staple. He didn't even realize he'd been hit. I had to point it out to him. He pulled the tiny piece of steel out of his cheek, tossed it in the trash, and went back to his work. For that, they gave him a Purple Heart.
I remember saying to the Colonel, "What's up with that?"
And the Colonel said, "You know something? A combat wound is a combat wound, no matter how small. So he gets the medal."
Ironically, at the very same time the '04 Presidential elections were in progress. I remember watching Bob Dole on television commenting that John Kerry was a fraud because Kerry's Purple Hearts weren't for any real wounds -- not the life-threatening wounds that Dole had suffered. Then, at the Republican convention, to further ridicule Kerry, they handed out little purple band-aids and called them "Purple Owies."
As I watched all this unfolding from Iraq, I couldn't help but wonder if these people would have the audacity to put a picture up on the screen of our corpsman -- serving in Iraq -- and, in front of America, call him a fraud. I suspected not. But of course you can't have it both ways. Either both men were frauds, or neither of them were.
It was all politics and cheap shots. I knew that. But at the same time I think it was more. Those cheap shots came at a price. Suddenly people were cornered into having to decide which wounded were worth caring for, and which were not. Suddenly every veteran with a Purple Heart was judged by his or her wounds, instead of being unhesitatingly treated for them. What I learned in Iraq from my own reaction and from the reaction I witnessed on television is that the act of privileging one wound over another, the mere distinction, creates a fissure in the consciousness, through which our humanity begins to slip away. That was the price we paid for those cheap shots. They were not so cheap. I think. ...
They said a combat wound is a combat wound, no matter how small, and that every last one rates the Purple Heart. Yet never once has a veteran been awarded the Purple Heart for combat stress. Never once. Perhaps the small token of recognition might have prevented a few of them from taking their own lives. Only through genuine acknowledgment that combat stress is an injury, not a disorder, can we ever give uninhibited affection to the wounded.
Last month, I had such a great time attending one of the many outreach and community engagement events that VAP's lead artist and creator, Lisa Rosenthal, has organized since October.
What a shining effort!
Two more lead-up events are taking place this month before all of the work blossoms into February's month long Vet Art Project: Sharing Stories of War to Help Our Veterans Find Peace exhibit at the Chicago Cultural Center.
Click on 'Article Link' below tags for much more...
Mini-workshop for veterans and community members demonstrating how war affects us, the soul wound from combat, ways to assist veterans, ourselves. War and the Soul, a book by Ed Tick, and the Vet Art Project and other Chicago-area veterans projects will be discussed.
No fee Open to all.
----
Call for Creative Arts Therapists Proposals Submission Deadline: Wed., Jan. 14, 2009 Download proposal form
Seeking the expertise of creative arts therapists and selected others to help shape the Vet Art Project experience for all participants and help foster the creation of collaborative partnerships. People connect to their own journey and to others in many ways—some by talking, some by writing, some by a shared hands-on activities.
Please consider submitting a proposal to lead a one-time program. Submission deadline is January 14. Thank you for your interest in assisting veterans, their family members, and all Americans to bear witness to how war affects us all.
----
Artists Orientation Workshop for the Vet Art Project Tues., Jan 27th, 2009, 7 p.m. Chicago Dramatists [Directions] 1105 W. Chicago Avenue Chicago 312.633.0630
This event is an orientation for interested artists to explain how to get involved in the Vet Art Project that culminates in collaboratively created art about war for public performance or viewing. This workshop includes experiential exercises about war as well as information about the structure of the project, which will be in residence in February 2009 at the Chicago Cultural Center in the Studio Theater as part of their Incubator Series. NOTE: Artists working in all media are welcome.
Vet Art Project Incubator Feb. 2-26, 2009 Studio Theater Chicago Cultural Center [Info and directions] Randolph & Michigan Avenues Chicago
Community building and writing workshop that builds collaborative partnerships between veterans and artists in all disciplines to tell stories of war. No fee but must be part of entire project. Contact lisa@lisarosenthal.com for your specific commitment needs. This project is partially supported by the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs’ Theater Department.
No fee but advance reservations are recommended. For tickets: www.dcatheater.org or 312.742.8497.
For any of you not familiar with the Chicago Cultural Center, it is a real jewel of a place. A journey out to see the building's glittering mosaic tile touches and stained glass dome are well worth the trip no matter what the occasion.
The Vet Art Project creates opportunities for veterans to work in collaboration with artists to create new art about war for public performance and viewing.
The goals of the Vet Art Project are to:
Support our veterans
Create stronger voices among our veterans
Provide new opportunities for artists and
Offer a venue to hear the voices of our veterans and artists and
Foster discussions about how war affects us all
Lisa Rosenthal recently shared her vision and its steady realization:
The seed for this idea was planted in late 2007 when I heard Ed Tick, author of War and the Soul, on the radio. He gave an impassioned plea to support our veterans, and for community members to witness their truth, and I realized that art and artists could help build a bridge to reconnect us all.
I never dreamed that this seed would blossom into the beautiful reality that is the Vet Art Project--in residence in the Studio Theater of the Chicago Cultural Center in February 2009--culminating in a free public performance of new art about war on Monday, February 23, 7:30 p.m.
While the month of the Vet Art Project lies before us, the accomplishments are already clear:
More than a dozen outreach programs have educated the community about the needs of veterans and their families, and provided contributions individuals can make to change lives.
More than two dozen veterans and family members of veterans and more than 100 artists, creative arts therapists, psychologists, and others have participated in the Vet Art Project to date.
A Veterans Day performance honoring the journey of a soldier created from veterans' writing submitted to the National Vietnam Veterans Art Museum, was created with the assistance of American Theater Company affiliated artists and ensemble members.
Many organizations have made in-kind donations and grants to support our veterans voices including Chicago Dramatists, Rivendell Theatre Ensemble, Stage Left Theatre, American Theater Company, the Chicago Book Festival (Chicago Public Libraries), the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs, the Puffin Foundation, and most recently the Illinois Humanities Council.
Collaborative partnerships between veterans and artists are already underway for the February 23rd event, yet much work still lies ahead. As you may already know this is the first step in what I hope will become a national movement to activate our artists to help veterans tell stories of war so we will all bear witness to the truth.
If you are a veteran or military family member, civilian artist of any stripe (playwright, actor, filmmaker, musician, dancer, or other) there's a place for you in this project.
As much as we all say we support our troops, unless you know one personally, often civilians don't mix and mingle enough with our military counterparts. Well, that's not going to do. There's a world of experience to share between the two groups, so what are you waiting for? If you're in the Chicago area, there's no reason not to dip your toe into the collaboration stream and give of yourself to this exciting endeavor.
If you aren't able to participate or attend any of the events, but you support the VAP's mission, please consider contributing a few nickels to the pot -- it's tax deductible. Contribute online, or be hip and do it Old School style.
Details:
Whether you live in Chicago or not, you can help the Vet Art Project achieve it’s goals by making a tax-deductible donation. The Vet Art Project is a sponsored project of Fractured Atlas, a non-profit arts service organization. Contributions in behalf of the Vet Art Project may be made payable to Fractured Atlas and are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law.
That means:
1. Write your check payable to Fractured Atlas (ONLY make the check out to this nonprofit) 2. On the Memo line write: to support the Vet Art Project 3. Mail your check to: The Vet Art Project, c/o Lisa Rosenthal, 643 Elgin Avenue, Forest Park, IL 60130. 4. If your check doesn’t include your full mailing address, please enclose this with your check.
You will receive a letter acknowledging your donation.
I'll be participating myself (details coming soon on this) as well as attending the February 23 event. Hope to see you there!
Veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are more likely to have metabolic syndrome than veterans without PTSD. New research [pdf] published in the open access journal BMC Medicine has shown that after controlling for other factors such as depression or substance abuse, there is a significant association between metabolic syndrome and PTSD.
Metabolic syndrome is composed of a cluster of clinical signs including obesity, high blood pressure and insulin resistance. It has been associated with diabetes, cardiovascular morbidity and mortality.
Any traumatic event or series of events can cause PTSD. According to the UK National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE), up to 30% of people who have experienced a traumatic event may go on to develop PTSD and it may affect about 8% of people at some point in their lives.
Pia Heppner, of the Veterans Affairs of San Diego, VA Center of Excellence for Stress and Mental Health (CESAMH) and the University of California San Diego, with a team of researchers from the VA, analyzed clinical data from 253 male and female veterans. They found that those with a higher severity of PTSD were more likely to meet the diagnostic criteria for metabolic syndrome.
Dr. Heppner said, "This line of research suggests that stress and post-stress responses are related to long-term health outcomes. Studies show that veterans, prisoners of war and individuals exposed to severe trauma have higher rates of physical morbidity and mortality and increased health care utilization. Our findings suggest that metabolic syndrome provides a useful framework for assessing and describing the physical burden of PTSD and can be used prospectively to evaluate health risks that may be associated with combat exposure and PTSD."
Click on 'Article Link' below tags for more...
In educational interest, article(s) quoted from extensively.
Metabolic syndrome is a combination of medical disorders that increase the risk of developing cardiovascular disease and diabetes. It affects one in five people, and prevalence increases with age. Some studies estimate the prevalence in the USA to be up to 25% of the population.
Metabolic syndrome is also known as metabolic syndrome X, syndrome X, insulin resistance syndrome, Reaven's syndrome, and CHAOS (Australia). A similar condition in overweight horses is referred to as equine metabolic syndrome; it is unknown if they have the same etiology.
The metabolic syndrome is characterized by a group of metabolic risk factors in one person. They include:
* Abdominal obesity (excessive fat tissue in and around the abdomen) * Atherogenic dyslipidemia (blood fat disorders — high triglycerides, low HDL cholesterol and high LDL cholesterol — that foster plaque buildups in artery walls) * Elevated blood pressure * Insulin resistance or glucose intolerance (the body can’t properly use insulin or blood sugar) * Prothrombotic state (e.g., high fibrinogen or plasminogen activator inhibitor–1 in the blood) * Proinflammatory state (e.g., elevated C-reactive protein in the blood)
People with the metabolic syndrome are at increased risk of coronary heart disease and other diseases related to plaque buildups in artery walls (e.g., stroke and peripheral vascular disease) and type 2 diabetes. The metabolic syndrome has become increasingly common in the United States. It’s estimated that over 50 million Americans have it.
The dominant underlying risk factors for this syndrome appear to be abdominal obesity and insulin resistance. Insulin resistance is a generalized metabolic disorder, in which the body can’t use insulin efficiently. This is why the metabolic syndrome is also called the insulin resistance syndrome. ...
How is the metabolic syndrome diagnosed?
There are no well-accepted criteria for diagnosing the metabolic syndrome. The criteria proposed by the National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP) Adult Treatment Panel III (ATP III), with minor modifications, are currently recommended and widely used.
The American Heart Association and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute recommend that the metabolic syndrome be identified as the presence of three or more of these components:
* Elevated waist circumference: Men — Equal to or greater than 40 inches (102 cm) Women — Equal to or greater than 35 inches (88 cm) * Elevated triglycerides: Equal to or greater than 150 mg/dL * Reduced HDL (“good”) cholesterol: Men — Less than 40 mg/dL Women — Less than 50 mg/dL * Elevated blood pressure: Equal to or greater than 130/85 mm Hg * Elevated fasting glucose: Equal to or greater than 100 mg/dL
AHA Recommendation for Managing the Metabolic Syndrome:
The primary goal of clinical management of the metabolic syndrome is to reduce the risk for cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes. Then, the first-line therapy is to reduce the major risk factors for cardiovascular disease: stop smoking and reduce LDL cholesterol, blood pressure and glucose levels to the recommended levels.
For managing both long- and short-term risk, lifestyle therapies are the first-line interventions to reduce the metabolic risk factors. These lifestyle interventions include:
* Weight loss to achieve a desirable weight (BMI less than 25 kg/m2) * Increased physical activity, with a goal of at least 30 minutes of moderate-intensity activity on most days of the week * Healthy eating habits that include reduced intake of saturated fat, trans fat and cholesterol
Did you have a holiday season filled with light, surrounded by those you adore? I hope so.
I'd planned to take a bit of a blogging holiday, but was not expecting that it would be as extended as it's been. A bit of post-holiday sniffles kept me from my work; but, I'm slowly returning back to 100% and will have updates for you, soon.
Today, however, I'd quickly like to share a bit of kindness and encouragement with all of you out there who have been such great friends and supporters of me and my work and everyone in our "extended family," our military families across the nation.
As it's Elvis Presley's birthday (he would have been 74), I'd like to share my favorite song recorded by him, written by Rogers & Hammerstein. Say what you will of the man, but his voice was pure grace when he sang gospel hymns and the like.
And, while he didn't serve in combat, when his country called, he did don its uniform (two great pics of him in the video in it).
Click on 'Article Link' below tags for more...
This specific version begins with a dedication by Elvis to all "Men with Broken Hearts," lines that were originally written by Hank Williams. Certainly those coping with PTSD and caring for them -- be they of the male or female type -- would probably find some comfort in these lines and words to You'll Never Walk Alone.
You never stood in that man’s shoes Or saw things through his eyes, Or stood and watched with helpless hands While the heart inside you dies.
So help your brother along the way, No matter where he starts. For the same God that made you made him, too, These men with broken hearts.
---
When you walk through a storm Hold your head up high And don't be afraid of the dark. At the end of a storm is a golden sky
And the sweet silver song of a lark. Walk on through the wind, Walk on through the rain, Tho' your dreams be tossed and blown.
Walk on, walk on with hope in your heart And you'll never walk alone, You'll never, ever walk alone.
Walk on, walk on with hope in your heart And you'll never walk alone, You'll never, ever walk alone.
While the New Year will present us as many challenges, if not even more, as those we've faced in the past, may we continue to gain encouragement from our working on solving our problems and easing our burdens -- together.
While a wide variety of events can trigger what's called post-traumatic stress disorder, this PTSD blog focuses solely on the combat-related variety. As a new generation of warriors returns to civilian life and seeks out resources, PTSD Combat is here to help.
"The first shamans earned their keep in primitave societies by providing explanations and rituals that enabled man to deal with his environment and his personal anguish. Early man, no less than we, dealt with forces that he could not understand or control, and he attempted to come to grips with his vulnerablity by trying to bring order to his universe." -- Richard Gabriel in No More Heroes
"War stories end when the battle is over or when the soldier comes home. In real life, there are no moments amid smoldering hilltops for tranquil introspection. When the war is over, you pick up your gear, walk down the hill and back into the world." -- OIF vet John Crawford in The Last True Story I'll Ever Tell
"After wars' end, soldiers once again become civilians and return to their families to try to pick up where they left off. It is this process of readjustment that has more often than not been ignored by society. -- Major Robert H. Stretch, Ph.D in Textbook of Military Medicine: Vol. 6 Combat Stress
Upcoming Events
Ilona's events are listed in green and found here.
October 22-November 15, 2009 in Milwaukee, WI - Milwaukee Art Museum hosts War, Art, & the Veteran, a display of artworks created by combat veterans.
November 5-11, 2009 in DeKalb, IL - Northern Illinois University Veterans Club hosts a number of Veterans Day events, including its first Veterans Club Community Roundtable and its own Vet Art Project. See Ilona's events and facebook events page for more.
November 25, 2009 in Chicago, IL - Vet Art Project program at the Chicago Cultural Center. See schedule [pdf] for more.
December 9, 2009 in Chicago, IL - Vet Art Project program at the Chicago Cultural Center. See schedule [pdf] for more.
December 6-5, 2009 in Warwick, UK - MindGrad 2009 Warwick Graduate Conference in the Philosophy of Mind. Call for papers deadline: Sept. 1 | Registration.
The information presented on this web site is based on news reports, medical and government documents, and personal analysis. It does NOT represent therapeutic prescription or recommendation. For specific information and advice, consult your health care provider.
Comments at PTSD Combat do not necessarily represent the editor's views. Illegal or inappropriate material will be removed when brought to our attention. The existence of such does not reflect an endorsement by PTSD Combat.
This site contains at times large portions of copyrighted material not specifically authorized by the copyright owner. This material is used for educational purposes, to forward understanding of issues that concern veterans and military families. In accordance with U.S. Copyright Law Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit. More information.
More active-duty Marines committed suicide last year than any year since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq
As President-elect Barack Obama’s nominee to head the second-largest bureaucracy in the government, behind the Pentagon, General Shinseki said that if confirmed he would streamline the disability claims system, use new information technologies to improve the delivery of benefits and services, and focus on unemployed and homeless veterans.
If just “one good person” had helped him, Pfc. Jason Scheuerman might still be alive, the soldier's father told hundreds of military and civilian professionals in San Antonio at the largest suicide prevention conference ever focused on war stress.
The issues of community reintegration are complex and will likely take years to solve. 
If you ever feel less than empowered, if you ever wonder if members of society can actively play a role in shaping how its returning veterans are treated beyond the accolades given at welcome home parades and Veterans Day potlucks, look no further than the citizens of California for one shining example of how its done.
Good morning.
This week's news that the Purple Heart will not be considered for those coping with the psychological wounds of war has gotten a reaction from many quarters. The military decoration is 
2009: 
Select Vod/Podcasts
(No headlines? Enable javascript.)
