Former Sen. Max Cleland Treated for PTSD

Heartbreaking. From WSBTV News - Atlanta:

[Former Senator Max] Cleland has revealed that he's suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and getting help from those same counseling programs he helped create. Cleland, who lost three limbs in the war, said he didn't get much help for his own psychological wounds when he returned from battle.

The former U.S. Senator from Georgia described his symptoms to Channel 2 Action News reporter Alison Burns. He said he feels depressed, has developed a sense of hyper-vigilance about his security and has difficulty sleeping. He believes the Iraq war has, in part, triggered his condition.

"I realize my symptoms are avoidance, not wanting to connect with anything dealing with the [Iraq] war, tremendous sadness over the casualties that are taken, a real identification with that.....I've tried to disconnect and disassociate from the media. I don't watch it as much. I'm not engrossed in it like I was," he said.

Wishing him peace and better days ahead.

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When Your Soldier Comes Back Home

Martha Ann Brooks is the wife of a Vietnam veteran who has PTSD. She recently wrote a song hoping to help other military families going through the same thing.

A snippet of the lyrics, and then a listen:

When your soldier comes back home
You will be happy
You want things to be like they were before
But your soldier has been forged through trial by fire
After all he lived through war
Be patient when you see he’s not the same
Your soldier’s changed

When your soldier comes back home
He will be different
He’ll think about those that gave their lives
He might be feelin guilty that he’s living
He will keep that guilt inside
It may show sometimes in things he’ll say and do
Please help him through

Hat tip to Doc over at VeteranLove for the head's up.

[UPDATE December 23, 2008]: As per the writer's comment below, the song is available as a free mp3 download via Mrs. Brooks' Music Store! [direct download]

American Legion: VA Needs Full Funding

President Bush is set to make an appearance at this year's American Legion Convention taking place in Salt Lake City, UT next week. While the organization, chartered by Congress in 1919, has supported America's current wars, they are demanding that the VA be fully funded (currently the budget needs approval every year making it hard to plan or count on resources).

From KCPW - Northern Utah Public Radio:

[T]he Legion's National Commander Tom Bock says they do have a list of demands for the Commander-in-Chief. "We're concerned about full funding of the V-A. We need to know that the money is there to take care of our heroes from year after year after year."

Bock says the American Legion is struggling to convince Congress that veterans' benefits should be funded fully and automatically during budget proceedings every year. Furthermore, he says the Veteran's Administration needs to be a Medicare provider. "You know the VA can't bill Medicare to take care of our heroes? Something's wrong with this. They have to leave the VA hospital, walk across the street to a regular hospital to get their Medicare treatment. That's not right and we're working hard on it."

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On CCN: Purple Hearts, Broken Bodies

General Wesley Clark's Clark Community Network has just unveiled a new Troops and Vets issues blog that I'm honored to be the newest member of.

Today, the second installment in their traumatic brain injury [TBI] series, Purple Hearts, Broken Bodies, makes its appearance (first article).

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