This thread is dedicated to stories about the mental damages created in troops exposed to war zones. It's one thing to defend one's country and suffer the wounds that war inflicts upon one, but to receive damages to ones body and mind under such lies presented to the Americans for reasons being in Iraq is totally wrong.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8743574/
More troops developing latent mental disorders
Updated: 6:02 p.m. ET July 28, 2005
WASHINGTON - Thirty percent of U.S. troops returning from the Iraq war have developed stress-related mental health problems three to four months after coming home, the Army’s surgeon general said Thursday.
The problems include anxiety, depression, nightmares, anger and an inability to concentrate, said Lt. Gen. Kevin Kiley and other military medical officials. A smaller number of troops, often with more severe symptoms, were diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, a serious mental illness.
The 30 percent figure is in contrast to the 3 percent to 5 percent diagnosed with a significant mental health issue immediately after they leave the war theater, according to Col. Elspeth Ritchie, a military psychiatrist on Kiley’s staff. A study of troops who were still in the combat zone in 2004 found 13 percent experienced significant mental health problems.
Full Version: Mental Disorders resulting from Wartime
Common Ground Common Sense > Issues that Affect Our Lives > U.S. Military Issues > U.S. Military Issues Archive
Protecting the mental health of returning troops
04:35 PM PDT on Saturday, August 13, 2005
By JEAN ENERSEN / KING 5 News
Many soldiers leave the battlefield with more than physical wounds. Fighting a war can take its toll on their mental health as well. Now, a new government program may be able to help soldiers coming home from Iraq.
Post traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD is common.
"The services have recognized that soldiers need a time of decompression after they return home," said John Lee of the Washington state Department of Veteran Affairs.
So since April the Pentagon has required troops to have a psychological review after they return and again three to four months later. It's an effort to prevent what happened to Vietnam vets like Korte Brueckmann. He lived with PTSD for more than 30 years and didn't know it.
"You just stuff everything down and don't think about it and don't talk about it," he said.
He said he didn't get help right away because he didn't think he needed it.
"I got back from Vietnam and got out of the army all at once, and suddenly I was a civilian -- what could possibly be wrong?" he said.
Among U.S. troops returning from Iraq, government researchers found only 3 percent of troops said they have a mental health concern when they first return from Iraq. But when they are asked months later, that number jumps to 17 percent.
"After the newness and the excitement of that wears off, a person is in a different place mentally and therefore is going to give a different set of answers," Lee said.
They are answers that could help soldiers today, instead of years later.
Treatments for PTSD include antidepressants, tranquilizers, stress management training and cognitive behavior therapy.
This text is invisible on the page, but this text is affected by the invisible item's flow. This text is invisible on the page, but this text is affected by the invisible item's flow.
http://www.king5.com/health/stories/NW_081...L.6e65bb71.html
04:35 PM PDT on Saturday, August 13, 2005
By JEAN ENERSEN / KING 5 News
Many soldiers leave the battlefield with more than physical wounds. Fighting a war can take its toll on their mental health as well. Now, a new government program may be able to help soldiers coming home from Iraq.
Post traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD is common.
"The services have recognized that soldiers need a time of decompression after they return home," said John Lee of the Washington state Department of Veteran Affairs.
So since April the Pentagon has required troops to have a psychological review after they return and again three to four months later. It's an effort to prevent what happened to Vietnam vets like Korte Brueckmann. He lived with PTSD for more than 30 years and didn't know it.
"You just stuff everything down and don't think about it and don't talk about it," he said.
He said he didn't get help right away because he didn't think he needed it.
"I got back from Vietnam and got out of the army all at once, and suddenly I was a civilian -- what could possibly be wrong?" he said.
Among U.S. troops returning from Iraq, government researchers found only 3 percent of troops said they have a mental health concern when they first return from Iraq. But when they are asked months later, that number jumps to 17 percent.
"After the newness and the excitement of that wears off, a person is in a different place mentally and therefore is going to give a different set of answers," Lee said.
They are answers that could help soldiers today, instead of years later.
Treatments for PTSD include antidepressants, tranquilizers, stress management training and cognitive behavior therapy.
This text is invisible on the page, but this text is affected by the invisible item's flow. This text is invisible on the page, but this text is affected by the invisible item's flow.
http://www.king5.com/health/stories/NW_081...L.6e65bb71.html
Tuesday, August 02, 2005
Iraq veteran arrested in killing
20-year-old suspect in double shooting had requested treatment for stress disorder
By FRANK CURRERI and KEITH ROGERS
When Matthew Sepi returned from Iraq a few months ago, he spoke to his family reluctantly of gunbattles and the "weird noises" children make when they die. He never told relatives whether he killed anyone during combat but said he recently had been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and had been placed on a waiting list for treatment.
To help shield his psyche from images of bodies, family members said, the 20-year-old soldier had adopted a simple technique: Just don't think about it.
But early Sunday morning, Army Spc. Sepi found himself thinking about killing in front of homicide detectives. They interrogated Sepi about a double shooting in a neighborhood near Las Vegas Boulevard and Sahara Avenue.
Based on Sepi's version of events, a 1 a.m. walk to a 7-Eleven proved nearly as dangerous as his tour of duty in Iraq.
According to an arrest report filed in Clark County District Court, Sepi told investigators he dressed in a black coat, tucked an assault rifle under his arm and left his apartment for a beer run.
As the 120-pound Sepi journeyed on foot and passed through a dark alley, a man and woman confronted him and yelled for him to leave the alley, police said in the report.
Sepi said the man, identified by authorities as 26-year-old Kevin Ratcliff, produced an object that he thought to be a gun and opened fire.
"(Sepi) explained that he had been trained in the military that in a situation in which he was ambushed, he was to engage the targets and retreat from the area," police wrote in the report. "He felt that the situation in the alley was an ambush, and he reacted the way he had been trained."
Sepi recalled firing four shots. Sharon Jackson, 47, fell to the ground and died at the scene of multiple gunshot wounds, police said.
Ratcliff was hit by gunfire and was taken to a hospital. He is expected to survive.
Sepi, meanwhile, had fled the shooting scene and returned to his apartment to grab more ammunition, police said. Minutes later, a police officer pulled over the infantry specialist's Oldsmobile sedan and noticed an assault rifle inside.
Sepi, an American Indian who hails from Winslow, Ariz., was arrested and booked into the Clark County Detention Center on suspicion of one count of murder and attempted murder.
Some evidence might lend credence to Sepi's self-defense story.
"We do know the victim's boyfriend (Ratcliff) got off a few rounds as well," police Lt. Tom Monahan said.
Police said they recovered a 9 mm pistol and three spent 9 mm casings at the crime scene.
Police are investigating Sepi's story that someone had pulled a knife on him, while he was unarmed, the day before the shooting.
Sepi's mother, Nora, said she had noticed changes in her son since he tried to move back to civilian life.
She said he seldom spoke of his combat but mentioned that he participated in gunbattles. But when an enemy was hit, Sepi and his fellow soldiers had a difficult time in telling precisely who had shot him.
"He said you can't tell when you're shooting from afar who killed who," Nora Sepi said.
Nora Sepi said her son, who served in the 4th Infantry Division from Fort Hood, Texas, had contacted Veterans Affairs for help with post-traumatic stress disorder.
The Department of Veterans Affairs defines PTSD as a psychiatric disorder that can induce flashbacks, nightmares and other symptoms in survivors of life-threatening episodes. The agency's Web site estimates that about 30 percent of people who spend time in war zones will suffer from the disorder.
Matthew Sepi told his mother he had requested treatment from the agency.
"He said it was going to take a while," Nora Sepi said. "He's not getting anything right now."
Veterans Affairs officials at the agency's regional office in Reno would not respond to questions about the disorder.
When questions were posed to the Army Reserve's 113th Medical Company, Combat Stress Control, in Stanton, Calif., an official deferred to a VA Web site.
But a local veteran of the Vietnam and Korean wars who has been diagnosed with PTSD said the effects are usually delayed.
"It just depends on what triggers it. If someone took a shot at me, I'm afraid I'd shoot back too," said Chad Avery, a member of Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter 17.
"It's just a reaction after a while," said Avery, a former veterans center counselor.
"God knows if you get shot at enough, it just becomes instinct," he said.
Avery said PTSD is treated by talking about the problem in individual or group sessions. Some veterans who see psychiatrists are offered anti-depressant medication to deal with the disorder.
Sepi's military mind-set is alluded to in the arrest report.
The young man used military jargon to describe his actions in the alley, calling his shoot-and-retreat strategy "breaking contact."
Police did not mention anything about PTSD in their report but indicated that Sepi became visibly upset while speaking about Sunday's shooting and his military duties in Iraq.
"He has been very nervous since returning from Iraq," a police officer wrote in the arrest report. "While working day labor, he heard a pallet fall to the ground, and was so bothered by it, he could not function for an hour."
Army officials were reviewing Sepi's personnel records Monday. A human resources official in St. Louis said Sepi was honorably discharged sometime in May and was completing his Individual Ready Reserve obligation.
http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/200...s/26983251.html
A makeshift memorial is placed in an alley behind apartments in the 200 block of New York Avenue, where Sharon Jackson, 47, was fatally shot, and 26-year-old Kevin Ratcliff was injured. Matthew Sepi, 20, was arrested in the shootings.
Photo by Ralph Fountain.
Matthew Sepi
Army veteran carried assault rifle on a beer run to a 7-Eleven
Iraq veteran arrested in killing
20-year-old suspect in double shooting had requested treatment for stress disorder
By FRANK CURRERI and KEITH ROGERS
When Matthew Sepi returned from Iraq a few months ago, he spoke to his family reluctantly of gunbattles and the "weird noises" children make when they die. He never told relatives whether he killed anyone during combat but said he recently had been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and had been placed on a waiting list for treatment.
To help shield his psyche from images of bodies, family members said, the 20-year-old soldier had adopted a simple technique: Just don't think about it.
But early Sunday morning, Army Spc. Sepi found himself thinking about killing in front of homicide detectives. They interrogated Sepi about a double shooting in a neighborhood near Las Vegas Boulevard and Sahara Avenue.
Based on Sepi's version of events, a 1 a.m. walk to a 7-Eleven proved nearly as dangerous as his tour of duty in Iraq.
According to an arrest report filed in Clark County District Court, Sepi told investigators he dressed in a black coat, tucked an assault rifle under his arm and left his apartment for a beer run.
As the 120-pound Sepi journeyed on foot and passed through a dark alley, a man and woman confronted him and yelled for him to leave the alley, police said in the report.
Sepi said the man, identified by authorities as 26-year-old Kevin Ratcliff, produced an object that he thought to be a gun and opened fire.
"(Sepi) explained that he had been trained in the military that in a situation in which he was ambushed, he was to engage the targets and retreat from the area," police wrote in the report. "He felt that the situation in the alley was an ambush, and he reacted the way he had been trained."
Sepi recalled firing four shots. Sharon Jackson, 47, fell to the ground and died at the scene of multiple gunshot wounds, police said.
Ratcliff was hit by gunfire and was taken to a hospital. He is expected to survive.
Sepi, meanwhile, had fled the shooting scene and returned to his apartment to grab more ammunition, police said. Minutes later, a police officer pulled over the infantry specialist's Oldsmobile sedan and noticed an assault rifle inside.
Sepi, an American Indian who hails from Winslow, Ariz., was arrested and booked into the Clark County Detention Center on suspicion of one count of murder and attempted murder.
Some evidence might lend credence to Sepi's self-defense story.
"We do know the victim's boyfriend (Ratcliff) got off a few rounds as well," police Lt. Tom Monahan said.
Police said they recovered a 9 mm pistol and three spent 9 mm casings at the crime scene.
Police are investigating Sepi's story that someone had pulled a knife on him, while he was unarmed, the day before the shooting.
Sepi's mother, Nora, said she had noticed changes in her son since he tried to move back to civilian life.
She said he seldom spoke of his combat but mentioned that he participated in gunbattles. But when an enemy was hit, Sepi and his fellow soldiers had a difficult time in telling precisely who had shot him.
"He said you can't tell when you're shooting from afar who killed who," Nora Sepi said.
Nora Sepi said her son, who served in the 4th Infantry Division from Fort Hood, Texas, had contacted Veterans Affairs for help with post-traumatic stress disorder.
The Department of Veterans Affairs defines PTSD as a psychiatric disorder that can induce flashbacks, nightmares and other symptoms in survivors of life-threatening episodes. The agency's Web site estimates that about 30 percent of people who spend time in war zones will suffer from the disorder.
Matthew Sepi told his mother he had requested treatment from the agency.
"He said it was going to take a while," Nora Sepi said. "He's not getting anything right now."
Veterans Affairs officials at the agency's regional office in Reno would not respond to questions about the disorder.
When questions were posed to the Army Reserve's 113th Medical Company, Combat Stress Control, in Stanton, Calif., an official deferred to a VA Web site.
But a local veteran of the Vietnam and Korean wars who has been diagnosed with PTSD said the effects are usually delayed.
"It just depends on what triggers it. If someone took a shot at me, I'm afraid I'd shoot back too," said Chad Avery, a member of Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter 17.
"It's just a reaction after a while," said Avery, a former veterans center counselor.
"God knows if you get shot at enough, it just becomes instinct," he said.
Avery said PTSD is treated by talking about the problem in individual or group sessions. Some veterans who see psychiatrists are offered anti-depressant medication to deal with the disorder.
Sepi's military mind-set is alluded to in the arrest report.
The young man used military jargon to describe his actions in the alley, calling his shoot-and-retreat strategy "breaking contact."
Police did not mention anything about PTSD in their report but indicated that Sepi became visibly upset while speaking about Sunday's shooting and his military duties in Iraq.
"He has been very nervous since returning from Iraq," a police officer wrote in the arrest report. "While working day labor, he heard a pallet fall to the ground, and was so bothered by it, he could not function for an hour."
Army officials were reviewing Sepi's personnel records Monday. A human resources official in St. Louis said Sepi was honorably discharged sometime in May and was completing his Individual Ready Reserve obligation.
http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/200...s/26983251.html
A makeshift memorial is placed in an alley behind apartments in the 200 block of New York Avenue, where Sharon Jackson, 47, was fatally shot, and 26-year-old Kevin Ratcliff was injured. Matthew Sepi, 20, was arrested in the shootings.
Photo by Ralph Fountain.
Matthew Sepi
Army veteran carried assault rifle on a beer run to a 7-Eleven
A Message From Conscientious Objector Sgt Kevin Benderman—American Hero
by Jack Dalton
http://www.opednews.com
8-12-05
I received the following from Monica Benderman earlier today: Hi Jack…Kevin and I had a great conversation this morning... he says to let you know he really appreciates you. He wanted me to pass something of his along... and maybe you can see that others hear it...
But first I have a couple of things I want to say. Not the least of which is simply this: if you want someone of character; of high ethics and integrity; of high moral conscience and standards that you want as a role model you need look no further than Kevin Benderman. Kevin is all of that and more. To be called ‘friend’ by him is an honor.
When Kevin’s unit was sent to Iraq the first time, Kevin saw the utter destruction caused by our invasion of Iraq. He saw how quick and easy it was for people to develop a complete disregard for human life in their struggle to just stay alive; he saw the slaughter of innocent people; he saw the total disregard and elevation of man’s inhumanity to man; he heard orders to “shoot to kill” even children.
He saw, heard and began to understand that what Americans were being told about what was happening in Iraq were lies; whose only purpose were to keep public approval for this U.S. war of aggression up—deliberate deception. Kevin began to realize, as have so many others that have been to war, that war is not the answer. And a war based on deliberate deceptions and lies, as is this Bush/Cheney & Co., Inc war of choice in Iraq, is definitely not an answer to anything.
Kevin returned from Iraq knowing that war is wrong; “that it is the most dehumanizing creation of humanity that exists. He saw war destroy civilians, innocent men, women and children. He saw war destroy homes, relationships and a country. He saw this not only in the country that was invaded, but he saw this happening to the invading country as well, here in the U.S. – and he knew that the only way to save those soldiers was for people to no longer participate in war. Sgt. Kevin Benderman is a Conscientious Objector to war, and the Army is mad.” The Army’s response was to send Kevin to a military jail at Fort Lewis, Washington for the next 15 months.
Sending Kevin to Fort Lewis was the Army’s last jab-in-the-back at Kevin and Monica. Fort Lewis is 3,000 miles away from where Kevin was stationed—Ft Stewart, GA—and where the home they are buying is located. Now, not only is Kevin in a military jail, but one 3,000 miles away from the home Monica is now living alone in.
“Is this what we have allowed this nation to become? Lives that are not our own, but the states to do with as it will when it will? That’s not an all volunteer military, that’s called forced indenture—once it was called slavery.” (Monica Benderman)
See Kevin Benderman Defense Committee for further information and updates about Kevin and Monica Benderman and their fight for true justice. http://www.bendermandefense.org/
======================================================
Hi Jack
Kevin and I had a great conversation this morning... he says to let you know he really appreciates you. He wanted me to pass something of his along... and maybe you can see that others hear it...
"I have immense respect for all the veterans, and now, the Viet Nam veterans, the Gulf War veterans, and those returning from Iraq with me. These veterans that have put their lives on the line for their country deserve all the honor we can give them. One of the chief reasons for the stand that I am taking is to show that respect for these veterans, and to see that others who don't understand, also come to respect our sacrifice. Our soldiers and veterans are human beings first, I can attest to that with my own life, and we all deserve to be treated as human beings first, and then as soldiers who have given what we can to defend our country through our service. Agent Orange, Depleted Uranium, mistreated PTSD, disrupted families, and a country that will not make a concerted effort to work toward alternative solutions to war, are blatant signs of disrespect for our service. I stand to honor those who fought in wars to see that wars would end. I laid down my gun so that my life will represent my words honestly. I believe there is a better way than war, and I stand to honor those soldiers who have come to know that the last thing they want to have to do is go to war. Defense of our country should not get to the extreme of war. We should do all that we can to honor the service of our veterans to make changes in our policies that allow us to remain safe and protected from those who would want to disrupt our peace, so that we can avert our need for war, and teach our children a better way."
Sgt. Kevin Benderman - Conscientious Objector to War
And, In Case You Missed This:
Is Being a Conscientious Objector Now Criminal?
By: Monica Benderman
As I am certain you are all aware, my husband, Sgt. Kevin Benderman, was sentenced to 15 months confinement, loss of rank, forfeiture of pay and a dishonorable discharge last week, the charge being “Missing Movement” or failure to get on a plane. In actuality, the charge was “filing a Conscientious Objector packet against the recommendation of his commander, who had no intention of allowing my husband to follow his conscience, and therefore serving notice to the rest of our military that they should not follow suit.”
I need to assure you that I do not make this statement out of anger, but rather by simply pointing to the facts. Not only did my husband’s commander address this in a public comment to the media, the prosecutor used this in his closing statements, and the military representative was adamant about this in his public comments to the media immediately following my husband’s court martial.
I am not writing out of anger. I am writing to request the opportunity to meet with one of you to discuss my husband’s case from our point of view, as this has not been allowed to this point. Even in my husband’s court martial, he was not allowed to discuss his beliefs, his reasons, or the fact that he has given 10 years of honorable service to his country, including a combat tour in Iraq, for which he received two Army commendation medals for meritorious service.
My husband’s case for Conscientious Objection was brushed aside and mishandled so that his entire career of service came down to a meeting with his Command Sgt. Major that lasted less than one hour. My husband’s testimony regarding this meeting has remained unchanged, as has my witness to that meeting. The Command Sgt. Major’s testimony was re-written and sworn to on at least 5 separate occasions, each testimony contradicting another, even as they were presented in my husband’s court martial.
In fairness to each of you, to the US Army, to the people of this country and mostly to my husband, who is paying the price for being falsely charged, I am respectfully requesting that the appeal process for his case be allowed to proceed without delay, and that he be given fair treatment not only in a re-presentation of the facts surrounding his court martial, but that he also be given the opportunity to have his application for Conscientious Objector status reconsidered as well.
We are all living in difficult times. My husband served in this war, and the effects it had on him will live with him for the rest of his life. We do not intend to dishonor the service of all the military personnel still serving, each will have to make the choice for themselves of how to live with their beliefs and their conscience.
We will not say that the beliefs of those still fighting are wrong. We can only say for certain that what my husband was ordered to continue to believe, by his command, is very wrong for him. This is the United States of America, the land of the free and the home of the brave. Sirs, my husband freely volunteered to serve in the United States Army because he believed it was right. He gave 10 years of honorable service because he believed it was right for him. After seeing war firsthand, he knew that he could not participate any longer; because he KNEW war was the wrong choice for him.
The stand he has taken, to say NO to war and to lay down his weapon in the face of so many who do not understand, is what I believe gives him the right to live in this “home of the brave,” as one of the bravest. I have never met any of you. I hear what others say about you, but I cannot say the same. I do not know you.
I would like the opportunity to know you, so that I could know what to believe. I would like the opportunity to sit with each of you and discuss what my husband believes, as people who care about our country and those who serve it. Our country needs to heal. War has divided our country, our families and our world.
I would like the opportunity to present our views for a different approach to lasting peace. We believe that we can make this country strong on our shores, that we can develop ways to defend our country without taking the fight to foreign lands. We believe that we can work together to provide adequate means to secure our land so that we will not have to “get to them before they can get to us.” It will involve more than just coffee table discussions, and we make no illusion, no doubt there will be loss.
As we work through the process and remain firm in our commitment to not allow ourselves to be drawn into violence, we know that some will try to force us against our will, to show us to be weak by daring us to lose control. BUT the loss incurred will be far less than what we have already faced, and the innocents who now suffer will not be so openly in harm’s way. Taking a stand for what we believe, for a commitment to seeing that peace happens and that those who threaten this peace are neutralized does not have to involve weapons meant for killing.
Animals on this earth were given their weapons; teeth, claws and a ravage tenacity to protect what is theirs and keep “enemies” at bay. Humanity was given something much different, a far more significant weapon. Humanity was given a mind. Somewhere along the way, we have forgotten the power of our mind and what it can be used for.
It became easy to create weapons of destruction, far easier than to use our minds to think and create strong principles for preventing the use of these weapons. We believe that we should take pride in our abilities to use our mental strength. We believe that we should develop this asset and work with courage toward peace by drafting positive resolutions, knowing that while the implementation of these resolutions will result in some loss, it will be far less than the loss we face with weapons of destruction in our hands, no different than “the enemy” facing us. We believe we should stand strong and confident in knowing that we have the courage of heart and strength of intellect to overcome the basest animalistic tendencies that so easily drive us to forget that we are human.
We believe it is time to rise up from a position of strength knowing that there is no “enemy” greater than ourselves, when we lose respect for our God-given abilities and resort to violence as an answer. Our world is divided because of war. We see children dying who will never have the chance to grow to use their talents to help our world. We see children who have lost their fathers. How will they grow? Will there be resentment, or will they come to believe that they must become strong in saying NO to war? We see mothers crying as they reach out to find a noble cause for their sons’ deaths.
Wouldn’t the cause be far nobler if the solution were to lay down our guns and say, “not one more person should have to die when we have the strength to resolve our problems without violence?” We see homes destroyed, a country laid waste to, and people struggling to survive. Will they one day say “thank you” for making my world better because of war? OR “will they find forgiveness and reach out in hope when we put our weapons away and give them the freedom to do what they must to heal their country and their homes? This world is great and we are all part of it.
War only creates chaos, it will never bring lasting peace, and fighting with killing machines to keep the turmoil from reaching our shores will only prolong the agony. We believe we must work together to strengthen us, to secure us, and to use our strength wisely to show the world that we mean business when we say that no one will control us, our actions or our way of life.
To take the stand of strength, to honor those who have served this country with their sacrifices, we believe we must rise above the violence and say “NO MORE,” we will not allow ourselves to be drawn to a position of having to use their methods to resolve our differences. Sirs, nothing that results in such massive destruction can ever be counted as success on the way to lasting peace. Please consider my request.
Please understand that I mean no disrespect, nor does the stand that my husband has taken. We care about our country, we care about healing the wounds we all now feel. We know that our country stands for human rights, for respecting others and for leading others to their personal freedom by giving them the right to make the choices that are best for them, as long as they bring no intentional pain to anyone else. We believe it is time to reach out for what makes us truly strong and to leave the way of violence behind.
I look forward to the opportunity to discuss my husband’s case with you. Mostly, I look forward to the opportunity to work together in strength, to bring lasting peace to our world, and to see our country represented by the confidence of a principled stand for conscience that all people deserve.
In Peace,
Monica Benderman
Monica Benderman can be reached at: mdawnb@coastalnow.net.
Jack Dalton| http://jack-dalton.blogspot.com/
http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_ja..._from_consc.htm
by Jack Dalton
http://www.opednews.com
8-12-05
I received the following from Monica Benderman earlier today: Hi Jack…Kevin and I had a great conversation this morning... he says to let you know he really appreciates you. He wanted me to pass something of his along... and maybe you can see that others hear it...
But first I have a couple of things I want to say. Not the least of which is simply this: if you want someone of character; of high ethics and integrity; of high moral conscience and standards that you want as a role model you need look no further than Kevin Benderman. Kevin is all of that and more. To be called ‘friend’ by him is an honor.
When Kevin’s unit was sent to Iraq the first time, Kevin saw the utter destruction caused by our invasion of Iraq. He saw how quick and easy it was for people to develop a complete disregard for human life in their struggle to just stay alive; he saw the slaughter of innocent people; he saw the total disregard and elevation of man’s inhumanity to man; he heard orders to “shoot to kill” even children.
He saw, heard and began to understand that what Americans were being told about what was happening in Iraq were lies; whose only purpose were to keep public approval for this U.S. war of aggression up—deliberate deception. Kevin began to realize, as have so many others that have been to war, that war is not the answer. And a war based on deliberate deceptions and lies, as is this Bush/Cheney & Co., Inc war of choice in Iraq, is definitely not an answer to anything.
Kevin returned from Iraq knowing that war is wrong; “that it is the most dehumanizing creation of humanity that exists. He saw war destroy civilians, innocent men, women and children. He saw war destroy homes, relationships and a country. He saw this not only in the country that was invaded, but he saw this happening to the invading country as well, here in the U.S. – and he knew that the only way to save those soldiers was for people to no longer participate in war. Sgt. Kevin Benderman is a Conscientious Objector to war, and the Army is mad.” The Army’s response was to send Kevin to a military jail at Fort Lewis, Washington for the next 15 months.
Sending Kevin to Fort Lewis was the Army’s last jab-in-the-back at Kevin and Monica. Fort Lewis is 3,000 miles away from where Kevin was stationed—Ft Stewart, GA—and where the home they are buying is located. Now, not only is Kevin in a military jail, but one 3,000 miles away from the home Monica is now living alone in.
“Is this what we have allowed this nation to become? Lives that are not our own, but the states to do with as it will when it will? That’s not an all volunteer military, that’s called forced indenture—once it was called slavery.” (Monica Benderman)
See Kevin Benderman Defense Committee for further information and updates about Kevin and Monica Benderman and their fight for true justice. http://www.bendermandefense.org/
======================================================
Hi Jack
Kevin and I had a great conversation this morning... he says to let you know he really appreciates you. He wanted me to pass something of his along... and maybe you can see that others hear it...
"I have immense respect for all the veterans, and now, the Viet Nam veterans, the Gulf War veterans, and those returning from Iraq with me. These veterans that have put their lives on the line for their country deserve all the honor we can give them. One of the chief reasons for the stand that I am taking is to show that respect for these veterans, and to see that others who don't understand, also come to respect our sacrifice. Our soldiers and veterans are human beings first, I can attest to that with my own life, and we all deserve to be treated as human beings first, and then as soldiers who have given what we can to defend our country through our service. Agent Orange, Depleted Uranium, mistreated PTSD, disrupted families, and a country that will not make a concerted effort to work toward alternative solutions to war, are blatant signs of disrespect for our service. I stand to honor those who fought in wars to see that wars would end. I laid down my gun so that my life will represent my words honestly. I believe there is a better way than war, and I stand to honor those soldiers who have come to know that the last thing they want to have to do is go to war. Defense of our country should not get to the extreme of war. We should do all that we can to honor the service of our veterans to make changes in our policies that allow us to remain safe and protected from those who would want to disrupt our peace, so that we can avert our need for war, and teach our children a better way."
Sgt. Kevin Benderman - Conscientious Objector to War
And, In Case You Missed This:
Is Being a Conscientious Objector Now Criminal?
By: Monica Benderman
As I am certain you are all aware, my husband, Sgt. Kevin Benderman, was sentenced to 15 months confinement, loss of rank, forfeiture of pay and a dishonorable discharge last week, the charge being “Missing Movement” or failure to get on a plane. In actuality, the charge was “filing a Conscientious Objector packet against the recommendation of his commander, who had no intention of allowing my husband to follow his conscience, and therefore serving notice to the rest of our military that they should not follow suit.”
I need to assure you that I do not make this statement out of anger, but rather by simply pointing to the facts. Not only did my husband’s commander address this in a public comment to the media, the prosecutor used this in his closing statements, and the military representative was adamant about this in his public comments to the media immediately following my husband’s court martial.
I am not writing out of anger. I am writing to request the opportunity to meet with one of you to discuss my husband’s case from our point of view, as this has not been allowed to this point. Even in my husband’s court martial, he was not allowed to discuss his beliefs, his reasons, or the fact that he has given 10 years of honorable service to his country, including a combat tour in Iraq, for which he received two Army commendation medals for meritorious service.
My husband’s case for Conscientious Objection was brushed aside and mishandled so that his entire career of service came down to a meeting with his Command Sgt. Major that lasted less than one hour. My husband’s testimony regarding this meeting has remained unchanged, as has my witness to that meeting. The Command Sgt. Major’s testimony was re-written and sworn to on at least 5 separate occasions, each testimony contradicting another, even as they were presented in my husband’s court martial.
In fairness to each of you, to the US Army, to the people of this country and mostly to my husband, who is paying the price for being falsely charged, I am respectfully requesting that the appeal process for his case be allowed to proceed without delay, and that he be given fair treatment not only in a re-presentation of the facts surrounding his court martial, but that he also be given the opportunity to have his application for Conscientious Objector status reconsidered as well.
We are all living in difficult times. My husband served in this war, and the effects it had on him will live with him for the rest of his life. We do not intend to dishonor the service of all the military personnel still serving, each will have to make the choice for themselves of how to live with their beliefs and their conscience.
We will not say that the beliefs of those still fighting are wrong. We can only say for certain that what my husband was ordered to continue to believe, by his command, is very wrong for him. This is the United States of America, the land of the free and the home of the brave. Sirs, my husband freely volunteered to serve in the United States Army because he believed it was right. He gave 10 years of honorable service because he believed it was right for him. After seeing war firsthand, he knew that he could not participate any longer; because he KNEW war was the wrong choice for him.
The stand he has taken, to say NO to war and to lay down his weapon in the face of so many who do not understand, is what I believe gives him the right to live in this “home of the brave,” as one of the bravest. I have never met any of you. I hear what others say about you, but I cannot say the same. I do not know you.
I would like the opportunity to know you, so that I could know what to believe. I would like the opportunity to sit with each of you and discuss what my husband believes, as people who care about our country and those who serve it. Our country needs to heal. War has divided our country, our families and our world.
I would like the opportunity to present our views for a different approach to lasting peace. We believe that we can make this country strong on our shores, that we can develop ways to defend our country without taking the fight to foreign lands. We believe that we can work together to provide adequate means to secure our land so that we will not have to “get to them before they can get to us.” It will involve more than just coffee table discussions, and we make no illusion, no doubt there will be loss.
As we work through the process and remain firm in our commitment to not allow ourselves to be drawn into violence, we know that some will try to force us against our will, to show us to be weak by daring us to lose control. BUT the loss incurred will be far less than what we have already faced, and the innocents who now suffer will not be so openly in harm’s way. Taking a stand for what we believe, for a commitment to seeing that peace happens and that those who threaten this peace are neutralized does not have to involve weapons meant for killing.
Animals on this earth were given their weapons; teeth, claws and a ravage tenacity to protect what is theirs and keep “enemies” at bay. Humanity was given something much different, a far more significant weapon. Humanity was given a mind. Somewhere along the way, we have forgotten the power of our mind and what it can be used for.
It became easy to create weapons of destruction, far easier than to use our minds to think and create strong principles for preventing the use of these weapons. We believe that we should take pride in our abilities to use our mental strength. We believe that we should develop this asset and work with courage toward peace by drafting positive resolutions, knowing that while the implementation of these resolutions will result in some loss, it will be far less than the loss we face with weapons of destruction in our hands, no different than “the enemy” facing us. We believe we should stand strong and confident in knowing that we have the courage of heart and strength of intellect to overcome the basest animalistic tendencies that so easily drive us to forget that we are human.
We believe it is time to rise up from a position of strength knowing that there is no “enemy” greater than ourselves, when we lose respect for our God-given abilities and resort to violence as an answer. Our world is divided because of war. We see children dying who will never have the chance to grow to use their talents to help our world. We see children who have lost their fathers. How will they grow? Will there be resentment, or will they come to believe that they must become strong in saying NO to war? We see mothers crying as they reach out to find a noble cause for their sons’ deaths.
Wouldn’t the cause be far nobler if the solution were to lay down our guns and say, “not one more person should have to die when we have the strength to resolve our problems without violence?” We see homes destroyed, a country laid waste to, and people struggling to survive. Will they one day say “thank you” for making my world better because of war? OR “will they find forgiveness and reach out in hope when we put our weapons away and give them the freedom to do what they must to heal their country and their homes? This world is great and we are all part of it.
War only creates chaos, it will never bring lasting peace, and fighting with killing machines to keep the turmoil from reaching our shores will only prolong the agony. We believe we must work together to strengthen us, to secure us, and to use our strength wisely to show the world that we mean business when we say that no one will control us, our actions or our way of life.
To take the stand of strength, to honor those who have served this country with their sacrifices, we believe we must rise above the violence and say “NO MORE,” we will not allow ourselves to be drawn to a position of having to use their methods to resolve our differences. Sirs, nothing that results in such massive destruction can ever be counted as success on the way to lasting peace. Please consider my request.
Please understand that I mean no disrespect, nor does the stand that my husband has taken. We care about our country, we care about healing the wounds we all now feel. We know that our country stands for human rights, for respecting others and for leading others to their personal freedom by giving them the right to make the choices that are best for them, as long as they bring no intentional pain to anyone else. We believe it is time to reach out for what makes us truly strong and to leave the way of violence behind.
I look forward to the opportunity to discuss my husband’s case with you. Mostly, I look forward to the opportunity to work together in strength, to bring lasting peace to our world, and to see our country represented by the confidence of a principled stand for conscience that all people deserve.
In Peace,
Monica Benderman
Monica Benderman can be reached at: mdawnb@coastalnow.net.
Jack Dalton| http://jack-dalton.blogspot.com/
http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_ja..._from_consc.htm
Some solid posts Bammo... thanks for the fine contributions!! 
http://www.sciencedaily.com/upi/index.php?...us-veterans.xml
Critics blast veterans' mental health care
By RYAN HOLEYWELL
WASHINGTON, July 28 (UPI) -- Several Members of Congress blasted the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Pentagon this week, saying the agencies not doing enough to aid soldiers returning from Afghanistan and Iraq with post-traumatic stress disorder.
Click Here
Related Headlines
Mentally ill seek more professional help (June 7, 2005) -- More people in the United States are seeking professional help for mental illness but two-in-three get inadequate treatment, a nationwide study ... > full story
Soldiers face equal PTSD risk (May 26, 2005) -- U.S. soldiers wounded in Afghanistan or Iraq are no more likely to suffer post-traumatic stress disorder than other soldiers, researchers say. It ... > full story
Traumatic stress impacts unborn children (May 3, 2005) -- Pregnant women traumatized by the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in New York passed on traumatic stress markers to their unborn babies. ... > full story
New GI Bill picks up 19 co-sponsors (April 28, 2005) -- A bill that would improve educational, job training, healthcare and housing benefits for veterans of Afghanistan and Iraq picked up 19 House ... > full story
Study finds high level of PTSD in refugees (April 7, 2005) -- A British study finds that refugees settled in western countries are far more likely to suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder than the ... > full story
"All I hear is 'we're doing everything right.' All I hear is 'everything's fine.' Everything's not fine - we have suicides," Rep. Bob Filner, D-Calif., told a panel of witnesses from the VA and the Army at hearing of the House Veterans Affairs Committee on Wednesday. He went on to call government claims about proactive treatment of PTSD in soldiers "demonstrably false."
Post-traumatic stress disorder, an anxiety disorder, was first identified in 1980 and occurs following exposure to a life-threatening event. Symptoms can include insomnia, nightmares and depression and nervousness. The disorder is marked by both biological changes and emotional symptoms.
About 20 percent of soldiers returning from Iraq suffer from PTSD, depression or anxiety, according to Col. Charles Hoge, chief of psychology at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in Washington.
Hoge told hearing attendees that about 30 percent of soldiers who served in the Vietnam War developed PTSD at some point during their lives.
"Every time someone re-experiences an event or has a flashback ... the memory becomes more and more intractable, the harder and harder it is for the persons brain wiring to go around the memory," explained Lizbet Boroughs, deputy director of government relations for the American Psychiatric Association.
Rep. Steve Buyer, R-Ind., the committee's chairman, cited an "alarming" VA report that indicated the number of PTSD patients grew by nearly 100,000 from 1999 to 2004, to a total of 215,871 cases.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/upi/index.php?...us-veterans.xml
Critics blast veterans' mental health care
By RYAN HOLEYWELL
WASHINGTON, July 28 (UPI) -- Several Members of Congress blasted the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Pentagon this week, saying the agencies not doing enough to aid soldiers returning from Afghanistan and Iraq with post-traumatic stress disorder.
Click Here
Related Headlines
Mentally ill seek more professional help (June 7, 2005) -- More people in the United States are seeking professional help for mental illness but two-in-three get inadequate treatment, a nationwide study ... > full story
Soldiers face equal PTSD risk (May 26, 2005) -- U.S. soldiers wounded in Afghanistan or Iraq are no more likely to suffer post-traumatic stress disorder than other soldiers, researchers say. It ... > full story
Traumatic stress impacts unborn children (May 3, 2005) -- Pregnant women traumatized by the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in New York passed on traumatic stress markers to their unborn babies. ... > full story
New GI Bill picks up 19 co-sponsors (April 28, 2005) -- A bill that would improve educational, job training, healthcare and housing benefits for veterans of Afghanistan and Iraq picked up 19 House ... > full story
Study finds high level of PTSD in refugees (April 7, 2005) -- A British study finds that refugees settled in western countries are far more likely to suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder than the ... > full story
"All I hear is 'we're doing everything right.' All I hear is 'everything's fine.' Everything's not fine - we have suicides," Rep. Bob Filner, D-Calif., told a panel of witnesses from the VA and the Army at hearing of the House Veterans Affairs Committee on Wednesday. He went on to call government claims about proactive treatment of PTSD in soldiers "demonstrably false."
Post-traumatic stress disorder, an anxiety disorder, was first identified in 1980 and occurs following exposure to a life-threatening event. Symptoms can include insomnia, nightmares and depression and nervousness. The disorder is marked by both biological changes and emotional symptoms.
About 20 percent of soldiers returning from Iraq suffer from PTSD, depression or anxiety, according to Col. Charles Hoge, chief of psychology at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in Washington.
Hoge told hearing attendees that about 30 percent of soldiers who served in the Vietnam War developed PTSD at some point during their lives.
"Every time someone re-experiences an event or has a flashback ... the memory becomes more and more intractable, the harder and harder it is for the persons brain wiring to go around the memory," explained Lizbet Boroughs, deputy director of government relations for the American Psychiatric Association.
Rep. Steve Buyer, R-Ind., the committee's chairman, cited an "alarming" VA report that indicated the number of PTSD patients grew by nearly 100,000 from 1999 to 2004, to a total of 215,871 cases.
I would like to see the military specialize in treating all returning soldiers with PTSD counseling. It is likely that at some point, they could experience symptoms of this disorder if not the whole disorder itself. It is important that they know what is happening if they do and are provided with or know where to go to for help. It is the least we can do for their service.
IMO, this is a very serious problem and will have a notable impact on our society if we don't find a way to treat those who have this.
IMO, this is a very serious problem and will have a notable impact on our society if we don't find a way to treat those who have this.
QUOTE(Pkemp22402 @ Aug 14 2005, 07:56 PM)
I would like to see the military specialize in treating all returning soldiers with PTSD counseling. It is likely that at some point, they could experience symptoms of this disorder if not the whole disorder itself. It is important that they know what is happening if they do and are provided with or know where to go to for help. It is the least we can do for their service.
IMO, this is a very serious problem and will have a notable impact on our society if we don't find a way to treat those who have this.
IMO, this is a very serious problem and will have a notable impact on our society if we don't find a way to treat those who have this.
Pkemp, your above post is appreciated as well as accurate.
Iraq and Afghanistan Vets and Military are now being treated in a very understaffed PTSD unit at the VAMC.
This Unit, treats Nam vets, Korea War Vets, WW II Vets, spouse and families.
Now they are treating the New Vet of the "SHRUB" fiasco. And trust me they are short on professional help in the VAMC for PTSD.
Will these Vets and G.I.'s get the proper treatment for PTSD? Seriously in this Vets mind, the answer is no Pkemp. Why-- No room at the Inn and not enough $$$ to fund this treatment.
This is how the "SHRUB" and his Chickenhawk NeoCon SOB'S support the G.I. they use for power and profit! Pure CANNON FODDER and nothing more Pkemp!
Hang Tough~
Tom, as usual you are about 35 years behind what is being done. The Marines are giving all Staff NCOs (lifers to you) training on how to spot Marines with a problem so as to get treatment before they return to civilian life.
And MCB Quantico has the winning combination for treating PTSD>
QUOTE
Post-combat recovery and reintegration: PTSD is realSubmitted by: MCB Quantico
Story Identification #: 2005610132619
Story by Cpl. Shawn Vincent
MARINE CORPS BASE QUANTICO, Va. (June 9, 2005) -- Marine Corps Base Quantico could be called dissimilar to many other units in the Marine Corps. Headquarters and Service Battalion doesn’t get together to deploy to Iraq as a unit, go through combat as a unit, and return as a unit. But some Quantico Marines do fill individual augment billets in combat zones, and go through the stress and see horrific events that other Marines experience and recover from as a unit.
In an effort to help combat-returning Marines experience a smooth transition from combat to cubicles, some senior Marines from Quantico recently attended a Critical Incident Stress Management course called Post-Combat Recovery and Reintegration: Strengthening Military Members and Their Families.
The one-day course was taught by Air Force Lt. Col. Charles E. Woods, the commandant of the Academy for Innovative Ministry for the National Guard. He is responsible for developing and maintaining crisis intervention curriculum and resources for National Guard personnel so they will have the most current courses and materials available to meet the demanding needs of their duties.
During the course, Woods gave slide show presentations of the major stresses of combat, how it affects the service member, facts and figures of the casualty rate and symptoms of what to look out for in the transitioning service member.
One Quantico Marine, who is familiar with combat stress and has had extensive training on the issues, attended the course and said it was very helpful and insightful to him.
“It definitely opened up some eyes of how important it is to those on a receiving end to take care of veterans returning from a combat environment to a home environment, as well as showing how easy it can be as Marines to take care of each other,” said Staff Sgt. Timothy Parkhurst, a member of the Quantico Critical Incident Stress Management team. “We, as Marines, have always been really good at trying to make ourselves tough. Now we need to have more understanding and clarity of why we try to do that.”
Parkhurst explained that while at recruit training and Officer Candidates School, Marines are forced on becoming mentally strong, and there is a good reason behind it.
“Think of boot camp and pre-deployment training as a mental vaccine. You can see pictures of what it’s like, and talk to people who will give you detailed descriptions of some of the things you will experience over there, and it’s all to help you get ready to face it yourself,” he said.
Although preparing for combat is always helpful, Parkhurst said nothing compares to having it right in front of you where you can reach out and touch it yourself.
“There’s no set formula that says if we do this or that, you’ll be protected when you go to war, but it definitely helps,” he said.
One of the most serious outcomes of combat can be the stress it can put on the veterans’ lives once they return. Parkhurst said although not everyone carries the burden of their experiences with them after they leave theater, many combat veterans can have post-traumatic stress, or a worse form called Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
According to the Department of Veterans Affairs, PTSD is a psychiatric disorder that can occur following the experience or witnessing of life-threatening events such as military combat, natural disasters, terrorist incidents, serious accidents, or violent personal assaults like rape.
People who suffer from PTSD often relive the experience through nightmares and flashbacks, have difficulty sleeping, and feel detached or estranged, and these symptoms can be severe enough and last long enough to significantly impair the person's daily life.
Parkhurst said that 15 percent of Marines from Operation Iraqi Freedom I meet screening criteria for depression, anxiety, or PTSD significant enough to impact occupational or personal functioning.
“That means that they were affected so much by combat that I couldn’t help them. They would need professional help,” he said. “And did 15 percent of the Marines returning from OIF I get professional help? No.”
An average of more than 2,500 Marines separate each year because of to personality disorders, alcohol abuse and drug abuse. Psych is the most common inpatient diagnosis for the Marine Corps, and is the second leading category of physical evaluation board discharges. Over 250 Marines discharged each year are psychologically-related disabilities.
Parkhurst said symptoms of PTSD can come in the form of emotional, physical, mental, or behavioral reactions, and are often a combination thereof.
“Suffering combat veterans can have many different symptoms. That might not necessarily mean they have a serious problem, but it could show that they might need to talk to someone,” he said.
Some other symptoms listed in a pamphlet given to returning service members include:
-Guilt about surviving
-Anxiety, fear, guilt and worry
-Vague body complaints
-Fatigue
-Sleep disturbances
-Poor concentration
-Memory loss
-Jumpiness
-Hyperactivity
-Hyper vigilance
-Intrusive thoughts
-Lack of interest in anything
Parkhurst said that because there is a significant number of Marines filling IA billets in combat zones, the course helped him decide that instead of taking a reactive approach to combat stress, he is trying to implement a proactive approach to the problem.
“The course really crystallized some of the ideas I had before I attended it,” he said. “Now I have to refocus on certain leadership principles to help my Marines and help the leaders of other units with returning vets.”
If you or someone you know may be exhibiting signs of combat stress, Parkhurst said to seek help with a mental health professional, a chaplain, chain of command, or a friend.
“For those who might be sought to help someone, determine if you can help the person, or if you think they might need professional help, then take them to it. If you send them to the clinic, go with them, wait for them and follow up on them to make sure they’re getting the treatment they need,” he said.
For completely confidential treatment, Marine Corps Community Services offers help through MCCS OneSource on their Web site at www.mccsonecourse.com in the Emotional Wellbeing category.
Although there are no solid plans to bring the course to Quantico yet, Parkhurst said that several of the Quantico participants thought it would be a good idea.
Story Identification #: 2005610132619
Story by Cpl. Shawn Vincent
MARINE CORPS BASE QUANTICO, Va. (June 9, 2005) -- Marine Corps Base Quantico could be called dissimilar to many other units in the Marine Corps. Headquarters and Service Battalion doesn’t get together to deploy to Iraq as a unit, go through combat as a unit, and return as a unit. But some Quantico Marines do fill individual augment billets in combat zones, and go through the stress and see horrific events that other Marines experience and recover from as a unit.
In an effort to help combat-returning Marines experience a smooth transition from combat to cubicles, some senior Marines from Quantico recently attended a Critical Incident Stress Management course called Post-Combat Recovery and Reintegration: Strengthening Military Members and Their Families.
The one-day course was taught by Air Force Lt. Col. Charles E. Woods, the commandant of the Academy for Innovative Ministry for the National Guard. He is responsible for developing and maintaining crisis intervention curriculum and resources for National Guard personnel so they will have the most current courses and materials available to meet the demanding needs of their duties.
During the course, Woods gave slide show presentations of the major stresses of combat, how it affects the service member, facts and figures of the casualty rate and symptoms of what to look out for in the transitioning service member.
One Quantico Marine, who is familiar with combat stress and has had extensive training on the issues, attended the course and said it was very helpful and insightful to him.
“It definitely opened up some eyes of how important it is to those on a receiving end to take care of veterans returning from a combat environment to a home environment, as well as showing how easy it can be as Marines to take care of each other,” said Staff Sgt. Timothy Parkhurst, a member of the Quantico Critical Incident Stress Management team. “We, as Marines, have always been really good at trying to make ourselves tough. Now we need to have more understanding and clarity of why we try to do that.”
Parkhurst explained that while at recruit training and Officer Candidates School, Marines are forced on becoming mentally strong, and there is a good reason behind it.
“Think of boot camp and pre-deployment training as a mental vaccine. You can see pictures of what it’s like, and talk to people who will give you detailed descriptions of some of the things you will experience over there, and it’s all to help you get ready to face it yourself,” he said.
Although preparing for combat is always helpful, Parkhurst said nothing compares to having it right in front of you where you can reach out and touch it yourself.
“There’s no set formula that says if we do this or that, you’ll be protected when you go to war, but it definitely helps,” he said.
One of the most serious outcomes of combat can be the stress it can put on the veterans’ lives once they return. Parkhurst said although not everyone carries the burden of their experiences with them after they leave theater, many combat veterans can have post-traumatic stress, or a worse form called Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
According to the Department of Veterans Affairs, PTSD is a psychiatric disorder that can occur following the experience or witnessing of life-threatening events such as military combat, natural disasters, terrorist incidents, serious accidents, or violent personal assaults like rape.
People who suffer from PTSD often relive the experience through nightmares and flashbacks, have difficulty sleeping, and feel detached or estranged, and these symptoms can be severe enough and last long enough to significantly impair the person's daily life.
Parkhurst said that 15 percent of Marines from Operation Iraqi Freedom I meet screening criteria for depression, anxiety, or PTSD significant enough to impact occupational or personal functioning.
“That means that they were affected so much by combat that I couldn’t help them. They would need professional help,” he said. “And did 15 percent of the Marines returning from OIF I get professional help? No.”
An average of more than 2,500 Marines separate each year because of to personality disorders, alcohol abuse and drug abuse. Psych is the most common inpatient diagnosis for the Marine Corps, and is the second leading category of physical evaluation board discharges. Over 250 Marines discharged each year are psychologically-related disabilities.
Parkhurst said symptoms of PTSD can come in the form of emotional, physical, mental, or behavioral reactions, and are often a combination thereof.
“Suffering combat veterans can have many different symptoms. That might not necessarily mean they have a serious problem, but it could show that they might need to talk to someone,” he said.
Some other symptoms listed in a pamphlet given to returning service members include:
-Guilt about surviving
-Anxiety, fear, guilt and worry
-Vague body complaints
-Fatigue
-Sleep disturbances
-Poor concentration
-Memory loss
-Jumpiness
-Hyperactivity
-Hyper vigilance
-Intrusive thoughts
-Lack of interest in anything
Parkhurst said that because there is a significant number of Marines filling IA billets in combat zones, the course helped him decide that instead of taking a reactive approach to combat stress, he is trying to implement a proactive approach to the problem.
“The course really crystallized some of the ideas I had before I attended it,” he said. “Now I have to refocus on certain leadership principles to help my Marines and help the leaders of other units with returning vets.”
If you or someone you know may be exhibiting signs of combat stress, Parkhurst said to seek help with a mental health professional, a chaplain, chain of command, or a friend.
“For those who might be sought to help someone, determine if you can help the person, or if you think they might need professional help, then take them to it. If you send them to the clinic, go with them, wait for them and follow up on them to make sure they’re getting the treatment they need,” he said.
For completely confidential treatment, Marine Corps Community Services offers help through MCCS OneSource on their Web site at www.mccsonecourse.com in the Emotional Wellbeing category.
Although there are no solid plans to bring the course to Quantico yet, Parkhurst said that several of the Quantico participants thought it would be a good idea.
And MCB Quantico has the winning combination for treating PTSD>
QUOTE
Post-traumatic stress disorder can be treated
Submitted by: MCB Quantico
Story Identification #: 2005413135420
Story by Cpl. Shawn Vincent
MARINE CORPS BASE QUANTICO, Va. (April 14, 2005) -- “Taking care of our own is one of the Corps’ abiding core principles. As our Marines return from combat, commanders must ensure that they are well prepared to successfully meet the challenges involved in returning from deployment and reuniting with their loved ones,” said Commandant of the Marine Corps Gen. Michael W. Hagee about Marines returning from combat zones.
Currently, Headquarters and Service Battalion is conducting a Suicide Prevention and Awareness Campaign to help keep the suicide rate aboard Quantico at zero.
Suicidal thoughts can happen to anyone, anywhere, anytime. With permanent change of station season in full force, Marine Corps Base Quantico is finding veterans of Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom I and II in the battalion’s arms.
For Quantico Marines and Sailors returning from individual augment billets in combat areas, returning to the garrison lifestyle can become a challenging transition.
“A lot of times what happens when (service members) return from Iraq is that their reactions are delayed. They are so happy to be home and back in the states that their war experience reaction is postponed,” said Melvina Thornton, manager of the family advocacy office. “Then all of a sudden, three, six or nine months down the road they might start showing symptoms of (post-traumatic stress disorder).”
Thornton said that symptoms of PTSD can come in the form of emotional, physical, mental, or behavioral reactions, and are often a combination thereof.
“I’ve heard of people waking up in the middle of the night with the shakes, and I even had one man tell me he heard a car backfire and he thought he was back in combat,” Thornton said.
Some other symptoms listed in a pamphlet given to returning service members include:
n Guilt about surviving
n Anxiety, fear, guilt and worry
n Vague body complaints
n Fatigue
n Sleep disturbances
n Poor concentration
n Memory loss
n Jumpiness
n Hyperactivity
According to the Department of Veterans Affairs, PTSD is a psychiatric disorder that can occur following the experience or witnessing of life-threatening events such as military combat, natural disasters, terrorist incidents, serious accidents, or violent personal assaults like rape.
People who suffer from PTSD often relive the experience through nightmares and flashbacks, have difficulty sleeping, and feel detached or estranged, and these symptoms can be severe enough and last long enough to significantly impair the person’s daily life. About 8 percent of men and 20 percent of women go on to develop PTSD, and roughly 30 percent of these individuals develop a chronic form that persists throughout their lifetimes.
Although PTSD can become very severe for some service members, help is available and can possibly diminish many of the symptoms of PTSD.
“Because symptoms don’t always show up immediately, (service members) don’t always get help right away. Then when or if they do show up, some victims don’t always stand up and ask for help immediately,” Thornton said. “But if treated in the early stages, PTSD can seriously help sufferers.”
For anyone considering suicide or suffering from PTSD, resources are available. Marine Corps Base Quantico chaplains are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week and are willing to help.
If additional help is needed, there is a suicide hotline; (800) 479-3339.
Civilian agencies and resources are available, along with Marine Corps Community Services. And last, and possibly most effective, peers, friends and families can be a good source.
Submitted by: MCB Quantico
Story Identification #: 2005413135420
Story by Cpl. Shawn Vincent
MARINE CORPS BASE QUANTICO, Va. (April 14, 2005) -- “Taking care of our own is one of the Corps’ abiding core principles. As our Marines return from combat, commanders must ensure that they are well prepared to successfully meet the challenges involved in returning from deployment and reuniting with their loved ones,” said Commandant of the Marine Corps Gen. Michael W. Hagee about Marines returning from combat zones.
Currently, Headquarters and Service Battalion is conducting a Suicide Prevention and Awareness Campaign to help keep the suicide rate aboard Quantico at zero.
Suicidal thoughts can happen to anyone, anywhere, anytime. With permanent change of station season in full force, Marine Corps Base Quantico is finding veterans of Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom I and II in the battalion’s arms.
For Quantico Marines and Sailors returning from individual augment billets in combat areas, returning to the garrison lifestyle can become a challenging transition.
“A lot of times what happens when (service members) return from Iraq is that their reactions are delayed. They are so happy to be home and back in the states that their war experience reaction is postponed,” said Melvina Thornton, manager of the family advocacy office. “Then all of a sudden, three, six or nine months down the road they might start showing symptoms of (post-traumatic stress disorder).”
Thornton said that symptoms of PTSD can come in the form of emotional, physical, mental, or behavioral reactions, and are often a combination thereof.
“I’ve heard of people waking up in the middle of the night with the shakes, and I even had one man tell me he heard a car backfire and he thought he was back in combat,” Thornton said.
Some other symptoms listed in a pamphlet given to returning service members include:
n Guilt about surviving
n Anxiety, fear, guilt and worry
n Vague body complaints
n Fatigue
n Sleep disturbances
n Poor concentration
n Memory loss
n Jumpiness
n Hyperactivity
According to the Department of Veterans Affairs, PTSD is a psychiatric disorder that can occur following the experience or witnessing of life-threatening events such as military combat, natural disasters, terrorist incidents, serious accidents, or violent personal assaults like rape.
People who suffer from PTSD often relive the experience through nightmares and flashbacks, have difficulty sleeping, and feel detached or estranged, and these symptoms can be severe enough and last long enough to significantly impair the person’s daily life. About 8 percent of men and 20 percent of women go on to develop PTSD, and roughly 30 percent of these individuals develop a chronic form that persists throughout their lifetimes.
Although PTSD can become very severe for some service members, help is available and can possibly diminish many of the symptoms of PTSD.
“Because symptoms don’t always show up immediately, (service members) don’t always get help right away. Then when or if they do show up, some victims don’t always stand up and ask for help immediately,” Thornton said. “But if treated in the early stages, PTSD can seriously help sufferers.”
For anyone considering suicide or suffering from PTSD, resources are available. Marine Corps Base Quantico chaplains are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week and are willing to help.
If additional help is needed, there is a suicide hotline; (800) 479-3339.
Civilian agencies and resources are available, along with Marine Corps Community Services. And last, and possibly most effective, peers, friends and families can be a good source.
With higher costs of medicine, medical supplies, overhead, staff in the coming mths ahead, figure that in with the upcoming cut backs and funding for VA vacilities. With the increase of returning troops back home, you can bet that there will not be the sufficient medical attention available... and these vets will be on main street America someday in your neighborhood.
[But large funding cuts in VA psychiatry programs over the past several years and the limited number of doctors trained in PTSD could signal big trouble ahead, cautions Bruce Kagan, staff psychiatrist at the West Los Angeles VA Hospital.]
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2005-0...disorders_x.htm
Posted 3/30/2005
Mental disorders are on the rise among Afghanistan, Iraq veterans
By Marilyn Elias, USA TODAY
As many as one out of four veterans of Afghanistan and Iraq treated at Veterans Affairs hospitals in the past 16 months were diagnosed with mental disorders, a number that has been steadily rising, according to a report in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine.
Records show that 20% of eligible ex-soldiers came to VA hospitals seeking medical treatment between October 2003 and February 2005. Overall, 26% of them were diagnosed with mental disorders, say Han Kang and Kenneth Hyams of the VA.
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) was most common, diagnosed in 10% of patients, followed by drug or alcohol abuse (9%). Seven percent were diagnosed with depression; 6% had anxiety disorders, such as phobias and panic. Many ex-soldiers had multiple disorders, Kang says.
But these are tentative diagnoses. Sometimes they were made by primary-care doctors and not yet confirmed by mental health specialists, he says.
At this point, it is an open question whether these numbers predict how many soldiers ultimately will develop mental health problems, Kang says.
Patients coming to the VA often lack insurance and might be at a disproportionately higher risk for mental health problems, he says. Also, soldiers who have left active duty may be in more mental distress than those who stayed, adds Army Lt. Col. Carl Castro, chief of military psychiatry at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research.
On the other hand, fear of being stigmatized was a key reason that traumatized soldiers didn't seek help while still in the military, an earlier study showed. So these post-duty numbers could more accurately reflect the final toll, says Harvard psychologist Richard McNally, a PTSD expert.
So far, VA hospitals can easily meet the challenge of mental health care for Afghanistan and Iraq war veterans, Kang says.
[But large funding cuts in VA psychiatry programs over the past several years and the limited number of doctors trained in PTSD could signal big trouble ahead, cautions Bruce Kagan, staff psychiatrist at the West Los Angeles VA Hospital.]
[But large funding cuts in VA psychiatry programs over the past several years and the limited number of doctors trained in PTSD could signal big trouble ahead, cautions Bruce Kagan, staff psychiatrist at the West Los Angeles VA Hospital.]
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2005-0...disorders_x.htm
Posted 3/30/2005
Mental disorders are on the rise among Afghanistan, Iraq veterans
By Marilyn Elias, USA TODAY
As many as one out of four veterans of Afghanistan and Iraq treated at Veterans Affairs hospitals in the past 16 months were diagnosed with mental disorders, a number that has been steadily rising, according to a report in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine.
Records show that 20% of eligible ex-soldiers came to VA hospitals seeking medical treatment between October 2003 and February 2005. Overall, 26% of them were diagnosed with mental disorders, say Han Kang and Kenneth Hyams of the VA.
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) was most common, diagnosed in 10% of patients, followed by drug or alcohol abuse (9%). Seven percent were diagnosed with depression; 6% had anxiety disorders, such as phobias and panic. Many ex-soldiers had multiple disorders, Kang says.
But these are tentative diagnoses. Sometimes they were made by primary-care doctors and not yet confirmed by mental health specialists, he says.
At this point, it is an open question whether these numbers predict how many soldiers ultimately will develop mental health problems, Kang says.
Patients coming to the VA often lack insurance and might be at a disproportionately higher risk for mental health problems, he says. Also, soldiers who have left active duty may be in more mental distress than those who stayed, adds Army Lt. Col. Carl Castro, chief of military psychiatry at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research.
On the other hand, fear of being stigmatized was a key reason that traumatized soldiers didn't seek help while still in the military, an earlier study showed. So these post-duty numbers could more accurately reflect the final toll, says Harvard psychologist Richard McNally, a PTSD expert.
So far, VA hospitals can easily meet the challenge of mental health care for Afghanistan and Iraq war veterans, Kang says.
[But large funding cuts in VA psychiatry programs over the past several years and the limited number of doctors trained in PTSD could signal big trouble ahead, cautions Bruce Kagan, staff psychiatrist at the West Los Angeles VA Hospital.]
QUOTE(Marine @ Aug 14 2005, 09:17 PM)
Tom, as usual you are about 35 years behind what is being done. The Marines are giving all Staff NCOs (lifers to you) training on how to spot Marines with a problem so as to get treatment before they return to civilian life.
And MCB Quantico has the winning combination for treating PTSD>
And MCB Quantico has the winning combination for treating PTSD>
Marine and Bammo I think you are both right. I think it is a great thing that the Marines are screening for and educating its officers to screen for PTSD currently. However, what about all of the vets that were in combat before they started doing this?
Not to bring back any bad memories for anybody here, but, here are a few examples of what I am talking about. I have a relative who is a Vietnam Vet who evidently had PTSD his entire life. After 3 divorces, losing custody of his only son, and many other personal problems, he returned to the VA about 5 years ago and they finally diagnosed him with it. He had been treated for other health problems related to his service before this as well, I think a benign tumor was removed from his arm (assumed from exposure to agent orange), so he had been to the VA 10 years prior to his diagnosis and nobody screened him for PSTD then. I could go on and on about this. I once worked in a company with several former soliders who had been in the Bosnian conflict. They were a complete mess, just out of control really, it was obvious that nobody ever counseled these guys.
It is not fair that we ask these men and women to serve their country and then throw them back into society with no transitioning training, help or whatever is needed to get them back on their feet at home. It looks like the Marines are starting to catch onto the post military needs of our soldiers, but I think we have a long way to go before we transition all post conflict soldiers properly back into society. Hopefully this is something the military will spend some of its resources researching and implementing in the future.
Behind times da_n, time for a new scoot - don't want to look ancient do we! LOL
This is NEW Bro'- more to your liking, I hope!!!
Seriously, this is definately a tradgedy and should be treated as such.
Decorated Marine Accused Of Opening Fire On Noisy Crowd
Court Orders Psychological Evaluation
POSTED: 3:24 pm EDT August 15, 2005
UPDATED: 3:46 pm EDT August 15, 2005
LAWRENCE, Mass. -- A Marine who won high praise for his service in Iraq will undergo psychological evaluation at Bridgewater State Hospital after being accused of firing a shotgun into a crowd of people outside his apartment.
Daniel Cotnoir pleaded not guilty Monday at his arraignment in Lawrence District Court to armed assault with intent to murder and other charges.
A court psychologist told the judge that she had questions as to whether Cotnoir was "completely reality-based" at the time of the incident.
A prosecutor said Cotnoir fired one shot early Saturday morning that ricocheted off a cement block and struck a 15-year-old girl and a 20-year-old man. Neither was seriously injured.
Police said Cotnoir had frequently called police to complain about noise and fights outside a nearby nightclub.
The Marine Corps Times presented Cotnoir with its annual Marine of the Year award last month. He was a military mortician in Iraq, preparing soldiers killed in action for open-casket funerals.
http://www.turnto10.com/news/4854168/detail.html
Seems all that head shrinking the Corp is giving out, slipped by this Marine!
Bridgewateer state hospital is basicly for the criminally insane, why is this Marine Veteran not being sent to the VAMC?
I am contacting the VFW and the DAV as well as Senator Kennedy, and Senator Kerry and asking why this Veteran has to go to Bridgewater State Hospital instead of North Hampton VAMC or another VAMC in Mass. This is not right and should be corrected. Anybody that knows anything about Bridgewater State Hospital, knows exactly what I am talking about.
Mass. DAV http://www.davma.org/ webmail@davma.org
VFW http://www.vfw.org/ 1-800-vfw-1899 hot line e mail vfw@vfwdc.org
Kennedy, Edward- (D - MA) Class I
317 RUSSELL SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-4543
Web Form: kennedy.senate.gov/contact.html
Kerry, John- (D - MA) Class II
304 RUSSELL SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-2742
Web Form: kerry.senate.gov/v3/contact/email.html
Contact these people and ask them is this the way to support out G.I. (Troops)
Seriously, this Marine belongs in a VAMC not Bridgewater State Hospital!!
Lets hope this Marine gets proper support and treatment which the Marine Corp seemed to miss.
Why is this Marine Veteran not being sent to the VAMC for evaluation?
Lack of funding, lack of staff, where is the support from the "SHRUB" lovers and yellow ribbon instant patriots for this Iraq Marine Veteran?
Do the right thing, help this Marine Vet out, that is showing TRUE support for the G.I. and from what I am reading here, this Marine Vet needs some support!
Hang Tough~
This is NEW Bro'- more to your liking, I hope!!!
Seriously, this is definately a tradgedy and should be treated as such.
Decorated Marine Accused Of Opening Fire On Noisy Crowd
Court Orders Psychological Evaluation
POSTED: 3:24 pm EDT August 15, 2005
UPDATED: 3:46 pm EDT August 15, 2005
LAWRENCE, Mass. -- A Marine who won high praise for his service in Iraq will undergo psychological evaluation at Bridgewater State Hospital after being accused of firing a shotgun into a crowd of people outside his apartment.
Daniel Cotnoir pleaded not guilty Monday at his arraignment in Lawrence District Court to armed assault with intent to murder and other charges.
A court psychologist told the judge that she had questions as to whether Cotnoir was "completely reality-based" at the time of the incident.
A prosecutor said Cotnoir fired one shot early Saturday morning that ricocheted off a cement block and struck a 15-year-old girl and a 20-year-old man. Neither was seriously injured.
Police said Cotnoir had frequently called police to complain about noise and fights outside a nearby nightclub.
The Marine Corps Times presented Cotnoir with its annual Marine of the Year award last month. He was a military mortician in Iraq, preparing soldiers killed in action for open-casket funerals.
http://www.turnto10.com/news/4854168/detail.html
Seems all that head shrinking the Corp is giving out, slipped by this Marine!
Bridgewateer state hospital is basicly for the criminally insane, why is this Marine Veteran not being sent to the VAMC?
I am contacting the VFW and the DAV as well as Senator Kennedy, and Senator Kerry and asking why this Veteran has to go to Bridgewater State Hospital instead of North Hampton VAMC or another VAMC in Mass. This is not right and should be corrected. Anybody that knows anything about Bridgewater State Hospital, knows exactly what I am talking about.
Mass. DAV http://www.davma.org/ webmail@davma.org
VFW http://www.vfw.org/ 1-800-vfw-1899 hot line e mail vfw@vfwdc.org
Kennedy, Edward- (D - MA) Class I
317 RUSSELL SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-4543
Web Form: kennedy.senate.gov/contact.html
Kerry, John- (D - MA) Class II
304 RUSSELL SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-2742
Web Form: kerry.senate.gov/v3/contact/email.html
Contact these people and ask them is this the way to support out G.I. (Troops)
Seriously, this Marine belongs in a VAMC not Bridgewater State Hospital!!
Lets hope this Marine gets proper support and treatment which the Marine Corp seemed to miss.
Why is this Marine Veteran not being sent to the VAMC for evaluation?
Lack of funding, lack of staff, where is the support from the "SHRUB" lovers and yellow ribbon instant patriots for this Iraq Marine Veteran?
Do the right thing, help this Marine Vet out, that is showing TRUE support for the G.I. and from what I am reading here, this Marine Vet needs some support!
Hang Tough~
QUOTE(The_Bammo @ Aug 15 2005, 09:47 PM)
Behind times da_n, time for a new scoot - don't want to look ancient do we! LOL
This is NEW Bro'- more to your liking, I hope!!!
Seriously, this is definately a tradgedy and should be treated as such.
Decorated Marine Accused Of Opening Fire On Noisy Crowd
Court Orders Psychological Evaluation
POSTED: 3:24 pm EDT August 15, 2005
UPDATED: 3:46 pm EDT August 15, 2005
LAWRENCE, Mass. -- A Marine who won high praise for his service in Iraq will undergo psychological evaluation at Bridgewater State Hospital after being accused of firing a shotgun into a crowd of people outside his apartment.
Daniel Cotnoir pleaded not guilty Monday at his arraignment in Lawrence District Court to armed assault with intent to murder and other charges.
A court psychologist told the judge that she had questions as to whether Cotnoir was "completely reality-based" at the time of the incident.
A prosecutor said Cotnoir fired one shot early Saturday morning that ricocheted off a cement block and struck a 15-year-old girl and a 20-year-old man. Neither was seriously injured.
Police said Cotnoir had frequently called police to complain about noise and fights outside a nearby nightclub.
The Marine Corps Times presented Cotnoir with its annual Marine of the Year award last month. He was a military mortician in Iraq, preparing soldiers killed in action for open-casket funerals.
http://www.turnto10.com/news/4854168/detail.html
Seems all that head shrinking the Corp is giving out, slipped by this Marine!
Bridgewateer state hospital is basicly for the criminally insane, why is this Marine Veteran not being sent to the VAMC?
I am contacting the VFW and the DAV as well as Senator Kennedy, and Senator Kerry and asking why this Veteran has to go to Bridgewater State Hospital instead of North Hampton VAMC or another VAMC in Mass. This is not right and should be corrected. Anybody that knows anything about Bridgewater State Hospital, knows exactly what I am talking about.
Mass. DAV http://www.davma.org/ webmail@davma.org
VFW http://www.vfw.org/ 1-800-vfw-1899 hot line e mail vfw@vfwdc.org
Kennedy, Edward- (D - MA) Class I
317 RUSSELL SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-4543
Web Form: kennedy.senate.gov/contact.html
Kerry, John- (D - MA) Class II
304 RUSSELL SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-2742
Web Form: kerry.senate.gov/v3/contact/email.html
Contact these people and ask them is this the way to support out G.I. (Troops)
Seriously, this Marine belongs in a VAMC not Bridgewater State Hospital!!
Lets hope this Marine gets proper support and treatment which the Marine Corp seemed to miss.
Why is this Marine Veteran not being sent to the VAMC for evaluation?
Lack of funding, lack of staff, where is the support from the "SHRUB" lovers and yellow ribbon instant patriots for this Iraq Marine Veteran?
Do the right thing, help this Marine Vet out, that is showing TRUE support for the G.I. and from what I am reading here, this Marine Vet needs some support!
Hang Tough~
This is NEW Bro'- more to your liking, I hope!!!
Seriously, this is definately a tradgedy and should be treated as such.
Decorated Marine Accused Of Opening Fire On Noisy Crowd
Court Orders Psychological Evaluation
POSTED: 3:24 pm EDT August 15, 2005
UPDATED: 3:46 pm EDT August 15, 2005
LAWRENCE, Mass. -- A Marine who won high praise for his service in Iraq will undergo psychological evaluation at Bridgewater State Hospital after being accused of firing a shotgun into a crowd of people outside his apartment.
Daniel Cotnoir pleaded not guilty Monday at his arraignment in Lawrence District Court to armed assault with intent to murder and other charges.
A court psychologist told the judge that she had questions as to whether Cotnoir was "completely reality-based" at the time of the incident.
A prosecutor said Cotnoir fired one shot early Saturday morning that ricocheted off a cement block and struck a 15-year-old girl and a 20-year-old man. Neither was seriously injured.
Police said Cotnoir had frequently called police to complain about noise and fights outside a nearby nightclub.
The Marine Corps Times presented Cotnoir with its annual Marine of the Year award last month. He was a military mortician in Iraq, preparing soldiers killed in action for open-casket funerals.
http://www.turnto10.com/news/4854168/detail.html
Seems all that head shrinking the Corp is giving out, slipped by this Marine!
Bridgewateer state hospital is basicly for the criminally insane, why is this Marine Veteran not being sent to the VAMC?
I am contacting the VFW and the DAV as well as Senator Kennedy, and Senator Kerry and asking why this Veteran has to go to Bridgewater State Hospital instead of North Hampton VAMC or another VAMC in Mass. This is not right and should be corrected. Anybody that knows anything about Bridgewater State Hospital, knows exactly what I am talking about.
Mass. DAV http://www.davma.org/ webmail@davma.org
VFW http://www.vfw.org/ 1-800-vfw-1899 hot line e mail vfw@vfwdc.org
Kennedy, Edward- (D - MA) Class I
317 RUSSELL SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-4543
Web Form: kennedy.senate.gov/contact.html
Kerry, John- (D - MA) Class II
304 RUSSELL SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-2742
Web Form: kerry.senate.gov/v3/contact/email.html
Contact these people and ask them is this the way to support out G.I. (Troops)
Seriously, this Marine belongs in a VAMC not Bridgewater State Hospital!!
Lets hope this Marine gets proper support and treatment which the Marine Corp seemed to miss.
Why is this Marine Veteran not being sent to the VAMC for evaluation?
Lack of funding, lack of staff, where is the support from the "SHRUB" lovers and yellow ribbon instant patriots for this Iraq Marine Veteran?
Do the right thing, help this Marine Vet out, that is showing TRUE support for the G.I. and from what I am reading here, this Marine Vet needs some support!
Hang Tough~
Gosh Tom, I was wondering why it took you so long to find this story and get it posted here. Are you slowing down or what?
It sounds like to me the courts put him were they put anybody else who might be a danger to others Tom. Bridgewater has been evaluating folks who might hurt themselves or others for a very long time, why would you want this Marine put someplace else where they aren't as experienced? I guess it don't fit your agenda unless you have somebody getting less than the best care, eh?
It looks to me this Marine is getting some support Bro, ya know, he could a be just sitting out in the woods someplace in Vermont getting nothing.
QUOTE(The_Bammo @ Aug 15 2005, 09:47 PM)
Behind times da_n, time for a new scoot - don't want to look ancient do we! LOL
This is NEW Bro'- more to your liking, I hope!!!
Seriously, this is definately a tradgedy and should be treated as such.
Decorated Marine Accused Of Opening Fire On Noisy Crowd
Court Orders Psychological Evaluation
POSTED: 3:24 pm EDT August 15, 2005
UPDATED: 3:46 pm EDT August 15, 2005
LAWRENCE, Mass. -- A Marine who won high praise for his service in Iraq will undergo psychological evaluation at Bridgewater State Hospital after being accused of firing a shotgun into a crowd of people outside his apartment.
Daniel Cotnoir pleaded not guilty Monday at his arraignment in Lawrence District Court to armed assault with intent to murder and other charges.
A court psychologist told the judge that she had questions as to whether Cotnoir was "completely reality-based" at the time of the incident.
A prosecutor said Cotnoir fired one shot early Saturday morning that ricocheted off a cement block and struck a 15-year-old girl and a 20-year-old man. Neither was seriously injured.
Police said Cotnoir had frequently called police to complain about noise and fights outside a nearby nightclub.
The Marine Corps Times presented Cotnoir with its annual Marine of the Year award last month. He was a military mortician in Iraq, preparing soldiers killed in action for open-casket funerals.
http://www.turnto10.com/news/4854168/detail.html
Seems all that head shrinking the Corp is giving out, slipped by this Marine!
Bridgewateer state hospital is basicly for the criminally insane, why is this Marine Veteran not being sent to the VAMC?
I am contacting the VFW and the DAV as well as Senator Kennedy, and Senator Kerry and asking why this Veteran has to go to Bridgewater State Hospital instead of North Hampton VAMC or another VAMC in Mass. This is not right and should be corrected. Anybody that knows anything about Bridgewater State Hospital, knows exactly what I am talking about.
Mass. DAV http://www.davma.org/ webmail@davma.org
VFW http://www.vfw.org/ 1-800-vfw-1899 hot line e mail vfw@vfwdc.org
Kennedy, Edward- (D - MA) Class I
317 RUSSELL SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-4543
Web Form: kennedy.senate.gov/contact.html
Kerry, John- (D - MA) Class II
304 RUSSELL SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-2742
Web Form: kerry.senate.gov/v3/contact/email.html
Contact these people and ask them is this the way to support out G.I. (Troops)
Seriously, this Marine belongs in a VAMC not Bridgewater State Hospital!!
Lets hope this Marine gets proper support and treatment which the Marine Corp seemed to miss.
Why is this Marine Veteran not being sent to the VAMC for evaluation?
Lack of funding, lack of staff, where is the support from the "SHRUB" lovers and yellow ribbon instant patriots for this Iraq Marine Veteran?
Do the right thing, help this Marine Vet out, that is showing TRUE support for the G.I. and from what I am reading here, this Marine Vet needs some support!
Hang Tough~
This is NEW Bro'- more to your liking, I hope!!!
Seriously, this is definately a tradgedy and should be treated as such.
Decorated Marine Accused Of Opening Fire On Noisy Crowd
Court Orders Psychological Evaluation
POSTED: 3:24 pm EDT August 15, 2005
UPDATED: 3:46 pm EDT August 15, 2005
LAWRENCE, Mass. -- A Marine who won high praise for his service in Iraq will undergo psychological evaluation at Bridgewater State Hospital after being accused of firing a shotgun into a crowd of people outside his apartment.
Daniel Cotnoir pleaded not guilty Monday at his arraignment in Lawrence District Court to armed assault with intent to murder and other charges.
A court psychologist told the judge that she had questions as to whether Cotnoir was "completely reality-based" at the time of the incident.
A prosecutor said Cotnoir fired one shot early Saturday morning that ricocheted off a cement block and struck a 15-year-old girl and a 20-year-old man. Neither was seriously injured.
Police said Cotnoir had frequently called police to complain about noise and fights outside a nearby nightclub.
The Marine Corps Times presented Cotnoir with its annual Marine of the Year award last month. He was a military mortician in Iraq, preparing soldiers killed in action for open-casket funerals.
http://www.turnto10.com/news/4854168/detail.html
Seems all that head shrinking the Corp is giving out, slipped by this Marine!
Bridgewateer state hospital is basicly for the criminally insane, why is this Marine Veteran not being sent to the VAMC?
I am contacting the VFW and the DAV as well as Senator Kennedy, and Senator Kerry and asking why this Veteran has to go to Bridgewater State Hospital instead of North Hampton VAMC or another VAMC in Mass. This is not right and should be corrected. Anybody that knows anything about Bridgewater State Hospital, knows exactly what I am talking about.
Mass. DAV http://www.davma.org/ webmail@davma.org
VFW http://www.vfw.org/ 1-800-vfw-1899 hot line e mail vfw@vfwdc.org
Kennedy, Edward- (D - MA) Class I
317 RUSSELL SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-4543
Web Form: kennedy.senate.gov/contact.html
Kerry, John- (D - MA) Class II
304 RUSSELL SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-2742
Web Form: kerry.senate.gov/v3/contact/email.html
Contact these people and ask them is this the way to support out G.I. (Troops)
Seriously, this Marine belongs in a VAMC not Bridgewater State Hospital!!
Lets hope this Marine gets proper support and treatment which the Marine Corp seemed to miss.
Why is this Marine Veteran not being sent to the VAMC for evaluation?
Lack of funding, lack of staff, where is the support from the "SHRUB" lovers and yellow ribbon instant patriots for this Iraq Marine Veteran?
Do the right thing, help this Marine Vet out, that is showing TRUE support for the G.I. and from what I am reading here, this Marine Vet needs some support!
Hang Tough~
Excellent post Bammo! You sure know how to find good stories and this one is right on this topic!
http://www.unionleader.com/articles_showa.html?article=58382
News - July 29, 2005
STRESS-RELATED ILLS:
Combat zone takes its toll
By JOHN J. LUMPKIN
WASHINGTON (AP) - Thirty percent of U.S. troops returning from the Iraq war have developed stress-related mental health problems three to four months after coming home, the Army's surgeon general said Thursday.
The problems include anxiety, depression, nightmares, anger and an inability to concentrate, said Lt. Gen. Kevin Kiley and other military medical officials. A smaller number of troops, often with more severe symptoms, were diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, a serious mental illness.
The 30 percent figure is in contrast to the 3 percent to 5 percent diagnosed with a significant mental health issue immediately after they leave the war theater, according to Col. Elspeth Ritchie, a military psychiatrist on Kiley's staff. A study of troops who were still in the combat zone in 2004 found 13 percent experienced significant mental health problems.
Soldiers departing a war zone are typically given a health evaluation as they leave combat, but the Army is only now instituting a program for follow-up screenings three to six months later, said Kiley, speaking to reporters at a breakfast meeting.
A pilot program for the follow-up screenings, conducted on 1,000 U.S. soldiers returning from Iraq to Italy last year, found a much greater incidence of mental health problems than expected, a fact Kiley attributed to post-combat stress problems taking time to develop once the danger has passed.
QUOTE(Marine @ Aug 16 2005, 08:21 AM)
Gosh Tom, I was wondering why it took you so long to find this story and get it posted here. Are you slowing down or what?
It sounds like to me the courts put him were they put anybody else who might be a danger to others Tom. Bridgewater has been evaluating folks who might hurt themselves or others for a very long time, why would you want this Marine put someplace else where they aren't as experienced? I guess it don't fit your agenda unless you have somebody getting less than the best care, eh?
It looks to me this Marine is getting some support Bro, ya know, he could a be just sitting out in the woods someplace in Vermont getting nothing.
It sounds like to me the courts put him were they put anybody else who might be a danger to others Tom. Bridgewater has been evaluating folks who might hurt themselves or others for a very long time, why would you want this Marine put someplace else where they aren't as experienced? I guess it don't fit your agenda unless you have somebody getting less than the best care, eh?
It looks to me this Marine is getting some support Bro, ya know, he could a be just sitting out in the woods someplace in Vermont getting nothing.
Thats the definate Semper Fi attitude I thought you had there Marine. LOL
Sending a troubled Marine to a State hospital that is overcrowded and unprepared to treat this Marine with the kind of treatment the VAMC'S claim their fame in.
This dude is the head honcho for PTSD at the VAMC Marine, read what he says!
Acknowledging the Psychiatric Cost of War
Matthew J. Friedman, M.D., Ph.D.
"In a best-case scenario, active-duty, Reserve, and National Guard personnel as well as veterans of Operation Iraqi Freedom or Operation Enduring Freedom with symptoms of PTSD will take advantage of the many mental health services available through the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs. Educational initiatives will be implemented to help veterans and active-duty personnel recognize that the loss of social support or the effect of recent adverse life events may precipitate a return of the symptoms of PTSD. Veterans and active-duty personnel will also be encouraged to monitor their psychological health and to seek treatment if and when it becomes necessary.
Alas, there is also a worst-case scenario that demands immediate attention. Hoge and associates report that concern about possible stigmatization was disproportionately greatest among the soldiers and Marines most in need of mental health care. Owing to such concern, those returning from Operation Iraqi Freedom or Operation Enduring Freedom who reported the greatest number or the most severe symptoms were the least likely to seek treatment for fear that it could harm their careers, cause difficulties with their peers and with unit leadership, and become an embarrassment in that they would be seen as weak.
These findings are consistent with those in an earlier report that showed low use of mental health services among Navy and Marine Corps personnel.12 In contrast to a rate of 28.5 percent among male civilians with a psychiatric disorder who sought treatment,13 only 19 percent of servicemen with a psychiatric disorder sought treatment. Furthermore, among military personnel with PTSD, the rate of seeking treatment was only 4.1 percent, which is substantially lower than that for other psychiatric disorders. This finding may indicate that within the military culture, "succumbing" to PTSD is seen as a failure, a weakness, and as evidence of an innate deficiency of the right stuff.
Hoge and associates suggest that the perception of stigmatization can be reduced only by means of concerted outreach — that is, by providing more mental health services in primary care clinics and confidential counseling through employee-assistance programs. The sticking point is skepticism among military personnel that the use of mental health services can remain confidential. Although the soldiers and Marines in the study by Hoge and colleagues were able to acknowledge PTSD-related problems in an anonymous survey, they apparently were afraid to seek assistance for fear that a scarlet P could doom their careers.
Our acknowledgment of the psychiatric costs of war has promoted the establishment of better methods of detecting and treating war-related psychiatric disorders. It is now time to take the next step and provide effective treatment to distressed men and women, along with credible safeguards of confidentiality".
Now you want to see your fellow Marine (yeah) put in a state hospital for his problem - instead of a VAMC with his peers? Thats what your saying Marine?
Another link for you to check out Marine for your devoted unselfish support of your Brother Marine!
Treatment of the Returning Iraq War Veteran
A National Center for PTSD Fact Sheet
Josef I. Ruzek, Ph.D., Erika Curran, M.S.W., Matthew J. Friedman, M.D., Ph.D., Fred D. Gusman, M.S.W., Steven M. Southwick, M.D., Pamela Swales, Ph.D., Robyn D. Walser, Ph.D., Patrician J. Watson, Ph.D., and Julia Whealin, Ph.D.
http://www.ncptsd.va.gov/war/treatment_ret_iraq.html
You think Bridgewater State Hospital is better to treat this Marine? Sounds like you been there Marine! Tell us all some more about Bridgewater and its great treatment for PTSD. Your theory above Marine does not hold sheet - forget the merit! LOL
Yeah, that there is support - at its best Marine. LOL
That there is true "SEMPER FI" spirit - for sure!
No wonder every Marine I ran into at the VAMC (EM) had nothing to say except trash talk about the so called SEMPER FI Bro's above them!
Now I truly understand why Bro' !
As far as sitting in the woods in Vermont doing nothing, protected one (LOL)
You think that if I posted something like that about Texas, to you - you think it would stay on the board Marine?
Odds would definately be against its staying power Marine!
And I truly believe you know that there is fact Bro' !
Hang Tough~
The inner war
August 19, 2005
THE FIRST step in dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder among active-duty troops and veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars is often the most difficult: getting soldiers and Marines to acknowledge that they need help. Troops worry that they will be stigmatized by a diagnosis of PTSD or, if they are heading home, that admission of a problem will slow their return to their families. The US military must take stronger measures to ensure that PTSD is detected in a timely way, and the Department of Veterans Affairs needs to provide more resources to treat veterans who reach out for assistance.
In these wars, as in past ones, the experience of combat takes a toll on many in the form of flashbacks, depression, anxiety attacks, and sleep difficulties. A war like Iraq, in which it is difficult to tell friend from foe, and with civilian casualties virtually inevitable, creates special problems. Between mortar attacks on buildings housing US personnel and the ambushes and bombings of convoys, all troops are vulnerable. According to a 2004 study in The New England Journal of Medicine, one out of six soldiers returning from Iraq has symptoms of major depression, anxiety, or PTSD. Representative Martin Meehan of Lowell, a senior member of the House Armed Services Committee, is convinced that PTSD will be the major medical problem of the Iraq war.
The military is more alert than it was during the Vietnam War to the need to address PTSD and other mental health problems in the field. Yesterday, 83 members of the 883d Medical Company, a combat stress control unit, held a farewell ceremony in South Boston as they headed toward the company's second deployment in Iraq. The 883d began as a malaria-fighting unit in World War II.
Officers of the company, one of nine such units the Army has posted to Iraq, see their task as twofold: helping individual soldiers or Marines and educating commanders in ways to relieve stress among their troops. With individuals, said Colonel John Looper, a psychiatrist at McLean Hospital in civilian life who served in Iraq in 2003, the stress control teams of the 883d help troubled soldiers understand that the reactions they have are ''what happens in a war." Looper, who is not part of this deployment to Iraq, said yesterday that such units are heavily utilized by the military. ''All have been there, are there, or will be there," he said.
Meehan, who spoke at the ceremony, has sponsored legislation that would help to ensure that fewer cases of PTSD go untreated when troops return to the United States. His bill would require that all soldiers returning to civilian life undergo a thorough mental as well as physical examination. The mental health screening now provided is just a form to be filled out. Meehan said that if an examination reveals the need for treatment, it would typically be provided when the soldier is back with his family, so that soldiers need not be concerned that revealing symptoms during an examination would delay their reunions with their loved ones.Continued...
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial.../the_inner_war/
August 19, 2005
THE FIRST step in dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder among active-duty troops and veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars is often the most difficult: getting soldiers and Marines to acknowledge that they need help. Troops worry that they will be stigmatized by a diagnosis of PTSD or, if they are heading home, that admission of a problem will slow their return to their families. The US military must take stronger measures to ensure that PTSD is detected in a timely way, and the Department of Veterans Affairs needs to provide more resources to treat veterans who reach out for assistance.
In these wars, as in past ones, the experience of combat takes a toll on many in the form of flashbacks, depression, anxiety attacks, and sleep difficulties. A war like Iraq, in which it is difficult to tell friend from foe, and with civilian casualties virtually inevitable, creates special problems. Between mortar attacks on buildings housing US personnel and the ambushes and bombings of convoys, all troops are vulnerable. According to a 2004 study in The New England Journal of Medicine, one out of six soldiers returning from Iraq has symptoms of major depression, anxiety, or PTSD. Representative Martin Meehan of Lowell, a senior member of the House Armed Services Committee, is convinced that PTSD will be the major medical problem of the Iraq war.
The military is more alert than it was during the Vietnam War to the need to address PTSD and other mental health problems in the field. Yesterday, 83 members of the 883d Medical Company, a combat stress control unit, held a farewell ceremony in South Boston as they headed toward the company's second deployment in Iraq. The 883d began as a malaria-fighting unit in World War II.
Officers of the company, one of nine such units the Army has posted to Iraq, see their task as twofold: helping individual soldiers or Marines and educating commanders in ways to relieve stress among their troops. With individuals, said Colonel John Looper, a psychiatrist at McLean Hospital in civilian life who served in Iraq in 2003, the stress control teams of the 883d help troubled soldiers understand that the reactions they have are ''what happens in a war." Looper, who is not part of this deployment to Iraq, said yesterday that such units are heavily utilized by the military. ''All have been there, are there, or will be there," he said.
Meehan, who spoke at the ceremony, has sponsored legislation that would help to ensure that fewer cases of PTSD go untreated when troops return to the United States. His bill would require that all soldiers returning to civilian life undergo a thorough mental as well as physical examination. The mental health screening now provided is just a form to be filled out. Meehan said that if an examination reveals the need for treatment, it would typically be provided when the soldier is back with his family, so that soldiers need not be concerned that revealing symptoms during an examination would delay their reunions with their loved ones.Continued...
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial.../the_inner_war/
In two shootings by Iraq vets, war stress blamed
By Angie Wagner and Denise Lavoie, Associated Press Writers | August 20, 2005
One was a skinny 20-year-old discharged from the Army who couldn't shake the piercing rat-a-tat-tat reminders of combat. The other, a decorated Marine family man whose job preparing bodies of U.S. soldiers for burial had caused clammy, restless nights.
Both home from duty in Iraq, they were on opposite ends of the country, but their stories have much in common.
In Las Vegas, Matthew Sepi was on his way to get a beer, but he tucked an assault rifle inside his black trenchcoat just in case. In Lawrence, Mass., Daniel Cotnoir brought out his 12-gauge shotgun. Both pulled the trigger. Now Sepi faces murder and attempted murder charges while Cotnoir is charged with attempted murder.
In the otherwise unrelated cases, family, friends and even law officers are looking to the influence of wartime horrors on the two veterans.
Flashbacks, nightmares, a struggle to reconnect to an old life -- these are all signs of post-traumatic stress disorder that many soldiers suffer from. The Army's surgeon general has said 30 percent of U.S. troops surveyed have developed stress-related mental health problems just months after returning home. A New England Journal of Medicine study found almost 1 in 6 soldiers showing symptoms of mental stress.
Sepi and Cotnoir both reportedly sought help. Some question whether the military is doing enough to aid soldiers.
Just 5-feet-3 and 120 pounds, Matthew Sepi was small but tough and disciplined, a great soldier, his old Army roommate said.
After joining the Army in May 2002, Sepi, a Navajo Indian, left for Iraq in April the following year. Along with his company from Fort Carson, Colo., the specialist was on the front lines, going on missions and raids and doing traffic control.
"Every day you're trying to dodge `winning the lottery,'" said former Army Spc. Shay Price, Sepi's roommate at Fort Carson. "It wasn't a constant battle every day, but you know, it's like a terrorist war. It's very tactical out there. There's no army to fight."
If the grinding war bothered Sepi, he didn't let on. He seemed fine and never mentioned any problems to his colleagues. But that was Sepi's way. He kept his feelings to himself.
"I was with him every day," said former Army Pfc. Justin Nelson, Sepi's "battle buddy." "Being with someone that long you never notice a slow, progressive change. You never know if they're changing or not."
When he was honorably discharged in May, Sepi eventually moved to Las Vegas and struggled to find a job. He worked as a day laborer, but told police that when a pallet fell to the ground, he was so bothered by it he could not function for an hour.
"He was nervous," his sister Juli Sepi said from her Winslow, Ariz., home. "If there were loud noises he would definitely look around and make sure every area was secure. When I was with him, I slammed a door and he kind of was freaking out."Continued...
His mother reportedly said her son sought counseling, but was put on a waiting list, though that could not be confirmed.
Sepi talked to his sister about the rundown neighborhood he lived in, how people would eye him in the alley by his apartment complex.
"He just didn't feel safe," she said.
On July 31, just after 1 a.m., with the temperature near 90 degrees, Sepi picked up his trenchcoat and assault rifle and made his way down the alley to a convenience store. A man and a woman said something to him, but he doesn't remember what, Sepi told police. After drinking a beer, he walked back through the alley and saw the same couple.
They yelled for him to get out of the alley, he told police. What happened next is unclear, but Sepi claims the man fired a gun at him, so he pulled out his rifle and started shooting. In an ambush, that's what he was trained to do, he said.
The woman, 47-year-old Sharon Jackson, was shot dead; 26-year-old Kevin Ratcliff was injured.
"Who did I take fire from?" Sepi asked a detective.
Police found a 9 mm pistol and three bullet casings in the alley, which they believe belonged to Jackson or Ratcliff. They haven't said who they think fired first; Ratcliff has also said he fired in self-defense.
When police caught up to him, Sepi had gone back to his apartment for more ammunition, and loaded it and his rifle into his car.
"You walk around with a weapon in your hand every day, you get kind of accustomed to it," Price said.
Two weeks after the Las Vegas alley shooting, in another place far removed from Iraq, another veteran snapped.
Daniel Cotnoir was just a boy of 5 or 6 when he began working in his father's funeral home, at first dusting chairs in the sitting rooms, then learning how to embalm and eventually mastering restorative techniques.
He joined the Marines later than most. He was 27 when he enlisted, after his wife asked if there was anything he wished he'd done in his life. But Cotnoir quickly excelled, and the younger Marines looked up to him.
"He was very proud to be associated with the other veterans, with the other servicemen and women," said Ben Ivone, a friend who met Cotnoir at bootcamp. "He was just very proud to be called a Marine."
When he shipped off to serve in Iraq, his commanders decided to put Cotnoir's mortuary skills to use.
He helped recover the remains of soldiers blown up by roadside bombs. He picked up body parts from battlefields and trained other Marines to do the same. He even helped cut down the burned bodies of civilian contractors hanging from a bridge in Fallujah -- a scene that horrified the world.
When Cotnoir returned home last October to Lawrence, he went back to working in the funeral home and back to his wife and two daughters. Friends said he seemed a little quieter, but still the same nice guy who helped them plow their driveways and handed out toys at Christmastime to needy children.
He was even named "Marine of the Year" by the Marine Corps Times, a national award.
That was the surface. Cotnoir told longtime friend Shaun Hamilton he suffered from nightmares, shakes and cold sweats.
Sometimes in traffic, he looked at other drivers suspiciously.
"I just get a little jittery, a little nervous," Cotnoir told The Boston Globe in November. "I try to take deep breaths and let it go and remember this is Lawrence. Car bombs don't go off here."
Then, just before 3 a.m. on Aug. 13, Cotnoir pointed a 12-gauge shotgun out his second-floor window and fired a single shot into a crowd of noisy revelers leaving a nightclub and a nearby restaurant. Witnesses said someone had thrown a bottle through Cotnoir's window, shattering the glass, before Cotnoir fired.
Cotnoir, 33, known as a hard-working, straight-laced family man, told police he was afraid for his wife and two daughters, who were asleep in the house. He had complained repeatedly for six years about the noise from the weekend crowds. Last year, a shooting left three bullet holes in the side of his house.
Cotnoir's lawyer said he meant the shot to be a warning to the crowd, but fragments from the blast ricocheted off concrete and struck Lissette Cumba, 15, and Kelvin Castillo, 20. Both have been released from the hospital.
Now Cotnoir's friends and fellow Marines are rallying around him, calling the shooting an obvious case of post-traumatic stress disorder.
"He was the person who went out and picked up the soldiers who got blown up," said Bruce Reynolds, a friend who runs an auto repair shop next to Cotnoir's funeral home. "I have sympathy for him."
Cotnoir sought psychological counseling at a nearby veterans hospital, according to his lawyer, Robert Kelley.
Citing cases like those of Sepi and Cotnoir, along with numerous suicides and a bank robbery by Iraq veterans, some believe they need more help.
U.S. Rep. Martin Meehan, D-Mass., has filed legislation that would require every returning veteran to undergo a thorough psychological and physical examination. Meehan also seeks to increase funding for treatment of veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder.
"If you look at how much money we're spending in Iraq and the increase in the defense budget, surely a small portion of that could be used to take care of these kids coming back from Iraq," Meehan said.
Part of the reason for the mental stress when soldiers return could be the nature of this war, in which U.S. troops aren't fighting an army. Soldiers never know whether a civilian is the enemy. Troops rotate in and out of Iraq and return home to a country less accepting of the war.
"It's one thing to hunker down in one area, but it's another to move around to a new unsecured area all the time," said staff Sgt. Robert Davis, a mental health technician with the Army's 883rd Combat Stress Control Company, a unit that offers psychological counseling to troops on the front lines in Iraq.
"There's anxiety, battle fatigue, lack of sleep and they're miles from home. Any of those is difficult, but all of them together is bad," Davis said.
David Spiegel, a psychiatrist at Stanford University and expert in PTSD, said soldiers are immersed in a brutal environment, then just dumped back home among people who don't understand.
"You have a society not prepared to deal with what these people have been through and done. It isolates them when they come back."
Many are reluctant to seek help. Veterans worry that getting counseling could hurt their careers or alter relationships, said a study last year in the New England Journal of Medicine by the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research.
"A lot of the younger guys won't do that," said National Guard Staff Sgt. Joseph Nelson of Bloomingdale, N.Y. "They think it makes them into wimps."
Nelson, who served in Iraq from February 2004 until last December after he was injured, suffers from PTSD and sees a psychologist once a week even though he's leery of what people think of him.
"People see me coming out of the shrink's office and say, 'What's wrong with him?' I think about it. What would they say? What's going through their minds?"
Even Cotnoir had talked about the stigma attached to asking for help.
"A lot of guys don't want to 'fess up to needing help because they want to get back to civilian life," he told The (Lawrence) Eagle-Tribune newspaper in November, about a month after he returned home.
"Of course, you don't want to be labeled. You don't want to be that guy under a bridge talking to a rock ... because you've seen it in the Vietnam era. And you don't want to be that guy walking around in a flak jacket."
Even one of the victims is supporting Cotnoir.
"We both think he needs help, not jail," Cumba's mother, Naida Cumba, told The Eagle-Tribune.
Sepi's friend Price agreed: "Maybe the system, maybe they need to get on the ball a little faster."
Cotnoir is undergoing a psychiatric evaluation at a state hospital awaiting a Sept. 2 Lawrence District Court appearance. Sepi is in the Clark County, Nev., jail, awaiting an Aug. 26 Justice Court appearance, though prosecutors say they are looking at getting him into counseling.
1 2 3 4 Next
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachus..._stress_blamed/
By Angie Wagner and Denise Lavoie, Associated Press Writers | August 20, 2005
One was a skinny 20-year-old discharged from the Army who couldn't shake the piercing rat-a-tat-tat reminders of combat. The other, a decorated Marine family man whose job preparing bodies of U.S. soldiers for burial had caused clammy, restless nights.
Both home from duty in Iraq, they were on opposite ends of the country, but their stories have much in common.
In Las Vegas, Matthew Sepi was on his way to get a beer, but he tucked an assault rifle inside his black trenchcoat just in case. In Lawrence, Mass., Daniel Cotnoir brought out his 12-gauge shotgun. Both pulled the trigger. Now Sepi faces murder and attempted murder charges while Cotnoir is charged with attempted murder.
In the otherwise unrelated cases, family, friends and even law officers are looking to the influence of wartime horrors on the two veterans.
Flashbacks, nightmares, a struggle to reconnect to an old life -- these are all signs of post-traumatic stress disorder that many soldiers suffer from. The Army's surgeon general has said 30 percent of U.S. troops surveyed have developed stress-related mental health problems just months after returning home. A New England Journal of Medicine study found almost 1 in 6 soldiers showing symptoms of mental stress.
Sepi and Cotnoir both reportedly sought help. Some question whether the military is doing enough to aid soldiers.
Just 5-feet-3 and 120 pounds, Matthew Sepi was small but tough and disciplined, a great soldier, his old Army roommate said.
After joining the Army in May 2002, Sepi, a Navajo Indian, left for Iraq in April the following year. Along with his company from Fort Carson, Colo., the specialist was on the front lines, going on missions and raids and doing traffic control.
"Every day you're trying to dodge `winning the lottery,'" said former Army Spc. Shay Price, Sepi's roommate at Fort Carson. "It wasn't a constant battle every day, but you know, it's like a terrorist war. It's very tactical out there. There's no army to fight."
If the grinding war bothered Sepi, he didn't let on. He seemed fine and never mentioned any problems to his colleagues. But that was Sepi's way. He kept his feelings to himself.
"I was with him every day," said former Army Pfc. Justin Nelson, Sepi's "battle buddy." "Being with someone that long you never notice a slow, progressive change. You never know if they're changing or not."
When he was honorably discharged in May, Sepi eventually moved to Las Vegas and struggled to find a job. He worked as a day laborer, but told police that when a pallet fell to the ground, he was so bothered by it he could not function for an hour.
"He was nervous," his sister Juli Sepi said from her Winslow, Ariz., home. "If there were loud noises he would definitely look around and make sure every area was secure. When I was with him, I slammed a door and he kind of was freaking out."Continued...
His mother reportedly said her son sought counseling, but was put on a waiting list, though that could not be confirmed.
Sepi talked to his sister about the rundown neighborhood he lived in, how people would eye him in the alley by his apartment complex.
"He just didn't feel safe," she said.
On July 31, just after 1 a.m., with the temperature near 90 degrees, Sepi picked up his trenchcoat and assault rifle and made his way down the alley to a convenience store. A man and a woman said something to him, but he doesn't remember what, Sepi told police. After drinking a beer, he walked back through the alley and saw the same couple.
They yelled for him to get out of the alley, he told police. What happened next is unclear, but Sepi claims the man fired a gun at him, so he pulled out his rifle and started shooting. In an ambush, that's what he was trained to do, he said.
The woman, 47-year-old Sharon Jackson, was shot dead; 26-year-old Kevin Ratcliff was injured.
"Who did I take fire from?" Sepi asked a detective.
Police found a 9 mm pistol and three bullet casings in the alley, which they believe belonged to Jackson or Ratcliff. They haven't said who they think fired first; Ratcliff has also said he fired in self-defense.
When police caught up to him, Sepi had gone back to his apartment for more ammunition, and loaded it and his rifle into his car.
"You walk around with a weapon in your hand every day, you get kind of accustomed to it," Price said.
Two weeks after the Las Vegas alley shooting, in another place far removed from Iraq, another veteran snapped.
Daniel Cotnoir was just a boy of 5 or 6 when he began working in his father's funeral home, at first dusting chairs in the sitting rooms, then learning how to embalm and eventually mastering restorative techniques.
He joined the Marines later than most. He was 27 when he enlisted, after his wife asked if there was anything he wished he'd done in his life. But Cotnoir quickly excelled, and the younger Marines looked up to him.
"He was very proud to be associated with the other veterans, with the other servicemen and women," said Ben Ivone, a friend who met Cotnoir at bootcamp. "He was just very proud to be called a Marine."
When he shipped off to serve in Iraq, his commanders decided to put Cotnoir's mortuary skills to use.
He helped recover the remains of soldiers blown up by roadside bombs. He picked up body parts from battlefields and trained other Marines to do the same. He even helped cut down the burned bodies of civilian contractors hanging from a bridge in Fallujah -- a scene that horrified the world.
When Cotnoir returned home last October to Lawrence, he went back to working in the funeral home and back to his wife and two daughters. Friends said he seemed a little quieter, but still the same nice guy who helped them plow their driveways and handed out toys at Christmastime to needy children.
He was even named "Marine of the Year" by the Marine Corps Times, a national award.
That was the surface. Cotnoir told longtime friend Shaun Hamilton he suffered from nightmares, shakes and cold sweats.
Sometimes in traffic, he looked at other drivers suspiciously.
"I just get a little jittery, a little nervous," Cotnoir told The Boston Globe in November. "I try to take deep breaths and let it go and remember this is Lawrence. Car bombs don't go off here."
Then, just before 3 a.m. on Aug. 13, Cotnoir pointed a 12-gauge shotgun out his second-floor window and fired a single shot into a crowd of noisy revelers leaving a nightclub and a nearby restaurant. Witnesses said someone had thrown a bottle through Cotnoir's window, shattering the glass, before Cotnoir fired.
Cotnoir, 33, known as a hard-working, straight-laced family man, told police he was afraid for his wife and two daughters, who were asleep in the house. He had complained repeatedly for six years about the noise from the weekend crowds. Last year, a shooting left three bullet holes in the side of his house.
Cotnoir's lawyer said he meant the shot to be a warning to the crowd, but fragments from the blast ricocheted off concrete and struck Lissette Cumba, 15, and Kelvin Castillo, 20. Both have been released from the hospital.
Now Cotnoir's friends and fellow Marines are rallying around him, calling the shooting an obvious case of post-traumatic stress disorder.
"He was the person who went out and picked up the soldiers who got blown up," said Bruce Reynolds, a friend who runs an auto repair shop next to Cotnoir's funeral home. "I have sympathy for him."
Cotnoir sought psychological counseling at a nearby veterans hospital, according to his lawyer, Robert Kelley.
Citing cases like those of Sepi and Cotnoir, along with numerous suicides and a bank robbery by Iraq veterans, some believe they need more help.
U.S. Rep. Martin Meehan, D-Mass., has filed legislation that would require every returning veteran to undergo a thorough psychological and physical examination. Meehan also seeks to increase funding for treatment of veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder.
"If you look at how much money we're spending in Iraq and the increase in the defense budget, surely a small portion of that could be used to take care of these kids coming back from Iraq," Meehan said.
Part of the reason for the mental stress when soldiers return could be the nature of this war, in which U.S. troops aren't fighting an army. Soldiers never know whether a civilian is the enemy. Troops rotate in and out of Iraq and return home to a country less accepting of the war.
"It's one thing to hunker down in one area, but it's another to move around to a new unsecured area all the time," said staff Sgt. Robert Davis, a mental health technician with the Army's 883rd Combat Stress Control Company, a unit that offers psychological counseling to troops on the front lines in Iraq.
"There's anxiety, battle fatigue, lack of sleep and they're miles from home. Any of those is difficult, but all of them together is bad," Davis said.
David Spiegel, a psychiatrist at Stanford University and expert in PTSD, said soldiers are immersed in a brutal environment, then just dumped back home among people who don't understand.
"You have a society not prepared to deal with what these people have been through and done. It isolates them when they come back."
Many are reluctant to seek help. Veterans worry that getting counseling could hurt their careers or alter relationships, said a study last year in the New England Journal of Medicine by the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research.
"A lot of the younger guys won't do that," said National Guard Staff Sgt. Joseph Nelson of Bloomingdale, N.Y. "They think it makes them into wimps."
Nelson, who served in Iraq from February 2004 until last December after he was injured, suffers from PTSD and sees a psychologist once a week even though he's leery of what people think of him.
"People see me coming out of the shrink's office and say, 'What's wrong with him?' I think about it. What would they say? What's going through their minds?"
Even Cotnoir had talked about the stigma attached to asking for help.
"A lot of guys don't want to 'fess up to needing help because they want to get back to civilian life," he told The (Lawrence) Eagle-Tribune newspaper in November, about a month after he returned home.
"Of course, you don't want to be labeled. You don't want to be that guy under a bridge talking to a rock ... because you've seen it in the Vietnam era. And you don't want to be that guy walking around in a flak jacket."
Even one of the victims is supporting Cotnoir.
"We both think he needs help, not jail," Cumba's mother, Naida Cumba, told The Eagle-Tribune.
Sepi's friend Price agreed: "Maybe the system, maybe they need to get on the ball a little faster."
Cotnoir is undergoing a psychiatric evaluation at a state hospital awaiting a Sept. 2 Lawrence District Court appearance. Sepi is in the Clark County, Nev., jail, awaiting an Aug. 26 Justice Court appearance, though prosecutors say they are looking at getting him into counseling.
1 2 3 4 Next
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachus..._stress_blamed/
Bro' here is an interesting piece I just came across---check this one out ghost!
Home Front Casualties
Murders and suicides by military personnel might be part of the Iraq war toll.
by Rick Anderson
A motorcycle that Renee DiLorenzo refurbished leads her funeral procession.
(Mame Burns / The Bellingham Herald)
When young Marine Renee DiLorenzo of Whatcom County was shot and killed last month, she became an uncounted statistic of war. Same for Kim Denni, killed last year in a place appropriately called Battle Ground. They are among 10 Western Washingtonians who've died in military-related conflicts since the 2003 invasion of Iraq—four in just a two-week period last month.
None of the casualties, however, occurred in Iraq. Like the others before them, the four all died on the home front: DiLorenzo, 18, who'd just signed up for the U.S. Marines, was killed July 28 by boyfriend Saxxon Rech, 20. Rech, who was mysteriously discharged early from the Marines in February, then turned the shotgun on himself. Army Spc. Leslie Frederick Jr., 23, a decorated Fort Lewis soldier who served in Iraq, committed suicide July 26 in Tacoma. And Army Spc. Brandon Bare, 19, also an Iraq vet, stabbed to death his wife, Nabila, 18, at Fort Lewis, military prosecutors allege.
The case of Nabila Bare is at least the third in the past two years involving a local soldier who killed a lover after returning from Iraq; the DiLorenzo/Rech deaths may also qualify. Altogether since 2003, there have been seven homicides and three suicides on Western Washington soil involving active troops or veterans of Iraq, based on an accounting of medical examiner, military, and news reports. Fives wives, a girlfriend, and one child have been slain; four other children have lost one or both parents to death or imprisonment. Three servicemen have committed suicide—two of them after killing their wife or girlfriend. Seven of the deaths are linked to soldiers from Fort Lewis. Four soldiers have been sent to prison, and one awaits trial.
No one can say if the killings can be directly connected to the psychological effects of war. But most involve a risk factor distinctive to the military—armed men trained to kill—and some killers carry the invisible scars of war. Bare, for example, was being treated for a brain injury from an Iraq roadside bomb. Army Reserve Sgt. Matthew Denni, who killed his wife, Kimberly, in Battle Ground, Clark County, apparently suffered from the post-traumatic stress of Iraq combat, convincing a jury to convict him of second-degree rather than first-degree murder. Two weeks ago, Sgt. 1st Class James Pitts was imprisoned for drowning his wife in the bathtub of their Lakewood, Pierce County, home just weeks after returning from Iraq. "I wish I was dead," he told a judge.
Statistics on home-front casualties tend to be anecdotal. Neither the Pentagon nor the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) keeps figures on military-involved stateside homicides or suicides. "It's almost impossible to track," says Steve Robinson, head of the National Gulf War Resource Center in Maryland. "I tracked it last year and found as many as 35 suicides [nationwide], but I am sure it's higher now." Another group, the National Gulf War Service Center, estimates as many as 90 soldiers and vets committed suicide while serving in Iraq or Afghanistan or after returning home—including several at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C.
After four women at North Carolina's Fort Bragg were killed by their military husbands over six weeks in 2002, the Army stepped up mandatory counseling on combat trauma and domestic violence prevention. But the Pentagon's mission is fighting real, not imagined, wars, and VA counseling is underfunded. "They're doing something," says Robinson, "but I don't think it's enough."
The Body Count
July 28, 2005—Marine veteran Saxxon Rech, 20, given an early honorable discharge from the service in February, killed girlfriend Renee DiLorenzo, 18. DiLorenzo, who'd recently enlisted in the Marines, was shot in the back at Rech's family home in Everson, Whatcom County; Rech then turned the shotgun on himself. A motive is unknown. Rech joined the Marine Corps in November 2003, and officials are so far uncertain why he was discharged after just 16 months, or whether he saw combat in Iraq, where Marines from his regiment have been killed in action.
July 26, 2005—Army Spc. Leslie Frederick Jr., 23, stationed at Fort Lewis, shot and killed himself at his South Tacoma apartment. Wounded while serving 15 months in Iraq, Frederick had recently been among the first soldiers to receive the Army's new Combat Action Badge, which represents, says Army Chief of Staff Gen. Peter J. Schoomaker, "the Warrior Ethos." Frederick, according to relatives, suffered psychologically from the stress of combat. His wife also won a divorce and custody of their child six days before his suicide.
July 12, 2005—Army Spc. Brandon Bare, 19, was arrested and later charged with stabbing to death his wife, Nabila Bare, 18, at their Fort Lewis residence. Nabila was hoping to return to high school for her senior year this fall. Brandon Bare, who was wounded by a March roadside bomb explosion in Iraq, had spent about six months in combat with Fort Lewis' second Stryker Brigade and was receiving counseling for behavioral problems. He faces a military trial.
April 21, 2004—Army Sgt. 1st Class James K. Pitts, 32, drowned his wife, Tara Pitts, 28, in the bathtub of their Lakewood home, a few weeks after returning from a year's duty in Iraq. The couple, who had a son, 10, was involved in a domestic dispute after she gave his commander copies of letters revealing Pitts' affair with a fellow soldier in Iraq. Pitts confessed to killing his wife and two weeks ago was sentenced to 20 years for second-degree murder. Pitts' father said after his son returned from Iraq, "All he could talk about was how many people he killed over there and how easy he could do it."
March 18, 2004—Army Reserve Sgt. Matthew Denni, 39, shot his wife, Kimberly Denni, 37, at their home in Battle Ground, Clark County. The couple had a 7-year-old daughter. His wife had just told Dennis she was leaving him for another man when he shot her. Denni, who buried her body in a footlocker, later confessed. He served as a supply sergeant in the Iraq war zone and was accidentally wounded by gunfire. Four months ago, Denni got 20 years for second-degree murder, escaping a first-degree sentence after the jury was given evidence that Denni was affected by post-traumatic stress disorder.
July 17, 2003—Army Spc. Jeremy L. Meyers, 22, and friend, Spc. Christopher R. Baber, 21, both Fort Lewis soldiers, strangled to death Meyers' wife, Jessica Meyers, 21, who had a five-week-old son. She had been lured to a Tacoma site on the bizarre pretense of faking her death because, her husband convinced her, a paramilitary group wanted to kill her. In fact, the soldier hoped to collect a life insurance payoff and run away with his girlfriend, who was 15. Meyers was sentenced to 41 years. Baber got eight years for manslaughter. Neither had served in Iraq.
April 4, 2003—Army Spc. Thomas R. Stroh, 21, strangled his wife, Brittany Stroh, 17, and son Dylan Stroh, 2, at their Fort Lewis home. He later committed suicide driving head-on into a semi truck in Oregon. The Army would reveal little about Stroh's record, insisting he'd been a good soldier. Pierce County detectives, however, learned he was about to be confined to barracks for abusing his wife and being drunk on duty. The Army was unaware of the murders until after they went to clear out Stroh's base belongings. They assumed Brittany and Dylan had departed for parts unknown, then found their bodies hidden in a closet.
http://www.seattleweekly.com/features/0535...ws_soldiers.php
Home Front Casualties
Murders and suicides by military personnel might be part of the Iraq war toll.
by Rick Anderson
A motorcycle that Renee DiLorenzo refurbished leads her funeral procession.
(Mame Burns / The Bellingham Herald)
When young Marine Renee DiLorenzo of Whatcom County was shot and killed last month, she became an uncounted statistic of war. Same for Kim Denni, killed last year in a place appropriately called Battle Ground. They are among 10 Western Washingtonians who've died in military-related conflicts since the 2003 invasion of Iraq—four in just a two-week period last month.
None of the casualties, however, occurred in Iraq. Like the others before them, the four all died on the home front: DiLorenzo, 18, who'd just signed up for the U.S. Marines, was killed July 28 by boyfriend Saxxon Rech, 20. Rech, who was mysteriously discharged early from the Marines in February, then turned the shotgun on himself. Army Spc. Leslie Frederick Jr., 23, a decorated Fort Lewis soldier who served in Iraq, committed suicide July 26 in Tacoma. And Army Spc. Brandon Bare, 19, also an Iraq vet, stabbed to death his wife, Nabila, 18, at Fort Lewis, military prosecutors allege.
The case of Nabila Bare is at least the third in the past two years involving a local soldier who killed a lover after returning from Iraq; the DiLorenzo/Rech deaths may also qualify. Altogether since 2003, there have been seven homicides and three suicides on Western Washington soil involving active troops or veterans of Iraq, based on an accounting of medical examiner, military, and news reports. Fives wives, a girlfriend, and one child have been slain; four other children have lost one or both parents to death or imprisonment. Three servicemen have committed suicide—two of them after killing their wife or girlfriend. Seven of the deaths are linked to soldiers from Fort Lewis. Four soldiers have been sent to prison, and one awaits trial.
No one can say if the killings can be directly connected to the psychological effects of war. But most involve a risk factor distinctive to the military—armed men trained to kill—and some killers carry the invisible scars of war. Bare, for example, was being treated for a brain injury from an Iraq roadside bomb. Army Reserve Sgt. Matthew Denni, who killed his wife, Kimberly, in Battle Ground, Clark County, apparently suffered from the post-traumatic stress of Iraq combat, convincing a jury to convict him of second-degree rather than first-degree murder. Two weeks ago, Sgt. 1st Class James Pitts was imprisoned for drowning his wife in the bathtub of their Lakewood, Pierce County, home just weeks after returning from Iraq. "I wish I was dead," he told a judge.
Statistics on home-front casualties tend to be anecdotal. Neither the Pentagon nor the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) keeps figures on military-involved stateside homicides or suicides. "It's almost impossible to track," says Steve Robinson, head of the National Gulf War Resource Center in Maryland. "I tracked it last year and found as many as 35 suicides [nationwide], but I am sure it's higher now." Another group, the National Gulf War Service Center, estimates as many as 90 soldiers and vets committed suicide while serving in Iraq or Afghanistan or after returning home—including several at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C.
After four women at North Carolina's Fort Bragg were killed by their military husbands over six weeks in 2002, the Army stepped up mandatory counseling on combat trauma and domestic violence prevention. But the Pentagon's mission is fighting real, not imagined, wars, and VA counseling is underfunded. "They're doing something," says Robinson, "but I don't think it's enough."
The Body Count
July 28, 2005—Marine veteran Saxxon Rech, 20, given an early honorable discharge from the service in February, killed girlfriend Renee DiLorenzo, 18. DiLorenzo, who'd recently enlisted in the Marines, was shot in the back at Rech's family home in Everson, Whatcom County; Rech then turned the shotgun on himself. A motive is unknown. Rech joined the Marine Corps in November 2003, and officials are so far uncertain why he was discharged after just 16 months, or whether he saw combat in Iraq, where Marines from his regiment have been killed in action.
July 26, 2005—Army Spc. Leslie Frederick Jr., 23, stationed at Fort Lewis, shot and killed himself at his South Tacoma apartment. Wounded while serving 15 months in Iraq, Frederick had recently been among the first soldiers to receive the Army's new Combat Action Badge, which represents, says Army Chief of Staff Gen. Peter J. Schoomaker, "the Warrior Ethos." Frederick, according to relatives, suffered psychologically from the stress of combat. His wife also won a divorce and custody of their child six days before his suicide.
July 12, 2005—Army Spc. Brandon Bare, 19, was arrested and later charged with stabbing to death his wife, Nabila Bare, 18, at their Fort Lewis residence. Nabila was hoping to return to high school for her senior year this fall. Brandon Bare, who was wounded by a March roadside bomb explosion in Iraq, had spent about six months in combat with Fort Lewis' second Stryker Brigade and was receiving counseling for behavioral problems. He faces a military trial.
April 21, 2004—Army Sgt. 1st Class James K. Pitts, 32, drowned his wife, Tara Pitts, 28, in the bathtub of their Lakewood home, a few weeks after returning from a year's duty in Iraq. The couple, who had a son, 10, was involved in a domestic dispute after she gave his commander copies of letters revealing Pitts' affair with a fellow soldier in Iraq. Pitts confessed to killing his wife and two weeks ago was sentenced to 20 years for second-degree murder. Pitts' father said after his son returned from Iraq, "All he could talk about was how many people he killed over there and how easy he could do it."
March 18, 2004—Army Reserve Sgt. Matthew Denni, 39, shot his wife, Kimberly Denni, 37, at their home in Battle Ground, Clark County. The couple had a 7-year-old daughter. His wife had just told Dennis she was leaving him for another man when he shot her. Denni, who buried her body in a footlocker, later confessed. He served as a supply sergeant in the Iraq war zone and was accidentally wounded by gunfire. Four months ago, Denni got 20 years for second-degree murder, escaping a first-degree sentence after the jury was given evidence that Denni was affected by post-traumatic stress disorder.
July 17, 2003—Army Spc. Jeremy L. Meyers, 22, and friend, Spc. Christopher R. Baber, 21, both Fort Lewis soldiers, strangled to death Meyers' wife, Jessica Meyers, 21, who had a five-week-old son. She had been lured to a Tacoma site on the bizarre pretense of faking her death because, her husband convinced her, a paramilitary group wanted to kill her. In fact, the soldier hoped to collect a life insurance payoff and run away with his girlfriend, who was 15. Meyers was sentenced to 41 years. Baber got eight years for manslaughter. Neither had served in Iraq.
April 4, 2003—Army Spc. Thomas R. Stroh, 21, strangled his wife, Brittany Stroh, 17, and son Dylan Stroh, 2, at their Fort Lewis home. He later committed suicide driving head-on into a semi truck in Oregon. The Army would reveal little about Stroh's record, insisting he'd been a good soldier. Pierce County detectives, however, learned he was about to be confined to barracks for abusing his wife and being drunk on duty. The Army was unaware of the murders until after they went to clear out Stroh's base belongings. They assumed Brittany and Dylan had departed for parts unknown, then found their bodies hidden in a closet.
http://www.seattleweekly.com/features/0535...ws_soldiers.php
Of our squad, 4 of us is on the pills as far as i know, I have night Terrors from time to time, and if not for my family would probably had harmed my self or others.
Our youngest member literaly blew his head of shortly after his return, couldn't speak and went home to his parents, locked himself into his old room and used an M-75 to blow his head of.
His parents and girlfriend told me that he simply could not take it and were afraid of sleeping becourse that act of sleeping frighten him more than anything else.
The bitter irony of it all is that he for the first time had a time whit a psychatrist the same day he killed himself.
Our youngest member literaly blew his head of shortly after his return, couldn't speak and went home to his parents, locked himself into his old room and used an M-75 to blow his head of.
His parents and girlfriend told me that he simply could not take it and were afraid of sleeping becourse that act of sleeping frighten him more than anything else.
The bitter irony of it all is that he for the first time had a time whit a psychatrist the same day he killed himself.
Big natural disasters like the one we are witnessing now, is just as traumatic for many as any battlefield, we ought to remember that.
May god help does poor sods in NO Bush certaintly isn't.
May god help does poor sods in NO Bush certaintly isn't.
QUOTE(Alexander38 @ Sep 1 2005, 02:32 PM)
Big natural disasters like the one we are witnessing now, is just as traumatic for many as any battlefield, we ought to remember that.
I even said this last year when the Florida hurricanes hit. These ppl now experience some of what BushForce has brought to the Middle East as the Iraqis and Afghanistanis all suffer like this on a daily basis.... yr after yr...none stop. Look how upset Americans get when they loose electric for a week... a month... and they are low on food. Many in the Middle East don't get such relief that quick if any at all.... just because the BushCons wanna play war with American lives for profits.
Here's more less support for the returning troops of ours.
http://www.inthesetimes.com/site/main/article/2298/
August 25, 2005
Tests on returning troops suggest serious health consequences of depleted uranium use in Iraq
By Dave Lindorff
Gerard Matthew and his daughter Victoria Claudette Matthew.
Gerard Matthew thought he was lucky. He returned from his Iraq tour a year and a half ago alive and in one piece. But after the New York State National Guardsman got home, he learned that a bunkmate, Sgt. Ray Ramos, and a group of N.Y. Guard members from another unit had accepted an offer by the New York Daily News and reporter Juan Gonzalez to be tested for depleted uranium (DU) contamination, and had tested positive.
Matthew, 31, decided that since he’d spent much of his time in Iraq lugging around DU-damaged equipment, he’d better get tested too. It turned out he was the most contaminated of them all.
No one knows how many U.S. soldiers have been contaminated by DU residue. Despite regulations authorizing tests for any military personnel who suspects exposure, the U.S. military is avoiding doing those tests—or delaying them until they are meaningless.
“When we asked to be tested at Ft. Dix, they wrongly told us we didn’t have to worry unless we had DU fragments in our body,” says Matthew. His buddy, Sgt. Ramos, who exhibits symptoms resembling radiation sickness and heavy metal poisoning, adds that at Walter Reed Medical Center he was grilled for hours about why he wanted to be tested and was then branded a troublemaker by his own unit. Matthew says Walter Reed “lost” his sample.
At the war’s start, the United States refused to allow U.N. or other environmental inspectors to test DU levels within Iraq. Now the United Nations won’t even go near Iraq because of security concerns.
“It doesn’t seem right that we are poisoning the places we are supposed to be liberating,” Ramos says.
The Pentagon continues to insist, on the basis of no field evidence, that DU is safe. To date, only some 270 returned troops have been tested for DU contamination by the military and Veterans Affairs. But even those tests, mostly urine samples, are useless 30 days after exposure, because by that time most of the DU has left the body or migrated into bones or organs.
QUOTE(Alexander38 @ Sep 1 2005, 03:37 AM)
Of our squad, 4 of us is on the pills as far as i know, I have night Terrors from time to time, and if not for my family would probably had harmed my self or others.
Our youngest member literaly blew his head of shortly after his return, couldn't speak and went home to his parents, locked himself into his old room and used an M-75 to blow his head of.
His parents and girlfriend told me that he simply could not take it and were afraid of sleeping becourse that act of sleeping frighten him more than anything else.
The bitter irony of it all is that he for the first time had a time whit a psychatrist the same day he killed himself.
Our youngest member literaly blew his head of shortly after his return, couldn't speak and went home to his parents, locked himself into his old room and used an M-75 to blow his head of.
His parents and girlfriend told me that he simply could not take it and were afraid of sleeping becourse that act of sleeping frighten him more than anything else.
The bitter irony of it all is that he for the first time had a time whit a psychatrist the same day he killed himself.
I hear you Alexander, I truly do Bro'!
One of those things Alexander, had to go through that sheet to understand!
Hang Tough Bro'~
Crowding vets out with pork
Saturday, August 27, 2005
Denis Hanley Guest column
Bush administration seeks to discourage PTSD claims approval
The Department of Veterans Affairs' decision to review 72,000 claims of veterans who received total disability status because of post traumatic stress disorder – PTSD – is nothing less than the latest assault against veterans and soldiers by the Bush administration.
The concern that “millions of dollars a year could be involved” is a pitiful excuse considering the $20 billion that our Congress just threw out the window for pork-barrel projects like a $228 million dollar bridge to an island inhabited by 50 people.
The real purpose and intended result is to instill a chilling effect on PTSD claims.
By conservative estimates, up to 35 percent of returning Iraq veterans are already showing symptoms of PTSD.
The idea that the increase in the number of PTSD cases is the result of “education efforts” is a charade and blatantly not true.
One phone call to the PTSD clinic in Waco or Temple would disclose that the increasing number of combat veterans suffering from this life- threatening illness is due to their advancing age. Around age 50, changes in the brain cause the symptoms to sometimes suddenly and drastically appear.
Many veterans suffer acute symptoms all their post-war life, like I have. Unlike me, however, many of them never get a diagnosis until they find their way to a VA PTSD clinic 30 years after the fact.
Nonetheless, the approval for PTSD benefits, and the never-ending appeals, can take anywhere from one to five years before receiving even partial benefits.
Even then, the odds against receiving full disability for PTSD are comparable to your receiving your pension from Enron. It's not a matter of whether you deserve it or even earned it, it's just because there is no money to pay for it.
When you learn about a veteran with PTSD, remember: He went to war and never really came home. Literally, his life ended in combat. They just didn't have the funeral.
Not all war wounds are visible. For many veterans, they would have preferred to die in Vietnam with their buddies rather than endure a lifetime of pain, isolation and anguish that no one except other vets really understands.
Our country called upon men to serve in combat, and they had to fight for their lives. Now in the latter stages of their lives, and at the time of their greatest need, they call upon their country to do nothing more than what was promised before they went to combat. It is unconscionable for us to allow this administration to deny them now.
Denis M. Hanley, Sr. of Whitney is a disabled veteran
http://www.wacotrib.com/opin/content/news/...wachaney27.html
Saturday, August 27, 2005
Denis Hanley Guest column
Bush administration seeks to discourage PTSD claims approval
The Department of Veterans Affairs' decision to review 72,000 claims of veterans who received total disability status because of post traumatic stress disorder – PTSD – is nothing less than the latest assault against veterans and soldiers by the Bush administration.
The concern that “millions of dollars a year could be involved” is a pitiful excuse considering the $20 billion that our Congress just threw out the window for pork-barrel projects like a $228 million dollar bridge to an island inhabited by 50 people.
The real purpose and intended result is to instill a chilling effect on PTSD claims.
By conservative estimates, up to 35 percent of returning Iraq veterans are already showing symptoms of PTSD.
The idea that the increase in the number of PTSD cases is the result of “education efforts” is a charade and blatantly not true.
One phone call to the PTSD clinic in Waco or Temple would disclose that the increasing number of combat veterans suffering from this life- threatening illness is due to their advancing age. Around age 50, changes in the brain cause the symptoms to sometimes suddenly and drastically appear.
Many veterans suffer acute symptoms all their post-war life, like I have. Unlike me, however, many of them never get a diagnosis until they find their way to a VA PTSD clinic 30 years after the fact.
Nonetheless, the approval for PTSD benefits, and the never-ending appeals, can take anywhere from one to five years before receiving even partial benefits.
Even then, the odds against receiving full disability for PTSD are comparable to your receiving your pension from Enron. It's not a matter of whether you deserve it or even earned it, it's just because there is no money to pay for it.
When you learn about a veteran with PTSD, remember: He went to war and never really came home. Literally, his life ended in combat. They just didn't have the funeral.
Not all war wounds are visible. For many veterans, they would have preferred to die in Vietnam with their buddies rather than endure a lifetime of pain, isolation and anguish that no one except other vets really understands.
Our country called upon men to serve in combat, and they had to fight for their lives. Now in the latter stages of their lives, and at the time of their greatest need, they call upon their country to do nothing more than what was promised before they went to combat. It is unconscionable for us to allow this administration to deny them now.
Denis M. Hanley, Sr. of Whitney is a disabled veteran
http://www.wacotrib.com/opin/content/news/...wachaney27.html
http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0208/p02s01-ussc.html
February 08, 2005 edition
Back from Iraq - and suddenly out on the streets
Social service agencies say the number of homeless vets is rising, in part because of high housing costs and gaps in pay.
By Alexandra Marks | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
NEW YORK – Veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts are now showing up in the nation's homeless shelters.
While the numbers are still small, they're steadily rising, and raising alarms in both the homeless and veterans' communities. The concern is that these returning veterans - some of whom can't find jobs after leaving the military, others of whom are still struggling psychologically with the war - may be just the beginning of an influx of new veterans in need. Currently, there are 150,000 troops in Iraq and 16,000 in Afghanistan. More than 130,000 have already served and returned home.
Veterans from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars are coming home to a very different America. While the Iraq war remains controversial, there is almost unanimous support for the soldiers overseas. And in the years since Vietnam, more than 250 nonprofit veterans' service organizations have sprouted up, many of them created by people like Peter Cameron, a Vietnam veteran who is determined that what happened to his fellow soldiers will not happen again.
But he and dozens of other veterans' service providers are concerned by the increasing numbers of new veterans ending up on streets and in shelters.
Part of the reason for these new veterans' struggles is that housing costs have skyrocketed at the same time real wages have remained relatively stable, often putting rental prices out of reach. And for many, there is a gap of months, sometimes years, between when military benefits end and veterans benefits begin.
"We are very much committed to helping veterans coming back from this war," says Mr. Cameron, executive director of Vietnam Veterans of California. "But the [Department of Veterans Affairs] already has needs it can't meet and there's a lot of fear out there that programs are going to be cut even further."
Beyond the yellow ribbons
Both the Veterans Administration and private veterans service organizations are already stretched, providing services for veterans of previous conflicts. For instance, while an estimated 500,000 veterans were homeless at some time during 2004, the VA had the resources to tend to only 100,000 of them.
"You can have all of the yellow ribbons on cars that say 'Support Our Troops' that you want, but it's when they take off the uniform and transition back to civilian life that they need support the most," says Linda Boone, executive director of The National Coalition for Homeless Veterans.
After the Vietnam conflict, it was nine to 12 years before veterans began showing up at homeless shelters in large numbers. In part, that's because the trauma they experienced during combat took time to surface, according to one Vietnam veteran who's now a service provider. Doctors refer to the phenomenon as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
A recent study published by the New England Journal of Medicine found that 15 to 17 percent of Iraq vets meet "the screening criteria for major depression, generalized anxiety, or PTSD." Of those, only 23 to 40 percent are seeking help - in part because so many others fear the stigma of having a mental disorder.
Many veterans' service providers say they're surprised to see so many Iraq veterans needing help so soon.
"This kind of inner city, urban guerrilla warfare that these veterans are facing probably accelerates mental-health problems," says Yogin Ricardo Singh, director of the Homeless Veterans Reintegration Program at BVSJ. "And then there's the soldier's mentality: Asking for help is like saying, 'I've failed a mission.' It's very hard for them to do."
Beyond PTSD and high housing costs, many veterans also face an income void, as they search for new jobs or wait for their veterans benefits to kick in.
When Mr. Noel was discharged in December of 2003, he and his family had been living in base housing in Georgia. Since they were no longer eligible to live there, they began the search for a new home. But Noel had trouble landing a job and the family moved to New York, hoping for help from a family member. Eventually, they split up: Noel's wife and infant child moved in with his sister-in-law, and his twins were sent to relatives in Florida. Noel slept in his car, on the streets, and on friend's couches.
Last spring he was diagnosed with PTSD, and though he's currently in treatment, his disability claim is still being processed. Unable to keep a job so far, he's had no steady income, although an anonymous donor provided money for him to take an apartment last week. He expects his family to join him soon.
February 08, 2005 edition
Back from Iraq - and suddenly out on the streets
Social service agencies say the number of homeless vets is rising, in part because of high housing costs and gaps in pay.
By Alexandra Marks | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
NEW YORK – Veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts are now showing up in the nation's homeless shelters.
While the numbers are still small, they're steadily rising, and raising alarms in both the homeless and veterans' communities. The concern is that these returning veterans - some of whom can't find jobs after leaving the military, others of whom are still struggling psychologically with the war - may be just the beginning of an influx of new veterans in need. Currently, there are 150,000 troops in Iraq and 16,000 in Afghanistan. More than 130,000 have already served and returned home.
Veterans from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars are coming home to a very different America. While the Iraq war remains controversial, there is almost unanimous support for the soldiers overseas. And in the years since Vietnam, more than 250 nonprofit veterans' service organizations have sprouted up, many of them created by people like Peter Cameron, a Vietnam veteran who is determined that what happened to his fellow soldiers will not happen again.
But he and dozens of other veterans' service providers are concerned by the increasing numbers of new veterans ending up on streets and in shelters.
Part of the reason for these new veterans' struggles is that housing costs have skyrocketed at the same time real wages have remained relatively stable, often putting rental prices out of reach. And for many, there is a gap of months, sometimes years, between when military benefits end and veterans benefits begin.
"We are very much committed to helping veterans coming back from this war," says Mr. Cameron, executive director of Vietnam Veterans of California. "But the [Department of Veterans Affairs] already has needs it can't meet and there's a lot of fear out there that programs are going to be cut even further."
Beyond the yellow ribbons
Both the Veterans Administration and private veterans service organizations are already stretched, providing services for veterans of previous conflicts. For instance, while an estimated 500,000 veterans were homeless at some time during 2004, the VA had the resources to tend to only 100,000 of them.
"You can have all of the yellow ribbons on cars that say 'Support Our Troops' that you want, but it's when they take off the uniform and transition back to civilian life that they need support the most," says Linda Boone, executive director of The National Coalition for Homeless Veterans.
After the Vietnam conflict, it was nine to 12 years before veterans began showing up at homeless shelters in large numbers. In part, that's because the trauma they experienced during combat took time to surface, according to one Vietnam veteran who's now a service provider. Doctors refer to the phenomenon as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
A recent study published by the New England Journal of Medicine found that 15 to 17 percent of Iraq vets meet "the screening criteria for major depression, generalized anxiety, or PTSD." Of those, only 23 to 40 percent are seeking help - in part because so many others fear the stigma of having a mental disorder.
Many veterans' service providers say they're surprised to see so many Iraq veterans needing help so soon.
"This kind of inner city, urban guerrilla warfare that these veterans are facing probably accelerates mental-health problems," says Yogin Ricardo Singh, director of the Homeless Veterans Reintegration Program at BVSJ. "And then there's the soldier's mentality: Asking for help is like saying, 'I've failed a mission.' It's very hard for them to do."
Beyond PTSD and high housing costs, many veterans also face an income void, as they search for new jobs or wait for their veterans benefits to kick in.
When Mr. Noel was discharged in December of 2003, he and his family had been living in base housing in Georgia. Since they were no longer eligible to live there, they began the search for a new home. But Noel had trouble landing a job and the family moved to New York, hoping for help from a family member. Eventually, they split up: Noel's wife and infant child moved in with his sister-in-law, and his twins were sent to relatives in Florida. Noel slept in his car, on the streets, and on friend's couches.
Last spring he was diagnosed with PTSD, and though he's currently in treatment, his disability claim is still being processed. Unable to keep a job so far, he's had no steady income, although an anonymous donor provided money for him to take an apartment last week. He expects his family to join him soon.
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