Record High Army Suicides Prompt Action : NPR

A U.S. soldier is now more likely than a civilian to take his own life, and the situation is getting worse, not better. To combat suicides, the Army is taking new steps, such as using an interactive video game in which soldiers role play with an imaginary buddy in crisis. >>>>>Rest Here {along with the audio feed}

Or click this link to bring up their player.

There was another recent report about even civilian workers on military bases have numbers of suicides on the rise, the military structure is broken, the stress, across the board, is extremely high!

And this recent video report:

Military Suicides at a 30-Year High


Study: Communities must do more for vets

If local organizations do not reach out proactively to the Defense and Veterans Affairs departments to become more engaged in treating the veterans returning to their communities, they can expect the veterans’ pain to affect their families, their ability to contribute to society, and even their ability to care for themselves, said Audrey Burnam, senior behavioral scientist at the Rand Corp. think tank.

Burnam said vets returning from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq represent a “historic opportunity” for communities to learn more about PTSD, educate others about the illness and come together to deal with it.

Burnam, who spoke at a Health Affairs Journal panel May 5 in Washington, is the lead author of a new Rand report, “Mental Health Care for Iraq and Afghanistan War Veterans,” that makes a case for a broad reform of services that looks beyond VA.

A Full List From Rand

Military Suicides: Senate Hearing 3.18.09

DoD Addressing Military Suicides

Chairman Ben Nelson (D-NE) is holding a Senate Armed Services Personnel Subcmte. hearing examining suicide prevention programs in each of the armed services. Defense Dept. representatives are discussing areas for improvement of access to mental health care and other initiatives that might help reduce military suicides.

This will bring up their Video Page of the Hearing

LOVE and War

Daniel Zwerdling, of NPR, continues his reporting on the Treatment of our returning Military Troops, you know who they are, maybe, those who those 'Support The Troops' magnetic ribbons, now rarely seen, are meant for. Or the significance of those 'Lapel Flag Pins' the politicians and some others harp about, the politicians who Praised a Coming Invasion of anothers little Country but didn't have the the time, nor will, to do their jobs in Oversite, Funding, and simple Investigation!

There's a formidable group of warriors out there — and they're fighting America's military. Spouses of troops who have come back from the war with serious mental health problems have made it their mission to force the military to give the troops the help they need.

In the process, they've transformed themselves from "the silent ranks," as the military traditionally calls wives, into vocal and effective activists.

Why are these wives, and some husbands, Fighting for what is Due, from a Country that Cheered on an Invasion and Occupation of an Innocent Country and People!

Where are the 'Lapel Flag Pin' wearers, the ones Hired to Represent?

Military Wives Fight Army to Help Husbands

It's left to those who understand their Love for their partners who now are battling the demons inside, brought on by the Death and Destruction of War and Occupation. Partners who cannot wage the battles of their memories by themselves, that Love brings on a strenght and focus to do the Fighting Needed, fighting that should have to be done!

You can Listen to Zwerdlings latest outstanding report from NPR's All Things Considered by clicking on the link which will bring up the NPR Player.

Tammie LeCompte meticulously filed every Army document about Ryan LeCompte in chronological order in binders. Senate aides say these bulging binders helped convince them that Army officials were mistreating her husband.

Tammie, and her husband, two tour Iraq Veteran, are the main subjects of this recent report, but they are the voices of the many who are finding themselves in roles never expected!

Carissa Picard, founder of a national group called Military Spouses for Change, has never met Tammie LeCompte, but she recently launched a Web site {their recent interactive blog} specifically to teach spouses how to pressure the military to give proper care to returning troops with health problems. Picard says Tammie's own battle reflects how wives across the country have transformed themselves into advocates in order to save their own husbands.

Any military/veterans wives, husbands or family members feel free to visit the Blog Link and sign up to use and view, Carissa and the others would Welcome you.

By the time Ryan LeCompte was transferred to Walter Reed Army Hospital in late 2007, he was hardly walking or talking — or even eating on his own. He spent most of his time slumped, staring at the floor.

Click on the link above to listen to how Ryan, through neglect of the Military, VA, and Country, got to the point of this description of what Zwerdling found when visiting Ryan.

Click on the link above that to visit the NPR page to read more and find the backlinks as well.

By late last year, Tammie seemed on the verge of a breakdown. She says she was borrowing money from relatives and friends. She looked and sounded exhausted, as she juggled raising their children and fighting the Army — and serving as a full-time nurse for Ryan. "I've got too many worries," she said at the time, fighting back tears. "I'm worried about my husband. I'm worried about my kids. And there's not 10 of me. I'm only one person."

Eric Hall-Combat PTSD

How one Marine's death is prompting a closer look at PTSD
Charlotte Sun-Herald - Charlotte Harbor,FL,USA
The constant state of alertness began to wear on the young Marine. Becky Hall noticed small differences when he returned in September. Eric would sleep ...

Marine recounts war within
Charlotte Sun-Herald - Charlotte Harbor,FL,USA
Shaughnessy turned to the other Marine and instructed him to provide covering fire. Shaughnessy never met Eric Hall, but he knew what the troubled Marine ...

I did a series on Eric as soon as I caught the report he was missing, when visiting a site where my older sister, and her family, lives. Right till his burial after they found his body in a drainage pipe when he ran off having a 'flashback'of his Iraq Tour!

Still fighting war stress:

VA granting more first-time disability claims to veterans in their 80s than ever before

They beat Hitler, turned back the tide of Japanese imperialism and when the war ended, returned to civilian life to forge careers and raise families while seemingly unfazed by the horrors of combat many witnessed.

As World War II veterans have aged, and reflected on the dreadful experiences of war and carnage, more and more exhibited the symptoms of a malady unheard of when they went off to battle 65 years ago: post traumatic stress disorder.

Download and Listen to Report

Read the rest of the Report Here

Watch a Short Video with Report

This is the face of the war in Iraq

The mind behind it will never be the same.

The Troubled Homecoming Of The Marlboro Marine

Only one face, of the tens of thousands, radically changed by their experiance in a War Of Choice, Choice by those who don't fight them, not Absolutely The Last Resort! In Wars Of Choice most start questioning the Why? of their being ordered there, Survival becomes the 'Nobel Cause', theirs and those around them, and Survival comes with Deep Costs! Once having normal trained minds, absorbing more knowledge and experiances, the Nightmares of Death and Destruction take over, haughting many for the rest of their lives!

This happens in All wars, to Military Personal sent into anothers Country and to the Citizens of that Country either fighting the invaders or innocents trying to exist in the carnage growing daily, especially to the children! But Wars Of Choice brings on the True Trauma much faster and deeper!

Blake Miller can't stand cats. He didn't always hate them, but that was before Iraq; before he fought in the battle of Fallujah; before the first enemy soldier Miller killed lay rotting in the street for three days, his remains picked over by a hungry cat that had crawled inside the dead Iraqi's hollowed-out chest. Miller's life divides like that, into then and now. Before November 9th, 2004.

You can use another face, not as traveled around the World as the early photo of Blake and seen by millions, but of a recent Tragedy of a Marine haunted by the Nightmares of his War experiances.

This is Eric Hall who apparently, while visiting a relative, had an Extreme Flashback, a flashback similar to others he's had since returning from his service in Iraq, only this one ended Tragically as his body was finally discovered some fifty feet in a drain pipe, not far from where he left his running motorcycle in the middle of a street, by a Tunnel Rat of our 'Nam War Of Choice. Veterans joined Erics family members, friends, and others, searching for him for a couple of weeks before finally finding his body.

Eric's tragedy wasn't a National Story, at first, and has only received scant coverage since it broke and finalized with his burial, than like almost all stories disappears from the countries conscious, a country that sent him, and thousands of others over and over and Still Do, into a War Of Choice and Occupations.

I only found it visiting a site that covers an area where I have a sister, and her family, living in Florida. Than I followed the story till it's tragic end and the burial of this Marine, Eric Hall. You can find more of the reports I posted Here, Here, Here, Here and finally Here.

Two more reports have surfaced since Erics death, Eric Hall death ruled "undetermined" and Motorcycle club helps with inappropriate bill for diseased veteran

News of an unpaid bill for a towed motorcycle at a memorial service in Florida for a former marine was enough for the Vietnam Brotherhood to step in and help out.

The captain of the honor guard for the Vietnam Brotherhood, Donald Pedriali was at the memorial service for a former Marine when he learned the young man's family faced a $232 bill for towing the deceased's motorcycle from the intersection near where he died.

Rolling Stone magazine has an indepth report, link above, for it's April '08 issue now up on it's site, about what Blake, and other Veterans, of the past Conflicts to the present Conflicts are going through as they have been completely changed from what they once were and now exist trying to Survive, as they did in the Conflicts, fighting the battles, that were the reality they experianced, in their minds. As the Nation that sent them into Invasion and Occupation almost totally Ignores what it has done to them and the Countries Invaded and Occupied!

Miller's nightmares, insomnia, heightened alertness, self-imposed isolation and persistent recollections of his seven months in Iraq are all classic symptoms of PTSD, an anxiety disorder that results from exposure to an event so psychically frightening that the aftershocks continue for months or even years. Studies estimate that as many as 500,000 troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan will suffer from some form of psychological injury, with PTSD being the most common. Miller hasn't been to a doctor in over a year, and, like so many vets, he seems to have fallen off the government's radar. He tried the abundance of medications — antidepressants and anti-anxiety meds, mostly — that the Veterans Administration has sent him, but they only exacerbated his nightmares, jitters and apathy. And therapy is hard to get in places like Jonancy: For a while, he tried living in West Virginia to be near a PTSD specialist, but he missed his familiar surroundings and moved back home. Besides, the VA bureaucracy is hell for anyone to navigate, let alone a guy who feels like he could snap at any moment.

"The military makes it hard for these guys to get help," says Rep. Bob Filner, chairman of the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs. "We're letting ticking time bombs out into society. Suicides are increasing among vets, and many of those with PTSD have felony convictions. The VA and the Department of Defense won't acknowledge the incredible size of the problem, and it's yet another indictment of the war we're fighting and how we deal with these fighters."

Like many disabled vets, Miller feels betrayed by the military, neglected by the VA and misunderstood by pretty much everyone else. "People hear 'PTSD' and they think that means you're crazy," he says. "My aunt tells her kids, 'Don't go around Blake. He might flip out and shoot you.'"

The Blame doesn't only lie with the Military nor any other Government Agency, it Lies Straight In The Laps Of This Entire Nation!

A Nation of Apathy and Denial, placing same into leadership positions that Readily Back using others to show how tough it thinks it is!

Boss, whose speech has grown progressively more slurred, demands his turn, and he takes us through a country breakup song called "Left Side of the Bed." Miller makes an exaggerated sobbing sound as Boss gets to the end, and then busts up laughing. For an instant, he seems genuinely happy. He even hints that, over the past several months, things have felt a little less bleak. "I used to believe that I was gonna be just like Boss — the old vet that everyone is afraid of, who just wants to crawl in a hole and disappear," he tells me. "That's the way I felt when I first came back. But Bodean and Lita really keep me out of it."

Sitting next to each other, Miller and Lita talk about their struggles, often completing each other's sentences. "I just want people to understand what PTSD is," Miller says. "It's not that you're a wack job who needs a straitjacket. It's just that you have thoughts not exactly on the level . . ."

"And you can't stop them," Lita adds.

"Vietnam, Vietnam, Vietnam," Boss mutters, almost entranced.

Even more than wanting to be understood, Miller wants vets suffering from mental injuries to receive the same honor awarded to those with physical wounds: the Purple Heart. Currently, veterans receive the medal only if they have endured bodily harm during battle. "What's the difference between going into a combat zone and being injured physically versus being injured mentally?" Miller says. "One gives you a visible scar and the other doesn't. Imagine how you would feel to be completely whole and not have the mind to function — just locked inside a hell you can't escape."

Educate Yourselves, for many that surround you suffer the ravages of PTSD, not Combat PTSD but their own nightmares from tragic events in their own lives, happening in their childhoods or adult lives, Trauma's that change them forever and haught their conscious, they do so mostly In Silence!

When a Nation, especially with a powerful military machine, spending obscene amounts of it's wealth on, never questioning exactly where that money goes, looks at the option of War, right next to it being An Option Of Absolute Last Resort the four letters PTSD should not follow but be placed Right Next To or Spoken in the Same Sentence!

This is The Face

Of those who Cheer On Wars Of Choice and how they feel about those they send, Spitting not only on the Decorated Brother of my Service In but Any and All after they Return:

Don't Forget This Face, It Represents This Nation!!!

A Hat Tip to Ilona Meagher, a tireless civilian advocate, never experiancing Combat Trauma, who had the link at her site. I might have caught it at some point but a visit there gave me the headsup and trip over to read, As You Should.

And so from the spectre of the summer soldier who shrinks from the hard truths and his country's crises, comes the Winter Soldier who will not look away.

97 percent of U.S. deaths in Iraq have occurred after George W. Bush declared an end to "major combat."
Mission Accomplished

Army Asked to Probe Duty Standards

Yesterday, 3-07-08, I quickly posted this about a Breaking story on Redeployment of injured, physically and mentally, Iraq and Afgan Vets.

I'm bringing an update to that post hopefully as a way to place preasure on the Pentagon and Congress to carry through with Spec. Bryan Currie, 21, of Charleston, S.C. request, through the Army legal channels, for the Court of Inquiry to investigate top generals at Fort Carson; Fort Drum, N.Y.; and Fort Hood, Texas.

Also hoping that others, reading this, don't let this, or any of the many reports on Military/Veterans care that have finally surfaced and continue to do so, slip away. Pass any or all information to others, contact your Representatives, they work for you, and have them contact the Pentagon. In this primary season Contact first the Presidential Candidates, especially John McCain - Veteran, and tell them you want these reports addressed. Second contact your reps, especially if you have a republican? that was in Congress in the leadup to the Afganistan and Iraq Invasions, Demand answers as to Why Military/Veterans care wasn't Front and Center, Top of the List, in their Desire to send Troops into Harms Way. Forget about contacting the White House, we know how they would reply.

It wasn't that long ago, and most of them are old enough to remember, what Veterans from another Failed U.S. Foreign Policy went through on their return and many still are fighting the systems this Country has set in place through it's lawmakers, Systems and Agencies that should be the Tops, Bar None, in the World, what with our wealth and thirst for Wars of Choice!

More of the Lessons not learned from those Failed Destructive Policies of that time!

Currie, who was injured in Afghanistan by a blast from a roadside bomb, recovered from his physical injuries but suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder severe enough that an Army doctor wrote "cannot deploy" in his physical profile. But he was ordered back to combat anyway.

He went AWOL, the only option left to him, but he's coming out to Help himself and his Fellow Military Brothers and Sisters go up against a Military and Country that show they care Little about those they send to War! For that's what the answer to a question asked, by a 'Gold Star Mother', to the president, of his statement as to the 'Noble Cause'. In Conflicts/Wars of choice it isn't for Country and most certainly not for defending the National Security, on that point it just gives credence to those who've already come to hate us for our policies and increases their numbers for the truths we are showing, what we really are, not what we say we are!

The 'Noble Cause' is protecting ones self in any battle, but more importantly Protecting those you are serving with, be it on the battle fields of conflicts or battling the agencies you are supposed to be fighting for when one Serves their Country!

I quickly gave a few other examples of this Army Policy, here's a few more, if you didn't read yesterdays nor visited the link:

An unnamed Fort Carson soldier who was deployed from Cedar Springs psychiatric hospital in Colorado Springs before he could finish a 28-day treatment program for alcoholism. An Army e-mail, dated Dec. 14, 2007, shows the soldier was taking psychiatric medications, pending a diagnosis of bipolar disorder, "but that information was not passed on" before he was discharged.

Staff Sgt. Chad Barrett, 35, a Fort Carson soldier from Saltville, Va., who died in Iraq on Feb. 2. The Army is investigating the cause of his death.
"He allegedly was found not deployable by military medical personnel, but he was deployed anyway and reportedly committed suicide in Iraq in February 2008," the request says.
Barrett's wife, Shelby, who lives in Fountain, said Thursday that she does not believe her husband killed himself. She said she believes he died of a heart-related ailment, a condition that runs in his family.

As I posted yesterday, the News Conferance scheduled was probably going to be at the Differant Drummer Cafe in Watertown NY, it was.

Here's a short report on that News Conferance

"There was no care everywhere I looked. There was a lot of hazing from higher-ups. People that should be there to help platoon sergeants and stuff were just not there or didn't care," said Spec Bryan Currie, 10th Mountain Division.

There's also a Video Report from the Press Converance

Watching the Video, at the end, the camera shoots to Bryans hand, which is holding his wifes, or girlfriends, hand. Their hands are Shaking, and why, because this Country is putting this Man into the uncharted waters of More Trauma, after already living with the Trauma's of War, he never thought he needed to go, to Fight the Battle for the Support that should be a given, and she has joined him in these New Battles with her Love and Support, Where's The Country!!

For those wanting to post up the Video, I have downloaded it already and placed it Here - Blip TV and Here - Google Video as well as Here - Live Video

Recently I put up a couple of posts about "Supporting The Troops", { the links will lead to my site } here and here. In the second one, before even writing about what that means, I visited a few sites of those groups, Veterans sites, that Loudly Voice their Support and are the Only True Patriots That Do.

This is what one finds in their visits of first the Premeir Veterans Organizations:

The American Legion

The American Legion was chartered by Congress in 1919 as a patriotic, war-time veterans organization, devoted to mutual helpfulness. It is a not-for-profit community-service organization which now numbers nearly 3 million members, men and women, in nearly 15,000 American Legion posts worldwide.

A quick search of their site finds extremely little, to none, of the Outrage this Huge Premier Veterans Group should be expressing about the reports that have finally been reaching the main stream, Us and Military Veterans about the preparation, in the leadup, and still unresolved, Care of this Generations Combat Veterans of Multitude Tours in Two Combat Theaters!

Not only that but the Almost Complete Silence as these reports come forward, nary, to absolutely none, a word from their Media Reps to the Public!

Their most recent post covers their support of American Legion Commander to Congress: Pass Surveillance Law Now.

How quickly many forget, if they ever spoke or read their Oath:

I, (name), do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. (So help me God.)

They have a new video on their front page, but in the previous visit the video was about the want for pasage of a new Immigration Law. I would suggest to the 'Legion' they visit the memorial lists, of the present combat KIA's, and read the names. And with a little searching they can find out how many were Non-Citizens, of this Country, when they were Killed, with promises of becoming a Citizen of the Country They Are Serving! Than start thinking More Clearly about the Spin on Immigration and Service from those Born Into Citizenship!

The other Premier Veterans Group the Veterans of Foreign Wars is much better on their concern and voices as to the returning Combat Veterans, at least on their site as well as in their magazine. But Where Is The Leadership and their Media Voices in showing their Outrage and Disgust, once again, as each of these reports are serfacing into the main stream! I don't Hear it nor See It, I'm left, like the rest of us Veterans and Citizens of this Country, in Conflicts, to Search It Out, that's a Disgrace!!

If one reads their thoughts, and you read between the lines, you come away feeling there really isn't any Outrage just the use of words to satisfy what they are supposed to stand for but really don't!

No wonder many of us 'Nam Vets never joined their ranks.

That was one reason for me.

Here's another group, with a very noble cause under their banner POW's, Rolling Thunder, which many, like myself, thought they were really concerned with, untill they took 'The Wall' and their Rethoric in front of Political and that's how they approach the subject of the POW/MIA's and other Military/Veterans Issues, as they do with the present Military/Veterans Care issues and reports as well as the legislation, which is the reason many Veterans don't Participate with this group nor, what was once, a Very Noble Action, the Memorial Day Ceremonies in Washington, now tinged with Political Rethoric. Those that Serve don't do their Service for Political Ideology they do so for Country and All who inhabit same!

Many who ride with Rolling Thunder aren't Veterans, that's not a problem for those who aren't but Truely Support Non-Partison Non-Political Rethoric on issues important to the Military and Veterans. The ones who wear the Military Insignia's and try and act as Veterans but Never Served are the ones I have a Huge Problem With!

Another, we will be hearing mentioned in the coming weeks, leading up to the 5th anniversary of the start of the Iraq Invasion/Occupation Quagmire will be a new group, started well after the Invasion of Iraq, and made up of mostly Non-Military/Veterans but with a very Military/Patriotic sounding name Gathering of Eagles which on their front page they have a new post for a call to action, on the recent bombing of the recruiters station in New York with this statement:

We at GOE are therefore, calling all Eagles and supporters in the Northeast to join us as we stand in support of the troops stationed there. We will gather at 1230hrs until 1600hrs, this Saturday, 8 March in Times Square to serve notice that our troops do not cut and run, and neither do we.

Now I won't bore you with their posts on 'moonbats' and their imagined victories against 'code pink' or 'Gold Star Fathers' {not mentioned in my travels around their sites}, or Real Veterans Groups as they protect the Memorials of this Countries Wars, from the Rumours of Damage to be done to, guess where those Rumours originate {ahhhhh Folks we know how they start and by whom}, you can visit and read for yourselves.

But I will point out, there is Extremely Little to None, mention of Outrage on how our Returning Combat Veterans, of Multiple Tours in Two Theaters, are being treated, what with All The Reports, seems they're more concerned with keeping the Troops in these Theaters so they don't Cut and Run just like themselves, though their not even Close to their fears and enemies!

Why do I say we'll be hearing more from them, well their in planning for Winter Soldier II, you see like Winter Soldier I this is one of those fringe groups, none have been In-Theater, or at least I haven't seen any Iraq/Afgan Vets with those I've observed, who Actually Know who is Really a Combat Vet and Exactly what they saw or experinced, they have the Real Answers, not those testifying!

On March 15, 2008, Gathering of Eagles, in coordination with Move America Forward, Freedom’s Watch, The Band of Mothers, Vets for Freedom, DC Protest Warrior, Eagles Up, Free Republic, New England Warrior and rank and file patriotic Americans, will come together to Support Our Troops and their in-theater commander, General David Petraeus.
Under the banner AMERICANS STANDING UP, we will gather to face down the associated groups who are against everything we hold dear. We will stand united, wave Old Glory, and remind them that they speak neither for us nor for most Americans. We encourage you all to join us in Washington, DC . It is time to once again take back the streets and remind all those people
in their living rooms that there are people who think like them. It is time to once again remind the nation that our brave volunteers in uniform have earned our support. The Surge is working. The tide has turned. I promised some time ago to do everything in my power to BUY THE TROOPS SOME TIME TO WIN. I will stand and support them, come what may, and I look forward to seeing you, my brothers and sisters, again.

They had a post up, recently, about someone having Proof that those Testifying at 'Winter Soldier II' weren't Iraq/Afgan Vets, ought to be interesting to see this Proof, certainly didn't come from the DoD, like the 'Proof' from 'Winter Soldier I' not so long ago!

Again, ZIP about the Care Returning Military and Veterans are Receiving, to them they buy the propaganda the 'surge' is working, as Troops are Killed and Maimed, as well as the Iraq People, and they Really want them to Stay so More can get Killed and Maimed1 These are the same types who bitch about the Taxes they pay, not wanting to Really Sacrifice anything Themselves and Especially UpHold the Contracts made to those who join and serve!!

Oh and what about our old friends, who not only disgraced their service, but All us 'Nam Vets Service in Vietnam and Especially us Navy Personal, Swift Vets for Truth now calling themselves 'Swift Vets and POWs for Truth'.
Well it seems They Really Don't Care About The Returning Combat Veterans, on care, or frankly much else. Their lastest news posting comes from Dec 16, 2006, and their front page is still on John Kerry, go figure!!

Why is it the above, few groups, there are others, as well as civilian groups and parties, show so Little Outrage over the reports of how those who Serve are Treated, yet wrap themselves in a Flag, most never Served under or for, and Claim they are the Only Ones Who 'Support The Troops'!!

Why is it Newer Veterans Groups like Iraq and Afganistan Veterans of America, Iraq Veterans Against the War, Vote Vets, Veterans For Common Sense, Veterans For America, and there are others, especially smaller groups of recent veterans, on campuses and elsewhere, have to Visit the Halls of Congress, or Search Out Media Outlets that'll allow them to speak of what should already be a given, a Country Honoring the Contracts of those who Served it!

They follow groups like VVAW - Vietnam Veterans Against the War who not only waged the battle against the failed policies of that Conflict but fought for the Benefits they Deserved and were Promised!

Joining with them, but not so much against the failed policies, was Vietnam Veterans of America, pretty much a-political and non-partison, but a strong fighter for veterans rights, All Veterans!

Later, in the early 80's, Veterans For Peace was born

STATEMENT OF PURPOSE
We, having dutifully served our nation, do hereby affirm our greater responsibility to serve the cause of world peace. To this end we will work, with others
(a) Toward increasing public awareness of the costs of war.
(b) To restrain our government from intervening, overtly and covertly, in the internal affairs of other nations
(c) To end the arms race and to reduce and eventually eliminate nuclear weapons
(d) To seek justice for veterans and victims of war
(e) To abolish war as an instrument of national policy.
To achieve these goals, members of Veterans For Peace pledge to use non-violent means and to maintain an organization that is both democratic and open with the understanding that all members are trusted to act in the best interests of the group for the larger purpose of world peace.

And are extremely strong advocates on Veterans Affairs and All that concerns Veterans!

There, once again, are some other groups out there, who are Strong Veterans Advocates, as well as Individuals, and they Don't Use Politics as their Crutch, they Stand and Fight Freely!

But why does this Country Force it's Veterans to Fight At All, only You can answer that!!

Speaking of Veterans and Military/Veterans Care:

From the VFP Newsletter:

VETERANS MARCH FOR PEACE - ESTABLISH FIELD HOSPITAL IN D.C.
March 19, 2008 - 9 a.m. - at 7th Street NW on the Mall

As many of you may be aware on March 19th, the fifth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, VFP will be marching throughout Washington, DC. But what you may not realize is that we are also setting up a Field Hospital in McPherson Square. The purpose of this action is twofold. First all of the purpose is to bring attention to the problems of Veterans returning home and the lack of care from the VA. Secondly we hope to alert passersby to the reality of the horrors of war. Everyone is encouraged to join us!

Donate

Join Us

Learn More

Soldiers Want Answers, NOW!! {UpDated w/Video}

Has the Army not only lowered it's enlistment qualifications but also ignored the Health and Welfare, because of Physical and Mental health problems of already, once twice three time...., deployed Army Personal?

"Army policies and practices which permit the deployment of medically unfit soldiers."

A day after this: Screening for redeployment passes

A month-long investigation by Fort Carson's inspector general has found that screening processes for soldiers returning to war are sound, according to Maj. Gen. Mark Graham, commanding general at Fort Carson.
The investigation found that a lag in paperwork prompted Fort Carson in January to report that 79 soldiers who were deemed medical "no-gos" at a screening site were deployed, though the actual number was much lower.

Lets just say there should be None, Zero, redeployed into any Theater of Conflict!

The Soldiers come back with this: Soldiers seek deployment probe

Secretary of the Army Pete Geren will be asked today to convene a panel of officers to investigate "Army policies and practices which permit the deployment of medically unfit soldiers."
Spec. Bryan Currie, 21, of Charleston, S.C., will ask Geren to convene a Court of Inquiry — a rarely used administrative fact-finding process — to investigate top generals at Fort Carson; Fort Drum, N.Y.; and Fort Hood, Texas.

A few of the listed Incidents:

• Lotero, a soldier diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder "who was subjected to ridicule and threats for seeking medical attention."

• Master Sgt. Denny Nelson, who had a severe foot injury and was deployed to Kuwait. A physician in Kuwait urged in an e-mail to the brigade surgeon that Nelson be sent back to the United States: "This soldier should NOT have even left CONUS (the U.S.). . . . In his current state, he is not full-mission capable, and in his current condition is a risk to further injury to himself, others and his unit."

There are more at article link

Font and Citizen Soldier, a veterans advocacy group, plan a news conference today in Watertown, N.Y. Copies of the request will be provided to the House Armed Services Committee and the Senate Armed Services Committee, Font said.

The news Conferance will probably be held at The Differant Drummer Cafe in Watertown, home to Fort Drum.

Press Conferance Report

Soldier Files Deployment Probe

You can find this report here

"There was no care everywhere I looked. There was a lot of hazing from higher-ups. People that should be there to help platoon sergeants and stuff were just not there or didn't care," said Spec Bryan Currie, 10th Mountain Division.

While serving in Afghanistan with the 10th Mountain Division Currie was hit by a roadside bomb.

"Sustained a broken jaw, broken cheek bone, lost four teeth, burned my hands. I've got shrapnel wounds, PTSD, lacerated my lip I had to get stitches, my knees were swollen, I couldn't walk the dashboard crushed my legs," said Currie.