Coming Home: The 'Stars and Stripes' Series

Series Overview with Links to the Series Reports Over several months in 2008, Stars and Stripes reporters and photographers traveled to Iraq, Kuwait and Fort Drum, N.Y., chronicling the lives of the “Triple Deuce” — the 2nd Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade, 10th Mountain Division — both soldiers and their families.

As with most deployed units, there was triumph and tragedy. The unit presided over a calming of their area in northern Iraq, but it endured a horrific truck bomb attack that took the life of one of their own and badly wounded others.

Soldiers in the field pressed on.

When they came home, life was not the same. Children had grown and changed. To their babies, they were strangers. Wives had learned to manage with-out them, even while they yearned for their return.

Today and for the next four days, Stripes will tell the story of men sent to war and the people who supported them from thousands of miles away — the longing, the sorrow, the joy of reuniting and the apprehension at what lay ahead.

Stripes’ Nancy Montgomery will continue to follow the men of Triple Deuce and their families as they adjust to a life informed by war.

Day 1: Series overview

The men of Triple Deuce: ‘Closer than brothers’ in the Army family

Day 2: A truck bomb shatters the calm and bonds the brothers anew:

A moment that changed everything

Master sergeant, wife adjust to new roles and the effects of the bombing

Day 3: Three couples describe how they kept their unions strong during the Triple Deuce’s 14 months in Iraq and after the unit came home:

The Bartells

The Holmeses

The Lees

Day 4: The heartache and hope of life after war:

A family broken by war

For the first time, they're one big family

Day 5: The lawyer turns protester, and the medic becomes a dad:

"The smartest guy in Company B"

When home is as scary as war

Series conclusion

PTSD Forum - Fort Drum - Watertown NY - Video and Audio Reports

Back on December 2nd I posted about a Forum on PTSD {this link to my site} on a few important sites.

This Forum took place on December 6th, six days before the House held a Public Hearing on Military Suicides at which Ilona Meagher, of PTSD Combat: Winning the War Within testified.

Well, as promised in another post, there is more to pass on about the Fort Drum - Watertown NY PTSD Forum which you will find below.




The Forum took place at the:

Differant Drummer Cafe - Watertown New York

Our cafe is designed to provide active duty and reserve military personnel and families at Ft. Drum with an inviting, comfortable, and warm place to socialize, listen to music and enjoy other live entertainment. Soldiers will also have access to legal counselling, a bookstore, and a regular program of film showings and discussions on current issues.

Check out all the great upcoming events

And hosting the Forum were:
*Dean Anthony, MSW and Trauma Therapist

*Joe Gregory, Mexico, N Y, father of an Iraq combat vet who was killed after returning home because the VA failed to treat his PTSD.

*Marty Webster, VVAW Natl. Coordinator, and a Vietnam vet who still suffers from PTSD.

*Tod Ensign, attorney for Sgt Brad Gaskins, arrested by Ft Drum police as he sought to return to Ft Drum for mental health care. A two tour Iraq combat vet, Gaskins went AWOL when he was refused treatment for his PTSD.


There is now a Video, a Must See, from the Forum on the Tompkins County & Ithaca Against the War web site put together and provided by Cris McConkey
View the Video

The video shows the four hosts, listed above, giving their opening statements. I haven't tried to contact Cris yet so don't know if a further video will be coming, do know he was one of two camera's filming the forum.



Here is some further coverage

News 10 Now television coverage.
Soldier calls PTSD an “ugly demon” by Amy Ohler

Another report of the event in the National Weekly, “Socialist Worker”
Supporting veterans' rights

Also check out this article that also is running in the current issue of Socialist Worker
The story of the GI coffeehouses


North Country Public Radio also did a four day Series: Post-traumatic Stress Disorder at Fort Drum

PTSD at Drum, pt.1: What the military does 12/11/07

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Last month, 3500 soldiers returned to Fort Drum from a 15-month tour in Iraq. According to Army studies, a quarter of them, or almost one thousand men and women, will bring home mental problems associated with post-traumatic stress disorder. Their depression, anxiety, sleeplessness, and substance abuse, if not properly treated, can deeply scar themselves, their families, and the communities they live in. But study after study finds the military’s mental health system in disarray: a backlog of PTSD-related claims, a shortage of licensed psychologists, a need for an overhaul of the entire system. Today we begin a 4-part series on post-traumatic stress disorder at Fort Drum. We’ll hear from soldiers who feel they’ve been neglected, and we’ll visit a café in Watertown that provides them refuge. But first, David Sommerstein reports on how Fort Drum identifies and treats soldiers for combat-related mental illness.

Resources from the military-run National Center for PTSD

More resources from Iraq Veterans Against the War

PTSD at Ft. Drum, pt.2: A soldier speaks out 12/12/07

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If you hear one complaint from soldiers about how the Army handles post-traumatic stress disorder, it’s about a bureaucracy that doesn’t seem to care. The military officially recognized PTSD as a medical illness almost 30 years ago. Yet soldiers still complain of not getting the help they need. Mountains of paperwork, a backlog of claims, a shortage of licensed psychologists, and a dearth of scientific research all get in the way. In part two of our series on treating PTSD at Fort Drum, David Sommerstein has the story of one soldier who says Fort Drum’s mental health system failed him again and again.

CORRECTION TO ORIGINAL STORY: This story first reported that the military requires three letters from commanders documenting that a soldier was in a traumatic combat situation. A Fort Drum spokesman e-mailed to say that one letter is required. The audio has been changed accordingly.

PTSD at Ft. Drum, pt.3: A cafe for dissent 12/13/07

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Since the war in Iraq began, the U.S. military has come under increasing fire for a mental health system that even top officials acknowledge needs a complete overhaul. Soldiers fighting combat trauma go untreated. Trained psychologists are in short supply. Funding for research into post-traumatic stress disorder is inadequate. Across the country, a growing number of soldiers are taking matters into their own hands. They’re compiling lists of resources for people who need help. And they’re organizing their own group therapy sessions. In part three of our series on PTSD, a café in Watertown has become a refuge for soldiers who are breaking rank and seeking help on their own. David Sommerstein reports.

PTSD, Pt.4: A war trauma counselor 12/14/07

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This week we’ve been reporting on the struggles of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans in getting help with combat trauma. Today we get a window inside their world from one of the North Country’s most respected experts. Nellie Coakley is a Vietnam veteran. She relies on her own experience in her work as a war trauma counselor. She’s worked out the region’s Vet Center since the 1980s. Vet Centers were created to give an alternative to Vietnam vets who didn’t trust the standard VA channels. Coakley counsels an increasing number of Iraq and Afghanistan vets, and she sees a similar mistrust. She says the American public needs to do more to understand post-traumatic stress disorder and help veterans re-enter society. The trouble is, soldiers coming home with PTSD find they can’t leave their warrior training behind. For them, Coakley told David Sommerstein, combat is life-changing.

North Country Public Radio comes to you from: St. Lawrence University, Canton, New York 13617-1475

Arrested AWOL Soldier Needs Your Support

And he's not the only one, nor is he going to be the last!

First I'll give you the jist of the Why Sgt. Brad Gaskins made the news, AWOL and Arrested, the reason for why he was AWOL in the first place.


AWOL soldier seeking treatment arrested

The article title says it all.

SYRACUSE, N.Y. (AP) — A soldier who served two combat tours in Iraq was arrested Wednesday for leaving the Army without permission more than a year ago to seek treatment for post traumatic stress disorder.

Snip

Tod Ensign, an attorney with Citizen Soldier, a GI rights group that is representing Gaskins, said the case is part of a "coming tsunami" of mental health problems involving Iraq and Afghanistan vets.

The "tsunami" is already here and growing, explained further after initial article on the sarge.

Last month, the Veterans Administration said more than 100,000 soldiers were being treated for mental health problems, and half of those specifically for PTSD.

That's only part of the story, those are the numbers, as stated, being treated.

An eight-year Army veteran, Gaskins served two tours in Iraq and a peacekeeping tour in Kosovo. He said his mental health began deteriorating during his second tour in Iraq, which began in June 2005, when his job was to conduct road searches and locate improvised explosive devices.

He said after returning to Fort Drum in February 2006, he began suffering flashbacks and nightmares, headaches, sleeplessness, weight loss and mood swings that took him from depression to irrational rages. Military doctors sent him to the Samaritan Medical Center in Watertown, where he spent two weeks and was diagnosed with PTSD. When he later asked his commanders about returning to Samaritan, they told him it would delay any chance he had at obtaining a medical release, Gaskins said.

At the time, the Fort Drum mental health facility had a staff of a dozen caring for approximately 17,000 troops, Ensign said.

A dozen in staff caring for 17,000, again only part of the story.

PTSD a growing problem for the military

Just as his press conference about his mental illness was coming to an end Sergeant Brad Gaskins was arrested. When Gaskins asked what he did wrong an officer responded "you're a deserter".

Watch Video about Sgt. Brad Gaskins arrest {Windows Media Player}

Now lets get to even more about what is going on here and the Why? Sgt Gaskins took it on himself to go AWOL searching for care not given by the Military, with their Huge Defense Budgets, nor the Society, with their magnetic "Support" ribbons and their Representatives, especially the R's, who didn't forsee this "tsunami" coming. Giving everything wanted to the administration rushing to invasion but giving little to those sent to invade!

Those that follow the reports, on PTSD, aired on NPR Radio, know well those reported by Daniel Zwerdling, well he's got another updated report today, 11-15-07.


Army Dismissals for Mental Health, Misconduct Rise

You can listen to Zwerdlings report at above link.

Here's a few snippets from the site writeup.


All Things Considered, November 15, 2007 ·

New Pentagon figures released to NPR show that since the United States invaded Iraq, officers have kicked out far more troops for having behavior issues that are potentially linked to post-traumatic stress disorder than they did before the war.

Snip


NPR has reported that servicemen and women who come home with serious mental-health problems, such as PTSD, often can't get the medical treatment they need.

And some commanders, in fact, have kicked troubled troops out of the military instead of trying to help them.


Snip

We've heard the reports now Zwerdling has the Army Report, once again Army report, the Marines never got back to him on his request.

Rise in Personality Disorder and Misconduct Dismissals

an Army chart, which NPR recently received, shows that since the United States invaded Iraq:

— Commanders have discharged almost 20 percent more soldiers for "misconduct" than they did in the same period before the war;

— Commanders have discharged more than twice as many soldiers for "drug abuse" (a subset of the "misconduct" category);

— Commanders have discharged almost 40 percent more soldiers for "personality disorder."

In all, the Army has kicked out more than 28,000 soldiers since the war in Iraq began on the grounds of personality disorder and misconduct.

Those statistics "trouble me," says Stephen Xenakis, a psychiatrist and retired brigadier general who used to help run the Army medical system.

"It raises questions," he says. "Are we doing the right thing by the soldiers?"

Behaviors Linked to PTSD

"That's exactly how those problems would show up," Xenakis says. "Drinking, drugs … (the soldiers) medicate themselves. They say 'Why should I keep my uniform all starched and neat when I just buried two of my buddies?'"

Yet, the troops NPR has interviewed had trouble getting intensive medical treatment. Instead, their commanders discharged them for "misconduct," which means the soldiers lost some or all of their military benefits.

Booted out of sight out of mind and back into the society unawares of how troubled some of these military personal are nor how self destructive they may become!

Personality Disorder: 'Deeply Stigmatizing Diagnosis'

Shay says that when the military diagnoses soldiers with personality disorder, it is saying, in effect, that fighting in the war didn't cause their mental health problems.

"It's saying, in essence, you're rotten and have been rotten since childhood," he says.

And those who Support what is going on, and a Congress Unwilling to Stop it nor hold those Responsible for creating, once again, a National Tragedy, are telling these troops the exact same thing!


Avoiding Paying Disability Benefits?

"It troubles me that it appears that sometimes, mental-health professionals are ready to be the willing servants of the command," Shay says.

He worries that military doctors are telling commanders, in effect, "'If you want me to get this kid out quickly, I'll do it. It doesn't matter how much I have to bend my own conscience or bend the facts to do it.'"

It isn't only the mental health professionals, what this Shays says above falls More on the Civilian and Military leadership, and This Whole Damn Country, who Are Totally Responsible for their Apathy and Self Centered Ideologies!!