DAV Virtual March on Washington

The March Has Begun



Welcome to the Virtual March on Washington for Veterans

“Million Claims March.”

The YouTube player here is showing the videos in a certain order, but feel free to jump around by clicking on the video if you want to pick and choose. But every message here contains important information. Also, there are links in several of the video descriptions that you might find informative.

Thank you for marching with us and for standing up for veterans!

Before you proceed, please register for the march. It is free and only asks for your name, e-mail address and ZIP code.

Visit the Virtual March Site for much more information.

This Country needs to finally stand up for those who serve, by helping to bring the Veterans Administration into the 21st Century in the Technology needed, we've been playing catchup for far to long causing higher costs and extreme delays. This isn't only in the Veterans Administration but across the spectrum of the Government Agencies.

The blame doesn't just rest in any Executive Administration nor Congress, though there are some who voice support for us Veterans but Obstruct when the needs are placed into legislation. The blame lies with the Country, the majority that don't serve and don't want to sacrifice anything, that causes more costs and hardships over the years from our Wars of Choice, it's long past time to remedy the countries self created problems.

Lets make sure we keep our representatives to their words "In Our Names", but they are only hired to represent, It's Up To The Country To Really Support!

We have a President and Congress, that Congress has been playing catchup the last couple of years correcting what wasn't done nor even thought about as to the military and veterans, Now that are not only trying to fix what wasn't done in the leadup to and continued occupations of two countries over these past eight years but trying to push the Veterans Agency into the twenty first century and bring not only the care and need for quicker resolution to benefits owed but by doing so bringing the cost of operating the agency down.

Press Release Sept. 14 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/

The following resolution was adopted by the Democratic National Committee on Friday, September 11th, 2009 in Austin, Texas.

Resolution Commending Democrats for Delivering a New Direction for America's Servicemembers, Veterans and Military Families

Submitted by: Christine Pelosi, California; Don Fowler, At-Large/South Carolina; Alice Germond, DNC Secretary/West Virginia; Steven K. Alari, California; Belkis Leong-Hong, At-Large/Maryland; Barbara Easterling, At-Large/Virginia; Ben Jeffers, Louisiana; and James Zogby, At-Large, District of Columbia

WHEREAS, Democrats promised a new direction for America's servicemembers, veterans and military families, who have demonstrated great patriotism and sacrifice in their commitment to keeping us safe and free; and,

WHEREAS, in the first 200 days of the 111th Congress and the Obama administration, Democrats have kept this promise, beginning with the FY 2009 Supplemental Appropriations bill that provides our troops with planning, equipment, and leadership to wind down the Iraq war, changes strategy in Afghanistan; and, makes retroactive payments to over 185,000 service members whose enlistments were involuntarily extended since the 9/11 terrorist attacks; and,

WHEREAS, Democrats directed specific aid to servicemembers, veterans and military families in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act: the stimulus package provided veterans direct and indirect aid, adding up to $15.8 billion. Disabled veterans received direct benefits in the form of one-time payments of $250 and all businesses can now claim a tax credit for 40 percent of the first $6,000 of wages paid to unemployed veterans. In addition, the stimulus included renovation to national cemeteries and veterans medical facilities, grants to build new veterans care

facilities and money to improve VA benefits administration; and,

WHEREAS, Democrats have led the charge to successfully pass and implement the Post-9/11 GI Bill, and recently expanded the Post-9/11 GI bill benefits to cover the full cost of a college education for all children of fallen U.S. servicemembers; and,

WHEREAS, Democrats have passed, and President Obama has signed legislation that provides mental health screenings and more veterans healthcare resources than at any other time in the 77-year history of the Veterans Administration; and,

WHEREAS, House Democrats have passed legislation to strengthen national security by bolstering State Department resources to prevent conflict and failed states around the world; authorizing a 3.4% pay raise for our troops; expanding support for military families such as health care and housing; investing 15% more than 2009 for medical care, benefits claims processors, and facility improvements; and permitting veterans medically retired from active service to receive both military retirement and Veterans Disability Compensation.

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the DNC commends the successful leadership by President Barack Obama and the Democratic Congress to provide a new direction for servicemembers, veterans and military families, and to deliver bipartisan results that make a real difference in their lives, and pledges that Democrats will never waver in our support for our servicemembers, veterans and military families.

SOURCE Democratic National Committee

"Death was all over the place"

For those that Still don't get what War does to a Human Being, and not only those fighting, nor understand the same happens to civilians who experience extreme trauma, like the recent reports about the young girl kidnapped and now found almost two decades later, Read This Short Article!!

Friday August 28, 2009

World War II veteran can finally open up about horrific battle- "Death was all over the place"

John Landry, 85, in the kitchen of his Thetford Township home, Landry fought for the NAVY in WWII as a top turret gunner and as a ground soldier in the battle of Okinawa in Japan. Landry has never talked about his experiences during the battle of Okinawa until recently, when he decided he wanted to tell his story "I didn't talk about the war because I didn't want people to hear about it, " Landry said.

He wasn't even supposed to be there.

John Landry never spoke about the island, the scattered bodies, the smell of death -- but six decades later, nightmares of one of the bloodiest battles of World War II woke him up from his sleep soaked in sweat.

"They were things I could never talk about, but it's time I told it like it was," said Landry, 85, whose buried memories began haunting him after he saw scenes of the Iraq war on television.

"I don't want to leave this world and take it with me."

Snip

"The things that went on on that island are things you never forget," Landry said. "Death was all over the place."

Except for a long time, Landry did manage to push down those memories.

Only recently have the long-blocked scenes started to come back to life.

He can suddenly see mothers clutching babies and leaping off cliffs into the water. He can see the natives fleeing into caves engulfed by fire minutes later from grenades.

"What got me was these people were trying to get away from us, and it was their island," he said. "I hadn't seen the destruction we were doing from the air. Now I'm on land and I'm seeing the bodies, the kids. I could smell burning flesh, which is something if you ever got near it, you never forget."

Snip

The father of five sons said Okinawa scenes have started coming back in bits and pieces, many times through nightmares.

"I'm lost and I can't get to where I want to be," he said of his dreams. "I think it's because I don't want to do what I have to do. I don't want to wake up in a foxhole or in the dirt."

He has finally began sharing with his family the details he had intentionally forgotten.

Many, never having problems with the realities they lived through, burying them deep in their minds, from WWII to Korea to 'Nam, and all between them, to the present past were starting to relive, in their minds,their own experiences long withheld within, as these two occupations started and continued, some right from 9/11, Our Brothers, and those the country ignores!!

D-Day: Another Side of All Wars

Back on the 25th, of last month, for Memorial Day I put up a post to cover an interview about a new book release I caught on NPR's WBUR Here and Now, out of Boston.

While waiting for them to put up the stream link after the show I did some searching, for information on the book as well as some back information on what's covered in same.

Below you will find that post but UpDated, with a few more links and audio discussion, I've found since the posting.

Today is the Celebration for Europe and the United States of D-Day President will address veterans at American cemetery on Omaha Beach, this is not to celebrate but to Remind, and in many cases Instill in everyones minds, there's other sides, long living results, of All Wars Waged and not only for those who serve in them!

********************

The Greatest Generation’s Troubled Homecoming

I had a first hand view, though very young than, and like the rest of the extended family didn't realize it, of what War does to those that serve in them, and you then have to extend that to those that live in where they occur.

I won't go into the details but to say it was an Uncle who was one of my favorites, he was a gifted craftsman but a troubled soul. He was full of life trying to live it that way, than he suddenly snapped! He died alone in the little home he built, more the size of a shed it was supposedly to become, by the lake, shortly before I left Panama and went to 'Nam. There were a couple of other uncles who showed the results of serving in WWII in other ways as well, and like the book and articles, it was just said "They cam back different then how they left.". While in 'Nam I started to understand what he might possibly had been going through, understanding what the rest of the extended family, and his friends, didn't. And probably still do, as I'm the only one of the recent branch of the family, especially my large immediate family, till a couple of younger distant cousins kids served in Gulf War I, that has served in a combat/occupation theater.

Caught a discussion of a new book on NPR's "Here and Now" and did abit of searching for some more information.

Book looks at the effects of combat stress on WWII vets

But there’s something else Gold keeps from the war that you can’t see, not unless you’re with the 88-year-old retired obstetrician in the dark of morning. That’s when his nightmares come — and he’s back in a burning bomber in which two friends were killed, or back in that German prison and starving. That’s when Gold shows his greatest WWII keepsake: post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Actually it comes at other, less private times, too. Take for instance, a meal. “Don’t mess with my food,” he says...........

Technically no one during WWII or immediately after it suffered from PTSD; because it didn’t exist. The disorder wasn’t officially recognized until 1980. So before that, few sought help for something they didn’t have. They just suffered in silence............

Found the above after the discussion and book info linked below.

Memorial Day {this link brings up their player page to listen}

{You can also click here to listen with Real Player or here to listen with Windows Media Player }

A new book paints a devastating picture of life for American veterans returning from war. "Soldier from the War Returning: The Greatest Generation's Troubled Homecoming from World War II" interweaves the stories of three families whose soldiers were, as the phrase goes, never the same after the war, and the effect that had on their families. Author Thomas Childers joins us for a Memorial Day conversation. Childers is professor of history at the University of Pennsylvania.

Book Description:
One of our most enduring national myths surrounds the men and women who fought in the so-called "Good War." The Greatest Generation, we're told by Tom Brokaw and others, fought heroically, then returned to America happy, healthy and well-adjusted. They quickly and cheerfully went on with the business of rebuilding their lives.

In this shocking and hauntingly beautiful book, historian Thomas Childers shatters that myth. He interweaves the intimate story of three families—including his own—with a decades' worth of research to paint an entirely new picture of the war's aftermath. Drawing on government documents, interviews, oral histories and diaries, he reveals that 10,000 veterans a month were being diagnosed with psycho-neurotic disorder (now known as PTSD). Alcoholism, homelessness, and unemployment were rampant, leading to a skyrocketing divorce rate. Many veterans bounced back, but their struggle has been lost in a wave of nostalgia that threatens to undermine a new generation of returning soldiers.

Novelistic in its telling and impeccably researched, Childers's book is a stark reminder that the price of war is unimaginably high. The consequences are human, not just political, and the toll can stretch across generations.

Listening to the discussion the book isn't only about the mental stress of War but also what many returned to especially right after, living conditions and much more.

I than found the following:

Was there more to the man known as ‘town drunk’?

Henry David Thoreau wrote, “Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them.”
One could only guess the unsung songs of Thomas Cecil Berzett when he crawled into the back of a parked Tennison taxicab to sleep off a night of drinking on March 26, 1975, and died...........

The above is the first, apparently, of a two part report about Thomas Cecil Berzett and his life after World War II, the second to be printed tomorrow, 5.26.09.

Earlier this morning I just caught a rather short report, on the top of the hour News, about an Ohio Mental Health Center. Tried to find some more about it as it mentioned soldiers, before the the time of Vietnam and the Finally realization of what we now call PTSD, Post Traumatic Stress. All I could come up with was this short local report.

Service to honor former patient

The Ridges Cemeteries in Athens

There are nearly 2,000 former mental health patients buried at The Ridges Cemeteries in Athens and, as locals do more research, they are finding that some of the men and women buried there were courageous war heroes before entering the Athens Mental Health Center.

Records reveal a number of veterans entered mental hospital post-war.

According to Tom Walker, chairman of the Ridges Cemeteries Committee, the 1,965 former patients buried at The Ridges have graves marked simply by small gravestones with numbers. He said the men and women were buried separately and given a numbered marker............

You have to be a subscriber to view the rest of the above. I do hope that what is found someone will bring out for others to read, and I'm sure similar can be found around this Nation, as well as others, to teach us much more!

And apparently this Athens Mental Health Center has quite a history, as well as being suspected of being haunted. If you do a search of it the web site links that pop up lean in that direction.

The following The Ridges Cemetery Project you can find more information, with links, about this project, along with these two audio discussions:

Click the players below to listen to a one hour Conversations from Studio B interview of NAMI member Tom Walker, by WOUB library archivist Doug McCabe (Oct 2008):

First half hour


Second half hour

Ceremony honors vets, others buried on OU's Ridges

A number of Athens residents gathered at the Ohio University Ridges’ cemeteries on Memorial Day to hold a ceremony in honor of the servicemen and servicewomen buried there.

Since 2005, these ceremonies have been held to honor the many veterans from the Mexican and Civil Wars through the Korean War who never previously received any such recognition.

Ridges Cemeteries Committee chair Tom Walker said the ceremonies the committee has been organizing are for the purpose of dignifying those buried on the Ridges, not just the vets but all 1,965.........

The more we ignore what War does the easier it is to be led into Wars of Choice by those that don't serve in them. We also need to better understand the lasting remnants of, not only for those who fight them but those that live where they take place. Leading to the understanding of what we now call Post Traumatic Stress and that it occurs to many who never serve in Wars but experience extreme Trauma Events in their lives, and live silently or lashing out on others, with the results from those events on their minds and lives.

The Greatest Generation’s Troubled Homecoming {UpDated}

I had a first hand view, though very young than, and like the rest of the extended family didn't realize it, of what War does to those that serve in them, and you then have to extend that to those that live in where they occur.

I won't go into the details but to say it was an Uncle who was one of my favorites, he was a gifted craftsman but a troubled soul. He was full of life trying to live it that way, than he suddenly snapped! He died alone in the little home he built, more the size of a shed it was supposedly to become, by the lake, shortly before I left Panama and went to 'Nam. There were a couple of other uncles who showed the results of serving in WWII in other ways as well, and like the book and articles, it was just said "They cam back different then how they left.". While in 'Nam I started to understand what he might possibly had been going through, understanding what the rest of the extended family, and his friends, didn't. And probably still do, as I'm the only one of the recent branch of the family, especially my large immediate family, till a couple of younger distant cousins kids served in Gulf War I, that has served in a combat/occupation theater.

Caught a discussion of a new book on NPR's "Here and Now" and did abit of searching for some more information.

Book looks at the effects of combat stress on WWII vets

But there’s something else Gold keeps from the war that you can’t see, not unless you’re with the 88-year-old retired obstetrician in the dark of morning. That’s when his nightmares come — and he’s back in a burning bomber in which two friends were killed, or back in that German prison and starving. That’s when Gold shows his greatest WWII keepsake: post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Actually it comes at other, less private times, too. Take for instance, a meal. “Don’t mess with my food,” he says...........

Technically no one during WWII or immediately after it suffered from PTSD; because it didn’t exist. The disorder wasn’t officially recognized until 1980. So before that, few sought help for something they didn’t have. They just suffered in silence............

Found the above after the discussion and book info linked below.

Memorial Day {this link brings up their player page to listen}

{You can also click here to listen with Real Player or here to listen with Windows Media Player }

A new book paints a devastating picture of life for American veterans returning from war. "Soldier from the War Returning: The Greatest Generation's Troubled Homecoming from World War II" interweaves the stories of three families whose soldiers were, as the phrase goes, never the same after the war, and the effect that had on their families. Author Thomas Childers joins us for a Memorial Day conversation. Childers is professor of history at the University of Pennsylvania.

Book Description:
One of our most enduring national myths surrounds the men and women who fought in the so-called "Good War." The Greatest Generation, we're told by Tom Brokaw and others, fought heroically, then returned to America happy, healthy and well-adjusted. They quickly and cheerfully went on with the business of rebuilding their lives.

In this shocking and hauntingly beautiful book, historian Thomas Childers shatters that myth. He interweaves the intimate story of three families—including his own—with a decades' worth of research to paint an entirely new picture of the war's aftermath. Drawing on government documents, interviews, oral histories and diaries, he reveals that 10,000 veterans a month were being diagnosed with psycho-neurotic disorder (now known as PTSD). Alcoholism, homelessness, and unemployment were rampant, leading to a skyrocketing divorce rate. Many veterans bounced back, but their struggle has been lost in a wave of nostalgia that threatens to undermine a new generation of returning soldiers.

Novelistic in its telling and impeccably researched, Childers's book is a stark reminder that the price of war is unimaginably high. The consequences are human, not just political, and the toll can stretch across generations.

Listening to the discussion the book isn't only about the mental stress of War but also what many returned to especially right after, living conditions and much more.

I than found the following:

Was there more to the man known as ‘town drunk’?

Henry David Thoreau wrote, “Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them.”
One could only guess the unsung songs of Thomas Cecil Berzett when he crawled into the back of a parked Tennison taxicab to sleep off a night of drinking on March 26, 1975, and died...........

The above is the first, apparently, of a two part report about Thomas Cecil Berzett and his life after World War II, the second to be printed tomorrow, 5.26.09.

Earlier this morning I just caught a rather short report, on the top of the hour News, about an Ohio Mental Health Center. Tried to find some more about it as it mentioned soldiers, before the the time of Vietnam and the Finally realization of what we now call PTSD, Post Traumatic Stress. All I could come up with was this short local report.

Service to honor former patient

The Ridges Cemeteries in Athens

There are nearly 2,000 former mental health patients buried at The Ridges Cemeteries in Athens and, as locals do more research, they are finding that some of the men and women buried there were courageous war heroes before entering the Athens Mental Health Center.

Records reveal a number of veterans entered mental hospital post-war.

According to Tom Walker, chairman of the Ridges Cemeteries Committee, the 1,965 former patients buried at The Ridges have graves marked simply by small gravestones with numbers. He said the men and women were buried separately and given a numbered marker............

You have to be a subscriber to view the rest of the above. I do hope that what is found someone will bring out for others to read, and I'm sure similar can be found around this Nation, as well as others, to teach us much more!

And apparently this Athens Mental Health Center has quite a history, as well as being suspected of being haunted. If you do a search of it the web site links that pop up lean in that direction.

The following The Ridges Cemetery Project you can find more information, with links, about this project, along with these two audio discussions:

Click the players below to listen to a one hour Conversations from Studio B interview of NAMI member Tom Walker, by WOUB library archivist Doug McCabe (Oct 2008):

First half hour


Second half hour

Ceremony honors vets, others buried on OU's Ridges

A number of Athens residents gathered at the Ohio University Ridges’ cemeteries on Memorial Day to hold a ceremony in honor of the servicemen and servicewomen buried there.

Since 2005, these ceremonies have been held to honor the many veterans from the Mexican and Civil Wars through the Korean War who never previously received any such recognition.

Ridges Cemeteries Committee chair Tom Walker said the ceremonies the committee has been organizing are for the purpose of dignifying those buried on the Ridges, not just the vets but all 1,965.........

The more we ignore what War does the easier it is to be led into Wars of Choice by those that don't serve in them. We also need to better understand the lasting remnants of, not only for those who fight them but those that live where they take place. Leading to the understanding of what we now call Post Traumatic Stress and that it occurs to many who never serve in Wars but experience extreme Trauma Events in their lives, and live silently or lashing out on others, with the results from those events on their minds and lives.

Issue of the Day

From 5.11.09

Fragging!!

Another Deja-Vu 'Nam Hits the Present Occupations!!!

U.S. service member kills 4 fellow troops in Iraq - GI in custody after killing 5 at Iraq ‘stress clinic’
Contrary to earlier reports, military says soldier did not kill self after attack



With a Report from McClatchy on the shooting

From 5.12.09

Baghdad killings reflect U.S. Army stress crisis

The tragedy at Camp Liberty, near Baghdad, where an American soldier shot and killed five U.S. personnel and wounded three others, has been at least six years in the making.......

This, video below, accompanies the above report from UPI and really shows that though the citizens of this country like to cheer on Wars of Choice they still haven't a clue as to how War affects those sent and those living in occupations. As well as traumatic experiences they themselves may live and how that affects them and others. The video is also at site page.



Also From 5.12.09

Father of Soldier in Iraq 'Fratricide' Case Speaks, Reveals Key Details

Referring to the treatment of his son at the stress clinic where the shootings took place, Russell said, “They don’t do the best job of taking care of the soldiers, both in the service and when they get out of the service, we know that. They use them.” He added: “They broke him. He thought his life was over.”

He also confirmed a report that his son was disarmed and sent away from the stress clinic after a “rhubarb” with others there, only to take a gun from a minder and return for the deadly shootout.

The father, of Grayson County, Texas, told KTEN TV, in the raw video posted at the station’s web site, that after the “rhubarb” they put Sgt. Russell “in a vehicle with a guy with a gun, and, well -- they'd trained him to kill -- and he took a gun” and returned to the clinic..........

Watch the Video

Some may find these books very helpful, others should find to be useful in the educational quality of understanding and research, and not only for combat veterans but civilian suffers of:

I Can Still Hear Their Cries, Even In My Sleep: A Journey Into PTSD

Veterans's PTSD Handbook: How to File and Collect on Claims for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

The War Comes Home: Washington's Battle against America's Veterans

Vets Under Siege: How America Deceives and Dishonors Those Who Fight Our Battles

After the War Zone: A Practical Guide for Returning Troops and Their Families

Life After Deployment: Military families share reunion stories and advice

Moving A Nation to Care: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and America's Returning Troops

A Short List of Reading

That some may find very helpful, others should find to be useful in the educational quality of understanding and research, and not only for combat veterans but civilian suffers of:

I Can Still Hear Their Cries, Even In My Sleep: A Journey Into PTSD

Veterans's PTSD Handbook: How to File and Collect on Claims for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

The War Comes Home: Washington's Battle against America's Veterans

Vets Under Siege: How America Deceives and Dishonors Those Who Fight Our Battles

After the War Zone: A Practical Guide for Returning Troops and Their Families

Life After Deployment: Military families share reunion stories and advice

Moving A Nation to Care: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and America's Returning Troops

VA: A Bureaucratic Mess, DeJa-Vu

We've seen this before, especially us "Nam Vets as we returned, tens of thousands, and those needing and seeking the care from their service in a war became backlogged, or just plain denied. Many of us veterans were trying to be heard, over the rising drum beat of war, of what was coming especially if invading a country that did absolutely nothing to deserve that invasion and occupation. We were one of those groups politically labeled, by our hired administration, as a 'focus group' that they didn't listen to. But it wasn't only the administration not listening it was the greater majority of this country, they don't mind spending billions upon billions upon billions........... on the war machine and waging war with same, but when the soldiers start returning and the system gets overwhelmed the country doesn't want to hear anything about that, or if they hear they most certainly don't want to pay..

The Veterans Administration has really never been perfect, nothing is, but in a once supposedly rich society it always could have been better, much better. During the years of basically no conflicts it ran fairly well but than the country got what it deserved, for eight years a totally incompetent administration and congress, the proof has been witnessed over and over, more than willing to show the countries might and in doing so, with the drums of war beating louder and louder, never once mentioning nor acting on enhancing the agencies that will be taking care of not only the active wounded but the veterans of two invasions and occupations even as the problems started surfacing. It wasn't only the political leadership but also the country as a whole, No Sacrifice!

Under the leadership of the previous Commander in Chief of the Military Forces, the President, with a willing Congress and the Country, more and more is coming to the surface of the total incompetence and apathy!

Veterans Department A Bureaucratic Mess

CBS Evening News: Missing Files, Unopened Mail, Deliberately Misdated Forms Revealed By Inspector General

Iraq War veteran Jason Scott is one of thousands who have endured disastrously poor health care coverage from the Veterans Affairs Administration, which lost his health files, and, according to an inspector general's audit, is sitting on 16,000 pieces of unopened mail in a single office.

All too often, our veterans feel like they're David battling Goliath, when dealing with the Department of Veterans Affairs.

In the latest outrage involving the VA, it turns out thousands of claims for benefits weren't even opened, reports CBS News correspondent David Martin.

Jason Scott is one of nearly 350,000 veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan who depend on the VA for health care. When CBS News met him two years ago, he was already worrying about what would happen after he was discharged from the army.


Watch CBS Videos Online

Joint Hearing of Oversight and DAMA Subcommittees “Document Tampering and Mishandling at the VBA”

DAV calls for prosecution of VA employees who fraudulently withhold benefits or destroy records: "The message must be clear...you will go to jail."

House Subcommittees Probe Mishandling of Veterans Disability Claims

“In the last few months, we have tracked a problem brought to our attention with misdating of claims information at the New York Regional Office,” said Chairman Hall. “This situation was a clear attempt by managers to fudge performance numbers. The incorrectly entered data made the regional office look like it took fewer days to process claims than in actuality – yet still beyond acceptable levels to me, or to most veterans. Although veterans were not directly harmed by this practice, since the effective date of a claim was logged correctly in a different system, perpetrators of this kind of dishonestly impact the entire veteran community’s ability to trust the institution charged with its welfare. This is shameful!”

National Council on Disability Says More Needs to be Done for Service Members and Veterans with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Traumatic Brain Injury

WASHINGTON—The National Council on Disability (NCD) today released a report recommending changes in the continuum of health care provided to service members and veterans with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI).

The report, Invisible Wounds: Serving Service Members and Veterans with PTSD and TBI - doc, addresses those concerns and makes 10 recommendations.

Unopened claims letters hidden at VA offices

A new report about Veterans Affairs Department employees squirreling away tens of thousands of unopened letters related to benefits claims is sparking fresh concerns that veterans and their survivors are being cheated out of money.
VA officials acknowledge further credibility problems based on a new report of a previously undisclosed 2007 incident in which workers at a Detroit regional office turned in 16,000 pieces of unprocessed mail and 717 documents turned up in New York in December during amnesty periods in which workers were promised no one would be penalized.
“Veterans have lost trust in VA,” Michael Walcoff, VA’s under secretary for benefits, said at a hearing Tuesday. “That loss of trust is understandable, and winning back that trust will not be easy.”

Kathryn Witt of Gold Star Wives of America said survivors trying to receive VA benefits have long complained about problems getting accurate information and missing claims. “When they call to check on the status of the claim, they are often told that the VA has no record of their claim and that they should resubmit their paperwork,” she said.
In one case, a woman claimed she had to submit paperwork to VA three times to prove she was married and had three children, Witt said.
And having to resubmit the same claim, she added, does nothing to reduce the backlog that already forces survivors to wait six to nine months for simple claims to be approved.
The Congressional Hearing Yesterday, brings up the video player.

Wartime brain injuries could reach 360,000

About 20 percent of troops suffer head trauma, Defense Dept. doctors say

WASHINGTON - The number of U.S. troops who have suffered wartime brain injuries may be as high as 360,000 and could cast more attention on such injuries among civilians, Defense Department doctors said Wednesday.

The estimate of the number injured - the vast majority of them suffering concussions - represents 20 percent of the roughly 1.8 million men and women who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan, where blast injuries are common from roadside bombs and other explosives, the doctors said.

"Invisible Wounds" a Documentary and Michelle Obama

Yesterday as I was searching out a few things I came across a recent documentary that was up on the UPI site in three parts, not long but another real good look at a subject many of us, especially Veterans, have been fighting a long battle to get into the public conscious, and stuck there once in, with the realization of the hidden damages, wounds, that Wars cause to those that are sent to occupy and the occupied.

American Life TV network brought this documentary into the homes, it aired on Oct 21st at 8pm est.. The following is what is posted on their site:

“INVISIBLE WOUNDS” ADDRESSES VETERANS POST TRAUMATIC STRESS SYNDROME

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
PTSD is an anxiety disorder that is developed after exposure to a traumatizing experience that is either physically harmful or threatening to a person. Events that cause PTSD include horrific accidents, natural disasters, personal attacks and most commonly military combat. People with this disorder usually have a difficult time controlling their emotions, feelings and thoughts. Frequently nightmares and frightening reoccurring images and memories cause people with this disorder to either feel emotionally numb or be easily startled. Following the Vietnam War, PTSD began to be seen and diagnosed much more frequently in soldiers. Since the U.S. involvement in Vietnam, the U.S. government has been reviewing whether to provide benefits and compensation to those soldiers diagnosed with PTSD. Following the entry of soldiers into Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S. Marine Corps has instituted programs to help marines readjust to civilian life after returning from battle. In addition the Army has developed a medical program called Battlemind to aid and assist soldiers in their recovery from PTSD after their military involvement.

Below, and you can visit to watch all three parts there, is what is up over at UPI. But I bring the video's to you in the three parts with run times. They combine footage and veterans from WWII, Vietnam, and OIF/OEF Veterans along with a couple of Veterans Administration personal in discussion of PTSD.

Our Veterans: "Invisible Wounds"

A Documentary on Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

"Invisible Wounds" is the powerful and moving documentary that portrays the suffering of combat veterans and their families from the effects of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Interviews with returning soldiers and their families bring to light the rarely discussed challenges they face back home. Further interviews with Vietnam and World War II vets add perspective to the problem, showing that it is not something new.

You can also watch all three video's at UPI site

"Invisible Wounds" Part 1 {This is about 11min long}

"Invisible Wounds" Part 2 {This is about 81/2min long}

"Invisible Wounds" Part 3 {This is 41/2min long}

Why Michelle Obama's name in the subject title, you might ask. Well we know that early on Barack Obama, the In-Coming President of these United States, though I'm beginning to wonder just how United, apparently was not only reading what was posted on the online political blogs but was also posting up his own thoughts on sites like Daily KOS, you can view his
two '05 posts here. We also know he likes his technology, so I'm only assuming here but I would think that Michelle also surfs the net and reads what others have on their minds, especially as to what the important matters are that face our Country and it's people, if not them than those who worked with them on their Campaign.

It became very clear, as Michelle traveled around the Country, that due to the two theaters of occupation this country has engaged in these last seven years that Military and Veterans Health Care and their Families were a Topic that Michelle has placed at the top of her agenda as the new First Lady of this country.

I've said it before, that with this technology, the interest in researching from us ordinary folks, combining with the ability to set up individual sites of information and thoughts, as well as sharing them with countless others on the interactive blogs, be they on specific subject material or combined with loads of other political and non political subjects, has forced what we call the main stream media outlets to start doing their own research and reporting through good ole leg work and investigative reporting.

Because of all of this a subject we Veterans have been fighting to get into the publics conscious has been Post Traumatic Stress or Combat PTSD, having little success as to the greater majority, but that has been growing rapidly these last few years. The others, concerning those of us who serve and are Advocates and Activist of, are the Veterans Health Care as well as the matters concerning the Families of those serving and those who have served.

Our success in getting these important subjects into the apathetic minds of the American Public, as well as the Worlds Populations, on matters like PTSD and TBI, seems to now have not only an ear to listen but a force to make things happen right at the top in the peoples White House in President Elect Barack Obama and his wife Michelle.

Below you will find a few of the articles about Michelle and her start of the National Dialog and Actions planned. She will need our Help, as will Barack, on not only these important issues but the many others as we try and bring this country back from the brink of falling over the cliff of total societal destruction we have been led to!

Bolster military families

Thanks to Michelle Obama, the issue of their struggles is finally getting the attention it deserves

Michelle Obama has yet to move into the White House, but she has already begun to do our country a great service by beginning a critical national conversation about the struggles of many military families.

Thanks to intense media coverage, the public knows about the very serious health problems of returning war veterans and the difficulties they face returning to the work force. But the public is far less aware of the everyday difficulties that confront so many military families - whether their service members go to war or not.

Bases brace for surge in stress-related disorders

15,000 returning from war; one base nearly doubles its mental health staff

FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. - Some 15,000 soldiers are heading home to this sprawling base after spending more than a year at war in Iraq and Afghanistan, and military health officials are bracing for a surge in brain injuries and psychological problems among those troops.

Facing prospects that one in five of the 101st Airborne Division soldiers will suffer from stress-related disorders, the base has nearly doubled its psychological health staff. Army leaders are hoping to use the base's experiences to assess the long-term impact of repeated deployments.

Michelle Obama and Military Families

The incoming first lady is poised to make veterans' affairs one of her top issues -- and we could all take a cue from her.

The experiences of vets like my cousin Lang are about to gain more prominence. In recent interviews with major media outlets -- from 60 Minutes to Glamour Magazine -- Michelle Obama has been hinting that she may use her access and power come January to improve the state of affairs for military families and veterans. When Steve Kroft of CBS asked how she would "imprint" the job of first lady, Michelle Obama responded, "Well, the thing we've learned, you know, as we've watched this campaign, is that people, women, are capable of doing more than one thing well at the same time. And I've, you know, had to juggle being mom-in-chief and having a career for a long time. The primary focus for the first year will be making sure that the kids make it through the transition. But there are many issues that I care deeply about. I care about military families."

Michelle Obama first in line to be criticized

She’ll face public scrutiny but can turn to former first ladies such as Rosalynn Carter for advice

“The primary focus for the first year will be making sure that the kids make it through the transition,” she said, sitting alongside her husband. “But there are many issues that I care deeply about.” She cited two that she focused on during the campaign: Military families and the work-family balance.

And I pass this announcement on as well, to take place this afternoon, for those who might be interested:

PTS in Military Families‏

Coming Home Project Event

Join us this Thursday, Dec. 4th 12-2pm pdt
For A Live Video Teleconference
Treating Post Traumatic Stress
in Military Families

Herbst Hall at UCSF, Mount Zion Campus
1600 Divisadero St. - 2nd floor

The impacts of war-related trauma don't reside solely in the Soldier,
Marine, Sailor, Airman or woman. Because humans are wired to
connect, the ripples radiate out and affect many, in particular those
close to the veteran: including his or her spouse, children, siblings,
parents, marital relationship, extended family, and significant others.
In this training, two experts on the dynamics of post traumatic stress
in military families and their treatment will provide a clear review that
will help us understand and treat the impacts on couples and families
of PTSD.

***
If you have questions related to the topic, you can have them
addressed on air by sending them to: Coming Home Project

Viewing options:

* In Person at UCSF,Mount Zion {NO REGISTRATION NECESSARY}

* Watch live online or on Dish Network channel 9412.

* To view past programs go to UCTV's website

Part of "Treating the Invisible Wounds of War: Iraq and Afghanistan
Veterans, Families and Care Providers" series, a collaboration among
the Coming Home Project, UCSF, and UCTV.

"Stain on America" - Much More Than Just That, Much More....

* US Interrogator in Iraq Says Torture Policy Has Led to Deaths of Thousands of American Soldiers *

We speak with a former special intelligence operations officer who led an interrogations team in Iraq two years ago. His nonviolent interrogation methods led Special Forces to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the head of al-Qaeda in Iraq. He has written a new book, How to Break a Terrorist: The US Interrogators Who Used Brains, Not Brutality, to Take Down the Deadliest Man in Iraq. The publication date for the book was delayed for six weeks due to the Pentagon's vetting of it. The soldier wrote it under the pseudonym, Matthew Alexander, for security reasons. He says the US military's use of torture is responsible for the deaths of thousands of US soldiers by inspiring foreign fighters to kill Americans.

Listen/Watch/Read

The Interrogator and Author was also on MSNBC last night, you can Watch The Interview Here

I'm Still Tortured by What I Saw in Iraq

I learned in Iraq that the No. 1 reason foreign fighters flocked there to fight were the abuses carried out at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo. Our policy of torture was directly and swiftly recruiting fighters for al-Qaeda in Iraq. The large majority of suicide bombings in Iraq are still carried out by these foreigners. They are also involved in most of the attacks on U.S. and coalition forces in Iraq. It's no exaggeration to say that at least half of our losses and casualties in that country have come at the hands of foreigners who joined the fray because of our program of detainee abuse. The number of U.S. soldiers who have died because of our torture policy will never be definitively known, but it is fair to say that it is close to the number of lives lost on Sept. 11, 2001. How anyone can say that torture keeps Americans safe is beyond me -- unless you don't count American soldiers as Americans.

"A veteran is someone who,at one point in his life wrote a blank check made payable to "The United States of America" for an amount of "up to and including my life".

"that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic"

ATTN: Veterans, Families of, Friends of, Caring Others

The beginning of this is an attempt to bring you up to speed on what has been going on this past year leading up to the purpose of this post, a New Investigation on Veterans Care, and the request for those listed in the subject title to get involved with, especially the Veterans having their troubles with the VA and their Care.

Back in July of 2007 the Law Firm of Morrison & Foerster, with help from the legal staff at Disability Rights Advocates, filed a Class Action Lawsuit on behalf of Veterans for Common Sense and Veterans United for Truth against the Veterans Administration of these United States. A lawsuit, I might add, that shouldn't have found a need for!

You can find out more, for those who haven't followed this, at the DRA website here: Nationwide Class Action Against the VA or at the Veterans for Common Sense and Veterans United for Truth sites.

Back in January, of this year, Melissa, a lawyer with DRA Legal posted a Real Good News diary on the progress of the lawsuit to that point.

Very recently what some may see as a setback, this Vet. thought this was coming, the Judge in the case made a ruling. I posted a ShoutOut for Action to the citizens of this Country, who the Military Serve, on this setback, but not Defeat! The Soldiers and Veterans Need the Total Involvement of the Citizens of this Country they Serve, They Always Have, but there also is Always Not Enough Sacrifice from same and definantly not the numbers needed to give back what should Not Needed To Be Fought For, the Support and Gratitude of this Nation for those who Sacrifice, up to their Lives, to Serve and Protect!

Here is a News Report on the recent ruling by the Judge:

And here's a Press Conference shortly after that ruling by the Lawyers Involved:

I would hope you visit my link just above, on the Call For Action, as well as the other links, and Get Involved, this Country Owes it's Soldiers and their Families, Especially when they return from it's Excepted Wars of Choice!

Now to get to the reason for this post, the New Investigation on Veterans Care.

A few weeks back Melissa sent me a file and asked that I quietly pass it on to Veterans, and parties who could help out, in the start of this New Investigation asking Veterans to contact DRA Legal to answer some important questions seeking answers that could be used to help All Veterans and the Returning Soldiers.

Well it need not be Quiet anymore. Melissa contacted me yesterday, really sorry I missed your call and have a Well Deserved Vacation next week, and sent me another file requesting that I pass it on Publicly and request others do same. To make it easier for others to download the files, save them, post them up, and pass them out, I have uploaded them to Box.net, a file sharing site I occasionally use. I will just link to the initial first file but will paste the file from yesterday below.

The first file, in PDF, from May 29th can be Downloaded and Viewed Here, this one you may not find the need to save, as the most recent is the important one to pass to those who may want to participate, but I include it as some may find it's need as well.

The most recent, in RTF, from yesterday can be Downloaded and Viewed Here, this is the one you can post up, save and print out to pass around, send the link to others, how ever you find it can help to aid in this investigation working towards Much Needed Change.

Here is the second file contents:

ATTENTION VETERANS WITH PHYSICAL DISABILITIES

Disability Rights Advocates is conducting an investigation of the accessibility of VA hospitals and clinics. We would like to hear from you about your experiences at these facilities. If you have a mobility disability, a vision disability, a hearing disability, and/or Traumatic Brain Injury, you are entitled to full access and reasonable accommodations, whether or not your disability is service connected. We want to know if these accommodations are being provided. Please contact us at VA Access and we can set up a time to talk with you about your experiences.

If you have a mobility disability:

Whether you use a wheelchair or another form of assistive device, or whether your mobility is impaired in any way due to disability, we want to know about your experience with access at VA hospitals or clinics:

1 Is there adequate accessible parking?
2 Are there access barriers as you travel through the hospital or clinic? For example, are there adequate ramps and accessible pathways? Are doors, counters, elevators and restrooms accessible?
3 Is there enough room for you and your mobility device in patient check-in or waiting areas?
4 Can you get to exam rooms, hospital rooms and laboratories and have your medical care provided with adequate comfort and privacy?
5 Can you access medical equipment such as exam tables, scales and diagnostic equipment safely, independently and with dignity?
6 Can you access other public areas at the hospital or clinic, such as the pharmacy, cafeteria/canteen, or gift shop?
7 Does the staff seem to be knowledgeable and trained to address your needs arising out of your mobility disability?

If you have a vision disability:

Whether you are blind, legally blind, or have low vision, we want to know about your experiences with access at VA hospitals and/or clinics:

8 Are there access barriers such as protruding objects and lack of detectible warnings as you travel through the hospital or clinic?
9 Is there accessible signage so you can navigate through the hospital or clinic?
10 Are you able to obtain information such as forms, notices and prescription information in accessible formats?
11 Can you access your hospital or clinic’s information technology, such as websites or registration kiosks?
12 Does the staff seem to be knowledgeable and trained to address your needs arising out of your visual impairment (including allowing you to be accompanied by your service animal)?
13 Have you experienced other barriers due to your vision disability?

If you have a hearing disability:

Whether you are deaf or hearing impaired, we want to know about your experiences with access at VA hospitals and/or clinics:

14 Can you communicate effectively with VA personnel to make appointments and understand your medical needs and treatment?
15 Do you receive interpreters or assistive listening services when necessary?
16 Does the staff seem to be knowledgeable and trained to address your needs arising out of your hearing impairment?
17 Have you experienced other barriers due to your hearing disability?

If you have Traumatic Brain Injury:

18 Can you communicate effectively with VA personnel to make appointments and understand your medical needs and treatment?
19 Do you receive adequate guidance from VA personnel to make decisions regarding medical care and treatment based on informed consent?
20 Does the staff seem to be knowledgeable and trained to address your needs arising out of your brain injury?
21 Have you experienced other barriers due to your disability?

Disability Rights Advocates is a non-profit organization based in California that is dedicated to protecting the rights of people with all types of disabilities, including disabled veterans. DRA is one of the two law firms that is challenging the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ (VA’s) practices in failing to adequately treat veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and we also have a longstanding interest in ensuring disabled individuals’ equal access to prompt medical care. For more information about DRA, please visit DRA Legal.

To set up at time to talk about your experiences at VA hospitals and/or clinics, email VA Access, or call toll-free at 800/332-6177 (or TTY at 510/665-8716).

Once again, you can download and view the initial file, in PDF, HERE.

And you can download the above full text file, in RTF, HERE to do whatever you feel might be the best way to make the contacts needed to help DRA Legal in their Investigation.

Get Involved!!!

You want Change, well that 'Change' can only come from You!!

On this 4th of July Show What Patriotism Is, Really Support The Troops and The Veterans, Sacrifice for once!!

Veterans Care

Are We Letting Down our Nation's Veterans? Again

Hopefully, this ruling will impel our nation’s leaders to work to ensure veterans receive mental health care services they need and deserve.

Ahhhhh folks, You Hire Those Leaders?!!!!!!!

Big Brother or good security at VA?

"A veteran just back from Iraq and Afghanistan with a DUI should be encouraged to get mental health counseling and substance abuse treatment," said Paul Sullivan, executive director of Veterans for Common Sense. "Is the VA going to hire more doctors? Or are they going to be playing Big Brother?"

Ilona meet Ilana, Ilana meet Ilona - Combat PTSD Research

Teen PTSD researcher Ilana Rice

Why do I get the feeling you two are destined to meet? And by all means don't change your first names!

Many already know Ilona Meagher, many have worked with her, and she posts on many of these boards, when not the busy young lady she's become with her dedication to her new found much needed cause as she joined many of us who had already been trying to get others to pay attention to. She has done wonders, as have all those who joined her from ePluribus Media, in their research and their PTSD, and other, Timelines which are used by many.

For those who don't know Ilona, I won't go into a book writing here, she's done enough in a short few years that could turn into a personal history book, already, but will say that she hosts her own well visited site PTSD Combat: Winning the War Within and she has written a great referance book Moving A Nation to Care: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and America's Returning Troops

Visit her site to find out more about this remarkable young woman if you hadn't before.

This post is an introduction, not only to Ilona about Ilana but for all to meet, to what seems to be another remarkable young lady, a very young lady with a growing dedication beyond her years.

Yesterday, 5-24-08, I had NPR on while driving back from getting some work done on my van. Weekend America was on and in the second hour of the show, when I caught "PTSD Research" and I thought "Ilona" as the name given, had the radio down low as my cell had rang. Thought that Ilona was being interviewed and hadn't told anyone about it, than I heard the voice, it seemed much younger and not how Ilona sounded, as we've heard her being interviewed before. Than the name was said again and it was Ilana.

As soon as I got home I brought up the Weekend America site.

This was the title of this short interview and report Teen Researcher Targets PTSD Treatment

A New York researcher hopes that veterans of the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan won't take decades to work through their Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) issues. Maybe her youth as something to do with her impatience -- Ilana Rice is only 16.
For the past year and a half, she's been studying how relationships can help heal PTSD. The high school junior hopes her study will help fill in the gaps in the research about the disease.
She became interested in the subject through her mother's work as a psychologist at a Veteran's hospital. Weekend America's Desiree Cooper asked Ilana to describe the focus of her study:

She has a unique approach to her PTSD research and study, through relationships, and a very intelligent approach I might add, she really has paid attention watching and listening to her mother.

Ilana, why are you interested in PTSD?
When I was younger, my mom is actually a VA psychologist. So that's why I've become so passionate about Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in combat veterans. I used to send them Veteran Day cards every year, and some of them saw these cards and offered to meet me. And I've known some of them for many years and when I got older, someone of them shared their stories with me.

I love it when a youngster says "when I was younger", but in this case she's is matured well beyond her young years, with it seems more understanding than the majority of adults who think they are adult.

How hard has it been to find people to fill out the questionnaire?
That has been the single most difficult part of this project. I think it's... a lot of it has to do with the fact that I am a high school student. My resources are not that extensive. I'm really working with a lot of local organizations when it comes to actually finding people. Originally I was looking only at the most current Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, and there are simply not enough of them to fill out a questionnaire so my study would be valid and that my data would be accepted. So I had to expand it to include Vietnam vets, veterans of the Korean War, Desert Storm, as well as the two most recent conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. And it's also very difficult to find people who have non-veteran romantic partners who are married to or living with them. Sometimes these partners don't want to fill out the survey.

These are but a few cuts of a short important interview, there's abit more at the subject link as well as backtrack links to important PTSD information.

At the bottom, in case some might miss it, you'll find this:

If you are interested in participating in Ilana Rice's study, please Click Here to fill out our contact form.

To Listen to the podcast visit the site link

Earlier they had another report on, that is equally important and also on the subject of PTSD, but this one is covering the Combat Vets of the past before Vietnam.

Decades Later, Haunted by PTSD

Leslie Martin, at the head of the table, is director of PTSD Outpatient Services for Los Angeles Veterans Affairs. She runs the support group for older vets with PTSD. Here she is with "her guys," as she affectionately calls them.
Credit: Krissy Clark

A white cap, gray trousers and a navy-blue jacket, pinned with medals -- that's what Don LaFond will be wearing this weekend when he attends a Memorial Day ceremony in Los Angeles. He goes every year, and he always wears his Purple Heart.
Don earned that medal in World War II in the battle for Saipan. He showed incredible courage -- but also fear:
"You never know where the bullets coming from -- over here, over here, coming overhead. Like mortar shells, bombs, artillery. You're frightened. Anybody who says they're not afraid when they go into combat, they're a big... they're a liar, you know."
Don is 84 years old, and like many veterans of his generation, he has never been too open with his emotions about the war -- until recently. Now, he talks about them every Friday, in a support group for older vets. Weekend America's Krissy Clark dropped in on them:

Every one of these men is in his 70s or 80s. Every one fought in a war that ended more than a half century ago. And every one has been living with strange symptoms since then: constant nightmares, anxiety, emotional numbness. Most of these men had never given the collection of feelings a name. They've discovered recently it is called Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD.
"I'm 84-years-old now, and all this stuff happened when I was in my early 20s," LaFond says. "It makes you wonder, gee whiz, if it will ever leave your mind."

We could have been much more advanced in treating PTSD once it was finally taken for the serious result of War after Vietnam if the Nation had paid much moree attention to those Veterans who took up the cause and Especially the civilians, to few in numbers, who recognized how serious it is and how common to Veterans of all conflicts. The advancements would have been felt worldwide and understood in the civilian population of those who live through traumatic life events and develope their own PTSD, suffering in silence!

The Veteran's Administration now estimates one in 20 veterans of World War II -- the "good" war -- probably have symptoms similar to LaFond's and probably suffer from PTSD. The numbers are vague, because most older vets were never diagnosed.

Sometimes Martin asks herself why now, after all these years? She thinks there are two main triggers. First, retirement: Men who long buried their war traumas under work and responsibilities have more time to dwell on old fears. Second, because we're at war again now. "It's everywhere," Martin says. "There are movies about it, it's on television." And it brings things up again for her guys.

"Not too many people know that I come to meetings," he says. "People think it's a weakness. I don't want to be classified as such. Macho thing, I guess." But Medina says he does have fewer nightmares since he's come to meetings.

To listen to this podcast visit the site link

There's abit more at the site visit and read, you won't be sorry, it isn't long but it is powerful and informative, especially those who have returned, are still there, or in rotation for another tour In-Country. These two present day conflicts OIF and OEF, and especially with the multiple tours and stop loss, I fear will cause even greater problems for the individuals, their families, their communities as well as the Nation if we all don't step up and give the care promised, for All related War injuries, physical and mental!

We will have many more stories like this, Iraq put his life on the trigger

But the carousing masked Morris' troubled state. His PTSD was so severe, his friends said, that he couldn't sleep. He had terrifying visions of people he had killed in combat.

Morris showed his friends horrific photos from Iraq -- "people with their heads blowed off . . . guts ripped out on barbed wire . . . bullet holes in every piece of body," said a friend, Dustin Newton.

Sometimes, friends said, Morris would show the photos and laugh.

Video Presentations and More

Picking Up the Pieces

With Jane Pauley
Meet the families of wounded veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Soldiers' loved ones are making inspiring and often shocking sacrifices to care for them. Jane Pauley talks to some family members and also interviews ABC News anchor Bob Woodruff and his wife, Lee, who share their personal story of recovery and healing.

When Wounded Vets Come Home

Hosted by Sheliah Kast
Families of veterans disabled in Iraq and Afghanistan are becoming their primary caregivers, and support from the federal government and the military is, in many cases, woefully inadequate. "Inside E Street" visits families, talks to members of Congress, the Wounded Warrior Project, and Veterans of Foreign Wars about the challenges these servicemen and women and their loved ones face.

Resources for Family Caregivers of Vets

Numerous organizations and agencies provide assistance to Iraq- and Afghanistan-era veterans and their families.

And Much More

And from NPR Morning Edition:
Army Hospitals Struggle to Stop Drug Overdoses

Eleven medications were found in Nichols' body, including painkillers to treat his physical wounds from an explosion in Iraq and drugs to ease the nightmares, insomnia and memory loss caused by his post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury.
You can listen here