Camp Lejeune whistle-blower fired

A psychiatrist who tried to prevent Fort Hood-style violence among Marines about to "lose it" instead loses his job

Last April, two Marines at Camp Lejeune predicted to a psychiatrist that some Marine back from war was going to "lose it." Concerned, the psychiatrist asked what that meant. One of the Marines responded, "One of these guys is liable to come back with a loaded weapon and open fire."...>>>>>

Mental Stress on Children of Deployed

Stress of war takes mental toll on military kids

Children of deployed service members at risk of psychological problems

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Teens Cope with Parents at War

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The years-long U.S. commitment in Iraq and Afghanistan is taking a significant toll on the children of service members, who are 2½ times more likely to develop psychological problems than American children in general, new research indicates.

The study, published this week in the Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics, found that deployment of a parent was correlated to high stress levels in the parent who remains at home, which it said was linked to greater psychological impact on children.................Rest Here

Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics, this link is to the report mentioned but only gives you the abstract of the report, you need to be registered to read in full.

Heal the Warrior,

Heal the Country.

I most certainly am not an Edward Tick, author of War and the Soul: Healing Our Nation's Veterans from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, and a few other books, as well as the article in Yes Magazine linked above. He is also the director and senior psychotherapist of Soldier’s Heart: Veteran’s Safe Return Initiatives.

So I'll give a few of the cuts from the article and add some other related information I've recently received.

Breaking the cycle of war making: our country will not find peace until we take responsibility for our wars.

He starts out the article with the above quote and this:

Guilt, shame, slaughter without purpose, alienation from homeland and life itself—this was the legacy that Günter passed on to his son Walt from his World War II combat service in Hitler’s Wehrmacht. Walt, “the only child born in freedom,” was born in the United States shortly after his parents emigrated here from Germany. Growing up in the Cold War 1950s, Walt longed to be an all-American boy, but was always the Indian to his friends’ cowboys and the “Kraut” to their G.I. Joes.

The Warrior’s Path

Our troops do not enlist because they want to destroy or kill. No matter the political climate, most troops seek to serve traditional warrior values: to protect the country they love, its ideals, and especially their families, communities, and each other. If they must kill or be killed, they need transcendent reasons to do so. Throughout history, the only reason for fighting that has survived moral scrutiny is a direct attack with real, immediate threat to one’s people. PTSD is, in part, the tortured conscience of good people who did their best under conditions that would dehumanize anyone.

Warriorhood, however, is not so valued or nurtured in modern society. “Warrior” is not even a recognized social class. A veteran, especially one with disabilities, appears to many, and sometimes to him or herself, as a failure in terms of normal civilian identity. Michael fears that, as an experienced combat veteran, the only place on the planet he now fits is in the French Foreign Legion.

The Echoes of War

War abroad fosters war at home. When we go to war, we inevitably bring its violence and horror back to our homes and streets. We cannot help it.

Cleansing the Warrior

War poisons the spirit, and warriors return tainted. This is why, among Native American, Zulu, Buddhist, ancient Israeli, and other traditional cultures, returning warriors were put through significant rituals of purification before re-entering their families and communities. Traditional cultures recognized that unpurified warriors could, in fact, be dangerous. The absence of these rituals in modern society helps explain why suicide, homicide, and other destructive acts are common among veterans.

A Double Wound

Sitting Bull and his warriors, and other bands from innumerable traditional cultures, were never plagued with self-doubt about the value of their mission, as many of our soldiers are today. In order to do battle with a whole heart, the danger and threat to one’s home must be real, and the people must experience it as immediate and about to threaten their total existence; there must be no alternative. A people and their warriors must be in unity.

Ed goes on to explain further each of the topics above and has a few more topics of explaination below those. He closes with this:

I asked Walt’s permission to tell his story during our farewell visit in the hospital where he was dying of Agent Orange cancers. He was surprised at first, but finally said, “I was afraid my life was worthless. But please tell my story. Please make it mean something. Maybe it can help some other poor souls avoid my fate.”

Read an excerpt from conscientious objector Aidan Delgado’s The Sutras of Abu Ghraib: Notes from a Conscientious Objector in Iraq

Read the Rest of Edward Ticks article Here

And some links:

Pentagon spends record on TBI, PTSD research, a drop in the bucket of what's needed, was needed long ago, and will cost even more if not taken seriously this time!

MOAA & USNI Host Wounded Warrior Defense Forum in D.C.

Substance Use Disorders and Clinical Management of Traumatic Brain Injury and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

Prevalence of Chronic Pain After Traumatic Brain Injury

Stress Management Important Throughout Military Careers

Computer-based program helps retrain the brain after injury

War Torn - part 1

The New York Times, Sunday 1-13-08, has an 'Eye Opening' Report, Across America, Deadly Echoes of Foreign Battles with this one only being Part 1 !!

A series of articles and multimedia about veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan who have committed killings, or been charged with them, after coming home.

I'm only about halfway through it, tough reading, and memories flowing back of the reports of some, not so long ago, of my brothers of 'Nam!

These Reports, Articles, Discussions............. need to get the Traffic this form of Communication brings forth, so Others will Pickup these Extremely Important Subjects and Do More investigating and reporting!!

If we had todays technology yesterday, PTSD and other Results of War, would be right up there Alongside the 'War Is An Absolute Last Resort', and Wars of Choice wouldn't occur, at least by this Nation!!

These Conflicts will have Even More Devestating Results felt for even longer than any previous conflicts, for those Hatreds we are creating will be followed with destructive behavior, others are now striking back for our failed policies of the past as we add more in the present!

A Snippit of this report:

Town by town across the country, headlines have been telling similar stories. Lakewood, Wash.: “Family Blames Iraq After Son Kills Wife.” Pierre, S.D.: “Soldier Charged With Murder Testifies About Postwar Stress.” Colorado Springs: “Iraq War Vets Suspected in Two Slayings, Crime Ring.”

Individually, these are stories of local crimes, gut-wrenching postscripts to the war for the military men, their victims and their communities. Taken together, they paint the patchwork picture of a quiet phenomenon, tracing a cross-country trail of death and heartbreak.

The New York Times found 121 cases in which veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan committed a killing in this country, or were charged with one, after their return from war. In many of those cases, combat trauma and the stress of deployment — along with alcohol abuse, family discord and other attendant problems — appear to have set the stage for a tragedy that was part destruction, part self-destruction.

Three-quarters of these veterans were still in the military at the time of the killing. More than half the killings involved guns, and the rest were stabbings, beatings, strangulations and bathtub drownings. Twenty-five offenders faced murder, manslaughter or homicide charges for fatal car crashes resulting from drunken, reckless or suicidal driving.

About a third of the victims were spouses, girlfriends, children or other relatives, among them 2-year-old Krisiauna Calaira Lewis, whose 20-year-old father slammed her against a wall when he was recuperating in Texas from a bombing near Falluja that blew off his foot and shook up his brain.

Audio Interview: Dr. Jonathan Shay on Returning Veterans and Combat Trauma (January 13, 2008) There is four seperate, short, parts of this interview at site.

Book Excerpt: Odysseus in America: Combat Trauma and the Trials of Homecoming (January 13, 2008)

Blogrunner: Reactions From Around the Web

This is a nine page report with more to follow, This Is The Reality Of Man's War's of Choice, and Not Only For The Combat Veterans but For Those Who Are Invaded and Occupied!!

Follow the link above to Learn More, for we have been Apathedic for Too Long!!

The following has nothing to do with the above, but is possibly another sad result of the divisions within this Country as a further result of our Failed Policies and our Loss of Control of our Government, the People's Democracy.

This bus was totaled by fire, around 9:30 pm, Friday night, 1/11/08


It could have been machanical but Owner~Operator~Driver ( and Veteran ) Jim Goodnow who pulled into a South Jersey Truck Stop, to catch a 3 or 4 hour nap. In retrospect, remembers some suspicious activity outside the bus, and about 20 minutes later, the entire engine compartment, and back of the bus was engulfed in flames.

I received an e-mail about this yesterday with little information as none was really known at the time, Jim reportedly planned to notify the ATF Arson Squad on Saturday morning.

There is nothing up at the IVAW website as yet about the incident.

I did a few searches and couldn't find much, yesterday, except a couple of Veterans Yahoo Groups that had short reports w/pics that didn't post, about it. llbear found ,this short report at the Postland Indie Media site.

And this morning I found a report over at the Yellow Rose of Texas blogspot site titled "The YELLOW ROSE PEACE BUS DESTROYED BY FIRE!" with a few photo's

This bus, often mired in controversy since the IVAW "Dirty South" tour that left Philly in June, and had Active Duty BBQ's @ Ft Meade, Ft Jackson, Camp Lejeune, Ft Benning, and other Southern Military Posts (Including an IVAW benefit by Tom Morello, of Rage Against the Machine, and AudioSlave, in Virginia) as well as backdrop for many a Demonstration, and Ft Drum, NY, organizing parties, has finally died.

Again, this could have been a result of something mechanical causing the fire in the engine compartment. But as many of us Pro-Peace Activist know there are a few groups out there, no names or links need be placed, who are reportly being funded and have ramped up their so called 'Super Patriotic' rethoric, starting negative rumours about upcoming Peaceful Demonstrations, that are and have been welllllllll Peaceful, no matter the number of participants, from a handful to Tens Of Thousands! They also have become more violent in their speach and even actions towards the Peaceful Demonstrators, and they certainly haven't been peaceful themselves.

There is also this Video of the fire

Click To Play

over at the Yellow Rose of Texas Blogspot site.

The 'embedded link' and the 'url link', for the photobucket video, didn't work so I put it up on my Blip TV site.

Iraq Veterans Suffer Stress, Alcoholism

I found the link to this study through another site that covers information for the U.S. Military.

An extensive study of the British military found that thousands of frontline veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan face escalating mental health problems, alcoholism, and a family breakdown. The report in the British Medical Journal Online states that prolonged periods in conflict are linked to higher levels of post traumatic stress disorder, psychological distress and problems at home.

Now many of us know of, and have followed, the reports of what the DoD has been doing in diagnosing many returning U.S. Military Personal with pre-existing conditions when these soldiers file claims or seek help for the trauma's they are now suffering from what they have experianced In-Theater Iraq and Afganistan.

Many of us Vets, from our previous misadventures, know of many civilian researchers and related professions, along with veterans who went into these professions knowing and understanding what their fellow vets were going through and were seeking a better understanding of the syndrom so they could help their brothers better, who have done extensive study in the area's of PTSD and related mental issues as to the effects of War on the partcipants and the civilians who live through Man's Hell On Earth.

I'm baked from work and the continuing heat, so mind isn't registering the thoughts it should. Below you'll find snippets of this study, with little commentary from me. Some may want to visit the site for furthering their knowledge though, I would suggest it.

And while you're visiting keep in mind that this government, Us, seem to give only verbal concern with our statements that we should be funding extensive studies into subjects like Combat PTSD, yet we loose interest and rarely carry through on our promises, probably because they come from our Representatives, who we hire, and than are quickly put out of our minds. But we who serve know full well what many are going through!

Research
Mental health consequences of overstretch in the UK armed forces: first phase of a cohort study
BMJ, doi:10.1136/bmj.39274.585752.BE (published 30 July 2007)

Objective

To assess the relation between frequency and duration of deployment of UK armed forces personnel on mental health.

Participants

Operational history in past three years of a randomly chosen stratified sample of 5547 regulars with experience of deployment.

Now the timeframes of deployment should set off that little bulb in your heads. Think 'Nam and 12 month tours and having to volunteer, for the greater majority, for any further In-Theater duty.

Results

Personnel who were deployed for 13 months or more in the past three years were more likely to fulfil the criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder (odds ratio 1.55, 95% confidence interval 1.07 to 2.32), show caseness on the general health questionnaire (1.35, 1.10 to 1.63), and have multiple physical symptoms (1.49, 1.19 to 1.87). A significant association was found between duration of deployment and severe alcohol problems. Exposure to combat partly accounted for these associations. The associations between number of deployments in the past three years and mental disorders were less consistent than those related to duration of deployment. Post-traumatic stress disorder was also associated with a mismatch between expectations about the duration of deployment and the reality.

Conclusions

A clear and explicit policy on the duration of each deployment of armed forces personnel may reduce the risk of post-traumatic stress disorder. An association was found between deployment for more than a year in the past three years and mental health that might be explained by exposure to combat.

Introduction

British commanders have raised concerns about the ability of the armed forces to cope with simultaneous major operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the UK armed forces have been asked to do more than was envisaged in the most recent defence review.

Methods

This study is based on the first phase of a cohort study of UK armed forces personnel in which we compared the mental and physical health of those deployed to Iraq between 18 January and 28 April 2003 with those who were in the armed forces but not deployed to Iraq.

Now they have a few tables to view with the descriptions below, visit site to view:

Table 1 Duration and frequency of deployments since 2000 for about a three year period, by service and combat role (regulars only). Values are numbers (percentages)
Table 2 Association between duration and number of deployments since 2000, for about a three year period, and problems at home during and after deployment (n=5547)
Table 3 Prevalence and association between duration and number of deployments since 2000, for about a three year period, and psychological symptoms, adjusted for confounders and explanatory factors (n=5547)
Table 4 Association between difference of expected and actual duration of last deployment and psychological symptoms

Conclusions

Our results indicate that adherence to a clear and explicit policy on duration of each deployment may have beneficial effects on mental health. Overstretch in the UK armed forces may have consequences on problems at home, and deterioration of psychological health may be more apparent in those directly exposed to combat.

What is already known on this topic
UK armed forces are being deployed more often than previously, so called overstretch
To allow objective monitoring the UK armed forces have recommended maximum deployment levels, called harmony guidelines

What this study adds
Duration of deployment above established guidelines is associated with more mental health problems
Combat exposure, type of deployment, and problems at home partly account for these associations
An association was found between expectation that duration of most recent deployment would be shorter than it actually was and post-traumatic stress disorder

At the bottom of the above study you will find the related article link along with a long list of referance material related to the above study.

Mental health screening in armed forces before the Iraq war and prevention of subsequent psychological morbidity: follow-up study

BMJ 2006 333: 991.

What is already known on this topic
Since the aftermath of the first world war there has been an ongoing discussion on the benefits of screening military personnel for mental health vulnerability before deployment
What this study adds
Screening before deployment has a low predictability for most common mental health conditions
The predictability of screening for post-traumatic stress disorder is higher than for any other mental health problem
As the prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder is low before deployment, screening for the condition would be inappropriate despite a moderately high predictability

In this second report I found this, Since the aftermath of the first world war there has been an ongoing discussion on the benefits of screening military personnel for mental health vulnerability before deployment, an extremely interesting statement!

At the bottom of this second report ou will find a few more related studies, and again, a listing of referance links for the above.