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.

Episode Three: Why We Fight

This is Where We Take Our Stand - The Series

Why We Fight from Displaced Films on Vimeo

Flashback to January, three months before Winter Soldier. How do you bring hundreds of veterans to Washington DC, to tell their stories? An IVAW national planning meeting reveals sharp differences among the members. Is the point of Winter Soldier to show how these wars are hurting America, or the destruction America is bringing to the people of Iraq and Afghanistan? Is the goal to strengthen the military, or weaken it? Despite the differences, a deep unity is built because, as Geoff Millard declares, the bottom line is “No one can hear our stories and still support this shit.”

The Unseen Wounds of War

NBC TODAY SHOW: Kerry Sanders reports on how some men and women in the armed forces battle with post-traumatic stress disorder.



Grassroots efforts to help the troops

Online Memorial to U.S., Coalition Troops

With the Google Earth layer, users can click on service members' names, hometowns and profiles.

Each year on Memorial Day, tens of thousands of Americans visit Arlington National Cemetery just outside Washington to pay tribute to the men and women who died serving the United States.

For people who are unable to make the trip, a new online memorial provides a unique way to honor those service members who have fallen in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The new Google Earth layer, called Map the Fallen, enables the user to pinpoint where, when, and how each service member died since the beginning of the war in Afghanistan. A line connects the service member's approximate location of death to his or her hometown.

The interactive tool -- available at mapthefallen.org -- also offers a detailed profile of each person...........

Digital Memorial to Troops

John King demonstrates a new, interactive digital memorial to the fallen troops from Iraq and Afghanistan.

CNN State of the Union - John King

Honoring the Fallen on a Google Earth map on CNET.

The Faces Of The Fallen In Operation Iraqi Freedom And Operation Enduring Freedom. Washington Post.

MSNBC Photo Slide Show for Memorial Day 2009

Weapon of Choice

Where are we getting our real news from in these past times, especially about the two long running occupation theaters we have our soldiers engaged in? I would suggest we're getting a better look on these conflicts, and other real news, from local outlets and not the so called National Media Cable Outlets, which seem to give more talk, from so called experts and analyst, singular opinion, than real news reporting, with the occasional mini doc thrown in.

I did a post yesterday on Veterans and the problem of Homelessness within our community of brothers and sisters, all the video's and links were from local outlets, or individuals.

Same a few days prior to that after the tragic incident at the stress clinic In-Country in Baghdad. These were also local outlet reports and investigations on the stress of War and Occupation and PTSD possibly playing a major roll in what happened.

Without this technology we'd be as we were before, if coming from local outlet news, of a national concern, wouldn't be seen or known except by those in that viewing or reading area. With this now these reports can be passed forward for many more eyes to view and read and even do research on. But it's still coming from the local, not the national, and in many cases than being than carried forward by the national media being reactive and not proactive.

There's another piece of investigative journalism that just came forward. This on a subject concerning the military and veterans of another of our conflicts, that like many many many others, has been pushed out of site and out of mind so the country can ignore and not deal with!

KCTV5 Investigative Journalism: Kansas City

Since 1991 the U.S. military has admitted to using depleted uranium in armor and ammunition on a large scale. But since then, a debate has raged about its long-term health effects on soldiers and their families.

Could one of the most effective military tools in their arsenal actually be harming soldiers?

Part One


Gulf War Syndrome, or whatever name one wants to label it with, has been virtually in the total dark as soldiers, and their families, suffer and some have died from. Virtually nothing has been said nor discussed about this, and yet one possible cause of some of the human poisoning and suffering, depleted uranium, is not only still in use, in two theaters of occupation, but has been developed even further for artillery etc. since Gulf War I.

Only 77 soldiers from Gulf War I and just four from Operation Iraqi Freedom are being tracked clinically. Jerry Wheat is one of them.

"I had a tumor removed in the 90s from my left arm that was in the bone, and DU stores in the bone," said Wheat.

Wheat said he has endured a series of health problems.

Why isn't there much more research going on, and should already have been, many of us know, we've seen this before!

Fahey criticizes the testing methods, characterizing the results as a case of "don't look, don't find."

"So, they have structured their studies, in my opinion, to come out with conclusions that validate their spin, which is that DU is completely harmless," said Fahey.

Fahey suggested that because DU continues to be a critical tactical advantage on the battlefield, the military has a vested interest in keeping it there.

Part Two

Jim Bunker, president of the National Gulf War Resource Center headquartered in Kansas City, Kan., said it was an honor to be among the thousands who served in the first Gulf War. But now he says, that same service has left him with unanswered questions about his health.

"I went into the service because it was a family tradition. It's something I always wanted to do. My dad was in the service, my uncles were in the service, my grandpa was in the service," said Bunker. "It was something that started over time -- having a hard time breathing, muscle twitches and later on muscle cramps. And nauseousness."

This last blockquote tells the story, a story many of us Vets already know full well, and made for not the vets benefit but for the countries so it can be pushed out of site!!

"It's virtually the same script as the Agent Orange saga that happened where you had people exposed to Agent Orange returning home, reporting health problems, and the government denying that, first of all, that Agent Orange was dangerous at all, and then entering this debate of who was exposed and how much they were exposed to," said Fahey.