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| This website is dedicated to the raising of awareness of the Plight of our Veterans trying to get help through the VA system! And to educate the American Public to the existence of the Vet Center program with the intent of procuring additional funding to Save Our Veterans!!! |
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| Excerpts from: Posted 2/28/05 Trauma of Iraq war haunting thousands returning home By William M. Welch, USA TODAY MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Jeremy Harrison sees the warning signs in the Iraq war veterans who walk through his office door every day — flashbacks, inability to relax or relate, restless nights and more. He recognizes them as symptoms of combat stress because he's trained to, as a counselor at the small storefront Vet Center here run by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. He recognizes them as well because he, too, has faced readjustment in the year since he returned from Iraq, where he served as a sergeant in an engineering company that helped capture Baghdad in 2003. These injured and disabled men and women (returning from Iraq) represent the most grievously wounded group of returning combat veterans since the Vietnam War, which officially ended in 1975. Of more than 5 million veterans treated at VA facilities last year, from counseling centers like this one to big hospitals, 48,733 were from the fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. Of the 244,054 veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan already discharged from service, 12,422 have been in VA counseling centers for readjustment problems and symptoms associated with PTSD. A recent Defense Department study of combat troops returning from Iraq found that soldiers and Marines who need counseling the most are least likely to seek it because of the stigma of mental health care in the military. as it anticipates "greater numbers of veterans with PTSD seeking VA services." as it anticipates "greater numbers of veterans with PTSD seeking VA services." Harrison, who was a school counselor and Army Reservist from Wheeling, W.Va., before being called to active duty in January 2003, thinks cases of PTSD may be even more common than the military's one-in-six estimate Vet Centers provide help for broader issues of readjustment back to civilian life, including finding a job, alcohol and drug abuse counseling, sexual trauma counseling, spouse and family counseling, and mental or emotional problems that fall short of PTSD. More than 80% of the staff are veterans, and 60% served in combat zones, says Al Batres, head of the VA's readjustment counseling service. "We're oriented toward peer counseling, and we provide a safe environment for soldiers who have been traumatized," he says. "A Vietnam veteran myself, it would have been so great if we'd had this kind of outreach," says Johnny Bragg, director of the Vet Center where Harrison works. "If you can get with the guys who come back fresh ... and actually work with their trauma and issues, hopefully over the years you won't see the long-term PTSD." |
| The Second War begin to talk about post-traumatic stress, coping and hoping WEB EXCLUSIVE By T. Trent Gegax Newsweek Updated: 7:35 p.m. ET March 12, 2004 March 12, 2005 - The war on their minds wasn’t the Iraq war or the Persian Gulf War or the Vietnam War. At a symposium last weekend at the University of Colorado in Boulder, it was “the second war,” the one that starts when vets return home. It’s what a soldier faces when she has to prove that she hasn’t invented her mystery illness. It’s what a National Guardsman faces when some acquaintance at work asks him how many “rag-heads” he wasted. It’s what injured vets face when they try to get the disability payment they believe they deserve. The Army does “a better job with the dead than with the wounded,” Lt. Col. (Ret.) Ralf Zimmermann, a decorated Desert Storm tank battalion commander, told the audience of 135. From the sounds of it, too many service members are left to feel like they’re begging for something they deserve in exchange for serving their country, or losing a buddy, or their hand, or, temporarily, their mind. ...Mary Tendall, a psychotherapist contracted by the Dept. of Veterans Affairs to treat combat vets, said that post- traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)—the mother of all second wars—wrongfully stigmatizes people. “PTSD is a normal response to an abnormal life event,” Tendall said before making a point of contradicting some doctors who say there is no cure. “Healing is an inevitable response to the right kind of treatment.” Yet the message was clear from the handful of experts and witnesses: A significant number of psychologically wounded soldiers are returning from Iraq. ...To be sure, the Pentagon is concerned about PTSD. It commissioned the Mental Health Assessment Survey of soldiers serving in Operation Iraqi Freedom. But the study hasn’t been made public since it was finished three months ago. ...The paradox is that seeking the sort of psychological treatment that can keep a soldier healthy can also undermine unit cohesion. The Fort Bragg study showed that many soldiers who wanted help were hesitant. They worried that fellow soldiers would see them as weak and lose confidence in them. They worried that they might lose their security clearance. They worried that it could harm their career. But what “Unseen Costs of War” showed was that ignoring the psychological trauma of combat on vets presents its own set of risks. It’s immoral, for starters. But it could also hurt recruiting down the road. Ultimately, it’s too many if even a handful of soldiers, marines, airmen and sailors come home to treatment that makes them long for the first war. |
| Newsweek Feb. 9, 2005 issue - Are soldiers fighting in Iraq more likely than other soldiers to take their own lives? According to a long-awaited Army report, due next week, 19 soldiers serving in Operation Iraqi Freedom committed suicide in 2003—a number that officials acknowledge is "above average." Typically, military suicide rates drop during deployments. The report, which also looks at the prevalence of combat stress and posttraumatic stress disorder in Iraq, was produced by the Army's 12-member Mental Health Advisory Team, sent to Iraq in September. The report blames the self-induced deaths on a combination of factors, including depression (a common side effect of PTSD) and easy access to guns. Ironically, the military had designated 2003 as its suicide education and prevention year. But the problem may be more serious than the report shows. Last week some veterans criticized the military for narrowing the scope of its study to only those incidents that occurred in Iraq, and to those where the cause of death was definitive. "By my estimation, there are another 10 to 15 suspicious noncombatant deaths in Iraq that are still under investigation," said Steve Robinson, executive director the National Gulf War Resource Center. "And there are reportedly 67 stateside suicides, none of which have been attributed to wartime service. I want to know how many of those involved people who served in Iraq." Among those under investigation: two recent deaths at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Military mental-health experts echoed some of those views, saying that many soldiers often don't show the psychic wounds of battle until after they're sent home. —Pat Wingert and T. Trent Gegax © 2005 Newsweek, Inc. |
| Excerpts from: Miami Herald: Posted on Sat, Dec. 11, 2004 Iraq war vets struggle to fit back into family life as well as adjust to lost limbs and flashbacks BY DALTON NARINE dnarine@bellsouth.net 'When I saw the stumps, I thought, `Damn, both of them?' Then I looked at my leg and I was trying to figure how to put a tourniquet on it because I didn't have any hands.'' The rocket-propelled grenade that ripped off James Eddie Wright's hands and tore into his left leg ended the war for him and changed his life forever. In a way, Wright, 29, personifies the new veteran coming home from Iraq. Many hundreds are amputees and, according to The New England Journal of Medicine, one in six suffers from a stress-related disorder. More often than not, today's veteran has that thousand-yard stare that soldiers have been carrying home for years -- a mask for the gnawing confusion and anguish that can blow apart a smooth return to civilian life. Unlike the young draftees of earlier wars, many of these men and women are older, with families. For them, this morphing from a fighting machine ducking bullets into a mommy or daddy packing school lunches presents a special challenge. This time the government tapped the National Guard and the Reserve to augment regular forces. Some returnees -- proportionately many more than in Vietnam -- have left limbs and slices of sanity on an urban battlefield as strange as the Iraq war itself. Improved body armor kept many troops out of body bags in Iraq after they were ravaged by roadside bombs and shoulder-mounted rocket launchers. A varied lot, these returnees. Among them: A freshly retired soldier struggling with anger and guilt as she desperately tries to fit back into the lives of her husband and three kids. An ex-soldier who shuns humans in favor of his dogs. A star basketball player who lost her shooting hand. A lifer from North Miami who can't spit out the smell of death. A guy with a John Wayne fantasy. A seven-year Marine fighting to keep his shattered arm. JOHN DALE 13 screws hold his arm together. No prosthesis for me, says John Dale, 29, of Coconut Creek. So far, his left arm is still his. He's had eight surgeries to save it. The next one's due in three months. ''It felt like someone hit me with a baseball bat,'' he recalls. It was April 4, 2003. His unit, the 2nd Tank Battalion, assigned to the 1st Marine Division, was taking heavy fire on the way to Baghdad on the first day of action during the invasion. The battleground was surreal, like an arthouse war flick: oil burning in roadside ditches, smoke blotting out the sun and screening the enemy, the Marines moving forward in their Humvees. The Iraqis would pop up and shoot. Dale would machine-gun their hideout from his seagull view in the turret. Such a sweet target. An AK-47 round shattered the humerus, the long bone of the upper arm. His arm was left dangling, blood seeping through his chemical suit and flak jacket and racing down to his fingertips, forming large claret pools on the Humvee floor. A corpsman lifted him into an ambulance. But he had to give up his space to a Marine who had been shot in the face. ''I had to crouch behind a tank until a Humvee drove by. I hitched a ride with them,'' Dale says. The firefight fanned out as he sank helplessly in the back of the vehicle. He didn't panic and he didn't pray. Everything was gonna be all right, he thought, but it would be an hour and a half until a medevac chopper arrived. Dale counted three friends among the severely wounded. Nearby, a corpsman was pushing to save a tank commander. But the officer's body was already adapting to meet death. Dale's arm is now held together by a metal plate that travels from shoulder to elbow and is attached to the bone by 13 metal screws. He sleeps as if time is rationed. Nightmares mess with his mind. The doctors call it post-combat trauma. He and two other Iraq war veterans meet weekly at Dale's home with Patrick Murphy, a team leader at the Vet Center, a government counseling service. Three weeks in combat changed him forever, the sergeant says. He no longer puts things off. Like furthering his education. The South Broward High grad says he's going back to school. He likes the medical field. WHAT IS PTSD? Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a psychiatric illness that can occur following life-threatening events such as combat, natural disasters, terrorist incidents, serious accidents or personal assaults such as rape. Combat troops who suffer from PTSD often relive some of their experiences through nightmares and flashbacks. They have difficulty sleeping and feel detached or estranged from friends and family. Such symptoms can significantly impair the person's life. Counseling, which could include group therapy, helps the patient cope. STRESSFUL TRANSITIONS ''Most of the older veterans are coming home to spouses and children whom they haven't seen in a year or more,'' David says. ``They have to readjust to getting out of soldier mode to being home. And that's stressful, even for combat-support troops, because they are constantly in harm's way, too.'' Unlike his counterparts from past wars, the Iraq veteran faces physical and psychological traumas that spring from an urban battleground that combines international politics and guerrilla warfare. Some 2.4 percent of the 9,700-plus wounded during combat in the 20-month Iraq war are amputees. Chuck Scoville, amputee program manager at Walter Reed, told a congressional committee that the number is twice the rate of both world wars. In addition, 350 psychiatric casualties have been admitted to Walter Reed; 20 percent have PTSD. According to the New England Journal of Medicine, one in six Iraq war veterans suffers from a stress-related disorder. In the Vietnam War, a 10-year venture, one-third of the 2.4 million troops were diagnosed with PTSD, but the disorder was recognized seven years after U.S. troops withdrew in 1973. So proportionately, and factoring in the time frame and troop strength, the Iraq war may be producing more amputees and psychiatric cases. In the Vietnam War, a 10-year venture, one-third of the 2.4 million troops were diagnosed with PTSD, but the disorder was recognized seven years after U.S. troops withdrew in 1973. So proportionately, and factoring in the time frame and troop strength, the Iraq war may be producing more amputees and psychiatric cases. Early psychiatric intervention...can prevent long-term consequences. So far... the Vet Center, has reached 2,015 veterans and signed up 515. HOW TO GET HELP • Vet Center: Patrick Murphy305-859-8387 in Miami-Dade; Bobby White, 954-356-7926 in Broward. • VA outreach program: Lillian Foley, 305-575-3528; Sherrill Valdez, 954-229-7650; Richard Mendez, 305-346-5725 |
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