Stress of Combat (nothing new)

[The_Bammo]

War vets' mental health has police on alert
By Erin Emery
Denver Post Staff Writer

Colorado Springs - After returning from Iraq, Jason Harvey, a combat soldier with the Fort Carson-based 2nd Brigade Combat Team, raced his car at speeds of more than 100 mph on Squirrel Tree Road and played paint ball to replicate battle situations.
"You have no idea what stress is until you've been in combat. When you're in combat, the adrenaline rush, it becomes fluid, you're used to it all the time. Then when you come back, it's not there anymore and you have to find something to get back to how it was," said Harvey, 23, who was diagnosed with post- traumatic stress disorder. "I know a lot of guys who started going sky diving or rock climbing; for me it was street racing. ... It might sound strange, but for me, when I was driving fast, it made me calm again."
Harvey was kicked out of the Army after he was found driving with a loaded gun on Fort Carson. He now lives in Wellington, Fla. He is among the untold number of veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan who have found themselves in what law enforcement officials increasingly realize are crisis situations - situations that often prove deadly.
While there is no hard data on whether high-risk or violent behavior is increasing, studies show the death rate for veterans returning from Vietnam and Operation Desert Storm was higher than for veterans who had not served in either theater.
"We expected it to happen, and it is now happening," said Steve Robinson, director of government relations for Veterans for America, a program of the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation.
Colorado has seen the following in the past two months:
On July 17, after an El Paso County sheriff's deputy stopped a pursuit that began when he saw two men on motorcycles popping wheelies and screaming up Academy Boulevard at speeds of more than 80 mph, Army Spec. Kelon Jones slammed his Kawasaki into a car. He flew 85 feet and later died. Jones, 20, had served in Iraq with the 43rd Area Support Group.
On Aug. 7, Robert Ziarnick, 25, was accused of shooting at Greenwood Village police and carjacking a 2005 Acura before fleeing to Cherry Creek State Park. Seven months earlier, Ziarnick used a knife to cut the words "kill me" into his abdomen. His wife told police he had served in Iraq and was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.
Two days later, in Colorado Springs, a police officer found Reisom Markose, 25, dead of an intentional overdose of bupropion, an antidepressant. Markose served in Iraq with the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment and recently had become a U.S. citizen.
More than 1.36 million Department of Defense personnel have served in Iraq or Afghanistan since Sept. 11, 2001. Surveys show that 19 percent to 21 percent of troops who have returned from combat deployments meet criteria for PTSD, depression or anxiety, Army Col. Charles Hoge, chief of psychiatry and behavior services at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, told a House subcommittee last year.
That war veterans may be in need of mental-health help is becoming increasingly clear to law enforcement.
In Massachusetts, Norfolk County District Attorney William Keating developed "Beyond the Yellow Ribbons: PTSD and Veterans," a training video for first responders. The DVD has been provided to police, fire, probation and court personnel to help them understand when a veteran is having trouble readjusting from the combat zone to the streets and what resources are available in the community.
"This is going to become, in my mind, one of the major, major issues to deal with in this war: the aftermath," Keating said.
The International Association of Chiefs of Police, an organization with more than 17,000 members, said that in the future, it may issue guidelines - or helpful hints - on how police officers can help veterans in crisis. In Colorado Springs, police Sgt. Kerry Duran said he has advised officers to be aware that thousands of soldiers from Fort Carson have returned from war. Duran tells his officers to protect themselves at all costs but also to understand that the soldiers are trying to adjust. "They can


http://www.denverpost.com/ci_4351441?source=rss

[The_Bammo]

Denogean: Film gives voice to terror war's hurt soldiers


ANNE DENOGEAN
Tucson Citizen

Some 1.4 American men and women have served in the Afghanistan and Iraq wars.
A powerful new film, "The Ground Truth" from Focus Features, gives a voice to a few of them who have come home as the walking wounded, some physically damaged, others with psychological injuries.
Tucson is one of about 25 cites nationwide selected for a special premiere of the film. It will be shown at 1 p.m. Sunday at The Loft Cinema. Admission is free and a panel discussion will follow.
Producer/Director Patricia Foulkrod said she became outraged early in the war by stories of soldiers not being provided with body armor and medical personnel not properly equipped to treat the wounded. She recalled reading about a combat support hospital using a setup involving a large cardboard box and a hair dryer to warm patients who had lost blood. It had been waiting months for medical warming blankets.
"There was something about that. I literally sat up in bed when I read that and said, 'I'm going to go make a film,' " Foulkrod said in a phone interview.
What evolved, however, is a movie mostly about the aftermath of war.
In the film, the soldiers tell the stories of their service in Iraq, about the things they've seen and done that, in some cases, leave them unable to sleep at night. They touch on what it really means to "support the troops." And they talk about how disconnected the American public is from this war in particular and the reality of war in general.
It's one thing to kill another soldier, but this war has also meant fighting women and children, Army veteran Herold Noel says in the film.
"When you know you got to run these kids over, when you know you got to put a bullet in this woman and this woman is pregnant, that's what messes with you. When you're looking at these kids laying on the floor dead and you see your child's face laying on that floor, that's what messes with you," he said.
Good numbers are hard to come by, but one estimate puts the Iraqi civilian death toll since the beginning of the war at a minimum of 41,000. The number of U.S. troops killed in Iraq since 2003 is 2,676.
The hidden psychological wounds discussed by the veterans will only become more evident with time. A 2004 Army study found that 1 in 8 returning soldiers from Army and Marine combat units reported symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.
Mike Brewer, a veteran services officer and Arizona coordinator of the Point Man International Ministries, a ministry for veterans, said he's seeing returning Iraq war vets with PTSD symptoms. Among them is a young Tucson soldier who ran over Iraqi children under orders and later was tasked with cleaning their blood off the front of the military vehicle.
Featured briefly in the film is Tucsonan Jim Driscoll, a Vietnam War combat veteran who has started Vets4Vets, a national organization for Iraq-era vets in need of emotional support from others with shared experiences.
"The one group that veterans have historically been able to count on is ourselves," he said in an interview.
Other soldiers featured in the film talk about their physical injuries, a lost leg, a crushed spine or a monstrously disfigured face.
Robert Acosta, a former U.S. Army specialist, says in the film that Americans hearing statistics on the injured tend to think the person will be OK. They don't get that "injured" can mean an arm or leg blown off, said Acosta, who lost his right hand to a grenade.
Body armor that protects the torso saves lives, Stephen Robinson,former executive director of the National Gulf War Resource Center, says in the film. But veterans who survive are coming home with horrible injuries to their extremities, he said.
Filmmaker Foulkrod said she is bothered when she hears people say they don't follow the news anymore because it's "too upsetting."
"Think about it. Oh, we're in a war and you're uncomfortable hearing about it. Well, go put 80 pounds of gear on and we'll see how uncomfortable you are. It's ridiculous," she said.
She insisted her film is not an "anti-war" piece, just an attempt to show what soldiers are experiencing in this war.
It's true the movie doesn't include wild rants against the government. But if documenting the overall soldier experience is the goal, the film falls short in failing to include the perspective of those soldiers and veterans who believe in the war and its goals.
They aren't hard to find. Tucsonan Frank Antenori, a retired Special Forces sergeant first class who has lost 16 good friends in the Afghanistan and Iraq conflicts, remains passionate in his belief that the U.S. has done inestimable good by removing a ruthless dictator from power and creating a fledgling democracy in a region hostile to the U.S. and our notions of freedom.
"This war is personal for me, too. I don't take it lightly at all. But I think it is well worth fighting," Antenori said.
"The Ground Truth" clearly is the perspective of those who question our involvement in Iraq. Some of the vets included are now active in the anti-war movement. But the lack of balance in the film doesn't negate the stories of the soldiers featured in it.
They deserve to be heard. They've earned it.
"The thing is, Americans want to honor the veterans in, like, a very cursory way, putting a yellow sticker on their car, having a parade or welcome back. But they don't want to honor the vets by listening to what they have to say," Aidan Delgado, a former U.S. Army Reserve specialist turned conscientious objector, says in the film.
President Bush has said we will not leave Iraq while he's in office. That means we can expect a new generation of war veterans coming home, many of them with extensive physical and psychological injuries.
Whether one supports or opposes the war, what's made clear in this film is that we had better be prepared to "support our troops" with more than just a yellow ribbon greeting.

Anne T. Denogean can be reached at 573-4582 and adenogeantucsoncitizen.com. Address letters to P.O. Box 26767, Tucson, AZ 85726-6767. Her column runs Tuesdays and Fridays.
> Past Anne T. Denogean columns at www.tucsoncitizen.com

http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/daily/local/26267.php

[The_Bammo]

Its name can change, but PTSD still an issue
By KENT MALLETT
Advocate Reporter


NEWARK -- It's been called soldier's heart, shellshock and battle fatigue in previous wars, and it was documented even in ancient times.
Since 1985, it's been referred to as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

The National Mental Health Association defines PTSD as, "an extremely debilitating condition that can occur after exposure to a terrifying event or ordeal in which grave physical harm occurred or was threatened."
The condition might be growing among all Americans after the Sept. 11 attacks, anthrax scares, the constant threat of terrorism and Hurricane Katrina. More is known about the disorder from learning about it from Vietnam-era veterans.
For men and women deployed in Afghanistan and Iraq, however, the anxiety of being in mortal danger around the clock for a year or more at a time could haunt them the rest of their lives. Many relive the traumatic experience through nightmares and flashbacks.
"It can be pretty scary and hard to deal with, especially if they witnessed some death and violent behavior," said Paddy Kutz, executive director of the Mental Health Association of Licking County. "We're in a different kind of world and the stress is enormous."
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs states evidence shows once veterans develop military-related PTSD, their symptoms often remain chronic for life, and they also are resistant to treatments that help other forms of chronic PTSD.
Local veterans from various wars have reported difficulty reconnecting with family and friends, unease in social situations, sleepless nights and overreaction to loud noises. Left unchecked, PTSD also can lead to alcohol and drug use, criminal activity, divorce and job loss.
The key is getting help as soon as possible instead of hiding the problem, veterans say.
"Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is not a dirty word," said Vietnam veteran Dale Bradshaw. "It doesn't mean you're nuts."
About 30 percent of those who spend time in a war zone develop PTSD, with another 20 to 25 percent having partial PTSD sometime in their life, the VA reports.
In Iraq, 94 percent of soldiers reported receiving small-arms fire and 86 percent said they knew someone killed or seriously injured. Also, 48 percent reported being responsible for the death of an enemy combatant and 28 percent responsible for the death of a noncombatant, according to the VA.
"It took me a long time to even recognize I had some issues -- 25 years," said Russ Clark, a Vietnam veteran from Newark who founded the Newark outpost of veterans support group Point Man Ministries of Central Ohio. "I put on a good front, and I'm grateful I was able to do that because it kept my career going, but I knew inside things weren't right."
Mary Jones, the Licking County Veterans Service officer, said the military does a briefing with those leaving active duty, with a VA representative usually participating.
"You don't seek treatment for much when in the military," Jones said. "It's frowned upon. When they come back from combat situation, they get initial counseling."
The key is the veteran or someone close to the veteran recognizing the problems and the veteran acknowledging he or she needs help.
"The more you learn about this stuff, the more you can deal with the symptoms," Kutz said. "Some people don't want to know about depression because 'What if I've got it?' So, instead of knowing about it, they put their head in the sand." Kent Mallett can be reached at (740) 328-8545 or kmallett@newarkadvocate.com.



http://www.centralohio.com/apps/pbcs...609100303/1002

[The_Bammo]

Families feel pain, can find relief
By KENT MALLETT
Advocate Reporter


NEWARK -- Families of veterans with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder can't know exactly what their loved one is going through, but they literally can feel some of the pain.
Spouses and children of the combat veteran can suffer secondary PTSD as a result of living with someone who seems inexplicably isolated, angry, jumpy or depressed at various times.

First, the family members deal with the loved one's deployment into a combat zone and the daily anxiety of not knowing what's happening to them half a world away. Then, when the family member returns, the family deals with someone who acts differently than before the deployment.
"The biggest thing with me is you can't expect things to go back to the same," said Sarah Hall, wife of veteran Sean Hall. "You adjust and learn to deal and can't expect it to be the same. Not necessarily in a bad way, just different."
Veterans groups and mental health experts advise families to be patient with the returned veteran but to pay attention to possible symptoms of PTSD. Sometimes, the spouse spots those symptoms before the veteran knows what's happening.
"None of us really understood what was happening to us," Vietnam veteran Gary Jones said. "We never knew what was causing that. It's a matter of understanding why you're doing what you're doing.
"It's a complex issue. There's so many degrees of this. The vast majority are going to be affected."
Vietnam veteran Dale Bradshaw advises family members to become educated and pay attention to their loved one's changes.
"The people who diagnose them (with PTSD) are friends and family members," Bradshaw said. "They knew them before they went over and noticed the change. There's a change, and they have to tactfully approach him. Mothers, wives and close friends are going to have to take the initiative."
The Iraq veterans and their families have the advantage on the Vietnam soldiers, because more information is available to prepare for and respond to PTSD.
Hall said she first tried to avoid learning about the dangers her husband faced in Iraq and the potential problems when he returned home.
She wanted to avoid a Hearts on the Homefront seminar a couple months before Sean returned.
"They were going to tell you all the things that could happen, but I was going to have another excuse why I couldn't make it to the seminars," Hall said. "I didn't want extra to worry about. I guess I'm one of those that I don't want to know too much."
As it turned out, she really couldn't attend the seminar, but read information on PTSD and changed her mind.
"I wish I would have gone (to the seminar)," Hall said. "I could have taken more away from it. You're probably better off to get more information and be well-equipped."
She tried to prepare their children as best she could for Sean's return, advising them not to run and jump on their dad or make too much noise. She admits she overlooked one thing that should have been obvious.
"I bought drums for one of our boys," Sarah said. "I guess I didn't think about drums."
Jean Bailey, mother of Iraq War veteran Josh Barr, said she sought out information on the war, including joining an online group for Army moms.
"My imagination runs wild, so it's good I learn about things, but it kept me up at night," Bailey said.
"I like to know everything. I don't like surprises. I cried a lot."
It took 30 years, but Nancy Bradshaw finally was able to get Dale to face his problems by getting him to take a walk to the Vietnam Veterans of America booth at Swapper's Day a few years ago.
"I took him on a walk, not telling him where we were headed," Nancy said. "I wanted him to meet the (VVA) guys. They told me when you join, you have a choice: Either open up and talk about problems or listen until you feel like talking about it. And, I thought that's something he probably needed."
Dale said his wife read a book about PTSD and asked him, "Who wrote your autobiography?"
The change has been dramatic, as Dale now is president of the Licking County Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter 55.
Since Dale joined the VVA, he has opened up about some things he's had locked away for decades. One was a peculiar reaction to hot chocolate.
"I found out one instance that he had been holding in for 30 years," Nancy said.
"He left Vietnam for 'R & R' to meet me and as he got on the helicopter, a guy asked for a hot chocolate packet. The guy was killed later. For 30 years, that particular thing had been on his mind." Kent Mallett can be reached at (740) 328-8545 or kmallett@newarkadvocate.com.

Originally published September 11, 2006



http://www.centralohio.com/apps/pbcs...609110302/1002

[The_Bammo]

War as an equal hell

STUDY SAYS WOMEN DON'T SUFFER MORE

By Donna St. George

Washington Post

Is there a gender gap when it comes to psychological trauma after war? Researcher Carl Castro set out to answer that question last year, looking at mental health data on men and women who worked in Iraq in similar jobs amid hostile fire.
In his analysis, Castro found symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder in 11 percent of men and 12 percent of women and signs of depression in 5.6 percent of men and 8 percent of women -- differences that are not statistically significant, he said.
``The issue was: Are women doing worse than men? And the answer is no,'' said Castro, chief of military psychiatry at Walter Reed Army Institute of Research.
This result, based on a study of 400 soldiers, surprises experts such as Patricia Resick, director of the Women's Health Sciences Division of the National Center for PTSD. ``One would think women would have a higher rate,'' as they do in the general population, she said.
The apparent lack of a gender gap, she said, raises questions about women serving in Iraq. ``Those who make it through boot camp may be a hardier group,'' Resick said. ``It's puzzling. There's a lot we don't know yet.''
Castro suggested it may be that female soldiers are ``more resilient.'' ``They may have more effective coping mechanisms,'' he said.
Across the United States, 5 percent of men and 10.6 percent of women develop post-traumatic stress disorder, said Ronald Kessler, a Harvard University researcher.
Experts cannot pinpoint why women's rates are higher, if it is because they are more willing to report concerns, experience more intense traumas or react differently.
But Resick suggests the kind of trauma makes a big difference. ``Women are more likely to have the events that are more likely to cause PTSD: rape, child sexual abuse and domestic violence,'' she said.
For military women, another complicating factor is sexual assault. Since 2003, women deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan have reported more than 500 cases of sexual assault to the Miles Foundation, a private non-profit group that works with military personnel.
PTSD is widespread among these women, said Anita Sanchez of the foundation. ``You're talking about the trauma of first of all being in combat but then being violated in this way,'' she said.
Department of Defense figures show 2,374 alleged sexual assaults across the military services last year, up 40 percent from 2004. The increase is the result of a new reporting system and more faith in the process, said department spokesman Roger Kaplan.
Disagreeing, Sanchez said part of the jump is the result of deployments overseas. There is an established link between deployment and sexual assault, she said.
Although it is not clear how sex assaults will affect the PTSD rates of Iraq veterans, Kessler pointed out that the general rule is: ``The more terrible things that happen to you, the higher the risk of PTSD.''

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercu...htm?source=rss
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I agree with Resick who suggests the kind of trauma makes a big difference. ``Women are more likely to have the events that are more likely to cause PTSD: rape, child sexual abuse and domestic violence,'' she said.
For military women, another complicating factor is sexual assault. Since 2003, women deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan have reported more than 500 cases of sexual assault to the Miles Foundation, a private non-profit group that works with military personnel.
PTSD is widespread among these women, said Anita Sanchez of the foundation. ``You're talking about the trauma of first of all being in combat but then being violated in this way,'' she said.

[The_Bammo]

Guardsmen charged in off-duty shooting say they were bored

EL PASO, Texas -- A trio of Texas National Guard soldiers accused of opening fire in a neighborhood near Eagle Pass say boredom led to a joyride with two cases of beer and a loaded 9 mm pistol.
The Operation Jump Start soldiers, Pfc. Brandon Jones, 23, of St. Jo, Pvt. David Hampton, 23, of McKinney, and Spc. Lydell Corey Sampract, 24, whose hometown was not available, were arrested Sept. 6 on felony charges of deadly conduct for allegedly shooting into the air in front of a house crowded with people at an outdoor barbecue. They spent a week in jail before being released to National Guard officials on $15,000 bail.
Maverick County Sheriff Tomas Herrera said the soldiers, who were off duty and using a personal weapon, told investigators "they just got bored at the motel they were staying at and went out for a joyride, picked up some cases of beer and went to a subdivision."
Herrera said it's not hard for newcomers to get bored in Eagle Pass, a city of about 22,500 people on the eastern edge of Texas' Rio Grande Valley.
"There ain't much to do in this town," Herrera said. "Either you can go to the local bar and play some pool and drink some beer, go to the local casino or go across the border."
Eagle Pass is a remote border town about 150 miles from San Antonio, the nearest metropolitan area.
National Guard troops are not permitted to cross into Mexico.
Last week's arrests, which Texas National Guard spokesman Capt. Dick Jinks said has caused "a great deal of chagrin," appear to be an anomaly.
Since the launch of President Bush's Operation Jump Start, which sent thousands of National Guard troops to the border in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California to augment U.S. Border Patrol ranks, only a handful of incidents have been reported.
In Texas, the only other problems involved traffic stops and three cases of drunken-driving, but "nothing of this magnitude," Jinks said.
In New Mexico, where troops from around the country have volunteered to work at the border, a Georgia National Guard soldier was sent home in July after her suicide threat ended with a brief standoff with police at a Deming, N.M. hotel.
No problems have been reported with National Guard troops pulling border duty in Arizona or California, according to spokesmen there.
All the soldiers at the border are volunteers. While an untold number of those troops, including Sampract and Hampton, served in Iraq or Afghanistan before heading to the border National Guard officials insist that combat service has not influenced the soldiers' service or behavior at the border.
Jinks said Sampract and Hampton had been home for about six months when they volunteered for the border duty. They attended classes to help readjust to life at home and deal with any stress from their Iraq deployment.
For soldiers deployed to the border for lengthy stays, Guard officials are working to combat the boredom problem that the Texas trio blamed for their alleged shooting spree.
In Eagle Pass, some of the soldiers have started a softball team that competes with local residents. Jones, Sampract and Hampton weren't on the team, Jinks said.
In New Mexico and California, where some troops are in towns without even a bar for entertainment, National Guard officials have started to set up outings to larger towns or social events including barbecues and volleyball games.
Jones, Sampract and Hammond, who Jinks said have declined to speak with reporters, are expected to appear in court in Maverick County later this year. It is unclear what penalties they could face in the military.


http://www.kristv.com/global/story.asp?s=5418650

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All the soldiers at the border are volunteers. While an untold number of those troops, including Sampract and Hampton, served in Iraq or Afghanistan before heading to the border National Guard officials insist that combat service has not influenced the soldiers' service or behavior at the border.
Jinks said Sampract and Hampton had been home for about six months when they volunteered for the border duty. They attended classes to help readjust to life at home and deal with any stress from their Iraq deployment.

(Give me a free-kin break - they attended "CLASSES" to help them adjust to life at home and deal with stress from a war zone - what a crock of shit!)

National Guard officials insist that combat service has not influenced the soldiers' service or behavior at the border.

(Wonder where these NG officials did their duty --LOL -- typical lifer kiss azz BS - show the G.I.'S some cartoons and an episode of Leave It To Beaver and they are ready for life at f**ken Walmart!! )

[The_Bammo]

In Iraq, fewer killed, more are wounded
By Brad Knickerbocker, Staff writer of The Christian Science MonitorTue Aug 29, 5:00 AM ET


As the controversial war in Iraq continues, Defense Department officials and civilian experts are getting a clearer picture of American combat casualties.
Among the emerging details: The fatality rate is markedly less than in previous conflicts. But while all wars are different, the nature of combat in Iraq, plus advances in battlefield medicine, mean that the number of wounded remains relatively high. Enlisted ground troops are most at risk, but the young lieutenants who lead them on patrol are even more likely to be killed or wounded.
Lessons learned and historical context are at stake here. But officials also want to make sure the casualty reporting procedures are accurate and adequate, especially for the families of those lost or wounded.
The US Army acknowledged over the weekend that it is reexamining hundreds of casualty reports in response to criticisms of inaccuracies, such as instances initially attributed to enemy action that turned out to have been by friendly fire.
All unit-level investigations of battlefield deaths are being checked to see if they square with records kept by the Army's Casualty Assistance Center in Alexandria, Va.
Meanwhile, experts at the University of Pennsylvania have examined Defense Department fatality figures for Iraq and Afghanistan to compare levels of risk between the services now and in earlier wars. What they found, said Professor Samuel Preston, a leading demographer, is that the fatality rate among service men and women in Iraq and Afghanistan is "very much lower" than it was in the Vietnam War. But at the same time, Dr. Preston says, the relative number of nonfatal casualties is not much different from what it was in Vietnam.
"In part, we're able to keep injured people alive in a better way than we did before," he said.
Because of new body armor and advances in military medicine, for example, the ratio of combat-zone deaths to those wounded has dropped from 24 percent in Vietnam to 13 percent in Iraq and Afghanistan. In other words, the numbers of those killed as a percentage of overall casualties is lower. At this writing, 2,955 American service men and women have been killed (2,622 in Iraq and 333 in Afghanistan), and 20,174 have been wounded.
Experts are also comparing battlefield casualties with other areas of American society, such as young men living in violence-prone urban areas. Young black men in Philadelphia, for example, have a death rate 11 percent higher than troops in Iraq, according to Preston.
Among other things, Preston and University of Pennsylvania student Emily Buzzell found that Hispanics have a slightly higher "death risk" than non-Hispanics and that blacks have a death risk that is lower than nonblacks - both a function of the kinds of units most of those two groups serve in. The Marine Corps, for example, contains a disproportionately higher number of Hispanics than other military branches and also carries a higher casualty rate.
Among both Army soldiers and marines, enlisted personnel have a 40 percent higher mortality rate than officers. The exception is Army and Marine Corps lieutenants - junior officers who typically lead combat patrols and who have a markedly higher mortality rate than all soldiers and marines.
What's not fully clear at this point in the war is the long-term effects of intense combat that involves urban fighting, seemingly random roadside bombs, and suicide bombers targeting US forces. Saving more American lives in the war zones means more people must be treated for amputations and other serious injuries, perhaps for the rest of their lives. Also, the New England Journal of Medicine reported in 2005 that 19 percent of Marine infantrymen and 17 percent of Army infantrymen studied in four units in Iraq and Afghanistan "met the screening criteria" for depression, anxiety, or postraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
For the Army and the Marine Corps in particular, which have some of the most dangerous jobs in Iraq and Afghanistan, casualty rates can affect personnel recruiting and retention efforts, not only for psychological reasons but because the military must replace the 500 or so troops lost each month to battlefield deaths, injuries, illness, and psychological problems tied to combat.
Still, considering the intensity and duration of the campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan, US losses have been remarkably light, some experts assert.
"Recognizing the political consequences of casualties, US commanders are a good deal more cautious in risking the lives of soldiers than they might have been at Gettysburg or Anzio," says Loren Thompson, a military analyst with the Lexington Institute in Arlington, Va.
Critics say multiple war-zone tours and the recent involuntary call-up of reserve soldiers and marines amounts to a "backdoor draft" that further complicates recruiting efforts. Some who supported the US-led invasion of Iraq generally agree.
"The message prospective recruits are getting is that if you never volunteered you won't be called, but if you did volunteer, you can be called again and again, even against your will," says Dr. Thompson. "This seems to be fundamentally unfair. The government demands that a small number of citizens who have already served carry even more of the burden, while it makes no demands at all on the vast majority of people."






http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20060829.../acasualties_1

[The_Bammo]

Home But Still Haunted, Iraq - Afghan Woman Veterans Cope With PTSD

There are times when Trinette Johnson's life seems to stall, when she finds herself staring at the ceiling fan in her bedroom, watching the blades spin, her mind hung on nothing - not her receptionist job, not her fiance, not her ailing father or her four children.
Not even the war.
The war, of course, is always there somewhere, she said, an unseen force in her life, sometimes producing moments of blank detachment, sometimes stirring up anger like nothing she has ever known.
More than two years after returning from duty in Iraq, she has found herself yelling and cursing at other drivers on the road. Panicked in crowds. Seized with fear at the sight of highway overpasses and tunnels that might suddenly explode.


Doctors gave the 32-year-old Johnson, who served in the Washington, D.C., National Guard, a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder, which has plagued thousands of U.S. troops after combat in Iraq - bringing on flashbacks, numbness, rage and anxiety and leaving many at odds with their old lives, families and jobs.
How women are affected after combat is only starting to be probed. This is the first war in which so many women have been so exposed to hostile fire, working a wider-than-ever array of jobs, for long deployments.
"This is a really unique experience, and we just don't know," said Ronald C. Kessler, a Harvard University professor and author of a landmark study of post-traumatic stress disorder.
For women who are mothers, combat-related PTSD may have added significance. Often, after war, "it's not the same mommy who left," said Yale University associate professor Laurie Harkness, who runs a Veterans Affairs mental health clinic in Connecticut. Although the same can be said for fathers, she said, "mothers in general are the emotional hub of a family."
For Johnson, it was a doctor at Walter Reed Army Medical Center who first uttered the letters P-T-S-D, a defining moment that came after she spent nine months working the bomb-blasted roads near Baghdad. Her job with the 547th Transportation Company was hauling - troops, supplies, equipment - and security. At one point, she helped transport dead Iraqis to their wailing relatives.
In one particularly bad period, a roadside bomb claimed the life of a 21-year-old soldier in her unit, Spec. Darryl T. Dent. Later, another bomb severely wounded Johnson's best friend, Spec. Antoinette Scott, a mother of four.
That fall in 2003, Johnson was riding in a truck with her M-16 rifle pointed out the passenger-side window. Out of nowhere came a deafening blast. Her five-ton vehicle swerved and nearly flipped. There was fire. White smoke. Flying debris. A bomb, hidden along a guardrail, had detonated.
Johnson received a Purple Heart for hearing loss in her left ear but stayed in Iraq for several more months, working the same roads. "It seemed like once every other or three days somebody was getting hit," she recalled recently.
But the enemy was elusive. She never fired her M-16.
Unexpectedly, in January 2004, she was shipped home three months early, sidelined with severe kidney stones. Later, at Walter Reed, the dreams started: violent dreams, with exploding mortars and hordes of barking dogs. She mentioned them to a doctor.
This was while she was living on the hospital grounds, seeing specialists and worrying about whether anyone in her unit had been injured or killed. She called her unit in Iraq every day. But she had not seen her kids.
A counselor prodded her to visit them - three were being cared for by Johnson's sister in Falls Church, and one was in Richmond, Virginia, with the child's paternal grandmother. None of the children lived with their fathers.
"Mommy! Mommy!" her youngest daughter, then 2, shrieked during a visit in Falls Church, climbing all over her.
Johnson had been a mother since she had her son at age 14. Now she felt overwhelmed. She rose to leave.
"I can't do this," she told her sister.
In her car, she sobbed, wondering how she could feel so disconnected. "I realized that I just walked out on my babies."
* * *
In nearly 3 1/2 years of war, more than 137,000 female troops have served in Iraq and Afghanistan, some exposed to the most profound stresses of combat: ambushes, mortars, bombs, fallen comrades. They have fired M-16s and grenade launchers, killed people and been shot at.
As these women have returned home, Army researchers studying the psychological fallout of Iraq have noted a surprising trend in early studies: Women appear to be showing symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental health troubles at roughly the same rates as men.
If this result holds true, it would stand out because women studied in the overall population show markedly higher rates of post-traumatic stress disorder than men - about twice as much.
"It's not definitive, but it's encouraging," said Patricia A. Resick, director of the Women's Health Sciences Division of the National Center for PTSD, part of the Veterans Affairs Department. Resick said more research is needed.
While studies of the war's effects continue, one fact is clear: A generation of U.S. military women is at risk of combat-related stress disorder as never before.
A recent study showed that, overall, more than one in three U.S. troops sought mental-health care in the year after returning from Iraq. An earlier study found that about one in six showed signs of PTSD, major depression or anxiety after Iraq.
"From our data, what it looks like is that women serving in combat have the same risk as men of getting PTSD or other mental health conditions," said Charles W. Hoge of the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research.
For Johnson, treatment at Walter Reed made things better, with group sessions, art therapy and combat-stress counseling. "You're in there with other people who are going through the same things," she said, "and you kind of feel like, 'Okay, now I don't feel crazy.' "
The most wrenching day, as she remembers it, was when she was sent home: Oct. 3, 2004. No longer did she have the supportive environment of the hospital. She was on her own, medically discharged from the military because of the stress disorder.
Outwardly, Johnson looked much the same: bright eyes peering through delicate glasses, big smile, always seeming on the verge of a laugh. "Dee," everyone called her. But much had changed. "I don't even know this life," she said one day.
For several months, while her fiance supported them, she could not bring herself to go to work. Finally, last year, she returned to her job as a receptionist in the National Guard building in Northwest Washington, which houses a museum lined with exhibits that depict combat.
The images did not bother her.
The hard thing was that in the life she returned to, almost no one seemed to understand Iraq. They did not know what it was like to live with hidden enemies and fatal explosions, to feel so far from family and become so attached to other soldiers.
Some people told her: "I couldn't have left my kids like that."
The comments upset her because they implied a choice she did not have. She was a National Guard soldier, a job she took in 1997 as a steppingstone to more financial stability at a time when she was a single mother of three. The Iraq war did not seem a possibility then. Her father had served 26 years as a guardsman without seeing battle.
In 2003, Johnson left for war as her youngest was learning to talk.
Her eldest daughter was nearly 12 when Johnson returned. The girl seemed different - dressing in black, skipping school, no more smiles, no hugs. She wondered: Was it because of her absence?
She recalled, "I'm looking and I'm trying to figure out, 'Where is my child?' "
* * *
Even now, there are times Johnson feels uncomfortable talking about post-traumatic stress disorder. It's an invisible wound in a war with daily bloodshed. At Walter Reed, she said, she saw soldiers with missing arms or legs, paralysis, shrapnel scars.
She is not so physically injured.
Still, her diagnosis scares her.
It took her six months after she left Walter Reed to make herself go to a VA office and stay for an appointment. She put it off at first, then became overwhelmed by the sight: veterans with glazed looks, some seeming at loose ends with nothing else to do.
"I would see some of the older vets sitting there," she recalled, "and I would be like, 'Lord, have mercy. I do not want that to be me.' "
She gave up alcohol. Some veterans drink a lot, she said, and she does not want to "self-medicate," as she called it. "It doesn't make Iraq go away," she said. "But obviously, if you pass out, then there's nothing bothering you at that time."
Johnson understands the danger of alcohol partly from her fiance, Mark Branch, who was her battle buddy in Iraq. He was driving the five-ton truck the day the bomb went off along the guardrail.
After Iraq, he drank so much R魹 Martin cognac that she lined up all of his empty liquor-bottle boxes along the top of their kitchen cabinets.
"How many fifths did I go through?" he asked her one day as they thought back.
He checked into a treatment program at Walter Reed, too.
The way Branch sees it, "a lot of us, we come back, and we have to go back to work because we have families, we have jobs, we have houses." Finding time to pursue counseling seemed impossible.
"You're never going to be healed from it," he said. "They just teach you how to live with it."
In her own life, Johnson finds herself off balance in ways that have surprised her.
One day she banged up her car but could not recall how. She heard the smack, yes. But how did she get up on the curb? Did she swipe a fire hydrant? "It's almost like I'm there but I'm not there sometimes," she said.
Another day, she recalled, it was the usual Washington traffic as she drove her Chrysler Concorde with the Purple Heart license plates. Along a snarled street, a bus driver blared his horn at her.
She yelled, cursed, then hurled an empty Coke cup at the bus before she even knew what she was doing. "You don't realize what you're doing until after, or sometimes a lot after," she said, later reflecting: "My temper is on a whole other level."
Then there was the time she got stuck in traffic near a highway overpass in Prince George's County. In Iraq, overpasses could conceal bombs. She felt a crushing sense of danger - and traffic was at a dead stop.
"I was just losing it," she recalled.
In hysterics, Johnson phoned her fiance, who told her: Put the car in park and walk away until you settle down. When the traffic starts to move, climb back in your car.
More than 2 1/2 years after her return from war, her sense of safety has not returned. She worries as never before about terrorist attacks and suicide bombers.
"I always make sure I'm armed, regardless," she said, mentioning a knife she keeps around. "I always make sure I have something to defend myself."
She has had a hard time with the V.A.
She applied for disability compensation, but it took 14 months, and there are still problems. She started mental health sessions but wound up disappointed. She said the V.A. canceled her appointment in October. In November. In December. Each time, there was a different reason, she said. Her therapist was sick. Her name was not on the schedule. All of that, she said, has added to her stress.
"I haven't been there in four months, and they haven't even noticed," Johnson said early this year. V.A. officials declined to discuss her case but said that, overall, veterans get the PTSD care they need.
In February, Johnson said, her social worker made some calls and got her a 30-minute session March 8. But problems at work so consumed her that she could not remember what to tell the doctor. Usually, she makes a list of things to bring up.
Once, she asked: How long am I going to be like this?
"It could stop today, or it could go on for years," she said she was told, which brings her to this: "That's what scares me. I just get scared that I'll be one of those homeless people that you see holding the signs because I've lost my mind."
For now, her fate is nothing like that. She and her fiance bought a house this year, a brick rancher with a big back yard in Clinton. Her children seem happier, planted. Her eldest daughter is 14, an honor student and soccer-team captain.
Her youngest, now 5, is still focused on Mommy, and Johnson is glad - though sometimes she still finds herself overwhelmed. On weekends, she and her fiance often have six or more children around, hers and his and often a niece or nephew.
After Iraq, she rarely goes out anymore - not to clubs, not to movies. She passed up a chance to apply for a higher-paying job in her office because she felt she could not manage additional pressure.
Some days, she feels perilously close to the edge.
If she is home, she may retreat to her bedroom. There, she can collect herself. Or she may, for a moment, lose her connection to everything, as the ceiling fan turns, as her mind goes blank.
Intellpuke: Yep, Ms. Johnson is displaying many of the classic PTSD symptoms. And the V.A. is flat out lying when it says veterans get the PTSD care they need. Some do, some don't and, lately, more and more don't. There are a lot of veterans from WWII, Korea and Vietnam who clearly suffer from PTSD and still have no disability rating from the V.A. No rating means no benefits and haphazard treatment, if any. Many veterans - including those from Afghanistan and Iraq - have encountered the same stone wall, the same cancelled appointments, the same lack of treatment that Ms. Johnson is experiencing. This also contributes to many veterans "self-medicating" - through drink or drugs. It's they only way they can subdue, if only for a little while, the nightmares, intrusive thoughts, sudden rages of anger, anxiety attacks ... and several other PTSD symptoms. Hang in there, Ms. Johnson, you are not alone.

You can read this article by Washington Post staff writer Donna St. George in context here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...081900353.html




http://freeinternetpress.com/story.php?sid=8089

[rainwater]

I sat next to a woman Iraq vet one day, she couldnt stop moving; she told me most of her buddies(FtCarson) have real serious road rage problems, cant stand driving in traffic and having to stop for lights. They got very used to screaming around at very high speeds.
She also told me she had re-upped for two more, if she hadnt they wouldve sent her to the DMZ and she wouldve rotated back to Iraq with new people she didnt know, or trust.

Thats a nifty back door........


Btw.....EMDR is a very good PTSD treatment. Many active and out are doing it. You can google it.

[101Scout]

Stress of Combat (nothing new)

Wait until these Iraq and Afghan Vets start dealing with their PTSD triggers when viewing shit going on in Iran and or Syria... or possibly N Korea bro. I faintly can remember a little about the start of the Grenada gig while I was still dealing with my leftover Nam PTSD symptoms as the smell of that 'rush job' for war in Latin America really put me on edge. I would bet that my drinking increased when that crap started.... and probably a few more fights was added to my 'activities' list. We will witness beaucoup new Vets dealing with increased anxiety problems as we creep closer to more war fronts. Hell, I'd say it still works on us still bro!

[zatoichi1]

Thank you very much for this thread and these posts.

Great thread. This is something very useful.

I have dealt with people with PTSD. They go through more than people know.

[The_Bammo]

I sat next to a woman Iraq vet one day, she couldnt stop moving; she told me most of her buddies(FtCarson) have real serious road rage problems, cant stand driving in traffic and having to stop for lights. They got very used to screaming around at very high speeds.
She also told me she had re-upped for two more, if she hadnt they wouldve sent her to the DMZ and she wouldve rotated back to Iraq with new people she didnt know, or trust.

Thats a nifty back door........


Btw.....EMDR is a very good PTSD treatment. Many active and out are doing it. You can google it.

There it is rainwater - "SHRUB'S" way of supporting the G.I.'S --for sure! I know exactly what your talkong about with the road rage - trust me! That there is a part of the PTSD rainwater,(just a very small part) trust me on that.

See how those SOB'S manipulate the G.I.'S to keep their back door draft going? What a bunch of maggots, and I mean it!

Thanks for the post rainwater, PTSD has a lot of different effects on a lot of people, not just the person that has it. Look at Nam, PTSD is still effecting beaucoup Vets, their families, friends and society today!

Tried EMDR many times rainwater in many VAMC'S (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing ) - believe me when I tell you - it did not help me out at all! If it helps other Vets - great! They been trying EMDR for quite a while - along with Breathing techniques and relaxation sessions. Cannot say they ever did a thing for me, other than Pizz me Off because I gave them a shot and they did sheet for me, but they still wanted to use it and make me attend. Trust me-- they found out what road rage was, without a car.

Hang Tough~

[The_Bammo]

Thank you very much for this thread and these posts.

Great thread. This is something very useful.

I have dealt with people with PTSD. They go through more than people know.

Your welcome zatoichi1, PTSD is going to be a big problem from "SHRUB'S" fiasco, already seeing them in big numbers at the VAMC. Are we as Americans ready to show true support for these Vets? I sure hope so - in a big way - and understanding as well!

Thanks for your help zatoichi with PTSD, as you know it can come from any traumatic episode - not just Combat.

Your 100% right on people not knowing what people who are effected with PTSD actually go through and it could be for the rest of their lives!

Thanks for the post zatoichi1- Hang Tough~ (feel free to add to this thread - anytime)

[rainwater]

There it is rainwater - "SHRUB'S" way of supporting the G.I.'S --for sure! I know exactly what your talkong about with the road rage - trust me! That there is a part of the PTSD rainwater,(just a very small part) trust me on that.

See how those SOB'S manipulate the G.I.'S to keep their back door draft going? What a bunch of maggots, and I mean it!

Thanks for the post rainwater, PTSD has a lot of different effects on a lot of people, not just the person that has it. Look at Nam, PTSD is still effecting beaucoup Vets, their families, friends and society today!

Tried EMDR many times rainwater in many VAMC'S (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing ) - believe me when I tell you - it did not help me out at all! If it helps other Vets - great! They been trying EMDR for quite a while - along with Breathing techniques and relaxation sessions. Cannot say they ever did a thing for me, other than Pizz me Off because I gave them a shot and they did sheet for me, but they still wanted to use it and make me attend. Trust me-- they found out what road rage was, without a car.

Hang Tough~

I did five months of EMDR and found it very effective; I also did NOT do it at the VA, did it with a private person who is seeing many active and out.

[The_Bammo]

Wait until these Iraq and Afghan Vets start dealing with their PTSD triggers when viewing shit going on in Iran and or Syria... or possibly N Korea bro. I faintly can remember a little about the start of the Grenada gig while I was still dealing with my leftover Nam PTSD symptoms as the smell of that 'rush job' for war in Latin America really put me on edge. I would bet that my drinking increased when that crap started.... and probably a few more fights was added to my 'activities' list. We will witness beaucoup new Vets dealing with increased anxiety problems as we creep closer to more war fronts. Hell, I'd say it still works on us still bro!

I hear ya' Bro' on the triggers - smells, thoughts, dreams, noises, news showing combat, fights, hate for authority, losing jobs - one after another, anger, depression, anxiety, panic attacks, sleeplessness, flashbacks, isolation, drinkin' - druggin' to get some relief that never comes - etc. - etc. (you know the deal)

Bro' these Iraq - Afghanistan Vets are hitting the VA'S hard with the PTSD symptoms. The VAMC'S does not have the people to take on such a load that grows daily. Reminds me of Vietnam when PTSD was finally diagnosed from a personality disorder to PTSD in the early 80's --83-84 ! Drug em' up - ship em' out! They don't have the resources Bro'! They are capable but short-handed and under funded big-time!

Bro', they are even sending active duty G.I.'s to the PTSD clinic at the VAMC - medding them up and sending them back! And I am 100% serious.

Can you imagine being in front of some Bro' or Sister on patrol in a dangerous AO with a full auto, on rock and role takin' anti-depressants and anti-anxiety --most likely sleepers as well and who knows what else!!!

Its happening Bro' - thats the "SHRUB" way of support for his troops, makes me free-ken sick Bro'!

Hang Tough~