Friday, March 18, 2011

JCS Articles of Interest This Week

COMBAT, OPERATIONAL & POST-DEPLOYMENT STRESS

1.      Growing Up While Mom And Dad Are Off Fighting A War

Warsaw, Ohio (CNN) -- Seth Rice is a 2-year-old boy full of energy, curiosity and emotions. Watching him play with his toys, you don't notice any of the emotional toll that having a parent deploy can take on a little boy.

2.      Marines In Deadly Afghan Valley Face Combat Stress

SANGIN, Afghanistan -- When U.S. Marine Lance Cpl. Derek Goins deployed to the most dangerous place in Afghanistan five months ago, he mentally prepared for the risk of getting shot by the Taliban or stepping on bombs buried throughout this southern river valley.

3.      Taking The 'Disorder' Out Of Post-War Stress

Soldier's heart, shell shock, war neurosis, combat fatigue ---- and now, especially for the last decade in Iraq and Afghanistan, post traumatic stress disorder.

4.      Female Gis Struggle With Higher Rate Of Divorce

WASHINGTON -- Two failed marriages were the cost of war for Sgt. Jennifer Schobey.

5.      David Cameron Calls For A 'National Change In Attitude' Towards Veterans' Mental Health

David Cameron Has Called For A “National Change In Attitude” Towards Mental Health Problems Among Former Soldiers.
The news came as the Prime Minister launched a 24 hours a day helpline for veterans suffering from battlefield trauma years after they have left the armed forces.

6.      'I Had A Nervous Breakdown. I Just Couldn't Cope'

Hugh Forsyth spent 11 years in the Army in the Royal Engineers, with an ordnance disposal regiment, serving in Northern Ireland and Bosnia.

7.      Canadian Soldiers In Afghanistan Suffer High Rate Of Brain Trauma

216 comments Email Tweet Print Decrease text size Increase text size Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan were hospitalized for traumatic brain injury between 2006 and 2009 at almost three times the rate of Americans fighting there in earlier years before the war escalated, according to a National Defence study obtained by The Globe and Mail.

8.      Can Video Games Quell Nightmares?

Video games often get a bad rap, but their ability to desensitise players to violence could help soldiers sleep better. According to an online survey of 98 military personnel, regularly playing games that involve war and combat - like Call of Duty - decreased the level of harm and aggression experienced when they dreamed about war.

TBI

9.      Growing Threat To Soldiers: Traumatic Brain Injury

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) caused by explosions has produced a high incidence of casualties among U.S. troops fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. The propensity of this injury and the damaging, long-term chronic consequences experienced by the soldiers on these fronts has led to TBI being labeled a signature injury of these recent wars.

10.  TBI Stands For: To Be Improved

I’d Like To Introduce Guest Blogger Army Staff Sgt. Victor Medina, Who Sustained A Moderate Traumatic Brain Injury During His Third Deployment In Iraq In 2009. Several Months Later, Medina Started A Blog Titled “TBI Warrior” To Help Educate Other Survivors And Caregivers Affected By A Brain Injury Through His Own Experiences — Before And After TBI.
Let me take you back to the first day of my new life. The day was June 29, 2009. The mission was a mounted patrol to escort supplies and route reconnaissance from a main contingency operating base to a joint security station. The route would take about three hours. We maneuvered through one of the largest cities in Iraq during the three-hour mission.

NATIONAL GUARD/RESERVES

11.  Dr. Biden Pledges Support For Guard Families

NEW CASTLE, Del., March 7, 2011 – Dr. Jill Biden, wife of Vice President Joe Biden, promised National Guard members and their families here that she will support them during every deployment.

12.  Minnesota National Guard Officials Confront Mental Health Stigma Ahead Of Deployment

St. Paul, Minn. — It's been almost four years since Coon Rapids Army Reservist Molly Black returned from Iraq but she still thinks about her deployment at least a dozen times a day.

13.  National Guard Soldiers Honored In Missoula

MISSOULA – The Montana National Guard honored more than 30 soldiers from the 230th Vertical Engineer Company based out of Hamilton at the Freedom Salute Ceremony.

WOUNDED WARRIOR CARE/TREATMENT

14.  Military Task Force Evaluating Care For Wounded Soldiers Starts With Visit To Fort Campbell

FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. — A military task force directed by Congress to evaluate care for wounded soldiers has begun its research with a visit to Fort Campbell, where thousands of soldiers are returning this year from Afghanistan.

15.  Army Opens TBI Rehabilitation Center In Europe

LANDSTUHL REGIONAL MEDICAL CENTER, Germany, March 10, 2011 -- The first center offering comprehensive care for European-based mild Traumatic Brain Injury patients celebrated its grand opening Feb. 25, at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, here.

16.  Aust, US To Launch Veteran Health Study

Australia and the United States will launch a joint research project on the mental and physical health of veterans of recent conflicts.

17.  Soldiers Prescribed Yoga To Recover From War Wounds

For many wounded veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan, push-ups, pull-ups and platoon runs have become impossible. For them, the Army has been developing what it calls “enhanced” physical training.

18.  Major Who Lost Legs In IED Bashes Veteran Benefits

A major who lost both his legs in Afghanistan says the Harper government's financial treatment of injured war veterans is an "abject betrayal" of a new generation of soldiers.

WOUNDED WARRIOR & FAMILY SUPPORT

19.  Flanagan Asks School Districts To Identify Children Of Military Families

Lansing, MI — State Superintendent of Public Instruction Mike Flanagan has asked every local school district in Michigan to help out with a national and state initiative to provide support to children of military families.

20.  Proposal Exempts Some Military Spouses From Federal Hiring Time Limit

The Office of Personnel Management plans to give certain military spouses expanded benefits from special federal hiring provisions.

21.  Hawks Have Life-Changing Experience Visiting Troops

High Spirits Of Rehabbing Soldiers Give Stanley Cup Champions Different Perspective On Life
WASHINGTON — As they slowly filed off the bus on a rainy afternoon in the nation's capital, many Blackhawks players, coaches and front-office personnel believed the atmosphere they were about to encounter inside would match the gloomy weather outside.

22.  Student Veterans Continue To Help Fellow Soldiers Off The Battlefield Through Fundraisers, Organizations

Though they have since returned from their campaigns in the Middle East, student veterans like Oliver Kay have remained committed to their fellow soldiers long after stepping off the battlefield.

23.  'This Can No Longer Be A One Percent War'

Rebecca Townsend, a psychologist who works with soldiers and families through several grassroots support organizations, began the conversation by relating the story of another conversation with a friend from Nashville.

24.  Caregivers Of Wounded Vets Hold Conference In Tampa

TAMPA - For Veronica Thomas, the call that changed her life came Jan. 18, 2008, while she was at a livestock show in Texas.

WOUNDED WARRIOR RECOVERY

25.  Injured Marine Regains His Stride

TWENTYNINE PALMS, Calif – For Lance Cpl. James Grove, a member of the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center’s Wounded Warrior Detachment here, conventional methods of rehabilitation don’t cut it.

26.  Quantico Wounded Warrior Gets Back In The Fight, Encourages Others To Do Same

QUANTICO, Va. - The “Crossroads of the Marine Corps” is a hodgepodge of people, organizations and missions, but one Marine stands out not only for excelling in competition after being injured, but also recruiting other to do the same.

27.  Wounded Warrior Trains At KU For Paralympics

Lawrence, Kan. — Thirty-year-old Kortney Clemons is an outstanding and extremely decorated track and field athlete. He participates in the 100 meters, 200 meters and the long jump. He has earned numerous first-place finishes in each event, qualified and competed against the world’s best in international meets, broken the American record in the 200 meters this past January and is a member of the U.S. national team. Currently he is working toward earning a spot on the U.S. Team to compete in the 2012 Olympics to be held in London, and is doing so with the help of the Kansas track and field team.

“SEA OF GOOD WILL”

28.  Admiral Urges Communities To Help War Veterans

Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is working to raise awareness of the "thousands and thousands of (veterans) who have been to hell and back" and encourage communities to help ease their transition back into society.

29.  Mullen Urges Communities To Assist Returning Troops

WASHINGTON – As the men and women who serve in today’s military leave active duty, communities around the country should tap their potential as employees for the benefit of the nation, the top U.S. military officer said yesterday.

30.  Adm. Mullen Leery Of Budget Cuts

FORT BLISS -- Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, spoke to students at the U.S. Army Sergeants Major Academy at Fort Bliss on Thursday about concerns such as budget cuts and the care and support of military families.

31.  US Department Of Labor Announces ‘Stand Down’ Grants To Assist About 10,000 Homeless Veterans

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Labor's Veterans' Employment and Training Service today announced the availability of $600,000 in "Stand Down" grants that will provide an estimated 10,000 homeless veterans with opportunities to reintegrate into society. The grants are being awarded under the department's Homeless Veterans' Reintegration Program.

32.  NIOSH Focuses On Reintegrating Reservists, Guardsmen Into Workplace

Many of the reservists and National Guard members returning from Iraq and Afghanistan go back to their civilian jobs and find themselves struggling with the physical and emotional effects of combat. For unsuspecting employers, it can be jarring and confusing when a former model employee exhibits inappropriate behaviors.

HOMELESS VETERANS

33.  For San Diego's Homeless, One Man Offers Hope

Hundreds of people sleep on San Diego's streets each night, on corners, beneath the interstate and across from the public library. They hang out in small groups or sit alone, watching the time pass. But when a wiry man with dark glasses approaches, everyone seems to perk up.

34.  Help Hard To Find For Homeless Female Veterans

FORT WORTH -- Clara "Ruth" Gordon, an Air Force veteran, spent four years homeless, living in shelters along East Lancaster Avenue.

35.  Ritz To Become Home For Veterans

The Ritz Historic Inn, a landmark that has weathered foreclosures, bankruptcies and multiple owners in recent years, is set to become transitional housing for homeless veterans.

36.  Transition To Civilian Life Challenging For Homeless Female Veterans

SAN DIEGO – Ann Reeder was living in a cardboard box on Skid Row in Los Angeles with a bottle of Jack Daniel's and a crack pipe in her hand when she felt time stop and started running.

LEGAL AFFAIRS

37.  Unique Jail Caters To Veterans Serving Timetuesday, March 08, 2011

SAN BRUNO, Calif. (KGO) -- Officials with the Veterans Administration in Washington are taking a close look at a unique program in the Bay Area designed to help former soldiers who are out of the service, but in jail, held in a separate unit just for them.

OPINION/COMMENTARY

38.  Combat Stress: 'These People Fought For Us. It’s Now Time We Looked After Them',

There are those, however, who suffer painfully. Some of the scars of war are physical – and as I have seen for myself, our wounded troops are treated magnificently at the new Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham and at Headley Court in Surrey. But the battlefield can leave mental scars as well. It could be the marine who wakes up every night, unable to forget about the comrades he lost in a mortar attack. It could be the young TA soldier who finds it impossible to adjust to life back in their town. These people fought for us. It’s now time we looked after them.

39.  A Soldier's View: We Have A Duty To Provide Support To All Returning Vets

(NEWS TRIBUNE, DULUTH, MN, 10 MAR11) ... By Matthew Bisbee,
The front-page article Saturday, “dark moment in TIME,” brought to light the troubles that returning National Guard members face as they try to reintegrate into society upon their return from combat zones in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Horn of Africa. The National Guard has a reintegration program called Beyond the Yellow Ribbon. It’s spearheaded by a chaplain who’s available to all Guard units upon their return from combat tours.

40.  3 New Walter Reed Developments, One Promising For Health Care

Last week, I viewed Walter Reed Army Medical Center from the inpatient perspective. The amazing dedication and commitment of all the staff reaffirms my belief in military health care. Even as this medical center is being resurrected at a new facility, the current staff concentrate on patient care. Apprehensions and uncertainty exist; some issues are being addressed and others ignored as the closure deadline approaches. Talking with staff and other patients, three issues caught my attention.

41.  Give Vets' Caregivers The Relief Congress Promised

When Congress Passed Legislation Last Year To Pay Family Caregivers Of Veterans Wounded In Iraq And Afghanistan, The Program Was Supposed To Be Up And Running By Now.


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