This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Category: Disposable Warriors

  • PTSD – Some Valuable Perspective

    Doc Bailey has a post up worth reading:

    His last paragraph captures his point as far as us ‘Nam vets so I’ll quote that:

    The real tragedy is that because there are so few people that have served, and because the public has largely ignored the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, these men and women are far more isolated.  Only Vietnam veterans were as isolated, their isolation more because of scorn than because of their disproportionately small portion of society.  They are further isolated by stereotypes that both Hollywood and the News Mediums perpetuate.  The idea of the animal in a cage, waiting to loose his rage on the world, is something that will keep far too many Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans from seeking the help they need and so deserve.

    Read the whole thing.

  • Oh crap… Perfect Timing or What?

    Via Doc Bailey and FB. Blame him!
    Up to 64,000 Graves at Arlington Misidentified or Misplaced, Army Report Finds

    ARLINGTON, Va. –  Thousands of grave markers at Arlington National Cemetery may need to be replaced or added to accurately account for the dead, following a meticulous Army review of each of the nearly 260,000 headstones and niche covers on the grounds.

    In a report to Congress on Thursday, the Army found potential discrepancies between headstones and cemetery paperwork on about 64,000 grave markers — about one in four.

    Congress ordered the review last year following reports of misidentified and misplaced graves that led to the ouster of the cemetery’s top executives.

  • How Far Would YOU Go?

    It’s taken me a coupla days to calm down enough to post this one. I kept reading about the thing and getting pissed. For something different each time, mind you, but even as semi-literate as I am a post with little more than WTF! said over and over seemed a waste of time.

    So here goes: Army vet with PTSD sought the treatment he needed by taking hostages – but got jail instead

    Fifteen months of carnage in Iraq had left the 29-year-old debilitated by post-traumatic stress disorder. But despite his doctor’s urgent recommendation, the Army failed to send him to a Warrior Transition Unit for help. The best the Department of Veterans Affairs could offer was 10-minute therapy sessions — via videoconference.

    So, early on Labor Day morning last year, after topping off a night of drinking with a handful of sleeping pills, Quinones barged into Fort Stewart’s hospital, forced his way to the third-floor psychiatric ward and held three soldiers hostage, demanding better mental health treatment.

    “I’ve done it the Army’s way,” Quinones told Henson. “We’re going to do it my way now.”

    Aside: As a ‘Nam vet watching friends and others trying to get help before there even WAS a diagnosis of PTSD around; and watching civilians who had watched one too many movies about Crazy Vietnam Vets cringe away from me when it became known I’d visited the place I reckon I’m just a bit sensitive.

    The story of  “Q” gets worse as it unfolds:

    He saw an Army therapist twice a week, and he was prescribed high doses of medications to treat anxiety, panic attacks, insomnia and depression. In March 2009, his psychiatrist completed the Army’s Warrior Screening Matrix, a tool implemented by the service to determine when a soldier should be assigned to a Warrior Transition Unit, a medical unit for injured soldiers.

    The doctor answers questions about a soldier’s ability to perform his duties, his behavioral health, treatment needs, drug or alcohol abuse, suicide history, medical compliance, life stressors such as divorce and whether the illness or injury affects self-worth.

    Each answer gets a corresponding number, which are all totaled for a score.

    Less than 29: no need for the WTU.

    Between 30 and 199: Possible need for the WTU.

    Between 200 and 999: Needs to go to the WTU.

    A score of 1,000 or above: Failure to assign a soldier to the WTU is likely to hurt treatment.

    Quinones scored 2,331. The psychiatrist underlined it twice on the paperwork.

    He left a voicemail for Quinones’ company commander, but in the Army’s system, medical professionals are largely consultants. The decision on how to proceed is up to the commander.

    Quinones was never sent to the WTU. 

    There’s a lot of Army terms I’m unfamiliar with, but the story DOES come from S&S. The comments offer further validity.

    And it pisses me off! Not quite sure what to do next, but it’s for certain that this story needs to get out there.

     

  • Carters’s Army, or maybe BOHICA?

    J. D. offers up some history and perspective at his place.

    I Remember Carter’s Army

    I remember President Carter’s Army. I remember Carter’s gasoline lines. I remember Carter’s interest rates. I remember his turn your thermostat down and wear a sweater energy policy speeches. I remember him really showing the Russians how tough we were by boycotting the Moscow Olympics. I remember his policy of restraint while Americans were held hostage and abused by Iranian terrorists. I remember his cheerleading for the “moderate” religious man to replace the “despotic” Shah of Iran. I remember his amnesty and upgraded discharges for military deserters and draft dodgers, most of whom got a better welcome home than our Vietnam combat veterans did.

    But his closing paragraph encapsulates the meaning of BOHICA quite nicely…

    Let me see if I can sum it up. Reduce defense spending by nearly one trillion dollars. Usher in “moderate” Middle Eastern governments. Abandon missile defense, abandon space, abandon development of future combat systems and use the military as a tool to normalize homosexuality. Mr. Carter’s Army is looking pretty good about now.

    Not much to add. We can’t be certain yet whether this piece is prophetic or  just a warning, but…

  • Seems Appropriate to me?

    War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.
    John Stuart Mill
    English economist & philosopher (1806 – 1873)

    Okay, maybe just a little bitter here that it is STILL true.

    People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.
    George Orwell
    I’ll leave you with one more.
    Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
    George Santayana

  • In the Wreckage of an Almost-Shutdown

    Today, a lot of us are taking a slightly ragged breath and relaxing a bit. Last night, around 11PM, a deal was reached that would extend for a week the operations of government as we know it. This is particularly meaningful for all of our servicemembers, many serving in harm’s way, who had already opened up Mypay to reveal a LES with only half the pay anticipated for it. This will allow them to get their midmonth pay.

    Let me stress, for those few who might happen to be unaware, that unlike the rest of the government, when the military isn’t getting paid, the military is still working. People don’t stop trying to kill them just because they’re not getting paid. Instead, it’s just another worry on their mind, preventing them from being fully focused on the dangers surrounding them, because they’re too busy wondering if their family will be able to pay the rent or buy groceries.

    I’d like to take a moment to thank those organizations that went above and beyond in order to make sure servicemembers didn’t have to worry about where their family’s next meal would come from: such as the Navy Federal Credit Union, that promised all servicemember’s mid-month checks would be covered by the institution. I’d also like to thank (and this is rare) the VA (or as Brandon Friedman likes to remind everyone, Veterans Affairs) for putting out a Veterans Guide to the Shutdown, to help address the justified concerns many veterans had about whether their disability checks and education benefits would arrive on the 1st.

    However, what really needs to be addressed is not so pretty: why did it come so close in the first place? A lot of people in both political parties want to blame the other party. But really, both parties are to blame, and both parties gambled way too much with the lives of people who have already given up a lot to serve their country.

    The one bare-minimum standard any governmental body that deals with money has is to pass a budget for the next year. But nobody wanted to pass a budget before the elections, because then they’d have to deal with possible consequences for their votes. And after the elections, when Democrats realized that they were going to be out of power next year, they hurried with pushing through the healthcare reform, instead of worrying about doing their job and passing the budget.

    But the Republicans aren’t off the hook yet. Passing a budget was their job, too, and they chose to focus on ideological battles also. They decided to play a game of brinksmanship to show how tough they were for the next budget fight, ignoring the people it was going to impact. They tried to create a temporary bill that supposedly would fund the Pentagon all year, and the rest of government a week, to save the military, but then again added ideological riders on it.
    Why do we put up with this? People on both sides, why do we act as though our party protects veterans and servicemembers? I think we need to acknowledge that both sides use us for photo ops and for talking points on the halls of Congress, but when it comes down to it, they don’t really care.

  • The real difference.

    Recently Travis Bishop commented on a post about him a few days ago. One thing that he did bring up was the group called Disposable Warriors. Now don’t let the name fool you, this website is very different from it’s alleged counter parts that Travis linked it with in his post.

    The person running the show is Former Sgt Chuck Luther He has been working with those with honest to good real issues and really seems to care about the each person. In his recent case shows that it working with Private First Class Jacob Wade He went AWOL during mid-tour leave. While while I still think AWOL is never the right thing to do, it is more sympathetic then others.

    He said he made the decision after dealing with the effects of what he witnessed and experienced during his first six months in Iraq with the 1st Cavalry Division.

    “Riding through town we got attacked,” he said. “I had a grenade go off five feet behind me, and only one other soldier that was with me made it into the truck, and we thought everyone was dead.”

    So Chuck talks about how to face this challenge and this is the real difference.

    “We have a large amount of AWOL cases; the rest are soldiers that are currently there that possibly if nobody intervened they would go AWOL,” Luther said.

    He said he has handled more than 175 cases across the country so far with more than 70 active cases.

    “It’s not something that can’t be taken over and fixed,” Luther said. “But there is help out there, and AWOL is seriously the last resort, and it shouldn’t ever get to that point.”

    That is just it the real divide over who wants to help the person or help their cause. Something we already know about you James.