Category: Veterans Issues

SIGO sends us a link to the sad story of a veteran, Benjamin Mayoles Dykeman, who was fatally shot by police in Broward County, Florida, and of course, everyone is an expert on PTS, even people off the street with no medical training;

Benjamin Mayoles Dykeman’s employer, Robert Rose, [Editor Note: I guess medical diagnosis are common at the place where Dykeman worked by the name Bansbach Easylift Gas Springs] says the man suffered post-traumatic stress disorder after deployment to Iraq, and that might have played a role in his interaction with law enforcement.

“I think it’s important to realize that while he had a record, a lot of the things within the record are a manifestation of PTSD,” Rose said. “While the Brevard County sheriffs did exactly what they were supposed to do, it really is a tragedy to lose a war hero like this.”

Of course, the PTS diagnosis by Dykeman’s employer is news to his mother;

When reached by phone, Dykeman’s mother, Rose, who lives in Virginia, said her son was involved in early deployments to Iraq but didn’t think he suffered from PTSD or came home from Iraq any different. She said he had an alcohol problem for which he was seeking treatment.

Although Dykeman was undergoing treatment at a VA facility, the article doesn’t mention why he was getting treatment, so of course, it must be PTS. And, oh, yeah, the gas springs owner guy is also an Army veteran, so that really helps.

Though the condition didn’t manifest itself while at work, Rose suspects it played a role in Dykeman’s interaction with police.

Yeah, I suspect that it might have been alcoholism instead, since he had no problems with PTS at work. Millions of veterans drive their cars without ramming a police cruiser every day, thousands of those veterans not ramming police cars suffer from PTS. It seems that sometimes we’re our own worst enemies when veterans like Rose, who has no medical training, allow ourselves to diagnose the syndrome for the eager media, who love nothing more than crazy-assed veterans to perpetuate the myth.

Our own Doc Bailey writes at his own blog, the Madness of a Combat Medic, about his trip back from the edge after his deployment during the surge in Iraq. As you probably know, this is a big issue with me, and I think that the key to helping the recent war veterans through their adjustment back to productive civilians resides in each of us “old timers” who’ve made that adjustment. Doc contributes to that process;

You know it really wasn’t until I got to the WTB that I really knew what a “flashback” was. I had had training in methods of reducing or treating Combat Stress, I could recite all the symptoms of Acute Stress Reaction in my sleep. As a Medic, I was the one stop shop for all the medical needs for 35 men. I had a reference book (a very good one that I still have) that I carried with me for anything that I couldn’t fix right away. I could tell you all the methods of alleviating the inevitable stress that would come from combat losses. None of that knowledge or reference material helped me a damn when I was the one that needed help.

You should read the whole thing.

Marine_7002 sends us a link in the Detroit News to the story of a soldier, CPL Robert Wax, who was returned to his Detroit family 60 years after he was killed in Korea after his first few weeks back in 1950;

Several weeks after the battle, the Army recovered some soldiers’ remains from the 555th Field Artillery Battalion to which Wax belonged, but it wasn’t able then to identify all of them.

Wax was listed at first as missing in action, and later presumed dead.

His remains, tagged Unknown X-88, were buried in a cemetery in South Korea, then moved in 1951 to Japan, amid the turmoil in the region.

Still unidentified, Wax’s remains were shipped four years later to the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu, where by a strange coincidence, his father, Capt. John (Jack) Wax, was buried.

You should read the rest of the article. One of the things we’ve been good at is doing our best to bring folks back in recent years. Too late for the guys left in Vietnam who’ve become a political football, though.

KAJ18 reports that Renn Bodeker, who just lost his wife to cancer last year, is being forced from the home where he and his wife lived most of their lives after he returned from the Second World War;

“Because of the medical bills…they really started toward the end…it wasn’t any great amount that we were in debt for, [but] we filed bankruptcy and it just blew up from there,” Bodeker said.

He lost his house in bankruptcy court, and recently found out that he has prostate cancer. The land on which the house stands also includes the resting place of his wife, where Bodeker had also hoped to be buried one day.

“I don’t want to be away from my wife,” an Bodeker said.

Thanks to the help of some friends, Bodeker has already taken all of his possessions out of the home, but now he must exhume his wife’s body within the next 30 days.

There’s a link at the article if you’re moved to provide Renn some financial assistance. Someone sent us a link to the story the other day, but it was only showing up on Ron Paul blogs and Oathkeeper links, so I wasn’t all that ready to throw myself into that crowd, but Ben reminded us today about it and I found this link which provided an actual solution for people so moved. So there you go.

ADDED: Yeah my initial feelings about this and the involvement of Oathkeepers and the Ron Paul crowd should have kept me away from this. Read the bodeker filing.pdf and save your money.

Well I found a article by Jessica Scott that takes a look at the US Army of the 90s and today. Because I joined in 2006, I was wondering if I could get a idea of how on the mark this is. Lets start with this.

So now all we’re hearing about is the return to the 90s army. When shiny boots, a pressed uniform and a good PT score meant you were a great leader. We’re already seeing outstanding leaders punished for their less than stellar PT scores. Got an injury? Too bad, you’re slacking so you’re not the total army soldier we need.

I know that I have seen some this happen now but this is the part that I wanted to ask about.

Lest we need a history lesson, let’s not forget about the exodus from the force in 03-04, when a ridiculous amount of company grade officers fled in the face of the possibility of a long war. When far too many folks who had reached their 20 years of duty dropped their paperwork to avoid the conflict.

We talk about how the SGTs and SSGs in our Army today don’t know how to lead soldiers. Who’s fault is that? Instead of pointing the finger at the force, let’s look at the 90s army that abandoned the OIF-OEF army to fight the long war. The leaders of the OIF-OEF army were flexible enough to sustain combat over nearly a decade against an unconventional force. We were not flawless, not by any means. We made mistakes and some Really Bad Shit happened on our watch.

But to tell a force that has sacrificed through more than a decade at war that the 90s army was somehow better than us? That the 90s Army was more professional because we looked like soldiers then? The shiny boots didn’t stick around long enough to get dust on them in the deserts of Iraq. Too many of those pressed uniforms damn sure didn’t bleed in combat.

So what do you say? How accurate is this in regards to a mass exodus to avoid deployment? Or for the view that the Army in the 90s was better remembered then it really was?

Laughing Wolf from Blackfive sends us a link to information about a program from the US Chamber of Commerce’s Hiring Our Heroes folks who’re combining with a group of Wall Street types who’ve begun a Veterans on Wall Street program next Thursday for a 2012 Veterans on Wall Street Conference in New York on Thursday, June 21. There will also be a job fair.

Laughing Wolf’s Cooking With The Troops will be there, too.

So if you’re in the NYC area next week and I know some of you are, and you’re looking for work or looking to improve your situation, here’s your opportunity.

Ordsoldier sends us a link from Fox News which declares that Timothy Jorden, Jr., a “former Army Special Forces weapons expert” is being sought for gun play at a Buffalo hospital;

Authorities identified the victim as 33-year-old Jacqueline Wisniewski, a receptionist at the hospital and the mother of a young son. Daniel Derenda, Buffalo police commissioner, said she was shot multiple times and believe the shooting was not a random attack. Media reports said she was the ex-girlfriend of the surgeon.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/06/13/buffalo-police-respond-to-reports-deadly-shooting-at-hospital/?test=latestnews#ixzz1xlUo6yxs

She said Wisniewski told her the doctor had put a GPS tracking device in her car and once held her captive in her home for a day and a half, wielding a knife.

“She told me if anything happened to her, that it was him,” Shipley told the station.

Police have described Jorden as a bald, black male, about 6-foot-2 and 250 pounds, who could be “special weapons trained.”

Yeah, that sounds more like someone overheard Jorden making up stories rather than actual research by reporters. WTF does “special weapons trained” mean? Does a “special weapon” point and fire by itself? Or does it shout “Timmah!” while the operator wears a bicycle helmet? And if the dude held his victim captive with a knife for a day-and-a-half, why does he have no criminal record?

I find it difficult to believe that a “special weapons trained” special forces soldier would go to medical school, not that it isn’t possible, but it’s unlikely. I’m checking on Jorden’s records, but in the interim it sounds like rumor mongering by the police. They should send in their future congressman, David Bellavia to flush him out and take the dude out with his Gerber Multitool. That’s “special weapons trained”.

UPDATE: Local news says;

The U.S. Army tells News 4 the Buffalo native was in the Army Special Forces, serving from 1982 to 1992 as a Special Operations Medical Sergeant. He later served in the Army from 1996 to 1999 as a general surgeon, attaining the rank of Captain.

Jorden received the following awards and decorations: Army Achievement Medal, Army Commendation Medal, Meritorious Service Medal, Master Parachute Badge, Scuba Diver Badge, Special Forces Tab.

So he’s not a Special Forces Captain like Good Morning America is saying. He’s a former captain who was in Special Forces before he was a captain.

UPDATE 2: Mary at POW Network sent us this link with this picture of him in uniform;

I guess it’s too much to ask the media to blame the fact that he specialized in treating gunshot wounds for his rampage. Naw, the crazed veteran thing is too good to pass on, I suppose.

The Stars & Stripes reports that a poll commissioned by the veterans advocacy group The Mission Continues and the Hollywood production company Bad Robot finds that Americans consider veterans “a valuable civic asset” however, they also think we’re stupid and dangerous;

But 53 percent said they believe that the majority of veterans returning from Iraq or Afghanistan suffer from PTSD — most experts say about one-fifth may suffer from it — and 44 percent believe that those veterans are more likely to abuse drugs are alcohol than non-veterans. VA studies have shown slightly higher rates, but not a dramatic difference.

They also viewed younger veterans in general as hard workers but likely without a college-level education, even after they leave the military.

Gee, I wonder where they got that idea? Unless they read this story, or maybe this one, or this one perhaps. And they ignored this one, this one and this one.