Secretary of the Army John McHugh says in Fort Bragg visit that PTSD reversals uncommon-VCS registers our disagreement

Posted on March 28, 2012 by Team VCS

Story Photo Staff photo by Marcus Castro [+] click to enlarge Secretary of the Army John McHugh answers questions Tuesday after a two-day visit to Fort Bragg. At left are Lt. Gen. Frank Helmick and Lt. Gen. John Mulholland.

By Greg Barnes Staff writer

Preliminary information suggests the Army does not have a systemic problem of doctors reversing soldiers’ diagnoses of post-traumatic stress disorder in an effort to save the country money, the secretary of the Army said Tuesday at Fort Bragg.

During a congressional hearing last week, Secretary John McHugh announced that the Army Inspector General’s Office is reviewing all Army medical facilities to determine whether reversals of PTSD diagnoses are happening Armywide.

The action follows revelations that psychiatrists at Madigan Army Medical Center reversed 40 percent of the 690 cases in which soldiers facing military retirement had originally been diagnosed with PTSD. Madigan is at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Wash.

Reversing PTSD to another finding, such as a personality disorder, could have cost soldiers a significant loss of military retirement benefits. In 2008, Congress authorized a 50 percent disability rating for anyone leaving the service with a PTSD diagnosis.

The Inspector General’s Office has been reviewing PTSD practices at all Army medical centers similar to Madigan, including Womack Army Medical Center on Fort Bragg.

“To this point, the preliminary data analysis we are receiving indicates that the problems at Madigan do not appear to be systemic through the entire United States Army,” McHugh said during a news conference at Fort Bragg. “But obviously, we want to look at the IG’s final report very carefully and take whatever steps may be indicated from its findings.”

The Armywide review is separate from an inspection Lt. Gen. Frank Helmick, commander of Fort Bragg and the 18th Airborne Corps, ordered in February for the post’s Warrior Transition Battalion. The inspection is supposed to be completed by Sunday, but Helmick said it could take weeks before it becomes public.

That inspection was sparked, at least in part, by a loose-knit group of advocates who were responding to complaints from soldiers in Fort Bragg’s battalion for mentally and physically wounded soldiers.

One of those soldiers, Sgt. Jody Lee Piercy, said Monday that he and three others in the battalion were denied access to a meeting with McHugh, even though they were originally told they could attend.

“It was open to anyone who wanted to come,” Helmick said. “That complaint has not reached my level.”

Helmick said he and other commanders have an open-door policy in which any soldier can come in and voice concerns or complaints.

Piercy and other soldiers say the Warrior Transition Battalion purposely excludes them from meetings with Army brass.

“The soldiers are getting handpicked, and they are picking the ones with no real issues,” Piercy said.

McHugh, who arrived at Fort Bragg on Monday morning, said he was there to visit Helmick and Lt. Gen. John Mulholland. He also spent time with wounded soldiers, about two dozen of whom have complained to The Fayetteville Observer about the Warrior Transition Battalion since Helmick called for a review of its processes and procedures.

Those complaints include allegations of overmedication, poor treatment by doctors and those in charge of the battalion, and being kicked out of the Army on trumped-up charges, such as faking injury or illness.

Patrick Bellon, executive director of the advocate group Veterans for Common Sense in Washington, D.C., questioned the assertion that problems found at Madigan Army Medical Center are not happening throughout the Army.

“Leading off, trying to say it’s isolated, doesn’t really pass the common-sense test,” Bellon said.

Although PTSD reversals may not be prevalent at Fort Bragg and other Army bases, Bellon said, wounded warrior units at Fort Carson, Colo., and elsewhere have come under fire for their treatment and care of soldiers. He said he is hearing growing complaints about Fort Bragg soldiers being unfairly discharged.

“Clearly,” he said, “something is not right.”

Responding to related questions from reporters, McHugh acknowledged that repeated deployments have caused stress on soldiers and members of all branches of military service. More than 50,000 troops have deployed four or more times in the past 10 years, he said.

But McHugh said the stresses of war cannot be blamed for “incredibly rare aberrancies,” such as the recent slayings of 17 Afghan civilians. A Joint Base Lewis-McChord soldier, Sgt. Robert Bales, has been charged in those deaths. Bales’ lawyers have suggested that his mental health could play a role in his defense.

“As tragic as they are, they don’t reflect either the mental health, or, I think, the incredible sacrifices and achievements of our troops,” McHugh said. “We continue to stay focused on making sure that we have the right behavioral health programs.

“We are looking very closely, obviously, at the causes but also the treatment of PTSD and other related incidences. But we are not making a connection between those challenges and the acts that obviously have received so much attention.”

Force reductions

On another topic, McHugh said Army commanders are working on the assumption that they will have a significantly smaller force – 490,000 active-duty troops by fiscal 2017. McHugh expects the cuts to come largely through attrition and normal turnover, but he said some soldiers may soon be looking for new jobs.

“That is painful for all of us, but it really is, I think, a logical step,” he said. “Just being good enough is no longer going to be good enough … So I think it behooves every man and woman in the United States Army; they are going to have to strive to work harder to achieve greater and higher levels. And if they can do that, we will be proud to keep them on.”

McHugh said the Army anticipates two more rounds of base closings, in 2013 and 2015. He said base closures require congressional approval, and he could not project what might happen to Fort Bragg.

But he stressed that the base came out well during the last Base Realignment and Closure Act in 2005, and he anticipates that happening again.

Staff writer Greg Barnes can be reached at barnesg@fayobserver.com or 486-3525.

Posted in Veterans for Common Sense News | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Secretary of the Army John McHugh says in Fort Bragg visit that PTSD reversals uncommon-VCS registers our disagreement

Survey Gives Glimpse Into Minds of Recent Veterans

Posted on March 27, 2012 by Team VCS

By JAMES DAO

The 2012 edition of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America’s annual survey of its members came out on Monday. The largest such survey by the group to date, its results provide some interesting insights into what’s on the minds of recent veterans today.

Not surprisingly, the survey found that employment, mental health, disability benefits, health care, education (including the G.I. Bill), suicide and families — in that order — were the top concerns of the more than 4,200 members who responded.

Nearly 17 percent said they were unemployed when they took the survey in January, a higher rate than was documented by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which put the veterans’ unemployment rate for January at 9 percent.

Of those who are working, 37 percent said they worked for the government at some level, far outpacing the second largest industry listed, health care and pharmaceuticals, which tallied 8 percent. Similarly, of those looking for work, the largest group, about a quarter, said they wanted to find jobs in government.

In its summary of the survey, I.A.V.A. noted that because many local, state and federal agencies have been trimming their work forces, “the threat to veteran employment may grow.”

More than one in three respondents, 37 percent, said they knew someone who had committed suicide, down slightly from last year’s result. Asked if the person who committed suicide was serving or had separated from the military, respondents were almost evenly divided: 30 percent said the person had separated when the act occurred; 27 percent said the person was serving but not deployed; 25 percent said the person was serving and deployed. Another 11 percent said the person was in the National Guard and not deployed.

Two-thirds said they think troops and veterans are not getting the mental health care they need. Asked what were important factors in providing excellent mental health services, about three-quarters said that counselors should have served in the military, understand military life and culture, or have received specialized training in working with service members and veterans.

Asked about their relationships, nearly 80 percent said they were married or in a long-term relationship during a deployment. Nearly two-thirds said the deployment strained their relationships, and 6 in 10 said readjustment was difficult. Only 4 percent said their deployments had no effect on their relationships.

The vast majority — nearly 9 in 10 — said they had had no serious run-ins with law enforcement after returning from Iraq or Afghanistan. But of those who had, half said alcohol was the problem.

Of the 4,278 veterans who responded to the online survey — conducted between Jan. 1 and Jan. 16 — a little more than half submitted proof of post 9/11 service in Iraq or Afghanistan, while the rest did not.

Nearly 9 in 10 of those surveyed were men, 6 in 10 were Army veterans and more than 8 in 10 had served in Iraq. Almost half, 45 percent, were 36 years or older. Nine in 10 said they were registered to vote. Asked about their place of residence, the largest group, nearly 11 percent, said they lived in California.

The paid online surveys included some intriguing opinions about government. Neither the president nor Congress scored well when the veterans were asked if those officials listen to service members or Iraq and Afghanistan veterans. The Department of Veterans Affairs did a bit better, with 42 percent answering in the affirmative.

Asked about the Department of Veterans Affairs, half said they had a somewhat to very positive opinion of the department — though nearly 7 in 10 could not correctly name Eric K. Shinseki as the secretary.

V.A. health care and educational benefits received good or very good ratings from about 6 in 10 respondents, with disability benefits falling slightly below 50 percent. The new G.I. Bill seemed particularly important to the veterans, with 29 percent saying they were using their benefits and another 37 percent saying they expected to use the benefits in the future.

Posted in Veterans for Common Sense News | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Survey Gives Glimpse Into Minds of Recent Veterans

Financial struggles common among military families—VCS in the AP

Posted on March 26, 2012 by Team VCS

Published: March 25, 2012 3:25 PM By The Associated Press  DONNA GORDON BLANKINSHIP (Associated Press)

SEATTLE – (AP) — Military families aren’t surprised when they hear about the financial struggles that Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, his wife and children faced at home. It’s part of their lives, too.

They say money problems can never justify doing what the military says Bales did: kill 17 civilians in a nighttime shooting rampage through two Afghan villages on March 11. Still, the details emerging about his life served as a prominent reminder of the hardship they have endured over a decade of two wars.

“The stress factors with the families is just unbelievable,” said Roger J. Mealey, a Vietnam veteran who runs a website to aid struggling military families.

While laws give active-duty soldiers extra combat pay, provide housing allowances and exempt them from taxes, experts say, families are straining under multiple deployments, frequent relocations and the difficulty spouses have in getting and keeping jobs in new cities.

A 2010 military survey found that 27 percent of service members said they had more than $10,000 in credit card debt, while 16 percent of civilians do. The study also found more than a third of military families have trouble paying monthly bills, and more than 20 percent reported borrowing money outside of banks.

Service members and their families do have access to financial counselors, but many shy away from it because they don’t want their commanders to know, said Andi Wrenn, a financial and relationship counselor in Boston who has worked with service members.

The unemployment rate among military spouses is about 26 percent, according to a report from the nonprofit group, Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America.

Bales’ life reflected some of that financial turmoil.

Court records and interviews showed that he joined the military 11 years ago after a Florida investment went sour. He had a Seattle-area home condemned, struggled to make payments on another and failed to get a promotion a year ago. His wife has had two, one-year jobs since leaving Washington Mutual four years ago.

His wife put their Lake Tapps, Wash., home up for sale days before the rampage. They bought it home in 2005, records show, for $280,000. They listed it for $229,000.

Last year, Mealey connected nearly 300 military families just like the Bales family with another 300 “angels” willing to help them pay a few bills or send a gift card. He said he answers calls and emails every week from military families who are having problems negotiating base life.

Their pleas for help are posted on a simple red-white-and-blue website: a soldier at Fort Stewart, Ga., with a wife and two kids can’t afford $300 for a new dress uniform; a veteran in St. Louis with a wife and two kids needs help with power bills; and a San Diego Navy wife with four kids just got laid off from her job.

Mealey’s website is one of more than 40,000 nonprofits, big and small, trying to help the troops these days. They’re called the “sea of goodwill,” said Kate Kohler, a West Point graduate and Army captain who is the chief operating officer of the PenFed Foundation, a nonprofit that helps troops with financial literacy, housing and emergency needs.

She said their hearts are in the right place but so many of these organizations are just giving handouts and not trying to fix the underlying financial problems the troops face.

Although Kohler’s organization also gives emergency loans and grants, most come with some required financial literacy training.

The mostly young service members have little experience dealing with their own finances and don’t know what to do with the ups and downs of military life. She described one symptom as the Disneyland effect: overspending when troops return home to make up for lost time with family.

An Iraq War vet who runs an organization to help veterans and active-duty military said he sympathized with Bales’ family and other military families.

It’s not easy supporting four people on a staff sergeant’s salary — about $39,000 a year — especially when one member of the family keeps getting sent overseas, said Patrick Bellon, executive director of Veterans for Common Sense.

There are laws to protect military families from speedy foreclosures and predatory lenders, but Bellon wasn’t confident those laws are being enforced.

Mortgage lenders and landlords are supposed to give military families more time to make their payments during a deployment. The armed forces have several employment programs to help military spouses, including special training for jobs they can take with them from base to base.

“It just frustrates me,” said Mealey, who started his one-man New Beginnings website for military families in 2003 after retiring from Motorola.

After the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan started, he wanted to find a way to help the troops.

“If we’re asking them to serve their country and put their life on the line, I don’t think their families should be put in the position where they’re sleeping on the floor or don’t have enough food to feed their kids,” Mealey said.

____

Posted in Veterans for Common Sense News | Tagged , | Comments Off on Financial struggles common among military families—VCS in the AP

Veterans study says thousands wrongfully discharged for personality disorders

Posted on March 26, 2012 by Team VCS

By Erik Slavin Stars and Stripes Published: March 26, 2012

YOKOSUKA NAVAL BASE, Japan — The Defense Department violated regulations by discharging thousands of servicemembers under the pretense of personality disorders during the past decade, according to a study by Vietnam Veterans of America and the Veterans Services Clinic at Yale Law School.

The study data — obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests — reinforces previous smaller studies from the General Accountability Office and supports claims by others that the military diagnosed combat veterans with personality disorders to avoid paying retirement benefits to servicemembers suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

While PTSD constitutes a medical disability, personality-related diagnoses are considered pre-existing conditions by the Defense Department.

Advertisement

The data showed that 31,000 servicemembers were discharged from 2001 to 2010 because of personality disorders, a group of disorders  in which a person’s behaviors and thoughts differ from their culture’s expectations, causing work and relationship problems.

The Army alone discharged 734 soldiers for personality disorders in 2002, but that number steadily climbed to 1,078 by 2007, according to the report, which was released last week.

In 2007, a series of articles in The Nation and later from other media led to congressional hearings and tighter regulations.

Subsequently, a 2010 GAO study of discharges from 2008 and 2009 found that the Defense Department was still not fully complying with those regulations, although data obtained by Vietnam Veterans of America for 2010 did show a substantial increase in compliance. In 2010, the Army discharged only 17 soldiers for personality disorders and complied with a series of notifications and diagnosis requirements in each case, according to the report.

The Navy discharged 165 sailors in 2012, down from 1,606 sailors in 2002, though it failed to notify the discharged sailors that their diagnosis did not qualify as a disability in 52 percent of cases. Compliance generally improved in both the Air Force and Marine Corps as their personality disorder diagnoses plummeted, the report stated.

The military has yet to address how, or if, it will deal with those who were wrongly discharged in the past 10 years, the report noted.

“Although the number of PD discharges appears to be declining, the military has failed to take meaningful action to review and correct the wrongful (discharges),” it said.

Eileen Lainez, a spokeswoman for the Department of Defense, told the New Haven (Conn.) Register last week that she could not comment on the report because she had not reviewed it, but said the department periodically assesses its policies on discharges.

“We encourage all separating service members who believe their discharges were incorrectly characterized or processed to request adjudication through their respective military department’s Discharge Review Board and Board for Correction of Military Records,” Lainez wrote in an email, according to the Register.

For a servicemember to be discharged because of a personality disorder, a psychiatrist or a psychologist with a doctorate must conclude that “the disorder is so severe that the member’s ability to function effectively in the military environment is significantly impaired,” according to Defense Department regulation.

In January, the Army announced it would review the actions of Madigan Army Medical Center officials that reversed diagnoses of more than 14 soldiers originally found to have PTSD. The medical center reversed more than 40 percent of PTSD diagnoses for servicemembers under consideration for medical retirement since 2007, according to information released by Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., last week.

Col. Dallas Homas, commander of Madigan’s medical services at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Wash., was temporarily relieved in February.

In November, an Army ombudsman reported in a memo obtained by the Los Angeles Times that a Madigan physician warned his colleagues that PTSD diagnoses could cost up to $1.5 million over soldiers’ lifetimes.

The physician stated that “at the rate we are going the Army and the Department of Veterans Affairs will be broke” because of PTSD treatment, according to the ombudsman.

Posted in Veterans for Common Sense News | Tagged | Comments Off on Veterans study says thousands wrongfully discharged for personality disorders

Lautenberg Intros Bipartisan Veterans’ Education Bill

Posted on March 24, 2012 by Team VCS

March 20, 2012 (NJToday) – U.S. Senator Frank R. Lautenberg (D-NJ) and five of his Senate colleagues  have introduced bipartisan legislation aimed at providing every veteran who  receives educational assistance from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)  with the counseling services needed to make informed decisions about their  education. The legislation is co-sponsored by Senators Marco Rubio (R-FL), Scott  Brown (R-MA), Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), Tom Harkin (D-IA) and Jeff Merkley  (D-OR).

“If we don’t follow through on the promise of the G.I. Bill and ensure our  veterans are succeeding in school, then its benefits are greatly diminished,” said Lautenberg, an Army veteran and beneficiary of the original G.I. Bill. “The  G.I. Bill can only be fully effective if veterans have the tools needed to  choose the school that is right for them. Today’s veterans have made tremendous  sacrifices for our country and they deserve a quality education in gratitude for  their service.”

Recent reports have indicated veterans at some educational institutions are  persuaded to enroll by unscrupulous or deceitful marketing tactics and are never  given the quality education they are promised. However, many veterans may not be  aware of counseling services offered by the VA designed to help them navigate  the educational process. Last year, fewer than 6,500 beneficiaries of VA  educational assistance—out of hundreds of thousands receiving these  benefits—requested assistance and under current law only those who request help  can receive counseling services.

The “GI Educational Freedom Act of 2012” would address these issues by  providing comprehensive educational counseling to all veterans eligible for  educational benefits. In addition, this bill would establish a tracking system  at the VA for veterans to report instances of waste, fraud, and abuse at their  schools to ensure veterans are receiving quality education. A copy of the bill  language can be found on Lautenberg’s website.

Rubio said, “Providing our veterans with the benefits of the G.I. Bill when  they return is important, but it is just as important to help them use these  opportunities in an effective way. I am proud to cosponsor the G.I. Educational  Freedom Act which would help guide our returning men and women with educational  counseling services so they make informed college decisions.”

“We have an obligation to provide both veterans and active duty members with  the tools they need to make sound decisions about their education,” said Brown. “While there are many educational options for those who sacrifice so much, we  need to make sure that these important assistance programs are held to the  highest standards of quality. By ensuring veterans have access to counseling  services and information to make informed decisions, this bill is a good  starting point for putting service members on a course for future success.”

“It’s one thing to fight a war. Our veterans shouldn’t have to come home and  fight for quality education,” said Mikulski, a member of the Senate Military  Family Caucus. “The Post-9/11 GI Bill represents America’s commitment to those  who have served our nation. This bill will help honor that commitment by giving  veterans the counseling they need to make sure they have the information they  need to make a sound decision and are protected from scams and schemes. Veterans  earned these benefits and they deserve the best educational opportunity  available to them find a job, or get a better job than they had in the past. I  want America’s veterans to know that America supports them.”

“Arming our veterans with key information about their educational benefits  and options empowers them to make an informed decision about which school best  meets their needs,” said Harkin. “And by creating a student complaint system,  this pro-consumer legislation also takes an important step at safeguarding both  veterans and taxpayers from fraud, waste, and abuse. These are common-sense,  basic measures for protecting the integrity of the Post-9/11 G.I. Bill.”

“The G.I. Bill is a powerful tool. It helped create the middle class. It laid  the pathway to good-paying jobs for millions of Americans. We must ensure that  the veterans who have served our country so admirably and honorably have all the  information they need to make best-use of the G.I. Bill,” Merkley said.

The bill is supported by the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW), the Iraq and  Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA), and the Military Officers Association of  America (MOAA).

“The Post-9/11 G.I. Bill could be the transformative benefit for today’s  service members and veterans, but the VFW believes that we must ensure that our  veterans have all the tools they need to succeed in higher education. This bill  will do just that,” said VFW Executive Director Bob Wallace. “Through just a few  simple steps, we can ensure that student-veterans are armed with the best  information to make an academic choice, and that they can take action when a  school doesn’t hold up their end of the bargain. This bipartisan bill presents  some common sense, easy-to-implement solutions that will help our  student-veterans succeed in higher education without restricting their choice of  schools or placing unreasonable burdens on campuses that open their doors to  student-veterans.”

“IAVA supports the GI Educational Freedom Act of 2012. Making sound  educational choices is at the heart of veterans’ ability to succeed as students  and receive the job training and education necessary to position them for  success in the civilian workforce. Currently, gaining access to clear and  consistent information is difficult: either it does not exist or, when it does,  is difficult to find and understand,” said Paul Rieckhoff, Founder and Executive  Director of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA). “Many veterans also  do not have the tools available to evaluate their educational options and take  full advantage of their educational benefits, including the GI Bill. Further  confusing the issue are the efforts of some schools who engage in deceptive  recruiting practices. They’re failing to deliver the quality job training,  skills, or education that our country promised our veterans, leaving many with  nothing to show for the time, effort and money that they expended. IAVA refuses  to let these practices and outcomes jeopardize the entire future of the New GI  Bill which we fought so hard for.”

“MOAA strongly supports measures to strengthen counseling opportunities and  establish a complaint resolution process for veterans using their GI Bill  benefits after service to the nation,” said MOAA president VADM Norb Ryan  (USN-Ret). “MOAA believes these actions can help our veterans’ readjustment and  protect the integrity of new GI Bill benefits Senator Lautenberg strongly  supported for Afghanistan and Iraq veterans. MOAA pledges its full support for  early enactment of the GI Educational Freedom Act.”

Posted in Veterans for Common Sense News | Tagged , | Comments Off on Lautenberg Intros Bipartisan Veterans’ Education Bill

Iraq, Afghanistan Veterans Push Back Against Stereotype of ‘Crazy Vet’

Posted on March 24, 2012 by Team VCS

March 20, 2012 (chron) – The shooting massacre of Afghan civilians in Panjwai earlier this month has sent pundits and journalists scrambling for clues to explain what could have led Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales to sneak off his base and allegedly slaughter 16 unarmed men, women and children.

Reporters interviewed Bales’ neighbors, tracked down his childhood friends, scoured his financial records, and detailed his run-ins with the law to produce profiles of 38-year-old soldier that ran in newspapers across the country over the weekend.

Now Iraq and Afghanistan veterans in the blogosphere are pushing back against what they see as an all-too-common tendency for such coverage to perpetuate a stereotype of the “dangerous veteran.”

On Ink Spots, a blog dedicated to security issues, Iraq War veteran Jason Fritz argues that “Robert Bales is not the victim“:

Ever since the massacre, Fritz wrote, “newspaper outlets (are) tripping over each other to explain why it was everyone’s fault except SSG Bales’ (again, assuming he committed the murders based on his apparent confession) that 16 Afghan men, women, and children ended up dead.”

Fritz goes on to challenge what he describes as innuendo and inaccuracies in articles published by The Washington Post and Bloomberg, including the possibility that Bales’ failure to get promoted caused him stress, that his family’s finances had been strained “to the breaking point” by multiple deployments on a sergeant’s salary, and that Bales had been told his deployments were over, “and then literally overnight that changed.”

Fritz says that Bales should have known the Army can’t promise not to deploy a healthy soldier again, and points out that he actually made more on a sergeant’s salary than the median income for the area where he lived in Tacoma, Wash. Fritz also speculates that Bales’ promotion might have been thwarted by his own actions — possibly because of past arrests for assault and a hit-and-run accident.

“Hundreds of thousands of troops have gone through what SSG Bales has gone through – or worse – and none of them shot 16 Afghan civilians,” Fritz concludes. “This entire situation is sad – for the Army, for Bales and his family and his unit, and especially for the Afghans who lost loved ones. Let’s keep perspective on that. And let’s not take the easy way out and blame The Man for the actions of a man because it fits your narrative. That’s not justice and it’s irresponsible. Robert Bales is not the victim here – the victims are in Afghanistan.”

Joao Hwang, a veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan, also wrote about Bales in his Huff Post blog:

It is not fair to justify the killing of innocent civilians because they practice the same religion as al Qaeda, it is not fair to judge all the people in Afghanistan for the actions of insurgents, nor is it fair to judge all Muslims by the actions of some. By the same rationale, it is not fair to judge the hard work and integrity of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan for the actions of one soldier. By and large, coalition forces in Afghanistan try to do the right thing and work hard to engage the local communities in an extraordinarily complex environment. I know my colleagues and I did the best we could when we were there. There were times when we suspected the very people we greeted with “Zengay” (“Hello”) during the day might have had sympathies with the Taliban, but we carried on with common courtesy and tried to win their “hearts and minds.” An incident like the one in Panjwai does much to damage the work done by the rest of the coalition forces.

Hwang says if you want to support the troops, ask the right questions:

What was his mental state when he allegedly killed those civilians? If he was under mental distress, why was he not removed from the battlefield? Were there signs before the deployment? What is the military doing to take soldiers out deployment rotations if they show such signs? What is the military culture regarding soldiers’ mental health help? Is there a stigma? If so, what is the military doing to change it? What kind of mental health assistance are they getting after they leave the service?

Such questions are not meant to weaken our nation’s military. They are meant to improve the quality of life of those who fight and have fought for our nation. Those questions should be asked of our policymakers and military leaders, because it is a matter or military readiness. These questions are meant to strengthen our nation’s military because such incidents do affect the mission, as we’re seeing now in Afghanistan. I believe we can do better, and that we need to do better.

In an appearance on the Sunday talk show Meet the Press, Paul Rieckhoff, executive director of the nonprofit group Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, cautioned against stereotyping veterans as unstable because of the terrible actions of one man. But Rieckhoff said Americans have to ask themselves if it’s fair to send troops back to war zones for four and five tours.

Nobody has been asked to do so much for so long, such a small group of people, less than one-half of 1 percent of the American public.  And we don’t know a lot of the facts on the ground about the situation, they continue to unfold, but what we do know is that our troops are under tremendous strain.  But there’s not necessarily a connection with, for example, traumatic brain injury or PTSD and murderous rampage behavior like this.  This is the exception.  This is not what our troops are made of.  They are honorable, they are courageous, and we all as Americans have to take a deep breath to make sure that we don’t let this man represent so many who have done so much for this country while most folks really haven’t been paying attention.  So if this is what it took for our country to have this conversation about, about the inequality of what we’re asking our folks to do, then that’s a good thing.  But let’s make sure that we understand that coincidence doesn’t necessarily equal causality here.

For Chron.com milblogger Nick Tran, the fallout from the mass shooting in Panjwai could have a direct impact on his own safety. He is training to deploy to Afghanistan as a medic with the Texas Army National Guard. He wrote about his reaction to the news on his blog, Medic Without Borders:

My heart goes out to the innocent people who lost their lives (especially the children) and the families of the victims in the villages. Wrong is wrong and there is absolutely no justification for that act. I don’t care what you have been through, or how much stress you’ve endured, killing innocent women and children is unacceptable within the Warrior Code. That is supposed to be the defining factor that separates us from our enemies. I’m afraid of the domino-effect that this will have in the upcoming weeks and months as the Taliban has vowed revenge on Western forces.

It is unknown if the combination of the these incidents will drive the Administration to move up their timetable to bring the troops home sooner, or reduce the amount of units that are scheduled to deploy. I fear for the safety of the servicemen and women currently there and it will certainly make any upcoming deployments (to include mine) exponentially more dangerous, not to mention making our objective to build relationships with the Afghan people difficult.

Nonetheless, being a medic, I still want to go. Many will think that I am crazy for feeling that way, but with greater power comes greater responsibility and the greater power that I am referring to in this case are the skills that the ARMY has given me as a healer. I have taken lives in my previous deployments, but on this upcoming one as a medic, I hope to be able to save at least one. I know the special people in my life won’t agree and would prefer that I stay at home. I love them for that, but what good is it to have all of this knowledge if it can’t be put to good use where it’s needed the most?

What do you think? Is the media asking the right questions about Bales and the victims of the shooting?

Posted in Veterans for Common Sense News | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Iraq, Afghanistan Veterans Push Back Against Stereotype of ‘Crazy Vet’

Suicides Highlight Failures of Veterans’ Support System–VCS Lawsuit Discussed

Posted on March 24, 2012 by Team VCS

This article really shows the importance of our lawsuit.
By AARON GLANTZ
Published: March 24, 2012

Francis Guilfoyle, a 55-year-old homeless veteran, drove his 1985 Toyota Camry to the Department of Veterans Affairs campus in Menlo Park early in the morning of Dec. 3, took a stepladder and a rope out of the car, threw the rope over a tree limb and hanged himself.

It was an hour before his body was cut down, according to the county coroner’s report.

“When I saw him, my heart just sank,” said Dennis Robinson, 51, a formerly homeless Army veteran who discovered Mr. Guilfoyle’s body. “This is supposed to be a safe place where a vet can get help. Something failed him.”

Mr. Guilfoyle’s death is one of a series of recent suicides by veterans who live in the jurisdiction of the Department of Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System. The Palo Alto V.A. is one of the agency’s elite campuses, home to the Congressionally chartered National Center for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. The poor record of the Department of Veterans Affairs in decreasing the high suicide rate of veterans has already emerged as a major issue for policy makers and the judiciary.

On Wednesday, the V.A. Inspector General in Washington released the results of a nine-month investigation into the May 2010 death of another veteran, William Hamilton. The report said social workers at the department in Palo Alto made “no attempt” to ensure that Hamilton, a mentally ill 26-year-old who served in Iraq, was hospitalized at a department facility in the days before he killed himself by stepping in front of a train in Modesto.

The Bay Area was also shocked by the March 14 death of Abel Gutierrez, a 27-year-old Iraq war veteran, who the police said killed his mother and his 11-year-old sister before shooting himself. Two weeks earlier the Gilroy Police Department intervened to ask the V.A. to help Mr. Gutierrez.

An examination of each case reveals faulty communication inside the V.A. system, which missed opportunities to help the veterans.

“I know people at the V.A. care a lot and work hard, but it’s a pattern that’s disturbing,” said Representative Jerry McNerney, a Democrat from Pleasanton who serves on the House Veterans Affairs Committee. “It doesn’t look good.”

Last May, a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit accused the department of “unchecked incompetence” and ordered it to overhaul the way it provides mental health care and disability benefits.

Noting that an average of 18 veterans commit suicide every day, Judge Stephen Reinhardt wrote, “No more veterans should be compelled to agonize and perish while the government fails to perform its obligations.” The department appealed, and Judge Reinhardt’s opinion has been temporarily vacated, pending a ruling from a an 11-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit.

Gordon Erspamer, a San Francisco lawyer representing the two groups that brought the suit, Veterans for Common Sense and Veterans United for Truth, said it was “incredible that this sorry record of ineptitude and lack of procedures for emergency cases continues even under the watchful eye of the Ninth Circuit.”

Two weeks before Mr. Gutierrez’s death, his family called the Gilroy Police Department and asked for officers to come to their home “to get him some help,” according to Sgt. Chad Gallacinao, a spokesman for the police department. Sergeant Gallacinao said a police officer who was also a military veteran was dispatched to the house and took notes.

Two days later, Sergeant Gallacinao said, the officer returned to the Gutierrez home with a representative of the Community Veterans Project, a nonprofit organization that trains law enforcement officials in interaction with psychologically wounded veterans.

“They made contact with the V.A. specifically to obtain services for Mr. Gutierrez,” Sergeant Gallacinao said.

Dave Bayard, a V.A. spokesman in Los Angeles, confirmed that a call had been placed to the Vet Center in Santa Cruz, but said the request was mild. “It wasn’t like ‘This guy is really in need of mental health,’ ” Mr. Bayard said.

The V.A. said Mr. Gutierrez had briefly received care at a department facility in Washington State, where he was a National Guardsman, but never visited a department campus in California.

In an e-mail, Kerri Childress, spokeswoman for the V.A. Palo Alto Health Care System, said that despite the intervention of the Gilroy Police Department in Mr. Gutierrez’s case, “We had no way of knowing he was even in the area.”

Shad Meshad, a Vietnam War veteran and former combat medic who heads the National Veterans Foundation, was unpersuaded. “It’s about time that they don’t make excuses,” Mr. Meshad said. “Why would you say it’s not serious when the police called?”

Mr. Meshad said the responses of Mr. Bayard and Ms. Childress were typical of the “finger-pointing” exhibited by the department when tragedy strikes.

Before Mr. Hamilton killed himself, he said he saw demon women and regularly talked to a man he had killed in Iraq. He had been admitted to the Palo Alto V.A.’s psychiatric ward before on nine separate occasions. Three days before he died, Mr. Hamilton’s father brought him to a community hospital in Calaveras County, which, according to hospital records obtained by The Bay Citizen, tried to transfer him to three V.A. hospitals, including the one in Palo Alto. But at 4:39 p.m., a department social worker wrote that day in his notes, the Palo Alto facilities “would not accept a transfer of a veteran for admittance this late in the day.”

Later that night, Mr. Hamilton was admitted to David Grant Medical Center at Travis Air Force base in Fairfield. That Sunday, the medical center discharged Mr. Hamilton. Within hours, he was dead.

V.A. officials have said they have no record of Mr. Hamilton being denied care and that their records do not show any telephone calls between the Calaveras County hospital and the Palo Alto V.A. But the inspector general’s report revealed that the Palo Alto hospital had no method of tracking incoming calls and that “no outgoing calls were recorded” from any Veterans Affairs Medical Center extension.

During the investigation into Mr. Hamilton’s death, the inspector general learned of yet another incident, in May 2011, when the doctor on duty refused to accept a veteran for treatment. According to the report, the psychiatrist said, “We don’t accept patients for transfer at night.”

In an e-mailed response to questions, Dr. Stephen Ezeji-Okoye, deputy chief of staff of the Palo Alto V.A., said that since Mr. Hamilton’s death his network had “revised our tracking mechanism so we are better able to analyze the disposition of any cases referred to the V.A. Palo Alto Health Care System.” Dr. Ezeji-Okoye said the Palo Alto V.A. had always accepted psychiatric patients 24 hours a day, every day of the year.

Ms. Childress, the agency spokeswoman, said the Palo Alto V.A. was committed to improving the quality and availability of mental health care. The hospital is building a new 80-bed inpatient mental health center, she said, which is scheduled to open in June. It will have “patient access to enclosed, landscaped gardens” and “ample use of natural light to all internal patients,” she said, with a color scheme “specifically selected to support the healing process.”

 

aglantz@baycitizen.org

Posted in Veterans for Common Sense News | Tagged , | Comments Off on Suicides Highlight Failures of Veterans’ Support System–VCS Lawsuit Discussed

Returning Women Veterans Face Challenges in a System Designed for Men

Posted on March 24, 2012 by Team VCS

Returning women veterans face challenges in a system designed for men

March 19, 2012 (PRI) – Almost eight percent of U.S. veterans are women, but the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is geared primarily toward men. That’s meant a lot of women veterans are homeless and living on the street — or on waiting lists for the services they need.

Women have served in the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts in unprecedented numbers making up eight percent of U.S. veterans.

Both in deployment and at home, female veterans face challenges their male counterparts don’t. That includes a Veterans Affairs department that’s just beginning to figure out how to take care of them.

Jackie K’s House is a small duplex cottage run by a non-profit called Soldier On, at the VA in Leeds, Mass. It’s one of only a handful of homeless shelters exclusively for women vets. And there’s often a waiting list to get in.

“There’s a lot of trauma in the house, and a lot of PTSD,” said social worker Laurie McGrath.

It’s not easy for 11 homeless veteran women to live together. But life at this shelter offers a respite from the streets. It offers security. And there’s an almost homelike atmosphere. But despite constant efforts to make the house feel like a home, McGrath said reality is the women here are suffering, badly.

“They aren’t choosing to live with these people. And they come in in crisis and even something as simple as a door slamming can trigger somebody,” she said.

Somebody like 21-year old Christianna Carrero, who enlisted in the Army National Guard at 17 during her senior year in high school. She said she was star struck by the military. She liked the uniforms, the parades, the marching, the guns. She figured the military would put her though college and provide job security. And then the letter arrived.

She shipped out to Iraq in July 2009. Once there, she found even the basics were hard. There’s a requirement for women soldiers to travel in twos at all times; and one day she and her battle buddy tried to get into the bathroom. But the door was locked.

“The men’s bathroom wasn’t locked,” Carrero said. “It was just the women’s bathroom. And they didn’t even try to sugar coat it. (They said) ‘yeah we’ve had a couple of rapes so that’s what we had to do.’”

Carrero was given a combination code for the bathroom door.

“I’m like, oh, but all the men in the housing authority know it. That makes me feel safe,” she said. “You better believe that I showered with my rifle on the towel hook.”

Then there’s the fear and anxiety caused simply by being in a war zone. You don’t see people with half of their bodies blown off in a regular hospital in a city.

Amy, who preferred not to use her last name, did three tours in Iraq. She said none of her experiences as an emergency room trauma nurse in the states prepared her for wartime medicine, beginning with her first patient.

“We removed a body from the stretcher that they were on (and moved it) to our hospital stretcher, and his arm came off. And I kinda stood there bewildered. Somebody ran up to me and grabbed it out of my hand,” Amy said. “Within two weeks I was, like, ‘Oh, body parts, I need a red bag.’ You just become very hardened and very used to it really quick because you have to.”

Amy said she started drinking heavily in Iraq. Alcohol was officially banned, though she claims it was easily available. But it wasn’t a problem through the three tours. Then she got home.

“My kids would come up to me and look at my soda and say ‘mommy can I have a sip or is there booze in there?’ ” she said.

Amy suffered from PTSD, but, like so many of her peers, was in denial. She got into trouble at home. And at work.

Amy ended up trying to commit suicide, lost her nursing license and was thrown in jail after three DUI arrests. She’s staying at Jackie K’s House on parole.

In addition to the stresses of being a soldier, Amy said women are often preyed upon by their male colleagues. A big part of the problem, for Amy and the others, is that they’re women. And there’s often nowhere to turn. Once home, women find the VA is a bastion of care for male vets. But not for women. Or families. And while things are changing, officials acknowledge many of the improvements fall short.

Connecticut’s Commissioner of Veterans Affairs, Linda Schwartz, said: “There are too many women willing to serve, and they are doing a good job, and they’re very important to the whole defense posture of this nation.”

Schwartz said post-combat problems aren’t unique to women, but they do hit women especially hard. And that’s why shelters like Jackie K’s House are needed. Not only is the shelter exclusively for women, but all the employees are women. Schwartz said this is vital to the women’s recovery.

“You can’t mainstream them and say, ‘OK, you’re going to in there and sit with these men.’ More than 25 percent of the women in the military have experienced sexual harassment or sexual assault. We need to maintain the special clinics,” Schwartz said. “There are too many women willing to serve and they are doing a good job and they are too important to the defense posture of this nation.”

But that’s not the message being heard by thousands of homeless women veterans who leave the military and find the doors shut on what they had hoped would be a soldier’s welcome home.

Posted in Veterans for Common Sense News | Tagged , | Comments Off on Returning Women Veterans Face Challenges in a System Designed for Men

Veteran Unemployment: Jobless Rate Drops

Posted on March 23, 2012 by Team VCS

Good news on veterans employment. The rate for veterans under 25 is still  far and away above the national average. It is great to see the policies promoted by federal leadership aimed at promoting the hiring of veterans having an effect. Thank you to POTUS and First Lady and members of congress who took action to begin  reversing this trend.

—————-

AP-Kevin Frecking

 

WASHINGTON — The unemployment rate for military veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan has dipped recently after months of riding higher than the national average, but some analysts caution it’s too early to tell if the progress is real or a blip.

The monthly snapshot provided by the federal government’s February jobs report showed that the unemployment rate for veterans of the two wars had dropped significantly, to 7.6 percent. That followed a decline in January, and last month’s number was also lower than the rate of 8.3 percent for the population as a whole, a significant shift because joblessness among veterans who served in the Gulf had run higher than the general rate in recent years.

“We tend to call a trend a trend and we are starting to see what seems like a trend, but we don’t want to overstate it and say the problem is solved,” said James Borbely, an economist at the Department of Labor.

Some analysts say there’s good reason for the caution. Ted Daywalt, the chief executive officer of a jobs board called VetJobs, said he expected the unemployment rate in early 2012 to drop because fewer guardsmen and reservists were returning from the Gulf.

“They aren’t flooding the market as much,” Daywalt said. “It’s a blip.”

The federal government also undertakes a longer-term review of unemployment among veterans. That report came out Tuesday and presented a more sobering picture of the jobs scene for veterans. The report said the unemployment rate for those who served in Iraq and Afghanistan averaged 12.1 percent during 2011, versus 8.7 percent for the overall population and up from 11.5 percent for veterans the year before.

Kevin Schmiegel, who is leading the U.S. Chamber of Commerce efforts to find jobs for veterans, said the monthly drops cited for January and February seem so different from past results that he’s skeptical that the jobs picture has improved that much. He’s putting more stock in the latter report, even if the information is more dated.

“If you look at a whole year, you’re going to get a more accurate picture than if you look at an individual month,” Schmiegel said. “I think the data reflect that the picture hasn’t gotten better.”

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., and chairman of the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, said that a 30 percent unemployment rate in 2011 for the youngest veterans – those ages 18 to 24 – was particularly startling.

“Clearly, there’s significant work ahead, she said. “I think getting our veterans jobs has to remain a top priority.”

Congress has already taken some steps to try to help veterans find work. It passed a new tax credit worth up to $5,600 for employers that hired unemployed veterans. It doubled the tax credit for employers that hired disabled veterans out of work at least six months, moving it to $9,600. Federal agencies have also stepped up the hiring of veterans and partnered with the private sector in conducting job fairs.

Jordan Diminich, 28, a former operations specialist with the U.S. Navy, said he appreciates the focus on helping vets find work and likens it to fulfilling an obligation. He knows that he’s the one responsible for whether he gets a job or not, but part of the sales pitch that military recruiters made to him was that his service would be a “game-changer” when it came time to get a job outside the military. That hasn’t happened. Diminich graduated from New York City’s Hunter College in January and has been looking for a job in advertising or marketing.

“The government and other organizations should help, but most of it falls on you,” Diminich said. “I have to be a hard-charger and make the most out of my interviews.”

Murray said she expects the Obama administration in the coming weeks to reveal more details about plans to create a new conservation program that would put veterans to work rebuilding trails, roads and levees on public lands. Obama also called for targeting federal grant money toward those local agencies who hire more veterans as police officers and firefighters. It’s been about six weeks since he announced the proposal, but there has been little movement since then on Capitol Hill. At a recent hearing, Sen. John Boozman, R-Ark., said he was concerned that spending $1 billion to hire veterans to tend to federal lands would be a waste of money.

“I’ve never heard a veteran express to me that’s the route they would like to go,” Boozman said.

Murray said the report looking at veterans’ unemployment for all of 2011 shows that no option should be taken off the table at this stage of the debate.

Over the years, veterans have generally had more success finding work than non-veterans, but that has not been the case for many of those who served in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Marvin Wells, who helps connect employers with returning guardsmen and reservists in Tennessee, said the unemployment rate is still high among the returning soldiers that he works with.

“I haven’t seen a change for our returning solders. Two years, we had 3,000 come back and it was 25 percent (unemployment,)” Wells said. “Today we have 300 come back and it’s still 25 percent.”

Some analysts say that lengthy deployments for members of the National Guard and Reserves have made some employers wary of hiring veterans who are still active members.

“You really have to have dedicated employers who see the value in hiring a reservist and know what they bring to the table and say, `yeah, they may be gone for 6 to 9 or 12 months, but I’m willing to bring someone in temporarily to fill for them because I know the quality of person that military experience brings to my company,’” Wells said.

Schmiegel said that the Chamber of Commerce would continue to hold job fairs around the county and encourage businesses to hire veterans. While some large companies, such as Walt Disney Co. and General Electric, have made commitments to hire more veterans, he said that it’s critical to get small businesses more involved in hiring vets.

Federal agencies are also looking to fill more positions with veterans. Veterans make up about 30 percent of the workforce at the Department of Veterans Affairs. Secretary Eric Shinseki has set a goal to increase that total to 40 percent. The Agriculture Department is also looking to hire veterans, mostly to fill firefighting and forest management positions. The department set a goal of veterans filling at least 17 percent of job openings, and it’s exceeding that goal, said Secretary Tom Vilsack.

Vilsack said his department also has low-interest loans and grants available to veterans who want to start their own business or farm.

“If veterans don’t want to work necessarily work for the government, they want to work for themselves, we have programs at the USDA designed to help folks who are dreaming those big dreams,” Vilsack said.

Posted in Veterans for Common Sense News | Tagged , | Comments Off on Veteran Unemployment: Jobless Rate Drops

Army: PTSD treatable; some diagnosed return to war

Posted on March 23, 2012 by Team VCS

It is still not known if the soldier accused of killing 17 Afghans was ever diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder – but even if he had been, that alone would not have prevented him from being sent back to war.

By JULIE WATSON

Associated Press

It is still not known if the soldier accused of killing 17 Afghans was ever diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder – but even if he had been, that alone would not have prevented him from being sent back to war.

The Army diagnosed 76,176 soldiers with PTSD between 2000 and 2011. Of those, 65,236 soldiers were diagnosed at some stage of their deployment.

Many returned to the battlefield after mental health providers determined their treatment worked and their symptoms had gone into remission, Army officials and mental health professionals who treat troops say. The Army does not track the exact number in combat diagnosed with PTSD nor those who are in combat and taking medicine for PTSD.

The case of Sgt. Robert Bales has sparked debate about whether the Army failed in detecting a soldier’s mental instability or pushed him too far. The Army is reviewing all its mental health programs and its screening process in light of the March 11 shooting spree in two slumbering Afghan villages that killed families, including nine children.

For some Americans, Bales is the epitome of a soldier inflicted by war’s psychological wounds, pushed by the Army beyond his limits.

Bales’ attorney says he does not know if his client suffered from PTSD but his initial statements appear to be building a possible defense around the argument that the horrific crime was the result of a 10-year military veteran sent back to a war zone for a fourth time after being traumatized.

Mental health professionals say it’s reasonable to consider PTSD but it was likely not the sole factor that sent the 38-year-old father from Washington state over the edge. Still, there is much that is not known about the psychological wounds of war and how they can manifest themselves, and even less is known about the impact of multiple deployments.

Military officials say they have to rely on their mental health experts to decide whether someone is mentally fit to go back into war, and they cannot make a blanket policy of not redeploying troops diagnosed with PTSD. The provider makes a recommendation, but the ultimate decision to deploy a soldier rests with the unit commander.

Army Secretary John McHugh told Congress this week that “we have in the military writ large over 50,000 folks in uniform who have had at least four deployments.” Some have served double-digit deployments, where they witnessed traumatic events.

“People do not understand that you can be treated for PTSD,” said Dr. Heidi Kraft, who cared for Marines in Iraq in 2004 as a Navy combat psychologist. “It’s a matter of turning a traumatic memory into just that – a memory rather than something that haunts you.

“You can’t say the person hasn’t live through trauma, but symptoms can go completely into remission, where a person is very functional and in fact emerges from treatment better or more resilient. There is the misconception out there that if you have this diagnosis, you will always be disabled, and that’s just not true.”

It also depends on the severity of the PTSD, which can last anywhere from months to years.

Some troops treated for PTSD yearn to return to the battlefield where they feel more comfortable surrounded by their fellow troops and on a mission than in the unsettling quiet of their home life, mental health professionals say.

But Bales’ attorney said that was not the case with his client.

John Henry Browne of Seattle said Bales had suffered injuries during his deployments, including a serious foot injury and head trauma and did not want to go on a fourth tour.

Military officials insist that Bales had been properly screened and declared fit for combat.

Army officials say soldiers sent to war may be checked up to five times, including before being deployed, during combat, once they return home and six months and a year later. The Army screens soldiers for depression and PTSD, asking questions to find out about any social stressors, sleep disruption and other problems. Those who are detected as having problems go on to a second phase of screening.

Officials say, however, that no test is considered diagnostically definitive for mental illness in general or PTSD in particular.

Critics say the Army has a history of bandaging the problem and rushing troops back into combat by loading them up on prescription drugs. Military courts also do not recognize PTSD as a legitimate defense, said attorney Geoffrey Nathan who has represented a number of court martialed troops.

“They’re still in a state of denial as to what combat soldiers go through in the field of battle,” Nathan said.

The Army says it’s committed to the health of the force, pointing out it has invested $710 million in behavioral health care and doubled the number of mental health workers since 2007.

“The Army has a robust policy to return soldiers who are fit for duty to combat units as soon as possible,” said Army spokesman George Wright. “If a soldier has a broken leg, and he is healed, and fully capable of conducting the mission, he’s eligible to return to duty. It’s the same when qualified medical doctors, psychologists or psychiatrists determine a soldier suffering from a behavioral health disorder is healed. If he displays the signs that he’s fully capable of accomplishing the mission as a solider, he’ll be returned to duty.”

Treatment can result in cure for some patients with PTSD, but more often results in improvement in symptoms and functioning, not a complete cure, according to the Army. PTSD can recur after treatment on exposure to other traumatic events or stressors. According to some studies, up to 80 percent of people with PTSD also suffer from another psychiatric disorder, making it challenging to make an accurate diagnosis.

The Army says its doctors look at a soldier’s current clinical condition and rely heavily on the soldier telling the provider whether symptoms have subsided. The Army says it recognizes that deploying a soldier who is not medically ready puts both the individual and unit at risk.

PTSD is a condition that results from experiencing or seeing a traumatic event, whether it’s being in a car crash or witnessing a battlefield casualty.

Browne said a fellow soldier’s leg had been blown off days before the rampage and Bales had seen the wounds. A U.S. defense official said it is likely that a soldier from Bales’ unit suffered a leg wound a day or two before the March 11 shootings, but military officials have no evidence that this has any connection to the massacre.

Bales also remembers very little or nothing from the time the military believes he went on the rampage, according to his attorney.

Not remembering a traumatic event or avoiding the memory is a classic symptom of PTSD, along with recurrent nightmares, flashbacks, irritability and feeling distant from other people.

But mental health experts believe other factors were at play. Bales’ personal history shows he had a past assault charge against a former girlfriend that required anger management classes, and also financial troubles.

Those who suffer from PTSD are prone to acting out, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs National Center for PTSD. But the violent behavior is usually against family members or fellow troops, not strangers, mental health professionals say.

Dr. Harry Croft, a San Antonio, Texas psychiatrist who has diagnosed 7,000 veterans with PTSD for the Veterans Affairs Department and written the book “I Always Sit With My Back to The Wall” about PTSD said the case has set back years of work to erase the perception that veterans are walking time bombs who can go off without warning. Veteran advocates point to one tabloid headline labeling the then-unidentified suspect “Sergeant Psycho.”

That stereotype, they say, has caused employers to shy away from hiring veterans returning from war and steered singles away from getting involved in relationships with them.

“Even the most severe cases of PTSD alone would not have caused such a heinous act like this,” said Croft. “Something else was definitely going on, most probably severe depression, psychosis, substance abuse or he received some terrible news from home that pushed him over the edge.

Posted in Veterans for Common Sense News | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Army: PTSD treatable; some diagnosed return to war