Think PTSD, TBI, MST aren't real problems for our vets? Think again....consider the story of one vet who lost in his struggle with PTSD and then check out the call to action by IVAW....Veterans advocate kills self after war tours  AP – This handout photo, taken in November 2010, provided by Ride 2 Recovery, shows Clay Hunt in the 2010 … By KIMBERLY HEFLING, Associated Press – Fri Apr 15, 2011 http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_ WASHINGTON – Handsome and friendly, Clay Hunt so epitomized a vibrant Iraq veteran that he was chosen for a public service announcement reminding veterans that they aren't alone. The 28-year-old former Marine corporal earned a Purple Heart after taking a sniper's bullet in his left wrist. He returned to combat in Afghanistan. Upon his return home, he lobbied for veterans on Capitol Hill, road-biked with wounded veterans and performed humanitarian work in Haiti and Chile. Then, on March 31, Hunt bolted himself in his Houston apartment and shot himself. Friends and family say he was wracked with survivor's guilt, depression and other emotional struggles after combat. Hunt's death has shaken many veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. Those who knew him wonder why someone who seemed to be doing all the right things to deal with combat-related issues is now dead. "We know we have a problem with vets' suicide, but this was really a slap in the face," said Matthew Pelak, 32, an Iraq veteran who worked with Hunt in Haiti as part of the nonprofit group Team Rubicon. After news of Hunt's death spread, workers from the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors met with veterans visiting Washington for the annual lobbying effort by the nonprofit Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans, or IAVA. A year earlier, Hunt had been with other veterans in dark suits calling on Congress to improve the disability claims process. He had appeared in the group's ads encouraging veterans to seek support from an online network of fellow veterans. Snapshots posted on Facebook reflect a mostly grinning Hunt. In one, he has a beard and is surrounded by Haitian kids. A second shows him on the Capitol steps with fellow veterans. There's a shot of him from the back on a bike using his right arm to help push another bicyclist who is helping to guide an amputee in a specially modified bike. Friends and family say Hunt suffered from depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. But with his boundless energy and countless friends, he came across as an example of how to live life after combat. "I think everybody saw him as the guy that was battling it, but winning the battle every day," said Jacob Wood, 27, a friend who served with Hunt in the Marines and in Haiti with Team Rubicon. But some knew he was grieving over several close friends in the Marines who were killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. "He was very despondent about why he was alive and so many people he served with directly were not alive," said John Wordin, 48, the founder of Ride 2 Recovery, a program that uses bicycling to help veterans heal physically and mentally. In 2007, while in Iraq with the Marine's 2nd Battalion, 7th Regiment, Hunt heard over the radio that his 20-year-old bunkmate had died in a roadside bombing. Hunt later wrote online about sleeping in his bunkmate's bed. "I just wanted to be closer to him, I guess. But I couldn't — he was gone." A month later, Hunt was pinned by enemy fire in his truck as a fellow Marine, shot in the throat by a sniper, lay nearby. Hunt wrote that seeing his friend placed in a helicopter, where he died, is "a scene that plays on repeat in my head nearly every day, and most nights as well." Three days later, a sniper's bullet missed Hunt's head by inches and hit his wrist. He didn't immediately leave Iraq. His parents say Hunt asked to fly to a military hospital in Germany a day later so he could accompany a fellow Marine who was shot in both legs. "I know he's seen some traumatic stuff in his time and I guess he holds that to himself," said Marine Sgt. Oscar Garza, 26, who served with Hunt in Iraq. "He was a very compassionate Marine, a very passionate person, one of the few people that I know that has a big heart and feels a lot of people's pain and makes it his own." Hunt's mother, Susan Selke, said after Hunt was wounded, she'd hoped her son would get out of the military. Instead, he went to school to be a scout-sniper and went to Afghanistan. He seemed to do well. He was honorably discharged in 2009, married and enrolled at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. He was frustrated by the Veterans Affairs Department's handling of his disability claim. He also piled up thousands of dollars in credit card debt as he waited for his GI Bill payments. Hunt found an outlet to help improve the system by doing work with IAVA. He helped build bikes for Ride 2 Recovery and participated in long rides. Using his military training, he went to Haiti several times and Chile once to help with the countries' earthquake relief efforts. He proudly told his parents of splinting an infant's leg, and after meeting a young orphaned boy in Haiti named D'James, tried to persuade his family to adopt him. "If I had one thing to say to my fellow veterans, it would be this: Continue to serve, even though we have taken off our uniforms," Hunt wrote in an online testimonial for Team Rubicon. "No matter how great or small your service is, it is desired and needed by the world we live in today." Hunt's friends say he was an idealist and voiced frustration that he couldn't make changes overnight. He also questioned why troops were still dying. "He really was looking for someone to tell him what it was he went over to do and why those sacrifices were made," Wood said. Last year, Hunt's life took a downward spiral. His marriage ended, he dropped out of school and he began to have suicidal thoughts, his mother said. She said Hunt sought counseling from the VA and moved in temporarily with Wordin in California. Things seemed to improve for Hunt in recent months after he returned to his hometown of Houston to be near family. He got a construction job, leased an apartment, bought a truck and began dating. He called friends to discuss the possibility of re-enlisting. In the days before he died, he hung out with friends, and he had plans the following weekend to do a Ride 2 Recovery bike ride. He even told Garza he couldn't wait to see him at a Fourth of July reunion with other Marines. Then he was dead. "Clay was always a fighter," Wordin said. "He was always a guy to stick things out and he basically quit life, and I was mad that he felt he had to do that at that particular time." Hunt's friends and family count him a casualty of war — just like his buddies who died in the battlefield. Online: IAVA's public service announcement: http://iava.org/weve-got-your- Team Rubicon: http://teamrubiconusa.org/ Ride 2 Recovery: http://www.ride2recovery.com/ Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors: http://www.taps.org Veterans Crisis Line: http://www. ___ Veterans Crisis Line: 800-273-TALK (8255) UPDATE on IVAW's Operation Recovery and their attempts to meet with Lt Gen Donald Campbell Jr, the new base commander of Ft Hood to address the problems of military suicide, PTSD, MST and TBI, the lack of treatment for the troops suffering from these problems and the redeployment of these troops without treatment. Here's an opportunity to do more than pass on sappy e mails about supporting or troops but don't really require you to do anything for them, you can click the link and e mail Gen Campbell yourself and ask him to meet with the IVAW at Ft Hood and take action to address these issues and guarantee proper treatment of soldiers suffering from these very real wounds and to stop the redeployment of troops still suffering from PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder), MST (Military Sexual Trauma) and TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury).
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BUCKNACKT'S SORDID TAWDRY BLOG We should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive & well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate, bier or wein in hand, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming "WHOO-HOO, WHAT A RIDE!!!!!!"
Showing posts with label IAVA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label IAVA. Show all posts
14 May 2011
Help Operation Recovery Grill Gen. Campbell 13MAI11
13 November 2010
Afghanistan: Progress or Mess? 18OKT10 & Wake Up, America! War Off the Radar, Congress Fails 19OKT10
FOR a nation that is supposedly so pro military and all gung-ho for supporting troops so little is done to provide for the needs of the troops in combat zones and when they return. People think forwarding moving e mails about the troops, God and country shows support. I am tired of them, they do nothing. If people are really concerned, and really support our troops, they will take the time to contact the president and their congress people to make sure the troops are supplied adequately in combat zones and that they make sure they receive the support and care they need when they return. AND they will do this more than once, they will keep the pressure on our elected officials and the DOD to do right by our troops. This from MOJO about the real state of affairs in Afghanistan (we need to get out of there NOW), followed by a piece about the lack of care and concern for our returning troops by Paul Rieckoff , head of IAVA
The headline above could have been used for any sum-up of the Afghanistan war over the past years. This has become the United States' longest war, and there have yet to be any decisive turns. On Saturday, The Washington Post ran a story headlined, "U.S. military, civilian officials claim progress in Afghan war." The opening:
Meanwhile, there's hard evidence of what's not going well. The recent parliamentary elections were chock-full of fraud, and Afghan and Western officials estimate that nearly one-quarter of the votes will have to be trashed. Anti-corruption efforts are lagging. And US soldiers accused of murdering Afghans for sport have said they were merely following orders from a commander who fancied collecting body parts as trophies.
The real question at hand is how much improvement can there be between now and next July, when Obama's promised downsizing in Afghanistan is supposed to start. Crunch time is fast approaching.
The headline above could have been used for any sum-up of the Afghanistan war over the past years. This has become the United States' longest war, and there have yet to be any decisive turns. On Saturday, The Washington Post ran a story headlined, "U.S. military, civilian officials claim progress in Afghan war." The opening:
KABUL - With a year-end report card coming due, top U.S. military and civilian officials in Afghanistan have begun to assert that they see concrete progress in the war against the Taliban, a sharp departure from earlier assessments that the insurgency had the momentum.Sounds like a major progress, right? But halfway through the article, there's this:
Despite growing numbers of Taliban attacks and American casualties, U.S. officials are building their case for why they are on the right track, ahead of the December war review ordered by President Obama. They describe an aggressive campaign that has killed or captured hundreds of Taliban leaders and more than 3,000 fighters around the country in recent months, and has pressured insurgents into exploring talks with the Afghan government. At the same time, they say, the Afghan army is bigger and better trained than it has ever been.
Yet even as U.S. officials here echo [Defense Secretary Bob] Gates's [optimistic] assessment, they have offered relatively little evidence to back up their claims of progress, and many still hesitate to say that successes against the Taliban in certain pockets add up to the war's pendulum swinging their way. Indeed, one week last month broke the nine-year war's record for violence, as the Taliban sought to ambush parliamentary elections: NATO forces logged more than 1,600 attacks nationwide, 500 more than in the previous worst week.In other words, never mind. So we have talk of progress, but no concrete signs of progress. Perhaps this should have been the central point of the article, not the unproved claims of advances.
Meanwhile, there's hard evidence of what's not going well. The recent parliamentary elections were chock-full of fraud, and Afghan and Western officials estimate that nearly one-quarter of the votes will have to be trashed. Anti-corruption efforts are lagging. And US soldiers accused of murdering Afghans for sport have said they were merely following orders from a commander who fancied collecting body parts as trophies.
The real question at hand is how much improvement can there be between now and next July, when Obama's promised downsizing in Afghanistan is supposed to start. Crunch time is fast approaching.
Wake Up, America! War Off the Radar, Congress Fails by Paul Rieckhoff
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-rieckhoff/wake-up-america-war-off-t_b_769099.html?utm_source=DailyBrief&utm_campaign=102010&utm_medium=email&utm_content=FeatureMore&utm_term=Daily+BriefAfter nearly a decade in Iraq and Afghanistan, over 2 million Americans have served, a trillion dollars have been spent and yet only 3 percent of Americans have war on their radar this election.
And where's Congress? Spinning on the campaign trail, scrambling for last-minute endorsements and as Tom Brokaw rightly noted in The New York Times this week, still doing nothing to wake up the country about the surge of veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.
In 2009, Congress came out swinging for vets. They pushed several major legislative victories to the President's desk. They passed Advanced Appropriations, mandatory mental health screenings for every returning servicemember, and landmark legislation for caregivers and female veterans.
Then everything went downhill in 2010.
This year, veterans' calls for VA disability reform, new GI Bill upgrades, and veteran employment initiatives all fell on deaf ears. After months of making promises, Congress suddenly stopped paying attention, skipped out on votes and dropped out.
On November 2nd, Americans will head to the polls and every voter should ask themselves: did my members of Congress show they have the backs of new veterans?
With the launch of IAVA Action Fund's 2010 Congressional Report Card, it's easy for voters to find out in just a few clicks.
The nonpartisan Report Card grades every Senator and Representative on his or her voting record and leadership on key issues for new veterans. Across political parties, exceptional leaders on veterans' issues were few and far between. This year, only 20 legislators out of 535 earned an A+ on veterans' issues--an 87 percent decline from 2008 when 150 Members made the top grade. More alarmingly, nearly a third of our elected officials on Capitol Hill failed to take any real action for Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, earning Ds or Fs.
If Americans really want to have the backs of our nation's veterans, they should do their homework on the Report Card and Tweet their Representatives about their voting records.
Unlike Congress, our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan don't have the luxury of quitting before their mission is complete. They can't cut out early when lives are on the line. For a country in the midst of two wars, Washington's recent commitment to ensuring these men and women have the tools to successfully transition home has been half-hearted.
Back in their districts, Members of Congress might spend the next week spinning tales of a "banner year" on veterans' legislation. But Iraq and Afghanistan veterans and their families deserve real leadership and action on Capitol Hill, not empty promises and cheap rhetoric. Each day that passes without a break in the gridlock in Washington, veteran unemployment will continue to outpace the national average, the VA disability backlog will continue to climb and suicide rates will continue to skyrocket.
If Congress considers this an acceptable future for our nation's veterans, they definitely don't make the grade.
To download IAVA Action Fund's full report card, click here.
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