Scores of recent Texas war veterans have died of overdoses, suicide and vehicle crashes, a six-month Statesman investigation finds.
Long, like many issues related to Veterans of our wars, and ignored by the huge majority served, overdue study into the 'uncounted casualties' of our wars. Started in the past couple of years, nothing was done and to little VA funding, already decades of underfunding from previous wars, added in the previous years of these present wars by those who rubber stamped and still borrowed war costs, in partnership with the Department of Defense and the Veterans Administration as to the growing suicides both in the military active ranks and the veterans of ranks. Another extremely important issue, covering many possibilities and causes for, the country shouldn't have ignored for decades. Recently a study taken on by serious investigative professional journalist of the Austin TX American-Statesman and delving into many issues, PTS to the drugs prescribed, of possibilities of recent uncounted casualties of war.
Those decades, especially since our service in Vietnam, had many issues, way to numerous to list, that the country totally ignored and refused to fund the research in and the care needed and as it turned out previous war veterans suffered from same and were never diagnosed with nor cared for. Especially after many of us Vietnam veterans and by population only a handful of civilians, who recognized, pushed to place a serious label on what always had been, from wars and individual civilian extreme traumatic experiences, Post Traumatic Stress {PTSD}. A very serious long lasting for many hidden wound from extreme trauma especially from the 24/7 stresses of military conflicts but also from very traumatic experiences individuals live through and the results of weren't understood.
Dec. 27, 2012 - A team of American-Statesman reporters spent six months investigating how hundreds of Texas veterans have died since coming home from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. This month, more than two months after the results of the Statesman investigation were published, the Department of Veterans Affairs said it will study the deaths of veterans nationwide.
The VA’s decision to begin its own inquiry into the deaths of the veterans it serves, past due but welcome nonetheless, corrects the government’s failure to fully track the causes of death of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans. We hope the effort to compile a comprehensive study of veterans’ deaths leads to a more complete picture of veterans’ struggles as they readjust to civilian life, and that a better understanding of those struggles will help prevent so many tragically early deaths.
The three-day American-Statesman series, “Uncounted Casualties,” began with reporters Brenda Bell, Eric Dexheimer, Dave Harmon, Tony Plohetski, Jeremy Schwartz, database editor Christian McDonald, and visual reporters Jay Janner and Kelly West trying to fill out the incomplete death records of 345 Texas veterans who died between January 2003 and October 2011 after coming home from overseas.
By matching the fragmentary records provided by the VA with reports from other agencies, local obituaries and other public documents, the team was able to determine the causes of death for 266 Texans who returned home from the wars in Iraq or Afghanistan.
The team’s findings bear repeating: read more>>>
After surviving in theater war tours, this generations multiple tours and in possibly both theaters, the mentally and the physically wounded are often prescribed the latest developed drugs, a pill or shots to cure everything, that really seem to not be understood, especially combined with each individuals possible hidden wounds, as to the effects they many have on the individual that are told to use with promises of cures if used as directed. Many in the active ranks now were prescribed and sent back for more tours in these wars and occupations.
Because of the countries ignoring the soldiers and the issues from Vietnam, and our other wars, who returned to join the veterans community many self medicated, others were misdiagnosed if even seeking care or frustrated when not understood, which caused even more problems for each including suicides or led to deaths or to troubled homelessness and criminal activities with jail/prison time.
More recent, and before the present two, the country ignored, DeJa-Vu once again, the veterans returning from the first gulf war, Desert Storm, welcome homes and parades were given though, very short term support for, and what is labeled 'Gulf War Syndrome'. Still not known what the causes were for many, one of the suspected still are the shots and drugs given before the military rushed into that region to prevent known possible ailments and to inoculate them from, there are suspected other possible causes as well.
Dec 28, 2012 - Like many people I know and public figures I’ve seen recently, the killings in Newtown’s elementary school have made me reconsider my position on gun control. As a hunter, a veteran, and a dyed-in-the-wool radical, I write this to show fellow gun owners and, more important, my fellow Americans who are distrustful of an armed government with an unarmed populace that the logic I espoused for most of my life is bankrupt.
WASHINGTON, Dec. 28, 2012 – President Barack Obama, Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta and Joint Chiefs Chairman Army Gen, Martin E. Dempsey praised the service and legacy of retired Army Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf, who passed away yesterday at age 78.
December 28, 2012 - In a cavernous warehouse on a recent weekday, Rose Parade volunteers were busy painting and clipping flowers as they rushed to complete their float in time for New Year's Day festivities. But all activity paused when the star of the decorated stage arrived.
Dec 25, 2012 - Two weeks before Christmas last year, Fort Bragg Sgt. Mike Salmon called to check on his wife in Fayetteville.
December 20, 2012 - Washington, D.C. winters can mirror what many view to be characteristics of the city itself – cold and awful. The winter of 1981 was a textbook example of wintertime in D.C., in more ways than one. The fate of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial was being decided in the halls of Congress and the Reagan Administration. A flurry of activities was orchestrated by well-funded opposition to Maya Lin’s design for The Wall. Her design was criticized as being too modernistic; referred to as the Black Gash of Shame and even compared to the Ovens of Dachau.
Chuck Hagel was a prime target for the opposition. He was the talented second-in-command at the Veterans image-1 Administration, a decorated Vietnam War veteran and a highly respected appointee in the Reagan Administration. He was told that he should join the team opposing Lin’s design. If he did not join the opposition, he would be out of work. Friends at the White House would see to it that he would be fired. Most people would have caved. Hagel did not.
Hagel never got fired. The opponents left, probably dazed at the outcome. Hagel went on to serve President Reagan in other capacities throughout the Presidency, and eventually, Nancy Reagan joined the National Sponsoring Committee for The Wall. A compromise was reached with the opposition, and in March 1982 we hosted an emotional groundbreaking. Hagel was a speaker. read more>>>
December 19, 2012 - A new book by a Western Michigan University Professor delves into the history of using Agent Orange in the Vietnam War. History Professor Ed Martini also deals with the aftermath of the herbicide in his book Agent Orange: History, Science, and the Politics of Uncertainty.
December 27, 2012 - Kevin English served three tours as a Marine in Iraq. When he came home to Arizona, he suffered from vicious headaches and neck pain that made it hard to keep a job. The worst day, he says, was when he found he couldn't lift a simple aluminum ladder.
December 19, 2012 - The elderly Houston couple responsible for the largest scam ever uncovered in a U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs' program meant to protect vulnerable veterans will be going to federal prison for 46 months after conspiring to carry out a $2.3 million ripoff of 49 disabled military men.
12/19/2012 - President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, offer holiday greetings to service members around the world this holiday season, and thank them for their service and sacrifice.
As holiday music floated through the halls and decorations began to appear on the walls, the clock struck five and it was declared “Happy Hour” in the Cheyenne VA’s Community Living Center (CLC).
WASHINGTON – December 20, 2012 - The Department of Veterans Affairs announced today it is cutting red tape for Veterans by eliminating the need for them to complete an annual Eligibility Verification Report (EVR). VA will implement a new process for confirming eligibility for benefits, and staff that had been responsible for processing the old form will instead focus on eliminating the compensation claims backlog.
12 December 2012 - They've revised the reports about OEF/OIF/OND Veterans’ use of VA health care facilities and common diagnoses, including post-traumatic stress disorder, for the third quarter of fiscal year 2012. The reason for the revision was to correct an error in counting inpatient visits.
“All of us at the Commerce Department and throughout the Administration have made hiring veterans a priority,” said Acting Secretary Blank. “Whether it’s by making improvements in how the military transitions service members from the battlefield to the workplace, ensuring the post-9/11 GI Bill stays strong, or through the efforts of the Joining Forces initiative, President Obama and this Administration are taking steps to ensure that veterans can find job opportunities when they return from service. We are proud to support the efforts of the private sector – and companies like Monster and Military.com – in hiring the men and women who have bravely served this nation.” read more>>>
Stand with families of the Newtown school shooting The mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut is a tragedy beyond comprehension. Stand with the families who've lost loved ones and the community that has been shattered.
December 14, 2012 – Statement of Mayor's Against Illegal Guns Co-Chair New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg: "With all the carnage from gun violence in our country, it's still almost impossible to believe that a mass shooting in a kindergarten class could happen. It has come to that. Not even kindergarteners learning their ABC's are safe. We heard after Columbine that it was too soon to talk about gun laws. We heard it after Virginia Tech. After Tucson and Aurora and Oak Creek. And now we are hearing it again. For every day we wait, 34 more people are murdered with guns. Read the rest of the press release
October 28, 2011 - I am a civilian psychiatrist who recently finished 20 months working as a contractor for the United States Army. Going into the job, I expected the degree of combat-related stress I saw in our troops. However, I was not prepared for the scope of impact our 2 long wars have had on military children.
Dec 04, 2012 - Wrongfully gaining Veterans Affairs Benefits, a Myrtle Beach man lied saying he was honorably discharged when he in fact went AWOL.
5 December 2012 - The Department of Veterans Affairs will be able to hire drivers to transport veterans to health care appointments across Montana if a measure introduced by U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., stays intact.
December 11, 2012 - In the latest issue of The New Yorker, journalist Raffi Khatchadourian writes about a secret chemical weapons testing program run by the U.S. Army during the Cold War.
December 8, 2012 - Sgt. Marilyn Gonzalez and her daughter, Spc. Jessica Pedraza, served together in Kuwait and Iraq from January until December of 2010. But they weren't both supposed to go then.
In 2010, Gonzalez was ordered to deploy to Iraq, but her daughter was not. Pedraza decided to put college on hold and changed her job in the military so that she would be sent to war with her mom. The unit didn't need supply specialists, but it did need a truck driver.
10 December 2012 - As the latest report card arrives Monday on the Obama Administration’s push to end veteran homelessness by 2015, some experts predict a further decline in the number of ex-service members sleeping in parks, under bridges or in public spaces.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development will release Monday afternoon its 2012 count of homeless Americans – including a fresh tally of homeless veterans, according to the National Alliance to End Homelessness (NAEH). And the head of that nonprofit group expects HUD’s status report will show that a fortified federal effort to house more disabled and low-income veterans is working.
December 10, 2012 - A study comparing the military’s health care burden during the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq with its prewar burden found that hospitalization of active-duty troops for mental disorders accounted for 63 percent of the increases in hospitalization rates during those wars.
The new Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, seen from the air, with Wisconsin Avenue in front, still shows the original tower that Franklin Delano Roosevelt designed. But the growth around that tower has expanded to include portions of the old Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
This is a time of year to reflect on all the blessings that have been bestowed on all of us as citizens of this great country, and in particular the blessings that we have to be members of the Department of Defense family. Someone asked me the other day, kind of, you know, reflecting on the job of Secretary of Defense what's the toughest part of this job and what's the most memorable part of this job?
Dec. 5, 2012 - The leader of a national veterans' advocacy group urged a congressional subcommittee to force the Department of Defense to immediately reconstruct — if possible — missing military field records from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Capt. Ryan McGuire, a C-17 Globemaster III pilot with the 4th Airlift Squadron at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Wash., was one of two service members recognized as Outstanding Department of Defense Service Members with Disabilities for 2012, at the 32nd Annual Department of Defense Disability Awards Ceremony held in the Pentagon, Washington, D.C., on Dec. 04, 2012.