WASHINGTON – Recognizing the longstanding, integrated collaboration shared by the Department of Veterans Affairs and Department of Defense, VA Secretary Eric K. Shinseki gave the keynote address Monday at the fourth annual Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) Military Training Conference here.

“We–DoD and VA–simply cannot afford to be less than aggressive in our effort to identify, treat and rehabilitate TBI victims,” Shinseki told the approximately 1,000 military, VA and civilian health care workers at the conference sponsored by the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center (DVBIC).

The Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center was established by Congress in 1992. DoD and VA together offer clinical care, research and education on traumatic brain injury. DVBIC is the operational component of the Defense Center of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury.

In praise of the collaborative DVBIC model, Secretary Shinseki said it should be replicated for all military personnel transitioning to VA care, and not just for TBI or burn care.

“When it comes to DoD’s patients, there is a network of information and hands-on human care,” the Secretary said, “that helps a wounded warrior transition from one system to the other– from the battlefield to our polytrauma centers.”

There are DVBIC researchers assigned at each of the four VA Polytrauma Rehabilitation Centers (Tampa, Richmond, Minneapolis and Palo Alto) where they gather information regarding care of patients with TBI, analyze and translate this information into recommendations to improve care, and educate providers in implementing those improvements clinically.

DVBIC and VA have shared, and continue to collaborate, on many significant initiatives.  Recent examples include developing and implementing:

• Joint DoD/VA clinical practice guidelines for TBI;
• Materials and information for families and caregivers of Veterans with TBI;
• Integrated education and training curriculum, and joint training on TBI of VA and DoD heath care providers;
• A Congressionally-mandated 5-year pilot program to assess the effectiveness of providing assisted living services to Veterans with TBI;
• The TBI Screening tool used for all Veterans who served in Iraq or Afghanistan and are receiving care within VA; and
• A specialized Emerging Consciousness Care program at the four polytrauma centers to serve those Veterans with severe TBI who are also slow to recover consciousness.

FORT HOOD, Texas — Nine months after an Army psychiatrist was charged with fatally shooting 13 soldiers and wounding 30, the nation’s largest Army post can measure the toll of war in the more than 10,000 mental health evaluations, referrals or therapy sessions held every month.

About every fourth soldier here, where 48,000 troops and their families are based, has been in counseling during the past year, according to the service’s medical statistics. And the number of soldiers seeking help for combat stress, substance abuse, broken marriages or other emotional problems keeps increasing.

A common refrain by the Army’s vice chief of staff, Gen. Peter Chiarelli, is that far more soldiers suffer mental health issues than the Army anticipated. Nowhere is this more evident than at Fort Hood, where emotional problems among the soldiers threaten to overwhelm the system in place to help them.

Counselors are booked. The 12-bed inpatient psychiatric ward is full more often than not. Overflow patient-soldiers are sent to private local clinics that stay open for 10 hours a day, six days a week to meet the demand.

“We are full to the brim,” says Col. Steve Braverman, commander of the Carl R. Darnall Army Medical Center on the post.

That doesn’t even count those soldiers reluctant to seek care because they are ashamed to admit they need help or the hundreds who find therapy outside the Army medical system, Braverman and other medical officials say.

Officials worry the problems may worsen — for the military and the country.

“If Fort Hood is representative of the Army — and 10% of the Army is assigned to Fort Hood — then if you follow the logic, our numbers should be scalable to any other post in the country,” says acting base commander Maj. Gen. William Grimsley.

“I worry that if we don’t see this through the right way over the long haul … we’re going to grow a generation of people 10 or 15 years from now who are going to be a burden on our own society,” he says. “And that’s not a good thing for the Army. That’s not a good thing for the United States.”

Statistics provided to USA TODAY by Fort Hood commanders show the explosion of mental health issues here:

•Fort Hood counselors meet with more than 4,000 mental health patients a month.

•Last year, 2,445 soldiers were diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), up from 310 in 2004.

•Every month, an average of 585 soldiers are sent to nearby private clinics contracted through the Pentagon’s TRICARE health system because Army counselors cannot handle more patients. That is up from 15 per month in 2004.

•Hundreds more see therapists “off the network” because they want their psychological problems kept secret from the Army. A free clinic in Killeen offering total discretion treated 2,000 soldiers or family members this year, many of them officers.

•Last year, 6,000 soldiers here were on anti-depressant medications and an additional 1,400 received anti-psychotic drugs.

“I don’t think we fully understand the total effect of nine years of continuous conflict on a force this size,” Chiarelli says, reacting to those statistics.

“Those numbers are pretty staggering,” says Kathy Beasley, a health care executive with the Military Officers Association of America. She wonders what will happen when those soldiers leave the military. “Do we have the supply and the people in our systems to take care of that?”

Every time more counselors are hired here, their schedules immediately fill up with patients. “It’s almost like a Field of Dreams,” Braverman says, referring to the famous line from the 1989 film about a baseball field on an Iowa farm that spontaneously draws crowds. “If you build it, they will come.”

‘Life can slowly slip away’

Staff Sgt. Josh Rivera came back from his third tour in Iraq this year eager to save his marriage.

“When a soldier is constantly gone and actually fighting, not just deploying and sitting in an office, life can slowly slip away,” says Rivera, 32, a native of the Bronx, N.Y.

IN KENTUCKY: Losses mount at Fort Campbell, Ky.

Thirty-nine cumulative months of war had left him distant from his family and confused about his role in their lives, Rivera says. All that made sense was the infantry, which he loves. Rivera resisted seeing a counselor until his marriage was in real trouble, he says.

The Army therapist who met with Rivera and his wife, Julie, gently guided them back to basics — what brought them together 10 years before, why each mattered to the other and what they wanted out of life, the couple say.

Chaplains provide marriage counseling, but for soldiers who want to see a licensed marriage counselor, the base’s social work department has two, each with a caseload of 60 couples, says Lt. Col. Nancy Ruffin, department director.

She has to refer some troubled marriages to private clinics, and not all the soldiers are willing to do that, Ruffin says.

The demand for other types of counseling also far exceeds supply. There are not enough social workers to treat soldiers suffering the emotional effect of sexual assault. Ruffin says she has one social worker, who is handling 50 cases.

Fort Hood has an intensive, three-week therapy program, followed by eight weeks of group therapy, for soldiers suffering stress-related issues, including post-traumatic stress disorder. It has a waiting list of 80 soldiers.

The child and adolescent psychiatric services at Fort Hood handle more than 1,000 visits, assessments or counseling sessions with military children each month, up from about 800 in 2004. It refers about 30 overflow cases off base each month, up from zero in 2004, the base statistics show.

Fort Hood has one of the most robust mental health programs in the Army. It has 171 behavioral health providers and 28 new hires are on the way, says Lt. Col. B. Kirk Phillips, a psychiatrist and director of mental health care at the Darnall medical center. This is up from about 50 mental health workers in 2004.

Because of war and deployments, not only are there more soldiers suffering emotional problems, they are sicker than ever and require more counseling sessions, Phillips says. Even after the latest round of hiring, Phillips says, a recent internal analysis showed the mental health staff will need an additional 58 counselors to meet the demand.

Suicides outpacing 2009

Despite the increase in mental health resources, there have been 14 confirmed or suspected suicides among Fort Hood soldiers this year. That figure outpaces 2009 and matched each of the three worst years for suicides in recent base history, 2006-2008. In June, the Army recorded 32 suicides overall, the highest monthly total since it began keeping records.

Army Sgt. Douglas Hale Jr., 26, was one of the most recent Fort Hood suicides.

On July, 6, Glenda Moss received this text message from Hale, her son: “i love u mom im so sorry i hope u and the family and god can forgive me.”

Her son had tried to kill himself in May. She feared he might try again. She immediately called the Army and then drove the 90 minutes from her home in King, Texas, to the base.

It was too late. Hale had walked into a restaurant across Highway 190 from Fort Hood, asked to use the bathroom, locked the door and shot himself in the head with a newly purchased handgun, according to a police report. He was removed from life support a few days later.

Moss knew her son was very troubled. When his second combat tour to Iraq ended in 2007 after 15 months, he was diagnosed with PTSD and severe depression, began drinking heavily, saw his marriage disintegrate and, finally, left the base without permission last year.

He was brought back to Fort Hood in May after being taken into custody by police in King for being absent without leave, his mother said. He attempted suicide in his barracks that month.

The Army sent him to a psychiatric hospital in Denton, Texas. Army doctors told him “we don’t have enough people here (at Fort Hood) to help you,” his mother recalls.

A statement released by Fort Hood in response to questions about Hale’s case says, “Space and staff shortages prevent us from treating all our patients on post. While it is our intent to treat patients within our facilities, the reality is we cannot at the present time.”

Base officials declined to discuss the specifics of Hale’s case while an Army investigation continues.

Moss says her son seemed to be in good spirits after leaving the Denton hospital following a month of treatment in June. He spent the July 4th weekend at his mother’s home before she drove him back to Fort Hood on July 5.

Moss says the Army can do more to watch over troubled soldiers like her son. “They need to do as much as they can to stop this, because if they don’t, the Army’s going to be responsible for a lot more (suicides),” she says. “I don’t want another family to have to deal with what I went through.

‘Stigma was still a problem’

After the mass killings in November, Fort Hood launched a campaign to gauge the psychological health in the community. The goal was to see how many people needed help, whether they were getting it and how many counselors were needed. Part of the effort was an online, confidential survey in February to get soldiers’ views. Troops were offered incentives such as a day off from work to participate. More than 5,000 responded.

One in four said they would be viewed as weak, treated differently or harm their careers if they admitted suffering emotional issues, says Col. William Rabena, who led the campaign. The attitude was particularly strong among majors, lieutenant colonels and full colonels.

“Stigma was still a problem,” Rabena says.

For those soldiers afraid to seek help, who decline to go to Army therapists or private clinics that contract with the military, there are alternatives.

A Pentagon program offers soldiers a limited number of counseling sessions with private therapists that will remain off their medical records. The program is called Military OneSource, and it provides up to 12 free and confidential therapy sessions when soldiers call a toll-free hotline. From May 2009 to May 2010, there was a 72% increase in sessions provided by the program in the Fort Hood area, from 822 to 1,412, says Air Force Maj. April Cunningham, a Pentagon spokeswoman.

Another option for Fort Hood soldiers who want to keep their psychological problems secret from the Army is a free clinic in Killeen called Scott & White Military Homefront Services. The therapy provided at this clinic does not show up as a mental health diagnosis on a soldier’s medical record.

The five therapists at the project are booked solid, says the director, Maxine Trent, a psychotherapist and the wife of a retired Navy SEAL.

The clinic has seen 7,117 soldiers, spouses and their children since it opened in 2008, says Matthew Wright, a director with Scott & White Healthcare of Temple, Texas, which operates the project.

Soldiers, many of them officers, come into the clinic seeking therapy for the first time in their careers, Trent says.

“Generally, you have the parade rest,” she says, demonstrating how they sit with backs straight, arms outstretched and palms on knees. The tension in their bodies, she says, is palpable.

“Those who have been back-to-back deployed vibrate. … There’s different energy. There’s hyper-vigilance that you won’t see anywhere else,” Trent says. “They walk in here not sleeping. They walk in here having mood disruptions, angry driving, explosions at wife and/or husband and kids.”

When her offices opened, Trent canvassed the wives of Fort Hood commanders to get a sense of what she was facing. “They told us basically, ‘We know everything we need to know about deployment. Please don’t set up any programs to teach us about deployment,’ ” Trent recalls. ” ‘What we don’t know how to do is to keep doing it (deployments). We’re tired. We’re exhausted.’ ”

Even this program struggles to cope with all those needing help and getting the money to pay for it.

A $750,000 grant from the Dallas Foundation and the Association of the U.S. Army for the project is nearly gone and officials are trying to secure more funding, Wright says.

Adam Borah, who runs the outpatient psychiatric clinic at Fort Hood, sees progress in the many soldiers stepping forward to seek help. “The bad news is that there are a lot of people out there who need behavioral heath care,” he says.

Braverman worries that if the number of patients keeps climbing, soldiers will give up waiting to see someone and avoid seeking help. Private clinics that contract with the military to handle overflow patients are overworked, says Chuck Lauer, a senior administrator at Darnall Hospital. “These guys (local private therapists) are putting in six days a week. Some of them have their practices open 10 hours a day,” Lauer says.

Staff Sgt. Rivera, who got the marital help, worries for the soldiers. “The military needs to know that they are losing very good soldiers and squads and platoons to multiple deployments,” he says. “The amount of help needed is actually overwhelming.”

By Gregg Zoroya, USA TODAY

Previously, veterans “have been required to produce evidence proving that a specific event caused their PTSD,” Obama said during his Saturday radio address. “And that practice has kept the vast majority of those with PTSD who served in non-combat roles, but who still waged war, from getting the care they need.”

The Department of Veterans Affairs will begin streamlining the benefits process next week, Obama said.

In the Republican radio address, Rep. Phil Gingrey, R-Ga., discussed a new Web forum — AmericaSpeakingOut.com — in which people can suggest ways to reduce federal spending and improve government.

“Americans are fed up with how things are going in the country right now,” Gingrey said. “They see more job losses, rising debt and plummeting home sales. They feel let down by a government that passes one 2,000-page, trillion-dollar law after another instead of focusing on addressing the problems Americans worry about every day.”

Here is Obama’s address:
Last weekend, on the Fourth of July, Michelle and I welcomed some of our extraordinary military men and women and their families to the White House.

They were just like the thousands of active duty personnel and veterans I’ve met across this country and around the globe. Proud. Strong. Determined. Men and women with the courage to answer their country’s call, and the character to serve the United States of America.

Because of that service; because of the honor and heroism of our troops around the world; our people are safer, our nation is more secure, and we are poised to end our combat mission in Iraq by the end of August, completing a drawdown of more than 90,000 troops since last January.

Still, we are a nation at war. For the better part of a decade, our men and women in uniform have endured tour after tour in distant and dangerous places. Many have risked their lives. Many have given their lives. And as a grateful nation, humbled by their service, we can never honor these American heroes or their families enough.

Just as we have a solemn responsibility to train and equip our troops before we send them into harm’s way, we have a solemn responsibility to provide our veterans and wounded warriors with the care and benefits they’ve earned when they come home.

That is our sacred trust with all who serve — and it doesn’t end when their tour of duty does.

To keep that trust, we’re building a 21st century VA, increasing its budget, and ensuring the steady stream of funding it needs to support medical care for our veterans.

To help our veterans and their families pursue a college education, we’re funding and implementing the post-9/11 GI Bill.

To deliver better care in more places, we’re expanding and increasing VA health care, building new wounded warrior facilities, and adapting care to better meet the needs of female veterans.

To stand with those who sacrifice, we’ve dedicated new support for wounded warriors and the caregivers who put their lives on hold for a loved one’s long recovery.

And to do right by our vets, we’re working to prevent and end veteran homelessness, because in the United States of America, no one who served in our uniform should sleep on our streets.

We also know that for many of today’s troops and their families, the war doesn’t end when they come home.
Too many suffer from the signature injuries of today’s wars: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and Traumatic Brain Injury. And too few receive the screening and treatment they need.

Now, in past wars, this wasn’t something America always talked about. And as a result, our troops and their families often felt stigmatized or embarrassed when it came to seeking help.

Today, we’ve made it clear up and down the chain of command that folks should seek help if they need it. In fact, we’ve expanded mental health counseling and services for our vets.

But for years, many veterans with PTSD who have tried to seek benefits — veterans of today’s wars and earlier wars — have often found themselves stymied. They’ve been required to produce evidence proving that a specific event caused their PTSD. And that practice has kept the vast majority of those with PTSD who served in non-combat roles, but who still waged war, from getting the care they need.

Well, I don’t think our troops on the battlefield should have to take notes to keep for a claims application. And I’ve met enough veterans to know that you don’t have to engage in a firefight to endure the trauma of war.

So we’re changing the way things are done.
On Monday, the Department of Veterans Affairs, led by Secretary Eric Shinseki, will begin making it easier for a veteran with PTSD to get the benefits he or she needs.

This is a long-overdue step that will help veterans not just of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, but generations of their brave predecessors who proudly served and sacrificed in all our wars.

It’s a step that proves America will always be here for our veterans, just as they’ve been there for us. We won’t let them down. We take care of our own. And as long as I’m commander in chief, that’s what we’re going to keep doing. Thank you.

CIAV has had the opportunity to partner with PBS for their campaign “This Emotional Life” to highlight the emotional challenges facing military families and veterans. Take a look at our latest blog on the military/veteran community and the tremendous work of our CIAV organizations: Supporting Our Veterans And Military Families.

You can learn more about their campaign to help military families here.

By Jessica Yadegaran
Contra Costa Times

When retired Army Staff Sgt. June Moss returned from Iraq, she had to explain to her children why she couldn’t hug them. Any embrace longer than two seconds made her skin feel like it was on fire. “When I got back, my kids were really clingy,” Moss says. “They wanted affection. But, what do you say to a child?”

At night, sleep never came. Instead, Moss baked cupcakes until dawn. At playgrounds, surrounded by the noise and chaos of crowds, Moss felt like her chest was going to explode. Worse, she was afraid she’d hurt someone.

“I wasn’t the same person when I came home,” says Moss, who returned from Iraq in August 2003 and now lives in East Palo Alto. “I was different. I was cold.”

When imagining a struggling war veteran, it’s likely few people picture a young woman such as Moss, who was eventually diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. But women make up 15 percent of active-duty military members, and the Department of Veterans Affairs estimates that by the end of 2020, women will represent 10 percent of the nation’s veteran population.

And though military and congressional policy says women can’t participate in direct ground combat, women carry guns, and use them. They drive Humvees hit by improvised explosive devices. They interrogate, and witness bloodshed. But for women, there is a major difference. They come home to a society that for the most part doesn’t understand — or accept — that they’re serving

in the line of fire.As a result, the feelings of isolation can be even more overwhelming, especially since a woman is often one of few in her unit, says Natara Garovoy, program director of the Women’s Prevention, Outreach and Education Center for the VA Palo Alto Health Care System.

Fear of assault

Complicating matters, some female soldiers live in fear of being attacked by one of their own. In 2008, the VA reported that one in five women screened for military sexual trauma had been sexually harassed or assaulted by a fellow soldier.

Moss did little alone, whether it was burning confidential papers or taking out the trash. But she still feared for her safety, especially at night. “You already feared for your life,” Moss says, “but the thought of a soldier attacking another soldier?”

The mother of two spent eight months in 2003 as a light-wheel vehicle mechanic with the Third Infantry Division. As she drove through bustling marketplaces, often under aerial or ground fire, she clutched the steering wheel, scanning for suicide bombers. To get through those drives, she prayed.

“I was calling to God really heavily,” Moss says. “I was scared for my life every day, not knowing if I was going to come home to my children and what loss they would have to bear. So I just had to have my wits about me and believe in my training.”

Back at the base, Moss struggled with her identity. She was a soldier, wife to a soldier (her now ex-husband, who was also in the Army), her family’s primary caregiver and a mechanic. Still, she tried to blend in, especially since she was the only woman in her unit. She cut her hair short. She wore boxer shorts and big T-shirts to hide her figure. She tried to be overly tough and stand up for herself, she says, particularly when male soldiers made off-color remarks or unwanted gestures.

“You just have to know when to say, ‘Stop. I don’t appreciate that,’ ” Moss says.

Reconciling identity is among the biggest issues Tia Christopher sees in her work with female veterans. As the women veterans coordinator for Swords to Plowshares’ Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans Project, Christopher helps homeless and low-income women obtain medical care, housing and job training upon returning from war.

“So many of my female clients who were in Iraq put up with things, even injuries, because they don’t want to be that girl (who complains),” she says. “They soldier on and silently bear that burden. But you can lose a certain amount of your femininity.”

On the upside, the military has recognized and is beginning to rectify the lack of postwar support for women. Historically, female veterans have had a hard time gaining access to services because facilities aren’t welcoming or because they didn’t know the VA served them, says Garovoy, a clinical psychologist. Due to the increase of women in the military — 20 percent of new recruits are female — programs tailored for women are increasing. Still, there are barriers. Even diagnosing post-traumatic stress disorder is a major issue.

“Because women serving in Iraq are often performing duties not in their job title, and because of the nature of the warfare, they are coming back with symptoms of the disorder and having to deal with the burden of proof,” Christopher says.

Returning to the states, Moss, then 32, was at first misdiagnosed. Had she been a man, the diagnosis might have been swifter, Moss says.

“They probably thought, ‘Oh you’re a woman. You must have depression,’ ” she says.

Many don’t seek help

Treatment is equally challenging. “If you’re the only woman in a support group, you might not feel comfortable and are less likely to go back,” Christopher says. At groups for women dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder, the focus is often on sexual trauma, which further alienates those who are there for combat-related traumas, Christopher adds.

Sgt. Myrna Hernandez, of Concord, wasn’t diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder for years. She didn’t seek help because she didn’t want to admit something was wrong. When Hernandez, who served as maintenance support for Pittsburg’s 870th Military Police Company, returned from Iraq in 2004, her mood was sour. She was anti-social, she says, and turned to drinking. On good nights, she got three hours of sleep.

She was also nervous about reuniting with her 6-year-old son, Zen. Hernandez had two opportunities to come home — including vacation time while she was in Iraq — but she chose to stay away.

“It was pretty rough,” recalls Hernandez, who was 26 at the time and one of six women in her company. “But I thought it would be too difficult for him to see me and have to say goodbye again.”

Meanwhile, at the base, Hernandez was dealing with more difficulties. She was one of three women who accused their commanding captain, Leo Merck, of peering beneath a shower wall and snapping nude photographs of them at Abu Ghraib. In a deal to avoid a court-martial, Merck resigned from the National Guard in November 2003. In May 2004, Hernandez told the Bay Area News Group that she saw Merck taking the photos.

Still, she’s not bitter.

“For most people, (the experience) would turn them against the military,” says Hernandez, who did prisoner processing and other duties similar to military police. “But I can’t let the actions of a few people ultimately change how I feel about my service.”

Today, Hernandez works as a technician in the Army Reserves. She attends support groups at the Concord Vet Center but is usually the only woman.

As President Barack Obama prepares to send more troops to Afghanistan, Hernandez braces herself for the possibility of another deployment.

“If I’m told I have to go, I will,” she says. “At the same time, it’s pretty scary. I guess knowing you have a job to do kind of overshadows that.”

Ultimately, she is proud of the contribution she and all women are making in the military. “We don’t do infantry jobs, but I think we’ve come a long way since the image of the nurse in heels,” she says.

Moss feels similar pride. Last month, after 12 years of service, she permanently retired from the military, and she works as an assistant in chaplain services for the VA Palo Alto Health Care System. She still struggles with her symptoms, but because she knows her triggers, she avoids them.

At restaurants, she sits in a corner booth that allows her an unobstructed view, should there be a sudden or loud noise. When she picks up her children up at school, she calls the school secretary to send them outside. She can’t wait in the busy parking lot with the other parents.

In the end, though, Moss measures her progress by the duration of her embraces. When her children need a hug, they can now linger in her arms for a full 10 seconds.

1. Women represent 15 percent of active-duty military members and 17.5 percent of National Guard and Reserves Forces.
2. 20 percent of new military recruits are women. 38 percent of female troops are mothers.
3. California has 167,000 female veterans, the highest number of any state.
4. Women represent 220,000 of the 1.8 million troops serving in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom.
5. The average age of a female veteran is 48; average male veteran is 61.
6. The VA estimates that the percentage of female veterans it serves will double by the end of 2010.
7. Women have been volunteering in the military since the American Revolution, but it wasn”t until the 1980 census that they were asked if they had served in the U.S. Armed Forces; 1.2 million answered that they had.
8. “Lioness”: This 2008 documentary by Meg McLagan and Dara Summers makes public the stories of female Army support soldiers who were part of the first program in American history to send women into direct ground combat, despite congressional and military law that states women are not allowed to do so. Without the same training as their male counterparts, these young women fought in some of the bloodiest counterinsurgency battles alongside Marine combat units in Iraq and returned home with the same physical and psychological issues. http://lionessthefilm.com.
9. “Women of the Military”: Santa Clara-based W.J. Parolini”s recent documentary following Kate Hoit, a young U.S. Army specialist who returns home from Iraq and attempts to enlighten and educate Americans about the roles of women in the military. www.womenofthemilitary.com.
10. “Love My Rifle More Than You “” Young and Female in the U.S. Army” (W.W. Norton, 2005): Kayla Williams” memoir about serving as a sergeant in a military intelligence company and understanding her identity in “an ocean of testosterone.” Williams went to Iraq in 2003 and participated in signal intelligence and direction finding of enemy communication in Baghdad. She also accompanied infantry troops on missions, which isn”t common for a female soldier.

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: January 13, 2010

WASHINGTON (AP) — Army Pfc. Brian Matthew Williams, 20, took his own life the day before he was to return to Iraq. Because it was a suicide, the president didn’t send a condolence letter to his family. Nobody has planted a tree in his honor or carved his name onto a memorial wall.

Advocates for bereaved military families say soldiers like Williams deserve better. They’re asking President Barack Obama to send condolence letters to the next of kin of troops who die under a variety of circumstances not directly related to the war.

”Every military family pays a price when a loved one serves in the military,” Bonnie Carroll, a military widow who founded the advocacy group Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors, wrote in a letter sent to Obama on Tuesday, as veterans and military officials met in Washington for a four-day suicide prevention conference.

”Their loved ones stand ready to go into harm’s way to protect our country,” Carroll wrote. ”Their deaths are painful to their surviving family members, regardless of the circumstances or location of the death.”

There is no standard policy on how deceased military veterans are honored. Policies vary on whose names go on military and community memorial walls, whose families receive a Gold Star lapel button from the Defense Department or who can get a Gold Star license plate.

Currently, the White House sends presidential condolences to the families of those who died either in combat or as a result of noncombat incidents in a war zone, such as a car crash or illness.

However, presidential condolence letters are not sent to the families of those who commit suicide, either at home or at war. Families of those who die outside the war zones in other ways, such as in a training accident, generally don’t receive them, either.

A review is under way to determine whether presidential letters should be sent for suicides. Advocates say extending that honor to all deceased troops, regardless of how they died, would go a long way toward comforting the families.

The review comes as the military struggles in every branch with a higher rate of suicide than when the recent conflicts began. At the conference on Wednesday, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen said the issue is one of ”tremendous difficulty and challenge.”

”There does not appear to be any scientific correlation between the number of deployments and those that are at risk, but I’m just hard pressed to believe that’s not the case,” Mullen said.

Williams’ mother, Connie Scott, 54, of Owatonna, Minn., said a memorial service in her son’s honor was held at his Army post, Fort Carson, Colo., after he died in 2007. But his name was not added to a memorial wall there because he didn’t die in the war zone. His family members were not eligible for a Gold Star lapel button, which the Defense Department issues to the families of those who died from ”armed hostilities.”

That lack of recognition, Scott said, made her feel as if her son’s death was not considered as significant as someone else’s.

”There needs to be more about the soldier’s life than the soldier’s death. There seems to be too many layers of recognition,” Scott said. ”They still enlisted. They still took an oath to serve their country and give their life in whatever way their country asked.”

TAPS spokeswoman Kim Ruocco, 46, of Newbury, Mass., said the organization has received complaints about military bases and communities that do not include the names of those who died while serving in ways other than killed in action.

Recognition on such walls or in a condolence letter from the president is incredibly important to the families, she said — especially those who are dealing with a suicide.

”There’s already so much shame over suicides,” said Ruocco, whose Marine pilot husband John, 40, killed himself in 2005. ”It feels like it wipes out the person’s whole life. So many of these soldiers and Marines have lived really stellar lives and given so much and sacrificed so much.”

Still, Ruocco said she’s seen some encouraging signs. She was pleasantly surprised recently on a visit to Enid, Okla. There, on a memorial near Vance Air Force Base, her husband’s last station, was a flag pole dedicated in his honor.

——

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: (800) 273-TALK (8255).

With continued deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, military families are experiencing significant challenges. An environment experiencing uncertainty, separation, and sometimes loss can create high levels of stress for families, but its effects on the youngest family members are easily overlooked.

CTAMF works to strengthen the resilience of young children and families who are experiencing trauma, grief and loss as a result of a Service member’s deployment to Iraq and/or Afghanistan. The DoD is now a formal partner in the effort and is supporting expansion to 28 military installations and military medical centers (e.g., San Antonio Army Medical Center and Walter Reed Army Medical Center), representing all service branches.

For more information see their CTAMF Handout and Military Projects Program on the ZERO TO THREE website.

“I Served My Country…and Wound Up Living in My Car”
Marie Claire

This is an important story… one of many that we don’t often hear about. Roughly 210,000 women have deployed to areas of combat operations since September 11. And 1 out of every 10 homeless veterans under the age of 45 is a woman.

Reaching a hundred of anything is usually considered a milestone—whether it’s years of age or points in a basketball game. USA Cares has just reached such a milestone with the one-hundredth veteran assisted through their Warrior Treatment Today program.

Begun in January 2008, the Warrior Treatment Today program has grown significantly as more and more veterans are coming forward for help with post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and traumatic brain injury (TBI). 

USA Cares has helped veterans in over 26 states by providing financial support for basic needs such as mortgage, food, and bills while the veteran attends months of inpatient rehabilitation for PTSD/TBI. Without this support, many veterans simply could not afford to leave jobs and paychecks to get the necessary treatment they have earned and deserve.

Veteran number one hundred has a lot in common with his 99 predecessors.  He was active duty Army on his first deployment to Iraq when his HUMMV was attacked.  He is from a small town in Michigan where he has dealt with multiple injuries—both visible and invisible.  Rated by the Veterans Administration at over 80 per cent disabled, our program participant number one hundred is trying to overcome those invisible wounds that must be healed before a return to normal life can really begin.

USA Cares is proud to offer the Warrior Treatment Today program in partnership with the Department of Veterans Affairs.  Generous private grant support has allowed them to expend over $160,000 in financial support to date. The sheer number of mental health casualties from combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan represents a formidable health care task that demands both public and private responders working together.  Given the selfless service of our veterans—we can do no less.

Operation In Their Boots is a one-of-a-kind Filmmaking Fellowship sponsored by Brave New Foundation where five OIF and OEF veterans, reservists, national guardsmen and women, and currently enlisted service members* will be selected to direct their own, fully funded documentaries.

Participants in this program will be selected from a 2-stage, online application process that includes the applicants pitch or proposal for a documentary that will capture their unique perspective of how the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have impacted their lives, and the lives of their families, loved ones and their communities.

Selected participants will be paid a stipend of $7,500 and Brave New Foundation will designate a budget that will cover the selected project’s production costs.

To be among the first applicants please attend and apply at the Brave New Foundation informational presentation:

Operation In Their Boots Launch
November 9, 10:00 am
Presented by Executive Producer, Richard Ray Perez
Brave New Foundation Courtyard
10510 Culver Blvd. Culver City, Ca. 90232

Please contact aspain@bravenewfoundation.org if you are interested in attending or applying to this program.

The only thematic requirement the documentary projects applicants propose is that they must tell stories about the impact the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are having on people here in the United States, and they must done from a non-partisan, non-ideological perspective.  The applicants proposed projects may be autobiographical documentaries, intimate family stories, or documentary projects that focus on issues related to how the conflicts have impacted our nation.

(*Currently enlisted servicemembers an other potential participants must get their commanding officers prior approval to participate in this program).

General Guideline:

1. Prospective participants MUST BE IRAQ and/or AFGHANISTAN WAR VETERANS, RESERVIST, NATIONAL GUARDSMEN OR WOMEN, OR CURRENTLY ENLISTED SERVICE MEMBERS.  IF YOU DO NOT MEET THIS REQUIREMENT, YOU ARE NOT ELIGIBLE.
2. Prior filmmaking experience is preferred, but not required. Applicants who can demonstrate strong storytelling skills and the proven ability to complete and deliver projects similar in scale to a 15-minute documentary will be considered.
3. Participants must commit to attend a 3-day “Documentary Filmmakers Bootcamp” in Los Angeles March 12 – 14, 2010. (Travel expenses for those who need it will be paid by Brave New Foundation)
4. Participants must deliver a documentary of approximately 15-minutes by a deadline to be established by Brave New Foundation.
5. Must collaborate with the In Their Boots Productions staff on the execution of production decisions and on establishing and maintain the thematic and creative direction of their project.
6. Participants must agree to a “Producer Agreement” to participate in the program, and must agree to participate in all press-related events and campaigns.
7. Selected applicants will be notified by, or around January 1, 2010 and will have approximately two weeks to accept or deny participation in the program.
8. In Their Boots will fund the participants’ projects. Participants will work with the ITB production staff to develop the stories they produce.  The editing of all projects will take place at the ITB production offices in Los Angeles by ITB editors.  The ITB production staff retains the right to make all final editorial and content decisions.  The final projects will remain the property of Brave New Foundation.

Operation In Their Boots is funded by a generous grant from the Iraq Afghanistan Deployment Impact Fund (IADIF), a private fund administered by The California Community Foundation.