tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10122555469014460912024-03-14T00:00:42.217-07:00Military Spouses for ChangeThe thoughts and efforts of a non-profit organization that encourages military spouses--traditionally the caregivers of the military community--to become advocates, not only for themselves, but also for our troops, our wounded warriors, and our veterans.Military Spouses for Changehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08817390732646302135noreply@blogger.comBlogger30125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1012255546901446091.post-44326286780861635152009-11-15T21:36:00.000-08:002009-11-15T21:41:15.427-08:00Thoughts on the Massacre at Fort HoodI live in a housing village on Fort Hood. On November 4th, at approximately 1:30 PM, the emergency alarms went off. I was expecting to hear that this was a test of the “Emergency Alert System.” Instead, I heard, “Attention. Seek shelter immediately. Close all doors and windows. Turn off all ventilation systems. Seek shelter immediately. Close all doors and windows. Turn off all ventilation systems.” Then the alarms went off again. And again. Every fifteen minutes.<br /><br />A great deal of confusion followed For the next two hours there were many rumors about what was happening, including a shooting at the PX and in one of the villages. My husband, who was off-post with our children (who thankfully got out of school at 1 PM that day and were with him) was unable to come on post as it was on lock down. He called me and insisted that I not only stay in the house but that I stay on the second floor and away from the windows.<br /><br />Around 6:30 PM, Fort Hood lifted the lock down that had prevented anyone from entering or leaving. From CNN, I learned the details of the mass murder that had occurred less than 15 minutes away from our home at the place my husband had visited on numerous occasions in preparation for his tour to Iraq and as part of his reintegration upon his unit’s return. <br /><br />As soon as the news began covering the shooting, I started receiving emails and phone calls from people who were worried about me. People I barely know have extended their thoughts and prayers to me and my family. I have not responded to 99 percent of these people, including family. I have not talked about the shooting since it occurred. I have talked about the shooter, Major Hasan, but not about the shooting itself. <br /><br />Today, ten days later, I went to the shoppette with another spouse who lives about six houses down the street from me. The first thing I saw when I entered the store was two racks of this week’s TIME magazine with Major Hasan’s military photo on the cover, life-sized and large. It was like being punched in the stomach. My first reaction was disgust. Then anger. I turned to my friend and told her, “I don’t even talk about what happened! Who the hell are they to talk about it?” So naturally I had to buy the magazine and find out what they had to say.<br /><br />(You know what? If no magazine was making the shooting an issue, that probably would have upset me, too. It is all very confusing.)<br /><br />This got me thinking about why I don’t talk about the shooting. People keep asking me if I am okay. I don’t know how to answer that question. Yes? No? Maybe? This is a loaded question for those of us who have to answer it.<br /><br />I feel a great deal of guilt. I feel guilty when concern is extended to me. I feel unworthy of that concern. I feel unworthy because of the horror experienced by the men and women in the building with that man on that day. How can anyone worry about ME or anyone else who wasn’t in the building that day? We are the blessed and fortunate ones of that day. Our scare was that of the unknown, of the wondering. Our trauma was theoretical, not experiential.<br /><br />I was recently contacted by Dr. John Ryan, Professor and Chair of Sociology at Virginia Technical Institute—now known for the Cho mass murders. Dr. Ryan wanted to find a way to come to Fort Hood after the shooting. He and his team focus on helping not the immediate victims of mass shootings, but those in the larger community. Dr. Ryan explained that their “work begins from the premise that, in tightly bonded communities, such attacks are attacks on the whole community, not just the most immediate victims.”<br /><br />I am trying to get Dr. Ryan and his team access to families at Fort Hood. I don’t know whether this will be granted. I know that no one I know here is talking about the shootings. Again, there is talk about the shooter, but not about the event itself. Of course, everywhere else in America, this was something worth talking about. So why aren’t we?<br /><br />Part of me wonders if it is not because we live on the military post that has lost the most soldiers in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. We also have soldiers committing suicide as well as murdering fellow soldiers (or spouses). Yes, what Major Hasan did was extraordinary in HOW MANY soldiers he killed and WHERE he killed them, but haven’t we come to expect death as part of our lives, in one place or another, one form or another? We grieve for the families who lose a soldier and we thank God that it wasn’t our soldier and the Big Green Machine keeps churning.<br /><br />Besides, our leadership proudly tells the media that this messy matter was taken care of quickly and that training and missions continue. Move along, nothing more to see here. Did Hasan really change anything?<br />Arguably, he made military lives worse. Soldiers are unable to feel safe on post, as well as families. Children already burdened with trust and mortality issues probably lost the most that day (of those of us in the larger community). The day after the shooting, my eight-year-old son asked me why there were soldiers with guns at his school. I explained they were there to protect him. He responded, “wasn’t the bad man a soldier?”<br /><br />Out of the mouths of babes oft times come gems.<br /><br />Of course, the fact that we live and function under these conditions is a badge of honor; a testament to our resiliency as individuals and as a community. Yet suicides and suicide attempts continue to increase yearly. Our divorce rate increases every year while the civilian divorce rate is experiencing a 40 year low. Reports of domestic violence have gone up seventy-five percent in the last seven years.<br /><br />How much more stress can we endure? How much more resilient can we be as a community? How much more can be taken from us? If someone like Dr. Ryan wants to help our families in the larger community process what happened, why wouldn’t Fort Hood let them?<br /><br />Am I okay? Depends on your definition of okay, I suppose.Military Spouses for Changehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08817390732646302135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1012255546901446091.post-50842410898859255712009-05-08T08:26:00.000-07:002009-05-08T08:32:14.168-07:00Real Change for Military Spouses under the Obama AdministrationToday is Military Spouse Appreciation Day. To truly appreciate military spouses, we should act as a nation as if their service in supporting and standing by their servicemember despite the hardships of military life (particularly to their own career and/or educational aspirations) is as valuable as the service as the servicemember they love and support--or close to it. The military demands nearly as much of the spouse as it does of the soldier yet does not provide comparable services, care, or treatment. The Obama Administration, particularly under Michelle's leadership and with the help of Congress, can change this.<br /> <br />1. Comparable dental and vision care.<br />2. Military spouse federal hiring preference (even after divorce if married longer than a certain number of years, say 5, 7, or 10).<br />3. Emergency psychiatric care for military families that does not require going to an emergency room.<br />4. Support and pass the Military Spouse Residency Relief Act.<br /><br />Approximately 93 percent of military spouses are female. According to the Rand Corporation, the research organization often used to conduct studies for the Department of Defense, although military spouses often have more education than their civilian counterparts, they are also often more frequently under-employed and under-paid than those same counterparts. <br /><br />Frequently, military spouses end up on a de facto mommy track—even when they don’t have children. More than half of our military spouses have children, but without the support of the other parent, the difficulty of single parenting (in essence) turns many a working or studying spouse into a stay at home mom (or dad). For those without children, the frequent moves alone hurt career and educational goals and aspirations. I have met military spouses with college credits from four or more colleges (although the rise in credibility of on-line universities is changing this). For a spouse who obtains her educational goals, she then faces the fact that she either chooses a “portable” career (the Department of Defense encourages teaching, nursing, medical transcriptionists, etc…) or watches her own career deflate like a flan in the cupboard for too long. Not to mention that most military installations are in economically depressed areas and many employers do not want to invest in someone who could leave with little to no notice any time in the next six months to two years. As a result, many military spouses turn to working from home as an outlet for their career aspirations, starting their own small businesses if they can (hence the creation and success of organizations like the Military Spouse Business Association). <br /><br />Former President Ronald Reagan declared the Friday before Mother’s Day, Military Spouse Appreciation Day. Frankly, however, spouses need more than a day of appreciation. Military spouses endure nearly every hardship of military life (absent actually going to war) that servicemembers do and yet there is no formal recognition of it or support for them. Moreover, it never occurs to lawmakers or others that there should be. Benefits to ease the burdens of the multiple moves, such as being able to maintain one state of residency (this is the second year Congress is pondering the Military Spouse Residency Relief Act) and rewards for “serving” your country, such as the veterans preference in hiring for federal jobs, are not given to military spouses. Military spouses (and children for that matter), do not even have comparable dental and vision care. So long as they are stationed in the United States (as opposed to Germany, for example), military dependents are not allowed to received dental or vision care on post and have to pay into a limited dental and vision plan.<br /><br />To illustrate the federal hiring preference, consider my own marriage. After six years and four military moves, including Germany, I have been on the aforementioned mommy track. If I were to apply for a federal job, I would discover that although I have spent the past six years moving to support my husband’s career (and subsequent promotions), there is no military spouse hiring preference comparable to the veterans hiring preference. Thus, while my husband has had no interruption in his own career to compensate for, he would automatically get a five point preference (over me) for an honorable discharge from service and a ten point preference if he had a ten percent service connected disability rating or higher. I do not begrudge that of our veterans and wounded warriors; in fact, I advocate it. But I also support equity in benefits for service and I believe that the sacrifices being made by spouses should be recognized in these hiring preferences, PARTICULARLY because of the obstacles faced by military spouses with regards to furthering their educations and/or careers. <br /><br />When this presidential election came down to Senators Obama and McCain, there was a lot of talk about national service and what it means to “serve” your country. McCain and his supporters naturally felt they had the market covered with his military service during the Vietnam War (and subsequent years as a prisoner of war). Then-Senator Obama and his supporters countered that national service, or put differently, serving your country, can come in many shapes and forms—not solely that of a man in a uniform bearing arms. Echoing that theme of variegated national service and its value to this country in its diversity, was Angie Morgan, a military spouse and member of Blue Star Families for Obama that I interviewed at the Democratic National Convention in August of 2008 for Military Spouse Magazine. In that interview, Angie Morgan told me that as a military spouse she was “excited” by now President Obama’s vision of “active citizenship” whereby everyone serves this country in some capacity, albeit not necessarily by wearing a uniform (i.e., referencing volunteer work and other ways of being socially conscious and sensitive to the needs of your fellow Americans in your day to day decision making).<br /><br />Michelle Obama made it known during the campaign that the welfare of military families was of particular importance to her. Since the election, she has held several events with military spouses and apparently will have a staff devoted to these issues. If we are going to recognize and reward the military service of the soldier, why not do the same for the spouse—the one person in the service who has been willing to sacrifice his or her career and/or educational aspirations to support the mission of the military by supporting the orders of the servicemember? <br /><br />Meanwhile, here at Fort Hood, Texas, I have learned that they cannot give me figures on spouse suicides but they know that they see so many attempted suicides in the Emergency Room that the medical staff have become quite adept at handling them. My theory is that these spouses may have reached the point of needing emergency mental health care and this is the only way to receive it. As a military spouse, no matter what your circumstances, there is no emergency mental health care for you unless you end up in the ER. If you are a soldier here, of course, there is twenty four hour mental health care and a walk in “Rest and Resiliency” center (R and R center). The R and R center has its critics and its flaws, but it exists. There is no R and R center for families.<br /><br />Finally, there is the issue of treating the post-traumatic stress of military spouses. We do not have any public service announcements about the trauma of being married in the military and to the military; to a man or woman who is sometimes permanently altered in ways that you never imagined when you married him or her. At least once or twice a month a soldier in Fort Hood housing is arrested for domestic violence. It is interesting that the Department of Defense likes to emphasize that deployments are not the cause of an increase in domestic violence but cannot refute that post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is. While the Rand Corporation found that 1 in 5 soldiers will likely return with PTSD, the Veterans Administration has diagnosed 40 percent of our Iraq and Afghanistan veterans with PTSD. We have no studies and no figures for spousal PTSD.<br /><br />I often tell people that after this last combat tour, my husband is NOT the only veteran in this marriage, but apparently I am the only person who believes this to be the case. Despite seven years of wars and deployments that have led to an alarming increase in Army divorce as well as partner violence (the latter is believed to be connected to the increase in post-traumatic stress disorder), the federal government doesn’t recognize the “service” of the military spouse. Will a Democratic Administration like the Obama’s and now, with Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter’s recent move to the Democratic Party, a Democratic Congress change this?Military Spouses for Changehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08817390732646302135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1012255546901446091.post-67573508705119624732009-01-07T16:09:00.000-08:002009-01-07T16:48:55.138-08:00What if this was YOUR soldier? After combat service, in THIS economy?MSC's Soldier Advocacy Group is in the process of trying to help Sgt. Boyle (see article below). The Department of Defense recognizes that PTSD (and TBI) causes what it calls "disinhibatory" behavior in combat veterans--which frequently manifests itself as post-deployment misconduct. It further recommends that Commanders refer soldiers exhibiting this behavior be referred to a Medical Evaluation Board for a medical discharge from the Army, if possible (as opposed to being administratively discharged). <br /><br />Soldiers with PTSD are at a higher risk for suicide, unemployment, drug and alcohol abuse, partner violence, and homelessness. Soldiers who are given a general discharge are not guaranteed VA benefits, particularly those who are discharged for "patterns of misconduct." <br /><br />Could you imagine if your spouse returned from combat and was suddenly discharged from the military and you and your family were left with no benefits and your soldier was not guaranteed medical and mental health treatment from the VA? And on top of that, he or she had to pay back, potentially, thousands of dollars for a re-enlistment or enlistment bonus?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Congress could direct the DoD to explain why it acknowledges that PTSD (as well as Traumatic Brain Injuries) causes misconduct while simultaneously administratively discharging soldiers diagnosed with PTSD for misconduct. It could direct the DoD to change its regulations to close this loophole. Congress has not.<br /><br />Please call or email or send this article to your Senator or U.S. Representative and ask them to end the DoD's Misconduct Catch-22. (Find your federal representatives at www.congress.org).<br /></span><br /><blockquote><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">PTSD victim booted for 'misconduct'<br /></span><br />By Kelly Kennedy - Staff writer<br />Posted : Wednesday Jan 7, 2009 12:55:53 EST<br /><br />After serving two tours in Iraq — tours filled with killing enemy combatants and watching close friends die — Sgt. Adam Boyle, 27, returned home expecting the Army to take care of him.<br /><br />Instead, service member advocates and Boyle's mother say his chain of command in the 3rd Psychological Operations Battalion at Fort Bragg, N.C., worked to end his military career at the first sign of weakness.<br /><br />In October, a medical evaluation board physician at Bragg recommended that Boyle go through the military disability retirement process for chronic post-traumatic stress disorder — which is supposed to automatically earn him at least a 50 percent disability retirement rating — as well as for chronic headaches. The doctor also diagnosed Boyle with alcohol abuse and said he was probably missing formations due to the medications doctors put him on to treat his PTSD.<br /><br />But in December, Lt. Gen. John Mulholland, commanding general of the U.S. Army Special Operations Command, signed an order forcing Boyle out on an administrative discharge for a "pattern of misconduct," and ordering that the soldier pay back his re-enlistment bonus.<br /><br />Last year, after a number of troops diagnosed with PTSD were administratively forced out for "personality disorders" following combat deployments, the Defense Department changed its rules: The pertinent service surgeon general now must sign off on any personality-disorder discharge if a service member has been diagnosed with PTSD.<br /><br />"Not even a year later, they're pushing them out administratively for 'pattern of misconduct,' " said Carissa Picard, an attorney and founder of Military Spouses for Change, a group created in response to the personality-disorder cases. "I'm so angry. We're seeing it all the time. And it's for petty stuff."<br /><br />In Boyle's case, according to Picard and Boyle's mother, Laura Curtiss, the soldier had gotten in trouble for missing morning formations and for alcohol-related incidents such as fighting and public drunkenness.<br /><br />"The whole thing is absurd to me," Picard said. "They acknowledge that PTSD causes misconduct, and then they boot them out for misconduct."<br /></blockquote>Please read the rest of the story here: <a href="http://www.armytimes.com/news/2009/01/military_ptsd_discharge_010709w/">http://www.armytimes.com/news/2009/01/military_ptsd_discharge_010709w/</a><br /><br />As always, your ally in change,<br /><br />CarissaMilitary Spouses for Changehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08817390732646302135noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1012255546901446091.post-31841015293985644292009-01-01T19:52:00.000-08:002009-01-01T20:14:10.373-08:00The Invisible Injuries of the Invisible Ranks<span style="font-weight:bold;">Expectations<br /></span><br /><br />I never expected it to be so damn windy in Texas. I expected it to be still, dry and hot—something like Arizona, maybe. Of course, nothing is really what I expected it to be when I married Caynan. <br /><br />I never expected to feel so lonely, so isolated, so out-of-place and out of sorts all the time, always in that in-between place of neither here nor there, neither this nor that. As an Army wife (excuse me, as six percent are male, Army “spouse”), you are no longer a civilian but you are not a soldier either. <br /><br />I don't know what military life was like before 9/11, but I can tell you what it is like now: and it isn’t quirky and whacky and “just like civilian life but different.” There is a reason Sarah Smiley (a female Dave Barry) is a Navy wife and Jenny (the cartoon) is an airman’s wife: Army and Marine wives have less to laugh about.<br /><br />In March 2008, the Associated Press reported that 72 percent of Iraq deaths were Army, 24 percent were Marine, two percent were Navy and one percent was Air Force. These percentages obviously reflect who is being deployed the most; i.e., who is being exposed to combat and who isn’t. However, there is not a huge difference in the overall size of each individual branch; e.g, the Army has a little more than 500,000 active duty soldiers, the Marines have nearly 195,000 troops, and the Navy and the Air Force each have approximately 330,000 service members each. <br /><br />Consequently, there is a disproportionate burden for this “global war on terror” being placed upon the Army and the Marines. Not to mention the repeated 12 to 15 month long tours with no guaranteed dwell time for soldiers whereas rumor has it (as well as news reports) that Marines at least serve 6 to 7 month tours at a time. <br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Casualties of War<br /></span><br /><br />My ex-husband called me the other day and asked me what a "Blue Star wife" was. I explained that it was a wife whose husband was serving in combat. <br /><br />Then I asked him if he knew what a Gold Star Wife was. Of course he didn't. <br /><br />"That's a wife whose husband has died in combat." <br /><br />"Wow," he replied, "that’s, uh, kind of sick, isn't it?"<br /><br />I laughed. I knew what he meant. The "gold star" comes across as a quasi-cultural "WAY TO GO!" for the surviving family member (as the term technically applies to the entire family). And let us not forget the "silver star" for the family of a servicemember wounded in a war!<br /><br />There is no star for a lifetime of sacrificing one's own career and/or educational aspirations to support a servicemember. In times of peace, as well as war, the military demands that family comes second to the military. ("Army needs come first!") The household moves are frequent (every two to three years). The inability of the servicemember-parent to participate in parenting brings tremendous challenges to working in an era where two-income households are the norm for maintaining a decent standard of living. The lack of family, friends, and community makes loneliness an expectation, not just a fear. <br /><br />What color star should a spouse get for years of living like this?<br /><br />These designations are all "unofficial" of course. Everything pertaining to the familial appendages known as the spouse and children of the servicemember is unofficial. <br /><br />As for Army spouses (like myself), we exist in this in-between world. We are no longer civilians yet we are not "soldiers" either. We are expected to live the military life without being seen, heard, prepared, paid, or recognized for our service. We are called "the silent ranks" but really, we are invisible too. The "new" Army likes to say it "recruits the soldier but retains the family" but the reality of "if the Army wanted you to have a family it would have issued you one" remains. <br /><br />We are outsiders living inside an institution that doesn't want to see or hear us. Civilians and law-makers lack interest in our experiences with the military as well as with the wars--yet our experiences with these are second only to those of the servicemember. There aren’t any star-studded galas for our service and sacrifice or public service announcements and national dialogues about how war affects us (and/or our children).<br /><br />Veterans' rights advocates talk to the "signature" wounds of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, traumatic brain injury (TBI) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Both are "invisible". Both are hard to diagnose. Both fundamentally alter the servicemember in ways that are complex and confusing--to the afflicted and the non-afflicted alike.<br /><br />Also unseen, however, are the injuries of those who love the servicemember, whose own changes, traumas, afflictions frequently go unidentified and untreated as well. We call our returning warriors with invisible injuries the "walking wounded"; I include military spouses and children in that definition. <br /><br />Consider the 19 year-old bride who witnessed her husband's suicide on webcam in Iraq. Or the (very young) children who watched their father wrestled their large family dog to the living room floor and break its neck followed by threats to do the same to them if provoked? Or loving one person for seven years, waiting for them for a year, and being abused by a stranger when he returns. <br /><br />You don't have to wear a uniform to be wounded by these wars—but no one outside of those of us impacted seem to know this. <br /><br />There are many things that I may not be able to tell you about actual combat, but this much I know is true: by the time this deployment is over, my husband will not be the only veteran in this marriage.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">A Call to Arms</span><br /><br />Nothing prepares you for war. There is no training center for the spouses. You are either going to make it or you won't. <br /><br />My husband, Caynan, is a helicopter pilot for the Army. A few nights before he left we went over all the materials the families were given by the unit in preparation for their departure: the handy flip chart with emergency information about my husband's unit, how to get a Red Cross message to him in case of a family emergency here (as if they would let him leave the combat zone for it anyway), information about communication black outs, who will contact me if something happens to him, etc.. <br /><br />When I go inside the house, Caynan has gone up to bed already. He has been feeling sick and nauseas for the past few days. It must be that pre-deployment bug. It’s a nasty SOB.<br /><br />We were supposed to watch a movie in bed together but he just wanted to go to sleep. I sit on the floor next to the bed and started rubbing his back. He didn’t even open his eyes. Much to my horror, and for the first time since we knew he was going to deploy, I started to weep (you know, that silent, expressionless weeping where tears roll down your face through no effort at all on your part).<br /><br />Feeling like I needed to do something, say something, I told Caynan I loved him.<br /><br />"Oh, that makes me feel better, hearing that," Caynan said softly.<br /><br />I smiled quickly and kept rubbing his back. The tears continued. I swear to God, I could be blind-folded and if one thousand men were placed in front of me without their shirts, I could identify my husband just by feeling their bare backs: the skin, the angles, the slopes. So many years, I studied and loved his back, from the nape of his neck to the shoulder blades to the small of it just below his waist.<br /><br />Caynan opened one eye, "Okay, please stop crying, you're going to make me feel bad."<br /><br />I did--as quickly and wordlessly as I started.<br /><br />You cannot be a military wife without knowing how to compartmentalize your emotions. Sometimes those feelings, or those tears, sneak up on you, but you learn how to reign them in. The faster you learn how to do it, the better off you are. <br /><br />But other times, when you find you can’t feel anything at all, you wonder: where does compartmentalization end and disassociation begin? <br /><br />A few days later, we spent the day in our ghetto pool (three by fifteen feet of “fun in the sun” courtesy of Super Wal-Mart) with Caynan. Caynan is holding me when I ask what he wants done with his remains if something happens to him… and since I went there, does he have a preference regarding particular personal items going to either boy? Caynan lets go of me as looks at me as if these are unreasonable questions.<br /><br />“Why do you insist on talking about these things? You know how I feel about this.” <br /><br />I do know. He doesn't like to have these conversations. But who does? Tired of being the villain I point out the reality of situation, "You're right, it won't matter to you by then, when you think about it," I say. <br /><br />I am not meaning to be cruel, but factual. Without a word, Caynan gets out of the “pool” (I use this term loosely) to get another beer. This conversation is over in his mind. Easy for him: he won’t be the one stuck making these decisions if something happens when he deploys.<br /><br />When Caynan returns he is determined to turn the day around. He tells me that we are supposed to get $1,000 a month extra for every month past twelve months that he is in Iraq. <br /><br />"That's $3,000 we hadn't planned on getting, honey!" He says like we should be happy.<br /><br />He follows this up with their expected date of return, exactly fifteen months from the date he leaves.<br /><br />I burst out laughing. <br /><br />I mean, really laughing. I can't remember the last time I laughed like this.<br />Caynan didn't know how to react, so he started chuckling uncertainly. "I know, right? How crazy is that?"<br /><br />I am still laughing. I have my sunglasses on, so he can't see that I am also crying. The boys are shooting at each other with their water guns, blissfully ignorant of the very real wars that will soon change their lives in very real ways.<br /><br />Caynan is confused and stops laughing, "Okay, it's not that funny."<br /><br />"Yes, Caynan, it is. It is flipping hilarious." <br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">They’re Not Waving, They’re Drowning</span><br /><br />In June, the parade of terribles begins. News from the front: soldiers being electrocuted in the showers, self-inflicted gunshot wounds, 10 year-old suicide bombers, sexual assaults on female soldiers.<br /><br />I am learning not to worry about that which I cannot control (i.e., the life or death of the father of my children), although much of your time will be spent listening and validating the feelings and experiences of others: your soldier-spouse, your warrior-children.<br /><br />As for your own feelings, questions, and pain: who has time for those? Civilian friends don’t understand and your army spouse girlfriends run hot and cold; AWOL half the time, coping with their own dramas and lashing out at you as often as you, unfortunately, perhaps, lash out at them.<br /><br />Some days I can’t decide which is worse, the breaking spirit of your soldier or the breaking hearts of your children. These are invisible injuries that no one has names for, no one tabulates, no one keeps track of… no one but the mother/spouse/father/sibling/family member who witnesses it and knows that some people will become stronger and some people will simply break.<br /><br />For example, when a soldier deploys to combat, those of us at home eventually get "the call." <br /><br />The call comes when his (or her) veneer of strength has cracked. When something really bad has happened; when he (or she) has witnessed (or done) something that he/she was not prepared for or expecting to be upset by; when the surreal becomes real and that reality comes crashing down upon them with crushing force. <br /><br />Nothing prepares you for this call and you will usually hang up hurting and feeling totally useless.<br /><br />Over the next few months, you will get emails, calls, and/or letters, referring to incidents giving you glimpses into a world where "humanity" has been turned on its head consistently and violently. Your soldier will ask a lot of rhetorical questions that will make your heart hurt. All the while your children will be asking a lot of real questions that will make your heart break. You live in fear that you will handle their struggles poorly and long-term emotional or psychological damage will occur and of course, it will be your fault. It is illogical, but it is your fear nonetheless.<br /><br />Caynan's call came a few weeks after he left us and two days after he started flying real medevac missions in Iraq. Unfortunately for him, even when combat missions settled down for our troops as we were handing security for large areas of the country over to the Iraqis, our medevac helicopters still go in and pick up injured Iraqis as well as wounded Americans; i.e., there is little reprieve from the carnage. <br /><br />The first soldier to die in Caynan's Blackhawk did so with his legs laying on his chest, having been completely blown off by an IED blast to the Bradley he was driving. <br /><br />Caynan, in broken sentences, tries his best to tell about “the look, baby, the look when the spirit leaves the body, the body changes, the eyes are different, everything is different, you know before the machines know, he’s dead, he’s just dead.” But that wasn’t the worst of that mission. When they landed at the Baghdad CSH and unloaded this dead soldier, the aircraft’s rotor wash blew one of his disembodied legs off his chest. A crew chief had to chase the leg as it lulled across the dusty landing zone to return it to this 26 year old soldier who would never use it again.<br /><br />“It’s so surreal. You’re watching this happening but it’s like a movie… It just doesn’t seem real. How is this happening? How am I sitting in this helicopter watching this dead man’s leg roll across the tarmac like this? It just doesn’t seem real baby. This can’t be real…”<br /><br />Silently I listened. Silently I cried. Because it was real and we both knew it.<br /><br />The next call came at 4 am. Caynan sounded like he might actually have been crying. In bits and pieces I got the story but mainly he repeated, “The screaming, my God, the screaming.”<br /><br />Apparently two men were picked up. A U.S. soldier and an Iraqi interpreter were hit by an IED. While they made it to the CSH alive, there was an “ungodly amount” of blood. Caynan “never knew blood could smell like that.” But it wasn’t the blood that disturbed Caynan; it was the screaming. He said he couldn’t get the interpreters screaming out of his head. <br /><br />“I’ve never heard anything like that before, Carissa. I can’t his screams out of my head.”<br /><br />I had nothing to say. All I could do was remind him that he got them to the CSH alive. But getting them to the CSH alive doesn’t erase those screams and I know that. And I worry about him. I wonder how long those screams will haunt him. <br /><br />Jennifer told me that Stephen called her once, just once, when he was in charge of viewing all the Apache videos when we lent air support to a ground attack this year, and all he could say to her, over and over, was “you’re my normal. You and the kids, you’re my normal. THIS, THIS IS NOT NORMAL.” <br /><br />What Stephen was referring to was the tendency of our pilots to use hellfire missiles on apparently unarmed Iraqis and laughing about it. In case you are wondering, hellfire missiles are NOT supposed to be used on human targets, period. <br /><br />Nonetheless, it is my youngest son, Connor, who leaves me feeling helpless and hurting most of the time. Three months into this tour a failed webcam attempt led to our first nightmare. I was woken up by Connor crying out, repetitively, "Mommy, I want Daddy. I want Daddy, Mommy. I want Daddy, Mommy, I want Daddy."<br /><br />I did the only thing that I could do: I held him tight, rocked him back and forth, and told him (repeatedly) that I knew he missed his Daddy. <br /><br />Two broken records painfully breaking the silence of night until Connor fell asleep in my arms, his tears still wet on his face and--having soaked through my shirt--my shoulder.<br /><br />Imagine my surprise when two months later Connor sees a picture that Caynan sent us (from Iraq) of himself in the cockpit of the Blackhawk and asks me, “Is that your friend Mommy?” <br /><br />“No, baby, that’s your Daddy in Iraq,” I responded—probably an octave higher than I should have. He didn’t seriously NOT recognize his own father? When did THIS happen? <br /><br />I picked up the photo to talk to Connor about what Caynan is doing in Iraq (again) but Connor has walked away and started playing with Legos, clearly not interested. I have to find out where to get one of those “daddy” dolls made…<br /><br />After getting Connor to bed, and letting Caleb watch a movie in my bedroom because of course I have no idea how to force him to go to sleep, I go outside to sit on the front steps to smoke a cigarette and ponder what Connor will be like when he sees his dad again. Add that to my list of mommy failures since I have had to start taking Caleb to therapy at Darnall Army Medical Center since apparently he wishes Connor was dead and has started drawing pictures of himself dying horrible deaths.<br /><br />To my left I see the spouse whose drinks every night with her cigarettes and a beer. I wave. To my right lives the Mormon spouse who doesn’t drink or smoke but is addicted to Percocet, so she never leaves her house. No one to wave to there.<br /><br />It’s ironic, now that I think about it, because the neighbor that lived there before her was a Sgt. Major who flaunted his alcoholism rather than acknowledge that he may be suffering from PTSD. Sgt. Maj. was old school army. He’s been in for 24 years. <br /><br />He knew that I was advocate for the diagnosis and treatment of PTSD. On three occasions he told me that "PTSD is bullshit" because he wasn't suffering from it after two tours in Iraq. He thinks people blowing themselves up are funny. He thinks bloodshed is a part of war and apart of life. <br /><br />Of course, he is also going through his second divorce and is a functional alcoholic. He admits to being an alcoholic freely and in the two months he lived next to me, I saw him try to stop drinking twice--he went three days both times and told me he had to drink because of the shaking and the irritability.<br /><br />One evening, however, he sat down next to me—drink in hand—on the front steps of our shared townhouse while I was smoking a cigarette. I asked him if he drank this heavily before going to Iraq. He said no. Not like he does now. <br /><br />"I probably have PTSD but you don't see me whining about it like all these little pussies nowadays."<br /><br />Then again, he said, it wasn't Iraq that "f--ked him up" but what happened afterwards. His best friend was his battle buddy (the Army's solution for rise in suicides) and he called him one night and Sgt. Maj. missed the call. Sgt. Maj. found out the next morning that his battle body used his at home gym to strangle himself. Sgt. Maj. said he would never forgive himself for missing that call.<br /><br />As with most things I am told, I knew my words would be meaningless. My heart ached for him and for every other broken soldier wandering around, blindly trying to cope with their pain. We sat there in silence.<br /><br />Spring was bringing out the first of the bunnies from the fields across the street. <br /><br />"You know what? I would really like to get a brick and smash that rabbit to a pulp right now."<br /><br />I shook my head in disgust and stood up. The confessional was over.<br /><br />"You know you need help, right?" I asked in front of my house door.<br /><br />He laughed. I didn’t. <br /><br />I threw my cigarette into the planter on my porch and said goodnight before going inside my house. <br /><br />I locked my front door and went upstairs to check on my babies, promising myself they would never join the military—not even the Air Force.<br />A 2008 RAND study reports that at least 1 in 5 soldiers are returning from war with PTSD. When are they going to do a study on the spouses and children left behind in these wars? The ones who self-medicate or are prescribed anti-depressants (parent and child alike), who can never look at the world or the Army or themselves the same way again? What have we lost in service to this country? <br />We are only a third of the way through my husband’s deployment and I can already identify our wounded. Am I the only one paying attention?Military Spouses for Changehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08817390732646302135noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1012255546901446091.post-44224652251942297692008-12-25T10:04:00.000-08:002008-12-25T10:07:14.270-08:00<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Large oaks from little acorns grow...<br /><br />May we all work together to water the tree of change in 2009!<br /><br />Happy Holidays from our Hearts and Homes to Yours!<br /></span><span style="font-style: italic;"></span></span><br /><br /><a href="http://s60.photobucket.com/albums/h26/mydragonflies/?action=view&current=holidaygreeting.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h26/mydragonflies/holidaygreeting.jpg" alt="Photobucket" border="0" /></a>Military Spouses for Changehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08817390732646302135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1012255546901446091.post-6376994464697368242008-12-23T13:35:00.001-08:002008-12-23T13:37:40.662-08:00FREE On-Line Voice Recorded Cards w/ Photos for Mil Families!Talking Medias LLC, has partnered with Military Spouses for Change to offer all military families FREE voice-recorded Christmas and New Year's personal greeting cards (created online), to send to their loved ones serving at home and abroad.<br /><br />Imagine getting together Christmas eve (or New Year's Eve), recording yourselves directly online while uploading a few photo images and then, 10 seconds later, your loved one (dad, mom, son, daughter, sibling) serving in Iraq or Afghanistan gets to experience all of that! It's the best gift we can give our loved ones - hearing our voice and seeing our smile.<br /><br />Now, I don't know what your experiences have been (for those of you with deployed servicemembers) but my husband and I cannot use the webcam at all, the internet is just too crummy. So when MSC was approached my Talking Medias, LLC, we thought this would be a nice alternative. We know this is late notice, but we figured better late than never!<br /><br />I doubled checked and asked if there was any financial obligation to make this audio and visual on-line card and they assured me that there was not.<br /><br /><b>Please check out this link:<br /><br />http://www.talkingmemories.com/militaryspousesforchange-greeting/ <br /><br />and share it with your friends, family, FRG groups,message boards, etc.<br /><br />Send the link to your servicemember and if his or her internet allows, he or she can try to make one to send you back home!</b><br /><br />Good luck and happy holidays,<br /><br />Carissa Picard<br />President and Blue Star Wife<br />Military Spouses for Change<br /><br /><br /><p align="center"><b>http://www.talkingmemories.com/militaryspousesforchange-greeting/</b></p align=center><br /><br /><br />PLEASE SHARE WITH OTHERS!!!Military Spouses for Changehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08817390732646302135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1012255546901446091.post-21233140464816720552008-09-19T13:37:00.000-07:002008-09-19T13:40:17.575-07:00Are you a Republican or Independent Blue Star Spouse who Supports Obama?Are you a Republican or Independent voter whose spouse is deployed and cannot bring yourself to support McCain this election?<br /><br />If yes, I have been contacted by a film-maker who is looking for someone who is willing to participate in a short television advertisement endorsing Senator Obama.<br /><br />This needs to be filmed ASAP.<br /><br />If you are interested, please email me at <a href="mailto:csp@militaryspousesforchange.com">csp@militaryspousesforchange.com</a> and I will put you in touch with the film maker.<br /><br />P.S. If someone needed a spouse for a pro-McCain endorsement, we would have posted a bulletin for them as well.<br /><br />MILITARY SPOUSES FOR CHANGE DOES NOT ENDORSE EITHER CANDIDATE. We do, however, encourage our military spouses to be politically informed and active, no matter which candidate they support. <br /><br />Feel free to repost this elsewhere.Military Spouses for Changehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08817390732646302135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1012255546901446091.post-46236728812322848412008-09-16T10:57:00.000-07:002008-09-16T11:04:51.864-07:00MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD!Attention Military Spouses!<br /><br />YOUR VOICE IS NEEDED IN CONGRESS IMMEDIATELY.<br /><br />The House of Representatives recently passed the Military Spouses Residency Relief Act. This bill, if it passes the Senate, will apply the same rules of residency to military spouses that currently apply to their active duty service member (so you would no longer have to worry about changing your driver's license, vehicle registration, voter's registration, etc., every time you move). The idea that we should be penalized for these moves WHEN IT IS THE MILITARY that is choosing to move us is ridiculous. Military spouses, like service members, simply go where the military tells them to go. The hardships associated with these frequent moves should be ALLEVIATED by Congress, not perpetuated. <br /><br />Shockingly, the Military Spouses Residency Relief Act is currently BEING CHALLENGED by the DoD as it is being considered by the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee. If this bill does not get approved by the VA Committee, it will never get voted on in the Senate and thus never become law. This is your chance to make a difference and to be heard. You need to call the Senators that are sitting on the VA Committee. Ask to speak with their legislative aide about the Military Spouse Residency Relief Act. Tell them that "the committee needs to support the Carter Military Spouse language." For some reason, the DoD does not believe that military spouses should have the same residency protections that service members do. Obviously, Military Spouses for Change disagrees with the DoD on this.<br /><br />It will not cost the federal government anything to make this bill a law. It will not cost the Department of Defense anything. All we are asking for is a reprieve from the practical and financial burdens of having to change our state of residence every time the military decides to move our family. Either that or the military should start giving our married service members the option of staying at one duty station for his or her entire career. Since the latter is unlikely to happen, then the federal government should at least move to provide us with the same legal protections it provides our service members since we are no more immune to the change of duty stations than he or she is (absent divorcing or separating). <br /><br />Print out the numbers below and take the time to call each office and tell them that military spouses deserve the same legal protections that their service members get when it comes to state residency laws. They say that the military recruits a service member but retains the family, well this is a step the federal government can take toward doing that.<br /><br />Please feel free to copy this post and repost elsewhere.<br /> <br />Akaka, Daniel K. (D - HI) (202) 224-6361 Aide: Lisa F.<br />Brown, Sherrod (D - OH) (202) 224-2315 Aide: Diane Wilkinson<br />Burr, Richard (R - NC) (202) 224-3154 Aide: Kevin Tuess(??)<br />Craig, Larry E. (R - ID) (202) 224-2752 Aide: Patrick (Nielman??)<br />Graham, Lindsey (R - SC) (202) 224-5972 Aide: Adam Brake<br />Hutchison, Kay Bailey (R - TX) 224-5922<br />Isakson, Johnny (R - GA) (202) 224-3643 Aide: Lauren Walter/Houston Ernst)<br />Murray, Patty (D - WA) (202) 224-2621 Aide: Joshua Jacobs<br />Obama, Barack (D - IL) (202) 224-2854 Aide: Ruchi Bhowmik<br />Rockefeller, John D., IV (D - WV) 224-6472 Aide: Clete Johnson or Barbara Pryor<br />Sanders, Bernard (I - VT) (202) 224-5141 Aide: Janko Mitric<br />Specter, Arlen (R - PA) (202) 224-4254 Aide: Will Wagner<br />Tester, Jon (D - MT) (202) 224-2644 Aide: James Wise<br />Webb, Jim (D - VA) (202) 224-4024 Aide: William Edwards<br />Wicker, Roger F. (R - MS) (202) 224-6253Military Spouses for Changehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08817390732646302135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1012255546901446091.post-31916739215427898912008-05-27T16:09:00.000-07:002008-05-27T16:10:32.537-07:00Stand Up 4 VetsAs we honor those who have fallen in service to our country, we must also remember those who returned from battle with the physical and psychological scars of war.<br /><br />At <a href="http://www.standup4vets.org/">www.standup4vets.org</a>, concerned Americans can sign a petition urging Congress and the President to take action so the men and women who fought to defend our nation don't have to fight to get the medical care they need and deserve.<br /><br />For far too long, tight budgets and political posturing have kept some veterans from getting proper medical care from the Department of Veterans Affairs. The Disabled American Veterans is demanding that Congress enact new laws to require improved screening and treatment for psychological wounds, including post-traumatic stress disorder, and traumatic brain injuries; increase support for family caregivers; and reform veterans health care funding so that it is sufficient, timely and predictable.<br /><br />Thanks for any help you can provide in getting the word out to those who may want to get involved in our online mobilization and call for our government to stand up our veterans.<br /><br /><br />David E. Autry<br />Deputy National Director of Communications<br />Disabled American VeteransMilitary Spouses for Changehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08817390732646302135noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1012255546901446091.post-28456142806314482912008-05-22T04:25:00.000-07:002008-05-22T04:36:37.073-07:00What Should We Really Remember on Memorial Day?<p><img style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 8px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 10px" src="http://www.military.com/pics/Carissa_Picard.jpg" align="left" /> (May 21, 2008) <a href="http://www.usmemorialday.org/backgrnd.html">Memorial Day</a> was originally known as Decoration Day, so named for the decorating of soldier's graves by women's groups and others after the Civil War.<br><br></p><br /><br />It is believed to have been an event that occurred spontaneously in dozens of places across the United States as we struggled to heal in the aftermath of that violent and prolonged conflict.<br /><br />As the wife of a soldier about to deploy to Iraq, something about the idea of those women decorating the graves of soldiers after the Civil War simultaneously hurts and comforts me. It hurts because I know most of those women were widows. Yet it also comforts me to know that those women found solace in each other and in honoring their soldiers: in decorating those graves, they were acting to make a nation remember and recognize both their soldiers' sacrifice and their own sacrifice.<br /><br />It was also an act of social activism. Those decorated graves said that no one life was to be forgotten, no one life was to be lost in vain. It was an act that said not only was a life lost, but their were lives left behind that were IMPACTED by the loss of that life. <br /><br />While the purpose of Memorial Day is to remember the men and women who gave their lives while serving our country, I propose it is even greater: it is a day to recognize not simply that the servicemember will have no more days ahead of him (or her) by virtue of their death, but that the days preceding his or her death were defined by hardship and courage. Thus, the sacrifice is more than just the death, it is everything leading up to it; all that was left undone (or was done without him or her) and all whom were left behind.<br /><br />Please consider who and what we are really talking about when we say "dying in service of our country:"<br /><br />We are talking about men and women who (post-Civil War era) die on foreign soil, thousands of miles away from parents, spouses, and children. Men and women who die not having seen their child being born or their parent pass away. Men and women who die not having seen their child's first steps or high school graduation. Men and women who die after spending their last holidays in jungles or deserts, or on mountains or ships, amid their "family" by circumstance but not by choice.<br /><br />We are talking about men and women whose final words of love will never actually be heard by those they love. Men and women who were called baby killers in the 1970s and illiterate in 2008. Men and women whose voluntary service today prevent other men and women from being drafted and yet they are told they don't deserve a draft-era GI Bill because they volunteered for this.<br /><br />These are the men and women we are remembering on Memorial Day.<br /><br />Should my husband die in Iraq, I pray that he is remembered for his sacrifice. A sacrifice that, in my mind, begins the day he leaves our arms but for the rest of the world will be memorialized on the day he dies, thousands of miles away from us, having missed our youngest son's first day in Kindergarten, having possibly spent Christmas and our anniversary in the desert, and having called out for a mother who won't hear him (or maybe, just maybe, me), when he passes from this world to the next.<br /><br />For my part, I know that I will join the long line of widows before me in decorating his grave to remind this country that he left behind many who loved him, many who do remember him even if the world doesn't, and that the sacrifice for this nation was not his alone.<br /><br /><br /><br /><em> Carissa Picard is a licensed attorney, the founder and President of a non-profit, non-partisan veterans and military advocacy organization,</em> <a href="http://www.militaryspousesforchange.com">Military Spouses for Change</a><em>, and the spouse of an active duty Army pilot soon to deploy to Iraq. She is also a writer for Military.com's <a href="http://electioncenter.military.com/blogs">2008 Election Center</a> and an op-ed contributor.</em>Military Spouses for Changehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08817390732646302135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1012255546901446091.post-91631492739860914212008-05-22T04:15:00.000-07:002008-05-22T04:25:37.946-07:00Military Wives Fight Army to Help Husbands<a class="listen" href="javascript:NPR.Player.openPlayer(90378222,">Listen Now</a> [12 min 34 sec] <a class="add" href="javascript:NPR.Player.openPlayer(90378222,">add to playlist</a><br /><br />Tammie LeCompte meticulously filed every Army document about Ryan LeCompte in chronological order in binders. Senate aides say these bulging binders helped convince them that Army officials were mistreating her husband.<br /><br />By the time Ryan LeCompte was transferred to Walter Reed Army Hospital in late 2007, he was hardly walking or talking — or even eating on his own. He spent most of his time slumped, staring at the floor.<br /><br />James Pitchford, aide to Sen. Christopher Bond (R-MO), is so outraged at how Fort Carson treated Ryan LeCompte that he made a rare exception to an unwritten rule on Capitol Hill that staff members never speak to the media, except anonymously "on background."<br /><br />Army Spc. Ryan LeCompte's chief psychiatrist at Walter Reed Army Hospital rejected a claim made by officers at Fort Carson that he was "faking" his symptoms — and concluded that he was severely ill as a result of the war. <a href="http://media.npr.org/documents/2008/may/memo.pdf">Read the diagnosis</a>.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/rundowns/rundown.php?prgId=2">All Things Considered</a>, May 16, 2008 · There's a formidable group of warriors out there — and they're fighting America's military. Spouses of troops who have come back from the war with serious mental health problems have made it their mission to force the military to give the troops the help they need.<br /><br />In the process, they've transformed themselves from "the silent ranks," as the military traditionally calls wives, into vocal and effective activists.<br /><br />Tammie LeCompte is among them. When her husband, Army Spc. Ryan LeCompte, came back to Fort Carson, Colo., after two tours in Iraq, he was a different man — angry, withdrawn and isolated. In 2007, he was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, and he eventually became so depressed and unable to function that doctors feared he might die.<br /><br />So when Tammie LeCompte saw that the Army was not giving her husband intensive treatment — and, worse, his commanders were punishing him for not doing his job — she launched a campaign against the Army that eventually caught the ear of Congress. Today, doctors say that<br />Tammie LeCompte's battle may have saved her husband's life.<br /><br />Carissa Picard, founder of a national group called Military Spouses for Change, has never met Tammie LeCompte, but she recently launched a <a href="http://www.militaryspousesforchange.com/" target="_blank">Web site</a> specifically to teach spouses how to pressure the military to give proper care to returning troops with health problems. Picard says<br /><br />Tammie's own battle reflects how wives across the country have transformed themselves into advocates in order to save their own husbands.<br /><br />"When I feel like the well-being of my husband or my family is at stake, that taps into a very fundamental place for women," says Picard, who is married to an Army helicopter pilot. "That's like a Mama Bear place. We're fighting to protect the people that we love."<br />Lecompte's Return from Iraq<br /><br />When Ryan LeCompte came back from Iraq in January 2006, he started suffering from the classic symptoms that afflict large numbers of troops who've fought in wars. Back in Iraq, his officers hailed him as "one of the platoon's best soldiers," who always "worked tirelessly, without complaint."<br /><br />But at home, he became a hermit. He avoided his family most of the time. When he didn't, he'd fly into a rage.<br /><br />Tammie says she would hear cries in the middle of the night, and she'd find him curled in a ball on the floor. During the day, there'd be a loud noise, and he'd drop to the ground like someone was shooting.<br /><br />But at least Ryan realized he needed help. His Army records prove it.<br /><br />Tammie drew on the filing skills she learned as a clerk in the military's insurance program, and she started putting just about every document that the Army has ever written about her husband in clear, plastic sleeves in two huge black binders.<br /><br />These records show that LeCompte started going to the mental health center soon after he got back from Iraq. The doctors sent him to classes on anger management and alcohol abuse, and group therapy, and they prescribed various drugs — but he didn't get intensive treatment.<br /><br />And LeCompte kept getting worse. He'd show up late for formation. He seemed disoriented. He couldn't remember orders. So, according to Army records, his officers made him scrub the toilets and do other menial chores — to punish him.<br /><br />Tammie says LeCompte took it out at home, shouting at her and sometimes violently shoving her. She says she started thinking about leaving him.<br /><br /><strong>Activism Sparks</strong><br /><br />Tammie LeCompte was desperate. She went to Ryan's officers, and she begged them to support him instead of treating him as if he were malingering. They said he was an alcoholic and faking his symptoms. Tammie went to the inspector general at Fort Carson and asked him to investigate why Ryan wasn't getting proper treatment.<br /><br />He dismissed her allegations and said the Army was acting appropriately.<br /><br />So Tammie started sending letter after letter to just about anybody she could think of, including members of Congress and veterans advocates like <a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=11782535">Andrew Pogany</a>, who helps soldiers with serious mental health problems get help dealing with the Army.<br /><br />She pleaded with them to get Ryan better treatment. And finally, those vets and senators wrote Fort Carson, asking what was going on.<br /><br />Michele Cassida, one of the key staff members at Fort Carson who handled the calls and letters from Congress, said Ryan is "very lucky" to have his wife as an advocate.<br /><br />"I don't know if a lot of people would go through what she's been through," Cassida says.<br />Cassida pored over LeCompte's records, and she interviewed his officers and fellow soldiers.<br /><br />"Ryan Lecompte is a very sick solder — very, very sick — and needs help," Cassida says. "I have seen him literally deteriorate in front of my eyes."<br /><br />By the summer of 2007, LeCompte had stopped talking or walking. He wouldn't eat on his own, so Tammie had to spoon-feed him.<br /><br />But Cassida says the more Tammie begged for help, the more his officers retaliated.<br /><br />Cassida says she can understand that Ryan and Tammie might have rubbed some people the wrong way. People with PTSD can be infuriating. Tammie can be blunt and abrasive. But Cassida says that's no reason to mistreat them.<br /><br />For instance, Ryan's officers ordered him to line up in formation every day, even though he was almost a vegetable. So Tammie would push him to formation in a wheelchair at 5:30 every morning. The officers cited LeCompte for conduct "unbecoming of a soldier," they demoted him and cut his pay, and then they started the process of kicking him out of the Army for "patterns of misconduct."<br /><br />"I don't understand how they can victimize a family like they have done," Cassida says. "This is vindictiveness. This is evilness. This is not what the Army is about."<br /><br />Commanders who were involved in LeCompte's case declined comment or didn't return phone calls from NPR. A spokeswoman at Fort Carson said she couldn't reach any one else qualified to talk about the case.<br /><br />But commanders at Fort Carson sent letters to Congress stating, "LeCompte was given access to all appropriate medical and psychological treatment" and "was treated appropriately by his chain of command."<br /><br /><strong>'Too Many Worries'</strong><br /><br />By late last year, Tammie seemed on the verge of a breakdown. She says she was borrowing money from relatives and friends. She looked and sounded exhausted, as she juggled raising their children and fighting the Army — and serving as a full-time nurse for Ryan. "I've got too many worries," she said at the time, fighting back tears. "I'm worried about my husband. I'm worried about my kids. And there's not 10 of me. I'm only one person."<br /><br />But suddenly, just before Christmas last year, Tammie's two-year battle paid off. The congressional staff members and veterans groups who had been rallying around her persuaded Fort Carson to send Ryan to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington D.C. Walter Reed has suffered its own share of scandal, but medical specialists generally agree that its doctors are among the best in the military.<br /><br />Once he arrived there, Ryan LeCompte spent most of his time slumped on his bed, like a frail 90-year-old in a nursing home.<br /><br />The team of psychiatrists on Ryan's case had already made their diagnosis: He was so depressed that his body was shutting down. The most widely used psychiatric manual, published by the American Psychiatric Association, calls it "major depressive disorder ... with catatonic features."<br /><br />Officials at the Pentagon refused to let Ryan's doctors talk with NPR. But sources who worked with them say the doctors believe that Ryan might have died, if Tammie's advocates hadn't persuaded commanders at Fort Carson to send him to Walter Reed.<br /><br />Two of her most influential advocates are seasoned staff members on Capitol Hill — James Pitchford, who focuses on veterans' issues for Sen. Christoper Bond (R-MO), and Krista Lamoreaux, who works for Sen. Tim Johnson (D-SD). Commanders at Fort Carson sent Ryan to<br /><br />Walter Reed only after the aides hinted that the senators might make trouble for the Army.<br />Pitchford says none of this would have happened without Tammie LeCompte. He says she reminds him of Erin Brockovich — the woman Julia Roberts played in the hit movie of the same name, after she exposed a corporation that was poisoning people.<br /><br />Tammie is "a pit bull," Pitchford says. "She is a fighter." He says he hopes Julia Roberts or another famous actress will make "The LeCompte Story."<br /><br />Doctors at Walter Reed have sent Ryan LeCompte back home to South Dakota. He's getting therapy and medical care at a nearby VA hospital.<br /><br />Ryan and Tammie's battle isn't over, because Army officials still haven't announced whether they're going to kick Ryan out of the service for misconduct, as they had planned, or will retire him with honor and all his benefits, as members of Congress are insisting.<br /><br />But Ryan's walking again, with a cane. He's talking a little. He feeds himself. And sometimes, Tammie says, he even smiles.<br /><br /><strong>Related NPR Stories</strong><br /><br />Sep. 9, 2007<a class="iconlink related" href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=14272702">Army Helps Wounded Soldiers Adjust</a><br />Dec. 4, 2006<a class="iconlink related" href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6576505">Soldiers Say Army Ignores, Punishes Mental Anguish</a><br />Aug. 22, 2007<a class="iconlink related" href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=13863193">Grief Camp Helps Children Cope with War Losses</a>Military Spouses for Changehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08817390732646302135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1012255546901446091.post-54459227462301787552008-05-08T13:00:00.000-07:002008-05-08T13:03:51.827-07:00Returning Warrior Mental Health Protection Act<span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:130%;">Purposes: <br /><br />1. To effectively identify service members in crisis upon return from a combat zone.<br />2. To provide a means by which returning warriors exhibiting signs of post-combat stress can receive mental health care, treatment, and evaluation before their behavior escalates to the point of involuntary separation from the military.<br />3. To create uniformity among military units in the management of service members engaging in misconduct or otherwise exhibiting signs of mental health distress upon return from a combat zone.<br /><br /><br />1) Definitions<br /><br />a. Military mental health provider -- anyone licensed to provide mental health care and recognized by the Commander of the military treatment facility (MTF) as capable of administering such care.<br /><br />2) Post-deployment misconduct<br /><br />a. If a service member engages in misconduct within two years upon his or her return from a combat zone AND has no history of misconduct prior to his or her deployment, the Commander shall suspend disciplinary action and/or administrative discharge pending the following:<br /><br />i. Service member must undergo a comprehensive mental health evaluation and TBI screening and be given 30 days to participate in any recommended programs offered by the MTF or otherwise recommended by the mental health provider.<br /><br />ii. Upon completion of the initial mental health evaluation and recommendation by a military mental health provider, the service member will be given the option of continuing with treatment and/or care at the MTF or approved civilian mental health provider for up to 180 days (from the date of the referral).<br /><br />3) Referral to Warrior Transition Unit<br /><br />a. Upon recommendation of a military psychiatrist and agreement by the service member, the service member must be released from his or her current unit and transferred to the WTU for further care, treatment, and evaluation.<br /><br />b. Any pending or suspended disciplinary actions and/or other charges may be forwarded for disposition by the WTU Commander.<br /><br />4) Personality Disorder Discharges<br /><br />a. If a service member meets the following criteria, the diagnosis of a personality disorder shall qualify for compensation as a recognized disability by the DoD and VA:<br /><br />i. Has been active for at least 2 yrs;<br />ii. Has served in a combat zone; and<br />iii. Has no history of such disorder noted upon his or her entrance into service.<br /><a href="http://www.militaryspousesforchange.com/announcements.php">http://www.militaryspousesforchange.com/announcements.php</a><br /></span>Military Spouses for Changehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08817390732646302135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1012255546901446091.post-42941663592677499032008-04-17T21:42:00.000-07:002008-04-17T21:48:12.499-07:00MSC President on NPR Discussing Iraq Tour Reductions<strong><em>To the Point with Warren Onley:</em></strong><br /><strong></strong><br /><strong>The President, the War in Iraq and American Soldiers</strong><br /><br />('Thu, 10 Apr 2008)<br /><br />Listen to/Watch entire show: <a href="http://www.kcrw.com/news/programs/tp/tp080410the_president_the_wa">http://www.kcrw.com/news/programs/tp/tp080410the_president_the_wa</a><br /><a class="Listen" title="Listen" onclick="javascript:return launchPlayer('?type=audio&id=tp080410the_president_the_wa');" href="http://www.kcrw.com/news/programs/tp/tp080410the_president_the_wa#"></a><a class="Download" title="Download" href="http://download.kcrw.com/audio/9903/tp_2008-04-10-155453.mp3"></a><br />Main Topic:<br /><a class="external-link" href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2008/04/20080410-2.html">President Bush</a> today accepted the <a class="external-link" href="http://www.defenselink.mil/pdf/General_Petraeus_Testimony_to_Congress.pdf">recommendations</a> of General David Petraeus. The draw-down of troops from Iraq will stop when the "surge" ends in July. Democratic leaders of Congress said, "He's just dragging this out, leaving a failed war and a failed economy on the doorstep of the next president." Because of strains on the troops, Mr. Bush also reduced tours of duty from 15 months to 12, but that won't start until August. We talk with soldiers about the state of morale after six years of war. What do multiple tours on the front lines mean for their families? What about recruitment, retention and readiness to meet future contingencies? <br /><br />Guests:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.kcrw.com/people/news/programs/tp/tp080410the_president_the_wa/silva_mark?role=news_guest">Mark Silva</a>: White House Correspondent, Chicago Tribune<br /><br /><a href="http://www.kcrw.com/people/news/programs/tp/tp080410the_president_the_wa/picard_carissa?role=news_guest">Carissa Picard</a>: President, Military Spouses for Change<br /><br /><a href="http://www.kcrw.com/people/news/programs/tp/tp080410the_president_the_wa/christenson_sig?role=news_guest">Sig Christenson</a>: Military Reporter, San Antonio Express-News<br /><br /><a href="http://www.kcrw.com/people/news/programs/tp/tp080410the_president_the_wa/hegseth_pete?role=news_guest">Pete Hegseth</a>: Executive Director, Vets for Freedom<br /><br /><a href="http://www.kcrw.com/people/news/programs/tp/tp080410the_president_the_wa/friedman_brandon?role=news_guest">Brandon Friedman</a>: Editor, VetVoice.comMilitary Spouses for Changehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08817390732646302135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1012255546901446091.post-46548798700026812612008-04-17T21:25:00.001-07:002008-04-17T21:29:47.446-07:00Military Spouses for Change on CBS Evening News<strong>The Military's Showdown with PTSD</strong><br /><br />FORT HOOD, Texas, April 17, 2008<br /><br />(CBS) Twenty-two year old combat medic Jonathan Norrell volunteered for every mission during his year in Iraq.<br /><br />He was bombed, ambushed, treating wounded under fire - and the memories still haunt him.<br /><br />"The things that affected me the most weren't the IEDs, which I went through six or seven of, and all the firefights, and all the combat," Norrell said. "It was the psychological stuff, the people I failed to help."<br /><br />By the time he came off his tour of duty he was diagnosed with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: anxiety, sleeplessness, flashbacks. Military doctors recommended immediate discharge and treatment but the command refused.<br /><br />Instead they forced him into combat training exercises. He turned to drugs and alcohol.<br /><br />"I just lost it," Norrell said. "I didn't wanna do it anymore."<br /><br />So the Army he served so well in Iraq threatened to expel him without medical benefits.<br /><br />Norrell's case reveals the showdown inside the military, between the new school and old school view on how to handle PTSD - one of the signature injuries of the Afghan and Iraq wars.<br /><br />And experts warn there's a storm coming: a generation of soldiers coming home with PTSD.<br /><br />CBS News has been given documents showing more than 100,000 vets of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars are seeking help for mental health disorders.<br /><br /><b>Norrell decided to fight back by reaching out to veteran's groups and advocates like Carissa Picard of Military Spouses for Change. Picard's husband leaves for Iraq in June.<br /><br />"Our soldiers didn't choose to wage this war; they didn't choose to go to Iraq or Afghanistan," she said. "We've sent them there. We need to take responsibility for what happens to them."</b><br /><br />Norrell's struggle for help took months of meetings, phone calls, e-mails, lobbying Congressmen and the top levels of the Pentagon before she finally got help at Fort Hood.<br /><br />We asked the man in charge there why it took so long.<br /><br />"The field commander recognizes the soldier has a problem, and they request the soldier to be transferred to the warrior transition unit," said Col. Casper P. Jones III.<br /><br />Dozier said: "That sounds great, but we know in this situation, for several months, it didn't happen."<br /><br />"It didn't happen," Jones said. "I think there are lessons from this case that can help us all as we move forward."CBS News has learned that top Pentagon officials have made visits to bases across the country. They're telling Army commanders to take their doctors' diagnoses more seriously, and get the troops treatment.<br /><br />Norrell hopes that by speaking out, other troops won't have to fight so hard to get the help they need.<br /><br />"Hopefully what happened to me won't happen to any more soldiers," he said.<br /><br />Link: <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/04/17/eveningnews/main4025681.shtml">http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/04/17/eveningnews/main4025681.shtml</a>Military Spouses for Changehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08817390732646302135noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1012255546901446091.post-82348348864319270922008-04-13T18:51:00.000-07:002008-04-13T18:57:46.640-07:00MSC Launches MilSpouse PressMILITARY SPOUSES FOR CHANGE (MSC) is proud is announce the launch of Military Spouse Press (<a href="http://www.milspousepress.com/">www.milspousepress.com</a>), a blogging site for the spouses and partners of service members and veterans.<br /><br />Mil Spouse Press seeks to:<br />1. Empower military spouses by encouraging personal and political expression;<br />2. Create a space for an honest and open dialogue about the military experience;<br />3. Promote awareness about the needs of our military and veteran communities; and,<br />4. Inspire advocacy on behalf of our servicemembers, our veterans, our families, and our spouses.<br /><br />The insight and importance of the military spouse community cannot be over-stated. Our experiences with the military and our familiarity with military policies are second only to the servicemembers, yet we were are not similarly limited when it comes to expressing our concerns to the military, the public, and elected officials. Moreover, we have the unique distinction of bridging the gulf between the civilian community and the military community. As a result, we are not only best equipped to be our own advocates, we are best equipped to be our troops' advocates. <br /><br />In times of war, the servicemember is not the only veteran in a military marriage: our battles may differ but our war is the same. No married servicemember serves his (or her) country alone. A military spouse may not wear her (or his) servicemember's rank, but we do share his (or her) burden--with tremendous pride. Military spouses are, above all, patriots. Although we may sometimes disagree on the means, we all agree on the ends: protecting our troops, our families, and our country. Until this is fully recognized, military spouses will remain an untapped resource for strengthening our military. The creation of Mil Spouse Press is the first of many steps MSC is taking towards tapping into that resource. <br /><br />We would like to encourage you to share our site, <a href="http://www.milspousepress.com/">www.milspousepress.com</a>, with others. Participation in the site is not limited to military spouses, although our primary bloggers and our Editorial Contributors will all be military spouses.<br /><br />If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Carissa Picard, President of Military Spouses for Change at <a href="mailto:csp@militaryspousesforchange.com">csp@militaryspousesforchange.com</a>. <br /><br /><br /><div align="center">"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." Margaret Mead. </div>Military Spouses for Changehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08817390732646302135noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1012255546901446091.post-38502151374749870142008-03-14T12:08:00.000-07:002008-04-30T20:29:49.556-07:00Soldier Memorial Event CancelledBecause of politics. We had a member who wanted to politicize the event. She wanted this to be an anti-war memorial.<br /><br />I will come out of the closet today. I do not believe that we should be in Iraq. I don't know what the solution is; I don't know that we should pull out quickly but I don't think staying there indefinitely is the answer either. I don't agree with out current policy. Personally, that is my position on Iraq. HOWEVER, as the President of MSC, I will not have MSC, as a whole, take a position on the war in Iraq.<br /><br />I wanted this memorial to raise awareness about the fact that we ARE still at war and that this war is costing human lives. Period. A recent poll found that only 28 percent of Americans knew that nearly 4,000 service members have died in Iraq in the past five years. Most thought it was 3,000 or less.<br /><br />I met with the council at the Trinity Lutheran Church yesterday about using their lawn for our memorial. I assured them that this was not an anti-war event. They were extremely supportive and they wanted to reach out to the chaplains on Fort Hood and to other churches in the area. They also encouraged me to get as much media as possible to cover the event.<br /><br />The member who wanted to have this event and who secured the 600 crosses now refuses to participate in the memorial. She believes that the church is going to put a "positive spin" on the deaths of 600 soldiers and the 600 crosses. I disagree.<br /><br />Nonetheless, I do not have the crosses and so the event is cancelled.<br /><br />So much for raising awareness about the human cost of war and honoring our fallen soldiers.<br /><br />Perhaps we can arrange something for Memorial Day weekend... we will keep you posted...Military Spouses for Changehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08817390732646302135noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1012255546901446091.post-42162816221166132012008-03-12T11:16:00.000-07:002008-03-12T11:20:01.946-07:00Bearing Witness to Our Fallen (Fort Hood, Texas)<strong>As the five year anniversary of the invasion of Iraq approaches, Military Spouses for Change (MSC) is inviting you to join us as we remember our fallen soldiers on Sunday, March 16th. </strong><br /><br />Fort Hood has lost the most soldiers in the nation to the war in Iraq. While the DoD considers the number to be 432, an <a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7550621">NPR article</a> about Fort Hood's Gold Star Families (written nearly a year ago) had that number at more than 600 (that would give us an average of two deaths per week). We suspect the DoD figure may only cover fatalities from hostile fire and not suicides, friendly fire, and/or deaths NOT immediately following their injuries.<br /><br />MSC is going to be place a cross in the grass next to the Trinity Lutheran Church in Copperas Cove, Texas, for every soldier we believe has been lost to us here at Fort Hood. That means we are going to place 600 crosses in the grass so every person who drives by can see that the cost of war (any war) is best understood in human terms because it is being paid for with human lives--those of the soldiers and those of their families.<br /><br /><strong>We would also like to remind those who pass by that there is nothing routine about the war in Iraq, nothing routine about any war. </strong>There is nothing routine about Katherine Cathey's last night with her husband:<br /><img title="Katherine Cathey" alt="Katherine Cathey" src="http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h26/mydragonflies/KatherineCathey.jpg" />.<br /><br /><br />We are nearly seven years into two wars with two countries and for the first time in American history we have had tax cuts instead of tax increases. As family members, we are told that the DoD doesn't have the funds to provide our servicemembers and our families with the medical and mental health professionals they need to cope the the physical and emotional hardships and traumas of these conflicts. Are we a nation at war or a military at war?<br /><br />MSC is inviting members of the public as well as members of the military to read names off our list of Fort Hood fatalities. We currently have a list of 432 (from the DoD). We are going to look for additional names here at Fort Hood.<br /><br />If you or anyone you know would be interested in helping put up crosses (we will start placing the crosses on the grass at 11 am), reading the names (we will start the roll call at 1 or 2 pm), speaking at the event, or otherwise helping with the event, please contact Cynthia Thomas at 254.768.8300.<br /><br />Please pass this information on to anyone you think would like to participate. AND PLEASE CONTACT US IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO BE APART OF READING A SOLDIER'S NAME.<br /><br />Thank you.<br /><br />Carissa Picard<br />President<br />Military Spouses for Change<br />www.militaryspousesforchange.com<br />Involve. Inform. Inspire.<br /><br />csp@militaryspousesforchange.comMilitary Spouses for Changehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08817390732646302135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1012255546901446091.post-89685488874587675852008-02-03T20:46:00.001-08:002008-02-03T20:48:44.153-08:00Penalizing PTSDWe have just successfully intervened on behalf of another soldier at Fort Hood, TX. He joined the Army when he was 19 and was trained as a medic. He served a year in Iraq as a combat medic and returned with PTSD. Prior to his return, he was a good, reliable soldier. He was promoted to the rank of E-4 and was the personal medic to a major while in Iraq. He was also exposed to numerous explosions and suffered several concussions while in Iraq. <br /> <br />Private X is a soft-spoken and unimposing young man. Since returning from Iraq, he was diagnosed with PTSD and put on Celexa and Seroquel to help him with his depression and anxiety. His Army psychiatrist told his chain of command not to send him to the national training center, but they ordered him to go anyway. He felt ridiculed and ostracized for seeking help, resorting to alcohol and marijuana as "treatment", ultimately failing a urinalysis test. He also went AWOL for 20 days (to drive home to see his mother). He was stripped of his rank, had to forfeit more than half of his pay, and given a seven day duty schedule.<br /><br />Although he was diagnosed with PTSD by the military doctors, his chain of command decided to initiate a chapter 14(a)(c) discharge (general) for his post-deployment misconduct. They told him that his recent misconduct undid any right he had to care for his PTSD. MSC intervened to stop the chapter and to have this soldier placed in the Warrior Transition Unit for evaluation and treatment instead--which should had happened in JULY when he was hospitalized for suicidal ideation. If his chain of command had acted appropriately last summer, this soldier would not have had to self-medicate and his misconduct would most likely not have occurred. <br /><br />Additionally, we believe he may have an undiagnosed and untreated TBI. In the time that I spent with him, I noticed mental confusion and memory loss pertaining to conversations that we had, which is not consistent, I suspect, with the cognitive abilities of a medic. His unit says he was screened for a TBI, but he asserts that he was not.<br /><br />MSC was able to stop the discharge and have Private X placed in the Warrior Transition Unit. He has been told he is going to be given a medical discharge now instead. Pending the medical discharge, he will be receiving comprehensive treatment for his PTSD. <br /><br />The problem with existing DoD regulations is that the commanders are not required to follow the recommendations of the doctors who are evaluating and/or treating our returning wounded warriors. MSC is going to be approaching members of Congress to change that.Military Spouses for Changehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08817390732646302135noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1012255546901446091.post-72683216780563420212008-01-07T10:51:00.000-08:002008-01-07T17:44:22.601-08:00The Politics of WarOn January 3, 2008, military blogger Major Andrew Olmsted <a href="http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/jan/04/rocky-blogger-andrew-olmsted-killed-iraq/">was killed</a> in Iraq. Andrew wrote <a href="http://andrewolmsted.com/archives/2008/01/final_post.html">a blog</a> to be published in the event of his death. While Americans were <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSN0460764020080105">losing interest</a> in Iraq, Andrew was trying to find the right words to express the peace he had made with the possibility of his death there. Like <a href="http://www.vetvoice.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=338">many who have written</a> about Andrew Olmsted’s remarkable final words, I did not have the honor of knowing Andrew personally but wish now that I had.<br />Andrew’s blog is replete with self-deprecating humor, which I immediately find endearing. Andrew is also very clear about his reason for being in Iraq--which transcends the politics of war:<br /><br /><blockquote><p>“Soldiers cannot have the option of opting out of missions because they don't agree with them: that violates the social contract. The duly-elected American government decided to go to war in Iraq. (Even if you maintain President Bush was not properly elected, Congress voted for war as well.) . . . Whether or not this mission was a good one, my participation in it was an affirmation of something I consider quite necessary to society. So if nothing else, I gave my life for a pretty important principle; I can (if<br />you'll pardon the pun) live with that.”</p></blockquote><p>At the same time, he writes that he hopes his death can be a reminder to others about the true costs of war—the costs that Americans, academics, and politicians tend to overlook when calculating the pros and cons of military engagements. The trouble, of course, is that there are no figures for these costs, no meaningful measurements. I believe that numbers alone are insufficient. The value of a human life, and the value of Andrew’s life, cannot be properly expressed by a number, any number. </p><p>At the end of his blog, Andrew worries about the suffering his wife will endure and wishes he had been a better husband. It is official. I adore Major Andrew Olmsted. A man I never met and never will. Which brings me to another soldier I posthumously adore: Specialist Justin Rollins. </p><p>Justin was part of the 82nd Airborne Division when his team <a href="http://www.armytimes.com/news/2007/05/ap_puppy_love_070512w/">found a litter</a> of motherless puppies. They rescued the puppies and brought them back to their camp. Justin had his picture taken that night holding one of the puppies--a glimpse of the human heart beating beneath all that army-issued gear.<br /><br />The following day, Justin was killed by a roadside bomb.<br /><br /><strong>My husband asks me why I do things like this: cut Justin’s photo out of the paper and put it on our refrigerator, print out Andrew’s final blog. I do it because I have to. I do it because I don’t want to reduce a human life to a single digit. I do it because it isn’t about what we are losing when a solider dies, it is about who we have lost.<br /><br />I just wish every other American was doing it too. If they were, maybe Iraq would still be the number one issue on voters’ minds in November and I would have less people to adore after they have died. </strong></p><blockquote>"<em>War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.</em>"<br /></blockquote><p> John Stuart Mill<br /></p><blockquote> </blockquote>Military Spouses for Changehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08817390732646302135noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1012255546901446091.post-83213314156743609942007-12-29T20:46:00.000-08:002007-12-29T20:48:50.005-08:00Why Pakistan Matters as Much as Iraq (or More)<strong>Why Pakistan Matters</strong><br /><br />You may have heard recently that the former Prime Minister of Pakistan, Benazir Bhutto, was assassinated on December 27th in Pakistan after eight years of self-imposed exile from the country. Bhutto’s assassination has garnered a lot of media coverage and stimulated a great deal of international discussion. You may be wondering why.<br /><br /><strong>What you need to know about Pakistan:</strong><br /><br />1. Pakistan borders Afghanistan.<br /><br />2. Pakistan is home to known Islamic extremists, including members of the Taliban and al-Qaeda. It is even believed that Osama bin Laden is living somewhere among these self-ruling tribal areas.<br /><br />3. Pakistan is estimated to have anywhere from 24 to 48 nuclear warheads but claims to have 80 to 120.<br /><br />4. There is a great deal of social and political unrest in Pakistan. Despite international condemnation, President Musharraf imposed emergency law from Nov. 3 to Dec. 15, 2007, and postponed national elections. 2007 in Pakistan has been a year of riots, protests, and violence.<br /><br />5. The U.S. was relying on Bhutto’s return to Pakistan (as she was in self-imposed exile for eight years) and the projected success of her party (and her) in the upcoming election to help stabilize Pakistan.<br /><br />6. Although he chose to be an “ally” to the U.S. after 9/11, he has been greatly criticized for not removing the terrorist groups operating in Pakistan.<br /><br />7. Pakistan is one of four countries in the world that did not sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.<br /><br />8. Pakistan and India have a relationship similar to the Soviet-US Cold War era relationship, except their hatred is more deep-seated, long-standing, and contentious. In fact, since their independence from Great Britian in 1947, they have fought three separate wars against each other. <br /><br />9. India is believed to have 30 to 35 nuclear warheads (and is one of the other countries that refused to sign the Non-Proliferation Treaty).<br /><br />10. Our concerns, as a nation, are two-fold. First, we want to prevent the nuclear warheads in Pakistan from falling into the hands of terrorists, such as al-Qaeda. Second, we want to avoid the use of nuclear weapons between India and Pakistan, which could quickly escalate into a global nuclear disaster.<br /><br />Source: <a href="http://militaryspousesforchange.googlepages.com/2008electionissues">http://militaryspousesforchange.googlepages.com/2008electionissues</a><br /><br />If you go to the page, there are links for almost every point above. You can learn a great deal about this issue. If there is an uprising against Musharraf, we do not have the manpower to protect the regime or the weapons. This is a very, very scary development.<br /><br />This is going to be an electoral issue for the Military.com 2008 Election Center as well.Military Spouses for Changehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08817390732646302135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1012255546901446091.post-85393323045072960932007-12-27T03:21:00.000-08:002008-12-08T15:34:37.492-08:00This “War” on Terror Doesn’t Feel Very Global…<blockquote>“Hope the members of Congress enjoy their holiday break. I intend to enjoy mine.” </blockquote><p>So said the President during his <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/20/AR2007122001102.html">“year-end” press conference</a> on the 20th of December.<br /><br />Well, that is what I <em>read</em> he said. I was not able to actually watch the press conference, so I read the transcript.<br /><br />And then I read it again.<br /><br />President Bush spoke of our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan briefly, saying that “[t]hese brave men and women are risking their lives to protect us and they deserve the full support of the U.S. government.”<br /><br />He followed that with two other statements expressing that he was grateful and/or “glad” that Congress funded OIF/OEF (without artificial timetables for withdrawals). Apparently, everything the President had to say about our troops at the end of 2007 could be said in 3 very short and—technically—redundant sentences. </p><p>Then the President proceeded to go into his priorities for 2008: “not raising taxes.” In fact, he talked about not raising taxes nine times, using the word “tax” (or some variation thereof) 29 times. </p><blockquote>“You know, the argument that you've got to raise taxes make sure your children<br />don't pay debt only works if the government doesn't follow suit and spend<br />that money you raise on new programs. My view is that, given more money the<br />government will find new ways to spend it…”</blockquote><p><span style="font-size:0;"></span>With all due respect, Mr. President, that’s the idea behind taxation: the government spends the money it collects from the citizens for their collective benefit.<br /><br />For example, we could use those tax dollars to fund our troops in theater, to care for our wounded warriors, or to recruit and train new troops for future needs. These are not unreasonable expenditures by our government, especially if Americans want to continue to rely upon an all volunteer force for our military, defense, and natural disaster needs. Essentially, what appears to be “taking care” of a small segment of Americans in the short term is really taking care of <em>all</em> Americans in the long term.<br /><br />Yet, these are the first wars our country has entered into and maintained <a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0116/p01s01-usfp.html">without raising taxes</a>. Instead, we have accumulated <a href="http://www.thenation.com/blogs/thebeat/?pid=237751">several hundred billion dollars of debt</a> and we shown no interest in cutting up the nation’s ‘credit card’ anytime soon... probably because that would mean we would have to resort to raising taxes. Raising taxes would require a little sacrifice by most Americans, instead of the current situation, which is defined by the tremendous sacrifice of a few Americans.<br /><br />Meanwhile, the Department of Defense <a href="http://www.ha.osd.mil/dhb/mhtf/MHTF-Report-Final.pdf">freely admits</a> the need for a significant increase in mental health care providers for service members and wounded warriors. Physicians for Social Responsibility estimate the <a href="http://murray.senate.gov/iraq/iraq-report.pdf">cost of care</a> for our wounded warriors from OEF/OIF will equal or surpass the cost of the wars themselves. And as long as we embrace the VA system, we will need to improve and expand our VA health care facilities to accommodate the <a href="http://ksgnotes1.harvard.edu/Research/wpaper.nsf/rwp/RWP07-001/$File/rwp_07_001_bilmes.pdf">700,000 OEF/OIF veterans expected</a> to seek care at them.<br /><br />Nonetheless, at the year-end press conference, President Bush said he hoped that Congress would enjoy their holiday break as he planned to enjoy his (before returning to the business of ensuring that no taxes were raised, although those taxes could fund essential programs to care for our troops; troops who evidently did not warrant a call to action on the part of the American public for whom they have sacrificed their families, their holidays, their safety, and in some cases, their sanity and/or their lives).<br /><br />In fact, of the 4,351 fatalities to date, <a href="http://www.militarycity.com/valor/honor.html">320 died</a> during a December month. For every fatality, there are <a href="http://murray.senate.gov/iraq/iraq-report.pdf">8</a> to <a href="http://ksgnotes1.harvard.edu/Research/wpaper.nsf/rwp/RWP07-001/$File/rwp_07_001_bilmes.pdf">16</a> wounded (the latter figure encompasses mental and physical injuries that develop or occur in the combat theater but were not necessarily the direct result of “hostile” action). This means that, on average, two service members a day are killed and anywhere from 16 to 32 service members are physically and/or psychologically injured.<br /><br />Personally, my holiday thoughts and prayers are with our service men and women. I don’t just want them to “enjoy” the holidays in Iraq and Afghanistan, I want them to <em>survive</em> the holidays.<br /><br />Statistically speaking, however, not all of them will. And while I understand the political reasons that elected officials (from both partied) have for wanting to "spare" civilians (i.e. 95% of Americans) from the "burdens" of war, I neither agree with nor respect doing it:<br /><br /><strong>Supporting our troops is <em>not</em> just something you say, <em>it is something you DO</em>. </strong></p><blockquote></blockquote><p><br /></p><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_2H6uM-y01gk/R3ORp5QCkmI/AAAAAAAAABY/105gYe2D-7s/s1600-h/heros.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5148618947943371362" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_2H6uM-y01gk/R3ORp5QCkmI/AAAAAAAAABY/105gYe2D-7s/s320/heros.jpg" border="0" /></a>Military Spouses for Changehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08817390732646302135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1012255546901446091.post-76058265824340346402007-12-26T22:58:00.000-08:002007-12-26T23:26:56.175-08:00Mission. Soldier. FAMILY. Team.<strong><a href="http://www.military.com/opinion/0,15202,158187,00.html">Mission. Soldier. Family. Team.</a></strong><br /><br /><em>Carissa Picard | December 13, 2007</em><br /><br />"Mission. Soldier. Family. Team." <br /><br />This is the motto of the 4th Infantry Division at Fort Hood, Texas. In four words, 4th ID has identified the essential elements upon which the strength and stability of the Division is based. The soldier, the family, the unit, and the mission are all interconnected and interdependent. What impacts one, impacts the other. Now the Army needs to recognize this as well.<br /><br />The Army's problems with recruitment and retention are very much a reflection of its failure to truly appreciate this interdependence. When it comes to decreased morale and retention, our prolonged presence in Iraq has become the scapegoat, masking a larger problem within the military: a reluctance to value the family as much as the service member does and a resistance to allocate funds accordingly.<br /><br />No matter how high the bonuses are many soldiers, particularly those with families, believe that the benefits fail to outweigh the hardships of service. Too much has been asked of too few for too long--families and soldiers alike.<br /><br />Of course, reducing combat tours from 15 to 12 months would certainly help soldiers and military families, but it is important to understand that it is not combat tours alone that are keeping soldiers from staying in the Army. It is the lack of support for the soldier and his/her family before, during, and after those tours. <br /><br />Whether a soldier is deployed for 9 months, 12 months, or 15 months, the fact remains that while he (or she) is gone, the spouse has few resources to compensate for the long-term absence of the second parent under conditions of high stress and isolation. During deployments the incidents of child abuse and neglect, alcohol and drug use, and post-partum depression all increase. Meanwhile, the divorce rate for Army officers nearly tripled and for its enlisted soldiers nearly doubled (between 2001 and 2005). Even without deployments, frequent moves disrupt career aspirations, educational goals, and community ties for families. <br /><br />Understandably, the Director of Defense Capabilities and Management testified before the Senate (in 2002): "a significant body of research by the military services shows that family satisfaction with military life can significantly influence a service members decision to stay in the military or leave." More recently, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Pace testified that family satisfaction and support played a key role in soldier morale and retention. In light of this, one would expect the Army to expand family benefits and support services much more significantly than it has to date.<br /><br />For example, the Army could increase the number of daycare providers (especially for evening and weekend hours), expand non-cosmetic dental and vision benefits, provide on post front lawn care for the families of deployed soldiers, allow educational benefits to be transferable to the spouse or child, force Tricare to provide Prime coverage to active duty families who move home during deployments, and/or relocate families to places where they will have support during a deployment that is twelve months or longer. <br /><br />Of course, while I write this, officials have announced they want to increase the permanent Army by 20,000 to 30,000 troops. (Although the White House initially wanted to increase the number of troops by 65,000.)<br /><br />You have to admire their moxie. In 2005, the Army failed to meet its annual recruiting goal by eight percent. Despite recruitment bonuses as high as $40,000, the Army again failed to meet its recruiting goals in May and June (usually its best recruiting months) of 2007. The propensity to serve is in the military is its lowest in 20 years, desertion is its highest in 20 years, and junior officers and NCOs are running (not walking) from Uncle Sam.<br /><br />To meet their post-9/11 recruiting goals they have already increased the maximum enlisting age, granted "moral" waivers for criminal convictions (12% were granted this year), lowered educational standards, and offered bonuses up to $40,000. <br /><br />Benjamin Franklin said the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. If the Army wants to accomplish its mission of recruiting and retaining troops, it needs to take care of its soldiers. To take care of its soldiers, it needs to take care of its soldiers' families. That means higher salaries and improved benefits and family support services. Period. <br /><br />To preserve manpower and protect the integrity of the overall force, the Army needs to recognize that an investment in the family IS an investment in the soldier. <br /><br />Taking care of military families isn't just a moral imperative - it is a troop multiplier.<br /><br />Copyright 2007 Carissa Picard. All opinions expressed in this article are the author's and do not necessarily reflect those of Military.com.<br /><br />Source: http://www.military.com/opinion/0,15202,158187,00.html <br /><br /><em>If you go to the actual op-ed at military.com, there are eight hyper-links in the text that take you to the sources used to write this piece.</em>Military Spouses for Changehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08817390732646302135noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1012255546901446091.post-38109259887655246202007-12-03T19:03:00.000-08:002007-12-04T00:18:43.364-08:00Blaming the VictimIn 2006, Congress ordered the Secretary of Defense to assess the mental health needs of the Armed Forces and the ability of the DoD to meet those needs. As a result, the DoD created a <a href="http://www.ha.osd.mil/dhb/mhtf/MHTF-Report-Final.pdf">"Mental Health Task Force"</a> which concluded:<br /><br /><blockquote>the system of care for the psychological health that has evolved over recent decades is insufficient to meet the needs of today's armed forces and their beneficiaries, and will not be sufficient to meet their needs in the future.</blockquote><br /><br />The unmet mental healthcare needs of the men and women we send to wage war in other countries are causing them to wage their own wars, within themselves and with others, in this one. <br /><br />For example, 1st Lt. Whiteside faces <a href="http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2004047625_reed02.html">criminal prosecution</a> for trying to kill herself while serving in Iraq. Granted, when she had her psychological breakdown, she waved a gun around at her fellow soldiers to keep them away so she could successfully shoot HERSELF (TWICE) in the stomach. She did not, however, actually harm anyone else. <br /><br /><a href="http://www.differentdrummercafe.org/suicide2.html">Research by CBS news</a> revealed that <strong>an average of 120 veterans committed suicide every week in 2005.</strong> SEVENTEEN VETERANS COMMITTED SUICIDE EVERY DAY THAT YEAR. <br /><br />I wonder how many service members and veterans attempted to kill themselves the day that Lt. Whiteside tried to kill herself? I wonder how many succeeded?<br /><br /><a href="http://ptsdcombat.blogspot.com/#about">Iliona Meagher</a> has been compiling data on PTSD-related incidents around the United States since 2005 for <a href="http://timelines.epluribusmedia.net/timelines/index.php?&mjre=PTSD&table_name=tl_ptsd&function=search&order=date&order_type=DESC">ePluribusMedia</a>. PTSD that is undiagnosed, mismanaged, or untreated can, in its most extreme form, manifest itself as violence towards one's self and/or towards others. We don't keep official records of these casualties.<br /><br />Americans like to keep the ugliness of war contained so as to maintain an illusion of civility. This illusion is hard to maintain when the people we send away to fight these wars actually come back; living testaments to what our country has instructed them to do in its name.<br /><br />In short, we have evolved enough as a species to feel shame about engaging in acts of war but we haven't evolved enough to avoid these acts in the first place. When we SEE the men and women who have been broken, physically or psychologically, by combat, the <em>degree</em> to which we have failed to be civilized is hard to accept. <br /><br />In the book, "Just and Unjust Wars," the author wrote, "what we often think of as inhumanity is really just humanity under pressure." Our wounded warriors reflect the side of human nature in general, and America in particular, that Americans do not want to think about.<br /><br />So rather than take responsibility for sending these men and women to another country to do something that is really quite brutal and inhumane (if necessary), we ignore, minimize, or villify the men and women who, in a very normal fashion, were traumatized by what we told them to do or made them witness. The more our institutions make their problems about THEM, the less uncivilized and inhumane and unreasonable WE are. <br /><br />Hence the appeal of the refrain, "he volunteered to join the Army." Which is kind of like saying that a woman asked to be ganged raped because she went to a guy's apartment after a movie. Maybe she did go to his apartment thinking about maybe having sex with her date, that doesn't mean that she wanted five of his friends to have sex with her too. She TRUSTED her date to keep the evening between the two of them only. <br /><br />Well, a service member likewise joins with the very honorable intention of protecting our country and defending our constitution. There is TRUST that you will not be EXPLOITED or ABUSED when you join.<br /><br />Perhaps you should be thinking that for these men and women, their trust has been violated, and if you feel betrayed, imagine how they (and their families) feel after five years and multiple deployments?<br /><br />My point is this: <strong> our discomfort with our wounded warriors makes us even less civilized, not more. The very people whose wounds make us feel the least amount of pride individually are giving us an opportunity to do something to feel the most pride collectively. By tending to the wounds of those who remind us of our inhumanity, we become more humane.</strong> That means we have to do more than just bring our troops home, we have to take care of them when they are here. <br /><br />Pretending we don't see them, or trying not to think about them, does not make them go away; it just makes it easier not to care.Military Spouses for Changehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08817390732646302135noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1012255546901446091.post-67566994936003491932007-12-01T18:32:00.000-08:002007-12-01T18:49:24.998-08:00Personality Disorder Discharges at Christmas<strong>ONE FAMILY'S STORY<br /><br />Military Spouses for Change (MSC) has successfully fought for one of our soldiers. Nancy is a member of MSC. Her husband, David, has been in the Army for 10 years. He has served a year in Kosovo and two combat tours in Iraq. Unfortunately, he is suffering from PTSD.<br /><br />Wednesday morning, November 28 2007, David received a packet by his Platoon Sargeant. He was given a "Personality Disorder" discharge (AR 635-200 Chapter 5 Paragraph 5-13) and was ordered to clear his unit and be off post BY DECEMBER 7.<br /><br />For TEN YEARS OF SERVICE, with no misconduct, David was being kicked out of the Army in TEN DAYS.<br /><br />According to the Inspector General, the only recourse for David was getting the Colonel who signed these discharge papers to change his mind.<br /><br />Nancy contacted us. </strong>David was supporting his wife and four children as an enlisted soldier in the Army. Christmas is just weeks away.<br /><br />MSC's leadership immediately began reaching out to our partners, other advocacy and veteran organizations, to get help for David, seeking advice and/or contacts. (The larger we become as an organization, the more organizations we can work with and the more resources we will have access to. That is why telling others about us and joining as an actual member of MSC through our website is so important!) We also have board members who were able to work with David based upon their expertise with the military review board process. We spent two days and nights, nearly around the clock, rattling cages.<br /><br />By Friday afternoon, November 30th, one Congressperson and two Generals had contacted Darnall Army Medical Center as well as David's chain of command, demanding to know why he had been discharged instead of transfered to the Warrior Transition Unit for evaluation and, if necessary, treatment for PTSD.<br /><br />By the morning of Saturday, December 1st, David signed into his new unit, the Warrior Transition Unit. These Generals are good men and great leaders. The speed in which they corrected this situation is a testament to their awareness of the seriousness of the situation and their sensitivity to the anxiety of David's family.<br /><br />What David experienced was a failure of leadership within his personal chain of command. His Chain of Command should have taken steps to proactively evaluate him for his COMBAT-RELATED INJURIES, which PTSD is. Even IF David had a personality disorder, what leader (whose job is to inspire trust and confidence in his/her troops) gives a soldier (with a family no less) ten days to get out during the month of Christmas? Service members committing crimes get more time than that to transition out of the military. This was just egregious to the extreme. <br /><br /><strong>There is another soldier at Fort Lewis, Washington, who is facing the possibility of a personality disorder discharge. MSC has not been in contact with him personally, but according to Joshua Kors, Spc. Lengeman has been in the Army for ten years, served a combat tour in Iraq, is struggling with PTSD, and has recently learned that he has been diagnosed with a personality disorder instead of PTSD. Please contact us ASAP if you think you can help.</strong><br /><br /><strong>THE BIGGER PICTURE</strong><br /><br />Unfortunately, one's experience with the military is very much defined by one's unit. A good unit can make the experience as good as you could imagine and a bad unit can nearly ruin your life. The lack of consistency between units due to this human variable means we have to have some level of protection for our servicemembers, some default upon which they can rely when the leadership within their particular chain of command fails them. In this case, there should be some regulation in place providing for steps that must be taken when a personality disorder is being alleged and a service member has returned from a combat tour. <br /><br />Between 2001 and 2006, 22,000 service members have been discharged under this "personality disorder" diagnosis (http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070409/kors). Most of them AFTER serving in a combat zone and seeking mental health care. Rather than diagnosing these service members with PTSD, some units are declaring that these service members had a PRE-EXISTING mental health condition and therefore the military is not responsible for their mental health care. They are given a general discharge and, in most cases, billed for any bonuses they may have received for enlisting or re-enlisting.<br /><br />In July, both the House (HR3167) and the Senate (S1817) introduced bills that would temporarily stop these personality disorder discharges until the DoD could establish some mechanism for reviewing these cases and ensuring that it is not being abused by the military. Both Houses referred these bills to their respective committees and nothing has happened since.<br /><br />Sen. Kit Bond is asking the President to set up a Special Panel to review the 22,000 cases who have already been kicked out for personality disorders. (http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/washington/story/1FB9AF3F22D30D72862573A300150578?Opendocument). ·<br /><br />We are sharing this with you because we hope you will share it with others. Many wonder why we created MSC and what MSC does. MSC is an organization comprised primarily of men and women inside the military community and/institutions. Our goal is to educate, empower, and help one another in a way that is sensitive to the position that we are in as members of the military community. We are committed to maintaining a strong military but we believe that requires taking care of our service members and their families. <strong> When you compromise the integrity of your human force, you compromise the integrity of your total force. <br /><br />Our troops need to be able to perform their duties knowing that they will be taken care if something were to happen to them. They cannot fight these battles as well. ANd they shouldn't have to.<br /><br />Last week it was Nancy's husband. Whose spouse will it be next week?<br /><br />Become informed.<br /><br />Become involved.<br /><br />Become inspired!<br /><br />Become a <a href="http://www.militaryspousesforchange.com/Join_Us_.html">Military Spouse for Change</a>. (Or join as a friend of MSC!)</strong><br />--------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /><br /><br /><em>MSC would like to give special thanks to U.S. Representative Tom Davis and Marcie Roth and the <a href="http://www.spinalcord.org">National Spinal Cord Injury Association</a>. We also received great information from Amy Fairweather of San Francisco's <a href="http://www.swords-to-plowshares.org">Swords to Plowshares</a>, Paul Sullivan at <a href="http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org">Veterans for Common Sense</a>, and Andrew Pagony at <a href="http://www.veteransforamerica.org">Veterans for America</a>.</em><br /><br /><br /><center><a href="http://www.militaryspousesforchange.com"><img src="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff117/militaryspousesforchange/nothreat.png"></a></center>Military Spouses for Changehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08817390732646302135noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1012255546901446091.post-73080965764533250742007-11-28T09:46:00.000-08:002007-11-28T09:52:26.608-08:00When Does A War Really End?<object height="355" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/a3BLamV7-KU&rel=1"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/a3BLamV7-KU&rel=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />This forum is NOT about being for the war in Iraq or against the war in Iraq. This is about the fact that there IS a war in Iraq (as well as Afghanistan) and there are CONSEQUENCES to that war--consequences for our service members, for their families, for our country. We believe the candidates should have to talk about how they plan to identify and deal with these consequences.<br /><br />How do we help our military and veteran families receive the help they need emotionally, medically, and/or financially? What are our obligations and responsibilities to them as a nation once they have fulfilled their obligations and responsibilities to us?<br /><br />What can and/or should we be doing to help our returning warriors successfully reintegrate into peacetime society?<br /><br />These issues need to be a part of the national discourse about the war in Iraq because the war in Iraq does not end when a service member comes home.<br /><br />We would like voters all over America to be mindful when selecting their nominee for President that his or her choice will have a significant impact on the lives and well-being of millions of service members, veterans, wounded warriors, and military families, including children.<br /><br />This Forum can help all of us, military, veteran, and civilian alike, make the most informed choice.<br /><br />You can learn more at: http://militaryspousesforchange.googlepages.com/bipartisandebate<br /><br />Or contact me at csp@militaryspousesforchange.comMilitary Spouses for Changehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08817390732646302135noreply@blogger.com0