The truly tragic side of this terrible illness is that, with proper help, it could be manageable. But the government doesn’t always care for these soldiers, and often, sadly, the soldiers themselves refuse to seek treatment for fear of appearing “weak”.

Enter Pets2Vets.

Dave Sharpe served in the U.S. Air Force. Returning home, he had trouble adjusting to civilian life and felt that he had no one to turn to – no one to share his experiences in Iraq with. This took his toll on him. Before he knew it, he had started displaying violent tendencies. He would wake up in the middle of the night and punch holes in walls or kick down the refrigerator.

A friend took him to an animal shelter and Dave took home a pit bull puppy named Cheyenne. When he next lost his temper and began his violent rampage, he looked over at the young dog staring at him trustingly and broke down.

“I froze, I put down my drink, I picked her up and laid with her in my bed,” he [Sharpe] said. “I cried and I told her the whole story. I didn’t feel judged.” (source)

Given the extraordinary love and support that Cheyenne gave him, Sharpe was inspired to reach out to his fellow vets. He started the organization Pets2Vets. Pets2Vets has the goal to raise awareness of PTSD and to arrange dog adoptions for veterans suffering form the disorder. With these new pets, the veterans have something outside themselves to focus on – a dependent that won’t judge them and will listen to every word said to them.

While family certainly is an important part of the healing process, so often the responsibilities of family can put pressure on the PTSD sufferer – even if that pressure is only imagined. The dogs provide that comfort needed without any strings attached. Just total  love and admiration.

Pets2Vets is still a fledgling operation, but David Sharpe has already seen results. He has hopes to continue to expand across the DC area and soon across the whole country. He also hopes to expand to encompass, not only war veterans, but police, firemen, rescue personnel, and any others who may have emotional trauma.

If you know anyone who may benefit from this organization, or just want more information about it, head over to the Pets2Vets website.

I found this article giving a few points about how badly cared for are veterans are, and in some cases, the deadliness of that poor care. It was originally posted on Veterans’ Day, but I thought that some of it was worth repeating.

These figures aren’t exactly pretty. The United States government should be ashamed of itself in that it lets these men and women suffer, and in many cases die, without proper post-war treatment.

A research team at Harvard Medical School estimates 2,266 U.S. military veterans under the age of 65 died last year because they lacked health insurance and thus had reduced access to care. That figure is more than 14 times the number of deaths (155) suffered by U.S. troops in Afghanistan in 2008, and more than twice as many as have died (911 as of Oct. 31) since the war began in 2001.

The researchers, who released their analysis today [Tuesday], pointedly say the health reform legislation pending in the House and Senate will not significantly affect this grim picture.

The Harvard group analyzed data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s March 2009 Current Population Survey, which surveyed Americans about their insurance coverage and veteran status, and found that 1,461,615 veterans between the ages of 18 and 64 were uninsured in 2008. Veterans were only classified as uninsured if they neither had health insurance nor received ongoing care at Veterans Health Administration (VA) hospitals or clinics.

Using their recently published findings in the American Journal of Public Health that show being uninsured raises an individual’s odds of dying by 40 percent (causing 44,798 deaths in the United States annually among those aged 17 to 64), they arrived at their estimate of 2,266 preventable deaths of non-elderly veterans in 2008.

…While many Americans believe that all veterans can get care from the VA, even combat veterans may not be able to obtain VA care, Woolhandler said. As a rule, VA facilities provide care for any veteran who is disabled by a condition connected to his or her military service and care for specific medical conditions acquired during military service.

Woolhandler said veterans who pass a means test are eligible for care in VA facilities, but have lower priority status…Veterans with higher incomes are classified in the lowest priority group and are not eligible for VA enrollment. (Mother Jones)

This isn’t right. I believe the author, James Ridgeway, quoting these statistics said it all right here:

So after these men and women risk their lives in the military, we throw them on the mercy of the private system of medicine-for-profit, which is touted as a cherished part of the American way of life. It all gives a whole new meaning to dying for your country.

Before the Code Talkers, the Japanese had been having an easy time intercepting and translating the American messages. They had excellent English translators.

After the Code Talkers began their operations, not one coded message was broken.

The Code Talkers had been sworn to utter secrecy regarding their actions in the field, and even after the subject was officially declassified in 1968, they kept quiet. But now not many are left, due to age and illness, and the remaining men fear that their incredible story will be lost.

Let us not forget their vital part in World War II.

For more information about the Navajo Code Talkers, click here for an article talking about them joining in for Veteran’s Day, or here for the official website.

Bob McGowan with his medals

Bob McGowan was told he could not claim the £300 subsidy because he moved into his flat just one day too late to qualify.

Despite his age and the six years he spent fighting for his country across Europe, Asia and Africa, the Pension Service said it could not show flexibility.

Mr McGowan, of Portsmouth, has been waging a battle of principle with Whitehall ever since he was turned down for the fuel support in 2007.

He wants an apology from Gordon Brown and says if it is not forthcoming he will post his five medals to 10 Downing Street.

Mr McGowan, who won the Burma Star, the Africa Star, the War Medal 1939 to 1945, the 1939-1945 Star and the Defence Medal following 2,133 days on active duty overseas, said: ‘I think it’s disgusting.

‘It seems I’ve got to bow down over one solitary day, when I did six years overseas.

‘You’d think they would make allowances but they keep saying external factors won’t be considered under any circumstances.

‘What hurts me is I that did all that time overseas and they ignored it – they think more of one solitary day.

‘I’ll hold on to my medals if Gordon Brown will apologise, of course.

‘But if I don’t get satisfactory answers I will send them. I’d like this saga to end. It’s two years and I have had enough of it.” (DailyMail.co.uk)

It’s shocking that his local authorities are adhering so strictly to the rules. McGowan was only one day off from the deadline. It seems like harsh treatment for such a heroic man.

But with gain comes loss. Even though women are serving alongside their male peers, the old ideas and concepts of who can be a warrior still hold. These preconceptions lead both the military and civilians to treat these brave women differently than their male counterparts, despite the fact that both sexes are experiencing the same events and participating equally in the field.

The NY Times had a thoughtful article about women and their roles in the military. It also faces the ever present problem of PTSD in our soldiers, and the unique problems that arise when the condition arises in female soldiers. Overall, men and women experience PTSD almost exactly the same, but the way society treats the sufferer varies drastically between the sexes.

Perhaps it is time to put aside these archaic preconceptions and make sure that we treat our returning soldiers with respect and care – all of out soldiers, both men and women.

…In Iraq and Afghanistan, the military has quietly sidestepped regulations that bar women from jobs in ground combat. With commanders needing resources in wars without front lines, women have found themselves fighting on dusty roads and darkened outposts in ways that were never imagined by their parents or publicly authorized by Congress. And they have distinguished themselves in the field.

Psychologically, it seems, they are emerging as equals. Officials with the Department of Defense said that initial studies of male and female veterans with similar time outside the relative security of bases in Iraq showed that mental health issues arose in roughly the same proportion for members of each sex, though research continues.

“Female soldiers are actually handling and dealing with the stress of combat as well as male soldiers are,” said Col. Carl Castro, director of the Military Operational Research Program at the Department of Defense. “When I look at the data, I see nothing to counter that point.”

And yet, experts and veterans say, the circumstances of military life and the way women are received when they return home have created differences in how they cope. A man, for instance, may come home and drink to oblivion with his war buddies while a woman — often after having been the only woman in her unit — is more likely to suffer alone.

After hospitalizations in Guam and San Francisco, and several of the twenty-two surgeries he would undergo, he was discharged in September 1945. On October 5, at the age of seventeen, he received the Medal of Honor from President Harry Truman, making him the youngest recipient since the Civil War. Then, as he had promised his mother years before, he went back to school—a ninth grader wearing the Medal of Honor around his neck. He later graduated from high school and earned a college degree. His book, Indestructible, was published in 2006.(MSNBC

Wow. What a story. This was quite the man. It was incredibly lucky that the one soldier saw that he was still alive, even after suffering those extensive injuries. People like this really are an inspiration.

Is there anything more horrific than burying a loved one felled in a war?  Perhaps. Some families of those who have fought overseas have never received closure in the form of their loved ones’ remains or even a small personal memento.  In 1947, having calculated that the whereabouts of 78,750 American soldiers remained unknown after World War II, the United States Air Force dedicated the third Friday of every September as POW/MIA Recognition Day.

Over the course of the next six decades, the number of missing warriors rose.  The Korean War claimed 8,051; Viet Nam, 1,742.  The Cold War took another 165 and the Gulf War, 7.  To date, the sole American soldier missing in Iraq is Ahmed Qusai al-Taayie.  These numbers do not include personnel killed in action and never brought home.

JPAC (Joint POW-MIA Accounting) is the governmental organization charged with the daunting task of locating, identifying, and returning to their native soil the aforementioned service men and women.  Housed in Hawaii, JPAC has been headed, since 2008, by Rear Admiral Donna L. Crisp.  Colonel John M. Sullivan serves as Deputy Commander, Johnnie E. Webb as Deputy Public Relations-Legislation Affairs, Sergeant  Major Jackie D. Brown Jr. as Command Senior Enlisted Leader, and Dr. Thomas D. Holland as Scientific Deputy Director for the Central Identification Lab.  In addition to these officers are teams dedicated to search and retrieval missions, comprising archaeologists, anthropologists, linguists, and deontologists.  A quick second read of those job titles is indicative of the enormity of JPAC’s objectives.

…On the third Friday in September, the State of New Jersey honors its POW-MIA‘s with a breakfast sponsored by Assemblymen Jack Conners and Herb Conaway.  These public officials invite veterans from all over the state to join in a memorial ceremony dedicated to the men and women who never made it home from the wars.  Honored Guests at the 2008 event included WWII POW veteran Joseph O’Donnell, Mrs. Judith Young, who is a Past President of the “Gold Star Mothers,” Mrs. Anna Marko of Cherry Hill, an 84 year old widow of WWII POW Leon Marko, State Adjutant General Glenn Reith, Colonel Stephan Abel, and other veteran dignitaries.

Read the rest of the article…

It’s not uncommon for these severe injuries to cause depression in the unfortunate recipient. They often feel useless, and dislike being dependant on others for basic needs. It can be a struggle to find things to be positive about.

Among other activites, one wonderful outlet has been the Paralympics. It can help motivate people and give them something to focus on. Previously, the attendance of the Paralympics has not included many military personnel, but there is hope of changing that scenario.

The Paralympics, held since 1988 at the same site as the Olympic Games, typically feature only a few veterans. The USOC wants to increase military participation, especially given the number of disabled young Iraq and Afghanistan veterans and the advances in prosthetic and other medical technology that make sports more accessible and comfortable for those with amputations or other disabling injuries. The Paralympics grew out of a competition in England in 1948 for injured World War II veterans.

“Disability sports improve so many things,” said Mitch Carr, RIC’s fitness, sports and recreation director. “It keeps weight under control and reduces secondary conditions that develop because of a sedentary lifestyle. Then there’s the social impact and improvement in self-confidence.”

The rest of the article has the stories of men and women who have received tremndous benefits from participating in the Paralympics.

Here is the written interview. It’s a little long, but if you have the time, it really is interesting.