The folks at Care Meridian contacted me to let me know about Brain Injury Awareness Month and to offer some information. I am talking with them now to see if they have someone who can come on the Spouse and Family edition of You Served Radio and talk about brain injuries and what family members can do to recognize the symptoms and support their soldier while he is receiving treatment.
I have a few friends who are living with the consequences of TBI. They find very creative ways to deal with the problems that arise in their families — issues such as trying to get their soldier to work each day now that he can’t drive, dealing with medication issues that are coupled with memory issues, how to love and support without mothering/smothering in a marriage… and the list goes on.
The following information is from CareMeridian. I will write more and do at least one show on this topic for the Month of March.
Traumatic Brain Injuries in the Military
Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is becoming a common wound of modern warfare. It has even been coined the “signature wound” of the War on Terror. While TBI is becoming more prevalent in wartime activity, many service men and women continue to go undiagnosed. Institutions, like the US Department of Veterans Affairs, are working to make quick and accurate diagnoses in order to prescribe appropriate and effective treatment.
TBI is caused by forced trauma to the head, either by being shaken or hit. The severity of a TBI varies from case to case, but symptoms range from mild concussions to a debilitating state. The majority of TBI’s acquired by military personnel are classified as mild traumatic brain injuries (MTBI). Initial symptoms of MTBI consist of loss of consciousness, disorientation, loss of memory, headache, and temporary loss of hearing and vision. They are often partnered with anxiety, irritability, difficulties processing information, limited concentration amongst other problems experienced down the road. While MTBI is most common amongst the men and women of the armed forces, more severe cases of TBI are happening much more frequently and often require the victim to attended specialty rehabilitative nursing centers, like CareMeridian.
The most common cause of a TBI in the military is due to blasts. There are three degrees of blast injuries where a TBI is common; Primary (due to blast itself), Secondary (due to objects being propelled by a blast) and Tertiary (due to a collision with a third party object). According to the Veterans Health Initiative, active male members of the military from the ages 18-24 are hospitalized with a TBI at a rate of 231 per 100,000 and females 150 per 100,000. Based on military force projections this would mean that 4,141 military personnel are hospitalized on average each year with a TBI, and these numbers often rise during wartimes.
The best prevention for veterans to avert the long-term effects of a brain injury is to recognize the symptoms of a TBI. Once the symptoms are identified an individual should take basic precautionary measures in order to begin the healing and recovery process until a more specific diagnosis can be made.
Service men and women give so much to protect this country and they deserve to come home to a happy and healthy life. Creating awareness about TBI will help ensure their long term health. By helping our veterans, their friends and their families recognize the early warning signs of a TBI, treatment can be sought as early as possible.
There was a story in this last week’s Army Times about “Basic Training getting softer”. However that headline was just to grab attention, because if you read the actual story they talk about changing some tasks in Basic Training, part of it building on the technical knowledge that today’s soldiers come in with. Part of the changes are also in recognition that the men and women joining the Army today are not in as good of physical conditioning as in the past so they can’t push them too hard and injure the potential soldiers.
LTG Hiertling who is the Deputy Commander for Initial Military Training was at the TRADOC Conference last week, but accept for small talk at the bar or at breakfast, I never really had a chance to talk with him. However I heard he was not happy about the article, and I can understand why. It wasn’t so much about the article as it was the headline that Army Times used to grab attention.
Once a person reads the story, you can see that they are cutting some of the crew-served weapons training, but they are dedicating more time to individual weapons training, which is the weapon that soldiers are going to spend more time with than anything else. In fact they are even going to dedicate more time to Drill and Ceremony (which I think should not have been cut back when it was a few years ago). Are they taking the physical training at a more controlled rate? Yes they are, but if young recruits are not in as good of shape as normal, pushing them too hard, too fast will just cause them to be injured or even a wash-out.
Its just sad that the Army Times has to resort to spin in order to try and sell a few more papers.
We had GEN Chiarelli on You Served radio last year in the summer to talk about the suicide rate in the Army and the impact that had on the soldiers in the units, the command and the Army as a whole. The Army, under the direction of GEN Chiarelli, has been working hard to counter this and turn around the sad trend of suicide rates in the Army.
I am not sure what else they can do. I know the suicide rate is a huge concern and the Army is working everything they can, but I am not sure what the solution is. What else can they do? Any ideas from you, leave a comment.
Army Releases February Suicide Data
The Army released suicide data today for the month of February. Among active-duty soldiers, there were 14 potential suicides: one has been confirmed as suicide, and 13 remain under investigation. For January, the Army reported 12 potential suicides among active duty soldiers. Since the release of that report, two have been confirmed as suicides, and ten remain under investigation. During February, among reserve component soldiers who were not on active duty, there were five potential suicides: all five remain under investigation. For January, among that same group, there were 15 potential suicides. Of those, seven were confirmed as suicides and eight are pending determination of the manner of death. “In our continuing efforts to sharpen our current focus on suicide prevention, we are conducting a comprehensive review of existing programs Army-wide, related to health promotion, risk reduction and suicide prevention,” said Col. Chris Philbrick, director, Army Suicide Prevention Task Force. “We will use the results of this review to increase the effectiveness of our efforts.” “Because suicide affects every member of our Army family and no one is immune to depression, anxiety and stress; we are also expanding our training resources and support programs to address these issues with our Department of the Army civilians and family members,” Philbrick said.
The mere mention of the Phelps Cult (it’s not a Church… call it what it is) gets my blood boiling. If they spewed their disgusting, vile, poison in private I could ignore it, but they choose to torture families who are in a deep state of grief. It exposes the cult-followers for the cowardly liars they are, but it also exposes our military families to the cult’s disgusting display of idiocy when our military parents, spouses and children are at their lowest point — as they are saying their final good-bye to their beloved soldier.
Government should not stop the exercise of the freedom of speech this wretched cult practices — because we all know it would not stop there. That’s a slippery slope covered in banana peels I would never want to go down.
HOWEVER…
I absolutely believe that families who are caused emotional turmoil and grief over these idiots exercising their rights should be allowed to sue them in civil court for damages. Yes free speech is a right and with any right you have responsibilities. If you want to behave like a raging a–hole then you deserve to be sued like one.
Show them the same mercy in court that they have shown to our grieving families — none.
I think that’s all I had better say. This is a public blog and I am a lady. I am glad I have Aikido class tonight so I can punch the crap out of a punching bag.
Justices to hear case involving Fred Phelps’ protests at military funerals
EXCERPT By DAVID KLEPPER The Star’s Topeka correspondent
TOPEKA | The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear a case involving Fred Phelps and his Topeka congregation, whose protests at military funerals have angered families across the country.
The court said it would consider an appeal from the father of a slain Marine who hopes to reinstate a $5 million verdict against the Topeka-based Westboro Baptist Church.
Albert Snyder of York, Pa., successfully sued the church in a Maryland federal court in 2007 arguing its funeral protest was an invasion of privacy that caused his family emotional distress.
But last fall an appeals court reversed the $5 million verdict, ruling the church’s protests were protected by the First Amendment. The Supreme Court will hear Snyder’s appeal this fall.
“It’s freedom of speech to some,” said Snyder, whose son Matthew was killed in Iraq. “To me it’s not what my son fought for. They’re kicking people in the face when they’re already down on the ground. All I was trying to do was bury my son.”
From 13th Sustainment Command (Expeditionary) Public Affairs
VICTORY BASE COMPLEX, Baghdad – When a distinguished visitor comes to the Joint Visitors Bureau at Victory Base Complex, Baghdad, Soldiers from C Troop, 1st Battalion, 82nd Cavalry Regiment, 41st Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 13th Sustainment Command (Expeditionary) make sure whatever needs they have are met.
From cooking five-star meals to assisting with their accommodations, Soldiers who work at the JVB Hotel enjoy their deployment working in a palace and meeting high-ranking officials like Vice President Joe Biden, four-star generals and even some celebrities.
Sgt. Justin Moore, head cook at the JVB Hotel with C Troop and a Hood River, Ore., native, said he went to culinary school as a civilian and was a cook for almost six years before opening up his own business.
“When I first got here, I was a gunner,” he said. “When they found out about my cooking abilities they moved me over here about a month later.”
Moore said he faces some obstacles cooking the meals, such as the lack of fresh produce and trying to come up with new and innovative meal presentations.
“We are trying to come up with nice meals,” he said. “(But,) some of it depends on the types of meat we can and can’t get from the Oasis dining facility.”
Moore said he has cooked for many four-star generals and celebrities, including Vince McMahon of the World Wrestling Entertainment Corporation.
“It is interesting to see what people like and don’t like to eat,” he said.
Moore said he enjoys preparing meals on his deployment and is glad he is doing something he likes.
“What we’re doing here is putting five-star meals together in Iraq,” he said. “With a lot of cooks throughout Iraq, (they) are just putting out chow and counting heads and you can’t get the experience of how to plate properly and do different plate designs.”
He said he thinks the JVB Hotel mission helps a lot of younger Soldiers, and even some of the older cooks who have never prepared a fine dining meal in the Army.
Sgt. Joshua Mosley, the front desk noncommissioned officer in charge with C Troop and a Bend, Ore., native, said he manages four front-desk personnel and his main responsibility is guest relations.
“I manage a spreadsheet and track people coming and going from the JVB,” he said. “I also have to provide accommodations for the distinguished visitor’s support staff.”
Mosley said distinguished visitors stay at the main hotel and the staff stays in containerized housing units across the street from the JVB Hotel.
“The CHU’s are for the guests of the DV and the palace is for general officers or equivalent,” he said.
Staff Sgt. Jason Bryan, the personal security detail team leader with C Troop and an Ottawa, Kan., native, said his team’s mission is to provide security and transportation to any visiting dignitaries or celebrities that come through the Iraq Joint Operation Area.
“It makes them feel a lot safer, especially if they have never been here before,” he said.
Bryan said most people are impressed with the size and amount of people at VBC.
“We pick them up and, depending on their itinerary, we’ll take them from one place to another,” he said. “Meanwhile there are some behind-the-scenes actions (necessary) to make sure that those places are safe prior to our arrival.”
The visitors’ safety is the team’s highest priority.
“We make sure all the proper coordinations are made to ensure a smooth delivery of the individuals,” he said.
Sgt. Justin Moore, the head cook at the Joint Visitors Bureau Hotel with C Troop, 1st Battalion, 82nd Cavalry Regiment, 41st Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 13th Sustainment Command (Expeditionary) and Hood River, Ore., native, checks the temperature of a dish he prepared March 3 at Victory Base Complex, Iraq. The cooks at the JVB Hotel prepare five-star meals for distinguished visitors and guests staying at the hotel.
I can’t wait to see what kind of raise Congress gives itself in 2011. I can guarantee you it will be a heck of a lot more than the people who sacrifice constantly for this Country. Yes, the Country’s economy is headed toward imminent disaster with the amount of debt we have — but cut Congressional pay and give it to those who work the hardest. Some of our men have had more deployments than Nancy has had botox injections. There’s perspective for you!
Obama to request 1.4% pay raise for 2011
By Karen Jowers – Staff writer Posted : Sunday Jan 31, 2010 8:38:13 EST
EXCERPT
President Obama will seek a 1.4 percent military pay raise for 2011 as part of his defense budget request that will be unveiled Feb. 1, according to a point paper issued Tuesday by the White House.
If approved by Congress, it would be the smallest annual military pay raise since the birth of the all-volunteer force in 1973, a reflection of the lingering recession’s dampening effect on wage growth and living costs. The next-smallest raise in the volunteer era was a 2 percent increase in 1988.
In contrast, the pay raise for this year, which took effect Jan. 1, was a robust 3.4 percent.
The proposed 2011 raise would match the projected increase in the Employment Cost Index, a Labor Department measurement of private-sector wage growth. For 11 consecutive years, including this year, Congress set annual military raises half a percentage point above the increase in the ECI in order to whittle a perceived gap between average military and private-sector pay that supposedly has existed since 1982 and peaked in 1999. LINK TO ARTICLE
March 2, 2010 By You Served Editorial Staff
Posted in Military News, News
You Served podcast producer Marcus Penn sent almost 2,000 emails to his wife while he was deployed to Iraq in 2007.
The South Carolina Marine relied on technology to remain close to home during his stretch in Al Anbar province. His story is recounted in a story on MSNBC’s Technology & Science page entitled “Staying in touch with loved ones during war.”
This definitely increases the worries I talked about in my earlier post. The gross incompetence displayed here is beyond scary… it’s outright disgusting. Your hard earned tax dollars at work, people…
Homeland Security Lost Dozens of Guns, According to Internal Report Absent-Minded Officers Left Guns in Bowling Alley, Lunch Box; Recovered Guns Had Gang Signs Engraved
By LEE FERRAN
Feb. 18, 2010
msm-ABCNEWS
Guns meant to help safeguard America found their way into the hands of known criminals after absent-minded federal officers left firearms unsecured everywhere from fast-food restaurants to bowling alleys, according to a report by the Department of Homeland Security.
Nearly 300 guns were misplaced by or stolen from federal officials between fiscal years 2006 and 2008, some of which were never reported lost, the report concluded. Some of the guns were recovered later by local law enforcement from suspected gang members after they had been engraved with gang signs.
“The Department of Homeland Security, through its components, did not adequately safeguard and control its firearms,” according to the January report, which looked at seven of the department’s agencies.
Firearms were left unattended in an idle vehicle in a parking lot, the restroom of a fast-food restaurant, a clothing store, a lunch box and a bowling alley, the report said.
One gun was locked in the trunk of an officer’s car along with body armor and radio equipment, but the key to the trunk was left next to the vehicle’s windshield wipers.
Our Gold Star wives lose, again. The Widow’s Tax was not eliminated again this year. The Widow’s Tax seems to get a lot of lip service from politicians of every walk and political persuasion. It all boils down to funding priorities. No one in this country has paid a higher price for our continued freedom in this wonderful Country.
Unfortunately for them that sacrifice is not enough for the “greedy hand” of our tax hungry government.
I don’t want to link or quote the most recent article that covers it in depth since it’s an AP source. Here is a link, however, to a search on “Military Widow’s Tax” that will lead you to a lot of recent information.
Here’s an excerpt I found that is a non-AP source and it is well written. It also explains what the tax is about for those who are unfamiliar with the history of this travesty. From Newsvine:
As written in the Washington post: “The widows’ tax is a law that won’t allow surviving spouses to receive the retirement pay due them when their spouse died from a cause related to military service, and at the same time collect the full annuity – essentially an insurance policy most of their spouses opted to buy. They paid an average of 6.5 percent of their retirement pay in premiums, often $100 or more a month.
Because one benefit is subtracted from the other, affected surviving spouses lose about $1,000 a month on average. There are about 54,000 survivors who are affected by the policy, whose spouses served in conflicts from World War II to Afghanistan, and that number could grow. READ ENTIRE ARTICLE
The author quotes $100 a month, but I have read it can be as high as $1000 a month depending on the worth of the annuity. So the military promotes this benefit, and takes money from the soldier’s pay for the added coverage “just in case.” That benefit is paid for so that a soldier can provide for his/her family in the case of death, right? Then the Government takes the benefit away in the name of ‘taxes.’
If “pure and undefiled religion” in the eyes of God is “visiting the widows and orphans in their distress,” then taxing their income to this degree is an outright blasphemous sin.
The idiots at Code Pink that love boycotting and protesting our wounded warriors at Walter Reed, interrupt official Congressional business, and generally do stupid things are being forced to shut down their “Pink House” in DC. The leaders of the commie, insurgent funding Code Pink organization sent out the following email to their followers:
Dear CODEPINKers,
We are writing to share with you, who have applied to stay at the Pink House over the past several years, the news that the Pink House will be closing at the end of February. The CODEPINK House has been a home to PINKs from all corners of the world, and a hub for brainstorming, networking, prop-making and song-writing. After late night strategy meetings, we have woken up early to head off to Congress to attend a hearing, sit-in at an office, hang a banner in the atrium, sing anti-war songs in the cafeteria or crash press conferences. The costs of maintaining the house and paying the rent have become an overwhelming burden for CODEPINK and we must now move on from the house into the next course of action.
Please take a moment to read about the Pink House and share your own story on our blog here:
We’d like to say thank you, from the bottom of our pink hearts, to each and every one of you who contributed to the magic that was the Pink House. Thanks to those who donated, processed applications, greeted new arrivals in DC, stormed the Hill, and reached out to their networks to grow the CODEPINK family. The house was a bright idea, initiated by Xan Joi and other San Francisco activists, that would have failed had it not been for a surge of people who answered the call and supported the vision of ending war, creating peace, and restoring democracy.
CODEPINK in DC will of course continue to be active in the hearings in Congress and will continue to call for and help coordinate national actions in DC, only now we’ll be reaching out to our neighbors to house those of us visiting from out-of-town and coordinating shared stays at hotels. There are many reasons to come to DC in March, including a national training and lobby day for justice in Palestine around International Women’s Day (March 7-8), the ANSWER mass march on the 7th anniversary of the Iraq occupation (March 20), the AIPAC convention protests (March 21-23), and the Peace of the Action coalition activities (mid-March). We hope to see you in the beltway soon! If you’re coming to DC, you can check out our housing board (http://www.codepinkalert.org/housing.php) to find DC activists willing to host – Thanks to Lydia for managing Pink House applications and now taking on updating and coordinating this housing board! You can sign up to join CODEPINK in DC in March at http://www.codepinkalert.org/march
Can we all let out a collective “awwww, shucks”? When I was stationed in the DC area, I frequently went to Walter Reed to counter-protest the troop-hating hags of Code Pink. I’ve also crashed their sadistic meetings that cast our troops as murderers and baby killers. One night, some Code Pinkers even threw eggs at the cars of Freepers who were proudly waving American flags and shouting words of support to troops entering and exiting Walter Reed.
I’m not surprised that the organization is having trouble paying for the house. They’ve gotten more and more moronic in their actions which I’m sure has turned off many potential and former donors. I say good riddance!! It wasn’t that long ago that they were forced to close shop in California too. They have issues when they keep up their offices in liberal California and DC!! But, I’m not complaining.
