If I'm not mistaken some troops in Iraq etc., have access to the internet.

I'd like to use this thread to find out from those overseas what their needs, desires and expectations are about returning home.

What kind of things would you like us to do to prepare for your return?

Does your family need anything now that we can help with?

What kinds of things do you anticipate needing assistance with when you get home?

What worries you about returning home, if anything?

I'd like to help folks have a smoother transition when they return. And I'm sure that many of us feel the same way. While our troops are handling things overseas, let's prepare to welcome them back and not wait until the last minute.

If you're a troop stationed overseas please pass on information about this thread to your buddies. We want you home soon and we want your waiting families taken care of while you're gone. God Speed.

Duke

Thanks Duke, good post. We also have the Desert Storm to Iraq/Afghanistan Discussion Boards as well.
http://forums.military.com/eve/forums/a/frm/f/6170087960001

Then there is my book "The Persian Gulf War, the untold story" and some articles on my website for Iraq/Afghanistan veterans:

http://www.geocities.com/dave_barker_amvet/index.html

I've always been taught by my Instructors and Evaluators to be two or three steps ahead of the airplane or it will eat you up. It's sad that we're not doing more to prepare for the return of our brave folks. Or maybe we are and I just don't know it. Oh well...

quote:

Originally posted by InstructorLoad:
I've always been taught by my Instructors and Evaluators to be two or three steps ahead of the airplane or it will eat you up. It's sad that we're not doing more to prepare for the return of our brave folks. Or maybe we are and I just don't know it. Oh well...

Our politicians do not seem to learn very well. You are 100% correct, it appears the politicians are walking slowly in front of a prop job airplane moving toward them. The major problem with the VA being ready is the failure of the Congress (both parties) and Presidents( that's plural folks) failing to appropriate enough money, in the VA budget, to handle the needs of our returning veterans and those already in the system.
The quick fix for the VA on January 8, 2003 was by former Secretary Anthony J. Principi, by his creating Priority Group 8. This eliminated veterans from VA Healthcare elgibility, who were above the threshold income and not service connected. Those veterans already in the system, who were in Priority Group 8, were given high co-pays for speciality clinics and medication. Those veterans who were above the income threshold who were service connected (below 50%) were given co-pays for non service connected conditions. It was a quick fix, it worked for a very short period. Within the year the VA budget was still far short. However Secretary Principi did try to assist his fellow veterans.
We started having the people coming back from Afghanistan and Iraq, in late '03 which created long waiting lists. When a veteran needs help for PTSD, a long waiting list is the last thing needed, yet there it was facing everyone who cares. The recent suicide by the Marine who fell through the long line list is ample proof something must be done by the politicians, besides save the corporations and top 1% income people taxes.
We need the politicians, to work with the veteran organizations on the budget, we need the politicians to understand, with the great volume of people standing in harm's way heathcare must be provided for the returning troops.
VA must be given the money to hire competent medical personnel "to care for those who have borne the battle."

This is a story about how the Pentagon is making the determination about sending troops back to a combat zone that have already been treated for PTSD!! Pentagon Redeploys Servicemembers With PTSD

This is the link to the In the News - Pentagon Redeploys Soldiers With PTSD forum where they are "discussing" this situation.

Maybe with this new bipartisan bill being agreed on about the illegal immigration, we can use them to replace all the over worked troops...ya think???

I WISH!!

Hey Cyn -- good to hear you again

Yeah... this goes to Nicholson and other's saying PTSD is curable... LOL HA HA HA HA

Tell that to the hundreds of thousands of us who have suffered with it for YEARS with treatment!

I feel what is going on here, has more to do with the administration wanting to continue fighting in this mess, without the troops to do so... man, if this had been the case when I was active duty I'd probably never been discharged, and be a major by now!

Thank God for small favors I guess...

This isn't only happening with PTSD troops either -- it's happening with people with physical disabilities, just off surgery in theater, who don't have full mobility, being sent back on the lines again. (a friend of mine in here has a hubby who is SP dog handler, mortar tore half his left calf muscle away, they patched him up wiht 2 surgeries so far, and two weeks later, theya re ready to send him back out -- he's not got full use of the leg and he's got a cane for stability!!!)

quote:

Nicholson and other's saying PTSD is curable...

PTSD can be treated. Cured?
Remember he is budget oriented, nothing else but the budget.
Consider the source...

quote:

Hey Cyn -- good to hear you again

c130 - Thank you Sweetie; I've been here praying for you all...especially after reading about your hopeful news about your last review...

You know, this is going to sound very sick and morbid, but it's almost as if they want to send these poor troops back in the hopes that they WONT COME BACK to have to pay them for their disabilities after they get out!!

Think about it; everything that we are talking about WILL have lasting effects as disabilities for the rest of their lives IF...they live to make it home to claim them...makes me want to go to DC on a rage and "clean house".

What the hell...I am already diagnosed with a mental illness, what do I have to lose?

Sgt Cyns, we joke in my PTSD group about going to Washington if the VA cuts benefits or mistreats these new vets. (Or the older ones) We say "we won't take our meds" for a couple of weeks, and then all go together and walk into our Senators office.... LOLOL it's really quite funny when I think about it.

I'm sure the government is aware what would happen if so many "mentally disordered" people came to them in a mass protest.

Unfortunately, most of us don't participate in Veterans organizations or groups that work to improve benefits and the "system", so I probably won't ever see that "March", but I don't care who you are.... that's a funny thought.

Bill

quote:

Unfortunately, most of us don't participate in Veterans organizations or groups that work to improve benefits and the "system", so I probably won't ever see that "March", but I don't care who you are.... that's a funny thought.

Bill

Bill:
One thought comes to my mind. Discuss with your group of forming your own AMVETS post. There is no requirement to have a building, no requirement to operate a business, or a canteen.
I have started 6 AMVETS posts in Ohio and none of them have a canteen, or bar. Some meet in Churches, some meet in community centers. Two of the posts I started have their own buildings due to fund raising, still no alcohol or bingo. Two of the six posts are Quality Posts, that being of the top 99 in America.
You then would have a voice in a veterans organization.

FRUSTRATED WITH FEDS, ILLINOIS STARTS OWN BRAIN

INJURY SCREENING PROGRAM FOR VETERANS -- "It's been

shown that the federal government simply was not prepared

to deal with the number of war injured coming home

from Iraq and Afghanistan."

http://www.vawatchdog.org/07/nf07/nfJUL07/nf070507-4.htm

"The newest project will further expand medical services for veterans and the Navy. It should end the need to ship patients to other hospitals for certain treatments, and it could lead to an expansion of VA services for veterans who now don’t qualify on financial grounds, said Mike Peck, superintendent of the Lake County Veterans Assistance Commission."

http://www.vawatchdog.org/07/nf07/nfJUL07/nf070507-9.htm

There's a lot of Vets in Illinois that voice their opinions about 'Returning Veterans Issues/Needs.

Keep those letters to your Reps going!

Chairman: Psychological Wounds Need Same Attention as Physical Ones
By Jim Garamone
American Forces Press Service


Marine Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Navy Adm. Tim Keating, commander of U.S. Pacific Command, raise a glass of iced tea to members of a post-traumatic stress disorder support group at Tripler Army Medical Center, Hawaii, Aug. 18, 2007. Pace spoke to the men about their courage in facing psychological wounds, and asked them for ways to improve the PTSD identification process. Photo by Staff Sgt. D. Myles Cullen, USAF


HONOLULU, Aug. 19, 2007 - Psychological wounds are just as devastating to servicemembers and families as physical wounds, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said after meeting with servicemembers and veterans undergoing treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder at Tripler Army Medical Center here yesterday.

When Marine Gen. Peter Pace met with men undergoing treatment at the Department of Veterans Affairs PTSD Residential Recovery Program, he asked them where and when they had been wounded.

Some of the men were on the verge of saying they weren't wounded, but the chairman continued. "I use that term specifically to include you," he said. "Because it doesn't matter if it was psychological or physical, you were wounded in service to your country, and we need to do all we can to make you better."

The VA administers the program at Tripler.

"The program has done a lot for me and my family," said a Marine veteran of the second battle for Fallujah. "I didn't believe there was anything wrong with me when I came back to Kaneohe Bay. By the time I did, I didn't want to do anything because of the stigma attached."

The young man got out of the Marine Corps, but had serious problems adjusting and coping with the memories of Iraq. He first learned about getting help at the Veterans Center at Marine Base Kaneohe Bay.

Reserve component servicemembers also are part of the program. A soldier from Guam received physical and psychological wounds from his service in Iraq. He wants to get healthy, he said, so he can deploy with his unit when it goes again. "We're still warriors, sir," he told Pace.

The program has active duty servicemembers in it as well. One active duty soldier involved in the program went to Camp Zama, Japan, after a very tough tour in Baghdad. He spiraled in pretty fast, he said -- abusing alcohol and "messing up."

"I just didn't care any more," he told the chairman. "I had hit rock bottom, and I don't like to think about what could have happened."

He is still in the service. At Zama, his superiors referred him to the Army's substance abuse program, and that organization got him into the residential program. "I'm sober for eight months now, and I'm learning to handle things here," he said.

The soldier is in the minority. Usually, active duty servicemembers don't get diagnosed in time to remain in the service. Often, they abuse alcohol or drugs, and they have problems relating to family and friends. The trouble mounts, and they find themselves receiving Article 15 nonjudicial punishments or worse, and they often are discharged.

The behaviors that got them in trouble in civilian life after leaving the military often are the ones they relied on to survive combat. "These are skills the soldiers used in Baghdad to keep themselves alive," said Dr. Kenneth A. Hirsch, the director of the traumatic stress disorders program for the VA. "They learned how to turn off these feelings in order to survive. It's a coping mechanism."

Hirsch told Pace that junior leaders and noncommissioned officers – the ones closest to the fight and the troops – must be educated to recognize the signs of PTSD, and to get people help early enough so professionals can intervene.

Hirsch also said there needs to be a better screening process. Servicemembers fill out a questionnaire when their combat tours are over, but they don't want to say anything is wrong.

"No one wants to say that they may have a problem – it might delay the start of block leave," Hirsch said. "It also might affect the way others – superiors – regard them as somehow damaged goods."

After the meeting with the men, Pace said he was impressed with the treatment they're receiving. "I had met with individuals suffering with PTSD before, but this was the first time at a group session – where there was actually a program," he said in an interview.

Pace is concerned about the stigma that has been associated with psychological wounds. "It's important for senior leaders to make sure that folks understand that (PTSD or other psychological wounds are), for some people, a consequence of going to war," he said. "It's very much a wound that needs to heal just as a physical wound. Leaders need to be very comfortable in stepping forward or recommending subordinates to receive care."

Pace said it will take a collective dialogue of all levels in the military to understand that PTSD is a wound and needs care just as a soldier of Marine would need care for a chest wound.

The general is interested in following the work of a joint Defense Department-Veterans Affairs group looking at the "whole life" medical approach. The two agencies would share records of servicemembers from the time they enter service, though discharge and on.

"I want to make sure I get some input into the DoD-VA group that's looking at the situation," he said. "Mental health needs to be part of the full spectrum of medical health care to make sure we develop the necessary screening tools.

"We screen for cancer and all kinds of diseases," he continued. "We need to develop the mechanisms to screen for mental health conditions in a way that becomes routine as an X-ray or a blood test."

The Army and Marine Corps – the services most affected by PTSD – are developing systems to educate the troops and their families about the symptoms of the disorder. They need to know what to watch for in themselves, their buddies or their spouses.

At the end of the meeting, Pace and the men drank a toast with a typical Hawaiin concoction that contained pineapple juice and iced tea. He raised the paper cup to the men and said, "To your health."

Notice!
Topics are automatically closed by Groupee due to inactivity of 120 days. If you have topics you wish to remain on the boards, you must post on them within 120 days of the last posting, or it will be locked, then purged when pruning begins.
Once purged it is lost forever! It is the members choice to keep them on the forums.

The best advice is to take your DD214 to a local Veteran's Center and get checked out. It's free for veterans and their families.

Local Vet Centers are usually listed in the phone book or may be located here.