TEApublican Senator From Georgia Says Military Rapes Are Caused By ‘Hormones’

"In a stunning statement that sounded like it came straight from the Todd Akin School of Biology, Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) said that military rapes are caused by “the hormone level created by nature.”" Watch the video! Source: http://aattp.org/teapublican-senator-from-georgia-says-military-rapes-are-caused-by-hormones/

How a Bronze Star-winning Army doctor saved his troops in Iraq, but couldn't save himself | TIME.com

Dr. Peter Linnerooth spent nearly five years wearing an Army uniform, including the bloodiest 12 months in Iraq at the height of the surge. As a mental-health professional, his top mission was to keep troops from killing themselves. After he returned home, he spent another two years trying to save the vets he loved, working for the VA in California and Nevada.

Read more: How a Bronze Star-winning Army doctor saved his troops in Iraq, but couldn't save himself | TIME.com:

Slowly, Toxic Vets Get Recognition

"Some two million men and women have served in Iraq and Afghanistan since the wars began in 2001. Little did these individuals know that surviving the improvised explosive devices and insurgent gunfire wouldn't necessarily guarantee their health or survival once they got home." Slowly, Toxic Vets Get Recognition. Read more.

I Didn’t Know I Was Pregnant- Helmand Province Edition | Rhino Den

..."As female soldier, the only thing that pisses me off more than when another female gets knocked up to get out of deployment, is when they get pregnant on deployment."... I couldn't agree more.

Read More: I Didn’t Know I Was Pregnant- Helmand Province Edition | Rhino Den :

The Shape of our Forces from Rhino Den - Ranger Up!

"....Then it hits me- the Body Mass Index (BMI) of this group is pretty significant! I mean, there are some chunky monkeys anchoring this team, but if they can handle their business and put Hell fire on the enemy, who really gives a shit? If the Air Force thinks they’re ready for war, then I have no say in it. In the big scheme if things, they are all here to complete a mission."

Read more: The Shape of our Forces

“The End of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” edited by J. Ford Huffman and TammyS. Schultz

Marine Corp University's book on the end of DADT presents an argument for the repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act. 

"'The End of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell' is a timely and necessary book...and goes far beyond to articulate and make fully human the toll of DADT on many military service members and their loved ones." 

Read More:  Opinion on The End of Don't Ask, Don't Tell.

Arkansas Women Veterans Summit 2012

Arkansas’s Second Women Veterans Summit!

Saturday, August 25, 2012
9am – 3:00pm

Pulaski Technical College Campus Center
3000 West Scenic Drive
North Little Rock, AR  72118
(next to the Ft. Roots VA Hospital)

The Arkansas Department of Veterans Affairs, Central Arkansas Veterans Health Care System, Veterans Affairs Regional Office, and the Arkansas Department of Workforce Services in cooperation with Pulaski Technical College will present Arkansas’s Second Women Veterans Summit Saturday, August 25, 2012 at the Pulaski Technical College Campus Center in North Little Rock.

The summit’s goal is to reach out to these veterans in order to inform, educate, and ensure that they have the knowledge of services available to them and hopefully become involved in outreach for other women veterans who may be in need of help.

The summit will include speakers discussing various topics of interest to women veterans including health care and benefits.  Additionally, exhibitor booths will provide free health screenings, information, resources, and giveaways.  A FREE lunch will be provided by Golden Corral for pre-registrants.  Those attending will have an opportunity to meet, mingle and network with other women veterans.

We encourage those interested to pre-register for this event.  Space is limited for lunch and speaker sessions to the first 200 registrants. Exhibitor booths may be visited at any time and do not require registration. Child care will not be available.

Register here: Arkansas Women Veterans Summit Registration Form

Natalie Dell: VA Researcher and Olympian

"VA Employee and Medal Winning Olympian Natalie Dell on Veterans and Never Giving Up:

The Olympics are filled with inspirational stories that bring the country together in celebration of exceptional accomplishment and national pride. And we at VA are very proud to share an inspiring story from one of our own, Natalie Dell—a Bronze Medal winner at the Summer Olympics."

Read more: Natalie Dell: VA Researcher and Olympian

Care for Those Who Risked it All...

One Shot, One Kill | Carl Prine

One Shot, One Kill | Carl Prine

"It blew to the right, 2 o’clock from the gun, and I’d just taken out the plug to listen to the patrol leader below, twisting the turret and me away from the steel shavings rising like black fireflies from the shoulder of Route Michigan.

Hours later I held a throbbing skull and my left ear felt like someone jabbed a broken chopstick through the drum."

Read more: http://www.lineofdeparture.com/2012/05/17/one-shot-one-kill/#ixzz1vEzXya77

Rules of Disengagement

An excellent article, http://www.veteranstoday.com/2012/04/19/a-soldiers-home-tour/

Personality Disorder-Trashing Our Army for Profit | Veterans Today

Personality Disorder-Trashing Our Army for Profit | Veterans Today: "In a report today, the New York Times acknowledged the Army’s practice of diagnosing troops with Post Traumatic Stress as having “personality disorders.”
This makes them ineligible for benefits.  The number diagnosed as such is unknown, 26,000 at one point years ago, much higher now."

Toxic Trash Pits Take Toll on U.S. Soldiers - Wild Green - Utne Reader

And yet still another article on the subject of burn pits and their affects on Soldiers health.

Toxic Trash Pits Take Toll on U.S. Soldiers - Wild Green - Utne Reader:

'via Blog this'

Toxic Trash: The Burn Pits of Iraq and Afghanistan :: Oxford American - The Southern Magazine of Good Writing

Billy McKenna and Kevin Wilkins survived Iraq—and died at home. The Oxford American sent filmmaker Dave Anderson and journalist J. Malcolm Garcia to Florida to investigate this deadly threat to American soldiers.

Toxic Trash: The Burn Pits of Iraq and Afghanistan :: Oxford American - The Southern Magazine of Good Writing

What’s Choking U.S. Troops? Feds Have No Idea.

In a 2010 study of 80 soldiers who struggled to run two miles, half of them were huffing and puffing because of undiagnosed bronchiolitis.

And the feds have no idea why.

The military’s widespread use of open-air burn pits — massive heaps of Styrofoam, human waste and plastic water bottles, in flames around the clock — seemed to be the most obvious answer.

But results of a study published today by the Institute of Medicine, and commissioned by the Department of Veterans Affairs, are frustratingly inconclusive — largely because the military didn’t collect adequate data for researchers to do their jobs.

Read more >>