Wednesday, June 05, 2013

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." Source: Georgia Sen.: 'Hormones' Cause Military Rape

Friday, January 18, 2013

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:

Friday, December 14, 2012

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.



Friday, August 24, 2012

“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.

Friday, August 17, 2012

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

Friday, May 18, 2012

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

Monday, March 12, 2012

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."

Monday, November 14, 2011

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

Wednesday, November 02, 2011

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 >>

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Want to Fix the Deficit Problem?

Then contact your elected officials and pressure them to put an end to fraud, waste and abuse such as this.

DoD IG Blasts Army LMP Program

VA Awards New Contract for Debunked PTSD Drug

Someone is lining their pockets with YOUR hard earned money.

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Remembering those we've lost to war and military suicide this Memorial Day

Our military faces an epidemic of trauma among troops who are sent back into war without treatment for their hidden wounds. At Fort Hood, Texas, 10,000 soldiers each month get mental health evaluation and treatment, and more sit on waiting lists. This is only the tip of the iceberg. It is estimated that 20-50% of those who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan suffer from PTSD.

Congress members who vote to continue spending for these wars don't take into account the full costs that our society will be paying for decades to come.

This summer, Iraq and Afghanistan veterans from the Operation Recovery Campaign are at Fort Hood investigating the epidemic of trauma and organizing soldiers there to do something about it. Operation Recovery aims to defend a soldier’s right to heal and calls for an end to redeploying troops who already suffer from PTSD, Traumatic Brain Injuries, and Military Sexual Trauma.

This Memorial Day, let us remember those who have died in Iraq, Afghanistan and past wars. But let's also think of the thousands who have committed suicide as a result of their war trauma, and those for whom we can prevent a similar fate.

Iraq Veterans Against the War has launched the Operation Recovery campaign to stop the deployment of troops suffering from PTSD, Traumatic Brain Injury, and Military Sexual Trauma. Thousands of troops are being re-deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq despite suffering from serious trauma from previous combat tours.

Take the Pledge to Stop the Deployment of Traumatized Troops!

Send a letter to the editor of your local newspaper!

Note: Copy taken from IVAW material.

Monday, May 16, 2011

Changing the Effective Date of Reserve Early Retirement

Since 9/11/2001 the Reserve Component has changed from a strategic Reserve to an operational Reserve that now plays a vital role in prosecuting the war efforts and other operational commitments. This has resulted in more frequent and longer deployments impacting individual Reservist’s careers. Changing the effective date of the Reserve early retirement would help partially offset lost salary increases, lost promotions, lost 401K and other benefit contributions.

Read an excerpt from The Statement of the Military Coalition (TMC) before the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Personnel.

"Operational Reserve Retention and Retirement Reform – Congress took the first step in modernizing the reserve compensation system with enactment of early retirement eligibility for certain reservists activated for at least 90 continuous days served since January 28, 2008. This change validates the principle that compensation should keep pace with service expectations and serve as an inducement to retention and sustainment of the operational reserve force.

Guard/Reserve mission increases and a smaller active duty force mean Guard/Reserve members must devote a much more substantial portion of their working lives to military service than ever envisioned when the current retirement system was developed in 1948.

Repeated, extended activations make it more difficult to sustain a full civilian career and impede Reservists' ability to build a full civilian retirement, 401(k), etc. Regardless of statutory protections, periodic long-term absences from the civilian workplace can only limit Guard/Reserve members' upward mobility, employability and financial security. Further, strengthening the reserve retirement system will serve as an incentive to retaining critical mid-career officers and NCOs for continued service and thereby enhance readiness.

As a minimum, the next step in modernizing the reserve retirement system is to provide equal retirement-age-reduction credit for all activated service rendered since Sept. 11, 2001. The current law that credits only active service since January 28, 2008 disenfranchises and devalues the service of hundreds of thousands of Guard/Reserve members who served combat tours (multiple tours, in thousands of cases) between 2001 and 2008.

The statute also must be amended to eliminate the inequity inherent in the current fiscal year retirement calculation, which only credits 90 days of active service for early retirement purposes if it occurs within the same fiscal year. The current rule significantly penalizes members who deploy in July or August vs. those deploying earlier in the fiscal year.

It is patently unfair, as the current law requires, to give three months retirement age credit for a 90-day tour served from January through March, but only half credit for a 120-day tour served from August through November (because the latter covers 60 days in each of two fiscal years).

In addition, the law-change authorizing early reserve retirement credit for qualifying active duty served after 28 Jan 2008 severed eligibility for TRICARE coverage until the reservist reaches age 60."

Read the full Military Coalition Armed Services Statement: http://armed-services.senate.gov/statemnt/2011/04%20April/Strobridge-Barnes-Moakler-Puzon%2004-13-11.pdf


Other Helpful Links

Early Retirement Talking Points: http://www.roa.org/site/PageServer?pagename=early_retirementtalkingpoint

Congress Overlooking Reserve Sacrifice Prior to 2008: http://reserveofficer.blogspot.com/2011/03/data-shows-congress-overlooking-reserve.html

Contact Your Legislatures: http://www.themilitarycoalition.org/contact.htm