Army vet with PTSD sought the treatment he needed by taking hostages – but got jail instead. "Fifteen months of carnage in Iraq had left the 29-year-old debilitated by post-traumatic stress disorder. But despite his doctor’s urgent recommendation, the Army failed to send him to a Warrior Transition Unit for help. The best the Department of Veterans Affairs could offer was 10-minute therapy sessions — via videoconference. So, early on Labor Day morning last year, after topping off a night of drinking with a handful of sleeping pills, Quinones barged into Fort Stewart’s hospital, forced his way to the third-floor psychiatric ward and held three soldiers hostage, demanding better mental health treatment."
[Via] [more inside]
posted by homunculus
on Aug 21, 2011 -
38 comments
... it's terribly important for veterans to feel they are continuing a mission that held them together through the violence and stress of war. "PTSD carries a stigma, that you're broken and wounded," said Yount, "And many guys have guilt for not still being in the fight. The idea of Paws for Purple Hearts is you can be part of the war effort while you're getting treatment."
posted by Joe Beese
on Nov 13, 2010 -
17 comments
A comic strip has caused a political uproar by making a bold, controversial statement on Veteran's Day, considered by some to be an insult to our nation's fighting men and women. The strip that has spit on the work of our country's bravest veterans is, as you would expect, that anti-American bastion of subversive vitriolic societal commentary,
Garfield.
posted by XQUZYPHYR
on Nov 11, 2010 -
146 comments
The
Warrior Writers Project brings together recent veterans and current service members to be in creative community and utilize art-making processes to express themselves. There is a deep necessity for veterans to create when so much has been shattered and stolen. A profound sense of hope comes from the ability to rebuild and transform.
posted by netbros
on Aug 29, 2009 -
3 comments
A report presented
today to the US Secretary of Veteran's Affairs concludes that Gulf War Syndrome (
GWS) is "a real condition with real causes and serious consequences for affected veterans." While depleted uranium had
long been suspected as a cause of the physical and neurological symptoms associated with GWS, the report fingers pesticides and the pyridostigmine bromide pills given to troops to counter the effects of nerve agents.
[more inside]
posted by googly
on Nov 17, 2008 -
10 comments
The Boneyard.
I’ve come to bear witness to American folly, to rest my eyes on the flying machines that flattened the forests of Southeast Asia, poisoned its people, and changed my life. A personal essay about the long-reaching effects of Agent Orange.
[more inside]
posted by amyms
on Apr 5, 2008 -
14 comments
When I Came Home: Iraq War veteran Herold Noel suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder and lives out of his car in Brooklyn. Using Noel's story as a fulcrum, this doc examines the wider issue of homeless U.S. military veterans-from Vietnam to Iraq-who have to fight tooth-and-nail to receive the benefits promised to them by their government.
posted by riley370
on May 21, 2006 -
45 comments
"Next, have those who lost legs crawl forward and neatly/ stack them. Then bowl the skull of your best killed buddy/ down the aisle / Finally, have the blind push the quadruplegics forward /
(they will have knives in their teeth to give to the legislators /
to use on themselves). We leave."
Or:
"Today you reached retirement/ with a disturbed and primal conscience / .... / Drunk and stoned, down in your worst /
moment, you subpoenaed yourself /
into believing the mission /
was more important than the man."
Or:
"Terrified, by the death grins. /
Afraid, I'll be one of the dead. /
Wondering, why did I ever think, /
it wouldn't be as bad as they said?"
Soldiers' stories told in the veterans' poetry, from
the archives of the
Viet Nam Generation Journal.
posted by orthogonality
on Mar 20, 2006 -
18 comments
Band of Brothers is an organization of
Democratic veterans running for U.S. Congress. Maybe you'll hear about their DC rally today on the
news (but don't hold your breath). Currently,
vets in the Senate are about evenly split among the GOP and Dems, but Republican vets are the majority in the
House. This is likely to change if the Democrats take control of Congress in this year's elections, in which the Iraq War will be a primary issue. Has a
White House full of
chickenhawks destroyed the GOP claim as the military party?
posted by If I Had An Anus
on Feb 8, 2006 -
41 comments
Marine's Final Salute to fallen comrades Very emotional piece by the Rocky Mountain News where they shadow'ed a Marine that is responsible for notifying next-of-kin. Seeing as today is Veteran's Day, how 'bout we salute our men and women in uniform ... and leave the political discussions for other forums.
posted by RonZ
on Nov 11, 2005 -
42 comments
Pentagon to close Walter Reed Medical Center More than 3,700 doctors and other medical personnel will be moved to a new and expanded facility to be built at the Navy's National Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., a few miles away. The move will cost nearly $989 million, and is expected to save more than $301 million over 20 years as the Pentagon seeks to streamline care and provide state of the art medical treatment for wounded servicemen and women.
And saving $301 million over 20 years is better than spending a billion dollars within the next 2 years, how?
And never mind those
18,000+ American casualties coming back from the M.E. I'm sure they'll be able to improvise bedrolls during the renovations up in Bethesda...
posted by vhsiv
on Aug 25, 2005 -
42 comments
The
National Coalition for
Homeless Veterans says soldiers returning from Iraq and
Afghanistan are
beginning
to request help from service providers.
Stars
& Stripes: "Advocates for the homeless already are seeing
veterans from the war on terror living on the street, and say the
government must do more to ease their transition from military to
civilian life. Boone said the reasons behind the veterans' housing
problems are varied: Some have emotional and mental issues from their
combat experience, some have trouble finding work after leaving the
military, some have health care bills which result in financial
distress."
Philly.com has more (Reg Req, or view
here) on a recently homeless vet from Philadelphia.
posted by jenleigh
on Jun 6, 2005 -
110 comments
Homeless Iraq vets showing up at shelters U.S. veterans from the war in Iraq are beginning to show up at homeless shelters around the country, and advocates fear they are the leading edge of a new generation of homeless vets not seen since the Vietnam era.
posted by Postroad
on Dec 8, 2004 -
43 comments
Vietnam Veterans for George W. Bush? "This web site was created and personally paid for by a Vietnam combat veteran as a service to his country and has no financial connection with any political party or campaign organization."
...and he does not pussy foot around!
posted by Postroad
on Oct 19, 2004 -
14 comments
SWIFT BOAT LIES send this to 5 people! "Like most bloggers, I have my beefs with the mainstream media. But you know what? They produce an awful lot of damn fine original reporting.
Case in point. In August the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth charged that John Kerry had lied about the events that led to his Silver Star. In order to figure out if the SBVT account was true, Nightline sent a crew to Vietnam, where they visited the hamlets of Tran Thoi and Nha Vi and interviewed the local villagers to get their recollections of what really happened 35 years ago. You can read the resulting story yourself, but it's summarized pretty easily: Kerry was right and SBVT honcho John O'Neill wasn't.
But there was also this:..."
posted by Postroad
on Oct 15, 2004 -
34 comments
John Kerry's Official Naval Records Time to put to rest the nonsense coming out of the hate groups. And when you hear about the Swift Boat group who have put out an ad and now a book denouncing Kerry, then turn to this URL to find out about that group of patriots
http://www.disinfopedia.org/wiki.phtml?title=Swift_Boat_Veterans_for_Truth
posted by Postroad
on Aug 5, 2004 -
103 comments
How Kerry Earned His Decorations For all the loud mouths who shout out that Kerry is a traitor, a guy who did not earn his medals, read this and then compare your medals with his! Did he turn against the war? Sure. Many soldiers did too. The nation also turned against the war and, finally, some responsible for getting us into the war admitted their mistake. "Kerry is one of the Senate's most decorated veterans — though he has far fewer medals than friend John McCain — and his record is impressive for an officer who spent just 10 months in Vietnam. Each of the medals below came with a matching ribbon. Kerry wore his ribbons when he testified before a Senate committee in 1971; the next day, joining hundreds of other vets, he lobbed them at the Capitol. "
posted by Postroad
on May 4, 2004 -
77 comments
