Iraq & Vietnam War Stories

I recently received an article from my friend, Nick Warren, concerning a study of the mental health problems of returning Iraq War veterans, which goes a long way towards accounting for “why the Department of Defense’s mental health system is overwhelmed”. The article follows and is followed by my reflections on what it means about our treatment of veterans and about what our government wants to believe and wants us to believe about the effects of this horrendous war. It also inevitably brings up comparisons between the MIS-treatment of vets now and during the Vietnam War…

Mental Health Problems of Iraq Veterans May Be Delayed

By Neil Osterweil, Senior Associate Editor, MedPage Today
Reviewed by Zalman S. Agus, MD; Emeritus Professor
University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.
November 15, 2007
Charles Milliken, M.D.
Walter Reed Army Institute of Research

SILVER SPRING, Md., Nov. 15 — For soldiers returning from Iraq, the full extent of mental health problems may take six months or more to surface, Pentagon investigators reported.

This could explain, in part, why the Department of Defense’s mental health care system is overwhelmed, asserted Charles S. Milliken, M.D., and colleagues, of the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research here, in the Nov. 14 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Action Points

* Explain to those who ask that this study suggests that mental health problems among returning veterans may be more pervasive than originally thought, and that reservists seem to be affected in larger numbers than active-duty soldiers.

Among more than 88,000 U.S. soldiers back from Iraq who had an immediate post-deployment screening, a follow-up about six months later revealed a higher number of positives for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), interpersonal conflicts, and referrals for mental health problems, they found.

In all, after the second screening, one-fifth of all active-duty soldiers back from Iraq and two-fifth of all reservists were found on screening to have a mental health concern requiring treatment.

“Reserve and active soldiers reported similar rates of potentially traumatic combat experiences (69.6% versus 66.5%), hospitalization during deployment (6% versus 5.3%), and overall mental health concerns on the post-deployment health assessment (17.5% versus 17%),” the investigators wrote.

“However, by the time of the post-deployment health reassessment, National Guard and Army Reserve soldiers reported substantially higher rates of interpersonal conflict, PTSD, depression, and overall mental health risk (35.5% versus 27.1%, odds ratio: 1.48; 95% CI: 1.44 to 1.53; P<0.001).”

Although the Walter Reed group reported 20 months ago that 19% of returning Iraq veterans had mental health problems, the same authors now say they may have seriously underestimated the scope of the problem.

The largest increase from one screening to the next was in concerns about interpersonal conflict, which went from 3.5% to 14% among active-duty personnel, and from 4.2% to 21.1% of reservists.

Similarly, PTSD-positive screens increased from 11.8% to 16.7% among regular forces. Among reserves, the PTSD-positive increase jumped from 12.7% to 24.5%.

Depression was seen in 4.7% of active-duty forces at the first assessment and 10.3% at the reassessment, with depression among reserves rising from 3.8% at screening 1 to 13% at screening 2.

“A recent congressionally mandated task force found the existing Department of Defense mental health system to be overburdened, understaffed, and underresourced,” the investigators wrote. “This study suggests that the mental health problems identified by VA clinicians in more than a quarter of recent combat veterans may have already been present within months of returning from war.”

Other investigators have found that a quarter of all veterans treated at VA hospitals after returning home from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan brought mental health problems home. When psychosocial and behavioral problems were thrown into the mix, nearly a third of these veterans who sought care at aVA facility had a diagnosis of a mental health-related disorder.

Additionally, more than half the returning vets who had a mental health diagnosis were found to have two or more mental health disorders, wrote Karen H. Seal, M.D., M.P.H., of the University of California at San Francisco and the San Francisco VA, and colleagues in the March 12 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.

Another study showed that only one in five veterans returning from combat duty in Iraq or Afghanistan with signs of posttraumatic stress disorder is actually screened for it, the Government Accountability Office reported in May of 2006. (See: A Quarter of Iraq and Afghanistan Vets Show Mental Health Problems)

The Walter Reed investigators reported in JAMA in March of 2006 that 19.1% of soldiers and Marines who returned from Iraq met risk criteria for a mental health concern, compared with 11.3% for those deployed to Afghanistan and 8.5% for those sent to other locations. The adjusted odds ratio for service personnel sent to Iraq compared with other deployment locations was 2.72 (95% confidence interval: 2.63 to 2.80, P<0.001).

Now, these authors say, they may have seriously underestimated the size of the problem.

In the current study, the Walter Reed team reported on a population-based, longitudinal descriptive study of the initial large cohort of 8,235 U.S. soldiers returning from Iraq who completed both a Post-Deployment Health assessment and a Post-Deployment Health Reassessment, with a median of six months between the two.

The main outcome measures were a positive screen for PTSD, major depression, alcohol abuse or misuse, or other mental health problems, as well as referrals for and use of mental health services.

They found that at the second assessment soldiers reported more mental health concerns and were referred at significantly higher rates compared with their immediate post-deployment assessment.

The authors found that soldiers indicated more mental health distress on the reassessment than on the first screening, and were referred at higher rates.

National Guard and reserve soldiers were also more than three times as likely as active soldiers to be referred for mental health concerns at the second assessment, when referrals from employee-assistance programs were included (36.2% versus 14.7%, odds ratio for reservists: 3.29, 95% CI: 3.19 to 3.40, P<0.001).

When the authors combined data from both and from employee assistance referrals, they found that clinicians had identified 20.3% of active soldiers and 42.4% of reservists as either needing referral or already being under care for mental health problems.

They also found that although soldiers frequently reported alcohol concerns, few were referred to an alcohol treatment program, and that most soldiers who used mental health services did so on their own, without a referral, even though the majority sought care within 30 days of being screened.

In addition, although soldiers were much more likely to report PTSD symptoms on the reassessment rather than on the initial screening, 49% to 59% of those who had PTSD symptoms identified on the first screening had improvement of symptoms by the second screening, and there was no direct relationship of referral or treatment with symptom improvement.

“Rescreening soldiers several months after their return from Iraq identified a large cohort missed on initial screening,” the investigators wrote. “The large clinical burden recently reported among veterans presenting to Veterans Affairs facilities seems to exist within months of returning home, highlighting the need to enhance military mental health care during this period.”

They noted that the reported increases in interpersonal conflict underline the lack of available services for the families of returning soldiers, and the higher rates of referral at second assessment for reservists may reflect concerns about their ongoing health coverage.

The research was funded by an intramural program of the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command at Fort Detrick, Md. The authors reported no conflicts of interest.
Additional Anxiety & Stress Coverage

Primary source: Journal of the American Medical Association
Source reference:
Milliken CS, et al “Longitudinal assessment of mental health problem

REFLECTIONS:

I find myself trying to imagine what the factors are
that contribute to the significant increase in symptomatic vets after
the second six month later screening. I am thinking that there is likely a halo
effect of feeling relief immediately upon returning (thus a crazy time
to test and to come up with conclusive
results) vis a vis being alive, excitement for reunions with loved ones,
reduction of fear experienced during deployment, and possibly a desire
to believe one is all right or will soon become so This intrigues me as
do statistics about greater incidence of mental health issues with
reservists. I am on-goingly sad about the lack of appropriate services
for these veterans and their families. When I think about Vietnam vets and the care and support that
they never got I am even more aware of their feeling the anguish and
hopelessness that led so many of them to suicide. It ultimately feels
like we are mistreating these men throughout the process:
- they enlist because the system convinces them that the military will
make things better for them, which has been a terrible lie since at
least the start of the current wars
- they face an enemy they cannot identify using weapons they cannot
defend against, including IED’s and suicide bombers.
- they are on an impossible and totally thankless mission to bring
democracy to folks who cannot stand one another and our military
- they come back from the above scarred emotionally and psychologically,
at least, with profound therapy needs - as is true for their family
members
- the care they are offered is inadequate and often does not take into
consideration their needs or else they receive no care
- they suffer from PTSD and other mental health conditions that we do
not want to acknowledge in the numbers they are presenting themselves
and they also fear the stigma our society will place upon their
reputations if they seek therapy/support.
And, most terrifyingly, those in power exhibit no learning about
the huge mistreatments of the past…

My Men’s Group, which arrives at its 30th anniversary in ‘08, had the opportunity to view a program featuring Iraq veterans created for HDTV by Robbie Leppzer, our youngest member and a gifted documentary filmmaker.   The 45 minute film features interviews with 5 veterans who describe their wartime experience and who have come out of their time in Iraq on different sides regarding their views on the war.  One of the most incredible aspects of this documentary is that throughout the film it is very difficult if not impossible to tell which of the men will, at the end, be opposed to or in favor of the war.  Before heading home to Wendell, Robbie discovered that it is possible to view the film on the computer.  I highly recommend viewing as much of this as you can make time for.  It takes some time to download, but it is most worthwhile.  Please share this with whomever you think would be moved by the stories it contains.  Here’s the website: http://www.turningtidefilms.com/movies/SoldierStories-HDNetWorldReport.mov

       Several weeks ago I sent out a post entitled: “Draft Cards Link Father and Son and Tell of Divergent Wars…” in which I wrote about a meeting with one of my interview subjects, Guy Sussman.   He told me of the discovery of his father’s draft card in his wallet some 45 years after the end of World War II, an indisputable indicator of the significance the war continued to have in his life.  Guy contrasted this sense of connection his father felt with his own desire to completely separate himself from what his draft card signified in his own life.  I am finally been able to show you Guy’s father’s draft card, which Guy sent to me via cyberspace.  The card is 63 years old and tells a story…

A friend, Sarah Buttenweiser, who contributes frequently to a variety of on-line news sources and blogs, alerted me to a first person piece in today’s DAILY HAMPSHIRE GAZETTE by a veteran of the War in Iraq. It is titled, “BROTHERS IN ARMS” and subtitled, “A Soldier Comes Home, Still in the Grasp of Iraq.” It is an eloquent account by William Quinn of his homecoming and the very strange an unsettling experience he has of witnessing an America essentially disengaged from the war. He then proceeds to share some of his war experience and the effects it has had upon his psyche. I was reminded from the outset of the piece, when he describes arriving in the Detroit Airport, of many of the stories I was told by Vietnam veterans, about how out of place and surreal they felt when they got back to the States after a tour of duty in ‘Nam. The disorientation, the sense that America was completely unaware of what was going on in Southeast Asia and the disconnect between what was expected here vs. there was comprehensively disconcerting and it is going on for thousands of men and women again now. Here is one man’s take and it certainly deserves our attention and, upon reading, reflection.

As I was about to copy the piece into the blog I saw that it had received one comment on www.gazettenet.com I believe the writer of the comment somehow missed the great stress this former soldier is experiencing since he wrote: “You wanna be a hero? Stop participating in the war machine that’s killing thousands of innocent people. THAT’S a hero.” I certainly can appreciate the sentiment behind this comment, but if only it were so simple to unburden one’s self of what the war does to one’s psyche and become an anti-war proponent. Here’s the Quinn story:

The only feeling I’ve ever had that was more surreal than arriving in a war zone was returning from one. I came home on R&R in 2005 after eight months in Iraq. Heading for baggage claim in Detroit, I watched travelers walking and talking on their cellphones, chatting with friends and acting just the way people had before I’d left for Baghdad. The war didn’t just seem to be taking place in another country; it seemed to be taking place in another universe.
There I was, in desert camouflage, wondering how all the intensity, the violence, the tears and the killing of Iraq could really be happening at the same time all these people were hurrying to catch their flights to Las Vegas or Los Angeles or wherever.

Riding home that day with my parents, I felt nervous, too exposed in their Ford Taurus. There was no armor on the car, and it felt light. At every red light and stop sign I saw potential dangers everywhere, even though I-94 heading into the city was nothing like Baghdad’s Airport Road. There were no torched trucks or craters left by bomb blasts. The neatness of it all made me uncomfortable. Staying alive shouldn’t be so easy.
Two years after Iraq I have a different life, as a college student. But some of those feelings are still with me. After a year in a conflict of such enormous complexity, I find college a bit mundane, and it’s inexplicable to me that people here seem entirely untouched by the war.

On Sept. 11, 2001, everyone said that day would change the lives of all Americans. I was then a trainee in the interrogation course at the Army Intelligence Center at Fort Huachuca, Ariz. At 18, I had dropped out of college and joined the Army because I felt that my life lacked discipline and direction. Six years later, 9/11 seems to have had little effect on most people’s lives. But it has had an enormous effect on mine.
I arrived in Iraq in March 2005. My unit hurried onto a Chinook helicopter at Baghdad International Airport in the middle of the night. I was weighted down with more than 100 pounds of gear, and I never managed to strap myself in. Helicopters are violent machines, and we shook as we lifted into the air. The rear door was open, a machine gunner suspended over the ramp, and the lights on the ground receded as we flew off, like the scenery behind a taxi in an old movie. Soon we were over a field of tents, lit up under spotlights as bright as day. We had arrived at Abu Ghraib.

I spent the next 11/2 months at that prison complex outside Baghdad. By then, the interrogation rules had changed substantially after the stories of abuse there came out in mid-2004. We were permitted to sit across from a detainee and talk to him - everything else was banned. This was a good rule. Torture is easy to justify. Interrogators assume everyone they question is culpable; it’s part of the job. If a detainee can’t provide information because he has none, the temptation to slip into brutality is very present. Without rules I might have been brutal, but I never so much as raised my voice to a detainee.

On April 2, 2005, Abu Ghraib was attacked by dozens of insurgents armed with vehicle-borne bombs, rockets, mortars, rocket-propelled grenades and Kalashnikovs. It was terrifying - but also exhilarating. I learned that I was capable of functioning through my fear, and that I could place my life, with absolute confidence, in the hands of my fellow soldiers.
I spent a few hours that night in an inner tower with Marines who responded to the rockets and small-arms fire with 50-caliber machine guns. I watched as a man in a tractor was killed by machine-gun fire and as a group of trucks was stopped by a barrage of bullets from the tower guards. Later that night, I interrogated some of the men who had been in those trucks. A few had been wounded; all were frightened. They were fish deliverymen, caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. The man in the tractor turned out to be a suicide bomber. It’s nearly impossible to tell the enemy from the innocent.

After Abu Ghraib I was transferred to Camp Cropper, near Baghdad International Airport. Over the next year, I spoke with hundreds of detainees: members of al-Qaida, Baathists, Sunni nationalist insurgents and Shiite insurgents. I listened to their life stories, and I wrote hundreds of reports about their experiences.

My interrogations lasted weeks, sometimes months. The long-term nature of our conversations forced me to see the men I interrogated as human beings. Most were Iraqi. Many were extremely intelligent, and some had had a great deal of formal education. Some were forthcoming with information; some were not. They all remain in my thoughts, and I’m sometimes surprised by my feelings. Recently, I read in the International Herald Tribune that a man I’d interrogated had been executed in Baghdad. If anyone ever deserved execution, it was he. But I still felt a pang of regret. His life, for all its horrors, mattered to me.

The Army discharged me in July 2006, and I began Georgetown University that August. What a difference. People on campus don’t think about the war very much. It rarely comes up in conversation. One student actually told me to stop thinking about Iraq. “You need to get rid of all that baggage and let yourself live,” she said. “We need to be shallow sometimes.”

After my first semester, I decided to rejoin the Army by signing up with the ROTC. I felt guilty for having done only one tour in Iraq while friends of mine have done two or three. And I didn’t want to forget the war. I may be prejudiced, but many of my college peers seem self-absorbed. I didn’t want to end up like that.

Students’ true priorities are demonstrated by their daily activities: They have friends to meet, parties to attend, internships to work at, classes to attend. They’re under pressure to build a strong resume for whatever company or graduate school they apply to after college. They’re under no pressure to be concerned about those who are less fortunate - or those who fight wars on their behalf.

I have a lot of respect for my professors and peers. But there are still days when I think about what it must be like back in Baghdad - and wonder whether that’s where I should be.

William Quinn, who is majoring in international politics and security studies at Georgetown University, served in Iraq from 2005 to 2006.

My friend, Steve Trudel, who works at the Men’s Resource Center counseling men who batter, sent me the articles below about the awful toll the two current wars are taking on those participating.  I had heard a statistic that as many men as died in Vietnam - over 50,000 - committed suicide in the aftermath of the war.  The statistics on the current rate of suicide is so deeply disturbing and lends testimony to the immeasurable harm being done to our soldiers.  I am also reminded of the film I wrote about recently, “No Unwounded Soldiers”, and the men who so inspirationally sought to use drama to heal.  I remember thinking that if only such programs were available to many more men, much more healing could occur and then, during the Q and A following the film, the drama therapist said she was not aware of any similar programs…When I read statements such as the following, I knew that without more recognition and resolve to get our soldiers home and get them the support they need, many more will die: “One age group stood out. Veterans aged 20 through 24, those who have served during the war on terror. They had the highest suicide rate among all veterans, estimated between two and four times higher than civilians the same age. (The suicide rate for non-veterans is 8.3 per 100,000, while the rate for veterans was found to be between 22.9 and 31.9 per 100,000.)” And the bottom-line is the government does not want us to know about this, to realize the true cost in American lives of these horrible conflicts, which could be endless if we let them be.  The final sentence in what follows is perhaps the most damning, frightening and disheartening: However, while the bill (to try to address the needs of the soldiers at risk and suffering from PTSD and other mental illnesses) requires the VA to provide these services, it provides no new funding.”  There must be a way to help these veterans get the help they need…

Veterans for Common Sense was featured on the CBS Evening News with
Katie Couric.  On November 13, Armen Keteyian, the top CBS
investigative reporter, reveals an enormous epidemic of suicides among
our returning Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans.  CBS News has three
excellent videos: the news broadcast, an interview with VCS’s Paul
Sullivan, and an interview with veterans’ families.

Veterans for Common Sense was featured on the CBS Evening News with
Katie Couric.  On November 13, Armen Keteyian, the top CBS
investigative reporter, reveals an enormous epidemic of suicides among
our returning Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans.  CBS News has three
excellent videos: the Evening News broadcast, an interview with VCS’s
Paul Sullivan, and an interview with veterans’ families.

The Veteran Suicide Epidemic

NEW YORK, November 13, 2007 - (CBS News) They are the casualties of
wars you don’t often hear about - soldiers who die of self-inflicted
wounds. Little is known about the true scope of suicides among those
who have served in the military.

[VCS Note: For information about suicide prevention assistance, please
see second article below. Hotline for Veterans: Veterans who need help
immediate counseling should call the hotline run by Veterans Affairs
professionals at 1-800-273-TALK and press 1 identifying themselves as
military veterans. Staff members are specially trained to take calls
from military veterans and its staffed 24 hours a day, everyday. While
all operators are trained to help veterans, some are also former
military.  For a wallet-size card titled "What to do you if you think
someone is having suicidal thoughts," please click here.]

But a five-month CBS News investigation discovered data that shows a
startling rate of suicide, what some call a hidden epidemic, Chief
Investigative Reporter Armen Keteyian reports exclusively.

“I just felt like this silent scream inside of me,” said Jessica
Harrell, the sister of a soldier who took his own life.

“I opened up the door and there he was,” recalled Mike Bowman, the
father of an Army reservist.

“I saw the hose double looped around his neck,” said Kevin Lucey,
another military father.

“He was gone,” said Mia Sagahon, whose soldier boyfriend committed suicide.

Keteyian spoke with the families of five former soldiers who each
served in Iraq - only to die battling an enemy they could not conquer.
Their loved ones are now speaking out in their names.

They survived the hell that’s Iraq and then they come home only to
lose their life.

Twenty-three-year-old Marine Reservist Jeff Lucey hanged himself with
a garden hose in the cellar of this parents’ home - where his father,
Kevin, found him.

“There’s a crisis going on and people are just turning the other way,”
Kevin Lucey said.

Kim and Mike Bowman’s son Tim was an Army reservist who patrolled one
of the most dangerous places in Baghdad, known as Airport Road.

“His eyes when he came back were just dead. The light wasn’t there
anymore,” Kim Bowman said.

Eight months later, on Thanksgiving Day, Tim shot himself. He was 23.

Diana Henderson’s son, Derek, served three tours of duty in Iraq. He
died jumping off a bridge at 27.

“Going to that morgue and seeing my baby … my life will never be the
same,” she said.

Beyond the individual loss, it turns out little information exists
about how widespread suicides are among these who have served in the
military. There have been some studies, but no one has ever counted
the numbers nationwide.

“Nobody wants to tally it up in the form of a government total,” Bowman said.

Why do the families think that is?

“Because they don’t want the true numbers of casualties to really be
known,” Lucey said.

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., is a member of the Veterans Affairs Committee.

“If you’re just looking at the overall number of veterans themselves
who’ve committed suicide, we have not been able to get the numbers,”
Murray said.

CBS News’ investigative unit wanted the numbers, so it submitted a
Freedom of Information Act request to the Department of Defense asking
for the numbers of suicides among all service members for the past 12
years.

Four months later, they sent CBS News a document, showing that between
1995 and 2007, there were almost 2,200 suicides. That’s 188 last year
alone. But these numbers included only “active duty” soldiers.

CBS News went to the Department of Veterans Affairs, where Dr. Ira
Katz is head of mental health.

“There is no epidemic in suicide in the VA, but suicide is a major
problem,” he said.

Why hasn’t the VA done a national study seeking national data on how
many veterans have committed suicide in this country?

“That research is ongoing,” he said.

So CBS News did an investigation - asking all 50 states for their
suicide data, based on death records, for veterans and non-veterans,
dating back to 1995. Forty-five states sent what turned out to be a
mountain of information.

And what it revealed was stunning.

In 2005, for example, in just those 45 states, there were at least
6,256 suicides among those who served in the armed forces. That’s 120
each and every week, in just one year.

Dr. Steve Rathburn is the acting head of the biostatistics department
at the University of Georgia. CBS News asked him to run a detailed
analysis of the raw numbers that we obtained from state authorities
for 2004 and 2005.

It found that veterans were more than twice as likely to commit
suicide in 2005 than non-vets. (Veterans committed suicide at the rate
of between 18.7 to 20.8 per 100,000, compared to other Americans, who
did so at the rate of 8.9 per 100,000.)

One age group stood out. Veterans aged 20 through 24, those who have
served during the war on terror. They had the highest suicide rate
among all veterans, estimated between two and four times higher than
civilians the same age. (The suicide rate for non-veterans is 8.3 per
100,000, while the rate for veterans was found to be between 22.9 and
31.9 per 100,000.)

“Wow! Those are devastating,” said Paul Sullivan, a former VA analyst
who is now an advocate for veterans rights from the group Veterans For
Common Sense.

“Those numbers clearly show an epidemic of mental health problems,” he said.

“We are determined to decrease veteran suicides,” Dr. Katz said.

“One hundred and twenty a week. Is that a problem?” Keteyian asked.

“You bet it’s a problem,” he said.

Is it an epidemic?

“Suicide in America is an epidemic, and that includes veterans,” Katz said.

Sen. Murray said the numbers CBS News uncovered are significant:
“These statistics tell me we’ve really failed people that served our
country.”

Do these numbers serve as a wake-up call for this country?

“If these numbers don’t wake up this country, nothing will,” she said.
“We each have a responsibility to the men and women who serve us
aren’t lost when they come home.”

An update: Another member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Sen.
Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii, responded to the CBS News story Tuesday.

“The report that the rate of suicide among veterans is double that of
the general population is deeply troubling and simply unacceptable. I
am especially concerned that so many young veterans appear to be
taking their own lives. For too many veterans, returning home from
battle does not bring an end to conflict. There is no question that
action is needed.”

Article 2: Help And Resources: Veteran Suicide

NEW YORK, November 13, 2007 - (CBS News) Today, CBS News reported the
findings of a five-month investigation into veteran suicides.

[VCS Note: If you are a veteran or know of a veteran considering
suicide, VA operates a 24/7 toll-free hotline (800) 273-TALK.  Call
today if you need help.]

The results were startling: according to data from 45 states, 6,256
men and women who had served in the armed forces took their own lives
in 2005 - that’s 120 suicides every week. Chief investigative
correspondent Armen Keteyian and his investigative team found that
veterans were more than twice as likely to commit suicide that year
than non-veterans.

During the course of the investigation, the investigative team
compiled a list of resources for how to find help and recognize the
warning signs of mental health issues that could also be warning signs
for suicide.

How to Spot Warning Signs

The Department of Veterans Affairs provides the following warning signs.

* Talking about wanting to hurt or kill oneself

* Trying to get pills, guns, or other ways to harm oneself

* Talking or writing about death, dying, or suicide

* Hopelessness

* Rage, uncontrolled anger, seeking revenge

* Acting in a reckless or risky way

* Feeling trapped, like there’s no way out

* Saying or feeling there’s no reason for living

Suicide Signs Unique to Veterans

Experts on suicide prevention say for veterans there are some
particular signs to watch for.

* Calling old friends, particularly military friends, to say goodbye

* Cleaning a weapon that they may have as a souvenir

* Visits to graveyards

* Obsessed with news coverage of the war, the military channel

* Wearing their uniform or part of their uniform, boots, etc

* Talking about how honorable it is to be a soldier

* Sleeping more (sometimes the decision to commit suicide brings a
sense of peace of mind, and they sleep more to withdraw)

* Becoming overprotective of children

* Standing guard of the house, perhaps while everyone is asleep
staying up to “watch over” the house, obsessively locking doors,
windows

* If they are on medication, stopping medication and/or hording medication

* Hording alcohol — not necessarily hard alcohol, could be wine

* Spending spree, buying gifts for family members and friends “to remember by”

* Defensive speech “you wouldn’t understand,” etc.

* Stop making eye contact or speaking with others

Where to Get Help

Hotline for Veterans: Veterans who need help immediate counseling
should call the hotline run by Veterans Affairs professionals at
1-800-273-TALK and press 1 identifying themselves as military
veterans. Staff members are specially trained to take calls from
military veterans and its staffed 24 hours a day, everyday. While all
operators are trained to help veterans, some are also former military.

Veterans Affairs Health Benefits

Read more about what benefits are available to veterans.

To find out more about what kind of services returning service members
qualify for, check out this summary at the Department of Veterans
Affairs.

Related Links
Air Force Suicide Prevention Program

Army Center for Health Promotion and Preventive Medicine
410.671.4656

Navy Environmental Health Center’s Suicide Prevention site
757.953.0959

Marine Corps Suicide Prevention Program

National Center for PTSD
802.296.6300

Nonprofit group Give An Hour

SAMHSA’s National Suicide Prevention Lifeline
800.273.8255
TTY: 800.799.4889

Recent Legislation to Prevent Veteran Suicide: On November 6, 2007,
President Bush signed into law the Joshua Omvig Veterans Suicide
Prevention Act. It’s named after a soldier who committed suicide in
Grundy County, Iowa, in December 2005, after serving an 11-month tour
in Iraq. The bill requires the Department of Veteran’s Affairs to meet
deadlines in providing the following services:

* Train VA staff on suicide prevention and mental health care

* Staff each VA medical facility with a suicide prevention counselor

* Screen soldiers who seek care through the VA for mental health needs

* Support outreach and education for veterans and their families

* Research the most effective strategies for suicide prevention

* Create a peer support counseling program so veterans can help other veterans

However, while the bill requires the VA to provide these services, it
provides no new funding.

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By Laura Strickler with reporting from Sarah Fitzpatrick in Washington.

    At 84 years old Norman Mailer’s controversial life came to an end this weekend.  I found myself feeling unclear about how  I feel about this man’s life since his legacy is so complex.  On the one hand he brought much attention in his unique way to the anti-Vietnam war movement through his writings - especially WHY ARE WE IN VIETNAM?, which I read for an English course at Trinity College in Hartford in the late ’60’s and was swept away by, and ARMIES OF THE NIGHT, in which Mailer “essentially creates his own genre for the narrative, split into historicized and novelized accounts of the October 1967 March on the Pentagon” (Wikipedia).  So there’s that part of the man and then there’s the comprehensively over the top behavior including stabbing his first wife with a pen knife, trashing aspects of the women’s movement, being a pugnacious bad boy on the talk show circuit, etc…Was it just irreverance and a refusal to accept convention and its standards/judgments of what’s appropriate?  Or was it ego-centrism made into a virtual art form.  I know that his contributions to American letters are significant and I thoroughly enjoyed seeing a slice of his life as a devoted resident of Provincetown in 2002 on a wonderful segment of CBS SUNDAY MORNING today.  He told of loving the history of P’town, the pirates, the crazy parties, the pot smoking and how he likes being there for the echoes of those people and times that are still there.  And isn’t it the echo of his life and work that we will now be left with.   He was anti-war, anti-Nixon, and anti-establishment.  He even ran for mayor of NYC against John Lindsay on a platform that called for the City to secede from New York state…and he was serious.  All the more reason that seeing his very conventional life in P’town - he started each day with the crossword puzzle to get into the mood, wrote for hours at a stretch until the very end and then spent each evening with his 6th wife  - felt so very strange.  Of course, he would never admit to being conventional.  Then there’s his final book, ON GOD, AN UNCOMMON CONVERSATION, in which he returns to form - or perhaps, given the depth of his convictions, he never really left - and says, “that piety is oppressive. It takes all the air out of thought.”  A less pious man has seldom attracted so much attention.  I am very interested to hear what other folks are thinking about Mailer as he has now taken his leave of this earth.

ON GOD an uncommon conversation
Said piety oppressive, it takes all the air out of thought

    Elise Forbes Tripp has written a most important book which relies on the voices of Iraq veterans to tell the story of the war.  SURVIVING IRAQ is the result of Tripp’s decision to get out of the way of the vets to whom she spoke and to “let the narratives be the entire point.”  I felt an immediate connection to this approach since it is precisely the one that I have taken with CALLED TO SERVE and from the excerpts that I have read in today’s DAILY HAMPSHIRE GAZETTE, she made a very wise decision not to make use of her training as an analyst of history and policy, but simply let her subjects speak to her.  Ms. Tripp describes in the article the pressure she experienced to “consider weaving the veterans’ stories into her own narrative, rather than letting their voices stand alone.”  She evidently promised all the veterans who agreed to talk that their stories would be included in the book.  The excerpts I am about to provide access to are very powerful and hopefully the book will find an audience despite the fact that, “oral histories are a hard sell,” something else with which I am familiar from my experience thus far with trying to get CALLED TO SERVE out…

Here’s the website for the article and book excerpts:

http://www.dailyhampshiregazette.com/cspstory.cfm?id_no=66604&vkey=19346846878186822b79247e12537fdc167cf9cb-61

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   Tomorrow night (Sunday, Nov. 4th) the Northampton Film Festival is screening “No Unwounded Soldiers”.  It will be shown at 6:30 p.m. at Smith College’s Weinstein Auditorium in Wright Hall.  The Daily Hampshire Gazette wrote an article about both this film and “War Made Easy”, which was shown this afternoon.  The article conveys the challenges faced by returning veterans from World War II, Vietnam and Iraq.  The film shows that healing is possible for these vets, especially through artistic expression.  The director of the film festival, Jeffrey Dreisbach, is quoted as saying, “It’s not a political film at all.   It’s just important.”

I was particularly struck by one quote in the article.   The director of the film, Rebecca Abbott said, “As Vietnam veterans, they’re so used to people not wanting to hear their stories.”  This is a major reason why I wanted to include veterans’ stories in CALLED TO SERVE.  Invariably I felt the anguish of those sharing their stories with me - in reliving the experiences and in having kept so much hidden for so long.  So this comment substantiated my experience with these people whose stories need to be told to allow them to heal and find closure and to enable us to learn about them and their lives…

As always I would greatly appreciate reactions to the article as well, for those able to attend, the film.  There is a reception, as the article mentions preceding the film at the Neilson Library Reading Room from 5:15-6:00.  Here is the article as it appeared in the Gazette:

Two films about war’s causes and consequences will be shown the first weekend of the Northampton Independent Film Festival, which kicks off today.

Both films explore the issues and questions that veterans and citizens face during and after war.

‘No Unwounded Soldiers,’ a documentary by filmmaker and educator Rebecca Abbott, will be screened Sunday at Smith College’s Weinstein Auditorium in Wright Hall at 6:30 p.m.

Shot at the VA Connecticut Healthcare System hospital in West Haven, Conn., the film follows four Vietnam-era veterans and the twin sister of a deceased veteran as they attempt to heal through a drama therapy program offered at the hospital.

Led by registered drama therapist Mary Lou Lauricella once a week, the group created an original play, ‘The Promise Once Removed,’ which the veterans based on their own experiences or those of others they knew. In the performance, a veteran of Iraq comes home to his father, who is a Vietnam War veteran.

The personal stories of the Vietnam veterans, as well as World War II veterans, including Pearl Harbor survivor Edward Borucki of Southampton, and a veteran of Iraq, are woven throughout the film.

Abbott’s documentary shows that healing is possible for them, particularly through the means of artistic expression.

‘It’s not a political film at all,’ said Jeffrey Dreisbach, the director of the Northampton Independent Film Festival. ‘It’s just important.’

An official selection of the 2007 Vail Film Festival in April, ‘No Unwounded Soldiers’ met a receptive audience there, Abbott said. Four of the veterans profiled in the film traveled to Vail, Colo., for the screening and to speak to audiences, an experience they found moving, the filmmaker said.

As Vietnam War veterans, ‘they’re so used to people not wanting to hear their stories,’ said Abbott, a professor in the media production and media studies department at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Conn.

Abbott said she wanted to make the film after realizing ‘there were so many untold stories at the VA and among veterans.’ She encountered frustration among many veterans who saw the conflict in Iraq as the Vietnam War all over again - they never thought the history of the Vietnam War would repeat itself, she says.

‘They thought that people would learn from it,’ Abbott said, ‘and know what not to do.’

Healing through speaking

The Amherst-based Veterans Education Project, which is sponsoring the film with the Smith College School for Social Work and the college’s theater and history departments, aims to educate youth on violence prevention through veterans’ first-hand storytelling accounts.

The project is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. Although not considered therapy for the veterans, says VEP director Rob Wilson, telling their stories is therapeutic.

‘The act of sharing your story with people who are really interested in it, and ask you questions, and who validate your story - it’s incredibly helpful,’ said Wilson.

He said ‘No Unwounded Soldiers’ is poignant not only because it shows the value of drama therapy, but because it links veterans from three generations.

‘We have felt that there are just so many lessons from the Vietnam War era that have not been applied to the current conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq,’ Wilson said. With another generation of veterans coming home from Iraq, ‘we have a lot to learn about homecoming,’ he said.

The filmmaker, a group of veterans, and counselors will be on hand for discussion after the documentary. Before the film, from 5 to 6:15 p.m., a reception and light dinner will be held in the Neilson Library Reading Room at Smith College. A donation is requested.

The second film, ‘War Made Easy: How Presidents & Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death,’ will be shown Saturday at 4 p.m. at the Academy of Music, 274 Main St.

Based on a book of the same name by media critic Norman Solomon, the documentary is narrated by actor and director Sean Penn. Produced by the Northampton nonprofit Media Education Foundation, ‘War Made Easy’ critically examines the strategies used by politicians to promote their agenda for war, from Vietnam to the present day conflict in Iraq. The film also asserts that Americans are not adequately served by the journalists charged with questioning government tactics. A panel after the film will feature two VEP veterans and MEF executive director Sut Jhally.