Soldier's Home : Coming Home

New Ad Tells Vets They're Not Alone, Offers Social Networking

David Botti — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 16:52:42 GMT

Sometimes one needs to restate the obvious to point out what's right in front of us. That's what New York Times columnist Bob Herbert did recently when he wrote these words:

With so much attention understandably focused on the economy and the incoming administration, the struggles being faced by G.I.’s coming home from combat overseas are receding even further from the public’s consciousness.

If you’re in your late teens or early 20s and your energies have been directed for a year or more toward dodging roadside bombs and ambushes, caring for horribly wounded comrades and, in general, killing before being killed, it can be difficult to readjust to a world of shopping malls, speed limits and polite conversation.

Herbert was discussing the launch of a major new ad campaign by the advocacy group, Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, that aims to send a message to returning vets: you are not alone. The ad touts an online social networking Website called communityofveterans.org which not only provides useful information (such as how to navigate the VA), but also gives vets a chance to correspond with each other. Because the site was designed by veterans, attention is paid to aspects of veteran life the general public may not be aware of, such as an excellent portion that deals with homecoming. Put simply, the site got it absolutely right:

It’s good to be home. Or is it?

That day you dreamed about the past few months – it’s finally here. Sure, it’s great to be back, but after a while something sinks in. “It’s not as sweet as you think it is,” one vet recalls of his return.

After riding high those first few days or weeks, the honeymoon period can end abruptly. It doesn’t take long before everything that used to be familiar feels unfamiliar. You might feel like a stranger in your own town. You may feel you’ve changed, but nothing else has.

On top of that, after living on alert for so long, life at home can feel like living “with the volume turned down,” in one Iraq vet’s words. Disappointment and disorientation can mount early.

It helps to find an outlet, something you’re passionate about. “Everybody needs something to focus their energy on other than what’s going on,” one vet says. “You need something to get your mind off everything else.”

The new ad campaign (below) features a young vet returning to a desolate New York City, where only the handshake from another veteran makes the scene come alive again. Herbert talked with the returning veteran in the video ad, Bryan Adams, and relayed his experiences:

Bryan, now 24, was an Army sniper in Iraq from February 2004 to February 2005. At an age when many youngsters go to college or line up that first significant job, he and his squad-mates were prowling Tikrit with high-powered weapons, looking for bad guys.

He was shot in the leg and hand during a firefight, and he saw and did things that he was less than anxious to talk about when he came home.

“I wanted to go to college,” he told me. “I had all these plans, but I couldn’t seem to make them happen. I couldn’t focus. I would get, like, depressive thoughts.”

He said that he would party a lot. “Party” was a euphemism for drinking.

The drinking made him more depressed, and then he would get angry that he was “partying but not having a good time.”

Bryan said he would “flip out,” and friends began to shun him. “I just didn’t care what I did or who I affected with my actions. I would break stuff. I’d break, like appliances. It was bad.”

Writing on Veterans Day, Paul Rieckhoff founder of IAVA, explained the intentions behind this Public Service Announcement (PSA) [via Talking Points Memo]. The title of the piece was aptly named Veterans Day 2.0.

These PSAs, which will soon be running nationwide, were created in partnership with the Ad Council. You might not know the organization, but you definitely know their campaigns - these are the folks responsible for "Friends Don't Let Friends Drive Drunk" and "A Mind is a Terrible Thing to Waste." This new campaign will be just as iconic and just as effective.

Sure, it's a powerful ad. But what is this PSA going to do to help vets?

It will bring them together and connect them with the veteran's hall of the future. Veterans coming home have told us again and again, the thing they need most of all is to reconnect with other vets. So this innovative campaign links veterans to a new private social network, exclusively for Iraq and Afghanistan veterans...

Vets can sign up for the Website here.

15 Percent of Veterans Report Sexual Trauma to the VA

David Botti — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 13:21:32 GMT

A study released today by the VA's National Center for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder found that 15 percent of the Iraq/Afghanistan vets seeking treatment at VA facilities report experiencing some kind of sexual trauma while serving in the military. Additionally, these veterans are 1.5 times more likely require mental health care. These numbers are derived from the nearly 40 percent of recent war veterans who've sought general medical care since being discharged from the military. Screening all vets coming through VA medical facilities for sexual trauma is a standard practice.

Here are more statistics referenced in the report [via Reuters and USA Today]:|

76 percent of women who've had previous sexual trauma reported mental health problems, 51 percent of which include some form of PTSD.
47 percent of women without a history of sexual trauma reported mental health problems, 22 percent of which include some form of PTSD.
Women with military-related sexual trauma experiences have a 59 percent higher risk of mental health problems.
Men with military-related sexual trauma experiences have a 40 percent higher risk of mental health problems.
One in seven female vets reported an instance of military sexual trauma.
Just under one percent of male vets reported an instance of military sexual trauma.

The study covered 125,000 veterans seeking treatment from the VA between October 2001 and October 2007. Active duty soldiers were not included because the VA is not involved with their care. Additionally, the specific types of sexual trauma were not included, only the number of occurrences.

Reuters spoke to the new report's co-author Rachel Kimerling:

Kimerling said in a telephone interview the term "military sexual trauma" covers a range of events from coerced sex to outright rape or threatening and unwelcome sexual advances...

..."If you think about military service where you are living and working so closely with the same people, that even if it is not sexual assault ... it is possible that severe sexual harassment is just as traumatic," she said...
...Kimerling said that may mean many veterans are unaware they can be helped and she said she hoped more would come forward to seek treatment.
"There are dedicated health care services for military sexual trauma at every VA facility across the nation," she said.

Sexual trauma can lead to depression, anxiety, substance abuse and post-traumatic stress disorder, Kimerling said.

"We know there are effective, evidence-based treatments for them that are used in VA," she added.

Additionally, USA Today wrote of the likelihood female service members will report sexual trauma at all:

Many women are afraid to report the assaults, says Anita Sanchez of the Miles Foundation, a non-profit that provides services to victims of military-related trauma. Fewer than a third of women who come to Miles for help after sexual assaults say they've told the military, she says.

"A typical scenario is it's either a supervisor or someone at her level, in the same military unit. If you come forward, you're tattle-telling on a comrade. Women have told me about the sneers, the sarcastic comments. They can find themselves ostracized," says Sanchez, and when other women see this, the lesson isn't lost on them.

For a detailed introduction to military sexual trauma read this post from last year where I interviewed an expert on the subject.

Another Shot at An Iraq War Movie

David Botti — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 16:57:08 GMT

Since the start of the Iraq war there's been a number of attempts to relay the soldier/veteran experience through films both fictional and documentary. Now comes Hollywood's latest production The Lucky Ones (trailer), which stars Tim Robbins, Rachel McAdams, and Michael Pena as Iraq veterans on a road trip across the United States. You could say making this movie is somewhat of a bold move. In fact, a headline in Florida alt-weekly Creative Loafing reads: "Can The Lucky Ones break the Iraq war-movie jinx?" Historically Iraq movies (and one TV show) have done poorly, sometimes drawing criticism for the actual storyline and other times falling victim to what some see as a general lack of interest among American moviegoers.

Movie critics have pointed to the fact Americans already see the war everyday on the news (at least, for many years they did), and fictionalized portrayals simply don't have the escapism movies can provide. Then there's the over-saturation of political messages some of the movies contained. Washington Times movie critic Christian Toto told NPR last year: "A lot of the critics of the more recent films have said that the films are full of speeches, and it's very obvious what the political angle is. And I think an artist, maybe if he or she had some time to reflect on the material, may give a more nuanced balanced performance."

Creative Loafing's J.r. Jones took a brief look at the history of war movies made soon after the wars they portrayed ended. He began with 1946's The Best Years of Our Lives, a truly amazing film following three veterans home from WWII as they deal with alcoholism, family tensions, and their injuries. The film was awarded eight Oscars. The post-Vietnam era saw the movies The Dear Hunter and Coming Home receive critical acclaim and solid public interest. Then came Iraq (and notice there really hasn't been any major film looking at the Korean War, other than maybe the Manchurian Candidate -- but, that's a different story). Jones gave a solid history of Iraq movies up to this point:

Dramas about returning Iraq war veterans haven't received nearly so warm a welcome. The first, Irwin Winkler's Home of the Brave, opened in New York and LA shortly before Christmas 2006 and was released a little more widely the following summer, mostly near military bases, but it quickly vanished. Clearly modeled on The Best Years of Our Lives, it followed three soldiers as they tried to adjust to life in a country that didn't want to think about them or the war they'd been fighting. I wouldn't call it a knockout, but it had some powerful scenes, particularly those involving Jessica Biel as a soldier who'd lost a hand and was now forced to make do with a big, clumsy prosthesis obviously designed for a man. Kimberly Peirce's Stop-Loss, an MTV-produced drama about three young grunts returning from the war to their stars-and-stripes Texas town, got a more respectful rollout from Paramount Pictures this past March, but it flopped, grossing less than half its $25 million production cost.

How The Lucky Ones does is anyone's guess at this point. The initial reviews aren't bad but they aren't great either. The Cleveland Plain Dealer had this to say:

"The Lucky Ones," co-writer/director Neil Burger's credible if unremarkable follow-up to his extraordinary "The Illusionist," refers to soldiers returning from Iraq in one piece...What follows is a series of occasionally funny encounters, as well as some soapy complications not so unpleasant as they are predictable. There are the requisite moving moments, too, making "The Lucky Ones" no more or less noteworthy than the slew of war movies preceding it in the last year or two.

An observation you'll see made in reviews of the movie is the script's use of humor where other Iraq movies may have remained humorless. The San Jose Mercury News weighs in on how this all works out:

The film...has Iraq on its mind, though it never mentions the word. It wants to make some kind of commentary on how the country hasn't come to grips with the war or its veterans without taking the issue head-on. Perhaps the director and his co-writer, Dirk Wittenborn ("Fierce People''), thought a lighter, entertaining approach would work after so many box-office failures about the war that were either dark thrillers or dramas. But the contrived and convoluted plot of "The Lucky Ones'' eventually undermines any serious intentions.

Here are a few links to other movies/TV shows about the Iraq war:

Rendition
In the Valley of Elah
Redacted
Over There (TV)
Home of the Brave
Stop-Loss
Generation Kill (TV miniseries)

Trying to Modernize the GI Bill

David Botti — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 14:41:55 GMT

More than half a century after the GI Bill was first enacted to help send vets to college, politicians and advocates are touting a new proposed bill to expand these benefits. The Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act was introduced by a number of Republicans and Democrats in both the House and Senate. Among them is Virginia Senator (and Vietnam vet) Jim Webb whose posted this statement on his Website:

The Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act is designed to offer the brave men and women who have served honorably since September 11, 2001 a level of educational benefits on par with those provided to veterans of the World War II era.

In a profile of numerous veterans struggling to capitalize on education opportunities after returning home from war, the Washington Post helps to break down where the current GI Bill stands now. The problem is that these benefits can no longer fully fund higher education, as they once did for earlier generations of veterans.

Many people enlist to earn money for college, and almost everyone signs up for the education benefits -- which, in the case of the main GI Bill, requires a service member to pay about $1,200 into the plan-- but not everyone takes advantage of it. And that buy-in is not returned even if the benefits are unused.

About 70 percent use at least some part of it, said Keith Wilson, director of the education service, but the VA does not track how many earn degrees.

An independent study found that just over half use some part of the benefits, said Ray Kelley of AMVETS, a veterans support group, and only 8 percent use all. "Congress is realizing we're not giving them the benefits we say we're giving them," Kelley said. "They only have 36 months from the time they start using it to the time they finish." That means going to school full time, year-round.

Earlier this month NPR's Morning Edition broke down more of the specifics of the proposed bill.

Webb's bill wouldn't cover the entire cost of study at a private school like George Washington, but it would pay for tuition, fees and books at the most expensive state university. It would also provide an allowance for essentials based on the federal cost-of-living estimate. As an incentive to private schools, the federal government would also match any scholarship funds awarded to a veteran.
The bill would also decrease the disparity between benefits offered to active duty soldiers and those offered to members of the National Guard.

The report also noted the Pentagon's reluctance to the new bill. Officials there are worried that increased education benefits would encourage soldiers to leave the military for college, thus hurting retention numbers.

Paul Rieckhoff, founder of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, likened today's planned bi-partisan press conference supporting Webb's bill to the coming together of old rivals:

With the political situation so polarized this election year, it's like seeing players from the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox sit down for Sunday afternoon tea.

On the presidential campaign front, Senator John McCain recently unveiled his own GI Bill improvements after receiving criticism for not supporting Webb's bill. According to The Hill:

McCain’s bill is designed to enhance the existing Montgomery GI Bill, but will compete for Senate votes with Webb’s measure, which already has 57 co-sponsors, including Democratic presidential hopefuls Sens. Barack Obama (Ill.) and Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.)...

...At the same time, McCain and other supporters of the new bill touted it as an improvement over Webb’s measure. Some military officials have worried the Webb bill’s would provide such an incentive for active-duty military to attend school that it would make it hard for the military to retain soldiers.

Below are some of the main bulleted points from both McCain's and Webb's proposals. First up, here's Webb's taken from this brief fact sheet:

Increased educational benefits would be available to all members of the military who have served on active duty since September 11, 2001, including activated reservists and National Guard. To qualify, veterans must have served at least three to thirty-six months of qualified active duty, beginning on or after September 11, 2001.

The bill provides for educational benefits to be paid in amounts linked to the amount of active duty served in the military after 9/11. Generally, veterans would receive some amount of assistance proportional to their service for 36 months, which equals four academic years. Veterans would still be eligible to receive any incentive-based supplemental educational assistance from their military branch for which they qualify.

Benefits provided under the bill would allow veterans pursuing an approved program of education to receive payments covering the established charges of their program, up to the cost of the most expensive in-state public school, plus a monthly stipend equivalent to housing costs in their area. The bill would allow additional payments for tutorial assistance, as well as licensure and certification tests.

The bill would create a new program in which the government will agree to match, dollar for dollar, any voluntary additional contributions to veterans from institutions whose tuition is more expensive than the maximum educational assistance provided under S.22.

Veterans would have up to fifteen years, compared to ten years under the Montgomery G.I. Bill, after they leave active duty to use their educational assistance entitlement. Veterans would be barred from receiving concurrent assistance from this program and another similar program.

And, here's McCain's taken from his Website:

An immediate increase in education benefits for active duty personnel to $1500 a month, and to improve retention, those benefits increase to $2000 a month after 12 or more years of service.

Significantly increased benefit for members of the National Guard and Reserves.

Transferability, the ability of service members to transfer their education benefits to dependents. After 6 years, half of the benefit may be transferred and after 12 years 100% may be transferred to a spouse or dependent children.

Student loan repayment. Allows servicemembers to use up to $6,000 per year of Montgomery G.I. Bill education benefits to repay Federal student loans.

Creation of a matching program to help more veterans graduate debt-free. Up to an additional $3,000 per year could be paid by the Department of Veterans Affairs in return for the school retiring some or all of the servicemember’s debt.

Access to Montgomery G.I. Bill benefits for service academy graduates and Senior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps officers who continue serving.

Builds on existing educational benefits program to ensure rapid implementation with minimal additional administrative costs.

Veterans Suing the VA, Senators Call for Resignation

David Botti — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 13:57:35 GMT

A trial in U.S. District Court is now underway as a group of veterans challenge the Department of Veterans Affairs over the lack of care afforded to returning troops. The case, Veterans for Common Sense v. Peake, is said by the plaintiffs' attorney to be the first of its kind. Yesterday a suicide expert testified on behalf of the plaintiffs that veterans are killing themselves at three to seven times the rate of the general population. The American Lawyer has a good summary of what the case is all about:

The suit claims that many disabled combat veterans are in dire need of counseling and other services they are not currently receiving from the U.S. government. Erspamer [the plaintiff's counsel] estimates that 120 veterans who served in Iraq or Afghanistan commit suicide each week. The veterans' groups are not seeking monetary damages but want reform of a health care system in which they allege a huge backlog of cases prevents veterans from receiving timely care.

The San Francisco Chronicle outlined what suicide expert Ronald Maris sees as a complete lack of readiness within the VA to deal with the great number of veterans suicides:

A majority of the VA's counselors, doctors, social workers and psychologists "don't have the tools and the information that they need to intervene effectively with suicidal vets," said Maris, a former president of the American Association of Suicidology who has been a consultant to the Army on suicide prevention.

He was particularly critical of the VA's top health care administrator, William Feeley, who said in a pretrial deposition April 9 that the agency has no systematic national plan for suicide prevention. Feeley also said he was unaware of any methods of tracking veterans at risk of suicide and that suicide rates "are not a metric we are measuring."

The impact of the trial is being felt in Washington, D.C. where two U.S. senators are now calling for the resignation of the VA's chief mental health official, Dr. Ira Katz. Senator Patty Murray (D-Wash.) is citing evidence learned in the trial showing that the VA withheld information on the rising number of veterans suicides. As her statement reads:

"Doctor Katz's irresponsible actions have been a disservice to our veterans and it is time for him to go. The number one priority of the VA should be caring for our veterans, not covering up the truth...I have spoken with Secretary Peake and I have asked him to take immediate action to restore the faith of our veterans in the mental health care provided by the VA."

The Associated Press details the contents VA emails disclosed at the trial:

An e-mail message from Katz disclosed this week as part of a lawsuit that went to trial in San Francisco starts with "Shh!" and claims 12,000 veterans a year attempt suicide while under department treatment.
"Is this something we should (carefully) address ourselves in some sort of release before someone stumbles on it?" the e-mail asks.
A VA spokesman declined to comment Tuesday.
Another e-mail said an average of 18 war veterans kill themselves each day — and five of them are under VA care when they commit suicide.

For more on why the plaintiffs brought this case against the Department of Veterans Affairs, you can visit their website here.

19 Percent of Iraq/Afghanistan Vets Suffer from Depression

David Botti — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 17:22:13 GMT

A new comprehensive report by the RAND Corporation has concluded that 300,000 veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan suffer from depression or PTSD--and only about half have sought out treatment, according to the Associated Press. The report surveyed 1,965 vets in what the AP calls the first large scale private study of its kind. The numbers show that 18.5 percent of all Iraq and Afghanistan vets suffer from these these symptoms. According to RAND, possible solutions to temper these problems may be available:

Among our recommendations is that effective treatments documented in the scientific literature — evidence-based care — are available for PTSD and major depression. Delivery of such care to all veterans with PTSD or major depression would pay for itself within two years, or even save money, by improving productivity and reducing medical and mortality costs. Such care may also be a cost-effective way to retain a ready and healthy military force for the future. However, to ensure that this care is delivered requires system-level changes across the Department of Defense, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and the U.S. health care system.

The AP offered up more conclusions drawn from the study, including why vets are not seeking care:

They gave various reasons for not getting help, including that they worried about the side effects of medication; believe family and friends could help them with the problem, or that they feared seeking care might damage their careers.

The report also noted who is most susceptible to depression and PTSD, although, in the end, it is a vet's exposure to combat trauma that is the greatest predictor:

Rates of PTSD and major depression were highest among Army soldiers and Marines, and among service members who were no longer on active duty (people in the reserves and those who had been discharged or retired from the military). Women, Hispanics and enlisted personnel all were more likely to report symptoms of PTSD and major depressions.

Last November the Pentagon opened the Defense Center of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury in an effort to bring together education, treatment, and research. From the Department of Defense:

The center also will set standards and assess, survey and validate DoD programs, and decide, in part, how resources are directed... Center officials are reviewing hundreds of research project proposals that hope to claim a piece of the $300 million set aside by Congress last year for brain injury research. The office also will work with the military services to see which of the many programs funded with another $600 million from Congress are working and how to direct those funds to programs most beneficial to servicemembers and families.

MIA Soldier is Finally Found

David Botti — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 14:54:38 GMT

After a brief hiatus last week, I've come back to this blog just as the news coverage of the Iraq war's fifth anniversary has winded down. Now we're back to the daily routine of chronicling what soldier's face on and off the battle front. In some ways these war anniversaries are an excellent opportunity to pause and remember where we've been, and where we're going. In other ways it is difficult to now find ourselves with a popular interest that's once again subsided. Nevertheless, it's crucial to keep moving on.

It is almost fitting then that today we focus on recent news that the remains of a soldier who went missing in 2004 have finally been found. U.S. Army Staff Sergeant Matt Maupin went missing on April 9, 2004 during an ambush outside of Baghdad. A few months later a video surfaced depicting the shooting to death of a man dressed in Army fatigues--a man said to be Maupin. But because of the video quality, investigators were unable to positively identify that the victim was indeed Maupin.

The Associated Press reported on the reaction of Maupin's parents:

Keith Maupin said the Army told him soon after his son's capture that there was only a 50 percent chance he would be found alive. He said he doesn't hold the Army responsible for his son's death, but that he did hold the Army responsible for bringing his son home.

"I told them when we'd go up to the Pentagon, whether he walks off a plane or is carried off, you're not going to leave him in Iraq like you did those guys in Vietnam," Maupin said....

...."It hurts," Carolyn Maupin said. "After you go through almost four years of hope, and this is what happens, it's like a letdown, so I'm trying to get through that right now."

The Maupins were told by an Army official on Friday to expect an update on their son over the weekend, Keith Maupin said. The Army broke the news about their son's remains at a somber meeting.

An editorial in the Cincinnati Inquirer provides a dead-on rumination on the significance of this news' timing:

March 2008 had been an eventful month in the Iraq war - the fifth anniversary of the U.S. invasion, the marking of the 4,000th U.S. military death, an uptick in violence after months of declining hostility.

So there's a sad closure in the fact that the agonizingly long-awaited news of his fate should end that month: Matt, perhaps more than any other American serving in that conflict, has helped put a tangible, individual human face on an issue filled with abstractions and acrimony.

However you feel about the war in Iraq, the story of Matt Maupin - who had joined the Army Reserve to earn money for college - brings home the human cost of war, the lost potential, the lives not fully lived.

The Kentucky Post has the Army's official findings:

According to Public Affairs Officer LTC Steve Stover, "Staff Sgt. Matt Maupin's remains were recovered northwest of Baghdad on March 20, by Soldiers from 1st Battalion, 21st Infantry Regiment, based out of Schofield Barracks, Hawaii, attached to 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment. The recovery was the result of four years of intensive efforts by Multi-National Division-Baghdad Soldiers and multiple joint and interagency organizations."

For a look at other soldiers still missing in Iraq check out this past Soldier's Home post. Fortunately, you can disregard the information about Matt Maupin. He's home now.

A Roundup of Iraq Anniversary Coverage

David Botti — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 13:13:34 GMT

The fifth anniversary of the Iraq war is about to come upon us, and so too will an endless amount of media coverage on the issue. Later in the week I'll be writing up some personal reflections on the anniversary, but today I've compiled some of the better anniversary stories that have already popped up. First, take a look at NEWSWEEK's in-depth look at where the Army stands (plus these great video interviews with soldiers now in Iraq), and then see below for how other stories address the past five years.

On Sunday The New York Times gave former Baghdad bureau chief John F. Burns a few column inches to give his take on where the war has taken us. Burns penned this article at the war's outset which I've always considered to be an amazing piece of journalism. For Sunday's article, Burns, who spent five years in Iraq, reflects on his position as a journalist covering the war; and on the larger meaning for both the U.S. and Iraq. As his opening line puts it ("Five years on, it seems positively surreal"), Burns seems in awe of the course the war has taken; and frustrated over miscalculations that occurred. He writes of watching the first U.S. air strikes from a Baghdad roof:

...from that first impact, among many on the roof, the mood was scarcely one of cool detachment, or at least not as cautioned as it might have been by the longer-term implications of what we were seeing. Part of it, no doubt, was the air show — the sheer, astonishing, overwhelming demonstration of power, more like an act of God than man, unleashing in those watching from the roof something approaching awe. But the larger part, the one that seems surreal now in the light of all that has followed, was the sense that, with the beginning of the end of Saddam Hussein’s evil, the suffering of millions of ordinary Iraqis that we had chronicled, and pitied, was ending.

For an international view of the fifth anniversary, take a listen to four top BBC journalists who discuss what arose from the rubble of Saddam's regime, and the wider impact on other Arab states. The introductory text to the radio documentary has this telling observation:

It's been said that, if 11th September 2001 was the day the world changed for America, then 20th March 2003 was the day America changed for the world.

IAVA blogger Ray Kimball, an Army major and Iraq vet, reflects on leading his men through the opening days of the war and how he still thinks about the choices he made:

Five years later, looking back on it, different fears come to the fore. Did the choices that I made during those weeks shape what happened later? What could I have done differently? I remember distinctly driving by groups of looters who were busy dragging all they could grab out of government buildings. At the time, I decided that it was probably appropriate that ordinary Iraqis, who had been under Saddam’s thumb for so long, were finally getting some of theirs back. We now know that some of that looting destroyed critical infrastructure that would be vital in the coming months in trying to get a new Iraqi government on its feet. Hindsight is always 20-20, and yet, there is still the nagging feeling that I could have made different choices that might have helped lead to different outcomes.

The LA Daily News provided this look at a group using the anniversary to protest the war as part of a larger, worldwide series of such events. While the protest was attended by celebrities, as well as Vietnam vet Ron Kovic (of Born On the Fourth of July), the article offered a particularly telling moment: when two Iraq vets were noticed watching the protest, the reporter notes:

-"We have a surplus of hippies and a shortage of hand grenades," [the vet] said. He said the war cost him his marriage, and that he saw some of his friends die.

-The back of his sign read, "My sacrifice was not in vain."

-Several protesters walked up and greeted him, said he looked angry and offered him a hug - he declined - and asked how they could make him happy

-His response: "Go home."

New Jersey's Gloucester County Times took a look at how the war has affected a wide spectrum of people: from veterans, to family, to a VA worker. Marine Richard J. Maxie Jr. told the paper:

Despite the calls to bring the troops home, the constant media attention surrounding the war and the coming election, Maxie is steadfast in believing that the troops have accomplished something good in Iraq.

"They only see the bad things," said Maxie said of the media's portrayal of the war. "They don't really know kids are going to school and the Iraqis can go into the streets and not have to watch over their shoulders all the time.

Angelo Romeo, a local VA director, told the paper his impressions of what the newest vets coming home face:

Romeo says of the ones he has talked to that most of them are holding their experiences inside. He recalled hearing an instance about the friend of a new veteran who was complaining about a stressful day at work.

The soldier had served as an explosives detonation expert.

"I've seen them in social situations with their friends from high school and college. There's a bit of a disconnect."

The Iraq war's fifth anniversary isn't the only Iraq anniversary occurring this week. It was 20 years ago when Saddam Hussein killed at last 5,000 Kurds in chemical bombing attacks.

There's sure to be much more Iraq war anniversary coverage through the week. Stay tuned.

Treating (or Not Treating) Mental Health Issues at NY Base

David Botti — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 17:53:02 GMT

The Army's 10th Mountain Division located in Fort Drum, NY, has been the most deployed unit since the 9/11 attacks. A new report highlights an inadequate system in place at the Army base for treating soldiers with mental health issues. The report, published by the advocacy group Veterans for America, said soldiers can wait more than a month before seeing a proper health care worker.

Fort Drum is located near the Canadian border. Its remoteness and harsh winter weather doesn't exactly provide the most uplifting setting for soldiers recently back from combat tours in Iraq. Veterans for America notes this as the report begins, offering a glimpse into the setting where PTSD can begin to surface among veterans:

Generally speaking, winter conditions at Fort Drum are dreary, with snow piled high and spring still months away. More than a dozen Soldiers reported low morale, frequent DUI arrests, and rising AWOL, spousal abuse, and rates of attempted suicide. Soldiers also reported that given the financial realities of the Army, some of their fellow Soldiers had to resort to taking second jobs such as delivering pizzas to supplement their family income.

The report illustrates an atmosphere where lack of trained mental health professionals, combined with a military culture of keeping things to one's self, can leave many veterans going untreated. As the systems stands now, soldiers can easily provide false information on questionnaires designed to seek out those who need counseling. The most common way a soldier can received treatment is through self-referral. Furthermore:

In meeting with Fort Drum Soldiers, VFA found a number of disconcerting examples of inadequate mental health care at Fort Drum. Some Soldiers reported that the leader of the mental health treatment clinic at Fort Drum asked Soldiers not to discuss their mental health problems with people outside the base. Attempts to keep matters “in house” foster an atmosphere of secrecy and shame that is not conducive to proper treatment for combat-related mental health injuries.

The New York Times profiled Eli Wright, 26, an Army medic based at Fort Drum. He described common episodes of flashbacks and shot nerves as routine occurrences.

Mr. Wright said he waited weeks at Fort Drum to see a mental health professional, who diagnosed post-traumatic stress disorder. He was prescribed medication and pointed toward group therapy, where, he said, “half the time the group is staring at the floor.” At times, he was taking two pills at once. “I couldn’t stay awake,” he said.

A few weeks ago NPR broadcast a lengthy report in which it detailed a number of the same issues outlined in today's report. One soldier said he felt like he'd been tossed aside like a pair of worn-out boots. Last week Army Surgeon General Eric Schoomaker was interviewed by NPR about what was detailed in its initial story:

NPR: What do you say to these people who've had less help with their paperwork because of what you've described as a misunderstanding?
SCHOOMAKER: So far — you're giving me new information, I wasn't aware that anyone has not gotten the best advice. If anyone out there feels that they didn't get the best advice, they need to come forward and let us know about that.

Meanwhile, last Friday 19-year-old Pfc. Jack Sweet, a Fort Drum soldier, was killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq.

In Advance of the War's 5th Anniversary

David Botti — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 19:02:41 GMT

The fifth anniversary of the start of our war in Iraq is a little more than a month away. There will be retrospectives looking back to those early days of shock and awe, in addition to news analysis and the nation's self-reflection. Even a month out from the anniversary, conversations about the upcoming day seem to revolve around the same theme: "can you believe it's already been five years?" It is a sobering thought. And even if you believe in the war, or are staunchly at odds with its premise, five years is a unit of time to view not so much in length, but in the various phases that occurred.

The summer of 2003, as I saw it, was a honeymoon period. The optimism for Iraq's future still ran high (at least in some circles), and at the same time I could see questionable expressions on the faces of Iraq's citizens as we patrolled past them. No one knew how it would all play out. Personally the fragile tensions that held together a shaky peace ended on November 12, when a suicide bomber destroyed the building in An Nasiriyah that at one time was my platoon's headquarters.

Homecoming was also different. There were no VA scandals, or talk of PTSD, or advocacy groups comprised of Iraq veterans. We simply came home and quickly immersed ourselves back into civilian life. To watch how that has changed is to examine the evolution of the war in Iraq and on the home front. To ask a veteran about his or her experiences in Iraq yields not an overall glimpse into the war, but an occasion to see just one phase of it. This is what needs to be remembered as the anniversary coverage begins. I remember seeing soldiers entering Iraq July 2003 and feeling bad for them. They'd missed the defining war of our generation. They would spend a few months in post-invasion mopping up, and go home on the tail end of the operation. Of course, the irony in this cannot be overstated.

We have enough perspective over five years to eschew generic "looks back" for a more nuanced analysis of how our country has fared over this time. It must be broken into phases: the invasion, the time surrounding 2004's battle for Fallujah, the grinding years of 2005 and 2006, the Abu Ghraib and Haditha investigations, and the controversial surge plan that's brought us to this point. At home the fascination with the invasion's pyrotechnics has given way to simply reading of the daily casualty figures ticking away over the news wires. There's also the trends in media coverage to consider, the heightened focus of home front veterans issues, and how artistic mediums have sought to portray the war and inform us.

Looking back on the fifth anniversary means not so much seeing what happened, but understanding how we got to where we are today, and how driven we are to look at Iraq not simply as a war, but as a series of distinct eras.

Beyond Minnesota's Yellow Ribbons

David Botti — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 15:19:00 GMT

The name behind the Minnesota National Guard's new veterans assistance program says it all: Beyond the Yellow Ribbon. It references the iconic ribbons placed throughout local communities to display solidarity with troops serving overseas. Yet, as countless studies/news reports/personal experiences have shown, the war doesn't end for a veteran simply by returning home.

As a result Minnesota has formed a comprehensive new program aimed at assisting veterans long after they come home. Beyond the Yellow Ribbon guides veterans through everything from making sure one's drivers license hasn't expired, to getting medical check-ups, to resolving conflicts with a spouse. The key here is that it's all under one program, making it (in theory) easy to take advantage of all the program has to offer.

Here's a telling example from the Grand Forks Herald about what kinds of difficulties can arise from a homecoming:

The phone rings in the St. Paul office of Maj. John Morris, a chaplain with the Minnesota National Guard and point man in the Guard's effort to “reintegrate” soldiers returning from Iraq.
The caller is a woman from Crookston, wife of a soldier who came home last summer after an extended tour.
“We've been walking on egg shells, and we can't take it anymore,” she tells Morris, her frustration billowing like black smoke from a sabotaged Iraqi oil well.
“The kids come to me for everything, like they've been doing the past two years,” she said, as Morris recalled the conversation. “He doesn't want to spend time with our friends; he thinks their interests are trivial and they don't know anything about what his life has been like.
“He says, ‘I just want to be with my war buddies.' ”
How can we help? Morris asked her.
“Send him back to Iraq.”

Cue Beyond the Yellow Ribbon. Following this link one can listen to well-thought-out podcast on behavioral health dealing with family issues. Will one podcast resolve the issue? Perhaps not, but it can help the parties begin to think about ways to resolve the conflict.

The Herald also points to the very real notion that it's not always the case that a program like Beyond the Yellow Ribbon will be unconditionally embraced. As one National Guard Chaplin told the paper:

"We took a unit that was extremely hostile - especially after their time in Iraq was extended - and they didn't want any help at all. Soldiers can be very direct, and at first they told us, ‘Hey, this is a bunch of crap. I don't need it.'"

In contrast:

Family members often were more receptive to a helping hand than the returning soldiers were, he said. “They had seen things when the troops were home on leave - things like anger, feelings of isolation. They thought, ‘Boy, this is going to be harder than we thought it would be, pulling this family back together.' ”
Also, family members “had been more exposed to media and had heard stories from other families about soldiers coming back with problems,” Morris said. “They had a better idea of what might be needed.”

According to local news reports so far these two contrasting groups are now beginning meet halfway with the help of the National Guard program. Now lawmakers are seeking to make Beyond the Yellow ribbon a model for other states to follow.

The Image of a Veteran

David Botti — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 21:18:35 GMT

The current series in the New York Times on veterans who've committed murder has spurred tremendous debate over the way vets are portrayed by the media. To understand origins of the prevailing portrayals of our current veterans, it's a good idea to take a step back and view the issue in a historical perspective.

Jerry Lembcke is a Vietnam veteran and professor of sociology at Holly Cross college in Worcester, Massachusetts. Lembcke's book "The Spitting Image: Myth, Memory, and the Legacy of Vietnam," looked in part at how the news media and pop-culture cultivated narrow portrayals of Vietnam vets. He has also written op-eds for the Boston Globe, Newsday, and the San Francisco Chronicle among others. In 1968 Lembcke was drafted into the Army, serving as chaplain's assistant before returning home and joining the anti-war movement.

I talked to Lembcke about how the Vietnam-era vets experience impacts that of those men and women coming home from war today -- and how he thinks the media is handling its coverage of veterans and issues associated with them.

SOLDIER'S HOME: You've written that a veteran's behavior can be influenced more from how past vets were portrayed in pop-culture, as opposed to personal experiences he/she might have had. How specifically does this happen?

LEMBCKE: The post-Vietnam popular culture representations of veterans was so powerful and so long lasting, and it so overwhelmed the war itself in popular culture, that as people began to come home during the Gulf War in the 1990’s, and present these same symptoms as Vietnam veterans coming back, I thought there’s a connection here. I think I used the phrase “learned experience,” and it occurred to me that this was a generation of veterans who’d grown up immersed in this popular culture of what it looks like to be a war veteran coming home.

This was very different than the culture Vietnam vets grew up in. Looking at representations of WWII veterans for example, which was not nearly as powerful in film for example. We got more war films about WWII, but not so many films about veterans coming home.

What is being portrayed in these kinds of movies that can influence veterans?

In the Vietnam war movies it was the dysfunctional, deranged, and even dangerous vet. I looked at about 100 films that portrayed Vietnam vets in them, and there wasn’t a single film that portrayed a healthy, functional veteran. So, what we see among other things is a lot of violence, the war brought home in a psychological sense, and even sometimes Hollywood portrayed guys coming home with their hand grenades and weapons and used those on the street.

Now we’re seeing one of the main representations of Iraq war veterans coming home is in the press with the violent crimes they’re committing. A lot of stories read to me like a lot of press reports and fictional representations of Vietnam vets that guys can’t leave the war behind them. They come home and they act out these war scenarios on the streets.

Is there a way the press can report on crimes committed by returning veterans without having such representations be the result?

Look at the current series the New York Times is running. The first in the series reported that one third of the violence is against spouses, girlfriends, and children. What this shows is a problem of masculinity and sense of worth as a man that perhaps the war has affected. These kinds of acts of violence against women and children are ways of acting out on that. Those are the kinds of stories that should be reported rather than this kind of pedestrian-type story of people coming home scared, and they’ve been trained up to act on their fears militarily

So it’s an issue of the press making the issue too black and white, and not attending to the gray areas?

The press is asking the wrong questions. They’re asking what is it about the military experience that causes these guys to act out like this, rather than asking what it is about the military culture (and even the culture of America) that requires men’s self esteem to somehow be related to their war experience.

You’ve said that it’s possible the behavior of Iraq veterans is influenced by past portrayals of Vietnam veterans. Is it possible reporters are also influenced by these pop culture images of Vietnam vets?

That exactly right. What we need to ask is, why did this story sound true to the reporter? What is the reporter herself bringing into this situation of reporting that leads her to think that this story is true when she hears it. These people live in the same culture you and I live in. They go to the same movies, they read the same books, they hear the same kinds of stories. Their sense of what is right is based on the same cultural references as the rest of us.

You’ve done some research on the origin of the term “PTSD.” There are some who say that the term is overused in talking about Iraq veterans. How was it used when it first came out?

I went back and looked at how PTSD came into being in the first place as a diagnostic category. I think it was attractive to the press at the time because it served a cultural and political function. It was inviting because it displaced from public view the fact that a lot of people were returning from Vietnam opposed to the war. The attractiveness of PTSD was that it re-spun the coming home story. It might have been attractive to journalists for reasons of basic liberal humanitarianism or even guilt that they didn’t go to the war. They were finding some way to speak sympathetically to the experience of people coming home from war. That may be what’s happening again. These stories [in the today’s press] are written very good heartedly. They’re not attempts to slander Iraq war veterans, as some critics seem to suggest they do. But, going back to Vietnam vets there was a stigma surrounding them. That’s the hidden danger that if indeed journalists are writing these stories because they are sympathetic, and they want to do something good for Iraq war veterans, in the long run they might be doing some damage.

What about how we use the term “PTSD” today?

PTSD had prominence in the press so quickly because that’s where the Vietnam-era story leaves off. That was sort of the easy tag line for them. Lots and lots of analogies. These stories are written with phrases such as: “it’s like with Vietnam-era veterans.” These stories are full of those kinds of tag lines. And they’re apparently written like that as a way of engaging the reader at the level that the writer assumes the reader is at. They assume correctly that the readers are coming out of a historical period in which they’ve been immersed in these images of PTSD and war veterans.

The American public remembers what happened to Vietnam vets when they came home much more then they remember the war itself. The war in Vietnam has really faded in American memory, but people have these very sharp images of the spitting incidents and PTSD. Because those are the images that have hung on in popular culture, and I think it’s almost certain that will happen with the war in Iraq--that the coming home narrative is going to displace the history of the war itself. And that could happen quite quickly.

The Latest Reports on Army Suicides

David Botti — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 17:18:40 GMT

Yesterday we learned from the Washington Post of the record-breaking number of Army suicides during 2007. This is the latest edition of veteran suicide news that's made national headlines--further evidence that this is one aspect of the homecoming experience that isn't getting any better despite all the attention.The latest figures as reported by the Post:

In 2007, suicides among active-duty soldiers reached their highest point since the Army began keeping records in 1980.
121 soldiers committed suicide in 2007, a 20 percent increase over 2006.
Attempted suicides or self-inflicted injuries rose sixfold since the Iraq war began: there were 350 cases in 2002 compared to 2,100 in 2007.
Historically, suicide rates within the military decreases during wartime; the current trend is the opposite of that.
In 2001 the suicide rate was 9.8 per 100,000 active-duty soldiers--in 2006 the rate jumped to 17.5 per 100,000.
In 2007 twice as many soldiers committed suicide in the U.S. as they did in Iraq or Afghanistan.

The Post provides this sober passage about a young Army reservist currently hospitalized after her suicide attempt:

On Monday night, as President Bush delivered his State of the Union address and asked Congress to "improve the system of care for our wounded warriors and help them build lives of hope and promise and dignity," Whiteside was dozing off from the effects of her drug overdose.

Taking a look at the issue of veterans suicides it's somewhat alarming to read this USA Today article from 2003. The language, the sense of urgency, the utter surprise in statistical findings can make one wonder if five years from now we'll still be reading the same type of articles--waiting for things to get better. The lead paragraph from the article could easily be substituted for a story about the current findings:

Alarmed by the number of suicides among soldiers in Iraq, the Army has asked a team of doctors to determine whether the stress of combat and long deployments is contributing to the deaths.

Everyone knows it's an issue. But, what can actually be done? Jon Soltz of VoteVets.org has this to say via the Huffington Post:

One very simple idea that would have helped relieve the mental burden of our troops (short of finding a way out of Iraq), and help them get the care that they need, is to give them substantial time off between deployments. Spend two years in Iraq, spend two years at home. And, on the homefront, aggressively test, treat, and monitor troops for mental injuries...

...Even without dwell time, and a much deserved rest for our forces, we have got to be more diligent about mandatory and exhaustive screening of returning troops, and providing adequate care and monitoring.

The Washington Post itself provides a summary of online reader comments for the article, and highlights particular entries. Here's an excerpt:

Our Readers Who Comment for the most part commend The Post and reporter Dana Priest for continuing to report on what happens to mentally and physically wounded soldiers returning from Iraq. They express sympathy for the individual around whom this story is built, call for a change in political leadership, improved patient car...Some contend that such reporting aids the enemy and question the patriotism of the journalist and her news organization. And, as sometimes happens, commenters take the opportunity to issue boilerplate condemnations of the Iraq War, some of which are anti-Semitic.

With almost regular headline-making reports of the suicide issues it can sometimes get confusing where things stand. Here are some key stories to revisit from 2007:

OCTOBER 30 -- A study by the American Journal of Public Health reports findings that younger veterans are more prone to suicide. This is the opposite of suicide trends among the general public.

NOVEMBER 13 -- CBS News concludes a five-month investigation into the "hidden epidemic" of military suicides.

DECEMBER 12 -- The House Veterans Affairs Committee holds a hearing on how to stop veterans suicides.

UK Ad Aims to Galvanize PTSD Awareness

David Botti — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 16:01:44 GMT

When movie-goers in the United Kingdom sit down to watch the Iraq war movie "In the Valley of Elah," they'll first be greeted by a new advertisement by the organization Combat Stress: Ex-Services Mental Welfare Society. As the Guardian reports, Combat Stress was founded in 1919 to help WWI veterans recover mentally from shell-shock. Today, after growing concern over the lack of treatment available to today's veterans, Combat Stress is ramping up a public relations campaign to highlight the issue:

Combat Stress is alarmed at the huge increase in veterans from the Falklands, Sierra Leone, Northern Ireland, Iraq and Afghanistan, who come knocking on their door for help. A few are still turning up suffering long-term effects from the second world war and Korea. The oldest applicant for help recently was aged 100.

What's their reasoning for this alarm? Eight years ago 300 veterans sought help from Combat Stress; during the last fiscal year the number jumped to 1,000. The number of Falklands War vets who've committed suicide has risen to 300—more than the 256 British soldiers who were killed in the war itself. Of particular note is how many view the Iraq war's unpopularity in the UK as exacerbating vets' mental health issues. From the Guardian:

The problems of veterans today are compounded by the widespread recognition through much of the army that the Iraq campaign is unpopular, nasty, unpredictable and brutal—and, in the views of a significant minority of soldiers and officers in private conversation, a pretty unnecessary conflict at that. In the first and second world wars, the plight of service personnel was shared by almost everyone in the land. More than 1 million soldiers served in Northern Ireland over 30 or so years, so that became part of the national experience.

But combat in Iraq and Afghanistan is not a national experience, and the services are worried that they appear in the minds of many now to be detached from most of British national life. Though more American soldiers have been involved—more than 3,000 killed and nearly 50,000 injured, physically or mentally—Iraq is not a shared experience nationally for Americans in the way that Vietnam was.

Combat Stress' advertisement doesn't hold back any punches, as it tries to impart what's going on behind the closed doors of veterans' homes:

A well-trained fighting machine reduced to nothing more than an empty shell. Combat stress is their calvary, the infantry to fight off their demons. They were protecting you, now they need your help.

You can view the advertisement here:

"Re-Upping"

David Botti — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 19:05:31 GMT

Both the Army National Guard and the Marine Corps had recruitment ads before the previews at the movie I saw this weekend. The National Guard ad in part depicted post-Katrina-esque scenarios where guardsmen went to the aid of civilians. The filming was sweeping and highly dramatized. The Marine Corps ad offered not so much long scenes, but quick clips of intensity as infantry stormed houses and drill instructors marched recruits. They were both obvious sales pitches. The mere fact you could see two military recruitment ads before a Sunday matinée gave a nice little reminder of what kind of times we're living in.

It did another thing. It made me feel for a fleeting moment like I had to get the hell out of there and reenlist.

Recently my good Marine friend thought about doing just that. On inactive reserve, he signed back up to rejoin our old unit for one very specific reason: the scuttlebutt says they'll be heading back to Iraq soon, and he wanted to be with them. The unit was both of ours for six years. We were mobilized with its Marines and still feel the pull of bonds we'd cemented there.

He arrived to find just a handful of Marines left whom we'd known in the old days. They all asked the same thing: why the heck are you here? They told him he had a good thing going in civilian life, and that'd he done his time in the Corps and with the unit. Even the officers thanked him for offering to return, but said it wouldn't be the best thing for him to do. So, that was it. He left the headquarters never to return. Still, it was only by going to see these Marines face-to-face that he could be sure that chapter in his life was over.

I'm certain most of the Marines I've known have contemplated "re-upping" at one time or another. Each man has his own personal reasons why he did or didn't go through with it. I've also seen the same phrase uttered over and over again by friends and family trying to dissuade their Marine from going back to war: "you did your time." That one phrase can grate at your own thoughts already conflicted over having to make such a difficult decision. But it wasn't until my friend was told he'd done his time by Marines themselves it suddenly became valid.

With a war still on it's difficult to think that you will never wear a uniform again--even if you have no real intention of ever doing so. Even seeing over-dramatized recruitment ads in a movie theater can make you feel guilty for sitting there instead of in a patrol base. I've often wondered if veterans of wars long since gone feel the same way. My father, a Korean War veteran of the Air Force, still insists he'd strap himself into a fighter jet if they'd let him. How much do they see of themselves in the young veterans coming home, and what have they learned since their own homecoming that today's vets don't know?

In the end there's nothing much one can do except offer support, look at old pictures, and tell war stories with your friends--and think with faint jealousy of that young image of yourself, pulling up to the gates of boot camp totally scared sh*tless.