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April 2014

Why Are So Many Older Veterans Committing Suicide?

April 14, 2014

The Fort Hood shooting shines a spotlight on an overall epidemic, but suicide rates are higher for older generations.

By Jordain Carney
April 13, 2014

The Fort Hood shooting reignited the national debate over the surge of suicides among those who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. But older veterans have been largely overlooked in the conversation.

Nearly 70 percent of all veterans who commit suicide are age 50 or older, according to the Veterans Affairs Department. This is double the suicide rate for the same age group in the nonveteran community.

Combat vets battle an enemy within: Addiction

April 14, 2014

By Michael Vitez, Inquirer Staff Writer
POSTED: April 13, 2014

The first time Pearson Crosby went to the methadone clinic at the Philadelphia VA Medical Center in early 2013, he asked his father to go with him.

But couldn't tell him why.

Crosby, who played varsity basketball at Council Rock High School South, had served four years in the United States Marine Corps, with two tours in Iraq.

Some Vietnam vets with PTSD fight for benefits

April 10, 2014

By Patricia Kime
Staff writer, Military Times
Apr. 9, 2014 - 01:07PM

George Siders remembers his first enemy kill like it happened yesterday.

While rounding a curve on patrol in Vietnam, the 18-year-old Marine came upon a North Vietnamese soldier on the trail. Siders instinctively raised his rifle and fired, hitting his target in the forehead.

The blast, Siders said, blew the soldier’s “brain and about 2 or 3 feet of spinal cord” out his backside.

The Other Wounds

April 10, 2014

Written by Rajiv Chandrasekaran, The Washington Post
Published on April 8, 2014

Most Iraq and Afghanistan veterans’ injuries didn’t occur during combat. But their ailments have become an enduring consequence of the conflicts.

Army sniper James Crowell went to war 70 inches tall. He returned home an inch shorter and in constant pain, his spine compressed by the collective trauma of a rooftop fall, a Humvee accident and his heavy body armor, worn almost every day on four deployments.

Key senator opposes commissary budget cut

April 10, 2014

By Patricia Kime
Staff writer, Military Times
Apr. 9, 2014 - 06:00AM

The chair of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee strongly opposes a Pentagon plan to cut funding for commissaries, another signal that the drastic $1 billion proposed reduction will not survive the congressional budget process.

70th Anniversary of D-Day Information

April 8, 2014

The U.S. Embassy to France has been advised that the French Government is offering local support to D-Day veterans who are planning to attend the 70th anniversary commemoration of Operation Overlord on June 6, 2014, in Normandy, France.  The French government will provide one veteran and a guest with roundtrip transportation from Paris to Normandy, and lodging, meals and transportation while in Normandy.  Travel to Paris is the responsibility of each veteran and guest.

"Coming Back with Wes Moore"

April 8, 2014

Prairie Public Television is airing a three-part television series in May that addresses the concerns of many Veterans.  

Reminder: The cost of war is borne by a small fraction of the population

April 8, 2014

BY MARK BERMAN, Washington Post
April 7, 2014

PTSD Does Not Equate To Violence

April 7, 2014

April 4, 2014 by Reynaldo Leal

The headlines circulating the Internet hours after the tragic Fort Hood shooting were vague, but the implications for Veterans who have been diagnosed, or are seeking treatment, for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) are not.

Lawmakers eye ways to curb preventable deaths at VA hospitals

April 4, 2014

By Matthew M. Burke
Stars and Stripes
Published: April 3, 2014

Joseph Petit went to the VA hospital for knee pain and depression and came out on a litany of powerful drugs that he said made him hallucinate.

He repeatedly asked doctors for help with the side effects, but he said they gave him more antipsychotics, antidepressants and anxiety drugs that made him feel worse.

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