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Journal Sentinel | Diversion court gives combat veterans a second chance
"Casey K. Johnson"
Military Times | Special Report - Living With PTSD
"This series uses the experiences of several troops suffering from PTSD to delve into the biology of the disorder; substance abuse among victims; the stress that the disorder places on spouses and children; treatment options and availability; the specter of suicide among PTSD sufferers; what current research may mean for the future, and many other issues."
Deliberate Justice: Considering What Society Owes Jailed PTSD-Diagnosed and Medicated Combat Veterans
Recently I received a heartbreaking email from the wife of a former Iraq veteran bearing a heavy burden and seeking help. Sue's husband, Joseph "Pat" Lamoureux, was arrested last fall after engaging in a shootout with police officers responding to a domestic disturbance call. One officer was injured before Lamoureux was shot and subdued.
Seattle Times | Soldiers' emotional battle scars put doctors in dilemma
A VA psychiatrist hospitalized Juneman but never notified the National Guard unit of his patient's distress over redeployment. Juneman was released that month, then missed follow-up appointments.
In early March 2008, Juneman hanged himself in his Pullman apartment. His body was discovered some 20 days later, The Spokesman-Review newspaper reported.
His death underscores an unsettling new reality for VA health-care providers. Unlike in decades past, they now often treat veterans headed back to war. And this can pose an ethical challenge for VA doctors if they think PTSD, traumatic brain injury or other unhealed wounds could put a patient or others at greater risk on the front line.
San Jose Mercury News | Returning veterans now battling at home
As of 2007, the Military Health System had recorded 43,779 patients with traumatic brain injuries from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It had recorded 39,365 patients with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, according to a Department of Defense report to Congress.
By the end of September 2008, the number of patients with a preliminary diagnosis of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder from Veterans Affairs doctors had risen to 101,882 — more than 10 percent of veterans who have left the military and more than 20 percent of those who have gone to Veterans Affairs for medical treatment, according to a spokeswoman for Veterans Affairs.
San Jose Mercury News | Friend: Soldier who killed himself on West Cliff unable to control his aggression after two tours in Iraq
Roy Brooks Mason, Jr.
Hartford Courant | Gaps In Mental Health Screenings Still Haunt Military
MENTALLY UNFIT, STILL FIGHTING
Gaps In Mental Health Screenings Still Haunt Military
Little Progress In Expanding Screenings
By MATTHEW KAUFFMAN | The Hartford Courant
May 12, 2009
Chad Barrett had attempted suicide and was suffering post-traumatic stress disorder by the time his unit prepared for a third combat tour in Iraq. A psychiatrist had recommended the staff sergeant be separated from the military for his own good, but Barrett wanted to stay with his Army colleagues.
And when it came time for deployment, Army commanders were happy to oblige.
Barrett, who had spent a dozen years in the Army, shipped out in December 2007 with prescription bottles of Klonopin for anxiety, Pamelor for depression and migraines, and Lunesta and Ambien for sleep problems. But the drugs did not control his despair and mood swings. And less than two months after arriving in Iraq, Barrett popped open some of the bottles and committed suicide by overdose. He was 35.
Colorado Spring Gazette Top Stories SUNRISE EDITION | Soldier arrested in shooting death of 19-year-old | old, today, police
Army Spc. Thomas Woolly, a Fort Carson soldier arrested Sunday in the shooting death of a 19-year-old woman, served two tours in Iraq with an infantry unit that suffered heavy casualties in combat and has been responsible for violent crime since returning home\nWoolly, 24, was a heavy machine gunner in the 4th Infantry Division's 2nd Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment.\n\nMembers of the 500-soldier unit, nicknamed the Lethal Warriors, have been involved in stabbings, beatings, brawls, domestic violence, shootings, at least two attempted murders and four homicides in Colorado Springs. Another soldier who served with the unit in Iraq has been accused of murder in California.\n\nThe unit has also been plagued by drug abuse and suicide. The most recent suicide was Spc. Leland "Cal" Tyrone, 23, who killed himself in a barracks at Fort Carson on Dec. 20, 2008.\n\nWoolly, who was arrested on suspicion of manslaughter in the death of Lisa Baumann, is only the latest soldier from the unit to be involved in violence after returning from Iraq:\n\n * Louis Bressler, Bruce Bastien and Kenneth Eastridge were charged with killing two soldiers and stabbing a woman on her way to work in the fall of 2007.\n * Jomar Vives and Rudolfo Torres were charged in random drive-by shootings of three people on Colorado Springs streets in May and June of 2008. Two died.\n * John Needham is charged with beating a woman to death in San Clemente, Calif., in September 2008.
Houston Chronicle | 2nd chance in court for hometown war hero
Marty Gonzalez - Once Carter learned Gonzalez’s story, he agreed that the young man with the heroic record and no previous trouble with the law deserved a second chance. Gonzalez certainly had a bit of luck, or fate, on his side. Not only was Windham a veteran, but so was the judge. Carter is a former Army captain and his father was a career Army officer who served in Vietnam.
Carter, 49, a Republican appointed by Gov. Rick Perry in 2003, has made it his personal mission to look out for veterans. About two years ago, he worked with Harris County’s pre-trial services office to flag veterans when they’re arrested and notify the VA hospital.
In March alone, the system logged 350 arrests of veterans, some of whom may have been arrested more than once.
Navy SEAL Chases Men Who Killed His Dog
Marcus Luttrell - Along the way on the chase, Luttrell placed a desperate call to 911, warning the dispatcher of his potential to strike, as well. "I told them, 'You need to get somebody out here because if I catch them I'm going to kill them,' " Luttrell recalled to The Houston Chronicle. "I was trying to talk myself out of being who I am. Talking to myself about not doing the one thing I am good at."
KETV | Officer's Dad Blames Arrest On War Stress
Matthew Hagen - A county corrections officer was arrested on suspicion of running down deer and fleeing from law enforcement officers, but Matthew Hagen's family and friends said his behavior was a result of what happened to him in Iraq.
Mystery marks soldiers' deaths
Pfc. Jordan May, a 26-year-old gunner, fell into a deep sleep that night and never woke up.
In the six years since the war in Iraq began, it's been standard practice to honor troops who die overseas as patriots. But for the families of May and other Fort Hood soldiers who died on post or close to home, there typically are no news reports and no flags lowered to half-staff.
The hidden demons that follow troops home — mental stress, depression and traumatic brain injury, to name a few — don't always go away. When left unresolved, they can lead to divorce, drug or alcohol abuse and suicide. And as the March 19 anniversary of the start of the war draws near, there are more questions than answers in the stateside deaths of May and 13 other Fort Hood troops in the past eight months.
The Army typically releases general details of how a soldier has died in Iraq, usually from small-arms fire, an explosive, an accident or an unspecified noncombat incident. But when a soldier dies at Fort Hood, friends and relatives often can only speculate about any role the war might have played.
The Journal News: Vets with post-traumatic stress fight for aid
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It was during his first deployment in Iraq that Marine Cpl. David Tracy, 23, of Peekskill earned his Purple Heart.
"I was up top behind the gun when we stopped at a checkpoint and a roadside bomb exploded on the other side of the barrier," said Tracy, an infantryman who served as a machine gunner in Baghdad and Fallujah.
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Legislation introduced recently by Rep. John Hall, D-Dover Plains, would lift the burden of proof from veterans who served in combat zones and have a diagnosis of PTSD, allowing them to receive disability benefits without having to prove that a specific incident caused the disorder.
In the Iraq and Afghanistan wars alone, more than 100,000 veterans have been found to have PTSD, but only 42,000 have been granted service-connected disability for their condition, said Hall, chairman of the Veterans Affairs Subcommittee on Disability Assistance and Memorial Affairs.
The disability claims backlog at the VA tops 800,000. A large percentage of that number are Vietnam veterans seeking compensation for PTSD, Hall said.
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