Over the last 3 days I have had the sad but honorable duty of riding escort for KIA SPC Anthony Blount. This was my second KIA mission, but this time I was able to participate all 3 days instead of just the day of the services. I am thankful that in a weird twist of fate, even though I can no longer drive a big truck, I can still ride my bike and am able to give these Heroes my support and stand a line for them.
Thursday morning around 1020 a small jet landed at the Hattiesburg/Laural Airport with SPC Anthony Blount’s body. This was the first time I have met a plane at the airport and it was so very hard. I stood beside Kim and Wilma and let the tears roll down my face. Kim and I were lucky that our sons came home safe as they can, both suffering from PTSD. But Wilma is a Gold Star Mom and I know this day was very hard on her. We stood there arm in arm to comfort each other as they brought the coffin off the plane with the family standing at the edge of the flight line. I can only imagine their pain and feel a hint of guilt for being thankful for that.
There were 76 bikes there to bring SPC Blount home to his family. Not all were PGR, some were from Camp Shelby and a couple of other motorcycle groups from the area. As we made our way into town and around the High School, I was amazed and thankful to see so many people out on the side of the road to support and honor this Hero and his family. Once again I had to fight the tears as we made our round of the school and the age of the kids there went from High School to the Elementary, younger and younger. At one point I remember seeing a boy scout troop on the side of the road holding the National Flag and saluting. My goggles filled with tears; it made it very hard to see where I was riding.
On Friday night there were about 25 PGR that stood the Flag line during the viewing. Taking turns every 15 minuets for 3 hours we did our best to make sure the family knew that their loved one was honored. Several time family would come out and thank us for being there. My response was always the same, “It is our honor to be allowed to be here.” And that is how I and many other feel. At one point, after standing the line, as Kim and I walked back down to the resting area, SPC Blount’s Aunt stopped us to thank us again. She had flown in from up north and was full of great stories about Anthony. We listened to her talk about Anthony and how he wanted to become a preacher and how surprised she was when he told them he was going into the Army. She was very proud of her nephew and you could tell that she loved him very much.
Saturday morning we gathered again at the Funeral Home, this time to escort SPC Blount’s from the funeral home to the church to the cemetery. We had around 80 biles this day. We had the honor of being lead by SPC Blount’s brother-in-law and his cousin rode with my Dad at the end of all the bikes. Once again, the route we took was lined with people showing their love and support. Once at the church, we stood a flag line for the family to enter and then waited for the services to be over.
With my left wrist hurting I decided I would go ahead with two others to the cemetery to help set up the flags and wait for the procession to get there. We set up flags in a U shape around the tent and a few others on the entry road to the cemetery. The the color guard arrived. A few minuets after that, the first of the PGR came rolling in.
I stood there directing them through the route they were to take. Then when the bikes had past, I rendered my honors to SPC Blount and his family.
We then stood a flag line during the grave side service. Ed, our State Capitan presented the family with a flag, a plaque and a bear with a medal for the unborn daughter.
I am so proud to be a part of such a great group of people that now matter where we come from, what our beliefs are, or our political views are, we love, honor and support our Troops. I like many others wish there was no more mission like this to do, but we know better. So as long as there are KIA, Veterans, Troops deploying overseas to combat zones, we will be there to make sure that they know they have love and support back home. That what they are doing DOES matter and that we DO applicate their sacrifices.
To SPC Anthony Blount: Thank you for you service and making the ultimate sacrifice.
To his family: I can not know your pain, but you are in my prayers. Anthony will NEVER be forgotten by any of us.
Young American Veterans Record Debut CD – Available April 20, 2010
Portion Of Proceeds Benefit Veteran-Related Charities
New York – January 26, 2010 – Sony MASTERWORKS announces the signing of 4TROOPS. Their debut self-titled CD will be available on April 20th with a portion of the proceeds from the sales to benefit veteran-related charities.
4TROOPS are United States combat veterans – three young men and one woman who served on the front lines in Iraq and Afghanistan. While overseas, music played a crucial and very personal role in all of their lives. They would sing at everything from large military events to more intimate settings, where they would jam in their bunk after a long day in the field and try to recall a slice of home. They also used their voices at somber occasions like memorial services, where they would sing to remember those that had been lost. 4TROOPS now come together for a singular purpose: to sing on behalf of all troops, to honor their sacrifices and to create awareness for their needs.
The members of 4TROOPS are: Former Cpt. Meredith Melcher, Former Sgt. Daniel Jens, Staff Sgt. (Ret.) Ron Henryand Former Sgt. David Clemo. Melcher, 29, is the daughter of a retired three-star General. She served as a platoon leader on the front lines in Iraq where she led her troops in the successful ambulance evacuations of hundreds of wounded Americans and Iraqis. Jens, 36, served in Iraq and was most recently stationed at Fort Hood. He joined the army after the events of 9/11. Jens was one of the finalists on “America’s Got Talent.” He was released from the Army at the end of January. Henry, 41, served in the Army for 20 years. He was a transport manager in Iraq with the 101st Airborne Division, and also the leader of an Army singing group “Transportation Express.” Clemo, 30, served on the front lines in Afghanistan providing communications and logistics support for the 18th Airborne Corps. He and Melcher toured together in 2004 with the Army Soldier Show.
The album consists of well-known positive pop and country songs and some new songs. All of the songs take on a special meaning in the context that they are performed by these four combat heroes. The first song is For Freedom, an inspirational patriotic tune written by Matt Moran for his grandfather, a WWII vet. Country star Toby Keith gives his blessing for a new version of his popular and controversial post 9/11 hit Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue to be included on the album with lyrics revised to reflect a 2010 outlook. Another country hit on the album is Galveston, popularized by Glen Campbell. This song made the CMT list of the ten greatest country-western songs of all time. Other tracks include Angel by Sarah McLachlan, Lonestar’s I Am Already There, and a new song written by Victor Hurtado titled Here We’ve Been. The album is produced by Frank Fillipetti (Barbra Streisand, Carly Simon, George Michael, Pavarotti) who produced James Taylor’s Hourglass album which won Fillipetti a Grammy® for Best Pop Album and Best Engineered Album in 1998.
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The group was brought together by veteran Victor Hurtado. He has been part of Army Entertainment for the last 25 years, first as a Soldier and Music Director, and later as the Artistic Director. He is currently the Production Director for the Army Soldier Show. This show was established during WWI in 1918 by Sgt. Israel Beilin, better known as Irving Berlin.
Sony is in the process of finalizing arrangements to donate a portion of proceeds from 4TROOPS projects to one or more veteran-related charities, including the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA). IAVA is the first and largest non-partisan, non-profit forveterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. IAVA has more than 180,000 veteran members and civilian supporters nationwide. IAVA was founded by Iraq veteran Paul Rieckhoff, the author of the critically acclaimed book Chasing Ghosts and a nationally-recognized authority on the war in Iraq and issues affecting our troops, military families and veterans at home.
Bob Woodruff, the ABC news anchor who was severely injured in Iraq, conducted the first TV interview with 4TROOPS which aired on Good Morning America (ABC) on Tuesday January 26th. Woodruff is personally invested in creating a better environment for injured troops who return from war. Through The Bob Woodruff Foundation and ReMIND.org, Woodruff’s goal is to provide resources and support to service members, veterans and their families to successfully reintegrate into their communities, in addition to educate the public about the needs of the injured troops and empower people everywhere to take action.
In March 2010, 4TROOPS will tape a concert special at a U.S. Military base for intended airing in the summer on participating PBS stations.
4TROOPS will also embark on an U.S. Military base tour at the end of March followed by a National tour in the fall. Upon hearing of the 4TROOPS, the Motel 6 hotel chain immediately wanted to be involved as a promotional partner and as a first step has generously donated lodging for the group throughout their U.S. Military base tour.
About MASTERWORKS: RCA Red Seal, Sony Classical, deutsche harmonia mundi, MASTERWORKS Broadway and MASTERWORKS Jazz are labels of Sony MASTERWORKS. For email updates and information regarding RCA Red Seal, Sony Classical, deutsche harmonia mundi, MASTERWORKS Broadway and MASTERWORKS Jazz artists, promotions, tours and repertoire, please visit www.sonymasterworks.com.
The Other Victims of Battlefield Stress; Defense Contractors’ Mental Health Neglected
by T. Christian Miller, ProPublica – February 26, 2010 1:48 am EST
On the one-year anniversary of her husband’s suicide, Barb Dill breaks down at her husband’s tombstone. Wade Dill, a Marine Corps veteran, took a contractor job in Iraq. Three weeks after he returned home for good, he committed suicide (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times / Redding, CA / July 16, 2007).
REDDING, Calif. — Wade Dill does not figure into the toll of war dead. An exterminator, Dill took a job in Iraq for a company contracted to do pest control on military bases. There, he found himself killing disease-carrying flies and rabid dogs, dodging mortars and huddling in bomb shelters.
Dill, a Marine Corps veteran, was a different man when he came back for visits here, his family said: moody, isolated, morose. He screamed at his wife and daughter. His weight dropped. Dark circles haunted his dark brown eyes.
Three weeks after he returned home for good, Dill booked a room in an anonymous three-story motel alongside Interstate 5. There, on July 16, 2006, he shot himself in the head with a 9 mm handgun. He left a suicide note for his wife and a picture for his daughter, then 16. The caption read: “I did exist and I loved you.”
More than three years later, Dill’s loved ones are still reeling, their pain compounded by a drawn-out battle with an insurance company over death benefits from the suicide. Barb Dill, 47, nearly lost the family’s home to foreclosure. “We’re circling the drain,” she said.
While suicide among soldiers has been a focus of Congress and the public, relatively little attention has been paid to the mental health of tens of thousands of civilian contractors returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. When they make the news at all, contractors are usually in the middle of scandal, depicted as cowboys, wastrels or worse.
No agency tracks how many civilian workers have killed themselves after returning from the war zones. A small study in 2007 found that 24 percent of contract employees from DynCorp, a defense contractor, showed signs of depression or post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, after returning home. The figure is roughly equivalent to those found in studies of returning soldiers.
If the pattern holds true on a broad scale, thousands of such workers may be suffering from mental trauma, said Paul Brand, the CEO of Mission Critical Psychological Services, a firm that provides counseling to war zone civilians. More than 200,000 civilians work in Afghanistan and Iraq, according to the most recent figures.
“There are many people falling through the cracks, and there are few mechanisms in place to support these individuals,” said Brand, who conducted the study while working at DynCorp.”There’s a moral obligation that’s being overlooked. Can the government really send people to a war zone and neglect their responsibility to attend to their emotional needs after the fact?”
The survivors of civilians who have committed suicide have found themselves confused, frustrated and alone in their grief.
“If I was in the military, I’d at least have someone to talk to,” said Melissa Finkenbinder, 42, whose husband, Kert, a mechanic, killed himself after returning from Iraq. “Contractors don’t have anything. Their families don’t have anything.”
Some families of civilian contractors who have committed suicide have tried to battle for help through an outdated government system designed to provide health insurance and death benefits to civilian contractors injured or killed on the job.
Under the system, required by a law known as the Defense Base Act, defense firms must purchase workers’ compensation insurance for their employees in war zones. It is highly specialized and expensive insurance, dominated by the troubled giant AIG and a handful of other companies. The cost of it is paid by taxpayers as part of the contract price.
But the law, which is designed to provide coverage for accidental death and injury, blocks payment of death benefits in the case of almost all suicides. Cases linked to mental incapacity are the lone exception, judges have ruled.
A joint investigation last year by ProPublica, ABC News and the Los Angeles Times revealed that contract workers must frequently battle carriers for basic medical coverage. While Congress has promised reforms, there has been no discussion of changing the law when it comes to suicides involving civilian defense workers.
The military, by contrast, allows survivors to receive benefits in cases in which a soldier’s suicide can be linked to depression caused by battlefield stress.
Hundreds of soldiers have committed suicide since the war in Afghanistan began in 2001, according to studies by the Army and the Department of Veterans Affairs. In response, the Defense Department has become more active in trying to prevent suicide than its hired contractors, military experts said.
The military is “aggressively trying to reach people and do intervention beforehand and set up suicide awareness programs,” said Ian de Planque, a benefits expert at the American Legion, the nation’s largest veterans group. “Awareness of it has increased. I don’t know that it’s transferred over to the civilian sector at this point.”
Birgitt Eysselinck has spent years trying to prove that her husband’s death in Iraq was related to stress from his job with a company specializing in the removal of land mines and explosive ordnance. So far, courts have sided with the insurance firm, Chicago-based CNA, in denying Eysselinck’s claim. (CNA declined to comment, citing privacy reasons.)
Eysselinck, 44, said that neither federal judges nor insurance adjusters understand that civilian contractors face many of the same risks in Iraq and Afghanistan that soldiers do. Her husband, Tim Eysselinck, endured mortar attacks and frequently traveled across Iraq’s dangerous highways, she said.
“There is a huge percentage of contractors who are silently suffering,” Eysselinck said. “That obviously puts them and their families at risk. Communities are bearing the brunt of this, especially the families.”
* * *
Wade Dill was working at a local pest control company when he decided to take a job with KBR in Iraq in late 2004. The money was good – almost $11,000 a month for handling extermination and hazardous material disposal, more than double his normal salary.
“He said this was our opportunity,” Barb Dill said. “He could start a college fund for our daughter, pay off the mortgage and have a nice retirement. He told me at his age, 41, he didn’t know if he had enough years left in him to give us what he wanted.”
Wade started that December, working on bases in central and northern Iraq. Violence was ever present. A base near Mosul was shelled frequently. He told Barb that a mortar landed close enough to temporarily deafen him. Once, he called her sobbing.
“My husband never cried, ever,” she said. “Marines don’t cry. A young man, a soldier, had put a pistol to his head and blown his brains out. And Wade had to go in and clean up after they removed the body – he had to clean up brain matter and blood. It really upset him.”
Barb Dill noticed a change in her husband when he returned home for a visit in December 2005. The couple had been high school sweethearts, married for 15 years. They had troubles, but had always worked them out. Now, he seemed moody and often angry, lashing out at her and their daughter, Sara.
“He would say hateful things to me and our daughter – things he had never said before.” Dill said. “This was a man that loved his little girl and his wife. He always called us his girls.”
When Wade returned for another visit in June 2006, he abruptly quit his job and began acting erratically, Dill said. He ripped the wiring out of appliances, smashed mirrors and poured lighter fluid on their furniture.
After a few weeks, Wade took a room at a local motel. On July 15, he asked Barb to come see him. Their conversation spiraled into a confrontation. Frightened and angry, Barb sped off in her car. The next day, the Shasta County coroner’s office called to tell her that Wade’s body had been found in the room.
“He told me that he was sick and needed help,” Dill said. “I told him to get help and then we would talk. The last time I saw him was in my rearview mirror.”
Dill soon found herself in financial difficulty. Her husband had always taken care of the bills. He had spent lavishly with his higher salary, buying two BMWs during trips home. Now, Dill discovered the couple was $300,000 in debt on their mortgage and car loans.
She plunged into depression, struggling to cope with her daughter’s grief and the sense that she had failed her husband in his time of need. She sold the cars and nearly lost her home after falling behind on mortgage payments.
She suffered mostly by herself. Except for a handful of Web sites, no support groups exist for widows of civilian contractors. The federal government offers no counseling for civilians returning from work in war zones.
Dill said that she felt abandoned by everyone: her husband’s employer, the insurance company and especially the federal government, which oversees the Defense Base Act system through the Labor Department.
“Shouldn’t our government be responsible for the companies they hire?” Dill said. “Shouldn’t our government take care of its own people, who are doing jobs our government, ultimately, wanted them to do?”
* * *
Survivors of civilian contractors whose death is related to their work in Iraq have the right to apply for compensation benefits that pay up to $63,000 a year for life.
Dill applied, asserting that her husband’s PTSD made him an exception to the rule against payments in suicide cases. Her claim was denied by AIG, KBR’s insurance provider.
She protested, sending her claim into a dispute resolution system run by the Labor Department. Her case is still grinding its way through the system, which can take years to produce a final result.
Experts hired by the family and the insurance company differed on what led to Wade Dill’s suicide.
A psychiatrist hired by her attorney found that job stress in Iraq was one of the factors that drove Wade to suicide: “The bottom line is that the combination of physical separation and work-related stress resulted in increasingly emotional distance, greater distortion of the relationship, increasing emotional intensity, and a pattern of increasing erratic behaviors that culminated in suicide,” wrote Charles Seaman, an expert in PTSD.
A Labor Department examiner recommended that AIG pay the claim, but the company refused. AIG and KBR declined comment about the case. In court filings, AIG has argued that the Defense Base Act does not cover suicides.
AIG attorneys also have said that Wade Dill’s actions were related to marital and family problems. A psychiatrist hired by AIG testified at a hearing in San Francisco in January that he had performed a “psychological autopsy” on Wade Dill based on interviews with his family and court documents.
The psychiatrist, Andrew D. Whyman, said his evaluation led him to conclude that Dill suffered from depression and that his suicide was unrelated to the violence he witnessed in Iraq.
“Take out the Iraq experience, (the suicide) would have happened,” Whyman testified. “He had a choice. … He could have chosen not to do that.”
Barb Dill insists her husband came back from Iraq a changed man.
“No matter how strained our relationship could get at times, we always pulled out of it with no problem,” Dill said. “Iraq changed all that.”
Now, she said, she is trying to hold her life together. A final decision in her case is not expected for months.
“We’re just slowly sinking,” she said. “It’s hard to be strong.”
Watch a preview of ‘Disposable Army,’ a documentary currently being produced by Mark Crupi, which contains interviews with Barb Dill and T. Christian Miller.
Let me start off by saying that I am going to piss some of you off with the opinion you are about to read! But I am SICK and TIRED of people NOT understanding what the word “MILITARY” means.
An article from the Washington Post titled “For soldiers, single motherhood becomes another battlefield” brings up the question of single parents in the military. Now I understand that there are many people that want to serve their country, but not all should. Heck, I tried at the age of 42 but my body did not cooperate and I chose to come home. I felt, even though the Army was willing to do what it took to help me over come the problems in my lower back and hips, that it was better for my fellow soldiers for me to stay home and give them all the support I can, than to be the weak link. And that is what I felt I would be. If you can not perform the duties required to the fullest, whether physically or mentally, then you are just putting the people around you at risk.
I don’t care if you are single, married, a single parent, or a married parent, when you sign on the line to join the Military, you should know that one day you could be sent into battle and have to leave your children behind. If you have children, then you need to weight the responsibilities as a parent against those of being in the military. What is best for you and what you feel you and your family can deal with may not be what is best for your career in the military. I am NOT saying that all military personnel should be single, many make it work. Yes, it is hard on the whole family, I don’t deny that, BUT, what do you think the military is and does?
I get so tired of people that say they joined the military to get out of this or that, or to get a “free” education. It isn’t free! That “free” education or “free” ticket out of the situation you are in could be paid for with your life. To me that is very expensive! If you are not willing to lay your life down for this Country, DO NOT JOIN THE MILITARY! It is that plain and simple.
Yes, the military still has many things that it needs to work out where women are concerned, health care and women in a combat MOS are just two. But as the article, “G.I. Jane Breaks the Combat Barrier” that they reference from “The New Your Times”, many women are honorably proving that they can handle “the shit” just as well as many men that they stand beside in battle. So how can it be any different for a single mother in the military then a single father? Just a few years ago a friend of mine that was in the Navy, retired because he and his wife divorced, and he got custody of their children. Feeling that it was better for him and his boys, he gave up a military career that he dearly loved. I respect his decision, I am saddened by it, but respect it. He was, and still is to me, a great Sailor! And look at CJ and the battles he has gone through over the last year. He is still in the Army AND doing his duty as a parent. Yes, it has cost him greatly, but apparently he was willing to make that sacrifice for the things he believes in, the Army and being a Dad.
Many years ago during WWII, my grandmother was in the Army. First she was a flight instructor and then a darkroom tech. When she became pregnant with my mom, she was released from the Army with a dishonorable discharge.There was no debate about it and she had no choice. Today, women can stay in the military when they become pregnant whether they are married or not. That is a great thing! We have come a long way in the last 60 to 70 years. But to sit there and refuse to deploy when you have known for months that it is going to happen is inexcusable. I understand in the case of Spec. Alexis Hutchinson that her mother was supposed to take care of her son, but she was offered other help and refused it.
Now granted I don’t know all the regulations and maybe CJ and Marcus over on “A Soldier’s Perspective” can help me with this, but can’t a person get out of the military siting hardship, without getting a “other-than-honorable” discharge? According to the story, Hutchinson choose the”other-than-honorable” discharge because she could get on with her life and would not have to face court-martial or possible jail time. In a way, I can understand that decision and sympathize with her. But I have many questions that these articles do not answer. Did she exhaust every means possible to delay her deployment and find other arrangements? Is there not any other family? And what about the offer of help that she did get and refused? Why did she refuse it? What were the conditions of it? There are a lot of unanswered questions. I believe that MSM has yet again taken a story and reported only half of it to, once again, make the military out to be a bunch of cold-hearted bastards!
America is proud of those who have had the courage and made the sacrifices to serve in the United States Military. Unfortunately, as we know all too well, many veterans today still deal with mental and physical disorders as a result of their military service. These diseases range from mild to extreme and some are better known than others. One example of a lesser-known ailment that veterans encounter is related to toxic exposures. During the course of all United States conflict, and even in peacetime, military servicemen and women have often been exposed to harmful substances. One of the more common toxins that still affect veterans even today is asbestos.
Asbestos is a naturally occurring mineral with a stringy consistency. Even ancient civilizations found that asbestos possessed an exceptional capability to prevent temperature transfer and the capability to insulate. By the time WWII and the Vietnam War came around, asbestos was being used in thousands of manufacturing compounds. Among the more mainstream uses of asbestos was within military infrastructure. Asbestos was used in thousands of different products encountered every day by military servicemen and women. Asbestos could be found in naval ships and shipyards, aircraft constructions, and nearly any compound that required a resistance to heat and fire. Products such as attic and piping insulation, drywall compound, floor and ceiling tiles, air cell pipe covering, caulking, plastics, joint compound and even some brands of glue contained asbestos.
In the late 1970s, certified scientific evidence began to surface regarding the health hazards of asbestos exposure. Asbestos fibers are microscopic, but extremely resilient. When asbestos fibers are inhaled, they “cling” to internal tissue [known as the mesothelium] which surrounds the lungs and abdominal cavity. Over time, these fibers irritate the mesothelium, sometimes causing plaques to form on the surface of this tissue, which often causes respiratory and other problems. Even more harmful is that these plaques can eventually become malignant. It is at this point that an individual may receive a diagnosis of the rare and aggressive cancer mesothelioma.
Unfortunately, it was not until after many naval and other military personnel were exposed to asbestos that the truth of its potential danger surfaced. Symptoms of asbestos-related illness may not manifest for 20-50 years following exposure, making the symptoms difficult to relate to asbestos exposure, which likely occurred many years before.
If you or a loved one knowingly worked with asbestos, you should closely monitor your respiratory wellbeing and consult a medical doctor that is familiar with the diagnosis and treatment of asbestos-related diseases. Early detection of asbestos health disorders can help doctors in identifying the best possible mesothelioma treatment options for you.
In terms of mesothelioma cancer and the military, the rates of mesothelioma navy cases remain the highest, but veterans from all branches are at risk.
For more information, please contact Doug Karr, Veteran Advocate & Outreach Coordinator, at dkarr [at] maacenter [dot] org.
Many of us have seen the MSM misrepresent or not even report the good things that our military is doing in Iraq. We see TV shows and movies on the big and small screen that stand on either side of the issue. Some are very elaborate and in your face while others are more subtle. The latter was the case in last nights episode of CSI: Miami.
I don’t always watch the show, sometimes I watch “Castle“, so I didn’t know that Cain’s son had enlisted in the Army and been sent to Iraq. At the end of the episode they showed Cain signing into a video conference on his computer. The picture we see on the computer screen is Cain’s son, in battle fatigues and in Iraq. There are the usual parent/child pleasantries and concerns passed from one to another. They could have ended the scene with that, but they didn’t. They go on to have Cain’s son talk about rebuilding the schools and how happy the kids are to have them.
It was a short statement, but for me, very emotional. (I actually had a tear well up in my eyes.) The eloquence and simplicity in which it was done was a thundering message to those that have been there and done that. Even if the rest of the world misses the message, and I don’t think they can, at least those standing the line know that someone knows of the good they are doing and is making an effort to show it.
Quickly giving morphine to wounded troops cuts in half the chance they will develop post-traumatic stress disorder, according to a provocative study that suggests a new strategy for preventing the psychological fallout of war.
Researchers at the U.S. Naval Health Research Center led the study of about 700 troops injured in Iraq from 2004 through 2006.
“It was surprising how strong the effect of the morphine was,” said study leader Troy Lisa Holbrook, an epidemiologist at the naval center. The findings were published in Thursday’s New England Journal of Medicine.
Whether the Pentagon will adopt the practice on the battlefield remains to be seen. Dr. Jack Smith, acting deputy assistant secretary of defense for clinical and program policy, said in an e-mail that the “very interesting findings” are “likely to stimulate further research.”
About 53,000 troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan have been treated for PTSD, a disorder in which someone who has endured a traumatic event keeps re-experiencing it and the fear it caused. Patients often have trouble with work, relationships, substance abuse and physical ailments.
Researchers have been testing ways to treat it, and the new study looked at whether fast and strong pain relief can help prevent it.
It was unclear whether it was the fast pain treatment or something specific to morphine that made the difference.
But researchers theorize that simply easing pain might reduce the severity of the psychological trauma, or that prompt relief might alter the way the brain remembers the attack or injury – in essence, causing the mind to file away the episode as less traumatic.
Troops in the study initially were treated at military medical facilities in Iraq, mainly for wounds caused by roadside bombs, bullets, grenades or mortar fire. A few dozen had burns or were hurt in crashes or falls. The decision on whether to give morphine was up to the individual doctor, based on the patient’s condition.
Of the 696 troops in the study, 493 – about 70 percent – were given morphine, most within an hour of injury. Two years later, 147 of them had developed PTSD. Of the 203 not given morphine early on, 96 developed PTSD.
That worked out to a 53 percent lower risk of developing PTSD for those treated early with morphine. No other factor, such as the nature or severity of injuries, had much effect on the chances of developing PTSD, Holbrook said.
“These are provocative and thought-provoking findings that should lead scientists to investigate the underlying mechanisms” in future studies, said JoAnn Difede, a PTSD researcher at New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center.
Difede and Barbara Rothbaum, who heads the Trauma and Anxiety Recovery Program at Emory University School of Medicine, said that until more research backs up the findings, the study probably won’t lead to many more patients in civilian emergency rooms getting morphine.
“At this point, I don’t see it having a huge impact” for civilians, Rothbaum said.
A second study in the journal found that Army wives were more likely to develop depression or sleep problems the longer, or the more times, their spouses were sent to Iraq or Afghanistan.
That study, by researchers at the University of North Carolina and elsewhere, examined medical records for outpatient care of about 250,000 wives of active-duty soldiers from 2003 through 2006.
Compared with wives whose husbands stayed home, those whose husbands were deployed for up to 11 months were 18 percent more likely to be diagnosed with depression and at least 20 percent more likely to be diagnosed with sleep disorders, anxiety and acute stress.
For wives whose husbands were deployed for more than 11 months, problems were even more common: They were at least 24 percent more likely to be diagnosed with depression or anxiety, and about 40 percent more likely to be diagnosed with acute stress or sleep problems.
The researchers didn’t have data showing whether husbands were deployed or at home when the wives were being treated for mental health problems.
That meant the scientists couldn’t conclude whether those problems were caused by worries about the spouse’s safety and the difficulties of being a single parent, or by stress caused by the returning spouse’s psychological problems or other behavior changes.
“I suspect that if you look at the Reserve and National Guard wives, the toll might be even worse,” because they have less social support than families living in a military community, Rothbaum said.
She said the effects of deployment on children also need to be studied so the military can figure out how to provide more help to families.
As much time as I spent over there, I hate to think about how many times I drove through the smoke from so many burn pits. But as of today, I believe that I was one of the lucky ones and have not contracted any illness from it. My prayers to all those suffering from this.
Open burning has since been banned but many may face long-term effects.
Backing away from steadfast official denial, the U.S. military’s senior health protection official said Monday that some service m embers might suffer long-term medical problems as a direct result of exposure to smoke and fumes from open-air burn pits scattered throughout Iraq and Afghanistan.
Physician Craig Postlewaite, director of Force Health Protection and Readiness Programs, said that while scientific evidence has yet to prove the link, the personal stories of veterans coming forward to report long-term health problems have convinced him of the connection.
“We feel at this point in time that it’s quite plausible — in fact likely — that there are a small number of people that have been affected with longer-term health problems,” Postlewaite said Monday in an interview with The Salt Lake Tribune.
As recently as last month, Postlewaite had maintained the Defense Department’s years-old position on the issue, telling Stars and Stripes that “only minor, temporary effects have been identified with the burn pit smoke.” In July he told the Military Times that an assessment of the burn pit at the largest U.S. facility in Iraq, Joint Air
Base Balad, found “no indication of any long-term health risks in personnel.”
It was the sight and smell of the Balad pit that led an environmental engineer from Hill Air Force Base to write a memo calling the acres-large inferno “an acute health hazard.”
In the memo, Air Force officer Darrin Curtis warned that dozens of toxins, including arsenic, formaldehyde and hydrogen cyanide, were going up in smoke at the Balad pit. U.S. service members and contractors were burning hundreds of tons of weapons, chemicals, plastics — and even amputated limbs from the nearby theater hospital — each week.
Curtis’ memo set off widespread speculation that smoke from the Balad pit, and possibly others, was to blame for myriad health problems faced by returning veterans. But Curtis, who has since separated from the Air Force, told The Tribune he didn’t intend to be a whistleblower — he only wanted to help loosen the bureaucratic purse strings holding back money for a long-promised incinerator.
“It wasn’t one of those ‘God and country’ things,” Curtis said. “I wasn’t trying to sacrifice myself. It was 2006. We’d gotten there in 2003. It had been forever and these things weren’t getting fixed. My understanding was that there were different allowances for money depending on whether something was a health issue or wasn’t a health issue, and I wrote the memo just so that everyone would know it was a health issue.”
My editor just emailed me telling me that they would like to publish the book earlier than they said, get it out for the 4th of July. She asked if I could get leave to come home at that time for the publicity. Of course, I told her I could. So folks, it looks like things are going to step up a bit and we will be looking at it being on the shelves the last of June, first of July. I am going to be one busy person between now and then. Between the job and getting all the editing done, I am not going to have much free time for a while. Of course, I am not complaining. I love being under the gun, so to speak, as many of ya’ll know. With each step forward we make on this book and the closer it gets to being on the shelves, the more real it all becomes. But for me, I guess it wont totally feel real till I see it in print. Anyway, I am very excited. As soon as I have dates for the publicity and where I am going to be, I will let everyone know. Ya’ll all take care.
Posted 4 years, 6 months ago at 09:37. Add a comment
I have to say, that sometimes I wonder about this world and the people in it. Working for the company that I work for now, I live on the economy. Which means that I see the country as it really is. With KBR, they kept us hidden away, secluded form the general public. That doesn’t happen now. I am living like I was in the states. I have a flat and a car that I make the rental payments on and I have no restrictions on my off hours. In that, I see a lot more than I did before and being a woman, I experience some of it first hand. Let me give you a few examples.
A little over a week ago, I complained about the truck they were going to put me in for that days mission. We all have been complaining about the trucks not being clean, but this day, I not only had a truck that was filthy, but it smelled bad and only ran 75kmp, (about 45mph). Now if it were just any one of these things, I could have dealt with it, for that day, as long as the problem was taken care of. But when I refused to driver the truck, they guys in the office, called the big boss man. I was not the only one that was refusing to driver their truck that day, we all were. Anyway. The project manager told us that he would get the problem fixed, but that we would have to deal with it for the day. That sort of satisfied me, but I still didn’t want to spend the day running around Kuwait in a slow truck that smelled bad. It being slow meant I had to spend MORE time in it. I was not happy. But I relented and took the truck. To the project managers credit, the next day, we had trucks that were assigned to just us. They were not clean to what we would call clean, but we could fix that ourselves. These guys think that sweeping out a truck and clearing out the trash make for a clean truck. Go figure!!
We all took our cleaning supplies to work and while waiting to get our guys loaded, we clean and sanitized our trucks. We were doing good. Things went well for a few days, then yesterday, I came in after being off for a few days because I was sick and got a filthy truck. I again was not happy. I explained to the guys in the office, that the uncleanliness of these trucks could be the reason I had gotten sick in the first place. It is possible, but I did what I had to, to make my point. Besides, where were the trucks that we were assigned? This sure was not one of them! I will give them credit, this morning when I came in, 3 of our assigned trucks were there. The one I usually driver was not clean, but at least it was not filthy. So again, I dug my cleaning supplies out of the truck of my car and cleaned my truck. I am on stand-by tomorrow and off the next couple of days. So I have no idea what it is going to look like when I get back, but I am counting on have to start all over again. But my question is, what is so hard about giving us clean sanitary trucks to drive?
NEXT EXAMPLE
Today, I only had to load one truck out of 5 I had to take to Arifjan. That is a good thing. Since the camp I was going to was up near the border and was a long drive, the fewer trucks, the less time I would have to be in this camp. It is a dust bowl. The slightest wind and they have a major sand storm to deal with. With the wind blowing and sand flying everywhere, I thought I would be smart and go up the back way. There is a Kuwaiti check point on this route. Most of the time I have no problems going through this check point. They see that it is an American leading the convoy and they let us on through. Well, today, there was an older Kuwaiti manning the check point and I have had problems with him before. I knew as soon as I saw him there we were going to have trouble. He motioned for me to stop, so I did. (We usually don’t have to), and he asked me for my ID. I showed him my DOD badge and he was OK. Then he asked if the driver I was escorting, had ID. Of course, I said he did. They have to have a Kuwaiti ID or a red striped DOD badge to get into the camps. I pulled up and let this guys check my driver. Then I saw that he was motioning for us to pull to the side. The driver I was escorting is Filipino, a TCN, (third country national). I got out of the truck and asked what the problem was. He all of the sudden acted like he didn’t speak English. That pissed me off. I know they do and he did, because he had talked to me already. He keeps saying something about ID. MY driver opens his wallet and I see the red striped DOD badge. I tell him that that badge should be all he needs. This Kuwaiti guard guys snatches the badge out of the drivers hand and then takes his Kuwaiti ID out of his wallet. He kind of says that we have to come back this way on our way out because he is going to hold this drivers ID. Well, that pissed me off even more. The Kuwaiti’s treat these people like they are sub-human. I wont go into all that I know about that, but needles to say, I got even madder at this. I told him I as not leaving without this drivers ID. He still would not speak English to me. I told him that we would just turn around and go in the other way then. He gives me this blank look. I told my driver to get I his truck, we were going to do a u-turn. After we did that, and were sitting in the other side of the check point, this guard brings ME the drivers ID. I set my break, got out of my truck and walked the ID back to the driver while blocking the check point. How dare he treat this driver like this! Thing is, I see this all the time. The guys that go through this check point never have a problem. I usually don’t either, only when this one guys it there. I don’t think he likes the idea that a WOMAN is leading the pack and driving a truck. I know he doesn’t like the TCN’s and treats them like dirt. This angers me to no end. And the TCN’s are so afraid fo being kicked out of the country, that they just take it. And they say this is better than where they come from. I just can’t even imagine.
Well, I have let off enough steam for today. I will stop now. Be grateful that you live in the United States. We have a great country that this kind of thing should not happen.
Posted 4 years, 6 months ago at 20:05. Add a comment
