Lamar W. Hankins : We Must Heal Our Wounded Vets

Wounded Army vet waiting for a prescription for anti-seizure medication at a Colorado Springs doctor's office. Photo by Michael Ciaglo / Colorado Springs Gazette.

We must 'heal the wounded':
The military’s abuse of enlistees

At this point, almost a decade since his last combat, it is unclear whether Jim will ever recover from his injuries. His treatment by the military has been callous and devastating for his family as well as for him.

By Lamar W. Hankins / The Rag Blog / May 30, 2013

This Memorial Day my thoughts went back to about 10 years ago, when I learned as close to first-hand as one can get, short of being in the Army, just how abusive and uncaring the military establishment can be. A close family member was deployed to Iraq to fight in “Shock and Awe,” George W. Bush’s destabilizing effort to free Iraqis from the rule of Saddam Hussein. I’ll call him Jim.

Jim had been in Special Forces for most of his 18 years in the military. He had fought in the first Iraq War and had participated in many classified operations. His missions and training had caused him chronic pain and other long-term problems -- skin cancers, unexplained neurological symptoms, and a back injury that required surgery.

When Jim was deployed to Iraq for George W. Bush’s war, he had not fully recovered from his back surgery and had not been released for full active duty. He required regular pain medicine to cope with his recovery from the surgery. Nevertheless, he was sent to fight with his unit in Iraq.

During the worst of Jim’s pain, he sought a private doctor to prescribe pain medication so that he could avoid letting his command know how bad his back was. He did not want to appear weak. He was strongly motivated to continue to be a part of his unit. He knew that if he let his next-in-command know of his condition, he would no longer be allowed to continue in his Special Forces unit. His “band of brothers” feelings were strong.

About six weeks into his deployment to Iraq, Jim’s dependency on drugs for pain control became so apparent that he was sent home from Iraq before his unit returned. As I learned eventually, in addition to physical pain, Jim suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). He had trouble sleeping, exhibited startle responses frequently both when asleep and when awake, had nightmares and flashbacks, was uncomfortable in crowds, had an uneven temperament, was often agitated, and had trouble concentrating.

Soon after Jim returned home, military doctors sent him to Walter Reed Army Hospital (now phased out of service) for another back surgery. I accompanied him for the surgery and stayed with him for several days afterward, including driving him home after he was released from Walter Reed. On this trip, I observed most of the symptoms mentioned above.

But these were the least of Jim’s troubles. Soon after returning to his base at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, his command started court martial proceedings, intent on washing him out of the Army because of his dependence on pain medication. They wanted to give him a bad conduct discharge. After he hired (at great expense) a civilian attorney with extensive military law experience, his punishment became a general discharge. He was not allowed to retire, though he had 19 years in the service.

After he was discharged, he filed for VA benefits and another struggle ensued, during which he had to prove that his disability was service connected. His attorney proved his high fees were worth the cost. With much support also from his family, eventually, Jim prevailed and received VA benefits and continues his recovery from his 19 years in the military.

At this point, almost a decade since his last combat, it is unclear whether he will ever recover from his injuries. His treatment by the military has been callous and devastating for his family as well as for him.

Unfortunately, Jim’s story is not unique or even a worst-case example of what the military does to men and women who join up. Those in the armed servies suffering from Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) and PTSD are commonly dumped into the civilian sector without benefits -- no pension, no health insurance, no support.

According to the Department of Defense, these conditions together likely affect more than half a million veterans of the last 11 years of American wars in the Middle East. They represent about one-quarter of all those who have served during this period.

As reported by Dave Phillips in the Colorado Springs Gazette, what happened to Jim seems to be standard operating practice for today’s volunteer military:

After the longest period of war in American history, more soldiers are being discharged for misconduct than at any time in recent history, and soldiers with the most combat exposure are the hardest hit. A Gazette investigation based on data obtained through the Freedom of Information Act shows the annual number of misconduct discharges is up more than 25 percent Army-wide since 2009, mirroring the rise in wounded.

At the eight Army posts that house most of the service's combat units, including Fort Carson in Colorado Springs, misconduct discharges have surged 67 percent. All told, more than 76,000 soldiers have been kicked out of the Army since 2006. They end up in cities large and small across the country, in hospitals and homeless shelters, abandoned trailers and ratty apartments, working in gas fields and at the McDonald's counter. The Army does not track how many, like Alvaro, were kicked out with combat wounds.

Figures supplied by the Army Human Resources Command indicate that soldiers discharged for alleged misconduct rose by about 63% during the six-year span between 2006 and 1012. Mark Waple, a civilian attorney who handles military cases and a retired Army officer told The Gazette: "I've been working on this since the '70s, and I have never seen anything like this. There seems to be a propensity to use minor misconduct for separation, even for service members who are decorated in combat and injured."

Politicians are quick to declare our duty to provide support for our troops, including when they return. Last October, President Barack Obama called it "the single most sacred obligation this country has." More recently, Colorado Sen. Mark Udall said, "The American people have an unbreakable covenant with our veterans and we must provide them the very best health care."

But the military and the VA seem unable to provide that support and recognize that what we require volunteer service men and women to do leads directly to PTSD and often causes them to be wounded in ways that are not immediately apparent.

Jack Nicholson’s character in A Few Good Men, Colonel Nathan R. Jessup, told the attorney prosecuting two Marines for the murder of another Marine, “You can’t handle the truth.”

At least in part, what Col. Jessup refers to is the perceived need to do horrible things in the service of this country, as well as actually taking actions that would be perceived by most people as despicable -- killing children, bombing families going peacefully about their daily lives, destroying homes. Sometimes such deeds are purposeful, other times accidental. But all take a toll on the human psyche.

Our fighting men and women are not super humans, unfazed by what they do as members of the military. They are not playing video games for the highest score. They are placed in life-and-death situations in the service of their country.

What they do sometimes makes them lose their moorings. Sometimes it makes them sick. Sometimes it leads them to make wrong choices. No matter what some military leaders may claim, they are not weaklings or cowards if their mental and physical health deteriorates. They are human.

Twenty-two veterans of our wars commit suicide each day. That should be sufficient for anyone to understand how wrong it is to compel our military men and women to do what we have made them do, and then discard them.

It is long past time to start treating our service men and women as the sentient human beings they are. We should not expect more from them than the human mind and body can be reasonably expected to endure. When we do ask them to commit horrible deeds, we need to expect that some of them will not respond to their experiences well.

For these, and all the rest, we need a system that is compassionate, not one that is operated by the self-righteous and arrogant. We need to stop punishing people for the logical consequences of what we require them to do.

If our politicians really care about the service and sacrifice of our military members, they will change a system that is unfair, degrading, and inhumane into one based on what we know about human psychology, neurology, and physiology. We will stop treating these service men and women as automatons and recognize that what they have become is partly, if not largely, a result of what we had them do.

We will take some responsibility for their circumstances and do our best to make up for our own transgressions manifest in the tasks we gave them. It is the very least that should be expected of a great country.

As many veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan said one year ago at a rally in Chicago, it is long past the time that we should “Honor the Dead, Heal the Wounded, Stop the Wars.”

[Lamar W. Hankins, a former San Marcos, Texas, city attorney, is also a columnist for the San Marcos Mercury. This article © Freethought San Marcos, Lamar W. Hankins. Read more articles by Lamar W. Hankins on The Rag Blog.]

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The Hidden Toll : 18 Veteran Suicides Every Day

Image from The Public Record.
Real cost of war:
Shocking suicide rate among vets

By Ted McLaughlin / The Rag Blog / April 27, 2010

We tend to hear about the United States soldiers that are killed in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan, and thankfully that number has gone down in the last few months. That has given many Americans the false impression that these two unnecessary wars are not costing many American lives these days. Sadly, that is just not true.

It's just that the cost of these wars on the lives of American soldiers and veterans is more hidden now, because most of the lives lost now is in this country -- through suicide. But it is still directly attributable to service in Iraq and Afghanistan. These two wars are still costing this country a shocking number of American lives each and every day.

According to an article published in the Army Times on April 26, 2010, there is an average of 950 suicide attempts by veterans every month -- and about 7% of those attempts are successful. Among those who fail, 11% will make a second attempt within nine months. They say that about 18 veterans commit suicide every day (and five of those are receiving VA care).

The data shows that there is a lower rate of suicide among those who are receiving VA care than among those who are not. The VA is trying to strengthen it's suicide prevention programs and the VA figures they save about 250 lives each month through VA treatment. The VA suicide prevention hotline receives about 10,000 calls each month from current and former members of our military.

I commend the VA for their efforts and for the lives they are able to save, but obviously much more needs to be done. They not only need to increase their outreach to include many veterans not currently receiving care, but they also need to increase the quality and effectiveness of the care they are giving (because five suicides a day among those receiving treatment is just too many).

But the greatest need is to end these evil and unnecessary wars -- immediately! While deaths may have gone down on the battlefield (although there are still too many), at 18 suicides a day the wars are still costing us way too many American lives. And this won't stop until we stop putting our brave soldiers, both male and female, through the horrors of war (and will probably continue for months or years after the wars end).

The truth is that we are accomplishing nothing in Iraq or Afghanistan, and we are paying an awful price for these failures in nation-building. Let's end it. Now.

[Rag Blog contributor Ted McLaughlin also posts at jobsanger.]

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Harm's Way : Escalation and the GI Suicide Crisis

Mental health and the suicide rate:
Sending soldiers into harm's way

By Michael Anthony / The Rag Blog / December 4, 2009

President Obama recently stated that sending more troops into harm’s way in Afghanistan is a solemn decision -- one that he would not rush. As a veteran, I find the decision to send troops into harm’s way without an effective military mental health program in place beyond solemn. It’s deeply disturbing. Keeping soldiers mentally fit should be as important as keeping them physically fit.

Since the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq started, nearly 2,000 active-service soldiers have killed themselves, according to a report by the San Antonio Express-News earlier this year. Even more alarming is the fact that every day, five active-duty service members attempt suicide. In the past eight years, that means up to 14,000 have felt their life is not worth living.

The government doesn’t want you to know this. In the spring of 2008, CBS news journalist Armen Keteyian exposed a Veterans Administration cover up of suicide stats. The reporting revealed that every day, 18 veterans kill themselves and roughly 1000 attempt suicide each month. The VA’s head of Mental Health had claimed there were only 790 attempts in all of 2007, a far cry from the reality.

Among all veterans, over the eight years we’ve been at war in the Middle East, the statistics point out that roughly 50,000 have committed suicide, with upwards of 44,000 attempting suicide. These figures only represent data gathered since 2001; this has been an ongoing and persistent problem since Vietnam -- and the numbers go up each day.

Recently, the Army made a big deal about giving $50 million to fund a five-year research project on military suicide. In their book, The Three Trillion Dollar War, Linda J. Bilmes and Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph E. Stiglitz figured the cost of the Iraq war at $12 billion a month. That means we spend more than $16 million an hour.

If you do the math, the $50 million that went to suicide research is what we spend every three hours in Iraq.

The day after Christmas this year will mark our 3,000th day at war. At this point, we’ve heard a lot about suicide bombers, but what about suicide? Regardless of anyone’s feelings about our involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan, these soldiers deserve much more than three hours of our time.

[SPC Michael Anthony is the author of Mass Casualties: A Young Medic’s True Story of Death, Deception and Dishonor in Iraq (Adams Media, October 2009). The book is drawn from the personal journals of SPC Anthony during his first year of service in Iraq.]

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David P. Hamilton: Socialized Medicine Works for Me

Universal Health Care Now stencil art recycled vinyl LP clock by artbymags / Margaret Coble
VA health care and Medicare are 'good medicine'

In essence, health care should be a human right, not a commodity. It should not be restricted to those who can afford it and you shouldn’t have to risk your life in the military for it either. This principle is universally acknowledged, except here. The right to health care is the only position with any moral credibility.

By David P. Hamilton / The Rag Blog / February 25, 2009

Having turned 65 and being an army veteran, I am the recipient of two kinds of U.S. government run, single payer health care.

A comparison between the "socialist" care I get now and the much higher costs and relative inefficiency of health care previously provided to me through private insurance speaks strongly to our need for fundamental reform of the US health care system.

In 1964, as a privileged white boy with some college but poor mechanical skills, the army made me administrative personnel, initially as a clerk/typist and later as a “personnel management specialist.” Further fortuitous circumstances landed me at a division headquarters an hour south of Paris, where we very seldom suffered the privations of being “in the field.”

Having an 8 to 5 desk job allowed me to pursue other interests, like socialism and why I opposed the Vietnam War. My desk was lined with controversial books, from “The Communist Manifesto” to Bernard Fall. My commanding officer, reputedly educated as an economist at Abilene Christian College, took note and we debated. My pièce de résistance in this argument was my essay comparing US Army society with a Soviet-style communist society. They both had caste like hierarchical command structures that told you where to go and what to do – even to kill people – without recourse other than jail or desertion. They both supplied all essentials like food, clothing, housing, education, transportation, health care and political indoctrination. Everything else they made available at subsidized prices. There was no meaningful democracy and they both opened your mail with impunity (as happened to me).

Forty three years later, long after taking my last order, I’m still soaking up that army socialism. My primary health care option is the VA Clinic on Montopolis Blvd. in Austin.

There are some negatives about VA health care. The VA is underfunded. I shouldn’t have to go to Temple or San Antonio to get into a veteran’s hospital. They don’t have cutting edge gear. On average, their doctors are probably paid less than doctors are in private practice, hence, according to capitalist thinking, the market dictates second stringers. However, private doctors have told me that working for the VA is well compensated, has good working conditions and may also attract those less materially motivated.

There is also my existential discomfort being in a waiting room full of men, many broken physically and psychologically by their military experiences, who still revel in their military memories as if that had been their finest hour; a “Korea ‘52-‘53” bumper sticker on the back of a wheel chair. Often they have sales of memorabilia in the waiting room -– unit and campaign baseball caps (“Khe Sanh – ‘68”), decoration replicas of all types, but no “Vet for Peace” items. Another negative is the rent-a-cop at the front door who mechanically asks everyone entering if they’re carrying weapons. I always tell him, “Only my mind.” He shows no expression.

But the positives outweigh the negatives. First, VA health care is very cheap. Being relatively middle class, I pay a nominal amount on a sliding scale, but it is very little. Buying two medications regularly under my private health insurance used to cost me $50 a month at the pharmacy. At the VA, those medications cost me $15 for three months and they’re mailed to my house, over a 90% savings. I get bills from the VA for office visits and diagnostic procedures, but they are minuscule compared to what I paid for private health care.

Even better is the speed, integration and comprehensiveness of the care. I can walk in unannounced any day and go to the walk-in clinic. I’ll wait a while, but get to see a doctor about my complaint relatively quickly. I have a regular GP doctor there who calls me in every six months for another check up. They take the initiative to make the appointment and call me – and send me reminder letters – informing me of the time. The supportive lab work is done there too. Many specialists are in house. I now regularly see a rheumatologist there.

When any doctor or nurse working there needs to refer to my complete medical history, they just make a few key strokes and it appears on their computer screen. If they want me to have a blood test or an x-ray (or a sonagram or an EKG) they just hit a few more key strokes and send me down the hall for the procedure. Typically, I’m back in 30 minutes with the results already in their computer. If they want to order a medication, a few more key strokes and it’s ready for me down the hall at the pharmacy. They even have masseurs and nutrition counselors.

The VA is more proactive than my previous private system. Besides the regular physicals, both my doctors at the VA have called me at home after reviewing tests to have me come back in for immediate follow ups. They also honor patient driven care. I refused the first medication recommended by the rheumatologist and wanted guidance on holistic approaches. She acknowledged not having the requisite knowledge to provide that guidance, but loaned me her copy of the Arthritis Foundation’s book on alternative therapies. Then, without complaint, she provided pamphlets describing the various pharmaceuticals available to treat rheumatoid arthritis and let me choose those I was willing to take. If there is a specialist they don’t have in house, they refer you to one in private practice with the VA picking up the tab. In my experience, waiting time to see any of these specialists is less than it is to get such an appointment in private medicine.

There are occasions, however, where one wants cutting edge care or a diagnostic procedure (e.g., CT scan) more quickly or closer than the VA can provide. For that, Medicare, my other “socialist” plan, kicks in. It’s not so great, but beats the alternatives. I pay almost $100 a month for it, but there are no co-payments for office visits. This compares with $300 a month plus co-payments and deductibles under the retired teachers group plan I had previously. Although supplemental insurance from the teacher’s group covering what is not covered by Medicare costs me another $100 a month, my costs are still considerably less than what they were before I turned 65 for the same services.

“The United States continues to spend significantly more on health care than any country in the world. In 2005, Americans spent 53% per capita more than the next highest country, Switzerland, and 140% above the median industrialized country”, according to research from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. 47 million Americans, 15% of our population, have no health care coverage at all. As a direct result, the U.S. is 45th in life expectancy, behind Jordan and Bosnia, and 42nd in infant mortality, behind Cuba. These dismal figures are quite simply because we have capitalist, for profit, private health care and countries with lower costs and better outcomes have socialized public health care. The US health care system is a disgrace and should be exhibit A in how the private sector does a far worse job than government at providing essential public services.

Obama might have to spend hundreds of billions annually to establish a government run, single payer system, but it will quickly drive down prices, allow the American public to save hundreds of billions more on their health care costs and will produce better health care outcomes. The only losers would be the owners of the bloated and pampered private health insurance and pharmaceuticals industries. Health care remains one of the only remaining growth industries in the current economy and the factors driving that growth will continue in a public system.

In essence, health care should be a human right, not a commodity. It should not be restricted to those who can afford it and you shouldn’t have to risk your life in the military for it either. This principle is universally acknowledged, except here. The right to health care is the only position with any moral credibility. Some capitalists losing money as a result of the change to a public system is a small price to pay and has no moral equivalence. Our pragmatic president should see that publicly funded health care for all is not only the moral high ground, but also politically popular and the only system that is economically sustainable.

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Gulf War Syndrome: Self-Poisoned Under Orders

Panel: 1 in 4 Gulf War vets is sick
By Anne Usher / November 17, 2008

Report blames exposure to toxic chemicals and other causes, demands more research and spending.

WASHINGTON — At least one in four U.S. veterans of the 1991 Gulf War suffers from a multisymptom illness caused by exposure to toxic chemicals during the conflict, says a congressionally mandated report that is being released today.

For most of the past 17 years, government officials said that the health problems of the veterans — more than 175,000 out of about 697,000 deployed — were the effects of wartime stress, even as more people have come forward with severe ailments.

"The extensive body of scientific research now available consistently indicates that 'Gulf War illness' is real, that it is the result of neurotoxic exposures during Gulf War deployment, and that few veterans have recovered or substantially improved with time," says the report from a panel of scientists and veterans. A copy was obtained by Cox Newspapers.

The panel said in a 2004 draft report that many of the veterans were suffering from neurological damage and pointed to toxic chemicals as a possible cause. The new report goes further by pinpointing known causes, and it criticizes past U.S. studies, which have cost more than $340 million, as "overly simplistic and compartmentalized."

The panel is urging Congress to spend at least $60 million annually on research. It notes that no effective treatments have been found.

Two things that the military provided to troops in large quantities to protect them in combat — pesticides and pyridostigmine bromide tablets, aimed at thwarting the effects of nerve gas — are the most likely culprits, the panel found.

Gulf War illness is typically characterized by a combination of memory and concentration problems, persistent headaches, unexplained fatigue and widespread pain. It may also include chronic digestive problems, respiratory symptoms and rashes.

The Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans' Illnesses, created by Congress in 1998 , will present the 450-page report to Secretary of Veterans Affairs James Peake. The panel said its report is the first to review the hundreds of U.S. and international studies on Gulf War veterans conducted since the mid-1990s.

It recommends that the Department of Veterans Affairs order a redo of past Gulf War health reports, calling them "skewed" because they did not include evaluations of toxic exposure studies in laboratory animals, as Congress had requested. The panel examined such tests and notes that recent ones have identified biological effects from Gulf War exposures that were previously unknown.

Although the report calls some new VA and Defense Department programs promising, it notes that overall federal funding for Gulf War research has dropped sharply in recent years. The studies that have been funded, it says, "have little or no relevance to the health of Gulf War veterans."

The report also faults the Pentagon, saying that it clearly recognized scientific evidence substantiating Gulf War illness in 2001 but did not acknowledge it publicly.

"The VA has accepted and implemented prior recommendations of the committee and values the work represented in the report presented today," said press secretary Alison Aiekele. "Secretary Peake thanked the committee for its report and recommendations and directed VA to review and respond to the committee's recommendations in the near future."

The panel focused its research on comparing the brains and nervous systems of healthy adults with those of sick Gulf War veterans, as well as analyzing changes to the neuroendocrine and immune systems. It found that in terms of brain function, exposure to pesticides and the pyridostigmine bromide pills is damaging to memory, attention and mood. Some people, it notes, are genetically more susceptible to exposure than others.

About half of Gulf War personnel are thought to have taken the tablets during deployment, with the greatest use among ground troops and those in forward positions. Many veterans say they were forced to take the pills, which had not been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Some say they fell ill immediately.

"Many of us got sick from the pills," said retired Staff Sgt. Anthony Hardie, a Wisconsin native who was with a multinational unit that crossed from Saudi Arabia into Kuwait and then Iraq. He said he was required to take them for several weeks and soon had watery eyes and vision problems, diarrhea, muscle twitching and a runny nose. A fellow special operations forces officer, he said, lost about 20 pounds.

To ward off sand flies in Kuwait City and the eastern Saudi province of Dhahran, Hardie said, trucks would come through at 3 a.m. and spray "clouds" of pesticides.

"The pesticide use was far and away (more) than what you'd see in daily life," he said.

Several soldiers who were interviewed said they were ordered to dunk their uniforms in the pesticide DEET and to spray pesticide on exposed skin and in their boots to ward off scorpions.

The federal panel also said it could not rule out an association between Gulf War illness and the prolonged exposure to oil fires, as well as low-level exposures to nerve agents, injections of many vaccines and combinations of neurotoxic exposures.

Retired Sgt. Randy Stamm of Mesquite was among the 100,000 U.S. troops who may have been exposed to low levels of sarin gas as a result of large-scale U.S. demolitions of Iraqi munitions near Khamisiyah in 1991. Troops who were downwind from the demolitions have died from brain cancer at twice the rate of other Gulf War veterans, the report says.

His unit was nearby during the demolitions and near the burning oil fires for 31\/2 months. He said he took the pyridostigmine bromide pills for more than a month.

Stamm now takes 63 pills a day to treat health problems that include gastritis and esophagitis.

"My intestinal system is hosed," he said, adding that he is losing vision in his right eye. "I lost eight wives because of this."

A panel member, Dr. Roberta White, chairwoman of environmental health at the Boston University School of Public Health, found evidence last year that links low-level exposure to nerve gas among Gulf War troops with lasting brain problems. The extent of the deficits — less brain "white matter" and reduced cognitive function — corresponded to the extent of the exposure.

In addition, the panel said, Gulf War veterans have significantly higher rates of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease, than other veterans.

White said that although there is a lot of anecdotal evidence of Gulf War veterans contracting multiple sclerosis, studies haven't confirmed a combat link to that degenerative disease. Questions also remain about rates of cancers, disease-specific mortality rates in veterans and the health of their children.

Conversely, the panel said, little evidence supports an association or major link with depleted uranium, anthrax vaccine, fuels, solvents, sand and particulates, infectious diseases or chemical agent-resistant coatings.

That veterans' complaints are still repeatedly met with cynicism, White said, "upsets me as a scientist, as someone who cares about veterans."

Source / Austin American-Statesman

Thanks to Janet Gilles / The Rag Blog

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Numbers of Homeless Iraq and Afghanistan Vets Are Growing

According to the Department of Veterans Affairs, there are about 195,000 homeless veterans on any given night. Photo: AP/World Wide Photos.
Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans join the homeless
By Anna Sussman / November 11, 2008

Ethan Kreutzer joined the Army at the age of 17 and fought with the 19th Airborne in Jalalabad, Afghanistan. When he retuned home, he had no money, no education and no civilian job experience. He soon became homeless. He slept in an alley off Haight Street, behind two trash cans.

June Moss drove from Kuwait to Iraq as an Army engineer in a truck convoy. When she returned to the United States, she lost her home, and drove her two young children from hotel to hotel across Northern California.

Sean McKeen, a hardy, broad-shouldered 21-year-old with a wide smile, went to Iraq to clear land mines, and to get money for college. When he returned home, he became homeless in less than a week. He found himself sleeping in a cot in a crowded homeless shelter in San Francisco.

They are all part of a growing trend of homelessness among returning war on terrorism veterans.

More than 2,000 military personnel return home to California each month. Most have no specialized job experience, education or an easy familiarity with civilian life. And many have post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), making it difficult to get along with friends and family, and almost impossible to hold down a job.

"You feel like the whole world is against you when you get home," said Kreutzer. "I was sleeping on the sidewalk, whereas I had been wearing a uniform less than a year before." Soft- spoken and restless, Kreutzer was recruited in a 7-Eleven while still in high school. After five months in Afghanistan, he had a mental breakdown, diagnosed as PTSD. When he returned to the United States, he spent almost four years living on the streets.

Kreutzer said he's met several veterans of the war in Iraq on the streets of San Francisco, or sleeping in Golden Gate Park. He also said he met several veterans of the war in Afghanistan, like himself, who were in similar situations.

Kreutzer now lives in a temporary housing facility for veterans on Treasure Island, run by the group Swords to Plowshares. He attends PTSD counseling with other war on terrorism veterans so that he can learn to maintain a job and house. "I was haunted by a lot of issues, a lot of things that I saw over there that were not good things. There are some times when I can wake up in a room and think I'm still there. I still remember what it tastes like, the air over there. I see all the rocks, I see the people," said Kreutzer.

One of the symptoms of PTSD is isolation and withdrawal, according to Amy Fairweather, director of the Iraq Veterans project at Swords to Plowshares. "So that interferes with your ability to get a job. People sit in the dark by themselves," she said.

Fairweather is seeing large numbers of homeless war on terrorism veterans come through her doors.

"Homelessness can happen very quickly, if they don't get the help they need. Their mental health will get worse, they will become more depressed," she said. "We are seeing Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, who are homeless, coming in very quickly. After Vietnam, it generally took about five to 10 years to end up on the streets. We're seeing people on the streets three months after they come home."

Moss spent 12 years with the military and had purchased a house with a VA home loan, but she fell behind on payments.

"When I got back from Iraq, I knew something was wrong," she said. Diagnosed with PTSD, she found herself awake at night devising ways to keep her family safe. "I decided to move the refrigerator in front of the door to bunker us in," she said. "Then I would stay up all night baking cookies because I didn't want to go to sleep. Eventually, I stopped leaving the house altogether."

Moss lost her job and her income, and the bank foreclosed on her home.

She moved her two kids between temporary housing units and hotels until her PTSD was under control. Now, she has a temporary house for her family, and a full-time job at the VA. "It's because of my kids that I go to therapy and take my medication. If it wasn't for them, I don't know what would happen," she said.

Other veterans are not so lucky. McKeen was exposed to more than 300 bomb blasts in Iraq. He suffers from traumatic brain injury as well as PTSD. When he returned home, he slept on couches at friends' houses, and in his car while looking for a job. He spent many nights wandering the streets before he ended up in a shelter.

"It's like a culture shock returning home, but you are supposed to be used to it," he said. "Unless you are in war, nobody can understand what it's like. And they expect you to just function normally by yourself after that?"

The Department of Veterans Affairs estimates about 2,000 war on terrorism veterans have become homeless upon returning to the United States. It's still a small number, when compared to the staggering numbers of homeless Vietnam War-era veterans, but one that could balloon in the coming months.

At the Palo Alto VA, the inpatient programs for PTSD and TBI are crowded with war on terrorism veterans - an indication that a large number are at risk for homelessness, according to director of homeless programs Keith Harris.

"Before it gets to the point where someone is living on the street, what they are typically doing is struggling with a mental health disorder, burning their bridges with the people around them, family, employers, spouses," he said. " I don't believe there is a large chunk of returnees literally homeless without a roof over their heads, but I think a large chunk of them are at risk for it."

The homeless shelter at the Palo Alto VA is full. And many veterans still complain that the VA is unprepared and overly bureaucratic. Most have to wait six to eight months for claims to be addressed.

But by all accounts, the VA is far better prepared this time than it ever has been in the past. With an understanding that the looming homeless crisis is best treated as a mental health issue, it has hired 17,000 mental health workers, making it the largest mental health program in the country.

But with some 2 million active service members still fighting and undergoing the trauma of war, Moss wonders if any amount of preparation by the VA can address the fundamental problem of readjustment.

"I think the problem is war itself," she said. "War changes a person. I talk to all vets. The same experiences we had coming home from Iraq are the same experience World War II (vets) saw, Vietnam saw, Korean War saw, so it hasn't changed. I think the real problem is probably just war itself."

Anna Sussman is a journalist who has reported from the United States, Africa and Asia. To comment, e-mail forum@sfchronicle.com.

Source / San Francisco Chronicle

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Jim Hightower : Bush's Empty Promise to Wounded Vets

Portrait of Marine Staff Stg. John Jones by Timothy Greenfield-Sanders.
'Where is George when thousands severely wounded in his misguided Iraq war need him to act?'
By Jim Hightower / August 6, 2008

When Bear Stearns, Freddie Mac, and Fannie Mae got in a financial crunch, George W was Georgie-on-the-spot, rushing out with a bailout package of more than $130 billion.

But, where is George when America’s wounded veterans – including thousands severely wounded in his misguided Iraq war –need him to act? Last year, the public was disgusted to learn of the scandalous mistreatment these vets were getting at the Army’s Walter Reed hospital and other VA medical centers.

Caught unaware by the furor, Bush hurriedly promised to do something, and in February he claimed success. His army surgeon general told Congress that “we are entirely staffed at the point we need to be,” adding with bravado that “a key element of our warrior ethos is that we never leave a soldier behind on the battlefield – or lost in a bureaucracy.”

Great line! Mission accomplished!

But wait – why aren’t veterans applauding? Because they know that claiming progress is not the same as making it. In June, congressional staffers investigated a wounded vet center in Texas that was set up for 649 patients, but is now jammed with more than 1,300. Another 350 vets are struck on a waiting list and some will languish there up to a year, even though many are at high risk of suicide. Instead of being “entirely staffed,” the center has only half the number of nurse case managers it needs.

Why is there such an outrageous gap between Bush’s promise and performance? The Bushites claim that, gosh, they simply didn’t anticipate so many wounded soldiers coming out of Iraq. Excuse me! The war has been going on for more than five years, and the awful number of casualties has been reported daily. How could they not know?

I’ll bet that if our vets had names like Freddie, Fannie, and Bear – Bush would have covered all of their needs, pronto.

“Wounded Warriors, Empty Promises,” The New York Times, July 25, 2008.

Source / JimHightower.com

See Wounded Warriors, Empty Promises / New York Times / July 25, 2008

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Jim Hightower : 'Gooberhead Award'

VA treating vets as lab rats
By Jim Hightower / July 22, 2008

Time for another Gooberhead Award, presented periodically to those in the news who’ve got their mouths going 100 miles an hour – but forgot to put their brains in gear.

There are so many gooberheads in today’s story that it’s hard to tell who is the gooberest of all. It’s certainly not James Elliot, an Army veteran who came back from Iraq with PTSD. During his treatment by the Veterans Administration, he was recruited by VA doctors to be part of a behavioral study of Chantix, an experimental drug developed by Pfizer to help people stop smoking.

But no one told Elliott about one small detail: a side effect of Chantix is that it can make you suicidal. Not good for a PTSD victim. Sure enough, weeks into the drug test, he suffered a mental breakdown, got a gun, and ended up being tasered and arrested by the police.

Three weeks later, the VA finally notified the 940 other vets in the study that... uh... there could be a... uh... side effect. Unabashed, the lead doctor declared that Elliott’s breakdown was no reason to deprive veterans of “an effective method of treatment to help them stop smoking.” Well, yes, suicide is very effective at stopping smoking.

Then came the goobers in the White House to defend their VA appointees for running a dangerous human experiment on vets without telling them. Bush PR flack Tony Fratto hailed the “wonderful leadership” of VA secretary James Peake. Yet, when told that Elliott said he’d been treated like a “lab rat” by the VA, Mr. Wonderful responded that such a comment “hurts me.” Yeah Peake, it’s all about you! Then he said he saw “no evidence to suggest the study should be stopped.” Well, not unless you count Elliott’s breakdown as “evidence.”

So Secretary Peake’s attitude wins today's Gooberhead Award – because he’s definitely the gooberest of all.

Source / Jim Hightower

Also see 'Disposable Heroes' / ABC News

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