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Veterans Administration, Geared to Men, Shortchanges Special Needs of Women

By SUSAN DONALDSON JAMES - ABC News
March 2, 2010

The first day Kristine Wise returned from eight months military service in Iraq, she knew something was wrong. Driving from San Diego to Bakersfield to see her brother, the road signs triggered flashbacks.

"One said 'railroad,' but instead I saw 'roadside' and in my mind a roadside bomb," said Wise, who supplied parts to combat vehicles in the first wave of the war. "I would see 'beware' and my mind would see 'Baghdad.' I couldn't explain it."

The depression and panic attacks began long before her honorable discharge in 2004, but the battle to get the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to take her symptoms seriously was just as difficult. READ MORE...

Later in the article they list two very valuable resources:
"Those seeking support can contact Grace After Fire, a nonprofit dedicated to helping women veterans, or Swords to Plowshares."

All, COL Platoni is an exceptional woman, doctor and soldier. She was at Ft Hood in Texas on November 5th at the time of the attack. She is also a former Board Member of Grace After Fire, and as an active duty reservist has asked to continue as one of our astute Clinical Advisors. We love her, miss her, and send her our prayers for continued strength and safety during this trying time.

God bless you, Colonel.

Read the Story online

DEATHS AT FORT HOOD/Louise Farr

When Ohio psychologist and Army Reserve Colonel Kathy Platoni heard panicked civilians shouting and saw them carrying the wounded toward her Fort Hood building last week, she thought it was yet another training exercise. Too quickly she learned that the scenario was real. The San Diego psychiatric nurse, Captain John Gaffaney, died in front of her. “He tried to rush the shooter and took at least five rounds,” Platoni told me by phone from Fort Hood. “He fought so hard to stay alive.”

I had met Platoni in August when her 467th combat stress control team passed through Los Angeles. The reservists, along with the 1908th medical detachment, were heading for northern California’s Camp Parks to train before deploying to Iraq and Afghanistan next month. At the time, I was researching a story about post traumatic stress disorder for Los Angeles magazine, and seven reservists talked with me around a hotel conference table. In the group was Major L. Eduardo Caraveo, a warm and thoughtful Virginia psychologist who had succeeded Platoni on a 2004 deployment as combat stress team officer in charge at Guantanamo Bay.

My plan was to reconnect with Platoni, Caraveo and their colleagues after their 14-month deployments so that I could write about their experiences. Three months after our Los Angeles meeting, Major Caraveo was dead, one of 13 killed, including five mental health workers, allegedly by Nidal Malik Hasan, the army psychiatrist authorities are blaming for the shooting frenzy.

The military will get a bad rap over not stopping the madness before it happened; for not spotting and ousting a disturbed -- perhaps fanatical – soldier. But Caraveo, dressed in fatigues, weary from jet lag and speaking in a softly accented voice that indicated his roots as a Mexican immigrant, talked in August about the difficulty of integrating the concept of mental health into an environment whose dominant motif is war. The military, he pointed out, is a world of its own, and its psychologists and psychiatrists are doing nothing less than attempting to upend an entrenched culture.

“It’s a very difficult task. It’s going to take a while, but I think we’re making definite strides,” Caraveo said, about the millions of dollars the Department of Defense has been pouring over the past few years into research, new treatment programs, and PR campaigns designed to reduce stigma. “It’s an opportunity to act in a prophylactic way, rather than be reactive,” the major said. “I think in the past, we have been more reactive. Sometimes it’s too late.”

Sadly, it was too late for Major Caraveo and the other Fort Hood victims. “He filled our souls,” Colonel Platoni, who is also Clinical Psychology Consultant to the Chief, Medical Service Corps., says about her fellow soldier. It may not be too late for some of the ground troops in Iraq and Afghanistan as Caraveo’s 1908th medical company, and the 467th, which also suffered losses at Fort Hood, want to continue with their deployments, according to Platoni. “If they split us up and send us home, they’ll traumatize us even more. We’re hanging tough, but we need each other, and we’re geared up for the mission,” she told me yesterday.

Like many military mental health reservists, the colonel shuttered a private practice and left a worried spouse behind to deploy to Afghanistan and embed with troops. This can mean living in tents and huts, eating and hanging out with the soldiers to build trust, then helping them cope with their boredom as they wait for something to happen, and their fear when it does. Emotional fallout from the war continues as alcoholism, PTSD and suicide rates mount. But how much worse might they be without these stress team workers?

“I think most of us make a choice to do this kind of stuff and make sacrifices, so at that level we can identify with the troopers,” Caraveo said, as we sat around the table. “Typically, when you put on a uniform, you don’t talk to other people about emotions. So when they start talking to us, it’s very humbling for them and very humbling for us. We help.”

Military Sexual Trauma - Seeking Justice-- The Huffington Post


Grace After Fire is listed as a resource ladies - here is where women can come and feel safe to talk. Where there is still pain, let us gather and offer our love, tolerance and gentle hand of help.

Feel free to reply and share your thoughts - Grace.

See a video of the Veterans' Affairs Senate Committee Meeting on July 9, 2009.

The gun is heavy in my hand, cold, solid. I sit on the edge of my bathtub and stare at .... read more. By Kayla Williams

I served right alongside my male peers: with our flak vests on during missions, we were all truly Soldiers first. Read More

Grace After Fire Boardmember Kayla Williams described the misconception that women do not participate in combat, and therefore, are not eligible for service-connected benefits. Read More

 Recent News

Have an article related to women veterans? Submit it here!

IN OUR OWN VOICE:
WOMEN VETERANS TELL THEIR STORY
March 26, 2010

The Psychotherapy & Spirituality Institute is in the early stages of developing a
theater project designed to give voice to women’s experience in the military. This event
will be devoted to the stories of women veterans -- in monologues performed by an
actor, in video interviews, and in conversation with women veterans present at the
event.

It is sponsored by Intersections International and is one in a series of
Intersections’ Veteran-Civilian Dialogues, designed to facilitate conversation between
veterans and civilians about the effect of war on us all.
Men and women, veteran and civilian: ALL ARE WELCOME!

Where:
Intersections International
274 Fifth Avenue (bet 29-30th)
New York, NY 10001

When: March 26, 2010

Time: 6:00-9:00PM

RSVP: Mary Ragan
212.285.1552

MARCH www.thankyouforyourservice.us NOW LIVE

Our March issue of our Online News Site Thank You For YOUR Service just went Live. Read the many stories from Afghanistan, Iraq, Kosovo, from Military Support Groups, about PTSD and TBI and much more.

NEW TALK SHOW PROGRAMS

Listen 24/7 To the speakers talking from the Military Community Youth Ministry Banquet and Event in Colorado Springs. Listen to Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez, U.S. Army (Ret), his daughter Rebekah Sanchez - Ft. Hood Club Beyond Staff and more.

Listen LIVE March 5, 2010 at 11:00am (MST - National Guard Soldiers from many States will call in LIVE from Kosovo to say hello to family and friends.

Listen LIVE March 6, 2010 at 9:00am (MST) - More Ft Carson Soldiers will call in from Afghanistan and share progress and positive stories.

Listen LIVE March 8, 2010 at 9:00pm (EST) - Listen to Jody Shiflett Outreach Director with Air Compassion For Veterans. Last month, Air Compassion for Veterans (ACV) provided 530 free flights to injured service members and their adversely affected families so that the wounded warrior can have access to the best medical treatment options in the USA.

To Listen to Audio of TalkingwithHeroes Programs either LIVE or later 24/7 at your convenience go to: TalkShoe Community Call

For Details on these news programs go to: TalkingWithHeroes.com

More Programs will be announced soon including with Living Patriots and Honor and Remember (See story in the March issue of Thank You For Your Service.

Please help us get this information out to more people

Thank You
Bob Calvert
Host: TalkingWithHeroes.com
Editor: Thank You For Your Service
Email: bob@talkingwithheroes.com

Among active-duty soldiers, there were 12 potential suicides: one has been confirmed as suicide, and 11 remain under investigation. For December, the Army reported ten potential suicides among active-duty soldiers. Since the release of that report, three have been confirmed as suicides, and seven remain under investigation.

During January 2010, among reserve component soldiers who were not on active duty, there were 15 potential suicides. For December, among that same group, there were seven total suicides. Of those, five were confirmed as suicides and two are pending determination of the manner of death.

In January, the Suicide Prevention Resource Council and the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention selected the Army’s “Ask, Care, Escort” model for inclusion in their national registry of programs reflecting “best practices” in suicide prevention. The Army’s model is one of only thirteen suicide prevention programs, nationwide, included in the registry.

Army leaders can access current health promotion guidance in newly revised Army Regulation 600-63, Health Promotion at: http://www.army.mil/usapa/epubs/pdf/r600_63.pdf and Army Pamphlet 600-24 Health Promotion, Risk Reduction and Suicide Prevention at http://www.army.mil/usapa/epubs/pdf/p600_24.pdf.

The Army's comprehensive list of Suicide Prevention Program information is located at Suicide Prevention - Army G-1 Human Resources.

By Tony Perry
Los Angeles Times
OCEANSIDE, Calif. — Kristine Wise remembers driving from San Diego to Victorville, Calif., to visit her brother and seeing haunting messages on the freeway signs. Instead of the speed limit or the miles to the next town, she envisioned: Beware of Snipers. Watch Out for Bombs. 40 miles to Baghdad. Death Ahead.

"It was horrible," said Wise, who served in Iraq with the Army in 2003 and 2004.

The disturbing images are part of the anxiety and panic attacks she has suffered since serving as a supply clerk just as the insurgency was becoming proficient at killing Americans, with roadside bombs and suicide attacks.

In Iraq, her depression ran so deep that she wrote a suicide poem: "The pressure is too great / I'm going to crack and fall apart / ... My casket is now fully covered, it looks nice."

Sent back to Germany, Wise received psychiatric and medical treatment before she was honorably discharged in 2004, two years early.

Now 40 and a student at California State University, San Marcos, she is part of a growing phenomenon: women who have been traumatized by military service. Read more...

By Rob Stein
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, February 5, 2010; 9:12 AM

The Department of Defense will begin making the morning-after pill Plan B available at all of its hospitals and health clinics around the world, officials announced Thursday.

The decision came after a recommendation by the Pentagon's Pharmacy and Therapeutics Committee, an advisory panel that voted in November to include Plan B and the generic Next Choice on the list of drugs all military facilities should stock. The Pentagon accepted the recommendation Feb. 3, a spokeswoman said.

Read more....

Women at war: Sexual violence in the US military
Helena Merriman reports on a woman whose experience of sexual assault, while serving in the US Air Force in Afghanistan, turned her into a campaigner for the welfare of service women.
Marti Ribeiro was born into a military family.
Her grandfather and father were both in the Air Force - and all her life she had wanted to join the armed forces.
After she finished school she joined the Air Force Reserves and a few years later, in March 2003, she was deployed to Iraq.
While she loved her job as a public affairs specialist, from the time she arrived she was routinely harassed and called Air Force Barbie.
“I had no idea how difficult it would be," she told the BBC World Service.
"My father, who is a retired military colonel, thought the world of me for joining the military.
"I never saw the personality traits in him that I saw in the military - I never saw what I was getting into."
In 2006 she was in Afghanistan.
"You're supposed to carry your weapon at all times in a combat zone," she said.
"But I put my weapon down and walked away to smoke a cigarette and that was when I was attacked."
She was then dragged behind some power generators and raped.
"If I had kept my weapon maybe I would have been able to prevent it," she says.
"But if I had used it I would probably have ended up in jail."
She went to the authorities but they told her that if she filed a claim, she would be charged with dereliction of duty for leaving her weapon unattended in a combat zone - an offence for which you can be court-martialled.
So she kept quiet and the man who attacked her went unpunished.
"It would be my word over his and they are not going to take my word over his," she said.
When she returned from Afghanistan, she did not talk to anyone about what happened. She says she felt it was all her fault.

'Heartbreaking' phone calls
Congressional leaders, who have been holding hearings this month on sexual assault in the armed forces, say that more needs to be done to tackle what recent studies indicate is a widespread problem.
In 2003, in a survey of female veterans conducted by the University of Iowa, funded by the US Department of Defense, 30% of the 500 female veterans interviewed reported an attempted or completed rape.
Equally worryingly, the Department of Defense estimated in its 2009 annual report on sexual assault, that around 90% of rapes in the military are never reported.
Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez, who sits on the Military Personnel Subcommittee, successfully lobbied last year for the development of a Sexual Assault Database to encourage accountability within the Armed Forces.
"There are plenty of phone calls that come into my office of alleged assault of women by our military men," she says.
"They are heartbreaking. Some women don't want to go public with it, some have gone public with it and they've been drilled out of the military.
"I'm told that the statistics are that once you have been raped in the military you are most likely to be raped over and over."
She says that not enough prosecutions are happening and that while the Pentagon is taking it more seriously, big changes still need to be made.
"Why is it that when a woman alleges rape, the outcome shows that the man who supposedly did this was demoted or moved to another unit? I want to know why this is happening!"

Predators
Dr Kaye Whitley, Director of the US Department of Defense's Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office (Sapro), says it can be very hard for victims to report a sexual assault.
"We do know that being sexually assaulted takes a great human toll on an individual and there are all kinds of barriers to keep people from wanting to come forward," she says.
One of these barriers, she explains, is that after someone has reported an assault in the US military: "Their command knows, everyone in the unit knows, and it affects 'unit-readiness'."
For this reason there is now a new "restrictive reporting option" so that victims who are afraid of reporting an assault can get the medical care and counselling that they need, without their command having to be notified, and without having to participate in an investigation.
For those who do decide to report a sexual assault, Dr Whitley says the crime is taken seriously.
"We are finding that more and more commanders are referring these cases to court martial," she says.
"One of the things that one of our leaders recently said is that we want to get so good at prosecuting these guys that if there's anybody walking around out there that's a predator, they'll think that the military is the last place they want to end up.
"So we are working very hard on that, we think we can do better," she says.
'Cultural change'
The writer Helen Benedict has been looking into sexual violence in the military for a number of years, and has recently written a play on the subject. She has heard from women whose experiences have ranged from disrespect, to constant sexual harassment, to rape.
"There is a culture that if you report someone, you are seen as a weak soldier who failed to defend yourself," she says.
But she says this does not mean that women should not be serving in the army.
"It is the men who are committing a crime who have a problem. The military has to deal with them and not punish women by shutting them out from this career," she says.
Ms Benedict says that economics may help to bring about the cultural change that she says the army needs.
"The recession means more women are joining the military then ever before. So as women become less of a minority and rise in the ranks and get more power, hopefully the culture will begin to shift," she says.
Meanwhile, Marti Ribeiro is now trying to tackle the issue politically.
She is part of the Service Women's Action Network, which lobbies to improve the welfare of US servicewomen and women veterans.
"This is so that if once my daughter is eligible she turns to me and says 'I want to do what you did,' I can support her," she says.
"But if she asked me right now I would say 'No'."
You can listen to the BBC World Service series on Women at War on World Update all this week until Thursday 18 February.

Female vets find the VA health-care system lacks the resources and initiative to care for women returning from duty

By Jan Goodwin - www.goodhousekeeping.com
Good Housekeeping

"I could spend all day browsing in bookstores," says the former Army Reserve specialist. "It's my favorite thing to do." But it has been four years since the Minnesota native has been in a bookstore — or any kind of shop. Since she returned from Iraq in 2005, her panic attacks have been so severe, she can no longer leave her house outside Minneapolis. The attacks started when she rode city buses — "they sounded like a Humvee," explains the woman, who asked that her name not be used for privacy reasons. That rumbling set off hideous flashbacks to her time in Iraq, where she crisscrossed the country in canvas-sided Humvees doing convoys as a turret gunner. "It was one of the most dangerous things you can do," she says. Read more...

“Administrative discharge.”

The words stung, like I had just been slapped or spit upon. I couldn't follow the rest of the lieutenant colonel's words. Only that the man who raped me was being given an honorable discharge.

My commander was small in stature and had skin deeply creased with age and experience. He always came off warm, calling me by my first name and offering support and understanding. This time, his friendly demeanor gave a surreal character to his “good news.” He intended to give my rapist, his NCO, an Administrative Discharge under Honorable Conditions.

The same shock, disbelief and denial that I had felt after the rape overwhelmed me. I was back on the couch, trembling and in tears, as J slept on his bed, his gun close by. I had sat there then, trying to make sense of what had happened, how a friend – my supervisor and brother-in-arms – could betray me. Now, I was dazed by the betrayal of the Army.

In the cold, makeshift conference room, I was outranked and outnumbered. I sat across the table from my commander and a major; beside me was a female lieutenant, my cold, makeshift advocate.

I fought to stay in control. Anger, building since the attack, boiled up.

J would keep his rank and his benefits. His record would be unblemished. J could reenlist the day after his discharge, and conceivably return to his place on the state honor guard, carrying caskets and folding flags for those who had made the ultimate sacrifice.

The thought repulsed me.

“With all due respect, sir,” I said with the intensity of barely controlled fury, “that isn't acceptable to me. I don't ever want to see this man wearing this uniform again, leading troops again, or dishonoring another veteran at their funeral.”

My commander, Lt. Col. M, wrestled away a wry, uncomfortable smile as he looked around the room, unsure of how to react to my challenge. Gingerly, he reminded me that this action would mean that J would be out of the Army and would no longer hold a position of authority. Lt. Col. M said that this was all he could do, that he didn't have the power to deal a harsher punishment.

I looked over at my advocate. She said nothing. Neither did Major R, my commander’s right-hand man. But I knew what they were saying: Occurrences like this were “steady state operations” in the Army.

I'd seen Army indifference of sexual assault before. When the guys at my first unit would grab my ass or whisper vulgar fantasies to me in uniform, the only action my command took was to offer a collective shrug. From drill sergeant to battalion commander, they all told me the same thing: “You need to grow a thick skin and get used to it” because “this is how life is for females in the Army.”

I was hearing it again in the conference room. Get used to it. This is how life is for women in the Army.

But this time, I wasn’t going to be ignored.

Lt. Col. M wasn't willing to push the issue to someone with the power to administer punishment -- fine, then I would, I told him. I couldn't serve in a unit or institution that granted impunity to, even rewarded, those in positions of power and responsibility for an offense like rape.

I had trusted J as a friend, a comrade, and my recently appointed boss. He was a noncommissioned officer, a decorated soldier. He was obsessed with power and control, be it through artful manipulation or intimidation. He projected it through the big truck he drove, the gun on his hip, the combat badge he flaunted. J loved to tell people that he was a combat veteran, so he could do what he wanted. And the Army told him that he could.

Not me. The Army told me that I was worthless. I had felt an obligation to serve, to continue on the deployment that I had trained for and committed to. I had always stepped up when the Army called me, and this time was no different. I couldn't let my unit deploy without me. But this dedication I had to my unit and the Army was one-way. After the initial days of support and after I agreed to still deploy, my command treated me as nothing more than a nuisance, a burden, a liability.

The Army doesn’t like to air its dirty laundry, preferring instead to resolve allegations of misconduct “in-house.” Too often, I’d seen that this meant dismissals and hand slaps. So I went to the civilian police the day after I was attacked. Local authorities collected the physical evidence and taped J’s confession when I phoned him from the police station. Police arrested J the night before we were scheduled to deploy, and he was arraigned days later on four counts of Rape by Duress.

The evidence, confession and criminal charges didn’t seem to matter to the Army. Neither did my pain. My commander's intention to give J an honorable discharge reinforced my feelings of worthlessness and dispensability. I was not worth the dark cloud that might hover over the unit if punishments were dealt. I was not worth the blemish on Lt. Col. M's record of “soldier care.” My pain was not worth even a moment of his or his colleagues’ discomfort. The Army’s apathy and betrayal, however passive, hurt more than J's attack.

This indifference ran through the ranks and across gender lines. The lieutenant appointed as my advocate told me that she had once been raped, but decided not to file a criminal report.

“It was easier to just forget about it,” she told me, and implied that I should, too. I was hearing it again: This is how life is for women in the Army.

When I rejoined my comrades, no one would talk to me. Not even the women. They all faulted me for breaking up the unit, for getting J taken off of the deployment. J had a long history with the unit, while I was the new girl.

A few days after I rejoined my unit, we reviewed some video footage from training. At one point, J's face filled the screen. I was paralyzed, lightheaded with fear and nausea. I ran to the bathroom and vomited. Minutes later, a female I had trained with and lived with came in to use the bathroom. As I sat on the floor heaving with sobs, she stepped over me to wash her hands, survey her hair, and leave. I was alone. To her, I was worthless.

Back home, a prosecutor facing a backlog of cases and an aggressive opposition from J’s high-priced legal defense offered J a deal. J pled guilty to False Imprisonment, a misdemeanor, and served on the sheriff’s work crew for 90 days. When the military officially began an evaluation of J’s conviction and service record, Lt. Col. M ordered me to not submit a sworn statement, to not get involved with the military's separation board or to talk to the prosecutor responsible for the case. He said that I would not be allowed to testify.

Major R, mindful of his career, backed the commander.

“This is none of your business,” he told me, “and you have no right to involve yourself in it.”

With every step I took, my command tried to silence me with threats and claims that I didn't have this or that right. Often, it was simple harassment and the silent demand that I “get used to it.”

During my deployment, Major R often accused me of being promiscuous, of spending too much time with men (which made up about 85 percent of the post's population and my entire office), and of putting myself in dangerous situations. He once said this must explain J's actions. With tears and anger, and no regard to military bearing, I rebuked the major.

“I have done nothing wrong,” I shouted. “He made his own decision to rape me.” The major cringed at the word “rape,” then stared at me with contempt and told me to leave his office.

I was fighting Army culture, but also myself. I couldn't be honest about how much I was struggling, how depressed I was, or even the nightmares I was having almost every night, at the risk of losing privileges, my rank, my security clearance and my job. So I stayed silent and isolated myself, even from those at home. I couldn't tell anyone that I was starving myself and that I didn't know how to stop. I couldn't tell anyone about the night I cut my arms and thighs, and my continuing urges to cut. I couldn't tell anyone about the phantom child I felt in my womb, wondering if he would have J’s eyes, or what I would tell her when she asked about her father.

I was exhausted, depleted of the energy it took to constantly be on-guard and feign normalcy. I spent almost every off-duty hour in bed, sleeping, reading or watching movies. I lost almost 25 pounds within a few months into my deployment. When Major R heard of my weight loss, he accused me of staging a ploy to make him look bad and to solicit pity or attention.

I was in the Army National Guard, but to get support, I had to go to the command of another state’s Guard unit. I wasn't a liability to them, I wasn't their responsibility, so they were willing to help. They got me in contact with the prosecution back home, and authorized my return to the United States for the separation board.

read the rest of the story....
at Veteran's Workshop/New America Media

VA Hospital Upgrades Care For Female Vets

The traditionally male-dominated environment often doesn't recognize that women veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have experienced the same psychological, physical and emotional trauma as male veterans. VA hospitals across the nation are taking a number of steps to treat the whole female veteran. Read more...

Ex-POW in Iraq war recalls nightmares, depression in new book

By KIMBERLY HEFLING, Associated Press Writer Kimberly Hefling, Associated Press Writer Wed Feb 3, 9:34 am ET

WASHINGTON – Shoshana Johnson survived gunshot wounds to both legs and 22 days as a prisoner of war in Iraq. Life wasn't so easy when she came home, either.

In a new book out this week, the 37-year-old single mother describes mental health problems related to her captivity and tells how it felt to play second fiddle in the media to fellow POW Jessica Lynch, who was captured in the same ambush.

"It was kind of hurtful," the former Army cook said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. "If I'd been a petite, cutesy thing, it would've been different."

Johnson, the nation's first female black prisoner of war, said she felt she was portrayed differently because of her race, either by media outlets that chose not to cover her experience or those who portrayed her as greedy when she challenged the disability rating she was given for her post-traumatic stress disorder.

While the story of Lynch, then 19, remains firmly in the nation's collective memory from the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, far less attention has been paid to Johnson, then 30, and four male soldiers from the 507th Maintenance Co. from Fort Bliss, Texas, who also survived captivity.

Johnson was rescued by Marines, about two weeks after Lynch's rescue. Months after returning home, Johnson left the military and today is enrolled in culinary school. She lives in El Paso, Texas, with her 9-year-old daughter.

Johnson's book, "I'm Still Standing," is being released in time for Black History Month. Johnson said she hopes that by telling her story, she can set the record straight and bring attention to mental health issues affecting veterans.

The day of the 2003 ambush, Johnson and Lynch were among 33 U.S. soldiers in a convoy that got lost in Nasiriyah en route to Baghdad. Their journey, Johnson said, was hampered by broken-down vehicles and malfunctioning equipment. Eleven were killed — including Johnson's friend Army Pfc. Lori Piestewa.

Johnson asked to be medically discharged from the military in part because she felt other soldiers resented her over the attention her POW status attracted.

She's also struggled with depression and nightmares. At times it was so bad, she writes, that her daughter, who was 2 at the time Johnson was captured, asked Johnson's parents, "Why is Mommy crying all the time?"

In 2008, she checked herself into a psychiatric ward for a few days. "Even when I came home, I didn't think I'd ever get better. I didn't think the issues I had would ever ease," Johnson said in the interview. "But as time goes on and I stick with my therapy, it has gotten easier, and I know if I keep on the right track, I'll be OK."

It was hard at first to admit to having PTSD, she said, because she thought of it as something that happened to Vietnam veterans. "When they started throwing out that word when I came home, I was like, no, that's not me," Johnson said.

Today, Johnson is training to be a pastry chef so she can make wedding and birthday cakes. "It would just be nice to be able to celebrate those special moments with people," she said. "After everything that's gone on, I think those kinds of moments are very special."

After successfully fighting to receive improved disability benefits stemming from her PTSD, she was later asked to serve on the Veterans Affairs Department's panel on minority affairs. She speaks proudly of the other POWs in captivity with her and keeps in touch with them. She said they schedule annual POW exams — the Defense Department is studying the effects of captivity — at the same time in Florida so they can see each other.

Contrary to speculation, Johnson said she was never angry at Lynch or jealous of her. "Jessica is my friend," Johnson writes. "I was her friend before the ambush and I'm still her friend now."

One of the most brutal things Johnson endured was a captor grabbing her chest. She tells in her book of mobs of Iraqi people coming to view her as a vehicle she was in traveled from town to town, with one villager slapping her and another spitting on her. But while the men endured beatings during the captivity, she said she was treated better.

She describes acts of kindness, too, by the Iraqis. One doctor operated on her legs, which she credits with allowing her to keep them. Another doctor early in her captivity whispered to her that a woman Johnson assumed was Lynch was alive, which provided comfort.
_____

Army account of attack on 507th Maintenance Co.: Attack on the 507th Maintenance Company

CSPAN will be airing the testimony on the report of the Defense Task Force on Sexual Assault in the Military Services to the House Committee Armed Services LIVE today at 3:00 pm Eastern.

Sexual Assault in the Military, Part 1 - C-SPAN Video Library

Montana model for PTSD detection to face first major test:
(GREAT FALLS TRIBUNE) --- One of the largest troop deployments in the state since World War II will test the Montana model for combat stress assessment and treatment over the next couple of years.

It is a particularly important test because Montana's model of preparing families for deployment, assessing soldiers for post-traumatic stress disorder and mobilizing crisis response teams to help traumatized soldiers has become the nation's model. Read more...

All,

A professional colleague posted the following to the Federal and Military Librarian's listserv:

The DOD Independent Review on the Fort Hood shooting report has been released and is available as follows.

Protecting the Force: Lessons from Fort Hood (01/2010)
http://www.defense.gov/pubs/pdfs/DOD-ProtectingTheForce-Web_Security_HR_13Jan10.pdf

Other information and news stories about the shooting can be found on the DOD Special report page
http://www.defense.gov/home/features/2009/1109_ft_hood/

Greta E. Marlatt
Outreach & Collection Development Manager &
Homeland Security Digital Library Content Team Manager
Dudley Knox Library
Naval Postgraduate School
411 Dyer Rd
Monterey, CA 93943
phone: 831-656-3500
fax: 831-656-2842
DSN: 756
email: gmarlatt@nps.edu / gmarlatt@nps.navy.mil
http://www.nps.edu/library/
https://www.hsdl.org
http://gretaslinks.blogspot.com/

(60 MINUTES - CBS) --- That process has been strained by a flood of disability claims - everything from combat wounds to injuries off the battlefield, illnesses and psychological disorders. Since 2003, 400,000 claims have come from veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, hundreds of thousands more from aging veterans of earlier conflicts. Read more...

Holidays Or No, Soldiers Need Time And Space To Adjust, Experts Say.

(AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN 24 DEC 09) ... By Jeremy Schwartz
For some active-duty service members and veterans, the holidays aren't about Christmas parties and gift giving. For them, the holidays can spark flare-ups of depression and post-traumatic stress disorder and make adjusting after tours of Iraq and Afghanistan more difficult, mental health counselors in Central Texas say.

A Peril in War Zones: Sexual Abuse by Fellow G.I.’s

New York Times December 28, 2009

BAGHDAD — Capt. Margaret H. White began a relationship with a warrant officer while both were training to be deployed to Iraq. By the time they arrived this year at Camp Taji, north of here, she felt what she called “creepy vibes” and tried to break it off.

Specialist Erica A. Beck, a mechanic and gunner who served in in Iraq, recalled a sexual proposition she called “inappropriate.” She did not report it, she said, because she feared that her commanders would have reacted harshly — toward her. Read more...

MarSOC looks to women for new mission - MarineCorpsTimes.com

By Trista Talton - Staff writer
Posted : Monday Nov 16, 2009 18:14:06 EST

CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. — Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command is making women an integral part of spec ops teams in Afghanistan, where they’ll be used to develop a rapport with Afghan women and, it is hoped, build broader support for the frail Afghan government.
MarSOC’s first female engagement team — comprising a captain, two corporals and a Navy corpsman — will spend about nine months with 1st Marine Special Operations Battalion, which is scheduled to take command of a task force later this year that will oversee U.S. spec ops forces in northern and western Afghanistan.
By attaching female troops to spec ops teams, officials hope to better navigate local Afghan customs that often prohibit interaction between women and men who are not members of their families. Just as soon as MarSOC was notified that 1st MSOB would deploy as a task force, officials made preparations for an engagement team.
“The whole goal is recognizing that the battle in Afghanistan is getting the people to buy into the idea of a state,” said an operations officer with the Marine Special Operations Regiment, a lieutenant colonel who asked that his name be withheld for security reasons. “You’re not going to get that buy-in by appealing to half the population.”
Federal law bars women from serving in ground combat units, including front-line spec ops forces such as MarSOC teams. But in Afghanistan and Iraq, where the front lines are often blurred, female service members have found themselves dodging rounds and joining firefights alongside men.
Officials said only that “a lot” of women expressed interest in joining the team after a word-of-mouth campaign alerted them to the opportunity.
Those selected had to meet specific criteria, which included having a first-class physical-fitness test score of 225 or higher and prior combat deployments.
They train to the same standards as MarSOC “enablers” — everyone from radio operators to engineers — who deploy with spec ops companies or adviser groups. That training requires them to master two weapons, the M4 carbine and 9mm pistol. Once they join their units, they’ll do unit-specific training, learning how to approach an Afghan village, for example, and how to respond to an ambush.
Hosptial Corpsman 2nd Class Jessica Ramon, a member of MarSOC’s support group, was selected for the first engagement team. She said she and the other women have learned some Urdu and Pashto, common languages in Afghanistan, but will rely on interpreters to communicate.
“I’m kind of a little nervous just because I haven’t been there before,” Ramon said. “But I want to go, and I’m ready to go.”

New Army regs vague on how to remove stigma of seeking help.

New regulations and guidelines put into effect this fall after a wide-ranging four-month review by the suicide task force acknowledge stigma’s damaging effects. The Army for the first time has put on paper a formal policy regarding stigma, yet beyond prohibiting the singling out of soldiers using special clothes or markings, the regulations provide few specifics on how it should be carried out.

Are you interested in attending a FREE weekend workshop?

Vets4Vets will be hosting an all-expenses paid weekend for veterans that will include peer support sessions, post-deployment discussions, topic-groups, recreational activities and time to kick back and relax.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT
Abel Moreno with Vets4Vets
(520) 319-5500 ● Info@Vets4Vets.US or Vets 4 Vets - Peer Support For Iraq And Afghanistan-Era Vets

Smithville:

VETERANS
Request to open veterans center in Taylor rejected
City attorney says proposed trauma treatment facility doesn't meet zoning requirements.

By Claire Osborn
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF

The city attorney for Taylor turned down a California company's request to open a trauma assistance center for female veterans, according to a letter released Thursday.

Center Point Inc. has proposed opening the center for 88 veterans at a vacant nursing home that the company purchased at 212 E. Lake Drive in July. The company said the center would provide psychological counseling, social support and community integration skills training for female veterans suffering from war-related trauma, including sexual assault by fellow soldiers.

According to the letter from City Attorney Ted Hejl, the company cannot open the center because the area is not zoned for a rehabilitative center for the number of people that Center Point wants to serve.

A city ordinance allows a maximum of nine people to live at a rehabilitation center. In August the company asked for a variance from the ordinance, then withdrew that request on Oct. 6, saying it was exempt from the ordinance because it is a charitable organization.

But in his letter Thursday, Hejl said zoning determinations were based on "actual uses of land and not upon the type of entity requesting the use."

Jose Rivera, a spokesman for Center Point, said the company has not given up on its plans.

"The center is in active negotiations to resolve the differences regarding definitions and permitted uses under the zoning ordinances," Rivera said Thursday. He declined to comment about the differences.

Some Taylor residents have opposed the center, saying they believe the company isn't being honest about what it plans to do and will instead open a halfway house for prisoners.

"We have absolutely no intention of using this facility as a correctional halfway house," Rivera said.

Center Point Inc. was founded in San Rafael, Calif., in 1971 originally as a residential center for women with substance abuse problems, he said. Now 80 percent of its facilities serve prison inmates in California and Oklahoma, Rivera said.

Opponents have argued that the company has no experience treating veterans and has a tarnished safety record. In California, four prison inmates escaped from one of its facilities in Humboldt County in 2004 and stabbed two people in a park. An appeals court ruled that Center Point was not liable for the injuries; the court's decision also mentioned that Center Point had failed to have a working alarm system and failed to lock up knives at the site.

"This is consistent with a pattern for neglect," said Miles Baska, a Taylor resident.

Center Point should have met with the community when the company bought the facility to talk about their plans for it, said another Taylor resident, Cherri Wolbrueck. She and others said their issue was with the company, not the veterans it says it plans to help.

Wolbrueck said she has veterans in her family and wasn't being unpatriotic by opposing the center. Jean Johnson, a city spokeswoman, said Taylor was "very pro-military."

"We adopted a unit out of Fort Hood and had a huge deployment ceremony for the Texas National Guard stationed in Taylor," she said.

Rivera said that the company has never treated veterans before but that its counselors are qualified to do so because they have worked with women who are victims of violent trauma.

If the company cannot negotiate a solution with Taylor officials, it will take its plans to another location, "but not necessarily out of Williamson County," Rivera said Thursday. He wouldn't say where else in the county the company might try to locate.

Smithville, in neighboring Bastrop County, has invited the company to move the veterans center there, said Tex Middlebrook, a Smithville city official.