Received This From A Friend In Iraq

[mountain tyme]

http://www.flashdemo.net/gallery/wake/index.htm

A song from our troops..

very moving and touching

MT

[Rizing Sun]

MT,

Great Post! Just hate to think about the struggles they will face after returning home. Dealing with, and having to navigate through the VA Maze just to get whats due..

Rize

[Pete53]

Breaks my heart to see the sacrifice being made by so many and for what?

[mountain tyme]

Pete53 wrote: "Breaks my heart to see the sacrifice being made by so many and for what?"

I asked myself that question every day my son was in Iraq and the relief of him being back home is short lived for I know he will be going back again. He told me Mom I go where I am needed and right now I will do more good helping over there then here." he works in the mental health field he chose that calling because he saw first hand the devastaion mental health disabilities have on families. Everything we do in this life has an impact on the lives around us.

I read that right now " The huge influx of injured troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan has overwhelmed the VA’s outmoded systems for providing medical care and disability benefits. The difficulties in handling the high volume of claims are exacerbated by the fact that the processes are riddled with inconsistent and irrational procedures. In addition, the archaic systems are structurally unsuitable for dealing with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (“PTSD”), a signature problem of veterans of OEF/OIF. As a result, the claims processing systems now in place are mere shells, and the due process rights of wounded veterans seeking care and compensation through these systems are routinely and repeatedly violated in multiple ways.

"Veterans with PTSD are among those troops who have suffered the worst due to the disintegration of the VA’s claims system. The Iraq and Afghanistan wars have produced an unprecedented number of veterans suffering from this mental disorder. PTSD is prevalent in troops returning from the current wars because of multiple rotations into combat, the absence of battle lines, widespread use of improvised explosive devices, the moral ambiguity of killing combatants dressed as civilians, the unprecedented use of National Guard and Reserve troops, and the use of body armor that saves lives but leaves minds and bodies shattered."

" In addition, serious problems have surfaced regarding the VA’s use of a general ratings guide for mental disorders, particularly PTSD. This guide is used by the VA in the claims process to determine a disability rating. However, it focuses on a veteran’s employability rather than his or her more general level of impairment. This emphasis on occupational impairment unduly penalizes veterans with PTSD, who may display distressing and disabling impairments in important areas of life but who are often capable of working to some extent. The result is that veterans with PTSD often receive disability ratings that leave them at or below the poverty level and deprive them of needed medical attention."

one needs to see the whole picture when it comes to this war in Iraq...it should never take away from all the veterans in previous wars who have suffered equally...but this current war or conflict is differnt in the way the U.S. miltary has engaged in it...historically...

"At no time in U.S. military history have large numbers of troops been required to serve on the front line in any war for a period of six to seven months, let alone a year or more, without a significant break to recover from the physical, psychological, and emotional demands that ensue from combat. During WWII, entire units were withdrawn from the line for months at a time in order to rest and recuperate. Even during Vietnam, week-long combat patrols in the field were typically followed by several days of rest and recuperation at the base camp. Never before has our nation redeployed service members who have already been diagnosed with PTSD to the same combat zone where they were originally traumatized, as is being done now. In OEF/OIF, troops are serving longer and more frequent tours of duty than in past conflicts. Many troops have been deployed three or four times and have had their tours of duty involuntarily extended in length. A considerable number of troops are conducting combat operations every day of the week, ten to twelve hours per day, for months on end."

It is an outrage NO IT IS A CRIME that after a Vet has been diagnosised with PTSD that he would be rotated back to the front lines!!! I feel helpless in this I speak out I send letters to the White house my state and local reps...a system will not change so the change has to come through those who care...helping one vet at a time...one person can make a diffence in the life of those they reach out too...so I look at the numbers...

"As of September 30, 2006, more than 3,000 troops had been killed and 50,500 troops had been wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan since the onset of OEF/OIF. (Linda Bilmes, Soldiers Returning from Iraq and Afghanistan: The Long-Term Costs of Providing Veterans Medical Care and Disability Benefits, RWP07-001 (John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, Faculty Research Working Papers Series, 2007) (“Bilmes Study”) at 11-12.)1 By early June 2007, the death total had reached 3,810. The Department of Defense (“DOD”) reported that, as of May 2007, 111 of these troops had died of self-inflicted wounds; the DOD does not report suicides among veterans of OEF/OIF"

enough said...perhaps that is why that song touched me so deeply.

http://www.flashdemo.net/gallery/wake/index.htm

MT