I am a disabled veteran, and I am ashamed, for the past week this nation as the world has been focused on a dead white woman who's claim to fame was large breasts and she married a very wealthy old man, and has kept this nation entertained for a decade as she has fought his son for the money. They are both now deceased and the money is still there, neither of them have it. Now we wonder about the dispicable attorney in her life Howard K Stern and the poor little baby, that 5 month old that everyone wants to claim, why else the money, whoever has the baby gets control of the money.
How many of you know about Iraqi war veteran Jason Schulze?
He is but one man, a young man who went to war and came home and asked for help, and this nation turned it;s back on him and told him wait your turn, you are number 26 on a waiting list.
The list was for a bed in a lockdown ward to prevent him from committing the act he did do, he hung himself. As this story shows how the system itself is broke and in desperate need for fixing.
WASHINGTON — The suicide of a 25-year-old Iraq war veteran has revived questions over how long returning troops are having to wait for treatment from Veterans Affairs hospitals for post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental health problems.
"We're hearing of too many cases of waiting lists — particularly involving cases of post-traumatic stress disorder," said Rep. Michael Michaud, D-Maine, chairman of the House Veterans' Affairs Subcommittee on Health.
"I'm not going to take a shot at the administration or the Democrats, it's just a problem that needs to be fixed, it's an American problem," said Larry Provost, an Army reservist who was given a two-month wait for an appointment to address his own PTSD.
Since 2002, tens of thousands of returning veterans have been treated for symptoms of the emotional disorder, brought on by the traumas of war in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Acknowledging the need for additional facilities to treat mental health, Veterans Affairs Secretary Jim Nicholson announced last week that the department would be incorporating 23 new Readjustment Counseling Service Centers in the next two years. That's on top of the 209 that are already operating around the country.
I know that the two month wait was lucky for the man above, we moved from one VA hospital area to another, and asked for appointments, they told me I had to go thru the class on how to use the VA Hospital system, forget the part that I have been using the VA system since my failed triple bypass in 1997. The wait for the class was three months, only after I completed would I then be given an appointment in future months. Bullshit, I spend the time and drive to my old VAMC, where I have 3 of the best doctors I could find in or out of the VA system, primary care, cardiology and psychiatry, they know me, inside and out, they deal with my wife well, and for the stress of it, it is easier to drive the 70 miles each way. PTSD veterans also don't need additional roadblocks to their treatment put in their way, by an uncaring system.
The NPR story about Fort Carson, Colorado and the way they treat the soldiers with PTSD made it's way to the halls of Congress and Senators and Congressmen alike are asking for investigations into it. Why, did it take a radio story to make the questions come out, where has the Army's IG been, where are the Doctors charged with caring for these men, why is DOD knowing that it has this problem allowing the military, Army and Marines to ignore it?
I have heard excuses that range from the military doctors do not want to ruin the veterans chances at their futures by labeling them with PTSD, so they give them a battle fatigue diagnosis that is supposed to be made within 4 days of the incident that caused it, being made as much as six months later, they then send them back to Iraq with bottles of pills, enough to last them for their entire deployment, that many bottles take up a lot of room.
But then how does this excuse fit with what is happening nationwide, if the veterans after coming back from Iraq get into trouble because of their PTSD symptoms, drug abuse or alcohol abuse, missing work, domestic abuse etc, the military is throwing them out on Personality Disorder discharges as is shown here describing how the military is using the PDO.
Young warriors
Smith was 20 years old when he arrived in Iraq with members of a Marine Reserve unit in the spring of 2003, crossing the Kuwaiti border in unarmored vehicles to begin a bloody tour of duty that Marine officials say involved brutal fighting and numerous Iraqi civilian deaths.
After returning home from the war, fellow Marines say, Smith had trouble coping with the consequences of combat - to the point that he found it difficult to fire his rifle during weekend drills.
Ultimately, he was discharged from the Marine Corps "for medical issues," according to unit officials. Fellow Marines say his psychiatric troubles were the cause of his ouster.
Smith's ejection was not unique. Since 2001, the military has discharged more than 22,000 service members from its ranks for "personality disorder," a classification once referred to as a "Section 8," according to the Department of Defense.
Kathleen Gilberd, a counselor with the San Diego-based Military Counseling Project, said many service members discharged because of personality disorders, medical issues and other grounds are in fact struggling with post-traumatic stress.
Now, I understand the death of a bueatiful wreck of a woman, and who can call Anna Nicole Smiths life anything but that? It is a news story, but is it worth 24/7 for 9 days while the stories of the men and women being ignored by this nation that sent them to war, refuses to adequately help them when they come home goes basically ignored by the MSM?
I don't know where the justice is in this, if it should even be compared, but to me as a PTSD veteran, I see a massive story of major implications for towns across this nation go largely ignored while everyone is being entertained, is this what news has become? Where in the hell is Walter Cronkite and Dan Rather when you need them?