American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, Sept. 19, 2012 – The Defense Department is taking a stand against sexual assault in the military in an effort to maintain the well-being of U.S. service members and their families. This American Forces Press Service special report offers resources dedicated to preventing and appropriately responding to this crime, http://www.defense.gov/home/features/2012/0912_sexual-assault/.
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Wednesday, September 19, 2012
Special Report: Sexual Assault Prevention and Response
VA, DOD to Fund $100 Million PTSD and TBI Study
From a Department of Veterans Affairs News Release
WASHINGTON, Sept. 19, 2012 – The Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Defense today announced they are investing more than $100 million in research to improve diagnosis and treatment of mild Traumatic Brain Injury and Post-traumatic Stress Disorder.
“At VA, ensuring that our veterans receive quality care is our highest priority,” Veteran Affairs Secretary Eric K. Shinseki said. “Investing in innovative research that will lead to treatments for PTSD and TBI is critical to providing the care our veterans have earned and deserve.”
The two groups, The Consortium to Alleviate PTSD and the Chronic Effects of Neurotrauma Consortium will be jointly managed by VA, and by the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs, on behalf of the DOD.
More than 15 percent of service members and veterans suffer impaired functioning as a result of PTSD. CAP will study potential indicators of the trauma, as well as prevention strategies, possible interventions, and improved treatments. Biomarker-based research will be a key factor for CAP’s studies.
A primary goal of CENC is to establish an understanding of the after-effects of an mTBI. Potential comorbidities also will be studied; that is, conditions associated with and worsen because of a neurotrauma.
“PTSD and mTBI are two of the most-prevalent injuries suffered by our warfighters in Iraq and Afghanistan, and identifying better treatments for those impacted is critical,” Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs Dr. Jonathan Woodson said. “These consortia will bring together leading scientists and researchers devoted to the health and welfare of our nation’s service members and veterans.”
On Aug. 31, President Barack Obama signed an executive order to improve access to mental health services for veterans, service members and military families. As part of that executive order, Obama directed DOD, the VA, the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Education to develop a National Research Action Plan that will include strategies to improve early diagnosis and treatment effectiveness for TBI and PTSD. He further directed DOD and HHS to conduct a comprehensive mental health study, with an emphasis on PTSD, TBI, and related injuries to develop better prevention, diagnosis, and treatment options.
VA, which has the largest integrated health care system in the country, also has one of the largest medical research programs.
This year, approximately 3,400 researchers will work on more than 2,300 projects with nearly $1.9 billion in funding. Specific information on the consortia, including the full description of each award, eligibility, and submission deadlines, and general application instructions, are posted on the Grants.gov and CDMRP websites.
Saturday, September 15, 2012
Helping Female Veterans with Nowhere to Turn
By Alanna Durkin - Medill News Service
In August 2005, Army Lt. Jas Boothe had one thing on her mind: getting herself - and the son she was raising on her own - ready for her deployment to Iraq.
But a phone call and a doctor’s visit a few weeks later changed everything. Boothe, who was 28 at the time, learned her home had been destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. Soon after that, she was diagnosed with cancer in her head, neck and throat.
“So, now there is no deployment, there is no home and now I’m facing losing my military career, which is how I take care of my child,” she said in a recent interview.
She began to research housing options. The Veterans Affairs Department referred her to social services, where she was told she qualified for welfare and food stamps.
“There were a ton of services, housing facilities for men, but someone had forgotten about the women,” she said. “Our sacrifice was not equated to that of the males’ sacrifice, and that was shown in the level of services that we didn’t have.”
After 30 radiation treatments and two surgeries, the military cleared Boothe for duty. Now a captain in the Army National Guard, she was able to stay in the military, afford a home and support her son. But her experience taught her that there were likely other women veterans with nowhere to turn.
It is impossible to determine the exact number of female veterans who are homeless, according to a 2011 Government Accountability Office report. But one indicator is the number of female veterans who seek VA services, which doubled from 1,380 in 2006 to 3,328 in 2010.
VA has made it a goal to end veteran homelessness by 2015. An estimated 67,495 veterans were homeless on a single night in January 2011, a 12 percent drop from the year before, according to VA.
But the number is expected to grow as more service members return from Afghanistan over the next two years.
A LACK OF OPTIONS
VA has developed many programs to combat homelessness among veterans. The Grant and Per Diem Program provides funding to community groups that offer veteran services and housing, and the Housing and Urban Development-Veterans Affairs Supported Housing Program gives veterans vouchers for housing.
Yet these programs have significant limitations and problems when it comes to serving women, according to the GAO report.
The GAO found that more than 60 percent of the GPD housing for women either does not allow children or limits the number or ages of children accepted. Housing and service providers are also not compensated for the cost of housing children, creating a financial disincentive to accept families, according to the report.
The report also pointed to instances of unsafe living conditions for women and their families. “Nine of the 142 GPD programs we surveyed indicated that there had been reported incidents of sexual harassment or assault on women residents in the past 5 years,” wrote Daniel Bertoni, GAO’s director of education, work force and income safety issues.
Many homeless female veterans are single mothers, leaving them with nowhere to go if they cannot find housing that also allows their children, said Boothe, who started Final Salute Inc. to give female veterans somewhere to go. She runs a six-bedroom transitional home in Fairfax, Va., for five women and two children.
VA declined comment for this story........ Read More Here
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Have Things Improved? We Want to Hear From You! Sound Off: Housing Scarce for Homeless Female Veterans
| By Eric Tucker and Kristin M. Hall - The Associated Press Posted : Sunday Apr 8, 2012 16:27:20 EDT  |
| MANUEL BALCE CENETA / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS:
Homeless veteran Misha Mclamb is seen in her transition home in Adams Morgan neighborhood of Washington
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WASHINGTON — Misha McLamb helped keep fighter jets flying during a military career that took her halfway around the world to the Persian Gulf. But back home, the Navy aircraft specialist is barely getting by after a series of blows that undid her settled life.
She was laid off from work last year and lost custody of her daughter. She’s grappled with alcohol abuse, a carry-over from heavy-drinking Navy days. She spent nights in her car before a friend’s boyfriend wrecked it, moving later to a homeless shelter where the insulin needles she needs for her diabetes were stolen. She now lives in transitional housing for homeless veterans — except the government recently advised occupants to leave because of unsafe building conditions.
“I wasn’t a loser,” McLamb, 32, says. “Everybody who’s homeless doesn’t necessarily have to have something very mentally wrong with them. Some people just have bad circumstances with no resources.”
Once primarily problems for male veterans, homelessness and economic struggles are escalating among female veterans, whose numbers have grown during the past decade of U.S. wars while resources for them haven’t kept up. The population of female veterans without permanent shelter has more than doubled in the last half-dozen years and may continue climbing now that the Iraq war has ended, sending women home with the same stresses as their male counterparts — plus some gender-specific ones that make them more susceptible to homelessness.
The problem, a hurdle to the Obama administration’s stated goal of ending veterans’ homelessness by 2015, is exacerbated by a shortage of temporary housing specifically designed to be safe and welcoming to women or mothers with children. The spike comes even as the overall homeless veteran population has dropped by 12 percent in the last two years to about 67,500, officials say.
“It can’t get any worse,” McLamb says matter-of-factly, “’Cause I’ve already been through hell.”
Veterans’ homelessness, the subject of a March congressional hearing, has received fresh attention amid government reports documenting the numbers and identifying widespread flaws in buildings that shelter veterans......
DoD to Host Caregivers Conference in 2013
By Patricia Kime - Staff writer
Posted : Friday Sep 14, 2012 7:16:24 EDT
Posted : Friday Sep 14, 2012 7:16:24 EDT
The Defense Department will hold a conference next year to discuss issues facing military caregivers, a senior defense official announced Thursday.
Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Warrior Care Policy John Campbell said the Pentagon will bring together Defense Department caregiver program personnel, military and veteran service organizations, the private sector, and caregivers — spouses, parents, family or friends who help a service member following an illness or injury — to address the caregiver community’s needs.
Campbell made the announcement during the 2012 Warrior and Family Symposium sponsored by the Military Officers Association of American and the National Defense Industrial Association.
“I’ve been worried and concerned for a while about caregivers … the sisters, the brothers, the spouses, who really need our support,” Campbell said.
His remarks came after Annette Slaydon, the wife of a seriously injured Air Force explosive ordnance technician, told an audience of her husband’s struggles with his family, which doesn’t understand his post-traumatic stress disorder and recovery, and their marriage, left in shambles by their changed relationship.
“There’s no instruction booklet on how you move forward. There’s nothing that talks about how your relationship changes from that of a husband and wife to that of a patient and caregiver … and you wake up one morning and you wonder how it happened,” Slaydon said.
More than 49,000 service members have received physical wounds in Iraq or Afghanistan and as many as 300,000 may have personality changes related to multiple concussions or mental health issues such as combat-related post-traumatic stress disorder or depression.
During recovery, which often takes months or years — and for some, a lifetime — troops and veterans often rely on family members or friends to assist with tasks ranging from basic needs, such as bathing and feeding, to activities like managing their finances, coordinating medical appointments, securing jobs and regaining independence.
Vets Benefits to be Exempt from Sequestration
By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Friday Sep 14, 2012 16:11:36 EDT
Posted : Friday Sep 14, 2012 16:11:36 EDT
Veterans’ disability and education benefits, health care and counseling are all exempt from sequestration, according to a Friday report from the White House that spells out the harm that awaits defense and non-defense programs if a way isn’t found to avoid the across-the-board budget cuts.
In a good news/bad news report to Congress, the White House said it has determined the entire Veterans Affairs Department budget is exempt from sequestration, a decision that answers nagging questions about whether VA might still be at risk for administrative cuts that would have forced layoffs, pay reductions and travel bans.
The bad news for veterans is what happens to programs outside VA. In reviewing the report, the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee staff found that funding for Arlington National Cemetery, the American Battle Monuments Commission that oversees cemeteries overseas, and the Labor Department’s Veterans Employment and Training Service would all see their budgets cut under sequestration......
READ MORE HERE:
House Veterans’ Panel Chairman Frustrated by VA
By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Saturday Sep 15, 2012 9:37:37 EDT
Posted : Saturday Sep 15, 2012 9:37:37 EDT
There’s frustration in the voice of Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee chairman, as he describes what he sees as the glacial pace of change in veterans programs, and the disconnect he sees between Veterans Affairs Department workers and the problems facing the nation.
One of his prime concerns is the Post-9-/11 GI Bill, a key ingredient of a multifaceted effort to help veterans get jobs. In an interview, Miller said the 3-year-old program still has problems with such basic functions as timely and accurate payments to beneficiaries.
In recent meetings with veterans’ groups, Miller said he learned “some students were still having trouble getting checks” for the fall term.
Another area of frustration is the large and constantly growing pile of disability and benefits claims at VA, Miller said. VA has been focusing on changes to its claims processing system, with a goal of eliminating errors so that claims don’t have to be redone — a significant reason why almost 900,000 claims are pending in the system.
“There has to be a way for VA to fulfill the commitment to these men and women in a timely fashion,” Miller said, though he admits he doesn't have a solution. “If I had a magic wand, I would wave it, but I don’t.”
Still, Miller doesn’t think VA’s processing system is the core problem. He notes that the complicated application process makes it difficult for a veteran to file a correctly completed and documented claim without assistance.
“Because of the complexity of the claim today, some veterans are finding the necessary documentation is lacking,” he said.
Additionally, Miller was unhappy to discover VA has been holding expensive professional and training conferences at a time when both the department and the nation have pressing financial needs. He called it “very disappointing,” and said the people who organized the meetings appeared to be “completely unaware of the financial peril the country is in.”
But under the leadership of VA Secretary Eric Shinseki, the department has done some things well, Miller said. He named the rapid enrollment of unemployed veterans into a program that that he sponsored that provides an additional year of education benefits to teach certain veterans new skills for high-demand occupations.
Tough talk by Marine commandant complicates sexual-assault cases
McClatchy Newspapers
Published: September 14, 2012
WASHINGTON - The Marine Corps commandant wanted to snuff out rape in the ranks. However, his well-meaning but overly blunt talk instead complicated Marine sexual-assault cases worldwide and raised troubling questions about whether accused Marines will get a fair shake.
This week, for the second time in recent months, a Marine Corps trial judge found that Gen. James F. Amos' forceful remarks on sexual assault earlier this year presented the appearance of unlawful command influence.
Command influence can severely hinder the military justice system, where facts are found and fates determined by people who are drilled to obey their superiors.
So on Marine Corps bases from Twentynine Palms in California to Parris Island in South Carolina and beyond, defense attorneys are quietly but persistently challenging a system that they fear could be stacked against them. Already, some have secured additional trial help.
The commandant, a four-star general, has been compelled to answer a judge's written questions under oath. Conceivably, some cases could be dropped altogether, an ironic and unintended consequence of the Marine leadership's aggressive anti-rape stance.
"Our cases, particularly our sexual-assault cases, are being tried under intense scrutiny from both within and outside the Marine Corps," Col. John Baker, the chief defense counsel of the Marine Corps, said in an email Thursday.
Thursday, September 13, 2012
WWII-era Female Marine Honored by 'Top Brass' Military
Richmond Register, Ky.
Published: September 12, 2012
RICHMOND, Ky. — “You ever had a general kiss you on your forehead?”
This is the question 90-year-old Corporal Nell Martin Campbell has been asking her nurses since two Army generals and other “top brass” visited her at Baptist Health in Richmond (formerly Pattie A. Clay) on Aug. 25.
Campbell is a WWII-era female Marine from Waco, who was recently hospitalized after a fall that left her with eight broken ribs, bruised organs and a punctured lung. Her grandson, Lt. Col. James R. Martin, was among the visitors, who were in town for a commander’s conference conducted at the Blue Grass Army Depot.
During the visit, Maj. Gen. Robert Stall bent over Campbell’s bed and kissed her forehead, a moment “she will never forget and will relive forever,” said Dinah Martin, Campbell’s daughter-in-law.
“The realization that two generals and others had altered their plans and made it a priority to visit her was like medicine,” Dinah said. “It was a real morale-booster.”
Campbell was one of the 18,000 women Marines who were enlisted during WWII between 1943 and 1946, James Martin said.
That number was reduced to just a few thousand near the end of the war, until 1948 when Congress voted to give women “full-fledged status in the military,” he said.
Before 1948, the enlistment of women in the military was more of a “war-time, stop-gap measure” and they were not intended to serve for long terms, James said.
After training at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, Campbell was sent to Camp Pendleton in San Diego, where women Marines operated the military bases while every able-bodied Marine man was engaged in combat.
“Without women stepping up to the plate in WWII, there was no way those stations could have stayed open,” James said.
During the WWII era, women soldiers had catchy nicknames like “WACS” or “WAVES,” which are both acronyms for women in the Army and Navy respectively.
But, when asked what women Marines would be nicknamed, Gen. Thomas Holcomb said in the March 27, 1944, issue of Life magazine: “They are Marines. They don’t have a nickname and they don’t need one. They got their basic training in a Marine atmosphere at a Marine post. They inherit the traditions of Marines. They are Marines.”
So when James Martin joined the military at age 17, he asked his grandmother if she had been called something like a WAC or a WAVE. She seemed to take offense to his question, he recalled.
Army Testing Body Armor Made for Women
Spc. Arielle Mailloux gets some help adjusting her protoype Generation III Improved Outer Tactical Vest from Capt. Lindsey Pawlowski, Aug. 21, 2012. Both Soldiers are with the 1st Brigade Combat Team Female Engagement Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault). These prototypes designed specifically for the needs of female soldiers, with shorter torso length and other improvements, are being fielded at Fort Campbell, Ky., for the next few weeks.
Stars and Stripes
Published: September 13, 2012
Nineteen soldiers training this week to deploy to Afghanistan were sporting the newest thing in the Army’s defensive arsenal: body armor strong enough for a man, but made for a woman.
The 1st Brigade, 101st Airborne Division soldiers at Fort Campbell, Ky., are to be the judges of the new vests now in prototype. Authorities hope they will provide a safer, more comfortable fit to the 14 percent of active duty troops who are women, and who for years have been wearing body armor designed for men.
Would the new “Improved Outer Tactical Vests” — shorter in the torso, narrower in the shoulders, darted in the bust and with a narrower but adjustable waist — pinch, gap, bell or otherwise fail in form, fit and functionality?
It was too soon to tell, said Libby Richardson, of the U.S. Aberdeen Test Center, who is leading the field test. “It’s the first day,” she said Tuesday, of a testing period that will last a couple of weeks.
But Capt. Lindsey Pawlowski, veteran of two deployments in the usual body armor, seemed pleased. “I can sit down in it,” she said. “I can run in it easier.”
The discomforts of the standard vest made it tougher to do the job, said Pawlowski, who is 5 feet 4 inches tall. “Anybody who’s short like me, it’s, ‘Oh, God, why?’ ”
Pawlowski and the 18 other soldiers testing the vests are to be on the brigade’s Female Engagement Team, seeking to interact with Afghan women, when they deploy in November.
As they train, it will become clearer, Richardson said, if the new body armor under development for the past couple of years addresses shortcomings of the “unisex” body armor designed with male bodies in mind.
The vests were too long in the torso for many women, who tend to have shorter torsos and longer legs than men of the same height, leaving a dangerously exposed gap under the arms. They also hit women in the hips or rode up in the back when women were seated, in Humvees, for instance.
READ MORE HERE
Sunday, September 2, 2012
Military Veterans' College Benefits are Running Late
The (Toledo, Ohio) Blade/MCT
Published: September 1, 2012
BOWLING GREEN -- Army veteran Kyle Birkholz has attended classes for two weeks at Bowling Green State University without books.
He learned Friday that his book stipend from the Department of Veterans Affairs would not arrive as expected, nor would his monthly housing allowance.
A glitch at the VA means the check is not in the mail for Mr. Birkholz and countless other veterans across Ohio who receive benefits to attend college.
"This is a very anxiety-producing event in students' lives," said Barbara Henry, assistant vice president of nontraditional and transfer student services at BGSU. "The very beginning of the semester, they're trying to figure out what the work load is like, particularly if they're a new student transitioning, they may have been in Afghanistan in May, they're in university for the first time in September."
While the VA tries to iron out the problem, Ohio Gov. John Kasich and other state officials are urging colleges and universities to be flexible with student veterans so that none is penalized or forced to drop classes because of late payments.
BGSU, for its part, is cutting checks for all of its student veterans -- short-term loans with no interest, fees, or lengthy applications.
Mr. Birkholz, an athletic-training major from Clyde, Ohio, said he planned to take BGSU up on its offer."I'm going to have to. I need books," he said. "This really made me feel relieved."
The VA said Friday that "a system programming error" occurred when the agency was moving Ohio and West Virginia claims to St. Louis from Buffalo. The agency said it believed the glitch affected "potentially 300 Ohio and West Virginia students" whose college enrollments were received between July 24 and Aug. 9.
Area universities said the problem appears more widespread to them.
In a letter to area legislators, Bowling Green President Mary Ellen Mazey said the university believes "the vast majority of our 284 student veterans will not receive their basic monthly housing allowance or semester book stipends on time."
Those 284 students -- 32 of whom are at the Firelands campus near Huron, Ohio -- were notified by email that optional emergency loans were being made available. They were invited to meetings Friday on campus, where officials explained the situation and fielded questions.
Ms. Henry said affected students could pick up checks between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday in Room 110 of the Administration Building.
Students will be required to sign a promissory note, agreeing to repay the university once the VA checks arrive.
Geoff Roberts, an Army veteran from Port Huron, Mich., who did two tours of duty in Iraq, said he is to receive a $1,047 monthly housing allowance and a book stipend of up to $1,000 for the school year at BGSU. Because he has a part-time job on campus and savings, he doubts he'll need the loan, but he's pleased that BGSU is offering it.
"As a student I can't believe how quickly this whole process went through. It's huge," said Mr. Roberts, president of the BGSU Student Veterans' Club.
Wyo. National Guard Gets Stress Training (Combating Suicides)
Wyoming Tribune Eagle
Published: September 2, 2012
CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — The Wyoming Army National Guard is arming its troops with a new weapon: a skills set to cope with the stresses of military life.
According to media reports, suicides in the Army have outnumbered combat deaths this year. That statistic serves as a stirring reminder of the importance of not only post-traumatic support but of proper mental and emotional conditioning, said Lt. Col. Samuel E. House of the Wyoming Guard.
"Military suicides have long been an issue within the military," House said. "The idea behind resilience training is to minimize that - as well as address other issues, such as post-traumatic stress disorder.
The Army has offered resilience training, formerly called "battle-mind training" for several years. But, House said, it was only recently that the Army began to mandate that specific numbers of troops go through it.
Those troops, he said, can then use the lessons they've learned to help other soldiers cope with the day-to-day stresses of military life, such as the disconnect that can sometimes occur between military and civilian life.
"It's designed to look at the cultural aspect of it, not just the combat piece of it," House said. "There are just as many suicides among those who have deployed versus those who have not deployed. Marital problems, it's the same thing."
It's not uncommon for soldiers to assume a pessimistic disposition, whether it's due to the violence they witness overseas or whether they're coping with being separated from family and loved ones, House tells the Wyoming Tribune Eagle.
Others can cope with military life but may have a hard time readjusting to civilian life, where responsibilities and expectations may be different than previously.
"Individuals who have done their four years or eight years or 20 years, it's interesting to see: Some people get out and go off and are very successful, other individuals, it's all they know," he said. "Particularly within the National Guard, before you deploy you have those (civilian and familial) responsibilities. Then you deploy and for the first two or three months, you feel like you need to be a part of the things at home."
While many soldiers are eventually able to accept their new roles, House said once they do return, they have to adjust to family life all over again.
At the same time, a soldier's spouse may have settled into his or her own new routine, which they then have to alter once the soldier returns home.
For that reason, one of the big focuses of the resilience training is getting soldiers to consider more than just the worst-case scenario.
All too often, House said, some soldiers may assume they're being cheated on or left behind.
Female Pilots Few, But Proud!
The Daily News, Jacksonville, N.C.
Published: September 2, 2012
On May 22, 1912, 1st Lt. Alfred Cunningham reported to Annapolis, Md., for duty, marking the birth of Marine Corps aviation. It was another 81 years, in 1993, before 2nd Lt. Sarah Deal was selected as the first female Marine to attend Naval aviation training.
Deal paved the way for the hundreds of female Marines who have since followedMarines like Capt. Andrea Neagle.
As a senior in high school, Neagle watched the twin towers go down on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, and like so many other men and women that day, she decided to join the military.
“It just got me thinking about what I was doing with my life and what I was contributing to the country,” she said.
She applied to the U.S. Naval Academy and, to her own astonishment, was accepted. Neagle spent the next four years learning the ins and outs of military service, before finally deciding she wanted to spend her military career as a Marine.
“I always admired the Marines,” Neagle said. “They took pride in their work and it was always about the Marine you were taking care of.”
As for her occupation, like only a few women before her, she decided she wanted to earn her wings as a Marine aviator and MV-22 Osprey pilot.
“I figured, ‘What’s cooler than flying?’” said Neagle, one of about 10 female Osprey pilotsout of a total 400 Osprey pilotscurrently serving in the Marine Corps.
Neagle said like all other pilots, she’s been taught to see herself as a Marine officer first, and a pilot second.
READ MORE HERE: http://www.stripes.com/news/female-pilots-few-but-proud-1.187803
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