Date: 11/8/2008
By PAULINE JELINEK
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) _ It takes a brave soldier to do what Army Maj. Gen. David Blackledge did in Iraq.
It takes as much bravery to do what he did when he got home.
Blackledge got psychiatric counseling to deal with wartime trauma, and now he is defying the military’s culture of silence on the subject of mental health problems and treatment.
“It’s part of our profession … nobody wants to admit that they’ve got a weakness in this area,” Blackledge said of mental health problems among troops returning from America’s two wars.
“I have dealt with it. I’m dealing with it now,” said Blackledge, who came home with post-traumatic stress. “We need to be able to talk about it.”
As the nation marks another Veterans Day, thousands of troops are returning from Iraq and Afghanistan with anxiety, depression and other emotional problems.
Up to 20 percent of the more than 1.7 million who’ve served in the wars are estimated to have symptoms. In a sign of how tough it may be to change attitudes, roughly half of those who need help aren’t seeking it, studies have found.
Despite efforts to reduce the stigma of getting treatment, officials say they fear generals and other senior leaders remain unwilling to go for help, much less talk about it, partly because they fear it will hurt chances for promotion.
That reluctance is also worrisome because it sends the wrong signal to younger officers and perpetuates the problem leaders are working to reverse.
“Stigma is a challenge,” Army Secretary Pete Geren said Friday at a Pentagon news conference on troop health care. “It’s a challenge in society in general. It’s certainly a challenge in the culture of the Army, where we have a premium on strength, physically, mentally, emotionally.”
Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, asked leaders earlier this year to set an example for all soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines: “You can’t expect a private or a specialist to be willing to seek counseling when his or her captain or colonel or general won’t do it.”
Brig. Gen. Loree Sutton, an Army psychiatrist heading the defense center for psychological health and traumatic brain injury, is developing a campaign in which people will tell their personal stories. Troops, their families and others also will share concerns and ideas through Web links and other programs. Blackledge volunteered to help, and next week he and his wife, Iwona, an Air Force nurse, will speak on the subject at a medical conference.
A two-star Army Reserve general, 54-year-old Blackledge commanded a civil affairs unit on two tours to Iraq, and now works in the Pentagon as Army assistant deputy chief of staff for mobilization and reserve issues.
His convoy was ambushed in February 2004, during his first deployment. In the event that he’s since relived in flashbacks and recurring nightmares, Blackledge’s interpreter was shot through the head, his vehicle rolled over several times and Blackledge crawled out of it with a crushed vertebrae and broken ribs. He found himself in the middle of a firefight, and he and other survivors took cover in a ditch.
He said he was visited by a psychiatrist within days after arriving at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington. He had several sessions with the doctor over his 11 months of recovery and physical therapy for his injuries.
“He really helped me,” Blackledge said. And that’s his message to troops.
“I tell them that I’ve learned to deal with it,” he said. “It’s become part of who I am.”
He still has bad dreams about once a week but no longer wakes from them in a sweat, and they are no longer as unsettling.
On his second tour to Iraq, Blackledge traveled to neighboring Jordan to work with local officials on Iraq border issues, and he was in an Amman hotel in November 2005 when suicide bombers attacked, killing some 60 and wounding hundreds.
Blackledge got a whiplash injury that took months to heal. The experience, including a harrowing escape from the chaotic scene, rekindled his post-traumatic stress symptoms, though they weren’t as strong as those he’d suffered after the 2004 ambush.
Officials across the service branches have taken steps over the last year to make getting help easier and more discreet, such as embedding mental health teams into units.
They see signs that stigma has been slowly easing. But it’s likely a change that will take generations.
Last year, 29 percent of troops with symptoms said they feared seeking help would hurt their careers, down from 34 percent the previous year, according to an Army survey. Nearly half feared they’d be seen as weak, down from 53 percent.
The majority of troops who get help are able to get better and to remain on the job.
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Associated Press writer Lolita Baldor contributed to this report.
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On the Net:
Information on veterans health care: www.warriorcare.mil
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
Feds pay suicidal Air Force veteran’s family
Date: 11/7/2008
Feds pay suicidal Air Force veteran’s family
HONOLULU (AP) _ The federal government has paid $800,000 to the family of a suicidal Air Force veteran who jumped to his death from Tripler Army Medical Center after his pleas to be admitted went unheeded.
Family members alleged staff at Tripler Army Medical Center failed to acknowledge the seriousness of his condition. Attorney Rick Fried said retired Master Sgt. Robert C. Roth, 50, was not hospitalized when he made requests to be admitted.
He suffered from bipolar disorder, had a long history of depression, and committed suicide last year by jumping off the 10th floor of the hospital on the morning of Jan. 2. A month earlier, Fried said, he had suffered severe depression and expressed to the staff that he was suicidal.
The family sued the U.S. government, alleging that Tripler was careless and negligent in its care of Roth.
The settlement means a trial scheduled for next month will not be held.
Roth worked as a clerk in the records section of the hospital.
Tripler’s commander, in a statement, extended the hospital’s sympathy to the Roth family.
“Our command and well-trained staff are committed to doing whatever it takes to ensure an incident similar to this never happens again,” said Army Brig. Gen. Steve Jones.
If Tripler had admitted Roth on either of two instances in December 2006 when he went to the hospital emergency room seeking help, he would have been hospitalized for a short period, said Rick Fried, the family’s attorney.
He would have had his antidepressant medication adjusted and would have been OK, Fried said.
Instead, Roth, frustrated after waiting about three hours without being seen by a psychologist on the second visit, told hospital personnel that he planned to commit suicide by jumping from the top floor of Tripler, according to Army records and Fried. Several days later he did precisely that.
On his first visit, Roth waited more than five hours and never saw a psychiatrist, only a physician training to be one, records show. He told medical personnel he planned to jump off a Makapuu cliff, but his request to be admitted was ignored, Fried said.
Fried said Roth’s depression started to worsen in late 2006, his antidepressant medication was improperly adjusted by his Tripler physician and twice he showed up at the ER wanting to be admitted. Both times he packed an overnight bag thinking he would be.
The second time he left the ER angry — and against the advice of medical personnel — because he wasn’t being treated and had been told patients more sick were being seen before him, according to his family and Fried.
Fried said Tripler did not have a written policy for dealing with suicidal patients.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
Feds pay suicidal Air Force veteran’s family
HONOLULU (AP) _ The federal government has paid $800,000 to the family of a suicidal Air Force veteran who jumped to his death from Tripler Army Medical Center after his pleas to be admitted went unheeded.
Family members alleged staff at Tripler Army Medical Center failed to acknowledge the seriousness of his condition. Attorney Rick Fried said retired Master Sgt. Robert C. Roth, 50, was not hospitalized when he made requests to be admitted.
He suffered from bipolar disorder, had a long history of depression, and committed suicide last year by jumping off the 10th floor of the hospital on the morning of Jan. 2. A month earlier, Fried said, he had suffered severe depression and expressed to the staff that he was suicidal.
The family sued the U.S. government, alleging that Tripler was careless and negligent in its care of Roth.
The settlement means a trial scheduled for next month will not be held.
Roth worked as a clerk in the records section of the hospital.
Tripler’s commander, in a statement, extended the hospital’s sympathy to the Roth family.
“Our command and well-trained staff are committed to doing whatever it takes to ensure an incident similar to this never happens again,” said Army Brig. Gen. Steve Jones.
If Tripler had admitted Roth on either of two instances in December 2006 when he went to the hospital emergency room seeking help, he would have been hospitalized for a short period, said Rick Fried, the family’s attorney.
He would have had his antidepressant medication adjusted and would have been OK, Fried said.
Instead, Roth, frustrated after waiting about three hours without being seen by a psychologist on the second visit, told hospital personnel that he planned to commit suicide by jumping from the top floor of Tripler, according to Army records and Fried. Several days later he did precisely that.
On his first visit, Roth waited more than five hours and never saw a psychiatrist, only a physician training to be one, records show. He told medical personnel he planned to jump off a Makapuu cliff, but his request to be admitted was ignored, Fried said.
Fried said Roth’s depression started to worsen in late 2006, his antidepressant medication was improperly adjusted by his Tripler physician and twice he showed up at the ER wanting to be admitted. Both times he packed an overnight bag thinking he would be.
The second time he left the ER angry — and against the advice of medical personnel — because he wasn’t being treated and had been told patients more sick were being seen before him, according to his family and Fried.
Fried said Tripler did not have a written policy for dealing with suicidal patients.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
Army general to investigate recruiter suicides
Date: 11/7/2008
By MICHELLE ROBERTS
Associated Press Writer
SAN ANTONIO (AP) _ The Army has agreed to investigate a disproportionate cluster of suicides among recruiters in an East Texas battalion, as well as allegations by other soldiers and family members that they were pressured to cover up serious problems in the battalion, Army Secretary Pete Geren said.
Seventeen Army recruiters have committed suicide nationwide since 2001, but four of them were from the Houston Recruiting Battalion, which recruits soldiers from East Texas. A fifth Houston-area soldier killed himself, but he was assigned to the Army’s Future Soldier Training Program.
There are 38 recruiting battalions nationwide with 8,400 recruiters.
The Army’s suicide rate has been climbing as the war in Iraq has forced multiple and longer deployments.
Last year, the Army’s suicide rate was 18.1 per 100,000, the highest since the service started keeping records in 1980. That’s still lower than the U.S. civilian rate of 19.5 per 100,000.
The investigation was sought by Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, who heard from soldiers and family members after the Houston Chronicle reported the cluster of suicides earlier this year.
Brig. Gen. Frank Turner has been assigned to investigate the recruiter suicides and the cover-up allegations, Geren told Cornyn in a letter dated Monday.
A chaplain, psychologist and equal employment officer talked to members of the Houston battalion in mid-October, said Douglas Smith, spokesman for the U.S. Army Recruiting Command. Their report is not yet complete, but Smith said Friday he doesn’t know of any obstruction.
Cornyn noted in an interview Friday that the all-volunteer service is under heavy pressure to sign recruits and retain soldiers during two wars.
Many recruiters are soldiers with recent combat experience who may be suffering from stress and now must persuade high school students and other young people to join an Army at war.
The hours can be long and many work in offices in shopping malls or elsewhere far from Army posts. Cornyn said those conditions isolate soldiers, particularly ones who have recently returned from combat, and may make many of the Army’s support services out of reach.
Cornyn, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, complained to Geren in a letter that current recruiters and family members felt some battalion leaders were “working to cover up serious problems that evidence a toxic command climate and poor unit morale.”
Cornyn told The Associated Press on Friday that he’s concerned about the Houston battalion but noted “it also has implications militarywide.”
Cornyn has questioned the policy that places recruiting commanders without combat experience over hardened combat veterans.
Geren acknowledged in a letter dated Nov. 3 that some recruiting commanders don’t have combat experience, but he said Army officials don’t believe the lack of experience makes them ill-equipped to mentor and supervise combat veterans assigned to the recruiting command.
Geren said he directed Army officials to ensure recruiters have full access to the Army’s mental health services.
Cornyn had hoped for an independent investigation rather than one directed by the Army, but he said he is willing to give commanders a chance to handle it themselves.
“I’m hopeful they’ll take the matter seriously,” he said. “We’ll see whether the product is something that’s credible and demonstrates that they’ve taken it seriously.”
The senator said he also plans to seek a Senate hearing on the issue.
___
On the Net:
Houston Recruiting Battalion: http://www.usarec.army.mil/5thbde/4ebn/
U.S. Sen. John Cornyn: http://cornyn.senate.gov/public/
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
By MICHELLE ROBERTS
Associated Press Writer
SAN ANTONIO (AP) _ The Army has agreed to investigate a disproportionate cluster of suicides among recruiters in an East Texas battalion, as well as allegations by other soldiers and family members that they were pressured to cover up serious problems in the battalion, Army Secretary Pete Geren said.
Seventeen Army recruiters have committed suicide nationwide since 2001, but four of them were from the Houston Recruiting Battalion, which recruits soldiers from East Texas. A fifth Houston-area soldier killed himself, but he was assigned to the Army’s Future Soldier Training Program.
There are 38 recruiting battalions nationwide with 8,400 recruiters.
The Army’s suicide rate has been climbing as the war in Iraq has forced multiple and longer deployments.
Last year, the Army’s suicide rate was 18.1 per 100,000, the highest since the service started keeping records in 1980. That’s still lower than the U.S. civilian rate of 19.5 per 100,000.
The investigation was sought by Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, who heard from soldiers and family members after the Houston Chronicle reported the cluster of suicides earlier this year.
Brig. Gen. Frank Turner has been assigned to investigate the recruiter suicides and the cover-up allegations, Geren told Cornyn in a letter dated Monday.
A chaplain, psychologist and equal employment officer talked to members of the Houston battalion in mid-October, said Douglas Smith, spokesman for the U.S. Army Recruiting Command. Their report is not yet complete, but Smith said Friday he doesn’t know of any obstruction.
Cornyn noted in an interview Friday that the all-volunteer service is under heavy pressure to sign recruits and retain soldiers during two wars.
Many recruiters are soldiers with recent combat experience who may be suffering from stress and now must persuade high school students and other young people to join an Army at war.
The hours can be long and many work in offices in shopping malls or elsewhere far from Army posts. Cornyn said those conditions isolate soldiers, particularly ones who have recently returned from combat, and may make many of the Army’s support services out of reach.
Cornyn, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, complained to Geren in a letter that current recruiters and family members felt some battalion leaders were “working to cover up serious problems that evidence a toxic command climate and poor unit morale.”
Cornyn told The Associated Press on Friday that he’s concerned about the Houston battalion but noted “it also has implications militarywide.”
Cornyn has questioned the policy that places recruiting commanders without combat experience over hardened combat veterans.
Geren acknowledged in a letter dated Nov. 3 that some recruiting commanders don’t have combat experience, but he said Army officials don’t believe the lack of experience makes them ill-equipped to mentor and supervise combat veterans assigned to the recruiting command.
Geren said he directed Army officials to ensure recruiters have full access to the Army’s mental health services.
Cornyn had hoped for an independent investigation rather than one directed by the Army, but he said he is willing to give commanders a chance to handle it themselves.
“I’m hopeful they’ll take the matter seriously,” he said. “We’ll see whether the product is something that’s credible and demonstrates that they’ve taken it seriously.”
The senator said he also plans to seek a Senate hearing on the issue.
___
On the Net:
Houston Recruiting Battalion: http://www.usarec.army.mil/5thbde/4ebn/
U.S. Sen. John Cornyn: http://cornyn.senate.gov/public/
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
Canines provide PTSD support for Iraq troops: Updated
Washington, DC October 1st – Operation Baghdad Pups is a SPCA International (www. SPCA. com) initiative created to provide medical care, clearance and transport for the animals our U.S. soldiers have come to love during deployment in the Middle East. Today, the United States military committed a crime against their own mentally wounded U.S. soldiers serving in Iraq. Commanding officers ordered the confiscation of a dog, Ratchet, befriended by a group of soldiers during a 15th month of deployment. Ratchet has been a lifeline to Sgt. Gwen Beberg. This morning, Ratchet was on his way to SPCA International rescue experts at the Baghdad Airport to be flown home to Gwen’s parents in Minneapolis, MN when Sgt. Beberg’s commanding officers ordered Ratchet confiscated and held in Iraq to face certain death.
“This year has been extremely difficult on my daughter and her family. It has been a year of disappointments, loneliness, and fear because of all the sacrifices the army has required of Gwen. Ratchet was the savior of her sanity. Now they have cruelly ripped Ratchet away from her and sentenced him to death. I don’t know how my daughter will cope. Ratchet has been her lifeline,” explains Sgt. Beberg’s mother, Patricia Beberg. Gwen Beberg, a decorated soldier, has been held by the military more than 15 months past her original commitment due to the stop-loss policy and now the military that asked extraordinary sacrifice from her has crushed her by ripping her lifeline away. Now, Sgt. Beberg is under military investigation for befriending the dog that saved her life.
It is against military regulations for active duty troops to befriend animals – Soldiers can face immediate court-marshal and some even see their animals brutally murdered by a direct gunshot to the head from commanding officers who will not bend the rules. Hundreds of U.S. soldiers in the Middle East befriend animals in the war zone to help themselves cope with the hardship and terror they face every day. These dogs and cats become their lifeline – saving them from deep depression and Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
The military refuses to help or formally recognize the lifeline these animals give to our mentally wounded soldiers. Veterans returned from Iraq are committing suicide at twice the rate of average Americans. The dogs and cats befriended by our troops rescued by Operation Baghdad Pups are providing proven pet therapy to soldiers who may otherwise suffer from PTSD and deep depression.
Gwen and Ratchet
LEARN MORE ABOUT OPERATION BAGHDAD PUPS
-SPCA
UPDATE: Date: 10/14/2008 4:36 PM
US mil: Iraqi puppy adopted by US soldier is alive
By KIM GAMEL
Associated Press Writer
BAGHDAD (AP) _ The Iraqi puppy adopted by an American soldier but refused a flight to the U.S., is alive, the military said Tuesday, giving hope to an animal rescue group that is trying to take it to the United States.
The case has cast a spotlight on Defense Department rules that prohibit soldiers in the U.S. Central Command, which includes Iraq, from adopting pets or transporting them home.
Army Sgt. Gwen Beberg, 28, of Minneapolis, tried to send Ratchet home with the help of Operation Baghdad Pups earlier this month as she prepared to leave Iraq. But the dog was reportedly confiscated by a U.S. officer before it could reach the Baghdad International Airport, raising concern about the animal’s fate.
U.S. military spokesman Lt. Cmdr. David Russell said in an e-mail that the dog was alive, but he could provide no other details or comment on the effort to take it to the United States.
More than 30,000 people have signed an online petition urging the Army to let the puppy go home with Beberg, nearly tripling in a day as publicity over the case spread.
Beberg, who had been based south of Baghdad, has been transferred to a staging area to prepare for her departure from Iraq.
The coordinator for Operation Baghdad Pups — a rescue program run by the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals International — planned to travel to Baghdad on Wednesday to collect six dogs rescued by U.S. troops.
Terri Crisp is hopeful Ratchet will be one of them, but she has a substitute dog ready to go in his place if necessary.
“There’s a lot of pressure being put on the military right now to allow Ratchet to leave,” she said in a telephone interview.
Baghdad Pups has taken more than 50 dogs and cats home for their warrior owners, although the group had to cease its activities over the summer because of the heat.
Crisp said the U.S. military should cooperate with the group instead of obstructing the animals’ transportation because it helps the troops deal with the stress of being in Iraq.
“These dogs and cats are incredibly therapeutic,” she said. “With all the talk of post-traumatic stress disorder, this is a way they can deal with things — not only when they’re in Iraq serving but when they’re at home.”
Last week, Beberg’s congressman, Minnesota Democrat Keith Ellison, wrote to the Army urging it to review the case.
Beberg and another soldier rescued Ratchet from a burning pile of trash in May. But Defense Department rules prohibit U.S. troops who are deployed from caring for pets in theater or taking them home.
Sgt. Brooke Murphy, a U.S. military spokeswoman, said there were several reasons for the rule, including health issues and difficulties in caring for the animals.
“The military has these policies in place for a reason and really is looking out for the best interests of the soldier and the interests of the animal and the interests of the community,” she said.
Baghdad Pups tried to collect Ratchet two weeks ago, but Crisp said a U.S. commander had intercepted a military convoy carrying the dog to Baghdad and sent it back to Beberg’s former base.
Crisp said the group relies on donations to pay for the missions — Wednesday’s will cost just under US$10,000 — but recently has had to ask the soldiers to contribute because of fundraising troubles.
In June, a dog brought back to the U.S. by Operation Baghdad Pups tested positive for rabies after it was euthanized for other health concerns. That prompted a public health investigation, and the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended immediate vaccination and six-month quarantine for the other animals on the shipment.
SPCA International spokeswoman Stephanie Scroggs said the group meets agency requirements that specify animals that have not been vaccinated for at least 30 days prior to entering the United States be quarantined for at least 30 days.
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Associated Press writer Frederic J. Frommer in Washington contributed to this report.
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On the Web: Ratchet petition: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/2/clemency-for-ratchet
Baghdad Pups site: http://www.baghdadpups.com
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.