American Soldiers Brainwashed with "Positive Thinking"

American Soldiers Brainwashed with "Positive Thinking"

http://www.alternet.org/story/147637/

The U.S. military has become increasingly excited about positive
psychology techniques. Maybe a better route would be to offer
soldiers respect for their critical thinking

By Bruce E. Levine
July 28, 2010

While U.S. military psychiatrists are prescribing increasing amounts
of chill pills, America's psychologists are teaching soldiers how to
think more positively about their tours in Afghanistan, Iraq, and
wherever else they are next ordered to kill the bad guys and win the
hearts and minds of everyone else.

The U.S. Army is planning to require that all 1.1 million of its
soldiers take intensive training in positive psychology and emotional
resiliency. Army Research Psychologist Capt. Paul Lester, who leads
the assessment of the program, told the National Psychologist ("Army
to Train its Own in Positive Psychology," July/August 2010), "As far
as I can tell this is the largest, deliberate, psychological
intervention in human history. . . . We don't know when the global
war on terrorism is going to end so we're preparing to have to be
engaged for a long period of time."

Lester said the program would develop "communication skills,
cognitive reforming skills and help soldiers not to catastrophize --
don't think of the worse case scenario about every potential
problem." The program also teaches soldiers to focus on "expressing
appreciation" and "correcting negative views of ambiguous events."

In August 2009, the New York Times reported that Gen. George W. Casey
Jr., the Army's chief of staff, said the total cost of this program
would be $117 million. The New York Times was alerted to the program
by psychologist Martin Seligman, director of the University of
Pennsylvania Positive Psychology Center, who has been consulting with
the Pentagon. Seligman's particular program at Penn is costing the
U.S. Army $25 to $30 million, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer,
which in its profile of Seligman (May 30, 2010) noted that he
"confidently walked the line between grand and grandiose"; and it
quoted him asserting, "We're after creating an indomitable Army."

Seligman initially thought that training the entire Army would be
nearly an impossible chore because of the enormous number of teachers
required. However, Gen. Casey informed him that the Army had 40,000
teachers. "You do?" Seligman said. "Yes," Casey retorted, they're
called drill sergeants." Now 150 sergeants come to Penn each month to
take a course in positive psychology.

At one training session given at a hotel near Penn, according to the
New York Times, 48 sergeants in full fatigues sat at desks, took
notes, and role played. In one exercise, Sgt. First Class James Cole
of Fort Riley, Kansas and his classmate transformed Sgt. Cole's
negative thinking about an order late in the day to have Sgt. Cole's
exhausted men do one last difficult assignment.

"Why is he tasking us again for this job?" the classmate asked,
pretending to be Sgt. Cole. "It's not fair."

Sergeant Cole gave the "correct" positive-thinking response, "Maybe
he's hitting us because he knows we're more reliable."

While positive psychology makes some sense for teenagers who are
catastrophizing their first relationship breakup to the point of
becoming suicidal, how much sense does it make to teach soldiers who
are trying to stay alive in a war zone to put a positive spin on
everything? Moreover, wouldn't soldiers like their officers to
consider worst-case scenarios before ordering them into combat? And
wouldn't soldiers like politicians to take seriously worst-case
scenarios before embarking on a war? The healthy option to negative
thinking is not positive thinking but critical thinking. Barbara
Ehrenreich, author of Bright-sided and astute critic of the dark side
of positive thinking and positive psychology, points out:

It's easy to see positive thinking as a uniquely American form of
naïveté, but it is neither uniquely American nor endearingly naïve.
In vastly different settings, positive thinking has been a tool of
political repression worldwide. . . . In the Soviet Union, as in the
Eastern European states and North Korea, the censors required upbeat
art, books, and films, meaning upbeat heroes, plots about fulfilling
production quotas, and endings promising a glorious revolutionary
future. . . .The penalties for negative thinking were real. Not to be
positive and optimistic was to be 'defeatist'. . . . Accusing someone
of spreading defeatism condemned him to several years in Stalinist camps.

While the U.S. military has only recently become excited about
positive psychology techniques, it has, for the last decade,
increasingly used psychiatric drugs to keep soldiers going. One in
six service members is now taking at least one psychiatric drug,
according to the Navy Times ("Medicating the Military," March 17,
2010), with many soldiers taking "drug cocktail" combinations.
Soldiers and military healthcare providers report that psychiatric
drugs are "being prescribed, consumed, shared and traded in combat
zones." While soldiers' increasing use of antidepressants is
troubling enough (as the Food and Drug Administration now requires
warnings on antidepressants about their increasing the risk of
"suicidality" in children, teenagers, and young adults), what's as or
even more worrisome is the increase of other psychiatric drugs. In
the last decade, antipsychotic drug use in the U.S. military has
increased more than 200 percent, and anti-anxiety drugs and sleeping
pills have increased 170 percent. These kinds of drugs impair motor
skills, reduce reaction times, and generally make one more sluggish
-- or what soldiers call "stupid," as the Navy Times notes.

While pushing drugs and teaching positive thinking earns mental
health professionals money and brownie points with the elite, there
is another path for mental health professionals working with U.S.
soldiers. First, offer soldiers respect for their critical thinking,
even if such critical thinking brings them to conclusions unwanted by
their superiors. Second, if soldiers are anxious or angry because
they believe that an ego-tripping commanding officer is going to get
them killed, do NOT tell them to stop "catastrophizing"; instead take
what they say seriously. And if soldiers are depressed because they
have seen too much death, instead of directing them to "express
appreciation," try offering genuine compassion. But don't stop with
only compassion. Speak truth to power. Tell politicians who are
maintaining America's wars and planning still others: Don't kid
yourself into thinking positive psychology and chill pills are the
answers, especially if soldiers and veterans discover that you
deceived them about the necessity and the meaningfulness of their
mission. Psychologists should loudly warn politicians, military
brass, and the nation that if soldiers and veterans discover that
they have been deceived about the meaningfulness and necessity of
their mission, it is only human for them to become more prone to
emotional turmoil, which can lead to destructive behaviors for
themselves and others.

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BYU adviser to defy gravity with Blue Angels

BYU adviser to defy gravity with Blue Angels

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/neighborhood/utahcounty/49960926-138/angels-blue-kaiser-navy.html.csp

By Donald W. Meyers
Jul 22, 2010

Provo • In his work with military recruiters at Brigham Young
University, David Kaiser has visited military bases to which pre-med
students are assigned as part of their graduate training.

But on Wednesday, Kaiser took military visits to new heights ­ literally.

Kaiser, director of BYU's Pre-Professional Advisement Center, rode in
the back seat of an F/A-18 fighter jet with a member of the Navy's
Blue Angels demonstration flight team in Idaho Falls.

The Blue Angels are performing at the Idaho Falls Air Show Saturday
and Sunday, and Kaiser was one of two civilians chosen for a practice
flight as part of the "Key Influencer" program. The program honors
those who have made positive contributions to the lives of young people.

Kaiser admitted earlier to being a little nervous about riding in a
supersonic jet as the pilot performs acrobatic and combat maneuvers.
But he said it was an exciting ride.

In one maneuver, the pilot put the jet into a 360-degree loop,
causing the g-force to go to more than 7 times normal.

"We went from ground level to 2,000 feet in four seconds," Kaiser
said after the flight. "He just pulled back on the stick and it went
straight up vertical."

And, despite the high speed maneuvers, Kaiser said he just felt a
little queasy a couple times in the ride.

Kaiser was recommended for the Key Influencer program by Navy Chief
Kevin Reid, a medical recruiter who works out of Salt Lake City. Reid
nominated Kaiser because of his support for the military, and his
cooperation with military recruiters. He said there was no question
in his mind that Kaiser deserved a chance at it.

"He has been a tremendous help to recruiters," Reid said.

Kaiser counsels students who are considering careers as doctors,
dentists or other health professionals. And one of the options he
presents to students is getting the military to pay for medical
school. While the military expects those it helps to serve four years
as commissioned officers in return, Kaiser said it is actually a good
deal for some students. The main reason: no student loans hanging
over a fledgling doctor as he or she begins a career.

"We have a good relationship with all the branches of the military
that come down here," Kaiser said.

Reid told Kaiser around Christmas that he had submitted his name into
the Navy to ride with the Blue Angels. Kaiser was one of 50 people
from Utah, Idaho, Wyoming and Colorado who were nominated.

About a month ago, Kaiser got word that he had been chosen, pending
the results of a physical examination.

Bobbi Kaiser said flying with the Blue Angels, which she called a
once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, was a great honor for her husband.

"I'm glad it's him and not me," she said. "I'm not as much of a
risk-taker as he is."

Kaiser said his five children, including two teenage sons living at
home, were excited about the prospect of him flying with the Blue Angels.

"This is one of the first times that dad can be cool to teenage
boys," Kaiser said.

As a souvenir, he got a DVD recording of his flight, taken from a
cockpit camera.
--

dmeyers@sltrib.com

.

Marines invite educators to some ‘basic training’

Marines invite educators to some 'basic training'

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/jul/23/marines-invite-educators-to-some-basic-training/

By Gretel C. Kovach
July 23, 2010

Sgt. Major Devon Lee stood in the early morning gloom at the Marine
Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego, his arms crossed, a smile on his
face. "They're about to get the shock and awe right now," he said.

Inside two white buses parked in front of the reception building, San
Diego educators were getting their first introduction to life as a
Marine Corps recruit.

"Get off my bus! Your days of moving slowly are over!" the drill
instructor bellowed, his face red and veins bulging under his Old
Smokey campaign hat.

"Aye-aye, sir!" they roared as they scrambled out of the bus, some
stifling giggles.

The men and women stood on yellow footprints painted in orderly rows
on concrete, where the depot has been making Marines since 1923. But
instead of buzz cuts and pubescent pimples, these recruits had
graying beards and bald spots, paunches and pig-tailed hairdos.

This group of 66 teachers, counselors and administrators from the San
Diego, Los Angeles and Las Vegas areas was invited to spend a week,
all-expenses paid, visiting the depot and other San Diego County
Marine bases, to learn about basic training and Marine esprit de corps.

The Educator's Workshops are offered 12 times a year at the San Diego
depot, giving about 960 educators annually from western states a
chance to learn about the making of a Marine. (The boot camp at
Parris Island, S.C., hosts a comparable program for those east of the
Mississippi River.) Once a year, educators from the San Diego area
are invited to attend ­ their workshop finished Friday with
attendance at the graduation ceremony of a platoon of new Marines.

The workshops started in the 1980s with the educators paying their
own way, before the Marines began funding it in 1997. The goal is to
inform educators who might need to advise students considering a
career in the Marine Corps. Those educators who are ignorant,
skeptical or even hostile toward the military are encouraged to
attend, the Marines said.

After the educators were allowed to sit down, Col. Carl F. Huenefeld,
chief of staff for the Western Recruiting Region and the Marine Corps
Recruit Depot in San Diego, said, "everybody, please relax!"

It may look like sadism. But all the hollering and bossing around at
boot camp is done for a reason, he said.

"That stuff is to communicate a sense of the transformation process,
of the kinds of things we have to do to snap that kid out of the
world they've been living in, which is very focused on what they
want, and get them thinking first like a group. Frankly, it is
stripping away some of the personality quirks," he said.

Later the recruits will be allowed to express their individuality
again, he said, once they have the tactical, leadership, and
organization skills to function as good, strong independent members
of a team. "We are not looking to train drones. They're not very good
on the battlefield."

Two-thirds of Marines serve only one enlistment, because the Corps
needs a constant churn of 18- to 23-year-old privates, Huenefeld
said: "That's what fights wars," not 57-year-old officers like himself.

But the Marines are having no trouble finding new leathernecks. In
fact, the military has been riding a recruitment boom despite the
ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In October the Pentagon announced that for the first time in more
than 35 years, all active duty, guard and reserve units of the
military met their annual recruiting goals. The economic recession
helped boost the numbers, as well as about $10,000 spent per recruit
on advertising and other overhead costs, and bonuses averaging about
$14,000 for 40 percent of recruits.

This year the budget for recruiting and re-enlistment bonuses is
dwindling, but the trend continues: in June, each branch met 100
percent of its recruiting goals.

Three years ago Congress authorized a growth in the size of the
active duty Marine Corps from 176,00 to 202,000. It was supposed to
take until 2012 to grow the force, but the Marines did it in 18
months, Huenefeld said.

The Marines, with their relatively smaller force, had been making
their enlistment goals before unemployment hit double digits,
Huenefeld noted. "It's not just that," he said. "I think it is
generational and an unfulfilled need to serve something bigger than
themselves."

As the wars wind down, the Marine Corps is expected to shrink in
size, and tighten enlistment standards further. As it stands, they
can afford to be choosy.

The western region sends about 17,000 recruits a year (about half the
Marine Corps total) to the San Diego depot, where about 7 percent to
10 percent wash out before graduation. Most months recruiters fill
their slots by the 15th.

Even the Army, which had dramatically lowered its recruiting
standards several years ago to accept more low test-scorers, the
overweight, and even felons, raised them again last year.

Student slackers who think they can turn to the Marine Corps as a
backstop are mistaken, Huenefeld warned the educators. Many young
people probably wouldn't be allowed into the Corps under today's
standards, he said. High school dropouts and drug addicts need not
apply. Numerous traffic tickets? Tattoos bigger than the palm of your
hand? Forget it.

Today the Marines want "the cream of the crop, the nation's
treasure," Huenefeld said.

Later that day the educators double-stepped to the chow hall, the
drill instructors barking the whole way, where the group dined with
some of the 5,800 recruits living at the depot during their 12 weeks
of training.

Recruit Eric Powell, 25, from San Diego, told his lunch mates, "I
would never consider being an officer. You need leaders in the
infantry too ­ I consider myself perfect for that. I am a little
older, I don't want another desk job."

After hearing about the Post-9/11 G.I. Bill, which gives veterans
almost twice as much in educational benefits, and allows them to
transfer benefits to their children or spouses, the reaction among
many of the educators was "wow."

In San Diego, some educators fought to keep military recruiters out
of career fairs, said Melissa Woods, a career case manager for San
Diego Unified School District. "It was a great disservice to the
kids. In an education setting, we should give them all the
information available about career options."

But Kevin Glynn, a Los Angeles teacher who retired as a Navy
commander in 2003, told the group they should not forget what the
military is really for. In this era, you don't join to go to school,
he said. "You join the military to go to war."

Despite his reservations, Glynn said that the program had been an
eye-opener. Today, the Marine Corps needs more than just trigger
pullers, he said. "No, you have to study your world history," he
planned to tell his students, "because you have to be culturally
sensitive and politically sensitive. There has to be a certain maturity level."

That more nuanced view was "mission accomplished" for the Marines
running the educator workshops. But they didn't overlook the warrior spirit.

As the day drew to a close, the educators, including some senior
citizens, divided into four-person fire assault teams. The Marines
helped them into battle gear, reminding them that the camouflage
blouse went on before the Kevlar vest. Then they cued the soundtrack.

As the rumble of tanks and explosions boomed over the bayonet course,
the educators sprinted from the tree line. Jeff Carpenter, a Rancho
Bernardo teacher, dove through a metal tunnel shouting "Aaagh" the
whole way. (His drill instructor had made them practice their war
cries each time a plane flew by from nearby Lindbergh Field.)

His team suffered an early casualty when one man went down short of
breath. But the others pushed on as ordered.

As a Marine yelled "kill the enemy!" Carpenter plunged his rubber
bayonet at the headless dummy swinging in the breeze.

Afterward, the exhausted educators huddled with Lee. "If we don't
show up tomorrow …?" one asked.

"Wrong answer!" Lee replied cheerfully. They won't leave the hotel
until everyone is on the bus. "We never leave a Marine behind."
--

Gretel C. Kovach: (619) 293-1293; gretel.kovach@uniontrib.com

.

Dire job market gives new appeal to military

Dire job market gives new appeal to military

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/7122936.html

Seasoned troops staying in, others who can't find civilian work enlisting

By EDWARD COLIMORE
July 24, 2010

PHILADELPHIA ­ Michael Lyons thought he had a career plan: Continue
working as an equity trader on Wall Street and finish 20 years of
service with the Army National Guard.

Then came layoffs. His well-paying civilian job was gone.

So Lyons, 45, of Princeton, N.J., turned to full-time employment in
the New Jersey National Guard, where he found job security and benefits.

He is among thousands of people who looked at the vagaries of the
civilian job market and chose the military.

With the nation's economy suffering and unemployment hovering near 10
percent, many are remaining in uniform longer than they planned.

The Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines exceeded their retention goals
last year and this year despite the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The
Army met 124 percent of its goal last year, compared with 102 percent in 2001.

Safe and secure

"At this stage, I like the safety and security of a military
position," said Lt. Col. Lyons, the New Jersey National Guard's
director of construction and facility management. "There are a lot of
unemployed traders out there.

"I love what I do," the 25-year veteran said.

Recruitment also has risen, officials said. The Army met 104 percent
of its goal for active-duty service in March, April and May. And it
achieved 132 percent of its goal for the Army National Guard in March
and April, prompting recruiters to scale back efforts in May to avoid
exceeding their required numbers for this year.

Employment opportunities, job security, patriotism, and free college
tuition are among the chief reasons many have chosen the Army.

But groups such as the American Friends Service Committee in Chicago
see the higher recruitment and retention numbers as an unfortunate
byproduct of the recession.

When prospective recruits seek advice about joining, said Darlene
Gramigna, the committee's Truth in Recruitment program director, "I
tell them, 'Here are some things you should know. ... There are still
wars going on. Nothing has changed. If you think you're going to
college, you may go to war first.' "

"It's like signing a contract," she said. "I don't recommend students join ."

Plenty of opportunities

Army recruiters emphasize employment opportunities.

"You can do more in the military than you can do any place else,"
said Lt. Col. John Sheard, 45, commander of recruiting and retention
for the New Jersey Army National Guard.

"We have 250 different jobs. There's not a profession we don't have,"
he said. "We have lawyers, doctors, aviators, electricians, engineers
and journalists. Or you could be a helicopter pilot, like me."

Whether the interest in the all-volunteer military is the result of
the bad economy or free tuition, it comes at an unusual time,
officials said. The nation is simultaneously battling a recession and
two long-term wars. The military draft, which hit a low in popularity
during the Vietnam War, ended in July 1973.

"A 1 percent change in civilian unemployment yields a 0.6 percent
increase in Army recruiting, historically," said Douglas Smith, a
spokesman for the U.S. Army Recruiting Command at Fort Knox, Ky. "We
take no delight in civilian unemployment. It's not good for the country."

At the same time, "we know the economy is one element" of the
military's success in filling the ranks, he said. "People know it's
harder to get a civilian job. A number of them have a break in their
civilian career."

Patriotism also is high among reasons for military service cited by
recruits, especially after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in 2001,
said Lt. Col. Harry Woodmansee, commander of the Mid-Atlantic
Recruiting Battalion at Lakehurst, N.J.

The 9/11 attacks "brought us all together," he said. "The jobs,
benefits and education always help to bring people in, but patriotism
has a lot to do with it."

The military's success comes despite a smaller pool of eligible men
and woman. About 75 percent of people ages 17 to 24 are ineligible
because they can't pass the "three M's," as the Army describes them -
mental, medical and moral requirements. Ten percent of the rest go to
college, leaving 15 percent for recruiting, Defense Department
spokeswoman Eileen Lainez said.

The average active-duty junior enlisted member - with a high school
diploma - earns about $43,000 a year, not including bonuses, medical
care, and government-paid retirement, officials said.

But the recruiter who lays out the benefits "can't guarantee that you
won't go into combat," said Janine Schwab, a peace-building and
conflict-resolution program analyst for the American Friends Service
Committee in Philadelphia. "He can't assign you once you're in the
military. Whatever he told you is moot.

"You can end up in Iraq or Afghanistan."

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Is the DREAM Act a Military Recruiter's Dream, too?

[See URL for video.]

Is the DREAM Act a Military Recruiter's Dream, too?

http://colorlines.com/archives/2010/05/is_the_dream_act_a_military_recruiters_dream_too.html

by Michelle Chen
May 20 2010

[See URL for video.]

Activists across the country have rallied around the DREAM Act as a
first step toward comprehensive immigration reform. The DREAM Act,
which broadens undocumented youths' access to higher education,
basically granting conditional relief to enable students to finish
their degrees, is framed as a "noncontroversial" concept that
rational people, even conservative-leaning folks, would find hard to
oppose on moral grounds. In fact, even the Pentagon is a big fan,
according to a documentary recently featured on Democracy Now!. Really.

In Yo Soy El Army, media activist Marco Amador looks at the backstory
behind the DREAM Act in his exploration of the Pentagon's predation
on Latino communities. While the DREAM Act has inspired bold activism
led by educators and students, its status as a pillar of the
immigration reform movement is somewhat undercut, the film suggests,
by the taint of the military recruitment machine. Specifically, the
bill contains a provision that offers military service as an option,
alongside higher education, as a "path to citizenship."

.

Is military recruiting in Oregon safe?

[4 articles]

Is military recruiting in Oregon safe?

http://www.kpic.com/news/local/98469214.html

By Elissa Harrington
Jul 15, 2010

EUGENE, Ore - Is military recruiting in Oregon safe?

Eugene activist Carol Berg-Caldwell is out to change the way the
Oregon National Guard holds recruitment meetings. She says the
current system in unsafe, especially for women.

The issue came to a head after recruiter Tim Fox of Lebanon was
accused of sexual abuse. Four women accused him of sexual abuse. They
say he made unwanted sexual advances and exposed himself during their meetings.

Fox was alone with these women when the alleged incidents happened.
He now faces a trial.

Berg-Caldwell says her mission is to make sure nothing like this ever
happens again. "I didn't start with any strategy," she said about her
efforts. "I started with a gut feeling of, 'this is so wrong.'"

Berg-Caldwell remembers the day she saw KVAL's news story about a
young mother who said she was sexually abused during a one-on-one
meeting with Oregon National Guard recruiter Tim Fox.

"It's just a real black mark on our military and our culture," she said.

Berg-Caldwell took action, writing senators and congressmen. She's
asking that the the military require tandem recruiting.

"So that if any young woman or young man were going through the
process of the interview to become enlisted in the service, there
were be two people there," she said. "One of each sex."

Berg-Caldwell would also like the person being recruited to have the
option to bring a friend or family member to the meeting.

KVAL News called the Oregon National Guard to ask what the policy is
now. "There's no formal policy as of right now that requires tandem
recruiting," said Lieutenant Leslie Reed. "But there is a verbal one."

She said the verbal policy asks a member of each sex to be present
during recruiting. If that's not possible, the meetings should happen
in public settings, like a coffee shop.

Lieutenant Reed didn't know if that verbal policy was in place before
or after the allegations surfaced about Tim Fox, or if an official
policy is in the works.

Berg-Caldwell provided KVAL with a letter she got back from the
Department of Defense. It said they are taking the issue seriously,
but also say in rural areas like Lebanon, there's often not enough
staff to have two recruiters.

"This program was found to be impractical," says the letter, written
by Deputy Under Secretary William Carr. "Recruiters in rural areas
are often in one-person offices and the next nearest recruiter may be
hours away."

Berg-Caldwell says they should simply hire more staff, but was told
they didn't have enough in the budget. "That's not an excuse," she said.

"I mean I'm hearing that they care about it, but the proof is in the
pudding. And I would make that the number one priority. That people
who want to serve our country are always protected."

As for Fox?

"He personally will never process another applicant into the Oregon
National Guard," said Lieutenant Reed. "Ever."

--------

New allegations against recruiter

http://democratherald.com/news/local/article_2fa884f8-41b5-11df-be40-001cc4c03286.html

By Alex Paul
April 6, 2010

LEBANON ­ The Linn County Sheriff's Office is investigating new
allegations against Army National Guard recruiter and Lebanon city
councilor Tim Fox, 46, who was arrested last week and charged with
first-degree sexual abuse.

"We're talking with three more potential victims," Sheriff Tim
Mueller said this morning. "Two of them came forward on their own,
and the father of one came forward."

Mueller said the potential victims called his office after
allegations last week by a 22-year-old Sweet Home woman who said Fox
sexually assaulted her at the Lebanon armory when she was attempting to enlist.

"We have gone through the initial reporting stage and Detective
Looney is now interviewing the potential victims," Mueller said. "One
was a recruit and we're not sure yet about the other two. He is
checking into those allegations today."

Mueller said he encourages anyone who had similar experiences with
Fox to contact Detective Steve Looney at (541) 967-3950.

Last week, the father of a recruit released to the media a sworn
document that alleges his daughter had been sexually harassed by Fox
in September 2009. The woman, who now lives out of state and
continues to serve in the National Guard, was recruited by Fox in April 2008.

The document alleges that Fox made inappropriate comments, including
talking about her breasts and asking to see them. The alleged verbal
harassment lasted off and on for several weeks, the complaint notes.

Following his March 30 arrest, Fox posted $5,000 security and was
released. He is scheduled to appear in court on Wednesday, April 14.
He has been placed on administrative leave from his job with the Army
National Guard and as tennis coach at Lebanon High School.

Lebanon assistant city manager Ginger Allen said today that the city
charter allows removal of a council member from office only upon
conviction of a felony or by public recall. The next city council
meeting will be April 14.

--------

Document: Female soldier complained about recruiter last year

http://www.kval.com/news/local/89810457.html

By Jennifer Winters
Apr 2, 2010

LEBANON, Ore. -- A National Guard recruiter accused of sexually
abusing a female recruit made sexually suggestive comments to another
female recruit last year, according to a sworn statement obtained by KVAL News.

"He said my hair looked really good down, he made a comment about my
perfume and I smelled really good," the woman said in a sworn written
statement filed with Joint Foce Headquarters in Salem, Ore., last
September. "Then he said that my boobs looked really big and asked if
I had implants or done something to make them look bigger then
proceeded to tell me that I should show him my boobs. I just got
really red in the face and didn't say anything because he's an NCO
and my superior officer."

The Linn County Sheriff arrested Tim Fox, a National Guard recruiter
and Lebanon City Councilor, on suspicion of first-degree sex abuse
this week after a female recruit reported Fox, who the rescruit said
had made lewd comments to her before, led her to a secluded part of
the building, exposed his genitals and requested a sexual favor.

Fox is out of jail on bail. His next court appearance is scheduled
for April 14.

Fox is on paid administrative leave from the National Guard and from
his paid position as a Lebanon High School tennis coach.

Captain Stephen Bomar, the spokesperson for the Oregon National
Guard, said Wednesday that Fox's arrest was a shock.

"There is nothing that we've seen that has led up to this," he said.
"We were contacted yesterday, and so the investigation will go on."

Asked Friday whether he would stand by that statement, Bomar declined
to comment.

After the report Wednesday, the father of another female soldier
contacted KVAL News and said his daughter had a run-in with Fox last
year. The father, who requested anonymity to protect his daughter,
provided KVAL News with a copy of a sworn statement he said his
daughter made to Oregon National Guard officials last year.

"Fox walked by me, squeezed my knee and said 'What's up hottie,' "
the soldier wrote. "SSG Fox would make comments about ... how I"m too
young to settle down and that I just need to get a 'f--- buddy' so I
can enjoy my single life."

The father said he gave the same document to Linn County Sheriff's
investigators. The sheriff's office would only confirm that they were
following up on other leads in the case.

The document, a completed DA Form 2823, is a sworn statement "to
provide commanders and law enforcemet officials with means by which
information may be accurately identified."

The complaint alleges Fox made sexually suggestive comments to the
woman, who Fox had recruited into the Guard. The female soldier says
in the statement that when she asked another guardsman about it, he
said quote "that's how Fox acts with all the females."

Bomar with the Oregon National Guard would not comment on the case
against Fox, the sworn statement from last September or whether there
had been any other allegations against Fox.

He said the Guard takes such complaints very seriously. He said, in
general, "there would definitely be an internal investigation and
depending on what the sworn statement entailed it could be turned
over to civil authorities in a different circumstance."

Bomar also said recruiters receive training on sexual harrassment every year.

--------

Lebanon city councilor charged with sexual abuse

http://www.democratherald.com/news/local/article_59bcd436-3ce4-11df-b391-001cc4c002e0.html

By Jennifer Moody
March 31, 2010

LEBANON ­ Tim Fox, an Oregon Army National Guard recruiter and
Lebanon city councilor, has been charged with first-degree sexual
abuse in connection with allegations of unwanted sexual contact
involving a female recruit.

The 22-year-old woman told the Linn County Sheriff's Office the
incident occurred March 22 at the recruiter's office at the National
Guard Armory in Lebanon.

Reached by telephone this morning, Fox directed all comments to his
attorney, Mandi Philpott of Oregon City. Philpott could not
immediately be reached.

Fox, 46, was arrested Tuesday afternoon at the Linn County Sheriff's
Office. He posted $5,000 security about 9 p.m., Sheriff Tim Mueller said.

Mueller said the woman initially reported the allegation to the
Lebanon Police Department, but because Fox is a member of the Lebanon
City Council, officers felt it would be a conflict of interest to investigate.

"They reported to us yesterday morning at 10 o'clock," Mueller said.
He said detectives asked Fox to come to the sheriff's office, and he
was arrested there and lodged in the Linn County Jail.

Mueller said investigators are concerned there may be other victims
and are asking anyone with similar experiences to contact Detective
Steve Looney at (541) 967-3950.

Capt. Stephen Bomar, Oregon Military Department public affairs, said
Fox was placed on paid administrative leave Wednesday.

Bomar said the Oregon Army National Guard received a call about Fox
from the sheriff's office late Tuesday following his arrest. He said
the military also has begun its own investigation.

Fox was appointed to the Lebanon City Council in May 2006 to fill a
vacancy and was elected to a four-year term that November.

He represents Lebanon's Ward I, and his spot will be up for
re-election this fall.

Assistant City Manager Ginger Allen issued a statement this morning
saying the city has no comment, other than that no decision has been
made about Fox's council position.

Fox joined the National Guard in 1983 and has a combined total of 14
years of service. He spent 18 months in Iraq during 2004-05 with G
Troop, 82nd Cavalry, taking part in route clearance, village raids
and counter-mortar patrols, and training Iraqi police. On his return,
he became a full-time, noncommissioned officer in charge of
recruiting and retention.

Fox is also the boys tennis coach at Lebanon High School.
Superintendent Rob Hess said Wednesday he has been placed on
administrative leave pending the outcome of the court case. An
assistant coach has taken charge of the team.

.

Exciting Ground Displays at Vectren Dayton Air Show

Exciting Ground Displays at Vectren Dayton Air Show

http://tippnews.com/feature/exciting-ground-displays-at-vectren-dayton-air-show/

Performer Autograph Tent to be Unveiled at 2010 Show

by Michael McDermott
Jul 14 2010

Dayton, Ohio – Although the U.S. Navy Blue Angels and other
performers roaring through the skies will get the bulk of fans'
attention at this weekend's Vectren Dayton Air Show Presented by
Kroger, there are numerous exciting ground activities planned that
will match the entertainment in the sky. One of the most popular
activities at the Vectren Dayton Air Show is the opportunity to meet
performers and receive autographs. While some performers will
continue to walk the flightline providing handshakes and autographs,
this year, for the first time, the show has created a Performer
Autograph Tent to allow fans an opportunity to get up-close to
performers. The autograph tent will be located near the LaRosa's
Pavilion and will have various show performers visit every 30 minutes
from 10 a.m. until 3 p.m.
As always, the Vectren Dayton Air Show Presented by Kroger will host
an amazing lineup of static aircraft displays. In fact, more than 100
ground aircraft displays will include fighters, warbirds, and private aircraft.

Perhaps the most intriguing static aircraft display will be the MQ-1
Predator unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). The Predator has been in the
headlines frequently with its recent successes in the War on Terror
throughout the Middle East.

Of course there are fun options for kids at the Vectren Dayton Air
Show. The Vectren Kids' Hangar will return this year. The Vectren
Kids' Hangar is a tented area with free activities just for kids.
Children can dig in a huge sandbox, enjoy face painting and crafts,
climb on a backyard gym and much more. The Vectren Kids' Hangar will
be open 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. daily. Children must be accompanied by
a parent or guardian to enjoy The Vectren Kids' Hangar.

Also returning this year is Aerospace Adventures (A2). Aerospace
Adventures provides many interactive, hands on activities,
experiments, and demonstrations to the public. Aerospace Adventures
will be open throughout the Vectren Dayton Air Show on the show
grounds near the LaRosa's Pavilion. The goal of A2 remains consistent
– to get kids interested in technical careers. Aerospace Adventures
is produced by the National Aviation Heritage Area Alliance.

Our nation's military recruiters will be well represented with
exciting, interactive ground displays. The Army Strength in Action
Tour is a fully interactive experience allowing participants to
explore elements of the U.S. Army. Participants can experience a
variety of interactive fitness, educational, robotic and other
technical elements. The Strength in Action Zone Tour includes:
fitness challenges, interactive robotics, team simulator games and
decision-making challenges, and an Apache helicopter flight simulation.

The United States Navy will also present a high-tech interactive
ground display at this year's show. The U.S. Navy Simulator Exhibit
allows visitors to experience how it feels and sounds to stand aboard
a Navy aircraft carrier while a fighter jet takes off or what it
feels like to be flying that jet. Inside the simulator's
mini-theater, participants see and feel what it's like as they are
transported on typical Navy missions, such as landing ashore for a
humanitarian mission or using high-tech equipment to observe the
enemy. It's an inside look at everyday life for America's Navy.

The United States Air Force will bring their exciting interactive
ground display to this year's show. Features include realistic flight
simulators that allow visitors to experience the technology available
to pilots and crew as well as several high-tech interactive displays.

Headlining this year's Vectren Dayton Air Show Presented by Kroger
are the US Navy Blue Angels, who will appear with aerobatic legends
Sean D. Tucker and the AeroShell Aerobatic Team along with newcomers
Pirated Skies Wing-walking, Greg Poe, Team Fastrax skydiving and
School Time, the Jet- Powered School Bus. The show will also
celebrate the 75th Anniversary of the legendary WWII B-17 bomber with
a dramatic bombing reenactment complete with pyrotechnics. The USAF
F-16 Fighting Falcon and US Navy F-18 Super Hornet Demonstrations are
also part of this year's star-powered lineup.

While some premium seating areas have sold out, limited numbers of
premium seats remain
available in the Blue Sky Chalet and the Pavilion Check out all the
terrific ticket options on the show's web site,
www.daytonairshow.com. Deep discount advance tickets are also
conveniently available exclusively at Kroger area stores in the
Dayton-Cincinnati region.

Founded in 1975, the Vectren Dayton Air Show Presented by Kroger is
one of America's premier air shows. The Air Show showcases
world-class aerobatic champions, military jet demonstrations and
entertainment for the whole family celebrating Dayton's aviation
heritage as home of the Wright Brothers, National Museum of the US
Air Force and Wright Patterson AFB. For more information visit
www.daytonairshow.com

.

Army anger over primary school and nursery recruitment claims [UK]

Army anger over primary school and nursery recruitment claims

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/scotland/7890659/Army-anger-over-primary-school-and-nursery-recruitment-claims.html

Armed Forces chiefs have angrily denied SNP claims they are
dispatching soldiers into primary schools and nurseries to "soften
up" children for recruitment.

By Simon Johnson
15 Jul 2010

Christine Grahame, a senior MSP, said she has obtained documents
showing that the British military is lying over its assurances it
does not enter Scottish schools without first being invited by a teacher.

Instead she suggested a desperate Ministry of Defence (MoD) is
deliberately targeting young children in an attempt to boost its
"flagging recruitment targets".

But the accusations were met with outrage by one of Scotland's most
senior Army officers, who said it receives numerous requests from
schools for soldiers to attend classes but this is never used to recruit.

Miss Grahame has previously stirred controversy by stating she does
not consider the Armed Forces a good career and recruiters are
targeting pupils in poor areas of Scotland who want to escape the
effects of the recession.

Alex Salmond has distanced himself from the comments, but she has
been allowed to persist and has tabled Freedom of Information
requests to Scotland's 32 councils.

She claimed the documents she was sent show that some of the schools
visits are at the behest of the Army, with chiefs confirming the
strategy is part of a "drip, drip, drip approach to securing more recruits".

"The MoD said that access is only ever allowed following invitation,
but as I have demonstrated there is simply no paper trail and no
evidence to support that claim as I had suspected," she said.

"These latest documents show that not only is the recruitment
strategy aimed at children in primary schools, but that
representatives of the armed forces are now routinely going into
nursery schools too.

"Schools are for educating our young, and not a 'recruitment
opportunity' for a Ministry of Defence increasingly desperate to meet
its flagging recruitment targets."

Extracts from the documents, provided by Miss Grahame, appeared to
show the Army invited Scottish Borders Council to send pupils to
attend a work experience programme.

Another from East Renfrewshire Council showed a visit was made to
Madras Nursery in Neilston, although it involved a submariner who was
a husband of a member of staff.

"Parents were invited to come to the nursery to talk to children
about their jobs. Invitation was by word of mouth," it states.

Western Isles Council confirmed none of their schools had issued
invites but one had scheduled a course with the RAF. Miss Grahame
argued that if no invite was issued, one must presume the Armed
Forces approached the school.

An email from another secondary school to the RAF, also released by
the MSP, asked whether officers would be available to provide a
series of presentations on interview techniques.

The request was made in response to a leaflet detailing the support
the RAF can offer schools. But Brigadier George Lowder, Commander 51
(Scottish) Brigade said: "We simply do not recruit in schools,
primary or secondary.

"The Army is part of Scottish society and an important public
service, and therefore supports school activities when invited and
welcomed to do so by head teachers and their staff.

"The Army gets numerous informal and official requests from schools
every year and gets no special treatment or access, but neither
should it be excluded or discriminated against."

He said the school visits support the curriculum and similar
contributions are made by police, fire, ambulance service and people
from other walks of life.

"It is a fine and honourable thing to be a Scottish soldier and we
have a duty to explain to Scottish children who we are and what we do
to protect our nation, and pass on valuable skills such as
leadership, teamwork and citizenship," he concluded.

Brig Lowder said many members of the Armed Forces, including him, are
parents and help their schools, adding: "This is not recruiting – far
from it."

He promised to examine any specific complaints or evidence produced
by MSPs. An MoD spokesman said many requests from schools are
informal or verbal.

The Armed Forces then put the details in writing, hence Miss
Grahame's assumptions the visits are made at their behest.

A spokesman for Mr Salmond said: "The First Minister has previously
said that he does not support Miss Grahame's comments on such
matters, but obviously defends the right of backbenchers to make
public their personal views."

.

US Military Sees Surge in Asian-American Recruits

US Military Sees Surge in Asian-American Recruits

http://www1.voanews.com/english/news/usa/US-Military-Sees-Surge-in-Asian-American-Recruits-98416119.html

Education opportunities, increased visibility lure new generation

Lonny Shavelson
14 July 2010

The all-volunteer U.S. army - like the United States itself - is an
ethnic mix. But Asian-Americans have typically volunteered less than
other ethnic groups. Recently, though, they have been enlisting at a
remarkable rate.

Asian-Americans make up just 10 percent of New York City's
population, but they comprise 14 percent of army recruits. The
numbers are even more striking in California cities. In the San
Francisco Bay area, 42 percent of recruits so far this year have been
Asian-American - way over their local population.

New reasons for signing up

At the Bay Area's Richmond Hilltop Mall recruiting station, army
officers teach incoming soldiers to march. The 15 recruits, still in
high school, will start basic training after they graduate. Seven of
them are Asian: Chinese, Vietnamese, Pacific-Islander and Filipino.

Recruits Albert and Barry Huang are 18-year-old twins who speak
Cantonese at home, and English outside the home. They tend to finish
each other's sentences.

"My parents always pushed the idea of 'go to college, go to
college,'" says Albert. "And so this is a start of how we're going to..."

Barry jumps in with "…do what our parents want us to do. We're just
going to go to college and get an education."

This is the twins' route to college. "Now that the economy has gone
down and the tuition's gone up - the army, they can pay for my
college, so might as well do it," says Barry.

Asian-American parents' traditional emphasis on education has run
into the stumbling U.S. economy and skyrocketing college costs. So
the military's education benefits have become particularly appealing.
That's one reason Asian-Americans are increasingly joining the army.

But that's not the whole story.

Facing new enemies

"In the present war, they're not fighting against Asians like in
World War II or Vietnam," says Ken Mochizuki, co-author of a book
about Asians in the military. He points out that U.S. soldiers,
before this generation, were fighting Asians - Japanese in World War
II, then Koreans and Vietnamese. Today's young soldiers, he says,
were born after those wars, and are less apprehensive about the military.

And, he adds, today's generation of American Southeast Asians, born
to parents who spent time in refugee camps before emigrating, "want
to prove their loyalty to this country and that they're as American
as anybody else."

Support roles

Yet increased recruitment of Asian-Americans doesn't mean that more
are on the front lines.

According to Dr. Betty Maxfield, the army's chief of personnel data,
Asian-Americans are more commonly found in non-combat jobs then as
front-line fighters.

"The majority are in combat service support, technical support,
computer support, medical," says Maxfield, adding that soldiers who
focus on the military's education benefits train in jobs that
translate to civilian life - such as technology or medicine rather
than rifles or sharp shooting.

The Huang twins say that, for them, finding non-combat roles is also
a cultural and religious choice. Their mother is Buddhist.

"It affected me," Barry says. "When I decided to join the military, I
was like, 'I'm not going to kill anybody, I do not want to kill
anybody. I do not want to have a person's death on my conscience.'"

The rising visibility of Asian-Americans already in the service may
make a military career more acceptable to Asian-Americans.

Retired four-star general Eric Shinseki, a Japanese-American, now
heads the Department of Veterans Affairs. Antonio Taguba, a
Filipino-American major general, led the Abu Ghraib investigation.

The most potent reason that Asian-Americans are increasingly joining
the army may just be because they now see top-level officers who look
like them.

.

Troops have higher rates of some cancers

Study: Troops have higher rates of some cancers

http://www.militarytimes.com/news/2010/07/military_cancer_rates_statistics_072010w/

By Kelly Kennedy
Jul 20, 2010

After looking at 10 years' worth of cancer data, researchers at the
Armed Forces Health Surveillance Center found that service members
tend to have higher rates of melanoma, brain, non-Hodgkin lymphoma,
breast, prostate and testicular cancers than civilians.

They also found interesting differences across the services. Airmen
are more likely to suffer skin cancer than other service members, for
example, while sailors are the most likely to have lung cancer. Coast
Guardsmen have the highest rates of testicular cancer, while Marines
tend to the have the lowest cancer rates overall.

Military researchers say the rates have remained stable ­ though the
incidence rate of these particular kinds of cancer has increased from
51 per 100,000 troops in 2000, to 57.5 per 100,000 in 2006, and then
back down to 54.5 per 100,000 in 2009.

"There were no clear trends of increasing or decreasing incidence of
specific [cancer] sites or overall" cancer rates, the report states.
"In general, the strongest demographic correlate of increased risk of
a cancer was older age."

That held true for all cancers except for cervical and testicular,
the report states.

To conduct the study, researchers looked at how many times a service
member had been seen for a diagnosis, whether a member had been
treated with radiotherapy or chemotherapy, or whether a member's
medical code showed he had been diagnosed with a cancer. They found
the lowest number of diagnoses from cancer over the past decade was
in 2000, with 710. The highest rate came in 2006 with 802. There were
7,579 total diagnoses over the 10 years.

During those years, 904 service members died of cancer. The fewest
deaths came in 2000 with 44; the most deaths came in 2005 with 125.
Of those who died, 106 died of lung cancer, 101 died from brain or
other nervous system cancers, and 92 died of colon cancer.

Researchers expected to see more cases related to tobacco smoking
because 31 percent of service members smoke, compared to 20 percent
of civilians. However, "lung cancer cases related to current tobacco
smoking may not be clinically apparent until affected members leave
active service," researchers said.

The highest rates were for breast cancer. Service women ages 20 to 24
were diagnosed with breast cancer at a rate of 2.5 per 100,000,
compared to civilians who were diagnosed at a rate of 1.5 per
100,000. Those numbers greatly increased for service women as they
aged. Military women ages 35 to 39 were diagnosed at a rate of 77.3
per 100,000, compared to civilians who were diagnosed at a rate of
59.3 per 100,000.

Researchers explained that military personnel are younger and
healthier than civilians, so one might think that the rates overall
would be lower. However, the researchers reasoned, service members
have unlimited access to health care, as well as required annual
exams, so they may be diagnosed more frequently and at younger ages
than civilians.

But that doesn't completely explain disparities among the services,
such as why Marines ­ who have access to the same health care as
members of other branches ­ have significantly lower rates of these
cancers than either their military peers or civilians.

For example, the Air Force rate for malignant melanoma was 14.8 per
100,000, while the rate for Marines was 6.5 per 100,000. And sailors
had almost double the rate of lung cancer as people from other services.

This was the first report to look cancer rates in all services.
Another recent study conducted by K. Zhu at the U.S. Military Cancer
Institute at Walter Reed Army Medical Center compared data from the
Defense Department's Automated Central Tumor Registry and from the
National Cancer Institute from 1990 to 2005.

Zhu found that colorectal cancer in white troops, lung cancer in
white and black male troops and white female troops, and cervical
cancer in black female troops were significantly lower than similar
civilian populations.

However, breast cancer and prostate cancer rates were significantly
higher in both black and white troops than in civilians. Prostate
cancer rates were also higher in military patients.

"Overall, these results suggest that cancer patterns may differ
between military and nonmilitary populations," Zhu wrote.

A second study of Air Force personnel, by G. Yamane, found that
invasive cancers had "decreased significantly" from 1989 to 2002.
Cancer rates for female airmen were about the same as civilian
populations, and Air Force men had lower cancer rates. However,
cervical, prostate and vulvar cancers were "significantly higher."

And a third study, published in the Medical Surveillance Monthly
Report in 2008, found that service members had lower rates of
colorectal, lung and cervical cancers, and higher rates of prostate
and breast cancers.

.

Post-9/11 GI Bill Benefits Key to Recruiting and Retention

Post-9/11 GI Bill Benefits Key to Recruiting and Retention

http://www.defense.gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=60112

By Army Sgt. 1st Class Michael J. Carden
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, July 21, 2010 – Proposed changes to the Post-9/11 GI Bill
would improve military readiness, a senior Pentagon official said
today at a Capitol Hill hearing.

Robert E. Clark, assistant director for accessions policy in the
office of the defense undersecretary for personnel and readiness,
also said education benefits are crucial to military recruiting and
retention efforts during his testimony before the Senate Committee on
Veterans' Affairs. Clark discussed the Post-9/11 Veterans Education
Assistance Improvement Act of 2010 and how it would affect the
Department of Defense.

One of the more notable options in the bill is transferability. It
gives career servicemembers who've served on active duty or in the
selected reserve on or after Aug. 1, 2009, the option to transfer
their education benefits to family members, Clark said.
Transferability was approved in the Post-9/11 Veterans Education
Assistance Improvement Act of 2008, which became law in June 2008.

Panel members are debating that option for the 2010 bill. Some say
transferability shouldn't be available for every servicemember,
because of budget constraints. Rather, the option should be reserved
for specific military specialties that are difficult to fill, they said.

"We had concerns about the generous benefit being more of a draw for
first-term members to leave [the military] in order to use this
benefit," Clark said. "[But] we were very pleased to see the
transferability … to share this benefit that [servicemembers] have
earned with their family members.

"We did not believe this benefit for family members was to be limited
to any specific targeting," he continued. "We believe that every
soldier, sailor, airmen and Marine who chooses to stay should have
the same opportunity to share their earned benefits with their family members."

Money for education remains a top reason for young Americans to join
and stay in the military, Clark said. Transferability and the 9/11 GI
Bill will help the Pentagon meet its recruiting and retention goals, he added.

"There is no doubt that the Post-9/11 GI Bill will continue to have
this impact, and we are seeing that happen with unprecedented
recruiting success," he said in his written testimony.

Other proposed changes include new rules for entitlement,
modifications of the amount and types of assistant covered, methods
of education payment and transferring unused benefits.
The proposed bill would enhance provisions of the Post-9/11 GI Bill,
as well as make improvements in other Veterans Affairs Department
education programs, Keith M. Wilson, director of education service
for VA, said at the hearing.

The proposed bill also clarifies eligibility for reserve component
troops. Troops activated for training and other purposes in support
of reserve component forces or in support of contingency operations
qualify for the bill benefits, Wilson said. Also full-time
citizen-servicemembers and members activated for national emergency
responses are eligible, he added.

Individuals released from active duty for medical or hardship
conditions must be released under honorable conditions, Wilson continued.

"The amendments regarding qualifying Title 10 service and extending
coverage to Guard members … would be consistent with qualifying
active service under the Montgomery GI Bill and the Reserve
Educational Assistance Program," he explained in his written
testimony. "The proposed amendment clarifying that certain service
must result in an honorable discharge is similar to the honorable
discharge requirements applicable to other covered individuals."

Regarding tuition payment under the proposed bill, VA would pay fees
based on charges reported by the institution. That would include
out-of-state tuition, as well, Wilson said.

For foreign or private institutions, VA would pay fees according to
statistics obtained from the Department of Education. The figures
used would be of the "average of established charges at all
institutions in the U.S. for a baccalaureate degree for the most
recent year," Wilson explained.

Meanwhile, he said, the housing stipend will be calculated based on
attendance in school. This means, for example, students enrolled in
50 percent of a full course load will receive 50 percent of the stipend.

Also, housing stipends under the proposed 2010 bill will expand to
vocational schools, correspondence training, on-the-job training and
apprenticeships and flight schools. Stipends are based on the area's
housing allowance rates for an E-5 with dependents, Wilson said.

VA supports streamlining the tuition-and-fee benefits for students
attending public institutions and establishing a maximum payment cap
private school students, he said.

"The manner in which institutions assess charges varies widely from
state to state and from school to school," Wilson said. "VA also does
not object to expansion of the program to permit payment for
vocational, flight, correspondence …, subject to Congress identifying
appropriate [cost savings]."

Additional amendments in the proposed bill include the types of
methods VA uses to pay various institutions and training facilities.
Although VA supports the intent to improve the Post-9/11 GI Bill, the
department does not support some of these provisions, Wilson said.

These provisions would "severely hamper" payment methods, Wilson
said, as the bill's amendments would take effect as if the 2008 bill
never existed. VA proposes to postpone "significant changes" to the
law until Aug. 2011 to ensure the improvements don't have negative
impact on service delivery, he explained.

Since the inception of the 2008 legislation, VA has awarded nearly $4
billion to more than 295,000 veterans and their education
institutions, Wilson said.

.

U.S. Government to America’s Vets: Drop Dead

U.S. Government to America's Vets: Drop Dead

http://vactruth.com/2010/07/20/u-s-government-to-america%E2%80%99s-vets-drop-dead/

20 July 2010
Gary Null PhD and Richard Gale

This documentary and original investigative report exposes a 19 year
secret US government program whose consequence resulted in the
needless suffering and deaths of our brave gulf war veterans. Total
dead since 1991 ­ over 75,000. Does anyone care? Could your father,
husband, son or daughter be among those our government considers expendable?

Progressive Radio Network, July 19, 2010

From 1991 to 2003, hundreds of thousands of our bravest men and
women sought help from the Veterans Administration, from the Defense
Department, from the White House, all to no avail. The official word
was that Gulf War Syndrome did not exist. So they suffered in
silence. Tens of thousands died from these conditions. Many lost
their homes because of the high costs to pay for medical care
themselves. Independent investigations, including those conducted by
many of the Gulf War veterans themselves, showed multiple causes
behind Gulf War Syndrome, including experimental vaccines, exposure
to depleted uranium (DU), and toxicity from biological and chemical
weapons, oil fires and other environmental contaminants.

The current wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are manifesting with an
entirely new series of physical and mental illnesses and diseases.
Some are being recognized, such as post traumatic stress disorder
(PTSD), but many others are not. Hundreds of thousands of our
veterans are living in destitution, are incarcerated, have attempted
or committed suicide, and can no longer fit into a normal family
life. And yet the government once again, as it did to previous Gulf
War vets, turns its backs on them. This is an American tragedy, and
that is where our story begins.

American troops serving in Afghanistan and Iraq are sinking ever
lower into the abyss of the lost and forgotten. Severe depression,
confusion and an existential lack of purpose swarms across our armed
forces and our government barely notices. We are witnessing annual
illness increases in practically every category of physical,
emotional and mental health: physical combat injuries, PTSD, brain
trauma and depression, impaired immune systems, common and rare
cancers, diabetes, reproductive disorders, a wide variety of
inflammatory conditions among many other ailments. Over-extended and
multiple deployments are shattering soldiers' and veterans' lives.
The fabric of their social relationships is rapidly deteriorating.
Divorce rates and broken homes are commonplace, and a homeward bound
ticket is only an assurance many will return as damaged goods,
courtesy of our government's negligence and disregard for human health.

And upon their return to Kansas, away from America's killing fields
in the Middle East, there awaits an economy in collapse under the
weight of astronomical federal debt and corporate greed, recessionary
unemployment and rising homelessness, hungry children and rampant
poverty, and now a new American culture every bit as disoriented and
fearful about its future.
Welcome to America's brave new world of global PTSD!

The Middle East: Healthy In, Broken Out

Before the Vietnam War, the severe psychological conditions warriors'
and soldiers' experienced on the battlefield went under a variety of
names: war neurosis, combat fatigue, neurasthenia, shell shock and
others. Today these psychological states have been tossed under the
umbrella term Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), and although GIs
are screened to assure mental vitality and stability before deploying
into combat, we are experiencing record numbers of servicemen and
women returning emotionally and mentally impaired. During no other
war, including Vietnam, are GIs as psychically damaged as those now
serving and returning from tours in Afghanistan and Iraq. If a
veteran does not already experience symptoms of PTSD or any one of a
number of neurological and emotional illnesses, he or she will very
likely do so in the future. The DoD medical authorities are ambiguous
regarding the reasons for the rising statistics. It has even required
the creation of new disorders, like Prolonged Duress Stress Disorder,
to reflect mental conditions specific to the current wars, such as
those related to duress from two or more extended deployments.

It appears odd that many vets being diagnosed for PTSD, depression
and other mental impairments never experienced direct combat. Yet all
deployed troops to Afghanistan and Iraq share one thing in common.
They have all stood on Middle Eastern soil and breathed and lived in
its highly toxic and chemically contaminated environment.

Testimonies from DoD health officials about the rate of serious
mental impairment among active-duty GIs and veterans are
contradictory. The Army's top psychiatrist, Brig. General Loree
Sutton told Congress that about 17 percent of our troops are on
psychiatric medications. However, in later interviews she reduced her
estimate substantially to 2-4 percent.[1] Other military officials
tout other conflicting numbers giving a clear message that either the
military is clueless about the seriousness of mental illness among
our troops, or is having one hell of a time keeping their lies in
order. As this investigation will outline, there is far greater
reason to suspect intentional deception on the DoD's behalf rather
than assume the upper echelons of our military's health institutions
are simply fools unqualified in their roles to oversee the health and
well being of our armed forces.

Independent research places the military's mental health figures much
higher. The June 2010 issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry
published a study of 18,300 Army soldiers screened at 3 and 12 month
intervals following deployment in Iraq. The study found that using
"the least stringent definition" for PTSD, rates now range between 20
and 30 percent, and depression rates are at 11.5 and 16 percent.[2]
Together this accounts for almost a third of our troops now suffering
serious functional mental impairment.

Surprising, the Rand Corporation's own analysis­surprisingly, because
Rand has for many years been little more than an obedient lapdog for
the Pentagon's bidding in churning out confounded research and
statistics for disreputable motives­conforms closely with the
independent study's results. According to Rand's 2008 analysis,
300,000 soldiers returning from the Middle East campaigns will
experience PTSD and an additional 320,000 will suffer traumatic brain
injuries."[3]

All attempts to conduct accurate analysis is compounded because "the
Veterans Health Administration systematically delays and denies sick
veterans medical care and masks it with bogus documentation,"
according to an investigation conducted by Nora Eisenberg at City
University of New York. In a leaked internal memo from the Deputy
Undersecretary for Health Operations and Management, William
Schoenhard, the VA is gaming the system thus "diminishing patient
[veteran] access to treatment."[4] There are many thousands of
veterans waiting as much as a year to receive diagnosis and treatment
for a large variety of physical and mental illnesses. As a
consequence, any health statistics for veterans released by the
government and military are skewed and grossly underestimate the
gravity of veterans' plight.

As of the final quarter of 2009, over 537,000 among the 2.04 million
veterans who have served in Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) and
Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) have sought healthcare from VA
facilities. These veterans account for approximately 9 percent of the
total 5.7 million Veteran Affairs patient population for all wars and
years. According to the Armed Force Health Surveillance Center,
veterans with VA healthcare access represent only 28% of all OEF/OIF
veterans.[5] Many veterans, such as those serving in the National
Guard and many Reservists, which number almost half of all deployed
military personnel, do not have VA benefits. Their health conditions
remain outside of the VA's monitoring capabilities.

According to Veterans for Common Sense, veteran medical facilities
receive 9,000 new patients per month, 1 new active duty or veteran
patient every 5 minutes.[6] A recent article in the Los Angeles Times
reports that these figures reflect a far more realistic picture of
the casualty figures resulting from America's combat escapades in the
Middle East.[7] The three most common diagnoses are musculoskeletal
ailments (joint and spine disorders), mental illness, and a category
of 160 ill-defined abnormalities that allude specific diagnosis known
as "Symptoms, Signs and Ill-Defined Conditions." These conditions
comprise 52 percent, 48 percent and 46 percent respectively for the
over half million OEF and OIF vets in the latest VA health care
utilization report.[8] Although no less than 244,000 veterans have
been diagnosed with a mental illness and an additional 144,000 with
PTSD,[9] the Department of Defense and Veterans Administration are
making every effort to limit cases of PTSD to behavioral diagnosis
and to keep it distant from the far greater health threat of
environmental toxins permeating the Afghanistan and Iraqi landscapes.

The fumes of cover-ups and scandals arise when we repeatedly hear the
Department of Defense and Veterans Affairs agencies refusing to
acknowledge potential organic causes, for example, the long-term
exposure to neurological toxic chemicals and heavy metal particles,
such as depleted uranium (DU), strewn by the winds over the sands of
Afghanistan and Iraq, for PTSD and other common mental illnesses.
Active and non-active duty persons visiting VA clinics and hospitals
for mental and emotional complaints are not tested for any chemical
toxicity that might be interfering with normal brain
function. Because the DoD and VA refuse to associate DU poisoning as
a possible cause behind the onset of PTSD, and continues to
propagandize the safety of depleted uranium, such testing is
discerned to be unwarranted.

In the meantime, the military and VA clinics have succeeded in
building a medical assembly, a flowing treadmill pushing through
soldiers and veterans from short standardized examination to an arrow
pointing the way to the pharmacy.

Homeward Bound to Nothing

The nation's dire recession and lack of jobs is one significant
contributor to rising homeless among veterans. As of March 2010,
veterans from the OEF and OIF campaigns officially faced a 14.7
unemployment rate, 5 points above the Department of Labor's estimated
national average.[10] However, actual unemployment statistics
repeatedly show almost a doubling of national unemployment after
hidden populations of those no longer receiving benefits, unqualified
to receive benefits, or people holding down minimum wage part-time
jobs are accounted for; therefore we can realistically predict over a
quarter of vets are now unemployed. A National Alliance to End
Homelessness study calculated one out of four veterans are
homeless.[11] The National Coalition for the Homeless figures are
still greater at 33 percent and 1.5 million veterans are now at
high-risk to become homeless "due to poverty, lack of support
networks, and dismal living conditions in overcrowded or substandard
housing."[12] What is absent from these equations is the large
number of veterans physically and/or mentally incapable of seeking
and holding a job.

The Department of Veterans' Affairs estimates 131,000 veterans are
homeless on any given night;[13] however, more independent analysis
shows the figure can be as high as 300,000,[14] and upwards to
840,000 veterans will experience homelessness during the course of a
year. But the actual number is certainly higher. Incidences of AWOL
are increasing as more and more OEF and OIF soldiers run away from
redeployment, often to seek reliable treatment for PTSD and mental
illnesses the military ignores in order to sustain troop levels in
combat zones. Homelessness then becomes a viable option to avoid capture.

The majority of homeless veterans now suffer from some type of mental
illness, including PTSD, and about 76 percent are struggling with
substance abuse. In a report found in the September 2009 issue of
Management Science, the journal of the Institute for Operations
Research and Management Sciences, a minimum of 35% returning Iraq
vets are anticipated to have PTSD. The VA system is unable to meet
the demand, and there is a backlog of over 1 million and rising
claims for Veteran Benefits.[15] Yet even when claims are met, the
standard compensation for a positive PTSD diagnosis is only $67 a
month and free medications.

Veterans Affairs claims 97 percent of homeless vets are men, however,
a separate report from the National Coalition for the Homeless finds
female vets with PTSD and traumatic brain injury more likely to
become homeless.[16] Women are enrolling in VA programs in record
numbers. There have been 230,000 women, 11 percent of military
serving in Iraq and Afghanistan in the VA's files. As of 2009, 66
percent seeking care were under 30 years and 60 percent were
evaluated with PTSD. Equally traumatic are the high incidences sexual
harassment women are subject to. In 2008, one in five women screened
through the system experienced military sexual trauma.[17]

Divorce and broken homes are extremely high among today's returning
veterans. Rachel Feinstein who directs the residential care center
New Directions for homeless vets in West Los Angeles has stated that
"what's unique about the men and women coming back from Iraq and
Afghanistan is that they're not able to integrate with their
family."[18] The city of Los Angeles leads the nation for urban areas
with over 27,000 homeless veterans in its streets. In Florida, with
the third highest rate of veteran homelessness, local coalitions
estimate 19,000 veterans are without a roof over their heads on any
given night. In order to deal squarely with the growing number of
veterans with serious physical and mental illnesses filling our urban
and rural areas, Harvard's Kennedy School of Government estimates the
VA will need to double its budget to keep abreast of veteran health needs.

Why the Epidemic in Military and Veteran Suicides?

Political activist and journalist David Swanson offers one of the
more poignant reasons for rising suicides among our troops and
veterans, "US troops are increasingly killing themselves, perhaps in
part because they have no better idea than the sentators who fund the
slaughter what its purpose is."[19]

Active duty GI and veteran suicides have skyrocketed so dramatically
that even major news sources are compelled to report it. June 2010
witnessed the highest rate of active duty suicides on record, one per
day.[20] What the major media stories don't tell us is that
traumatized and mentally impaired soldiers are dangling for survival
on a thin thread of lethal cocktails of antidepressants,
benzodiazepines, antiepileptics, atypical psychoactive medications,
and a variety of pain drugs. In an earlier study of nearly 1,000
active duty suicide attempts, over a third of the soldiers were on
psychoactive drugs.

Veteran suicide rates are much higher and have reached 18 per day.
This accounts for 20 percent of the nation's annual 30,000
suicides.[21] One out of seven suicide attempts will be successful.
But suicide prevention hotlines provide a more chilling
scenario: 10,000 calls per month and 400 per month requiring
immediate rescue efforts.[22]

Since only 5 of 18 veterans are under direct VA care, it is very
likely more veterans are taking their lives than is being reported.
Moreover, the military has already established a past record of
reporting some suicides, such as an overdose when a soldier is
thoroughly doped up on a cocktail of prescribed medications, as death
by natural causes. Official figures, therefore, greatly
underestimate the truth underlying the suicide epidemic.

Government and military psychiatrists, psychologists and social
workers are not knowledgeable enough in treating the seriousness of
many mental conditions. Navy Commander Mark Russell, a mental health
specialist, found that almost 90 percent of psychiatric staffs
servicing veterans have no formal training in PTSD therapies. Within
the active duty ranks, the bottom line for treatment has been
indiscriminate, multiple drug prescriptions. A startling 98 percent
of military personnel seeking assistance for mental complications are
simply being drugged and returned to their units.[23]

Dr. Peter Breggin, one of our nation's foremost experts about the
adverse effects of psychiatric drugs being given to numerous active
duty military personnel and veterans, has documented that these drugs
can produce the same mental disturbances that define PTSD, such as
hyperarousal, insomnia and paranoia. Furthermore, many psychotropic
drugs have been proven to increase risks of suicide and some are
under litigation for this reason. In the civilian population,
approximately 33 percent of psychiatric hospital admissions are due
to adverse drug reactions.[24]

Among the more common antidepressants prescribed by military and VA
mental health practitioners are Paxil, Prozac, the mood stabilizer
Klonopin, Neurontin (an anti-convulsive not indicated for PTSD but
given anyway), and the controversial Seroquel, which has been
associated with increased psychosis, the onset of diabetes, heart
attacks and sudden death. There are now 26,000 lawsuits against
AstraZeneca, the maker of Seroquel, in civil courts. Risperdal, a
potent brain chemistry changing drug given for schizophrenia, bipolar
disorder and certain autisms, is also being dispensed to make
soldiers "fit" for combat. Neither Seroquel or Risperdal have been
approved for treating PTSD, and both are under Congressional
investigation for being over-prescribed for unapproved mental
conditions.[25] There are now reports of soldiers taking up to a
dozen different meds at any given time.

A recent study published in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and
Drugs discovered that veterans from the current Afghan and Iraq wars
are more likely to commit suicide by violent means. In fact, the
University of Michigan researcher publishing the study found violent
suicide deaths, particularly by firearms, are now most common.[26]
This is a trend never before witnessed among active duty personnel
and veterans from previous wars. It is also a trend that finds a
parallel in the large number of veterans arrested for violent crimes,
serving prison terms or on correctional probation.

Penny Coleman, a widow of a veteran who committed suicide, has been
investigating suicide and crime rates among all war veterans.
Although accurate numbers of veterans now in correctional
institutions are unavailable, it is estimated that in 2007, there
were 703,000 under supervision and approximately 1.2 million vets arrested.[27]

And once released from prison, marked as a felon, there is little
chance a job awaits them during a severe recession. The street or
forests, therefore, become their best options.

It's the Toxins, Stupid!
The simple fact is, unless you are fully garbed in state-of-the-art
protective gear 24/7, your risks of developing any one or more of a
variety of cancers, having neurological brain damage giving rise to
any number of symptoms similar to PTSD, depression and mental
impairment, and loss of reproductive function multiples many fold as
soon as you touch down in the Middle East. One soldier who was
struggling with terminal colon cancer described the environment he
was stationed as a toxic dump of "oil refineries, a cement factory, a
chlorine factory and a sulfuric acid factory" all polluting the air.[28]
During the first Gulf War, at least 320 tons of DU were released
across the deserts. According to Prof. Malcolm Hopper's calculations
at the University of Sunderland in the UK, the actual death toll of
American and British troops during the campaign, which saw only a
tiny number of combat-related deaths, is now about 21,000. While
these figures go unreported, Hopper contributes the cause of death
"due not just to DU exposure but to the astounding amounts of
organophosphate poisoning from various toxins (or supposedly
anti-toxins) given to the troops as preventive
medicine."[29] However, according to the last VA report in February
2008­the Gulf War Veterans Information System­the government lists
the actual veteran death toll from Gulf War illness at over 75,000.[30]

Dr. Doug Rokke, a retired Major who served as the Director of the US
Army Depleted Uranium Project in the mid-90s, and a specialist in
uranium clean-up efforts, has been an advisor for DU science and
health to the CDC, US Institute of Medicine, Congress and the
DoD. Rokke has been at the forefront in efforts to alert health and
military officials about DU's enormous health risks. After Operation
Desert Storm, he was the officer in charge of cleaning up the mess
and assessing environmental risks due to the invasion. During the
course of his mission, Rokke said, he received an order, the Los
Alamos Memorandum, "which was a direct order to lie in all the
reports about the health and environmental effects from uranium
munitions in order to sustain their use and avoid all
liability." Throughout his months in Saudia Arabia in clean up
efforts, Rokke and his team received "numerous orders to provide
medical care and numerous orders to ignore them and numerous orders
to lie, cheat, steal and do whatever you have to do."[31]

Dr. Rokke is now convinced that the DoD's own reports stating that
almost 20 percent of active duty personnel in the current military
campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq are non-deployable because of
severe illness, is the direct result from prolonged exposure to the
toxic swamp that has become the middle east. He has also observed in
his research that with respect to the causes of death among OEF and
OIF personnel for medical reasons, there is a surprising
proportionality with the medical causes of death among veterans from
the first Gulf War. What GIs from both campaigns share is their high
exposure to chemical toxicity, multiple toxic vaccines, and in
particular depleted uranium.[32]

During the Bush-Cheney freedom wars, depleted uranium tonnage used in
Iraq increased 5-fold to over 1500 tons. Iraq's environment minister
claims there are 350 sites contaminated with DU from bombing
campaigns.[33] Once detonated, these highly toxic munitions radiate
oxidized nano-size radioactive uranium particles in a gaseous state
that infiltrate the lungs, digestion system and skin of anyone coming
in contact with Iraq's environment.

The nuclear chemist Marion Falk was a member of the Manhattan
Project. While employed at the National Laboratory at Livermore, he
developed the "particle theory" about how DU affects human DNA and
RNA. Based on Fulk's research of DU-related malignancies, and later
research conducted by Dr. Alexandra Miller for the Armed Forces
Radiobiology Research Institute in 2001, the Pentagon has known for
almost 2 decades about DU's serious disease and reproductive risks,
especially in its nano-form, which reacts differently in the human
body and is far more toxic than in its natural isotope.[34]

The US Department of State's fact sheet for the health effects of
depleted uranium continues to state that it "poses no serious health
risks," that it "has not affected the health of Gulf War veterans,"
and that "depleted uranium does not cause birth defects." The US
government wants us to believe that the epidemic in genetic
deformities and still births among Iraqi children is due to "Iraqi
military use of chemical and nerve agents in the 1980s and
1990s."[35] Per the question of whether or not DU causes cancer, the
State Department reassures us by citing only a single study of
uranium workers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory between 1943-1947
who showed no observable increase in cancer. Moreover, more recent
clinical studies relied upon by the DoD to deny DU's health risks
have been conducted in rat experiments and studies with soldiers
injured by DU-containing shrapnel, rather than the more widespread
form of oxidized DU as inhaled or swallowed atmospheric nano-particles.

Investigative journalist and scholar Robert Koehler notes there is a
grave problem in the government's DU argument. Afghanistan is now
experiencing a gradual and steady increase in abnormal birth defects,
not dissimilar to those escalating throughout Iraq (infants and still
births born without limbs, numerous tumors, deformed genitalia,
etc.). Afghanistan has nothing to do with Sadaam's biological and
chemical weaponry, but more likely has everything to do with the 600
tons of DU munitions the US and its British allies launched to
destroy al-Qaeda strongholds and eradicate the Taliban. Although the
US government continues to deny using DU munitions in its Afghanistan
campaign, a classified manual to NATO was recovered by the
Bundeswehr's Center for Communications in Germany in 2005
acknowledging that DU-core weapons were used in US aircraft and armor
piercing incendiary weapons.[36]

Dr. Rokke draws attention to a little known physician guideline
distributed by the US Department of Veteran Affairs known as the
Commission's Guide to Veteran Specific Issues. The manual gives
complete acknowledgement of the health problems related to depleted
uranium exposure. Among the symptoms­some similar to those being
diagnosed as PTSD and other mental illnesses­are "sleep problems,
mood swings, symptoms in the upper and lower respiratory system,
neuropsychological symptoms including memory loss, chronic fatigue,
immune dysfunction syndrome, skin rashes, unusual hair loss, aching
joints, headaches, abdominal pains, sensitivity to light, blurred
vision, all of the female problems related to menstrual disorders…
explosive diarrhea and constipation, all the neurological system
disorders such as numbness in limbs, multiple chemical sensitivity
and birth defects."[37] So, while there is unquestionable evidence
that the government is fully aware that hundreds of pounds of DU
tonnage used to ravish Afghanistan and Iraq is a leading cause for
the numerous medical complaints and diseases erupting within our
armed forces, its public face is to completely deny this very fact.

Dr. Asaf Durakovic, at the Uranium Medical Research Center in Canada,
sent a team in 2002 to examine soil and urine samples for uranium
among Afghani civilians. His findings were startling. "Without
exception, every person donating urine specimens tested positive for
uranium internal contamination" and results were 100-400 times
greater than levels found in veterans from the first Gulf War. When
BBC interviewed Dr. Durakovic, he stated that the most disturbing
discovery is that in the absence of multiple oil fires and pesticide
use, and no known experimental vaccines, such as the experimental
squalene-laced anthrax vaccine given to Desert Storm personnel, the
same symptoms were emerging among Afghanis as were among veterans
from the Gulf War.[38] In a further study testing deployed soldiers
from the 442nd Military Police Company, Durakovic discovered several
had traces of another uranium isotope, U-236, which is only produced
in a nuclear reaction process."[39] This is another highly dangerous
form of uranium being used in the Middle East that the Pentagon has
been hiding from American citizens and our troops.

In her testimony to the International Criminal Tribunal for
Afghanistan, Leuren Moret, a former geologist for Livermore
Laboratories and an expert on DU's health and environmental impact,
stated "It is estimated that one millionth of a gram [of DU]
accumulating in a person's body would be fatal. There are no known
methods of treatment."[40] According to radiation expert Dr. Rosalie
Bertell, who has consulted for the DoD, "each tiny milligram
[radioactive uranium] shoots about 1,251,000 powerful radioactive
bullets a day with a range of about 20 cells of the human body for
thousands or even billions of years."[41] And let there be no
mistake, depleted uranium is only "less than one half of 1 percent of
the uranium isotope 235," the isotope used for making a nuclear bomb.[42]

There are many independent studies about depleted uranium's effects
on the health of renal and liver functions, DNA mutagenesis leading
to diverse cancers, and the skeletal, gastrointestinal, reproductive,
cardiovascular and respiratory systems. Yet very few studies have
been conducted on the human health dangers after depleted uranium has
been ignited at high temperatures following explosion and vaporized
into oxidized nanoparticles contaminating atmosphere, soil, water and
penetrating the physical body. But what concerns us most for
understanding the epidemic of mental illness among servicemen is
uranium's affects on the brain and central nervous system, and its
impairment of the immune system that can lead to symptoms veterans
often complain about, such as chronic fatigue. Our soldiers
willingly admit they are experiencing symptoms of depression and
traumatic stress. Their understanding of these mental disturbances
follow the official rhetoric from military psychiatrists and health
counselors who limit their causes to the shocking experiences and
extended periods of duress soldiers encounter during deployment. A
possible organic cause, such as chemical or radiological toxicity, is
being completely ignored by military physicians and medical staff.

Prolonged exposure to depleted uranium can damage the brain's
cerebellar vermis. Studies show vermis atrophy in over 40 percent of
schizophrenics, as well as symptoms such as deep feelings of guilt,
anxiety, and paranoia. The vermis is responsible primarily for
determining spatial relations, the body's ability to sense itself in
relationship to other people and objects.[43] When damaged or
impaired, our sense of space, nearness and distance, becomes
distorted. In addition to veterans experiencing flashbacks, reliving
traumatic experiences in the war or re-witnessing a horrific event,
another PTSD characteristic is hyper-vigilance, the state of constant
alertness although the enemy terrorist or potential IED is spatially
thousands of miles away. There are no specific studies investigating
the vermis' relationship to abnormal states of hyper-vigilance,
however, personal stories by vets reveal repeated patterns of a loss
in their spatial reasoning and raises the serious question of DU poisoning.

In one of the most important peer-reviewed summaries on depleted and
natural uraniums' toxicological effects compiled by Duke University
and published in the Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health,
uranium poisoning induces electrophysiological changes in the brain's
hippocampus, the region of the brain partly responsible for
memory.[44] When the hippocampus is damaged or undergoes biomolecular
stress, one condition that arises can be amnesia; however, only new
memories prior to injury are forgotten. Earlier memories nevertheless remain.

Retired Air Force Captain Joyce Riley is the spokesperson for the
American Gulf War Veterans' Association. A career nurse, she flew
missions in support of Operation Desert Storm. During an interview
Riley shared her data after interviewing 8 veterans serving prison
terms for killing members of their families. One vet serving a life
sentence in Florida beheaded his wife and sliced up his 13 year old
son. According to Riley's investigations, this vet, as well as the
others, were respected citizens in their communities and there was no
indication they did not love their wives and children dearly. She
suspects the excessive number of mood altering and antipsychotic
medications, especially when given in combination with a frequently
prescribed statin drug results in transient periods of amnesia. What
astonished Riley after her interviews is that each spoke about a
period of 3-6 hours where they have no memory of the
event.[45] While over medication can be one likely cause for the
amnesiac states experienced by these veterans, DU effects upon their
hippocampus could equally have contributed to their loss of memory at
the time of the crimes.

A recent article in the Navy Times, "Study Links Weak Immune Systems,
PTSD," notes that military personnel diagnosed with PTSD have more
compromised immune systems and are "less likely to turn on immune
system genes."[46] The researchers at the University of Michigan
Department of Epidemiology simply assume it is a psychological
condition that is giving rise to certain changes in biological
function, whereas human studies in DU poisoning show consistently
genetic mutagenesis associated with immune function impairment. This
can lead to such conditions as flu-like illnesses, visual impairment,
brain inflammation and hepatic disorders that are also appearing and
more and more frequently in vets. This list of symptoms are the same
biomarkers the Michigan scientists found among those vets enrolled in
their study.

No End in Sight
As long as the White House continues to wage its wars, more
radioactive munitions will be utilized and more soil, water, villages
and cities will be doomed in a sea of toxicity for many hundreds of
years. And as long as the economy remains cowering like a wounded
animal, the ready, willing and brave American men and women will
embrace the promises and honors bestowed in serving the traditions of
the armed forces esteemed past. But that that time when the
government truly served and protected the nation's esteemed military
legacy is history.

Today the agenda is to "take the finest and turn them into wretched,
sick, pathetic human beings that have to beg for every single thing
that they can get,' says former Captain Joyce Riley. "They go in the
strongest and they come out absolutely made to grovel on their knees
to get anything from the federal government."[47]

Clearly there is a sadistic irony that we are implementing on our
troops. We are asking our brave men and women in the United States,
whether in the reserve, National Guard, or enlisted troops, to serve
in dangerous environments including Afghanistan and Iraq. While
there, we allow them to be exposed to biological and chemical agents,
experimental vaccines, environmental toxins –ranging from the
byproducts of air pollutants released from burning oil wells to
depleted uranium –and then, we bring them home, and not only refuse
to properly thank or treat them, but even go so far as to deny that
their illnesses even exist. For 19.5 years we have denied that Gulf
War Syndrome exists. As a result, many of our veterans have gone
bankrupt because their conditions are not covered under any
government programs for assistance. We are not referring to the rare
case; we are referring to hundreds of thousands of human beings.

We achieve high marks for getting our men and women into battle;
indeed, we are skilled at entering the conflict. We have failing
grades getting them out and treating them for conditions that they
suffer on our behalf. It is time to change and improve our
grades. One suggestion would be that upon returning to the United
States, veterans would stay at small 'Re-entry' centers, established
and located in every state. These would be similar to those used to
in combat zone, where our veterans would have access to hospitals,
counseling centers, quality meals and living quarters. They would
have to spend at least two weeks or more, not just going through
various stress tests, but authentic, psychological behavioral
modification to help them make a transition from a deadly combat zone
mindset to a civilian, peaceful mindset. It would be, essentially, a
half-way house to help our men and women transition back into
society. For individuals suffering from physical or psychological
conditions, or a combination of both, they would then be sent to
private or public facilities paid for by the government so they do
not fall into the current giant vortex and end up either depressed,
homeless, living in a tent, sleeping under bridges, going to prison
for hitting their spouses, contemplating suicide, and then being forgotten.

The American public has a responsibility to care for these
people. Whether you are for or against the war is irrelevant. You
must be for the people completely who risk their lives to defend
us. We are not doing that, we have not done that, we have failed
miserably. It is time to rectify this, to approach Republicans and
Democrats alike, and demand that our veterans receive the care and
appreciation they have valiantly earned. This is everyone's
problem. They have protected us. It is now our duty to step up and
protect them.
--

Richard Gale is the Executive Producer of the Progressive Radio
Network and a former Senior Research Analyst in the biotech and
genomic industries. Gary Null, PhD is the host of the nation's
longest running public radio program on nutrition and natural health
and a multi-award-winning director of progressive documentary films,
including Prescription for Disaster (2008)and Gulf War Syndrome:
Killing Our Own (2007).
--

NOTES
[1] Edwards, Jim. "Military Use of Antipsychotics Threatens New
Headaches for AstraZeneca, J&J" CBS Business Network (BNET). March 25, 2010
[2] Thomas JL, Wilk TJ, Riviere LA, McCurk D, Castro CA, Hoge CW.
"Prevalence of Mental health Problems and Functional Impairment Among
Active Component and National Guard Soldiers 3 and 12 Months
Following Combat in Iraq." Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2010; 67 (6): 614-623
[3] Coleman, Penny. "The Tragedy of Our 'Disappeared' Veterans."
Alternet.org August 12, 2009. http://www.alternet.org/story/140828/
[4] Eisenberg, Nora. "Leaked Internal Memo Shows How VA
Systematically Screws Over Wounded Vets to Maintain Performance
Grades." Alternet.org June 20, 2010 http://www.alternet.org/story/147388/
[5] VA Office of Public Health and Environmental Hazards. "Analysis
of VA Health Care Utilization among Operation Enduring Freedom and
Operation Iraqi Freedom Veterans." February 2010.
[6] Bandzul, Thomas "Rehabilitating Wounded Veterans to Enable Them
to Improve Their Health Outcomes" (powerpoint presentation). Veterans
for Common Sense. April 10, 2010
[7] Sandels, Alexandra. "US Iraq and Afghanistan War Casualties Top
500,000" Los Angeles Times. June 24, 2010
[8] VA Office of Public Health and Environmental Hazards. Op cit.
[9] Bandzul, Thomas, Op cit.
[10] Houston, Michael "New Veterans Face Record Unemployment" Iraq
and Afghanistan Veterans of America. April 2, 2010.
[11] House Committee on Veterans' Affairs. "Our Nation's Veterans:
Stopping Suicides and Ending Homelessness" press release. November 16, 2007
[12] National Coalition for the Homeless. "Homeless Veterans" report.
September 2009 http://www.nchv.org and http://www.nchv.org/background.cfm
[13] Ibid.
[14] Foster, Roy. Stand Down Organization.
http://www.standown.org/homeless.html
[15] Atkinson MP, Wein LM. "A Dynamic Model for Posttraumatic Stress
Disorder Among US Troops in Operation Iraqi Freedom" Management
Science. September 2009. http://masci.journal.informs.org/cgi/reprint/55/9/iv
[16] National Coalition for the Homeless. Op cit.
[17] James, Susan. "Traumatized Female Vets Face Uphill Battle" ABC
News March 2, 2010
[18] Glanz, Aaron. "Domestic disputes leave Iraq veterans homeless."
National News. June 30, 2007.
[19] Swanson, David. "The Crematorium of Empires." Opednews.com July 15, 2010.
[20] Zoroya Gregg. "Army Reports Record Number of Suicides for
June" USA Today. July 16, 2010
[21] Clifton, Eli. "US Suicide Rate Surged Among Veterans." IPS
News. January 13, 2010.
[22] Bandzul, Thomas Op cit.
[23] "Military Faces Mental Crisis" USA Today. January 17, 2007.
[24] Breggin, Peter. "Driving Soldiers Crazy with Psychiatric Meds."
Huffington Post. May 15, 2010.
[25] Edwards, Jim. Op. cit
[26] Ilgen MA, Conner KR, Valenstein M, Austin K, Blow FC. "Violent
and Nonviolent Suicide in Veterans with Substance Use Disorders"
Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, 71 (4), 473-479
[27] Coleman, Penny. Op. cit
[28] "Cancer in Iraq vets raises possibility of toxic
exposure" Arizona Daily Star November 2, 2007
[29] King, Tim "Israel's Declining Sperm Quality Tied to Depleted
Uranium Exposure." Countercurrents.org. April. 15, 2010
[30] Interview with Dr. Doug Rokke. "A special investigation on Gulf
War Syndrome". The Gary Null Show. The Progressive Radio Network.
Broadcast April 15, 2010
[31] Ibid.
[32] Ibid.
[33] Stuart, RB. "Veterans' Rare Cancers Raise Fears of Toxic
Battlefields" New York Sun. August 6,
2007.
http://www.nysun.com/national/vetearans-rare-cancers-raise-fears-of-toxic/59915
[34] Bollyn, Christopher. "How Depleted Uranium Particles Damage
Human Health." January 7,
2005 http://www.bollyn.com/depleted-uranium#article_11776
[35] US Department of State. "Fact Sheet on the Health Effects of
Depleted Uranium"
http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/state/1007/dufactsheet.htm.
[36] "Depleted Uranium Weapons in Afghanistan" July 22, 2009,
http://www.wise-uranium.org/dissaf.html.
[37] Interview with Dr. Doug Rokke. Op Cit.
[38] BBC News. "Afghans' Uranium Levels Spark Alert"
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/science/nature/3050317.stm
[39] Bollyn, Christopher. "Depleted Uranium Blamed for Cancer
Clusters Among Iraq War Vets" Nuclear Age Peace Foundation. August
15, 2004. http://www.wagingpeace.org.
[40] Koehler, Robert. "Silent Genocide" Information Clearing House.
March 25, 2004.
[41] King, Tim, Op cit
[42]Nichols, Bob. "PTSD, infertility and other consequences of war,"
Veterans Today. April 27, 2010.
[43] Sandyk R, Kay SR, Merriam AE. "Atrophy of the cerebellar vermis:
relevance to the symptoms of schizophrenia" Int'l Journal
Neuroscience. 1991 April 57 (3-4): 205-12.
[44] Craft ES, Abu-Qare AW, Flaherty MM, Garofolo MC, Rincavage HL,
Abou-Donia MB. "Depleted and natural uranium: chemistry and
toxicological effects," J Toxicol and Environ Health. 7:297-317, 2004
[45] Interview with Capt. Joyce Riley. "A special investigation on
Gulf War Syndrome". The Gary Null Show. The Progressive Radio
Network. Broadcast April 15, 2010
[46] Kennedy, Kelly. "Study Links Weak Immune Systems, PTSD," Navy
Times. May 20, 2010.
[47] Interview with Capt. Joyce Riley.

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