Iraq veteran Eddie Falcon speaks out against the war

Iraq veteran Eddie Falcon speaks out against the war

by KALW News, sfgate.com
May 25th 2011 5:14 PM

* * *

EDDIE FALCON: I was pretty young. I didn't think I understood, really, how things worked in the world.

SHANI AVIRAM: Eddie Falcon is an Air Force veteran who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. He enlisted when he was 18, after growing up east of Los Angeles, in a community plagued by drugs, gangs, and crime.

FALCON: I enlisted in the first place to get money for school and to get out of, you know, like harsh socio-economic situations that I was living in. So, what people call that is the "economic draft."

Growing up in West Covina and La Puente in the Southern California desert, he says he had only two paths to choose from.

FALCON: La Puente is a really crazy neighborhood to live in. There's a lot of gang violence around. It's a really tough area. And then over when I was living in the desert there was nothing to do there but drugs. So those were just, like, my two options: get addicted to drugs or keep running around with gangs.

In 2001, he enlisted in the Air Force with the goal of using the GI Bill to pay for college. But, he found that he didn't quite fit in. He was one of the few Mexican-Americans in a mostly white unit.

FALCON: A lot of people did say things like "beaner" or "spik" or something like that, but there's also really subtle things that you don't notice that I'm starting to notice now. They were always surprised at how smart I was. "I didn't expect you to know that" or "you're a smart Mexican." Like stupid s*** like that.

Falcon served as a Loadmaster Journeyman on a C-130 aircraft. His job was to load cargo and passengers - passengers who were sometimes prisoners.

FALCON: You would take all the seats out of the plane...

...in order to make room to lay the Iraqi detainees on the floor like cargo. According to Falcon, the procedure was to handcuff and blindfold the prisoners...

FALCON: ...and then you put them on the floor, and then you put them in rows of five and then strap them down to the floor with cargo straps. I mean, there's not really too much. They wanted you to do all this other stuff too. Like, inside the kit there's like these gloves so like ... because they wanted you to feel disgusted by them, by the people or something, and people will tell you that they'll piss or they'll s*** or stuff like that, so they want you to put like a tarp under them. I think the kit even comes with diapers. It's, like, really weird. It comes with a face mask and like all this stuff. I didn't use any of it and I never had any prisoners s*** or piss any where or spit at me or nothing like that. They were all really scared that they were there.

The "detainee runs," as Falcon calls them, left a lasting impact on him.

FALCON: When I was there in Iraq and did the prisoner runs, people were blindfolded and when I took the blindfolds off of them and they saw me, they actually thought I was Iraqi.

Falcon deployed four times to Iraq and Afghanistan. As the wars went on and violence escalated, he started questioning the military operation.

FALCON: It just didn't make sense to me that we were sending so many people there. And like so many people were dying and it just didn't seem justified for what happened. Like having to tie people down to the floor of the plane and take them to prisons and like getting shot at and running from rockets. That s*** gets old, you know?

In 2005, after he was discharged, Falcon enrolled at San Francisco City College. He started sharing his military stories with student groups to raise awareness of what's going on overseas. That's when he first met members of Iraq Veterans Against the War.

It's March 19, the 8th anniversary of the Iraq War, and ANSWER Coalition is holding its annual march. It's pouring rain, but the energy on the streets is high. Falcon has been coming every year since he left the military.

FALCON: One time I was out of town, I was in Europe, but I still was in Paris on a corner holding a "U.S. Out of Iraq" sign by myself.

Falcon is now the acting president of Iraq Veterans Against the Wars' Bay Area chapter.

Only a handful of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans have come out to march today. They explain that many veterans feel discouraged by the government's lack of response to their issues. Others are still dealing with the psychological scars of war, like PTSD, and just want to put their war experiences behind them. But for Falcon, sharing his story - making connections with people - is a way of dealing with his past.

FALCON: Sharing my story with other people and I hear how other people's stories were in the military or whatever, and like it starts to bring out other things for me too, so I think it's good to keep talking and to keep sharing your stories with people because that's how you end up making connections and really analyzing things and finding out you got more in common with people than you thought

Some try to portray the anti-war movement as anti-American. But, Falcon says, protesting a war doesn't mean you hate your country.

FALCON: It's not that I don't like America. I love America. That's why I live here. I grew up here. I'm culturally American. We have really cool s***. Everybody likes our music, everybody likes our style. We're cool. I like us. And I'm willing to defend the people who are around me against any outsiders.

Falcon is currently a student at UC Berkeley using the GI Bill to pay for his education. Despite his views of the military and government policies, he isn't conflicted about using state money to pay for college.

FALCON: I think it makes even more sense. Whatever, people can say whatever they want. I feel like the government has taken away a lot of things away from me. It's taken away my youth, it's taken away my mental stability, the state has taken away members of my family. So I'll take some money from them to get by and do what I gotta do. I got no problem with that. It's the least that they can f***ing do for me is pay me to go to school after all the s*** that they put me through.

It has been six years since Falcon left the military, and he says he is still dealing with the aftermath of his service. That's why he is sharing his own story with as many people as he can.

FALCON: I want to talk to kids because kids are going into the military from high school. The people who really need my help or need to hear this are people who are going to go through the same struggle that I went through. Like, people over here, college students aren't going to go through the same things I went through. They're going to go through something different. So, I want to talk to kids that are going to be enlisted.

Falcon's voice of opposition might be rare among new veterans, but his need to heal is shared by many of them. Talking about his experiences has been Falcon's way of doing so.

For Mills College, I'm Shani Aviram

Shani Aviram is a student reporter at Mills College in Oakland.



Original Page: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/kalw/detail?entry_id=89749

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Army Seeks Recruits in Social Media

Army Seeks Recruits in Social Media

by STUART ELLIOTT, nytimes.com
May 24th 2011

WHEN ads for the Army used the theme “Today’s Army wants to join you,” a joker rewrote it this way: “Today’s Army wants to join you. At your place.” These days, the Army is getting social — if not quite that sociable — as potential recruits increasingly spend time with social media like Facebook, Flickr, Twitter and YouTube.

The next phase of the Army’s recruitment ad campaign keeps a theme, “Army strong,” that was introduced in 2006 and adds a focus on the Army uniform as a “symbol of strength” as well as symbolic of qualities like commitment, achievement and leadership.

The direction of the campaign is typified in a line recited in commercials by the voice-over announcer, the actor Gary Sinise, who talks about the significance of the uniform before concluding, “Try it on at goarmy.com.”

The recital of the Web address underlines the concentration on digital media for the campaign, although there are traditional elements like television spots.

“We’re working hard to increase our social media,” said Lt. Gen. Benjamin C. Freakley, because “we fully recognize that young people TiVo over commercials or are multitasking on their smartphones when the commercials come on.” General Freakley is commanding general of both the Army Accessions Command, which oversees recruitment, and Fort Knox, Ky.

“Since the late ’80s, 9 percent of the population is propensed toward military service,” General Freakley said, compared with about a third in the 1970s. As a result, he added, “we have to reach out in forms like we’re discussing to get them to want to know more, to join us in social media and extend the dialog.”

The campaign continues previous elements like video clips, blogs and a microsite, armystrongstories.com, that are intended to connect would-be soldiers “with real soldiers,” General Freakley said.

At this time of year, potential recruits — men and women ages 17 to 24 — are also spending time at the movies, which has led the Army to its first sponsorship deal with a Hollywood film. The film, “X-Men: First Class,” will be released on June 3 by 20th Century Fox.

On the Army Facebook page (facebook.com/goarmy), visitors are invited to “view exclusive content from the upcoming movie” as well as watch a trailer for the film and a commercial that promotes the Army by comparing the experience to becoming an X-man.

The movie “is about young people who are ordinary doing extraordinary things,” General Freakley said. “Ordinary people come in the Army and do extraordinary things every day.”

That said, he took note of the differences between the two: “Soldiering is real. ‘X-Men’ is for Hollywood.”

Clifford E. Marks, who helped broker the sponsorship in his capacity as president for sales and marketing at National CineMedia in New York, said the deal represented “the big screen and the small screen working together” in that the promotional content can also be watched on Web sites that are part of a National CineMedia network like rottentomatoes.com and traileraddict.com.

The Army is also running the commercials featuring the voice of Mr. Sinise in National CineMedia movie theaters, which include those owned by AMC, Cinemark and Regal.

Mr. Marks brought the sponsorship proposal to Universal McCann, one of seven agencies working on the Army account that belong to the McCann Worldgroup unit of the Interpublic Group of Companies. The others include McCann Erickson Worldwide, MRM Worldwide and Weber Shandwick.

(Four other agencies working on the assignment are independent, among them Gravity Media and Carol H. Williams Advertising.)

The agencies were hired by the Army in late 2005 and rehired on March 31 for an additional year with four one-year renewal options.

“There’s a lot of ways to talk about the kind of strength we mean when we say ‘Army strong,’ ” said Craig Markus, executive vice president and executive creative director at McCann Erickson Worldwide.

“The human truth is, we all react when we see a soldier wearing a uniform,” Mr. Markus said. “It means a lot to us, and it means a lot to them.”

“With symbol of strength, it’s about all these other things” that the uniform stands for, he said, including “a key, a passport, an all-access pass, a family tree, a sense of brotherhood and sisterhood, the power of the team, how people like you, yet different from you, are all moving in the same direction.”

Jason Culbertson, creative director at MRM, said the digital aspects of the campaign “allow people to have a direct line of communication with those who wear the uniform,” and such dialog helps potential recruits “understand what it means to be in the Army, to be ‘Army strong.’ ”

As more of the campaign appears in social and other digital media, the spending for ads in major media has declined, according to the Kantar Media unit of WPP, to $41.8 million last year from $168.7 million in 2007.

Those at the Army Accessions Command “are novices at using Twitter,” General Freakley said, in that only a bit more than 3,030 Twitter users follow the command’s account at @GoArmy. (The main Army account, with the handle @USArmy, has more than 74,270 followers.)

Describing rappelling and other activities that recruits go through in boot camp, the general said: “It’s exciting stuff. Would I love to have those young people tweeting about that.”

Why can’t they? Well, “in the first three weeks of basic training, we take away your smartphone,” General Freakley said. “You don’t even get mail from home.”

Those policies may one day be changed, he said, in that “as digital natives join us” in larger numbers, “we’ll get the balance of that right.”

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: May 25, 2011

An earlier version of this column misspelled the surname of an executive at McCann Erickson Worldwide. He is Craig Markus, not Marcus.



Original Page: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/25/business/media/25adco.html?_r=2∣=tw-nytimes&seid=auto

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Troop morale in Afghanistan plummets

Hawaii News Now - KGMB and KHNL HomeTroop morale in Afghanistan plummets, report says

hawaiinewsnow.com | May 19th 2011 10:33 AM By PAULINE JELINEK
Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) - As fighting and casualties in Afghanistan's war reached an all-time high, U.S. soldiers and Marines there reported plunging morale and the highest rates of mental health problems in five years.

The grim statistics in a new Army report released Thursday dramatize the psychological cost of a military campaign that U.S. commanders and officials say has reversed the momentum of the Taliban insurgency.

Military doctors said the findings from a battlefield survey taken last summer were no surprise given the dramatic increase in combat, which troops reported was at its most intense level since officials began doing mental health analyses in 2003.

"There are few stresses on the human psyche as extreme as the exposure to combat and seeing what war can do," Lt. Gen. Eric B. Schoomaker, the Army surgeon general, said at a Pentagon news conference.

Some 70 percent to 80 percent of troops surveyed for the report said they had seen a buddy killed, roughly half of soldiers and 56 percent of Marines said they'd killed an enemy fighter, and about two-thirds of troops said that a roadside bomb - the No. 1 weapon of insurgents - had gone off within 55 yards of them.

Most of those statistics were significantly higher than what troops said they experienced in the previous year in Afghanistan as well as during the 2007 surge of extra troops into the Iraq war, the report said.

Some 20 percent of troops said they had suffered a psychological problem such as anxiety, severe stress or depression. Considering the intense levels of combat they are seeing, that number may actually be small, said Col. Paul Bliese, who led the last three survey teams to the battlefield, in 2007, 2009 and 2010.

"We would have expected to see a much larger increase in the mental health symptoms and a much larger decrease in morale ... based on these incredibly high rates of exposure" to traumatic combat events, Bliese said. The report's authors took the statistics as evidence that the force is resilient, a trait the military has been working to develop in troops.

The report is a snapshot of the health of the forces in Afghanistan last year, drawn by a mental health team that polled more than 900 soldiers, 335 Marines and 85 mental health workers on the battlefield in July and August, as troops surged into the country under the Obama administration's new strategy for fighting the insurgency.

President Barack Obama sent an additional 30,000 troops there last year to build the force to the current 100,000. Commanders and administration officials say the push has weakened the Taliban, and a limited troop withdrawal is planned by this July.

Troops said they were receiving better training in suicide prevention and other coping strategies and that mental health treatment was easier to get at the warfront.

"I do believe we're making progress," Schoomaker said.

But a particularly stubborn problem for the Army persisted: About 50 percent of soldiers said they believe getting professional help for their problems would make them appear weak. Defense officials have gone to great lengths over a number of years to encourage troops to get treatment, and Marines made some headway in reducing the perceived stigma, according to the report.

Americans "have not solved this problem in the civilian world," said Dr. Robert Heinssen, a research director at the National Institute of Mental Health.

The military says it boosted the mental health staff in the Afghanistan to 1 for every 646 soldiers last year, compared with 1 for every 1,123 in 2009.

"War affects everyone ... and most are able to deal with their experiences and move on to stable, productive lives," said Joe Davis, a spokesman for the Veterans of Foreign Wars. "Key to coping with those experiences is available care, access to care and knowing that you are not alone."

Some of the report's highlights:

- Only 46.5 percent of soldiers said their morale was medium, high or very high last year, compared with 65.7 percent in 2005. For Marines, it was only 58.6 percent last year compared with 70.4 percent when they were surveyed in 2006 in Iraq. (The report compares numbers of the Marine to their time in Iraq because they were not in Afghanistan in significant numbers before the surge.)

- Nearly 80 percent of Marines and soldiers said they'd seen a member of their unit killed or wounded, compared with roughly half who said that in the earlier years.

- Nearly 1 in 5 soldiers and Marines reported psychological problems such as acute stress, depression or anxiety last year, compared with 1 in 10 among soldiers in 2005 and about 1 in 8 among Marines in 2006.

- The use of drugs for mental health or combat stress was lower among soldiers and Marines than among civilians in the same age group.

___

Online:

The report: http://www.armymedicine.army.mil/reports/mhat/mhat_vii/J_MHAT_7.pdf

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.



Original Page: http://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/story/14676683/troop-morale-in-afghanistan-plummets-report-says?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

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Army Chief Faults Unfit Recruits for Injuries

Army Chief Faults Unfit Recruits for Injuries

foxnews.com | May 19th 2011

U.S. Army recruits have had poorer diets and are less fit than past generations, making them more prone to injury from heavier loads lugged in combat, its top general told a Senate panel on Wednesday.

"It's really the generation of Americans that have this problem," said Chief of Staff General Martin Dempsey. "But it's exacerbated by the load we ask them to bear."

He singled out poor eating habits plus carbonated drinks as a contributing factor to "musculoskeletal" injuries that have been a leading cause of U.S. medical evacuations from Iraq and Afghanistan. Such injuries typically include fractures, tendinitis and connective tissue disorders but not combat injuries.

Dempsey was responding to concerns from U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Daniel Inouye, a World War Two veteran who won the Medal of Honor, the highest U.S. decoration for military valor.

Inouye, 86, fretted that individual U.S. troops' combat gear was pushing toward 125 pounds compared with, as he put it, the no-frills load he carried as an infantryman.

"I feel for them because I believe my combat kit never exceeded 20 pounds, including my rifle, boots and helmet, grenades and all the ammo I carried," the Hawaii Democrat said at a hearing on the Army's fiscal 2012 budget request at the Appropriations Defense subcommittee he chairs.
"I hope we can lighten the load and lighten the injuries," added Inouye, who lost his right arm in a battle against German forces.

Dempsey said troops' heavy combat load was a "constant issue on our minds" as the Army tried to lighten everything from boots to helmets to rifle opticals. It is also studying squad-level changes that could shift more of the batteries being lugged to automotive "mules" and robotic devices, he said.

But part of the problem "is that young men and women coming in the army today are not as fit or as skeletally sound as you were," he told Inouye.

"Even in basic training, before we load the soldier with the gear that eventually they will have to learn to bear, we have these same kind of musculoskeletal injuries," Dempsey said.

The Army did not immediately respond to a request for details of a typical combat load.

Inouye said musculoskeletal injuries had risen ten-fold in the last four years and the cost of related disability benefits was topping $500 million a year.



Original Page: http://www.foxnews.com/health/2011/05/19/army-chief-faults-unfit-recruits-injuries/

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Military Rape: Rampant, Ignored

Military Rape: Rampant, Ignored

by Nan Levinson, inthesetimes.com
May 18th 2011

A lawsuit against Robert Gates and Donald Rumsfeld and new legislation try to stop an epidemic.



When Panayiota Bertzikis tried to tell her commanding officers that she had been raped in May 2006 by a shipmate four months into her tour at the Burlington, Vt., Coast Guard Station, they discouraged her from talking to an Equal Opportunity officer, barred her from seeing a civilian therapist, ignored a written confession from her attacker and browbeat her into silence.

But thanks to victims-turned-activists like Bertzikis who are pulling military sexual trauma (MST) out from the shadows, it’s become harder for the U.S. military to ignore the problem. In February, Bertzikis, along with 14 other women and two men, filed a lawsuit (Cioca et al. v. Rumsfeld and Gates) charging Defense Secretary Robert Gates and his predecessor, Donald Rumsfeld, with mishandling their sexual assault cases.

MST is an epidemic. Nearly a quarter of women serving in combat areas say they have been sexually assaulted by fellow soldiers. But everyone agrees that reliable statistics don’t exist. The Pentagon, which recorded 3,158 cases of sexual assault in 2010, estimates that only about 14 percent of all incidents are reported.

Back in 2006, when Bertzikis went online after her rape to look for help, she found almost no information. But when she blogged about her experience, stories similar to hers poured in. In response, Bertzikis—who left the Coast Guard in 2007 and is now 29—set up the Military Rape Crisis Center in Cambridge, Mass. She estimates the organization has provided 6,200 people with counseling, legal advocacy and case management—along with the assurance that they are not alone.

Susan Burke, the attorney in Washington, D.C., who initiated the lawsuit, says, “The military is woefully mishandling these cases all the time.” Intending to file what she calls “a reform lawsuit,” she sought plaintiffs through advocacy groups, including the Crisis Center.

Their allegations are not easy reading. The plaintiffs report being spat on, grabbed at, masturbated over, stripped, drugged, stalked, beaten and raped. One rapist took photos; another videotaped the event. (That tape was later used as evidence against the victim because, she was told, it showed that she “did not struggle enough.”) When victims’ reported the abuse, their commanders ignored them, insisted the sex was consensual or a result of drinking, and ordered them not to pursue action because it would ruin their attacker’s career. In a world where rank is everything, those raped were generally low-level, while their rapists were often their superiors. The plaintiffs report being forced to continue working under their attackers’ supervision or to live nearby.

By the Pentagon’s reckoning, fewer than 21 percent of reported cases make it to court martial and only a little over half of those result in convictions. In the ultimate insult, as a result of their trauma, many MST victims are deemed unfit to serve and were kicked out of the military. “Every case I get,” says Bertzikis, “they blame the victim, the perpetrator never gets punished and the survivor is the one who ends up losing her career.”

Because the military investigates itself, there is little incentive to deal with a problem that makes everyone look bad. In civilian life, of course, most rapes also go unreported and most assailants don’t spend time in prison. But because enlistees cannot just walk away, the aftermath of an unpunished assault in the military can often be more traumatic for victims. Commanders have control over an enlistee’s career, living situation, safety, medical care and community standing. When a rape survivor is forced to confront her attacker daily, Bertzikis says, “The only options out are going AWOL or suicide.”

It may not be possible for civilians to change military culture, but they can create oversight and accountability. In April, a pair of legislators re-introduced a bill to do just that. The Defense STRONG Act, co-sponsored by Reps. Niki Tsongas (D-Mass.) and Mike Turner (R-Ohio), would guarantee access to a military lawyer, allow victims to transfer from where the assault happened, ensure confidentiality of communication with advocates and counselors, give teeth to the Pentagon’s Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office and institute effective rape prevention training, which now seems to focus on telling service women how to avoid getting raped. The Holley Lynn James Act, written by Rep. Bruce Braley (D-Iowa) with the help of SWAN, would go further by creating a system of independent oversight; MST cases would go to military court automatically.

The bills’ prospects remain uncertain, but the lawsuit, along with some horrific high-profile cases, has focused attention on pervasive sexual trauma in the U.S. military. “There’s a groundswell,” says Anu Bhagwati, executive director of the advocacy group Service Women’s Action Network and a former Marine captain. “The epidemic is widely known, so Congress can’t afford to ignore it any longer.”



Original Page: http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/7317/military_rape_rampant_ignored

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U.S. Troops' Mental Health Continues to Erode

U.S. Troops' Mental Health Continues to Erode

by Mark Thompson Thursday, battleland.blogs.time.com
May 19th 2011 9:41 AM

U.S. troops' minds are going to hell in a hand basket, according to the latest comprehensive survey of the mental health of U.S. soldiers and Marines waging war in Afghanistan.

"Psychologically, it is hard to imagine that these elevated levels of combat are not taking a toll on Soldiers," the study concludes. "Reports of acute stress symptoms among Soldiers surveyed in 2010 have significantly increased and reports of individual morale have significantly decreased relative to 2009."

The key findings in the study released Thursday morning are depressingly blunt. Here's a sampling of the conclusions from the 112-page report:

Among Army soldiers:

   -- Morale: Significant decline in reports of individual morale relative to 2009 and 2005.

    -- Psychological Problems: Acute stress rates significantly higher than rates from 2009 and 2005. Rates of combined psychological problem measure (acute stress, depression, or anxiety) significantly higher than 2005.

    -- Combat Exposures: Dramatic increase in combat exposure relative to 2009. Higher combat levels reported than in any previous MHAT to either OEF or OIF. [OEF is Operation Enduring Freedom -- the war in Afghanistan; OIF is Operation Iraqi Freedom -- the war in Iraq.]

    -- Multiple Deployments: More multiple deployers than in 2009. Soldiers on their third/fourth deployment report significantly more psychological problems and use of mental health medications than Soldiers on their first or second deployment.

 Among Marines:

   -- Individual Morale:  ...the percent of Marines reporting high or very high unit morale is significantly lower in 2010 than in 2006 or 2007.

    -- Psychological Problems: The rate of Marines reporting psychological problems (acute stress symptoms, depression or anxiety) is significantly higher in 2010 than in 2006 or 2007.

    -- Combat Exposures: Marines report dramatic increase in combat exposure relative to 2006 and 2007 in OIF.

    -- Sleep Problems: Significant increase in the percentage of Marines who report high or very high concern about not getting enough sleep. Sleep disruption primarily due to poor sleep environment (e.g., too hot, noisy, etc.).

    -- Multiple Deployments: Marines on three or more deployments report lower morale than those on first deployment. Multiple deploying Marines also show increased psychological problems.

All this bad news comes despite reported improvements in unit cohesion, leadership, and reduced barriers to getting mental-health care in theater.

Bottom line: the Pentagon's mental-health workers are fighting a valiant war for the minds of the nation's soldiers and Marines, but they continue to lose ground.

The Army-led seventh Mental Health Advisory Team surveyed combat soldiers and Marines (as opposed to those in support units) in both Afghanistan last summer to get an accurate picture of how they're faring, mentally, after nearly a decade of war. They surveyed 911 (a coincidence, I'm sure) and 335 Marines. It's a pretty impressive feat; in past conflicts such studies generally were conducted among soldiers after they returned home. It's known as "MHAT-7" around the Pentagon.

Other interesting findings:

-- 11.4% of soldiers were taking medication for sleep problems, up slightly from 2009's 9.6%. But 60% of those taking sleep meds also were drinking at least one highly-caffeinated energy drink a day. "It is difficult to determine if caffeine consumption is the cause or the effect," the study reported.

-- 3.7% of soldiers were taking medication for mental-health problems. That's up from 2.6% in 2009, an increase of 42%, although the report said the hike was "non-significant" and "well-within the National estimates for this demographic group."

-- IED blasts can cause PTSD. "Over 50% of the Soldiers reported being dismounted and within 50 meters of a blast at least once," the survey found. "This number is almost certainly an underestimate of the percent of Soldiers that will experience exposure to blast in a full 12 month tour."

-- In Iraq in 2006 -- the most violent period of that war -- 12.7% of Marines surveyed said they had killed an enemy combatant. Last year in Afghanistan, the number was 56.1%

The Army quoted many of the soldiers it surveyed. Grunts have griped since the days of the Roman Empire, of course. But after a decade of fighting, some of the recurring comments about poor command -- which can aggravate, if not trigger, mental-health ills -- are distressing. It certainly offers an unvarnished look inside a war that you can't get at a Pentagon briefing or Capitol Hill hearing. It's also more candid than reporters get when talking to troops; here, they are speaking, more or less, among themselves:

Leaving home station, we didn't have a clue what we were going to do here. Mission set has changed 6 times since in country ... be flexible, but not THAT flexible! We are mission jumping constantly.

 Goals/standards are ridiculous ... you can't meet them if they keep changing. Doing the right thing here is wrong."

"There was no guidance from leadership on the goal of specific missions.

 Role? I don't know if I am a platoon sergeant, squad leader, or team leader ... I still don't know my role and we are58 days out from coming home.

 Info comes down, but we don't have a good understanding of it, but then we have to take it, try to make sense of it, and try to give It to our Joes. I know it doesn't make sense to them.

 We had a large white board in the TOC [tactical operations center] for the purpose of writing down changes to the mission but the NCO wouldn't use it...instead he would keep the changes to himself.

 You never get positive feedback, but you will get an -ss-chewing if you screw up ... They tell you what is not going to work.

 There is no feedback at all from leadership.

 Our platoon sergeant usually tells us that 'You guys are s--t bags for making me look bad.'

 You want to throw 20 people into a 10 man tent and have us live like that for the past 9 months....REALLY.

 Leadership was never NOT breathing down my neck...poor planning on many issues.

 They use any sign of error to belittle you...focus is on failure to make themselves look better. Cruise control once we got here... it is nota problem until it is a catastrophe.

 Nobody advocates for us. They never listen to the experts...they don't listen to the people that know. But I go toe-to-toe with them. I have to serve as the advocate. I get the blame though for everything that could go wrong.

 Leadership is giving us Uunior enlisted] no support. They let themselves be walked all over.

 They challenge us in unrealistic ways ... good idea fairy.

 Leadership isn't teaching you how to fish, but instead they are just giving you a fish.

 They are not engaged and have no concept about what is going on out there. They just don't get involved.

 He [NCO] will send us to work while he stays back and watches TV.

 They dictate methodology, don't innovate, and  don't let others innovate either. Appearance means more than anything.

 There is one solution and it's his solution.

 It's their way or the highway.

 They tell us to do it ourselves all the time...It's frustrating that when we do it ourselves they then come back and get mad at us because we didn't do it their way even though they didn't tell us how they wanted it done.

 All my guys are hurt. No one cares. A guy with fractured foot is still going out on missions.

 We survived a crash and all the NCO wanted to know was when we were going to be back to work.



Original Page: http://battleland.blogs.time.com/2011/05/19/u-s-troops-mental-health-continues-to-erode/

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Strain on forces in the field at a five-year high

Strain on forces in the field at a five-year high

by Gregg Zoroy, usatoday.com

U.S. troops fighting in Afghanistan are experiencing some of the greatest psychological stress and lowest morale in five years of fighting, reports a military study.

"We're an Army that's in uncharted territory here," says Gen. Peter Chiarelli, Army vice chief of staff, who has focused on combat stress. "We have never fought for this long with an all-volunteer force that's 1% of the population."

Mental health strain was most severe among veterans of three or more deployments, with a third of those showing signs of psychological problems defined as either stress, depression or anxiety, the report obtained by USA TODAY says.

The research, based on a survey of soldiers and Marines in 2010, also found that the praise the troops have for their unit sergeants has never been higher as the United States approaches the 10th year of its longest war.

The report says decline in individual morale is significant: 46.5% of troops said they had medium, high or very high morale, compared with 65.7% who said that in 2005. About one in seven soldiers — and one in five Marines — reported high or very high morale.

President Obama ordered a surge of 30,000 troops into Afghanistan last year, bringing the total number to 100,000 troops. He said at the time that withdrawals would begin this July depending on security. The report says soldiers and Marines reported more intense fighting than during the surge in Iraq in 2006-07, with 75%-80% of those in Afghanistan involved in firefights.

Half or more of those surveyed said they had killed the enemy, and 75%-80% described the death or wounding of a buddy. Half also said that an improvised explosive device detonated within 55 yards while they were on foot patrol. The study's researchers also found evidence of physical wear-and-tear with a third of the force experiencing chronic pain.

"I'm not worried about our ability to continue the fight," Chiarelli says. "Folks who are coming home now are going to see that they're not going back for 24 months. And that hasn't been the way it's been for 10 years."

Mental health staffing has doubled in Afghanistan since 2009 and troops report better access to this care, though many are so busy fighting "outside the wire" to seek help, the study says.

"Having therapists forward, we're able to get them to talk to someone right away and intervene," says Kathleen Chard, a psychologist with the Department of Veterans Affairs who trains Army medics. "In as little as two to four sessions we can begin having an impact on these guys and women."

The report noted that the emotional strain, while high, was lower than expected given the severity of combat — evidence of a growing resilience in the force. And confidence in the command skills of squad and platoon leaders has never been higher at close to 50%, up from 38.6% in 2005.

"They have learned to be leaders in a crucible," Chiarelli says. "And their soldiers have seen that."



Original Page: http://www.usatoday.com/news/military/2011-05-08-troops-strain-morale-afghanistan_n.htm

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Soldiers hospitalized for suicidal thoughts increased 7000 percent over pas

Soldiers hospitalized for suicidal thoughts increased 7000 percent over past five years: study

by Nina Mandell, nydailynews.com
May 6th 2011 12:22 PM

The rate of soldiers hospitalized for having suicidal thoughts has soared a staggering 7,000% in the last five years, a new Pentagon report says.

The report, which covers the period from the fourth year troops were in Afghanistan and the third year they were in Iraq, is the latest troubling survey on potential suicides in the military.

* The Army reported last month there in March had been eight reported potential suicides involving soldiers who were not on active duty, and seven potential suicides among active duty soldiers.

* A study released in March found the suicide rate for female soldiers tripled while at war between 2004 and 2009 compared to soldiers who were not overseas.

* Five months ago, another survey found suicides had doubled among National Guard and U.S. Army Reserve soldiers from 65 in 2009 to 145 in 2010.

"Suicide is a symptom of a bigger problem," Gen. Pete Chiarelli, the army's top anti-suicide advocate told Time Magazine.

"It is rarely based on a single factor, but from work, health, finance and relationship problems."

The Pentagon says a new diagnostic code and greater awareness of the problem could be helping to drive the numbers higher.

The Defense Department has focused on improving suicide prevention among its troops who suffer from high rates of mental illness following their returns from war zones.

"Efforts to improve suicide prevention awareness, education and support that is readily available to all members of the Army family continue to be of paramount importance," said Col. Chris Philbrick, deputy director of the Army Health Promotion, Risk Reduction Task Force.

"Informed and engaged leaders at every level help foster a sense of responsibility in soldiers, Army civilians and family members."

"Leaders will reduce the stigma associated with seeking help by promoting positive behavioral health opportunities that include physical, emotional, social, family and spiritual well-being."



Original Page: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/2011/05/06/2011-05-06_soldiers_hospitalized_for_suicidal_thoughts_increased_7000_percent_over_past_fiv.html

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