Sad day when our leaders at the VA have no time for its Vets

John Besignano posted this to us a few minutes ago, but we thought others should see it in order to discuss:

"Recently, I received notice from the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America’s (IAVA) founder Paul Rieckhoff that the Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary (VA), Eric Shinseki, and his staff have declined to meet with the IAVA during their week-long Storm the Hill campaign. Apparently..., this isn’t abnormal - it’s been over 1,000 days since the Secretary of the VA has met with the IAVA.

We veterans of Operation Enduring Freedom, Operation Iraqi Freedom,and Operation New Dawn need to be heard by the people who make decisions affecting our lives. As it stands, it sounds like the VA is not interested in listening to individual veterans or veterans as a collective. This is unfortunate because the IAVA represents all veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan, whether they are a member of the organization or not.

Goals of IAVA like improving employment prospects, access to health care, and access to education benefits help all veterans. As a veteran and an IAVA member, I find it both profoundly disappointing and infuriating that senior leadership of the VA does not have time to meet with an organization whose goals align directly with the mission of the VA.

The VA’s refusal to meet with a large and well-organized veterans group begs the question: If Secretary Shinseki and his staff are too busy to meet with the IAVA, who could possibly be worthy of his time?"

Former Stryker brigade commander poised to lead JBLM

Major General Brown was my Brigade commander when I deployed with 1st Battalion, 24th Infantry in 2004-2005. He is an amazing leader and will do great things at Fort Lewis which really needs help right now.

Army Maj. Gen. Robert Brown, who led Fort Lewis’ second Stryker brigade into combat in Iraq in 2004-05, has been nominated to command Joint Base Lewis-McChord and I Corps, the Pentagon announced Tuesday.
Brown, who is in line to be promoted to lieutenant general, would succeed Lt. Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti, who took command of the base in October 2010 but then deployed to Afghanistan in July to become the No. 2 commander of that war.
The Army had lined up a new job for Scaparrotti upon his return. He has been nominated as director of the Joint Staff, which would have him have him working for the nation’s top military officer, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Martin Dempsey.
Maj. Gen. Lloyd Miles is Lewis-McChord’s acting commander during Scaparrotti’s absence.
Brown is currently commanding the U.S. Army Maneuver Center of Excellence and Fort Benning in Georgia.
He led the 1st Brigade, 25th Infantry Brigade based at Fort Lewis as a colonel. The Army renamed and moved the unit to Germany in 2006.
Brown would lead the largest military installation on the West Coast with more than 40,000 soldiers and airmen. The base has made international headlines during the past week as the home station for Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, the soldier suspected of killing 16 Afghan civilians.
Brown’s new assignment and promotion is subject to confirmation by the U.S. Senate.

Read more here: http://blog.thenewstribune.com/street/2012/03/20/former-stryker-brigade-commander-poised-to-lead-jblm/#storylink=cpy

Afghan farmers at war's epicentre play both sides

ARGHANDAB, May 24 (AFP) - Lush pomegranate orchards provide perfect cover for the Taliban, who have turned what should be the fruit basket of Afghanistan into one of the hottest spots of the long insurgency.

In the past year the crude bombs that are the Taliban's battlefield talisman have been responsible for the deaths of all foreign soldiers patrolling this valley from 13 bases on each side of the Arghandab River, the US military said.

Arghandab, 20 kilometres (12 miles) from Kandahar city, capital of the eponymous province in southern Afghanistan that the insurgents regard as their fiefdom, is at the epicentre of a war well into its ninth year.

The district produces half the 100,000 tonnes of pomegranates grown in Afghanistan each year, but is better known for the harvest of IEDs, or improvised explosive devices, that seem as thickly seeded as the fruit trees.

American troopers on patrol around the villages near Forward Operating Base (FOB) Arghandab point to culverts along canals irrigating the orchards as favourite corners for Taliban ambushes.

An explosion across the river to the east was "probably an IED," said one.

"Someone might have stepped on it. Or it could have been a controlled detonation," he said. "Either way, we're finding them."

Almost 60 percent of the more than 200 foreign troop deaths in Afghanistan this year were caused by IEDs, or improvised explosive devices, the independent icasualties.org website says.

In Arghandab, a village school has become a proxy battleground between the Taliban and pro-government forces, said US Army Sergeant Stephen Decatur, as he described last month's find of "nine medium-to-small, 20-50 pound jugs of home-made bombs planted around the school yard".


"In January, over the course of 10 days, they found hundreds and hundreds of pounds of explosives and IEDS," he said, adding that some of the bombs contained up to 300 pounds (136 kilogrammes) of explosives.

"There are a lot of advantages to being in Arghandab, mainly because there is so much agriculture -- pomegranate orchards have a lot of cover from observation from the air and close air support."

As US and NATO forces prepare the slow strangulation of the insurgents over the coming summer months, Afghanistan's Western supporters are, finally, trying to address the economic fundamentals fuelling the fight.

Poverty, unemployment at the heart of unrest

More than 70 percent of Afghanistan's population are tied to the land as tenant farmers or share-croppers, experts say. The CIA put unemployment in 2008 at 35 percent and inflation last year at 30.5 percent.

Afghanistan produces more than 90 percent of the world's opium and the 2.8-billion-dollar-a-year illicit industry helps drugs gangs pay the Taliban for armed muscle to protect production and distribution routes.

With the realisation that the insurgency is largely economic rather than ideological -- and that many Taliban foot soldiers are simply unemployed men who need the fighting fee to feed their families -- Western donors have started channelling their efforts to the grass roots of Afghan society.

In Arghandab, Washington's international aid arm USAID believes its programme to teach Afghan farmers modern techniques for boosting quality and yield has the flow-on benefit of improving security.

The head of the local council of elders, Haji Mohammad agreed, telling AFP the project is creating jobs that give the fighting-age men of the area an alternative to picking up a gun for 20 dollars a day.

Since the introduction of USAID's AVIPA (Afghanistan Vouchers for Increased Production in Agriculture) project, Arghandab's pomegranate yield has leapt by 75 percent, to 15-20 kilogrammes of fruit per tree, he said.


"It has also provided jobs, people are now earning money, so in the many villages where we have projects there is no problem with security," Mohammad said.

"People here are poor and so they were used by other people with bad intentions. But if they can have jobs that earn them money from honest work, they can become independent, so in the coming years they won't need to go fighting."


The four-month cash-for-work project was pouring 400,000 afghanis (8,800 dollars) every month into each of Arghandab's 72 villages, paying farm workers 300 afghanis daily, said local AVIPA supervisor, Obeidullah, who uses one name.

The cost of building roads and reservoirs, as well as tractors, chemicals and other equipment was extra, he said.

The AVIPA programme is worth a total of almost 400 million dollars.

That money is welcomed in most farming communities of Afghanistan -- among the poorest countries in the world -- and Arghandab is no exception.

As Obeidullah and Mohammad extolled its benefits, local elders relaxed on carpets nearby, drinking tea and eating apricots, nodding their agreement but reluctant to talk or have their photographs taken for fear of reprisals, one said, from the Taliban.

'Taliban know how to make their point'


Scepticism about the longevity of the international presence that is keeping the Taliban at bay is widespread in Afghanistan.

Many fear that once international troops, currently numbering 130,000, withdraw, which they regard as inevitable, the insurgents will reassert control and take revenge on anyone who cooperated with the other side.

US officials and soldiers said the Taliban maintain influence in Arghandab, using what one American, speaking anonymously, described as "ruthless" intimidation techniques.


Taliban had cut off arms and hanged people suspected of working with the coalition, and kidnapped children for ransom, he said.

"They know how to make their point, they're ruthless. The farmers have a hard time, going into the fields where the Taliban put IEDs if they think they are on patrol routes for the US, the Canadians or the Afghan army," he said.

"Innocent civilians are hit pretty hard. The Taliban are still a very real threat."

Unless the AVIPA scheme and others like it -- such as the British attempt in neighbouring Helmand province to encourage poppy growers to switch to food crops -- are quickly followed up with marketing and storage programmes, experts and officials said, any gains are unsustainable.

"There needs to be a transition from providing labouring jobs to value-added," said Jim Green, a US agriculture department advisor in Arghandab.


"The improvement in crops needs to have back-up. When people go from pruning and spraying to packing the fruit, then it becomes sustainable on a yearly basis.

"When there's demand for a product, then it becomes sustainable," he said, noting the popularity of pomegranates as a super-fruit in the West.


For Haji Mohammad, sustainability depends on security.

"As long as coalition forces are here we will be OK," he said.


"When the Afghan government and the Taliban sit down and talk there will be no fighting. For 30 years we have had fighting. We don't want any more fighting. We want to feed ourselves and get on with our lives.

"We just want peace," he said. (By Lynne O'Donnell/ AFP)

Military Suicide: Fight The War At Home

Some scars are not seen and your help may save a life....

In the United States, a veteran dies by suicide every 80 minutes. It's clear that America's veterans aren't getting the psychological help they need in order to cope with the stresses of being a part of the military.

Alarmingly, under the guise of the 2nd Amendment, the National Defense Authorization Act bars any military leader from broaching the subject of privately-owned weapons with another service member to gauge his safety level — even if that member seems to be depressed.

Veterans need to be given resources and support so they can resume their lives after service with little burden. Discussing suicide and psychological safety should be mandatory — not prohibited by law.

Retirement does not end the fire to continue to help Soldiers

I am often asked two questions the first being do I miss the Army. Do I miss the Army? The answer is “Yes” every day. It is not the institutional or organizational part of the Army that I miss what I miss is the Soldiers. I miss helping Soldiers resolve everyday problems, develop and grow personally and professionally, make a better life for themselves and their families. What many people don’t know about me is that I grew up in a single family home my mother would often work a day job and a night job, so our family time together was limited. We wore clothes from thrift stores and when school would start we would often see many kids getting new shoes and new clothes unfortunately we did not have many of these privileges. I saw the military as a way out of this life and as a way to better myself and learn those trades that would someday make me successful. I knew that in the military the only way to go was up and my potential was only limited to what I could and couldn’t do. So in 1989 I joined the Marine Corps and on June 5, 1989 I arrived at Marine Recruit Depot San Diego. For the next 13 weeks I learned teamwork, responsibility and how hard work would help me graduate and earn the honor to be called a Marine. I graduated and left to go to the School of Infantry where I was awarded the Military Occupational Specialty (MOS) 0311 Infantryman. My eight year career in the Marine Corps would take from serving in A Company 3^rd Reconnaissance Battalion in Hawaii to Sea Duty aboard the USS Enterprise (CVN-65).

PVT Eugene Hicks MCRD, San Diego Sept 1989

In 1997 I joined the Army after a one hour break in service (long enough for me to drive from Camp Pendleton to the Army Recruiting office in Oceanside, Ca) and enlisted in the Army as an 11B. I would lose a rank going from a Sergeant (E-5) to Specialist (E-4). My first duty station Schofield Barracks, Hawaii. I had a great time and quickly went from Specialist to Staff Sergeant and served as a light infantry squad leader spending entirely too much time on the big island wearing out more boots than I care to remember. Over the years my service would take from Korea to Fort Lewis, WA serving with 1st Battalion, 24th Infantry "Deuce Four" as a Platoon Sergeant and ending my caeer as an Infantry First Sergeant (E-8) on March 31, 2011 with 1st Battlion, 17th Infantry Regiment.

Platoon Sergeant A Company 1st Battalion, 24th infantry Regiment Mosul, Iraq 2004-2005
The Soldier to my left Sgt. Robert T. Ayres III, 23, of Los Angeles, died Sept. 29 2007 in Baghdad, Iraq

A Company 1st Battalion, 17th Infantry Regiment, FOB Frontenac, Afghanistan 2009 - 2010

So the second question I had told you about, how do you go from being an Infantry First Sergeant to being a social worker? This is a little easier to answer if you can believe that. I have begun to understand that there are many Veteran’s, Soldiers and family members that do not know how to ask for help. The stigma that is involved with seeking help because one does not want to appear weak is powerful still in today Army and as hard as the Army tries to change the perception the underlying current in the river is still prevalent with service members past and present. This has to be changed but how? It is Soldiers, Marines, Airmen and Sailors getting out there and when they see a member in crisis stepping and helping them find the help they need. It is directing them to people like me who can understand the things they saw in combat and how those feelings can be talked about in a manner that is therapeutic and helps in the recovery process.

I did one thing that I can only stress and did stress to all the Soldiers I came into contact with “GO TO SCHOOL”. No matter what you are doing make the time to attend a class here and there even if it is just one class twice a week make the time to attended. When I retired I had obtained my Bachelor of Arts in Psychology Degree from Saint Martin’s University in Lacey, WA and I was named a joint recipient of the Linda Fletcher Memorial Scholarship, a scholarship that is awarded to acknowledge and reward students who exhibit the special characteristics that are a part of the Saint Martin’s mission as well as help cultivate a strong community of learners among the University’s extension program students. I am now going through the admissions process at the University of Southern California for my Masters in Social Work where I will concentrate on learning how to deliver services such as mental health counseling, family therapy, crisis intervention, program development, and organizational consulting. My sub- concentration will be Military Social Work and Veteran Services which will prepare me to provide a full range of human services to the nation’s armed forces personnel, military veterans and their families. Had I not started and continued my education I can guarantee that my situation would be entirely different, especially in today’s economy. My success started when I went to the education office on post and asked for advice.

Saint Martin's University BA in Psychology

This is not why I write this post or do this blog to brag about what I have done but instead I write my story so that you know I am a true advocate for our warriors and my life was like many of yours but we have the power to shape our destiny and we have the power to help our fellow veterans. Thank you all for your dedication and care for our Soldiers. Remember the first step is yours!!!!

1st Lt. Daniel A. Weiss

LT Weiss served with Alpha Company 1-17th Inf, 2nd Inf Div (Stryker) of which I was the First Sergeant in Afghanistan 2010. LT Weiss was the consumate professional and epitomized those values that Soldiers hold close to their hearts.

I will miss you Dan, I know that you are on the high ground providing overwatch on those still in harms way. Rest easy, Sir those you have mentored, trained and lead have the battle.

1st Lt. Daniel A. Weiss

April 10, 1986 - March 05, 2012

1st LT Daniel Weiss, 25, served as a Rifle Platoon Leader in Attack Company, 2nd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment. He was born in Santa Monica, CA. His brother wanted to name him Stinkor; his parents thought otherwise. His earliest years were spent in Culver City, CA, which he always considered home. In 1993, he moved with his family to Naperville, IL, where he went on to once get stuck in the revolving door at Michael Jordan’s Restaurant, make the short movie “Coffee Boy”, about a coffee boy, filmed on location in the woods behind his house, and graduate early from Naperville Central High School in order to enlist in the Army.

Danny deployed three times in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. His service began as a Rifleman and SAW Gunner with the 173rd Airborne in Afghanistan in 2005. Between deployments, he earned a BA in English from the University of Illinois at Chicago. In two years. Subsequently, he received his commission as an Infantry Officer, serving as a Rifle Platoon Leader in Afghanistan with the 1-17 Infantry, 5th Stryker Brigade Combat Team. He was then chosen to serve in the 75th Ranger Regiment and assigned to 2nd Ranger Battalion at Fort Lewis, WA and deployed with 2/75 in late 2011. Following combat, he was assigned as a Rifle Platoon Leader in Attack Company. His awards and decorations include US Army Ranger Course and Airborne School, the Army Commendation Medal, Army Achievement Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Afghanistan Campaign Medal, Global War on Terror Service Medal, Army Service Ribbon, Overseas Service Ribbon, the NATO Medal, Combat Infantryman’s Badge, Expert Infantryman’s Badge, Ranger Tab, and Airborne Wings.

To become the best warrior possible, he refused to drink, smoke, or consume a frivolous calorie of any kind. He worked out voraciously and read with the same intensity on a multitude of topics, from Rudyard Kipling to Karl Pilkington. To extract a smile from Danny, all one had to do was mention Mr. Pilkington’s constant struggles with his boiler. His smile snuck up the side of his mouth, no matter how hard he tried to stifle it, often growing into an undeniable laugh soon shared by all present. Sometime during the night of March 4, 2012, he took his own life.

Danny will be remembered as a soldier, an officer, a leader; a son, a brother, my hero. He is survived by his parents, Andy and Julianne, his brother, A.J., and his brothers in arms. In lieu of flowers, please make a donation to the Fisher House Foundation, Inc. 111 Rockville Pike, Suite 420, Rockville, MD 20850-5168 (fisherhouse.org), or Doctors Without Borders USA, P.O. Box 5030, Hagerstown, MD 21741-5030 (doctorswithoutborders.org). A visitation will be held on Sunday, March 11, 2012 from 2:00 – 4:00 PM followed by a memorial service at 4:00 PM at Friedrich-Jones Funeral Home & Cremation Services, 44 S. Mill St. Naperville IL. 60540. If you are a veteran or active duty service member in need of confidential support, please call the Veterans Crisis Line, 1-800-273-8255 and Press 1, send a text message to 838255, or chat online at veteranscrisisline.net.

Soldier's suicide prompts military investigation

A sad story and a sad day when we lose one of our hero's.

by Pat Dooris

PORTLAND -- The suicide of an active Army soldier last November in Northeast Portland has prompted a military investigation into his death and a call from Oregon’s U.S. Senator Ron Wyden for a full explanation.
“In the tragic case of Sgt. Jason Matus, I have asked the Army for a full briefing on his death and the care he received-or didn’t receive,” said Wyden.
Staff Sergeant Jason Matus killed himself just after midnight November 21, 2011.
According to military records Matus reported for active duty at Fort Bragg, NC in 1997. He served there until 2004 with deployments to Egypt in 2000 and Iraq from April 2003 to January 2004. His family says, in Iraq he served with the 571 Air Calvary as a combat medic. It was during that time, his wife Fay Norris said, that he suffered neck injuries when a chopper he was riding in crash-landed to avoid enemy fire.
“He wanted to save as many people as he could,” said Norris.
Matus grew up in Northern California. Faye and Jason knew each other from the time they were teens in Grass Valley, California. They went their separate ways but met up again after he returned from the war and were married in 2007.
Matus was already struggling with physical pain from his neck injury and symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) started to appear more and more often. He eventually had three surgeries to fix his neck beginning in 2009. But at the same time, Faye said, the psychological challenges became so severe, he spent two months in a secure psychiatric facility in Texas.
Not long after he got out, Matus and his wife moved to Oregon, in October 2011. They were closer to his mother, who lives near Salem.
He was now part of the Community Based Wounded Warrior Transition Program. His main mission became getting better, attending both medical and mental health appointments with the VA and other doctors in the Portland area.
Norris said her husband also wanted to return to war.
“When he'd get depressed his thing was always why am I back here? I should go back over there, there's still young men bleeding out there. I need to be there. I need to save people," recalled Norris.
She felt her husband got overlooked the more he struggled with his demons. “Up until this point, Jason had always thought the Army was good to him and if anything happened, they'd take care of him. But once he really got injured they kinda walked away," Norris said.
A registered nurse, Norris felt the burden of his care. “A lot of days all I could handle, just to keep up with, we were going to doctor's appointments two or three times a week, I’m trying to keep his meds straight, I’m working full-time because, you know, I’ve gotta have a job,” she said.
Norris felt the military should have been more attentive. “They never came and checked on him, they never called his duty station and I can’t be always responsible for that. They need to be checking. They need to be hands-on with these guys,” she said.
Sgt. Matus’ best friend Mark Maloy said the two planned to make a movie together. But as the soldier’s PTSD challenges became more severe, he became more depressed. “He never wanted to be broken,” said Maloy. “He never wanted to be difficult. He never wanted to be a problem. And the more opposite he got the more everybody told him he was, the more depressed. And finally, his last words were, I’ll fix this. And that was that,” said Maloy.
Ultimately, Matus gave up hope.
“I'll always feel partially like this is my fault,” Norris said. “…like I should have done something more.” She said she fought for him up to the very end, even trying to wrestle the gun away from her husband.
But he was stronger.
Now, Norris keeps an urn with her husband’s ashes on a shelf in the home she moved into after the suicide.
She hopes in the future, the military will pay more attention to soldiers like her husband who are clearly in need of help.
And she’d like the rest of us to think more about how he lived, than how he died. “He was one of the most beautiful, loving, passionate, and caring people you could ever meet. And he was a wonderful guy,” she said.
The Army recently commented on the death of Sgt. Matus by way of a statement from the Western Regional Medical Command. “Our Army sends its heartfelt condolences to the family and loved ones of Staff Sgt. Jason Matus. It is always very painful whenever we lose one of our own, and we will continue to hold his loved ones in our thoughts and prayers.”
If you or a loved one needs help contact the following agencies:
Oregon Military Assistance Helpline: 1-800-511-6944
Multnomah County Crisis Line 503-988-4888
Joint Transition Assistance web site Helps soldiers and families return to civilian life
Returning Veterans Project: 503-954-2259
Thoughts of suicide?Oregon Partnership 1-800-273-8255