BattlelandTroops
My colleague Mark Thompson has mounted three posts mentioning Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder today. I’m not shooting for the superfecta, but I do want to comment on a point Mark made
As I noted in one of my earliest posts here on Battleland, I have struggled with mental health problems. My PTSD diagnosis came in 2002 while I was …
BattlelandTroops
The White House has announced that President Obama will award Sergeant First Class Leroy Arthur Petry the Medal of Honor on July 12th. SFC Petry, a Ranger, lost a hand and received other significant wounds during a firefight in Afghanistan during which he tried to throw a hand grenade back at the enemy. (See my colleague Mark Thompson’s …
BattlelandTroops
The Army is reviewing its strategy for employing the Army Reserve and National Guard after Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom end. Reserve forces make up slightly more than half of the total force of 1.1 million soldiers, and the reservists have pulled their weight in combat deployments over the past decade: over a third of …
BattlelandNational Security
The internet is a wonderful thing. We should all thank Al Gore for inventing it. This morning I found a RAND corporation report that taught me at least two really interesting things. First, according to the report, 75% of the U.S. troops deployed to Iraq, Afghanistan and Kuwait have been soldiers. The Army makes up half of America’s …
BattlelandSpecial Operations
When I read through the Washington Post yesterday, I stumbled across this Greg Jaffe article highlighting an odd bit of irony that just might get people killed. Jaffe’s article (which you really should read) notes that SecDef Gates and JCS Chief Mullen are trying to get the rest of the world to refrain from discussing facts, and from …
BattlelandVeterans
Mark Benjamin commented on the spike in suicides among soldiers in April, noting that the number was equal to about half the deaths in Afghanistan during the same time period. The Army has been trying for several years to get ahead of the rising number of suicides. General Peter Chiarelli, the Vice Chief of Staff, is leading the effort, …
BattlelandVeterans
Soldiers who served in Afghanistan, Iraq or Kuwait inhaled aluminum, nickel, lead and chromium in microscopic dust according to research led by a Navy medical officer. Officials at the Defense Department have dismissed the findings. The story is reported in USA Today by Kelly Kennedy.
BattlelandVeterans
“The VA’s unchecked incompetence has gone on long enough; no more veterans should be compelled to agonize or perish while the government fails to perform its obligations.”
Judge Reinhardt, Ninth Circuit.
Well, it’s official: denying veterans medical treatment is unconstitutional according to the ninth circuit court of …
BattlelandNational Security
In Vietnam, I’m told, soldiers and marines in infantry units didn’t make a special effort to learn the names of new guys joining the unit. They called them FNGs. New guys were welcome because they filled ranks; there were more people to pull security and hump ammo on patrol. But they were also viewed suspiciously; they were untested …
