The cutest and noblest golden retriever pups ever bred to be service dogs are at the Warrior Canine Connection just north of the capital. You can find them way up on on Georgia Avenue, in Brookeville, Maryland, nursing in an old …
Veterans
Battlefield BS’ing Just Got Tougher
The Pentagon has launched a website designed to keep track of U.S. military veterans who have earned the nation’s highest awards for valor. This has been a thorny issue since the Supreme Court ruled in June that anyone can lie about winning a Medal of Honor or other military decoration. It is going to be tougher to do now that the …
VA Leadership: An Absurd Vision for Ailing Veterans
I remember very clearly the moment I knew I would be leaving the Army. It came in late 2007, a few months before I shipped out on my second Iraq tour. This was nearly five years into the Iraq War and the Army, which had also been …
“We spend about $10 million per hour in the Afghanistan war and right now we are losing a soldier every day to suicide. Shifting an hour’s worth of war funding to the fight of preventing soldier suicides is the least we can do.”
Female Vets Running for Congress: Into Double Digits
Four months back, I wrote about four female veterans running for Congress. It turns out they’re not the only ones, by a long shot.
And boy are they needed: in the 112th Congress, women only hold 16% of the 435 House seats and 17 of the 100 seats in the Senate. Amazingly, there are only 92 veterans in the House of Representatives, …
$10 Million More for Military Suicide Prevention
The House approved an amendment to next year’s defense spending bill Wednesday night that shifts $10 million from training Afghan security forces to fighting suicide in the ranks of the U.S. military.
Veterans’ Mental Health: Can the SAMHSA Policy Academy Help?
In Washington D.C., as with most states, there are major disconnects between the public mental health system and the military and Veterans Administration systems.
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) is trying to bridge those gaps, through their Policy Academy. The goal is to go state by state, …
Fighting the Stigma
Financed by the Pentagon and produced by the Institute of Medicine, (that influential member of the National Academy of Sciences with particular political and legislative sway), a 400-page report published Friday recommended a broad range of PTSD-related initiatives. They include annual PTSD screenings for troops returning from combat, …
“Killing as an Option”
Much energy, attention, and money has been focused on trying to understand—and end—the dramatic rise in suicide within the military. And while this attention has resulted in the development of many efforts and programs, many of which have improved the overall well being of the force, the increase in suicides among those who serve …
Is Sexual Violence Endemic to the U.S. Military?
Aaron Belkin is at the nexus of the military and its challenges in dealing with sexual matters in the ranks. A professor of political science at San Francisco State University, he founded and directs the Palm Center, a think tank that conducts research into gender and military issues that is part of the UCLA law school.
His new book, …
Help If You’re Worried About Your Military Loved One
Over at Time’s Healthland blog, Alexandra Sifferlin has a to-do list for family members who are concerned that their soldier, sailor airman or Marine might be thinking of suicide.
Detailing What We Do – And Don’t — Know
The Institute of Medicine, the health arm of the federal National Academy of Sciences, published a new and comprehensive study on treating Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Friday
It has been all over the airwaves and electronic waves this past weekend. I was actually surprised by the extent of the media coverage, as there were few …
Sequestration’s Shadow Darkens
House and Senate Republican leaders released a letter Friday — the 13th — that will effectively kill an increasingly favored option in Washington to temporarily delay the onset of sequestration (automatic budget cuts) by three or six months.
It comes on the heels of President Obama’s former campaign manager floating the idea …