A soldier's story: War affects whole family
A soldier's story: War affects whole family
Parents feel their son's stress disorder
Tim Kahlor comforted his son, Ryan, during a Las Vegas Veterans Day parade. Ryan's experience with post-traumatic stress disorder has turned his father into an antiwar activist. (Rick Loomis/Los Angeles Times)
By David Zucchino
Los Angeles Times / December 21, 2008
TEMECULA, Calif. - When Army Sergeant Ryan Kahlor returned from two combat tours in Iraq last year, he was a walking billboard for virtually every affliction suffered by today's veterans. He had a detached retina, a ruptured disk, vertigo, headaches, memory lapses, and numbness in his arms. Fluid seeped from his ears.
He was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and traumatic brain injury. He was violent and suicidal. He carried a loaded handgun everywhere. He drank until he passed out. He cut himself. He burned his skin with cigarettes. He bit through his tongue just to watch himself bleed.
Kahlor, 24, admits he came back not caring about anyone - the military, his friends, his family, or himself. But, pushed hard by his parents, he slowly accepted and then embraced counseling and treatment. Today, he has begun to recover.
His parents are still trying.
The Kahlors - a college employee and a nurse - have fought through a series of transformations unfamiliar to most military families.
Tim Kahlor says he and his wife, Laura, have been left with what he calls, only half in jest, "secondary PTSD." He says his doctor prescribed antidepressants to help him cope with his son's ordeal. And both parents, haunted by their son's physical and emotional breakdown, are fiercely opposed to the war.
Tim Kahlor, 50, who had felt a patriotic surge after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, turned against the war after Ryan complained during his first tour about ineffective body armor and poorly armored vehicles. Laura Kahlor, 53, blames the war for her son's psychological and physical torment. Although she is now grateful for the treatment he belatedly received, she - like her husband - wishes they had never let Ryan enlist.
They are still bitter over the several months that their son drifted while they pleaded with both Ryan and the military for effective PTSD treatment. Ryan survived several roadside bomb attacks in Iraq but was traumatized by the violence he saw.
"I was so naive. I was this kid from the Bible Belt who thought our country would take care of our soldiers," Tim Kahlor said. "I have guilt for helping him get into this."
A year after the terrorists struck America, Tim Kahlor drove Ryan, then 18, to the local Army recruiting office to sign up. Although the Kahlors would have preferred that Ryan attend college, they were proud of his determination to serve his country.
When Ryan wrote about equipment shortages, Tim telephoned and wrote to the Pentagon and Congress. Laura sent Ryan a hand-held GPS device after he complained that military devices kept failing.
Tim Kahlor joined Military Families Speak Out, a group opposed to the Iraq war. He marched in protests behind caskets, lined up boots outside the Capitol to represent the war's dead. He put up a sign outside his home: "Support Our Troops - Let 'em Come Home."Continued...
He confronted military recruiters. He intercepted young men outside recruiting offices, warning them: "You have no idea what you're getting into." He read to them from Ryan's journal - including descriptions of collecting the gear of a close friend killed by a sniper:
"My stomach soured. . . . His gear was soaked with blood. My hands could still feel the moisture of his sweat. I felt like something was missing in me."
Tim was thrown out of a political fund-raiser for railing against the war. He approached motorists in cars with yellow ribbons, demanding to know exactly how they supported the troops.
Some days, Tim wears a button to his job as a payroll coordinator at the University of California, San Diego. It features an updated number of the war's dead and a question: "How Many More?"
When Ryan returned in early 2007, "he came back a stranger to me," his father said. Tim focused on his son's deteriorating mental and physical condition. He described delays in treatment as Ryan was put on desk duty, unable to perform simple tasks because of his brain injuries and prone to violent outbursts.
"I was either going to die by my own hand - or someone else's," Ryan said.
But through it all, he said, "my dad fought tooth and nail for me, knowing people in the military can't speak for themselves always. My dad pushed me to get help. He doesn't let me cut corners, and he's always on my butt."
In November 2007, Ryan was sent to be treated at San Diego's Naval Medical Center. His therapists say he is making remarkable progress after months of physical and speech therapy and mental health counseling.
"We look at Ryan and we say, 'Thank God, we got a good one here,' " said Colleen Leners, a nurse practitioner who is his primary care manager. "Ryan wanted to get better."
To treat his PTSD, Ryan was referred in May to the National Center for PTSD in Palo Alto, Calif., run by the Veterans Administration. He completed an intensive 65-day group program with veterans from wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Vietnam.
There, Ryan said, he learned to recognize his "stuff points" - traumatic experiences in Iraq he was afraid to confront.
"There's no time to grieve in combat, so you just stuff it," he said. "You see your friend die and then you go back to work."
Without treatment, Ryan said, "I'd be sitting in a dark room somewhere - or dead."
Ryan said he suffers from survivor's guilt and intends to seek more counseling. He is still being treated for vertigo, for speech and memory difficulties, and for fluid and ringing in his ears.
The military has provided him a hand-held organizer to help him organize his life and remember appointments. He draws maps to help him locate his parked car. "As many times as I've been hit in the head, a lot of stuff that seems simple on a daily basis becomes difficult," Ryan said.
Even so, he chose a challenging subject - the Russian invasion of Georgia - for a speaking exercise in group speech therapy.
Laura Kahlor considers her son a newly minted person, just as she considered the tormented young man who returned from Iraq a different person from the son she sent off to war - the one who had "Duty, Honor, Country" tattooed on his leg.
"He came back so violent," she said, recalling the images of bloody Iraqi corpses Ryan brought home on his laptop. "I was afraid he'd use his gun on himself."
Today the gun is locked in a drawer, and Ryan is evolving into the caring, gentle son his parents remember. At the request of a counselor, he often talks to other soldiers with PTSD, encouraging them to seek treatment.
Ryan does not publicly discuss his father's activism or his own feelings about the war. He says only: "That's what we're fighting for - for people's rights to speak out."
When his enlistment ends in March, Ryan plans to leave the Army. He is shopping for a new house and intends to enroll at a community college. He wants to become a history teacher or physical therapist.
After all that has befallen him, would he enlist again?
"Probably not," Ryan said. "But since I did it, I'm glad. It's matured me. It's made me stronger, more confident."
His mother said that although she's grateful for Ryan's counseling and for the travel and educational benefits the military has provided, "it still wasn't worth it."
Tim Kahlor, sitting in his living room at dusk, flanked by his wife and his tall, strapping son in Army fatigues, reflected on his family's six-year ordeal. He paused and said, finally, "I wish he had never gone in."
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PTSD is a family and community problem it is not just the veterans it affects everyone around the veteran family and friends and neighbors....
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
A soldier's story: War affects whole family
4 recruiter suicides at one unit lead to probe
4 recruiter suicides at one unit lead to probe
Widow blames pressure to sign up soldiers, husband's earlier tour of duty
Herb Nygren Jr / AP
Amanda Henderson holds a photo of her late husband, Sgt. 1st Class Patrick Henderson, at her home in Henderson, Texas.
Each week in ‘The Daily Nightly,’ NBC's John Rutherford pays tribute to the men and women killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.
updated 3:54 p.m. ET, Mon., Dec. 22, 2008
HENDERSON, Texas - Sgt. 1st Class Patrick Henderson, a strapping Iraq combat veteran, spent the last, miserable months of his life as an Army recruiter, cold-calling dozens of people a day from his strip-mall office and sitting in strangers' living rooms, trying to sign up their sons and daughters for an unpopular war.
He put in 13-hour days, six days a week, often encountering abuse from young people or their parents. When he and other recruiters would gripe about the pressure to meet their quotas, their superiors would snarl that they ought to be grateful they were not in Iraq, according to his widow.
Less than a year into the job, Henderson — afflicted by flashbacks and sleeplessness after his tour of battle in Iraq — went into his backyard shed, slid the chain lock in place, and hanged himself with a dog chain.
He became, at age 35, the fourth member of the Army's Houston Recruiting Battalion to commit suicide in the past three years — something Henderson's widow and others blame on the psychological scars of combat, combined with the pressure-cooker job of trying to sell the war.
"Over there in Iraq, you're doing this high-intensive job you are recognized for. Then, you come back here, and one month you're a hero, one month you're a loser because you didn't put anyone in," said Staff Sgt. Amanda Henderson, herself an Iraq veteran and a former recruiter in the battalion.
The Army has 38 recruiting battalions in the United States. Patrick Henderson's is the only one to report more than one suicide in the past six years.
Senator pushed for inquiry
The Army began an investigation after being prodded by Amanda Henderson and Texas Sen. John Cornyn. Cornyn, a Republican on the Armed Services Committee, said he will press for Senate hearings.
"We need to get to the bottom of this as soon as we can," he said.
The all-volunteer military is under heavy pressure to sign up recruits and retain soldiers while it wages two wars.
Douglas Smith, a spokesman for the Army Recruiting Command, acknowledged that recruiting is a demanding job but said counseling and other support are available.
"I don't have an answer to why these suicides in Houston Recruiting Battalion occurred, but perhaps the investigation that is under way may shed some light on that question," he said.
In all, 15 of the Army's 8,400 recruiters have committed suicide since 2003. During that period, more than 540 of the Army's half-million active-duty soldiers killed themselves.
The 266-member Houston battalion covers a huge swath of East Texas, from Houston to the Arkansas line. Henderson committed suicide Sept. 20. Another battalion member, Staff Sgt. Larry Flores Jr., hanged himself in August at age 26; Sgt. Nils "Aron" Andersson, 25, shot himself to death in March 2007; and in 2005, a captain at battalion headquarters took his life, though the military has not disclosed any details. All served combat tours before their recruiting assignments.
Charlotte Porter, Andersson's mother, said her son — who served two tours in Iraq with the 82nd Airborne and earned a Bronze Star — couldn't lie to recruits about the war and felt an enormous burden to ensure they could become the kind of soldiers he would want watching his back.
"He wasn't a complainer. He just said it really sucked," said his 51-year-old mother, who is from Eugene, Ore. "He felt like a failure."
Cold calls were part of job
Paul Rieckhoff, founder of the advocacy group Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, said recruiting these days "is arguably the toughest job in the military."
"They're under incredible stress. You can see it on their faces," he said.
In Iraq, Henderson helped lead other infantrymen on risky "snatch-and-grab" missions and saw several buddies die.
He had been stationed in Germany before going to Iraq. After his tour was up, he was assigned to recruiting. He didn't particularly want to leave the infantry, but going to recruiting allowed him to move back to the U.S., his widow said.
Like most recruiters, he began his day with paperwork, followed by cold calls to high school graduates and college students. He spent lunches trying to chat up high schoolers outside the cafeteria, and then, more phone calls — often 150 a day, according to his widow.
He spent evenings on the living room sofas or at the dining room tables of the few interested young people, trying to sell them and their families on the Army's opportunities while easing their fears. Some recruits' parents were hostile.
"They are completely outright nasty to you. That's stressful to you right then and there because you have some mother or father just ripping you apart," Amanda Henderson said.
Pressure from above alleged
She said her husband also found himself under crushing pressure from above. He and other recruiters in the battalion were required to account for every minute of every day in planners and logs, his widow said.
When Henderson took some time to recover from knee surgery, his bosses acted as if he was lazy and threatened to have him thrown out of recruiting and reassigned far from his wife, Amanda Henderson said.
He lived in constant fear of failing to sign up enough people, something that can result in an all-day audit by a recruiter's superiors and thwart a soldier's chances of a promotion, Amanda Henderson said.
Story continues below ↓
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As much as Henderson hated recruiting, he did the job well, his widow said. But Flores, who killed himself a few weeks before Henderson, "was getting chewed up one side and down the other" at work in the days before he died, Amanda Henderson said. Flores was her boss.
Smith, the Army spokesman, would not comment on Henderson's job performance. Asked about the demands put on recruiters by their superiors, he said recruiting duty "often does entail long hours during the week and on weekends." But he added: "There are other duty assignments in the Army that entail long hours, such as being deployed."
Most recruiters are assigned
Some recruiters volunteer for the job, but most are assigned. They must have a recent evaluation showing no record of mental instability. But Amanda Henderson said her husband, like other combat veterans, rushed through his assessment, insisting he was fine.
Patrick Henderson had been out of Iraq a little less than a year when he began recruiting, and after several months on the job, his sleeplessness and flashbacks became evident, according to his wife. She said she stayed up one night watching him apparently flash between nightmares of combat and of illegally signing up a recruit.
He suffered a breakdown in the weeks before his suicide, his wife said. Because he was hundreds of miles from the nearest Army post, he went to a local counselor recommended by the military after an initial visit with an Army doctor. But the counselor had never worked with a combat veteran and couldn't decipher the military jargon in his medical records, Amanda Henderson said.
One morning in September, she woke up alone, panicked and went out to look for her husband. The chain was on the door to the shed, but she could see him inside. She pried the window open, and screamed. "He was gone," she said, her voice breaking.
"I don't want anybody to feel this pain that I have," she said, her eyes welling with tears. "It's too much for one person. They need help."
More on Military suicides
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I see that recruiting duty hasn't changed in 40 years.......
Board: Guardsmen were not overexposed to toxin
Board: Guardsmen were not overexposed to toxin
By Maureen Groppe - Gannett News Service
Posted : Monday Dec 22, 2008 18:55:50 EST
WASHINGTON — The Army correctly concluded that Indiana National Guardsmen were not overexposed to a toxin in Iraq, according to an independent review by the Defense Health Board. The review could make it harder for a group of guardsmen to continue their lawsuit against defense contractor KBR of Texas.
Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., who was briefed on the findings Monday, said he still has unanswered questions.
“What did KBR know, when did they know it, and what did they do?” Bayh told CBS News on Monday, according to a transcript of the interview. “Apparently, it was bad enough that the KBR people weren’t going back into the site. The Indiana guardsmen said, ‘Wait a minute, we’re not going back in there anymore!’ Something clicked in our guardsmen’s minds that something’s not right here, and if those employees aren’t going in, why should be we going in?”
Bayh had asked the Army for more information after two KBR employees told Senate Democrats in June that workers and soldiers at a water pumping plant in Iraq were exposed to sodium dichromate in 2003.
Sodium dichromate, which was used at the site as an anti-corrosive, contains the carcinogen hexavalent chromium. Members of the Indiana National Guard were among the soldiers providing protection to defense contractors working on the Qarmat Ali Water Injection Facility.
Sixteen Indiana guardsmen filed suit earlier this month against KBR, accusing the contractor of publicly downplaying and privately concealing the health risks.
The company has said it acted appropriately and is fighting the lawsuit.
The site was visibly contaminated by sodium dichromate when secured by U.S. military forces, according to the Army.
But the Defense Health Board, an advisory committee to the secretary of defense that provides independent advice, said none of the 137 soldiers and civilians tested had “substantially elevated” levels of chromium in their blood.
Bayh has expressed concerns about the type of tests conducted on the soldiers and their timeliness.
Because of the results of the tests on the Indiana guardsmen, the Army made the “pragmatic and reasonable” decision not to also test guard units from Oregon and South Carolina who were no longer at the site, the Defense Health Board said.
The board concluded that the Defense Department’s response was “prompt and appropriate” and included testing for health effects within approximately 30 days of the last potential exposure.
The testing did find many reports of respiratory-tract irritation. But that’s similar to what other soldiers serving in the desert have experienced, the board said. Even though the tests did not find excessive levels of chromium the Defense Health Board said it “may have been revealing or reassuring” to know if those with more respiratory problems had different chromium levels,
Bayh is also pushing legislation to help veterans exposed to toxic contaminants during war. The changes would include making at-risk veterans eligible for medical tests, allowing for a scientific review of evidence linking exposure to health problems, and requiring frontline commanders to report hazardous-material exposure.
“The burden of proof should not be on the soldier, many years later, to go back and prove that their health condition was related to that exposure,” Bayh told CBS News, according to the transcript. “That’s virtually impossible. The benefit of the doubt should go to the soldier.”
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“The burden of proof should not be on the soldier, many years later, to go back and prove that their health condition was related to that exposure,” Bayh told CBS News, according to the transcript. “That’s virtually impossible. The benefit of the doubt should go to the soldier.”
What Senator Bayh and other elected officials do NOT understand is that the VA does use the "benefit of the doubt" for veterans, they doubt any of them are ever telling the truth. They deny all claims for toxic exposures based on idiotic statements claiming that we the veterans can NOT tell them what day the exposure occurred or what was the amount of the toxic substances we were exposed to.
I have been down this route based on my medical problems I feel are related to my use as a human test subject at Edgewood Arsenal in 1974 during the Cold War era, when the Army doing experiments funded by the CIA, in all there were 354 different substances used at Edgewood, stuff like LSD, PCP, Scopolomine, and known chemical weapons like Sarin, Mustard agents, and BZ among them. Most drugs and substances are unknown to the "test veterans" or "medical volunteers" yet the EPA Superfund site shows 77 known toxic substances in the drinking water wells and the soil of the training areas on Edgewood Arsenal, now which it is a part of Aberdeen Proving Grounds, the EPA study was done in 1978 and at that time the EPA ordered the water wells capped and for a new source of water to be piped into the base and into the town of Edgewood, Maryland.
No one can argue that these toxins leached into the water wells from 1975 when the human experiments were stopped and 1978 when the EPA studies were don, the Army had been dumping chemicals into the ground or burying old barrels, both wooden and metal since 1917 when the Department of War established Edgewood Arsenal as the nations Chemical Weapons depot and research facility. No one really understood the long term toxic effects and proper disposal methods, the chemicals seeped out of the containers and contaminated the water sources.
When I submitted the EPA super fund site data and the list of known contaminants, the VA Regional Office told me that the reports were Internet trash, and that I could not PROVE I had been exposed to any of these contaminants. NO, I can't prove I was, but common sense tells you that I was on Temporary Duty (TDY) from June 25, 1974 - 22 August 1974. I brushed my teeth every day with that water, I drank coffee made from that water, I swam in the post swimming pool filled with that water, I took showers in that water for over 2 months, and I drank the kool aid in the mess hall over that two month period.
My medical problems can be linked to the toxins, everything from cardiac conditions, stomach problems or IBS, lung problems COPD,and other medical conditions. Can I prove that these toxins caused my problem NO, is it possible that these toxins contributed to my problems or aggravated them, YES, then there are the deliberate exposures from the actual experiments. This is a case where the 7120 men used in the 20 year program should be given "reasonable doubt" and their medical problems should be service connected if there is any possibility it could be linked to environmental exposures.
In a 1987 Supreme Court Decision Stanley versus the US, in a dissent Justice Sandra Day O'Connor (hardly a liberal judge) stated
No judicially crafted rule should insulate from liability the involuntary and unknowing human experimentation alleged [483 U.S. 669, 710] to have occurred in this case. Indeed, as JUSTICE BRENNAN observes, the United States military played an instrumental role in the criminal prosecution of Nazi officials who experimented with human subjects during the Second World War, ante, at 687, and the standards that the Nuremberg Military Tribunals developed to judge the behavior of the defendants stated that the "voluntary consent of the human subject is absolutely essential . . . to satisfy moral, ethical and legal concepts." United States v. Brandt (The Medical Case), 2 Trials of War Criminals Before the Nuremberg Military Tribunals Under Control Council Law No. 10, p. 181 (1949). If this principle is violated the very least that society can do is to see that the victims are compensated, as best they can be, by the perpetrators. I am prepared to say that our Constitution's promise of due process of law guarantees this much. Accordingly, I would permit James Stanley's Bivens action to go forward, and I therefore dissent
Justice Sandra Day O'Connors dissent near the bottom of the pageSphere: Related Content
New Members Appointed to Committee on Women Veterans
New Members Appointed to Committee on Women Veterans
WASHINGTON (Dec. 23, 2008) - Four new members have been appointed to the
Advisory Committee on Women Veterans for the Department of Veterans
Affairs (VA), an expert panel that advises VA on issues and programs
affecting women veterans.
"I am pleased to welcome the newest members of this committee to the
important job of serving America's women veterans," said Secretary of
Veterans Affairs Dr. James B. Peake. "Members of this committee work
tirelessly on behalf of women veterans to improve outreach, ensure
access to VA benefits and recommend ways in which VA can better meet
their needs."
Established in 1983, the advisory committee makes recommendations for
administrative and legislative changes. The committee members are
appointed to one, two, or three-year terms. The new committee members
are:
* Davy Coke of Poway, Calif., a retired Navy second class petty
officer who served in Vietnam. He currently is a trainer and mentor for
new service members in the aerospace field.
* Yanira Gomez of Germantown, Md., a former Army medical
specialist who served in Iraq. She is currently serving as national
outreach officer for the Veterans of Foreign Wars.
* Gloria Maser of Alexandria, Va., a colonel in the Army Reserves.
She is a former deputy chief of staff for health affairs with the
Multi-National Security Transition Command in Iraq. She currently works
for a strategy and technology organization.
* Barbara Ward of Sacramento, Calif., a former staff nurse in the
Air Force. She currently serves as the deputy secretary for women and
minority veterans affairs in the California Department of Veterans
Affairs.
Women veterans are one of the fastest growing segments of the veteran
population. There are approximately 1.8 million women veterans. They
constitute nearly 8 percent of the total veteran population and about 5
percent of all veterans who use VA health care. VA estimates that by
2020 women veterans will make up 10 percent of the veteran population.
VA has women veterans program managers at VA medical centers and women
veterans coordinators at VA regional offices to assist women veterans
with health and benefits issues.
Monday, December 22, 2008
more of Kelleys thoughts
Example...VA unchecked power and lawlessness
Received from one of our group in response.
Kelley:
I know someone, but don't know how to contact her. If you have anyone in your network that lives in California near Bakersfield/Tehachapi, please let them know; if they could do a direct contact that would be great. Mary Harrison is the widow of Gene Harrison, the Navy man who saved my life in 1968. Getting this news to her is important to me, as I owe her husband everything I've been able to do in the last 40 years.
My last info on her is that she lives in a place near Tehachapi called Stallion Springs. Since I found Gene after his death in 2005, I have lost contact, and now her email doesn't work. I'll try to dig up more info, but if you could put the word out to any folks you have near Bakersfield, I'd appreciate it. Tehachapi and Stallion Springs are on the highway up to the Naval Air Station in the high desert.
FYI, Gene (Harold Eugene Harrison) died of cancer. He spent over one year stripping asbestos from a Navy cruiser, and the VA turned him down for benefits because he was a smoker, even though his doctors told him his form of cancer was associated with asbestos exposure. Another example of how our Country treats its heroes.
Thanks, Buddy, and I'll keep digging to find more info.
________________________________________________________________________________________
Now you would ask, how can you tell the difference in causation and is there away. Yes there seems to be not only a blood test thatis a pointer but also lung cell dna testing that is done to evaluate the cancer and that points towards asbestos causation - not smoking.
Yes, the Veterans doctors can state associated to asbestos and VA clerks and raters have the power to deny a Veteran service connection based on their lack of knowledge of medical facts and only knowing the two cause cancer.
In fact, it is more likely than not those that smoke may develop lung cancer…those exposed to asbestos in the form discussed will develop lung cancer.
The one assumption is did the Veterans doctor run the tests. I would assume so and it was positive otherwise the statements by any doctor to the positive association would not be in character. Especially since most doctors know in dealing with VA it will be question after question after question using up his time and his resources by some one not even medically qualified to ask the question.
The second assumption and not going out on limb would be the VA clerk/rater had no idea of what in the heck they were doing in their denial yet they are allowed to deny.
The Veteran is denied and now the widow is denied from what should be a clear case of ‘service connection.’ No different than in the civilian world where those exposed to the exact same material are covered.
The Vets case only has to reach a standard of at least as likely as not associated and thereby service connected.
VA not only pleasures themselves in the denial but the aggravation of the Veterans doctors letting them know up front; it is not a good idea to support a Veteran against us.
Example from Baylor University.
As one Baylor University doctor put it:
“This letter is to support your claim about Agent Orange. The U.S. Government and the VA have many documents about this situation and they know your claim has merit. The red tape and the smoke and mirrors are just to decrease payment or delay payment or both. I am sorry you are having so much trouble.
“Your autoimmune condition proven by biopsy and by response to treatments, has to have been caused or significantly aggravated by Agent Orange because Agent Orange and other chemicals like it have been proven to cause neuropathy, and in animal studies to produce autoimmune disease.
“Usually when I make a statement like this the VA will come back with a request for more letters and more documentation, but I think they need to be specific and not open ended and tell me how many human and animal studies published in the internationally recognized scientific literature they would require to pay your claim.
“Otherwise they will just keep asking and asking for more and more papers and documents and we will get no where and you will be frustrated and so will I.”
This example repeats itself thousands of times a day. The last two statements by this Baylor University Physician sums up the 'entire efforts' by the US Department of Veterans Affairs.
More Than 200 Tuskegee Airmen Accept Inauguration Invite
More Than 200 Tuskegee Airmen Accept Inauguration Invite
By Katharine Q. Seelye
About 225 of the Tuskegee airmen have accepted an invitation to go to Washington for Barack Obama’s inauguration, but it is not clear if all will actually make it.
Some of the 225 have accepted on a “conditional” basis — they are waiting to see what kind of arrangements can be made for their transportation and lodging as well as ground logistics in Washington.
Friday was the deadline for the airmen to respond to the invitation, which was extended Dec. 9 by Senator Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California and head of the congressional inaugural committee, through Tuskegee Airmen Inc. (T.A.I.). That’s the support association that represents the elite corps of black pilots and ground crew who fought for the United States during World War II despite the country’s active racial discrimination against them.
Each airman would get two tickets to Mr. Obama’s swearing-in ceremony. So that could mean a total of 450 coveted tickets — and coveted seats.
We chatted Sunday with Robert D. Rose, the T.A.I. official and retired Air Force captain in Omaha who is coordinating the invitations and trying to work out logistics in Washington.
“I gave the committee a tentative list of 225 with the understanding that we’re still scrubbing it,” Mr. Rose told us.
While the invitation was extended through T.A.I., it was extended to all original Tuskegee airmen, not just those who are members of the association. There were originally 16,000 pilots and ground crew who were based in Tuskegee, Alabama, between 1942 and 1946.
Mr. Rose said it has been hard tracking down everyone and verifying that all those who have responded were original airmen. About 330 originals are members of T.A.I., but T.A.I. is not certain how many others who are not members are still alive or where they are.
“We’re trying to get the word out, but most of these are people who don’t have e-mail,” Mr. Rose said. “So it’s very difficult to get information around. It’s a very labor-intensive and time-intensive endeavor.”
About 300 original airmen showed up in Washington in March 2007 to accept the Congressional Gold Medal, but some have died since then. Most of those still alive are in their 80s or 90s and some are in failing health.
For many, the trip presents challenges: getting to Washington, finding a place to stay and then being able to reach their seats at the West Front of the Capitol for the swearing-in ceremony without too much walking. Many are also concerned about the weather, the availability of restroom facilities and the crowds.
“We are trying to smooth it out as much as possible,” Mr. Rose told me.
“Some say, ‘I’m going regardless’ one day, and the next day they say, ‘I’m thinking about the bad weather,’ and a little bit of realism creeps in,” he said. “They realize this may not be a picnic, all peaches and cream. But these are hearty folks.”
Mr. Rose and his team of a half-dozen others who, like him, are volunteering their time to develop a plan, said he is trying to set up a staging area in Washington where the airmen could meet and then be transported together to the Capitol.
He said that a draft of a logistics plan that was circulating earlier and called for the airmen to be adopted by local law firms and driven close to their seats was “pie in the sky.”
“The Tuskegee airmen are not the only invitees, nor are they the only senior citizen invitees,” he said, acknowledging the many demands on inaugural planners. They say this could be the biggest event ever in Washington, with more than 1.5 million people.
In total, there are 240,000 tickets for the swearing-in ceremony. These include about 30,000 seats close to the podium, where the airmen would be seated, although their exact location has not been determined. The seats won’t be allocated until the number of airmen is clear, but in a kind of Catch-22, the number won’t be clear until the airmen know where they are seated, all of which makes planning difficult for both the airmen and the inaugural staff.
Part of the problem too is that it is not yet clear which streets will be closed off and whether certain vehicles will be able to pass through the security perimeter.
“Things have been so nebulous that it’s hard to make any firm commitments,” Mr. Rose said.
Many of the airmen accepted their invitations tentatively because they know it will be easier to get off the list later than get added to it.
“So even folks who don’t know how they’ll travel or find the money to travel are on the list,” Mr. Rose said. “I’m sure the list will dwindle.”
He said T.A.I. has received numerous offers of subsidies and help with transportation. But he has to screen these offers and be mindful of safety and liability issues. Some offers to drive the airmen in Washington, for example, may have been from people who were just trying to secure tickets for themselves.
Still, Mr. Rose said, “I am deeply moved by all the interest that has been expressed, and the guys are just awed by it. Nobody even knew who they were until 1995,” when Laurence Fishburne made a movie about the airmen. “There’s been a real paradigm-shift.”
We’ll keep you posted on further developments, but can’t say for sure when plans will be finalized. We asked Mr. Rose if he felt any pressure to have it all wrapped up by Christmas.
“No,” he said. “I feel pressure to do it right.”
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I have always known about the Tuskeegee Airmen, my step father was in the 8th Army Air Corp and he truly respected all of the fliers of the Tuskeegee units, it was a known fact that as long as the Tuskeegee men were supplying fighter escort you were not going be to shot down by German fighter planes, flak might still get you, but you would not be shot down from above. The air group Dale belonged to always requested the units that were filled with Tuskeegee pilots for this very valid reason, they were good at what they did, Dale feels the only reason he and other men from his unit lived to come home after the war, was due to the Tuskeegee Airmen.
They may not have gotten the public support they deserved until the 1995 movie, but people in the Air Force damn sure knew who they were.
If Dale was still alive he would be proud of them come Jan 20, 2009 they deserve and have earned every honor this nation can give these hero's.
Screening hot line, Web site can help with holiday blues
Screening hot line, Web site can help with holiday blues
By Mark Abramson, Stars and Stripes
European edition, Monday, December 22, 2008
This time of year means caroling, holiday parties and decking the halls — but not everyone can be as jolly as Old St. Nick.
Officials with Boston-based Screening for Mental Health Inc. work with the Defense Department to help people deal with and spot their mental ills, including alcoholism.
A company spokeswoman warned last week that even though the numbers of callers to their phone line and their Web site goes down during the holidays, more people could need help this time year, especially with the waning economy.
“The assessment tool (on the phone line and Web site) is a great way to help you determine is this a reaction to holiday stress or something more serious,” said Katherine Cruise, Mental Health Inc.’s communications manager.
“What we have found in the past is that people don’t use them as much during the holidays,” Air Force Col. Joyce Adkins said. “During that period of time they spend more time with their family and friends and they are not as likely to recognize their feelings.” Adkins is DOD’s director of psychological strategic operations.
But after the holidays the number of callers and people who log on to the Web site goes up compared to the rest of the year, Adkins said. The numbers also increase during times of the year when more servicemembers move.
Adkins and Cruise said they believe the site and phone line are making a difference. They pointed out that the Web site just counted 100,000 users since it was launched in 2006.
Servicemembers, their dependents and other government employees can reach the phone line by dialing 1-877-877-3647 and remain anonymous, or they can log on to www.MilitaryMentalHealth.org for a free screening. The Web site also helps spot signs of post traumatic stress disorder, generalized anxiety disorder and bipolar disorder.
Cruise cautioned that the screenings are a diagnostic tool that simply point out if a user’s symptoms are consistent with one of those mental health problems and whether he or she should follow up with a mental health doctor. The line and Web site also give phone numbers for Military One and the Deployment Health Hotline and other options to get help.
And even though servicemembers have guaranteed paychecks at a time when the economy is in the dumps, they still can have money-related stresses, Cruise said. Some people’s stocks could be taking a hit, they could be worried about family members being affected by the economy or they could have a house to worry about, she added.
