According to the Department of Veterans Affairs, women veterans are four times more likely than their male counterparts to wind up homeless. What’s more, there are an estimated 6,500 homeless female veterans living on the streets – double the number reported a decade ago.http://bit.ly/gf0QQT

In the case of post-traumatic stress disorder, not all symptoms are created equal. http://bit.ly/hcS0NX

There will be veterans in the park who carry with them physical and emotional wounds of great magnitude, who remain crippled by the dead hand of war, who never sleep well, who struggle in the black pit of depression and with post-traumatic stress disorder, and who will bear the cross that war inflicted upon them until the end of their days. They will have surmounted tremendous psychic and physical pain to make it to Lafayette Park, to defy what they know must be defied. And if they can walk their trail of tears to the White House so can you. They are our wounded healers, our disregarded prophets.-http://bit.ly/eZ701a

This is an unflinching and gritty article on the human cost of war-We must hold our civilian and military leadership accountable for the invisible wounds of war that are inflicted upon all who are forever changed by the experience. of war. That includes pointing out to them their galling hypocrisy when they present the tokenism of “Welcome Home” while at the same time proposing cutting 6.2B dollars out of the VA budget/

“Once a person reaches a certain age, rather than letting life happen to them, they begin to happen to life” So very true / For our blog readers who have reached this juncture, follow this link and begin to “happen to life” -http://bit.ly/igRUh0

Below is a snippet of the linked article: Last week I got a very interesting call from ABC TV. They’re developing a 20/20 episode or a series based on the subject of restorative justice. I had a long chat with Andrew Sullivan about his expectations for the piece and what they hope to achieve with it. He mentioned that they are actively seeking survivors who would be right for the series; I offered to help him reach out.

The Keeper By Ann Chiappetta

You ask me to hold the secrets
Put the stories away
You must think me the mental Equivalent of Fort Knox
Accepting your dark treasure
denser than gold and so heavy you can’t move it.
So heavy even Atlas couldn’t bear it.
Locked up until the next time we meet.

the tales told are soul-stealing
corrosive
Seductive as nails down your back.

I think you stay in those stories,
beCause it’s easier than saying goodbye.
Part of you lives on in them
While within the same stories,
You hold on to the part that died.

Soldiers fighting invisible enemy on home turf -Thought provoking article on the relationship between TBI and PTSD. Certainly important from the perspective of disability rating boards. Doctors estimate up to 20 percent of soldiers currently deployed will suffer a traumatic brain injury — something that just a few years ago was often never diagnosed or properly treated. Most will recover with no after affects, but some are changed forever. http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=14468282

The U.S. Military estimates 144,000-plus service members in the last decade have suffered a type of this injury. A study based at Fort Carson suggests the number is much higher

I’ve read Marcus’ book-Lone Survivor-thanks to him and thousands like him, this Country is “doing alright” / A riveting and powerful video -@ 85K hits on You Tube since posted-A MUST WATCH!!!  http://bit.ly/hsErpi

The unemployment rate for post-9/11 veterans — a group the government labels Gulf War-era II veterans — was 15.2 percent in January, up from 12.5 percent in the same month a year ago and well above the 9.6 percent rate for non-veterans, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

We know mental health problems are associated with unemployment, and we know a large percentage of veterans suffer from (post traumatic stress disorder) symptoms or depression,” said Terry Schell, a behavioral scientist at the RAND Corp. think-tank in Washington, D.C., who has focused much of his recent research on veterans with PTSD. General Tommy Frank’s in his book An American Soldier coined a phrased for his attacking Divisions in Iraq 11, “speed kills”-in the worst of ironies, the lack of speed in getting competent outreach behavioral health services to our returning warriors is killing them w/ the same type of speed; on average 18 a day from suicide. We at the Invictus Foundation will stay on message that one is to many and the debt of gratitude owed to this Nation’s warriors and their families must extend beyond a debt of gratitude to real world issues of jobs and outreach services that will have a meaningful impact on their lives. We will never be able to repay them for what they have done for us however focusing on real world issues such as jobs and more plentiful outreach services for them would be a good faith down payment

Unbroken is excellent narrative non-fiction that covers the life and times of Louie Zamperini, an Italian-American who was an track athlete before and during the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. Unbroken is an powerful and unforgettable book. One does not need to be a military history buff to appreciate the scope of Unbroken; just as one doesn’t need to be a horse-lover to appreciate Seabiscuit. Such is Laura Hillenbrand’s talent in examining the stories and histories around what might appear at first glance to be a book of singular focus.

After the 1936 Olympics, Zamperini trained hard, in hopes for the 1940 Olympics and another chance at medaling. But then World War II happened and the Olympics were cancelled. Not only that, Zamperini was one of many Americans who joined the war effort, becoming an airman in the US Army Air Forces. Zamperini was sent to the Pacific to fly missions. Unbroken underscores how dangerous these missions were (planes were often subject to breakdown because of heavy use): Eventually, on one of these flight missions, Zamperini’s plane (a B-24) crashed in the ocean and he had to struggle for survival on a raft with two other men that were with him in the B-24. Capturing food and water were difficult challenges. After 46 days at sea, the raft finally drifted towards an island atoll. Alas, this atoll of the Marshall Islands was already occupied by the Japanese, and the men were immediately captured. Zamperini’s years as a Prisoner of War (POW) under Japanese troops is then described in harrowing detail. The POW experience under the Japanese was hard for Louie. It is no wonder that once the war was over Zamperini came back home suffering from what would now be called PTSD (post-traumatic stress syndrome). Unbroken covers Zamperini’s difficulties with alcohol and married life, and how Zamperini eventually manages to overcome them. After he hears Billy Graham speaking, he becomes a new person. The religious aspect is not really touched on in detail, and at that point, the narrative then moves to an epilogue — Louie Zamperini is still living to this day, having recently turned 94 on January 26th of this year http://bit.ly/hBaF3f

VIDEO: http://j.mp/fcHF3f – Colonel Jack Jacobs, a member of the Invictus Foundation’s Advisory Board, speaks eloquently to the need for warriors and their families to access resiliency tools available now within the behavioral health community and urges, “don’t let problems defeat you at Home”. Timely encouragement from the recipient of this Nation’s highest military honor.

We echo that encouragement and add our own sense of urgency to the necessity of warriors and their families reaching out for help based on the stark reality that 18 Veterans a day commit suicide in this Country. One is to many.