Interesting read / The holes in the safety net for veterans stretches across North America  http://bit.ly/x6MJVs  Ghost soldiers whose survival instincts remain intact-They deserve better from the Nation’s whose uniforms they wore-

How many times do our senses have to be assaulted by the  enormity of the human tragedy of these stories before we stop looking away and begin to reflect inwardly on what 10 years of war has done to the 1% of our Countrymen who have carried this fight for our Nation. I ask all that read this blog to pray for this soldier, his family, the victims and their families http://bit.ly/xwRPlA–

The truth always resides in an employer’s actions, not their words. I hope this veteran gets his benefits and Aetna reaps nothing but poor press from making him fight for them. http://bit.ly/Af0Z8u

“I heard from veterans who said they no longer write that they’re a veteran on their resume because of the stigma they believe employers attach to the invisible wounds of war,” Murray said. http://wapo.st/zM2qFq

“To blame the soldiers or veterans just alienates them further and reinforces “If you go forward with asking for help then you cannot be trusted.” We loose 18 to 22 veterans a day to suicide, this culture of denial is killing more of our soldiers and veterans then the last 10 years of war, over 60,000 veterans to suicide in the last ten years. That’s not counting the suicide in the military”.  The carnage is truly deplorable. http://bit.ly/wwmV3v

Based on my prior postings it would appear the CBOs fears are well grounded. “We have some very big debts to pay to the soldiers that have come home recently. (Don’t blame them for wars – they just fight them.) I’m concerned that we will renege on those promises. I think the CBO is too, that’s probably why it wrote the report”  http://read.bi/wwgodZ

No surprise to me. The Rand research on PTSD which is the gold standard for research on the issue of PTSD found that 50% of behavioral health care for our military and veterans is inadequate. This is an example of that and even more egregiously reversing a diagnosis  based on what appears to be a cost bias. It doesn’t get any worse than that.   http://bit.ly/zgOAUb

“Every soldier leaving military service must be treated in a fair and consistent manner, free of pressure from the Pentagon to cut costs and trim military defense budgets”.
Read the first comment after the article: -it’s spot on: http://bit.ly/wQB4MP

Panetta spoke two days before the premiere of a new documentary about sexual assault in the U.S. military, titled “The Invisible War.” The film is being shown at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. http://on.msnbc.com/y971b5

“In 2007 in a hearing at Congress, I said the unemployment rate is going to go up to 20 percent, and people scoffed,” Daywalt recalled. “This year you’re going to see it go up to 50 or more percent.”  http://huff.to/xM5fbM

Again and again, we see the exploitation of military/veterans issues by the public relations machines of the Fortune 500 who spout gratuitous nonsense about all the good work their doing when in reality very little is being done for them. Meanwhile, they bask in the limelight of their own p.r. hyperbole around military and veterans issues. Most don’t even have military/veterans initiatives in their charitable giving programs. It’s all smoke and mirrors. I’ll become a supporter when 46% of employers stop discriminating against veterans w/ a PTSD diagniosis. Enough said.