Well written article-Makes you think about the latest slogan that is in fashion: Hire a Hero-Ask any of them if they consider themselves heroes and they’ll tell you straight up that the heroes are the ones that never came Home. What they want is a damn job that doesn’t require tax credits to employers to have it offered to them/ See below-This is the cold hard truth stacked up against jingoism-I’m sick of these slogans and the onslaught of to little to late masking all of it. Stop w/ the slogans already and provide to them what a grateful Nation should-good jobs, medical and behavioral health care w/o regard to the ability to pay and a simple thank you for your service-tie the first two together and the last one will actually have meaning to them.

“And the cold, hard facts remain that, in the reckoning of the financial system, he is just another social security number bearing baggage. He is not a special case, not someone to be given lenience by dint of his experience, but rather a young man with tattered credit and no certain income potential”. http://huff.to/pCjqKA

“If peacefully means being drug out by force, grabbing our arms and pushing us along the way,” Joppa-Hagemann explained to KOMO”. http://bit.ly/qItBRE

The Secretary showed absolutely no compassion for this grieving widow. He should have instantly told his bodyguards that a military heroes wife held no threat to him and should have let her speak to him at length. Rather, he chose the pathway of self-promotion and hawking his Book rather than showing deference and compassion to the wife of a warrior who had given so much to this Country. The arrogance of power and his own hubris.

“But a female soldier serving in Iraq is more likely to be raped by a fellow soldier than killed by enemy fire. One in five women serving in the Air Force say they’ve been sexually assaulted since joining the service. The problem is all over the service, in all branches, and the Pentagon estimates that 80-90% of assaults aren’t reported at all”.  http://bit.ly/qItBRE

Hope is not a strategy! / Intrigued by these results, the U.S. Army approached Seligman and asked for his help to lower soldiers’ high rates of depression, PTSD and suicide. The resulting initiative, Comprehensive Soldier Fitness, is a $145 million program. http://bit.ly/qRexQF 

Another study while warriors and their families continue to struggle w/ unemployment rates triple the national average, benefits including educational that take forever, training for jobs that do not exist and TBI and PTSD rates that are at tsunami levels. Fact-46% of employers see PTSD as a potential workforce hazard! With 145M Invictus could have built 53 treatment centers providing 24 thousand visits per year to warriors and their families w/o regard to their ability to pay, better training for providers in Rx of warriors, employer education, community outreach services and research. Enough already w/ the paralysis thru analysis. Act boldy and act now

??????”There are no plans to hold a battalion memorial for SSG Hagemann at this time. “A Joint Base Lewis McChord spokesperson said military memorials have been held for some of the other soldiers suspected of killing themselves”. http://bit.ly/qw6hrD

It begs the question: “why were not all of them deserved of a battalion memorial?”. Our warriors are stigmatized inside the military and outside-they “get it” which is why many are reluctant to seek care.

Destigmatizing PTSD in the workplace has a long way to go; read on: http://bit.ly/pUfdCB

“She cited that 46 percent of HR managers surveyed claimed PTSD poses a hiring challenge, despite no evidence that suggests folks with PTSD are prone to violence or dampened efficiency”.

A good example of a “battlefield casualty” that doesn’t show up in the statistics. To give this warrior any kind of jail time whatsoever would be a travesty of justice.

Quinones said he doesn’t know why he went to the hospital that morning, but ventures that his subconscious took over and decided to cut through the red tape. “I guess that’s the only thing I can think of,” he said. “ ’I’m going to get this help and whether you want to help me or not, you’re going to help me.’ ”  http://1.usa.gov/nUf2Kz

“The need for services to deal with physical and psychological problems of veterans returning from Afghanistan and Iraq will skyrocket for decades to come, officials say”. http://bit.ly/rh9QH3

http://prn.to/rehPdK