Hundreds of thousands of servicemen were exposed to asbestos over decades, especially during the period from 1940 to 1980. Asbestos was used in construction of naval vessels as well as shore facilities. All branches of the military used asbestos, which was also widely used in civilian applications. Asbestos can cause mesothelioma. Because this cancer has a particularly long latency period, many servicemen who were exposed years ago are now developing this disease.
- Mesothelioma Patient & Family Resources: Mesotheliomahelp is provided by Belluck & Fox, LLP as a comprehensive resource for mesothelioma victims and their families. The site provides up-to-date information on the latest news and treatment options as well as an easy to use search feature to find local mesothelioma doctors and health care clinics.
We fight for veterans harmed by asbestos: Veterans with mesothelioma or asbestos-related lung cancer should know they have options: the opportunity to bring a suit against manufacturers and sellers of the asbestos that caused their illness. If you were harmed by asbestos exposure, for example, in ships or military housing, contact Weitz & Luxenberg to get a free case review.
Important Information for Veterans: Asbestos products were often used on military ships and within military housing, and Veterans may have been exposed. Previous exposure to asbestos is the only known cause of mesothelioma, a fatal cancer that has no cure and affects countless Veterans and loved ones. For more information regarding military asbestos exposure visit Mesothelioma.com
“Every day I was in Vietnam, I thought about home. And, every day I’ve been home, I’ve thought about Vietnam.” So said one of the millions of soldiers who fought there as I did. Change the name of the battlefield and it could have been said by one of the American servicemen coming home from Iraq or Afghanistan today. Wars are not over when the shooting stops. They live on in the lives of those who fight them. That is the curse of the soldier. He never forgets.
From Bill Moyers' Journal - As America prepares to observe Veterans Day and President Obama weighs sending more troops to fight in Afghanistan, BILL MOYERS JOURNAL broadcasts a powerful documentary about the impact on soldiers of learning to kill – or be killed. THE GOOD SOLDIER follows four veterans – one from World War II, two from Vietnam, and the fourth from Iraq – as they reveal how the experiences of battle changed their lives. Watch a preview online.
Find out more about the film and theatrical release locations and dates at thegoodsoldier.com. PLEASE NOTE: Due to rights restrictions we will not be able to stream THE GOOD SOLDIER in its entirety online.
I am posting this as it was written by a friend of mine and I think it should be read by the veterans community.
Ilona Meager met many of us, especially us veterans, through using this technology, especially in research and posting on interactive community boards, and her awaking interest in a subject she had never thought much about until reading reports about suicides by returned veterans of the Afghan and Iraq occupations well into the start of both conflicts.
Her interest caused her to start researching the why these were happening, joining her were other online researchers, many like her who might have heard about but never really thought about an extremely important issue, we veteran advocates have been fighting to get much more recognition for from the masses since especially our occupation Vietnam. That issue is Combat PTSD.
This is the third of our series on Guide Dogs for the Mind. To read the previous Guide Dogs for the Mind article Training Your Own PTSD Service Dog select this LINK.
The Service Dog lifestyle is not for everyone. It is a LOT of work. You cannot simply put a cape or harness on your dog and be on your way. Check out the Psychiatric Service Dog (PSD) Lifestyle articles for further explanation.
Big changes underway at the VA could mean better treatment for thousands of vets. A bureaucracy in transition.
By Jamie Reno
They are the invisible wounds of war, the battered minds and bruised spirits we have come to recognize as posttraumatic stress disorder, or PTSD. By one estimate, more than 300,000 of the nearly 2 million U.S. servicemen and -women deployed since 9/11 suffer from the often-debilitating condition, with symptoms that include flashbacks and nightmares, emotional numbness, relationship problems, trouble sleeping, sudden anger, and drug and alcohol abuse. The number of cases is expected to climb as the war in Afghanistan continues, and could ultimately exceed 500,000, according to a new study by researchers at Stanford University. Mental-health experts say PTSD is the primary reason suicides in the military are at an all-time high; 256 soldiers took their own lives in 2008, the highest number since that data was first tracked, in 1980.
Special Report: SPECIAL SERIES: Training Your Own PTSD Service Dog by Dr. Joan Esnayra
This is the second of our series on Guide Dogs for the Mind. To read the first article Service Dogs for People with PTSDselect this LINK.
The Service Dog lifestyle is not for everyone. It is a LOT of work. You cannot simply put a cape or harness on your dog and be on your way. Check out the Psychiatric Service Dog (PSD) Lifestyle articles for further explanation.
Special Report: SPECIAL SERIES: Service Dogs for People with PTSD by Dr. Joan Esnayra
There is much information on the Internet related to Service Dogs for Veterans living with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). A simple ‘Google' search using these terms produces prolific results. Where does one begin to sift through these data? Which websites are credible, and which are not? Which organizations are legitimate and sincere in their efforts to assist Veterans, and which ones are merely in it for the money?
We have asked that Dr. Joan Esnayra a pioneer in the field of Psychiatric Service Dogs do a series of articles for Veterans Today that will help Veterans and Military Families considering the use of a service dog make informative decisions. This series is also intended to educate the public about the misinformation being circulated about such service dogs.
Features: Soap Operas Provide Comfort During Peace and War
by Donna Teresa, Staff Writer
Soap operas have been around since the early 1930s. A source of entertainment that started in radio, soap operas have become a television favorite.
I admit, I've been a fan of daytime television for many years. It was inevitable I would, after all my grandmother was an avid soap watcher, as was my mother.
My grandmother would do her household chores around her soap times just to make sure she could sit for awhile and enjoy them. She told me she started listening to the soaps on the radio, especially during World War II.
He says he has post-traumatic stress disorder, became addicted to drugs
Vietnam vets mentor other former service members in New Directions programs
Number of homeless veterans of Afghanistan, Iraq is increasing
By Paul Vercammen
LOS ANGELES, California -- When Sergio Arias returned to civilian life in Oxnard, California, visions of war still haunted him.
The former Marine, who served a tour of duty during the invasion of Iraq in 2003, says he suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder. "Even now, it's not something I want to relive," says Arias, who left the military as a corporal in August of that year.
Special Report: Endless War: The Suicide of the United States
by Dahr Jamail
A US soldier looks through netting at a medical tent in Logar Province, Afghanistan, on July 23. (Photo: Reuters)
"We hear war called murder. It is not: it is suicide." - Ramsay MacDonald, British prime minister 1931-1935
Sergio Kochergin, back home from his second deployment in Iraq, held a gun in his mouth, trying to muster the courage to pull the trigger. Untreated post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and accompanying nightmares and insomnia, heavy substance abuse, and several failed attempts at self-medication had taken their toll on him. He was in an apartment he shared with a friend in Texarkana, Texas, after having spent the past few months with his parents, where he "was drinking too much and causing too much trouble, breaking things, flipping out every day, and cursing at them."
Opinion: MOST VETS SUFFERING PTSD ARE NOT SEEKING TREATMENT
By Sherwood Ross, Staff Writer
Veterans returning from the fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq are displaying many of the same post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms of troops that fought in Viet Nam, yet most do not seek treatment, authorities say.
“I’m not an alarmist but I think this is a serious problem,” Dr. Matthew Friedman, executive director of the Department of Veterans Affairs’ National Center for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder(PTSD), wrote in The New England Journal of Medicine.
USA Today writes an article on Broken Families concerning returning U.S. Military Troops. This is one of the best articles that I have read on the subject of the mental drawbacks inflicted on children whom become Military Veterans. There are so many (know it alls) that write such as “casualties of war” and other phrases to catch the eye.
The true meaning is can you understand the mental state of someone returning with survivor instants of war. How does one grasp the need to set your emotions aside and never be able to acquire them back?
Opinion: FEWER THAN HALF OF RETURNING VETS SUFFERING PTSD SEEK HELP, VA DOC SAYS
Fewer than half returning vets with PTSD seeking help; doc says they fear stigma
by Sherwood Ross
Veterans returning from the fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq are displaying many of the same post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms of troops that fought in Viet Nam, yet most do not seek treatment.
“I’m not an alarmist but I think this is a serious problem,” Dr. Matthew Friedman, executive director of the Department of Veterans Affairs’ National Center for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder(PTSD), wrote in The New England Journal of Medicine.
Special Report: Veterans Groups need to put more pressure on Shinseki and Congress to allow VA doctors to communication with deploying milita
As this story tells us, it is a dilemma faced by VA doctors caught between their legal confidentiality obligations to their patients and the obligation to tell deploying military units that their patients may be harmful to themselves or their unit if sent back into combat.
The barriers to this are the fear that if they know that a VA doctor is going to report them to their units, more troops will not show up for treatment thus leading to more suicides. However, looking at this in a humane way, the basic humanitarian question needs to be asked. Which is more immoral failure to maintain confidentiality with a patient who is a potential harm to himself or others or waiting for something to go terribly wrong once that trooper deploys his or her second, third, fourth or more time to a war zone?
Robert L. Hanafin Major, U.S. Air Force-Retired Veterans Advocacy Editor Veterans Today News Network & Our Troops News Ladder
In his 2007 expose, Return to Fort Carson Raises More Questions, NPR reporter Daniel Zwerdling called public attention to reports that [Non-Commissioned] Officers at Fort Carson, Colorado were mistreating soldiers who returned from war with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The stories prompted investigations way back as early as 2006, and commanders at the base launched a training program to help every soldier in trouble, a training program that is now over three years old. Upon reflecting on his return to Fort Carson over two years ago, he noted that there remained Gaps in Mental Care for Fort Carson Soldiers that was way back in 2007. Now, 2009 the social consequences of what the Army has done or failed to do have come Home to War with a massive surge in troops and young Veterans getting violent not in Iraq or Afghanistan but right here at home. This has been a long time coming, but now it is here. When are we as a nation and people going to force our government to get serious about the endless multiple military deployments and the habit of the Pentagon downplaying the mental and physical costs of exploiting our patriotic volunteers?
The only half ass reaction we continue to get out of DOD is yet another defensive study to cover up and detract from the real problems suffered by real people sent into combat too many times.
It is way past time for studies, there's been enough studies, the VA does studies, the DOD does studies, Congress does studies, Rand corporation gets government contracts to do studies but none of them address the hidden agenda to downplay not only PTSD in our Armed Forces but the impact that multiple deployments during a time when military ops tempo is at historic highs.
Enough with the studies and defensive maneuverings of the Pentagon already, and let us get on with doing something about PTSD in the military. Stop studying the impact of back to back deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan and start doing something to end them.
"They were careless people, Tom and Daisy. ... They smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made."
- F. Scott Fitzgerald in The Great Gatsby (1925), condemning hubris and disrespect -
Were he alive today, Fitzgerald could be describing the Department of Justice and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) under George W. Bush. For that matter all the warmakers and chickenhawks who turn their backs on the people who fight these ridiculous wars.
Those two departments are for us to clean up now. There is a politcal will from Obama administration to do so, but can President Obama toss out the trash? It appears easier said than done.
Click on the PTSD Newsladder above for more articles and commentary on PTSD by 21st Century THINKERS.
Though when we in the Veterans and Military Family community discuss PTSD in terms of our troops and families that carry the burdens of war for the rest of the nation, PTSD as a recognized medical diagnosis was first brought to public attention by Vietnam War veterans. It wasn't until the diagnosis was recognized by the Veterans Administration after Vietnam that its implications spread throughout the rest of American Society. The Armed Forces has led the way in technological advancements, and social reform sometimes way ahead of the rest of our society. PTSD is an example of how the stress of combat, family loss, wounds, and disabilities as a result of war blazed the way for a wide spread understanding of what causes PTSD. However myths still surround PTSD that do much to contribute to the stigma associated with PTSD.
We at Veterans Today News Network decided to do a series on PTSD using data and materials from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). However, there remains a Secret of NIMN, there has yet to be a definitive study or stand taken by NIMN on the impact of never ending deployments of the same people to combat zones leading to an aggravating PTSD.
When discussing Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), one wishes to be precise and careful in refuting the political forces challenging this diagnosis of a malady that is pervasive in our veterans.
Col. Dan Cedusky, USA (Ret) sends us a piece entitled Valid Diagnosis Who Benefits From Challenging Its Existence from the Psychiatric Times written by Rachel Yehuda, PhD and Alexander C. McFarlane, MD. See below.
So to the neocons and specifically the rightwing VA Inspector General's offices around the country that are giving our Wisconsin veterans and indeed veterans all over the country such a hard time, let me be precise and careful in my lay-medical advice to you: Go fuck yourselves.
No glory. No George W. Bush and "Mission Accomplished." War sucks and war is a lie.
That's the message from the coming documentary of the veterans who decades later live with the lie, a "sweeping look at the experiences and impact of the Vietnam War on Wisconsin soldiers and civilians with Wisconsin Vietnam War Stories. The project won't air on WPT until 2010, but work has already begun around the state to find veterans who will tell their stories."
Special Report: Soldier’s Heart, Shell Shock, Battle Fatigue, Vietnam Syndrome, PTSD, it’s all the same to me.
Sandy Cook wrote an outstanding article that requires more attention than it got. He called it PTSD? Bull! it's soldier's heart!Readers can find it here on VT, but it somehow got hidden. Suffice it to say that I both had to agree and disagree with calling PTSD Soldier's Heart, because Soldier's Heart doesn't give the actual medical and mental condition the wide spread application that PTSD has gotten within the overall medical and psychological community that has to treat PTSD in all its forms.
However, disagreeing with the narrow focus that Soldier's Heart gives PTSD in no way takes away the message Sandy was telling us. In fact, he inspired me to write more on it and to comment on those parts of his article I questioned. Heck, I even questioned parts I agreed with Sandy. That said, in searching for graphics to highlight Sandy's points, because I agreed with him more than questioned him, I ran across this website above that taught me the true meaning of what Sandy was really trying to say. Now, I get it Sandy, but still prefer calling PTSD, well PTSD.
What is the reality of war, and what is the reality of those who return from war? During the Civil War they called the residual mental damage from the stress of war “soldier’s heart”, and that may be the least euphemistic name for it, even after 145 years.
Special Report: My home town-Housing Venice's most vulnerable homeless
Using approximately $724,000 in funds from L.A. County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky's office, The Venice Chronic Homeless Intervention Project follows in the footsteps of the supervisor's Project 50.
VENICE — Somewhere on the streets lives a 59-year-old man who once served his country in the armed forces, today fighting a different kind of enemy — cancer, hepatitis C and kidney and liver diseases.
Out of all the homeless individuals living in Venice, he's considered to be the most at risk of dying.
On the beach at Gwithian Downs near Hayle in Cornwall, Rich Emerson is teaching a surf lesson.
BY Louise Walter BBC Cornwall- His students are two fellow war veterans and all three are suffering post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after combat tours. The 43-year-old, who lives in Hayle, served with the Queen's Royal Irish Hussars as a tank crewman in 1991, during the first Gulf war in Iraq
By his own admission, he still has bad days: "It's hard to get out of bed and get motivated to do anything - even as far as having a shower and something to eat and drink."
WASILLA -- For a while Sunday, before the sky crackled with thunder and lightning and a torrent of rain, Fort Richardson soldier Faron Copas relaxed with friends in peace at Finger Lake.
News: New Directions: Some veterans of recent wars find homelessness at home
Soldiers returning from the Middle East end up on the street and have trouble coping with a return to civilian life.Last year, New Directions opened a transitional house for Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans in the Del Rey neighborhood of Los Angeles with 24-hour support staff.
By Jia-Rui Chong It was, back then, a joke Luis Pinto shared with his Army buddies in Iraq. As they were all eating food out of tin cans, living out of rucksacks, moving constantly from place to place, Pinto cracked, "If I become homeless, I'm ready."
But five years later he didn't actually expect to find himself sleeping in alleys in Whittier or in friends' cars, too busy getting high to hold down a regular job. A suicide attempt on March 16 was the shock he needed to start putting his life back together
South Carolina-The state's first correctional program to aim therapy and substance abuse treatments at homeless inmates is expected to be launched in Horry County by July.
County officials announced Thursday that a Conway firm has been selected to provide the therapy and substance abuse treatment programs for inmates at J. Reuben Long Detention Center, as part of a program to reduce recidivism rates.
News: Opening of ESL shelter for homeless veterans postponed
EAST ST. LOUIS -- The sponsors of the Joseph Center, a 22-bed shelter for homeless veterans, have postponed a ribbon-cutting ceremony to mark the $2 million center's completion that had been set for Friday.
The ribbon-cutting ceremony will still occur, said Frank Hackmann, a spokesman for Eagles Nest, the not-for-profit group sponsoring the homeless center at 5020 State St.
News: The Pennsylvania Veterans Museum Hosts WWII Veteran-POW Author-Norman Bussel
Saturday, June 20, at the Pennsylvania Veterans Museum (PVM), located at 12 East State Street, Media, PA 19063.
Mr. Norman Bussel, a World War II Veteran and former Prisoner of War, will visit PVM from Noon - 2:00 PM on Saturday to discuss and sign his memoir "Liberated Body, Captive Mind: A World War II POW's Journey," which chronicles not only his year in a German prison camp, but the decades following with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and other struggles. He speaks on PTSD also with a view to support troops returning from Iraq.
Some people ask me why I did what I did when I attempted to transform the lives of veterans incarcerated. Some say they are only criminals. They broke the law and have to pay the price. Most people never consider that maybe PTSD has something to do with choices made at a young age, or that self-medicated drug use, in order to forget the horrors of combat, could lead to addiction and imprisonment. I worked with Vets who took part in the invasion of Iwo Jima, and fought in the Solomon Islands during WWII. I worked with decorated Vets who were turned around after the war and made bad choices. What I tell these people is that the men I trained for successful and productive releases back into their communities were veterans first, and they must be recognized for their service and their sacrifice. They didn’t run when they were called to war, and we can’t run from them when they extend their hand. What follows, is the recollections of a Vietnam warrior named Tony. After 40 years, he’s finally on his way home.
Apparently Max Cleland, author of “
From 
This is the third of our series on Guide Dogs for the Mind. To read the previous Guide Dogs for the Mind article Training Your Own PTSD Service Dog select 
This is the second of our series on Guide Dogs for the Mind. To read the first article Service Dogs for People with PTSD select 
By Sherwood Ross, Staff Writer
As this story tells us, it is a dilemma faced by VA doctors caught between their legal confidentiality obligations to their patients and the obligation to tell deploying military units that their patients may be harmful to themselves or their unit if sent back into combat. 
This story is related to Tom Barnes' post 
PTSD in terms of our troops and families that carry the burdens of war for the rest of the nation, PTSD as a recognized medical diagnosis was first brought to public attention by Vietnam War veterans. It wasn't until the diagnosis was recognized by the Veterans Administration after Vietnam that its implications spread throughout the rest of American Society. The Armed Forces has led the way in technological advancements, and social reform sometimes way ahead of the rest of our society. PTSD is an example of how the stress of combat, family loss, wounds, and disabilities as a result of war blazed the way for a wide spread understanding of what causes PTSD. However myths still surround PTSD that do much to contribute to the stigma associated with PTSD. 
Sandy Cook wrote an outstanding article that requires more attention than it got. He called it 
