“... I believe Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld knew Pat was killed by fratricide and permitted the cover-up.  It is not believable that a man known for his propensity to micromanage would not want to know what happened to his most high-profile soldier. I informed the committee that Pat received a personal letter from Rumsfeld shortly after he and his brother enlisted, commending him for his commitment to serve. Pat was obviously in Rumsfeld's consciousness."

"Well, that's one of the questions that we will never completely answer.  But it certainly is one of the areas that that raises questions. There are so many mistakes. So many things that happened. If you add them all together, it certainly calls into question the credibility of those who handled this. And raises the kind of questions that Ms. Tillman raises. I don't blame her for that. And I don't expect her ever to believe us. But there was no effort to deceive. There were mistakes and grievous errors by the legions. And as a result, we fell short of our duty to her as a mother of one of our heroes."

Only a certain amount of people handle the citation for the Silver Star, one of our highest military awards. Each commander signs a block on the document and there is a document called a transmittal letter that accompanies it from office to office. Only organizational will prevents the Army from prosecuting the criminal that a) faked an official document and b) tried to leave a lower grade enlisted Soldier to take the blame.

The awarding of the decoration was illegal, as the incident obviously didn't represent "gallantry in action against an armed enemy," as required by the Army's own regulations.  This award does a disservice to all of our veterans who have legitimately earned this august award. The Tillman family should return the award to the Army, which should then rescind the award as unjustified and issued illegally.

Yes, it may be true that this star represents "gallantry in action against an armed enemy." What could be more gallant than a young man giving up not only his career but his life?  Pat Tillman gave up his life to serve in an illegal war that has ruined our economy with the billions of dollars being wasted but, more important, the loss of the respect of the rest of the world.

Eddie Grant, the Giants’ third baseman, died in France in 1918. Christy Mathewson, the great Giants pitcher, had his life shortened from a mustard-gas accident in training near the end of World War I. And Nile Kinnick, the star running back from Iowa, died in a training flight in 1943. But Pat Tillman’s death was different because of the way he was used, posthumously, blatantly.

The U.S. military death toll will soon reach 500 in Afghanistan, where the war has received less media attention than the conflict in Iraq despite an increasingly violent insurgency, the resurgence of al-Qaeda, and a growing commitment of troops...

...By the Pentagon's latest count, the armed forces have suffered 489 deaths so far. And still troops arrive: The number in Afghanistan exceeds 34,000, with 7,500 additional men and women requested.

The U.S. troops are part of a 40-nation force expanded from 40,000 in fall 2006 to nearly 70,000 today. Last year was the deadliest since 2001, according to the United Nations, which reported 8,000 fatalities, including 1,500 civilians.

As far back as 2004, Time Magazine published a cover story whose online component was titled: "Remember Afghanistan?" And then there was this New York Times 2005 editorial titled: "Afghanistan's Forgotten War." Now, in 2008, we're still wondering if Afghanistan is forgotten. But, why? Is it simply because of less media coverage? Is it because of Iraq? Is it because people don't care, don't understand, or don't have enough energy to follow two U.S. wars at the same time?

Whatever the reason, the violence still continues. Yesterday came word that U.S. Marines recently deployed to Afghanistan, launched a major operation attacking a Taliban-held town in the violent Helmand region.  According to the Associated Press, this was the furthest south U.S. forces had operated in years:

The goal is to stretch NATO's presence into an area where illegal opium poppy fields are plentiful and the Taliban is strong. British troops man a small base on Garmser's northern edge but insurgents rule the countryside south of the outpost all the way to the Pakistan border.

The Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act is designed to offer the brave men and women who have served honorably since September 11, 2001 a level of educational benefits on par with those provided to veterans of the World War II era.

Many people enlist to earn money for college, and almost everyone signs up for the education benefits -- which, in the case of the main GI Bill, requires a service member to pay about $1,200 into the plan-- but not everyone takes advantage of it. And that buy-in is not returned even if the benefits are unused.

About 70 percent use at least some part of it, said Keith Wilson, director of the education service, but the VA does not track how many earn degrees.

An independent study found that just over half use some part of the benefits, said Ray Kelley of AMVETS, a veterans support group, and only 8 percent use all. "Congress is realizing we're not giving them the benefits we say we're giving them," Kelley said. "They only have 36 months from the time they start using it to the time they finish." That means going to school full time, year-round.

Hampered by unprofitable routes, ATA lost $75 million last year and was in talks with five potential suitors when FedEx, with apparently little explanation, decided to cut off the Indianapolis carrier's only money maker: military charters...Its roots were passenger charters that led the carrier, earlier known as American Trans Air, to branch out into troop charters. ATA operates a $340 million-a-year airborne bus line ferrying troops and their families to and from places where the U.S. military stations troops worldwide.

The suit claims that many disabled combat veterans are in dire need of counseling and other services they are not currently receiving from the U.S. government. Erspamer [the plaintiff's counsel] estimates that 120 veterans who served in Iraq or Afghanistan commit suicide each week. The veterans' groups are not seeking monetary damages but want reform of a health care system in which they allege a huge backlog of cases prevents veterans from receiving timely care.

A majority of the VA's counselors, doctors, social workers and psychologists "don't have the tools and the information that they need to intervene effectively with suicidal vets," said Maris, a former president of the American Association of Suicidology who has been a consultant to the Army on suicide prevention.

He was particularly critical of the VA's top health care administrator, William Feeley, who said in a pretrial deposition April 9 that the agency has no systematic national plan for suicide prevention. Feeley also said he was unaware of any methods of tracking veterans at risk of suicide and that suicide rates "are not a metric we are measuring."

Among our recommendations is that effective treatments documented in the scientific literature — evidence-based care — are available for PTSD and major depression. Delivery of such care to all veterans with PTSD or major depression would pay for itself within two years, or even save money, by improving productivity and reducing medical and mortality costs. Such care may also be a cost-effective way to retain a ready and healthy military force for the future. However, to ensure that this care is delivered requires system-level changes across the Department of Defense, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and the U.S. health care system.

They gave various reasons for not getting help, including that they worried about the side effects of medication; believe family and friends could help them with the problem, or that they feared seeking care might damage their careers.

Rates of PTSD and major depression were highest among Army soldiers and Marines, and among service members who were no longer on active duty (people in the reserves and those who had been discharged or retired from the military). Women, Hispanics and enlisted personnel all were more likely to report symptoms of PTSD and major depressions.

Last November the Pentagon opened the Defense Center of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury in an effort to bring together education, treatment, and research.  From the Department of Defense:

The center also will set standards and assess, survey and validate DoD programs, and decide, in part, how resources are directed... Center officials are reviewing hundreds of research project proposals that hope to claim a piece of the $300 million set aside by Congress last year for brain injury research. The office also will work with the military services to see which of the many programs funded with another $600 million from Congress are working and how to direct those funds to programs most beneficial to servicemembers and families.

When the United States invaded Iraq in 2003, among the seven-hundred-odd journalists who embedded with combat units were few who were familiar with the military in any intimate way. To many critics, especially those with military experience, this revealed itself in the press’s coverage of the war, which they felt often missed the mark when it came to explaining the hows and the whys of the fight, as well as the mundane realities of military life and culture.

"When the five-brigade surge went in...that took all the stroke out of the shock absorbers for the United States Army."

"There has been little, if any, change of the stress or tempo for our forces," [said Gen. Robert Magnus, assistant commandant of the Marine Corps], calling the current pace of operations "unsustainable."

Magnus suggested that if more Marines are freed from Iraq they could also go to Afghanistan. Marines "will move to the sound of the guns in Afghanistan," he said. But he said it would be difficult to keep the force split between the two countries because the Marine Corps has limited resources to command a divided force and supply it logistically.

The Marine Corps is "basically in two boats at the same time," he said.

In mid 2007 oobgolf.com launched an advanced golf course finder for our users. We recently made the decision to use that same technology and development resources to map the hometowns of soldiers who have died in Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom. This was not done as a political statement. We simply felt that this tool provided a unique way for Americans to connect to these fallen soldiers in a new more personal way.

The four-day event will bring together veterans from across the country to testify about their experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan - and present video and photographic evidence. In addition, there will be panels of scholars, veterans, journalists, and other specialists to give context to the testimony. These panels will cover everything from the history of the GI resistance movement to the fight for veterans' health benefits and support.

The veterans are not against the military and seek not to indict it – instead they seek to shine a light on the bigger picture: that the Abu Ghraib prison regime and the Haditha massacre of innocent Iraqis are not isolated incidents perpetrated by “bad seeds” as the military suggests, but evidence of an endemic problem. They will say they were tasked to do terrible things and point the finger up the chain of command, which ignores, diminishes or covers up routine abuse and atrocities.

Other veterans, and vet bloggers, aren't thrilled with this event. A group called "Stop the Slander," described as a "coalition of concerned veterans, family members, and friends," has even published a guide for reporter's covering IVAW.  The guide warns journalists that claims made by IVAW may be untrue.  The guide even provides an acronym to follow of questions to ask:

D: Date(s) – When did the incident occur?
U: Unit(s) – What military units were involved?
P: Personnel – What are the names of the participants and witnesses?
E: Event(s) – What exactly happened exactly where?
S: Signature(s) – Was this reported at the time or later and were reports, affidavits or depositions signed, or will they now be signed?

Veterans For Freedom blogger, Mark Seavey, took his own critical look at the IVAW's preparations for the Winter Soldier event, but in the end wrote that both sides of the debate should be heard -- without unnecessary contest or debate:

I think it speaks well of IVAW that they expect all testimony to be true and verifiable.  And there will plenty of eyes there to ensure that.  Hopefully we can all say our piece, discuss our views and then go home with no violence on anyone’s part.

 

The term "Winter Soldier" is derived from Thomas Paine's passage intended to motivate George Washington's troops suffering at Valley Forge:

“These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.”

I heard from a Army captain, who was the head of a rifle platoon, supposed to have 39 men in a rifle platoon. Ended up being sent to Afghanistan with 24, because 15 of those soldiers had been sent to Iraq. And as a consequence, they didn't have enough ammunition; they didn't have enough humvees.

They were actually capturing Taliban weapons because it was easier to get Taliban weapons than it was for them to get properly equipped by our current commander in chief. Now that's a consequence of bad judgment, and you know, the question is on the critical issues that we face right now who's going to show the judgment to lead.

I talked this morning with two friends who led rifle platoons in Afghanistan. Both confirmed to me that they did, at times, use captured or found weapons or ammunition. One relayed the story of mounting a Soviet 12.7mm heavy machine gun (the equivalent of a U.S. .50 caliber machine gun) on his HMMWV because it was too difficult to get the spare parts needed to fix their G.I. (government issue) .50 cal. Another told me his platoon carried AKs anytime they patrolled with their Afghan counterparts, and that it was always much easier to get 7.62mm ammo for the AKs than to go through the U.S. bureaucracy for ammunition requisition.

They also didn't have the humvees they were supposed to have both before deployment and once they were in Afghanistan, the Captain says.

"We should have had 4 up-armored humvees," he said. "We were supposed to. But at most we had three operable humvees, and it was usually just two."

So what did they do? "To get the rest of the platoon to the fight," he says, "we would use Toyota Hilux pickup trucks or unarmored flatbed humvees." Sometimes with sandbags, sometimes without.

• An E-4 with more than three years of service now earns $1,949.10 per month; that would rise to $2,015.40 per month on Jan. 1 under the Pentagon plan.
• An E-7 with more than 10 years of service now earns $3,263.10 per month; a 3.4 percent raise would turn that into $3,374.10 per month.
• An O-3 with more than six years of service now earns $4,763.10 per month; that officer would earn $4,925.10 per month with a 3.4 percent pay increase.

A Hospital
Veterans in the Orlando, FL area are speaking out against what they perceive as the proposed budget's lack of funds for a local VA hospital.  As the Orlando Sentinel reports:

President Bush put $120 million in his proposed budget Monday for the long-awaited Orlando VA hospital, but area veterans said they were disappointed that more of the nearly $600 million needed will not come right away.  Michael Kussman, undersecretary of health at the Department of Veterans Affairs, said $120 million is all the agency needs this year to begin work on the facility...But area veterans are not so trusting after waiting years for a hospital. Orlando is the largest metropolitan area in the country without a VA hospital, forcing veterans to drive to Tampa or Gainesville for care.

"What a disappointment," said retired Air Force Col. Joseph Kittinger, a decorated veteran. "All of the politicians give lip service to the veterans, but that is all it is, lip service." He added, though, that the $120 million "is a start and better than nothing."

Long-term
The Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America took a long-term look at where it sees facets of the budget allocated for veterans ultimately ending up.

For veterans, the 2009 budget provides $47 billion in funding for veterans’ health care, benefits, and other services. This reflects a modest increase over 2008 levels. However, starting in 2010, the budget predicts sudden (and unrealistic) drops in costs for veterans’ care. The administration’s argument is that the deaths of earlier generations of veterans will reduce expenses, but this line of reasoning fails to account for the dramatic increase in the cost of caring for Iraq and Afghanistan veterans. This will push future budget expenditures up, not down. Like the budget as a whole, the long-term accounting in the VA budget is improbable.

•Increasing the size of the Army and Marine Corps: $20.5 billion, an increase of $8.7 billion or 73%, compared with 2008. This year, the Army would grow to 532,000 soldiers, and the Marine Corps would increase its ranks to 194,000. By 2012, the plan would be complete, with the Army topping out at 547,000 soldiers, while there would be 202,000 members of the Marine Corps.

•Aircraft and weapons: $45.6 billion, a $4.9 billion increase, that would include purchases of fighter planes such as the F-22A Raptor and F/A-18 Hornet and unmanned aircraft like the Predator and Reaper.

•Cyberspace security: The budget shows at least $65 million for research and development projects tied to computer security. Some elements of the effort are secret, and funding levels are not disclosed.

•Pay and health care: $149 billion to increase salaries and fund health care. Military salaries would increase by 3.4%.

Yesterday we learned from the Washington Post of the record-breaking number of Army suicides during 2007. This is the latest edition of veteran suicide news that's made national headlines--further evidence that this is one aspect of the homecoming experience that isn't getting any better despite all the attention.The latest figures as reported by the Post:

• In 2007, suicides among active-duty soldiers reached their highest point since the Army began keeping records in 1980.
• 121 soldiers committed suicide in 2007, a 20 percent increase over 2006.
• Attempted suicides or self-inflicted injuries rose sixfold since the Iraq war began: there were 350 cases in 2002 compared to 2,100 in 2007.
• Historically, suicide rates within the military decreases during wartime; the current trend is the opposite of that.
• In 2001 the suicide rate was 9.8 per 100,000 active-duty soldiers--in 2006 the rate jumped to 17.5 per 100,000.
• In 2007 twice as many soldiers committed suicide in the U.S. as they did in Iraq or Afghanistan.

The Post provides this sober passage about a young Army reservist currently hospitalized after her suicide attempt:

On Monday night, as President Bush delivered his State of the Union address and asked Congress to "improve the system of care for our wounded warriors and help them build lives of hope and promise and dignity," Whiteside was dozing off from the effects of her drug overdose.

Taking a look at the issue of veterans suicides it's somewhat alarming to read this USA Today article from 2003. The language, the sense of urgency, the utter surprise in statistical findings can make one wonder if five years from now we'll still be reading the same type of articles--waiting for things to get better. The lead paragraph from the article could easily be substituted for a story about the current findings:

Alarmed by the number of suicides among soldiers in Iraq, the Army has asked a team of doctors to determine whether the stress of combat and long deployments is contributing to the deaths.

One very simple idea that would have helped relieve the mental burden of our troops (short of finding a way out of Iraq), and help them get the care that they need, is to give them substantial time off between deployments. Spend two years in Iraq, spend two years at home. And, on the homefront, aggressively test, treat, and monitor troops for mental injuries...

...Even without dwell time, and a much deserved rest for our forces, we have got to be more diligent about mandatory and exhaustive screening of returning troops, and providing adequate care and monitoring.

Our Readers Who Comment for the most part commend The Post and reporter Dana Priest for continuing to report on what happens to mentally and physically wounded soldiers returning from Iraq. They express sympathy for the individual around whom this story is built, call for a change in political leadership, improved patient car...Some contend that such reporting aids the enemy and question the patriotism of the journalist and her news organization. And, as sometimes happens, commenters take the opportunity to issue boilerplate condemnations of the Iraq War, some of which are anti-Semitic.

OCTOBER 30 -- A study by the American Journal of Public Health reports findings that younger veterans are more prone to suicide. This is the opposite of suicide trends among the general public.

NOVEMBER 13 -- CBS News concludes a five-month investigation into the "hidden epidemic" of military suicides.

DECEMBER 12 -- The House Veterans Affairs Committee holds a hearing on how to stop veterans suicides.