tagged w/ Wounded Veterans
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By Sherwood Ross - BLN Contributing Writer
An army sergeant who had received 22 honors including a Combat Action Badge prior to being wounded in Iraq by a mortar shell was told he was faking his medical symptoms and subjected to abusive treatment until he agreed to a "personality disorder"(PD) discharge.
After a doctor with the First Cavalry division wrote he was out for "secondary gain," Chuck Luther was imprisoned in a six- by eight-foot isolation chamber, ridiculed by the guards, denied regular meals and showers and kept awake by perpetual lights and blasting heavy metal music---abuses similar to the punishments inflicted on terrorist suspects by the CIA.
"They told me I wasn't a real soldier, that I was a piece of crap. All I wanted was to be treated for my injuries," 12-year veteran Luther told reporter Joshua Kors of "The Nation" magazine (April 26th). "Now suddenly I'm not a soldier. I'm a prisoner, by my own people. I felt like a caged animal in that room. That's when I started to lose it." The article is called "Disposable Soldiers: How the Pentagon is Cheating Wounded Vets."
Luther had been seven months into his deployment at Camp Taji, 20 miles north of Baghdad, when a mortal shell exploded at the base of his guard tower that knocked him down, slamming his head into the concrete. "I remember laying there in a daze, looking around, trying to figure out where I was at," he said. Luther suffered permanent hearing loss in his right ear, tinnitus, agonizing headaches behind his right eye, severe nosebleeds, and shoulder pain.
The sergeant took a Chapter 5-13 PD discharge in order to escape his confinement, becoming one of 22,600 soldiers so separated since 2001, a discharge that relieves the Pentagon of the responsibility and cost of long-term care for the wounded. An Army major told Luther to sign the discharge papers or "you're going to be here a lot longer." Luther recalled, "They had me broke down. At that point, I just wanted to get home." Many of the PD discharge recipients are soldiers who have served two and three tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, author Kors writes.
Sgt. Angel Sandoval, who served under Luther, said Luther's insistence on his wearing ceramic plates strapped to his bulletproof vest saved his life and described Luther as "one of the greatest leaders I had." Yet this is the man the Army imprisoned when he requested medical treatment. "This should have been resolved during the Bush administration. And it should have been stopped now by the Obama administration," Paul Sullivan, executive director of Veterans for Common Sense, is quoted as saying about PD discharges. "The fact that it hasn't is a national disgrace."
Luther's case is no isolated example, writes Kors, noting that in the past three years "The Nation" has uncovered more than two dozen such cases. "All the soldiers were examined, deemed physically and psychologically fit, then welcomed into the military. All performed honorably before being wounded during service...Yet after seeking treatment for their wounds, each soldier was diagnosed with a pre-existing personality disorder, then discharged and denied benefits," Kors writes.
This past December, he reports, VA doctors found Luther to be suffering from migraine headaches, vision problems, dizziness, nausea, difficulty hearing, numbness, anxiety and irritability---and diagnosed him with traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder, declaring the veteran 80 percent disabled. The diagnosis cleared the way for the sergeant to receive disability benefits and lifetime medical care.
With his health improving, Luther has vowed to fight the military on behalf of other soldiers who got a raw deal like himself. He founded Disposable Warriors, a one-soldier operation near Fort Hood, Texas, that assists soldiers fighting their discharge and those appealing their disability rating, Kors reports. Luther says the base had 12 suicides last year as of June 2nd but reported only two. Luther is quoted in a November 21, 2009, article on "Truthout" as saying there is only one mental health professional for every 1,263 soldiers "and that is the first failure."
After opening Disposable Warriors, Luther found a threatening note on his car windshield that read: "Back off or you and your family will pay!!" Whoever wrote that note doesn't know Chuck Luther very well. #
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(A U.S. Air Force veteran, Sherwood Ross is a free-lance writer and publicist residing in Coral Gables, Fla. He formerly reported for the Chicago Daily News and worked as a wire service columnist. Reach him at sherwoodross10@gmail.com.)
Source: http://www.blacklistednews.com/news-8343-0-3-3--.html
http://www.digitaljournal.com/img/5/4/1/4/3/i/5/6/0/o/800px-US_injured_soldier.jpgBy Sherwood Ross - BLN Contributing Writer
An army sergeant who had received 22... more
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1 year ago
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Families, individuals, churches, and businesses are now able to directly support a wounded soldier and his/her family through the 'Adopt a Soldier' program being offered by GiveFreedomBack. The focus of the program is to match people with a specific military family to 'adopt'. This gives them the opportunity to directly meet the needs of that family - whether it be clothes, shelter, transportation, etc. The goal is to provide a stress free environment, so that they can focus on healing and getting back on track.Families, individuals, churches, and businesses are now able to directly support a... more
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Families, individuals, churches, and businesses are now able to directly support a wounded soldier and his/her family through the 'Adopt a Soldier' program being offered by GiveFreedomBack.Families, individuals, churches, and businesses are now able to directly support a... more
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Conquering the Keys: A Wounded Veteran Runs 100 Miles for Charity
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dg0RY7AqaTQ
Keith is a veteran Reconnaissance Marine that was honorably retired from the Marine Corps after his convoy was hit by a roadside bomb in Iraq. He suffered severe injuries to his left leg along with massive head trauma, but miraculously he survived. His friends, however, weren't so lucky and many of them were killed in action that day and even more passed on during Keith's entire tour in Iraq. Keith was in the hospital for many months after the incident, suffering from a multitude of ailments derived from the massive shrapnel wound on his leg. Doctors repeatedly told him that he'd never walk without a cane again...but they were wrong.
On May 16, 2009, Keith will be running in the Keys 100, a 100 mile ultramarathon starting in Key Largo and ending in Key West, Florida, in honor of those killed in battle. He is an inspiration to everyone that he meets as well as anyone that has suffered from a debilitating injury. He loved his job as a Special Operator more than anything in world - almost as much as he loved the operators that he worked with that laid down their lives to protect our civil liberties. If he could get deployed again, he would do it without question.
Every cent of the money he raises will go to the Special Operations Warrior Foundation. This foundation provides college scholarship grants, along with financial aid and educational counseling to the children of Special Operations personnel who were killed in an operational mission or training accident. To make a donation please visit www.firstgiving.com/keys100.Conquering the Keys: A Wounded Veteran Runs 100 Miles for Charity... more
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Since everyone is at least a bit familiar with John McCain’s record when it comes to strolling through a market in Baghdad with hundreds of his closest guards, or how he wants to stay in Iraq for 100 years (except when he flip flops on that).
But not that many really, truly know just how horrific his voting record is when it comes to the troops. And it is pretty consistent – whether it is for armor and equipment, for veteran’s health care, for adequate troop rest or anything that actually, you know, supports our troops.
Since everyone is at least a bit familiar with John McCain’s record when it... more
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"Stop-Loss" director Kimberly Peirce has witnessed some deeply-felt reactions to the film from American Iraq war veterans.
"Stop-Loss" is on DVD now."Stop-Loss" director Kimberly Peirce has witnessed some deeply-felt... more
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Squeezing lemons to their last drops...
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