Also see: Occupation Iraq: Welcome Home, AmeriKa!
Surprise!: Boston Globe Discovers Anti-War Protests
"Newly returned soldiers find reintegration help; Military works to improve its counseling" by Christian Davenport, Washington Post | April 13, 2009
The first time Sergeant Kyle Payne came home from Iraq, the Army's counseling program was well intentioned, he felt, if mind-numbingly boring. "It was: 'Welcome back. Don't kill yourself. Don't kill your family. Now go on your merry way,' " the reservist recalled.
He tried to pay attention, but coming just days before he and his fellow soldiers were to see their families again, all he could think was: "Please just let us go." So when Payne, recently home from his second Iraq tour, was again ordered to go through post-deployment counseling, he groaned at the prospect. But it soon was clear that things had changed.
The event was held at a downtown Baltimore hotel on a recent Saturday, not on an impersonal Army base. Instead of being excluded, families were encouraged to attend. The presenters were some of the best mental-health professionals in the state - university psychologists, Veterans Affairs social workers, and private-practice therapists. A psychologist from the Johns Hopkins medical school set the tone by opening the event with a frank discussion about suicide, a growing problem in the Army.
That's what happens when you realize you are nothing but a Nazi enforcer and plunder -- not liberator -- and tool of empire.
Although he had quibbles with parts of the program - did he have to discuss suicide at 8:30 a.m. on a Saturday? - Payne, 30, of Alexandria, Va., couldn't help but say, "They put a lot of thought into this."
The Yellow Ribbon Reintegration Program, launched last year by the Pentagon, is designed to ease the transition home for reservists. It comes as the Army's suicide rate of soldiers on active duty climbed to a record high of at least 133 last year. Last week, the Army announced that so far this year there have been 56 reported suicides, of which 22 have been confirmed....
How about ending the lying occupations? Would that help?
Yeah, I do get sick and tired of typing it, folks.
A recent Pentagon study revealed the particular troubles citizen-soldiers face. Thirty-eight percent of active-duty soldiers report psychological symptoms within 90 to 120 days of coming home. That number jumps to almost 50 percent among the National Guard.
Part of the problem, officials say, is that once home, citizen-soldiers did not have to check in with their units for as long as 90 days. Suddenly cut off from their "battle buddies," they feel isolated in civilian life. And the counseling they did receive was often no more than a group session they were forced to attend shortly before being released from active duty.
"If we screwed them up, we should fix them," said Lieutenant Colonel Michael Gafney, who runs the reintegration program for the Maryland National Guard. "We tend to give soldiers the information they most need at the worst time and in the worst way. Who wants to sit through a PowerPoint presentation right after you get back from Iraq?"
But now, he said, "the military is working hard to change all that."
The new reintegration programs are held on weekends, 30, 60, and 90 days after the soldiers come home. The sessions cover anger management, financial planning and substance abuse, and feature several resources designed to help the soldiers get back on their feet. The soldiers learn about veterans benefits and can meet with job counselors or college representatives....
The fact is, taking care of these guys should be priority one when it comes to military budgets -- with the lying, agenda-fulfilling war-making and the war-looting weapons-profiteering last!
A permanent funding source has not been set up. The Pentagon is hoping for more than $200 million for the current fiscal year, but that has not been approved.
How many times have I been bludgeoned with support the troops (meaning support the wars) when the war-mongers never did? They looted the place and exposed soldiers to harnful chemicals and electrical shocks, that's what they did!
To bridge the gap, Maryland's program is funded in part by two nonprofit organizations, and the state has contributed $350,000.
Un-frikkin'-real!!!!
Another problem is getting soldiers to show up. Some soldiers had schedule conflicts, but others are simply tired of all the counseling, he said.
Manchurian material?
Yeah, who needs a shrink when they have bigger problems:
"More than 300,000 US veterans of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have suffered head injuries, many of them concussions that have gone untreated, according to a Rand Corporation study released last year."
