"Luther says he was confined for a month in a 6-by-8-foot room without treatment....
Luther’s case highlights the irony in many personality discharges. A person is screened mentally and physically before joining the military. But upon returning from combat, that same person is told he or she had a serious mental disorder that predated military service. As in the civilian world, where many insurance companies deny coverage for illnesses that develop before a policy is issued, the government can deny a service member veteran health care benefits and combat-related disability pay for preexisting ailments."
Yeah, support the troops and thanks for your service -- and pay those cost overruns to war-profiteering corporations.
Yup, isn't it ironic?
Not criminal, ironic!
And they have the audacity to call antiwar people traitors?
"Alleging misdiagnoses, veterans’ advocates battle Army" by Anne Flaherty, Associated Press | August 16, 2010
WASHINGTON — At the height of the Iraq war, the Army routinely dismissed hundreds of soldiers for having a personality disorder when they were more likely suffering from the traumatic stresses of war, discharge data suggest.
Ain't it GREAT that the GOVERNMENT and MSM LIED YOU INTO THEM, America!
And what is even better is they are LOOKING FOR NEW ONES to FIGHT!
Say GOODBYE to your EMPIRE, America!
The EXHAUSTED TROOPS remind me of GERMANY'S at the end of WWII!!
Under pressure from Congress and the public, the Army later acknowledged the problem and drastically cut the number of soldiers given the designation. But advocates for veterans say an unknown number of troops still unfairly bear the stigma of a personality disorder, making them ineligible for military health care and other benefits....
And THAT i$ what thi$ i$ ALL ABOUT!
The Army denies that any soldier was misdiagnosed before 2008, when it drastically cut the number of discharges due to personality disorders and diagnoses of post-traumatic stress disorders skyrocketed.
I love a LYING MILITARY, don't you?
Unlike PTSD, which the Army regards as a treatable mental disability caused by the acute stresses of war, the military designation of a personality disorder can have devastating consequences for soldiers.
Defined as a “deeply ingrained maladaptive pattern of behavior,’’ a personality disorder is considered a “preexisting condition’’ that relieves the military of its duty to pay for the person’s health care or combat-related disability pay.
Will SOMEONE RELIEVE THEM of THEIRS, please!?!?
According to figures provided by the Army, the service discharged about 1,000 soldiers a year between 2005 and 2007 for having a personality disorder.
After an article in The Nation magazine exposed the practice, the Defense Department changed its policy....
Oh, so it WASN'T my LYING, WAR-PROMOTING, AGENDA-PUSHING MSM digging it out and publishing the scoop?
At the same time, the number of post-traumatic stress disorder cases has soared.....
Think there is a connection?
The Army attributes the sudden and sharp reduction in personality disorders to its policy change. Yet Army officials deny that soldiers were discharged unfairly, saying they reviewed the paperwork of all deployed soldiers dismissed with a personality disorder between 2001 and 2006.
“We did not find evidence that soldiers with PTSD had been inappropriately discharged with personality disorder,’’ wrote Maria Tolleson, a spokeswoman at the US Army Medical Command, which oversees the health care of soldiers, in an e-mail.
Easy when you don't look for or destroy it.
Command officials declined to be interviewed.
Advocates for veterans are skeptical of the Army’s assertion that it made no mistakes. They say symptoms of PTSD — anger, irritability, anxiety, and depression — can easily be confused for the Army’s description of a personality disorder.
They also point out that during its review of past cases, the Army never interviewed soldiers or their families, who can often provide evidence of a shift in behavior that occurred after someone was sent into a war zone.
“There’s no reason to believe personality discharges would go down so quickly’’ unless the Army had misdiagnosed hundreds of soldiers each year in the first place, said Bart Stichman, codirector of the National Veterans Legal Services Program....
Chuck Luther, who decided to rejoin the Army after the Sept. 11 attacks, previously served eight years before being honorably discharged.
“I knew what combat was going to take,’’ he said.
Luther, who lives near Fort Hood, Texas, said he received eight mental health evaluations from the Army, each clearing him as “fit for duty.’’
Luther was seven months into his deployment as a reconnaissance scout in Iraq’s violent Sunni Triangle in 2007 when he says a mortar shell slammed him to the ground. He later complained of stabbing eye pain and crippling migraines, but was told by a military doctor that he was faking his symptoms to avoid combat duty.
They DO NOT CARE ABOUT YOU, soldier!
You are JUST ANOTHER PIECE of EQUIPMENT in the WAR MACHINE!
Now GET BACK IN THERE and KILL, KILL, KILL!!!!
Luther says he was confined for a month in a 6-by-8-foot room without treatment.
That is TORTURE!!
At one point, Luther acknowledges, he snapped, biting a guard and spitting in the face of a military chaplain.
After that episode, Luther says, the Army told him he could return home and keep his benefits if he signed papers admitting he had a personality disorder. If he didn’t sign, he said, he was told he would be kicked out eventually anyway. Luther, whose account was first detailed by The Nation, signed the papers.
Luther’s case highlights the irony in many personality discharges. A person is screened mentally and physically before joining the military. But upon returning from combat, that same person is told he or she had a serious mental disorder that predated military service.
As in the civilian world, where many insurance companies deny coverage for illnesses that develop before a policy is issued, the government can deny a service member veteran health care benefits and combat-related disability pay for preexisting ailments.--more--"
Also see: Traversing Through Afghanistan
Have fun, and see you when you get home -- maybe.
And once you get here?
"Wis. veteran kills daughter, pregnant wife, self; Tour of soldier, 23, ended in ’07" by Todd Richmond, Associated Press | August 20, 2010
MADISON, Wis. — April Oles-Magdzas was due to give birth to her second daughter Wednesday, a little more than a year after she and her husband, an Iraq war veteran, became new parents.
But when Oles-Magdzas’s mother showed up that day at the couple’s home in Superior, she found the entire family dead.
Superior police said yesterday that Matthew Magdzas, a 23-year-old Wisconsin National Guard soldier who earned a combat badge in the Iraq war, shot and killed his wife, their 13-month-old daughter, Lila, and their three dogs before turning the gun on himself....
Matthew Magdzas in a 2007 photo in Superior, Wis. (Superior Telegram via Ap)
And he looks like such a NICE BOY!
Look at what the WAR BASED UPON LIES DID to HIM!
Police Captain Chad La Lor said that Magdzas did not leave a suicide note and that investigators have found no evidence the couple had money problems or was unduly stressed by the pending birth of their daughter. There was no indication either had been unfaithful.
Related: Day of Service
So what up, Army?
No risky behavior here.
La Lor said investigators plan to subpoena Magdzas’s military medical records to see whether he had complained of or been treated for symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.
Lieutenant Colonel Jackie Guthrie, a spokeswoman for the Wisconsin National Guard, said the military can not disclose Magdzas’s health records to the public.
A man who answered the phone yesterday and identified himself as the son of Gene Oles said the family had no comment.
According to 36-year-old Tessa Buscko of Duluth, Minn., a former colleague of Oles-Magdzas, her friend was due to give birth by C-section on the day her body was found.
She said she didn’t know what could have driven Magdzas to kill his family.
“Matt doesn’t seem like that type of person,’’ Buscko said. “The only thing people can think of is coming back from the war and trying to live a normal life.’’
Magdzas enlisted in the National Guard during the summer of 2004, between his junior and senior years in high school, Guthrie said. He had completed his training by October 2005 and was assigned to the Superior-based 950th Engineer Company.
He volunteered to deploy overseas with the Milwaukee-based First Battalion, 121st Field Artillery Regiment in 2006. The unit was tasked with protecting convoys moving from Kuwait into northern Iraq, Guthrie said.
He served as a vehicle gunner and was involved in a small-arms battle in Iraq in November 2006, she said. She did not know exactly where the battle took place. Magdzas received a combat action badge. His deployment ended in 2007.
Some time after returning to Wisconsin, Magdzas went to work as a firearms instructor for Better Defense, a shooting school that provides classes in northern Wisconsin and southern Minnesota.
According to his profile on the school’s website, Magdzas began shooting before he was 12 years old. It also said he received the Purple Heart, an award given to US military personnel wounded or killed in battle. Guthrie said there is no record he received the honor.
The school lied, huh? What a shocker!
Oles-Magdzas attended Carlton High School in Carlton, Minn. Her science teacher, Deb Saunders, described her as an artistic, “sparkly’’ young lady who was into dancing and cheerleading.
Investigators recovered a 9-millimeter handgun in the house they believe Magdzas used.--more--"
Yes, Americans, the COSTS of WAR will extend for DECADES!
That is why PEOPLE LIKE ME TRIED to STOP THEM!
Maybe NEXT TIME you will FINALLY F***IN' LISTEN!!
