Minn. veterans tell House Speaker Pelosi that too many vets fall through cracks in the system

Minn. veterans tell House Speaker Pelosi that too many vets fall through cracks in the system

By STEVE KARNOWSKI, Associated Press

MINNEAPOLIS - Too many Iraq War veterans are slipping through the cracks and aren't getting the benefits they've earned, veterans told U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Monday.

At a panel discussion hosted by U.S. Rep. Tim Walz, D-Minn., Pelosi was told that the Minnesota National Guard has done an excellent job of making sure its troops coming home from Iraq get all the health and education benefits they're entitled to.

900 Amputees

Soldiers in Iraq have suffered a historic number of injuries that, in previous times, would have caused death. According to the Department of Defense, nearly 32,000 have been wounded in action in Afghanistan and Iraq, and 900 have required at least one amputation.

"Eighty-two percent of all our wounded have extremity injuries, 30 percent have wounds to the head and the face, and 6 percent have severe burns," Schoomaker explained. "The new institute will work to develop techniques that will help make our soldiers whole again."

Source: Breakthroughs In Tissue Regrowth Give Hope to War Wounded

Number of Amputees

The Amputee Coalition of America, based in Knoxville, Tenn., estimates that as of Feb. 1, 748 servicemen and women had lost limbs to amputations since the two wars began. The artist knows that grim number has probably grown since that date.

Charlotte soldier welcomed home by family

Charlotte soldier welcomed home by family

07:11 AM EDT on Friday, May 23, 2008

By FRANCES KUO / WCNC
E-mail Frances: FKuo@WCNC.com

Solider deployed in 2006 CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- An explosion on the front lines gave a Charlotte soldier a devastating injury.

On Thursday morning, Army Cpl. John Hyland got a welcome back that's long overdue.

Hyland left for Iraq in 2006 but didn't return home with his unit.

Instead, he flew to the Brooke Army Hospital Center in Texas where he's spent eight months recovering from an amputated leg.

War disabled the most marginalised in Iraq

IRAQ
War disabled the most marginalised in Iraq
According to a recent study, more than a million people have been disabled on account of the war. The government and civil society are not taking care of them, with serious psychological consequences and tensions within families.


Baghdad (AsiaNews) - More than a million civilians have been disabled by the war in Iraq, and represent the most marginalised sector of society. The psychological traumas they bear create serious imbalances inside their families, and the central government is not paying enough attention to the problem. The denunciation comes from Faris al-Ubeidi, an Iraqi researcher, interviewed by the news agency "Voice of Iraq". Al-Ubeidi explains that the state has the duty of guaranteeing that those who have been disabled by the war, but have professional skills, can still participate productively in the labour force. The problem is that fathers who have been handicapped and are unable to work feel that they are a burden on their families, and this generates psychological problems and tensions.

According to a study conducted by the International Disabled Persons' Organization - in collaboration with the Iraqi ministries of labor, health, and social affairs - out of a population of 26 million inhabitants, after five years of war, over 1 million have been handicapped. Of these, 5,600 are completely disabled, 100,000 have had limbs amputated, another 100,000 have been blinded, and another 250,000 are in danger of losing their vision.

Duckworth: I probably have PTSD

Duckworth: I probably have PTSD

The scenes haunt Tammy Duckworth, director of the Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs. She’s in Iraq, flying helicopter missions, looking down on the desert below. She jumps out of the helicopter on the dusty ground, both legs intact. She’s doing the work she loves, and it’s exciting.

Only, it’s a dream, not reality. When Duckworth wakes up in Illinois, struggling through a few moments of confusion, she remembers that she’s a double amputee and she'll never fly missions in Iraq again.

It's like having a form of double vision, she says. Close your eyes, and you're there in Iraq, adrenaline rushing, ready for action. Open your eyes and you're here in the States, with a completely different routine. This multi-layered sense of reality is probably a kind of post-traumatic stress response, she admits.

River search scaled back

Sunday News
Published: May 25, 2008
00:20 EST

By PAUL FRANZ and JON RUTTER, StaffThe search for Chris Johnson, a former Marine Corps lance corporal and Iraq war veteran, continued Saturday along the banks of the Susquehanna River.
Rescue workers search the Susquehanna River for Chris Johnson, missing since Wednesday.

Searchers found no trace of the West Hempfield Township fisherman by the time the operation wrapped up at dusk, said Brian Morrin, the public information officer for the York County Office of Emergency Management.

Morrin said searchers are now scaling back efforts to find Johnson, who has been missing five days.

"Unfortunately, we've come to a point where we've run out of leads," Morrin said. "We couldn't bring this situation to a close.

"It's been a long four days," Morrin said

Docs at city hospital using new technique to save veteran's foot

Docs at city hospital using new technique to save veteran's foot
BY PATRICE O'SHAUGHNESSY
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Sunday, May 25th 2008, 4:00 AM


Jeff Guerin and fiancee Jennifer Toteda at Hospital for Special Surgery where Afghan veteran had treatment.
It's been five years since major combat operations were declared over in Iraq, but the fighting continues. Troops went to war in Afghanistan weeks after 9/11. Thousands of wounded veterans battle long-term to recover from instantaneous carnage. Here is one soldier's story of pain - and the hope he found here in the city:

The toll of the war wounded exceeds 31,000, and the trademark of the battles in Iraq and Afghanistan is the vet who lost a limb. There are some 750 amputees, and many of these young men and women wear their prosthetic arms and legs proudly uncovered.

But onetime Army medic Jeff Guerin, wounded in Afghanistan 3-1/2 years ago, is fighting to keep his leg in a painstaking process developed by surgeons at the Hospital for Special Surgery.

Bike ride raises awareness, offers therapy for injured vets

Bike ride raises awareness, offers therapy for injured vets
By Tim Haddock, Staff Writer
Article Last Updated: 05/23/2008 11:07:39 PM PDT


The first day actor Mike Vogel was on the set filming "Cloverfield," he received word that his cousin, a sergeant in the Army, was killed in Iraq.

Sgt. Allen James Dunckley was "meant to be a soldier," Vogel said, noting that he started his military career as a Marine but was training to become an Army Ranger.

But he was killed in Salman Pak while trying to rescue three kidnapped soldiers last May.

"It set me on a mission, at that point, to be as involved and get as active as I possibly could in bringing awareness and any kind of help that I could to these guys coming home," Vogel said.

Iraq war veteran from Michigan describes blast that cost her a leg

Iraq war veteran from Michigan describes blast that cost her a leg
BY CHRIS CHRISTOFF • FREE PRESS LANSING BUREAU CHIEF • May 23, 2008


With that, tearful Michigan National Guard veteran Sgt. Michelle Rudzitis ended an emotional address to the state Senate, in which she recounted losing her right leg to a roadside bomb in Baghdad, Iraq, on Jan. 22, 2007.

Rudzitis, who turns 33 on Monday, which is also Memorial Day, was the keynote speaker for the Senate's annual Memorial Day service. She told of coming back to her Army base after a day off and a shopping spree. Her Humvee was the only vehicle in a convoy struck by a bomb that hurls a piece of molten copper through steel.

Is Sex Over? Badly Hurt Vets and Sexual Intimacy

Is Sex Over? Badly Hurt Vets and Sexual Intimacy
Conference Focuses on Wounded Troops and Intimacy With Their Partners
By KIMBERLY HEFLING Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON May 21, 2008 (AP) The Associated Press

When B.J. Jackson lost both his legs to an Iraq war injury, his doctors talked about a lot of things, but they didn't mention how it might affect his sex life.

BJ Jackson, a double amputee from the Iraq War, right, and his wife, Abby, right, both of Des Moines, Iowa, talk about about the issue of Iraq vets and sexual intimacy, Wednesday, May 21, 2008, in Washington. (AP Photo/Kevin Wolf)
(AP)Jackson's less-bashful wife brought it up. But even then the couple didn't get the answers they sought.

Battlefield scars often carry over to bedroom, troops find

Battlefield scars often carry over to bedroom, troops find
Veterans Affairs looking into issues affecting intimacy for returning vets

By FEDERICA NARANCIO
Mcclatchy-tribune

WASHINGTON — Wounds and mental disabilities of troops returning from Afghanistan and Iraq can mess up their sex lives too, health experts said Wednesday. But those wounds often go untreated because the topic is taboo and has gone unstudied.

Whatever the reason, failed sexual intimacy can contribute to higher suicide and divorce rates among returning troops, specialists told a seminar sponsored by the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonprofit that focuses on health issues.

They said the latest U.S. wars have brought more attention to psychological wounds such as post-traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injury and depression, and should now include sexual problems.

THE DAY I CHEATED DEATH

THE DAY I CHEATED DEATH
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BY ALAN THOMPSON

10:30 - 19 May 2008



A wounded airman who cheated death in Iraq when he was caught in rocket fire has told of the terrifying moment shells rained down all around him.

Senior Aircraftman Jon Butterworth was blasted into the air by the force of the explosions at Basra airfield.

The 22-year-old, who is based at RAF Cottesmore, in Rutland, was left lying in a pool of his own blood after the attack.



Military surgeons battled in vain all day to save his injured arm, which had to be amputated at the elbow.

The father-of-one had been driving his Land Rover to work with a colleague when the siren sounded at the base last August.

Depicting a tragedy of war

Depicting a tragedy of war
The sculpture 'A Field of Limbs' is a stark reminder of the human toll of military conflict
BY CHUCK MARTIN / CMARTIN@ENQUIRER.COM


Sculptor Gershon Gurin-Podlish spent nearly five months creating the unusual exhibit honoring those who have lost limbs in the Iraq and Afghan wars. The 748 casts he carefully crafted represent each American serviceman and woman who had suffered an amputation (as of Feb. 1) since the conflicts began. These are courageous veterans, he says, who deserve more recognition.


"You never see these soldiers who are dealing with this loss," says Gurin-Podlish, 64, who lives in Florence, Mass., but has been working on the sculpture in Cincinnati since February. "They become invisible."

Kodiak readies to take Wounded Warriors out fishing

Kodiak readies to take Wounded Warriors out fishing

Analysis by Linda Shogren
Alaska Journal of Commerce

Peter Malley, a former Marine now living in Kodiak, remembers well how poorly fellow American citizens treated him and other veterans returning from Vietnam.
Today, with another unpopular war being waged in Iraq, he hoped there was something he could do for returning soldiers who had risked their lives fighting in Iraq or Afghanistan.

Every day, they faced car bombs and ambushes. Some lost limbs or received other permanent injuries. They are heroes who should be appreciated for all they have sacrificed, not forgotten or ridiculed for a job they were sent to do, Malley said.

Angleton soldier wounded in Iraq

Angleton soldier wounded in Iraq

By John Lowman
The Facts

Published May 15, 2008

Leadership skills learned at West Point, and in part as a linebacker with the Angleton High School Wildcats football team, might have helped save the lives of Clayton Henchman’s troops.

And his own.

U.S. Army First Lt. Henchman, 25, was leading a platoon of soldiers near Tikrit, Iraq, when he and eight others were wounded by an improvised explosive device Saturday, said his brother, Scott Cooper.

Giving Back, Getting Around

Giving Back, Getting Around
Segways Presented to Veterans Injured in Iraq, Afghanistan

Jeffrey Adams, a first lieutenant with the Louisiana National Guard, was on patrol in Baghdad on Nov. 7, 2004, when a makeshift bomb detonated 10 feet away.

"I looked down, and my leg was gone," said Adams, 28. His left leg was later amputated above the knee, replaced with a prosthetic that now bears an Army sticker.

After spending 6 1/2 months at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Adams returned home on crutches to finish a degree in chemical engineering.

Amputee Marine has long recovery at Walter Reed

Amputee Marine has long recovery at Walter Reed
The Evening Sun (Hanover)
Article Last Updated: 05/13/2008 07:52:09 AM EDT


The pain reads like a book on the face of U.S Marine 1st Lt. David Borden.

Between winces and saying words he later apologizes for using, Borden struggles to move leg muscles that have not supported his weight in months during a recent physical therapy session at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C.

Sometimes the pain is so bad his attention focuses entirely on fighting through it.

Borden said the area where his right leg was amputated from the knee down felt like it was on fire as he worked through the different stretches and exercises.

It has been nearly four months since a suicide bomber detonated an explosive near the 27-year-old Delone Catholic High School graduate in Ramadi, Iraq - a blast that took the life of another Marine and injured three others.

Before and after Iraq

Before and after Iraq
The war there is not an intellectual exercise. It has real, personal consequences.
By Michael Hastings
May 12, 2008
In July 2006, four young American Army officers sat at an Italian restaurant in Sackets Harbor, N.Y., about 20 miles from Ft. Drum. Three lieutenants and a captain, they were all friends, all platoon leaders in the 10th Mountain Division; one of them was my younger brother, Jeff, then 23 years old. It was their last meal together before deploying to Iraq.

Two years later, none of the infantrymen remembers what he ordered that night; they all remember what was said: "Statistically, one in four of us is going to get injured or killed over there."

A month later, they arrived in Baghdad, right before the "surge."

Wounded veterans use Segways to increase mobility, quality of life

Wounded veterans use Segways to increase mobility, quality of life
By Patrick Thornton, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Saturday, May 10, 2008


WASHINGTON — Dozens of veterans injured in Iraq and Afghanistan came to Arlington, Va., on Tuesday to learn a rather unconventional way to win back some of the mobility they lost — a Segway.

Segs4Vets, a project of Disability Rights Advocates for Technology (DRAFT) has awarded 150 Segways since 2006 to disabled veterans of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan to help improve their lives. Thirty veterans were able to attend a ceremony at the Army Navy Country Club in Arlington on Wednesday to receive their Segways. Dozens more who couldn’t make the ceremony will also receive Segways.

Township rallies around injured soldier

Township rallies around injured soldier




By CHRIS WILLIAMS
Source Staff Writer



Army Pfc. Alex Knapp was injured when an improvised explosive device detonated under his vehicle in Iraq on March 14.

A Shelby Township native is recovering from serious injuries sustained when an improvised explosive device detonated under his convoy’s vehicle in Iraq last month.
Army Pfc. Alex Knapp was on a mission in a suburb outside of Baghdad on March 14, just two days after his 22nd birthday, when the IED detonated, severely injuring Knapp and two other soldiers.

Life shattered in Iraq pieced back together

Life shattered in Iraq pieced back together

Military veteran amputee, Derek McGinnis, runs at East La Loma Park in Modesto, Saturday morning, May 3, 2008. (Bart Ah You/The Modesto Bee)
Modesto Bee
By ROGER W. HOSKINS
rhoskins@modbee.com

A newborn cried in the night. Before mom could stir, Derek McGinnis swung out of bed. When his only leg touched the floor, he let it bend until he lowered himself to the floor in a sitting position.

Using his arms and rear end, he scooted to his son Sean's crib, pulled himself up and balanced on his leg. He gently picked up his child and then carefully bent his leg until he sat again. Dad cradled and comforted his son while mom rested.

Injured Army specialist makes decision to amputate after '04 incident

Injured Army specialist makes decision to amputate after '04 incident
By LEEANN MOORE • Staff Writer • May 2, 2008

ZANESVILLE -It was retired Army Specialist Justin Johnson's choice to have his leg amputated.


It was a decision that wasn't taken lightly and was made nearly four years after the incident that led to this decision.

He had the surgery to remove the lower half of his left leg April 14, at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. and is now recovering.

Breakthroughs In Tissue Regrowth Give Hope to War Wounded

Breakthroughs In Tissue Regrowth Give Hope to War Wounded
Thursday, May 01, 2008

By Jana Winter

A Marine's replacement ear grows on the back of a mouse.
It's science fiction turning into fact.

A new Defense Department program to make U.S. soldiers whole again is developing cutting-edge medical technology that's regrowing human tissue, in some cases, on the backs of mice.

The Pentagon recently launched the Armed Forces Institute of Regenerative Medicine or AFIRM, a five-year $250 million initiative in cooperation with researchers at Wake Forest and Rutgers that uses soldiers' own stem cells to grow skin, muscles, tendons and even bone.