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please contact us at: 866-598-8387
War-torn Troops Soothed
by Horses’ Spirit
(zootoo.com)
MIAMI -- The science of the
human-animal bond is proving very effective in a
new arena: on the home front of a new war.
Returning veterans are finding help, as well as
healing in therapy that involves a saddle and a
set of reins.
"It feels pretty good. I feel
tall," said U.S. Marine Gene Calonge, who
recently returned from his deployment. Learning
to ride again is strengthening the bodies and
minds of young vets here at the South Florida
Veterans Multi-Purpose Center in Davie, Fla.
The last time Calonge mounted
a horse, was his service with the Marine Corps.
This time around it's Sam, a 4-year-old Arabian,
giving him a much-needed boost.
"It's different bonding with
an animal, you feel like you're not going to be
judged so much about anything so ... you and him
just have a good time,” said Calonge.
Gulf War Syndrome Researchers Blame Sarin Gas
and Toxic Exposures
Lourdes Salvador, August 26, 2009
Toomey and colleagues, researchers at the Boston
Veterans Administration Healthcare System,
confirmed that Gulf War deployment is associated
with subtle declines of motor speed and
sustained attention as influenced by exposure to
toxicants during deployment.
Toomey found that exposure to sarin gas released
during the Khamisiyah destruction is correlated
with long-term reduced motor speed in veterans
that has not resolved after 10 years.
Self-reported exposure to these toxicants is
also significantly associated with attention
deficits.
Ten years after the war, deployed veterans are
still in poor health and perform significantly
worse on cognitive tests than non-deployed
veterans. Gulf War veterans complaints include:
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New Service Expands Online Access for Veterans
http://www.va.gov/opa/pressrel
WASHINGTON (August 31, 2009) - The Suicide
Prevention campaign of the Department of
Veterans Affairs (VA) is expanding its outreach
to all Veterans by piloting an online,
one-to-one "chat service" for Veterans who
prefer reaching out for assistance using the
Internet.
Called "Veterans Chat," the new service enables
Veterans, their families and friends to go
online where they can anonymously chat with a
trained VA counselor. If a "chatter" is
determined to be in a crisis, the counselor can
take immediate steps to transfer the person to
the VA Suicide Prevention Hotline, where further
counseling and referral services are provided
and crisis intervention steps can be taken.
"This online feature is intended to reach out to
all Veterans who may or may not be enrolled in
the VA health care system and provide them with
online access to the Suicide Prevention
Lifeline," said Dr. Gerald Cross, VA's Acting
Under Secretary for Health. "It is meant to
provide Veterans w ith an anonymous way to
access VA's suicide prevention services."
Veterans, family members or friends can access
Veterans Chat through the suicide prevention Web
site (http://www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org/).
There is a Veterans tab on the left-hand side of
the website that will take them directly to
Veteran resource information. On this page, they
can see the Hotline number (1-800-273-TALK), and
click on the Veterans Chat tab on the right side
of the Web page to enter...
"Full Metal Jacket" Actor Discusses Career,
Technology
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=55585
By Judith Snyderman, Special to American=2
0Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, Aug. 21, 2009 - Retired Marine Corps
Gunnery Sgt. R. Lee Ermey - a Vietnam veteran,
film actor and TV host - shared observations
about modern military technology and his visits
with American troops in Afghanistan and Iraq
during a “DoDLive” bloggers roundtable today.
“They’re just as ready to eat their own guts out
today as they ever were back in my time,” he
said. “The only difference is we’ve got better
equipment, better gear, better toys, and I spend
as much time as I can with them.”
Ermey said he’s surprised by the enduring
popularity of his 1987 acting role as a
quintessential drill sergeant in the film “Full
Metal Jacket.”
With the 40th anniversary of the ‘60s cherished
rock concert, the so-called “Sixties Generation”
remembers fondly those four days in August 1969.
Instead, VFW magazine commemorates the 109
Americans killed in Vietnam then.
http://www.vfw.org/index.cfm?fa=news.magDtl&dtl=1&mid=5144
by Richard K. Kolb, 08/16/2009
Newsweek described them as “a youthful,
long-haired army, almost as large as the U.S.
force in Vietnam.” One of the promoters saw what
happened near Bethel (nearly 40 miles from
Woodstock), N.Y., as an opportunity to
“showcase” the drug culture as a “beautiful
phenomenon.”
The newsmagazine wrote of “wounded hippies” sent
to impromptu hospital tents. Some 400,000 of the
“nation’s affluent white young” attended the
“electric pot dream.” One sympathetic chronicler
recently described them as “a veritable army of
hippies and freaks.”
Time gushed with admiration for the tribal
gathering, declaring: “It may well rank as one
of the significant political and sociological
events of the age.” It deplored the three deaths
there - “one from an overdose of drugs [heroin],
and hundreds of youths freaked out on bad trips
caused by low-grade LSD.” Yet attendees
exhibited a “mystical feeling fo r themselves as
a special group,” according to the magazine’s
glowing essay.
That same tribute mentioned the “meaningless war
in the jungles of Southeast Asia” and quoted a
commentator who said the young need “more
opportunities for authentic service.”
