After three tours of duty in Iraq, Marine Lance Cpl. Eugene Calonge came home to Sunrise with a feeling common to many military veterans scarred by the horrors of war: He didn't fit in.

"I was always on edge," said the 29-year-old security guard. Then, in a paddock in Davie, Calonge met a horse. And the horse, named Blue, helped him relax. "I remember walking toward the horses and feeling scared," said Calonge, who saw heavy fighting in Fallujah. "But pretty quickly I sensed that this horse had my back, just as I had his. And that was comforting."

Animal-assisted therapy with horses — and with dogs, guinea pigs and even ducks — is just one of the techniques being used to help veterans diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.

Last month, President Obama signed into law a bill, co-sponsored by U.S. Rep. Ron Klein, D-Boca Raton, that will provide federal funds to furnish animals, such as physical therapy dogs and guide dogs, to service members wounded in action...

The Star notes that last spring, Gentry joined a Federal lawsuit that "accuses Texas-based KBR and several related companies of concealing the risks faced by 136 Indiana National Guard soldiers potentially exposed to a cancer-causing agent."...

With Veterans Day almost a month behind us, many have moved past thanking veterans for the enormous service they have provided our country over the years. In the midst of the holiday season, when charitable giving is often at its highest, many veterans are in dire need of assistance. The veteran population is a difficult one to overlook, as are the many troubles some of these former fighting men and women face at the conclusion of their military service.

According to the Department of Veterans Affairs, there are nearly 23 million veterans in the United States today. Of those 23 million, approximately 131,000 are or have been recently homeless. These veterans, the overwhelming majority of which are men, have served in conflicts spanning from the Second World War to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Remarkably, nearly half of the homeless veterans today served in Vietnam.
It has been said that the military consists of the “best of the best” in way of men and women serving, yet statistics like these might raise questions regarding how and why these same persons of excellence became plagued with so many hardships when they left military life? Furthermore, what can be done to help troubled veterans overcome difficult times?...

The bank, Wells Fargo "formally denied...the allegations," which "have prompted" US Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-GA) "to call for a congressional hearing." The lawmaker, "who serves on the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee," also "asked the Department of Veterans Affairs to look into its own practices." The agency, however, "concluded it was in compliance."

Injuries to the brain may be more common than you know. With exposure to blasts, the military is a prime target for such an injury.

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is an acquired injury to the brain by an abrupt trauma. In a TBI the head area has suffered an assault of some type whether it was a blast, motorcycle or car accident, assault, or even a fall. The brain moved within the hard bone of the skull. This trauma can be from the head being struck by an object at one or more locations, an explosion, or when an object pierces the skull and enters the brain.

Perhaps the injured person never lost consciousness or had been unconscious for a few seconds to minutes after the brain assault. The shaking of the brain back and forth within the skull can cause a coup (same side as blow) or contrecoup injury which is damage to the brain on the opposite side of the blow as the brain is forced against the other side of the skull.

The brain bounces against the skull and the nerve cells and connections between these cells are damaged or destroyed. Car accidents after sudden stops or when a baby is shaken hard enough to cause his or her brain to move within the skull are two types of contrecoup injury...

The piece reports that doctors in Bagram "say more than 100 U.S. service members have suffered crushed or damaged spinal columns from being thrown around inside armored Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles in the last five months."...